by Crissy Smith
Table of Contents
Legal Page
Title Page
Book Description
Dedication
Trademarks Acknowledgement
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
New Excerpt
About the Author
Publisher Page
Control
ISBN # 978-1-78651-137-9
©Copyright Crissy Smith 2016
Cover Art by Posh Gosh ©Copyright December 2016
Edited by Rebecca Baker
Totally Bound Publishing
This is a work of fiction. All characters, places and events are from the author’s imagination and should not be confused with fact. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, events or places is purely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form, whether by printing, photocopying, scanning or otherwise without the written permission of the publisher, Totally Bound Publishing.
Applications should be addressed in the first instance, in writing, to Totally Bound Publishing. Unauthorized or restricted acts in relation to this publication may result in civil proceedings and/or criminal prosecution.
The author and illustrator have asserted their respective rights under the Copyright Designs and Patents Acts 1988 (as amended) to be identified as the author of this book and illustrator of the artwork.
Published in 2016 by Totally Bound Publishing, Newland House, The Point, Weaver Road, Lincoln, LN6 3QN
Totally Bound Publishing is a subsidiary of Totally Entwined Group Limited.
Warning:
This book contains sexually explicit content which is only suitable for mature readers. This story has a heat rating of Totally Burning and a Sexometer of 2.
Bloodlines
CONTROL
Crissy Smith
Book two in the Bloodlines series
Learning to take control might drive them all crazy.
It’s been a month since Kieran Smith and his partner were reassigned to the Organization office in Las Vegas. During that time, his boss has left to go on a secret mission and Kieran’s been bonding with an old friend plus falling in love with a shifter. Kieran’s not sure where all the changes in his life are coming from, but he’s doing his best to deal with them. When his past comes back to haunt him, Kieran feels himself losing control. He’s been accused of being crazy and, if things keep going the way they are, he just might prove everyone right.
Shifters are going missing around the city and Dakota fears the same group responsible for kidnapping and torturing Kieran is behind it. When the mastermind is uncovered and Kieran is once again in danger, Dakota vows to protect him at all costs. She never expected to have to worry about losing control of her jaguar, though.
The Day Walkers, shifters and humans have to band together for survival and not all of them are going to make it out untouched by the events that are about to unfold.
Dedication
For all my readers. Embrace who you are and never let anyone else control your dreams.
Trademarks Acknowledgement
The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of the following wordmarks mentioned in this work of fiction:
BMW: Bayerische Motoren Werke AG
CliffsNotes: John Wiley & Sons
Harley-Davidson: Harley-Davidson, Inc.
Pac-Man: Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc.
Chapter One
Kieran Smith parked his brand new Harley two blocks up on Falcon Ave from the Murphy Institute before jogging toward the building. Anyone else who walked by wouldn’t think there was anything weird about the normal-looking place, but inside an entire division of supernatural people worked tirelessly to save the world from the paranormal creatures that would harm them. Or protected the mystical citizens from the humans that hunted them for far worse reasons. The reason Kieran had gotten involved with them in the first place.
As a highly trained agent for the secret agency, the Organization, Kieran could just walk in through the front door if he wanted. Instead, he stopped right outside the line of sight of the guardhouse. The building had underground parking for their agents, but everyone had to be authorized to get in. Or at least they were supposed to be. Kieran had other plans.
Spotting the familiar figure inside the tiny house, Kieran grinned. His good old buddy Charlie. Actually, the little shifter was terrified of Kieran. Anytime Kieran drove by or was in the passenger seat of a vehicle, Charlie would hit the button to open the gates as fast as he could before scrambling away. The fear that wafted off Charlie would normally send Kieran’s predator instincts through the roof, but luckily he had much more control than other Walkers. So he just enjoyed screwing with the man.
And maybe, just maybe, he’d flashed his fangs at the small shifter one too many times, but seriously, as an agent, Charlie should really be able to handle him.
“Let’s have some fun,” Kieran whispered to himself as he pressed back against a neighboring wall. Using the supernatural speed of his Day Walker genes, Kieran rushed right past the guard with only a dozen feet between them.
That was too easy. For an association that employed the best, brightest and most dangerous paranormal people, their security was really lacking. He’d already broken in once before. The first time he’d been in the place and still he’d gotten what he’d wanted. Of course, he’d also gotten caught. This time he had an even better plan. Kieran strolled casually across the parking garage, not worried about the cameras at all. Inside his pocket he fingered the little device he’d pressed as he’d gotten in. The cameras should now be playing an animated cartoon from Japan. That should give security a little shock. But that also meant he needed to hurry before they got off their lazy asses and investigated. Not that Kieran knew if they were lazy or not, but that was beside the point.
He hurried over to the shiny black SUV parked in the corner in one of the few reserved spots in the parking garage. The director, Marcello Sparro, had just gotten the new ride and Kieran was sure he would have a state-of-the-art alarm system. In fact, he was counting on it.
