Fairplay Shifters Boxset

by Serena Meadows

  Justin stared at her, then cleared his throat. “I’m sorry I left you with all this. I should have come home sooner.”

  “It’s okay, you got here when I needed you,” Penny said, then looked up at Quinten, just then realizing that she was cradled in his arms.

  “She would have killed you if they hadn’t shown up,” she said, then reached up and stroked his face.

  “She almost killed you,” Quinten said, then pulled her farther into his arms.

  Penny remembered the pain of her wounds, the feeling of them opening again and again, the weakness of blood loss making the world go black. Sitting up, she grabbed Quinten’s hand and turned it over; there on his palm she found a scar, still pink as if it had just finished healing.

  “You gave me some of your life force. I thought that was black magic,” she said, struggling to understand what it meant.

  “Not if you’re doing it for someone you love, and Penny, I love you. I should have told you sooner, and I should have protected you better. I almost lost you, and I don’t know how I would have been able to go on without you. So, I had to use the spell, had to make sure that we have the life together that we deserve.”

  Penny was speechless for a second, but then the tears started streaming down her cheeks, “You don’t care that I’m a shifter, that your children will be shifters?” she asked, not sure she could believe what was happening.

  “I don’t care about anything but being with you, Penny; I’ve discovered that love, like anything else in life, comes with consequences, but in this case, those consequences are wonderful. We have our differences, Penny, but love can overcome all of them if we give it a chance.”

  “I love you, Quinten, and I’m willing to take the consequences of that for the rest of my life,” Penny said, then pulled his head down and kissed him.

  Steven: Fairplay Shifters

  Book 4

  Chapter 1

  ***Steven***

  Steven put his booted feet up on the coffee table thinking that if his mom had been home she’d have had a fit, but since she wasn’t there he’d enjoy this small act of defiance. It had been a busy day on the ranch and he was exhausted, but not so exhausted that he couldn’t enjoy the feeling of accomplishment that came with a hard day’s work.

  Spring had come to South Park and the valley was alive with the new growth that always came with it. The snow was beginning to melt and as it did the valley seemed to turn green overnight, the moisture and the warmth of the sun working its magic on the sleeping land.

  Deep in his bones, he knew that this was going to be a good year, there’d been plenty of snow over the winter and temperatures were already rising, a blessing considering how many calves they already had. At the rate they were going, the herd would be almost double by the time they put them out on the first pasture, and with a little smart buying they could increase number by half again.

  It would be one of the biggest herds they’d run in a long time, but the land could handle it and even with half of the family gone, so could the ranch. He’d been waiting for an opportunity like this for a long time, a chance to test himself, to see if he was half the rancher his brother and father were.

  They’d left him in charge without even a backward glance, but sometimes he thought that they had more confidence in him then he did. But things were going perfectly so far, the cows were calving at regular intervals and when he wasn’t supervising, his brother Daniel had everything under control. Between the two of them, along with a top-notch crew, he hoped that they’d have no problem getting the ranch through calving and the herd into the spring pasture.

  His guilt finally getting the better of him, he got up from the couch and headed for the back door, took off his boots and padded in his socking feet back toward his bedroom. As he walked down the hallway, he poked his head into each room he passed, making a quick check to see that everything was as it was supposed to be.

  It was a silly ritual he’d started the first night everyone had been gone, but it made him feel better, the ranch house was big and seemed even bigger when it was as empty as it was. When he poked his head into the study, he thought about the amulet locked up in the desk, the thing had been a thorn in their sides for the last year and he hated having it in the house.

  But it was his to guard, at least until his sister-in-law came home, and he took that responsibility very seriously. Needing to reassure himself that it was still there, he pulled the key to the desk drawer out of his pocket then crossed the room to the desk. As he got closer to the desk, he could feel the energy of the crystal, a low hum that made the hair on his arms stand up and his heart beat a little faster.

  When he slid open the drawer, the crystal began to pulse with a faint blue light and the humming became a buzzing in his ears. He slammed the drawer closed and stepped back a few feet, his heart beating wildly in his chest. Even though he knew that the crystal was harmless thanks to the spell Annabelle has cast on it, the thing still freaked him out.

  It still amazed him that a little piece of pink rock could do so much damage, that it could have been responsible for all the death and destruction over the last year. But it had also been responsible for some happiness and joy, and his having to suffer through three weddings in less than a year.

  That was another good reason to stay away from the thing, the last thing he wanted to do was fall in love and get married. He was too young, had too many things he still wanted to do before that day came. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to get married someday, but when that day came he wanted to have his own ranch, with its own house, a place that was separate from his family, a place that he could call his own.

  He’d been thinking about it for a long time but hadn’t told anyone about his plans yet, not even Daniel who was not only his brother but his best friend. It didn’t bother him to wait, he had lots of time, after all shifters lived much longer than normal humans. But now that he had three new in-laws, life was getting crowded at the ranch, and it was beginning to look like it was time to strike out on his own.

