Howl: A Dark Paranormal Shifter Romance (The Black Mountain Pack Book 2) Read online

  HOWL

  THE BLACK MOUNTAIN PACK BOOK 2

  LANA SKY

  ALSO BY LANA SKY

  DARK MAFIA ROMANCE

  Beautiful Monsters

  Crescendo

  Refrain

  Mezzo

  Allegro

  El Mundo de Sangre

  Dinero de Sangre

  Blood Money

  Blood Ties

  Blood Bound

  Diamante de Sangre

  Blood Diamond

  The War of Roses Universe

  The War of Roses

  XV: (Fifteen)

  VII: (Seven)

  I: (One)

  The Complete War of Roses Trilogy

  Of Mice and Men

  Ruthless King

  Queen of Thorns

  Shattered Throne

  Mended Crown

  DARK BDSM BILLIONAIRE ROMANCE

  Club XXX

  Maxim: Submit

  Maxim: Obey

  Maxim: Surrender

  Maxim: The Complete Trilogy

  Vadim: Control

  Vadim: Corrupt

  Vadim: Conquer

  Vadim: The Complete Trilogy

  DARK ROMANTIC SUSPENSE

  Painted Sin

  A Touch of Dark

  A Taste like Sin

  The Complete Painted Sin Duet

  Dragon Triad Duet

  Moth

  Flame

  The Complete Dragon Triad Duet

  DARK AGE-GAP ROMANCE

  Standalones

  Pretty Perfect

  Crossed Lines

  DARK PARANORMAL ROMANCE

  The Ellie Gray Chronicles

  Drain Me

  Chain Me

  The Complete Ellie Gray Chronicles

  The Black Mountain Pack

  Shift

  Howl

  The Daemon Blade Series

  Forged in Ice

  NEWSLETTER EXCLUSIVE

  Rockstar Rebels

  Dirty Lyrics (Newsletter Exclusive)

  Howl

  Howl By Lana Sky

  Copyright © 2022 by Lana Sky

  All rights reserved.

  ama

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the author.

  This 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, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Cover Design and Interior Formatting by Charity Chimni

  Editing by Charity Chimni

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Thanks so much to everyone who supported this draft along the way, including the many beta readers who provided encouragement! Please keep in mind that this story includes dark, graphic, and explicit content matter that may not be suitable for readers under the age of 18—or for readers who are uncomfortable with the following subject matter: age-gap relationships, explicit sex, and graphic depictions of violence.

  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

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  A Word from the Author

  About the Author

  Also by Lana Sky

  1

  There was an old saying, “better to be safe than sorry.” Whoever coined it had obviously never spent a week with William McGoven.

  The man was anything but safe—and Loren found a strange peace in his wild nature. As far as the men in her life were concerned, he was a welcome anomaly. Violent and brutish, Fred Connors, her supposed father, had been ruthlessly predictable.

  William McGoven, on the other hand, was an enigma. Frustratingly so. He single-handedly made decisions for her, only to claim, in the next breath, that she wasn’t his responsibility. He could be moody and unreadable, and so damn closed-off she could count his few facial expressions on her fingers.

  She should have resented him and how confidently he’d inserted himself into her life—but anger wasn’t the feeling spreading through her chest whenever she saw him. Just confusion. Despite his gruffness, he was always there when she needed him the most.

  And he hadn’t held that fact over her head. Nor did he ever ask for anything in return, other than her trust. All in all, he made for the perfect hero after the hell her life had become.

  Until he kissed her. Not a chaste peck, either, but a wild assault she could feel the aftermath of days later.

  No one could blame her if she claimed he’d taken advantage. But when she went over her own emotions, things weren’t so simple.

  He kissed her, and there hadn’t been anything “weak” and “meek” about her reaction. Even now, a part of her demanded…something. Craved it from him alone. The actual name for it eluded her, but the more she tried to puzzle out an answer...

  Her throat went dry. The thin material of her shirt irritated the skin beneath. It felt…too tight. Especially when she recalled the feel of his lips on hers.

  Get a grip, Loren. You need to forget, a part of her insisted. Obviously, he’d gotten carried away. Adrenaline could make people do crazy things—like kiss traumatized teenage girls on impulse, apparently.

  But what’s your excuse? she wondered. Looking back, she hadn’t been confused or conflicted. Definitely not sorry, either. Being with him had felt right—and that was the scary part.

  “I think you might be wearing a hole through the marble—” She flinched as a hand came down to gingerly grab the cloth she’d been scrubbing the countertop with. “I’ll just put this over here,” Micha added, tossing the rag in the sink before she could protest.

