Free The Pretend Marriage: A Werewolf Romance by Dawn Steele

at all.
    Where would Peter hide it?
    Jake’s sharp ears can pick out the thundering of paws in the near distance as the wolves fan off in different paths.
    If he were Peter, he wouldn’t make it obvious at all.
    No way.
    His premonition tells him to go east, where the scent of fresh water assails his flared nostrils.

10
     
    Finding a hare in a cage in this forest is like trying to find a needle in a particularly messy haystack.
    Jake has been on the prowl for about half an hour now. His ears are pricked for the sound of Martha’s shotgun, but it hasn’t sounded yet. Little furry animals prowl the undergrowth – woodchucks and rabbits and other rodents.
    The scent of fresh water still guides him. He doesn’t quite know why he is so drawn to it. If there is an unlikely place for a hare in a gilded cage . . .
    But that is just it, isn’t it? It is an unlikely place. Everyone else would think of searching the trees or roots or behind boulders, if there are any. But near water?
    The trees grow sparse, until they finally terminate at the banks of a pond.
    Jake stops short.
    The pond is fairly large and extremely tranquil. Its surface mirrors the trees and sky, and so the water is green and azure and dappled by only the occasional ripples from a frog’s movements. Dragonflies buzz above it, creating a tapestry of gentle noise. The air is redolent with water scents.
    Jake does not smell any mammal nearby but he sees the boat drifting in the middle of the pond, anchored to remain where it is. And in that boat is the top of what looks to be a golden cage – almost fairytale-like in its presentation.
    The hare is almost certain to be in it.
    But no one can unmistakably scent it because it is masked by water. Jake marvels at the craftiness of the setup.
    He hears rather than smells the approach of the other wolf before it appears. On the other side of the banks, Jeff’ s black wolf crashes through the tangle of growth and perches at the edge of the pond. He sees both the boat and Jake simultaneously.
    Jake doesn’t hesitate. He plunges into the water, as does Jeff.
    Jake can swim fairly well in his wolf form, but he has to make a decision now. A human’s body possesses longer legs and a more buoyant body for swimming. His mind registers this fact and his body makes the subconscious shift into his human form again. His bone structure stretches and his skull compresses, the bones shifting and sliding in a way that scientists have long failed to truly comprehend and replicate in shifter labs.
    It is his human form which reaches the boat first, and his human hands which grab the side of the boat. The boat lurches and lists, and the cage slides towards Jake. Great. He grasps it by its slim bars. The wriggling hare casts frightened red eyes at him. It is an albino.
    From the other side of the boat, the black wolf leaps out of the water in a silvery trail of drops. The hare shrieks. But the wolf springs right for Jake’s throat instead. In that split second, he understands what Jeff is about to do. The shift comes to him as naturally as breathing. It is his wolf form that meets Jeff’s attacking wolf head on.
    Jeff’ s teeth gnash at his throat, and Jake fights back. With snapping jaws and flailing limbs, they both crash into the water.
    You’ve got to be kidding me, Jake thinks. Jeff is carrying this a bit too far. But he has to fight for his very survival because he doesn’t know how far Jeff in his wolf form will go. Some shifters tend to be extremely feral in their animal forms. It comes with the natural glandular secretions which course through a lupine’s body. Jake has always gotten a good handle on his wolf alter, but he can’t be sure about others – especially a former alpha challenger like Jeff.
    It is all he can do to hold Jeff back, but he has to. Jeff seems to be on a mission to draw blood. The water splashes around them, creating quite a disturbance, and they both keep plunging below the surface as they