by Amy Ruttan
Private Release
Amy Ruttan
Jared Stevens hasn’t been the same since he was shot. His duty is to marry a Mukswa woman and be a strong leader. He lets the elders of his clan choose his bride, because the woman he wants is only in his fantasies, the only woman who brings him to exquisite release.
Adele Banks loved being a Mountie, but one shot ended her career and altered her world forever. Adele is determined to make a life for herself. She’s hired to recover Beare Enterprises’ embezzled funds, but what she didn’t count on is being extremely attracted to her client upon meeting him for the first time—when he’s naked in his shower.
Adele is Jared’s mystery woman, but she’s taboo. He bonds to her, but has to keep his society secret, as much as he wants to mark her as his own. As Jared fights his own inner beast, remnants of the prior chief’s wrath are affecting the clan and Adele. To save her life, Jared may just have to betray his clan’s secret and risk his heart.
A Romantica® paranormal erotic romance from Ellora’s Cave
Private Release
Amy Ruttan
Chapter One
Officer Banks is good. She may no longer be a member of the RCMP, but she’s a great forensic investigator. One of the best, Gordon had emailed. Jared hated the fact he had to bring in outside help to clear up the mess in which his father’s clan was involved.
Correction. His clan. He was chief now and responsible for every soul who was part of it.
Death, destruction and despair were all that was left of his family’s Mukswa clan. Levi, in his quest for power, had destroyed everything.
Sheridan offered to stay after she was joined with Gordon, but she was newly mated to the right male, and carried an heir to a tribe older than his. This was no place for her.
Jared had more than his work cut out for him, and even though he wasn’t fully healed since Levi’s demise at the hands of his new brother-in-law, he still did more than their tribal doctors recommended.
Jared scrubbed his hands over his face and then moved away from his computer. He caught sight of his reflection in the mirror. God, the elders were right. He looked like shit. He survived his ordeal, but he was worried his clan wouldn’t survive its wounds. The clan bore scars that ran deep.
He pushed his rolling chair away from the desk where he had spent the last several hours going over the drained bank accounts. Levi had hidden the money, but who the fuck knew where.
Jared wandered out to the balcony of his parents’—now his—penthouse suite. Below him other luxurious apartments housed the rest of his clan, or what remained of it.
He leaned on the railing. The lights of downtown Winnipeg glittered against the skyline and reflected in the dark waters where the Assiniboine River met the Red and continued to meander through the city. It was like a picture-perfect postcard.
Though below him was far from perfect. Next to the financial statements was a list of missing clanspeople.
A few were young women, like Sheridan, and Jared couldn’t even fathom what Levi had done with them. He had an inkling and it tore at his heart.
Some leader you were.
It was in moments like these that he yearned to be back in his bear form, wandering high up in the muskeg of Manitoba’s north, swimming from floe to floe in Hudson Bay. Only since he’d been shot he hadn’t been able to shift and the bear inside him was growing restless. As if on cue his wound throbbed. He rolled his shoulder and cursed under his breath. Pent-up energy swirled around inside him as fierce as a winter storm.
Restlessness wasn’t the only thing stirring in his blood. He was antsy. Fuck that, he was horny as hell.
It’d been far too long since he sought his comfort in the arms of a woman.
When his father had been chief and their clan had been prosperous he’d been a playboy, sowing his wild oats with Mukswa women and human women alike.
His clan was decimated, sinking into a pit of near extinction. Now was not the time to play fast and loose. He couldn’t be parading women in and out of his bedroom. He had an image of dignity and pride to uphold.
He was the chief.
Already the elders were pushing him to choose someone, a mate to bring him an heir, but that thought didn’t appeal to him in the least.
It’s your duty.
His own dearly departed parents had an arranged mating and were, for the most part, happy.
At least they seemed happy.
But then there was Sheridan who married for love, who was attracted to her mate. And Gordon was enraptured and totally devoted to Sheridan. Jared wanted that. Why couldn’t he have that?
You know why.
He didn’t have time to search for a mate and have his heir. Members of Levi’s gang were still at large. He couldn’t leave his clan without a successor. The elevator, which opened straight into his suite, dinged softly.
“Chief Jared, where you at?” Étienne, his second-in-command, called out.
Jared didn’t answer. Étienne would find him. Étienne was the man who helped Sheridan escape. He had his own cross to bear in the aftermath of Levi’s evil. He heard Étienne’s heavy footfalls across the apartment, down the steps of the sunken living room and up to the landing leading out onto the terrace.
“Jared?” Étienne’s gruff voice came from behind.
“Yeah?” Jared finally answered, not turning around to look at him.
“The elders have gathered in the chambers, they’re waiting for you. Are you ready, bro?”
No. “Yeah. I’m ready.”
He glanced at Étienne. The man looked like shit too. Levi’s thugs had messed up his face. Three long claw marks ran down his face, causing a part of his mouth to remain in a perpetual frown.
Clawing a male Mukswa’s face was the ultimate insult, since claws were used to mark female mates. Étienne carried what appeared to be a mate mark on his face.
