Stealing His Heart Away Read online

  Heart Stealers 1

  Stealing His Heart Away

  Ever since his parents and brother died in front of their family home, Ryan Lowe chose to live a reclusive lifestyle. Scared of the unsafe outside world, Ryan has never left his home, but he’s about to find out that even in his self-made prison, there is danger. When a dangerous werewolf ends up his backyard, Ryan isn’t sure what to make of the gorgeous shifter.

  Axel Navarro is an Alpha werewolf who’s tasked with stealing a rare painting. There’s just one problem. His target is a reclusive human who has the most tantalizing scent. Axel doesn’t believe there’s a mate for him out there, not after what’s he’d done and witnessed as a former soldier. The tempting human is nothing like he expected.

  Both men have issues and Axel finds himself tasked with a new mission—help Ryan spread his wings and in the process, win his heart.

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

  Length: 27,014 words

  STEALING HIS HEART AWAY

  Heart Stealers 1

  Jane Perky

  

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK

  STEALING HIS HEART AWAY

  Copyright © 2018 by Jane Perky

  ISBN: 978-1-64010-864-6

  First Publication: January 2018

  Cover design by Harris Channing

  All art and logo copyright © 2018 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.

  WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.

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  PUBLISHER

  Siren Publishing, Inc.

  www.SirenPublishing.com

  DEDICATION

  To my readers, I hope you like the first book in my new series.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  During the day, Jane is a teacher, wife and mother. At night, Jane’s a scribbler of erotic gay romance. She can’t enough of demanding alphas, werewolves, and happily-ever-afters.

  tinyletter.com/authorjaneperky

  www.janeperkywrites.club

  For all titles by Jane Perky, please visit

  www.bookstrand.com/jane-perky

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  About the Author

  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

  Landmarks

  Cover

  STEALING HIS HEART

  AWAY

  Heart Stealers 1

  JANE PERKY

  Copyright © 2018

  Chapter One

  Ryan Lowe woke up that morning the way he did over the past ten years, covered in sweat and with his heart racing. Tossing his comforter aside, Ryan slipped out of bed and took a sip of water from the bottle beside his bed. He steadied his breathing, calmed himself and padded to the window next to the bed.

  Ryan pushed the curtains aside to reveal the view of the unremarkable street below him, unremarkable because he’d been looking at the same unchanging scenery for years. Sure, there had been a couple of changes. The Miller’s last teenage boy moved out two months ago for college, and Mr. Whitaker passed away a year ago, leaving his widowed wife in their big two-floor bungalow, but all in all, things remained the same in the neighborhood.

  “Stability is good,” Ryan murmured.

  On the street, a few kids stopped in front of his home and pointed at his porch. Some giggled or whispered. He had a feeling most of the little terrors in the neighborhood considered the Lowe family home haunted. Halloweens were especially worse, when the preteens dared each other to ring his bell just to see if anyone would answer.

  Ryan closed the curtains and went about his routine. He had a schedule to follow, and most of the time, it kept him sane and prevented him from sinking into deep depression. Ryan knew something wasn’t right with him. Hell, he didn’t need to step out of his home to know his neighbors, the entire community really, considered him crazy.

  His parents’ and younger brother’s accident changed him for the worst, but he thought he was doing well on his own. Ryan headed to the bathroom, peeled off his clothes, and shoved his head under the shower. Shutting his eyes, he tried to shake away the remnants of the bad dream. His nightmares never altered course. It was always a recap of that monstrous event ten years ago.

  “I’m safe. I’m in the present, not the past,” he whispered to reassure himself. Except each time he uttered those words, he felt like a fraud. Ryan might be alive, while his parents and Ted perished that night, but sometimes, he wondered if they got the better deal. Each day, being in his own home began to feel like he was being buried alive.

  Ryan silently cursed himself for even considering such thoughts. He ought to be thankful for his blessings. Ryan quickly finished up and dressed as if it were another day in the office, copying the style and fashion from online magazines.

  He read somewhere on the net that this ritual was important to working-from-home individuals. Ryan buttoned his shirt and tugged at his tie. He spent the next five minutes fixing his hair. Excellent.

  If he strolled right out of his home right now, would anyone notice him? Just the thought of stepping out of the safe boundaries of his sanctuary started trembles up and down his arm. His teeth clattered and a chill went down his spine. Dread settled in the pit of his body. All unsavory yet familiar sensations.

  The outside world was dangerous, a death trap. It wasn’t the paranormal werewolves and vampires he worried about, but the everyday monsters. Drunk drivers were the worst. All dressed up now, Ryan headed downstairs to the kitchen fix himself some breakfast. After pouring himself a bowl of cereal and milk, he settled at the counter and fired up his laptop.

