Shifter Legacies Special Edition: Books 1-2

by Mark E. Cooper

  “Sorry, Jonas, I’ll try not to laugh, but you look so cute in your uniform.”

  “It ain’t funny. If he got even a whiff of the truth, he’d have us closed down.”

  “I said I’m sorry. I can’t help it if your boss has a weird sense of style. I didn’t choose the colour scheme.”

  “I chose it, its good camouflage.”

  That startled her. She hadn’t considered he might want to look that way.

  Jonas snorted in disgust at her start of surprise. He waved one of the waitresses over to take his place on the register, and showed her through the kitchen and into another room at the back of the shop. It was a storeroom. Jonas started stripping off his uniform.

  “You’re McNally?”

  “That’s my name, what of it?”

  She shrugged. “Just… no one told me that’s all.” She watched him pull on jeans and a jacket. Suddenly he looked the way she imagined he should—hard-faced and competent. “Are we going somewhere?”

  “I have a place we can work. It’s not far. Your car will be fine where it is, Lawrence. No one will touch it. My boys across the street will see to that.”

  Lawrence nodded as if expecting nothing less.

  Jonas led them back into the kitchen and through the rear fire escape to his pickup parked in the lot out back. It had a McNally’s logo on its door.

  She climbed in, and the two men sandwiched her between them. It was like sitting between a pair of blast furnaces. Shifters had higher metabolisms, a temperature that would indicate a dangerous fever in a Human was normal for them; they felt the cold more acutely. She sighed contentedly, and snuggled deeper into their warmth.

  Jonas drove them across town. He turned into an industrial park and threaded the pickup between industrial units until he reached R&J Autos. The heavy-duty and reinforced shutter was open part way, giving Chris a glimpse of the power ramps and cars inside.

  “Friends of yours?”

  “What?” Jonas said, preparing to climb out.

  “R&J,” she said, nodding up at the sign.

  “Ryan is one my boys. John is his brother, not pack but he’s cool.”

  So, Ryan belonged to Jonas’ pack. She remembered Danyelle mentioning that Jonas led one of two big local coyote packs. How many living among Victorville’s small population ran around on four feet at night?

  “You coming?” Jonas said, heading for the half-open shutter.

  “Yeah, yeah. Hold your horses,” she muttered, sliding out of the pickup and following him inside.

  Chris was sweating and her legs felt shaky as she trotted around the garage, hurdling the cars. Jonas had worked her non-stop since they arrived at R&J Autos. Ryan and his brother had gone home hours ago—Ryan to get some sleep before the meeting at George, and John to take his wife out for a meal. It was their second wedding anniversary. Sometimes it was hard for her to remember there were people out there with ordinary lives, lives not connected to her, or dead werewolves in the desert.

  Change upon change upon change, Jonas had demanded. Demanded, and received. Can you do this, Jonas would say. She could. Can you do that? Yes, she said, but it hurts something awful. Do it anyway, he insisted. She did, and spent minutes screaming in agony. Jonas said it was his intention to teach her what she was capable of, and then teach her how best to use her abilities to beat someone who might, possibly, be even stronger than she was. Tricks he called them. Insanity was more like it.

  Jonas had forced her to test her endurance and then pushed her beyond it—way beyond. It had opened her eyes to what she was. She was super Human! Or maybe that should be super non-Human.

  She could run for miles without slowing or tiring, and sprint to over forty miles an hour. She’d done it, so she knew. Jonas was even quicker. She could smash holes in walls, though she doubted there would be time if she ever really needed to escape someone that way—it took a lot of punching. Jonas promised Ryan they would pay for the repairs. She could climb almost anything, even sheer walls as long as there were finger and toeholds, and jump from one roof to another twenty and more feet away. She’d done that too.

  Apologising profusely, Jonas had punched her in the face, just to show her how alphas could use their greater control of the Change to heal damage. She had thought Lawrence was going to kill Jonas when his second punch broke her cheekbone. Lady that had hurt, as did the rapid healing, but it was a trick worth knowing. She might forgive Jonas one day for not telling her what he was going to do.

