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  So, yes, Irina did save them in a way, but she sure as hell wasn’t that male’s true mate. Growls rumbled through Dane, almost turning into a roar. If that filthy fanger tried to mate with Irina, Dane would rip him limb from limb, if Irina didn’t beat him to it.

  “She got anything yet?” Dane asked curtly, lashing out at Rhys.

  “Dani’s good, give her a few minutes,” Rhys replied calmly.

  Of course Dani was good, and of course she needed time, but the more time she needed was more time Irina had to spend as Silas’ prisoner. He could’ve flashed her anywhere, but they knew it had to be in town. Strong vampires could flash all over the world, but not while transporting another body, only extremely powerful vampires could do that. Still, he could’ve flashed to a car, then headed out of town.

  Dammit, they needed to find him! Irina hadn’t been in contact with Dane since they flashed and he was worried she’d been knocked out.

  “All right, Mercury gave me the address.” Rhys got in the driver’s seat. “Let’s go.”

  “Where is it?”

  Rhys gave him a droll look. Of course Rhys wouldn’t tell a distraught male his mate’s kidnapper’s address lest he rush off without the proper backup.

  “Fine.” Dane growled and got in the car.

  *****

  “You ripped my finger off!” Silas screamed at her, his mouth dripping blood from her solid punch.

  She forced a calm façade so the bloodsucker wouldn’t be tempted by a rapid heartbeat. “Don’t ever touch me without permission.” Glowering through the bars at her captor, she tried not to be absolutely creeped out by the fact he had a prison cell waiting for her in his basement. “Is this how you treat your guests?”

  “No, it’s where my mother stayed until she expired.” He snapped back at her, bloody spittle flying.

  That poor woman. When insanity had a vampire or shifter in its clutches, it wasn’t just them who suffered, but the whole family. Especially if it was hereditary.

  “Did you kill your mother, Silas?” Irina inquired softly.

  “No, I tried to keep her from killing herself, so I put her in this cage.” He paced outside of her cell, holding his injured hand under his armpit. “Once she succeeded, though, I was free to find you, Belle.” He stopped to confront her. “Is that your real name?”

  She faced him impassively. There was no point in lying, he would smell it on her. “Close enough.”

  He walked up to the bars, his face centered between two. “Before long you will give me your real name; you will beg for my touch. It’s meant to be. We’re meant to be.”

  She continued to face him silently. He finally turned away, heading down a hallway.

  “I need blood to regrow my finger,” he said bitterly. “I’ll be right back.”

  When he disappeared from sight, she heard a door open. Her senses bombarded her without the vampire’s distraction.

  Sweet Mother. She smelled human female, heard the crying. This wasn’t his only cage. Dane!

  Irina! Are you okay? Do you know where you’re at?

  I think I’m in his home. The basement has a cage in the living area, but there’s at least one human female being held for his blood meals. At the least for blood meals, anyway. If he took after his dad, the woman was living a nightmare.

  She heard him tell Rhys they might need Jace and Cassie for cleanup.

  We’re on our way, describe everything you can see or feel.

  Irina quickly took in the seventies décor, dank basement smells, and small windows, and passed it all on to Dane, along with the location of each window and door she could see. Then she opened her senses to try to get a feel for what was outside.

  Do you think you have the right place? Irina began to mentally prepare herself in case she was left to deal with Silas alone.

  Yes, Dani found the house under the mom’s name with Silas as the co-signer. It’s got to be the same tiny ranch house we’re trying to find.

  Irina closed her eyes as she heard the woman’s whimpers get stronger as the vampire fed off her. When Silas had flashed her here, the abruptness of the transport caught her off guard. He used the opportunity to shove her in the cell, but tried to join her and grope under her clothes. She had twisted his finger off and shoved him out of the cell while he howled in pain. He got the door closed and locked before she could follow and attack him.

  He doesn’t seem well-versed on shifters, seems to forget I’m stronger and faster than his human prey.

  Not a surprise if his mother had been nothing more than a breed mare. I doubt she went back to her own people after we killed her husband.

  Most likely they had lived in isolation, using the paranormal underground to get fake documents and blend into society.

  Irina heard a door slam and Silas mutter, “Filthy humans.” When he appeared, she could see the stub of his finger was no longer ripped and torn. Within the next few hours, he’d have a nice new pink digit.

  Oh shit. Feedings affected vampires and she scented his arousal, took in the red shining irises, and realized he hadn’t completely sated himself with the human.

  “You’re mine.” He snarled, baring his bloodied fangs.

  Irina gasped and jumped back as Silas slammed into the bars. She hadn’t expected him to try for her body so soon, but that was going to be the last time he caught her off guard.

