Under a Raging Moon: Part One Read online

UNDER A RAGING MOON

  Part One

  by V. J. Chambers

  A Werewolf Romance for Three

  Piper Wainwright’s only interest in Kale Morgan is to seduce and manipulate him. She’s here to find a priceless necklace and steal it. Yeah, she’s a thief. It’s not the most glamorous of occupations, but it pays the bills. Besides, Piper left innocence behind a long time ago, the night the wolf inside her burst out and caused pain and mayhem. This is who she is now. No apologies.

  There’s only one problem with Kale. He’s not cooperating. He’s cold and aloof, seemingly impervious to her charms.

  And Piper’s finding herself annoyingly distracted by Hudson Slade, whose brawny warmth is the complete opposite of Kale’s icy control.

  Little does she know that she’s stumbled into a complicated web of old wounds and jealousy. Or that she’s about to become a pawn in this town’s werewolf politics.

  Under a Raging Moon is a serial novel involving sexual and polyamorous content. It’s being published in three parts. This first part is 11,000 words or approximately 30 printed pages.

  UNDER A RAGING MOON

  © copyright 2014 by V. J. Chambers

  https://vjchambers.com

  Punk Rawk Books

  Please do not copy or post this book in its entirety or in parts anywhere. You may, however, share the entire book with a friend by forwarding the entire file to them. (And I won’t get mad.)

  UNDER A RAGING MOON

  Part One

  by V. J. Chambers

  A Werewolf Romance for Three

  CHAPTER ONE

  It should have been an easy job. I had the whole thing planned out, right down to the point where I’d break down right in front of the mark’s house. That wasn’t easy to accomplish, either. I had to stop first, somewhere out of sight, sabotage my yellow VW New Beetle, and then get back in and drive it until I couldn’t anymore. I wasn’t exactly a car expert, but my cute little car had broken down enough times in the five years I’d owned it that I’d figured out some common problems it had. So, I knew enough about what I was doing to make it work.

  Well, to make it not work.

  That part all went perfectly. I ended up right where I wanted, pulled over on the side of the road in front of the mark’s house, which was a nicely landscaped little split-level. It wasn’t anything fancy or exciting, but it looked positively affluent compared to the trailers and run-down farmhouses I’d been seeing on my way here.

  The mark was named Kale Morgan. He was twenty-eight, and he owned a successful landscaping business. I guessed that was why his yard looked so nice.

  But I was pretending that I didn’t know anything about him at all. I needed him to think that this was all an accident, that I was a helpless damsel in distress who’d broken down in front of his house.

  A helpless, very sexy damsel.

  As I got out of the car, I yanked my shirt down, making sure that the scoop neck was displaying a healthy view of my cleavage. I was wearing this super uncomfortable push-up bra just to give my breasts all the advantages they could muster. My breasts were regular sized. They weren’t huge, and they weren’t small. They were normal. They matched my frame. Sure, they could have been larger, but doesn’t every woman think her breasts could be larger?

  I popped the hood and bent over my car, making a show of looking under there. I didn’t know if Kale was looking or not, but I hoped so. I’d been blaring my music in the hopes of getting his attention. I hoped he was peering out the window, getting an eyeful of me bending over, my ass in the air, which I’d clad in my tightest, curve-hugging jeans.

  My ass was fairly normal too. Not flat, but not something from a Sir Mix-a-lot song either. All things considered, though, I was a fairly attractive person. I knew that I had my charms. I wasn’t anything stunning, of course. I didn’t turn all the male heads when I walked into a room or anything. But if I needed to be sexy, I could do it.

  I bent over the car a little longer, wondering if that was actually true.

  I didn’t rely on my looks much usually when I did a job. Sure, occasionally, it was necessary to do a bit of role-playing, usually when I was scoping a place out. But this level of role-playing, well, it was a bit more than I was used to. Nothing I couldn’t handle, of course. If I stole Kale Morgan’s necklace and got it back to my clients, I was looking at a pretty hefty pay day. One that would mean I could kick back and relax for almost eight months without getting another job. I wasn’t going to screw this up.

  But Kale wasn’t cooperating. I’d thought he’d come out of the house to see what was wrong. Here I was, doing my best sexy damsel, and he wasn’t even taking the bait.

  I straightened, surreptitiously tugging my shirt down again. Then I walked up to his front door and rang the doorbell.

  I waited.

  Nothing.

  Damn it, he was home, wasn’t he? His car was in the driveway.

  I rang the doorbell again.

  I could hear it inside the house. I bit down on my bottom lip.

  The door opened.

  Great, just when I was making a really weird face. I relaxed my expression.

  “Yeah?” said Kale.

  Whoa. Okay, so I’d seen a picture of him. One picture. And it had failed to do him justice. The scope of the man was… He was tall. He was at least six foot five. He had broad shoulders but a lean body, and it was clad in a gray t-shirt and jeans. Raising his eyebrows, he fixed blue eyes on me.

  “Um…” I said.

  “I don’t want any.” He started to close the door.

  “No,” I said. “Actually, I was wondering if I could use your phone? My car…” I gestured back at where it sat on the side of the road, its hood still open.

  He peered at the car. “Oh.”

  He wasn’t even looking at my cleavage. Geez. Maybe my clients could have explained to me how gorgeous he was. Then maybe I would have stepped up my game even more.

  “Don’t you have a cell?” he said, turning back to me.

  “Oh, sure,” I said. “But it’s out of batteries. I’m such a ditz, always forgetting to charge it.”

