Cloaked Ties, page 16
Cloaked Ties
A Fated Mates Shifter Suspense Romance
Tatra Pack
Book Three
Aliyah Burke
Cloaked Ties
Copyright © 2022 Aliyah Burke
Cover illustration copyright © Covers by K
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 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 an information storage and retrieval system-except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review to be printed in a magazine, newspaper, or on the Web-without permission in writing from the publisher or author. The unauthorized replication or allocation of any copyrighted work is illegal. File sharing is an international crime, prosecuted by the United States Department of Justice and the United States Border Patrol, Division of Cyber Crimes, in partnership with Interpol. Copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is punishable by up to five years in federal prison, a fine of $250,000 per reported instance, and seizure of computers.
This book is a work of fiction. All characters, places and events are from the author’s imagination and should not be confused with fact. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, events or places is coincidental. All trademarks, service marks, registered trademarks, and registered service marks are the property of their respective owners and are used herein for identification purposes only.
Published by: Sensual Romance Publishing
Created with Vellum
Contents
Blurb for Cloaked Ties
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Epilogue
About the Author
Additional Books by Aliyah Burke:
Blurb for Cloaked Ties
She’s rejected him once, so he has nothing to lose in the battle to win her back.
* * *
The moment they met he knew she was his eternal mate.
Mattias Kraven can’t forget the woman destined to be his mate. Problem is, she wants nothing to do with him. He longs to tie them together for all time.
It wasn't personal—perhaps it was—but she had no use for a mate, especially him.
Samhna "Shira" Cortane has enough on her plate to protect the last of her kind without being near the wolf shifter who’s determined she accept their mating bond.
When it becomes clear that this sexy, relentless shifter is her one ticket to fulfilling her mission, everything may become more than she can handle. Kraven will spill blood for this woman, including his own, what will it take for her to understand his tie to her is unbreakable?
Chapter One
He didn’t like the feel. Kraven glanced around the field that had been, moments ago, a playground for death. Bodies still littered the area. He was happy to note none of their pack lay dead, it was all the interlopers. The ones who tried to take from his Alpha.
But it wasn’t right. Something was still off. Scanning the area again, he paused as his gaze landed upon his Alpha’s mate. Dyana stood across from him, her fingers on that bow of hers, which she had wielded with deadly precision. Defending her pack and her mate.
Giving a respectful nod in her direction, he lengthened his stride and made his way to his Alpha’s side.
“Paps going to be okay?”
Casimir Lars, his best friend and the Alpha to the Tatra Pack gave him a silent affirmative. Anger still a live being on his face. Kraven understood. They had been betrayed by those who were supposed to have had their back. The past few weeks had been difficult. And now, some of the pups had been kidnapped along with Casimir’s grandfather to try and get Casimir to step down and turn his pack over.
It hadn’t succeeded but it definitely had exposed some weakness within the pack. Something the Alpha didn’t do well with and punishment had been swift and unforgiving.
He noticed how often Casimir’s gaze drifted over to Dyana. The man loved her. Any fool could see that. Just like it was a fool who would dare to come between those two. She would kill for him and he, well, that man would face anything to keep her safe and protected. If, and he didn’t think it would happen, but if she were to die, Casimir would burn the world down in retaliation, fury, and grief.
Danger flicked along his skin and he snapped his gaze to the tree line where a man stepped into view, his automatic weapon lifted and aimed at Casimir. Without thought to his own life, he lunged in front of the man he would die to protect. It was his job as a lieutenant, but he believed that Casimir had a shot at happiness now and deserved it.
A streak of gold from the heavens attacked the man. The large eagle raked its talons over the man, gouging out his eyes then slashing his throat and sending him and his automatic weapon collapsing to the ground, dead before he hit. Seconds later, the eagle landed in a shower of gold sparkle and when it faded, he found himself staring at Shira.
Dyana’s friend and the woman his body wanted more than his next breath. She was a shifter. She’s a shifter? He’d been trying to resign himself to the fact he was in lust with a human, figuring he’d be with a wolf for life. While not a wolf, she was a shifter. An elusive eagle shifter.
“The fuck?” He realized he’d just echoed Casimir’s question.
The woman strode toward them, not a care at all for the dead, mangled man she left on the ground behind her. Her braids swayed in time with the natural seductive motion of her stride.
“You could have told me,” Casimir mentioned to his woman.
“It wasn’t my secret to tell.” Dyana’s response held a bit of reprimand.
Kraven was thinking the same thing.
“How the hell didn’t I know?”
Again, something Kraven was thinking.
“Also, not my secret to tell.”
Kraven couldn’t pull his gaze from the woman nearing them.
“You and I have some things to discuss,” Casimir muttered.