  “I will never be yours.” Irina fisted her hands at her sides, dropping into a fighting crouch.

  His red eyes glowed. “We’ll see about that.”

  Unlocking the cell door, he stalked in toward her. Irina tensed to dart around him, but he was just as fast as she was and, this time, he expected her attack. Where she bested him in technique, he made up for in strength.

  Throwing kicks and hits, she landed as many as he blocked, but the towering male wasn’t as affected by the blows as she bargained for. Instead, his feeding had stoked his arousal to a level where the fighting turned him on even more. Her pain from punches to her side, in her gut, fueled his fervor.

  Silas managed to wrestle her to the floor. Irina ignored the wave of nausea at his body on top of hers. She flailed, nailing his flanks and punching his throat, yet he managed to get one of her hands clasped above her head. Desperately, she grasped one of her decorative hair chopsticks. Before he could catch that hand, she pierced him with it in the carotid.

  He roared in outrage, throwing his head back, as warm blood pumped from his wound. She searched for the other chopstick, hoping to get it through his chest wall and strike the heart, but he recovered too fast, pinning both her hands above her head.

  Switching to knees and feet, she fought in vain to free herself, but he pressed his weight down to immobilize her. His black hair hung down on her face, blood dripping on her neck and chest.

  He unfastened his pants, Irina was beyond grateful to have picked today as her first day not to wear a dress. He fumbled with her pants, she bucked, kicked out to make the effort more difficult, using her desperation for power. She would die fighting before he violated her. His body jerked at the same time as she scented her pack. Relief poured through her weakened muscles. Help had arrived. Rhys and Dane raced down the stairs, both firing at Silas with deadly accuracy.

  Heaving him off her, she rolled out of the way as Dane jumped through the doorway and tackled the enraged vampire.

  Rhys helped her up and out of the cage before he pulled a short stake from his waistband and dived in to help Dane.

  Irina stole a glance down the hall. Should she check on the human woman? Grunts and scrapes in the cage demanded her attention.

  “You murdered my family,” Silas shouted, his red gaze boring into Dane.

  Dane reared up, his arm raised, gripping his own stake. It all happened in slow motion. Silas sat up and lunged for Dane’s throat. Dane and Rhys struck him down at the same time. Pointed stakes punctured the vampire’s chest. Silas’ face crumpled with the inevitable, his gaze landing on Irina.

  She
glared in returned.

  “Irina,” Silas beseeched, “I’m sorry I failed you.”

  “My mate didn’t fail me.” She eyed Dane so Silas knew who she meant.

  Both shifter males jumped back as Silas’ body arched and sparked before exploding in a cloud of dust.

  She barely had time to take her eyes off the dust cloud when Dane had her wrapped up in his embrace. Burying her face in his neck, she hugged him back hard.

  “Are you all right?” His words were muffled, his face still buried in her hair.

  “Just a bruised ego, if anything,” she muttered into his neck. It could have been so much worse. What if Dane and Rhys hadn’t been there when she was taken? Parrish’s warning stuck in her head. Don’t go alone.

  “I’d take you home now, but Rhys drove. It doesn’t mean I’m going to let you go, though.”

  She chuckled, grateful to have her partner back.

  “Jace and Cassie will be here soon. We’ll take care of the human so you two can head back.” Rhys tossed the keys to Dane. “I’ll catch a ride with them.”

  Between Jace’s power of persuasion and Cassie’s profession in psychiatry, they’d be able to help the woman and keep their species’ secret.

  “There’s been others.” The lingering smell of terror was overpowering. It should’ve been immediately obvious to Irina, the smells were almost suffocating, but she’d been concentrating so hard on surviving Silas. Did he bother to bury the bodies? Or did he dump them in shallow graves?

  Rhys nodded grimly. “We’ll help her and leave the rest for the vampires to clean up.”

  Dane hugged Irina in tighter and led her out of the house. “Come, Irina. I’ve missed many years caring for you. I shall squirrel you away to the waterfall. Perhaps you remember it’s not just for bathing?”

  Her breath caught and desire bloomed remembering what she’d observed there before. Oh yes, many years to catch up on, starting tonight.

  Epilogue

  “Irina hasn’t told me anything about this.” Rhys faced one of the twins of his pack in the monitor. He’d sent Malcolm and his brother Harrison up north to find out about any corruption after one of their pack was killed trying to kill Dani because she was a human mate. They’d been gone for over a year leading Rhys to suspect that issues ran deeper than anyone realized.

  “Just sayin’, boss,” Malcolm drawled, “the council is asking about a shifter female who’s a romance author. The vampires got some information from a vampire female a while back that her son was obsessed with an author who might be a shifter. Now that son has been dusted by Guardians and they want our council to answer for it.”

