The Crucial Shift (The Ariane Trilogy Book 3)

by Michelle Dare

Before he tells me where, we walk through the house, locking it up. It’s a mess, with blood on the floor, and the back looks like a tornado went through it. The bodies are gone. However, their blood remains. They were teleported back to the mansion so they can be properly put to rest. Even Kiara. I’m not sure what vampires usually do when one of their own is killed. Ford said she’d want to be sent off like the wolves. She loved shifters.

  Ford puts his trench coat back on and takes my hand again. With the snap of his fingers, he teleports us to the Oregon coast. We’re standing on top of a mountain, looking down at the beach below. The salty air blows in off the ocean, returning the chill to my skin.

  “I first met Sienna here,” Ford says. “I was sitting in this very spot, watching everyone below. She was with her parents. They were sitting in chairs on the sand while she was having fun in the water. It was cold, but the frigid temperature of the water didn’t matter to her. She loved the ocean.

  “Her parents arranged for her mating when they were still in North Carolina but didn’t tell her until she was with me. That’s why they moved out here. They wanted to be close to Eli and his family. Her parents were always very protective of her. If I had to guess, they still live here. Or her mom does anyway.”

  “I can’t believe I killed her father.” Looking back, if I had known, I would have stopped. I wouldn’t have killed him. Hurt him, yes. He was trying to harm me, but I would have been more lenient with him.

  “You didn’t know, Ari. You were defending yourself, as any one of us would have done. The last person I would have expected to be in the forest that day was her dad. I had no idea they knew Travis.”

  “We have to find out how.” Then an idea occurs to me. “Let’s visit Sienna’s mom before we leave.”

  “I’m not sure that’s the best idea. She might try to kill you if she finds out you murdered her husband. She might not even live in the same house.”

  I shrug. “She’s a fox. I’m not worried.” I’m sure foxes can be vicious as all get out. However, with my abilities, they’re the least of my concern.

  “Okay, if you’re sure.” I nod.

  Ford teleports us to the house. I’m not surprised he knows where it is. We land across the road behind a few trees. It’s a residential street, each house spaced apart so they’re not on top of one another.

  The home is an older ranch with light blue siding. There’s a light on inside but all the curtains are drawn. Sniffles come from inside. She still lives here. Her poor mother. To lose her mate. I’d die if something happened to Rion.

  We step out from the tree line and make our way across the street. Ford knocks on the weathered burgundy door. There’s no turning back now.

  Thanks to my super wolf hearing, I listen as she makes her way to the door, unlocks it, and slowly opens it. Her eyes are red and puffy. Her blonde hair hangs limply as if it hasn’t been washed in a few days. The raw pain inside of her and the emptiness at having her mate gone is evident. But then her eyes land on Ford and a fire blazes within them.

  “Galina, nice to see you again,” he says. She slams the door in his face.

  “Well, that was fun. Want me to try?”

  He sweeps out his arm. “Be my guest.”

  My knuckles rap on the door. “Galina? It’s me, Ariane Sanderly. Do you remember me? I used to play with Sienna when we were little. You lived down the street from us.”

  The door opens again. “Ariane?” she asks, noticing me for the first time. “Is that really you?”

  “It is.” I offer her a small smile.

  She looks me over from head to toe. “I can’t believe it’s really you. You look wonderful. Won’t you come in?” She opens the door wide and her voice turns cold. “Leave him out there, though.”

  “No can do. He goes where I go. We both need to talk to you.”

  She crosses her arms. “Fine. He can come in, but he better not say a word to me.”

  “Okay.”

  Ford pinches my hip and I turn.

  “It’s this or nothing. Just keep your mouth shut and let me do all of the talking.” He sighs but says nothing.

  Inside the house, memories assail me. Ones of playing with Sienna. There’s a worn beige couch and loveseat. Familiar blanket thrown over the back of one of them. I swear she had this furniture way back when.

  Galina takes a seat on the loveseat and we sit on the couch. Nothing but a wooden coffee table with a glass top separates us. Magazines and a couple of newspapers are spread out on it, as well as a few crumpled up tissues.

