Forever Fated Mates: A Shifter Romance Collection

by Meg Ripley

  This, at least, Tracy could accept. “I’m here if you need me. And I’m sure with your service record, you won’t have a problem. While you’re waiting, why don’t you come in here with me and we’ll get some dinner made?”

  Leona followed her into the kitchen and washed her hands, but her mind wasn’t on food. She was thinking instead about the way her body had vibrated as she’d approached that strange, squat building that housed the SOS Force. It hadn’t looked like much, and while she had been around long enough to know that a team like the Force wouldn’t just put up a neon sign, she’d had her doubts. But then she’d seen the security camera that swung around a little too quickly to focus on her. It wasn’t a model she was familiar with, and it definitely wasn’t part of the typical security systems people bought at the computer store. She’d also noted the electronic locks on the door, which also weren’t the norm. They looked more like something out of a movie, and that was all the indication Leona had needed to know she was in the right place.

  And then there had been him. He hadn’t given her his name, but she didn’t need it in order to have him stick in her mind. He was hot, with dark blonde hair that he kept swept back from his face. He was tall and broad, and Leona had sensed the powerful muscles just beneath the surface of his skin.

  Though she’d spent the last several years focusing on her career instead of men, Leona wasn’t the type to just ignore a good-looking guy. She wasn’t immune. But there was something much more intriguing about that man than simply the way he looked. His amber eyes had penetrated straight into hers and down to her soul. She could tell they were breathing the same air as they studied each other, and Leona had felt the distinct urge to slip out of her human skin and show him her more feral side. She’d needed him, right there in that little lobby area he’d allowed her into, in a way that made her want to lick his skin right where his heart beat at his throat and run her hands over the hard planes of his abs.

  Which was ridiculous, of course. Now that she wasn’t anywhere near him, she wanted to be more rational about the whole thing. She couldn’t just tumble over herself for a strange guy, except that she had. As focused as she’d been on finding a new career, she couldn’t stop thinking about him ever since she’d left.

  “Hello?” Tracy’s harsh voice cut into her fantasies about the man. “Are you listening to a word I’m saying?”

  Leona blinked. Damn. She wasn’t the kind to just space off like that. She was always paying attention, always listening, always ready. That was the kind of training she’d received in order to become part of the Special Forces, and it’d become second nature over the years. How strange that she could drop it so suddenly for someone she was…No. Even in her mind, she didn’t want to admit the words that described that encounter. “Sorry. I was thinking.”

  “Clearly,” Tracy replied with a snort as she took a package of steaks out of the fridge. “What I was trying to say is that you should have a backup plan.”

  “What?” Leona’s mouth focused on the bloody meat. Tracy must have purchased it recently, and from a butcher who actually kept his product clean and fresh. She hadn’t realized until that moment just how hungry she was.

  Her sister sighed impatiently as she lit the flame under a cast iron pan and sprinkled it liberally with olive oil. “I’m trying to help you. The least you could do is listen.”

  The last thing Leona needed was for her sister to chastise her, but that had always been Tracy’s way. She’d taken her role very seriously, even when they were little, constantly snatching at opportunities to boss Leona around or get her into trouble. As they’d gotten older, Tracy always wanted to share her advice about men and careers, even when Leona had made it clear she wasn’t interested. She had her own life and her own decisions to make.

  Now, she felt much the same way. Tracy only had a couple of years on her, and she wasn’t the one who’d been off to war. She hadn’t seen people starving in their own villages. She hadn’t seen the kind of death and destruction that conflict caused, eating away at everything in its path. She’d lived an insulated life in a safe place where the biggest worry she’d had to deal with was a traffic jam on her way home from work.

  Still, Leona loved her sister, and she did appreciate Tracy letting her stay at her place when she’d suddenly found herself without her military brethren around her. She was right. The least she could do was listen. “Okay. I’m paying attention this time.” She took a head of lettuce out of the fridge and began tearing it apart to make a salad.

