Shifters in the Shadows: Seventeen Paranormal Romances of Sexy Shifters, Dangerous Vamps, & Things That Go Bump in the Night

by J. K Harper

  "It's Isabel. Ooh. That's cold."

  Isabel bit her lip as she remembered how Louis also used to squirt his cool fluids right there on her warm—

  The doctor interrupted her daydream. "Well, that's interesting. Can you make this out, Isabel?"

  Isabel studied the screen, looking for the shape of the fetus in the scan. Was it going to be wolf-sized, or tiger-sized?

  "Wait a second." She leaned in closer, taking in all the detail.

  "Is everything okay?" Louis sat forward, looking worried.

  Isabel looked up at the doctor. "There are two babies in there, aren't there?" She turned to Louis. "Two."

  "That's right." The doctor smiled and patted her knee. She moved the scanner around so Isabel could see the other twin more clearly.

  Louis leaped up and shouted French words that she assumed meant "yay, we're going to have twins." He hugged Isabel so hard, she almost fell off the bed.

  "Sheesh. Twins." Isabel couldn't help grinning too. "And can you tell if they're tigers or wolves yet?"

  The doctor nodded. "Looks to me like you have one of each."

  Isabel gasped. "A wolf? I'm having a wolf?"

  "And a tiger," added Louis. His hand found hers. "One of each. One like you, and one like me." It looked a lot like he had tears in the corners of his eyes. "Perfect."

  After the appointment, it was like they floated out of the doctor's office on a cloud of excitement.

  "You know what this means, Louis?"

  "What?"

  "I'm going to need a bigger wedding dress. By the time our wedding date comes, I'll be three people in one."

  He laughed and picked her right off her feet. "Anything you want, ma belle."

  She kissed him long and hard. "Thank you."

  "For what?"

  "For being you, even though you're still finding your way as a wolf. And for coming to America instead of asking for us to live in France. And for knocking me up with these little people. And everything really."

  "It is I who should thank you. You didn't just make my life complete. You gave me a reason to want to live again."

  "Will you still want me when I'm grouchy, and eating tuna with ice cream, and whining about my aching back? Because I plan on doing a whole lot of that, if there are two little people to grow. That shit sounds tiring."

  "Yeah. I'm going to want you whatever stunts you pull. Now, and for the rest of our lives."

  "Even when I'm crying at pet food commercials, and there's snot all down my face, and I'm too sleepy to hold a conversation? And I'm sleep-deprived, and my robe is stained with pickle juice and Dr. Pepper, and I scream at you for leaving your shoes an inch away from the correct place?"

  "Yep. Especially then."

  "Well, all right. I guess we're going to get on just fine."

  Louis the new wolf slipped his arm proudly around his pregnant wife-to-be, and they laughed all the way back to the car.

  About the Author

  Suki Selborne writes paranormal romance starring hot alpha shifters and the smart, sassy, curvy women they can't live without. If she's not writing, she's probably reading, or wishing she was. Suki lives with her husband, kids and way too many books in London, England.

  Links:

  @SukiSelborne

  SukiSelborne

  sukiselborne.com

  Summoning Her Alphas

  by Auriella Skye

  Chapter 1

  “I’m not drunk on potions or high on magical moonbeams. I promise.” Sherri dunked her teabag in the ceramic cup, while she held the phone between her ear and shoulder. “Just hornier than a cartoon witch on Halloween.”

  “That’s not funny, especially since Halloween is a few weeks away.” Carmen’s voice didn’t sound happy, which was not the norm recently.

  Ever since an awful semester of college Algebra together, Sherri and Carmen had been close friends. They called at least once a week to fill each other in on their lives. Kala West was a town where you could live minutes away from friends but still go weeks without seeing them. So Sherri and Carmen made a promise to call one another for updates. More like Carmen did the updating and Sherri did the listening.

