Free Bad Wolf by Savannah Reardon

Chapter One
     
    Nikki
pulled the Jeep into the tree-lined drive of the large cabin. A few other cars
stood parked around the property, but not enough for the entire pack to have
arrived for the two nights they ran together as a family. She came to a stop
behind Sara’s mud-splattered BMW and shook her head. For an alpha-female, she
lacked an amazing amount of common sense. Even after getting stuck numerous
times, she still insisted on driving the sports car up the mountain. In the winter
time, someone always had to go haul her ass out of a ditch.
    Stepping
out of the Jeep, Nikki took a deep breath and drank in the heady smell of
nature. Mixed in with the lush scent of the forest and the crisp flavor of a
nearby stream was the decadent aroma of meat. Another sniff told her it was a
family of deer. She shivered as instinct made her take a step toward the woods
before she changed direction and headed for the cabin.
    “Hey
babe.” Zane, the alpha-male, greeted Nikki with a not so chaste kiss. It was
her place to accept any advances from him, but it made life hell with Sara. The
alpha-female didn’t like to share, and it caused a world of trouble within the
pack. Every gathering saw her go after one of the other females because Zane
had shown her too much attention. Unfortunately, Zane latched onto Nikki with
regularity. The attention bothered Nikki only because of the swift retribution
it brought about from Sara. Lately though, Nikki considered there might be more
behind Zane’s affections than just lust. If what she suspected was true, it
meant a huge decision for her. Sara wouldn’t go down without a fight.
    There
was a certain hierarchy within the pack, and everyone was bound to live by it.
Anyone who didn’t faced expulsion, and being alone made life difficult. Anyone
above in the pack had the right to physically take anyone below them. How long
a person had been part of the pack determined rank. The newer ones were kept on
their toes by everyone else. Turning had many effects on a person… a higher libido
was just one of those, but it made life for the new cubs exhausting. The only
exception to this rule was the use of challenges. Any pack member could
challenge another of their sex to a fight to the death. If the challenger won,
they would take the rank of the vanquished member. A pack member could also
attack a lower member as a form of punishment. These fights did not usually end
in death, but if the lower ranked member managed to get the upper hand and kill
the opponent, they still got the reward of attaining the attacker’s rank.
    Luckily
for Nikki, she’d been around for a while, so there were only a handful above
her who could physically stake a claim. Of those, two were a committed couple,
and she never had to worry about advances from them. Sara left her alone unless
she wanted retribution, which was quite often in recent months. After Sara,
that only left Zane and Adam, who was Zane’s right hand man. Nikki usually had
no problem out of Adam, since he tended to enjoy breaking in the new girls as had
Zane until a few months before. However, it seemed lately Zane had decided he
wanted something different.
    “My
bedroom… now.” Nikki bowed her head as pack hierarchy demanded and followed
him. She felt the poker hot daggers of Sara’s eyes boring into her as she left
the common room and headed up the stairs. Now she would once again have to
worry about when and how Sara would pounce.
    “I
expected you to be after the young blood,” she said once the bedroom door had
closed.
    “I’ve
had them all. Besides, you’re much more fun.”
    Nikki
felt a warm flush flood her body as Zane pulled her against him and sniffed her
hair. “I love the way you smell. No other woman in the pack smells like you.”
    “Well
of course not. We all have different scents.”
    Nikki
gasped as Zane grabbed a handful of hair and yanked her head backward.
    “Oh,
feisty today aren’t we?” He bent forward and slid his