Maeve & the Wolf

A fated love. An ancient forest. And a deadly curse that only true love can break.

Two years after her husband was killed by a wolf in the forests of Riverwood, Maeve Winters has built a quiet life nurturing her native plant nursery—and trying to forget. But the forest calls to something wild within her, even as she fears its shadows.

Veterinarian Fen Harkness has spent years guarding his secrets and his heart. As one of the last wolf shifters in Riverwood, he knows the danger of losing control. But when he meets Maeve, his careful walls begin to crumble. She's his fated mate—and the one woman whose past could destroy them both.

As Maeve is drawn deeper into Riverwood's hidden world of shifters and ancient feuds, her brother-in-law Derek Lamb circles ever closer, harbouring dark obsessions of his own. When violence erupts in the forest once more, Maeve must choose between the safety she's always known and a love that could either save her—or shatter everything she believes about herself.

A magical fated-mates love story about unleashing your true self.

Chapter 1
Maeve

The forest seemed suddenly quiet, the tall trees shivering in the stillness as I slowed my steps on the hiking trail. Bright afternoon sunbeams peeked through the dense treetops, a fluttering mosaic of light and shade. My skin prickled, and I searched the nearby bushland beyond the trail.
I couldn’t see him, but I sensed him.
Stalking through the shadows, stealthy and unseen. Following my scent, or maybe just curious about why I was here. A creature of the night, a wild thing. A dangerous thing. But as long as I stayed on the track, he couldn’t hurt me.
At least, that’s what I told myself as I adjusted my backpack, clutching the small bouquet of native wildflowers closer to my chest, and walked deeper into the forest along the trail.
The wildflowers thinned out as the trees grew taller, blocking out the sun. My sneakers crunched on decaying leaves and twigs, the path heading uphill for a way. A lone butterfly flapped past my face, zooming upwards into the endless bright sky above.
“I’m doing this for you, Alec,” I whispered. “And for me.”
For two years, I had stayed away from this place. But Dr Palmer said it was time — time to face the memories, to make peace with what happened. I couldn’t keep living half a life, couldn’t keep letting the nightmares win.
I crouched to pick up a banksia seedpod, slipping it into my collection bag. Old habits. Even on this pilgrimage, I couldn’t help myself. Seeds had always been my passion, my connection to life and renewal. At least they had until …
“Don’t go there, girl.”
My therapist would be proud of me. Venturing out alone, living my life. Acting brave. Ignoring the suspicion that someone — or something — was following me. After two years, I had finally shaken off my nightmares and started making progress. Getting back to what I loved. What I needed. Hiking in the bush. Communing with nature.
Finding the person I’d been before.
Before...
Leave it alone, Maeve. It belongs in the past now.
I shook the woody seedpod, smiling as it rattled in my hand. Collecting seeds from rare plants had once been the centre of my world. And with my government permit renewed, I could roam freely through the state forest again, gathering samples while my soul revived itself. Yes, there were moments when my memories howled at me and made my heart race, but I did my best to ignore them.
I shivered despite the warm air.
My best friend Kitty said I was crazy to return here. Aren’t you scared of the forest now, Maeve? After what happened to Alec?
I clutched the bouquet tighter.
“We’re the scary ones, Kit. Us humans. Cutting down old-growth trees. Bulldozing habitat.” I trailed my gaze along the edge of the shadowy undergrowth. “Shooting all the wild dogs who are only trying to survive out here, which can’t always be easy.”
You should be glad they’re culling the dogs … after what the mongrels did. How do you know there’s not one stalking you right now?
I stopped walking.
“There’s nothing here,” I said, hating how my voice wavered. “Just me and the trees and the memories I need to face.”
