Table of Contents
Title Page
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
Working as a hotel maid never seemed like a bad thing—at least, not until a lunatic bursts into the room Ally is cleaning and injects her with a serum that will change her life forever. Can she overcome the fact that she may never be able to go home?
When confirmed bachelor Kalen sees Ally on the hotel bed face down, he thinks the worst…until she bites him. Are these strange feelings he keeps getting because they now have a bite bond, or does he really want her in his life forever?
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Kalen
Copyright © 2012 Tianna Xander
ISBN: 978-1-77111-201-7
Cover art by Angela Waters
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.
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Kalen
Hidden Breeds Book 2
By
Tianna Xander
Chapter One
The door banged open, crashing against the wall. Ally spun around, her hands held against her chest. Her heart slammed against her ribs at the facial expression of the man in the doorway. The dust rag she held in her hands fell to the floor, forgotten as two men stalked into the room.
“What are you doing here?” the older, balding man snarled. He bared his crooked teeth, his body shaking with anger. He approached her, an air of menace surrounding him.
All she could think of was how his sexy English accent and deep voice didn’t match how ridiculous he looked with those crooked teeth and his mousy brown hair in that comb-over.
Why did men, especially rather round men with pasty complexions and potbellies, think comb-overs made them look good? What it did was make them look foolish. She refrained from telling him that, however. He looked upset enough already, though what he had to be angry about was anyone’s guess.
“I’m cleaning your room, sir. I’m the maid.” Her cleaning cart was outside the door. Was he dense as well as blind? Now that her shock had worn off, she was back to her old self and just a bit angry at the man’s domineering attitude.
“No. What I think you are is a spy. I left the do not disturb sign on the door for a reason.” He shook his head as he dug through a drawer. “Pack our things, Martin. It looks like we’ll be leaving today after all.” Having evidently found what he had been searching for, he turned back to Ally with a sneer. “This will teach you to snoop in rooms with the do-not-disturb sign on the door.”
For the first time, she noticed the man who stood behind him. He was big. Bouncer big. He also looked mean. He wore his hair cut short in a military-style high-and-tight. A scar on his right cheek ran from his eyebrow down to just below his ear. He looked like a mercenary even in the khaki slacks and button-down shirt he wore. Whoever these people were, they obviously weren’t working within the law and they thought she’d found them out.
“There was no sign on the door, sir. I swear.” She shook her head and moved back as the man headed toward her with a syringe. At that moment, Ally just knew she was about to die.
“Don’t think I believe that you didn’t read my papers.” His gaze flicked over to the pile of folders on the table that she had barely glanced at earlier. “I wish I could believe you, but I can’t take that chance.”
Ally looked around the room for a weapon. There was nothing. The hotel bolted down the lamp on the desk to deter theft and the phone was out of her reach on the nightstand next to the bed.
“Get over here and help me, Martin.”
“Yes, Doctor Thornton.”
Doctor? The man was a doctor? From where she stood, he looked more like an escapee from an asylum. A good portion of his comb-over stood up on the top of his head, his wrinkled navy-blue suit looked like he’d slept in it, and the crazy look in his eyes told Ally she didn’t have long to live.
She wanted to cry. Not one of the things on her list to do before she died would get scratched off. Hell, she hadn’t even made love with a man, the mistake in the backseat of Brian Culver’s backseat notwithstanding.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I swear!” She continued to move away from the man until she found herself backed up against the wall with nowhere to go.
The man shrugged. She refused to believe a real doctor would act this way.
“It doesn’t matter, now. You’ve seen Martin and myself and you know our names. There is only one thing that will keep you from going to the authorities.” He turned to the man who must be his assistant. “Get her and hold her down.”
Ally made a break for it. Deep down, she knew she didn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of making it to the door, but she had to try. Leaping over the bed, she dove for the door.
Martin grabbed her braided hair from behind. She could hear her neighbor, Milly Jenkin’s, voice in her head chastising her. You see. Didn’t I tell you that women who wear ponytails are more likely to be attacked? I saw it on the news. They even interviewed convicted rapists. They stalk women with ponytails and buns. It gives them something to grab onto.
Now wasn’t the time to call her and tell her she was right.
Only Ally didn’t think these men were going to rape her. In fact, she was certain the syringe contained some sort of overdose. The authorities would find drugs in her system and everyone would think she was some sort of addict. She screamed for all she was worth, but it was only for a couple of seconds. Martin clamped his hand over her mouth while he yanked her back by the hair and pushed her face down onto the bed.
Please don’t rape me. Please don’t rape me. She thought she chanted that in her mind until the crazy man who called himself a doctor snarled.
