Divided Loyalties-epub (17 page)

A voice she thought she’d never hear again called out to her. Hayden. Thank God.

“I’m here.”

A moment later, Hayden knelt beside her then Jon’s body rolled off her. When she was free, she scooted from under him and flung herself into Hayden’s arms. He squeezed her tight and kissed her temple.

After a few moments, she raised her head to peer at Jon. “Is he alive?”

Dane, who hovered over Jon’s body as if accessing the damage, nodded.  “Yes, but he has severe burns on his back.”

“He saved my life.”

Hayden lifted her in his arms as he rose from the ground. “We know. He’s coming with us.”

Christa just nodded. She was too tired to speak any more. Snuggling into her mate’s chest, she closed her eyes. God, please let Jon be okay.

Hayden thought he’d never get Christa home and in bed. His home was one of the many that had gone untouched during the attack. The rogues’ firebombs hadn’t reached the back of the den where his, Keegan’s, and many other homes were located.

Christa obsessed about the Shield soldier’s health until she knew he would pull through.

“I can’t believe I never knew he was half-shifter,” she said as she lay across his bare chest, her fingers raking through his chest hair in sensual, calming motions.

“Many like Jon, who don’t develop the ability to shift, live most their lives as humans until they realize they aren’t aging.”

“I guess. I mean we weren’t ever close. We worked on assignments together, but never shared personal information.” She lifted her head to peer into his eyes.

He kissed her forehead. “Shifters, whether they live as humans or not, are still sworn to secrecy. In his case, it was most likely for his own survival.”

She nodded and laid her head back on his chest. They laid there in silence for several moments before she spoke again. “Hayden?”

“Yes?”

“How long will it take to rebuild the den?”

He shrugged. “A few months. There wasn’t as much damage as we thought. We’ll start bringing everyone back in about four months to be sure.”

“Oh, that’s good.”

She fell silent again. He wasn’t sure how long they lay there, nor did he care. Having Christa in his arms and in his bed was heaven. It gave him a peace he hadn’t had in a long time.

Finally she broke the silence. “What does it truly mean to be mated? I mean for a human to a shifter?”

He ran his fingers through her silky blond curls. “You know that we change you. You will remain human, but take my lifespan. Which means you will stop aging.”

She stilled her fingers, and his heart stopped for a brief moment. Fear that she’d reject him and back out of the mating filled him.

Finally she straddled him and leaned down to press her lips to his. “What else?”

“Our souls will connect. You would feel me inside your mind and body.”

She moved down his body and kissed his chest. “Sounds permanent.”

He sucked in a breath as she moved down farther and pressed a kiss on his stomach, inches away from where his cock lay under his jeans. “Wolves mate for life.”

She unbuttoned his jeans then slid the zipper down. “How do we complete the bond?”

“You have to accept it in your heart and open to me completely.” He cupped her head in his hands and sat up so he could press his lips to hers. “I love you. I want you for my mate. Say yes, Chris.”

She smiled, and he felt the bond slowly forming, weaving a thread from her heart to his. “I love you too. I want to be your mate and your partner for however long that will be.”

He growled his approval and flipped her to her back. She gasped then laughed. God, he loved the sound of her laugh. “Are you sure? There is no divorce in my world. Only death can break the bond.”

She fisted a handful of his hair and pulled him down for a kiss. Thrusting her tongue into his mouth, she deepened the kiss and moved her hips against his hard cock. When she broke the kiss, she held his gaze. Her hazel eyes appeared more blue in the dim light of his…no, their, bedroom.

“I’m sure. I’ve never been so sure of anything in my life.”

His wolf howled at her words, and the man agreed. This was his female. “I love you.”

Christa smiled. “I love you too. Now make love to me and complete the bond.”

Hayden pushed his jeans down enough to free his cock then, with his claws, ripped her jeans and panties off her, patience forgotten.