  He made a face.

  I pushed my boobs out. “Um, maybe I could come in? To use the phone?” I tried to give him a sultry look.

  But his expression made it hard to try to be sexy. He was completely closed off to me. Damn it. This wasn’t going well at all.

  “Don’t you have a car charger?”

  “A… oh, for my phone? No, I don’t have one.”

  “You should probably get one.” His gaze shifted from me to the car. Then he came outside, shut the door behind himself, and started across the lawn towards my little yellow bug.

  I had no choice but to follow him. Apparently, he wasn’t going to let me inside to use the phone. Not that it mattered, because I didn’t even know who to call. In my imagined plans, he’d been much friendlier. I shot daggers at the back of his head.

  He got into the driver’s side of the car and started it up. “Seems to be running fine.”

  “No, it’s not that.” I put my hands on my hips. Stupid, you’re stupid, I had to remind myself. I softened it with a little breathy laugh. “Um, it’s the steering wheel or something. It, like, won’t turn anymore. And I was trying to come around that bend.” I pointed, sticking out my boobs again. “But I couldn’t turn the wheel, and I almost wrecked. So, I pulled over here.”

  He got out of the car and bent down to look under the front of it. “It’s leaking all right.” He put his finger into the liquid and smelled it. “Yeah, power steering fluid.”

  “What does that mean?” I said, eyes wide. I hoped I wasn’t putting it on too thick. There had to
be women out there who didn’t know what power steering was, didn’t there?

  He rolled his eyes.

  I winced. Maybe that was too thick.

  “Never mind.” He pulled his cell phone out of his pocket. “There’s only one shop around here. I’ll call a tow for you. The driver will probably let you ride with him. There’s a little motel near the shop. It’s late, and I doubt they’ll get to it until tomorrow.”

  Yes, I know that. That’s why I planned for it to happen now. You’re supposed to be a gentleman and offer for me to sleep at your place.

  This was not going according to plan. Not at all. What was I doing wrong? Maybe Kale was turned off by airhead girls. But I couldn’t very well change everything about myself on a dime, not now. This was ridiculous. Most men loved helping a girl out with a broken-down car. It made them feel manly and important or something.

  I wracked my brain for a new strategy while he called the tow truck. I didn’t come up with anything.

  He hung up the phone. “He’ll be here in about ten minutes.” And then he started back for his house, leaving me alone, outside. What kind of jackass was he? Was he impervious to cleavage and tight jeans?

  I folded my arms over my chest. “Can I use your bathroom?” It came out a little bit more sharp than I meant it to.

  He turned to look at me, a funny expression on his face. “You aren’t from around here, are you?”

  “As a matter of fact, no,” I said.

  He looked me up and down.

  “Look,” I said. “This is a really bad time for me, okay? I had to get away from where I left. I can’t really talk about why.” Because I was making this up on the spot, and I had no clue about my imaginary problems. “But basically, I have nowhere to go. And my car just broke down. And I get the feeling that you just… hate me.” My face fell, and I realized that I was actually really disappointed about that. It was quite a blow to my self-esteem, considering I thought I was reasonably sexy. Actual tears formed in my eyes. I looked back up at him, letting them trickle down my face.

  He cleared his throat. “Um, I’ll show you the bathroom.”

  The entrance of the house opened onto a small, flat area where there was a spot to hang up coats. No coats were hung up, though. The walls were white, and there was nothing adorning them. Ahead of us, there was a short flight of stairs up to the top level of the house. Right next to it was another short flight of stairs, down to the bottom level.

  Kale led me down to the bottom level, and the bathroom was right there.

  I went in and surveyed myself in the mirror. Okay, he’s blind, because I am sexy, I told myself.

  He was waiting for me next to the empty coat rack. I made my way up the steps to him.

  “Do you live here all by yourself?” I asked.

  He nodded. He shoved his hands in his pockets.

  “Wow.” I looked up, even though all I could see were steps. “That’s awesome. I always wanted to be able to settle down in a house like this. But now I don’t know if that’s ever going to happen.” I had to play the damsel card. I didn’t have anything else.

  He didn’t say anything.

  “It’s just that I don’t know if I can afford staying in a motel and getting the car fixed,” I said. I tried to summon tears again, but they wouldn’t come. I looked at the floor instead. “I don’t know what to do.”

  He sighed heavily.

  And then the tow truck came.

  We went outside to talk to the guy. I gave him my keys and watched while he hooked my car up to the truck. All the while, I was worrying, trying to think about what I was going to do. I needed to get into Kale’s house, and if he wasn’t going to be taken in by my feminine wiles, then I was going to need to find another way inside. Hell, maybe I should have gone that route in the first place. I’d broken into more heavily secure places before.

  But in those situations, I’d always known where I was heading. I’d always known where the piece was that I was going for, and I’d been able to tailor my break-in to the proper spot. I could get in and get out. I had no idea where Kale had this necklace. I needed time in that house.

  How the hell was I going to get it?

  The tow truck driver smiled at me. “All right, little lady, you want to hop in? We can settle up money wise when we get to the shop, if you like.”

  Kale cleared his throat. “Actually, she’s going to stay here.”

  My jaw dropped. “What?”

  He wouldn’t look at me.

  “Thank you,” I said. “Thank you so much. I really—”

  “You’re welcome,” said Kale. “Now pay the driver. Meet me inside when you’re done.” He turned and stalked across the lawn.