Every Angelic Moment
Every Angelic Moment
Hyena Heat Seven
By R. E. Butler
Copyright 2017 R. E. Butler
Every Angelic Moment (Hyena Heat Seven)
By R. E. Butler
This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the author.
Cover by Tibbs Design
This ebook is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination and not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locations is coincidental.
Disclaimer: The material in this book is for mature audiences only and contains graphic sexual content and is intended for those older than the age of 18 only.
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Editing by Word Vagabond
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Thanks to Joyce & Shelley for beta reading
For BB and BL - I love you both.
Table of Contents
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
The Owl’s Minotaur - a Hyena Heat Novella
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Coming Next from R. E. Butler
Contact the Author
Other Works by R. E. Butler
Vixen’s Fated Mate Coming November 26, 2017
Every Angelic Moment
Hyena Heat Seven
By R. E. Butler
Angel Cooper didn’t expect to love working at a campground run by hyena shifters in Pennsylvania, but she feels like she’s finally found the place she belongs. She’s happier than she’s ever been, even if she wouldn’t mind meeting Mr. Right sometime soon. Her sort-of adopted sister, Brierley, is certain that Angel is meant to be the special mate to a hyena clan, but Angel’s not so sure.
Brin, Ian, and Quill Mercer left home with their father’s ashes and their tails between their legs. They’d spent the better part of their lives believing that their father had found the perfect mate for them, but it had all been a terrible lie. Brin and Quill are ready to move on and find a special woman to share for the rest of their lives, but middle brother Ian can’t let go of the pain that their father’s obsession and betrayal left him with. Ian doesn’t trust himself to be their clan’s protector, and deals with his sleepless nights by joining an underground were-fighting tournament. Fighting keeps him sane, but not happy.
When Angel heads into the woods to pick flowers, she follows an enticing scent to a campsite, where she meets the three sexiest men she’s ever laid eyes on. Ian explains the violent way he’s been spending his nights, but after meeting her, he’s walking away from the fights for good. Not everyone is happy about Ian’s change of heart, and when a sweet little owl shifter is caught in the crossfire, Ian will make sure that no one ever crosses his family again.
Be prepared for three hyenas who will do anything to make their mate happy, a human with a heart big enough for her clan, sexy times galore, plenty of growling, and a happily ever after worth fighting for. Contains m/f/m/m interaction.
Chapter 1
Angel twisted lazily in her chair, looking past the computer and out the window, where the deep green leaves of a large oak rustled in the breeze. She was alone in the office of the Fresh Water Campground, where she’d been working for the last eight months. The owners – Ally and her three husbands, Richard, Troy, and Blake – were the best bosses she’d ever had, and leaving New Jersey for the mountains of Pennsylvania had been one of the most intelligent things she’d ever done.
The door opened and a blast of late-August heat traveled inside, along with Brierley, an owl shifter whom Angel had unofficially adopted as her sister. Brierley wiped her brow and smiled. “Heya.”
Angel turned in the chair and returned her smile. “What’s up, lady?”
“I finished cleaning the one cabin for Ally, and she said she had some errands to run in town. Do you want to come along?”
Angel cast her gaze to the computer screen, where the invitation to her best friend Whisper’s baby shower was open. The baby shower was the first weekend in October; Whisper was due at the end of October. Angel’s other best friend, Bliss, was due in early October, but had promised to be at the baby shower as long as she wasn’t actually in labor.
“I guess I wouldn’t mind getting away,” she said. She returned the RSVP and told Whisper she couldn’t wait to visit Beyton again. She hadn’t been back since she left in January, keeping in touch with video calls and emails to her besties and her mom and step-dad. Beyton was home to a wolf pack, which was now run by alphas Kross and Kayne and their hyena-shifter-mate, Heaven.
“What’s up, buttercup?” Brierley asked as she sat down on the edge of the desk.
Angel closed out her email and swiveled in the chair. “I feel like my friends are all moving on without me. Do you ever feel like that?”
Brierley’s brows rose. “You’re my only friend.”
Angel smiled. “Okay, let me rephrase that.”
“No, it’s okay. I think I understand. Whisper and Bliss are mated and having babies, and Kross and Kayne are the alphas now, since Mack mated Miracle and retired. I bet the whole town is different now.”
“Yeah.”
“Do you want to find your mate?”
“I’m human,” Angel pointed out.
“I know that,” Brierley said, rolling her eyes. “But humans can have mates.”
Angel’s heart clenched a little. Her mom was human, and her step-dad was a wolf. He’d told Angel that her mom was his wolf’s mate, and her mom told her it meant that there was someone for everyone, even humans, and she just needed to be patient. It was hard to be patient when she felt like everyone was changing and moving on but her.
