Tattered Loyalties

by Carrie Ann Ryan

  Tattered Loyalties

  A Talon Pack Novel

  By

  Carrie Ann Ryan

  Tattered Loyalties

  A Talon Pack Novel

  By: Carrie Ann Ryan

  Published by Fated Desires Publishing, LLC.

  © 2015 Carrie Ann Ryan

  ISBN: 978-1-62322-149-2

  Cover Art by Charity Hendry

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person or use proper retail channels to lend a copy. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return it and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  All characters in this book are fiction and figments of the author’s imagination.

  For more information, please join Carrie Ann Ryan’s MAILING LIST.

  To interact with Carrie Ann Ryan, you can join her FAN CLUB.

  Author Highlights

  Praise for Carrie Ann Ryan….

  “Carrie Ann Ryan knows how to pull your heartstrings and make your pulse pound! Her wonderful Redwood Pack series will draw you in and keep you reading long into the night. I can’t wait to see what comes next with the new generation, the Talons. Keep them coming, Carrie Ann!” –Lara Adrian, New York Times bestselling author of CRAVE THE NIGHT

  “Carrie Ann Ryan never fails to draw readers in with passion, raw sensuality, and characters that pop off the page. Any book by Carrie Ann is an absolute treat.” – New York Times Bestselling Author J. Kenner

  "With snarky humor, sizzling love scenes, and brilliant, imaginative worldbuilding, The Dante's Circle series reads as if Carrie Ann Ryan peeked at my personal wish list!" – NYT Bestselling Author, Larissa Ione

  "Carrie Ann Ryan writes sexy shifters in a world full of passionate happily-ever-afters." – New York Times Bestselling Author Vivian Arend

  “Carrie Ann’s books are sexy with characters you can’t help but love from page one. They are heat and heart blended to perfection.” New York Times Bestselling Author Jayne Rylon

  Carrie Ann Ryan's books are wickedly funny and deliciously hot, with plenty of twists to keep you guessing. They'll keep you up all night!” USA Today Bestselling Author Cari Quinn

  "Once again, Carrie Ann Ryan knocks the Dante's Circle series out of the park. The queen of hot, sexy, enthralling paranormal romance, Carrie Ann is an author not to miss!" New York Times bestselling Author Marie Harte

  Praise for the Redwood Pack Series…

  “You will not be disappointed in the Redwood Pack.” Books-n-Kisses

  “I was so completely immersed in this story that I felt what the characters felt. BLOWN AWAY.” Delphina’s Book Reviews.

  “I love all the wolves in the Redwood Pack and eagerly anticipate all the brothers’ stories.” The Book Vixen

  “Shifter romances are a dime a dozen, but good ones aren’t as plentiful as one would think. This is one of the goods one.” Book Binge

  “With the hints of things to come for the Redwoods, I can’t wait to read the next book!” Scorching Book Reviews

  “Ryan outdid herself on this book.” The Romance Reviews

  Praise for the Dante’s Circle Series…

  “This author better write the next books quickly or I will Occupy Her Lawn until she releases more! Pure romance enjoyment here. Now go put this on your TBR pile—shoo!” The Book Vixen

  “I, for one, will definitely be following the series to see what happens to the seven.” Cocktails & Books

  “The world of Dante’s Circle series is enthralling and with each book gets deeper and deeper as does Carrie Ann’s writing.” Literal Addiction

  Praise for the Montgomery Ink Series…

  “Shea and Shep are so cute together and really offset each other in a brilliant way. “ Literal Addiction

  “This was a very quick and spicy read. I really enjoyed reading about Sassy, Rafe & Ian. I really hope there will be more of these three in the future.” Books n Kisses

  Praise for the Holiday, Montana Series…

  “Charmed Spirits was a solid first book in this new series and I’m looking forward to seeing where it goes.” RR@H Novel Thoughts & Book Thoughts

  “If you’re looking for a light book full of magic, love and hot little scenes on various objects, then this book is for you! You’ll soon find that tables are no longer for eating meals of the food variety … Bon appétit!” Under the Covers

  “The book was well written and had the perfect setting the steamy bits where really really hot and the story one of sweet romance. Well done Carrie” Bitten by Love Reviews

  Dedication

  To Kennedy. Thank you darling for pushing me.

