Unleashed by the Defender: A Kindred Tales Novel Read online

  Unleashed by the Defender

  A Kindred Tales Novel

  Evangeline Anderson

  www.evangelineanderson.com

  Unleashed by the Defender, 1st Edition,

  A Kindred Tales Novel

  Copyright © 2020 by Evangeline Anderson

  All rights reserved.

  Cover Art Design © 2020 by Reese Dante

  This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writers’ imagination or have been used factiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.

  All rights are reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook 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 person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to a retailer of your choice or evangelineanderson.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work.

  Cover content is for illustrative purposes only.

  Any person depicted on the cover is a model.

  Contents

  Unleashed by the Defender

  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

  Epilogue

  The End?

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  Also by Evangeline Anderson

  About the Author

  Unleashed by the Defender

  A Kindred Tales Novel

  A warrior bound in chains

  A defender sworn to free him

  When Imani meets J'are, she accidentally claims him as her own.

  But someone is trying to kill her—can he protect her from the threats?

  Read Unleashed by the Defender to find out.

  Imani is a crusader for justice. After a tragic event in her family, she has sworn to fight for those who are unjustly accused and imprisoned. So when she is asked to go to another planet and fight for the rights of a Kindred warrior who is scheduled for execution, she jumps at the chance. But there's one problem—he's a Nightwalker Kindred, a species so dangerous even the other Kindred shun them. Imani is fearless and determined to free her new client but what happens when she accidentally claims him as her own?

  J'are has been locked in the hole for so long that his feral side has completely taken over. When he is brought into court, he's no better than a snarling, snapping animal, ready to tear out the throat of anyone who comes too close. But when he sees Imani, things change. He's dreamed of her—dreamed of her beautiful dark eyes and gentle voice and he knows she's the female for him. But enemies surround them and Imani is being attacked from every side by deadly forces she knows nothing about. Can J'are protect her from the death threats? And can he protect her from the most dangerous enemy of all—his wild feral side who is intent on bonding her to him for life?

  You'll have to read Unleashed by the Defender to find out...

  Prologue

  Pale green eyes, glowing in the darkness. Savage eyes…a beast’s eyes.

  Imani put up a hand to ward them off. They were coming for her—coming and there was nothing she could do to save herself—nowhere to run, no place she could hide. The eyes would find her and then…

  She woke up with a start, her heart pounding, her palms sweating.

  “Stop it,” she told herself out loud, wincing at the sound of her own voice in the darkness. “Stop it, it’s just a dream. Only a dream!”

  But she couldn’t stop herself from searching the dark confines of her bedroom aboard the Kindred Mother Ship. Couldn’t stop thinking that she saw those eyes watching her…waiting for her.

  Waiting for what?

  Imani didn’t know but she was desperately afraid she was going to find out…

  One

  “I’m sorry, but I just can’t wear this—especially not to argue a case in court!”

  Imani Williams looked down at the crazy outfit her new friend and advisor, Kat, had put her into with shock and dismay. It looked like something she might wear if she wanted to dance around a silver pole at a strip club—not a respectable ensemble she might put on to go to a courtroom.

  The top half—because yes, it was actually a two-piece that showed her midriff—consisted of a thin band of mostly see-through pink lace that barely covered her nipples. This normally wouldn’t have worked for Imani, since she was big up top and needed serious support for her double D cup breasts. But Kat had given her tiny little devices called “float dots” to use which, when applied to the bottom of each breast, right where they met her chest, caused her boobs to lift effortlessly and look positively perky.

  The float dots were nice, Imani had to admit, but putting her breasts on display like this most certainly was not.

  The bottom part of her new courtroom attire was a long, tight skirt, a darker shade of pink than the barely-there lace top. It would have been okay if not for the slit up the middle which went all the way to her navel. There was a lace panel which covered her panties—also made of lace—but it didn’t do a very good job since it was mostly see-through and extremely short.

  “I can’t go into a courtroom on another planet looking like a prostitute!” Imani said, turning to Kat.

  “You won’t look like a prostitute, doll—you’ll look like a high-powered female litigator—this is how they dress on Yonnie Six,” Kat assured her. “And believe me, if you don’t dress correctly, they won’t give you the time of day. Those Yonnite women are ruthless when it comes to fashion.”

