Vulfen Second's Angel [Vulfen Cadre 3] (Siren Publishing Classic)
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Vulfen Cadre 3
Vulfen Second’s Angel
When shy Angel Ralston finds a wounded wolf, she puts aside her lifelong fear of dogs and gives aid. She never suspects that her furry patient will rise a tall, gorgeous man whose bold blue eyes leave her breathless.
Valeri Sidarov, a powerful vulfen warrior, is shot by humans while hunting. The haze of pain, wound, and fever strips away every social convention and leads him straight to his beautiful fated mate. Her glorious scent captivates man and wolf alike, but in the midst of the insidious threat from the human hunting society that has targeted him, he is forced to follow her as a wolf to ensure her protection.
When she sees a wolf stand up as a man, will Angel’s childhood terror halt the mating game in its tracks? Or will Valeri be able to ease her fear and show her how gentle a predator can really be?
Genre: Contemporary, Paranormal, Vampires/Werewolves
Length: 27,958 words
VULFEN SECOND’S ANGEL
Vulfen Cadre 3
Laina Kenney
EROTIC ROMANCE
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Erotic Romance
VULFEN SECOND’S ANGEL
Copyright © 2013 by Laina Kenney
E-book ISBN: 978-1-62740-276-7
First E-book Publication: August 2013
Cover design by Harris Channing
All cover art and logo copyright © 2013 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.
All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
PUBLISHER
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
About the Author
VULFEN SECOND’S ANGEL
Vulfen Cadre 3
LAINA KENNEY
Copyright © 2013
Chapter 1
Valeri Sidarov, enforcer and honored second to the most powerful vulfen Alpha in North America, crouched in the bushes, belly to the dirt, and hid from a human. He was bleeding from many gunshot wounds and in no condition to fight.
He had been ambushed by human hunters in a favorite vulfen hunting spot, and they were closing in around him. The scent of their triumph burned in his nostrils.
He pulled his back leg and tail under cover and panted through another wave of pain. Every movement was agony. The bullet lodged in his back haunch was pushing on a nerve, and it felt like it must be the size of a crowbar.
The air was cool and twilight was deepening into true night. If he could just stay hidden and stay conscious for another hour, he would be able to slink away from the hunters and get back to the vulfen Clan enclave outside the city, where their Queen would tend to his wounds.
But if he couldn’t shake the hunters, he wasn’t going back to the Clan. He would never lead the enemy to their most vulnerable treasures.
He would offer his life without question to protect the precious females and young. He would go into the dark gladly if he was certain they were far away and safe. But first he would take a few of the human hunters on that long journey with him.
He bared his teeth. He would go to the goddess with the blood of his enemies on his fangs and prey to drop at her feet. No vulfen warrior would ask for more than that.
The group of human hunters had been pursuing him for hours after their initial ambush. It was hard to escape the trackers when he was bleeding freely from several wounds. He had left an unmistakable trail. They were so close to him now that he was surrounded by the scent of death. His own.
Normal bullets from normal guns had little effect on the strongest of his kind except to cause painful bruising, so Valeri had not taken it seriously enough when the first hunter had pulled a gun. But the humans were learning, and the bullet lodged in his side proved it. No ordinary guns and ammunition could pierce vulfen hide.
His ears twitched at a nearby sound. Even that slight movement caused him pain. Being trapped in wolf form wasn’t ideal, but it was safer than his human form at the moment.
One of the hunters was getting closer to his position. Valeri could smell the gun oil and the bright determination to finish his prey over the tangy scent of bloodlust. The wolf knew there was something off about this hunter. Something in his scent warned of a mental instability, fanaticism bordering on insanity.
He smiled grimly and waited. He might be down, but he wasn’t out of the game yet. He didn’t give up, not ever. Bleeding and half-blind with pain, he could still take out one lone human.
Come a little closer, human, he thought, showing his long fangs.
His kind did not hunt and kill humans, and he had no particular prejudice against them. There were even a few humans he admired. If they would leave his people alone, he would happily let them
live their lives. But the hunting society was a different matter.
