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  Her Guardian Wolf

  Copyright 2016 by Jax Garren

  ISBN: 978-1-68361-027-4

  Cover art by Fiona Jayde

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work, in whole or in part, in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.

  Published by Decadent Publishing Company, LLC

  Look for us online at:

  www.decadentpublishing.com

  Her Guardian Wolf

  When Elle Montgomery’s domineering ex turns out to be a literal monster—a werewolf claiming her as his mate—she hires fireman Caleb Hunt as a bodyguard. Afraid to love again, she pours her passion into her work as a jewelry designer. Before long, her bodyguard becomes her best friend…her too-sexy best friend. Determined not to lose what they have, Elle ignores the growing lust she feels every time Caleb’s beautiful blue eyes look her over.

  Ten years ago, Caleb reluctantly left the Tao pack and its cruel alpha rather than become part of that twisted regime. When he meets Elle, his mate, he finds a new purpose as her bodyguard. His skittish mate, though, won’t tell him what haunts her, and he can’t tell her what he really is—a werewolf in love.

  When Elle’s ex returns, determined to claim her at all costs, Caleb learns her secret—she’s terrified of werewolves. They hit the road to outwit her ex. Along the way, Caleb is determined to defeat Elle’s deranged ex, change her mind about wolves, and bring his mate home to Los Lobos for good.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Epilogue

  Craving His Love by Kayleigh Malcolm

  Black Hills Wolves Stories

  Wolf’s Return

  What a Wolf Wants

  Black Hills Desperado

  Wolf’s Song

  Claiming His Mate

  When Hell Freezes

  Portrait of a Lone Wolf

  Alpha in Disguise

  A Wolf’s Promise

  Reluctant Mate

  Diamond Moon

  Wolf on a Leash

  Tempting the Wolf

  Naming His Mate

  A Wolf Awakens

  The Wolf and the Butterfly

  Infiltrating Her Pack

  Omega’s Heart

  Rebel’s Claw

  Claiming the She-Wolf

  Worth Fighting For

  Dangerous

  Uncaged

  Promiscuous Wolf

  Disquieted Souls

  A Cougar Among Wolves

  Long Road Home

  A Mate’s Healing Touch

  Another Chance

  Broken Silence

  A Wolf’s Contract

  A Mate’s Redeeming Touch

  A Cougar Among Wolves

  Pleasure Me

  Craving His Love

  Winter Solstice Run

  Wolf’s Holiday

  Winter Magic

  Winter Secrets

  Winter Solstice Ménage

  Wolf in Winter Clothing

  Murder in Los Lobos

  Scent of Murder

  Scent of the Hunt

  Scent of His Woman

  Scent of Madness

  Coming Soon

  Secrets of the Hunt

  Jasmine Moon

  Salvaged Souls

  His to Protect

  A Note from Jax Garren

  Dear Reader,

  Thanks for joining me in the Black Hills!

  When I was a kid, I was fascinated by the Black Hills goldsmiths who blend metals to create multi-colored gold and craft jewelry from it. When I decided to write a story in the Black Hills Wolves series, I knew Elle, my heroine would be a metalsmith who crafts her own line of amazing jewelry—though with a modern edge. I paired her with Caleb, a motorcycle-riding fireman who can’t wait to claim her as his mate, and then mixed in the danger of another wolf, Elle’s creepy ex-boyfriend, who isn’t willing to let her go.

  I write paranormal romance and romantic urban fantasy that champions everyday people. Elle and Caleb practically wrote themselves, two people—er, a person and a werewolf!—with dreams and baggage trying to find family in a complicated world. I hope you have as much fun reading their journey as I did writing it! I’d love to hear your thoughts at [email protected] or on Facebook at JaxGarren or Twitter at @JCGarren.

  Cheers!

  Jax

  Dedication

  To the Digital Darlings. Thanks for the cheese. Thanks for the motivation. Most of all, thanks for the friendship.

  Her Guardian Wolf

  A Black Hills Wolves Story

  By

  Jax Garren

  Chapter One

  Elle Montgomery kept the security chain attached as she stared at her ex through the cracked door. Despite the fear curling through her belly, she forced her voice to remain calm. “I told you. We’re done. Go away before I call the police.”

  Phillip whined a noise more animal than human, his glower as frighteningly desperate as the day she’d walked out of his home with one suitcase and what remained of her pride. “You can’t, Elle. You’re my mate. We’re forever.”

  She pounded her head against the doorjamb two times. Phillip’s use of “mate” didn’t sound like Australian for “friend.” He meant it like an animal finding a sexual partner. She wasn’t an animal, but there were times she wondered about him. In the beginning, he’d been so sweet, but then they’d moved in together and things changed. He changed. “We broke up. It happens. I appreciate our time together, but you need to move on. If you’ll excuse me, I’m in the middle of work.” On the shelf of a balcony in her new apartment, her blowtorch and other tools waited for her return. The half-complete necklace on the workbench was her first project for a big-name star, a make-or-break career move that needed to be perfect. She didn’t have time to deal with Phillip and his mood swings.

