Howl of the Forbidden (eBook)

A Dangerous Werewolf Romance Where Love is forbidden but Fate is Unyielding

Michael Clanton (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2025 | 1. Auflage
244 Seiten
Publishdrive (Verlag)
978-0-00-107929-8 (ISBN)

Infos

The hunter became the hunted. Now she must master the monster she's become.

Raina Holt was raised to kill werewolves-trained to track, to strike, to never hesitate. But when a single bite shatters her oath and twists her into the very creature she swore to destroy, everything she believes burns to ash. The clock is ticking: if she can't find a cure before the next blood moon, the change will consume her forever.

Her only hope lies with Lucien Vale, the enigmatic Alpha of the Blackthorn Pack-the same wolf she once tried to kill. His world is savage, secretive, and bound by laws older than sin. To survive, Raina must navigate the pack's dangerous politics and the pull of the beast within... even as Kael Draven, a rogue Alpha with a god complex, rises to awaken a power that could end humanity itself.

Torn between the man she should hate and the monster she fears becoming, Raina faces an impossible choice: cling to her fading humanity-or embrace the darkness that might be her salvation.

The moon is rising. The hunt has begun.
And in Haven's Hollow, no one escapes the call of the wild.

For fans of Patricia Briggs and Anne Bishop, Howl of the Forbidden is a dark, seductive tale of love, vengeance, and the savage beauty of the beast within.

Michael Clanton writes dark fantasy and paranormal romance filled with danger, desire, and the monsters that make us human.

Textauszug

Chapter 1 — The Hunter’s Moon

The forest breathed around them — slow, deliberate, like a beast waiting for its moment.

Raina Holt crouched low, her rifle steady against her shoulder, the scope slicing through the mist. A sliver of moonlight glinted off the barrel. “Movement?” she whispered.

“Nothing but fog,” came Harker’s reply over the radio, his voice a low rasp. Static swallowed the rest.

They were five miles north of Haven’s Hollow, deep in the pines where the air smelled of iron and rot. The hunt had stretched past midnight, and even the forest seemed to hold its breath. Their quarry — Kael Draven, the rogue Alpha — was close. Too close.

Raina’s finger brushed the trigger guard, light as breath. Patience was survival. Precision was faith. That’s what the Order had taught her — control the hunt, and you control the fear. But tonight, something was off. The tracks they’d followed for hours — deep, wolfish impressions in the soil — had shifted halfway through the valley. Human footprints now, bare, impossibly long strides. And then nothing. The forest had swallowed the trail whole.

She motioned for the squad to halt. The others obeyed without question. They trusted her instincts, even when she didn’t.

“Check perimeter,” she murmured.

Miles, the youngest, adjusted his crossbow. “Perimeter’s useless out here. Everything echoes.”

“Do it anyway.”

His smirk was meant to hide nerves, but she caught the tremor in his hands. He was new, too eager. Raina remembered being that way once — before the blood, before the howls in her dreams.

A cold wind whispered through the pines, and the mist shifted. The smell of wet sap mixed with something else — faint but unmistakable. Fur. Old blood. Her heartbeat picked up.

“Stay sharp,” she said, softer now, not for the team but for herself.

They moved in a slow, silent formation — four shadows slipping between trees. Every step was a negotiation with the dark. The moon hung heavy above them, its light fractured by branches like claws.

Then the radio crackled. A burst of static, then Harker’s voice — jagged, urgent. “Captain, I’ve got—”

The sound cut off.

Raina froze. “Harker? Respond.”

Nothing.

She signaled to Miles and Vera to flank left, while she and Jansen advanced. The fog thickened until the world became a smear of gray and shadow.

“Something’s wrong,” Jansen muttered, close behind her. His breath came fast, visible in short bursts.

Raina ignored him. Fear was noise. Noise got you killed.

A shape loomed ahead — the trap they’d set near the clearing. A steel snare reinforced with silver. It was supposed to hold against anything. Now it hung in ribbons from a splintered tree, metal twisted like tinfoil.

Raina’s stomach dropped. “That’s not possible,” she whispered.

Jansen stepped closer. “What could—”

A sound split the air. Not quite a roar. Not human. It came from everywhere and nowhere at once, vibrating through her bones. Miles’s scream followed an instant later — sharp, short, and final.

Raina swung her rifle toward the sound, but there was only fog. The forest was alive with movement now — branches shifting, shadows darting just out of sight. The smell of blood hit her like a wave.

“Fall back!” she barked into the radio. “Now!”

No response.

Jansen turned, ready to run, but a blur cut through the mist — fast, low, massive. He didn’t even have time to scream. The impact sent him flying against a tree with a sickening crack. Raina saw only the aftermath — his body crumpled, the bark slick with blood.

Her chest tightened. For a heartbeat, she was a child again, standing in her mother’s yard, hearing the first howl tear through the night. The memory vanished as quickly as it came.

She pivoted, eyes scanning the fog. The mist shimmered in places, shifting as if something enormous moved inside it. Not random. Hunting.

Her voice trembled just once. “Show yourself.”

