Valentine’s Circle of Love © 2017 by Trinity Blacio
All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, without permission in writing from the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
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Digital ISBN 978-1-62601-347-6
First edition published by Ravenous Romance in 2011
Second edition, February 2017
Chapter One
“They’re going to come for me soon, Sergeant,” Kesha said as she reached down to pet her Rottweiler. “I know one thing: if they think I’m leaving you or Nora behind, then they can find another Alpha bitch.” She snarled and continued her walk.
She laughed and glanced down at her pet. “No, Sergeant, you can’t bite them. They’re most likely twice your size. Plus, I’m sure Alpha Hael would have you for supper. Did you know Nesa was the one who was supposed to go with this clan to Maine, but Alpha Hael refused to send his daughter so far away? So why not send his adopted daughter? After all, I am older than her.” Kesha sighed.
Kesha broke through the clearing and stared out at the Gulf of Mexico. “I love the smell of the ocean at night. It’s so cool and clean.” She moved to the edge of the beach and sat in the sand, then turned and smiled as Nora, her other Rottweiler ran up to them. “You better be careful, Nora. You know the gators aren’t too fond of you right now.”
Rubbing her hand over Nora’s big head, she took a deep breath. “At least we won’t have to deal with the heat up in Maine, and it’s near the ocean, so I can still visit the sea. I just hope the Paillard men aren’t disappointed when they see what they’re getting.” She glanced down at her oversized figure and shook her head. “When they see Nesa, then me, they’re going to want to back out of the arrangement, you watch.”
Sergeant growled next to her. “Hush, boy, it’s a fact that most men would rather have a skinny woman with boobs. I can give them the boobs, but I can’t give them the skinny part.” Kesha lay down and stared at the sky. “From what Daddy Hael has told me, the skies in Maine are so clear you can see twice as many stars.”
Turning to look at Sergeant, who was her friend and confidant, Kesha said, “You do know eventually I’ll have to tell them I can talk to animals? They’ll find out anyway when we bond. I’ve been lucky so far that no one here knows this.”
Nora and Sergeant lay down next to her, putting their heads on her stomach and whining. “I know guys, I hate change too, but I have no choice. I’m 24 years old and it’s time. I can’t refuse this, not after all Daddy Hael has done for me.”
* * *
Valentine Paillard glanced up at the old French-designed home in front him. Their mate was in there somewhere. His other four Alpha mates would be here tomorrow so her father could meet them all, but since Valentine was already here on business, he wanted a chance to see their beauty in person. He just hoped his mate wasn’t some skinny thing. Valentine and his mates wanted a female full of curves to hold on to at night.
At six foot five, he was the tallest of the five and the deadliest of the group of male shifters. His job was security for the pack, and no one ever got past his defenses without him knowing. He stepped out of the rental truck, slowly moved to the front door and knocked.
The security in this place sucks, he thought. Not one person stopped me. He growled at the prospect of their mate not being protected. “Well, she will be now!” he mumbled as the door opened and one of the beta members stared at him.
“Yes? Can I help you, sir?” He lowered his head in respect but held the door partially closed.
“I’m Valentine Paillard, here to claim my mate. I know I’m a day early, but I was in the area doing business and thought I’d stop over and maybe see if I could chat with her before the formal meetings take place.”
A large man, taller than he was, opened the door farther and studied him. “Welcome. I’m Hael Vanderbilt. Please come in.” He stepped aside, allowing Valentine entrance into the old house.
Valentine held out his hand and the other man shook it. “Have you checked into a hotel yet? Because we have plenty of room here.” Hael lead him into a large family room where a stick-thin female stood staring at him.
“This is my other daughter, Nesa. Nesa, this is one of your sister’s mates, Valentine Paillard.”
Nesa didn’t say a word but just frowned. “Damn, Dad, if I would have known one of them was like this…”
Hael growled and shoved his daughter toward the stairs. “Not another damn word. Go tell your sister to come down here now.”
She turned on the stairs and smiled at her father. “She’s not my sister. And Kesha is out on her nightly walk.” After glancing once more at Valentine, she stomped up the stairs.
“Damned girls! I swear I should only have had boys. I’m sorry, Valentine. Please have a seat. I’ll have Crush retrieve my daughter.” He glanced at the man who had opened the door, but Valentine held up his hand.
“Why don’t you let me get her. It will give us some time to talk. Just point me in the right direction.” Valentine smiled.
Hael laughed and shook his head. “My adopted daughter has finally met her match, I can see.” His gaze turned hard. “She might be adopted, Valentine, but she’s my baby. When I found her, both her parents had been murdered. Kesha was only two at the time. If anyone, and I mean anyone, harms a hair on her head, I’ll kill them.”
Valentine nodded. “I can see she has a very protective father. I might spank her if she dares walk alone at night in our area, but never would I hurt her intentionally.” He grinned.
“Yep, I think you two are going to really hit it off. But she’s not alone. Her two pets are with her, so be careful. They’re very protective of her. You’ll find her when you walk down that path to the beach.” He opened the patio door and stepped out, pointing. “By the way, my men have been watching you since you pulled onto our road. Your other mate, Felix, called to give us a heads-up that you were in town.” He grinned.
