Deceived by the Shifter

by Juniper Hart

  His friend sat back, placing his forearms on the rests, and chuckled lightly. He seemed relieved as if Aaron’s confession had alleviated his own guilt.

  “Well, now I don’t feel so bad. You really are a good best man.”

  Aaron gaped at him.

  As if my rash decision absolves him of cheating on his fiancée. You don’t get the luxury of committing to someone and doing whatever you want without regard for her feelings. Marriage is forever. The words rolled around in his head for a long moment. And if I married Hollie and follow through with an annulment, how am I any different? I would be a hypocrite.

  “Don’t look so stressed,” Lance told him as the aircraft touched the runway smoothly. “The paperwork is simple.”

  Aaron didn’t respond, his pulse thundering in his ears as he stared at his hands.

  I am finally married, and she seems incredible from what I remember. So what if it isn’t conventional? We get along, we have sexual chemistry, and it was her idea to do it. Last night, she wanted to be a bride. Maybe we can make this work.

  But as the plane finally stopped, Aaron knew there was no maybe about it; there would be no annulment. He had to find a way to make it work with Hollie.

  Marriage was forever.

  First, though, he would have to find his wife.

  Chapter Five

  “My dad is coming to get us,” Amberlyn told her as they made their way through the tunnel leading into the airport. “I told him five-thirty.”

  Hollie was barely listening, her mind still whirling in the aftermath of the trip.

  How could you have been so stupid? What were you thinking? The questions were endless and spinning.

  “Hol? Did you hear me?”

  She nodded absently and then entered the small airport in Sun Valley, gnawing on her lower lip. Very slowly, memories began to seep into her consciousness, snatches of conversations she and Aaron had shared on Sunday evening.

  She clung to every word, searching for a clue as to where she might find him.

  “I know how we can find him!” she announced suddenly, excitement coloring her words, and Amberlyn glanced at her.

  “Are you still obsessing over that?” she sighed. “You need to forget about him. What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas, remember?”

  Hollie stared at her as if she had lost her mind. “Uh, you realize I got married, right? Like, this isn’t a one-night stand that I can just walk away from unscathed.”

  Amberlyn shrugged. “It’s only a big deal if you’re going to get married, and I think you’ve been pretty clear that you have no intention of doing that.”

  Hollie could barely contain her anger. “Are you kidding me?” she demanded. “Do you hear yourself? Seriously, have you heard anything I’ve said?”

  Amberlyn seemed unperturbed by her outburst. “You always say you’re not getting married. What’s the big deal if you ended up tying the knot in Vegas? It makes for a good story, but it doesn’t change anything. It’s not like marriages in Vegas are legal or anything.”

  Hollie opened her mouth to respond, but Amberlyn saw her father, waving at him from the curb where the stood.

  She’s unbelievable. I planned this trip to pull her out of a funk, and when I need her help, she’s brushing me off.

  “Hi, Daddy!” Amberlyn cried, throwing her arms around her father as he hurried out to help them with their bags.

  “Hi sweetheart! You look like you had fun. Hi, Hollie!”

  “Hi, Mr. Seer. Thanks for picking us up,” Hollie said almost automatically, allowing him to take her carry-on bag and throw it in the trunk of his SUV.

  “Hey Daddy, guess what?” Amberlyn said as she sank into the passenger seat. “Hollie got married in Vegas!”

  Matt Seer and Hollie seemed to freeze in unison as they stared at Amberlyn.

  What the hell is wrong with this woman? Hollie thought, her eyes bugging out of her face.

  “What?” Matt growled, his eyes quickly shifting to Hollie. “You did what?”

  “Yep,” Amberlyn chortled. “And she has no idea who this guy is. He disappeared, and she doesn’t know anything about him.”

  “Hollie!”

  She lowered her head in shame, shaking her head in fury. “It’s not as bad as she’s making it sound,” she assured him, her heart pounding. “No need to blow this out of proportion.”

  Matt stared at his daughter’s friend from the front seat, his neck twisted almost uncomfortably as he studied her face.

