Dark Moon Falls: Volume 2 Read online

  Dark Moon Falls

  Volume Two

  Hot Box Publishing

  Dark Moon Falls

  Copyright © 2020 Bella Roccaforte • Ava K. Michaels • S.J. Pierce • Pia Milan • Tami Lund • Susan Griscom • Elaine Barris • Lia Davis • Cora A. Murray • Robbie Cox • C.D. Gorri • Skye Jones • Rosalie Redd

  All rights reserved

  Published by Hot Box Publishing

  in the United States of America

  http://hotboxpublishing.com/

  This e-book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This e-book may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you wish to share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should delete it from your device and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author’s work.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the authors’ imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is coincidental.

  Contents

  Introduction

  Bella Roccaforte

  Silas

  A K Michaels

  Asher

  S.J. Pierce

  Blaze

  Pia Milan

  Ciaran

  Tami Lund

  BENJAMIN

  SUSAN GRISCOM

  Milo

  Elaine Barris

  Grimm

  Lia Davis

  Terrance

  Cora A. Murray

  Kaden

  Robbie Cox

  Deacon

  C.D. Gorri

  Foster

  Skye Jones

  Josh

  Rosalie Redd

  Issac

  Hot Box Publishing

  Dark Moon Falls Volume Two

  Featuring stories from bestselling authors

  Bella Roccaforte • Ava K. Michaels • S.J. Pierce • Pia Milan • Tami Lund • Susan Griscom • Elaine Barris • Lia Davis • Cora A. Murray • Robbie Cox • C.D. Gorri • Skye Jones • Rosalie Redd

  High in the mountains of the Pacific Northwest, the sleepy town of Dark Moon Falls has secrets…

  Hot wolf shifters pursue their one true mate, witches pursue their own agenda, and humans are caught in the middle. In Dark Moon Falls, danger, intrigue, and romance lurk around every corner.

  Silas

  Bella Roccaforte

  Silas

  An unknown darkness is ravaging the forest of Dark Moon Falls … and everyone is in grave danger.

  Park ranger, Silas, is determined to hunt down the creature and stop it in its tracks to avert a disaster of epic proportions. In his quest to stop the killing he finds a woman with such beauty it takes his breath away … and his heart. But is she who she appears to be? Or does she bring an even bigger threat on her heels?

  Cierce is a fairy changling from another dimension … arriving in the forest on a quest to save her world and her family. She’s up against a power she’s not sure she can face alone, but she has no choice … until sexy shifter Silas finds her.

  Could he become her ally in a world she doesn’t understand? Or perhaps more. His glance, his touch sets her on fire in a way she’s never known before. But she’s lying to him and she knows when he finds out the truth … she could lose everything.

  Prologue

  The forest was in its last moments of peace. The rich green pines filtered the rays of the morning sun casting yellow-green hues. Birds sang their morning song and small animals scurried about their business, all unaware of the danger that was about to arrive.

  The earth rumbled and an unsettling groan shattered the peace in the forest. Wind blew and in an instant the sound stopped with a thud.

  Something stalked through the trees, vicious, hungry, deadly. The beast zeroed in on unknowing prey and pounced with precision. It sliced open the doe’s neck with one swift movement then devoured the deer while thinking of nothing but its next kill. Its strength grew and the beast would target something bigger to satiate its ravenous hunger.

  A path of death lay in its wake, leaving only small remnants of bone and blood-stained earth.

  The forest of Dark Moon Falls would never be the same from this day forward.

  Chapter One

  Silas stirred in his bed, twisted in the white linen sheets from a restless night’s sleep. His eyes were heavy with a lingering haze from his strange dreams that disrupted his slumber throughout the night. He was typically an early riser. The sun had just crested the horizon and he wanted nothing more than to sleep after a late night at The Wolf Inn.

  Silas fortified himself with a steely breath inward, then released it. He unfurled from the sheets and ran his hand across his solid chest grasping at the unattainable memory of his dreams.

  He sat up in the bed, checked the time on his phone and flopped back onto the soft pillows. After a futile thirty minutes of trying to go back to sleep he gave up and planted his feet on the floor.

  He met his father in the kitchen and only communicated in a series of grunts and pointing until they had both consumed their first cup of coffee. This was the morning ritual.

  “See you at work.” Jeramiah got up from the table, took his keys off the key ring and left.

  Silas swallowed the last sip of his coffee still haunted by the dreams he couldn’t remember. His hand gripped the coffee cup while he stared off into the distance hoping to catch a tiny glimpse of what had unsettled him. Was it a warning? Was it a premonition? Or was it just a dream?

