by Alanea Alder
Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Prologue
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
Epilogue
About the Author
Other Books Amazon
My Protector
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Bewitched and Bewildered
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ALANEA ALDER
Copyright © 2014 Alanea Alder
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed "Attention: Permissions Coordinator," at the address below.
PUBLISHER'S NOTE
This is a work of fiction. Any names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author's imagination or are used factiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal and punishable by law.
Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author's rights is appreciated.
www.sacredforestpublishing.com
P.O.Box 280
Moyock, NC, 27958
ISBN-13: 978-1-941315-02-6
Sacred Forest Publishing
Dedication
~Amor Vincit Omnia- Love Conquers All~
To my readers. Yes you, the one reading right now. This one is for you. Knowing that someone is out there that enjoys my stories helps me to write the next one, so thank you!
~Alanea
PROLOGUE
He watched as she pulled her broken body down the alleyway. She had only minutes before well-meaning humans would arrive to help her. She fumbled with a man hole cover, her left arm hanging uselessly at her side. When she finally lifted it out of the way, she gingerly started to climb down the ladder. Her pain filled face turned and for a moment it was as if she was looking right at him. Suddenly, a look of panic came over her face and she fell from view.
Of course. She had slipped down the ladder.
*****
Gavriel woke with a start, breathing hard. He sat up and tried to slow his heart. His mate had miraculously survived the plummet out of the office window and had managed to avoid detection by the humans, only to possibly fall to her death in a sewer. Groaning he lay back down. Maybe if he wished hard enough he could start this day over again.
He continually fought the urge to feed. His upper jaw was a constant ache du to his fangs lengthening. He had finally gone to Aiden's brother Adam to ask for more blood. The doctor swore that he would keep his secret and had made the necessary arrangements to triple the blood supply. Yet, no matter how much he drank, it was never enough; the hunger was constant and burned his stomach like acid. When it was evident that he could no longer keep up with the others, Aiden had finally discovered the truth and assigned him to protect Meryn to keep him out of the training courses. He couldn't fault Aiden his decision, in his weakened state he put the whole unit at risk. After the reassignment, he had come clean with his fellow unit members about his condition and they surprised him with their unquestioning and unwavering support. During his last transition he hadn't been with Alpha, and had borne it alone.
Knowing that the men had new drills to learn he sat up and got out of bed. He couldn't run through the drills with them but he still wanted to see what they were so that he could master them later.
He got dressed and made his way downstairs. When he walked into the dining room, he noticed that the other unit members were sitting on the opposite side of the table from Meryn. The woman in question was sipping her cappuccino with her eyes closed. He made eye contact with Aiden and held up one finger. Aiden shook his head and held up two. Meryn was on her second cappuccino. Smiling, he leaned down and gave her a light peck on the cheek. She opened her eyes, blinked twice, gave a small smile and closed her eyes again.
It seemed that lately only he and Ryuu were immune to Meryn's early morning wrath; it was one of the advantages to being at her side most of the day. At first, he had viewed guarding Meryn as an insult. He was disgusted with his own weakness that left him inside with Meryn instead of outside training with his unit. But as the days turned into weeks he came to look forward to his time with her. He found her to be refreshingly honest and direct. There was no subterfuge or hidden meaning to her words. Her mind was constantly moving and half of the one sided conversations that came out of her mouth had provided him with more entertainment than he had experienced in the past couple centuries.
"Gavriel, you're brave," Colton muttered.
"Meryn adores me, don't you dear?" Gavriel asked turning to the lady in question. Meryn merely grunted and kept drinking her caffeine fix. Ryuu walked up with another cup and placed it on the table. Her eyes opened and she smiled warmly up at her squire. Aiden grumbled under his breath.
"Leave him alone Aiden, he is Coffee God," Meryn warned.
"I'll be outside if you need me," Aiden said curtly and walked out the back door.
"What has his panties in a bunch?" Colton asked.
"We had a difference of opinion when it came to birth control." Meryn opened her eyes and blinked at the men.
"What do you mean birth control? Are you with child?" Darian asked.
Meryn shook her head. "I don't think so, but its a possibility. Especially since I'm human I can get pregnant at any time. Most human women use some form of birth control so they don't become pregnant. Aiden wants babies right away and is upset that I'm thinking about wearing the amulet that Vivian gave me that would slow my ovulation." She took a sip from her cup. "He agrees that I need to wear the amulet so that we have the option to have children a few centuries from now, he just wants to have a baby first." She shrugged.
"Babies are a joy," Darian said.
"Good, you have one. Then you wake up every two hours and feed and change it. Then you spend the next four to five years watching and guarding it's every step until it can walk and talk on its own. After that it's school, homework, puberty and attitude. No. Thank. You." Meryn shuddered.
