Big, Bad Gruff

CONTENTS Introduction Prologue 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 Epilogue Also by Eve Langlais Copyright Big, Bad, Gruff © Eve Langlais Cover Art © by Melony Paradise of ParadiseCoverDesign.com Produced in Canada Published by Eve Langlais http://www.EveLanglais.com eBook: ISBN: 978 177 384 3568 Print ISBN: 978 177 384 3575 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED This book is a work of fiction and the characters, events and dialogue found within the story are of the author's imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, either living or deceased, is completely coincidental. No part of this book may be reproduced or shared in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including but not limited to digital copying, file sharing, audio recording, email and printing without permission in writing from the author. INTRODUCTION THIS DETECTIVE IS BRINGING THE HANDCUFFS—AND THE BITE. When Brandy finds herself accidentally mated to a werewolf, she’s totally cool with it. If only Detective Gruff felt the same way. The man is so darned scared he runs away to a remote cabin in the woods. Lucky for him, Brandy isn’t about to give up. Billy never wanted to get hitched. He’d seen firsthand with his parents how ugly it could get. He never counted on meeting Brandy, a feisty nurse with a bubbly outlook on life who looks past his grumpy facade. It isn’t just danger that brings them together. She is temptation itself. When she’s taken from him, he realizes he’ll do anything, even unleash the big bad wolf, to save her. Find more howling heroes at: EveLanglais.com Kodiak Point Feral Pack Bitten Point Dragon Point Their Furever Mates Pack Freakn' Shifters PROLOGUE Years ago, when Billy was just a kid… “Bitch, I’ll give you something to whine about!” “Fuck you,” was the screamed reply. Billy lay in his bed, listening as his parents fought. Again. He should have been used to it by now. After all, they’d been doing it as far back as he could remember, usually over stupid stuff. For example, tonight Mom made meatloaf, which nobody liked, yet they got it at least once a week because when the ground beef went on sale, it was cheap as fuck to make—or so Mom claimed. To render it edible required a lot of ketchup, a shit-ton according to his dad, only when Billy’s dad went to squirt some on the dry-looking hunk, all he got was that farting noise and a little squirt of the red stuff. Slamming it down, Dad snapped, “Get me a new bottle.” Which led to Mom saying, “I ain’t got one. Ain’t doing groceries until next week.” No ketchup? Billy eyed his portion of meat and inwardly cringed. Salt could only do so much. “I can’t fucking eat this.” Dad shoved at the plate, a discontented set to his jaw. “Don’t be such a fucking baby. I got some ketchup packets in the car. Billy, go grab them.” Billy fled quickly to the rusted vehicle parked outside their mobile home. Duct tape held the rear passenger door closed. Strapping wound around the bumper to hold it in place. Mom had been told last time she got pulled over by the cops to junk it, but as she claimed, “It’s mine and I’ll drive it if I want to.” She ignored the tickets stuffed in her glove box. Billy scrounged through the car, checking the glovebox, the console, even the floor, to find some ketchup packets. He found three vinegars, a ton of salt, some pepper, and two ketchup sachets of dubious age. He brought them back in and dropped them onto the table. Dad snatched them and squirted them on the hunk of now-cold meat. Barely enough red stuff for two bites. Dad eyed it with a grimace. “This is bullshit. How am I supposed to eat this garbage?” Billy would have preferred not to as well, but that would just cause more trouble. Instead, he faked it, pretending to eat while dropping hunks on the floor for their fat pit bull, Buddy, who gobbled them up. What did it say that only the dog liked it? “It’s not that bad.” Mom shoveled hers in and chewed open-mouthed to prove a point. It didn’t go over well. Dad, hungry after working all day, was pissed. “Don’t you get an attitude with me, you lazy fucking cow. I go to work all day and get to come home to this crap.” The plate went flying off the table with a crash. Mom shoved away from the table. “You asshole. You think I got time to make you gourmet fucking meals? I work too.” “As a cashier.” Dad sneered. “Which is harder than slugging garbage into a truck.” “At least I bring home a good paycheck,” Dad countered, getting to his feet and glaring at Mom. She snorted. “Which you drink away or gamble in those poker games. I’m the one paying most of the bills and making all the meals.” “Because that’s a woman’s job.” That would be the point Billy began oozing out of his chair carefully, quietly, lest they notice and drag him into the upcoming rumble. His parents stood nose to nose. “You’re a sexist pig!” Mom retorted. “Says the woman who rarely vacuums.” “Would it kill you fucking run it once in a while? I do everything around here.” And so it went… Billy hid in his room, a thing he did a lot, while his parents battled. It was hours of on-and-off screaming. Crashing. And then the most annoying part, the sex as they made up. Loud and boisterous, there was no way to muffle the noise. No way to escape the hellhole of his family life. His parents, for all that they hated each other,