Mated to the enemy, p.1
Mated to the Enemy, page 1
part #3 of High House Ursa Series
Mated to the Enemy
High House Ursa #3
Riley Storm
Mated to the Enemy
Copyright© 2019 Riley Storm
All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may reproduced in any form or by any electronic means, without written permission from the author. The sole exception is for the use of brief quotations in a book review. The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real.
All sexual activities depicted occur between consenting characters 18 years or older who are not blood related.
Edited by Annie J
Cover Designs by Kasmit Covers
1
“I’ll be right back.”
Jessica tried not to sigh with relief as her sister’s mate announced he would be leaving the two of them alone. Lorran bent over, kissed Zoe on the top of her head, gave Jessica a polite but abrupt nod of his head and wandered out of the sitting room, leaving the two sisters to themselves at long last.
“What?’
Looking over at her sister, Jessica tried to look innocent.
“Don’t give me that bullshit, Jess. I can read you like a book.” Zoe settled back into the oversized loveseat and snagged her wineglass from the side table. “What is that look for?”
Jessica sighed, closing her eyes. “Is it that obvious?”
“Not to anyone else, probably, but to me, yes. We are sisters, even if I barely see you anymore.”
“I meant to come visit,” Jessica admitted. “But first it was work, and then…”
Zoe took a sip of her red. “Then what? Why haven’t I seen you in—what—three, four years now?”
“I just…” There was no way around it. The cat was out of the bag. It was happening sooner than she’d expected, and Jessica just wasn’t ready. She hadn’t prepared the words yet. All the little speeches and comparisons she’d come up with, they didn’t seem appropriate anymore.
“Come onnnn. You can tell me!”
“Fine.” Jessica steeled herself, glancing around to ensure they were still alone. “Something changed, Zo.”
“Changed how? With what? I changed, is that what you’re trying to say?”
“No, not you.” Jess looked skyward, but no help came. “Lorran.”
She saw the defenses immediately clamp into place around Zoe’s eyes as she prepared to defend her mate. It was instinctual by this point, she was sure, and Jessica had no idea whether her sister could see what was going on, or if she was too close to the situation.
“Well, we’ve grown, Jess. The two of us. Together. Of course, he’s going to change.”
“Are you happy?” Jessica asked, switching gears. That was the main thing.
“Yes.”
To her dismay, Jessica realized that Zoe was telling the truth. The honest truth. She was still happy with Lorran. Which meant she’d been sucked in deep into the vortex surrounding the man. Either that, or Jessica didn’t know her younger sister as well as she thought she did.
“Okay.” She took a long sip of her own wine, nearly draining the glass. “That’s the big thing for me. You’re happy, and he doesn’t treat you badly.”
“Lorran? No. He’s rarely even raises his voice with me.” Zoe smiled sweetly, working away at her own beverage as well. “Of course, I do my best to ensure he never has to, but he treats me nicely. Every Friday, he brings me fresh flowers.”
Jessica had to smile at that. It was a cute gesture. Still, she couldn’t share her sister’s faith in the shifter. By and large, the Canis Household had welcomed the Hanes sister into their midst after Lorran had made his intentions about Zoe quite clear. That was seven years ago now and she’d always been welcomed back to Moonshadow Manor, even as she’d felt less and less at ease within its walls.
Perhaps the life among shifters just isn’t for me?
“How are you doing?”
“What do you mean?”
“Come on, Jess. You know what I’m talking about. Your job.”
Jessica snorted softly into her glass. “What job, Zo?
“That’s precisely what I’m talking about. Don’t be so dense, you know that. I want to know how you’re doing? How are you holding up? Do you need anything? Money? A place to stay?”
Jess shifted in her chair, uncomfortable at the reminder that her sister had married into fabulous wealth. “No, I’m fine for now,” she said, giving her honest assessment of the situation. “The house is paid off, and they gave me severance for nearly a year and a half as a deal for taking it early.”
Zoe nodded. “Okay, that’s good. So, you can make that last for a while?”
“Yes. Between what I already had saved away and the package, I’ll land on my feet.” Jessica stated that last part emphatically. The last thing she wanted was more assistance from her sister and her husband. The pair had already insisted on paying off the house she’d bought and sending her on a fancy vacation, but Jessica didn’t like taking help from others. She made her own way in the world.
“I know you hate the idea of me helping you out, big sis, but if it ever does get to that point, promise me you’ll come to me, okay? I won’t shove it down your throat if you promise me you won’t let it get too bad, okay?” Zoe gave her that weird combination of a smile and a glare that only a sister could do.
“Okay, I promise.” She had no intention of taking more money from them, but Jessica wasn’t an idiot either. If life fucked her over again, on top of the factory she’d worked at for 12 years closing, she would come to her sister and Lorran before living on the streets. Still, she wasn’t going to let that happen. There were jobs to be had still, she just had to find them. She quietly didn’t tell Zoe that the house was already on the market, in case she had to move.
“Now, onto happier subjects!” Zoe said, biting her lip to hold down a smile.
“Like what? Are you pregnant?” she teased.
