King of the Wilds: Rosethorn Valley Fae #3 Read online

  King of the Wilds

  Rosethorn Valley Fae #3

  Tasha Black

  13th Story Press

  Copyright © 2020 by 13th Story Press

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  13th Story Press

  PO Box 506

  Swarthmore, PA 19081

  [email protected]

  Contents

  Tasha Black Starter Library

  About King of the Wilds

  King of the Wilds

  1. Miranda

  2. Bron

  3. Miranda

  4. Bron

  5. Miranda

  6. Miranda

  7. Miranda

  8. Miranda

  9. Bron

  10. Miranda

  11. Bron

  12. Miranda

  13. Miranda

  14. Bron

  15. Miranda

  16. Bron

  17. Miranda

  18. Bron

  19. Miranda

  20. Bron

  21. Miranda

  22. Miranda - Later

  23. Bron

  24. Miranda

  25. Bron

  King of Pain (Sample)

  1. Cullen

  2. Cullen

  3. Jessica

  4. Jessica

  Tasha Black Starter Library

  About the Author

  One Percent Club

  Tasha Black Starter Library

  Packed with steamy shifters, mischievous magic, billionaire superheroes, and plenty of HEAT, the Tasha Black Starter Library is the perfect way to dive into Tasha's unique brand of Romance with Bite!

  Get your FREE books now at tashablack.com!

  About King of the Wilds

  One man has given her everything, another would make her his queen. When her loyalty is tested, will she give herself over to the Wild?

  Miranda Cannon is the executive assistant to one of the most powerful businessmen in the world. When his latest project has her investigating a suspicious accident in the woods of Rosethorn Valley, Miranda is shocked to learn that fairytale monsters are real, and one of them wants to destroy her. Which is almost as frightening as the fact that her knack with people has somehow become a powerful magic in its own right. Can she control her newfound power enough to use it for good? If not for the sudden appearance of the handsome and powerful King of the Wilds, she might not survive long enough to find out.

  Bron has slept for centuries as the wilds around him suffered at the hands of mortals. Now the fae king is awake and ready to protect what is his, including the beautiful and powerful woman who wandered into his forest. If only Miranda can decide where her loyalties lie, he will make her his queen.

  When a serious attack on Rosethorn Valley ensues, Miranda will have a choice to make. And the King of the Wilds will have to risk a broken heart to help Miranda embrace her wild side.

  If you like strong women, hunky fae kings, wild adventures, steamy sensual scenes, and happily-ever-afters, then you’ll love the world of Rosethorn Valley Fae!

  Rosethorn Valley Fae:

  King of Midnight

  King of Light

  King of the Wilds

  King of Pain

  King of the Wilds

  1

  Miranda

  Miranda Cannon stepped gingerly between the trees, trying her best not to snag her clothes or lose a shoe. Her boss demanded that she look “office ready” at all times, which in his mind meant two-inch heels and a tailored suit.

  But today, Miranda’s office was a mosquito-ridden cove in the woods on the border between Rosethorn Valley and Tarker’s Hollow. And she was pretty sure the mud from the recent storms was trying to eat her Jimmy Choos right off her feet.

  And it was all just because some worker bee stopped paying attention and took a nasty tumble.

  “It was right here,” Larry, the foreman of the current job, turned to tell her, eyes round as saucers. “This is where Joey saw the lights.”

  Miranda looked around.

  She wasn’t exactly the outdoorsy type, but she couldn’t detect anything unusual about this part of the forest. It was the same goopy, muddy path that they had used to get here - between thickets of bushes and stands of giant trees.

  All around them, birds and other noisy creatures were yelling at each other and the air was humid enough to make her hair try to escape its bun and hightail it back to the city.

  “So one of your men allegedly saw some lights here,” she confirmed. “What kind of lights, exactly?”

  She’d investigated workplace injury claims before, and knew better than to come right out and admit anything had happened the way it was reported - at least not until she had all the facts.

  “He said they were small and twinkling, with an… otherworldly glow,” Larry replied in a low, careful voice, as if he thought the lights were going to appear right now and carry him off to Neverland.

  “It’s June, and this is suburban Pennsylvania,” Miranda said, trying to hide her smile.

  “And?” Larry asked.

  “Don’t make me spell it out for you,” she pleaded.

  But he didn’t answer.

  “Is it possible that the lights he saw were merely fireflies?” she asked.

  “Joey’s a Jersey guy. He knows what fireflies are,” Larry said, scowling at her. “This ain’t them.”

  Miranda sighed.

  “So he allegedly saw these little twinkling, glowing lights, and then what?” she asked.

  “He followed them,” Larry replied.

