Xanthe's Choice [Grey River 6] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Read online

  Grey River 6

  Xanthe’s Choice

  Dane Smith and Hunter Reed are lion shifters, who have been battling the fact that they have a mating bond between them that shouldn't exist. Meeting Xanthe White and recognizing her as theirs now makes it impossible for them to ignore it any longer. At first she thinks that it's just Dane and Hunter who are fated, but it soon becomes apparent that all three are destined for each other.

  Despite her past, Xanthe has made a home in Grey River. Under the impression that they were helping her to reunite with her sister, Dane and Hunter place Xanthe right in the path of the very danger she was hiding from. Just as the three of them are finally on the same page, someone from Xanthe’s childhood poses a threat.

  Dane and Hunter know they must keep her safe, but by the time they are able to pinpoint where the danger is coming from, it just might be too late.

  Genre: Ménage a Trois/Quatre, Paranormal, Shape-shifter

  Length: 57,559 words

  XANTHE’S CHOICE

  Grey River 6

  Maia Dylan

  MENAGE AMOUR

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  ABOUT THE E-BOOK YOU HAVE PURCHASED: Your non-refundable purchase of this e-book allows you to only ONE LEGAL copy for your own personal reading on your own personal computer or device. You do not have resell or distribution rights without the prior written permission of both the publisher and the copyright owner of this book. This book cannot be copied in any format, sold, or otherwise transferred from your computer to another through upload to a file sharing peer to peer program, for free or for a fee, or as a prize in any contest. Such action is illegal and in violation of the U.S. Copyright Law. Distribution of this e-book, in whole or in part, online, offline, in print or in any way or any other method currently known or yet to be invented, is forbidden. If you do not want this book anymore, you must delete it from your computer.

  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.

  If you find a Siren-BookStrand e-book being sold or shared illegally, please let us know at

  [email protected]

  A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK

  IMPRINT: Ménage Amour

  XANTHE’S CHOICE

  Copyright © 2015 by Maia Dylan

  E-book ISBN: 978-1-63259-813-4

  First E-book Publication: October 2015

  Cover design by Harris Channing

  All art and logo copyright © 2015 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 Xanthe’s Choice by Maia Dylan 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 Maia Dylan’s livelihood. It’s fair and simple. Please respect Maia Dylan’s right to earn a living from her work.

  Amanda Hilton, Publisher

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  www.BookStrand.com

  DEDICATION

  This book is dedicated to sisters everywhere. I am lucky enough to have two older sisters whom I love and adore. They have taught me a lot in the last forty years, and I wouldn’t be the woman I am today without their love and support. They love my kids, and share their lives with them, and the connection I have with them is like no other. D and D, this one is for you!

  And it is also for my hubby, who continues to be my provider of words when I can’t find the right one.

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  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

  About the Author

  XANTHE’S CHOICE

  Grey River 6

  MAIA DYLAN

  Copyright © 2015

  Chapter 1

  “Come on, Xanthe! Read his mind and tell me what he is thinking!” her father roared, and Xanthe fought down the urge to throw up due to the pain ricocheting behind her eyes.

  Gritting her teeth, she sent her psychic mind further toward the man sitting across the table from her, and she choked down on the scream of pain that threatened to burst from within her. Xanthe knew that if she started to scream, she wouldn’t be able to stop and that would be a problem. It would definitely mean a punishment for her, and just out of spite, it would most likely mean one for Melaina, too. And that was not something she was prepared to cause. Not again. Because Father always made Melaina suffer more than her.

  Just when she thought she would have to admit to her father that she could hear nothing and that the treatment had failed again, muted moving colors began to form within her mind. Like a pixelated image coming into focus, the colors began to sharpen and then formed moving pictures, like a movie playing clearly just for her. What she saw had Xanthe’s fear rising swiftly, with a heart rate to match. Whoever this man was that her father had brought to test her was thinking about her. He was imagining doing things to her that a man really shouldn’t be picturing doing to a sixteen-year-old girl.

  When the images started to involve him using a knife to cut her while he forced her to do things that made her stomach turn, she felt tears begin to slide down her cheeks. She looked at her father, almost afraid of what his reaction would be. He would either be furious that this man would think such disgusting and perverted things about his young daughter, or he would be elated that the treatments were starting to work. In all honesty, Xanthe wasn’t sure which would be worse.

  “Well?” His voice rang with excitement, and a crazed gleam shone in his eye that had her heart pounding. She decided that if nothing else, she could remain true to herself and tell the truth.

