Caught by the Wolf

By Chloe Hart

Book 5 in the Blood and Absinthe series

There’s no harm in looking, which is all Anne West really wants to do. She knows that Gareth, the sexy groundskeeper she’s been obsessing over, doesn’t fit into her world – even if she’s not sure how she fits in, either. The daughter of a famous Fae healer, Anne has never shown any of the power her mother was known for. If that wasn’t confusing enough, she’s just met her real father for the first time, and learned a secret about her origin that shouldn’t even be possible. Crushing on Gareth from a distance is easier than adding another complication to her life.

When the portals to the Dark Fae realm were sealed last year, the werewolves were hit hard. When Gareth breaks into a Fae mansion looking for a way to heal his pack, he’s caught by the last person he expected: the shy art history student he can’t stop thinking about.

The attraction between them is electric, but their people have been enemies for hundreds of years. Can Anne and Gareth learn to trust each other in time to stop a war between races?

The Blood and Absinthe series:

Book 1 - Taming the Vampire (a novella)
Book 2 - Bound by the Vampire (a novella)
Book 3 - Claiming the Vampire (a full-length novel)
Book 4 - Drawn to the Vampire (a full-length novel)
Book 5 - Caught by the Wolf (a full-length novel)

• Language: English
• Publisher: Chloe Hart
• Release date: Nov 1, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311888709

Chloe Hart

Chloe Hart spends a lot of time lying awake at night, thinking about vampires, demon hunters, and things that lurk in the darkness. During the day she writes about them. You can visit her website at authorchloehart.com or email her at [e-mail]. She would love to hear from you!The Blood and Absinthe series:Book 1 - Taming the VampireBook 2 - Bound by the VampireBook 3 - Claiming the VampireBook 4 - Drawn to the VampireBook 5 - Caught by the Wolf (available now!)

Book preview

CAUGHT

BY THE

WOLF

Blood and Absinthe, Book 5

Chloe Hart

CAUGHT BY THE WOLF

Blood and Absinthe, Book 5

Copyright 2014 by Chloe Hart

Smashwords Edition

All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the author.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

Chapter One

When the alarm went off at seven a.m., Anne was already awake and out of bed. She was standing by the window, winding the shade cord around her fingers as she gazed out at the quad, its lush green grass luminous with dew and early morning sunlight.

There was plenty of autumnal beauty to look at but not many people. Except for the occasional early-morning jogger, very few students were up and about at this hour.

Her roommate groaned, fumbled with the clock, and shut off the insistent buzzing.

What are you doing up? Melanie grumbled, sitting up in bed and rubbing her eyes. You don’t have class until ten. You could sleep another two hours if you— She paused and shook her head. Oh, right. I forgot.

Anne felt heat creeping into her face as she glanced at her roommate. Forgot what? she asked, trying to sound nonchalant.

Your maintenance guy works in this quad Thursday mornings.

Gareth, Anne said, turning back to the window. His name is Gareth.

She had no desire to talk about him with Melanie, but she hated the way her roommate called him your maintenance guy as though he could be defined… and dismissed… by his job.

Whatever. How do you even know his name? Did you actually get up the courage to introduce yourself?

Not exactly. She’d learned his name a few days ago, when she’d spotted him on a ladder replacing shingles on the roof of the administration building. She’d sat on a nearby bench pretending to read until five o’clock, when he climbed down, stored his equipment in the maintenance shed behind the building, and headed for the parking lot.

She followed him as unobtrusively as she could, wondering if she might get a glimpse of his car. That was how she found out he drove a motorcycle.

As if he needed something to make him sexier.

Several employees were heading home after their workday, and a small group had gathered in the parking lot to shoot the breeze. When she oh-so-casually wandered closer, using cars and SUVs as cover, she got near enough to hear his name.

Gareth.

After a few minutes he said good night, put on his helmet, and drove off.

Anne watched until he was out of sight. Then she went to the library, where she tried to concentrate on Beowulf while doodling the name Gareth in her notebook like a seventh-grade girl with a crush.

I heard someone call him that, was all she said to Melanie, who was putting on a robe and grabbing her toiletry bag before heading for the showers.

Listen, sweetie—I’m all for slumming now and then. If you want to fuck a hot townie, I say go for it. But don’t moon around after him like a lovesick freshman. You’re a senior, for God’s sake. Show some dignity.

When she slammed the door behind her Anne breathed a sigh of relief. She and Melanie had been roommates for three years, but this semester had been a little rocky so far.

It was as much her fault as Melanie’s. Yes, her roommate was bitchier than usual lately… but Anne had changed, too. And the changes in her life weren’t anything she could talk about—to Melanie or anyone else.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sight of Gareth, who was coming through the quad with a wheelbarrow and clippers. He stopped at the long hedge in front of the Henley dorm and started to work.