  “Off the path?” Miranda asked in horror. She could not imagine lights pretty enough to lure her into the tangle of trees to ruin the rest of her clothes and get eaten alive by mosquitos.

  “Yes,” Larry said. “Follow me.”

  “Is that really necessary?” Miranda asked. “If this is some elaborate hoax to trick my employer into giving you guys overtime, there’s no point bothering. It isn’t going to happen. He’d sooner fire all of you and hire a completely new crew.”

  Larry drew himself up with an expression of injured pride.

  “The Dolor corporation has flown my crew all over the country to break ground for his projects. If we wanted more money, we would ask. This is something else. Something… different.”

  “Lead the way,” Miranda said, surrendering.

  Larry held back the branches of some thorny-looking shrubbery to let her proceed deeper into the woods.

  He stepped in behind her and let the branches snap back into place. It was darker off the path, where the trees met overhead without interruption.

  Miranda had never been easily spooked, but something about the forest set her on edge. An inexplicable shiver of dread traced its icy fingers down her spine in spite of herself.

  “This way,” Larry said quietly.

  She followed him through the trees. Everything was so green and lush. There was no sign that any other human had been here before, and she had to remind herself that if she had to, she could walk her way back out of it and reach town in a couple of hours, even without her car, which waited back at the dirt lot the workers used.

  “Okay, this is where he fell,” Larry said at length, pointing to a ravine just below them.

  “Wow,” Miranda murmured.

  The ravine was steep with jagged rocks at the bottom. It was no wonder the man had been badly injured. He was probably lucky to have survived.

  “After that, things got bad,” Larry said solemnly.<
br />
  “After that?” Miranda echoed.

  “I know it sounds crazy, but he saw something in the woods,” Larry said. “Something big and furry.”

  “A bear?” Miranda suggested. “Bear sightings are not unheard of around here.”

  “It was carrying a club,” Larry said, shaking his head. “Joey said it smelled like sulfur. And when it got closer, he saw that it only had one big eye at the center of its face.”

  “Didn’t he hit his head?” Miranda asked doubtfully.

  “That wouldn’t impact his sense of smell,” Larry replied.

  Miranda made a mental note to look into that.

  “So what did this one-eyed bear do?” she asked.

  “It wasn’t a bear,” Larry insisted. “It rushed through the trees at him. He could hear the branches thrashing around and then it made this loud snorting roar.”

  “Then what?” Miranda asked.

  “Then Joey said he heard someone singing in the distance,” Larry said.

  “And?” Miranda asked, finding herself sort of intrigued in spite of herself.

  “And it ran away,” he said.

  “I see,” Miranda said. “Well, thank you for walking me through it. I’ll be sure to pass along this information to our legal team.”

  “You don’t believe me, do you?” Larry asked.

  She didn’t.

  “It doesn’t matter what I believe,” Miranda said. “It’s my job to ask the questions and convey the information. Shall we head back?”

  Larry nodded sullenly.

  Well, she couldn’t really blame the man. Miranda was feeling a bit sullen herself. She’d been hired as a high-level executive assistant, not a camp counselor. And while she was out wandering around the woods listening to ghost stories, her phone had been buzzing up a storm in her pocket.

  “Is there someplace around here that I can make a call?” she asked Larry.

  Larry looked at her like she had two heads and spread his arms wide, as if the forest were her personal phone booth.

  “Someplace indoors,” she said.

  “There’s an old cabin where we eat lunch if it rains,” he said dubiously.

  “Perfect,” Miranda replied.

  They marched on in silence until they got back to the trail.

  Miranda was exhausted, and a nasty blister was developing on her right heel. It would be good to take a little break, catch up on calls and emails and then head up the path to her car.

  At least she didn’t have to report back to Mr. Ward until morning. Lately, her demanding boss was spending more time away from the office, doing God only knew what.

  One path wound into another and at last Larry pointed to something in the woods.

  “There ya go.”

  Miranda turned to behold a structure that could only be called a cabin by the most generous definition of the word. The corrugated metal roof was rusty and the little building itself was shedding blackened cedar shakes like a nervous cat.

  “That’s it?” she asked.

  “That’s it,” he told her. “Make yourself at home.”

  “Only if I’m a cobweb,” she muttered to herself.

  “Pardon?” Larry asked.

  “Nothing, uh, thank you,” she said.

  “No problem,” he told her. “See ya.”

  Larry marched off while Miranda headed inside and lost herself in her business so quickly that she didn’t have time to mind the dingy interior.

  A few hours later, she was still spread out at the rickety table in the so-called cabin. She was almost halfway through the emails on her tablet, and the phone was still buzzing like an angry hornet.