Kieran glanced around quickly. His senses told him he was alone, but he double-checked before he walked right up to the vehicle. He had to fight the temptation to see if he could break in without setting off the alarm. He was almost certain he could, but Kieran knew he was running out of time. Maybe he’d save that for another day when he wanted to piss off his new boss.
Instead Kieran began to rock the SUV back and forth. It only took until his second push to have the loud, piercing alarm blare. Perfect.
Kieran leapt away before he ran to the front again. He hid in the shadows as Charlie raced by him. Just as planned. Kieran rushed back to the guardhouse and grinned at seeing Charlie hadn’t locked it behind him. He pushed the door open and grabbed the extra radio off the counter. Now he would be able to hear the communication between the agents. He turned the small device on and immediately picked up the chaotic chatter.
No one knew what was going on or who was responsible. Kieran backed out of the building before pressing the knob to lock it up. Since Charlie’s keys were sitting next to the small television, the poor shifter wouldn’t be able to get back in.
He felt a small twinge of regret but quickly pushed it away. He was doing this to show Charlie and all the other agents they had a lot more training to do. He’d seen so many holes in security and he was going to help plug them up. He just happened to be an asshole, so in h
is opinion the best way to show the company was to make everyone else feel like fucking idiots. Plus, anything that pissed off the director made Kieran happy.
Although he knew two people who would be mad at his latest stunt, since both his lover Dakota and his partner Remy had taken to not leaving him alone at the office in an attempt to make sure he was behaving properly. They’d both gotten busy earlier and he’d found himself driving to work by alone. Really, he could blame them for not keeping a better eye on him. He chuckled and thought about how that argument would play out.
The sound of running footsteps reached him, so Kieran knew he had to get a move on.
Kieran double-timed it to the stairwell he normally used. To move around inside the building, agents were required to use the elevators that were only operable with an authorized key card. That way the higher ups could track their agents. Kieran refused to use the elevators and on his first day there had disabled the stairway door monitors. They’d never been fixed.
Pounding up the stairs, he could hear agents scrambling around on their level even through the thick fire doors. His hearing was better than a shifter’s, so he knew just where to go. This little experiment was turning out better than he could have hoped.
He reached the second floor and skittered to a stop. His partner, Remy, was leaning casually against the exit with his arms folded across his chest. Fuck, he had two more parts of his plan to carry out.
“Really?” Remy drawled.
“What? I just got here—what’s going on?”
Remy snorted. “I watched your entire show.”
“And you didn’t interfere?” Kieran asked, surprised.
“I figured it would just be easier to let you do your thing. Just answer me one question.”
“Okay,” Kieran agreed. There was no telling what was going on in Remy’s head. While his partner was trying to keep him out of trouble, he also helped him out from time to time.
“Why?”
“They need to tighten security. Just thought I’d help out.”
“And you couldn’t just send a report?”
“That’s two questions,” Kieran pointed out.
Remy pushed off the wall while shaking his head. “Come on, we got a call to take.”
“But I want to watch them scramble around,” Kieran whined.
“Do you really want to be here when Sparro finds out it was you who was responsible?”
“What makes you think he will? I never checked in tonight.”
“Because no one else would be as stupid.”
“I really don’t think calling me stupid is nice,” Kieran pouted.
“It’s true, though.” Remy slapped him on the back. “Now let’s go.”
Kieran knew his partner was right, but he’d really been looking forward to seeing the look on Director Sparro’s face when he figured out what Kieran had done. It was petty, but since Kieran and Sparro’s first meeting had ended with Sparro besting him, Kieran was still looking for revenge.
The last month had been full of too many changes for Kieran and he blamed Sparro for most of them.
If Sparro hadn’t allowed Kieran’s real boss Caspar to take a dangerous undercover assignment, Kieran would still be working for Caspar and wouldn’t be in this city in the first place. Plus, he wouldn’t be struggling with his feelings for a certain sexy jaguar shifter. Of course, if he hadn’t been transferred to Las Vegas, he wouldn’t have met Dakota and, shifter or not, Kieran was pretty sure he was in love with her. Then there was the ghost from his past, the only man who had seen Kieran going through the darkest time of his life. Kieran and Jackson had a bond only two men who’d survived hell could form. If he hadn’t landed in Vegas, Kieran would still believe his old friend dead.
So maybe the changes weren’t all bad.
That was a thought for another day.
“Hurry,” Remy called back over his shoulder. “We want to get away before anyone sees us.”
“Hey, I’m waiting on you, fur ball,” Kieran teased.
