Shadow Lovers
Page 1
Legend of the Feral 1: Shadow Lovers
Three hundred years ago, the eternal flame was extinguished, casting both Khal and Ryder into the shadows. There they waited for their love to return and a chance to right the wrongs of the past. Now the time has come.
Jean “Cookie” Cooke can no more deny the passion Khal and Ryder inspire in her than she can the truth they carry with them. She must face her own past decisions and decide once again whether to sacrifice everything for love.
Cookie, Khal, and Ryder must learn to trust one another if they stand any hope of a happily ever after.
Genre: Contemporary, Ménage a Trois/Quatre, Paranormal, Vampires/Werewolves
Length: 36,074 words
LEGEND OF THE FERAL 1:
SHADOW LOVERS
Jenny Penn
MENAGE EVERLASTING
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Ménage Everlasting
LEGEND OF THE FERAL 1: SHADOW LOVERS
Copyright © 2015 by Jenny Penn
E-book ISBN: 978-1-63259-497-6
First E-book Publication: July 2015
Cover design by Les Byerley
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
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DEDICATION
Dr. Lucas for her amazing care.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright page
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Epilogue
About the Author
LEGEND OF THE FERAL 1:
SHADOW LOVERS
JENNY PENN
Copyright © 2015
Chapter 1
There were times when being stuck in the shadows was a real downer. When the sun glistened on the dew. When the ripples across the lake sparkled with cool invitation. When the rabbits scurried through the field of light. During those times, Khal was left to watch from the shadowed corners of the forest’s edge, and those were the times when the beast inside him prowled and bristled at being cursed to living only within the darkness.
Inevitably, though, the sun would set and the land would be consumed by the night. Then the whole world was Khal’s kingdom, a kingdom he had built off of hard work and lots of sweat. He glanced around the warehouse and smiled as he took in all the antiques collected there.
He knew that many would have simply allowed the darkness to consume them, but Khal was wolven and wolves fought on. So he lived life like a vampire. He slept through the daylight hours and worked under the watchful eye of the moon instead. Unlike most wolven, though, Khal had built his empire with the help of humans. They were his ambassadors in the day and they served him well, finding him all sorts of treasures to fill his warehouse.
Some shined, some wilted, but all would be restored to perfect condition before being sold off at auction. Khal owned the auction house, too. He was considered one of the best in the business, but then again he knew his shit. Being three hundred years old helped. He’d been around, after all, when most of these antiques were new.
Hell, he’d known a number of the craftsmen. They were members of his pack, and they still built things the old way, with glue, nails, and a whole lot of ingenuity. It was a point of honor to be good, to be better than the rest.
After all, his kind had their own honor code and their own superstitions. It was that last one that had Khal stilling as the smooth glide of a streak of white caught his attention. His gaze lifted from the floor and up into the rafters to watch the bird that had flown in through an open skylight to land on the smooth, arched arm of a lamppost overhead.
The owl was pure white and completely out of place. There was no mistaking that omen or the fact that the large predator was staring right at him. It was the Great Owl, spirit of the God Malsumis.
Malsumis had not appeared to him since the death of his chosen mate. He’d failed to protect her and had fallen out of favor. Khal would not make that same mistake again. That didn’t mean Khal didn’t take time to text his captain and order him to take over the evening shift at the warehouse.
Khal had a new mission, one his men were all vested in because he was not alone in the shadows. He was alpha, leader of his pack, and as such they’d all been damned along with him. That was a fact that could have torn the pack apart but had instead bound them even closer as every wolven knew that their fate was tied to his.
Beyond that, they trusted him, which was proven by their blind obedience. Khal didn’t have a worry about abandoning them, certain they would continue on just as if he were watching over them. Even though he was far away as the Great Owl led him back across the country to the shores of Boomer Lake.
Coasting through the shadows of the night, he took what refuge he could during the day in darkness of the woods. There he lingered until the sun had dipped low enough to allow him the freedom to roam until finally the shores of the lake glimmered before him in the pale light of the moon.
Surrounded by the Silver Grove
Mountains, the lake was considered sacred amongst his kind, but even more holy was the barren, rocky island that grew up in the center of the lake.