  Author’s Note

  Thank you all for picking up Tattered Loyalties! I do hope you enjoy Gideon and Brie’s story. In case you didn’t know, this book is also set in the same world as The Redwood Pack series. It’s set thirty years after the end of Fighting Fate (Book 7) and has a few familiar faces. However if you’re new to the series, then welcome! You do not need to read the other series to jump into this one. Thank you so much for reading!

  Tattered Loyalties

  When the great war between the Redwoods and the Centrals occurred three decades ago, the Talon Pack risked their lives for the side of good. After tragedy struck, Gideon Brentwood became the Alpha of the Talons. But the Pack’s stability is threatened, and he’s forced to take mate—only the one fate puts in his path is the woman he shouldn’t want.

  Though the daughter of the Redwood Pack’s Beta, Brie Jamenson has known peace for most of her life. When she finds the man who could be her mate, she’s shocked to discover Gideon is the Alpha wolf of the Talon Pack. As a submissive, her strength lies in her heart, not her claws. But if her new Pack disagrees or disapproves of fate’s choice, the consequences could be fatal.

  As the worlds Brie and Gideon have always known begin to shift, they must face their challenges together in order to help their Pack and seal their bond. But when the Pack is threatened from the inside, Gideon doesn’t know who he can trust and Brie’s life could be forfeit in the crossfire. It will take the strength of an Alpha and the courage of his mate to realize where true loyalties lie.

  Chapter One

  He really needed to kill this bastard.

  Gideon Brentwood rolled his neck, enjoying the slight crack that came when he stretched it just right. He had enough tension in his shoulders to make him feel as though the world rested on his shoulders. He didn’t feel like killing today, although the prospect of the fight slid through his veins and pumped adrenaline into his system.

  His wolf craved the fight, the dominance.

  The man just wanted this to end so he could get on with his day.

  He was so freaking tired of doing this over and over again. They never seemed to learn.

  The lone wolf in front of him had tried to lay claim to the Talon land and had challenged Gideon’s role as Alpha.

  Stupid wolf.

  The moon goddess gave him his title, but he had been fighting to keep it every day since.

  The slice on his chest burned, but he shrugged it off. He was the Alpha, and this lone wolf couldn’t hurt him if Gideon put his head in the game. The fact that his head wasn’t in the game told him how tired he was of all the challenges.

  He smelled the rotten odor coming from his opponent and heard his labored breathing. The wolf had been rangy and dying before he’d set his first paw on Talon land, and Gideon would be forced to end his life if the intruder didn’t back down. Goddess, he hated his duty, hat
ed this role he’d been forced to take, but if he didn’t do it, who else would?

  His cousin Mitchell and his brother Ryder stood back, their gazes on the fight. They wouldn’t be jumping in and helping unless the lone wolf pulled a trick or dark magic out of the air. He didn’t need them there and this wasn’t their fight, but his wolf appreciated their presence anyway.

  The taste of blood was seconds away, and he knew, without a doubt, that he could either kill or maim the intruder—challenge or no, this wolf was a coward—in front of him.

  The first possibility weighed heavily on his mind.

  The second would be par for the course.

  “Yield,” Gideon growled, low, deadly.

  The wolf yipped at him but didn’t lower his head fully, nor did he meet Gideon’s eyes or challenge him in that respect. Gideon wasn’t sure the wolf had enough energy to do so in the first place.

  He let out a breath. “If you don’t yield, I’m going to have to kill you. You get that, right? You’re not strong enough to beat me, and I can’t let a wolf who challenges me go without punishment. You know our ways. If you yield, I won’t have to kill you.” It was a technicality, but one he’d greedily use if he needed to.

