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  www.evernightpublishing.com

  Copyright© 2018 Elena Kincaid, Maia Dylan, and Sarah Marsh

  ISBN: 978-1-77339-587-6

  Cover Artist: Jay Aheer

  Editor: Karyn White

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.

  This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, and places are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  DEDICATION

  We would like to dedicate this book to Evernight, our amazing publisher. Thank you to Stacey for letting us be a part of the Evernight family. To Sandra, who is always there for us and guides us. To Jay, there are too many adjectives to describe how amazing your covers are. And to the entire staff and our fellow Evernight authors.

  We would also like to thank our wonderful readers for voting our Beyond the Veil series as one of your favorites in the 2017 Evernight Readers’ Choice awards. Your continued support and enjoyment of our work means the world to us.

  FIGHTING FAETE

  Beyond the Veil, 5

  Elena Kincaid, Maia Dylan, and Sarah Marsh

  Copyright © 2018

  Chapter One

  Katrina Faraday saw the punch coming. She had a split second to decide. Step into her opponent and take the hit, knowing she would then be close enough to use her smaller frame and speed to better advantage, or dodge the impact completely. Considering how many opponents the big bastard of a bear shifter she was facing had dropped with one hit, she figured the latter would serve her better.

  Using her cougar’s enhanced balance and agility, she threw herself backwards, bending like a reed in a storm. The move allowed her to watch as the brute’s fist swung over the top of her body. From the speed it was moving she knew she’d made the right choice. Straightening as fast as she could, using every bit of her preternatural speed, she threw her elbow toward his chin. Her momentum gave the move some added weight behind it.

  Pain slammed through her arm upon impact, and she reveled in the bear shifter’s answering roar of pain. She leapt out of the way of his wild retaliation swings. Shouts of approval came from the people crammed into the old warehouse watching the blood sports taking place in the caged arena in which she stood. She was the underdog in this match, so she figured those who were cheering had bet she’d make it at least six rounds before being knocked out … or worse.

  Katrina grinned when she saw her opponent spit blood on the dirt floor. “Oh, looks like I caught you a good one, huh?”

  The shifter glared at her, and she could scent how close his bear was to the surface. “Everyone gets lucky once in a while, bitch, and I guess now was your moment. But this match will end like every other one I’ve fought. With me holding your body above my head, moments before I drop you across my knee. I will snap your fucking back and leave you to heal with the help of the men in the crowd who are all sporting hard-ons because of you.”

  Katrina didn’t react to the taunt. She just shuffled to the left, light on her feet, moving with him as he tried to circle her. When she’d been born, her parents had high hopes for her as a healer for her pard. It made sense since they both came from a long line of healers and passive cougars. However, as soon as Kat could talk, and make her own preferences known, they thought perhaps healing wasn’t the vocation for her. Then, when they met her cougar, it became crystal clear that their little kitten didn’t have a submissive bone in her body. Katrina was as dominant as they came, save for the exception of an Alpha.

  Her opponent charged her with a roar, and Katrina leaped into the air. She used the supple, flexible spine of her feline kind to turn in midair and drove her fist into the back of the man’s neck. She’d hoped to snap it, perhaps giving him an injury that would give him hours of recovery time, but she had no such luck. The fucker had to have the largest, thickest neck she had ever seen on a man. All she got for the move was a grunt from him and a fucking sore hand.

  Landing lithely in a crouch on the opposite side of the cage, she hissed at the sharp pain that flared in her side. She and big bear had been going at each other for a few rounds now, and he had definitely scored a few hits. But as she’d been protecting her head, the fucker had tagged her ribs a couple of times.

  The bear grinned at her when he saw it. “Looks like I scored a couple good ones on you, too, didn’t I, kitty? Seems a shame to bruise that hot, fuckable body of yours, but I got expensive tastes. The five grand on this match will keep me in booze and whores for at least a month.”

  Closing her mind off to the pain, something she had learned from her Alpha Braxas, she sent him a sardonic smile. “Wait, you mean a man like you, with all of this,” she waved her hands up and down in front of him, “going on, still has to pay for a woman to spend time with him? What is the damn world coming to?”

  The man’s eyes narrowed, and she knew he would make a final run at her. This time, he wouldn’t lead with his fist, and he certainly wouldn’t charge her with his head down. Nope, this time he would come at her head on, and she figured it was going to hurt.

  The bear roared again, the sound of it echoing around the arena and stirring the crowd into a frenzy. Then he confused the hell out of her by walking calmly over to her. She thought perhaps he would spar, so she threw her arms up to block and fire a few jabs in his direction, but once again she was wrong. He simply took the three jabs she threw and then wrapped his arms around her.

  She cursed when she figured out his game too late. With the amount of strength he had, given enough time, he could crush her internal organs, break her ribs, and potentially her spine. Healing from that might prove difficult. She had to act fast. Reaching up with her hands—even as she felt something give on her right side—she dug both her thumbs into his eyes. She didn’t stop when warmth flooded over her fingertips and the coppery scent of blood hit the air.

  “Fuck!” the bear shouted, and the dumb shit kept going.

