Janie's Salvation Read online

  White River Wolves

  Janie’s Salvation

  Dawn Sullivan

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by means mechanical, electronic, photocopying, recording or otherwise without prior permission from the author. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and events are fictitious in every regard. Any similarities to actual events or persons, living or dead are purely coincidental. Any trademarks, service marks, product names or featured names are assumed to be the property of their respective owners and are used only for reference. There is no implied endorsement of any of these terms are used. Except for review purposes, the reproduction of this book in whole or in part, mechanically or electronically, constitutes a copyright violation. Published in the United States of America in June 2017; Copyright 2017 by Dawn Sullivan. The right of the Author’s Name to be identified as the Author of the Work has been asserted by them in accordance with The Copyright, Designs and Patent Act of 1988.

  Published by Dawn Sullivan

  Cover Design: Dana Leah with Designs by Dana

  Copyright 2017 © Author Dawn Sullivan

  Language: English

  Contents

  Dedication

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  A Note from the Author

  About the Author

  Other books by Dawn Sullivan

  For my family and friends. Your support means the world to me. Thank you.

  1

  Janie ran swiftly through the forest, constantly looking over her shoulder, wishing she had the ability to shift so that she could move even faster. Unfortunately, she was a latent wolf shifter and had never been able to take her animal form, even though she could feel the wolf’s spirit within her. She was always there, a comforting presence in Janie’s somewhat sad and lonely life.

  Janie moved as quickly as possible, leaping over logs, barely missing random trees, all of the time praying that she would not be caught by the men who were after her. She had no idea who they were. All she knew was that she could not allow herself to be captured by them. Since she shared her soul with her wolf, Janie had the wolf’s instincts, and those instincts were on high alert right now. They were telling her to get the hell out of there, because if the people that were chasing her managed to close the distance between them, there was a very good chance that she was going to die.

  Glancing back to see if her pursuers were gaining on her, Janie lost her balance and tripped over the root of a tree, a soft cry escaping as she fell to her knees on the hard, earth-packed ground. She scrambled forward frantically on all fours, fighting to rise and take off again, but they were on her before she could. One man grabbed her from behind, rolling her roughly over onto her back as she screamed loudly, kicking out at him. Laughing at her when she managed to connect with his shin, he said, “Keep it up, she-wolf. That’s the way I like my bitches. Scared as hell.”

  Clenching her hand tightly into a small fist, Janie pulled back her arm and let it fly, satisfaction filling her at the sound of bone breaking when it connected with his nose. Bringing her knee up, she slammed it into the asshole’s balls, as she raked her nails across his face. The man cursed loudly, letting go of her to grab his dick. Janie shoved him hard, pushing him off of her, and struggled to her feet to run again.

  “Do it,” a low, deadly voice said quietly. “Trust me, you won’t get far.” Looking behind her, she saw a man with a long scar running from his temple to his chin, pointing a gun at her, his lips turned up into a vicious grin. Janie stopped in her tracks, trembling as she stared down the barrel of the revolver. She didn’t want to die, but maybe it would be better than whatever these men were going to do to her. Before she could make up her mind, a third guy appeared out of nowhere. Grabbing her wrists, he slapped on a pair of thick handcuffs, before shoving her roughly back in the direction she’d just come from.

  She couldn’t let them take her. She knew if she did, she might not survive. Swinging around, she hit her assailant in the side of the head with her fists, catching him by surprise. Before she could make her next move, she felt a slight sting in the side of her neck, and then she was falling slowly to the ground, unable to move. Her eyes began to drift shut, and the last thing she heard before she lost consciousness was, “The General wants you, girl. And what the General wants, the General gets.”

  Janie woke up in a cold sweat, her hands clutching her comforter tightly. The dream was back, not that it had ever really left. It had been over two years since she was taken by the General’s men, but no matter how hard she tried, she still couldn’t get what happened to her out of her head. She had gone through hell and back when she was held captive by that bastard. She was still in hell. She might have been rescued by RARE last April, but the panic and terror of her captivity was still in the forefront of her mind. She lived her life in fear, terrified that the General and his soldiers would find her and drag her back to the horror she had barely managed to escape. She could not let that happen. She had a daughter who needed her, and there was no way they were getting Alayna. That little girl was her life. She would die before she let those bastards touch her.

  Snuggling down into her covers, Janie wrapped her arms tightly around her pillow as she thought about her past. She used to be strong and independent, able to take care of herself. Now she was quiet and timid, just a shadow of the person she was before her life was turned upside down. Her hell began the day she became no one to her family and friends.

  Janie came home from work one day to find that her alpha had decided to kick her out of the pack because she was a latent wolf. She couldn’t shift, which to him meant she was defective, and he only wanted pure bloodlines in his pack. Alpha Byron Reed was afraid that if Janie mated with one of his wolves, their children would not be able to shift, which meant they would be defective as well. Janie had lived with his negative opinions and snide comments all of her life, choosing to ignore them as best she could. Life was hard because the rest of the wolves followed his lead, keeping their distance from her. The only one who hadn’t, was her sister, Silver.

