Surrounded by Death Read online

  “Oh fuck, Eric!” Her hands scrabbled on the counter, trying to find something to grab, but he squeezed her shoulders tighter, his lion fearing she’d flee. She was going nowhere as far as it was concerned. “Yes!”

  “Say you belong to me. Say it,” he growled.

  “I’m yours, Eric,” she said just before her pussy fisted around him and she screamed.

  He roared, grabbed her hair, and yanked her head to the side, exposing her throat. Mine. Mine. Mine.

  He swooped down and bit her as he came. She screamed again, her pussy squeezing erratically as another orgasm hit her. He kept grinding into her, marking her internally as he marked her externally.

  She moaned. He released her throat and pulled out of her at the same time. Eric stumbled back several feet, watching her, waiting for her.

  Simone grabbed her wounded neck and turned. “W-what?” She roared, crouching down. “What did you do?”

  “Mine, Simone.”

  “Fuck you.”

  “You did.”

  She screeched.

  “Don’t fight this. You will not win. I will fight back.” He would have no other choice.

  “You have fangs. You turned me into a freak!” I’m going to kill you.

  He heard the last part, too. She didn’t know yet that they could speak telepathically, but it was obvious she wasn’t in the mood for a discussion. She was prepared to fight. Right then, she shifted into a stunningly beautiful lioness, which only made him demand her acquiescence even more.

  He shifted as she charged him. His fate—and hers—already decided. He remembered thinking he’d die a happy man, but now that he was surrounded by death, he just wasn’t ready. Too late. He’d have to play those shitty cards life had dealt him to the very end. His father had always told them that if any of them had ever taken a mate unwillingly, she’d attack and the lion within wouldn’t back down from the challenge. It seemed his father was right. Her last thought about her killing him lingered in his mind as she reached him, and there was only one way to respond before he defended himself and met her challenge.

  I know.

  Epilogue

  Josh stood over Eric’s grave. Months had passed since he’d found Eric and Simone in Eric’s cabin when neither had shown for dinner or answered calls. It had been a gruesome sight. Torn clothing strewn. Furniture broken. Blood everywhere.

  Two mountain lions dead.

  The immediate aftermath was pure chaos. Their father had fallen into a deep depression after taking care of the burials. It’d been two months later before his father started acting somewhat normal again. Though what was normal for them now would never be the normal of before.

  Josh and his brothers had to pick up the extra slack around the estate. Josh, being the oldest, took on more of the business relations, but because of Eric being gone—dead—everyone had more work on the land as well.

  Several months later, it was business as usual. They all worked their asses off, but no one mentioned Eric anymore. It was sad, but Josh figured each of them had his own means of coping with what had happened. His method was visiting Eric’s gravesite when he felt down.

  Before Eric’s death, Josh had started feeling hopeful about possibly finding a mate one day. He always knew it was a slim chance to have a successful mating, but the fact that their father had built the cabins on the property for each of them to have a place for trysts was a step in the right direction, Josh had thought. Now it just didn’t seem worth it. Why risk death?

  Because we all are going to die one day, Rob relayed as he neared.

  “I didn’t realize I was thinking loudly.” Josh chuckled as he folded his arms protectively against his chest and faced his brother.

  “I know, man. It’s weird. I mean, I’m ready to start fucking women again, but it’s scary.”

  “I just can’t chance raping a woman and taking her life.” Josh shut his eyes, trying to force that thought away.

  “We don’t know if Eric raped her.”

  Josh opened his eyes and stared back. “Her clothes were ripped and there was blood. What else are we supposed to think?”

  “That they were friends with benefits and he lost control.” Rob shrugged. “When Dad contacted Alex and found out they were divorced, it was news to us all. Imagine Eric finding out when he was already fucking her.”

  Josh dropped his arms and sighed. “Yeah, I know. We don’t know what happened. Just that he’s not with us anymore.”

  Rob shifted his weight to his other foot. “Um, yeah, that’s kinda what I wanted to talk to you about. I was just in the office, and Dad was on the phone with his attorney setting up a time for him to come out and discuss changes to his will.”

  “What the fuck? Did you ask him about it afterward?”