He captured her lips in a hard kiss as he thrust deep inside her. She groaned into the kiss and rocked against him as he moved in and out of her pussy in a fiery need to claim what was his. She wrapped her legs around his waist, making it possible for him to go deeper.

Breaking the kiss, he trailed his lips down her jaw to the throat, then further to bite down on her shoulder. A moment later, an orgasm rocked through both of them in a rush of combined pleasure that grew with each shutter, snapping the threads of the mating bond in place.

He shuddered as the last tremor rocked through him, and he rolled to his side, pulling Christa with him. She snuggled into him and kissed his chest.

“Now you’re mine, forever.”

She wrapped her arms around him and squeezed. “I’d have it no other way, my mate.”

The End

Coming next in the Ashwood Falls world:

Misguided Path

Lia Davis is a mother to two young adults and two very special kitties, a wife to her soul mate, a paranormal romance author, graphic designer, and co-owner to Fated Desires Publishing, LLC. She and her family live in Northeast Florida battling hurricanes and very humid summers. But it’s her home and she loves it!

An accounting major, Lia has always been a dreamer with a very activity imagination. The wheels in her head never stop. She ventured into the world of writing and publishing in 2008 and loves it more than she imagined. Writing and designing are stress relievers that allow her to go off in her corner of the house and enter into another world that she created, leaving real life where it belongs.

Her favorite things are spending time with family, traveling, reading, writing, chocolate, coffee, nature and hanging out with her kitties.

www.AuthorLiaDavis.com

Now Available

Ashwood Falls

Winter Eve

A Tiger’s Claim

A Mating Dance

Surrendering to the Alpha

Ever After

Divided Loyalties

The Divinities

Death’s Storm

Coming Soon

Ashwood Falls

Misguided Path

The Divinities

The Dark Divine

Sons of War

War’s Passion

Did you enjoy this selection? Why not try another romance from Fated Desires?

From the Ashwood Falls series by Lia Davis

Chapter 1

Cameron Nickels crouched low to the forest ground, her eyes fixed on two rogue wolf shifters, members of outlawed Onyx Pack. She knew they were rogues by the Onyx tattoo on their forearms, and by their scent. Rogues had an unmistakable coppery scent of blood mixed with a hint of dirt and decay.

She shuttered and tried not to breath in the recant odor.

The rogues circled around the trees searching for whoever they’d chased into this section of the forest. Cameron, Blaine and several other enforcers trailed the rogues about a mile outside Ashwood Falls—the wolf/leopard Pack located high in the Smoky Mountains—which, as far as Cameron was concerned, was too fucking close to Pack territory.

The night was perfect for rogue killing—clear, slightly warm, and the full moon high in the sky provided just enough light filtering through the trees. It was almost the end of March, and the air was finally starting to feel like spring.

The warm breeze brought a rancid smell of rotting meat to her senses, much more fowl than the rogues. She growled and focused her preternatural vision and scanned the surrounding area. Three mutants—the Onyx Pack’s half-human, half-animal assassins—stepped out of the tree line behind their rogue masters. Even after fifteen years of being an enforcer, she had never gotten used to the sight of the mutants. They stood twice as tall as any shifter she’d ever seen. They were also frozen in mid-shift, eerily close to the some of the human myths of werewolves.

One of the three was actually a half-puma, and female. Golden hair covered her body and her hands were extended claws. Cameron didn’t need to see her face clearly to know that the bone structure looked nothing like human or beast, but a creepy combo of the two. Sharp cheekbones stretched the skin over the enormous head, making it impossible to miss the prehistoric fangs jetting out of her jaws.

The mutants spread out to circle the rogues protectively in the middle of a group of large oaks. By the way they stood still, like imperial soldiers forbidden to move or speak, they hadn’t realized they’d just become the hunted.

Cameron smirked and sent out a mental message to Blaine and the other soldiers that accompanied them. “
I have three mutants, two rogues.
”

“
I see them. Stay put until I give the go. I want to see what they do,
” Blaine said.

