ROMANCE: SHIFTER: Shifter to the Max Collection (Dragon, Bear, Wolf and Panther Shifter Romances) (Paranormal Fantasy Romance Collection)

by C. J. Ayers

  Chase eased the SUV off the road into a bank of deep shadows. Ahead I could see the lights from the only occupied building in the town, a saloon that drew on people’s need to get away from the darkness of winter. In the dim light that extended beyond the saloon’s boundaries, I could tell that Chase was watching the establishment.

  “Who are you looking for?” I asked.

  “How’d you…? Never mind. No one. It doesn’t matter. They aren’t here,” he said as he put the car back into gear. As he sped through the center of what used to be a tourist attraction ghost town, I thought I saw someone emerge from the shadows, and run toward the SUV.

  Chase must have seen it too because he said, “We’ve got to get you somewhere safe, preferably before the moon rises too high.”

  “Huh? What are you talking about?” I asked, confusion befuddling my brain. “What does the moon have to do with anything?”

  Chase sighed. He seemed to do that a lot, and I got the feeling that he was telling me far more than he wanted to. Maybe that was part of our connection. Maybe I had some kind of strange power over him that got him to spill his deepest, darkest secrets to me. I was so lost in my self-congratulatory thoughts that I didn’t realize how long Chase had been silent.

  Finally, he said, “I suppose you do need to know this part in case things start to get weird.” He paused. “I suffer from lycanthropy.”

  “Lycanthropy?” I repeated. “What do you mean?”

  Chase glanced at me out of the corner of his eye. “It means,” he said slowly, “that I am a werewolf.”

  CHAPTER 3

  I gaped at him, but Chase remained calm. He turned toward the town of Keystone, the road deserted save for us. I was still trying to process what he had just told me. I wanted to believe that he was just messing with me, but I could tell from the look on his face that he wasn’t. So I swallowed hard. I had to make a decision right now. I could either demand that he stop the car in Keystone, even on the off season one of the hotels would be open. I could rent a room for the night, get a cab back to Rapid City in the morning. Or I could choose to trust Chase, and go wherever he was taking me.

  I decided to trust him. I had the strangest sensation that my heart was beating in rhythm with Chase’s even all the way across the car. It was almost as if…we were meant to be together. I shook my head, and squinted out the window at the darkened store fronts as we sped through the center of town. The off season was eerie in so many ways. Many businesses shuttered for the winter, and generally only locals frequented those places that were still open.

  My brain felt muddled, and I was beyond tired. Leaning back in my seat, I glanced over at Chase. He was glancing in the rearview mirror again. The way his eyes flicked from the mirror to the road ahead of us made my stomach knot.

  “You need to tell me what’s going on,” I said softly. “I will go wherever you need me to go. I trust you, but I need to know what it is that we’re running from.”

  Chase glanced in the rearview mirror again, and shook his head as he sighed. “Tonight is the full moon. When it reaches the fullest height in the night sky there are…things that a lycanthrope can do.”

  “Okay,” I said slowly. “So what does that have to do with those guys back in Rapid City?”

  The car curved through the mountains. Through the shadows and the dense stands of pine I could just make out the faces of Mount Rushmore. I waited for Chase to respond. A car came around a curve a little too fast, and Chase tensed, leaning forward over the steering wheel and staring at the car until it was out of sight. He stayed quiet for a while longer, and I knew that he was waiting to make sure we were still alone.

  “Those men were lycanthropes too,” Chase said. “Tonight every lycanthrope wants the same thing.”

  “And what’s that?”

  “To get to the highest point in the area to get the maximum impact of the full moon,” he said.

  I let out an irritated huff of air. “I don’t understand. You’re talking in circles. I get that you are a…lycanthrope and you get something from the full moon tonight, but that doesn’t explain what that is or why those men were attacking that guy or chasing us.” I slumped back in my seat, and crossed my arms over my chest.

