Growl for Me: BBW Paranormal Shifter Romance

GROWL
FOR ME

By

Natalie Kristen

Copyright
© 2014 Natalie Kristen

ALL
RIGHTS RESERVED

No
part of this book may be reproduced, scanned or distributed in any
form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage
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means, electronic or print.

The
unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is
a crime punishable by law.

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

*****

Mina
Stone
needs a break,
a fresh start. She is getting out of the city and heading off to
Misty Valley where she can start a new job and a new life. But
before she can reach Misty Valley, she is attacked by a pack of
vicious red wolves in the middle of a dark, deserted highway.

Declan
Grant
knows
that the human woman he saved from the Red Fangs pack is his mate.
And she is in grave
danger.
Savage and
brutal,
the Red Fangs
pack will stop at
nothing to get back at the Snow River wolves.

Fear has no place in a town
full of shifters.

Mina will have to make a
choice—a choice that will change her life forever.

*****

Mina Stone glared at the
jangling phone on the passenger seat. It was her cousin, Eva,
calling again. Mina winced. She knew Eva was worried for her.
Mina's fingers twitched on the steering wheel. If she picked up her
phone, and confessed that she still hadn't reached Misty Valley after
being on the road for hours, Eva would freak out. But if she didn't
pick up, Eva might freak out even more and she'd send her vampire
mate, Gabriel King, out after her. Mina grimaced. She liked Gabriel
well enough but she just didn't want to have to deal with a Master
vampire right now.

Mina gave herself a big
mental kick in the butt. She would have reached Misty Valley by now
if she hadn't missed that unlit road sign and taken a wrong turn.

Her phone continued
vibrating angrily. Mina sucked in a steadying breath and answered
the call in her cheeriest, chirpiest voice, even though she knew it
wouldn't fool her cousin.

“Hi, Eva! I was just
about to...”

“Mina! Are you there
yet?” Eva's anxious, strident voice filled the entire interior
of the car.

“No, Eva. I'm still
on the road. But I should be there soon. Don't worry...”

“It's almost
nightfall. You should have reached Misty Valley hours ago!”
Eva's voice rose a pitch.

“I took a wrong turn,”
Mina admitted. “I had to circle back, but no biggie. I'm on
the right track now,” Mina went on brightly, forcibly twisting
her grimace into a grin. Inject your smile into your voice. That
was one of the first things she'd learned to do in her old job as a
telemarketer. “I just passed a road sign that said it's just
less than an hour's drive from here to Misty Valley.”

Mina gulped and squinted
into the thickening fog ahead. Tall, shadowy trees flanked the long,
lonely stretch of road leading to the small town of Misty Valley.

The tiny patch of sky that
was still visible through the trees was darkening rapidly. As far as
the eye could see, there were no cars, streetlamps, houses or petrol
stations along the dark, narrow highway. There were only trees, fog,
shadows...and things which growled in the dark.

Mina shuddered. She'd heard
them. Low, menacing growls rumbling out from the woods as her car
sped past.

Her car. This rusty,
rattling tin can was the only thing protecting her from those
mysterious, growling creatures.

If her car broke down right
here in the middle of nowhere, she would have to spend the night in
the wilderness, with nothing but the encroaching forest and its
inhabitants for company.

Mina stifled a whimper and
applied a wee bit more pressure on the accelerator. She didn't floor
the pedal though. The last thing she needed right now was smoke
billowing from the hood as her car stuttered to a dead stop.
“Everything's okay. Please don't have a heart attack,”
Mina muttered, not quite sure if she was talking to Eva, her car or
herself.

“Mina...you still
there?” Eva sounded really worried over the phone. “Shall
I get Gabriel to mist to you? At least he can keep an eye...”

“No! I mean, thanks,
but no. Gabriel is a very busy vamp. I don't want to trouble him.
I'm fine. Really really. There's really,
really
no need to
send Gabriel out here,” Mina insisted. “I'm almost
there.”

“Hmm...”

Mina could picture her
cousin narrowing her eyes and chewing her lip as she considered the
best course of action. Eva was a capable, responsible police officer
in the New Moon City Police Department (NMPD), and she was mated to
Gabriel King, a Master vampire. Gabriel owned a chain of blood bars
and beauty parlors in New Moon City, and according to Eva, he was
planning on poking his fangs into the food and beverage business as
well. A chain of fast food outlets for vamps was in the works. The
blood burgers and nuggets would be “Fang lickin' good!”

Mina had rolled her eyes at
the slogan, but she had to admit that Gabriel was a very smart, savvy
businessman. Gabriel King had been a rogue vampire, but he had
turned over a new leaf and changed completely for Eva. Gabriel had
made good and was now a legitimate businessman in New Moon City. He
even made it a point to employ reformed rogues in his business.
Although New Moon City was home to both humans and paranormals,
Mina's family was fully and purely human. Not one of her many aunts,
uncles, cousins, nieces and nephews was mated to a paranormal. Eva
had surprised them all with her choice of mate. Her parents had
objected at first, but when they saw how happy Eva was, and how
deeply and fiercely Gabriel loved her, they had given the couple
their blessings.

