Blizzard_A Paranormal Romance Read online

  © Copyright 2018 by Pure Passion Reads – All rights reserved.

  In no way is it legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document in either electronic means or in printed format. Recording of this publication is strictly prohibited and any storage of this document is not allowed unless with written permission from the publisher. All rights reserved.

  Respective authors own all copyrights not held by the publisher.

  Blizzard

  Savage Brotherhood MC: Book Two

  A Paranormal Romance

  By Jasmine Wylder

  Table of Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Bonus Content (Limited Time Only)

  Paranormal Romance Collection

  Paranormal Shifter Romance: Mated to the Wolf

  About Jasmine Wylder

  Jasmine’s Other Books

  THANK YOU so much for downloading this book!

  As a way of showing gratitude, I wanted to extend a very special offer to you. I'm giving selected readers access to my VIP Mailing List. As part of this group, you will receive notifications about promotions and new releases!

  Click the “Get Access Now” link below to join today and receive two hot and steamy paranormal romances for Free!

  Get Access Now

  Chapter One

  Shadow

  Lots of the boys in the gang liked to ride their bikes loud. Obnoxious, screaming at everybody to look at them and be amazed and intimidated. They were a bunch of idiots looking to compensate for small brains and small dicks. Val liked her bike smooth. Understated. You didn’t know it was there until it was already past you. Just like her.

  This morning, though, she could have used a little noise. Val scowled as she pulled her bike up next to the blue-gray minivan parked outside her brother’s house. The guy she’d picked out at the bar last time to take up into the woods had turned out to be a colossal disappointment. All muscle, big and sexy, but with no idea how to treat a woman right. She’d have done better by herself. Then he had the nerve to act as though she should have pretended to enjoy him!

  Grumbling under her breath, Val turned off her bike and took off her helmet. Her leather jacket fit snugly around her curvy frame, nipping in at her waist to accentuate her shape. She flipped her braids over her shoulder and ran a hand over the shorter half of her head. It was getting a little long for her tastes. Should she buzz it or just shave it all off?

  The chatter of voices brought her out of her darker thoughts and Val quickly jogged around the house. Her heart burst into sunlight as she saw her brother with his mate, Ava, pushing a stroller with their infant daughter, Lily, in it. Behind them were three tow-headed girls.

  “Mama!” The youngest, four-year-old Freya, shouted as she rushed to Val’s arms.

  Val caught her and kissed the top of her head. Her leopard rumbled with happiness, curled up tight in her chest. She was always happy to be reunited with her daughters after spending time apart. Her older two, ten-year-old Artemis and six-year-old Sekhmet, joined in the hug. Sekhmet started to excitedly tell her that she had found a fossil, while Artemis snorted and rolled her eyes. Val shot her oldest a warning look and Artemis shrugged.

  “Are you three ready to go home?” Val asked, smiling at her daughters. “Have you had lunch yet?”

  Freya bounced on her toes. “Nope! Can we go to Les’s bar?”

  Val didn’t miss Ava’s disapproving look, but at this time of day the bar would be mostly empty, and the food was good. Besides, the gang knew better than to try to smoke or drink around her girls. “Sure we can, honey. Go get in the van. Sekhmet, Artemis, no fighting.”

  “Yes, Mama,” they agreed happily and raced for the minivan.

  Val hated the vehicle, but safety came first when it came to her daughters. She turned to Ava and Jackson. “Thanks for watching them.”

  “It’s always a joy to have them around,” Ava assured her as Jackson grinned broadly.

  Val nodded. Not for the first time, she was glad that Jackson had ignored her advice when the vampire king, Astrophel, had decided to claim Ava. Val had been all about handing her over, letting the vampires kill her. She hadn’t thought that the panther shifter was worth the fight. As it turned out, though, she was, and Val was glad that she was around. Jackson had never been happier since Ava came into his life.

