Force Of Nature Read online

  Hunter Wolfe didn’t come to her at night, he didn’t come in the early morning, he didn’t suddenly appear during the daylight hours.…

  Hannah missed him so much her teeth hurt. Every bone in her body ached for him.

  This separation was a good thing, she kept telling herself. It meant that Hunter was adjusting to new circumstances without any problems. It meant he could resume his life and she could resume hers.

  But, oh…she missed the totally uninhibited man who expressed his every emotion whenever it occurred. She missed the almost savage, who heeded the call of the wild, the pull of the moon.

  The Hunter she knew and loved was a force of nature. Had she tamed him too much?

  Dear Reader,

  April may bring showers, but it also brings in a fabulous new batch of books from Silhouette Special Edition! This month treat yourself to the beginning of a brand-new exciting royal continuity, CROWN AND GLORY. We get the regal ball rolling with Laurie Paige’s delightful tale The Princess Is Pregnant! This romance is fair to bursting with passion and other temptations.

  I’m pleased to offer The Groom’s Stand-In by Gina Wilkins—a fascinating story that is sure to keep readers on the edge of their seats…and warm their hearts in the process. Peggy Webb is no stranger herself to heartwarming romance with the next installment of her miniseries THE WESTMORELAND DIARIES. In Force of Nature, a beautiful photojournalist encounters a primitive man in the wilderness and must find a way to tame his oh-so-wild heart.

  In The Man in Charge, Judith Lyons gives us a tender reunion romance where an endangered chancellor’s daughter finds herself being guarded by the man she’s never been able to forget—a rugged mercenary who’s about to learn he’s the father of their child! And in Wendy Warren’s new sensation Dakota Bride, readers will relish the theme of learning to love again, as a young widow dreams of love and marriage with a handsome stranger. In addition, you’ll find an intriguing case of mistaken identity in Jane Toombs’s Trouble in Tourmaline, where a world-weary lawyer takes a breather from his fast-paced life and finds his sights brightened by a lovely psychologist, who takes him for a gardener. You won’t want to put this story down!

  So kick back and enjoy the fantasy of falling in love, and be sure to return next month for another winning selection of emotionally satisfying and uplifting stories of love, life and family!

  Best,

  Karen Taylor Richman

  Senior Editor

  Force of Nature

  PEGGY WEBB

  For Michael…forever

  Books by Peggy Webb

  Silhouette Special Edition

  Summer Hawk #1300

  Warrior’s Embrace #1323

  Gray Wolf’s Woman #1347

  Standing Bear’s Surrender #1384

  Invitation to a Wedding #1402

  *The Smile of an Angel #1436

  *Bittersweet Passion #1449

  *Force of Nature #1461

  Silhouette Intimate Moments

  13 Royal Street #447

  Silhouette Romance

  When Joanna Smiles #645

  A Gift for Tenderness #681

  Harvey’s Missing #712

  Venus DeMolly #735

  Tiger Lady #785

  Beloved Stranger #824

  Angel at Large #867

  PEGGY WEBB

  and her two chocolate Labs live in a hundred-year-old house not far from the farm where she grew up. “A farm is a wonderful place for dreaming,” she says. “I used to sit in the hayloft and dream of being a writer.” Now, with two grown children and more than forty-five romance novels to her credit, the former English teacher confesses she’s still a hopeless romantic and loves to create the happy endings her readers love so well.

  When she isn’t writing, she can be found at her piano playing blues and jazz, or in one of her gardens planting flowers. A believer in the idea that a person should never stand still, Peggy recently taught herself carpentry.

  Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Chapter Thirty

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Chapter Thirty-Six

  Chapter Thirty-Seven

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Chapter Forty

  Chapter Forty-One

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Chapter Forty-Three

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Chapter Forty-Five

  Chapter Forty-Six

  Dear Hannah,

  What a celebration life has been! Your father finally came out of his coma after six months of tears and prayers. I feel as if I am discovering love for the first time. However, it is you that I worry about—my most passionate child.

  I always knew that it would take a strong man to capture your heart. Therefore, when you met Hunter I sensed that you had found true love. I could hear it in your voice when you called me from Alaska. Just as with everything else you do, you put your heart and soul into that man—bringing him back from the wilderness, reintroducing him to civilization—but you cannot force him to stay. Do not be afraid to speak your heart. Tell him you love him, Hannah. If the feelings between the two of you are real, he will return. He will find his way home.

  My heart goes out to you,

  Mom

  Chapter One

  From the diary of Anne Beaufort Westmoreland:

  October 20, 2001

  The mountain changed everything for me. I’m not talking about Michael’s coma; I’m not talking about that awful day four months ago when an avalanche crashed over my husband and put him in this deep sleep.

