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Candy Security
Copyright 2019 Lorelei M. Hart
Editor Wizards in Publishing
Cover design by Fantasia Frog Designs
Published by Decadent Publishing LLC
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
An Excerpt from Papa Bear for Darius
About the Authors
Candy Security
By
Lorelei M. Hart
Chapter One
Cameo
Wake the fuck up, asshole.
Pain. So much pain. My head. My side. My foot. What the heck.
Now.
The alpha pushed his will upon me, my eyes opening wide, my body scrambling to my knees.
The alpha. Ha. My father. What a joke that was. Fathers gave a crap about their kids. For that matter, so did alphas and he behaved like neither. Another kick came because I was not fully cognizant enough and my wolf not aware enough to hold back, and he knew it. I was his equal in power, even if not by title.
“Yes, alpha.” It hurt to speak the words, but until I regained my full abilities, I had no choice. Martin, my twin, was counting on me.
“Can’t keep your greedy self away from other people’s things, I see. Didn’t I order you not to eat the pie?” He knew he had. I knew he had. And because I had overheard why in his mind, I did what needed to be done and saved my brother from a fate worse than the one I was facing.
“Yes, alpha.” I called to my wolf, begging him to wake up. Whatever drugs they had laced the pie with in order to get my brother’s baby and redeem him in the eyes of the pack hit me hard and my wolf even harder.
“How did you know?”
I ignored his question. He might suspect I had abilities to match if not exceed his, but there was zero chance I was going to confirm it until it was necessary.
“I asked you a question.” His words echoed in my ears and my mind. I swore he was becoming more unhinged by the day. They say that happens when an heir apparent is coming into his own power, sort of a mechanism for fostering his challenge or so the theory went. I had no idea about that, but I did know that he’d sooner kill me than look bad in front of the pack, opening himself up for challenges left and right. Not that anyone in the pack, save me, had the ability. I just prayed he didn’t know that yet.
“Sorry. I—it smelled weird, and he got nauseous, so I ate it for him.”
Kick.
“I can taste your lies.”
Suck. The drugs did a true number on me if he could. I’d been able to hide my lies from him for most of a year and only refrained from challenging him because of Martin. Had I failed, he’d have felt the wrath, and he couldn’t take it, especially not after he got pregnant.
“He’s my twin.” I confessed my motives, biding my time until my wolf could rise. He was stirring, barely, so it was only a matter of time.
“Stand!”
I got to my feet feigning much more of a struggle than I had. With each breath, I felt my strength increase. It was only a matter of time.
“You will go and retrieve what is mine,” he commanded, his power flowing through me.
Fuck that.
Wake up. I need you.
That managed to get my wolf’s attention, and he rose, standing close to the surface. He might not have his full strength, but he was giving every ounce he had. Unlike my father, he saw the responsibility he had toward our other halves, our twin.
Alpha-omega twins had a bond most could not fully comprehend. We were more than siblings, we were parts of a whole, and that was where my father made his error. In the end, it would always come down to Martin and I. Always.
“I. Will. Not.” I enunciated each word with precision, allowing my wolf to come even closer, his eyes replacing mine.
Johnathan, my father’s beta, stepped inside. He’d pay for that later. The last thing my father wanted anyone seeing was his weakness, and I was more than ready to expose it.
“That was a command.”
If I challenge you, I will win,” I shouted in his head, taking him aback. How little he saw of what he didn’t want to acknowledge. I had the power of our bloodline and my position and no longer planned to hide it.
What choice do I have?
It was the first moment of weakness my father ever let me see and, with it, I saw flashes of his concerns: losing his place, losing his life, losing his everything. Not once did his family appear there. No, we were disposable.
Rogue.
Never! This is my pack.
Johnathan flicked his gaze back and forth between us as if trying to figure things out. He’d have to remain in the dark for the plan brewing inside me to work.
Make me rogue. Throw us from the pack.
And just like that, his hand transformed mid swipe, and he slashed my front, marking me as disowned. How weak of him to take so little thought before excommunicating his own children. He mumbled the words that broke our connection. I’d not know if they worked on Martin until I found him, but even if they didn’t, it would be something I could fix, by claiming him as my pack.
I’d done it. I’d broken free from my pack and saved Martin.
“You will leave our lands by sundown and never return,” he announced looking more at Johnathan than at me. He turned on his heel and marched out as if he hadn’t just been the coward he was.
Worked for me. Two hours later, I had my car packed and was headed to find my connection and see where Martin had ended up.
Please let it not be someplace with scorpions.
I hated those fuckers.
