The Apex Shifter Complete Set: Books 1 - 3

by Emilia Hartley

  This was it, he thought - incarceration in a mental health facility, or in prison. His time was up. Blood had been so very close to his goal. For the time being, he had to surrender to his fate.

  The courtroom doors banged open. Blood turned. A young woman strode in. Her black hair was short, curled and pinned in a complicated style. A lavender power suit revealed shapely legs. Despite her bearing, her clothing, her confident expression, she looked like a girl playing dress up. The girl stood next to him at the defendant’s table.

  “My client pleads not guilty,” she announced with a big smile.

  Blood squinted at her. “Who the fuck are you?”

  “Mind your manners, Elathan.” Her voice was low. She gave him a wink. A wink. “We’ll get you out of this.”

  The judge mirrored his question. “I’m sorry, Miss, you are?”

  “Kayla Hart, Your Honor. I’m Mr. Blood’s newly appointed council.”

  Kayla? That sounded like a teenager’s name.

  “Shall we delay this arraignment?”

  She shook her head. “No, sir, I’m up to speed on this case. We’re entering a not guilty plea. I would also like to request a bail hearing.”

  Bail? Blood hadn’t thought about that. He did have money stashed away. Quite a bit. It never occurred to him that he might be set free, awaiting his trial. That might give him time to finish his dark work. After that, the court could do what they wanted with him. If he even survived which was unlikely.

  Dusty Shoes stood up. “Your honor, the state objects.”

  The judge shrugged. “Of course you do.”

  “Elathan Blood is indigent, homeless. With no ties to the community, he is certainly a flight risk. He is accused of serious and violent crimes – In short he is a danger to the public.”

  The girl, Kayla, didn’t miss a beat. She smiled at the prosecutor. “Well, if my client is indigent and homeless, why would you be worried about him posting bail, Counselor?”

  “Excellent point,” the judge conceded. “Bail is set at two hundred fifty thousand dollars.”

  “But Your Honor, that’s the maximum bail allowed by the state,” Kayla argued.

  The judge nodded. “If I could make it higher, I would. You have your bail, Miss Hart, and I’m hoping the state is satisfied as well? My calendar is full.”

  “We’re good, Your Honor,” the prosecutor said.

  With a bang of the gavel, the judge moved on. “Next case.”

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  Chapter Two

  Kayla took a deep breath. Woah, her first case. She felt like skipping—she was doing everything exactly right. She picked up her briefcase as two bailiffs led her client to the holding cell adjacent to the courtroom. She felt eyes on her. The gallery was full, a lot more than it should be for an arraignment.

  She recognized Iwalani Johnson, the defense attorney that had brought her client to justice. The lawyer was famous, and Kayla was kind of a fan. Kayla made her way to the gallery and stuck out her hand.

  “Hi, Miss Johnson. I’ve been an admirer of yours for some time.”

  The lawyer reluctantly shook hands.

  “How can you defend this asshole?” The man towering next to her was one of Blood’s victims. Kayla had seen him on TV. He was reported dead, the killer reported to be the short woman with wild black hair on Iwalani’s other side.

  Iwalani spoke up. “Blood’s entitled to his defense. Public defenders don’t get to pick and choose their cases.”

  “Oh, but I did,” Kayla beamed. “No one else in my office would take the case. They’re afraid of him.” And no wonder. Blake Brighton was the first lawyer appointed to defend Blood. Blood responded to his questions with a beating. Even in handcuffs, and with the guards close by, her client put Blake in the hospital.

  “They should be,” Sally said.

  Under Iwlani’s scrutiny, Kayla felt a strange sensation, almost an electric charge, run through her.

  “You took the case because you’re a shifter.”

  Kayla’s eye widened, her breath caught in her throat. How could she know? Nobody knew!

  Iwalani went on. “Blood’s a shifter as well. You probably picked it up subconsciously.”

  What the hell was going on here?

  Thorn inhaled mightily through his nose. He angled his head. “Not much of a shifter.”

  Before she could take offense, Kayla’s brain blazed with a thought. “You’re all--!”

