Table of Contents
Copyright
Title
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
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Thank You
Also By
Author Bio
This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, locations, and incidents depicted in this work are of the author’s imagination or have been used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, locations, or events is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved.
Copyright © 2017 Madison Stevens
No portion of this book may be transmitted or reproduced in any form, or by any means, without the prior written permission of the author.
Cover designed by Najla Qamber Designs
Kyros (Luna Lodge #12)
by
Madison Stevens
Hybrid Kyros is dead. At least that's what the world believes. In truth, he's on a secret mission to keep his people safe.
It’s been tough, but he’s been able to put aside his own concerns and concentrate on the mission. Then a sexy new school teacher shows up and shifts his focus to her instead of the mission.
Jasmine Moore is looking forward to turning a new page in her life. After spending several years teaching at a prep school, she's excited to teach pupils who are excited about leaning. She never expected to run into a handsome and mysterious hybrid who makes her heart race and knees weak.
Duty and passion collide when Kyros draws Jasmine into his secret mission, but lust won’t protect the couple from the sinister dangers threatening Luna Lodge.
Chapter One
The wind caught hold of the café door, pulling it open. Jasmine shivered as a cold breeze swept through the room. The frigid air pushed her long black hair into her face.
She struggled to place it back behind her. Little strands of her hair wouldn’t behave, and she tried hard not to curse them.
It didn’t matter how many hours she spent on her hair, it always seemed to have a mind of its own, and that drove her absolutely insane. More spray, different brand, none of it seemed to matter. Nothing really gave her total control.
Jasmine huffed loudly when she finally managed to get the last bit tucked behind her ear. She blew on her hot tea and sighed. The choice of her drink was a hold over from her childhood and her father, who always liked to have an afternoon cup. She used to tease him and ask him if he was English.
Her mind drifted to him as she sipped the hot brew, and a twinge of sadness followed. It had been only a few years since he had passed away. She always knew that he was much older than many of the fathers of her friends, but it wasn’t until she saw him lying in bed, so frail, that she really understood how much older he was.
She took in a deep breath and let it out.
Fuck cancer.
She’d said it so many times since the day he was diagnosed and had never really stopped saying it since. One day he was there, the same man she’d always known, and then he was gone, his health ravaged by his own traitorous body.
Her mother was emotionally torn apart during the whole thing, but stayed strong in front of her father, remaining by his side until his very last breath.
True love.
Jasmine took another sip of tea and gazed out the window, letting the scene around her blur as all the memories from the past came flooding in.
All her life she’d grown up knowing what true love looked like. She knew the difference between that and infatuation or lust. She’d seen the sort of relationship that could withstand even death. Till death do us part didn’t seem enough.
She’d thought she had found that with Sean. That he was the man she would share her life with. It was only in her hour of need that she saw who he really was. After all, he was the kind of man who complained about her not paying enough attention to him while her own father lay in the hospital dying.
One cup of coffee out was all it took to end their relationship.
Jasmine swallowed hard and took a deep breath. She thought she was past all this. It had been two years since her world came crashing down.
Since then she’d been able to get back to teaching, although she wasn’t exactly thrilled to deal with the privileged little shits at her old school. Those kids and that school were the past. Today was the start of a whole new path.
She sighed. She needed to not just move on with her career, but her heart.
Even her mother had moved on with life. She’d opted to sell Jasmine’s childhood home and travel the world with her unmarried sister. The two had always been close being just a few years apart.
Jasmine was glad her mother had someone. She knew the ache from her father’s death had left a hole, but he would have been glad she was moving on. That both of them were moving on.
“Sorry about the draft,” the waitress said, startling Jasmine from her thoughts.
Jasmine smiled at the younger girl, who looked to be about twenty or so.
She shook her head. “No problem.” She smiled. “This wind is something else today.”
The girl gave a sharp laugh. “Better than snow,” she said. “My car stalls out in the ice one more time, and I’m going to scream.”
Jasmine’s cheeks heated. Her brand-new car sat in clear view of the window. It had been the one thing her mother had insisted on buying before she took off to travel the world.
Selling the house had provided her mother more money than she ever planned on spending, and with the long move to the new job, her mother wanted to make sure that Jasmine didn’t have to worry about the car breaking down.
Not that she really needed the new car. Her previous job, a teaching position at a prestigious prep school, had helped her save more money than she’d ever expected. It turned out that being single was helpful for that as well.
“Well, hopefully, we’ve seen the last of snow,” Jasmine said with an uncomfortable laugh.
The waitress seemed oblivious to her unease and wiped down the table next to her. She stopped to give a big yawn and sighed. “Just can’t seem to stop being tired.” She shook her head to clear out the sleepiness. “So are you moving into the area?”
