Wolves of Wildwood Book 1: Tempting my Alpha
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Raven Flanagan
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Hollie is the first wolf in her family to step into the human world, determined to keep her wild side buried under city lights and college deadlines. But one moonlit night, a scent stirs something primal—something she thought she’d left behind. Rafael, a born Alpha turned professor, isn’t expecting to find a she-wolf prowling his city streets. Yet the moment he meets her, the pull between them is instant, electric, and impossible to ignore. After one unforgettable night, fate twists the knife—Hollie walks into class the next morning, and he’s the man at the front of the room. For humans, it’s forbidden. For wolves, it’s written in the stars.
Chapter 1
HOLLIE
“So, as a high-value male, I think my opinion on the stock market should be considered. Going into this new semester, my teachers should really take me more seriously.”
The voice of the human grated on my nerves. I hadn’t listened to a word he said since he’d sat across from me at the bar.
Cigarette smoke and drunk human pheromones permeated the air. The stink of it clogged my nose.
Dance music played from a live band on the tiny corner stage. Their music blared into my sensitive ears, yet it still wasn’t loud enough to drown out the man’s self-entitled drivel.
Werewolves were, at their core, animals. Wild, primal animals that weren’t afraid to surrender to the call of nature and let their base needs take over. They lived in small communities around the world in the forests and mountain regions, allowing their inner beast to run free.
“Ashton, we had one class project together a year ago. Why are you bothering me now?” My eyes narrowed on him as my patience wore thin.
Although I knew exactly why he sat next to me the instant that he noticed me. The scent of his desire flared higher than his atrocious cologne.
“Wow, Hollie, I’m just trying to be friendly.” Ashton huffed. His fingers wrapped around the neck of his beer bottle.
Right when I thought he’d get up and leave, he leaned forward instead. “I saw you sitting alone and thought I’d come say hello.”
There weren’t many wolves to be found in the crowded human cities. When you got away from your pack and integrated into human society, those wild urges and instincts calmed. Until they were only a whisper in the back of your mind instead of a constant shout to go feral all the time.
“I’m alone on purpose.”
All I wanted was a drink, and this bar poured them heavily. Alcohol helped to calm the howling in my head on nights like these. Nights where the moon called to me and the beast under my skin.
“A pretty girl like you shouldn’t be alone.” His hand slid across the table. “Why don’t you come back to my place? I can show you what a good friend I can be.”
I snatched my hand back before his grimy fingers could touch me.
Human males were fun when I was desperate. Even then, I’d never consider Ashton as a suitable partner. He was well known as a pompous asshole around campus on his best days.
I was the first in my family to leave the pack after getting accepted into a prestigious university. Leaving the wild forests of the Northwest and moving across the country for a degree in biology seemed like a great idea at the time.
The excitement of a novel experience overflowed through me in my first months in the city.
The ache of missing my family, my pack, and the ability to shed my skin on a whim to run free pressed into me like a stone squishing my heart. For three years now, I’d lived among the humans in their overgrown city.
While I enjoyed the university and my classes, my ache to let loose and go wild was immeasurable.
“I’m not looking for friends. If I were, you wouldn’t be in the running.” Pulling my cocktail closer, I shifted in my seat to leave.
I didn’t make it far.
Suddenly, the door to the noisy bar opened. A gust of the chilly outside air blew over my skin.
However, it was the palpable presence of the newcomer that made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. All at once, my blood heated as if made of molten lava.
Ashton scoffed, accompanied by the dramatic roll of his eyes. He made a show of scraping his chair over the concrete flooring as he pushed away from the table. “Is this the thanks I get for trying to be nice to you?”
“You aren’t trying to be nice, Ashton. You want me to sleep with you, and I’m not going to.”
My nail tapped against the cocktail glass, mirroring the increasing rate of my heartbeat.
There was another wolf here. I could smell the woods on him. The smell of the earth and the trees clung to him, and the masculine scent of him enveloped me.
It’d been so long since I’d seen another of my kind. It awakened an instinct to find him, to see him.
Tonight, there would be a full moon. I could feel it in the air. The whisper of ancient power against my skin.
My insides begged me to shift, to get wild, to shred my clothes and go feral. In this crowded city, that might not be possible.
“That’s not what I want at all!” Ashton shouted.
The new rage in his tone caught my attention, keeping my eyes from wandering around the bar to find the powerful male. The human’s tantrum drew stares in our direction, making me stiffen at their scrutiny. Their attention was the last thing I needed.
“Please, leave me alone.”
Keeping my voice low when I wanted to snarl took years of practice. Humans didn’t react well to claws and fangs.
Ashton puffed up. His face twisted with his palpable irritation. His khaki shorts and popped collar took away from any intimidation skills he believed he had.
He pointed one finger at me while lifting his beer bottle to sneer, “I wouldn’t want you anyway, you outcast freak! You don’t have to be such a bitch!”
The air in the bar shifted upside down. What happened next came so quickly most watching eyes missed it. I stopped breathing when Ashton’s face forcibly slammed into the bar top.
My eyes widened to take in the sight of a hand holding the measly human down by the back of the neck.
“She asked you to leave her alone. And the lady asked nicely.” The stranger’s deep, rumbling voice smacked into me like a train hitting a brick wall. “I suggest you listen to her before things get out of hand.”
A pathetic whine slipped past Ashton’s lips. His hands scrambled to push himself up, to no avail. The stranger kept him down with no visible effort.
I could feel his underlying power in the air, which made my skin itch with a rising need.
