by Lia Davis
The warm breeze brought a rancid smell of rotting meat to her senses, much more fowl than the rogues. She growled and focused her preternatural vision and scanned the surrounding area. Three mutants—the Onyx Pack’s half-human, half-animal assassins—stepped out of the tree line behind their rogue masters. Even after fifteen years of being an enforcer, she had never gotten used to the sight of the mutants. They stood twice as tall as any shifter she’d ever seen. They were also frozen in mid-shift, eerily close to the some of the human myths of werewolves.
One of the three was actually a half-puma, and female. Golden hair covered her body and her hands were extended claws. Cameron didn’t need to see her face clearly to know that the bone structure looked nothing like human or beast, but a creepy combo of the two. Sharp cheekbones stretched the skin over the enormous head, making it impossible to miss the prehistoric fangs jetting out of her jaws.
The mutants spread out to circle the rogues protectively in the middle of a group of large oaks. By the way they stood still, like imperial soldiers forbidden to move or speak, they hadn’t realized they’d just become the hunted.
Cameron smirked and sent out a mental message to Blaine and the other soldiers that accompanied them. “I have three mutants, two rogues.”
“I see them. Stay put until I give the go. I want to see what they do,” Blaine said.
She bit back a retort because, in the field, Blaine, as Pack Marshal, was the boss. Off duty, they were equals—mostly.
“Blaine, they’re getting spooked.” She palmed her Sig 9 mm and waited impatiently.
The mutants kept scanning the area as if they sensed them, but couldn’t see them. When the mutants appeared as though they were leaving the area, Blaine whistled, and everyone moved as one unit, drawing their guns with their special rogue-killing bullets that contained liquid silver.
Contrary to human myths, shifters were not sensitive to silver and didn’t explode into ash. Rogues, on the other hand, were sensitive to the metal. The addiction to blood and the kill, along with whatever drugs they’d used to create the mutant virus, had altered their DNA, giving them a weakness to silver.
Cam shot at one the creatures. He twisted to move out of the way, but he was too slow. The bullet hit him in the shoulder, knocking him off balance. A painful scream tore from his throat, and he fell to the ground. He rolled as if his body was on fire and he was trying to put out the flames. Maybe he was, only the silver burned from the inside.
A second later he let out a roar and pushed to his feet, his injured arm useless as the silver reacted to whatever altered their DNA to make them uglier and stronger than the rogues who made them. The half-man, half-wolf barreled toward her, fangs stretched past his jaw and dripping with saliva.
Nasty bastards.
She aimed and fired again, this time hitting him in the left thigh. Rage consumed the beast as he fell to the ground screaming, “Bitch!”
Standing over the mutant, she aimed and shot him in the head.
Two more shots cut through the moonlit forest, ending two more.
Some assassins, she snorted to herself.
She scanned the area and found nothing or no one. Blaine stepped in beside her, holstering his gun. “That was too easy.”
Cam nodded. “Yep.” She looked around the forest, taking in the shadows casted by the filtered moonlight and frowned. “Where are the two Onyx junkies?”
Blaine growled. “Shitheads ran off when we were preoccupied.”
Figures. The rogues that made up the outlawed Onyx Pack were no match for her, Blaine, and the other enforcers of Ashwood. That was why they used the mutants to fight. Cameron was about to mind link with the enforcers under her command and call them back until a sweet, unfamiliar scent caught her interest. The new scent didn’t carry the metallic, stale stench of blood like a rogue’s scent did. No, this was sweet and soft like cherry-scented powder.
She started moving, following the scent deeper into the forest.
Blaine cursed. “What the fuck, Cam?”
She ignored him and continued until she reached a large fallen tree trunk about fifty feet from where the rogues had been searching. She held her hand up when she heard the others come closer. They stilled at her raised hand, and Cam moved around the trunk. The faint sound of rapid thumps of heartbeats sent fear and worry through her.
Damn.
Children.
Her heart dropped to her stomach when she went to her knees and peered inside the hollow trunk. “Hello.”
