Wolf and Soul: 50 Loving States, Oklahoma

By Theodora Taylor

An overly serious deaf wolf and a ridiculously sassy she-wolf get trapped together during a blizzard. What could possibly go very, very sexy?
Tu Ataneq and Grady Wulfkonig are the last two shifters on the face of this earth who would ever get together.
They're complete opposites--him an uptight former sheriff and her a former party girl.
Plus, they have history--ugly history that Tu doubts she'll ever be able overcome. She'll never, ever mate with another wolf, she's sure of it. Not after what happened the last time.
But then she and Grady get stuck together during a blizzard, and the worst possible thing happens….
Can Tu ride out these raging storms, both inside and outside?

READER WARNING: Grady Wulfkonig is impossible not to love. This smoking hot romance should not be read by anyone not looking for a huge, sexy, and shifter-licious book boyfriend.

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And don’t forget to check out the other books in the Alpha Kings series!* * *

Her Viking Wolf
Wolf and Punishment
Wolf and Prejudice
Wolf and Soul
Her Viking Wolves

• Language: English
• Publisher: Theodra Taylor
• Release date: Sep 1, 2021
• ISBN: 9780984919390

Book preview

Chapter One

Five years later, a week before Christmas

Grady smelled her before he saw her.

He’d been driving slowly for hours with the window down, hoping he hadn’t been wrong about searching for Tu and Alisha and their possible kidnappers on this back road, which led from Colorado to Oklahoma, instead of going directly to the Oklahoma kingdom town to look for them there. Rafe was sitting in the passenger seat, his eyes scanning for any sign of his mate, Alisha, and her younger sister.

Alisha had been kidnapped along with Tu because she was in the wrong place at the wrong time: with Tu who was being sought out by the Oklahoma wolves who’d come to Colorado to snatch her. That was not a good thing. Tu, they’d probably keep alive for torture and punishment purposes. But Alisha didn’t figure into any of this ugly business and that made her disposable, a fact he knew must be weighing heavily on Rafe’s mind.

But then Grady picked up Tu’s scent. Alisha’s too. And remnants of the chicken blood the kidnappers had used to cover their trail after they grabbed the two sisters.

Grady wrenched the Chevy Silverado 3500’s wheel to the left, crossing the two lane back road and bringing his truck to a tire screeching stop on the opposite side of the road.

You catch scent, Rafe signed from the passenger seat. His hand was already on the door handle.

But Grady shook his head. You stay car.

Rafe signed and spoke at the same time, as was his habit. That’s my mate out there.

Bad wolves maybe with.

That’s why I’m going, Rafe said.

Not safe. If bad wolves have gun, you hear shoot. Call more wolves come here. If you come with, maybe we both get hurt. No help Tu and Alisha. I go down. Smell. Text if safe. My job.

It was a sound plan, one even Rafe in his frenzy to get his mate back couldn’t argue with. Grady technically was the wolf responsible for making sure no harm came to the Colorado king. However, Rafe had never been the kind of royal to sit back and let others do his dirty work. And though he eventually acquiesced with a signed, Go fast, Grady could tell the decision to stay behind didn’t sit well with him.

Grady did as he said, jumping out of the truck and following the she-wolves’ scents down the hill into the wooded area beneath as quickly as possible, hopefully before Rafe could change his mind. But when he came to the place from which their scents had been emanating, he found it empty, and the sisters’ scents were now split and coming at him from two different directions.

His eyes went to two nearby trees on either side of him, not even ten feet away, and he figured it out. They were here, and the wolves who had kidnapped them were not. But they were hiding. From him.

He could smell Alisha’s fear scent coming from the tree on his left side, which meant Tu must be behind the tree on his right side.

Go. Leave here. Cannot stay.

The argument he’d had with Tu the day before spiraled back to him. He’d been reading her lips from the window of the office trailer he worked out of and caught her telling her older sister, Janelle, that she might stay in Wolf Springs and help Alisha with her and Rafe’s three children. And Grady had just… lost it.

