Awakened Animals (A Shifter Novel Book 15) Read online

  Awakened Animals

  A Shifter Novel

  Jaden Sinclair

  AWAKENED ANIMALS, A SHIFTER NOVEL

  Copyright © 2017 by Jaden Sinclair

  ISBN: 978-1-68046-578-5

  Melange Books, LLC

  White Bear Lake, MN 55110

  www.melange-books.com

  Names, characters, and incidents depicted in this book are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of the author or the publisher. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review or scholarly journal.

  Published in the United States of America.

  Cover Design by Caroline Andrus

  Contents

  Shifter Series

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Thank You For Reading

  Melange Mailing List

  About the Author

  Also by Jaden Sinclair

  Shifter Series

  Stefan’s Mark

  Claiming Skylar

  Dedrick’s Taming

  The Prowling

  Cole’s Awakening

  The New Breed

  Seducing Sasha

  Draeger’s Legacy

  Darian’s Surrender

  Full Moon Bites

  Reluctant Heat

  Unbounded Fury

  Untamed Beast

  Conquering Lyssa

  Awakened Animals

  Prologue

  Stray stood outside the apartment, looking up at the window he was sure his mate was behind. It had taken him months to track her down. Just standing outside he could smell her, and it brought back all sorts of memories. Her scent he could never forget, no matter how much that bitch who’d caged him tried to drag it out of him. It was there for life, under his skin, in his very soul.

  Thunder boomed off in the distance, but it didn’t bother him at all. He loved the rain. It washed and cleaned everything. Thunderstorms also relaxed him. But he couldn’t relax at the moment, not when his mate was so close.

  He started to take a step out of the shadows and go to her but stopped when he saw a dark van drive down the road. Always one to listen to the gut, Stray stopped and watched the van. It came to the front of the apartment building and stopped. Taking a sniff, he picked up human scent as two men got out of the van and started for the front door. Not a good sight in Stray’s eyes.

  Waiting until they went inside the building, Stray left the darkness and followed. He stayed one floor behind them as he followed, and when they stopped on the floor where his mate lived his stomach turned. Stray creeped up the steps and hunched down enough to watch them on the stairs without being seen.

  One of the humans had a key. They both looked around as they put the key in the lock, turned it, opened the door and quickly walked in. Seconds later all hell broke loose in that apartment.

  He heard things breaking and a woman scream, more stuff breaking, then silence. Emitting a low growl from the back of his throat, Stray came out of hiding and went to the door. He pushed it open since the humans left it ajar and saw red. One of the human men held his mate in his arms, and the other was pulling a needle out from her arm. Clearly, they’d knocked her out, but why he didn’t know or give a shit.

  Stray growled loud enough to be heard. Both men looked up and the one that had the needle dropped it and brought out a gun which he pointed at Stray.

  “Really?” Stray asked him, narrowing his eyes. Instead of moving, Stray kicked the sofa that sat right next to the guy. It hit his hip, distracting him enough that Stray was able to jump in the air and come down behind it. Not blinking, Stray took hold of his head and twisted, breaking his neck. “I suggest you put her down, or I’ll rip your fucking throat out next,” he snarled at the other man.

  The guy tossed her toward the sofa, then turned completely around and faced Stray again, gun in his hand. He pulled the trigger. Bullets began flying, causing Stray to duck for cover. One of those bullets ended up grazing his arm and steam came out of the wound. The pricks were using copper bullets and that meant they knew what he was and had likely been expecting him. But how the hell would they have known about him?

  “Get the girl!” the man yelled.

  Stray peeked around the counter where he’d taken cover and snarled low when he saw his mate being picked up by another human just entering the apartment. When he made to follow them, more shooting came his way, forcing him to take cover.

  “Come on out, dog,” the one sang. “Let me put a bullet right between your fucking eyes.”

  “Why don’t you come here,” Stray yelled back. “And I’ll rip your windpipe out with my bare hands, and you can have a look at it before you die.”

  He laughed and more rounds rang out. Then all went quiet. Stray listened hard for anything like the sound of a gun reloading, but heard nothing more. Turning again, he peeked out. The guy that had been shooting at him was gone.

  Standing up fast and running toward the door he sniffed as he ran, making sure the bastard wasn’t in the hallway waiting to take his head off. What he did hear was heavy footsteps running away.

  Following the sound, Stray ran hard and fast. He jumped down short flights of stairs, trying to close the distance. He wanted to reach them before they left with his mate.

  Kicking a side door open, Stray made it outside the same time as the small group in the tiny apartment. He saw his mate slung over a male’s shoulder and that had him snarling, then growling. The humans turned in his direction with shocked expressions on their faces.

  Seeing red again, Stray went after them. The one carrying his mate jerked the side of a van door open and tossed her in, then followed. Two more jumped in, and then one from inside leaned out and began shooting again. From the faint scent Stray picked up, it was the same son of a bitch that had been shooting at him a few minutes ago.

