Savage (Rise of the Pride, Book 3) Read online

  Savage

  Rise of the Pride

  Book 3

  By

  Theresa Hissong

  Dedication:

  To Holly & Teresa:

  You believed in me when I didn’t even believe in myself.

  I will always love you, my friends.

  Thank you…

  License Notes

  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’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to the author, publisher, or retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  Disclaimer:

  This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to any person, living or dead is purely coincidental. The names of people, places, and/or things are all created from the author’s mind and are only used for entertainment.

  Due to the content, this book is recommended for adults 18 years and older.

  Smashwords Edition

  Copyright 2016 Theresa Hissong

  Cover Design:

  Custom eBook Covers

  Editing by:

  Heidi Ryan

  Amour the Line Editing

  Formatted by:

  Wayne Hissong

  For more information or how to contact Theresa Hissong, please visit:

  http://authortheresahissong.com

  www.facebook.com/authortheresahissong

  For exclusive sneak peeks at upcoming books…

  Join Theresa’s fan group on Facebook at:

  https://www.facebook.com/groups/1435907040005689

  Other Books by Theresa Hissong:

  Fatal Cross Live!

  Fatal Desires

  Fatal Temptations

  Warriors of the Krieger:

  Blood & Roses

  Blood at Stake

  Rise of the Pride:

  Talon

  Winter

  Book for Charity:

  Fully Loaded

  Memphis SWAT:

  It Takes Two

  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

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  About the Author

  Chapter One

  Savage stood on the gravel road that led to the mated cabins. There was a plot of land available for a cabin not far from Winter and Nova. He had no idea how he ended up standing there staring into the wooded lot, but something inside him demanded he start work on his own home. Could it be that it was just time to move out of the single Guardian’s dorm?

  The renovated barn had been his home for the past several years. His parents lived with his baby sister at the end of the road he was currently standing on. She was fifteen and his only sibling. He was too old to be living at home, and as a Guardian, he was expected to bond with his brothers. The barn-turned-dorm was not only a place to sleep, it was the place they regularly trained together.

  After one last look over his shoulder, Savage decided to tell Talon he wanted the little plot of land even if he wouldn’t need it for a while yet. Hell, he didn’t even have a mate. Why was he so interested in that spot? Savage snorted out a laugh as he pushed the long, dark hair out of his face. He had no idea why he was so interested in building his own place. It wasn’t like he was home much anyway. He worked a full week at the construction company, and then he usually found his way over to The Deuce to hang out so he could keep an eye on the alpha’s mate whenever Talon wasn’t available to be close to Liberty.

  Several cubs ran past him on their way back to their homes, some of the older ones darting into the wooded lot where he had just been standing. There were paths all around the land leading to a maze of destinations. Most were nothing more than well-worn paths made by the panthers as they hunted and prowled after their shift. Others were graveled roads for cars to travel to each cabin.

  As Savage crossed the yard behind the alpha’s home, he heard grunts and yelps coming from the single Guardians’ dorm. The furthest end of the barn had been made into a gym of sorts. Inside, there was equipment and a huge space with padded floors for sparring.

  A mischievous smirk raised his lip into an odd version of a smile. He needed to work off some of this anxiety or whatever the hell it was that had been eating at him. As he entered the makeshift gym, Winter and Dane were circling each other. Neither man was wearing boxing gloves. That was evident by the blood dripping from each man’s lips and nose. Maybe he’d stand back and watch the shitstorm those two were brewing.

  “What’s going on?” Savage asked, stepping up to Noah’s side. The alpha’s brother was leaning against the wall, looking bored.

  “Dane’s mouth got him an ass kicking,” Noah chuckled. “Guess he still likes to tease Winter about the time he was able to touch his mate.”

  “Dumbass,” Savage grunted.

  “Exactly.” Noah nodded. “Want in on that?”

  “Nah,” he replied, cringing when Winter’s fist made contact with Dane’s jaw. “I think Winter has it handled.”

  “Winter Blue!” Nova snarled from the door. No one had heard her approach, not even her mate. The little female was full of fire and her sparking amber eyes narrowed as she took in the blood splattered on each man’s bare chest.

  “Not now, Nova,” Winter growled, not taking his eyes off of his opponent. Dane took a swing and cursed when Winter ducked and caught him around the waist. Both men fell to the mat in a tangle of arms, legs, and flying fists.

  “Would you stop them, please?” Nova yelled, eyeing Savage as if he was the answer to this mess.

  “No,” Savage answered, raising a brow. “Not my problem.”

  “It’s going to be your problem if you don’t stop them, Savage,” she warned, fisting her hands at her sides.

  “Why me?” he groaned, rolling his eyes. “I don’t think they want me in on their…disagreement.”

  “What the hell are they fighting about now?” she asked, propping a hand on her hip. The mate to the alpha’s second in command may be a little thing, but she was tough as nails.

