Savage Retribution Read online

  Table of Contents

  Excerpt

  Savage Retribution

  Blurb

  Prologue

  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

  Epilogue

  Preview another book by this author

  Note from Lexxie

  eBooks by Lexxie Couper

  Lexxie recommends … Renee George

  Excerpt

  Spotting an empty space not more than a few yards from Rick’s practice, she swung the van in, bumping the front wheel to the curb with a clumsy jolt. Declan moaned softly, already-closed eyes closing tighter as pain etched his features anew. “Sorry, Paddy,” she murmured, jumping from the driver’s seat. She hurried around to the curb, studying the area around her with quick glances before opening the passenger door. She didn’t know what she expected, but every fiber of her being told her to be on edge. Alert.

  “Need help?”

  She spun around, eyes wide, muscles coiled. “Rick,” she gasped, slumping against the van’s side, glaring at the tall man with light brown hair frowning at her on the sidewalk. “You scared the shit out of me.”

  Rick’s eyebrows shot up, fudge-brown eyes immediately concerned. “You really are in trouble, aren’t you?”

  Regan scrubbed at her face with her hands. “You could say that,” she answered into her palms. Pushing herself from the van, she stared long and hard at Rick. How the hell did she explain the last seventeen hours to him? She suppressed a sigh, reaching for the passenger’s side door handle. “No questions, okay?”

  Before he could answer, she opened the door.

  Declan slumped in the seat, sweat-slicked face white, slight shudders wracking his body, blood—both old and new—staining his pale, clammy flesh.

  “What the fuck?” Rick gasped beside Regan.

  Declan rolled his head to the side, glassy-eyed gaze slipping from Regan to the man beside her. “Ná bain di, tuilí.”

  “It’s okay, Declan,” she said softly, leaning across his body to unclip the seatbelt holding him upright. Blazing heat radiated from him in waves. Sick, insidious heat she knew all too well accompanied sick, insidious pain. Regan’s stomach clenched and she quickened her pace, not wanting to send any jolting movements into his fevered limbs but knowing she raced the clock. “I’m here.”

  Delirious, grey eyes slid to her. “Run. Get away. I’m sorry. I never meant…” His eyelids fluttered closed and a grimace scrunched up his face. “Scaoil í.”

  “Jesus, Regan.” Rick jumped forward, helping her remove Declan from the van. He wrapped one strong arm around his back, hefting him from the seat to the sidewalk. “What the fuck is…”

  Declan stiffened, a suddenly lucid stare locking onto Rick. “Bain di agus réabfaidh mé do scornach.”

  “I’ve no fucking idea what you’re saying, mate,” Rick muttered, hitching Declan further up his side with the gentle skill of a person used to moving large creatures in agony. “But I hope it’s thank you.”

  A sharp groan burst from Declan’s dry lips, his eyes squeezed shut and he slumped forward again. Another wave a violent shudders took possession of his body, the short length of chain attached to the shackle on his wrist rattling with each.

  Rick looked at Regan, his level stare speaking volumes—I want answers—before he turned and walked slowly toward the open door of his clinic, carrying most of Declan’s weight with him.

  Savage Retribution

  Savage Australis, Book 1

  Lexxie Couper

  Published 2016 by Book Boutiques.

  ISBN: 978-1-944003-32-6

  Copyright © 2016, Lexxie Couper.

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of Book Boutiques.

  This book is a work of fiction. Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, locales, or events is wholly coincidental. The names, characters, dialogue, and events in this book are from the author’s imagination and should not to be construed as real.

  Manufactured in the USA.

  Email [email protected] with questions, or inquiries about Book Boutiques.

  Blurb

  An animal rights activist is about to get a crash course in werewolves. One she may not survive.

  Lone Irish werewolf Declan O'Connell has lost everything--his family, his clan, even his freedom--to his arch-rival, Nathan Epoc. The head of an underground werewolf clan and a brilliant scientist, Epoc plans to use Declan to create a super-wolf, a creature capable of shifting the balance of power in the lycanthrope world. But Epoc's plans are about to be thwarted.

