Hunter Claimed (Dark Wolf Enterprises Book 3) Read online

  Table of Contents

  Legal Page

  Title Page

  Book Description

  Dedication

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Epilogue

  New Excerpt

  About the Author

  Publisher Page

  Hunter Claimed

  ISBN # 978-1-78651-146-1

  ©Copyright A. M. Griffin 2017

  Cover Art by Posh Gosh ©Copyright March 2017

  Edited by Sue Meadows

  Totally Bound Publishing

  This is a work of fiction. All characters, places and events are from the author’s imagination and should not be confused with fact. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, events or places is purely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form, whether by printing, photocopying, scanning or otherwise without the written permission of the publisher, Totally Bound Publishing.

  Applications should be addressed in the first instance, in writing, to Totally Bound Publishing. Unauthorized or restricted acts in relation to this publication may result in civil proceedings and/or criminal prosecution.

  The author and illustrator have asserted their respective rights under the Copyright Designs and Patents Acts 1988 (as amended) to be identified as the author of this book and illustrator of the artwork.

  Published in 2017 by Totally Bound Publishing, Newland House, The Point, Weaver Road, Lincoln, LN6 3QN

  Totally Bound Publishing is a subsidiary of Totally Entwined Group Limited.

  Warning:

  This book contains sexually explicit content which is only suitable for mature readers. This story has a heat rating of Totally Sizzling and a Sexometer of 1.

  Dark Wolf Enterprises

  HUNTER CLAIMED

  A.M. Griffin

  Book Three in the Dark Wolf Enterprises series

  When Hunter and Asha’s worlds collide, neither is able to walk away from the other.

  Asha has a simple plan for her life—her hopefully soon-to-be immortal life. All she’s ever wanted was to be so powerful that no one could ever hurt her again, and once she becomes a Vampire her dream will come true. Sure, being a Vampire’s protégé isn’t the easiest job a girl could have, but there are far tougher roads she could be walking, like following in her drug-addicted mother’s footsteps.

  Hunter Arany hates Vampires, and with good reason. So when Dark Wolf Enterprises is forced to hire a group of the blood-suckers to find out who’s been stealing company money, he’s sure having them around will be a problem. He never figured it would the Vampires’ human servant who causes him the most trouble—trouble of the love and life-mate kind.

  He’s hoping to convince Asha a brighter future exists in his arms, but old dreams fade slowly and can become living nightmares—of the dying kind.

  Dedication

  This book is dedicated to Myles. One day he will be somebody’s Hunter. He is fierce, kind, gentle, loving and will move Heaven and Earth to protect his family and the one he loves. Momma loves you, baby.

  Prologue

  Asha Higgins huddled in the junked-out hearse she’d called home for the past seven days. Funny that she’d picked this particular type of automobile to hide in. After all, this may very well become her final resting spot if she didn’t find food—or appropriate clothing soon. She hadn’t picked this car intentionally. At the time, she’d been running, crying and bleeding, and had only needed someplace to hide—somewhere safe and away from Daddy Tom.

  Her hands shook as she thought of the person who had tormented her days and nights for the past four months.

  Daddy Tom’s belt couldn’t reach her, and she would never again feel the sting of the leather biting into her flesh. Now that she was free, she no longer had to refer to him as her daddy, but the conditioning via open palm and belt was proving too hard to break.

  He wasn’t her real father. He wasn’t a blood relation at all. Daddy Tom was just the latest foster parent. And, like the others, he’d failed her.

  Daddy Tom hadn’t been the first person who had done her wrong in her short life. No. Asha’s troubles had begun on the day she’d been born—well, technically even before that. Her mother, Mavis, had been a crack whore. It wasn’t something Asha liked to talk or think about, but every foster parent she’d ever had seemed to like bringing that fact up. Asha believed it was to remind her of her station in life. As if she could ever forget.

  ‘Your mom was addicted to crack while she was pregnant with you.’

  ‘You were born addicted to crack.’

  ‘Your momma couldn’t stay clean. She whored for drugs instead of taking care of you.’

  ‘Her pimp strangled her dead in an alley.’

  She’d heard those words and more her entire life. How could she ever get past any of that to make something of herself? They all said she was doomed to walk in her mother’s footsteps.

  She would prove them all wrong.

  She wouldn’t hook up with a low-life and she definitely wouldn’t let said low-life talk her into doing drugs. She would graduate high school, something that her mother had never done. Go to college and get a job—a good job. Then, one day, she would come back and visit all those foster moms and dads who’d thought that she would fail and end up in a dumpster.

  She had many dreams where she went back to those houses wearing an expensive suit and had a driver waiting for her at the curb. She wouldn’t just tell them that she’d made something of herself. She would show them.