  “Which is why we’re here. This case has already garnered a lot of media attention. As you well know, we need to keep it under the radar as much as possible,” Iwalani said. “Enough shifters are in the spotlight right now. We are being watched.”

  Kayla thought about a media campaign that had caught her attention. It was about reporting any strange animal activity to a government website. It was on the radio, on television, all the time. Supposedly, rabies was rampant in the area. Yet Kayla hadn’t heard of a single case of a rabid animal being put down. Up until this moment, she hadn’t understood why that public service announcement gave her the creeps.

  The revelations made her head spin. “Well, Elathan isn’t accused of being a—” She couldn’t say the word out loud. Kayla pulled herself together. “Everyone has the right to a trial.”

  Iwalani nodded. “Agreed. And given the evidence against Blood, I doubt you’ll be able to refute it. Once he’s convicted, he’ll be out of the spotlight. Hopefully.”

  The group filed out of the gallery, heading out of the courtroom. Sally paused, lips pressed together as if she didn’t want to let the words out. Finally, she said, “He uses shifters. Manipulates them to do his dirty work, the bastard. You need to be careful.”

  Without explanation, Sally followed the others. What had Kayla walked into here? The gavel fell, starting her out of her thoughts. Another arraignment started. Well, she still had a job to do, and she was going to do it right. She squared her shoulders and held her head high. Quietly, she made her way out of the courtroom to the holding cell for inmates.

  Elathan Blood did not match his booking photo. That man looked like a trapped animal, a beast with no trace of humanity. Now he sat on a bench, hands in cuffs, behind bars. The crazy look, the overgrown beard and wild hair were now gone. Sharp’s blue eyes took her measure, up and down. His brown hair was streaked with blond, distinguished grey at the temples. Shaven, his heavily boned jaw and wide, dimpled chin were revealed, as well as full lips.

  “Who the fuck are you?”

  Kayla folded her arms. “You’re in a lot of trouble, Mister. Maybe if you showed people a little more respect, you wouldn’t be.”

  Blood blinked a few times. “Are you scolding me?”

  “Hey, baby, how about showing my dick a little respect with your pretty mouth?” Another inmate wandered closer, hand gripping his crotch. He smelled unwashed, his gray hair in knots, most of his teeth missing.

  “Really?” Kayla eyed the man. “What are you, working up an insanity plea? Go sit down, loser.”

  Blood gave the man a long, hard look before facing Kayla. “You look like a little girl.”

  “Looks old enough to me,” the toothless man piped up. Blood gave him a look that made him face away.

  “I assure you I am a state certified attorney, and you’re only hope for getting out of here.” She pursed her lips for a moment. “You know, there’s a lot of negative energy going on. People really want to see you go down, Elathan.”

  “Rightly so.” Blood smiled. It lit his features, and made his face enigmatic, as if his face wasn’t used to the expression.

  “Sorry about the bail hearing. I didn’t expect the judge to request the max.” Kayla shrugged. “I know I don’t have twenty-five grand laying around.” The state required a down payment of ten percent of the bail money to be paid to the court.

  The smile remained, the skin around Elathan’s eyes crinkling attractively. “Actually, I didn’t even think about getting my
self sprung. I have something more valuable to our case.”

  Our case, he was calling it. Kayla thought it was a step forward. “What’s that?”

  “A body hears things in jail. I know, for instance, that the bitch who put me here has a new client. Teenage girl. She’s accused of burning down the woods with fireworks.”

  Kayla nodded. She had heard the story on the news, but not that Iwalani was representing the girl. Public outcry had kept the teen arsonist’s identity secret, for fear of retribution. A lot of shifters were in the spotlight right now, Iwalani had said. Kayla now understood that the famed attorney had another troubled shifter case with media interest. “What about it?”

  “It might help if you could get ahold of the file she put together on me.”

  Kayla shook her head. “No go. She put that together for a different client. It wouldn’t fall under disclosure.”

