by Anna Lowe
Salvation
Blue Moon Saloon
by
Anna Lowe
Book 4
Salvation
Copyright 2016 by Anna Lowe
[email protected]
Editing by Lisa A. Hollett
Cover art by Jacqueline Sweet
This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner without the express written permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations in articles or reviews.
This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons is purely coincidental.
* * *
Thank you!
This book would never have come about without Renee’s amazing idea. Thanks a million, Renee! Thanks also to my amazing Plot Wizards group for helping work out several details (including Linda’s great idea for a doubly happy end). Thanks for your support!
Other books in this series
Blue Moon Saloon
Perfection (a short story prequel to the series)
Damnation (Book 1)
Temptation (Book 2)
Redemption (Book 3)
Salvation (Book 4)
Deception (Book 5)
The Wolves of Twin Moon Ranch
Desert Hunt (the Prequel)
Desert Moon (Book 1)
Desert Wolf: Complete Collection (Four short stories)
Desert Blood (Book 2)
Desert Fate (Book 3)
Desert Heart (Book 4)
Desert Yule (a short story)
Desert Rose (Book 5)
Desert Roots (Book 6)
Charmed in Vegas / Shifters in Vegas
Paranormal romance with a zany twist
Gambling on Her Dragon
Gambling on Her Bear
visit www.annalowebooks.com
Free books
Get your free e-books now!
Sign up for Anna’s newsletter at annalowebooks.com to get three free books!
Desert Wolf: Friend or Foe (Book 1.1 in the Twin Moon Ranch series)
Off the Charts (the prequel to the Serendipity Adventure series)
Perfection (the prequel to the Blue Moon Saloon series)
Contents
Other books in this series
Free books
Contents
Salvation
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Sneak Peek I: Deception
Sneak Peek II
Free books
Other books by Anna Lowe
More from Anna Lowe
AnnaLoweBooks.com
Salvation
One hero, assumed dead. One woman who refuses to give up. One destiny.
Anna Boone won’t give up the search for her cousin, Sarah, who everyone assumes dead. And she refuses to give up on the wounded bear found next to the ashes of her cousin’s house. There’s something deep in his eyes and in his soul she just can’t resist. Something special. Something…human, almost. When her search for the truth leads her to the Blue Moon Saloon, Anna finds more than she ever bargained for — and unwittingly leads a deadly foe to those she loves most.
Prologue
Before we start... Be sure to sign up for my newsletter – you’ll get three free stories right away, and you’ll be the first to hear about new releases, special deals, and exclusive bonus content.
* * *
Clouds drifted silently across the midnight sky, obscuring the full moon. The pines were still as the bear lumbered beneath them, favoring his right leg. He paused to sniff the air. It was dry — painfully dry — and carried a thousand unfamiliar scents. The fragrance of hardy wildflowers danced in the high-altitude desert air. The fresh scent of ponderosa and sycamore lay beneath the rest like a carpet, and behind it all was a whiff of burned-out brush fire that made his hackles rise.
It was a warm night — warm, silent, and somehow foreboding, given the way the shadows mimicked his every move.
Where are you going? they seemed to taunt him. Why?
Damned if he knew. He was many hungry months and hundreds of miles away from the ashes of home. Tired, too. Bone-tired. Yet the stars kept pulling him onward, whispering into his mind.
You’re nearly there. Nearly there.
Nearly where?
Early on in his long march south, he had roared the question into the night. Now, he just chuffed and walked on, wondering how much of his mind he’d lost from remaining in bear form for too long. Of course, staying human was just as dangerous; every shifter needed to satisfy both sides of his soul. But Todd wasn’t sure what was left of his soul. He’d never felt emptier or more alone.
Nearly there, the stars promised.
Were the stars playing games with him or leading him to salvation? The spirits of his ancestors congregated around Ursa Major, the Great Bear, and they twinkled at him from between the interlocking pine boughs. They wouldn’t lie, would they?
He’d been wandering for more nights than he could count, swinging his head left and right to check his surroundings. That was a new habit he’d developed since the hearing had been pounded out of him in an attack that had nearly cost him his life. Sometimes, he’d whip his head around, imagining the snap of a twig or the hoot of an owl, but most of the time, his ears registered nothing but a quiet buzz.
He swiped an angry paw at his left ear. If only he could chase away the sound the way he could shoo away a bee. It was growing worse now — a clanging ring that wouldn’t stop, as if he’d lingered too long and too close to the noontime call of church bells and had gone deaf from that, instead of from the beating of bats and bricks.
He gritted his teeth, fighting the memories away. He would have been better off dying as he’d been destined to. Death would have been fine because he had fought for a worthy cause. For duty, for honor, for love. What more could a bear desire?
