Written in History (Wolfe Creek Series Book 4) Read online

  Written in History

  Book Four in the Wolfe Creek Series

  C.M. Steele

  Copyrighted © 2016 C.M. Steele

  All Rights Reserved

  No part of this book may be reproduced, copied or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system without written expressed permission from the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination and are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is purely coincidental.

  Cover design: C.M. Steele

  Cover Image: Shutterstock

  The use of actors, artists, movies, TV shows, and song titles/lyrics throughout this book are done so for storytelling purposes and should in no way be seen as advertisement. Trademark names are used in an editorial fashion with no intention of infringement of the respective owner’s trademark.

  This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it, or if it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return it to the seller and please purchase your own copy.

  All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior express, written consent of the author.

  This book is intended for mature adults only. Contains sexual content and language that may offend some. Suggested reading audience is 18 years or older. I consider this book as Adult Erotic Romance.

  Written in History

  C.M. Steele

  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

  Chapter Thirteen

  Epilogue

  Wolfe’s den

  Book One in the Wolfe Creek Series

  Chapter 1—Catherine

  Prologue

  Gage

  “Papa, where are we going?” I asked as we drove down a dirt road. We’d been driving for a long time and I was running out of patience. I'd just turned eleven the day before, and this was not how I planned on celebrating it. I was too young to sit this still with nothing to entertain me. If I knew it was going to be this long of a trip, I would have brought a book. Instead of reading or even playing with my friends, I was bored out of my gourd. My brother Hunter was out having fun with the boys down the road and I was on a mission to nowheresville.

  “To my friend Creed’s house, Gage,” my Dad said, pulling into a gravel driveway and up to a nice home in the town of Redding. It was a long trip from our house in Wolfe Creek. Three hours each way. I was ready to jump out of the truck before he even stopped. I think my butt was numb. I had no idea why we traveled out of town or why he brought me.

  "Why are we going to see your friend?" I asked. I thought we were going somewhere fun. Now, I was even more annoyed. It was the last Saturday before we went back to school. Wasting my day with my dad’s friend wasn’t what I had in mind.

  "Son, why do you play with your friends?" he chimed back.

  "Because it's fun and they’re my friends. But, I mean, why did you bring me?" He could have brought my mother.

  "I can't have quality time with my boy?" he replied, making me feel guilty.

  "Okay." I guess he had a point, after all he brought Hunter here a couple of weeks ago.

  Turning off the engine, he asked, "Are you mad?”

  "No, but Hunter said he's old and it's boring here,” I confessed before hopping out of the truck.

  "It's really not, you'll see. Creed has tons of books.” He wrapped his arm around my shoulder and walked me up the stairs. An older man welcomed my father followed by a man my father's age. They were friends it seemed.

  "This is my son Gage,” my dad said to the man, then turned to me and added, "This is my friend Creed and his nephew Kane." I shook their strong hands while wondering if I would ever be that strong.

  "Come inside. We're celebrating my daughter's birthday. She's four today,” Mr. Kane said.

  "Wow, my birthday was yesterday with my sister Chloe." I couldn’t believe that our birthdays were so close. There weren’t as many babies born to shifters, so sharing a birthday so close was new to me.

  "Happy Birthday, Gage,” Creed said to me with a smile on his face.

  "Come meet my son Kane Jr. and the birthday girl Arabella."

  "That sounds like a princess name,” I blurted out absentmindedly.

  "She is my princess,” he said with a smile. When we walked into the house, I looked around the room and there were loads of books. My father was right for bringing me here, I was like a kid in a candy store. Books were everywhere. I was eyeing some books on the far-left shelf that caught my attention when a little girl pulled on my hand. I looked down at the little princess. She had red hair that curled at the bottom, something about her reminded me of the Little Mermaid. She was dressed as a pretty princess with a miniature pink ball gown.

  Instantly, I knew that she was special. Her face told me that she had a heart of an angel, but the smirk told me that one day she would make some shifter lose his mind.

  “Hi,” she said, handing me a crown. “You’re my handsome prince. Come here, we’re going to dine at the royal table.” She grabbed my hand and tugged me along. I looked at my father for help, but all he and the others could do was crack up. Yes, I was certain that this little redhead princess would have her mate under her thumb.

  Eight years later…

  Arabella

  "Mom, he's my mate," I said dreamily, looking at the man walking down the aisle of a large department store. We didn't usually shop over here, but they just didn't have what I needed for school, so we headed to Wolfe Creek.

  "What?" she asked in an outraged hush. See, we weren't in an all shifter territory. This was where people came to hike up the mountains. There weren’t a lot of humans, but that also meant that the shifters could hear me if I was too loud. Right now, I couldn’t care one bit. I didn’t know how to stop my eyes from looking at him. He was tall, like all the shifters I knew. His shoulders were broad and his brown hair was cut a bit messy. I liked it. My future mate turned to look at us and gave us a weak smile. He was handsome but sad.