"I'm sure that there is more to it than that, denka," Ryuu chided gently.
"Not by much." Meryn set her empty cup down and stood. "Okay peeps, I'll be in Aiden's office if you need me. I'm still helping Adair organize the training programs. Latta." She picked up her third cappuccino and walked out of the dining room towards the office.
"Gentlemen, lunch will be ready at noon. We're having tuna fish on whole wheat bread, fresh tavern style chips and fruit salad." Ryuu gave a half bow.
"I swear, I love this man." Colton pretended to wipe a tear.
"Just don't tease Sascha about what we're having for lunch. I think he's on the verge of snapping you in half," Keelan grinned.
"Our quality of food i
s the only thing that gets under his skin, of course I'm going to exploit it." Colton countered.
"Come on, the sooner we do our drills, the sooner we get to have lunch." Darian stood licking his lips in anticipation. Keelan and Colton stood and all three waved at Gavriel before walking out.
Gavriel turned to Ryuu. "Did she eat anything?" Ryuu shook his head. Gavriel sighed. "Can you serve an early tea? When she doesn't eat she gets...," he fished for the word. "Grumpy."
Ryuu nodded, eyes twinkling. "Of course. Shall I prepare your sustenance as well?"
"Yes, that would be most helpful," Gavriel said and followed Meryn to Aiden's office. Maybe if he were lucky she wouldn't start pestering him for more paranormal legends until after lunch.
CHAPTER ONE
Turn left in two miles.
"Left? There is no left. Where?" She looked around there was nothing but trees in any direction.
Turn left in one mile.
"There is no left here you daffy contraption!"
You have arrived at your destination.
"Ugh!" Elizabeth Monroe rolled to a stop and put her car in park. Climbing out of her car she stretched and rubbed her lower back. She had been driving for eight hours and all she wanted was a warm bed. She looked around. She was in the middle of absolutely nowhere.
You have arrived at your destination.
Elizabeth reached in and ripped the GPS off of the dash and threw it into the woods. She looked left down the long dirt road she had come down. Frowning, she turned right. The dirt road seemed to go on forever. She knew that she had guesstimated where Lycaonia's city gate would be since the city wasn't on any known map, but she didn't think she would be this off.
She was about to get back in her car when she heard a low hiss. She froze and looked around her feet for any snake that had yet to go into hibernation. She traced the sound to her back right tire, which was becoming flatter by the second.
"Sugar!" She eyed the mud under her car and sighed. Cussing every step of the way she stomped back to the trunk to get the jack and spare tire. She opened the trunk and was about to wrestle the spare out when she looked down. She was wearing her new London Fog wool trench. She was not about to get grease on it. She removed her coat and folded it carefully laying it to one side. She removed the tire and the jack and started the process of changing her flat. She was almost finished when she heard a familiar sound.
"You have got to be kidding me!" She dropped the tire iron in defeat. Her back left tire was going flat faster than the right had. This just served as her daily reminder that she had the worst luck in the world.
Wet and cold she grumbled as she threw the flat tire and the tire iron in the trunk and slammed it shut. She reached to her side for her keys when it dawned on her where they were. Turning slowly she looked at her locked trunk that held not only her coat but also her car keys and phone.
"Just freaking great!" She tried to open her trunk she but wasn't strong enough and didn't have the leverage to pry it up.
"What else could go wrong?" she demanded shaking her fist at the sky. A crack of thunder was her answer as rain began to fall, creating rivulets of water running down her body. Whimpering she prayed that someone would come by soon.
*****
Two hours later Elizabeth was thoroughly drenched and shivering. She had already dismissed the idea of shifting since her animal would be just as cold and wet as her human form. If help did come, she didn't want to experience that awkward moment where she shifted back and was naked. She was about to give in to the urge to cry when she heard a car approaching. It slowed down and stopped. She got to her feet and heard a car door open and close.
"Hello there," a male voice greeted.
"Hello," she said.
"How are you?"
Seriously?
"I'm fine and you?" she asked keeping her voice even.
"I can't complain. What are you doing out here? Don't you have a coat?" he asked.
"Yes. Yes, I do, but it's in the trunk along with my car keys and phone. I have been stuck out here for the past couple hours."
"Sorry, honey! I didn't realize you had been out here so long; I wouldn't have just chitchatted if I had known. Hold on." Elizabeth smiled at the distress in his voice. He was cute.
A minute later, he easily popped the trunk open with the pry bar he had grabbed from his car. She watched him as he walked back toward her with her coat. He was tall and had warm blond hair and bright green eyes. His smile was rueful but kind.
