His to Claim
His to Claim
Alateeka Protection Services Book 2 - Kyle
Copyright 2014 Alice Cain
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
All Romance
Edition
October 2014
All Romance Edition, License Notes
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~ Alice
This is a fictional story from the author’s
imagination and is not to be confused with fact. It is not advice or
suggestion. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons is purely
coincidental.
Blurb:
Kyle Alateeka never expected to be attracted
to a man so different to his usual type, but no matter what he tries to tell
himself, he can't seem to resist Officer Alex Jones.
Alex has no idea what's happening, but being
attacked by hyenas while trying to rescue a confused young woman makes him
wonder if maybe he hit his head or accidentally ingested hallucinogenic drugs.
Even the man who "rescues" him seems too good to be true, but it's
the unexpected attraction between them that has him truly confused. Kyle is
so
not his type.
Never before in his long life has Kyle been
tempted to throw aside his sacred duties, but Alex is an unexpected,
irresistible distraction. Too bad they're so much alike—
both
stubborn
, determined, and protective. Sooner or later they're going to
drive each other insane.
That's assuming, of course, they can stay
alive long enough to figure out why a clan of hyena shifters wants them both
dead.
Warning
: Gay erotic romance. This fictional
story contains explicit adult content and coarse language and is intended for
mature readers only. All characters involved in sexual behavior in this story
are adults capable of consent, are over the age of twenty-one, and are willing
participants.
30,470 words
His to Claim
Alateeka
Protection Services Book 2 - Kyle
Alice Cain
Copyright 2014
Chapter One
Kyle Alateeka ran as fast as two legs could
carry him, and wished for his alternate, four-legged form. Too bad he was in
the middle of one the over-crowded, under-funded, polluted hell holes humans
called "cities."
Right now he'd give a million dollars for a
single breath of fresh air.
He ran faster, desperately trying to catch
up to the being who'd once again evaded him. It was getting damned embarrassing
to be out maneuvered time and time again. The only saving grace was that his
brothers and sister were thousands of miles away dealing with other cases and
weren't here to tease him about getting his ass kicked—figuratively speaking,
of course—by such a tiny paranormal.
After running what had to be three miles
through melting snow and rain-slicked roadways, Kyle finally ran into an alley only
to find
himself
facing a solid brick wall. The stench
of trash was overpowering, but it wasn't quite enough to mask the scent of the
paranormal he pursued.
"I'm not going to hurt you," he
whispered into the dark. Even with his better-than-human night vision he
couldn't see where the little vixen had gone. He could smell her though.
"You don't need to be afraid."
He followed his nose to her hiding space,
but was completely unprepared for the high-pitched, childish squeal that
threatened to burst his eardrums. Fuck.
"Stop," he growled as the
child-sized being dodged around him. "Damn it, I'm not going to hurt
you." He managed to catch the woman's arm, halting her progress from the
alley, but she screeched so loudly and tugged so hard against his hold, he feared
he'd pull her arm from the socket. Regretfully, he let go, unwilling to cause
the terrified woman any physical harm.
He shook his head tiredly as his target once
again scampered away.
~*~
Alex Jones had been a cop in this area for
more than ten years, and unfortunately he knew the sound of a woman being
attacked all too well. Thankfully, on this at least, he and his partner apparently
agreed. Terry nodded, turned the unmarked car around, and then drove toward the
terrified scream.
A moment later a young woman seemed to break
away from whatever had been holding her in a dark alleyway between buildings.
Obviously panicked and disorientated, she dashed across the front of the car,
her naked body momentarily illuminated in the car's headlights. Terry slammed
the breaks on, hard, in an effort to avoid her.
"Holy fuck," he said breathlessly
as if he'd seen a ghost. His mouth hung open for another few seconds before he
seemed to gather his wits. "I think I clipped her."
Alex shook his head. It had been close, but
he was pretty sure the young woman had managed to dodge at the last moment.
"I'm going after her," his partner
said. "You go find out what made her scream."
Terry was already out of the driver's seat
and running after the woman even before he finished talking.
If his partner had been thinking clearly, he
wouldn't have suggested this course of action. Splitting up in this area of
town was never a good idea. Too many police officers had died in situations
just like this one in the past few years.
