The Avenger Claims His Mates [Milson Valley 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour ManLove) Read online

  Milson Valley 2

  The Avenger Claims His Mates

  Deakin Myers has a perfectly good, though slightly dysfunctional, mate, so why would he need another one? Ran Markson is more than enough for Deakin. Ran is gorgeous, cheeky, so relaxed he could slip into a coma, sweet, and just seems to stumble into trouble. And man, does he ever get Deakin hot!

  When his mate has a little bit of trouble at his latest job and the local wolf pack become protective big brothers, Deakin may have hyperventilated and demanded a lawyer. Sure, the pack seem friendly—too friendly really. They keep trying to touch his mate. But they are saying all this stuff about Ran actually having a different name, needing protection, and that he is ill.

  But then Ran is shot by an assassin sent by his ex-Alpha, a vicious creature bent on revenge. The local Avenger is called in to eliminate the threat, and all their lives take a very unexpected turn.

  Genre: Alternative (M/M, Gay), Ménage a Trois/Quatre, Paranormal, Vampires/Werewolves

  Length: 58,049 words

  THE AVENGER

  CLAIMS HIS MATES

  Milson Valley 2

  Jo Penn

  MENAGE AMOUR

  MANLOVE

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

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  A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK

  IMPRINT: Ménage Amour ManLove

  THE AVENGER CLAIMS HIS MATES

  Copyright © 2016 by Jo Penn

  E-book ISBN: 978-1-68295-502-4

  First E-book Publication: September 2016

  Cover design by Harris Channing

  All art and logo copyright © 2016 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.

  PUBLISHER

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  Letter to Readers

  Dear Readers,

  If you have purchased this copy of The Avenger Claims His Mates by Jo Penn from BookStrand.com or its official distributors, thank you. Also, thank you for not sharing your copy of this book.

  Regarding E-book Piracy

  This book is copyrighted intellectual property. No other individual or group has resale rights, auction rights, membership rights, sharing rights, or any kind of rights to sell or to give away a copy of this book.

  The author and the publisher work very hard to bring our paying readers high-quality reading entertainment.

  This is Jo Penn’s livelihood. It’s fair and simple. Please respect Jo Penn’s right to earn a living from her work.

  Amanda Hilton, Publisher

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  www.BookStrand.com

  DEDICATION

  To my A & P. You are my sunshine and lollypop!

  Our stories bring magic to our lives.♥ xo

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Pgae

  Dedication

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  About the Author

  THE AVENGER

  CLAIMS HIS MATES

  Milson Valley 2

  JO PENN

  Copyright © 2016

  Prologue

  Paranormal Monthly –

  Best Small to Medium Livable Cities in North America

  The votes are in! Again, we expected the top five. Their reputations precede them! Drum roll! Our winner is:

  1.Lebanon, New Hampshire – we expected this of course! The tiny, exclusive town has equal parts paranormal-to-human and just oozes quaint, chic lifestyle! Who wouldn’t want to live there?! And you may just be able to afford a lovely two-bedroom maisonette close to the water! Who could ask for more? Oh, you want more? Okay, what about the trendy nightlife, the abundance of restaurants, boutiques, and don’t forget, fae!! Yes, fae just love New Hampshire! Go and mingle!

  2.Milson City, New York State – you guessed it! The fastest growing medium city in North America with more paranormal population than human, it is also voted Safest Medium City in Northern America, Most Paranormal Populated, and second with Increased Industry and Employment Opportunities – and OMG! Have you seen the shifters? And who wouldn’t want a witch or wizard on your side?! Crazy not to! And was there a rumor going around that even more paranormals are moving in? Yes, your heard it here first. There’s vampires!

  Huh, I won’t even bother with the rest… :> Just kidding! Here are the rest of our amazing North American, best, small-to-medium livable cities!

  Chapter One

  “Have a good day, and, Ran, try to stay out of trouble.”

  Smirking, Ran Markson slipped the strap of his bag over his shoulder. “Hey, now, I wasn’t the one who got in the landlord’s face at our last place and had us run out of town, babe.”

  Conceding that point, ungraciously, Deakin Myers rolled his eyes. “This is a good city. We both got jobs and you were accepted by the pack Alpha to hang around, so abide the rules…and if you can’t, make sure you don’t leave evidence.”

  Leaning forward, Ran gave Deak a quick kiss, still grinning, then ambled off down the cobbled road.

  Yeah, Deak just knew his long-term boyfriend was going to go ahead and do whatever the hell he wanted, just like he always did. With a smile at that thought, Deak wouldn’t change anything about his boyfriend… Well, okay, he may change the fact that somehow, every freaking time, Ran missed the laundry basket, and the fact he couldn’t seem to clean the bathtub without needing to drink a gallon of beer beforehand, but those were minor things.

