Curse Marked: A Reverse Harem Paranormal Romance (The Marked Series Book 1) Read online

  Contents

  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

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Also by Rinna Ford

  Copyright © 2019 by Rinna Ford

  All rights reserved.

  Cover design by Quirah Casey of Salvation Creations

  Editing by Madison Ryan of Merfire Ministrations

  Formatting by Gina Wynn

  No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without express written permission from the author. Any unauthorized use of this material is prohibited.

  This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events or locales are completely coincidence.

  for C.J. & C.A.- my reasons

  for following my dreams

  Chapter One

  “Stupid umbrella,” I mumbled to myself as I walked along the Boston streets, rain steadily pouring around me. I found the umbrella in the hallway outside the front door of my tiny one bedroom apartment, and like an idiot, thought it would be useful when I saw that it was raining outside. Little did I know that someone left it out there because it was broken and only opened partway. No matter how I turned the damned thing around on its handle, my back still got pelted with heavy drops of rain, making me wince.

  The mark on my back had added to itself the night before, just like it did the first night of every new moon since I was a young teenager. For fifteen years I endured it, as the mark that started off no bigger than a quarter had grown and changed every twenty-eight days into now something that covered almost every centimeter of my skin, from the base of my neck down to the backs of my thighs.

  There was hardly any room left and yet, the mark added to itself again last night along my left hip. It swirled and swooped in beautiful patterns that I could almost appreciate, that was if it didn’t hurt like hell every time and lasted for hours on end.

  When I was a young teenager, an intake worker found me on the steps of a homeless shelter. He’d carried me inside and called the police, who then called social services. I woke up in a hospital bed not knowing my name, birthday, anything about myself, or how I came to be on those steps.

  Social services gave me the name Anne Smith, told me that I looked to be about thirteen years old, and promptly put me in foster care when they couldn’t find anyone to claim me. My whole situation was odd, to say the least, but the strangest thing of all was the small tattoo-like symbol directly in the center of my back that grew and changed with the lunar cycle.

  The first time the mark added to itself was a month after I had been found, and I was living with my first set of foster parents. They were both passed out from drinking all day, so they didn’t hear my screams throughout the night. One of the other girls, Jayla I believe her name was, tried to help me, but there was nothing she could do. I writhed in pain for hours, and by the time the pain had lessened, it was morning. The mark had grown and was red and tender for two days after.

  My foster parents thought I had gone out and had someone add to the tattoo, at least that’s what they told social services. Jayla told them what had happened, but my foster parents vehemently denied that I screamed in pain all night long. I was moved to another home after that. It wasn’t long before I learned to quiet my screams, even though I was still in agony every single time.

  I picked up the pace as I approached the steps that led to the front door of the homeless shelter that I worked at, the exact place I was found fifteen years before, and let myself in with my keycard. Without stopping, I turned left and strode down the hall and into my office.

  I immediately threw away the broken umbrella and grabbed the bag under my desk that I kept with sets of clean- and dry- clothes in. I lived within the same thirty blocks of downtown Boston since I could remember, and yet, I always felt the need to be prepared to run. I couldn’t explain it.

  Maybe it had to do with the fact that I didn’t know anything about myself before the age of thirteen. Or, that after I was found, unconscious and alone, I was placed in foster care, where I bounced from home to home until I graduated high school and aged out. Who knows? It could be any one of those reasons, or it could be the stupid fucking mark that wouldn’t go away. It could be all of it.

  I found a new flannel shirt and a pair of oversized jeans that wouldn’t rub my hip very much, and gingerly put them on. I threw my wet hair up in a messy bun, and left the office, locking it behind me.

  When I was turned out from my last home, I needed a job, a way to support myself. A position at the homeless shelter only blocks away from where I lived fell into my lap and I took it. They needed an overnight monitor, and my job would be to take care of the people staying each night. It was also a place for me to stay while I saved enough money to find a place to live.

  Since then, I’ve done every single job needed here at the shelter over the last ten years, finally settling on the Case Manager position a year ago. I didn’t see myself working anywhere else.

  These people were my people. They didn’t judge, they didn’t stare at my too-large clothes, they didn’t make comments about my lack of social skills (very often, at least), and I was doing something good with my life.

  Realizing that coffee was first in order before I could start work for the day, I picked up the pace. As I rounded the last corner before reaching the cafeteria, I ran smack into the other Case Manager on duty, Geo.

  “Whoa there, speed racer,” he laughed as I bounced off his larger frame. He caught me by my upper arms as I began to fall backward. “What’s the hurry, Anne?” he chuckled, making the dimple in his right cheek more pronounced. I winced.

  I hated my name. It wasn’t a bad name, but I knew it really wasn’t mine. It didn’t suit me.

