Perfect Reflection (18 page)

She knew what she saw, and the man who
appeared in front of her at Christmas suddenly had been the man who
she saw electrocute and cut several Magical Beings in the last few
years. As members of the Drekinn Agency, they were honor bound to
uphold the laws of the Regulation Community.

The Community was made up of humans and only
two shifters. One was the head of the Drekinn Agency, which at the
time was Ms. Praton, and Brooks, her right hand man. Now they were
banned, since everything went to hell in a hand basket a few months
ago. The situation was just so confusing when it actually happened.
However, right now, she had to deal with the present, she had to
get the hell out of there.

Rissa told her friends she was not going to
mate with the sick bastard, but they had both laughed at her. She
was pissed, her friend’s betrayal was just enough to push her right
over the edge, see if they get this message. Rissa already had to
endure a lecture from her mother, and if that was not scary enough,
Vivi, Calli’s mom, actually gave her pointers on how to deal with a
dominant man. Rissa grimaced and closed her eyes, which was a
nightmare in and of itself. However, that added to the Treacherous
Bitches, Rissa was done.

She packed a bag with supplies, clothes, and
food. She was not completely inept as her friends thought. She knew
she couldn’t go back to New York, shit she was like on the most
wanted list. DEAD OR ALIVE… FORMER MEMBERS OF THE DREKINN AGENCY.
Her mother loved it. However, it did put a bit of a damper on
meeting a normal man, which is what she wanted.
That too was
completely fucked up,
Rissa thought.

Picture it, Christmas morning, opening
presents, and having fun with family and friends, the first fun
they had for months. They were on the run from the whole fucking
world, and in their own little compound, a sliver of joy had been
there. Rissa loved Christmas, now it was the bane of her existence
because she would always remember the day she found out her mate
was a psychopath murderer, on her favorite holiday.

They teased her mercilessly for a month and
thus, the reason for her escape. The dreaded holiday if you didn’t
have a date or a mate—Valentine's Day. She refused to acknowledge
the fact that they were mates, so therefore she did the only thing
she could, planned her escape.

For the last few weeks, she hoarded food
slowly in her room and then she made sure she dug around and found
simple camping gear and other supplies. Now she was ready.
Thankfully, it was right when she knew the Twisted Mate was set to
appear. He supposedly was undercover with the Ulfer. Right, as if
he could have been undercover for the last few years while the
Bondi King tortured and killed many of their own—Shifters.

Rissa paused and waited, listening closely to
make sure no one was lurking in the corridor waiting. She knew her
friends had been making plans for her and the Twisted Mate to meet
again. The meeting had gone so fabulously before, you know,
however, they thought it would work now. Rissa snorted, her friends
were just this side of fucking nuts themselves, especially if they
thought she would go quietly.

Rissa peered over the windowsill again and
took a deep breath. She could do this, if not, she would probably
be bound and gagged by her friends tomorrow, that’s when they set
the whole meeting up. Well, she was not going to be there. For the
last few weeks when she shifted and ran, Rissa scoped out a place
for her to hide. She found one by the south border of the
compound’s land.

To make a long story short, Calli, Cherri,
and herself had been employees of the Drekinn Agency. The Agency
was developed to monitor and regulate the Shifter and Magical
Community with the humans. Nowadays, the world's infrastructure was
a lot different. Each of the countries had an ambassador, and they
sat on the World Assembly Congress, or the WAC. In July 20, 2236,
the WAC was formed because the economic crisis finally reached epic
proportions and all the countries collectively declared bankruptcy.
It was a tremulous time, and all due to the war they had waged on
the
Breyting
, although no one would admit it. Each country
tried to round up the
Breyting
and cage them. None of them
realized that it was impossible to round them all up. Some humans
had the DNA strand and didn't even know it. Basically, they shot
themselves in the foot, and then the
Breyting
helped them
reorganize.

