Holocaust (The Deadwood Hunter Series Book 3) Read online

  Rachel M Raithby

  Copyright

  Copyright © Rachel M Raithby, 2015

  Cover Art by Regina Wamba @ Mae I Design

  Interior Design and Formatting Kats Book Promotions & Services

  ISBN13: 978-0-9942163-3-5

  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 any persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  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, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior written permission of the copyright owners. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights, purchase only authorized editions.

  Dedication

  This one is for you.

  For every reader who took a chance on Lexia, and stuck with her until the end.

  Acknowledgements

  Wow what a journey it has been to reach this point. There have been points when I have wavered, when I have questioned what I was I was doing, and yet the highs outshine every stress, and frustration I have felt.

  I have met some incredible people along the way, from my amazing street team, to my editor, PA and cover designer. And let’s not forget you the reader! Without you I wouldn’t be here right now, writing this acknowledgement for my fourth book, and the last in Lexia and Lincoln’s story. Though their fight ends here, their story will carry on as I explore some of the other characters in their world.

  Many thanks are needed to the talented women who’ve help make Holocaust perfect.

  Becky from Hot Tree Editing – you help me see my work in a new light, thank you.

  Regina at Mae I design – your work is simply breathtaking.

  Kat – PA/friend/formatter/trouble shooter – the list goes on!

  Sabrina – Every authors dream beta reader.

  Finally to my family, I’m so very sorry the house has been a mess this last month, I promise to clean as soon as I hit publish…Mmm maybe

  Contents

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Acknowledgements

  Books by Rachel M Raithby

  Prologue

  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

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  Books by Rachel M Raithby

  The Deadwood Hunter Series

  Lexia

  Whispers of Darkness

  Holocaust

  The New Dawn Novels

  Winter Wolf

  Wolf Dancer (June2105)

  Prologue

  FEBRUARY

  Caden put down the phone and slumped into the nearest chair. For once, I’d like some good news! Just one little piece, is that too much to ask? He stared at the ceiling as if some happy news might possibly land in his lap.

  Shutting Lincoln’s door quietly behind her, she walked over to her son. “Was that Caleb?” Caden’s mother asked.

  “Yes, he has no good news. How’s Linc?” Caden sighed, rubbing his sore itchy eyes. Sleep had been a difficult task for him recently.

  “Sleeping. I gave him something to help.” Running her fingers over his head, she told him, “Caden dear, go get some rest.”

  “I can’t sleep. Whenever I shut my eyes…I see Linc at the funeral.” He shuddered as the memory whispered over his skin.

  “I know you don’t want to hear this.”

  “Then don’t say it!” he snapped, glaring at his mother.

  Paying no attention, she continued, “I’m going home, Caden.”

  “What? No you can’t! It’s not safe.” Caden jumped from his chair in anger. He didn’t need more problems; he already had too many to handle.

  “Your father has been gone for a month and he is still alive,” she pointed out. Continuing softly, she added, “I want to go home, to my job, my life, and my mate.”

  “It isn’t safe for shifters in South Dakota anymore.” The hunters had to be somewhere in the region. Every shifter in the state had either, fled, gone into hiding, or been killed.

  “If what Caleb has been telling you about Lexia is true, then nowhere will be safe, Caden. I know you still think there is a chance to save her, but I do not believe it. The sooner both you and Lincoln realize this, the sooner you can move on.” His mother took a huge breath, staring at him with a look only his mother could give.

  Caden took no notice of her; instead, his frustration rose to the surface. “MOVE ON?” he shouted. “How is Linc going to move on? He has lost his mate! Would you move on if you lost Dad?”

  Sadness filled her eyes. “Well, well…no,” she whispered, looking to the floor.

  “No, you’d join him in death. Linc doesn’t have that luxury. His mate is still out there wearing a mask. She’s lost and confused. She needs our help, Mother. Linc needs our help.”

  “I’m still going home, Caden,” she said sadly. “If the world is going to end, then I will be by your father’s side when it does. I fly home in the morning.”

  “I’ll ring Caleb back and have him meet you at the airport,” he answered, defeated.

  “That’s not necessary.”

  Locking eyes with his mother, his tone a warning not to argue. “If you want to leave, then that is what will happen.”

  His mother huffed, stomping off to the other room.

  Caden slumped back. “Just give me a break, one little fucking break. Some sign that there is still hope,” he muttered, closing his eyes.

  Sleep claimed him for a while, though it brought Caden no rest. His dreams revealed to him only death – caused by Lexia’s hands. He witnessed his best friend broken beyond repair. Desperately searching for hope that was not to be found.

