Free The Pretend Marriage: A Werewolf Romance by Dawn Steele Page A

wrestle with each other. Water fills Jake’s muzzle. Limbs claw and teeth gnash.
    Jake feels a rip on his side and he reciprocates by nipping Jeff on the leg. He is gratified to hear the other werewolf howl.
    A splash on his left alerts him. The boat has overturned and the cage with the hare has fallen into the water.
    Oh shit!
    Jake immediately tears himself away from his opponent and dives for the cage. The hare will drown if he doesn’t do something. His wolf form isn’t exactly the best for grabbing cages, and so he shifts back to his human form, a feat which comes to him as easily as breathing air now. He grabs the sinking cage and the struggling hare within it.
    Teeth sink into his right leg, but he kicks the muzzle that comes with them away.
    Jake’s human fingers claw at the cage. The trap springs free and the poor drowning hare swims out. Jake makes a grab for it despite another assault on his leg by Jeff, and catches the hare by its ears. With powerful strokes, he surfaces, gasping and holding up the hare.
    He sees yet another wolf on the banks. Ethel. She has arrived. Now he would have to contend with two wolves.
    There is only one thing he can do. Make a run for it.
    Using his superior human aquatic form to swim to the other bank while keeping the hare’s head out of the water is no easy feat, but he has always been a good swimmer. He is able to kick more powerfully than Jeff, who is still in his wolf form, and so he reaches ground before the latter does.
    The hare is not helping either. It kicks and struggles and generally makes a fine nuisance of itself – not that Jake wouldn’t if he is in the hare’s situation. But when Jake touches ground, his hand relaxes a tad on the hare’s ears, and the animal shoots free.
    “Damn it!” Jake curses.
    Ethel in her wolf form immediately races after the bounding hare.
    Jake fleetingly changes into his wolf form again and gives chase. Behind him, he can hear the thundering of paws. Jeff has reached ground.
    All three of them shoot after the poor, frightened hare. Jake decides that the hare is not going to live long if he doesn’t get to it first. Jeff’s aggression is unexpected and frightening. There is a throb in Jake’s right leg which comes from having been bitten, but he ignores it. In his wolf form, pain is less of an issue than in his human form. His wolf hormones alone are enough to ride anything through.
    Ethel has gotten a head start, but Jake – being faster and larger – soon catches up with her .
    But the hare is even faster. Jake is sure Peter would have known this. Hares are always notoriously faster than rabbits, which used to be his prey of choice. There has to be some sort of catch to this whole contest.
    He signals to Ethel, “We have to head the hare off.”
    “Huh?” She is surprised he is even speaking to her. In their shifter forms, they communicate via grunts, barks and yelps, but the message is clear.
    “We have to work together as a team. You stay on course. I’ll circle and see if I can catch him from the other side.”
    “Got it.”
    He is glad she understands so well. And then there’s Jeff nipping at their heels.
    Jake veers to the left as Ethel continues her pursuit. Instinctively, they are working as a pair in a wolf pack on the hunt. His senses are completely centered on where the hare is heading – the scurry of little legs on the grass, the snapping of tiny twigs. He puts more speed into his limbs, relishing in his own tireless power and the pumping of oxygen in his lungs. Then he veers back again just as Ethel comes bounding up, the terrified hare in front of her.
    The hare screeches in fright as Jake’s specter cuts him off. Jake pounces and snatches the hare by its neck. He has to be very careful not to snap the animal’s tiny cervical bones, but it is a trick he learned from observing hunting dogs. Hunting dogs like golden retrievers have a very soft mouth in general because they have to retrieve fallen ducks