EnemyMine
Authors: Aline Hunter
Enemy Mine
Book two in the Alpha and Omega series.
Divided by blood. Destined by
fate.
Emory is a shifter living on the
edge. For years he’s struggled with his Alpha nature. Then he meets the one
woman capable of soothing the savage beast—Mary incites a carnal hunger that
leaves him eager and burning. Sweet, kind and impossibly beautiful, Mary is
everything he and his wolven half have been craving. Unfortunately, she’s also
something else, something dangerous—a Shepherd, bred of the line of hunters
determined to destroy his kind.
Emory discovers earning Mary’s
trust is the least of his concerns. Her relatives want Mary back. If Emory
won’t hand her over, they’ll do everything in their power to take her from the
pack. As danger closes in, the passionate connection between them flares into a
lascivious bond that refuses to be broken.
If Emory wants to keep his mate,
he’ll have to protect her—at any cost.
Ellora’s Cave Publishing
Enemy Mine
ISBN 9781419938535
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Enemy Mine Copyright © 2012 Aline Hunter
Edited by Ann Leveille
Cover design by Irene Adler
Photos: Alexander Lukyanov, Curaphotography,
Lion21/Shutterstock.com
Electronic book publication April 2012
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Enemy Mine
Aline Hunter
Dedication
This story wouldn’t have been possible without the
assistance of my critique partners, beta readers, friends and family. Thank you
for providing so much input and advice. To the fans who enjoyed
Omega Mine
,
your support means the world to me. I can’t thank you enough for spreading the
word and asking for more. And, as always, I have to mention my editor, who
makes everything I create so much better. Ann, you’re the best.
Prologue
The stench of fire and death merged, the unappealing
combination of scents burning like powdered red pepper in Emory Veznor’s nose.
Despite the smells, the wolf inside of him basked in the glory of the kill,
reveling in the coppery taste of blood on his tongue. He lifted his head from
the throat of his prey—noting the blank stare of the dead man who gazed at the
midnight blue sky—before he studied the carnage around him.
His pack mates were tormenting two Shepherds, snapping at
them with sharp teeth while issuing throaty growls. They rotated around the men
in a slow, deliberate circle. The only human in the pack—Caden Stone—was to the
far left of the group. He was busy reshaping the face of the Shepherd he’d
tackled to the ground, punching him repeatedly in the nose. When the pack had
attacked there had been six Shepherds ready to intercept them. That number was
now down to three. Emory was tempted to join the brawl, to snap and snarl at
the murderers he’d come to destroy, but that wasn’t what he traveled hundreds
of miles for.
Finally his journey was coming to an end.
Mary
.
He started the shift into his human form, aware his mate
would only fear him if he came to her in his wolven state. Hell, she was
already terrified of what he was. She’d been given a glimpse of what lingered
beneath his skin once and it had sent her running. At the time he couldn’t go
to her to attempt to explain. He’d been too busy dodging buckshot from her
bloodthirsty relatives and trying to escape their attention alive. They’d issued
a challenge as he’d fled, threatening his mate and destroying any hope he’d had
of making Mary understand who and what he was. Because of that he’d been forced
to return to his pack in New York. Only running didn’t help. Instead it brought
danger to his door and destruction and loss to those he loved. So many lives
had ended in an explosion the pack had never seen coming, bringing Emory to
this moment.
Don’t think about that now. Focus on who you came for
.
He finished the change and swiped the back of his hand
across his lips. The skin came away bloodied, the thick red smear vivid against
his tanned knuckles. Not good. He’d have to clean his face at the very least
before he sought out his mate. Going to Mary in this condition would only make
things worse. She was too young and innocent to fully comprehend what he wanted
from her. Time wasn’t on his side but he was determined to do everything in his
power to ease her into the transition, to help her accept their future
together.
“She’s not in the building, Emory.”
Emory looked up and met his brother’s gaze.
Trey had transformed into his human form as well but his
bright golden eyes revealed he was in the grip of a fighter’s bloodlust. It
wasn’t a shock. As the pack had traveled to the location where Mary lived—deep
in Shepherd territory in Northern Colorado—Trey’s control had been on the
decline. The former Alpha mourned the deaths of his New York pack mates in the
only way he understood—by tracking down those responsible and making them pay.
His temper was thread thin and his desire to kill was off the charts. If it
weren’t for the presence of Gerald Night—the werewolf Alpha from the area—Trey
probably would have disintegrated into madness. Trey was forced to play the
part of a respectable Alpha to save face, even if everyone close to him knew
that he’d lost the control necessary to properly guide the pack that had
traveled with him to exact a revenge of their own.