  “Fuck disclosure. Here’s the deal. Her client is innocent. I know for a fact that the arsonist will strike again tonight. Make a deal with the shark. All she needs to do is keep that Marino bitch in juvenile hall overnight. Come tomorrow, she’ll be freed.”

  Kayla frowned. “How can you know that?”

  “It’s why I’m here.” Elathan got to his feet and moved closer. His voice dropped to a whisper. “I can just barely scent the shifter in you.”

  How the hell did everyone around here know she was a shifter? She gazed at him steadily. “I can tell you’re the same.” This was a lie. She knew about it from Iwalani. Her client didn’t need to know this.

  “Make the deal. Read the file. Then you’ll start to understand.”

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  Chapter Three

  Her eyes—so dark, and yet they contained such depth, like clear, deep water. Blood had seen eyes like this only once before. The girl was beautiful, but so were plenty of others. The eyes…

  He shook himself. Best not to get too close to a woman he needed to use. Especially one as smart as this. He could practically see her brain working.

  “I’ll give it a try.”

  “Good. Oh, while you’re at it, I might just have some money lying around.”

  Her brows lowered, wondering if he was putting her on.

  “My bolt hole’s an abandoned hunting lodge on the ridge above Ripple. Take the old logging road from N28.”

  “Seriously? This isn’t the time for joking around. There’s a lot of work to do on your case.”

  “Do it. Take your retainer”

  “I’m court-appointed. I don’t get a retainer.”

  Blood snorted. “Probably disgustingly honest, too.”

  “If you’ve got all this money, why not hire your own attorney?”

  Blood shrugged. “Didn’t want one. I can stack time, no problem. But when freedom is a known quantity, I have an inner self that don’t like to be caged, if you catch my meaning.”

  She bit her upper lip, studying him. Did she understand what he was saying? Something inside him suspected she did.

  “Will you do right by me—” What the hell was her name? “Kayla?”

  She closed her eyes, thinking, her lashes long and soft. Finally, she opened them, and they were filled with indecision. “I can’t post your bail if I think you’re a flight risk.”

  “I got unfinished business around here. I ain’t going nowhere.”

  She moved closer, gaze intense. He took in her straight nose, her high cheekbones. The nearly flawless olive complexion was marred by a scar on her forehead, faint, and hidden by the swoop of her bangs.

  “Promise me.”

  “My word ain’t no damn good.”

  “Promise me anyway.”

  Damn it all to hell. “Fine. I promise.”

  “Okay. If this is all bullshit, it’s just taking time away from your case.”

  She spun on her heel and walked away. Blood eyed her figure. Young, yes, but plenty ripe. Broad shoulders and hips to match, swinging away with a switch. Her legs weren’t very long, but still worth admiring.

  The scent of her perfume still lingered in his supernaturally sensitive nose. Blood’s suspicions were confirmed. He could practically taste the tang of her shifter. It was a soft odor, faint and musky. She wasn’t an animal of any real power; that he could tell. But it wasn’t the shifter aspect of her that aroused him.

  “Ah, hell, honey, where you going?” The toothless man wandered over. “Forget this sorry sack of shit, baby. How bout a conjugal visit? My dick’s much bigger than his. You wanna see?”

  Fury erupted, turning the cage red in Blood’s vision. He whirled on the toothless fucker. Even though his wrists and ankles were chained to a belt around his waist, Blood grabbed the man by the front of his orange jumpsuit. With a mighty jerk, he slammed the asshole’s head into the bars so hard, they rang like a gong. Without another word, the man slipped to the floor, blood pooling. The sheriff deputies were on him almost at once.

  Even as they put him in a chokehold with their batons, Blood gazed at the departing attorney. She shot a look over her shoulder, eyes wide. Her expression was partly shock, horror at the violence Blood could call upon so immediately.

  But when her eyes met his, he saw another expression. He couldn’t put a finger on it, especially as the blood left his brain. If he had to put a word to it, he might call it desire. Kayla’s face flushed as she whirled and fled the holding room.

  Blood stopped resisting. He’d put a lot of time into fully healing himself. He wasn’t about to give these deputies an excuse to bust him up again.

