Lucifer (Brimstone Heat Book 1) Read online

  “How do you know I’m a wolf shifter?” Teri’s eyes grew wide. She paled slightly.

  “I just know.” Angie rolled her eyes. “Now, what did you smell?”

  Teri shook her head. “I have to tell the Alpha—I mean…”

  “Mr. Wolfe already knows that I know about shifters,” said Angie. The meeting with Marcus Wolfe, the Alpha of the Briary Creek Pack, had been a little awkward, especially when she had to explain how she could see people’s auras. It was a strange ability which even she didn’t completely understand.

  Other than Gracie, who was her high school best friend, and Cheryl, her college roommate, Angie never told anyone else about her ability to see the auras surrounding people. She remembered her best friend, Gracie Stewart, just wrapping her arms around her in support the first time she talked about her parents and her strange ability. That had been just after Angie warned Gracie to be very careful around her stepbrother because there was a really strong darkness surrounding him and it seemed to be growing blacker with each passing day.

  And then at college, after learning that Cheryl, her college roommate, was a fox shifter, Angie realized she was seeing more than just a person’s soul. She was seeing the nonhuman side of people who were different too, but how she did it and why was a mystery. All she knew was that it started the night Ted Whitley killed her parents and the woman stepped out of the shadows and saved her life.

  Teri frowned as she nibbled on her bottom lip. “I smelled anger. It was fading, but whoever was there had a lot of anger in them. How did you know something was wrong?”

  Angie pulled out her cell phone. “The alarm keypad lit like it is supposed to be. It was dead. Yesterday, it was working, because I armed the system before I left last night, but today the electricity to it is off to it, yet the lights are on in the building. Someone did something to the alarm. Go get in your car while I call the police.”

  “If you know I’m a wolf shifter, then you know that I’m stronger than you. You should get in your car,” said Teri.

  Angie shook her head. “That may be so, but I’m your boss.” She tapped 9-1-1 on the cell phone screen. “Don’t argue with me. Just. Move.”

  Teri rolled her eyes but moved closer to the cars as Angie talked to the dispatcher operator.

  “No, I’m not sure if someone is still inside the building, but with the alarm system is disabled, I’m not risking our lives to look around the library.” Angie nodded her head to something the operator said. “We are in the parking lot by our cars. Yes, thank you.” She tapped the end button, and looked at Teri. “The police will be here in a few minutes.”

  Teri stared at her boss. “How do you know about shifters?”

  Angie sighed. “It’s a little complicated. I just know shifters exist, and I’ve known for a long time.” And a lot of other things, but I just don’t know what they are, and I probably don’t want to know either. She didn’t say that out loud, because she didn’t want to scare Teri, just in case she didn’t know there were other beings living in the world with them. In some cases, ignorance was probably a really good thing. Sometimes Angie wished she was ignorant of the others living beside the humans. Some days it was hard to pretend she didn’t see them.

  “Maybe you will tell me the story some time?” asked Teri.

  “Maybe some day.” Angie chewed on her bottom lip. She knew the girl was curious, but Teri would just have to remain curious. She was not in the mood to share her story with anyone.

  Teri tucked several strands of brown hair behind her ear. “I hate waiting. I could go inside and check.”

  Angie shook her head. “You are not going in there. Do not even suggest it again.” Angie gave Teri a quick smile. “I know you can protect yourself, but I would rather have the guys with the guns go in and search.” Angie crossed her arms over her chest. “Besides, that’s their job. We might as well have them earn their paychecks.”

  “Fine, I won’t go in there.” Teri rolled her eyes.

  “I’m glad that’s settled,” said Angie. She almost expected Teri to stomp her foot and protest a little more.

  Teri shrugged her shoulders. “But for the record, it’s not because you don’t want me going into the library. I’m not going in because the police are here.” She gestured to the street running parallel to the library parking lot.