But instead of fading away and reaching for the light that had called to him from heaven, he’d been fool enough to listen to a voice that had pulled him back from the edge.
Stay with me. Don’t die. Not now. Not like this.
If it hadn’t been the sweetest, fairest voice he’d ever heard, he might have ignored it and moved on to join his ancestors among the stars.
Think of mountain meadows in spring, the kind, feminine voice had pleaded. Think of a clear, cool summer creek. Think of berries growing thick in the fall.
And damn it, he’d pictured one beautiful season after another and gotten greedy for life all over again.
Just think of all the things you’ll live to enjoy again. Stay with me…
The speaker had tricked him, because she’d left out a few important things. Like the crushing guilt of surviving a night most of his clanmates had fallen victim to. The heavy silence in his ears, the gnawing ache in his leg. The feeling of being alone. Why live life as a wreck of a bear or a wreck of a man?
He stopped and shook his fur so hard his teeth rattled then walked slowly onward. Maybe if he found whatever it was that pulled him like a magnet, he could find peace again.
The buzz in his ears rose and fell. It warbled and varied in pitch like…like a sonorous wolf howl. That m
uch, he could tell — more from tiny movements in the air than actual sound. The fur on the centerline of his back stood up as he halted in his tracks and eyed a ridge to the north. Wolves?
There were good wolves and bad wolves, and not even a big, bad grizzly was safe from a pack of the latter, as he’d learned the hard way one fateful night. A night he’d laid it all on the line to protect his cousin’s mate as he’d promised to. He would do it all over again, too, because bears knew all about duty and honor and respect for the power of love. Even knowing he would come out of it damaged in more ways than one, he’d do it all over again. He had no regrets.
Except one. One terrible regret from the time before the attack. Something that tainted his honor and haunted his soul.
He sniffed until he spotted the wolves howling on the ridge. Two of them, sitting side by side, their noses pointed at the moon.
Why wolves howled, he had no clue, but he’d never been more tempted to try it than in the bleakness of the past few months.
Then they broke off — he could tell when the ringing in his ears went monotone again — and snapped their muzzles in his direction. A moment later, they came stalking down the slope, right at him.
He watched and waited, sniffing the air as they loped up and circled him. They kept their noses high and their shoulders low, ready to flee. The dark-haired she-wolf circled him clockwise while the gold-hued male paced the other way, growling quietly the whole time. He could tell from the angle of the wolves’ jaws, from the tingle in his ears. He let a warning rumble build in his own throat in reply.
Shifters. Werewolves. Every nerve in his body went on high alert.
Each time the wolves’ paths crossed, they brushed along against each other in long, deliberate strokes that showed them to be lovers. Mates.
Todd growled low and long in warning. He had no desire to make trouble for a pair of destined mates. Let them live and love and be happy. Him, he was just passing through.
The she-wolf stopped suddenly and cocked her head, staring deep into his eyes with a startled look. Her jaw fell open, and a whisper tickled the edge of his mind.
Todd?
He backed up a step. How did she know his name? Who was she? How could her thoughts reach into his mind? Only closely related shifters or packmates could do that, and she was a stranger.
Or was she?
The she-wolf’s gaze went from quizzical to joyous to mournful, all in the blink of an eye. As if she knew some terrible secret he was about to find out the hard way.
Todd, is it really you?
How to answer that? He wasn’t the same man — or bear — he used to be.
It’s me, she said. Janna.
Before he could make any attempt at an answer, though, the wolves glanced left, just as a new scent reached his nose. He whipped around.
Bear, the musky scent told him.
Big bear, a heavy step vibrating through the ground said.
Alpha bear, the animal’s tall, confident stance announced the second Todd spotted it stalking toward him. Every step the grizzly took claimed possession of the land, the air, the mountainside.
This is all mine, the alpha’s countenance said. How dare you enter my turf?
The wolves ran over and flanked the grizzly like a couple of sentries at their king’s side. Todd stood still, holding his breath. Why did the bear seem familiar? Why was his heart leaping in relief instead of pounding in preparation for a brawl?
The alpha bear took two steps forward and reared up on his back legs, casting a shadow over Todd. He showed his teeth, tilted his head, and finally chuffed.
Todd’s mind spun. He knew that sandy brown bear. He knew those brilliant blue eyes.
The air around the grizzly blurred as the beast became a man — a man who came out of his shift without so much as a shiver and fixed him straight in the eye. Slowly, the man dropped to a crouch and came eye to eye. His lips moved, and even if Todd could hear, he would have missed the words. His mind was too busy processing a thousand impossible thoughts.
Soren? His cousin, Soren?
Todd? Soren’s voice boomed into his mind.
It was the clearest, loudest sound he’d heard in a long, long time, even if it didn’t pass through his ears first.
