Blood Mate: A Paranormal Romance

BLOOD MATE

MATE series

By

Natalie Kristen

MATE series

ALPHA MATE

BEAR MATE

VAMPIRE MATE

WOLF MATE

WILD MATE

DARK MATE

BLOOD MATE

Copyright
© 2014 Natalie Kristen

ALL
RIGHTS RESERVED

This
book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. It may not be
resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share
this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for
each reader. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it,
or it was not purchased for your use only, please purchase your own
copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the author.

This
is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are
used fictitiously or are the products of the author's imagination.
Any resemblance to actual locales, events, establishments or persons,
living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

*****

As the PAC's Head Enforcer,
Jett Riley knows that there is a target on his back and a price on
his head. He has too many enemies, enemies who will hurt her to hurt
him.

Loving her would get her
killed.

She is his, but he can never
have her...

Bryn Ellis knows death. She
has courted death, fought death, and won. She is now a vampire
Enforcer for the PAC. She has sworn off bad boys, and Jett Riley,
her boss and tormentor, is deliciously, sinfully bad to the core.

She should protect her heart
and stay away from him, but she can't.

There is no denying the
maddening, unrelenting hunger and powerful bond between them.

Their hunt for a savage killer
on the loose in New Moon City puts them in the cross hairs of an old
enemy. As danger closes in around the Enforcers, Jett and Bryn must
fight to save each other, and the lives of everyone they hold dear.

*****

Jett nodded at the security
guard on duty as he strode across the lobby of the Paranormal Affairs
Council (PAC) Headquarters. “Goodnight, Stanley.”

“
Goodnight, Mr Riley.”
Stanley looked up from behind the reception counter and touched the
tip of his cap. The old vampire usually doubled up as receptionist
for the night, since the PAC Headquarters tended to be pretty quiet
at night.

Jett was Head of the
Enforcement Unit of the PAC and the only human on the Council. The
PAC Alpha, Lucas Rieve, was a werewolf. The rest of the Council
members were paranormals. With vampires, weres, warlocks, witches,
demons all living together under one moon in one crowded, bustling
city, New Moon City was a cosmopolitan melting pot—or a ticking
time bomb.

If disputes weren't resolved
carefully and efficiently, things tended to get ugly pretty quickly.
Fangs, fur and claws would make their appearance and blood would flow
down the sidewalk into the gutters.

Jett didn't envy the clean up
crew of New Moon City. But the clean up crew didn't envy him either.
Being the PAC's Head Enforcer was a dangerous, deadly job.

The Enforcers patrolled the
city, hunted and destroyed rogue paranormals. They served and
protected the civilian population. Training and toughening up the
Enforcement Unit was no small task. But under Jett's demanding, some
say brutal, training and no-nonsense leadership, the Enforcement Unit
had grown to be a fearsome, formidable force.

Jett knew he had a target on
his back. There were some ambitious, power-hungry paranormals who
would literally kill to head the Enforcement Unit. As the leader and
commander of an elite group of lethal, well-trained hunters, Jett was
arguably the most powerful Council member after the PAC Alpha, Lucas
Rieve. Lucas was a good Alpha. He was astute, open-minded and
decisive. Lucas was the previous Head Enforcer, but he handed the
baton over to Jett when he was elected as the new PAC Alpha.

There were some who wanted
Jett's position. They wanted his power. His responsibilities, not
so much. But there were others who wanted Jett's head. They didn't
want power. They wanted revenge.

Jett strode out of the PAC
Headquarters and straightened his black leather jacket. His eyes
automatically scanned the roads surrounding the PAC Headquarters.
Traffic was light, and there were hardly any pedestrians at this
time. Jett checked his watch as he made his way to the back of the
building where he had parked his BMW roadster. It was close to
midnight. So far his Enforcers on patrol hadn't called in with any
reports of rogue activity.

Jett kept walking at a steady
pace as he neared his car, but his hand was already under his jacket.
His lips curved, but there was no humor in his smile.

He stopped a few feet from his
car and smirked at his reflection in the dark side window. His eyes
narrowed just a fraction as his hand slid out from under his jacket.

A shadow lurched behind him.

Jett spun and released the
knife in his hand. The silver blade glinted as it flew straight into
the leg of a wolf. The wolf slammed to the ground with an agonized,
human cry. Its black fur was already receding from its body. In two
blinks, a convulsing naked man lay on the ground, the hilt of a knife
sticking out of his thigh. Jett had aimed the knife just an inch
away from the femoral artery.

It was just a warning. He
wasn't aiming to kill.

With a weary sigh, Jett turned
to face the other three werewolves which had slunk out of the shadows
and were stalking silently towards him. He heard a human laugh and
the largest of the three wolves shifted back to human form.

“
Jett Riley.” The
man gave him an ugly smile. “Remember me?”

Jett stared at the scar down
the side of his face, and the large birth mark over his left cheek.
He remembered the birth mark. The scar was new though. This was
Wesley Mack, Bobby Mack's kid.

The last time he saw him, the
guy was just a kid, a wolf cub.

