Mountain Wolf's Courage (Daddy Wolves 0f The Wild Series Book 4) Read online

  Mountain Wolf’s Courage

  (Daddy Wolves of the Wild)

  Serena Meadows

  Copyright ©2019 by Serena Meadows - All rights reserved.

  In no way is it legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document in either electronic means or in printed format. Recording of this publication is strictly prohibited and any storage of this document is not allowed unless with written permission from the publisher. All rights reserved.

  Respective authors own all copyrights not held by the publisher.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is purely coincidental. This book is intended for adult readers only. Any sexual activity portrayed in these pages occurs between consenting adults over the age of 18 who are not related by blood.

  Contents

  Authors Note

  Story Description

  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

  Also By Serena Meadows

  About the Author

  Exclusive Offer

  AUTHORS NOTE

  Daddy Wolves of the Wild Series

  You should know that Mountain Wolf Courage is the fourth book in the Daddy Wolves of the Wild romance series. Although each story can be read independently and all end with a HEA with no cliffhangers, to get the full experience of the series, you should really read them in order.

  Book 1 - Mountain Wolf’s Nanny

  Book 2 - Mountain Wolf’s Curse

  Book 3- Mountain Wolf Playboy

  Book4- Mountain Wolf’s Courage

  STORY DESCRIPTION

  Caught between duty, and consequence…

  Two hearts, fated to be broken…

  And a relentless enemy, hot on their heels.

  Trevor isn’t afraid of sacrifice. He gave up a promising career as a journalist to play husband and father, and never looked back. But now he’s discovered a secret so shocking, it casts into doubt everything he’s always cherished, and when his final hope and joy—his son—is threatened, Trevor is willing to risk everything to keep what’s his. His honor and virtue included.

  Cursed with unnatural beauty, Sarah has spent a life closeted from the outside. If lecherous men weren’t bad enough, she’s also plagued by dark spirits brought into the world through her own childhood mistake. Now she has an opportunity to set herself free, and no man or moral scruple is going to stop her.

  Trevor and Sarah have everything to fight for, and just as much to lose. But in this story, our heroes have more in common with the forces of evil, than good. So will they follow their hearts, or succumb to darkness? One thing is for sure: In the end, the bad guys always get what they deserve.

  Chapter One

  ***Trevor***

  Trevor shut off his computer and looked up from his desk, noticing that nearly everyone had already gone home. Only Amy and Gloria were still typing away, but that wasn’t unusual, even on a Friday night. No matter how many times he’d told them that they didn’t have to wait for him to go home, both women insisted on staying until he left. It hadn’t always been that way, but since Claudia’s death, they’d taken him on as a project, and he didn’t have the energy to fight them.

  There had been a time when he’d needed the support, but now, over a year later, he just wanted to be left alone. The scars left by Claudia’s death were still raw, her betrayal so deep that it was going to take a long time for him to heal, and he doubted that he’d ever be able to trust another woman again. Looking back at his twelve-year marriage still made his stomach clench with humiliation and anger at how blinded he’d been by Claudia’s beauty and sophistication.

  Pushing his negative thoughts away, he concentrated on Gabe instead, the only good thing that had come out of the marriage. Nearly twelve, Gabe had survived his mother’s death and the scandal afterward better than Trevor had. Young and resilient, he’d coped with the teasing at school until it had died down and the kids moved onto a new juicy piece of gossip.

  But he was sure that deep down, Gabe hurt just as much as he did, and wished his son would talk to him about his mother. Somehow, she’d become a topic they didn’t discuss, a forbidden subject that sat between them like a barrier, and he wasn’t sure how to tear it down. It was his fault; he knew that. When the pain had been fresh and just getting through the day had taken all his strength, he’d taken Gabe’s assurances that he was fine at face value, too tired to dig any deeper. Now, he didn’t know what to say or do to get his son to open up to him.

  Sighing as he switched off the lamp on his desk, realizing that thinking of Gabe hadn’t lightened his mood any, he grabbed his coat and left his office. He stopped, as he always did, at Amy’s desk and peered over the divider that separated her from the open space.

  “Time to call it a night,” he said, noticing that she was playing solitaire on her computer. “You know you don’t have to wait for me to go home.”

  Amy waved her hand in the air but didn’t look up from her computer. “I missed my bus,” she said, the same answer she’d been giving him for months.

  “Well, if you don’t go soon, you’ll miss the next one,” he said, his standard answer. “Have a good night. I’ll see you in the morning.”

  Gloria was standing by the elevator when he got there. “Mike is coming to pick me up,” she said. “Can we drop you off somewhere?”

