Vynn (War Cats Book 4)

by Grace Brennan

  She nodded, biting her lip and staring into the fire before looking back at him. “How have you been, though? Have you figured things out?”

  His heart leapt in his chest. Finally, they were getting somewhere. “I’ve been okay. I’ve gotten them mostly figured out, I think.”

  She shot to her feet, and he stood with her, confused. She was frowning, and then she suddenly slapped her hands to his chest as she spoke.

  “Then why didn’t you freakin’ come for me, or call, or something, you jerk?”

  Ashley covered her mouth with her hands as Vynn grunted, falling back onto the couch while he rubbed his chest. Shit, she hadn’t thought to guard her emotions when she smacked him, and she must have shocked him when she did it. She had to remember to be more careful.

  Shaking her head, she sunk back down onto the cushions. “Oh, God, I’m so sorry, Vynn.”

  Grimacing, he looked over, shaking his head back at her. “Don’t be sorry. I deserved that for how I treated you when you were here before.”

  Her eyebrows went up as she looked at him. “Are you kidding me right now? You were amazing. So amazing. And I didn’t just mean sorry for that, although I am. I meant I’m sorry for giving you an ultimatum and then taking off. I shouldn’t have done that. I just wanted to help, but that was the wrong way to do it, and I’m so fucking sorry.”

  “What? Ash, baby, no. You did it perfectly. I’m not sure anything other than losing you would have gotten me to really examine my life and my actions. You have nothing to apologize for.”

  Exhaling, she looked back at the fire. “I don’t know,” she said softly, still not looking at him. “You pushed me to see that my motives for revenge weren’t right, but you stood at my side the whole time, even when I flipped out. My way included threats and leaving. It was wrong. You helped me so much. Learning about my heritage, accepting my fox, realizing I was wrong to go after my brothers like I wanted. And how did I help you? I left. I’m surprised you even let me in the door.”

  She felt the couch shift and a moment later, his fingers touched her arm in a caress that comforted her to her soul. He might not want her any longer—and she wouldn’t blame him—but her soul still felt like it sighed in relief when she felt his skin against hers again.

  “I will always let you in, Ash. You’re my mate. I’ll always want you. That won’t change.”

  Her stomach clenched, hope welling up inside her at his words. “Then why didn’t you try to come get me? Why didn’t you call? I know you have my brothers’ cell phone numbers. You could have tried to talk to me.”

  He exhaled heavily, and she saw him shake his head out of the corner of her eye. “Because I’ve worked through a lot. I burned the portrait. I broke the hold my father, and his words and lessons, had over me. I accepted I was really at fault for my scars. It was all me. So I let my revenge go, and I even asked my tiger to leave the claw marks when he tried to heal them. I’ve worked to accept and change all the black and tarnished parts of my soul, so I could be better for you.

  “But, baby… I wanted to come to you a brand-new man. But I haven’t been able to do that yet. I’m sill Vynn, the same sarcastic dickhead I’ve always been. And you deserve more than that. I wanted to come for you, so badly. You have no idea how much. I fucking need you, Ashley, like I need air to breathe. But I haven’t managed to become a new man yet, so I’ve forced myself to stay away.”

  Her head whipped toward him, mouth open and eyebrows high. She searched his eyes, seeing he was completely fucking serious with that. Reaching a hand up, she touched his forehead, but no, no fever. Had he lost his ever-loving fucking mind?

  “Vynn Sardana. You listen to me. I don’t want you to change. Ever. Do you understand?”

  His brown eyes, lightened to a whiskey shade from his tiger, widened. His brow twitched, gaze filling with confusion as he looked at her. “Uh—no. I guess I don’t. You made it clear I had to change, Ash. And you deserve a good man. Someone like Jameson. Good to his core, soul shiny, bright, and untarnished. I’m trying to be that way, it just hasn’t happened yet.”

  Letting her chin drop to her chest, she shook her head helplessly before meeting his gaze again. “Oh, Vynn. No. That’s not what I want. I want you, tarnished soul and all. I didn’t mean for you to change who you were. I just wanted you to realize your plan for revenge was wrong, just like mine was. And maybe, hopefully, realize that we’re all equals, and there is no superior and inferior bullshit. That’s all.”

  “But you deserve—”

  “A man who loves me,” she said, voice soft and steady. Turning to face him, she grabbed his hand, lacing their fingers together. “Someone like Jameson, who’s all soft and good, he could never get me like you do. Because I’ve worked through some shit in the time we were apart, but I’m still the same fucked up Ashley. Someone like him could never be what I need. What I deserve. Do you love me, Vynn?”