  “I got you the commission, and now you won’t talk to me?”

  The advantages Phillip’s money and connections were extraordinary. The disadvantages of his temper—they were why she kept the chain attached. He’d never hurt her, not badly anyway. Not yet. She’d left before she found out exactly how angry he could get. “You helped me get the meeting, but the quality of my work got me the commission, and my arm is still bruised from your grip. Go away.”

  The whine turned to a full-on growl, the kind an enraged dog made. She backed up a step as the hair on her neck stood up. Suddenly the chain didn’t feel like enough. His brown eyes turned amber, almost glowing in the shadows of her apartment front stoop—surely a trick of the light. He slammed his palm into the door. The chain stretched taut, the wood around the metal catch cracking with the force. Her heart stoppe
d at the noise. But the chain held. For now. “There is no moving on for me, mate. We’re forever.”

  Enough was enough. “I’m calling the police.” She shoved the door shut, her heart pounding.

  He shoved back. The chain snapped and the door bounced open, slamming into her. She reeled back, cheek and shoulder stinging from the impact. Fear, thick and oppressive, turned her skin to ice. Phillip entered her apartment and shut the door behind him. His gaze bored into her, trapping her in its dangerous intensity as he stalked forward.

  She backed up. Her steps were heavy and awkward in her work boots while he slunk forward with steady menace in thousand dollar shoes. “I put up with your little cry for independence, mate, but this has gone on too long.” She backed into a wall. He slammed an arm above her head and leaned in until she could feel his breath against her forehead. “We’re forever. Fate decreed it. You can’t escape fate.”

  “There is no fate.” She rammed her knee up. He leaped back, so fast—too fast—but it gave her room. She dodged past him and into the bedroom. If she could reach the balcony, she’d have options—swing over it, yell for help, hell, blast him with her fucking torch—anything but trapped in an apartment with a man whose sanity was degrading at record speed.

  Oshun, the Abyssinian cat she’d adopted last week, hissed and spit, their angry terror mutual. “Come!” she yelled, and for once the stupid cat followed orders and ran with her for the sliding door. She got her fingers on the handle.

  Phillip’s hand clapped onto her shoulder from behind. “You will stay!”

  “No! Fate doesn’t decide this. We do. We decide for ourselves. And I decided no!”

  Metal clicked around her wrist, and his arm curved around her stomach, squeezing the air from her lungs as he hauled her backward.

  “Bastard! Let me go!” Fear and anger brought tears to her eyes as she kicked and fought. His strength caged her against him. He’d always been so damn strong. He’d never lost it like this, either.

  Another click, and she was handcuffed to the bed.

  Phillip backed up, finally granting her space to breathe. “We’re different, mate, you and I. Fated.” He shed his jacket and shoes and unbuttoned the first few buttons of his shirt. “And you’re going to see why.”

  She grabbed a picture of her mother off the bedside table, ready to hit him with the metal frame when he came near.

  He didn’t approach. He looked up at the ceiling, and his face seemed to change, elongating. It had to be a trick of light or maybe she’d hit her head harder than she realized.

  Then his body shifted, too. His arms stretched and narrowed as he leaned down to all fours. The crack of realigning bones made her twitch in empathetic pain. How did he keep from screaming? His clothes fell off, shedding like snake skin as fur sprouted.

  She gasped, trying to reconcile what she saw with reality. Phillip had transformed into a wolf.

  He padded forward on four legs. Long canines shone in the sunlight. His amber eyes were wild in their inhuman gaze. He butted his head against her, wiry fur scraping her jaw and neck.

  Terror blanked her thoughts. She screamed. Screamed again. Launched backward until the handcuff caught, and she curled into the corner sobbing.

  The fur disappeared, turning back to human skin. “Sh, sh, sh. Baby, it’s okay. I’d never hurt you. It’s okay.”

  “You’re a…you’re a….”

  “A werewolf. Yes. And you’re my mate.” His fingers touched her skin in motions meant to soothe, but each cold touch made her want to scream again. He was a monster, and he thought he owned her.

  “Go away. Oh, go away. Please go away.”

  His forehead pressed against her temple as his fingers dug into her possessively. Each touch brought more tears. To her surprise, he pulled back. “I understand this is hard to take. But you needed to know why you can’t leave me.” His eyes stayed hard as he shook his head, like a teacher to an errant pupil. “I only get one mate, Elle. I’ll be true to you forever. I’ll protect you and love you. Nobody else will ever have you. But you can’t leave. You can never leave me. All you have to do is stay and be a good woman to me, and I’ll make your life perfect.”

