Page 95 of Rebel's Fairytale

“Well, I can’t change how you feel.” He sighed. “No one would blame you if you wanted to have a quiet day.”

“I feel like I need to be there, Reb.” She looked over at him. “Okay?”

He gave a nod. “Just promise me you’ll tell me if it becomes too much, and I’ll get you out of there.”

She gave him a soft smile that made his heart race a bit faster and made him want to drag her back to bed. His wolf growled inside of him in commiseration.

“Promise me,” he repeated.

“I promise.”

“Good.” He leaned toward her and kissed her lips. “You look beautiful in that, Sweetie.”

She looked down at her skinny jeans, heeled boots, and solid dark green buttoned blouse. “Thank you.”

“Please wear your leather. I love the way it looks on you, but we’re also taking the bike.”

Giggling, Ruby stepped past him and retrieved the leather from a hook on his bedroom wall. When she slid it on, she looked at him over her shoulder and winked.

He let out a growl and came up behind her. Giving her ass a smack, he lowered his head and nosed away the jacket and shit. When it was exposed, he gave his mating mark a suck, grinning when she let out a quiet moan.

Messer

After looking at the map of the town and where the compound was located, Messer decided it would be best to just walk to the carnival, instead of driving a few blocks and trying to find parking. From what she could tell, the Howlers were using the fields just outside of the compound fence line as parking and for some of the rides. The walk wouldn’t be much shorter than it would be if she started walking from the hotel.

As she headed down the hall that led out into the lobby of the hotel, she saw a new face behind the counter. It was a pretty blond woman with a slight wave to her hair, bright blue eyes, and a welcoming face. That was dimmed when her blue eyes narrowed on Messer. Okay, maybe her judgment of the woman was wrong.

The woman put her hands to curvaceous hips and watched Messer as she approached the front door. Messer wondered where the owner was, but that thought was fleeting as she stepped outside and headed for the carnival.

Thirty minutes later, she had arrived at the carnival and already indulged in an elephant ear from one of the food trucks. She rarely ate fried food, but she couldn’t resist them. They were just too damn good.

Telling herself she didn’t need another one, she strolled around the carnival and casually watched the members of the Howlers and the Claws interact with townspeople. From what she could tell, most of Warden’s Pass seemed to like the clubs and trusted them.

During her time in the town, few people had negative things to say about the clubs, except for the misfits she met through Niles.

Whether or not the town thought they were a danger didn’t erase the fact that they could change into predatory animals and were capable of doing grave harm to anyone around them. There was a reason people didn’t cuddle up with wolves.

“It’s insane, isn’t it?”

Messer had to fight the shiver the sexy deep and gravelly voice caused as it registered in her ear. She turned and looked at the man who had just spoken to her. He was close, so she stepped to the side and faced him.

Holy hell. She let her gaze run over him and wondered if she was dreaming. He was…perfection.With smooth, medium to dark brown skin, a bald head, and intense dark brown eyes, she felt like someone had pulled all of her favorite things from her brain and stuck them all in one man. They even added in the bulging muscles all over his body, testing the limits of the clothes he was wearing, and the trimmed goatee around his soft-looking lips. She wanted to nibble on them.

After swallowing hard, she asked, “What?”

“The fact that they look like ordinary people, but when the mood strikes, or maybe it’s the moon, they can turn into vicious animals and tear you apart.”

He was looking off at something. She followed his gaze and found that he was looking at Axle Weber, the president of the Howlers, who was holding a baby in his arms and was kissing the lips of a pretty, curvy blond woman.

“Do you know them?”

The man shook his head. “No. I just heard about them from a news report and through stories from people who had been here before. I had to come see for myself.” He was quiet for a moment, and Messer wondered what his intentions were. Was he a possible ally, or was he the type who would become a shifter fanatic? Then he spoke again. “It makes you wonder… why hasn’t someone just started taking them out? I mean… they could be a real danger to the population.”

Taking a chance, Messer replied, “Maybe someone plans on it, but they don’t have enough information about them, yet.”

The man nodded. “True. Knowledge is power, and all of that.”

“What’s your name?”

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