Shadow Lovers

by Jenny Penn

  “It’s a bar!” Ryder snorted and rolled his eyes. “What is waiting in there is beer and drunks.”

  “Yeah…and possibly a woman with memories of us that are either confusing or unpleasant. Possibly both. So somebody has to stay out here and catch her if she runs.”

  “Like she could get past you?” Ryder asked, clearly biting back his laughter.

  “She might,” Khal muttered, hating to have to agree with such an insulting suggestion.

  “Let’s flip for it.”

  “Fine.” Khal sighed with barely concealed agitation. “Heads I go in. Tails we go in.”

  “Tails I go in,” Ryder corrected him.

  “Get the damn coin out,” Khal shot back, earning a dirty look from Ryder as he began to manifest one in his palm, but Khal knew better than to trust that coin. “And not one of your own. There’s a penny on the ground. We’ll use that one.”

  “Fine.”

  “Fine!”

  Ryder picked up the penny and slapped it down into Khal’s palm. “You toss it.”

  Khal didn’t argue but settled the penny onto his thumb and flipped it. It glinted in the dim light, flashing as it rotated high into the air before falling to clink against the asphalt. As one, almost everybody leaned forward to see who had won.

  * * * *

  There were times when being cursed was a real drag, Ryder thought to himself as he glanced around the bar. The place was a shit hole. Worse, it smelled like one. With the rank odors of stale beer, human sweat, and excrement thick in the musty air, there was no way for him to scent out his mate, not that it mattered. There was only one woman in the whole bar.

  Something seemed off with her. Despite the fact that she had dark hair and generally fit the details of Mayla’s former self, the woman just didn’t do it for him. Not the way Mayla had. With her, the heat and need had been instantaneous. Who could blame him?

  With her determination to always fight for what was right, and her sweetly naïve view that she not only knew what was right but that she had the strength to fight for it, Mayla had been a true alpha’s mate. She’d also been sweet and graceful, but this waitress was haggard and harried-looking.

  It just wasn’t right.

  At least Khal hadn’t changed. After three hundred years, he was still an ass. It was hard not to hate the bastard, but Ryder was intent on trying. After all, he was stuck sharing a mate with him. God really must hate him, but Ryder was consoled by the fact that God hated Khal more.

  After all, their mate wouldn’t be the first woman Ryder had shared. He didn’t suspect Khal could say the same. That thought had Ryder smirking as he considered how uptight and straitlaced Khal’s response would be when the time came to watch Ryder mount up.

  That was going to make the moment all the sweeter.

  It would be his perfect revenge. He’d waited three hundred years for this opportunity, and this time, Khal was going to suffer because Ryder planned on making sure their mate preferred him. He’d spent three hundred years learning everything he could to please a woman in every way possible.

  That wasn’t all he spent his time doing. Certain that his love would one day be returned, Ryder had focused on amassing a wealth that he had every intention of showering on her. It hadn’t been easy, either.

  Unable to go into the direct sunlight had really limited his and his pack’s options. They had to do what most wolven detested. They’d had to work with humans. He knew Khal employed them, too, but Ryder’s casinos employed tens of thousands of people.

  They were a bitch to manage. He’d be secretly relieved to give up that life once he could again go into the light. Unfortunately, Ryder couldn’t say he held much enthusiasm for seducing the well-aged waitress scurrying around the bar.

  He watched her from the deepest shadows of the booth he’d claimed. It was tucked back into the far corner of the bar, providing him with a clear view of everything going on, which wasn’t much.

  There were a few drunks scattered about the place and a pile of rough-looking bikers shooting pool in the corner. None of them had paid any notice to Ryder as he’d entered. Hell, the bartender had barely spared him a glance as he’d taken Ryder’s order and passed him a beer in exchange for the couple of bucks Ryder had slid across the bar.

  That seemed like a lot of money for the watered-down piss he was drinking, but Ryder hadn’t complained. He wasn’t here for the liquor anyway. Getting drunk wouldn’t make the situation any better. In fact, it could only complicate things because it took a lot of alcohol to intoxicate his kind.

