by Lynn Hagen

Maple Grove 9
Reckless Soul
[The Lynn Hagen ManLove Collection: Contemporary, ManLove, Alternative, Suspense, Paranormal, Shape-shifters, MM, HEA]
His entire life Roy Benton has tried to be half the man his father had been. Unfortunately, he was born with his mother’s petite stature. Not even joining Maple Grove police department makes him feel manly, especially when the other deputies are built like linebackers. Roy is always trying to prove he can handle the job, that he doesn’t need anyone’s help, until a psychotic vampire sets his sights on Roy.
Calhoun Reckless left his pack behind when he agreed to help Panahasi shut down two drug labs. However, the men running one of the labs escape, and are now after Calhoun. One twisted vampire. One evil wolf shifter and a crazed demon want him dead. When Panahasi hides Calhoun in a small town, he has no idea he would find his mate. But the men after Calhoun will stop at nothing to not only destroy him, but the human who has come to mean everything to Calhoun.
Length: 32,000 words
RECKLESS SOUL
Maple Grove 9
Lynn Hagen

Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
Reckless Soul
Copyright © 2019 by Lynn Hagen
ISBN: 978-1-64243-995-3
First Publication: October 2019
Cover design by Emma Nicole
All art and logo copyright © 2019 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.
All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.
If you find a Siren-BookStrand e-book or print book being sold or shared illegally, please let us know at [email protected]
PUBLISHER
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Lynn Hagen loves writing about the somewhat flawed, but lovable. She also loves a hero who can see past all the rough edges to find the shining diamond of a beautiful heart.
You can find her on any given day curled up with her laptop and a cup of hot java, letting the next set of characters tell their story.
For all titles by Lynn Hagen, please visit
www.bookstrand.com/lynn-hagen
TABLE OF CONTENTS
RECKLESS SOUL
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
RECKLESS SOUL
Maple Grove 9
LYNN HAGEN
Copyright © 2019
Chapter One
“You look like you had a rough night,” Raven said as he sat across the booth from Calhoun in The Diner Train.
If the wolf shifter only knew. Raven’s parents had adopted Calhoun when he was just a kitten, and he and Raven had been inseparable most of their lives. Until thirty years ago when Raven had up and left the pack, refusing the responsibility of leadership.
Thirty years was a long time not to see someone. A part of Calhoun felt as though he didn’t really know Raven anymore. If his brother only knew the things Calhoun had done in that span of time, Raven wouldn’t know him either.
Calhoun had become the pack enforcer, but there was way more to his life than that. A lot more. He’d worked covert missions for the Ultionem, the leaders of the preternatural world.
“I just have a hard time sleeping in strange places.” Calhoun had a hard time sleeping, period. More times than not he awoke from gut-wrenching, sweaty nightmares of the things he’d done in his past. The things he did to keep the human world safe. Things that haunted his very soul.
Raven fell silent for a moment, and the din of conversation around them made Calhoun want to leave the diner. He still hadn’t shaken his recent nightmare from last night. His skin crawled, and his head hurt as he took a sip of his black coffee. The smell of food wafted toward him as Calhoun tried to erase the images of those soulless eyes he’d seen in his sleep.
It didn’t matter that the people he killed had been the enemy, had been out to destroy others. Every time Calhoun took a life, the act stole a piece of him.
“If I’d known that, I wouldn’t have suggested you get a motel room,” Raven finally said.
Calhoun waved off his apology. “You’re newly mated. You and Jet want privacy. I get it.”
He understood about privacy. Calhoun spent a lot of time alone. He would never understand about mates, though. After the things he’d done, fate would never give him someone so special, someone he could cherish, someone who would understand the inner demons Calhoun fought in his everyday life.
“How about something to eat?” Raven raised his hand and waved for the waiter.
Calhoun had come into the diner every morning since he’d been stashed in Maple Grove. He knew the giant’s name was Moose, a kind and gentle bear shifter.
Calhoun wasn’t hungry, but he allowed Raven to talk him into trying the blueberry waffles.
“They’re homemade.” Raven grinned. “All the food served here is from scratch. Cyril is the best damn cook I’ve ever met.”
“Well, with that seal of approval, how can I not try them?” Calhoun took another sip of coffee as Raven ordered their breakfast.
It wasn’t so much the bad guys that helped to create Calhoun’s nightmares. It was the innocent men and women whose faces he couldn’t seem to forget.
He’d helped Panahasi, the demon leader and an Ultionem member, take down two drug labs. Calhoun, along with a few others, had tracked down those responsible. Panahasi had taken them to the underworld to be punished, to relive their worst nightmares over and over again.
But it was those people who’d been caged, whose blood had been either drained from them until they’d died or those who had only been clinging to life by a thread.
