Her Noble Owl (Marked By The Moon Book 4) Read online

  MARKED BY THE MOON BOOK FOUR

  KESTRA PINGREE

  Copyright

  Copyright © 2017 Kestra Pingree

  All Rights Reserved

  No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews. Any unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal.

  This is a work of fiction.

  kestrapingree.com

  Summary

  She wants freedom.

  Stella Hayes has been a prisoner for almost half of her life. All she has in this world is her son. For him, she is determined to escape the Berserker wolf shifter abusing them and holding them captive as soon as the time is right.

  Freedom is finally within reach when they run into Cedric Snow, the sexy billionaire snowy owl shifter who has been all over the news since he went missing. Will he be the one to save Stella and her son?

  He wants to fix what he broke.

  Cedric Snow is coming home after surviving a dangerous ordeal involving Black Witches and a shifter collector. The world thinks he chickened out and ran away with a beautiful woman when his parents announced they were putting him in charge of their fortune.

  The world isn’t exactly wrong, but Cedric doesn’t want to be that undependable guy anymore. He wants to patch up his relationship with his wife and daughter most of all, but things don’t go the way he planned.

  A roughed up mama wolf shifter and her pup need his help. Will they steal his heart too?

  Fated Mates. Forever Love.

  Table of Contents

  Copyright

  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

  Epilogue

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  Chapter 1

  THE HEAVY METAL DOOR sparked along the cement floor as it screeched open. Loud growling echoed off the worn cement walls of the small room, and Stella Hayes hugged her son close. She stared down the man at the door, the Berserker who kept them prisoner. His skin was blotched with white and red. His dark shaggy hair was unkempt and curtained his face in oily tendrils. His eyes were barely visible underneath, but their bright yellow color peeked through.

  Stella knew better than to speak. She subtly moved in front of her son, keeping her motions to a minimum so she wouldn’t grab the Berserker’s attention.

  “Trouble. Trouble. Trouble,” the crazed man muttered over and over. His eyes shimmered, searching all over the room but focusing on nothing. Stella knew what “Trouble” meant. That was the word he used for her son. He wanted to tear into him, to beat him to a bloody pulp. Her brave and handsome Russel was only ten years old, but this monster, her former Alpha, thought he was a threat. She used to remind herself that Tyler had been kind once, but her Alpha was long gone, lost to a rabid animal made of pain and rage.

  Russel whimpered behind Stella, clutching the back of her threadbare sweater. It was cold in this deteriorating cell, one of many contained in the old prison building Tyler had moved them into. Stella could see her breath coming out in short cloudy puffs. If they weren’t wolf shifters, they would have had hypothermia. As it was, being malnourished, they simply caught colds. Still, it was a bitter cold winter in Kansas City, Missouri—even for a wolf.

  Stella held her hand behind her, found the back of Russel’s head, and did her best to reassure him. With any luck, Tyler’s scrambled brain would convince itself that Russel wasn’t there. Then he would give up and leave them in relative peace. Sometimes hiding Russel from the Berserker’s eyes worked. Other times it didn’t.

  “Shining Star,” Tyler said, changing his jumbled chant. Now his attention was on Stella. His eyes stopped their wild sweep of the room and locked onto her with deadly precision, a hunter and his prey. His shining star. But she was no shining star. She had fallen.

  Stella stayed silent. Talking got her nowhere. If anything, it riled Tyler up.

  The broken alpha wolf lumbered forward, each step a severe sway of his entire body. He looked like he would fall over if the smallest gust of wind pushed against him—but then he sobered up. His steps became light, a remnant of the admirable leader he once was, as he came for her. He snatched Stella’s arm, and she let him. She knew she couldn’t fight him. She had tried before. It was better to let him use her like this than to get herself hurt and leave Russel defenseless. She had almost paid dearly for doing that before. She would never put Russel in that kind of danger again, not unless she knew the chance of them overpowering Tyler, or somehow escaping, had a higher probability of success.

  Tyler’s gaze wavered. Stella held her breath. Please don’t look away from me.

  Luck was not smiling on her today.

  “Trouble,” Tyler snarled, his teeth sharpened and he foamed at the mouth.

  Being an omega wolf meant nothing when her pup was in trouble. Stella would fight anyone to protect him. She snarled and growled in return, doing her best to draw Tyler’s attention away from her baby. The Berserker cared little for her superficial threats and charged for Russel. Stella ripped out of her clothes and shifted. Her wolf’s fur was matted and the golden highlights that were once so pretty couldn’t be seen, but her body still functioned as much as it needed to. She sunk her teeth into Tyler’s ankle just as he jumped forward to tackle Russel to the ground. Stella just barely managed to hold him back, grounding him once again and allowing her boy a chance to escape.

  Russel gasped and retreated. He rested his back against a corner of the room as he looked on with terror in his eyes, flickering gold. His wolf was ready to jump out and fight for his life. But he knew doing that would make things worse. He held on to his human skin. Good boy.