“Maybe.”
“No, not maybe. You’re special, and somewhere out there is a guy who’s been waiting for you. Or guys.”
Hyena-shifter males shared a woman. It was like a reverse harem, with one woman getting sexed up by three men. It was just about the sexiest thing Angel had ever heard of in her life. Her two besties were mated to hyena shifters, and she happened to live in a campground that hosted an annual get-together for hyena shifters looking for a mate. They called it a gathering, and events like it occurred in November all over the country. Whisper and Bliss had met their mates at the campground the previous fall.
Although there were three clans of unmated hyena shifters who lived and worked at the campground, Angel hadn’t felt so much as a tiny spark of attraction to them.
“Maybe I’ll get lucky and the male of my dreams will show up at the gathering,” she said as she stood and stretched.
“Males,” Brierley added with an exaggerated wink.
“Before Whisper and Bliss came back to town with their hyena clans, I didn’t even know that there were guys who would share a mate.”
“Me either,” she said as they stepped out of the air-conditioned office and into the heat. “Owls don’t share. Well, they share pleasure, but they don’t do physical
sharing.”
Angel didn’t really understand owl shifters, even though Brierley had done her best to explain her people. They were reclusive, and the leader of the nest arranged the matings. When a couple had sex for the first time, it was done in front of the whole nest, in what they referred to as a “pleasure sacrifice.” Angel wasn’t an exhibitionist by any stretch, and the thought of her first time with a guy happening in front of everyone didn’t appeal to her at all.
“Whisper’s having a baby shower the first weekend in October. I can look around for something for her while we’re in town.”
“Does she know what she’s having, or is she going to let it be a surprise?”
“She wants to be surprised, but she did tell me once that with hyenas, it was more likely she’d have a boy than a girl. Whatever she has, it’ll be getting so much love, between its four parents; plus Mack and Miracle, and Whisper’s four hyena parents.”
Brierley sighed. “It would be nice to be so loved.”
“Do you ever think about being mated?” Angel asked.
“Sure, but I don’t think my owl wants anything to do with shifters. A nice, quiet human male works for me.”
“I’ve thought that myself.”
“No, I think you’re meant for a shifter.”
“Why would you think that?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. It’s just a feeling.”
“What is?” Ally asked as she joined them.
“That Angel’s destined to have a shifter for a mate,” Brierley answered.
Angel’s cheeks flamed. “We can change the subject.”
Ally opened the door to her truck with a laugh. “I know that my boys and nephews aren’t your truemates, but maybe you’ll find your mates at the gathering.”
Angel sat in the second row, and Brierley slid into the passenger seat.
“You know what?” Angel said. “I don’t care what my future husband can or can’t change into. I just want to find my Mr. Right.”
“Mr. Rights,” Brierley said, turning in the seat to give Angel a broad smile.
“Good grief,” Angel said, shaking her head at her friend.
Chapter 2
Friday morning, Brin Mercer rolled over on the top bunk and stared at the ceiling. He and his brothers had been living in the camper for the last two months, since they’d been kicked out of their apartment. The owner hadn’t realized they were shifters and, once he’d figured it out, had evicted them. They’d used a chunk of the money from their father’s life insurance to buy the camper and settle on a stretch of cleared land in the mountains of Pennsylvania, on the banks of a slow-moving river. A few miles away was a campground run by a hyena baro, but he and his brothers weren’t in their territory and hadn’t wanted to be around their own kind anyway.
He and his two older brothers – Quill and Ian - worked for a construction company. The work was steady, and would carry them through the late fall when the snow came and they’d be laid off for the season. He was certain that they could find other temporary work for the winter, but he really hoped they weren’t still living in the camper by then.
Ian, who was sleeping on the bottom bunk in the smaller of the two bedrooms, groaned. “Fucking camper.”
Brin grinned and leaned over the edge to see him. “I was just thinking that myself.”
Ian rolled off the bed and stretched.
Quill, who was staying in the larger bedroom, stopped in the doorway. “It’s better than a tent.”
“We need to figure something out before winter comes,” Brin said.
“Yeah,” Quill said. “I guess the question is whether we like this area, or whether we’re voting to move on to somewhere else.”
“Could we live in Hawaii? No winter.” Brin said.
Ian snorted. “You have to be realistic.”
Quill shook his head. “I’m all for staying here, but it’s up to you guys.”
“We should’ve just found another apartment in the first place,” Brin said as he sat up, ducking his head so he didn’t whack it on the low ceiling. He jumped down, the camper shaking as he landed.
“We didn’t have jobs at the time,” Quill pointed out. “Besides, we’d been talking about just moving around and not staying anywhere permanent. The only reason we stayed here was because the pay is so good with the construction company.”
