Eminence Shifters 6
Jade
Jade Liang discovers monsters are real when a crazed wolf shifter decides she belongs to him and his pack. She is held captive and tortured before a reluctant good samaritan frees her. Jade escapes, but soon succumbs to her injuries.
Cougar shifters Asher, Barrett, Wes and Troy Pollock have returned home to Eminence to train as soldiers for their pride. Their renewed bond as brothers is further strengthened when they discover they share a mate, the beautiful, but unconscious, Jade Liang.
Rage at their mate’s abuse turns to white-hot fury when it’s revealed she suffered at the hands of a shifter. They must then find a way to earn Jade’s trust as they reveal they are shifters, too. Whilst earning her trust they lose their hearts to the lovely Jade. She now holds their fate in her small hands, for if they fail to keep her from the wolf determined to reclaim her, all their lives will be forfeit.
Genre: Ménage a Trois/Quatre, Paranormal, Shape-shifter
Length: 48,490 words
JADE
Eminence Shifters 6
Ashley Malkin
MENAGE AMOUR
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Ménage Amour
JADE
Copyright © 2016 by Ashley Malkin
E-book ISBN: 978-1-68295-185-9
First E-book Publication: April 2016
Cover design by Harris Channing
All art and logo copyright © 2016 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.
All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
PUBLISHER
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
Letter to Readers
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DEDICATION
A special thank you to my husband and children for your unwavering support and love. You make it possible for me to follow my dreams.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
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
Epilogue
About the Author
JADE
Eminence Shifters 6
ASHLEY MALKIN
Copyright © 2016
Chapter 1
The ringing of the phone woke Jade with a start. She gasped as pain shot through her chest from her damaged ribs. Turning her head slowly, Jade surveyed her living room. She prayed she was still alone. Finding that she was indeed alone she renewed her efforts to free herself as the phone continued to ring. Help was so close, but still too far away when she was tied to the radiator clear across the room.
Jade screamed as she strained against her bindings. Her arm was black with bruising and badly swollen, but it didn’t deter her. She pulled as hard as she could against the ropes. She had to get away before Beau beat her so badly he killed her. Or worse, Beau would make good on his repeated threat to allow his friends Harry and Justin to beat and rape her instead of just bear witness to her abuse.
“Jade, it’s Amber. Again! Where are you, dammit?” Jade sagged as her sister’s voice rang through her small apartment. “If you’re working those crazy long hours again I’m going to come to Duck-wherever-you-are, and kick your butt.”
Amber hung up with a dramatic sigh, and Jade wanted to weep. If only her sister knew what was happening. It wouldn’t matter that Amber was still in New York City. She’d come to Duckwater, Nevada, to help her. Amber and Jade were close. They’d do anything for each other.
Jade heard the sound of boots on the wooden stairs to her apartment. She instinctively curled into a ball, biting down on her arm to stifle a scream as her broken ribs stabbed into her. She tasted blood, but didn’t release the pressure. She was in too much pain, and Beau had promised more beatings if he heard her screaming.
She didn’t think she’d survive another beating.
“Jade, are you in there? It’s Mac from the diner.”
Her boss knocked lightly on the door. Jade froze, unsure whether Beau was with Mac, or if he was alone.
“Jade, you’ve missed work for two days now. Are you sick?”
“Mac. I’m here, I need help.” Jade decided she couldn’t risk him leaving. If Beau turned up, then she’d just die sooner. She had nothing to lose. Her voice was so hoarse she feared Mac might not have heard her.
The doorknob rattled as Mac tried to enter and Jade almost cried with relief. “Can you unlock the door, Jade?” Mac said.
“Help.” Jade tried to scream the word, but it came out as a soft whisper. Her throat was dry and she was beyond tired. She’d had little sleep, with Beau keeping her awake for hours and hours either hitting her or screaming obscenities at her.
The door flew open and Jade screamed as her body tensed in surprise. Her ribs again stabbed at her damaged flesh.
“Jesus,” Mac said. He ran across the room and reached his hands out to her. He suddenly stilled, drawing his hands back as th
ough he’d scalded them. “Did Beau do this?”
“Beau and his friends,” Jade whispered. She was mortified that not only was Mac seeing her damaged and naked body, but she’d just admitted that Beau’s friends had also seen her like this.
