Wolf cursed, p.1
Wolf Cursed, page 1
WOLF CURSED
A GUARDED BY THE SHIFTER NOVELLA
KATE RUDOLPH
CONTENTS
About Wolf Cursed
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Also by Kate Rudolph
About Kate Rudolph
Wolf Cursed © Kate Rudolph 2022.
Cover design by Kate Rudolph.
All rights reserved. No part of this story may be used, reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without written permission of the copyright holder, except in the case of brief quotations embodied within critical reviews and articles.
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Published by Kate Rudolph.
www.katerudolph.net
Created with Vellum
ABOUT WOLF CURSED
Only her fated mate can save her from a witch's curse.
When a curse threatens Nora, a wolf shifter and bodyguard, she’ll need Julian’s help if she’s going to survive. He’s a healer, a witch, and a former client. Which means Nora needs to keep her hands to herself.
She doesn’t mix business with pleasure.
But as danger dances ever closer, she can’t resist the captivating man. Lifting the curse that’s killing her should be the end of things, but as magic and peril swirl around, they’ll need to rely on each other to survive.
PROLOGUE
Julian raced after the werewolf pack, but Nora held back. She was in her wolf form, but she had to think about this like a human. The other wolves were on the edge of running wild. If she didn’t keep her faculties, they could all die.
This could be a trap. She’d had a bad feeling about this job from the beginning, and now all of her instincts were screaming at her that they’d been right.
Those instincts needed to shut up. She had work to do.
Her fellow bodyguards were unconscious in the cafeteria, and most of the coven she was here to protect was knocked out right alongside them. The only witch still standing was Julian, and she was struggling against her wolf. Her stupid wolf wanted to grab him and lock him up somewhere to keep him safe.
But he wasn’t the one in danger. Audra Palmer, the leader of Julian’s coven, had been taken by the head of a rival coven, and shit was going down.
It was Nora’s job to stop it.
When she reached the edge of the clearing where a fire roared and the evil witch, Rosalie Sutton, spat her vitriol, Nora kept clear. She’d been right to hold back. Rosalie had hired her own shifter bodyguards, but those men had turned on her, and now she was holding them in place with her magic.
The job was getting harder. Julian had joined the fray and was shooting magic as fast as he could summon it.
And in the middle of it all was Audra Palmer.
Nora stayed in the shadows. She had to time this right. She didn’t have magic or a gun, so she couldn’t keep her distance and take Sutton out with a well-timed shot. No, she’d have to do this like the wolf she was.
Sutton did something with a flash of magic, and Nora knew this was the last moment she had to act. So she didn’t think.
She charged.
There was another flash of magic and she went flying back, pain searing through her as magic fizzed in her veins and blossomed within her. She fell to the ground, losing her grip on her wolf form and changing back into her human skin, naked under the moonlight.
It felt wrong.
It was like tar was flowing through her veins, and her head was fuzzy. She reached for her wolf, trying to switch back to that safer form, but she couldn’t. The magic hit had been a doozy.
It was okay. It had to be okay.
Nora shivered in the cool night air and felt eyes on her. She realized that the tide had turned. Rosalie Sutton was unconscious. They’d won.
Julian wasn’t looking at her.
That was fine. He was being polite. Normally Nora would think it was a good thing that a guy wasn’t staring at her tits while she tried to do her job.
But her feelings were all in a jumble when it came to Julian, and she couldn’t examine them too closely right now. When the job was done, she’d take the time, but not a moment sooner.
Nora forced herself back to her feet and nodded like she wasn’t in excruciating pain. The sooner they got back to camp, the sooner she could find some clothes.
“Any injuries?” one of the wolves, Rowe, asked.
“All good,” his alpha, an older man named Gibson, replied.
“That hurt like a motherfucker, but I’m alive.” Nora put a bit of bravado into her words. The pain wasn’t receding. On the bright side, it wasn’t getting worse. She didn’t know what evil magic Rosalie’s spell had contained, but she hoped it didn’t take.
And if it did… well, Nora would deal with that later.
She just needed this job to be over.
Soon.
CHAPTER 1
Rosalie Sutton was one evil witch. Powerful, too. And she was never going to hurt anyone again. Nora rubbed her chest where Rosalie’s final, desperate strike had hit her. It had felt like fire and sewage ripping through her body, turning her veins to sludge.
And then the pain had evaporated like it had never been there.
Everyone was shooting her looks, like it was some miracle she’d survived the curse. To Nora, it was just another day on the job. Bodyguard to the magical world, leader of her shifter pack.
All around badass, not that she’d ever say that part out loud.
You weren’t actually a badass if you had to tell people you were.
