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Wolfkissed: standalone fantasy romance by author Mona Archer, Amazon kindle unlimited books, fantasy romance book, shifter romance, romantas
What if Little Red Riding Hood ran away with the Big Bad Wolf?
Tropes you’ll find in this book:
V!rgin and rake Captor/c@ptive romance Predator-prey Forced proximity Forbidden love She is the scarred one primal knotting/rut one tree—one horse—one bathtub—one bed golden retriever MMC/black cat FMC energy strong FMC (but not in a sword-wielding way)
Wolfkissed a Forbidden Romantasy by Author Mona Archer, Amazon Kindle Unlimited Books, Shifter Romance, Fantasy Romance, Coming Soon, Book
“You like what you don’t understand, until it snaps you up, chews you bloody, and spits you out. Then the monsters don’t seem so pretty anymore, do they?”
Tropes you’ll find in this book: V!rgin and rake Bodyguard trope with a shifter twist Captor/captive romance Predator-prey Forced proximity hurt/comfort Forbidden love She is the scarred one primal knotting/rut one tree—one horse—one bathtub—one bed golden retriever MMC/black cat FMC energy strong FMC (but not in a sword-wielding way)
eivor my beloved
headlights streak across the road, illuminating the puddles on either side of the asphalt, and scott sighs. he knew that they should have left his mother's before the storm got this bad, but corrie had been having so much fun, he hadn't wanted to make her upset by ending it early. now, however, as he leans towards the steering wheel in the jeep wrangler, squinting through streaks of rain, he has decided that he would have rather dealt with corrie throwing a tantrum instead. half of the road is flooded, which is difficult enough to drive in, but the pitch-black darkness caused by the cloud cover is only making it worse. he is essentially driving blind, his knuckles turning white as he grips the wheel.
' dear . . .' drew, his wife, speaks from her place in the passenger seat, glancing nervously out the window. 'maybe we should find a rest area and wait out the storm?'
"there's not one for another hour, at least, and by then we should be through the worst of it. besides, corrie sleeps better in the rain." he pauses, readjusting his grip on the wheel. "we're almost there anyways."
drew shifts uncomfortably, glancing in the backseat at their sleeping child. she'd cried for the first half hour of the drive, not wanting to leave her grandmother's, but she'd eventually cried herself out. now, she was sleeping peacefully like nothing had happened, the stuffed unicorn she'd been holding forgotten on the floorboard of the jeep. drew smiles, feeling a little more at ease, but a quick jerk of the vehicle snaps her attention back to her husband. even in the darkness, she can see the sweat beaded on his forehead, eyes squinted behind thick rimmed glasses, and it makes her nervous. he's never liked driving in the rain, especially when it was this bad, and she wishes that he'd just listened when she tried to get him to leave while it was still daylight.
' scott . . . '
"drew. it's fine." lightning flashes across the sky, illuminating a massive puddle on the side of the road, but also, a dark shape, running alongside the vehicle. for a moment, scott thinks he's imagined it, as the speed of the thing alone is almost impossible, but it darts in front of the jeep a moment later, and he knows he hasn't. it's only for a moment, but he sees a flash of pitch-black fur, and then it is gone again.
'what is that?' drew asks, head turning towards the tree line the thing had disappeared towards.
" . . . nothing, it's nothing." his mouth is suddenly dry, hands gripping tighter. "probably a bear, or something."
' but a bear can't--'
the shape darts across the road again, this time closer, and scott swerves to miss it. he does so successfully, but the jeep's tires catch a puddle in the process, and without thinking, he slams both feet onto the break. the vehicle is immediately sent skidding down the road, hydroplaning across the black top, and scott desperately turns the wheel to try and stop it. unfortunately, he does nothing but overcorrect, and the jeep careens down the embankment to the right of the road. before he even knows what happened, the jeep is upside down in the drainage ditch, water rushing in through the broken windshield.
he groans, fumbling for the seatbelt latch, but something sticky is causing his fingers to miss. finally, he manages to press it, and he drops down into the water, coughing and spluttering for breath. his glasses are gone, he is disoriented, but he knows he cannot stay here. even with the torrents of rain coming down, he can still smell smoke, and with great effort, he twists himself towards the passenger window. the windshield is already broken, but there is too much water pouring in to be able to escape that way. he could try, but he would more than likely drown.
slowly, and with great effort, scott presses his hiking boots against the window. it buckles, so it is already cracked, and after taking a moment to catch his breath, he manages to kick the window out. glass rains down, but it is quickly washed away with the current.
finally, scott emerges from the jeep, disoriented, but alive.
