Cole’s Redemption

PRAISE FOR

THE ALPHA PACK SERIES

Hunter’s Heart

“In the rapid-fire fifth Alpha Pack novel from Tyler (after
Black Moon
), a psychic wolf shifter meets a wildlife biologist who captures his heart. As the
Alpha Pack—a group of former Navy SEALs turned shifters—races against time to catch
the killer, Daria and Ryon’s romance turns red-hot, even though they’re fighting to
stay alive. An unexpected concluding twist provides a little edge and neatly sets
up the next entry in the series.”

—Publishers Weekly

“Fast-paced with a great sense of adventure, as only sexy psychic Navy SEALs turned
wolf shifters can provide. The characters have a complexity that brings depth to the
story, but the passion between Ryon and Daria makes for a particularly hot read.”

—RT Book Reviews

Black Moon

“I loved every single minute of [
Black Moon
], every event and every twist. This book was action-packed and smexy-packed. You
will fall in love with Kalen if you weren’t already.”

—Under the Covers

“Tyler brings more intense romance and danger to this third entry in the Alpha Pack
series. Werewolves and Marines are a heady combination, making the men of the Alpha
Pack exciting and passionate. The women in this series are strong enough to stand
up to the men without losing their feminine edge, and Mackenzie definitely lives up
to the standard.”

—
RT Book Reviews

Savage Awakening

“In a genre with werewolves aplenty,
Savage Awakening
leads the herd with its strong character development and intensity. . . . It’s hard
not to fall in love with the Alpha Pack.”

—
Romantic Times

Primal Law

“With
Primal Law
, J. D. Tyler has created a whole squad of yummy shifter heroes whom readers will
fall head over heels for. . . . I can’t wait for Tyler’s next Alpha Pack adventure!”

—
New York Times
bestselling author Angela Knight

“Tyler has set up an intriguing premise for her series, which promises plenty of action,
treachery, and scorchingly hot sex.”

—
Romantic Times

“Sizzling and interesting,
Primal Law
pays homage to Lora Leigh’s Breed series while forging its own paths. The characters
are likable, and the work speeds along.”

—Fresh Fiction

“In a genre where the paranormal is intense, J. D. Tyler may just be a force to be
reckoned with. The book kept me riveted from start to finish.”

—Night Owl Reviews

Also by J. D. Tyler

Hunter’s Heart

Black Moon

Savage Awakening

Black Magic
(Novella)

Primal Law

Cole’s

REDEMPTION

AN ALPHA PACK NOVEL

J. D. TYLER

SIGNET ECLIPSE

Published by the Penguin Group

Penguin Group (USA) LLC, 375 Hudson Street,

New York, New York 10014

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penguin.com

A Penguin Random House Company

First published by Signet Eclipse, an imprint of New American Library,

a division of Penguin Group (USA) LLC

Copyright © J. D. Tyler, 2014

Excerpt from
Raw
copyright © Jo Davis, 2013

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ISBN 978-1-101-60290-4

PUBLISHER’S NOTE

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the
product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance
to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is
entirely coincidental.

To my dear friend Melody Walker. There is no greater joy than a friend and sister
found again and a heart made whole. The day you came back into my life was one of
the happiest ever, and my soul was set free.

It is only fitting that Zander’s story is for you.

I love you, my friend.

“Hell is empty and all the devils are here.”

—William Shakespeare

T
he white wolf scented the air, searching for her prey.

The commander hadn’t ventured into the forest lately, but that would change. Sooner
or later, the traitorous bastard would come out of his stronghold, venture beyond
the protection of brick and mortar, past the magical boundary erected by the Sorcerer.

He’d put aside the shadows on his soul, even if temporarily. He’d forget that his
ability as a Seer was severely hampered when it came to his own impending death. Longing
for solitude, to feel the wind in his face, his toes digging into the soft earth,
he’d let his wolf loose. Go for a run.

And if all went as planned, he would never return.

Settling in, she watched. Waited. She burned to see the expression on his face when
he realized his past had finally come to call. That, in a great twist of irony, he
had sired his own executioner, and his sins would be paid for with his blood. It was
all that mattered, all she lived for.

Soon, her father would die.

•   •   •

“The vampire problem is becoming increasingly unstable,” Nick Westfall said, face
grim as he studied each member of his Alpha Pack team of shifters. “If we don’t get
a handle on the rogues, they’re going to end up exposing the entire paranormal world
to the human race.”

Resting his elbows on the conference room’s table, Zander Cole struggled to understand
his commander’s briefing. It wasn’t as if he was
completely
deaf anymore. When he was a kid, he and his friends would while away the summer at
the local swimming pool. Sometimes they’d entertain themselves by yelling to one another
underwater and trying to decipher the messages, to little success and a great deal
of laughter. His current predicament was like that—without the amusement.

But over the past few months, he’d gotten better at reading lips. As long as he was
looking directly at the speaker and concentrating hard, he could catch most of what
was said.

It was a vast improvement over the total deafness he’d been left with after the Pack’s
Sorcerer had created an explosion of lightning that had literally rocked the earth.
Progress, yes—but a long way from being healed.

