Mated By The Demon Collections: Paranormal Romance

by Riley Moreno

  ‘Welcome to this beautiful world, Kirk Kincaid!’ Tristan whispered ecstatically into his son’s ear.

  ‘Kirk! After my grandfather?’

  ‘Yes,’ Tristan said, ‘He is going to do great things to keep the clans united.’

  Tristan leaned over to kiss Ashley as she held their baby to her breast. He watched the baby nurse, a gentle smile transforming his face.

  ‘You are so beautiful, Ashley,’ He kissed her again. ‘Rest now, my love, while your husband goes down to the banquet to celebrate the birth of his bairn.’

  ‘No doubt a feat which he accomplished on his own,’ Ashley teased.

  ‘Well, me and the power of my loins,’ Tristan said. He leaned closer to Ashley’s ear and whispered, ‘And when does the midwife say we might be allowed to make love again?’

  ‘A couple of weeks, at most, my darling.’

  ‘And how will I survive?’ Tristan asked, aghast.

  ‘Like I will,’ Ashley said, flashing her dimples at him.

  Tristan kissed her again, and bent low to brush his lips against Kirk’s soft forehead.

  ‘Hmmm, he has a Mackenzie’s red hair,’ Tristan observed.

  ‘And a Kincaid’s blue eyes,’ Ashley said.

  ‘Mackenzie mouth,’ Tristan remarked.

  ‘Kincaid nose,’ Ashley said.

  ‘A perfect combination,’ Tristan said.

  ‘I am sure you will now have stiff competition at the Games,’ Ashley said, examining Kirk’s tiny fists.

  ‘He will do everything I can, and more,’ Tristan said, ‘I can’t wait to teach him to ride and wield a claymore…and dance the Highland Fling.’

  ‘What will I teach him?’ Ashley asked.

  ‘To be strong and fearless…and loyal.’

  ‘Who will he marry?’ Ashley asked, looking searchingly at her husband.

  ‘A good Kincaid lass of course,’ Tristan answered.

  ‘No. It will have to be a good Mackenzie lass.’

  ‘Someone like his mother? No, we can’t have that!’ Tristan teased.

  ‘Really? Well you know what dear husband? I have only just remembered that the midwife said it will have to be a few months, rather than a few weeks, before…’

  ‘Ssshh,’ Tristan cautioned, a finger to his lips.

  ‘What is it?’ Ashley said.

  ‘You can’t speak of such things in front of young Kirk.’

  Ashley slapped Tristan playfully. ‘Go on now to the banquet.’

  ‘And what will you do?’

  ‘I will nurse your heir and get some rest. And then I will wait for you to return from your revels at the banquet and sing me to sleep.’

  Tristan kissed her again, ‘I will be back to sing you to sleep, my darling.’

  Ashley placed Kirk in the crib by her bed and lay back against the pillows. Through the open window she could see the hills that sloped down to blue lochs and the smell of fresh heather from the bouquet that Tristan had brought her filled the air about her. The pipers and fiddlers were playing down in the gardens and she could hear the stamping of feet. She could imagine Tristan dancing, his wild hair flying out behind him… but as her eyes closed in exhausted sleep, it wasn’t Tristan she saw but little Kirk with flaming hair, dancing a reel.

  THE END.

  THE MODERN COWBOY

  Western Romance

  Riley Moreno

  Chapter 1

  Alex

  Alex Ray Johnson, known by his friends as ‘the modern cowboy’, lives on a ranch in Texas and refuses to conform completely to the modern world. Sure, he’s still modern in the sense of electricity and the internet – but he still believes in working hard and living a sustainable life that he has built. He hates that the world relies so much of everyone else in order to survive, whereas his ranch is set on acres of land in which him and his team grown their own food. It’s a life that his father showed him and one that he has believed in strongly from a very young age.

