Nysys

by Catherine Lievens

  It’s not easy to trust when you’ve already been burned.

  Nysys is a member of the paranormal council, but he knows no one actually takes him seriously. When Morin Glass asks for help and protection, Nysys takes the opportunity and asks Dominic to be assigned as the man’s bodyguard. He never expects to find out Morin is his mate, but he has no intention to actually tell him. He knows they’re too different, their worlds miles apart.

  Morin has taken his father’s place as the head of the Glass Research Company even though he didn’t want to. He’s horrified by what the man has done and intends to work with the council to make things as right as they can. He has a problem, though. A killer is after him, and he needs help.

  Nysys and Morin slowly grow closer as the days pass, but the killer is never far away. They also have to deal with Rayford Glass’ trial and hostile council members. Will it be enough to tear them apart before they really have a chance at happiness?

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  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Nysys

  Copyright © 2015 Catherine Lievens

  ISBN: 978-1-4874-0484-0

  Cover art by Latrisha 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.

  Published by eXtasy Books Inc or

  Devine Destinies, an imprint of eXtasy Books Inc

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  www.eXtasybooks.com or www.devinedestinies.com

  Nysys

  Whitedell Pride 13

  By

  Catherine Lievens

  Dedication

  For the readers I teased about Nysys’ mate—there, now you know who it is!

  Chapter One

  Nysys pushed all the ingredients into the blender. “This is gonna be sooo good, you’ll see. I found the recipe on the internet.”

  Keenan and Jayden looked at him from the other side of the counter. “Are you sure about this?” Keenan asked.

  “Of course I am. You know I’m not that bad in the kitchen anymore.”

  “Yeah, it’s already been a month since he last made something explode,” Jayden piped up, and Nysys glared at him.

  “That was an accident.”

  “You forgot the pressure cooker on the stove!”

  “That’s what I said. An accident. This is much easier—I don’t even have to cook anything. It’s just a smoothie.”

  Nysys dropped the last strawberry in the blender and grinned at his friends. “Here we go!”

  “No, wait—”

  “You forgot the—”

  Too late. Nysys hit the on button and the blender came to life. Right in his face.

  Nysys screamed and tried to push the button to turn it off, but his eyes were covered in the red mixture that had come out of the blender and he couldn’t see anything. “Oh my god! I can’t see!”

  “Turn it off!”

  “Help me!”

  The three of them were screaming, the blender was still roaring, and fruit pulp was still spewing out of it. Nysys wiped the strawberry from his eyes and squinted. He finally located the off button and pressed it. The blender stopped, and along with it, the other men’s voices. The silence that followed was eerie and Nysys turned to look at his friends.

  He laughed.

  “What’re you laughing at?” Keenan yelled. “This isn’t funny!”

  Nysys pointed at the other man’s once neat shirt. “You should see yourself. It is funny.”

  “It’s not! You ruined my shirt!”

  The three of them were a sight. While Nysys was the dirtiest one, having taken the brunt of the blender’s attack, Keenan and Jayden weren’t far behind. The three of them were covered in red goo, just like the counter, the cabinets, and part of the floor around them.

  “I can’t believe you forgot to put the lid on it,” Jayden said, his voice calm. He swiped a finger on his cheek and stuck it in his mouth, humming when he tasted it. “It’s good, though. Not liquid enough, but good. It’s more like mashed fruit, really, and I still think you should add a bit of vanilla to it. It would taste even better, and I’m sure vanilla is good for the skin, too. Or if you don’t like vanilla, maybe you could try something else. What about cinnamon? Or maybe—”

  A blob of strawberry landed on Jayden’s lips, effectively shutting him up. Keenan snickered. Jayden glowered at him and scooped another blob from the mess on the counter, then threw it at Keenan.

  It landed on Keenan’s cheek. Keenan froze, narrowed his eyes, pointed at Jayden and said, “This is war.” He reached into the blender and grabbed a handful of strawberry-banana-coconut milk mix. He threw it at Jayden, but the weasel shifter had already disappeared under the counter. When Keenan didn’t find him, he turned to Nysys.

  Nysys held his hands up. “Hey, I didn’t throw anything.”

  “No, but you’re the reason this happened in the first place.”

  “It’s not like I did it on purpose!”

  “I’ll give you that.”

  Nysys sighed in relief, but Keenan wasn’t done. “It doesn’t mean you’ll escape from this, though.”

  Nysys could do nothing to avoid the handful of pureed fruit that came at him. It splattered on the front of his already dirty T-shirt and Nysys looked down at it, then at Keenan. “You did it.”

  “Of course I did.”

  Nysys grinned and reached inside the blender. He saw Jayden slide out from under the counter out of the corner of his eye, his left hand dripping fruit. Jayden winked at him and threw it at the back of Keenan’s head just as Nysys threw his own handful on Keenan’s face.