  Regan Thomas, a determined animal rights activist, rescues what she thinks is an ordinary wolf from his notorious animal testing facility in Sydney, Australia. She gets more than she bargained for when the wolf turns into an extremely hunky, extremely naked man who immediately drags her into a world where the clash between two opposing werewolf clans could spell the end of humankind.

  Declan has survived without a clan for more years than he cares to remember, but sexy Regan stirs up all his fierce, alpha-wolf instincts. Now Declan has one last chance at revenge. But can he keep Regan alive, and resist the overwhelming attraction between them, long enough to stop Epoc?

  Summer in Australia has never been this hot... or this dangerous.

  Previously Published

  (2008) Samhain Publishing

  Dedication

  For my husband, who knew I could do it and told me so every day. The keys to the Ferrari are getting closer, Sexy Man.

  To Heidi Moore, who has been with me from the beginning of Declan’s story and beyond…I couldn’t have done it without you.

  Acknowledgements

  Cover Artist: Valerie Tibbs, Tibbs Design

  Prologue

  Dublin—Four Months Ago

  The stink of sex, sin and death seeped into Declan O’Connell’s nostrils, overripe and acrid all at once. His lips curled into a silent snarl and he stepped deeper into the dank, dim building, the hair on his nape prickling.

  This is not right.

  The thought sent a ripple of tension through his already tight muscles. It wasn’t right. The whole night hadn’t been right; the anonymous tip about his sister’s killer, the insistence he be here—at this place—at this time, the derelict, abandoned condition of the building. It didn’t add up.

  McCoy’s not here, Dec. Shit, he’s never been here. You can’t even smell him on the air. Face it—this was a set up. And you’ve just walked right into it.

  The snarl on his lips turned into a low growl and he felt the muscles in his body begin to coil tighter. Stretch. Grow.

  Change.

  Teeth grinding, Declan forced back the beast, denying it control of his body. He didn’t know who had brought him here under false pretence—more than one person wanted him dead, and not all of them knew what he truly was. Better to walk out of the situation, not lope out on all fours.

  A soft sound—barely louder than the snap of a dry blade of grass—shattered the silence of the derelict brothel and Declan froze.

  He wasn’t alone. Someone was—

  The dark blur hit him from the left. Hard.

  Something large and heavy crashed him to the ground. Teeth, long, sharp and slick with saliva, snapped at his f
ace. He was barreled across the debris-strewn floor, chunks of concrete and shards of broken glass grinding into his knees and elbows, biting into his flesh even through the leather of his jacket. His favorite Levi’s tore but he didn’t give a rat’s ass. Not with a fucking huge, black wolf trying to tear his throat out.

  The animal lashed out, razor-sharp teeth missing his neck by a hair’s width. Declan felt hot saliva splatter his cheek. He struggled on his back, pinned to the crap-covered floor by the wolf’s writhing, savage weight. The stench of urine attacked his breath, invaded his senses with the mark of an animal Declan had tasted before.

  His eyes snapped wide open, locked on the burning, iridescent gold stare of the wolf attacking him.

  You!

  The word formed in Declan’s head. Cold. Furious.

  Seconds before the beast in his own blood roared into existence and he changed. Human muscle into canine. Man into wolf.

  He bucked the animal off him, snapping at its soft underbelly as it flipped and twisted to the side. Warm, coppery blood filled his mouth and throat. He leapt onto all fours, staring at the black loup garou, smelling apprehension and pain leech from it in thick, sickly waves.

  Baring his teeth, he held its gold stare, his growl low. You’ve fucked with the wrong wolf, asshole.

  “Gotcha.”

  The voice—low, smug and female—sounded to Declan’s left at the exact second something sharp, pointed and icy sank into his neck, right at the spot where vein became jugular. Intense cold, like the breath of Death itself, consumed him. His muscles contracted, his heart seemed to swell and, wracked in pain, he collapsed to the floor.