  “I’ve been thinking a lot about you since the news about your injury reached us,” Tracy began. “We were devastated, even once we knew you’d be all right. But anyway, that’s not really what I want to talk to you about. I mean, you’re getting around just fine.”

  “Yeah, mostly.” Leona glanced down at that leg that wasn’t supposed to be there. It was almost unfair that she should be fine when there were so many other soldiers who weren’t. Shifter or not, every man and woman over there was fighting for a cause bigger than themselves, and yet many of them lost part of themselves. It happened physically or mentally, or both.

  “What I’m trying to get at is that you always envisioned the Army would be your entire career. I remember when you told us officially that you were enlisting. There wasn’t a single thing anyone could say to sway you. That was the only thing you were interested in. But now you can’t do that anymore, and you didn’t have a backup plan. Maybe this job you’re hoping to get won’t work out either, and you should have a backup plan for it as well.”

  “Who’s to say I don’t?” Leona tore at the lettuce, tempted to whip out her claws and shred it properly, feeling slightly offended.

  “Do you?” Tracy challenged as the sound of sizzling meat served as a backdrop for their conversation.

  Leona growled softly. “No.” The SOS Force was the only thing she’d concentrated on ever since Sarge had told her about it.

  “Okay, so here’s an idea. Maybe think about settling down. Acclimate yourself with the local pride. Get a nice little house with enough space for a garden. You could get all sorts of jobs with your background, something without too much of a commute.”

  “That sounds like an absolute nightmare.” She’d said the words harshly, but as soon as they were out, Leona began to laugh. Tracy wanted the best for her and was concerned for her, but the two of them were always at such odds with each other.

  “What? Why?”

  But Leona didn’t have a chance to answer. Her phone had suddenly started ringing in her pocket. She didn’t recognize the number. “Hello?”

  “Sergeant Kirk, this is Hudson from the SOS Force.”

  Oh, yes. She knew exactly who he was as soon as he said her name, and a shiver of excitement rippled down Leona’s spine and coalesced in her stomach. She now knew the name of the man who’d been haunting her mind for the last day and a half, the man she hadn’t been able to stop thinking about. But this wasn’t the time for that sort of stuff. She slipped out of the kitchen and down the hall. “Yes, this is Sergeant Kirk.”

  “I need you down here in five minutes for a meeting.”

  It was completely out of the blue. It wasn’t even reasonable. But that didn’t bother Leona. It was probably a test, and she was more than ready to pass it. “I’ll be right there.”

  Her knuckles itched as she hopped out of the cab a block away from headquarters. Her body was full of energy, and she could almost see it flashing brightly through her veins. It took everything not to shift, to feel her paw pads against the sidewalk as she raced toward this new destiny.

  Retaining her self-control and her human form, she stepped up to the door and rang the bell.

  Hudson appeared instantly, whipping the door open. His jaw was tight and his eyes intense, almost as though he was angry with her for being there. “Sergeant Kirk. Come in.”

  She did as she was told, taking care to keep her shoulders straight and her head up. How easy it would be to rub her hip a
gainst his as she slipped in the door, to rub her jaw against his shoulder as she looked up into his eyes, to tell him what he did to her. Her abdomen tightened as she fought it all off. “I hope I didn’t keep you waiting.”

  He didn’t even glance at his watch. “You’re right on time. The conference room is this way.” Now it was his turn to move past her.

  Leona had to wonder if he was feeling the same way. She’d never suspected anyone of being her fated before. She knew it had to be a mutual thing. A pull this strong couldn’t simply be a one-sided thing, yet he seemed just as solid and steady on the surface as she was fighting to be. She said nothing as she followed him down a hallway to a conference room with massive windows and an equally large table.

  “This is Flint, our weapons specialist,” Hudson said, indicating a man who lounged back in his chair and picked his teeth with a pocket knife. “Garrison, our engineer.” He gestured toward a man who sat with his back straight and his eyes watchful, but accepting. “Our resident physician, Drake.”