Jasmine frowned a little. “Is it that obvious?”
The girl nodded to her packed car. “It’s not a big town, and there aren’t many strangers around here with cars full of boxes.”
Jasmine laughed. It was her first big move. It hadn’t occurred to her before that it was so obvious. People had been friendly enough in the town thus far, so she wasn’t all that worried.
“I suppose so,” Jasmine said.
“Got a job out here?” the waitress asked. “We’re not as bad up as some places, but not up to our ears in open positions.” She laughed. “And waitress at this place is already taken. I just hope you didn’t move all the way out here without something lined up. You might be waiting a while.”
Jasmine nodded and took a small sip of her tea. “It’s not a problem. I’m a teacher, and I have a teaching position lined up.”
“You do? At which school?”
“I’ll be teaching at Luna Lodge.”
The mouth of the waitress twitched, and she inhaled several times without saying anything. She stared at Jasmine in silen
ce.
The hairs on the back of Jasmine’s neck prickled. She stopped a sigh from coming up. She must have touched a nerve.
The waitress continued staring, as if she were looking through her.
Jasmine swallowed and turned. She found every other eye in the place on her. Their dead stares made her shiver, like all the warmth in the room had been sucked away. After a few seconds, she also realized that the entire room had fallen silent.
“Stay away from there,” the waitress said.
Her voice was different from before. It had no life to it and sounded about as blank as the look in her eyes. More like a robot than a young woman.
“I… um,” Jasmine stammered.
She’d heard that there were some who really hated the hybrids. People had tried more than once to take them out, and protests outside the compound seemed like a daily occurrence from what she could tell.
It was hard to turn on the news and not see stories about the reporter and woman who had been kidnapped by an anti-hybrid cult leader. The same cult leader had been killed live on television by one of the hybrids.
At the time, the hybrid had been trying to save a woman’s life. Although Jasmine thought his actions were justified, it was clear there were more than a few people who didn’t agree.
Jasmine placed a five-dollar bill on the counter and picked up the foam cup with her tea. It’d be better enjoyed in the car than around people like this.
“I’ll be going then,” she said and stepped around the waitress.
She stopped when a firm hand reached out suddenly and grabbed her by the wrist. Her heart kicked up. It was only luck that her tea was in the other hand. Jasmine struggled to free herself but was surprised to find that the girl was stronger than she looked.
“Don’t trust them,” the girl said. “You can’t trust their kind.”
Jasmine wrenched her hand free. “Thanks for the advice,” she said and quickly moved to the door.
Once outside she could breathe again. A quick glance over her shoulder revealed everyone had returned to their meals and chats. It was like nothing at all had just happened. No one even seemed to be paying special attention to her.
The waitress smiled and waved at her from the window as she cleaned her table.
“Fucking small-town crackpots,” Jasmine mumbled and climbed into her car.
All she’d wanted was a bit of a break to calm her nerves before she made her way to the Lodge. Now she was more jittery than ever, but somehow the hybrids of the Lodge seemed far less scary than the people of the town. Funny how that worked.
Jasmine started her car and pulled away. It was better to be on the road to the unknown than dealing with small minds.
Chapter Two
Kyros moved quietly through an underground tunnel. He stopped for a moment to listen before continuing down the tunnel.
Though quiet, it wasn’t silent, but he’d gotten used to the groaning, whistling air, and scuttle of the occasional small animal in the tunnels. He wasn’t concerned about that sort of thing, and was more concerned about voices that sounded too close.
He hated traveling in the tunnels during the day. There was always such a risk that he might be discovered by someone.
It didn’t matter whether they were friendly or not. His secrecy was important to the future of Luna Lodge. Titus had made that clear. There were very few hybrids who had been entrusted with the secret of his whereabouts, or even the fact that he was still alive. The fewer people that knew where he, Lucan, and Rollo were, the better.
His keen hearing picked up movement above him, and he stopped to listen.
Heavy boots beat against the ground, and he knew it was the military. He bit down a growl of frustration. Their presence and interference had only increased over the last month.
As annoying as it was, he wasn’t surprised. The hybrids had known that something like that was possible, if not inevitable, after Major Carter had retired and gone off with the other hybrid group under Rem’s command.
The major had been with the Army, but he still respected the hybrids. He’d been crushed when rogue soldiers helped the Horatius Group attack the facility, an attack that had cost hybrid lives.
It was also the attack where Kyros and a few others had been reported as killed as part of a plan to have hybrids who could operate free of the government’s oversight.