The silence that followed was worse than any growl.

A whisper of motion to her right — too quick to track. Then to her left. Her instincts screamed behind you, and she spun just in time to catch a flash of amber eyes, bright as molten metal, before the fog swallowed them.

She fired. The recoil slammed into her shoulder. The bullet hit nothing.

The mist answered with a low chuckle — deep, human, and wrong.

Panic clawed at her throat. Think, Raina. Think. She pulled a silver flare from her belt, struck it against the bark. Light exploded through the clearing, bathing everything in harsh white.

The forest was empty.

No movement. No sound. Just the flare hissing in her hand and the smoke curling upward like prayer.

Then she saw it — claw marks gouged into the trunk nearest her, six deep slashes, parallel, deliberate. A message. She didn’t need to read it to understand: You’re not the hunter anymore.

The flare sputtered and died.

Darkness rushed back in.

Raina’s voice was a whisper lost to the trees. “Retreat. Everyone—”

A single gunshot echoed somewhere distant, then silence.

Her heartbeat filled her ears. She turned, slowly, every sense straining. The forest felt closer now, as if leaning in to listen. She could almost feel its breath against her neck.

A final radio hissed weakly on her belt. Static. Then, faintly — Harker’s voice, broken and terrified: “He’s behind you.”

Raina whipped around — and saw nothing but fog.

The sound that followed wasn’t human. A growl so deep it rattled her bones.

The forest moved.

And before she could even raise her weapon, the night swallowed her whole.

The flare hissed and spat light into the fog, its glow slicing through the murk like a blood-orange wound. Raina Holt’s breathing came fast, sharp, each inhale dragging smoke and copper into her lungs. Around her, the forest was alive with sound—radio static, snapping twigs, and the dying cries of her squad echoing through the trees.

“Eyes up,” she barked, sweeping her rifle toward the sound of movement. Her voice was low, steady, even as her pulse roared in her ears. “Stay tight. He’s here.”

The clearing stank of gunpowder and churned earth. Flares burned in the mist like watchful eyes. Somewhere beyond them, something huge moved—silent but for the occasional whisper of grass bending under weight too heavy to be human. Raina tracked the movement, adjusting her aim. The silver bullets chambered in her rifle gleamed faintly, cold and perfect.

She’d spent her whole life hunting monsters. Tonight was supposed to be the end of that life—a clean kill, a proof of mastery. One shot. One Alpha. Kael Draven.

But the silence between heartbeats stretched too long. Too empty. Too deliberate.

“Vance?” she murmured into her comm. “Status?”

Only static. Then a sound—wet and abrupt, like meat dropped onto stone. A scream cut through the fog and died halfway. Her stomach dropped.

“Fall back,” she ordered. “We regroup—”

A shadow lunged out of the mist.

Raina fired. The muzzle flash lit the fog like lightning, but the shape was gone before the bullet found it. She pivoted, boots sinking into the soft loam. The forest had become a maze of phantom movement and sound. A growl rippled from behind her—too close, too deep. She spun, rifle raised.

A body hit the ground at her feet. Dalton. His throat was a ruin of red and black, eyes glassed over, still wide with surprise.

“God—” The curse died in her throat. The air stank of blood and fur.

Something exhaled behind her.

She dropped, rolled, fired again. A blur of silver fur and motion crossed her sightline—then claws caught her rifle, ripping it from her hands as if it weighed nothing. The weapon vanished into the fog, clattering against stone.

Raina scrambled back, drawing the knife at her thigh. “Show yourself!” she hissed. “Come on, coward!”

The fog stirred, thickened. And then he was there.

Kael Draven stepped from the smoke like a nightmare given form—taller than she remembered, his skin glinting like steel under the moonlight. His eyes burned molten gold, catching the light of her flare. Blood streaked his jaw. When he smiled, his teeth looked too sharp.

“You shouldn’t have come here,” he said. His voice was low, almost human. Almost.

“I came to finish this.” Raina tightened her grip on the blade. “You’ve run long enough.”

Kael tilted his head, considering her as if she were something fragile and mildly interesting. “Finish it?” He moved closer, slow, deliberate. “You think silver and faith make you gods. But you’re still soft inside, aren’t you?”

She lunged, slashing for his throat. He caught her wrist mid-swing. The knife fell from her fingers. Pain shot up her arm as his claws dug into her glove, through her skin.

Raina kicked hard, connecting with his knee. He released her, and she staggered back, snatched her pistol from her holster, fired twice. One shot missed. The second tore across his shoulder, leaving a streak of black blood smoking in the air.

Kael snarled. The sound hit her like a physical force. The air shuddered around it, vibrating in her bones.

For the first time, Raina felt it—not victory, not vengeance. Fear. The kind that claws at the inside of your ribs and whispers that you’ve made a terrible mistake.

He was on her before she...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 9.10.2025
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur ► Fantasy / Science Fiction ► Science Fiction
• ISBN-10: 0-00-107929-8 / 0001079298
• ISBN-13: 978-0-00-107929-8 / 9780001079298