Yeah, the trees. Why did it feel like they were watching me? With their twisted branches cutting off the sky and moss gripping their rough bark, shadows twitching at their feet.
“Okay, Maeve. Breathe.”
I gulped and kept going. According to the map, I was getting close to the spot. The clearing where it happened. Where Alec’s screams had torn through the night. Where I stood frozen, too paralysed by terror to help him as the huge dog attacked.
I had always dreamed of being a wild girl – one of those free spirits who shook out her hair and danced in the rain or sped along the river road on her gleaming trail bike, never caring what people thought. The sort of girl Nan used to warn me about. Girls who stray from the path come to a bad end, Maeve. Don’t let yourself become one of them, you hear?
I’d taken Nan’s words to heart and moulded myself into someone who never strayed, who never even questioned what lay beyond the path. But lately, while packaging seeds for my nursery, gazing up at the stars, or swamped by the loneliness of my cottage on the edge of town, I found myself wondering.
What was out there? And was it really so bad—?
A ray of light cut through the gloom, lighting up a bright blue orchid.
“Oh!”
The plant was well off the track and deeper in the forest. I hesitated, the flowers in one hand, my collection bag in the other. The clearing where Alec died was just ahead, but that orchid...
“Maybe a quick detour,” I whispered, stepping off the path. “Just for a moment.”
I made my way through the undergrowth, drawn by the vibrant blue petals. Each step taking me further from the safety of the trail. Beside the orchid sat a withered clump that made my pulse fly — a second plant nodding under the weight of a large ripe seedpod.
“You perfect little sweetheart,” I breathed, moving toward it. “You’re coming home with me!”
Three more steps and I’d reach it, dry leaves crackling under my boots. Two more steps—
A blur of silver-grey exploded from the shadows.
A massive wolf-like creature launched itself at me, jaws open, eyes blazing. I screamed, stumbling backward as it landed just in front of me, hackles raised, teeth bared in a savage snarl.
The flowers tumbled from my grip as I fell, scattering across the forest floor. The wolf loomed over me, its growl vibrating through the air, sending waves of terror through my body.
I scrambled backwards, my skin turning hot … then ice cold. It’s happening again … only this time it’s happening to me.
The big dog advanced, each step deliberate, its massive paws crushing the fallen flowers, its snowy muzzle twitching. Its eyes —pale grey-green, flaring silver in the dappled sun — never left mine, fierce and wild and somehow ... urgent.
I couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe. Terror turned my muscles to stone as the creature edged closer, its wild, musky scent overwhelming my senses—
You need to run, Maeve. Run as fast as you can and don’t look back.
With a choked sob, I lurched to my feet and bolted toward the path, heart thundering, lungs burning. I ran blindly, branches whipping my face, roots catching at my feet as I crashed through the undergrowth, desperate to reach the path.
A loud, metallic snap came from behind me and something let out an angry howl that seemed to shake the forest. It triggered a memory I’d fought so hard to bury—
Alec is screaming in the darkness. Our campfire just embers now. The night forest silent around us, except for his cries and the savage snarls. The scent of damp earth and decaying leaves mixing with that strong animal odour. Dog. Wolf. Then comes the metallic stench of blood, thick and sticky as it splatters onto my arm, burning with each drop as Alec keeps screaming, and me standing frozen, unable to move or do anything to help him—
“No!” I gasped, the flashback shattering as I stumbled onto the trail.
I didn’t look back. Didn’t stop to collect my scattered things or to lay the flowers at Alec’s spot. All I wanted was to escape, to flee back to my car, back to safety.
As long as you keep to the path, nothing can hurt you.
But I had strayed, just for a moment. And now I knew with terrifying certainty — the wolves were still out there. The same creatures that had torn my husband apart were hunting these woods. Hunting me.

