by C. D. Gorri
Table of Contents
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
EPILOGUE
Snow Angel
A Macconwood Pack Novella
From The Grazi Kelly Universe
by C.D. Gorri
Copyright 2018 C.D. Gorri
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, places, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either part of the author’s imagination and/or used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to any person, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental. This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. All rights are reserved. No part of this book is to be reproduced, scanned, downloaded, printed, or distributed in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of any materials in violation of the author’s rights. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
To EA, thanks for waiting!
Title Page
Synopsis
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Epilogue
About the Author
Connect
Other Works
Tagline:
Werewolves mate for life.
Synopsis:
Dr. Rayne Davis is dedicated to her patients and Packmates, the only thing missing from this Wolf's life is someone to share it with. That’s all about to change when she takes off for a weekend getaway and finds herself at the door of the one man who'd caught her attention, but managed to get away, Cael Evangelos.
Rayne thought she had found the love of her life when she first met and dated the financial wiz who also worked for Macconwood Memorial Hospital, but their relationship was cut short when he was forced to leave his job under a cloud of accusations regarding mishandled funds.
Chance puts him back in her life, and Rayne knows she can't let him get away again, but this big Werewolf has some healing to do before they can be together. Rayne might just be the medicine Cael needs to get his life back.
PROLOGUE
Cael jumped over the frost-bitten wilderness on four enormous paws. His winter coat was a thick and lustrous black. It shielded him from the bitter February wind.
Fuck, he should have never gone into town. Too many people. Too many eyes staring at him. Wondering if he did it. Was he really guilty of stealing the desperately needed money that was supposed to fund the pediatric oncology wing at Macconwood Memorial?
Fucking sheep. They believed everything they’d read about him. And why shouldn’t they? He’d walked away without a fight. He’d lost everything. His whole life.
He wanted to flee to run even further, but he had to stay behind to make sure his brother was not blamed for any of this mess. Cael did his best to go unnoticed. He stayed in their small hunting cabin year-round.
He avoided town like the plague, but this trip couldn’t be put off. His supplies had gotten dangerously low. He’d run out of damn near everything, and the rabbits and squirrels he’d been trapping had grown dangerously thin on the ground. It was no good to let his beast go hungry for too long. He’d lost weight and muscle mass the past few months. He looked like shit. Nope, Cael had had no choice but to go into Maccon City.
The last thing he wanted; however, was to run into her. Dr. Rayne Davis was small of stature, she had wavy, brown hair that she wore in a bun at the nape of her neck. Her clothes were always irritatingly disheveled at the hospital as if she couldn’t care less what she looked like when she was working.
It made him grin in the beginning, to see this accomplished doctor with her sweater misbuttoned. She’d been shy with him and uncertain at first. He could tell she was attracted to him. Hell, most women were. That wasn’t conceit, it was fact.
Cael was a Werewolf. His physical attributes were heightened as a result of his supernatural side. But even without that added bonus, he came from good-looking stock. He’d been told on occasion that he had the face of a dark angel.
His skin was clear and unblemished, it had a nice, deep, olive tone to it. His dark hair was thick and curly when it got too long, as it was now. Part of his Greek ancestry. His most notable feature was a pair of eyes as green as emeralds. Rayne had once told him that she could fall in love staring into his eyes…
He growled now at the thought of her. Love had never been in the cards for Cael. Besides, that woman was more mouse than Wolf! Their relationship had ended as abruptly as it began. If only he could’ve avoided going into town!
He’d been entering a small grocery store on the end of Main Street. He’d carefully chosen the tiny establishment instead of the larger chain stores where he’d run into more people. And he wound up running straight into her.
She was just leaving with a small grocery bag in one hand, while the other searched for her car keys. He hadn’t meant to knock into her, but he was a big man, and once he got going, it was difficult to slow down or stop. The collision was unavoidable.
The second he scented her his heart had thudded in his chest. She made him remember things he only wanted to forget. He recalled the shock on her face and the way she quickly dropped her eyes. His Wolf had been showing. His eyes went pale whenever his beast was near, and his Wolf leapt forward as soon as he scented her.
Cael had quickly and quietly picked up her damn groceries. A million emotions ran through him at the meeting, but he held them all inside. The touch of her soft body against his for that one instant before they’d both tumbled to the ground was engraved in his mind. It would certainly teach him not to look where he was going.
Her big brown-eyes seemed shocked when he’d mumbled his apology. She’d nodded absently. Her expression was curiously wounded. He couldn’t believe it when she asked him a few questions. How are you, and that kind of small talk that he hadn’t had in a long while. Cael didn’t answer her.
It was all he could do not to stand up and leave the city limits right then and there, but he really needed to shop. He’d run out of the necessities, and the idea of wiping his ass with some dried leaves was not tempting in the least.