But whoever had attacked the woman was still
in that alleyway, and was likely known to police. Many of the criminals in this
area wouldn't be the least bit intimidated by a single cop, or his police-issue
weapon, but Alex had no intention of letting whoever was in there to get away.
Too many times they were unable to gather enough evidence to hold a criminal
accountable for his actions. Catching a possible rapist while the guy still had
his pants down would go a long way toward a criminal conviction.
Alex quickly checked that his pocket camera
was set to night vision, and then headed toward the alley.
~*~
Kyle heard the car, the cops, and the
conversation, and knew what was coming next, but he didn't have any way to
avoid it.
Well, he did, but changing into a massive
grizzly bear in the middle of an inner city alleyway might just cause more
problems than it solved. Granted, a huge man standing in the dead-end alley
where a young-looking, naked woman had just run from was obviously suspicious,
but he hadn't done anything wrong, and since there was no one to tell
otherwise, Kyle had
no
need to worry. He'd have a
reasonable chat to the police officer and be on his way. After all, if the
shifter he'd been chasing had outrun him, there was no chance a cop on foot was
going to catch her…unless she let him.
Fuck.
"Goddess?"
Kyle asked with a grimace. He hadn't been on good terms with
Anaedra since their last disagreement fifteen years ago—the woman sure knew how
to keep a grudge—so he wasn't holding out much hope. He was annoyed as hell,
but not really surprised, when she didn't answer.
Kyle took a steadying breath and waited for
things to happen. He always tried to avoid getting in the way of local law
enforcement, but sometimes it was simply unavoidable. He just needed to stay
calm and explain.
Even though he was prepared for it, he
squinted and dropped his gaze as the torchlight shone directly into his eyes
and a police officer in plain clothes pointed a gun at his chest. Kyle put his
hands up, showing that he wasn't a threat. He sure wasn't willing to risk
getting shot so far from home, especially when Anaedra was ignoring him.
"Walk forward…slowly," the cop
ordered. "Are you alone?"
It was kind of a silly question since a
criminal would probably lie and hope for one of his friends to get the jump on
the cop so they could all escape, but since Alex wasn't a criminal, he answered
honestly.
"I'm alone, and I'm unarmed."
The cop backed up as Kyle moved out of the
alley and then pointed him toward the car abandoned in the middle of the road.
"Hands on the roof, legs spread."
Kyle nodded and complied, moving slowly,
trying to appear as nonthreatening as possible. Considering his huge size that
was next to impossible, but he did his best.
"What were you doing in a dark alleyway
this time of night?" the cop asked as he roughly manhandled Kyle into the
position he wanted and placed handcuffs around his wrists. For a guy as
muscular as Kyle, it was a damned uncomfortable position, but he did his best
to stay calm. Snapping the good officer's handcuffs like they were tinfoil was
not a wise move if he wanted to stay
un
shot
.
"I'm a bounty hunter," Alex
answered, careful to keep the annoyance out of his voice. This guy was just
doing his job. Just like Kyle. There was no reason for either of them to get
hurt.
"Last I checked," the cop said in
a reasonable tone as he started rummaging through Kyle's pockets,
"collecting bounties didn't involve stripping little girls naked in a dark
alley."
"She was already naked before I got
here, and she isn't a little girl."
She wasn't even human, but that explanation
would likely get him admitted to a psychiatric ward for seventy-two hours. And
he probably should have kept his mouth shut since he'd just admitted to having
seen the woman who'd run from the alleyway.
"Sure, she was." the cop said
again in that casual tone that was starting to piss Kyle off. "Because
grown women run around naked in the snow all the time." It was one thing
to cross paths with local law enforcement while on assignment, but it was
infuriating to be accused of something so heinous—even if the evidence did kind
of suggest it. Damn. "I guess we can ask her age when my partner gets
back."
Kyle breathed a sigh of relief when the
partner came back empty handed. The last thing he needed was to try and explain
why the woman couldn't talk. They'd simply assume she was terrified, admit her
to a hospital, and likely perform tests the woman had no way of understanding.
