Read The Last Wolf: A Highplains Shifter Erotic Romance (Wolf Fire Book 1) Online
Authors: Alice Longstaff
Tags: #Romance, #Adult, #Shifter, #Erotic Romance Fiction
The Last Wolf: A Highplains Shifter Erotic Romance (Wolf Fire Book 1)
Table of Contents
This is a work of pure fiction. Names, characters, and events and incidents are products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental
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©
Alice Longstaff 2015
Hope Richardson is not a country girl, she has no time for the myths and superstitions of a load of rednecks. But nursing a broken heart and the nagging suspicion that some vital passion is missing inside her she allows a friend to take her off for a week beside the campfire. As a summer storm builds on the prairie hope struggles against her conservative nature, desperate to let the tempest that rages in her body free, but terrified of the consequences giving in to it may bring.
Hakan Woodson has carried a heavy burden on his broad shoulders for years. The last of an ancient people it has been prophesised that he will find a mate with a burning fire in her eyes, a fire that will reignite the legend of the shifters. He needs to coax the flames out of the repressed city girl he finds heartbroken in his small town before darker forces reach her.
Just as Hope begins to give in to the wild thing inside her she discovers a secret that makes her question everything about Hakan’s interest in her, everything he has said to her. The future of a people depends on Hope’s ability to release the forces trapped inside her and whether Hakan can persuade her that she means more to him as a person than as the subject of some ancient prophesy
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The Last Wolf
The bus creaked to a standstill and the driver slowly turned around in his seat, looking at me expectantly. Oh no! Oh no no, this could not be right, he wasn’t planning to drop me here, was he?
“Is this the turn off for Burnt Ridge Ranch?” I asked, praying for a no.
“Sure is Ma’am” said the driver displaying his three yellow teeth in what I supposed was meant as a friendly smile.
“Well then, thanks.” I said, stepping off the bus into the hot prairie air.
It had been the worst journey. Bumping and rolling through tiny redneck towns, staring at the empty flat expanse of the plains, a deserted landscape whose lonely barns and grain silos just seemed to reflect my own loneliness back at me, big empty buildings that seemed to scream:
It’s a harsh uncaring world Hope Richardson, you’d better get used to it.
I was miserable, all upset and tuckered out, and the one thing I wanted, the only thing, was for someone to meet me from the bus. But of course there was no welcoming committee and I was left standing by the side of the road with no sunhat and just my little pack of clothes. For first time since James left me I felt like crying.
I never should have listened to Cassie. We weren’t farming girls. We were from the city, we went for coffee and took expensive taxis. Why on God’s green earth did she think that a week volunteering on an organic ranch was the thing to get me over my breakup? Just because she’s seen some reality T.V programme about hunky cowboys living a simple, well-muscled life on the plains. It was typical Cassie impulsive and strong willed, and typical me, willing to go along with whatever everyone else wanted, Hope Richardson all meek and mild. Why did I allow myself to get into these situations? I should have told her I just wanted to spend a week in bed with chic flic movies and my books.
Of course Cassie would say that I wasn’t getting over a breakup at all. That I couldn’t be getting over a relationship that hadn’t happened. But that’s just Cassie through and through, obsessed with sex and not willing to see anything from another person’s perspective. So me and James never actually did it? You know s.e.x, it was still a relationship though! I still loved him! If the old movies have taught me anything it’s that you don’t need to be screwed to end up with a broken heart.
Oh James
. That horrible, sexy, mean person. It would have been fine if he’d just wanted to end it, if we had just grown apart. But no, he had to find someone new, and a personal trainer of all people! James, who swore that he was allergic to exercise, with a personal trainer! Some bleach headed bimbo with fake boobs and a spray on skin tone. James of the chastity ring and the Christian rock albums, with some sleazy little sex pot. It was enough to make a girl scream.
He’d told me over the phone that he was leaving, I’d just signed the lease on a new condo for us to move into, separate bedrooms of course. He said that he couldn’t go through with the marriage, he didn’t want to spent his whole life with me because
“I don’t know who you really are Hope, and I don’t think you even know yourself”
I scanned the road, looking for any sign of Cassie. I swear I love the girl but I’ve got to find some more reliable friends, ones who won’t drag me out into the middle of Hicksville and then stand me up. I sat on my pack and prepared for a long wait.
“Hey Hope! Hope!”
The voice came from somewhere behind me. I turned around and saw Cassie striding towards me through the dusty shrub land. Her bright red hair billowing out from beneath an oversized white leather Stetson.
“Oh my Gosh,” I said. “Cassie, what on earth are you wearing?”
“This? This is my country look,” Cassie said. “And I can see that you, Hope, have gone for hmmm, what is it Mormon chic with a dash of puritan explorer? No wait I’ve got it, elderly librarian crossed with dress-down nun.”
I looked down at my maxi length skirt and sensible white blouse. Okay so it might have looked a little bit prudish, but it was keeping the sun off me, more than could be said for Cassie’s outfit, a miniscule pair of daisy dukes that knowingly allowed her ass cheeks to poke out of the bottom and a tiny knotted gingham shirt, all topped off with that stupid hat.
“You know, unlike you, these country folks have strong morals. They’re not as forward as city folk. You’re going to upset people around here dressing like that.” I said.
“Hell no I’m not! The people I’ve met round here already seem to like it just fine.” She strode up to me and took hold of my chin. “Come on Hope, let’s have some fun. Let our hair down and go and meet some big, hunky, strong men, men that will make us forget all about little James and his little Bible and little willy.”
