The Wolf's Secret Witch: Howl's Romance (The Sentinel Brotherhood Book 1) Read online

  The

  Wolf’s Secret Witch

  The Sentinel Brotherhood

  Marianne Morea

  Coventry Press Ltd.

  Coventry Press Ltd.

  Somers, New York

  http://www.coventrypressltd.com

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locations, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2020 Marianne Morea

  All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions of thereof in any form whatsoever without written permission.

  ASIN:

  First Edition: Coventry Press Ltd. 2020

  Printed in the USA

  Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.

  ROALD DAHL

  Chapter One

  “He’s not worth it, Tanya. Don’t go up there. You’re better than this, you’re a professional!”

  “A professional what? Loser?” The words tasted like vinegar in Tanya Richards’ mouth and she grimaced at the sour truth.

  “Don’t say that. Out of everyone here, you’re the one who actually did something with their life.”

  “That’s not true, Angela.”

  Her friend shook her head. “No? Look at what you’ve accomplished in the last decade. You’re the youngest partner in the history of your law firm. You’ve got money and prestige. You’ve got the world by the balls, Tanya. Why would you let a loser like Jesse Rivera drag you down?”

  “Yeah, well. Professional accolades are easy.” Her gaze slipped up the stairs. “You know what else is should be easy? Kicking that jerk to the curb.”

  Her fingers tightened on the banister. Angela was a good friend, but she had it wrong. Success was nice, but it would never dull the insecurities alive and well and living in her head when it came to men.

  Tanya looked past her shoulder to her friend. “I know you’re trying to protect me, Angela, but I’m done. This is the last time that dickhead is going to take advantage of the short, curvy girl with the great sense of humor.”

  “At least let me come with you.” Angela tried again.

  Tanya shook her head, a smirk on her lips. “I appreciate the offer, but I’m a trial lawyer. Going for the kill is what I do.”

  Steeling herself, Tanya headed up the stairs. Tonight was supposed to be a triumph. What high school wallflower doesn’t dream about going to their ten-year reunion a professional powerhouse? Having Jesse on her arm was meant to be the cherry on top.

  Ignoring the whispers and sideways looks, Tanya marched up the steps until she was in front of the guestroom door. She didn’t hesitate, surprised when the doorknob turned in her hand.

  “Well, well, well. Talk about the naked truth.”

  Tanya leaned on the doorjamb watching the globes of her boyfriend’s white ass grind between a pair of shapely thighs.

  “Really, Jesse? At a house party full of my friends no less. I guess everyone was right, you are an opportunistic jerk. Couldn’t keep it in your pants long enough for us to leave so you could skulk back. Then again, sharp isn’t exactly one of your charms.”

  Tanya stormed into the hallway, not bothering to close the door before hurrying down the stairs, self-conscious and a little sick.

  “Tanya! Wait!” Shirtless and out of breath, Jesse chased after her, struggling into his pants. “Don’t be like this!”

  She stopped at the bottom step with her arms crossed in front of her chest. “Like what?” Disgust warred with the sour taste of regret. “I have nothing to say to you, Jesse. It’s over.”

  “Tanya, please! At least let me take you home.” Beads of sweat on his forehead made him look more panicked than guilty. “We came together, we should leave together.”

  She waved him off. “Seriously. That’s your argument? No wonder you failed your Bar exam. I’m not going anywhere with you, let alone back to my place and my bed.”

  He flashed a cajoling grin. “Don’t you mean our place and our bed? C’mon, T—” He reached to brush her bare arm. “It was just sex. You know I love you.”

  She knocked his hand away. “You shouldn’t use words you don’t understand.”

  “Baby, you don’t mean that.”

  “Nice try, loser. That velvet voice and bad boy charm doesn’t work on me anymore. It’s my place. Mine. Along with everything else. I want you gone by morning.”

  His expression hardened. “What did you expect would happen when your friend spread herself so easy? When’s the last time you did that?”

