by Laina Kenney
Vulfen Cadre 5
Vulfen Enforcer’s Mate
When sultry bartender Maressa Colletti gets cornered in an alley behind the bar by a drunken thug, she knows she is in trouble. What she doesn’t know is that the gorgeous man who walks in whistling and aids her is actually a wolf in designer clothing.
For Ives Toussand, finding his mate in a threatening situation pushes his control to the limit. His instinct wants to tear her attacker to shreds and carry her away to explore the raging heat between them. Unfortunately, the human police have been called, and he has no choice but to disable only, then step away and will his claws back in before he reveals the secret of centuries.
With Ives’s assistance, Maressa comes to accept the vulfen way, but when a tense hostage scene arises, will his killer instinct come between them? Or will his new mate be able to find a way to accept that her life is worthy of his extreme protection?
Genre: Contemporary, Paranormal, Vampires/Werewolves
Length: 28,047 words
VULFEN ENFORCER’S MATE
Vulfen Cadre 5
Laina Kenney
EROTIC ROMANCE
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Erotic Romance
VULFEN ENFORCER’S MATE
Copyright © 2014 by Laina Kenney
E-book ISBN: 978-1-62741-191-2
First E-book Publication: February 2014
Cover design by Harris Channing
All art and logo copyright © 2014 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
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Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
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
About the Author
VULFEN ENFORCER’S MATE
Vulfen Cadre 5
LAINA KENNEY
Copyright © 2014
Chapter 1
“Are we going to sit in this bar all night?”
Ives spared a glance at Brax, and in the dimly lit pub, felt as much as saw Matsij’s frown from the corner of his eye.
He ran an absent hand through his dark hair while his eyes tracked around the room, leaving his whiskey untouched. As a vulfen warrior, most human spirits didn’t affect him much, but he could smell the strength of the Irish without taking a sip.
It was good to get all the warriors from the Sidarov Cadre together in a non-threatening environment, one where they could talk, brag, and blow off some steam without triggering a challenge, but still. The whole purpose of spending the evening in the most traditional Irish pub in Boston was to give Matsij a good male send-off before his formal mating ceremony, and now he had to listen to a whining youth.
Ives lifted his glass but didn’t drink. Brax was strong enough, and smart, and that was why Ives had been assigned as his trainer. Their Alpha and the senior Cadre members had been watching Brax, but the simple truth was that he hadn’t earned his place yet.
“You are free to go at any time,” was all Ives said.
He knew the younger man would stay. Brax was young and it showed. At twenty-one, he wanted badly to be a warrior, to be chosen as a member of the Sidarov Cadre as his older cousins were, but he had a long way to go. The warriors in the Cadre were the elite, even among the vulfen people.
Conversation around him picked up again, but Ives’s attention wasn’t on the dwindling numbers of their party. He was focused on another part of the bar altogether.
The delectable bartender, a tall human woman with glorious black hair pulled into a long high ponytail, was approaching the table of human males that had been embarrassing their young female server. Perhaps the bartender was going to ask them to leave.
Ives had noticed the situation, of course, but his role as vulfen enforcer didn’t extend to humans. He could smell the lust coming off the men and it insulted his senses, but until they did more than smirk and joke around, he wasn’t going to step in. It would be all too easy for someone with his instincts and training to kill. It would be as easy as swatting a fly.
And the closer the beautiful bartender got to the group of human men, the more his instinct wanted him to slash with claw and fang.
He pushed his drink aside.
Her curved hips swayed with every clicking step in those high-heeled leather boots, and the leader of the human group licked his lips and whispered something obscene. The men beside him laughed and the tension in the bar rose.
Ives’s gut tightened and he pushed his chair away from the table just enough that he would be able to move freely at the first sign of trouble. He was uneasy with the scents of liquor and lust, such a bad combination for humans.
The woman was still smiling. Didn’t she understand that her attention, her presence alone was inciting them? She was no fresh-faced college girl for them to tea
se until she blushed. She was a woman, tall and strong, and she had curves that wouldn’t quit. Every move she made was a sultry temptation to sex.
