Human Instincts

  If opposites attract, nothing is more opposite than a tough human soldier and an omega wolf shifter cook.

  A human soldier and an omega wolf shifter find out they’re mates in a world where segregation between humans and paranormals is standard operating procedure.

  Dylan Kole knows how to do one thing, and that’s to be a soldier in the human army. He doesn’t know how to fit in with a bunch of paranormal beings, and he certainly doesn’t know how to be a mate to Rudy Malone, the only omega wolf shifter on Roguefalls Island. One thing Dylan does have going for him is his ability to follow his instincts.

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  Human Instincts

  Copyright © 2017 April Kelley

  ISBN: 978-1-4874-1239-5

  Cover art by Erin Dameron-Hill

  All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.

  Published by eXtasy Books Inc or

  Devine Destinies, an imprint of eXtasy Books Inc

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  Human Instincts

  Roguefalls Book 1

  By

  April Kelley

  Dedication

  To everyone who raises their voice in the face of oppression. Thank you for recognizing that life should be about more than just survival.

  Prologue

  Dylan walked down the street, away from the only home he’d ever known. He carried a duffle bag in his left hand and as many clothes as the bag could hold, along with three hundred dollars stuffed in a sock.

  Dylan turned when the sheriff’s siren came on in one loud beep and then shut off again. The red light on top of the car twirled round, glowing brightly even as it turned Dylan’s blue hoodie black where the light hit it.

  He turned back around and kept walking. He knew his dad would call the sheriff and have him kicked out of the family group. No way would anyone go against his father. He might not be Mayor, but he had a lot of influence with the superiors in their town.

  Well, it wasn’t Dylan’s town anymore and never would be again. He was without a family group.

  He’d known coming out to his parents wouldn’t end well. His dad was a prejudiced asshole and always had been. If someone wasn’t exactly like him, then he had something negative to say. It didn’t matter if it was his son or not. No one was exempt.

  During the course of Dylan’s life, he’d heard about how awful the paranormals were and how lucky humans were that they stayed segregated. His dad had fought to keep segregation in place for as long as Dylan had been alive.

  Apparently, Dylan was lumped in with the paranormals. Whatever. Dylan would rather live with them than his father, not that a paranormal clan would let a human like him in. He was destined to be a single.

  Even as Dylan thought that, he wiped the tears away from his cheeks with the back of his hand.

  The cop car followed him all the way to the edge of the group’s territory and then pulled up beside him. Officer Bentley’s face became visible as he rolled the window down. Bentley was the same one who’d caught him smoking pot in the forest behind the high school but never told Dylan’s dad. He lived three streets over from Dylan’s home in the middle-class section of town.

  He was a good guy, and Dylan would probably never see him again. Dylan wouldn’t ever be allowed in town again. Unlike the city, which held multiple family groups, Dylan’s town only held his. A human getting kicking out of his family group meant it was unlikely that another one would take him.

  The cop’s car rolled along beside him as he walked. He couldn’t stop walking, and the officer knew that. If he didn’t find somewhere safe before nightfall, the singles and lone paranormals would steal everything he owned and leave him for dead.

  “Look, son. You have two choices—”

  “No, I don’t. I have to live with the singles now. I’m fucking homeless. I won’t be able to get a job now that I can’t live in a family group, which means I’ll be fighting for my meals just like all the other singles.” Even though his situation stressed him out, it still wasn’t as bad as living in the damn closet. The pain in his chest had lifted the second the words, Dad, I’m gay were out of his mouth. He might have to live with the singles, but he didn’t have to live a lie anymore.

  He wished for the old days when humans could live wherever they wanted and didn’t have to hold to a family group. That was before humans knew paranormal beings existed, though.

  “Living like a single is one choice you have. The other is to join the human army.”

  Dylan smirked. “Right. Those are super choices.” Either way, he was probably a dead man walking.

  The cop sighed and held a hundred dollar bill between his finger and thumb. He held it out for Dylan to take. Dylan eyed the money with suspicion and then looked away from it, his eyes facing forward. “There’s a hotel six miles up the road. Take the money and buy a room for the night. In the morning, go to the human army building. It’s right next door to the hotel.”

  Dylan stopped walking, so the car stopped rolling. He eyed the cop wanting to know what his motivation was. “Why are you helping me?”

  “It’s not fair what your father and the Mayor are doing to you. But take the money and be thankful you’re young enough the army will take you. My window of opportunity closed a long time ago. Now I’m an old man who’s stuck with a bunch of bigots. How’s that for choices? Bigots, or live like the singles, who have to become criminals to survive.”

  Dylan hesitated. “I have money.”

  “Just take it, son.”

  Finally, he did as the cop directed, taking the money and clutching it in his hand. “Thank you.”

