Moonlight Bride

  High House Canis Book 3

  Riley Storm

  Moonlight Bride

  Copyright© 2019 Riley Storm

  All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may reproduced in any form or by any electronic means, without written permission from the author. The sole exception is for the use of brief quotations in a book review. The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal.

  This book is a work of fiction. 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.

  All sexual activities depicted occur between consenting characters 18 years or older who are not blood related.

  Edited by Annie Jenkinson, Just Copyeditors

  Cover Designs by Kasmit Covers

  Table of Contents

  Moonlight Bride

  Note from the Author

  1

  2

  3

  4

  5

  6

  7

  8

  9

  10

  11

  12

  13

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  36

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  38

  39

  40

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  42

  43

  44

  45

  46

  47

  48

  49

  50

  Other Books by Riley Storm

  About the Author

  Note from the Author

  Hi there!

  Thank you so much for picking up Moonlight Bride. While this book and series are self-contained and can be read alone, if you want to get the full experience of the Plymouth Falls world, you would be best off starting with the High House Ursa series and book one, Bearing Secrets which is linked below.

  Either way, I hope you enjoy!

  -Riley Storm

  High House Ursa

  Bearing Secrets

  Furever Loyal

  Mated to the Enemy

  Shifting Alliances

  Blood Bearon

  1

  Past Due.

  Past Due.

  Second Notice.

  Past Due.

  First Notice.

  All at once, Chloe tossed the rest of the mail aside, not even bothering to check it. It would all be the same. The signs weren’t changing. They were, if anything, growing, from tiny roadside notices, to giant neon flashing billboards just behind her eyes.

  She was failing. It was a slow decline. There would be a bit more money this month, enough to make some payments toward her bills. Or all of one bill, perhaps. That was the constant juggle she was faced with.

  There was an out. There were several outs actually. She could sell the property, or even take out a larger line of credit against the value of the farm. Those were options she had not—and would not—resort to. The farm wasn’t hers to sell as far as she was concerned, and the line of credit was already likely beyond her ability to ever repay, unless she sold. Which she wouldn’t.

  I’ll make you proud yet, Grandfather. I just need some more time.

  More time, and perhaps a little more knowhow. The truth was, she was in way above her head. Ever since—

  The shrill ring of the landline pierced her thoughts.

  “What the?” she asked aloud. Nobody called the landline. It was an archaic relic of the previous owner, one of a number of things Chloe had been unwilling to get rid of after she’d inherited the place.

  It kept going, however, so eventually she decided it would be quieter to just pick the damn thing up and tell whoever was on the other end to leave her alone.

  “Hello?”

  “Chloe, it’s Winston.”

  She tried not to shudder. Winston was her neighbor, sort of. His property adjoined hers, but he was one of the new mega-farmers, owning tens of thousands of acres of farmland that stretched out for miles to the north and east of her much smaller family farm.

  He was also a huge dick.

  “Hi, Winston,” she said with as much false cheer as she could muster. “What do you want?”

  It wasn’t much. Chloe didn’t have time for him. Winston had no time for others, unless he wanted something. For him to call her at six in the evening, knowing she’d been forced to call it a day due to the storm, meant that he needed something from her.

  And there was only one thing he wanted.

  “I’ve reconsidered my offer. I’m willing to add another five percent to the price, how about that?” he said, as jovial as a mall Santa Claus who’d been withheld pay until Christmas Eve.

  “That’s very generous of you,” she replied with her best front-line service industry, I really don’t care but I’m pretending to voice.

  “So, you’ll take it?”

  Chloe sighed. “Winston listen, I’ve told you, I can’t sell the property. It was my grandfather’s. It would destroy him. He built this farm with his father, and I intend to keep it going, I’m sorry. It’s not for sale.”

  “Did you get the new paperwork?” Winston asked, completely ignoring her. Like usual.

  Chloe heaved up a silent sigh, sagging deeper into her preferred rocking chair and looked at the pile of paper she’d dropped on the floor. There, among some flyers—and how was it that junk mail still made its way out into the country?!—was a slightly thicker off-yellow colored envelope.

  She picked it up, turning it over to see the name of the lawyer he used on the front. “Yes, I have it,” she said. “But I’m telling you Winston, I’m not going to sell it.”

  Not to mention, the bank had given her a line of credit at a value easily twenty-percent higher than what he was offering. So, if she did decide to sell, it was a good bet she could get more. Winston was cheap, and an ass. Unfortunately, the credit line was almost maxed out. It was tough for her to decline his money, but she had to.

  “Now listen, Chloe,” he began in his condescending you don’t know anything because you’re a woman voice. She hated that one the most. “This is a great opportunity here and—”

  “Winston? Winston? Can you hear me? Hello? Hello?”