Zoe gave her a full-on glare this time. “You know Lorran doesn’t want any children. Play nice.”
“Sorry,” she said with a chuckle. “What’s the happier news?”
“What? Oh, I don’t know. I just wanted to change the subject,” Zoe said, and the sisters shared a laugh.
“That’s going to require more wine,” Jessica told her, holding up the empty wine bottle. “I’ll grab it for us. Then we’ll come up with something good, I’m sure.”
Pushing herself up out of the plush couch, she set her empty glass down and sauntered out of the sitting room. Lorran was some sort of bigwig with House Canis, a werewolf lord of some sort—Jessica didn’t care enough to pay more attention than that—and his quarters within Moonshadow Manor reflected it.
She walked along the hallway toward the wine room—one of the few places she’d memorized the route to and from—idly looking at the pictures on the wall as she went. The door slid open quietly at her touch and she stepped into the climate-controlled room, glad she’d brought the empty bottle with her. There was a dizzying selection available.
“This one will do,” she softly proclaimed to the empty room after a search, finding something that looked vaguely familiar. They were all in languages she didn’t read, but the logo was the same, so that was good enough for her.
Making her way back to the sitting room, she slowed as she heard raised voices from up ahead. After a moment of searching, she identified them as coming from behind the double sliding doors that led to Lorran’s study. Curious as to what was going on, she crept forward as silently as possible, until she could just barely make out the words being said.
“We can’t wait much longer,” one of the voices was saying. “They’re gaining more support with every passing day. Not enough to challenge us seriously yet, but enough that we should be taking them seriously.”
“We are.”
Jessica bit her lip. That was Lorran’s voice, and he continued speaking.
“Ever since Laurent was killed and his mate fled, things feel like they’ve been in disarray. We need to get things sorted out so we can move against these upstarts.”
She’d never heard Zoe’s mate talk like that. So angry and full of hatred. What other secrets was he hiding from his mate, she wondered? Who were the upstarts, and what were they trying to do? This probably wasn’t a conversation she was meant to overhear, but curiosity was a powerful motivator.
“Their desires are pathetic,” a third voice said, speaking with more calm. “We cannot let them sway us from our path. Ursa must die, or at minimum be brought to heel! I will not tolerate their continued insolence. Our first plan was more successful than we could have ever hoped, but that bitch Queen of theirs is proving more resourceful than anticipated.”
Jessica had no idea what they were talking about, though she knew that the “Ursa” they were referring to could only mean House Ursa, the bear shifter line of shapeshifters. Although she’d been spying on her sister when Lorran had first revealed the true nature of his beast to Zoe, Jessica hadn’t bothered to learn much more about it. Just knowing that such creatures existed was enough for her.
“I want your ideas.” It was the same voice speaking, the third person. It was tantalizingly familiar, but distance and the doors were muffling it enough that she couldn’t figure out who.
“They need to be eliminated,” the first voice said again. “The sooner the better. Canis and Ursa will never be friends, no matter the wishes of these young bloods. If they can’t accept that, then they will be put down like any disobedient dog.”
“Agreed,” Loran said, chiming in. “The softness of these young whelps is abhorrent. We need not be friends with everyone. We are Canis. It is our right to rule!”
Jessica was horrified. They were talking about killing members of their own House!
“Murderers,” she gasped, taking a quiet step backward.
But she’d forgotten about the wine bottle in her hand, and it clunked off the wall as she moved.
A split second later, the double doors flew open and an evil man she’d never seen before loomed over her, lip curled back in a terrifying leer. Big black eyebrows knotted together, matching the thunderclouds brewing in the depths of his eyes.
“Well well,” he sneered. “What do we have here? A spy?”
2
The wine bottle shattered into a thousand tiny pieces as she whipped it up and into the man’s face. Both of them stared in shock, caught completely unprepared by her sudden aggression. Jessica gaped at the stem of the bottle still in her hand, the only fragment still intact. Red wine mixed with blood as it dripped down his skin, pooling around the pieces of glass protruding from his cheek before falling to the floor in a steadily increasing stream.
“Why you little bitch!” the unknown shifter snarled, reaching for her.
Jessica screamed, ducked under his grip, punched him in the dick and took off down the hallway, ignoring the howl of pain that seemed to follow her like a living entity, growing louder as she went. Thunderous footsteps soon followed in pursuit, chasing her down.
She ran like the wind itself, arms pumping furiously, long wavy straw-blonde hair bouncing wildly behind her. Left, then right, a frenzied panic down a straightaway before she reached out to grab a wall panel and swung herself to the left down a side passage. The entire floor trembled as something large went skidding past her, tumbling to the ground as it tried to mimic her turn.
“Leave me alone!” she screamed as whoever—or whatever, she thought, reminding herself of where she was—came after her with renewed energy. “I didn’t hear anything, I swear!”
It didn’t make a difference. They weren’t going to take any chances. Not with a secret like that. Jessica had overheard their dastardly plan, and now they would have to silence her. It was nearly more than she could handle. Nearly.
