by Scarlet Day
Shifter Sanctuary 2
Reclaimed
Shifter Sanctuary isn’t just an exclusive mountain retreat, it’s also home to a BDSM club where shifters take a walk on the wild side. Paige Matthews flees to the resort to warn her former pride leader of nightmares long thought behind them. But no one warned Paige about two affirmed bachelor lion shifters who would make her question everything she had ever been told.
Dylan Jacobs and Matt West are Doms who have no desire to settle down, until they meet Paige. They want her to be their submissive, but they’re unaware of her family’s responsibility for a horrible event that shattered the pride and threatens its future.
Paige knows the past’s secrets still pose a danger and she’s the only one who can sound the alarm. But revealing those secrets might mean losing the only men who have ever made her feel safe. Together they will need to confront the past and conquer the threat still stalking them if they have any chance of claiming happiness.
Genre: BDSM, Contemporary, Ménage a Trois/Quatre, Paranormal, Shape-shifter
Length: 32,475 words
RECLAIMED
Shifter Sanctuary 2
Scarlet Day
MENAGE AMOUR
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Ménage Amour
RECLAIMED
Copyright © 2015 by Scarlet Day
E-book ISBN: 978-1-63259-243-9
First E-book Publication: April 2015
Cover design by Harris Channing
All art and logo copyright © 2015 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.
PUBLISHER
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
Letter to Readers
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DEDICATION
A heartfelt and humble “thank you” to all my wonderful readers.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
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
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
About the Author
RECLAIMED
Shifter Sanctuary 2
SCARLET DAY
Copyright © 2015
Chapter One
A mixture of anticipation and dread warred for dominance inside Paige as she scanned the faces of the people seated around the bar. She studied their features, looking for anything familiar, and made eye contact with as many as she could. She hoped it might spark some long-forgotten memory, but she had serious doubts. There was only one shifter she had come here to find, though she hadn’t built up the nerve to just come out and ask someone to point him out to her. So she just continued to watch people as they came through the resort lobby, wondering if she would recognize him when she saw him.
Paige had no idea what he looked like, having last seen him when she was a young girl. And she couldn’t just pull his name up in an internet search engine to find a photo of him, either, since her kind tended to keep a low profile. But he was still the leader of the pride she had once belonged to, even if that pride was mostly gone. She hoped her cat would know him by instinct, but that would mean his cat might also recognize her. She wasn’t sure which she was more worried about, not recognizing him or his reaction if and when he recognized her.
Only an hour had passed since she had checked into the Sanctuary Lodge, just long enough to drop her bag in her room, freshen up a bit, and then drink most of one beer in the bar. But she was already impatient. Or maybe anxious would be a better description for her mood. Her cat paced across her mind, its anxiety mirroring hers. She and her cat were wound up tight over the prospect of seeing her pride leader for the first time in years. For the thousandth time since she’d made the decision to come here, Paige questioned her sanity.
She gripped her beer bottle in one hand and slowly peeled the label off, just to give her nervous fingers something to do. It was late afternoon and more guests trickled into the bar. Paige guessed they’d spent the day out on the ski slopes, horseback riding, enjoying uninhibited time in their shifted forms, or spending time on any number of the recreational activities the resort offered. It seemed like a nice place, at least from what she had seen so far and what little she’d learned from the front desk employee who had checked her in. She fiddled with the corner of the welcome packet she’d been given. She hadn’t looked through it yet, since her nerves were too on edge to concentrate on it. She wished she felt like enjoying the amenities, but that wasn’t why she was here. There were things she needed to know. Things she needed to see for herself.
She had checked in under her real name, having debated with herself about using an alias, but ultimately rejecting the idea. She doubted anyone would remember her name after all these years, but if the
y did, it would at least save her the trouble of introducing herself. Once she was recognized, though, she wondered if they’d interrogate her first, or just throw her out immediately. She shook her head and pushed the thought from her mind, knowing that scenario was unlikely. At least at first, until they learned the things she knew.
It had taken weeks of stealthy investigation for her to figure out where the resort was located, since it wasn’t exactly listed on any internet travel sites. Between details she’d overheard from her father when he didn’t know she was listening, a few innocent-sounding questions to her brother, and a close examination of online satellite images, she had finally narrowed down the possible locations. She had visited two other remote resorts before she’d found the one she’d been looking for.
She had been lucky to get a room when she showed up without a reservation today. The front desk clerk had told her the resort was often booked solid, but there had been a cancellation just that morning. Paige took it as a sign that she was meant to be here.
Paige knew in her heart she had to make this trip, but it hadn’t been easy to ignore the years of warnings by her father. He’d told Paige and her brother Devon that they had to avoid any remaining members of their former pride, that those members would likely kill their family if they were found. Her father had never told them why their lives would be in danger, but he’d done a good job of scaring the shit out of her and Devon, nonetheless. All they’d known while growing up was that something terrible had happened when she and Devon were too young to remember more than flashes of fragmented memories and a latent sense of fear.
After the things she’d recently learned, though, she knew she had to find what was left of the pride she’d been born into. She had to tell them what she knew, even if it meant putting herself in danger. But she knew that wasn’t the only reason. She’d been feeling the need to connect with those like her, beyond the few shifters her father would allow her to associate with. A small but emerging part of her hoped she would find that her former pride was still intact, that maybe everything would be all right.
She shook her head in disgust. She knew better than to think that was even possible. Nothing was all right here. It hadn’t been since that dark night years ago when her pride had been ripped apart. Even though she didn’t understand what had happened all those years ago, she’d been old enough to recognize nothing would ever be the same. The horrible events of that night had affected her life in ways she was only recently coming to understand. Now that understanding formed a hard knot in her stomach, making her nauseous whenever she thought about it, which was all the time these days.