“
Well, look at you.
You're all grown up now, Wesley,” Jett said.
And looking
too much like your old man.
Regrettably,
it looks like
you're following in his bloody footsteps too.

Wesley growled. “Yeah.
It's payback time, Jett. You're going to die tonight.”

Jett raised his brows.
“Yeah?”

“
Yeah. A life for a
life. You killed my Dad.”

Jett shook his head. “Bobby
Mack was a murderer. He killed many werewolves. You know that.”

“
He did what had to be
done. He did what was necessary for the pack!” Wesley
snarled.

“
Killing members of your
own pack was...necessary?”

“
Yes!” Wesley
spat. “Dad was the Alpha! If you challenge the Alpha, you get
killed. That's pack law.”

“
No, Wesley,” Jett
replied slowly and evenly. “There's only PAC law here in New
Moon City. And PAC law protects everyone. You may belong to a pack,
a pride, a coven, but no one is above the law. No one. An Alpha
cannot just massacre half his pack just because he felt threatened.”

“
Shut up, Jett! You're
not a were! You don't know how to run and control a pack!”

Jett smiled thinly.
Oh yes
I do. The law of the jungle applies in packs and gangs. And I have
been in
street
gang
s
since I was six.

Not many people knew of Jett's
colorful, checkered past. Jett was who he was, because of and in
spite of his past.

Wesley was advancing towards
him, canines elongating. Patches of black fur sprouted across his
naked back and chest.

“
We do things our way,
Jett Riley,” Wesley growled, his yellow eyes glowing. “You—do
not tell a wolf what to do. You are just a weak, sniveling little
human.” He laughed harshly. “Fancy that. A human is
telling us how to run things? You're not even a paranormal, and
you're making up paranormal law?”

“
I don't make up the
law,” Jett said with studied patience. “I only enforce
the law.”

Wesley sneered. Behind him,
the two wolves widened their jaws.

“
Wesley,” Jett
began, exhaling a long breath. “You're a good lad. You've got
a good future ahead of you. Do right by yourself, and by your
friends.” Jett jerked his head at the two wolves behind him
and at the young man on the ground, who was still whimpering and
clutching his wounded leg. “Don't destroy their lives. And
yours.”

Jett's advice to the young
werewolves was earnest, heartfelt. He had once been like them.

Young paranormals weren't too
different from human teenagers. They were impulsive, reckless, prone
to violence and mistakes. Jett had made his first mistake by running
away from the orphanage when he was five. By the time he was six, he
was in a street gang. He knew all about violence and brutality. He
knew what it was like to roam and run with predators. He had been
one of them. He had done things he wasn't proud of, things he
regretted. He had made so many mistakes.

He knew all about bravado and
bloodshed, pride and misplaced loyalties. Being in a gang gave him a
false sense of invulnerability and power. He knew how it felt to be
angry and scared all the time. You had to look strong and act tough.
And you showed your strength, your toughness, your might with
violence. Might was right. Only it wasn't.

Jett stood still with his arms
at his side, making no defensive or sudden gestures.

“
Help your friend up.”
Jett indicated the groaning young man at his feet. “And go.”

Wesley shifted into wolf form,
and glowered at Jett. Jett let the wolves circle him, and gave them
a final warning, “Go, Wesley. You are the son of your pack
Alpha. You can be a good leader, a good man.”

Jett waited, giving Wesley and
his friends the chance to walk away.

Looking into the yellow eyes
of these lost, angry young wolves, Jett gave a subtle shake of his
head.

Wesley Mack and his friends
looked like they were around seventeen or eighteen years old. Jett
had been about the same age when he was hauled off the streets. By
that time he had already risen through the ranks of the gang
hierarchy and was one of the big guns. He had loads of money, all
cash, all ill-gotten gains. He had an army of underlings. He had
power, money, women. He took what he wanted, did what he wanted.
But in just one night, his entire empire, his magnificent, elaborate,
bloody house of cards collapsed.

A tip-off was all it took.

The police raid brought his
criminal career and debauched lifestyle to a screaming, sobering end.

A big, gruff police inspector
with the face of a bulldog and the heart of a saint had hauled him up
and thrown him into the police academy instead of the slammer. The
tough-talking police inspector had given him a lifeline, a single
chance. If he got kicked out of the academy, he would be thrown
straight into jail.

Prison inmate, or police
cadet.

It was up to him.

Jett grabbed at that lifeline
with both hands and didn't let go. He had finally woken up. He
wouldn't allow himself to fall back into that dark, seedy existence.

He pulled himself together and
pulled himself up.

Up from the seamy underbelly
of the city and into the light.

He worked hard. He graduated
top of his class and for the next twelve years, he made his way up
the ranks of the New Moon City Police Force (NMPD). Jett had been on
both sides of the law and every day, every night, he walked the thin
strip of gray between good and evil.

Jett sighed heavily as he
stared down at the sobbing young man on the ground. The young
werewolf still had the silver blade buried in his leg. Yanking the
knife out would hurt. A lot. The silver would burn and sear his
flesh and skin. But the pain would pass and he would heal. If the
silver remained in his flesh, his body would be severely weakened and
his wound would never be able to heal around the silver blade.