Valeri was a member of the Vulfen Cadre, a guardian of his people and the long-held secret of their existence. If the humans threatened the safety of the vulfen Clan, they were as good as dead. And if Valeri didn’t finish them off, then his Alpha Rylek would. No second chances and no questions asked.
An ambulance siren cut off abruptly at the nearby hospital, and a twig snapped right beside him. He froze, not even breathing.
“Oh, Dr. Novaks, I didn’t even see you there.” The voice was light, female, melodic. The young woman let out a nervous laugh. “Do you park this far from the hospital? I would have thought the doctors rated better parking than admin staff.”
The human hunter smoothly tucked his gun inside the long coat and behind his back as the young woman stepped into view. Her long blonde ponytail gleamed in the security lights.
The hunter quickly moved to stand close beside her. His polished shoe was practically on Valeri’s tail. Valeri didn’t move a muscle.
He was in perfect attack position to take out the human. If only the woman would leave, he could finish the battle at his enemy’s throat and escape, but he would not put her at risk. The innocence in that soft voice guaranteed her safety, even at the cost of his.
The other hunters had already moved off some distance. With their human hearing, he didn’t think they would hear their friend if he screamed, but he wouldn’t have time to scream. He would just have time to die.
“Angeline, I’d love to stop and talk with you, but it’s getting late and it’s not safe out here for a beautiful girl like you. It’s a great neighborhood for a hospital, but not a great neighborhood, if you understand my meaning. Why don’t we meet tomorrow morning, say over coffee?”
The hunter sounded too smooth to Valeri’s ears. He almost sighed. He hoped on principle that the woman didn’t fall for it. Her shapely legs were far too pretty to be wasted on a fool who had signed his own death warrant by attacking a vulfen second, even if he was a doctor.
“Oh, no thank you, I have something very important to do tomorrow,” she said, and her tone held a trace of sadness. “I’d better get going.” Her refusal was polite but definite, and the hunter frowned. The scent of lust coming from him became tinged with a sharp hint of frustration.
Valeri felt a rush of unexplainable gladness. Why should he care if the human female rejected the male? His only concern should be escape. He must be getting dizzy from blood loss.
The woman moved a little, and her delicate scent hit him like a shot of vodka burning its way down on a cold night. His heart thumped, his muscles tensed and his fangs ached to sink into the sweet flesh of her nape to mark her for life. One whiff of her skin and his body flashed straight to sexual readiness. He held back his groan with an effort of will.
His mate was talking with a human hunter after dark while Valeri bled from fresh wounds. If something went wrong, he would be in a very poor position to protect her. And she worked with the hunter in a human hospital. It was wrong on so many levels.
He drew in her sweetness, tried to separate everything that was her from the ugly scents of lust and blood surrounding him. Was she human? He couldn’t tell for sure, but she must be. She worked in a human hospital.
The woman walked to a nearby car. Valeri began edging little by little along the ground, keeping to the shadow of the sheltering hedge. Every movement was excruciating, but what choice did he have? He wasn’t about to let his mate leave alone and unprotected when hunters were near. It went against every instinct he possessed as a vulfen male.
When he was close to the driver’s door of her car, he settled, waiting for his chance.
The doctor kept talking, trying to convince Angeline to meet him on her lunch break later in the week, but she was resistant. He was still standing on the sidewalk, and the bulk of the vehicle blocked him from Valeri’s view.
Angeline continued to be polite, but Valeri thought he heard a hint of impatience in her replies. Maybe she didn’t much like the good doctor. Maybe it wasn’t his first unwelcome advance toward her.
Valeri’s hackles rose and his jaw muscles pulled tight. The doctor would not succeed in seducing his mate. He would prevent it by any means necessary.
He pulled back, cautioning himself to cool down. Angeline was handling the doctor very well, no need to escalate into a full-on mate challenge. He hated the thought as soon as it occurred, but he had to face the truth. In his current condition, he might not win against a man with a gun.
His instinct snarled and snapped. If the human laid one hand on Valeri’s mate, he was meat.
