Overcome Read online

  “A LORA LEIGH NOVEL IS ALWAYS A MUST-READ!”

  —Fresh Fiction

  PRAISE FOR LORA LEIGH’S NOVELS OF THE BREEDS

  “Another powerful and highly erotic saga of the Breeds … Highly charged … and carnal.”

  —Fresh Fiction

  “Incredibly sexy and emotionally riveting … Tons of action and seriously hot, erotic sex … It was a book that I could not put down.”

  —Smexy Books

  “Delivers with Ms. Leigh’s trademark fast-paced, high-adrenaline ride into the intriguing world of this series and leaves readers ready for more.”

  —Night Owl Reviews

  “It is phenomenal.”

  —Joyfully Reviewed

  “Wickedly seductive with sizzling sex scenes that will leave you begging for more.”

  —ParaNormal Romance

  “Erotic and suspenseful.”

  —Romance Junkies

  “Heart-wrenching.”

  —Fallen Angel Reviews

  “Leigh’s engrossing alternate reality combines spicy sensuality, romantic passion and deadly danger. Hot stuff indeed.”

  —RT Book Reviews

  “Leigh’s action-packed Breeds series makes a refreshing change.”

  —Monsters and Critics

  “No-holds-barred sex … Which is to say it happens often and explosively.”

  —Errant Dreams

  “Sizzling hot erotic romance combines with tense suspense.”

  —Romance Reviews Today

  “Lora Leigh doesn’t disappoint when it comes to sexiness, intrigue and an added little bit of humor.”

  —Bitten by Love Reviews

  Berkley titles by Lora Leigh

  The Breeds

  RULE BREAKER

  STYGIAN’S HONOR

  LAWE’S JUSTICE

  NAVARRO’S PROMISE

  STYX’S STORM

  LION’S HEAT

  BENGAL’S HEART

  COYOTE’S MATE

  MERCURY’S WAR

  DAWN’S AWAKENING

  TANNER’S SCHEME

  HARMONY’S WAY

  MEGAN’S MARK

  The Nauti Boys

  NAUTI ENCHANTRESS

  NAUTI TEMPTRESS

  NAUTI DECEPTIONS

  NAUTI INTENTIONS

  NAUTI DREAMS

  NAUTI NIGHTS

  NAUTI BOY

  Anthologies

  OVERCOME

  (includes novellas “The Breed Next Door”, “In a Wolf’s Embrace”, and “A Jaguar’s Kiss”)

  ENTHRALLED

  (with Alyssa Day, Meljean Brook, and Lucy Monroe)

  NAUTIER AND WILDER

  (with Jaci Burton)

  TIED WITH A BOW

  (with Virginia Kantra, Eileen Wilks, and Kimberly Frost)

  PRIMAL

  (with Michelle Rowen, Jory Strong, and Ava Gray)

  NAUTI AND WILD

  (with Jaci Burton)

  HOT FOR THE HOLIDAYS

  (with Angela Knight, Anya Bast, and Allyson James)

  THE MAGICAL CHRISTMAS CAT

  (with Erin McCarthy, Nalini Singh, and Linda Winstead Jones)

  SHIFTER

  (with Angela Knight, Alyssa Day, and Virginia Kantra)

  BEYOND THE DARK

  (with Angela Knight, Emma Holly, and Diane Whiteside)

  HOT SPELL

  (with Emma Holly, Shiloh Walker, and Meljean Brook)

  THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP

  Published by the Penguin Group

  Penguin Group (USA) LLC

  375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014

  USA • Canada • UK • Ireland • Australia • New Zealand • India • South Africa • China

  penguin.com

  A Penguin Random House Company

  This book is an original publication of The Berkley Publishing Group.

  “The Breed Next Door” by Lora Leigh copyright © 2005 by Christina Simmons.

  “In a Wolf’s Embrace” by Lora Leigh copyright © 2007 by Christina Simmons.

  “A Jaguar’s Kiss” by Lora Leigh copyright © 2008 by Christina Simmons.

  Penguin supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin to continue to publish books for every reader.

  BERKLEY® is a registered trademark of Penguin Group (USA) LLC.

  The “B” design is a trademark of Penguin Group (USA) LLC.

  eBook ISBN: 978-0-698-18186-1

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

  Leigh, Lora.

  Overcome / Lora Leigh.

  pages ; cm

  ISBN 978-0-425-27773-7 (softcover)

  1. Paranormal romance stories. I. Title.

  PS3612.E357O94 2015

  813’.6—dc23

  2014041341

  PUBLISHING HISTORY

  Berkley trade paperback edition / February 2015

  Cover art by S. Mirogue.