  As with all things, there was a limit to her strength, and Jonas found that too. She was flagging now, ready to collapse at the first hint that he was satisfied with her. She kept herself upright by will alone, panting and shaking as she was. She leapt over another car, but her foot clipped it and she sprawled over the roof. She lay still, panting and letting the last of her strength drain out of her. She was done.

  “You aren’t listening!” Jonas snapped.

  Anger gave her enough strength to scramble up. “Screw you!” she screamed into his face from less than a pace away. She spun and kicked an old hood leaning against one wall, denting it. “I’ve had enough. You hear me? I’ve had it!” She punched the rusted hood over and over until blood smeared the puke-yellow paint, and her knuckles throbbed.

  Lawrence came toward her.

  “Back off!” she snarled. “I don’t want any of your sympathy. I’ve done everything he told me to do, everything! Change your hand, Chris. Change your other hand, Chris. Change back, Chris. Change, change, change. It fucking hurts, all right?”

  “I know it does.”

  She slumped onto the dirty concrete. “I’m tired, I’m sweating like a pig, and I smell… shit!” Suddenly she was crying. She rocked back and forth and let the tears flood out.

  Lawrence shuffled his feet.

  Jonas was more practical. He dragged her up and held her until she ran out of tears. “You’ll do.”

  “Wh-what?” she hiccoughed, using her cuffs to dry her eyes.

  “I said you’ll do. Let’s get you cleaned up and fed. You have about four hours to rest before the meeting.”

  She nodded wearily, and let Jonas carry her to the pickup. She was asleep before he reached it.

  As before, the hangar at George AFB welcomed Chris with light and a multitude of voices, but there weren’t as many vehicles parked outside this time. Jonas and Pederson had hastily arranged the meeting, and most packs had no interest in what, to them, was an internal matter of concern only to the Alley Dogs. Jonas’ pack, the Desert Warriors, and Leon’s pack, the Ghost Hunters, were in attendance and far outnumbered the Alley Dogs. They had come in their entirety at Jonas’ urging.

  Chris entered the hangar bracketed by Jonas and Lawrence, and stopped to survey those who would be her enemies. No one noticed her at first, and conversions continued punctuated by the odd burst of laughter. Unlike last time, the party atmosphere was entirely absent, the laughter was a little nervous, glances were furtive, and conversations over-loud. Jonas and Leon’s people had stationed themselves all round the hangar, keeping the walls to their backs. They were like a living barrier, a breathing corral meant to keep the peace and the wolves inside.

  In her mind’s eye, she saw Smoke pacing back and forth in agitation.

  What’s wrong?

  Everything about this is wrong. We should go. We shouldn’t have come here. It’s a trap; it feels like a trap. This is wrong, wrong, wrong.

  She frowned.

  It was true that she would prefer to be on her way to Wyoming, but a trap? Jonas had insisted that this was the only way to satisfy the Alley Dogs and get them off her back. She trusted his judgement, even though she didn’t like the plan he had proposed. She was past debating its merits; she just wanted to get it over with.

  We’ll be okay.

  Wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong…

  Someone finally noticed the newcomers standing by the door. Conversations chopped off mid-sentence as friends nudged each other
and turned to look. Silence and turning heads spread through the hangar like a wave. She straightened at the hostility she saw in most of the looks aimed her way, and her resolve strengthened. No, Jonas was right; there was no backing out of this. It needed resolution now, or she would become another statistic at the morgue.

  She took the lead, this was her fight to win or lose, but Jonas and Lawrence declared where their sympathies lay by staying close and guarding her back. She marched toward Pederson standing alone upon the bloodstained arena floor. Murmurs and whispered comments arose in her wake. Opinions regarding her chances of living out the night—not very good most agreed—was a popular topic, and in a couple of instances she saw money changing hands. Odds were not in her favour. If she hadn’t known the fight was rigged, she might have bet on herself winning. As it was, she mourned the lost opportunity for making some much-needed cash and walked on.

  Pederson was standing in the centre of the arena waiting for her. She joined him, leaving Jonas and Lawrence standing at the chalked boundary line.

  “Quiet!” Pederson roared, making Chris jump. That caused some laughter, and Pederson glared at those responsible. The noise died away. “You all know why we are here. This woman killed my mate, and now comes to take her place among us. Janine was your alpha, you all have a say in this.”