Calhoun constantly saw the dead in his nightmares, those he hadn’t been able to save. Raven’s mate had been captured and hooked up to one of those IVs. But Jet had somehow managed to escape. He’d been one of the lucky ones, if anyone could call him that after the two-week ordeal he’d suffered through.
Moose brought their plates to the table. After thanking him, Calhoun grabbed his fork and noticed how badly his hand shook. He curled his fingers in, forcing them to become steady before he sliced into the waffles.
“Are you sticking around Maple Grove?” Raven grabbed a piece of bacon and began to chew on it. “I know you said you weren’t going back to the pack, but I was just wondering if you were going to make this your home or move on.” Raven set the half-eaten piece of meat back on his plate. “I’d really like you to stay.”
Calhoun shrugged. “I’m considering it. I don’t have any plans right now.”
That wasn’t the whole truth. Panahasi had strongly suggested Calhoun stay here since the mission to take down the second drug lab had gone horribly wrong.
Somehow those who were running the second lab had found out Calhoun and the men he was working with were coming. Those bastards had tortured the fae they’d held in captivity. When Calhou
n had finally arrived, the sight of the bloody massacre had dropped him to his knees.
Everyone in the second lab had been murdered, in a gruesome fashion. Two days later, Calhoun had nearly lost his life when one of the people running the lab had come after him.
Merk Trenton was a bloodthirsty vampire who had sworn he would never stop hunting Calhoun, right before the bastard got away. He had also said others would be coming for Calhoun, that he would suffer worse than the dead fae in those cages had.
“These are good.” Calhoun ate another piece of the waffle. When was the last time he’d eaten? He needed to take better care of himself, and not just with a bottle of Red Spanking and a remote.
“I told you.” Raven winked. “If you want some good, home-cooked food, this is the place.”
“I hear ya.” Calhoun just wanted to go back to his motel room. He loved Raven, but he wasn’t in the mood for company. He wanted to get drunk and pass out, to try and get some sleep without haunting images trying to destroy him.
After they finished their breakfast and parted ways, Calhoun made his way down the street. He needed something to do to occupy his time. Sitting for hours on end staring at his motel room wall wasn’t productive.
He passed a tavern with a help wanted sign in the window. Calhoun wasn’t pressed for money. He had plenty of that. He was pressed for a distraction, something that would keep his mind busy so the voices of the dead would stop talking to him in his head, would stop pleading with Calhoun to save them.
What better place than a crowded bar where he was constantly on the move? Calhoun didn’t think the place would be open this early, until he spotted some guy hauling crates in through the front door.
“Need help?” Calhoun grabbed a crate of liquor from the back of the guy’s truck. “Name’s Calhoun.”
The guy stopped and shook Calhoun’s hand. “I’m Mike Cage, the owner.”
From Mike’s scent, Calhoun knew the guy was a wolf shifter. “I see you have a help wanted sign in the window.”
Mike looked tired as he nodded. “I’ve lost two bartenders recently. Jericho and Emilio found their mates and decided they didn’t need to work here anymore.” Mike looked him over. “Do you know how to bartend?”
“I’m gonna be honest with you,” Calhoun said. “I don’t, but I’m a fast learner.”
“For now, let Armand make the complicated drinks. You can stick to serving beer and shots.”
“I have the job?” That had been easy. He thought for sure Mike would turn him down for his lack of experience. Calhoun would’ve worked for free if he’d had to. He just wanted to stay busy.
“I’m desperate, and no one has applied for the position. Although I could really use a bartender, you can work as a barback. Can you start around six?”
Calhoun nodded. “What exactly is a barback?”
“Exactly what I just described,” Mike said. “A bartender’s assistant.”
He could handle that. Again, Calhoun didn’t need the money. He just needed the distraction.
“Tell me you’re reliable.” Mike grabbed a box from the back and started toward the door. Calhoun followed with the box in his hands.
“I am.” At least if he worked evenings and nights, he could exhaust himself, and maybe he could get some dreamless sleep.
They set the boxes down inside the kitchen pantry that was filled with not only alcohol but nonperishable food. It was a bonus that this place served food. Calhoun could eat while at work.
His throat tightened when he saw a few bottles of Red Spanking on one of the shelves. Booze for nonhumans since they couldn’t get drunk off of human alcohol.
Calhoun closed his eyes for a second, telling himself he didn’t need the crap to get him through the night. How had his life gotten so bad? How had he found himself on this type of road? At one point in time, Calhoun had been strong and fierce, capable of handling any punches life had thrown his way.
Too many deaths. Too much blood. Most by your own hands. It felt as if life had beaten him down, and Calhoun wasn’t sure how many more punches he could take.
Fuck, he missed the simpler times when he and Raven used to raise hell as juveniles, not a care in the world. Lost innocence was always tragic. Becoming jaded even more so.
