Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Epilogue
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Desiree A. Cox
Holt
A Wolf’s Hunger
Copyright © 2017 Desiree A. Cox
This book, or any portion thereof, may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission by the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, and incidents in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to persons, living or not, is purely coincidental.
This book contains explicit sex, language, and sexual situations. It is written for the mature reading audience (18+), and isn’t suitable or intended for younger readers or readers who are uncomfortable reading about this content.
Published by Desiree A. Cox
Cover Art: Sassy Queens of Design
Book Cover by Design
Editor: Kim Huther
Wordsmith Proofreading
Dedication
In loving memory of Barry, a kind young soul taken from us far too soon.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Epilogue
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A Wolf’s Hunger
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Synopsis
Since that day in the woods, Omega of the Loca Nuna Pack, Barry “Holt” Scofield, made sure to move around more cautiously while Wolf. He and his guard, Dolph, managed to escape the trap set by the wildlife preservationists. Others weren’t so lucky.
Holt had no idea how many of the Pack had escaped, or how many had been captured, but the agonizing howls of his father and fellow Wolfpack hunters being dragged away to a New Jersey preserve haunted him every day.
Holt knew what he needed to do. He and Dolph needed a fool proof plan to free his Alpha father from his imprisonment along with the others that had been captured, and then he wanted to find the rest of his pack. But the Hunger struck, leaving him consumed with one thought only: feed it at all costs.
All thoughts of rescuing his Pack were pushed to the rear of his mind as the Hunger completely took over. When his Wolf forced him to face his new reality, Holt was left with no choice but to obey. His intent was redirected, and he suppressed the urge to free his father and his Pack.
He needed to find his soul mate.
A Wolf’s Hunger: It Can’t Be Stopped.
Book 11 in New York Times Bestselling Author, A K Michaels’ new Shifter series is full of passion, intrigue, and paranormal romance. All are standalones with a HEA and no cliffhangers. Jam-packed full of suspense, romance, thrills, and hot Shifters.
Chapter 1
Holt
My father had begun preparing me to take over the Pack when I was too young to think or care about that type of responsibility. I was his only child, and I knew I would be named Alpha if anything happened to him, but I didn’t understand what his sense of urgency was about. I was still in high school, and my father was young, strong, and full of life. The way I saw it, I wouldn’t be taking over anything for at least another forty years, and even that seemed like a stretch. Why was he forcing me to grow up so fast, I wondered.
My father’s Beta, Trey, or King as he preferred to be called, had no faith in me as a youngster. He told my father he thought I was too weak to lead a group of kids to pick up sticks. He said he doubted I’d ever be able to lead a Pack. I’d also been told he was talking to some of the others in the Pack one night where he said if he were alive when the day came he would challenge my position as Alpha. He said even my name was weak. Bar-ry, he’d mocked, and he placed a lot of emphasis on the last syllable. He’d told some others my father was delusional to think I’d be able to fill his shoes. He even said he thought a She-wolf would make a better Alpha than me. He used to make me so angry with his comments.
Why my father kept him around I’ll never know. In my opinion, Trey should have had his teeth knocked down his throat for talking about my father and me like that. My father laughed and told me to ignore him, but he really irked me and I knew there wasn’t anything I could do about it. Trey was my father’s Beta.
It was shortly after hearing all of the shitty comments that I decided a change had to be made. That’s when I asked everyone, including my parents, to refer to me from that day forward by my new name. It was then that I became Holt. No more ‘hairy Barry’ or ‘scaredy-cat Barry.’ I was taking a stand. A strong Alpha needed a strong name. One day I was going to prove to everyone that I was able to be a leader, and as Omega waiting to become Alpha, my name change was a start.
Between my father constantly badgering me to live up to my new image and become a man, and Trey continuing to question my manhood and strength, there were times that I felt like I was losing my mind. I understood my father’s motives even if I didn’t like them all the time. And as much as I despised Trey, I wanted to believe his challenges were an attempt at reverse psychology to help make me a strong Alpha one day.
On top of those two hounding me, my mother kept telling me about some crazy thing called a Hunger. She’d told me confusing and sometimes gross stories about it, about a soul mate, and kept saying this Hunger thing would make me feel like I was out of control. She said I’d feel anxious, and jittery, and like I needed to eat a lot of food. She said something about the soul mate satisfying me and being the key to stopping the Hunger. I didn’t fully pay attention to everything she would say and sometimes I had no idea what she was talking about. Was I supposed to eat a soul mate? Can a soul mate be bought at the store? But when she started talking about her and my father, and when they met, and about mating, I completely stopped listening. Gross, and way too much information about my parents!
