by Rayne Reilly
Contents
Copyright
Free Book
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
CHAPTER TWENTY
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
CHAPTER THIRTY
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Copyright © 2017 Rayne Reilly
All rights reserved.
This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher, except for the use of brief quotations and articles. This book may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work.
This is a complete novel of the two book set of Forbidden Mates and Forbidden Mate's Exiled.
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Other books by Rayne Reilly
Shifter Series Novella's
Pleasantville
Bear Boss's Mate Volume 1
Werebear's Mate Volume 2
Purrfect Mate Volume 3
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NOTE:
There are a couple of mild swear words here and there throughout the book (less than ten).
Some scenes have mild violence, but nothing too graphic.
CHAPTER ONE
Prologue - Shifter Nightclub- Somewhere in Portland, Oregon
The pulsing rhythm of dance music and flickering colored lights made the club seem like any other. The dance floor was filled with shifters of all kinds in their human embodiment. One young couple stood in the back of the club entwined in a passionate embrace. The woman, an auburn-haired slender waif, wrapped her arms around the massive shoulders of her tall, dark-haired boyfriend. The young man, Joe, pushed his body against hers and tangled his fingers in her hair, both of them forgetting that they were in a club filled with a hundred or more other shifters just like they were.
Joe pulled back and took a deep breath, his chest rising and falling quickly. His girlfriend, Melody, stared back at him lovingly. Joe took a step back from her and held out his hand. Melody grabbed his outstretched hand and they wove through the crowd. Melody smiled.
"Where are we going?" she yelled above the music.
Joe laughed as he turned his head to face her. "You'll see...follow me."
He had a sly smile as he continued to pull her around the dance floor and toward the back door.
With her free hand, Melody checked her pocket and frowned.
"Wait," she said, letting go of his hand."I've left my phone."
She turned and rushed back to the table near where they had been making out. Joe nodded and continued toward the back door to wait for her.
Moments later, he pushed the door open and felt the cool night air rush past him. Joe stepped outside and held the door open. He turned to look back inside the club. Melody was running toward him, her face filled with panic. His nose twitched as an unfamiliar scent filled his nostrils. Unexpectedly, his hackles rose. His inner werewolf shouted in his mind, "Danger!" Joe felt a sharp sting on his upper back. He heard Melody scream as he hit the ground and everything went black.
CHAPTER TWO
For the past two months, F.B.I. Special Agent Julie Williams and Senior Special Agent Patrick Longhorn had gathered evidence on a group of humans who ran a secret fight club in Portland. Tonight was the night they finally broke it up and arrested those involved. Sitting in a vehicle outside the warehouse that housed the fight club, they watched as people entered it in groups of two or more. The information they had gathered from undercover agents told them that the fight club was being run by just a handful of people. They hoped that upon arresting the group inside the warehouse that they might get the names of any other people working behind the scenes.
Patrick sat next to Julie in the driver's seat of the SUV. He took a few final puffs of his cigarette before tossing the remains of it out the window. Julie covered her nose with her hand and turned her head away from the stench.
Why do I have to be stuck in here with him?
She rolled her eyes.
Patrick was human and her immediate supervisor. He was short, thin and at least ten years older than she was and one of the most unappealing men she had ever met. She had noticed that he appeared to practically live on coffee and cigarettes. He didn't seem to be very fond of her either. She wondered if the reason for his dislike of her was because she was a white tiger shifter. He showed little patience with her, and she wondered why he had bothered to bring her in on the case at all. She assumed that she was there due to her shifter senses and nothing more. She had nothing against humans. In fact, she had dated a few.
Patrick had a need to always be right about things and that pissed her off. She could see him out of the corner of her eye sitting perfectly upright in his seat. She couldn't wait to get out of the vehicle and out of such close proximity to him. He called the rest of the team over his headset.
"Everyone ready?"
Julie could hear the responses over her headset.
"Ready."
"Let's get moving."
They both opened their doors, and soon a team of about twenty agents was swarming the fight club.
Julie entered the building with Patrick taking the lead. He motioned with his arm for her to head to the left. She could see that the fight ring was directly in front of her and ignored his instructions. Directly in front of her were the men who were running the show from the side of the fight cage. They were yelling at the fighters. They didn't realize right away that the place was being stormed with agents.
Moving straight ahead, she approached the back of the cheering mob. Two men were fighting inside a caged-off area.