  “I can’t hear what he is saying exactly, but I can see images, Poppa.” Xanthe fought to control the tremor in her voice. “He is thinking about … touching me, and hu-hu-hurting me.” Despite her desire to remain strong, her voice had dropped away to a whisper.

  “Is that true, Rico?” her father asked as he whirled to face the other man in the room. “Is that what you were thinking?”

  “It is,” the man called Rico drawled, and when Xanthe raised her gaze back to the man, his eyes glittered with an emotion she was unfamiliar with, but it made her skin crawl. As did the way he looked her
up and down. “Your daughter is a very pretty little girl. Hell, Aristos, both your daughters could fetch me a great price if I were to offer them to my clientele.”

  “Ah, Rico.” Her father crossed his arms and looked at the man almost affectionately. “If she had not been able to perform today, then that would have been something I would have willingly entertained. But now that I know I am on the right track, she is far too valuable to let go. I can only imagine how powerful she will become with more treatments.”

  Xanthe shuddered at the word treatment. For her it meant needles, being lashed to a hospital bed, and pumped full of chemicals that made it feel as if someone were flaying her skin from her body.

  “I know people would pay handsomely for a chance to be the first to take her,” Rico said as he reached into his jacket pocket and withdrew a cigar, offering it to her father, who took it. “You know as well as I do that the physical body can endure a lot without it affecting them psychologically. She could make us both a lot of money for one night and then return here to your compound to continue her—how did you put it?—treatments.”

  Xanthe wasn’t an idiot. Her father was standing there smoking a cigar with a man who effectively wanted to pimp her out to other men, and that was something she most definitely did not want any part of. Careful not to make too much noise or call too much attention to herself, she started to scuttle backward toward the door.

  What was she doing?

  Her father’s men were right outside the door and beyond that there were more guards, some with dogs, and a really high fence with electricity running through it. Effectively there was nowhere to go, if in fact she could manage to actually get out of the room. Despite those odds, she found that preferable to being ‘offered’ to anyone.

  “Xanthe.” Her father sighed as he turned in her direction, not as preoccupied with Rico as she had hoped. “You know as well as I do that even if you made it out the door, you would not make it out of the compound. You would also press my hand and make me take your disobedience and ungrateful behavior out on your sister. Is that what you want?”

  Oh God, no. That was the last thing she wanted.

  “No, Poppa,” Xanthe whispered and hung her head, praying harder than she had ever prayed in her life. Praying for the strength to stand there and listen to her father and Rico plan the moment she would lose her virginity. Praying that her sister would not suffer the same fate, and that Xanthe would be able to spare her from this. Praying that her father would be suddenly struck with paternal instincts that would tell him that this was wrong.

  Then she heard her father speak, and knew that her prayers had gone unanswered yet again.

  “Then we are in agreement. You may take her now before I start her next treatment, and she will be returned to me in thirty-six hours.”

  Xanthe turned to run, her whole body screaming, shamed with the knowledge that the man she had called Father all her life had just effectively sold her virginity to the highest bidder. She made it as far as reaching for the door handle before a hand in her hair brought her to a swift and painful stop.

  Whimpering, she lifted her hands to grip the wrist of whoever it was who had a hold of her, pain slicing across her scalp. Sobbing, she tried to claw the hand to get it to release her. But when all the action brought was a swift hard yank that had her crying out, she stopped and simply tried to pull the hand closer to her head to lessen the pain.

  “There is fight in you, little girl.” Rico spoke close to her ear and she cringed when she felt his teeth press into her ear lobe. “I do so love a girl with spirit. I might just keep you to myself for the next thirty-six hours. What do you think of that, huh, little Xanthe? I will fuck you so many times that you will present yourself to me like a good little whore with just a look. You won’t need to read my fucking mind to know exactly what I want.”

  “Xanthe!” Melaina’s voice sounded in her head, and Xanthe jolted at the sound. Not an image, but the actual sound of her voice in Xanthe’s head. She had never heard her sister in her mind. Before she could answer her, or at least attempt to, she heard gunshots outside the room. Xanthe froze at the sound, just as Rico released her, pushing her to the ground.

  “What the fuck is this, Aristos!” Rico yelled as he moved away from her. Xanthe crawled away as fast as she could and didn’t stop until she had made it behind a large leather armchair with her back against the wall. She peered around the chair, watching to see what was happening.