Valentine laughed. “Then I stand corrected. Sorry for my rash judgment.” He nodded and took off down the path, wondering what their mate would look like. When he’d stepped into the family room and seen her sister, he’d almost turned right around. He and his mates would absolutely not put up with a spoiled brat, and this other daughter was most definitely one.
He moved around the corner and heard growling on both sides of him. Valentine stopped and waited.
“Sergeant, Nora, get over here and leave that poor man alone.” Her voice sent a chill down his spine, and he gasped as she stepped onto the path in front of them.
“I’m afraid this is private property. Are you lost?” She tilted her head to the side and studied him. Then she turned and headed back to the beach. “No, I guess you’re not, are you? You’ve come to find me?”
Kesha came up to his chin, and her body was full and curvy in all the right places. When she turned toward the beach, his cock hardened to the point of pain as he watched her ass swing back and forth.
“My name is Valentine Paillard.”
She tensed when she sat down on the beach, sinking her small toes into the sand. “So you’ve come early for me? Or did you come to inspect the package befo
re your other mates come?”
Valentine slowly made his way next to her as her dogs snarled.
“Knock it off, you two. Now move.” She pushed them to the side. “Please sit. They won’t hurt you. They’re just very protective of me.”
“You shouldn’t be out here by yourself. Anyone could shoot your dogs and take you.” He frowned at Kesha as he sat next to her.
Smiling, she shook her head. “No, I would have been warned before anyone got close to me.” She nodded behind him, and when he turned, he gasped.
Two of the largest gators he’d ever seen slithered out of the swamp toward them. “I take it they’re your friends?”
“I have many friends here that protect me. I can take care of myself, if the need arises. Gator, Lilly, go on home. I’m fine.” They snapped their jaws and slowly made their way back into the swamp.
“Is there something we should know here? You just talked to them?” He watched as she fidgeted. Both her dogs whined next to her as she reached up to pet them.
“You’re the only one I’ve told, because you are going to be my mate. I won’t hold secrets back from you, but please, I don’t want anyone else to know except our mates, not even my father.”
“Why wouldn’t you want your father to know?” He reached brushed a long strand of her blackish-brown hair away from her face.
“He already has his hands full with Nesa and his wife. He doesn’t need the headache of trying to protect me from others that would want to use my gift. So, have I passed your inspection so far?” She smiled up at him, her eyes the deep blue of the ocean behind her.
Kesha glanced back out at it. “You did meet Nesa, right?”
“Yes, I met your sister. And I hate to say it, but my first impression was, ‘Please don’t let that be our mate.’” He grinned when she turned her gaze on him and frowned.
“Why? Every man around here wants her.”
Valentine laughed. “Then they can have her. Let me tell you a little bit about us. Maybe it will help. I come from a large family up in Northern Maine. I did six years in the Marines’ Special Forces, and I’ve seen all types of women, but none of them was the right one.” He shrugged. “I’ve always known that as soon as I saw her, I would know she would be mine, and I do.” He glanced at her and leaned down to kiss her nose. “I want a woman who is full of curves. I don’t want some skinny thing I can’t hold on to.” He leaned back, placing his hand behind her back and scooting her closer to him.
“Your other mates’ names are Marc, Bruno, Andre, and Leon,” he continued. “Before we even decided to look for the woman who would carry our children, we all sat down and discussed what we wanted. Not one of them wanted someone skinny. We want a woman, not a twig.”
Kesha grunted. “Well, I’m no twig, that’s for sure.” She stood and glanced around. “We’d better get going.” Kesha kept glancing toward the right, then her dogs turned their heads and snarled at something down on the beach.
“Hush.” She moved toward the path, but stopped. “Damn.”
Valentine pulled her next to him. “What is it?” His wolf sense didn’t smell anything, then he saw her two friendly gators move up the path.
“We have company, two to the west and two or three to the east. Sometimes bats can’t count too well.”
Chapter Two
Kesha’s stomach tightened. When would they learn to leave her alone? “Damned Jordan brothers. They’re more pests than anything else. Father has warned them, time and time again, that I don’t want anything to do with them, but they just won’t listen.” She pulled out of his arms and ran up the path.
“Kesha!” Valentine snarled behind her.
She stopped and put her hands on her hips scanning around the area. Valentine wrapped his large hands around her waist and pulled her behind him, but that didn’t stop her from confronting the brothers when they stepped out onto the path.
“I told you four that I have no interest in you! Do you want my father to skin you alive?” she screamed at Rodney, the oldest Jordan brother.
“Aww, Kesha, you know you need us. Who else would take you?” He grinned and stared at Valentine.
Valentine growled. “Excuse me, Rodney, but you just insulted my mate.” He grabbed the large man by the throat and lifted him up.
Rodney glared at her, then back at Valentine. “We didn’t know she was mated. When did you get mated?” he growled.
