Junkyard Queen (Alexa O'Brien Huntress Book 12) Read online

  Table of Contents

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  EPILOGUE

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  JUNKYARD QUEEN

  ALEXA O’BRIEN HUNTRESS BOOK 12

  TRINA M. LEE

  JUNKYARD QUEEN

  Copyright 2017 by Trina M. Lee

  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 the author.

  Manufactured in Canada

  Editor

  B. Leigh Hogan

  Cover Artist

  Robin Ludwig Design Inc.

  Published by

  Dark Mountain Books

  This is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents and dialogues in this book are of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is completely coincidental.

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER NINE

  CHAPTER TEN

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

  CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  EPILOGUE

  CHAPTER ONE

  I didn’t like it. Not one bit.

  Hunting down a teenager felt wrong in every way. The worst part, I hadn’t known my target was a kid until I found him.

  For some reason I’d expected to find someone older. The message Smudge had left for me stated only that a werewolf had left a conspicuous body bearing obvious claw marks with the throat slashed and that the brother of the victim, my target, had “gone ghost.” The kid playing arcade games in a southside entertainment hall didn’t fit my idea of a murder-happy werewolf running amok. But really, did any of us?

  “Come on, Smudge,” I muttered to myself. “You couldn’t have told me I was hunting a youth?”

  When I first met her, the vampiress had called herself a watchdog. I’d come to learn that meant she was constantly on the move, monitoring the goings on of the city’s creatures of the night. Her job involved keeping on top of any supernatural activity that might lead to public exposure and then feeding that info to others working for The Circle of the Veil, like me, Falon and Nova. As a hybrid, both wolf and vampire, any werewolf killing fell into my hands. Lucky me.

  Still, I couldn’t just kill the kid. Could I?

  Veryl had a team of us supernatural types to send out on such tasks. Of course most of us seemed to have been hand-picked by Shya, who’d had his own agenda, but that was neither here nor there. Back when I’d been a huntress for Veryl, it had been standard to hunt and kill anyone he said threatened to expose us all with their reckless activity. In recent months I’d become one of the reckless, and the irony of my continued existence was not lost on me.

  The Circle didn’t seem to care that I’d been the one to kill him. But I cared. I regretted it now more than ever. In the end Veryl had only tried to protect me, and I hoped to honor him by stepping into his role. Maybe helping this kid could be a part of that tribute.

  I’d tracked the teen to the large late-night rec room where people ate, drank, danced, and gamed. Since I had yet to put my own group together, I’d come alone. I preferred hands-on work anyway. I needed the thrill of the hunt in my veins. My best friend Jez would have joined me if she hadn’t already been booked with a P.I. gig. Something to do with following a guy committing insurance fraud. The Circle ensured we were financially compensated, so I didn’t doubt that Jez would soon give up her mundane P.I. job.

  I gave the place a once over. It held a distraction for everyone, and not a soul gave me a second glance as I made my way through. The many human scents of food, alcohol, and perfume masked my own wolfy scent, so I managed to sneak up on him undetected.

  A hand on his shoulder had him spinning away from his arcade game ready for a fight.

  “Take it easy.” I held tight to his arm as he tried to shake me off. “I just want to talk. Outside. If you make trouble in here, I’ll be forced to kill you. No questions asked. Choose wisely.”

  Golden brown eyes far too soulful for a kid so young threatened to bleed to wolf. He blinked a few times, fighting the wolf back. It wasn’t always so easy in the beginning. “I didn’t mean to do it.” Right away he tried to plead his case. “We were arguing. Things got out of control.”

  I nodded, finding his energy guilt ridden and fearful. In charge of his case, I could make decisions at my own discretion. Or so I hoped. If The Circle expected me to kill without assessing each case like I had for Veryl, then we’d have a problem.

  “I believe you. Let’s go outside and talk about it.” Gently I steered him toward the exit.

  At first he resisted. I braced for a fight, hoping he wouldn’t try to make a break for it or throw a fist in my face. He studied me as I pushed him along, and I knew he wanted to ask that question I hated so much.

  “What are you?”

  There it was.

  So many smartass ways to answer that. But he was new. He didn’t know me and had likely never heard a whisper of the infamous hybrid queen.

  “I’m a hybrid. Vampire and werewolf. Probably the only one you’ll ever meet.” I slid the kid a sidelong glance and smirked. “For the record, you might not want to make a habit of asking the ladies what they are. Could get you a bitch slap.”

  Eyes wide, his pupils dilated. Again I got the feeling he considered bolting for freedom. I gave him a light shake. “Lighten up, kid. I’m kidding. Got a name?”