The return of the military had been why Titus selected Kyros for this special mission. He was part of finding a way for the hybrids to exist outside the walls of their compound. After all, there was no guarantee that the military wouldn’t roll tanks into the Lodge someday and try to kill every hybrid there.
It didn’t matter if individual officers or soldiers were good and honorable. Bigots and stooges in the government like Senator Woods were doing everything they could to paint the hybrids as a threat.
Kyros continued moving down the tunnel, thinking about the hybrids’ chances. He knew Rem and his people had managed to set themselves up outside of government control. It’d been under the radar, and they were still together, but they were living freely, mostly.
He was still skeptical though. The hybrids didn’t have a choice when they were forced into a life by the Horatius Group. Before they were even born, they’d been tinkered with and modified to make a group of super-soldiers. Freedom wasn’t something the Horatius Group cared about.
Still, though, even now armed men watched them, and they were forced to live in walls. The few times they’d defended themselves, the humans had painted them as the monsters and threatened them if they left their little walled prison. He snorted.
When he thought about all that, the government didn’t seem all that different from the Group.
Sure, the government wasn’t experimenting on the hybrids, but he was certain that not everyone in the government objected to the idea. It was only a matter of time before Woods or some other hybrid-hater cooked up a justification.
All Kyros knew was that he didn’t want himself or any other hybrid to be around when that happened. Superior strength and speed were an asset, but they couldn’t fight off the entire US military.
Hence the insurance policy of having someone like him outside the walls. He maintained a means for them to escape if the shit really did hit the fan. Well, worse than it already had.
He continued down the path and stopped just under the meeting spot. A ladder led to a trap door in the wooden boards of a house over him. He waited for a moment.
The boards swung open.
Sol’s light blond head came into view. “Any trouble?”
Kyros shook his head. “They’ve increased security outside the gates, but not much more.” He shrugged.
The other hybrid nodded back.
Kyros climbed the ladder and easily lifted himself through the hole inside the home. “Why up the security? I’d know if one of them had spotted me.”
“Pretty sure it’s got nothing to do with you. It’s likely over the new teacher coming in.”
He looked around the room. It was amazing how different things looked in the daylight. They met there so often in the cloak of darkness that he’d gotten used to it. Even superior night vision didn’t make up for good old-fashioned daylight.
Sol nodded and sat at the dining room table. He smiled when his beautiful wife Erica stepped around the corner with some cookies.
Kyros could hear the gentle breathing of their two children in the back room. They were likely just down for their naps.
Those two children represented something far more than the happiness of a single hybrid couple. Sol and Erica’s children were the first children born to a hybrid parent and his mate. When they were with the Horatius Group, the hybrids weren’t even sure they could have children.
The small children sleeping in the other room were the first to prove the hybrids had a future as a people.
“New teacher?” Kyros asked. “Why would we be bringing in a new teacher right now with everything that’s going on
?”
“Titus picked her from the list of Vestals found in South America,” Sol said and took a bite of one cookie.
Kyros followed and sighed. It had been a while since he’d had something homemade. Living secretly on the outside of Luna Lodge didn’t exactly give him a lot of chances to eat cookies.
“Still don’t know if that makes sense right now.”
Sol grunted. “He thinks that if we get more Vestals in here that the public won’t see us as much as a threat. That we’ll look more like a town with families and less like a bunch of scary super-soldiers.”
A hybrid’s only chance at finding a true mate was to find their Vestal. That was certainly their only chance at having children, but it went beyond that. A Vestal, in the end, was like the other half of their soul.
It wasn’t a bad idea, for sure. And it didn’t hurt to get more women into the mix. The men were anxious to find their own Vestals and the piece of happiness they had seen several of the others find.
One time could be ignored as mere chance. Two as freak occurrences. Now, with so many men paired with Vestals, it was hard for any hybrid to believe their chance wasn’t out there.
He could understand the need they felt. It pumped through him as well, but he didn’t have time to give into those sorts of ideas. His life wasn’t stable, and he sure as hell didn’t have time to woo some woman. If the plans fell to shit, he needed to help make sure they could escape.
“Any news from Lucan or Rollo?” Sol asked.
Worry that Kyros had pushed away came back in full force. It had been several weeks since the two men had set out to look for a place that might work for their people. At this point, it was hard not to think that something had happened to them.
Yes, the men could take care of themselves, but even a hybrid could be surprised.
He shook his head. “I knew I should have been the one to go.”
Sol frowned at him. “You’re making sure things are safe for us here. This is exactly where you need to be, especially now that the military has moved in. Between the military and the townspeople, you’ve got your hands full.”
Kyros: #12 (Luna Lodge) Page 1