Read Walk on the Striped Side Online
Authors: Jessie Lane
Walk on the Striped Side (28 page)
When he answered, his voice was a seductive croon
that sent tingles down her spine. “I want a night with you. Dinner, wine and
more.”
Chloe felt the sting of disappointment. She didn’t
know why she’d been hoping Kent would be different from any other guy she’d
dealt with, yet for some odd reason, she had. Why did all men think that just
because you had a pretty face paired with a body that had all the right curves
that you’d just fall into bed with them? She was sick and tired of men thinking
she didn’t have anything to offer besides what was between her legs.
And she wasn’t a whore. She’d never once slept with a
man to get something and she never would. Mr. Douchebag had learned that the
hard way when his stilted date had driven his Ferrari back after dropping Chloe
off at her house. Chloe had asked the girl to pass on the message that neither
him, nor his car, had been hot enough to get her excited at all. Then Chloe had
firmly told the woman that she was young, beautiful and intelligent and she
didn’t have to settle for dickwads like him. If she didn’t treat herself with
respect, no one else ever would.
Reeling in her disappointment over Kent’s request,
Chloe mentally placed him in the ‘Just another Jerk’ list in her head.
“Not happening, demon. You come up with a reasonable
request that doesn’t involve trying to get me on my back and I might consider
it. ‘Til then, keep Lulu’s ass off the Ninth Circle Council’s radar. Elena and
Gage are still working on getting the evidence they need to fully clear her.
Besides that, we have nothing else to talk about.”
Chloe hung up and tossed her phone on the bed with a
discouraged sigh. One day she would meet a man who was good looking and had a
heart of gold; someone who would see her for who she really was and not what
the outer packaging looked like. It’d just be nice if that one day would hurry
the hell up and get there.
WALK ON THE STRIPED SIDE PLAYLIST
Apocalyptica – End Of Me
ft. Gavin Rossdale
Papa Roach - I Almost Told
You That I Loved You
Halestorm – Bet You Wish
You Had Me Back
Save Me by Hinder
Say You’ll Haunt Me by
Stone Sour
Papa Roach – Forever
In The End by Black Veil
Brides
Ed
Sheeran
– Give Me Love
The Star Series:
The Burning Star
The Frozen Star - (Coming
Soon)
***
Big Bad Bite Series:
Big Bad Bite
Walk On
The
Striped Side
***
Ex Ops Series:
Secret Maneuvers
Stripping Her Defenses –
(Coming Soon)
Jessie Lane is the writing team of Crystal Leo and
Melissa Pahl. The two sisters-in-law share a passionate love of naughty
romance, cliff hanging suspense, and out-of-this-world characters that demand
your attention, or threaten to slap you around until you do pay attention to
them.
Crystal lives in Kentucky with her husband and her
two little Rock Chicks in the making. Melissa lives in Minnesota with her
husband and two fur babies, Yuffi and Lolo. Crystal is now trying to talk
Melissa into “polar bear” swimming in Lake Superior, but so far Melissa is
adamantly telling her no.
They write YA/NA & adult paranormal romance as
well as adult contemporary romance. They’re currently working on their next two
novels, Stripping Her Defenses (Ex Ops Series #2) and The Frozen Star (YA/NA
Star Series #2).
For more information on Jessie Lane:
http://www.goodreads.com/jessielane
Follow us on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/jessie.lane
Follow us on Twitter: @JessieLaneBooks
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Soul
Of
A Man
By
Jamie Begley
Scent
Of
A Mate
By
Milly
Taiden
Taunting Destiny
By
Amelia Hutchins
Soul
Of
A Man
By
Jamie Begley
Prologue
Fate stood in the corner, invisible
to the three adults entering the room filled with children of varying ages. A couple
seeking to adopt a child and the social worker eager to find a good home for
one of her charges. Fate’s lip curled into a sneer, some loving home. The woman
seeking to adopt would be no loving mother, but a monster in hiding. Her weak
husband knew the evil she hid, yet he sought to appease the monster and turn
her viciousness toward a new victim.
“How old is this one?” Susan Greer
stood over a small, delicate blond girl.
The social worker looked at her
notes. “She is seven-years-old.”
Fate waved her hand. Susan Greer
frowned. “Too old.” She moved toward a boy with brown hair quietly playing with
blocks on a small table.
“This one?” she questioned.
“Ten.” The social worker began to
tell her about the boy, “Sam is a quiet child. He loves attention and is quite
affectionate.” Fate again waved her hand.
“Again, too old. Don’t you have any
that are younger?” Noticing the frown beginning to form on the social worker’s
face, Susan Greer—a master manipulator—forced an insincere smile to her lips.
“I just believe the adjustment will be much easier for a younger child.”
“I see.” Looking at her notes, she
walked to a dark haired boy who was trying desperately to hide behind a toy
box.