  Four years of college was more than enough for Sherri to learn that Carmen wanted to find her warlocks like nobody’s business. Now that Carmen had her own sexy pair of maleness, twin warlocks to be exact, she always had a smile on her face, a magical pep in her step, and lightness to her voice. All three drove Sherri insane sometimes, especially when she was home alone.

  As happy as Sherri was for her friend, there was only so much happiness a single witch could take, which was exactly why she wasn’t going to say anything about the mini-sized vodka she’d poured into her afternoon tea a minute before.

  “Look,” Carmen said, “Even I can tell you Firewick Festival needs changing, but the last thing you should be doing is drunken magic. Don’t think I can’t tell when you’ve got a little extra in you. You start giggling.”

  Sherri tried to stifle a laugh. “I do not.”

  “See?” Carmen asked. “Maybe I need to come over.”

  “No you don’t. You found your warlocks. Enjoy them, and I’ll enjoy my afternoon tea fix.”

  “That’s what I’m afraid of. You were always a lightweight. I hate to think what silliness you’ll concoct in tipsy mode.”

  “I’m fine. You’re acting like I’m a child who’s eager to play with matches.”

  “Nope. You’re more of a torch player.”

  “Ha! Says the fire witch.”

  “Why don’t you go to the All Hallows’ Eve Ball? I hear it’s going to be big this year. You may find your warlocks there.”

  “I’m not really in the mood for partying any time soon. Besides, I don’t think I can take seeing all those happy couples dancing. The single warlocks go to Firewick Festival more than the All Hallows’ Eve Ball. Otherwise, it’d be like a really bad version of a magical prom, with men on one side and women on the other. It bores me just thinking about it.”

  “It’s not that bad. You have some time to decide. Promise me you’ll at least think about it.”

  “Fine I’ll think about it.”

  After saying goodbye to Carmen, Sherri took a sip of her tea. The warmth mixed with alcohol gave her a calming effect. Why did it feel like she was the only one without a mate? And now she would even be alone for Halloween, a day that witches and warlocks partied like rock stars.

  The gods above must have been laughing at her. Laughing and pointing.

  She studied her grimoire and looked through the different spells that involved love. The witches in her family didn’t have a good history with relationships, and none of the men Sherri dated were long-term mate potential. Her last boyfriend left because he thought she was getting a little too serious for him. What the hell did that even mean? Too serious, her sexy, curvaceous ass. A commitment wasn’t too much to ask for. Even she knew that.

  Well, if the Elemental Board wouldn’t send her an invitation to Firewick Festival to find her two warlocks, she’d bring her warlocks to her all by herself. If Carmen could beat the system, Sherri could, too.

  She settled on a spell that was to call forth love. It was like a beacon that attracted love to you. That sounded about right to her. Perfect, actually.

  Sherri gathered the ingredients and thanked the goddess that she actually had everything in her pantry. There was no need for weird crap like goats blood or baby tears, despite the stereotypical nonsense humans associated with witches. In reality, witches only used materials that came from the earth.

  For good measure, she doubled the dosage. Sherri wasn’t taking any chances that the spell could be a dud.

  The one Sherri chose called for ginger root for love protection and binding, sea salt to bless the ritual, jasmine for everlasting love, and an orange lily for passion. Finally, she added clothing she owned and one representation for the lovers she sought. She found a scarf and a necklace in her closet and set it among the
others. She wanted one fire warlock to keep things steamy and a rare earth warlock for stability. She lit two candles for fire and set a branch and beach sand in a bottle for earth.

  Sherri stood in the center of the circle with a piece of cloth in her hand. She had stitched her spirit symbol along with the symbols of earth and fire into her clothing. She’d never tried sewing tipsy before, but she made symbols that were close to the actual shapes.

  Her earth warlock would be grounded and her anchor to nature, while her fire warlock would set her passion ablaze. These two warlocks made her perfect pair of sexy alpha-male goodness.

  Now, all she had to do was gather enough courage to do the damn spell. It didn’t help that Carmen’s words still floated through her head. What if the spell went horribly wrong? What if the elemental board found out and punished her for improper use of magic?

