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Wolf Haven
Lindsay McKenna
Talented McKenna delivers excitement and romance in equal measure.–RT Book ReviewsShe's caught in her past until he shows her a future…Some things can never be forgotten. A helicopter crash in Afghanistan. Capture. Torture. Now U.S. Navy nurse Skylar Pascal is struggling to regain control of her life after a trauma that nearly destroyed her. After losing so much, an ideal job at the Elk Horn Ranch in Wyoming offers Sky something she thought she'd never find again…hope.Former SEAL Grayson McCoy has his own demons. But something about Elk Horn's lovely-yet-damaged new nurse breaks something loose. Compassion–and passion. And even as Gray works with Sky to piece her confidence back together, something deeper and more tender begins to unfurl between them. Something that could bring her back to life.But not even the haven of Elk Horn Ranch is safe from dangers. And all of Sky's healing could be undone by the acts of one malicious man….
She’s caught in her past until he shows her a future…
Some things can never be forgotten. A helicopter crash in Afghanistan. Capture. Torture. Now U.S. Navy nurse Skylar Pascal is struggling to regain control of her life after a trauma that nearly destroyed her. After losing so much, an ideal job at the Elk Horn Ranch in Wyoming offers Sky something she thought she’d never find again…hope.
Former SEAL Grayson McCoy has his own demons. But something about Elk Horn’s lovely-yet-damaged new nurse breaks something loose. Compassion—and passion. And even as Gray works with Sky to piece her confidence back together, something deeper and more tender begins to unfurl between them. Something that could bring her back to life.
But not even the haven of Elk Horn Ranch is safe from dangers. And all of Sky’s healing could be undone by the acts of one malicious man….
Praise for LINDSAY McKENNA (#ulink_fd0ed807-7df0-5162-99db-a6c02b942410)
“A treasure of a book…highly recommended reading that everyone will enjoy and learn from.”
—Chief Michael Jaco, U.S. Navy SEAL, retired, on Breaking Point
“McKenna’s latest is an intriguing tale…a unique twist on the romance novel, and one that’s sure to please.”
—RT Book Reviews on Dangerous Prey
“McKenna’s military experience shines through in this moving tale.… McKenna (High Country Rebel) skillfully takes readers on an emotional journey into modern warfare and two people’s hearts.”
—Publishers Weekly on Down Range
“Gunfire, emotions, suspense, tension and sexuality abound in this fast-paced, absorbing novel.”
—Affaire de Coeur on Wild Woman
“Another masterpiece.”
—Affaire de Coeur on Enemy Mine
“Emotionally charged…riveting and deeply touching.”
—RT Book Reviews on Firstborn
“Ms. McKenna brings readers along for a fabulous odyssey in which complex characters experience the danger, passion and beauty of the mystical jungle.”
—RT Book Reviews on Man of Passion
“Readers will find this addition to the Shadow Warriors series full of intensity and action-packed romance. There is great chemistry between the characters and tremendous realism, making Breaking Point a great read.”
—RT Book Reviews
“Lindsay McKenna will have you flying with the daring and deadly women pilots who risk their lives.… Buckle in for the ride of your life.”
—Writers Unlimited on Heart of Stone
Wolf Haven
Lindsay McKenna
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
Dear Reader (#ulink_24ac6bbe-91ea-54f9-8ed1-7da6e38614a1),
At last, my next Wyoming series book! In this story, you’ll get to catch up with Iris Mason and the expansion at her dude ranch. Iris is one of those people who will never let grass grow under her feet! She has a strong loyalty to the environment. And to that end, she has created a huge wildlife center on the ranch. She loves wolves and is lucky enough to snag Navy ex-SEAL Grayson McCoy to manage her facility. Now that he’s left the Navy, this is a dream job come true for him.
RN Sky Pascal, who has suffered torture at the hands of the Taliban and has serious PTSD symptoms, is desperate to find a job. Her last hope is at the Elk Horn Ranch as a nurse and a part-time babysitter. Further, she will be expected to assist Gray McCoy at the wildlife center. Sky was once a confident and competent ER nurse. Now, broken by torture, she struggles to reclaim herself.
We have many military men and women vets returning from Afghanistan. And PTSD is common to them. There are no “front lines” anymore. As a military veteran myself (US Navy), I’ve had a lot of friends and some family who have returned with PTSD. I know it up front and close.
