by R. A. Boyd
The Shifter’s Secret
The Ghost Shifters Series, Book 6
R. A. Boyd
Contents
Other books in the Ghost Shifter series
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
New Release Newsletter Sign-up
A note from the author
Other Works by R.A. Boyd
Find out more about R.A. Boyd her:
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locations is entirely coincidental.
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission.
ASIN: B07TC6RD47
Text copyright ©2019 R.A. Boyd
All Rights Reserved
Other books in the Ghost Shifter series
Other books in the Ghost Shifter series
The Shifter's Wish, Book 1
The Shifter's Dream, Book 2
The Shifter's Salvation, Book 3
The Shifter's Fight, Book 4
The Shifter's Soul, Book 5
The Shifter’s Secret, Book 6 (YOU’RE ABOUT TO READ ME!!)
Prologue
“Thanks for coming to meet with me. You look beautiful.”
She really did. Jace had been waiting for this moment for over five years. He was terrified and excited. The throbbing hole in his chest filled with hope. His mate may have been within his reach all this time.
Jace watched as Emma added more cream and sugar to her coffee. Giving him a tight smile that didn’t reach her walnut-colored eyes, she looked up at him and finally met his gaze. She’d been looking everywhere but at him since she sat down at the table.
With that perfect half-smile/half-smirk that scrunched up her round nose, she reached for her spoon and stirred her coffee. “Thanks. It’s good to see you too.”
Even though her voice was calm and even, Jace could sense the unease and confusion rolling from her in waves. He was making her uncomfortable. It pained him to know he was the reason for her uneasiness. How could he blame her? The last time they’d seen each other he made sure his words cut her deep enough to push her away from him. And now five years later, he was sitting across from her, inwardly dying to find out if she was his mate. She’d evaded his touch when she joined him at the small, round table of the dimly lit restaurant. He tried to touch her hand and pull her in close for a hug, but she quickly grabbed her chair and sat down before he had the chance.
This must be how it felt when teenagers went on their first date. Him— a fallen angel who had endured years of mental anguish, loneliness, and rejection now pitied the dating habits of pubescent kids. Fan-fucking-tastic.
Jace cleared his throat and picked up his menu. He hadn’t eaten today, and the thought of food made his stomach churn. Food was far from his mind. Touching Emma was all he could focus on. “I heard you got married,” he said, looking down at the ring-less ring finger of her left hand. He already knew her story.
She pushed her shoulder-length, dark, tightly coiled hair behind her ear. “I did. We’re divorced now. But it’s fine,” she murmured, flitting her hand to wave off the conversation. Jace tried to hand her a menu, but she put her hand up to stop him. “I already know what I want. I come here often.”
This was not going well. She hated him and didn’t want to be here. What would they do if they were mates? Emma may never forgive him for how he’d treated her at the end of their relationship.
Jace’s heart hammered in his chest as he watched her. She was staring at his chin or his lips. He couldn’t tell, but he sure as hell knew when a person was trying not to meet his gaze.
When the waitress came back to take their order, Emma smiled at the woman and the room lit up as bright as the sun. She used to smile at him like that.
As if they knew each other, Emma and the waitress talked briefly about her last visit and how much the weather had changed in such a short amount of time. The weather in Baltimore could go from freezing cold to Hell’s front door hot in less than a week.
After the woman took their orders, Emma’s gaze came back to rest on his chin, and the radiant smile fell from her face. “What’s up, Jace? You wanted to meet with me because…” she said, trailing off as if waiting for him to start talking so she could get away from him.
This was it. “Well,” Jace said, clasping his hands in front of him on the table. Damn-it. He’d rehearsed what he wanted to tell her over and over. And now, it was all gone. “I’m sorry for what I did. It was wrong. I was a real shit for the way things ended.”
Emma stilled, and for a brief moment her eyes met his. Vulnerability blanketed her face, and a small gasp escaped her pursed lips. That look turned to agitation, and then it was gone. The calm demeanor reappeared. She scooted back in her chair.
She swallowed a few times and gave a dismissive shake of her head. “That was a long time ago. You didn’t have to apologize.” Her chest shook as she took a trembling breath, and the tranquil façade she tried to hold on to slipped away. She moved her chair closer to the table and pointed at him as if her finger would jab some sense into him. “Forget that. You did. You did have to apologize. You freaking should apologize. You were horrible to me. Do you remember what you said?”
Every word. Jace remembered every single thing he’d told her as they sat in her apartment.
“Emma—”
“Let me remind you.” Her voice was low as her eyes darted around the restaurant. The attention of other people made her nervous. For her to even attempt to have this conversation in public meant she was pissed. “After three years of us being together and talking about getting married, you told me that you didn’t see a future for us. That three years was enough with one woman and that you’d been trying to break up with me for weeks. And I knew, I freaking knew it was because I brought up us having kids. Hell, I get that you can’t have children. That was fine with me.”
