Perfect Reflection

by Jana Leigh

  “Damn it, Ris, where the fuck are you?” Calli bellowed and Rissa paused. She didn’t want to make a sound, their damn wolf hearing would give her away, and she would be damned if she got caught now.

  “Calli, she's hiding because she knows she made an ass out of herself on Christmas and doesn’t want to face the man again. I mean who would, 'Weeiioo, Weeiioo', that's enough to have a hard on go soft when you scent your mate. Then she challenged him in front of the whole fucking Pack? WOW!” Cherri laughed.

  Shit, she wasn’t afraid to meet the man, why did they insist on refusing to believe the obvious? He was a butt ass, crazy murderer who she was not going to have little murderess or murderer cubs with. She refused to produce a clan of killers—it was that simple. Plus, did they forget the whole sex vid? Really. Bitches, Rissa thought and then opened her mouth to say it again to them when she remembered where she was. Shit, hiding, duh.

  “I know, but ya gotta love the fact that she tried to kill him. I mean no one saw her grabbing my Christmas gift and protecting the ‘family,’” Calli said smugly.

  “Thank the Gods, it wasn't loaded,” Cherri sighed.

  “Well it was, but she didn’t take off the safety. Remember, that's when Mr. Twisted grabbed the gun out of her hand and said she needed a ‘fucking spanking.’” Calli snorted.

  Oh the humiliation, Rissa thought. She should just jump for the fucking hell of it.

  “Wait,” Cherri said. “Can you hear that?”

  Rissa gasped and looked up; an eagle was flying above the compound. Of course, the asshole would be early. Simon, that's what he said his real name was, ha, like she would believe that. No, he was Mr. Twisted and that was it.

  “Shit, it's Simon, Kade was going to talk to him and explain everything, and then we were gonna bring her in and make her apologize. Now what the fuck are we gonna do?” Calli said and then made a growling noise she made when she was frustrated.

  “We have to find her. She's just hiding. I mean, please, we know everywhere she would go,” Cherri said.

  “By the way, we have checked all of those places,” Calli said.

  “Well, Billy B is with Pilar, she said Rissa asked her to watch him for her,” Cherri said.

  “Crap, she is going into the city,” Calli said and Rissa smirked and waited, they would go to the tunnels and look at the new underground transport cars she designed and they used for travel. Recently, they used it to bring Pack members there who joined the Drekinn Pack.

  Rissa listened as they walked to the door and got ready to jump again when she heard Kade, the other Alpha. “What the fuck is going on?”

  “Huh?” Calli said.

  “Simon said when he flew in there was someone on the ledge, I figured it was Rissa since you were going to talk to her,” Kade ground out.

  “Rissa? You mean MY MATE is the one who is on the Fuckin’ ledge?!”

  Rissa heard someone roar and that was all it took. Her fight or flight instinct went into high gear. “You will never take me alive!” Rissa cried and jumped as she heard her best friends, and now labeled traitors, laugh and clap.

  Rissa landed nicely on her ass, in the middle of the shrubs, and said a very unladylike word. Like that was going to change the situation. She jumped up and ran, not looking back and only hearing the men yelling for someone to stop her.

  Excerpt from Once Forgotten Twice Loved

  The Love of a Shifter Series Book One

  By Bryce Evans

  Prologue

  “Wake up, Jamie. Wake up.” Jamie could feel someone nudging her arm. “I said wake up.” This time Jamie felt a punch to her arm.

  “Hey!” she yelled, gripping the arm that was hit. Jamie still couldn’t open her eyes all the way. She brought her hand up to her face, rubbing her eyes, trying to open them.

  “It’s time for you to wake up, Jamie, and take your place with the pack.” Jamie didn’t recognize the voice. What pack? I’m already part of a pack. The Nortic Pack. Jamie blinked her eyes, trying to focus on the voice that was talking to her.

