Wolf Games (The Vampire Games Book 4) Read online

  ALSO BY CAROLINE PECKHAM

  THE VAMPIRE GAMES: SEASON 1

  V GAMES

  V GAMES: FRESH FROM THE GRAVE

  V GAMES: DEAD BEFORE DAWN

  THE VAMPIRE GAMES: SEASON 2

  WOLF GAMES

  WOLF GAMES: ISLAND OF SHADE

  THE RISE OF ISAAC SERIES

  CREEPING SHADOW

  BLEEDING SNOW

  TURNING TIDE

  WEEPING SKY

  FAILING LIGHT

  THE RISE OF ISAAC NOVELLAS

  FALLING FIRE (PART ONE)

  FALLING FIRE (PART TWO)

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  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  To my parents for always believing in me and supporting me every step of the way on my journey to becoming a full-time indie author.

  To my sister for all her hard work, proofreading and picking holes in my stories to make them the best they can be. And for writing your own books so that we will always be the biggest fans of each others work even if no one else reads them!

  To my friend Victoria for mulling over ideas with me and always putting up with my writing ramblings.

  To Kathleen for your continued support of my dreams, believing that I'm not actually crazy and could one day make this a reality!

  And to all the fans who have loyally stood by my books as well as all the new ones who decided to take a chance on them. There are no authors without readers and I'll never stop being grateful for your support.

  This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the author. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author's rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

  Published by Caroline Peckham 2018

  Copyright 2018 Caroline Peckham

  All rights reserved

  Caroline Peckham has asserted her right under the copyright, designs and patents act, 1998, to be identified as the author of this work.

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

  THE VAMPIRE GAMES SEASON 1 RECAP

  As told by Jameson Fairfax

  Spoiler Alert for the V Games Trilogy (The Vampire Games, Season 1):

  If you haven't read V Games books 1 – 3 and you would like to, do not read this recap! Go and buy V Games Book 1 right here.

  OR

  If you'd like to read and enjoy Wolf Games without reading the V Games trilogy, or you'd simply like a Season 1 refresher as told by Jameson, read on!

  After my friend Varick – who was a pirate turned Vampire (yah, I know, right?) - got captured by the seriously messed up Van Helsing family and turned into their slave (no, not the sexy kind) for 200 hundred years, he was forced to kidnap girls from prisons across Europe and throw them into the V Games. So what are the V Games, I hear you cry? Messed up, dark as shit, blood games. As in, a group of human girls were forced to wear old-fashioned dresses, handed wooden stakes and thrown onto an island where they were hunted down in seriously screwed-up rounds. Oh yeah, and the whole thing was filmed live for a group of horny men with way too much money and not a scrap of decency.

  I mean, you couldn't make this shit up. And If you did, you'd have to be sick in the head...

  So where did I - Jameson Fairfax, awesome Werewolf legend - fit into this shit-show? I'm glad you asked. After I was traded to the Helsings by my pack leader, Ulvic, then tested on and thrown into the death games to shake things up, I decided to pull off a huge break out. Okay, so maybe I can't take all the credit. But after two rounds in the V Games, someone had to stick it to the Helsings. And it just so happened to be me and my friends.

  But of course, pissing off a load of Hunters who had both the physical strength and despicable amount of money to hunt us down after our explosive escape, we knew it wasn't going to be over after the fat lady sang. Or, I sang. Most memorably whilst driving through a fence in an SUV I'd stolen. But I digress...

  So after a few days of peace in The Sanctuary (which sounds so much cooler than it is. It's basically a safe house for Immortals: Vampires, Werewolves, Sirens, Shifters, you name it. But seriously, has no one heard of cable in this place? I'm losing the will to live here!), my friends and I attended another V Games undercover, which was home to the 'King of Death', Rockley Jones: a Hunter who may have been even sicker than the Van Helsings. We eventually got our chance to blow the place to hell, kill a tonne of Hunters (Helsings included, minus their daughter, Mercy, who switched sides and went super badass), and flew our asses back to The Sanctuary.

  All sounds pretty wrapped up and peaceful, doesn't it?

  Which it was for some, especially after a cure for Vampirism was discovered and my best friend, Varick, realised his 200-year-long dream of becoming human again! (oh, and did I mention he found the love of his life, Selena, along the way, who also happened to hold the Vampire cure in her blood?).

  The problem is, I didn't get my peaceful ending. You see, there's this girl, Cass – well, I call her Firefly actually – she stood at my side through all that hell, and my heart beats for her like no one else. But there's one more thing I have to do before I get my happily ever after...

  I have to head out on a mission to save two of my brethren after a Helsing sent them to my pack leader's father. From what I heard, he's a real psycho. And the problem is, my pack leader has done some really shitty things lately. You see, Ulvic has the ability to control me. So any order he gives me, I have to obey. He used to be a friend, right up until the moment he commanded me to kill 90% of my pack to save his own skin. Yeah, he's an asshole. And now I need his help.

  What could go wrong, huh?

