by Tonya Brooks
Table of Contents
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
HOWL'S ROMANCE
AVAILABLE BOOKS BY TONYA BROOKS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
THE BIG BAD WOLF'S EX
A Howls Romance
TONYA BROOKS
First Edition Copyright © 2017 by Tonya Brooks
All rights reserved. This book or any portions thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author and publisher except for the use of brief quotations used in a book review.
The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
A huge thank you to Celia Kyle for letting me take part in this wonderful series!
To my wonderful Beta Team, Abbie, Karina, Susan, Frankie Melody, and Bonnie. You ladies are the freaking best!
To the members of Tonya's Tribe for all of your love and support!
And my wonderful husband, Billy. Thank you for your unwavering encouragement, your never ending patience with my writing obsession, and most of all, for loving me. You are my beloved, my rock, my inspiration, my everything!
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
HOWL'S ROMANCE
AVAILABLE BOOKS BY TONYA BROOKS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
PROLOGUE
“You’re positive?” Reece Lassiter demanded tonelessly. He listened to the confirmation and without a word, ended the call, dropping his mobile phone on the table. He lifted a cut crystal glass filled with the finest whiskey that money could buy and sipped slowly, savoring the smooth, aged flavor like a true connoisseur.
His infamous control began to crack as he stood there staring sightlessly out of the floor to ceiling windows, select phrases from the conversation replaying over and over in his mind, their meaning incomprehensible, their ramifications inescapable. “...test results were conclusive... normal sperm count... recanalization rate one in one thousand...”
It was true. He could father a child. Then that meant... NO! He wouldn’t go there. Couldn’t even consider the possibility. Because if he did… and it was true… then he had eviscerated his own soul and shut himself off from the only happiness he’d ever known... for nothing. The knowledge sent him to his knees.
“Jolie,” he whispered the forbidden name raggedly, and just like that, the emotional door he had welded shut four years prior sprang open. Reece was bombarded by feelings that had become completely alien to him. The numbness that he had worn like body armor disintegrated as memories of love, hope and joy shattered his granite heart.
Long forgotten images flooded his mind unbidden. Jolie lying naked in their bed, golden hair splayed around her, blue eyes slumberous, the satisfied smile of a woman well loved. Jolie dancing in the snow, eyes aglow with happiness, the brilliant smile that could brighten any day. The only woman he’d ever trusted. The only woman he’d ever loved.
His mate.
She had filled his life with joy, taught him how to love. She had been his everything. Until the day she had betrayed his trust and destroyed his world. Reece had cut her out of his life with a ruthlessness that had shocked even him. He had encased his broken heart in ice so thick and glacial that nothing could ever penetrate it again.
And he’d been wrong.
A searing wave of agony and grief consumed him at the realization. His mate had not betrayed him. He had betrayed her and destroyed himself in the process. Memories he'd fought like hell to suppress surged to the surface, invading his mind, shredding his heart all over again as he relived his last minutes with her.
The absolute joy on Jolie's face as she'd shown him the ultrasound and announced they were having a baby. The bewilderment and hurt in her eyes when he'd lost his shit and accused her of having a lover. The anguished tears pouring down her face as he'd thrown her out of their home. Her voice calling his name brokenly when he'd had the police haul her away.
His legendary control shattered and the wolf within howled in rage and anguish. One trembling hand reached out in desperation, searching for something, anything, to ground him, and met the cold, hard pane of unbreakable glass. Looking up, Reece saw his image in the tinted window. The reflection of a broken man.
God help him, what had he done?
CHAPTER ONE
After receiving a Get your ass over here as fast as fucking possible text, Dane Lassiter didn't waste any time. He entered the penthouse and one look at his older brother assured him that something dire had happened. To say that Reece looked like death warmed over would be a gross understatement.
“What’s wrong?” He demanded anxiously because his older brother never showed any sign of weakness. Reece was the Supreme Alpha wolf shifter of the United States, and as such, he represented America in the Paranormal United Nations. Every pack in the country was under his command so vulnerability was a liability that he could not afford.
“Is it a boy or a girl?” Reece asked hoarsely.
Realization dawned and stunned silence followed. After he had kicked Jolie out, Reece had forbidden anyone to even mention his mate’s name in his presence. The one time that Dane had tried to discuss the issue with him, he had knocked him out cold. The knowledge that he wanted to know about the child was shocking, to say the least.
“Damn you, tell me,” he ground out raggedly.
“Boy,” Dane said simply and watched the other man visibly fall apart.
“I have a son,” Reece rasped and slid bonelessly down the wall to sit in a dejected heap on the floor. “Tell me. Everything.”