  Trevor shook his head. “I think I’ll walk. I could use some exercise, and Gabe won’t be home for another hour.”

  Gloria nodded, and her eyes filled with compassion. “After my first husband died, I hated going home to an empty house,” she said.

  He wanted to be annoyed with the two women, but couldn’t find the emotion; it was one of those days when he felt numb, when nothing seemed to penetrate the barrier he’d put around himself. “Yeah, I guess that’s it,” he said, shrugging his shoulders.

  Gloria patted him on the back. “Don’t worry; it will get better. Sometimes it just takes a little longer than we’d like. But you’ll see: one day you’ll wake up, and you’ll feel better,” she said.

  Her words echoed through his mind as they rode the elevator down to the lobby. He wanted to believe them, wanted more than anything else to find some peace from the turbulent emotions that raged if he let them. Right now, the only time he could find those moments was when he shifted, but that wasn’t easy in the city, so he’d have to settle for a good workout instead.

  When the elevator stopped, he said, “I think I’ll hit the gym before I go home.”

  Gloria studied him for a second, then nodded her head. “Okay, I’ll see you tomorrow then.”

  Just as he was about to push the button for the basement, his phone beeped in his pocket, and he dug it out, wondering if Gabe’s soccer practice had been cut short. Relieved not to have to kill an hour, he was smiling as he opened the message, but the smile quickly disappeared from his face, and for a minute, he considered ignoring it.

  As good as just leaving sounded, he k
new that it was a summons he couldn’t ignore, so he pushed the button for the top floor and tried to prepare himself. It had been months since he’d seen Claudia’s brother, Richard, and that meeting hadn’t gone well. In fact, he’d been a bit surprised to still have his job the morning after. Since then, he’d avoided the man, which wasn’t that difficult since their paths rarely crossed in the colossal building.

  When the elevator doors opened, he stepped out into the reception area. The lights were off, and the office looked deserted. His instincts telling him to retreat, he was just about to step back onto the elevator when one of Richard’s bodyguards stepped out of the shadows.

  “Mr. Andrews is waiting for you in his office,” he said.

  It took Trevor a few seconds to get his feet moving. Every instinct told him to run, to get away before something happened. Finally, he managed to stride forward, but the hair on the back of his neck was standing on end, the feeling of evil in the office so strong that it made him shiver. He’d never liked Richard, and Claudia’s death hadn’t changed his opinion, but he’d never sensed evil like he did at that moment.

  When he stepped through the door and Richard saw him, he rose to his feet and plastered a false smile on his face. “Trevor, it’s been way too long since we’ve seen each other. I thought it was time we got caught up.”

  ***Sarah***

  Sarah filled her cup from the freshly brewed pot of coffee and took it out to the balcony, sat down in her favorite chair, and let the sound of the New York streets wash over her. Tucking her legs under her, she looked out at the sinking sun as the hustle and bustle of life went on below her, assuring her that the world hadn’t changed since morning.

  Although she rarely left her apartment, it soothed her to know that there were still people out there living their lives, completely unaware of what was around them. Sipping her coffee, she tried to remember a time when the spirits around her hadn’t filled her life with constant chatter. When the memory came bubbling to the surface, she pushed it away, refusing to think about how one choice had changed her life forever.

  Instead, the charm of the evening ruined, she went back inside, closing the sliding glass door behind her and shutting out the noise. Refilling her cup as she passed through the white-tiled kitchen, she headed for her studio, hoping that losing herself in painting would soothe her restlessness.

  The lights in the studio were off and she reached for the switch, then she saw the stars shining through the vast windows and dropped her hand. Crossing behind the easels lining the center of the room, she walked over to the window and looked up. Night had fallen quickly, as it always did in the city where the buildings blocked so much of the natural light, and she shivered as the spirts began to come to life.

  Even in her penthouse apartment, she could feel them shifting below her. Whether good or evil, the night was their time, and she’d come to fear the darkness. She practically ran across the studio and flipped on the light, bathing the room in a warm and comforting glow. Letting out the breath she just realized she’d been holding, she closed her eyes until her heart stopped pounding in her chest, then opened them.

  When she saw the row of covered canvases, she sighed, having almost forgotten about them, set her coffee down, and walked over to the first one. She started to reach for the cloth that covered it, then pulled her hand back, not ready to confront what she’d put on the canvas. Looking down the row of paintings, she wondered where the images had come from, so different from her other paintings that she wasn’t sure anyone would believe she’d done them.