  “We took out a vampire who kidnapped and attacked one of our mates.”

  Malcolm cocked an eyebrow at the commander. “That’s your story and you’re sticking to it?”

  Rhys spread his hands. “Don’t know what else they’d be looking for.”

  “All right. Tell Irina to change her pen name and genre, maybe take a hiatus, just in case.”

  “I’ll pass it on, if she’s secretly an author. Is that official council advice?” The question was loaded and they both knew it.

  “I’m just the messenger, boss.”

  “Are you?” Rhys worried the twins defected. Without telling him. Worried they were swayed by their parentage into whatever machinations the council had going on; that their father, a long-standing council member, tasked them with spying on their pack to report back to the council.

  “Now Commander Fitzsimmons, just because we don’t call home every day doesn’t mean we don’t ever plan on coming back.”

  Rhys read through the teasing tone. Whatever Malcolm and Harrison were working on was taking longer than planned. But they were still part of the pack. The males were the youngest Guardians under him, aside from Jace and Kaitlyn, but the private nature of the twins had always kept them distant.

  “We might have a…situation…we may need you to come back for. Soon.”

  Malcolm sobered. “We’ll be there, just tell us when and where.”

  Good. Only Rhys knew about the information Parrish gave Dane. He planned to meet with the other Guardians and let them in on it, but for now he needed to sit on it. Agent X has kept the secret of who she is for over twelve years and Rhys didn’t want to risk it. Didn’t want to risk her. Son of a bitch. He was screwed.

  *****

  “Mabel,” Jace crooned, “sorry it’s been so long.”

  “You bet it’s been a long time.”

  Jace settled back at his kitchen table with a grin, keeping the phone at his ear waiting out the ass chewing Mabel was giving him. He had no excuses. While he’d wanted to keep in touch with his old pack leaders, Christian and his mate Mabel, life with the Guardians kept him busy. Every free moment he had, he spent with Cassie, usually settled deeply inside her if he had any say, and most of the time he did.

  “You’re lucky I remember what it’s like to be newly mated,” Mabel finally finished her tirade.

  “I knew you’d understand, Mabel. Maybe we should meet you two for supper sometime.”

  “Let’s do next weekend. But first we need to give you some information.” Mabel’s voice turned serious and Jace knew he’d better listen up. “There was a male here looking for you. Didn’t say why, just that he was from Great Moon Colony.”

  Jace frowned. His old clan? Some packs lived in town and didn’t fall under the rule of a clan. The clans that still existed were made up of several packs. They existed as their own entity, but followed the council’s rules religiously. His mother had packed up him and his sister after a Sigma attack killed his father and older brother. Since then, they’d had nothing to do with his former clan.

  Jace hadn’t belonged to a pack until he got out of prison and found himself in Pale Moonlight applying for a job. Pale Moonlight was a club that many shifters frequented and used to fuel their need for pack mentality and increased sex drives. The employees belonged to Christian’s pack and were like Jace, aimless and alone.

  It was the best damn move Jace had ever made in his life. Tending bar led him to Cassie, and that led him to working for the Guardians, a worthier endeavor than he ever thought would be granted to him. So why the fuck was someone from his old colony searching for him?

  Thank you for reading my story. I’d love to know what you thought. Please consider leaving a review at the retailor you purchased the novella from.

  Marie

  Lawful Claim

  Book 4, The Sigma Menace

  Agent E wasn’t always an evil Sigma Agent. Even though evil had her claws in him, he couldn’t help but hang on to his past and watch over the family he lost, protecting them by staying dead to them. Until one night, he interfered.

  When Ana Esposito’s life, and that of her son, was saved by the husband she had buried over a decade ago, she found her world irrevocably changed. Any chance of safety for her and her son lay with the hardened man that used to be the love of her life.

  About the Author

  Marie Johnston lives in the upper-Midwest with her husband, four kids, and an old cat. Deciding to trade in her lab coat for a laptop, she’s writing down all the tales she’s been making up in her head for years. An avid reader of paranormal romance, these are the stories hanging out and waiting to be told, between the demands of work, home, and the endless chauffeuring that comes with children.

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  Also by Marie Johnston

  The Sigma Menace:

  Fever Claim (Book 1)

  Primal Claim (Book 2)

  True Claim (Book 3)

  Reclaim (Book 3.5)

  Lawful Claim (Book 4)

  Pure Claim (Book 5)

  New Vampire Disorder:

  Demetrius (Book1)

  Pale Moonlight:

  Birthright (Book 1)

  Table of Contents

 
Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Epilogue