  Incapable of movement.

  Trapped. And utterly vulnerable.

  Chapter 1

  Sydney, Australia

  Regan Thomas hated the dark. The dark kept secrets. Hideous secrets. Secrets of pain and torture and human brutality. The dark allowed man to commit all sorts of horrendous acts in the name of progress. In the name of science. The dark allowed rich men to get richer on the corpses of creatures unable to defend themselves.

  Men like Nathan Epoc.

  Turning the narrow beam of her flashlight on the solid, steel door before her, Regan felt her hackles rise. Of all the arrogant men of power in this country, Epoc was the worst. Every day his labs in Sydney discarded close to a hundred animal corpses—all maimed, sliced, injected and tortured to death.

  A snarl curled Regan’s lip. Science. To this day, she still could not decipher what Nathan Epoc produced in the name of science, apart from dead animals. Despite only arriving in the country two years ago, he was now one of the wealthiest men in Australia. No one, however, seemed to know what the hell he actually did. Mystery shrouded what went on behind the electrified fences and impenetrable walls of his windowless buildings, out here in the southern suburbs of Sydney.

  Regan placed her black-gloved fingers on the door’s security panel—flashlight beam a narrow point of illumination in the pitch black of the corridor—and keyed in a five-digit sequence. It had taken five tedious dinners with Epoc Industries’ chief of security to procure the password: one night of bad food, bad personal hygiene and very bad wandering hands for each digit.

  A chill of revulsion shot up Regan’s spine at the memory but she shoved it aside. What was on the other side of the door was worth it. Seeing the animals running free from Epoc’s building was worth it. Seeing the bastard’s normally smug and composed face twisted with rage tomorrow night on the six o’clock news was worth it. Completely.

  A soft click sounded and the door’s locking mechanism deactivated, followed by a faint hiss of escaped, artificial air—rank with animal faeces and disinfectant.

  Regan’s lips spread into a grim smile. Bingo.

  Muscles and nerves coiled, she gave the door a gentle and oh-so-minute push. So far, her “romance” of the security guard had landed her all the codes and schedules required to get to the main lab undetected, but she wasn’t stupid. Being stupid led to being caught. Or shot.

  She stood frozen, on the balls of her feet, ready to run. Or fight.

  Nothing.

  Except the low and mournful whimpers of animals locked in cages awaiting a slow and agonizing death.

  “Not anymore.”

  Her voice was barely a breath. She pushed the door wider and stepped into the guts of Epoc Industries’ Scientific Division, flashlight seeking those she had come to rescue.

  The animals.

  “Oh, shit.”

  A German Shepherd cowered in a cage before her, tail tucked between its bent hind legs. The sharp outlines of its ribs jutted out beside the hollow pit of its gut, the raw pink skin of its shaved neck and chest festered with weeping sores. It turned a sunken brown stare on her, its misery and pain clear in the liquid depths. Various tubes punctured its neck and chest, feeding something in and out of the emaciated dog.

  “Epoc.” Regan shook her head. “You bastard.”

  Stomach heavy, she took another step into the lab, moving her flashlight from one poor animal to another, throwing each into stark illumination as she did so. Here a bank of nine white cats, strapped into a device rendering them incapable of movement, eyelids wired open, a murky orange liquid dripping in slow, even drops onto the exposed eyeballs of each. Here a chimpanzee in a small cage, wires protruding from four stitched incisions on its spine, connecting the primate to what appeared to be a Geiger counter. Over there another bank of cats—these ones with their mouths braced shut around fat tubes filled with a black, viscous fluid.

  Regan’s stomach rolled and her grip on the flashlight grew hard. Fury surged through her. Fury and burning helplessness.

  It didn’t take a Zoology degree to see the animals in this lab would never run anywhere again.