  This last man was seated at the head of the table, and he stood up to shake her hand. “It’s nice to meet you, Sergeant Kirk. We think you might be a good fit for the SOS Force, even though Hudson wasn’t kidding when he said we weren’t hiring.”

  That was more of a compliment than she would’ve expected from men like this. “I appreciate the chance.”

  “And it’ll be an interesting chance,” Garrison intoned from the other end of the table. “We’ve received some information, and there’s a pride in Illinois we need to investigate. We don’t do these things overtly, preferring to keep our presence quiet until it’s time to take final action. We’ve discussed this quite a bit since you arrived, and we’ve decided to send you and Hudson on the mission.”

  Her heart thundered with excitement. It hadn’t been all that long since she’d been hurt, but the intervening time had seemed like an eternity. There was nothing she wanted more than to get back out in the field. On the backside of that thought came the immediate awareness of Hudson, standing just behind her. So she was going to be his partner on this assignment? She wasn’t sure how she felt about that. “I’m more than happy to go out on my own.”

  Drake gave her a small smile. “I have no doubt about that, considering your service record, but considering you’re brand-new to our team, we’re not inclined to send you out alone. You’ll be heading into a suburban area, and you and Hudson will pose as mates to blend in.”

  “I see.” Those were the only words she could choke out, considering how every cell in her body was thrashing toward Hudson at that very moment. She couldn’t deny the attraction she felt for him, and now they were assigned partners? Pretend mates, even? It was like torture, and it was going to make this mission much harder than any of them could know. “When do we leave?”

  The grunt of laughter came from Flint, who was now twirling his knife expertly with his fingers. “There are some things we need to do first. You can’t just head out without knowing what you’re going into, and you’ve got to have a link with the rest of us.”

  Leona had expected to spend some time learning about this mission, but this caught her off-guard. “A link?”

  “Just like a clan,” Hudson said from behind her shoulder.

  She stepped away to look up at him, acutely aware of how little distance there was between the two of them.

  “My company has provided the Force with special phones and secure lines to communicate from anywhere in the world, but of course that doesn’t work as well when we’re in our other forms. We forge a mental link to each other just like any other clan does.” His eyes slipped down to her mouth for only a split-second before returning to her eyes.

  She swallowed, the idea of Hudson being in her mind both thrilling and terrifying to her. “And how do we do that?”

  “A sacred ritual,” Garrison replied. “Knowledge of this ceremony has been passed down through my family for centuries, even when there was no need to use it. I tried it when the four of us teamed up, and it was just what we needed. I assume you’re not afraid of blood?”

  “Doesn’t bother me at all.” She’d seen plenty of it, both her own and others’.

  “Good. We’ll go over all the information for the mission right now, and then we’ll conduct the ceremony tonight. We leave in the morning.” Hudson gestured for her to sit down before taking the chair next to her.

  The field was a remote one, and Leona might never have found it if she hadn’t had such thorough land nav skills drilled into her brain. She’d wondered as she drove if this was just some trick by the SOS Force, some hazing that was supposed to embarrass her and let her know she wasn’t truly welcome in their group. But there she stood with the four men in a clearing surrounded on all sides by woods, a ring of stones filled with firewood in the center. No fire had been lit, and only the dim blue light from the stars and the sliver of moon overhead illuminated the field.

  Hudson watched her as she joined them, but it was Garrison who spoke. “This is a relatively simple ceremony, but you must understand that it’s not only extremely important to the SOS Force, but to my people as well. We no longer dabble in magic as our ancestors did, but if word of what’s about to happen here were to leave this circle of people, there would be consequences.”

  “I understand.” Leona had no interest in outing these men to the rest of the world. She needed them if they were truly going to provide her with the type of lifestyle she craved so badly.

  “Good. Flint?” Garrison looked to the weapons specialist.

