Hunger of the Heart (Wolves of Ravenwillow Book 1) Read online

  Hunger of the Heart

  Wolves of Ravenwillow: Book 1

  Magenta Phoenix

  IMPRINT: Romance Paranormal Romance

  Hunger of the Heart: Wolves of Ravenwillow: Book 1

  Smashwords Edition

  Copyright © 2016 by Magenta Phoenix

  First E-Book Published August 2016

  Cover Design by Melody Simmons

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission from the author.

  All characters, places, and events in this book are fictitious or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, actual events, locales, or organizations are strictly coincidental.

  Smashwords License Statement

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each reader. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  This book is dedicated to my friend, Meghann.

  Thank you so much for finding my flash drive that held the finished copy of this book. Without you I would have had to start again from nothing.

  Contents

  Copyright

  Special Thanks

  Synopsis

  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

  Author’s Note

  Want more books by Magenta Phoenix?

  Special Thanks

  I want to say thank you so much to my beta reader Heather. You really helped me get this project off the ground!

  o.x.o.x.

  Synopsis

  Note to self: Find a mate!

  Being a single father of two werewolf children isn’t easy, especially when you have a pack to protect, a business to run, and need to find a mate. Werewolf Eric Daniels finds his life is complicated enough without people adding to his many to-do lists, so he is less than pleased when the elders of his pack demand that he find a mate to take on the roll of Alpha female. Things get worse until his meddling mother decides to ease his burden by hiring Rebecca, a human nanny to help ease Eric's hectic life. Humans are the forbidden fruit when it comes to shifters. But when Rebecca begins attracting the attention of another werewolf, Eric is helpless to no fall under her seductive spell and claiming her as his own. Struggling to maintain peace among the other werewolves under his rule with the ignorant human world, the last thing Eric needs is to fall in love with Rebecca. But Eric's wolf has other plans...

  Note to self: Stay alive!

  Rebecca has a secret; she knows what Eric and his beautiful children are. Years ago after surviving a werewolf attack, Rebecca has kept the secret of what she saw. When she is hired as a nanny for two werewolf children she finds herself between a rock and a hard place. Desperate to keep her job, she refuses to back down from her snarling, werewolf of a boss. As she grows close with Eric and his children, Rebecca finds herself falling. Afraid of what his pack may do to her if they find out what she knows; Rebecca struggles to keep Eric and her heart at a distance. But when war begins brewing among the shifters and her secret is discovered, her life hangs in the balance. Can she put her trust and her life in Eric's hands or will he stand with his pack...and kill her.

  1

  “Daddy,”

  The small voice invaded Eric’s sensitive ears as his crying daughter ran through the open door of his office at home. Her long, dark hair flew around her delicate face with every step she took. Blotches of red covered her button nose and trails of tears washing down her small cherub face. In her small arms was her favorite handmade doll, one of its arms completely torn off and missing.

  Pushing away from his computer desk, he bent down, lifting her up to cradle his crying daughter against his strong chest. The scent of her sadness perfumed the air around them, pulling at his heart strings. Pulling her away from his chest, his eyes collided with her tear filled blue ones.

  “What’s wrong, Emma?” His thumb gently brushed a falling tear from her plump cheek. Biting her bottom lip, a small sob tore through Emma as she held up the torn doll.

  “T-T-Travis tore it!” her tears came faster and her sobs more pitiful.

  “It was an accident.”

  Raising his eyes from his daughter’s distraught face, he spotted his son, Travis. Travis had the same dark brown hair as his twin sister. With his hands shoved in the pockets of his blue jeans, Travis looked away from the stern gaze of his father.

  Travis’s eyes hesitantly met his father’s. “I didn’t mean to. We were playing.”

  Eric sighed. He was so tired. Not that he disliked being home with his son and daughter, no, it wasn’t that. He was just tired. Bone deep and he was ready to pull out his hair while pounding his face into his desk; that kind of tired. It wasn’t easy being a parent or hell even a single parent. Eric wasn’t ready to admit it to any of his pack members that he ruled over; but he needed help. It was becoming impossible to juggle his architectural business, running his pack and caring for his children.

  If only he had someone to help him…

  Immediately he shut down the thought before he could begin it. A reminder of why he was alone wouldn’t help his mood any. He’d put that can of worms in the past and that’s where it would stay.

  Emma buried her face against Eric’s throat, drawing his attention as her breath continued catching with her small sobs. Before he could reprimand his son for his careless actions the sound of knocking at the front door intruded. Walking past his son, he gave him a stern look saying they were far from done with this discussion. His office opened out in to the living room. Eric wasn’t all that surprised to see toys scattered across the hardwood floor. Carefully he moved across the dining room and into the connected dining room and kitchen.

