Charity's Storm (Charity Series Book 4)

Charity’s Storm

Charity Series, Book 4

DeAnna Kinney

Copyright © 2014 by DeAnna Kinney

Published by Kinney Publishing

Editing by Elaine Grice

Cover design by Laura Hudson

ISBN-
13:
978-1493691494

ISBN-10:
149369149X

All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission from the owner.

This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination and are fictitious. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, places, or actual events are purely coincidental.

Charity Moon (Charity Series Book 1)

Charity Rising (Charity Series Book 2)

Raven’s Rose (Charity Series Book 3)

Exposing Kitty Langley

Loving Lily Lavender

Box of Gaza

*All of these titles are available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and iBooks.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my faithful fans of the Charity Series. After receiving comments from many of you about how upset you were that the series was over, I began thinking of new story lines that might appeal to me, and voila, book four was born.

Thank you also to my amazing beta readers, Kellee Fabre and Sydney Moore. You guys rock!

I want to give a special shout out to an amazing fan and new friend, Haley Nugent. I look forward to reading
your
books someday.             

As always, if you enjoyed this story, please leave a review on Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Thank you.

A Note from the Author

After book 3, I thought I was done with Windrake Mountain and the Drake pack for a while. I even said so. But with so many of you falling in love with Charity’s character, I thought it would be great to take a glimpse into Charity’s life before Levi, and before all the anger consumed her and see what caused it all. I, for one, wanted to see her as a swee
t, happy young girl with little-to-no worries and fears, before all the monsters of make believe became real to her. But don’t worry; you will get a fair dose of furry hotness in this one, even getting to see Charity and Levi as loving parents, which was my absolute favorite part. I hope you will enjoy this backstory and continuation of our beloved Charity and her friends and family we have come to love so much.

             
After the story is over, keep reading for a sneak peek at my upcoming New Adult Romance,
Forever June.

Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.    Prov. 22:6

Charity
Revealed

Chapter One

I heavily saturated my lips with my favorite raspberry ice lip balm and then pulled out all of the contents from the picnic basket, spreading them onto the extra-large blue and white checkered blanket. I glanced over at Levi who was lying on the other end, gazing up at the cloudless sky. He appeared so peaceful, and I was awestruck at the masculine beauty of him. It was something I never got used to. His wavy brown hair was wild but soft, and I could easily make out his sculpted jawline from where I sat across from him. He was so tall that his lower legs hung off of the blanket and into the grass, but he didn’t care as the fingers on his left hand played mindlessly with blades of grass. I sighed deeply in contentment. He was mine and mine alone, and yet it still felt like yesterday when he strolled confidently into my Calculus class and shot an arrow through all the girls’ fickle hearts—all but mine, of course. My heart was a brick, and I was the stubborn one, holding on to my anger so strongly that it took weeks for him to penetrate it, but I’m so thankful he was persistent. Where would my life be without the beautiful boy with the purple eyes; the boy who snatched my gum from me and then shocked me senseless by popping into his mouth on that first day? That was a question I never wanted to know the answer to.

Sensing m
y ogling, Levi turned and glanced at me. He smiled crookedly and gave me a playful wink. I grabbed my chest in a dramatic fashion (no surprise there) and fell over onto the blanket, playing dead.

“Very funny, Charity,” he said, and I heard the humor in his voice.

I laughed happily and sat up. “Oh, you know you love it.
Darrow, Deacon, and Dixon!!” I yelled toward the forest. “Lunch is ready! Where are those three stooges anyway?” I complained as I set the last of the lunch items out onto the picnic blanket. Levi smiled, put his hands behind his head, and closed his eyes.

             
“Um, perhaps you didn’t hear me, my furry hotness.” 

I could tell by the way he scrunched his nose that he picked up on my sarcasm. He wasn’t as oblivious as he pretended to be.

He opened one eye and looked up at me playfully. “Are you talkin’ to me?”

I reached over and slapped him on the arm.

He laughed and rose to his elbows. “Boys!” His thunderous voice echoed through the clearing causing the birds to take flight and the animals to scurry and dodge through the forest in fear.

