Redeem the Wolf: BBW Paranormal Shape Shifter Romance (Wolf Valley Raiders Book 1) by Harmony Raines

Chapter One – Kurt
    Outside the moon was bright, the very same moon that used to stir his blood and call his wolf to come out and taste the night. But those days were gone for Kurt. Since that fateful day when he set his sights on selling Fiona, his cousin, to a predator, he had not had the nerve to change. He was only too aware how close he had come to being held under the spell of his wolf forever.
    Turning his mind back to the painting before him gave him none of his usual comfort. Her face looked back at him, the woman who had saved his life, the nurse who had tempted the man back from the brink of doom.
    Who was she? His mate? If so, did she know? Did she understand that she had saved his body and his mind, but held onto his soul when she walked away?
    Damn, he was a romantic fool. Of course she didn’t know, or else she would have felt it too, and be here with him now, unable to stand another moment apart from him. Instead, he was alone, the full moon shining through his window, leaving him desperate to find out the truth.
    “How are you, Kurt?” His mom came into the room with a hot mug of cocoa. If anything said he was worthless as a man, it was this.
    “Thanks, Mom, you shouldn’t have.” He took it all the same, trying to sound happy. He had worried her so much over the last few months, the last thing she needed was to know how tough tonight was for him.
    “Can I see what you’ve painted?” she asked.
    Kurt covered his easel and smiled. “It’s just a preliminary sketch; you know how I prefer to keep them to myself until they are finished.”
    “I don’t know why. I would love to see one of your paintings as you go through the process. You are getting quite a name for yourself, you know. I saw that letter on the table; someone wants to buy the painting you did of the mountains.”
    “I haven’t made up my mind to sell,” he replied uneasily.
    “Come on, Kurt, you need the money, you have to start pulling your life back together. It was good of your sister to set up a website for you. And Joel has handed out lots of cards to Will’s business friends.”
    “I hate the thought of anyone buying them out of pity.”
    “Don’t be silly, they are amazing. Everyone who’s seen them has said so.”
    “Friends and family don’t count.”
    “Why not? They are telling the truth.”
    “Maybe.” How could he tell her the real reason? Each of the paintings held a piece of him in it, a piece of his memory from that fateful night and the aftermath that followed.
    The mountain in his painting was the one he had climbed, the one he had been stuck on as the snow came down. The trees were the same ones that hung down around him, whispering of death in the snow. And the face of her. Well, he didn’t know what she whispered, only that it had brought him back from the brink of madness.
    “Sorry, what, Mom?”
    “Mia is talking about getting a gallery to put on an exhibition. It would be wonderful for you to sell some, make some room for us in the house.”
    The house was really a small cabin on the edge of the forest, the mountains rising above them in the distance. Situated on the furthest outskirts of Wolf Valley, it was close enough to town for when they needed anything—not that they ventured there often—yet isolated enough to give him the peace his tortured mind needed. His mom had moved here with him a couple of months ago, after he had left the hospital. He was grateful; he didn’t have the confidence to do it alone. That’s right, a grown man needing his mom to hold his hand. Pathetic.
    She had given up everything to move here with him. It was impossible to sell the house with the way things were in Wolf Valley, so she had walked away. Their family home had no doubt been ransacked by now and all her furniture sold or ruined. She didn’t let him see how much it must have hurt her; she said she had brought everything she needed with her. He knew she meant him. Because apart from a few old