Shadow Revealed (The Enlightened Species Book Two) by Wendy S. Hales Page A

wanting to hurt him, she took his leg out by connecting center-thigh rather than the knee, and down he went.
    “Or not,” Shane finished.
    Sam whooped and Jerika pointed, announcing, “See, I told you. Jess is a force of nature.”
    Enlil recognized that, although Jess had regained the upper hand against Shane, the reach thing was a weakness for her. Jess’s strength lay in her ability to defend. She lost the upper hand in a fight if the opponent failed to initiate the aggression. A patient, reactive rather than proactive opponent might indeed gain the advantage on Jess. Enlil was pretty sure, if Shane had just waited a few more minutes, Jess would have engaged against him. In which case Shane would have prevailed, of that Enlil had no doubt.
    Jess denied the remark. “Naw, he went easy on me.” She sat on the mat beside her mate, nuzzling his neck. Enlil felt a pang of longing agony, and Etana’s beautiful smile blurred behind his tear-filled vision as he turned away from the sight of the new bloodmates.
    The energy rippling of a port arrival squelched his pain momentarily. Enlil’s twin sister, Ninlil, and her bloodmate, Sargon, appeared in the small practice room beneath Jess and Shane’s home. Sargon, a giant of a man, made his mate appear even more feminine than she was already.
    Jess bounced up, clapping her hands. “Did you decide to join us for planning girls night out, Nin?” she asked, wiggling her eyebrows up and down. Enlil was wondering if he would be bailing Jess and every other female he knew out of jail by the end of the night. Of course, he and a few dozen of Shane’s closest friends would be partaking in some fun of their own in the form of a no-limit poker tournament.
    Being with Jess and Ninlil in the same space never failed to make him happy. All three had different hair color. Nin’s was light red, Enlil’s was a dark strawberry blonde, and Jess’s was blonde with subtle strawberry highlights. All three had the exact same eyes, emerald green with a multipoint, gold star-burst pattern in the center. The green-to-gold ratio was a tell-sign of their emotional barometers. Enlil grinned at the enthusiasm of his new-found family member.
    The females were getting together under the pretense of planning for a survivors ball. Two days of activities, games, raffles, etc. Enlil was certain Jess had designed it more as a meet-and-greet. The final night would be wrapped up with a formal dance and, of course, fireworks. A fitting celebration, and one the SOSC hoped would become an annual event.
    Last year, the SOSC had planned and successfully raided several blood/breeding labs, rescuing female victims of a madman. Fualth had been trying to build his own army through the wombs of the females. Most of the females were Hulven like Jess. Hulvens had the ability to reproduce both full Elven offspring during their estrus, which occurred every twenty-five years or so, or Hulven offspring during their monthly human ovulation. There had also been a few human women targeted for breeding because of a specific line in the palm of their hand that indicated they were able to carry the fetus of a half-human/half-Elven. The palm line indicated the human women were what Volaticus species called heredity line or simply heredity.
    Sam and his two sisters were born and raised in a blood/breeding compound. Sam and his sister, Sofia, had become informants for the SOSC after his other sister, Sarafina, had been taken into the breeding program upon reaching sexual maturity. Sara was subsequently rescued by the SOSC. Sophia had died during the raids.
    Jess had gotten tired and offended on behalf of the females over the last year; she hated the females being referred to as “victims.” She, Nin, and others who had participated in the rescue had gone on a campaign to change the reference to “survivors.” It was a huge success. This ball was the first SOSC event where all four of the species, protected and unified under the