by Hazel Gower
The Protectors, Volume 2
by
Hazel Gower
The Protectors, Volume 2
Copyright © 2019, Hazel Gower
ISBN: 9781949300369
Publisher: Beachwalk Press, Inc.
Electronic Publication: April 2019
Editor: Pamela Tyner
Cover: Sinfully Sweet Designs
eBooks are not transferable. No part of this book may be used or reproduced without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations in articles and reviews.
This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to persons, living or dead, or places, events or locales is purely coincidental. The characters are productions of the author’s imagination and used fictitiously.
Back Cover Copy
Nara’s Protector
For eleven years Nara and her mother were held captive by demons. Nara had no hope of a future and didn’t even dream of escaping. When she and the other captives are saved by her long-lost sister, Remy, and the shifters Remy calls friends, her life changes, and suddenly Nara has options she never imagined, and a chance at a relationship.
Grayson says he’s her mate, but she has just gained her freedom and is unsure of what she wants. Nara asks him to give her space to come to terms with her new life and decide what goal she wants to work toward. The issue now is she has so many options it’s difficult to choose.
Grayson was only months away from his hundredth year and letting his animal take over and going feral. He had no hope until he helped rescue his friend’s mate and her family, and in doing so, he found his own mate. The problem is that Nara has been held hostage for so long that she needs to learn what she wants and how to live her new life.
He stays away for as long as he’s willing, but he wants to help his mate. He convinces her to give him a chance, and they work together to reach the new goals Nara has set for herself. They fall for each other as they learn, live, and love.
Can Nara learn to move on and live the life she craves, or will fear overwhelm her?
Content Warning: this book contains sexy shifters, sexual content, strong language, and some violence
Dedication
To everyone out there with an impairment that live their life to the fullest. Don’t ever let anyone tell you can’t do something.
To my son, you amaze me every day with what you accomplish.
Acknowledgements
Getting a book out takes a lot of work, so I always need to thank people for their help in getting it ready and out there for all of you.
A massive thank you and I love you to my amazing family, for being second while I focus on books and complete them. I’m so blessed to have you in my life and love you more than words can say.
Secondly, Jessica Henshall from Sinfully Sweet Designs, thanks so much for the amazing cover.
A huge shout out to my amazing editor Pamela Tyner. You always push me to make my books shine. I can’t thank you enough.
Beachwalk Press, thank you for not only formatting the book, but accepting it.
A huge shout out to Lisa and Jess, my two besties, for listening to me bounce ideas off you and help me to keep my focus to finish the book. Thank you, I appreciate everything you did to help me.
I also want to thank all my readers for their support.
Lastly, thanks to everyone who helps promote my work, I really appreciate it.
Author’s Foreword
This book is set in Australia. In Australia the legal age to drink, vote, get married, and so on is eighteen. The characters speak English Australian, so if you see the word ‘arse’ instead of ‘ass’ it is because that’s how we say it in Australia where the book is set. If you find a word you haven’t heard before, look it up or message me. I’d be happy to talk to you.
Prologue
Nara
Her mother was crazy. Nara didn’t blame her; she’d be crazy too if she’d been running from demons all her life, given up a daughter, then been caught by demons, and her husband had been killed. Her mother was then raped until she fell pregnant. A year after she’d given birth to the half-demon baby, he had been taken away from her. Nara had been captured with her mother and father, but because she’d had her mother, she was sure that was why she hadn’t gone nuts.
Nara hadn’t had an easy life either, but at least she had her mother, and for the first eleven years of her life her father too. She was deaf. She could talk, but wasn’t comfortable doing it as it was hard to control her volume and when the demons had caught her speaking they’d punished her. So she used the sign language she’d been taught.
Being at the deaf institute were some of her earliest memories. Nara knew the instructors were impressed with how quickly she’d picked sign language up, but it had been her gift of reading minds that had helped her learn so quickly. Nara had learned she had a sister through her ability. She had been devastated that she never got to meet her, but through reading her parents’ minds, she had learned her sister Remy was a very strong fire element, and her parents were convinced Remy was the reason the demons kept coming after them.
It was her mother they were after though; she was a strong fire element too, and it was known that she could produce children with the same abilities. Nara had learned that from a demon’s mind. They were hard to read as usually their heads were full of jumbled chaos, but sometimes Nara got snippets if she concentrated. Nara never told her mother she was the reason they were captured and her father killed, because she didn’t think after all the hits her mother took she could handle finding out that was the reason they were in the situation they were now, prisoners of the demons.
Her mother protected her, convincing the demons that Nara was damaged and that it would pass onto any child they tried to have with her. The demons had kept Nara around because her mother had told them that she had the ability to calm people. It was a lie, she didn’t, although she sometimes could use her real ability of reading minds. The women who were in the room with them had helped keep that ruse up. Helen, Rene, Greta, and Debra were now like family. They were all gifted too.