  Keenan squawked indignantly. “What the—”

  Another handful shut him up and the war was on. It was everyone against everyone, no taking prisoners.

  Nysys ran around the corner as Keenan and Jayden grappled on the floor, trying to feed the other some of the fruit mush. He grabbed the waist of Keenan’s pants and tugged, pushing his hand in the opening and smearing Keenan’s ass with strawberry.

  Keenan yelped and tried to grab him but Nysys jumped away. His foot hit a puddle of goo and he slipped, ending up on his ass. “Oww.”

  “What the fuck is going on here?”

  Nysys looked up, and up, and met Dominic’s gaze. The lion shifter was looking down at him, his eyes blazing. “So? What happened here?”

  “Uh, we had a small accident with the blender.”

  “A small accident. With the blender.”

  “Yes.” Nysys sat up and rubbed the back of his head. “I forgot to put the lid on it before starting it.”

  Dominic sighed and massaged the bridge of his nose with his fingers. “That’s all?”

  “Yes?”

  “Then could you explain how whatever was in the blender ended up down the back of Keenan’s pants?”

  “Umm, he slipped?”

  “He slipped.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Keenan... oh, never mind. I w
ant this kitchen clean when whoever’s turn it is to cook gets here. That gives you about an hour, so you’d better hurry up.”

  Dominic turned around and started walking away. Keenan got up from the floor and made to follow him, but Dominic stopped him. “I expect the three of you to work together on the cleaning. Don’t make any more mess or I’ll have you peeling potatoes for the next six months. Are we clear?”

  Jayden and Nysys nodded, but Keenan knocked his heels together and gave the alpha a mock salute. “Yes, boss!”

  Dominic scowled at the human. “I’m not kidding, Keenan, and don’t think you’ll get out of it, even if you’re my PA.”

  Keenan relaxed and let his hand fall to his side. “Yeah, I know.”

  “Oh, and you’d better hurry, because we have a phone conference with Morin Glass in about an hour and a half. I don’t think you want to do it with your pants full of strawberry.”

  “And banana,” Nysys added, regretting it when two sets of eyes glowered his way. “Sorry. I’ll shut up and start cleaning up now.”

  “You do that. This is your last warning, Nysys. If something like this happens again I’ll ban you from the kitchen.”

  “What? You can’t do that!”

  “I’ve lost count of how many pans you’ve burned and how many pots you somehow managed to make explode. It’s not that I don’t want you to try to cook, but I’m not sure I can afford to replace all of them as often as I have to do it at the moment.”

  Nysys scowled, but he kept his mouth shut. He knew the alpha was right, and it wasn’t like this was his house. The shifters had already been too good to him and his friends since they’d arrived, and it was no wonder Dominic was fed up with him by now. He was the only one who wasn’t doing anything productive.

  Noem was studying and working with Jared to become a doctor one day. Cerris and Wyn took care of the gardens, Aeron was taking online lessons to be an architect, and Yerad worked with Nix tribes to try to integrate them together and with the rest of the paranormal world.

  The only thing Nysys did was blow up Dominic’s kitchen. It was a wonder the man hadn’t booted him out of the pride yet. It was probably because Nysys was a member of the paranormal council, but even that charge wouldn’t keep him safe for long if he didn’t start behaving like an adult. He knew his dream of being a baker was unpractical, but he’d tried so hard. Maybe it was time to let go of it.

  “Are you okay?”

  Keenan was on his knees next to Nysys, cleaning up the red goo from the tiled floor. Nysys nodded at the human and turned back to his own cleaning.

  “He won’t really do it, you know?”

  “Do what?”

  “Keep you away from the kitchen.”

  Nysys scoffed. “He should. It’s obvious I’m not cut to be what I want to be.”

  “Hey, you’re not that bad anymore. The cake you did for my birthday was good.”

  “It was crap.”

  “Well, it didn’t look so good, but that wasn’t your fault. You couldn’t have known the top part was going to slide off. It tasted good, though.”

  Nysys smiled at his friend. “Thanks.”

  Keenan shrugged. “That’s what friends are for.”

  They went back to their cleaning, but Nysys knew he was going to have to make a decision soon.

  * * * *

  Morin quickly read through the papers his assistant had handed him. “I don’t see any problems in this, but I’ll need to read it more carefully before I sign it.”

  “You have only until Thursday to do it.”

  “I’ll find the time.” It wasn’t as if Morin hadn’t had to work until past eleven PM most days since his father had been captured by the shifters anyway. He could have done without it, but he had no choice.

  “You have a phone conference in half an hour.”

  “Remind me about it ten minutes before it starts, please.”

  Kade nodded, and Morin smiled at him. He was lucky the man was efficient as Morin’s assistant. Morin didn’t think he would’ve managed to avoid sinking without him.