  “Do me a favor.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Don’t be like your father. Be open to others. All others.” The cop nodded his head to the road up ahead. “You get on down the road now. The road between here and the hotel is clear this time of day, so you’ll be safe enough. Not many singles in the area until after you get past the army recruiter’s office.”

  Chapter One

  Purple smoke billowed a few feet in front of Dylan Kole, blocking the enemy’s view. He lay on the ground, giving the enemy less of a target, his gun propped in front of him. He took aim at one of the boats zigzagging through the water. Dylan evened out his breathing, trying to calm his nerves so his aim would be straight.

  When men shot at them from the boats and he heard an animal growl even over the boat motor, Dylan stopped thinking and just let his training take over. He forgot to be scared of the bullets and the things wanting to come ashore. Nothing remained in his mind except the need to protect his squad.

  He pulled the trigger on his gun, aiming just over the driver’s head. If they weren’t in a training exercise with a Rogue team, the driver would be dead. At least the driver looked human, even though Dylan knew he wasn’t. Had to be either a vampire or demon. Some beings looked more human than others.

  He could handle the more human ones. There were sanctions and laws put in place that restricted paranormals from doing certain things to humans. Those laws made Dylan breathe a little easier.

  More purple smoke drifted his way when the boats landed on the beach, and still Dylan shot his gun, not letting the other team get too far into their territory. The beach was theirs, and no way would the Rogue team get far.

  His captain yelled out a command for them to move in, so Dylan stood up, holding his gun in front of him. His heart pounded in his chest as he made himself a bigger target. It might be a training exercise, but he was taught to think of them as the real deal and acted accordingly, although he never shot directly at the opposing team even though his gun had blanks in them. That was the only concession he made, though.

  Dylan’s team pushed forward across the beach when the biggest leopard Dylan had ever seen leaped from the boat. Yep, it was the shifters that scared the shit out of him, not that he would ever admit that to any of the guys. They’d never let him live it down.

  Three wolves followed the leopard, running up the beach. One of them came right at Dylan’s best friend, Christian. Dylan ran across the beach toward him. Christian held up his gun and took a shot. The wolf leaped up and out of the way at the last minute. Even with blanks in their weapons, Dylan could see the shot wouldn’t have hit. The wolf landed on Christian, its teeth bare for a second before it looked like it grinned, which looked strange coming from a canine muzzle.

  Dylan had the ass end of his gun held up even as he cracked it against the wolf’s nose. The wolf yelped and fell off Christian. Dylan stood in between his friend and the shifter even when the wolf shoo
k its head groggily. One second Dylan was staring at a wolf, and the next the wolf’s body expanded and morphed into something human. The man was naked. That used to be jarring but after so many training exercises, Dylan had accepted it. It was still hard to get used to seeing a naked man or woman walk around as if it wasn’t a big deal.

  “Fucking asshole.” The wolf shifter glared at him and touched the wound on his head. He winced when his fingers connected. “It’s a training exercise.”

  Dylan took a step closer, but Christian grabbed his arm, holding him back. That didn’t stop him from saying, “Keep your teeth away from my friend and we won’t have a problem.”

  “Let it go, man,” Christian whispered to him. “It’s not worth getting an infraction.”

  Christian released his arm and walked to the wolf shifter. He held out his hand, and the shifter took it. “No hard feelings, man. I promise.”

  The wolf shifter looked at Dylan, eying him warily. “Same, I guess.”

  Damn it. Dylan held out his hand to the shifter. “Sorry. I get carried away on these training exercises sometimes.”

  The shifter took his hand, which was a nice gesture on his part, considering shaking hands was a human thing that paranormals just didn’t do with each other. “Yeah, me too.”

  The captain called for an all-stop, and everyone on the beach relaxed, including the leopard and the other wolf shifters. The boats idled on the water, and the gun blasts stopped.

  The sound of silence on the battlefield was always jarring. It gave him a feeling of false peace. If there was silence on a battlefield, it usually meant both sides were gearing up to give it all they had and a lot of people were about to die.

  “Kole and Martin, get in one of the boats. Commander needs to see you, asap,” his captain yelled.

  Dylan looked at Christian, just to see if he knew why the commander was calling them into the office. Christian just shrugged.

  “Now, soldiers!”

  Dylan headed for one of the boats, Christian and the wolf shifter right behind him. The rest of the team would run to the pickup site, where they’d drive back to the barracks. The boat wouldn’t take as long, which told Dylan more than anything could that something big was about to take place. At least it would be big for Dylan and Christian.

  The only problem with riding in the boats was that Dylan and Christian were the only humans inside. The boats belonged to the Rogue army, not the human army.

  Dylan climbed inside without a word.

  The wolf shifter made his way across the boat to someone who had a medical bag sitting next to him. He knelt in front of the medic and presented his head immediately. The medic said something to the shifter, and a second later, the shifter was a wolf again. When he shifted back to his human form, his cut wasn’t even there. It was as if it never existed.