  Hells, spells, and black cat bells, be damned. She wasn’t going to let her own insecurities or anyone stop her from getting the man she deserved, even if that meant facing the wrath of old witches and warlocks.

  It was now or never. She called to her spirit element until her magic vibrated through her body and sent goosebumps over her flesh. Her hands trembled slightly as she held her family grimoire and read the words written by other witches in her lineage.

  From life ‘till death, from heart into bone,

  Stems love eternal, in hearth through home.

  Send match deserved, for one who speaks,

  A bond tightly tied, so it never breaks.

  Let my words bring two lovers to see,

  Two parts of three, making up all of me.

  A lover nature instilled and born of earth,

  To implant stability and eternal rebirth.

  A lover with passion and born of fire,

  To ignite internal flame and burning desire.

  These two gifts from the gods, I ask of thee,

  With a grateful heart, forever blessed be.

  She looked around the room, as if expecting her men to jump out and scare her, but nothing happened. Maybe she said it wrong.

  Sherri was about to try it again, when she felt tremors beneath her feet. It was rare for Florida to get earthquakes, so she knew it had to be the magic. Without warning, warmth shot through her body, and her skin ran hot as if she stood out in the summer sun. Then the smell of earth invaded her nose. Scents of flowers filled the room and appeared from the walls and the ground.

  “Uh, oh,” Sherri said as she watched her living room transform to a flower shop. That was when the heat inside her broke away from her body. One side glowed bright green and the other a bright red.

  She could feel her elemental power merge with that of fire and earth to form a new entity beyond her spirit magic. It wasn’t until the light filled the room and blinded her that she wondered if she had made the worst mistake of her life. If she was drunk before, she was sober now as her body and apartment manifested the spell. Carmen’s words came back to haunt her: Don’t do drunken magic. Too late for that sage advice.

  Chapter 2

  Duke sat at the street-corner café and watched as a few people made their way home or hurried off to start the night shift. He was only visiting Kala West as part of his state itinerary. The town was known to be one of the most magically rich places in Florida, but he hadn’t seen any evidence of that yet.

  The sights didn’t matter. As long as he kept moving. Nobody cared enough to come after him, but he still didn’t want to take the chance. His dragon clan was a ruthless one, which was why he’d left them in Miami. He had no time for nonsense and bullshit, things his clan were proficient in.

  He was always on edge, and that didn’t seem to be changing anytime soon.

  A loud steaming noise from the cappuccino machine earlier had him out of his seat and ready for an attack. The few patrons in the café stared at him as if he was crazy. Maybe he was.

  His road trip was moving along slowly and without any adventure. Still, he couldn’t complain. Wasn’t that what he was trying to escape? Apparently, he wasn’t happy with anything. Too much action made him animalistic. Too little bored him out of his damn mind. There was no middle ground.

  “More coffee, sir?” the waitress asked him. How hadn’t he sensed her getting close to him? He was way off his game, jumpy when loud noises hit him and unable to hear even a young girl approach.

  “I’m good. Thanks,” he said, taking another sip of black coffee from his cup.

  “If you need anything, I’ll be right over there.” A smile lit up her face.

  Damn, was she flirting? The girl couldn’t have been older than nineteen.

  “You mean behind the counter where you’ve been since I walked in?” he asked.

  She blushed. “Yeah, I guess so.”

  “I’ll call you if I need you,” he said.

  Her smile only increased. “Great.”

  He watched her make her way back to the counter. If she had been older, he might have considered it, but he needed a real woman. The poor girl wasn’t his type. He needed a woman with curves a guy could hold on to and a body that fit snuggly against him. Now, that was a woman he’d flirt with.

  Not that he could be with anyone long-term. He couldn’t risk it. Not knowing who could be on his tail was too much to put a woman through. Unless it was someone he really cared for, maybe even enough to fight for. That was the type of person he’d never had in his life, and he had no reason to expect one to enter it anytime soon.