  Gritting her teeth, she maintained her grip and pushed harder. When something gave way beneath her thumb, the bear cried out and dropped her. Making the most of her advantage and her grip on his head, she slammed her forehead into his. She shook her head to clear the fog that settled in and was relieved to see that the move had dropped the big fucker to his knees.

  Now, he was exactly where she needed him. Dropping her hands, she took a step back, then spun, moving quickly, swinging her right leg as she turned and delivered a perfect roundhouse kick to his temple. It was a mix of her speed, strength, training, and the reinforced heel on her boots that had the big bastard dropping unconscious to the floor.

  The arena was silent for a moment and Katrina thought the only sound she could hear was her own breathing, but then there was a roar of approval. Fighting to stay upright and not show anyone how injured she was, she walked out of the ring, head held high. She walked past the next fighters and headed straight for the lockers. The sooner she got to talk to the fucker she had traveled here to see, the better.

  Katrina groaned as she pressed an ice pack to her throbbing forehead and laid her swollen left hand on a bed of ice. Her shifter abilities would take care of it eventually, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t in pain. Just then, the sound of Star Wars light sabers battling sounded, and she sighed. That was the ringtone she had assigned to her Alpha. Deciding to pull off the Band-Aid this time, she reached for her phone and connected the call.

  “Where are you?” Braxas practica
lly growled down the phone.

  “And hello to you, too, Alpha mine,” Kat replied with a hint of sass as she slumped back against the wall.

  Braxas growled, and Kat could hear his cat in the sound. “I would have said hello if you’d answered your fucking cell phone the first three hundred times I called!”

  Kat rolled her eyes. “Braxas, you’ve called a total of fifteen times.”

  “I’m finding myself to be uncharacteristically impatient with you as of late, so fifteen equates to three hundred,” Braxas snapped back. “Now where the hell are you? You’ve been gone too long.”

  “I told you, I needed to—”

  “No, Kat,” Braxas interrupted, “this is not about you getting your head clear. I accepted that for a few days, but it’s been almost a month since we fought Nyx and Zayden and their Rogues. Your head is as clear as it will get.”

  Kat sighed. “Braxas, you know me. I’m not good with large groups.” Cougars were a private breed of shifter, and although they were staunchly protective of and loyal to their pards, they also valued their privacy and solitude. “Hanging in the middle of Wolfville doesn’t exactly sit well with my cat.”

  There was a moment’s silence, and this time when Braxas spoke, his tone was more man than cat. “Now that I can accept, but only so far. I think this has more to do with finding Nyx and Zayden than you will acknowledge. In fact, if I were a betting man, I reckon you’re back at that damn cage fighting arena in Detroit. And if you are, then you’re challenging any shifter you can, the bigger the better, and trying to get a lead on them.”

  With the worst timing ever, a wolf shifter by the name of Hatton, the owner of the bar, aptly named Blood and Tears, stepped up to her. “Here’s the five-grand purse from that last round. That was fucking epic, Kat. That bear’s going to be picking teeth outta his food for months after that last move. Oh, and I have some good news for ya. That hyena shifter you wanted to talk to? He’s just stepped into the bar.”

  Kat closed her eyes as Braxas erupted at the other end of the phone. She pulled it away from her poor ear and pressed her hand over it to muffle the colorful words. “Thanks, Hatton. Let him know I’m here and I want to talk to him. Tell him if he leaves, he bleeds.”

  Hatton grinned, flashing yellow-stained teeth that highlighted a lack of personal hygiene. He handed her a thick envelope and walked off.

  She took a deep breath then put the phone back to her ear. “You finished with your mantrum?”

  “This is a dangerous damn game you play, Kat,” Braxas growled. “We can’t get to you quickly when you are so fucking far away. If you need back up, we can’t give it to you, and that is unacceptable. Now you’re about to face Santini without us?”

  “Not Nyx,” Kat was quick to say. “This guy was one of the Rogues he tried to recruit, but he turned Nyx down. I’m hoping he can give me a few leads on where to find the bastard. Once I have some good intel, I’ll come back and we can plan.”

  Braxas harrumphed an unhappy sound. “Make sure you do. I will expect you in two days.”

  “Two days,” Kat agreed.

  “And, Kat,” Braxas said just as she was about to disconnect the call. “Come back in one piece, will you? You’re important to me. To all of us.”

  Kat felt the stirrings of warmth unfurl in her belly. “I will.”

  Braxas was a great Alpha. He led with the head and the heart and always put the welfare of his pard before his own. He had taught her the art of diplomacy—which her mother had thought impossible for her to learn. The pard was everything to Kat, and she would do everything in her power to protect it and her Alpha. Everyone she cared about was back in Vancouver.

  The image of two men flickered through her mind, both of them hotter than anyone she’d ever seen, built like they’d spent their lives in a gym, with bodies covered with tattoos that made a girl want to trace each one with her tongue. They were identical twins. The only difference between the two was that one had a goatee and one did not. They were also annoying, overbearing, sexist, and formidable Dark Fae with powers she could barely comprehend.

