Howl’s Beauty (Woodland Pack Book 2) Read online

  Howl’s Beauty

  Woodland Pack, 2

  USA TODAY Bestselling Author

  V. Vee

  Blurb

  When Harold “Howl” Marconi, met Talia Henderson, he had no idea who she truly was. He only knew that his wolf was going crazy inside of him, demanding that he claim the gorgeous woman who’d come to let Howl’s brother, Angelo, know where his own mate, Joi, was. Howl had no plans at the time on stalking Talia.

  Finding her.

  Claiming her.

  Bonding with her.

  But all of those things happened. With surprising quickness. So, when he is kidnapped with his new mate, Howl is stunned, enraged, and hurt to find out that Talia Henderson was actually: Talia Bianchi, the daughter of the mafia boss whom his brother “Growl” had foolishly gotten into bed with.

  Howl also finds out that Talia is carrying his children. And she’s a half-wolf shifter, not full-human as he’d originally suspected.

  Now Howl has to decide if he’s going to walk away from the woman created for him by the gods Romulus and Remus, or if he’s going to stay with her. And he’s going to have to make that decision quickly, because Talia’s father is on the warpath, promising to slaughter and attack Marconi pack members left and right until Howl turns over Talia to him… to be killed.

  Copyright

  Copyright 2020 Howl's Beauty © V. Vee. Vicktor Alexander Presents, LLC.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be copied, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or any other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews, promotions, and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed: “Attention: Copyright Permissions Coordinator,” at the address below:

  Vicktor Alexander Presents, LLC

  V. Vee

  5549 Black Hawk Lane

  Lakeland, FL 33810

  http://vveetheauthor.wordpress.com

  Publisher’s Note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s creative imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental.

  Dedication

  For Nugget and Baby Bow.

  Thank You

  Sara and Jayne: Thank you. You kept me fed and watered. Just like I was a plant. And left me alone when I needed to focus. Thank you so much. I appreciate it!

  Michelle: Love you chica! You already know how much you mean to me.

  Wendy: Thank you for the daily calls that always make me laugh.

  Barbie: Thank you for holding it down in the V-Squad group while I was sick. You rock!

  Amanda L.: Thank you for promoting my books when I can’t or when I forget, and for not getting annoyed with me when I’m so focused on writing a new book that I forget I have another book releasing. You are amazing!

  Amanda M.: Thank you for always keeping it real with me about my books and for telling me to go to bed when I’m overwhelmed.

  My readers: Thank you for sticking with me through all the pennames and the different genres. You all appreciate the many voices in my head, and I am grateful that all of you not only support me by buying my books, but you promote it, share it, and tell others about it. Thank you!

  BWSL: What an amazing group of women! I’m so happy and so humbled that you all have welcomed me into the group, embraced me, that you love my books, and that you shout me out whenever you get the chance. You’re all amazing. Thank you.

  Phoenix, Twyla, Reana, Kassanna, Sage, LaVerne, Olivia, Kenya, JanJan, Anita, Keta, SK, Siren, Siera, Francesca, Sara A., Areana, and so many others: Thank you. You know why.

  And for you. Yes, you. The person reading this. The person who bought this or got it through Kindle Unlimited or was gifted it… you….

  Thank you. So much.

  Thanks For Buying!

  I so hope you enjoy the second book in the Woodland Pack series. Thank you for purchasing Talia and Howl's love story, as well as reading about more of the Woodland Pack family. This is a semi-dark romance so there are no real knights-in-shining-armor or innocent princesses. Almost everyone in this book gets, or plans to get, their hands dirty.

  And they all like it.

  This is part of a series, so while the main couple: Talia and Howl finally get their HEA, the story as a whole, ends on a cliffhanger.

  Anyway, if you want to sign up for my newsletter and know when I have another book coming out (and to find out what’s going on with my author friends), sign up here (I do giveaways all the time, but only put out the newsletter when I have something important to share):

  http://bit.ly/VVeesNewsletter

  Playlist For Howl's Beauty

  The playlist for Howl's Beauty is probably one of my oldest and definitely one of my most heartbreaking and angsty. I mostly wrote the book while I was sick, so in between bouts of intense coughing, sniffling, or other "illness-related" things I was writing. But there were times when I needed to either listen to cop dramas, sci-fi dramas, or music. And even that was determined by what scene I was writing. So here are a few songs that are on the playlist:

  You Deserve Better-James Arthur

  Swalla-Jason Derulo f/Nicki Minaj

  Say Love-JoJo

  This is Me-Kesha

  Dirrty-Christina Aguilera

  Love Me Like You Do-Ellie Goulding

  Tell Me You Love Me-Demi Lovato

  Jealous-Nick Jonas

  Fuck Apologies-JoJo f/Wiz Khalifa

  A Thousand Years-Christina Perri

  Author’s Note

  Thank you soooo much for your patience with the release of Howl’s Beauty! I had my writing schedule all set, the book outlined, and a few chapters written when the New Year (January 2020) started. I woke up on January 1st so sick I could barely move. It was an illness that just got worse. I found out later I had the flu and bronchitis simultaneously, so my writing schedule got thrown into chaos and I had to push back the release of Howl’s Beauty… twice.

