Alphas Unwrapped: 21 New Steamy Paranormal Tales of Shifters, Vampires, Werewolves, Dragons, Witches, Angels, Demons, Fey, and More

by Michele Bardsley

  Made perfect sense.

  Looking around the room, she spied some clothes draped across the only chair in the room. Black jeans, black turtle neck, even the bra and panties were black and all her size. Someone had done their homework.

  Not sure whether she should be freaked out or grateful, she dressed quickly. The sooner she figured out where she was, and how to get out of here and back to Dyer, the sooner her world would right.

  Even as a small niggling voice warned her that meeting a man like Herm Kane had already changed her world, and that there might be more change to come.

  First things first. Get out of here.

  Before she even reached the room’s single door, it opened and, after a quick, hard knock, a white guy about her own age, except for around the eyes which were decades older, stepped inside.

  He was a cross between a GQ cover model and the jacket cover of Mercenaries-R-Us.

  Her street years told her this man had been in some dark places and tight spots. For the space of a few heartbeats they sized each other up—predator to predator. Whatever he compiled in his assessment, he quickly filed and let a game face slip over his expression. “Come with me,” he said, stepping through the door but backwards, not risking turning his back on her.

  Whoever he was, he was smart, honed, and lethal. Making her think of Kane, until she gave herself an internal bitch slap. Letting her mind wander was a sure way to get herself killed. Not that that scenario wasn’t a given once she got back to Dyer. But that’d be on her terms.

  She didn’t move as she threw out, “Who the hell are you?”

  “M.T. Stone.”

  As if one evasive macho male wasn’t enough to deal with.

  “Since I don’t know you at all, give me one reason why I should follow you anywhere.”

  The quirk of one corner of his mouth warned her she wasn’t going to like his answer.

  “Kane is waiting for us.”

  Damn. Sometimes it just didn’t pay to be right.

  CHAPTER 15

  Jaylene followed M.T. Stone down enough hardwood paneled hallways to explain deforestation, and also to lose track of where she was. The place reeked of an early era of wealth and consumption, all meticulously clean, all suspiciously empty.

  They might have been the only two people left on the face of the planet as she listened to their near-silent steps entering deeper and deeper into the bowels of what could have been a museum, given the quick glances of the rooms she caught, rooms with muted Persian rugs tossed over polished wood floors and high-end antique furniture—the real thing and not the imitation shit her step-father paid an arm and a leg for to prove to his cronies how worldly he was. In a pig’s eye.

  Just when she’d started wondering what the M. and T. of Stone’s name might mean, he paused before a closed door.

  He didn’t open it, just waited.

  Mind games like her step-father played? A quick glance told her she didn’t think so. No, it was more like he was giving her the chance to ignore what was behind that door. Much like Kane had done when she’d met him two nights ago in the club. Or whatever night that had been.

  And thoughts of Kane made her choice for her. If he was on the other side, that’s where her answers would be, too. It’d have been nice to have her cards handy, to do a quick reading, but it didn’t matter. Her gut told her there was only one way to tell the future here—walk through that door.

  Without a word, she turned the polished handle and stepped inside.

  CHAPTER 16

  Since she was looking for Kane, she noticed him first, one hip leaning against the top of a desk her mother would have been able to identify—Chippendale or Louis the Fourteenth or something like that.

  Jaylene didn’t care. All she saw, all she wanted to see was Kane. He looked good, changed out of the t-shirt and sweat pants she’d seen him in last and wearing something simple that reeked of money. Sort of like the clothes she’d found in her room and now wore, only his drew the eye to the breadth of his shoulders, the flatness of his abs, the muscles of his thighs.

  My, the room was heating up fast. Or she was.

  With so much to be potentially distracted by, she surprised herself by honing in on the one thing out of place in the room: the tension humming through Herm Kane like the buzz of high-voltage electricity. She’d felt tension the first time she’d laid eyes on him, only this time it wasn’t sexual attraction, though that wasn’t far below the surface either.

