Blog Tour, Exclusive Excerpt & Giveaway:
The Defiant Alpha By Susi Hawke
West Coast Wolves, Book Two
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In this first excerpt, we’re only just beginning to get to know the omega MC. He’s in his wolf form here, running from his captors in search of safety. Spoiler? The motorcycle he hears at the end is the arrival of his true mate. *** I wanted to ask if I could trust them, since apparently being an omega wasn’t safe, but a barely stifled whimper and the coppery scent of blood told me Alex had been hit. His running slowed, but not by much. When I started to falter, prepared to turn back, Alex growled while yelling in my head. “Are you crazy? I told you to run faster, no matter what. Keep going. I’ll be right behind you.” Another shot blasted, and I heard a dull thud and claws scrambling for purchase in the steep hillside. I couldn’t help but slow down long enough to peek back, my heart catching. Alex was crawling through the grass. “Look away, Thirteen. Keep moving, or we did this for nothing. Go now. I promise I’ll be safe as soon as I shift. Jones won’t dare leave me long enough to chase after you either—he’ll be too afraid I died by his bullet. My father would kill him.” His words alone almost brought me to my knees and ended my escape. “How do you know Jones, and who the heck is your father? I’m so confused, Alex. All of a sudden, I feel like I don’t know who you are.” “I’m the same friend I’ve always been. If I’m correct, my father is the one you call Master. Nothing happens around here without his knowledge. I swear I didn’t know he had anyone imprisoned at the back of our property, let alone any plans he might have for you. I would’ve told you sooner, but I was afraid to lose your friendship. And more importantly, I couldn’t rescue you if you didn’t trust me. Now please, hurry up and go so I can get the medical attention I need before this asshole succeeds in killing me.” “Okay, Alex. We can talk about this later. But promise you’ll be okay.” A sharp pain flared in my left butt cheek, followed by a stinging, burning sensation even deeper in the right shoulder. My body hurt so bad I was ready to drop, but when I realized how close I was to safety, a burst of adrenaline struck. I dove for the bushes at the top, flying through and landing on the other side… precisely on the sore part of my bottom. The momentum kept me going, though, and I slid and rolled down the hill. Wheezing, I sucked in a breath when I finally landed at the base, coming to a stop in a bush filled with sticky burrs. Yelping, I scrambled to my feet, ignoring the fresh burst of pain as I stepped on a nettle. As badly as I wanted to know if my friend was okay, Alex was no longer responding. Either he’d passed out from the pain, or… I didn’t want to think about the alternative reason. Between the different points of pain, the burning shoulder, the worry, and my overall anxiety, I knew if I didn’t keep going, I’d be done for, and my brothers would never be rescued. Their safety, even more than my own, got me moving again. I’d read about cars in books and seen them in movies. But movies couldn’t tell me how different and scary they were in person. Flashes blinded me from the opposite side of the highway, while the cars whizzing past on this side nearly made me jump out of my skin. Everything smelled weird and unnatural. And it was so loud. And bright from their lights. I didn’t know how long I ran before a break in traffic, but when I didn’t see lights in either direction, I raced across the highway in a shocking burst of speed. With my heart racing in my chest, I forced myself to hug the edge of the road and stay on the asphalt for a while, running back the way I’d come. On the road with them, the cars were even more terrifying as they flew past, some coming close enough for me to feel the heat from their engines. A loud horn startled me, making me jump sideways into the ditch. I sat there shaking for several seconds, hunkering down against the ground, away from the view of the cars’ occupants. Whenever it got dark, I took off running until the light of the new series of cars came up behind me. I wasn’t sure how far I’d gone, but running and stopping to wait between cars slowed me down. My body grew weaker with every step of sheer torture. I needed to move faster. While I caught my breath, I watched the road. Inspiration struck when I realized half of the cars’ lights didn’t extend too far onto the side of the road. In fact, the ground beside the ditch was barely lit. The lone downside was the slope, making it a challenging run, especially in my current state. No matter. The only way to freedom was moving forward. Ignoring everything but the thought of my brothers and the taste of liberty, I forced my body to run. I kept moving for what felt like forever, pushing onward even when my lungs started burning and my heart began pumping too hard with a weird, unsteady beat, pounding super fast, then fluttering. Later, I promised myself. I’d think about it later. Right now, I didn’t dare because the stinging pains in my butt cheek, and particularly in my shoulder, were getting worse by the second with my initial terror fading into bone-numbing weariness. Still, I pushed forward, running as long as I could until I stumbled over a rock and tumbled sideways, rolling into the ditch. My vision was blurry as the world spun around me. I tried to look up, but I was suddenly too weak to even lift my head. Lying there whimpering, I couldn’t help but wonder if I’d made it this far, only to die in a ditch on the side of a human road. Except I wasn’t even in the ditch. I’d landed on the edge, half in and half out with my head hanging down. The blood rushing to it was probably contributing to my current vertigo. My vision started to go black. I was wondering if this was really it when I heard the rumble of an engine unlike any of the cars I’d seen so far. Powerful like thunder, it echoed through the hills as if demanding to be noticed and admired. As everything went dark, I wished I had the strength to see the kind of vehicle issuing such a sound. If cars had an alpha, surely this one must be it. Smiling at my own silliness, I let my thoughts drift as I released my grip on consciousness.
Check out where is all began with Book 1:
The Reluctant Alpha Now on audio!
Narrated by Nick J Russo
“As much as I felt bad for this Elisha person—God, my heart was breaking for the young man and all he’d been through—I was also angry. I’d left that pack in my rearview ten years ago for a good reason.”
Matthias Longclaw is happy living his life on the back of his beloved Harley with his five best friends and brothers-in-arms at his side. The West Coast Wolves are a rare pack of alphas, made up of unwanted orphans and second-born sons. The packs they were born to may not have wanted them, but they’ve built a solid family of their own. They help where they can, doing random acts of kindness and expecting nothing in return, just helping to build a world they want to live in.
Then Matt gets a call from an old childhood buddy. He’s being called back—begged to return—to reclaim his birthright and save a life in the process. The problem is… to do it, he will have to take a mate. And if he refuses? The omega will die.
Torn between his duty to help others and his resentment of his old pack, Matt never expects for Elisha Whitetail to tilt his world and change everything. Can Matt and Elisha rebuild a broken pack while tending to a new love and a growing family while dealing with outside threats from neighboring packs?
They’re wolves. Strong, proud, and willing to do what it takes when their community needs them… whatever it takes.
This is the first in a new mpreg series about finding joy in a hard world, building family, and discovering that life can surprise a person when they least expect it. Although this world has harsher themes than my previous books, it still has the same heart you’d expect. Plus a dose of my irreverent humor and all the naughty, knotty heat that comes with true mates. It wouldn’t be a Susi Hawke book without it. Be sure to read the author’s note at the beginning for possible trigger warnings.
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