  Balancing Emma on his hip, Eric opened the front door and released a sigh at the sight before him. Not bothering to wait for an invitation, his mother; Sarah stepped across the threshold carrying a casserole dish in her small hands.

  Just as he was about to shut the door a soft voice from his porch made him pause, “Excuse me;”

  Turning to face the barely open doorway, Eric felt his breath sucked from his lungs. Opening the front door wider a small curvy woman stepped hesitantly into the kitchen, juggling two casserole dishes while trying to maintain hold of her tote bag that slid down her arm.

  Walking toward the other woman, Sarah held out her hands. “Dear, let me take those.”

  “Thank you.” H
er voice was soft as a whispering wind.

  While she handed the dishes over to his mother, Eric took the chance to take in her appearance fully. Her height appeared to only be 5’5 to his 6 foot tall frame. Her hair was the color of smooth milk chocolate, pulled away from her face by a simple green headband, allowing the silky strands to fall down her back. Her eyes resembled a doe’s, bright brown and watchful. He couldn’t help but allow his eyes to drift over the rest of her body. His eyes ranked over her full supple breasts and her smooth hips. Where most women were thin and lithe, this woman had curves and meat that would tempt a saint.

  His nostrils flared at her scent; her luscious and unique feminine scent, her jasmine perfume. Everything about her threatened to draw him irrevocably closer to her; her scent and her laminating beauty caused his wolf deep inside him to leap towards the surface. Taking a step closer to her, Eric couldn’t deny the intense urge to take her into his arms and mark her body with his scent. He longed to hear her cries of pleasure and to feel her strong, meaty thighs cradle his body as he buried himself deeper within the depths of her heat. As he neared closer to her, another scent floated through the air. It was sweet, like melted sugar and left his mouth watering and his teeth clashing together with alarm. Human.

  Eric felt his heart stop dead in his chest. Why would his mother bring a human into his house, around his children? She appeared to be in her late twenties; too young to be a close friend of his mother’s. Even with the feeling of foreboding in his chest, his wolf still continued to howl and lunge toward this unknown human female. Why would such a fragile and forbidden creature such as she, cause his wolf to fight him with such ferocity? Not ever had a female of his kind managed that.

  “Really, Eric when is the last time you cleaned this kitchen?” The voice of his mother cut in.

  “Last night.” He growled out, his eyes never leaving the human in front of him. Shoving his wolf back into seclusion, Eric pushed aside the erotic haze that clouded his mind and sought control over his body. No matter how much his wolf desired this woman, she was human and as such a threat to all like him if she ever was to learn the truth about him.

  Sarah looked around the kitchen with mild distaste. Dishes sat piled in the double sinks, crumbs and trash was scattered across the counter tops. “Looks like I planned this out well.”

  Feeling uneasy, Eric gently put Emma down, his eyes quickly found his son’s. “Travis; take your sister and go watch TV while Grandma and me talk.”

  The moment Travis and Emma were out of sight, he turned his hard expression to his mother. Folding his thickly muscled arms over his wide chest, his eyes flickered over the delicate looking human.

  Turning back to his mother, he gave her an inquiringly look. “What’s going on?”

  Sarah turned her attention to her companion, “Rebecca, would you be a dear and put these away in the fridge. I need to talk to my son.” Not waiting for a reply, Sarah; using her lupine strength, pulled Eric out of the kitchen, out the front door and onto the sun lit porch.

  Pulling his arm away from the strong grasp of his mother’s, Eric glared down at her. His heart pounded like a loud drum in his ears. Using his superior hearing, he could confirm that his children were in the living room watching TV. This gave him a small amount of comfort with the small distance between his children and the unknowing human woman in the kitchen.

  “What is going on, Mother?”

  She held her hands up in a placating manner. “Calm down, Eric.” Her voice reasoned.

  “Calm down? I will not calm down! You’ve brought a human in to my home, where my children are! How could you be so stupid?” He hissed out in anger as his blue eyes glowed gold with the presence of his inner beast. Curling his hands in two tight fists, he could feel his nails lengthening into razor claws, slicing into his skin.

  “I’ve hired Rebecca as your nanny.” Closing his eyes, Eric forced his beast back down before taking a calming breath.

  “I don’t need a nanny.” He bit out slowly.

  “A nanny for Travis and Emma, Silly.” She scolded with a smile.

  “Emma and Travis don’t need a nanny.” He bit out while pacing the length of the porch, his eyes flickering toward the kitchen window.

  “Eric. Listen to me.” She beseeched. Clasping his hand in both of hers, Sarah pulled him down onto the wooden porch swing. “There's been gossip that you no longer care about the survival of the pack. Your business is barely surviving, if it were not for your betas you wouldn’t even have that. I’m concerned about you. Others believe you have become a weak Alpha, especially since your decision to form a peace treaty with the shifters of Darkwood Springs.”

