by Lacey Thorn
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Book Description
Dedication
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
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
About the Author
Dear Readers
Also from Resplendence
Gems of Romantic Fiction
Unleashing the Beast
An Awakening Pride Story
By Lacey Thorn
Resplendence Publishing
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www.resplendencepublishing.com
Gems of Romantic Fiction
Unleashing the Beast
Copyright © 2015, Lacey Thorn
Edited by Michele Paulin and Liza Green
Cover Art by Les Byerley
Published by Resplendence Publishing, LLC
1093 A1A Beach Blvd, #146
St. Augustine, FL 32080
Electronic format ISBN: 978-1-60735-918-0
Warning: All rights reserved. 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.
Electronic Release: November 2015
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and occurrences are a product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, places or occurrences, is purely coincidental.
Book Description
Unleashing the Beast by Lacey Thorn
A Caged Beast...
Captured, tortured and left at death’s door, an injection managed to save Finn’s life and opened up a whole new world. He’s no longer merely human. There’s a beast buried inside him just waiting to emerge. Finn can’t remember what happened with the hunters, but the beast will never forget.
A Mate’s Love...
Laura’s mate is dead. She found him tortured and bleeding out, already knocking at death’s door. She couldn’t save him, and it nearly killed her to leave him behind. She kissed his lips, offering comfort and love even as he left her. Now, only one thing matters. Killing every hunter she can find.
Mine...
Memories have been surfacing for Finn. The blood, the pain, and the soft kiss of a woman meant to be his. He remembers her tears despite the fact she left him to die. He vows to find her. Neither of them is ready for the inferno that ignites when they finally come face to face. With one touch, she unleashes the beast, and nothing will ever be the same.
The first book in this series came to me in a dream. I closed my eyes and there they all were. Tah, Abby, the Professor, Reno and Logan. Then the others appeared and the series continued to grow. Now, with book seven, I have a huge cast of characters, and I love every one of them. I hope you do, too. There are many more stories to come!
All my love,
Lacey
Chapter One
Finn knew the moment the dream sucked him in but was incapable of stopping it. They’d been coming fast and furious lately, so much so he was leery of closing his eyes even for a catnap.
He wasn’t himself in the dream. It was eerie the way he could see himself chained to the wall, see his body being beaten and abused. He watched it all as he prowled the room as the animal he knew was locked inside him.
“Had enough yet?” the leader growled at the Finn on the wall.
“That all you’ve got?” he asked, spitting blood onto the floor at the man’s feet.
“You’ve got balls for a human,” the man jeered. “Too bad, you chose the wrong side. Men who make their beds with animals die with them.”
Finn knew they were hunters. According to his brother, Murphy, Finn had been captured, tortured and almost killed last year. His friend, Zane, had shown him photos of the carnage they’d walked into to rescue Finn. The hunters weren’t dead in his dreams, though. They were very much alive and eager to make him scream.
Here, Finn was splayed like a bug on the wall, while men took turns using fists and knives to search for answers he wasn’t giving. The way they openly spoke made it clear they didn’t plan on him living. They’d almost succeeded.
“We’ll just let you rest for a bit. Give you time to reconsider that ‘I don’t know’ you keep muttering,” one of the men sneered as he cleaned his hands on a cloth.
“Not muttering. You heard me loud and clear. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
He stared at the Finn hanging on the wall, naked under the blood coating his skin. Had this really happened? Was it his memory coming back?
“We found the transponder on you.”
A reminder. Always, the reminder of what Finn had taken. He’d asked Murphy about it and felt guilt for his actions prior to being captured.
“I told you. I found it outside of Santa Fe. I knew what it was, thought it might come in handy. I didn’t know it was already activated.”
“You tell lies, Finnion Dockery.”
The Finn on the wall grinned despite two busted and bleeding lips and the swelling on his face.
“No need to be calling me Finnion. It’s just so formal. And we’re past that now.”
“Funny how that brogue slips in and out of your voice,” the man sneered.
“You just bring the Irish out o’ me,” Finn finally answered.
“Well, then, we’ll have to see if we can get more than blarney from you.” The man turned to one of the other goons. “Go get the cables out of the truck. It’s time we stopped playing with Mr. Dockery.”
The dream changed then. He became a boy, running to keep up with his brothers as they headed home. He wanted to grab the boy, hug him and tell him not to be afraid, but he was helpless to do anything but relive the moment. He begged to wake up, not wanting to see his mother’s lifeless body or the evidence of what she’d endured. Finn didn’t want to see the look on his brother’s face when their father and older two brothers turned on Murphy, blaming him for her death.
Faces swirled. Scenery changed. He was on the wall again, only this time it was his father beating him, his brothers jeering and taunting.
“You helped him, didn’t you, boy?” his father yelled, spittle flying from his mouth. “Helped him put your mum in an early grave. For what? Your brother’s an animal. He should be put down like one.”