  He was tired of the death, the pain, and the loss of the little parts of his soul that were stripped away with each kill, each justified death. He’d killed the one man who should have protected him, and now he had to deal with the day-to-day responsibilities and consequences that came from that one decision.

  It haunted him with each breath, each step he took, even though thirty years had passed since he killed the wolf who’d tried to kill them all.

  Now Gideon was once again faced with a decision that might ultimately take the last piece of his soul away. It wasn’t as if he truly needed it. He was Alpha. He could function and rule without those facets of his psyche he’d once relied on and had thought were the most important parts of him.

  Through absolute necessity, he had become a man who would not hesitate to kill and would make any sacrifice in order to keep his people safe.

  The wolf in front of him growled again, and Gideon sighed.

  There would be no retribution this day. No healing and forgiveness. He would do what he had to do in order to protect his family and his Pack.

  He’d deal with the consequences later.

  He always did.

  The lone wolf leaped at him, and Gideon rolled out of the way, coming to his feet in a swift movement. He didn’t need to shift fully into his wolf form. One: That would take too long. He might be the Alpha and able to shift faster than any of his other wolves, but that didn’t mean he had the time to spare right then. Two: He was dominant enough that he could partially shift his hands into claws and keep them there without losing control like so many other wolves did.

  He let his wolf come to the surface, fully aware it was begging for a fight. In the twilight hour, he could see the glow from the rim of gold around his irises, reflected on the fur of his opponent. Gideon’s eyes only lit up when he was ready to fight or fuck. And since it had been way too fucking long since he’d had a woman, he knew the fighting was the reason. He needed this to end soon though, or his pent up aggression from the lack of the former would roll over and he’d be screwed. He couldn’t waste any more time on this lone wolf, sad as it was.

  The wolf struck again, this time swiping along Gideon’s side. Two lucky shots from the bastard. He was going to win—that was never in doubt. The question was how much he’d get hurt in the process. Now he just had to see how long he’d need to draw the process out. At this point, he was merely tiring out the bastard. Yeah, the lone wolf was getting a few hits in, but that was because Gideon was off his game.

  Though that would be one way to do it, he didn’t want to prolong the fight. It wasn’t fair to the wolf to make him suffer any more than he had already. He didn’t know this wolf, didn’t know why he was without a Pack and trying to fight the Talons. It didn’t matter. Gideon would protect what was his no matter what.

  He growled softly then bent at the knees, letting the wolf think he had the advantage. The lone wolf pounced again, his large, menacing teeth bared. Gideon struck the other wolf with his claws around the neck, piercing its flesh. It let out a small whine then went limp when Gideon twisted.

  The wolf had been as good as dead before he stepped on Talon land.

  Gideon knew this.

  It didn’t make the kill any easier.

  “That was the second lone wolf in as many months,” Mitchell, his cousin and Beta, remarked casually as he made his way to Gideon’s side. Mitchell and his brother, Max, had been raised with Gideon and his brothers, so he was practically a brother.

  “I don’t like how close he got to hurting you,” Ryder, his Heir and brother, said softly. Ryder always spoke softly, unless there was something that needed to be growled, though Gideon wasn’t sure why. It was just the way his brother worked.

  Gideon looked down at the two gashes on his side and chest and shrugged. “They’ll heal well enough. He didn’t get too deep.”

  “I don’t know why you let him get that close to begin with,” Mitchell snapped. His brother squatted down near the lone wolf’s body and let out a sigh. “Why the hell did he challenge you? It makes no sense. From the smell of him, he clearly wasn’t healthy or strong enough to fight even our weaker dominants. Why fight our Alpha?”

  Gideon raised his hand to run it over his face then paused. Shit, he still had blood on his hands—literally and figuratively. He needed to go home and shower to try to wash away some of this piss-poor day.

  Piss-poor decade it seemed like.

