Greylock Manor: A Wolf Shifter Romance (Wolf Mountain Pack Book 1)

  GREYLOCK MANOR

  WOLF MOUNTAIN PACK BOOK 1

  MAC FLYNN

  Copyright © 2022 by M. Flynn

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

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  CONTENTS

  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

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Continue the adventure

  Other series by M. Flynn

  1

  Padded footsteps.

  That was my first impression of the forest in which I stood. Long shadows surrounded me, but I could make out the dense, ancient trees and brush. And then there were the footsteps.

  They circled me again and again, hidden in those deep shadows as they summed me up. I wondered if it found my scent tasty or disgusting. With all the grease fat on my hands, I didn’t need a second guess.

  I looked to and fro, following the sound but never seeing the noisemaker. “Who are you?” I shouted. I may as well have been calling to the sky.

  The footsteps stopped, or rather, the noise stopped. The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end. A growl came from behind me.

  I spun around. A pair of eyes stared at me from the darkness. One of the eyes was yellow and the other white. The growl repeated itself and I could see long, white teeth against the blackness. My whole body shivered as I took a step back.

  And fell right into the arms of my very confused manager. I tilted my head back and sheepishly smiled up at him. “Hiya, Mr. Bradley.”

  He arched an eyebrow. “Are you alright, Miss Shaw?”

  I jumped out of his hands and spun around to face him, which was no tiny feat as the aisle between the fry maker and the burger grill wasn’t very large. “It’s nothing. I just spaced out for a second.”

  He gestured to something behind me. “A very long second.”

  I looked down at where he directed me and winced. I’d left a batch of fries in the hot oil a little too long. They’d turned from a nice yellow to a very unappetizing brown. Bradley lifted the basket out and set it beside the oil tank. “Would you like to offer me a different explanation?”

  I bit my lower lip. “I guess I was just-”

  “Thinking again?” he suggested.

  I winced. “Something like that.”

  Bradley sighed. “Miss Shaw, I’ve already warned you twice this week about daydreaming.”

  My shoulders drooped and I hung my head. “I know, and I’m really sorry about it, Mr. Bradley. I promise it won’t happen again.”

  He clapped a hand on my shoulder. “Well, I can guarantee it won’t happen again.” My heart skipped a beat as visions of the unemployment line clouded my mind. “No, I’m not firing you, I’m just going to let you off early for today so you can get some rest.” He tilted his head to one side and studied my face. “You look like you haven’t been sleeping well. Maybe that will clear your head.”

  I nodded. “Yes, sir.”

  He gave my shoulder a shake. “Come on. Get home and get some rest.”

  I cast a furtive look at the remains of the fries. “What about them?”

  He grimaced. “I’ll give them a proper burial and take the spot up myself, now get along before I have to boot you out.”

  I leaned up on my tiptoes and pressed a light kiss on his cheek. “Thanks, Mr. Bradley. You’re a saint.”

  His eyes were wide, but he shook off his shock and laughed. “Well, at least one person understands that.”

  “Hey, Mr. Saint!” one of my coworkers called to him from the ice cream machine. “Could you use your saintly powers and clean out these nozzles?”

  Bradley sighed and rolled up his sleeves. “Never a dull moment, now out while I take care of soft ice cream.”

  I gave him a lazy salute and hurried out. Taking a nap sounded like just the thing, and soon I was in my dinged-up car driving through my small hometown. The junk-food alley gave way to the residential homes, and soon I pulled into the short driveway of my childhood home. Relief turned to guilt when I noticed the front curtain move and a face peek out.

  I slunk out of the car as the front door opened and my mom rolled out. “What are you doing home this early?”

  I bent over and clapped my hand on the arms of her chair. “No worries, mom. I just had a little accident at work and-”

  “Accident!”

  I could have clobbered myself for my poor choice of words. “Well, the fries had a little accident because of me,” I explained as I turned her wheelchair around and pushed her back toward the house. “But everyone made it out alive and the fire department let me off for good behavior.”

  My mom twisted around and revealed an amused smile on her lips. “How crispy were those fries?”

  I winced. “Let’s just say they could have broken some false teeth.”

  A snort escaped her lips, followed quickly by a sigh as she set her hands in her lap. “That isn’t like you. Is something on your mind?”

  I shrugged as I rolled her up the ramp and into the small house we called our own. The carpet was stained, and the kitchen cupboards were outdated, but the house was clean and painted. “I don’t know. I just keep getting distracted. Mr. Bradley thought maybe I should take a nap.”

  “Mr. Bradley is right,” my mom mused as she grabbed the wheels of her chair and jerked us to a stop. She tilted her head back and smiled up at him, but I could see the worry in her eyes. “You’ve been having nightmares.”

