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

  “And if it were your mother, or one of your brothers or sisters?” She nodded. “You would do it too.”

  Howl opened his mouth to refute her statement but stopped when Angelo shook his head. “She’s right, little brother. When she said as much to me, I wanted to argue with her, to deny it up, down, left, and right. But when I thought about it? Really thought about it? I realized that she was right. Not only would I do it—not only would you do it—but we would go above and beyond and offer to kill people for that information.” He shrugged and Howl mulled over his brother’s words. Considering them. Questioning their validity.

  Realizing that Angelo and Joi were correct.

  “Besides that, didn’t she ultimately betray her father and help us? Or at least try to?” Joi asked with a quirked eyebrow. “Even knowing that she was possibly putting her mother’s life in danger?”

  Howl nodded and sat back in his chair with an aggrieved sigh. Especially when Joi spread her arms wide as if to say… see? I made my point.

  And she had.

  It was why he’d turned around to go back. And why he’d known the minute he stepped into the home he’d bought for Talia and their babies, that something was dreadfully, dreadfully wrong. There was a pungent, yet sweet smell in the air. It was dissipating but Howl had picked up on it. Upon checking out the bedroom, he’d seen signs of a struggle and an open window.

  Talia had been taken… kidnapped… and Howl had known exactly who had done it, and why, and he’d been going crazy ever since.

  That had been over two weeks ago. Not only was Howl’s wolf on the verge of going feral, but his heart broke and shattered every single time he thought about Talia being back in her father’s prison, locked away in a cell, thinking he didn’t care about her. That he’d abandoned her.

  He looked up when his office door opened, and his brothers, followed by Hendrix—Joi’s Caribbean neighbor, and apparently her sister Kim’s mate—stepped inside. Each of them was an imposing force on their own, but when they got together, they looked a bit like a dangerous army coming into a country prepared to lay waste and cause destruction.

  “Did you find out where she is?” Howl questioned, wincing when he realized that he sounded just like Angelo had months previous when he had been searching for Joi. By the smirk on his eldest brother’s face, Angelo thought the same thing.

  “No, brother, sorry. Bianchi deserted all of his known hang out spots and abandoned his homes—the ones we knew of any way,” Thadeo, or “Thunder”, his younger brother stated before coming over to flop down on Howl’s couch. Howl narrowed his eyes at the younger man when he put his feet up on the table and sat back in a slouched position.

  Thunder raised his hands in a gesture of surrender and sat up, placing his feet on the ground. He rubbed his hand over the thick, brown beard that covered the bottom half of his face and made him look like a lumberjack, and gestured to their youngest brother, Renzo, or “Rumble”, who walked over and handed Howl a very thin folder, which contained a slip of paper and a very old photograph of a young Talia and a short, thin, black woman with skin the color of light ash wood.

  Howl’s heart clenched in his chest as he stared at the face of his mate as a little girl, wondering if one of the babies she carried within her was a daughter, and hoping that it was. Howl prayed that when Talia did give birth and gave him a daughter that the little girl would look just like her. Talia was so amazingly beautiful that Howl was certain their children would all be gorgeous as well.

  He raised his gaze to his youngest brother’s face and gestured to the photo. “Why are you giving me a picture of Talia and her mother?”

  Rumble cleared his throat and looked around at the other men in the room before he responded.

  “Um… I don’t know a lot about like… genetics, and melanin, and stuff like that, but look at Talia’s mother, her skin is an extremely light brown color. And Alpha Bianchi is white, I mean, he’s paler than we are, but Talia…”

  Howl frowned and looked back at the picture. Could it be? He shook his head mentally. Another question, another mystery, another secret for another time.

  “How the fuck is this going to help me find my wife?” Howl asked in exasperation.

  “Well,” Salvatore, or “Grumble”, started, stepping forward and shoving his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “We were thinking… we know you said Talia and her mother didn’t get along, and I mean, you can just look at that photo and see how much the woman doesn’t like her own… “daughter”… but she looks a lot like that asshole Perry. Like… a lot. And if she is Bianchi’s mate, I bet she knows all the places he could be hiding.” Grumble shrugged and leaned back against the wall in Howl’s office.