  Stella jerked her head back in an attempt to drag Tyler farther away from her son, but Tyler was too big and strong for her. He twisted around and grabbed her jaws with his hard as iron hands, prying them wide open and bruising her sensitive nose. Stella whimpered as she reflexively backed away. Then Tyler shifted.

  His wolf was as twisted and broken as the man, maybe more so. What was left of his fur was black and brown, but it was falling off in patches, leaving raw pink skin behind. The fact that Tyler was Berserker and could still hold a human form and shift into a wolf at will made him more terrifying than any of the scary stories Stella had been told as a pup. He was a demon.

  Tyler growled and stalked toward her. His lethal claws clicked against the hard floor. He toyed with her, circling her. His yellow eyes were hungry with the promise of pain. She knew how this would end. It would end like it always did.

  With a powerful push of his paws, Tyler launched himself at Stella. She let it happen. She let him tackle her to the ground because now she had his undivided attention. Russel would be safe, and Tyler would sate himself for a small window of time.

  Stella winced as Tyler’s yellowed teeth sunk into the back of her neck. He pulled and forced her to stand. He mounted her and prepared to fuck and claim her like he had many times before. Russel sank to the floor and held his head in his hands. Stella hated that her son had to be anywhere near
when this was happening to her. For him alone, she didn’t complain. She didn’t cry as Tyler hurt her. She let him rape her as a wolf or a man, and she continued hoping. She continued hoping that somehow she would find a way to take Russel away from this and give him the life he deserved. At least Stella knew happiness once. Russel didn’t even have that.

  It was all almost more than she could bear. The fractures of her own heart were growing wider, into bottomless chasms, but she held on for Russel.

  Stella let her mind settle on the world outside of this room, so she could survive another torture session. It usually helped. She tried to imagine the life she would give Russel. She tried to imagine him happy, healthy, and going to school. But maybe the things happening in the world outside weren’t so great either. The last time Tyler moved them, Stella heard news of Cedric Snow, a very rich man. He was missing, and Kansas City was in an uproar at the time. Everyone was convinced he disappeared of his own volition and because of his own selfishness. He had a family, but he didn’t want them. He made a choice. Maybe that was the positive thing to take away. Outside meant freedom for her and Russel. Freedom meant they would have a choice.

  She reminded herself of that. The idea of freedom was what kept her going. She would do anything for Russel. One day, she wanted to give him the world.

  Chapter 2

  CEDRIC SNOW STOOD BESIDE a luxurious fountain with a unicorn centerpiece. It was turned off because of the freezing winter temperatures and covered in soft blue lights for Christmas. Each string of lights was wrapped so precisely they looked like they were a part of the structure itself. They added a nice touch to the spiraled horn on the tip of the horse’s head. The way the horn glowed made the unicorn look like it was ready to grant a wish. It was day, but the lights were on and bright because this place spared no expense. It was as expected. Snow property had only the finest. The Crystal Caverns were a costly way to escape into a fantastical realm where people could feel like kings and queens for a day, rich and lavished with crystals.

  Or something like that.

  The Crystal Caverns were pricey hotels owned by generation after generation of Snows, billionaire snowy owl shifters with pure blood running through their veins. Great, great, many greats, Grandpa Snow came up with this idea for the Crystal Caverns, basically ridiculous sexy adult fantasy wonderlands, and made a killing almost right up front. Apparently, the guy knew what he was doing, because it worked. He knew people.

  The buildings were beautiful, crystal palaces in their own right, but after what Cedric had been through, it all seemed silly.

  Cedric touched the unicorn’s extended hoof. He scratched at the thin ice coating the stone sculpture with his gloved fingers. He didn’t need all the gear he was wearing, and he was dressed light compared to most people, but the sunglasses and beanie were a must. People were out looking for him after all, and he wasn’t ready to face the limelight.

  Everyone thought he had run away from responsibility as a Snow, from his wife and daughter. While it was true he didn’t want to inherit the Crystal Caverns, and that he had indeed been a shit husband and father, neither of those things were the reason for his disappearance. He had been out drinking, pissing away his problems at some bar when a witch found him. He couldn’t remember much before, but some of it had started coming back in bits and pieces.

  That witch led him outside of the bar to another witch waiting to ambush him. The second witch conjured this black smoky substance on her fingers, and she tore into him. They tore him apart, did things to his soul, and stole his free will. They basically turned him into a walking doll and sold him to a woman with a shifter fetish. She must have been ridiculously rich for these witches to risk their livelihood on capturing him, but they got away with it, and they had indeed been paid a great sum. He didn’t remember all of that, but he remembered the pain of being trapped, having no voice or body to control. Those memories of endless darkness made him shudder.

  A lot happened since then.

  He was saved by Blue Pack and Trinity, a wolf pack and the biggest shifter alliance in the world. He could have gone home immediately after, but then he saw everything going on in the news about him and had no desire to return to that world. He decided to stay with Blue Pack, the lesser of two evils. Trinity was too big and too powerful. The Snows didn’t like fraternizing with those more powerful than them. Not that Cedric, a pureblood snowy owl shifter, staying with a pack of wolves would have made his parents, Arthur and Tonya Snow, feel any better if they had known.