Having Tu here in his town had been bad enough, watching her sulk around the place with her all black clothes and her hair in two French braids, her eyes permanently set to haunted, like she was the one who’d died and not his brother. But finding out she planned to stay? No, he wasn’t having it. He’d gone out there to let her know she wasn’t welcome in Wolf Springs, not after what had gone down in Oklahoma, not caring that Janelle was looking on.

What are you saying to her? Janelle had asked. It looks like you’re yelling at her. You can’t do that. Leave her alone.

Grady, turned his shoulder to Janelle, effectively pushing the ignore button on her words.

Everyone had been treating Tu like she was so fragile now, and as far as Grady could tell, she’d been going along with them, meek to the point of concern. But wouldn’t you know it, the humbled princess act came crashing down.

Oh, how her eyes had flashed as she told her sister she could handle this and signed to Grady that she was a princess and if he had a problem with her, she could talk to his boss. Chin raised. Haughty as hell. Like what had happened in Oklahoma was a footnote in her history book and Grady no more than a speck in her eye.

Then she’d told Janelle to come on before walking away, ending the conversation about as rudely as you could with a deaf-mute. Like as far as she was concerned, he didn’t even register on the people who matter scale.

God, she’d made him furious. And even though she hadn’t stuck around to see his reaction to her signed words, she must have realized she’d hit a nerve. Because now she was hiding behind a tree, her refusal to come out so aggressive, it was easy to tell she thought Grady had been in on the kidnapping.

Hell, it looked like he was the wrong man for this job. He pulled out his phone and texted Rafe. He needed backup. Backup that could talk the two she-wolves out from behind those trees.

He looked up from pressing send just in time to dodge the tranq that came flying his way. What the hell…

He froze when he saw Tu leaning against the tree on his right. Her wrists had handcuffs around them, and judging from the puckered and angry pink skin and the faint burn smell, they were made of silver. Her face was swollen and battered like someone had punched her more than once, her left arm hanging at a weird angle. The tranquilizer gun was on the snow-covered ground now, and she was clutching her side as if raising it to shoot him had taken every ounce of strength she had.

It was a heart shatter of a moment, seeing her this way. Knowing she’d shot at him because she thought he could… that he ever would…

He went to her on instinct. She needed a doctor. She needed to turn into a wolf, so her injuries could heal. All he knew in that moment was he had to get her what she needed, he had to help her.

But he’d underestimated how weak she was. She came off the tree like a banshee, screaming at him. And the words registered loud in his head even though he couldn’t hear them. This is your fault! You sent them to do this to me. You…

He shook his head frantically, signing as best he could. No. Never. Bad wolves not with me. I don’t know bad wolves. Please believe. Please believe.

You’re lying! You fucking liar! Tu eyes were unhinged now. Dilated, too, like she was in pain. Bad pain, enough to make her hysterical. Or on drugs. Or both.

He sniffed the air to confirm his suspicion and there was a distinct chemical smell coming off of her. Meth. No wonder she hadn’t morphed into her wolf form to deal with her injuries. Meth was a complicated stimulant for werewolves, one that made a wolf’s human so powerful, the wolf couldn’t take over even if it wanted to. Originally it had been used by wolves who lived among humans as a back-up measure if there were too many humans present to safely change on full moon nights. But like all drugs that start out beneficial, people in their communities had found a way to use it for more nefarious purposes. As a source of cash from both humans and werewolves who were addicted to it. Meth could also be used as a way to extensively injure a werewolf while making sure he didn’t turn on you and rip your throat out with his powerful teeth.

Or in this case, she. Grady had seen Tu high before. Drunk too… before the situation between her and his brother came to a head. But this time he doubted she’d volunteered for the needle. No, this was a torture job, and the meth coursing through her system was both keeping her from healing and fueling her into a crazed rage.

If it had been any other wolf, he would have pulled out his tranq gun. Drugged out wolves in pain were a danger to themselves and to anyone unlucky enough to be in their vicinity. But Tu wasn’t any other wolf, so he tried to get through to her