Callie and her friends had wanted to be a
part of the Drekinn Agency from the first day they saw Ms. Praton
announce she was heading up the Agency for the regulation of the
Breyting
and
Ulfer
world. The humans had no clue how
to deal with them, so they quickly handed it over to Ms. Praton.
There were positive and negatives to that. Basically, if everything
was running smoothly, then the WAC patted them on the back for
thinking of letting the animals police themselves. However, if a
highly public
Ulfer
incident happened, they tried to flex—it
never worked. Ms. Praton was one scary dragon when she was pissed,
well, her name was actually Pilar, but that was another story.

For years, they had done their job, making
rank, and rising in the company until they were all at the top of
their field. Calli was the Head Enforcer, Cherri the Lead Medical
Advisor, and Rissa was the Head of the Technological Section. Then
it all went wonky when Calli’s mate showed up. Rissa loved Kade,
however, he was the catalyst of sorts when it came to this whole
prophecy drama. Who the hell knew what they were supposed to do,
other than survive?

The Ulfer were shifters who for one reason or
another had a missing gene in their DNA, it made them just a bit
crazy, and the head of the crazies was a man called the Bondi King.
Mr. Twisted Mate was the Bondi King’s right hand man. The Ulfer
wanted to use the humans for their own gain. They basically thought
that humans were the inferior race. It really was a mess. Humans
couldn’t regulate the magical community so they had the Drekinn,
now somehow all of that changed. The contract was taken away from
the Drekinn and given to another company, the Prentiss Agency,
which was led by the Bondi King, even if the humans were unaware of
it. Rissa and her friends were on the run, labeled as Most Wanted,
because they refused to be nice, little sheep and follow.

They all escaped New York City to a huge
compound hidden right inside New York State and they could still go
into the city, although in disguise. Rissa refused to hide in the
city alone—it would be stupid. In addition, she thought as she
climbed out the window, balanced on the ledge, and looked around,
stupidity did not run in her family.

Walking through the main halls was not going
to be possible, because they would notice she was carrying the huge
backpack containing all of the items she needed in order to survive
in the wild for a few days—she hoped. Now here she stood on a
ledge, looking down, wondering how her life had taken such a wrong
turn.

She knew it started all those years ago when
she met Calli and Cherri. It was their fault; it would totally
serve them right if she never spoke to them ever again—which could
certainly happen, if she broke her neck jumping down from the
second story of the compound’s house. Taking a deep breath Rissa
got ready to jump when she heard Calli and Cherri’s voice coming
from inside her room.

“Damn it, Ris, where the fuck are you?” Calli
bellowed and Rissa paused. She didn’t want to make a sound, their
damn wolf hearing would give her away, and she would be damned if
she got caught now.

“Calli, she's hiding because she knows she
made an ass out of herself on Christmas and doesn’t want to face
the man again. I mean who would, 'Weeiioo, Weeiioo', that's enough
to have a hard on go soft when you scent your mate. Then she
challenged him in front of the whole fucking Pack? WOW!” Cherri
laughed.

Shit, she wasn’t afraid to meet the man, why
did they insist on refusing to believe the obvious? He was a butt
ass, crazy murderer who she was not going to have little murderess
or murderer cubs with. She refused to produce a clan of killers—it
was that simple. Plus, did they forget the whole sex vid? Really.
Bitches
, Rissa thought and then opened her mouth to say it
again to them when she remembered where she was.
Shit, hiding,
duh
.

“I know, but ya gotta love the fact that she
tried to kill him. I mean no one saw her grabbing my Christmas gift
and protecting the ‘family,’” Calli said smugly.

“Thank the Gods, it wasn't loaded,” Cherri
sighed.

“Well it was, but she didn’t take off the
safety. Remember, that's when Mr. Twisted grabbed the gun out of
her hand and said she needed a ‘fucking spanking.’” Calli
snorted.

Oh the humiliation
, Rissa thought. She
should just jump for the fucking hell of it.

“Wait,” Cherri said. “Can you hear that?”

Rissa gasped and looked up; an eagle was
flying above the compound. Of course, the asshole would be early.
Simon, that's what he said his real name was,
ha
, like she
would believe that. No, he was Mr. Twisted and that was it.

