Vulfen Shadow's Grace [Vulfen Cadre 4] (Siren Publishing Classic)
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Vulfen Cadre 4
Vulfen Shadow’s Grace
When Grace Commander first sees tall, gorgeous vulfen warrior Matsij Gabrov step out of the shadows, her heart flutters with the knowledge that her life will never be the same even as her confidence is shattered. Why would a member of the vulfen elite look twice at a part-blood fox who can’t even shift?
Matsij Gabrov, born the vulfen Shadow of his generation, lives a life of service to his people, asking nothing for himself. When the sweet scent of a human awakens his ancient instinct, his shock cannot keep him from ensuring her protection from the repeated attempts to kidnap her. The urge to defend and possess the petite dark-haired beauty leads Matsij to follow his fated mate into the dangerous world of the human hunting society.
He was born and bred to battle the hunting society, but can he fight the more insidious battle against the prejudice he faces from his own community to claim his beautiful mate?
Genre: Contemporary, Paranormal, Shape-shifter, Vampires/Werewolves
Length: 26,435 words
VULFEN SHADOW’S GRACE
Vulfen Cadre 4
Laina Kenney
EROTIC ROMANCE
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Erotic Romance
VULFEN SHADOW’S GRACE
Copyright © 2013 by Laina Kenney
E-book ISBN: 978-1-62740-755-7
First E-book Publication: November 2013
Cover design by Harris Channing
All art and logo copyright © 2013 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.
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www.SirenPublishing.com
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Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
About the Author
VULFEN SHADOW’S GRACE
Vulfen Cadre 4
LAINA KENNEY
Copyright © 2013
Chapter 1
Matsij Gabrov, vulfen Shadow of his generation, stood in the shade of a tall tree in a quiet Boston suburb, invisible to any nearby humans. He watched as the little fox female in human form and her policeman brother walked out of the house to the squad car. The sun was setting in a ball of fire that only deepened the shadows around him. Even with his large frame and his white hair, they would never see him in the shadows because of his gifts. But the little fox hesitated and looked back toward her friend’s house.
She was in her beautiful human form, but her instincts seemed to warn her that she was in the presence of a larger predator and a shiver moved over her skin as the wind ruffled her long red-brown hair. Matsij stood still and drank in the sight of her, motionless but for the sudden pounding of his heart.
The brother stopped and looked back with narrowed eyes, his posture all suspicion and blatant menace. His eyes scanned quickly, searching, probing the shadows. He didn’t seem to see the threat, but he ushered his sister to the car and helped her get in.
Matsij couldn’t help but approve of his obvious care for his sister, especially after the attack on her earlier that night. But it wouldn’t save her now. His ancient instinct had awakened at the first hint of her sweet scent. The vicious need clawing at his insides proved it. Her mate had found her at last.
As the car drove away down the quiet suburban street, his fellow Cadre member Ives came up beside him.
“I’ve been thinking about tonight,” Ives said without preamble. “There is much we don’t know about Dr. Novak’s activities. How long has he been a member of the hunting society? And is he a low-level recruit or has he acquired some influence? If the doctor had a chance to name names to his friends in the hunting society before he was captured, Grace might be in as much danger as Valeri and Angel. Although it is my belief that he didn’t know what he had in her, she was still his first target tonight,” Ives said, and Matsij felt his heart thump.
He hadn’t thought of it, his mind amazed and distracted, but Ives was correct, of course. The mad doctor had kidnapped Grace to force his way into Angel’s home.
Sweat broke out on his brow and his throat felt so dry he didn’t know if he could speak. His stomach clenched on an unfamiliar feeling. He wondered if it was fear for the mate he had never expected.
A moment in her presence earlier and his bleak world had brightened. His life of duty had changed focus in an instant. If something happened to her, he was doomed to live in the shadows forever, serving his people and his duty, and taking nothing of life for himself.