He stood up and walked away. Cael forced himself to leave her there in front of the store with her purchases safely stuffed back inside the brown paper bag she’d been carrying. He couldn’t help the sorrow and regret that welled up inside of him. Her purchases had been pitiful, to say the least. Surely, she’d moved on by now?
It was in his nature to be attentive to detail, and he took note of her groceries. She might as well wear a sign that said she was sleeping alone these days. One ribeye steak, one potato, a small head of broccoli, a quart of orange juice and a small, red tomato. Yes, the doctor was very clearly single. Just like him.
He closed his eyes and pushed his Wolf body forward through the snow trodden earth. He thought of the past when he’d been whole. She’d come to work for Macconwood Memorial almost two years ago now, fresh from her residency from some big city hospital. She was petite and shy, despite being a Werewolf like him.
He’d been instantly attracted to her, though he fought it tooth and nail. He was a Junior Financial Analyst for the hospital. He worked ninety-hour weeks and had had no time for commitment.
Still, she’d gotten unde
r his skin. He’d run into her in the cafeteria, getting coffee in the lobby, and at the odd staff meeting. His Wolf had taken to her immediately.
Cael was smitten for the first time in his life. That this small, quiet woman should affect him so was a novelty. He inevitably asked her out, drawn to her as he was. They’d gone on no more than a dozen dates before it happened.
It was the day after they’d almost made love for the first time. Cael had been patient and kind, tender in ways he’d never been before. He hadn’t wanted to rush her. She’d gone in headfirst, just like him, but he’d managed to stop before they lost control.
Rayne was innocent. Untouched and precious. He wanted to wait, though he couldn’t explain why. For the first time in his life, he was thinking about commitment and the long-term. Then his whole world went upside down.
The hospital had been raising funds for a cancer ward for children. When the funds showed up missing, Cael had been fingered as the obvious culprit. The money was gone.
His boss, Fred MacAvoy, a normal and decent kind of guy, explained to him that forensic accountants had found evidence that Cael had been the last to touch the funds. It was obvious he was guilty. Just pay it back, Fred had told him urgently. His brown eyes had misted with the pain of being betrayed by his protege.
Cael didn’t know what to do. Fred had taught him everything he knew, but he was hurt that the older man thought him capable of such a thing. He never stole anything in his life, but he had no opportunity to defend himself. He was offered the chance to simply repay the money and walk away, or federal charges would be filed. Worse, his brother, a doctor at the hospital, would be investigated as well.
Cael would never hurt his brother. That cinched it for him. Under the advice of his attorney, Cael paid everything he had to Macconwood Memorial. Almost three quarters of a million dollars in cash. He’d sold his car, his home, all his stocks, and bonds. Everything. Naturally, he’d walked away from the hospital, the town, his family, and her. He lost his entire life in one afternoon.
So, yeah, he ignored her soft voice and warm chocolate eyes and went inside the store. Better to get it over with quickly. Especially, since his brother had stopped bringing him supplies. David recently told him that he refused to be a part of Cael’s withdrawal from society. He was not going to enable him any longer. That was what he’d said at any rate.
Cael had little choice but to return to the small grocery store every few months or so to replenish his pantry. The cabin where he now lived was secluded and remote. He went weeks sometimes months without having to see a single soul.
He’d been horribly embarrassed and hurt by the accusation and the assumption that he was guilty. His pride was thoroughly savaged. He simply couldn’t live in town when people thought him a thief. He was only glad his brother hadn’t been hurt by the accusations.
David was actually doing very well. He was the one bright spot in Cael’s life. He’d recently been promoted to ER Chief at Macconwood Memorial. He was a damn good doctor.
He should have been the one to date Rayne. When all this happened, he couldn’t face her. He’d told David to break things off with her and explain that he simply couldn’t see her anymore. He was so ashamed. He knew he couldn’t bear it if she thought he was guilty too.
This had been the first time he’d run into her in almost a year. He still couldn’t shake the memory of her luminous eyes as she’d looked up at him. He towered over her by more than a foot. It was one of the things that drew him to her.
She was small and deliciously feminine. Most she-Wolves he knew were as tall and, sometimes, as big as he was, but not her. She looked reserved and elegant, but she had a wicked sense of humor and brains to match anyone he’d ever met. He had resigned himself to bachelorhood early on in life, but he’d changed his mind when he met her. Cael had cared about her.
He still thought about her from time to time. He was certain that she’d have moved on by now, but her groceries said otherwise. His skin still itched from where he accidentally touched the softness of her palm when he’d handed her the single potato.
The wind whipped right through his thick fur, but he pressed on. He had to get her out of his head. She was the reason he was out there running himself to death through the frozen woods behind his cabin. True, he relished the closeness of his Wolf and the newfound gift of being able to call him forth at will, but as the saying went, it was cold as a witch’s tit.
