by Bianca D’Arc
Howls for the Holidays ~ Big Wolf
The Alpha’s Solstice Miracle
by
Bianca D’Arc
Copyright © 2020 Bianca D’Arc
Hawk Publishing, LLC
New York
All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any or by any means, or stored in a database retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the Author.
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 purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.
www.biancadarc.com
OFFICIAL BIANCA D’ARC NEWSLETTER
Joe Villalobos is a widower. He had his one chance at a happy marriage, but lost his mate in a tragic accident years ago. A strong Alpha wolf, he didn't give up on life when he lost the most important part of it. He had cubs to raise and an entire Pack of wolves who needed him to keep it together and help them become the strong Pack he knew they could be. It was tough - especially in the beginning - but he managed to find a way forward for himself, his little family, and his large Pack.
Lost in a storm, flying a mission to save a life, Enid is a priestess without a real place to call home. She's been traveling the country, stopping here or there to do what she could to help people, but she hadn't yet found the place where she was meant to be. That all changes the moment she lays eyes on the old Alpha wolf. Joe. He is her destiny. She just knows it. Now she'll have to do something to convince the stubborn Alpha that sometimes miracles do happen and the Goddess they both serve blesses Her chosen with a rare second chance... If only they're brave enough trust in Her, and just go for it.
Dedication
For all those who seek magic and miracles at the holidays. I hope this helps a little. I wish for us all the miracle of love and second chances.
Special thanks to my editor, Jess, and my dear friend, Peggy, for helping me whip this one into shape.
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Epilogue
About the Author
Other Books by Bianca D’Arc
Chapter One
“Alpha, we’ve got an emergency call,” Lucas, the senior tower chief at Big Wolf airport, said over the phone.
“What is it?” Joe Villalobos rubbed one hand over his forehead. It was close to midnight and raining. The airport was all but closed down for the night, but an emergency was an emergency, and he’d better see what it was all about.
“It’s a medical flight out of Houston, heading for a hospital in Louisiana. Engine trouble. She really needs to put down, and we’re the closest. But the big thing is her cargo. She’s got some kind of human organ that’s destined for an emergency transplant, and it can’t wait. Pilot needs another plane to get the organ to the hospital within the next few hours, or the whole thing will be wasted and the intended recipient will be out of luck.” Lucas sounded worried, so the pilot—whoever she was—must have made an impression on the older man.
“Did you check out the pilot’s story?” Joe asked. The town had been having some trouble with magical folk of evil intent lately, so everyone who passed through the airport was being scrutinized more closely than ever before. Especially strangers. Joe had an obligation to protect his Pack, and he was taking it seriously.
“Called the hospitals on both ends,” Lucas confirmed, “and they check out. Both transplant teams made personal appeals for our help. Organ transplants are a big thing for humans,” he went on. “They’re rare and difficult, but they save lives, and I got the sense these people really cared and wanted to be sure the sick person in Louisiana got this organ as soon as possible.”
Werewolves rarely got sick. They didn’t need organ transplants. Medical intervention of any kind was rare, except for trauma and wound care. Patching up injured shifters was common because they lived active lives that were full of danger. But, as long as you could stop the bleeding, their magically revved up immune systems and metabolisms were able to heal most wounds, even major ones, given a bit of time.
Joe was old enough to have spent time in the human world, and he knew transplants weren’t exactly common. Generally, the donor had to have died and made their wishes known in advance that their organs be harvested and used to save other lives, if possible. Then, the organs had to be matched up with those in need and hustled to wherever the patients were, if the patients weren’t already in the same hospital. Joe had seen a few of these medical transports pass through Big Wolf Airport in his years, but not many. This was something he should probably check out himself.
He stood from behind his desk and headed out into the public parts of the airport he and his Pack had built. It wasn’t huge, but it served the shifter community well as a stopover point for those on cross-country journeys, and a regional hub for those who needed to go places by air and wanted to avoid—for one reason or another—the giant airports that non-magical folk favored.
Joe’s teenaged son, Kevin, met him as he came out of the office area. He was getting taller every day and would soon be reckoned an adult by both human and shifter standards. Where had the time gone?
“Hey, Dad. I heard about the emergency landing. Need help?” Kevin asked, in his usual, forthright manner. The boy had really matured in the last year or so and had become Joe’s right-hand-man for all sorts of situations. He was growing into his wolf’s dominant traits, and Joe had every hope that his youngest son might follow in his footsteps and be Alpha of this Pack, one day.
“Sure, you might as well come along. I want to meet this pilot myself and make sure everything is on the level before I send out one of our planes and pilots on a night like this.” As he said the words, thunder rolled in from the distance. The storm was getting closer. It wasn’t a good night for flying small planes.
