Fallen Prey: A Fallen Cross Legion Novel (The Fallen Cross Legion Book 1) Read online

  Fallen

  Prey

  Aliya DalRae

  Fallen Prey Copyright © 2019 by Aliya DalRae

  All rights reserved.

  First Edition, 2019

  This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, organizations, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, places, locations, events or establishments is purely coincidental.

  Cover Design by RM Designs

  Image Contributor: Wavebreakmedia from Depositphotos

  ISBN-13: 9781798472989

  Many thanks to Renee at RM Designs for yet another incredible cover design. I am forever grateful for the hard work and dedication you put into creating such beautiful covers for my books. Oh, and patience. You are a bottomless well of patience. Just saying!

  To my fabulous friends and family who have stuck by me through the entire Jessica Sweet journey, and now beyond – I am grateful for your support. I love you all so much!

  To my beta readers, Pamela & Cindy – Thank you for your input and advice! And to Sarah, your proof-reading skills once again have saved my skin. To all of you, I understand how valuable your time is, and I can’t tell you how much it means that you gave so much of it to the cause. I can’t even begin to thank you.

  And to Kirk, my immortal beloved, my heart, my joy.

  You are the shoulder I lean on, the rock that steadies me.

  You are my entire world.

  Table of Contents

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Chapter 49

  Chapter 50

  Chapter 51

  Chapter 52

  Chapter 53

  Chapter 54

  Chapter 55

  Chapter 56

  Chapter 57

  Chapter 58

  Chapter 59

  Chapter 60

  Chapter 61

  Chapter 62

  Chapter 63

  Chapter 64

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  Visit Aliya

  Also by Aliya DalRae

  The Owl & the Pussycat

  The Owl and the Pussy-Cat went to sea

  In a beautiful pea-green boat:

  They took some honey, and plenty of money

  Wrapped up in a five-pound note.

  The Owl looked up to the stars above,

  And sang to a small guitar,

  “O lovely Pussy, O Pussy, my love,

  What a beautiful Pussy you are,

  You are,

  You are!

  What a beautiful Pussy you are!”

  Pussy said to the Owl, “You elegant fowl,

  How charmingly sweet you sing!

  Oh! let us be married; too long we have tarried,

  But what shall we do for a ring?”

  They sailed away, for a year and a day,

  To the land where the bong-tree grows;

  And there in a wood a Piggy-wig stood,

  With a ring at the end of his nose,

  His nose,

  His nose,

  With a ring at the end of his nose.

  “Dear Pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling

  Your ring?” Said the Piggy, “I will.”

  So they took it away, and were married next day

  By the turkey who lives on the hill.

  They dined on mince and slices of quince,

  Which they ate with a runcible spoon;

  And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand,

  They danced by the light of the moon,

  The moon,

  The moon,

  They danced by the light of the moon.

  — by Edward Lear

  Prologue

  M axx watched the Sorcerer with a mixture of fascination and disgust. He didn’t have a lot of personal experience with the race, and what he’d heard wasn’t good. Still, when someone approached him regarding potential business opportunities, it never hurt to listen.

  In Ulrich Fuhrmann’s case, it was a demand disguised as an offer. Maxx, however, was no fool. The man expected him to fall in line, no questions asked, but that wasn’t how Maxx rolled. There would be questions, no doubt about it.

  Not that the offer wasn’t intriguing. Fuhrmann made it all sound so cloak and dagger. However, the idea of packing up his brood of feral Vampires and moving from the marvelous chaos of Chicago to a small town in Ohio? Maxx shuddered. It would mean abandoning his enterprises, and that wasn’t something he welcomed. He was one of the few real mobsters left in the city, at least in the old style. Most were either murdered or had gone legit, leaving the streets vulnerable to gangs and thugs. There was no honor in being a gangster anymore.

  Which made Fuhrmann’s proposition all the more tempting.

  Maxx leaned back in his chair and stretched his feet out on top of his desk. The Sorcerer had paused in his presentation, giving Maxx the floor.

  “So, let me get this straight. You want me to pack up a brood of more than fifty ferals, walk away from my business dealings here in the city, to do what? Chase down a cat Shifter? To what end?

  “And why would that take all of us? I’d be happy to send a couple of my best problem solvers to help you out of your situation, but you’re asking for a lot.”

  The Sorcerer, who had remained standing throughout their meeting, straightened his shoulders. His white hair lay trapped in a braid that fell down the length of his spine, though it seemed to Maxx as if the plait were trying to escape its bindings.

  Fuhrmann’s red eyes burned with some unexplained passion. “I’ve researched your enterprises, as you call them. It appears that business isn’t what it used to be. It seems to me that you are barely keeping your head above water. What I am offering you is enough to rebuild, anywhere you like. Here, New York, London. The world could be yours.”