By reading this story, I hope you will understand more deeply what this toxic trauma does to a person. The darkness of our wounds cannot hide any longer when love is brought into the mix.
I hope you enjoy Wolf Haven! Sign up for my newsletter and receive the latest news on my books. Exclusive previews, scenes and even a chapter from a book I’m writing will only be shared with you!
Warmly,
Lindsay McKenna
www.LindsayMcKenna.com (http://www.LindsayMcKenna.com)
To Frances Ann Overton, one of my wonderful and inspiring readers, who has done so much for so many others. She is a role model as a special education teacher for the mentally handicapped in Kanab, Utah. Thank you for all you do, Frances. You have the biggest heart
of anyone I’ve ever met. The children under your care are very blessed to have you in their lives.
And
To Murray and Debbie Shields, owners of Eco-Treks, Toronto, Canada. You two truly inspire those who go on your offered trips a chance to reconnect with the beauty of our planet in so many wonderful ways. Thank you for allowing us to be with you on the Fraser River Bald Eagle Festival near Mission, British Columbia, Canada, November 2013. As photographers, we got so many wonderful photos of these incredible raptors. I recommend your tours to everyone around the world! You are a heart-centered couple who truly brings back the “wild” in wildlife, for beautiful hikes through rugged country, great for photographers, birders or those in need of healing with Mother Earth and all her relations. Thank you! www.Eco-Treks.com (http://www.Eco-Treks.com)
Contents
Cover (#u4f660bd7-8aff-5c33-acf0-97d161626f78)
Back Cover Text (#u9714937b-e226-51d2-8156-a39ed160c3fc)
Praise (#ulink_1fe50fd1-499f-550c-858a-aef2094a520d)
Title Page (#u1f066be6-1d16-5be7-b480-7a1b202efef6)
Dear Reader (#ulink_8cd9ccea-fbe0-5c91-8876-325f7febd78e)
Dedication (#u6c2eb6f4-b8db-5cab-af12-2bbe92516251)
CHAPTER ONE (#ulink_0e498f5b-7fbc-5754-8556-423722797b19)
CHAPTER TWO (#ulink_2f72dc7a-d9ef-55c0-b517-9f384b7a7c49)
CHAPTER THREE (#ulink_7a40d6a9-3958-5d16-bfcd-36f65388be06)
CHAPTER FOUR (#ulink_24c1a3bf-0454-5f80-8f7a-0fa070668faf)
CHAPTER FIVE (#ulink_bb763a95-7f65-5916-ae45-ebd15f3e7035)
CHAPTER SIX (#ulink_091fa192-df5b-5328-a762-6802d05a0a5e)
CHAPTER SEVEN (#ulink_13e26db0-6a83-530f-ba5e-fd53c9e8894b)
CHAPTER EIGHT (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER NINE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER ELEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWELVE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER THIRTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER FOURTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER FIFTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SIXTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER NINETEEN (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWENTY (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX (#litres_trial_promo)
Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)
CHAPTER ONE (#ulink_1351b269-df15-5ea6-8fca-c8b2a09f8d7a)
SKY PASCAL MOANED, tossing in her sleep on the hotel bed. Her stomach was in knots, with the pain radiating outward. She flinched and drew her legs up toward her body. The vibration of the Black Hawk helicopter surrounded her. She could smell the sweat from the bodies of the air crewmen on this flight to Forward Operating Base, or FOB, Charlie. The odor of the kerosene aviation fuel was always present.
She’d been asked to fly along with Dr. Aaron Zimmerman to take a look at an Army soldier who was thought to have appendicitis. They had been over at a different FOB when the call came in. The FOBs were only forty miles from one another, and they were the closest medical team that could respond.
Now the vibration of the Hawk skittered through her. Sky was on the metal deck of the medevac helicopter as it raced through the darkness to reach the soldier.
She was an emergency-room trained R.N. and Zimmerman, who sat near the door, was a surgeon, specializing in internal medicine. Two other combat medic crewmen, whom she could not see, were nearby. The two pilots to her left were wearing night-vision goggles.
The tension was so thick it felt like a wet blanket around her hunched shoulders. Her mind raced.