  “Are you kidding? You eloped with a stranger in Vegas? Does he know about you? Does he know—”

  “Of course not!” Hollie interrupted, color tinging her face as she realized she had no idea what she disclosed to Aaron the previous night.

  I wouldn’t have told him I’m Lycan… would I? But what if I did and that’s the reason he disappeared? Oh man…

  “Hollie…”

  “She doesn’t remember anything, Daddy. Oh, you better move the car. Security is coming around.”

  Reluctantly, Matt tore his eyes away from Hollie’s crimson face and pulled out of the airport.

  “I am just going to get an annulment. It’s not a big deal,” Hollie muttered.

  “Does your father know about this?” Matt Seer asked.

  Hollie inhaled sharply. If Amberlyn did not have such a big mouth, she could have easily hidden the fact from her father, but thanks to the mouthy blonde, that hope was dashed.

  The question hung in the air heavily, and Hollie stifled a sigh.

  “There’s no need to bring him into this,” she moaned. “I am a grown woman, and I can deal with this myself.”

  “You’re a grown woman who went on vacation and came home married to an outsider.”

  “Oh, for Christ’s sake,” Hollie grumbled.

  “Watch your mouth, young lady,” Matt barked.

  Hollie was sure her head was going to explode. “I don’t answer to you,” she snarled suddenly, and the quiet that fell over the car was almost sinister.

  “You may not answer to me, but you are still a member of this pack, Hollie, and you fall into order among us.”

  “And you fall into order under my father,” she snapped.

  “Hollie!” Amberlyn cried, horrified as she seemed to recognize the fire in her father’s eyes. “What is wrong with you?”

  “Everything,” she snarled. “Everything is wrong with me.”

  The rest of the ride was met with silence, and when Matt dropped Hollie at her apartment, she thanked him curtly for the ride, storming into her low-rise building with anger.

  I’m done with Amberlyn. I can’t believe she told her dad. What was she thinking? She unlocked the door to her apartment and left her bags in the front hall, needing to lay down before facing the inevitable.

  In seconds, my phone is going to be ringing off the hook, she thought, rolling her eyes heavenward.

  But as she flopped on the couch, she remembered that she had figured out a way to track down Aaron, and a renewed sense of hope filled her as something Aaron had said replayed in her mind.

  “My best friend, Lance, is marrying the love of his life, Adriana next weekend. I’m the best man.”

  It occurred to Hollie that if she checked marriage announcements online, she might get lucky and find out what city Aaron was from—if he was American.

  Surely the rest of the world uses wedding announcements too. It’s a solid lead.

  In any case, it was the only way she could think of to find him, so she figured it was her best bet. Lazily, she eyed her purse just out of arm’s reach and groaned, falling to the floor to crawl for it.

  Unexpectedly, she was more exhausted than she ever remembered being.

  I haven’t slept, she realized, and as she picked up her phone, it occurred to her that they were coming on a full moon. I need to rest. I can’t hunt if I haven’t slept. It’s too dangerous. I’ll deal with Aaron and dad after I wake up.

  As if hearing her silent deal, the phone began t
o ring in her hand. It was her father.

  Nope. Nope. Nope. I am not dealing with him right now. I have to go to sleep. Everything can wait until I wake up.

  Reclaiming her spot on the sofa, Hollie turned off the phone and fell asleep almost instantly, praying that she didn’t have nightmares about Vegas. The apartment was pitch black when she woke, and she stared around the one bedroom with gleaming brown eyes as her night oculus kicked in.

  For a fleeting, blissful moment, she was peaceful, forgetting about the mess she had found herself in.

  But as sleep slipped through her fingers and she sat up, peering into the darkness, she groaned aloud. “At least I don’t have to babysit Amberlyn anymore,” she reasoned to no one.

  It was a small comfort, but a comfort nonetheless.

  With great reluctance, she dug her phone out from the cushions of the sofa and turned it on. She already knew that she would be bombarded with voicemails and texts when the device finally synched.

