The Protectors 5
Her Panther Protector
A son and a mate in one fell swoop—he’ll never live this down.
Panther shifter Sasha Draven might be a Protector, but that doesn’t mean he’s in a hurry to get his ass kicked protecting clueless humans. This bad boy doesn’t do commitment, but when he comes face to face with his past in the form of his son, every protective instinct he never knew he had kicks in. He will protect what’s his at all costs.
Macey Laine thought she’d escaped the inner city violence threatening her nephew when she left Glasgow behind. The last thing she expects is to come face to face with her sister’s past in her own home. There’s no denying this bad boy biker is Kenny’s father. If only she could deny the instant connection she feels to this stranger, as easily.
Nothing good will come of this, especially when the threat to Kenny tracks them down…
Genre: BDSM, Contemporary, Paranormal, Shape-shifter
Length: 63,546 words
HER PANTHER PROTECTOR
The Protectors 5
Doris O’Connor
EROTIC ROMANCE
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Erotic Romance
HER PANTHER PROTECTOR
Copyright © 2015 by Doris O’Connor
E-book ISBN: 978-1-63259-612-3
First E-book Publication: August 2015
Cover design by Harris Channing
All art and logo copyright © 2015 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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DEDICATION
To all my readers, thank you for loving The Protectors as much as I do.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
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
About the Author
HER PANTHER PROTECTOR
The Protectors 5
DORIS O’CONNOR
Copyright © 2015
Chapter One
“Sasha, be careful out there tonight, especially on the bends.”
Mrs. H’s strange parting words rolled around in his brain as he leaned into the curve. Damn witch was up to something. He could feel it in his bones as he opened up the throttle, determined to catch up with Eva and her vamp. He rolled his eyes and his lips kicked up in a grim smile. It should be preposterous, the mere notion of a Protector mated to a vamp, but he had to give it to Dimitrius—life was never dull with him around. The ancient vamp’s dry sense of humor had enlivened the party tonight, for sure. Sasha had been bored out of his skull until the vampire had turned up. Seeing Leon almost lose it when Dimitrius held his baby daughter and thanked him for the snack…yeah, that had been priceless.
In another life, Sasha and Dimitrius could have had fun pulling some pussy, but alas, he only had eyes for Eva. Sure, the eagle shifter was cute, and Sasha himself had enjoyed a sexathon weekend with her before he knew she was one of the new Protectors brought in, but all this mated nonsense…
His panther growled and Sasha shook his head.
Things were changing in Middle Brook, and not to Sasha’s liking. Everyone was hen-pecked these days, and tonight’s party had given him the hives. There was only so much of all this mated and loved-up bullshit Sasha could take. Maybe he ought to take Saber up on his invite to join the London Protectors. The huge city, and in particular, Master Saber’s exclusive BDSM club, should prove all the distraction he needed. It had been way too long since Sasha had tortured a willing subbie. The only problem with that plan was that he would not be allowed as much freedom as he had been granted here in Cumbria. Sasha was the last one in a very long line of Panther Protectors, which gave him certain privileges. It was his birthright, as Mrs. H frequently pointed out, and meant that he got away with not having to get his hands dirty often.
Sasha enjoyed a good fight as much as the next person, but this whole Protector, duty-bound bullshit sure got on his last damn nerve. He wouldn’t let any of those night creatures kill someone in front of him, but he sure as fuck wasn’t going to bust his ass to protect a bunch of clueless humans who had no idea shifters existed and that every last fairytale was based in truth. If he did relocate to London, Saber would insist he did just that.
His beast growled again at Sasha’s thought processes, and he picked up speed. His inner animal was unusually agitated tonight, and he almost wished some fucking vamp would appear in front of him. A good fight would soothe his reckless beast, as would a good fucking, but Sasha had more or less exhausted the local
pussy, and it was too much like damn effort to ride further afield.
He leaned into the next bend and grinned when he saw Dimitrius’s flash old Jaguar in front of him. The vamp had good taste in cars, but even that beauty was no match for Sasha’s Harley. He flashed his headlights at the loved-up couple inside—really, did they think this was some sort of fifties chick flick? Eva had her head curled up on Dimitrius’s shoulder, and he was driving with the top down, one hand on the steering wheel, the other one was firmly clamped around Eva.