Ives was torn between breath-stealing lust and an unexpected protectiveness.
He couldn’t take his eyes off of her. When she moved past, he got a hint of something surprisingly sweet in her scent. He wanted to bury his nose in her vulnerable throat and just breathe her in.
Ives wiped a hand over his jaw. Didn’t she know that she could cause a riot with that body? Perhaps she just wanted to speak to them and ask them to tone it down for the younger server, but she was creating a lethal situation.
Ives would never be able to stand by if a woman was insulted. None of the vulfen warriors present would stand for that. And if the humans persisted, there would be a bloodbath and the careful secrets of centuries would come pouring out. Ives was proud of his people and he didn’t like secrets, but not all humans were ready to know that they shared their world with other species.
The other vulfen warriors in his group picked up on his focus and fell silent one by one. Even Brax stopped talking and turned his head.
The woman leaned down to speak to the leader of the rowdy human group and Ives saw him cup her breast and squeeze.
Fangs flashed as Ives vaulted the table and landed in a leap that covered half the bar floor and would have given away his abilities had any of the few remaining humans in the bar been watching him. But before he could intervene, the woman stumbled, and in a flurry of elbows and knees, she was free and her unwelcome suitor was sliding out of his chair.
The man slid slowly to the floor, cupping his privates and wheezing. His eyes watered, full of hate, and fixed on her face. He must know he had lost his importance in front of his friends, and that kind of man wouldn’t be able to accept that a woman had dealt the killing blow to his pride.
“Oh, I’m so sorry, sir,” she said, but to Ives’s ears her tone held a rich satisfaction.
One of the remaining vulfen warriors snickered behind him. Ives didn’t feel like laughing. He was battling the strong urge to kill.
He was a full-blooded Vulfen male, but he wasn’t a wild animal. He prided himself on his diplomacy in tense situations but underneath it all, he was an enforcer. He had earned his pack position through his strength and protectiveness, and all he wanted was to leap on the gasping man and tear him to thin shreds with teeth and claws. The urge was so fierce it all but blinded him. It was all he could do to stand and wait for the human bouncer to escort the man and his bitching companions to the door.
Ives watched as the woman moved back behind the bar and spoke to the young server. Her words didn’t carry even for his vulfen hearing, but her tone was soft, soothing. She had her hand on the younger woman’s arm. It was clear that she cared.
The woman had moved so quickly that Ives had little time to catalogue her movements, but he didn’t make the mistake of thinking her freedom was accidental. She had made it look casual, perhaps to allow the man to keep some pride, but she was trained in self-defense.
Ives signaled to Balke and the man nodded.
“Brax, you are with Balke for tonight. We will resume your training in three days’ time.”
Brax looked startled but said nothing. Ives saw Balke and his twin Egan share a long look. The twins didn’t speak, they rarely did, but when Ives walked out of the bar, Egan was a pace behind him.
* * * *
Maressa looked at the clock and sighed. Last Call had been announced, but it would be another few minutes until the people dispersed. Most of the regulars had tottered off home, and since Todd had escorted one unruly group to the door, they only had one larger group left in the bar. She took out a clean cloth and started to wipe down the long bog oak bar.
Maressa wasn’t usually a clock-watcher, but it was her third night of double shifts and her feet were killing her. All she wanted to do was release her hair from the ponytail, fall into bed, and let sleep wash over her.
She was off for a couple of days, and after closing, she was going home to sleep until noon. She didn’t mind the bartending and she really liked the tips. Her younger sister Bliss was in her final year of nursing school and her program was labeled intensive, so with the class work and her mandatory ER time, she didn’t have the spare hours for a job on the side this year.
Maressa understood. She took the extra shifts whenever she could, just to help out. She of all people knew just how hard Bliss worked to keep her grade level up and stay at the top of her class.
When a big hairy hand covered hers and took the cloth she was using, Maressa looked up, startled.
“Go home,” Todd said. His rough face held a worried frown. “You’re sleeping standing up.”
Maressa would have protested, but when she scanned the bar it was empty.