The pilot was good, Joe would give her that. He watched from the hangar as the small plane made its approach. She was leaning into the winds that wanted to hurl her off course.
“Those crosswinds are something,” Kevin shouted, standing next to his father in the open door of the hangar. The rain splashed them only a little, howling in the other direction, but it was hitting the little plane viciously as it sank lower and lower.
“Pilot’s handling it well,” Joe observed, his eyes narrowing on the little plane that looked almost, at times, like it was standing still, buffeted by strong winds. “Squall picked the wrong time to come through, but she’s committed now.”
Joe had made it his business to learn all he could about every level of aviation. His mate had died due to pilot error. After he’d lived through his inner wolf’s raging need to follow its mate into death an
d learned to live for their children, he’d promised himself he would never lose another loved one that way. His plan had been to teach every member of the Pack that wanted to learn how to fly, starting with himself. In the past decade, he’d taken the old airstrip on the edge of town and turned it into the small regional airport it was today.
It had been a broken-down wreck of a place when he’d bought it, but he’d put the Pack to work, and they’d all rallied around him. Losing their Alpha female had been almost as hard on the Pack as it had been on Joe himself. They had done all in their power to try to keep him alive and sane during those first impossible months, and then the incredibly difficult years that had passed since. The pain of losing the one woman who could complete him was never far from his soul, but it had lessened with time as he’d focused on being a father to his three pups and, really, the entire Pack.
Now, his only daughter, Tracy, had a mate of her own and a child. That his little granddaughter was a jaguar still rankled a bit, but not as much as it had. Not since the child’s father, a dominant jaguar pilot named Hank, had come back to set things right.
Getting Tracy pregnant and flying off to who-knew-where had been a bad move on Hank’s part, but Joe wasn’t oblivious to the fact that Tracy’s refusal to tell Hank about the child had been a contributing transgression. Little Em had been two years old when her father had finally returned to Big Wolf and met his daughter for the first time.
Joe was glad they’d straightened things out and had decided to split their time between Big Wolf and Jaguar Island. Em was going to school with other little jaguars, but they spent a lot of time here, as well, as it should be. Joe didn’t want to give up all contact with his daughter. She was still a wolf, and she would always be part of his Pack, as would his granddaughter, even if she did turn into a cat.
Joe had been exploring, as best he could, the structures of some of the more successful multi-species Clans around the world, starting with the Redstone Clan in Nevada. There, a cougar Clan had brought a number of different shifter species under their protection into what Joe privately thought of as a mega-Clan, which included a few different wolf Packs. Joe had visions of doing something similar here, if he could swing it, but that would take time to grow and evolve.
That was okay. Joe always liked to think a few steps ahead of everyone else, and his plans for his Pack were grand by anyone’s scale. The Pack was what he lived for now. The Pack and his own small family, of course, though two of his pups were grown and had left the nest. Only Kevin remained living at home with him, and Kevin was nearing that age where he was becoming more and more independent. He was turning into a man Joe was so incredibly proud of, as he was proud of all his children, but Kevin… He was showing every sign of being the kind of strong Alpha personality that could keep the Pack going long after Joe was gone.
Not that he had any plans on leaving any time soon. He still had work to do to keep his people safe and provided for long into the future. He’d long ago resigned himself to do that work. To stay here, on this plane of existence. Only when his work was done would he go and be reunited with the love of his life, his dear, departed mate.
Enid landed the plane, though only the Goddess she served knew how. The crosswinds tried to sweep her off the runway three separate times, but somehow, the little plane held together, and Enid managed to correct enough so that she was finally able to touch the landing gear down to the tarmac in a crab-like maneuver.
She saw one of the hangars on the relatively small airfield lit up in welcome and aimed her little plane for the blurry outline of the doors. Rain was coming down in sheets, with the occasional straight-line winds forcing it sideways. It tried to get up under her wings and flip her over at least once on her way, but she managed to make it to the hangar without further incident. Once she was in the lee of the buildings, she was a little more protected from the winds, which came from behind the large structures.
She pulled up to the doorway, unsure of where they wanted her to park. Her engine was sputtering, and it wouldn’t take her much farther. In fact, while waiting for someone to give her some direction, the engine choked out, dying. Likewise, all the electrical systems were kaput. No radio. No lights. No nothing.
She had landed just in time.
“Well, I hope they don’t mind my parking here,” she said to herself. “Looks like this is where you’ll stay until we can fix you,” she told the little Cessna, as if it were alive. “Don’t worry. I’ll be back to make sure that happens, but I have to go save a life first, if I can.”