  Artemis and Sekhmet were arguing over the validity of Sekhmet’s ‘fossils’ by the time Val put her bike in the back of the van and got into the driver’s seat herself. She allowed it to go on for a moment, waiting for them to come to a conclusion on their own, before she spoke.

  “Enough, you two. Or you’ll have to clean the bathroom together when you get home.” She looked seriously in the rearview mirror until she was satisfied that they weren’t going to fight anymore, then pulled away. She waved to Jackson and Ava and then turned her attention to the road. “After lunch, do you want to go to the museum?”

  “Yeah!” Artemis leaned forward, her eyes bright and excited. “They have a new exhibit on the local Native nation and I want to see the canoe!”

  “I want to see the dollies,” Freya shouted.

  Sekhmet kicked the back of Val’s seat. “Fossils!”

  Val felt herself relaxing, far better than she had been able to with her orgasm-less sex spree last night. The gang had been having a bit of trouble lately. Since Astrophel’s death, the local vampires had been without a leader. It meant that they were fighting each other to become the new king, which led to fewer vampires straying into Savage Brotherhood territory. This, in turn, led to the gang having less to do and getting bored. Boredom made them restless and restlessness turned them all into a bunch of idiots. They’d been pulling jobs all over town, from robberies to vandalism, meaning that the long arm of the law was coming down harder on them.

  If they didn’t start shaping up, Val might end up having to claw a few throats out as a lesson to the others.

  She shook those thoughts off, determined to enjoy spending time with her girls, when red and blue lights started flashing behind her. Her leopard snarled as her shoulders bunched. Speaking of the long arm of the law…

  It was the sheriff’s car. Gabriel Cunningham. Mr. Holier-than-thou himself. A snarl ripped from her this time, her nostrils flaring. A quick glance at her odometer showed her well within the accepted speed range. If her daughters weren’t in the van, she might have been tempted to try to book it out of there. Instead, she pulled off to the side of the road and unbuckled.

  “Stay in your seats,” she told the girls and then stepped out of the van.

  If it wasn’t Gabriel, she’d have stayed put and tried to talk her way out of whatever the cop wanted. Him though… the traitor had better have a good reason for showing his face.

  Gabriel stepped from his car and her leopard let out a hiss—part anger, part desire. Even though he was getting up there in years, his body was still built like a brick shit house. Broad shoulders, muscled chest that stretched the fabric of his uniform, rock-hard abs. His square jaw was set in anger and his eyes hidden behind mirrored glasses. His salt-and-pepper hair was shorn down to a length somewhere between too long and too short.

  “What do you want, Blizzard?”

  She could have kicked herself for calling him by his old nickname. He didn’t deserve it anymore. Not when he abandoned the gang for the military, only to come back and
become the fucking sheriff. The old tattoos from when they used to pull jobs together seemed to burn on her shoulders. Did his matching tats have the same effect on him? She glowered at him as he got closer.

  “Do you have to do this every time I pull you over?” Gabriel took off his glasses to sneer at her. “You’re supposed to stay in your vehicle when you’re pulled over.”

  “Fuck you,” she snarled, the familiar burn of hatred clouding her mind. “You have no right to come after me when I have my girls with me.”

  A startled look came over Gabriel’s features. He glanced at the van, his expression turning worried for a moment, before it hardened again. “Maybe you shouldn’t run around being a criminal if you don’t want them to see you get arrested.”

  “Arrested?” What had she done recently to get on good ol’ Gabe’s list? Maybe preventing that idiot Basil from doing some home invasions.

  “I’ll let you drop them off with your brother if you promise to come quietly afterward.”

  The bastard. Val glowered at him, every muscle in her body tense. She rolled to the balls of her feet, preparing to spring toward him and rip his throat out. If he thought that he was going to separate her from her girls, he had another thing coming. And using them to make her cooperate?

  “What are you planning to do, Gabe? What are you trying to arrest me for? What happened to our agreement?”