The dream changed again. He saw Murphy as a boy, watching him with sad eyes while their father and brothers beat him. He knew this was a memory. It was a day he’d never forget. When Finn had tried to intervene, they’d broken his leg. Still, he’d struggled and fought, trying to protect his brother who’d refused to protect himself. He’d almost lost Murphy that day. In some ways, maybe he had. Heaven knew neither of them had been the same again.
The world tilted, and Finn felt himself falling. This time, he was back in the man’s body, prone now, no longer on the wall. Pain racked him, and he knew he was dying. He felt a moment of regret then prepared to give in. Until he heard her voice. His vision was dim, fading, but he could make out blonde hair and green eyes, wet with tears.
“Why do I find you only to lose you? Why? Don’t leave me! Please, don’t leave me!”
She was sobbing, reaching for him. Her touch sent a jolt through him. He felt her hands on his be
lly and wanted to tell her it was too late, but he couldn’t. Death was right there, waiting for him with wide-open arms. Then she kissed him.
“I would have loved you,” she whispered then her lips met his, the kiss warm and soft, though chaste.
His vision dimmed as if he were watching not through his own eyes but through those of another, but he could see well enough to know she was walking away from him. Her head was down, shoulders slumped. He watched her leave him there as his gaze dimmed and faded to black. There was nothing until he gasped, lungs filling with oxygen as his heart beat just a little stronger.
* * * *
“Finn! Finn!”
Murphy’s voice jarred Finn from the dream, bringing him awake with a jerk as his gaze flew around the car. Searching for her, always for her.
“Jesus! God! You scared the shit out of me. What the hell were you dreaming?” Murphy demanded.
“Don’t remember,” Finn lied, keeping his gaze focused out the window as he struggled to snap himself from the lingering intensity of the dream. Was it a dream? Or was it memories? Had he really met the woman who should be his mate? Had she really left him to die? So many fucking questions circled in his head now.
“Stop. Just fucking stop already with the lies,” Murphy snapped. “Did you forget how close we are? How connected we are? That shit inside you, making your heart race? Yeah, I feel that. You can try to shut me out all you want, but with something like that, when your guard’s not up, I’m there whether you want me to be or not.”
“Fuck,” Finn muttered, dropping his head into his hands. Murphy was right, and it galled him to know his brother sensed the emotional roller coaster tearing Finn apart. At least, he hadn’t touched Finn. Their connection at those times, when the link was wide open, allowed them to actually see the other’s memory. He didn’t want Murphy seeing what his dreams held.
“You’re not sleeping well. You’re moody. Everyone thinks it’s the beast slumbering inside you, but I know better. It’s not the beast. It’s something else, something that has you on edge. I’m worried for you, brother.”
Finn opened his mouth then shut it before he gave vent to the pithy response. Murphy deserved better. He always had. Better than the family they’d been born into. Better than the father who’d disowned him, who’d blamed him for their mother’s death and almost killed Murphy. He deserved so much better than the life he’d been given. Still, Finn couldn’t imagine his life without his brother, didn’t want to. They were as close as twins. Closer, actually, as Finn would know. He tried to shake that thought away, but the guilt coated him like a second skin. He told himself repeatedly there’d been no choice when it came to leaving Ireland with Murphy. His brother had needed him more than the twin Finn had left behind. He took a deep breath and blew it out. He didn’t need the guilt of that decision on his mind.
“Talk to me, Finn,” Murphy pleaded. “Tell me what’s going on inside you. You’re rubbing your head again. Headaches? Is that part of the problem?”
“Yes,” Finn admitted.
“You need to—”
“I’m not talking to Diane. She’s incredibly pregnant and ready to have the baby within the next four weeks. The Professor’s been busy working with that new shifter doctor who arrived after we left. And before you ask, no, I’m not talking to some fucking stranger. I’ll be fine.”
“You’re not fine. That’s the problem,” Murphy countered.
“I’m getting my memory back,” Finn admitted, hoping to keep his brother sated by giving him part of the truth. “Or at least, I think it’s memory. It’s all jumbled up.”
“The dreams?” Murphy questioned.
Finn nodded.
“So that’s why you haven’t been sleeping,” Murphy murmured. “Tell me about them. How long have you been having them? My guess would be since we hit Oklahoma.”
Finn jerked his head up, looking toward his brother.
“Easy,” Murphy replied as if Finn had asked how aloud instead of in his head. “The restlessness started there. It’s why I volunteered us when they needed someone to go check in on the Holloways. There’s something about Oklahoma that has you on edge. I don’t know what it is, so I’m guessing you haven’t pinned it down yet either.”
“No,” Finn admitted then changed the subject again. “I’m going to miss those bears.”
The Holloways were a group of brothers in Montana who were bear shifters. There weren’t very many of their species left, and while offering shelter to several members of the pride, they’d also opened their home to a mutual enemy. It still galled Finn to know a shifter would work with the hunters, a group of people dead set on ending all shifters for good. Men, women, children, the young or old. It didn’t matter to a hunter as long as blood spilled and a shifter’s life was ended.