  Pederson ceded the floor and stepped out of the arena.

  She had rehearsed her speech in front of Lawrence and Jonas before the meeting, but speaking in front of a large crowd—a hostile crowd at that—was much harder. She took a deep breath and tried to speak slowly.

  “I killed your alpha in a fair fight. She challenged me on the night of the full moon last. As is my right, I claim her place among—”

  “I dispute your claim!” a woman shouted, angrily stalking through the crowd and into the arena. “I say you lie! I say you killed Janine, but not in a fair fight. You murdered her!”

  The woman had played her part so well, that Chris backed up looking frantically for Jonas. She found him standing calmly among the crowd lining the sides of the arena. He nodded to her reassuringly. This then was the woman Pederson had chosen to be his new mate. This was the one she was supposed to lose the fight to. The woman had Presence, but it was nowhere near as strong as Jonas’. She might be alpha, but if she was, it was by the skin of her teeth. She could take the woman easily, she was sure of it.

  Yes easily, but we must not.

  Yeah.

  “Who are you to say I lie?” she asked, trying to sound affronted when all she really felt was nettled. She was wasting time here; time she could be using to chase Ryder.

  “My name is Loren Duvitski. Janine was my sister,” the woman spat, her loathing for Chris evident in every word. “Janine would never have challenged you, or harmed you. The ritual of the First Change is ancient. All know it is a test of skill, no more. You had no call to kill her. It was murder.”

  Sister!

  Her thoughts reeled. Why would Janine’s sister be a party to this farce? Why would Pederson choose Loren for this fight… no wait. By choosing Loren, he wasn’t just choosing her to fight; he was choosing his next mate. Had Loren and Pederson been two-timing Janine all along? Maybe she was crazy, but it felt right to her. If she’d had a sister killed, there was no way she would be a party to helping the killer.

  She scrambled to catch up. “I ah… I didn’t murder her. Your sister attacked me. She said she wouldn’t let me take her place. When I said I didn’t want her place, she called me a liar and tried to kill me. I defended myself and she died.”

  “Liar!”

  She spun in place to search the crowd for the owner of the new voice. Jonas was anxiously doing the same. This was not in the script. The crowd parted and Toni pushed her way through.

  “Oh crap,” she said under her breath.

  I told you! I told you it was a trap.

  So you told me. What do you want, a medal? We can’t run away forever.

  She is strong, Smoke said anxiously. Very strong. We could have beaten Loren easily, but Toni… I don’t know. She feels too strong. I… I don’t know if we can win.

  I guess we’ll find out.

  Jonas was frowning worriedly. Pederson looked shocked, and pissed. He stepped forward to bar Toni from entering the arena. Chris backed up so she could watch Loren and Toni together. She didn’t like the way this was going; she wouldn’t put it past Toni to have set her up to fight both of them.

  “You cannot interfere with a challenge once it has begun,” Pederson said. “Stay out of this.”

  Toni smiled. “It’s good to see you again, Raymond. I was sorry to hear about Janine. If there is anything I can do?”

  Pederson grunted something noncommittal.

  “Be a dear and step aside. The challenge has yet to be spoken, and besides, this is a matter for bitches to decide. By rights, you shouldn’t even be here.”

  “Janine was my mate!”

  “And she was my friend. It makes no difference here and now. The females choose who will be alpha over them, just as the males do. It has always been that way. Always has been and always will be. Mate with the one we choose, or step down as alpha male. That is the law.”

  “That is the law,” everyone murmured together.

  No, not everyone. It was the women that had responded. The men seemed to be fading back a little, letting the females take their places close to the arena. Chris watched as some of the men began slipping out the door. Pederson might not realise it, but it was a done deal as far the other men were concerned. She didn’t know squat about shifter customs and traditions, but one thing she knew: she wanted Jonas and Lawrence to stay.

  More and more Alley Dogs slipped away to wait outside, leaving the women behind. Jonas didn’t move, and his people took their stance from him. Leon slipped up behind Jonas and whispered something. Jonas shook his head and crossed his arms, obviously intending to stay. Leon joined him on the boundary line, but did not copy his ‘I’m-not-moving’ stance. He looked very uncomfortable flanked by so many women, and seemed on the verge of apologising or bolting into the night. Maybe both.