  Her fame, such as it was, came from the dark paintings that were nothing more than a portrait of what she saw every day. Scenes of a life populated with spirits most couldn’t see, doing what they did; haunting the wicked or tormenting the evil, her spirits were never benevolent. Those paintings appealed to a select group of people who were willing to pay handsomely for them, and although she hated to think about what they did with them, she’d had no problem spending their money.

  That money had bought her this refuge, a place where she could be secure, a place where the spirits would leave her alone. In the ten years she’d lived there, first as a renter and then as the landlord, thanks to her increasing popularity, she’d never produced anything like these paintings. After the first one, she’d been puzzled and slightly amused, but as the months passed and the line of strange paintings grew, she began to realize that something beyond her control had taken over her talent.

  She knew that was the source of her growing restlessness, the ever-increasing feeling that her quiet life was about to change in ways she couldn’t even imagine. If she could only figure out what the paintings meant, it might have been easier to wait for what was coming, but she was as blinded by her future as a regular human.

  Pulling the cover off the first painting, she stared at the green valley nestled in the mountains and wondered if it was a real place or if she’d created it in her mind. The valley looked so peaceful, a moss-covered lodge in the center surrounded by little cabins, a place where only good would come to those who came there. She felt a wave of comfort at the thought and wished she could step into the painting, fade into it until she became a part of the scene in front of her.

  She was just reaching for the drape on the second painting when there was a knock at the door. Freezing at the sound, she stood waiting, wondering if she’d imagined it, but it came again, this time more insistent. Quickly throwing the cover back on the painting, she left the studio, turning off the lights as she walked out the door.

  By the time the third knock came, she was looking through the peephole, frozen, staring at a face she never thought she’d see again. Stepping back, she put her hand over her heart, which was slamming in her chest, and stared at the door, afraid to open it. She’d always known that the day would come when someone from the coven would seek her out, but she still wasn’t prepared.

  “Sarah, I know you’re in there,” Rachelle said. “I’m not leaving until you open up this door. You’re the only one who can help. Please, open the door.”

  Chapter Two

  ***Trevor***

  Trevor knew that Richard didn’t want to catch up; they’d never been anything even close to friends. There had been a few short weeks after he and Claudia got married when Richard had sought out a friendship with him, but that hadn’t lasted long. One night, they’d been having dinner at Richard’s house when he pulled Trevor into his study and showed him the secret of his power.

  “It’s a magical potion; it strengthens our power and makes us stronger than other shifters, more vicious,” he’d said. “Only those closest to me are allowed to take it, and I’m offering it to you.”

  Trevor had studied the shimmering dark-red liquid, the temptation for more power thundering through his veins, but it was balanced by the horror of what it might turn him into. He’d heard stories about shifters who’d messed with black magic to gain more power from the grandfather who’d raised him and wanted no part of witchcraft.

  Richard hadn’t been pleased with his refusal, had been hard-pressed to take no for an answer, and from that day on, they’d barely tolerated one another. Since Claudia’s death, he’d only heard from Richard a few times, but he was all too aware of the eyes watching him around the office, whispers around the corners, and clicks on his office phone that meant someone was listening.

  He’d been thinking that it might be time for him and Gabe to make a fresh start, give them both a chance to leave behind some of the pain and grief that seemed to have invaded their lives. Now this little meeting with Richard made that decision seem much easier; it was time to move on, time to take control of his life and leave the past and Claudia behind.

  “Would you like some coffee, or maybe something a little stronger?” Richard asked, still playing gracious host, ignoring Trevor’s long silence.

  “No, thanks, I’m fine,” he said, relieved when his voice didn’t waver despite his stomach doing flip-flops as he sat down.
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  Richard sat back in his chair and studied Trevor for a moment. “You look tired. It must be hard raising Gabe by yourself,” he finally said.

  “Well, he’s almost twelve now, and we do have our moments, but he’s a good kid,” Trevor said, instantly suspicious.

  Richard nodded his head. “Yes, I see. But his first shift is coming soon, and that can be a difficult time. I was thinking that he should be someplace equipped to handle his special needs when the time comes: a boarding school maybe.”

  “I don’t think that’s necessary. I can handle it when it happens,” Trevor said. “But I appreciate your concern.”

  “I was afraid you’d feel that way,” Richard said, leaning forward in his chair and fixing his eyes on him. “The thing is, it is my concern. Gabe is my blood, my sister’s child, and in this family, things are done a certain way. I’ve been content to sit by and let you raise him until now, but that is going to come to an end. Gabe needs to be ready to take over when I’m gone, and nothing you’ve done so far has prepared him for that.”

  “Take over for you?” Trevor sputtered.

  “Yes, as it stands now, Gabe will be the next head of the family, and he needs to be educated properly,” Richard said.