Fuck, it was the exact scenario Kyle had been trying to avoid. He was supposed
to be escorting her to a safe haven, not into the arms of the exact people who
would do her harm.
He rolled his head from side to side, trying
to
unkink
the muscles in his neck without damaging
the handcuffs that supposedly held him in this uncomfortable position. He could
hear the other cop punching information into the computer console inside the
unmarked police car, and Kyle prayed that his identification hadn't been
compromised. The guy who'd set it up for them had recently proven he wasn't exactly
stable.
Hell, it was probably something he and his
siblings should have checked, but without their resident computer whiz they
were kind of flying blind.
"Okay, Kyle Barton, let's try this one
more time," the cop said as he climbed out of the car and moved to stand
about ten feet away. "Why were you in a dark alley in the middle of the
night?"
"The woman is an escaped mental
patient." Damn, "mental patient" really wasn't PC these days. He
should have said autistic. That would have explained her unusual behavior and
inability to communicate, and sounded far more genuine. Kyle shook his head. He
used to be so much better at cover stories. Taking a discreet breath, he tried
to fill in the gaps to his less-than-convincing tale. "Her family hired me
to find her and bring her home." Well, it was as close to the truth as he
could tell them. Of course, neither officer seemed convinced.
"What's her name?"
Yeah, he should have seen that coming.
"Tyler…Fox."
And, nah, nobody was going to notice that
hesitant pause—except for maybe two suspicious cops who were already looking
for a reason to arrest him. Why the hell did he have to pick his brother's
mate's name? Tyler was a delicious, forbidden, married-to-his-brother
distraction he didn't need right now…or…or ever. Damn, Tyler was Adrian's
mate—despite being exactly what Kyle wanted—and, fuck, Kyle didn't want to
think about that either.
"No problem, we'll just check the
missing persons reports," the first cop said amiably as he fished Kyle's
keys from deep in his front pocket. Crap, the last thing Kyle needed was a hand
fishing around near his junk while he tried not to think about the man who
wasn't his and never would be. Tyler was the reason Kyle kept volunteering for
missions so damn far from home. The memory of his sweet scent and even sweeter
personality should not have followed him halfway across the country.
Kyle closed his eyes and tried to
concentrate. "She won't be on the reports," he said, trying to sound
as if he had a really good reason for that. "Her family trusts me to find
her. We're…old friends."
"Uh-huh," the second cop said.
"How about you just cut the bullshit? If you really know who this girl is,
you'll help us find her."
"Of course," Kyle said through
gritted teeth as he contemplated revealing a secret that was his entire reason
for existence. No, he wasn't going to change into a fucking grizzly bear in
front of two cops who were most likely wearing surveillance gear and recording
everything he said and everything he did, but the temptation was nearly
overwhelming.
What the fuck was
that
about? Yeah, he had a temper, but he wasn't usually stupid.
"Great. Then tell us where she's
hiding," the partner demanded with an angry growl in his tone.
Yeah, Kyle probably could. In fact, judging
by her scent trail, he was pretty certain the little shifter had doubled back
to watch this drama unfold. If she had an actual name, he'd call her and hope
she'd come to him instead of running again.
"Kyle, she's liable to freeze to death
without clothes. Please, just help us find her," the first cop said,
sounding for
all the
world like he was a reasonable
guy. "This misunderstanding can be sorted out quickly once we get
the…woman"—Kyle was pretty sure he'd been going to say "girl"
again, but changed his mind at the last moment—"to safety."
"He can't help us," the other guy
sneered. "We've got him on attempted rape." They didn't have enough
evidence to charge him with anything, even Kyle knew that, but it seemed the
partner had already decided Kyle was guilty. "Let's just take him in. I've
already alerted dispatch to the girl's predicament. Someone will find her
soon."
The cop behind Kyle dropped his voice to a
low, soothing tone. "Kyle, please, if you know where she went, just
tell
us how to find her."
Were they really playing "good cop, bad
cop," or had Kyle just watched way too much television?
He shook his head slowly. "I don't know
where she went." It was kind of true since he had no idea how far she'd
gone before she'd doubled back. "If her movements were predictable, I
would have delivered her to her family several days ago."