  But the plan for now was to hide out as long as it took for the case workers to forget about her then hitch a ride to California. In California, she could audition for television shows. She’d read in one of those teen magazines that talent agents were always searching for up-and-coming movie stars. Along with all the bad stuff her foster moms seemed to like to dredge up from the past, the foster dads had used to also tell her—in their very pervy way—that she was pretty. At least she had that going for her. Being pretty would make her a lot of money in Hollywood. She had read that, too.

  Outside her hiding spot, a dog’s bark sounded in the distance. Three large German Shepherds roamed the auto salvage yard, keeping her company at night. She hadn’t found out that little fact until after she’d scaled the chain link fence with its rolled barbed wire at the top, and landed on the other side. For a brief moment, when they’d come running at her, baring sharp teeth, she’d thought to scurry back the way she’d come, but fear had stopped her. Not the fear of the three dogs growling at her, but the fear of what she had known awaited her if Daddy Tom got his hands on her again.

  Blood from the open sores, caused by his belt, trickled down her leg. Her lip had been so puffy she could hardly speak. Her right eye had been completely swollen shut and the other had dripped with tears. She had gone to her knees and begged the dogs to grant her safe passage or end her life quickly.

  The dogs had spa
red her that night, showing more compassion than any human ever had.

  They’d huddled around her, licking her face and hands and whining. The old adage was true—animals were more compassionate than human beings.

  She’d been living with them and finding comfort in their company ever since.

  Instead of nightly beatings and inappropriate groping, she had snuggles and love. After the dogs finished their nightly patrol, they would scratch on the hearse door and she would let them all in, where they would curl up by her side and she could feel safe enough to fall asleep.

  They weren’t ideal living conditions, but they were a lot better than where she’d come from.

  A gust of wind blew past the vehicle and a cold breeze entered through the passenger side window, the only one that was missing a pane of glass. Every night she’d promised herself that when the workers left for the day, she would venture out to find another hiding spot, possibly another car that had all its windows intact. But that never happened. In all the days she’d been concealed in the gutted-out hearse, none of the workers who roamed the yard during the day had come close to looking into it. She convinced herself that she’d found her safe haven.

  Another gust of wind blew, and this time, she shivered as the chill hit her skin, making goosebumps erupt in its wake. She wasn’t dressed for the cold New Jersey weather. All she had on were flimsy shorts and a camisole nightshirt. The very items she’d worn the evening she’d fled. She didn’t even have shoes or socks covering her dirty feet.

  I can find a cardboard box or something. Then I can block that window.

  Asha lifted the blanket she’d stolen from one of the offices and peered out of the window. Nothing to see but cars and more cars. She could’ve roamed and easily found something to plug the window with, but the night terrified her. She’d been in enough foster homes to learn that nothing good ever happened at night.

  Giving up on the idea of leaving her sanctuary, she lay back down and tried her best to rearrange the blanket so that she had a piece between her body and the metal frame and still had some to wrap around her shoulders and legs. When the dogs came back, they would provide extra warmth. She smiled at that thought.

  A scratch sounded on the door.

  Just in time.

  Asha scurried to the door and pushed at it. The door creaked and groaned its displeasure as it opened. Instead of three dogs with tails wagging, Asha glanced down at black high heels. As if in slow motion her eyes moved up to see black stockings, skinny legs, a red pencil skirt, cream blouse and a pale white face with large, red eyes.

  The girl appeared younger than Asha’s fifteen years. She was small and gangly with wispy white-blonde hair. She looked like an angel. But the warning bells in Asha’s head fired in succession, indicating this little girl was anything but.

  “What are you doing here?” Asha peered around her. People like her didn’t come to this part of New Jersey, and definitely not alone.

  “I might ask you the same question.” Her voice was soft and musical.

  Her voice is so pretty…so calming.

  “You might, but I won’t answer.”

  No one else stepped from the shadows. The girl was alone. Another runaway? Asha mentally shook her head. Everything about her was off. She was too calm, too clean and too well-dressed. She didn’t belong.

  The girl chuckled and even that didn’t sound real. “You sure are a feisty one.” One of the dogs howled again and the girl lifted her chin to the sky and tilted her head in the direction of the noise. “You’ve made friends with them. They want to protect you, but they’re too afraid of what I am to come any closer.”

  Asha’s heart slammed against her ribs, the warning bells louder now. “What do you mean?” She peered into her eyes. The coloring wasn’t right, but no matter how hard she searched her brain she couldn’t grasp what it meant. She should have been scared. But she wasn’t, not really. “What are you?”

  “I’m a Vampire. A child of the night.”

  She said it so causally, as if it was normal to proclaim such a thing. Asha let out a snort. “Yeah, right. And I’m Queen of Sheba.”

  The girl didn’t crack at smile, but behind her eyes was a hint of amusement. “Nice to meet you, Queen of Sheba. My name is Clarissa.”

  Run.

