Let them try.
Aksel killed the engine before they got too close, though the humans had probably already seen them coming. They weren’t exactly trying to be stealthy.
“Give it one minute,” Aksel was almost pleading. “Let the rest of them catch…”
Kai’s reply was a slamming door in Aksel’s face.
“Son of a bitch,” Aksel gritted through is teeth behind Kai. “This is going to be ugly.”
“Damn right it is,” Kai growled. “I’m going straight for Ember. You clean up behind me.”
Three more vehicles killed their engines behind them. Good. The cavalry was here and now every single human would pay for daring to touch a hair on his mate’s head. He’d tolerated New Dawn for the most part up until this point—playing their cat and mouse game and trying to figure out who ran the organization and what exactly they were after.
Now, Kai didn’t care what their motives were. All he knew was that every single one of them was about to meet their end in the most violent and gruesome way he could manage.
A steel door barred the entrance to the building. Seconds later, he’d ripped it off its hinges and sent it flying into the trees that lined the parking lot.
“EMBER!”
His voice shook the rafters as he stepped inside.
Kai was aware of the humans now. They hid along the sides of the large, empty building in the shadows. There were some above on the second floor, overlooking him.
Let them look. He’d deal with them soon enough.
And then he saw her.
His mate. Bound to a chair like some specimen. There was blood dripping down the side of her mouth as though she’d been struck. Her eyes were on him, pleading, as she shouted through a gag. He couldn’t understand her words, but he understood her panic. She wanted him to run. To leave and seek safety. Without her.
As if he even could. As if his inner immortal would allow him to leave her behind now.
Above him, windows shattered as his enforcers, members of his clan, breached the human’s buildings. Scala hadn’t counted on just how many people the Arkos clan kept at the ready. Everywhere. All the time. Kai didn’t set foot anywhere off of his island without a serious contingent plan in place.
Rouvin Scala and New Dawn had seriously underestimated him and it made him and his beast very, very happy.
Kai was a predator. Moving in the shadows toward that ring of hazy light that held Ember in the middle.
Bodies flew at him, attempting to subdue him and render him unconscious again with their serums. Kai separated heads from spinal columns. He ripped out throats. He snapped bones like twigs as the humans rushed him.
His vampire feasted on the bloodlust that grew. Here, in this raw state, the ancient spirit in him was at home. A born warrior with a taste for revenge and gore. The more that rushed him, the stronger he got.
Up above, the humans that had been posed to shoot him with tranquilizer darts had met equally bloody ends at the hands of his enforcers.
Screams and the sounds of death ricocheted through the building. It was a bloodbath and nothing short of scooping his mate up in his arms and disappearing with her could be better for the state he was in.
The chaos died down as the last few New Dawn agents lay dead or were in the process of dying. From the upper level, Arko's enforcers dropped to the ground level along with Kai and Aksel and began closing in on the terrified looking Rouvin Scala, who had moved to the small circle of light next to Ember.
Kai roared in anger when he saw the six-inch blade of the knife Scala was holding against Ember’s neck.
"She dies, Arkos," he said. Kai could smell the fear rolling off the man. He'd lost and had realized the fact. Now he was looking to harm Kai with his last remaining trump card.
“Kai,” he heard Aksel whisper behind him. “If we truly want this to end, we need this asshole alive. He’s the key to taking the rest of the New Dawn down.”
The words were true, but Kai didn’t want the coward to live. He wanted this motherfucker’s head on a pike.
“Keep walking toward me and I slit this throat wide open,” Scala screamed. Kai could feel emotions roiling off the man. He could also smell something new.
“What clan are you from?” Kai ground out, trying to stall the man and slow his own rage. If he kept walking forward, the man would panic and do something stupid. Then he’d have to tear his limbs from his body and they’d have to start all over with New Dawn.
What a predicament.
The man looked momentarily confused.
“I’m not one of you,” he spat. “I hate vampires.”
Aksel continued for Kai, obviously picking up on the man’s strange scent.