  “Go!” the one shooting yelled inside the van. His looked back at Stray and shot at him again.

  Stray reached the back of the van just as a bullet struck him. The burn from it knocked him down to the sidewalk and kept him there. Pain shot up and down his arm and when he looked, he saw he’d been shot in the left shoulder. Unable to get up from the pain and burn, he watched as the van pealed out, smoke shooting from the back tires as it sped off.

  “Motherfucker,” he snarled then groaned, lowering his head down to the cement. His vision started to blur and he couldn’t seem to move. “I’ll get you,” he huffed, struggling to get his right arm to pull the cell out of his pocket. “I swear I’ll get you for this.”

  Shaking his head to clear his eyes, he fought to dial a number to call for help. When he heard the phone ringing he almost blacked out in relief and wanted to cry for a moment when the other end picked up. “I need help,” he huffed. “Been shot and—and it’s copper. Tra—track phone—” he said, then all went black.

  “I swear I don’t know what I’m going to do with you.”

  Stray sat on a table, his body so heavy he had a hell of a time keeping it up. He focused all the energy he had left to stay upright. “I don
’t hear shit from you for what, over two years, and now you call for help.”

  He turned his head, blinked a few times, and got the eyes to focus on his cousin, Mika. It had been a long time since they’d last seen each other. When Stray left home with Logan, the trip was supposed to last only a few months. He didn’t plan to be taken and used as a male whore for so long. Once free, he called his family but only Mika was left. His whole family had been killed, and the pain he felt from that information burned into his soul. He wanted to die then. Refused to go home. Refused to see anyone. He pretty much shut down. When he left Logan, he thought he had a home to go to, but he didn’t.

  The years and the loss of their family changed Mika. Mika looked older, even though they were the same age. Mika’s family had also been killed a year before Stray was taken. One of the many raids happened, and only luck on Mika’s side saved his life. He had snuck out to meet up with a female—a female that also died later.

  Mika’s hair was a bit longer and darker. His body also filled out. A mass of muscle spread out on his chest, shoulders, arms, making the dark black T-shirt he wore look like it might be painted on his body. Even his legs were thicker. It all meant that Mika was now a male to be reckoned with. No longer a boy, but a shifter male who had experienced the need of his heat a few times, and each time he went through it alone it only made the male harder inside.

  A stick in the arm had Stray shaking off the past. His eyes felt so heavy and his body even more so.

  “Lie back.” Mika helped him to lie down and once his head touched a pillow, his eyes closed. “Tell me what happened before you pass out and I start digging here.”

  Something wet touched his shoulder and he wanted to hiss at the burn but couldn’t. Forcing his eyes to open he tried to look at Mika. “Found—found mate.”

  Mika stopped pouring whatever the hell it was on his arm and bent down lower to Stray’s face. “What?”

  Talking was becoming harder to do. Closing his eyes, taking a deep breath, Stray tried again. “Mate.”

  “Did you find yours?” Mika asked, and Stray nodded. Mika’s cool hand touched Stray’s forehead. “Good. Maybe now you’ll stop being such a dick. But don’t worry, cuz, I’ll fix you up.”

  He started to move away, and with the last amount of energy and strength Stray had left he grabbed Mika’s arm, stopping him. “Th—” Licking his lips and trying again he spoke once more. “Thank you.”

  Mika came back down close to his face so Stray could see him clearly. “No matter what has happened to you or me, we are family, Stray. I’ve got your back just as I know you will have mine if or when the time comes. We all need to stick together if we want to stay alive. No more of this alone shit. I’ve got your back and I’ll help you find her again.” Stray nodded and his hand dropped from Mika’s arm. Once more, his cool hand touched Stay’s forehead. “Close your eyes. Let the medicine do its job. You won’t feel a damn thing. I promise.”

  With one last nod, Stray gave up the fight to stay awake and let his body go. He drifted away but right before the darkness took him he heard Mika bring over the surgical kit. He’d get the copper out and once he healed that bastard who shot him would know what real pain was all about. Pain that only a pissed-off shifter could bring.

  1

  “Stray, this is one of the most stupid, clusterfucked-up ideas you’ve ever had in that pea-size shitty brain of yours,” Mika stated as they both hunched down behind a bush, staring at a building that both knew was well-guarded most likely to the hilt.

  “Didn’t hear you come up with any ideas,” Stray stated.

  “We don’t even know if she’s in there, for Christ sakes. I don’t know about you, but I don’t feel like digging more bullets out of your ass,” Mika said. “Or mine,” he mumbled.

  “She’s in there.”

  “And how the hell do you know that?”

  “I can smell her.”

  “There is no way in hell you can pick up her scent so far away.” Mika sniffed. “Shit, I can’t even smell just one. All I pick up is a handful of humans.”