  I’m talking about Jake and Emily’s wedding on Mount Everest. I don’t know what happened there in the Himalayas, but I came back a different woman. More courageous, somehow. More hopeful. Infused with the lightness of being.

  When I got back to Vicksburg the first thing I did was hurry to the nursing home so I could visit my husband. This is the odd thing. I didn’t go expecting a miracle. I didn’t set myself up for the same big letdown I’ve experienced every day for the last few months. Instead, I went with the absolute certainty that everything is going to be all right.

  No matter what.

  There, now. I’ve said it. Even if Michael never wakes up, even if he never returns to me, everything is going to be all right.

  Perhaps this is the miracle I’ve been waiting for, this great change in myself, this sense that I’ve been freed from the mundane and can now live my life on a higher plane.

  Right now I don’t know exactly what that means, but I’m going to find out. Clarice reads that kind of stuff all the time. I’ll ask her for some books. I’ll concentrate on living my life the best way I know how. Maybe that’s exactly wha
t Michael needs—time and space to work his own way back to me. Maybe he hasn’t come back yet because I’ve been pushing too hard, expecting too much.

  As soon as I finish this diary entry I’m going to lie down beside him and hug him and kiss him and say, Darling, just take your time. Come back when you’re ready. I’m here loving you. I will always love you.

  There. I feel better already. Lighter. More hopeful.

  Now I can concentrate on other things. My gardens. My friends. My children.

  Daniel and Skylar are already talking about having the family’s Thanksgiving dinner at their house. They mentioned it before I left the Himalayas.

  Well, why not? It would be selfish of me to insist that we gather at Belle Rose the way we always have, especially since I don’t know whether Michael will still be in his deep sleep.

  Besides, with two of my children married and one off in the wilds of Alaska, things are different now. Daniel didn’t say so, but I have a feeling Skylar needs to play hostess to the Westmoreland clan in order to cement her place in this family.

  And anything goes with Emily. Of all my children, she has always been the easiest. When she and Jake return from their honeymoon I’ll just say, “Em, we’re having Thanksgiving in Atlanta with Daniel,” and she’ll say, “That’s great, Mom.”

  Hannah, of course, would have an opinion. But my oldest child is in Denali National Park chasing another story, and I won’t be hearing from her unless there’s an emergency. She’s that much like Michael. Totally dedicated to her work. Totally committed to being the best photojournalist there is. Both of them have tunnel vision when it comes to their careers.

  There I go again. Talking about Michael as if nothing has changed.

  Everything has changed. Except my love. And that will never, ever change. Michael is my soul, my heart, my life, and I will always love him. No matter where he is.

  Chapter Two

  Something was out there watching her. Hannah pondered whether to get up and shine her flashlight into the darkness so she could see what it was or to stay inside her tent where she was safe…unless the intruder was human. And bent on mischief.

  She eased her hand out of her sleeping bag and closed it over the butt of her rifle. She’d never used it to defend herself, but she could if she had to. Anyone who had read articles with Hannah Westmoreland’s byline understood that she’d gone into some of the world’s most remote and dangerous places to find the story. It would be foolish to go unprepared.

  She lay still, waiting and listening. In the week since she’d been in Alaska following the trail of the wolf, she’d had many encounters with other wildlife, including a brown bear. But not a grizzly. She hadn’t even seen one from a distance, and she certainly didn’t relish the idea of seeing one at close range.

  The skin at the back of her neck prickled. Her watcher was still there.

  An animal would have satisfied his curiosity and moved on. All her instincts told Hannah her watcher was not an animal.

  She had no intention of being caught by surprise, trapped inside the folds of her sleeping bag. Gripping her gun, she eased forward and peered through the crack where her tent flap was secured.

  A full moon silvered the wings of her twin-engine plane and the snow that had dusted the campsite while she slept. The primeval beauty caught her high up under the breast-bone, and it was a moment before she made out the shadow underneath a giant black spruce tree.

  It was a lone wolf. Majestic. Powerful.

  His head swiveled toward the tent and he looked right at her. Hannah’s heart hammered so hard she thought the wolf must have heard. There was something about his eyes gleaming in the moonlight, something almost human.

  Her instincts kicked into high gear. There’s danger here, they were saying, and yet she felt no fear.

  Suddenly the wolf tilted his head upward and sent a cry to the moon that chilled Hannah’s spine. It wasn’t a howl so much as a gut-wrenching sound of agony. A plea.

  And why not? Man seemed determined to wipe the wolf off the face of the earth.

  That was why she was in Denali: to capture the wolf on film and present him to the public as a noble creature. Not the dangerous predator many believed, and certainly not vermin in need of extinction.

  She thought of the wolves she’d been following the past week and how she’d seen two of them cavorting together in the sun, the male biting the muzzle of the female to show his affection. She’d watched as they disappeared into the deep woods, Adam and Eve in possession of Eden.

