Forbidden: Wolf Stepbrother Read online

  Forbidden

  Alexis Davie

  Text Copyright © 2019 by Alexis Davie

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

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

  First printing, 2019

  Publisher

  Secret Woods Books

  [email protected]

  www.SecretWoodsBooks.com

  Contents

  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

  Other Books You Will Love

  Thank You!

  About the Author

  1

  “I can’t believe that’s our first year of college over,” Madeline grinned to her best friend, Charlie.

  “I know. I mean, where did all of that time go? It still feels like it was yesterday when we walked into the lecture hall for the first time,” Charlie agreed.

  “We were so scared,” laughed Madeline.

  “Yeah, until the first party we went to and realized everyone else was the same. And at least we had each other. Imagine going there all alone, not knowing anyone at all,” Charlie added.

  Madeline shuddered at the thought of facing the whole of her daunting first day of college alone. Even now, after a year and with a ton of new friends, she still wasn’t sure she could do it without Charlie by her side.

  “Are you looking forward to the party tonight?” Charlie asked, changing the subject.

  Madeline shrugged.

  “Kind of, but in some ways, I guess I’m kind of over parties. Like, how is a house party in our two-bit town going to live up to a college party?”

  “Because Jackson Mowbray is throwing it,” Charlie reminded her. “He’s the king of college parties, or have you forgotten?”

  “I haven’t forgotten,” Madeline laughed. “I guess I just don’t think they’re as impressive now that I’ve been to, like, two hundred of them.”

  “Oh, come on, it’s got to be better than sitting moping around at home. It is Friday night, after all,” Charlie said, nudging her.

  Madeline nodded and forced herself to smile. She didn’t know why she wasn’t really feeling it for tonight, but she knew after a couple of hours of being cooped up in the house, she would be ready for it.

  “And it’s not just tonight. We have the whole summer ahead of us. I can’t wait to just be able to chill out with no lectures or assignments or anything,” Charlie said.

  “You mean you can’t wait to catch up with Scott,” Madeline teased her.

  “That too,” Charlie admitted.

  “I honestly can’t believe you two have lasted in different colleges. Hell, in different states,” Madeline said.

  “What can I say? Love is stronger than distance,” Charlie said, a faraway look in her eyes.

  Madeline made a retching noise and both of the girls laughed.

  “So, what about you? Are you looking forward to the summer, or are you above that as well as parties now?” Charlie asked.

  “Oh, I’m looking forward to the summer. Believe me, I am. The only thing I’m not looking forward to is having to spend so much time back at home.”

  “Oh, come on, Madeline. It’s been seven years since your mom passed away. And Ruth makes your dad happy. Can’t you just be happy for him?”

  “I am happy for him,” Madeline said. Charlie raised an eyebrow. “No, really, I am. Ruth isn’t the problem. It’s Ethan, her son, whom I’m dreading having to be around. God, I hate him so much. He’s so full of himself. He’s arrogant and smug and just everything I hate in a person. And the worst part about it is that he’s two years older than me.”

  “I fail to see how him being twenty is a problem,” Charlie frowned.

  “It’s not his age as such. It’s the fact that he’s two years ahead of me at college. So, he thinks he knows so much more than me. Also, his school is on a different schedule. He finished his finals a week earlier than me and he goes back two weeks later than me. I don’t even get a day or two without him in my face.”

  Charlie grinned at Madeline and Madeline frowned.

  “What?” she demanded.

  “You like him, don’t you?” Charlie said. “That’s why you’re all flustered at the thought of seeing him all summer.”

  “I’m not flustered. And unless ‘like’ suddenly means ‘hate’, then no, I don’t like him,” Madeline said haughtily.

  “Oh, you so like him,” Charlie teased her. “Just admit it. He’s drop-dead gorgeous.”

  “He’s my brother, you sicko,” Madeline laughed.

  “No, he isn’t. He’s your stepbrother. No blood relative. And your dad’s only been with Ruth a year. You’ve spent most of it at college. It’s not like you two grew up as brother and sister or anything.”

  “I guess not. But I still don’t like him. I honestly don’t get what anyone would find attractive about him,” Madeline insisted.

  “Except his gorgeous gray eyes. His immaculate hair. His toned body. Need I go on?” Charlie grinned.

  “Okay, I admit he’s good-looking. But he’s such an asshat about it. Maybe I could understand someone being attracted to him if they didn’t have to hear him talk. Like, ever.”

  Charlie rolled her eyes, but she let the topic drop, much to Madeline’s relief. Madeline felt repulsed by even the suggestion that she could find Ethan attractive. It just wasn’t plausible. It was like saying she could be attracted sexually to a slice of pizza. It had its good points, but it was hardly something she would date. And that was Ethan. He was pretty to look at, but that was it.

