by Maia Dylan
EVERNIGHT PUBLISHING ®
www.evernightpublishing.com
Copyright© 2018 Maia Dylan
ISBN: 978-1-77339-688-0
Cover Artist: Jay Aheer
Editor: Karyn White
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.
This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, and places are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
DEDICATION
For anyone who has ever risked it all for a dream.
SHIFTING GEARS
Blackwater Falls, 1
Maia Dylan
Copyright © 2018
Chapter One
Ryker Barrett was pissed. Hell, he was more than pissed. He was verging on raging homicidal, and there was only one wolf shifter in his sights. It didn’t take a damn psychic to guess who that was. There might currently be four of the mongrel bastards standing in wolf form in front of him, but there was only one fucker standing as a human, holding one of Ryker’s clan around the throat with a partially shifted claw. They all stood on the road that marked the boundary between Ashford Pack lands and the lands he and his bear clan called home. The sight of blood sliding freely down the side of Jake’s throat had Ryker’s bear growling with barely suppressed rage within him.
“You wanted to speak to me, Ash, all you had to do was call.” Ryker strode right to the middle of the road with his brother, Bastian, right behind him, ignoring the growled warnings of the wolves that flanked their Alpha. “We could have had a nice little chat, and there would have been little to no bloodshed. Now, that’s off the table.”
The wolf Alpha sneered at him, his lip curling back of his teeth. “You think that was ever really on the table, Barrett? Hell. No. You have been avoiding this for too fucking long, and I was sick of waiting. I want you and your kind out of Blackwater Falls, and I want you out now.”
“Get used to disappointment,” Bastian said with an air of boredom to his tone. “We have all had to live with it for the past three decades. We’ve avoided nothing. There is a treaty in place, dog, and there is no changing that.”
Ash’s eyes flashed. “That treaty was the only thing keeping us from tearing you all to pieces and taking back what is rightfully ours. Chubbuck is dead.” Ryker knew that the head of the shifter council had passed into the arms of his ancestors three days ago. He and his clan had felt the loss as all shifter nations throughout the world would have. “With his death, that sham of a treaty dies with him.”
Ryker tilted his head to level a gaze at the man. “I’m not so sure that’s true, but is that really what you want, Ash? You want the Ashford Pack to go to war with the Blackwater Clan?”
“Too damn right I do!” Ash yelled, his face turning an interesting shade of purple. “That treaty gave you all the rights to live in Blackwater and drove my pack out into the damn woods. You were given ownership of lands rich with natural resources worth millions of dollars, and yet it sits untouched and wasted. You have the potential to live like kings, while we live in squalor. Your fathers stole the right to that town from mine, and I can no longer allow that to continue. It is a matter of honor!”
“Honor?” Ryker said incredulously. “I find it astounding that you stand there and use the word ‘honor’, and yet you still threaten a nine-year-old boy who has never done anything to you or your pack. Jake, you okay?”
The young bear shifter, still very much a cub to their clan, was pale and shaken, but nodded his head as much as he could with Ash’s fingers closed around his throat. Despite the fear that lingered in the young boy’s eyes, there were defiance and anger there, too, and that made Ryker proud. “Yeah, Alpha, I’m okay.”
“See, the cub is fine,” Ash said with a dismissive wave of his free hand that had Ryker’s bear growling with displeasure.
Ryker stepped forward, letting loose a wave of dominance that only an Alpha could. He watched dispassionately as the wolves that stood to the right and left of Ash all dropped their heads and swayed beneath the weight of it. “You have a very distorted view of history, Ash. One that I will be only too happy to rectify for you, but I have a feeling you aren’t here to simply advise us that you’re turning your back on the treaty your fathers signed thirty years ago.”
Ash grinned. “I have been keeping track of you and your people, Barrett. You have a clan of twelve left in that town. Six adult males other than you and your brother. All of them having seen too many summers, and none of them near dominant enough to be of any threat to my pack. Three women,” the disdain in his tone was clear, “and three cubs. There is no one in your ranks with the ability or dominance to succeed you, at least not yet, and you have yet to sire an heir. And without that damned treaty, we can act without interference from the council. I reckon if we cut off the head of the clan, the rest will crumble without much of a fight.”
Ryker’s bear began to pace within him and his skin began to feel too tight, a clear sign that he was close to pushing for control. He wanted to rip Ash limb from limb for daring to suggest his clan was weak. The shit of it all was that their numbers were few. Bear shifters needed to roam, and it took finding their fated mate to ground them. When that happened, the fates would lead them to the lands they would call home. Sometimes it was their familial clan lands, sometimes not. For Blackwater Falls, that meant that the other males in his clan, those closest to his age, were still roaming.
Ash’s expression twisted into one that gleamed with bloodlust. “In a move typical of your arrogance, you came out here with no one but your brother for support. Just as I suspected that you would.” The forest behind Ash filled with growls and snarls, but Ryker didn’t even flinch as at least another ten shifters in wolf form stepped out, stalking closer to the road.