“But you are,” his second said, approaching from Scala’s right. “Very distinct bloodline to you, too.”
Aksel shot a quick glance to Kai, who merely raised an eyebrow.
I have no idea, the look said.
“Fuck it,” Kai said, ending the standoff. He launched himself forward at the same time Aksel came from the right. Aksel got there first and hurtled Scala’s body with him into the wall. Kai reached Ember and scooped her up, crushing her to his chest as he inhaled her scent.
“You came,” she said as tears began to flow.
“The devil himself couldn’t stop me from getting to you, anasa mou.”
“He’s secure?”
Aksel’s voice came through on the other end.
“He is. Scala’s transport landed in Cyprus and they’re transferring him to the facility on the island later tonight.”
That was good news. His clan would work on the interrogation while Ember recuperated in the States with him.
"Kai," Aksel continued a wariness in his voice. "Has Ember heard from Melody?"
Kai frowned. Odd.
“Our men found her a few towns away yesterday.”
“Is she safe? Is she okay?” Aksel prodded.
“As far as I know,” Kai replied. “Is there a reason she shouldn’t be?”
Through the phone, Aksel sighed.
“It’s just that— “he stopped midsentence. “No, it’s fine. It’s good she’s safe. I’ll call you in a few days.”
Kai ended the call and looked over his shoulder at his sleeping mate.
Gods, but she was perfect. And now he had an eternity to tell her so each and every day.
Epilogue
Two months later
Their weekend house was nothing more than a simple, spacious beach bungalow that sat less than twenty feet from the blue-green waters of the Mediterranean Sea. In a word, it was heaven.
Earlier in the morning, Kai had opened every floor-length window in the place, letting the sunrise and the sea breeze gently wake her. She knew he was gone before she opened her eyes.
He was a busy man, and she’d accepted the fact that she would occasionally have to share her mate. Husband, she corrected herself, as they’d been married once they arrived on his island a month ago.
Ember loved the fact that Kai, as an alpha, took his clan’s safety very seriously. She’d even begun assisting him in his research and accompanied him to meetings a few times. These people were her people now and after everything New Dawn had done to her and her new family, she wanted it brought down.
From Scala, they'd learned what Aksel and Ember had both figured out quickly—that he was a half-breed. His mother had gotten pregnant years ago after meeting a man—one Theodoro Arkos. She'd tried to ingratiate herself into his life and begged him to turn her, but he had refused. To Kai's father, the woman had been a dalliance and a scratch to an itch for human contact.
Rouvin, the Arkos clan learned, was one of them. And he’d been twisted over the years by a jealous mother and a power-hungry stepfather who turned his pharmaceutical company into a violent extremist organization that hunted vampires in an effort to give Malia Scala what Theodoro Arkos had denied her—immortality. Rouvin, it seems, was a pawn of his own. A violent pawn with blood on h
is hands, but the clan had determined if there was a way to redeem him and heal his cracked, hateful mind, they would.
It was more than she’d have given him, but with Scala firmly in Arkos’ hands, she knew it was only a matter of time before they brought New Dawn down.
Ember checked her phone for the fourth time since waking up.
She’d left her cabin in Devil’s Folly for Melody, as her younger sister wasn’t ready to come to the island with the Arkos clan yet. Ember knew it had something to do with the time Melody had spent with Aksel, because despite acting like she hated the hulking blonde vampire, Melody asked about his well-being during every conversation, all the while refusing to take phone calls from the man himself. And Aksel did little to quell her suspicions, as he was more obvious than Melody was. Something was definitely amiss between those two, but neither were ready to confide in Ember or Kai, so they’d decided to let it go until they were.
But Melody hadn’t answered her phone in two days and something felt off to Ember. Shrugging it off she set the phone down and gazed out to the calm waters before her. What had life been before this?
Ember hardly remembered.
“Sleep well?”
