Nail 'Em (Jailbreak Book 2) Read online

  Nail ‘Em

  Sam Hall

  Contents

  Stalk me!

  Author Note

  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

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  What next?

  Stalk me!

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Nail ‘Em

  Nail ‘Em © Sam Hall 2020

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except for in the case of brief quotations for the use in critical articles or reviews.

  Cover art and design by Mibl Art

  The characters and events depicted in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  Created with Vellum

  Stalk me!

  Stalk me!

  Facebook author group: Sam’s Hall of Heroines

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  Author Note

  This book is written in Australian English, which is a weird lovechild of British and American English. We tend to spell things the way the Brits do (expect a lot more u’s), yet also use American slang and swear more than both combined.

  While many people have gone over this book, trying to find all the typos and other mistakes, they just keep on popping up like bloody rabbits. If you spot one, don’t report it to Amazon, drop me an email at the below address so I can fix the issue.

  [email protected]

  Chapter 1

  I was in a foreign country for the first time in my life, in a beautifully appointed room in the alpha’s residence with a stunning view of the Wyoming bush—not bush. They called it something else here, but it was all snow-covered mountains and pine forests and massive skies when I’d bothered to look. It should’ve been the experience of a lifetime, but instead, I lay buried under a pile of blankets, watching the shadows play on the wall until my mind drifted.

  “What’s wrong with her? She’s…”

  I wasn’t in bed anymore, I was with him.

  Zane scrubbed at his scalp, ruffling all that beautiful black hair. “She’s a shadow of the butt kicking badass I saw in the cages. She’s…collapsing in on herself.”

  I saw the room they stood in, all white walls and stainless steel benches, and wondered how my mate could stand it. Seeing the clinical setting had me curling in over my belly tighter.

  “So I appreciate your concern for your mate. The bond is new, right?” a woman in a white coat said. She had that fresh-faced, well put together look of a healthcare professional. Her tone was carefully empathetic yet upbeat.

  “It’s been days,” he replied, looking down at his hands.

  “OK, so from what you and the alpha’s heir have told me, she went through some extreme states where her endocrine system was thrown into overdrive. The adrenals control your blood pressure, blood sugar, metabolism, sex drive, adaptability to stress…” She trailed off with a smile when she saw Zane frown. “It’s pivotal to our survival, and hers were… We’ll need to get a solid baseline to try and work out what’s been done to her.” A growl formed in my throat as I watched her reach out and place a hand on his arm, just a glancing pat before returning to her computer screen, but my growl just kept on coming.

  I could hear my blood pumping in my ears, the beat erratic and skittish, but I wasn’t scared. “Mine!” I snarled, and in my mind’s eye, I saw Zane’s head jerk up. He got to his feet in the next moment, moving towards the door.

  “Mr Ramirez! We really need to get these tests done to—”

  “Later, Doc,” he said with a wave and strode out the door.

  I shifted under the bedclothes, my fingers clawing at the mattress, my skin feeling like a million pin pricks were being applied at once, until the door slammed open.

  “It’s OK, baby,” he crooned, throwing himself down on the bed and scrambling to get close as my whines got louder and louder, until his hot skin pressed against mine. I felt the rasp of his stubble as he rubbed the scent glands on his jaw over me, and the heavy incense smell of him filled my nose as he did so, draining the tension in my spine. My fingers didn’t loosen though as I clung to his chest, feeling like I was getting only half of the equation.

  Because I was.

  My skin hunger, the need for the feel of my mate’s body against mine, roared into life in Zane’s presence, but he was one of two. The slick I produced was pitiful now, my body too weak to do much more, so I took what comfort I could get, burrowing into the arms of a near stranger.

  “Zane…Zane…”

  I panted his name, starting to feel my heart rate slow again, the tension leaching out as he began to purr, and the low vibration resonated through my entire body at a cellular level.

  “It’s all right, cariño,” he said between purrs, stroking his hand through my hair. “It’s all right.”

  “I’m sorry,” he said when I settled, not letting him loosen his hold. My arms wrapped around his neck, my legs tangled with his, and I felt the long sweep of his hand on my back. “It hurts, doesn’t it?”

  I looked up, tears filling my eyes. He was right, what he’d said to the doctor—none of the badass was left. There was just me, a husk, a discarded rind, my only purpose the seed inside me, slowly taking root.

  “You don’t have to say it. I feel it, Shannon, right in here.”

  He lifted my hand and placed it on his sternum, his eyes fading to yellow as he stared at me. His eyes scanned my face like he’d store all the details away for later, just watching me until I buried my face in his chest.