Chapter Two
Lee
“Lee, don’t let any more in, but don’t send them home either.” Karma gave a wink. That was never good. Not with Karma. It always meant she was up to something. Funning thing was she had no idea anyone was onto her otherness.
None. At least none that she showed.
“Yes, boss.” People were going to be pissed. The line was already wrapped around to kingdom come. Not my monkey. Not my circus.
“Nice costume.” She pointed to the little sticker I’d added to my uniform: Candy Security. No sense going all out when you had to look serious and badass, especially when you were an omega. Sure, I had the brawn that came with being a lion and something about my scent had people unsure of my designation from time to time, but, at the end of the day, I was an omega in an alpha’s field of employment and had to make adjustments accordingly.
“Designed it myself.”
She walked back in, somehow managing not to fall in those ridiculous shoes, and let the door shut behind her.
Great. Now the fun was going to start.
“At capacity.” I spoke through my headset, earning me far more groans than necessary. This happened at every shindig she put together. The not telling people to go home part, that was new. “And tell everyone they can stay in line.”
Twenty ques
tions were thrown at me as a man without a costume came barreling up to my station. Not a man, no, a shifter. An alpha.
“End of the line.” I would not look at his eyes, his chest, his powerful thighs. I would not. And I almost succeeded in that until the wind changed and his scent slammed into me: nutmeg—glorious nutmeg.
Mine, my lion roared, and my cock bounced to attention at the proclamation. Fuck that.
“I’m not here for the party—” he began then I was called inside for some emergency, which on party days always meant a fight.
“End of the line,” I barked more out of frustration at needing to leave than anything else. He was my mate, and here I was going to clean some drunk shifters’ mess up. “And don’t leave.”
“Couldn’t make me if you tried.”
Five minutes later, Karma had me let in a few more people, some VIPs or something, but the doors were still closed for all others. Which gave me too much time to stare down the line, wondering what the man who smelled of nutmeg and had all of me paying attention had wanted with this place if not a party.
Had he stepped one inch out of line, I’d have abandoned my post to follow him—my job be damned. But so long as he stayed put, I was willing to stand guard. What else could I do.
Chapter Three
Cameo
Of all the timing Fate could have, to bring me face to face with my mate when I had more pressing concerns at hand. Sure, I was an alpha who wanted a mate and the happily ever after that came with it, but I needed to find Martin first, to strip him of his ties to the pack, if my father had not managed to across the miles. It was the only way to guarantee the safety of his child—if my father grew his pair of balls back and tried to regain at least one of his children, which I highly doubted he would do.
When the guard, headed inside, it didn’t escape my attention that he hesitated as he caught my eye from afar. He felt it, too. I swore he did. And given he worked here, I’d have to hold onto the fact that he wasn’t going anywhere while I figured this all out—from afar.
Since I’d been in line, more than a few people were tapped to go in, all of them holding the equivalent of a golden ticket, one I’d tried in vain to buy off a couple of people. Who knew a nightclub in the middle of the stupid desert could be so popular?
My wolf wasn’t putting up with me standing there, not when our mate and at least some information about my twin were inside. I stepped out of line and marched to the front like I owned the place. It worked in movies, so it was worth a shot.
I might be a powerful alpha wolf, but from what I could pick out of the people in line and wandering around in security uniforms, I was far from the only alpha.
I walked up to the station where my Candy Security man had been just as the door opened and out came a woman who looked more like a mirror ball than a human—or, at least, at first glance, human. It was difficult to tell. Not that I cared about anything but going inside.
“You!” she called in my direction. “The one with no costume, come here.”
I took a step forward, wondering if someone was going to try and stop me. No one did.
“Hurry along. You’re going to be needed soon.” She tapped her toe as if I were an errant child disobeying his teacher’s request to come in from recess.
I wasn’t about to say no to her request to go precisely where I wanted to.
I stepped inside the club, and it was the exact opposite of what I’d expected. It was as if the Halloween store exploded after taking heavy drugs. A pumpkin mirror ball—who does that?
“Where do I go?” I asked, giving in to her pretense of me being needed inside.
“Oh, sweet thing, aren’t you adorable.” What did that mean? “You think you just snuck in.” Oh, there was that. “Go stand directly under the flying cat and wait until it’s time. And don’t ask when that is. After that, get some sleep. You can deal with the rest in the morning.” She rolled her eyes, and I followed the direction of her pointing finger to the ceiling where, sure enough, there was a jeweled flying cat.
I walked the few feet to where she told me to be and stood there, trying to figure out my next move and what her weird words meant, when a fight broke out. Damn drunks. Shifters can drink so much more than humans with little effect, they had to be guzzling straight from the bottle.