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  Chapter four

  Holy hell. Kayla wasn’t self-effacing, she knew she was attractive. She knew it from the way men looked at her. Sometimes, like the toothless inmate, they vocalized their desire for her but usually in more palatable language. She’d recognized the same look from Elathan, hunger, desire, call it what you will. But that wasn’t what stirred in her mind. She had never seen a man so brutally and easily destroy another man just for showing her disrespect. On the one hand, it was horrible to see. On the other…

  It was pretty hot.

  She had work to do, and tamped down her emotions. Iwalani was in the hall, speaking on her cell phone. Kayla hurried over, hoping she wasn’t still blushing like a school girl. She waited for the attorney to end the call.

  “Can I have a word with you in private?”

  Iwalani actually stood a few inches shorter, yet some aspect made it feel like she loomed over Kayla. Dark eyes squinted. She nodded to an empty courtroom. “I’ll give you five minutes. I’ve got a client waiting.”

  “Yeah, I know. That’s what I want to talk to you about.”

  “Not about Elathan Blood?”

  “Well, that, too.”

  “Not interested.” Iwalani moved to leave.

  Kayla tried to stop her. “I can prove your client’s not guilty.”

  It wasn’t working. “So can I.”

  “I can do it by tomorrow.” Could she?

  At least she had Iwalani’s attention. “How?”

  “First, I want to make a deal.”

  Iwalani put her fists on her hips. “Let me guess. You want to see the file I have on Blood.”

  Kayla shrugged.

  “No deal. For two reasons. First, I’m not bound by disclosure. The case I assembled went to exonerate my client. Second, I want to see Blood go to jail.”

  “So there’s something in there—”

  “No, nothing that might set him free. Quite the opposite, in fact. But there’s plenty that make him out to be something more than a criminal. Something more than human. So forget it.”

  “Your current client is a shifter,” Kayla argued. “The case is all over the media. Wouldn’t it be better if it just went away?”

  Iwalani nodded. “Yes, it would. Unfortunately, my client has an arrest record a mile long. It’s all kids’ stuff, vandalism, underage drinking and the usu
al crap. But she hasn’t been convicted. It just means she has a bigger target on her back. She’s kind of an asshole. The state would like to see her up against it. It’s wrong, it’s personal to a lot of prosecutors, but it’s also just the way it goes.”

  “How about this, then.” Kayla was talking out of her ass, but sometimes, it’s what lawyers did best. “If your client walks tomorrow, you hand me the file.”

  “I can only think of one reason she would. If that’s the case, you’re obligated to report it.”

  Kayla shook her head. “Attorney-client privilege.”

  Iwalani’s mouth made a moue. “Cute. Okay, fine, what do I have to do to see my client walk tomorrow, other than show you my file on Blood.”

  “Nothing. Your client’s in juvie for her protection. I’m sure her parents want her home. You just have to convince them to leave her inside.”

  “You really think some idiot is going to set another fire when the cops have someone in jail for it?”

  Did she? Elathan seemed certain. “Incarceration is the perfect alibi.”

  “If you turn out to be full of shit, then not only do I have two angry parents who’ve gone through the process of mortgaging their home, I also have a country girl stuck in the system. She could act out for her own protection in a supernatural way.”

  “In the long run, if she gets out tomorrow, the parents will have a much smaller legal fee, not have to worry about putting up their home, and you just bill your hours for doing nothing.”

  “If you’re right. If you’re wrong, then everything gets messy.”

  “If I’m wrong, I don’t get to see the file.” Kayla didn’t know either way. She had to bluff. “I’ll see you in your office tomorrow.”

  ***

  Elathan’s hideout was very well hidden. If she didn’t know better, she’d swear the place was built of moss and ferns. The lodge sat on a ridge above the small settlement of Ripple, Oregon. During the winter, there would be a panoramic view of the place. With the leaves budding, the little hamlet was partly obscured. Given the state of the road leading to it, she doubted Elathan would have been bothered here.