  As we drew closer to the exit, he grew more tense. I didn’t want to enthrall him, but I’d do whatever it took to subdue him without extreme violence.
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  “Ash… Ashton, really. But I prefer Ash.” His energy grew strained and frantic as we stepped into the parking lot. “Do we really have to do this out here?”

  “It’s kind of frowned upon to discuss werewolf antics in public places.” I steered him toward the bright-red Dodge Charger in the corner of the lot. “Let’s go grab a coffee or something and have a little chat.”

  Ash jerked free of my grasp. Eyes flashing wolf, he growled. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”

  Hyperaware of a couple getting out of a car two rows over, I tried to play nice even though the kid made me nervous. He was too jittery, too close to wolfing out. “Fine, whatever. We can stay right here then, but you have to keep your shit together. No wolfy stuff in public. Ever. Got it?” The Alpha wolf I’d become over the years rang in my voice. Although I hadn’t had a pack to lead in some time, it didn’t change my dominant status over other wolves.

  Sensing the aggression in my command, Ash flinched. And then he ran.

  He didn’t get very far. With a snap of my fingers, I took his feet out from under him. I spared a second to ensure nobody watched, and then I hauled him up.

  “How did you do that?” Jaw agape, Ash gawked at me like I’d grown a second head.

  “You haven’t met any vampires yet, have you, kid?” I laughed. “If you think a little telekinetic slap is scary, then you really don’t want to see what more I can do. So don’t run on me again, or I’ll have to show you.” A little rougher than necessary, I slammed Ash against my car, holding tight to the front of his hoodie.

  He trembled but bared fangs. Instinct commanded that he defend himself. Understandable. However, control would prove vital to survive in his new world.

  With a subtle pulse of power meant to calm him, I demanded, “What did I just say about letting the wolf show in public?” I couldn’t help that my energy came with an erotic flavor.

  His pulse raced, an echo in my ears. “This is what vampires do?” he gasped, sagging against the car. “What about the whole blood drinking thing?”

  I grinned to show him the vampire fangs I’d finally grown accustomed to. “Oh, the blood drinking is definitely a thing. Lucky for you, most vampires can’t do half the shit I can do. What you’re feeling right now is my thrall. It’s a kind of forced seduction that allows me to control you while feeding on your energy. Feels good, doesn’t it?”

  Ash’s eyes rolled back in his head, and his chest heaved. “Please don’t kill me.”

  “Trust me, kid, I don’t want to. But if you can’t play by the rules, I’m gonna have no choice.” An extra little push of the force running between us and Ash’s intent to flee vanished completely. “Now, tell me how you were turned. Who did it and where are they now?”

  “Some older guy attacked me one night after the varsity basketball game. Just came out of nowhere with these huge fangs and glowing eyes.” He gave up the info easily now. “He put an address in my phone and told me to be there early on the night of the full moon. Then he left me there, bleeding. I don’t know anything else.”

  Brows furrowed, I assessed this, not liking what I heard. “What’s the address?”

  Ash fumbled his phone from a pocket. After tapping the screen a few times, he handed it to me.

  Doghead’s address? Great. Just fucking great. What the hell was Dayne thinking?

  “So you haven’t had your first full shift yet?” I mused aloud, wondering what would drive Dayne to pull such a stupid move. Maybe Dayne hadn’t escaped the FPA lab entirely unscathed after all. To bite the kid and leave him hanging didn’t strike me as something the Doghead Alpha would do. But what did I know?

  “There’s more?” Ash paled. Holding up a hand, he watched as claws protruded from his fingertips. “How much more?”

  “A lot more. On the next full moon, you’ll shift. You’ll become a wolf.” I rushed on when panic filled him. “And after that you’ll be able to go back and forth between forms as much as you like. You’ll be strong, fast, and have heightened senses. It’s not so bad. Really.” I dropped my thrall, giving Ash a chance to take this all in with a clear head.

  He grasped a handful of disheveled brown hair and muttered something nonsensical to himself. “It’s not so bad?” Anger filled him as he flung the question at me. “I killed my brother. How can you possibly tell me it’s not so bad?”

  “That’s not your fault. That’s Dayne’s fault. He never should’ve left you like that. But I can help you.” In a gesture meant to be friendly, comforting even, I rested a hand on his shoulder.

  Ash jerked away before swinging a clawed hand at my face.

  I caught his wrist and forced his arm back down to his side. “Let me help you.” I held his gaze, willing him to see the sincerity in my eyes, which I hoped were brown. Turning vampire blues on him wouldn’t help the angle I was working.

  Ash eyed me like he couldn’t decide what to make of any of this. “How can you help me? Is there a cure? Can you stop me from becoming a wolf?”