Once, long ago, the eternal flame had flickered out there, casting shadows out across the mountains and assuring that the humans knew better than to trespass. Those days were gone, and now the center mound where the eternal flame had once flickered was a fire pit the local teens used when they came to litter up the place with graffiti and trash. The whole thing sickened Khal, but that was not why he’d never returned to the sacred island.
The painful memories kept him away, and only the Great Owl could have led him back. The magnificent white predator soared silently across the sleek waters of the lake as Khal followed. Moving with equal skill, he skimmed across the lake without ever once touching its surface.
He rode through the shadows, feeling their cold tendrils caress him. It was a sensation he’d grown accustomed to over the centuries. Cursed into the darkness, he could take solid form only in the shadows and knew only their emptiness. Not that that had stopped him from conquering the world of antiques.
Khal had built an empire out of his restoration and auction business, one that gave him power that extended well into the light thanks to the humans who worked for him—worked for and feared. They understood the weight of authority they carried when they represented him.
So did his men, his pack. They were loyal and just as hardworking. None would have dared to show him any disrespect, but that didn’t mean no one would. There was always Ryder. Khal wasn’t the least bit pleased to emerge from the shadows and find his old rival already waiting for him.
“I should have known you’d be called here.” Khal growled over his words, bristling as the other man smirked.
He hadn’t seen Ryder in almost three hundred years, but it didn’t seem as though he’d changed all that much. Tall, broad-shouldered, and rakishly good-looking with his crisp-cut features and dangerous-looking tattoos that shifted to highlight the thick bulges of his muscles. There wasn’t anybody Ryder had ever failed to seduce. Well, there was one woman.
“That’s fate.” Ryder shrugged. “She’s a bitch, and apparently, we’re destined to repeat our history.”
Fate was something all right, but Khal would be damned if he’d allow himself to be ruled by the past. He wouldn’t even allow himself to be constrained by the shadows that he lived within. Instead he dominated them. Them, but not Ryder.
“Maybe we’re supposed to fight now,” Khal suggested, liking the sound of that idea.
Ryder didn’t look threatened or convinced as he continued to lounge by the blackened edge of the old flaming geyser, but then again, that was Ryder. He never seemed to get upset or annoyed, but as alpha of his own pack, he could throw down with the best of them. Killing him wouldn’t be easy. Actually it would be downright impossible.
Khal had already tried.
Three hundred years ago, with a grieving heart and an anguished mind, he’d torn into Ryder. Of course, Ryder had torn into him, too. They both should have died from their injuries, but they hadn’t. They couldn’t be killed because death was a release, and they were doomed to live and wait for their love to be returned.
In the meantime, they’d stayed the hell away from each other. That didn’t mean that Khal hadn’t kept a watchful eye on his rival. He was all too aware of Ryder’s growing casino collection and the wealth that came with it.
“You don’t really think that’s wise, do you?” Ryder lifted one perfectly arched brow at Khal. “We have been given a chance to undo our mistakes, and while some of us might not have evolved that much, I still—”
“Excuse me?” Khal stepped up, knowing he was being insulted.
Ryder didn’t even bother to pause to recognize Khal’s interruption. “You are intelligent enough to recognize a gift when you’re given one.”
“I don’t get gifts,” Khal snarled, flashing his teeth at Ryder. “I take them.”
“Or throw them away,” Ryder shot back.
That had Khal’s eyes narrowing. Ryder had always been a smart mouth, flippant enough to drive Khal completely insane. That was one of the many reasons he’d steered clear of Ryder. It hadn’t been hard.
Ryder had set up shop in all the flashy cities around the world, taking advantage of the lack of sunlight within the gigantic walls of his casinos to create a dynasty that rivaled Khal’s. That didn’t mean Ryder had earned any respect with all that money.
He certainly hadn’t earned Khal’s. That didn’t make him wrong, though. It’d have killed him to have to agree that Ryder had a point, so Khal didn’t. Instead, he sulked.
“Fine. Then what the hell do you suggest?”
“That we share.”
