Cry of the Wolf
Authors: Dianna Hardy
Tags: #Romance, #Paranormal, #Werewolves & Shifters, #Science Fiction & Fantasy, #Fantasy, #Paranormal & Urban, #Romantic, #animal urges, #control, #werewolf, #paranormal romance, #full moon, #paranormal fantasy, #lust, #werewolves, #shifter romance, #dark romance, #urban fantasy
Cry Of The Wolf
(Eye Of The Storm)
by Dianna Hardy
A dark, adult paranormal fantasy
for the call of the wild in us all.
Set in the Surrey Hills, England.
Cry Of The Wolf (Eye Of The Storm)
copyright © 2013, Dianna Hardy
Published by Satin Smoke Press, April, 2013
Satin Smoke Press is an imprint of Bitten Fruit Books
The moral right of the author has been asserted.
In this work of fiction, the characters, places and events are either the product of the author's imagination, or they are used entirely fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced by any means or in any form whatsoever without written permission from the author, except for brief quotations embodied in literary articles or reviews.
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 recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your eBook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Cover photo © krivenko / Shutterstock.com
Cover design by Dianna Hardy
Satin Smoke Press
Surrey, UK
Blurb
(Book Two of the
Eye Of The Storm
series.)
The full moon is a week away, and although Lydia is as excited as it gets to run as a wolf for the first time, she is also fighting to keep her independence while trying to understand her role in the lives of the three males that have come to rule hers: compassionate, tender Taylor; impetuous, fun-loving Ryan and distant, cold Lawrence.
There's also a fourth man in Lydia's life. Brendan, her previous "friend with benefits", is tirelessly searching for her. He's about to uncover things that should be kept hidden.
However, the testosterone surrounding her is the last thing she should be worrying about. Her family bear truths about her heritage she's not ready to face … she may not have a choice, because the greatest danger to them all comes from within. The past never stays buried for long, and among the shadows of their species it is rising with a vengeance, threatening to tear their pack apart for good.
NOTES: This is an adult paranormal fantasy short novel (over 55,000 words) containing scenes of explicit sexual content and some violence, entwined with romantic elements. Written in British English.
Dedication
Mum, this book is for you … because you shocked me by wanting to read the first one! Thank you for looking past the raciness, and seeing the story underneath.
I love you.
xxx
“...Everything can be taken from a man but one thing; the last of the human freedoms – to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.”
Viktor Frankl
Cry Of The Wolf
Chapter One
How did anyone even begin to make sense of these diagrams?
Lydia stared at the text book in front of her, her brain already faltering from the little she’d read over the past twenty minutes.
There’s a reason why I chose not to take Biology at school.
But
this
? This was just bizarre, seriously … stuff about werewolf sperm and fertilisation, and something about acidity and alkaline levels needing to be balanced – some tie-in as to why their sperm was cool instead of warm – to placate the female when she’s on heat…
Placate.
As if we’re wild and unruly just because we’re lusty females, pur-lease!
She shut the heavy book with a slam. This was the most patriarchal bullshit she’d ever heard. Okay, so maybe they were ‘werewolf facts’, but the
way
these books were written… She looked at the author’s name on the front: Dr T. J. Huntley.
Gotta be a man.
Rummaging through the other books Lawrence had left for her to study—
and how many books does he think I’m going to get through?
—she finally landed on one that looked different to the rest.
She pulled the small, hardcover edition from the pile, barely able to make out the title because it had faded so much:
Werewolf Myths & Legends.
“If there are no molecule diagrams in here, I’m game.”
She opened the book and it landed smack in the middle, the binding barely holding the pages together. An ink drawing stared back at her, of some animal that she assumed was a werewolf lying upon a human-looking woman, her head thrown back in ecstasy, her breasts splayed and a full moon in the background. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what they were doing.
Great. Studies in bestiality.
She quickly flicked through more pages, uncomfortably aware that the drawing had left her slightly aroused.
My life is so fucked.
She stopped at a chapter titled,
The Wolf and the Lightning-Bearer
.
Once upon a time, before even the dawn of time, Himet, the Great God and Yemet, the Great Goddess, had a fight. In growing knowledge of their status and abilities, one was no longer willing to yield to the other, nor to share the space of the universe they had created together.
One day, their fight was so great, their anger so palpable across the cosmos, that their consumed rage tore them apart forever.
Thrown from each other, Himet soared up and became the sky, the stars, the sun and the moon; Yemet soared down and became the earth, the trees, the plants and the animals that walked upon it. But they were lost without the other, and there was no way to mend the great divide they had brought upon themsel
—
An unwelcome scent that she recognised straight away, wafted towards her through her open bedroom door from the downstairs kitchen.
Damn it … Selena. What’s
she
doing here?
Reluctantly, Lydia closed the book, her wolf rising territorially, and made her way downstairs trying to look unperturbed. That female would just
love
to know she could rile her up.
She arrived in the kitchen to find her with her strawberry-blonde head in the fridge.
“Can I help you?”
“Oh!” she exclaimed as if she hadn’t been expecting anyone. Then she threw Lydia a grin that anyone else would interpret as friendly – Lydia interpreted it as motive-laden. “I baked you some cookies; I was wondering where to keep them.” She shut the fridge door and pointed to a sealed container on the table. “We got off on the wrong foot. I wanted to apologise.”
“Well … thanks. I’ll find a home for the cookies.”
“Great.”
They stood there in silence, unmoving.
“How are you settling in?” asked Selena, finally.
“Very well, actually, thanks.”
“Oh, good. Can’t be easy keeping three males in check.”
And there it was – the bitterness in her tone. Now we were getting down to it.
“Of course, I grew up in the pack. I can give you some pointers.”
Please don’t.
“We’ve all had our turns with all the males before they mated…”
Oh, god…
“Ryan likes it rough, and – wow – he knows how to make you forget you might die every full moon, you know?”
Bitch.
Jealousy reared its head.
Ignore her.
“Lawrence … well, he’s a bit more detached, but ain’t nothin’ wrong with his equipment – I mean, the guy’s tall and so’s his…” Selena stopped mid-sentence and smirked, and that’s when Lydia realised she was growling. Fuck. So much for remaining unperturbed. She was close to clawing the stupid woman’s face off.
“He always keeps his trousers on though – it’s a little quirk of his. And he never shifts, not even in moments of wild passion – no one’s ever seen his wolf. He never runs with the pack. Ask me anything personal about them; I know all their quirks,” she added, silkily.
Lydia forced back her ire and battled the green-eyed monster as best as she could. “Really?” she forced out through gritted teeth. “So tell me about Taylor’s quirks?”
Selena’s smile fell and Lydia’s inner-wolf thumped her tail in triumph.
“Oh, that’s right – you’ve
never
been with Taylor, have you? In fact, I think I’m the
only
wolf to have ever been with Taylor.”
“Which means nothing,” she retorted. “He was servicing you, nothing more.”
More moronic terminology she couldn’t stand: servicing. What was she – a car? “And what do you think Ryan, Lawrence and any other male you’ve been with have been doing with you every full moon? You’re right – it means
nothing.
Unless, of course, you’re mated to them.”
Touché.
Selena’s brown eyes darkened, her cheeks growing pinched, “You’re a greedy hussy, you know that? Every wolf in history has been perfectly happy with one mate, but
you
– no – you’ve got to have
three
.” Anger shook her voice. “What about the rest of us? We’re going to
die
.”