  Wolf

  games

  CAROLINE PECKHAM

  “I could recognize him by touch alone, by smell;

  I would know him blind,

  by the way his breaths came and his feet struck the earth.

  I would know him in death,

  at the end of the world.”

  - Madeline Miller

  Prologue

  When I couldn't go a second longer without air, I swam up, dizzy and disorientated. I didn't know if I could make it to the surface. I couldn't feel anything but the ache and strain of my muscles carrying me onward.

  Darkness found me before I reached air, my fingers grazing the waves above. So close, and yet not enough. Not enough to save myself.

  I'm sorry you never knew the truth...

  I took in a mouthful of water as my lungs cried out and my muscles gave up. I lost my senses, my body going still as I drifted down into the depths of the ocean, disappearing into the endless abyss.

  Jameson

  There were two things everyone knew about me. One: I was hot. Like hide-your-wife hot. And two: I was the most positive guy in the world. Ever.

  These were cold hard facts. If the FBI had a file on me, those two descriptions would be underlined and highlighted in bright yellow. They were practically synonymous with my name, Jameson Fairfax. Listed right before Werewolf, legend, and lover
of all things spicy.

  I didn't spend a lot of time looking in the mirror, didn't need to really. I'd been admired my whole life. I'd make a wager that I'd turned my fair share of straight men gay. I didn't need mirrors to remind me I was beautiful. Women's sighs did that. Funny thing was, when I looked in the mirror, as I was right then, I didn't see any of that. I mean, yeah, it was kinda hard to miss those eyes that shone like sunlight on a hay-bale, and those shaved-in-at-the-sides dark gold locks. Oh, and the roguish stubble on my jaw that screamed modern-day Viking, I suppose I couldn't miss that.

  But what I actually saw, was an asshole. A killer. And someone who'd recently been betrayed by his pack leader: the man who I'd been loyal to for nearly a hundred years. He'd taken me under his wing, loved me. But his command over me was binding, and he'd eventually abused that power.

  Since that day, I hadn't turned into a wolf. I kinda missed it. But I was frightened of it, too. I remembered the last time in graphic detail, could taste the blood, hear the cracking of bones. Nope. I was good pretending everything was fine.

  Except it wasn't. Not even close.

  I pushed a hand into my hair, trying to make it lie flat. Don't think I'd ever done that before. But I'd be seeing Cass today. As I did every day. The two of us had hardly spent a moment apart since we'd officially moved into The Sanctuary of Immortals. She was a Vampire and I was a Werewolf. We were practically star-crossed.

  The old manor was rife with secret cubby holes. Corners I could steal kisses in. I soaked up our time together like it was sunshine itself. And I actually did forgo the sun for the sake of spending time with her, seeing as she couldn't step outside. Not unless she wanted to turn into a pile of soot. Which I imaged she didn't, seeing as she'd fought pretty hard recently to stay alive. The two of us had been through hell and back together in the V Games, from being locked up, forced to fight Vampires in bloody death shows, to making our epic escape from the Isle of Lidelse. So I didn't imagine dying was on her to-do list.

  Today, I was feeling oddly self-conscious. Something felt different, though I couldn't fix on what exactly. I'd never been rejected by a woman, unless I counted my mother. Which I tended not to. But recently, every time I saw Cass with her deep red locks and emerald eyes, my knees threatened to give out and a hummingbird took the place of my heart. If I laid my heart on the line for her, would she really want it?

  Something else was bothering me, too. Today, my old friend, Varick, was leaving The Sanctuary with his newfound love, Selena Grey. She, who'd miraculously cured him of the Vampire curse, returning him to his human form. Something to do with her blood...I hadn't listened much to her father's scientific ramblings. I'd just been happy to see my friend alive and free from the curse he'd despised for so many years.

  At the thought of Varick, my past crashed into the forefront of my mind like a wave on jagged rocks.

  'Drown him or love him. Your choice.'

  I'd not thought about the note in so long, I'd nearly forgotten how much it defined my entrance into this world almost two hundred years ago. It had been left with me when I'd been abandoned in an alley. I was a day old. Presumably my mother had written that note. But I'd never found out. I'd once believed whoever had written it had been indifferent to my existence. But as I grew older, I'd changed my mind. Why would someone take the time to write that note if they didn't have an opinion on what happened to me? So, I came to a lighter, more positive conclusion. One that had helped me sleep a little easier at night. That they'd written that cruel, little note to trigger some love in the heart of whoever found me. Maybe I was delusional, or maybe I was just a natural-born optimist. But at eight years old, I already had a lot more dreams than an unloved kid with no future should have had.

  I remembered the day I'd sneaked out of the orphanage and headed to the docks of Southampton. I'd often watched the ships come and go from my window. I'd promised myself I'd leave England one day, sail away from the people who didn't want to adopt me, from Mrs Drake who hit me every time I did something reckless (which was often), and from the poor life that awaited me living on the streets. I'd never once cried about those things. Because, as I watched the ships sail off toward the horizon, day in day out, I saw a possibility. A life that I would find my way to, one way or another. It had been waiting for me. Staring me in the face my whole life. And I'd never forget the day I finally attained it.

