[Spell of the Shifters 04] • Marked by the Wolf

Journalist Ethan has a dream job working on a music magazine in Paris, and he's dating the gorgeous deputy editor, Guillaume. When he asks Guillaume to help him choose a new tattoo, he gets more than he's bargained for with an other-worldly experience that will help mark his acceptance into Guillaume's pack - and set the scene for some of the best sex he's ever had.

This is the fourth installment of the Spell of the Shifters series.

Warning: This short but highly charged erotic romance (7100 words) contains one cute but naive LA music correspondent, a heartstoppingly hot Parisian wolf and some very graphic sex scenes. Not suitable for under-18s.

Excerpt

"For our people, tattoos are something sacred," he said. "We would never have one that doesn't have a meaning for us, and as you become closer to us and begin to learn our ways, it seems appropriate that something like this should be shared."

"So, what does yours signify?" I hadn't asked before. I never knew with Guillaume what was off-limits and what wasn't.

He sighed and for a moment, I thought he was going to change the subject. He touched the wolf silhouette on his shoulder thoughtfully, as if weighing up how much to tell me. I had wondered if it was a pack membership symbol, although I had noticed that Thomas did not appear to have one.

"You have seen the same ink on Antoine, n'est-ce pas?"

I nodded, and then the truth hit me.

"You had it done together, because he was your mate?"

He avoided my eyes.

"Yes. And now I cannot have it transformed or removed, because the rules of our kind decree that when you mate, it should be for life, and the ink that signifies a failed mating should be a constant reminder of one's own failure."

"But was it your failure?" I probed, wanting to make the most of his sudden openness.

Antoine was irresistible, as I knew to my own cost. He was the yin to Guillaume's yang: loud, cocky and with silver-blond hair and the palest blue eyes I had ever seen, in either human or wolf.

Guillaume shook his head.

"It would be wrong of me to go into details. Some things that happen between mates should remain private. And it is sometimes easy for one partner to blame the other. But all I will say is that you have experience of what Antoine is like."

I remembered his primal force and the way Antoine could make anyone, male or female, want him with a hunger that made one dizzy. I remembered the speed with which he could transform himself into a beautiful white wolf, with fur as thick and soft as that of a child's plush toy. And I felt the hurt and bitterness that Guillaume must have felt at his betrayal. Guillaume did not need to spell it out to me why his relationship with Antoine had failed.

"And me?" I asked softly. "If I go ahead with a tattoo that reminds me of you, will I too one day regret it?"