A Shifter for New Years

by T. S. Joyce

  Oh, she was scared. Terrified, actually. There were so many things that could go wrong, but this is where she had to have faith in Leslie.

  Kimberly pulled her in and hugged her tight. “I trust you.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  Kieran looked flustered.

  This was bad.

  Burke winced as the guard shoved him forward. God, his leg was on fire. Fuckin’ grizzly had done a number on him in that last fight.

  A guard was talking to him about appropriate behavior in the visitor area, but Burke wasn’t really listening. Mr. Wilson and his lawyer were with Kieran, but Leslie hadn’t come this time. They all looked somber, as if something was wrong.

  Had they moved up the trial? Was sentencing being pushed up? Had time been added?

  Kieran looked pale, like he hadn’t slept in days, and when he glanced up through the window glass, his eyes were haunted.

  “What’s happening?” he asked the guard. He’d only been in here for a few weeks and didn’t know this one’s name yet. “This isn’t regular visiting hours.” He looked around, but no other inmates had come into the holding area yet. Just him.

  “Bring him in,” the crackling voice sounded over the guard’s radio.

  When the guard shoved him, Burke nearly went down on his bad leg. Damn grizzly shifter had clawed him across his upper thigh straight to the bone. Healing was hell.

  They buzzed him into the visitation room, and he immediately asked, “What happened?”

  “Sit down,” Byron Connor, his lawyer, said in a stern tone.

  A snarl ripped out of his chest, and he paced by the window. “Now’s not the time to tell me what to do. I’ve been in a cage for a week with no light of day, and I have no communication with my mate—

  Kieran slapped a photograph down on the table they usually sat at during visitation.

  Burke stopped pacing and stared at it, approached it because he couldn’t believe what he was seeing.

  The picture was of his snowy woods, his territory, but the snow wasn’t white. It was red.

  And on the edge of the tree line, there was a lioness. “Leslie?”

  “Look behind her,” Kieran murmured.

  Burke picked up the picture and focused on the forest beyond Leslie’s lioness.

  There, in the shadows, was another, her eyes glowing in whatever light Kieran had used to take this picture.

  Heart pounding, he looked up at Kieran, Bert Wilson, and back to the picture. “What did she do?”

  “What do you think they did?”

  “Leslie Turned her?”

  “She damn-near killed her doing it,” Bert Wilson said tiredly. “Didn’t even tell Kieran she was doing it. They said they were doing a slumber party at your house, and now they’ve been there for a week. She Changed back today, so we brought Detective Bernstein to her for an interview.”

  “Kimberly’s lioness is a fuckin’ savage,” Kieran murmured, but there was a hint of a smile on his tired brother’s face. “She nearly took me out when I tried to check her injuries. The only person mean enough to get around her is her mother.”

  “Mrs. Wilson saw her like that?” Burke asked.

  “Yeah, she’s been staying up at your place, doctoring her,” Kieran said. “I saw her wearing off-brand snow boots so I wasn’t sure it was her at first, but yep—Leslie, Kimberly and their mother have posted up on your property. Kimberly won’t let anyone else step foot out of their car. It’s like she’s defending your territory.”

  “Our territory,” Burke whispered, staring at the glowing eyes in the picture. “She really did this for me?” He’d tried to control his voice, but it was thick and cracked at the end anyway.

  Byron was the one who answered. “Go back in and get your belongings. We’ll meet you outside.”

  “What?”

  “She did it.” Kieran dragged emotion-filled eyes from the photograph up to Burke. “You’re free.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  “He’s almost here,” Mom said softly.

  She was sitting on the porch stairs with Kimberly and Leslie, wrapped in a blanket. Her hair was down and blowing in the wind. She hadn’t fixed it since she’d come here a few days ago and muscled her way into Kimberly’s healing process.

  She’d worried over the bites and gashes in her neck and shoulder so much Kimberly was pretty sure her mom hadn’t slept a wink since she took up residence on Burke’s couch.

  It had worked.

  Kieran had called and said they were on their way with Burke.

  “I can’t sit still any longer,” Kimberly said, a snarl rattling her throat at the end. With a huffed sigh, she stood and walked to the tree line and back, just to expel the tingling sensation in her body. She didn’t want to Change into the animal again. Not until she saw Burke. Not until she knew he was okay.

  Mom checked her phone. “Your father says they are heading up the drive. Do you need water? All of that growling has to be making your throat parched.”

