by Eros, Marata
FINAL ENFORCEMENT
A Vampire Alpha Claim Bigger-Bites® Novella
Volume 8
New York Times Bestselling Author(s)
MARATA EROS
TAMARA ROSE BLODGETT
All Rights Reserved.
Copyright © 2016 Marata Eros
Copyright © 2016 Tamara Rose Blodgett
No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system without the prior written permission of the publisher.
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.
www.tamararoseblodgett.com
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Cover art by: Willsin Rowe
CONTENTS
Marata Eros NEWS
TRB News
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Synopsis:
Grace has been taken by a yet-unheard-of shifter group: the First Species. When Grace discovers she possesses rare ancient genetics that are a match for these shifters, she wants to escape—except it might not be possible with her awakening feelings for Conrick, the alpha.
Murphy is determined to acquire #1231, Grace Cline, and hand her over to the proper Turner assigned by the vampire Nobles. As Murphy fights his unique connection to Grace, he hides behind his badge of duty while ignoring his growing feelings of possession and desire for one female.
Can Murphy find Grace before she's claimed by one group, as two more draw nearer? Will the Mutables find her, or has another ancient shifter group's covert reconnaissance to find the perfect female finally caught up to her.
Works by Tamara Rose Blodgett:
The BLOOD Series 1-6
The DEATH Series 1-8
Final Enforcement ALPHA CLAIM 7
First Species ALPHA CLAIM 7 ( coming 2017 )
Shifter ALPHA CLAIM 1-6
The REFLECTION Series 1-3
The SAVAGE Series 1-7
Vampire ALPHA CLAIM 1-6
&
Marata Eros
A Terrible Love ( New York Times bestseller)
A Brutal Tenderness
The Darkest Joy
Club Alpha
One of Many (co-authored with Emily Goodwin)
The DARA NICHOLS Series, 1-8
The DEMON Series
The DRUID Series 1-10
Final Enforcement ALPHA CLAIM 7
First Species ALPHA CLAIM 7 ( coming 2017 )
Road Kill MC Serial 1-5
Shifter ALPHA CLAIM 1-6
The SIREN Series
The TOKEN Serial 1-10
Vampire ALPHA CLAIM 1-6
The ZOE SCOTT Series 1-8
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DEDICATION:
Eric Thornton
Never give up. Never quit.
Chapter 1
Grace
“Stay away from me!” I yell at the monster that's taken me and Toby.
My little brother clings to me, and I swing soaking hair strands out of my face. They land with a wet slap against my back and I shiver.
Bastard.
The large male, who is some kind of gorilla, vampire-man, stares solemnly back at me.
“Say something!” I yell again and Toby's face tips up to mine, watchful.
Fearful.
Dammit. I inhale deeply, trying to calm my shit down.
I glare at this shifter who's captured me. Dark, longish hair covers his head, severely swept back from a low brow and secured at his nape.
I should be intimidated— I am . But more than that, I'm angry. Resentful of being stolen from the only police there is for my predicament. And Murphy had begun to feel more like something else—and less like a Final Enforcement bounty officer.
“I am Conrick,” his deep voice rumbles, and my breath stills. He'd only said a dozen words from the time he kidnapped me from Sioux Falls, to the time that it took for me to nearly freeze to death before we landed here.
I look around at the deep and fragrantly scented pine trees. I assume it's the Hills. The Black Hills. Mount Rushmore. Americana.
A place where I am shaking like a leaf in a nest of Bigfeet.
Rain falls with a gentle hiss, captured neatly within the thick canopy the dense forest provides. Scanning my environment, I recognize the two who'd been with Conrick, their warm, golden gazes latch onto me and Toby.
I fold my arms.
“You know who I am, apparently.” I can't keep the sullen out of my voice.
He ignores my dig. “You will come to no harm with the First Species.”
Right.
Toby tugs at my sodden t-shirt. “Grace,” he whispers.
I look down, my arm tight wound around his equally drenched shoulders.
“I don't think the ape guys are gonna hurt us.” He pops his thumb in his mouth.
I'm so mad my body heats with my anger.
“Anybody that kidnaps a woman with a child is not someone that won't do harm,” I state.
Conrick's brow lowers impossibly more and his eyes become slits of low-banked fire, flashing like citrine jewels within the rugged features of his face.
“Listen to me, female. We have saved you from certain capture by Mutables.”
I vehemently shake my head, scattering loose drops of water around like spinning helicopter blades. “No— you took me from the bounty enforcer.” I slim my eyes down on him. “He would have gotten me and Toby to a safehouse. Then you wouldn't have had to ʻsaveʼ me at all.” My lower lip trembles and I capture it between my teeth.