  “So fucking much, Ashley. I love you with everything in me. I always will.”

  She smiled softly, relief crashing over her, heart singing from the conviction in his words. “Then you’re exactly what I need and deserve. I love you too. With everything in me. I think I have from the moment you brought me that backpack of supplies. I was just too dense and fucked up to realize it.”

  He closed his eyes, his expression caught somewhere in the middle of relief and happiness. Opening them again, he snared her gaze with his and leaned in, pressing a bone melting kiss to her lips. She kissed him back just as passionately, her soul sighing with happiness, feeling lit up with it from the inside, in a way she’d never experienced before.

  When he pulled back, they were both breathing heavily, and fire was racing through her blood. “Can we throw this new man nonsense out now? I want to get on with the business of loving you. You, as you are. I want to start a life together.”

  “Fuck yes, we can,” he replied, his eyes crinkling as he grinned.

  She nodded, her lips curling mischievously. “Good. Because I want to claim you. My brothers said foxes do it by asking their intended mate if they want to be mates, and then it’s all about smell. You up for it?”

  His tiger let out a growl of approval so loud, it rumbled and echoed through the room. He laughed, the sound freer than she’d ever heard it. “Hell yes. Ask me, baby.”

  “Do you want to be my mate?”

  He stared into her eyes, the intensity in his taking her breath. “Abso-fucking-lutely, baby. Yes, I want to be your mate. From now until eternity.”

  She gasped, raising a hand to rub at her chest, where it felt like something locked in her chest. “Was that the bond?”

  “Sure was. It’ll be complete once I claim you.” He winked at her, nodding toward the stairs. “You up for it?”

  “Hell yes!”

  He lunged up from the couch, bending over to snatch her into his arms. As he carried her to the stairs, she ran her fingers lightly down the scars on his cheek. She would forever be thankful for whatever it was that made her stay in the woods here for three weeks. If she hadn’t paused in her journey, she never would have met him.

  Hell, as much as she knew her plan for revenge was seven shades of messed up and she would have regretted it forever if she followed through—she was beyond grateful she’d initially wanted it.

  Because without it, she never would have come here at all. And that would have been a tragedy. She and Vynn might be two people who were less than they should be, because they were fifty shades of fucked up, but together, they formed one perfect, beautiful whole.

  Coming Soon

  Kian

  War Cats, Book 5

  If you missed the other books in the series, you can find them here

  Zane

  Kelly Masters is quirky, awkward, and says everything that pops into her head. No one takes her seriously, which means being labeled strange, and perpetually single. But she’s okay with that because she’s happy. Then, one day her clumsiness sets her fate in motion, and she runs
—literally—into a man who will turn her world upside down. A man who insists he’s no good. Swears he’s damaged.

  He’s not perfect, and neither is she, but beyond the mask he shows to the world, she yearns to know the true heart of the man inside.

  Zane Stryker found himself alone after the showdown with the fighters in Eagle Creek. Unable to walk away from his cousin, he hides in the shadows, fighting a losing battle with his inner tiger. He needs to find a mate to stay sane or finally ask his cousin to put him out of his misery. And then he sees her—the woman who could be his salvation. But when Kelly reveals her secret, his tiger immediately rejects her. And when his cousin calls him home to the War Cats, Zane has a decision to make—listen to his tiger and leave her behind or take her with him and risk his tribe rejecting them both.

  Zane believes she’s the one, and wants to protect her. The problem is, claiming her means not only betraying his inner animal, but also his tribe, and the centuries-old customs he’s bound by blood to defend. It’s a battle he never wanted to fight, and worse, it’s one he’s not sure he can win.

  Karis

  Arya Nikolai is finally getting the chance to live her dreams. The rules for her tribe were suffocating, but now the archaic chains holding her back have been broken. Well, most of them. The only thing left for her to do is become a famed War Cat warrior, but it’s forbidden. So she’ll take any chance she can get to show off her skills and break the final link holding her back. And then her inner tiger chooses her mate. It’s someone she’s known all her life. Someone who once ran away from her. Someone who’s still running. Someone who she won’t let slip away from her again.

  Karis Sanderson is the head warrior. Tough, strong, badass… and completely terrified of his attraction to the much younger war cat who is dead-set on breaking all the rules. She’s persistent, irresistible, and her father will surely kill him if he finds out. Their relationship must stay a secret, but when someone figures them out, Arya and Karis have more than an angry father to worry about. Now their lives are truly in danger and, secret romance aside, Karis will do anything—even lay down his own life—to protect her.