  Sunlight peered from the curtains of his kitchen window, flashes breaking through into the otherwise unlit room. Ryan had never been comfortable opening them full way. He swallowed, taking his gaze away from temptation. It would be so easy to walk to the front door, shove it open and step out into the light, especially for a man who decided to live in the dark for so long.

  Back when he’d been a kid, he thought of their home as a palace, but now, it served as the limited scope of his world and self-made prison.

  Ryan quickly shoveled more cereal into his mouth until the bowl was empty. It was tasteless in his mouth. Maybe he needed to try a new brand. It was time for him to do his online groceries anyway.

  Was a new cereal flavor the only thing he looked forward to in his life now?

  “Stop it. You’re lucky to be alive and breathing,” he whispered and focused all his energies on his work instead.

  He opened his emails. Ryan thought he did relatively well for himself. He worked for a
reputable IT security firm, did all his meetings and communication from home. During the earlier years of his employment, his boss, Mr. Tanner, had wanted him to come to the main office once a week for a status update, but he disproved the need for that by handing in his work before the deadlines.

  Ryan had a good life. He had an excellent job, a lovely home, and made enough to buy whatever he wanted. Ryan hadn’t touched the trust fund his parents left him upon their death either. He couldn’t bear to.

  Biting his lip, he scrolled through his mail. Why did he think about the sad state of his life every single day? He knew the answer to that. Lately, loneliness and isolation hit him far too often. He thought he could be satisfied, living this way, but was this all he had to look forward to everyday? Just rituals and the same schedule to follow?

  Sometimes, when he allowed himself to dream, he imagined having someone else in his home. A boyfriend, maybe, a big-hearted man who wouldn’t judge him for his odd habits, who’d smile up at him the moment he woke up. They’d eat breakfast together, talk about what they planned on doing for the rest of the day, and—

  Ryan cut the line of thought short, because thinking down that line would only bring him a world of hurt. He let out a bitter laugh. As if that would ever happen. There was no use, thinking about the things far beyond his reach or relationships that could never be true.

  Ryan opened up his browser and streamed a video of the latest world and local news. This was why, he thought, as the reporter mentioned a storm in the nearby region, two murders just a few neighborhoods away, and a string of thefts in his area.

  “I’m safe, I’m home,” he whispered, except the empty house seemed to taunt him more often.

  It was too quiet, so he grabbed his earphones. Music always soothed him and he didn’t like the noise filling up the space. Before he put them on, however, he glanced at the windows again. Goosebumps appeared on his arms. There it was again, the feeling of being watched by an invisible phantom. Ryan rubbed at his arms and quickly did a search on Jeremy Raines, the man he put in jail and the monster responsible for taking the lives of his family and ruining his life.

  Ryan blew out a breath. Raines was still serving prison and would continue to rot there for another five years for vehicular manslaughter. He had nothing to worry about. Ryan had built himself an impregnable fortress. Heck, he even designed the security system himself. Nothing and no one could touch him.

  Somehow, the thought no longer gave him comfort, only despair. He thought of his invisible boyfriend again, then dashed it away. As if anything like that could happen to him. Ryan would grow old and die in this miserable house that had turned into a prison. Just like Raines, it wasn’t just his parents and brother’s lives that were stolen.

  * * * *

  Axel Navarro blew out his cigarette smoke and glanced across to the house down the street. With his supernatural vision, he could easily make out his target in the kitchen. Ryan Lowe usually kept his curtains shut, but Axel was able to catch glimpses of the delicious human.

  Stop it, he chided his wolf, but the animal had developed an unnatural interest in Ryan ever since he took up this job. Axel needed a paycheck more than anything else, and Ryan was a distraction of the worst kind. With his looks, Axel never had a problem roping in men for a couple of minutes in the sack.

  Dirty and fast fucking had been his sole interest, but he had a feeling Ryan wasn’t like all his one-night-stands and random hook-ups. Something about the human felt different. Spying on the human didn’t just rouse his inner wolf’s protective instincts, but his beast began to consider the human as theirs.

  Axel let out a laugh and finished off his cig. What was he thinking? If his crewmates Zane, Roman, and Ivan heard about this, they’d laugh their ass off. Well, maybe not Ivan. The big guy would just look at him with those frosty eyes of his and Axel would have the feeling Ivan was judging him.

  Speaking of his crewmates, his phone rang. Seeing Zane’s name flashing on the screen, he picked up.

  “What’s up?” he asked.

  Most folks in the criminal underworld would consider their ragtag group of violent rogue shifters nothing better than thugs, but Axel considered Zane, Roman, and Ivan his brothers, even if they weren’t related. All four of them served in the army’s special paranormal ops, until the army decided they knew too much and tried to get rid of them. Too bad they weren’t easily disposable.