  “Who are you?” Jamie asked. Their eyes met and Jamie knew she was in trouble. The man had long hair with black eyes. The blackest eyes she had ever seen. He was a huge man. Jamie knew he had to be bigger than her Alpha. He had muscles everywhere. Jamie thought he would be good-looking if he didn’t give her the creeps. He looked crazy, Jamie thought.

  “I’m your new Alpha, Jamie.” Jamie continued to blink, looking around the room, watching five men staring at her. She needed to get out of here. “Jamie, you are now part of our pack.”

  “No, no, where are my mom and my sister?”

  “Soon you will have a new sister and mother!”

  Chapter One

  Detective Ashland Peters sat at her computer, finishing her paperwork, so she could go home and finish packing for her trip to the small town of Freedom, Colorado.

  “Are you almost finished, Peters? You don’t want to miss your plane so go home and get ready,” Captain Jackson said as he looked down from the desk he was leaning against.

  Ash looked up from the computer screen, shaking her head and smiling. “It sounds like you are ready to get rid of me, Captain.”

  “Well, I am. You have been telling me that you need a vacation for two years now, and I’m sending you to a ski lodge for training in Colorado, and I can’t seem to get you out of the office.”

  “Just finishing this report. I’m finished now so I will see you in a week. Wish me luck.” Captain Jackson moved and sat on the side of her desk, watching her shut down her computer.

  “Listen, Ash. Have a good time while you are there. It’s time to start living. Life is more than just work. That friend of yours will be there too, right? What’s his name?” Ashland watched as her Captain tried to think of Nash’s name. “He is named after a city right?” Ash shook her head, laughing at Captain Jackson.

  “His name is Nashville, but he goes by Nash,” Ash responded.

  “You guys sure do like those weird names. Now stop changing the subject. This is an order, Detective; you must have a good time. Let your hair down. Meet a man who sees what we see.” Ash smiled because she had heard it before from him. “See you when you get back.”

  Ash watched as Captain Jackson got up and walked back to his office. She liked her Captain. He had mentored her since she left the police academy ten years ago. She was the youngest police officer at the New York Police Department and the youngest cop to become a detective. She was nineteen years old when she became a cop.

  Captain Jackson was an instructor at the Police Academy when she went through. He was more than her Captain; he was more like a father to her. He gave her advice on what classes she needed to take to further her career and who to watch out for in the Police Department. She would eat dinner with him and his wife, Janie, every Sunday afternoon. He knew Ash was different but that never stopped him from trying to watch out for her. He knew about Ash’s background and knew she acted tough to keep people away from her heart. However, Ash couldn’t act like that with Janie and him. They wouldn’t let Ash close up on them and keep them at a distance. They made sure she was sitting at their table for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter. The Jackson’s treated her like family. Captain Jackson and his wife, Janie, held a special place in Ash’s heart.

  Ash looked at the clock, seeing that she didn’t have a lot of time left before her flight took off. She grabbed her computer bag and ran out of the office, rushing to get home and finish packing.

  ***

  Ash sat on the plane, looking out the window, thinking about Nash. She leaned her chair back trying to remember when she first met him. Nash had been her friend since they were six years old. They were best friends while they were in the orphanage. Neither one of them had parents nor any family. Ash treated Nash like a little brother. She knew that Nash was special, too. He was a werewolf, but she didn’t care. Ash loved Nash as her family. They stayed in the orphanage until they were both sixteen years old, and then
they had run away together. Ash couldn’t stop the bad memories as they flooded her mind as she remembered all the terrible beatings.

  Ash told Nash she wasn't going to take the beatings any more so she asked Nash if he wanted to run away with her. They had spoken about leaving before, but now Nash could tell Ash was breaking up inside. The beatings were becoming more frequent, so Nash immediately agreed to leave with Ash, telling Ash that she was his family, and if she left, then he would leave too. Ash knew that Nash would run away with her, but she didn’t want to assume anything, and she always wanted Nash to have a choice. Nobody ever asked her opinion or gave her a choice on anything in the orphanage.