  It’s a secret he never wanted to let out. But to save his mate he’ll have to come to terms with the truth, accept her for who she is, and allow himself to love her.

  Jameson

  Cadence Daniels is on the run, desperate to get far away from the monster in her past. When her car breaks down in the strange town of Durga Valley, she’s at her wits end. She still hasn’t run far enough, but for now, she’s stuck. When a well-intentioned woman offers to let her spend the night, she’s reluctant, but out of options. And then she meets the woman’s brother. He’s handsome, charming, and in her experience—that’s everything a man needs to mask the snake beneath the grass. Despite the yearning she feels for him, she must resist. It isn’t just about her anymore. She has something far more important to protect now.

  Jameson Campbell is the head trainer for the War Cats tribe, the fiercest warriors around, and he’s hiding something only one other person knows—he longs for a mate. For almost ten years he’s been on an unending quest to find his true mate, and he’s lost hope, ready to give up and come to terms with the fact that he won’t have his heart’s desire. And then he meets his sister’s guest, and he knows—he’s finally found her. But she’s wary, and he’s sure she’s hiding from someone. She’s not giving him an inch, but he has to keep trying. Come hell or high water, he’ll win her over.

  Just as Cadence begins to relent, it becomes clear the monster under her bed is back. And suddenly, it’s not just a matter of Jameson making it clear they’re meant for each other—it’s about doing everything he can to protect her. Because if he can’t protect her from her past, he’s sure to lose his future forever.

  Other books by Grace Brennan

  War Cats

  Zane

  Karis

  Jameson

  Rocky River Fighters

  Heart of a Fighter

  Fighting for Keeps

  Fight Song

  Fighting to Win

  Bear Claw Shifters

  Starry Night Sky

  One Sunny Day

  Misty Autumn Morning

  Red Moon Shifters

  Unexpected Mates

  Temporary Mates

  Forever Mates

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  Acknowledgments

  Y'all know how I've been using my friend's names for characters. The main female character in Vynn is Ashley, and she's named after my best friend, Ashley Parrish. The sister of my heart. We've been best friends since we started working at Papa John's soooo many years ago. I think I was 19. So we've been besties for years and years. And I never would have imagined we would be. When I first met her, I thought she was one of those super pretty, super snobby types. You know, the kind who's belt has to match their shoes--you know that part's true, too, Ash, lmao.

  But we ended up being inseparable. Joined at the hip. She's my Cornflake, and I'm her Honey Nut. She's been there for me through everything. Like the time when I broke up with my live-in boyfriend, and he tore me down and talked to me in a way I've never been talked to before. I was hysterical when I called her, and she didn't think I could drive, so she and her hubby--the brother of my heart--both came to get me, so one of them could drive my car to their house. *At 6 am*. Or the time when I left my husband for good, and they gave me a place to crash until I got up on my feet.

  And when she supplies endless amusement--"Hey, what are those yellow things on the side of the road?" Bahaha. Or the classic, "Hey, are you related to Robert E. Lee? You know, the colonel in the Navy?"

  The distance and miles stretch between us now, and I rarely get to see her, but she's still my sister. She always will be. We have matching friendship tattoos, so she can't shake me now lmao. But if anyone deserves a character named after them, it's Ashley. She's the best person I know, and the best friend/sister a girl could EVER ask for.

  I love you, Cornflake. Saying you're the sister of my heart is an understatement. Words can't describe how much you mean to me.

  About the Author

  Grace has been writing all her life, but never imagined she’d ever let anyone read her work. Her eyes only, for years and years, even though being a published author has been her dream since she was in fourth grade. Then, she had a story in her head that wouldn’t stop taking over her every waking moment, and characters who wouldn’t shut up, demanding to have their story told. She decided when she sat down to write that this time, she was going to do it right—and thus Starry Night Sky was born. Publishing it and letting others into her head, heart, and soul, was one of the hardest, and most terrifying, things she’s ever done, but incredibly worth it. She writes paranormal shifter romances because it’s her favorite genre as a reader, but—one day—she might just branch out to other genres.

  Her husband is in the military, so they move a lot, but they call Texas home at the moment. She has an adorable little boy, two dogs, and addictions to Gilmore Girls—watching it every night isn’t a bad thing, is it?—coffee, and tattoos.

  You can follow and reach her at the links above—she welcomes it!—or email her at

  gracebrennanauthor1@gmail.com.

 

 

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