  Flint pulled a slim knife with a curved blade from a sheath at the back of his belt. It glinted even in the starlight as he hefted it in his palm. “They just don’t make them like this anymore. I want to borrow this from you sometime, Gar. I need to try my hand at replicating it.”

  “Unless you can find a dragon willing to sacrifice his claw for the handle, you’re out of luck.” Garrison took the knife from him and looked back at Leona. “The first task is for each of us to make a small cut, one on each forearm, big enough to flow but not so much that it’ll kill you.” He grinned as he used the knife to easily slash the thin skin just above his wrists and then pass the weapon to Drake.

  Leona was last, and by the time she received the knife, it was already dark with blood. The handle was curved in the opposite direction of the blade, smooth and conical, made of a dragon’s claw as Garrison had indicated. She didn’t hesitate, knowing they were watching, and made the required lines before handing the knife back to Garrison.

  He nodded as he accepted it. “And now, we shift.” Garrison was already transforming as he spoke, his shoulders rolling as massive wings unfurled from his back and formed a silhouette against the stars.

  Leona didn’t make a habit of shifting in front of strangers. She felt her cheeks burn slightly as her spine elongated and her tail swished in the darkness. Her fingers thickened and shortened as her palms became tough and dark. A short coat of gleaming gold fur erupted all over her body, and she felt the familiar pain of her face changing into a muzzle. Soon enough, she stood in the field not with four men but with a dragon, a bear, a wolf, and a lion. Garrison puffed up his reptilian chest and sent out a stream of flame that ignited the wood in the center of the clearing with ease.

  Leona couldn’t help looking up at Hudson who stood proudly next to her in his animal form. His mane was gloriously long and thick, dark against the paler fur on the rest of his body. He returned the gaze, the fire flickering in his eyes. Her true form had been demanding to come out, but now that it had, Leona didn’t know how well she’d be able to control it. He still had that power over her, that power that made her stomach twist into knots.

  “Your wounds must touch, so that the blood flows through each of us.” Garrison’s voice had changed now that he spoke with such a long tongue and sharp teeth.

  They did as they were told. Leona reached out with her right paw so that her leg crossed that of the dragon’s and their lacerations touche
d. She felt the heat of Hudson on her left as he did the same, and a spark jolted through her as soon as their bloodstreams coalesced. She pressed her tongue against the back of her teeth to keep from gasping.

  Garrison was speaking now in a rasping language that she didn’t understand. His eyes were closed, the fire dancing on his emerald scales, and it was as though they were the only creatures in the universe. He then repeated the words, translating them into English. “Our blood becomes one, flowing within each other. Bonded as brothers, our nexus strong.”

  A ripple of energy shot up Leona’s left arm, across her chest, and down her right arm. It pulsed and throbbed, repeating until she wondered if she was having a heart attack. Her limbs grew weak between the surges, but she felt new strength flowing into her as they returned. Then they were gone altogether, and when Garrison withdrew his arm slowly from hers, she felt a distinct chill in his absence. Hudson did the same, breaking the circuit on that side, and the coldness he left was almost enough to send her to her knees.

  It is done, the dragon intoned.

  It took Leona a moment to realize that he’d spoken inside her head. That was it? It seemed like such a simple rite.

  I admit some of the meaning is lost in translation. She could hear Garrison’s laugh inside her head as easily as her words.

  You all right? This was from Drake, his bear eyes a shade darker than the thick fur of his face.

  Yeah. I think so.

  Good. Like I said, we leave in the morning. Hudson turned and left the circle, his tail swishing as he melted into the woods.

  4

  Hudson flicked his finger across the touchscreen of his computer, checking that everything urgent was taken care of before he left town. He had very capable people working for him, and he knew he could rely on them to make the right decisions in his absence, but he didn’t believe in leaving any more work for them to handle than was absolutely necessary. He would do better on this mission if he knew Taylor Communications was taken care of.