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  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Scent of His Woman

  Copyright 2015 by Rebecca Royce

  ISBN: 978-1-61333-953-4

  Cover art by Fiona Jayde

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work, in whole or in part, in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.

  Published by Decadent Publishing Company, LLC

  Look for us online at:

  www.decadentpublishing.com

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Wolf’s Holiday by Rebecca Royce

  Black Hills Wolves Stories/Decadent Recent Releases

  Wolf’s Return

  What a Wolf Wants

  Black Hills Desperado

  Wolf’s Song

  Claiming His Mate

  When Hell Freezes

  Portrait of a Lone Wolf

  Alpha in Disguise

  A Wolf’s Promise

  Reluctant Mate

  Diamond Moon

  Wolf on a Leash

  Tempting the Wolf

  Naming His Mate

  A Wolf Awakens

  The Wolf and the Butterfly

  Infiltrating Her Pack

  Omega’s Heart

  Raven’s Claw

  Claiming the She-Wolf

  Worth Fighting For

  Dangerous

  Uncaged

  Promiscuous Wolf

  Disquieted Souls

  A Cougar Among Wolves

  Long Road Home

  A Mate’s Healing Touch

  Winter Solstice Run

  Wolf’s Holiday

  Winter Magic

  Winter Secrets

  Winter Ménage

  Wolf in Winter Clothing

  Murder in Los Lobos

  Scent of Murder

  Scent of the Hunt

  Scent of his Woman

  Scent of Madness

  Also by Rebecca Royce

  Another Chance

  Bar Mate

  Out of Place Mate

  Mate by the Music

  Unwanted Mate

  Behind the Scenes

  Believe in Me

  Embraced

  Rebirth

  Return to the Sea

  I’ll be Mated by Christmas

  One Night With a Wolf

  Paging Dr. Wolf

  Forever

  Love in One Night

  February Lover

  Wolf’s Holiday

  Dear Readers,

  For one year and thirty-five plus books with over twenty authors, we have journeyed with the Tao pack as they returned from the brink of destruction thanks to one mad Alpha thanks to the return of Drew Tao. Drew’s not the perfect Alpha, nor is he the perfect man, yet he remains committed to his pack and to making the Black Hills a fantastic place for them to live and thrive once more.

  The four-book mini-series includes novels by Cara Carnes, Cam Cassidy, Rebecca Royce and Heather Long. Though each is designed to stand alone, they tell a cohesive tale that is enriched by reading them in order.

  Book 1 – Scent of Murder

  Book 2 – Scent of the Hunt

  Book 3 – Scent of his Woman

  Book 4 – Scent of Madness

  We’ve seen changes in the pack, healing, and a rebirth hope and generosity of spirit. It is true that every journey faces a trial by fire, and this is the crucible, which will forever change the Black Hills Wolves. I invite you to join us as we rediscover what it means to be pack when murder comes to Los Lobos.

  Heather Long

  A Note From the Author

  Dear Reader,

  Thank you so much for picking up Scent of His Woman. I hope you like it. Shoot me an email and let me know what you think.

  Rebecca Royce

  Dedication

  To Heather Long for making this happen

  Scent of His Woman

  Magnolia Holden fled the Black Hills Wolves with her family during the reign of Magnum, terrified for her life and for that of her older sister Betty, who she had to leave behind. She has never wanted to go back to Los Lobos and face her terror of the enforcer, Ryker. Instead she lives happily in Sioux Falls helping her parents run their dress shop and dreaming of Clayton Davies, the human mystery writer who she loves but believes she can never have.

  But there is murder happening in the Black Hills and when Betty’s mate, the Alpha Drew, lies at death’s door, Mags will have to return and face her worst nightmares over and over again.

  Only this time she won’t be alone. Clayton loves Mags, and he is a man who knows how to look into the darkness and come out the other side. Together, they will help Ryker seek a killer who wants humans dead. If they can both live through the night...

  Wolf’s Holiday

  Black Hills Wolves

  Murder in Los Lobos

  By

  Rebecca Royce

  Chapter One

  He watched the scene playing out before him. Frantic action at the Tao household—healers rushed in and out. Ryker stood by the door instructing the dominants.

  Rain pounded on all of their heads.

  He was the giver of death. The reason his so-called pack lived in fear. The end of the untruths. The ultimate power.

  Not one of them suspected him or ever would.

  He was more powerful than any of them. When he was done, the Tao pack would pay. The sins of the father had been visited on the son. He wasn’t done yet.

  The Day of the Shooting….

  Luanne Magnolia—Mags to her family and friends—Holden walked down the street toward the coffee shop, Perkulater, anticipation making her jumpy. Sioux Falls didn’t have many coffee shops and the truth was, Mags didn’t much care for caffeine. The substance made her wolf jumpy.