She patted the unlit dashboard of the old plane fondly then released the harness that kept her in her seat. She had work to do and a kidney still to deliver, Goddess willing.
Enid left the cockpit and headed for the small inner compartment of the mid-sized civilian aircraft. She’d flown both larger and smaller planes during her time in the Air Force, but she didn’t miss it. Not much, anyway. She’d retired from the military while still young enough to enjoy life and found her second calling, as it were, among the magical folk who needed her help.
Born human, but with a special sensitivity to magic and a deep and abiding respect for the Goddess, Enid had followed in her mother’s footsteps, after leaving the military, to become a holy woman. A priestess of the Lady. Her mother still ministered to a small coyote Pack in New York state, but they’d all known Enid’s place was elsewhere. The small Pack didn’t need two wise women, and Enid had to find a place where she was needed. It was as simple, and as complicated, as that.
So, she’d kicked around North America for the past several years, looking for the right spot. She’d spent time in various locations along the way, helping where she could, but she hadn’t yet found the right place, and the right people, who needed her.
Enid slung the overnight bag across her body, letting the bag rest at her back, the strap bisecting her torso in a diagonal line like some kind of bandolier. She unstrapped the cooler that held her precious cargo from where it had been secured against the bulkhead and hefted it in one hand. The winds hadn’t died down yet, and she could feel them buffeting her little plane, even as she worked the controls to open the door and lower the stairs.
Luckily, the engine had died with the door facing the hangar. She wouldn’t have far to sprint through the rain to make it inside. She opened the door and waited at the top for the stairs to lower as lightning made itself known in the heavens.
The flash lit the world for a split second, but it was long enough for her to make out two figures waiting just inside the hangar door. She didn’t know anything about this airport, but aviation people were usually pretty accommodating. It was a small world of pilots and those who ran the network of regional airports. She’d never heard anything bad about this one, though she hadn’t been in the area for long.
Enid dashed down the ramp and didn’t stop moving until she was inside the open door of the hangar. The rain had pelted her hard, wetting her hair and clothing, but the overnight bag was somewhat waterproof and the cooler was hard plastic. The important stuff would be okay.
Wiping water and wet hair out of her eyes with one hand, she looked up…and up…to meet the most dazzling pair of blue eyes she’d ever seen in her life.
“Are you all right?” His voice was deep and a little rough with the hint of a growl. She knew the sound—and the aura—right off.
Wolves. She’d flown into a Pack of wolves. And this was their Alpha, she had little doubt. He had that kind of power about him. So much strength, it was almost overwhelming, but Enid was made of tough stuff, herself.
“Fine,” she replied, straightening. She wasn’t very tall but liked to think she made up for her lack of height in other ways. “I’m sorry to barge in on you like this…Alpha.”
The man’s eyebrows shot up in surprise then lowered in suspicion. She’d done it now.
Chapter Two
Joe could barely believe his ears. The strange woman had just called him Alpha. She didn’t scent of s
hifter. No way should this human know who and what he was. Just what was going on here?
The fact that she was the most delectable little morsel of womanhood he’d seen in a long time tried to distract him, but he wouldn’t let it. Not much, anyway. He sent Kevin a silent hand signal to be on alert, but Kevin was a sharp cookie, and he had heard the woman’s words. He knew to be wary.
“Wait. I should explain. I’m a priestess,” the woman went on, one hand raised palm outward toward Joe.
Her words stopped him. If she was telling the truth, then that was a different story, but he needed to know more before he made any decisions.
“Go on,” he prompted.
“My mother ministers to a small Pack of coyotes in New York state, but I’ve met the Midtown Alpha a couple of times. You share the same kind of powerful aura, so I assumed you were the local Alpha. Am I wrong?”
“Coyotes?” Kevin said, unable to hide his disgust for the canines who were often found on the wrong side of the fight of good versus evil.
“They’re finding their way,” the woman said, looking at Kevin for the first time. “Not all of them are willing to sell their souls for the promise of power.”
“What’s the Midtown Pack Alpha’s name?” Joe asked, regaining the woman’s attention. He had his cellphone out, ready to make the call to verify her story.
He wasn’t going to let her take off again, until he was certain she was telling the truth. Too many people were starting to know about Big Wolf and his Pack. Keeping them safe was his number one priority.
“Nigel,” she answered just as rapidly, “though I’ve only ever called him Mr. Enfield. I was pretty young when we first met.”
“And what is your name, ma’am?” Joe asked the pilot, a little relieved to have gotten the right answer from her, though he wouldn’t relax until he was certain.
“Enid,” she told him. “Enid Meriwether. My mother is Penelope, and my father’s name is Tom.”