  “Pardon the mess,” she says and scoops up the tissues. “I... Gair passed the other day and it hasn’t been easy on me.”

  “I heard,” I say. “It must be very difficult to lose your mate.”

  “Since you’re with him,” she points at Ford, “I’m guessing you know all about paranormals now.”

  Lifting my wrist, I show her Rion’s mark. “I do.”

  “You’re mated to a shifter? A wolf, no less?”

  I nod. “His name is Orion. He’s a member of the Avynwood Pack.”

  Galina stands. “Get out of my house!”

  I plant my feet on the wooden floor, staying in my seat. “Nope. I’m here to talk, and nothing you can do will make me leave until everything is said.”

  “I will not have you in my house when you fought against Travis and his pack. That war... It’s the one that killed my mate.”

  “I was the one who killed him, Galina. It was me. He was trying to harm me and I acted in self-defense.”

  “You? You killed my mate?” She laughs a loud, humorless laugh. “You’re a human. You wouldn’t have been able to kill him.”

  “I’m not a human. I’m a wolf with the strength of a vampire. I can teleport, read minds, transfer memories, and am almost impossible to kill. I heal like vampires do. I’m a whole bunch of things mixed into an eighteen-year-old girl.”

  “I’ll kill you!” she screams and shifts into a red fox. She bares her teeth and growls low.

  Immediately, I stand. My wolf threatening to come out. Even though a fox is no match for me, my wolf wants to protect us. “I do not want to fight you. Do not dare come at me or I’ll shift. You don’t want to meet my wolf. She doesn’t hold back.”

  Galina comes closer, her amethyst eyes narrowing to slits.

  “We’re not getting anywhere,” Ford mumbles then teleports behind Galina and grips her by the back of the neck. She lashes out, trying to scratch and bite him. “You can do this all day long,” he tells her. “But you won’t get me. Nor will you do any real damage.”

  Galina doesn’t stop. She continues to do all she can to attack Ford and free herself, but nothing works. Then her nails reach Ford’s leather trench coat and score a mark down the side.

  “Hey!” he calls out. “This is my favorite coat!”

  He shakes her gently in anger; however, nothing that would do her any harm. Eventually, she calms, losing the fight in her.

  Ford places her on the floor where she shifts back into a human, tears run down her face. She sits back on the loveseat. I’m not going to give her a chance to leave or throw us out. I’m going to continue to say what I need to.

  “If I had known it was him, I wouldn’t have done it. But I had no idea you were even shifters, let alone fighting on the side of evil.”

  “Travis isn’t evil. He told us that if we fought for him, he would personally kill Ford and deliver the news himself once he’s gone.”

  “You fought for him to kill someone who has been out of your daughter’s life for years?” I shake my head. None of this makes any sense.

  “He never should have entered our lives. He’s an abomination amongst paranormals. Bloodsuckers. They don’t belong here.” Now she’s crossed a line.

  “Don’t, princess. It’s fine.”

  Turning, my eyes no doubt blaze with the anger that’s flowing through my veins. “It most certainly is not. How dare she say those things about you? I’m not going to let her
get away with it.”

  “Here we go.” Ford knows me so well. There’s no way I’m backing down or letting her continue talking to him like that. Game on.

  23

  “You have a lot of nerve, lady. You don’t know him at all.”

  Her eyes meet mine and her features harden. “I don’t? I don’t know how he forced my daughter into a relationship she didn’t want to be in? Or how he filled her head with talk of spending their lives together?” She turns her attention to Ford. “You’re not a shifter! She never would have been able to mate with you, bloodsucker.”

  “Rein it in,” I tell her. “First of all, he can’t control what he is any more than you can. Do you like being at the bottom of the shifter pole? You’re a fox. Smaller than a medium-sized dog. Don’t start acting all high and mighty—spewing your hatred toward someone as wonderful as Ford. And as for him forcing Sienna into a relationship—are you delusional? I’ve seen his memories. I know what happened.” I didn’t see anything. Ford keeps them tucked away for a reason and all I know is what he told me, but the high fox over here doesn’t need to be made aware of that. “She loved him!”

