Lycan Lover

Lycan Lover Lycan -1 by S. K. Yule

To my husband, my family, and my adorable kids, um I mean dogs. Thanks for all your advice, belief in me, and licks of encouragement (of course that last one was for my furry children who adore me).

Chapter One

Friday, October 28th

Periodically throughout the night, her skin tingled and the hair on the back of her neck stood at attention, giving her the strange feeling that someone was watching her. She’d scanned her surroundings several times and noticed nothing out of the ordinary. Well, nothing out of the ordinary was pushing it since she was surrounded by witches, monsters, vampires, and . . . Gumby? But, even among all the weird, funny, scary, and amusing costumes, she couldn’t find one person at the pre-Halloween party she now sat in the middle of showing more interest than normal in her. Yet, she still couldn’t manage to shake the eerie feeling. She wasn’t actually scared, just . . . aware.

She sighed and, rubbing her temples, figured it must be her tired mind playing tricks on her. She hadn’t been sleeping well, and she shouldn’t have agreed to come out with her friends tonight. Right at this very moment, she could be home, tucked under her favorite comforter in her soft bed, working on sleeping the weekend away. Instead, she found herself in a freaking Frankenstein Ball at a downtown bar with her coworkers and wondering when they were going to call it quits. She had initially told Jenny and Sal that she didn’t want to come, but Jenny had turned her big, innocent doe eyes on her and she’d caved. She was such a sucker.

Stale beer, mixed drinks, and overheated bodies assaulted her senses. She tried, with no success, to recall when she’d quit enjoying such parties. Maybe she was getting too old. For crying out loud, I’m not that damn old! Or, maybe, she should have hung up her costume-wearing days when she was ten. At least she could look forward to a couple extra days off since the office was undergoing maintenance and would be closed until next Wednesday. Four days off. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d had that many days off in a row. She knew her friends and family considered her a workaholic, and she guessed she could agree with them. She worked long hours, but it wasn’t because she enjoyed it so much, or even because she had to. It was more because she really had nothing else to do, but truth be told, she was getting pretty burnt out. Burnt out on just about everything, in fact. Maybe she should take a vacation.

She could picture a scenic tropical beach with white sand and turquoise water stretching for miles. The sun would warm her and give her a wonderful golden tan. She’d always been a little on the pale side. Some color would be nice. She sighed. While it would be very relaxing to get away and frolic among the palm trees and various gift shops, she knew she’d never do it. After all, how fun could it be if she were by herself. Maybe she could take a friend. That would be her only option as she barely spoke to her family.

“Something wrong, Karen?” Jenny leaned into Karen so she could hear her over Nickelback playing loudly in the background.

Karen sighed again and smiled. She ran her hand down her fishnet stockings. Damn hooker costume. How the hell had she ever thought that was a good idea? “No. Just a little tired.”

“You’re always tired lately, Karen. Have you gone to the doctor? Maybe he can give you a sleeping pill or something.” Sally grinned at her and winked.

Karen believed in hard work to get where you wanted in life. Yet, in today’s world, she couldn’t find it in her heart to fault Sally simply because she had been gifted with great looks and brains. She might be just a tad bit jealous, but she had never actually seen Sally use her looks to her advantage, careerwise anyway.

If her friends knew the real reason she had been having trouble sleeping on and off for the past year was because of vivid and erotic dreams of a man with disturbing green eyes, they would tell her that she needed to get laid, which she had no intention of doing. She had never been one to sleep around. Yet, she knew without a doubt that if her dream man strolled by in the flesh, she’d throw all her beliefs out the window and jump into the sack with him in the blink of an eye. Just thinking about him made her heart thump a little faster. Maybe she did need to get laid.

Images of the man from her dream floated through her brain like a movie in slow motion. She swore she had felt his fingers brush along her skin, and his voice had flowed through her like hot cider. The dreams made her ache for things she didn’t even know she wanted—the heat of his body, the spicy scent of his skin, and every one his caresses and kisses on her flesh. Her dream man was sexy, dominant, and very possessive, insisting on her obedience. She’d always believed in equality with men and women and saw nothing wrong with a woman who made the first move—didn’t care for men who acted macho and overpowering—yet, she submitted willingly over and over to Mr. Green Eyes in every sleep-induced moment, and enjoyed it.

Karen jerked out of her daydream when Sally cleared her throat. “I’m okay, Sal. Thanks for asking, though.” She glanced at her watch and saw it was nearing one in the morning. “Look, I’m going to call it a night, okay?”

“Aw, come on. There’s at least a good two hours left of party time. Who knows, maybe you will end up finding a tall, dark, sexy man to make you sleep better.” Sally laughed and Jenny and Karen joined in.

Before Karen could reply, a medium-built blond man with plain brown eyes—in fact, Karen would call just about everything from his faded blue jeans to his neatly tucked in black button-up shirt to his face plain—walked over to stand next to Sally. Karen nodded her head toward the man and Sally caught a glance of him before rolling her eyes. Sally got a lot of attention when the girls went out, but Karen was glad to see that she had some morals and didn’t seem to sleep around either. Well, depending on what your definition was of sleeping around.

“Hey, beautiful. I’m Matt.”

All the women groaned under their breath. “Hey, Matt,” all three answered at the same time with little enthusiasm. Anyone should be able to tell they weren’t exactly welcoming. Anyone except Matt, it seemed.

“You know, if I made the alphabet I’d put U and I together.” Matt smiled as if he had just made the most intelligent, important remark of his life.

Karen and Jenny held their breath, waiting and watching as Sally leaned close to Matt, making him suck in a great gulp of air, probably amazed that his line had actually worked.

Sally patted Matt on the cheek. “Aw, isn’t that so sweet. ’Cause you know, if I had made the alphabet, I’d put F and U together.” Sally smiled, sat back straight at the table, and idly began to stir her drink with a little red straw.

Karen and Jenny continued holding their breath in fear of cracking up and humiliating the poor man even further. His surprised, wide-eyed look was nearly as hysterical as Sally’s remark. His face showed his shock, and he turned red right before he spun around and disappeared into the crowd.

“Geez, Sal, you crushed the poor man.”

While Karen couldn’t deny the cleverness of Sal’s remark, she actually felt a little sorry for Matt. Personally, she would have probably let him down a little easier.

“Yeah, poor little Matt.” Jenny smirked a little, but looked as if she might be feeling a little sorry for Matt too.

“Sorry, but I found it’s a lot better to crush them right up front rather than give them any hope.” Sally rolled her eyes and smiled. “So, Karen, come on. Stay for a bit longer.”