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  Careful What You Ask For

  The Chattanooga Supernaturals #3

  Candace Blevins

  Contents

  Copyright

  Connect with Candace

  Blurb

  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

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Also by Candace Blevins

  Excerpt from Only Human

  About the Author

  More From Excessica!

  eXcessica publishing

  Careful What You Ask For © September 2016 by Candace Blevins

  All rights reserved under the International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events or locales is entirely coincidental. All sexually active characters in this work are 18 years of age or older.

  This book is for sale to ADULT AUDIENCES ONLY. It contains substantial sexually explicit scenes and graphic language which may be considered offensive by some readers. Please store your files where they cannot be accessed by minors.

  Excessica LLC

  P.O. Box 127

  Alpena, MI 49707

  To order additional copies of this book, contact:

  [email protected]

  www.excessica.com

  Cover design © 2016 Syneca Featherstone

  First Edition September 2016

  Warning: the unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.

  Connect with Candace

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  Website – candaceblevins.com

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  Blurb

  When a wolf mates with a human, the child is nearly always a wolf. Briana was raised as a werewolf, but puberty hit and she never changed. She’s persuaded a few wolves to bite her, but it never took. At nineteen, she’s going to give it a final try. This time, she’ll ask someone who was bitten instead of being born to it, to see if it makes a difference.

  She grew up welcome in the Pack until she was branded a human. Her developing teenage psyche was wounded by their rejection, and she holds nothing but ill will for the Pack and all it stands for. However, it’s fine for a human to glare at the Alpha and tell him he isn’t the boss of her. Trying it as a wolf is another story. She’s determined to make a go of it as a lone wolf, but Randall — the local Alpha — has other ideas, despite the fact she’s property of his brother’s motorcycle club.

  Briana was raised to be a werewolf and she finally feels whole, but the transition is different for everyone. She understands supernatural politics, but she’s going to have to maneuver through the highest levels of them as a brand new wolf still struggling for control.

  Chapter 1

  Briana

  I couldn’t believe how nervous I felt as I walked into the little honkytonk bar my GPS had led me to on Sand Mountain.

  Everyone in the little redneck joint looked at me as I entered, and I breathed in relief as a thin brunette stood and motioned me towards her. She was perhaps in her late forties, wearing jeans and a loose t-shirt. One look told you life had been rough on her.

  I’m human, so I can’t smell wolves, but I can often spot a wolf by their attitude. Wolves tend to know they’re bad-ass and usually walk with more confidence. They also frequently think they’re better than mere humans, so you get a little of that, too. I didn’t get any of this from the brunette.

  “I’m Maggie, you must be Briana.” I recognized her voice from our phone conversation, and I nodded and shook her hand. She pushed a menu in front of me as we sat. “I recommend the burger and fries.”

  I laughed as I looked at the menu and saw a list of the things you could get on your burger, and a decision of whether to get a small or large order of fries. And nothing else. I gave the server my order and looked back to Maggie.

  “Angelica says she knows you through Bash?”

  So much for pleasantries before we start, but I wasn’t surprised. Everything about this woman told me she’d lived a hard life and she wasn’t interested in socializing. I went on alert, wondering what she’d want in exchange for biting me. My gut told me she wasn’t doing it out of the kindness of her heart.

  “Yeah. I’m in and out of the RTMC clubhouse a lot.” I didn’t know what she’d think of my activities with the MC, but I wasn’t going to lie to her.

  “Where do you work?”

  “I clean houses. I have eleven houses — some are once a week and others are every other week. I do okay for myself. I know I may lose some of them if I have to take a long vacation, but at least a few will make do until I can return.” She’d said we were just going to get to know each other in the bar, no talk of biting or changing here, but I felt I needed to add, “I’ve saved up enough funds to get me through a couple of months of not working. I’ve been preparing. I also have a hundred pounds of frozen grass-fed beef in a cooler in my car, like I told you I’d bring.” New wolves eat a lot. I’d told her I’d bring the meat, and would give her money for groceries.

  “Where’d you go to school?”

  We spent the next hour talking about my high school years, the classes I’d enjoyed and hated, the kind of car I drove, my hobbies, and whether I’d ever milked a cow (I hadn’t). I had no idea where she was going with the conversation, but I answered her questions and tried to be friendly.

  I paid for my food and hers, and I followed her off the highway to a semi-paved road, to a gravel road, to a dirt road, and finally to an old farmhouse. She walked to a weathered, wooden picnic table and sat, and I took the bench across from her.

  “Your daddy was wolf, but not your mamma?”

  I nodded. “He bit her after I was born. She’s wolf now.”