  “You,” Noah chuckled, but stood up straight when Nova’s hard stare pinned him in place.

  “Fine!” she cursed. “I’ll stop them.”

  “Fuck,” Savage said, pushing away from the wall. He slipped between Nova and the two fighting males. If Nova had been accidentally touched by Dane, Winter would kill him for sure. Savage had no doubt about that. It was one thing when Dane could touch her before she mated Winter, but now that they were, the fact that Dane’s touch would cause the female pain would send her mate over the edge if she cried out from a male’s touch that wasn’t Winter’s.

  “Woman,” Winter snarled as he climbed to his feet. Thankfully, both men saw Nova attempt to move toward them and separated before Savage had to break them apart. Dane moved away the farthest to ensure that Nova was safe. “You do not step between two males when they are fighting.”

  “It stopped you two once,” she smirked. “It’ll stop you…eep!”

  Savage smiled when Winter’s shoulder hit Nova in the stomach and he fli
pped her over his shoulder. “Time to go home. We need to have a talk.”

  “Put me down!”

  Smack!

  The door closed on any other words they exchanged. Savage laughed as the two of them left for their cabin and Winter was rubbing the spot on his mate’s ass he’d just spanked. Maybe it wasn’t a great idea to be living next door to those two because they couldn’t keep their hands off of each other. He’d probably never get any sleep.

  Slapping Noah on the shoulder, Savage shook his head and left the building, heading for his truck. He needed to get over to The Deuce to keep an eye on the alpha’s mate. He wouldn’t admit to himself that he was also showing up unexpected so he could watch over Mary Grace as she worked. The waitress was starting to take up just about every thought in his head and more than once had showed up in his dreams.

  The sun was dropping lower on the horizon as he pulled out of the pride’s land, turning for the bar. Driving over didn’t take but a few minutes and he parked at the end of the building, backing his truck into the spot he frequently used. His boots crunched on the gravel parking lot as he approached the door; a steady thudding sound coming from inside the bar reached his ears. He tilted his head sideways, trying to make out exactly what that sound was. As he opened the door, Liberty Shaw was standing on a stepstool, hammering a sign into a thick, exposed wooden beam just inside the small foyer of the bar. His pregnant charge wasn’t letting her being with young stop her from getting around.

  “What is that?” he asked, shoving his hands into his pockets. He didn’t make a move to tell her to get down. He’d learned that the alpha’s mate got a little testy when told she wasn’t allowed to do something.

  “It’s a sign,” she growled, hammering the last nail into the wall. “I’m tired of people coming in here and messing with my panthers.”

  Savage laughed when he saw the round logo she’d had made. A silhouette of the head of a black panther sat in front of a hand of cards. The bar’s name was there, surrounding the logo. What made him smile was the warning…

  Panthers Play Here

  “Nice.” He nodded, waiting for Liberty to come down from her perch. “I’ll take this.”

  “Thank you, Savage.” She smiled and allowed him to return the stepstool to the back room where she kept all of the extra supplies for the bar.

  He stopped by the employee breakroom and was disappointed to see that Mary Grace was nowhere to be found. He only knew she was scheduled to work that night because he was guilty of taking a peek at her work schedule one night when he was in Liberty’s office talking to Talon about pride business.

  He found his way back to the bar, taking a seat on a stool on the end. He ordered a beer and some food while he waited on Mary Grace to arrive. Liberty smiled warmly at him as she placed his steak in front of him. “She’ll be here soon.”

  Savage just grunted and dug into his food, ignoring the alpha’s mate. When his beer was empty, another one was set in front of him. With his healing abilities, it took a lot to get a shifter drunk and he wasn’t going to test those limits tonight. He had a job to do keeping a watch over the bar.

  The door swung open wide and Savage’s attention immediately zoned in on the local sheriff as he sauntered in, his eyes narrowing on Savage. The Guardian didn’t like the human, but he also didn’t hate him, either. There was something about Sheriff Garrett Lynch that made the hair on the back of his neck prickle with warning.

  “You’re the only Guardian I could find,” Sheriff Lynch grunted, taking a seat to Savage’s right. The man was tall, his black hair cut to military precision. “Where the hell is Talon?”

  “He’s busy,” Liberty said rather quickly as she wiped down the bar top. Savage could tell she was keeping something from the lawman, but he didn’t press her as to what his alpha was doing. Obviously, he was away from the phone for a good reason.

  “Savage,” the sheriff began, but paused as he looked around the bar. Patrons were eating, some laughing and cutting up with each other, and a few were staring at them as if they were waiting on him to shift and rip out all of their throats. “Can we talk in private?”

  “You can go back to my office,” Liberty offered. “I’m not using it right now.”

