Free Marked By the Wolf (Werewolf Romance) by Mac Flynn

Chapter 1
     
    I lay on the bed my naked body squirming atop the silk sheets. Over me was the dark form of my lover, a man as handsome and strong as any other. He covered me with his warm, muscled body and wrapped his arms around me. I grasped his shoulders and sighed as he kissed my neck. He raised his head and his brilliant blue eyes stared into mine.
    "Danny, wake up! Wake up!"
    I yelped and fell forward out of my chair. A pair of strong arms caught me, but they weren't the arms of my lover. I had been in the arms of my work chair and now was in the arms of my fellow inmate at this paid penitentiary, Johnny Miller. That meant I was in my cubbyhole cubicle at the office and again bored out of my mind so bad that I fell asleep.
    As always after awakening from a wonderful dream I was my usual perky self with energy, vigor, and-hell, who am I kidding? I was a zombie low on brains and with not much prospect of getting one around that office. Well, except for Johnny. He was smarter than me which probably explained why he was the only one I could tolerate. He was also kind of cute, sort of my boss, and very tolerant of laziness. Everything worked out well except the cuteness. That only went as far as friendship would allow. I felt bad about friend-zoning him, but I just didn't feel that way about him.
    "Wha? Huh? What happened?" I mumbled.
    "You fell asleep, that's what happened," Johnny replied.
    I shrugged off his hands, sat back in my chair, and stifled a yawn. "Oh, is that all?"
    "Is that all? That's the third time this week I've had to wake you up. Some day I won't be able to save the day," he scolded me.
    I sighed and ran my hand through my hair. "Yeah, I know, I'm just so bored with all this paperwork." I gestured to a pile a foot tall at the end of my desk. It was an inch tall when I arrived that morning. "These piles breed faster than rabbits, and are twice as annoying."
    "Three times more annoying, but who's counting?" he laughed.
    I slumped over my desk. "I am. This job is so boring my mind gets rusted just thinking about it."
    He patted me on the back. "We all feel like that, but what are you going to do about it? Go choose your own adventure?"
    I squared my jaw and straightened in my chair. "I could do that. I could leave right now and-"
    "-and you should because it's almost five," Johnny told me.
    I glanced at the clock on my computer screen, realized I'd been asleep long enough for the screen saver to come on, woke up the computer, and checked the time. There was only four minutes left. I hurriedly prepared myself for the evacuation.
    "Going somewhere, Miss Lyman?" he teased me. My name was Danielle Lyman, but everyone, when they weren't being sassy, called me Danny.
    I glanced at my watch. "I will be in three minutes. Did you need something that takes only three minutes? Well, besides saving me from a wild supervisor, that is," I returned.
    "No, but there was something I've been meaning to ask you for a couple of months." He slid into the extra chair in my little dungeon and his hands fiddled with each other.
    "I hope it's something about a raise because my two-year anniversary is coming up," I quipped.
    "Not quite." He scooted his chair closer to me. His face looked so serious while also being so nervous.
    "You okay? You look a little sick," I asked him.
    "I'm fine. I was just wondering if you were, well, if you were doing anything tonight."
    I stiffened and blinked. "Nooo, why?"
    "Well, I thought maybe you and I could-well, do something together."
    My face drooped and I patted him on the shoulder. "I appreciate what you're trying to do, but I don't think I'm ready for an affair with my boss. Not when I'm about to get a raise."
    He snorted and leaned back. The serious expression was gone and there was a smile on his face, but I didn't miss the pain in his eyes. "Can't blame a guy for trying."
    "No, but this is the fifth time this month, and that makes it the tenth time this year," I pointed out.
    I'm sure you're