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  Hunted by the Pack

  Wicked Wolf Shifters Part 6

  J.K. Harper

  HUNTED BY THE PACK

  Copyright © 2017 by Sable Moon Books

  Cover by Resplendent Media

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  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the copyright owner except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Contents

  Hunted by the Pack

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Also By J.K. Harper

  About the Author

  Hunted by the Pack

  Tamsin Reginald's life used to be utterly in control. Then she had dirty hot sex with Jackson, bad boy of her wolf pack. It did something wild and unexpected to her tightly-leashed heart.

  * * *

  Until Jackson's playboy ways caught up with him, slamming her heart shut again.

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  Now all Tamsin hopes for is bloodshed during the pack's annual midsummer hunt. Preferably Jackson's blood.

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  Jackson Rule's life used to be utterly awesome. A high-ranking wolf shifter, he had the pick of any woman he wanted as well as nearly unlimited power in his pack.

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  Then he fell for Tamsin, his alpha's sister. Big mistake. Even worse? Defying pack law by marrying to a human woman during his debauched vacation last week—and having zero memory of it.

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  Now Jackson Rule's life is in danger, because he's about to be hunted by the pack…

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  ***this is a CLIFFHANGER second short novella of the second part of a serial. This is NOT a full-length book. Each title must be read in order.***

  Sign up for J.K.'s Reader Group for more Wicked Wolf Shifters

  1

  Tamsin Reginald, current leader of the pack, aka deadly wolf in charge, took a very deep breath. Then she opened her office door to the tension-fraught hallways of the Wicked Mountain Wolf Pack estate.

  Empty. She sagged with relief for about a millisecond before once again pulling herself together.

  No one would be able to tell her pulse was hammering. That her thoughts were distracted. A long history of putting on her game face told her that anyone who saw her pass by would only notice her focused expression, the swift cadence of her footsteps that said she knew exactly where she was going.

  In reality, she was a complete fucking mess. Two sharp thoughts mercilessly hammered at her brain:

  One: Jackson Rule was exactly who and what he'd always seemed to be—a careless playboy who would never grow up.

  Two: he truly had betrayed his alpha's trust. The fool, the bastard, had gotten married without his alpha's permission. It was simply untenable.

  For that transgression alone, Tamsin was deeply shaken. No members of the pack were allowed to make any sort of serious love alliance without the alpha's approval. Not even the lowest ranking members who simply wanted a companion with whom to spend the rest of their days, whether or not they ever met their mate, were allowed to make such a choice without the alpha's leave. As for the highest ranking members? Council members, and those of the inner sanctum who advised the alpha not only as leader but as his true friends? It went without saying that their alliances were particularly essential to pack politics and must be thoroughly vetted before any such creation.

  Marriage to a human without the express permission of the alpha was so utterly out of the question, it shouldn't even be a question. Any alpha, but especially one of a pack so large, prosperous, and powerful as the Wicked Mountain pack, held final say over the love matches of his pack members. Using such arrangements as chess pieces in the neverending game of wolf pack politics was a tactic much used by all alphas. A pack member as highly ranked as Jackson was a powerful bargaining chip when considering how to maneuver the pack in better relations with other packs.

  This was why Tamsin could never give her heart to anyone. She was an even more valuable bargaining chip than Jackson. No matter what her own stupid heart might desire.

  The salacious gossip that Jackson had been so unbelievably stupid as to actually get hitched without clearing it with his alpha, and to a vacuous human groupie at that, had rippled through the entire pack in what seemed like mere minutes. Tamsin had instantly known that she needed to contain the situation, quickly and absolutely. She'd been on a shocked autopilot when she ordered Jackson tossed into a containment cell and the human girl placed into guarded quarters that, while nicer, still amounted those of the jail. A well-appointed jail, but a jail nonetheless.

  The Wicked Mountain Wolf Pack was not the stuff of which vapid romantic dreams were made, which the foolish human girl would soon discover.

  Then Tamsin had stalked back to her office on the pretext of gathering documents before calling the council meeting together. In reality, she'd hidden in there for about fifteen minutes, hunched forward with her hands on her knees, unsure of whether she might be about to throw up or pass out.

  Jackson fucking Rule was married. He had disobeyed the centuries-old order of his very own alpha and best friend. He'd casually flaunted his position within the pack and behaved as if he'd done nothing wrong. He'd potentially destroyed the life of a human girl who knew nothing about the politics of this most cutthroat pack.

  He'd also utterly destroyed his relationship not only with his alpha, as soon as Trevor found out about this, but with Tamsin.

  That rotten, sexy, amazing, hideous bastard had just broken her heart. A heart she hadn't realized he was capable of breaking. Damn him. She had no claim on him, nor he on her. Then why did it hurt so badly she felt as if she might shatter?

  Because he did have a claim on her. He did. What it was, the word itself, whispered through her mind, but she shoved it away in a panic. Because no. That could not be true. There were a thousand reasons why it could not be true.

