The Kyriakis Redemption Read online

  The Kyriakis Redemption

  By

  Eve Vaughn

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.

  All trademarks, service marks, registered service marks are the property of their respective owners and are used herein for identification purposes only.

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  The Kyriakis Redemption

  Copyright © 2018 Eve Vaughn

  Electronic book publication January 2018

  With the exception of quotes used in reviews, this book may not be reproduced or used in whole or in part by any means without permission from the author, Eve Vaughn.

  WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be scanned, uploaded or distributed via the Internet or any other means electronic or print, without the author’s permission. Criminal copyright infringement without monetary gain is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in Federal Prison and a fine of $250,000. For more information regarding the government’s stance on copyright infringement visit: http://www.fbi.gov/ipr.

  Dedication

  To my readers, thank you so much for supporting me, and keeping me going. I hope you’ll enjoy reading this book as much as I’ve enjoyed writing it.

  Prologue

  Paris Kyriakis was a man on a mission and he would see it until the end. They told him to give up. But he’d never stop searching as long as there was a chance she was still out there. His sweet Anisa. He’d driven her away many years ago because he arrogantly refused to accept the innocent loved she’d offered him.

  He’d resented being forced to mate with someone he had never laid eyes on. After all, Paris had been young and capable of choosing his own mate. Besides, he had not been ready to settle down. His grandfather, however, who had been ready to step down as the Alpha of Pack Kyriakis had insisted on the union in order to strengthen the two already powerful packs against an enemy of all shifters.

  Paris wanted to sow his wild oats but after finding himself on the receiving end of a stern lecture from his grandfather, he’d reluctantly agreed to the match. Secretly, he had in mind how things would go with this unknown woman. She might join his pack and govern by his side as the Alpha female of Pack Kyriakis but he would continue to do as he pleased. He refused to let her disrupt his life in any way. Besides, the pack that his so-called mate hailed from was well known for its overbearing women.

  Paris had been determined to stick to this path of defiance even up to the night he came face to face with the woman who would be his mate. Upon seeing her pack, he had told himself that he was right in his assessment of them. The women were rude and arrogant. The males in Pack Nkrumah seemed to defer to the woman. Paris was aware that there were a few packs that were headed by women but he wasn’t being forced to mate with any of their women so he focused his ire on this one. But when the Alpha’s daughter was presented to him, he’d lost all ability to think. She was so unlike anything he’d expected.

  In addition to being known for their large personalities, the women of Pack Nkrumah were also renowned for their great beauty which Paris had at the time believed was exaggerated until he’d actually seen them. Yes, all the women from that pack who had journeyed to his family’s island were quite lovely but none of them could compare to Anisa. His intended.

  From the second Paris laid eyes on Anisa, she took his breath away. He couldn’t speak, think, or breathe. The tiny beauty was the epitome of a woman and she seemed to be formed especially for him. But the next thing he noticed was the lustful gazes of the other men from his pack and something inside of him snapped.

  Paris shuddered when he thought about what he’d done to her. Reliving that moment had been his penance for well over a century. He didn’t realize she was his everything until it was too late. Eventually, he had ended up with another mate who he was unable to give his heart to because of Anisa. The one positive thing out of that union had been his two pups. They’d given him meaning.

  And his hope was reborn in the form of a half-breed shifter who not only became his son’s mate but turned out to be his lost love’s daughter. Because of that hope, Paris had renewed his search even in the face of a powerful enemy threatening his family.

  He refused to rest until he found out what had happened to Anisa. Where was she? He could feel it in his soul that she was still alive, but how had she managed to stay away for so long? It occurred to him that someone very powerful could be hiding her, but who? Paris then realized that the one person who may be able to give him the answers he needed had been right under his nose the entire time.

  He paced the floor at the designated meeting place waiting for his contact to show. The longer he waited the more his impatience grew. Finally, he heard the sound of light footfalls on the ground.

  Taking a deep calming breath, he turned to face her. “Sarah, thank you for joining me out here.” Paris felt guilty for involving his son’s mate. In fact, Constantine would be furious if he learned of this clandestine meeting but Paris was desperate for answers.

  “You don’t have to thank me. I want answers just as much as you do. If there’s a chance my mother is still alive, I want to do whatever I can to help.”

  “My son won’t be too happy about this.”

  “I don’t like to keep anything from my mate, but Constantine has been very overprotective lately, what with the Hunters targeting me. He doesn’t want me to get involved in any of this because he’s afraid that I’ll somehow attract danger, like the last time I left the island.” Sarah shuddered as if the memory of it had overwhelmed her.

  “I’ve told you before, you’re like a daughter to me and I’d never place you in danger. All I require of you are answers.”

  She furrowed her brow in confusion. “Okay…but I’m not sure what answers I can provide. I told you everything I knew about my mother.”

  “You did, but you never told me anything about your father. Clearly, he was a human man because you only have the ability to shift during the full moon and not any other time like a full blood.”

