by R. A. Boyd
As they got closer to Melinda’s office, Audra could hear the harsh words of a shifter growling.
Someone was asking Melinda questions about Audra. And since she wasn’t giving any answers that person was starting to get pissed, so much so that their animal was starting to bleed through their voice.
“This must be my lucky fucking day, Zeke. Magic at the ready, boyfriend.”
The voice was getting louder and louder, and she could hear Melinda whimpering. Fuck. No. Not her friend.
Audra grabbed the door knob and twisted so fast and hard the poor piece of metal collapsed in her hand. As fast as she could, she sized up the room and saw Melinda pushed up against the wall behind her desk by a man with glowing green eyes.
She ran and jumped over the desk and was tickled fucking pink by the alarm in the man’s face. He was at least a head taller than her, but Audra grabbed him by his neck, shoved Melinda to the side, and had the man pinned in the same position he’d just had her friend.
“Lookie, lookie, Zeke,” Audra said as she smiled at the man who didn’t even know how hard his ass was about to get kicked. “I think a rogue just fell into our laps. This must be my lucky day.” She put her nose to his neck and inhaled deeply, effectively creeping the man out. That was always a fun thing to do. “Mmm. I’m thinking some kind of bear shifter.”
The anger in the man’s eyes faltered for a moment and he cringed away from her as she sniffed his collar again. He looked down at her and bared his teeth. Blond hair as pretty as a models’ fell into his green eyes. If he wasn’t about to die pretty soon Audra might actually think he was handsome. Sharp cheekbones, rounded nose, and full lips adorned his handsome face. Thoughts of how she could make him less pretty if he didn’t answer her questions started popping into her mind.
“Melin,” Audra said, still looking into pretty boy’s eyes. “What did he ask you and did he bring anyone with him?”
The older woman’s voice trembled and was raspy. He had choked her. “He wanted to know if you’d left with no warning or said you were going to be gone for a long time. Or if I’d seen you with a man or if you were less crazy. Oh,” Melinda said, strength coming back to her voice. “And fuck you for calling my friend crazy.”
Audra looked over her shoulder at the woman and smiled. Brunette hair sprinkled with gray strands fell just to her shoulders. Blue eyes that were normally happy were tinged with fear. She had gained weight over the years but was still built like a sexy ass hour glass with a few extra minutes on it.
“I didn’t tell him anything, Audra. And he hit me. And choked me.”
“Where’d he hit you, Melin?”
“In the stomach.”
If Audra didn’t know any better she would swear that Melinda wanted her to kick his ass. She was happy to oblige.
Audra let go of his neck, drew her hand back, and punched him in the stomach as hard as she could. He leaned forward and made a strange oomph sound mingled with a cry of pain, but before he could get too loud Audra had her hand around his neck again and cut off all air or sound that could make its way through.
“Better, Melin?” Audra asked.
“A little. Wish I could hit him just as hard.”
Audra turned around as smiled. “You wanna? Come on over. I’ll hold him.”
Clearing his throat to get their attention, Zeke finally spoke up. “Um, ladies. We need to get him out of here and back home.” He looked over at Melinda and stuck out his hands. “It’s nice to meet you, Melinda. I’m Zeke.”
Melinda took his hand and a part of Audra melted. Here was her best friend outside the clan and her love-muffin meeting for the first time. It warmed the cockles of her heart.
“I guess you’re the reason Audra hasn’t gone completely off and ruined my office by covering it in this man’s blood.”
Incredulous humor covered Zeke’s face and Audra couldn’t keep from giving in to that warm feeling inside her. She wasn’t going to let this douche bag she held right here against the wall ruin her day.
Zeke shrugged and then shook his head. “It wasn’t all me.”
“Don’t be so modest, dear. Zeke,” Melinda said, pushing him toward the door. “Why don’t you go get the car and pull it up to the loading dock in the back. Audra, I’ll get your favorite dish and have it packed up for you. You can give me your order too, Zeke. Will you have any trouble keeping him quiet on your drive back? If you need it I have handcuffs and duct tape.”
Chapter 11
“I don’t even know your friend but I am completely in love with her,” Zeke said as Audra drove back to the Ghost shifter community.
He’d put a holding spell on the man that was now uncomfortably situated in the trunk of Audra’s car. She made sure to hit every pothole she could on the way home.
“Are you trying to make me jealous?” she asked, giving him a sideways smile.
Zeke took a deep breath and looked out the window as they passed the barren trees. The snowy landscape was mesmerizing. Winter was almost over, but it looked like it wanted to make one more stop in New Rose before it allowed Spring to visit for the season. Even with everything going on, Zeke was having the best time in his life.
He was alive, free and with his mate.
Even after ridding her of the rage that had been driving her mad, she was still the same wild woman he’d fallen for. Just much, much less murderous. And her growls were nicer and meant she liked him.
“Why do you think he went after your friend? In a crowded restaurant?” he asked. That was just plain stupid.
He’d gotten Melinda to take him to her office with the lie that he was renting a shop nearby and wanted to find out more about the area, but during normal business hours? That was reckless. At least he could have waited until she was alone.