  “That was quick.” Angie watched a police cruiser stop not too far from them. The officer exited the car and walk over to them. From the silvery brown swirls in his aura, she knew he was a wolf shifter, like Teri and the majority of the people in Briary Creek.

  “Angie Gunner?” asked the officer.

  “Yes, I’m Angie Gunner, the librarian.” She stepped forward. “Thank you for coming so quickly.”

  “Deputy Wade Martinez.” He held out his hand to Angie. “Dispatch said something about a possible break in and robbery. What exactly is the problem?”

  Angie shook the deputy’s hand. Even though, he was smaller than most of the wolf shifters she had met, from the strength in his handshake, the deputy was not a weakling. “I’m not sure if anything was taken. After I discovered the alarm was disabled, Teri and I immediately left the building.”

  Deputy Martinez pulled a pen and notepad out of a pocket and jotted down the information. “Is it possible you just forgot to set the alarm?” He looked up at her as he asked the question.

  Angie raised her eyebrows in disbelief. “I armed the system just before I left last night, and I locked the back door before I left. This is something I do every day. So that would be a no to your question.”

  “Sorry. I had to ask, because a lot of times people forget to set the alarm and then the next day they think someone has broken in because the alarm is off.” He gave Angie a small lopsided grin.

  “It wasn’t just disabled or not set. It was dead. That’s why I didn’t touch it to key in the code to disarm it this morning.”

  Deputy Martinez looked up from his notes. “It was dead? As in no electricity dead or just turned off?”

  “Dead. Dead. As in no electricity going to it kind of dead. The electricity is on in the building. There’s no power outage, but the alarm keypad is completely dead. Plus, I didn’t close the door when we left the building. If the alarm was active, it would have already gone off by now. That’s why I called the police,” said Angie. She shook her head. She knew he had to ask the questions, but where people really that stupid?

  Before the deputy could say anything else, a white SUV with Briary Creek Sheriff’s Department blazed across the side, pulled into the parking lot and stopped next to the police cruiser. The driver’s door opened and a large man stepped out of the vehicle.

  Angie’s jaw dropped as she stared at the man. His aura was strange. It was a mixture of gold, silver, white, and black swirls. She had never seen four colors combined like that. He wasn’t a shifter, but neither was he human. She knew it should have frightened her, but for some strange reason, it didn’t.

  The police uniform he wore did nothing to hide his muscular body. The way he stared at her as he walked toward them, made Angie think of a Viking coming to take what was his. She shifted from one foot to the other. The sensations rushing through her body were completely new to her and were more intense than anything she had ever felt before.

  The urge to climb up his body and wrap her fingers in his blond hair was overwhelming. She didn’t just want to feel his lips on her skin, she needed to feel his lips on hers and his hands caressing her body. Her breasts grew heavy and overly sensitive. Her lacy bra irritated them to the point, she wanted to rip it off and replace it with his hands.

  Her thoughts startled her. She shook her head, hoping to clear it of the more erotic thoughts she was having. All of which starred the man walking toward her.

  Angie closed her eyes and took several deep breathes, letting each one slowly out, hoping she could regain control of her body which suddenly had a mind of its own.

  She opened her eyes.

  Wh
y were the Fates being so cruel to her?

  Human, or not, the man was a police officer, and long ago, she had made a promise to herself. Because of what happened to her parents, she would never give her heart to any man who worked in law enforcement, that way it could never be broken if he didn’t come home from his job. Yet, this man was making her rethink that promise.

  Chapter 2

  Lucifer Fitch stared at the curvy beauty standing next to Deputy Martinez. He couldn’t take his eyes off of her as he closed the distance between them. Her shirt and jeans did nothing to hide her lush curves. Instead, the clothes accentuated the woman’s curvy beauty. With her perfect hourglass figure, she could have easily been a pinup model from the forty’s and fifty’s.

  His hands itched with the desire to peel away her clothes so he could touch and caress each curve. He wanted to run his hands through her short strawberry blonde hair, and cradle her head as he pulled her close so he could kiss her pouty, pink lips.