She felt Blaine move in behind her. As soon as he squatted down beside her, the children backed farther into the tree trunk.
“Blaine, back up,” she bit out, annoyed at the damn stubborn male.
With a heavy sigh, he did as he was told. Once he walked a few feet away, Cameron tried to coax the kids out. “My name is Cameron. My friends call me Cam.” She paused for several moments before trying again. “I’m from Ashwood Falls. Do you know where that is?” It was a long shot, but Ashwood had a reputation of being a safe haven for those without a Pack. She hoped the kids had heard about it.
Rustling, then a small foot came into view. “Do you know Nevan Mathews?” a small female voice whispered.
Cameron’s heart did a little flip. “Yes. I can take you to him. Can you come out, please?”
She heard a whimper followed by sobbing, and then a small boy was pushed out of the trunk. Cam reached out to him, but he cried harder and shrank back from her. Her heart broke at the fear in his big, round blue eyes. A few seconds later, the little girl who must have spoken climbed out.
Cameron stood and gave them room. The girl looked to be about ten, and Cam guessed the boy was around three.
“What are your names?”
The girl brushed her fingers though her hair and scrunched up her face at the black dirt covering her hands afterward. “My name is Sammie, and this is my brother, Max.”
Cam knelt to Max’s level and smiled. “Hi, Max.”
Max moved to hide behind his sister, and another sob broke from him. A lump formed in Cam’s throat. What the hell had he been through to be that scared of people?
Cam heard one of the enforcers speak to Blaine softly behind her. The children heard too and backed away. “Wait! They won’t hurt you. You can trust us.”
Blaine cleared his throat in warning. Cameron cut him a look over her shoulder. The urgency in his gaze sent a wash of cold dread through her veins. “Rogues? How far?”
“About ten minutes away. The sentries say it looks like a search party.”
Fuck.
Turning back to the kids, she saw the fear in Sammie’s eyes.
“There are more bad people coming,” she said.
Cam dropped her shoulders. “I’m afraid so. We have to leave now. Can you give me Max? Blaine will carry you. It’s faster that way.”
Sammie nodded and tugged Max toward Cameron. He let out another cry. Sammie slapped her hand over his mouth and whispered something to him that seemed to calm him. She walked him closer to Cameron and cooed, “She’s safe, Max. We’re both safe now.”
Cameron picked up Max, glad that he didn’t start crying again, and settled his warm weight on her hip. Blaine stepped up beside her and offered his hand to Sammie. When she took it, he smiled. “It nice to meet you.”
Cameron rolled her eyes. Always the charmer. “Let’s move it, lover boy.”
Blaine picked Sammie up, and they took off toward the den.
****
Graham Griffin sat at his stepbrother’s, Nevan Mathews, dining room table sketching out a draft for the new nursery and elementary school he and Luna had talked about that afternoon. The wolf Alpha was brilliant in her vision that the project would add a secure and nurturing environment for the smallest of Pack members.
Nevan and his mate, Danica, had approached him after their house warming party a few weeks ago about meeting with the Alphas, Keegan and Luna, to design the new nursery and school. After a pleasant evening of g
athering information and expressing his ideas and concerns, Luna was the first to ask him to stay in the den and start the project right away.
Danica had insisted he stay with them until he finished and Nevan, being family and all, wouldn’t see it any other way.
The phone rang, breaking through the silent, dark house and startling him. He laughed softly and shook his head. He’d been so focused on his sketch that the piercing ring had made him jump. Picking up the receiver, he kept his voice down, which was probably not necessary because Dani was a leopard shifter and most likely had heard the phone anyway. “Hello.”
A soft voice came over the line, unsure. “Oh…hi, it’s Sasha. Is Nevan or Dani awake?”
“They’re sleeping. Is something wrong?” He couldn’t keep the cold feeling from running up his spine. He’d meet Sasha the day before. Petite and pretty with short blond hair and skin of creamed coffee, she was the wolf Healer and one of Dani’s closest friends.