  To Janie’s shock, her parents had agreed with the alpha’s decision, giving him their full support. Silver was the only one who fought for her to stay, but since she was only twenty-one at the time, and female, there wasn’t much she could do. Janie was cast out on her own, only allowed to take the clothes on her back and the shoes on her feet. Luckily, the Alpha hadn’t known about the money she had scrounged and saved in case something like this were to happen. She’d hid the money in a small metal box stuck inside the crevice of a tree on the outskirts of the village, and she was able to retrieve it when she left.

  Janie had nowhere to go. She had no other family, and no friends in the small town she grew up in. Silver was her best friend…her only friend. She was also the only one willing to defy the alpha for her, but Janie loved her too much to allow her to do it.

  After telling her devastated sister goodbye, Janie went into the nearest city and took a bus to a small town outside of San Diego, California, where she hoped to find a local wolf pack that would allow her to join them. As much as she did not want to leave the only place she had ever known, there was nothing for her there anymore.

  Getting on that bus had been the worst decision Janie ever made. When she got to California, she was too afraid to contact the pack in San Di
ego to ask them to take her in. Instead, she ended up with a waitressing job in a rundown diner, and a small efficiency apartment that she shared with several cockroaches. She was miserable, but with nowhere else to turn, she managed the best she could.

  One night while Janie was working, three huge, terrifying men came into the diner. She watched them out of the corner of her eye, as they walked past several empty tables, until they finally stopped in her section. One of them glanced in her direction, before pulling out a chair and sitting down, looking as if he deliberately sat at one of her tables. She could feel all three of their gazes on her, raking over her body, even though she refused to lift her eyes from her notepad while taking their orders. She didn’t know who they were, but the feeling of trepidation running through her would not leave.

  That night, when Janie left to go home, the men followed her. She ran all of the way to her apartment, slamming the door and locking it behind her. Unfortunately, the deadbolt wasn’t strong enough and they managed to kick the door in, but Janie was already out the window in the living room and heading down the fire escape. One followed her, while another one ran back the way they had come. The third guy was waiting at the bottom of the fire escape when she jumped from the ladder to the pavement. Laughing, he grabbed her arm, holding her in place. “A spitfire, aren’t ya?” he drawled.

  “Let’s go,” another voice interrupted. “The General wants her.” Janie had no idea at the time who the General was, and she wished she still didn’t. She fought to free herself, but it was no use. One of the men, the one with the scar on his face, covered her mouth with his hand to muffle her screaming. Wrapping his arm tightly around her waist, he picked her up as if she weighed nothing and carried her to a car that was parked in the alley behind her apartments. After shoving her into the back seat, he followed her in and slammed the door shut behind them.

  They’d driven for a couple of hours before finally stopping at a small gas station. Janie remembered having no idea where they were, but it did not stop her from trying to escape. She’d gotten one of them to take her to the bathroom, and while he waited just outside the door, she squeezed through a small window above the sink and snuck out, running swiftly through the forest of trees in the back of the building. Unfortunately, they figured out quickly what happened and it did not take them long to catch up with her. She never really had a chance.

  What happened after that was so horrible, Janie hated to think about it. She became a test subject in the General’s breading program. He paired her with Brent, a vile, nasty man who thought it was just as fun to beat her as it was to take her against her will. She had lived for the times when the General sent him out on missions, because for just a little while, she did not have to feel the slimy bastard’s fingers on her skin. After a year and a half, Brent finally succeeded in getting her pregnant, and shortly after that she was moved to a new facility. The only good thing about being transferred was that she was finally away from Brent.

  Janie was held at the facility for months with a young bear cub, two little wolf pups, and Flame, another pregnant woman. During that time, she had horrible things done to her that she refused to talk about to anyone. She kept it all locked up, hidden deep inside, praying the day would come when it would all just disappear and she could move on with her life.

  After Janie and Flame were rescued, they were brought to the White River Wolves compound. Janie was shocked when the alpha, Chase Montgomery, offered her not only a place to stay, but also his protection, even after he found out she was a latent wolf. She’d accepted his generosity, knowing she had nowhere else to go, and became a part of his pack. Janie and Flame now shared a two-bedroom apartment in the compound, but she hardly ever saw the other woman. Flame had become a member of RARE, and was gone most of the time, either training to take down the General or out of town on special missions. She was driven by revenge after the death of her child.

  Janie was not interested in revenge. She wanted to forget about the past and concentrate on the present and future. That was difficult to do though, when she had no idea if the General had given up on her, or if he was just waiting for the right time to kidnap her and her daughter. The son-of-a-bitch was not going to get her baby. She would fight to the death for her little girl. She may live in fear most of the time after everything she’d been through, scared of what could happen if the General was looking for her, but that didn’t mean she was broken.