  Silas shrugged and rinsed his coffee cup before sliding the handle through the wooden peg on the mug holder.

  He left his jacket on the peg in the mud room, not expecting to need it in early spring. The forest called to him and he wanted to patrol in wolf-form even though Jeramiah frowned upon it while on duty.

  He started for his truck but decided instead to go on foot. He always got a kick out of how his dad would say, “See you at work.” They lived at work in the middle of the national forest that they were the caretakers of.

  He stood in reverence of the land he loved with every bit of his soul. He listened to the vibrations of the forest. His forehead wrinkled with concern.

  Something was wrong, out of balance and not quite right. He started down the path still listening and feeling the land to discern the trouble.

  Fear hung heavy in the air mingled with an eerie silence.

  Silas’ phone buzzed in his pocket with an urgent message from one of the Pack Hunters.

  We’ve got a problem. Meet me at the lower Dark Moon Trail. ~ Samira

  What’s up? ~ Silas

  Just come. ~ Samira

  Silas went back down the trail to get his truck. He already could feel the foreboding in the forest and now he was going to find out why.

  A million thoughts raced through his mind as to what could possibly be awaiting him at the Lower trail.

  He got out of his truck and took a swift pace down the trail. The Pack Hunter’s scent filled the air along with something else.

  Silas went to where Samira was standing in wolf form off the trail.

  She didn’t have to say a word. The smell of death revealed itself as he drew closer. O
n the ground were the remains of what looked like it could’ve been a grizzly bear.

  Tufts of fur stripped from the skin lay across the forest floor like puffs of brown cotton shifting with the slightest movement of air.

  Silas knelt down and picked up a piece of bone riddled with tooth marks and noted the small amount of blood on the ground. There was nearly nothing left of the beast.

  Grizzlies were a tough takedown even for a werewolf. They were big, fierce and aggressive. He scanned the area to see if there were any indications of what or who could’ve possibly done this.

  Wolves never interfered with grizzlies. There was no reason to and it was against pack law to hunt them.

  Whatever it was, it was hungry having left only some fur, bone fragments and sinew.

  Silas used the pack link to talk to Samira, “Rogues?”

  “Don’t know, but this isn’t the only one. There are several other scenes similar to this. Best we can tell, deer, black bear and at least two grizzlies.” She started up the hill away from Silas and he knew to follow.

  At the top of the ridge there was another scene, this looked like it had been a deer. Nothing but some bone and a little bit of blood.

  “Silas!” Jeramiah called out.

  “Hey Dad.” he said with his head lowered.

  “What the hell is all of this?” Jeramiah motioned around at the signs of struggle near the trees.

  “I don’t know, but we need to figure it out and shut it down.”

  “Agreed.”

  They both looked around and tried to catch the scent of whatever animal was responsible for the killing.

  “Have you been able to find anything?” Silas asked Samira.

  “Not a thing.” Samira answered.

  Jeramiah picked up a bone fragment, “Scavengers eat bones, but don’t leave splinters like this.”

  Silas smelled that this is a fresh kill, not more than a few hours old. He searched the dirt for tracks.

  “Come here,” he called out. “Look at this?” He pressed his finger to the light brown dirt above a track he’d never seen before.

  There was a clear outline of five toes, like a human foot but much larger. There were punctures in the dirt where pointed claws sunk in while the beast was walking. The ball of the foot consisted of three clear sections. The middle section being the largest. No indication of a heel or it didn’t use it while walking. It was big and heavy judging from how deep the print was.

  “What in the hell?” Jeramiah bent down next to Silas studying the print.

  “No idea.” Silas answered.

  “Whatever it is, we need to find it. In a matter of weeks this forest is going to be crawling with tourists.” Jeramiah stood up. “Samira, any ideas?”

  She shook her head back and forth. “I’m going to let Levi know we need to up patrols.”

  “Thank you. Let us know if you find anything.” Jeramiah dismissed her.

  Silas and Jeramiah exchanged a concerned look, “Where do we start?”

  Jeramiah scanned the mountains. “I’m going to have Levi send me the locations of each kill. We can see if there’s a center point and start there.”

  “Do we need to put out an alert to the town?”

  “No,” Jeramiah said without turning around, “Elias needs to be aware of this, but we don’t need to start a panic.”

  Silas shifted into wolf form. He was hoping running to Elias’ would help with his restlessness and he could investigate along the way.

  He ran through the woods scenting something foul, yet sweet on the wind. He couldn’t place it, something he’d never smelled before. He veered to the north toward the scent until he reached the mouth of a cave. The foul odor was strong, and he was certain it was coming from inside the cave.

