Growl

By Kayla Gabriel

Paxton Gentry should know better, he really should. Stunning Brooke Harbin, his best friend’s little sister, has already broken his heart once. Running into Brooke and her dirtbag fiance in Winter Pass, looking at her with any kind of longing, wondering what if… it’s a fool’s game, and Pax knows it. 

When Brooke’s marital status suddenly crash lands her at Winter Pass Ski Lodge, she finds herself face to face with the one rugged alpha male she’s never been able to resist. Her secrets kept them apart while Pax was serving overseas, but their newfound close quarters is reminding her just how irresistible an alpha male can be… 

With a murderous ex, violent anti-werewolf extremists, and their own tragic history threatening to keep them apart, Brooke and Paxton will have to fight. For their love, for their lives, for the strength to resist the mating call of the full moon. 

No one ever said loving an alpha wolf would be easy…

• Language: English
• Publisher: KSA Publishing Consultants, Inc.
• Release date: Jul 17, 2020

Book preview

1

November 2009

Camp Leatherneck USMC Base

Helmand Province, Afghanistan

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Paxton Gentry shifted on his narrow standard-issue cot, trying to ignore the dozen or so other Marines spending their downtime in the sprawling shared bunk room. His battalion had been stationed here for close to a month now, and he was still getting used to sharing quarters with upwards of a hundred guys. The last few deployments he’d received had been to much smaller bases; here at Leatherneck, Pax and his two best friends had been forced to bribe, blackmail, and outright bully a couple dozen other Marines just to get cots next to one another. The cots themselves weren’t anything worth worth fighting for; they were the same flimsy green canvas as the massive tent that made up the bunk’s walls, and they were uncomfortable as hell.

You coming to dinner?

Pax glanced up to find Marcus, one of the other guys in his battalion, standing and waiting for his answer. Pax laid the photograph he held on his stomach, face down, then shook his head.

Nah, man. Go ahead, Pax said.

Marcus hesitated.

Just wanna say, I heard you got dumped. My old lady cheated on me with my own drill instructor as soon as I shipped out here, Marcus said, looking away across the bunk. Just… you know. Everyone’s going through the same, man.

She didn’t cheat on me, Pax growled.

Sure, sure, Marcus said with a shrug. Just got tired of waiting. Whatever you want to call it. I just hate to see guys moping about the way some chick did them wrong thousands of miles from here.

I’m not moping.

Marcus looked like he was going to say more, but Pax scowled at him until he shrugged again and stalked off toward the mess hall.

That right there was why it had been worth the fight to get bunked up next to Harlan and Chase. Sure, they’d had to live with a couple solid weeks of shit-talking from the other soldiers in their bunk, most of it taunting about how the three of them held hands at night and tucked each other in. Some of the other jokes were worse, innuendo about just why three dudes wanted to be in such close confines.

Fuck it. It was worth it. Paxton, Harlan, and Chase were all each other had in this world-class shitbox of a country. They’d gone through basic together and somehow managed to get thrown in the same battalion after that. After a few big missions, they’d proved their worth, working as a cohesive and precise team. They jokingly started calling themselves The Triad, though the success of their three-man team had proved too lethal to truly be anything funny.

Pax sighed and picked up the photograph again. It showed Pax, his arms wrapped around a beautiful strawberry blonde. Pax’s dark hair was even shorter then, since he’d just completed basic. He was fully outfitted in his dress blues, his formal Marines indicating that they were celebrating. He towered over Brooke, staring down at her with an intense expression. He remembered that moment, remembered feeling the sudden gravity of receiving his deployment papers. Remembered thinking that he was going to have to tell Brooke later that night, watch her face fall as she heard he was leaving for at least eighteen months.

Brooke was his perfect contrast in the photo. She wore a sexy, knee-length red dress, one of those numbers that was classy enough to cover everything but emphasized her curvy body. Her strawberry blonde curls were tucked up at her neck, steely gray sparks firing in her stormy gray eyes as she looked up at him with a grin. That red lipstick of hers still gave him goosebumps, the years and distance doing nothing to diminish Brooke’s status as a complete stunner.

Fuck, Pax muttered. There was almost nothing in the world he wouldn’t do just to hold her like that again, right now. Just for a minute. Feel her soft body pressed against his hard one, hear her teasing laugh. And to taste her lips again… no holds barred, he’d do anything.

The thought occurred to him that the Marines should start recruiting girls like Brooke as a motivational tactic. Pax was often skeptical of his assignments here in Afghanistan, though he wouldn’t say so to anyone outside the Triad. For the chance to be in the same room as Brooke, though, he’d throw every single one of his morals out the window and run right into the middle of a live firefight without a second thought.

He chuckled to himself, shaking his head.

Heard you were moping in here, asshole, Chase said. The massive blond man strolled up to stand between their cots, inspecting Pax with something bordering on distaste. Pax hadn’t exactly asked for permission to date Brooke, and when Brooke dumped him, Chase wasn’t too keen on hearing the details. Or to witness Pax’s being a whiny bitch, as Chase called it.

Before Pax could move, Chase plucked the photo from his hands. He looked at it and then made a disgusted sound.

Fuck, man. Grow some damned balls already. Move on. Chase let the photo fall onto Pax’s legs, rolling his eyes. I guarantee you that Brooke has. If you didn’t have your head so far up your own ass, princess, you’d know you were too late to attend the ball.

Pax didn’t say anything, though he wondered at the last bit. He never talked about Brooke to Chase, never had. He figured that if he was going to fuck the sister of one of his best friends, the least he could do was keep his damned mouth shut about it. Still, Chase had caught Pax looking morose a few times in the three months since his breakup, and he couldn’t help but give Pax shit.

Pax tucked the photo in his pack and stood up, keeping his expression neutral.