  Then things got weird.

  Very weird.

  As if they weren’t that already. Sighing over that thought, Ryder finished off his beer and slid out of the booth. It was time to go meet his future and get it over with, only the closer he got to the waitress, the more confused he became.

  She didn’t smell right. Actually, she smelled kind of funky…and foul. Ryder’s nose twitched as he shifted quickly away from her. That was definitely not Mayla. She’d always smelled like spring flowers. Nothing smelled like spring in the bar, but the woman had to be somewhere. The Great Owl wouldn’t have led him here if she wasn’t.

  Slinking back into the shadows, Ryder joined with them, allowing his essence to spread throughout the bar until the soft waft of fresh air and a light scent that tickled his senses drew him down a long, dark corridor, hidden almost completely from sight. It led downward into a dank basement and to the manhole cover that opened up into the sewer tunnel.

  Sadly, that seemed just as likely a place to find Mayla as the bar, so Ryder went down. Despite the ease with which somebody could become lost within the labyrinth of passageways, Ryder cut through them without a single second’s hesitation, following the sweet scent that grew only stronger the deeper he went. That wasn’t the only thing growing. His dick was hardening in a rush, which went to prove he was on the right path.

  Where that path was leading was a totally different question because, by his guess, Ryder had wandered a good mile away from the bar before a girl appeared out of nowhere. A girl who smelled like sunshine and butterflies, a scent that brought a low rumble of satisfaction to his lips as the urge to strip naked and roll around in her delicious fragrance nearly overwhelmed him.

  This was his Mayla…only she didn’t look the same. Dressed like a dowdy librarian with a pair of thick glasses and her hair pulled tightly into a bun, the woman looked much more like a geek than Mayla had ever been. Mayla might have had a heart of gold, but she hadn’t had a head for strategy or politics. If she had, then she wouldn’t have killed herself, but that was okay.

  Ryder loved her anyway.

  Besides, perverting an uptight librarian sounded like fun.

  “Excuse me.” The woman stepped right into his path as though she actually had the size to block him.

  She didn’t, but she did have a frown that would probably put the fear of God into most people. Ryder didn’t fear God, though. He feared Malsumis, and this was his angel. An angel that thought herself a warrior.

  A little, tiny warrior, who looked more like she was built more for pleasure than for war. Lushly curved in all the right places, the woman before him tempted Ryder in ways he hadn’t been tempted for three hundred years. All he really wanted to do was pull that stupid bun free and let her long, dark hair fall down to frame that cute, little angel’s face.

  With the heart-shaped curve of her chin and those full, lush lips topped by a cute, pert nose and two big, beautiful brown eyes, she stole his heart right then and there, making his cock swell and his balls ache with the image of just how good she’d look flushed and moaning beneath him. He would given into that urge to make that fantasy a reality right then and there if her sharp tone hadn’t amused him enough to help fortify his control.

  “I don’t think you’re supposed to be down here,” the woman stated with enough disproval and attitude to no doubt intimidate most people.

  Ryder just smiled. “And you are?”
/>
  “I’m going to have to ask you to turn around and head back.” The woman’s chin lifted, her shoulders straightening as she clearly tried to make herself appear capable of wielding the authority she was trying to claim. “This way is blocked.”

  “Blocked?” Ryder frowned, more confused than ever by what was going on. Normally, he wouldn’t care, but this was his mate, and he could sense she was up to no good. “By who? You?”

  “You having a problem over there, Cookie?” That question rumbled out of the darkness as a man the size of bear lumbered forward, his gaze narrowing on Ryder. Now he had the size to garner a little respect…from most people. But not Ryder. He was too stuck on what the giant had called his mate.

  “Cookie? Your name is Cookie?”

  Ryder couldn’t help but laugh at that. Mayla had come back as a Cookie? That was just too fitting. The guys were going to love it. Ryder could already imagine the jokes that would be coming his way. From the way Cookie’s brows stitched together as they dipped low, she’d clearly heard them all already and wasn’t amused.