  Stop thinking with your hormones, girl, and get your head into the game. Whatever game you’re in.

  Herm Kane was primed, but whether it was to attack or defend she didn’t know.

  A soft cough had her shifting her attention to a diminutive Asian-looking woman sitting behind the desk. The kind of woman Jaylene hated on sight—petite, composed, one hundred and fifty percent in control—because a woman like her always was. A dragon sheathed in silk.

  Who the hell was she?

  “Nice to see you, Miss Smart.” Even her voice sounded in charge, with only a light flavoring of an accent—educated, worldly, unique. The woman waved to a single chair set strategically before the desk. “Please, have a seat.”

  Yeah, right. They were all going to play nice—kissy, kissy—until the sharp knives came out. These two might not look like what she was used to on the street, or under the employment of her various crime lords, but they were no less lethal and used to getting their way.

  Who exactly was in charge here? The bigger question was, what did they want from her?

  Only one way to find out. With a smile ten times tighter than the new scar on her leg, she eased into the chair, ready to spring out should either one of them as much as twitch.

  Kane spoke first. “Feeling better?”

  Better than what? Better than when he caught her rifling through his safe? Yes, she could say that, but wouldn’t. Better than saving his life from a raging boar? Maybe. But waltzing in the dark was not her style, unless it led to far more pleasurable activities and she doubted anything along that line was in store for her with these two.

  Without answering Kane, she shifted her look to the woman while taking a cue from his playbook. Answer a question with another question. “Who are you, and what do you want?”

  Technically, that was two questions, so bite her.

  A waft of a smile floated across the woman’s face which, in spite of looking plastic-surgeon ageless, also looked like it didn’t express frivolous emotions often. If at all.

  “I like a direct woman,” she said, her tone all business. “My name is Ling Mai, and I’m the Director of a very small, very elite, very new and very, very secret group of agents.”

  Jaylene quashed the snort bubbling up her throat. One glance at Kane told her this was no joke. Okay, so what did secret agents and Jaylene have in common? Absolutely nothing.

  “What do you want from me?” she asked, hearing the edge in her own voice.

  Ling Mai hands flared—palms up—across that pricey desk top. “I want you to work for me.”

  Yeah, right. Like Jaylene would be on anyone’s radar except for Dyer’s about now. This Dragon Lady didn’t know her, had never met her, had no idea who Jaylene was or what she wanted. If she did, she’d know being a spook was the last thing on her bucket list.

  “I’ve already got a job,” she said, knowing it for a lie. She stood up, wanting out of this room, away from these people who scared her. Considering her background, that said a lot. She wanted away from the intensity of Kane’s gaze that was becoming harder and harder to avoid. She wanted. . .oh hell, she wanted what she’d thrown away the minute she’d opened Kane’s safe. A different life. One where a random meeting that ended in hot, torrid sex, could mean more.

  Fool. Fool. Fool.

  Guess that’s why she’d pulled that card the day she met Kane.

  “You go back to your employer and he’ll kill you.” Kane interrupted the dark spiral of her thoughts, his jaw tight, his tone the same. He l
eaned forward from his perch on the desk, pushing closer into her space, enough to swallow all the air in the room.

  “I know the risks.” Didn’t like them, but liked being hemmed into this too tiny room even less.

  “You are a woman with many abilities. Most untapped,” Ling Mai said, her voice neutral, but it still made Jaylene’s blood boil.

  Inhaling a shallow breath, she kept her focus on Ling Mai as the best option. “You know nothing about me. My talents. Tapped or untapped.”

  The woman didn’t even blink. Point to her. “I know you have the ability to see into the future, though the gift is sporadic and not well channeled.”

  As soon as Jaylene could speak around the boulder lodged in her throat, she clarified. “I read cards. Tarot cards. Not a gift, a hobby.”

  Sure, what she saw in the cards, and sometimes understood without them, almost always turned out to happen. But that didn’t mean she wanted what started out as a way to instill some sense of control in her life, to be considered a given. It was a gift, and not always a pleasant one.