  And then she looked directly at him with her large, blue eyes. They revealed her desires and the war she was battling with them.

  She was beautiful. She was more than beautiful.

  She belonged to him.

  The knowledge seeped into his brain and jolted him. For the first time in his life, Lucifer felt his legs go weak and he almost fell to his knees.

  She was his!

  After all the centuries, he had finally found his lifemate.

  The fact that she was human didn’t bother him in the least, and definitely didn’t dampen his desire for her. His erection pressed mercilessly against the zipper of his dress pants. The urge to just pick her up and carry her away was strong…almost too strong to ignore.

  Lucifer watched his deputy take a step closer to his beautiful lifemate. A low growl, that would have made any wolf shifter envious, vibrated from somewhere deep inside his chest. He clinched and unclenched his hands. The urge to completely destroy Deputy Wade Martinez was overwhelming. A flick of Lucifer’s hand and a couple of words was all it would take, and the deputy would be a pile of ashes.

  How would he explain his deadly actions to the mayor and the city council? Deputy Martinez was standing too close to my lifemate, so I decided to teach him a lesson—a permanent lesson. Lucifer shook his head. Even though most of them were shifters, he doubted they would understand. Most would probably fear him because of who and what he was, if they found out. Some of the shifters in Briary Creek were already suspicious of him because his scent didn’t match anything they were used to.

  Lucifer almost laughed out loud. The whole thought was almost comical. He could imagine their horrified looks. Shaking his head as he walked toward his lifemate and Deputy Martinez, Lucifer turned his attention to his deputy, willing him to move away from the female. He would prefer to have Deputy Martinez to get into his car and leave, but Lucifer knew this wasn’t possible since the officer had a job to perform.

  He watched the deputy pull at his collar as he shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other. Martinez shook his head at something the woman said. He took a couple of steps away from her.

  Lucifer smiled.

  It wasn’t as far as Lucifer would have liked, but at least Deputy Martinez had felt the urge to move away from the curvy beauty who belonged to him. His woman. After all the centuries without a lifemate, the Fates had finally brought her to him.

  And if anyone dared to touch her, there would be Hell to pay. No one but him was allowed to touch her gorgeous body. The sooner he could get his lifemate home and claim her, the safer it would be for everyone around her. At least, that’s what he told himself, though he knew better. After all these centuries, his father was still overprotective of his mother and most of his parents’ arguments stemmed from it. And Lucifer’s mother was from a time when women accepted their lifemates as their protectors, but she was very much an independent thinker.

  Lucifer’s curvy beauty was a modern human with modern opinions. With that thought, Lucifer quickly crossed the parking lot, and stopped a couple of feet from Deputy Martinez. “What do we have here?”

  Wade Martinez looked up at Lucifer. “I haven’t gone in the building yet, but from what Ms. Gunner said, it sounds like someone broke in and disabled the security system. I was about to go in and check the building.”

  “I’ll go with you.” Lucifer turned to the woman who was his lifemate. “Are you Ms. Gunner?” His voice was softer when he spoke to her. He mentally shook his head. Yeah, he had it bad! And he hadn’t even met her yet.

  “I’m Angie Gunner, the librarian.” She looked up at Lucifer, meeting his gaze without looking away.

  Lucifer smiled. She was obviously not intimidated by his size like most women were. “Sheriff Lucifer Fitch, at your service.” He held out his hand to her.

  Angie stared at the sheriff. Her thoughts were definitely not on shaking his hand. She plastered a smile on her face. “Sheriff,” she said as she reached for his hand. As soon as her fingers touched his, an almost electrical warmth zipped through her body.

  Her eyes widened.

  Angie jerked her hand out of his, and stared at her fingers. Whatever it was, it hadn’t hurt, but her fingers tingled. Heck, her whole body tingled with the weird energy, if that was what she could call it. Slowly, Angie looked up at the sheriff. “What was…”

  “Now isn’t the time. But we will talk about it later.” He grinned at her. “We will definitely talk about it later.”