Dane didn’t know what had finally convinced his brother that the child was his, but he could see that it was eating the other man alive. “His name is Bryce. He’ll be three next month,” he said as he knelt down on the travertine floor and pulled up a photo on his phone. “He has Jolie’s smile... and your eyes.”
***
Dane held out the phone and he took it with an unsteady hand. A photo of a beautiful little boy with his mother's golden hair and brilliant smile stared back at him... with turquoise eyes. Jesus. Those eyes. There wasn’t a doubt in his mind that the child was his. Jolie had given him a son.
And he’d abandoned them both.
Something that might have been a sob was ripped from his chest and Reece buried his face in his hand. The pain. God, the pain was suffocating him. He couldn’t seem to breathe. His wolf was practically feral. The beast was clawing at his insides, fighting to be free, desperate to find his mate and cub.
A hand gripped his shoulder and he raised tormented eyes to meet his brother’s somber expression. “I fucked up, bro,” he choked and had no qualms allowing Dane to witness his emotional meltdown. They had protected each other their entire lives and there was no one else he trusted more.
***
“Yeah, you did,” Dane agreed without heat. There was no sense in kicking a man when he was down, and his big brother was clearly devastated. Reece was an impenetrable wall of granite. Always had been. Nothing fazed him. Nothing slowed him down. And noth
ing motivated him more than a challenge.
“So what the hell are you gonna do about it?”
Bloodshot turquoise eyes glowed from within as the familiar light of battle appeared in them. Dane could see the grim determination that filled him and was glad to see that both man and beast were in one accord about their mate. “I want my mate back. And I want my son,” his voice broke on the words.
“Then you'd better be prepared for a hell of a fight,” Dane warned since the probability of a reconciliation was inconceivable. Reece might be an unstoppable force, but he could attest that Jolie had become an unmovable object. “The divorce damn near destroyed Jolie. You broke her, bro. She’s not the same woman you remember.”
“I’ll fix it,” Reece vowed as he rose to his feet. “No matter what it takes, I’ll make this right.”
“What made you change your mind?” He asked curiously as he stood.
“Clarice claimed she was pregnant,” he admitted grimly and shocked the hell out of Dane.
His brother had gotten a vasectomy to ensure that this exact scenario never happened. Reece had sworn to never father an illegitimate child. Not after the hell they had gone through as children. The hell that their own mother had intentionally put them through. They had been nothing more than expendable pawns in her sick, twisted quest for financial gain.
Thirty-five years ago, humans had become aware of the existence of paranormals. Needless to say, they had been feared, ostracized and persecuted. Their mother had taken advantage of that fear and capitalized on it in the most appalling manner possible. By exploiting her children.
It had been the most heinous act that a mother could commit. An unforgivable betrayal that had left the brothers emotionally scarred, and their ability to trust anyone other than each other seriously compromised.
Because of their hellish childhood, Dane completely understood his brother's motivation for casting his mate aside when he thought that she had betrayed him, even if he did not agree with it. Which was the main reason why he had done everything in his power to assist his former sister-in-law as much as she would let him.
Regardless of the fact that his brother had been able to walk away from her, he knew that Jolie had been Reece's true mate. Which is why the realization that he'd had sex with someone else was so hard to believe. "You fucked her?" He asked in disbelief.
“Hell no. She got drunk one night at some function we were at and passed out. I took her home, undressed her and put her to bed after she threw up on both of us. I stayed to make sure she didn't aspirate and took my shirt off to wash the stench of puke off of it. She woke up, saw me without it and assumed we had sex," Reece explained.
"When she accused me of lying about having a vasectomy I had a test done to refute her claim. It turns out that the procedure reversed itself. Which meant that Jolie had my child,” he admitted heavily.
“And Clarice's baby?” Dane queried skeptically since the woman had been all over him like a bad rash a time or two.
***
“If she is pregnant, it's not mine,” Reece denied adamantly. Clarice wasn’t important. Never had been. She was as cold and ambitious as she was beautiful. She had looked good on his arm and helped foster the pretense that losing his mate hadn't affected him at all. Heartless and emotionless, they had been a match made in hell.
Without Jolie, his life had once again become a dark, fathomless wasteland void of all feeling. Reece wanted the light to shine on his soul again. To do that, he needed his sunshine girl. And his brother could expedite that since he had been keeping tabs on her. Dane was the decent one in the family after all.
His wolf was very close to the surface when he growled, "Where the hell is my mate?"
Folding his arms across his chest, his little brother returned the look and wasn't the least bit intimidated. They might not have had the same father, but they had both inherited their mother's tenacity. Dane wouldn't tell him a goddamn thing until he was ready. The little shit was going to make him suffer and he knew it.
"Last I heard she was your ex-mate," he pointed out.
"Dammit, Dane, don't…"
"You waited four fucking years, Reece. A few more minutes won't kill you."