Mina had to admit that she'd
never seen Eva so happy and contented. Her cousin was positively
glowing with health and happiness. Eva had always been a good cop,
but now she was like a supercop, able to leap trash cans and fire
hydrants in a single bound and wrestle burly armed robbers to the
ground single-handedly. When Mina questioned her, Eva had answered
coyly, “It's the blood bond.”

Mina shifted in the driver's
seat and glanced down at her curvy body. She ate well and she
exercised some, but she wasn't at all athletic. She would never be
able to run and leap like Eva. Athletic bodies were lean and svelte
with hard, toned muscles. Mina wasn't lean and hard. She was soft
and curvy, perhaps too curvy. She blew out a breath and tossed her
unruly red hair over her shoulders.

“Mina, where are you
now?” Eva's voice crackled over the phone.

“I think I'm just
twenty minutes away from Misty Valley now. I'll be there soon.”

“You sure you're...?”

“Quit worrying, Eva.
I can do this,” she snapped.

There was a pause. “All
right, then,” Eva said at last. “I won't send Gabriel.
I know you're not comfortable...”

“It's not Gabriel,”
Mina said quickly. “Gabriel's a great guy. We can all see how
much he loves you. It's...”

“I know,” Eva
said quietly. “Gabriel's a good vamp, but he's still a vamp.
And he was a rogue before...” Eva trailed off.

“Gabriel loves you,
he's true to you, that's all that matters,” Mina said firmly.
“I love you, and I love Gabriel. But I just...need a break,”
Mina said softly. “From everything.”

Mina could picture her
cousin nodding over the phone. “Okay. I understand. I'll
tell Aunt Lindsay that you'll be coasting into Misty Valley real
soon. But you have to promise that you'll call her the moment you
get there.”

“I'll call Mom. I
promise. Tell her not to worry.”

“Okay.” Eva
breathed out. “Be safe.”

Mina clicked off and sighed.
Eva was the same age as her, twenty-three, yet her cousin's life was
so settled and fulfilled. Not only was Eva happily mated to a
powerful, capable Master vampire, she was fast rising through the
ranks of the NMPD. Her cousin was going places, while she—was
going nowhere. Literally.

Mina gulped as she blinked
into the distance. She was just driving towards a murky,
impenetrable darkness. The sky was now a shade of purple so deep it
was almost black. She could only hope that she was moving towards,
and not away from Misty Valley.

Mina turned on the high
beams and gripped the steering wheel tighter. Misty Valley was just
a few hours' drive out of New Moon City. Her stupid GPS had conked
out on her, causing her to take a wrong turn a few miles back. Damn
technology. Nothing was reliable these days.

Machines and men...they were
all the same. Just when you thought you could trust them, they'd
play you out. Big time.

Mina choked down her rising
pain and anger. No, don't think of Nate.
Nate is history!
She had wasted enough time and tears on him.

She had been with Nate since
she was sixteen. He was her first boyfriend, and they had been
together for six years. Everyone thought they were going to get
married. And then she'd caught the lying, cheating bastard in bed
with his colleague.

She'd cried and cursed, and
broken enough things. Cups, photo frames, innocent, blameless
ornaments...she had thrown them all against the wall, watching the
broken pieces fall at her feet with grim satisfaction. She had swept
them all away, like the pieces of her broken heart. Out with the
old. Out, out, out!

She had been with the same
boy, worked at the same job, lived in the same city, for too long.
She wanted a break. She needed to get out of the city and just...get
a breath of fresh air and a fresh start. So when she saw the
advertisement that a construction company in Misty Valley was looking
for an office assistant, she had jumped at the chance.

Her mother had objected
initially, but Mina had assured her that Misty Valley was just a hop
and a skip away from New Moon City. Although she wanted to leave the
city, she felt bad leaving her mom. They'd always been close. Mina
never knew who her dad was. According to her mom, he was a loser
who'd run away as soon as he learned that Lindsay was pregnant. Her
mother understood her better than anyone else. Just last night, she
had hugged Mina to her and whispered, “You'll find your
happiness, Mina. You need to throw out the trash, empty your cup, so
you can welcome the new, the wild and the wonderful! I just know
that wild and wonderful things are coming your way. I love you,
Mina.”

Her mom's voice echoed in
her mind. Mina pushed her car to go just a little faster. She would
get herself safely to Misty Valley and call her mom. Her mother had
so much faith in her. Her mom trusted her to find her way. She
would not let her down.

Determinedly, Mina drove on.
The fog was thickening and the trees seemed to press closer to the
road. At a sound to her right, Mina jerked involuntarily.

It sounded like the howl of
a wolf. Mina's foot eased off the accelerator and she scanned the
surrounding darkness nervously. There were wild beasts in the woods,
and Misty Valley was a town of shifters. Eva had warned her that the
shifters in Misty Valley were different from the city shifters.
True, New Moon City had its fair share of rogue paranormals but they
had the Paranormal Affairs Council (PAC) to enforce the law. The PAC
Enforcers hunted and collared or destroyed the rogues to keep the
civilian population safe. But PAC law only applied to the
paranormals living in New Moon City. Misty Valley was out of their
jurisdiction. Mina wouldn't have the protection of the PAC and the
Enforcers once she stepped out of New Moon City.