Kesha shook her head. “Rodney, shut your mouth before Valentine rips you apart and your brothers are lucky Gator hasn’t eaten them”
“What? Valentine of the Northern Maine Pack?” Rodney squeaked as his other brother backed up.
Kesha glanced up at Valentine. “You’re well known?”
He threw Rodney into his brother, and they ran off. Valentine turned and glanced down at her. “Never mind about me, what’s up with those guys?”
She called her dogs and started back toward the house. “They’ve been sniffing around for the last couple of months, but lately they just won’t take no for an answer. Dad had a chat with them a couple of weeks ago, but they’re a little slow.”
“And you still walk around here by yourself?” He swung her around and pulled her against his body.
“Valentine, they’re harmless, just pests.” She gazed up into his large brown eyes; his blond hair was pulled back into a ponytail.
One of his hands cupped her ass, while the other wrapped around her hair and gently tugged her head back further. “There will be no walks alone anymore. If you want to walk, you will get one of us.”
Kesha smiled and ran her hands up his chest. “We’ll see, but nothing is settled yet. You haven’t even told my father or me if you accept me. Plus, your other mates have a say in this too. You must all be in agreement.”
“Well, I see you didn’t waste any time finding our mate,” a voice said she hadn’t heard before. Four large men stood in front of her. Kesha frowned and pulled out of Valentine’s grasp.
“Wow, what the hell do they feed you guys in Maine?” She glanced over to see her father stepping out of the family room, smiling.
He held out his arms and she flew into them. “I told you I wouldn’t settle for just anyone. They had to be special for you.”
“Just because they’re big doesn’t make them special.” She moved out of his arms and toward the door. “Oh, and Rodney and his brothers were around again, down by the beach, just so you know. Valentine had a nice time with him.” She laughed when her father growled and glared at her.
“You just couldn’t stay inside, could you?”
“Nope, I’m going to hop in the tub. I’ll be down in a few.” She grinned and ran up the stairs, only to run smack into her sister.
“Well, if it isn’t Ms. Dolittle. Did that gorgeous hunk Valentine find you?” Nesa stepped around her. “I hear the other four are here too. Maybe I’ll go check them out.”
Kesha never got mad at her sister, but in that instant, she snapped. She grabbed the back of her sister’s hair and swung her around. “Back off, Nesa, they’re mine,” she snarled as Nesa screamed.
“Why you ungrateful bitch. You’re lucky you have a roof over your head! How dare you touch me?” Nesa slapped her across the face so hard that Kesha could have sworn bells rang in her head.
Sergeant and Nora jumped on Nesa, pushing her to the ground and holding her down, growling.
Hael ran up the stairs at the same time as Debbie, her mother, came running out of her room and yelled, “You have two seconds to get those mutts off my daughter before I rip them apart, Kesha.”
Kesha held her hand to her face and called for her dogs. They backed away and stood at her side snarling.
“Debbie, take Nesa to her room now!” Hael stood in front of Kesha and frowned at her. “What the hell happened? You’ve been warned about those dogs.”
Kesha looked around to see all five of the Maine Alphas on the stairs, staring at her. She patted Sergeant’s head and heard the men gasp. “Ask your
daughter, but then again, she’ll never admit to starting it, just like she always does. Don’t worry, Hael, if they don’t want me”—she gestured toward the Alphas—“I’ll leave. You won’t have to worry about me anymore. Now, if you’ll excuse I’ll start packing.” Kesha turned to leave, but Hael grabbed her arm, stopping her.
“Don’t!” she warned. “I have never, and I mean never, given you any
trouble. I’ve kept my mouth shut, even when she’s flaunted that I’m not your daughter. But I won’t apologize for my dogs when she started this.” Kesha glared up at him.
“Has it been so bad here, Kesha?”
She shook her head. “You are the Alpha, always busy. You don’t know half the things that go on at home. I’ve tried not to cause trouble for you, but I’m done. I won’t be hurt anymore.” Kesha glanced back at all five men; they wore identical frowns as they stared at them. “If you’ll excuse me, I have some packing to do and I want to change.”
Hael released her arm.
He turned to the large Alphas. “I’m sorry you had to see this. If you would give me a few minutes with my wife and daughter, I’ll meet you downstairs.”
He turned and stormed into his daughter’s room, slamming the door. Kesha sighed and moved toward her bedroom, but one of the men stepped in front of her and lifted her chin. “You’re going to have a nice shiner tomorrow. You might want to put some ice on it. My name is Bruno.” He knelt in front of her dogs and held out his hand. “Hello there, guy,” he said to Sergeant as he let the dog sniff his hand.
“That is Sergeant, and this one is Nora. They’re mated, well, as far as dogs go. I’m afraid I won’t go anywhere without them, Bruno.” She glanced behind her at the other four men. “If you still want me, you’re going to have to accept them. I’ve had them since they were pups.”
Bruno stood and smiled at her. “We wouldn’t dream of separating you. Go take your bath while we talk to your father.” He reached over and opened the door for her. “No one will hit you ever again, Kesha.” He traced his finger down her bruised cheek.
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