Howl (Winter Pass Wolves Book 1) by Vivian Wood, Amelie Hunt

Chapter One
    “ I can’t believe I let her talk me into this,” Penny Harding muttered, using the back of her hand to dash away the tears brimming in her eyes. She leaned forward and squinted through the windshield of her battered blue Honda subcompact, but it was no use. The foggy windows were only obscuring a thick blanket of fresh white snow, stretching out in every direction.
    Reaching out to wipe at the window for the hundredth time, Penny found she could just make out the road. Hysteria rose in her chest at the thought of having to turn back and face the nightmare scene she’d just left behind. As tears stung once more, she brought the car to a halt. She didn’t even bother to pull over, because she was so far out in the middle of nowhere that seeing another car would be shocking. In this weather, it was less likely than Penny winning the lottery and getting struck by lightning at the same time.
    Penny didn’t have that kind of luck. Never had.
    The radio was on in the background, and Penny caught a quick snippet. A man interviewing a woman, his tone serious and dramatic in a way that made Penny want to roll her eyes. Still, the word werewolf jumped out at her, and she turned the volume up for a second, trying to hear the interview over the staticky signal.
    Ma’am, is it true that you were once mated to a werewolf? He singled you out, had his way with you?
    The woman’s response was even more silly, something straight out of a telenovela.
    That’s right, Jack. He said I was going to be his mate… He tried to kidnap me… It was so terrifying. He used me…
    It went on like that, and Penny got the impression that this lady wasn’t being too forthright. All the photos Penny had ever seen of known werewolves had shown sexy, rugged men that most women would throw themselves at, or modelesque women that men would kill to get with.
    Penny could use a man like that in her life, that was for sure. A lot better than the losers she’d dated recently, and a hell of a lot more interesting than this dead-end town where she was currently idling, praying for a backup plan.
    “Why the hell am I back in Winter Pass?” she shouted, slapping her palms against the steering wheel. “I can’t believe I was this stupid.”
    Putting on the hand brake, Penny leaned back in her seat and closed her eyes, taking a deep breath. Trying to convince herself that things weren’t that bad, that her life didn’t suck as much as it did at this particular moment. She wanted to think that it was just a bad day, but that wasn’t close to true. A bad month, more like. Or a bad five years, if she were honest.
    As much as she hated Winter Pass’s small-town mindset and distance from any decently sized city, things really hadn’t gone right for Penny since she’d left. All during college she’d stayed close to Winter Pass, managing to graduate with honors despite her parent’s mud-slinging divorce and her mother’s subsequent high-profile remarriage.
    When her new stepfather, a skeezy lawyer and wannabe town politician named Steve, had come onto her repeatedly and forcefully, Penny ratted him out. Her mother threw it back in her face, gave Penny endless grief over it, and eventually Penny decided to get the hell out of Dodge.
    Moving to the city for a thankless job teaching art at a fancy private school, Heston Academy, Penny met her very recent ex-boyfriend. Strangely enough, he was also named Steve. This one was a real estate salesman, which was different enough for her taste, apparently. Penny should have known then and there that the boyfriend would be just as bad as the stepdad, but noooooo .
    Penny refused to see anything bad about her new beau, even when she caught him in small lies. Then bigger ones, hurtful ones. Even when she found his shirts marked with lipstick and smelling of strange perfume, which he always explained away. Even when he borrowed large amounts of money from her meager teacher’s earnings, promising great