Saved By Her Wolf (Silverwood Island Shifters)

by Maia Starr

  Saved By Her Wolf

  (Silverwood Island Shifters)

  Maia Starr

  Book #2

  Copyright ©2018 by Maia Starr - All rights reserved.

  In no way is it legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document in either electronic means or in printed format. Recording of this publication is strictly prohibited and any storage of this document is not allowed unless with written permission from the publisher. All rights reserved.

  Respective authors own all copyrights not held by the publisher.

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Warriors Of Cadir(Sneak Peak)

  Other Books In This Series

  Other Books By Maia Starr

  About the Author

  Exclusive Offer

  Chapter One

  Ginny

  How long ago was it now that this custody battle started? Eons ago probably, or at least that’s how long the stress of it all had surrounded Ginny.

  The quiet whisperings of the onlookers from the back of the courtroom tickled her in all the wrong ways. Each word spoken in the relatively silent room gave her an itch that she couldn’t quite shake, causing her to tap her foot on the ground and reshuffle her papers and folders one by one, again and again.

  As she shuffled and glanced away at the double doors in the back of the room, her hands slipped up, her fingers jerking and curling to accidentally let the many documents and letters of goodwill slip out of her folders and slide onto the table and even topple onto the bland carpet beneath. Scrambling to pick everything up and swear to herself, she noticed one of the documents was of a picture and brought it up closer, her frown deepening with every second she stared at it.

  The picture was of a young boy, just barely in his fourth year on earth, his curling, bright blonde pushed up to reveal an ugly black bruise on his neck. Oliver...Ginny thought. She remembered the day she’d come home to find him wailing and rolling on the ground, his twin sister Grace hiding behind Ginny as their father flicked his dark eyes between them all, smoking a cigar and leaning back in his violet loveseat, his knuckles turning white while gripping the armrests. Her stomach turned when she brushed back his hair and saw the welt forming, accusing eyes darting to her husband.

  That wave of emotion ran through her once again, as if she’d just come home from her grocery shopping that night, unaware of the pain her child was going through. And to think that was just over a few months ago, just before everything turned completely sour between her and her husband.

  A shuffle from the front of the room saw the judge rising to stretch his old limbs and sit back down, sighing and locking his weary eyes on Ginny through thin-rimmed glasses. “Miss Whitlock, it’s been near an hour now, and your husband still hasn’t shown up.”

  “Ex-husband, Your Honor,” Ginny said, the words more natural on her tongue than they ever had been. “We—”

  “Divorced a month prior, yes I know,” the judge grumbled. “Right here in this very court too. You and your ex-husband should just move into this courtroom already; you’ve both seen enough of it to last a lifetime it seems.” Deflating, Ginny scrunched up in her seat, her shoulders drooping but her gaze glancing to the empty table to her left. The stale air of the hearing burned her throat, parching her mouth and causing her to gulp. Lately, Danny had been arriving later and later to these hearings, which was good for her but also broke her heart. A father beginning to fail in the fight for his children was nothing short of terrible. Ginny couldn’t believe she actually fell in love with the man a year ago.

  Where are you, Danny? Do your children not mean anything to you?

  “If Danny Krisher is not here with the next five minutes, I might just give full custody to you and be done with this annoying case,” the judge remarked, flipping through his own stapled documents. Licking his finger, the judge stopped on a single page and began to read it through. “Your claims, once again, are that Danny Krisher, the biological father of Oliver and Grace Krisher, is no longer fit to handle the care of the children due to neglect, physical abuse, and mental abuse.”

  “Correct, Your Honor,” Ginny said.

  “I didn’t ask for your confirmation,” the judge said, causing Ginny to clench her fists. Looking back down at her, he lowered his glasses slightly. “We’ve gone over this many times, Miss Whitlock, but so far we haven’t seen enough evidence to justify your abuse claims just yet.”

  Ginny found herself leaning over the table. “Yes, but you just said—”

  “I know what I said, that I’d award you full custody if Danny Krisher does not show up in the next five minutes. Maybe if you’d let me finish, I’d explain fully what’s going through my head in these few moments before that decision.”

  Locking up, Ginny felt her heart drop but slowly nodded, making sure to clamp her lips together. As much as it stung to remain silent, Ginny knew this whole engagement wasn’t about her or Danny in the slightest. It was about getting Oliver and Grace to safety, to their true home, and Ginny wasn’t about to let one slip up on her end destroy that possibility.

  Seeing her obedience, the judge grunted, shifting his papers once again and pushing his glasses back into place with a meaty finger. “Beyond your claims of abuse and the meager evidence you’ve shown so far...I believe it was just one photo of physical proof and your claims of excessive shouting and anger towards the children. And despite attempting to get evidence from the two children, we’ve been unable to get them to speak out against Danny...not that I blame them. They’re both incredibly young. That being said, Miss Whitlock, you’re also not the biological mother of the children, correct?”