  Cullen Ward was a powerful man, with powerful contacts who weren’t used to being patient. As his assistant, it was her job to stroke egos and smooth feathers without committing Mr. Ward to anything he didn’t want to do.

  The door to the cabin creaked open and a couple of guys came in to collect their things.

  “Uh, Miss Cannon, we’re heading out,” one of them said. “Larry said we should walk you to your car.”

  She glanced back at her tablet. Three more emails had just popped up. If she could just get to the bottom of her inbox before the end of business hours, it would be much better than letting any of Mr. Ward’s contacts wait for her to get home.

  “I’ll be okay on my own,” she told him. “I just need a few more minutes.”

  “Suit yourself,” he shrugged. “You know your way out?”

  “Of course,” she said. “I’ll just follow the path”

  He gave her a little wave and the men filed out.

  She turned back to her email as the phone rang again.

  The calls went on for a bit, but finally slowed enough for her to respond to a handful of email messages.

  The next time she picked up the phone she had barely said hello when the call cut off.

  She held it away from her ear and studied the black screen. Her phone was totally dead.

  “Shoot,” she said. Of course her charger was in her car.

  She gave one last glance to her stuffed inbox on her tablet, and decided reluctantly that she’d better pack it in.

  She stood up and stretched and then did a double take.

  It was completely dark outside.

  She must have lost track of time while she was wheeling and dealing in this stupid cabin. It wasn’t the first time she had done something like this, and it wouldn't be the last. When Miranda really got in the groove, she tended to completely zone out.

  She folded up her tablet and tucked it into the pocket of her jacket.

  When she turned off the single lightbulb that dangled over the table the cabin was plunged into total darkness.

  A little shiver of fear ran down her spine and she shook her head at her own silliness.

  “You’re a capable woman, not a frightened construction worker,” she scolded herself as she felt her way to the door and headed outside.

  Once she was out, she was thankful that the moonlight illuminated her surroundings enough for her to see where she was going.

  If she had thought the nighttime would be quieter in the forest than the day, she was dead wrong. It seemed to be even louder than before. The shadowy trees echoed with the cries of birds and cicada songs.

  She headed across the mossy forest floor back to the muddy path that led up through the woods to the dirt lot across the site where she’d left her car.

  The light from the nearly full moon overhead was enough to let her see where she was going, but she still found herself wishing for the flashlight on her phone.

  She honestly felt a real sense of separation anxiety over the lack of the device that sometimes felt like an extension of herself. Thankfully, she’d be back at her car soon. If she remembered correctly, it was no more than a twenty-minute walk back.

  The blister on her right heel burned painfully with every step. She was half-tempted to take off her shoes. But she shuddered at the thought of all the nasty little creatures that might be scuttling around underfoot.

  She walked on, hoping it would go numb soon.

  Bats squeaked and flew overhead. Presumably, they were eating some of the plentiful mosquitoes. She’d doused herself liberally with a moisturizing lotion that claimed to act as an insect repellent. But she was beginning to doubt its claims as she slapped at yet another pesky bite. At this rate, she would be eaten alive soon, bats or no bats.

  At least her path was starting to look familiar. That was good.

  She squinted her eyes in the darkness. There was something in the trees, a small building, its roof glinting a little in the moonlight.

  Funny, she didn’t remember seeing any buildings on the way down here.

  She took a few more steps toward it and almost began to cry.

  It was the cabin again. She must have gone in a complete circle somehow.

  She let out a long breath and felt sorry for herself for a count of ten.

  Then she inhaled, ready to
find her way home.

  The path back to the car wasn’t that complicated. She had obviously just been lost in thought and made a wrong turn somewhere along the way. Or maybe it was that things looked a little different in the darkness.

  But she wasn’t helpless. She would find her way back.

  This time, when she had gotten about five minutes away from the cabin, she saw a second path branching off from the first that she hadn’t noticed before.

  It was narrow, and she didn’t really remember taking a narrow path to get here. But she had probably just been distracted with her phone buzzing every two seconds.

  She headed into the trees on the tighter path. Assuming this was the right trail, she should be back at the car within fifteen minutes.

  She was already picturing the frozen mac and cheese she planned to stick in the microwave when she got home, and the crisp, cold diet ginger ale with condensation running alluringly down the can.

  A sudden burst of light in the darkness roused her from her fantasy.

  She blinked and looked around, but it was already gone.

  That was odd. Maybe she was just getting lightheaded. It had been a while since her last meal, and she didn’t function well on low blood sugar.

  She kept walking, picking up the pace a little. It would probably be best to get to the car as soon as possible. She needed to get home.

  The night air was cooler but still heavy with moisture. A bead of sweat rolled down her spine.