  2

  Ethan was sitting in a recliner at home, scrolling through Instagram, when his mom, Ruth, came into the room. She was dressed in a black shift dress and a black jacket with a red and white polka dot scarf draped around her neck. Ethan looked up from his cell phone long enough to frown in her direction before going back to scrolling.

  “You’re only going to pick Madeline up, Mom. She’s not royalty, you know. The jeans you were wearing earlier would have been fine,” he said.

  “Actually, I wanted to talk to you about that,” said Ruth. She came and perched on the couch beside Ethan. “I need a favor, Ethan. Would you mind going to pick Madeline up for me?”

  “Yes,” Ethan said quickly.

  “Yes, you’ll do it, or yes, you mind?” Ruth probed.

  “Yes, I mind,” Ethan clarified. “You know I can’t stand the girl.”

  “I know,” Ruth said. “And you know I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t important.”

  Ethan looked up from his cell phone again, frowning at his mom. That was the first time he had ever expressed his dislike for Madeline without his mom trying to convince him to give her a chance. And he had given her a chance. It wasn’t like he’d decided to dislike her before he met her. She was just so… so immature and self-involved.

  “Work called. Something came up. There’s a problem with one of our cl
ient accounts and if I don’t go in and fix it, we could lose a very important client. You know how much this job means to me,” Ruth added.

  “I do,” Ethan agreed. “And you should definitely go and fix your client’s problem.”

  Ruth started to smile, but then she frowned when she realized Ethan wasn’t finished talking.

  “Madeline is a big girl. She can catch a cab from the station easily enough,” he added.

  “Oh, Ethan, you know I can’t let her do that. Vic was going to take the day off work to go and fetch her, and I was the one who insisted it wouldn’t be necessary because I was off. He’ll be so upset if he finds out that I let Madeline get a cab.”

  Ethan rolled his eyes. Vic seemed to think Madeline was still about eight years old and wasn’t capable of doing anything for herself. While he was hardly in line to be the president of her fan club, even he could see that she was perfectly capable of getting a cab. She wasn’t even one of those spoiled, bratty kids who would hold it against anyone. She would accept that something came up and Ruth had to go to work.

  “You know she’s eighteen, right? And that she’s at college in another state? I hardly think she needs hand holding,” Ethan pointed out.

  “This isn’t about her, Ethan. It’s about me making a promise to Vic and intending to keep it,” Ruth sighed. She stood up and headed for the door, pulling her cell phone out as she went. “Never mind. I’ll just call work and let them know I’ll come in, but I’ll have to slip out for an hour in a bit.”

  Ethan could see how stressed his mom was, and he felt his animosity toward Madeline grow a little bit more. He shook his head in disgust that she was making his mom stressed out like this. Suddenly, he realized something. Madeline wasn’t making his mom stressed. She didn’t even know about the situation, and if she did, she would be the first one to say she would get a cab. It was him. He was the one refusing to do what was essentially a simple enough favor for her, and it wasn’t like he had anything better to do today. He was the one stressing his mom out.

  “Don’t, Mom,” he said. “Just go in. I’ll pick up Madeline.”

  “Are you sure?” Ruth asked, turning back to face Ethan, a skeptical eyebrow raised as she looked at him.

  “Honestly, I’m sure,” Ethan smiled. “I’m sorry I was an ass about it.”

  Ruth beamed at him and came back toward him.

  “Son, you’re the best,” she said as she bent down and kissed him loudly on his cheek.

  He grinned and rubbed away the lipstick mark she had left behind.

  “Seriously, Mom, go, before I change my mind,” he laughed.

  * * *

  Ethan sat in the driver’s seat of his car, tapping his fingers on the steering wheel in time with the music he had blaring out. His mom had told him Madeline’s train was due in at three o’clock and it was a couple of minutes to three, so he shouldn’t have much longer to wait.

  After what couldn’t have been longer than five minutes, but felt like forever, a steady stream of people, mostly student-looking types, began to file out of the station. Ethan turned the music down and got out of the car to open the trunk. He went back to the driver’s door and rested against it, his arms folded as he looked into the oncoming crowd, trying to spot Madeline. He knew she would be looking out for Ruth and her car, and she might not spot him, so it would be up to him to find her.

  Finally, he spotted her. Or at least he spotted the back of her head as she hugged her best friend, Charlie, the two of them surrounded by piles of luggage. The girls pulled back from the embrace and Ethan could see Charlie was laughing. She began to back away, the two girls still talking as Charlie made her way backward to her parents, who were waiting for her.

  Ethan noticed the way the sun shone on Madeline’s hair, making her dark brown tresses look like they were flecked with gold. He frowned to himself and shook his head a little.

  What the hell am I thinking? he asked himself. He shook his head again, trying to shake away the thought. Since when am I someone who notices shit like that, especially on Madeline?