  She looked around a few seconds before looking back to me. “Ain’t nothing in life free. You’ll stay in a cage when I can’t watch over you — at least until I’m sure you won’t kill my cows and chickens.” She shook her head, looked around again, and said, “My husband was killed ten years ago, and I’ve tried to raise my daughter so she’d be ready when it was time for her first change, but she ain’t handling it right. You were raised knowing how to control yourse
lf. Raised by a daddy who knew what he was doing?”

  I nodded, and she looked toward the farmhouse again before looking back to me. “This was my husband’s grandparent’s place, and they willed it to him. It’s old, but it’s mine now. I waitress at night to help make ends meet, so you’ll be in the basement with my Evie while I’m gone.”

  “You’re hoping she can learn control from me as I’m figuring it out?”

  She nodded. “I was bitten, and I thought my husband would always be around, so I never learnt what I’d have to do to teach her.”

  Chapter 2

  Briana

  Maggie had told me what she expected me to do before she’d changed into her wolf, so now I lay on the forest floor, buck-naked and spread eagle.

  I’ve been bitten before so I knew the pain I was about to feel, and it took every ounce of my resolve to remain in place as the medium sized wolf sniffed me all over. My legs wanted to kick and then jump up and run, my hands wanted to protect my face from her, and my heart felt as if it were trying to escape my chest — but I held my breath and forced myself to stay frozen.

  If this didn’t work I wasn’t sure I’d try again, but I had to give it one final attempt. I’d been raised knowing I was a wolf. I’d always felt her inside me, but then she never showed herself and I was labeled a human when I’d had my period for a year and hadn’t changed.

  But my self-identity never changed. I’m a human who identifies as a wolf, but if this didn’t work — I’d have to find a way to accept my humanity.

  I gasped when she bit my left thigh, held my breath while she mangled my right thigh, and couldn’t hold in my screams when her teeth tore into the skin and muscle of my left shoulder.

  I’d told her where to bite me, but I hadn’t told her she could just go straight in and out without ripping. The wolf’s natural instincts are to tear as they bite, and fuck it hurt. If this didn’t turn me I was going to be scarred something awful.

  She must have realized how bad she’d hurt me, because she was a little more gentle with my right shoulder, but it still hurt like hell.

  Finally, Maggie’s wolf backed up a half-dozen steps and went to the ground, her eyes on me so intense it was unnerving, but I already smelled of pain and blood and I wasn’t sure how much control she had, so I tried my hardest not to be afraid.

  Everything’s hazy past that point. I remember hurting, remember thrashing in the dirt, but it was days later before I have any memory of being fully in my human brain again.

  I think being responsible for little Evie forced me into my human brain, and then compelled me to gain control sooner. It’s possible I’d have done so without her needing my help, but she was a terrified little girl without anyone to help her out the right way. I wasn’t especially knowledgeable, but I knew a whole lot more than her mom.

  And little twelve-year-old Evie was a hormonal bundle of pissed-off defiance. I was in a small cage just outside the jail cell for about a week — until I could stay human and hold a conversation. After the first sleepless night in the cell with Evie, I had a painfully frank talk with her mom the next day.

  “If she doesn’t gain control soon, and an Alpha finds out it’s been over a year? They’ll kill her for you, since you haven’t been able to.”

  Maggie crossed her arms and nodded. She knew the rules.

  “I’m going to get rough with her and see if I can make her respect me enough to listen to me. Are you good with that?”

  She shook her head and opened her mouth to protest, but I spoke before she had a chance. “She doesn’t see you as Alpha over her. Her wolf doesn’t respect you enough to listen. I may hurt her, but I won’t kill her — and you have to know I’m your last shot at this.”

  Finally, she turned her back to me and slumped her shoulders. My new wolf senses let me smell her grief as she said, “Do what you have to, just don’t kill her.”

  She should’ve asked for help long before this, but I didn’t berate her. I was a brand new wolf and I’d already established dominance over her, despite the fact whatever magic linked a maker to a new wolf was supposed to give her dominance over me from six months to a year.

  “Okay, then. I think I’m ready for the bunny test.”

  “Already?” She wanted to look into my eyes to verify, but her submission wouldn’t let her.

  “Yeah, but not until about five minutes after I’m the wolf.” I sighed as I realized the absurdity of my having to order her to control me. I’ve heard of topping from the bottom, but this was attempting to bottom from the top. “You’ll give me the rabbit when I’m ready, and if I don’t look like I’m in total control then you’ll use your voice to help me remember I can be in control even inside the wolf. If you wimp out on me, I’ll beat the hell out of you when I come back to human.”

