Ruby and the Wolf

By Clover Down

When Ruby decided to take up jogging, she never expected to rescue a wolf from a couple of bloodsuckers in the woods or to end up on the run with the hottest man she’s ever met.

Liang’s never been interested in humans before, but when this one saves his life, he can’t exactly leave her behind.

There’s no turning back and things soon heat up on their road trip to safety.

This story contains—explicit sex, violence, blood, and profane language.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Clover Down
• Release date: Aug 30, 2023
• ISBN: 9789198875829

Clover Down

Clover Down has stories in her heart.She lives in a house with walls, in a place near trees.Her favorite color is in someone else’s eyes and her favorite song is a drum solo inside their chest.If she could have any job in the world, it would either be Space Pirate or Professional Romantic.She has no education in romance other than falling in love. She is, in fact, no one in particular at all, but she does hope that you enjoy some of her stories.

Book preview

By Clover Down

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CHAPTER ONE

Ruby did not jog.

But sometimes she started a year telling herself that she was going to. She was going to be a person who jogged! She had a park not far from her apartment building with scenic, paved paths through the woods. She had no excuse not to jog! Maybe she would even like it? Maybe she would commune with nature!

She left the building in her barely-used sneakers, purchased three years ago with this exact purpose in mind. She took one look at the cloudy morning sky and immediately considered quitting on account of rain.

When she decided not to quit, she felt like a champion already.

She walked the street to the park, considering her playlists but settling on the audiobook she’d started last week. If she listened to a book while she ran, it wouldn’t feel like such a waste of time and maybe it would encourage her to keep going. She ignored the bakery, like a responsible adult on a mission, and secretly planned to reward herself for her run with a pastry on her way home.

She bounced on her toes and then set off on a jog when she crossed the threshold into the park. After about two minutes of running, Ruby settled into a walk. She would run in intervals. The audiobook was a horror and within a few minutes she was seriously reconsidering taking those paved paths through the woods. Scenic, yes, but empty of witnesses at this hour too...

It wasn’t exactly dark out anymore, but it wasn’t full day either. Ruby had thought there would be more people out, moms with baby carriages and joggers. Not joggers like her, but the real ones that went all year round. Maybe she was too early?

She picked up her pace, definitely not because she was suddenly gripped by the fear of being abducted and serial-killed like the women in her audiobook...

Ruby had just gotten back into a running pace when she saw it, something furry in the low foliage on the side of the path ahead. She jumped, her whole body jerking out of step. She nearly tangled her own legs together. Holy shit! erupted from her lips as she exhaled hard, eyes big and trying to take in everything at once.

She slapped her headphones out of her ears, the buds on a cord around the back of her neck and swinging so wide that they nearly smacked her in the face.

The furry thing didn’t move.

Ruby whined, actually whined, because she wasn’t sure what she was supposed to do.

She inched a step closer on the pavement, ready to scream and run if anything lunged out at her.

She saw a paw, a back leg, and a tail.

A dog?

Ruby hurried forward, stepping off the path and into the tall greens, the soft ground sinking underfoot. Hey, are you okay? she asked, as though the dog was going to answer. Her pounding heart ached. Had it been out all night? It was so cold and wet out.

She crouched and pushed the bushes back to get a better look at the animal, wondering if it had a tag or—

Ruby almost fell back, her heart jumping so high she nearly choked. The bushes swung back into place between them.

The dog was HUGE. Easily the size of a bear.

Ruby pushed the fanning arms of the bush back again. Her face pinched and another whine rose in her chest because she knew it wasn’t a dog.

Fat globs of rain pattered against the leaves above and the back of her hoodie. She stared down at the impossible black fur, darker than any raven, darker than any night. She knew it had to be a wolf—a fenrir. But what was it doing this far from Dog Lands? They were in No Man’s Land. Sure, she’d heard of fenrir coming this far from their own territories, but Ruby had certainly never seen one for herself.

No one ruled No Man’s Land and all had agreed not to fight over it. They left it as a buffer between Blood Country and Sun Country and, for the most part, stayed out of it.

It was far from the best territory, which was why all parties had agreed to leave it alone. It was mostly farmland and a handful of cities.

Instinct told her to get up and go before the wolf woke up—or before more showed up. Was there ever just one? But Ruby had never been great about listening to her instincts. She had always been much better at listening to her heart.

Her hand shook, but she slowly reached out and touched that wet fur, laying her palm to the side of the big animal’s chest. He was cold but she waited, waited and listened, until she recognized a heartbeat and the slow rise and fall of breathing.

She exhaled relief. It was alive.

Ruby jumped at the sound of a low hiss and a whispered voice—too far away to make out words but just close enough to catch those tones.

They were getting closer, probably walking the path she had been jogging.

Ruby hesitated only for a second. She grabbed at the wolf and started pulling. She had to kick the ground to drag him