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  Devil Hills Wolves 3

  Devil’s Property

  Half werewolf and half telekinetic, Santino Moreno is called the Devil for a reason. Lethal in a fight and dangerously seductive in bed, no one has ever managed to tame him. Searching for a way to heal his sister, Santino saves Zack, a bobcat shifter healer, and his crew of misfits from paranormal-hating humans and allows them inside the Devil Hills pack lands. Something about Zack calls to Santino’s wolf, and he can’t deny the scorching attraction between them.

  Zack has done all he could to save the remains of his decimated paranormal community. He just lied to the most powerful werewolf pack in the country to save his people, but his deceit unravels the more he spends time with Santino. Zack lost his old home, but can he find his place in the Devil Hills pack and manage to survive his dance with the Devil?

  Genre: Alternative (M/M, Gay), Paranormal, Romantic Suspense, Vampires/Werewolves

  Length: 34,993 words

  DEVIL’S PROPERTY

  Devil Hills Wolves 3

  Fel Fern

  

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK

  DEVIL’S PROPERTY

  Copyright © 2018 by Fel Fern

  ISBN: 978-1-64243-112-4

  First Publication: April 2018

  Cover design by Harris Channing

  All art and logo copyright © 2018 by Siren Publishing, Inc.

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.

  All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

  WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including 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.

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  PUBLISHER

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  DEDICATION

  To my awesome readers, you always encourage me to keep on writing.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Felicia Fern works as a graphic designer during the day, and loves penning M/M paranormal erotic romance at night.

  A sadist who loves watching her heroes break their backs trying to earn their happy endings, Fel likes throwing in the occasional dash of the unknown to the usual romantic concoction.

  www.felfern.com

  https://tinyletter.com/felfern

  https://www.facebook.com/author.felfern

  For all titles by Fel Fern, please visit

  www.bookstrand.com/fel-fern

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  DEVIL’S PROPERTY

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Epilogue

  DEVIL’S PROPERTY

  Devil Hills Wolves 3

  FEL FERN

  Copyright © 2018

  Prologue

  20 Years Ago

  “Hey, we’ll find shelter soon,” seven-year-old Santino whispered to the bundle tucked in the inside pocket of the lab coat he’d stolen from one of the scientists who worked at the lab.

  Tired silver eyes similar to his looked up at him. His little sister looked so tiny in wolf form, and she hardly weighed a thing. Three days ago, she stopped turning back to human form, chose to remain in animal form instead. That didn’t stop the scientists from continuing the injections, though.

  Santino gritted his teeth, looking over his shoulder just to make sure they weren’t followed. Once he grew bigger and stronger, he’d repay those nasty humans for the hell they put him and his sister through. They were concocted in the lab, didn’t even have names. The cleaning lady who sometimes swept the floors in the cells where all the specimens of the cross-breeding program were kept had been the one to replace their numbers with names.

  Sabine huddled in his jacket. His stomach growled. No doubt she was so much hungrier than he was. When she refused to change back to human, the scientists started denying her meals, but she hadn’t complained, knowing the risks he’d taken. Santino heard of Devil Hills from a few gossiping lab technicians. After escaping the lab, he hitched a ride with a truck driver and alighted here. The local wolf pack who ruled the territory had been said to take paranormals in.

  The technicians mentioned it was community run by other paranormals, shifters. Santino wasn’t too sure if they would be welcomed here. It didn’t matter. He didn’t plan on staying long. Santino and his sister weren’t true werewolves, but a strange mix of wolf and Esper. Even worse, they were created in a test tube, not naturally born.

  Lightning flashed in the background. Santino swore, hearing the rumble of thunder that followed. Santino looked around him. Nothing but tall trees and uneven terrain stared back at him. Wind lashed at his face and back, but he kept moving forward, even though his bare feet started to hurt.

  He could change to wolf form but he wasn’t big enough to carry Sabine. Besides, she was too weak now, so starved she could barely hunt for herself. Once he found them some kind of place to rest for the night, Santino would hunt something for them to eat.

  Mud covered his ankles. Rain began to fall in a torrent. A chill entered his skin. He huddled Sabine closer to his chest, not wanting her to catch a cold. There. He squinted, but there was no mistaking it. A cave with an entrance wide enough for him to crawl in, but one that would be difficult for an adult to manage. Santino hurried over.

  Once inside, he blew out a breath. Thanks to his werewolf blood, he could see well enough in the dark. There were a few rocks, the skeleton of some small prey animal nearby, but otherwise, the cave was unoccupied. He took his sister out from the large pocket.

  At first, he panicked, seeing as her eyes were closed but relaxed after seeing the rise and fall of her chest. He lay on the ground, still cold and hungry, but at the very least, Santino wouldn’t need to wake up the next morning to the familiar walls of his cell. He placed Sabine next to him. He reached out, ruffled her fur.

