by Milly Taiden
Table of Contents
Epilogue
Untitled
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
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
About the Author
Also by Milly Taiden
Federal Paranormal Unit
Raging Falls
FUR-ocious Lust - Bears
Night and Day Ink
Contemporary Works
Piece of Tail
Paranormal Dating Agency
Milly Taiden
Latin Goddess Press, Inc.
Contents
Untitled
Untitled
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
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Epilogue
About the Author
Also by Milly Taiden
Also by Milly Taiden
Federal Paranormal Unit
Also by Milly Taiden
Raging Falls
FUR-ocious Lust - Bears
Night and Day Ink
Contemporary Works
PIECE OF TAIL
PARANORMAL DATING AGENCY
NEW YORK TIMES and USA TODAY BESTSELLING AUTHOR
MILLY TAIDEN
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http://eepurl.com/pt9q1
A female Prowl Leader? Unthinkable. It’s what Becca Duran has dealt with since the sudden, tragic death of her brother. Now, the leopard council demands she mates an Alpha, whether she loves him or not. Given no choice, Becca takes a chance on Gerri Wilder’s PDA. It should be simple. Get a match and move on. Except, it’s not. It’s hard (thick and hard) with large muscles and a panty-wetting smile.
Jaylon Ross has thirty days to find a mate to help solidify his pack or face the consequences of an unhappy council. Forcing his hand, he makes an appointment with Gerri for help, but stumbles into the answer to his prayers in the heart of Manhattan. A sexy, curvy, sarcastic feline he dreams of stroking and wants to hear purr.
The two collide and more than instant sparks ignite with an attraction neither can ignore. Of course, nothing is as easy as it seems. Becca’s past and Jaylon’s present throw a monkey wrench into what should be so simple. Now they fight to find a way to stay together. Oh, and alive.
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are fictitious or have been used fictitiously, and are not to be construed as real in any way. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales, or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Published By
Latin Goddess Press
Winter Springs, FL 32708
http://millytaiden.com
Piece of Tail
Copyright © 2016 by Milly Taiden
Cover by Willsin Rowe
Edited by: Tina Winograd
All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
Property of Milly Taiden
March 2017
Created with Vellum
—For my amazing friend,
Marianne
We meet so many people in this industry, but it is such a blessing when you meet someone who’s genuine. Like you!
1
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http://eepurl.com/pt9q1
Becca Duran cursed in Spanish.
“Why are Latinas such hot heads?” her best friend Lyssa asked. “And why are you being so obstinate?”
Becca glanced from the window to Lyssa sitting at the kitchen counter.
“I’m not. You weren’t there, Lyssa. You didn’t hear what the elders suggested I do to fix things.”
“Things? What things?” she asked, pouring a glass of wine.
Becca threw a hand in the air. “The lack of men things.”
Lyssa smirked. “Flesh and blood men things or battery-operated men things?”
Becca cracked a smile. “You’re not helping.”
“Oh, contraire, good vibrations would have the old biddies on the council happily buzzing away and off your back. Problem solved.” She waggled her eyebrows.
“Again, not helping, Lys.”
Lyssa grinned. “Maybe not, but at least my suggestion would put a smile on their wrinkly faces, which is more than I can say for you.”
“I am not wrinkly.” A smirk tugged at Becca’s lips despite herself.
“No, but neither are you smiling. Like ever. Since you took over as Prowl Leader, you aren’t you anymore.”
Humor fading, she eyed her friend. “That’s not fair, Lys. I didn’t ask for this or for what happened.”
“I know you didn’t and I didn’t mean it that way. This whole situation is unfair, most of all to you.” Lyssa topped off Becca’s wine glass. “Drink up and tell me what the council said.”
Becca slid onto the barstool across from Lyssa and picked up her drink. “You don’t want to know. Their suggestions ran the gamut from the surreal to the ridiculous.”
“C’mon. How bad could they be?” Lys asked.
Becca lifted her glass and took a sip. “Bad.”
“Try me.”
“One proposal suggested capturing males from a rival clan or setting traps for humans hiking in the Pine Barrens.”
Lyssa snorted into her wine, coughing.
“See?” Becca nodded. “Like we’re some kind of Amazon tribe.” She ran a frustrated hand over her long, dark hair. “Though with a three-to-one, female-to-male ratio, it’s only a matter of time.”
“What did Lucilla say?”
Becca shrugged again. “She vetoed the idea of booty raids.”
“Don’t tell me she was in favor of man-traps?” Lys raised an eyebrow.