We glare at each other.
And somewhere, deep down, I understand that antagonizing an almost seven feet tall bigfoot dude with fangs is not smart. That I should be thinking of Toby.
But I'm done with the miserable hand I've been dealt. It's made me bold.
Conrick strides to me.
If I'd felt he'd looked at home and fluid in Sioux Falls—I was wrong.
Here, in these woods, he appears positively, as one , with his surroundings. His lithe and thickly muscled body is a locomotive of speed and grace.
Conrick had been standing several yards from me and when he's within a handful of meters, he casually slaps a hand on a low, thick branch, swinging himself to within a meter of where we stand with a light hop as he lands.
I gasp.
Toby flies behind me, clutching the back of my soaked T and cautiously peeking around my hip for a better view.
I stand my ground but it's the hardest thing I've ever done.
His finger comes under my chin and a shock runs through my body, as though a spark of electricity shot through me.
Conrick's eyes meet mine, and I drown in their warm hue. “Female—you are not just a hybrid vampire to be turned. You are much more. I apolog
ize about our methods. They were necessary.”
That warm digit drops from my face and I tremble at its loss. Not from cold this time, but from something far more primal.
Conrick's eyes burn down me in a long, hot line, beginning at my soaked head and running slowly over my body.
I realize he can see through my t-shirt because it's that burnout style where the strips of fabric coursing through the material are opaque.
My nipples harden with his scrutiny.
His eyes lift, meeting mine and a small smile tweaks his lips.
I draw my arms tighter around my chest in a futile attempt to cover my breastsʼ reaction, but they're too big to fully camouflage, and my traitorous response to his attention continues.
Conrick goes back to his leisurely perusal—taking his time. My face heats and I know I'm wearing the blush of a lifetime.
Finally, he steps back and a breath whistles out of me I wasn't even aware I'd been holding.
“We'll talk further when you're in an agreeable mood.”
He snaps his fingers and two of the other “First Species” flank Toby and me.
I back away, splitting my attention between them.
They eat up the space I create.
“Female—Grace Cline.”
My face swings toward him. The way Conrick says my name sounds eerily familiar, as though he knows me, and I'm instantly insulted.
How dare Conrick act as though he's doing me the favor. Murphy had been prepared to protect me. Get us somewhere safe. There'd be no more Fred—no more threat to Toby. Me. Now this ape guy and his thugs move in, talking about being First Species and saving me from the Mutables.
How in the hell is Conrick and his band of apes any better?
He shatters my thoughts. “You need food—dry clothing.”
“I don't need anything from you,” I say in a low voice, clenching my teeth together so they don't chatter. Raindrops seek entrance where the collar of my hoodie and the flesh of my nape meet and I give a slight shudder from the cold.
Conrick sighs, anger flashing in eyes that had looked at me with obvious sexual speculation moments before.
“I will see to your needs, whether you want it or not.” He steps toward me with a low growl. “As a life-bringer, you are required to be warm, dry and fed. I cannot neglect those basic needs.”
“I said—I don't need your bullshit.” And at that precise moment my teeth begin to chatter. I can't fight the chilled and wet clothes. Away from the warmth of Conrick's big, muscular body, I have nothing to retain heat. Essentially, I'm a drowned rat.
“And what of your kin?” One low brow raises slowly.
Toby.
My chest tightens, eyes burning with the fat tears that begin to crawl out of my eyes.
Conrick's gaze hardens at the display of my restrained anger.
Because my tears aren't sad ones. I'm pissed, and he knows it. Angry that I can't do anything to help myself. “Fine.”
As though on cue, the pair of First Species draw closer.
I stiffen but they don't touch me. Instead they indicate with a chin flick I should follow them.
I glance behind my shoulder. “Where will you be?” I ask with pure suspicious skepticism. Because I really want to know where this gorilla prick's going to be. He snatched me from the only home I've ever known. From the potential for me and Toby to be safe.
And—I'm uneasy with how Conrick makes me feel.
His lips spread into a wide grin. “Around, female.”
I hate him and his smugness. His assumptions.
Most of all—I hate how my body seems to know his. As though we've met before.
*
Huge boulders make up every open area between the dense tree trunks that spiral up to a heavy pewter sky.
Toby and I are dead on our feet. It was after eleven at night when we were taken and dawn is fast approaching.
The pale trenches of early daylight stripe the sky, erasing the silvered remnants of rain.
Toby is hoisted in my arms as I drag after the two huge males. They'd offered to carry him, but I'd silently incinerated them with my gaze.
I hadn't been asked again, though I could barely manage his weight.
Small buff-colored rocks graduate in size to larger as we walk toward what looks like the mother of all boulders.