  Ethan looked away from Madeline, trying to stop himself thinking about how soft her hair looked and how much he wanted to touch it. He forced himself to look back at the spot where he had last seen Madeline, but she wasn’t there now. He began to scan the crowd again, but then a group of people in front of him shifted to the side, and there she was.

  She smiled tentatively, not even looking angry to see it was him here to collect her rather than his mom. For a second, Ethan found himself staring at Madeline, unable to look away. She looked so different, so grown up all of a sudden.

  She wore short shorts and Ethan noticed her tanned legs, how long and slim they were. His eyes moved up her body, taking in her flat stomach and her pert breasts. He could see the shape of her nipples through her tank top and he quickly moved his eyes away and looked at her face.

  Her dark brown eyes held his for a moment and he found he couldn’t look away. They were beautiful eyes, a perfect color and a perfect almond shape. The tan suited her, making her teeth look even whiter, and when she smiled, Ethan imagined her full, red lips moving across his body.

  He tried to blink the image away, but he couldn’t. He imagined himself closing the gap between them, stepping closer to her and grabbing her and pulling her into his arms. He saw himself pushing his hands into Madeline’s hair, mashing his lips against hers. He saw his hands moving lower, running over her back and down to her ass. He felt as though he could taste her, as though he could feel her hands on him, exploring his body as he explored hers.

  His wolf howled inside of him, feeling the lust he was feeling, wanting to break loose and claim Madeline as its own. Ethan fought against his wolf, holding the animal side of him at bay. When he had Madeline, he wanted it to be him that got to touch her, to taste her, not his wolf.

  When? he thought to himself. Not if?

  “Jonathan? Over here,” a woman shouted from the car beside his, snapping him out of his daze finally.

  He cleared his throat and looked away from Madeline, and the spell was broken. She shifted awkwardly on the spot for a moment, wringing her hands together, and he saw her cheeks were pink. Had she been thinking the same as him? No, she couldn’t have been. It wasn’t normal to think like that about each other. She must have just been embarrassed because of the way he had been looking at her.

  “You’re back, then,” Ethan said stupidly and cursed inwardly at such a lame statement.

  “Yup,” Madeline said. “Where’s Ruth?”

  “She got called into work and she asked me to come and get you instead.”

  “I could have just gotten a cab, you know,” she pointed out.

  “That’s what I said, but you know my mom. She was worried she’d be letting Vic down or some shit. Anyway, I’m here now, so let’s get your stuff in the trunk.”

  Madeline nodded but she made no move to start putting her things in the trunk and Ethan realized with a start that she expected him to do it for her. He didn’t relish the idea, but he wasn’t about to start arguing with her out here in the middle of all of the people coming and going from the station, so instead of arguing the point, he just grabbed the first of her cases and began to load it into the trunk.

  “I had a great semester, thanks for asking,” Madeline said.

  Ethan rolled his eyes, but it didn’t stop her from talking.

  “I met loads of great people, went to hundreds of parties,” she went on.

  “You realize you go to college to get a degree, right? How’s that part working out for you?” Ethan said sarcastically.

  “Oh, good,” Madeline trilled.

  If she noticed the sarcasm, she ignored it. She kept on talking, telling Ethan all about her lectures and how she was doing in her classes. It took everything Ethan had to load her luggage into the trunk of his car without yelling at her to just shut up. He had forgotten just how self-involved she was, and he remembered now why she annoyed him so much.r />
  Not once had she asked how he was, or even how her dad or Ruth were. She might come wrapped up in a pretty package these days, but inside, she was the same annoying little kid who had left last year.

  3

  Madeline wished she could stop talking, but she couldn’t. She had been babbling on since the moment she and Ethan had gotten into his car at the station. It was a fifty-minute drive and they were nearly home and she was still going. It was just pouring out of her and she was powerless to stop it.

  “And yeah. It’s going to be like a big welcome home bash for everyone who has been to college and it’s going to be epic,” she said.

  That was the worst part about it. She wasn’t even talking about anything particularly interesting. She was babbling on about Jackson’s party tonight as though she was mega excited for it, when the truth was she wasn’t even that interested in going. She was only going because she’d promised Charlie she would. Deep down, she would have preferred to take tonight to catch up with her dad and Ruth.

  Ethan looked at her out of the side of his eye and she thought she saw him roll his eyes. Well, why wouldn’t he be rolling his eyes? She was going on like a high school student excited for prom. Still, though, would it kill him to just say something? She was reminded once more of how arrogant he was, how he seemed to think he was above things like parties and hanging out.

  And yet, here she was, trying to fill the awkward silence between them because strangely, she cared what he thought about her. Suddenly, she realized with horror, she kind of wanted him to like her.