  Chase sighed. “There is a chance that on a night like tonight that a lycanthrope can reverse the effects of the disease, put it into remission, if you will. But you have to be at a great height to be as close as possible to the moon’s rays. Even when you do that, it’s not a guarantee. Those other men? They want the same thing I do. There will be territorial fights tonight.”

  “Is that what was happening back in that alley?” I asked, half turning in my seat so that I could watch him. We had turned onto the road that led up to Custer State Park. I had a feeling I knew where we were headed.

  “Maybe,” Chase acknowledged. “There could have been other things at play there. But my money would be on a territorial dispute, yeah.”

  The silence that filled the car was thick. Finally, I asked, “So, where is your territory?”

  Chase glanced at me, and I could see in his eyes what I already knew. Somehow I had found the Alpha. “Harney Peak?” My voice came out as a squeak as my suspicions were confirmed. He nodded, and shifted uncomfortably beside me.

  The entrance to the park was dark, and there were no park rangers on duty. “One perk to the off season, huh?”

  “Hmm?” Chase was clearly distracted as we eased around Sylvan Lake, the placid water frozen and glimmering under the moonlight. We were the only car in the parking lot when we arrived at the trailhead.

  “So what happens now?” I asked.

  “We need to get to the top before the moon rises completely,” he said.

  I gaped at him, wondering if I should just go. Surely there would be someone at the cabins or at least up at the hotel that would be able to help me find a way home. The jog around the lake would only take me five minutes. But as soon as the thought entered my head, I shook it away. Leaving Chase wasn’t an answer. My heart ached at the mere idea of not being near him. Truly it was the strangest sensation I had ever experienced. No. I would be staying with him until the bitter end.

  “Can I ask you something?”

  Chase looked over at me as he turned off the ignition. He pulled the key out, and twirled it between his fingers, staring at it absently. “Sure,” he said. “Anything.”

  “How did you become a were…a lycanthrope? Did you get bitten by another werewolf or what?” I asked in a rush of breath.

  He burst out laughing. “That would be vampires that transmit their virus from one person to another. No. I was born this way. And just in case you are curious, I don’t turn into a hairy dog man. Just a wolf.”

  “So what do you want to get from the moon tonight?” I asked softly.

  Chase turned and fixed me with a searching, searing stare. Finally, he said, “I’d like to find a way to be normal so that I could be with you. You’re my intended mate, Kelsey. I knew it the first moment I saw you. I inhaled your scent and I knew. It’s …. it’s …like that for us.”

  My heart slammed against my ribcage, and I inhaled sharply. In that instant, I knew that he felt the same way I did. “Let’s go,” I said, pushing my car door open. I had no idea what I was getting myself into, but I knew I needed to do it for Chase.

  CHAPTER 4

  We walked through the dark pines in silence. Crusty snow crunched beneath our feet, and I sorely wished that I hadn’t worn dress shoes. At least they were flats, but still, the soles had no traction, and every time I slipped, I had to reach out and grab on to Chase’s arm. He would steady me, and hold on for just a second longer than he needed to. Warmth would spread through me until the winter chill seeped into my bones again.

  “This is taking forever,” I said with a sigh. “You should go up without me. There’s no way that we’ll make it on time.”

  Chase turned from several yards ahead of me, and through the moonlight I saw his eyes glint in the moon
light. “Wait here for a sec, okay?” he said as he jogged off the path toward a clump of large granite boulders.

  My breath hitched in my throat as I watched Chase disappear behind the rocks. I wrapped my arms around myself, and glanced off into the darkness. Despite the fact that the moon kept getting hidden behind clouds, I swore that I saw eyes shimmering in the depths of the darkness. I shivered as I thought back to the men from the alley in Rapid City. I turned back toward the rocks where Chase had disappeared, when I caught sight of a large shape moving out of the shadows.

  “Chase!” I screamed as an animal, the largest wolf I had ever seen, appeared on the path before me.

  “It’s me,” Chase said.

