Lifemates: The Conall Clan, #3

By Donna Steele

Clarissa Johnson might be the sister of a Territory Alpha but she's always been a wild child and rumors abound. One is true, she was banished from Lou Conall's territory. With that hanging over her how can she function has her brother's matriarch, or even show her face in shifter society.

Wesley Conall, a detective in Chicago, is only going home to see his cousin and Alpha, Lou in the formal mating ceremony to the woman Wesley sent to Sweetwater for protection. He plans to kick back and enjoy seeing old friends and spending time with family.

Plans are what fall apart when life happens.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Donna Steele
• Release date: Nov 29, 2023
• ISBN: 9798223771852

Donna Steele

Women strong enough for love. Donna writes science fiction, paranormal and small town romances about women coming into their strength and having the courage to find and accept love. Now that she has retired from going into an office every day, she created an office at home and writes full time. Talk about living the dream! She was the girl at the party who was yearning for the quiet corner and a book to read (go Rory Gilmore!), and has been writing in her head since she learned to read. Getting those stories down on paper (or in her laptop) has been more fun than she ever imagined it could be. The possibilities of science fiction have always drawn her and she's read them all, there just needed to be a little more romance in them. She finally got up the courage to write them herself and is delighted to be able to share these stories with you. She is a member of Romance Writers of America, the Fantasy, Futuristic & Paranormal Chapter of RWA and the Heart of Carolina Romance Writers. She can be reached at www.steelestories.com, www.facebook.com/donnasteeleauthor, or https://twitter.com/steele_donna

Book preview

Prologue

Doctor Arturo Donado took a deep breath. He’d found her.

He had finally located Karen Conall—wife of Deputy Brent Conall in Sweetwater, North Carolina, and sister to Marcel Tremblay. The woman who had ruined his life.

Maybe blaming her wasn’t rational, but the person really responsible for his situation, Eric Davis, was out of his reach. That SOB had the funds to disappear and that was exactly what he’d done as far as Donado could discover with his now meager assets.

As soon as his former lab supervisor, Kent, had released him from his prison in Eric’s warehouse, Donado had gone on the run. He probably should be grateful for the man’s assistance. If the FBI didn’t show up to arrest him, he would have eventually starved. He knew that Davis, wherever he had escaped to, would never give him another thought.

He had chanced going to his apartment and that was a good thing.

He’d been able to throw some clothes into a bag and retrieve his emergency stash. In the back of his mind, he had always known there was a chance he’d have to go on the run or underground. His lifestyle choices weren’t appreciated by most of society. He kept cash and a couple of credit cards in different names hidden at his place, as well as a few thumb drives—for insurance. Other people he associated with were also drawn to younger sex partners, and they would have little choice but to come to his aid once he was safely out of reach, and able to show them what information he had taken with him.

Unless they were already in FBI custody.

At least he’d had some warning that the feds were on their way. No need to share that with the others.

He had hit the ATM one last time in his real name at his regular banking stop, withdrawing the maximum. He should have enough cash for a little while; hopefully long enough to get out of the country.

As his mind cleared from the drugs, and he hadn’t been pulled over on a highway from an all-points bulletin, he finally remembered Eric’s words—Karen, wife of a deputy named Conall, from some Podunk town in the mountains of North Carolina. Those had been his only clues.

He was too smart—or too afraid—to use his own laptop to find her. Instead he had to research using a public-access computer at a library in a small town in Rhode Island.  Even then he was surprised at how little information he could find about the place on-line in this day and time.

Now was the time to vanish.

After he had her and made her pay.

Chapter One

Lou fell back on the bed so as not to crush her, breathing heavily, and pulled Megan against him.

After a long moment, in which both attempted to get their heart rates under control, Megan looked over at him. Now would be the best time to broach an unwanted subject. She was pretty sure she could convince him, but it needed to be handled delicately. I got a letter today.

Umm? It was more of a low growl. Yes, he was as relaxed as the man, or wolf, got.

It was from Clarissa.

Lou turned his head and glared at her. You wait until I'm too sated to talk to bring this up?

Megan smiled up at him and nodded. She knew her mate well. She wants to come to the ritual and ceremony.

No. That response left little room for conversation. She had to make him understand.

Lou, she wants to make atonement.

She's lucky she still has a throat.

She knows that. I'd like her to come.

What? Lou stared down at his mate in total disbelief. After what she tried to do to you?

Megan thought back to that night. She had not yet accepted Lou at that time, so their status as lifemates was still a secret from most. It had been a simple dinner party to honor the visiting Alpha, Marcus Johnson of the Wyoming Territory, at Wanda’s home. Clarissa, only sister of Marcus, and jealous of the way Lou treated Megan, had tried to harm her by causing scalding coffee to splash her. It was the first time she had ever seen Lou move at Alpha speed.

She's going to have to live with that memory for the rest of her life. Her banishment shamed her before all the Alphas, even though we kept what actually happened between us. And thanks to you, I wasn’t hurt.

Lou huffed. I've told no one.

I believe you, but she was already kind of a pariah. Everyone knows she left here abruptly and didn’t accompany Marcus for the rest of the hunt. Speculation has run wild. Even I’ve heard it. She needs this.

I was always told that the female of the species was more blood thirsty than the male.

Oh we are. She nipped his shoulder and he growled. She looked down and her eyebrow rose. Already? You don't stay sated long.

I blame you.

Me?

The gods kept you hidden from me for too long. I have to make up for lost time.

You keep telling yourself that. It was true they hadn’t found one another until recently. And there was that little fact that she, like most humans, had no idea that shifters even existed. Her hand closed around him and he nuzzled her exposed throat.

May Clarissa come to the ritual and ceremony?

Another growl, lower this time. If Marcus vouches for her.

He will, Megan murmured as he rose over her to take his mate again.

Chapter Two

Clarissa took a deep steadying breath. Megan’s response overwhelmed her. She would be allowed to attend the ritual and ceremony for Megan and Alpha Conall. Megan had sent her a very nice personal note. Lou would no doubt contact Marcus formally, but Clarissa would be able to show her face.

Lifemating. It was a concept totally outside her experience. Her parents had been mated only, neither finding a lifemate. They had gotten along okay and seemed to love each other. They had died when Clarissa was very young, and she couldn’t remember their relationship with one another that clearly. Marcus had gone on hunts as was expected of young wolves, and hunts had come to Wyoming, but nothing had come of it in either of their lives.

It wasn’t that she didn’t believe in the phenomena, just that she’d never seen it up close.

Prior to being banished from Lou’s territory that evening, she’d gotten the opportunity to observe Brent and Karen together. They were seamless, complementing the strengths of one another without thought. On some level she was aware that Miss Wanda still mourned her lifemate Mel. No relationship of that sort had ever touched her

Clarissa had certainly met enough wolves through Marcus’ connections and business, unfortunately numbers didn’t make it happen. Supposedly you knew as soon as you scented a lifemate.

There was no way Megan could have sensed what was happening when she met Lou. She was human, but Lou had known immediately and