Audra sniffed in the direction of their food boxes and made a left turn. “She’s the only person I really talk to outside of the clan. I guess they thought she would know. But why me? My brothers are the ones who’ve had a better chance at getting paired up. Any of the shifters who know me know I was going insane, and most insane shifters are put down before they can do damage.”
He knew that much. The coven had helped take down shifters who’d gone off their rocker before. Some couldn’t be brought back. Those were the ones that had to be put down for good. Rabid shifters who killed and would kill again. Sometimes their own packs wouldn’t want to do it and the local witches weren’t strong enough. The Coven of the Fallen were called in to euthanize them fast and with mercy.
That’s what he’d done best over the last century or so. Put people out of their misery.
“Did you help put Ronan under?” Audra asked. She squeezed the wheel tight and the leather cried beneath her fingers.
Zeke looked over at her. Reaching over, he rested his hand on her leg. “No. Willow didn’t take me on that recovery. She said I wasn’t strong enough yet. But I heard about it. It took six members of the coven to subdue him and put him under. They thought they were going to have to kill him. He kept breaking through their holding spells.”
Audra let out a shaky breath and gave a slight nod of her head. “I wasn’t there when the coven came in. I was healing.” The heavy feel of dominance permeated throughout the car. Whatever happened had affected her to her core. “When he went on his rampage he just started killing people. He’d been off for a while before that. We kept saying that it was time catching up to him. We thought he’d get over it; thought he just needed time to adjust. We’d all gone through rough times over the years.”
She shifted in her seat and leaned into his touch. The guilt that churned inside her made Zeke nauseous and it burned in his chest. She felt responsible for what happened to Ronin.
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “Not responsible for what happened to him. Responsible for what happened to those people he massacred. Me, Ronan, and Gabe were traveling through Ireland. In Cork.”
“Gabe?”
She huffed out a humorless lau
gh and her leg jumped beneath his touch as she tensed up. “Yeah. He’s with the other Ghost clan now. You do know there are more Ghost shifters than just us in New Rose, don’t you?”
He knew. A group of them had decided to live away from the rest of the clan, away from the rest of the world. They kept to themselves and hardly contacted anyone outside of their circle. Except for the coven. They called them in every so often to strengthen the wards around their community. If the New Rose Ghost shifters just wanted their privacy, the Salvatore Ghost shifters wanted to be forgotten. Their wards were ruthless, making people vomit or relive harsh memories if they got too close to where they lived.
“It’s seven of them, right?” he asked.
“No. Can you do something so dick-face in my trunk can’t hear this? I’m pretty sure he’s going to die soon, but just in case he doesn’t I don’t want him to know everything.”
Zeke nodded. “Somnon.” The pressure in the car changed and his ears popped. “He’s asleep. Audra, you don’t have to tell me this if you don’t want to.”
Her discomfort rang though his body, and if he could only feel a fraction of what she was experiencing then her true emotions were staggering.
“I want to tell you.” She took a deep breath as she slowed the car. Maybe she was trying to prolong the drive so she’d have time to tell him. “Gabe and I took Ronan to Ireland. He always loved it there. We thought he just needed a break from the rest of the clan. He’d been growling and talking to himself for months. His beast was completely conscious and furious. And in control of him. We didn’t know what was happening. I mean, we knew the history of shifters and how they went mad, but we were angels. How could something like that happen to us?”
They were only about a mile from where they lived now. Audra pulled over to the side of the road and put the car in park.
She stared ahead at the empty road while she talked. There were no cars around. It was too close to their community, and their wards were working.
“We went out one night to walk along the River Lee and watch the skies. It was so peaceful. So beautiful. Ronan’s beast had quieted and I asked him what was happening. When he talked…” she swallowed a few times and tried to blink back her tears. “When he started talking I just knew it wasn’t him. My brother Ronan was gone. It was just his beast. He told me he was sick of this life. That he was dying. And that he was going to take everyone with him. I still don’t understand how it took us so long to realize he needed to be put under. Denial, maybe? Gabe tried to talk to him.”
Tears flowed like rain from her beautiful eyes. Zeke wished like hell that he could go back in time to undo whatever had happened to her.
“Gabe tried to talk to him and Ronan just attacked him. He— he started punching and kicking and breaking him. In all this time on this planet I have never seen anything like it. I tried to stop him but then he started in on me and it was…” She let out a raw sound of anguish, her cries jagged and deep, and it broke Zeke’s heart. “He left us by the river. I just remember praying that if anyone could hear me to please send help. Not for us, but for the people who were in the city. In the country. Someone from the local coven sensed my call and came to help, but she knew she would die just like the rest if Ronan caught wind of what she was doing. She did a summoning spell for the Coven of the Fallen that resides in Manchester, and by the time they got there Ronan had killed twenty-eight people.”
Zeke’s heart bled for Audra. She cried so hard her sobs shook the car. He pulled her over the console, settling her in his lap. He stroked her hair and told her not to talk about it anymore. That this could wait. But she refused.