  Maybe he should’ve headed out west like he initially planned to do. He made a mental note to head that way as soon as he got out of Florida.

  Duke was so busy mapping his future destinations in his mind that he almost missed the teenager running past the café outside.

  It didn’t take long for him to spot the two men chasing him. Even inside the little shop, he could hear their threatening words.

  “Get back here, you fucking shifter!” One of the men screamed. “Run all you want, but we’ll find you, you little wolf shit.”

  Rage filled Duke until he nearly broke the coffee cup in his hand. Similar words said to him crashed back into his memory, words laced with prejudice and hatred associated with things he wanted to completely forget.

  He threw a tip on the table and ran after the three people. The last thing he needed was a fight, but his inner beast craved one.

  His dragon had a monster-sized temper that was hard to ignore, especially when he saw injustice done to other paranormal beings. He had no problems with shifters who weren’t dragons. In his travels, he’d met wolves, bears, lions, and more. To him, they were all the same. It didn’t matter if they were different species or not. They were all still shifters, and without helping each other, their whole secretive world could go to shit. Not that the younger ones out there cared about their future survival, but he did. Survival meant everything. After seeing so much cruelty, he had to believe that there were some shifters who nurtured their people rather than destroyed them.

  This wasn’t his fight, and any wise shifter would have left the teenager and the men chasing him alone, but the change he sought had to start somewhere. That meant he could make it his fight if he wanted to, and he was going to do just that.

  He caught up with them after a few blocks, but he didn’t want them to spot him too early. Duke stayed as hidden as he could while keeping the two chasers in his sight.

  He noticed a fourth man following them, too. He wore a black trench coat with matching pants and shoes, and even his hair was the color of night, making him blend into the darkness. Like him, the black-clothes-wearing guy looked as if he hunted them. He kept his distance, but never took his eyes off the three people of interest.

  The first three disappeared down an alleyway, and the fourth simply followed. Duke heard voices but couldn’t make out what they were saying. He eased close enough to finally hear them.

  “Get rid of this fucker,” someone said. “I’ll take care of the wolf mutt.”

  He p
eeped around the corner in time to see the man in black grab one of the men by the throat.

  “You better taste a lot nicer than you act, or I’m going to be pissed the hell off,” the man in black said before sinking his teeth in the asshole.

  Shit. So Mr. Dark and Spooky was a vampire. He’d heard stories of them and knew his dragon clan had dealt with them in the past, although he’d never seen one himself.

  He looked up in time to find the second misfit charging after the vampire. Duke wasn’t going to let the creature in black have all the action, not when his dragon ached for a challenge.

  Duke allowed his dragon to flex its scales. Not enough to shift but enough to feel the beast stretch out and crack its limbs out. Heat filled every limb of his body, and he could taste fire sparking in his lungs, but he held back to keep his beast at bay and restrain it from killing anyone. His dragon’s fire glowed beneath his skin as he charged at the man he was going to have some fun messing with.

  * * *

  Vampires in Florida. Jai’s coven master was fucking crazy. It sounded like the worst opener to an awful joke, one that Jai had no time for. He walked down the almost-empty streets of downtown Kala West, and he remained bored out of his century-old mind.

  The old lamppost lights lined the main streets and hid the brightness of the night sky. He craved the darker parts of the city. There was no way he’d stay in his hotel tonight, not after being cooped up all day. He wanted to see what the nightlife in town was like, and so far he was disappointed. Sure, bars and clubs were open, but it was nothing like Chicago, San Francisco, or even Paris, only three of the many places he’d lived in the last fifty years as a liaison for his people.

  As Jai walked, he could feel his mouth drying from the everlasting thirst. The most annoying part about being a vampire was that hunger and thirst tied up into one deadly craving. If a vampire went too long without blood, he’d experience starvation and dehydration all at once. Sadly, he knew what it was like to have both needs take over his body with no hope for fulfillment. He wouldn’t wish it on his greatest enemy, since it epitomized the meaning of suffering.