  Southampton, 1789

  I made way down the steep and narrow streets of the city in the only clothes I owned. Didn't include shoes. My knuckles were bloody where Mrs Drake had thrashed them with a ruler that morning. She'd caught me climbing out of the window again where I could get a good view of the sea.

  The docks were so far away, much further than they'd seemed from that window. I'd never seen the ocean up close. But I knew I'd love it. The sun had been calling me to the sea all my life, sparkling on the water, twinkling, glinting, promising adventure. The briny air prickled my nose, the taste of salt sat on my lips. Today was going to be a great day.

  I was panting by the time I made it to shore. Men in large boots and fancy coats marched around the docks, nearly knocking me over more than once. Fishermen shouted at me to move and I scurried further into the crowd, edging closer to the moored ships.

  I made my way to the grandest of them all; a barque with golden mermaids clinging to her sides and carvings swirling in the wood. It gleamed like a summer's day.

  I stepped onto the pier and someone shouldered past me, knocking me forward. I glimpsed the eyes of a kid around the same age as me. His hood was pulled up, but his dark locks poked out of his cloak.

  He gave me a sideways grin, pressed his index finger to his lips then ran toward the ship, darting between the crewmen on the walkway. My heart lurched as the boy leapt from the pier, catching hold of a cannon hole and heaving himself up through the small gap beside the cannon. I glanced left and right, but no one had seen him.

  I waited, giddy with excitement and fear.

  A few minutes later, the boy wriggled back out of the hole and dropped onto the deck, darting in my direction. He passed me in a flash of movement and I made a snap decision to follow, moving quicker than I ever had in my life as I padded after him. He was fast, but I was determined to keep up.

  I almost lost him amongst the sea of legs, but there, just ahead, I spotted him hurrying up to a King's ship, readying to launch himself onto it.

  I fled to his side, catching the back of his cloak.

  “Hey!” he barked, spinning around. “Get off,” he growled.

  “What are you doing?” I asked, ignoring his angry tone, bouncing on the balls of my feet.

  His dark green eyes slid over my head toward the crowd.“You're gonna get me caught.”

  “Caught doing what?” I asked, gleeful. This was the most excited I'd felt for years, possibly ever. And nothing had really happened.

  As his cloak shifted, I caught sight of a gilded blade attached to his belt. “Woah,” I cooed. “Where'd you get that?”

  He eyed me for a few moments, his gaze dropping to my bare feet and tattered clothes. “Wanna see?” he whispered, turning and flying off the pier before I could answer. Just like before, he caught hold of the cannon hole and clambered inside. I gazed after him, mouth agape until he poked his head back out of the hole and gestured for me to follow.

  I glanced around, but no one was paying attention so I shuffled to the edge of the pier, assessing the gap.

  I'd climbed on top of the orphanage roof a few times, and I'd had to jump between windowsills to do it. This wasn't much further. And Lord knew how much I wanted adventure.

  I half shut my eyes, dove forward, smashed into the cannon hole and lost my grip. My stomach flew upwards. Hands locked around my wrists and my new friend dragged me into the hole.

  “You could have died!” He sounded elated. “I didn't think you'd actually do it.”

  I started grinning stupidly at him. “I'm Jameson,” I said, holding out a hand.

>   He laughed as he took it.“Varick.” He turned, hurrying away. “Come on! Gotta be quick.”

  I followed, weaving through the dark space, full of cannons and rolled up hammocks.

  I knew I'd get on a ship one day! Take that Mrs Drake!

  I followed Varick at top speed. He led me up on deck and we scuttled into an enormous cabin beyond the helm.

  A huge desk sat at the forefront, a large, extravagant map rolled out atop it. A map of the actual world. I'd never seen one before. I scrambled up into the captain's chair, gazing down at it, my heart beating wildly in my chest. “I'm going to see the whole thing one day.”

  Varick was rummaging in drawers on the opposite side of the grand room, not listening.

  “I'm going to have a fine coat and a big hat and a-”

  Varick chucked something onto the desk. A Flintlock pistol, engraved in the hilt with the signature. J. Fairfax.

  I took it, my hands starting to tremble.

  “And a gun.” Varick smiled, nudging it toward me. “Take it. It's yours for helping me.”

  I'd never had a surname. J. Fairfax. Jameson Fairfax...Captain Jameson Fairfax. I liked the sound of that. I tucked it into my waistband, gazing at Varick. “But I didn't do anything.”

  “There's plenty more ships in the dock.” Varick grinned and I mirrored him.

  He opened the muslin bag in his hand, revealing treasure, glinting and sparkling like the sun on the sea. I jumped down from the chair, reaching for it. He snatched it away. “You aren't going to run and tell your mummy about this, are you?” His face grew stern.

  I shook my head. “Don't have a mum...or a dad. Or, well, anyone. Except Mrs Drake, and she beats me on a daily basis.”

  Varick surveyed me for a moment, before turning and heading toward the door.