  And she’d understood why they roamed the great woods and why she would do everything in her power to protect them.

  Now she loosened her grip on the gun and studied her watcher. He was much larger than the wolves she’d photographed. The largest she’d ever seen. In fact, he was off the wolf-scale in size.

  Furthermore he was alone, which defied everything she’d read about wolves. They were sociable animals who traveled in packs.

  Was this wolf an outcast? An outlaw?

  He lowered his massive head and studied her once more. A shiver shook Hannah, but not from the cold. Not at all from the cold. She wrapped her arms around herself in order to hold still. She didn’t want any sound, any movement to drive her watcher away.

  This creature was magnificent. Why hadn’t she reached for her camera instead of her gun? Could she get it without alerting him?

  As she crept backward, crablike, Hannah suppressed a giggle. Nothing majestic about her. Ridiculous would be a better description. She was armed against the cold with long thermal underwear and ugly flannel pajamas that she was going to burn as soon as she returned to Mississippi.

  Why hadn’t she flip-flopped her assignments and gone to the jungle in the fall and the frozen northwest in the summer? Then she could have been stretched out on a blanket letting the stars kiss her naked skin.

  Her mother had often told her she had the instincts of a wild animal and the cravings, to boot. Hannah guessed that was so. Why else did she spend so much time in jungles and forests and mountains? She could have followed stories that took her to glamorous places, big cities and bright lights.

  Why was she here in Denali at the onset of winter?

  Passion, her mother always said. Hannah is full of passion. And Hannah knew it was so. She brought such intensity to her work that after she turned in a story she was drained.

  What would happen if she ever met someone she could love? Someone who would love her right back? Would the intensity burn her up like a comet?

  Hannah shook her head, disgusted with herself. All those weddings had her addlepated. First her sister, then her brother.

  Let them follow the straight path. Tradition wasn’t for her. Hannah would always choose the back roads, destination unknown.

  Her hand closed around her camera, and she inched her way back to the tent flap to train her lens on the wolf. He was still in shadow and a cloud had passed over the moon. Hannah bided her time. This one was worth waiting for.

  She adjusted the focus and had zoomed in for a close-up when suddenly the moon popped from behind the cloud. Hannah froze. That was no wolf…that long tangle of hair, those eyes.

  But what then? What?

  The click of her shutter startled the creature and he loped into the woods. She strained her eyes toward the woods, looking for a sign, a shadow.

  And even though she could no longer see him, she knew he still watched. Somewhere out there in the darkness.

  Hannah dressed at first light, and when she stepped outside, big drops of rain splatted at her feet. She shook her fist at the sky.

  “Don’t you dare rain until I check those tracks.”

  She raced in the direction she thought she’d seen the creature and studied the ground. Nothing. Not even the criss-cross tracks of mice and birds.

  Hannah scanned her campsite. Everything looked different in the daylight. Where had she seen him? Which direction? Which tree?

  “Think,” she said. “Think
.”

  Her habit of talking to herself came from years of traveling alone, chasing her stories solo and often hearing no voice except her own for weeks at a time.

  Something was whispering to her. Instinct. Angels. Something.

  She turned around and saw the giant spruce, and suddenly she knew that was where she’d seen him. The creature of the night. The powerful watcher who exuded danger without making her afraid.

  Hannah hurried to the tree, careful as she came closer not to step over any tracks.

  There. Near the trunk. Protected by the thick branches.

  Hannah knelt to get a closer look…and there in the new-fallen snow was the footprint of man.

  “It can’t be. It can’t possibly be true.”

  She’d seen a wolf. Hadn’t she?

  She got down on all fours and searched for more tracks. Indecipherable indentions were scattered about, but the rain had wiped out any further evidence of the creature who had watched her from afar.

  Was her mind playing tricks? Had she seen what she’d thought?

  Hannah turned back to study the track. It was still there, undisturbed. Awestruck, she eased her own boot into the track. Though she was a tall woman with a long foot to match, the footprint in the snow dwarfed her boot.

  Was her watcher man or beast? She had no idea, but she intended to find out. Hannah raced to the tent to get her rain slicker and her camera then began to climb upward in the direction he’d gone.

  It didn’t take her long to realize the path was leading back to the territory of the wolf pack she’d been following for days. Up ahead she saw the outcropping of rock where the females sometimes sunned themselves while their cubs wrestled nearby.

  Their den was in the vicinity. Yesterday she’d gotten close enough to see the mouth of the cave. They probably didn’t trust her, but at least they were no longer afraid of her.

  Today not a wolf was in sight, not even the enormous white alpha male who protected his pack. Hannah pulled up the hood of her rain slicker and hunched down on a big rock to wait.

  Nothing stirred except the wind, which had picked up speed. The rain pelted down harder. Even if she saw something, she could no longer get a clear shot.