by Lexi Blake
Siren Reborn
Texas Sirens, Book 8
Lexi Blake
writing as
Sophie Oak
Siren Reborn
Texas Sirens Book 8
Published by DLZ Entertainment LLC
Copyright 2018 DLZ Entertainment LLC
Edited by Chloe Vale
ISBN: 978-1-942297-31-4
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights.
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination and are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or establishments is solely coincidental.
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Table of Contents
Dedication
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Epilogue
Author’s Note
About Lexi Blake
Other Books by Lexi Blake
Dedication
I’m not sure why this one didn’t have a dedication back when it was first released, but it offers me a chance to thank everyone who made my years as Sophie Oak wonderful. I learned so much writing these books and being able to bring some of my Lexi voice to them has been a joy. I’ve had a few people who were there in the beginning and who have stuck with me through it all. Thanks to Kim Guidroz and Richard Blake, my first readers. To Shayla Black and Kris Cook who held my hands through those early years. To all those early fans who lifted me up – Tina, Tara, Ashley, Cherie, and all the Righteous Perverts. I know I’ve forgotten some and please know I am grateful, so grateful for these years I spent with you. Here’s to many, many more.
Prologue
Willow Fork, Texas
Four Years Before
“She needs to be in a hospital.” Kitten’s father frowned down at Finn, using that fire-and-brimstone voice that packed his church every Sunday. “I’ve found a doctor who can help her.”
Kitten sat in the same chair that had been allocated to her at the dining room table. It was her chair and had been for as long as they had lived in this perfectly kept house that seemed more like a museum than a home.
Don’t run, Katherine. It’s not ladylike.
Don’t talk too loud. It’s unseemly.
Don’t touch anything. You’re too clumsy.
“She’s been through something traumatic, Uncle Martin. She’s not insane.” Her cousin Finn had his fists clenched at his sides.
Traumatic was such a simple word for what had happened to her. She’d been kidnapped and held against her will for… She knew it was more than days or weeks. Months, for certain.
She’d been taken by a madman. One day she’d been Katherine Taylor, a junior at a small religious college, and the next she’d been Kitten, a toy, a plaything, useless for anything but bringing her tormentor pleasure.
She wasn’t sure who she was at all now.
“I took her computer away because of the things she was pulling up on the Internet. You wouldn’t believe it.” Her father’s eyes narrowed. Cousin Finn was the black sheep of the family. “Or maybe you would.”
Her father had caught her visiting BDSM websites. She’d been introduced to something violent, something terrible. And yet, she’d seen the way real, not-criminal Doms acted toward the subs. There had been such beauty in it. She needed to understand. She needed to figure it out.
She couldn’t go back to being Katherine Taylor. Katherine Taylor was always quiet and did exactly what was expected of her, and all she got for it was a father who now thought she was damaged goods and a mother who had told her it was all her fault and now she was a whore and no man would want her.
“She’s confused,” Finn said. “I can help her. Look, I’ll pay to bring down Janine or Leo. They’re both excellent therapists. Janine is working with the other two women and they’re making progress. You should have left her with me.”
Her father’s face turned a nasty purple color. “My daughter is not staying in some godless heathen club.”
She’d gotten to stay at The Club for one glorious night, though she hadn’t been allowed in the dungeon. She’d met Julian, Finn’s Dom and partner. And Leo, the therapist.
Not all Doms were like Hawk. Hawk was the aberration. He hadn’t been a Dom at all. He’d been a killer and a rapist.
“She can’t sit in her room every day,” Finn argued. “She needs to get out and be with people.”
“That’s why I’m sending her to Glenville.”
“You have got to be kidding me.” Finn was the one turning red now. “That is a bunch of bullshit. Those men aren’t therapists. They’re practically cultists.”
She’d heard of Glenville. It was where some of her friends from school had been sent after they’d been caught in bed together. Two girls.
“They specialize in restoring a person to proper behavior,” her father explained.
“They scare kids into saying they’re not gay. Katherine isn’t gay,” Finn argued. “Though I think what they do should be criminal.”
Her father’s hands were suddenly fists, raised against some imaginary foe. He was always like this. Always fighting some invisible evil. “They’re working up a program for her, to remove this sexuality she’s suddenly discovered. I will bring her back to the righteous if it’s the last thing I do.”
“I’ve heard rumors that they use electroshock,” Finn said, his voice shaking. “If you think I’m allowing you to torture her all over again, you’re insane. I’ll block you. I’ll shove so many legal documents up your ass you won’t be able to see straight.”
Her father would do it. He would send her somewhere nasty and tell himself it was all right to abuse her because she was wrong. Might made right in her father’s world. The same way it had in Hawk’s world. Now that she thought about it, she’d lived in the same world for her whole life. Her life with her parents had been restrictive and there had certainly been brutal punishment when she stepped outside the lines.