  Definitely a stick in the mud.

  They’d have to work on that. Of course, she and Khal would probably get along fabulously. After all, it was clear whatever they were up to wasn’t legal.

  “Sir, please, turn around and leave.”

  It was the desperate plea in Cookie’s tone more than the dark glower the giant shot him as he came to back Cookie up that had Ryder holding up his hands in defeat.

  “Fine, beautiful, I’m going,” Ryder assured her as he began walking backward.

  The two watched him leave as Ryder retreated back down the tunnel until the darkness of the shadows consumed him and there he lingered. Never let it be said that he didn’t know when to stage a strategic retreat. Neither could anybody say that he didn’t know when to be sneaky.

  Chapter 2

  Jean Cooke watched the heavily tattooed man slip back into the darkness, appearing almost to fade into it, before she turned back around to offer Marvin a smirk.

  “I thought things were about to go bad there for a moment.”

  “Me, too,” the big man muttered. “That man looked like he could hurt a body.”

  Cookie snorted at that, knowing just what Marvin feared. He might be big, but he wasn’t a fighter. He just looked like he could crush people. The truth was the man could sing like a lover and preferred seduction to confrontation.

  “Yeah,” Cookie drew out the word as she tossed a mischievous smile in Marvin’s direction. “I bet that’s what you were thinking.”

  “Honey, a man with that many tattoos, you know he’s not into my kind of fun,” Marvin shot back with a snort.

  “You never know.” Cookie shrugged. “It is 2015, and people of all types of persuasion come in all types of packages.”

  “And you’d be disappointed if he came packaged for me, wouldn’t you?” Marvin snickered, catching the drift the Cookie’s thoughts.

  “Maybe just a little,” Cookie admitted. “Not that it would do me any good if he didn’t swing that way. Men who look like that, they’re not into women like me.”

  “You never know,” Marvin said, taunting Cookie with her own words. “It is 2015, and people of all types of persuasions enjoy all sorts of packages.”

  “Too bad then I don’t have a package,” Cookie shot back, sharing a laugh with Marvin that echoed down the tunnel to the others, who apparently didn’t appreciate the racket.

  “You two mind?” Joshua’s voice crackled through the walkie-talkie. “This is sensitive work, and I’m focusing here.”

  Marvin and Cookie shared a look at that complaint but didn’t bother to respond to it. Joshua was a little high-strung, but then that was probably the normal thing to be when one was trying to place a bug into a governmental data bank. Viruses, worms, people were all into the newest things, but sometimes the old shit worked better.

  This time was one of those.

  Sighing, she slunk back against the wall. She and Marvin returned to silently guarding one of the three entrances to where Joshua and his team were working. She couldn’t help but wonder what the man she’d just chased off had been up to. He hadn’t looked like a cop, and she didn’t suspect he was, even if he was built like a damn commando.

  Tall, thick with muscles, and ruggedly handsome in a way that just made a woman’s heart race and her knees go weak, he was hard to miss. Even if he hadn’t looked half as good as he did, his scent alone had the ability to make a lady go soft and wet with need. The hint of storm and danger still lingered in the air as Cookie glanced around at the shadows.

  It was almost as if she could sense a presence within them, which was, no doubt, rats. Cookie hated rats. Of course, she hated having to come into the old sewer system that ran beneath the city. It was only the call to duty that had her willing to even consider lingering in the dark, damp tunnels where she might catch rabies at any moment.

  The dark was probably what had fooled the large, tattooed man into calling her beautiful. Either that or he didn’t see too well. It didn’t matter. It didn’t even matter if he called every woman he met that. Her heart was still fluttering, or that might have been the sense of danger that wore on her nerves.

  She was not built for crime and was thankful a half hour later when Joshua declared the mission complete. That was the signal for everybody to split. Marvin followed her back up to the surface, protecting her as they wove back through the bar that Cookie swore she’d never come near again. It was disgusting. More disgusting than the sewers.

