by Jenny Penn
Legend of the Feral 2: Love’s Salvation
Tex and Brock, werewolves living under the curse of Devil’s Peak, long to find their fated mate. After offering a tribute to the Great Owl, they are led to Daisy, who is everything they’ve ever hoped for. They lure their sexy, sweet mate to their mountain home, where their love begins to grow.
Though their bond grows strong, they must still face the ghosts of Devil’s Peak, who threaten to steal the souls of the werewolves’ mates. Tex and Brock fear that Daisy could be the next victim. Through dreams of the past, Daisy must find a way to break the curse so she and her mates can live happily ever after.
Can she decipher the dreams in time to save herself and free the tormented souls, or will she doom herself and her men?
Genre: Contemporary, Ménage a Trois/Quatre, Paranormal, Shape-shifter
Length: 40,691 words
LEGEND OF THE FERAL 2:
LOVE’S SALVATION
Jenny Penn
MENAGE EVERLASTING
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Ménage Everlasting
LEGEND OF THE FERAL 2: LOVE’S SALVATION
Copyright © 2015 by Jenny Penn
E-book ISBN: 978-1-63259-568-3
First E-book Publication: August 2015
Cover design by Les Byerley
All art and logo copyright © 2015 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
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Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
About the Author
LEGEND OF THE FERAL 2: LOVE’S SALVATION
JENNY PENN
Copyright © 2015
Prologue
The snow still clung to the rugged features of the Devil’s Peak, giving the old man carved into the stone a beard of white that fit so appropriately Tex considered whether or not they should add one made of cotton to last the whole year. It was an errant thought, one of those that came early in the morning as he was lying in bed, staring out his window and up at the face that stared back down at him.
He was named after the old man carved up there, sort of. Nodin Lakota had been a strong man. A good man. Fate had not dealt with him kindly, but that was all right. He’d gotten his vengeance. Now it was his forever more.
Tex, on the other hand, didn’t thirst for vengeance. He was filled with a different kind of ache, one that had him scratching his chest and glancing over at the woman in his bed. Gina was a decent enough sort, and a hell of a lot of fun to hang out with, but she wasn’t Tex’s mate.
Neither was she Brock’s.
His brother and littermate was curled up on the other side of Gina, snoring like a freight train coming down the rails. It was a wonder Gina was asleep at all, but then they’d worn her out pretty well last night. They’d really given her a workout, but Tex couldn’t say that he’d ended up satisfied. That was just the way it was these days. He couldn’t fuck the ache out of his balls.
It was time. Time to find his mate.
Tex just knew it, like his mama had always told him it would happen. She’d always told him that when it came time to go pay homage to the Great Owl, he’d feel it in his soul. Tex’s mama had never been wrong. That assurance kept him calm as he got up and showered, leaving Brock and Gina to cuddle up in his absence, only when he returned, Brock was gone, and Gina was smacking her lips and pushing up onto her elbows.
“Morning.” She smiled sleepily at him.
“I’m going to make some coffee. You want some?” Tex asked, looking away as Gina rolled out of bed naked, suddenly not feeling totally right about the situation now that he’d committed himself to his future. Gina noticed and laughed as she shook her head.
“No, I got to get down to town. The library doesn’t open itself ,after all.” Gina paused beside him to reach up and drop a kiss on his cheek before leaning back to catch his gaze with her twinkling one. “And it closes at six if you’re interested.”
Tex cleared his throat and stepped pointedly away from her, feeling awkward about what he had to say and how she might react, but he wasn’t one for beating around any bushes.
“Sorry, Gina. I’m off the market from now on.”
“Really?” Gina shrugged, her smile never dipping as she stepped past him. “Your loss.”
That, he was sure, it wasn’t.
With a yawn, Tex headed out into the main room of his little cabin to find that Brock had already started the coffee, along with the bacon. He glanced up as Tex came shuffling into the room and offered him a quick greeting.
“Morning. Mom dropped off some biscuits.” He nodded toward the basket of fresh-baked, buttery biscuits. “You want eggs to go with them?”
“Please.”
That sounded heavenly, and not just to him. Brock’s stomach rumbled as Tex moved into the little corner kitchen he’d built for himself nearly twenty years ago. He’d been sixteen and intent on making a den fo
r himself. It was small, but comfortable for one person…not two.