  “He’s going to be mine one day,” I whispered.

  “Him,” she said in a hush, looking directly at him. “Let’s go say hello then.”

  “Oh, God, no.” I panicked.

  “Yes, if he’s to be your future, I think we should introduce ourselves.” I was a bright shade of pink, which I knew clashed with my red curly hair. Oh, goodness, I wasn’t ready to say hello. She dragged me up to the man who caught my eye on sight.

  “Mrs. Holt,” he said just as we were walking up to him. She knew him.

  “Hello, Gage. How are you doing?” Her voice dropped and I could tell it wasn’t just small talk she was making. Gage Grey. I couldn’t believe this man was the boy at my party. I took to him from the moment he walked into my uncle’s
house. I wanted to kiss the prince like in the fairy tales. And in all this time, it seemed nothing changed.

  “Holding up as best as I can.” I saw the flash of pain cross his expression. It was then that I remembered his parents had died a few months back.

  My mother patted his shoulder. “I’m really sorry about your parents. They were great people.” He gave my mother a sincere smile.

  “Thanks. This must be the princess Arabella, I remember.” He changed the subject and turned that charming personality onto me. “I bet you don’t remember me, do you? You were only four then.”

  “You were at my birthday party?” He had grown so much over the years and in a very good way. I was positive he was my mate. His green eyes were pale today. I remembered them being brighter. Maybe it was the sadness in his heart.

  “Yes, I was. How have you been?” He gave me another smile. I felt the heat creep up my face, embarrassing myself with ease.

  “We’ve been well. I saw you and thought we’d say hello,” my mom answered for me. "We'd love to have you over one day soon. You, your brother, and your sister."

  "That sounds nice. I'm sure Hunter would agree to that." He smiled at me again before saying his goodbyes and leaving me standing there with a starry-eyed look.

  "If I didn't know better, I'd say you were a silly, little school girl, but from what I just saw, I'd say you're right, sweetheart. Gage Grey may be your future, but that’s still a long way off. Focus on school for the time being," my mom said, interrupting my thoughts of Gage's big strong build that all the other females in the store noticed.

  “Mom, why do I feel this way? I thought we weren’t supposed to have those feelings for anyone but our mates.”

  “Sweetheart, you can have feelings for someone, but the desires that adult mates have is completely different. It’s a thousand times more intense.”

  “Oh my, I’ll be in trouble when that day comes.”

  He was mine and I was willing to bet on it. We were meant for each other.

  Chapter One

  Gage Present Day

  “Hey, old man, you’re looking good today,” Hunter cheered as we entered the room.

  Creed was sitting up in his bed with a small knowing look, eyeing Hunter’s wife Cat. He was trying to rile Hunter up and I knew that it would work.

  “I was told I couldn’t meet your enchanting mate until I wasn’t looking like an animal,” he mocked.

  “You didn’t?!” she gasped at Hunter, swatting at his chest before he spun her around and wrapped her up in his arms like he was guarding her from Creed.

  “It’s okay, Catherine. Come here so I can see you better,” he murmured like the big bad wolf. I bit my lip trying not to laugh. I knew my brother was probably going to lose his mind one day over her.

  “Please, you old craggy man,” Maggie chuckled as she walked in behind us with a book in her hands. “Don’t listen to that old man. He’s getting strange in his old age.”

  “Thanks, love. Was it where I said it would be?”

  “Yes, it was,” she said with a smile, then handed Creed the massive black book. It looked really old, like older than Creed, who had to be up there in age.

  “For the Alpha. All the things you need to know about your human mate,” I read the cover aloud. I guess there was stuff he needed to tell Hunter.

  Both Creed and Maggie looked at me with giant grins. I arched my brow at them, curious and a bit worried.

  “It seems I’ve found my new historian,” Creed said with a smirk as he continued to stare at me. The historian? I loved to read, but that was a big freaking deal.

  “You can read this, bro?” Hunter asked me, pointing at the book cover.

  “Yeah, you can’t?” I asked with a shrug. It was in plain English.

  “No, I can’t. How am I supposed to know what it says?” His head snapped back up at Creed, wondering why it would be about the Alpha and he didn’t have a clue what it said.

  “Gage can read it to you,” Creed said with a fucked-up smile. I caught where he was going with it, so I played along.

  “Care for any bedtime stories, Cat?” I suggested to his wife. He growled at me. I tried to bite back a laugh but his snarl was more hilarious than I could handle. There was no way I could want her. It wasn’t in our nature.

  “Yes, but my husband is the only one I allow near my bed.”