  Fuhrmann paced the length of the desk and returned to his original place before Maxx. “The cat is only the beginning. I have plans that could ultimately ruin the Vampire Legion, leaving the territories open for new leadership. I thought you might be the man for that job. Perhaps I was mistaken.”

  Maxx was on his feet without making the conscious decision to rise. If what Fuhrmann said were true, it could change so many things. The Le
gion was the bane of his existence, always sticking their noses in where they didn’t belong. Ferals were under constant threat from those blueblood assholes, trying to force their Primeval laws on everyone.

  They were Vampires, for chrissakes. If they wanted to off some random human for the sake of a good meal, who was the Legion, the Primeval for that matter, to tell them they couldn’t? If not for their lame-ass laws and regulations, Vampires could be ruling the world. Instead they’d left the cattle in charge of the ranch, and how stupid was that?

  Still, the idea of one Sorcerer being able to deliver on this was questionable. Maxx hadn’t lived as long as he had, built the empire he held, by being naïve.

  “If what you say is true, you have my attention. So, Mr. Fuhrmann, convince me that you have the means to do what you suggest, to destroy the Legion, and we may be able to come to an agreement.”

  Fuhrmann smiled, exposing a set of pointy teeth that sent an icy rush through Maxx’s spine. “Let me sweeten the pot,” the Sorcerer said. “Are you familiar with a Vampire called Nox?”

  Maxx’s orange eyes widened and fire exploded inside him. That was a name he’d had stricken from the brood’s vocabulary. The penalty for speaking it was stiff enough that he didn’t worry about anyone under his charge disobeying that order. Unless, of course, they were telling him of the traitorous bastard’s death. That had yet to happen.

  “I see that you have.”

  Maxx took a deep breath, returned to his chair and forced himself to relax. Something about this whole situation had a ball of dread curling up in his gut, but the Sorcerer had done his homework. Mentioning Nox was all it took to make Maxx ignore the warning bells clanging in his head. He might live to regret this, but the man had his full attention.

  “Have a seat, Mr. Fuhrmann. We have much to discuss.”

  Chapter One

  T he growl was accidental, really.

  Harrier stood inside the Polar King, trying hard not to scowl, or worse, bare his fangs, as the kid behind the counter reviewed his order. Yeah, yeah, whatever, just get on with it. He felt like an idiot. Not that he didn’t mind a good burger now and again, but he wasn’t the “dine-in” type.

  However, when the twins said they wanted Polar King, his sister, Rachel, made sure they got Polar King. Or rather, that Harrier got them Polar King—the one fast food joint in the entire town that didn’t have a drive-thru. Harrier felt his brows pulling together again and his left eye had developed a twitch.

  The kid waiting on him wore one of those weird paper hats and it quivered on his head as he stammered out the total. As Harrier shoved a meaty paw into his pocket in search of exact change, a familiar scent—most definitely not hamburger—caught his attention. This was exactly why he preferred the drive-thru.

  “Whew! Sorry I’m late,” the female said as she laced her arm through his in an all too familiar way. “Did you order for me? No? That’s okay.” She turned her attention to the kid and said, “I’ll have a ten-piece nugget meal, upsize the fries and an extra-large Pepsi, full on leaded. Thanks!”

  The boy looked at Harrier for confirmation before ringing up the girl’s order. Harrier gave him the go-ahead nod, and the boy said, “Forty-seven fifty.” Harrier gave up on exact change, handed him a fifty and turned to the tiny little cat who still clung to him like a wayward dryer sheet.

  “Hello, Kitty.”

  Kythryn Flannigan, feline Shifter and conundrum extraordinaire, beamed up at him in that infuriating way she had. Nobody had a right to be as cute as all that, especially given the fact he’d had the displeasure of seeing her eat. Disgusting.

  They moved away from the counter to wait for their food, and Kitty released his arm. She elbowed him in the side, then stepped back and craned her neck up to look him in the eye. “Hey, Harrier. How’s it hanging?”

  Harrier narrowed his eyes at her, which only made her laugh, a mischievous sound that also had no place in polite society. Not that Harrier cared much about being polite himself.

  When her laughter died down, her face sobered and she shifted her gaze to the floor. “I never got a chance to thank you—any of you—for not, you know, killing me or my dad after what we did. That was real nice of you.”

  She was referring to their attacks on two members of the Legion household several months ago. Neither were actual Legion personnel, but since one was his sister, he understood why the cat was apologizing. Ancient history as for as he and the Legion were concerned, and his sister as well, but it appeared Kitty still bore some scars from the situation. Never mind it had all been perpetrated by that Sorcerer, Ulrich Fuhrmann. That bastard was still out there, and he wouldn’t enjoy the clemency the Legion was affording the Shifters.