  Clayton Davies wrote there sometimes—more and more regularly it seemed—and going in meant she got to gaze at him for a little while.

  The street smelled of rain, and she would likely get wet on her walk back to her family’s dress store. She didn’t care a bit. Seeing Clay—the mate she would never get to claim—soothed the ache inside of her caused by living as a human when she was most certainly not one. Mags had felt dead inside for years until Clay bumped into her outside the shop.

  Breathing the same air as he for a few minutes each day offered her a reason to wake in the morning.

  If only he weren’t so very human. She turned the handle, letting herself inside the establishment. Humans loved the smell of brewing coffee. The way they inhaled the scent deeply as though it soothed them, the aroma of so many different types all at once, sent her senses into overdrive. She sucked down her discomfort. From previous experience, she knew the discomfort would pass.

  “Mags.” Clay waited for her in his spot, the tall, brown chai
r in the corner of the room. Her heart skipped a beat, and she grinned, knowing she probably looked stupid. The human girls in the place were all so polished. Tall, dark, and handsome, Clay could speak to any of them.

  Yet, he greeted her.

  She maneuvered her way around the tables, all stuffed together tightly to accommodate as many customers as possible, until she reached him.

  “Hi.” She held his eye contact for a moment before she had to look down. If he were a wolf shifter, he’d be a dominant to her very-omega self.

  Clay motioned to the chair across from him. “Will you sit?”

  “I can. For a minute.”

  She took her seat and realized right away she’d not bothered to order any coffee. What was she supposed to fiddle with while her mate did amazingly frustrating things to her insides? Usually, she played with the plastic stopper and pretended to drink.

  He closed his laptop computer with a click and then leaned forward to put weight on his laced fingers. He smelled like the woods. As a human, he really shouldn’t. Maybe it had to do with his living in a cabin so far outside of town. He only visited to get what he called a taste of civilization for his books.

  “Did you want to get coffee?” He pointed toward the long line. “Or is buying cups of it you don’t drink getting old?”

  Well, there it was. She hadn’t been fooling him. She shouldn’t be surprised. He was a mystery writer. He figured out motivations for a living, which meant he’d seen right through hers.

  “I don’t like the taste of coffee. Or burning my tongue. Or the faint smell of sour milk always present beneath everything in here.”

  He sniffed the air and then shook his head. “I don’t pick that up.”

  No, he wouldn’t. “I’ve always had a very sensitive nose.”

  “Interesting.” He nodded, not taking his eyes off her. “If you hate the coffee, the smell, and the hot liquid, why do you come in here?”

  She looked down. His scent wasn’t cruel, unlike his question. “Why ask me a question I’m fairly certain you know the answer to?”

  She shook her head. The weeks leading up to this horrifying moment had been a huge mistake. She couldn’t mate a human. They died when they got involved with wolves. Even if she were willing to risk it, who said Clayton Davies would want her? She would never fit in his world any more than she did with any other human.

  He hadn’t answered her, and she was glad for the reprieve. “I’m going to go. Don’t worry. I won’t come in and pretend to drink coffee anymore.”

  Clay’s hand touched the top of hers. “That would be a huge loss to my life. I’d never recover from the lack of your company in the morning.”

  She pushed back her wolf’s urge to growl. Why was he being so mean? “Sarcasm might be amusing on paper—I know the detective you write uses it every other page—but I don’t think it’s exactly polite to be rude when a person has so clearly made a mistake.”

  “Mags, look at me please.”

  His words made her raise her eyes. He couldn’t know he’d given her a dominant command, eased the problem her wolf had with letting her hold his eye contact for too long. Another issue of being a shifter living in the human world.

  He spoke softly. “I wasn’t being sarcastic. I do look forward to this. More than I should. You’re so young and vibrant. I pushed you on why you come because I wanted to hear you say it. I can’t be sure if I’m alone in this otherwise.”

  “I….” He was so handsome. She shouldn’t be going so gooey over a human. Yet, her wolf wanted what she wanted. Clay belonged to her. In a fair world, maybe she’d get to have him. If he were a shifter, he wouldn’t have to ask. He’d know as she had. “You aren’t alone. But nothing can come of it. You’re hardly old, by the way.”

  She didn’t know why she felt compelled to add the last bit except he’d seemed to be criticizing himself in some way with the comment, and she hadn’t liked it. As an omega, all she wanted to do was soothe. And soothe. And soothe.

  “You’re much younger than me. I’m going to be forty-five next month.”

  In wolf years, that was nothing. Practically a baby. “You’re fifteen years older than me.”

  “See? You’re thirty years old. Doesn’t the media tell us thirty is the new twenty? Why would you be interested in a hermit like me?”