  I screamed again as I stared at the talking wolf in front of me, trying to register what was happening. Chase as the wolf circled me, butting me affectionately in the arm with his head. I laughed, despite the weirdness that I was experiencing.

  “Get on my back,” he said. “We’ll make it to the summit much faster this way.”

  This time I didn’t hesitate. I grabbed the coarse hair around Chase’s wolf neck, and swung myself up onto his back like he was a horse. Using my knees, I clung to him as he took off up the path. The pines whipped by as we sped through the forest. In the distance I could hear other animals, coyotes calling to each other, mountain lions screaming as they hunted prey, and deer crashing through the underbrush as we approached.

  Chase ran with grace and speed unnatural for both human and animal. My mind was racing right along with us, and I tried to reason out everything that was happening. A man that I had just met had captured my heart as we ran away from others of his kind right before he had turned into a wolf. And then there was the fact that he had been born that way.

  When we reached the top of the mountain, Chase slowed. At the base of the steps that led up to the fire tower, he said, “I need you to listen very carefully to me. I smell something that I need to check out. I need you to climb up the stairs to the fire tower, and stay out on the top. Do not go anywhere else. Please, promise me Kelsey.”

  I nodded, unable to find my voice for a long time. Then I said, “Yes, I promise. Chase?”

  “Yes?”

  “Be careful.”

  Chase as the wolf looked up at me, and I could see the man I had instantly fallen in love with deep in his eyes. He nodded his great furry head, and even though I knew that everything happening to me seemed ridiculous, it also felt completely natural.

  As Chase loped off into the brush, I took a deep breath, telling myself that all I had to do was climb a set of stairs. That was it. I began to climb up the stone steps as they curved up toward the looming stone fire tower. My shoes slipped on a patch of ice, and I crashed down to the hard edge of the stair directly above me. I yelped in pain as my knee began to throb.

  I waited for the pain to subside, and then climbed back to my feet, moving more slowly again. By the time I reached the top of the fire tower, I was huffing a little, my lungs aching in in the cold air at such a high altitude. Chase still hadn’t returned, and I was starting to get scared. There seemed to be noises coming from every direction, unnatural noises that made my skin crawl.

  A noise from the stairwell that led down to the interior of the fire tower made me jump. I pressed my back against the wall, and tried to make myself blend in to my surroundings. The sound of heavy breathing reached me just about at the same time as the smell of wet dog. I knew that one of the men from Rapid City was there. I didn’t know how I knew that, but I did. I squeezed my eyes shut, and hoped that Chase would burst up the staircase now.

  “Well, well, well. What do we have here?” The voice was heavy, dripping with saliva. I could hear the spit sloshing around in his mouth. When I cracked open my eyes, I wanted to scream, but I didn’t. The large black wolf loomed above me, spittle hanging off of his jowls. Before I knew what had happened, the wolf had clamped his jaw around my wrist and dragged me down the stairs into the bowels of the fire tower.

  Chapter 5

  My wrist throbbed. I could still feel the place where the wolf’s teeth had sunk into my skin. At least he had gone back out the door to patrol, though I suspected he was waiting for Chase. All I could do was wait. I hated waiting. The inside of the fire tower smelled like urine and something more putrid. I shuddered to think what I was sitting on, and was disgusted to think of the way tourists used this place as a bathroom.

  I knew that the only choice was to try to get away, to get to Chase, even though the wolf was far bigger and faster than I was. The only two exits didn’t offer me many choices. The one closest to me led out to a small plateau with absolutely no hope of escape. If I went back up the steps to the top of the fire tower, then I might be able to make a run down the steps to find Chase. Though, I knew that with my flats made it hard to run on the ice, and getting to Chase would be a long shot. Still, I felt like I needed to try.

  Climbing to my feet, I winced at the ache of all of my muscles. My wrist throbbed from where the wolf had bitten me. I limped over to the stairs, but just as I was about to go up I heard footsteps. Making a split second decision, I hurried out to the small plateau outside the fire tower. During the summer the area had grass and a small pool of water from the frequent afternoon showers, but in the middle of February, the area was nothing but a sheet of ice and snow. There was nowhere for me to hide, but I went out anyway.

