Cimmerian Shade: A Limited Edition Paranormal Romance & Urban Fantasy Collection

by Kiki Howell

  “Tysen?” a girl asked from behind us.

  We turned around and I stared at the gorgeous woman. She had long, slender legs and a face meant for photographing with eyelashes women paid to have put on. She wasn’t smiling, which was an abnormal way for a woman to greet Tysen. Generally, they greeted him with wide smiles and stuck out their chests.

  “Hello, Stella,” he replied with a smile.

  He knew her? How? Where did he know her from? I wasn’t generally a jealous woman, but Stella was gorgeous. He had said that he had not slept with anyone else, but I guess I had not asked if he had dated or done anything else with another woman.

  She looked at me in question. “Um, I didn’t know you were in a relationship.”

  “We just got back together,” he explained.

  “Oh,” she said sadly. “Well, it was nice to see you.”

  “You as well,” he replied and waved as she walked away.

  I waited expectantly for him to explain, but after a minute with no explanation, I dug my elbow into his side.

  “Ouch,” he grumbled.

  “Explanation?” I requested.

  “Oh, she was a client. She had asked me out a couple times and I turned her down.”

  “You turned her down?” I asked in disbelief. “She’s gorgeous.”

  “You’re the only one for me,” he murmured and kissed me passionately.

  “Break it up,” Lucas grumbled. “We are in public.”

  “She’s jealous,” Tysen informed him.

  “Of Stella?” Lucas guessed.

  I nodded. “She’s gorgeous and obviously likes Tysen.”

  Lucas shrugged. “She’s okay. Not too much fun in bed though.”

  My mouth dropped open as I stared at him.

  He smirked. “What? Just because I don’t talk much doesn’t mean I’m not still a man.”

  Tysen laughed, enjoying my shock and patted Lucas on the shoulder.

  After getting over my shock, we continued walking through the fair. I paused by a booth where you could have a name written on a grain of rice. “I want to do this,” I informed Tysen before looking at the various necklaces you could get to put the piece of rice in. They had a keychain that you could put multiple names in. “Why don’t you guys go play a game while I do this?” I suggested to Tysen.

  He nodded, kissed my cheek, and joined the guys at a game nearby.

  “Hello,” an older man greeted me. “What would you like?”

  “I need ten pieces of rice,” I informed him. “Can they all fit in one of the keychains?” I asked.

  He nodded. “I have this larger one,” he said and indicated a large keychain I had not seen. “Can you write down the names for me?”

  I took the piece of paper and pen that he offered me and wrote down each of the names of the pack members. I double checked the spelling with the seller since there were a few of them with abnormal spellings.

  “This will take me a bit of time to complete,” he explained. “Would you like a bottle of water?”

  “That would be wonderful!” I exclaimed and gladly took the cold bottle of water he offered me. I turned and surveyed the fair as I drank the water. There were so many different people at the fair. Children were constantly laughing and screeching while most others were smiling. There were the few who were scowling or sad, but they were the few and far between amongst the crowd. Scents of every type filtered through, but none really stuck. It was busy and yet it was also peaceful, in a strange way.

  I watched the teenage couples holding hands and smiling happily as they moved around the fair and couldn’t help, but smile too. Seeing the couples made me happy, despite knowing that most of them would not stay together in the end. It was still good to see happiness and joy from the younger generations.

  “Here you go,” the vendor said behind me. I turned around and gently took the glass keychain with the names on the rice, all spelled correctly, and flecks of purple within it to help separate the rice a bit. It was beautiful. I handed him the cash I owed him and then let him wrap it up and put it in a bag for me.

  “Thank you so much. It’s perfect!” I exclaimed.

  “All ready?” Tysen asked as he met me halfway from the vendor.

  I nodded and put the bag in one of his cargo short’s pockets.

  “What is it?” he asked.

  “It’s mine!” I said and smacked his hand as he reached for his pocket. “No peeking.”