Something was going on today though. Minds around her were screaming thoughts, and the demons, whose thoughts were usually taken up with violence, were a scattered mess of activity. They’d captured some important people that Lucifer, their king, would be happy about. Nara had only met Lucifer once—when she and her family had been captured . He was huge and thrived on chaos. She’d seen him when he’d just come from a man-made explosion. All the poisons, metals, and chemicals made him triple in size. He was now too tall to fit underground. He was skyscraper tall.
The door to the room the women were held in opened, and the women stood in front of Nara, protecting her. Nara shrank back, making herself as small as possible. She’d learned over the years that if she could make herself as small as she could get, the demons forgot about her. The minions stayed away mostly and didn’t come into the rooms she and the other prisoners were being held in. She hadn’t liked those gray, winged, pig-like creatures.
She closed her eyes and concentrated, trying to determine why the demons were in such a good mood… Women, they’d captured women. But these were special ones. Not only were they shifter mates, but they’d caught shifter women too. Nara hadn’t known shifters were real for a long time. She saw her first in a demon’s mind. It killed what looked like a half-man, half-leopard. She’d seen a couple of other shifters in demons’ minds since then, all of them reliving the glory of killing different shifters. It broke Nara’s heart each time she saw it, and it was one of the reasons she stayed out of the demons’ minds.
Her mother and most of the women, from what she’d heard, knew about the shifters, thanks to their gifts
and knowing what to look out for to spot special people. Some had been rescued a time or two by shifters, but had been unlucky enough to be recaptured. It was the newer women that Nara found intriguing because word was getting out that shifters were making safe havens and even teaming up with people with gifts. Nara hoped it was true. She’d dreamed of being rescued, and she would give anything to feel safe and not have to worry about demons. She craved to be normal, even if it was just a small amount of it.
When the door slammed shut and Nara didn’t have the demons’ thoughts bombarding her as much, she peeked through the women, hoping she could see who was in with them and read their lips. She was good at that; she had a lot of time to work on it since the women in the rooms didn’t have much to do while being held. Nara concentrated on the minds around her, looking for the new one. She bolted upright as who was in the room with them came to her. It was her sister, Remy. Now that Nara was reading her mind, her thoughts were so clear.
She wasn’t watching lips and no one was signing, so she concentrated on Remy. She was angry and hurt, but it wasn’t directed at the demons, it was all at their mother. Remy felt unloved and that their parents didn’t love her. Nara knew how much their mother did love Remy, and thought about her all the time. When Grandma had been alive their parents called her often to ask about Remy. Nara had always wanted to talk to Remy, but neither her mother or father wanted her to. Nara had heard their fears when they thought of Remy. They were scared to lose Nara too. They knew if Remy ever found out about her, she would try and find Nara. She knew they feared that all their powers together would draw the demons. When they’d been caught she remembered they were full of regret, because they had been caught and everything they thought they’d done to keep safe hadn’t worked. One of the last things on their father’s mind as he died was wishing he could see Remy and apologize to her.
Remy’s mind screamed, “Sister. I have a sister. What the fuck? How could they do that? Did they love her more than me? Why did they keep her from me? Did Grandmother know? I always wanted a sister.”
At her last words Nara searched the room until her gaze caught her sister’s. Remy was beautiful .She looked just like their mother, even had the same crystal blue eyes.
“She looks like Dad.” She watched Remy’s lip move. She’d become really good at reading lips. Mum must have told Remy about their brother and what he was, or half was. Nara couldn’t take her eyes off Remy, so she didn’t turn and read her mother’s lips.
Remy took charge. She was confident and wasn’t scared. She was convinced shifters would come and save not just her, but everyone else too. Her mind went over all her friends and Nara heard the love she had for them. Nara hoped they did come, but she’d learned not to get her hopes up.
Nara’s mother caught her attention and signed what she and her sister talked about. She showed her the knives and explained that they were magically iced on the end and that when sunk into demons’ hearts it turned them to ice and was the first step out of two that were necessary to kill a demon. The second step was to cut off their heads. Remy told them that the ice knife was sharp enough to do that too.
Remy asked about their father, and Nara squeezed her eyes shut as an image of their deceased father flashed from their mother’s mind to her. Nara snapped her eyes open when she caught Helen’s thought about Remy being pregnant. Nara’s cheeks heated when images of Remy and her mate Arden flashed in her mind.
Nara’s chest tightened when she learned that her grandmother, who had looked after Remy, knew about her and didn’t tell Remy. It hurt so bad. She’d longed for a sister, a friend, and when she learned about Remy she dreamed about meeting her. Nara planned never to let her out of her sight if she could help it.
The door burst open, and Nara shrank back to her usual hiding spot. She watched, fascinated, as her sister kicked butt. Nara came out of her spot and went to help, but Remy and their mother protected her, throwing fireballs.
Nara’s mother grabbed her wrist and dragged her out the door. She let go only to help fight and keep the wall of demons back. As they all stepped out, a bunch of thoughts that were chaotic bombarded Nara, making it hard to move; she had to concentrate on blocking them so she could get away. They made their way to where their brother was being held.
