Tormenting Her Mate (My Wicked Mates Book 3)
Praise for Erzabet Bishop
"If you love excitement and sexy wolf shifters! Then you will love this incredible storyline!
You will love this super exciting, thrilling, funny, suspenseful, and scorching hot shifter Romance! This is a five star plus story."
~ Roxie's Romance Reviews
"OH WOW! Suspense builds, a world different from anything is shown and love and death battle."
Praise for Erzabet Bishop
"I started reading and couldn't stop until I turned the last page. I really enjoyed the characters and thought there was the possibility for more stories with these characters. I thought this was a very entertaining story. This is the first book by this author that I have read, and it won't be my last."
~ Loves to Read (A Cozy Booknook)
"Fantastic story and read!!!"
Praise for Erzabet Bishop
"This is a must read for those who like a bite to their romance."
"What a fantastic read! I was so drawn in by this book that I couldn’t put it down until the very end. I love the connection that these two share and how they finally reach their HEA. I felt all of the emotions and cheered for them every step of the way. I can’t wait to read the next book."
Praise for Erzabet Bishop
"It's complicated, shifter style."
"For a shifter reverse harem to start off with a quote from Joseph Campbell, you know it's going to be smart and different."
"What an amazing book! Tormenting Her Mate is the third book of the My Wicked Mates series. And what a fantastic book it is!"
Praise for Erzabet Bishop
"I loved reading this book! A sweet and passionate romance with a happy ever after! Love it!"
"You will love this Awesome storyline with its BDSM theme. The characters are fantastic. This story will keep you glued to its pages."
"I loved reading this story. I opened the book and didn’t stop reading until the last page. I was swept into the story from the first page."
Praise for Erzabet Bishop
"WOW! Clover and Richard are great!! The chemistry incredible! This is a hot story with some suspense and drama."
"This book hooked me from the get go I just couldn't put it down I fell in love with these characters and omg what a story just a perfect read."
"This was a great story. I have never read anything by this author before but I will be from now on. I can't wait to read the rest of the series."
Tormenting Her Mate
My Wicked Mates, Book Three
First Edition
ISBN: 978-1-77357-106-5,
978-1-77357-104-1
Copyright ©2019 Erzabet Bishop
Published by Naughty Nights Press
http://naughtynightspress.com
Cover Art by Willsin Rowe
Names, characters and incidents depicted in this ebook are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of the author.
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Table of Contents
Table of Contents
About
To My Readers
Dedication
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Epilogue
A Taste of Hedging Her Bets
Chapter One
Where to Find More of Erzabet Bishop
Also By Erzabet Bishop
About Erzabet Bishop
About
A fox among wolves.
Wanting him had to be a sin…
He saved her from the darkness, but by then she could never go back to the light. His eyes haunted her. When Astrid is given the choice to offer up her body for one month in exchange for her brother’s life, she doesn’t even hesitate. It’s dangerous, this dance, and she can’t look away. He could snap her in two with one bite of his jaws but she couldn’t help falling into his trap. Astrid just hopes she can survive it.
She was his.
Astrid stood there trembling in the dark, wounded, and that’s when Marcus knew he had to have her. A fox among his wolves. He would protect her, from their families and even from himself. But when fate handed her back to him on a silver platter, he couldn’t let her go. Her place was in his bed. All he had to do was survive a pack war long enough to keep her.
To My Readers
May you always find your dreams between the pages, even if they just happen to be a little on the dark side. (Especially if they have cute, furry little foxes in them.)
Dedication
For my husband, always my knight in shining armor, and to Gina who keeps my spirit bright.
For Roseanne, who encouraged me, always. You are a light in the darkness.
“Were all different but there’s something kind of fantastic about that isn’t there?”
The Fantastic Mr. Fox
“One sees clearly only with the heart. What is essential is invisible to the eye.”
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
Prologue
“He has to be here.” Astrid stalked through the crowd at Torrid, her brother’s favorite hangout. Her best friend, Jane, in tow, she wove through the sweaty, undulating bodies in search of the twerp. Sometimes it was hard to believe he was the older sibling.
“How do you know?”
Jane followed behind and Astrid had to yell over the techno beat of the electronica dance music.