She was assigned to the Army hospital at Bagram Air Base near Kabul, Afghanistan. A first lieutenant, she had three years under her belt in the U.S. Navy. It wasn’t unusual for different military services to have personnel assigned to the huge, busy hospital. She loved her job in the E.R. Sky was good in a crisis—cool and calm. That was why Zimmerman had asked her to go with him as he visited the outlying FOBs. If he had to perform surgery on the spot at the FOB, he wanted someone like her with him.
But now her mouth was dry, and her heart was skipping beats in her chest. She was dressed in Navy fatigues, the “blueberries” coloring standing out starkly against others who wore desert-hued uniforms. Glad to have the forty-pound Kevlar vest on, Sky lived for missions like this. They were exciting and scary as hell.
She knew there was danger with any helo flight. The Black Hawk Army pilots, who were from the black-ops Night Stalker squadron, were flying high enough so the Taliban couldn’t send grenade launchers up at them. However, the Stinger missiles were always a threat. One could blow them out of the sky regardless of their altitude. Sky was a knot of excitement and fear, adrenaline leaking through her bloodstream.
She couldn’t see through the darkness because she wasn’t wearing night-vision goggles. Only the four crew members were wearing NVGs. The flight wasn’t long to FOB Charlie, located three miles from the Pakistan border. There were only two platoons at the Army base.
Sky was told this particular FOB was an essential stopgap measure to halt or slow down the Taliban and al Qaeda soldiers trying to sneak into Afghanistan. FOB Charlie was an important deterrent.
Zimmerman had warned her beforehand that this would be a dangerous mission because of the FOB’s location. Sky had leaped at the chance. Maybe she was bored. But that couldn’t possibly be. She lived on the same dicey border of stress and pressure in the E.R. Night and day, men and women were brought in chewed up by the weapons of war. She felt no small amount of pride in being part of the E.R. team who helped save those lives. Now she was going to help a young soldier with appendicitis.
The sound of the engines changed on the Black Hawk. Sky felt a sudden lurch, the nose suddenly dropping. She inhaled sharply, throwing out her hand on one of the litters against the wall. Wearing a helmet, she heard the tense, short exchanges between the two pilots.
Something was wrong.
She caught a whiff of what smelled like burning oil entering the cabin. Her pulse ratcheted up.
A sudden shrieking, screaming noise blasted through the cabin of the Black Hawk. The bird banked sharply right and plunged downward. It happened so fast. The thumping of the blades. Being thrown up against the skin, striking her head hard on the bulkhead, nearly losing consciousness. Suddenly, they were upside down. She hadn’t been able to wear the seat belt. The other crewmen were thrown around, as well. Yelling and sharp orders from the pilot filled the ears of her helmet.
They were falling out of the sky. The screeching of metal upon metal continued to shriek through the cabin.
Her mouth went dry. Sky bit back a scream. Oh, God, they were going to crash! It was some sort of mechanical malfunction. Her mind swam with terror. Where were they? She couldn’t see out the window! Gravity was shoving her hard against the aluminum skin of the Black Hawk. She was scared. She was going to die!
* * *
SKY REARED UP in the bed, screaming. The sound echoed about the small hotel room. Sweat leaked down her temples. Her ginger, shoulder-length hair swung around her face, momentarily blinding her as she threw her hands out, as if to stop herself from falling. Her legs were entangled in the sheets. She breathed in heaving sobs as she opened her eyes, trying to get rid of the sensation of the plummeting helicopter she rode down in the crash.
Still reeling from her nightmare, Sky lurched jerkily out of the bed and fell onto the carpeted floor. Landing with an oomph, her head slamming into the floor, she snapped wide-awake. She groaned, drawing up her hands, covering her face, lying flat on her belly, unable to move.
If she closed her eyes, she saw the crash behind her eyelids. If she opened her eyes, she could still smell the burning oil in the cabin, feel the helo vibrating like a wild, wounded thing around her. She heard the terse commands and tightness in the pilots’ voices up in the cockpit as they wrestled to stop the bird from augering into the Afghanistan mountains.
Her nostrils flared, and she felt the sweat running down her face. Her breath came out in explosive gasps. Her heart pounded. Oh, God... Oh, God... I’m here. Not there. I’m here. I survived... God, I survived.... And she kept up the litany in her head, unable to erase the coming crash. Or what happened after that.
Sky pushed her trembling fingers into the tight weave of the carpet, trying to orient herself to here and now.
Why wouldn’t the images go away? Why wouldn’t she stop feeling the Black Hawk shivering and whumping around her? Get up! Get up!