“This young man is Jericho; he is
four-years-old. His father is deceased and his mother recently signed over
parental rights. She has a drug addiction and could no longer take care of him.
Children services had been called in for neglect.”
“How sad.” Susan reached down to
touch the boy, but he shrank back further against the wall. ”Would you like to
come home with us?”
A mutinous pair of dark eyes stared
back at the woman. “No! I don’t wanna go.” He turned toward the social worker
pleadingly. “Please, I don’t wanna go with the mean lady.”
“Now, Jericho, this nice lady and
her husband want to adopt you and make a nice home for you. Wouldn’t you like a
bedroom to yourself?”
“No!”
“He’s the one. I can tell he
desperately needs us. Don’t you agree, Frank?”
“Whatever you want, dear.” Susan
Greer turned her beady eyes towards her husband, who began to visibly shake
with her attention turned to him.
“Fine, let’s go to the office. Your
paperwork has already been approved by the State. We’ll set up a visitation
schedule and a home visit when Jericho knows you better.” The social worker was
excited by the prospect of a potential adoption. There were so many children to
place and too few people willing to adopt. Any doubts she personally had about
the Greer’s she suppressed. After all, the State had approved their application
after a thorough background check. With over a hundred children to supervise,
she was too busy to second guess the State’s decision.
“That sounds wonderful. I can’t
wait until we’re one, big, happy family.” She stared down at the little boy who
stared back at her with eyes that seemed to see the evil inside her. She
couldn’t wait until his training would begin. She bent down to the small boy.
“I’ll be seeing you soon, my dear.”
As they left the room, Jericho knew the scary woman would be back for him.
Fate watched the boy as he bravely
fought his frightened tears, his trembling lips firmed, and she barely heard
his whispered words, “She don’t scare me.” She stiffened when she realized he
had spoken directly to her.
Fate was invisible to human eyes,
yet the child could see her.
“Sometimes my job just sucks!” Fate
muttered before she disappeared.
Scent
Of
A Mate
By
Milly
Taiden
Chapter One
Please?” Jordan leaned forward on
the sofa and gave her best imitation of what Ellie called “puppy eyes.” A soft squeaking
protested Jordan’s wiggling on the leather. She knew her enthusiasm probably
rivaled that of a four year old at Christmas, but she was so close to cracking
Ellie, she didn’t care.
“No.” Ellie’s voice didn’t sound as
sure as it had the first five times Jordan had asked the same question.
“I thought you wanted me to write
this book on shifter mating rituals? Don’t you think I need to watch it? I
mean, I can’t just write a book on your history, for your family’s records,
based solely on what you tell me. I have to see it.” Not really, but she was
not telling Ellie that and messing up her chance of watching something so cool.
Ellie frowned. “Well—”
“Come on.” Jordan huddled closer to
the edge of her seat, almost falling off in the process, once again rubbing the
leather and making it whine. “Look, I swear to you, I will be on my best
behavior. I won’t do anything to call attention to myself. I will just observe
from the sidelines. Heck, I’ll observe from the distance with binoculars.”
Ellie rolled her gorgeous blue eyes
and ran her fingers through her short blonde bob, making the strands glimmer
under the light of her sitting room’s lamp. “I don’t remember a single time you
have ever been on your best behavior.”
That was true. Jordan’s mouth
always got her into some kind of trouble, especially with the other faculty at
the school where she taught.
“Okay. I pinky promise.” She lifted
her hand, curling all her fingers until only her wiggling pinky stood.
Ellie bit her lip and groaned,
still unsure.
“I know shifters are not exactly
common knowledge with most of the world. But you have to admit that with more
human-shifter interaction, it’s only a matter of time before you guys lose a
lot of your history. I promise to write a specific detailed account. Nothing
but the history behind this event.” Her heart pounded so hard. She wanted to
shake Ellie and order her to agree already.
“
Jorda
-a-an!”
With the way Ellie said her name, in that soft sigh of defeat, Jordan knew she
had her. “If I agree to this insanity, you have to swear not to do anything to
let anyone know you guys are there! You will get me in so much trouble.”
Jordan struggled and failed to stop
the smile from splitting her lips. “I promise! I promise! You know I am dying
to see this whole scenting ritual.” She rushed to say. “Now why is it such a
big deal to keep this all quiet?”
“Because,” Ellie leaned back on her
sofa and stared at the ceiling, “this is an old tradition. Males and females
from all over will come together to meet each other, some for the first time.
Kelly and Marco are going to see if they are compatible.”
“But they’ve met once, right?”
“Yes, at a family gathering some
months back. They didn’t even get a chance to talk. From what Mom said, their
eyes did the talking for them. Apparently, it was instant. It’s why we’re
having this ceremony. Tradition dictates we have it yearly, and the family is
hoping it works out for Kelly and Marco.”
