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

by Michele Bardsley

  Hermes Kane.

  That wasn’t a beaten man curled so that his head almost wiped the floor, that was Kane.

  “What the f—” she screamed, springing forward before her mind registered that’s just what Grabeski wanted her to do.

  Several billy sticks erupted in the hands of her captors as two grabbed her arms to hold her back from Kane while the others wailed on her. Flinging her arms as high as she could to protect her head and neck, she could hear Dyer and Grabeski’s laughter.

  In seconds she was cowering on the hard linoleum floor, curling in on herself to survive.

  “Not so arrogant now are you, Smart?” Grabeski taunted, until Dyer must have given a signal and the whipping stopped. Or paused.

  Chugging air as if she’d never get enough, Jaylene stilled herself, sending a clear, if only temporary message, that she wasn’t going to retaliate. Not until she was in a strong enough position to do so. For now, it was all she could do to make sure she could move, nothing major broken. Pretty banged up though and hurting like a quarterback after the tenth dog pile in a rough first quarter of a Super Bowl game.

  With micro-movements, she raised only her head, just enough to see Kane. He looked in even worse shape, but the minute her gaze locked with his, he angled a jaunty WTF brow flash her way, his lips too swollen and bloody to even form a smile.

  Not great but it’d have to do. Both bloodied but not bowed. Not yet. So what next?

  Kane could barely move, with the chains holding him down and the handful of guards bracketing him, just waiting to smack him again the second he gave any indication that he was trying something. So, for the moment, he was out. Willing, but not able.

  Except she knew he could heal. He’d done it before—for her, but also for himself. That’s how he’d gone from barely capable of making it into the Panic Room to kicking ass in the parking garage after racing from penthouse to ground floor. Of course! She just had to buy him some time.

  She had no idea what he could do beyond that, but two against many were better odds than one against Dyer’s goons.

  The goal was clear—keep Dyer, and his troops, occupied enough to get Kane stronger. It was up to her.

  Wouldn’t be the first time.

  Easing battered muscles, she kept her shoulders and head down as she changed from curled ball into a kneeling position. All her movements and positions shouting, ‘I’m no threat’.

  The shuffle of booted feet near her wasn’t reassuring, but she dismissed those jerks. It was only Dyer and, in a different way, Grabeski, that she had to worry about.

  If Dyer had wanted her dead, he’d have let his minions continue to wail on her. He didn’t, so she’d take that as a win. And Grabeski? He was mean for mean’s sake, which meant Dyer could hold him back, unless he couldn’t. Plus the guy was stupid. He was more muscle than brains, which meant he was easier to manipulate. That she could use.

  Offense always worked better for her than defense, even as she dripped blood on the floor around her. Little droplets, but if Dyer wanted more, there’d soon be more. Lots of it.

  “What do you want?” She glanced up, not raising her head too high but just high enough to snarl at Dyer as she wiped a thumb across her lip to staunch a cut there.

  “Arrogant as always,” came his response, one tinged with a smile. A sarcastic one, but the bastard respected someone who’d fight back. He despised victims, which she refused to be. “You didn’t deliver what I wanted.”

  “Who says?” She snapped the answer back, using the element of surprise.

  She raised her head more, enough to catch Dyer’s WTF glance at Grabeski. Good. Divide and conquer worked, too.

  “What?” The number two asshole whined. “I checked her clothes. She wasn’t carrying anything.” With a smirk intended to demean her, he nodded in her direction. “And I mean I checked, really checked.”

  Try harder, buttwipe.

  “You think I’d take something that valuable and carry it around?” She kept her voice low enough both men had to lean forward to hear her. “I’m not stupid. Not like you, Grabeski.”

  That torqued the man as red flooded up his beefy neck and the pulse along his temples bulged. “Why you—”

  He drew back his arm to aim a hard swipe at her head, but instead of cowering, she used it as an excuse to stand up, the better to look down on him. “Go ahead, idiot.” Her tone continued to push his buttons, which is exactly what she wanted. “Kill me. Lose the flash drive altogether.”