Because his brain injury had left him to contend with so much more than just his hearing
being shot to hell.

Despair swelled in his chest, and he fought it down yet again. The blinding headaches
were as bad as they’d been in the beginning. Maybe worse. Every day, the feelings
of helplessness, uselessness, got harder to take. He feared he was no longer an asset
to his team, but a burden. A waste of space.

Sort of hard to swallow, considering Zan was the Pack’s Healer. His Psy gift allowed
him to heal everyone except himself, and even that was in jeopardy of failing him
altogether.

For years, his Pack brothers and their mission of battling the world’s most dangerous
paranormal predators had been his whole life, and now his future wasn’t looking too
bright. His days on the team appeared to be numbered, and rejoining the “normal” human
world wasn’t an option.

Where that left him was a very, very frightening place in his head.

Shaking himself from his misery, he forced himself to focus again on what Nick was
telling them.

“. . . capture one of them alive if we can. Find out why there’s so goddamned many
of them lately.” Pausing, he consulted some notes in his hand. “Our latest report
cites a rogue problem on a ranch in Texas.”

“Texas?” Zan mused out loud. He glanced around and saw the same curiosity reflected
in his brothers’ faces before returning his attention to Nick.

“Not their usual stomping ground, for sure. They normally keep to big cities, where
it’s easier to blend in and feed and where one more dead homeless person will hardly
be noted. But for whatever reason, it seems we have a group targeting a ranch in East
Texas. The owners were shocked last week when a couple of hands found two cows with
their throats slashed and only a minimal amount of blood around their bodies when
the ground should’ve been soaked.”

There was a murmur around the room as Nick went on. “We know vampires will drink from
large animals if they’re desperate for food. What’s
unusual is that the animals were killed during the daytime.”

A loud exclamation came from Zan’s right, and he needed no clarification to interpret
it as a curse. Glancing over, he saw Aric Savage lean forward in his chair and rest
his elbows on the conference table. The redhead looked pissed as he pushed his long
hair from his face.

“The bastards are walking during the day now? How the hell are they managing that?”

Nick shook his head. “No idea, which is another reason we need one of them alive.”

“I doubt this reached your desk because of a couple of dead cows,” Zan said, working
to enunciate clearly. He hated how his voice must sound to everyone, strange and flat,
and tried hard to ignore the gazes that swung in his direction. “There must be more.”

“You’re right. It wasn’t the cows that got our friends in Washington moving—it was
the dead cowboy who was found this morning, throat slashed and body drained. He went
out early to check the cattle, and his horse came back alone. Our contacts were already
aware of the slaughtered cattle, so when this news came over the wire, Grant called
me while the government sent in a couple of suits to keep local law enforcement at
bay.”

General Jarrod Grant was an old friend of Nick’s and one of the only allies in Washington
whom the Pack trusted. If Grant was involved, the rogue situation was serious.

Zan snorted. “I bet that went over well. When do we leave?”

Nick paused, giving Zan a searching look, and a lead ball formed in his gut. For one
excruciating moment, he feared the commander would order him to remain behind at the
compound, despite their previous talks. Even Packmate Micah Chase, with his nightmares
and heavy meds, was now allowed to join their missions. If Zan had to stay behind,
confirming his status as useless to everyone, he’d crawl under a rock and die.

Then the man nodded at him slightly and said, “Thirty minutes. We’ll take a couple
of the Hueys.”

Zan fought to hide his relief. Nick had placed his trust in him, and Zan couldn’t
let him or the team down. As the team stood and began to file from the room to make
ready for the flight, he felt a hand on his shoulder and turned to see his best friend,
Jaxon Law, gazing at him with a slight smile on his face, not an ounce of sympathy
evident. Thank God. Jax of all people knew that pity was the one thing Zan wouldn’t
be able to handle.

“You ready?” Jax asked.

“Yeah. As I’ll ever be.”

“You’ll do fine.”

“I’m not worried about doing my job,” he snapped, then immediately felt bad about
it. Especially since that statement was a big lie. And because Jax was simply standing
there wearing an expression of patient understanding instead of giving in to the fight
Zan suddenly craved.

As though reading his mind, Jax smiled and said, “Good. Save that aggression for the
enemy and we’ll both be proven right. Come on.”

He felt like an ass. His team had been nothing but supportive in the aftermath of
his injury and throughout his recovery. They knew how tough these past few weeks had
been for him, and nobody gave him a hard time. They didn’t dare, considering that
if they were truly doing their jobs, every single one of them would end up out of
commission sooner or later. The difference was that being shifters, their injuries
typically healed within days.

Zan’s wounds were severe, possibly permanent.

Giving Jax a grin he didn’t feel, he nodded. “Sorry. Lead the way.”

They hurried out, taking only seconds to dash to their living quarters and retrieve
the new laser guns they’d been issued, along with the big bowie knife Zan liked to
strap to his thigh. Unlike Aric, he wasn’t a Telekinetic/Firestarter and didn’t have
the power to hurl objects or set the enemy on fire in a fight—though that would be
awesome. Being a Healer was rewarding, but it certainly didn’t give him an edge in
battle, so he preferred human weapons. Teeth and claws and superior speed were cool
when he was in wolf form, but the knife was just as effective in close combat.

