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The Black Wolf
Linda Thomas-Sundstrom
He’s a werewolf. She’s so much more…Raised in seclusion, Cara Kirk-Killion knows that she will never find the man who haunts her dreams until she ventures out into the world. But it’s Were-cop Rafe Laundau’s job to protect this shape-shifter from her own naveté. Yet he needs her as much as she needs him – to help his pack rid Miami of a vampire horde, and to satisfy a desire he’s never felt before.
He’s a werewolf...
...She’s so much more
Raised in seclusion, Cara Kirk-Killion knows that she will never find the man who haunts her dreams until she ventures out into the world. But it’s Were cop Rafe Laundau’s job to protect this shape-shifter from her own naïveté. Yet he needs her as much as she needs him—to help his pack rid Miami of a vampire horde, and to satisfy a desire he’s never felt before.
LINDA THOMAS-SUNDSTROM writes contemporary and paranormal romance novels for Mills & Boon. A teacher by day and a writer by night, Linda lives in the West, juggling teaching, writing, family and caring for a big stretch of land. She swears she has a resident muse who sings so loudly, she often wears earplugs in order to get anything else done. But she has big plans to eventually get to all those ideas. Visit Linda at www.lindathomas-sundstrom.com (http://www.lindathomas-sundstrom.com) or on Facebook.
Also by Linda Thomas-Sundstrom (#uc8b0bae9-19a2-5db3-aa99-effb666ce0d1)
Red Wolf
Wolf Trap
Golden Vampire
Guardian of the Night
Immortal Obsession
Wolf Born
Wolf Hunter
Seduced by the Moon
Immortal Redeemed
Half Wolf
Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
The Black Wolf
Linda Thomas-Sundstrom
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
ISBN: 978-1-474-08210-5
THE BLACK WOLF
© 2018 Linda Thomas-Sundstrom
Published in Great Britain 2018
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF
All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.
By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.
® and ™ are trademarks owned and used by the trademark owner and/or its licensee. Trademarks marked with ® are registered with the United Kingdom Patent Office and/or the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market and in other countries.
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
To my family, those here and those gone, who
always believed I had a story to tell.
Contents
Cover (#ud451debd-e022-5295-9969-814b21ae26d0)
Back Cover Text (#u33b2b595-6584-526f-b7dd-f1c0e4d124a9)
About the Author (#u2f4852db-13e3-5c20-ae0c-5107493690b3)
Booklist (#uf3e47009-97f5-59e7-9fd3-1e9280f00ab0)
Title Page (#uc3b03031-1a88-52ad-b269-aa7cd12e42f5)
Copyright (#ubc26ac1f-c84d-5f40-9c53-76580992de58)
Dedication (#u4f75596b-11e2-57fe-ab61-408238e10221)
Chapter 1 (#u6283d0f2-d9bb-5ba1-bcb4-228dec280816)
Chapter 2 (#u16b0e0cb-f235-58fb-ad45-de2e10ac2d45)
Chapter 3 (#u011a57b5-bb19-538d-8dd0-9648f1773def)
Chapter 4 (#u06c535fa-a578-50cd-8106-162446c3bd0c)
Chapter 5 (#u475508f2-68ab-5987-96bb-109c70b44cc0)
Chapter 6 (#u77f16e21-6822-5bef-974e-97a27acfd10c)
Chapter 7 (#uec979325-b96b-5b2f-afda-8e61b772b44c)
Chapter 8 (#u17826b16-30e1-513e-b6b0-68cba656e040)
Chapter 9 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 10 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 11 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 12 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 13 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 14 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 15 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 16 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 17 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 18 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 19 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 20 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 21 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 22 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 23 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 24 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 25 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 26 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 27 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 28 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 29 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 30 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 31 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 32 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 33 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 34 (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 35 (#litres_trial_promo)
Extract (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter 1 (#uc8b0bae9-19a2-5db3-aa99-effb666ce0d1)
Hot Miami nights in September were the bane of tourists and locals alike...but they suited Rafe Landau just fine.
Werewolves seldom reacted to heat the same way humans did. With body temperatures so elevated most of the time, a few degrees one way or the other didn’t matter. And humidity was Rafe’s friend. Sultry nights like this one were perfect for keeping criminals inside in front of their air conditioners. Or so he hoped. A detective’s job didn’t involve much downtime in a city this big. Having a night off from the usual chaos was a blessing.
Rafe sipped his soft drink on the narrow balcony of his semi-affordable oceanfront apartment, where the crash of waves almost completely masked the more invasive city sounds. Behind him, the blonde he planned to share a couple of hours on a mattress with shuffled toward him on bare feet.
“Got anything to drink in your bachelor pad besides sodas?”
Her voice was grittier than her looks. Rafe liked his temporary bed partners natural, without medically enhanced curves, dyed hair or overdone makeup. His preferences could have been a throwback to the times when wolves ran naked in the wild and nature ruled, but the fact was that he liked to see, taste and feel the women he dated with nothing artificial in his way.
Tonight’s date had already discarded most of her clothes; she was down to flimsy green lingerie that looked good on her. Her shoulder-length hair was tousled, her lips pouty. And her current state of undress made her invitation perfectly clear.
“Cupboard by the sink,” Rafe said, directing her to the stash of wine people had given him on various occasions, which he never drank. Other than a few swigs of beer on social occasions, the acuteness of his Were sense of taste and smell made alcohol off-limits.
“Wine?” she called out from the small kitchen, and followed that up with, “Warm wine?”
“I wasn’t expecting company” was Rafe’s standard reply in situations like this. He liked his women to feel special. This one was extraordinarily beautiful and probably damn good in bed, but she wasn’t the first he had invited home this month.
He supposed that he had been compensating for the painful memories, finding comfort in random companionship.
He had started feeling sorry for every woman who had caught his eye lately, believing him to be trustworthy because of his detective status and hoping that he might be available. The main thing he needed from a human female partner, however, was something none of them had been able to provide. Not that any of them could help being human. Although he could pass among them most of the time, he wasn’t really like them, and he had a secret to guard.
The fact that he was one of more than two dozen werewolves in a tightly knit Miami pack wasn’t exactly something he could be open about, and it kept him from any real connection.
He glanced over his shoulder. Hell, he was fairly sure he remembered this woman’s name. Brenda? Brandi? Something starting with a B.
Maybe he was wrong about the B. Randi? Candy?
He might call her again sometime when he was lonely, even though they had nothing in common, really. It was dangerous for Weres to fraternize for too long or become regularly intimate with a species outside their own.
But available she-wolves were a rarity in Miami and tricky to be around due to that little phenomenon known as imprinting. A lingering meeting of the eyes, Were-to-Were, or one outstanding sexual climax between them, and a werewolf was as good as engaged.
“Do you want some?” his date asked, clinking glasses on the counter.
“No,” Rafe said. “You go ahead.”
A breeze had come off the ocean to ruffle his hair—hair that was too long for a cop and too short for Rafe’s taste. It was a good wind. Felt nice.
He closed his eyes.
The scent of lilac perfume preceded his date onto the balcony. “Nice view,” she observed.