“Shit, it's Simon, Kade was going to talk to
him and explain everything, and then we were gonna bring her in and
make her apologize. Now what the fuck are we gonna do?” Calli said
and then made a growling noise she made when she was
frustrated.

“We have to find her. She's just hiding. I
mean, please, we know everywhere she would go,” Cherri said.

“By the way, we have checked all of those
places,” Calli said.

“Well, Billy B is with Pilar, she said Rissa
asked her to watch him for her,” Cherri said.

“Crap, she is going into the city,” Calli
said and Rissa smirked and waited, they would go to the tunnels and
look at the new underground transport cars she designed and they
used for travel. Recently, they used it to bring Pack members there
who joined the Drekinn Pack.

Rissa listened as they walked to the door and
got ready to jump again when she heard Kade, the other Alpha. “What
the fuck is going on?”

“Huh?” Calli said.

“Simon said when he flew in there was someone
on the ledge, I figured it was Rissa since you were going to talk
to her,” Kade ground out.

“Rissa? You mean MY MATE is the one who is on
the Fuckin’ ledge?!”

Rissa heard someone roar and that was all it
took. Her fight or flight instinct went into high gear. “You will
never take me alive!” Rissa cried and jumped as she heard her best
friends, and now labeled traitors, laugh and clap.

Rissa landed nicely on her ass, in the middle
of the shrubs, and said a very unladylike word. Like that was going
to change the situation. She jumped up and ran, not looking back
and only hearing the men yelling for someone to stop her.

The Love of a Shifter
Series Book One

By Bryce Evans

“Wake up, Jamie. Wake up.” Jamie could feel
someone nudging her arm. “I said wake up.” This time Jamie felt a
punch to her arm.

“Hey!” she yelled, gripping the arm that was
hit. Jamie still couldn’t open her eyes all the way. She brought
her hand up to her face, rubbing her eyes, trying to open them.

“It’s time for you to wake up, Jamie, and
take your place with the pack.” Jamie didn’t recognize the voice.
What pack? I’m already part of a pack. The Nortic Pack
.
Jamie blinked her eyes, trying to focus on the voice that was
talking to her.

“Who are you?” Jamie asked. Their eyes met
and Jamie knew she was in trouble. The man had long hair with black
eyes. The blackest eyes she had ever seen. He was a huge man. Jamie
knew he had to be bigger than her Alpha. He had muscles everywhere.
Jamie thought he would be good-looking if he didn’t give her the
creeps.
He looked crazy
, Jamie thought.

“I’m your new Alpha, Jamie.” Jamie continued
to blink, looking around the room, watching five men staring at
her. She needed to get out of here. “Jamie, you are now part of our
pack.”

“No, no, where are my mom and my sister?”

“Soon you will have a new sister and
mother!”

Detective Ashland Peters sat at her computer,
finishing her paperwork, so she could go home and finish packing
for her trip to the small town of Freedom, Colorado.

“Are you almost finished, Peters? You don’t
want to miss your plane so go home and get ready,” Captain Jackson
said as he looked down from the desk he was leaning against.

Ash looked up from the computer screen,
shaking her head and smiling. “It sounds like you are ready to get
rid of me, Captain.”

“Well, I am. You have been telling me that
you need a vacation for two years now, and I’m sending you to a ski
lodge for training in Colorado, and I can’t seem to get you out of
the office.”

“Just finishing this report. I’m finished now
so I will see you in a week. Wish me luck.” Captain Jackson moved
and sat on the side of her desk, watching her shut down her
computer.

“Listen, Ash. Have a good time while you are
there. It’s time to start living. Life is more than just work. That
friend of yours will be there too, right? What’s his name?” Ashland
watched as her Captain tried to think of Nash’s name. “He is named
after a city right?” Ash shook her head, laughing at Captain
Jackson.

“His name is Nashville, but he goes by Nash,”
Ash responded.

“You guys sure do like those weird names. Now
stop changing the subject. This is an order, Detective; you must
have a good time. Let your hair down. Meet a man who sees what we
see.” Ash smiled because she had heard it before from him. “See you
when you get back.”