  “No, I’m fine. I’ll get some after he gets here. God, it feels like I haven’t seen him in years. What if he doesn’t like me the way I am?”

  Leslie snorted. “Girl, you have gold eyes now. They look hot with your hair all wild like that.”

  “My hair is wild?” she asked, patting it down into place. The wind kicked up again and mussed it immediately.

  She’d worn the snow boots he’d gotten for her, the leggings, and a baggy sweater and jacket because it was cold as balls out here. Her lion liked the cold just fine, but her human side kept getting cold and hot flashes. Cold, hot, cold, hot. Leslie said her body would settle over time.

  “I should’ve done winged eyeliner today,” Kimberly fussed.

  “You look beautiful, honey,” Mom said with a smile. “He will be awestruck.” Mom had changed so much for the better over the past several weeks. “Except perhaps put on some lipstick. Your lips look like they belong on a cadaver.” Well, Mom had mostly changed.

  “I see them!” Leslie crowed.

  “You, don’t Change,” Kimberly demanded, jamming her finger at Leslie. “No more of your protective shenanigans. I’m okay now. I don’t want you eating my boyfriend. I think he’s my boyfriend. Since we didn’t actually define the relationship on account of jail and all that, do you think he’s my boyfriend?” Why was she so nervous?

  “You died for him, Kimberly,” Mom said. “He’s definitely your boyfriend.”

  They were in Kieran’s truck, and she bolted for them. This body was stronger and faster, and Kieran pulled to a stop just as the passenger side door opened.

  And he was there—her Burke.

  Inside, her lioness was scrabbling against her skin, intrigued by the scent of such a dominant lion on the wind, but Kimberly didn’t stop. As he ran for her, she went flying through the air and he caught her. He barely budged, but she understood his strength now. He had held so much back, but now he didn’t have to.

  “I’m like you,” she whispered, hugging him as hard as she could, her legs wrapped around him.

  His hand was knotted in the back of her hair as he walked with her. “Fuck, I missed you so bad. I missed you,” he murmured against her ear, and for the first time since she’d been reborn as the lioness, she purred.

  “I missed you, too.”

  “I can’t believe you did this. Can’t believe it. Let me see you?” He eased her back and settled her on her feet, cupped her cheeks. “You’re crying.”

  “I don’t know why. I’m so happy. And relieved. I feel safe, and I just want to keep you.”

  Burke was so handsome here in the falling snow, his smile soft and easy for her, his eyes as bright as they’d ever been. His blond hair was messy, but the good kind, and he wore the same clothes he’d had on for that New Year’s Eve party where everything had gone so right and so wrong all in a day.

  “How am I supposed to look away from you now?” he asked, brushing his thumb under her eye.

  “My heart is beating s
o fast,” she admitted softly.

  “I know. I can hear it. Can you hear mine?”

  She listened and, sure enough, she could make it out easily. Bum-bum, bum-bum, bum-bum. She pressed her hand over his heart and said, “That’s an important sound to me.”

  Burke leaned down, kissed her, and rubbed his cheek against hers, then the other, and she got it now. She understood. That was an “I love you” for people like them. People like them.

  “We made a Pride!” Leslie called out.

  Kimberly turned in Burke’s arms just in time to see Leslie coming at them full speed. With a yelp, Kimberly locked her legs and readied herself for the impact. Leslie’s affection was rough and painful on Kimberly’s healing scars, but worth it. Her sister was purring, too. And so was Kieran when he came over and clapped Burke on the back. Then Mom and Dad were there, too, half hidden by the snowfall. When Mom leaned into Dad’s side and he kissed her temple, it was the most tender moment she’d ever witnessed from her parents, and it filled up her heart.

  “Everything is okay,” she said, more to convince herself than anyone else. To Burke, she asked, “You still don’t have any regrets?”

  Burke smiled down at her and answered with such honesty in his tone, “Not a single one. You?”

  Kimberly nuzzled her cheek against his chest and looked from Leslie and Kieran to Mom and Dad, then the beautiful woods that surrounded this cabin. She’d bonded with so much over the past couple of months. Her sister and Kieran. She’d come to understand her mother on a deeper level, and her dad as well. This place had tethered itself to her heart and become a home as she’d transitioned from human to shifter. And then there was Burke. He was the most important of all.

  He was her favorite part of her story.

  He’d asked her once to succeed anyway and, standing here, in the midst of her people, bright gold eyes proudly on display, she knew she could. What could possibly stop her when she had the love and support of a good man and the drive to be better not only for him, but for herself as well?

