Free Karly's Wolf (Hollow Hills Book 1) by Maren Smith, Penny Alley Page A

inclined to think one who didn’t know any better. He draped his shirt over his shoulder, but didn’t bother putting it on. Few of this year’s bachelor males had. When one only had four days to impress a wolf-shifting female into letting herself be caught without getting one’s face bitten off, one started by showing off his physique and it helped if it was exceptional. Colton was fortunate to be blessed in that regard.
    “People are starting to say things,” Gabe offered, seeming so casual and yet definitely not.
    Putting on his socks and boots, Colton frowned. “Like what?” He was pretty sure he already knew.
    “Like who is that beat-up blonde and is the Hollow Hills’ Alpha really mating her or just being protective?”
    Colton glared at him for almost a full minute before yanking his laces tight, grabbing the truck door and slamming it somewhat harder than was required. “Let’s go find our Brides,” he growled, and headed for the gaming ground.

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER SIX
     
    There were potential Brides everywhere and they were, all of them, in his nose, and yet Colton knew it almost from the second that Karly stepped from her car onto Hollow Hills’ traditional Hunting grounds. Not only did every sentry chuff and rumble an under-breath alert to let everyone else know they’d been invaded, but the wind picked just that moment to kick up and shift and suddenly, her scent was all that he could smell. It stiffened him. In more ways than one, damn it. There were too many females here and every nerve in him was primed to take one—which only made Karly’s pleasing scent that much harder to resist. It was the impending Hunt. The wolf in him was right beneath the surface of his skin, begging to be loosed. Even knowing he shouldn’t, he still turned to follow that whisper-soft breath of Karly, his predator eyes hunting the crowd until he saw her walking with Mama Margo, there among the tents and vendors.
    In the next instant, a football smacked into his chest and bounced right off him. The next thing Colton knew, fifteen shirtless males, all of them as driven to impress as he was, pile-slammed him to the ground.
    Young Jax Deacon landed directly on top of him, pant-laughing at him. He was a kid, barely twenty and still with that wiry, puppy-lean physique that hadn’t yet filled out into manhood. Any other year, Colton would have let his wolf out. Any other year, it would have been expected. But then, any other year there wouldn’t have been a human wandering among the mating games.
    Growling, Colton waited for the pile to gradually untangle itself and, when Jax seemed content to take his own, sweet time getting up, Colton “helped” the whelp. His shove almost threw the boy, but Jax landed with awkward grace on his feet and, as they stalked away from one another, grinned back at Colton.
    The wolf in him—teased by scents of so many tantalizing females, the proximity of a good mating run, and the instinctive agitation amplified by so many trespassing males—leapt to answer that grin like the challenge it was surely meant to be. Colton barely kept his temper
    “Hey!” Colton turned to see Gabe waiting for him near another shirtless male, an Omega named Marcus. Scarred and tattooed, he’d come to the Ridge dressed in biker leathers, on the back of a Harley and looking for a pack to join. Colton had no idea why he hadn’t approached a stronger Alpha like Deacon.
    “Can you give me loyalty?” Colton had asked the first time he’d met him.
    “Can you earn it?” had been Marcus’s reply.
    Yeah, Colton had pretty much liked him right from the start. He didn’t trust him yet, but he liked him.
    Shaking his head, Gabe spread his arms as if to say, ‘I tossed you the ball, man. What the hell?’
    Snorting to clear Karly’s distracting scent out of his nose, Colton stalked through the grass to join them. He had to pay better attention than this or he wasn’t going to impress anyone, and