  Lincoln looked at the food Patricia brought him. She smiled at him warmly with pity in her eyes.

  The scent of the sedative she crushed into his food hit his senses. For a split second, a part of him protested, but it was just a split second – a fleeting voice crushed by his despair. He knew Lexia would be ashamed of him. Hell, he was ashamed of himself. Since when did Lincoln Turner just roll over and give up?

  The first mouthful of soup slid down his throat. Almost straightaway the numbness took over; with each spoon, his pain slipped away becoming a mere haze in the dista
nce.

  She took the bowl and slipped from the room when she thought he was sleeping. His eyes had fallen shut, too heavy to keep open anymore. Raised voices of Caden arguing with his mother floated through the air, and again, for a spilt second that tiny voice spoke out, Caden doesn’t shout…

  Words floated through the door into his foggy mind, trail of deaths…Chance to save her…Lost his mate…You’d join him in death…Just give me a fucking break!

  For an instant, Lincoln’s whole body screamed at him to move. Do something. Help your friend. He needs you! But it was too late. The drugs raced through his veins, and although Lincoln hated himself for it, he welcomed them as they tore him away from his fate.

  Chapter 1

  A seemingly endless winter.

  As brittle and cold as Maura’s heart.

  Ice and steel.

  Unforgiving and unmoving.

  Long dark nights.

  Forever alone.

  Lost in darkness.

  But with the thawing of winter.

  Saw the first small cracks in her armor.

  Vulnerability, weakness, hope.

  Spring bloomed.

  As delicate as the first flower.

  And turmoil blossomed within her soul.

  APRIL

  She’d always known this day was coming; how could she not think it was? Love. Love had no boundaries or rules. It did as it pleased but she at least thought she’d have more time.

  For the past month, she’d been having these dreams, these nightmares. He’d found her, her panther. Just like she always knew he would.

  Of course, Lincoln hadn’t really found her…yet. It was only a matter of time. She was his mate and as the first sign of light bloomed, so did the irrevocable bond between them. She may have shut off her heart, closed down all feelings, her humanity, yet it had always been there, below the surface, waiting, watching for its chance to be free.

  Whether she was Maura or Lexia, she wasn’t sure. The one thing she was certain of, however, was the small, almost invisible sign of light inside of her. The light tortured her, put both her, and her panther at risk. With the light came emotions, and with emotions, came guilt. He couldn’t find her. If she was going to survive, she had to be Maura. She’d done too much; the guilt was too much.

  “Maura, get up. We have a raid.” Over the weeks, the amount of raids she’d been on decreased, with most of South Dakota now shifter free.

  Sighing, she sat up and looked at Derrick. He watched her from her doorway; he was the only person who dared enter her room. The other hunters feared her, as they feared death.

  “Are you planning on standing there while I dress?”

  He grinned a smile he only showed to her. “I’m avoiding your mother. She’s on a warpath this morning. A pack of wolves have being causing havoc.”

  So much for South Dakota being shifter free.

  Getting out of bed, Lexia padded over to her wardrobe. The problem was a few weeks ago she had not cared if he watched. She hadn’t cared about much, but since Lexia clawed her way to the surface, she cared, and Derrick knew she cared.

  That’s why he does it.

  It wasn’t as if he watched her in a sexual way. He watched her for a reaction; that was what Derrick did; he watched and prodded, just waiting for some kind of emotion. But she never gave him anything; well, tried not to. Derrick wanted to save her. Only he didn’t realize she was beyond saving; only death would save her now.

  “So is that what we are sorting today?”

  “No, can’t seem to get a location on them. We always get there too late.” She turned her back to him, smiling; she’d never had much love for wolf shifters, but this pack, she’d love to meet.

  Meet and kill.

  Giving herself a mental shake, she pushed the thought away. This was the other problem she was having; she felt like she was split in two: good and evil. Two people living within one body.

  Derrick still hadn’t moved. His gaze fixed firmly on her, waiting for that little sign she was cracking. Turning away from him, she dropped her robe, and dressed quickly.

  Black leather, that was all she wore. She yearned for color and would kill for a red dress, just something that screamed, I’m alive. Look at me.

  Walking into the bathroom, she asked, “So what’s the job today then?”

  He followed her. “Lex, what are you doing?”

  Lex, Lexia, Lexi, how I miss my name.

  “Derrick, what makes you believe I won’t kill you?” she snapped, needing some distance. “Why do you believe you can walk freely around my space as if it’s yours?”

  Stepping into her space, his usually dead eyes held emotion. “Because,” his finger brushed her cheek, “you have always been Lexia, no matter how many times you call yourself Maura. I see you, Lexi.”