  Kitty stood there in a pair of tight white shorts and a black t-shirt that had “Purrrrrfect” spelled out across the front in purple sparkly letters. Her dark hair hung over her eyes as she used the toe of her sneaker to dig at a sticky spot on the linoleum. While she looked as she always had to him, her attitude was now very un-Kitty-like.

  “Well,” he said, letting a bit of the Scottish accent he worked hard to hide bleed through, “had it been up to me, I’d have had ye over my knee and spanked yer ass ‘til ye were bloody.”

  Kitty snorted, which was exactly the response he’d hoped for. When she looked back at him, some of the shadows had left her eyes. “Thanks for that,” she said, as the boy brought a boatload of To-Go to the counter and called Harrier’s name.

  Harrier checked the bags then handed her one, along with a giant-sized bucket-o-cola. Her grin was a little on the ornery side this time, but he took it to mean that she would be okay. He gathered up the twins’ fast-food feast and headed for the door without another word.

  Once outside, it took some juggling to unlock his vehicle and arrange everything so it wouldn’t spill. He managed it, however, and was about to climb into the driver’s seat when he heard Kitty call out from across the lot. Her car door was open and she stood on the floorboard so she could see him over the top of the vehicle.

  “Would you really do that?” she asked. “Bend me over your knee and spank my ass?”

  “Of course,” he said. “You deserved that and more for taking Nox’s eye.”

  Kitty threw him a sly smile and shook her hair out of her eyes. “That is so hot. See ya later, Harrier. And thanks for dinner!”

  Harrier blinked twice and she was gone.

  Chapter Two

  K ythryn drove toward home happily munching chicken nuggets and thinking about a certain ginger Vampire. She laughed out loud, remembering the look on his face as she’d driven away. She knew how to be polite, really, she did, but some people were way too easy. And that Vampire had a serious flaw when it came to the ease with which he took offense. She simply couldn’t help herself.

  She pulled into her driveway, and let out a contented sigh. The house she shared with her father was lit up like an octogenarian’s birthday cake. She pictured Seamus lounging in his recliner, probably sleeping through another episode of whichever CSI he was currently binge watching on Netflix.

  Popping the last nugget into her mouth, Kythryn grabbed her drink and crawled out of her POS Ford, slamming the door shut with her foot. She had a bounce in her step, and she convinced herself it was due to having finagled a free meal out of that big, dumb Vampire. It had nothing at all to do with the way she tingled when he threatened her with a spanking. Not that she was into that kind of thing, but she hadn’t been lying when she told him it made her hot. His reaction was pure bonus.

  Kythryn shivered despite the warm August night. That Vampire was under her skin, no doubt about it.

  As she rounded the corner of the house, something slammed into her, knocked her to the ground and sent her pop flying in a spray of carbonated foam.

  “What the f...oomph!” A foot to her ribs—that was definitely a foot—took her breath away and brought tears to her eyes.

  “Grab her, you idiot!” The voice was male and gravelly, and
she didn’t need the extra boot to the middle to know it wasn’t friendly.

  Kythryn triggered the change. When the next kick came, it connected with a small black cat, sending her flying through the air in a tangle of t-shirt and silky panties. The guy must have put some force behind that one, because Kythryn landed about thirty yards away, at the edge of the forest.

  “What did you do?” the angry guy yelled. “Where the hell did she go?”

  Kythryn didn’t wait around to hear the other one’s response. She freed herself from her clothes and took off through the woods.

  “There! By the trees!”

  Kythryn zigged and zagged, tearing through the high foliage and putting as much space between her and them as she could get.

  Unfortunately, they were a lot faster than she expected, leading her to believe there must be something supernatural about them. As they closed in on her, she took to the trees. Her needle-sharp claws dug into thick bark as she scrambled up an enormous oak and headed for the highest branches. There, she sat in a precarious Y, still as a stone, and waited for the danger to pass.

  “I told you, we should have just killed her, but noooo. You wanted to play.” That was the first guy. The one with the gravelly voice.

  “How was I supposed to know she’d be able to get away like that?” Apparently, the guy with the steel-toed boots was a whiner. Kythryn’s ribs gave a hearty throb as they went about knitting themselves together.

  “She’s a Shifter, you idiot. That’s what they do. They shift. They’re shifty little shits. Fuck! Fuhrmann’s going to be pissed.”

  “To hell with Fuhrmann. Maxx is gonna kill us!”

  “Kill you, you idiot. This was your fault.”

  Kythryn didn’t know who Maxx was, but the name Fuhrmann sent chills down her spine and stood her hackles on end. That was the son of a bitch who had brainwashed her into attacking that poor Vampire, Nox, last February. She still had nightmares about it.