  “But how can it be a sign of female empowerment to show off my body this way?” Imani argued. She would rather crawl under a rock than appear in this get-up in public! “Showing your body means you’re displaying yourself for a man or men and I thought Yonnie Six was ruled exclusively by women.”

  “It is,” Kat said patiently. “And on Yonnie Six, showing your body is a sign of empowerment. Essentially you’re saying, ‘look at me—I can show my body and not a single man here can touch me.” She shrugged. “Because they’re pretty much all slaves.”

  “Like my client.�
�� Imani frowned, her mind temporarily diverted from her current dress debacle. “He’s been locked up in the Yonnite jail for days now and he’s scheduled to be executed if I can’t get him off.”

  “What are the details?” Kat asked curiously. “I’ve heard a little bit about this from Sylvan, but I don’t know the whole case.”

  “There aren’t many,” Imani admitted. “I’m supposed to get more detailed information from a Kindred informant once I reach Yonnie Six. He’s working undercover there and he’s supposed to give me evidence to use in court. But essentially, my client has been accused of murdering his Mistress in cold blood.”

  “Wow!” Kat’s lovely blue eyes widened. “That’s a tall order, isn’t it? Have you ever defended a murderer before?”

  “I don’t believe he is a murderer,” Imani said, frowning. “Apparently there are some very fishy circumstances surrounding the crime. But the Yonnie Peace Keeper Squad didn’t even try to find any other suspects—they just slapped my client in jail and charged him with murder. It’s not unlike some cases I’ve seen on Earth, actually.”

  “So you have defended people in his position before, then,” Kat said.

  Imani nodded. “I haven’t been an attorney for very long, but my specialty is defending people who have been wrongly accused and imprisoned. You’d be surprised and appalled at how many people have been locked away for crimes they didn’t commit—just because those in authority wanted someone to blame and they were in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

  “You sound like it’s personal for you,” Kat remarked.

  “It is.” Imani sighed. “It happened to my older brother, Rashaad.” Even now she couldn’t think about her big brother without a lump forming in her throat. What had happened to him was so unnecessary—so wrong. Every time she took a new case she thought of him—thought of the justice she would get for her client, which had been denied to her brother.

  “What happened, if you don’t mind me asking?” Kat asked quietly.

  Imani shook her head. It hurt too much to talk about the intimate details of her brother’s death. But she could give her new friend the quick and dirty version.

  “A routine traffic stop which turned into a drug bust,” she said tightly. “Only Rashaad didn’t do drugs—he was a health freak, wouldn’t even put caffeine in his body, let alone cocaine—which was what the cops claimed they found. And they claimed they had found enough of it to throw him in jail without bail because they said he was a flight risk.”

  “That’s horrible!” Kat exclaimed. “Couldn’t your family do anything about it?”

  “We tried,” Imani said. “My parents are well connected—my dad’s a tax attorney and my mom is a doctor—a Pediatrician. They hired the best defense attorney they could find. But before the case could even get to court, my brother was…” She took a deep breath. “He was stabbed and killed. We only got word when my Mom and I went to visit him. My Mom was…” She shook her head, remembering the way her mother had broken down, sobbing, right there in the visitors’ area. “She was devastated. We all were.”

  “Of course you were. How terrible!” Kat looked truly horrified. “And that’s what made you want to go into law?”

  Imani nodded.

  “The next day I changed my major from pre-med to pre-law.” She lifted her chin. “I wanted to fight for people like my brother—people who were unjustly accused and railroaded into prison.”

  “I think that’s wonderful.” Kat gave her an admiring look. “The fact that you’re turning your personal tragedy into a crusade for justice.”

  Imani sighed.

  “It’s the best I can do, since there was nothing I could do for my brother. I’ll do anything to help my clients.” She looked down at herself and sighed. “Even, apparently, dress like a stripper.”

  “Believe me, doll, you won’t be the only one there dressed like that,” Kat assured her. “And don’t worry, I’ll be packing you more of the same, so if the hearing goes on multiple days, you’ll have plenty of fashion choices.”

  “All of them obscene, I suppose?” Imani raised an eyebrow at her. “At least this color looks good with my complexion,” she remarked. The dark pink did an excellent job of emphasizing her chocolaty brown skin tones—perhaps too good a job, she thought wryly, since so much skin was on display.

