Challenging Love (Drekinn Book Five)

by Jana Leigh

  Challenging Love

  Drekinn Series [5]

  Jana Leigh

  JK Publishing, Inc (2014)

  * * *

  Warning: For Mature Adult Audiences. Contains language and actions some may deem offensive. Ménage – MFM.

  In book five of the Drekinn: Pilar has known her mate for decades, but the man seems to have a will made out of steel. She finds herself at wits end and on the verge of telling him to put up or shut up.

  Brooks feels the mating pull with no option but to ride it out. So much counts on him keeping it together. One wrong move and the outcome could affect everyone involved. Now all he has to do is figure out how to get his dragon princess to understand they have to wait without receiving burn marks.

  Clues start to surface for the Drekinn Pack but still leave them with so many more unanswered. Old friends start to pop up, bringing confusion to what happened long ago to drive the shifter world into hiding.

  Join the Drekinn Pack as they start to put pieces together and follow the moms as they hash out plans to get what they want from their daughters. Watch as the past, present, and future start to intertwine.

  Challenging Love

  The Drekinn

  Book Five

  by Jana Leigh

  © Copyright April 2014 JK Publishing, Inc.

  ISBN#9781310223693

  All cover art and logo © Copyright April 2014 by JK Publishing, Inc.

  All rights reserved.

  Edited by ML Hill & Caroline Kirby

  Artwork by Jess Buffett

  Published by JK Publishing, Inc.

  Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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  Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events or locales are entirely coincidental.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author and publishing company.

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  Dedication

  To my loving husband, who puts up with the long hours spent in front of a computer, and still supports me no matter how many hours I spend there. To my kids, who understand when I say I can't do something because I need to write. And lastly, I am thankful to my readers, if not for you, I would never be able to do what I love—write.

  Jana Leigh

  Table of Contents

  Dedication

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Epilogue

  Books by Jana Leigh

  Excerpt from Alpha’s Mate

  Excerpt from Cat’s Choice

  Excerpt from the Mating Call

  JK Publishing, Inc.

  Prologue

  "Here you will find the answers you seek, our beloved children. Too late we found the prophesy was not complete, now you must continue… find the…" Giovanni Castrella read and looked up at the woman standing before him. His own private wet dream was back. “And?”

  “What do you mean and?” the woman yelled. “I am showing you the key to all of our futures, you need to tell them about this.”

  Gio shrugged, “They already know.”

  She was once again all in black leather, his cock rose in anticipation of a little fun if she calmed down. Gio knew from firsthand experience that if she were in a bad mood during sex, he would have a lot of scratch marks in the morning. Normally a guy wouldn’t mind that, he thought as he grinned, but with this hellcat, it actually could become uncomfortable for an hour or two. She was vicious and he loved it. She was his mate and refused to talk to him about it.

  It was okay, Gio knew she hadn't cheated on him since they discovered each other, but he also knew they were supposed to have a third, and he would mate with her with their third. That was the way it was supposed to be apparently, they would be the final piece to the puzzle.

  The Drekinn Pack was on a mission. From the very beginning, they weren’t sure of where this situation with the Bondi King and the Ulfer would lead. Now they knew, they needed to defeat the Ulfer and Bondi King in order to take control of the paranormal community. Once they had done that, they would be better able to fix the problems with the ruling government. The Prentiss Agency were the ones to overthrow the Drekinn, and they were going down. Humans had forgotten what it was like when they lived together in peace with the paranormal community. The ruling party had convinced them yet again that shifters were dangerous. It was something they had battled. What it boiled down to was the humans were afraid the paranormal community was going to take over. That could not have been further from the truth.

  The paranormal community hated politics, and they were thrust into them because of the coming out, and most were happy to just be consultants to the humans. It only took one person to get it into their head that someone was overstepping their boundaries. It kinda pissed Gio off knowing all the effort the Chosen had put into making it successful, only to see that it had been sabotaged before it even started. A few hundred years of peace and then the new generation got paranoid again. Well, it was going to end this time, he was there to help make sure of it.