  Heat rushed to Tanya’s face. “You are such an asshole. Puckered, stinking and only good for one thing.”

  “You’ve got a way with words, baby, but that’s all you’ve got.” He snorted. “Maybe if you lost some of that junk in your trunk I’d be more interested.”

  Anger and hot humiliation bubbled up in her chest. She grabbed a vase from the nearest table and smashed it over his head.

  “What the fuck?” Jesse grimaced, his hand flying to his scalp.

  Tanya flung a wad of beer-stained napkins at his bleeding head. “Tick, tock, Casanova. You’ve got until daybreak to get your stuff and leave, or your crap goes out on the lawn and I set the sprinklers to it.”

  He pulled his hand from his hairline, shooting her a look. “You don’t mean that.”

  “Try me.” Tanya set her jaw, and this time Angela and two others moved to flank her on either side.

  “T, please—”

  Tanya’s gaze tracked to the top landing where Marlene stood buttoning her blouse. Her smug expression melted almost immediately in the heat of everyone’s cold stare.

  “Daybreak, Jesse.” Tanya slid her gaze back, letting a hard scowl dare him to argue. “Or I call the sheriff to have you physically removed.”

  “Grab my stuff from the bedroom, babe,” he called up the stairs to Marlene, turning to catch Tanya’s reaction. “We’re outta here.”

  Flinty and unwavering, Tanya moved away from the bottom step as the two walked past the silent group in the hallway.

  “Bye, Felicia.”

  Marlene looked back with a glare, and Angela laughed. “Yeah, you.” She nodded. “A little advice, sweetheart? Don’t shit where you eat.”

  “Damn, Angela. When did you get so tough?” Tanya asked with a chuckle.

  She shrugged. “Watching my lawyer friend teach me how.” She slipped her arm through Tanya’s elbow and tugged her toward the bar. “Come on, killer, you deserve a drink.”

  “Drink? I deserve the whole damned bottle.”

  ***

  “What a jerk!” Without missing a step, Tanya picked up a narrow branch and snapped it over her knee.

  Angela had offered her a lift home, but she turned her down. She needed to think, and to do that she needed to walk and that meant taking the path through the woods.

  Red Riding Hood.

  That’s what her friends called her throughout high school. Didn’t bother her, though. She knew this path like the back of her hand, and their town was so small there was never a problem.

  Jesse was her only problem, and he came special delivery.

  Annoyed, she crunched through leaves and twigs, angry with herself more than anyone else.

  Her gut warned it was a mistake to take Jesse to the reunion, just as it warned about his push to move in with her. As usual, she ignored the uncanny sixth sense she shared with her mother.
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br />   Everyone said Jesse was in it for what he could get, that he scored a sweet deal with Tanya’s parents retiring to Florida and leaving her the house. Her friends were right, of course, but she couldn’t see it, or more precisely, she didn’t want to.

  Smack!

  The snapped branch made a makeshift bat, shredding the tops of a few wildflowers. The noise scattered the birds, sending them winging for cover in the higher branches.

  Your friend spread herself so easy.

  Jesse wasn’t even Marlene’s type. Not that it mattered. Stealing boyfriends was her thing. A thing that clearly hadn’t changed in the ten years since they all were graduated.

  “Maybe they’ll give each other herpes.”

  Tanya tossed the thin branch into the brush, her mother’s voice at the back of her mind. Remember, sweetheart, the best revenge is a successful life.

  “Gee, Mom. Thanks. Still not helping.”

  Even her hard-earned partnership at the firm wasn’t cutting it against the former cheerleader. “Tanya Richards, Esquire. Talented attorney and total loser magnet.”

  Swallowing hard, Tanya shook herself from this latest humiliation. Jesse’s antics were too jagged a pill to ignore. She should have seen this train wreck coming months ago. Good looking, charismatic man hooks up with overweight, overworked lawyer.

  A lawyer with money and prospects.