The deep masculine growl behind her made Ember smile. It jolted her alive from her head to her curling toes and something deep inside her made it clear that his sensation would never get old. She turned and before she could exhale the breath she’d been holding, Kai had her pinned against the side wall, her hands pinned above her head.
“How is the family?” She hissed as he raked a tongue across her jugular, teasing her with his fangs.
“Good,” Kai replied, nipping and teasing the length of her jawline while Ember writhed underneath him. “They wanted to have breakfast with us, but I told them we would see them at lunch.”
Ember frowned.
“Why? Do we have something to do this morning?” She wracked her brain, trying to remember an appointment or meeting she might have forgotten.
“We do, love,” Kai whispered against her mouth. His tongue plunged in while his claws shredded her tank top in seconds, exposing her full breasts to him. Ember yelped in surprise. “We’ve got a full morning of kissing, sucking, biting…and fucking.”
Ember let out a tortured moan as Kai dropped to his knees in front of her, treating her silk pajama shorts with the same treatment her tank top got. With an expert tongue, he dove at her, sucking and nipping at her clit, causing Ember’s knees to shake.
God, she loved this vampire.
*****
THE END
Bonus Book 2: Mated to the Bad Boy Bear
Description
When a gang of mobsters begins stealing young girls for human trafficking a ruthless bear-shifter and a brainy bartender must put aside their differences to go after the bad guys and bring the girls home alive.
Zuri Hayes has dreams of a better life. Stuck in a small town overrun with drugs and petty crime she reads through her days and bartends at night to save for her great escape. One night when she returns from the bar she sees her young neighbor being forcibly taken by a new brand of criminal. Human traffickers. Zuri quickly decides that she will do whatever it takes to get her young neighbor back safe and alive.
Chaz Colton is the ruthless enforcer of the local motorcycle club. A bear shifter with nothing to lose and no feelings to hurt, he is willing to be cold and heartless to get what he wants. There is only one caveat; he won’t shift into his bear form to get it. Since losing the love of his life Chaz hasn’t shifted to his bear form and he doesn’t plan to ever again.
As Zuri and Chaz team up for a perilous rescue mission, they must both step out of their comfort zones and step up to a dangerous undertaking. Zuri and Chaz realize that it will take more than pure animal muscle if they are to bring down the vicious wolf shifters, it will take teamwork.
Chapter One
Zuri dropped her worn copy of The Sun Also Rises into her bag and opened the door to her apartment. She jogged down the old orange-carpeted stairs and out into the evening.
She stopped at her stoop to double check that she had her cell phone, mace, bear spray, and panic alarm.
“Hi Zuri.” A soft voice tinkled up to Zuri and she looked down to see the fresh face of her young neighbor.
“Ava,” Zuri said the girl’s name and walked down to the street. Ava, her brother and mother lived in the apartment above Zuri’s. Ava was 17 and turning into a beautiful young woman. Her round face and alert eyes could regularly be seen devouring textbooks, volumes of history, and only occasionally stuck in her phone.
“How is school?” Zuri pushed her bag over her head and around her body. “Any news about colleges yet?”
Ava shook her head. “No and the waiting is killing me,” she said in the overdramatic manner of her age.
“I doubt you have anything to worry about.”
“It’s the scholarships that will be the real news though, without them it won’t matter where I get in.” Zuri could see the anxiety in the girl’s face and pang of understanding and compassion went out to her. There was something about Ava that reminded Zuri of herself. It felt like a hundred years since Zuri had been having the same worries. In the end it hadn’t mattered. Zuri had received scholarships to three of her five top schools but her mother’s battle with addiction and eventual overdose had kept her from going to school at all.
“Cogent?” Zuri tested.
“A clear and logical argument.” Ava picked up the game. The year before they’d begun the game to help Ava prepare for her SATS.
“Loquacious?” Zuri continued.
“The locker room was full of loquacious arguments over which was the best brand of mascara,” Ava said before laughing at herself.
“If you had your choice right now, which school would it be?”