As expected, Remy growled before he sped up. They reached the ground floor and burst through the door into complete and utter chaos. Remy grabbed Kieran’s arm and yanked him around a running agent and away. Remy pointed to one of the black SUVs the agents on shift used. Kieran hated the damn vehicles, preferring his bike, but Remy refused to ride with him. Something about a shifter not being able to survive a hundred-mile-an-hour crash no matter how easily he normally healed.
Remy ran over to the driver’s side, so Kieran threw open the passenger door and jumped inside. Before Kieran even had his seat belt on, Remy was taking off. Kieran glanced behind him and grinned. No one had even been paying attention to them. He spotted Charlie in front of his guardhouse, trying to yank the door open. Kieran had created enough of a mess that he could hold off on the other pranks he had planned. It might even work out better, since Sparro was sure to still be pissed for a while.
“Dakota is going to kick my ass,” Remy muttered.
Kieran couldn’t help but smile. His jaguar shifter was a force to be reckoned with and she was going to blame Remy for not watching Kieran better. Although he was sure she’d have a few choice words for him as well. Except Kieran knew how to distract his lover. So, while she might be mad, there was no way she’d stay so.
“You really should’ve picked me up on the way to the office.”
“You’re a grown fucking man!” Remy shouted. “I had to take a call from the local Alpha and be there early. It would have been just as bad if you’d been in the office for two hours longer than normal.”
“That’s a good point,” Kieran agreed. “Maybe she won’t be too upset with you.”
His partner only glared at him before turning his attention back to the road. Kieran watched the scenery fly by as they headed away from the middle of the city. He preferred the less populated areas, but living in a hotel on the Strip, and with the office not far from it, he always seemed to be surrounded by people. He hated people.
“What did the Alpha want?” Kieran asked. Remy was a wolf shifter, but he didn’t belong to the local Pack. Instead, he remained bonded to his birth Pack, which was made up of his family. It was rare for an Organization agent to have contact with family, but Remy’s relatives were different. Kieran loved that his best friend still had that connection. Even if he was a little envious.
“Another Pack member disappeared,” Remy told him.
“Shit!” That was the second wolf and fourth shifter total that had gone missing in the past month and a half. From what Kieran could piece together, the disappearances had started right before he’d gotten into town. Remy and he had only been looking into them for the past two weeks, though. The other agents that had been in charge of the case had been reassigned when the Alpha refused to work with them. It had taken some digging around, or bribing the hacker from his old division, to find out what had happened.
Instead of looking for the wolf shifter that had never returned to the Pack house, the agents had been stopping in at strip joints and spending their money on booze and women. The Alpha, frustrated at the lack of progress, had ordered the agents followed by some of his enforcers and they’d reported back their findings to the Alpha.
Kieran would have loved to have been a fly in the wall when the Alpha had shown up at their office and screamed at Sparro. From what the gossip mill shared, Sparro and the Alpha had almost come to blows. But when things had finally calmed down, the two agents had been suspended and sent somewhere like Alaska while Remy and Kieran had taken over the search.
Remy being a wolf shifter had helped calm the Alpha. And since Kieran never met with any of the shifters, neither of them had to worry about Kieran pissing the Alpha off.
Leaving Remy in charge of all contact worked best for them.
“The file’s in the back seat,” Remy said.
Kieran reached out and grabbed the manila folder lying in the back of the car. It had grown thick in the past few weeks while Kieran and Re
my had added notes as they’d investigated. Every night for fourteen nights they’d been trying to find a link between the three, now four shifters that had disappeared, and had already gathered more information than the first idiot agents.
“Where are we headed?” he asked as he opened the folder.
“The tunnels. Last place the wolf, Max, was seen,” Remy informed him.
Max Webb was twenty-seven years old, dark-haired and hazel-eyed. A reporter for one of the local news stations, he’d been interviewing some of the tunnel people when he hadn’t returned to work or the territory. Kieran would have suspected someone hadn’t liked Max looking into the very quiet, secretive community of the tunnel people, but with other shifters missing, all avenues would have to be investigated.
“We’re meeting with the guy the Alpha said was the last to speak to Max,” Remy said.
“That can’t be good.”
“The Alpha vouched for him. Stated he was being cooperative and wanted to help Max.”
Kieran snorted. The Alpha had probably applied some pressure to get that promise. Even he’d heard the local Alpha was sort of a badass. Kieran would never give much credit to a shifter, but from what he’d heard about the Alpha, Damon, even Kieran could admit the man did a damn good job of running a Pack.
“Just let me do the talking to this guy,” Remy requested.
Kieran shrugged. Didn’t matter to him. “Just park far enough away that we can check out the area first.” It might be Remy’s job to handle interviews, but Kieran would make sure his partner was safe. “This isn’t the kind of place we want to be strolling around in the dark.”
“Okay,” Remy agreed easily.
The farther away from the busy tourist roads they got, the more Kieran felt at home. If he had his choice, he’d spend all his time outdoors, like he’d used to when he first started with the Organization.