  Savage kept his eye on the alpha’s mate as she sauntered into the kitchen. He led the sheriff down the hallway, past the bathrooms and small employee lounge, and stopped in front of the office door, pushing it open wide.

  “What’s this about?” Savage asked, crossing his arms over his chest and resting his ass against the desk once the sheriff closed and locked the door.

  “Had a weird encounter with a guy in a lab coat today,” he explained, his brows furrowed in thought.

  “That’s not something I would be telling people,” Savage stated, just the corner of his lip lifted in a smirk.

  “Let me finish,” Sheriff Lynch barked.

  “Go ahead,” Savage replied, holding his hands up in defense.

  “I pulled over an out-of-state vehicle,” he said. “The driver was a male and he wore a lab coat. He claimed he was lost.”

  “What does this have to do with us?” Savage asked, hoping the lawman would hurry the hell up with whatever it was he had to say.

  “He was driving slowly by the pride’s land, looking up toward the house.” Sheriff Lynch sighed. “Savage…I ran his information. He was a scientist with a lab out of Nashville.”

  “Shit,” he growled, knowing their fears may have just come true. They’d been warned by others in their world that the humans might want to study them. Savage had a damn good feeling they weren’t going to ask nicely when that time came, and from the look on the sheriff’s face, that time may be coming sooner than they ever expected.

  “I ran his information twice,” he answered. “No priors. No tickets. He was clean as a whistle, but I noticed the badge on his coat and made a mental note to look up the name of the place.”

  “What’s the name of the place he works at?” Savage’s hands twitched at his side. His panther snarled in his head so loudly, he almost didn’t hear what the sheriff had to say.

  “Rycon Institute,” Sheriff Lynch answered. “They are a medical research lab. There is no information on the internet about who is funding the place, either. I checked.”

  “Son of a bitch,” Savage snarled.

  “You do have that new fence monitored, don’t you?” The sheriff walked over to the window and looked out toward the back of the building. “I’ll do a patrol by your land a few times a night and have my other officers do the same on their shifts.”

  “We can take care of our own, Sheriff,” Savage grunted. The last thing they needed was the law on their doorstep. It wouldn’t work well for the pride.

  “Has anyone seen the guy who attacked Nova?” the sheriff asked, turning around as he lifted his eyebrow in question.

  “Nope,” Savage replied, not showing any fear. As a predator, the panthers were very good at camouflaging their emotions. “He probably ran home to his mama.”

  Little did the sheriff know that his brother and Nova’s mate, Winter Blue, had taken care of Perry the way shifters took care of a threat. The werewolf was no longer a concern.

  “Call me if you have any suspicious activity around your property,” Sheriff Lynch stated as he walked over and unlocked the office door.

  Savage wasn’t worried about anyone getting on the pride’s land. Ranger, Noah, and Booth were now in charge of security at home. Some of the pride’s males were tasked with keeping watch over the land as additional help to the Guardians since the wolves had easily found their females. “Will do, Sheriff.”

  After the sheriff left the office, Savage made sure he was long gone before putting the phone to his ear and placing a call he didn’t want to make.

  “Talon…we have a problem,” he snarled.

  “What is it?” Talon asked. Savage replayed the conversation with the sheriff and growled along with his alpha.

  “I honestly th
ink things are about to get worse for us,” Savage stated.

  “The fence is complete and the monitors are live,” Talon began. “I need you to keep an eye on my mate until I can get there.”

  “No one will touch her,” he promised, leaving the office so he could get back to his perch at the end of the bar. Liberty was just as important as Talon, and the Guardians would forfeit their lives to save the alpha’s mate and their unborn child.

  “I’ll be at the bar within the hour,” Talon said. “I’ll have all of the Guardians meet me there so you can inform everyone of what the sheriff told you.”

  Liberty raised a questioning brow as he found his way back out to his seat. He didn’t want to worry the alpha’s mate, so he just shook his head, silently telling her it wasn’t all that important. He’d let Talon be the one to speak to his mate.

  Savage’s head swung toward the door when the scent of wildflowers crossed his senses. Mary Grace walked through the door, the afternoon sun shining behind her like a spotlight. Her long, blonde hair fell in ringlets over her shoulders. She wore a pair of tight denim jeans and the work shirt that displayed the bar’s name. Her sapphire eyes sparkled when she smiled at Liberty, who was wiping down one of the tables by the door. Savage’s panther sat up in his mind, clawing its way to the surface. There was no doubt that they both had an interest in the waitress. Mary Grace was absolutely beautiful.

  He frowned when she pulled at her shirt, covering her voluptuous hips. Jesus, how could she not realize how stunning she actually was? She was tall, but not even close to being as tall as Savage. Her waist was small, her breasts large, and her hips flared out to make the perfect hourglass shape. Savage had to swallow to keep from drooling all over himself when she was near.