Thankfully, this job from hell was just about over. A handful of witches were watching over the evil Rosalie until the proper magical authorities could arrive to take her to witch prison—or wherever it was misbehaving magic users went—and Nora and her shifter crew—Estelle, Enrique, and Shannon—could all go home to upstate New York and take a well-earned break.
She wasn’t happy about being lured out here and nearly killed, and she’d be having words with her client when the invoice was filed. But they’d all survived. More or less.
She was just going to ignore the pesky magic clinging to her like a bruise.
“I can’t believe that bitch spelled us.” Estelle stood outside their cabins and scowled toward the center of camp, where most of their clients were congregating. She was a pretty woman, pale, shorter than Nora and curvy. No one would peg her for a bodyguard. Or a wolf shifter. Her dark hair was pulled back in a serviceable braid, and she wore dark clothes that hid bloodstains. “I tested that food for drugs. It came up clean.”
Nora patted Estelle’s shoulder, giving it a little squeeze before she pulled away. “We’re alive. We’ll do better next time. Save your grief for the debrief.”
Estelle gave her a curious look. “You doing okay? I hear you took a fucking big hit.”
Nora grunted. Nothing hurt. Really. “I’m fine. I don’t need more people worrying about me.”
“More?” Estelle’s green eyes lit up. “Who’s worrying about you? The cute witch guy?” She looked back at the clustered witches, trying to pick him out.
“Julian’s a client.” She had to shut this down before Estelle got going. When the woman got her teeth into something, she didn’t let it go. And that was true no matter what form she was in.
Estelle rolled her eyes. “He’s a client until tomorrow. I think you’ve done all you can to respect professional boundaries.” She gave Nora a friendly bump and moved on.
Nora bit back a growl. She was the boss here, she got to decide what professionalism meant. And she wasn’t going to tackle Julian and ride him until sunrise.
She shivered.
Fuck. No, she couldn’t think about that.
“Estelle, wait!” They still had work to do.
Estelle turned around. “What?”
“Do we have a head count on Sutton’s coven? Their numbers are looking a bit sparse.” There should have been twelve witches from that coven. Nora trusted exactly one of them not to be involved in Sutton’s scheme, and that was because that witch, Vi, had been vital in taking the woman down.
“I’ll investigate. One of the cars is gone from the parking lot. And no one has seen Delia Cruz in hours. Might be she took off. I’ll see if she’s the only one.” Estelle left again, and this time Nora let her go.
She didn’t like the thought of Rosalie’s accomplices getting away, but it wasn’t her job to chase them down. This was witch business, and she was a shifter.
Her senses sparked and she scented the citrus and fire scent of her—of Julian Frankfurt before she saw him. He wasn’t her anything. Not anything besides a client, at least. And her stupid wolf needed to get a fucking grip. He didn’t carry the same sense of danger like a mantle, unlike some of the other witches at this cursed meeting. He was more healer than killer, but power thrummed under his skin. He was around six feet tall, pale, with wavy dark hair and chee kbones that could cut like a knife. He was on the thin side, built like a runner, with eyes filled with knowledge. And power.
Nora wanted to know what he could do with that power. She wanted to feel it wrap around her as he sank…
She cut those thoughts off with a mental swipe of her claws. Wasn’t happening.
His dark hair was mussed, and he had shadows under his green eyes. It had been a long night for everyone, and it wasn’t close to over.
“Will you let me scan you?” he asked, his voice a temptation that wrapped around her and made her want.
“I’m fine,” Nora insisted. Her bones felt achy, but that came with the territory. There was no reason to think it was related to the magic whammy she’d been hit with. “If whatever Sutton threw at me hasn’t killed me yet, do you think it’s likely to do so?” Part of being alpha of her small pack meant projecting strength. And shaking off a curse was part of the job.
“Please,” Julian insisted. He leaned forward, almost touching her.
If she felt his hands on her…
This kind of attraction was intense. Nora’s previous lovers had been fun, but nothing had felt like this. And her wolf whispered what she was afraid to admit.
He’s your—
She wasn’t going to think that. She didn’t have time for a mate, and certainly not this witch. Their lives didn’t intersect. She was a shifter. He was a witch. They were part of different worlds.
“Quickly,” she snapped, and kept her face neutral as he flinched.
Better to play heartless bitch than get her heart broken.
Julian didn’t touch her, and Nora tried to be thankful. He held his hand in front of her chest and she could feel heat coming off of him, sinking into her. After a minute or so, it dissipated.
“What’s the verdict?” She didn’t let any fear out. She couldn’t be scared.
Julian’s brows drew together, his face scrunched in confusion. “I’m not sure. Whatever Sutton cast on you failed to take hold, but I can sense remnants of her magic in your aura. It may dissipate after a while, or it may strengthen and reignite whatever spell she tried to cast.”