Mac turned around, his head turning frantically from the open doorway back to her. “I…I can’t be here. He’ll kill me.”
“Mac, please.”
Jade would beg. She had nothing left to lose. Mac’s fear was obvious and Jade wondered if Beau’s reign of terror was not confined to her.
“Fuck,” Mac said. He pulled out a knife from his boot and swiftly cut the rope around Jade’s bloody and bruised wrists before slicing through the rope that tied her feet together.
Jade moaned as the rope fell from her damaged limbs and she struggled to kneel on all fours. Her chest burned in pain and her back and thighs stung as the healing cuts tore open as she moved.
Jade raised her head and saw Mac backing up to the doorway as he looked out her small front window.
“Can you help me stand?” Jade asked, her thighs shaking with the effort to hold her up as she knelt.
“I can’t touch you. He’ll know,” Mac husked. He ran across the room and grabbed her bottle of Calvin Klein One. He sprayed it around the room and turned to spray it on her.
“Mac, I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about. But thank you for what you’ve done.”
Jade crawled to her bed and pulled herself painfully up. She turned her head and saw she was alone. Mac had left her alone. What will I do if Beau comes back?
Jade shook as she struggled to stand. She wrapped her arms around her chest and abdomen in an attempt to ease the pain.
“Move, Jade. Move or die,” she told herself.
She saw that Mac had left the knife and a small pile of crumpled bank notes on her kitchen table.
Jade shuffled awkwardly to her bathroom and washed her face, wincing as she saw her reflection in the small bathroom mirror. Her long dark hair was matted and dull. Her pale skin looked sallow where it wasn’t marred by cuts and bruises.
She would have loved to brush her teeth, but her lips were too swollen, the cuts covered in dried blood. It was impossible. Plus, she had to leave before Beau decided to come back and beat on her some more. Or worse.
She gingerly pulled a long-sleeved dress over her head, leaving it unzipped as she couldn’t manage the zipper. She wrapped her warmest coat around her shoulders, taking too long with her hands shaking uncontrollably.
“Don’t panic, Jade. Just move as fast as you can.” She took a small, shallow breath and rammed her feet into her hiking boots. She didn’t pause to have a much-needed drink, she just grabbed the knife Mac had left, and stuffed it and the money into her coat pocket. She pocketed her broken phone. Beau had stomped on it, but Jade hoped it was only the screen that was broken.
She settled her ball cap onto her head and slowly made her way down her stairs. “One step at a time. I can do this.” Her whole body ached and burned with pain. She could no longer distinguish which injury was hurting. She just hurt everywhere.
Incredibly she made it to the bus station in the center of town just as a bus was getting ready to leave. She didn’t ask where it was going, just pointed to the bus and brought a ticket. The old man selling the tickets didn’t look up from his magazine, taking the money and holding out her change.
Jade sat at the very back of the bus and slumped as low in the seat as she could get. For once she was glad of her small size and build. She’d made it. With a little help from Mac she was free. She wasn’t puzzled by Mac’s behavior. Mac must have seen what Beau was. Not that Jade had any idea what exactly he was, but she was certain he was a monster.
She shivered as she recalled the night Beau had found her in the desert. His glowing red eyes, the hair, the teeth. Her back stung as she recalled his claws tearing through her shirt and into her skin.
No. Mac was wise not to anger Beau. He was a creature of nightmares and he would haunt her dreams for the rest of her life. She prayed she’d never see him again, that he’d simply let her go.
“Please. Just let me go.”
Chapter 2
Asher sat on the fence and watched the antics of the Willis brothers. All three of the brothers were young, with Fergus being the eldest at thirty-five.
“Still a damn cub,” Asher mumbled, feeling the weight of his age press down on him again. He was twice Fergus’s age, and he felt even older as he watched the three brothers ride their horses hard in a friendly game of Tent Pegging.
“Come on, Nash,” Barrett called. “I have twenty bucks riding on your ass.”
“He might like to rephrase that,” Troy said.
“Or, maybe not,” Wes said. “We know Barrett’s partial to blondes with long flowing hair.”
“Shut the fuck up,” Barrett said, throwing an unused tent peg at his twin brothers.