“You don’t have to do this,” Étienne said. “I don’t know why you’re in such a rush—”
“Because it’s my duty. Like my father before me, I won’t shirk my duty.”
Étienne’s lips pressed together in a firm line. Jared knew he wasn’t done, but wouldn’t press any further tonight. Which was good. Jared didn’t feel like arguing tonight.
Though he did feel like fighting. The beast in him was raging.
“Perhaps you should tell them,” Étienne said, stoically.
Étienne was the only other Mukswa who knew of Jared’s inability to shift, because Étienne understood. Not only was his face damaged by the claws of another male, but his arms and his hands were crisscrossed with horrific scars, testament to what he endured when he lost his claws. When Étienne was tortured Levi declawed him in bear form.
He looked down at his hands. At least his claws were still intact, but he couldn’t draw them. How the hell was he supposed to protect his clan or even mark his mate for that matter without that ability?
“If I tell them they’ll strip me of my heritage. Males of my father’s family have always been chief. The line of my ancestors can’t end here.”
Étienne snorted and nodded. “Understood. If they want you to shift…”
“Tell them the bullet wound still pains me and shifting is dangerous. I don’t need to link telepathically with any of them tonight.”
“Very well. Anything else I need to know before you go in front of the council and I start guard duty?”
“A private investigator is coming to help me with tracking down the stolen funds.”
Étienne’s brow furrowed. “An outsider?”
“My brother-in-law recommended her.”
“A female?” Étienne asked in surprise.
“She isn’t like Mukswa females. She’s a private investigator w
ho worked with the RCMP, but branched out on her own.”
Étienne didn’t look convinced. “You should’ve let me investigate her background.”
“My decision is final,” Jared snapped. “My judgment is sound. I am chief.”
Étienne’s black eyes glittered, but he nodded and lowered his head in deference.
Jared instantly regretted his outburst. Lately all he seemed to be doing was spouting off at random and he hated it.
A chief was supposed to be calm, cool and collected.
He was a wreck.
“Let’s get this over with,” he muttered as he pushed the button on his private elevator. He just wanted tonight to be done.
Tonight he’d let the elders choose his future mate. Perhaps then he could move on.
* * * * *
Adele couldn’t believe her luck. She had been waiting for a job like this since she had to leave the RCMP and open up her own private investigation firm.
Well, she didn’t have to leave the RCMP, but after her near fatal shooting over a year ago, which left her barely able to walk, a desk job didn’t appeal to her in the least.
“You’re nuts, you know that right?”
Adele turned to look at her older sister, who had dropped by for her weekly visit, which Adele both loved and loathed at the same time. Brianna had been her unofficial caretaker since her shooting. Brianna nursed her back to health when she was lying in bed for almost a year, clucking over her like a demented mother hen.
Brianna had argued with her when she decided to return to her apartment, and when she started up her private investigation firm her sister went off the deep end.
“This is a fantastic opportunity. Everyone knows Beare Enterprises is one of the most lucrative businesses. I’ll be working with their CEO Jared Stevens for several months. How can I pass up steady income?”
“Adele, you can’t handle private investigation work.”
Adele’s finger gripped the handles of her metal forearm crutches a bit tighter. “I’m not an invalid, Brianna.”
Brianna made a tsking sound, but didn’t respond. Adele knew what they all thought. Sure, she may have permanent femoral nerve damage, but it didn’t mean she wasn’t able to think clearly. It didn’t mean she couldn’t take care of herself, she had been living on her own again for three months.
She shuffled over to the counter and plugged the kettle in for some tea. It was then that she glanced at the wall and saw the photograph her parents had snapped the day she graduated from RCMP training. A lump formed in her throat seeing herself in her red serge and Stetson hat. Her parents beside her, so proud.
The red serge was gone and so were her parents.
“Adele, I’m sorry. I just…I just worry about you,” Brianna said as if knowing what she was thinking about. “I don’t want to lose you.”
Adele nodded and then turned to face her older sister. “You’re not going to lose me. It’s not like I’m going after some drug addicts or serial killers, I’m tracking down some missing funds. Apparently some money was misdirected by an accountant.”
Brianna cocked an eyebrow. “Still, I would feel better if you moved back in with me, Rob and the kids.”
Adele shook her head. “I’m an adult, Bri. I want to be on my own.” As if to prove her point she got the tea ready on the counter. The only thing she couldn’t do was bring it to Brianna, but she could damn well prepare it. One mug she could handle, two was too much, for now.
She was determined to regain functionality, even though her prognosis wasn’t the best.
Brianna got up and took her mug from the counter. “I guess I would feel better if—”
“Don’t you dare say that name,” Adele snapped. She didn’t want to be reminded of her ex, who left her the moment the doctors uttered the words disability and paralysis.
“I’m sorry, Del. I can’t stay around. I can’t be tied down to someone disabled.”
Just because she had nerve damage didn’t mean she’d never feel anything down there again. Quite the contrary in fact, but her ex-fiancé Elias didn’t stay around long enough to find out anything.