  “I don’t know, Mitchell,” Gideon finally answered. “Could be lots of things. Maybe he wanted to go out fighting an Alpha. Maybe his wolf took over and had to challenge. Maybe someone made him do it. I just don’t fucking know anymore.”

  Ryder knelt down by the body and let out a breath. “I’ll bury him. I don’t like the fact that we don’t know who he is or if he has family somewhere. He might be lone, but that doesn’t mean he’s alone.”

  That made a twisted sort of sense. Just because a wolf didn’t have a Pack didn’t mean he didn’t live with a family. Packs were there to protect, nourish, and comfort. The bonds made between members, as well as the Alpha and the other members of the hierarchy, helped not only control the wolf inside but also formed a unit that spoke of something more than friendship and family.

  Sometimes wolves were born outside of the den or left over the years for one reason or another—banished or not—and ended up Packless. Gideon wasn’t too fond of the numbers being so vague, but the world was shifting faster than he could blink. It wouldn’t be long before they couldn’t hide their existence anymore, and the fact that there were wolves out there not under the protection and rule of an Alpha worried him.

  A lot worried him these days.

  “I’ll help you bury him,” Gideon finally said to Ryder. “I took his life. I’ll help lay him to rest.”

  Mitchell and Ryder gave him long looks then nodded. It didn’t matter if they said he couldn’t help. He was Alpha, and this was his responsibility in more ways than one.

  They dug the hole deep enough that no critters could find the body and said a prayer to the moon goddess. The wolf might have challenged Gideon, but that didn’t mean he deserved eternal damnation. Gideon wasn’t conceited enough to think he had the right to judge.

  “I’m going to go get cleaned up,” he said once they finished their work.

  Mitchell pulled out his phone. “I’ll make sure Walker is there for you when you show up.”

  Gideon closed his eyes and let out a curse. “I don’t need the Healer. I’m fine. Don’t make him waste his powers and energy on these superficial cuts.”

  Ryder raised a brow. “Walker’s your brother, our brother, so yeah, he’s going want to make sure you’re okay. Plus, the Redwoods are coming to the den for our meeting. You forget that? You don’t want to smell of bl
ood and weakness in front of another Alpha and his Pack. It doesn’t matter that Kade and the rest of them are our friends. They aren’t Talons.”

  Gideon looked up at the sky and prayed for just a moment’s rest. Was that really too much to ask for?

  “Did you forget about the meeting?” Mitchell asked from behind him.

  Gideon sighed. “No.” Yes. “Let’s get this over with so I can go make nice with the others,” he growled.

  “I thought Kade was your friend,” Ryder added as they made their way through the forest to the center of the den. His brother kept looking over his shoulder, as if he was afraid Gideon was going to keel over any minute. He might be the eldest brother, but he wasn’t weak. Ryder, though, tended to worry about those close to him more than he cared about himself. Luckily, his brother was also a wolf and turned away from Gideon in time to make sure he didn’t trip on their way through the den.

  The Talon Pack den was located in central Oregon with their territory reaching into northern California. Most of the Packs across the United States were far older than the country itself, so their boundaries had to do with landmarks rather than arbitrary lines. They shared a neutral territory with the Redwoods, who lived in western Oregon. Thanks to the humans’ national initiatives, the wolves’ forests had been untouched and safe from human eyes for centuries. The den might have been surrounded by wards infused with wolf and witch magic so humans were repelled from the area, but without the trees and the ability to hide from prying eyes, they wouldn’t be as safe as they were.

  Or at least as safe as they used to be.

  That was one reason they were meeting with Kade and the other Redwoods in their den today. It used to be that only the right people knew about the fact that shifters existed. Now, though, far too many people knew and some were…searching. Human patrols were getting too close to their den as well as the Redwoods’ den, and no amount of magic would save them if technology found them. The majority of the population might not know about shifters, but those who did and weren’t on the wolves’ side, were on a hunt. Those military and even civilian patrols hid themselves as well, so normal humans remained unaware of a potential war on and within their borders.