  I winced. “That obvious?”

  She pointed down the single narrow hall and at the door to my bedroom. The door was slightly ajar. “Your bed sheets look like somebody tried to make an escape rope out of them and gave up halfway. That much thrashing about can’t be good for anyone’s sleep.”

  I leaned down and pecked a kiss on her cheek. “Well, I’ll be sure to sleep this evening. In the meantime-” I straightened and rolled her toward the kitchen. “What say we cook up some grub?”

  My mom smiled. “I’ll do the grease cooking.”

  We soon ate and I slipped into my bedroom where I shrugged out of my uniform. I tossed the shirt onto the foot of my bed and paused to study the sheets. They were indeed coiled and clumped together like snakes wrestling to the death. I sighed and untangled them enough to slip between the serpents. My head had hardly hit the pillow before I fell asleep.

  However, a quiet sleep was not to come to me.

  Slumber brought with it the same visions I’d been seeing in my waking hours. I was surrounded by a thick forest of trees again, an
d a touch of ghosting fog added to the atmosphere. My body tensed, waiting for the sound I expected. I wasn’t disappointed.

  It was the footsteps again, louder than I’d ever heard them before. I spun in a circle but couldn’t see anyone. I also didn’t see the tree root beneath me, but my foot was kind enough to find it. I stumbled forward but caught myself before I tumbled across the wet-looking ground. That was the last straw.

  I balled my hands into fists at my side and glared at the darkness. “Whoever you are, come out and show yourself! Stop being such a coward!”

  I got my wish as the hairs on the back of my neck sprang up. Something was behind me. I spun around and my heart skipped a beat when I saw a figure standing in the shadows of the largest of the trees. Whoever this was, they had the same yellow and white eyes I’d seen before.

  I swallowed the lump in my throat and took a shaky step toward them. “W-who are you?”

  Their reply was to step partially into the light and reveal all but the upper half of their face. It was a man above six feet in height with graying hair but lacking in the wrinkles associated with anyone over fifty. He wore a crisp black suit with a gray tie that matched his hair. A silver ring flashed on his finger that clasped the top of a cane made of the same material. The cane sported an elegant curve that transformed into a wolf’s head, complete with an extra-bushy mane.

  The man stretched out his hand to me. I looked from those strange eyes to his upturned palm. Something at the back of my mind screamed a warning. My heart told me to take it.

  I took a step toward him but stopped. My gullible heart nearly stopped when a pair of wolves sidled up on either side of him. They were huge, their shoulders in equal height to his torso, and their yellow eyes were focused only on me. I took a step back and a growl reverberated from one of the pair.

  The wolves darted forward and leapt at me. As I threw up my arms, I glimpsed the man’s lips move. He said only two words before the wolves tumbled down on me.

  I shot up in bed, my body awash in sweat. My hand shook as I reached up and brushed my damp hair away from my eyes. A few whispered words passed over my trembling lips.

  “Greylock… Manor.”

  2

  From that hour a map had been embedded in my mind. It was a fuzzy one, like a child had scrawled an outline from a much better map and then the rain came and kind of smudged it. Still, even a squiggly line could be followed, and that’s what I intended to do.

  “Are you sure about this?” my mom asked me as she sat nearby, her eyes watching as I folded a week’s worth of clothes beside my scroungy old backpack from high school that I’d dug out earlier that morning.

  “It’s okay,” I assured her as I began the process of cramming the clothes into the bag. “Mr. Bradley already gave me a couple of days off. That should be enough.”

  My mom shook her head. “But enough for what? What are you hoping to find up there?”

  I paused and set my palms on the covers of my bed. “I just… I don’t know, but I know whatever’s up there is worth finding.” I lifted my eyes to her and gave her a smile. “I promise I’ll be safe, and besides, Wolf Mountain is a pretty popular hiking destination. I won’t be alone up there, and I promise I won’t do anything stupid.”

  A snort escaped her lips. She rolled up to me and grasped one of my hands. I couldn’t help but look into her kind, bemused face. “You wouldn’t be my daughter if you didn’t do something stupid.” She looked down at our joined hands and sighed. “But please, just promise me you’ll be as careful as you can.”

  I knelt in front of her and set my hand atop our joined ones. “I swear on all the souls of the fries lost in deep fryers that I will be as careful as I can be.”

  She swatted my shoulder. “Oh, you!”

  I laughed and stood where I shrugged. “I couldn’t think of anything bigger than that to swear on.”

  She eyed me with a mischievous look as she half-turned toward the door. “So should I burn some hamburgers as incense to help you on your journey?”

  I winced. “Please don’t. I couldn’t bear the thought of a burnt hamburger being on my conscience.”