  He nodded and glanced back down at the photo of his mate.

  “You’re right. Let’s go pay a little visit to my mother-in-law,” he said, grabbed his jacket, and headed out of his office, his brothers, cousins, and new friend following behind him, the letter with Talia’s mother’s address clutched in his fist.

  Howl would find his mate. He would rescue her. Then together they would solve the puzzle surrounding her parentage.

  After Howl had fucked her a few times just to make sure she was truly alive.

  Howl knocked on the front door of the small, bungalow styled home, sniffing the air to be certain there was only one person—female shifter—inside.

  She couldn’t be Talia’s mother, he reasoned, she smells like a shifter. Pure bred. Not like a halfling like my Talia. So there’s no way that Talia is the result of two pure bred wolf shifters. She wouldn’t smell a bit like a human.

  Before Howl could continue to piece together what exactly was going on, the door to the home opened and he found himself looking down into the bitter gaze of a woman who did not appear sick at all. As a matter of fact, Isadora Henderson appeared to be in robust health. If Howl and Talia hadn’t bonded, if he hadn’t seen the flashes of her memory, he would have thought the story about her sick mother was just another lie, and yet, though he knew better, he was looking at the truth right there.

  “Ms. Henderson?” he questioned, just to be certain, though the woman in front of him looked like a dead ringer for the woman in the photograph.

  “Yeah? Who wants to know?” she asked with a scowl.

  “Um… I’m looking for your daughter. Talia? I was wondering if you knew where she was?”

  Isadora snorted and rolled her eyes. “What did the little bitch do now?”

  Howl swallowed back the growl that threatened to explode out of his chest. He needed the information on Alpha Bianchi first, he could get revenge for Talia on this woman later. He shook his head.

  “She hasn’t done anything. I’m her mate, Harold, and I believe she was kidnapped.”

  Isadora stared at him and moved her eyes over his form with an unsettling caress, licking her lips.

  How is she mated to Alpha Bianchi, and checking me out at the same time? Her daughter’s mate?

  “That’s not possible. Nando said the little orphan’s—umm… that my daughter’s mate was a Marconi, and there’s no way you’re a Marconi,” Isadora said with a lascivious grin.

  Don’t kill her Howl. Not yet.

  “You know where Alpha Bianchi is?” Howl asked, swallowing the bile that rose in his throat at calling the evil mobster an alpha.

  Isadora rolled her eyes again. “So that’s why you’re really here. Look, I’ll give you the address where he moved the wolf fights, but if you’re looking to fight or fuck Talia? I’d suggest you leave now. I know Fernando, he’s gonna get sick of her refusing to kill that old man. He’s afraid the old guy’s gonna talk and say too much, so he wants the both of them dead quickly.” She turned away from Howl and stepped back into her home fully.

  Howl followed her, his eyes moving over the walls and pictures that hung inside. There were none of Talia. There were plenty of Isadora with Perry and Alpha Bianchi. Some with just Isadora and Perry. And even more with Perry and Alpha Bianchi,
but it didn’t look as if Talia even existed to the woman who was supposed to be her mother.

  But it was when Isadora opened a drawer in her sideboard that Howl saw a photo that sent ice down his spine.

  In the photo was a young girl, a toddler really, being held in the arms of a woman who looked like an ethereal, painfully beautiful, slightly older version of his mate, Talia. The woman was wearing a white toga of sorts, with a gold belt cinched around her waist, a golden circlet on her head, and gold sandals. The toddler in her arms was wearing a similar outfit. A bright light glowed behind her, and though she was looking at the camera, she held the little girl closely and lovingly. Howl swallowed as reality cold-cocked him and he realized that his mate had been loyal, obedient, and a faithful daughter, to two people who had lied to her.

  The sound of a gun being cocked, had his eyes lifting and he found himself staring right at Isadora, who’d trained a .38 special right on him. He could smell the silver bullets that rested inside the gun and his wolf shrank slightly within him.