He had never dared to hope for a mate. He hadn’t even known that the life he lived wasn’t what he wanted until he saw her pretty face and felt something inside him go still. Her lovely brown eyes had rested on his face for a moment, and he could almost feel her gentle touch. Her soft scent wove through his system sending tiny tendrils to rouse instincts he di
dn’t know he had. He knew well the deeply sexual side of his nature, embraced it, but this new tenderness inside him was startling. What did a warrior do with such a dangerous overflow of emotion?
Who knew that one little red fox could wreak such havoc?
He who had prided himself on his cool control was a mass of hot blood and contradictions. He wanted to care for her and protect her from all harm, but when he saw that she was injured his flaring emotions overtook his reason.
His fangs had elongated and the blood pounded madly in his veins until it was all he could do not to push her to the floor and give her the mating bite to ensure his claim. His habitual calm blazed into a raw hunger that burned.
She had known he was there, in the shadows, even before he had struck to capture the mad doctor, and that knowledge had sealed her fate. On some level she had been aware of his presence. The connection between them was that strong. He would never let her escape him.
Grace was a striking mix of races. He could detect Irish and Native American, human and Fox Clan, but he couldn’t fault the mixture. She had red-brown hair that looked so vibrant and soft his fingers itched to touch it. With eyes the deep brown of expensive chocolate and creamy caramel skin with a hint of roses, she looked like an expensive dessert so delectable he wanted to lick and nibble on her.
She was strong and beautiful, loyal and caring to her friends. It was everything he admired in a female in one slender precious package and it would be his pleasure and his honor to spend his life’s blood to protect her and ensure her happiness. Perhaps in time they would have a pup to love with his mother’s glorious chocolate eyes. The thought made his cock twitch with hunger.
“I will follow and warn the brother,” Ives said. “He may not be aware of how deep the danger is and he will want to set up protection for her.”
“No.”
His denial was harsh and Matsij bared his lengthening fangs in warning before he could stop himself.
“I will go,” he said.
Ives turned to face him, brows together in a frown, head cocked to one side. Matsij understood that his behavior was far out of character, but in that moment he couldn’t have stopped it. The need for his mate was driving him, stripping away the hard-won layers of civilization, and leaving a seething primal emotion in its place. He felt like cursing when Ives looked down the road after Grace and her brother before turning back to him.
“The pretty fox female,” Ives said slowly. “Is she?” There was no need for him to finish the question. The hope and wonder in his tone said it all.
“She is.”
A feeling of primal joy swept over him at the first admission of the link between them. He recognized her on a level so deep that there could be no doubt. He looked up into the pink and purple sky and he wanted to howl it out to the rising moon.
“She is my mate.”
Ives nodded his head slowly as a smile grew on his face.
“Congratulations, my friend.”
Then his smile faded into caution and his eyes became serious. Matsij thought he knew what the French wolf would say. Ives was from a different Clan originally but he had a clear knowledge of the vulfen people.
“You may face some opposition to the match, as the Alpha did with his human mate before it became known that she can shift. There are some in our community who might look down on her and you because they feel the high-ranking males should mate only pure vulfen females. In spite of your position, or perhaps because of it, you will need to be careful in your introduction of her to the people.”
Matsij thought of his own family and understood why Ives thought to warn him, but he was already far beyond such petty concerns. Fate was offering him a gift and he was not so stupid as to refuse it because other people might not approve.
Matsij had given so much of his soul in the protection of his people that he hardly recognized the boy he had been. His gifts had marked him. No one had made the sacrifices he had made. He was the vulfen Shadow of his generation, tracker, spy, and assassin. His father and uncle had trained him from the time he could walk to stalk and freeze, to hunt in the shadows. He had judged and killed on command many times to defend his people, until he was certain that the soul of that young boy hung in shreds.
If fate was generous and gave him a mate when so many of his kind were forced to stand alone in life, he would never reject her. He would accept his mate with an open heart and work hard to make her happy with her fate.
A wave of anger rose up in him and he stilled. The strength of the emotion took him by surprise, shook him. He was a protector by nature. Anyone who spoke out against his mate to threaten her or make her feel inferior was taking his life in his hands.
“A fate so beautiful must be embraced,” was all he said, but he saw his friend relax.
