Savage Hunger Read online

  Savage Hunger

  Savage Shifters

  Milly Taiden

  Edited by

  Tina Winograd

  Latin Goddess Press, Inc.

  Contents

  Savage Hunger

  Untitled

  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

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  Also by Milly Taiden

  Also by Milly Taiden

  Also by Milly Taiden

  Also by Milly Taiden

  Also by Milly Taiden

  Also by Milly Taiden

  Also by Milly Taiden

  Also by Milly Taiden

  Savage Hunger

  Savage Shifters

  NEW YORK TIMES and USA TODAY BESTSELLING AUTHOR

  MILLY TAIDEN

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  http://eepurl.com/pt9q1

  Isaline Primrose doesn’t let anyone cut the line at her mom’s bakery, no matter how tall or sexy he his. His custom suit, expensive haircut, and deep brown eyes are making her want things. Very dirty things. It’s totally fine to look even if he is a bossy jerk. But is it okay to have naked fantasies with the commanding business man?

  Beast Harte doesn’t do small towns, but Full Moon Bay has something other towns don’t: the perfect building for his deceased father’s long-time dream. When he meets his mate, life should be perfect. It isn’t. Pissing her off was not in his plans, but he wasn’t used to taking orders, only giving them. Now he has his work cut out for him.

  Isaline sets up some challenges to see if Beast is the right man for her. What neither knows is other players are at work with their own hidden agendas. Beast guarantees two things—he's getting his mate and his building, and he won’t let anyone get in his way.

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are fictitious or have been used fictitiously, and are not to be construed as real in any way. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales, or organizations is entirely coincidental.

  Published By

  Latin Goddess Press

  Winter Springs, FL 32708

  http://millytaiden.com

  Savage Hunger

  Copyright © 2017 by Milly Taiden

  Cover by: Willsin Rowe

  Edited by: Tina Winograd

  All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  Property of Milly Taiden

  March 2018

  Created with Vellum

  —For my husband. My fire-breathing dragon.

  You are my rock. You give me strength. Walking into that room that day and meeting you was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. You’ve made me whole.

  I love you.

  1

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  Beast Harte glanced out the glass panel wall of his Fifth Avenue office. Snow fell over Manhattan giving the city a wonderland appeal. Tourists filled the streets. He liked tourists. They brought his hotels lots of business. But it wasn’t his hotels that worried him at the moment. It was the delay in his latest project in the town of Full Moon Bay.

  A soft knock at his door took his attention from the fat white flakes falling faster every minute.

  “Come in,” he barked, turning to face whoever was going to annoy him now.

  The door opened and his VP of Acquisitions, Fierce Bradford, walked in.

  “I have news on project Little Rose.”

  Little Rose. That’s the name his father had given the lot Beast had set his sights on for his newest condo project. His father had started the Harte Corporation buying small buildings and renting out storefronts. Beast had taken it to a new level ten years ago. He focused on luxury hotels and created the Harte Group, combining the construction, leasing, hotels, and other businesses his parents and he owned under one umbrella.

  “Tell me you got the renter to sign the contract.”

  Fierce raised a brow. “We’ve been back and forth with this for months and you think she’d just sign it because you sent a fruit basket?”

  “Uh, yeah?” he growled. “Wasn’t that the idea when we sent it? To soften her up?”

  Fierce gave a sharp laugh. “You’re getting funny in your old age.”

  Beast snarled, “I’m younger than you.”

  “Yeah, but not as good looking. Wolves age better than dragons.”

  Beast scowled. “So what the hell is the news, that she didn’t sign? That’s not news. That’s been our problem for six months now.”

  “Yeah,” Fierce nodded with a slight twitch of his lips. “But I came up with a great plan. What if we offer to move her bakery out of the building and pay her rent for a year? Heck, we can even give her a new lease at Analai Hills, maybe even rent free for a few years if she goes for that.”

  “Isn’t your pack from Analai Hills?”

  Fierce grinned. “That’s right. The Silver Tip Pack has an empty storefront we can give her and there should be no problem moving her over.”

  Beast raised a brow. “If she agrees.”

  Fierce sighed and sat down. “If. Big if. So, I could personally go there and—”

  “No. I’ll go.”

  Fierce’s eyes widened. “You will?”

  “Stop looking at me like that. You know when I want something done, I handle it myself if it’s taking too long.”

  Fierce gave a loud chuckle. “Yeah, you will. I just didn’t realize you’d lost patience already.”