Jordan frowned remembering Ellie’s
cousin Kelly and the guy they’d kept referring to as her potential mate. She
tucked a long strand of dark hair behind her ear. “I still don’t understand.
How can you guys just allow some tradition to tell you who your mate is?”
Shit. Jordan had a hard time with
anyone telling her what to do to begin with. It was why she loved being an
independent woman.
Ellie’s smile was weak. “We are
part of a pack, and my father is Alpha. As such, I need to follow rules like
everyone else. You’re lucky you’re human and don’t have to worry about any of
this. And we don’t allow the tradition to tell us who our mate is. This is like
a first date.”
“In front of a whole bunch of
people.”
“Right.”
“Who happen to watch to see if you
hit it off?”
“Yes.”
“And who’ll know who she has sex
with at the end of the night.”
“Correct. Wait. What?”
“Sounds like the perfect date.” She
snickered and almost choked on her wine.
“This is why I didn’t want you
there. You, Emma, Nicole, and Karla are so going to get caught.”
“We won’t! We won’t. We’ll be super–spy,
research ninjas. Quiet, but sexy smart.” She grinned.
“Oh brother,” Ellie groaned.
“Speaking of brothers. Are, um,
your brothers going to be there?” What she really wanted to ask was if one
particular brother was going to be there. God, she hoped not. The first time
she’d seen Aric Wolfe, she’d been a thirteen-year-old with a crush the size of
Alaska. One look was all it took, and her poor teenage heart had been in
puppy-love for years. And though it’d been a crush for a long time, it had
never gone away. In fact, with years, it had grown. She’d tried to date other
men and rid herself of the idea that he’d ever look at a non-shifter for more
than a friendship, but it was useless. With time, her attraction for him had
grown deeper, into something she didn’t want to think too much about or it
would make her hyperventilate.
Blue sparkles lit in Ellie’s eyes.
“Yes, all my brothers will be there.”
Oh hell. “Then, yeah, I will hide
off somewhere and never move a muscle. I promise.”
Ellie’s laughter, filled with
unabashed delight, made her smile. “I still don’t understand why you’re so
afraid of being around them.”
Yeah well, Jordan knew all about
that super smelling-power shifters had. The last thing she wanted was for Aric
to know how one glance at his body and those damn sexy muscles got her so
turned on she’d likely start a fire. She could probably melt butter on her
skin. “I think it’s best to keep my distance. I know your parents weren’t fond
of their only daughter hanging with so many humans.”
Ellie shrugged. “It was either send
me to regular school, or deal with packs of horny wolves hitting on their baby
girl.” She grinned, grabbed her glass of wine, and sipped. “They knew humans
don’t have our scenting or go into heat, so they decided to take the chance.”
Jordan drank her own wine, letting
the fruity flavor slip and slide over her tongue. “Yeah, but I bet they didn’t
think you’d end up bringing home an annoying, fat Latina for your new pet.”
Ellie rolled her eyes. “Who’s the
wolf here, you or me?”
Good point. Ellie’s parents had
cared for Jordan. A lot more than Jordan herself could ever understand. Even
after all those years being so close to them and Ellie, she still couldn’t make
any sense of why they done so much when her parents hadn’t cared at all. What
was it about them that made them different? And there had to be some resentment
in there. They’d practically adopted her.
“Alright. I’ve become like a second
daughter since we became friends. That has to be annoying for them. I mean if
they wanted more kids, they’d have had more the old fashioned way.”
Jordan found the whole shifter
community absolutely fascinating. If it were up to her, she’d be all in their
business trying to figure out how the whole animal-human thing worked.
“Why would you say they’d be
annoyed by you?” Ellie’s face creased in a frown. “They like you. Heck, they
love you more than any of their sons’ previous girlfriends. In fact, they like
you more than most family we have. You’ve grown on them.”
Jordan snorted. “Yeah like fungus
or a rash.”
“No, not like that. Like an unusual
but lovely woman who needs a mate.”
“What?” She spit out the wine she’d
had in her mouth. “Who said I needed a mate?”
Ellie laughed, put her glass down
on the coffee table, and settled into the sofa with her feet under her. “My
mother. She thinks you just need a strong man to help you realize what you are
missing out on.”
“And that’s a mate?” Jordan
coughed, trying to stop the choking. Her tummy churned with anxiety. She held
Barbara Wolfe, Ellie’s mother, in high regard. But Jordan would never think a
long-term relationship would fix her. Thinking of any kind of dependence on
anyone made her feel slightly sick. She didn’t really trust most people enough
for that.
“Yes. She was highly upset when I
told her you broke up with your last boyfriend. She thinks you just haven’t
been chased by the right one.”
Jordan continued to cough while
Ellie giggled. “Mrs. Wolfe thinks I need to be chased?”
