Howl About It Read online

  Howl About It

  Book 3 of My Crazy Paranormal Romance

  Donna McDonald

  Visit Donna’s Website

  Copyright © 2018, 2021 by Donna McDonald

  This story was published in 2018 under the title “A Howling Success”. It has been revised and edited in 2021 for its inclusion in the Magic and Mayhem Universe.

  The Author of this Book has been granted permission by Robyn Peterman to use the copyrighted characters and/or worlds created by Robyn Peterman in this book. All copyright protection to the original characters and/or worlds of the Magic and Mayhem series is retained by Robyn Peterman.

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  This book contains content that may not be suitable for young readers 17 and under.

  Cover by MYST Partners

  Edited by MYST Partners

  Contents

  Foreword

  About This Series

  Dedication

  Book Description

  Prologue

  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

  Epilogue

  Note From the Author

  Excerpt: Switching Hour

  Other Books By This Author

  About the Author

  Foreword

  Blast Off with us into the Magic and Mayhem Universe!

  * * *

  I’m Robyn Peterman, the creator of the Magic and Mayhem Series and I’d like to invite you to my Magic and Mayhem Universe.

  * * *

  What is the Magic and Mayhem Universe, you may ask?

  * * *

  Well, let me explain…

  * * *

  It’s basically authorized fan fiction written by some amazing authors that I stalked and blackmailed! KIDDING! I was lucky and blessed to have some brilliant authors say yes! They have written brand new stories using my world and some of my characters. And let me tell you… the results are hilarious!

  * * *

  So here it is! Blast off with us into the hilarious Magic and Mayhem Universe. Side splitting books by fantabulous authors! Check out each and every one. You will laugh your way to a magical HEA!

  * * *

  For all the stories, go to https://magicandmayhemuniverse.com/. Grab your copy today!

  * * *

  And if you would like to read the book that started all the madness, download a copy of Switching Hour via the link below!

  https://robynpeterman.com/switching-hour/

  About This Series

  This series—My Crazy Paranormal Romance—is a spin-off that can be read alone, but for maximum enjoyment of all the characters and situations, you may want to read the previous books I’ve written for the Magic and Mayhem Universe. Robyn’s been keeping me busy.

  * * *

  In Howl About It, you’ll once again see the infamous dragon-witch from the Baba Yaga Saga and the Baba Yaga Adventures, aka Elenora the Dragoness aka the Jezibaba. You’ll also see Zenos again. This book contains Moona’s story.

  * * *

  Welcome to the birth of a wolf witch, the perils of practicing magic, and vicious werewolves willing to betray their own pack for power. Moona’s got a lot to deal with before she can change.

  * * *

  Happy reading,

  xoxoDonna

  * * *

  PS. A different version of this book was previously published under the title “A Howling Success”. See copyright for more info.

  Dedication

  For lovers of Light Paranormal Romances

  Book Description

  It’s no wonder Moona can’t shift. There’s nothing in her life worth howling about.

  * * *

  Werewolf healer Moona intends to make the former Jezibaba keep her promise to help her discover why she can’t shift.

  * * *

  Born under a Blood Moon, Moona’s parents named her for its powers. They loved her even when those powers didn’t manifest. Losing her alpha parents was the absolute worst day of her life.

  * * *

  Or at least it was the worst day until she finds herself passing the birthday when failed werewolves must give up their shifting dreams. Now, it’s all confirmed. Moona’s officially failed herself and her parents.

  * * *

  Why can’t her pack’s new Alpha understand she isn’t fit to be his mate?

  * * *

  Her sister says she owes it to her parents and to their memory to keep searching for answers. She says Moona owes it to the pack and its Alpha leader who hasn’t given up on her.

  * * *

  If the infamous Dragon Witch can’t help her, Moona’s going to have to admit defeat. That will be another terrible day because she’s wants nothing more than to be a howling success.

  Prologue

  As she was leaving the castle, Moona’s sharp hearing picked up the celebrations coming from the fairy queen’s reception hall. Not long after that a large black dragon met her at the veil and walked along with her as she headed toward her pack.

  The dragon claimed to be Elenora’s mate and assured her that her absence from the realm was only necessary until the new queen and king had thoroughly stomped out all those opposed to their rule.

  After seeing her safely delivered to delivered to the pack waiting for her, the black dragon nodded to Jared and left.

