Code wolf, p.17
Code Wolf, page 17
“Out late, aren’t you?” Beau turned around to find the source of the unfamiliar voice. She lifted her hand to calm Artemis who was ready to pounce on the intruder.
“Who are you?” she demanded.
“The real question is what are you doing out here so late? Surely your wards don’t need reinforcement at this time of night, not out in this quiet New Jersey forest, Sorceress Rose?” The dark stranger spoke with an unearthly calm to his voice that put Beau on edge.
This was no mere mortal. She used her keen sight to see him despite the darkness and almost gasped aloud. His face was perfect, except for a thin silver scar that ran from his left eyebrow to his chin. His eyes blazed cerulean blue fringed with impossibly dark lashes. They were carefully masked to hide his emotions.
EXCERPT FROM GRIZZLY LOVER BY C.D. GORRI:
“Resa,” Oliver fisted the note he’d found tucked under the secondhand keyboard he’d just finished paying off.
The instrument sat against one wall of the cramped room, right beside the only window in the small Brooklyn Heights apartment he’d been renting the past six months since he came to the city.
For a Grizzly Bear Shifter used to the wilds of the woods as his backyard, it was quite the change, but he just had to try to see if he could make a go ofa his music. Oliver had always been gifted with a good ear, but even as a cub, his mother had encouraged him to go and seek his destiny.
Brooklyn Heights was as close to Manhattan as he could afford with his meager savings, but what did money matter anyway? Especially when there was music to be written. The window faced the south brick wall of another small apartment complex identical to his.
It didn’t matter what it looked like outside, as long as he was able to breathe some fresh air. At least on the fifth floor, it was somewhat fresher than the heavily congested streets below.
She was gone. His mind registered that fact as he took in the empty room. She’d left.
“No,” he growled, and aimed his fist at the tiled counter top, cracking a few of the old ceramic squares in the process. Mrs. Goldstein, the landlady, would be pissed when she saw that.
Oliver’s Bear roared inside of him and his heart contracted painfully in his chest. It was worse than being sucker punched by Thor his idiot cousin, who was as big and strong as his namesake. Why would Teresa say such cruel things? He couldn’t believe it, couldn’t fathom his sweet Resa saying such foul callous words about their relationship. He read the hated missive one more time.
Oliver,
It was fun while it lasted, but even you can’t be so naïve as to think I could find true love with a nobody. I just wanted to get back at my father. Don’t bother looking for me or calling, I will have already changed my number.
Teresa
Yes, it was her handwriting. He closed his eyes on the wave of anguish that washed over him. Gasping, he sunk to his knees while the beast inside of him roared and stomped his massive claws in fury.
Mate, his Bear cried out, but Oliver refused to answer his other half.
How could she just leave him like this? He’d been so sure of her, of them. He was positive that she loved him too. Being with her was everything to him. She was his fated mate. It was the first time he had ever tasted happiness. A taste that was bitter now that he knew it was all one-sided.
The first time he’d seen the golden-haired beauty, Oliver’s Grizzly Bear had stood up and taken notice. The second he’d breathed in her peaches and cream scent, his animal had roared one single word in his mind’s eye that would change Oliver’s life forever.
Mate.
Following his heart, he’d approached the soft spoken, elegantly dressed Teresa Witherspoon after spying her at the park day after day. She’d sit on one of the cleaner benches and read from a book of seventeenth century cavalier poets.
“You like Lovelace? Looking at you I pictured a Donne fan,” Oliver said when he’d finally found the nerve to approach her.
“Spiritualist poetry doesn’t appeal as much to me I guess. I like Lovelace and Suckling. They’re fun and witty.”
“But they’re just trying to get in a girl’s pants with their poetry. You approve?” he grinned.
“It’s not so much the seduction that appeals to me, it’s the living in the moment. Carpe diem and all that,” she shrugged.
There was something so tragically sad about her that his heart had squeezed in his chest with longing. He’d wanted to make her smile. Heck, he even pretended to stumble in the grass, laid himself flat just to get her to walk over and touch him. And she had, put her soft, long hands right on him to see if he was alright. He’d stolen a kiss and had never looked back. Until now. The dream was over. She’d left him.
Oliver’s Bear roared in his grief. That last night they were together, he’d told her the truth about what he was. The fact that there were more things in the world than she had ever imagined.
Oliver Pax had committed a most grievous sin against his Clan. He’d confessed to a normal, a human woman, that he was a Grizzly Bear Shifter.
It was allowed under certain circumstances, like when the woman in question was your fated mate. He’d thought she’d taken it well, after all, they’d made wild, passionate love immediately after. Hell, he’d been so caught up in the moment, he’d marked her with his bite, tying himself to her irrevocably, but now she was gone.