  “Sorry,” I mumbled and righted myself, pulling out of his grasp. “I wasn’t watching where I was going.”

  He reached up awkwardly with one hand and rubbed the back of his neck. “And here I thought you were in a hurry to see me.” He said as if he were joking, but I knew he wasn’t.

  Geo was an incredibly sweet guy, not to mention cute in the boy-next-door kind of way, but he made me a little nervous. He liked me in a way I couldn’t reciprocate, and I knew this because he had asked me out at least once a week for the last year and a half. Romantic relationships weren’t something I felt that I could have, so I told him that I didn’t date people that I worked with as an excuse. It didn’t stop him from trying, though. It seemed as though he was working up to asking me out again.

  I wasn’t lying to him when I told him that, but I left out the fact that I didn’t date at all. Don’t get me wrong, I had sex, quite often in fact, but it was always with strangers that I’d pick up at a bar, and I never had repeats. That meant that Geo could be nothing more than a co-worker to me.


  I forced a smile when I noticed that he was waiting for me to say something. “I need to get going,” I told him. “I was supposed to start my shift five minutes ago.”

  He looked down at his watch and his brows furrowed. “Oh, okay.”

  “I’ll see you later, Geo,” I said, then I stepped around him so that we were on opposite sides.

  His eyes lit up with surprise and excitement, and I realized that I made it sound like I was looking forward to talking to him again.

  “Yeah, I need to get to work too,” Geo replied, smiling his cute boyish smile. “I’ll definitely talk to you later.” He started walking backward away from me, going wherever he was headed before.

  Mentally slapping my forehead, I awkwardly waved goodbye and hurried down the hall toward the cafeteria. I needed to put as much distance between Geo and myself as possible before I stupidly did something else, like accepting a date. With the lack of sleep and discomfort, I was in, it was possible that I’d be too distracted if he were to ask me out again.

  I took a deep breath before walking into the cafeteria, shaking off the earlier encounter and trying to get my head in the game. These people didn’t deserve the mood I was in. They deserved light and friendly, instead of dark and cranky. They all went through so much every day that they needed as little drama as possible when they were here.

  Forcing another smile, I strode through the cafeteria, looking at all the tired, but smiling faces and said hello to the ones I knew. Before I’d made it across the room to where the coffee was, I noticed a particular man sitting in the corner by himself.

  Devlin started showing up at the homeless shelter around the time I began working there, ten years before. He was an old man then and looked like he hadn’t aged much over the years. In fact, he was still very quick-witted and strong bodied. I knew it by the way he reacted to people, and how easily he carried his heavy backpack and it was definitely heavy. I tried to pick it up once to hand it to him, barely being able to lift it off the ground, and yet, he carried it as if it were made of feathers.

  Deciding that coffee could wait a few more minutes, I changed direction and headed over to where Devlin was sitting, taking the chair across from him.

  “Hey there, Firecracker,” he grinned when he saw me approach and put his fork down next to his tray.

  “How’s it going, Dev?” I replied, genuinely smiling for the first time that day because Devlin was my favorite person in the whole world.

  Our relationship was considered strange to most people, an old homeless man and a young woman, but our attachment didn’t feel creepy at all. It felt familial. He looked at me the way a father looked at his daughter, his eyes sparkling with paternal affection.

  I felt the bond between us from the moment we met. It was strange, but I didn’t question it. Not like Geo and some of the other workers at the shelter did. They didn’t understand it, but I honestly didn’t care. There wasn’t anything wrong with the relationship, nothing at all.

  “You know me,” Devlin replied, his intelligent eyes studying my appearance, taking in everything from my messy wet hair, the bags under my eyes, and the way I gingerly sat in my seat so that my hip wasn’t touching the back of the chair. “I’m worried about you. You look tired. Is everything alright?”

  My smile slipped ever so slightly, knowing that he saw right through me. He always did. “I’m fine, just didn’t get a lot of sleep last night. You know how I have trouble sleeping sometimes.” I put my hands in my lap under the table and sat up straight, trying to appear more alert. “It’ll get better in a few days. I promise.”

  “Uh huh,” he responded. He didn’t believe me, that was clear, and I knew he wouldn’t the moment the words came out of my mouth.

  I broke eye contact with him and looked around the room to try and show that it didn’t bother me. Having him notice everything was unsettling, but I shouldn’t have been surprised by it. He always had a way of knowing when something was bothering me, or when I was sad or hurt.

  I stood up when my eyes focused on the coffee carafe against the far wall of the cafeteria, remembering my earlier mission and suddenly feeling desperate for a cup.

  “I’ll see you around, Dev.” I smiled down at him, trying to forget his probing stare.

  After a few uncomfortable seconds, he replied, “See you later, Firecracker. Stay out of trouble.”