  It was his father who showed him how to be an animal herder and how to tend to all the cattle on the ranch. The job is not nearly as easy as some might think – it involves a lot of strength and a boat load of patience – of which he has both. Alex always laughs when his friends come to visit, with their tales of the hours they spent at the gym. No matter how many hours they might spend going to the gym they still never look anywhere near as muscular and tanned as he does. Hours of hard work outside always takes precedence in the end.

  The reason he has these friends was due to a one year break that he took from ranch life, five years ago. Alex had married early – to a girl that he had grown up with on the ranch. When he met Emily the two of them were too young to even consider marriage. There weren’t many other kids on the ranch so the two of them became instant friends, sneaking off to play as often as they could. Alex clearly remembers the day he started to have feelings for her. They were fifteen years old and going out to a party that someone on the ranch was throwing. He had dressed up for the occasion, and went over to house to fetch her. The plan was to walk together – because quite frankly they never did anything alone. When he arrived at her house he knocked on the door and waited for her to come out. She was taking forever to come out and he remembers screaming out “Come on Emily, stop taking so long.” But when the door opened and she stepped out he had taken a step back in shock. Little Emily looked like a woman. She had on a dress that was tight at the top and flew out at the waist. It made her bosom look big and her waist look tiny, and Alex suddenly saw parts of her body that he hadn’t really thought about before. He barely said a word to her the whole night, he could barely look at her he was so nervous. He spent the whole night talking to everyone except her but whenever she wasn’t looking he would gaze at her longingly. On the walk home he looked over at her and noticed that she was crying. “What’s wrong Emily?” he had said, shocked by her tears. “You think I’m ugly,” she had said. It hadn’t been a question – it was simply what she believed. And that’s when he kissed her. It was awkward and strange and beautiful all at once. Five years later, the two of them were married.

  Alex loved Emily more and more with each passing year. The two of them were inseparable and life on the ranch was perfect. But only a few years into their marriage, and right at the moment when they were talking about starting a family, Emily fell sick. To this day Alex has no idea what happened – but within weeks her illness had gotten worse and worse, and just a few weeks after that she quietly passed away. The death had devastated Alex.

  Two months’ after her death he left the ranch. He just needed to get away. His father had urged him to go and agreed that he needed some time to simply breathe. He always knew that he would come back to the ranch, and after a year of being away he knew that the ranch would always be the place for him. Living away from the ranch had been an eye-opener. He always knew that people in the city lived a different life to him, but he hadn’t given it all that much thought. He spent that year working various jobs and made some great friends, all of whom he is still friends with to this day. The three friends were Adam, Jerry and Paul – and they welcomed him into their group immediately. They found the idea of Alex as a cowboy fascinating and somewhat hilarious and dubbed him ‘the modern cowboy.’ Being away from the ranch had been good for him. Firstly, it had given him time to grieve Emily but also to learn how to live without her. He didn’t meet any girls in that time away from the ranch – no matter how much pressure he received from his friends or how many girls tried to chat him up. He promised himself that he wouldn’t – and also the girls were of no interest to him. He didn’t like these girls, who were so different to what he was used to. He was used to Emily – who had been down to earth, hardworking, natural and sincere.

  He was in about his eleventh month in the city when the news that his father had died came to him. He had died in an accident on one of his errands and two other ranch members had been killed too. Alex did not have a mother – she had passed away when giving birth to him
so he had never met her. The two most important people in his life had been his father and Emily. And both of them were gone. It had been a hard time in his life and he returned to the ranch immediately. He knew it would be what his dad would’ve wanted from him. He was now in control of the ranch and all the workers – and he was determined to make his father proud.

  His friends came to visit just a few months after that, and their two day trip turned into ten days. “I told you you’d like it” he had said to them. And they agreed – there was something about being so far removed from the rest of the world that had its appeal. It made all the other issues that seemed so important suddenly disappear. They had only one problem with it – there were not enough girls. Alex knew this was true, but at the time it had been the last thing on his mind. As far as he was concerned, he never wanted another girl in his life ever again.