  “Correct, Your Honor, but when I married Danny, I also adopted Oliver and Grace as my own,” Ginny said quickly.

  “Yes, we have that in the files...the biological mother is deceased, correct?”

  “Yes...she’s been gone for years now.”

  The judge sighed heavily, gathering his documents and papers and tapping them against his desk to neatly stack them together. “The biggest factor in my mind in the moment, Miss Whitlock, is that Mr. Krisher has been showing a lack of desire to fight for his children lately. Barely showing up in court, coming late to every session, but you attentively show up on time every day we meet for these hearings. I’ve seen all the evidence, and I might just well be ready to close this case...as long as Mr. Krisher doesn’t show up today.”

  Ginny smiled. Maybe today this battle with Danny would finally end, Oliver and Grace would become solely hers and be free of Danny’s growing aggression. Tears began to well in her eyes, her relief so tangible that she began to smile. Everything was finally looking her way!

  That is, until the double doors in the back opened, and Danny Krisher sauntered in.

  Every head in the courtroom snapped to look back at Danny as he walked forward from the double doors with two little blonde heads on either side of him. Ginny froze, her jaw hanging open as she witnessed Oliver and Grace gliding down the aisle, each of their hands in their father’s, chewing lightly and shyly on big balls of blue cotton candy. “Excuse me for bein
g late, Your Honor! I was busy tending to my children...I promised them both to get candy the other day and didn’t get around to it, so...”

  Ginny’s eyes rested on Danny’s hold of Grace. She remained silent, eating her cotton candy, unwilling to look up at anyone. Danny’s hand appeared to grip hers tightly, as if she weren’t holding onto her father willingly. She noticed the same with Oliver, except he was trembling slightly. Without realizing, Ginny stood to walk over to them, to rip them both from Danny's grasp, but the security guard standing at attention stopped her with one big hand.

  “I hope it's alright, bringing the children,” Danny said cheerfully, eyeing Ginny with a cold stare. “I just couldn’t bear to not see their happy smiles, especially amid these depressing circumstances.” His smile seemed to contradict his stare, creating a strange, frightening expression that sent chills down Ginny’s spine.

  “What smiles?” Ginny suddenly asked. Danny’s own faded, though his damnable stare deepened.

  “I went out of my way to make them happy, Ginny,” Danny said, his voice lingering on a sorrowful tone. “I just want to see them happy and healthy.”

  “But they don’t even like cotton candy!” Ginny nearly shouted.

  “Enough of this farce, Danny Krisher,” the judge commanded. “You shouldn’t have brought your children to a hearing involving their future. Step forward and sit down. You too, Miss Whitlock. Let’s get this over with already.”

  “What about—” Ginny began, whirling to speak to the judge.

  “He came within five minutes, Miss Whitlock,” the judge retorted, shifting in his seat. “Sit down, and let’s begin again. This time I want to hear from Danny Krisher.”

  As if the world had just blown up in front of her, Ginny crashed back down into her seat, her eyes wide with disbelief, rubbing a hand down her sapped face. Her head spun amidst the shuffling of Danny’s feet, her eyes unable to rip themselves from the devil as he unbuttoned his sport coat and slowly sat down, throwing Ginny a sly, thin smile. Sweat began to form on her forehead, her skin heating up.

  Would this battle ever end?↡¶

  Chapter Two

  Ginny

  Ginny was beyond sick of hearings, and the thought of having to continue them made her force down the bile rising in her throat.

  Butterflies battered her insides as she left through the double doors of the courtroom and sat down on a bench just across the corridor. As she made to sit, she stumbled, collapsed on the seat with a heavy thud, her legs wobbling and buckling underneath. The sudden fall snapped her eyes open wide, and she slapped her cheeks a few times to make sure she was still awake. This hearing had been a long one; on top of the hour they waited for Danny to show up, the hearing went on for another couple mind-numbing hours that seemed to stretch on forever.

  When Ginny first began the custody battle with Danny for Oliver and Grace she’d heard the rumors of how brutal and taxing the process was, but she didn’t understand until after the first hearing. Her whole body shook with fatigue, and by the end of the hearing, her voice became so strained she would consistently cough while trying to speak. Having to do that on multiple occasions, never knowing whether the session would end within minutes or drag on for hours like this one had put Ginny into an endless blender of hounding stress and sleepless nights.

  Just the night before she’d awoken from nightmares of the Danny dragging the children through thick mud, away from her, and no matter how fast she tried to sprint after them, the two wailing children never got any closer.

  The whole endeavor made Ginny want to punch a wall, break her fingers so that she could feel another kind of pain. Instead of punching a wall, though, Ginny found herself lightly chuckling to herself. Maybe it was the lack of sleep getting to her, or the hysteria of having to constantly watch Danny, never knowing when he’d strike out against her or the children, but Ginny couldn’t help herself. One year prior, Ginny first met Danny’s two blonde four-year-old children, but she couldn’t remember what that moment felt like. The strain of her recent fight for them was tearing apart her mind, shattering it. And to think she once thought of Danny Krisher as her Prince Charming, the man with a brooding past, the man with two beautiful children, the man that would finally take her virginity.