  “It’s been six months of trying to nicely get this woman to give me back my property.”

  “You make it sound like she stole from you. She does pay rent. Early. Every month. And it’s not her fault your father made a deal with her back in the day.”

  He snorted. “Nobody has a lease as good as she does. She knows she won’t get anything like that again and is trying to keep her contract intact.” He glared at Fierce. “It doesn’t matter. I’m getting my building and project Little Rose will be back on track.”

  “You might scare them with that attitude, which leads me to believe this is not all about the project. You’re pissed over something else and I have an idea what,” Fierce told him. “Let me guess, Rinelle LeFevre hasn’t gotten the picture that you are no longer interested in her and she doesn’t know how to take no for an answer?”

  Beast growled. “Maybe.”

  “It was bound to happen. She’s a model. She’s the one who breaks hearts, not the other way around.”

  “Too fucking bad. I’m no longer interested in listening to her whine about seeing her photos without makeup in magazines
.”

  Fierce burst into raucous laughter. “Priceless. That chick is so full of herself, I don’t know what possessed you to go out with her to begin with.”

  Beast knew. He’d been courting her father for a land sale and going through her made things easier. Now, he didn’t want to spend any time with her and she didn’t get the picture. Going to handle the Little Rose deal was easier than wondering when she’d show up at his penthouse trying to get back together with him.

  “I’m done waiting around. I’m going to handle this myself.”

  “Yeah,” Fierce chuckled. “You’re running from a needy woman. Did you think that maybe she’ll still be around when you get back?”

  He motioned his friend to get out of his office when his phone rang. “Did you think that maybe she’ll have moved on to someone else when I do?”

  Fierce got up and headed for the door. “You can hope. Call me if you run into any trouble.”

  Beast picked up the phone and sighed. “Hello, Mother.”

  “You can call me mom, son. M-O-M. Try it. Sounds nice. Like you care that I’m calling.”

  He ran his fingers through his short hair and clenched his jaw. “Mom. How are you?”

  “Good, sweetheart. I miss you. When are you coming to visit?” she asked, her tone sugary sweet.

  His mother was good at making a dragon feel like a human teenager.

  “I’m about to go on a business trip to handle something. I’ll try to swing by when I return.”

  “Try?” His mother gasped. “Try? How about if I had only tried to give birth to you? How about if instead I’d have let you sit in my belly, wanting to be born?”

  He rolled his eyes and tried to keep his lips from lifting into a grin. “Mom, I’m going on two hundred years old.”

  “So?”

  “I’m a little old for you to use that line on me.”

  “I think you need to learn from your sister and get your ass over here at least once a week.”

  He leaned back in his office chair and turned to look out the window to the continued falling flakes. “You want me to be like Storm?”

  “Not like her, but maybe try to visit more often. I miss you, son.”

  He sighed, hearing his mother’s sadness through the line. “I’ll see you when I get back. I promise.”

  “Thank you. I’ll make you some stew. I know you love my beef stew.”

  “I do. I have to go.”

  “I love you, son. You might have that whole dragon fire in you, but to me, you’re always my cute dragonling that needed his momma during his first shift.”

  He grinned and turned back to his desk. “I love you, too, Mom.”

  He hung up and picked up the file on the project Little Rose. A few hours and he’d get the contract signed. Nothing and nobody was going to stop this from happening. His condos were going up in the small town of Full Moon Bay.

  2

  Isaline Primrose couldn’t believe her eyes. “Is that snow?”

  Becky, her assistant at the bakery when her mom wasn’t around, nodded. “Yeah. It’s a little soon to be snowing, isn’t it?”

  “You mean because we had that nice warm front and you were wearing spring clothing and now you’re back to heavy coats?” Isaline sighed. “I really hoped there would be no more snow.”

  Becky chuckled and handed her a tray of cupcakes to frost. “You love snow.”

  Isaline nodded vigorously. “Oh, I do. It’s so pretty and stuff, but I just bought new spring dresses and wanted to wear them all before it got cold again.”

  “Then wear them. Don’t worry if it’s cold.” Becky placed a piece of Isaline’s famous chocolate cake on a plate and handed it to a customer. He smiled and winked as he handed her a large bill to pay for the cake.

  Isaline piped lemon frosting onto her finger and licked it. She groaned at the taste of the sweetness. “I can’t. God, I love cake and frosting, and fuck, if Mom sees me she’ll have kittens.”

  Becky gave the guy his change and turned to face Isaline. “Oh, stop. You’ve been so good. You’ve stuck to eating healthier. You’ve made it your business to exercise more and cut down sweets to only your cheat day.”

