Lover Claimed Read online

  Lover Claimed

  Dark Wolf Enterprises Series

  A.M. Griffin

  Lover Claimed © 2014 A.M. Griffin

  A Smashwords Edition

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission of the copyright owners.

  Editing services were provided by Anya Richards, http://grammargoggles.blogspot.com/

  Cover design by Robin Ludwig Design Inc., http://www.gobookcoverdesign.com/

  Formatting by Stacey Price [email protected]

  Dedication

  As always this book is dedicated to my wonderful family. Kisses and hugs.

  Acknowledgements

  A big thank you to a wonderful group of authors who have taken a crazy ride with me, Amy Ruttan, Anya Richards and Danica Avet. You all have given me strength when I faltered, have talked me from the ledge more times than I can count and have offered to help me in make-believe rumbles. I don’t know what I’d do without any of you. May we have many more crazy journeys in our future. And to Tina Reiter, thank you for beta reading Lover Claimed for me and loving the characters just as much as I do. Readers like you are the reason why I write.

  Dark Wolf Enterprises Series

  Lover Claimed

  Lover Claimed

  When Meisha comes home and finds a strange man in her kitchen, she does what any sensible person would do. She beats the crap out of him first, then asks questions after. When he explains her best friend is in mortal danger, Meisha knows the whole mess—including a recent murder and the threats on her friend’s life—may be her fault, and she’s determined to get to the bottom of it. And no sexy stranger is going to stop her.

  Lajos Farkas isn’t expecting to meet a spitfire, martial artist when he’s on a mission to figure out who’s stealing from Dark Wolf Enterprises, and he certainly doesn’t expect her to insist on butting in on his investigation. But getting rid of Meisha is seemingly impossible, and when his wolf decides she’s his life-mate, suddenly he realizes he’ll do anything to keep her close and grow old with her.

  If they can just stay alive long enough to make that possible.

  Chapter One

  Lajos Farkas stood next to his big brother, Kristof. Even though Kristof appeared cool, calm and collected on the outside, Lajos knew on the inside he was anything but. Kristof stood on his own as if by sheer determination, but Lajos stuck by his side just in case Kristof got weak again, like he’d done not too long ago.

  “How are you holding up?” Lajos whispered to him. He didn’t know why he was whispering since the only human around, Trudy, was collecting her toiletries from the bathroom and wasn’t interested in anything they were talking about.

  “I’m fine,” Kristof said, but Lajos doubted he was telling the truth because his voice was strained, as if he’d lose it any minute.

  Lajos could feel Kristof’s wolf battling for control. The undercurrent of electricity telling of an impending shift was in the air. Lajos didn’t blame the wolf, since he had, in fact, just imprinted on his life-mate, the human and unsuspecting Trudy Hollander.

  They both stood in Trudy’s bedroom while Kristof pushed his thoughts to her, but doing that while trying to keep his wolf at bay was draining him of most of his energy. Lajos was so close to Kristof that their arms touched. He would need to grab him when and if Kristof fell again. The last time Kristof fell, it had been outside of Trudy’s house when Kristof’s wolf first imprinted on her. Lajos knew an imprinting could happen anywhere, but neither him nor Kristof expected it to happen in the middle the fucking street.

  Lajos had never witnessed an imprinting before and only heard stories that couples regaled others with after the fact. They talked about how magical it had been, the instant attraction. They also talked about how relieving it was to finally find a life-mate. To Lajos, it always sounded too fairytale-ish. As far as he was concerned, he’d be perfectly happy if he never found his mate. There were a lot of shifters who were unmated and they were happy just the same. But no one had ever mentioned imprinting on a human or the feelings that Kristof was experiencing, which ranged from sick to his stomach and disgust for imprinting on a human to weakness.

  If the thought of his brother being stuck with a human for the rest of his life wasn’t so horrifying, Lajos would find Kristof’s imprinting almost comical.

  It all started so innocently. There they were, on an assignment, trying to find out who had targeted the outside firm Kristof had hired to audit their company, Dark Wolf Enterprises. The first night Kristof had met Trudy Hollander, the owner of Hollander Accounting, the accounting firm he’d hired, he imprinted on her.

  Boom! Out of fucking nowhere.

  Kristof’s plan to terminate the contract between Dark Wolf Enterprises and Hollander Accounting went down the drain.

  “Well you don’t look like you’re fine,” Lajos said. Kristof looked like shit on a wet stick.

  Kristof shook his head. Lajos couldn’t tell if he was trying to communicate that he wasn’t okay or if Kristof was having some kind of internal battle with his wolf. “I can’t believe this just happened,” Kristof ground out.

  “You and me both. What the hell? I didn’t even know we could imprint on humans or I would’ve stayed clear of them.”

  Kristof huffed. It was strained and sounded more like a painful grunt. “Yeah right. You like fucking the humans too much to stay away from them.”

  Lajos smiled. It’s not like he preferred humans over his own kind. It was that when he fucked a human the odds of seeing her again were slim, while fucking a wolf meant he would eventually run into her again. Despite multitudes of shifter packs and clans, their community often felt small and alliances were always being tested. There was no point in having a dispute between the packs because of a jealous lover. He didn’t have to worry about that with humans. “Right, but maybe from now on I’ll wear shades while I’m doing it.”