“Umm, well Cam and Blaine found two children running from rogues and brought them here. They’re pumas and…”
His heart stopped for a brief moment then kicked into overdrive. Puma was another name commonly used for mountain lion. His thoughts immediately went to his ex-lover’s kids. A dark, and cold chill went up his spine. It wasn’t possible. “What are their names and ages?”
“Sammie and Max. They said their father told them to come here and find Nevan.”
Fuck me.
“I’ll wake Dani and come right over.” He hung up the phone before the wolf Healer could argue and stood.
Shuffling of feet drew his attention to the hallway. Danica entered the living room, her strawberry-blond hair ruffled from sleep. “Who was that?”
He nodded. “Sasha. The enforcers found my…ex’s kids in the forest.”
Dani whirled around without a word to rush back down the hall. She came back a moment later in a pair of jeans and one of Nevan’s T-shirts. She was pulling her hair back in a ponytail as they walked out the door.
God, it had been over a year since he’d seen the kids. Although he was excited about seeing them, he had a terrible feeling something had happen to their father.
Dammit, Isaac, what have you gotten into now?
With his heart pounding from worry, he followed Dani inside the medical center, which mirrored a small hospital. The double doors opened to a waiting area with plush, brown leather benches and chairs. There were two rooms on each side and a hallway straight head with more rooms and offices.
Once inside the open space of the waiting room, Graham turned to the room on his left. The door was open, and he stopped short in the doorway. Cameron, the female enforcer he’d met at his brother’s party a few weeks ago, paced the room, humming softly with Max in her arms. She was tall with modest curves that her tight jeans showed off perfectly. A gun was still strapped to one thigh and she wore flat-heeled boots that came up mid-calf over the top of her jeans. When she turned to face him, her dark brown gaze held his. His pulse picked up and his dick hardened behind the zipper of his jeans. Like the first time he’d seen her, everything seemed to stand still; the air in the room grew thick. Only now it was more intense.
At the house warming party, he watched her from across the room, but his brothers and mother distracted him with teasing the newly mated couple about having children. He hadn’t had the chance to introduce himself.
Now, he didn’t have many distractions, nor did he want them.
Dani came up behind him and patted him on the back. Breaking eye contact with Cameron, he stepped into the room and closer to the enforcer to get a better look at Max while he tried to ignore the scent of jasmine flowing off her that called to his own puma.
Max was dirty, but looked unharmed. Physically anyway.
Dani rushed over, and as soon as she touched Max, he squeezed Cameron’s neck and started to whine. Cameron bounced the toddler lightly while she rubbed his back in soothing circles. “Shh. It’s okay. This is Dani. She’s a Healer.”
The gentle, motherly way Cameron soothed Max only added to the attraction that Graham didn’t understand. All his life he’d been attracted to men. However, this female stirred a need inside him he’d never felt before.
He had to get to know her, talk to her, and take in her intoxicating jasmine scent.
Fuck.
What the hell was he doing?
He shook his head to clear out thoughts of the female enforcer, and focused on Max, who had turned his head to peer at Dani, but his wet blue eyes fell on Graham. Instantly, Max wiggled and held his arms out to Graham.
Smiling, Graham stepped closer and took the little boy from Cameron, all the while trying not to notice the spark of something—he didn’t know what—as his hand brushed Cameron’s when she lifted Max to him.
Max wrapped his arms around Graham’s neck and squeezed. Graham squeezed back, closing his eyes for a brief moment. Thank God he was okay. At least he looked okay. When he opened his eyes, it was to see Cameron watching him. He smiled. “Thank you for caring for him.”
She looked away and shrugged. “He wouldn’t go to anyone else. Besides he’s very sweet.”
“Graham?” Dani questioned from beside him.
He turned so she could run her hand down Max’s back. She walked her fingers back up the middle of his back, and he giggled. Dani laughed. “I knew you had a giggle hiding in there.” She looked at Graham and said, “See if you can sit him on the bed. I need to do a complete physical.”
