Forgiving the enemy, p.1
Forgiving the Enemy, page 1
part #2 of Miracle Series
Forgiving the Enemy
Miracle Book 2
By
Shea Balik
BLURB
In a world where everyone was against them, they needed a Miracle. What no one had expected was to find their salvation in an abandoned town that was ready to collapse. Yet, that is exactly what happened when they moved to the town of Miracle, Oregon.
Lucca had always felt trust was something only fools allowed themselves to experience. Since the age of five, he’d learned that not even family could be trusted to keep him safe from the cruel reality of life. That point was driven home when he and his friends were forced to flee their pack for fear of death for no other reason than who they loved.
Jari had lived in hell since he was nineteen years old and he’d been naïve enough to believe his Alpha’s claim they were mates. Now he existed in a world of lies and betrayal that had him trapped and miserable. Just when he thought his life couldn’t get worse, he was caught leading his best friend to his death. A part of him had been glad he hadn’t succeeded and was ready to die for his crime, but life was never that easy, for the man who’d captured him was none other than his real mate.
Can Lucca find a way to trust his mate or will the sins of their pasts keep them from finding their happily ever after?
Copyright ©2017 by Shea Balik
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof
may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever
without the express written permission of the publisher
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Printed in the United States of America
First Printing, 2017
Cover by: Harris Channing
Edited by: Avril Stepowski
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Table of Contents
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
EPILOGUE
CHAPTER 1
Tears slid down Jari Kerr’s face as the pungent aroma of the onions he was cutting stung his eyes. It was why he was making omelets, to hide the fact that he’d been crying, otherwise Lucca would pester him to give up even more of his secrets, something Jari wanted to avoid. Before he admitted how much he wished Lucca would finally claim him as his mate.
Actually, he’d be happy if Lucca would do or say anything to indicate that he wanted Jari as his mate, instead of the constant indifference the man had been showing him up until now.
The weak light of dawn was just starting to filter through the kitchen window allowing him to see movement in the camp across the road. Sounds from upstairs alerted him to the fact that the others were finally waking and would be down soon for breakfast.
After starting the stove and putting some butter to melt in the bottom of the largest skillet, Jari grabbed the towel off the counter to wipe his face. The onions may be a good excuse for the tears but his mate was too observant not to notice he was crying too hard to attribute it to just the onions.
Yet, for all of Lucca’s attention to detail, the man seemed oblivious to how miserable Jari was. Not that he could blame Lucca, Jari wasn’t a safe bet. Hell, only days before Jari had been chained to the wall in the basement for his crimes against the Alpha’s mate, Nole. He was lucky not to have been executed for almost getting both the Alpha and his mate killed.
Which was another reason to cry. Nole may not have wanted Jari dead, but it was obvious he hadn’t forgiven Jari either. Then again, considering Jari had led a squad of mercenaries with orders to kill Nole right to his former best friend, he couldn’t really blame Nole for holding a grudge.
He just wasn’t sure how he could have done things differently. Alpha Abdiel had threatened to kill Jari’s brothers and sisters, and if that wasn’t enough, the man said he’d go after his nieces and nephews next. Just to ensure Jari knew he wasn’t lying, Abdiel had killed Jari’s parents.
As much as he wished he hadn’t been ordered to go after Nole, Jari did as he was told to protect his family. Now he was treated as an unwanted guest who had overstayed his welcome by everyone – even his mate.
When he was satisfied that the skillet was hot, Jari dumped in the ingredients for omelets. Then he popped in six slices of bread into the large toaster. With that done, he went to the refrigerator and pulled out the orange, apple, and cranberry juices along with two tubs of butter.
Just as the first creak of wood on the stairs was heard, Jari was dishing up the first omelet and pouring in the second one. Each omelet was large enough to feed four normal men, except nothing about the men who lived there was normal. All of them were shifters, and as such, had huge appetites that dwarfed that of humans.
“I smell bacon,” Chadwick said as he strode into the kitchen and sat at the table. “Wait.” Jari chuckled at the lost look on Chadwick’s face when he looked around and didn’t see the man’s favorite breakfast food. “There is bacon, right?”
Jari shook his head at the way Chadwick whined when he thought there was no bacon. “Yes,” he assured. “But since you tend to gobble it up before the others have a chance to get to the table, I’m not putting it out until everyone is here.”
Chadwick appeared ready to cry. “But...I need bacon.”
“And you will get some when everyone else arrives,” Jari assured him.
If he didn’t know better, he’d think Chadwick had just been told his best friend had died. “That’s not fair,” Chadwick insisted. “I got up early just so I could eat bacon. After all, it’s the early bird that gets the worm.”