Soren?
Soren nodded warily. Jesus, man. Is it really you?
Todd nodded slowly, carefully. Soren was his best friend. His cousin. The heir to the alpha position in their home clan — a clan that had been decimated months ago.
It really was him. Soren, whom Todd had served loyally except for one bitter betrayal he would never forgive himself for. Soren would never forgive him either, once he found out.
What about Sarah? Todd managed. Damn, even though he was shooting thoughts into his cousin’s mind, his voice was still shaky.
Soren nodded slowly. She’s here. She survived, thanks to you. She’s my mate.
A thousand emotions hit Todd like a volley of arrows out of the blue. Relief. Wonder. Happiness for his cousin. But steamrolling all that aside was shame — the deepest, most piercing arrow of them all, striking him in the corner of his heart.
It took everything he had to keep his eyes level with Soren’s instead of dropping to the ground. He had to be honest and admit what had happened between him and Sarah a year ago. A night when he’d been overcome by some crazy impulse and betrayed his cousin by sleeping with his mate.
Soren took a deep breath exactly when Todd did, and they both sent the same thought to each other at exactly the same time.
We have to talk, man. We have to talk.
Todd stared at his cousin. He knew what secret he had to tell Soren. But what on earth did Soren have to tell him?
Chapter One
Sarah wasn’t dead. She couldn’t be.
Anna stood at the edge of her cousin’s property and kicked at the ashes blackening the ground. The house was nothing but a charred frame, partially caved in. Not a breath of life, not a sign of movement but for a strip of faded police tape that fluttered in the breeze.
It had been three weeks since the fire, and everyone had given up on Sarah. But not Anna.
Her cousin wasn’t dead. She knew it. She could feel it in her bones.
She’d given up trying to explain. She just knew, although she couldn’t get anyone else to believe her. A feeling deep inside her soul was not exactly the kind of evidence the local police were looking for — if they were looking for evidence at all. They’d rushed through their investigation of a deadly arson series, more concerned with burying the bizarre events in the past than searching for the truth. Every time Anna suggested they follow up on a clue, they shook their heads.
Listen, honey. Your cousin was a nice girl. It’s a terrible tragedy. But you have to accept the truth. She’s gone. The others, too.
Anna kicked at a lump of ash then paced the edge of the property. Her aunt and uncle were gone. She’d shed plenty of tears over that awful fact. But her cousin wasn’t dead.
Honey, we pulled three bodies from the house. Three.
She’d tried explaining that the third must have been Ginger, a relative from the other side of Sarah’s family who’d been visiting at the time of the fire. But the authorities weren’t interested in anything but a nice, quick wrap-up to the case.
The people of Black River need to heal. We need to move on.
That much, she got. The town was still reeling from the brutal attacks on three remote homesteads in the area. The Boone place had been burned to the ground along with the Voss lumber mill, located way out past the west end of town, as well as another cluster of houses at the edge of the woods to the south where the Macks family had lived for generations. The authorities still weren’t sure how many people had died, and locals were so spooked, they only brought the subject up in whispers.
Anna didn’t want to whisper. She wanted to scream. She’d driven out from Virginia the day she heard the news and had practically shouted at the state trooper who insisted her cous
in was dead.
Sarah wasn’t dead. She couldn’t be.
She and Sarah had been as close as twins when they were kids, although as far as looks went, all they had in common was the green color of their eyes. Her cousin was a redhead, while her own hair was raven-black, but still, they liked to pretend they were twins. Even after Anna moved to the East Coast in third grade, they had remained close. Almost telepathically close, because she would phone Sarah exactly when Sarah was about to call her, already knowing whether her mood was up or down. They finished each other’s sentences and liked the same things — like dogs and horses and autumn leaves. Every summer as a kid, Anna visited Montana and slept in the top bunk in Sarah’s room, and they would stay up half the night chatting away. About everything, like hopes and dreams and somedays that seemed so bright, so full of possibility. They’d vowed to hike the tallest peaks together. To tame wild horses. To open a wildlife rescue center someday.
When Anna’s parents had announced they were leaving Montana for Virginia all those years ago, her world had come to a crashing halt. When her father passed away soon after of cancer, and her mother up and found a new man, it felt the same way. But now, she really knew what a crashing halt felt like.
It was this sick-in-the-stomach feeling that overwhelmed her every time she stopped at the charred hulk that used to be her home away from home. She’d always vowed she’d move back to Montana someday — but Jesus, not like this. Not like this.
Honey, you need to move on, too. Go home to Virginia.
Home wasn’t Virginia. Home was the sleepy town of Black River, Montana. And she sure as hell wasn’t leaving until she uncovered the truth. She’d taken an indefinite leave of absence from her job on the East Coast to find her cousin. Somehow.