Enemies and Lovers Amongst Us (2 page)

“Yes. This mission certainly won’t be an easy one for her or for

the human males she’ll be working with.” Checking his watch,

Thorak stood up and slowly walked over to the door while his

arthritic, pained knees cracked with his every movement. “They’ll be

coming any second now, so it’s best you leave, Sinor.”

She got up and exited with a farewell, “Good luck, Thorak.”

“I’m not the one who will need it. They will,” he uttered as he

closed the door behind her.

Walking over to the window, he stared into the Voyeur compound

below, wondering. Could his vision have been of a skin walker, a

Yenaldlooshi? It certainly looked like the creature he had heard about

when he was just ten years old.

His mind’s eye brought him back to half a millennium ago and the

vivid memory of him as a child sitting on the ground in the middle of

the forest beside his grandfather. A fire burned before them. Their

hands were outstretched to absorb the flames’ warmth on a cold

autumn night.

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His grandfather stared at him with hesitation in his eyes.

“Thorak, are you sure you want to hear about the legendary

creature?”

“Yes, Grand-Papi, yes.”

His grandfather said in a stern voice, “You will have many

nightmares.”

“No, I will not. Please, Grand-Papi, tell me,” he urged him.

His grandfather sighed. “Very well.”

He gazed at the flames and began his tale. “There is a mysterious

creature that werewolves have feared for centuries. Only a few have

seen it and lived to tell their experience.”

“What creature is this?”

“It is a skin walker. It is a mystical being that can turn into any

animal and steal your soul. The stories I’ve heard say of it will curdle

your blood.”

Thorak tapped his chin as he thought back to what his grandfather

had said. His grandfather had been right. Those tales did scare him

and he did have nightmares about it for months and years to come.

The legendary creature became Thorak’s obsession for centuries.

Whenever he heard of a creature that resembled it, he would research

it.

In his centuries of investigation, he cognized that the skin walker

his grandfather spoke to him about was most probably a

Yenaldlooshi. Yenaldlooshi was a Navajo word for “He who trots on

all fours.”

In Navajo mythology these creatures were said to be witches who

used skins from animals to provide them with the animals’ powers. If

they used a coyote’s skin, it was said to give them speed. If they used

a bear’s skin they had great strength, so on and so forth. They also

had been known to gain power by murdering a close relative or even a

brother or sister. They could assimilate a person’s body if he or she

stared into their eyes.

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Jessica Frost

In his research, Thorak had also come across another beast that

had similar traits to the skin walker. The Inuit mythology spoke of a

creature called K igatilik, which was a demon with claws that killed

shamans.

In his gut, Thorak believed the skin walker was a meld of both

myths. It was a demon with claws that could take on the form of any

animal or human it made contact with. He surmised the only way to

summon this demon to Earth was through a mass murder sacrifice of

loved ones.

He guessed maybe that was the reason for all the human killings

by Rogue werewolves that had been happening in southern Alaska the

past few months.

Perhaps one Rogue werewolf or a clan of them was creating a

Rogue army to hunt down their family members and kill them. Soon

these killings would give them enough power to summon the demon

skin walker to Earth. If that happened, then humans and the Voyeur

werewolves who protected them had no chance against the Rogue

werewolves and the Yenaldlooshi.

He shook his head, trying to cast the terrible thought out of his

mind. He must focus on what he knew for sure, not speculate on the

unworldly. Right now, they needed to find out who this new Rogue

group of werewolves were, and to do that they had to infiltrate the

underground world to see if they could uncover anything.

He thought of the young, red-haired Voyeur Scout Triala Barns

who he chose for this mission. Had he made the right decision? Was

Triala the right candidate, or would her hard head and hatred for

humans jeopardize everything?

Having seen her grow up, he had witnessed her short temper and

stubbornness, but he had also seen the vulnerable child and then

woman she became. She tried to hide her vulnerability from everyone

by acting so strong and cold. Her parents’ tragic deaths in her early

teens bore a permanent scar on her psyche he thought would never be

erased.

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That scar was her Achilles’ heel, but he also knew it was her

inborn strength. That inner strength, her allegiance to him and the

Voyeurs, along with her strong visionary powers, made her the best

choice.

Hopefully, she and Sam Wethers and Jake Reynolds would be

able to figure out who this new dangerous group of killer Rogues

were soon.

Time was of the essence. He checked his watch and cursed. They

all should have been here ten minutes ago. “Where in heaven’s name

are they?”

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Jessica Frost

Chapter 1

“Are you sure we’re heading in the right direction?” Jake

Reynolds asked his partner as he stared at the open road before them.

“Yeah. We should be seeing the compound soon.” Sam Wethers

turned to look at him. “I remember this road the last time I was up

here.”

“When was that?”

“A long time ago,” he said upon reflection. “I came with my dad.

Maybe eighteen years ago.”

“How the hell can you remember it from so long ago?” Jake’s

eyes widened.

“I remember everything about that trip here,” he admitted.

The memories had remained vivid for Sam even after so much

time passed. He recalled the first day they arrived at the compound.

His father was coming to visit his friend Thorak, whom he knew from

long ago, and wanted his son to meet the infamous Voyeur werewolf.

It was the first time Sam had ever met a werewolf, let alone a large

group of them nestled in the isolated woods in southern Alaska not

that far off from Anchorage.