  She couldn’t move.

  “So, tell me, Queen. Why are you out here all alone?”

  Something tugged in her mind. The defiance that she’d had just moments before slipped away. “I ran away from my foster home.”

  “Why?”

  “He…he…” Asha fought with an unknown force inside her brain. She didn’t want to say those words out loud. Saying them made her dirty. It made her sad. It made her feel powerless. “He touched me.” As the words fell from her mouth, tears fell from her eyes.

  Clarissa was silent as Asha cried and let everything out that she’d pent up since running away. After the last tear spilled down her cheek, Asha wiped it away. As she did a weight was lifted from her shoulders. She sat back and grabbed the blanket, tucking it around her.

  “Well, I can leave you here to be caught and returned to that place or—”

  Asha shook her head vehemently. “I’m never going back there. I’ll kill myself first.”

  Clarissa stepped forward and put a finger over Asha’s lips. “Or I can take you home with me.”

  Asha used a dirty forearm to wipe her wet cheeks. “Wh-where do you live? I don’t want to go to another foster home or group home.”

  “That’s not what I have in store for you, my child. I have something better.”

  “Like what?”

  Clarissa squinted at Asha in such a way that her smooth features became distorted, sinister, scary. “Do you want to be powerful? So powerful that no human would ever think to lay a hand on you again?”

  Asha nodded. She never wanted another person to abuse her. She wanted to make her own way in her life. She wanted to be something more than her mother had ever been. She wanted something better than the life she was living and the life she would be condemned to live if she stayed on her current path. “Yes.”

  Clarissa extended a hand. “Come with me.”

  Without a moment’s hesitation, Asha took the cold, hard hand in hers.

  Chapter One

  Hunter wrapped his arms tighter around his little sister’s body. She trembled, not from being in the cold and damp cave for three days, but because of who was in the cave with them and what they’d done. “Don’t look at them,” he whispered to Ezie.

  Ezie whimpered and pulled her gaze away from where their mother and father lay on the ground and buried her face in the armpit of his pajamas. She trembled more violently, but no matter how hard he hugged her, he could not still her shaking.

  “They’ll kill us next,” she whispered back.

  He glanced to where the Vampires, twelve of them, slept. They were spread apart, one not touching the other, but lay strategically blocking the only way out. If he and Ezie got close to one, it would grab and drain them dry even while it slept. Vampires didn’t need to be awake to kill.

  His mother and father had fought them like he’d never seen them fight before, but that hadn’t mattered. The Vampires had bested them. Hunter couldn’t think of anyone who could beat up his dad, save for their Alpha, Moric Farkas. As the Alpha’s second, Robert was a renowned and seasoned fighter.

  But these Vampires…they had toyed with him.

  “We’ll survive this somehow, Ezie. I promised Father.”

  It was now his duty to take care of her. His father had used his last dying breath to ask that of him.

  But how was he going to take care of her against savage Vampires?

  He looked over at his parents’ lifeless bodies. Like he and Ezie, they still wore their nightgowns. But while his and Ezie’s clothes were dirty from the mud and mold of the cave, his parents’ were blood-soaked. His mother’s vacant eyes stared back at him, her mouth parted in a scream that had died w
hen she had.

  She had been the first to die.

  The Vampires had drunk from her, draining all the life out of her while his father had struggled against the bonds they had secured him with. Robert had shifted from wolf to man and vice versa until he’d been too tired to shift anymore. As man, he’d fought, yelled and tried to break free of the chains that were bolted to the sheetrock walls. As wolf, he’d snapped his vicious teeth, howled and tried to gnaw away his restraints. In the end, it had proved futile, because after they’d finished with Mother, they had feasted on Father.

  And if he couldn’t figure out how to get around the sleeping Vampires while the sun still worked in their favor, he and Ezie were next.

  Ring. Ring. Ring.

  Hunter awoke with a start, bolting upright in bed with half of a scream on his lips. His body was slick with sweat even though the temperature in his bedroom was set to a balmy sixty degrees. It took him a few seconds to acclimate himself to where he was. His eyes darted to his dresser, his dirty clothes hamper, the open door that led to his bathroom, and his nightstand. His heart still beat hard against his chest, but his breathing began to relax.

  He wasn’t in the cave he’d been trapped in almost one hundred years ago. He wasn’t the scared ten-year-old boy who’d wondered how to protect his younger sister from Vampires. He was grown. He was home. And he was safe.

  Ring. Ring. Ring.

  With his hands still shaking, he grabbed his cell phone off the nightstand. “Hunter here.”

  “Hey, Hunt. It’s Andras. The Vampires are arriving tonight. Are you sure that you’re up for this? If not, I can have someone else stand in for you.”

  “No, that’s not necessary. I’m fine. I’ll see you in a few.” Hunter disconnected the line and fell back onto his bed.