Hunted by the Pack: Wicked Wolf Shifters, #6

By J.K. Harper and Anna Craig

★★★★★ "Gripping page-turner, fast and fun read with an insanely good cliffhanger." ★★★★★

***this is a CLIFFHANGER short novella that is part of a serial. This is NOT a full-length book. Parts must be read in order.***

Tamsin Reginald's life used to be utterly in control. Then she had dirty hot sex with Jackson, bad boy of her wolf pack. It did something wild and unexpected to her tightly-leashed heart. Until Jackson's playboy ways caught up with him, slamming her heart shut again.

Now all Tamsin hopes for is bloodshed during the pack's annual midsummer hunt. Preferably Jackson's blood.

Jackson Rule's life used to be utterly awesome. A high-ranking wolf shifter, he had the pick of any woman he wanted as well as nearly unlimited power in his pack. Then he fell for Tamsin, his alpha's sister. Big mistake. Even worse? Defying pack law by marrying a human woman during his debauched vacation last week--and having zero memory of it.

Now Jackson Rule's life is in danger, because he's about to be hunted by the pack...

To the reader: This story contains hot sex with all the dirty details, naughty language, characters who say "oh, hell yeah" to the fun times, shifter violence, and yes, a cliffhanger. If that isn't your thing, this story probably won't be either. But if all that sounds great, this short serial is for you!

Wicked Wolf Shifters reading order:

Trevor & Cassie:

Surrendered to the Pack

Claimed by the Pack

Taken by the Pack

Mated to the Pack

Tamsin & Jackson:

Ruled by the Pack

Hunted by the Pack

Destined for the Pack 

• Language: English
• Publisher: J.K. Harper
• Release date: May 18, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393121961

Book preview

1

Tamsin Reginald, current leader of the pack, aka deadly wolf in charge, took a very deep breath. Then she opened her office door to the tension-fraught hallways of the Wicked Mountain Wolf Pack estate.

Empty. She sagged with relief for about a millisecond before once again pulling herself together.

No one would be able to tell her pulse was hammering. That her thoughts were distracted. A long history of putting on her game face told her that anyone who saw her pass by would only notice her focused expression, the swift cadence of her footsteps that said she knew exactly where she was going.

In reality, she was a complete fucking mess. Two sharp thoughts mercilessly hammered at her brain:

One: Jackson Rule was exactly who and what he'd always seemed to be—a careless playboy who would never grow up.

Two: he truly had betrayed his alpha's trust. The fool, the bastard, had gotten married without his alpha's permission. It was simply untenable.

For that transgression alone, Tamsin was deeply shaken. No members of the pack were allowed to make any sort of serious love alliance without the alpha's approval. Not even the lowest ranking members who simply wanted a companion with whom to spend the rest of their days, whether or not they ever met their mate, were allowed to make such a choice without the alpha's leave. As for the highest ranking members? Council members, and those of the inner sanctum who advised the alpha not only as leader but as his true friends? It went without saying that their alliances were particularly essential to pack politics and must be thoroughly vetted before any such creation.

Marriage to a human without the express permission of the alpha was so utterly out of the question, it shouldn't even be a question. Any alpha, but especially one of a pack so large, prosperous, and powerful as the Wicked Mountain pack, held final say over the love matches of his pack members. Using such arrangements as chess pieces in the neverending game of wolf pack politics was a tactic much used by all alphas. A pack member as highly ranked as Jackson was a powerful bargaining chip when considering how to maneuver the pack into better relations with other packs.

This was why Tamsin could never give her heart to anyone. She was an even more valuable bargaining chip than Jackson. No matter what her own stupid heart might desire.

The salacious gossip that Jackson had been so unbelievably stupid as to actually get hitched without clearing it with his alpha, and to a vacuous human groupie at that, had rippled through the entire pack in what seemed like mere minutes. Tamsin had instantly known that she needed to contain the situation, quickly and completely. She'd been on a shocked autopilot when she ordered Jackson tossed into a containment cell and the human girl placed into guarded quarters that, while nicer, still amounted those of the jail. A well-appointed jail, but a jail nonetheless.

The Wicked Mountain Wolf Pack was not the stuff of which vapid romantic dreams were made, which the foolish human girl would soon discover.

Then Tamsin had stalked back to her office on the pretext of gathering documents before calling the council meeting together. In reality, she'd hidden in there for about fifteen minutes, hunched forward with her hands on her knees, unsure of whether she might be about to throw up or pass out.

Jackson fucking Rule was married. He had disobeyed the centuries-old order of his very own alpha and best friend. He'd casually flaunted his position within the pack and behaved as if he'd done nothing wrong. He'd potentially destroyed the life of a human girl who knew nothing about the politics of this most cutthroat of wolf packs.

He'd also utterly destroyed his relationship not only with his alpha, as soon as Trevor found out about this, but with Tamsin.

That rotten, sexy, amazing, hideous bastard had just broken her heart. A heart she hadn't realized he was capable of breaking. Damn him. She had no claim on him, nor he on her. Then why did it hurt so badly she felt as if she might shatter?

Because he did have a claim on her. He did. What it was, the word itself, whispered through her mind, but she shoved it away in a panic. Because no. That could not be true. There were a thousand reasons why it could not be true.

Everything crashed around inside Tamsin's head with the vicious bang and slam of a whirlpool. A whirlpool that threatened to explode out as tears.

Do not think about him, she furiously commanded herself. Arrogant, idiotic fool. Whether she meant him or herself, she wasn't even sure.

He had touched her. Stroked her. Took her into a blissful paroxysm light years beyond anything she'd ever previously experienced, and that was saying something considering how long Tamsin had been a shifter with healthy sexual appetites. He'd looked right into her heart, the thoughtless cad, and all the while he'd been—married.

Jackson was married.

Tamsin's insides clenched for the millionth time. Oh, he'd gotten married to a human, so it hardly counted. Thinking of Cassie, she flinched at her own callous thought. Fine, that wasn't a fair assessment. But still. He'd gotten married on the islands. He'd returned to the pack a married man, had appeared at his alpha's own wedding ceremony a married man. Had dared to touch Tamsin, to entwine her own foolish heart with his, as a married man. Not to mention he'd forgotten all about the poor girl, that she even existed. When confronted he'd tried to carry it off as if he'd remembered, but Tamsin knew better. His heedless debauchery had finally caught up with him.

You idiot, Jackson, she muttered beneath her breath as she forced herself to exit her office. She strode down the hallway, footsteps muffled on the stunning Persian rug running the length of it.

You stupid, careless fool, she thought at herself. It felt like a razor blade sliced through her chest.

Without realizing it, her steps picked up until she was at a near run. She barely noticed the occasional tight little clusters of human servants who caught a glimpse of her from far away and immediately did their best to fade into doorways, or at least pretend to be furniture on the sides of the hallway as she barreled past them. Her mind roiled with furious energy, her entire self a churning cauldron of turmoil.

Fucking hell. She'd been feeling something, actual damned feelings, for Jackson Rule for the past several weeks. And when he found her at the waterfall, she had finally let him in, even though she knew what an enormous risk it was. But something big had happened between them. Something deep, and something real. Tamsin was no innocent, idiotic schoolgirl to make things up. No. She knew better. She knew exactly what had happened between her and Jackson.

Finally, she forced out the thought, even though it made her breathless with the enormity of its implications.

Jackson Rule was her mate.

Her actual true mate, which not every shifter found in their lifetime.

And he was a mate who not only was forbidden to her, but he was a mate who was married to another woman.

Suddenly desperately terrified that she would literally disembowel