After my mother and I would have these special little chats, I’d tell my best friend and guard, Paul. We’d laugh and then go raid the refrigerator in hopes of keeping the great Hunger at bay. We thought if we stayed full we’d never have to eat a soul mate, whatever that was.
It hadn’t taken long after I’d changed my name to Holt that Paul decided he wanted to change his name, too. His new name became Dolph, after
one of his favorite wrestlers.
Everyone quickly adapted to calling us as we’d requested except my friend, Daci.
Daci was a really cute girl who loved to hunt and play in the parks with me. She was fun to be around. She also was best friends with the mean girl and bully-leader, Veronica. Their personalities were completely opposite. Veronica loved being mean for the sake of just being a bitch, but Daci was always nice to everyone, never allowing peer pressure to force her to be mean.
Veronica especially loved talking trash about me. I couldn’t quite figure out why. I had never done anything to her. But she was relentless with her teasing and name calling. She infuriated me beyond words, but I knew there was no way I could do anything or retaliate in any way. That’s all Trey, king dick, would need to take off on yet another rant about me.
Daci never talked about me, though. Instead, she always stood up for me. I never understood why she did, but I was grateful to have someone else seemingly on my side besides Dolph.
After we graduated high school we all went to college, and I didn’t see Daci for four long years. I thought about her a lot, and wondered how she was doing, but never could find the courage to call or visit. I felt a peculiar emptiness being away from her.
I saw her a couple of times after college graduation, but after not talking to her for so long, I still couldn’t bring myself to approach to her. Maybe one day, I remembered thinking.
A couple of years later the Pack was hunting in the National Park when we noticed some men creeping around and getting closer to us. Dolph and I, and a couple others, had been asked to serve as guardians to make sure no hunters or any human kids got too close to any of the Pack as they hunted.
The ravens that typically stayed nearby in the trees were cawing louder than usual, signaling something wasn’t right, and the sound of snapping twigs had me on high alert. I had no idea what the men I saw in the distance were up to, until I saw one of them with a stick looking thing behind his back. Because of the angle, I couldn’t get a good look at what he had.
Without realizing it, one of the men got really close to Trey and he immediately got Trey’s attention before I had a chance to howl a warning. Trey bared his teeth and growled; but the man didn’t leave, instead he eased closer until the stick thing was hooked on his neck. It was a restraint. All hell broke loose at that point.
More men stormed into the woods with restraint poles in their hands, and corralled several wolves and coyotes from the Pack, dragging them into huge cages on their trucks. We noticed they were pulling at strings, closing traps on our Pack mates.
“Run!” our Wolves howled to the others. We kept screaming and running so the men couldn’t corner us.
They’d have gotten more of the Pack if Dolph and I, and the rest of the guardians hadn’t howled a warning for everyone to run.
I frantically searched and howled until my throat was raw trying to find my father, but I had no luck. I checked in the brush, behind trees, in the small nooks left by other animals, and nothing. My Wolf ran after the trucks as they began to drive out of the park, and that was when I heard him howl. Those no-good men had captured my father and several of the others from the Pack.
Fuck! I curled in my claws and pounded my paw into a nearby tree, then yowled in pain. The blood gushed from my broken skin where the bark tore through.
“Come on!” I howled at Dolph and my mother. They were the only two I saw. We raced back to the house where we could be safe from any lurking men, and shift without anyone seeing us.
As soon as the front door closed I rushed to the back room and transformed to human, yanked on a pair of jeans that lay crumpled in a heap on the floor, then ran back to the kitchen. My mother and Dolph joined me within minutes.
“I saw the name on the side of the truck,” I said much louder than I’d expected.
“It doesn’t matter,” my mom said.
“It matters. I’m going to get my Dad and the others.” I huffed.
“Those men are too dangerous.”
“I don’t care. I’m going to get my Dad.” My voice cracked. “I’m going to free him and the others, period.”
“Son, you can’t go charging in there and wreak havoc,” Mother replied. “You won’t get anything solved with a hot head.”
“I know where they’re taking them. I know it won’t be as easy as just walking in, unlocking a gate, and freeing them all, but I have to do something.” I pounded my fist like a hammer on the countertop. “They have my Dad.” My tears couldn’t be contained any longer. I picked up the mug I’d drank from every morning and threw it across the room, shattering it into tiny bits when it hit the wall. I watched my mom and Dolph flinch at the sound of the crash.