  He hadn’t known it at the time, but he made the best decision of his life by staying with that pack. The couple months he spent in Moonwatch, their home, was like living in a different world. He even met one of the witches who had enslaved him again, but she was nothing like he thought she was. She was hurt and used. She was sorry for what she did to him and others. Truly sorry. She proved it by saving Blue Pack. Because of that, he found it in him to forgive her—which was no small feat.

  Cedric got knocked down to size. Now he knew how small he was. The world didn’t wait or stop for anyone. Privileged and wealthy, poor and weak, it didn’t matter. The world didn’t owe him anything, and he didn’t owe the world anything. He could keep pissing his life away because of all the unfairness, or he could do something about it. He decided to do something about it, and that meant confronting his wife and daughter to start. He had been absent and uncaring, blaming them for his parents’ expectations. They told him to marry Terry Simmons. He could have said no, but he didn’t. He said yes and drank it all away. For years. His past decisions meant he had a wife and daughter, and he needed to honor that. What the outcome would be, he had no idea. But he wanted to change.

  He married Terry, got her pregnant so the Snows would have another heir, and she deserved better. Terry married him because of his money, because he was a Snow. She didn’t really have a choice because she came from a line of pureblood snowy owl shifters. Any snowy owl who was smart wanted to be in the Snows’ good graces. Being married into the Snow family guaranteed Terry’s family would live out the rest of their lives in comfort, so it wasn’t all bad. But he wasn’t stupid

  Terry had tried to know him and be a friend. He didn’t even try for that. Yes, she deserved better. Her and his daughter both. Opal was already five years old, and he felt like he didn’t know her at all.

  He wanted more.

  Cedric figured it was the wolves that made him crave family now. Closeness. He never had it in his own family, but that pack took him in and treated him as one of their own. He wanted that, and he wanted to give that in return. He witnessed a wolf shifter and a witch fall in love. He watched them overcome all obstacles to be together, and that inspired him. He probably wasn’t a proper Snow anymore, but he didn’t give a damn.

  He had never felt freer.

  Cedric stepped back from the decorated fountain and craned his neck to look at the Crystal Cavern in front of him. The crystals that made up its surface gleamed in the sun rays escaping the clouds above and sparkled white like the snow blanketing the world around it. Christmas lights shone from the building in pastel colors, adding to the brilliance of a hotel that looked much more like a castle. This Crystal Cavern was the first ever built. Kansas City, Missouri was the start of the Snows’ fortune. Other Crystal Caverns were located in other states, but this one was the base of operations Cedric supposed.

  He sighed and began to wonder if his little brother forgot about him. Maybe Nathan thought his phone call was a prank. Cedric had borrowed someone’s phone, dialed Nathan’s number, which he miraculously had memorized, and told him to meet him here and not to tell anyone. Maybe Nathan would bring bodyguards or not come at all and call the cops instead. That would have been the smart thing to do, and very Nathan. The youngest of the two siblings was always much better qualified to be a Snow. He would do everything by the book like he always did. Cedric hoped he’d somehow forgo protocol to help him out just this once, though.

  Cedric heard
the sound of hard-soled shoes clacking on ice and rock. He looked up to see his brother. Nathan had Crystal Cavern butlers with him. All Crystal Cavern butlers were trained bodyguards, so Cedric hadn’t been far off. Feeling desperate, Cedric gave his little brother that two-fingered wave he always greeted him with since they were kids. It was a casual and almost mocking gesture that Nathan hated because he always tried to be proper and noble.

  Nathan halted. His bodyguards followed suit. To Cedric’s relief, Nathan waved the butlers away and waited to walk forward until they were out of the way. Nathan shoved his hands inside of the fancy long-tailed coat he was wearing and stared. His hazel-blue eyes were cold as ice, but Cedric knew his brother well enough to see past that. He was surprised.

  “Cedric?” Nathan questioned as he took a few tentative steps forward. He looked as if he were gliding over the icy walkway. He had a certain elegance like all Snows. It was as if their snowy owls were always in flight. Nathan always ice skated the same way, as if he were in flight. The memory of ice skating with his brother was years old, but it was one Cedric was fond of.

  “Thanks for coming,” Cedric replied. He stripped off his sunglasses so his brother could see his eyes in case he wasn’t sure about Cedric’s identity already.

  “What are you doing here? Why all the secrecy? I almost had you arrested. Do you know how strange your phone call was? I thought it was a prank.”

  “I figured you would.”

  Nathan stood a few feet apart from Cedric with disapproval clear in his hostile posture. His shoulders were rolled forward and he wouldn’t take his hands out of his pockets. He stood unmoving like the unicorn fountain. He was handsome enough to be a sculpture. His hair was silvery at the moment, thanks to the Snow blood in his veins and the sun shining down on him just right. The first Snows had hair of pure silver, rich and glittering much like the empire they built. The silver hair gene had been diluted through the generations, but it could still be seen in the present generation of Snows when the light was right.