Kai's Butterfly [Paranormal Wars: Juarez 7] (Siren Publishing Classic ManLove) Read online

  Paranormal Wars: Juarez 7

  Kai’s Butterfly

  Kai Ortega begins to despair that he’ll never find his mate. He is the only one of his friends yet to find that person meant to be his. So when he finally meets the him, Kai will do anything to keep him safe and happy.

  Bodhi Love knows he made a fool out of himself when he met Kai. He is positive he’s been cursed when he continues to make a mess out of things with the sexy man. If only he can find a way to turn his luck around.

  A knowing mother, ten funny foster siblings, and the mistake of a God test the limits of their relationship. Kai is sure they can get through anything until one mistake leads to Bodhi’s death. Kai must be willing to fight the fires of hell to have a chance at his happily ever after.

  Genre: Alternative (M/M, Gay), Futuristic, Paranormal, Shape-shifter

  Length: 41,456 words

  KAI’S BUTTERFLY

  Paranormal Wars: Juarez 7

  Shea Balik

  EROTIC ROMANCE

  MANLOVE

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

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  A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK

  IMPRINT: Erotic Romance ManLove

  KAI’S BUTTERFLY

  Copyright © 2015 by Shea Balik

  E-book ISBN: 978-1-63259-709-0

  First E-book Publication: September 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 Kai’s Butterfly by Shea Balik 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 Shea Balik’s livelihood. It’s fair and simple. Please respect Shea Balik’s right to earn a living from her work.

  Amanda Hilton, Publisher

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  www.BookStrand.com

  DEDICATION

  You create beauty with your attitude, your behavior and your action; it’s all up to you.

  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

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  About the Author

  KAI’S BUTTERFLY

  Paranormal Wars: Juarez 7

  SHEA BALIK

  Copyright © 2015

  Chapter 1

  “He’s gone.” Evan, the team’s weapons expert and one of Kai Ortega’s best friends, was on the screen in the communication room looking like he’d lost his best friend, his dog bit him, and his entire world was ending.

  “What do you mean he’s gone?” Talon Ramirez, their Alpha and friend, asked.

  Their group had been expanding recently, but originally it was just the eight of them. At the age of five, Talon came up to each and every one of them, insisting they’d be friends.

  In the last six months, one by one, his friends were finding their mates. Every single one of them—except Kai. He was beginning to wonder if he had a mate.

  “I mean the doctors gave Slash his prosthesis, showed him how to put it on, and he just up and left.” Evan’s voice sounded so small, so…defeated.

  Evan was the most recent one of their group to find a mate. Slash Sommers was an Elite Guard for the Alpha of the Outback Territory. They had crossed paths with him on a mission to find a sick man who was buying and selling people for slavery.

  Slash had been trying to find some missing people from his territory and tracked them to one of the Cadre members of the Latin Territory. The man had laid eyes on Evan for only an instant, but Evan’s scent had set off every trigger the big lion shifter had. In their world, mates were discovered primarily through scent.

  Since the team had to chase the madman, Roger Salasar, everyone assumed Evan hadn’t known his mate was there. With Slash determined to find every missing member of his territory before committing to his mate, no one told Evan the man existed.

  Too bad they’d been wrong about Evan not noticing his mate. Kai still wasn’t sure why Evan didn’t say anything, but his friend had known his mate was out there, choosing his job over his mate. This caused Evan to act out even more than usual, until it all finally came to a head when Slash’s life was in danger.

  In the end, Slash had lost his leg and refused to have anything to do with Evan. He wouldn’t allow his mate into his hospital room for the last month. Kai hadn’t expected Slash to run the first chance he got. Apparently neither had Evan.

  “Do you want us to head your way and help you find him?” Talon asked.

  They were in the middle of their own mess trying to find the corrupt Cadre members who were causing havoc in the Latin Territory. They had managed to kill Roger, but there were others who were just as evil that needed to be found. The Cadre was supposed to have been created to help keep the Alpha in check, but in the Latin Territory, it had turned into a way to gain more power and money.

  Then there was
always the Gods’ bombshell that there were twelve children somewhere in the world that had special gifts that would help them win the war. Rune, their communications expert, and his mate, Carver, had adopted one of them—Heath—recently, and the Northern Territory had two others, but that still left nine, with no way to find them.