Suddenly, the three five
year-olds came flying from the forest and into the clearing with our dog, Fang, tight on their heels. I glared at Levi in annoyance.

He shrugged and laughed again. “I guess we know who’s boss, now don’t we?”

I smiled a knowing smile. I never wanted to be the boss. I just liked making him think I did. It kept him on his toes. The truth is I liked it when he was taking control, but I would never tell him that. “Yeah, puppy, you just keep tellin’ yourself that.”

The three angelic children stopped in front of me. But it wasn’t their brilliant smiles that drew my attention. It was the dog now sitting beside t
hem. His tongue was hanging almost to the ground, a sure sign that they had run him ragged. “Um, boys, why is Fang covered in dirt?” I asked, already knowing the answer. The dog let them do anything to him, short of killing him. Fang became their shadow the moment the boys began walking.

“It was Deacon’s idea to try and bury him, Momma
,” Dixon said, his expression oozing with innocence.

I peered
at Deacon, and he shrugged.

“Uh huh, sit,” I said, my voice laced with slight amusement.

The three boys plopped down and sat Indian-style on the blanket, and I passed each one their plate piled high with sandwiches, specially prepared by our chef Barney, and Doritos, their favorite. I scolded one of them with just a glance as he passed Fang a chip, who swallowed it whole without chewing, and then proceeded to cough and hack for five minutes.

I passed the boys some wipes to clean their hands, Levi said the prayer, and the
n everyone chowed down. I looked around the blanket in contentment, starting with Levi. He was so handsome, even his loud eating like a deprived cannibal, and the mustard that dribbled from the corners of his mouth, didn’t detract from his gorgeousness. I then peered at the adorable boys who stole my heart over five years ago.

Each on
e was completely unique in his own way. Darrow, the oldest by six minutes, had curly blonde hair and my crystal blue eyes. He was our tough one, never complaining, and strong as an ox. Deacon had wavy, brown hair and purplish-blue eyes like his father. He was our mischievous one, always getting himself and the others into trouble. And Dixon had straight black hair and beautiful green eyes like his Papa Joseph. He was the shy one with a sweet and gentle spirit. He confessed his wrong doings before we even knew he had done anything wrong. I had heard that most triplets were supposed to be identical, but my boys weren’t. No one knew why. It was just another mystery in the world of wolves. Eli joked and said it was because I didn’t have triplets, I had a litter, and all pups in a litter were unique.
He’s such a doof
. But somehow, despite their array of coloring, they all looked like Levi, and all three had his adorable dimples. I felt sorry for the girls whose hearts would be broken by those amazing Drake dimples.

“Momma?” Deacon asked, wiping
his mouth with the sleeve of his shirt.

I rolled my eyes and handed him another napkin. “Yes, baby?”

“Um, how come you don’t have a daddy? Uncle Hector said he died. Is that true?”

I froze. The question caught me off guard. I knew it would eventually come up and I would have to tell them about my dad someday, but I didn’t think it would be this soon. I had actually been having dreams of my father recently and found mysel
f thinking a lot about him.

All three boys stopped eating and looked at me with eager anticipation. Levi, sensing my alarm, spoke up in my defense. “Well, you see boys, your momma has a hard time talking about that. But Hector was right, he is dead and he has been in Heaven since way before you were born.”

              “But I wanna know what happened,” Deacon whined.

Levi’s voice took on a
sharp edge. “That’s enough. Your momma will tell you that story when she feels you are ready to hear it.” Then his voice, and his gaze, softened. “Okay?”

             
Deacon lowered his head but agreed. “Yes, Daddy.”

             
Levi rubbed my arm reassuringly, and I really appreciated the gesture. I smiled back at him, but the memories where already returning without my permission.

             
The rest of the day was glorious as was every day that I spent with my amazing family, but the images of the horrible night my father died kept periodically entering my thoughts. That was the night that changed everything for me, turning me from a sweet, innocent young girl into an angry and fearful one. And it wasn’t something I liked to think about, much less talk about.