Werewolves across the world were re-learning how to get along with their other halves. His brother, David, had stayed with him a time or two to try and learn to reconnect with his own Wolf. He was still working on it with Cael’s help. Cael had gotten it immediately.
He’d always been a quick study. He pushed himself farther into the dense stand of bare oak trees. His back fur was damp with sweat, and he felt the cold keenly. Damn that doctor with her soulful eyes! He couldn’t shake himself free of the memory of her.
That was how he’d missed the scent of the mother bear and her cubs. One second he was jumping over exposed roots and mounds of snow and frozen earth, the next second, a huge black bear had his hind leg locked in her jaw.
CHAPTER 1
Rayne tuned in to her favorite Sirius XM station and adjusted the heat in her tidy little Jeep Wrangler. The vehicle was bright yellow and only a year old. She kept it as clean as an operating room. It was pretty easy to do since she was the only passenger. Ever.
The Jeep was fun and carefree, an impulse buy. It was the exact opposite of Rayne lately. She’d been buried in work at the hospital. Her boss and Packmate, Dr. David Evangelos, had just about ordered her to take the weekend off.
She bumped into him in the parking lot of the small grocery store that was near her apartment. It was quite the coincidence since she’d just run into his brother. Literally. Cael Evangelos was the Pack recluse now, but he still had a way of getting under her skin.
She’d first met him at the hospital where she worked. They dated a few times, and she had high hopes for the relationship, but it didn’t work out. He used to be a financial analyst for Macconwood Memorial. There was some kind of trouble with the funds for a pediatric oncology unit, and he’d been fired.
She knew instinctively that Cael was not the type of man to do anything underhanded, but there was nothing she could do about it. He was blamed for mishandling funds. They’d fired him, and he walked out of not just her life, but everyone’s. All her dreams for a future relationship with him were crushed.
That was thirteen months ago. She’d only run into him a handful of times since then, most recently at the christening of their Alpha’s triplets. Rayne had delivered the precious babies and was a guest of honor at the reception they’d held at Macconwood Manor.
She was overwhelmed by the sheer size of the house and lands. It had state of the art security, and guards posted. There were a few smaller guest homes that dotted the landscape just surrounding the big house. Tennis and basketball courts, and what she could only imagine was a gorgeous garden in the spring were visible on the drive up to the manor. When she went inside, she was delighted to find the estate was both majestic and homey at the same time.
Rayne was shocked to see Cael there. He looked as gorgeous as ever with a gray suit and his black hair combed back. He had a hint of shadow on his lean cheeks, and his green eyes looked more haunted than she remembered. She couldn’t help staring. He was gorgeous.
She’d looked for him on Pack runs, but he rarely showed up. No wonder either. The way he looked at her at the party, she would swear he hated her. His dark green eyes had glittered with feeling. And not the good kind.
Dr. Evangelos stopped her before she’d climbed into her vehicle. She’d been overwhelmed by her sense of loss when she looked at Cael. Her eyes had been swimming with unshed tears. Ugh, she hated when she got emotional.
So, what if that rude jerk left her talking to herself? She didn’t need him or any man for that matter! The little pep-talk she gave herself didn’t
stop her heart from aching or her tears from falling. As always, Cael left her feeling flustered and restless. Maybe that was just her Wolf. The snow-white beast inside of her was pining away for the big man who’d walked out on the entire world.
She’d known from the first time she laid eyes on him that he was hers. Mine, her Wolf growled in her mind’s eye. Rayne had given her heart to him the first time they’d been introduced. It was beyond rationale and logic, it was all instinct and feeling. But her hopes and dreams for the future were destroyed with one nasty allegation.
Rayne wiped her eyes with the tissue David had offered her. The ER Chief had surprised her further by handing her a set of keys. He was handsome, like his brother when he smiled, though they were opposites in that David had blonde hair and brown eyes. He squeezed her shoulder and explained when she held up the keys dumbly.
“Those are for my hunting cabin. You’ve been working double shifts round the clock for a year now without taking one personal day. No arguments. I want you to go. Take the weekend. You hear me, Davis? Do not come in until Tuesday, and that’s an order.”
At first, she’d been reluctant to go. With his steady persuasion, she relented. Why the heck not? It’d been years since she went on vacation. A quiet weekend in the woods sounded great! Just what the doctor ordered!
She hurried to her small apartment, packed a small bag, and left with her destination already plugged into her GPS. If only it wasn’t so icy out. Like most Wolves, Rayne had excellent reflexes, but February was hell on New Jersey roads. Ice and salt eroded the asphalt and broke chunks out of streets that were fine just days ago. It was one of the reasons why the state had such a bad reputation for always being under construction.
CHAPTER 2
February was the coldest month of the year. Bitter and freezing. Werewolves tended to run a little hotter than normals, but still, Rayne hated the cold weather. But she did like the snow! Wouldn’t it be great if it snowed when she got to the cabin?