Was there another world out there?
She wished Nat was here. For so long it had only been Kitten and Daisy in the cage. Gretchen, she reminded herself. Not Daisy. It had been Gretchen, and Kitten had known they would die in the cage.
And then Nat had been taken. Nat’s imprisonment had been Kitten’s salvation. Nat was a bright light. Nat was different. Nat was worth fighting with and for.
Nat had killed Hawk and Kitten had helped her.
She missed Nat.
She’d walked away from Nat because her father had called her Katherine Taylor, and Katherine Taylor always obeyed. She’d walked back to this house that held not an ounce of love and s
he’d taken her assigned seat at the table because that was what Katherine Taylor did.
She wasn’t Katherine Taylor anymore.
“Kitten wants to go with Finn.”
Finn didn’t seem to hear her. He was too busy arguing with her father. “They’re a bunch of quacks. She’s not crazy. She doesn’t need to be restored to your idea of proper behavior.”
Her father leaned over. “Your parents might be fine with you going to hell, but I won’t let you drag my daughter with you.”
It was time to let her wishes be known. “Kitten wants to go with Finn.”
“I don’t care what you think about me,” Finn shot back. “Just know I’m not leaving here without her. I won’t let you ruin her life.”
Her father got right in Finn’s face. “I’m calling the police. You’re not going to threaten me in my own home.”
They weren’t going to listen to her so she stopped trying. She stood up, took a look around the home where she’d grown up. Shouldn’t she feel more? She was leaving and she would very likely never return. Her father wouldn’t allow her back in. She glanced at her mother, who hadn’t left her place in the kitchen during the fight. Her mother would do what her father said. If her father said she was dead to them, then her mother would bury her in her mind.
She didn’t want a single thing from this house. It was just another cage. It had taken being in an actual cage to understand that simple truth.
She walked out, past the parlor that she’d never been allowed to play in. Past the hallway where her father kept their family portrait. She glanced at that girl. Katherine was so grim, so resigned to the life she’d been given.
But she wasn’t Katherine anymore. For now, she was Kitten. She walked out into the sunlight, turning her face, letting it settle into her skin.
What would it be like to feel that sun everywhere on her body?
“Katherine?” Finn hurried down the steps, coming to stand beside her. “Katherine, what are you doing?”
“It’s Kitten, Finn. Kitten’s name is Kitten.”
He shook his head. “Sweetie, you have to let that go.”
The name Hawk had given her? “Why?”
“Because he named you that. It’s a symbol.”
“Kitten’s parents named this one Katherine. That was a symbol. Kitten chooses to be Kitten for now. This one doesn’t know what is coming later, but this one is Kitten for a while. And Kitten is going home with Finn. Kitten is an adult and can choose. Kitten chooses Finn.”
And Nat. Nat would help her figure out the whole BDSM thing. Nat would help her figure out the whole Kitten thing, too.
“All right, sweetie.” Finn took her hand. He’d always been her favorite cousin. “Hey, I’ll take care of you. Don’t be afraid of Julian. I know he seems like Hawk…”
Kitten allowed her eyes to roll. “Master Julian is nothing like Kitten’s old Master. No. Kitten will give that up. Hawk was not a Master at all. Hawk was a criminal. Kitten is not afraid of Master Julian.”
Finn sighed. “See. I told them all you weren’t crazy. Come on. If we get out of here now, we can be in Dallas before dinner.”
Kitten followed Finn and for the first time in her memory was excited about the future.
* * * *
Bliss, CO
Two Years Before
Cole Roberts slammed his SUV into park. The snow was falling all around him, usually a peaceful thing, but now it felt like a betrayal. The world was far too quiet, too perfect. It should be falling apart. There should be some fucking noise.
She had to be alive. She couldn’t be dead. He was panicking. He was a worst-case scenario kind of guy, but usually everything was fine and he found he’d worried for nothing.
It would be that way this time. It had to be.
He’d worked hard with her. He’d put so fucking much of himself on the line. Sure, it hadn’t been easy, but he’d made it work. She couldn’t be dead. She had signed a contract that made him responsible for her. He’d left her with Mason. Mason would never fail him.
Mason. A single vision of Mason with his pitch-black hair and gray eyes assailed him. Mason would always be eighteen years old in Cole’s mind. It didn’t matter that he was almost thirty now, with fine lines around those eyes because he smiled so fucking much. He was forever young and shining up at him as they figured out the world together.