  “Yep, he said he wants Eric removed from all the documentation. I told him that was crazy. I mean, Eric didn’t leave behind a wife or kids, so it’s not like anybody can come up and demand Eric’s share of Dad’s estate. But his mind’s made up.”

  Well, shit. It seemed their father wasn’t doing as well as it had seemed. Why would he want to remove Eric from the will? He couldn’t erase his brother’s existence. And Rob had a point. Josh should go ask their father why even bother with something like this when he had more important things to focus his energy on?

  But it was no use. Thomas Woods kept them on a need to know basis about everything. Including their existence. If Josh wanted answers out of his dad, it’d be about that and not why he wanted Eric’s name removed from some family documents. None of them were attorneys. Maybe their father just needed Bill to come out and tell him this face-to-face. Regardless of what their dad thought he needed to do, maybe it would be good for him to have Bill around to talk to. For all Josh knew, that could’ve been his father’s reason for the changes anyway…a ruse to get Bill here for a visit.

  “If doing that will make Dad feel better, then fine. Having an old, balding man come out here to speak legal jargon and push papers might give Dad a much needed distraction.”

  Rob’s eyes lit, and it was the first time since Eric’s death that Josh saw life like that reflected in any of them.

  “Oh, Bill can’t come out. He has a conflict or some shit. He’s sending someone else. A woman.”

  What the hell? If their father still needed an attorney to come out, then it wasn’t just because he wanted to talk to his old friend. But that thought died when his next one hit. “Why the fuck would he send out a woman?”

  “My guess is she’s already taken, but she’s not some old chick. I looked up her company profile. No photo, but based on her graduation dates, she has to be around our age. Give or take.”

  The possessiveness that flared within Josh was quickly stamped down. Fuck. How the hell was he going to tolerate being around a woman and not wanting to fuck her? If the twitch in his dick was any indication, he’d have her underneath him the same night they met.

  “You’re still thinking loudly. Get in line, bro. I heard about her first. If anybody is going to be fucking her, it’ll be me.”

  He suppressed a growl. A growl? Why was his lion latching onto the thought of this woman being here? She had to be already taken anyway.

  But Josh could have some fun with her. Oh yeah, he could have lots of fun with her.

  “We’ll just see about that.”

  The End

  Excerpt of Surrounded by Woods (Woods Family Series Book 1)

  Chapter One

  “You can’t be serious, Bill.” Mikaela Patterson pleaded with the senior partner of her law firm. “Mr. Woods is your client, and I’m already behind. I can’t fly out to Texas for two weeks.”

  What she really wanted to do was crawl in a hole and die. She’d walked in on her fiancé eating his secretary’s pussy in his office last month. Joel was such an asshole, but she never saw it. Until then. Amazing how seeing something like that opened one’s eyes.

  Mikaela called off the wedding, but she hadn’t told anyone a
t her office yet. She was a strong career woman and admitting what happened would make her look like a chump. Would she love to get away for two weeks? Absolutely. She would love nothing more than to spend two weeks in Cabo sandwiched between a cold margarita and a hot Miguel, licking her relationship wounds. Being thrown in the middle of her boss’s work, a vacation did not make.

  “I’m sorry, Mikaela. I have to be in Washington, and Mr. Woods is one of our biggest clients.”

  She groaned and crossed her arms.

  “It’ll be a cakewalk. Just go over the changes to his estate and draw up new papers.”

  “Why can’t Sullivan or Smith handle it?”

  “Sullivan is in the middle of that multimillion dollar lawsuit, and Smith is going with me.”

  She scrambled. “What about the newbie, Krista?”

  “First of all, I’m not sending someone new to handle matters on one of our biggest clients. Second, she’s single. Mr. Woods has specially requested that I send someone taken.”

  “I-I’m not married.” She definitely was not that.

  “But you’re engaged.”

  She wasn’t that either. Not anymore, but she sure as hell wasn’t ready to admit it. She needed to try another angle. “I’m a corporate attorney, Bill. I don’t do estates.”

  “You do now. That is, if you want to make partner.”