He remembered staying up all night their first night there looking

out the window at the full moon, waiting to see the Voyeurs transform

into werewolves and go hunting for prey. It never happened. His

father explained to him the next day that Voyeur werewolves didn’t

turn to raging werewolves and kill humans. O n the contrary, they used

their visionary capabilities and the controlled beast within them to

protect mankind from wild Rogue werewolves that roamed the earth.

Of course, that didn’t mean a Voyeur werewolf couldn’t turn into the

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uncontrollable beast and kill. They could if they didn’t do something

specific before every full moon.

Sam was only fourteen then, so of course his father couldn’t tell

him what that “something” was, but later in life he did tell him the

reason. A smile spread over his face the day he learned Voyeurs used

boundless sex to control the wild beast within them. A part of him

wished he was born a Voyeur so he could use that excuse to have

limitless sex, too. But he knew the big responsibility weighing on the

Voyeurs’ shoulders to protect mankind, and he never wanted such a

burden put on him.

Being a private detective now, working with his friend and

partner, Jake, served him just right. So much simpler than playing a

supernatural superhero every waking hour of his life.

When he got a visit yesterday from Thorak requesting his

services, it came quite as a shock. Even though the ancient Voyeur

still kept in touch with his family after Sam’s dad died a couple of

years ago and he knew that Sam had quit the Anchorage Police

Department six months before so he could take care of his dad when

he got sick, he never expected that Thorak would ever need his help.

It took a few minutes for the revelation to sink in, but Sam agreed

with no hesitation to take on the job. Once Thorak left, he called Jake,

his partner, to tell him about this new big case. Work had been slow

the past couple of months. They had the odd “get proof my wife or

husband is cheating so I can use it in divorce court” case, even a

missing person’s case of a runaway teen. But other than that things

had been pretty calm. So it wasn’t too hard convincing Jake he should

join him on the case. O f course, he had to tell him the whole

unbelievable story about Voyeur werewolves and the new Rogue

werewolves Thorak discussed with him.

Shockingly, Jake took it with stride and didn’t need much

convincing to agree to accompany him on this job. Jake’s grandfather

was an Inuit, too, and Jake had heard hearsay about werewolf legends

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Jessica Frost

all his life. He even thought he saw one from afar when he was a kid

on a hiking trip with his dad and a friend.

So here they were almost twenty- four hours later on a dirt road

heading for the Voyeurs’ compound to get further instructions and

information from Thorak.

Jake broke the silence by saying, “I think I see something on our

left.” He paused and said in an excited tone, “Yeah, there. You see

it?” He pointed with his finger up ahead.

Sam looked in that direction, and sure enough, he saw a clearing

up ahead and a path leading into the compound. “Yeah, that’s it.”

Following the path into the compound, he looked for a place to

park up ahead while Jake stared at the huge, gray brick building with

its partly circular arches and small windows. “Boy, it looks pretty big.

Love the architecture. Gothic?”

“No, I don’t remember what they call it. It looks spooky, though.”

Sam placed the car in park.

“Yeah, the perfect dwelling for werewolves,” Jake joked while

getting out of the vehicle.

Sam laughed at Jake’s remark as he opened his door and stepped

out. “Good one.”

He turned to head for the building’s concrete steps when

something slammed into him. He fell to the ground, stunned as his

head hit the grass. Whoever or whatever slammed into him fell onto

his chest a second after that. He lost his breath with the contact.

Once the scenery around him stopped spinning and became

focused again, he stared into big, gorgeous green eyes as they stared

back at him. Gazes locked. Sam became mesmerized by the brown

flecks floating in a sea of deep emerald green.

When lashes fluttered, his gaze broke free to travel outside the

circumference of the emerald green sea. He beheld the most beautiful

and delicate, round face and pouty red lips perfect for kissing. A deep

yearning from within him pushed his own lips closer to hers to see if

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the sultry redness of their pigmentation reflected a heated passion he

thought they possessed.

Just when his lips were a mere half inch away from fiery contact,

the woman pushed herself away, clumsily trying to get up.

Once up, she straightened her skirt that rode up her sexy, super

long legs and pulled down her low-cut sweater, revealing a deep

neckline and the most delectable mounds.

Umm, the view just gets better and better.

Returning her gaze to Sam, she said in a raised tone and sneered,

“You oaf, watch where you’re going next time!”

And a spitfire, too. Mercy!

Sam got quickly back up on his feet and countered, “Considering

it was you who bumped into me, miss, it should be me saying that to

you, not the other way around. O mitting the ‘oaf’ comment, of

course.” He smiled slyly.

Frowning, she huffed. “I…I bumped into you?”

Jake walked back over to where they stood when Sam asked,

“Isn’t that right, Jake?” He looked at his partner, who had the biggest

smirk on his face. Jake obviously found Sam’s banter just as

entertaining as Sam did.

Jake nodded, looking at her. “Yup, miss. You bumped into him.”

Her frown got deeper as she squinted, gazing at Jake. She seemed

to be getting ready to say something, but bit her lip and took a deep

breath as she walked quickly away. She mumbled to herself, but Sam

could make out, “O f all the arrogant and…” Then her voice trailed off

as she moved farther away.

Jake laughed. “Ah, that was too funny. You should have seen how

she plowed right into you and knocked you down.”

Sam’s brow lifted in curiosity as he rubbed the back of his head

where it hit the ground just moments ago. A small bump had formed

and was sore to the touch. “Yeah, she’s pretty strong. She could be a