  A harsh smile tugged at the thought. It would be just like the conniving jerk to try and shake her down with the threat of assault charges. Well, let him try. This shrinking violet would shrink no more. Working a hundred plus hours per week for almost a decade counted for something when it came to connections. One phone call would squash him and any plans he hatched.

  “He’s some other sad woman’s problem now.” Tanya took a cleansing breath, letting the night air take what was left of her stress. An owl hooted in the distance as if in agreement, and she smiled. “You bet your feathered ass.”

  At twenty-eight, Tanya had everything ahead of her. Partnership in a top firm, and the respect of her peers. She was ready for the next phase of her life, and after tonight, love had definitely moved to the bottom of the bucket list.

  She took in the scents of the forest, letting the clean woodsy air help her find her center. Relief flowed at the sense of freedom and release. “Welcome back, girlfriend,” she muttered with a smile.

  If Jesse knew what was good for him, he’d be long gone by the time she got home. She was still a few hundred feet from the end of the shortcut when she noticed the silence.

  The usual nocturnal sounds were gone, and there was an eerie stillness to the air. No night birds, no creatures scuttling through the leaves.

  Her skin pricked, and gooseflesh spread across her bare arms despite the warm night. Her inner alarms blared, and she picked up her pace, second guessing her choice to walk home instead of getting a ride from Angela. The cut-through never posed a problem before, but there was always a first time.

  Still within the tree line, she caught a glimpse of something ahead, and a scream formed in her throat. Her hand flew to her mouth, but another shot from the shadows silencing her.

  “Ssh. Don’t move,” a male voice whispered behind her ear. “Don’t make a sound.” The man held her shoulders tight against his chest, and with a slow decisive reach, he pointed toward the path’s end.

  Tanya’s body stiffened. Recognition hit her square in the face. Jesse’s body was prone on the ground, and not ten feet from where he lay was Marlene, face down on the pavement.

  Some kind of creature was bent over Jesse’s motionless body, and she couldn’t tell if it was man or beast, but it was covered in blood.

  Panic bit into Tanya’s gut, and she struggled, pulling at the arms that held her. She wanted to run screaming, but her breath locked in her throat regardless of the hand covering her mouth.

  “I’m not going to hurt you, but please stay quiet,” the voice whispered roughly. “I know you’re frightened, but if the beast senses us, it will attack. You’ve got to trust me.”

  Tanya’s body went rigid against his, but she no longer struggled. His words penetrated, driving home what her sympathetic nervous system already knew. They were in danger. From what, she had no clue, but she didn’t need to be hit upside the head to know the stranger was right.

  Icy fear shook her to her core. Her peripheral vision blurred, narrowing her eyesight to a thin tunnel before blackness swept her under.

  “Great. Just great,” he muttered as the girl went limp in his arms. He had one arm around her waist and the other snaked across her shoulder.

  “Jared! What’s taking so long?” The alpha’s voice was sharp and impatient in his head.

  “Keep your pants on, Aidan. I’m securing the perimeter.”

  Jared kept his anxiety from bleeding through to his brother as best he could. He needed to hurry. The lesser demon could disappear again at any moment.

  What the hell was a human woman doing alone in the woods this time of night? A frustrated exhale puffed through his teeth as he supported her weight against his chest.

  Whatever the reason, it didn’t matter. Aidan would never let him live this down. Her head lolled against his shoulder, and he caught her delicious scent.

  “You’re safe with me,” he whispered, removing his hand from her mouth.

  His inner wolf paced just beneath the surface. It howled, but not with impatience for the hunt. The girl’s scent had stirred something deeper. Something primal and full of want.

  Not that he would ever hurt an innocent. Unlike Aidan, he wasn’t inclined to punish someone for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The girl was an unexpected complication, and one he couldn’t explain. He’d run the perimeter. There was no sign of anyone, no trace of a human scent.

  He shifted his weight, surprised at how soft she felt in his arms. Vulnerable. Though his keen senses told him otherwise.