  He reached out using the pack link, “Samira, I think I’ve found something.”

  Silas waited a few moments for her to respond, but it never came. He grew impatient and cautiously headed inside the cave. His eyes squinted adjusting to the dark and he wished he had a source of light. He listened and picked up the sound of a soft snore.

  He cautiously continued toward the sound until it halted. He stopped with one paw in midair not wanting to make a sound by resting it on the cave floor.

  From the darkness a low growl crescendoed into a terrifying roar. Bright red eyes glowed in the darkness before barreling toward Silas with purpose.

  Silas steeled himself ready to attack but the huge beast rushed toward him crashing into him. Silas let out a yelp as the beast pressed him into the hard rock of the cave floor.

  Silas scrambled to his feet trying to recover as quickly as possible. He turned toward the cave entrance in time to see a huge monster with mottled black fur running on its hind legs. It easily stood at nine feet tall with wide shoulders.

  Silas started toward the beast. It turned around and held one hand up. Silas was frozen in place unable to move.

  His eyes met with the monster’s and was flooded with a sense of remembrance and familiarity, but he couldn’t place it. Like a fleeting melody traveling on a fickle memory. Frustration ran through him at not being able to stop the beast.

  He cocked his head, curious as to why it was running away from him and not trying to attack.

  The monster let out a glib growl before jumping straight up and disappearing.

  As soon as eye contact was broken, Silas was able to move again. He ran toward the cave opening and looked up to see the monster scaling the mountain at an unbelievable speed.

  “What are you?” he thought to himself. When the monster was out of sight he ran with purpose to Elias’ house.

  When he was close enough, he reached out with the pack link. “Elias, I have business.”

  Elias answered, “Come in.”

  Silas run up to the porch and shifted into human form. Elias greeted him at the door, “What’s going on?”

  “Have you talked to Levi?” Silas asked.

  “Yes, he’s on the way here. Did you find something?”

  “You’re not going to believe this.” He said trying to find the words to form his description.

  “Try me.” Elias widened his eyes heading for the kitchen to get a drink.

  Silas followed. “It was huge. I mean huge.” He blew out an excited breath, “It had to be at least nine feet tall, black fur and it was walking on two legs, but was definitely some kind of animal.”

  Elias raised a brow. “Some sort of hybrid of something? Maybe Phaedra and company cooked something up and it backfired?”

  “I don’t know, but it…” Silas hesitated because of how ridiculous it sounded.

  “What?” Elias pressed.

  “I know this is going to sound ridiculous, but it looked like,” he paused and laughed at himself for what he was about to say, “it looked like a fairy tale werewolf.”

  Elias scoffed, “Like American Werewolf in London type of thing?”

  “Yeah.” Silas was almost ashamed to confirm his absurd thought.

  “You have to be mistaken.”

  “I wish I were, but that’s what I saw.”

  Elias’ phone buzzed in his pocket. He took it out and answered the phone. It was Levi, he had all the known locations and was at the meeting hall.

  Elias snatched his keys off the key ring and motioned for Silas to follow. He filled Silas in on the short drive to the meeting hall.

  Silas called Phaedra and asked her to join them. She was reluctant but agreed.

  They arrived at the meeting hall and Levi already had begun marking the map on the wall.

  Each red dot represented a kill site.

  Silas went to the map expecting to see a correlation between the kill sites and the cave. He didn’t find a correlation. There was a clear path that was getting closer to town.

  “You saw it?” Levi asked.

  “Yeah, it was like nothing I’ve ever seen, more like something out of a horror movie.”

  Elias was always as diplomatic as possible with P
haedra. Keeping the peace between the coven and the pack was important to continued coexistence.

  He described the beast to her and followed up with a question, “Does this sound like anything you’ve heard of?”

  Phaedra was too concerned to feign offense to the question. “No, nothing I’m aware of. Sounds a little preposterous.” She eyed Silas.

  “It looked preposterous. We all know that depiction of werewolf is something cooked up by humans.”

  She tilted her head to the side. “Thing is, all lore has always been based on something. There’s always an ounce of truth in every story.”

  “You’re saying you think those types of werewolves exist?” Levi asked.

  “I’m saying I’ve seen enough in this crazy world to not rule anything out.” She stepped closer to the map and grimaced. “Whatever it is, it’s coming closer to the town.”

  They all stood in silence for a moment.

  Levi folded his arms across his chest. “That’s all we have for now.”

  Silas studied it closer. “So far it’s been killing in the forest.”

  Levi drew a crude line on the map where he expected the next kill to happen. The line went right through the Price’s Ranch.

  “We need to get a patrol over there.” Levi said dragging his phone from his pocket.