  Isaline shook her head. “Not this week. I’ve been struggling.”

  Becky patted her on the shoulder. “I understand. Be kind to yourself, Isa.”

  She nodded and passed the heavy frosting bag to Becky. It was time for dinner with Zuri and Sage, and she didn’t want to be late. With Sage visiting only once a month to give her mom a week with baby Baron, things were crazy.

  As if that wasn’t bad enough, Zuri stayed deep in her mountain, helping Savage handle his bears and raising little Cammi. She and Zuri never had much together time anymore. Sister dates once a month was all Isa got unless she went to visit them, or they happened to come to town for business.

  She slipped on her puffy coat and shoved a fluffy beanie with a big ball on her head. “See you tomorrow, Becky.”

  “Oh, Isa!” Becky called out when she was about to grab the door handle.

  She turned to face Becky with raised brows. “What’s up?”

  “Do you mind opening tomorrow? I have to take my nephew to the doctor. My sister has an early class at the university and I promised.”

  “Sure thing. I’ll be here. Not like I have a life anyway.”

  Becky smiled wide. “Patience, grasshopper.”

  Isaline rolled her eyes. “That’s what my dietician says when I tell her I’m still having chocolate dreams. The kind where I am in tub full of chocolate sauce and want it to stop so I don’t wake up hungry.”

  “Yeah, that sounds delicious and rough when you’re trying to be good.”

  Isaline groaned. “Tell me about it. No worries on the schedule. I’ll be here, and you can take your time.”

  Outside the bakery, she cuddled deeper into the fur neckline of her coat and glanced down at the piling inches of snow on the ground. A vacation to some place warm sounded nice. That or somewhere she could do something other than stare at the scale, wondering what else she could do to stop thinking about food. It was a constant dilemma seeing as she loved to eat.

  The restaurant was only a ten-minute walk from the bakery, and she knew walking was healthier than moving her car. Besides, she had her snow boots on. She was warm and cozy.

  Couples whizzed past her to the movie theater. The latest romantic movie was out, and the poor guys were giving their women sad puppy faces but it wasn’t working from the looks of that line.

  Isaline licked her lips, glad she’d remembered to put lip balm on as she walked out. It was damn cold. Why the hell had she decided to walk?

  The Big Bite was her and her sisters’ favorite restaurant. She caught sight of Zuri and Sage the minute she walked in and rushed over. Angel, the owner, came by to greet her and took her coat. Her family had been coming to The Big Bite all her life. The restaurant reminded her of her dad and Sunday dinner out with the family.

  “So,” she squealed, hugging both her sisters again, no longer covered in a puffy coat. “How are you?”

  Sage grinned and tossed newly rainbow-colored locks behind her shoulder. “Good. I have great news.”

  Zuri yawned and picked up her water and took a sip. “Please forgive me if I fall asleep. I’m really tired.”

  Isaline and Sage gave each other a knowing smile then stared at Zuri. “Are you pregnant?”

  Zuri smiled brightly, her happiness shining on her face. “Yes! It’s crazy but we’re having another baby.”

  All their screaming and cheers drew the attention of the adjoining patrons and people clapped at the news.

  Isaline’s favorite strawberry iced tea was placed in front of her along with a big tray of fresh baked bread at the center of the table.

  “We already ordered for you,” Sage told her as she picked up the sliced carb.

  Isaline nodded quietly, watching both her sisters and noticing the changes they each showed from the last time they saw ea
ch other.

  Zuri had really come into herself. She was a lot bolder and more outspoken than in the past. She’d grown her hair long and wore it in a French braid, probably easier to maintain.

  Sage still had her colorful locks, but there was a relaxed look about her. Sparks of happiness shone in both their eyes. Isaline’s chest tightened and a knot filled her throat. She had been thinking a lot about relationships and it was clear to her why she’d been so withdrawn from the dating scene.

  Thinking about what her sisters had, she realized she could never settle for less than the type of love they had found.

  “So, what have you been up to?” Sage asked, her blue eyes focused on Isaline. “Mom told us you’ve been really quiet and she’s worried.”

  Isaline shrugged in her oversized sweater. “Nothing. Why are you looking at me like that?”

  “Because,” Zuri chimed in, leaning forward on the table. “We were wondering what happened to you and Gavin. The guy you had been seeing recently.”

  Isaline grinned. Her sisters had been really busy and were totally out of it, because she and Gavin had ended things months ago.