  “Beautiful,” he murmured, taking in the curve of her face and the long line of her neck. Her thick brown hair fell in soft curls to her shoulders and the perfume of her skin was almost enough to make him lose focus.

  He breathed in her clean scent. Heady and unusual, and though he tried to place it, he couldn’t.

  “Head in the game, Jared,” he frowned, chiding himself. If the lesser demon sensed their presence, its attack would be fast and vicious.

  As tantalizing as this woman was, danger was still imminent. Jared leaned forward. “You’ll thank me for this,” he murmured, and gently blew across her face, watching her slip deeper into unconsciousness.

  Mitigating circumstances made altering her memory collateral damage. He had a job to do, and her presence just raised the stakes. There was too much at risk, and Jared was no longer sure of Aidan’s tolerance. The last thing they needed was a panicked human throwing a monkey wrench into what needed to be done to protect their kind. Problem was she didn’t smell human, panicked or not.

  The other wolves took their strategic places, and Jared’s sensitive ears heard them as they paced, waiting for the signal to attack. Aidan’s yellow eyes peered in his direction from across the parking lot.

  Holding the girl with one arm, he placed her on a bed of pine needles, and then dropped his pack, stepping back to strip out of his clothes. With two long strides he bounded toward the edge of the trees, phasing in a single leap.

  As he hit the air, a familiar heat sluiced through his veins, his skin tingling. Joints popped as bones snapped and reformed. His vision changed from limited human sight to a finely-honed thermal, making him aware of every creature in the forest, regardless of size or location, including the girl lying on the ground behind him.

  “Okay…let’s do this.”

  Chapter Two

  The lesser demon shrieked as the wolves charged from the darkness, its angry screech echoing off the trees. Tanya bolted up at the sound, disoriented.

  “What the—?” She pressed her hand to her forehead, shaking her head to clear the muddle.
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  Her tongue was thick in her mouth, and her head throbbed. Sitting up, she groaned, trying to remember how she ended up under a tree, but everything was a jumble. Had someone slipped something into her drink at the party?

  She made a face. Forget spiking her drink. Someone spiked the dessert. “I knew those brownies were too good to be true.” She groaned, trying to work up a spit.

  Tanya blinked, taking in her surroundings, including the backpack and men’s clothing piled on the ground. Enough pieces flooded back, and she scrambled to her feet. Jesse! And what happened to the guy who helped her?

  A loud crash reverberated through the foliage, jerking her attention toward the sound. Sucking wind, she hesitated before stumbling through low branches and thick underbrush, the uneven ground leaving her on her hands and knees in the dirt.

  “Ouch, damn it!” The unexpected shock steadied her like a well-timed slap to the face. She sat back on her heels, blowing on her palms. “Stupid,” she muttered, wiping a smear of blood and mud onto her jeans.

  Another crash pulled her eyes from her hands. The trailhead parking lot was ahead about thirty feet, and so were the biggest wolves she’d ever seen. Teeth bared, they circled some sort of hideous creature.

  Riveted, Tanya couldn’t tear her eyes from the scene. The beast paced, frothing at the mouth, its posture defending its kill. The wolves moved with absolute stealth, their eyes full of deadly intent.

  A fierce black animal with thick fur and rippling muscles leapt straight for the creature. The others snarled, growling and snapping with canines the size of her hand.

  The black wolf’s enormous paws struck dead center and the two tumbled to the ground in a frenzy of teeth and rage. The creature’s clawed hands lashed out leaving jagged gashes across the wolf’s muzzle and forelegs.

  Smeared with blood, the wolf’s jaws locked around the creature’s throat as the others attacked. Teeth sank into its flesh with lethal force, tearing it to shreds.

  The entire scene was unbelievable, like watching a surreal mix of Wild Kingdom and The Walking Dead. She heard the sickening sound as the wolves’ jaws crushed the creature’s spine, the pavement slick with blood and dirt.