“Charlie told his idiot friend that's where he was going. Dad's out of town again and Mom isn't going to crawl out of the bottle long enough to notice.”
She didn’t have the heart to mention she’d seen Dad wrapped around a blue-eyed blonde when she drove past the Inferno club two nights ago. They weren’t supposed to know what went on in there, but teenagers loved to speculate.
Jane shrugged, her eyes widening as she ogled some of the hot guys grinding away to the beat on the dance floor. “He’s seventeen. God, Astrid. He doesn’t need you playing nursemaid.”
One year older than her and he got away with murder. The boy was a literal fox in the henhouse and nobody did a damn thing about it.
The beat switched to the stupid song about wha
t the fox said and Astrid just wanted to roll her eyes.
“Yes, he does. I've got to keep him out of trouble. He keeps winding up with those thugs who work with my dad. It's not good.”
Her stomach soured just thinking about it. Daddy worked as an enforcer for Brock Lupin, one of the biggest ‘businessmen’ in the city. Last week they’d had a company function and Daddy had brought her along. Mr. Lupin’s cold, blue eyes had followed her all through the evening. A tall, gaunt figure of a man, he reminded her of someone she’d seen on one of her horror movie marathons. To be honest, he gave her the creeps. A teenage girl with hollow eyes trailed after him. She didn’t think he had a daughter, so what the girl was there for she could only speculate.
Astrid didn’t know what was worse, dodging the creep or dealing with the hostile glances of his son, Marcus. Dark haired with smoldering gray eyes, he had the bearing of someone twice his age. The few times she’d encountered him, he’d made her insides tighten and butterflies take flight in her stomach. He’d gone to a private school and had graduated two years before. At least, that was the rumor. The other rumor was he was being groomed to take over his father’s pack and business. Trouble, any way she looked at it, but she couldn’t help but be drawn to him whenever their paths crossed.
Her animal shivered whenever he approached and she couldn’t decide if it was awareness or straight out fear.
At the bookstore or at a coffee shop, his gaze would rove over her skin and heated thoughts would invade her dreams. What would it be like for him to kiss her? But that would never happen. Her Dad worked for his Dad and you didn’t mix with the help.
Besides, Astrid was a fox and he was a black wolf. One bite, and she could have been an appetizer.
She had seen him when she arrived at the party and tried not to be too obvious in her ogling. She busied herself on the window ledge with a book she’d brought along just for the occasion. Parties weren’t her thing. She hated the noise and milling around with people she didn’t know. Especially her father’s work associates.
Glancing up when she felt the weight of Marcus’ gaze on her, she found him assessing her and gave him a tentative wave. He dismissed her with the cold indifference she’d come to expect and went back to her book.
Fictional boyfriends were much safer by far. Close a book and be done with it. No fuss, no muss, and no one gets pregnant.
But books only last so long.
Astrid stretched and searched the crowd for familiar faces and found none.
Great.
Her father had made himself scarce and the bottle of water she’d smuggled in was gone. A quick glance at her watch told her it had been an hour.
So why had he brought her if he was just going to dump her and go off and do whatever they did at events like this?
She’d expressed her feelings before they even walked into the house but he shut her down as soon as she started.
“I don’t know why you have to bring me. There isn’t anyone there I even know except for Marcus.”
“Don’t worry, honey. You just sit there and look pretty and we’ll leave as soon as it’s over.” Her father had wandered off into the crowd and left her without a second glance.
As soon as what was over? The half-formed thought had rattled around in her brain but didn’t resurface until later when she had to finally break down and find the bathroom. She was also hungry but one urge had to win out over the other and right then the bladder was winning that fight.
“Going somewhere, sweetness?”
Out of the darkness, Astrid observed the towering form of a man as he blocked her path. The reek of alcohol on his breath made her want to gag. Shadows ran deep and she could barely make out his features, but she knew those eyes anywhere and as he got closer my suspicions were confirmed.
Mr. Lupin.
The wolf was shining in his gaze and she had to force herself not to outright run.
Her animal looped into a ball, her nose buried under her tail.
Thanks for the help.
He was not someone she really wanted to meet in a dark hallway or otherwise.
Where was his spooky-eyed companion?
