Authors: Lora Leigh
Dawn’s Awakening
Dawn's Awakening
Lora Leigh
“LEIGH DRAWS READERS IN TO HER STORIES AND
TAKES THEM ON A SENSUAL ROLLER COASTER.”
*
Praise for
HARMONY’S WAY
“Leigh’s engrossing alternate reality combines spicy sensuality, romantic passion and deadly danger. Hot stuff indeed.”
—Romantic Times
“I stand in awe of Ms. Leigh’s ability to bring to life these wonderful characters as they slowly weave their way into my mind and heart. When it comes to this genre, Lora Leigh is the queen.”
—Romance Junkies
Praise for
MEGAN’S MARK
“A riveting tale full of love, intrigue and every woman’s fantasy, Megan’s Mark is a wonderful contribution to Lora Leigh’s Breeds series…As always, Lora Leigh delivers on all counts; Megan’s Mark will certainly not disappoint her many fans!”
—Romance Reviews Today
“Hot, hot, hot—the sex and the setting…You can practically see the steam rising off the pages.”
—Fresh Fiction
“A fast-paced romantic suspense that will have readers hungering for more. Like all the wonderfully erotic and exciting books in Leigh’s Breeds series, Megan’s Mark has at its core characters that you just want to sink your teeth into…Powerful, passionate and explosive.”
—
*
Love Romances
“This entertaining romantic science fiction suspense will remind the audience of Kitty and the Midnight Hour by Carrie Vaughn and MaryJanice Davidson’s Derik’s Bane as this futuristic world filled with ‘Breeds’ seems ‘normal’…[a] delightful thriller.”
—The Best Reviews
“The dialogue is quick, the action is fast and the sex is oh so hot…Don’t miss out on this one.”
—A Romance Review
“Leigh’s action-packed Breeds series makes a refreshing change…rapid-fire plot development and sex steamy enough to peel wallpaper.”
—Monsters and Critics
“An exceedingly sexy and sizzling new series to enjoy. Hot sex, snappy dialogue and kick-butt action add up to outstanding entertainment.”
—Romantic Times
Berkley Sensation titles by Lora Leigh
DAWN’S AWAKENING
TANNER’S SCHEME
HARMONY’S WAY
MEGAN’S MARK
Berkley Heat titles by Lora Leigh
NAUTI NIGHTS
NAUTI BOY
Anthologies
HOT SPELL
(with Emma Holly, Shiloh Walker, and Meljean Brook)
DAWN’S AWAKENING
LORA LEIGH
THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Group (USA) Inc. 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA
Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) Penguin Books Ltd., 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England Penguin Group Ireland, 25 St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd.) Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty. Ltd.) Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd., 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi—110 017, India Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, North Shore 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd.) Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty.) Ltd., 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa
Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
DAWN’S AWAKENING
A Berkley Sensation Book / published by arrangement with the author
Copyright © 2008 by Lora Leigh.
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
For information, address: The Berkley Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.
ISBN: 1-4295-9494-2
BERKLEY
®
SENSATION
Berkley Sensation Books are published by The Berkley Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,
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BERKLEY SENSATION and the “B” design are trademarks belonging to Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
DAWN’S AWAKENING
CONTENTS
FOREWORD
They were created, they weren’t born.
They were trained, they weren’t raised.
They were taught to kill, and now they’ll use their training to ensure their freedom.
They are Breeds. Genetically altered with the DNA of the predators of the earth. The wolf, the lion, the cougar, the Bengal; the killers of the world. They were to be the army of a fanatical society intent on building its own personal army.
Until the world learned of their existence. Until the council lost control of their creations, and their creations began to change the world.
Now they’re loose. Banding together, creating their own communities, their own society and their own safety, and fighting to hide the one secret that could see them destroyed.
The secret of mating heat. The chemical, biological, the emotional reaction of one Breed to the man or woman meant to be his or hers forever. A reaction that binds physically. A reaction that alters more than just the physical responses, heightening the sensuality. Nature has turned mating heat into the Breeds’ Achilles’ heel. It’s their strength, and yet their weakness. And Mother Nature isn’t finished playing yet.
Man has attempted to mess with Her creations. Now She’s going to show Man exactly how She can refine them.
Her males are strong. They bend, they never break. They are the pinnacle of strength from birth. Built to fight, to survive, to protect.
To protect their females, be they lovers, mates or sisters. And it is their sisters who suffered far more than they. Females created by men as objects, as little more than tools to kill, and to satisfy their own craven, horrific lusts. And it is these females who suffer the most enduring pain. The females who must, now that freedom has been attained, rise above the nightmares to become mates.
Mother Nature will accept nothing less. And their hearts flow with the blood of the greatest creatures on earth: the female, the Amazon, the lioness, the cougar, the giver of life, the caretakers and the hunters. It is these females who must now face the nightmares, the fears and the burning memories of pain to find the life Mother Nature intended for them all along.
Man created them. But God has adopted them. And now Mother Nature will see to their ultimate survival.
PROLOGUE
BREED SANCTUARY
BUFFALO GAP, VIRGINIA
TEN YEARS AGO
Seth Lawrence stepped into the office the Breed Enforcer directed him to and stared back at the Breeds gathered together. He knew them, not well, but well enough. He backed them, his companies supported them. His father would have betrayed them all as well as the sister that now lived among them. The sister Seth had never known he had, but loved anyway.
Callan Lyons, pride leader. He stood by the window, the late evening sunlight spearing through the heavy mane of hair that fell to his shoulders and cast his expression in shadow.
Beside him was Seth’s brother-in-law, Taber Williams, who watched him with quiet anguish, a look in his eyes that had Seth tensing, preparing for the worst.
Kane Tyler, brother-in-law to Callan Lyons and Sanctuary’s head of security, was resigned, somber. And Jonas Wyatt, the arrogant, forceful enforcer who had been steadily moving up the ranks of Security, stood at a scarred desk.
“Is she okay?” Seth asked the question, his voice gruff, fear squeezing his heart.
She was Dawn. Dawn Daniels, the little Cougar Breed female that he couldn’t get out of his mind, that he couldn’t forget. She had been wounded when Seth’s chauffeur had attempted to kidnap a Breed child, Cassie Walker, and Seth’s half sister, Roni, months ago.
She was too tiny, too delicate to be as reckless and fearless as she was in battle. To be so haunted when touched by a man.
In the few glimpses he had managed of her in the past months, she had looked haunted. And Seth wanted nothing more than to wipe those dark shadows from her eyes.
“She’s fine, Seth,” Kane answered after glancing at the others, his ice blue eyes flickering in indecision.
“Then why am I here?” He crossed his arms over his chest and stared them down. If they had brought him here to warn him away from Dawn, then they were wasting their time.
Nothing, no one, could change the course he had set for himself. In all his life no one had belonged to him. He hadn’t loved anyone since his mother’s death, until Dawn.