  “If it is yours, how can I be peeking?” he asked.

  “I just...” I didn’t really want to tell him what it was. It felt childish and at the same time, I wasn’t really embarrassed for having it.

  “You’re embarrassed?” he asked.

  Stupid bond.

  I took it out of his pocket and the bag and held it up to him. The rest of the pack chose that moment to come over and my cheeks heated in embarrassment.

  “This is cute,” Tysen said.

  The others took turns looking at the keychain, my cheeks grew redder with each one of them looking at it.

  Lucas turned his back on me. Had it offended him somehow? I hadn’t meant to upset them.

  “I love it,” Kevin said and kissed my warm cheek. “You don’t have a reason to be embarrassed.”

  “Lucas?” I asked softly and set my hand on his arm. He didn’t respond, so I walked around to face him and saw a tear on his cheek. “Lucas? What? Did I upset you? I’m sorry, I wasn’t trying to...”

  He crushed me to his chest and whispered, “I love you, Jess. I am so glad that you are back with us.”

  I hugged him and whispered back, “I love you too. I’m sorry I was gone for so long.”

  “You’re our moonlight,” he said. “It was very dark without you here.”

  “Okay, you’re going to make her cry,” Tysen warned him.

  Lucas let me go and returned to being stoic. I was glad that Tysen had intervened because I definitely would have started crying after another moment with Lucas. I had no idea that I caused them so many issues when I left Tysen. I was definitely glad that I was back with the pack.

  “Roller coaster time!” I said loudly and handed my stuffed animals to Tysen as I hurried into line for my favorite roller coaster ride at the fair.

  None of the pack liked the roller coaster rides, so they just watched me as I enjoyed them. I stood in line behind some teenagers who turned and started flirting with me. I replied to them as though oblivious to their intentions and laughed a little louder than necessary at their lame jokes. Marco had told me that as a teenage boy, it was hard for him to flirt with girls because so often they just dismissed him. I promised him that I would do my best to let any teenagers flirt with me and not dismiss them like he had been. It was harmless and boosted their self-esteem just a smidge.

  We finally got onto the ride, an old metal coaster that went high and dropped fast. I pulled the bar down until it latched and tapped the bar in excitement. It wasn’t very long until I realized that something was wrong. The ride was too bumpy and there was a strange noise when we went around the first turn. Despite this ride only being here one week a year, it was really tall and I could look down on the pack and everyone else. I raised my arm to wave at Tysen, when the ride made an eerie creaking sound and the first few cars tilted over the edge with a loud crack. My car tilted over sideways, dumping me out of it but thankfully the car did not fall. I screamed in fear and wrapped my arms around the bar that had been against my waist.

  “One, catch the people! Two, shift and catch the cars!” Tysen ordered the pack. He had separated them into two groups for emergencies such as this. It made it easier and faster than calling people out by name to give them orders.

  People were screaming from the ground and from the other cars. I wanted to try to reassure the other passengers that everything was going to be okay, that the pack would rescue us, but I was too busy being scared myself.

  My car dropped a bit, making my grip loosen. “Tysen!” I screamed in fear. My
shirt was caught on something in the car, so I couldn’t just let go to be caught.

  “Shifters!” People yelled in shock.

  I looked down and watched as Tysen climbed up one of the ride’s support beams, swung from the rails to me and tried to unhook my shirt. It wouldn’t unhook, so he ripped it.

  People were still screaming and freaking out on the ground. Police had arrived and the carny controlling the ride was waving his hands frantically while talking to one of them.

  “You okay?” he asked me softly as he wrapped me up in his arms and dropped to the ground.

  I gripped him tightly and buried my face in the side of his neck. “That was scary,” I mumbled. “Did anyone get hurt?”

  “Look out!” someone screamed.

  Tysen leapt out of the way as the cars fell. Half of the pack caught the people and rolled out of the way while the other group caught the cars and kept them from hitting anyone.