  “It’s Loren’s right to challenge her sister’s killer,” Pederson argued.

  The audience murmured their agreement, and Chris’ eyes narrowed. So, that’s why the other women had allowed someone as weak as Loren to fight her. Pederson had found a way to use Loren’s relationship to his dead mate to get his way. Maybe he hadn’t been two-timing Janine after all. He might simply have seen an opportunity to make Loren his mate and taken it. Loren was much weaker than Janine was, and maybe more pliable? Toni was by far the strongest woman here, but she was from out of town. She’d said so that night in the cages below Central. Chris doubted Pederson had expected a face from the past to turn up and interfere in his plans.

  “I do not dispute that,” Toni said. “I will simply challenge the winner of this fight.”

  Chris swallowed sickly.

  Loren paled and babbled, “I withdraw my challenge! You can have her, Toni… I mean, Janine was your friend. She would want you to avenge her and…”

  “Hush now,” Toni said to Loren as she hastily vacated the arena. She smiled at the now glaring Pederson. “Oh dear, it looks like I’ll have to challenge Janine’s murderer after all.”

  “Hey!” Chris snarled, letting her anger build. Jonas had taught her that a shifter’s anger had uses. When controlled, it made the Change quicker. “I don’t like being talked about as if I’m not here. If you’re going to fight, Red, let’s get it on… or is it your plan to bore me to death?”

  Toni laughed. “It’s a shame the circumstances are what they are. Had you not killed Janine, I might have liked you.”

  “Yeah, we could have been bosom pals,” she said sarcastically.

  Toni nodded seriously. “Perhaps so.”

  “Whatever. Are you coming in to play?”

  “In a moment.” Toni turned back to Pederson. “I choose to allow you to stay. To be fair, I’ll
allow Chris’ men friends to stay as well. All other males must leave.”

  That wasn’t many by now. Most of the male Alley Dogs had already slipped away. Leon was glad to go, and he took his people with him. Jonas nodded to his pack brothers to follow Leon out. That left Pederson, Jonas, and Lawrence as the only men among two hundred or so women.

  Toni stepped into the arena and fell easily into a fighting stance.

  Oh, crap.

  “Karate?”

  Toni smiled. “Jujutsu. Karate is for losers.”

  “Oh,” she said weakly.

  I am so dead.

  * * *

  23 ~ The Arena

  Chris backed and circled. Toni watched her calmly, pivoting to keep her in view. Chris tried to think of a way out of the fight. She hadn’t done any serious training in years. She had even let her once-weekly trips to the gym slide these past few weeks. What with one thing and another, keeping fit hadn’t seemed important anymore.

  “What are the rules?”

  Toni frowned. “Rules?”

  “Yeah, you know—rules. Like no gouging or biting. First to say uncle loses—stuff like that.”

  Toni’s face brightened, and she stood straighter, lowering her guard. “Ah. I forgot you’re supposed to be new. Very well, the rules, such as they are: I win when you’re dead—”

  “I don’t suppose you would let me forfeit the fight and walk out of here,” she broke in, edging closer.

  Toni glared at the interruption. “I don’t suppose I would. You have to pay for killing Janine.”

  “Figured as much,” she said under her breath.

  “If you try to run away, I win and our audience will kill you. You can submit at any time during the fight, but that means I decide whether to let you live. I’ll tell you now that I’m not inclined to be merciful…”

  That jibed with Jonas’ lecture, all but the part about running away, which he hadn’t thought relevant. She closed the distance between them while Toni was speaking.

  “…happy now?”

  “Yeah,” she said, spinning on one foot.

  Her leg sweep was effective. Toni crashed to the floor with a gasp of surprise, but she quickly rolled away, and pain flared in Chris’ fist as it crunched into the concrete. She shook her throbbing hand, raised her guard again, and squared off with Toni. Her feet fell into old, barely remembered, patterns; knees slightly bent, legs apart, and weight evenly distributed, she circled just as Toni was now doing.