  I was wrapped up in a cocoon of Zane, his scent, the feel of his body, the fall of his hair, the touch of his lips against my forehead, the answering ache inside him. Zane, Zane, Zane, my senses screamed as I dived in.

  It wasn’t an entirely comfortable thing, just another unsafe place to hide, but while there was confusion and fear and a feeling of dislocation, overwhelmingly, there was something shifters had that humans seemed to lack—a rock-hard certainty. I was his. His beast shifted restlessly at the thought of anyone getting between us, even the doctor. I could feel it as if it was inside me, a black velvet creature with lamp-like eyes, his lips curling back in tiny nervous snarls. He knew something was wrong, but his human side couldn’t solve it and neither could he. So he held me close and stroked me and hoped to all his ancestors that help was on the way.

  When I woke up again, moonlight streamed through the glass and I found Zane watching it blearily. I couldn’t look away from the way it cast his face silver, revealing the dramatic bone structure, all hollows and harsh planes.

  “Hey,”
he said when he saw I’d opened my eyes. “Come with me.”

  “What?” I asked, feeling the fear tighten my spine.

  “No, not like that. C’mon.” He drew me close and held me against his chest. “We’re going outside.”

  “I can’t,” I replied, curling up in the bed.

  “Sure you can. Don’t swap one cage for another, Shannon. You…” His eyes dropped down, but they returned to meet mine quickly enough. “You said you’d stroke my fur in the moonlight. Well, the moon’s up.” His voice was hopeful, encouraging, but still, I stared. “Look, you’re gonna have over one hundred and fifty pounds of jaguar at your side. Ain’t nuthin’ getting to my mate, especially not in beast form. I can protect you now. I can keep you safe and make sure—”

  “Yes.”

  The word was out of my mouth quickly, to stop the pain I saw on his face and that I felt in his heart, to stop the memories of that place coming back. He was right—I did owe him this.

  “Well, OK. Put this on. It’s cold outside.”

  Zane dressed me like a child, pulling an oversized jumper over my head and slippers on my feet, and I let him. Because I was tired to the bone, despite sleeping most of the day, but mostly because it felt good. I felt his hands, this veritable stranger’s touches, but that’s not what it felt like. It felt like home. Somehow, the bite, what we’d done together, it’d built an instant bond. I needed to find myself in that, but not right now. Now, I was a small rock in a reassuring stream of pleasure. He hadn’t thought I would say yes, hadn’t really anticipated this.

  I stopped him with a hand on his cheek, his eyes flicking up warily.

  “Ask me for what you need,” I said, proud of my voice when it stayed stable. “I didn’t…I didn’t take you as my mate just because of the heat.” That was a partial lie, but I couldn’t live now with it being the truth. “This has been so rushed, but no matter what I’m going through, I made this decision, and unless you hurt me or my child, I’m committed to making this work.”

  He watched me, eyes flicking as he scoured my face for evidence of the veracity of my words. It took him some time, but eventually, he nodded, something terribly vulnerable in his expression. His breath came out in a rush, a smile forming.

  “I can’t hurt you, Shannon. No matter what my fucking human brain wants, my beast is on me before the shit comes out of my mouth. My mom always told me this would happen. I’d meet a nice girl, and all the fucking poison inside me would leach out. I just didn’t think I’d meet her in a prison, y’know?” He moved closer, slowly, carefully, but when he did, his hand slid into my hair, around my neck, and he tugged me to him. “I’m yours, cariño, whether you want me or not. I guess I’m just hoping that you do.”

  I thought he was going to kiss me, and my traitorous lips were aching for just that, but his hand trailed down my back and he steered me out the bedroom door and into the alpha’s house.

  The place was quiet as the grave, so it must’ve been the middle of the night. We walked downstairs like shadows, not making a sound, with only the moon for company. He led me out the massive glass doors that opened onto the huge deck at the back of the place. I paused at the threshold, feeling the moonlight as a tangible presence on my skin, and took a deep breath before stepping outside.

  I think part of the reason why I didn’t want to leave the room was this—out here, I could feel the distance between Jai and I. The air felt different on my skin, smelled of pine needles and cold, wet stone. The way it tugged at my hair, the hush of a breeze trailing through evergreens, the shadowy rise of the mountain ranges all told me I wasn’t there, home. I didn’t have my dogs, my house, my friends, my love… What had happened to Nick? I never did work that out. Did he die screaming with the others, or did he take a job at the local supermarket? And what about Janey? What had they done with her when they’d kept her locked up? I’d run like the rabbit I was before I could find any of this out.