  She swallowed as she nodded, clearly afraid of me, but it was the only way I could think to make her step up and take control.

  So far, she’d only taken control when she thought her chickens or cows were in danger. I was tempted to do the bunny test with one of her chickens, but I didn’t trust myself enough.

  Maggie was getting ready to leave for her waitressing job, and I walked to the basement door of the old farmhouse as I told her, “Lock me in with Evie. We’ll see if I can knock some sense into her tonight, and then we’ll let her watch from a distance tomorrow when I try the rabbit test.”

  Her footsteps sounded behind me as she obediently followed me to the basement and locked us in. An ancient refrigerator was stocked with plenty of food at the rear of the cell. There was also a key frozen in water in the freezer, the theory being it would take several hours to get it out of the ice unless there was a fire, in which case we’d have the heat to melt it and escape — assuming we could stay human during the adrenaline rush.

  Personally, I thought she’d just tried to make herself feel better about leaving her daughter caged and alone, though I realized Maggie didn’t have much choice. She had to work, and Evie couldn’t be trusted out of the cage. It was the risk of a fire possibly happening versus the certainty Evie’s wolf would’ve roamed the woods and either bitten or killed an innocent.

  Little Evie had already run out of time, but I resolved to help her if I could. Her mom hadn’t been able to, and I had to try.

  I leaned against the cell doors with my arms crossed, and stared Evie down until I heard Maggie’s car leave.

  Channeling my father, I told her, “I’ve had enough of your bullshit attitude. You’re either going to buck up and learn some control, or the Alpha will come in and your mother will be forced to watch him kill you. Do you want to live?”

  She glared at me, and I stalked towards her as I let my arms down. Without warning, I slapped her across the face as hard as I could. Her body went in the direction of the slap but she didn’t fall, and when she righted herself I was happy to see her fist coming towards my face. Finally, something besides apathy from her.

  I blocked her fist and gave her the type of punch she’d wanted to give me, and when she punched again, I grabbed her arm and twisted it up behind her back — and kept twisting until I had her on her knees. “If you change, so will I, and that might mean a fight to the death. Submit to me, Evie. Show some respect. Show me you recognize my authority over you. Stay human and submit!”

  Her skin moved, stopped, moved, stopped.

  “Dammit, Evie! You can take control if you want it bad enough!”

  She finally stopped fighting me, and I let go of her arm. Every nerve and muscle in my body felt as if it were on fire as I held my own wolf back, but if I demanded she stay in control then I couldn’t lose it either.

  “I don’t want you to hit me again.”

  “Then stop being a pathetic little baby who mopes around wanting attention. Step up, learn some control, and get out of this damned cage!”

  “I don’t want to be a wolf!”

  I lowered my voice. This didn’t have to be a screaming match. “Doesn’t really matter what y
ou want. Your choices are to live as a superhuman who can turn into a wolf, or to be killed because you’re too weak to face reality.” Harsh words, but it was a harsh truth.

  “I hate you.”

  “I don’t need your love or your acceptance, Evie. I’ll be your friend if you prove worthy of friendship, but if you want us to be enemies — I can work with that, too.” I tried to sound friendly as I added, “You’re still talking. The wolf hasn’t taken over even though I pissed you off. You can do this.”

  She’d been kneeling with her head down while she tried to hide her tears, and now she rearranged until she was on her bottom with her knees pulled up to her chest and her head still bowed. “Mom doesn’t understand how I can just sit and read. I hate my life, and books let me escape. She says a werewolf can’t be a bookworm.”

  Now, I sat on the claw-scratched wood-plank floor with her and said, “Did you know a couple of U.S. Senators are wolves? I know at least two police officers who are, too. Also, the friend who introduced me to your mother has a couple of fancy college degrees, and she’s an engineer for TVA. Not the train kind, but someone who’s trying to find a renewable source of energy.”

  She finally looked up enough to make eye contact, and I smiled. “You can be whatever you want. Well, you can’t play sports with the humans, so you’ll never be a professional soccer player, but otherwise, the sky’s the limit. Keep reading your books, keep learning everything you can — but you’re going to have to learn to control your wolf or you’ll never be allowed to go to college.”

  She felt her jaw and winced, and I smiled again. “Here’s where it’s good to be a werewolf. Do you think you can make two changes before you eat? Focus on your goal — heal enough so we can eat dinner together as humans tonight without your jaw hurting. I won’t feed your wolf, even if it means I have to change and fight you. As soon as you come back to human, though, I’ll get some steaks out of the refrigerator and we’ll fry them up.”