  Kat growled, shaking her head to rid it of such nonsense and concentrate on the matter at hand. She grabbed her stuff and rammed it all into her backpack. She had to talk to a hyena about a jackass.

  Chapter Two

  Alak bolted upright in bed as a loud high-pitched scream sounded from somewhere in the house below him. He instantly grabbed his sword and charged down the hallway to the landing above the stairs, meeting his brother there, who had no doubt been woken by the beast’s call as well.

  “Did you hear it, brother?” Aeron whispered as they both looked down into the great room below. “Where is everyone?”

  “I don’t know, but let us be careful. We don’t know what kind of beast is attacking,” he answered. “It must be fearsome indeed to have made it this far onto pack lands.”

  Then he saw it. It was sitting right between the entrance to the kitchen and the great room, screeching its battle cry, the sound of it hurting his sensitive ears. Alak had never seen a beast quite like it, silver and purple, much smaller than he would have anticipated for the awful noises it created. How inept were these wolves and cougars at protecting their own lands if this sly creature could sneak into the very heart of their home?

  “Alak! Lady Corrine is within its grasp. We must save her!” Aeron raced towards the stairs just as Alak noticed where the Lady Corrine was trying to hide from the creature’s clutches by burrowing into the hall closet. “Don’t let it touch you, brother. It feels like it's creating a vortex to another dimension. There’s no telling which evil plane it is planning on stealing her away to.”

  “Aye, I feel it, too, brother.” With a battle cry, Alak leaped over the banister to land directly in front of the vile enemy. “Lady Corrine, you must flee and save yourself! My brother and I will deal with ending this vile darkness!”

  Finally, the Lady popped her head out of the closet, and she removed the coverings from her ears to look at them in confusion. The poor Lady was obviously overwhelmed with fright at being attacked in her own home. The beast made no indication that it feared their wrath, standing its ground, its own battle hiss as loud as ever. The body was see-through, and Alak could only imagine how horrifying it would look after it had taken its victims, its lash-like tail so long he couldn’t even see where it ended. They needed to act quickly if they were to save the Lady and themselves, and with a mighty blow from his sword he cleaved the beast right in two.

  Corrine screamed as the beast’s magic was destroyed. A huge cloud of dust erupted, and the sounds of its death throes satisfied Alak that they would now be safe from its wrath.

  "Ah, my beautiful Dyson!” Corrine yelled. “I turn away for a minute to grab the other head attachment from the closet and somehow you guys manage to kill a seven-hundred-dollar vacuum!"

  That brought both Alak and his brother stopping short as she knelt by the now dead beast.

  “Are you all right, Lady Corrine?” Aeron asked stepping closer. “We thought this vile thing was attacking you.”

  “Oh, for love of the Goddess.” She slapped her hand over her eyes, which only confused Alak more. “It was just a vacuum! I was cleaning the floors! Do you know how hard it is to get wolf hair out of a carpet?”

  Her tone had moved from agitated, towards that warbling, terrifying note that enters a woman’s voice before she begins to cry, so naturally, Alak began a slow retreat. He was not good with crying females. No, that was much better left to Aeron.

  When Corrine raised her head and those big blue eyes began to fill with tears, he cursed to himself, and of course, his brother moved to comfort her.

  “We can fix it, my Lady,” Aeron blurted out. “Can’t we, Alak?”

  “We can?” he sputtered out, taking another look at the machine now lying in a mangled mess at their feet.

  “Yes, we can.” Aeron gave him a dirty look as he gathered Corrine up and led her away into the kitchen. “Le
t’s just get you some tea for now, okay, my Lady?”

  Seconds later, the front door burst open, and Gabe and Braxas ran inside nearly colliding with Alak as he was still examining the mess to see if his magic could fix the beast.

  “Corrine! What in the hell happened here?” Gabe stared down at him in accusation, while Braxas went into the kitchen to find their mate. Alak could only assume they had both felt their mate’s shock and then upset through their mate bond.

  “We were woken by the snarls of this beast and thought Lady Corrine was under attack,” Alak said, shrugging. “Really, you should be thanking us for coming to your mate’s aide while you left her unprotected. But she is upset that we defeated her ‘Dy-son’.”

  “First off, did you use a sword on a vacuum cleaner?”

  “It was very loud, and we were sleeping…” Alak’s mood darkened as he had to defend their actions. There were too many new things on this side of the Veil they had no understanding of, and it made him want to be back home in their village.

  “Second, we did not leave our mate undefended. She’s perfectly safe here. Most of us clear out on cleaning day because the noise from that damned vacuum hurts our ears, but Corrine loves that thing … or at least she did.”

  Well damn, now he felt kind of bad for destroying it. Lady Corrine had been nothing but kind to them since he and Aeron had been here, and he’d gone and destroyed her favorite cleaning pet.

  “I cannot fix this.” Alak sighed and looked back to Gabe, who wore a smirk on his face. “If it were a natural beast or object, I could call upon our magic to help mend it, but I don’t know what these materials are made from.”

  “It’s mostly plastic, but don’t worry,” Gabe smiled and took a small rectangle out of his wallet. “Plastic fixes plastic. Let’s go online and I can have a new one here by tomorrow.”