  “I’m surprised you haven’t looked up my vital records like my birth certificate and such.”

  A smile curved Paris’s lips. “I’m way ahead of you, Sarah. I did. Roland Deveraux was your father’s name. It’s listed that he was thirty-five years old at the time of your birth. That was the age on the birth certificate for your mother as well.”

  Sarah shrugged. “So what’s the big deal about that?”

  “Well, at the time I didn’t think it was a big deal either. But you were born in a human hospital. Again that wouldn’t be a big deal for any other immortals, but shifter babies are born with a full body of fur. It’s shed within a few hours but it would be something that would cause alarm with most humans which is why we have our own secret facilities. A couple of things occurred to me. Anisa must have known that you would be half human so she would have a normal birth. But then I thought of the number thirty-five again. I sometimes forget that you’re new to our ways, Sarah. Thirty-five is when immortals stop aging. Your mother was significantly older than that, well over a century.”

  Sarah shook her head, her confusion evident. “Again, I’m not following. If she gave birth in a human hospital, it would make sense she’d give an age that wouldn’t raise eyebrows.”

  “But your father is listed as the same age. I thought maybe it was just a coincidence but I got to wondering. What if your father wasn’t human like I originally believed he was. So I did
a background check on Roland Deveraux, who hails from Baton Rouge. The locals had a lot to say about the Deveraux clan. They were believed to be devils worshippers of some sort. People said that there were witnesses to them practicing satanic rituals. I did some more digging and it turns out, that your father might have been human but his family was heavily connected to hunters.”

  Sarah gasped. “My father was a hunter?”

  “It’s possible. He was either a bound warlock or a human who practiced black magic. My guess is that he may have had some kind of connection with Gage and I can’t quite figure what that is yet and how your mother came to be with him but as I’m putting together the puzzle of what happened to your mother, your father is an enigma to me. That’s why I need you to tell me everything you remember about him.”

  Sarah scrunched her brows as if trying to gather important details. “I was five when my parents died, or at least when I thought they’d both died so a lot of my memories are hazy. My father was a very large man, dark eyes, and skin, even darker than mine. But I remember him being very handsome and he always wore a smile, especially when he looked at my mother. I was young but I felt the love that he had for her.”

  That last part made Paris wince, knowing that Anisa had allowed another man to love her. She must have loved him back because after all, she had borne his child. The proof was right in front of him. As much as he’d come to love Sarah as one of his own, it sometimes still hurt to look at her knowing that she should have been his pup. But perhaps things happened for a reason because he couldn’t begrudge his son the happiness he’d found with his mate.

  “Tell me more.”

  A brief smile touched her lips. “He used to pick me up and swing me around until I was dizzy. I loved him so much because when he was around I felt protected. I was young, but I do remember moving a lot. Sometimes it seemed like we’d be in a new place every other month. Daddy said it was for his job. I didn’t go to a regular school until after my parents died because my father taught me everything. Honestly, I never really made friends either except the one time my mother let me play with a couple of little girls next door.”

  “The oldest girl was roughly my age and her sister was practically a baby. I remember them because…it was nice being outside of the house and interacting with other kids. My dad would work and I would play with them but I’d have to be inside before he found out. My mom said not to mention them to my dad and I never understood why I couldn’t tell him. And one day I let it slip that baby Tara…yes, that was the little one’s name, that she said a full sentence. My dad was upset for some reason, he didn’t get angry or anything but he and my mother must have had a talk because I never played with them again. Dad later told me that…” Sarah broke off, furrowing her brows as if she was trying to remember the exact conversation.

  “Said what?” Paris prompted her.

  “That he and my mother were the only friends I needed. And honestly…until now I never thought about those girls again. It’s strange that I wouldn’t have been upset about not being able to play with my friends anymore but I just let it go. We moved shortly after that anyway.”

  “If I didn’t know your father was a human, I would think he put a spell on you or something.”

  “Do you think…?”

  “What Sarah?”

  “Do you think he practiced black magic? I mean you did say he may have had some connection to people who partook in it.”

  “I don’t know but it sounds like—”

  “Sarah!” Constantine yelled from the distance as he came storming toward them, his expression thunderous and face red.

  “Uh oh,” she muttered under her breath before turning around to face her angry mate. “Before you get upset, we’re just talking.”

  Constantine narrowed his gaze. “Perhaps you’ve forgotten that I have excellent hearing and caught the tail end of what the two of you were talking about.” He turned his glare toward Paris. “This was your idea, wasn’t it? I told you I didn’t want Sarah involved in any of this.”

  “Look, son, whether you like it or not Sarah may be the key to stopping Gage.”

  “Bullshit, you are using my mate to find the woman you ran off. You’re not about to endanger Sarah because of the mistakes you made.”