Anne pressed her forehead against the cool glass and watched.

She’d seen him for the first time in late August, just before the beginning of the semester. It had been a brutally hot day and he’d been mowing the grass in faded jeans and no shirt.

He was only a few feet away as she walked past. His short brown hair was streaked with gold from the sun, and his bare torso gleamed with sweat. As he navigated the mower she could see the bunch and release of his powerful muscles.

She was so mesmerized she walked straight into a lamp post.

Back in middle school, her friend Grace had developed a crush on a high school sophomore who barely acknowledged her existence. Anne, unable to understand what could fuel a love so obviously unrequited, had tried to counsel her friend to forget about him. She’d had zero success.

In high school, another friend had fallen madly in love with a movie star. She followed him online, pasted pictures of him inside her locker, and was convinced that if she could ever manage to meet him in person, he would instantly recognize that they were meant for each other.

For the last ten years, Anne had remained immune to the hopeless crush thing. She’d watched friend after friend succumb while she went quietly on with her life.

And now she was being punished for it.

You were supposed to go through this kind of thing in junior high. She was a college senior.

She thought about Gareth all the time. She watched him through windows and from behind trees and sometimes right out in the open, since it was obvious he never noticed her.

This was what you got for skipping over life stages when they were supposed to happen. What was acceptable behavior in a thirteen-year-old was ridiculous in a twenty-one-year-old.

It was late September now, which meant no more bare torso. Gareth was wearing a blue flannel button-down shirt, but it couldn’t disguise the breadth of his shoulders or the strength of his arms or—

Oh, for God’s sake. If you don’t talk to him I will.

Anne jerked her head around to see that Melanie was already dressed and putting on her makeup. She hadn’t even heard her come back from the shower.

I don’t want to talk to him. I just like looking at him. It’s a lust thing, she said, trying to sound as casual as Melanie did when she talked about one of her hookups.

Exactly my point. You never have a lust thing. Now that you finally do, I say it’s time to act on it. When’s the last time you had a decent one-night-stand?

That would be never.

It’s been a while, she hedged.

Well, then. Melanie checked her face once more in the mirror, smiled in satisfaction at what she saw, and grabbed her backpack from the desk.

Anne felt a sudden stab of foreboding. Where are you going?

I’m going to class. But since I have to walk right past the maintenance guy on my way to the science building, I think I’ll have a little chat with him.

You wouldn’t.

I would.

Melanie—

Seize the day, kiddo.

Before Anne could say another word, Melanie was out the door.

For a moment Anne stood frozen by the window. Then she sprang into action, pulling on jeans and a tee shirt and jamming her feet into sneakers. Melanie was fully capable of announcing to a total stranger that her roommate had a massive crush on him, and she had to stop that from happening.

She raced down the stairs and out the front door. She managed to catch up with Melanie before she reached Gareth, but he must have heard the pounding of feet on the walkway.

He turned his head just as she came to an abrupt stop beside her roommate. And then, for the first time, their eyes met.

This was so not the way she’d wanted this meeting to happen.

This was, in fact, the total opposite of how she’d wanted this meeting to happen.

In her fantasies about their first encounter she was wearing a casually pretty outfit, something flattering that didn’t look like she was trying too hard. Ditto with her makeup, which would be so subtle and perfectly applied you couldn’t tell she was wearing makeup at all. Her long brown hair, normally straight, would be rippling down her back in gentle waves (courtesy of the curling iron, or possibly because she’d washed her hair, braided it wet, and let it dry overnight).

Instead, she was wearing yesterday’s jeans and a wrinkled tee shirt. Her hair was a rat’s nest, she wore no makeup, and she hadn’t even washed her face. Add in the fact that she was flushed and panting from her dash out of the dorm, and she had what amounted to the nightmare scenario of her first meeting with Gareth.

Then Melanie stuck her hand out with a smile. Hi there, gorgeous. My name’s Melanie.

If there was ever a time for a hole to open at her feet and suck her into the bowels of the earth, this was it.

* * *

Gareth glanced down at the offered hand before looking back at the blonde girl. I’ve got dirt on my hands, he said. You look all clean and put together, so let’s not.

He kept his eyes on her, but every cell in his body was aware of the other one.

The blonde gave him a deliberately sexy smile. A girl doesn’t mind a little dirt… in the right circumstances. But you’ll have time to clean up before you meet my roommate and me at Hunter’s tonight. Say ten o’clock?

Even if Gareth had been in a mood to flirt, he wouldn’t have flirted with this girl. Her beauty was all on the surface. There was no depth to her and she smelled like a hothouse flower—pampered and artificial, and with a short-lived fragrance that already carried a hint of the decay to come.

Then his eyes went to the other one. The one who’d been watching him for the last month.