  That had Dyer raising his whole hand this time with Grabeski’s glance ping-ponging back and forth between her I-dare-you look and his boss’s scowl. “But she dissed me,” he pouted. Not a becoming look for a thug.

  “Enough,” Dyer barked, low but loud enough to have Grabeski stepping back, his arm easing to his side in jagged, jerking increments.

  Yup. Divide and conquer worked. Enough to buy her a few minutes. Minutes she hoped Kane took advantage of to heal himself in whatever mumbo jumbo way he did. She didn’t dare glance at him and give away her only smoking gun. She just hoped it was a bazooka and not a BB gun.

  “You still want the flash drive?” she asked Dyer, as if none of the last few days had happened. “If so, the price has just gone up.”

  That had the collective breath in the room inhaling.

  Better and better. All focus was on her, and, from the hired help, the question was not if Dyer would kill her for such arrogance, but when.

  She straightened her spine, raised her chin, and stared Dyer in the eye, not the most comfortable of actions, but if you’re going to bluff, you’ve got to go all the way.

  “You think you’re in a position to negotiate?” Dyer’s voice sounded like steel bending.

  “I think you want the drive. I’ve got it. We deal.”

  He cocked his head, either deciding how to quash her or testing to see if she really meant what she was saying. Or both.

  “You want more than money to keep your old lady alive?” he prodded.

  The breath backed up in her lungs. Dyer was pushing back.

  But now wasn’t the time to back down.

  She steadied her voice. “Doesn’t matter what I want the money for, it just doubled.”

  His brow arched. “And if I don’t agree?”

  “Every minute you hesitate, the price goes up.” She ratcheted up her smile, knowing he was too far away to see it didn’t reach her eyes, or how much effort it took to play cocky when acid etched her stomach and fear sent shock waves creeping through her body. “Take your time.”

  “I can get it out of lover boy here,” he said, pointing two fingers toward Kane but never looking at him. Which was good. If he did, he might notice what she could now see out of the corner of her eye. Kane was still on the floor, head lowered, but already she could see the red and blue bruises mottling his skin receding. Healing bruises was one thing. Broken bones? Torn ligaments?

  She needed more time.

  Stepping forward, not a large step, more a shuffle, she kept her torso as loose as she could. No warning that she was doing more than talking. No danger from her.

  Yet.

  “If you could get the flash drive from Kane, you would have by now,” she taunted, adding, “besides Kane doesn’t know what I know.”

  Draw it out. Give Kane every conceivable second possible.

  “Which is?” Dyer’s expression had darkened, tightened. He was getting tired of the game playing.

  Time to reel in the Big Fish.

  “Kane no longer has the drive. I do.”

  “And I should believe you because?” The southern Tennessee drawl of Dyer’s words, which only came out right before he exploded, had the smile on her lips freezing.

  “Because if you don’t, you’ll never get what you want.” She managed to shrug, but it was too stiff, too forced, and by the narrowing of Dyer’s eyes, he knew it.

  She’d screwed up and they both knew it.

  He stood, a slow, lazy looking move tha
t had her blood congealing and every survival instinct she possessed screaming RUN!

  But it was too late.

  CHAPTER 23

  Jaylene had her gaze latched on to Dyer’s—the biggest, baddest threat in the room, which kept her from watching the other thunder waiting to erupt—Kane.

  With a whooshing sound that sounded like a tidal wave right before it sucked whole villages beneath its onslaught, Kane blasted upright.

  Everyone in the room vaulted backwards. But it was pointless. Kane not only stood, he expanded, like a billowing genie. In seconds, he no longer towered over everyone, he grew and spread until his head hit the ceiling, his shoulders blocked the nearest lights.

  What the—

  Not enough time to think anything else as sounds exploded around her—skin ripping, bone breaking, painful grunts—as Dyer’s crew started morphing.