The vamp’s black eyed gaze connected with Sasha’s in his rear-view mirror and he smirked when Sasha overtook him and flipped the couple the finger. Eva glared at him but otherwise showed no reaction, and thanks to the straight stretch of road in front of him, Sasha gunned the engine and pulled away fast.
This was the other thing in Cumbria’s favor, perfect motor bike terrain, and as Sasha gave himself up to the sheer joy and freedom of riding the powerful machine, some of his agitation fled, even if his panther still seemed on high alert.
Damn that witch. The further he headed into the open country, the more agitated his beast became, so much so that he eased off the accelerator as he took the last bend. The bumbling little spot of black crossing the road made him doubt his sanity, and, narrowly avoiding that bundle of fur, Sasha slammed on the breaks. The resulting wobble of his back wheel almost made him lose control of his bike, as he went into a tank slapper, and he was sure he’d left most of his tire’s rubber behind on the tarmac. It took all of his considerable skill to control the resulting slide of his bike, and by the time he had, his beast was near foaming at the mouth to come out.
Sasha wrenched his helmet off his head and took several deep breaths in to stop himself from shifting there and then. It should have worked, but the scent in the air…
His beast rose to the surface, hissing and snarling, and Sasha swore out loud.
No, it couldn’t be.
Having wrenched his bike on the stand, he scanned the area, but there was no sign of the small, furry animal which had almost caused him to come off his bike. That small animal that had looked just like a panther cub, and smelled like…
Fuck! Nose in the air, Sasha followed that scent into the nearby field, and sure enough, eventually he heard the plaintive cries of a lost cub. The bundle of black fur regarded Sasha thoughtfully through its baby-blue eyes and swiped at his hands when he picked the little fellow up by the scruff of the neck. The roar this little one was trying to give made Sasha grin, and the wave of connection and protectiveness that instantly swamped him when he sniffed this cub made his heartbeat go into overdrive.
Why in all that was holy was his son wandering around Cumbria at the dead of night? The cub mewled, and Sasha gentled his hold on the squirming youngster and settling him in the crook of his arm, retraced the cub’s steps. No, not just any cub. His son.
Fuck, I have a son. How in the hell can I have a son?
The little fellow mewled again, yawned, and then snuggled in closer into Sasha’s chest. Dumbstruck, Sasha watched as he fell asleep and then slowly morphed into a naked and dirty little boy. Mud clung to his legs and he looked as though he’d eaten himself through his bodyweight in chocolate. A shock of black hair framed his face, and Sasha drew a complete blank as he studied his son’s features. Where the fuck had he come from, and more importantly, who was his mother? He sure didn’t recognize her in his son’s face, mainly because the boy was a miniature version of him.
His heart squeezed painfully in his chest as he got a sudden vision of himself at this age. This boy could be no older than three, which would tie in with his shifting into his panther in his sleep. Sasha had done the same thing at this age, but he’d had his parents watching him, and either his mum or dad had shifted to keep him company until this phase passed. He shook his head to clear it of his maudlin thoughts. His parents’ death in a car accident when he’d barely been fourteen was too painful to think about, even now, and Sasha usually kept a tight lid on thoughts of the past.
His beast growled, and Sasha shrugged out of his jacket and bundled the little fellow up in it to keep him warm. Temperatures were dropping and the little mite would freeze to death. What sort of a mother would not know her child was wandering the fucking countryside?
The kind you used to consort with back then.
Sasha frowned at the little devil sat on his shoulder. He had been at his worst ever around the time this little fellow must have been conceived. High on drugs most of the time, he hadn’t known which way was up, and he hadn’t cared much who he’d bedded, which no doubt went a long way to explaining how this boy came to be. Out of it, due the drugs in his system, he hadn’t been too careful, nor cared about using protection, and besides, he shouldn’t be able to father any offspring unless it was with his destined mate, and he sure as fuck would have remembered meeting his mate, wouldn’t he? No, this little fellow had to be the result of his numerous one-night stands at the time.