  Ran was smart, hot, and fun. He was also the only one to ever really get Deakin so hot he couldn’t think. So, messing up jobs, being kicked out of towns, and learning to accept the other side of his boyfriend were just some of the things he’d had to live with in order to be with Ran.

  It wasn’t like Deak was faultless.

  Watching Ran amble down the f
ootpath with headphones on, Deak couldn’t help the smile that spread across his mouth. He recalled the first time he’d met the man, the instant attraction, their first few dates, the way Ran had Deak laughing, how hard and fast he fell for the sexy, gorgeous man. And that, despite Deak’s numerous faults, Ran wasn’t bothered, even seemed amused, and enjoyed all the weird things he did.

  Okay, possibly not all.

  Ran wasn’t a saint, though. He was a wolf shifter.

  With a last look, puffing out a sigh at seeing his boyfriend being chatted up by an attractive woman—Ha! She was so wasting her time!—Deakin headed into Milson City Council Offices where he worked as a Records Officer, a job he thoroughly enjoyed and was extremely good at.

  Ran often said Deakin should try being quietly good at it. Deak was still mulling over what that meant. Knowing Ran, Deak probably didn’t want to think too hard about it.

  As usual, he arrived ten minutes, precisely, early. He removed his autumn coat, made sure it hung just right on the hook, then took the following nine and a half minutes to set up his work station and get himself settled. He wasn’t particularly anal, and he wasn’t too OCD. Deak just liked to have things in their place. Having grown up in a large family, he knew chaos. Now he got to choose what type of chaos he wanted to be surrounded with, and discovered fairly quickly…none.

  Okay, he wasn’t that bad. After all, he did live with Ran, who missed the hook when hanging up his bath towel. And that peeling the labels off containers in the pantry thing his boyfriend did, didn’t mean Deakin would forget where things were supposed to go. He had a system and one little missing label wasn’t going to mess it up.

  After four hours of work and deeply into scanning old, archived documents into the new document retrieval system, Deakin had the uncanny feeling he wasn’t alone anymore. Careful to save his work and stack the folder, he looked up to find Ran sitting on the counter that separated the records office from the hallway. Usually, staff would arrive at the counter, and if no one in the office was there, they would ring the bell for attention. Rather than do that, Ran was seated on the counter itself flicking through a magazine with his headphones on.

  Funny how Deakin had never been one to stare at people—or creatures—before meeting Ran. Now he found himself staring at the wolf shifter, often trying to memorize every feature, and sometimes wondering why Ran had picked Deak.

  He knew the why, of course. They were mates. Fate picked them. They were the other half of each other. Deakin felt he was extremely fortunate. Ran, though, had declared Deakin was the best thing to ever happen to him and treated Deak extremely well. There were times Deak wasn’t so sure he was exactly what Ran would have personally picked out himself.

  Ran wasn’t a big, macho wolf shifter, nor was he dominant and possessive. In fact, at times Ran was so laid back, if Deak didn’t make a decision they probably wouldn’t have gotten very far in their personal lives, and definitely work-wise. Ran was good at what he did. He worked in a café, flashed that cheeky, innocent smile with dimples and battered his big, unusual sapphire blue eyes. Planning for the future and making a bigger decision than what top he was going to wear or what snack he was going to grab were usually met with a sigh and stalling tactics.

  Not that Deak was much better, so they tended to drift along until something caught either of their attention and they settled on that. It worked for them.

  “I take it work let you go early,” Deakin said dryly.

  “Sure, we can go with that.” Ran slipped the headphones down to his shoulders. “Or, we could say I decided to review my options.”

  Tossing out that careless, dimpled grin had Deakin smiling in return and shaking his head.

  “Well, you can’t hang out here all day. I do have work to do. Why don’t you go see that wolf pack and mingle with the other shifters?”

  Yeah, that wasn’t going to happen. For as long as Deak had known his wolf shifter, he’d never known Ran to hang out with any other paranormals. He didn’t join packs or any groups, and when he did run into another creature, he just smiled, chatted, and moved on fast. Deak didn’t understand it as, from everything he’d heard and read, wolf shifters liked to live in packs, were more comfortable that way, and pined if they were alone.

  Ran would be what they termed a rogue. Rogues weren’t necessarily outcastes or hunted down by the law, rather they were creatures who didn’t mingle well with others, preferring to be by themselves and not join the usual groups.