  Leaving the land of illusion wasn’t really a problem for Moona. She was done with the conniving fairies anyway. Still… she had no intentions of returning to her pack.

  Her willpower wasn’t going to be enough to save her from acting out her stupid fantasies with their alpha.

  Jared was seven feet of lean muscle with eyes the color of the sky and hair the color of the sun. Moona had watched that lean muscle develop from childhood to adulthood. She’d run like hell when her interest in his muscles had grown too large.

  As if to prove that very point, Jared snatched her up in his arms in relief. It made controlling her emotions instantly ten times worse. His possessive grip on her curves always reminded her of the one moment of insanity she’d allowed herself in kissing him like there was no tomorrow. She hadn’t been able to touch another male since doing so.

  And given Jared’s physical reaction to her, he was having a similar problem.

  She was over six feet herself with her fair share of female assets. She wore her clothes loose and her hair long to tone down her femininity, though those things had never stopped determined males, especially not the one holding her.

  Jared had watched her grow up too. The longing in his eyes had nearly sent her running into his arms more than once. He’d been hurt when she left the pack to live with Willa, but it had been a matter of self-preservation.

  Plus, it had kept disgruntled pack members from picking on her supporters. Afterward, she and Jared had gone years without exchanging a word, but then something always drew them back together. Like today when he’d come running to make sure the fairies hadn’t hurt her.

  “Thank the ancestors you’re alive, Moo
na. Seeing the dragons here, I feared the worst,” he said.

  “I breathe for now, but that’s going to change if you don’t stop crushing me, Jared.”

  His tight embrace turned her brain to mush, which was worse for her than the loss of air. But she was not the right she-wolf for him, and at the rate she was going, she was never going to be a she-wolf at all.

  It was getting harder and harder to keep hoping her wolf would finally make a physical appearance. The deal she just made with the Jezibaba might well be her last chance at discovering why it had never happened.

  Moona pushed against the arms of steel that held her. The smell of Jared was driving her insane with lust, but as an alpha, Jared needed the right female at his side. She hated lying to him, but the last thing she needed was a lecture about making yet another deal for magical help. “Don’t talk about my new employers that way. The dragons have hired me.”

  “To do what? Be their next meal?” Jared demanded as he set her on her feet.

  Moona carefully backed away a few steps. “No. To make them a new salve for their accidental burn victims,” she lied as she stepped even further out of reach.

  Jared’s jaw tightened as he glared. “And if I forbid you to leave me, Moona?”

  “Nearly all the pack believes I’m human, and therefore, not a member of your pack to command,” Moona said firmly. “They’re wrong about that first part but I still can’t prove that to anyone.”

  “What about the second part?”

  Moona ran agitated hands through her waist-length hair.

  Jared came close and bent to whisper in her ear. “Are you mine to command or not, Moona? You’ve never had to prove what you are to me. My wolf believes in you. I believe in you. I want you in every way possible. Come home to the pack and be with me. I’ll deal with the doubters.”

  “It doesn’t matter what you or I believe, Jared. No one else believes, and you have to lead the pack. That’s what my Dad would have told both of us. You being the pack alpha is what I want,” Moona said, not giving in to her need to hug him close.

  There had been an abundance of males in her sixty years of life, but Jared was the only one her soul had ever longed for.

  “You’re the only wolf in the pack worthy of leading.” Moona bowed her head and lowered her eyes in reaction to his stern look. “Even as a wolf—I’d be a lone wolf, Jared. We’ve had this discussion many times.”

  “You will return to me eventually,” Jared said firm and low. He followed it with an angry growl. “I cannot save you from dragons, Moona. Werewolves are immune from fairy magic, but not from those who breathe fire. If you choose to deal with dragons, you will be completely on your own.”

  “I know… and I understand,” Moona said softly, stepping away again. She swallowed hard. “It’s a chance I have to take. My new employer is the Jezibaba. I have given her my word and she has given me hers. I’ll be in touch when my time with her is over.”

  Jared nodded and looked away. “Do what you must then. I still say your best future is with our kind and me. I hope one day you feel that with as much conviction as I do.”

  Before she could prevent him from acting, Jared’s demanding kiss staked a public claim she badly wanted to give in to. She lifted an unsteady hand to his face and wondered what other pleasures she’d find in his arms.

  When he finally set her free, Moona shook her head and backed away. The flash of pain in his gaze stabbed at her heart, but she had to be strong for both of them.