  She blinked several times, and then raised an eyebrow. “Really?”

  Lucifer marveled at the fact she didn’t back away from him, but instead, looked him in the eyes. He saw the defiance mixed with desire. His smile grew wider as the front of his pants grew even tighter.

  Angie Gunner was more beautiful up close. Her blue eyes reminded him of a stormy sea. He wanted to see her blue eyes filled with the stormy fire of desire for him. Every part of his being told him to grab her and take her to his bed, but as much as he wanted to do that, he knew he had to give her a choice. And then there was the matter of the break-in he had to investigate. Her safety was now a priority, especially since she worked in this building.

  “So what exactly happened to make you think someone had broken into the library?” asked Lucifer.

  “When I went to disarm the alarm system, it had no power, yet there is power to the building. As you can see, the lights are working.” She gestured toward it. “Last night when I left, the alarm was working because I set it.” Angie explained for a second time. “I figured it was safer for us to get out of the building just in case someone was still in there.”

  “You made the right call,” said Lucifer. “Deputy Martinez and I will check the building.” He nodded to the man standing next to him. “Are you ready?”

  “Yes sir.” Deputy Martinez nodded his head.

  Both he and Lucifer walked over to the library.

  Lucifer carefully examined the back door. It was clean and free of any marks that could indicate someone had the door as their point of entry. He drew his gun from its holster, though he really didn’t need it. But he had to keep up the appearance.

  Without a word, Deputy Martinez followed suit, and pulled his gun.

  Lucifer looked him. “Keep your eyes open and stay low. Just in case, someone is still in there.” He said in a low voice.

  Martinez nodded. He drew his gun and followed Sheriff Fitch into the building.

  Chapter 3

  Angie glanced at her watch. An hour had passed, and neither Sheriff Fitch nor Deputy Martinez had come out of the library. In fact, several more police officers had gone inside. “What’s taking so long? Shouldn’t they have already found something or collected evidence by now?” she muttered just under her breath. Angie pushed several strands of her hair out of her face.

  “From what I know of the sheriff, he’s probably just being thorough with his investigation,” said Marcus Wolfe as he walked over to Angie.

  “Mr. Wolfe, I didn’t expect you to come
here.” Angie looked up at the tall man who hired her. Not only was he the alpha of the wolf pack residing in Briary Creek, but he was currently acting as the town’s mayor. He also owned a very successful construction company. She had no clue how he managed so many irons in the fire, so to speak. She was doing good just managing her job and her personal life, and the second was questionable at times.

  “I wanted to make sure you, Teri, and Josh were okay, and find out how and why the alarm system was disabled. I’ve already called several techs, and have them working on the software side of the system until they can examine the device itself. I need to know how it was disabled so it won’t happen again.” A line was etched across his forehead and his jaw tightened as he stared at the building.

  Angie noticed Teri had her head down and her neck exposed to the alpha, as did several other wolves who had gathered in the library parking lot. She watched Teri smile and then look up, as if she had been given permission to move out of the submissive stance. Angie felt the power too, but it didn’t have the same effect on her as it did the wolves around her. Angie figured if it was because she was human. She would have to ask Gracie about it.

  Angie shrugged her shoulders and turned her attention back to the library problem. “As soon as I saw the alarm was dead, Teri and I left the building.”

  Teri snorted. “You shoved me out of the back door.”

  Angie raised an eyebrow at her assistant. “I did it because I care about your safety, and I would do it again. So quit whining about me pushing you out of the building. There are worse things that could have happened, trust me, I know from experience.” Sadness clouded her features before she shoved it away.

  Marcus’s expression softened. “You know Teri is stronger than you, and is more than able to protect both of you.”

  It was Angie’s turn to snort. “Yes, I know she is special.” She made air quotes with her fingers. “But she is my employee and therefore my responsibility to keep safe if at all possible. Being able to turn all furry or being stronger has nothing to do with this.”