And that was when I saw him—my brother, dressed in a toga, still very much pregnant, about to get knocked down by a bear. I dashed to him, wrapping my arms around him to both protect him and to see that he was truly for real.
“Hands off my mate.” It took me a few seconds to figure out the lion bellowed at me. Mate. My brother had a mate. Please let him be his true mate and not some asshole taking advantage of an omega in need. I had a feeling sparkly lady wouldn’t be amenable to a death on her club floor.
For a split second, everyone in the surrounding area snapped their heads in our direction as the lion looked from me to my brother. “Oh…” I knew that oh. I’d heard it numerous times over the course of my life. The sound of someone figuring out there were two of me—kind of.
“Leo, this is Cameo, my brother. He just—” Martin turned to me. “How did you get here, and everything else I need to ask?”
“Long story or short?” I let go of him as Leo, his mate, took his hand. “True mate?” I tilted my head in his lion’s direction.
“True mate.” He leaned into the alpha’s arms, and my heart soared. My brother found the life he needed. Everything had been worth it even without the my mate is somewhere bit. “And why don’t we go short first and long after Leo gets off work?
“Sounds good.” Leo kissed the top of his head.
“Short story. Challenged Dad—took his sorry-ass position early—walked away from pack, breaking all my alpha ties. Challenges have begun and glad not to be part of them.” I’d give him the full, more accurate story later, but, for now, his mate needed to be calmed, and learning I’d just become rogue probably wasn’t the best way to do that.
“You gave up alpha for me?” His eyes teared. How had he not known he mattered that much—more than. “For my baby?”
“I’ll get to all that in the long story. How about you hook a brother up with a bed? I drove straight here, no sleep, and I could really use some.” I didn’t need sleep, but if that was what the weird glitter lady said after being so precise earlier, I was going to listen to her—for now.
Chapter Four
Lee
Gone.
My mate was gone.
I thought I scented him a few times in the club, but it was always off—and then by the time I could go back outside to gather him, Karma had sent the rest of the line home, assuring us that everyone who needed to be in were in. At the time she said it, it almost felt like she had been talking directly to me through the headsets. I’d been a fool. There was no sexy alpha. I’d lost my shot.
Fuckity fuck.
“Tired?” One of my coworkers, Taz asked as I threw my headset into the box after our shift ended.
“Something like that.” I was so not wanting to get into it with him, or anyone. My lion just wanted out and to hunt.
“At least you don’t have far to drive,” he teased. Living at work did have some bonuses.
“Har har.” I had headed out the door and through the back hallway to the apartments when it slammed into me.
Mate
His scent didn’t lie. My alpha was here, and my lion refused to do anything but follow it. My lion ripped through me, taking over completely, and I allowed it. He was getting our mate.
Screams filled the air. Screams of pain, and he stepped even livelier, the pounding of our huge paws echoing in the halls. We stopped outside of a door just as it cracked open, and Leo stepped outside.
“Shit. Way to scare a fella. We need a midwife and stat.” I’d never seen him so frazzled, but then again, if rumor told it correctly, he’d just mated a—screaming began again—pregnant omega. Labor. His omega w
as in labor.
I grabbed the reins from my lion and took my skin, not caring that I was standing there buck-ass naked. We were both shifters, after all.
“Now?” I asked like a dumb ass.
“Now.” I was no midwife, but I’d delivered a baby or two back home. “Let me in, and I’ll help until you can get a real midwife.” I brushed past him and tried to ignore the scent embedded in the place. Sometimes it called to me like my mate, but for the most part it was just different enough not to be mine. It was weird.
And then I saw his mate, grasping onto the counter as he cried out with a contraction. Shit. He looked exactly like my mate except not at all, including the baby growing inside his belly.
“Mate’s name?” I should know this stuff. I worked with the man. I’d have to kick past-me’s ass later.
“Martin.” My mate answered from the doorway.
“You’re Martin?” I asked him. It was far from a sexy name, and it felt almost off for him, but—I was an ass to even think down those lines. I didn’t deserve the gift Fate delivered to me, that was for sure. Didn’t mean I wasn’t going to accept it.
“No, Leo’s mate, my brother, the one in labor, and you’re naked.”
I’d forgotten about that. He was, too, half anyway, his excommunication mark glaring at me. What had he done to deserve that? Did it matter.
“Oh yeah, sorry.” Eloquence was not my gift, or so it would appear. I turned to the omega who needed all my attention, my lion falling back, relieved his mate was here even if not inside us where he wanted him.
“Come on, Martin. let’s help you have this baby.” I put my arm around him. “Bedroom?” My still-nameless mate gestured, and the four of us went inside, getting him on the bed just as another contraction rolled through. From the way things were looking, his baby wasn’t going to stay in there long.
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