  “They already know?” she yelled. “You are ju
st now telling me they already know about this? We barely discovered this, I am sick and tired of suddenly remembering shit, and then finding out you did too. We need to work on our communication. Did you have the same vision…memory…whatever the fuck they are?”

  Gio shrugged, “Yep, and the Drekinn are going to help us figure it out. Seems to be the only clue we have as to how to fix this shit.”

  “Duh, asshat,” she snarled. “So I guess I gotta go and see them now?”

  “I wouldn’t, I think you should let the last incident settle a little, they were a bit pissed about your attitude,” Gio said slowly. “I will go and talk to them.”

  His woman snorted and turned around. Damn she was sexy when she got her back up. “Whatever.”

  “When are you going to tell them?” Gio smirked.

  “When I am damn good and ready. When are you?” She threw back at him.

  “Soon, I figure my secret is nothing compared to yours, so I will let you throw the wrench into their plan.” He laughed and stood.

  “Where the fuck are you going? We have more to talk about!” she yelled as he walked to the door.

  “No, you have more to talk about, I have people to help. There is a difference, we can’t play with them like this,” Gio said firmly.

  “I am not playing with them. You know as well as I do, if I tell them too soon it will fuck everything up. There is a time and place for everything. Besides, we don’t even know the whole truth yet, we only know what we are supposed to right now,” she growled.

  “Those are your rules, I have my own,” Gio said and walked out of the room with a chuckle when he heard the glass he had been drinking out of hit the door.

  Chapter One

  “How in the hell is this possible?” Pilar said, stepped back, and looked at her brother. Her life was spiraling again and she was refusing to go with it this time. Pilar had been waiting for so long to hear her mate say it was time to let the world know they were true mates, of course it could never be that simple.

  Of course not, they had a third, and just found him. However, he was tortured and unconscious, the story of her life. For years, the mating pull has been riding her, but knowing that both men were so close, it was becoming unbearable. She was going to explode from sexual frustration, she wondered if that could happen, death from lack of orgasm. Nah, if that were the case, the millions of women who faked it would be crispy critters.

  “I have no idea, I just cannot remember, something is like blocking it,” Phillip said and ran a hand through his hair. Her twin brother was just as frustrated as she was. They could tell someone had put a spell on them, now that they knew some of the facts. It was time to tell the rest of the pack exactly what was going on, it would be a real blow to them, but she knew they would forgive her and Phillip. Why wouldn’t they?

  “You mean to tell me that all this time we have been working against ourselves? I know her, you know her, we can remember some of it but why not all of it? Where are the others?” Pilar said frustrated. “Freakin’ hundreds of years and we are just now getting it? We have an enemy we never even knew we had.”

  “No,” Brooks said as he stepped into the room. “No, someone was working against you, but not to hurt you, to protect you. There is a spell, I can feel it, and we need to unlock it. It seems like they are allowing us to see one step at a time, I don’t know how but they are. We need to talk to her.”

  Pilar glared at her mate, he had just as much of a secret as she did, it was truly going to suck talking to Calli, Rissa, and Cherri. Brooks had taken the easy way out and disappeared for weeks on end, because he was trying to find an answer to why they couldn’t remember certain things. Well it was a fucking stupid question, and an even stupider answer. To top it all off, he was looking gorgeous and sexy even though the mating pull had been wearing on both of them, hadn’t it?

  “Great, now you want to talk to me?” Pilar scoffed.

  “Look, I told you it wasn’t time, then. Now it is, can’t you feel it. He is our mate, and he is dying, unless we figure out what the hell they did to him, we will lose him. I am not willing to let that happen. Now, work with me!” Brooks barked. Pilar narrowed her gaze at her dumbass mate. She was going to do some serious damage to him, including kicking his perfectly sculpted ass.

  “Ha, for years you have been ignoring our bond, and now you want to use it like a fucking talisman. Forget it, I will find a way to save him and you can go and fuck yourself. I am sick of you thinking I can be put on hold forever. This was my life you were fucking with, mine!” Pilar screamed.

  “And I have suffered just as much, but we had to wait. Our mate was not here yet,” Brooks said gruffly.