Meeting in the hallway, he and Jax made their way through the compound and down a
corridor leading to the huge hangar that housed all of the Pack’s vehicles. In addition
to the helicopters, there were several SUVs, cars, and a jet, along with their personal
modes of transportation. Zan’s baby, a big, macho Ford Raptor, sat on the far side
of the building, and he spared it a longing glance before climbing into one of the
Hueys with Jax, Nick, Ryon, Micah, and Phoenix. In the other copter rode Aric, his
mate, Rowan, Kalen, Hammer, A.J. and finally Noah, a nurse who worked in the compound’s
infirmary. It was quite common for one of them to need patching up in the field, and
Noah’s presence was a great help to Zan these days.

Zan tried not to think about why. It wasn’t like Noah’s being around was a vote of
no confidence, since one of the doctors or nurses usually accompanied the Pack on
a mission. But an insidious voice inside him whispered,
Yeah, but for how long? What happens when you’ve got nothing left to give?

Inside him, his wolf growled at the thought.

Once they were in the air, he lost himself to the dull roar of the aircraft and paid
no particular attention to the shouted conversations going on around him. That was
one dangerous thing about being practically deaf—it was all too easy for him to retreat
from the world. If he didn’t look, he couldn’t participate. Both a blessing and a
curse.

Eventually, however, his gaze was drawn to his Pack brothers. Especially Micah and
Phoenix. It was strange, getting used to having the two of them with the team again,
especially after they’d been believed dead. Zan was glad they’d been rescued from
the horrible labs after being tortured for months, and wondered how they were really
coping.

One side of Micah’s face was ruined, like melted wax, the result of molten silver
being poured on him. God knows he had to still be in pain, but Micah claimed that
his medications were helping. He’d come out of his shell in recent weeks, had stopped
hiding his face. He smiled more, though the expression was still reserved. The man
was a walking miracle; so what if his eyes were a bit too bright, almost feverish?

Nobody questioned it, at least not to Micah. No one wanted to risk setting back his
progress.

Phoenix was a completely different story. Rescued separately from Micah, the man had
come away malnourished but with no physical scars and seemed to be handling the horrors
he’d been through with relative ease. Too much so, which had Zan concerned. But if
he was hurting inside, he was hiding it well. Nix appeared to be quite happy lately—and
even a blind man could see that it was due to his attraction to Noah.

Were those two Bondmates? A betting pool had been started, and Zan hadn’t bothered
to chip in on what he figured was a
yes
. The great thing was, not one of the guys had expressed a negative attitude about
it. In the shifter world, a man’s Bondmate just
was
, like the leaves on the trees or the air they breathed. If fate blessed a man with
the other half of his soul, he didn’t question his good fortune. He simply seized
his destiny with both hands and thanked God he didn’t have to walk through life alone.

Zan knew he sure as hell would, if he were so lucky.

Dammit. Not going to think about one more impossible dream heaped on the bonfire.
The rest will be a pile of smoldering ashes soon enough.

As if to punctuate that miserable thought, Zan glanced over just in time to catch
a snippet of conversation between Micah and Nix.

“Don’t know, man,” Micah was saying. “I’m not one to talk about whether
he’s
ready to be on duty. I mean, look at me.” He gestured to his own face, but Nix shook
his head.

“Your scars don’t affect your ability to do your job, buddy. His situation is totally
different. Just sayin’.”

Unable to bear witnessing another word, Zan averted his gaze and stared at the ugly
gray wall of the Huey. Hurt speared him like a lance to the gut, and he rested his
elbows on his knees. Was that what all of them were saying? Speculating out loud on
whether he was fit to be in the field?

Doubting himself in private was one thing.

But seeing his brothers do the same—in front of him, as if he were stupid as well
as deaf—was a whole different level of pain.

Lost in his head, he let the hours roll by, scarcely making an attempt to join in
what little talk the guys managed. By the time they landed in a wide, grassy plain
in Texas, Jax was gazing at him with worry etched on his brow as he stroked his goatee.
The second he saw Zan noticing, however, he put on his poker face. Already on edge,
Zan wasn’t about to let him get away with pretending nothing was wrong.

As soon as they were clear of the transport, Zan grabbed his friend’s arm and held
him back as the others walked across the pasture to meet a trio of men in suits.

“Don’t do that,” he hissed. “Don’t pretend to my face that you’re okay with me being
here when you think the same as everyone else.”

Anger flashed in Jax’s eyes. “You telling me what I think now? News flash—you’re a
Healer, not a Seer, so you have no clue what’s going on in my head.”

“I have eyes. I can tell you’re second-guessing whether I can do the job.”

“Am I?” He took a step forward, got in Zan’s face. “I doubt any one of us could possibly
second-guess you more than you’re doing all on your own. You saw concern, yes. But
that’s because I’m your
friend
, jackass. I give a damn about you, that’s all.”

Put like that, the perspective made Zan feel about an inch tall. Blowing out a breath,
he looked away for a moment, scanning the horizon without really noticing much. One
of Jax’s hands clasped his shoulder, and he returned his attention to his friend.