Phases of Passions II (Trilogy Bundle) (Werewolf Romance - Paranormal Romance)

Phases of Passion II (Trilogy Bundle)

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © 2014 by Melissa F. Hart. All rights reserved worldwide.

No part of this book may be replicated, redistributed, or given away in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, without the prior written consent of the author/publisher.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

http://www.melissafhart.com/

Books in the series

New Beginning - Volume 4

Birth Right - Volume 5

Let's Make a Pack - Volume 6

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Synopsis

Book Four: New Beginning

A heavily pregnant Erin tries to keep a grip on her sanity as the world around her ceases to make sense. Sean, the father of her unborn baby, is gone. He left amid utterances that he was a werewolf and cursed. Erin dismissed his words as madness but now as her due date approaches, she finds her home under siege. At night, she listens in terror to the sounds of shrill howls that circle her property.

Erin is all alone and something or someone is lurking outside in the darkness. Is she in danger or has she been driven to the brink of madness? What if there was some truth to Sean’s curse?

Book Five: Birth Right

Back home with her newborn baby, Jack, Erin struggles to put the terror from the night of his birth out of her mind. She’d been attacked by a wolf, she was certain of that, but she still refused to believe in Sean’s talk of werewolves and curses.

But now Sean insists that neither she nor baby Jack are safe. A rival wolf pack is out to kill them as Jack is Sean’s heir. Whether or not Erin believes in Sean’s curse, she can’t deny that she is in very real danger.

As the howling returns, Erin has to consider just how far she is willing to go to protect both herself and her newborn son.

Book Six: Let's Make a Pack

Erin finally believes in Sean’s curse, knowing that somehow, his dark secret is tied in with her own past.

But with the rival wolf pack still a very real threat, Erin must make a choice; should she join Sean’s own wolf pack or risk existing on her own and endangering both her and Jack’s lives?

Soon Erin’s fate will be sealed and the shroud of mystery surrounding her own lineage will be lifted. It’s time for Erin to finally face the darkness that has haunted her life for so many years. She won’t let it defeat her, not matter the cost.

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Table of Contents

New Beginning

Birth Right

Let's Make a Pack

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New Beginning

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Erin looked down forlornly, hoping to catch a glimpse of her toes, but her spherical stomach impaired her vision. Sighing, she carefully maneuvered herself over to her sofa and sat down.

She was two days into her maternity leave and just a week away from her due date and she was restless. Being alone in the house made her fitful and anxious. Each time she tried to sleep, a noise or feeling of unease would wake her. Exhausted in her final stages of pregnancy, Erin felt as though she were constantly sleepwalking, losing her connection with reality.

The sound of her phone ringing startled her, the harsh shrill causing Erin to get a grasp of her senses and focus. Pushing through the fog of fatigue, she answered the call.

Hello? Her voice was hoarse and questioning when she spoke.

Erin? came her mother’s familiar voice.

Hi, Mom. Erin audibly sighed. As much as she appreciated the daily calls from her mother to check in on her, what she needed was her physical presence. Someone to help her move around now that she had almost doubled in size.

How are you today? her mother asked anxiously.

Tired, Erin replied bluntly. The same as every day.

It will soon pass.

And then I will have a baby to keep me up at night. A baby screaming and crying in the night with only me to take care of it. Erin held back tears as she shifted uncomfortably on the sofa. Her tiredness combined with her elevated hormone levels were making her exceedingly emotional. Sometimes she’d sit and sob over the most trivial of issues. The fact that she was alone was really starting to worry her.

Sean had said that he’d return. Erin had pushed him away, she knew that, but he’d vowed to come back and he’d seemed resolute in his promise, but that was almost nine long months ago. She’d heard nothing from him, and it wasn’t as if she could call him up. Sean existed in the shadows, without a cell phone, without an address.

In her weaker moments, Erin regretted sending him away, regretted judging him so harshly when he had told her his delusions about being a werewolf. Sean was clearly crazy, but at this stage she’d take crazy over nothing at all. She needed help, needed a second pair of hands, but the father of her unborn child was long gone and likely not coming back.

You need to stay strong, Erin’s mother instructed through the phone. You need to stay strong for your baby.

Anguished tears were streaming down Erin’s cheeks. She felt so unbearably alone, even though another life was growing within her. It had been two short days since she’d left the comfort and familiarity of the office, yet she felt like she was sinking. Sleep continued to elude her.

Erin didn’t feel safe alone. She’d taken to leaving lights on at night, to bolting her front door shut and checking it repeatedly before she slowly heaved herself up the staircase, the staircase where it was likely her child had been conceived.

Everything felt so long ago, as if it had occurred in another life. Erin struggled to remember how it felt to be in Sean’s arms, to feel the power of him inside her. Now all she knew was discomfort and exhaustion.

I’m so tired, Erin admitted desperately to her mother.

You still can’t sleep?

No, Erin sighed deeply.

Why not?

Erin didn’t want to admit the real reason she was being kept awake at night, as she feared it would make her as crazy as Sean if she was to say the words out loud.

The baby keeps kicking, Erin lied.

It will all get easier, I promise.

Can’t you just come and stay with me, until the baby comes? Erin pleaded as she entered into her daily dance with her mother, when she begged her for assistance and the older woman refused to come over, always offering the same pitiful excuses.

I’m in no state to travel, Erin’s mother answered softly.

There was some truth in this. Erin’s mother had been extremely fragile when she had last seen her, her skin thin and stretched too tightly over brittle bones. Her hair had grayed and thinned away, becoming wispy and ethereal around her head, making her dark eyes appear even darker, like bottomless pools surrounded by a glacial pallor.

But I need you.

Erin sensed that while her mother was fragile, she could be more than capable of traveling if she decided to. The older woman was weak and feeble but not completely incapacitated. Erin knew that there was another reason for her absence, something she wouldn’t discuss with her. Erin had an uneasy sense that it was all connected to Sean and his werewolf fantasies.

As Erin became increasingly tired and her body ached unbearably, she found herself wondering if perhaps there was some truth to his claims. The sounds she heard at night certainly made her to believe so. But she knew it was all impossible. There was no darkness, and it was impossible for a man to become a wolf. She just needed sleep to help her gain some clarity, that was all.

I’m sorry I just…I can’t be there. Erin’s mother always sounded pained when she relayed this.

I could come and stay with you? Erin suggested, hope rising in her voice as she did so.

No, no, her mother replied a little too quickly. You wouldn’t be safe here.

Why not?

The elephant in the room dared to step forward, trying to jostle its way in to the conversation. Sean. The werewolves. Her mother. Somehow it was all connected. But for some reason, Erin was only being fed half of a story.

Mom, why can’t I come and stay with you? Why won’t it be safe? Erin demanded, wincing as, within her stomach, her unborn baby kicked out at her.

Has the father returned yet? Her mother tactfully changed the subject.

No. Erin cast her eyes down sadly at the floor. For months she had expected Sean’s return, but he never came. She found herself wasting countless hours