She bit back a retort because, in the field, Blaine, as Pack Marshal, was the boss. Off duty, they were equals—mostly.

“
Blaine, they’re getting spooked.
” She palmed her Sig 9 mm and waited impatiently.

The mutants kept scanning the area as if they sensed them, but couldn’t see them. When the mutants appeared as though they were leaving the area, Blaine whistled, and everyone moved as one unit, drawing their guns with their special rogue-killing bullets that contained liquid silver.

Contrary to human myths, shifters were not sensitive to silver and didn’t explode into ash. Rogues, on the other hand, were sensitive to the metal. The addiction to blood and the kill, along with whatever drugs they’d used to create the mutant virus, had altered their DNA, giving them a weakness to silver.

Cam shot at one the creatures. He twisted to move out of the way, but he was too slow. The bullet hit him in the shoulder, knocking him off balance. A painful scream tore from his throat, and he fell to the ground. He rolled as if his body was on fire and he was trying to put out the flames. Maybe he was, only the silver burned from the inside.

A second later he let out a roar and pushed to his feet, his injured arm useless as the silver reacted to whatever altered their DNA to make them uglier and stronger than the rogues who made them. The half-man, half-wolf barreled toward her, fangs stretched past his jaw and dripping with saliva.

Nasty bastards.

She aimed and fired again, this time hitting him in the left thigh. Rage consumed the beast as he fell to the ground screaming, “Bitch!”

Standing over the mutant, she aimed and shot him in the head.

Two more shots cut through the moonlit forest, ending two more.

Some assassins
, she snorted to herself.

She scanned the area and found nothing or no one. Blaine stepped in beside her, holstering his gun. “That was too easy.”

Cam nodded. “Yep.” She looked around the forest, taking in the shadows casted by the filtered moonlight and frowned. “Where are the two Onyx junkies?”

Blaine growled. “Shitheads ran off when we were preoccupied.”

Figures. The rogues that made up the outlawed Onyx Pack were no match for her, Blaine, and the other enforcers of Ashwood. That was why they used the mutants to fight. Cameron was about to mind link with the enforcers under her command and call them back until a sweet, unfamiliar scent caught her interest. The new scent didn’t carry the metallic, stale stench of blood like a rogue’s scent did. No, this was sweet and soft like cherry-scented powder.

She started moving, following the scent deeper into the forest.

Blaine cursed. “What the fuck, Cam?”

She ignored him and continued until she reached a large fallen tree trunk about fifty feet from where the rogues had been searching. She held her hand up when she heard the others come closer. They stilled at her raised hand, and Cam moved around the trunk. The faint sound of rapid thumps of heartbeats sent fear and worry through her.

Damn.

Children.

Her heart dropped to her stomach when she went to her knees and peered inside the hollow trunk. “Hello.”

She felt Blaine move in behind her. As soon as he squatted down beside her, the children backed farther into the tree trunk.

“Blaine, back up,” she bit out, annoyed at the damn stubborn male.

With a heavy sigh, he did as he was told. Once he walked a few feet away, Cameron tried to coax the kids out. “My name is Cameron. My friends call me Cam.” She paused for several moments before trying again. “I’m from Ashwood Falls. Do you know where that is?” It was a long shot, but Ashwood had a reputation of being a safe haven for those without a Pack. She hoped the kids had heard about it.

Rustling, then a small foot came into view. “Do you know Nevan Mathews?” a small female voice whispered.

Cameron’s heart did a little flip. “Yes. I can take you to him. Can you come out, please?”

She heard a whimper followed by sobbing, and then a small boy was pushed out of the trunk. Cam reached out to him, but he cried harder and shrank back from her. Her heart broke at the fear in his big, round blue eyes. A few seconds later, the little girl who must have spoken climbed out.

Cameron stood and gave them room. The girl looked to be about ten, and Cam guessed the boy was around three.