Maybe not, but his wolf was convinced that it would. The beast wanted it's mate and holding it back was severely trying his patience. Almost as much as his brother was. Knowing that arguing would just drag this out even longer, he dropped heavily onto the couch and growled, "Go ahead and claim your pound of flesh."
***
Dane shot him a grin as he sat on the opposite couch, leaned back and made himself comfortable. He loved his brother and genuinely hoped he could get his mate back, but he cared about Jolie, too. No way in hell was he going to let Reece hurt her again. She'd never survive it a second time.
"I want some assurances that you won't hurt her again," he said evenly and was determined to protect his former sister-in-law at all costs. She may appear to be as tough as nails these days, but Jolie was fragile on the inside and he knew it.
"Name your terms," Reece said without hesitation, the unshakable resolve that had made him so successful firmly in place again.
"She needs to be financially independent," he stated firmly. "Open an account in her name that you can't touch."
His brother whipped out his phone, placed a call to his lawyer and began to bark out instructions. "George, open a checking account for Jolie and transfer a million into it immediately. Arrange it so she's the only one with access. No one but her can touch it, understand?"
It never ceased to amaze Dane how people jumped to do his brother's bidding regardless of the time. The man was a law unto himself. Which was exactly why he was taking these precautions. The money would handle Jolie's financial needs, but he was also determined to protect her emotionally.
The other man ended the call and confirmed, "Done."
"Swear to me that you'll never try to take custody of Bryce," he demanded and saw his brother's resolve waver. Oh, hell no. "This is not negotiable, Reece. You stripped the woman of everything but her child. The child that you didn't want. Swear you won't fucking take him from her."
"All right, damn you," Reece snapped. "I swear it."
"And you can't do anything to force her to come back to you," he insisted since he knew exactly how ruthless his brother was, and how his brilliant mind worked. "It has to be her decision."
When the older man swore viciously and stood up to prowl back and forth, Dane just sat and waited patiently. He was forcing Reece to play by his rules and if there was one thing his brother hated, it was not having the upper hand in a situation.
***
Wanting nothing more than to rip his brother's throat out, Reece prowled like the wild animal that he was. If he didn't love the little shit, he'd kill him. It was bad enough that he'd made him swear not to take his son, now he was tying his hands with Jolie as well. He should have known Dane would pull something like this. Fucking chivalrous prick.
"All right," he growled. "I won't force her to do anything she doesn't want to do."
"Swear it."
Oh, he swore all right. He swore a blue streak while his brother grinned at him in amusement. Just like when they were kids, Dane knew that he would never break a sworn oath and was shamelessly using it to get what he wanted. Reece sounded more animal than human when he finally grated out, "I swear."
"If you hurt her again, Alpha or not, I will break you," the youngest said and was completely serious for a change. "That woman has been through hell."
And he was the one responsible for it. His shoulders slumped and Reece sank back down onto the couch heavily. This time he didn't need prompting when he vowed, "I swear I'll never hurt Jolie again."
Dane nodded solemnly. "Good enough."
"Now where the fuck is she?" He demanded because his wolf was out of patience.
"Brace yourself, bro," he warned. "It's bad."
***
Bad didn't even come close to describi
ng the squalor. The neighborhood was a fucking cesspool, even worse than when he and Dane had grown up just a few blocks away. Though they had never stayed in a building quite as bad as this one. From the looks of it, the damn thing should have been demolished a half-century ago.
Just being in this part of town made him break out in a cold sweat and brought back memories better off forgotten. Yet his mate and son were living in something out of his worst nightmares. His self-disgust and remorse grew by the second, as did his determination to get them the hell out of there.
Reece set the alarm on his car as he headed to the entrance and doubted the damn thing would even be there when he got back. The front door was not locked, which meant anyone could just walk right in. The legs sticking out into the hallway assured him that had already happened. Jesus. There was a homeless man sleeping under the stairwell.
Taking the stairs two at a time, he made it to the third floor and started down the hall. Some of the apartments had numbers, some didn't. Some barely had doors. The stench of sour cabbage and stale urine assaulted his nostrils while the sound of music blaring and a baby crying filled his ears. He shuddered in revulsion at the memories they evoked.
Stopping in front of the door that bore the right numbers, even if one of them was hanging upside down, his resolve hardened. No way in hell would his mate and son spend another night in this place. He'd get them situated into the penthouse or book them a suite at a hotel until Jolie was ready to come home.
Whatever it took, he was not leaving them in this hell a minute longer.
***
Jolie Lassiter unlocked the three deadbolts that secured her door but didn't remove the safety chain. The dump she lived in didn't have peepholes and in this neighborhood, she couldn't be too careful. She cracked the door open and shock rippled through her entire body as she recognized the man standing there.