  Eric couldn’t help scoffing with disbelief. It wasn’t until after he’d returned from his trip to Darkwood Springs that he could see the trouble mounting in his own pack. Doyle Mackenzie; a grizzly shifter and the Alpha over the many different shifters of the small town, Darkwood Springs, had opened his eyes after just a few days with him. It was strange. Wolves were pack hunters and born leaders among the many shifter casts. Where as, in most cases, bear shifters were more solitary. If it wasn’t for the Mackenzie family, Eric suspected that all the shifters would be divided as most commonly were. But yet; Doyle’s pack thrived.

  Eric didn’t fully understand what was going on with Doyle’s strange mate, or the danger that he’d been pulled into while there, but he respected Doyle as a fellow Alpha. Why couldn’t his pack do the same? The thought was laughable. Many thought his decision to form alliances with other packs was a sign of weakness. But he didn’t care. He’d even secretly sent Mark; his close friend and a cougar shifter, to his own Alpha and secretive pack to inspire an alliance.

  Many wolf packs were stuck in the dark ages. They kept to their own and weren’t known for being capable of playing well with other shifters. Even members of his pack that he’d sent to watch Doyle years back still did what they could to get on the grizzly shifter’s nerves.

  With his peace treaties he was forcing his pack out of their archaic comfort zones and he knew none of them liked it. Quite frankly; he didn’t give a shit. Times were changing and if the danger that Doyle’s pack was battle was anything to go by, he knew that his pack needed to evolve. They needed to band together to become stronger. There was only one law of his pack that he had no intention of changing and that was that all shifters avoided humans at all cost.

  The thought brought him back to his mother who was still speaking. No doubt she had been listing her reasoning for bringing a human into his home and endangering them all. He wouldn’t stand for it. No matter her reasoning.

  “I just worry about you, Eric.” She continued on. “If you’re not careful—”

  “No one within our pack is stupid enough to challenge me.” He said, slashing his hand through the air, dismissingly.

  “Son, you’ve been ignoring pack business, it’s time that you got back to it.”

  Eric rose with a huff. “I don’t need some human hanging around and becoming suspicious. Did you even consider what would happen if she witnessed one of us shifting or if one of the pups did? I would be the one to end her life, is that what you want?” Sarah didn’t shrink back from his narrowing eyes, but lifted her chin assertively.

  “Of course it’s not. It isn’t as if I’ve brought some stranger to take care of my grandchildren. Rebecca came highly recommended from the very Alpha that you went to see a week ago.”

  “You’re saying that Doyle Mackenzie recommended a human nanny to you?” he asked skeptically.

  His mother winced before hesitantly answering. “Not exactly. One of the other grizzly shifters of his pack did. She told me that Rebecca had taken care of her children for a time and was the best. If she could take care of four bear-shifter children, two wolf-shifter children should be easy.”

  Planting his hands squarely on his hips, Eric shook his head. “No.”

  “Eric. Just hire her for a week, if it doesn’t work out, you can fire her. Rebecca
will just be here from morning till late afternoon when you come home. She’ll clean and cook and take care of Travis and Emma, then leave. It’s not as if she’ll be living here. Please consider it.”

  Sighing, his hands dropped limply at his sides. “You are playing a dangerous game, Mother.” He said in warning. “What do you think will happen if the elders find out about this? I doubt they will be as understanding as I am.”

  Waving her hand at him absently, Sarah rolled her eyes. “Don’t worry so much. Our pack isn’t really as old fashioned as the other wolf packs. I know you want to change things, Eric. So, start here. It would show the pack that it is possible for shifters and humans to mingle without the threat of Revealment hanging up in the air all the time.”

  Eric’s lips pinched together at her words. As much as he hated to say it; let alone think it, she was right. He couldn’t keep going on as he had been. Wolves worshiped strength and the only reason he was Alpha was because no one was strong or brave enough to take him down. If he continued on this way, that could change.

  Gritting his teeth when he realized there was no way out of this, Eric turned and marched back into the house, striding straight into the kitchen. The human; Rebecca, his mother had called her, sat at the family dinner table, her eyes focused out the window on the clear summer sky. Striding closer, Eric glared down at her at ease expression.

  “I didn’t hire you, nor do I want you here.” He growled out, pointing a threatening finger towards her. Rebecca turned to face him; her face didn’t show with a hint of intimidation. When she didn’t say anything, he continued. “Personally; I think hiring you to care for my children would be the biggest mistake of my life.”

  She merely shrugged her shoulders. “You’re entitled to your own opinion.” She commented, uncaringly.

  Her words made his blood rush through his veins with anger. Who did this woman think she was? One thing was for sure, Rebecca wasn’t a woman easily intimidated. Where most women, even shifter women would cringe from his angered expression and hard words, Rebecca didn’t even flinch. Eric’s wolf couldn’t help but feel impressed at her bravery.