She wasn’t at her best this morning but she had all the depth and vitality her friend lacked, and she smelled like—

Damn. He still couldn’t pin down exactly what she smelled like. There was a hint of Fae in her, but it was faint. She seemed to be mostly human, but there was something else there, too... something he couldn’t identify.

Not that he had the time or inclination to figure it out. He’d come to this town on a mission, and he’d taken a job at the college to keep a roof over his head and food on the table while he carried it out. He couldn’t afford to waste time with a snotty, arrogant blonde… or a sweet brunette who followed him around like a puppy dog.

No matter how good she smelled.

The Fae had always been hostile to his kind, and with everything that had happened in the last year, he and his people had every reason to hate them. And considering he’d come to this upstate New York town to steal from them, he should stay as far away from this girl as possible.

Not that he believed she had anything to do with the Fae enclave here in town. He’d never seen her near Oakburn Manor. And her Fae scent was faint, which probably meant she was an eighth or sixteenth blood at most. She might not even be aware of that heritage herself.

But he should still stay away from her.

He looked back at the blonde. It’s nice to meet you, Melanie. Now if you don’t mind, I’ve got work to do.

He turned his back and went back to clipping the hedge.

There was a surprised silence behind him. The blonde, he suspected, didn’t get blown off very often.

She came up beside him. What about our invitation? she asked, laying a hand on his shoulder. You haven’t said whether you’ll meet us at Hunter’s tonight. Obviously we need more time to convince you. Can’t you take a break?

He shrugged her off while keeping his eyes on the hedge. A working man has to work. Maybe you should go hit on one of the rich boys whose parents can afford to send their sons to this school.

Melanie sucked in a sharp breath, but at least his rudeness got the job done.

I’ll do that, she snapped. Come on, Anne. This guy’s an asshole.

Her name was Anne. It suited her, somehow—sweet and old-fashioned.

You go ahead, Anne said to her friend. I’ve got to go back and get changed.

Fine.

The noise of his clippers clashed with the click of Melanie’s high heels as she stalked away. Once the sound faded, he knew she’d disappeared around the corner of the building.

But he could still sense—and smell—Anne standing behind him.

He let the clippers fall to the ground as he turned to face her.

You still here? he asked.

She nodded without saying anything. In spite of his best intentions, he couldn’t help looking her over from her toes to the top of her head.

Her hair was gorgeous, even though it was a little messy at the moment. The color was beautiful—a rich brown touched with gold, like autumn leaves—and it was long and lustrous and silky. Her eyes were beautiful, too—hazel, with long dark lashes. She was tall and slim, without the voluptuous curves he usually preferred but with an unconscious elegance that gave her dignity and grace. And, unlike most women her age, she had the gift of stillness.

Silence, too.

Cat got your tongue? he finally asked.

She cleared her throat. I just wanted to apologize for my friend. She’s sort of—

Pushy?

Well, yes. But we’re not all like that, she added.

"Meaning that you’re not."

A blush crept into her cheeks. I don’t think I am.

In spite of himself, he remembered the dream he’d had about her a few nights before.

He was climbing a ladder that rested against a tall stone tower. Inside, he knew, the hazel-eyed girl was waiting for him.

He’d woken up before he reached her.

Okay, enough. It was time to put an end to… whatever the hell this was.

He folded his arms. But you’ve been watching me, haven’t you? Since before the semester started. And the other day you followed me to the parking lot and watched me drive away.

Now her whole face crimsoned over. I—I—

Don’t get me wrong—it was cute for a while. But it’s starting to get old, and you should stick to boys who are more your speed. Didn’t your parents warn you about guys like me? I’m the big bad wolf, little girl. You should keep your distance.

The little girl comment was a bit much, considering she was only a year or two younger than he was. But once again his words got the job done.

I’m sorry I bothered you, she whispered, unable to meet his eyes. Then she turned and walked quickly—and unlike her friend, silently—back to her dorm.

As he watched her go, he felt a sharp twinge of regret.

But he didn’t have time for regret any more than he had time for college girls. He was in this town for a reason, and tomorrow night he had a dangerous job to do. All his energy and focus needed to be on that. It didn’t matter that he couldn’t identify that mysterious essence in Anne’s scent… or that he stood looking after her, breathing in her lingering fragrance, long after she’d disappeared.

Chapter Two

Well, that was humiliating.

It was so humiliating she had a tough time concentrating in class. It was so humiliating she went out of her way to avoid her own quad until Gareth finished working there. It was so humiliating she agreed to go out with Melanie that night so she wouldn’t be alone with her own mortifying thoughts.

She hardly ever went drinking downtown. Her friends had taken her out the night of her twenty-first birthday, but she hadn’t been to a bar since. Now, sitting at a crowded wooden table with music blaring