  As she predicted, her ears were assaulted by a rash of chimes, and she braced herself for the messages.

  She was not disappointed; the flood of angry texts from her father accompanied a few from Amberlyn, who was apparently disgusted with how Hollie had spoken to Matt on the way home from the airport.

  But Hollie ignored them both and opened the internet.

  ‘Marriages September Lance Adriana’, she typed. She waited as Google did a search for her. To her surprise, she found what she was looking for in seconds.

  Could I be this lucky? she thought in disbelief as she stared at the wedding announcement.

  “‘Lance O’Connor and Adriana Brandywine to be wed at Water’s Edge Event Center in Eagle on Saturday, September 19th,’” she read out loud to herself.

  Hollie could hardly believe it. He is from Idaho too? Could this be the same Lance that Aaron was talking about?

  Quickly, she pulled up her Facebook page and typed in Lance O’Connor’s name. Again, her search took only a few seconds, and she stared in shock at a handsome face.

  He’s from Hailey? He lives the next town over from me?

  Before she could stop herself, she sent Lance a private message.

  “Hi,” Hollie said as she typed. “My name is Hollie Oliver. I am looking for a man who might be a friend of yours. I think his name is Aaron, and he is the best man at your wedding.”

  She stared at the message for a long moment and then sent it off.

  If it wasn’t the right guy, no harm done. If it was… Then I hit the jackpot outside of Vegas.

  Again, Hollie studied the face of Lance O’Connor, a twinge of familiarity tickling her bones.

  I have seen this guy before. But where?

  Her phone rang, and Hollie grimaced as she saw who was calling.

  “Yeah, Dad,” she answered.

  “Get your ass to the house right now.”

  “Can’t. I have to work an early shift tomorrow,” Hollie lied. “Raincheck?”

  “Hollie Alexandra, what the hell did you do?”

  “Why do I get the feeling you already know?”

  “Hollie, you have created enough of a problem in the pack over the past month. Why are you acting like this?”

  “You make it sound like I am in the habit of letting you down, Dad.”

  “Hollie, you’re trying my patience.”

  “Dad, it was a stupid mistake,” she grunted. “And it doesn’t have any effect on the pack whatsoever.”

  “Oh really? When the pack leader’s daughter blacks out and marries the first guy who walks by her in Vegas—”

  “I’m going to take care of it,” she groaned. “I just got home. At least give me some time to breathe before bringing out your guilt doses.”

  “And what about our other issue?” he demanded. “The half-dead Lycan in your hospice?”

  Hollie cringed. She had almost forgotten about Augustus.

  I managed to replace one headache with another.

  “Like I said, Dad, I just got home. I have no idea what is happening with him.”

  “Find out and let me know at once. It’s disgusting that we have him in our territory at all. The faster he dies, the better off it will be for everyone.”

  Not for me, Hollie thought, sighing tiredly as the phone went dead in her ear.

  She had worked as a hospice nurse for six years, and while it was dark, depressing work, Hollie liked tending to the sick at the end of their lives. They seemed ready to embrace what was coming, and Hollie found there was an infinite wisdom they possessed which they were eager to share with her, knowledge she longed to soak up.

  When Augustus came to the hospice, no one really knew who he was or where he had come from. He had basically been left at the front door with a note pinned to him and an envelope of cash.

  The note read, “My name is Augustus. I am dying. There will be more money coming.”

  It was unsigned and offered no other explanation.

  A money order arrived for the dying man a few days later and had gone through with no issue, prepaying Augustus’ care for three months in advance.

  Hollie had been sure he would not last that long. He could barely speak and shuffled around like a zombie.

  The doctor who looked at him could not figure out what was wrong. It was clear Augustus was dying, but from what and where he had come from, no one could say.

  No one but Hollie recognized the signs of silver poisoning in a Lycan.

  Someone had tried to kill Augustus with silver, but had failed somehow, turning him into a walking corpse instead. The man could not feed himself or use the bathroom, but shockingly, he continued to move around like a shadow.