  Paris understood his son’s anger and even the protectiveness he felt toward his mate but he would not allow Constantine to disparage the work Paris was trying to do. “Watch your tone pup. I’m still your Alpha. I would never put your mate in danger but if she has information that can help us I’m going to ask. Yes, if there’s a chance Anisa is still out there, I’m going to use any and all of the resources in my arsenal to find her. But as it stands, her disappearance ties into everything that has happened to us lately, so I won’t apologize for doing what I must in order to get to the bottom of this.”

  Constantine looked as if he wanted to argue the point but Sarah placed her hand on her mate’s chest. “He’s right. Every clue that keeps turning up points back to her and I’m just as determined as your father to find her. If there’s even a sliver of a chance that she’s alive, then I’m going to help in any capacity that I can.”

  Constantine clutched Sarah by the forearms. “I can’t lose you, Sarah. I won’t.”

  “I’m not a delicate flower who can’t take care of herself. I may not be as skilled a fighter as you or the rest of your pack but I can hold my own.”

  “The Hunters want you for this newfound power of yours. It wouldn’t be safe for you to leave the island,” Constantine countered.

  “It doesn’t mean that I can’t provide information. Relax and let me do what I can to help.”

  Constantine shot his father a wary look. Paris understood where his son was coming from. He would do the same thing if it were his mate. Seeing his son with Sarah made Paris feel like he was intruding on a very intimate moment even though he had already been here. It was almost hard to believe that not too long ago, Constantine had fought tooth and nail against the idea of having a mate but now it was clear that the young shifter couldn’t live without Sarah. Just like his other pup Persephone who was now mated to a powerful Alpha from one of his allied packs. The cool hand of jealousy briefly twisted Paris’s heart at seeing how much in love Constantine and Sarah was but he quickly pushed that emotion away.

  Paris didn’t begrudge them their happiness besides, he only had himself to blame that he’d ruined his own chances with his mate by being an arrogant, unbending, tyrant. But now more than ever he was determined to find her and right the wrong he’d done so many years ago.

  But now that he’d gotten as much information from Sarah as he could, there was one more person he needed to interrogate: the shifter who went by the name, Pet.

  Chapter One

  Aries Kyriakis ran until his lungs burned. Circe was only seven square miles, so he’d run the length of it three times already. Usually, a good run cleared his head but this time around it did no good. He couldn’t shake the feeling that something wasn’t right. There was a storm coming and with the way things had been going lately, there was nothing he or anyone could do about it.

  And that ominous premonition he had warring within him had everything to do with the mysterious shifter who went only by the name of Pet. From the second she was brought to the island, a broken and battered wolf who couldn’t shift to her human form, he felt compelled to be near her. To make matters more confusing, since her arrival, he continued to have dreams of a mysterious woman with straight jet black hair that fell to her waist, bronzed skin, and big brown eyes. It was her eyes that he couldn’t forget. They were full of pain and sorrow.

  In his dream he would see her standing naked in a forest, her hair shielding her breasts. Though she didn’t speak, with her mouth, her eyes said everything she wanted to say. Help, they screamed out to him. And each time, he’d run to her only for her to disappear whenever he drew near. Aries would then wake in a cold sweat, with his heart beating erratically and the cold hand of dis
tress tightening around his heart. The anxiety and fear were real to the point where he didn’t want to go to sleep. It was why he continued to run.

  Fear was the long lost friend he’d bid farewell to when he was a pup. Not since the night when his parents died did he allow this emotion to enter his heart. Being over a century and a half years of age, Aries had conditioned himself to be strong in order to stand up in the face of adversity, to be a protector. He had to be as the second in command of his pack. When he wasn’t taking care of pack business and helping to run his Uncle Paris’s conglomerate, he went on missions with The Underground, a group of immortals that took out rogue threats. It was in his nature to fight for those who couldn’t do so for themselves.

  So this sense of hopelessness was foreign to him and he didn’t like it one bit. Who was this mysterious woman and how was he connected to that ball of fur, called Pet? He wanted answers but it made him wary to know the truth because deep down, he already knew the answer.

  She was his mate.

  There was an instant connection when he’d gazed upon her despite the pathetic figure she presented, followed by a feeling of helplessness. There was something wrong with her. She clearly couldn’t shift to her human form. He’d originally assumed it was Malum, but it was his cousin Persephone who’d pointed out that it couldn’t be the case or else Pet would have been feral by now. From what Persephone had gathered when she’d been in captivity along with the mysterious she-wolf, Pet had been in that state for much longer than most shifters would have been able to maintain their animal form without losing their grasp with reality. Clearly, there was something going on that no one could quite understand.

  Though Aries couldn’t stop thinking about Pet, he didn’t dare go to his Uncle’s home where she was being housed. Mainly because he didn’t want to care. Though shifters could form bonds with anyone they chose, settle down and even have pups, there was no bond like the one of a true mate. That connection was more powerful than the trite term of romantic love.