  But I am all better as of this book’s release and the rest of the year should proceed as planned.

  I do want to warn you about this book. It’s not as dark as some of my others, but it is very angsty. Talia is a woman who has endured rejection, abandonment, and abuse from the two people who were supposed to protect her, her entire life: her parents. Her need to obtain their approval, their love, their affection, and their pride leads her to do things which are contrary to her nature.

  Also, there are mentions of Talia and her mate, Howl (aka “Harry”) fighting. They are shifters so while I do not condone domestic violence or fighting among couples, I want you to consider those scenes like the ones from the movie: Mr. and Mrs. Smith ©, starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Howl and Talia have to do what they can to not only stay alive, but to protect each other and their families, and because of the “big bad” in their life, that means fighting each other.

  As with most of my books, the main couple: Talia and Howl, do have their HEA (happily ever after), but the overall story does end on a cliffhanger. So if you do not want to read that part, don’t read the epilogue.

  Thank you again for your support, and I hope you enjoy: Howl’s Beauty (Woodland Pack, 2).

  Yours in Interracial and Diverse Romance,

  -V. Vee

  Prologue

  A Long, Long Time Ago

  (*WAIT! Did you read the Author’s Note?
If not, you might want to…)

  1991 on the Human Calendar

  Sopheera Henderson stood at the edge of the human realm. The veil between her world and that of the humans who lived, loved, laughed, and died, gently caressing her skin. She trembled as the baritone voice of her beloved drifted to her ear.

  “Where are you, my love? Are you hiding from me?”

  Sopheera longed to go to him. To return to his arms. To once again be held in his arms. But it wasn’t to be. It was never to be. Never again would she touch him or feel his lips upon her skin or taste his flesh. Drink the blood that flowed from…

  “Do you still weep for the bottom feeder?” An angry snarl whispered into her ear and Sopheera stiffened. Almost subconsciously, her hand fell to her stomach, the bulge that protruded there the very reason she’d been “summoned” home.

  “Do you not have somewhere else to be?” she responded, none too kindly.

  “Whyever would I be anywhere that is not by your side?” The angered voice mocked, before a large hand reached out to spin her around.

  Sopheera stared up into the thin, angered, ethereal face which belonged to the man she was betrothed to marry. The one she’d run from all those years before. The one whom everyone feared, and yet he was the one their leader loved. Once again, she waited to feel… something. Anything. A modicum of emotion for the man she was supposed to spend all of eternity with but there was nothing there.

  “You will love me one day, Sopheera. No matter how far you try to run. What era you run to. What man you attempt to leave me for. I will always find you. And if I have to keep releasing the hounds so that they infect the minds of the bottom feeders, just to keep the two of you apart?” He gripped her hair and yanked her head back so hard, Sopheera cried out in pain. “I. Will.”

  Sopheera watched as he walked away, his massively, muscled back glistening beneath the always present light the shone from the throne over millions and millions of miles away. His white wings vibrated from his movements before unfurling and spreading wide. All around him, Sopheera watched as other angels stopped to stare at him in awe. Turning her back on them all, she closed the door to the gold and diamond mansion she lived in and finally shut the veil between heaven and Earth. The temptation was too great for her to return back to the man who owned her heart. And the one who was the father of the child growing within her.

  A very young Talia Henderson, herself only having seen the passage of 3 years, would never remember the day that the lies began. Darkness, inky blackness resided in the part of her brain which had the ability to recall moments from her childhood, the formative years of her life, or even the true identity of the woman who so often used to sing to her.

  No. There was naught left within her mind to bring forth smiles, Joy, happiness, or warm memories. Instead her memory began as nightmares often do. Standing in a hallway. Listening to what sounded like a horror movie being played in the other room. Having grown up—for three years, that is—hearing nothing but laughter, love, and happiness from the woman who was previously inhabiting that other room, and from all those whom the woman brought around her, it took Talia a moment to recognize that what she was hearing were not pleasant sounds, but ones to be feared. Ones to make her tremble.

  There was no crying where she lived, but the urge to express her... grief... was strong.

  Even moreso when she looked down at her feet and saw the thick, pungent, crimson red liquid that trailed from beneath the door to puddle at her feet.

  She was given no time to question things, instead, a beautiful woman, her skin a beautiful, burnished bronze, her black hair in tight coils that fell to her waist, walked up to Talia and took her hand.

  “Come my child,” she said, her voice hard, yet soft, as if she were attempting comfort for the very first time.

