Wolf's Holiday by Rebecca Royce Page B

wolves return home, new packs are merged into the Hills, and human mates join their pack… A year of hope since the pack pulled back from the brink… Together, they will celebrate a new year, a new chance, and all the changes yet to come…. Join the Wolves on their Winter Solstice Run.
     
    Winter Solstice Run
    A Black Hills Wolves Mini Series
    Look for it Fall 2015
     
     
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    When Hell Freezes by Rebecca Royce
     

     
    Chapter One
     
    Everything was exactly the same. Beer and pork still wafted through the air of Gee’s bar. The woods leading up to Los Lobos held clean, fresh scents he remembered from childhood. Hell, even the birds chirped and sang eerily familiar tunes.
    And yet everything had changed. At least for him.
    “Drew Tao.” Colt Hannigan projected the words, keeping his voice clear and his words precise. The statement he intended to make needed to be heard and understood by all within earshot.
    “Yes, Cousin?” Older than Colt remembered him, Drew raised an eyebrow, looking up from where he sat at the other end of the bar. Surrounded by four dominant males, including Ryker—who had been pack enforcer in Magnum Tao’s day and appeared to still hold the role with his new ‘Alpha’—Drew leaned against the bar as if he hadn’t a care in the world.
    Colt clenched his jaw. Drew appeared so calm, so at ease, when he and every other Wolf shifter in the room had to be able to smell Colt’s intent, and that only made Colt want to hit him harder. The fact that his cousin pretended to be unalarmed by his presence pissed him off further. How dare he act as if he couldn’t be beaten?
    Colt meant to kill Drew, and every living soul for miles needed to be aware.
    “Drew, I swore I would never follow another Tao. Your father, my uncle, was evil. But no one should have been surprised by his sickness. The Taos have long been the bane of the Black Hills Wolves.”
    Whatever Drew would have said faded out when his mate, Betty, jumped to her feet and snarled, “How dare you speak to Drew that way? He is the Alpha of this pack. You might not be a part of us anymore, but as long as you stand on pack land, you will respect him, or one of us will take off your head.”
    In other circumstances, Colt would have been impressed. Betty had been broken ten years earlier, a shell of the former Wolf she had been after Drew had abandoned them all to the not-so-tender mercies of Magnum Tao.
    “I might remind you, Cousin”—Drew walked to Betty and placed a hand on her arm—“that you are related to the Taos. Your mother called my father brother. For a while, she too used my last name.”
    Colt snarled. “The day she mated my father was the day fate smiled.” Even if he still had too much Tao blood in his veins for his own liking.
    The son of a bitch had the gall to grin at him. What did Drew find amusing about this? He was about to be challenged, called out, and killed. Colt would do what he hadn’t been strong enough to do when Magnum had been in charge—take over the pack and finally lead them out of the Tao darkness.
    “Drew Tao,” Colt had to speak the words correctly so Ryker and the others couldn’t interfere.
    His cousin shook his head, looking over the bar to Gee who had stayed quiet the whole time. Colt had never been able to get a real read on the Were-bear, who played his cards close to his chest.
    “Don’t kill him. I think he has guts. I want him around. At least for now.”
    “What?” Colt shook his head. This wasn’t how things were done. He’d come to make a challenge. Drew needed to listen. “Drew Tao, I….”
    Gee stepped out from behind the bar.