  But that was a few years ago. Now, after being the head of the ranch for many years, and discovering what life must’ve been like for his father – he was starting to feel lonely. But he had no idea what to do about it. There weren’t any woman his age on the ranch now but he also had no interest in going into the city to find one. It wasn’t like you could just go to the shop and pick one out. But then he had an idea. It was something that his friends had spoken about in jest but which, for reasons he was only seeing now, had stayed with him all this time. They had told him about a Mail Order Bride website in which you could go online and look for a woman. Most of these women, he assumed, wanted to get out their country and were looking for a way into America. Although, he assumed too, he was sure most were also looking for love. He thought about this for quite some time and actually started the process but then he couldn’t bring himself to do it. It felt strange looking through all the women and not knowing if he was even their type at all. But then, while searching the net, he came across another idea. Why not leave the fate into the hands of the women? He thought. He had always been a big believer in fate, and he had a feeling that something like this might work. He called up Jerry to tell him his plan.

  “Alex, my man! I can’t believe this! Yes yes yes! I say go for it. What have you got to lose! This is like the modern mail order bride! I honestly don’t see why you can’t do this. If it works then hell I might give it a go myself. I’ve had no luck with women lately so perhaps I’m doing it all wrong. At least you’ll know that she wants the kind of relationship you’re after. Be specific in the advert – make sure you get the right girl. And do me a favour Alex – call me when she arrives. We are SO coming over to meet her.” Jerry was laughing when Alex put the phone down. But Alex knew that he wasn’t mocking him, he was simply excited. Those guys were so girl crazy it was unbelievable. He had no doubt that Jerry had immediately picked up the phone to tell the other guys what was happening.

  Jerry had said some interesting things though – be specific. Alex hadn’t really given much thought to what he was going to say but he suddenly realised that the words that he used were important. However, he didn’t want to be too specific – he wanted the opportunity for fate to play its role too. He thought of Emily and wondered what she would make of all this. She’d be happy for him, he knew that. She’d probably also be laughing at him now and her laughter filled his mind with a mixture of sadness and joy.

  Jerry had also given him the names of a few of the most popular newspapers to go for, which was also good advice because Alex hadn’t even considered doing this in more than one. But of course, that would’ve been silly, it’s important that his message gets seen by a few people. He phoned the newspapers, found out the cost to place and advert and told them that he would have the wording emailed to them within the hour. He always worked well under pressure and he wanted to make sure that he didn’t back out of this. He knew that the more time he gave himself the more chance there was that he would decide not to do it.

  Modern Cowboy looking for love.

  31 year old cowboy, living on a ranch in Texas, seeks a new bride. He has no specific criteria other than a woman who is between 25 – 33 and who is serious about starting a new life outside of the city. He’s looking for someone that is fun loving, kind hearted and laid back. Must be willing to live out on the ranch with him. All interested parties must supply a letter of interest to the following address.

  Alex read this over and over again – taking out words and putting new words in. Eventually he settled on something that he was happy with. It said what he wanted to say without saying too much at all. He was sure that Jerry would find the advert to be far too general. He knew that Jerry would say he should say something about the appearance of the girl – but Alex would never do that. Attraction would either be or it wouldn’t be there – and that was something that he would only know once the girl actually arrived.

  He sent the email out, along with his proof of payment, and within minutes he got a reply to say that it would be in the morning’s paper. But the editor had asked if he didn’t want to rather put in an email address rather than a postal address, and Alex had declined. An actual letter took a lot more effort than an email – and he wanted to find someone that was willing to make that effort.

  Now it was just a matter of sitting back and waiting.

  Chapter 2

  Alice

  Alice was tired of her life. It was deadline after deadline after deadline. At the start of her career this was exactly what she was after. She loved the rush that it bought her. She’d always loved writing but when she got a job for the local newspaper she found that she actually quite enjoyed finding fast news on a daily basis. There was always the rush to be the first one to get the story and to get it out into the public as quick as possible. But the job was changing fast – and it was impossible to compare it to the one she had started eight years ago. She had started at the newspaper when she was only twenty two years old. She was young, carefree and excited about the world before her. It was a far cry from what she had always wanted to be growing up – her intentions had always been to be a novelist. But she didn’t mind. Hey, at least I’m writing, she would tell herself.

