Lost Howl Read online

  A wolf raised by humans meets a ram who wants independence. Fur flies and they butt heads.

  Amira was raised by humans and has lived her life knowing she is different. When she is found on her birthday, she is offered a chance to join with one of the shifter families that run in her bloodline. She learns her history and plans her future.

  Lorr wants an independent woman, so when he sees the wolf on the dance floor, he makes his move and she makes hers.

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

  Lost Howl

  Copyright © 2014 Zenina Masters

  ISBN: 978-1-4874-0004-0

  Cover art by Carmen Waters

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.

  Published by eXtasy Books Inc or

  Devine Destinies, an imprint of eXtasy Books Inc

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  www.eXtasybooks.com or www.devinedestinies.com

  Lost Howl

  Shifting Crossroads, Book 19

  By

  Zenina Masters

  Chapter One

  Dorine Newark was hiking with her daughter when the sound echoed through the hills.

  “Mommy, what is that?”

  Dorine looked around and saw tendrils of smoke coming from one of the access roads. She took out her phone and encouraged Lianna to come with her. “Let’s find out. Someone could be in trouble. It sounds like there is a puppy involved.”

  The small howl sounded again, raw and broken.

  It took them twenty minutes to walk over the ragged ground to the still-smoking vehicle. Dorine took one look at the scorched arm hanging out of the upside-down car and whispered to her daughter. “Call 911 and tell them that there is an accident. Do you remember how to use the GPS?”

  Lianna looked at her with wide eyes. “Yes, Mommy. Where is the puppy?”

  The broken howl continued.

  “I think it is behind the car. I will go and get it, baby. You stay here and call.” Dorine took her walking stick and moved wide around the car. The howl stopped suddenly.

  A scrabbling noise behind the car didn’t sound canine, and when she made it around the car, she was staring into pale blue eyes and sandy brown hair. A young girl, not much older than her daughter was crouching near the car.

  There was no dog in sight.

  “Sweetie, are you all right?”

  The girl shifted closer to the car and hid behind the open rear door. The tumble of hair moved as she shook her head.

  Dorine noted that the girl’s leg was not quite at the correct angle from the knee downward. She unhooked a water bottle from her belt and offered it to the girl. “Drink this, sweetie.”

  The girl reached forward and took the bottle, her dirt and blood-stained hands shaking as she opened it before she gulped at the liquid.

  “Will you come out?”

  Dorine pulled her jacket from around her waist and held it out to the girl. To her surprise, the girl took it and sniffed at it for a moment. She felt relief when the girl put it on and crawled out from behind the car door.

  “My daughter is over there. She is about your age. Can I carry you away from the car and sit you down on that rock?”

  The girl looked toward Lianna and nodded. She whispered softly, “My leg doesn’t work.”

  “We will get it fixed, sweetie.”

  The wide blue eyes blinked slowly. “My mom and dad are dead. I kept them safe, but I am so tired.”

  Dorine swallowed as she looked past the girl to see a pile of fur and feathers against the rocks displaying marks of a collision. “You don’t need to worry about them anymore. We will watch over them until someone comes to get them out.”

  The little girl nodded.

  As carefully as she could, Dorine lifted the child up and carried to over to Lianna.

  Lianna was speaking earnestly into the phone. “My mommy has her. She is coming now.”

  The little hand held out the phone. “The lady wants to talk to you.”

  Dorine set the little girl down and smiled. “Wait here. I will be right back.”

  She walked away from the girls and lowered her voice. “Hello?”

  “This is the 911 operator, are you at the scene of a vehicular incident?”

  “Yes. There are two dead bodies that seem to have been there for a minimum of four days and a child who is alive and appears to be around seven years old.”

  “Ma’am, did you say the child was alive?”

  “Yes. She is injured and needs medical attention. Did my daughter provide the coordinates?”

  “Yes, ma’am. Remain on the line.”

  Dorine turned toward the girls and noted Lianna working with a bottle of water to clean the other little girl’s face. The survivor was trying to dodge the clumsy efforts, but she couldn’t get away.

  “My name is Amira Raider. My mom and dad were Jennifer and Laurence Raider.” Her hoarse voice called out and Dorine waited until the operator resumed contact before passing that information along.

  “I will make a note of it. The ambulance is on the way. You should be able to hear it by now.”

  Amira perked up. “It is coming. It is over there.”

  She pointed down the rustic track, and it took three minutes before Dorine could hear it.

  They huddled together at the stand of rocks while the ambulance and rescue crew arrived.

  The medics examined Amira’s leg and talked softly to her while Dorine watched, but her thoughts were focused on the pile of dead scavengers. She was standing with her arm around Lianna when those huge blue eyes swung her way.