Khal had known that was coming. It was just another reason why he’d avoided Ryder for the past several hundred years. He’d known he was going to get stuck living his final years with the bastard. The only thing that could make such a condition bearable was love. That Khal knew, even if it wasn’t Ryder who held his heart.
In three hundred years, Khal had only ever loved one woman. There was only one woman worth braving the world he lived in. Only one who could save him from it and take him back into the light.
“The past has to be undone.” Khal finally admitted. “But this isn’t going to work with you being a dick.”
Ryder seemed to consider that. “I’ll work on it, but I think it would help if we set up some rules.”
“What kind of rules?” Khal narrowed his gaze on the other man, sensing a trap.
“Something that allows us to settle our disputes without killing each other.” Ryder hesitated before adding on, “And doesn’t put our mate in the position of having to choose between us.”
That was how they’d ended up in this mess to begin with, so Khal couldn’t exactly argue that point either. Neither was there any point in railing against the solution. That didn’t mean he had to be happy with it.
“What kind of thing are you thinking about?” Khal pressed, ready to complain about any answer Ryder came up with, except for the one that he proposed, shocking Khal.
“A coin toss.”
“What?” Khal gaped, unable to believe the other male could be so outrageous as to suggest such a thing.
“It’s completely arbitrary.”
“It’s stupid.”
“It’s completely bloodless.”
“It’s stupid!”
“We both have equal chance of winning.”
“It’s stupid!” Khal roared, overwhelmed by the sheer idea that his fate would be left up to the toss of a coin, but his opinion wasn’t the one that matter the most right then. As the Great Owl took flight, Khal knew the matter had been settled. That didn’t mean he had to smile over it.
“It’s still stupid,” Khal grumbled as Ryder snickered.
With a roll of his eyes, the other male faded back into the deep shadow as he began to race after the owl. Khal begrudgingly followed, silently smoldering over the injustice of the situation. Together they crossed back over the lake, cutting through the forest.
A couple of Ryder’s lieutenants joined up with them along the way, but Khal’s own captains continued to work on more profitable endeavors. They knew better than to goof off in his absence, but then Ryder’s pack was known to be a little lazier.
That had been proven true three hundred years ago when Ryder had shown up to the mating festival. He and his pack had been instantly popular, hosting the biggest, wildest party of the celebration. It had been a disgusting display of excess as far as Khal had been concerned.
That was just one of the many reasons he’d been shocked that Ryder had even become a factor, but their mate had been stubborn and a little wild. She had liked the party. She’d also liked Ryder. That had all but killed Khal. It still might.
As the light of the day brought their travels to a temporary halt, he found himself annoyed at having to put up with Ryder and his men’s silliness. They gossiped like women
and played games like they were kids. Khal found himself counting the seconds until the sun dipped low enough to leave a path of shadows to darken their way.
Once again the Great Owl appeared to lead them into the city at the outskirts of the mountain and deep into the slums before coming to a rest on yet another lamppost. This one was busted and overlooking an alleyway no self-respecting person would dare to enter, day or night. Yet there was a door to a small bar tucked in between dumpsters and the trash.
The glowing neon lights not only proclaimed to the world that the establishment, if it could be called such, was open but that it also had a long list of various beers. There had to be, at least, ten different signs hanging in the blacked-out windows. Blacked-out windows were never a good sign.
Their mate had clearly done it again. Three hundred years ago, Mayla had been a mischievous nymph with a head full of black curls and eyes as deep and chocolatey as the most decadent sweets. She’d also been prone to trouble and more stubborn than a mule. Whatever questions Khal had about whether or not reincarnation would change her, he had that answer now. He should have known.
Worse, a modern version of Mayla was undoubtedly much more dangerous. They were in real trouble now, but fortunately Khal liked trouble, and he wasn’t afraid of any low-class dive. Turning to pin Ryder with a scowl as the other alpha stepped out of the shadows beside him along with the rest of his men, he ordered the man to wait there as he went in and checked things out.
“Why do you get to go?” Ryder scowled, objecting almost instantly. “Why don’t we both go?”
“Because we don’t know what’s waiting in there,” Khal snapped back, secretly just wanting a chance to spy on his mate in peace.