  Everything crashed around inside Tamsin's head with the vicious bang and slam of a whirlpool. A whirlpool that threatened to explode out as tears.

  Do not think about him, she furiously commanded herself. Arrogant, idiotic fool. Whether she meant him or herself, she wasn't even sure.

  He had touched her. Stroked her. Took her into a blissful paroxysm light years beyond anything she'd ever previously experienced, and that was saying something considering how long Tamsin had been a shifter with healthy sexual appetites. He'd looked right into her heart, the thoughtless cad, and all the while he'd been—married.

  Jackson was married.

  Tamsin's insides clenched for the millionth time. Oh, he'd gotten married to a human, so it hardly counted. Thinking of Cassie, she flinched at her own callous thought. Fine, that wasn't a fair assessment. But still. He'd gotten married on the islands. He'd returned to the pack a married man, had appeared at his alpha's own wedding ceremony a married man. Had dared to touch Tamsin, to entwine her own foolish heart with his, as a married man. Not to mention he'd forgotten all about the poor girl, that she even existed. When confronted he'd tried to carry it off as if he'd remembered, but Tamsin knew better. She knew him well enough to know when he was covering up his debauchery.

  “You idiot, Jackson
,” she muttered beneath her breath as she forced herself to exit her office. She strode down the hallway, footsteps muffled on the stunning Persian rug running the length of it.

  You stupid, careless fool, she thought at herself. It felt like a razor blade sliced through her chest.

  Without realizing it, her steps picked up until she was at a near run. She barely noticed the occasional tight little clusters of human servants who caught a glimpse of her from far away and immediately did their best to fade into doorways, or at least pretend to be furniture on the sides of the hallway as she barreled past them. Her mind roiled with furious energy, her entire self a churning cauldron of turmoil.

  Fucking hell. She'd been feeling something, actual damned feelings, for Jackson Rule for the past several weeks. And when he found her at the waterfall, she had finally let him in, even though she knew what an enormous risk it was. But something big had happened between them. Something deep, and something real. Tamsin was no innocent, idiotic schoolgirl to make things up. No. She knew better. She knew exactly what had happened between her and Jackson.

  Finally, she forced out the thought, even though it made her breathless with the enormity of its implications.

  Jackson Rule was her mate.

  Her actual true mate, which not every shifter found in their lifetime.

  And he was a mate who not only was forbidden to her, but he was a mate who was married to another woman.

  Suddenly desperately terrified that she would literally disembowel the next person, shifter or human, that looked at her the wrong way, Tamsin bit down on the inside of her cheek hard enough to draw blood. She forced her steps to slow. Her other terror was that she would collapse into a heaving mass of uncontrollable sobs. For her, that was out of the question. In this pack, she dared not ever break down.

  Not even when her own badly bruised heart was shattering inside her like stabbing bits of sharp glass.

  She took a deep breath, then another. Forcing her face to arrange itself into an iron mask of control, she headed for the council chambers and the awaiting pack members.

  There, they would decide Jackson's fate. And by secret association, hers.

  Only the agitated flapping of a confused bird having a near miss from hitting the tiny ground-level window of Jackson's containment cell finally startled him out of the motionless position he'd held for the past hour. Wrenching his head back as the confused little thing veered at the last possible moment before it would have run into the windowpane, Jackson blinked. His muscles felt stiff. Gently stretching each of his limbs, he rolled his head around on his neck as he walked around the small room.

  He'd already been in here for a few hours, with no one coming by to tell him any news of what might be going on outside the locked and guarded door. He'd listened in vain at said door, stretching all of his shifter-enhanced hearing to try and catch any conversation. Even as he did so, he'd known it was useless. Containment cells were in the basement of the estate, at the bottom of a wing rarely frequented. It was a very deliberate placement so that those being held could not hear what was going on, nor be easily reached by anyone seeking to free them.

  Jackson castigated himself he slowly paced a circle around the small room. For the past hour, he'd been able to think of nothing but how incredibly stupid he was. How very badly he must have hurt Tamsin. Wincing again at the memory of her frozen reaction, those stunning eyes of hers turning as brittle as a northern sea, he gave his head a savage shake.

  Tamsin was the acting alpha, and had behaved as such in front of the entire pack. She'd had no choice. If he had been in her shoes, he would have done the same thing. Yet even so, he knew there was a bond between him and Tamsin that was real as it was fragile, as tender as it was fierce.

  He knew her well. She was a genuinely good person. But if her allegiance to the pack was crossed, watch out. She would take no prisoners. Other than Jackson himself, obviously. Snorting in massive irritation, he sharply turned at the end of the cramped space to do another lap. Then he stiffened into a sudden halt.

  A low murmur of voices sounded just outside the door.

