Hale: Love Me Harder - Alien Paranormal Romance (23 page)

He raised his head and nodded at Dante. “I would like nothing better than to meet out the justice I believe he deserves. A death sentence. Instead I will give him over to your tender mercies.”

Today was for celebrating. He would not kill unless he had to in order to keep his family and his extended family safe.

Dante dragged Yaksim off.

“You haven’t seen the end of me,” he called out. “I will be leading the army that will invade the earth.”

A collective sigh went up as he disappeared.

“What are you waiting for, it’s a party.” Sergey turned to look at Lorali. “It is a party, right?”

She threw her arms around him and kissed him. Every male with a mate thought it was a splendid idea and did the same.

Ash sighed and went to release the humans who would never remember this brief delay.

There was laughter late into the night. It ended with the best fireworks display the city had ever seen.

Epilogue – Twelve years into the future

“I’m going to capture you.” Alexei’s laughter rang through the yard while he chased his two younger cousins and Amber who was helping them get away.

Janis was watching. Soon her child would be born. So far Nicolas had been right, each child born was male. Every one took turns keeping track of the active children.

“Alright, someone else has child duty. I need a bathroom break.” Janis stood and waddled across the room; she would deliver soon. She would glare at her sisters when she got back for giving her sly smiles.

Tori wrapped her arms around Hale. “I don’t know whether to be happy or sad that we have years to wait until our first child will be conceived.”

Nicolas had proved his theory. The males went into some kind of heat period. That’s when they made viable sperm. It seemed to be every eighteen years and their cycle was offset by three years. Each brother had a cycle of eighteen years and each cycle was three years apart. Three years after Aran’s ended, Sergey’s began.

They fell like dominoes. First Rena, Lorali, Dee, and now Janis.

Tori sat in Hale’s lap. Life was good.

Ash sat in the corner of the large yard. He had the look of someone who survived a traumatic loss despite himself.

He had gone to Water Works that Monday after Lorali’s and Sergey’s wedding. He waited all day there, but Brooklyn never showed up. He went every day for three months, but she never came.

He looked for her everywhere. Hale broke into every data base he could find, but there was no mention or sign of her anywhere. As the years went on he finally gave up. How long could she have lived with that disease raging in her body? He knew they could have found a cure, given the chance.

He watched Amber run. He had become her official guardian in their world. She had a second home in his house along with her parents. They stopped fighting the fact that she was different years ago.

He watched as Dante came to sit by him. The Created saw thousands of moves ahead of any of them including his own brothers. That’s why Ash kept an eye on a budding teen.

“Ash.”

“Dante.”

“How are you today?”

“The same as yesterday and the day before. Have you come over here to give me false hope?”

“I never give false hope, Ash. You should know that by now.”

Ash ignored him and continued to look at nothing.

“A war is coming and your guardianship will be needed.” Ash ignored him. “Amber cannot be hurt, remember that.”

He stood up to walk away. “Ash, Brooklyn is out there. You will meet her again long after you have given up hope.”

He walked away having done all he could do today.

Back Matter

I hope you are enjoying the Love Me Harder series. Writing Hale and Tori’s story brought many smiles to my face. I loved the predicaments they found themselves in as well as how the brothers responded to them.

Please leave a review at the site you purchased this e-book letting others know what you thought of it.

How to find me

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Christmas on the run

Coming Soon

Chapter one

What she needed was plenty of snow. She tugged on her overstuffed coat and fidgeted in her Greyhound bus seat wishing the bus would go faster. The warm sunshine of a few days ago was now laden with dark skies and impending bad weather. The further she got away from sunny California, the better she felt, soon she hoped she’d be able to breath and stop looking over her shoulder.

Her lips turned down there was no way she would stop looking over her shoulder. Monsters existed and she had proof. Even now she didn’t know what possessed her to walk down that alleyway, her normal sense of self-preservation usually didn’t let her do anything that stupid.

It had been such a beautiful November night, crisp and clear. All she wanted was to get home, snuggle up in her bed and escape the fact that the next day was Thanksgiving. When you had no one to spend the holidays with they just weren’t as joyful.

Everything was fine until she heard a noise. It was more like a squeal of pain that was quickly cut off, that’s when her self-preservation kicked in and she quickly hid behind several big dumpsters. There’s nothing like the smell of trash at the end of a long day. Her stomach had immediately revolted causing her to gag. What are they throwing away in this ally dead things was the immediate cynical thought that went through her head. She really wished she never thought that.

Not hearing anymore sounds after finally getting her stomach to calm down she took measured steps from behind the dumpsters. Peeking her head out she saw the ally was filled with men. Big men the kind that made you hot in a club but filled you with dread in a dark ally. She was being filled with horror as a poor man stood in the middle of them begging for his life.

“Where is she?” One of the males asked in a loud voice causing her to shake.

Without consciousness thought she reached for her cell phone. It was natural for her to take a picture of what was unfolding, just part of her everyday routine. Take a picture upload it and share it with the world.

“Go to hell,” the man between them shot back. “I’ll never tell you where she is, but don’t worry after morning they’ll be no need to look for her. We’ll get rid of your kind one at a time.”

The man spit at one of the men hitting him in the face. She flinched when she saw the huge man raise a hand to wipe the spittle away. Here it comes they are going to beat that man to a pulp.

“I will ask you one more time. If you value your life you will tell me where she is.”

“You’re going to kill me anyway so why would I tell you. Besides I like the thought of her screaming for mercy as they take her apart inch by inch. Don’t worry though no will touch her any other way,” he gave a crude suggestive laugh. “Who knows what diseases you filthy creatures carry?”