  Sadly I shook my head. I knew what he felt. I’d been there too, when I was sixteen. “There’s no cure. It’s not a sickness, Ash. It seems like that because of the way it’s passed, but the root of what makes someone a werewolf goes beyond mere science. There’s magic involved.”

  Tears welled up in his golden orbs, and he roughly swiped the sleeve of his hoodie over his face. “This can’t be real. It can’t be. It’s just too fucked up.” His body shook with fierce trembles.

  I could’ve soothed him with another slip of the thrall, but mindfucking the kid didn’t feel right. He would have to face this, as we all did. Instead I nodded. “You’re right. It is fucked up. But in time it won’t feel nearly as overwhelming as it does right now.”

  Ash’s breath came fast. The sound of his heartbeat in my ears increased in tempo. “I killed my brother. I fucking killed my brother.” Now the tears won, spilling down his cheeks. He pressed both fists to his eyes and groaned, a sound that quickly became a growl.

  “How old are you, Ash?” I didn’t know what else to say. Keeping him talking seemed the safest bet until I could decide what to do with him.

  He shoved away from the car, and I let him, ready to grab him if needed. He paced a small circle in the snow-covered ground. “I just turned eighteen last month.”

  So young. But I’d been younger. “I was sixteen when a werewolf attacked my family. He killed my parents and turned me and my sister. I was terrified but I adjusted. You will too. I promise.”

  Shoulders shaking, Ash choked back an angry sob. “What if I don’t want to adjust?”

  So many couldn’t handle the change. They ran amok until someone put them out of their misery, if they didn’t do it themselves first. Yet Ash didn’t strike me as the type to take it that far. He’d make it through the transition if he could just accept his reality.

  “You just asked me not to kill you,” I pointed out. “So if you’re not ready to die, you don’t have a choice but to adjust. Let me help.”

  Confusion masked Ash’s face. He didn’t seem to know what to think. Couldn’t blame him. In our world those you could trust were hard to come by. “I just want to go home.” Ash looked tired. Defeated. He’d dealt with so much in the past few days.

  Now I had a choice to make. Let him go or detain him. He was just a scared kid, and yet he was now so much more than that.

  Ash stuffed both hands into his front hoodie pocket. Eyes red rimmed, he regarded me like a prisoner awaiting a sentence.

  “Promise me that you’ll stay calm and lie low until the full moon. Don’t bite or scratch anyone unless it’s self-defense, a life or death situation. When the full moon comes, you come see me. Not Dayne, the guy who bit you.” I hoped like hell I wasn’t making a mistake here. “In fact, come see me before then if you need to. Got it?” I held my hand out for his phone.

  He hurried to fumble it out of his pocket again and give it to me. “Yes. I got it. I swear.”

  “Do not tell anyone wha
t happened or what you are. You’ll be tempted but, believe me, you can’t tell. Not right now.” After texting myself so I’d have his number, I typed my name and number into his contact list, including the address for The Wicked Kiss. Handing the phone back I said, “Don’t make me regret this.” When both our hands gripped the phone, I grabbed hold of his. Needing him to take me seriously, I gave him the slightest manipulative pulse. “I mean it, kid. If you can’t do this for me, I’ll have to kill you. And I really would rather not.”

  “Ok.” He nodded vigorously, head bobbing. “I promise.” He hurried away, attempting casual, although his stiff gait revealed him to be anything but.

  The thought of killing him didn’t sit well with me. So far stepping into Veryl’s role had proved no different than when I’d hunted for him, but I had a sneaking suspicion that could change fast. If The Circle wasn’t ok with me making decisions, we were going to have a problem.

  If killing kids were part of this job, then perhaps I wasn’t cut out for it. Confused new wolves like Ash needed help. Veryl had stepped in when I’d been a naïve youth learning to live with the supernatural. I could provide that for others.

  Maybe I was the right person for this job after all.

  CHAPTER TWO

  “So you didn’t kill him?”

  “Nope. I didn’t. Got a problem with that?” I glared up at Falon, annoyed with how the fallen angel insisted on towering over me as I sat in my office chair.

  Said office was at my nightclub, The Wicked Kiss. I’d converted the largest of the back rooms, Harley Kayson’s old room, into an office after The Circle asked me to rejoin them in Veryl’s role. Most of the back rooms were little more than hotel rooms, private places for vampires to bleed and screw willing victims. Seeing as I didn’t need a place to screw as much as I needed an office, I’d made some changes. Although the couch in the corner served just fine if the need for screwing arose.

  Falon huffed, nostrils flaring in not so silent judgment. “Yes, I do have a problem with a teenage werewolf running rampant through the city. We’ve already had to cover up one of his kills. He’s not worth the risk.”