  On official records, all four of them were written off as deceased, but they were alive and kicking. Axel and the others had been good at snuffing out lives, at doing the dirty jobs no one else would touch but they all agreed on one thing. They were sick of killing under the orders of someone else.

  True, theft and other scams didn’t pay off, as well, but at least it was a lot cleaner than shedding blood.

  “How’s our special recluse?” Zane asked on the other line.

  Axel scowled. He didn’t like it when Zane and the others called Ryan that. “He’s fine, doing his usual routine. How’s Roman doing, hacking into the security system in Ryan’s house?”

  “Ryan? Already on a first-name basis?”

  He didn’t need to see Zane to know the other werewolf was grinning. He growled, impatient to get this job done and over with. Axel began to have second thoughts about stealing from a guy like Ryan Lowe. He knew very well what it was like, dealing with his own inner demons, and Ryan struggled with his every day.

  Axel ought to know. He watched the house and observed Ryan most of the time. Having nightmares himself, he recognized the same symptoms Ryan showed. True, Ryan didn’t serve in the army or felt the constant weight of all the lives he’d taken, but Ryan fought his own battles each day. That was saying something.

  Sometimes, it was better to lock up the worst of the worst memories and throw the key the away.

  “No luck. We’re close to the client’s deadline, resorting to good old fashion breaking and entering might be better,” Zane said.

  “I thought we agreed that would be our last option,” Axel pointed out.

  Ryan already looked spooked of his own shadow most of the time. Axel recognized paranoid behavior and he knew Ryan constantly, almost obsessively, checked the news. It was as if his little human wanted to suck in all the worst the world had to offer just to convince himself it was better to stay in his house.

  How would Ryan react, if he barged in and dragged Ryan out of his house? If his little human resisted, he’d easily toss Ryan over his shoulder and march outside. Axel would show Ryan there was nothing to be afraid of, that he was there if anything happened and—

  Shit.

  His little human?

  What the fuck was happening to him?

  Chapter Two

  The job was simple, Axel told himself, conduct a surveillance of the target’s home. Once he concluded the house’s layout and figured out a way to break Ryan’s security system, he’d give his team the go-ahead. Hell, he could have done the job alone, but Roman insisted they do each job in pairs.

  Zane probably suspected something was wrong. He told Zane he only needed two, three days at the most to finish his assessment. A week had passed. Seven days had been enough for him to figure out that Ryan never quite managed to walk away from his past. It haunted him just as Axel’s own sins surfaced during his weakest moments to remind him he’d never been a good man. He was scum of the lowest order.

  Axel had been a soldier, a killer, a monster undeserving of anything good, especially not Ryan.

  “Give me another day,” he told Zane. Axel thought Zane had ended the call when he hadn’t spoken in a while, but his brother was still there.

  “What’s going on, Axel?” Zane finally asked. “This job is easy, practically a freebie. Don’t tell me you’re beginning to feel something for your human.”

  Your human.

  Oh, Axel’s wolf liked that.

  He let out a laugh instead, but he had a feeling Zane knew he was lying his ass off. “Yeah right. One day, Zane. Then
we do this the old-fashioned way.”

  “Roger that. I’ll update you if Roman can come up with a solution about the target’s security system,” Zane replied, finally ending the call.

  All Axel needed to do was get Ryan Lowe out of his system and his mind. The only plausible explanation for his strange attraction was the fact Ryan and he were in some ways alike. Like him, Ryan carried emotional wounds that had no way of healing. What kind of sick bastard was he, that that was the reason he was drawn to another man?

  Axel opened up the file he had on Ryan on his phone. It wasn’t hard, digging up information on Ryan. All he needed to do was look through the local news archive to find the article on the car accident that ended the lives of Ryan’s family. “Car accident” had been a polite term.

  Jeremy Raines had been convicted for vehicular manslaughter for fifteen years. Too bad putting the scumbag responsible for the deaths of three innocent people didn’t do a thing for Ryan. Axel closed his phone to look out his car window again. Ryan remained hunched over the kitchen counter, typing on his laptop.

  The human remained in that position for fifteen more minutes before standing up and moving to the fridge. He caught sight of Ryan’s neat and short brown hair and his narrowed blue eyes as he opened the curtains a fraction more than usual.

  Ryan cut his own hair, he remembered, recalling three days ago when he curiously spied on Ryan with a pair of scissors in hand as he followed instructions on his laptop. His little human could certainly make do when necessary.

  For a second, he thought Ryan looked right at him. His wolf rose inside him, excited. It wouldn’t be hard to step out of his vehicle, walk right up to Ryan’s window, and introduce himself. What would happen to the job then?