  Dorine had looked a wolf in the eye before, and she knew she was staring at one now. This child had acted with a fierce protectiveness to her family that mimicked that of a pack animal. Somehow, that little girl had defended the bodies of her dead parents and howled for help until her voice broke.

  In that moment of eye contact, Dorine knew that she was willing to protect that little one with all of her resources. How she had managed to survive this long and do what she did was going to be a mystery that Dorine would not pry into until the time was right.

  Step one was to get her well and step two was to seek out Amira’s family.

  Lianna slipped her small hand into hers. “Will she be okay, Mommy?”

  “Yes, Lia. She will be okay. We will make sure of it.”

  “Good. She says she will show me how to chase rabbits.” Lianna looked up with a smile.

  Dorine looked over at the girl who was being fastened to a gurney. Her eyes were calm and far beyond her years.

  She muttered to herself, “I wonder what she does when she catches them?”

  * * * *

  The clouds were dancing in the valley and Amira was serene. Lianna skidded up beside her and grinned. “I can’t believe you are twenty-five!”

  “I can’t either, sissy.” Eighteen years had passed s
ince that day in the gully. No trace of her family had ever been found, so the Newarks had taken her in and given her a new life.

  Amira knew what she was. She had always known what she was. Her parents had never hidden their forms from her and she had often pulled at her father’s mane and her mother’s bushy tail. Her parents had been different shifter species and Amira would never know who her family really had been.

  She looked down at Lianna and grinned. It didn’t really matter. She knew who her family was, and even if they couldn’t shift shape, they were her pack now.

  Dorine Newark had bought them a family home in the mountains where they could take family vacations and Amira could run free when she needed to.

  “Come on, we are getting ready to light the fire, and we need a fur in front of the fireplace.”

  Lianna squealed when Amira growled and took a swipe at her.

  Amira turned away from the rising mist and the sense that there was something missing in her life and went inside to be with her pack of humans. It was her birthday after all; it was time to be with family.

  Chapter Two

  The knock on the door the next morning took them all by surprise.

  Lianna went to answer the knock with a bemused expression.

  “Mom, isn’t our nearest neighbour ninety miles away?” Amira finished setting the table.

  “Yes, sweetie.” Dorine kept her arm whisking the batter while she looked around the corner toward the door.

  Amira heard low mumbles coming from the doorway, but there were three walls between her and the door. She couldn’t make anything out.

  Lianna came down the hall with a mist-shrouded stranger. “Amira, set another place. We have a guest for breakfast.”

  A nervous young woman came in behind Lianna. When she saw Amira, she blinked and quickly checked a folder that she removed from under her arm. She sighed in relief.

  Amira felt something peculiar in the air when the young woman focused on her. “What are you doing?”

  The woman blinked. “You felt that?”

  “Obviously.” Amira reached behind her neck and smoothed her hackles. “May I ask your name?”

  “Of course. I am so sorry. I wasn’t expecting your home to be so remote.” The woman reached into her jacket and extended a card. “I am a transporter acting as a special envoy to the Shifter Council. They wanted to send one of their own but weren’t sure how you would react to it. My name is Sarah Matheson.”

  Amira read the card, the phone number and the name. “Right. What is a transporter and why are you here?”

  Lianna went to the cupboard and pulled out a plate, setting a place for Sarah.

  Dorine smiled. “Please have a seat, Sarah. We were just settling in for pancakes. Today is Amira’s birthday.”

  “I am aware of that. That is why I am here. She has inherited her mother’s legacy and I have been sent from the Shifter Council to bring her to meet her family.” Sarah sat down at the table and Amira poured her a cup of coffee.

  “I am with my family. All efforts were made to find my family when my parents died and there were no traces of them. The Newarks took me in and made me part of their family and I made them part of my pack.”

  Sarah cocked her head. “Pack, not pride?”

  “I am a wolf.”

  Amira sat next to her guest when Dorine gave her a nod.

  “Oh. No wonder they couldn’t find you until you came of age. They were looking for the wrong species. What is wrong with your voice?”

  “I injured it as a child.”

  Dorine and Lianna gave each other a meaningful look while Dorine expertly prepared a stack of pancakes.

  The folder was opened and angled to show Amira two photos. A lump formed in her throat. Her parents’ faces were in her mind but seeing them on paper was a wild ride into her memories of the crash.

  The wolves had surrounded their car, driving them off the main route and onto the back road. The car had flipped and her parents were killed when the vehicle struck a rock. What had saved Amira was her panicked transformation into her wolf form. She had been small enough and huddled behind her mother’s seat when they flipped. The crushed car formed a protective cage around her, and once she wiggled loose, the smell of death was everywhere in the car. She knew that smell.

