One True Mate 4: Shifter's Innocent

by Lisa Ladew

  The man with the gun ran past the monster, just as she’d known he would. The monster let him go, then pushed its entire body through the rip and stepped onto the floor, bowing its head so the protuberances there (horns?) didn’t scrape the ceiling. Blood and tissue showed at its ribs, where the skin didn’t quite meet.

  In a blink, the monster was gone, and a man stood where it had been. A large man, bigger than Beckett or Grey, but not as big as the monster had been. Dark hair, manic eyebrows, unnaturally muscular body, his intense eyes still locked on her, like no one else in the room existed. Her muscles turned to water and she wondered if she and Kaci could survive a jump out the window themselves. Better than staying here.

  Grey spoke up, like he was greeting a treasured guest. “We meet at last, Khain the Destroyer.”

  Khain the Destroyer ignored him completely and took a thundering step toward Cerise.

  Grey got in front of her. “I’ve been doing much work for you. Perhaps you’ve noticed?”

  Khain stopped at that and swung his gaze to Grey, but he didn’t speak. Only took him in, assessed him.

  Grey lifted his chin, preened. “That’s right. We have similar aims, me and you. It is time we knew each other. Maybe formed a gentlemen’s agreement.”

  “Work for me?” Khain’s voice was awful, and Cerise resisted the urge to clap her hands over her ears.

  Khain and Grey were between them and the only door out of this room. She turned and looked at the window behind them again, thinking it was their only choice. But when would be the right time? She inched toward it. She would slide it open and look out. Maybe there would be something to climb down.

  Grey nodded eagerly. “You know the angel fathered the one true mates to help the shiften in their mission to thwart you, but I’ve spent years locating them. I’ve had them stolen from their mothers and swiped their objects of power.” He held up his hand, but Cerise could not see the wolf/angel pendant because his body was in the way. Anger burned in her at his words. He’d done that to her?

  Instead of heading out the window, she was going to push him. Make him fight Khain, and then she and Kaci would run out, find Beckett. She edged toward him, trying not to catch anyone’s eye.

  “Kaci,” she whispered, touching her on the arm. “We’re going to run for it. Get ready.” Kaci didn’t even seem to hear her. She was snarling, her eyes locked on Khain, her lips pulled back from teeth that looked longer than she remembered. Cerise pulled back, scared for a moment, Kaci looked so fierce.

  The man/monster spoke to Grey. “You called me here.”

  “Yes, I offer a member of the KSRT. He’s alive and you may do with him as you wish. We just have to go to retrieve him.”

  Khain looked over Grey’s head, his terrible eyes finding Cerise. “I will take the Promised instead.”

  Grey faltered for a second, whipping his head around, then back to Khain. “No, I need her for a short while longer, then you may have her.”

  Khain batted him aside like he weighed nothing and took another step towards Cerise. She put her hands up, her pulse racing, the sound of her heartbeat like a bass drum in her ears.

  Kaci leapt to her feet and stood in front of Cerise. “Don’t touch her, you pusbag!” she screamed, her spittle landing on Khain’s face. Cerise saw it burn there, like acid.

  “Kaci, no!” Cerise stood and tried to pull Kaci behind her, but Kaci was falling to the floor, her body twisting. Cerise shrieked and tried to grab her as the monster/man reached out a hand…

  Before Cerise’s eyes, Kaci transformed into something else, her face and body growing hair, her clothes ripping off her as her body changed shape, arms becoming forelegs, ears moving to the top of her head, strong white teeth growing, fangs lengthening, until she crouched as an animal. Dog or fox or wolf, Cerise couldn’t tell, she looked like a mixture of all three. She was medium-sized, but did not look awkward or pinched as an animal, like she had as a human. Her fur was red and threaded through with black down her back. Her eyes were a gorgeous honey-color, her nose black, her muzzle white. Cerise’s limp hands slipped off of the Kaci-wolf. She couldn’t get them to work right. Her legs gave out on her and she tumbled backward to the bed, just as Khain grabbed for her, missing her by inches.