  “I don’t have a single regret either.” She smiled up at him. “I’m right where I want to be.”

  Epilogue

  One Year Later

  “No caviar allowed,” Mom called out. “You know the rules, Beth. Put Chef Jeff’s leftovers back in the fridge.”

  “This is such a weird tradition,” Marie groused as she sniffed the pot that Kimberly was stirring on the stove. It was definitely macaroni and cheese with Spam in it.

  “Look, I want us to have quality family time after the New Year’s party from here on. It’s a simple want. You don’t have to eat the food, but you’re missing out. That’s all I’m saying,” Mom said as she ladled hamburger helper from the pot on the back burner.

  Burke came in with Kieran and Dad, carrying trays of steaming ribeyes and spears of zucchinis they’d grilled outside. They were chatting and laughing, and the easy sound warmed Kimberly’s heart.

  “It just doesn’t make sense to make a huge meal after we’ve eaten the good food that Chef Jeff provided during the—”

  “Then sit there and complain and be miserable,” Mom told Beth. “Do it. Embrace that kind of misery. I did for a long time. Complain about everything that wasn’t planned exactly my way and waste years being unhappy because I chose to be. Do that, and see where you end up. Or…you can have fun. You can spend the night with us in our comfy matching pajamas, pigging out on Spam and macaroni and playing poker with your family.”

  Beth crossed her arms over her chest, looked at her husband, Garret, and back to Mom. “Are we playing poker for real money?”

  Mom’s eyes went dead. “It’s ten dollar buy-ins.”

  “Tonight isn’t about money,” Burke said, forking steaks onto plates. His grin turned wicked, and he winked at Kimberly. “It’s about bragging rights.”

  “You’re all going down,” Kimberly claimed. “I’ve been practicing.”

  Leslie laughed from where she was pouring sparkling grape juice into Red Solo Cups. “She’s been practicing with me. She has a terrible poker face and mediocre decision-making skills, as highlighted by her choice in mate.”

  Burke made a click sound behind his teeth. “She’s still mad because I took Kieran out for boys’ night on the anniversary of her going kitty-cat.”

  “It’s called a Turniversary, and I’ll make sure I plan a girls’ night for me and Kimberly when she has her Turniversary.”

  “That would actually make sense because you were the one who Turned me. We could absolutely celebrate that one together.”

  Leslie frowned. “Oh, yeah.”

  The chatter of their banter filled the room. The guests had all gone. Mom had kicked them out at eight, explaining it was family time, and this was a special party just for them. Just for the Wilson family.

  Kimberly loved it.

  Burke set a plate in front of her and took the seat right next to her. He draped his arm over her shoulders and pulled her in close.

  “Do you remember your resolution from last year?” he asked.

  “Yeah. I wanted to be nicer and more dependable to the people who matter.”

  He looked around at the family gathering around, chattering easily. “This is because of you. Because you wanted the family to be closer. You made the changes you wanted, and the effect trickled down to the people you love. You did want you wanted to for you, but it rubbed off on the family. That’s pretty powerful, Kim.”

  She couldn’t help her beaming smile if she tried. God, she loved when he was openly proud of her. “Do you remember your resolution?”

  “I wanted to build a life for you. I wanted to get to today and look back and know I gave you a safe place to grow.”

  Kimberly leaned up and kissed him gently. “And you did.” She looked around at the people she loved, who were growing closer and closer, and it was only the beginning of their story. She couldn’t name a safer place than this, leaning into the man she loved, surrounded by people who really saw her now, accepted her, and gave her the freedom to choose her own life. Leslie was staring at her from across the table and winked at her when she caught her eye.

  She’d had to give up her old life, her old self, to find something better. To find someone better. And while she was on that journey, she’d let a great man in. She’d learned to trust. To take leaps of faith and know the person she loved would catch her. And she would always catch him, too.

  This time of year was all about new beginnings. New pledges to be better. To achieve more, to believe in one’s self better than before, to plan for greater. It was a time of year filled with hope. Two years ago, she’d thought her entire life was over. And then last year, Fate had given her a gift.

  And here, now, she wasn’t at that rock-bottom anymore. Her resolutions had dug her out and gotten her to a place she had never even had the imagination to dream of.

  Fate had brought her Burke.

  And Burke—her steady, strong, resilient Burke—had brought her happiness.

  Up Next from This Author

  Train Wreck gets his story in

  First Time Train Wreck (Battle of the Bulls, Book 4)

  Coming February 2021

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