  Sighing, Janie glanced at the clock. It was early morning, but she felt drained after her nightmare. If she was lucky, she would be able to get another couple of hours of sleep in. Pulling the blankets up to her neck, Janie closed her eyes and inhaled deeply, taking in the delicious smell outside her bedroom window. It had been there almost every night since she moved into the apartment. At first, she’d had no idea what it was. If she hadn’t run into him on accident that day so long ago, she probably still wouldn’t know. Xavier Andrews, one of the enforcers for the pack…her mate. She knew it, and her wolf knew it. She might not be able to shift, but she still had her wolf, and they both immediately recognized the other half of their soul.

  After that day, Xavier kept his distance from her. He was kind, always smiling gently in her direction if they crossed paths, but never directly approaching her. At first Janie thought that maybe he didn’t want her after what the General’s men did to her. Maybe he thought she was damaged goods, and because of that, he could not accept her. It took her another couple of months to realize that if he didn’t want her, he would not stand guard below her window, protecting both her and Alayna while they slept. He wasn’t denying her. He was giving her time, time she desperately needed to heal, before he claimed her.

  Now, Janie made sure that she left the window cracked open slightly at night so that she could fall asleep to his scent, but it was always fading away when she woke in the morning. It was comforting and soothing knowing Xavier was near, and it bothered her on the nights when he was gone. She assumed he was working those nights, but knowing that he wasn’t outside watching over her caused the fear and loneliness to crowd in.

  Janie smiled, snuggling deeper into her comforter. Tonight was one of her lucky nights. Knowing Xavier was there made the memories of her nightmare begin to fade away. Slowly, Janie drifted back to sleep, her mate’s scent tickling her nose, seeping into her pores, making her feel safe and protected.

  2

  “Where the hell have you been?” Aiden demanded. “We are supposed to be at a meeting with the alpha in ten minutes. I’m not getting my ass chewed because you can’t tell time.”

  Xavier glared at Aiden, flipping him off as he stalked passed him to get to his bedroom. “I was busy,” he muttered, slamming the door shut in his brother’s stunned face.

  “Dammit, X. I’m going without you,” he threatened.

  Xavier ignored him as he stripped out of the shorts he was wearing and quickly pulled on a pair of jeans and a tee-shirt. After sliding his feet into a pair of boots, he slipped a knife into a hidden holster in his right one, then went to get his Glock. He was exhausted, worried about his mate, and pissed because he knew he was about to be sent away on another assignment. He was tired of being gone all of the time. He wanted to be home. He wanted time to try and get to know the woman who was supposed to be his for the rest of their lives, even if she didn’t realize it. He wanted to be there to protect her and her daughter, instead of relying on others to do it. He wanted to be a father to little Laynie. He wanted so much, but it was all just out of reach.

  With a snarl, Xavier swung around and put his fist through the wall, his fangs throbbing as they threatened to punch through his gums. He just wanted his fucking mate. It was so hard to see her, breathe in her scent, and not be able to talk to her or hold her close. He made sure to keep his distance so that he didn’t scare her. After everything she’d been through, he knew she had to be terrified of anything with a dick. And that just made him even more angry.

  The door opened, and Aiden stepped qui
etly into the room. “Xavier.”

  “I sleep outside her window in my wolf form, Aiden,” Xavier ground out. “Every night that we are home, that is where I sleep. I can’t help it. I can’t stay away. I have to be near her, and it’s the only way I can get close.” Walking over to a chair in the corner of the room, Xavier sat down, placing his elbows on his knees and lowering his head. Shoving his fingers into his long, brown hair, he rasped, “Last night she had a nightmare. She woke up screaming and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it. She has them a couple times a week. It’s better now. It used to be every night.”

  He felt his brother cross the room to stand beside him, and then Aiden rested a comforting hand on his shoulder. “I’m sorry, man. I know this is hard on you. It’s been a year. Maybe she will be ready to accept you now. You will never know unless you try.”

  Xavier stiffened, slowly raising his gaze to meet Aiden’s. “And if she rejects me? You know what those bastards did to her, Aiden. There is a good chance she might never be able to accept me. What the hell am I going to do then?”

  Aiden squeezed his shoulder, before taking a step back. “Then you fight like hell for her, little brother. I’ve never known you to give up before.”

  Xavier’s eyes hardened, and he gritted his teeth. Giving his brother a quick nod, he rose and stalked to the door. “You’re right. She’s my mate. I would do anything for her. Hell, I will wait forever if I have to.”

  “Right now I am more worried about what the alpha and his mate are going to do to us since we are about to be late,” Aiden teased, following him out the door of their apartment and down the stairs.