  The Kaci-wolf thing snarled and leapt into the air, clamping on Khain’s forearm with its teeth, a terrifying growl coming from its-her throat. Khain’s lips twisted and he tried to shake her off, but she held on tight. He lunged for the wall and slammed her body into it. Still she held on. Cerise regained her footing and launched herself at Grey, who was pushing himself up from the floor. She grabbed his shoulders and shouted into his face, pushing at about 75% strength. He had to be a wolf, too, and instinctively she knew she wouldn’t be able to push the man/monster, so she went for Grey instead. “Save Kaci! Kill that thing!”

  Grey lurched forward, pulling a gun from a holster on his side, his face resistant like he knew he had no chance, but he couldn’t resist. He socked the gun against Khain’s chest, but Khain stopped pounding Kaci into the wall long enough to backhand him across the room. Cerise ducked, in case the gun went off, then tried to think of what to do next. Guaranteed he was one of those wolf things, maybe she should make him shift and fight that way. Kaci still hadn’t let go, in fact seemed to be hurting the monster.

  A pounding up the wooden stairs caught her attention and she stopped midstride, her gaze shooting to the door. In streamed another wolf, white with black on its legs, then another, this one all white, then a-oh god, a bear who had to squeeze and shimmy to get through the doorway, and… Cerise felt her knees weaken again. A dragon. That’s what it looked like, red and scaly with wings and a hooked snout. Whose side were they on? Had to be hers.

  They all ran for the man-monster, and his face twisted in something like rage with fear mixed in when he saw them. He bellowed and whipped his body around in one final heave, as Kaci’s jaws met, cracking his bone. She flew across the room and hit the wall near the door, crumpling to the floor, the monster’s hand and wrist still in her mouth.

  The first wolf leapt and hit the man-monster in the chest, while the second went straight for his gut. The bear snarled and launched itself at Khain’s legs, while the dragon grew to twice the size it had been, filling the room, hooking a clawed wing around Khain’s neck and slashing.

  Again that bellow, and the man changed, grew, and twisted, now he was only monster, black blood leaking from exposed ribs and new holes. He grew three times his size, bigger than the dragon, punching through the roof of the house, his body rippling to try to shake off the wolves, the bear, and the dragon, who were rending his flesh till oily blood flew. Cold air enveloped them all.

  Cerise covered her arms with her hands, shielding herself from the blood, and ran for Kaci, dropping onto her knees next to her, shielding Kaci’s limp body with her own.

  The monster bellowed again, kicking and lashing out, ripping through more of the roof. Car alarms from what sounded like every car on the street, maybe the block, went off, horns and whoops rising into the sky. Police sirens swelled and neared.

  The monster, bent over as its back arched out the roof like a dolphin showing only a curve above the water, plucked the two wolves off of him with one hand, throwing them. Cerise heard a voice in her head shout, Bruin, get back, he’s going to run. The dragon let go and parried back on strong legs, its wings stretching side to side.

  The monster reached out the one hand he had left, grabbed a dazed Grey with it, and disappeared with a pop of air slamming into the space he’d just occupied, leaving only the gaping hole in the roof and spots of rancid black blood on the floor to prove he’d been there at all.

  Chapter 38

  Beckett was the last to shift to human form, as if he was the most shaken, possibly the only one to realize just how close it had really been. Mac and Bruin were already dressed by the time he shifted, his eyes on Cerise the whole time. Cerise was trembling, her arms wrapped around a compact red female
wolfen. Kaci.

  Beckett grinned, grabbing a sheet from the bed and heading toward his girls. Kaci had taken Khain’s hand right the fuck off. Good deal. Warrior. He’d known it from jump.

  Beckett knelt next to Cerise, pulling her up. Her eyes met his, and they were stricken. “I think she’s hurt. She won’t wake up.”

  Beckett shook his head. “She’ll be fine, Cerise, I promise you that.” He looked around at Graeme. “Graeme, we need you.”

  Graeme came to them, transformed at once, into a dragon smaller than a Labrador Retriever, then bit open his foreleg and dripped blood into Kaci’s mouth.

  Cerise watched, her eyes wide, but soothed. She clutched at Beckett. “You didn’t tell me you were a wolf, and that your friends were wolves and bears and…” Her voice dropped to a whisper. “A dragon.”