' DADDY !'
a child's voice reaches him even over the rushing water, and suddenly he remembers corrie, who had been sleeping peacefully until moments ago. the pain he'd felt before is replaced with white hot adrenaline, and without thinking, scott scrambles back into the jeep, fighting his way into the back. it is dark, so he cannot see her, but as he reaches his right hand up, he can feel corrie's body dangling from her car seat. she's quiet at first, and for a moment he thinks he only imagined her calling for him, but a scream erupts from her lungs almost immediately after, and he knows he did not. it takes work, but scott does manage to release corrie from her buckles, and she drops, limp, into his arms. she's heavier than he remembers her being, but he still shoulders her onto his back, linking her arms around his neck, and starts to crawl back out of the jeep, flickers of lightning showing him the way.
after what feels like an eternity, they reach higher ground, and scott manages to settle his daughter onto a large rock on the side of the embankment. he can't see well enough to know if she is injured, but she hasn't stopped screaming since being pulled from the jeep, so he assumes she is at least somewhat okay. he's satisfied, briefly, and collapses on the ground beside the rock, rain pelting his face.
though, the relief is short lived. through her screams, corrie is screaming for her mother, and with a sinking feeling in his gut, scott sits up, looking at the jeep, upside down in the drainage ditch. he'd been wearing his seatbelt, so he'd been jolted by the crash but relatively unharmed. drew, on the other hand, had not. she'd started off wearing it, but had unbuckled it to reach in the back and tend to corrie. he'd reminded her later to put it back on, but had she? he cannot remember, and the adrenaline is beginning to wear off as quickly as it had come, leaving him with a burning ache in his muscles. still . . . he can't simply leave her there.
"i'll go check. corrie, don't move." scott speaks, but the noise of the storm and the river raging in the drainage ditch drowns it out. reluctantly, he turns and begins to slide himself back down the embankment, glancing up occasionally to make sure the redheaded child is still where he'd left her. in the flickering lightning, her body grows smaller, cries quieter, but even as he reaches the jeep, scott can still hear her, and that brings him some relief.
only some, however. as he leans back into the passenger side window, it dawns on him that he had gone through the passenger side to escape, not the driver side. for that to be possible, his wife had to have been thrown from the car during the crash.
a sinking feeling begins to take over, but scott has to know for sure, and forces himself to lean into the jeep to look.
lightning flashes overhead, followed by a boom of thunder.
the jeep is empty.
scott sinks back onto his haunches in defeat, realization dawning. drew had not been wearing her seatbelt like he'd told her, and she must've been thrown during the crash, but where? she was not on the embankment, he'd have seen her, and she could not be on the road, as the jeep had still been upright then. that only leaves the woods.
a howl suddenly pierces the night, sending a chill down scott's spine. they don't have wolves in this part of maine, haven't for years, but he knows what he heard was not anything but. the hair on the back of his neck stands up, his body hot with fear. suddenly he feels eyes on him, and without giving more thought, pushes himself away from the jeep and begins to scramble up the hill to corrie, screaming for her to run to him. over her own screaming and the storm, she does not hear.
scott is halfway up the embankment before he sees something move in the darkness, and suddenly, the clouds part briefly to reveal the thing. it stands above him on all fours, black fur glistening in the moonlight. its eyes are bright yellow, almost glowing, and scott knows this is no normal wolf. wolves are large, yes, but this is a huge, hulking thing with human-like eyes. this is not a wolf. it is . . . something else, though what, scott does not know, or want to admit.
lightning flashes. thunder booms. the moon slides beneath cloud cover.
and the thing leaps, clearing the distance in one bound. scott scrambles backwards, sliding towards the jeep, but before he can clamber back inside, he feels something hot on the back of his neck. he reaches back on instinct, but his hand suddenly does not work. in fact, none of his body works. he's suddenly gone limp, but he is still somewhat upright. in his ear he can hear the thing breathing, and he knows what is happening, but for some reason he can no longer feel panic. brief sadness as corrie's cries break through the night, but mostly he feels cold . . . and then nothing at all. the last thing he sees is the mangled remains of his wife at the tree line, and then, nothing.
satisfied, the creature turns back to the child wailing. it studies her for a moment, focusing, and finally, she stops screaming. she is still crying, tears mixing with the rain, but she is quiet. she stares at the creature, and it can smell her fear, but it does not want her. she is too small, too gangly, and it already has a meal in its jaws.
another flicker of lightning, and the thing is gone as quickly as it came, the only evidence of it tracks washing away with the storm. soon, all that is left is the child on the rock, wailing, and the overturned jeep in the drainage ditch.
i'm fully convinced AC makes their fem protags for wlw