“We aren’t going to rape you, you stupid girl.” He laughed a strange, high-pitched maniacal laugh that made Ally’s skin crawl. “Just a little pinch,” he said with a giggle before he jabbed the needle deep into her upper arm.
Ally screamed behind Martin’s hand. Whatever it was they injected her with burned like acid as it hit her flesh. She couldn’t move, couldn’t do anything beyond thinking of how much it hurt.
Martin lifted his weight off her and she tried to sit up, but she couldn’t. The pain was just too intense. For some reason, she didn’t even have the strength to turn over onto her side.
“Get the things packed, Martin. She isn’t going anyw
here. The sedative should be taking effect any moment now.”
So that was why she couldn’t move. At least if she had to die, it seemed like it was going to be quick, if not painless. That was a good thing, wasn’t it? She drifted in and out while they continued to gather their things.
“We can’t leave her here.”
Ally wasn’t sure, but she thought Martin said that. She could only see two blurred shapes as they stood next to the bed talking about her as though she wasn’t there.
“Of course we can. If they’re following us, which I have reason to believe they are, having to take care of her will be a priority. It will give us time to get ahead of them. I always listen to my gut. It’s saved me more times than I can count. We leave her here for them to find and get moving.
“When they find her—and they will—they will have to deal with her. It will give us some much-needed time to escape.” The man chuckled. “And if they don’t find her and she goes to the police, when they check her blood there will be a media frenzy like you wouldn’t believe to help cover our trail. Either way, we’re home free at the new lab.”
Ally didn’t hear much after that. The two figures moved around the room a bit more, then she closed her eyes and lost track of them. Besides, she was too damned tired to care. All she wanted to do was sleep.
* * * *
“They’re gone. The scent is at least four hours old.” Kalen checked his watch. “It’s two hours past checkout time. We’re getting closer, so we should just keep moving.” Kalen looked at Bastien Sinclair and shook his head. “I don’t know why you want to bother picking the lock. They’ll have left nothing, as usual.”
He couldn’t wait to catch the crazy scientist who insisted on changing soldiers into shifters. Sure, their species was a dying one, but they wanted to choose whom to add to their ranks. Soldiers and mercenaries were on part of the list they cut out and burned. The last thing they needed was a bunch of gung-ho soldier-types with ego trips mucking things up and getting them noticed. Not that it mattered much anymore. If the government knew about them, it was only a matter of time before they started trying to round them up like cattle.
Kalen ran his fingers through his hair as he watched Kyle Ward pick the lock. It didn’t help that he didn’t like the other man either. He would rather be on the road with anyone else but a mated pair and that piece of shit, Kyle. He didn’t add in the others because he didn’t know them well enough to form an opinion. His only worry was the fact that there were a set of human twins with them. What stake the retired Army Rangers—the MacDonald brothers—had in all this, he had no idea. And he didn’t care. He only wanted to make sure the rangers didn’t get him killed. They might be trained soldiers, but shifters knew when to follow orders and when to tell the general to fuck off and die. The MacDonald guys were order takers, plain and simple.
“Damn it all to hell,” the wolf in question said as he looked back. “Get over it, Kalen. I slept with your sister. She was a consenting adult.”
“Shut up, you waste of fur, before I break your legs again.” He growled a warning. “Just because I agreed to work with you doesn’t mean I like you.” He growled at the other man whom he’d just as soon skin as work with. “Just shut up and pick the goddamn lock.”
Still on his knees, Kyle shook his head, then grinned when the lock snicked and the door opened. “Technically I wasn’t picking the lock. It’s electronic.”
“Whatever.” Kalen glanced over at Bastien. “Can I kill him now?” He would have added an exaggerated please to that, but Kalen didn’t beg anyone.
Bastien chuckled. “I know there’s no love lost between you two, but you can’t fight forever.” He turned to the men who came as protection. They all carried concealed weapons and held themselves at the ready.
“Okay, Randy. It’s your call.” Bastien always deferred to the well-trained humans as though they were the heads of his security, though Kalen knew that honor went to Bastien’s friend, Dimitri, a Russian immigrant who married the MacDonald twins’ sister.
Randy Macdonald stepped forward along with his twin brother, Cameron. They drew their weapons as they quietly entered the room.
“You’re going to want to see this, boss,” Randy called from near the bed.
Kalen followed Bastien into the room. He wasn’t prepared to see a dead woman on the bed. “Well, hell. What are we going to do about this?” The woman lay face down, her rich brown hair spilled around her head like sable silk. It was as though she was asleep. Yet, she was too still.
Randy reached down to feel for a pulse. “She’s still alive. It looks like she’s been drugged.” He pointed at a nasty-looking red spot on her upper arm. “They injected her with something. Anyone care to guess what it was?”