  He snapped his gaze around as the lock slid and the doorknob turned. The young guard, who looked as disturbed about who he guarded as he also looked determined to follow the orders of the alpha's sister, briefly glanced to Jackson before wrenching his eyes away. Even in a containment cell, Jackson still outranked nearly everyone else in the pack.

  Everyone except Tamsin.

  Nervously, the guard said, "Visitor. Five minutes."

  For a split second Jackson's heart leapt. His hope was dashed as Mac, face agitated and plain angry, walked into the cell. The guard closed the door with a thunk, once again turning the deadbolt.

  Slowly, Mac shook his head at Jackson. The usually cheerful blue eyes were grim, although Jackson thought he caught a touch of compassion in there as well. Even so, Mac wasted no time dressing him down. “Really? I knew you were out to have a good time on your vacation, but getting married?” Jackson winced at the word. “Getting drunk married to a human girl? Were you completely out of your mind?" Mac flung his brawny arms about before folding them across his chest he waited for Jackson's reply.

  Jackson huffed. Crouching down on his heels, he stretched out his calves and rounded his back an effort to relieve some of the tightness. Talking to the cold stone floor, he said with a deliberate shrug, "Apparently, yes." Then he bit off a sharp sigh and glanced up at Mac, dropping the casual act. “Oh, fine. It was insane and unbelievably stupid. Possibly the stupidest I've ever been in my life.”

  Mac eyed him closely, a worried look now sliding over his face. "You really don't remember doing it, do you?"

  Jackson shook his head, slowly coming back up to a stand while still rounding his back and then arching his shoulders to relieve the stress there as well. He wouldn't have been this off-guard in front of virtually any other wolf in the pack, but Mac was a friend. One he had to trust right now if he was going to learn anything of value about his immediate fate.

  "I have a vague recollection of being incredibly intoxicated,” he admitted. “But you're right. I was on vacation. There was an island full of gorgeous women." Just the thought of how he had gone through all those women, knowing he was a free man even though he'd already been unable to shake thoughts of Tamsin and her beautiful laugh, Jackson felt the vague prickling of what he strongly suspected was shame. Was he really such an insensitive jackass as all that? If so, then fuck him for being a bastard, and rightfully so.

  "If I really married that girl, I don't remember doing it." He dragged his hand over his eyes, pressing on them for a moment. Jaw tight, he went on in a low voice. "Tamsin was right. I am nothing more than a careless, callous idiot. I deserve whatever it is the council will plan to do with me when they next meet."

  There was an uncomfortable beat. Jackson snapped his gaze to Mac again, who now wore an expression of dark concern. Jackson groaned. "They're already meeting? Well. That was fast.” He made his voice casually light. “Guess I really pissed her off." Inside, however, he felt the jagged pain in his chest at how terribly hurt Tamsin must be right now.

  Hurt, and enraged.

  "Or," Max said in very somber tones, not taking his shrewd gaze off of Jackson, "you must have really broken her heart."

  This time, the silence was thunderstruck. Jackson was pretty sure he could hear his own heartbeat as he stared back at Mac, trying to figure out how to play it. If Mac had seen something between them, who else also had?

  Apparently guessing Jackson's thoughts, Mac shook his head. "I don't think anyone else knows it's that deep. I just know you well. I also happened to see the two of you come back to the estate together the other day.”

  Feeling slightly dazed, Jackson thought of the waterfall's gentle slide, the rhythmic beat of Tamsin's rapturous cries, the sweet taste of her luscious curves and smooth skin. Damn him to hell for ruining that memory for her. For them both.

  “Besides," Mac managed a
small smile even under the bleak circumstances, "a slap like the one she gave you at the alpha's mating ceremony showed that somehow, you really got to her. I've seen women slap you before, Jackson"—Jackson managed a small, self-deprecating smile of his own—"but nothing like that one.”

  Mac paused to take a deep breath before he went on. “Tamsin is in love with you, isn't she." His flat tone said it wasn't a question. It was an irrefutable statement of truth.

  Jackson took a long breath. He made his decision before he exhaled. He trusted Mac enough not to run around blabbing to the rest of the pack. Oh, he might tell Finn, but Finn valued his position of closeness to the inner sanctum of the leaders as much as Mac did. He wouldn't tell anyone else about news this big, not without Jackson giving him leave.

  "Yes," he said simply. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but yes. She's in love with me. And,” he added in a soft voice, “I'm pretty sure I'm in love with her.” Just saying the words out loud made something squeeze, then expand, then squeeze again in the vicinity of his heart.

  Taking a deep breath, he admitted the darkest yet most stunning part of it all. “But it gets even worse."

  Max eyebrows raised. "Worse than being in love with the alpha's sister? The sister of not only your best friend, but of the one wolf in the pack who holds your life in the balance at any given moment?"

  Jackson tightened his mouth and shook his head. "Oh, it gets much worse.” He paused for a long moment before finally saying it out loud.