He nodded and shifted Max to sit on the bed. He let out a soft cry, and Graham growled low, snapping Max’s attention to him. “No one here will harm you, little man.”
Max’s bottom lip quivered, but he sat on the bed watching Dani as she moved to stand in front of him. Carefully, she removed his dirt-caked shirt and started to check him over. When she was done, she looked at Graham and smiled. “He’s healthy… dirty, but healthy.”
Graham sagged in relief. “Thanks.”
“He wouldn’t let anyone touch him but me.” Cameron said again.
Graham felt her gaze on him as he pulled his phone out, opened the bubble wrap app, and handed it to Max. “He’d always been a quiet baby.”
“I think he was touch-starved.”
Graham snapped his head and narrowed his eyes at her. “Isaac would have never…”
She didn’t flinch. Instead, she crossed her arms and glared back at him. “They were being held captive.”
His heart sank as fear rose within him. “What?”
She let out a sigh. “Sammie said they slept in a dirty cell with bars. The only connection he had was with his sister.”
Anger bloomed within Graham, but he tamped it down. “Where is Samantha?”
Just then a shriek of joy filled the waiting area outside the room they stood in, followed by Sammie’s voice. “Papa!”
He turned in time to catch her as she jumped for him. Picking her up, he held her tight and kissed her temple. Her blond hair was wet from a bath, and she smelled of roses and soap. “Are you okay?”
She nodded into his shoulder and whispered, “Daddy’s not coming back.”
Squeezing her, he didn’t respond. It was the only reason why Isaac would have sent the kids to search for him. The male had gotten into something way over his head.
He lifted his gaze to the doorway as the leopard Marshal, Blaine Andrews, walked in. The male was about a couple of inches taller than Graham and must outweigh him by fifty pounds of muscle.
The male was built for fighting and fucking.
This is so not the time or the place.
What the hell was wrong with him? Had he gone back to being a horny teen again?
Blaine gave him a short nod in greeting, his grey eyes darkening slightly as the male studied Graham, most likely sensing Graham’s desire. Hell, any shifter within a mile radius would sense the way his blood heated with the Marshal and enforcer in the room.
One of Blaine’s eyebrows raised and Graham swore hi
s lips twitched before Blaine spoke to Dani. “Sasha says Sammie looks good from what she can tell.”
Dani turned her attention to Sammie, running a hand lightly over her back. As a leopard healer, Dani could sense internal injuries in other felines.
At the Healer’s soft touch, Sammie relaxed a little and squeezed his neck. “He left us alone. He said he’d be right back, but the monsters came and took us. We stayed inside that dirty room for so long. Daddy never came. I tried to sense him, but couldn’t feel him because we were too far away. Then he came and set us free, he told me to go to Ashwood Falls. He showed me the map on his phone, but I didn’t understand. He just shoved us out of the building, pointed toward the forest and told me to run with Max.”
She talked so fast, her words didn’t make since at first. When he pulled her back to peer into her face, she had tears running down her pale face. Her blue eyes holding more terror than he’d ever seen in a child. Graham hugged her tight again, rubbing her back, soothing her. “Shh, baby. You’re safe now. Let’s get you two home and get you to bed. We can talk more in the morning.”
Dani smoothed a hand over Sammie hair and agreed, “It’s late.” She turned to Blaine and said, “We can call a meeting at my house in the morning.”
An Unlucky Moon
Did you enjoy this selection? Why not try another romance from Fated Desires?
From USA Today Bestselling Author, Carrie Ann Ryan’s Dante’s Circle Series:
Humans aren’t as alone as they choose to believe. Every human possesses a trait of supernatural that lays dormant within their genetic make-up. Centuries of diluting and breeding have allowed humans to think they are alone and untouched by magic. But what happens when something changes?
He’s spent the last few years in hell fighting in the demon games and doing things that would haunt even the fiercest of men’s nightmares. But now Hunter Brooks is back in the human realm, ready to take on the Pack that left him behind…and take the mate he’s just met.