  Galina gasps. “She did not.”

  My eyes almost roll to the back of my head. Not that it’s possible, but if it were, I’d be doing it. “Listen, lady, you don’t know your daughter as well as you think you do. She was in love with Ford, and he was madly in love with her. And what did you do? You drove a wedge the size of North Carolina between them, so she had no choice but to walk away from him.”

  “This is ridiculous. I’m going to call her and have her come over to straighten this out.” She reaches for her phone, but I stop her.

  “Hold on a second, you don’t know what happened today?”

  “No, what?” Of course she doesn’t. If she had, she wouldn’t have been talking about Travis like she was.

  “Travis went to Sienna’s home and murdered Eli. Then he kidnapped her and held her hostage at Ford’s home in Portland. We tried to get her free, but Travis and that creep, Benedict, left with her.”

  She starts shaking her head. “He would never do that. Travis is a good man and an alpha. He cares about the people who help him.”

  I bark out a laugh. “You can’t be serious?”

  She stares at me, no words leaving her lips. Oh, for the love of…! I can’t believe this. Glancing at Ford, he offers no help and only shrugs. Fine. I’ll handle this myself.

  Standing, I walk around the coffee table and sit on it in front of Galina. “Do you want the truth?”

  “Yes, of course. However, all you’re going to do is feed me lies.”

  “Lady, you really need to get over yourself. Seriously, what happened to you? I don’t remember you being such a—”

  “Ari.” Ford stops me before I say what I want to.

  “Anyway, I’m going to give you my memory of today. You’re going to see what I saw with Travis and Sienna. This isn’t something I concocted with my imagination. This is the truth. Are you ready?” She nods.

  Lifting my hand, I tap my finger hard on her left temple, giving her the memory I have of walking out of the house and finding Travis and Sienna in the backyard. Plus, the events that followed. I stop the memory before I’m slammed into with pain. I’m getting pretty good at this transference thing.

  Galina gasps and then tears fill her eyes as the scene plays out in her mind. By the time she’s seen it, up until Benedict tried to do whatever that mind thing was on me, the tears are flowing freely down her cheeks.

  “Do you believe me now?” I ask. “Do you believe that Ford would never hurt Sienna? That the real evil is Travis and Benedict?”

  Staring off into the distance, she says, “When he came here, he was so nice. He understood us. Wanted to help.”

  “And I’m sure he painted Ford in the worst light ever. Making him out to be a horrible vampire, who only had terrible interests where your daughter was concerned.”

  She nods. “He asked for Gair’s help in the pack war in return for Ford’s death.”

  “Let me guess. Travis spent time here. Got to know your family and all about Sienna.” She nods again, almost as if she’s in a trance. “My family and Travis go back many, many years. He’s had a mark on my head ever since he found out I had a shifter for a mate. And not just any mate. Travis killed Rion’s parents. He killed my friend. And he killed my dad.” I swallow the emotion quickly rising in my throat thinking of Cace and my dad. Thinking of all I lost brings so much pain.

  Ford sits beside me so we’re both facing Galina. His arm wraps around my shoulders to pull me close.

  “He’ll say he didn’t kill those people, and maybe his hands weren’t the ones covered in blood, but his pack was responsible,” I say. “He sent them after my dad. I watched as his beta ripped apart one of the shifters in our pack. He kidnapped my best friend, Paige, and sent someone to kill my other friend, Brayden. And that’s all besides what you saw in my memory of the humans he tied to trees. This man isn’t stable, and he has Sienna. We need to find him. We have to get her.”

  “Why did he do this to me?” she asks.

  “Because you tie in to his greater plan of bringing me and everyone I love down. Ford is one of my best friends and I’d die for him. Travis knows this. The best way to hurt us is to go after the ones we love. Travis knew what he was doing when he went after Sienna. He must have found out how you and your family tied in to Ford and me. Everything he does is calculated. It’s all part of the greater plan, which is him taking over the entire state of North Carolina. But believe me, he won’t stop there. Travis and Benedict are power hungry and they will kill whoever gets in the way of what they want. The state won’t be enough for him. He’ll want more.”