He struggled to make sense of all of this as he watched the friends’ embrace and talk. Then the anger came. “You,” he snarled, striding up to them.
Samhna Cortaine faced him, her expression cooling to one of, well, nothing. He didn’t even slow, just grasped her by the upper arms, yanked her close and kissed her.
The woman in his arms, stiffened for a moment and just when she began to soften beneath him, she struck, sending her knee in a direct line to his groin. Barely blocking that, he stared down at her, awestruck by the heat in those golden eyes.
“Hello mate,” he murmured.
“I have no mate.” She yanked free, shifted and flew away before he could say another thing.
Her powerful beats from her wings, had nearly blinded him for a moment so he didn’t have a chance to grab her. Not that he would have, but, at least a thought of stopping her.
He couldn’t get over her words. He knew she felt it. There wasn’t any way she couldn’t feel it pulsing within her.
Her words had cut him to the core. Rejected. How the hell was he supposed to move on from that? His own mate had rejected him.
* * *
A year later
Mattias Kraven strode up to the house his Alpha’s lived in. Today was a day for celebration. Pups were always a joyous reason to have a party but when it was your Alpha’s pup, it was an even bigger one.
He’d been off on assignment for the past few weeks but had headed home as soon as he could. Standing in to cover a different sector while their current lieutenant had been recovering from an injury was important. He’d offered to go, knowing he wasn’t fit company to be around a pregnant woman and her increasingly volatile mate.
His focus was on four words he’d been told a year ago. And that was slowly killing him inside. His wolf was furious and didn’t understand. He didn’t either but it wasn’t like he could get her to speak to him even. She’d gone.
Ghosted him and no amount of begging would get Dyana to tell him anything. So he’d left. It was easier to travel around and be gone more than he was here, because here reminded him of her. And what he wasn’t ever going to have.
“Kraven!”
Three pups came running at him and he scooped up the smallest and tossed her high in the air, squeals of joy pouring from her mouth. Then he hugged the other two.
“Inno. Tray. How are you two?”
Ebba, the youngest just curled up into him and he nuzzled her soft blondish-red curls, the scent of innocence and purity making him smile, and his heart beat right. This was home.
They talked his ear off as he completed the trek to the house. Instead of heading inside, they walked around the porch to the backyard. Immediately, he locked onto his Alpha, set Ebba down and headed his way.
Casimir held his son in one arm and stepped forward to hug Kraven.
“Welcome home,” his Alpha murmured in his ear.
“Good to be home.” He reached for the baby. “Let me hold him.”
Kraven could see the reluctance in the man’s face to release his son. But he did.
As he took him, Donovan “Van” Lars, the boy opened his eyes and locked onto his face. Startling blue, like his daddy but hints of amber in them, from his mama. A moment of being sized up before a small baby smile and he drifted off to sleep, content and knowing he was perfectly safe.
“Tha
“That’s what he said,” Dyana walked up to them both, a soft smile on her face as she stared down at her son.
“You look radiant, Alpha.” He bent and kissed her cheek.
His heart skipped a few beats when she placed her hand on his jaw and stared in his eyes. “You’ve been missed.”
There was something about this woman that made him want to do better for her. After nodding at her, he looked back to his friend, Casimir, and saw the understanding in his gaze. He got it.
“I’m keeping him for a while. I think it will be a great way to get ladies.”
Dyana smiled, flashing her teeth. “Good luck.”
Pulling Van closer to his chest, he ran a finger along the soft cheek. “Rainie?” The little pup, idolized her Alpha and figured it had poured over onto the baby.
“Nahuel.”
Shock hit him. His gaze snapped over to the young boy who had been adopted by Tora and her mate, Keane. The man was actually a leopard and the boy, a jaguar.
Times were changing.
“He knows wolves are better.” Kraven nuzzled the pup, even as he watched the young cub who wore his eye patch interact with the female wolves. Already, they were falling over him. Beyond Nahuel was Tora. She stood with another lieutenant, but she met his gaze and gave him a nod of welcome.
One he returned. He would be going to see her after this.
“Of course he does,” Casimir answered with authority. “He’s my son.” A clearing throat. “Our son. He’s our son.”
Knowing better than to get in that potentially volitle situation, Kraven chuckled as he walked off. This time, Tora was his destination. Travel was hard, he was stopped by pack who wanted to both welcome him home and see the baby.
When he made it to Tora’s side, her expression held a bit of amusement.
“Welcome back, Kraven.”
“Tora.” He bent his head and kissed her lightly on the corner of her lips.
“Why are you always kissing women who aren’t yours?” The question rumbled to him.
“I don’t think you’re doing it right and therefore it is my responsibility to make sure she knows she’s loved.” His response fell even as he winked at Tora.