  “Oh please, you didn’t want to bother because you wanted to do what you wanted when you wanted and how you wanted. Don’t try to sugarcoat this shit,” Pilar said and Phillip held up his hand.

  “I think I am gonna give you guys some space here to deal with this. Sister, call me when you are ready,” Phillip said, laughed, and went to Brooks and patted him on the shoulder. “Good luck with that. Remember—she can breathe fire.”

  “He is going to need more than luck,” Pilar grumbled.

  “Listen,” Brooks tried to reason. “Can’t we just move on? We have a lot of shit to deal with.”

  “Shit, are you saying our mating is shit?” Pilar roared.

  “No,” Brooks said quickly, “I was talking about the books, we have to figure out what we are missing from them.”

  “Right,” Pilar said, turned, and walked to the door. “Tell me when we have to deal with all this shit.”

  Brooks frowned and shook his head; he didn’t understand the damn woman.

  *****

  Calix could still feel what was going on around him. Since the moment he escaped, he knew he would be meeting the Drekinn, they were the only ones who could help him. Plus that was where his mates were. He may be part wolf, but he was also part vamp. Those two combined made him unusual, and thank goodness the arrogant assholes of the Prentiss had never questioned his shifter side. They thought he was only wolf, and a special one, but it didn’t matter. They would never have discovered the truth.

  The torture sucked though, he knew that it would take a long time to heal from this, they had injected him with silver, to prevent healing, even from his vampire side. It had to be worked out, his injuries were severe.

  His mates: a dragon and a wizard. His grandparents told him plenty. They had been told by their Seer. So far everything else she had predicted was correct, why not this?

  Calix tried to open his eyes again but couldn't, for a while he felt something when he was close to whoever was taking care of him. The feelings switched now, and when he felt the women enter into the room, he knew they were supposed to help him, but it was something more, something like a kinship, it was exactly as they explained to him when he was younger. When he found the right pack he would know it. For years, he had searched, and every time he stumbled on a pack, they hadn't felt right. Calix knew there was something more out there.

  Now, if he could wake up and focus, he would be able to tell if he was right.

  *****

  Vivi, Shelly, and Brenda were in charge of the severely wounded man. They were more than happy to help Cherri and her mates with him. There was only one small problem with the situation.

  Calli and the others wanted to make sure they had security on the wolf in case he woke and went feral. No one knew the effects of the silver that was injected into the man. So they waited, and watched. Vivi was getting a bit bored sitting in the outlaying cabin and something was going to have to happen soon or she would go postal.

  “Hey, sugar,” Brenda said as she walked into the room. Today she was sporting a new outfit that Kiki had helped her put together, and once again she looked like a floozy, damn it, Vivi wanted to look like one too.

  “Are your relieving me?” she asked hopefully.

  “Yep, Shel and I are going to give you a break. But when you co
me back later we expect some booze to help us hang with you tonight. Last night Shel snored so loud I almost covered her head with a pillow. I tell you, unless the woman is flat ass drunk she sounds like a freight train.” Brenda laughed.

  “Deal, Calli and I need to talk. Apparently she is letting the hormones take over,” Vivi said standing. The three of them had been living in the separate house with the poor wounded wolf for the last few weeks. They didn’t care, it gave them a break from all the hoopla at the main house, but it also cut them off from the normal amenities they usually shared in. Like wine, and hairspray. Do you know how heavy the bag would have been to stock up? Shit, they just brought it over a bit at a time.

  “Good luck with that. I just went over to shower and have breakfast and I heard an earful, the wolf needs some chocolate or something.” Brenda snorted and Vivi waved as she walked out the door.

  “Into the fray!” she called and trudged her way to the main house. The air was fresh and crisp, and she smelled the faint scent of all of the wolves and creatures who had moved with them into the compound. There were hundreds now, all of the magical beings who had been in hiding were welcome here. It was like putting a fucking beacon on the roof.

  Not that she cared, it gave the Drekinn Pack numbers, and that is what they needed right now, people from the paranormal community willing to fight back finally. Viv was sick of the rules and shit they put them under. Hell, if she wanted a good bottle of booze she had to make it. Since they had been on the run, they had people bringing it to them. The building was going up faster than they could approve the members.