It had been fine with her. When he told her he couldn’t father children, she shrugged and offered every alternative there was: adoption, sperm donor, IVF. She even admitted that if he didn’t want kids, she could live with that too. That little admission had been his undoing.
He knew that Emma wanted to be a mother, but she was willing to give it up. For him. He couldn’t let her. So, he spit venomous words at her to make her hate him. To make her find someone else to give her what he couldn’t.
“But that wasn’t enough for you,” she continued. “You told me that you just didn’t want me. Me. That you couldn’t see us growing old together. That I was fun to be with but that nothing serious would ever come from our relationship. I loved you so damn much, I was willing to give up children. I just wanted you.” The last few words tapered into a low sob that she fought to hold back.
Emma’s eyes shimmered with unshed tears as she looked at him, and it gutted him that he was the reason for her pain. Nothing in this world compared to how horrible he felt. The emotions she was pulling from him mimicked the feel of rejection after he found out that he and his brethren were no longer welcomed in Heaven.
The sting of tears burned the backs of his eyes as he watched Emma fight to stay strong. This was all his fault.
Jace ran a hand down the front of
his face. He wanted to push the table out of the way so he could comfort her. Comfort himself.
“It’s not what you think, Emma.”
“It never is,” she shot back. She grabbed her coffee and took a huge gulp, and then grimaced when the hot beverage scolded her mouth. She gasped and grabbed her glass of water, drinking half of the cold, clear liquid to soothe her throat. “What do you want Jace? My dad told me about you and your people back home. You want to know if I’m your mate so you can get your beast back?”
She knew. Shaun, Emma’s father, still lived in New Rose and had often come to the Town Hall meetings to support them. Shaun hated Jace’s guts when he’d demolished Emma’s heart, but the man was slowly warming up to him again after watching the Ghosts get their asses handed to them by Samiyah a few months ago. He and Shaun had talked, and her father now understood why he had broken up with Emma. Shaun threatened to kill him if he hurt Emma again, but promised that he would support the Ghost shifters. Emma’s dad was a good man.
“Yes,” he nodded, moving his silverware around to give his hands something to do, lest he reach forward and tuck her hair behind her ear. “That’s why I’m here. That’s why I pushed you away before. I wanted you to be mine. Marry you, adopt a van full of kids, everything you wanted. But if you weren’t my mate and she showed up while we were together, it would have hurt us both. I didn’t want that for you.”
Emma’s lips pulled tight, and a wave of anger and humiliation blasted from her. “Wow.” She used her right thumb to crack all the knuckles on her right hand. “Tell me everything, but make it short. I need to leave.”
With two bowls of smoking Maryland Crab soup and dinner rolls on a tray, the waitress came up and put their food in front of them. The small woman turned her back on Jace and looked at Emma. “Are you alright?”
Emma’s soft brown eyes looked up at the woman. “Yeah. I’m good. Thanks for checking.”
The waitress gave Jace a warning glare and walked away. He would not be eating anything else she brought to the table.
Okay. Emma wanted to know everything but told him to keep it short. This was not going to be easy.
“What did your dad tell you?”
“Doesn’t matter,” she said as she put her napkin in her lap. “I want to hear it from you. And when I finish my soup, I’m going to get up and leave.”
He pushed his bowl away, happy he didn’t have to eat to make her comfortable. “I was never human. I was created as an angel. We came here during the Great War when Lucifer lost his shit and rebelled against the Creator. Me and my brothers and sister turned ourselves into saber-tooth cats.” How the hell could he make this a short story? “It was too much death, and we didn’t want to kill our fellow angels. When we decided that it was time to get involved, we tried to shift back into our angel form. We couldn’t. Our brother, the Angel of Death, came and told us that we were cursed and we would live in our saber-tooth form until the Creator saw fit to give us back our human bodies. We would never be angels again, never be able to shift, and only our mates could restore our beasts and our grace. But we couldn’t know until Damon and Jax, the Alpha and Omega of our clan, found their mate. Once they found her it would be like a trickle-down effect. Cass opened up the Ghost shifters to find their mates. Did your dad tell you that?”
“He did,” she said, dipping her spoon into the thick soup. “And you’re here because you want to see if I’m your mate so you can get back what you lost.” It wasn’t a question.
Jace nodded and took a sip of his iced tea to cool his throat. His palms were sweaty and his heart raced in his chest.
“And that’s the only reason you called? That’s it.” She huffed out a humorless laugh and closed her eyes. Emma grabbed her napkin and wiped her mouth. “Give me your hand.”
Just like that? Okay.
Jace reached his hand across the table. Emma looked at it like it was a serpent. She took a deep breath and quickly slapped her small hand into his large one.