  Beckett laughed. “They ain’t got nothin’ on you, darlin’. You’re half angel.” Cerise’s eyes rolled toward him and her fingernails dug into his shoulders. He grinned and nodded. “I ain’t funnin’ ya. You’ll see.”

  Outside, cars screeched to a stop, many of them, the sounds loud in the room courtesy of the new sunroof Khain had installed. Car doors opened and shut and they could hear the low grumble of men talking urgently.

  Graeme stepped back and transformed. “That should do it.” He looked over his shoulder at Mac and Bruin. “Come on, you two. We’ve got some explaining to do.”

  Bruin snorted. “So that was Khain, huh? He didn’t seem so tough. Did you see me bite through his kneecap?”

  Mac raised a hand in the air and the two high-fived. “Yeah you did, bear, you fucked him up.”

  Bruin snorted again, this time it sounded more like a growl. Beckett leaned against the wall and watched them file toward the door, as his muscles shook out their tension. He had no idea how they’d found him so quickly, but he would be forever grateful to them. Even Mac.

  As they got close, Bruin looked like he was going to stop and speak to Cerise. Beckett stiffened involuntarily. Mac grabbed his friend around the shoulders, then addressed Beckett, nodding at Cerise. “You claimed her yet?”

  Beckett snarled by way of answer and Mac nodded. “Right-o, tough guy. Get on that shit. We’re out.” He pushed Bruin out the door and the sound of their oversized boots clomping down the stairs reached Beckett.

  Cerise flashed him a look. “They’re leaving?”

  “They won’t go far.”

  The Kaci-wolf opened her eyes and lifted her head, her black nostrils flaring in spurts.

  “Kaci!” Cerise cried, pulling her into a hug. Kaci let herself be hugged for a moment before she tried to pull away. Beckett snatched up Khain’s withering hand from the floor next to her and flung it across the room. They would deal with it later.

  Kaci stepped over both of them, then ran to the hand, sniffing it, growling low in the back of her wolf-throat, then stared at the hole in the ceiling.

  “He’s gone, Kaci, you all chased him off,” Cerise said.

  Kaci cocked her head and looked at Cerise strangely.

  Cerise spoke to Beckett. “Can she understand me?”

  Beckett nodded. “Yeah, but it might take her a while to realize she can, if it’s her first shift, which I’m assuming it is. Twelve is awfully old to shift for the first time. I’ve only heard of it happening in legends, never seen it. She can’t be more than a quarter wolfen, so I’m surprised she shifted at all, but seeing Khain has been rumored to do that to half-breeds before. Quarter-breeds, too, apparently.”

  “When will she shift back?”

  Beckett shook his head. “I don’t know. I shifted within a few hours of being born. I don’t remember what it was like the first time.”

  Cerise touched him on the chest, her gaze astonished, as she looked at him in a new light. She swallowed a few times, before she could speak again. “And what is Khain? He, ah, he wanted to take me with him.”

  Beckett bared his teeth and growled, he couldn’t help it. At the noise, Kaci turned in a tight, frantic circle, snapping at the air, her amber eyes searching every corner of the room.

  “Ah, shit.” Beckett crawled to her on his hands and knees, the white sheet draped around his middle, puddling under him and impeding him.

  He was going to have to help her.

  ***

  Cerise clutched herself in a hug, worry for Kaci rippling through her. There was no human intelligence in her face, like she’d seen in the other beasts. Kaci was all animal, her lips pulled back from her fangs, pacing back and forth.

  Beckett reached her and spoke in a low voice, swaying his head with her movements, trying to catch her gaze. “Listen Kaci, your animal wants to run, and it deserves a run, but not yet. It’s time for you to come back to us. After you’ve shifted a few times, we’ll take you to the woods, I’ll run with you myself. But now, it’s time to cage it, get control of it. You are only as strong as your willpower, and you have to be the one in charge. Or you will lose yourself.”

  As he spoke, Kaci slowed, then stopped, standing in front of him, panting, her pink tongue rolled out. Beckett moved in close until his forehead touched hers. He rubbed his face on her cheeks. “I’m going to shift, and then we are going to come back together, you hear me?”

  Kaci didn’t move, only stared at Beckett, their foreheads seemingly fused together. Her left ear twitched, then fell still.