  The last few months had been heavy, to say the least. Not only had Morin found out that not everything the Glass Company did was legal, but he’d also found out his father had given orders that made it difficult for Morin to sleep at night. He still couldn’t believe the man who had tucked him in his bed at night—albeit very few times—when he was a kid had willingly kidnapped and tortured so many people in the name of science and money.

  He’d never suspected anything. Morin had been working with his father for years, but he’d always taken care of what he now knew was the clean part of their business. When his father had disappeared, the company had been left in chaos, and he’d been the most obvious choice to take his father’s place until he came back. He’d stepped up and found out about shifters and what his father had done to them and humans alike.

  Morin had also found out about the Whitedell Pride, and it hadn’t been hard to do the math and realize they were the ones holding his father. Not that it mattered at that point. Morin wasn’t sure he would ever be able to look his father in the eyes after learning what he’d done.

  He’d never thought the shifters would contact him, but they had. They wanted him to know exactly what his father had done and what was going to happen to him. He would go to the trial, if anything because he needed to see with his own two eyes the damages his father had done. He hadn’t known a lot when Dominic Nash had called him, but he’d had the time to work on that after the call, and he had the entire picture now. It was even worse than what he’d thought.

  And those weren’t the only problems Morin had at the moment.

  “Morin? Ten minutes before the phone conference.”

  Morin looked up at Kade. “I’ll be ready. You can leave as soon as you hear the phone ringing. Go have lunch.”

  “If you’re sure you won’t need me.”

  “I shouldn’t, don’t worry.” Kade didn’t know about the shady side of the Glass Research Company. Morin had hired him as his PA after taking his father’s place, and he wanted to keep the man away from the labs and tortures. Too many people already knew, and not many were happy with Morin’s decision to close the labs. They generated too much profit, and he’d already fought with more than one of his father’s associates on that. Morin snorted. As if fighting with his father’s associates were his only or even biggest problem.

  The phone on his desk rang and he looked at his watch. The shifters were early. He picked the phone up and answered anyway. “Morin Glass.”

  “Dominic Nash here.”

  “Alpha Nash.”

  “Can we get back to a first name basis like the previous times we spoke?”

  Morin slumped a bit in his chair. “Gosh, yes.” He heard the door open and glanced up to see Kade peeking in. He gave the man a thumbs-up and made a shooing motion. Kade nodded in answer and closed the door, hopefully leaving to have lunch.

  “So, Dominic. Do you have a date to give me?”

  “Yes, but I’m afraid it’s still a bit far from now.”

  “Oh?”

  “We need to wait for all the council members to be available,” another voice said. Morin frowned and tried to identify it.

  “Alpha Rhett?”

  “Yes, sorry. And Kameron, please.”

  “All right, Kameron. Who else is on the phone with us?”

  “The other council members on the phone right now are Celina Barrera, Quincy Wallace, Neil Andrews and Nysys Adim.”

  Morin shifted through the files he’d made sure to have on his desk. He fished the ones he needed from the pile and opened them so that he’d have an image to associate to the names. His eyes strayed to the picture of Nysys Adim. The man looked too eccentric to be part of a council, but he wasn’t about to voice his doubts. As far as he knew, Nysys could be the fiercest member.

  “What date are we talking about, then?”

  �
��End of September at the most,” Dominic replied.

  “That’s still a month away.”

  “We know, but it’s the first date we can have all the council members present, and they all need to be there for this.”

  Morin sighed. He’d hoped he’d be able to put an end to the problems his father had caused as soon as possible. “I’ll be there, but I’m afraid I’ll need help before that.”

  “We’ll help if we can.”

  “I’ve been slowly working through my father’s documents and closing labs, but not everyone finds it an acceptable option. I fought with some of my father’s associates, and I think one of them hired someone to kill me.”

  Morin heard a gasp, but he couldn’t tell who it had come from. “You’re sure of that?”

  “I think hearing a gun shot and finding a bullet hole right where your head had been only seconds before is strong evidence of that.”

  “He’s a smart-ass,” someone said, but Morin didn’t even try to identify the man. “I like him.” Or maybe he should. Not many people liked him at the moment, after all.

  “What can we do for you?” Dominic asked.

  “I don’t want to hire bodyguards, especially because if the person who wants to kill me is on my father’s board of directors, it’s highly probable they hired a shifter or a genetically modified killer. No human could go against that.”

  “So you thought we’d send you one of our members?”

  “I know I’m putting a lot of trust in you by doing this, but I don’t want to use one of the shifters my father tortured, even if I’d have no problems finding one.”

  “What about a Nix?” Kameron said. “It might be better than a shifter. A Nix could shimmer Morin out of there fast and we’d be sure no one would get hurt.”

  Morin listened and waited.

  “We could send Finn. He’s a Nix, but he’s also training to be part of the pride’s security.”