  Cover design by Rita Frangie.

  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.

  Version_1

  • CONTENTS •

  Praise for Lora Leigh’s Novels of the Breeds

  Berkley Titles by Lora Leigh

  Title Page

  Copyright

  THE BREED NEXT DOOR

  PROLOGUE

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  IN A WOLF’S EMBRACE

  FOREWORD

  EPIGRAPH

  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

  A JAGUAR’S KISS

  DEDICATION

  FOREWORD

  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

  THE

  BREED NEXT DOOR

  • • •

  • PROLOGUE •

  “You were created. Created to give your lives to the Genetics Council at any time deemed appropriate. You are animals. Nothing more. You have no sire. You have no bitch mother. You have only us. And we will decide if you are strong enough to live or die.”

  The dream was merciless, stark in the memory of who and what he was as he watched the scientist point out the procedure that had created him.

  The genetic enhancement of an unknown sperm and ova. The fertilization, the development before it was ever placed within a human womb. And finally, the death of the vessels that had carried each Feline Breed babe to term.

  Nothing was hidden from the i
mmature creatures. They sat on the floor of their cells and watched the graphic video daily. They saw it nightly in their dreams.

  “You are not human. No matter your appearance. You are an animal. A creation. A tool. A tool for our use. Never imagine you will ever be anything different …”

  Tarek tossed within the nightmare, years of blood and death passing by him. The lashes of the whip biting into his back, his chest. Hours of torture because he had not killed savagely enough or because he had shown mercy. The pain of knowing that the dream of freedom might be no more than a fantasy, quickly lost to death.

  He came awake in a rush, the blood pounding through his veins, sweat dampening his flesh as the horrors he had fought so long to distance himself from returned.

  Breathing roughly, he rose from the bed, pulling on a pair of boxer briefs before leaving the bedroom.

  He inhaled deeply as he left the room, his brain automatically processing the scents of the house, sifting through them, searching for anomalies. There were none. His territory was uncorrupted, as secure now as it had been when he settled into his bed.

  He rubbed his hand over the ache in his chest, the almost ever-present remembrance of that last beating, and the whip running with a current of electricity that sent agony resonating through his body.

  He was created, not born.

  Those words echoed through his mind as he opened the back door and stepped onto the porch. Created to kill. Not human …

  He stared into the bleak emptiness of the late-fall Arkansas night as he let the memories wash over him. Fighting them only made it worse, only made the nightmares worse.

  You will never know love. Animals do not love, so before you ever imagine this is a benefit due you, forget it!

  The Trainers had been quick to destroy any flicker of hope before it drew breath, took form, or hinted at an end to their tortured suffering. The psychological training had been brutal.

  You are nothing. You are a four-legged beast walking on two. Never forget that …

  Your ability to speak does not mean you have permission to do so …

  He stared into the star-studded night.

  God does not exist for you. God creates His children. He does not adopt animals …

  The final destruction. A silent snarl curved his lips as he glared into the brilliance of a sky he had never been meant to see.

  “Who does adopt us then?” he snarled to the God he had been taught had no time for him or for his kind. “Who does?”

  • CHAPTER 1 •

  Wasn’t there some kind of law that said a man wasn’t allowed to look that damned good? Especially the tight, hard bodies who persisted in mangling a perfectly good lawn at the wrong time of the year.

  Lyra Mason was certain there had to be such a law. Especially when said male, Tarek Jordan, committed the unpardonable sin of whacking down her prized Irish roses.

  “Are you crazy?” She ran out the front door, yelling at the top of her lungs, waving him away from the beautiful hedge that was finally managing to achieve reasonable height.

  That was, before he attacked it with the Weed Eater he was wielding like a sword.

  “Stop it. Dammit. Those are my roses,” she wailed as she sprinted across her front lawn, skidded around the front of her car, and nearly slipped and broke her neck on the strip of lush green grass in front of him.

  At least he paused.

  He lowered the Weed Eater, tipped his dark glasses down that arrogant nose of his, and stared back at her as though she was the one committing some heinous act.

  “Turn it off,” she screamed, making a slicing motion across her throat. “Now. Turn it off.”

  Irritation and excitement simmered in her blood, heated her face, and left her trembling before him. He might be bigger than she was, but she had been maneuvering big, brawny men all her life. He would be child’s play next to her brothers. Maybe.

  He cut the motor, lifted a brow, and flashed all that bare, glorious muscle across his chest and shoulders. As though that was going to save him. She didn’t think so.

  The man had lived next door to her for almost six months and never failed to totally infuriate her at least once a week. And she wasn’t even going to admit exactly how much she enjoyed razzing his ass every chance she got.