  Everyone cheered and people rushed to their loved ones who had been on the ride. It seemed that no one had fallen out of the cars before the pack started helping them.

  Tysen let me down and before any one of the pack could touch me, someone grabbed me into a hug.

  “You okay?” the familiar voice asked.

  I tilted my head up and stared at Dave in shock. He was my ex-boyfriend from high school and I hadn’t seen him in around twenty years.

  “Dave?” I asked in surprise. The last time I had seen Dave, he wasn’t as muscular, but I thought he had been more handsome. Maybe I was jaded now that I was with Tysen, who was undoubtedly gorgeous. As always, there was something off in Dave’s eyes. I had always thought he was a bit strange, like he could snap at any moment. I had never been able to explain it to any of my girlfriends at the time, but there was just something crazy about Dave.

  Tysen growled at him and took me from his hold. “Don’t touch my mate,” he ordered him. My ripped shirt was exposing my chest, so Tysen took his shirt off and helped me put it on. He had worn a tank top underneath his long sleeve shirt, so he still had a shirt on, much to my, and every girl around’s, dismay.

  Dave smirked at him. “You must be Tysen,” he guessed. “I never expected Jess to end up with a werewolf.”

  “Even though you are one?” Tysen asked.

  “What?” I asked in shock. Dave was a werewolf? I had no idea.

  “You didn’t know?” Tysen asked me.

  I shook my head. “We dated in high school, but I had no idea he was a shifter.”

  “So, you’re mated to the Alpha? Nice,” he complimented me.

  “Um, thanks,” I replied since I wasn’t sure how to respond to that.

  “Everything alright here?” Kevin asked. He had chosen to wear a tank top to show off his muscular arms and flexed them as he came to stand behind me, placing his hands on my shoulders.

  Six men walked to stand behind Dave, all smirking as they faced us. The entire pack had come to stand behind us now, two packs facing off.

  “I have always wanted to meet you in person,” Dave admitted to Tysen.

  “Well, here I am.”

  Tysen was more aggravated than usual. What was it about Dave that made him so angry? He hadn’t done anything wrong.

  “Rumor has it that you created a bond with a human by healing her. Would that be Jess that was the human in discussion?” Dave asked.

  “Not that it is any of your business, but yes, it was Jess,” Tysen replied.

  “So, have you considered that the only reason she has feelings for you is because you created them with the bond from healing?” Dave asked with a cocky grin. His packmates mirrored his cockiness.

  “No, because she loved me before the bond was created,” Tysen said smugly.

  “Or perhaps she just loved that you were Alpha,” one of Dave’s pack suggested.

  “Maybe you should shut your mouth unless you know something,” Kevin ordered him.

  “Why don’t you try to make me?” the man suggested.

  Everyone started squaring up, a fight about to happen. I couldn’t let them fight, especially not in front of the public.

  “Everyone, calm down,” I ordered my pack and focused on feeling them all through the mating bond. If I could just get them all to calm down, I could prevent them from fighting. We had just saved the people on the ride, it wouldn’t look good for them to get into a fight in public now. They needed all the positive publicity that they could get.

  Everyone’s shoulders relaxed and Tysen looked at me in disbelief. “Did you just do that?”

  “Um, yes.” I nodded, thought I wasn’t completely sure what I had done.

  “She’s an Omega,” Lucas whispered and looked at me like I was an angel or something worth revering.

  “An Omega?” Dave asked. He looked at his pack and they took a step closer.

  “Let’s go,” I requested from Tysen’s side.

  He nodded, linked his hand with mine, and we walked away. Thankfully, Dave’s pack did not follow and we were free to head towards one of the three buildings on the county fairgrounds. The building we went to had all of the vendors, allowing them to stay out of the sun and be in an air-conditioned environment. What was wrong with Dave’s pack? They were all slightly unhinged it seemed. Or maybe that was what happened when the Alpha was someone like Dave.

  “What’s an Omega?” I asked softly.

  “If you were a wolf, you would be the lowest ranking among us,” Kevin answered.