  They were in McGoven’s narrow kitchen. Wearing a mud-stained pair of sweatpants, Micha looked like he’d just come from outside and was in desperate need of a shower. Instead of rushing to change, he leaned against the fridge and crossed his arms. Despite the casual stance, his green eyes were unusually sharp, devoid of their playful gleam.

  “You’ve been scrubbing the same spot for an hour.” He nodded to her wet, pruned fingers. “Wanna talk about it?”

  Loren turned away, feeling her cheeks flame. He was right. While she couldn’t comment on the amount of time that had passed, she wouldn’t have been surprised if it had been more than an hour.

  “Igno
ring your problems isn’t healthy,” Micha playfully scolded. “You can talk to me, you know.”

  With a sigh of defeat, Loren shrugged. True to his word, Micha didn’t look judgmental—merely exhausted. Mulling over the complexities of a kiss with him wasn’t very appealing, though. “Talk about what?”

  “Everything.”

  That word wasn’t vast enough to encompass the various dilemmas weighing on her mind, impromptu kiss aside. She still needed to reconcile what it meant to be lupine, not to mention her father’s death, and the question of her paternity. Add to that what happened with Naomi—according to Bill, she was home resting, but it was only a matter of time before she would return. Then what?

  Loren couldn’t stop dwelling on the possibilities—and, so far, her usual method of distraction hadn’t worked. It was only mid-afternoon, and she’d cleaned the kitchen twice. Done the dishes and mopped up the mud stains by the front door. Wiping down the counters had been a last-ditch diversion.

  It hadn’t worked. While she barely knew Micha, she was afraid she might explode if she didn’t talk to someone.

  Meeting his stare, she blurted out the first question to come to mind. “What do you know about him?” A pointed glance toward the window, in the direction of the trees, conveyed just who she referred to.

  “Bill?” Micha wrinkled his nose. “That depends on what you know,” he muttered under his breath. “But, back where I’m from—the pack, I mean—he’s considered something of a legend.”

  “A legend?” Loren had a hard time picturing it. Sure, McGoven was brave, and maybe a little larger-than-life at times, but he seemed way too closed-up to inspire any legendary tales. In fact, when he wasn’t sprouting black fur, he seemed boringly normal.

  “Are you kidding?” Micha’s eyes widened, and his usual exuberance returned in full. “Yeah. He’s a legend. The young pup plucked from the crowd by the Alpha himself and groomed to lead. That’s almost unheard of. Even more insane was what happened in the end. The guy had everything and just walked away from it all… I never met him in person before a few days ago, though. Just heard the rumors.”

  His cheerful grin fell flat. Going off his expression, those rumors weren’t all positive. Loren felt a twitch of apprehension run down her spine—quickly followed by a stronger sense of greed. She needed to know.

  “What kind of rumors?” As she spoke, her gaze returned to the window, once again hunting for a head of dark hair among the endless green. In a few more hours, it would be exactly a full day that he’d been gone. Presumably, he was patrolling for danger, though Loren suspected his real motivation was far more trivial—he was avoiding her.

  “Just…stuff,” Micha said, deliberately skirting the question. “Maybe, you should ask him?”

  Ask him. Loren would have scoffed if she weren’t so tired. Last night, she’d had the longest conversation with the man since meeting him, and she felt more clueless than before.

  And even more confused.

  “I wouldn’t be asking you if I could ask him,” she admitted in a small voice.

  Her imploring stare seemed to tip Micha over the edge.

  “Okay, I’ll cave.” He inched closer and cocked his head conspiratorially toward hers. “Rumor has it that he was set to take over when the old Alpha, Lukas, died—not Lukka, the guy’s own son. Then there was an attack by hunters on the outskirts of the property. McGoven wasn’t fast enough to respond, and as a result, his own mate was…” He grimaced and drew a finger across his throat. “McGoven stepped down after that and left the pack altogether. I’m not sure what exactly he did to become a rogue, but he’s been on the outside ever since. I don’t know if he could return to Black Mountain, even if he wanted to.”

  Mate. He said that word with the same reverence as another term Loren heard in reference to McGoven. A wife. Emma.

  “He left behind a lot to move all the way out here,” Micha added. “I don’t think I can name anyone else who would willingly walk away from the position of leader in exchange for…this.”

  “Why are you here?” she asked, curious. “You haven’t gone back to the pack either. Does that make you a rogue, too?”

  Micha blinked as if the idea hadn’t crossed his mind. “I don’t know. Though, I will admit that it seems pretty interesting here so far. Things in the pack can be so boring. Safe, ya know. We don’t have nightly ambushes, that’s for damn sure.”