  Kristof shook his head again.

  “Was that for me or for your wolf?” Lajos asked, concern lacing his voice.

  “For you, you idiot. My wolf is beyond reasoning with. He wants Trudy. End of story.”

  “Tell me this,” Lajos asked. “Did you have any indication this would happen? Even a little bit?”

  Kristof ran a hand through what had once been his perfectly styled hair. “None, or I wouldn’t have come. When I spoke with her on the phone my wolf was interested…curious, but nothing more.”

  “So now what? This isn’t going to be as cut and dried as you thought.”

  “You’re right. My plan to come down here and dissolve our contract will need a little reworking. It seems the wolves that sliced up her employee want to do the same to her.”

  Lajos looked around the small bedroom, and if he didn’t know better he would’ve thought a hurricane had passed through. From what he knew, two wolves had come through the side window from another bedroom. When Trudy saw them coming down the hall she tried to keep safe by closing and barricading her bedroom door. She had then taken her Beagle and jumped out her bedroom window. That’s when Kristof had his first encounter with her. Mistaking him for one of her pursuers, she’d kneed Kristof in the nuts and ran to a neighbor’s house.

  While Kristof lay writhing in pain on the dirt, Lajos had chased the wolves. Unfortunately the wolves shifted and got away. Even though his wolf wanted to do the same and follow them, Lajos held back. He and Kristof were from Marquette, Michigan and knew nothing about Jacksonville, Florida. He couldn’t risk getting caught with his pants down—literally.

  “And you’re sure you didn’t recognize their scent?” Kristof asked.

>   Lajos and his brothers had built Dark Wolf Enterprises from the ground up. While his brothers had a knack for business, he didn’t. Kristof was good with numbers and was the Chief Financial Officer, and Andras, the head of the pack, was the Chief Executive Officer. Lajos couldn’t imagine being trapped in an office for hours on end, looking at computers, talking on the phone or conducting business meetings. His wolf would drive him crazy even if he tried.

  When his brothers first thought of the idea of Dark Wolf Enterprises, mainly as a way to funnel the money they’d accumulated over the one hundred plus years of being on their own, both Andras and Kristof had come to him, hoping he’d partner with them. Hell no, had been Lajos’ answer. Lajos even remembered shuddering at the very thought. But when Andras said he could be head of security and wouldn’t be confined to an office, he relented. Andras knew no one had a nose that was better than his.

  Lajos had the ability to walk into a room and sniff out any shifter in the area, wolf or not. Most wolves could sniff out another, but Lajos was the only one in their pack who could not only sniff out others, but place them in a pack. Lajos found that all shifters carried the scent of their family. If he met one member, he could identify any subsequent members. Unfortunately, finding out what pack or clan a shifter was from meant he would’ve had to have dealt with that particular pack or clan before. Which wasn’t the case for the two wolves they’d encountered tonight.

  “Not at all.”

  “So, we don’t know them. Or at least you don’t know them.” Kristof frowned and stroked his chin. “I just don’t get why a shifter pack is going through this much trouble to bankrupt us. Embezzlement and murder? That’s excessive. And the bigger question is how they’re able to pull it off right under our noses.”

  Trudy had finished packing her overnight bag and come to stand next to Kristof, watching him with faraway eyes. She hadn’t wanted to go with Kristof to his hotel room for the night, and she’d vigorously declined his offer of protection. But it was too dangerous for her to stay at home, since the wolves would probably return. So Kristof had no other choice but to push thoughts into her mind in order to make her leave with him. Lajos knew Kristof was telling Trudy that she wanted to go to the hotel with him and she wanted Kristof to protect her.

  Lajos inclined his head toward Trudy. “Hopefully your new mate can help answer that question. She said she found something in the records,” Lajos pushed his thoughts to Kristof.

  Kristof narrowed his eyes on Lajos.

  Lajos put up his hands. “What? What did I say wrong?”

  Trudy looked at Lajos’ raised hands and frowned. After a few seconds she looked away, uninterested. If she wanted to ask him what he was doing, she didn’t. Lajos figured that with Kristof in her mind, muddling it, the thought of asking Lajos why he’d raised his hands for no apparent reason had come and gone.

  “Just don’t say anything more about her being my mate. Let me handle Trudy and you handle the dog.”

  Lajos looked down at the Beagle. Trudy said the dog couldn’t go with her to the hotel so, while Trudy and Kristof went to work on the audit, Lajos was tasked with dropping the dog off at the house of Trudy’s best friend, Meisha. After that he would go to Hollander Accounting to look for any clues. The cops have already been through the crime scene looking for clues, Lajos only hoped there was something left behind—anything that the cops might’ve thought was unimportant, but could be of use to him. He needed to go tonight because by tomorrow Trudy’s business would be thoroughly cleaned by a cleaning crew. Lajos had to get there before they arrived, otherwise he would smell nothing but bleach.

  “What’s the dog’s name?” Lajos asked Trudy.

  “Piper.” Her voice was monotone.