“You know, I think I’m going to ask the council if I can expand this place,” Tex commented as he fished a cup out of the cupboard and reached for the old tin coffee pot on the stove.
That caught Brock’s attention, and he glanced over at Tex with a question in his eyes.
“It’s time,” Tex stated simply, knowing he didn’t have to explain, not to Brock, who just nodded.
“I’m there with you, man.”
* * * *
Three months later, Brock was still there. It had taken that long for them to dismantle his cabin and use those materials to expand Tex’s, but the work was finally done. They’d managed to expand Tex’s small one-bedroom cabin into a two-story, six-bedroom one. They’d done so with the council’s blessing and the pack’s help.
Brock could only hope their mate would be pleased by their efforts, and hoped that the Great Owl would accept their sacrifices that night and lead them to their destiny. Brock had reason to hope. News had come from Virginia that the eternal flame had just been relit. The rumors had spread fast, even all the way to North Carolina and their humble mountain. They whispered of the woman who had finally brought Klah Sami and Ryder Chea to peace.
How could that not be an omen?
The pack was already gathering for the hunt, as was their tradition. The taking of a mate was a very serious thing among his people. Very serious, because so many mates were lost to the ghostly captives that still haunted his pack. It was a feud as old as the Devil’s Peak, one that had started with its formation. There was hope, though, in the air.
It had come with the rumors that the eternal flame had been relit. A symbol of the great god Malsumis, it was said that the god himself had lit the flame in homage to his lost love. It had gone out centuries ago when a maiden had thrown herself into it instead of seeing the two men she loved the most battle to death for her hand in marriage.
Malsumis had punished the two packs involved in the dispute, but all the wolven had suffered. Now they whispered of the two men who had reignited it, proving their love for their mate. It was even said that the god Malsumis had taken earthly form for the relighting. If that were true, it could only stand as an omen of better things to come.
So as the pack gathered that evening, a sense of excitement filled the air, as it never had before. That feeling of anticipation only fueled Brock’s nerves, a fact that did not escape Tex as he came sauntering up.
“You okay, man?”
“I’m not sure,” Brock answered honestly.
“You’re not getting cold feet, are you?”
“No.” That wasn’t what weighted on Brock’s heart. It was the fear of something much worse, and he couldn’t keep it to himself. “What if we can’t save her from the past? What if we’re leading our mate to her death?”
That was still possible. While the Eternal Flame might have been relit, Brock and Tex still lived under the same curse their pack had endured for hundreds of years—the curse of the Devil’s Peak.
Death is what happened to the mates that rejected the males from their pack. Those women normally fled in fear, and when they did, the ghosts got them, dragging them into an endless existence of eternal torment. It was a horrifying reality and the curse under which their kind lived.
“Won’t happen.” Tex shook his head, sounding as certain as he always did. “We’ll be there to save her.”
“Hmm.”
Brock didn’t have an answer to that, because he knew just as Tex did that every male on the cusp of claiming a mate thought that he had the strength to rewrite history. Some did. Some didn’t. Brock could only hope he was one of the strong ones.
“Come on.” Tex nodded toward the sun that was seconds from disappearing over the rim of the mountains. “It’s time.”
Brock nodded, following Tex to the head of the pack. There they stripped down, shifting into the wolves that Malsumis had granted them the ability to become. Then they stood silently as they watched the blood-red streaks fade from the sky. The darkness condensed all around them, and only once the moon had risen high above did they finally lift their muzzles into the air and let out howls that soon echoed through the mountains.
Then they were rushing through the brush, sniffing out their prey and stalking it through the shadows. While everybody was responsible for bringing a gift to offer up to Malsumis, Brock and Tex were expected to bring the best offering. So they bypassed the rabbits and the raccoons that the others flushed out and went for the biggest of games⎯a bear.
They chose old and weak, not out of fear of the young and strong, but out of respect for the life that they were taking, one which was already over. Respect for nature was just as important as respect for the gods. After all, all of nature came from them, and none of it should be destroyed without purpose or use, which was why all of the sacrifices were laid before the Devil’s Peak and devoured in thanks for the gods’ gifts.