  If she hadn’t seen what attacked her in the garage, hadn’t heard what Kane and the other woman told her about the non-human threats that lived amongst them, she wouldn’t have believed her eyes.

  Where seconds ago there’d been men, now there were beasts—wolves mostly, and a couple of hyenas. Grabeski was shifting into a boar. Why hadn’t she recognized the meanness in those gleaming yellow eyes the first time she saw him in this form? Maybe because he was so freaking massive, almost five feet tall and a good three to four hundred pounds. A Hummer with bristly fur and razor-sharp tusks.

  And his whole attention was on her.

  Maybe taunting him before wasn’t such a smart idea.

  Inching backwards so no sudden movement startled him into action, she glanced over at where Dyer had been. But he wasn’t any more. Where had

  he—?

  No time as the wolves and hyenas nearest her lunged forward to join their four-legged buddies to attack Kane. There were a good dozen beasts against Kane.

  Good news? He was currently holding his own, waving long arms like scythes and mowing down the threats.

  Grabeski wasn’t joining the fray, though. No, he was stalking her. And there was no place to run to escape. The nearest door she spied was on the other side of Kane and the snarling attackers. She’d never make it past the bloody gauntlet to reach it and it’d mean leaving Kane on his own.

  Options? Nothing to hide behind. No clear weapons except for the chair Dyer had been sitting in. All she had was herself.

  She was so screwed.

  CHAPTER 24

  Grabeski gave her no options as he lowered that massive head and charged.

  Fight? Flight? Or freeze? No way could she wrestle him to the ground or toss him aside as Kane had done before. No place to run. So freeze it was.

  Widening her stance, she rocked forward on the balls of her shoes, readying herself, ignoring the adrenaline rocketing through her.

  “Come on, asshole,” she taunted, more to herself than him as she had no idea if he could even process words in his current form. Didn’t matter—her body language said it all—I’m not afraid. Even if she was, quaking to the tips of her toes.

  Still she stood. Waiting. Feeling the floor shake, hearing the thud of hooves against cement, ignoring everything except her timing.

  Fuck, let this work.

  Closer. Closer. Closer. The mottled brown of his bristly hide went from fur to scarred skin to jagged folds of leathered skin.

  Not yet. Hold it.

  She could almost hear his grunting laugh, smell the fetid stink of his body.

  Almost.

  Seconds. Seconds only before he pummeled into her.

  At the very last second she sprung, not backwards but sideways, using speed and agility as her only weapons. She leapt far enough and fast enough that she skidded across the floor, landing on one knee in an awkward fall forward.

  Man, that hurt.

  But her action worked.

  Grabeski continued forward like a freight train on steroids, not an easy thing to stop or redirect. By the time he caught on that he’d missed his target it took another twenty feet of skittering to execute an awkward about-face.

  This time there was no doubting the rage glittering in his beady yellow gaze.

  This time he’d kill her—no ifs, ands or buts.

  Even as she scrambled to her feet, she knew her options were going from none to less than none.

  That’s when the wolf struck.

  CHAPTER 25

  One second Jaylene was mostly upright, hands on her thighs, sucking air while scrambling for a way to get away from Grabeski before he could attack again—the next? A pain unlike she’d ever felt before ripped into her right shoulder. Heated, lacerating fire gouged through her skin, deeper, deeper until her bone felt like it snapped as claws ripped through her shirt, scouring deep gouges into her back.

  She slammed to the floor, shaking off whatever assaulted her, catching sight of gray fur and hand-sized paws as she rolled across the cement floor. First on autopilot, then as her only way to escape, hands bracketing her neck, fetal position, rolling away as fast as she could. She might outmaneuver a boar, but not a wolf. And certainly not a wolf churned into a frenzy by the blood and carnage going on around him.

  She smacked into creatures, toppling some across her, alerting others to a new, easier prey in their midst.

  Jaylene had never, ever prayed before.

  Now? Now there was only one prayer screaming through her, one word. “Kane!”