  In response to her blank expression, he flashed a sheepish grin. “Not funny?”

  Loren shook her head, thinking of McGoven out pacing the fields. “Not funny.”

  “Well, I’ll tell you what is funny,” Micha began. He stood back and ran a hand through his thick hair while his eyes flashed wickedly. “You’re right. I’m kind of a rogue myself. I never thought about it until now, I guess.” Grinning, he puffed out his chest and placed his hands on his hips like a caricature of Superman. “I don’t really belong to a pack either. Lukka hasn’t accepted me fully yet, meaning I’m more or less a free agent.”

  “Why not?” Loren asked.

  Given how McGoven stressed the importance of her joining a pack, she couldn’t understand how Micha could be so nonchalant about not belonging to one.

  His cheerful grin slipped. “It takes a while to integrate as an outsider. I came in on kind of a trial basis. I don’t have a ranking yet—a place in the hierarchy. I’m more or less at the beck and call of everyone else.”

  He hid it well, but the sadness in his voice was evident. Loren recalled what little of his past he revealed during their ill-fated trip to Black Mountain. “You said that your dad was an Alpha?”

  Micha nodded. “I’m a transplant. From Virginia, born and raised. My sister and I belonged to our father’s pack, but he died.”

  His tortured expression gave her the feeling that he had fonder memories of his father than she did of Fred Connors. Considering how hazy her memories were, that wasn’t much of a stretch.

  “I’m sorry—”

  “Don’t be,” he said tightly. “It’s life. He ran the pack fairly. There’s nothing to be ashamed of. Let’s just say that after his death, the transition didn’t go so smoothly. When he died, I got pushed out, but I was too young to put up much of a fight—” He made a “so what” gesture with his hands.

  “My sister and I got separated. I came north, she stayed south—didn’t want to leave our dad’s territory—and I’ve been kind of bouncing around since then.”

  The whole time he spoke, he kept his smile, but as the minutes wore on, Loren figured it was more out of habit than anything else. His pain was obvious.

  “I’m sorry,” she repeated. As cruel as her life had been, she had no idea what that felt like—having a family member out there, lost.

  “Don’t be. Violet can take care of herself—” He chuckled. “I know I should probably say something along the lines of—you remind me of her—but you don’t. You’re the complete opposite. She’s loud and bossy, and she would never in a million years let someone—”

  He broke off abruptly and changed tack. “She’s a firecracker, and you’re not.”

  “So, what am I then?” Loren fully expected him to drop some lame, cheesy line to make her feel better.

  “You’re different,” he said finally. He inclined his head, casting her a searching glance. “More like a brushfire, I think. Slow to start, but in the end just as bright as a firecracker.” He winked, and Loren couldn’t help the smile that tugged at the corner of her mouth.

  “Ah! A smile!” He reached out to trail the length of her chin with the flat of his thumb. “I didn’t think you had one in ya—”

  Don’t let him touch you like that! The thought tore through her mind, like a slap. She flinched, jerking on the balls of her feet.

  “You okay?”

  “F-Fine,” she stammered. Inside, she felt anything but fine. Her heart was pounding, and her skin prickled where he touched her. But not in a good way. Not good at all.

  “Maybe you s
hould get some sleep? I know you didn’t get much last night.” Micha pursed his lips into a sheepish frown. “I heard you tossing and turning. It sounded like one hell of a nightmare.”

  A prickling heat crept over Loren’s cheeks. “It’s n-nothing,” she stammered, turning to face the sink.

  “You want to talk about it?” Micha asked. “I get bad dreams sometimes, myself.”

  Again, it was a tempting offer—only there was nothing to talk about. The nightmare had been the same one plaguing her since she first woke up in McGoven’s house. It was hard to describe—endless darkness and a feeling of ruthless pursuit, though she never saw the culprit’s face.

  Her mind was probably just processing the residual shock of her father’s death. That night was still hazy. Supposedly, he’d been killed by debtors, but…

  Loren couldn’t shake a shadowy whisper at the back of her mind that warned the explanation was a big fat lie.

  “Hey! Earth to Loren.” She glanced over to find Micha jerking his head toward the stairs. “I mean it. Go sleep. You’ve been up all morning. I heard you get up well before dawn. You must be exhausted. A nap won’t kill you. I’ll keep watch. And if you were worried about the…uh, mess from the other night, I took care of it while you were cleaning in here.” His sheepish grin conveyed a sense of pride despite the grisly topic.