Remy broke off from their group, then ran and jumped at a shifter. He threw her over his shoulder and turned. Nara bolted over to them—no one was ever taking her sister away from her again. When he stopped and gently placed her on the ground, Nara smiled as she heard the rant in her sister’s head. Remy then turned and with the shifters’ help they got to their brother.
Nara was overwhelmed with everyone’s chaotic thoughts and all the fighting going on. She kept her sister in her line of vision and focused just on her. Terrified, she watched as the friends she’d made who were captured with them fought, using their powers. Nara felt useless, as her power wasn’t one that could be used as a weapon.
More shifters joined the fight, and she watched as demons and minions were killed, their corpses covering the ground. When every one of them were dead, Nara watched as her sister took charge again. Right then in that moment Nara decided she wanted to be just like her sister, strong and confident. Remy spoke to the half-demon children and then fell to the ground. She didn’t stay on the ground for long before the big shifter, her mate from what Nara had learned, picked her up and walked away. It took a moment for Nara to process that the demons were dead, her sister was a hero, and Remy was being taken away by the shifter.
Taking a moment to look at the devastation and see her mother holding Emmett—her and Remy’s brother—close to her, she knew they were okay, so she could go for what she wanted. Nara wanted her sister. She charged after Arden, finding a human male that she’d seen only in Remy’s thoughts, instead of the shifter form she saw taking her sister out of that awful place.
She panted, out of breath when she finally did find him, and let loose, signing: Don’t you take my sister from me. Where she goes. I go.
He ignored her though and stepped around her and kept going. Anger rose in her as he took what she’d wanted the most for many years.
Nara caught up again, and this time she blocked him in better. Watching his mouth, Nara saw his lips snarl, “Who the fuck are you?”
What the hell did he mean by who the hell was she? He should know that he was holding her sister! Was he trying to take Remy away from her for good? He wasn’t going to take her anywhere. She signed, I’m Remy’s sister. You better not be taking her away from me.
Nara tried to get a read from him, but it was like an animal’s mind. All lit up and firing at once. His thoughts were of lots of things, but mostly of keeping Remy safe. He wanted his friend, a cat shifter, to come and take care of Nara. She narrowed her gaze on Arden. He didn’t want to hurt her, he just wanted her out of the way so he could get medical treatment for Remy, and he wanted Grayson to deal with her.
Arms came around her waist, and in that moment Nara knew that this was Grayson, but what sent terror through her was when she heard loud and clear shouting, in a deep, husky growl in her head, “Mine.”
* * * *
Grayson
He was done. Grayson had moved to the Wolfen pack because they were powerful and had a lot of shifters. He’d hoped to find his mate before he ran out of time and his feral nature took over, but he’d been there for a while and he knew he only had a couple of months, maybe weeks until his cat took him fully over and he went feral. He had no family left. He had no mate. No children. He was ready.
Grayson shouldn’t be fighting and let his leopard free, but when he learned his best friend and his favorite little woman, Remy, or Rem to him, had been taken by demons he couldn’t say no. A big fight like what he was about to go into would merge him with his leopard more than he had in years. They would be going into a demon stronghold.
The ride to the destination had the hairs on his arms raising. Something about today was different. His leopard pro
wled in his mind to be let out and freed. It wanted to kill. It wanted to search out and destroy any demons, minions, and zombies they came in contact with. Grayson was ready to let go. He was ready to get his revenge on the creatures that had killed everyone he ever loved.
It was intense from the moment he entered the stronghold. Demons were everywhere. This was the biggest stronghold he’d ever heard of or seen. Hundreds of hostages were being found. They were leaving them for the humans to deal with while they killed the demons and minions. He let the leopard take over and was brutal in his attacks. He didn’t worry about any of the teams he’d been training or the hostages. His goal became to kill as many demons as he could.
When there was nothing left to kill he searched for Arden. His leopard fought him, not wanting to go back in its cage. Grayson changed to human and grabbed some tracksuit pants from a human with a bag full of them for the shifters. He knew that he needed to make sure Remy was okay. He also knew that this would be the last time he could let his leopard take full control as he was three months off a hundred and that was the golden age when a shifter without a mate went feral.
He found Arden, who held Remy in his embrace, but that wasn’t what stopped Grayson and had a smirk spreading over his face. No, it was the little girl—no, woman—who stood in front of Arden, blocking his path. Grayson debated helping for a moment before Arden even asked him, but when he glanced at Remy he could see she was clearly exhausted and maybe hurt. Arden would never hurt a woman though, so he wouldn’t shove or push the little-bit blocking his way.
Strolling over to them, Grayson circled his arm around her waist and picked her up. As soon as he came in contact with her, his whole world changed. He breathed in the most amazing scent he’d ever smelt in his life, it was like catnip on coffee. His leopard purred, Mate. Holy fucking shit. The little-bit in his embrace was his mate. The only person who could save him from going feral.