  Stupidly, Hollie had mentioned the strange arrival to her father, who had snuck into the hospice one night to examine Augustus despite Hollie’s protests.

  “He’s dying!” she argued, horrified that he had gone through such extremes. “Leave him be!”

  “If he’s one of ours, we need to know who he is,” her father snapped back.

  Hollie knew she would not win the fight against the most powerful beast in the pack. That was why Lucas was the leader after all.

  “He’s not one of ours,” Lucas Oliver told her.

  “He’s not one of anyone’s, Dad,” she replied, exasperated. “He’s barely alive.”

  “Get rid of him,” Lucas responded.

  Hollie stared at him in disbelief. “Get rid of him?” she repeated. “What does that even mean?”

  “Just what I said,” Lucas retorted.

  “You can’t be serious! What do you want me to do with him?”

  “Take him out to Sawtooth National Forest and leave him. Nature will claim him in due time.”

  Hollie had heard some horrific statements come from her father’s mouth, but that was by far the worst.

  “Absolutely not!” she snapped. “He’s going to go naturally here, or as naturally as he can now that someone has tried to kill him. How can you be so callous?”

  “It’s dangerous to have a rival member in our fold. It invites trouble,” Lucas told her, eyeing his daughter as if she was an idiot. “You should know that.”

  “Dad, he’s not some rebel spy from another group,” she cried, exasperated. “I am not about to take him from here.”

  “Hollie—”

  “No!” she screamed, and Lucas seemed shocked by her outburst. “His pack has already abandoned him. I am not going to toss him aside again. He stays here until he dies.”

  It was the first time she had ever won a fight with Lucas, but Hollie knew it was not apt to happen with great frequency. Every day, she spent time talking to the brain-dead Lycan, a small part of her hoping that he would recover from his injuries, but she knew there was no way he was coming back.

  “Who did this to you, Augustus?” she whispered, stroking his soft puff of silky hair. “And who left you here?”

  It was so strange that he would be cast aside by his pack at such a vulnerable time. Their kind took care of t
heir members. It was what made them strong and impregnable. They were families that stuck together at all costs, especially at a time when one was sick or weak.

  It made her wonder if someone from his own group didn’t have something to do with his depleted state.

  I will never know, she thought sadly. All she could do was wait for him to go on peacefully, without ever having the answers.

  In the meantime, she faced constant harassment by the other members in her pack for keeping him comfortable.

  “He could be faking,” one genius sidekick of her father said. “Biding his time for a takeover of our pack.”

  “You’re an idiot, Blaine,” Hollie told him flatly. “You have seen the aftermath of silver poisoning. I would like to see you live through that.”

  Augustus, if that was his real name, was in pain and needed nothing more than to die with the little bit of dignity he had left, but Hollie knew when he finally did succumb to his painful death, she would be crushed.

  I owe it to him to find out what happened, she often thought, but she also knew doing such a thing would result in strict backlash from her father and his cronies. Of course, if they don’t find out, then I have nothing to worry about.

  Hollie realized she was back to her initial headache. “One stress at a time,” she warned herself, picking up her phone again.

  While she had been lost in her reverie, Amberlyn had texted again, but there was no message from Lance O’Connor.

  Hollie gritted her teeth, rising from the sofa to flip on the lights.

  So much for the vacation to clear my head, she thought. Whoever made up the Vegas slogan has obviously never been there. Clearly whatever happens there haunts you all the way home.

  Chapter Six

  Aaron stared blankly at his reflection in the mirror, vaguely aware of the bustle of the others behind him. He looked especially handsome with his tuxedo and bowtie, his hair still slightly dampened from a recent shower, but his usually bright blue eyes were strangely blank as if nothing was happening in his own mind.

  The opposite was true, of course. Little else but Hollie Oliver had been going through his mind since returning from Las Vegas, but he was in a stalemate. All his searches for her online had proved fruitless—either her privacy settings were too rigid, or she simply did not possess accounts on social media.