What would become of him? Would he go mad like so many other Shifters who’d lost their mates? He had heard the stories. The tales of broken matings and rogue Shifters who needed to be put down.
Oliver tipped the bottle of whiskey back emptying its fiery contents down his throat. Then he threw the hated thing across the room. Something about the muted violence of the act satisfied his animal’s need for savagery. The Bear inside of him wanted to tear the whole world down, but maybe work would be a better outlet, he thought.
Oliver sat down at his banged-up keyboard and began to play. He poured out his bruised heart. Wrote lyrics and tied them together with a fairy tale as old as they come. The Beast of Brooklyn Heights was born that day. And the rest, as they say, was history.
EXCERPT FROM BREAKING SASS BY C.D. GORRI
Goddammit, Sheila Rand pulled her Soft-‘Vert over on the shoulder of the four lane highway. She’d been out for a spin on her bike alone after closing up the bar to try and weed out the negative thoughts and worries that had plagued her throughout the day.
This was her favorite thing about Blue Creek, the new place of residence for the Dire Wolf Motorcycle Club. The Pack she’d chosen to run with as a young woman had been a group of renegades and nomads like all Dire Wolves were. Only, they’d decided to end the cycle. The fact that they usually attracted unwanted attention in the form of challenges because of their size and strength kept the small number of elusive Shifters on the road. That and riding a motorcycle was just fucking fun.
Derrick, her cousin and their Alpha, had a nose for things. When he’d announced his plans to settle, the whole lot of them had agreed to join him. Tired of life on the road, they wanted roots, they wanted a home. So, here she was.
With their Alpha just mated, the rest of their small Pack of Dire Wolves had begun to hope that they too would find their fated mates in the small American town. All except for Sheila. She was perfectly fine on her own, and she didn’t need a man to complete her, or whatever horseshit those graybeards of her old Pack had tried to convince her of when she’d been just a cub.
She could deal with the sighs and whines of the lovesick men whom she’d pledged to ride, and land, with. Overgrown cubs, the whole bunch of them. Crying in their beers about needing a mate. The Pack was in Blue Creek to stay and that meant she was too. But she’d never signed on to deal with him.
Nuh uh. Not her. She looked in her rearview mirror at the sedan that was pulled over onto the shoulder behind her with one end sticking slightly into the traffic lane, to protect the person being hassled of course, and the customary siren perched on the roof. Lights flashing, at least the bastard didn’t turn on the sound.
He’d been waiting on her of course. Fucking speed traps should be illegal. What harm was she doing taking her frustrations out on the road when no one else in their right mind was out and about?
No one except him.
Her supposed fated mate stepped out of his vehicle and walked up to Sheila.
“Take your helmet off,” he said in his gruff voice.
“Make me,” she countered.
“Sheila,” his tone held a warning note, but she didn’t give a fuck.
“Detective,” she countered.
“It’s dangerous on the road at night,” he started.
“For you maybe, but I was born on the road, detective. Just one more difference between you and me. Now, you giving me a ticket?”
“Not tonight,” he said, “get home safe.”
She ignored his parting words, revved her engine, and shot off like a bat out of hell. Fuck. The reason for all her attitude could have been that her she-Wolf was up in arms over the man.
Mine.
No.
Grrr.
Quit it, she snapped at the Wolf inside her. Fate might have decided Detective Leo Crowley was the one for her, but Sheila wasn’t about to go down without a fight.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
C.D. Gorri is a USA Today Bestselling author of steamy paranormal romance and urban fantasy. She is the creator of the Grazi Kelly Universe.
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Join her mailing list here: https://www.cdgorri.com/newsletter
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An avid reader with a profound love for books and literature, when she is not writing or taking care of her family, she can usually be found with a book or tablet in hand. C.D. lives in her home state of New Jersey where many of her characters or stories are based. Her tales are fast paced yet detailed with satisfying conclusions.
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If you enjoy powerful heroines and loyal heroes who face relatable problems in supernatural settings, journey into the Grazi Kelly Universe today. You will find sassy, curvy heroines and sexy, love-driven heroes who find their HEAs between the pages. Werewolves, Bears, Dragons, Tigers, Witches, Romani, Lynxes, Foxes, Thunderbirds, Vampires, and many more Shifters and supernatural creatures dwell within her worlds. The most important thing is every mate in this universe is fated, loyal, and true lovers always get their happily-ever-afters.
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Want to know how it all began? Enter the Grazi Kelly Universe with Wolf Moon: A Grazi Kelly Novel or pick up Charley's Christmas Wolf and dive into the Macconwood Pack Novel Series today.
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For a complete list of C.D. Gorri's books visit her website here:
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https://www.cdgorri.com/complete-book-list/
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Thank you and happy reading!
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del mare alla stella,
C.D. Gorri
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