Ryker’s gaze never wavered from Ash’s. “Let the boy go, and then we can get on to that history lesson I promised you.”
“We won’t hide behind a cub,” Ash spat as he pushed Jake away, and he stumbled, but never went down. The look Jake shot back at Ash was one that Ryker read well. The young boy wanted retribution.
“Head on home, Jake,” Bastian said as he reached out to pull Jake behind him, and pushed him in the direction of town.
“But, Alpha, I can—”
“No,” Ryker said, his voice filled with dominance. “You will go home to your parents. Now.”
Jake chuffed low in his chest, his bear clearly unhappy with the order, but turned and headed back to town. When he reached the other side of the road, he stopped and looked back at them for a moment before sprinting into the forest, no doubt heading home to bring help, not knowing that the clan were already on their way. Ash might think Ryker arrogant, and truth be told, he had more than his fair share of arrogance within him. But he was most definitely not stupid.
“So, I guess now it’s time for that history lesson.” Ryker strode forward to stand within arm’s reach of the wolf Alpha, his brother right behind him. “You and your pack,” Ryker spat the last word with all the contempt he felt inside, “never had any rights to Blackwater Falls. It has always been home to me and mine. A forced bond never gave you any rights to the land, the resources, or anything beyond this highway.” He sensed the snarling and growling wolves moving to flank him, surrounding them on that strip of neutral highway, and knew Bastian had moved to stand back to back with him.
“You and your brother will die here and now. With no other Alpha in your ranks, your clan will crumble into oblivion. Blackwater will be ours,
as it should have always been,” Ash growled, and in a shimmer of air, and to the sound of snapping bones and ripping material that always accompanied a shift, he became his wolf. Shifter wolves were a lot larger than their natural brethren and would drive fear into anyone unfamiliar with the shifter world.
“Then the war between us begins,” Ryker snarled as he called to his bear and welcomed the pain of the shift.
****
Blackwater Falls, thirty miles.
Hannah Browne grinned at the sign that announced how close she was to her final destination. She had been on the road for the past three days, taking her time with the journey and enjoying the cross-country trip with every town she passed through. It had been a long time since she had taken her 1970 Chevy El Camino SS out on the highway for a decent run, and the past three days she had enjoyed every mile the V8 ate up.
She wound the window down and breathed in the Wyoming mountain air, taking the chill of it as deep into her lungs as she could. This was what it felt like to be free, and she relished the feeling. This was a new start for her. An opportunity to shift gears had presented itself, and she was going to take a hold of it with both hands and never let it go. After everything she had been through in the last five years, all the sacrifice and the loss, this was the start of the chapter in her life that was going to be all about her.
“That’s right, Daddy,” Hannah shouted aloud. “Your baby girl is starting her new life as of today and living it just how you always wanted me to!”
Her excitement level began to increase, and hearing one of her favorite songs starting up, she reached out to turn up her car stereo. She started singing along with Meryl Streep as loud as she could, not something she would ever do with anyone else in the car, but when it was just her, her Chevy, and the open road, it was almost a sin not to. There was something about the open road, music blaring, and a sweet, sweet ride that really brought out the—
“Motherfucker! Shit, oh shit!” She wrenched on the wheel, turning off the road as hard as she could, aiming her beloved Chevy into the trees that lined the highway.
She slammed her foot on the brake, but as soon as the truck’s eighteen-inch tires met the gravel on the roadside, any hope of stopping before she made impact was lost. The truck left the road and might have actually caught a little air before it plunged into the forest. The trees loomed large in the windshield, and she knew she was about to write off her prized possession. But no one could blame her for her actions. When she had rounded that corner, two men had been standing in the middle of the highway, surrounded by a group of wolves.
But they didn’t look like any of the wolves she had seen on the animal channel or any of the wildlife programs her dad had forced her to watch over the years. These wolves were huge, and if they were standing right in front of her, she was certain they would come up to at least her shoulder. And if she wasn’t mistaken, just as she made the decision to drive her truck into the forest rather than into the animals standing on the highway, the taller of the two men exploded into a bear.
Chapter Two
Bastian Barrett’s heart sank as he watched the black truck that had just barreled around the corner of the highway leave the road. He saw the truck slow as the driver tried to wrestle the vehicle into some semblance of control, and for a moment there it looked like the guy had succeeded because it slowed slightly, but then the tires hit the gravel verge and it was all over. Seconds later the crunch of metal crumpling beneath wood and trees snapping at the impact echoed around them as truck met forest.
Ryker pushed up onto his back legs, roaring his rage to the world at large. Bastian knew the clan would be closing in on their location anyway, but at Ryker’s call, they would be racing to join their Alpha. Bastian called to his bear and let the shift roll over him
Bastian was a patient fighter, a brawler really, who waited until the threat came to him before beating the shit out of whoever it was for even attempting to challenge a bear as dominant as he. He would have preferred to work methodically to take out his enemies. But in this instance, an innocent had been hurt in that truck, and he was incensed that these wolves would come onto their lands and pull this shit, so he charged. He and Ryker moved forward into the wolves that all leaped in their direction as the battle began.