“That’s easy,” Zack, Ava’s brother, said as he came up behind Ava. “She’s gaga for Oregon State.”
Zack’s hair swung over his forehead and part of his face and he spent a considerable amount of time trying to keep it out of his eyes.
“If I went to Oregon State I could still see you and mom whenever I wanted,” Ava said back to her brother.
Zuri tapped her forefinger on Ava’s shoulder. “Well, I have a very good feeling about it. Don’t fret too much, huh?”
“You going to work?” Zack asked. Zuri remembered only a few years ago when Zack had barely come up to her shoulders, he’d sprouted in the last year and now Zuri had to look up when she talked to him.
“Yup, I’ll see you two another day. Say hi to your mom for me.” Zuri gave a forearm high five to both brother and sister. They had thought it hilarious when they’d first conceived the idea of their very own handshake and now it was something they did all the time.
Zuri headed down the sidewalk and looked back to her stoop once to make sure Ava and Zack had safely entered their building.
If she had her own way she would help all the kids in town the way she’d help Ava. Zuri knew that getting a good education was the secret to getting out of Cliffs. Instead, too many kids ended up with needles in their arms, on the streets selling drugs, girls selling their bodies for a quick buck. Ava was proof that a better life could be had with hard work and a little dedication.
An empty soda can rolled along the sidewalk with the fresh Oregon air. Zuri bent and picked it up. She turned and threw the can six feet where it slipped perfectly into a community trash bin.
A whistle passed through the air and she forced herself to ignore it. She had learned a long time ago that it was pointless to respond to the usual whistles, catcalls, and kissing noises she heard when she walked along her neighborhood streets.
The year she turned fifteen, when her hips and butt blossomed into the full figure of a woman, Zuri had learned that her body was going to be noticed by men.
The Smoke Stack was only a few blocks from her apartment building and she would have enjoyed the walk if she weren’t constantly forced to defend her
own space. A car passed her with music flowing loudly from its lowered windows. She turned up her own music and let the sounds of the world disappear.
Music had long been her escape. It closed her off from the world that threatened at every turn to overtake her.
Out of the corner of her eye Zuri saw a hunched older figure walking toward her. She pulled out her earbuds.
“How are you doing today, Mrs. Perez?” Zuri spoke loudly, knowing that the older woman was nearly deaf in both ears.
“Huh?” The creased and wrinkled face looked up at her and Zuri smiled.
“You good?”
Mrs. Perez smiled back and nodded, “Good, good.”
“Ok, you have a great night.” Zuri patted the curved and bent shoulder. She watched as Mrs. Perez shuffled away, a plastic bag swinging from one arm.
A roar startled Zuri and she turned to see a man start his motorcycle. He was handsome in a rugged way. She recognized the man, thick unkempt brown hair, jaw covered in stubble. His dark eyes turned toward her and Zuri quickly looked away. He was a shifter and one of the leaders of Magus Motorcycle Club. She knew enough to know that the man was dangerous. He was quiet, she’d only seen him at the Smoke Stack a few times and he’d barely said anything.
Magus was a dangerous group and Zuri knew to keep her distance. She heard stories about people who had gotten on the wrong side of Magus. The usually ended up in traction, minus a few fingers and toes. She hadn’t heard of them being violent to innocents or bystanders, but she didn’t want to test it.
She picked up her step and rounded the block.
The bar was just beginning to get busy. In a few hours she knew it would be overflowing.
“Greg.” She acknowledged the bar’s owner, who was leaning over the bar top counting out bills.
The Smoke Stack was known as a rowdy shifter bar. She saw the same faces day after day. She’d become an expert at being friendly without being personal. Soon after she’d started working as a bartender the regulars figured out that they wouldn’t be taking her home and they’d stopped pursuing her in earnest. She still got plenty of flirtations and plenty of pickup lines but everyone knew that Zuri was not on the menu.
Bonded to the Alpha Wolf: Paranormal Bad Boy Werewolf Interracial BBW BWWM Witch Romance Page 17