  Dylan was consciously aware of everyone on the boat and how nonhuman they were underneath their very human appearance.

  A soldier eyed Dylan from across the boat. He was dressed the same way Dylan was, except his gear was black, just like all the other Rogue soldiers.

  Dylan and Christian’s army-green attire set them apart.

  The soldier grinned at him, and his eyes turned completely black for a second before showing the white again. Demon. At least Dylan knew who he was dealing with if the guys tried to start something, although demons could take over a human’s mind if they chose. They’d get executed for doing it as was the law, but they did have the ability. Dylan wasn’t sure how to combat something that could control him in such a way. “Does the shifter’s nakedness bother you?”

  “Not really.” Of all the things that could bother him, a naked man’s ass wasn’t even on his radar. In fact, Dylan liked man ass just as well as the next gay man as long as the ass was attached to an actual man, and not to something that morphed into an animal whenever it fucking felt like it.

  Dylan had never been with a paranormal and wasn’t about to change that anytime soon.

  “Don’t you wonder why you’re on a Rogue boat heading to your commander instead of taking the land vehicles with the rest of your squad?” The demon bastard knew something Dylan didn’t and was messing with him.

  Dylan had wondered about that, but a soldier didn’t question his commanding officer. He just followed orders. Dylan had been a soldier for all his adult life, so he knew how to keep his mouth shut and do what his leaders told him.

  He wasn’t going to let the demon know of his curiosity, though, so he just shrugged.

  The demon chuckled.

  “Seazur, knock it off.” The man who’d spoken had a patch on his arm that identified him as an officer, although Rogues called officers something else. Dylan couldn’t remember the word.

  “Yes, enforcer.” Still, the demon grinned at Dylan in a way that made him itch to punch the bastard.

  Christian leaned into him, whispering near his ear. “It’s a good question.”

  “Yeah.”

  Dylan knocked on the door to his commander’s office and waited. Christian stood beside him, holding his gun held in a casual way and looking as if he were about to go into the office and take over the room. Two of the soldiers from the boat stood behind them. Unfortunately, one of those soldiers was the demon. Dylan thought the other one might be a vampire, but didn’t know for sure because the man never opened his mouth so that Dylan could see his teeth.

  Dylan turned when he heard the clip-clop of high-heeled shoes on the tile floor. A woman in a dress uniform came toward them from down the hall. The woman stopped when she saw them. The uneasiness was evident in her expression for about a second before she pasted a smile on her face and walked past them.

  When the demon chuckled, Dylan figured he’d probably let his eyes go black to scare the woman.

  The commander yelled for them to enter, so Dylan turned the knob and walked in.

  The commander sat behind the desk, and a Rogue official stood beside him. The man standing had more medals and stripes on his suit jacket than anyone Dylan had ever met before. His dress uniform was a gray color, which was how Dylan knew he was a Rogue.

  Dylan realized all at once who the man was and straightened his spine, saluting. Christian looked at Dylan and then copied him. When the man returned the gesture, Dylan moved on to the commander. Once the commander saluted Dylan and Christian, they relaxed as much as the heavy gear would allow.

  The two Rogue soldiers saluted the commander, and then each one walked over to the Rogue official, bowing their head. The official touched each on the back of their necks. “Thank you for volunteering.”

  “Of course, Alpha.” So, Alpha James Grant, a Rogue army official, had given the paranormal soldiers some sort of choice. Dylan and Christian wouldn’t get a choice. They’d get a command. That was the human army way. Dylan thought it was the Rogue army way as well, but after hearing the short conversation, he wasn’t so sure.

  The official waved his hand, and the two soldiers went to stand beside Dylan and Christian.

  “I’m sorry to drag you away from your training exercise,” the commander said, addressing all of them.

  Dylan nodded. He didn’t want to be the spokesperson for the four of them, but as he looked at the other three, he realized he’d have to be because no one else was willing. “Not a problem, sir.”

  The man nodded once and sat forward in the chair. “I’m going to get right down to it. Kole and Martin, you’ll be the first human soldiers to join the Rogue army. And Seazur and Waldron, you’ll join my human army. The switch will happen immediately.”

  “Permission to speak freely, sir.” Dylan looked over his commander’s head, not making eye contact with the man. If he did, the commander would see just how angry he was.

  “Since you’re not my soldiers anymore, of course.”

  “Why?”

  Alpha Grant was the one who answered Dylan’s question. “The segregation between humans and paranormals has gone on long enough. This base and Roguefalls Island has been training together in preparation for this moment for months now. Uniting both armies has to start somewhere, and that’s right here, right now. You four are equally matched, and you’ve each displayed certain personality traits that will help you adjust.”