Bastian growled in rage as pain shot through him, turning his huge head to grip the hind leg of the wolf that had managed to leap onto him in the melee and bite deeply into the muscle at the back of his neck. With a mighty heave of his head, he flung the beast into the forest. He pushed forward, swinging his claws as hard and fast as he could, swiping wolves out of the air mid-jump, ripping through fur and flesh, bleeding every single wolf that dared come near him. From the roars of satisfaction coming from beside him, he knew that his brother was wreaking just as much pain and havoc on the wolf shifters as he was, and loving every minute of it.
The forest erupted with noise as their clan answered his brother’s call, and the wolves began to panic. Fourteen against two gave the wolves a false sense of security that perhaps this fight might go their way, but with more of the Blackwater Clan coming out of the forest, they knew it would be a deadly mistake to continue. The wolves that remained alive ran or limped for the safety of the forest, and some of their clan pursued them as far as they could without entering pack lands. Bastian couldn’t fail to notice that Ash was one of the first to flee. Spineless fucker.
Despite his bear’s desire to follow and make every one of those pricks pay for this disrespect with their lives, Bastian pulled his bear back into himself. He embraced the white-hot pain that came with the shift and in moments stood on two legs in his human form. He ran in the direction of the truck and knew Ryker was right behind him.
“Hey, mister!” Ryker called as they neared the truck. “You okay? We’ll have you outta there in a second.”
A slight breeze rose just as Bastian reached the driver’s side of the truck and moved to grasp the door handle, but his hand froze mere inches from grabbing it. There was a scent on the air that almost dropped him to his knees. It was an intoxicating blend of orange blossom and honey. A continuous growl rumbled from deep within his chest, and he heard the same possessive sound coming from his brother. There was no mistaking that scent. It called to him and Ryker like no other and held within it the answer to their future.
“Mate,” Bastian growled.
He heard his brother snarl the same word as Bastian closed his hand over the top of the doorframe and ripped the entire thing off the body of the car, flinging it away from him in his haste to get to his mate.
The woman was slumped back in the bench seat of the truck, her long, curly, blonde hair matted with blood on the left side of her head. She was cradling her right hand against her waist. Bastian dropped to his knees beside her, and lifted a shaking hand to her face, sweeping her hair out of the way.
“Baby, can you hear me?” he asked urgently and was surprised when she turned to look straight at him, and he found himself locked in her gaze. He swallowed hard at how beautiful her eyes were, a dark green that seemed to have flecks of gold through them. She was a true beauty, and looking into her eyes made his heart beat faster.
“I’m not your baby,” Beauty replied curtly, her words slurred a little, which was concerning. “Did you just rip the door off my Chevy?”
Bastian looked back at his brother, not sure how to answer, but from the blank look and shrug he got in response, he knew he was on his own. “It was already off its hinges. I just pulled it the rest of the way.”
Beauty’s eyes narrowed. “First, I had already tried to move that damn door, and I know it was wedged in tight. I know you ripped the door off and threw it away like it weighed nothing because I saw you do it. Now, normally that would be weird, and I would pass it off as some kind of inhuman strength driven by adrenaline phenomenon or something like that. But not after watching you explode into a bear because having the strength to do that would be normal for a bear. Right? At least I think
it would be. And that’s my next question. How did you do that whole exploding into a bear thing? How did you both do that?”
Beauty looked between him and Ryker, and her expression was one of curiosity, not fear as he might have expected, before continuing. “Perhaps someone slipped some magic mushrooms on the pizza I scarfed at lunchtime, or I had a stroke in the moments before I drove my Chevy into a tree. Who knows? But what I do know, is that I saw you explode into bears and fight a group of absurdly huge wolves that then ran off into the forest chased by even more bears.”
“Sweetness,” Ryker said as he leaned in closer. “From the looks of the blood in your hair, you smacked your head pretty damn hard. Perhaps what you think you saw is simply a result of the concussion you no doubt have.”
Beauty nodded as she looked over at Ryker as if she were seriously considering his suggestion. “You could be right, I might be concussed. I mean, I do have a headache. But that wouldn’t explain everything away, though, would it? There is still one thing I am slightly confused about.”
Ryker rested a hand on the top of the car to lean into the space where the driver’s door had been and grinned at their adorable mate. “And what might that be?”
She looked up at them, running her eyes quickly over each of them. “If you didn’t explode into bears and then somehow go back to being human again, why did you take the time to remove your clothes before coming to help me?”
Bastian grimaced. He had no answer for that one.
Beauty continued. “Seems to me that if you saw an accident, and were concerned about the driver, that you might want to get to them as fast as possible and see to their safety before pulling your clothes off. Not that I don’t appreciate it, because, well, both of you look like you’ve just stepped off the cover of some fitness magazine, and despite the blood, you have bodies a woman could get lost in for hours. Hell, a woman might even consider giving up chocolate for the chance to rub up and down on one of y’all.”