  She turned human and climbed out of the car but went back to wolf when the coyotes began to attack. She had fought them off and howled for help. When the buzzards arrived, she killed them as well, keeping them from her parents.

  “Amira. Did you hear what I have been saying?” Sarah was looking at her earnestly.

  “No. I am sorry. I have not seen pictures of my parents for nearly two decades. I was not expecting a visitor with their photos today.”

  “These are not just their photos. This is the last will and testament of Jennifer Stokes and Laurence Ardux. They were married in the human world twenty-five years ago and immediately disappeared from the Shifter Guild radar. You were hidden from your families for your own safety. Apparently, it only worked for so long.”

  “That is an interesting grasp of the situation. My parents were killed and I was left to become road kill.”

  Sarah blinked. “So I am beginning to gather. I had no idea until now that you had been raised by…”

  Amira looked up from the images of her parents. “Humans? Normals? The unmagical? They are my family.”

  Lianna and Dorine smiled at her.

  Amira winked.

  Sarah sighed and opened a notebook, scribbling frantically. When she paused and looked up, she smiled weakly. “Can you tell me what happened in detail?”

  “After pancakes. Everything can wait until after pancakes.” She smiled brightly.

  “We really need to get you into the Guild hall so you can be properly interviewed.”

  Lianna and Dorine winced.

  Amira gave the newcomer a feral grin. “No. And you can ask your questions after pancakes.”

  Dorine handed Amira the platter of bacon. “She takes her birthday breakfast very seriously.”

  The birthday girl piled her plate high with all her favourites and drowned everything in syrup. Sighing happily, she dug in.

  Sarah looked like she wanted to continue to rush things, but she didn’t say a word. She took the food as it passed and fixed her own plate. It seemed she had a sense of self-preservation after all.

  Amira enjoyed the meal with her family. Even having a visitor was rather nice.

  Her mother asked her, “So, what do you want for your birthday?”

  She paused and gave it some thought. “I don’t want anything. I am good. I have family, friends and a job I enjoy.”

  Dorine drank her orange juice and winked. “Then you shall have a gift of my choosing.”

  Sarah cleared her throat. “What do you do for a living, if I may ask?”

  Amira looked at her with a crooked smile. “I am a mountain guide for hikers. It gets me out in the open and I can use my senses to keep them safe. They become my temporary pack.”

  Lianna smiled. “She has done that since she was a teenager.”

  Sarah nodded and made another note in her book.

  Amira sighed. “Why are you making notes?”

  “I am trying to prepare an overview of your life for the Shifter Council. The spell used to make your family disappear was exceptionally advanced and there was no trace of who actually applied the magic that erased your parents’ lives.”

  “What?”

  “They were in the magical equivalent of the witness protection program.” Sarah nodded. “We are trying to piece together the records but the details are sketchy.”

  Amira finished her birthday breakfast and waited until everyone else finished their food. She did tend to wolf her favourites down, but then, she was a wolf.

  Once everyone had their fill, she got up and loaded the dishes in the dishwasher, bringing out a tray loaded with a carafe of coff
ee and all the accoutrements.

  When everyone was sitting with a hot cup of coffee, Amira settled down across from Sarah. “Now, I don’t know much, but what do you want to know?”

  Three hours later and many flipped pages later, Sarah was sitting in astonishment and she blinked. “I need to report to the council. I will return for you in six hours if you like.”

  “Why? I am perfectly content in my life right now.”

  Sarah blinked. “Wouldn’t you feel better with your own kind?”

  Amira felt her fangs creeping out. “I am with my own kind. I am with family.”

  “You have other family. They would like to meet you.”

  Dorine stood up. “Enough. Amira, come with me for a minute.”

  Amira snarled but she followed her mom out onto the balcony.

  “Amira, you are going with her and learning about others like you. You have a solid family and we aren’t going anywhere. Find out what the other side has to offer.”

  “But—”

  “No buts. It is off-season, you don’t have any contracts and you are free to do what you like. Find out what that is. You have only started to sample your options, sweetie.” Dorine reached out and scratched Amira behind her ear.

  “Fine, but I will find out what the shifter world has to offer and come right home.”

  “Fine, but if you meet someone nice, bring them home for dinner. You have a certain look in your eyes lately, and I think some time with other shifters would be just the thing to set you straight, so to speak.”

  Amira wrinkled her nose. Her mother was trying to be subtle, but she had to confess to herself that lately she had been doing more than just eyeing some of the single men on her tours. Having sex against a tree was not the most comfortable venue, but it kept the others on the tour from hearing all the grunting and snarling. Sex with humans was superficially satisfying, but she had a deeper craving. If her mom had picked up on it, it must have been pretty obvious.