  Cerise heard shouts from the living room, then a woman’s shrill cry. Hurry, Beckett, she thought, not knowing why.

  Beckett’s skin rippled, and as she watched, he changed, turned into that gorgeous, huge wolf she’d seen before, the one with the boots. The booted wolf.

  He crouched, his belly almost touching the floor, his back end in the air, his wolf-forehead still pressed against Kaci’s. He made a noise, that sounded almost like a bark but was deeper, and growlier, scary and beautiful at the same time. Kaci whimpered, then made a similar noise back.

  Footsteps pounded up the stairs. Cerise looked up to see one of the men from earlier, the lighter-haired one, holding his hand up, slowing the ascent of two people. The man’s face was set, the woman’s a mess of hope and contradiction.

  The guy stopped them, but the woman peeked over his shoulder, seeing Beckett and Kaci in the middle of the room. She didn’t even care about the hole in her roof, she had eyes only for Kaci. Cerise watched her for a moment, then tore her gaze back to Beckett and Kaci as energy shifted and power flowed.

  Beckett began to transform, and Cerise thought it was slower than she’d seen it before, beautiful, a thing of wonder and beauty. Then Kaci’s fur rippled along her back, and her own transformation began, fur disappearing into skin, hair growing, hips and hands and feet changing shape, until Kaci collapsed on the ground in a heap.

  “Lillian!” the woman cried, and even Beckett’s big friend couldn’t hold her back. She ducked under his arm and swept into the room, sobbing, grabbing up Kaci and hugging her like a baby.

  “Bob, go get her some clothes,” the woman forced out over her sobs. Bob swiped his eyes and ran from the room. Beckett wrapped his sheet around him and backed up to sit next to Cerise.

  Cerise’s heart overflowed with so many emotions as she watched Kaci being hugged by her mother that she couldn’t even place them all. She raised a trembling hand to her face and wiped her own tears away. Beckett hugged her with one arm, and they both watched as Kaci put her head down on her mother’s shoulder and curled her arms around her back.

  Kaci met Cerise’s eyes, and Cerise saw a whirlwind of emotion in her face, too. Was the strongest one contentment? A realization of something she’d been waiting for, for a long time?

  Yes, Cerise realized. Kaci looked more than content. She looked at home.

  Chapter 39

  Cerise lazed on Kaci’s parents’ couch, seriously close to falling asleep, her body limp and exhausted. It was almost nine in the morning, she hadn’t slept yet, and there’d been an army of cops tromping in and out of the house, occasionally asking her q
uestions through Beckett, who wouldn’t let any of them get near her. They’d talked for hours, though, and she loved everything she’d discovered about him.

  His friend with the accent, the dragon, had disappeared, but his other two friends walked through occasionally, the bear grinning like a loon any time anyone mentioned Khain, and the other one giving Beckett noogies and calling him tough guy every time he went past. Beckett had shrugged at her once. “It’s better than hardhead, I guess, or redneck.”

  “Make a hole!” a male voice called from outside, loud enough for her to hear it inside, and the front door opened. A silver-haired man stood there, his shrewd eyes taking in everyone.

  Beckett raised his hand and tapped the brim of his cap with two fingers, then sketched the new guy a salute. “You took long enough, Chief, we’re exhausted.”

  The chief ignored Beckett, his eyes falling on her. He raised his chin and even gave her a small smile, then entered the kitchen, headed straight for Sharon and Bob, Kaci’s parents, who were huddled together, Bob holding Kaci now. They were talking to a cop in uniform, and Kaci’s eyes were closed, her breathing even, like she was asleep, but Cerise saw her steal glances at her mother occasionally.

  Cerise smiled. Kaci’d taken to her parents so easily, all her trepidation fallen away as soon as she met them. They were good people, and their love for her was obvious in the way they looked at her, touched her, and couldn’t let go of her long enough to put her down for some shut-eye. They weren’t going to miss another second of her life.

  Beckett sat down next to her. “That’s Wade. He’s my boss. He’s the one who already got your name cleared from killing Myles and escaping prison.” He spoke softly. “Does Kaci look different to you?”

  Cerise pulled herself into a seated position and scanned Kaci’s body and face. She did. Fuller, somehow, and taller? “She grew?”