  She shouted it over and over again. Not that she expected an answer. Or to be saved.

  It was the only way she could say she was sorry. For lying to him. For using him. For getting him embroiled in this, her mess, that brought him here.

  They may never have had a chance together. Never have had a future. But. . .

  She expected her dying to happen in a brutal, senseless manner. The streets had taught her that. They’d also taught her that as long as she held on to one piece of her humanity, she’d leave the world on her terms—human.

  Now even that was gone.

  She might not kill Kane, but because of her he’d die.

  Her betrayal of him. And of her.

  Despair, that most useless and debilitating of emotions, washed through her as she slammed up against an immovable object. Something hard and unwieldy. Not human. Or beast.

  Dyer’s chair.

  Trapped and protected at the same time. Her back to it, attack from that direction wouldn’t happen. At least for the moment.

  She raised her head, scanning the melee for Kane.

  There, eye of the hurricane, living up to his name—a conductor of souls into the afterlife. The number of carcasses around him was proof of that. But even from her limited view, she could see him hurting. Jagged wounds covered his body, splattering blood with each move he made. Large, ferocious, deadly—fae or not, he could die.

  Unless she helped.

  She couldn’t stop wolves and hyenas, but she might slow some of them. It wasn’t much, but all she had and she’d give it to Kane.

  Uncurling enough to jam her back against the chair, she used the only weapon she had—herself. Jabbing her legs in one direction, then another, she tripped one hyena, sending it tumbling right as it’d prepared to lunge. Another direct shot smashed into the face of a wolf, causing it to rear back, yelping.

  Not much. Please let it be enough.

  With each thrust her weakened energy dragged, draining, at odds with the pain spiking from back and shoulder, down her arms, constricting her torso until each breath shortened.

  Her eyesight dimmed. Wolves and hyenas blurring into greys, blacks and browns.

  Not long. Not long at all.

  “Kane” she whispered, knowing he couldn’t hear. Never would, but she had to say it. “If only—”

  That’s when Grabeski raced into view—massive death barreling right at her, tusks lowered, payback gleaming from yellowed eyes.

  She closed her own.

  It’d not been a great life, but it had been a life. Maybe, by dying, Kane would live.
<
br />   It’d be enough. It had to be.

  CHAPTER 26

  She braced, waiting for the final attack. Then release.

  But it didn’t come.

  Instead of cowering in a ball of pain and misery, expecting the slam of Grabeski any second, she found herself suddenly airborne, flying across the huge room, windmilling her legs in an attempt to control her path. Eyes wide open now, she watched Dyer’s remaining minions beneath her as she flew in a lopsided arc toward the farthest wall.

  Like a wounded bird with no wings, she couldn’t do anything to slow or stop her ascent. One that exploded through her as she shot downward, hard against the cement floor.

  Last thought…Kane.

  CHAPTER 27

  Jaylene expected she’d end up in Hell. Not that it’d be so different from her life, but well-earned. What she didn’t expect when her eyelids fluttered open was to recognize it.

  That room. The one she’d been in before. The one Kane brought her to, only now late afternoon wintery light seeped through the window blinds, melding with the quiet all around her.

  Somehow she thought hell would be more…fiery? Raucous? Scary?

  Then she turned and spied the older woman she’d met before—Mai something. No, Ling Mai. That was it. Dragon Lady.

  “You in Hell, too?” she croaked through parched lips.

  That earned a smile. A small one, but on this lady even that small twitch didn’t look like it happened often.

  Ling Mai leaned forward, reaching for a glass of water on a near table and handed it to Jaylene who managed to raise herself enough to snag it.

  Ambrosia.

  Hell had water?

  Nothing made sense.

  “You’re not dead,” Ling Mai said as if she knew Jaylene’s thoughts even as she reached to set the glass aside. “Close. Very close.”

  Jaylene eased back against the pillow, her gaze still locked on the other woman. “Kane?”

  “He too is alive.”