06 All Bark And No Bite

  “Fine,” she said quietly and then looked down. This was never a good sign when Jade decided to be quiet.

  Jade quietly walked around the furniture and out the door. Zach groaned and closed his eyes, knowing that this time her brothers may have pushed her too hard.

  Jared sat back down in his chair looking like he had won some kind of war. “See guys, I told you, Jade needs to realize we know what’s best for her. We just need to calmly and quietly find a nice guy that will treat her good. Zach, I will kick your ass if you even think about my sister that way!”

  Her brother nodded. Zach shook his head and chuckled. He knew that eventually they would not like what was coming down the pike for them. They went back to watching the football game. Zach was going to have to make a move soon or things would really get out of hand. He knew she was going to be his—it was the terms he was worried about.

  Jade needed to realize that things were not always going to go her way. He knew about her schemes over the past few years and until now, he laughed about them. She was a spoiled brat and sometimes acted like it. Zach wanted her on his terms. It was a battle of wills that he was determined to win. This game was forever, he needed to make sure Jade was ready for that type of commitment.

  Over the past few years, he had hinted to her brothers that he might be interested in Jade. So far, they had blown him off. He thought it was time for them to realize that he was the one for their sister and that was really the only way it was going to go. Now he needed to work up the nerve to talk to his best friend.

  Excerpt from Perfect Perfection

  Shifter Justice Book One

  By Jana Leigh and Bryce Evans

  Prologue

  She woke up shivering. What was wrong with her? She felt like she had been hit by a truck. She finally opened one of her eyes, and when she looked up, the light was too bright so she jerked them closed. Good God, she thought, try again. She knew that she was not in her home. So where the fuck was she?

  She turned her head and opened her hooded eyes. What the hell? It looked like a construction site. Her back and legs were so cold. She was shivering all over. She tried to get up, but her hands were tied to something. When she opened her sluggish eyes further, she was strapped to a steel table. Her hands were tied to each end of the table.

  Missy looked down toward her legs and they were strapped to the table too. Shit, she was naked and strapped to a cold steel table and started to panic. All she could remember was being at the Coastal for drinks. She looked around the room, trying to find anything that could help get her untied. There were tools everywhere, littering the floor and the other table, too far for her to reach.

  Plastic was wrapped around the windows. Nothing looked familiar to her. There were papers that looked like plans lying on a table near the door. It appeared to be a new building under construction.

  Missy jerked her head to the right hearing footsteps. She looked at the door when she saw someone walking down the dark hallway. When he got further into the light, Missy couldn’t believe it. What was he doing here and why was she tied to a table?

  “Ah, I see you are finally awake. It wouldn’t have been any fun if you had slept through it.”

  Missy’s eyes narrowed as he came up beside the table, put his hand on her arm, and rubbed it up and down. She grimaced as she felt his touch, fuckin’ bastard was going to pay for touching her.

  Missy finally found her voice. “Look, we had some good times, but this is going too far. Let me loose now and I will leave.”

  His answer was to move his hands further down her chest, find her breasts, and squeeze them hard.

  “Hey stop, and let me up. NOW!” she yelled.

  He finally looked down at her and smiled. He walked over to the table and pulled duct tape out of a bag. Then he cut off a piece of tape and walked back over to Missy. She watched him closely and when he got closer, she knew he meant to put the tape over her mouth.

  “HELP…” Missy screamed.

  Chapter One

  Jewel woke up to the phone ringing. She looked over at the clock and saw that it read 5:30 a.m. Who would call her this early in the morning? This couldn’t be good. Jewel reached over and switched on the lamp beside her bed. Narrowing her eyes, she went to grab her phone, but it dropped to the floor.

  “Dammit.” Jewel leaned over the bed and looked for the blasted phone. Finding it, she flipped it over and pushed it on. “Campbell!” she barked into the phone.

  Jewel listened to her partner, Vander Collins, tell her that there was another murder. She rolled herself off the bed, sat on the side, pulled out her notepad, and wrote down the location of the crime.

  “I’ll be there in an hour. Got it.” Jewel got up, stretching as she walked to the bathroom. Jewel slept in the nude so she didn’t have to waste any time taking her clothes off before she stepped into the shower. Also, it didn’t hurt not having on clothes when she shifted.

  Jewel Campbell was a shifter, a wolf shifter to be exact. She loved being in the nude, except in front of others. There was line she would draw, she thought to herself and laughed. Shit, this was already starting out to be a shitty, busy day.

  Jewel was a natural beauty. Her hair was dark brown with blond highlights in it. Her hair was long, down past her shoulders, but she wore it up most of the time at work. She had dark green eyes. When you looked at them, it was like looking at green moss hanging from a tree. Jewel was always getting hit-on because of her looks. She had long legs that should have belonged to a super-model. Plus she was buff, being a shifter and working out at the gym in her basement, gave her sculpted muscles most men would be jealous of.

