Tequila and Tigers: Book Two: Shifters and Sins Read online

  Tequila and Tigers

  Book Two: Shifters and Sins

  Cecilia Lane

  A BAD Alpha Dads & Shifting Destinies Novella

  Copyright © 2019 by Cecilia Lane

  Cover Art by CT Cover Creations

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Tequila and Tigers: Shifters and Sins #2 by Cecilia Lane August 2019

  Contents

  Tequila and Tigers

  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

  Epilogue

  Next in Series

  Newsletter

  BAD Alpha Dads

  About the Author

  Also by Cecilia Lane

  Tequila and Tigers: Shifters and sins Book Two

  A surprise baby. A second chance at love. Fated mates betrayed by their own.

  Wyatt

  Wolf shifter Wyatt tried to do the right thing—protect and mate the girl he loved. Instead he was framed for murder and run out of town by Alanna's powerful tiger shifter father.

  Thirteen years later Wyatt returns, struggling to control his wolf while simmering in a dark emotional hell. A hell for which he'll make his enemy pay.

  But blind vengeance will have to wait. The mate he was forced to leave had his baby—a defiant boy now in danger from his own grandfather. And Wyatt will be damned if his son suffers the same fate as his old man.

  Alanna

  He was dead. That was the lie told to Alanna years ago. A lie now storming into town, the torment in his eyes wild enough almost nothing was left of the boy she'd loved.

  She'll have to dig through the ashes and find a spark of the real man. A struggling single mom, she's determined to prevent their son from following his father's self-destructive path. And when word spreads Wyatt is back, she needs his protection from the dark fate decreed by her father.

  Wyatt must fight to stay sane long enough to save his mate, his son, and himself from a death sentence he now has a reason to escape.

  Keep your woman close and your enemy closer? Yeah, **ck that. This time he's keeping the woman plus child, and running the enemy out of town—and out of life.

  Tequila and Tigers, a gritty paranormal steamy romance, is a BAD Alpha Dads title, second in the Shifters and Sins series. For readers who enjoy second chance romance with an edge, a broody alpha hero who would rather be a villain, and the redemptive power of love and family.

  * * *

  Bestselling and Award Winning Paranormal Romance authors are bringing you the baddest of the bad ALPHA dads. Keyword bad. So sexy, you’ll want to teach them to be good. These shifter dads need all the help they can get, and we want to give it to them.

  https://BADALPHADADS.com

  * * *

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  Chapter 1

  Wyatt Dawson hated Redwater.

  Nothing had changed since he’d left thirteen years ago. He could still stand on one end of the main drag and spit on the other. Fresh coats of paint covered over old scars on a small number of buildings, but most faded away like Redwater should have done decades ago. The little town on the eastern edge of Yellowstone tried to be more than it was, and he hated liars.

  The whole town smelled sour and stagnant. Burning it down and watching from a distance wouldn’t be a good enough end for the place.

  The smart thing would have been to keep riding when his alpha, Jensen, made the turn toward the town. But, like an idiot, he’d followed the man into the thick of things and stuck by his side when death seemed inevitable. Hell, maybe that’d been his entire reason.

  Now? Something else held him in Redwater. He should have given a one-fingered salute to the trash heap after his pack pried away the stranglehold of a rival motorcycle gang. Even after Jensen found his mate and earned a place in his pup’s life, Wyatt stayed.

  He couldn’t go more than ten feet in any direction without a reminder of everything he’d lost, but he still didn’t move on.

  Unfinished business did that to a man.

  Wyatt slid another perusal over the office building in front of him, praying for an end to his hunt. He wanted to sink his fists into flesh, let his wolf taste blood. Anything to calm the black hole beating where his heart used to sit.

  The door opened and a single man stepped into the night, pausing under the one good streetlamp like he knew he was being watched.

  Wyatt’s prey was on the move.

  He tensed, hands closing into tight fists he wanted to unleash on the fucker, but he didn’t move from his spot in the shadows. Harris Ayers didn’t travel without his retinue of enforcers.

  His wolf shoved forward with a vicious snarl turned to howl for the hunt, but Wyatt still stayed in the shadows. He had to be smart. He’d jumped the gun before and nearly had his throat slit for it.

  Keeping utterly still killed him. His blood boiled with hatred for the man on the other side of the street. One night had changed the course of his life. Turned him from boy to man in a baptism of blood. Though he’d stayed out of the fray, Wyatt knew Harris was behind it all.

  More men filtered out into the night. Wyatt narrowed his eyes on the cabal. Some, he recognized. Others were just a fresh coat of paint on a nameless, bulky body.