  Now at age 30, she already felt like she needed to slow down her pace. This was interesting because most of her friends were still starting out in their careers – paving their way towards something great. But she had started in the game early, and had her first big career break after only one year of starting. It had all happened simply because she had been in the right place at the right time. She remembers the day clearly. It was a balmy Tuesday afternoon, and she was on her way back from a lunch break at one of her favourite restaurants. As usual she had combined lunch with a business meeting – always trying to maximise her time – and it had gone on a bit longer than usual. The restaurant was on the top floor of a hotel because it offered one of the best views of the city and she loved going there with clients to show off. She always got the best interviews when she went there because people always had a sense of false empowerment simply by being elevated to that level. It was a little mind trick that she liked to play with people and it got them every single time. Even she felt more important up there.

  After the meeting she got into the lift and in a spur of the moment decision she decided to go out onto the roof level before heading home. She had always wanted to do that – to get an even greater sense of the view without the confinement of the restaurant walls. As she got to the top she had gasped. There was only one other person on the roof level with her – and it was none other than the top CEO of one of the top companies in the area. Everyone knew who he was and he was both loved and hated by the world – depending on their viewpoint of mass consumerism. Personally, he wasn’t someone she liked, but the moment she saw him she knew she had a good news story in front of her. Because he wasn’t just standing looking at the view like she was. Instead, he was about to jump out and take his life. Immediately, her reporter mode set into action and she ran forward to him. Perhaps it was because she was so young and pretty, or maybe she just had a good way with words, but
whatever the reason he came down and agreed to talk to her. The two of them sat for hours like that. Just talking. And somehow he agreed for her to interview him and he also agreed to not go through with the plan. Perhaps he was never going to jump in the first place. Afterwards Alice realised that he might have been using her in the same way that she was using him – because after the news coverage came out – he was suddenly the most talked about person in the country. Since that day, Alice’s career was elevated and she had been on a rollercoaster that only knew how to go up.

  It had been luck that had helped her that day, but Alice knew that it was also her determination and will that made it happen. She knew that she deserved the recognition that she got and she never for one minute felt bad that she had used a man’s personal problems to help her. After all, she figured, she had helped him decide to live instead of die. There was surely nothing wrong with that. Since then Alice was constantly chasing the next big bit of news, and thankfully she had encountered a lot more luck in her years as a journalist. But she was tired now, and she found herself barely getting excited about it anymore. When she first started she would always be at her desk before anyone else – already through her third cup of coffee before anyone else even walked through the doors. Now, she found herself sauntering in whenever she felt like it, which was never early anymore. She had been such a hard worker for so many years that nobody really seemed to notice that she had started slacking off. But she knew that someone would say something soon. She either had to find her mojo again or else she had to start looking in another direction.

  Perhaps her lack of interest had nothing to do with her career at all and more to do with her personal life – or lack thereof. A few days ago she had bumped into an old college friend who had invited her out for dinner. She decided to go, simply because she couldn’t remember the last time that she had gone out and was surprised to find an entire group of people. Some she knew from college days, others were new – but it was obvious that the group she had been friends with back then were still friends now, and their circle of friends had grown. Unlike herself – who now belonged in a friendship group for one. That’s when she realised that she had been putting her career in front of everything else. These girls all had relationships. Some were married, others were almost married and some were simply frolicking their way from man to man. And a good handful of them already had kids – more than one. They were so eager to hear about Alice and her life as a reporter. “So,” one of the girls had said, leaning forward in anticipation, “you’re like a celebratory you know. You must get all the guys. You lucky girl. Tell me – just how exciting is your life?” And Alice had laughed, acting modest and telling them it was not exciting at all and they had laughed back as if to say they didn’t believe her. But the truth was that her life really wasn’t exciting and looking at those girls made her see how much more of a life they were actually living then her.