Chapter 2
The Wolf

I bounded silently behind the human female, paws barely disturbing the forest floor. Hunger clawed at my insides. Two days since my last kill — a scrawny rabbit that barely filled the hollow in my belly. But it wasn’t food that drew me to her.
Her scent was ... everything. Rich. Complex. Layered like forest soil after rain. Beneath the sharp tang of her fear lay something else — something that made my nose twitch and my heart quicken. Something familiar.
I kept to the shadows between trees.
Humans were death. Always had been.
Years ago, I made a mistake. Let my guard down. Led humans to our den-places, the dark corners where my kind had always been safe. Now the pack was scattered, driven to the ancient woods where trees blocked the sun and prey ran thin.
I hadn’t meant to follow this one. Was tracking a fox when her scent cut across my path — warm skin, crushed wildflowers, and that strange metal humans carry. But beneath it all, a familiar note I couldn’t place.
Her breathing changed when she sensed me — quick, shallow. Heart drumming so loud I heard it from twenty paces back. A tiny gasp escaped her when my shadow flickered between trunks.
Then — she veered suddenly from the path, drawn by a flash of blue. A flower.
Something else caught my attention. The faintest whiff of metal and oil. My hackles rose instantly.
Trap.
There, beneath the fallen leaves where she was heading. Human hunters had laid their cruel metal teeth, waiting to snap closed on any creature that crossed their path.
She was walking straight toward it, unaware.
I didn’t understand the surge of panic that flooded my veins. She was human — one of them. The ones who drove us from our territories, who hunted my kind. Yet I couldn’t let her step into that trap. The thought of those metal teeth closing on her fragile flesh made my heart race with fear.
Without thinking, I burst from the undergrowth. Lunged towards her, teeth bared, a warning growl tearing from my throat. Had to frighten her. Had to make her stop, turn back.
Her eyes widened, terror flooding her scent. She fell backward, away from where the trap lay hidden. Good. Safe. But the fear in her eyes — it twisted something inside me. Made me want to press close, show her I meant no harm.
Impossible. I was what humans feared in the darkness. They were what I feared, too.
She scrambled away, flowers scattered across the forest floor. Her fear-scent sharp and overwhelming. I watched her flee back to the safety of the path.
Only when she was gone did I turn to leave. My paw caught the edge of a twig — and the trap slammed shut.
PAIN.
Metal teeth clamped around my foreleg, biting through fur, through flesh, through bone. A sound ripped from my throat — half-howl, half-scream. My body convulsed, twisting against the trap. Blood — hot, thick, mine — pulsed between the metal jaws, dripped to the forest floor. The rich copper scent of it filled my nostrils.
My teeth snapped uselessly at the unyielding trap. Each movement sent fresh agony shooting up my leg. I knew this pain. Had seen pack-mates caught this way before. Had heard their cries fade to whimpers as the light left their eyes.
I knew what followed.
Humans with their guns that spat death. Humans who laughed while they skinned my kind for their pelts.
I dragged myself in a circle, metal chain rattling behind me. My breath came in hot, ragged pants. My vision grew cloudy. I rolled my eyes upwards, but the moon could not help me while the dying sun still shone. I threw myself backward, muscles straining, bone grinding against metal.
Fight. Must fight.
But deep inside, where the wild met the knowing, I understood.
This was how it ended.
And yet — I couldn’t regret it. The female was safe. The human with the familiar scent had escaped the trap that now held me. It made no sense that I cared. No sense at all.
But as darkness crept into the edges of my vision, her scent lingered in my memory. Something about her ... something I needed to understand before the end came.