  Alphas in the town. Big men. Powerful men. Men with cruel sins they kept hidden or flaunted, depending on the man. They held themselves apart from each other, but listened when Harris turned to speak with them.

  And yet, his own alpha wasn’t invited. Jensen, new owner of Dark Horse, hero of Redwater, and kicker of Moonlight Slayers asses, was left out of the meeting.

  Something was rotten in Redwater.

  Harris had been the head honcho in town back when Wyatt was a young pup. With the Slayers out of the picture, seemed like he was reasserting his control.

  A black SUV eased around the corner and pulled to a stop a few feet from the gathering. The music pumping inside died as one man jumped from the front and hurried around to open the door for Harris. The old man said something lost to the distance, but the doorman’s stiff reaction made the rebuke clear. Once everyone was settled back inside, the SUV drove off.

  And another followed.

  Harris Ayers lived another night.

  Wyatt cocked his head at the second car. Was the extra protection for him, or because Harris didn’t know how to exist without pissing off others?

  No matter. He was a patient hunter. He’d find his perfect shot and end the fucker that stole Alanna from him.

  Her name triggered anothe
r response from his wolf. The beast prowled through him with an urgency to break free, run, find her. The need for blood died under the reaction, and he burned with a new desire.

  Wyatt turned his eyes in the opposite direction. His wolf threw himself at the bars of his mental cage, trying with claws and fangs to break free and go to her.

  Wyatt bared his teeth. No. The fact that he’d been in Redwater for two whole months and hunted the fucker who ruined his life should have been enough for the wolf. Revenge was the only thing they needed.

  That he hunted instead of seeking her out was proof of how much he’d changed. How much that fucker forced him to change.

  Alanna. Perfect Alanna. She’d been his first everything. Crush, kiss, girlfriend, fuck. That last year before he turned eighteen, he was damn sure she’d have made him the luckiest man alive and agreed to bear his mate mark, too. Smart as hell with a body made for loving, she never gave a fuck that he grew up poor as shit with parents were constantly in trouble with the law.

  No, those concerns were reserved for her father. Wyatt wasn’t the tiger shifter royalty the man wanted to sell Alanna to like a slab of meat.

  He’d hoped she’d moved out of Redwater, but that was firmly disabused the night he helped Jensen kick the Slayers out of town. One gloriously badass tigress charged her way through the thick of the battle to sink her claws into one enemy wolf after another.

  Only one thing held him back from a sweet reunion.

  She thought he was dead. They’d both be better off if she never learned otherwise.

  With a growl, he wrenched himself free of his idiot beast’s desires. He waited until the rest of the alphas dispersed, then kicked his bike to life. The engine’s roar echoed off the buildings on Main for a slow minute before Wyatt pulled up to Dark Horse.

  The bar’s parking lot was packed. The music indoors pulsed in opposition to his own heartbeat. He rolled his shoulders to cut the tension riding him as hard as the urge to follow Harris or track down—

  No. He killed the thought. She wasn’t his. He couldn’t bring his sins to her doorstep. He drew the line at involving her in his shit.

  He would stay in Redwater for as long as it took to get his revenge. Then he’d split from his pack and let lone wolf madness take him away. He barely held on to sanity as it was. Too many snapped pack bonds, too much blood, too many crimes. He was a wild, feral thing not fit for civilization.

  Wyatt slammed through the front door, flicked off Ellis watching the patrons, and dipped behind the bar. He snarled at the customers already making demands of him and poured out a shot of tequila. One stiff swallow later, he turned a new glare on the crowd of shifters and humans he was supposed to serve until the early hours.

  Fucking tourists. Maybe the Slayers had the right of it. Keep the normies out of their bar, out of their lives, and never deal with the questions, the judgments, or the flinches when his animal bled through his eyes and voice.

  Fuck, he needed another drink.

  “Where have you been?” Jensen griped.

  Wyatt slashed his eyes to his alpha at the other end of the bar. No way Jensen would go for the idea of a shifter-only joint. After kicking ass and taking over Moonlight Slayer territory and bar, Jensen had settled down with his old lady and opened the floodgates.

  ‘Can’t pay back bank loans without customers,’ he’d growled.

  Bank loans. For a former biker, current wolf shifter, and all-around hardass. Wyatt bit back his barked laugh.

  “Don’t you miss it?” He already knew the answer, but he needed to hear the words. He craved the reassurance. At least someone in their screwed up little pack had found a path to redemption. “The open road, wind in your hair? Drinking and fucking whatever you want?”

  “I can still ride even if the route takes me back to the same place every time, and I don’t need anyone but Noelle in my bed.” Jensen snatched the bottle of tequila from Wyatt’s hands. “We can still drink.”