Well hell, maybe she was on to
something. Chasing sounded fun. Usually Jordan was too prickly for men to make
a move, unless they were sure of themselves. But even then, most of them turned
out to be full of shit.
Ellie nodded, flipped on her back
and stretched, rubbing her bare feet on the leather. “Of course, dad thinks you’re
too independent and need a man to rein you in.”
Rein her in? What the hell was she,
cattle? Tristan, Ellie’s dad, was so old school. “Yeah, that sounds like your
dad.”
“Although, Aric—”
Jordan’s gaze jerked to Ellie’s
face. The bemused smile on her was one Jordan had often seen when Ellie was up
to no good. “Aric was present during these conversations?”
Ellie knew Jordan liked Aric to
some degree. It’s not like she could hide it from her. The woman was a wolf.
She could smell Jordan getting all kinds of turned on when Aric’s name popped
up. But what she never told Ellie was how deep her feelings ran. That was
something Jordan had trouble even thinking about.
Ellie’s eyes widened, filled with
innocence. “Oh, yes.”
Fuck. Sweat gathered in her palms.
Now her nerves were getting the best of her. Her stomach did all kinds of
acrobatic flips. She’d have to ask or die wondering. And she was too curious
not to know. “And what did he say?”
“It doesn’t matter. We both know you’re
not looking for long term anyway. You like your independence.” She shut her
eyes and sighed.
“Ellie!”
Ellie jerked her eyes open with a
chuckle. “Fine, if you want to know, Aric thinks you are fine just the way you
are.”
“Which means what?” She asked
before she could stop herself. She’d always tried to control her interest in
Ellie’s older brother, but sometimes Jordan’s hormones just ran away from her.
Aric. With his piercing dark eyes,
eyes she swore begged her to strip every time he glanced her way. And that tall
slightly tanned hard body filled with boundless muscles. So many muscles.
She cleared her throat. Visuals of
running her nails down his six packs and nibbling on his belly button made her
reach for her wine again. But it was the strong jaw and “I’ll eat your pussy
really good” smile she couldn’t stop thinking about.
Ellie’s smile dimmed. “Aric said,
in time, you’d find your mate and for everyone to leave you alone to decide
your life yourself.”
Her hope deflated. It was what
she’d always told everyone. Somehow, hearing that he’d said the same made her
want to run to the liquor store and buy a barrel of wine.
A sharp pain pierced her heart,
deeper and deeper until she wanted to cry. Though Jordan would rather dance
around naked in public than admit her feelings for Aric, she had secretly
continued to hope. Now, that hope was dead.
“That’s true. I can decide my life
myself.”
She remembered thinking the same
thing the night of her senior prom, until Aric had seen her. Memories flooded
her mind. She’d walked down the hall in her sapphire blue dress to find him in
the living room with Ellie. He’d given her a look she’d never forget. It was
the kind of look she’d always wanted to see from him. And he’d lifted a hand to
her face, caressed her cheek, and told her she looked beautiful. She’d almost
melted into a blue spot on the floor. Her previous concern at going to the prom
dateless with only Ellie as her companion had flown out the window. He’d been
the only thing on her mind the rest of that night.
She cleared her throat, unwilling
to think about Aric any longer. “So, back to this scenting ceremony, what
exactly happens?”
“Well…” Ellie’s pale features
turned a dark crimson with embarrassment.
Jordan started to worry about what
went on. Would it be some rated R stuff? “Well what?”
“First, they start out as wolves
and sniff each other.” She glanced at Jordan and bit her lip. “To see if the
animals feel any kind of attraction.”
That made sense. Considering they
were going to be mated forever, they needed to know if they were both
compatible as humans and wolves, so nothing strange there. She stared at Ellie
expectantly.
“They shift into their human bodies
and scent each other that way too.”
If Ellie’s face turned any redder,
Jordan would need to throw some water on her to bring her temperature down.
“Wait, they’re naked after their shift, aren’t they?”
Ellie nodded, glanced down at her
glass of wine, and took a gulp. Oh. Yeah that would be little more than Jordan
had expected, but nothing she couldn’t handle.
“
It’s
okay, Ellie, I’m sure it’s not as bad as you’re thinking.”
Ellie cleared her throat and downed
the rest of wine.
“Why haven’t your parents pushed
you into mating? I mean Kelly is like five years younger than you, so that
makes her around twenty-five, right? But you are still unmated. And your
parents don’t seem like they’ve lost their values. I mean your whole shifter
history is based on pushing the males and females to mate as soon as they reach
the right age. Go forth and make some fur balls and all that. Isn’t that what
you’ve said before?”
Ellie shrugged. “Mom and dad are
the pack leaders and don’t feel I need to be pushed into mating until I’m
comfortable. Mom kind of had a hand at getting Kelly and Marco together, so
that kept her occupied for a bit. Besides, the males are the ones that need to
mate first. They continue our line and need mates as soon as possible.”