  “Hey, you’re shivering,” Zane said, wrapping his arms around me. I closed my eyes at that warm, grounding weight. He’d gone from the boy voted least likely to be emotionally supportive to uber boyfriend in a switch that made my head spin, but I couldn’t care about that when he held me. It was as if all this hot, hot sweetness had been protected by a cage of snark, and me, in my clumsy game playing, had unwittingly unlocked it. I felt his lips on my neck, his nose in my hair, and tears leaked from my eyes as he did so.

  I did not deserve this, this gentleness, this care, this lo—

  I forced that thought to end abruptly. That was too far for me right now. I put my hand over his, rubbing his hot skin, feeling the corded muscles of his forearms, and tried to memorise their shape and forget about the others I’d left behind. Zane didn’t deserve that. He was here with me, attempting to snap me out of my despair, ready and willing to help. He deserved more than a mate that was comatose with longing for another guy.

  When I shifted in his arms, I felt it—a shadow of the heat that’d come when I claimed him as mine. This was more like sitting in front of a fire on a cold night, rather than being burned from within. He watched my every move, my stranger-slash-mate, so careful, so vigilant. From what I understood, taking a mate was the most intense experience a shifter had, and I felt like a bitch for fucking that up for him. He pushed my chin up when it dropped.

  “Hey, I don’t have your ability to read minds and shit, but I can tell when you’re beating yourself up. Don’t. You got us out, Shannon. You fucking saved us. You were this motherfucking warrior queen who smashed those fucks like bugs. You’re exhausted, you’re grieving, you’re aching, baby. No one expects you to be otherwise. We went through hell and we came out the other side. That’s gonna take some time to adjust.”

  His kiss, when he pressed it to my forehead, was soft and sweet.

  “I’m not letting you go while that happens. You saved me, now I’m looking after my mate. So c’mon.”

  My mind was a daze when he took my hand and drew me down the steps that took us to the grounds of the alpha residence, a curious thrumming inside me keeping me warm and secure as we did so. That’s Zane, I thought, my brows creasing. Whatever was in him filled me up, took away that awful fucking ache, even if it was just for now. I was able to pad out onto the grass, look around at the towering trees, and then at Zane as he started to pull his clothes off.

  He paused for a second as if checking to see if I was OK, noting the way my eyes took in the hard lines of his chest—a chest I’d spent a helluva lot of time pressed against. A brief flash of that same body stripping down in the institute overlaid the silvery one in front of me, his hand moving down to palm that hard—

  “This gonna be OK? I’m only in skin for a second.”

  “I felt your cock inside me long after we mated,” I said, the words somehow sharp and biting. “You can get naked around me. I won’t faint away.”

  He nodded but didn’t look entirely happy about it, yanking down his sweatpants and stepping free of them.

  Zane was beautiful, just standing there in the night air for a moment, all hard lines and muscles, and then he was beautiful in fur. Those golden eyes swung to meet mine as he ambled over.

  I knew he was a jaguar. I knew he was this magnificent beast, but my heart went to my throat when that big broad head shoved itself under my palm. Tears pricked my eyes as I felt the warm plush pile of his fur. Tears, always tears. I let a few fall on the ground and then dropped down myself, throwing my arms around his neck. I’d buried my face in the necks of my dogs before but never an animal like this. I heard his chuffs, felt his head bunts as I did so, my fingers digging in to keep a hold of him.

  “I didn’t think you’d come.”

  Zane surged forward, putting himself between me and the interloper, a low snarl rattling in his chest, but I knew who it was when I saw those silver eyes in the dark. It was odd, seeing the shadowy bulk, that confident prowl, those shining eyes. Two men stood before me, one real, one remembered, and I wiped my eyes furiousl
y as I stared.

  “Caleb.”

  I said his name to reorientate me, to bring me back to the here and now, and as I did, he stepped into a fall of moonlight. When I saw that shaggy sandy hair, the beard trimmed, I knew him for who he was.

  “Your mate didn’t want me to come,” he said by way of explanation, his eyes dropping down to Zane. “But she’s mine as well.” He took a step closer to the musical sound of Zane’s growls.

  “Zane…”

  I put a hand on his shoulder, feeling him flinch then relax when he knew it was me. I just stroked that fur in long sweeps to settle him and me.

  “He said it’d hurt you to see me. That it’d remind you too much of Jai.”

  “He was right,” I said, smiling ruefully. “But that doesn’t necessarily mean you should avoid me. I made a decision.” I stared at the ground between our feet. “Now, I have to learn to live with that.”

  “Good,” he said, skirting Zane, giving him a wide berth before taking his place on my other side. He held out a hand to me, and I took it. My jaguar took a look at this and huffed his response, then padded off down a track, with us following behind him.