Rising smoothly to his feet, Emory stared at the house in
the distance. The front door was smashed in and he could see the shadows of
wolves as they moved inside. Loud crashing noises drifted to his ears, a
chilling melody of shattering glass and breaking wood. The noises indicated the
wolves were demolishing everything in their path, as though they had picked up
a scent and were searching for the source.
That meant someone was inside.
Mary.
Shit
.
Emory took off at a dead run, blood pounding in his ears,
fear and adrenaline flooding his system. Damn Trey and his short fucking fuse.
Once upon a time his brother had been responsible. Now he was a ticking time
bomb. The moment they had arrived Trey’d ordered the pack to surround the house
and building at the back of the property and attack at his command. Not smart
planning at all. More like reckless and stupid. Gerald had tried to talk sense
into Trey but it hadn’t worked. Not when the object of Trey’s hatred was so
prime for the taking.
Emory flew across the porch and into the house, drawing a
lungful of air as he stepped inside. Panic caused his heart to slam into his
throat. Mary’s scent was present but fading. If she had been kept here the
unique fragrance of lavender and linen would be stronger, easier to identify.
His nose piloted him through the ransacked home until he came to the room where
Mary’s smell was strongest. Two of the pack wolves were at a closet, clawing
and snarling at the wood barring their path to their prize.
“Stand back,” he ordered, strode over and grasped the knob
to open the door. The woman hiding inside was older, with her hair pulled into
a bun. Although standing, her back was pressed against the wall, as though she
could vanish into the plaster if she willed it so. She had a cell phone against
her ear, the glow from the light shining brightly across one side of her face.
“They’re here. It’s too late,” she whispered hoarsely, her
nearly black eyes focused on Emory. Her arm lowered as she dropped the phone
and stomped on it, destroying the device.
Emory grasped the woman by the throat and pulled her from
the closet. “Where is Mary? What the fuck have you done with her?”
She compressed her lips and remained silent. Emory growled
and yanked her toward him, invading her personal space.
“Fast or slow.” He lowered his voice and revealed the fangs
he had allowed to elongate. “Tell me what I want to know or I’ll make sure you
suffer for hours. Either way, you
will
answer me.”
“Go to hell where you belong, spawn of Satan.” She spit in
his face and struggled in his hold.
The wolf inside of him roared in fury and he had to hold
back his animal instinct to lash out at the bitch and put her in her place.
Fighting for control, he snarled, “Slow works for me.”
He didn’t wipe his face clean, turning instead and dragging
the woman along with him. His pack mates moved out of his way as he stormed down
the hall, walked through the living room and stepped onto the porch.
Trey stood where he’d left him, talking to pack members who
had returned to their human form and restrained the Shepherds at their feet
with rope. Emory couldn’t stomach the idea of torturing the woman for the
answers he needed—there was no way he could look Mary in the eye and tell her
what he’d done—but Trey could. His brother, desperate for blood, would relish
each and every second.
“She won’t tell me where Mary is.” Emory shoved the woman
toward the group. “Make her.”
Trey grasped the female by the forearm and flicked his
wrist, and Emory forced himself not to wince when he heard a bone snap. She
screamed in agony, her high-pitched wail echoing in the night.
“There are so many bones in the human body,” Trey said
menacingly and snagged her uninjured arm, “as thin and brittle as toothpicks.”
Emory watched as Trey’s fingers drifted down her arm and
tightened around her wrist. His brother’s knuckles turned white as he continued
applying steady pressure, crushing the bones together. The woman’s knees
wobbled and she sagged to the ground, crying out.
“She’s gone,” she whimpered between ragged breaths. “She’s
been gone for weeks.”
“Gone?” Emory lost control of his temper, dropped to his
knees and wrapped his fingers around the woman’s neck. He forced her to look
him in the eye when he said, “You wouldn’t let her leave, even if she wanted
to.” His hand shook as he dug his nails into her skin. “She’d better be in the
same condition I left her in. If you hurt her, so help me…”
“You’ll what?” the hag asked with a twinge of spite when he
didn’t finish. “Kill me?”
Emory took several deep breaths, barely holding the wolf
back. The beast inside him lashed out, ordering him to leave the man behind and
let the feral portion of him take over. It would be so easy to let his fangs
descend, to clamp his teeth around the woman’s throat. He’d bite down until he
felt the hardness of bone against his incisors. Then he’d wait, holding her in
place, making sure she died slowly. As she gagged he’d enjoy the rusty taste of
her blood against his tongue, bask in her struggles as she grew weak and knew
her time in this world was at an end. There would be no mercy killing, no fast
snap of his jaws to ease her passing. He wouldn’t break her neck and end her
suffering. He’d make it last, draw it out, wrap the scent of death around him
like a cozy blanket.