He couldn’t even think about the fact that Mason might have been in that car with her, and that made his gut churn with guilt. He was supposed to care for them equally. That was the pact, and in a second he knew he would trade Emily for Mason because he loved Mason. Because Emily had been a desperate attempt at completing them. An attempt that might have cost her life.
The snow crunched beneath his boots. He tried not to think about the pass. He tried not to think about the lights of his car illuminating the railing that had been wrenched free of its mooring. That could have happened days ago. He’d been stuck at the lodge for a week. It was probably a truck. It wasn’t her car. It didn’t mean she was dead.
“Cole?” Nathan Wright stood outside the double doors that led to the station house. Nate was the sheriff of Bliss County. He stood there in his khakis, looking younger than any sheriff had a right to be.
Cole stopped. Nate’s face was grim, so fucking grim, and it suddenly struck him. He’d been called to the sheriff’s office.
Not the hospital.
His heart dropped.
“Emily?”
A single shake of Nate’s head told him everything he needed to know.
“Mason?” Oh, god, he couldn’t lose Mason, too. His stomach turned. He couldn’t imagine a world without Mason in it. Mason, with that perfect smile that lit up his whole world. Mason, who told him Emily wasn’t the one, but he’d gone along with it anyway. He’d signed the contract, too. He’d promised to be involved in their ménage even though he’d doubted that the outcome could be a good thing. Mason had followed him, the way he had for the last ten years.
Mason was the cornerstone of his world.
Nineteen. He’d been nineteen when he’d lost his virginity to Mason. And his heart. But he was a Dom deep down and Mason was such a switch that he didn’t completely fulfill Cole’s needs. He couldn’t bottom for Mason. They required a third, a true sub and a woman. They both needed a female. It was perverse, he knew it, but he couldn’t live without both. He’d been searching for her for years, and Emily had been the closest he found.
And now she was dead.
“Mason is all right. He wasn’t in the car with her. He actually came down after her.” Nate pointed toward the back of the station house. His face remained grim as he looked back. “Though I’ll be honest, I’m surprised he could drive.”
“They weren’t together?” The only reason he’d been okay with her going to a party without him was the fact that Mason would watch over her. Why hadn’t he been with her?
“Mason was in a vehicle he apparently borrowed. It’s not registered in his name.”
"They took Emily’s car,” Cole explained.
“I found him at the accident site where he damn near killed himself getting too close to the edge.” Nate stepped down two steps, his jaw tightening with each word. “Ms. Yarborough was with a friend. From what I can tell, Ms. Yarborough was driving and she lost control of her vehicle on the pass. I have to think from the damage done to the railing and skid marks that she hit the guardrail at a high speed. The friend didn’t survive the crash either. I’ve got her mom coming in. Sometimes I hate this job.”
Emily didn’t have friends. She was kind of a bitch who didn’t like many people but who needed a specific type of dominance to survive and thrive.
He didn’t love her but in that moment he felt the loss. He’d had one job in the whole fucking world that mattered and that was protecting his subs.
Nate’s words were starting to penetrate his brain. He’d been surprised Mason could drive. Why had he been surprised? “Why are you surprised Ma
son could drive?”
Mason was supposed to be looking after her. He couldn’t look after her if he was drunk. They had rules, damn it. Rules. Rule number one had been she didn’t drink more than one glass of wine at a party when Cole wasn’t around to supervise. Mason was topping her. He didn’t get to drink at all.
“You’ll see,” Nate said with a sigh. “I haven’t arrested him yet.”
The doors to the station house opened and Mason staggered out. “I need Cole.”
His voice was slurred, his walk not on balance. His gray eyes sought out Cole’s own.
A kernel of anger lit inside him as he realized what had happened. Mason wasn’t altogether there. That was obvious. He’d had a few and that was against the rules. Blatantly. He’d trusted Mason. Ten years together and Mason still hadn’t fucking grown up, and now their sub was dead.
“You can’t even walk straight.” A deep disgust settled inside him. He loved Mason but he’d put up with this shit for a long time. He’d always been the adult and Mason got to play the gorgeous man-child. Everything had been handed to Mason. Movie-idol good looks, charm to last for days, a brilliant mind. The only thing he’d lacked was money and connections, and Cole had given him both. He was the reason Mason had a high-powered job. He was the reason Mason had money. And he’d only asked one thing in return—a tiny bit of discipline.
“I don’t know what happened. I can’t remember.” Mason slurred every word.
Cole knew exactly what had happened. He’d seen it all before. Mason had told himself one drink wouldn’t matter. And then two. He’d spent the night charming every man and woman in sight and he’d forgotten his job. Cole had seen it a million times. He’d cleaned up after Mason time and time again.
Nate was frowning, staring at Mason like he was trying to figure something out. “He didn’t register on the breathalyzer. I’m going to have to take some blood.”