  A moment later the wolf followed me, but he didn’t even pause near the spot where I had flattened myself against the wall. When I saw the flash of Chase’s coat as he streaked past me, I felt weak with relief.

  Chase leaped at the wolf, and sent the creature sprawling. The other wolf regained its’ footing quickly, though, and crashed into Chase, nipping at his ear. Chase yelped in pain, but charged the other wolf again. He hit him hard, knocking the other animal back. Chase hit him again. Both he and the other wolf let out a spine chilling howl. All the hair on my neck stood straight up.

  The wolf fell into the dark abyss over the edge of the cliff. Chase in his wolf form was still crouched down on the rocks, his sides heaving from the exertion of the fight. I blinked, and suddenly he was back in his human form. I ran to him, and threw my arms around his still shuddering form. He turned in my embrace, and pulled me close against his chest.

  I settled into his embrace, and we sat in silence for a long time, everything else seemed to fall away when I was in Chase’s arms. His body was still radiating heat from his wolf form so even the snow around us didn’t penetrate our bubble.

  Tipping my head back, I looked up at the moon, which was full and bright, glowing above the clouds that still littered the night sky. From our height we could see the vast starscape that stretched in every direction. My Valentine’s Day had started out rough, and was ending with the craziest, most perfect love I could imagine.

  “So what happens now?” I asked Chase, holding my breath while I waited for Chase to answer.

  “Honestly? I don’t know how this works,” he admitted.

  “You don’t know? But you said it was important for us to get up here so that you could attain the moon’s maximum effects.” I turned in his arms so that I could look up at his face.

  Chase flushed, and gave me a sheepish smile. “I know the power of the moon,” he said. “I grew up with my mother and father telling me about it. There are so many tales that any number of things could happen tonight. I know that somehow a person suffering from lycanthropy can use the moon’s rays to be healed.”

  “Do you want to be healed?” I asked quietly.

  “Me being a lycanthrope will put a serious damper on our relationship,” he said.

  “It’s amazing how fast it happened,” I said before I could stop myself. A cardinal rule of my dating life had always been to play my cards close, not give out too much information at any time.

  Chase shrugged. “That’s how it happens for lycanthropes.”

  “I feel weird,” I said suddenly as my bitten wrist began to throb. We b
oth looked down at it as I held it out in front of me. The bite marks had begun to glow silver. “Everything is tingling.”

  Chase’s eyes widened. “Oh no,” he said in a whisper.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked, alarmed.

  “I’ve heard of this happening, but it’s so rare. I’ve never actually met anyone that it’s happened to,” Chase said.

  “Chase, what’s happening to me?” The tingling had become a burning sensation, and I could feel a glow coming from deep inside of me. I wondered if Chase could see it.

  “You’re becoming a werewolf,” he said so quietly I almost didn’t hear him. “The bite.”

  “I thought you said that’s not how lycanthropy was transmitted,” I said, feeling stupid for saying the first thing that came in to my mind, but I had so many thoughts racing through my head that I latched on to the first one I could.

  “Not normally,” Chase said. “But with the full moon…” He trailed off as I realized what it meant. A huge smile split my face.

  “Well I guess this is the solution to our relationship dilemma,” I said. “Maybe you can’t be normal, but now at least I’m a lycanthrope too.”

  Chase studied me for a long time. “I love you,” he said, “and I always will.”

  “I love you too,” I said as I stood up, and pulled him to his feet. Closing my eyes, I concentrated on shifting in to wolf form. I suddenly just knew how to do it. Nothing hurt as I shifted, my wolf body was just a natural extension of myself. I opened my wolf eyes, and I could see things in sharper relief than I ever had before. I could even see in to the shadows.

  I glanced over at Chase, who had also shifted in to his wolf form. “Come on,” I called. “I’ll race you down the mountain.”

  THE END