Broken Heart 09 Only Lycans Need Apply Read Online Free PDF Page A

bow.
    Moira’s nightmares are . . . forays into memory and madness. Level Ten crazy.
    I know she takes sleeping pills to avoid them. And I know there have been times, though rare, when she has not, and she has witnessed the results of my own forays into sleep’s dark realms. But I do not choose to escape bad dreams. I know my sins. I will not look away from them.
    Moira is very smart, but she runs from the monsters that inhabit her past. I want to tell her that the monsters will come no matter where you hide. They will crawl under your bed, slip into your closet, creep under your covers. They will find you. And destroy you . . . unless you destroy them first.
    Rumors chase Moira to this day. She lost her mind when she was fourteen. She went into an asylum for months until the day her grandfather scooped her out of that place and dragged her to the desert. Everyone within a hundred-mile radius of the college knows this about her.
    Ax told me a little more about what happened. Not many details, though. He’s not much for talking. And I don’t know why he shared anything at all about Moira. He’s very protective of her. Besides, Moira doesn’t hide who she is; she doesn’t pretend the world doesn’t know she was insane in the membrane for a while. But neither does she invite you into her space—not her home, not her head, not her heart.
    But not for the same reasons.



Chapter 3
    Drake
    “T he desert sucks. I don’t think I’m ever gonna get the sand out of my underwear.”
    Unsurprisingly, this exclamation arrived from Jessica, the mate of Patrick O’Halloran, both vampires and both my good friends. I smiled at Jess. She had volunteered for this trip into the Sudan because her children were grown: Her daughter was in college and her son was a successful journalist who didn’t spend a lot of time in the United States.
    Jessica was also extremely proficient with the double swords her husband had gifted her with during their courtship, and she was a fierce warrior. I liked having her protecting my backside.
    There were six of us: myself, my brother Darrius, Jessica, Patrick, Eva, and Lorcan. Lorcan and Patrick were twins, and their biological father, Ruadan, also happened to be the first vampire ever. Vampire families had different abilities depending on their Family lineage. Jessica, Patrick, and Lorcan had the ability to fly. Eva had the extraordinary gift of being able to glamour—beyond what most vampires could do. She was also very emotionally in tune with animalkind. I had witnessed many love matches, especially in the town of Broken Heart, Oklahoma, where we were headquartered. It always seemed a process that brought as much pain as it did pleasure. I did not really understand falling in love—nor why anyone would choose it. Jessica told me that sometimes love chooses you . . . and beats you into bloody submission.
    My conclusion: Love is messy, contrary, and chaotic. And to be avoided.
    I enjoyed passion, but love? That seemed to be far too much trouble. Look at my brother Darrius, who still pined for a woman dead many years. And our older brother, Damian, ensnared by a lovely woman who bore him a son and daughter. Tragic, really.
    I am, of course, completely in love with Kelsey and my niece and nephew. If Damian were not king of the werewolves, I may have killed him for his family.
    But though I am second in line to rule the werewolves, I would rather be tossed into a pit of scorpions than have his job.
    Speaking of scorpions . . .
    “Holy freaking crap!” squeaked Jessica, apparently forgetting she was a vampire, deadly with swords, and wearing thick-soled boots. She jumped into her husband’s arms, and Patrick laughed before foot-shooing the creature out of the cave where we all crouched. Below us was the campsite of Moira Jameson and company. We had been sent as a protection detail—at least partially.
    We were here at the behest of Queen Patsy Marchand, who had her hands full with four