  There was a little ranch not far from Fairplay that he’d had his eye on for quite a while. The people who owned it had no children and were getting older, so he’d been saving his money for a down payment, hoping that when they decided to sell it would be to him. He wasn’t sure how his family would take it, but he’d been dreaming of running that ranch for years and was determined to make it a reality.

  Once the ranch was his he’d think about finding someone to marry, someone to share his life with, and if he was lucky it would be someone he’d really loved. He tried to picture what she’d look like, what she’d sound like, who she would be, but came up empty. It was a game he’d been playing with himself for years, and sometimes he worried that he couldn’t see her because she wasn’t there, that he’d spend his life alone.

  He walked over to the window and looked out, the storm that had been brewing over the mountains all day had finally broken and the rain was coming down in heavy sheets. A flash of lightening made him jump and he laughed out loud, the amulet must be getting to him he thought relocking the drawer and heading for bed.

  ***Charlie***

  Charlie could barely see the road in front of her thanks to the rain that was coming down so hard the windshield wipers couldn’t keep up. She’d been driving around for hours on the back roads outside of Fairplay, followed two roads to a dead end, and almost put the car in the ditch on a curve that took her by surprise. Now the rain was turning the road into a muddy mess, the tires slipping as she drove reminding her that she wasn’t prepared to drive in this kind of weather.

  The last time she’d stopped for directions they’d sent her down this road, but she’d been driving for miles and hadn’t seen any sign of a house let alone an entire ranch. Sure, that she’d lost her way again, she considered turning around and going back to Fairplay, and trying again in the morning when she could see.

  But she was afraid that if she turned around now, she’d lose her
nerve and just go home. She’d been desperate when she’d come to Colorado, had nowhere else she could turn and leaving now would put her right back where she started. Gripping the steering wheel so tight her fingers turned white, she concentrated on the road, hoping that she’d see some lights around the next bend.

  To her immense relief, when she came around the corner, she could see lights in the distance only a few miles away. Sure, that she’d finally found the Brook’s ranch, she focused on the lights and drove as quickly as she could. But then the car began to sputter, the engine making a terrible noise, until it finally died and came to a stop in the middle of the road.

  When she tried to start it again nothing happened, and she began to panic. She put her head down on the steering wheel and closed her eyes, taking deep breaths to keep herself from crying. When she opened them, she was looking at the dash and the fuel gage which was sitting on empty, and she couldn’t help the curse that flew out of her mouth.

  This time she leaned her head back again the head rest, not wanting to look at the dash again. The car had been full of gas when she picked it up in Denver but that had been a lot of miles ago, hours of driving around the back roads had sucked it all up. Now she was stuck, her only choice to wait out the storm or get out and walk to the lights she saw in the distance.

  Deciding that it couldn’t be more than a few miles, she pulled the hood of her jacket up over her head, took a deep breath and got out of the car. The rain was freezing, coming down so hard that she was soaked within seconds of getting out of the car, so she put her head down and began to walk along the slippery road. Wind gusts threw the rain into her face, stinging her cheeks and making her eyes water, but even worse was the flashes of lightening that lit up the woods and made them look even scarier than they had from the car.

  She knew that this trip had been an act of desperation, but she’d had little choice, had no idea where else to start looking for her brother and sister. It had been months since she’d heard from either of them and she’d become so concerned, she’d headed here, the only place either of them ever talked about.

  For years, she’d been hearing about the Brook’s ranch and the people who lived there, but Clarise had never explained what their connection to the ranch was. When she’d finally decided to go looking for them, this had seemed the most logical place to start. Now she wished that she’d just waited, it had clearly been a bad idea to strike out on her own.

  But hopefully, Justin Brooks would have some idea where her sister and brother had gone. If not, this had been a colossal waste of time, time she could have been using to look for them elsewhere. The only problem was that she had no idea where else to look, no idea where her sister and brother lived, or even how they made a living.

  Growing up she’d never questioned her sister’s secrecy, had just been glad to have someone to call family. They’d given her so much, not just love and affection, but an education and security, which was why she couldn’t just sit idly by and wait. If there was any chance that they were in trouble she had to help them, and she felt deep down in her soul that they were in trouble.

  A huge flash of lightening made her jump, and a scream escaped from her mouth before she could stop it. Adrenalin rushed through her body, making her legs a little shaky, but she kept going, determined to make it to the lights up ahead. She was almost to the driveway when a rut in the road caught her foot and she went down hard, scraping her knees and palms. When she finally managed to get to her feet, she was so close to crying that she had to stand there in the rain taking deep breaths until the feeling passed.

  The driveway seemed impossibly long, but finally she made it to the ranch house and up onto the porch out of the rain. She looked down at herself, wondering if she could really knock on the door looking the way she did, but the only other option was to go back out into the rain, so she raised a shaking arm and banged on the door.