  “He told me you’d be coming over and that I should send you straight to him, down in the pits, but you just had to look around, didn’t you? Just had to see that picture. Now you know too much and Nando, Perry, and I worked too hard to keep the truth from Talia, to keep that little orphaned bitch in the dark, for you to go and play hero dressed all in black and reveal all. Besides, why would you want to crush her hopes and dreams like that? To destroy her world by telling her that the woman who raised her, the woman she thought was her mother, is actually her aunt? Her mother’s half-sister? The person responsible for being granted entrance between the human realm and the Heavenly realm, who then killed her sister and took her sister’s child?”

  With each word she spoke Howl got angrier and angrier. He could feel his body on the verge of shifting, but he wanted to hear the rest of it. Isadora obviously needed to vent and to get everything off her chest before she shot him, and Howl wanted to hear it all, so he knew what to say to his mate when he next saw her.

  “Why?” he asked through gritted teeth.

  Isadora laughed. “Why?” She shook her head. “Because my sister said no to helping us get rid of you, your brother, and the rest of your filthy pack so we could take over. We’ve been trying to rule this world, to make humans our servants the way they should be, and to make shifters rulers and gods of this world the way the gods always intended, for centuries. Hell, the Bianchis got the Numisius pack to burn down Rome all those many centuries ago, but once again, the Marconis—the “righteous” pack—stopped the complete slaughter of the Roman people.” She stepped closer to Howl, the gun in her hand unwavering.

  Howl kept his gaze trained on her, though a slight movement at the window made his eye twitch.

  “So you killed your sister because she wouldn’t help you slaughter an entire pack, then you kidnapped her child… why?”

  Isadora rolled her eyes and shook her head. “The cute ones are all so dumb.” She sighed in frustration. “Because idiot, my “niece” is half-angel. She hasn’t fully come into her angelic powers yet, but now that you two have mated it’s only a matter of time. She’s fiercely devoted to Nando and I, haven’t you noticed? We’d intended for her to do what her mother refused to, but, she’s just as “saintly” as her mother. So we’re just going to find another way… after we get rid of all loose ends. Starting with you, then that old man, followed by that orphan.

  “Say goodbye, Marconi.”

  Howl grunted when Joi brought down a lamp onto the back of Isadora’s head, causing the shifter to drop.

  “Goodbye, Marconi,” Howl mocked, before rushing over to grab the slip of paper where Isadora had an address written on it, then yanking open the drawer fully, he pulled out the picture of Talia and her mother, as well as the one below it, of Talia’s mother and what he could only suspect was her mate, Talia’s father. The two of them stood in an African desert, their arms wrapped around each other, standing next to another interracial couple, all of them wearing clothing from at least a century before.

  “Howl? Do you think she was telling the truth? Is Talia really half angel?” Joi asked as she came up to his side. Howl nodded.

  “Not only that, I think there’s a lot more that she didn’t tell us. This man in this picture? He looks familiar. And if Talia’s mother was an angel, and her mate was a shifter, then I’m pretty sure their mating, and any children they had was a pretty big deal. I’m not certain what their end game is, but I think the reason they want Talia dead is not because she won’t help them, but I think it’s because they want her blood, or something, now that we’ve mated she’ll get her heavenly powers which I think is significant for them.”

  Joi gasped and Howl bobbed his head up and down.

  “So you’re not as dumb as you look,” Isadora said with a smirk, lifting her arm with the gun once again.

  Now, Howl.

  Heeding the words of his wolf, Howl leapt forward, shifted mid-air, and ripped out Isadora’s throat. All before she could get off a shot.

  He stood and looked down at her lifeless body, her blood forming a puddle on the floor beneath her, and spit out the skin, blood, and bone in his mouth. He turned and saw his brothers, cousins, and Hendrix, as well as Joi, all looking at him with anger and sadness in their gazes.

  “Let’s go and get my woman,” he said.