“I need to tell it,” she said, her voice thick with sorrow. “I never told anyone. They all just guessed what happened. It wasn’t hard to figure it out. The coven came and put him under, shipped him back here to the States, and that’s where he’s been. Gabe and I couldn’t travel for weeks. It took me three days to wake up, and when I did I could hear my beast whispering. I thought it was my imagination at first, just playing on the damage that Ronan had done. But it wasn’t. She was awake.” She looked up at him and wrapped her arms around his neck.
Lowing her voice she whispered into his ear. “I’m going to tell you something I’ve never told anyone. Ever.”
“And no one will ever hear it from me.” He’d take whatever truth she had to share to his grave.
“I remember him whispering into my ear right before he left me. He told me that I was next. That he could see my beast waking up and that I was going to take our whole clan with me when I fell.” She shook her head and hugged him tighter. “That and that alone has been what kept me from falling too far. It’s what made me hope and pray and wish for my mate to come save me. I didn’t want to be like him. I never want to be like that.”
He held her close and ran his fingers through her hair. She had been fighting with this for so long. He knew she wanted to find her mate and get her grace back, but now it was all so clear. She knew what was in her future if she didn’t fight.
She was so strong. So patient. So hopeful.
Zeke could sense her fear. She was still afraid that if she didn’t get her grace back by claiming him that she would revert to who she’d been; who she’d been running from. But she was keeping it all in to make him comfortable. Because he didn’t want to be turned.
Samael told him that he didn’t have to be bitten for Audra to get everything she wanted. But how the hell else does a shifter claim their mate?
He would figure it out. And if he couldn’t, he would let Audra claim him with her bite. For her, he would do anything.
“You brought us a present,” Simon said, rubbing his hands together as he looked down at the man now waking up from Zeke’s spell.
Audra smiled but she didn’t feel it. She’d just told Zeke everything. Even after she got herself together enough for him to let her out of his lap, she spilled her guts about everything that happened between Ronan losing his mind to the moment they met a few days ago.
All the things she’d swore she would never tell anyone, not even her mate. But she’d told Zeke and she could feel the sorrow coming from him. That emotion toward her coming from anyone else would have made her want to punch them in the face for pitying her, but from him it was like being bathed in a bright and weightless light that was meant just for her healing.
She loved him and he loved her back just as fiercely.
Trying to cover up the raw emotions she still felt rolling from her, she winked at Simon. “Yes, brother, I brought you a present. Well, it’s actually a present for all of us. We’ve got ourselves a member of the rogue pack.”
They all glared down at the man now duct taped to a chair in the basement of their common hall.
Cass’s gaze held something deep and promising. They’d have to make sure she didn’t get too angry and kill him. Her eyes were already lightening to that of the lightbulbs that glowed above their heads.
“What if he shifts while we’re getting answers from him?” Riley said as she put her dark coily hair up in a high pony-puff. “Can we kill him then?” She winked and blew him a kiss when he glowered at her.
Willow came strolling down the stairs, her long wavy hair shimmying around her like a bride’s veil. Her amber eyes smiled as she walked up to the shifter and said, “He won’t shift. Will you?”
The man opened his mouth and let out a growl so loud it bounded around the stone walls that surrounded them. “You want answers? You can go fuck yours—” he started.
Willow shoved something into his mouth. When he tried to spit it out she put one hand on his forehead and the other on his chin, holding his mouth closed. He groaned and fought her, but after a few seconds he stopped fighting and started fussing.
She released him and took a step back. “Nope,” she said, dusting her hands off. “He won’t be shifting for at least three hours. And he’s going to tell us the truth.”
Zeke grunted a laugh. “Dissolvable?”
He scoffed, his blue eyes directing hate toward her. “Fuck you, bitch. I’m not telling you shit.”
She lifted an eyebrow at him and pursed her lips.
“Micah. Micah Jansen. God damn-it!” he bellowed, and then he started blowing raspberries again.
Simon put his hands on his hips and moved his head to the side to get a few strands of red hair from his eyes. “That was so fucking awesome. How old were you when you lost your virginity?”
As Cass yelled, “Don’t answer that,” Damon said in a low tone, “Shut it, Simon. I’m going to make you get out and miss all the fun.”
Both Simon and Micah shut their mouths.
“So,” Jax said, grabbing a stool and putting it in front of Micah. “This is what we’re going to do. I’ll ask questions and you’re going to answer. If I’m still seeking answers to my questions once that thing you just had shoved down your dumb ass throat wears off, I’m going to get my hammer. Start at your toes and work my way up. We clear?”
Micah’s face was a cloud of hatred. And fear. If he could kill each and every single one of them with a stare Audra had the notion they would all be dead. He kept pushing and grunting as if trying to force his beast to show, but he was helpless.
Jax shrugged. “Good. So, what kind of shifter are you?”
“Fuck you. I’m a brown bear.”
“Where is your basecamp and be specific?”
“On the outskirts of New Rose, closer to Harfordsville. The old condemned high school on Eureka Road that was shut down a few years back. We’re setting up another one in Baltimore. God damn-it!”