Ives clapped him on the shoulder. “Good. In that case, I will enlist Balke’s aid to backtrack the doctor’s movements over the past few days just to be certain. The Cadre will always stand with you. We will try to keep out of your way and free up some of your time in the patrols.”
“I thank you.”
“She’s young, my friend. Go and take her dancing, let her get used to the idea first.”
Matsij frowned. The French wolf had a romantic nature, but he was in a more open position within the Clan which would allow for his gregarious side to be utilized. In light of his gifts, Matsij’s job was outside of normal pack structure. A born hunter of any wolf gone rogue, the vulfen people had an innate fear of him, and as a result he didn’t socialize much. He could at any time be called on to hunt down a friend or family member. The shadow of death was not invited to parties.
“You may not know this,” Matsij said with a frown, “but assassins do not receive training in the finer points of dance.”
Ives laughed and slapped Matsij on the back, as though he had made a fine joke.
“Well, perhaps you should skip the dancing. We want you to make a good impression, my friend.”
Matsij felt it best not to mention that his mate’s first memory of him would always be of someone trying not to give in to his dark side and murder a madman before her eyes. He had fought hard against his instincts so that he would not tear the man to pieces in front of the women. Even now his fangs and claws itched to go back and finish the job left undone. He knew the killer inside him had been clearly visible to his mate. He didn’t think Ives would label that as a good impression.
“You’d better hurry now, my friend. It looks like the little fox is getting away.”
Matsij almost smiled. It felt like so long since he had experienced true enjoyment of life, since his brother had turned traitor against their Alpha, in fact, but he felt it now.
“Yes, mother,” he said with a humor he had almost forgotten how to show.
There was no place on earth where his mate could travel that he couldn’t follow. Now that her delicate scent was burned into his mind and heart, he would be able to find her anywhere. But his emotions rose to fill his chest with an unfamiliar euphoria, and he shifted without thinking and ran with his friend’s low laughter in his ears.
He followed the car all the way to the clinic and waited outside. By the time they emerged again the brilliant sunset was fading into darkness.
Grace had a long thin bandage over one side of her forehead and she was trying in vain to smooth some of her hair across to cover it.
“You look fine,” her brother said, and she snarled at him and continued to brush at her hair with quick fingers.
Matsij’s cock hardened at that tiny growl, raising his underlying hunger another notch.
He wanted to grin when she proceeded to give her brother a hard time for bringing her to the clinic instead of taking her home. She had told him over and over, she said, that all they would do would be to give her a bandage and tell her the signs to watch out for in case of concussion. With her small stature and her high fluting voice giving her much taller brother hell, even his wolf found her adorable.
/> When the brother finally threw his hands up in exasperation, Grace smiled at him with false sweetness and got into the car.
Matsij felt an unfamiliar smile curve his lips. He could see she needed someone to take her in hand and curb the attitude, but he had the clear feeling that he would be too far under her spell to accomplish much in the way of old fashioned mate training. She was so tiny to hold so much spirit and he had to admit to himself that he found her little rebellion charming. A strong mate was always a good thing.
He almost sighed. It was plain to see his good sense was gone for all time.
Matsij followed them again to Grace’s home, loping along behind with a true lightness of heart and the beauty of his mate’s scent leading him on.
Chapter 2
Grace sighed when she finally convinced John to leave and he was on his way down the driveway and back to his car. He had to head back to the precinct and meet up with his partner to book Dr. Novaks for kidnapping, breaking and entering, and assault, but he had been reluctant to leave her when she was hurt. His genuine concern spoke well of him, but as his little sister, now that the danger had passed the overprotectiveness annoyed her.
Grace spared a moment to hope that there were a few more charges they could drop on the good doctor, because she was still angry and her head was sore. The doctor had forced her to drive him to Angel’s house to try to capture a vulfen warrior, Angel’s new mate. And when she had resisted, he had pistol-whipped her, and her forehead had a lump and a small cut.
She grimaced. The bandage felt huge. She could feel it whenever she frowned and her head ached abominably. The only good news was that the doctor at the clinic didn’t think she had a concussion. She still had to watch out for the signs, though.