  That was a low blow. Bill knew she brought this firm in millions of dollars each quarter. That alone warranted a partnership. But he was her boss, and she knew how to play the corporate game. And play it she would. She had no other choice. “Fine. I’ll fly out tomorrow.”

  “Now was that so hard?” Bill smirked. “Take comfortable clothes. You’ll be staying on his land with his family.”

  “Why?” she asked slowly, feeling her blood pressure spike.

  “They own thousands of acres of timberland, and it’ll be too cumbersome to get you in and out of the property each day. It’s much easier this way.”

  Two weeks surrounded by woods. If they didn’t have electricity and indoor plumbing, she would be staying in a hotel regardless of how long it took to get on and off the property. Why the hell hadn’t she just booked that trip to Cabo like she wanted to last month?

  *

  Mikaela tripped over her stilettos as she dragged her suitcases into the back of the truck she’d rented. Bill had informed her that Mr. Woods would have her picked up at the airport, but something told her she didn’t want to be stranded on his property with no escape route. She’d secure her own transportation, thank you very much. Assuming the terrain would be too rough for a car, she opted for the biggest truck the rental company had. It was enormous, but it should be able to get her in and out of the woods with ease.

  After hours of traveling down the highway, she finally came to the small town that her navigation system refused to acknowledge. She found the turn off with the directions Bill had given to her before she left and felt relieved to know she wasn’t really lost. No wonder Bill said she’d be staying on the property. The last hotel she passed was at least sixty miles back. With her next turn, she encountered a massive gate. She stared at it a minute, looking for some intercom to request entrance. Not seeing anything of the sort, she started to get out of the truck, but then the gate opened. Shrugging, she shut the door and drove through. At least the road was still paved. A lingering sign of civilization. She doubted it would continue to be that way for long.

  *

  Josh watched the truck ease down the road and knew it contained the woman. Thomas had warned Josh and his brothers about her, about the fact that she’d be here to do some legal work instead of his regular attorney. That only meant one thing—she was taken. His father never allowed an untaken woman on the property because he knew it was too dangerous with four unmated sons. Josh being the eldest and most presumptuous of Thomas’s sons.

  Whether the woman was taken or not didn’t really matter to Josh’s libido, though. She was still a woman, and it’d been a while since he’d gotten laid. It was too dangerous for the Woods men to just pick up a woman, so they often went without. Since it was a rare occasion to have a woman on the property, everything about her presence was amplified. Without even seeing her, he could sense her. His feline senses first and foremost alerted him to the fact that she wore too much perfume. He’d have to cure her of that before she left; there was nothing sweeter than a woman’s natural scent.

  Trying to hone in on her unique essence, he took another whiff and growled when he succeeded. His feral side fought to take charge, so he shook his head to clear it of the prime scent he inhaled, trying to forget the knowledge he’d just gained. She was ovulating, and he’d never smelled anything so potent, so intoxicating. He had to fight his instinct to stalk and mount her. He wanted nothing more in this moment than to claim her right now. Right fucking now! Feeling his control slipping, relief washed through him remembering she was taken. If she wasn’t taken, he knew there’d be no way to stop himself from claiming her.

  Since she was already taken, his humanity would prevail. It was a curse to his kind. A mountain lion shifter. His family was the only ones he knew of in the area, so they had to maintain their distance to ensure their protection and others’ safety.

  Needing to stay focused, Josh raced back toward his brothers, but one last thought nagged at him.

  If she looked anything like she smelled, he was in trouble.

  About the Author

  From the sweet stories of first young love to the hot, hot, hot erotic stories and everything in between, Mandy loves to read and write about romance. She dabbled in writing throughout adolescence and justified studying it in college under that wonderful umbrella of liberal arts. Living in Arkansas, she figured writing was a dream and not a career, so when she went back to get her master’s degree, she studied business. It wasn’t until she was staying up late to write—after working full-time, spending time with the family, and studying mind-numbing business nonsense—when she realized something had to give. The love of writing prevailed. She still lives in Arkansas with a few classes shy of an MBA but now with more time to submerge herself in her craft. Visit her at http://www.mandyharbin.com.

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Epilogue

  Excerpt of Surrounded by Woods (Woods Family Series Book 1)

  About the Author