Free Blood Law by Karin Tabke

sword-wielding blond.
    Falon
shook her head, rubbing the heels of her hands into her eyes. Realization
struck. “Oh, no!”
    The
blond dude.
    This
was his place! She inhaled sharply, the musky scent of their sex clogging her
throat. She lowered her hands, her eyes narrowing when she spotted the spots of
crimson on the rumpled sheets. She groaned. Proof positive. He’d—he’d had his
way with her! And his way had probably been every which way she could imagine
and then some.
    Even
her own thoughts made her cringe. At twenty-four, Falon certainly wasn’t the
world’s oldest virgin. It would have been easy to blame that fact on her
wandering lifestyle, since she was never in one place long enough to find a man
she was attracted to and wanted to have sex with. But the truth was, it had
been her choice. Call her old-fashioned, but she’d wanted love first, and she
knew she’d never find love while she was running. But she had hoped that, one
day, she could stop running and that maybe . . . well, maybe she could have a
semblance of a normal life.
    The
only normal thing about her life and where it had landed her today was how abnormal
it was and how complicated it had suddenly become.
    Anger
flared in her chest.
    It
wasn’t the loss of her hymen that upset her but the fact that he’d taken it.
She didn’t have much in this life, but her body, her right to choose who and
when she slept with someone—that was one thing she’d always had and fought hard
to keep. That bastard! Now she didn’t even have that to give.
    A
sound—close to a whimper—escaped her. Horrified, she watched the wolf’s head
tilt slightly, as if in concern. It made her boiling anger ignite. She flung
back the sheets.
    “Your
owner is a prick!” she seethed at the wolf dog. Although she moved slightly, he
countered, blocking her with his big baseball mitt–sized paw.
    She
felt no fear, only resolve. Between clenched teeth, she said, “If you don’t
move off the bed, I’m going to call the dogcatcher, and all hell is going to
break loose!”
    Interpreting
her threatening tone correctly, the wolf barked at her, as if to dare her. She
almost smiled. And that shocked her and disturbed her more at the moment than
her lost virginity.
    Falon
shook her head. She had to get out of there before the wolf’s owner returned.
She didn’t want a repeat performance of last night. Didn’t want him to find her
naked. Didn’t want to see him naked—
    She
shivered, and her skin flushed. She knew what he looked like naked. How warm he
was. How wide his shaft was as it cleaved into her flesh. To her horror, her
nipples tightened.
    The
wolf whined, its tongue flicking out along her breast in a way that made her
shiver, and not in a bad way. She crossed her arms over her breasts and shot it
another glare. “Pervert,” she hissed, unsure whether she was talking to the
wolf or herself.
    Out
of here. Now, Falon.
    She
almost fainted with relief when she spied a pair of folded black jeans, a black
shirt, a pair of doeskin UGG-type boots, and socks, all resting on a chair
cushion as if they were waiting for her. Backing completely off the bed, she
groaned when her knees wobbled and her head throbbed. She raised a shaky hand
to her forehead, and her body immediately overwhelmed her with a barrage of
intense sensations. She had to pee. She was cold and hot. And she was
disoriented, that damn dog staring at her like it was human or something. Thank
God it stayed on the bed.
    She
grabbed the clothes and boots to her chest, casting her gaze around the big
bedroom until she spotted a door in the corner. Please be the bathroom. “Excuse
me,” she murmured to the dog as if he could give her permission to leave the
room. She hurried past it and soundly shut the door behind her.
    The
bathroom was as big and masculine as the bedroom. Timber beams supported the
rich inlaid black granite and wood-paneled walls. An oversized claw-foot tub
took up one side of the room, and a