A Rebel's Heart

by Lia Davis

Hayden handed over his cell. “It’s a secure line, and the number is untraceable.”

  Damian took the phone and walked outside to make the call.

  “Mom? Are you okay?”

  Sarah met Graham’s worried gaze and offered a weak smile. “Fine, dear. Just shaken up. Everything will be okay.” She patted his hand, and he grasped hers in his and squeezed.

  “Come to Nevan’s with us. Dani and Cam are going to cook dinner.”

  Her head was still a little fuzzy from whatever gas they’d used to put Damian and her into a deep sleep. Food would be good to help absorb the toxin. She nodded to Graham and allowed him to pull her to a stand and take her to Nevan and Dani’s house.

  Chapter Six

  “Are you sure about this?” Sarah asked Damian for the tenth time since he’d made the call to Chad and told Sarah he was meeting him.

  “Yes. Alec and Hayden, along with several enforcers, will be posted around the cabin. I’ll be fine.” He cupped her cheek. “I have to go now.”

  She nodded and stepped back, arms wrapped around her middle. God, he hated seeing her like this.

  “I will be back.” He smiled at her and then pressed a kiss to her lips. “I promise.”

  She sighed and pushed at him. “Go. I’ll hang out with my grandbabies.”

  He smiled weakly. Her family had always grounded her. As long as he’d known her, she’d surrounded herself with Walt and the kids.

  Giving her one last kiss on the forehead, he left Nevan’s house to meet Alec and Hayden at the north end of the den.

  About fifteen minutes later, Damian stood on the front porch of the small cabin he and the rest of his group used on occasions when they needed a safe place to sleep or needed to meet in small groups.

  Chad opened the door and grinned. The bastard. Standing back, Chad said, “You look like hell.”

  Damian growled at the male, which wasn’t too far out of character for him. Chad always had a way of irritating him. Now he knew why. Chad was a lying, backstabbing bastard.

  “Did you get any leads on who caused the fire?” Damian growled out as he walked into the cabin.

  Chad shut the door and followed him farther into the living room. “I put a call out for whoever is in the area. No word yet.”

  Damian forced himself to calm. Chad hadn’t put the call out. Damian was certain. Deciding he’d had enough of the polite bullshit, Damian pulled out the pocketknife and handed it to the other male.

  Chad glanced at it, and Damian swore he saw a flicker of fear flashed in his features before he took it and smiled. “I’ve been looking for that.”

  “Don’t you want to know where I found it?” When Chad didn’t answer right away, Damian continued. “Why did you do it?”

  Chad lifted his gaze to Damian’s, and one corner of his mouth twitched. “Just giving a little payback.”

  Damian narrowed his eyes. “Payback for what?”

  “My family. You gave the order to bail out when you knew my family was still in the den.” Fury rolled over Chad and reached out to Damian.

  “I didn’t know until it was too late. We barely got out ourselves. It was seconds before the whole place blew.”

  Chad started to pace, shaking his head. “No. There was time.”

  Damian blew out a breath. Chad had lost his mate and two children when their den was attacked and destroyed by Onyx, a rogue Pack set on ruling all shifters. Damian had thought all this time that the male was dealing with his loss while fighting against the rogues that had taken their Pack, their family, away.

  Apparently Chad was dealing with it in a way Damian hadn’t expected.

  “You caused the car accident, didn’t you?”

  Chad laughed. “You see what good that did me. Your mate is still alive.”

  Damian cursed under his breath. He’d confided in Chad a few months after they’d formed their rebel group, telling the male that Sarah was his mate, and because Walt was like a brother to him, he couldn’t have her.

  “Why, Chad?”

  The male gave Damian a hard stare and snarled. “Because I wanted you to suffer as much as I had.”

  The next instant, Chad rushed at Damian, nailing him in the stomach with his shoulder. They tumbled to the floor. Chad punched him the jaw. Pain shot up his face. Damian hit Chad in the gut, knocking the male off him. Damian pulled out the gun Blaine had given him and pointed it at Chad’s head. The male stilled and glared at Damian.

  “It’ll take only one shot to head, asshole.” Damian wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. When he pulled it away, he wasn’t surprised to see the blood smeared across his hand.

  The front door flew open, and Alec charged in and cuffed Chad none-too-gently. “The Council of Elders will be thrilled to have their first trial in two hundred years.”

  Damian holstered the gun and walked past Hayden to get outside. Once free from the walls of the cabin, Damian shifted in a flash, not bothering to remove his clothes first. He needed to run, needed to feel the air in his fur.

  Run off the pain from the betrayal.

  He’d always thought of Chad as a friend, someone he could confide in and would have his back. All the while, the bastard had been plotting the death of his mate.

  Fury pushed his legs faster through the forest and toward Ashwood. His only thoughts were on Sarah and making sure she was safe.

  He’d never leave her alone again.

  Chapter Seven

  Sarah cradled a cup of coffee in her hands as she sat in a large armchair in her new apartment in Ashwood Falls. Blaine and Luna had insisted she stay there. They’d get no argument from her this time. The den was safe, and she was close to two of her sons and Graham’s adopted kids, Max and Sammie.