  “You have a mother who needs expensive help. And a step-father who, should he find you, would be only too glad to see you hurt. And Mr. Dyer? Right now he’s the least of your challenges because he only wants you dead.”

  The tightness of her throat increased, making her want to claw for air. How? Why?

  “Unlike others in your life, excepting your mother, we do not wish you harm, Miss Smart.”

  Sure looked like it to her.

  “There’s no reason for you to know so much about me. None.” Jaylene might have sounded stronger if she hadn’t wrapped her arms around herself in an attempt to hold in the shaking creeping through her body. She felt stripped bare. Exposed. Vulnerable. And if there was one thing in the world she’d promised herself, it was to never feel vulnerable again.

  Kane raised one hand, as if to reach for her, but when she flinched he let it drop, shaking his head. “It’s not like it looks.”

  “Who are you people?” she whispered through tight lips. It wasn’t her only question but the only one she could utter.

  “Miss Smart, we need your help.”

  She was a fool to even consider asking. But then she’d done her fair share of foolish things before. Like going to bed with Herm Kane and thinking it wouldn’t make a difference to her. And wanting to again, even if the rat bastard had known all along who she was. He’d used her every step of the way. Every freakin’ step.

  But she’d used him, too.

  Didn’t matter. She wanted out of here. The sooner she could do that, the better.

  “What kind of help?” There, she’d said it, no matter the squirrels racing through her stomach, the chills dancing up her skin.

  “There are forces gathering who wish to see the human race annihilated.”

  Didn’t see that coming. She cast a quick glance toward Kane, saw his golden brown eyes fixed on her, his expression serious, watching.

  He believed this? The older woman’s tone clearly indicated she did, which made both of them loony. No one in their right mind called a meeting about saving the human race. And no one hunted down a street kid turned petty criminal to fix that problem.

  She raised one hand in a dismissive wave. “No. Can. Do.” Pleased that her voice sounded calm and in control, she added. “I’m not Wonder Woman material.”

  “I think you are.”

  Damn Herm Kane to seven kinds of hell for the tone of his voice that made her believe he meant what he’d said. She shook her head, but he wasn’t finished. “You saved my life from a Were attack yesterday. Very few unaware, untrained and unarmed humans could do that.”

  “A fluke.” Then the impact of his words hit her. “A Were? As in werewolf?”

  “Technically he was a Were boar.”

  Damn. She knew he was too good to be true. Sexy as hell and ten times as crazy. “That was a wild animal, just a four-legged animal.” She started easing away, back toward the door.

  “No. It wasn’t. Neither were the hyenas. Or the other Weres in the apartment.”

  Maybe it was the solid trust-me-I-know tone of his voice, the trauma of her injury—the one which had almost disappeared, or the flashing images of a human face elongating. Maybe it was the power behind whoever smashed into the panic room door and the way those hyenas burst out of the stairwell doorway where they shouldn’t have been. Whatever it was, suddenly she was light- headed.

  Raising both hands before her, as if warding off words ever helped, she took a solid step backwards. “I’m out of here.”

  Even that was pointless, because she had no idea where here was. Not to mention that the first flakes of snow that’d coated Kane’s hair yesterday had layered the ground with a good couple of inches and she had no idea where to go. But anything had to be better than listening to people who clearly believed in fairytale nightmares and things that went bump in the night.

  As if she’d read Jaylene’s thoughts, Ling Mai spoke. “It’s a lot to take in, Miss Smart, but I assure you that we do indeed live in a world where humans are not the only powerful creatures that exist.”

  “Listen to her, Jaylene.” Kane’s tone radiated intensity, his hands curled into white-knuckled fists on the desk. “That’s all I ask. Just hear her out.” He took a deep breath, a marathoner crossing the finish line, and added, “If, when she’s finished, you still want to leave, I’ll drive you back to D.C., or anywhere else you want to go.”