She could do almost all the same things as she used to. Drive a car, cook, orgasm. All she couldn’t do was run and she had to rely on these crutches to walk around. That’s it.
She could’ve died when that money launderer she’d been tracking shot her, shattering her pelvis and damaging her femoral nerve.
Brianna sighed. “I’m sorry.”
Adele took a seat across from her sister, wishing Brianna would go so she could get ready for her meeting with Jared Stevens. This job would give her the financial security she would need for a while. She could get her life back on track. Perhaps start dating some more, though not many of her dates had been successful.
“Why are you going to meet this guy at ten p.m.? That seems awfully odd,” Brianna said.
“Who said billionaires were sane?”
“Didn’t his father just die or something?”
“I think so, but that’s not what I’m investigating.”
Brianna frowned. “It all sounds fishy to me. How did you get this job anyways?”
“My, we’re full of questions tonight,” Adele teased.
“Humor me.”
Adele sighed. “Gordon Thomas, whom I graduated with, referred me for the job. Jared Stevens is his new brother-in-law.”
“I remember him,” Brianna sighed with a dreamy quality to her voice. “Married? That’s too bad.”
Adele snorted. “As are you.”
Brianna chuckled, all the previous tension between them melting away. She set down her mug on the table. “I should go. Are you sure you don’t want me to drive you downtown?”
“Positive. Go home, Brianna. I’ll be okay.”
Brianna nodded. “Call me when you get home okay?”
Adele rolled her eyes. “Fine.”
Brianna gave her a halfhearted smile. “I’ll show myself out.”
When the door clicked shut, Adele relaxed. She didn’t realize how tense she had been while Brianna was here. She knew her sister would give her trouble when she found out Adele actually got a job.
Maybe she would have extra money this month to splurge a bit and not totally rely on her disability and insurance checks. She saw a bottle of nice wine in her future.
Too bad she didn’t have someone to share it with.
For the time being.
If she could complete this job and find Beare Enterprise’s missing funds then there was nothing she couldn’t accomplish.
Nothing.
Chapter Two
Winnipeg at ten o’clock in the evening on a Wednesday was quiet. The air was changing. Winter’s last grasp was fading, as the warm wind blew around the tall office buildings. Adele always loved the sound of the chinook this time of year. She’d be glad to see winter go. Maneuvering on icy and snow-covered sidewalks was not her favorite thing in the world and Manitoba winters were brutal.
Not that she was looking forward to the bug-infested summers, but at least she wouldn’t slip on a bug-covered pathway like she would an icy one.
Under her heavy winter overcoat Adele wore her best pinstripe suit. She wanted to be as professional as possible considering that she was dealing with the CEO of a multibillion dollar company. Beare Enterprises had the attention of the world, not only because of its assets, but because of where it was located. Winnipeg, Manitoba was hardly the financial capital of Canada. They were landlocked and farther north than Toronto.
Adele wanted to be their forensic accountant. She wanted to help them track down the stolen funds.
She wanted to prove to Brianna and her old comrades in the RCMP that she still was a viable investigator. That she still had what it took to make the cut.
When she pulled up in front of the downtown Winnipeg high-rise building a valet stepped out from the shadows. He walked around the other side of the car and opened the door.
“Good evening, madame.”
“Good evening,” Adele replied. First she undid her seatbelt and then she reached over and grabbed her forearm crutches. Setting them on the ground, she slid her arms into place and stood. “Just give me a moment.” She opened the back door and picked up her messenger bag.
“Do you need assistance?” the valet asked.
“I’m perfectly fine.” Adele shut the car door with her hip and handed the valet her key.
With as much decorum as she could muster, she headed toward the tinted-glass double doors. Through the tint she could make out the shadow of a large figure and she paused as she tried to see the person on the other side of the glass. Adele could only assume it was a man because the shadow had to be almost seven feet tall.
The doors slid open automatically and the shadow in question stepped out. He was the scariest man Adele had ever seen and she had been on countless stakeouts and raids when she was in RCMP. She had dealt with some of Manitoba’s most hardened criminals, but this guy was a piece of work.
His blue eyes glittered like sapphires in the fluorescent light. He was bald and three hideous, jagged scars ran down from the corner of his left eye to the corner of his mouth, dragging part of the lip down with it. His massive arms were folded across his chest and they were horrifically scarred as well, from his elbows to the tops of his hands. Even though the air was a bit mild, it was still cold, but the man was bare-armed and didn’t seem to be at all affected by the weather.
Hello, Nanook of the North.
“Can I help you?” he asked, his voice deep and gravelly. This was definitely someone she didn’t want to meet down the back alley. She would profile this guy as a hardened criminal, but that aspect of the job was not her forte.
“I’m here to see Jared Stevens. I have an appointment.”
Shock briefly crossed his stone-hard expression. “Who are you?”
“Who are you?” Adele countered.
“Security for Mr. Stevens. No one gets in without clearing with me.”
“I’m Adele Banks. I’m the private investigator Mr. Stevens hired.”