  “Those are my roses!” She felt like crying as she rushed to the broken, ravaged branches of the four-foot-high hedge. “Do you have any idea how long it took me to get them to grow? Have you lost your mind? Why are you attacking my roses?”

  He lifted one hand from the steel shaft of the Weed Eater and scratched his chin thoughtfully.

  “Roses, huh?”

  Oh God, his voice had that husky little edge. Dark. Deep. The kind of voice a woman longed to hear in the darkness of the night. The voice that tempted her in dreams so damned sexual she flushed just thinking about them.

  Damn him.

  He tilted his head to the side, staring at her roses for long moments behind the lenses of his dark glasses.

  “I can’t believe you did this.” She flicked him a disgusted glance as she hunched in front of the prize bush and began inspecting the damage. “You’ve lived here six months, Tarek. Surely it occurred to you that if I wanted them cut down I would have done it myself.”

  Some men just needed a leash. This was obviously one of them. But he was fun—even if he was unaware of it. It just wouldn’t do for him to know how often she went out of her way to come down on him.

  “Sorry, Lyra. I thought perhaps the job was too large for you. It looked like a mess to me.”

  She stared up at him in shocked surprise as he said the blasphemous words. Only a man would consider roses a mess. It was a damned good thing she liked that helpless male look he gave her each time he messed up.

  She could only shake her head. How long did the man have to live beside her before he learned to leave her side of the yard alone? He needed a keeper. She considered volunteering for the job. “You should have to have a license to use one of those. I bet you would have failed the test if you did.”

  A grin quirked his lips. She loved that little crooked grin, almost shy, with just a hint of wickedness. It made her wet. And she didn’t like that, either.

  Her eyes narrowed as she ignored the chill in the early winter air, her lips thinning in true irritation this time.

  He was obviously ignoring the chill. He didn’t even have on a shirt. It was barely forty degrees, and he was using a Weed Eater like it was June and the weeds were striking a campaign to take over. That or he just didn’t like her roses.

  “Look, just take your little power tool to the other side of your property. There are no neighbors there. No roses to mangle.” She gave him a shooing motion with her hand. “Go on. You’re grounded from this side of the yard. I don’t want you here.”

  A frown edged between his golden-brown brows as they lowered ominously and his eyelids narrowed. What made men think that look actually worked on her? She almost laughed at the thought.

  Fine, he was dangerous. He was getting ticked. He was bigger and stronger than she was. Who gave a damn?

  “Don’t you give me that look,” she snorted in disgust. “You should know by now it doesn’t work on me. It will only piss me off worse. Now go away.”

  He glanced around, appearing to measure some invisible line between where he was to his own house several yards away.

  “I believe I’m on my own property,” he informed her coolly.

  “Oh, are you?” She stood carefully to her feet, staring over the edge of her pitifully cropped rosebush to where his feet were planted. Boy, he really should have known better than that. “Go read your deed, Einstein. I read mine. My roses are planted exactly six feet from the property line. From oak to oak.” She point out the oak tree at the front of the street, then the one at the edge of the forest beyond. “Oak to oak. My brothers ran a line and marked it real carefully just for dumb little ol’ me,” she mocked him sweetly. “That puts you on my property.
Get back on your own side.”

  She would have chuckled if it weren’t so important to maintain the appearance of ire. If she was going to survive living next to a walking, talking advertisement for sex, then some boundaries would have to be established.

  He cocked his hip, crossing his arms over his chest as the heavy Weed Eater dangled from the harness that crossed over his back.

  He was wearing boots. Scarred, well-worn leather boots. She noticed that instantly, just as she noticed the long, powerful legs above them. And a bulge … Nope, not going there.

  “Your side of the property is as much a mess as your bush is,” he grunted. “When do you cut your grass?”

  “When it’s time,” she snapped, pulling herself to her full height of five feet, three and three-quarters inches. “And it’s not time in the middle of winter when it’s not even growing.”

  Okay, so she barely topped his chest. So what?

  “I would get in the mood if I were you.” He used that superior male tone that never failed to grate on her nerves. “I have a nice ride-on lawnmower. I could cut it for you.”

  Her eyes widened in horror. He was staring back at her now with a crooked grin, a hopeful look on his face. She sneaked a look around his shoulder, stared at his grass, then shuddered in dismay.

  “No.” She shook her head fervently. This could be getting out of hand. “No, thank you. You hacked at yours just fine. Leave mine alone.”

  “I beg your pardon.” He threw his shoulders back and drew up in offended male pride as he propped his hands on his hips.

  He did it so well, too. Every time he messed up something he pulled that arrogance crap on her. He should have known it wasn’t going to work.