  Lexi…

  She sucked in a breath. The memory the name brought brushed her mind. Sandy fur covered with a hundred dark eyes. Green. Green eyes as beautiful and wild as the forest she used to run in.

  Caden…

  A loud bang erupted in the room as Derrick slammed to the floor. The emotion in his eyes whooshed out with his breath when his back and head hit the hard surface. Against his throat rested the sharp heel of Maura’s black boots.

  “Do not grow complacent with my tolerance of you, Derrick. One word. That’s all it would take for my mother to have you killed.” Every word came from the darkest reaches of her soul and for the time being, all that was good, all that was Lexia, vanished.

  Maura left him discarded on her bathroom floor, his blood seeping around his head like a gruesome halo. How dare he cross her! She was Maura, a hunter; the hunter, she answered to no one.

  After finding her assignment, Maura assembled a team. Escaping the compound before she saw her mother, Derrick wasn’t the only one who avoided her. Maura disliked her mother’s company just as much; the orders and lack of respect tested Maura’s patience. She knew it was only a matter of time before her temper slipped; it was best to just avoid her altogether.

  As she drove out the gate, alone in the jeep because no one would travel with her, she sensed Derrick’s energy: a mass of black, with touches of grey, and the light at his core. He leapt onto the side of her truck, unlatching the door. Maura didn’t flinch as he climbed in with the speed only a hunter possessed and sat next to her.

  “How’s the head?” She smiled.

  “Depends who I’m talking too?” he grumbled.

  “Pushing your luck today, Derrick.” Her tone dry, unamused, but still she couldn’t keep the slight smile from her lips.

  They drove the rest of the way in silence as Maura made her way steadily through the forest. The compound was hidden deep within the Black Hills of South Dakota, and it took some time to reach the main road. The raid she was heading to was on a house where a small pack of shifters lived, according to the intel. It would only take thirty minutes before they arrived, once they hit the road. Thirty minutes for Lexia to claw her way through the darkness that was Maura. Thirty minutes to decide if she could go through with this. Was this the day? Was this the day she let Lexia out forever and turned her back on the hunters, on her mother?

  The job was easy, too easy. It made her question Lucy’s intentions; her mother always had a reason for her actions. What was her reasoning here? Had Lucy noticed the hairline cracks, creeping over her façade? Was this a test?

  As if Derrick read her mind, he interrupted the silence. “Hey, Lexia, are you going to be all right with this? It’s been a while since we’ve had a raid.”

  You mean this is the first time you’ve been out on a raid with Lexia awake. She mentally pushed the errant thought away. She couldn’t be two people; that was impossible, two people within one head… Impossible.

  She glanced at Derrick briefly. She had no idea how he knew her concerns, yet he was right. Uncertainty filled her every movement, her every thought. She wasn’t sure if she could do this; whether she could take the lives of
shifters.

  “I’m not sure. I have an uneasy feeling about this, Derrick. I can’t help but question why take them out? They’re not causing problems, so why send me for a job any other hunter could do?”

  “These wolves, they’re messing with her head. Lucy’s not thinking rationally anymore. Stay in the car, Lex. I’ll go in with the others.”

  “But… my mother… if she finds out… What if she’s testing me?”

  “She won’t find out. I’ll make sure of it. Stay in the car. Leave this one to me.”

  Maura sat in silence for a minute, the road ahead of her blurring into smudged color. Derrick must truly be her friend; he was always there, always fixing her problems.

  “How do you do it, Derrick? How do you pretend not to care? Not that I do really,” she added as an afterthought.

  For a while, he was silent, and she thought he’d decided to not answer her. She turned her mind back onto the road, trying to block out her thoughts, of the pack they were on their way to slaughter.

  “I suppose I’ve been doing this so long that I no longer feel anything, but in the beginning, it killed me. Every morning when I woke, I wanted to die.”

  “That’s not true. You still feel. I can see it.”

  “You make me feel, Lex. It was you that day… a kitten in the lion’s den. You woke up something in me that I long ago buried to save my family, just as you buried, Lexia, to save, Lincoln.”

  “Don’t say his name,” she whispered, forcing back the emotions just the bare mention of his name brought.

  “But unlike me, Lex, you won’t survive. The way you feel, the love you have for him, you can’t run from it forever.”

  “I can’t run from my mother forever either… It’s this or he dies.”

  “Don’t fool yourself. There’s a storm coming, and no one can escape it.”

  Maybe not, but I plan on Lincoln escaping. She’d felt it too, the growing tension, the whispers of unease. Lucy Hunter’s grip on the hunters was slipping, and when the leash slipped, the world would be plunged into war.