The man must have a death wish. He taunted them more as they asked again for the location of this women. Whoever she was, she must be important to them.

“Were out of time,” One of the men in the background spoke up. “Do it.”

“No!” the man screamed.

“You gave us no choice.”

A different man reached out and lifted the suddenly frightened man with one hand. The muscles that tightened in his arms had her full attention. Quickly turning her phone on, she needed a picture of that for well personal reasons. She snapped the picture taking several when the male changed. She stopped to review the scene replaying it in her head. Yep, the male had changed one moment he was superhot the next he was a huge alien whose eyes were emitting a beam that captured the other man causing him to talk woodenly as he spilled an address.

The monster dropped him and she stood frozen with her hand over her mouth to keep from screaming out and her knees knocking. Stay still was the rant going through her head. They would kill her if they knew she was there.

“I hate doing that.”

The super hottie was back now as if he never became a monster.

“It was either him or her.” The original man spoke. “He can make a full recovery, but he will come after us again.”

The man in question was curled on the ground in a fetal position with his hands wrapped around his head.

He said something much too low for her to hear.

“They already have her.” Super hottie replied to the man. “She is safe. You should worry about yourself.”

The man reached down and pulled a gun out of his boot. “Someone will die tonight.”

He hollered as he took aim at super hottie aka the monster that had him writhing in pain. Immediately she raised her phone only to catch super hottie once again turn into a monster and rip his throat out.

The scream she was holding back came out loud and clear. Her uncoordinated legs propelled her back down the alley she came up. They were going to kill her and really it was her fault. All she needed to do was stay hidden not take pictures and definitely no screaming to alert the monsters to her presence. She didn’t stop when she hit the street. She ran like she had just seen a monster. Vaguely she thought of going to the police showing them her phone and swearing she didn’t do anything to change or enhance the pictures. It would take her way to long to convince them of that, so she kept running. Eventually she stopped when she found herself standing in front of her apartment.

No one had followed her there, she was sure of that. Going inside she locked the windows and the door, took a shower and fell exhaustedly in bed. The next day she huddled in a chair and ate day old pasta while the rest of the world celebrated with family and friends.

No knock sounded on her door. No monster burst in through the window threatening her life or shooting beams out of its eyes forcing her to spill everything she knew. Feeling much better the next day, she woke up determined to take advantage of the sales. Grabbing her phone she hesitated next to the door. Opening it she went into her camera hoping the pics would make a fool of her and there would be no monsters or dead man on the ground.

The pic of super hottie as a huge monster once again made her brain stutter as a new reality tried to trade places with her old one. This was Earth, there were no monsters here, but her pictures didn’t lie. Taking several deep breaths she walked out the door, they didn’t know her or where she lived, not that it mattered who would believe her anyway?

Counseling herself that everything would be ok she headed towards a large outdoor establishment. She would get somethings for her place and maybe pick up a new outfit. She parked, getting out of the car she caught a tall figure out of the corner of her eye. Turning her head she let out a sigh it was her mind playing tricks on her.

Several more times she thought she caught a glimpse of someone, but they were always gone when she turned to look. She was thinking of calling it a day when super hottie strolled right by her stopping to stare before he smiled at her, winked and walked away.

It was someone knocking into her that brought her out of her shock. They knew who she was. She dropped everything she bought she wouldn’t need it anymore. She had to get away before they came for her. She went into the one store that was empty. It was called Winter Gear. This was the store for people going to visit family or friends in the colder regions of the world. Of course those who wanted to go to the mountains to ski also visited this store.

She walked in and asked for the thickest coat they sold. She didn’t know where she was going all she knew was that it had to be cold with feet of snow. What else would keep those monsters at bay? When the spring thaw finally came hopefully they would have forgotten all about her.

Packing was easy, she didn’t have much to begin with. She mailed her key back to her landlord with a check for the last month’s rent. She was sorry she hadn’t been able to clean the place out, everything in there now belonged to him. She grabbed a ticket to a place called Newburg, Pa. It promised mountains of snow for the solitary type, just what she was looking for. Who would look for her up there?

She twisted around in her seat again. She had been on Greyhounds for days. This was the last one, when she got off this bus she would be in Newburg. They were right about the snow, the bus was now crawling as the skies opened up to drop more snow on a road that was already covered in it.

“Were almost there folks, but the last ten miles are going to be treacherous. Don’t worry I do this every year and have never had an accident,” the driver announced over the intercom.

Being one of those people who never actually saw or touched snow before she was fascinated by the scene outside even as she huddled deeper into her coat wishing she had several blankets also.

As the crisp white flakes flew she saw her path being obliterated. The more they fell the better she felt not even a monster could track her in this type of weather. She would be safe, lonely, but in the end safe was what mattered.

She closed her eye for a few minutes as the horror that sat on her shoulders since the killing rolled away allowing her to breathe deeply for the first time in a week.

“Folks you have arrived safely in Newburg. If you are getting off please wait your turn in the aisle, I will have your bags outside for you. Those of you who are going on we will depart in an hour, now would be the time to stretch your legs and grab something to eat. There’s a small diner next to the station that will gladly provide you with a hot meal.

Paige waited until everyone who was interested in getting off disembarked. Taking her time she grabbed her overhead bag and reluctantly stepped into the frigid weather. What had her life come to? No more swimsuits and solitary days at the beach. What did it matter where she spent her time alone? Hers where the last bags waiting to be claimed. She gathered them up along with her courage and wondered where she would be able to find a room. Soon she would need an apartment and a job. Right now though all she needed was a place to lay her head.