Chapter 3
Maeve

I ran back along the hiking trail until my lungs burned and my legs trembled, the forest a blur around me. Only when I reached my car did I stop, collapsing against the door, gasping for breath.
“Never again,” I promised, hands shaking as I fumbled with my keys. “Never again.”
Yet even as I sped away, tyres spitting gravel behind me on the forest road, something stirred inside me. As my heart rate slowed, a small, detached part of me wondered about those grey-green eyes. They hadn’t looked mindlessly savage like the ones in my nightmares.
They had looked ... knowing.
Almost human.
I shuddered, glad when I emerged onto the bitumen road that led back to town. Soon the forest thinned out, and the hiking trail — and the creature lurking there — began to seem like a distant nightmare.
I slumped back into the seat.
Wolves had been in Riverwood for as long as I could remember. As a child, I’d heard stories about them. And warnings. If you must go into the forest, keep on the path. Wolves are deadly but also shy. They won’t come for you … unless you stray into their domain.
No other area in Australia had a wolf problem — they just didn’t exist here in the wild. Except for Riverwood. Nan said that forty years ago, a deer eradication program backfired, and an introduced pack escaped into the forest. As far as the government was concerned, out of sight was out of mind. But over the years there’d been sightings.
And killings.
Calves. Sheep. Foals. If someone went missing, the locals blamed the wolves. No matter if that person turned up later, the legends only seemed to grow. After what happened to Alec, the hunters grabbed their rifles and went looking, culling plenty of wild dogs along the way. The wolves were hated here, with good reason — they were savage, beastly things that deserved everything they got—
“Stop it!” I unclamped my stiff fingers from the wheel. “I’m spooked enough, okay?”
I drove to my native plant nursery on the south side of town. Nan’s Wild Posy was a play on my nan’s name, Posy. Her legal career had kept her away from gardening most of her adult life, but now in retirement, she devoted all her time to her plants. When I opened my nursery, it seemed a no-brainer to name it after her.
I went straight to the fridge at the rear of the shop in search of comfort food. I found some of Nan’s cake left over from lunch and stood with the fridge door open, scarfing it down, the sugar hit reviving me.
“Maeve?” Kitty barged in, her arms overflowing with seed trays. She wasn’t scheduled to work today, but she often came in to pot up plants for her property on the outskirts of town. “I thought you’d gone to Nan’s?”
“Not yet.” I gestured at the fridge. “Just … getting a snack.”
“You look terrible. All pasty and weak.”
“Yeah, thanks.”
She frowned, setting aside the trays. “You’ve got leaves in your hair. And is that a graze on your face? Please tell me you didn’t—”
I dusted cake crumbs off my fingers and ran them through my tangled hair, elbowing my cheek where I’d bounced off a tree. Unable to meet her eyes.
“You bloody fool,” she said gently, coming over to give me an awkward one-armed hug. “Next time you go into the forest, let me know and I’ll come with you.”
“Sure.” I untangled myself and collected the plants I’d set aside for Nan, then retrieved my bag and keys. “I’ll tell Nan you said hello.”
Kitty nodded and trailed after me, thoughtful. “You know, Mae. What happened to Alec wasn’t your fault. It was tragic, of course. But you couldn’t have saved him.”
“I know.”
“I’m just glad it wasn’t you.”
“Is that meant to make me feel better?”
“Yeah.” She puffed out a breath. “Doesn’t it?”
“I guess — in a bitter and twisted kind of way.”
“Then quit blaming yourself, okay?”
I stopped and slowly turned. Kitty was older than me, in her forties and gorgeous with her mane of pale gold hair and Nordic features, so like Nan’s. She was my best friend and the person I trusted most in the world — next to Nan. Yet I hadn’t told her everything about Alec and what really happened that night in the forest. Some things were too shameful to share, even with her.
“I’m getting there, Kit. I promise.”
Her smile wasn’t quite convincing, but she perked up suddenly. “Hey, let’s go to the Glade on Saturday. It’ll be fun. You can practice getting back into the swing of things.”
“Um … I don’t know.”
“Aww, go on. Please?”
I blew out a breath. “We’ll see.”
As I crossed the car park, she called out to me.
“Don’t forget your togs, we’ll go for a swim!”
I waved feebly back and unlocked my car, dropping my keys as I climbed in. I wasn’t sure how I felt about her plan. Riverwood had only one social hub in summer, and that was the sandy picnic area that everyone called the Glade. The whole town would be there, sunbaking and swimming in the river. Grilling their sausages and steaks, and hanging out with their families.
Including the Lambs.
I started up the car, muttering under my breath.
“Maybe I’ll come down with something nasty on Friday night. Toothache. A stomach bug. A severe case of avoiding the in-laws-itis.”
Sounded like a plan.
I saw Derek Lamb too much as it was. After Alec died, his older brother took a sudden interest in me. Dropping by the shop unannounced, turning up to help with odd jobs. It might have been sweet — if only he didn’t creep me out so much. Kitty had hinted that Derek was a catch, pushing me to move on and give him a chance. But she didn’t know what I knew about the Lamb family.
And I had no intention of ever telling her.