Becca shook her head with a chuckle. “No, of course not. She’s the only elder with any kind of sense. The rest are super old and bat shit crazy and demand I find an appropriate mate to
legitimize me as Prowl Leader.”
“So where does that leave us?”
“I have no idea.” Becca exhaled. “We need an alliance with a strong shifter pack. The council would prefer me to parlay with another Leap, but I don’t see how. We are the last North American leopards in a five-hundred-mile radius. It’s not an option.”
Lyssa chewed on the side of her lip and then grabbed her purse, fishing inside.”
“What are you looking for?”
Her friend glanced up from rummaging. “Don’t fly off the handle, but I think I have the answer to your dilemma.”
Becca drained her wine glass. “It’s not my dilemma, Lys. It’s our dilemma. All of us.”
“Exactly.” Lyssa held out her phone.
“How is your cellphone going to solve our problem?”
“No, dummy. Look at the pic on my screen.” Lys motioned again.
Becca took her friend’s phone and glanced at the screen. “It’s a business card.”
Lyssa exhaled. “Yes, very good. It’s also a rectangle. Jeez, Bec…read the damn card!”
Becca’s eyes scanned the slightly blurry writing. “Gerri Wilder. Paranormal Dat—” Her eyes flew to her friend. “Oh, no. I am not calling a dating service.”
“It’s not a service, it’s an agency, Bec, and from what I overheard this woman is the real deal.”
Now it was Becca’s turn to raise an eyebrow. “Overheard?”
Lyssa shrugged. “Can I help it if I happen to be sitting at the bar in Caesar’s Palace and happen to overhear the girl next to me bragging?”
“That’s not overhearing, that’s eavesdropping, and the answer is still no. It’s probably an escort scam.”
Lyssa took her phone from Becca’s fingers and put it on counter, tapping the screen. “The elders will never let up until you actually do something about our man issues. Email the woman, Bec. What have you got to lose?”
“My dignity.”
“C’mon, Becca. I googled her. Gerri Wilder is the shit. The real deal. Very discreet and very professional. If anyone can find you an ‘appropriate’ mate, it’s her.” She paused, giving her friend a sneaky grin. “Hey, maybe she can arrange a private booty raid just for you.”
“Not funny, Lys.”
“Yes, it is. It’s hilarious.” She eyed Becca’s face, and her friend’s miserable expression sobered her immediately. “Call her. If not for yourself, then for the rest of us. Council elders aren’t the only ones counting on you.”
Grudgingly, Becca took the phone from the counter and looked at the woman’s card again. With an exhale, she nodded. “Okay, you win. I’ll send her an email, but I’m not promising anything.”
“Good.” Lys gestured to her cellphone in Becca’s hand. “Go ahead.”
Becca balked. “I’m not emailing her now. I need time to think.”
Lyssa nodded. “Right. Why window shop when you’ve got money in your pocket to spend. Go for what you want.”
“Window shop?” Becca laughed. “Next you’ll be asking if she’s got a layaway program for you.”
Lyssa eyed her friend. “You do know you’ll have to tell her about you, right?”
Becca glanced at the long-stemmed glass in her hand. “I realize that.”
“You okay with that?”
“One step at a time, Lys.”
She covered Becca’s hand with her own. Neither your father nor your brother’s deaths are on your head.”
“That’s easy for you to say. You don’t have to live with the guilt.”
“I’m not buying, and I don’t care what culpability the council spews to manipulate you. Neither was your fault. You’re alive and in one piece because of your father, and as for Charlie—it was a raid, Bec. More than just your brother died that night.”
“Again, because of me. I may be alive, but the number of pieces I’m in is still up for debate.”
Lys squeezed Becca’s fingers. “AGAIN, not YOUR fault. You were barely eighteen when it all started and the raid that took Charlie from us was a decade later. It’s been two years since, Becca. You’ve got to get past this for all of us.”
“I suppose.” Becca pulled herself out of her memories and shook her head. “Okay, back to the present. What makes you so sure this matchmaker will have someone who fits our needs?”
Lys shrugged. “A strong male shifter with working parts. What more do we need?”
Becca crumpled her napkin and threw it at her friend. “A lot. Besides, it might be harder for her to match me to someone and not the other way around.”
“For heaven’s sake, why?” Lyssa lifted a frustrated hand.
“I’m not exactly a spring chicken.”
Laughing out loud, Lyssa threw the crumpled napkin back. “Jeez, Bec. You make it sound like you’re ancient. You’re thirty.”
Becca made a face. “Thirty and thick.”
“Curvy, yes, but like the song says, it’s all about that bass,” Lys replied with a wink.