  The gang handled the vampires and kept a low profile, Gabriel looked the other way. That was the arrangement they had. If he had decided to go back on it, then there would be bloodshed. If he started arresting gang members, especially the alpha’s sister, then what was the point in sticking to the shadows? They’d be running amuck in no time.

  Gabriel narrowed his eyes and lifted his lip. The smell of wolf on him increased, pulling something in her core. Dammit, why did he had to affect her like this when she already wanted to kill him?

  “I got some things I want to talk to you about, Val. It doesn’t have to be an arrest… yet. Let’s just take this calmly and talk down at the station.”

  “Not unless you give me a good reason.”

  His dark eyes drilled into hers. The one thing that terrified her most about Gabriel Cunningham was that she never knew what he was thinking. Val could read people. It’s what she did. He was like a brick wall.

  Finally, he snorted. “I received an anonymous tip that you’ve been selling cocaine. I’m not about to let this town become a haven for drug pushers.”

  Val snarled, raising her fists. He knew nothing. “Why do you think I’d end up in drugs, Cunningham? These anonymous tips—ever stop to think maybe you should have evidence?”

  “I do have evidence,” Gabriel hissed. His eyes blazed as he stepped forward, looming over her as though that was intimidating. “I’ve got pictures, Val. What are you thinking? Have you gotten hooked?”

  If it was anybody else, she’d think he was actually concerned. But not Gabe. Not this traitor who turned his back on them all just because he couldn’t be alpha—she remembered the scent of blood in the air as he and Jackson fought. The way muscles were torn open, cut to the bone. Her leopard crouched, ready to pounce.

  “Are you sure of that?” she hissed at him, then relaxed her stance enough so that when she reached to undo the top button of his shirt, he didn’t immediately grab her wrists. “Or are you just wanting me in a prison cell, helpless to your oceans of lust?”

  He smacked away her hand. “I have enough evidence to take your girls away if you don’t cooperate.”

  She didn’t think as she seized him around the throat. “Try it and I’ll kill you.”

  Her leopard paced anxiously, teeth bared and on edge. All her muscles trembled as the taste of blood burned sour in the back of her throat. Her chest heaved, and a red mist started to encroach on the edges of her vision. Her fangs dropped, ready to tear apart the enemy before her.

  “Easy.” Gabriel’s voice was a familiar soft purr now. “You’re going into berserker mode. You don’t want your girls to see that.”

  He was right.

  Val forced herself to release him and exhaled noisily. As she inhaled again, trying to clear her mind, she caught the whiff of a sweet, pungent odor. Like rotten fruit. Her head whipped around, but it was too late. A tall, thin and pale person plunged through the trees and knocked into her. She went flying. The vampire landed on her, its fangs flashing in the sunlight, as long fingers wrapped around her throat.

  Vampires. In daylight.

  Val shifted in the blink of an eye, bringing her Leopard forward. The vampire screeched as she twisted out of its grip. Claws raked across her back, but she turned and sunk her teeth into its withered neck. She thrashed the body from side to side, grinning as she felt bone snap. Tossing the vampire’s body aside, she turned again. Gabriel in wolf form faced off with two vampires.

  A third yanked open the doors to the minivan. Screams filled the air and she heard Artemis shout for the others to get back.

  Red washed over her vision. Everything disappeared around her, except for the scent of rotten fruit. She dashed forward, a roar in her throat as she collided with the vampire. Teeth in throat. Taste of blood. Crushed flesh in her jaws. Screams of pain. She could sense her girls, huddled in the van. In danger. Claws dug into muscle. Head ripped off.

  A howl behind her. She lunged. Teeth caught on dry skin. The stench of rot strong in her nose. Rip chest open. Tear out heart. Taste of blood. Everything red around her. Need for more. Lips dripping with spit. Scent of wolf. Enemy. She leapt and came down. Knocked him to the ground. Teeth tear at the throat. Blocked. Arm. She yanked her head to the side. Clawed at the throat. Blocked.