The twins holstered their weapons and began to search the room. “Man, am I glad you let us join you on this.”
Me, too,” Cameron agreed. “The only way it would be better is if they had some of that serum to give to us. I’d change in a heartbeat if it meant being able to protect Chas better.”
Randy snorted. “You just want to do it because you think it’s cool.”
“Well, there is that,” Cam said with a shrug. “The only thing I can think of that would be better than watching these guys change is doing it myself.”
“Come on, you two. Don’t start bickering here. We need to search the room.”
Randy snorted at Bastien’s comment. “We generally don’t bicker with each other. We share that for our younger brother and Dimitri.” He bared his teeth in a large grin. “We can’t help it. It’s fun.”
Bastien was already digging around in the drawers of the bureau, opening and closing each one in turn. He waved back toward the bed without looking. “We need to get this woman out of here before she wakes up and starts screaming.” He took a moment to look at Kalen. “Take care of her while we continue to search. She’s going to have questions, lots of them, and we need to know how much she knows.” He shoved his fingers through his hair, obviously agitated. “And what the good doctor gave her. If she’s had the serum, we’ll have to take her with us, and she’s most likely not going to take kindly to our kidnapping her.”
Of course she wouldn’t, but they couldn’t have the woman running off to the police screaming that there were werewolves in her city and she was one of them. He looked out the still-opened door and into the parking lot of the cheap hotel. It didn’t matter that this was a small town. Otherwise sane people screaming werewolf usually raised eyebrows no matter how small the community.
Kalen knelt on the bed. Reaching out, he took the woman by the shoulder and rolled her over. Pain and terror-filled violet eyes stared up at him for a split second before she grabbed his forearm and sank her newly formed lycan canines into his wrist. The apron she wore declaring her as one of the hotel maids barely had time to register in his mind before her assault. He growled with pain as he grasped her chin and inserted ever-growing pressure on the hinges of her jaw in an effort to release himself.
“Shit! She’s biting me. Sonofabitch, it hurts like hell!” The woman had a good grip on him, too. Low growling sounds came from her throat as he continued to exert pressure on her jaw until she finally let go. He watched, horrified as she screamed, begging them to kill her to stop the pain.
“Cover her mouth, for crissakes,” Randy hissed as he ran to close the door. “We’ll be lucky if no one heard that.”
Hell, they were already lucky. The woman had jaws like steel. He looked down at the deep puncture wounds on his wrist, cocked his brow and gave the others a half grin. “She’s still mostly human— does this mean I’ll become one of them now?”
A muffled scream drew his attention. Cameron was trying to hold her mouth shut while her beautiful face elongated into a muzzle. He wasn’t sure he would have had the courage to try that.
She continued a mixture of screams and howls as she jerked around on the bed, her body trembling with exertion. Her organs shifted and her bones poppe
d and cracked as she changed shape into that of a beautiful and large sable wolf.
The change was painful the first several times. The pain was so intense, one tended to fight it. He supposed he should have tried to get into her mind and help her, but he’d just been so startled that she bit him, not to mention worrying about what new hell her screams may bring to the door.
He laid a soothing hand on her head and looked down into those strange violet eyes. “It’s okay. You’re okay.” He smiled. “I know you may think I’m crazy, but believe me, everything will be all right. We’ll tell you what happened and we’ll help you to the best of our ability.”
He continued to stare down into her beautiful violet gaze that drew him in. Kalen was aware of nothing going on about them as he stared down into those startling eyes. It was almost as though everything in the world stopped and it was just the two of them in this room.
“Is she okay now?”
Cameron’s words brought him out of the strange trance she had lured him into and Kalen moved away with a frown. “Yeah, she seems okay. At least the change seems to have startled her into calming down. It’ll be a while before she changes back. We should probably get her in one of the vans and head back to Walker with her.” He shrugged. “At least if we take her out of here now, no one is going to call the cops and say we’re kidnapping a local.”
Randy yanked her clothes from her and rolled them up into a ball. “It wouldn’t do to have someone see you carrying what they are going to think is a dog dressed in jeans and a t-shirt out to the vehicles.”
“Yeah,” he agreed, “especially one wearing a hotel apron.” He shook his head. “How many others has that lunatic turned?” What if they’d missed someone? What if there were dozens of people out there turning into God knows what all over the place? The implications were just too horrible to contemplate. They were shifters. They shared what they had and they helped their kind with everything. Just the thought that there were others out there who needed their help was enough to make him growl.
Kalen leaned down and scooped the woman-turned-wolf up off the bed and carried her to the van. “Take her back to headquarters and don’t let her get away. That lunatic, Thornton, injected her. She can’t know what’s happening to her. Make sure she gets the help she needs.”
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