“Yeah, but it’s the second mouse that gets the cheese,” Hudson said as he walked into the kitchen.
Jari frowned at the gross saying. “You know I’m a mouse shifter, right?”
Hudson froze just as he started to slide into a chair. The man flashed him a smile before sitting down. But it was Chadwick who answered for Hudson. “Since your neck hasn’t been snapped in a mouse trap I assume you already know that lesson.”
A growl rumbled around them as Lucca entered the kitchen. He glared at his friends. “Next one that talks about Jari dying will face me in the ring,” he warned.
“What?” Chadwick tried for innocence but he wasn’t pulling it off. “I was giving him props for not falling for the cheese in the mouse trap trick.”
“You know one of these days that mouth of yours is going to get you into trouble,” Edrick, their Alpha, said as he and his mate, Nole walked into the kitchen.
Jari tried not to get jealous at the way Edrick and Nole looked at each with sappy grins full of love. He glanced over at Lucca, wishing his mate would gaze at him like Jari was the center of his world.
At this point, Jari would be happy if every time Lucca looked his way it wasn’t with mistrust. It was disheartening to know his own mate thought he might betray them at any moment.
When tears once more stung his eyes, Jari quickly turned to the stove before anyone, especially Lucca, noticed. Pulling off the second omelet and placing it on the table, Jari turned back to the get the bacon that he’d placed in the oven to keep warm.
“I don’t know why everyone’s got their panties in a twist,” Chadwick grumbled. “Jari was the one refusing to let me eat bacon.”
With all eyes turned to him, Jari felt his face heat up at the unwanted attention. “I said you had to wait for the others since you tend to eat more than your share,” Jari reminded him. “But since you said that, you can’t have any bacon. Maybe next time you’ll be more patient.” Jari handed the plate to Hudson, who filled his own plate with the strips until it was heaping.
“Hey,” Chadwick shouted. “That’s not fair.”
“Whoever told you life was fair, kitten, lied.” All heads whipped around to the doorway to find Kirill standing there with a smirk on his face.
“Damn it. You really need to show me how you sneak that humungous body in here without anyone hearing you,” Chadwick blurted out, seemingly not caring that Kirill was a polar bear shifter who had to be seven feet
White teeth flashed as Kirill shot Chadwick an evil smile. “What’s wrong kitty? Jealous?”
Chadwick flipped Kirill the finger and everyone laughed.
“Have you eaten?” Jari asked as he placed the last of the food on the table and sat at the only empty chair left, right next to Lucca. He just wished he knew if his mate even wanted him to sit there.
There were times when Lucca seemed as if he desired Jari. They had even shared a few kisses, but Lucca never allowed them to go further than that. He was beginning to despair they ever would.
“Yes, I did,” Kirill said. “Thank you. I’m just here to let Edrick know my men arrived at the colony.”
Just like that, the food in Jari’s mouth had turned to sawdust. As much as he wished he could have, Jari hadn’t forgotten Kirill and his men were there to help attack Jari’s colony and stop Alpha Abdiel from coming after him or Nole. How could he? It was all he could think about. Well, other than mating Lucca.
They were planning to attack tomorrow, but first Kirill had sent a couple of men to scout out the colony. It would be a risk for Edrick and his men, even with Kirill and his men’s help, to actually go to battle with Abdiel. The man may be a mouse shifter and not as versed in battle as Edrick’s pack, but there were thousands of mice shifters who would be forced to fight for fear of reprisal from their Alpha.
Abdiel deserved to die. He had been wishing for that very thing for years. The man was a narcissistic prick who didn’t care about anyone in the colony he led except himself. Jari should know, the alpha had taken Jari as his lover more than twenty years ago through lies and manipulation.
He’d been such a fool when Abdiel had taken an interest in Jari, especially when it was considered immoral, not to mention illegal, to have same sex relations. Little did he know Alpha Abdiel was fucking his way through much of the colony. Even after catching Abdiel in the act of cheating, Jari had still blindly believed the man when he said he and Jari were mates. At nineteen, Jari had been too stupid to know any better.
Now that he met his actual mate, Jari couldn’t believe just how naive he’d been. The instant he’d laid eyes on Lucca, Jari had known. His body had hardened swiftly and Jari had nearly come right there on the spot even though there was a group of wolf shifter mercenaries closing in to kill Nole not more than a hundred feet away.
Warmth seeped into his hand, pulling Jari out of his depressing thoughts. His gaze went to the spot where Lucca’s hand held his. Stunned that his mate was showing him affection, Jari nearly missed the conversation around him as he gazed into his mate’s stormy grey eyes. So many emotions were staring back at him. Jari just wished one of them wasn’t doubt.