“I’m looking for the bathroom,” Astrid managed to get out, searching for any escape route that didn’t include touching him.
He reached for her and she stumbled backward into a wall, pinned like a fly in a spider’s web. Mr. Lupin placed his hands against the wall on either side of her head, trapping her in place. “Well now. What a coincidence. I am, too. Bathrooms are so convenient, don’t you agree?” His voice was gravely with his beast so close to the surface. He cupped himself and Astrid shivered.
Gross.
She was used to antics from boys at school. What girl wasn’t? But watching a grown man touch himself made her want to empty the remnants of her dinner on his shoes.
Run, her fox screamed. Danger.
“I need to go…” Astrid stuttered, shrinking low. Her bladder swelled, uncomfortably full and she cursed herself for holding it for so long. She hadn’t been able to find her father and the thought of wandering around a strange house hadn’t held much appeal.
She was going to pee. Right on him if he didn’t get out of her way.
“Your father told me where to find you. Said you might need a little help with your dress.” He removed his hand from his crotch and reached for her.
What?
Astrid's stomach lurched at the implication and she blinked, her brain struggling to absorb his words. Why would she need help with her dress?
Perv.
She was out of there, even if she had to pee on the living room rug and walk home. Her Dad could find her later.
“Let go of me.” She pulled away, jerking her arm out of his reach, but he leaned in closer, his hot breath on her neck.
“My dear, Astrid. I don’t think you understand the nature of our relationship. Your father needs to settle up for debts incurred. I need a new butterfly for my collection. Be a good girl, now, so I don’t have to pull off your wings.” His finger traced a line along the bare flesh of her shoulder and flicked the strap of her sundress down onto her upper arm.
“How lovely it will be to tame you.”
Astrid's flesh crawled where he touched her and she flinched, trying to get away.
“We’ll leave as soon as it's over…”
Horror slid through her. He knew. Her father knew exactly where she was. Her vision clouded and she sucked in a terrified breath.
No. How could he do this? To his own daughter?
A gambling problem.
He sold her out for a gambling debt?
Anger burst through the fear and Astrid pushed back, knocking him off balance long enough to take a few steps back.
Her fox snarled, nails biting through to turn her pink and polished nails into tiny claws.
“Don’t fucking touch me.”
The low rumble of his wolf set her teeth on edge, and she released a small growl of her own.
She was no one’s toy. Least of all the pack master of a bunch of criminals. Her father may work for them, but she didn’t and she wasn’t going to be pushed around.
The slap came from nowhere, sharp and copper tasting as the sting spread across her face and her head whipped back. Teeth clattering, she fought the tears that sprang into her eyes as he reclaimed the space between them and groped her breasts over the bodice of the dress.
“So sweet and yet so foolish,” he rasped. “Your services are being offered to cover your father’s debt. Don’t disgrace yourself by being uncooperative.”
Hot bile crept up her throat and she sucked in air to keep it down.
Oh God.
Whiskers prickled and she had to fight to keep her human self intact. God knew what he would do if she shifted. Her fox form was small and if he shifted, he could tear her to pieces in seconds.
She never understood how a man like her father could be an enforcer for a pack of wolves. Until tonight. The cold light of trut
h was hardly a comfort as Astrid tried to move away from his seeking fingers.
His hand crept lower, fighting with the fabric of the dress to find a way beneath the flowered print. The tears she had been fighting slid down her face, leaving a hot trail of betrayal in their wake. Her father had brought her here knowing what would happen. He’d arranged it to cover whatever asinine debts he owed to his mobster boss.
How many bedrooms were in this place? And being this far from the crowded din of the party, no one would hear if she cried out. No one. Mr. Lupin was going to rape her and there wasn’t a thing she could do to stop him.
Astrid stood there shaking, frozen in fear while he pawed her, his face victorious as his fingertips brushed the elastic of her cotton panties.
This wasn’t the way she wanted her first time. It was supposed to be with someone she cared about. Loved. Not…this.
She wanted to meet her mate. To have him hold her and love her and…and…not what was happening now. It wasn’t supposed to be like this.
Ever.
An image of Marcus flashed through her mind and she quickly shoved it away. He would never touch her like this.
Never.