A decade plus of working on a factory line had left her hardened to a lot of things. She’d seen gruesome injuries, and listened to some of the worst dregs of humanity come through her line. She’d long ago learned to defend herself from their advances, some of which had turned nearly violent. All those experiences served her well now, as she was able to immediately determine just how much danger she was in.
The answer: a lot.
Her first priority had to be escaping. Get to the garage, steal a car, and get the hell away from Moonshadow Manor. Once she had some distance between her and her pursuers, she could think a little more clearly.
“Come here,” someone snarled.
Jessica ducked low on instinct. A second later, a hand swiped through the air where her neck had been. Whoever it was, they were right on her tail. Thankfully, the corridor hit a four-way intersection ten feet ahead. Leaning to her left, she let her body indicate which way she intended to let her momentum carry her. A victorious growl from just behind said her pursuer thought he had her.
But instead of heading left at the intersection, Jessica left herself go nearly limp, hit the wall just before it ended, and rebounded off to the right, pirhouetting as she drew on figure skating skills nearly two decades old, and dashed off down the opposite hallway.
Risking a glance over her shoulder, she saw the same evil shifter she’d hit with the wine bottle stumble to a halt, fooled by her momentum. His eyes followed her, and a grin split his face.
A sinking sensation filled her stomach a moment before she was snatched up in some sort of pale-green cloud. It wrapped around her lower body and lifted her from the ground, keeping her immobile.
“Let me go!” she shouted at the top of her lungs, struggling violently. The more she squirmed though, the more the cloud crept up her limbs, preventing them from moving. Eventually, she fell still when it reached just below her breasts.
The evil-looking man strode closer, and she could see his hand was outstretched toward her, fingers constantly moving back and forth. Was he controlling whatever it was that had her caught up like a fly in a spider’s web?
“I’ll let you go when I’m ready to let you go,” he said, his tone filled with false niceties. “And that will be after you tell me just how much you heard.”
Jessica rolled her eyes. “I told you, I didn’t hear anything. Just a muffled voice. I didn’t know you were in the room, and it startled me as I was walking by with the new bottle of wine. Next thing I knew, you were at the door towering over me like you were ready to kill me for some reason. I panicked.”
“And hit me with the wine bottle,” he hissed, making no move to let her go.
“Yeah.” She didn’t apologize. They both knew the game. It might have been Jessica’s first time playing with him, but she wasn’t naïve. “How are you doing this?” she asked, looking down at the green cloud wrapped around her.
“You are living in House Canis, yet know nothing of the world around you,” the man spat. “You’re here on the good grace of charity alone.”
“I’m beginning to suspect you don’t like me very much,” she said casually, trying to distract the man, to keep his attention on her.
“You are a human. It’s nothing personal,” he chuckled nastily. “I despise your entire race.”
Jessica looked him up and down. “You appear pretty human to me.”
“Pah!” the man spat, standing in front of her now, looking up at her as she floated two feet off the ground. “I am a magi, you pathetic inbred fool. I am nothing like you.”
“Uh huh.” Jessica tried to look bored. “If it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck…”
The man frowned. “What?”
“Then it falls unconscious like a duck,” she said, altering the old saying as Zoe swung the metal vase at the man’s head.
An instant after it connected, the field holding her disappeared and she dropped to the ground with a yelp. The magi groaned from where he lay on the floor. Could it truly be a magician? Was magic real as well? Jessica had no time to contemplate that. More footsteps were coming, and she needed to get the two of them out of there.
“Come on,” she said, grabbing Zoe’s hand. “We need to go. Now!”
They dashed forward.
“What’s going on, Jess? Why was he chasing after you? What did you do?”
Jessica hissed. “Nothing but overhear him talking about wanting to—”
She was interrupted as Lorran came around the corner ahead of them, blocking the way.
“Jessica,” he said warningly, looking past her at the groaning mage. “This needs to stop.”
“I agree. Get out of our way,” she snapped.
“Get out of our way?” Lorran asked haughtily.
“Yes. We’re leaving,” she said, walking straight forward.
“You should stay,” he said warningly.
“Jess,” Zoe hissed. “What the hell is going on? I don’t want to go.”
“If I stay here,” Jessica said under her breath, “They’re going to kill me, and possibly you too, just for helping me.”
“Is that true?” Zoe asked, speaking louder. “Are you going to kill Jessica? Are you going to kill me too, Lorran?”
The shifter sighed. “I can keep you safe, my love. You know that. As long as you are with me, you will come to no harm. I…cannot promise anything with Jessica. She has to make that choice, and even then.” He shrugged. “I do not know.”
“Zoe,” Jessica said, glancing over her shoulder. The mage was getting to his knees. He was moving slowly, but in another minute or so he’d be back upright, she figured. Time was running out.
“Come on, Jess. Lorran will do his best to protect us. I don’t know what happened, but we can sort this out. Okay?” Zoe turned to look at her. “Trust me.”
Jessica was about to protest, to tell Zoe that she was insane, but something in her sister’s eye caught her attention. It wasn’t much, but it was enough.