  Back at the lab, the scientists learned early on that using them against each other proved to be an effective punishment.

  “It’s going to be all right,” he told her. He’d whispered, still unused to freedom, to being able to speak without fear of the guards overhearing. “Tomorrow, once the rain is clear, I’ll get us some food. Will you stay strong until then?”

  She whined at him in assent and curled up against his arm. Santino wondered whether she’d ever turn back to human form again. Rage swept through him. Those scientists did this to her, pushed her so much she rather stay in animal form. No, Santino refused to believe she’d remain like this, stuck as a wolf forever.

  He fell asleep, thinking of creative ways on how to pay those human monsters back.

  * * * *

  Santino woke, his inner wolf warning him of danger. He instantly scented them. Wolf musk. Pine. Others. Werew
olves, he realized. He jolted up awake and tried to shake his sister but found her gone.

  “Sabine!” he cried out in alarm, looking around the cave.

  Not there. Santino crawled out of the cave, despite sensing the presence of other shifters nearby. He gritted his teeth. No way in hell would he let them take Sabine. Santino got out of the cave, ready to tear any enemy apart, but the black-haired, black-eyed boy stopped him cold.

  The boy held Sabine up curiously.

  “Let her go,” he blurted, clenching his fists.

  If he changed now, charged at the boy, would he be fast enough? With Sabine being this weak, she wouldn’t put up any fight at all. Santino had a feeling that this strange boy who had a commanding aura surrounding him wouldn’t be easy prey. Even his wolf sensed that.

  “Who are you? Is she your friend?” the boy asked, then studied him and Sabine closer. “No, are you siblings?”

  “Let Sabine go. Don’t make me repeat myself.”

  “Sabine? That’s her name? She’s all skin and bones. Aren’t you feeding her properly?”

  At those words, Sabine bit at his thumb. The boy yelped as she jumped away from him, but he quickly recovered and scooped her in his arms again.

  “Hey, that wasn’t nice. I’m not going to hurt you or your brother,” the boy said.

  Santino tensed, sensing other adult werewolves approaching them. Was the boy and the other shifters part of the pack that ruled this area? How could he get Sabine and himself out of here? Stay, his inner wolf told him. Wait.

  What did his wolf want him to wait for?

  “If you mean that, let her go,” Santino snapped. “We don’t want trouble.”

  “This land belongs to the Devil Hills wolf pack, my father’s pack, and in the future, it will be mine, too,” the cocky boy said.

  “What’s your name?” he demanded, wanting to know how to address his enemy. Was this boy, who had a wildness in him and a powerful wolf who would become a formidable force of nature one day, his enemy?

  No. Not that, and the word ‘friend’ didn’t seem to apply, either, because this boy with the hidden and fierce fire in his black eyes called to his wolf, his soul, the way no one could. Santino didn’t trust strangers, though, but this boy wasn’t like the cruel humans who saw him and his sister as property.

  “Deacon Becker,” the boy said, as if Santino should know that name.

  Deacon set Sabine down and, to Santino’s surprise, she shifted forms, the change a little painful to watch since she hadn’t done it in a while.

  She stumbled and fell to her knees, probably unused to her human feet being in wolf form for so long. Santino went to her, placed his hands on her thin shoulders, grimacing at her long and tangled hair and at the old scars on her back that mirrored his.

  Deacon knelt, reaching out to his sister. He tensed, but Deacon only ruffled her hair, his gentle side surprising Santino.

  “You’re safe with me. Both of you are. I’ll protect you. You can be part of my pack,” Deacon said.

  Pack. Back in the facility, Santino had been taught about shifter culture, because the humans had planned on using hybrids like them as weapons in the future. Packs were where groups of shifters lived in a hierarchy, it was home the way this land was home to Deacon and the other werewolves. Home was another word he’d been unfamiliar with, because all Santino had ever known was an 8 x 6 windowless cell.

  “Safe?” Sabine repeated, looking at Santino for confirmation.

  She held out her tiny fingers to him, so he held them, relieved to feel her human fingers again. Santino wouldn’t know what to do if he lost her to her wolf. If she never changed back, she’d turn rogue, leaving him alone in this miserable world.

  Except this world began to seem interesting after meeting Deacon, who offered Santino what he’d only dared dream of in his cell. A pack, a safe place for him and his sister. A home. He could see himself, living in these woods. Without walls to close him in, he could run wild. No one would ever put chains or collars on them again, no one would control them.

  “Yes. I’ve always been an only child, but I’ve always wanted to have siblings,” Deacon said, then extended a hand to her, to both of them. “What do you two say?”

  Chapter One

  “Uncle ‘Tino,” a young girl’s voice roused Santino, who stirred awake. His neck and back felt stiff, reminding him he’d fallen asleep on the chair again.