She took another drink of her beer, wishing it would calm her nerves. As each new person entered the bar, she searched for any sign of familiarity. It seemed to be a futile exercise, though, since all the memories of her pride mates were simply faint shadows, all detail lost to time and trauma. She only knew the name of her pride’s leader because she had overheard her father talking about him recently. It had been that conversation between her father and one of his acquaintances, a boar shifter who Paige had never liked, that had set her on her current path.
A laugh drew her attention to the bartender, a pretty woman with long blonde hair who looked about Paige’s age, or maybe a couple of years younger. The woman laughed again and dodged the snap of a hand towel directed toward her. The blond-haired man holding the towel laughed with her and then grabbed her by the wrist. He pulled her close and gave her a quick kiss, but then she grinned and wriggled out of his arms. She turned her back on him, began mixing drinks for customers. The man swatted her on the ass with his hand and then walked around to the front of the bar where he settled himself on a barstool. They continued to exchange veiled glances with each other, their chemistry and happiness obvious.
Paige watched their interaction and felt a familiar ache growing in her chest. Even though her cat hadn’t shown any signs of being ready to settle down with a mate, Paige knew there was something vitally important missing from her life. Lately, both she and her cat had been restless, as though they were waiting for something. And they would probably have to keep waiting, since Paige was pretty sure she was broken where mating was concerned.
She was already well beyond the age when most female cats began broadcasting mating pheromones, letting male cats know they were available. Maybe fate had cursed her for the sins of her father, who was not only an abusive asshole, but also a complete failure at everything he’d ever done. It would be poetic justice if her family’s genetic line was forced into extinction. Even Devon had, so far, been unsuccessful in finding a mate. Hell, her father had apparently even tried to kidnap one for Devon, but her father hadn’t been able to do that right, either.
She half snorted, half laughed at the black humor, but the moment of dark amusement died just as suddenly as it had erupted. What her father had done, what he had tried to do, was a terrible thing. She would never forgive him for it. Hell, there were a lot of things she would never forgive him for. She would just add his failed kidnapping attempt to the long list. She wasn’t sure how much she believed in Karma or divine judgment, but if it did exist, she could hardly blame it for ending her family’s genetic line.
Now that Paige knew the truth, at least some of it, letting someone get close enough to her to fall in love would also mean her father’s sins might be revealed, even inadvertently. She was certain any man, shifter or otherwise, who learned of the dark things lurking in her family’s past would run away and never look back. She sighed and pulled her gaze away from the happy couple at the bar, wondering what her life would be like if she could walk away from her father’s sins and start over.
A familiar ache wrapped itself around her heart. She wished she could erase the awful things she knew, or at least put them behind her. The past wasn’t her fault, after all. It wasn’t fair that she had to pay the price for decisions and actions that were never hers and that she would never have made.
She looked around at the people in the bar, their laughter and chatter filling up the space. She wanted to be like them, not seeming to have a care in the world. The dull ache in her chest morphed into another feeling that had been growing stronger over the last few weeks. No, she realized, not just the last few weeks. More like the last few years, really. That emerging feeling, a growing ball of anger, pushed out her loneliness and brought heat to her cheeks.
She pulled her gaze away from the happy vacationers and stared at the bottle she still gripped in her hands. She wished she could find a way to handle her increasing anger or forget about the pain and heartache for a while. She could never change the past, and her mating ability would probably always be broken, but she’d give almost anything to be able to push it out of her mind, even for a few minutes. As the sound of laughter and happy chatter intruded on her depressing thoughts, she wondered if coming here might be the first step in driving some of the darkness from her heart and mind.
Paige knew that would only be possible if her father never learned she came to Sanctuary Lodge. He would probably beat her senseless, or worse, if he learned where she was. Her only hope was for him never to find out. She had left a note in her bedroom at home saying she’d gone to Boulder for a few days. She was taking some online courses at the University of Colorado, a concession from her father that had taken months for her to achieve. He used isolation and financial dependency as a method of control over her, and he’d been reluctant to allow her to do anything that might boost her self-sufficiency. But she’d finally worn him down enough to let her sign up for a couple of classes.
Her note said she needed to go take some tests in person at the college. She doubted her father would believe the lie, but she hoped it would throw him off her trail. At least, long enough for her to decide what she would do when her stay was over at Sanctuary. Would she return home to live under the cruel thumb of her father? Or would she use this as her only chance to make a run for it and find her own life. She didn’t have much money, only what s
he’d managed to siphon off over the last couple of years from money her father had given her for groceries and other necessities. It wouldn’t get her very far.
“Can I get you another one?” The question startled Paige. She looked up to see the pretty bartender standing next to her table.
“Oh, um…” Paige glanced at the now empty bottle in her hands, its paper label now in shreds on the table. “Um, sure.”
The bartender took the empty bottle and then crossed the room back to the bar. Paige watched her as she popped the top off of another beer and then returned to the table.
“Here you go.” The bartender handed the beer to Paige. “So, are you—” Her sentence died incomplete, and she swung her head toward the lobby doors, her eyes narrowing.
Paige followed her gaze, just in time to see a large male peacock strutting across the lobby. His colorful tail feathers fanned out behind him in full display mode as he bobbed his head in time to his steps. Paige could practically feel the pride and arrogance flowing from him.
“Hey!” The bartender yelled at him, and he turned his green feathered head in her direction. “You know the rules. Feathers and fur stay outside.”
In barely more time than it took Paige to blink, the peacock shifted back into his human form. He grinned at the bartender and winked, before strolling naked across the lobby and down one of the guest hallways. Paige struggled not to burst out laughing. It was the first time she’d felt any sincere humor in far too long.
