THE WEREWOLF
DATES THE DEPUTY
Nocturne Falls, Book Twelve
Kristen Painter
Welcome to Nocturne Falls, the town that celebrates Halloween 365 days a year. The tourists think it’s all a show: the vampires, the werewolves, the witches, the occasional gargoyle flying through the sky. But the supernaturals populating the town know better.
Living in Nocturne Falls means being yourself. Fangs, fur, and all.
Fire chief and werewolf, Titus Merrow, has a pretty good life. Great family, great job, great friends. No love interest, sure, but he’s got too much going on to worry about that. Like the 10k race for charity that he’s helping to plan. Too bad the woman he’s planning it with is so hot. No, wait. He meant annoying.
Sheriff’s deputy and valkyrie, Jenna Blythe, has somehow gotten stuck working on a charity event with her boss’s brother. Not only is Titus Merrow full of himself, but he challenges every suggestion she makes about the race. Why are the handsome ones always so smug? She can’t wait to beat him in the competition and bring home the trophy for the sheriff’s department. Again.
But when they answer a call together and things explode, dangerous magic is unleashed. They’re suddenly forced to work together. Literally. And the magic only gets more treacherous as time ticks forward. Not even Jenna’s good friend seems to be able to help them as shady forces lurk in every shadow.
Swords and sorcery abound, and Jenna’s past comes back to haunt her. She and Titus are left with no choice but to question everything—and everyone. Who’s targeting them? Is what they’re feeling real? Can love survive against darkness? Can a valkyrie learn to run with the pack?
THE WEREWOLF DATES THE DEPUTY:
Nocturne Falls, Book Twelve
Copyright © 2020 Kristen Painter
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—except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews—without permission in writing from the author.
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, events, and places portrayed in this book are products of the author’s imagination and are either fictitious or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to real person, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.
ISBN: 978-1-941695-56-2
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NEWSLETTER
Table of Contents
THE WEREWOLF DATES THE DEPUTY
About the Book
Copyright
Dedication
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
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
About the Author
Other books by Kristen Painter
Many Thanks
For my husband, who may or may not have inspired a few lines of dialogue in this book.
Being the sheriff of a town where Halloween was celebrated three hundred and sixty-five days a year had its ups and downs. Today wasn’t an up.
Hank Merrow stared across the conference table at the two stubbornest people on the face of the earth. His brother, Titus, who was also the fire chief, and one of his best deputies, Jenna Blythe, a valkyrie.
The only other person who might be more stubborn than these two was his sister, Bridget, who owned the local watering hole, Howler’s. No, wait. Make that their aunt, Birdie Caruthers, the woman he’d foolishly hired in a weak moment of nepotism to work as the sheriff department’s receptionist.
Okay, maybe stubbornness ran in the family. But that didn’t explain Jenna.
She and Titus stared back at him, waiting on an answer.
He growled softly. “Look, I forgot. It happens. I have a three-year-old at home. I’m lucky I remember to eat breakfast. Can’t one of you just step aside?”
Titus shook his head. “Kind of dirty pool using my niece as an excuse. But I’m not stepping aside. It’s high time the fire department got to organize the charity relay 10K. The sheriff’s department always does it.”
“That’s because we do it right,” Jenna said.
Titus glared at her. “And you think we wouldn’t?”
She raised her brows. “I think you’d make it all about the fire department, and it’s supposed to benefit all first responders. Plus, you’d probably make people carry hoses or buckets of water.”
Titus snorted. “That’s quite an assumption, and I don’t like—”
“Enough,” Hank said. “Since neither of you wants to step down, you can co-chair the project.”
Jenna scowled. “What?”
Titus looked fit to chew nails. “Hank, that is not—”
Hank stood. “I’m going back to my office and back to work. The matter is settled. Unless one of you wants to quit.” He almost cringed. He shouldn’t have said quit. There was no way either one of them would do that.
The two of them, the werewolf and the valkyrie, went back to arguing. With him or with each other, he wasn’t entirely sure, but he wasn’t sticking around to find out. He left and shut the door behind him. Their bickering carried through the door—although to be fair, he was a werewolf, so his hearing picked up a lot more than most people’s.
He pinched the bridge of his nose.
Birdie, seated behind the reception desk, snickered. “How’d that go?”
He gave her a look. “You can hear as well as I can. You already know.”
“Yes, I do.” She sipped her caramel-and-cinnamon-scented coffee, if you could even call such a froufrou drink coffee. Ripples of white foam remained on the surface, all that was left of the whipped cream that had once topped it. “But I still want to talk about it.”
“I don’t.” He went straight to