  They ran away from the orphanage one night after Ash was beaten because she didn’t want to eat the beans they put on her plate. She said they weren’t cooked all the way. They beat her for giving her opinion on the food, telling her she should be grateful for receiving anything to eat since she was a ward of the state. They always treated the kids like pieces of shit. Ash was different, and the older she got, the more they noticed the changes in her. She was also filling out faster than most girls were at her age. Ash knew it was only a matter of time before something happened. The security guards or male caretakers always made comments about her breasts and how much they’d like to see them. They made Ash nervous when they were around.

  They ran away together with only the clothes on their backs. Ash always found ways to get them food or a place to live. She knew how to find people that could help them disappear. She had found someone to get them both a different identity. They planned to use a different identity until they turned eighteen, and then they would go back to their original names because they would no longer be wards of the state.

  They worked odd jobs to stay alive and lived in rundown shacks where people didn’t ask any questions about their age. Ash was street smart, and she knew how to hustle to get them whatever they needed. She would always come home with a new shirt for Nash or new shoes, always taking care of Nash’s needs before her own.

  When their eighteenth birthdays came around, they both decided to use their real identities. They also had someone check to see if the orphanage ever reported them missing, they never did. They didn’t care about them. They knew they were different and wanted them gone, but they continued to collect a check in their name. Apparently, nobody from the state checked either. This was why Ash wanted to be a police officer. She wanted to help kids like her and Nash. Give them some hope and a friend to listen to them. She would be an advocate for the young runaways and the older generation who just needed a friend.

  When Nash turned nineteen years old, he started to apply to the states in alphabetical order to inquire about living family members and after applying to the state of Colorado, he received a hit. He knew it was a slim chance to find anyone, but he was always optimistic. He found out he had family who was looking for him. He learned he had a cousin who was an Alpha of the local werewolf pack in Freedom, Colorado, and owned the Meadowland Lodge. Larken Wilder was his name. He wanted Nash to come live with him and his family. Ash knew that Nash wanted to belong to a family. He asked her to come with him to Colorado, but Ash wanted to become a detective. She wanted to make something of herself. She wanted to belong to something that helped people out. Ash needed to help people and kids like her and Nash. She had a soft spot for runaways and wanted to make a difference. Ash didn’t feel right leaving with Nash when he was going to meet his biological family. Ash wasn’t a blood relative, and she didn’t want to interfere with Nash finding the happiness he deserved.

  Nash said he understood, but Ash knew he wanted to go and meet his family. They had been looking for him since his parents were killed. Ash wanted Nash to have the family they both craved to have.

  Nash had learned that his father had gotten into an argument with his brother, the Alpha of the Meadowland Pack. Nash’s father decided to leave the pack and find a place where he could raise his family the way he saw fit. When he left with his wife and Nash, they never contacted Larken’s dad to tell them where they had ended up. They traveled around the country for about three months, always stopping at rundown hotels. A fire had broken out at the motel they were staying at and his father and mother both ran back into the hotel to save the others, but the roof caved in on them before they made it out. Since there was no paperwork to show that Nash had family, he was sent to an orphanage in Atlanta. Nash was six years old when this occurred. Ash remembered how little he was when he arrived at the orphanage. She immediately took his hand and dragged him around where ever she went.

  Nash didn’t talk to anyone the first year, but when she met Nash, she felt that they were family in some way. She felt like he was her brother. Ash had a way so Nash could communicate with her. She taught him sign language. They still communicated like that sometimes. After the first year, Ash brought Nash out of his shell. He started talking to her and then to everybody else. Nash was the cutest kid, with beautiful sandy hair. It was long and touched his shoulders. Ash showed him how to pull it back so he wouldn’t get teased about it. Ash showed him everything. She was a mother hen to Nash, and he loved her for it.