Rising at least thirty feet in the air, the huge rock appears to be an impenetrable wall and I stall out.
“Ah—are we gonna climb this?” I laugh, not bothering to rein in my sarcasm one bit. A sudden image of Sondra rises to the surface of my tired brain and a wistful smile fixes on my face.
What I wouldn't do to have her by my side. I think of Shelley and my job. That's gone forever now. No notice—No work.
Damn.
The First Species guys don't answer me.
Of course. I roll my eyes. Walk forward a few more paces then halt.
Before my eyes is an ebony cleft, leading to nowhere like a rip in the rock. It's every bit of nine feet tall.
The shape looks like a chasm from which there will be no return.
The lead First Species moves into the sucking blackness.
I remain where I am.
A gust of midwestern wind shifts through the trees as dawn breaks over the land and damp tendrils of my hair lift, obscuring my vision and I cup my elbows, shivering.
The other First Species barks, “Come.” His narrow-eyed stare burns me like I'm the wick and he's the flame from where he stands just inside that dark, yawning mouth.
“Grace,” Toby says.
I look down at my brother. His lips are blue, his little hands like blocks of ice. Toby's hoodie doesn't protect him anymore from the icy wind and rain that's soaked us to the skin. “I'm hungry.” He plugs his thumb into his mouth.
I give an agonizingly slow blink and move forward like a robot. One methodical step at a time.
When I reach the gigantic boulder, the First Species dude grips my upper arm and I flinch.
His prominent brow meets and I'm struck by how there's plenty of subtle differences between him and Conrick. His eyes don't have the rich fossilized amber color of their leader's.
But the gaze is just as hot. Just as intimidating.
With a shaky inhale, I let him lead me into the darkness.
Heat rolls forward, slapping me with warmth and I moan like I just finished my favorite dessert, and my fingers and limbs begin a slow thaw.
Hauling myself forward, I spy flames against the walls and can make out large, carved steps at least three meters in width.
Oh my god, my eyes widen, the rock has been dug out. Glancing behind me, I can barely see the outside in the deepening gloom. Bright dawn pulses as though knocking on a door and then winks out of sight as we turn a corner and I see the impossible.
A hot spring steams at the center of a cavernous and towering roof of the beige-colored rock. Flames from integral sconces flicker their shadows against the rough texture, making the stone appear to glisten wetly. The sheen is not the material of the rock, but the moisture that rises from the steaming pool.
Gradually, the heat from the pool radiates the last of the cold from my bones, and I notice Toby stops shaking. Relief causes my shoulders to slump and the knot that's been hiding in my chest for hours—loosens.
Two women make their way around the wide stone paths that encircle the water.
I'm so stunned by the sight of them I can't look away.
They don't look like First Species. They look just like me. Just regular, human females.
But the children that walk with them don't.
They are like the males, but more refined. It's as though God put a thumbprint of primate on them like an visual echo.
One child is maybe eight years old—a boy, and the other is a girl of approximately five. They stare at Toby with bright curiosity within the amber depths of their gaze.
I stay where I am.
The pair of First Species escorts fall away
and stand by the rock wall, but their eyes stay on me.
They're making sure I don't take off. Fat lot of good that'd do me. I hold back a snort.
“Hi,” the first girl says.
I blink. She's my age, maybe a year or two older. “Hi,” I reply slowly. God knows, she's probably been taken too. I look at the kids that are with the women and shiver. Looks like there's more going on than just a run-of-the-mill kidnapping.
Looks like the women are breeding with these things. I swallow back my fear and revulsion, trying not to look too closely at my own body's responses.
“I'm Corine.” She glances to her left where the other woman stands. “This is Libby.”
“I'm Grace,” I manage.
Corine smiles a little shyly, her hair shining from the glow of the flickering firelight. It throws shadows against her light hair, casting spots of darkness. “We know who you are. Conrick has been planning your acquisition for a month. He was lucky enough to find you before the Mutable colony.” She has large round eyes in a rich hazel green.
A menacing growl comes from one of the First Species guys at the mention of that group.
I guess Mutables are pretty unpopular everywhere.
“Are you his wife?” I ask, figuring I've got nothing to lose being a little nosey.
Her blush is immediate, rivaling the firelight that slithers over us in the dim space. “No—he is the alpha of our clan. I—” she begins then falls silent. —“I am not pure enough.” Corine's voice is barely above a whisper.
Even with being cold, hungry and bone-tired, I feel bad that my innocent question provoked embarrassment.
I glance at the children again. Well—they sure as hell don't look one hundred percent human.
The other woman—Libby—places a comforting hand on Corine's shoulder. “There's no shame in it, Corine.”