  Crazy talk. He was a monster, and he was fucking insane. This sweetness scared her more than the violence of earlier. He believed what he said. He thought of her as his possession, his pet to comfort and cosset as long as she heeled on command.

  He backed up farther, sighing as he righted his clothes, all askew from the transformation. His suit back in perfect place, he stood. “I understand this is hard for you. I’m going to give you a few minutes. I’ll get us coffee. I know exactly how you want it. See, I want to please you. I need to. The drive is consuming. Make it easy for me to make you happy.” He patted a fist to his chest where his heart should be. He didn’t have a heart, just the instincts of an animal. “I will give you everything you want. But you can’t leave again, Elle. You and I are forever.” He went to the door and searched the nearby tables, the places where he would keep his keys and other morning “launch” items in his systematic way. More than one argument between them had sparked over her more lackadaisical style. Mouth pinched in irritation, he turned to her. “Where are they?”

  Her keys were in the kitchen and nowhere near the front door, thank God. She narrowed her eyes. “Like I’m telling you shit.”

  His back stiffened, but he kept his cool as he clicked every lock on the front door. “You will learn better. Take a few minutes to calm down. When I return with your coffee, you’re coming home with me.”

  Fear brought her knees to her chest, and she clutched them. He could force her to leave with him. With his strength, he could force her to do anything. Plus he was wealthy and white from a family with an old name. She was black and barely making ends meet as an artisan. Not only could he physically carry her away, he likely thought he could get away with it. Hell, maybe he could.

  He stooped beside her. She tried to dodge him, but he got a hand firmly on her chin. His touch seemed familiar yet utterly changed by his behavior. Months they’d been together. How had she not seen him for what he really was? He kissed her head, his lips lingering too long on her hair. She started to shake.

  “It’s going to be okay, Elle. You’re mine. I’ll make you happy.” He headed for the balcony. She lost sight of him for a minute, and then he launched himself over the edge of her third-story place, easy and light as an animal.

  Because he was an animal. She’d dated a fucking werewolf and not realized it. She rattled the handcuff, but nothing budged. She looked toward the balcony. She’d left her phone there with her crafting supplies, out of reach.

  Oshun prowled by and head butted her. She rubbed the cat’s neck, trying to take comfort from the soft fur, so unlike the stiff canine bristles Phillip had shoved against her. She needed a plan. She needed to think. What would happen when Phillip came back?

  The cat’s enormous ears perked up, and Elle turned toward the balcony, alarmed. Shit. Could Phillip be back already? There was no way he’d gotten coffee. Maybe the crazy asshole went nowhere then hopped back up the freaking balcony. Oshun’s head weaved back and forth again before she dashed under the bed, freaked out, but no sounds came crashing into the apartment and no Phillip appeared. Elle stretched as far as she could toward the balcony but couldn’t see anything. No sounds came. Nothing….

  No. Not nothing. Smoke. The scent of burning wood hit her nose—wood smoke and melting plastic.

  Her welding equipment.

  A fire must’ve started on her balcony. She needed to contain it. Thousands of dollars in precious metal, all her equipment, her project—the one that would make her career—were out there, soon to melt into useless pools. Everything else she owned could burn to ash and she wouldn’t care, but the safe full of gold, copper, silver, and precious stones, the pieces of her latest design, she needed those. She yanked so hard on the handcuff, the metal bit into her hand.

&n
bsp; Had Phillip started a fire? For what purpose? Other than he’d turned psychotic.

  She stretched up to her bedside table and grabbed a bobby pin. She had no idea how to pick a lock, but figuring it out right now would be perfect timing.

  After she spent minutes uselessly jamming at the lock, the fire climbed the doorframe into her room. Smoke blew in, thick against the ceiling. She coughed. The heat blazed, and sweat streamed down the back of her neck. If the fire didn’t get under control, it wasn’t merely her life’s work in danger, it was the whole complex—with her locked in it.

  Oshun howled, her meow strained and pathetic. How much smoke could a cat take before she died from asphyxiation? Elle’s heart lurched as she thought of her beautiful girl dying under the bed.

  Giving up on the lock, Elle stood as tall as she could, stooping because of the fucking handcuff. Stretching until her shoulder hurt with strain, she managed to shove open a window. A tree branch nearly jutted inside. Oshun could escape without running through the fire on the balcony.

  Tears streamed down Elle’s face as she reached under the bed. “Oshun! Go, you stupid cat! Get out!” The handcuff around her wrist seared her skin, heating up with the rising flames, but she pulled against it anyway, desperate for the last few inches she needed to reach the kitty. She may be trapped, but she could save Oshun before the fire creeping across her ceiling killed them both.

  If the damn cat would listen to her.

  Smoke with its acrid stench hung heavy in the air, choking her. She squeezed her eyes against the sting, punched the carpet, and screamed as rage consumed her. She was going to die handcuffed to an iron bed. Hatred burned through her veins, hot as the out-of-control fire.