  Ginny tucked a big lock of her silky blonde hair behind her ear, leaning against the back wall as her thoughts drifted back to her ever-present V-Card status. Twenty-six, married, fighting for custody two four year children, and yet she still hadn’t slept with a man yet. Ginny knew it was the last thing she needed to be thinking about right now, but she couldn’t help it.

  Danny was handsome and charming, yet he never went beyond a first kiss with her. She thought it would just take time, that soon enough the memory of his first marriage wouldn’t hold him back, that he would finally take her, make her first time wonderful and unlike anything she’d ever experienced, despite how nervous she had been about it.

  But then Danny began to show signs of his abuse: the angry grunts to her welcomes, the punching of walls, the way he rose his voice at the children, the way he began to slap her during their increasing arguments, the drinking...before long, Ginny found herself dreaming of getting away from him rather than awaiting his embrace in bed. More than once, Ginny wanted to regret marrying Danny Krisher, to regret ever being charmed by his devilish good looks and suave voice, and yet every time she even remotely thought of changing the past, another voice would pop up, urging her to remember Oliver’s and Grace’s place in her marriage mess. The two were suffering right now; she knew it despite Danny’s attempts to make everything appear okay. Cotton candy...the kids had never liked cotton candy. If they were eating it in front of the judge, Danny had to have forced them to.

  Her fears turned true as soon as Danny and the kids walked out of the double doors in the middle of the tiny, noisy crowd that filed out. Danny’s dark brown hair and grizzled chin stood out among the bright-eyed faces of the onlookers and contrasted sharply with that of his two blonde children who appeared to be dragged forward, the cotton candy hanging at each’s side.

  Even if I’m not their biological mother, they still look more like my kids than yours, Ginny thought as he approached.

  Ginny rose to her feet, crossing her arms and laying her stack of folders on the bench, smiling at Oliver and Grace, who both smiled sheepishly at her greeting. When she looked up, she found Danny glaring at her, not even attempting to hide his disgust. His deadly look pierced her chest, cold fear tightening its grip around her heart. As silence passed between the two, Ginny straightened, tried not to gulp in front of Danny, and reached forward to take hold of Oliver and Grace. But Danny threw them back, the two stumbling as he continued to face Ginny, his grip digging into their wrists.

  “Daddy!” Oliver said. “Ow, it hurts!”

  “Let go!” Grace said, clawing at Danny’s fingers.

  “Danny!” Ginny said, stomping forward to wrest Grace from his clutches for sure this time. Successfully getting Grace to her side, who clung to her legs with tears streaming down her face, Ginny moved to get Oliver as well, but Danny clicked his tongue and tossed Oliver forward, the young boy stumbling into Ginny’s other leg. Feeling the heat race to her cheeks, Ginny threw Danny a twisted look. “What is wrong with you?”

  “What’s wrong with you?” Danny retorted. “I’m sick and tired of playing these games with you, Ginny.”

  “You think your children’s lives are a game?” Ginny said, her scowl searing angry wrinkled lines into her soft skin. “Fighting for your children isn’t a game.”

  Grace sniffled softly, her snot accidentally seeping all over Ginny’s business skirt. Ginny patted her head, trying to coo her to a calmness, though it didn’t work completely with Danny around. Danny took a step forward, closing the distance between him and Ginny quickly, and causing Oliver to duck behind Ginny.

  “They aren’t your children!” Danny snarled.

  His hot breath washed over her skin, causing her to
jerk, and as he loomed over her and the two children, Ginny couldn’t help but recoil...at first. Then she looked back down at her children, unable to take her eyes off of the devil in front of her. “According to the adoption papers, I am,” Ginny said with conviction. “I signed those papers a year ago because these children needed me.”

  Danny’s slap was sudden, but not unexpected. His hand had whipped through the air, hitting her across the cheek, turning her face but unable to uproot her defensive stance in front of the children. Both Oliver and Grace reeled at the sickening, echoing, skin-on-skin hit, but both Ginny’s hands instantly reached down to cover them both instead of herself. Her cheek stung like crazy, as if a viper had just bit her, and even tears welled in her eyes, but she remained steadfast, craning her neck to look back at her growling ex-husband. Danny’s nose wrinkled at the defiance in Ginny, his dark eyes searing holes in her.

  This was her Prince Charming...one day in the future, Ginny would look back on this and laugh, but for now, all she could do was focus on the present. “You don’t deserve them, Danny. Both Oliver and Grace are scared of you; they want nothing to do with you!”

  “They are my children!” Danny responded, as if Ginny hadn’t said a word.

  “They stopped being yours the day you chose to abuse them!” Ginny retorted, unable to hold herself back. “I have proof of the welt you gave Oliver, the nightmares you've been giving Grace. What kind of father hurts his children like you do?”