“Clean that up now,” my mom said in her always calm voice. “And get yourself under control. Haven’t you learned anything from your father? When was the last time you saw him behave like you are right now?”
“I haven’t. But this is different, Mom.” I stood in front of her and held her by her shoulders. “They have my Dad, your mate, our Alpha! I have to save him.” I watched as tears welled in her eyes, then ran down her cheeks in a jagged stream.
Chapter 2
Holt
I needed to find a way to get everyone back where we all belonged. Those captured needed to be freed. Those who ran and got away needed to be found. Our strength was in our numbers, and having only three of us meant our Pack was weak. My Wolf paced non-stop. It was time for me to step up. Now was the time I needed to prove to my father, everyone else, and myself that I was capable of being the man my father always hoped I’d become.
To this day, I only knew of three from our Pack who escaped and were safe: Dolph, my guard and best friend, my mother, and me. We made sure we stayed together.
I remembered my father telling me he was able to hear his Pack’s voices in his head. I kept sending him messages that I needed to know how many had been locked away with him. I told him several times I was coming to save him. I had no idea if my messages went through because I never heard anything from him right away.
Later that evening he warned me in my dreams not to come. He said it was too dangerous for me to get that close to these men, because I’d risk being locked away with the rest of the Pack members.
I didn’t care about it being risky. All I needed was a plan. I wish I had paid more attention to my father’s teachings. I needed my father to be set free so he could help get everyone back home. And I needed him home because at that time, I felt like everything Trey said about me was true. I felt useless and weak. I was so lost without my father.
My Wolf howled in agony and woke me from a nightmare. I was panting like I’d run a marathon and was covered in sweat. My heart was thundering in my chest and the blood rushing in my veins nearly rendered me deaf. My head hurt like I’d been pummeled with a sledge hammer. I sat up in my bed and began crying like a baby. As much as I wanted to believe the nightmare wasn’t real, I could feel it deep down in my gut that it was. I felt sick.
It took me nearly an hour to regain my composure. I tiptoed down the hall to just outside of my parents’ room and could hear my mother sniffling and sobbing. She knew. Of course she knew; he was her soul mate. And that meant my nightmare was real.
“No! Oh, my Goddess, why?” she screamed out.
My head dropped and my shoulders rolled forward. I felt gutted. I rubbed my arms and gritted my teeth, but knew I had to go to her. I knocked on her door, then turned the handle and stood in the doorway. I couldn’t swallow.
“You felt it, too?” she choked out through her tears.
“I…I did,” I said. Looking at the distress on my mother’s face was so hard. Our lives would never be the same again.
She patted the bed, signaling for me to sit near her. My feet moved like they had cinder blocks anchored to them. When I sat, we hugged each other tight and wept while our Wolves wailed long, mournful cries. We held each other for what seemed like hours until the sun rose.
<
br /> I heard Dolph moving around outside of mom’s door, and then we heard him talking to someone. I couldn’t make out the muffled voice, and that made the hairs on my arms prickle with the need to make sure my mom was protected.
“I have to go see what’s going on. Can I get you anything?” I asked my mom.
“No, dear,” she whispered. “I’m going to lie back down.” She sighed deeply. “I just want to die.”
My chest tightened and my heartbeat sped back up. My breaths became fierce and ragged to the point of nearly hyperventilating. I placed both hands on her face and stared into her wet eyes. “No, please, Mom. Don’t say that. You can’t mean that!” I thought I was going to throw up. I couldn’t lose her, too.
She didn’t respond. She reached up and placed her hands over mine, and her lips trembled and pulled down at the corners. She looked sadder than I’d ever seen anyone look before. I leaned in and kissed her forehead.
“Get some rest, Mom; I’ll be back soon,” my voice cracked and I forced a slight smile. She didn’t smile back.
I stood and made my way to the door, turning back to look at my mother. I could hear her weeping and saw her clutching the blanket. She was inconsolable, and I felt completely helpless to comfort her. Maybe Trey was right, I thought. Maybe I’d suck as an Alpha.
I wiped my tears away as I walked into the kitchen. The talking had ceased, but I was shocked when I walked in and saw Dolph and Trey sitting at the table. Both had their heads in their hands. I was stunned, and relieved, to see my father’s Beta sitting in our house.
“Trey?” I said. My voice was shaky. “How did you get away?”
“There was a lot of commotion earlier and my cage door was left unlocked. I tried to open the door for your father, but he told me to run. As I tried to see if any other doors were unlocked, he gave me orders to save myself, then come back to help free the others.”
Holt: A Wolf's Hunger Alpha Shifter Romance Page 1