  “Me? My men would only ever fire in defense of themselves or of me. Who did you bring with you, bástardos?” Xanthe watched as the two men began to fight. She stayed where she was as the gunfire outside the room got closer. Rico roared as he tackled her father to the ground and she almost cheered him on before she remembered who he was and what plans he had for her.

  Just then the door seemed to implode with a crash, showering the room with splinters of wood. Three men dressed in military garb whom she did not recognize stormed into the room. They spoke in a language she was unfamiliar with. Rico leapt to his feet to respond in the same language. From the way he seemed to hold his hands out imploringly, he was trying to reason with them. All three laughed before shooting him repeatedly. Xanthe pressed her hand over her mouth hard, trying desperately not to make a sound.

  One of the men who had shot him leaned down to press a hand to Rico’s neck. He grinned back at the other two and said something that had them all cheering. Then all three of them turned to leave, but not before spitting on the man they had just killed. After that, there were a few more bursts of gunfire and shouting, then an explosion that shook the building.

  Xanthe scrambled up from behind the chair and was running toward the door when she heard a pained moan. Frowning, she looked back and saw her father moving on the floor where he lay on his side. Determined to keep her distance, she walked around the room until she could see his face, but wasn’t close enough for him to touch her. She gasped when she saw the blood that had turned his crisp white shirt red and was currently pooling in front of him.

  “Xanthe,” he groaned, blood bubbling at the side of his mouth. “Get help. Quickly!”

  Nodding, she ran into the corridor and stopped. From her right, where the laboratories and servants’ quarters were, black smoke was billowing into the hallway. Xanthe froze, expecting to see more of her father’s guards running from that area of the house, but no one came. The bodies of the two guards who had been stationed outside his office were both lying in the corridor and neither of them moved. And in that moment, Xanthe made a decision. This was her chance, her one opportunity to get her and her sister the hell out of this compound.

  Choking down on her fear, Xanthe turned in the opposite direction of the smoke and sprinted for her sister’s room. She didn’t have the code for the door but she would kick the thing down if she had to. She heard the sound of a helicopter starting up on the roof helipad, but didn’t stop running.

  As she ran around the corner that led to her sister’s room, she faltered. Even from the end of the corridor, she could see that Melaina’s door stood wide open. She started to sob as she neared the door and she could hardly reconcile the sounds she was making as human, let alone as hers. Sliding to a halt in the room, her worst fears were confirmed.

  Melaina was gone.

  Chapter 2

  Dane Smith sat up and stretched in the hospital chair. He had been sitting for so long in the damn thing he feared it might actually have to be surgically removed from his ass. He or his partner and best friend Hunter Reed had been in this chair and in this room so many times over the past four months, he was contemplating offering to pay rent. They had gotten to know many of the Grey River community since they had started visiting Xanthe. Despite only having been in Grey River for a year, Xanthe had made a lot of friends, and many of them made time in their day to pop in and see her even when she was still in her coma.

  Thankfully she had come out of that coma a month ago and was making great progress. He and Hunte
r still spent much of their time in that hospital room, but the fact that Xanthe was now awake and out of the woods medically made them a shitload happier. Xanthe had been attacked the night a good friend of hers had been kidnapped. The bastard had thrown her through a large wooden display in her store that caused the swelling on her brain that induced the coma.

  Dane would forever view that night as the best and worst of his life to date. The best because he and Hunter met their Fated mate, but the worst because she was injured, bleeding, and they never had the opportunity to kill the fucker who had done it. Now they were all about the future, their future, and that meant moving here.

  Hunter was currently travelling back to Grey River having handled the sale of their place in Dallas, and he was due back sometime that night. He had been gone for the past week but there had been almost constant calls and texts between the three of them. Dane loved how Xanthe’s eyes would light up when Hunter Skyped them and she could see his face.

  “Melaina!” The sound of Xanthe screaming broke through Dane’s thoughts and he shot out of his chair, dropping his iPad to the floor.

  “Xanthe!” Dane said as he crossed to the side of the bed in one stride. He dropped the side rail so he could sit on the bed. Xanthe was still screaming that name, struggling to sit up, but hadn’t even opened her eyes yet. “Xanthe, baby, come back to me!”

  He gently pressed her back onto the mattress, not wanting her to hurt herself if she got up from the bed. When she continued to struggle, he pulled her up and into his arms, surrounding her with as much of him as he could, hoping that at least some portion of her would recognize him and it would help to calm her down.