  The staff at the orphanage never liked the fact that Ash would always take up for Nash and any other kid they abused. She took the beatings so the smaller kids wouldn’t get hurt. She would also take the beatings meant for Nash. Ash could still remember the belt they used to give out punishments. The belt was made of leather. She could still remember how the belt cut into her skin when they beat her. Her skin would turn dark red then turn into orange and yellow bruises from the beatings. Ash remembered how they hung the belt on the wall outside their rooms. One single nail was inserted into the wall as the belt hung for all to see. This was a reminder so every kid would know what they would get if they didn’t do what they were told. Any infraction got you disciplined. They would make all the kids wear dark-colored uniforms so nobody would see the marks on their body. The lady in charge of the orphanage would call the beatings 'discipline training.' Ash had gotten her records from the state when she turned eighteen, and they actually had in her chart that Ash was given discipline training a few times a week because she was a very defiant child. She hated to remember those times in her life, and she would get sick to her stomach thinking about the orphanage.

  After Nash left to go stay with his family in Colorado, Ash applied to the police academy and they accepted her. She became a cop and then worked her way up the force. She quickly received a name for herself in the community for helping runaways and abused children find stable homes. She also made a name for herself for getting the job done in the law enforcement community. As her career grew, Ash became more and more involved in her work. One of the things Ash was most proud of was when she was part of the team that closed the orphanage where Nash and she lived. She continued to help find homes for all the kids who lived there.

  Nash and Ash’s friendship continued to grow. Nash had been coming back to New York to visit Ash every year since she joined the police academy. He would come for a week, and they would explore different parts of the city they never knew about. It was an adventure every time Nash came to New York. People always thought they were a couple instead of friends, but they never explored any type of sexual relationship. They were family, and they liked it that way.

  Now Ash was traveling to the Meadowland Lodge to attend a law enforcement seminar and to see Nash. He was head of security at the lodge. This would be the first time Ash traveled to see him at the lodge. They had been talking non-stop about her coming to visit him. Nash told her the weather report said it was going to snow, so they could go skiing. Ash loved the outdoors and always wanted to live in Colorado with Nash but just didn’t have the nerve to make the move. He told her that she would always have a job, and since he was related to the Sheriff, she could get a job as a Deputy if she wanted to stay in law enforcement. Ash didn’t feel right taking a hand out, even from Nash.

  Pulled from her thoughts, she heard
the flight attendant tell the passengers to put their seatbelts on. They would be arriving at the airport in five minutes. Ash buckled her seatbelt and watched as the plane turned and headed toward the landing strip. She hated flying in planes, feeling like she never had control. Ash held on so tight to the armrest she heard a cracking noise. The plane landed on the runway without any incident in Colorado. She could see the runways had snow on them, but nothing happened when they landed. She wanted to get on her hands and knees and kiss the ground. Ash laughed at herself, now wouldn’t that be a funny sight to see, and exited the plane excited to see Nash.

  Grabbing her luggage off the luggage rack, Ash went in search of the van that would take her to the lodge. Nash had given her exact instructions on what to do when she got off the plane and where to look for her ride. Following the instructions, she walked outside the airport and observed an eighteen-passenger van sitting at the curb just like Nash said would be there. On the side of the van had a picture of the Rocky Mountains and had the name Meadowland Lodge in Freedom, Colorado, in big bold letters. A good-looking young man was checking people in and putting their luggage into the van. Nash advised her that Jessie would be the one checking people in. She gave the young man her name, and as he took her luggage, he smiled at her and then winked. Ash blushed and said, “Thank you, Jessie.” He looked up shocked that she knew his name. She looked away blushing and followed an older man and a small child onto the van. When she got on the van, it was almost full, so she made her way to the back and sat next to the child. While she was walking toward the back, she observed two men sniff the air as she walked by them. She immediately knew they were shifters. She was used to it with Nash and some of the other shifters on the force. She had a cat shifter on her squad, and another cat shifter was in the SWAT division. They continued to stare at her until she passed them by. She tried to ignore the way they would turn around and look at her during the drive to the lodge, and she couldn’t help wondering what they were thinking about her. Could they tell she was different, too? Ash got caught up talking to the little boy sitting next to her and fifteen minutes later, the van pulled up at the Meadowland Lodge.