  The man didn’t play fair.

  Stay and listen to crazy talk for a bit versus trying to find her way back to D.C. from who knew where on her own? Only one choice.

  She eased toward the chair and slid into it, glad she made it before her legs turned to pudding. “You’ve got ten minutes. Then I’m gone.”

  She could last ten minutes. Couldn’t she?

  CHAPTER 17

  Ling Mai cast a quick, unreadable glance toward Kane, who ignored it, his whole attention on Jaylene. Made her want to squirm. Not a good image to start thinking about with him so close.

  “Miss Smart, for millennia, beings other than humans have walked amongst us.”

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, she’d read her fairy tales, too. Didn’t buy into them, but crazy is as crazy was. She wasn’t going down that rabbit hole.

  “At one time the other creatures held dominion over humans, being faster, stronger and more powerful.”

  Sheesh, this lady really believed all this crap.

  “But humans had their own gifts.”

  Go humans!

  Jaylene kept her face straight, not daring to look at Kane, and ignoring the chills walking up her arms and down her spine. Her logical brain said this was all crap. But…yeah, there was that small what-if question tingling just beneath her skin. How many times had she trusted what her cards had told her and been right? And those creatures in the dark alleys—surely not all were human. And that boar? Even if it was jacked high with rabies, it didn’t act like any animal she’d ever seen before.

  No! No way. In spite of the intensity of the Amerasian woman’s tone, Jaylene did not want to believe a word. It was too much.

  Ling Mai continued. “Humans persevered in their fight against their adversaries until they discovered weapons they could use to fight back.”

  Jaylene could guess what was going to come next. Humans one; woo-woo freaks zero.

  “They learned to mine silver and forge iron and other metals that could be used against the preternaturals and other creatures.”

  That had her locking eyes with the Amerasian woman even though it wasn’t easy. “Preternaturals? Like werewolves and shape-shifters?”

  Ling Mai nodded, dead serious. “And wielders of magic—warlocks, witches and many of the fae.”

  Next she’d be hearing about warrior leprechauns and woo-woo fighting ghosts. Didn’t this woman know about Prozac? Or maybe that was for some other mental issue.

  When in doubt, go for the simple answer, not the scary one.

  �
��Because many of the preternaturals did not reproduce as rapidly as humans, they quickly realized that continual fighting would lead to their ultimate demise. They went underground, so to speak, but did not disappear.”

  Jaylene didn’t roll her eyes, though she was tempted. The tension along her spine refused to let her dismiss entirely this woman’s words—no matter how out there they sounded. Refusing to glance at Kane allowed her to keep her illusion that she wasn’t the only one in the room who thought Ling Mai needed serious psychiatric help.

  Ling Mai stopped speaking, which was far more nerve-wracking than her bad-fairy-tale-creatures-out-to-kill-humans scenario.

  Jaylene offered a stiff shrug and spread her hands. “And what does this have to do with me?”

  It was Kane who answered. “The preternaturals, those remaining, have been held in check by a governing body called the Council of Seven. But even that is not always enough to protect humans.”

  Jaylene’s cocked brow asked what she couldn’t find words to say.

  “This matters because the Council is under threat, from within and without. They need our assistance.”

  Not her problem. Lord knew she had enough on her plate without adding mythical creatures and epic might-happen scenarios to the mix.

  She stood again, her legs still shaky but strong enough to keep her upright, her smile rueful. “I’m sure this is all very…interesting. But you’re talking to the wrong woman.” Oh boy were they.

  “So you won’t help us,” Kane said it as a flat statement, sounding bitter and disappointed. Let him. Sleeping with him, and fantasizing about doing it again, did not give him the right to judge her.

  She shrugged tight shoulders. “Not my fight.”

  Ling Mai inclined her head in a gracious bow. “If you do change your mind, there will be a place for you in the Invisible Recruits.”

  “Invisible Recruits?”

  “Those who fight evil unseen. We are few, but we will do what we can.”