She stopped moving. The smell of shifter was everywhere, including inside the fight ring.
Patrick hadn't mentioned that shifters were involved.
Why didn't he mention this?
She was led to believe it was all humans that were involved. Julie shook her head in disgust.
She looked at the two men in the ring and saw their bloodied and battered bodies. Yup. They were shifters. The scent they were giving off told her so. She wondered if they were fighting voluntarily or being forced to do so. Looking at their ankles, she h
ad her answer. Each of them wore a thick bracelet that she knew would deliver a painful electrical shock if they tried to get away or refused to fight one another for the enjoyment of others. The idea made her feel sick. She walked toward the cage and was shoved aside by two male agents who pushed past her to enter the cage and retrieve the men.
Julie turned toward the edge of the crowd to start making arrests along with the other agents. Several voices of the F.B.I. team shouted at everyone to get on their knees with their hands behind their heads. Agents began to cuff the spectators and take them to the awaiting vehicles parked outside.
Julie's nose was in the air, trying to distinguish whether or not shifters were observing the fight as well as humans. Sadly, she realized that indeed, there were some shifters in attendance as spectators.
She walked to the other side of the large room and down a hallway toward some closed doors when a new scent caught her attention. It was an unfamiliar one and something she didn't recognize. Turning her head quickly, she tried to gauge where it had originated. Unable to locate it, she gave up and went back toward the main area.
The people were not trying to get away and gave up easily when they saw that they were surrounded by a lot of guns. While the attendees were rounded up and placed into custody, Julie took another look around the inside perimeter of the large building. The building was nothing more than an old warehouse. There was some old and battered looking tables and chairs up against the walls. The main area didn't have seating, as everyone was expected to stand on the concrete floor to watch the fighting. She had seen Patrick and a couple of the other team members arrest the known ringleaders and escort them back to waiting vans. Julie walked around the last of the remaining people inside, still puzzled by the scent she had picked up earlier.
Suddenly, she heard a door close a short distance away to her left. She followed the sound, moving swiftly and quietly down the dark hallway. "F.B.I. Is anyone there?" She announced as she stopped in front of an open door. Her ears were met with silence, but her nostrils told her otherwise.
Pulling out her gun, she moved inside. The room was dark but she was able to see quite well. Slowly, she moved around the room with the scent becoming stronger. Some old furniture and more tables were stacked in a corner. The room seemed to be a storage space. It was a good place for someone to hide.
"I know you're in here. Come on out," she said assertively.
In an instant, she was knocked to one side from behind by an enormous physical presence. Her eyes didn't have time to focus or even notice what it looked like. She fell to the floor with a crash, and her gun went off during the tumble.
"Damn it!"
She moaned as she pushed herself onto her knees and then stood. She smoothed her blond hair off her face and wiped her trousers. Sighing, she realized that whatever or whomever it was had just gotten away. She walked back out to the hallway and looked around. The scent was gone.
"Williams! Where the hell are you?" came Patrick's angry voice over her ear-piece.
She scratched her head and exhaled before responding.
"Here chief. On my way outside."
He didn't respond. Julie knew he would wait until she was in front of him to let her have it. She bit the inside of her cheek and readied herself before going back outside. Her intuition was telling her that there was something else in the warehouse that wasn't human or shifter. It was something that she had never encountered before.
Outside the warehouse was a hive of activity. Lights were on everywhere. Agents and other people were milling about, moving suspects into vans and talking in groups.
She looked around the crowd for Patrick, the senior agent in charge. She saw him next to one of the vans, speaking to a young field agent and no doubt giving her orders. It's what Patrick did best.
Julie cleared her throat and walked over to him, ready for whatever he was going to say to her.
"Hey," she said. She thrust her chin forward a little as though she hadn't just gone off on her own, chasing a sound.
"What the hell happened in there?" He put his hands on his hips and narrowed his eyes. "I told you to go left, and you completely ignored me."
Julie opened her mouth to speak but he put a palm out to stop her.
"I don't want to hear it. I'm tired of you blatantly ignoring me when I give you orders. You're so goddamn impetuous, Williams..." He ran a hand through his cropped hair. "Where were you when I called you just now? You were supposed to be helping bring out the people inside."
"I heard something...I was checking it out."
Patrick nodded a couple of times, his face red with anger. Julie swallowed hard.