“Good. Let them know to keep an eye on the alpha. We don’t want him slipping through our fingers when we’re this close to killing the son of a bitch,” Edrick snarled as he held his mate even closer. As far as Edrick was concerned, the moment the alpha put a hit on Nole, he’d signed his own death warrant.
Just another reason he knew Lucca didn’t want him as his mate. Jari had been hurt by Abdiel for years, yet Lucca hadn’t once insisted Abdiel pay for his crimes. He might as well face facts. Jari wasn’t meant to have a real mating. Maybe it was his punishment for believing Abdiel all those years ago.
“Actually, that’s why I’m here.” The ominous tone of Kirill’s statement had Jari holding his breath for the axe to fall. “It seems the colony knows where we are and is planning an attack of their own.”
All eyes turned to Jari. The accusation clearly in most of them. Worse, the warmth of Lucca’s hand was gone. Not only did Lucca no longer touch him, but his mate actually leaned away from him as if he couldn’t stand to be close.
Jari’s heart sank. That he had nothing to do with Abdiel knowing where they were didn’t matter. No one would believe him. Then again, he couldn’t exactly blame them considering what he’d done to Nole.
Unable to stay there with everyone believing he was a traitor, Jari surged to his feet. His chair tipped backward, crashing to the floor in his haste but Jari didn’t care, he just knew he had to get out of there. “I know you don’t believe me, but I didn’t have any contact with anyone in my colony. How could I? You haven’t allowed me use of the phone.”
Not that he hadn’t tried. The fear of Abdiel killing Jari’s family had him frantic to contact them and warn them to run. But no matter how much he’d begged, Edrick had refused his request because it would tip Abdiel off to their plans.
Apparently, it hadn’t mattered, for just like always, Abdiel already knew. Jari used to swear the man had listening devices everywhere. His alpha had known everything that happened in the colony, no matter how insignificant. He wasn’t sure how that led to Abdiel knowing where Jari was, but, yet again, Abdiel was proving just how powerful he was.
“Then how did Abdiel find us?” Edrick accused.
It shouldn’t have hurt that these people thought it was him. So, why did it? He hardly knew them, yet already Jari had started to think of them as his family. But it was the disbelief in Lucca’s eyes that cut the deepest.
The tears he’d shed earlier sprang up, threatening to spill once more. Refusing to let his mate see his weakness, Jari rushed from the room to the place he clearly belonged. In the dark, dank basement – alone.
CHAPTER 2
The ache in his chest as he watched Jari rush from the room spread until Lucca Breck couldn’t catch his breath. There was nothing more important than keeping his mate safe and happy, yet Lucca knew he was failing.
He just didn’t know how to trust his mate.
No.
It went beyond that.
Lucca didn’t know how to trust anyone, even the four men who had been his friends since he was still in diapers. It had started at the age of five when Chadwick had talked about one day finding his male mate. His mother made them all promise to never breathe a word of his preference for men. It was then something inside of Lucca changed.
He’d started to realize just how dangerous it was to let anyone too close. It was why he was the last one to admit to being gay, even though he’d known it years before. Lucca hadn’t been able to totally let his guard down, not even with his friends.
Now he was paying for that flaw by not being able to believe in the one person who fate had created just for him – his mate.
“Do you think he managed to get a message to Abdiel?” Edrick asked.
“No.” The answer came directly from his soul before Lucca could even think about it. It wasn’t until the word was out of his mouth that Lucca understood its significance. He did trust Jari. At least he thought he did.
Except…
Did he?
A part of him knew Jari couldn’t have gotten a message to Abdiel. He’d been the one to search his mate from head to toe for any kind of phone or other tracking device. And until that morning when Jari went down to start breakfast, Lucca hadn’t left his mate alone for a moment after they’d released him from being chained up in the basement.
So Jari couldn’t have alerted Abdiel to their location. That must have been why he’d known Jari hadn’t done what they’d all been thinking. Right? It couldn’t have been that Lucca actually trusted Jari.
After years of not truly trusting anyone, it wouldn’t make any sense to trust a man who had already betrayed his best friend by leading a hit squad right to him. No, it was better to not let himself think, for even a second, that Jari wouldn’t deceive him.
“There was no way he could have. The only time he’s been alone was this morning and even if he had managed to call Abdiel, it wouldn’t have given his colony time to plan an attack.” At least he hoped that was true. For if Jari did betray them, Lucca wasn’t sure what he’d do with his mate.
“By the looks of things, the colony is well armed and ready to move. There was no way Alpha Abdiel could have planned this just this morning,” Kirill confirmed. “Either way, they are on the move and will be here just after lunch by my men’s calculations.”