  Freya was crying. Sobbing. Sekhmet whimpering. Artemis calling for her.

  The red started to fade. The enemy beneath her, the man whose blood was in her mouth, wasn’t fighting her back. Her claws dug into his shoulder, but she slowly pulled them back. Everything crashed down around her. Light, sound, color, as though she had been in a dark tub of water and was suddenly born into the world.

  “Easy, now. It’s okay.”

  She looked down to find Gabriel in human form staring up at her. His arm was clenched tight in her jaws, blood pouring from his shoulder where her claws had ripped into him. His brown eyes burned into her, frightened but in control.

  “There you are, Sweetness. Come back to us now. The vampires are gone. Your girls are safe. Come on, Shadow. Shake it off.”

  Slowly, she released him. The lingering adrenaline left her on edge, ready to lunge for his throat if he made the wrong move. Her leopard snarled, then whined. Val allowed herself to shift back into her human form. Release the berserker. As soon as it was her hands and not paws pressed into Gabriel’s chest, he bucked his body. Val yelped as he threw her off. She lashed out, but he grabbed both her arms and twisted them behind her back and pinned her down.

  Her leopard huffed and stretched. The excitement of blood had left it frisky and it wanted to mate. Now. As Gabriel pinned her down with his body.

  “Easy,” he grunted and reached for the ruined remnants of his uniform. Her own clothes were torn to shreds from her shift. He snapped a pair of cuffs on her.

  “Let me go,” she snarled. “I have to tell Jackson about this! Vampires! Attacking in daylight! How could they—”

  “Yeah. And you went into berserker mode, Val. I thought you had a better handle on it than that. What if you had hurt your daughters?”

  Val screamed in fury. How dare he suggest that she might hurt them?

  “You can explain to Jackson at the station.” Gabriel yanked her to her feet. The glare was heavy on his brow as he pushed her toward her van. “You got extra clothes?”

  She snarled.

  “I’ll take that as a no. Sit quietly.” He pushed her to the minivan and shoved her in the front seat. “I’ll be back in a minute.”

  Val closed her eyes as he walked away. A headache pounded through her brain as she slowly returned more fully to herself. She was
aware that her girls were all crying now and her heart nearly broke. She took a deep breath and twisted around to look at them.

  “Are you hurt?”

  Artemis clutched Freya in her arms and shook her head. Her eyes were wide, while Sekhmet huddled in the back. The fear on their faces made Val want to shrivel up and die. Tears burned her eyes, though she would not let them fall. Back at his car, she saw Gabriel dressing in a spare uniform, as well as gathering up the ruined clothes. The vampires had turned to dust—like they ought to in sunlight.

  Val slumped back in her seat and closed her eyes. What the fuck had just happened?

  Chapter Two

  Blizzard

  The orange jumpsuit was just a little too small for her, but it was better than being naked. Gabriel kept his eyes on his task, gently wiping the dried blood from where it had run down Val’s arm. The wound, a long but shallow scratch, wasn’t enough to require a doctor. When he started to clean it with an alcohol wipe, Val jumped, hissed and spat at him. He tensed, ready for an attack, but then she sagged back against the wall.

  Her bright eyes remained locked on him, wary and mistrustful. Gabriel snorted. His wolf paced in his chest, snarling quietly. After the way she had gone after him earlier, his wolf wanted to subdue her, make her kneel and ensure she would never be a threat again.

  But Valarie Masters would always be a threat.

  “Stop glaring at me as though you want to claw out my eyes,” he spat at her. His arm burned from where she had sunk her teeth into him. He’d have to put on new bandages once he had her patched up. “Unless you want me to send you to the hospital?”

  She hissed again, but turned her face away. The jail cells in the Coalfell police station were small, too small for a shifter to comfortably be in. He had thought that was a good thing when he first became sheriff. Now, though, he wondered if he could find it in the budget to expand a little.