  “You know I will,” I told him as I turned and walked toward the table where the coffee was.

  I reached the table and grabbed a styrofoam cup, filling it with the bitter tasting drink and added cream and sugar until it took on a tawny color. I turned back around as I took my first sip, and saw that Devlin’s seat was empty, his tray was removed from the table, and his backpack gone. It was as if he were never there at all.

  Sighing heavily, I took another sip of my coffee and started the short walk back to my office.

  Chapter Two

  Work went by as slowly as I anticipated. It took many more cups of coffee and the constant supply of Tylenol for pain, but I made it through the day without offending anyone. I considered that a win. However, my day wasn’t quite over when Geo walked into my office carrying an armful of files. He dropped them onto my desk with such force that a half-full cup of lukewarm coffee tipped over, the liquid spilling onto the keyboard of my computer. I jumped up to try and catch it in time, but I wasn’t fast enough.

  “Oh, shit! Sorry!” Geo sputtered and tried to help me clean it up without causing more damage. He picked up a cloth from the chair by the door and began mopping up the coffee. “I’m such a klutz,” he sighed and kept cleaning up the mess.

  I looked down at what he was using to wipe up the coffee and tilted my head to the side. “What is that?” I asked.

  He stopped what he was doing and held it up away from the desk, coffee dripping onto the carpeted floor. It was my almost dry shirt from earlier that morning.

  Geo closed his eyes and tilted his head back, letting out a dejected sigh. “I’m sorry Anne. I didn’t realize it was a shirt. I just grabbed the first thing I could find.”

  Trying not to throat punch him, I took a few seconds to get my emotions under control. “It’s okay, Geo.”

  He opened up his eyes and looked at me to see a weak smile on my face. I was holding open a plastic grocery sack for the coffee-stained shirt. He dropped it with a plop, and I tied it up and put it on the chair.

  I opened the door and stood there holding onto the handle, indicating that I wanted him to leave. “I’ll finish putting the files away before I go home for the night, and I’ll see you tomorrow,” I told him.

  Taking the hint, Geo gave me a tight smile and walked out into the hallway. He resigned to the fact that it wasn’t his day, but I could tell in his eyes that he wasn’t giving up the fight.

  “See you tomorrow, Anne,” he quietly replied. His eyes were glued on my face to double-check my mood. Seeing that I wasn’t budging, he walked away.

  Once he was out of the room, I closed the door behind him and went back to my desk. I plopped down into my seat and finished cleaning up the mess.

  I ended up staying almost an hour and a half later than usual, thanks to all the files Geo left for me. I didn’t entirely blame him, but still. Whatever. I was tired, I was hungry, and my back still hurt.

  As I walked home, hands stuffed into my pockets as a way to stay warm against the falling temperatures, I noticed that something was off. I slowed my pace and looked around, seeing that there were fewer and fewer cars passing me by on the street, until finally, the only vehicles I saw were the ones parked along the road. There were no pedestrians on the sidewalks either.

  It was later than I usually left the shelter, but not so late that the streets would be empty. Besides, this was downtown Boston and it never really got that quiet in the city, even in the dead of night. It all seemed downright eerie.

  I picked up the pace, in a hurry to get to the safety of my apartment. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up
as I got closer and closer to home, making my heart race even more. I was practically running down the sidewalk when I heard something that I’d never forget.

  “Help meeeee,” a quiet, muffled voice whispered from the alley between two buildings as I passed them. I stopped in my tracks, my sense of duty to others outweighing my need to flee. “Help meeee,” it said again, sounding as if whoever it was, was hurt and afraid.

  Ignoring my instincts, I turned back around and took a couple of small steps into the alley.

  “Who’s there?” I asked. “Tell me where you are!” I pulled out my cell phone from the back pocket of my jeans to use it as a flashlight, running deeper into the alley. “I’m here to help, you just have to tell me where you are!” I shined the light around, seeing nothing but a large, beat up dumpster with trash all over the ground. “Where are you?!” I turned in a circle, seeing no one.

  “Help meeee,” the voice said again, this time a little louder. It came from behind me, and I quickly turned toward that direction.

  I shined the flashlight where the voice sounded like it came from, only seeing the dirty wall of a building. Then suddenly a shadow moved into the circle of light from my phone. I backed away a few steps, making the beam of light bigger, and as I did the shadow got bigger as well.

  It began to grow oblong, spreading all the way to the ground and up the wall until it was about seven feet high. After a few seconds, it started to take on a humanoid form, splitting to make two long, strong legs at the bottom and a slender, round head at the top. Four long arms grew out of the torso with claws forming at the tips for fingers. Amazed and frightened by what I seeing, I was rooted to the spot.