  “They’re all pretty skimpy,” Kat admitted matter-of-factly. “But again, that’s Yonnie Six for you. You have to dress the part or they won’t have anything to do with you.” She shrugged. “But at least you don’t have to pretend to be one of them—if you were, we’d have to find a willing Kindred warrior to pretend to be your bodyslave.”

  “Bodyslave?” Imani asked, horrified.

  “Sure.” Kat nodded. “In Yonnite high society, you’re nothing if you don’t have a big hot guy on a leash and a pain collar trailing around after you. But since they already know you’re coming from the Kindred, you don’t have to pretend. Not that Sylvan won’t send a guard to protect you, if you want one,” she added.

  Imani shook her head firmly.

  “No thanks. I prefer to work alone. Besides, from what I’m reading about the Nightwalker Kindred, it’s much better for me to come for him by myself than to present another male that he might see as a challenge. Nightwalkers are extremely territorial.”

  “Really?” Kat looked interested as she handed Imani a short, pink lace jacket that matched the band of lace covering her breasts. “Here, put this on—it might help you feel a little less naked.”

  A very little bit, Imani thought, as she tried the jacket on. It covered her arms all right but didn’t meet in the middle, which meant her breasts were still exposed.

  “Thanks,” she said doubtfully.

  “You look gorgeous if it’s any consolation,” Kat told her, smiling. “Better put on your regular clothes though, Sylvan wants us to come to a briefing before you go.”

  Imani was more than willing to take off the skimpy Yonnie Six court outfit and slip back into her normal workday clothes of a conservative button-down blouse and pencil skirt. She gave a sigh of relief as she stepped out from behind the folding screen Kat had set up in her office, which also included a clothing simulator—an amazing machine which could print out clothes from on-line images like a 3-D printer.

  “Well, you look much more conservative now,” Kat said, grinning as Imani emerged from behind the screen. “Ready for the briefing?”

  “Ready.” Imani nodded. She was eager to learn more details of the case she was about to try. She’d been taking a crash course in Yonnite Law from Lizabeth Paige to prepare for it. Lizabeth and her husband, Lone, headed up the Kindred’s legal team but they had new twins to care for, so Imani had been chosen to go take care of this particular case.

  Of course, the case would have fallen to her mentor, Allisandra Stone, but she had recently moved to an alternate universe to be with the Kindred husband who had Claimed her—which was mind-bogglingly weird as far as Imani was concerned. But everyone aboard the Mother Ship seemed to take it as a matter of course. Apparently strange things happened all the time when you associated with the Kindred.

  Imani just hoped none of them happened to her.

  Two

  “Now, I understand you’ve been studying both Yonnite Law and the Nightwalker Kindred to prepare for this case.” Commander Sylvan steepled his fingers as he leaned across his desk. He was the head of the Kindred High Council and also the one who had hired Imani in the first place—on the recommendation of her mentor.

  “Yes.” Imani nodded seriously. She sat across from Sylvan, and Kat was sitting right beside her.

  The full-figured redhead was tasked with getting her ready to go to a whole different planet and she had done everything she could from making Imani a whole new Yonnie wardrobe to making sure she got a shot of translation bacteria so she wouldn’t have to deal with a language barrier. Imani sort of wished she could take Kat all the way to Yonnie Six with her, for moral support, but Kat
had her hands full with two husbands and three sons to take care of so Imani was on her own.

  “I’ve got the law procedures down pretty well,” Imani told Sylvan. “But the literature I could find on the Nightwalker Kindred was limited.”

  “Let me see if I can fill in the gaps.” Sylvan sat back and his deep voice took on a lecturing tone. “Back when the Kindred first discovered Ulle Prime—the Nightwalker home world, a great catastrophe had just swept over the planet.”

  “Right—a disease that killed everyone with a Y chromosome.” Imani nodded. “I read about that.”

  “Exactly,” Sylvan said. “So when they came, the Kindred found only females. And since we are a race of mostly males, it made sense to make a genetic trade with them. Many Kindred males called Nightwalker brides.”

  “That sounds like an ideal situation,” Kat remarked.

  “It seemed so.” Sylvan frowned. “Until the first children came along. You see, the original Nightwalker males were much different from their females who were kind and sweet-tempered. But as even-tempered as the females were, they still bore the traits in their DNA that made their sons into Nightwalker males.”