  Her whole body trembles. The weight of everything I’ve said fully settling over her. “What can I do to help? I need my Sienna back.”

  “We want to get her back,” Ford says. “You have to tell us everything about her. Where she goes, what she does, anything that could help. There is no doubt in my mind that Benedict didn’t go through every one of her memories to try and find a way to get to us. We need to know it all.”

  We spend the next hour finding out as much as we can, which, in reality, isn’t anything at all except for personal stuff. Nothing we can use to help us. Though, Ford stiffened more and more with each word Galina said. It wasn’t easy for him to hear about Sienna and Eli. Ford still loves her so much, even if her heart belonged to another. And he will do whatever he has to so she can return home safe and sound, even if it means offering his life up instead of hers. I hope it doesn’t come down to that, but if it does, there will be no way I’ll be able to stop him.

  With Gair gone and Sienna kidnapped, we decide it’s best to bring Galina back to the mansion. Both Ford and I kept a close read on her thoughts, and once she saw what happened with Travis and Sienna, she lost all allegiance to him. She’s hoping we’ll kill Travis and Benedict for what they did.

  Having her in the mansion might not be easy. I’ll be sure to find Mom as soon as we get back. Galina can stay near her. Hopefully, they can rekindle their friendship. Sadly, they have a lot in common now; both having lost the men they loved.

  Galina packs a bag and we teleport to the mansion. Rion is pacing the entryway when we arrive. Like usual, I don’t get far before his large body is wrapped around me, loving having me back where he can keep me safe. Relief rushes through him as I relax into his warmth.

  Pulling back, I say, “Rion, this is Galina. She’s Sienna’s mom.”

  Rion watches me for a moment, his eyes holding mine as he runs through my memories of the day. I notice every emotion briefly flit across his face, finally reaching the end and the depressed woman we brought back with us.

  Aries strides into the room, exuding the power of an alpha. There’s a new shifter in his pack’s home. I don’t blame him one bit for being cautious. Deciding it’s best to show him everything, I give him a quick tap on the temple, sending my
memories of meeting her to him. It doesn’t take long before he goes through everything. It probably would have been smart to call Aries or send a message to Rion and let them know what was going on. But the longer we stayed out in the open in Galina’s home, the more at risk we became.

  Aries’ eyes settle on her. “Galina,” he greets. “It’s nice to meet you. I’m Aries, alpha of the Avynwood Pack. Please, come with me, and I’ll show you to your room.” He takes her suitcase and they ascend the stairs together. I follow behind them with Rion, stopping to get Mom when they walk past.

  After filling her in on what happened, she agrees to stay near Galina and help her through this. For that, I’m grateful.

  Two hours later, I’m showered and ready for bed. I honestly have no idea what time it is and don’t care. My body is screaming at me to sleep. A lot is hanging on me being able to do so.

  Rion and I talked about it. He’s not happy about me deliberately dropping my block to let Travis in. Not at all. He also doesn’t see any other way to lure him out so we can find him. Right now, this is our only chance.

  Wake, as expected, agrees to drop his block as well, so we’re both left vulnerable to Travis and Benedict. Ford refuses to leave our bedroom and leave me unprotected. Before I know it, there are four of us in the king-size bed.

  Ford shoved Wake back to take the spot between him and me, much to Rion’s dismay. He growled at him when he first slid in by my side. I reminded him of Ford’s feelings for Sienna and how he knows I’m not an option for him. He still didn’t like it and I don’t blame him. Rion took his usual spot at my back, with his arm wrapped protectively around my waist.

  Finally, bed with three newly showered, smelling great, and very attractive paranormals. I have to stop getting myself into these situations. Having all these men around is something I could get used to.

  “You’re not going to,” Rion growls in my mind.

  I nuzzle closer as my eyes flutter shut. “What’s the matter? Don’t want me sleeping in bed with three men every night?”