  She married her high school sweetheart, Josh Campbell. A drunk driver killed Josh two years ago. The pain was still fresh and right on the surface when she worked. Her mate had been a shifter too, as well as the love of her life. He would have healed if they could have gotten to him in time and stopped the bleeding. Jewel refused to date anyone since Josh died, once a shifter found their mate, rarely did they find another if one of them died. Jewel didn’t want to go through that pain again, so she shut herself off. Dating was a huge no no, but sex, well, that was another story, although lately that had dried up too.

  Her partner was worried about her.

  Josh would tell Jewel to take more time off so they could go to her farm, approximately twenty minutes outside of Atlanta, to run as her wolf—it relaxed her. Jewel felt like the farm was her true home. She hoped that when she retired she would move to the farm and leave the city life behind her. She loved the silence and the ability to run through the woods without anyone coming across her. Jewel’s wolf always let her know when she was itching to get out. She never missed a weekend in honor of Josh, which cut down on her sex life. Since the murders started, Jewel hadn’t been at the farm in a month. Most of her time was taken up with investigating the murders. Her wolf was getting impatient, Jewel really was going to have to make some time, even if it was an hour or two. Not shifting for long periods of time could be dangerous. Jewel often had to take down shifters who refused to accept their other half, they turned bat shit crazy and required someone to kill them. It sucked but was a fact of life. And Jewel had enough problems, going bat shit crazy was not an option. Her partner wouldn’t let that happen.

  He was with her through the whole ordeal. Vander was a true friend and would do anything for her, and her wolf loved him too. He has been her best friend for ten years. They joined the force at the same time and went through the academy together. Though he was human, Jewel had been drawn to him. It surprised her almost as much as him. They found each other on the first day of the Academy. Jewel had a bit of a chip on her shoulder and was a hardcore bitch. They met when she was chewing out another cadet for something or another—she had forgotten what. When they met, it was like she found something she had been missing.

  Vander knew that Jewel was one hundred percent in love with Josh, he respected that about her. Jewel loved Vander and would do a
nything for him, but they were very clear with each other on the line between friendship and anything else. He was her best friend, her confidant, and her partner, in some ways he was closer to her than anyone else. However, he also respected the friendship, Vander once said fucking her would be like incest. Jewel had agree, and then they got drunk together and laughed about the thought.

  She teased him. He was good looking, but he knew it. Vander had short hair that was dark brown with brown eyes. He was built pretty well too. He had muscles in the all the right places and never had a problem finding the women. They flocked to him. She teased him about his looks.

  She will never forget the day Vander discovered she was a shifter. Jewel and Vander were pinned down in a gunfight. A bullet ricocheted off the wall and hit Jewel in the leg. It was just a flesh wound but enough blood to let Vander know that she had been shot. Jewel pulled her pant leg up to try to stop the bleeding and the wound had already healed. Vander was shocked. Jewel invited Vander to the farm that night and she and Josh told Vander that they were shifters, then Josh showed him. They still laugh about that today and how Josh just about passed out.

  Jewel looked down at the car radio and saw it was 6:30 a.m. on the dot when she pulled into the construction site. Vander was walking up with a cup of coffee in one hand and a can of diet coke in the other. He handed her the unopened can. Before she took one more step, she popped the top on the can and took a long drink, needing the caffeine.

  “Okay, tell me what you’ve got?” Jewel said after taking in enough of the drink.

  Vander smiled at her then looked out toward the site. “The Superintendent of the site got to work this morning at around 4:45 a.m. He had an early shipment coming in, so he had to come in earlier than normal. When he got to the site, he went to his office. It’s that trailer over there.” Vander pointed to a small trailer in front of the construction site. “He waited for his shipment and when they pulled into the site, he walked over to that door and waited for them to park the truck. The guys driving the truck walked into the site to see where he wanted the steel put. Johnson, the Superintendant, noticed a light on in one of the rooms, and went in to shut it off. The guys followed him thinking that was where he wanted the steel put. When they entered the room, he found the victim. He immediately got the guys out of there and went outside and called the police. The Victim is strapped to a table just like the other VIC. It’s the same M.O. as before too.”

  Jewel looked up at Vander. “Don’t say it.”

  “I think we have a serial killer,” Vander whispered, knowing Jewel could hear him.

  Excerpt from Meridian Warriors: Xander and Des

  Meridian Series Book One

  By Jana Leigh and Zach Collins

  Xander stood on the balcony and felt his male mate enter the room behind him. He smiled and waited. Dre was late; he was probably training the rest of the Warriors with the new weapons that Cash developed. They would do well when they had to go to the surface and blend in.

  “Xan?” Dre yelled and he walked back into their home. It was traditionally decorated in their home planets décor. When they barely escaped the planets destruction with their ship, they at least planned ahead and put in their personal belonging since they knew they would no longer be able to return home.

  “Dre, here,” Xander said and looked at his mate closely. The training had been rough; his mate had marks on his shoulders and arms where the new weapon had been used on him.

  Dre smiled at him arrogantly and bowed his head. Even though Dre was his mate, he insisted on the formal greeting, after that though, Dre walked to him and kissed him passionately. Xander pulled his mate’s long, thick black hair that was tied behind his back with a traditional wrap from their planet, angling his head so he would be able to get the most out of his mate’s kiss.