  My mom laughed and turned away, but I noticed some of her humor fled. There was a pensive expression on her face and her voice was so soft I almost didn’t hear her. “All this talk about food, you should find a decent diner not far from the summit of the mountain. Dan’s Den. They used to serve up some good grub.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “How do you know that?”

  My mom gave me a smile, but there was sadness about the corners of her lips. “I used to spend a lot of time hiking in those woods when I was in college.”

  I folded my arms over my chest and gave her a look of curiosity. “You never told me that.”

  She shrugged. “It was a long time ago. Before this-” She gestured down at herself. “But anyway, you promise you’ll call me when you get to the foot of the mountain?”

  I walked over and wrapped my arms around her. “Even if there’s no reception, I’ll figure out a way to send up some smoke signals.”

  She laughed and patted my arm. “Then I’ll be sure to listen for the phone and watch the skies.”

  I soon packed and the two of us went outside to my car. The bag was tossed into the rumpled passenger seat of my sorry old sedan, and I turned to my mom. She still looked worried. My heart fell a little, and for the first time I began to have doubts.

  “You know, I really don’t have to go-” I began, but she shook her head.

  “Nonsense. Your head’s been foggier this week than London in 1900. You need to go just to get some fresh air to air out those cobwebs. And with that” She spun me around to face my car and gave me a push, “off you go!”

  I stumbled across the hood but stopped on the other side and gave her a smile and a wink. “You take care of yourself and behave!”

  She dropped her hands into her lap and sighed. “I suppose that means no prank-calling the neighbors about their refrigerators?”

  “Or any of their other appliances,” I added as I dropped into my car. I leaned over the center console and smiled at her through the partially open passenger window. “And remember, I’ll be back in a few days.”

  She smiled and waved at me. “Plenty of time to change the locks.”

  I snorted and sat back in my seat. My mom waved as I backed out of the driveway, and I returned the wave as I drove past the house. I glanced through the rearview mirror until I couldn’t see the lawn. My mom sat there the whole time staring at me. There was that twinge of guilt again.

  I tightened my hands on the wheel and stiffened my jaw. “Come on, Alex. You’ll feel much better when you get back, and then you can take her out to some fancy restaurant where the two of you can get plastered and end up in somebody’s pool floaty.”

  I regretfully pushed my mom to the back of my thoughts and focused on the road ahead of me. My fuzzy mental map, or FMM, as I called it, led me along one of the mountain highways to Wolf Mountain. The range of mountains covered half the countryside with their deep, hidden valleys and craggy cliffs. They attracted a lot of tourism, and more than one person had gone missing among those dark woods.

  I rolled my eyes. “You just had to remind yourself of that, didn’t you?”

  I was glad for the warm, sunny day as I drove higher and deeper into the mountainous countryside. The towns grew fewer and farther between, replaced by scattered homesteads that showed off their age with their homemade stone chimneys and fences that were around to stop the dinosaurs from roaming.

  I kept my eyes peeled for the restaurant, and sure enough two hours into my drive I spotted a rustic but clean sign that read Dan’s Den. The place was a low-top square building with windows on three sides and a long counter that stretched across the middle of the interior. Except for a cooling counter and door, the kitchen was hidden by a wall that split the building in two. Four-seater tables lined the wall below the windows and shiny red stools finished off the seating arou
nd the long counter. A half dozen cars sat outside. Most were beaten-up old pickups and vans, so the black mustang at the end of the parking lot stood out.

  I parked my sedan on the other side of it and stepped out to admire the view.

  “She’s nice, isn’t she?”

  I started and whipped my head up. A man stood in front of one of the vans with a smile on his lips and a mischievous twinkle in his eyes. He had short brown hair, and a handsome and slightly rugged physique. His arms were folded over his chest, though the top arm grasped a small to-go box.

  “That depends,” I mused as I stepped up onto a low sidewalk that stretched across the front of the restaurant.

  He raised an eyebrow. “On what?”

  I stopped beside him and grinned. “On who’s driving.”

  He flashed me a mischievous grin. “And if it was me?”

  “Then I’d be really worried,” I teased as I nodded at the box. “And is that apple pie, or are you just happy to see me?”

  “Both,” he quipped as he popped open the container and showed me a slice of the pie. “And you have a good nose.”

  I shrugged. “It’s a gift, but what brings a sophisticated gentleman like you to a small place like this.”

  Some of his humor dropped from his face as he closed the lid. “Nothing much. I just wanted to see the view around here. I’d heard it was wonderful.”

  I half-turned to look at the road. A short, rocky hill stood on the other side and was one of the many hints of the foothills of the Wolf Mountain range. “It is pretty.”