  She started crinkling the envelope he’d mailed her into a ball near the receiver. A moment later, she hung up. That was the end of that.

  Another moment later, the phone lit up again.

  “Persistent bastard,” she growled, staring at the landline, wondering if now was, indeed, the time to cancel it.

  It would save me some monthly bill costs.

  Pondering that, she got up from her chair. It might be raining out, but that had never stopped her before. Besides, she needed to get out of the house. It was too depressing sitting in there, brooding over what, if any, future she had as a farmer.

  Maybe I’ll go explore the southeast forest some more.

  Buoyed by the thought of seeing more of her grandfather’s property that she hadn’t yet gotten to, Chloe left the house, pulling her raincoat up and over her head. The storm had abated already, she realized, leaving little more than a drizzle that was quite manageable.

  She set off at a brisk pace, taking the paths between fields, heading southeast. The farm was massive, though still tiny compared to Winston’s property, or any of the other mega farms, but for her, it was big, and she’d spent so much time working on it since the move, that there were still areas she hadn’t fully explored.

  Like the forest to the southeast. Her grandfather had left it up for some reason or another, and now it occupied several dozen or more acres along the border. She’d never really gone to explore it, but now seemed like the perfect time.

  Especially if Winston decided to drive over and try to convince her in person. Again. He would never find her out there.

  It would be peaceful, quiet, and best of all?

  She would be completely alone with her thoughts.

  2

  Long loping strides carried him quickly along the border, all four legs working together to give him an even trot-like gait.

  His head swung left and right as he went, muzzle relaxed, hiding the off-white teeth. The black nose on the tip of his snout twitched constantly as he searched for any unexpected scents. Pausing his patrol, Linden shook his flanks, violently expelling a spray of water.

  Moments later, the rain matted the fur right back to his sides.

  Rude.

  His yellow eyes looked skyward in frustration at whoever was behind the weather decisions, as if cursing them would change anything.

  A water droplet fell right into his open eye.

  Growling in irritation, Linden blinked his lid to clear the excess liquid and then resumed his patrol. Mud splashed underneath, his gigantic paws sinking ever so slightly into the soggy ground. As lightly as he moved, he still weighed close to five hundred pounds in his wolf form. The ground was thoroughly soaked and beginning to squish every time he stepped down.

  All of which resulted in mud spraying up to coat his underbelly, a most unpleasant sensation. This was his job though, and Linden wasn’t going to let getting a little dirty stop him. The others were counting on him to patrol this section of the border of their property, to ensure their enemies didn’t find them, or launch a sneak attack.

  He trotted along, keeping close to the bushes and trees that lined most of the border. There shouldn’t be anyone nearby, but if there was, he needed to be able to disappear quickly. Wolves his size had gone extinct ten thousand years or more earlier in the wild. The last thing he needed was for some over-eager farmer to spot him and grab a picture.

  The end of his shift was nearing, and once he reached the far end of the property, it would be a straight shot back to his starting post to wait for his relief, at which point he could go back and take a shower. And eat. He was starved.

  Climbing a ridge, he quickly darted down into the depression beyond, not wanting to be silhouetted against the sky, even if it was filled with dark gray clouds that let his black fur blend into it perfectly. No risk. He stopped just short of the forest that spread out beyond the little rise.

  The hackles on his neck rose the instant he returned his focus to the area around him, a warning that something wasn’t right.

  Turning in a slow circle, he scanned for danger, but didn’t come up with anything. There was no immediate threat. So, what was sending up the warning signs?

  Above, the sky rumbled threateningly, the promise of more rain. A moment later, the wind picked up. That was it, he realized, scenting the strange smell as the moving air brought it to him.

  Someone else was out there.

  He padded forward cautiously. It was difficult to track the scent, with the whirling of the air and the falling water helping mask it, but Linden was an expert tracker. He stalked through the woods into the undergrowth, disappearing like a shadow into darkness as the landscape swallowed him up.

  Now he moved in total silence, each paw finding a place to rest as he moved forward carefully, watching everything, his nose working overtime. Whoever it was, there was only one of them, and they weren’t that far away. The question was, who would be out here, at this time?

  His first fear was that the Loyalists had found them. Whoever was hiding in the forest, they weren’t a shifter, but that didn’t matter. If the Loyalists had found them, they might very well send in a human to scout it out first, to ease any suspicion, to keep Linden and the others feeling safe, and theoretically complacent.

  Before the civil war that had split House Canis apart, Linden had been a Wolf Guard, one of the men assigned the duty of protecting Moonshadow Manor, the home of House Canis and all wolf shifters. He may have been exiled from the Manor, but the desire to protect those he cared for was still strong. He would find this intruder and figure out just why they had come.

  He crept deeper and deeper into the forest, no longer caring about things such as matted fur and mud. That was all minor, in comparison to the worry that their hideout had been found.

