Once Forgotten Twice Loved
Read Once Forgotten Twice Loved Online
Authors: Bryce Evans
Once Forgotten Twice Loved
The Love of a Shifter [1]
Bryce Evans
Ashland Peters is a Detective with the New York Police Department. She is sent to a training class at the Meadowland Lodge in Colorado where her childhood friend Werewolf Nash Porters lives and works along with his pack. They’ve been friends since they were six years old and sent to the same orphanage. When they were old enough to leave on their own, Nash received what he had wanted his whole life and Ashland went to follow a dream. Separated for years by distance they finally get the chance to see each when she is sent to the Colorado for training.
Once Ash arrives, she meets sexy werewolf Alpha Larken Wilder who owns the Meadowland Lodge. From the moment Larken sees Ash, he knows she is his mate. However, problems seem to follow Ash and it turns out no different in Colorado, when the Sheriff has a problem with his brother’s mate. It’s the Alpha’s only chance for happiness, but Ash doesn’t know if she is right for the man, she doesn’t want to come between him and his brother.
When young girls are kidnapped from the neighboring packs, Ash’s help is needed. Ash finds herself working with not one Alpha but with a team of them, if they are to save the young girls from a Rogue wolf and his pack. As they solve the mystery, Ash finds answers to questions she’s had her whole life.
Once Forgotten Twice Loved
The Love of a Shifter
Book One
Author: Bryce Evans
Editor: Caroline Kirby
Artwork by JK Publishing INC
Published by JK Publishing INC
This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this book and did not purchase it or it was not purchased for your use only, then, please return to Smashwords.com, and purchase your own copy.
Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, organizations, events or locales are entirely coincidental.
© Copyright March 2013 JK Publishing INC
All cover art and logo © Copyright 2013 by JK Publishing INC
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.
JK Publishing website:
www.jkpublishingbooks.com
JK Publishing bookstore:
www.shop.jkpublishingbooks.com
Dedication
This book would not have been possible had one unique woman not opened the door for me. Jana Leigh opened the door to a passion, which I had been hiding inside myself. Thanks Jana, for the chance to pull the stories out and place the pen to paper.
I would also like to acknowledge my fans who gave me the great reviews on my first book and even the ones who gave me not so great reviews, because without you I wouldn't have dug a little deeper and improved. A new friend of mine told me to not take what they say to heart but listen to what they are saying and if changes need to be made then make them. If not then keep on writing. Thanks Frederique.
Thanks to the love of my life, John, for making me a place to write and even taking up the slack when I was writing. You helped to make my dream come true. It may be a small table in the corner, but it’s my corner of make believe, where dreams do come true. I can't forget about my beautiful kids who drive me crazy but whom I love more than anything.
I hope you like this book as much as I loved dreaming up the characters. Please look me up and drop me a line at [email protected]
Bryce Evans
Table of Contents
~
Prologue
~
Books Available from Bryce Evans
~
Excerpt from The Perfect Reflection
Prologue
“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!”
Chapter One
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.”
Ash watched as Captain Jackson got up and walked back to his office. She liked her Captain. He had mentored her since she left the police academy ten years ago. She was the youngest police officer at the New York Police Department and the youngest cop to become a detective. She was nineteen years old when she became a cop.
Captain Jackson was an instructor at the Police Academy when she went through. He was more than her Captain; he was more like a father to her. He gave her advice on what classes she needed to take to further her career and who to watch out for in the Police Department. She would eat dinner with him and his wife, Janie, every Sunday afternoon. He knew Ash was different but that never stopped him from trying to watch out for her. He knew about Ash’s background and knew she acted tough to keep people away from her heart. However, Ash couldn’t act like that with Janie and him. They wouldn’t let Ash close up on them and keep them at a distance. They made sure she was sitting at their table for Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter. The Jackson’s treated her like family. Captain Jackson and his wife, Janie, held a special place in Ash’s heart.
Ash looked at the clock, seeing that she didn’t have a lot of time left before her flight took off. She grabbed her computer bag and ran out of the office, rushing to get home and finish packing.
***
Ash sat on the plane, looking out the window, thinking about Nash. She leaned her chair back trying to remember when she first met him. Nash had been her friend since they were six years old. They were best friends while they were in the orphanage. Neither one of them had parents nor any family. Ash treated Nash like a little brother. She knew that Nash was special, too. He was a werewolf, but she didn’t care. Ash loved Nash as her family. They stayed in the orphanage until they were both sixteen years old, and then they had run away together. Ash couldn’t stop the bad memories as they flooded her mind as she remembered all the terrible beatings.
Ash told Nash she wasn't going to take the beatings any more so she asked Nash if he wanted to run away with her. They had spoken about leaving before, but now Nash could tell Ash was breaking up inside. The beatings were becoming more frequent, so Nash immediately agreed to leave with Ash, telling Ash that she was his family, and if she left, then he would leave too. Ash knew that Nash would run away with her, but she didn’t want to assume anything, and she always wanted Nash to have a choice. Nobody ever asked her opinion or gave her a choice on anything in the orphanage.
They ran away from the orphanage one night after Ash was beaten because she didn’t want to eat the beans they put on her plate. She said they weren’t cooked all the way. They beat her for giving her opinion on the food, telling her she should be grateful for receiving anything to eat since she was a ward of the state. They always treated the kids like pieces of shit. Ash was different, and the older she got, the more they noticed the changes in her. She was also filling out faster than most girls were at her age. Ash knew it was only a matter of time before something happened. The security guards or male caretakers always made comments about her breasts and how much they’d like to see them. They made Ash nervous when they were around.
They ran away together with only the clothes on their backs. Ash always found ways to get them food or a place to live. She knew how to find people that could help them disappear. She had found someone to get them both a different identity. They planned to use a different identity until they turned eighteen, and then they would go back to their original names because they would no longer be wards of the state.