He held her coat. She dug into the pocket and pulled out her keys and phone.
"Thanks. I was about to lose it there," she admitted.
"I can imagine. My name's Colton. Where are you heading?"
"I'm Elizabeth, Elizabeth Monroe. I'm heading to Lycaonia." She stretched and cracked her back.
"We've been on the lookout for you. Let me finish this up and you can follow me in. I can swap out your other tire with my spare, which should last you until we can get it fixed. If you don't mind a slight delay, we can go to the Alpha estate, and I can drop off my car and ride into the city with you, to show you around." His smile turned devilish.
She thought about it for a second before nodding.
"That might actually be a good idea. In my current state I don't know where I would end up." Grimacing, she saw that her new coat was covered in mud from her tire, making her sacrifice seem pointless. Not wanting to get her seats dirty she made sure she had her keys and phone in hand before she threw the coat back into the trunk.
"Great, it won't take me a second. Go warm up in my car." Colton pointed to the car behind them.
"Thanks." She handed him the keys and walked to his car. She climbed in and jacked up the heat. Why did crazy things always happen to her? The only thing she could count on was her bad luck.
True to his word, Colton finished ten minutes later and walked over to the car.
"We're not far from the city gate, from there it's about twenty minutes to the Alpha estate."
Elizabeth got out rubbing her arms briskly. "I'll be right behind you."
Colton grinned and winked. She laughed. He was such a flirt. She walked back to her car. He had left it running with the heat on. What a sweetie. She followed his car down the dirt road. When he turned down an almost undetectable path, she sent up a prayer of thanks that he had found her. She would have never found the city entrance without him.
Twenty minutes later they were pulling up to a large estate house. She parked behind him and got out. They walked towards the porch.
"I'm just going to let them know that I found you and I'm heading to the city so they can put someone else on perimeter watch." Colton held open the front door for her.
"Sounds good. I still need to find a place in the city to stay and a garage to get these tires replaced, so we'll have to take care of that," she said.
Colton nodded. "No problem. I know a few retired warriors that rent apartments, we'll check with them first."
"That would be a life saver," she smiled up at him.
Colton shut the door behind them. She took two steps forward and tripped over the ornate rug in the foyer. Unfortunately, she landed face first.
"Shit! Are you okay?" Colton gently helped her up and winced when he looked at her face.
She gingerly touched her nose and her fingers came away with blood. "At least it's not broken. I know how that feels."
"Do you break it often enough to know?" Colton's eyes widened.
"Yup. I'm kind of a klutz."
"That sounds familiar." Colton was now frowning.
"You." A deep male voice said from above them. Elizabeth turned and looked up. At the top of the stairs was the most gorgeous man she had ever seen. He was tall, but lean with broad shoulders that tapered off to a narrow waist. Dark hair fell carelessly around his shoulders in waves. But it was his grey eyes that captivated her, the intensity in his gaze mesmerized her. It was as if she could see the weight of ages in his eyes. When they shifted
from eternal grey to red she swallowed hard.
His movements were a blur as he flew down the stairs. He backed her up against the door caging her in with his arms on either side.
"Gavriel! Man! What the hell?" Colton yelled.
"Leave us!" the dark haired man demanded.
"No way. Get your shit together." Colton said as he tried to wedge himself between them. Her body reacted to Colton's interference. She didn't want to move away from this dark stranger. When she inhaled, it dawned on her that this man was a vampire and he was her mate.
Gavriel swiped at Colton dragging his claws across his forearm.
Colton cursed and grabbed his arm. "Man! What the fuck?"
"Colton back off. She must be his mate," a third man said edging close to them from behind Gavriel.
"Ryuu, are you sure?" Colton asked and started to back away.
"I'm sure. He is my mate," Elizabeth spoke up. Gavriel moved her towards the open door to their left.
"Elizabeth, you don't understand," Colton began.
"He's my mate. He won't hurt me," Elizabeth let herself get herded towards the door. She stepped backwards into the empty room and her mate kicked the door shut behind him, never taking his eyes from her.
"You're Gavriel, right?"
He circled her, getting closer with every step. His eyes burned a deep red. Growing up in Noctem Falls, she had only ever seen this once before, when one of the men had been in the midst of his vampiric transition and his more aggressive tendencies had risen to the surface.
"My name is Elizabeth Monroe. I'm your mate." He stopped circling.
"I know. I dreamt of you." His voice sounded deep and raspy.
"What did you see?" she asked.
"You. You falling all of the time." He leaned in and inhaled. He closed his eyes a blissful expression on his face. She realized he could smell her blood.