  Besides, the den was truly beautiful with its natural landscape and the love that radiated in the air. The two Packs — the wolves and leopards — had truly made it a home, welcoming and warm.

  Scratching at the door made her draw her brows together. She stood and set the cup on the coffee table before going to the door. Opening the door, she smiled at Damian in puma form and stepped back so he could enter.

  Once he was inside and she’d closed the door, he shifted instantly and wrapped his arms around her to draw her into his hard, naked body. He buried his nose in her neck and inhaled. Sarah sagged in relief and hugged him tight.

  Then the sharp sting of his fangs in her skin made her gasp. He walked her backward a few steps until her back was flat against the door and started undressing her. Desire flooded her system and sent pinches of sensations all the way down to her core.

  When her jeans were off, Damian lifted her legs and thrust inside her. She cried out in pleasure at the sudden invasion, and then again as he pumped in and out in demanding thrusts, claiming her in the way a mate claims his female.

  She dug her claws into his shoulders and rode the wave of pleasure until an orgasm crashed into her in a hot, explosive wave, pulling Damian under with her.

  He lifted his head and peered into her eyes. “I’d say sorry, but you’d know I’m not.”

  She smiled. “No more than I’m sorry to be taken like that.”

  He smiled, wrapped his arms around her to support her weight, and walked them to the bedroom. He laid her down on the bed and lay beside her. “I love you, Sarah. Always have. I want to bond with you and never want to let you go.”

  Her heart swelled, and her vision blurred. She cupped his face in her hands. “I love you, too. I’m yours, always.”

  The End

  Coming next to the Ashwood Falls world:

  Misguided Paths

  A Thank you from Fated Desires

  Thank you so much for reading A Rebel’s Heart! We’re so happy that you had a chance to look into the paranormal world of Ashwood Falls. We do hope if you liked this, that you would please leave a review from where you purchased this or on another platform. Not only does a review spread the word to other readers, they let us know if you’d like to see more stories li
ke this from us. Lia loves to hear from readers and talks to them when she can. You can reach her through her website, www.authorliadavis.com and through her Facebook and Twitter accounts. You guys are the reason we get to do what we do and we thank you.

  If you are looking for more stories like these, you don’t have to wait much longer! Lia is cooking up new works in this series and a few others. Also, we have a few new authors coming that will be sure to whet your appetite.

  If you’d like to know more about Fated Desires, check out our website, www.FatedDesires.com or email us at admin@FatedDesires.com.

  About the Author

  Lia Davis is a mother to two young adults and two very special kitties, a wife to her soul mate, a paranormal romance author, graphic designer, and co-owner to Fated Desires Publishing, LLC. She and her family live in Northeast Florida battling hurricanes and very humid summers. But it’s her home and she loves it!

  An accounting major, Lia has always been a dreamer with a very activity imagination. The wheels in her head never stop. She ventured into the world of writing and publishing in 2008 and loves it more than she imagined. Writing and designing are stress relievers that allow her to go off in her corner of the house and enter into another world that she created, leaving real life where it belongs.

  Her favorite things are spending time with family, traveling, reading, writing, chocolate, coffee, nature and hanging out with her kitties.

  www.authorliadavis.com

  Also from this Author

  Now Available

  Ashwood Falls

  Winter Eve

  A Tiger’s Claim

  A Mating Dance

  Surrendering to the Alpha

  Ever After

  Divided Loyalties

  The Divinities

  Death’s Storm

  Coming Soon

  Ashwood Falls

  Misguided Path

  Sons of War

  War’s Passion

  Pleasures of the Heart

  Business Pleasures

  Did you enjoy this selection? Why not try another romance from Fated Desires?

  From the Ashwood Falls series by Lia Davis

  Divided Loyalties

  Chapter One

  Something didn’t ring right with Christa Baker as she sat in the conference room listening to the new leader of Shield rattling on about rogue shifters. He said they were growing in numbers, yet he hadn’t provided any physical proof. Sure a few humans had gone missing, most of whom were homeless, and according the police, their disappearances weren’t that unusual.

  She failed to see his point because shifters were born, not created. So why would they need to kidnap humans?

  Her new boss had gone on and on for the last several weeks about an increase in shifter sightings. Again, no proof. Christa had checked.

  She could pull up anything from the Internet. Social networks like Facebook and YouTube were the best places to look for the weird and unusual.

  There hadn’t been a human attack by a shifter since she’d killed the beast in her home eight years ago. It had been her first encounter with what she now knew was called a mutant, a half-animal, half-human creature with no regard for life—its own or others’.

  However, Vance Miller believed a civil war was raging among the breeds that had spilled over into the human world. There was something he’d left out, something bigger than he wanted her and the others in Shield to believe. So what if the shifters were at war with one another and killing themselves? Was it the mutants? If so, then they deserved what they got. They’d created the damned creatures; they could all go to hell as far as she cared.