  Lajos picked up the elderly dog, noting to himself that she could stand to lose about fifteen pounds. “I don’t expect any trouble out of you,” he said, talking to Piper.

  Piper looked up at him with innocent eyes.

  Like all animals, Piper could sense the wolf inside of him and would feel a kindred spirit.

  Piper wagged her tail, as if she didn’t have any plans to run away as soon as he put her down and opened the door. But he could sense the excitement building in her old bones. She planned to break for freedom and not look back.

  He snorted at the thought of Piper doing her best to outrun him and stuffed her under his arm.

  Chapter Two

  “Here is the address,” Trudy said, handing Lajos a piece of paper. She still had that far-off look in her eyes that most humans got when their thoughts were being manipulated by a shifter.

  Lajos hated pushing his thoughts on people and he’d never felt good after doing it. It was something about taking away someone’s free will that never sat right with him. The first time he’d done it, he’d been a teenager who’d given in to his wolf and shifted in broad daylight to go running through the forest. Unfortunately he’d been so hyped up about running through the woods that he hadn’t taken the time to survey his surroundings, and a very curious human couple had seen him return for his clothes. They had a ton of questions for him. With no other choice, he pushed the thought to them that they’d spent the afternoon getting high on mushrooms and were experiencing a shared hallucination.

  “Thank you,” he said to her. He studied the address, wondering how far this destination would take him out of the way from her office building. “Should you call her to make sure she’s home?”

  “Yes, yes. I’ll try to call her,” Trudy said in a flat voice. “I’m sure she’ll want to know that I was attacked.”

  “No,” Kristof said, immediately. Then to Lajos he said, pushing his thoughts, “I don’t want her friend bringing back her memory. I’m using all my strength to hold on to her mind as it is.”

  Lajos gave a short nod. “If your friend isn’t home is there anywhere else Piper can go?”

  “I have a key,” Trudy said. “Meisha teaches a karate class at the Boys and Girls club on Thursday nights, she should be home by now. But if she isn’t home you can open the door. Leave the key on the nightstand. She’ll return it to me later.”

  Lajos took the key Trudy handed him and stuffed it into his pocket.

  “Call me when you get to Hollander Accounting,” Kristof said. “I’m interested to find out who we’re dealing with.” Kristof pushed the last sentence to Lajos.

  “Me too. I really want my hands on or my teeth in these bitches.”

  Lajos extended his free hand to Trudy. “Nice to meet you, Ms. Hollander.”

  She shook his hand with a limp grip and her mouth was set in a half-smile. “Nice to meet you too.”

  He released her hand and gave Kristof a scolding look. “She looks brain dead. Release her.”

  “I will, as soon as we get to the hotel. I don’t need her changing her mind again.”

  Lajos shrugged. It was his mate’s brain he was screwing around with. If Kristof was smart he’d want her to be able to connect two coherent thoughts together. “I’ll leave you lovebirds to it then.” He smiled and stepped back and out of Kristof’s reach.

  Kristof growled again. No sense for Kristof to fight against nature. He’d be better off if he just accepted Trudy as his and dealt with it. Lajos left Trudy looking addlebrained and Kristof clenching his fists and headed toward the door. Well, what was left of the door. Lajos had broken it down trying to get to the other shifters.

  He stepped over the door and noted the hinges and part of the frame were a mangled mess. “Don’t forget to call someone to fix this for her,” he said on his way out.

  “I’ll prop it up before we leave and contact the company that the officer suggested to me,” Kristof yelled after him.

  Lajos tossed his hand in the air as a last goodbye. The sounds of the night greeted him as he made his way to the rental car. His wolf’s interest peaked at the possibility of being able to shift and explore. What he really longed to do, more often than there were hours in the days, was run free. There was a certain
happy calmness that washed over him and his wolf as he ran across the grounds of his estate or through his acreage of trees. To feel the wind brushing against his face, the fresh air, to hear the life of the forest, there was nothing like it in the world.

  “Maybe later,” Lajos promised his wolf.

  He had to get rid of the pooch and swing by Hollander Accounting first. Only after his business was taken care of could he entertain the idea of shifting to explore Timucuan Ecological & Historic Preserve, one of Jacksonville’s many state parks. From what he’d read on the plane ride down here, Timucuan was more than forty-six thousand acres of coastal wetlands, salt marshes and hardwood forests. He’d almost become giddy with excitement at the prospect of spending some nights roaming the woods and running through the marshes.

  And just like that he’d talked himself into it. Shifting was definitely on the agenda for later.

  He opened the driver’s side door and set Piper on the seat. When she made no effort to move into the passenger seat, he said, “Scoot over, unless you intend to drive.”

  She turned to face the windshield and opened her mouth, letting her tongue fall out the side.

  He gave her a slight nudge and chuckled. “Move over butterball.” When she reluctantly stepped over the middle console to go over to the next seat, he eased into the driver’s seat. “If you behave I’ll roll the window down for you.”

  He started the car and punched the address Trudy had given him into the GPS. They had about a twenty minute drive. He put the car in drive and eased into the empty street. When Piper whined he rolled down the window. “Don’t say I was never good to you.”