  A gust of wind swirled through the forest, and moments later, the leaves began to sink as the skies opened up above them, a fresh deluge of torrential rain. The conditions didn’t bother Linden, but the combination of water and wind was threatening to sweep the area clear of the scent.

  He couldn’t move at the same pace. Pushing forward, he tried to keep up with the edge of the scent, following it back to its source. He pushed deeper and deeper into the forest. It wasn’t that big, so he must be nearing its center by now. His pace quickened as the scent grew fainter, the weather working against him.

  All at once, he burst through a thicket of trees and dense undergrowth and nearly plowed into a rock. Skidding to a halt, he easily jumped the eight feet or so to its peak.

  “Ahhh!”

  The ear-piercing scream of terror from right in front of him shocked Linden and he automatically tried to back pedal. But there was nowhere to go. Belatedly, he remembered that he was on the rock, and tried to go forward instead.

  The human screamed again, startling him even as he tried to regain his balance on the slippery surface, something much harder to do with four legs than two.

  It wasn’t working. He slipped, spun, and then lost all semblance of balance as a rock hit him in the side, distracting him at a crucial moment. Linden slumped down and slid forward, claws dragging against the rock as he tried to slow his momentum, but if it helped, he didn’t notice as he plowed face-first into the muddy ground at the base of the rock.

  Somebody screamed again and Linden abruptly moved backward as another rock landed where his head used to be.

  “Leave me alone!”

  He finally got his first glimpse of his assailant as she scrambled away from him, another rock in both her hands.

  Linden froze as lightning lit up the sky, banishing the shadow of her hood momentarily.

  A face of purest porcelain stared back at him, tiny pointed nose flared almost comically wide, thick, full lips pulled back in a grimace. Above it all, two eyes, their color invisible in the dark, stared at him, going wide with horror as they truly registered what he was.

  The rock in her right hand whizzed out at him, but now that he’d regained his composure, Linden easily dodged it, carefully not moving closer to the woman. There was something about her that he just couldn’t put his finger on, but whatever it was, he wanted to look at her more. To stare.

  “Stay back!” she shouted, brandishing the other rock.

  The movement, combined with the rain, caused her hood to flap down across her face, obscuring her vision. Linden could have used that to do any number of things, but he stood, rooted to the spot, transfixed by the vision of beauty in front of him as she swept the hood back to reveal the rest of her face.

  The high-swept cheekbones gave her face an oval look, sweeping up into a thick braid of hair that curled over her left shoulder. Dry until that point, it immediately started to absorb moisture and grow damp.

  For a split second, Linden almost ducked behind the rock to shift back to his human form. He wanted to be closer to her. To talk to her and tell her everything would be okay. She needed comforting and reassurance, and he, he could provide that to her. It would be so easy.

  Except that a huge, naked man running at her, trying to hug her in the middle of a forest while it thundered, was quite possibly not the most reassuring thing that she could use just then. Not when a giant wolf had just about jumped on top of her thirty seconds earlier.

  “Rawr!” she growled, trying to seem threatening.

  Despite his sudden desire to be as close to her as possible, Linden forced himself to back away, until the brush all but swallowed him up. He stood still, watching her for some time. Whoever she was, she was terrified, but something had told her it was better to stand her ground than to flee.

  Not that she had any idea he wasn’t a real wolf, but a human in wolf form. That, in fact, probably wouldn’t help the situation at all, so he stayed as he was, cloaked in fur and the bushes, watching.

  Eventually, the unknown woman started to back out of the tiny clearing around the big rock. Linden padded around the perimeter and then followed her. He was curious. Who was she? Why was she there? How come she hadn’t simply run away from him? Had she been expecting, or prepared, to see something like him out here?

  More information was needed, so he tracked her through the forest, intrigued by more than just her presence. There was something about her. He looked over her figure as she pulled the hood back over her head, tugging the dark olive-green rain jacket tighter, until it hugged her thick curves.

  Parts of him stirred, and he fought to force them down. This wasn’t about him finding her attractive. He had to worry about the security of his friends. His family. The pack of rebels resisting the Tyrant-King of House Canis had become his family, there was no doubt about that. They were united in their cause, and in their loyalty to one another. Linden needed to find out if this woman was a threat to them.

  He tracked her through the forest for as long as possible, without being seen. But when he reached the edge of the trees, his choices became very limited. Follow her all the way and risk being seen, which was a high probability, given how frequently she looked over her shoulder, or give up, and let the others know, so they could be aware and on guard.

  In the end, he chose the latter. Exposing himself wouldn’t do any good, and could, in fact, cause harm if he was seen. Hopefully, the dark and the woman’s fear would mask the details of his presence, including his size. If she wasn’t working for the Loyalists, then that was the best outcome. Following her farther would just raise more suspicion.

 

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