  He deserved so much more than she had to give.

  “Take care of yourself and watch your back,” she whispered.

  Then Moona turned on her heels and walked away from the wolf she loved.

  1

  The young female bobcat threw her tail up in the air and hissed at her. It was a light brown, striped thing with ugly tufts of hair sticking up over each chewed-up ear.

  Sha had just shown up one day with a collar around her neck stating her strange name. Some poor human had no doubt tried to domesticate her. Given Sha’s attitude, it probably hadn’t taken long for her previous owner to realize she was made for the wild and not a litter box.

  Keeping some sort of tabs on where she went, Sha came out of the woods and followed her whenever Moona left the house. The bobcat yowled and whined every five seconds when herb gathering was involved, but hissing was new.

  And it was getting on her last nerve.

  Moona turned her head and gave the feline a hard stare. “Hissing now? We have hissing?”

  She grunted and went back to snipping herbs. “You’re free to go back to wherever you came from, you know. I’m a wolf, not a witch. Wolves don’t keep a bobcat for a pet. In case I’m not being clear here, Sha, my kind eats your kind for dinner.”

  The low, irritated yowl she got in return for that comment grated on her ears. Rolling her eyes at all the dramatics, Moona rose from her work and looked around. “I’m done, except for the mudwort.”

  The next yowl was hair-raising and hurt her eardrums. She didn’t have to understand bobcat yowling to know what Sha was carrying on about. Her witch mentor had been sneaking Sha treats and winning the annoying feline over.

  “Will you please, for the love of Gaia, quit that yowling? I know I have to chant. Must you nag me?”

  She stepped over to the mudwort and lifted her shears. She focused on saying the words correctly as she made each snip.

  “With these blades, I claim your gifts.

  Blessed plant, all pain please lift.

  I use your leaves to heal the sick.

  In ending the pain, let’s both be quick.

  Through great Gaia, you came to me.

  As I work now to heal, so mote it be.”

  She repeated the healing charm over and over until she had filled the corner of her basket with a large pile of mudwort. “There, Sha. I chanted over it. Are you happy? Good. Go tell Willa,” Moona ordered.

  Her blinking, yowling audience took off running at her words.

  Moona carried the overflowing basket of freshly picked herbs out of the forest and back to the tiny house she shared with the pack healer. Willa’s cottage was picturesque and looked like it belonged in a human fairytale, as did the ancient human diligently sweeping dirt out of the house’s back door.

  Willa swept with a broom she’d made herself and one Moona knew was warded against all manner of evil. The daisy-covered apron Willa had tossed on over her drab green housedress made her look like some human’s cookie-baking grandmother.

  Except Willa couldn't bake worth a damn.

  Any cookies in Willa’s house were ones Moona had made. Visitors should be grateful for that fact.

  What her healing mentor needed to pull off a true witch vibe was a black hat and some equally dark clothes to match it.

  “You shouldn’t be outside looking like a fifties housewife, Willa. People might say that’s false advertising. Where’s your black hat and ceremonial robe?” Moona teased.

  She laughed at Willa’s middle finger reply to her question before her mentor disappeared back into the house.

  By the Ancients, she loved that crusty old woman.

  Willa was a naturally evolved witch, which Moona had long ago decided was a fancy way of saying Willa hadn’t been born into a family of witches like most witches were. Instead, Willa had gotten her witch powers when she was in her middle thirties.

  No matter how many times Willa told the story of her witch beginnings, she still sounded surprised that she’d just woken up one morning and her magic had been there within reach.

  Moona never minded each retelling because she found the story incredibly inspiring. She liked the idea that there were other creatures in the world who were late bloomers when it came to discovering their destinies. All her life, she’d felt like her wolf was just outside of her reach and held back by some invisible wall she hadn’t been able to find a way to move.

  In her mind, she and Willa were kindred souls. Willa must have felt the
same way because her healing mentor had insisted Moona live with her after she’d officially left the pack’s little village. Moona traveled a lot in her search for answers to her shifting problem so she wasn’t home a lot anyway. Or at least that used to be true. Lately, she picked up more and more of the healing tasks for her pack.

  “About time you got home. Sun’s been up for two hours already. Did you chant over the mudwort before you cut it this time? It won’t work unless you do. That last bunch you brought in was almost unusable.”

  “Yes, Willa, I chanted over it. The problem with the last bunch’s usability might be that I’m not actually a witch with any magic.”