  “So, a submissive?”

  “No, just because you’re at the bottom doesn’t mean you are submissive. It means that you have the ability to calm us down and defuse situations like the one we were just in,” Tysen explained.

  “Can I do it for other packs or just ours?” I asked curiously.

  Tysen shrugged. “I’ve never met an Omega before, so I have no idea what they are capable of truly. I have also never met, or heard of, a human who was an Omega in a werewolf pack before.”

  “Yet another oddity to add to our growing list,” I chuckled.

  The vendors had everything you could ever want and some things you did not know that you wanted. I stood in front of one of the many jewelry stands and looked at the shiny necklaces and bracelets. Tysen picked up a silver necklace with a small silver sun and held it out to me.

  “It’s so pretty,” I whispered in admiration as I took it from him and held it gently in my hand. The silver seemed to glow with a light of its own. I turned the price tag over and grimaced. Fifty dollars was a bit out of my price range for a necklace, no matter how pretty it was. I picked up one of the bracelets from the clearance basket and turned it over in my hands. It was several hearts linked together to make the chain. The price tag was much more reasonable at only ten dollars. I paid the man selling the jewelry and then Tysen helped me put the bracelet on.

  “It suits you,” he commented.

  “Thank you. I really like it.”

  “That necklace would have been a good pick for you as well.”

  I shrugged and moved to the next vendor. “Maybe, but it was too expensive.”

  “I would have purchased it for you,” he reminded me.

  “I have caused enough trouble for the year,” I commented.

  “Speaking of you causing trouble, we should have brought a backpack for all of the things you are buying.”

  I grinned happily and picked up a wooden carved wolf that would look perfect on my desk at work. “What do you think?” I asked Tysen and held up the carved animal. “I think he would make a great addition to my desk at work.”

  Tysen smiled and asked, “What will you name him?”

  I shrugged and said, “I’m not sure. I think he needs to visit my work first before he gets a name.”

  “Why does it have to be male?” Kevin asked as he picked up a carved pig. “The wolf could be female.”

  “No,” I said immediately and shook my head. “That way leads to negative thoughts and wishful thinking that I don’t want to go down ag
ain.”

  “Again? What do you mean?” Tysen asked.

  “There was a period of time that I really wished I could be a werewolf. I was practically convinced that you would eventually leave me for a female werewolf and the negative thoughts began to send me down in a spiral of sadness and self-loathing.”

  “How did you stop them?” Kevin asked, his attention on me fully as I told them something I had never admitted to anyone before.

  “Tysen picked me up one day and told me how he felt about me. I realized that he truly did love me, even though I am human, and that focusing on things that I could not control and would never ever be able to change was just putting me in a bad mood and it was completely unnecessary.”

  Tysen hugged me and whispered, “All of that is very true. Werewolf or not, you are the only being alive for me. I love you more than I love anything else in the world.”

  “Except steak.”

  “Even steak,” he whispered into my ear.

  “How much for the wolf?” I asked the vendor and held up the wolf I was going to purchase.

  “Twenty dollars,” she replied. “I’ll throw in the smaller version for just ten dollars more too.”

  I picked up both and smiled as I held them out to her. “Sold!”

  She wrapped them in paper and put them in a bag for me while I got out the money I owed her.

  “I just have to say, your boyfriend is hot,” she whispered as she got my change.

  I chuckled and replied, “Yeah, I get that a lot.”

  “How do you stand all of the women gawking at him?” she asked me, obviously gawking at him herself.

  I leaned closer to her and whispered, “I just remind myself that I am the only one who gets to see him naked and knows what it feels like to be completely dominated by him.”

  She blushed bright red and then laughed loudly. “You lucky bitch.”

  I laughed with her and then took my things and went to the next aisle of vendors.

  “What was that about?” Tysen asked me.

  “Oh, just talking about having sex with you,” I admitted with a wide smile.

  “What?” he asked in shock.