  He knew his family had his back, and he would need them. Not only to get Talia out of the prison where she was, but to help him prove to her that her parents weren’t the people she’d pledged her fealty to.

  Chapter Twelve

  The Rescue

  “Child? Wake up, wake up!” A frantic voice pulled Talia out of the pleasant dream she’d been having about being back in Howl’s arms. When she opened her eyes, she frowned. Had the ceiling always been so close to her face?

  “I do not want to you to get scared, now, you just have to think about sinking slowly and gently back down and you will,” the voice… Thaddeus, her cell mate, drifted… up to her?

  How did Thaddeus sound as if he were below her?

  Talia turned her head to the right and let out a scream when she realized she was floating in the air. Almost instantly she felt the world rush by as she fell down onto the thin cot beneath her, letting out an oomph of surprise and pain.

  “What. The. Fuck?!” She yelled.

  Thaddeus shook his head. “I am not exactly sure. I have never seen a halfling do that before. Matter of fact, I have only seen it one other time. It was with my mate, Sopheera, shortly after she realized that she was pregnant. But Sopheera was different…” he trailed off, shaking his head when he noticed Talia staring at him. He waved his hand. “But that is not possible for you. You said your mother is human, and with a shifter for a father…” He shrugged.

  “So you have no idea why I was floating in the air?” Talia asked.

  “Well… you were not just floating in the air. You were also glowing a bit and creating tiny balls and sparks of light in your palms…” Thaddeus shook his head again and rubbed his palm over the top of his head. “Are you certain of your parentage? Because I am sorry to say, I have not encountered a half-human, half-wolf hybrid who could do what you just did. The only person I know who could was…”

  “Sopheera?” Talia guessed with a gentle smile. She sat up, placing a hand on her belly that had grown larger practically overnight, and sighed. “Why don’t you tell me about Sopheera? I mean, more than you already have. You’ve told me how you two met, and even how she disappeared right after finding out she was pregnant, but, tell me something else.”

  Thaddeus looked away from her for a moment, his eyes taking on a distant glint as if he were looking far, far away, before he nodded.

  “When Sopheera and I were speaking about having children, she told me we would spend our entire lives trying to keep them safe.”

  Talia frowned. “What? Why?”

  Thaddeus shook his head. “There’s an ancient prophecy that states t
hat if and when an angelic, wolf halfling and the son of The Alpha, mated, joining their souls and worlds together, that the world would be tossed into chaos. Monsters and creatures would come out of hiding, the veil between worlds would be split, and blood would flow.”

  Talia covered her mouth. “So, what did that have to do with you and Sopheera? And why would anyone want that?”

  Thaddeus chuckled. “Because of what the rest of it says. It states that though many lives will be lost, and packs would rage against each other, humans trembling in their homes, for a long while, when it was all over, the evil which had plagued the Earth and infiltrated the different realms would be completely purged and paradise will reign.”

  Talia sighed. “Aww, that’s a nice thought. No more evil? Living in a paradise? But,” she pointed at Thaddeus. “You still haven’t told me why this had anything to do with you and Sopheera.”

  Thaddeus looked at her with a soft, gentle smile. A paternal one, and Talia once again felt herself wanting to sink into the older man’s comforting embrace.

  “Because I was her wolf, and she was my angel, and any children we had would be angelic, wolf halflings.”

  Talia narrowed her eyes at the other man for a moment before she laughed softly. She nodded. “Well, perhaps that’s why Sopheera disappeared, not because she left you, but because she was trying to keep your child safe?”

  Thaddeus’s eyes shined with hope and Talia reached out to pat his wrist. While the older shifter had some fantastical ideas about his long-lost mate, Talia was happy to be able to bring him a measure of peace, the same as he’d done for her and her pups. Talia had just opened her mouth to ask Thaddeus more about what she’d been doing while sleeping when the distant sound of shouting reached her ears. Pulling in a long inhale of air, Talia pushed up from the cot quickly when she smelled him.

  “Talia? Are you okay, dear?” Thaddeus asked.

  Talia nodded. “Yes, yes I am. I smell him.”