  Their eyes—their miserable, beseeching, dying eyes—held her. And asked for help.

  Regan swallowed down the sudden lump in her throat and she thought of the small vial of Rimadyl in her backpack. It wasn’t enough. Nothing would save these animals from their pain. Nothing. Epoc. You inhuman bas—

  A low groan to her far right cut the dark thought short. Fear and adrenaline scorching through her veins like electricity, Regan swung around. “Holy shit!”

  The wolf was massive. Bigger than any Regan had ever seen. At least half the size of a buffalo, it stood on all fours in a heavily barred cage, bound by multiple leather straps completely restricting its movement. Two clear tubes jutted from a neat, little cut high on the base of its neck—one pumping in a thick, black liquid, the other empty, as if waiting for its use to commence.

  Regan took a step forward, moving her flashlight over the wolf’s muscled form.

  It was sick. Possibly dying—the rapid, shallow breath, the dullness of its steel grey coat told her the animal was suffering. Big time. Yet even unwell, it still exuded primitive strength—a wild power almost frightening to behold. Regan’s heart pounded in her chest and she slid the flashlight’s beam to its head, careful to avoid shining the narrow but powerful light directly in the animal’s eyes.

  The wolf snarled silently, long teeth glistening, the twin silver discs of its eyes fixed on her.

  Silver?

  A slight frown pulled at Regan’s eyebrows and her apprehension vanished immediately. A canine’s eyes reflected green light in the dark, not silver, regardless of the genus. She shook her head, despair making her heart ache. “You poor thing,” she whispered, throat tight. “What has Epoc done to you?”

  The wolf’s strange eyes stared at her. Seemed to delve into her soul. She pulled in a long, slow breath, unable to look away. Wolf? Is it really a wolf?

  The wolf watched her from its cage, radiating power and rage.

  And pain.

  Regan blinked, shaking herself. What the hell was she doing standing around? God, did she want to get caught?

  She placed the flashlight’s barrel between her teeth before pulling her backpack from her shoulder. The heavy-duty bolt cutters tucked away insid
e would free the animals—she tossed a quick look at the still-staring wolf—all the animals of their metal-barred prisons.

  Her hand brushed the hard plastic case of her anaesthetizing kit and she turned to the shepherd. At least the poor thing wouldn’t die behind bars, even if its freedom only lasted a few moments.

  On silent feet she crossed to the caged dog, holding her head down and to the side, right hand held out. She doubted the animal had the strength to bite but she wasn’t taking any chances. Everything about her body language was by design: I am not a threat to you.

  The dog’s sad, brown eyes watched her approach, its tail giving a small, almost desperate wag as she drew closer and Regan’s heart clenched again. She let her lips pull into a soft smile, careful not to show her teeth. “Yes, I know, boy,” she murmured. “I’m going to take the pain away. I promise.” Tail wagging weakly, the dog watched her.

  As did the wolf.

  Regan felt its silver gaze study her every move. It was unnerving somehow. Like the wolf judged her actions. She gave it a hurried look over her shoulder, butterflies flapping into frantic activity in her stomach. It looked like it could tear her apart with one simple snap of its jaws, sick or not. Lord, was she really going to set it free?

  Of course you are. Would you really leave it behind? After seeing what Epoc is doing?

  She turned back to the shepherd and quickened her pace. No. She wouldn’t leave it behind, regardless of how it unnerved her. Reaching the dog, she placed her right hand through the bars of its cage, slowly raising it to the level of the dog’s muzzle, allowing it to smell her scent. “It’s okay, mate,” she soothed. “I’m going to help.” The dog’s nose—drier than parchment—touched the small strip of exposed flesh between her glove and sleeve and its tail thumped weakly again.

  Damn, I hate you, Nathan Epoc.

  A soft snarl shattered the tense silence and Regan turned her head, the wolf catching her eye in the powerful glow of her flashlight. Its steady, silver stare bored into her before flicking to the left.