Tingles worked their way from his hand where she touched him and right up to the center of his ribcage. He drew in a ragged breath as Emma’s fingers tightened around his. Her pupils dilated, and she stopped breathing for a few seconds too long. When she managed to inhale, she used her free hand to grab hold of the table and almost pulled the crisp, white cloth away from it.
For a fraction of a second, Jace swore he heard the angelic hosts singing praise of the creation that was their bond. The beast that had been sleeping in his middle for what felt like forever woke up and demanded Jace claim the woman sitting across from them. His cock sprang to attention and strained against his pants. Emma was his.
The sweet smell of her arousal wafted toward him, beckoning him to take her right here and now. She used to get so wet for him. So wet, so fast. With just a few filthy words in her ear, Jace used to be able to make her soak her panties in a matter of moments. That was when they were together before, and apparently she still wanted him. Oh, she couldn’t stand the sight of him, but the fragrant scent of desire between her legs reached for him, demanding his attention.
Snatching her hand away from his, she stood from the table and pushed her chair in. She swayed on her feet but righted herself before he could get up to help her. “Pay the bill and meet me outside.”
She had to walk by him to get to the door, and when her full and curvy body moved passed him, he wanted to reach out and grab the rounded globes of her ass. Kiss them. Bite them. Spank them. Come all over them.
He didn’t even give the waitress the chance to ring up the bill. He grabbed way more bills than he should have from his wallet and handed it to the woman, telling her to keep the change. He was pretty sure she called him a prick.
When he made it outside, he watched as Emma paced back and forth across the empty pavement. She talked to herself, saying she would never let him hurt her again.
“I won’t hurt you, Emma. I promise.”
Startled by his presence, she stopped and looked at him. “I know,” she said, more to herself than to him. “Are you supposed to bite me? Are you different from other shifters, or is it the same?”
Quickly, he shook his head as hope bloomed in his chest. “No. You can bite me. You don’t have to be changed.”
She nodded and ran her pink tongue along her top teeth. “You need me to bite you? After five years of nothing but silence from you, you want me to bite you? Help you?”
Hadn’t she realized that he’d pushed her away for her own good? Didn’t she know that everything had now changed for them?
He nodded, trying to find the words to make her understand. “More than that. I want you.”
“Because I’m your mate.”
“No, Emma. Because I’ve never stopped loving you. I want you.”
He would convince her. She didn’t believe him now, and he would never hold it against her.
“It’s not just me anymore, Jace. I have a daughter. She’s four, and she’s the love of my life.”
He knew she had a daughter with her ex-husband. It didn’t matter. He would love and care for the little girl as if she were his own flesh and blood.
“I’ll never hurt either one of you.”
Every emotion a human could possibly feel at one time flashed over her face as she watched him. Pain still darkened her eyes. She seemed to think it over. “Okay. Okay. Do you have a room we can go to?”
She would do it now? She was ready to take her teeth to him now?
This was it. He was getting his life back. Not just his grace or his beast. No, he was getting Emma back. Hesitance and anger were still there inside her, but she was opening up to him. They would be together again, and he would make up for everything he’d done to her. He would make up for every tear she’d cried because of him.
This was it.
And this was everything.
Chapter 1
Three weeks later
“What is this?” Jace scratched his short nails over his beard as his other han
d held the small brown bottle with grey lettering on it.
Audra rolled her eyes and then stared at him like he was an idiot. “Can’t you read?” she asked, sarcasm and disbelief heavy in her voice. She toyed with her long braid as she watched him study the bottle.
With a slow breath, he closed his eyes and counted to ten. He didn’t want any shit today. Anxiety was constant in his system, but he needed to stay calm. “Yes. But what is a Sack Sudser exactly?” He had an idea of what it was but hoped to high Heaven he was wrong.
“First off,” Audra said, shoving her middle finger two inches from his right eyeball. “It’s a gift to congratulate you on your mating with Emma—”
“Jesus,” he sighed.
“Secondly,” she said, putting the middle finger of her other hand in front of his left eyeball, “It’s to make sure your man bits smell like—” she put her face closer to the bottle he held and looked at the name, “—Autumn leaves. Women don’t like musky balls, just so you know. And third,” she sang, twisting both middle fingers together, “You need a way to stay fresh when you’re on the oil rig.”
Pulling his lips far into his mouth and biting on them to keep from calling his sister a name that would instantly start a fight between them, Jace looked down into Audra’s brown eyes and shook his head. “Audra. For the eight-hundred and sixty-third time, there are bedrooms with showers on the rig. It’s like a hotel. I don’t need a ball sanitizer to keep myself clean when I’m at work. And I don’t need a mating gift. She doesn’t want me. I’m not going to beg her to want me. And the only reason I’m driving to Baltimore to meet with her for lunch is to get you, Simon, and the other crazy women in this clan off my back.”