  Because you smell like the woods, feel like home, woke me up from being dead inside, make me laugh, and have the deepest-brown eyes I’ve ever seen.

  She had to cut this off. “If life were fair, I’d be yours.” Her voice shook, and his eyes widened. “Please believe me, there is nothing in the universe I’d want more than you. I don’t live in a world where I get what I want. It’s…complicated. You have a beautiful life, a wonderful career, gifts beyond belief, and you’re handsome.” Maybe enough said on that was enough. “I have to go. I won’t come again.”

  “Mags.” He leaned over the table and shocked her when his lips met hers. Clayton didn’t have a gentle mouth. Despite sitting in a coffee shop with twenty-five others, they were the only two souls who existed.

  Her wolf rose close to her skin. She wanted out. To shift, as she almost never could anymore, and rub against her mate, to see him through her canine eyes.

  No. The thought startled her so much she pulled back from her first kiss and darted backward.

  “Mags, I’m sorry. Maybe I should have asked. The things you were saying. I can’t not see you again. I….”

  She stood, cutting him off. “I have to go. You can’t know, Clayton…you’re…I’m…I’m sorry.”

  Her morning had not gone the way she’d thought it would. See Clay and get on with her day, that’s what she’d expected. Not that she would lose her mind, kiss him, and run for her life down the street, terrified her shift was about to happen whether she liked it or not.

  She barely made it around the corner to her parents’ shop without turning. The door swung open as she plowed through, panting.

  “Dad.” Her father could help her stop, or he could shove her into the closet in the back and lock her in until she made it back to her human self. Fortunately, at eight in the morning, they didn’t usually have customers.

  “Mags.” The alarm and the acrid taste of her dad’s anxiety settled her enough she could think.

  “Dad….”

  “Something terrible has happened, Magnolia. Drew has been shot. The pack is in chaos. Humans are dying. Your sister needs us.” He sniffed the air. “Are you about to shift?”

  “I am in so much trouble.”

  She fell to her knees. Her sister needed her. Mags had to pull it together.

  Her father wrapped his arms around her. “Hush now. This is shocking news. It’s normal you would have a strong reaction.”

  Her usually sharp father had somehow missed what was happening to Mags. Then again, they’d gotten terrible news. His head was likely elsewhere. Mags loved Drew Tao very much. She adored him because he made Betty so happy. Even more, he had killed his father, the former alpha, who had threatened Mags sexually and driven her family out of the pack. Drew’s absence for ten years had been hard on Mag’s sister, but they’d worked things out themselves and had been in bliss since Christmas, so much Mags could feel her sister’s happiness over the phone. She hated the idea he’d been harmed in any way.

  Only it had been a kiss from a human mystery writer who had set her wolf on fire, anxious to come out. The mate she would never have.

  Because humans were dying in Los Lobos, which meant she’d been very, very right. A mating between a human and a wolf always ended the same way—with death.

  Mags shuddered in her father’s embrace.

  “We have to get to Betty.” Her father petted her hair.

  She had never wanted to see Los Lobos again. For her sister, she would go. If it gave her some space from Clayton Davies and his brown eyes, then the more the better.

  ***

  Mags stood outside Be
tty’s house, trying to pretend her hands weren’t shaking. Her father’s strong presence steadied her. She ached everywhere. Her bones, eyes, hell, even the follicles of her hair began to hurt the second she stepped onto pack land.

  “I’m sorry, Mr. Holden.” Colt Hannigan, dominant wolf and Drew’s cousin, spoke through clenched teeth. “I’m sorry I have to keep you standing outside of the house when Betty is inside. She can’t let you in, only I can. I can’t do it because you’re not on Ryker’s list. Ravage went to get him. As soon as they get back, I am sure Ryker will put you on the list and then you’ll be welcome to enter.”

  “My daughter is inside the house, perfectly capable of smelling us out there. Her mate is injured. She needs us. We can’t see her until Ryker, the wolf who once ran my family off pack land, determines whether we’re allowed inside to visit my daughter, the mate of the alpha.”

  “Yes.”

  Her father clenched his teeth. “There’s nothing about this that’s acceptable.”

  “Yes.” Ryker’s voice, quiet and deadly, traveled through the night. “But that’s how things are.”

  Like a figure from her nightmares, Ryker stepped out of the woods. Mags gripped her father’s arm, everything inside her struggling not to run.

  Betty needed her.

  She could not run.

  Her father’s tension filled the air around them. He wasn’t a beta wolf. Even the dominants trembled beneath Ryker’s glare. That much, she remembered. This time, however, Ryker kept them from his daughter, and her father wouldn’t back down.

  Soothe. Her wolf cried out. Sometimes it helped to be an omega.