A man could give himself a fucking headache trying to figure this out, so instead he gave up, sniffed the boy in his arms again, and felt instantly calmer and at the same time outraged. How dare whoever his mother was not take care of his son? Of course, she was human—he smelled that much on his boy—and no doubt had no fucking clue he was a shifter, but even so. It was just too much to wrap his head around, and he had to get this boy home, wherever home might be. He couldn’t have wandered too far away from his house, surely?
Sasha made his way back to his bike, and having settled his son—man even in his head that realization did something to him—in front of him, he cruised along slowly, following the scent trail his boy had left behind. The fact that he’d seemingly walked along the main road for ages made Sasha break out into a cold sweat. Anything could have happened to his boy, and the possessive animal inside of him roared his fury. At this rate, he’d want to tear the mother in half by the time he found her.
After what seemed like hours but could have been no longer than half an hour at the most, the scent finally got stronger. It led off the main road, down a farm track, to a cottage that had stood empty for some time. Sasha glared at the For Sale sign, the Sold strip of which half hung off and swung to and fro in the wind. That explained why he didn’t know about this, at least. Clearly his boy hadn’t long since moved into the area.
He switched his engine off outside the cottage, frowned anew at the open gate, and then snarled when the unmistakable sounds of sex reached his ears. So, that’s why that sorry excuse for a mother didn’t know their son was wandering about the place. At least he assumed that was his son’s mother in there. His boy’s scent was all over this place, clearly signaling this was where he lived.
He crossed the distance to the front door in seconds, and the steady growl of his panther got louder. Jesus, one swift kick and that would come down. His stomach churned at the thought of his boy being out here, completely defenseless, and he gulped in air to calm down his beast. Already, he could feel himself growing taller. His muscles bunched and it took every ounce of willpower he possessed to stop the shift. It would be so easy to simply go for the kill and claim his son. Only the knowledge of his own pain, when his mother died, stopped him.
Sasha couldn’t take his boy away from her—not yet, anyway. Every child loved their mother, regardless of whether that mother was nothing more than a whore, so he swallowed his murderous impulses and put his son down on the garden hammock to the side of the cottage. The little fellow moaned and then curled up on his side. Wrapped up as he was in Sasha’s leather jacket, only his head could be seen, and one little foot. Sasha bent down and tucked that, too, from view.
His chest tightened with the rush of emotion he felt for this little guy. He might not have wanted a child, and sure as fuck couldn’t envisage himself as a father, but now that he’d held his son, he knew he couldn’t just walk away. For better or worse, this little boy needed him, and he’d do his damn best to make sure he was looked after, starting with giving
his mother a lesson in taking care of him.
Just as predicted, one swift kick with his booted foot was all it took for the front door to give way. The hinges broke and the thing crashed against the wall, and then hung there precariously. That noise, at least, got through to the pair entangled in a sweaty heap of entwined limbs on the settee, and, head down, nostrils flaring, he approached them, and stopped short when the woman screamed. She pushed the boy she had been consorting with off her, and made a grab for her clothes.
“Who the fuck are you?” she screeched, and, eyes wide in fright, jumped to her feet and retreated behind the settee. Her useless boyfriend hastily yanked his jeans up his legs and tried to make a run for it, but Sasha stopped him with just a look.
He knew this fucker. Jack Simpson was one of the lads that hung out at the youth center, Leon volunteered at. His panther fed off the combined waves of fear that came off the two teenagers in front of him, and Sasha smirked.
“I could ask you the same question,” he growled, and Jack Simpson went so pale Sasha thought he was going to pass out. The female recovered her equilibrium much faster, and he had to laugh when she made a lunge for the telephone on the side board. He was on her in seconds and screaming blue murder she tried to kick him in the balls and, when that didn’t work, made a swipe at his head with the phone.
Thanks to his shifter reflexes, Sasha ducked those moves easily enough and, once he had her wrists pinned up high above her head, used his bodyweight to hold her against the wall. Normally, he would have enjoyed the way this female’s curves molded against him, but he was here for answers, and besides, this girl was far too young for him. A careful sniff of her confirmed what he already knew. This wasn’t his boy’s mother, but clearly the babysitter. Nonetheless, he would still teach her a lesson for not looking after his son, and his panther growled low in his throat.
Her Panther Protector [The Protectors 5] (Siren Publishing Classic) Page 1