"You heard something?" he rolled his eyes and gestured with his hands dramatically. "Well, isn't that just great...so you went off without bothering to tell anyone what you were doing? We are supposed to be a team...remember? You insist on following your own set of rules, don't you?"
Julie pressed her lips together and let Patrick continue his rant. Folding her arms, she watched his face for a sign that he was nearly finished.
Patrick finally smoothed a hand over his face and let out a breath.
"I want to see you in my office tomorrow afternoon." He walked away before Julie could respond.
***
Before going to see him the next day, Julie composed herself for whatever Patrick might have in store for her. She arrived at the office early and took her time before facing him. Julie grabbed herself a coffee and chatted with a couple of colleagues before heading toward his office.
Through the window of his office, she saw Patrick and his supervisor. She froze as they appeared to be having an intense conversation. Patrick's head was hung low, and she wondered what Special Supervisory Agent Jones might be telling him.
Maybe I should come back later.
She was about to turn and leave when out of the corner of her eye she saw both men looking at her through the window. SSA Jones motioned for her to come into the office. Opening the door slowly, she entered the room and scratched her forehead.
"Good Morning, gentlemen." Planting a cheerful smile on her face, she stood in front of the men.
"Have a seat," Patrick said gruffly as he motioned to an empty chair. SSA Jones remained standing to one side of Patrick's desk. Julie sat and folded her hands in her lap. She was rarely one to get nervous, but with both men looking at her she was deeply worried about just how much trouble she was in this time. Julie had worked for the F.B.I. Gang Unit for only two years, after being transferred from another department. She was a hard worker that believed in following her instincts. Sometimes she found herself in trouble for doing what she felt was best, instead of obeying her superiors. In total, she had worked for the organization for nearly six years.
SSA Jones rarely spoke to her or the other agents beneath him, so the fact that he was here didn't bode well. He was a rotund, balding, middle-aged human who had spent more than twenty-five years with the F.B.I. She barely knew him but hoped that he was fair in whatever he was about to do or say to her.
"Patrick tells me that the fight club case was wrapped up last night. He said the team did well."
Julies brows shot up, and she looked at Patrick. He held her gaze; his eyes told her he was still angry with her.
Jones continued to speak. "He also tells me that you went against orders and chased down something, or someone. Can you tell me about that?" Jones had his hands in his trouser pockets and stood with his feet slightly apart. He looked somewhat intimidating to Julie.
"Er...well, I thought I heard a door close...I followed the sound into an empty room. Once I was inside, I was knocked over by a fast moving..." She paused and shook her head, "That's the thing...I don't know what or who knocked me over. They caught me by surprise...unfortunately, I didn't see them...but there was a scent...a smell that wasn't human...or shifter."
She bit her bottom lip and looked at SSA Jones.
He took his hands out of his pockets and leaned forward on th
e desk with fingers splayed and eyeing Julie suspiciously. Patrick folded his arms and sat back in his chair. Both men looked intrigued, and she wondered if they thought she was making up an elaborate tale.
"Can you describe the scent you picked up?" SSA Jones asked. His face showed no emotion.
"Not really, Sir. I mean, I know what it wasn't...not what it was."
Jones stood tall again and smiled a little. He seemed relieved.
"So you don't know what it was...if anything?"
"No...I mean, it wasn't an animal, Sir." She tucked some hair behind her ear.
Why are you staring at me like that? She wondered.
Patrick cleared his throat. Julie looked over at him. His face was beginning to show a trace of concern.
What is going on?
Julie's intuition was telling her to avoid saying anything further. She moved her eyes to SSA Jones, who appeared to be studying her. There was a long pause before anyone spoke again. Jones folded his arms.
"Special Agent Williams, have you heard about the new Shifter Task Force? It was started up a few months ago."
"No." She blinked in surprise.
"A human agent from New York and her partner, a shifter, have been assembling a human/shifter team and I've been asked to recommend agents that work well with both for cases related only to shifters. Patrick here has requested that you be put forward for a position with them."
Julie looked at Patrick in shock. She narrowed her eyes. He smirked.
You dick.
Julie folded her arms across her chest and looked back and forth between the men.
"You will report to their office on Monday," Jones said.
"I don't have a choice?"
"I'm afraid not." Patrick said firmly.
Jones cleared his throat and let his arms fall to his sides. He stared at her.
Julie unfolded her arms and stood up to face the men. "Why are you doing this?" She asked Patrick.