  “Trust me, she’s there.”

  “Hope you are right.”

  Stray didn’t bother with glaring at his cousin. Mika didn’t really understand the connection he had with his mate, now that he’d found her. He didn’t understand the pull he felt or this instant need and pain only her touch could ease. He also didn’t understand the struggle that went on inside him either. No one did, not even Stray himself. He wanted her, needed her, and feared that need at the same time. Feared that he was no longer a true shifter, but a damaged male.

  Stray glanced at Mika. Being first cousins, since their fathers were brothers, the two of them could pass for brothers more than cousins. Both were over six feet tall, both had very large-framed bodies, and both had light-colored hair. However, Stray was a bit taller and Mika thicker in his build. They both worked out, yes, but when it came to actual size, Stray had the height, Mika the body mass.

  Since they also were full-blooded shifters, the scale of things was always tipped in their favor. They could see things at a sharper angle. Smell things, sense stuff, and move faster, as well as being so much stronger than any human. Stray used all of those things at the moment, staring at the building where his mate was being held.

  It had been close to four years since he last saw her, thanks to that bitch. The chance meeting, marking, and mating that happened deep in the woods on a full moon had changed everything for Stray. He’d found his perfect match, only to be taken away from her before anything besides the mating could happen. Lucky for him he at least knew her first name, by the bracelet that had fallen from her wrist. Spending two years sold out to the highest bidder didn’t take away the memory of Vesper. Each night when the torture ended, he dreamed of her and that one moment when they would come together and she would be his. Only that memory kept him going and led to this moment now.

  “Ready?” Stray asked, straightening up slowly.

  Mika slowly inhaled. “I guess. Still think this is crazy. We don’t know for sure she’s in there, and we’ve got nothing for backup.”

  “Stop bitching.”

  “I’m not bitching, I’m stating. You need to be listening. I’ve got a bad feeling about this, and I just know that we are going to be outnumbered.”

  They kept to the shadows, blending in while making their way toward the building. Stray stilled for a second to check his surroundings, noticed there weren’t many guards around, and the hairs on the back of his neck stood up.

  Something was off.

  “You feel that, right?” Mika asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “Good, means you’re not completely shut off.”

  “Bite me.”

  They made it to a side of the building when the sound of doors closing had both of them standing still again. Stray moved away from the building, kept to the darkness, and snuck around to see a handful of men get into large SUVs. But he straightened and came out of the shadows when he saw Vesper. One male was dragging her by her arm to the middle car where he shoved her inside. From the quick look he got, Stray snarled. Vesper didn’t look good.

  Mika grabbed him by both arms, pulling him back into the shadows as the cars took off. Stray didn’t hold back the low growl and stiffened up even more, ready to go after them.

  “Think,” Mika said in his ear. “You go in there, they will kill you. Calm your shit and let’s follow them.”

  How in the hell Mika was able to reason with him, Stray didn’t know. But he nodded, let Mika pull him away from the cars, and they ran back to Mika’s truck.

  Mika was able to find the row of vehicles.

  They didn’t get too close, and thankfully, with the sharpness of their eyes, they didn’t have to. Both could see each turn at least a mile or more ahead of them. They also didn’t need to have the headlights on.

  The drive took an hour. Mika drove up slowly, away from a large house, driveway and the other SUVs that were
parked. In fact, the grounds of the house sat in a valley, and Mika ended up parking on a hill overlooking the grounds with a nice vantage point.

  They got out slowly, and neither said a word. Stray stared down at the house. The inner animal stirred and not in a good way. He knew by the way the whole atmosphere changed that his eyes were also changing, and he wasn’t going to bother trying to hold it back. In fact, Stray pulled his shirt from the waist of his jeans, up over his head, and tossed it back toward the SUV. He next kicked off the shoes, bent for the socks, and then undid the jeans.

  “Great,” Mika groaned. “This is going to get messy, I just know it.

  Stray stripped all the way down, then looked at Mika and began to change.

  “She is pretty.”

  Vesper stood in front of a man she didn’t know, held by her brother in one of his tight, brutal grips which no doubt would leave another bruise.

  The man standing in front of her wasn’t old or young. More like middle-aged, and from the design of the suit he wore, it was clear he had money. The dark hair on his head was turning gray and receding as well, and the way those eyes of his roamed over her body had Vesper trying to pull away from her brother’s hold as she held down the bile threatening to come up. She didn’t have much in her stomach, but what little she did have almost poured out.

  “Give her the drink,” he said. He snapped his finger and a servant came up with a tray in hand.

  “I—I don’t want it,” she said, shaking her head and trying again to pull away from her brother.

  Hayden gave her a hard jerk followed by a stinging backhand. One of his men came up behind her, steadied her so she didn’t fall to the floor, then Hayden grabbed her chin, forced her mouth open and poured the drink down her throat.