She rolled her eyes as her mate, the leopard, walked up to them. Keane whispered something in her ear, kissed her, and walked off with a, “See you later, wolf.”
“You here to stay?”
“Probably not. I know there are others who want to come pay their respects to the Alpha’s newest. I will relieve them so they have time to do that.”
“You can’t run forever.”
He ground his jaw, making himself stay calm because of the infant he held. Another packmate came by and wriggled fingers for the baby. He handed him over with a smile and a kiss.
Then he faced Tora again, arms crossed. “What do you want me to do? Stay here and see her when she visits her friend, knowing that she rejected me? See the woman who constantly rebuffs the mating bond that is open and waiting for her?”
Tora didn’t snipe back, didn’t flinch from the anger and venom in his tone. Her gray eyes held his without pity or judgement.
“It’s gutting me, Tora. She doesn’t want me.”
“So change her mind.” Tora walked off, leaving him alone.
Just how he had been convincing himself he wanted to be.
* * *
αβ
* * *
The shifter gasped its last breath as she stood over him, uncaring of his distress as well as the amount of pain he’d been subjected to before he died. She lifted her gaze and nailed it to the other two shifters who hung from the ceiling by silver irons which impeded their ability to shift. They still could, but the spikes below them, would kill them if they did and dropped to all fours.
“Tell me what I want to know and I’ll let you die swiftly.”
“Fuck you, bitch.”
Samhna Cortaine, known by a very few as Shira, didn’t bother wiping the knife off on her pantleg, just walked to the one who had snapped at her. Right before him, she held his cold canine gaze and thrust her knife deep into his heart.
“You tried that already.”
His blood ran down, coating her knife and brushing her skin. Warm but not important. Turning to the one left alive, she held his gaze while pulling the blade from his friend.
“That leaves just you.” Her smile was feral.
“You just killed him, what kind of psychotic bitch are you?”
Shira ignored his question and walked up to him, the blade resting between his legs, point against his balls.
“If you have the energy to speak, tell me what it is I am after. Not asking questions I don’t give a fuck to answer.”
“You’re insane.”
“Probably.” Her wrist moved the knife closer and the blood in his face drained as she sliced through his testicle.
When he opened his mouth to scream, she dropped down and picked up the small item then shoved it into his mouth, seconds later, she slammed her palm against his chin, making it so he chopped down own his own testis.
“You have more things that I can make you eat. I want a location.”
She slapped her hand over his mouth and plugged his nose, making him swallow. Tears leaked from his eyes that didn’t move her in the least.
“Location.”
His words were low but her sharp hearing picked them up with ease despite the blubbering. Wiping her knife off on his shirt, she slid it back into the sheath on her left thigh.
“Kill me.”
She leaned forward, nearly brushing against him but keeping away from the blood. “I don’t think so. You made me ask more than once and you tried to rape me last night.” She bared her teeth at him as her hand morphed into razor sharp talons of the golden eagle. Shira placed them against his belly and pushed them into his flesh.
The whimper made her smile.
“You bastards are always so confident when you’re raping and killing small children and those weaker than you, but when it comes to handling your own pain, I’ve found you lot to be the weakest of the bunch.” Raking her talons along his stomach, she added to the blood but didn’t do enough that his guts would fall out. He didn’t deserve to die swiftly.
Fucking wolves.
She spun on her heel and walked out, deaf and completely immune to the cries of pain, the begging, and the cursing. Shira passed more dead bodies as she left the cave and reached her truck. While taking to the air would have been far preferred, she didn’t fly a lot.
Too much to do.
Too many bastards to kill.
And the few of her kind that were left to protect.
At least the abandoned young. Sliding behind the wheel, she exhaled a heavy breath and flipped down the visor, looking at the handwritten list sitting there.
The paper was old and crinkled. The handwriting on it, young and not as smooth as her script was today. But the names on there, were just as important today as they were when she’d made the list. Still two that hadn’t been crossed off.
Anger pushed up through her as she thought about the two wolves who had avoided her thus far. They couldn’t hide forever and she would stand over their dead bodies.
Then maybe I can learn to live for myself again.
She doubted it. Her life hadn’t been her own for so many years. Digging in her pocket for the keys, she put them in the ignition and took several deep breaths. Then, she started the vehicle.
Driving away, she didn’t worry about anyone following her truck and her. This scum laden group were typically to much of pussies to go after anyone who could—and in her case, would—fight back. She was on automatic as she drove to her hotel room.
Only after she’d showered and had gotten dressed in some clean clothing, did she marginally feel better. She made sure the inside of her truck didn’t smell like blood then with her sandwich at her leg, she sat on the bed, legs crossed, to look at the information she’d gotten from those males.