  But none of that mattered when one of their own needed them. Every single one of them would drop everything to help one of their friends.

  “No.” Evan’s head slowly moved back and forth. “I don’t plan to stay more than a few days to see if he comes back. If he…” Evan’s voice broke. “If he doesn’t, I’ll come home.”

  Kai wasn’t sure that was a good idea. Evan needed to work things out with Slash, not run away from their problems.

  Apparently Talon felt the same way. “Evan, I don’t think you can run from your problems.”

  “Slash ran, not me,” Evan shouted in the first act of real emotion since the conversation started. “He’s the one who refused to acknowledge me from the beginning. He’s the one who refused to let me”—his finger stabbed into his chest—”into his room when he was hurt. He’s the one who left me.”

  No one in the room dared to say anything at that point. Evan was right, Slash did screw this up, but Kai still wouldn’t have left his mate for anything in the world. Nothing and no one would have stood in Kai’s way from finding his mate.

  Evan’s blue eyes shifted down until he was focused on Rune. “Rune, when you have the chance, will you see if you can find my mate, since the Alpha Raak doesn’t seem to want to help.”

  “What?” Talon exploded. “He said that?”

  “He claims he’s trying to find the other Outback citizens who are still missing, but I’m pretty sure his communications guy could manage to spend a few minutes to search for Slash.” Evan snorted. “Hell, they probably know exactly where he is.”

  Talon’s hands fisted at his sides. “Let me worry about Alpha Raak. Rune will work on finding Slash for you.”

  Those blue eyes on the screen lost their fire once more. “Thanks. I’ll talk to you later.” Then the screen went blank.

  Talon turned to Rune. “Get Alpha Raak on. It’s time he and I have a little chat about mates.”

  As much as Kai would have loved to see the two Alphas have it out, he had promised to help Gibson, Talon’s mate, with the setup for the celebration the man was hosting that night at the Amphitheatre. “If you don’t need me, I have to help Gibson load the trucks.”

  Talon nodded and waved him away just as the screen lit up and Spyridon Raak appeared on the screen looking just as fierce as Talon. “Don’t bother talking to me about Slash. I don’t have time to deal with him.”

  Kai smirked as he walked down the hall to the kitchen. The Outback Alpha may have thought he didn’t have time, but when Talon got through with him, Kai was pretty sure he’d end up singing a different tune.

  Music thumped loudly the closer he got to the kitchen. The man inside danced around as he sang at the top of his off-key lungs as he got the food ready to be taken to the venue. Gibson was the reason Talon was so passionate about the subject of mates. This tiny slip of a man had the Alpha wrapped around his finger. And Kai was jealous.

  He didn’t want Gibson, but he did want the relationship the two had. Hell, that any of the mates had. Blade, Talon’s second, had been the first to find his mate, in a spirited younger man who’d been determined to go after the one person he felt was responsible for his being kidnapped at the hands of a sick, perverted freak.

  The previous Alpha, Raptor Ramirez—Talon’s brother—had allowed the psy free rein in and out of the Latin Territory, for a price. Part of that agreement was to turn a blind eye when the psy kidnapped the Latin Territory’s citizens. Most of those victims were taken to be used in labs for experiments, but some had been taken for the pleasure of some of the more perverted members of the psy army.

  When Wolfe, the Alpha Primus’s second, rescued Forest and killed Forest’s capturers, Forest turned his anger to those responsible for allowing it to happen. He demanded to join Talon’s team and be a part of the search. Much to everyone’s surprise, Forest ended up being Blade’s mate. Mates hadn’t been a well-known topic and certainly not something they’d seen up close and personal.

  Then Gibson walked, or sashayed, into their lives, and Talon found his mate in their chef. After that, Rune found Carver, who had come to the Latin Territory on a mission to help them defeat the corrupt members of the Cadre, who had hurt the man’s brother, Dugan.

  In a fight with the leader of the Cadre, Vlad Kempf, Hunter, their assassin, found his mate, Anemone, imprisoned on Vlad’s remote island. With all the battles and injuries the team had been sustaining, it had been decided to bring in a doctor, Basil Riddick, who ended up their mechanic, Wyatt’s, mate.