When Angeline opened her door, still busily chattering to the persistent doctor, Valeri was in position and ready. He gathered his fading strength. He slipped quickly past her and flowed over the gearshift and onto the floor of the back passenger side. The backseat was piled high with boxes, so there was a shadowed spot and he wedged himself in, mind reeling from the pain of his deep wounds. The scent of old paper came from the boxes. Perhaps it would cover the smell of his blood so that he wouldn’t alarm her.
Dr. Novaks continued with his pointless pursuit of a date that was never going to happen, so Valeri felt confident he was unaware that his chosen prey was escaping right under his nose.
“Bye now. Goodbye,” Angeline called jauntily, cutting off the doctor in mid-sentence.
She hopped into her car.
The old car started on the second try, and they were moving.
Chapter 2
Angel pulled into her narrow driveway with a grateful sigh. It was always good to arrive home after a long shift, but tonight she was more tired than usual. She had driven as she always did with the window open a little so that the fresh night air would blow on her face and keep her alert, but it hadn’t been necessary. There was nothing wrong that she could see, but she was on edge and wary in spite of her exhaustion.
Her mother had passed away several months before, and the lease on her storage locker was up. Angel had spent the morning packing up the last of her mother’s belongings from storage and stuffing the boxes in her tiny car. She had gone straight to work from there and worked a nine-hour shift instead of eight because her replacement was late coming in.
She got out of the car and stretched until her back cracked. She stood in the driveway debating. Did she really want to unpack the car right then, or sleep for a solid six hours and do it all in the morning?
Angel sighed and opened the back door. She would carry in a box or maybe two while she still had some energy to burn off, and then do the rest in the morning.
She hitched two full tote bags over one shoulder and her purse over the other, and grabbed the first box. As she walked up to the house, she smiled a little. Her mother would have called that a lazy man’s load, but Angel didn’t have time for twenty trips back and forth. It was full dark, and while her neighborhood was a safe one, it was close enough to Boston’s downtown that she wasn’t comfortable taking chances.
She unlocked the door, dropped her first load just inside, and headed back to the car.
When she picked up the second box, she gasped and almost dropped it. There was a lot of fur in the seat’s shadow.
She quickly put the box on the ground and turned back to the big golden dog that was on the floor of her car. How had a dog managed to get in there without her noticing? Was this someone’s idea of a prank, or had she inadvertently stolen some child’s pet from her mom’s old neighborhood?
As quickly as that thought came, she rejected it. She couldn’t come up with a single person who would have felt comfortable enough to prank her, and the damned creature was far too big a pet for anyone living in an apartment complex. She felt the first tremor of fear hit her system.
Since childhood, she had been afraid all dogs wanted to bite her. For years her nightmares had centered around one big gray dog biting her arm and making it bleed. She had a small scar on her upper arm, but her mother had always insisted
that it was just a deep scratch and not made by a dog at all.
Her mom had told her time and again that most dogs were safe, and had even wanted to get her a puppy of her own, but Angel had said no every time the topic had come up. Even as an adult, she couldn’t seem to help feeling that way at first, no matter how many gentle dogs she met in her neighborhood.
Angel peered into the car. The dog was too fluffy to be a Great Dane, and she couldn’t see every detail in the dim light, but she could see enough to know that the animal was big.
Maybe it was a stray. She couldn’t see a collar, and the fur seemed to be matted in spots.
“Hi, boy. Hi, pup. Come on out of my car,” she called to it and slapped her thighs to try to coax the dog out of her car. It lifted its large head to look at her. It whined once, but the head dropped back down almost immediately, as if the effort was too much.
“Come on, boy.”
The dog opened its eyes again but didn’t move.
“Look, you’re a big scary dog, and I don’t want you in my car. I don’t even like dogs. You have to go.”
Angel was getting desperate, but the dog just lay there.
She left the door open and carried another box into the house with her. It was too much to hope for that the dog would crawl out and leave on its own. She just didn’t have that kind of luck.
In her fridge, she found some sliced deli ham and took it outside. She waved it in front of the dog’s nose and tried to coax him out of the car. He opened his eyes and watched her, but he didn’t move.
Angel looked at the thin slice of ham hanging from her fingers. “Not very inspiring, huh, fella? I guess I can’t blame you there.”