Ian grabbed clothes from the tiny closet and said, “I’m fine with staying, but I’m not fine with living in this cramped space any longer than necessary.”
Ian scooted by Quill and walked into the bathroom, and Brin looked at his oldest brother. As hyena shifters, they were a clan. Normally, clans stayed in family groups and called themselves a baro. But their parents had never been in a baro. Their mother and two of their fathers had died when they were young. He couldn’t really remember much about his other parents; he’d been just a toddler when they died, leaving Davion to raise three young boys on his own.
“Do you think we have family anywhere?” Brin asked.
Quill’s brows rose. “I don’t think so, why?”
“I was just thinking about being in a baro.”
“I know that both sets of grandparents died before we were born, but mom’s parents were humans so they didn’t have a baro. If our dads had other relatives, they weren’t in touch with them. I never found any evidence in Dad’s things.”
Brin grabbed his jeans from the floor and tugged them on. “I’ll get breakfast going.”
As he passed by Quill, his brother put a hand on his arm. “I don’t think it matters if we have a baro or not. We’re family, and that should be enough.”
“It is. I just wonder sometimes about what life is like for other clans.”
“Me, too.”
Brin headed to the small kitchen, where he removed a carton of eggs from the refrigerator. Hyena clans traditionally had three males, each with a specific responsibility within the group. As eldest, Quill was their leader. Although he always asked for input before making decisions, ultimately he was the one responsible for their welfare. He’d just turned thirty-one in July. Ian, the middle child, was a year younger than Quill and was their family protector. He was a large male, who prided himself on being a great fighter and strong enough to protect their family against anything. Not that they were getting into wars frequently, of course, but in the role of protector, Ian had to ensure that everyone was safe. Not only his brothers, but also their future mate and any cubs they might have.
Which left Brin as the youngest. His twenty-ninth birthday was coming up soon, and even though he wasn’t a kid anymore, he was totally going to make his birthday wish that they find their truemate.
Brin was their family’s caretaker. He made sure that Ian didn’t train so hard that he forgot to eat, and that Quill never had to worry about food or clean clothes. When they found their mate, Brin would take care of her, too, making sure she was happy.
Wherever she was, he hoped she knew that they were waiting for her.
* * *
Quill had spent the day thinking about Brin’s question. He was certain that they didn’t have any family, but he knew that both his brothers were getting tired of the solitary life. They worked their asses off fifteen hours a day, and then they crashed in the camper. It wasn’t exactly a stellar existence, and it wasn’t how he’d pictured his early thirties.
They’d been told as young boys that it was the duty of the hyena parents to choose the mate for their sons, and their father, Davion, had picked a hyena female named Dawn. They were too young to understand what had really happened – that Davion had kidnapped the young hyena and then been double-crossed by those who held her. Quill and his brothers had crossed the country several times looking for Dawn, hoping to find her at a gathering. When they found her last November, the truth had come out – females chose their own mates, and Davion had nearly destroyed that young woman’s life by taking her from her biological family. He’d died because he tried to abduct the female again, a
nd she’d shifted and attacked him. It was as he was dying that he’d told his sons the truth. Their entire lives had been a lie created by a grieving male. Dawn, who went by the name Whisper, had forgiven him and his brothers for their roles in her terror, but it had changed all of them.
Brin was sad; he missed their dad. Quill found himself doubting every decision he made. He wanted to be a good leader, but he didn’t have a whole lot of experience with it, and he didn’t remember much of their eldest father. Ian had shut down for a long while, not showing any emotion at all. He was starting to come out of his shell a little, but Quill knew that they all carried deep wounds from their father’s deception. Not to mention that for the last six weeks or so, every Friday and Saturday night, Ian had been leaving after Brin and Quill were in bed, and not returning until close to dawn. Sometimes he had cuts and bruises. When asked, he was cagey, and so they’d stopped asking. Whatever was going on with Ian, Quill knew he’d talk to them when he was ready and not a second before.
Owen, the foreman, came over with their paychecks. “Some of the guys are going to a bar to play pool. You and your brothers in?”
His immediate reaction was to say no, but he thought better of it. “Sounds good.”
“We’re going to O’Shay’s.”
“See you in a few.”
“Did I just hear that right?” Brin asked as he took his paycheck from Owen.
“We should go,” Quill said. “I think it would be good for us to do something other than hang out in the camper.”
Ian looked at Quill in silence.
“I’m the leader,” Quill said.
“I know,” Ian said.
“Good. It’s Friday night. Let’s go shoot some pool. Maybe one of these guys knows of a rental in the area so we can put the camper in storage.”