  Chapter 2

  ***Steven***

  Steven had just drifted off to sleep when a loud banging on the front door woke him. Jumping out of bed, he didn’t even bother to put on his robe, sure that it was one of the hands with an emergency. Stumbling to the door, he threw it open to find a woman standing on the porch, water and globs of mud dripping from her soaked clothes.

  It took him a moment to find his voice, the shock of finding her there muddling his brain. But finally, he managed to asked, “Can I help you?”

  It took her a second to answer, “I hope so, I’m looking for Justin Brooks,” she said, her teeth chattering.

  “I’m sorry he’s not here, he’s gone on an extended vacation, I don’t expect him home for a while,” Steven answered.

  The woman looked so devastated, that he felt bad for her, “I’m his brother Steven, maybe I can help you.”

  She was silent for several minutes, then her eyes began to fill with tears and her lip trembled. Suddenly she burst into tears which were quickly followed by giant sobs when she tried to speak. “I’m sorry, I…. my car ran out of gas… I never should have come here,” she managed to get out.

  Steven was beginning to get a bad feeling about this woman’s visit, so he said, “Look, you’re soaked and covered in mud, come in and let’s get you dry.”

  The woman looked down at herself and started to cry even harder, so Steven pulled her into the house. When he got her inside, he pulled off her wet mud-covered jacket, relieved to find that the shirt underneath was only damp. He bent down and removed her muddy shoes, noticing the rip in the knees of her jeans and the bleeding scrape underneath.

  “Come into the kitchen and I’ll get you something hot to drink, then we’ll take care of that knee,” Steven said, leading the sobbing woman into the kitchen.

  While he made her a cup of tea, she managed to get herself under control, the sobbing fading until all that was left was a few hiccups. He put plenty of sugar in the tea then handed it to her, “Drink all of this, it’ll help you warm up,” he said, then left the kitchen to get a towel.

  When he came back, he handed her the towel and sat down opposite her at the table. “Now, if you’re feeling better maybe you can start from the beginning and tell me why you need to see Justin, but first I’d like to know your name.”

  The woman looked at him warily for a second then said, “Charlie, my name is Charlie Mathews.”

  When she didn’t say anything else, only stared at him as if she was in shock, he asked, “Okay Charlie, what brings you to Fairplay?”

  She took a deep breath, clearly trying to gather her thoughts, “I’m looking for my sister and brother.”

  Steven smiled at her, trying to figure out who she might be looking for in the valley. “Okay, that’s a start. Do they live here?”

  “No, but they talked about this place all the time,” Charlie said, looking around the kitchen.

  “Did they visit?” Steven asked.

  “Not that I know of, but I didn’t really know that much about their lives. I haven’t seen or heard from them for months and this was the only place I could think of to look for them.” Charlie said, confusing him even more.

  As fragile as she seemed, he could see that he was going to have to push her, “The valley is a big place, I don’t know everyone that lives here, maybe if you told me their names I could ask around.”

  He wasn’t sure what she’d expected when she came here, but his answer clearly wasn’t what she’d expected, because her face fell, and she said, “I’m sorry I guess this was a mistake, I don’t know why I thought they might be here. I’ll just get going, sorry to have bothered you.”

  Steven studied her for a minute, surprised to find that now that she was dry and not bawling, she was very pretty. “You didn’t bother me,” he said, feeling the first stirrings of desire.

  Charlie smiled for the first time, “You’re in your pajamas, I clearly got you out of bed.”

  “All I was doing was sleeping,” Steven said, smiling back at her. “Now, if you tell me your brother and sister’s names m
aybe I can help you find them.”

  She hesitated for a second, then said, “Clarise and Gerome, they always talked about coming here so I thought….” But she never finished what she was going to say because Steven stood up so fast he knocked over the chair he’d been sitting on.

  “What?” he yelled at her, “What did you say?”

  Charlie’s eyes got big, and a look of fear appeared on her face, she quickly stood up and started backing away from the table. “Umm, I guess there’re not here, so I’ll just be going.”

  Steven came around the table and walked toward her, his eyes locked on hers, “What did you say their names were?” he asked, again.

  Charlie turned and tried to run from the room, knocking over several chairs in her desperate attempt to get away from the man coming after her, but he caught up to her in the hallway and slammed her up against the wall.

  “What are you doing here and what do you really want? Stop playing games and tell me the truth right now or you’ll be sorry,” he growled in her face.

  ***Charlie***

  Charlie couldn’t help the scream that came out of her mouth when her back hit the wall, it didn’t hurt it was the shock of being physically attacked that shocked her. Steven was looking at her like he wanted to kill her, and she wondered for a second if she was dreaming, then he shook her making it all too real.

  “I just want to find my brother and sister,” she managed to croak when he shook her again.

  She was sure that he was going to hit her when another man came thundering down the stairs. “What the hell is going on in here?” he asked, when he saw them by the door.

  Steven let go of her and turned, “I’d like you to meet Clarise and Gerome’s sister, Charlie,” he said to the man who looked so much like him she knew that they were brothers.