“Can you give me odds?” She didn’t want any magic inside of her, especially not any that came from an evil coven leader who was bent on world domination or whatever.
He shook his head. “That would be irresponsible. You should—”
“Julian, Audra’s looking for you,” one of his fellow coven members interrupted them.
And Nora hadn’t heard her coming since she’d been so focused on Julian. She was off her game. “Go,” she told him. “I’ll find a witch to check me out if things get worse.”
He hesitated and opened his mouth as if he was about to say something, before closing it and going off with the woman.
Nora threw herself into the clean up work for the rest of the night and fell into bed when she had a moment.
In the morning she went to find Julian, but he was already gone.
CHAPTER 2
Julian Frankfurt did his best not to think about the wolf woman. Braided blonde hair, muscles she clearly knew how to use, a pissed off look on her face, and lips he wanted to… no. He had to put her out of his mind.
As the van rattled down a rutted road, he clutched his seat and added more power to the spell holding Rosalie Sutton in her binding.
She’d nearly killed them all in a bid for power that would have succeeded if not for the fact that she’d overplayed her own hand.
Audra had expected something. That was why she’d hired Nora’s crew. But it was one of Rosalie’s own witches that figured out the real gambit. He didn’t understand that kind of lust for power. He could feel waves of energy all around him. He didn’t need to murder people for more. What was the use if it was tainted by suffering and death?
Apparently Sutton didn’t care about those things.
What had she done to Nora?
He thumped his head back against his headrest. There. He’d gone at least two minutes without thinking of the shifter. That had to be some kind of record.
But right now, he wasn’t thinking about how soft her hair might be out of that braid or what she’d look like spread out in his bed. His cock had nothing to do with it.
He was thinking witchy thoughts. It was work related.
And he was the fucking Wizard of Oz.
He bit back a groan. He didn’t want the others in the van to know what was running through his mind. They were seething with anger at everything Sutton had done and tried to do to them.
And all he could think about was what it would feel like to bury his head between a sexy shifter’s thighs.
Thankfully no one in the van was a natural telepath.
The curse. He had to think about the curse.
He’d heard the guttural words that Rosalie had spoken as she summoned a wave of power that felt like it could decimate a city. She’d aimed the power straight for Audra, his coven leader. But Nora had jumped in front of it and absorbed the blast. That she hadn’t died on impact was surprising.
That she was walking around like nothing was wrong was a miracle.
She claimed she felt fine, but Julian didn’t believe her. A person didn’t just shake off that kind of magic.
There were spells that affected witches differently than everyone else. So it was possible that whatever she’d been hit with wouldn’t do as much damage to a shifter. But it was the difference between being shot or stabbed. She was still injured.
She needed help.
And she’d said she would get it.
Just because a wild flare of attraction had made him go a little crazy, it didn’t mean he had the right to rush in and force a healing on her. She was a grown woman. She could call him if she wanted.
And he’d made sure to give his card to one of her people. Nora could find him if she wanted. What more could he do?
Something deep in his soul was dissatisfied with that answer. He didn’t want to wait for her to find him, not when he was meant to…
Meant to what?
Julian pushed those thoughts deep down into the recesses of his brain. He had bigger issues to deal with than attraction to a wolf.
He’d give her time.
A little time.
But once things with Sutton were taken care of, no power in the universe could stop him from tracking her down.
CHAPTER 3
One Month Later
Nora ignored the stab of pain in her stomach as she bent over to lift up a box of old office equipment. No matter what it felt like, if she looked down, she wouldn’t see the handle of a knife protruding from her gut. She was perfectly fine.
In great health.
Shifters didn’t get sick.
She clenched her teeth to keep from groaning in pain as she straightened and set the box on her desk. Fuck. Maybe she couldn’t get sick, but the curse was one hell of a drug. She placed a hand over the worst knot of pain and pressed. It alleviated the pressure for a moment, and she breathed deep. Getting a lungful of air these days wasn’t always pleasant.
But she didn’t have time to stop. She had a pack to take care of and a business to run.
“You doing okay, boss?” Estelle leaned back in her office chair, shoes propped up on her desk and arms crossed, her face carefully neutral.
Nora was sick of carefully neutral. “I’m fine.” She jerked her hand away from her abdomen and refused to curl her fingers into a fist. The pain rushed back and she refused to show it. She didn’t need Estelle’s pity.
“You sure you don’t want me to call a healer in?” Estelle pressed. She was getting close to insubordination.
“You’re questioning your alpha?” Before the curse, Nora would have been able to sink a world of menace into those words. Now she almost sounded petulant.