He could almost smell her death, taste her life’s blood
pulsing against his tongue. His skin started to burn and he felt the wolf come
closer to the surface.
Back off
, he ordered silently, reminding the animal
within who was in charge. A sharp pounding in his temples aided him in moving
away from the train of thought, to let go of the growing fury, allowing him to
think clearly.
Finding Mary is the most important thing. This bitch is
nothing more than a means to that end.
“Where is she?” he repeated, striving for calm.
When she didn’t respond Trey placed his hand over the
woman’s biceps and another loud crack followed. This time her scream was so
long and loud it made Emory’s ears ring. Tears streamed down her face and
merged with the snot seeping along the crest of her upper lip. It sounded like
she started choking but she didn’t stop yelling as she begged.
“Stop, stop,
please
stop!”
“You want me to stop?” Trey lowered his face until he and
the woman were at eye level. “
Answer. His. Fucking. Question
.”
“I don’t know if she’s alive or dead.” The panic and misery
in her voice were genuine and her eyes were wide and horrified. “She ran.”
“Ran where?” Trey snarled.
“Do you think she’d tell us where she was going?” After Trey
took hold of her shoulder she added quickly, “She waited until she had an
opportunity to escape and took it. She killed her own kin.” The reminder seemed
to bring the aging female out of her haze of pain, snapping her to attention.
Killed her kin? The Mary he knew wouldn’t swat a fly.
What in the fuck happened since the last time I saw her?
The woman’s eyes narrowed as he processed the information
and she declared, “If she’s not dead yet, she will be. When Elijah finds her,
he’ll kill her.”
“Elijah’s after her?” Emory’s wolf roared in fury. Her uncle
had already stated he’d take her life. If he was after her now, she was in
danger. “She’s being tracked?”
“He told her what would happen if she didn’t repent. He
warned her repeatedly. She didn’t listen.”
“What do you mean he warned her? What the hell did he do?”
Emory’s temper snapped when she remained silent and he snarled, “Answer me,
damn you!”
“I’m not telling you anything else. You’ve gotten all you
can expect from me, seed of Satan. Take my life but you’ll never touch my
soul.” She tore her gaze from Emory’s, stared straight ahead and started
reciting the Lord’s Prayer.
Fucking religious zealots.
Trey pressed his fingers into the woman’s shoulder—more than
likely to demolish her collarbone—but Emory preventing him from inflicting more
damage by flexing his hand and breaking her neck. She toppled forward when he
and Trey let her go, her body landing motionless in the dirt.
“Why the fuck did you do that?” Trey stared down at her body
with glowing amber eyes, his hair in disarray around his face. “I was just
getting started.”
“We wouldn’t have gotten anything more from her, and what
she didn’t say told us more than what she might have.” Emory stood and faced
his furious sibling, trying to remain calm. If he was going to have blood on
his hands, it would be for the right reasons. “Mary ran and she’s being
tracked. We have to find her before her Elijah does.”
“Good luck.” Trey snorted. “She could be anywhere.”
“Not necessarily,” Gerald called out as he separated from
the members of his pack. He and his wolves had guided them to the location
where the Shepherds resided and remained on the sidelines. They were willing to
fight but understood vengeance belonged to Trey and the shifters who
accompanied him. The New York pack members were the ones who’d suffered the
ultimate loss. One from which some might never recover.
“How so?” Trey asked.
“We picked up the faint scent of cat in the storage
building.”
“What does that have to do with anything?” Trey retorted.
“They kill shifters here, in case you’ve forgotten.”
Gerald’s hazel eyes started to turn orange and Emory hoped
he didn’t have to keep the two Alphas from going at each other. Gerald had been
patient with Trey, after all his brother had lost, but his generosity would
only go so far.
“The woman said that your mate had been gone for weeks.”
Gerald’s tone was curt. “It just so happens that a young female cat shifter
went missing months ago. Her Alpha spread word to the packs and prides, hoping
someone would have information to locate her. When she returned a few weeks
back she said a young woman helped her escape. The time frame matches.”
“You think it was Mary?” Emory tried to imagine Mary
releasing a shifter. She’d been terrified of him when he’d shifted in front of
her. He’d had no other choice in order to defend her from her family months
before. He’d seen the horror in her eyes, the revulsion. Had she overcome her
fear? Was it possible she wouldn’t run when he found her, told her what she
meant to him and initiated the bloodbonding that would tie them together as
mates?