  They were both large, tall men, both leaders, and both dominant. Sometimes, both of them wondered how they were ever paired together. The Gods truly had a sense of humor. Xander was the leader of the city they lived in, Dre was his Second, and they were a force to be reckoned with when challenged.

  Standing well over six feet tall, Dre had black hair and Xander had white. Xander had been the leader of the Warriors when they left their planet. However, when all other ships were destroyed in the blast from the planet blowing up, he became their leader. Unfortunately, the ship they were on was only filled with male Warriors. None of their women had survived. They knew that they were supposed to have a second mate, it was the way of their planet, but since the females were all dead, they were forced to accept and be happy with only one mate.

  Xander never complained, he loved Dre—like a mate, like a man, and like a friend. There was no one he would rather be with in times of trouble or happiness than his mate, though both of them felt the emptiness of their missing mate.

  The leader pushed his tongue past his mate’s mouth and demanded a response. Dre did not let him down, and they explored each other’s mouths as if it was the first time they kissed. Thankfully, Xander had just gotten out of the shower, and had not bothered to dress so the cloth around his waist was quickly dispatched. Dre only had on sparse clothes from his work out, which were quickly dispatched of while they continued to kiss each other.

  Dre ran his hands over Xanders shoulders and chest. Both of their muscles were sculpted, showing how they kept themselves in shape in case they needed to defend themselves. Xander’s face was angular, and what some may not consider handsome until they looked into his eyes. They were the most amazing color. Some would say they were purple, but whatever, Dre loved looking into them. While Dre was boyishly handsome, no matter their three hundred human year age. He had a perfect nose, cheekbones, and mouth. One, many of the human women swooned over when they surfaced.

  Xander ran his hands down his mate’s back and grabbed his ass. It was tight and firm, and he loved to pull his mate close and rub their cocks together while they petted and kissed each other.

  When finally Dre pulled back, he looked at Xander and smiled, “We welcome home to me.”

  “Yeah, well we need to talk, but I have something that needs taken care of first,” Xander said and looked down at his engorged erection.

  “Really, well we can’t have a leader unsatisfied can we,” Dre drawled with his sexy deep voice and Xander laughed and pulled him into another deep kiss.

  Xander thought back to that fateful day when the leader of their planet came to him and told him what was happening. It had been on his mind all day long for some reason; he could feel some kind of change coming their way. The thoughts he had made him very unsettled. Xander hated that feeling and so he did what was natural to him in this situation, he fought for something to control.

  “We are losing the battle with the Hopis, they have powerful weapons, and I fear soon they will break through out defenses, no matter what we do,” the King had said to him.

  The Hopis were people from another planet only two light years from them. While traveling the universe, they found their planet, Meridian. Meridian was a small planet whose surface was entirely covered in water. At first, the Hopis didn’t think the planet was inhabited and thought they could just use the water resources for their own. When they discovered through a defense field that there were inhabitants on the planet, the attacks began. For thirty years, Xander led the Warriors in protecting their home planet. The Hopis wouldn’t give up; through many prisoner interrogations, they learned that the Hopis’ home planet had dried up a century ago, sending its inhabitants into space to find water for their people. They thought they hit the payload with Meridian only to find out that Xander and his people were there.

  They wanted the water, but when they found some of the technology that the Meridian had, they wanted that also. The Hopis were brutal in their attack, Xander grimaced a little as he thought about the torture many of his men succumbed to. “Sir, what can we do?”

  The Leader and large Warrior himself named Rolf, said, “We must gather the ships. One of o
ur men discovered a planet in the early stages of development, if we land in their waters, we could stay hidden for many years, it is our only hope.”

  Xander led the evacuation, they tried to keep it a secret from the Hopis, but of course, they found out. The day they all left their home planet, Xander thought they planned the escape to perfection. The only thing their leader didn’t consider was that the Hopis, in their greed to obtain everything, destroyed the planet while they were still too close. Xander and his men’s ship was the only one to escape the blast. Fifty-two men, and no women or children. So they were stagnant. Left to survive on a strange planet without the benefit of companionship.

  They plotted the course of Earth and landed in the now called Pacific Ocean. The planet was in its early stages of growth, so the men stayed underwater all the time. They discovered they were still able to shift into their Meridian form when they entered the water. Their legs disappeared and a large tail appeared with brilliant colors, showing their ranking in the Meridian City.

  Slowly over time, they discovered that most of the men were mates, and were just missing their female. Xander always figured it was the rest of the race being destroyed that triggered their mating instincts with the only survivors. Xander and Des had been friends since childhood, and they never felt the pull until one day they were swimming in the ocean.

  It was amazing to have a large area to swim, their planet was much smaller that Earth, they could have swam their entire planet in two days, but Earth, hell, it took more than a week, and that was if you swam steady the whole time.

  Xander found food to take back to the ship. They lived in the ship they escaped on for a long time. It took their brilliant Warrior technology man to slowly create a shield that expanded and formed into a large bubble-like barrier between them and the surrounding water. It was similar to their own planet; however, Earths water had a different compound, salt. Meridian had not had salt water, so it took a while for Cash’s mate, Rosul, to create the shield. Now they had approximately a five-mile city built to accommodate them.