  Wyatt huffed a laugh and shoved his hair away from his face. As much as he hated to admit it, going straight was a good look for the man. He seemed happy, even if that happiness slowly strangled Wyatt.

  “Trouble of yours?” Jensen softened the blow of concern by nudging another shot of tequila his way.

  He reached for the shot glass, but Jensen placed his hand over the top. Wyatt scowled. He could make it through whatever Leave It To Beaver bullshit his alpha had on his mind. “Shouldn’t be,” he answered.

  “Because we’re in this together. Whatever is gunning for you takes us all on,” Jensen continued.

  Not a chance. Harris Ayers was his problem. Jensen had his sweet little mate and family to run home to at the end of every night. Wyatt wouldn’t put them on the line because of his need to fuck shit up.

  He needed a fight. He didn’t need anyone at his back.

  “I hear you loud and clear, alpha.”

  Jensen narrowed his eyes, but let him take the shot. “You steady here?”

  His skin tingled with every shift of his frame. The pins and needles feeling of a foot gone dead engulfed his entire body. A man couldn’t hold himself completely still with nerves twitching like that. The uncomfortable, vaguely painful sensation was bound to drive him crazy eventually.

  If he didn’t get his throat slit for pissing off the wrong person first.

  His wolf growled. Wyatt bared his teeth at the beast.

  Steady? He didn’t know the meaning of the word.

  “Sure am,” he lied with a grin.

  Redwater made him itch for the things he’d once thought belonged to him and he’d never get back. Thirteen years ago, he’d been a cocky teenager with a beautiful girl on his arm. Nothing had been able to touch him.

  Except a murder charge, a sham of a trial, and an execution order.

  Chapter 2

  Alanna Ayers marshaled her features before stepping out of her car. She banked the fiery anger that had raged through her the entire drive from Miller’s Bake Shoppe to Redwater Middle.

  Atticus hadn’t even made it through the morning rush before causing an incident. Alanna had wanted to reach through the phone and strangle her boy and the front office aide when she received the call at work.

  Skies above, they’d already fought that morning. Five more minutes stretched into a half-hour of reminders before she’d snatched the blanket off Atticus and threatened to make him walk to school if he missed the bus for the third time that week. Which he did. And because he’d already been caught skipping school, she couldn’t follow through with the threat without either trailing after him to make sure he went where he belonged or simply driving him herself.

  She kept her face calm as she passed through the double doors and turned to the administrator’s desk. And great, she was the last arrival. The other mother hovered near her boy, smelling strongly of perfume and indignation.

  Tucked around the corner, Atticus and the other boy sat three chairs apart under the powerful stink-eye of the front office aide. Atticus’s eye was swollen nearly shut, but the other boy had scratches down one side of his face, a busted lip, and cradled his arm in his lap.

  Alanna gripped her son’s chin between her fingers and turned his head from side to side. An insolent shine stared back at her.

  “What did you do?” she demanded in a low voice that warned him against actually answering the question.

  Principal Linda Rhodes shadowed the doorframe to her office. “They were caught brawling in the locker room.”

  Alanna hated her unconscious straightening under the no-nonsense glare. Principal Rhodes had been in charge when she’d still been in school. Some reactions ran bone-deep.

  “Maximus would never do such a thing,” the other mother argued.

  Principal Rhodes simply stepped aside and gestured for the parents and children to follow.

  With a minor scuffle and a firm grip on his shoulder, Alanna forced Atticus to take a seat across from Principal Rhodes. She stood behind him in case he tried t
o bolt. Unlikely, but he was hopped up on hormones and teenage righteousness. That heady combination couldn’t be trusted to behave.

  Obviously.

  Her tigress rose up inside her, ready to smack down whoever hurt her cub as well as shake some sense into the mischief-maker. It didn’t matter that he’d put on inches recently and stood only a head shorter than her; he was still her cub and in serious need of an attitude adjustment.

  The dueling desire to protect and punish made sense in her head.

  “Mr. Benson caught these two taking swings at one another after he dismissed the gym class to the locker room.” Principal Rhodes steepled her fingers and fixed both boys with a cold look. “They have been warned about shifting on school grounds and fighting in either form. I’m suspending them both for one week.”

  Maximus piped up with a protest about the unfairness of it all and how Atticus was entirely to blame. Atticus didn’t say a word.

  Principal Rhodes continued as if she had silence in her office. “I expect improved behavior when they return. They may collect their belongings and the week’s assignments from the front desk on your way out.”

  Maximus and his mother both kept arguing the point, but Principal Rhodes stood. Atticus silently followed her lead and shoved out of the office. He snatched his pile from the office aide’s hands and stormed out of the school.