“Cassie! He doesn’t have a little willy.”
"How would you know? He always looked like a distinctly small-cocked specimen to me.” She was trying to do her British accent as she held out a curved pinkie-finger and wiggled it at me slyly.
I couldn’t help but laugh. “if there’s anyone who’s seen enough dick to judge a man’s size just by his face it’s you Cassie.” I said.
I was trying to put a brave face on it, and I had known all along that this was going to happen, that Cassie would dismiss my heartbreak, but it still hurt me to hear her talk about our relationship so lightly. So what if me and James never had sex? What Cassie would never understand is that we still had an emotional connection. Or at least I thought we had, before he went off with Malibu Dress Me Up and Fuck Me Now Barbie, I felt on the verge of tears.
Cassie saw my lip quivering and embraced me. She held me tightly and I thought for once she was being sincere, but then she ran her hands down my body and squeezed my ass. I hated it when she did that and tried to slap her away while she just laughed.
“Come on kiddo, we’ve still got a few hours until they’re expecting us at the ranch. Let’s see if we can hitch into town and get ourselves a drink. Christ knows you look like you need one.”
I sat on my pack by the side of the road and let Cassie do the thumbing. I reckoned She had enough ass and cleavage on display to make just about anyone stop. Sure enough, the first beaten up truck that came trundling along the road squealed to a halt so fast that I was afraid the driver would knock himself out on the dashboard.
“Well there, where you ladies headed?” Said the driver.
Cassie gave her best flirtatious giggle. “Well I don’t know Mr. How about you take us some place fun? Someplace a girl can get a drink.” I wished she wouldn’t do her redneck impression when talking to country folk, surely they could hear she was mocking them.
“Fun.” He rolled the word around in his mouth as if it were an unfamiliar concept to him. He sucked on his teeth, humming and hawing as if we’d asked to be taken to a multicultural lesbian salad bar. Finally he seemed to settle on an appropriate place. “Yes ma’am I know just the place, I’ll take you to Old Red’s Bar.”
As we climbed into the truck I tried to whisper to Cassie that I didn’t want to go to a bar. I didn’t feel like getting drunk and watching as she was hit on by half the hicks in town, but she just shushed me like I was a small child.
“Hope, you just quiet yourself now and trust me. I’m an expert on breakups. I’ve been broken up with more times than anyone I know, so you’re in safe hands. This is my patented Forget That Useless Fucker three step recovery course.”
“What are the three steps?” I asked.
“Get out. Get drunk. Get laid.” She said.
“Cassie you know I’m not going to go out and get laid. If it wasn’t something I was comfortable doing with James it’s not going to be something I’m comfortable doing with some random redneck round the back of Old Red’s bumfuck nothing bar, is it?” It felt good to curse, I never usually let the anger out, even though I sometimes felt I had a pool of it as big as the Pacific Ocean sloshing around inside me.
“Well you don’t know what you’re going to miss out on then. Drunken rednecks are the best, big muscles, big dicks, small brains. When you’ve been dumped what you really need is someone who can pick you up and throw you against the wall and who just doesn’t give a shit if you can’t remember his name.” She said with a laugh.
The man driving the pickup had gone just about as red as the beets in the back of his trailer. Cassie giggled and patted his arm. “Not you silly, I see you as more of a friend.”
The pickup pulled up outside one of the most downtrodden and horrible looking bars I’ve ever had the misfortune to lay my eyes on. Not that I’ve laid my eyes on many bars. The parking lot at the front was half full, a motley collection of badly-parked motorbikes beaten up trucks.
“Please Cassie, anywhere but here.” I said.
“You think there is anywhere else but here? Look around you, you see any wine bars? Any high-end dining and dancing joints? Old Red’s it is.”
I knew that she was right, it was here or nowhere, but I’d have happily taken the nowhere. Doormat that I am I found myself following in the wake of my strong-willed friend once more.
“You ladies take care now,” said the driver as he began to pull away. “Storms-a-coming.”
The bar fell silent when we walked in. Just like in those old Western movies when the rugged gunslinger bursts into the salon and the whole crowd turns to squint meanly at him, that is, If the whole crowd consisted of four drunks and one bored looking barman. Cassie scanned the room, taking in what she liked to call the talent. It was obvious that there was none in this bar, but she took that in her stride, swinging herself into the barstool and leaning forward so that her breasts rested on the counter.
“Give us two of your coldest beers and two of your strongest whiskeys.” She said, tipping her hat at the bar man. He looked blankly back with strangely yellow eyes, I tried not to burst out laughing at her Wild West act as I slid onto the stool beside her, maybe we could have some fun after all. We clinked glasses and downed the whiskey in one gulp.
“I Hope you know I’ve always respected your decisions. We been best friends for many, many years now, and I’ve never, ever, tried to tell you how you should live your life or what you should do in terms of relationships.” Said Cassie.
“Yes you have! You try and tell me how I should live my life every time I see you! It’s practically all you talk about. And you always end up giving me the same advice, go out and get some cock.” I said with mock indignation.
“Well, yes.” Said Cassie. “But this time, I really, really mean it. I’m terribly worried for you Hope. I’m afraid that if you keep up this chastity any longer the Pope is going to hear about it and claim you for his nunnery. I think you need some cock.”
“Fuck off.” I hit her on the arm and signalled to the bar man for two more whiskeys. His yellow eyes seemed to look right through me as he slid over the tumbler, probably drunk his liver away on innumerable tedious shifts and given himself jaundice. I shuddered and turned back to Cassie, not wanting to break her stride.