Nash finished his run ahead of his brothers, Fergus and Tanner, and steered his horse straight at the fence where Wes and Troy were sitting. In a display of feline agility and years of practice gained from his time on the rodeo circuit, Nash turned the horse at the last moment and launched himself out of the saddle.
Wes and Troy were knocked off the fence as Nash’s bulkier body swept them to the ground. Asher laughed as the three men hurriedly tried to untangle their limbs when their commander, Samson Reed, called them to assemble for weapons training.
Asher did a backflip from the fence, landing lightly on his feet and jogging to meet Samson in front of the weapons shed. Evan and Ben Harvey stood with Samson, their brother Cameron being absent today. One of the brothers always remained with their new mate, Morgan. Asher suppressed a sigh. He wasn’t jealous of their happiness. He was melancholy.
He may not be as old as their new friends, Aiden and Eamon, the vampires that lived with the shifters in Pine Falls, but he was currently the oldest unmated cougar in the pride. Despite having finished their basic training with Samson and Evan last month, they had all chosen to remain at the compound. They enjoyed the camaraderie of being a part of the pride again as they continued to train, and hone their skills.
Asher had left Eminence in his teens, going off to college to study law. He was a good lawyer, enjoying the fact that he could bring down his prey with words alone. But after practicing in several large firms over the last forty or so years his cat was feeling caged.
When their Alpha, Finn, had made the call for members of the pride to come home and train as soldiers, Asher had jumped at the chance to enjoy a more physical hunt. Samson was retired special ops and Evan a retired Navy Seal. Asher felt like he’d died and gone to heaven. He and his cat had never felt so in tune. He knew he was finally the shifter he was always meant to be. Cunning and deadly.
“Have the children had their fun now?” Evan asked. He stripped down his sniper rifle and put it back together while looking at the group of men in the paddock. Asher dreamt of being that good one day.
“I doubt it. Barrett just won a bet, so I imagine Fergus and Tanner will find a way to win their money back.”
“You didn’t bet on Nash?” Samson asked.
“I don’t gamble. I win.”
Asher wasn’t the least competitive, and he wouldn’t consider himself to be arrogant, he was simply very focused, which was why he continually beat all the trainees on every task.
“I’d never make the mistake of betting against Asher,” Barrett said. He stood beside Asher and bumped him with his beefy shoulder. “It would be like throwing money away.”
Asher absorbed the blow through his whole body, letting it flow through his muscles so he remained unmoving. Barrett was a little shorter than him, but a great deal heavier. He had a solid frame of thick muscles. Asher smiled at Barrett, knowing it pissed his brother off that he still hadn’t managed to replicate Asher’s synergy with his cat.
“Sniper training?” Wes asked, brushing the dust from his fatigues.
“I lov
e sniper training,” Troy finished.
“You two love all the training,” Nash said.
The rest of the trainees assembled around Samson and Evan as they outlined the scenario for today’s training mission. Asher knew they’d be out in the forest overnight. Samson and Evan would not finish the exercise until all of them had been spotted approaching the target. They were all improving, so it was now taking longer and longer for them to make a mistake.
He glanced at the darkening sky. It was midday, and it already looked like dusk. Snow clouds were gathering over the mountains. They were in for a cold night. He focused on Samson’s instructions and began to consider the coming snow and high winds as tools he could use to remain hidden.
He wanted to succeed in the mission tonight. He had been the last man spotted on their last sniper training. Samson had seen one of his boot laces that had come loose as he’d crawled on his belly through the brush. He’d tie them more securely today. He’d take down the target. Asher’s cat brushed lightly against him, anticipating the thrill of the hunt. They’d take down the target.
* * * *
Melanie waved good-bye to Rosie and George and pulled on her gloves. She’d delivered the baked goods for the Eminence Café and Patisserie. The word patisserie was a new addition to the café’s name with Jordanna having taught her, Bethany, and Peata some amazing new techniques in baking.
The little business Melanie had started was not for making money. They donated any profits to the local charities. The business was their hobby and the four women, who would soon be five—when Morgan stopped throwing up every time she stepped into a kitchen—had bonded over their baking. They had become as close as Melanie imagined sisters could be, and were the best of friends.
Jade [Eminence Shifters 6] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Page 1