“Carrie’s boyfriend picked her up already. Just go home and get some real sleep. And don’t call tomorrow to ask how we’re doing. Just forget about the bar for a day.”
“Thanks, Todd,” she tried, but it was interrupted by a jaw-cracking yawn. They both laughed and he handed her the lightweight jacket she kept behind the bar.
Maressa shrugged into her jacket as she walked out the backdoor and into the clear Boston night. She never worried about walking alone because her parking spot was only about twenty feet from the backdoor and the bar was in a good neighborhood with a visible police presence. But tonight, when the door clicked shut behind her, a shiver went down her spine.
She turned quickly, but not quickly enough to catch the edge before it shut. Whether due to her basic exhaustion or just preoccupation, her unexplainable internal warning system had not reacted quickly enough this time. Her car was close in the narrow alley, but her instincts were screaming. She squinted, trying to see into the deep shadows by the recycler. She walked by it every night, but suddenly fifteen feet seemed like as many miles.
The black shadows rippled and coalesced into a solid form. A large man stepped out from behind the glass recycler and another stepped out to stand in front of her car. She recognized the man as he approached and stiffened.
He and his stupid friends had been harassing Carrie all evening with his misogynistic jokes and come-ons and when she had tried to get him to tone it down, he had grabbed her breast. She couldn’t resist the opportunity to give him a little attitude therapy free of charge, as Todd would say.
A cold gust of wind swept the alley. Maressa caught a whiff of whiskey overlaying the sour smell of his body and shuddered.
She was grateful that she had some defense training. It looked like she was going to need it.
She owed so much to Todd, not the least of which was her unorthodox training in self-defense. When she had first arrived in Boston five years earlier, with a timid teenage sister in tow, Todd had hired her on the spot despite her lack of job experience.
Todd had even taken the two girls home to his elderly aunt until he could find them an affordable apartment, but Bliss had loved Aunt Belle so much that, after five years, they still lived in her second floor apartment and did her grocery shopping on Saturdays.
“I’m gonna teach you a lesson about men, bitch,” the man said and spit on the pavement, rubbing his crotch obscenely.
Maressa’s throat tightened and she didn’t respond. She knew enough about men already to be worried. Her professional eye judged that he was still drunk, but not quite drunk enough. And he was big.
Shit.
She bent her knees into a loose ready stance and put her hand on the alarm button of her key chain. When she hit it, her horn would sound and she might get a two-second advantage over these guys. They were so much larger that she would need every trick she could come up with to keep from getting beaten or worse.
Todd lived in the apartment over the bar, so she wasn’t truly alone, but she had to keep them from getting their hands on her before Todd could get down the stairs.
A jaunty whistle caught her attention but she didn’t dare look away from the b
ig man threatening her.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the figure of a man approaching down the alley from a little side street, hands in his jean pockets and whistling a bright and lively tune.
When the bigger man looked, she stole a quick glance and her unborn hope of help died. The big guy was a couple of inches taller than the newcomer and probably outweighed him by sixty pounds at least.
Maressa felt a strange surge of protectiveness for the stranger. He shouldn’t be involved. Todd was easily as big as the leader and could hold his own in a bar brawl any night of the week, but she hesitated to ask for help from the lean man who was getting closer all the time. He moved like a dancer, smooth and assured, but she didn’t want to get him killed.
“Back off, buddy,” the man she had come to think of as Biff said as the other man got closer. “She’s been giving me the come on all night and she’s gonna deliver.”
The whistling man shrugged and somehow he was between her and Biff. She blinked. She hadn’t even seen him move, but now his strong back was within inches of her and he was blocking her view of both the other men. He looked bigger up close, lean and dangerous, but he couldn’t match the size of Biff and his ugly friend.
“It is time for you to leave,” the whistling man said. “Run.”
His gorgeous French accent sent an appreciative shiver down Maressa’s spine.
She shook her head. What was the matter with her? It was hardly the moment for her libido to wake from its long sleep and beg for attention from some unknown stud, but that voice made her feel warm all over.
“Get the fuck out of here. Find your own woman.” Biff sneered and gestured to his companion. The other man lunged in from the side and Maressa pressed her alarm button.