“I’m glad Holt found some happiness there,” Finn said. “He deserves it.”
“That he does,” Murphy agreed. “I think he and Jaeda will be happy together.”
Jaeda was a female bear shifter, who’d run out of the woods and directly into their friend Holt’s arms. Funny thing was all the female bear shifters had been thought to be dead. Murphy and Finn had been excluded from whatever was going on with the Holloways, but they’d seen enough to get the gist of it. Someone from within the bear pack had helped arrange the attacks on the members, attacks that began with the death of their alpha, the patriarch of the Holloway family, and supposedly ended with the extinction of the females of the species. Jaeda’s arrival stated otherwise. So Finn and Murphy had been given the boot, while Holt, as the new mate of a bear, was made one of their current alpha’s inner circle.
“I’m going to miss Holt, too,” Finn said.
“Yeah,” Murphy agreed. “Now, tell me about these dreams.”
Finn sighed. He should have known Murph wouldn’t leave it alone. “They’re all a jumble of images.”
“Jumbled images. Possibly memories. Headaches. Sleeplessness. Restlessness. And I can feel your beast pressing you. My beast responds to it.”
“Shit, Murph.”
“We’re brothers. Our beasts are, as well. We’re the last two of our kind.”
“Are we?” Finn asked. “How can we be sure when we left home?”
“You know as well as I do that Niall and Alby were no shifters.” Murph argued, naming two of their siblings.
“Well, we had to get it from somewhere. We both know that old bastard wasn’t one. Was mom? Because I don’t think she was,” Finn told his brother.
“She must have been,” Murph stated, as stubborn as ever.
“Haven’t you once thought about it? How is it a full shifter and a recessed one came from two fully human parents?”
“Don’t.” Murphy’s voice was hard and cold.
“You can’t keep ignoring what’s right in front of our faces,” Finn warned.
“We don’t know anything for sure. We only have suspicions, and they won’t do either of us any good right now. Besides, we’re talking about you.”
“The hell we are,” Finn exploded. “What about Brenna? Have you forgotten about her because I sure as hell haven’t. It nearly killed me to leave her behind.” He could still see his twin’s blue eyes, like reflections of his own, pooled with tears as she’d reached for him.
“You didn’t have to go with me, Finn. It was my punishment. Not yours.”
“Fuck that, too. If I hadn’t screamed my bloody head off, they would have killed you the same way our mother was killed. Then I would have lost you both.”
“Fuck. We’re a right mess, aren’t we?” Murphy muttered.
They rode in silence for a ways. Finn figured Murphy was as lost in memory as Finn was. He saw his mother’s face in his mind, heard the tinkling sound of her laughter as if she were beside him even now. Funny how some things faded but others remained vivid even after the long passage of time. He could still smell his mother’s perfume.
Another picture formed in his mind. Long, blonde hair an
d big, green eyes. The eyes of a cat. He wasn’t sure where that thought had come from, but as soon as it registered, he couldn’t shake it away. He knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that the woman he pictured was a shifter. He heard her voice in his head, repeating the same line over and over again until it became a mantra. I would have loved you.
Then why the fuck had she left him to die? Why had she walked away? Murphy had told him over and over again how he and Zane hadn’t been sure if Finn would even survive the trip to the cabin in Colorado from the New Mexico hunting lodge where he’d been discovered. Murphy had called it a miracle. Finn knew better. He’d survived because of a kiss, one that still tormented him.
Murphy’s phone rang before he could start in on Finn again. The caller ID popped up on the dashboard, and Murph hit the button to answer. Tah’s voice came out in surround sound, filling the car.
“How far out are you?” Tah asked.
The alpha of their pride was a man both brothers truly admired and respected. So much so they’d dropped everything when another Marine buddy, Reno, had put out an SOS, stating Tah needed help and asking anyone who could to get in touch. Of course, “everything” had really been nothing. They’d been roaming from place to place, bored and restless. Civilian life wasn’t what they’d anticipated when they’d followed on the heels of the rest of their unit and left behind Marine life. Reno’s call had been a lifeline of sorts for them, giving them direction and purpose they’d both needed.
The call from Reno was the last real thing Finn remembered prior to waking up with the Professor and Diane in his mug down in the Colorado labs. He’d known them but had no clue how. They’d told him he’d almost died. Some days, parts of him wondered if maybe he’d been meant to die.
Murph had filled him in on all that had happened between the call from Reno and when Finn had woken up. He knew they’d met up with Tah and the group in Colorado, and that several of their former Marine buddies were shifters just like Murph. He knew he’d been responsible for terrifying Reno’s mate, Amia, and inadvertently, making her relive one of the most panic-inducing moments in her life. He knew he’d left to try to make amends and to protect the rest of their makeshift pride from the hunters closing in on them.