  It wasn’t Shield’s place to get involved in the shifters’ civil war. Shield was a human-run group of rebels that went above the law to protect mankind from the were-kind or shifters, as they liked to be called. She didn’t care what they called themselves as long as they left the humans alone. So far, in the eight years she’d been with Shield, the shifters had. However, there was the occasional mishap—like the mating-gone-wrong situation her sister had suffered.

  Mary didn’t have the chance to run when her mate turned on her in a fit of jealous rage. Or at least that’s what Christa believed happened. Her niece and nephew, fraternal twins Brenna and Bryce, had been only eight at the time and thankfully not at home to witness how their mother died.

  However, Christa had been the one to ID the body.

  From that day forward, Christa had fought for Shield to protect humans from the shifter races.

  Up until a few months ago, Shield hadn’t attacked innocents or started wars between the shifters, but then Vance had stepped in as the new leader of Shield. He’d changed the way the others thought, more like manipulated them into believing his load of bullshit. She wasn’t sure how he’d done it, but the others just bowed down to him and believed every lie out of his mouth.

  How could they be so blind to his cause?

  Then again, the other soldiers couldn’t detect a shifter like she could. Sure, they all had training to know what to look for. Eye color was the biggie. Most shifters had an unusual coloring, and when they were challenged or provoked, their eyes seemed to glow. Plus the pupils were reflective like the animal that lived within.

  Christa had lived with two shifters for the last seven years. She’d been there when Brenna and Bryce shifted for the first time. She’d also helped them control their wolves, thanks to the information her sister had shared with her when she was alive.

  “My sources tell me that the rise in shifter attacks points to a hybrid Pack of wolves and leopards called Ashwood Falls,” Vance said then tapped on the table to get her attention.

  She met his gaze and held it until he looked away, but not before she caught the flashing shift of color in his irises. Satisfied she wasn’t being paranoid about what he was, she asked, “How trustworthy is this source? Why haven’t we heard about attacks from our police contacts? It should be all over the Internet.”

  Vance set his jaw and turned away from them to study the map on the wall. “The shifters are very good at hiding these things from humans. You, of all people, should know that, Christa.”

  Fucking ass…

  What she really wanted to say was, “Like you, asshole,” but she refrained and squashed her temper down before it got her in trouble. Again. “How sure are you?” she asked in a slightly softer tone.

  See? She could be calm and cool.

  He peered at her over his shoulder and smiled one of those smiles that held no humor or amusement. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were protecting the shifters.”

  She narrowed her eyes and wished she had the gift of pyrokinesis so she could light his ass on fire. Okay so maybe that was a little extreme, but she didn’t trust or like him. The darkness he held around him put her on edge every time he was near. “I wouldn’t want to go in and destroy the wrong den when there could be a bigger threat out there. I just like to be sure.”

  The truth was Vance had taken all the control of research and strategy from her when he took over the unit. That annoyed the hell out of her, and it also left her feeling as though she was going into an OP blind.

  She swore he let out a low growl before he called the meeting to an end. Gathering her notebook and pen, she moved toward the door, only to stop when Vance stepped in her path. She fisted her free hand by her side and silently counted backward from ten. One corner of Vance’s lips lifted. She wanted so badly to punch that smirk right off his face.

  Or just shoot him.

  If there was a rogue, it was him for sure.

  “What’s the rush?”

  She stared into his dark brown eyes and squared her shoulders. “I skipped lunch.”

  He moved to the side, and she stepped forward. He gripped her biceps and leaned in to whisper in her ear, “Tell the brats to stay safe.”

  She jerked out of his grip and stormed down the hall to the lobby of Shield HQ, away from the bastard shifter-acting-human. Only then
did she allow her heart to pound uncontrollably and let fear consume her.

  Pulling out her phone, she sent a one-word text to an untraceable cell.

  Marco.

  A few seconds later she got a reply.

  Polo.

  Relief flooded her system and threatened to make her knees give out. She had to get a grip. The twins were safe and very smart. But still she insisted on the text codes for her own piece of mind.

  Although Vance had just threatened her niece and nephew. At least that was what she took it for, a threat. Maybe he knew they were wolves. No. He’d never met—or even seen them.

  She had to get out of Shield and disappear. Fall off the radar for good.

  But how?

  When she reached the lobby door, she jerked back as it flew open to reveal a large man with black hair and bright green eyes that bored into her as he moved forward. She sidestepped him, but he was too quick. He snaked one arm around her waist, drew her into the hard length of his side, while he held a gun straight out, and fired at everyone around them.

  She screamed, but no one heard her over the gunfire. Shield soldiers came from the back offices, weapons drawn. Two more men stepped up beside her and her captor then rushed the wall of Shield soldiers, killing them with ease like trained assassins.

  Christa twisted and kicked with no results. The man had a death grip around her waist. “Let me go. We don’t have money in here.”

  He didn’t reply, which was no surprise to her. She didn’t expect him to. Think, Christa. She scanned the large lobby, and her heart ached for the men and women she’d worked with for the last eight years. They were giving it their all, but it wasn’t good enough. One by one, they fell.