“Ha!”
“Scoff all you want, but I know I’m right.” Lyssa shrugged. “You should have heard what that chick at Caesar’s was saying. Gerri’s guys prefer a little sumpin’ sumpin’ when it comes to woman. If it’s good enough for the human girls she’s matching, then it’s certainly good enough for a shifter. You bring more to the game.”
Bec pushed her wine glass away. “More indeed.”
Lyssa got up from the counter and took Becca by the arm, turning her toward the mirror on the far wall. “This is your hunt, leopard queen. Take no prisoners.” She winked. “Unless you bring one home for me.”
Becca hugged her friend. “Okay, okay…stop pushing and get your laptop.”
2
“Houston, we have a problem.”
Jaylon Ross turned toward the door, but the humor on his lips faded the moment he met his father’s eyes. “What happened?”
“The council cancelled the run tonight.” Wyatt Ross met his son’s disbelief and shrugged.
“Why? This was planned months ago, since the Wolf Moon, when we knew the lunar cycle would be perfectly aligned with the tides.”
“I know,” Wyatt replied with a sigh.
“Then what’s the problem?” Jaylon closed his files and leaned on the end of his desk.
His father exhaled, lifting one hand. “Not enough interest among the young ones.”
Jay stood, incredulous. “There are at least twenty half-bloods old enough to coax their first shift.”
“That’s the reason in a nutshell, son. Half-bloods. They aren’t full shifters, and you know as well as I that coaxing a shift is hard on them. The moon doesn’t have the same pull on them as it does on full shifters. It’s work. It’s hard to pull their animal forth, and when have you ever known a teenager who wants to do something the hard way?” Wyatt looked at his son. “Besides, there’s some concert at the beach they’d rather attend.”
“I’m at a loss.” Jaylon lifted a hand and let it drop. “A lot went into planning this important rite of passage.”
“The half-bloods don’t see it that way.” Wyatt reached into his pocket for a folded note. “Matheus asked me to give this to you. He’s downstairs by the fire.”
Jaylon took the gold stamped stationary from his father’s hand and glanced at the looping script before folding it again and putting it in his pocket. “C’mon. I have a few questions for the old man, like when did it become common practice for him or any of the other elders to overrule the Alpha.”
Wyatt put a staying hand on his son’s arm. “He didn’t overrule me. I’m stepping down, Jaylon. I promised myself I would resign my role as Alpha the moment I no longer understood my pack. After this, I knew that moment had come.”
Jay stared at his father. “That’s ridiculous.”
Wyatt exhaled, giving Jaylon’s arm a squeeze. “This business with the half-bloods is my fault. I encouraged us to assimilate. Too much so. No one can deny we’ve lost the tie to what makes us unique from humankin
d.”
“Shifters can’t stop being shifters, Dad.” He opened the door and the two headed downstairs to the shifter’s lounge.
“Perhaps, but the younger generations don’t see that, especially not from a sick old man like me.”
“Being a shifter is not an all or nothing thing,” Jay replied. “Don’t they realize that? They can have the best of both worlds. It’s why we’re called dual-natured.”
“Exactly.” Wyatt stopped at the entrance to the drawing room. “They need someone to show them that.”
Jaylon nodded. “And they do. You’re our Alpha.”
His father pressed his lips together. “Not anymore. I’ve named you as my successor.”
Stunned, Jaylon didn’t say a word as he followed his father inside.
“Good. We’ve been expecting you,” Matheus said as the two walked toward the fireplace. “—and I can see by the look on Jaylon’s face that you explained.” The old man’s eyes crinkled in his wrinkled face.
Looking from his father to the elder shifter, Jaylon shook his head. “No.”
“No, your father didn’t explain, or no, you’d rather not?” the elder asked, his head cocked to the side.
“It’s done, son.” Wyatt spread both hands. “You are our new Alpha.”
“This is wrong. My father may be ill, but until his death, he’s the rightful Alpha.” Jay looked between the two men.
“Your loyalty does you credit, son, but we’re all in agreement. This is for the best,” Wyatt replied, shutting down any further argument.
The shifter’s lounge was usually a cozy place, but now it seemed claustrophobic. Jaylon scanned the others in the room, his eyes falling on a few of the men and their unpleasant glares.
“Congratulations, Jay.”
At the feminine lilt, he turned to find Giselle and her usual crew hanging by the bar. She leaned back on her barstool and ran a hand through her hair, her pert breasts high and round as if offered on a plate.
The woman was as indiscreet as she was vain. Still, she gave the best head he’d had to date, but that’s all it was, a physical release.