  That was saying something.

  Waving good-bye to Marvin, she slung her book bag into the passenger seat and slid behind the wheel of her old hatchback. It barely ran, and most days she took the bus to work, but she didn’t care to wait at the stops at night. Instead, she risked a breakdown as she putted the two miles back to her small apartment complex.

  She’d just gotten out of her car when the sound of a whimper drew her notice toward the shadows. Cookie knew it probably wasn’t wise to move in that direction but found her feet shuffling cautiously forward as she peered into the darkness.

  “Hello? Is somebody there?”

  In answer to her question, the most pathetic-looking dog limped out of the shadows, holding his paw up and giving her such a doleful look that Cookie about melted.

  “Oh,” she crooned as she bent over to extend her hand and let the dog get a sniff. “Is something wrong with your paw? Oh, you are just the saddest-looking thing. It’s okay. I’m not going to hurt you.”

  That assurance seemed unnecessary because no sooner had the dog stuck his nose up to her hand than the rest of his head followed in a move that had her petting him before Cookie even knew it. As she ran her hand through his thick, soft coat, she felt the collar wrapped around his neck.

  “Oh, I think somebody is lost.”

  * * * *

  “You have got to be kidding me,” Khal muttered in absolute disgust as he watched Ryder flop over and beg for a belly rub like some froufrou pet.

  The man was a wolf. Even in wolf form he weighed in easily at two hundred pounds, and yet there he was acting like some little purse dog. It was embarrassing. It went to prove that Ryder had no shame.

  He also had a massive set of balls and an erection that Cookie seemed as blind to as his size. Tucked into the shadows of the apartment complex across the street, Khal couldn’t believe that Ryder’s idiotic plan was actually working. As if it wasn’t bad enough that Khal had lost the second coin toss, now he was losing the argument. It didn’t help that Ryder’s first captain was standing there snickering.

  “You shouldn’t have doubted him. Ryder’s played this trick more than once.” Travis smiled. “It works like a charm on women.”

  That sly comment with the look Travis shot him left no doubt that Khal was being insulted, but he ignored the man.

  Travis wasn’t worth the fight. Big and shaggy, the man was a mutt. Then again that described most of Ryder’s pack. Th
e truth was Ryder had a lot of captains, but then he commanded a very large pack. It was bigger than Khal’s, but Khal and his captains could wipe the floor with every single one of them, including Ryder.

  Right then, Khal was considering marching across the street and doing just that. If he did that, though, he’d probably scare Cookie, and she came before everything, even the irritation he felt watching her fall for the idiot’s game. She even had a hold of his collar now and was fishing her cell phone from her purse. Sure enough, a moment later Travis’s phone was buzzing in his pocket. Khal glared at the man’s smirk as he fished his phone out and flipped it open.

  “Hello…oh my God! You’re kidding me. He’s been missing for a month!... Oh, yes. Yes! Thank you so much, just tell me where you are, and I’ll come and get him… What? How the hell did he get all the way down there?... No. I’m in North Carolina… No. That’s all right. I’ll just head out in the morning. You don’t mind keeping him for the night, do you?... Oh, that is so sweet of you. Thank you… No. My phone caught your number. I’ll just give you a call when I get closer to town… Okay, goodnight.”

  Travis flipped his phone closed, grinning like he’d won the lottery. “He’s in.”

  As if Khal hadn’t figured that out from the half conversation he’d heard. Even if he hadn’t, he had good enough vision to see Cookie leading Ryder into the building. Hell, from this distance he could see well enough to know that fate had once again blessed him with a woman who had a lush ass and nice big tits to go with it. He liked a little jiggle and bounce when he was riding his women.

  She was short, though. Mayla had been tall, but she had been soft-hearted, and clearly so was Cookie. That wasn’t exactly a trait Khal wanted to breed into his sons. He wanted alphas, but more than that, he wanted freedom. Not just for him and his sons, but for his pack as well.

  * * * *