  Basil had decided they all needed a psychiatrist and brought in Aidan Cranfield to help get their heads screwed on right, and just like that, Paytah, their hand-to-hand combat specialist, found his mate.

  That left Evan and Kai as the only two without mates—except Evan now had his mate. Slash had just refused to acknowledge Evan. It sucked, but at least Evan had found his mate. Kai still wasn’t sure he had one.

  “Hey, Kai. You ready to help me load up?” Gibson never stopped moving his hips and ass to “I’m a Believer,” by Smash Mouth, even while decorating the chocolate cupcakes with frosting he shaped into various animals.

  Instantly, Kai found himself shaking his hips as he walked to the kitchen table. “I am.”

  Paytah and his mate, Aidan, walked in just then. “What’s tonight’s theme? Aidan promised to dance with me this time, didn’t you, sweet cheeks?”

  Kai had to bite his lip at Paytah’s nickname for Aidan. The man seemed to come up with new ones that had his friends rolling their eyes. What Kai found fascinating was, Aidan never did. If anything, the man beamed at Paytah’s odd nicknames.

  “I’m switching it up a little today.” Gibson never stopped working as he talked. “Anemone has been begging to show movies, so I decided we’d show a couple of fun musicals, Grease and Hairspray. We’ll also give dance lessons for some of the songs.”

  They’d had four of these celebrations so far, one each month. Each had a type of music that had been played. So far Gibson had played dance music, pop, country, and jazz.

  The citizens of Juarez—actually, more than just Juarez, since Gibson had been putting up giant screens in various towns throughout the Latin Territory in some of their bigger parks for people to enjoy—loved Gibson’s monthly events. So much so that the crowds at the Amphitheatre had grown more and more each month.

  From what Kai had heard from others, people from all over the Latin Territory were making the journey to Juarez for each event, wanting to participate in the live event. Not that Kai could blame them. Gibson knew how to put on a party.

  Gibson frosted the last few cupcakes before smiling. “Done.”

  Anemone bounced into the kitchen with Hunter right behind him, both of them laughing as they sang and danced to the song. Jealousy stabbed Kai like a knife. He was happy for his friends, he was. He just wanted it for himself, too.

  “All right, bitches,” Gibson joked. “Let’s load this food and hit the road.”

  Chapter 2

  “Hey, Mom, I’m home.” Bodhi Love rushed through the door knowing he’d get an earful if he didn’t get ready in time for tonight’s celebration. He’d gotten distracted with painting one of the outside walls of the Amphitheatre that Etzel, who owned the place, had hired him to do.

  He knew it was really Gibson he owed his thanks to, though, as the man had seen one of Bodhi’s murals on the wall of his father’s art gallery and demanded Bodhi do something to brighten up the Amphitheatre. It was by far the biggest project Bodhi had been asked to do and a little bit daunting if he were honest.

  Peals of laughter and shouts of his name were all the warning he got before four little ones came running full steam down th
e hall toward him. “Hey, squirts, have you been having fun today?” He grunted as three of the kids threw their bodies right into him, trying to tackle him to the floor. “No fair ganging up on me.”

  He laughed at their antics, giving each of them hugs and kisses. He straightened to look at the one who’d held back. Cynthia was his parents’ most independent and free-spirited foster child. She actually fit in with their family. No one ever believed she wasn’t related by blood with the way she acted.

  “What’s up, squirt?”

  She huffed hard enough to blow the bangs of her hair straight up. For a six-year-old she had the drama queen thing down pat. “I told you, Bodhi, I’m not a squirt.”

  Gods save him from her adorableness. “Oh, right. Sorry about that.” He bent down until they were eye level, which sadly wasn’t as far as he’d like as Bodhi was only five foot six. “Hello, half-pint.” He was rewarded with a dazzling smile at the nickname he had just for her. “Did you have a good day?”

  The next thing he knew, his arms were full of a little dark-haired girl with the most dazzling pair of violet eyes he’d ever known. “Are we really going to see a movie, Bodhi?” Her eyes were enormous as she asked the question. They looked like they took up her whole face.

  “We sure are, half-pint, but I need to get cleaned up, or we’ll never make it early like Mamaw wants.” His mom was “Mamaw” to the foster kids, and his dad was “Papaw.” That way if the children were adopted, they hopefully wouldn’t get confused by calling their new parents “Mom” and “Dad.”