  “Damn right,” Hunter snarled at me, so I let it go. One day I would be like him and snarling wouldn’t be all I did. I was what they called the silent type. Most of the time I didn’t speak around others, so I knew when I finally mated she would get all the pent-up emotions I’d been feeling since my eleventh birthday.

  “Now that we got the historian, what about the Beta?” Creed asked.

  “I don’t know yet. A sign will bring him to me on the next full moon,” Hunter said, the worry was clear in his voice. After everything, trusting another person to be his right-hand man was too much right now.

  “There’s one in four weeks,” Cat added. We all looked at her, forgetting that she was now just like us. “What are you all looking at? Like I wouldn’t know. Even us lowly humans know about the actual moon cycles.” She rolled her eyes at us.

  “I need some air. Can you all excuse me?” Without waiting for a response, I left the room.

  I walked out of the hospital sliding doors and stood at the entrance, shocked at the news I’d just received. I was to be the future historian for our people. There was so much to learn and do. What did it mean? Was I supposed to become a hermit like Creed? Fate had a way with things for our family. Our parents’ untimely death, my brother fated to a human, and now me. The sun had set already when I stepped out into the fresh night air. The only light coming in was from the moon and the dim hospital entrance.

  I looked up at the sky. The stars were bright and the night clear when I felt the wind shift around me. A scent hit my nose and my body became a ball of confusing need. I turned my head to the side to see what caused this, and the loveliest creature I’d ever seen approached. I felt a stirring in my body as I perused her figure. It wasn’t lust or a mating feeling that was calling me. It was something else. A bond of sorts.

  The moment my head turned toward hers, she looked at me and our eyes connected. I hadn’t seen her in years, but I knew who she was. Arabella Holt, Creed’s niece. She was more beautiful than I remember.

  “Arabella,” I called out softly. There was an automatic feeling of pleasure coursing through me at seeing her face light up.

  “You remember me, Gage,” she replied with a bright smile. How could I forget her? She was stunning even when she was way too young for human males to fawn over.

  “You’ve changed,” I added, pausing to look at her deeper. The roundness in her face was gone. It was like she was fully a woman now and not a little girl. She had the most beautiful green eyes imaginable. They were large and round with little flecks of gold in them. Her long, curly red hair appeared darker in the moonlight, but it was a deep red, like a rose. Then I remembered that her name was Arabella Rose. It fit her perfectly. I felt a pull to her.

  “So have you, I must say. How have you been?” Her eyes were gentle as she didn’t force small talk. She was interested in talking to me, too. I couldn’t believe the way I was feeling. I think it was the news of the whole historian thing. It made no sense because neither of us were ready for mating. In fact, we both have nine months left.

  “I’m well now that your uncle is awake.” It had gutted me that I’d been the reason he’d been in there in the first place. The man saved my life and took a bullet to the head. It was a miracle he pulled through.

  “He’s awake?” she asked, happily. Her eyes turned to the hospital entrance then back to me. I knew I was going to lose her interest now, but I couldn’t let her miss seeing him before he rested some more. It had been a month that he’d been in a coma. We were shifters and stronger, but a bullet to the head was a death sentence for most. The old man should have been
a goner, but he wasn’t and now there was a reason for it. He needed to guide me into my position.

  “Yes, let me walk you inside.” I didn’t want to leave her side. It was like I had a need to protect her. It washed over me like she was a weakling or something, which she wasn’t. She was almost as tall as Chloe and probably just as strong.

  “I’d like that. Thank you, Gage,” she replied. She grabbed hold of my bicep and wrapped her arm around it. Her touch warmed me. I hadn’t realized I was cold until she clutched onto me.

  “Don’t thank me, Arabella. We wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for me.” I had to remind her because it was always in the back of my mind.

  “It wasn’t your fault, and I’m sure my great uncle would say the same thing. He knew what he was running into that day. Don’t blame yourself for others’ decisions.” She stared into my eyes, then squeezed my arm again and said “Take me in, good sir.”

  “This way, my lady.” We looked at each other again and she turned a bright shade of pink. I went through the sliding doors, trying to ignore the heat coming off her face. For the first time in my life, I wanted to lean in and kiss someone. It wasn’t right or possible for this attraction to be there. Once we got to the room, I left her there and rushed out of the building. This time I was going home. I couldn’t handle the strange need to be around her. She still had as much time as I had before she was of mating age and there was no guarantee that we’d even be mates. Female shifters mated much sooner than male shifters. We had to wait until we were twenty-five, but they started at eighteen. I took a deep breath; the night air was cool against my lungs, but it was what I needed.

  I didn’t realize I’d been standing out there that long until I heard her call my name. “Gage?”

  “Arabella.”

  “What are you still doing here? Waiting for me?” she teased, but subconsciously I think I was.

  “Did you drive here?” I asked, pulling my keys out of my pocket.