Everything, that was, but the bear. It would be tacked the next day by the pack and broken down into its useful parts. That was if it was accepted, and it was. Brock felt his heart fill with apprehension as he watched the Great Owl soar overhead. It landed on the head of the Devil’s Peak and watched with unblinking eyes as the pack all knelt before it. Then they rolled, showing their bellies in total submission to Malsumis’s will.
Brock lay there feeling the hard rock beneath his back with breath caught as he waited for the Great Owl to give them the sign that their offering had been accepted. It did. The Great Owl took flight, circling over them and dropping a plop of shit on both Brock’s and Tex’s bellies, which was considered a favorable sign and had them both rolling back to their feet as they took off, following the bird through the night and days ahead, all the way down and out of the mountains and toward Atlanta.
Tex and Brock’s journey began at night and ended three days later as the Great Owl led them onto the campus of a college bristling with young humans. Youth, it was the thing most wasted on the young, particularly humans.
Brock couldn’t help but feel a little unnerved when the Great Owl flew through a college campus, leading them past frat houses in an endless stream of parties in full swing. Brock was not a partier. He was a worrier, and he became a little concerned that he was going to be stuck finding a mate among the carousing teenagers.
It was to his relief that the Great Owl landed on the roof of the library. He’d been gifted with a nerd, because who else would be at a library on Saturday night? Smart people were so much sexier than stupid ones. The library was the perfect place to pick up women or, in this case, a woman.
There was no way, though, to go trolling through the stacks of books as wolf, and they hadn’t brought clothes to change into once they’d transformed. So, Brock and Tex took up position in the bushes near the exits. Brock took the one in front, and Tex took the one in back.
Each brother tucked themselves into the shadows and waited for their prey to come out.
* * * *
Daisy felt like whistling as she skipped down the back steps of the library. Her thesis was done. She’d submit it tomorrow, and then…she’d actually have to get a job, so maybe she shouldn’t be whistling. That grim thought actually made her smile only bigger.
Whatever happened, she was sure it would all work out. That was what her mother would have said if she were there. Always hopeful, Daisy’s mother had gifted her with an optimistic mindset that meant she didn’t worry about much. She simply enjoyed life for what it was, and in that moment, it was glorious.
Daisy might even treat herself to a glass of wine when she got home, but that wouldn’t be the real celebration Daisy was looking forward to. No, she had bigger plans than that, and they included renting a cabin in the mountains and relaxing for at least two weeks straight. That thought only widened her smile.
It dipped, though, as a low rumbling caught her attention. Glancing toward the brush, she hesitated as a set of glowing eyes gazed back
at her out of the darkness. What happened next she couldn’t explain, but when the large, feral-looking beast jumped at her, Daisy broke into motion. She swung her book bag around her shoulder and sent it arching through the air to knock the large beast back. Then she was flying back up the stairs, hollering for help.
A second later a security guard appeared, his hand resting on the butt of his gun. At the first sight of the big beast chasing after her, he pulled and fired. It must have hit the dog because it let out a howl and turned tail, leaving Daisy to collapse into the arms of the guard in a frantic mess.
He helped set her right and got her to her car, but she ended up sitting there for several minutes as she tried to regain control of her heartbeat. It was pounding out of control, leaving her shaking in her seat, but Daisy forced herself to get a grip. She wasn’t going to let some angry stray dog ruin her night.
By the same token, the bottle of wine sounded in order.
Daisy stopped by the grocery store and couldn’t shake the feeling that she was being watched as she crossed through the parking lot. It was probably just a leftover feeling of her earlier fright, but she stayed away from the shadows and the shrubbery, keeping to the light and rushing quickly across the asphalt.
Thankfully, when she left, she was able to trail behind a group of people, but the sense of being watched didn’t fade, even after she got back to her apartment. That sense of having her every move stalked had her all but running into the old brick building and flying up the two flights of stairs.
Only after she’d locked the door behind her did Daisy finally take a breath and relax. She found her first smile in a while as she considered just how silly she was being. It had just been a stray dog, and stray dogs didn’t follow a car all over the city. That would be ridiculous, but that night seemed all about the impossible.