  “W-who are you?” Talia stammered, something pulling at her, begging her to stay. To tell out for help.

  “I am your mother. You know this.” The woman scoffed and Talia looked up at her, seeing her fully. While she looked... familiar, vaguely resembling the woman whose hugs Talia could recall with clarity, this woman did not fill Talia with... peace. Instead, fear, another altogether new emotion, flooded Talia’s small frame.

  “M-my m-mother?”

  The woman sighed and turned around to crouch down in front of the little girl, her golden eyes darkening to an almost flinty black as she took Talia’s small shoulders in her hands.

  “Yes, my daughter. I am your mother. Your very... human mother. And I have come to take you home. A—um—friend of mine was keeping you for a while, but your father found you. And now I have to get you back home. To safety.”

  Talia frowned. She’d thought her father was the same as everyone else’s, but that her Daddy was a man her “mother” always whispered to late at night.

  “M-my f-father?”

  And then, as if she had merely been waiting to deliver a blow to Talia’s small mind, the woman in front of her, her “mother”, gave her a small smile and nodded.

  “Yes. Your father, Alpha Fernando Bianchi.”

  The name stuck in Talia’s head to be sure.

  As did the sight of that same red liquid from the floor, the one that had filled her with such grief, appearing on the side of her “mother’s” neck.

  Chapter One

  Flashback

  Present Day

  Talia’s mother was a liar.

  A bold-faced liar.

  And as soon as Talia got out of the prison where her father was keeping her and her mate hostage? Making them fight for sport and coin? Well, Talia was going to tell her mother that she was a liar.

  Being pregnant was not a beautiful experience. Or a delightful journey.

  Talia was miserable. And she had been for the past five months. Between the vomiting, the hemorrhoids, the mood swings, the constant exhaustion, oh and the vomiting? Talia couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt like herself. And no matter how cute this baby, or babies, turned out to be, she would never forget how much being pregnant SUCKED.

  As she splashed water on her face, hoping to wash away the blood that had dried on her skin, her clothes, and congealed and dried in her hair, the smell of the water—a copper, sewer, horrific scent—hit her nose and Talia turned and knelt quickly in front of the toilet in the too small bathroom. Vomit spewed from her mouth, sweat and the blood of her victim dripping into her eyes and her lips, causing her sick to continue, until finally she was done.

  Empty.

  And so unbelievably angry.

  And there was only one person she could turn that anger towards. Her mate. Harold “Howl” Marconi.

  The wolf shifter who had gotten her pregnant.

  "Here you go," a kind voice said behind her and Talia turned and gratefully accepted the wet washcloth the older shifter handed her.

  "Thank you, Thaddeus," she responded.

  "My pleasure."

  Talia turned away from the man she'd been forced to share a cell with and wiped her mouth. She couldn't believe she was there, locked up as if she were a criminal, and fighting for her life. Fighting for the lives of her babies and that of her mate.

  The man who'd confessed to killing her mother.

  Six Months Earlier

  After being summoned to the home of her best friend, Joi Young's, parents. Talia could once again feel that constant, ever present emotion of guilt, curdling in her veins. It was a feeling she'd become acutely aware of over the past year. Ever since the moment she'd met her biological father.

  Having spent years with only her mother, Talia had been forced to finally contact the man who was responsible for her conception. Not because of any desire to actually know the man who had abandoned her and her mother, but because of the fact that her mother was ill, and had gotten into a bit of a bind when it came to paying for her hospital bills.

  Meeting Alpha Don Fernando Bianchi had been an… experience. The man looked every inch the evil mob boss. With his black hair style
d perfectly, his rotund figure squeezed into a three-piece suit, Talia's father's face had borne a perpetual smirk which had unsettled her from the moment he welcomed her into his home. It had only grown worse when he'd revealed he was the source of the secret about her true identity that even now, over 20 years after having discovered it when playing in the backyard of her mother's home, Talia had a very tough time coming to grips with.

  She was a half-wolf shifter. A hybrid of sorts. She'd been unable to fully shift as of yet, becoming some sort of weird half-wolf, half-human, half-something else, creature, but watching her father change from man to a fully formed beast had been eye-opening, scary, and fascinating. Talia had asked almost every question she could think of and her father had answered them all.

  Could she only change during the full moon? Was that the reason for her own personal shifting deformity?

  What color wolf would she change into when she finally did shift completely?

  Would she want to attack and kill humans?

  Would she get fleas?

  Fernando had been amused by her curiosity and had indulged it. But when Talia had finally gotten around to asking him for the money to help her mother receive the medical treatment that she needed, it was at that moment that she realized her father was not a good man.

  "Of course I will help you, my daughter."

  Talia breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you so much, Father. I know how much of an ask this must be for you. What with you and my mother not being together anymore."

  Fernando chuckled. "Yes, your mother and I had a very… interesting relationship."