  Some mornings when Santino woke up, he still looked out for possible exit routes, an opportunity to escape. Even though he was an adult werewolf now, an enforcer for the Devil Hills wolf pack, certain childhood scars still remained. In that half-awake, half-asleep state, Santino wondered if he woke up in his cell, that everything, the life he’d lived so far, had only been the fanciful imagination of a prisoner.

  He opened his silver eyes to see his niece Sylvia looking up at him, worried expression on her five-year-old face. Most of the time she pounced on him in wolf form to wake him up. Sylvia could be a wild little demon sometimes. Santino loved his niece like his own daughter, and it worried him she’d become withdrawn, more behaved after Sabine fell into a coma.

  Santino looked over Sylvia’s shoulder to see Sabine remained in the same sleeping position. Only the rise and fall of her chest and the steady beat of her heart reassured him she was alive, hadn’t somehow slipped into death while he slept and dreamt of the past.

  “Did something happen?” he asked, rising to his feet to stretch.

  “Deacon’s downstairs with breakfast,” Sylvia said, sounding excited. “Wants to talk to you, Uncle ‘Tino.”

  “All right, let’s head downstairs,” he told her, gently steering her out of the room, the master bedroom Sabine used to share with her deceased mate, Alex. Sylvia gave her mother one last worried look.

  “Will Mama wake up soon?” she asked him, tugging at his hand.

  His heart broke a little each time he heard that question.

  “She will. She won’t leave you,” he said, because his sister promised she’d remain alive long enough for Sylvia to reach adulthood.

  Shifters mated for life, and most of the time, when their soulmate died, they soon followed. Deacon and he convinced her to live for Sylvia’s sake. How many chances did a person have to live, though?

  Santino had wondered that so many times. She’d taken a shot in the side of her head meant for the Alpha’s mate. The pack healer managed to extract the silver bullet, but she hadn’t woken up yet. That was why Deacon and he had been discussing looking for other options.

  He hoped the Alpha brought him good news.

  They went to the kitchen, where they found Deacon and his Esper mate, Daryl. Santino disapproved of the union at first, especially after having viewed the mating bond as a curse because if their enemies got ahold of Daryl and killed the Esper, they’d also take down the Alpha of the Devil Hills pack at the same time.

  “I woke Uncle ‘Tino up,” Sylvia announced, bouncing toward the Alpha pair with a smile on her face.

  To Deacon and Daryl, Sylvia might look the same, but Santino knew she was trying her best to be strong. If it was one thing they both had in common, it was the fact they were good at hiding how they truly felt to protect their loved ones.

  “Good job,” Daryl said, ruffling her hair. As if sensing Santino and Deacon needed to talk, he grabbed a plate for Sylvia, loaded it with pancakes, bacon, and extra servings of syrup before ushering her out to the living room.

  Santino grabbed a cup of coffee himself, grimacing at the rough taste. Usually when his sister made coffee, it didn’t taste awful.

  “Daryl says my coffee-making skills are getting better,” Deacon said proudly.

  He swallowed and managed to say, “Daryl is kind.”

  Deacon chuckled, then his face turned serious.

  “Good news or bad?” he asked.

  Deacon always gave it straight and he mentally prepared himself for negative news. The Alpha let out a sigh. “Neither the Red Sky nor Blue
Tooth paranormal communities are willing to send their healers into our territories.”

  Santino let out a growl. “We’ve helped out those fuckers plenty of times in the past. Aren’t allies supposed to return the favor?”

  “Santino,” Deacon said slowly in that older brother voice of his that sometimes annoyed Santino.

  That was all right, Santino could handle Deacon when he played the role of big brother. When Deacon put on the role of Alpha, however, Santino couldn’t argue with his orders. When Deacon found both Sabine and him years ago, on the run and terrified for their lives, the Alpha promised them protection and a place to call home.

  In return, they promised their unflinching loyalty to him. Even if Lance, the pack Beta, and the rest of Deacon’s enforcers turned their back on him, they’d always remain by Deacon’s side.

  “You know how valuable healers are,” Deacon finally said.

  Santino did. Sabine’s mate had been a healer, and it took the pack a long time to find a replacement for Alex. Elaine, their current healer, was thankfully not as reckless of her life as Alex was, but Elaine did all she could for Sabine. While Elaine managed to heal her physical wounds, the mind she refused to touch.

  “Both the healers from Red Sky and Blue Tooth have experience working with a case like Sabine’s,” he finally said. Santino had gotten that information from their hawk shifters allies.

  Santino refused to give up.

  “According to the hawks, the healer from Red Sky worked with an Esper empath to help wake a pack soldier who’d been unconscious for weeks. We have an empath,” Santino said, referring to Daryl. “A hell of a powerful one. All we need is for those healers to be physically here, or I can bring Sabine to them.”