  That was one of Ran’s quirks, and he never spoke much about his past. As far as Deakin knew from the little Ran told him, Ran had been alone until they met ten years ago. One time he’d mentioned a brother, but covered that up fairly quickly. What Ran did do was very rarely sleep talk. During one of those rare times, Deakin had learnt things that made his heart pound and keep his wolf close at all times.

  “Yeah, why don’t you go do that, pup?” A really big creature—definitely paranormal, something about him just screamed power and “other,” even to a little sort of human like Deakin—stood on the opposite side of the counter, staring hard at Ran.

  Ran just smiled without a care. “Not really my scene, Enforcer Charmers, but thanks for the suggestion.”

  “Wasn’t a suggestion. I was informed there was an altercation at the York Café. Want to tell me about it?”

  “No.”

  “That’s what I thought. How about this then, pup. You untangle your tongue, tell the truth, and I won’t make you get down off the counter and submit.”

  Deakin never really liked the power play of creatures much. It seemed barbaric, and, a lot of the time, brutal to him. Unfortunately, this was how the paranormal world worked, and when you were smack dab in the middle of a pack’s territory, you had to abide the rules. Deak had done some research on that so he understood and didn’t get him and Ran into trouble.

  Unfortunately, Ran had no such qualms. He wasn’t so good with rules, and though in an Alpha wolf’s territory, he didn’t swear allegiance. They had been “allowed” to move here and remain due to the fact they didn’t usually cause trouble, and Ran was supposed to either join the pack, or show deference and respect by communicating and staying in touch with them.

  “What exactly has Ran done to cause you to make him submit?” Deakin rose from his chair and walked over to the counter after he’d tapped the table three times, made sure all his pens and equipment were in a perfect line, and moved his chair just right.

  “Babe, do we need to get you some Prozac again? Or another few therapy sessions?” Ran was completely ignoring the mammoth wolf. “I’m sure you’ve obsessively saved enough money, and get all types of medical benefits working in this place to cover it—which reminds me, you should quit.”

  Deak had a minor panic attack. He gripped one hand to the front of his shirt, over his chest, and grabbed Ran’s ankle and squeezed it tight with the other.

  “Are you crazy?! This is the best job ever!” Deak wheezed.

  “I’ve told you before, quietly love your job. That means don’t go hyperventilating and telling everyone how much you love it. It makes you look a little nerdy. Like, for real, man, who wants to be a records officer?!”

  Deak just wheezed a bit more and, getting his asthma spray, took a couple of puffs, then pointed the thing at his mate.

  “Worst…mate…ever.” He wheezed, coughed, and felt better. “What did you lose your job over this time?”

  “It wasn’t my fault.” Ran gave an award winning smile.

  Sighing, Deak just shook his head. “Of course not.”

  “Actually, it wasn’t all his fault.” The huge wolf shifter grunted.

  Having forgotten the creature was there, Deak blinked at him. “Huh?”

  “You need to come with me, pup. We don’t tolerate sexual assault in this town—”

  “Oh my Gods! Ran wouldn’t assault anyone!” Deakin grabbed his mate and pulled. Ran tumbled off the counter and fell to the floor, grunting. “He barely touches
me, let alone anyone else!”

  “Hey! I touch you all the time and ow!”

  Enforcer Charmers just looked exasperated. “Settle down, both of you. Your mate walked out of his job today after being sexually harassed and assaulted. He needs to come to the police station to file charges, and then to the pack lands.”

  “Forget it.” Ran stood and dusted himself off.

  It was then Deakin noticed the bruise around Ran’s throat. It looked like a hand print, but not quite, and there was a bit of a cut there also.

  “Ran? Did someone hurt you? Okay, okay, um, I’ll take you to the hospital, then we’ll go to the police station and—”

  “Hey, calm down, I’m fine. I may be a runt, but I’m still a wolf. I’ll heal up quick, and, no, Enforcer Charmers is mistaken—”

  “Look. There are two ways we can do this. You come with me now to the police station, file the report, and after, we go to pack lands and get you established with the pack. The Alpha read the report Detective Croggen did up from eye witnesses and we see this isn’t the first time there’s been an incident.” The Enforcer’s eyes pierced Deakin. “Your landlord in the last town began harassing you, right? So this is obviously a reoccurring theme. But, as I said, we don’t tolerate that type of shit here in the Valley, so you two need to be protected—”

  “I don’t need protecting,” Ran groused. “Just because I’m a runt doesn’t mean I need anyone to protect me, understand? I don’t want or need a pack, I never have. Deakin and I are fine. Thanks for your concern and I will consider pressing charges.”