“You get a free meal while working a shift,” Mike was saying as Calhoun shook himself from his thoughts. “The food isn’t as good as the diner food. It’s bar food but pretty damn tasty if you ask me.”
Calhoun forced a smile he didn’t feel. “How can I complain if it’s free?”
“The cook, Reese, is a rhino shifter. Armand and the waitress, Lacey, are human and are clueless about us. So watch what you say and do around them. I have a few part-time people who come in to help out, but I’d prefer someone full time.”
Calhoun shook Mike’s hand. “I’ll be here at six.”
Now all Calhoun had to do was try and get some sleep. He felt dead on his feet as he walked back to his motel room.
* * * *
Deputy Roy Benton, along with some of the other deputies, Malik Burrows and Darren Christopher, headed into Tilted, the local tavern. It was Taco Tuesday Night at the bar, and Roy was famished. All three had just gotten off shift, and Roy had been surprised they’d invited him to go out with them.
“Lenox and Emilio will be joining us,” Darren said as they strode inside.
Right. Their boyfriends. Now Roy wasn’t so sure he wanted to be there. He didn’t want to be a fifth wheel. But he strode inside with them, because he was a meek guy while Malik and Darren were strong, muscular men that Roy wished he could be.
A strong, confident man like his dad had been. That wasn’t in the cards for Roy. He’d inherited his mother’s physique, small, dainty, and lacking any kind of form. He’d even inherited her long, crane-like neck, which unfortunately, being male, made his Adam's apple pronounced.
Roy was not gorgeous like his coworkers, but he wasn’t god-awful ugly either. He was average, and that was not something to boast about.
But his father had been a deputy for Maple Grove back in the day, and everyone had respected him. Roy had only joined the police force to follow in his dad’s footsteps, to hopefully gain the respect of the residents, too.
Hanging around Malik and Darren helped. They encouraged him, helped him when Roy messed up, which was often. He’d learned more being around them in the past few months than he’d learned from Deputy Joshua Hayley, who was a real prick.
They grabbed a table toward the back. Roy tried to walk with smooth steps like the other two men, but his legs were too damn short for that. He felt that if he spent enough time around Malik and Darren, he could hopefully be half the men they were.
He spotted his sister walking toward them, and Roy smiled. “Hey, Lacey.”
“Hey to you.” She gave Roy a quick hug. “Here for the tacos?”
Now Lacey? She’d been gifted with their mother’s beauty. She had long blonde hair, pretty green eyes, and a body men drooled over. They were fraternal twins, and Roy had gotten the short stick from the gene pool.
“You bet.” Roy took a seat. The place was packed, and the music flowed as men shot pool off to the right and others filled the tables and booths.
The bar was also crowded.
“We’ll take the combo platter,” Darren said. “Unless Moose shows up.”
Lacey laughed. “Right? If he steps foot in here, I’ll put in his usual order for a dozen tacos.”
“Is he supposed to join us?” Roy really liked Sheriff Copache’s boyfriend. Moose was a giant but was the nicest guy Roy had ever met. He’d always gone out of his way to say hi to Roy or bring an extra donut for him.
“So what do you think about our latest case?” Darren asked when Lacey walked away.
“It’s got me stumped,” Malik admitted.
Roy agreed. There had been a rash of home invasions around town, and no one had found a single clue to help their investigation. It was as though the intruder was a
ghost. He left no prints behind. No clues whatsoever. He didn’t even take anything of value.
The only thing the victims reported stolen were their panties, and that just creeped Roy out. The perp didn’t even make contact with the victims. He simply stole women’s underwear and left.
“A guy with a panty fetish.” Roy shrugged.
Darren looked at Malik and grinned. “What kind of fetish do you have?”
“Killing people who ask me about fetishes.”
Roy envied their good-natured ribbing. Although they were kind and helped Roy out a lot, he never felt a part of the team. Not entirely.
Darren chuckled and turned to Roy. “You got any we need to know about?”
Roy felt himself blush at such a personal question. With his fair skin, he knew he was beet red. “None that I can think of.”
What made Roy’s existence worse was the fact he was still a virgin. His only fixation was to get laid. But with the hours he worked and his lack of flirting skills, he was afraid he would die before he got laid.
Darren had started to say something else when Lenox and Emilio walked in, joining them. He watched the couples kiss and hug, and it was more than Roy wanted to see.
He excused himself and went to the bar, giving the men time to say hello to their boyfriends without making him squirm.
“What can I get you?” Armand asked as his gaze darted down the counter at a woman waving for his attention.
“A shot of whiskey.” Though Roy never drank the hard stuff, maybe it would help loosen him up so he could find a hunk to go home with and lose his V card.
Although Roy wanted what his coworkers had, a loving relationship, right about now he’d take a one-night stand. He just wanted to experience what it would be like to be wanted by someone. To be held in a man’s arms, for that person to kiss him until his head spun.
