Submission MMA Shifter Urban Fantasy: (The Unleashed Book 1)

by Mandie Stevens

  Odecir stood. “You’ll be back for jiu-jitsu at nine. You can eat afterward until you find out her schedule, then we can adjust.”

  Corbin stood dismissing us. “Jack, get something to eat before you head out, and for god’s sake, change your clothes.”

  I’d missed my crotch rocket. I’d crashed it outside Missouri. I’d had to leave in a hurry, so I bought a bus ticket to NOLA then found my way to Tampa.

  Odecir said all the cars in the garage were for communal usage; we only had to sign them out, and I wanted to sign this motorcycle out daily. It was royal blue and sang to me. Take me, Jack, I’m yours.

  Delilah Johnson lived in a suburb about fifteen minutes outside the downtown area. Most of the houses looked the same, but they were all clean, and the street was lined with palm trees. After I established which house was hers, I parked down the street, my bike was positioned behind a stream of cars. Even though it was only ten in the morning, my forehead beaded with sweat. I wasn’t used to this sweltering heat.

  Two cars were parked in the driveway: a small older model red Corolla and a large brand-new white Tahoe. The front door opened, and a short curvy dark-haired girl come out walking to the truck. The breeze picked up, and the smell of charcoal filled my nose. Dammit, she turned to stare directly at me, our eyes connecting. Her nostrils flared, fuck. The paperwork said she had moved here with a friend, but it didn’t say she’d moved here with a fucking vampire. I should have worn my pendant to mask my smell.

  She slammed her truck door and stalked straight toward me. I braced myself just in case she was dumb enough to strike in broad day light. Now I understood her hat, sunglasses, and long sleeves in the middle of summer. The vampire paused when a blonde who I presumed was Delilah bounced to the truck.

  The vampire turned toward her truck and crawled inside. She glanced my way before pulling out of the driveway.

  I slammed my hand down the handlebars. I’d already been made, and by a vampire. What was a human doing hanging out with a vampire? Delilah didn’t look to be a blood whore.

  Maybe this was why Corbin’s friend wanted her watched? How in the hell was I supposed to follow Delilah now? I wiped away the sweat from my brow. I had to follow her; otherwise, my position in the pack was jeopardized.

  I started the motorcycle and followed them from a distance. I recognized the area they pulled into. It was downtown, and only a few blocks from Cap’s place. I made a mental note to check on him soon, not that he’d want to see me. The vampire and Delilah walked into a small coffee shop on the corner, the vampire giving me a look before she stepped inside.

  The sun was getting higher in the sky, and I needed something cool to drink. After twenty minutes, I grabbed my bag and walked into the shop. The place was cozy, a few patrons scattered throughout. Delilah and her friend sat in the middle of the shop. I slung my backpack on a corner table to save it and headed to the counter.

  The red-headed barista leaned on the counter. I couldn’t quite place what she was, some sort of shifter but definitely not a wolf “I haven’t seen you in here before,” she purred. “What can I get you, sweetie?”

  I leaned in next to her. “A hot tea and a bottled water. What do you know about those girls over there?”

  Her eyes darted to the only other patrons in the café. “A little. Vonny is a hot little dish. Quite protective of the human.”

  I raised my eyebrows. “Are they involved?”

  “I don’t think you’re her type, doll, but no, they’re just friends. I don’t think I’m her type, either, but if you are looking to be someone’s pet, I can hook you up. I know plenty of vamps.” She shrugged. “Actually, I’m not into the blood whore thing, but she is cute.” She reached out her hand and purred. “I’m Kitty.”

  “Definitely not looking to be a blood whore. I should have guessed you were a cat. I’m Jack.” Captain was right; there were a lot of different shifters here in Tampa.

  She shrugged. “If not a pet, what do you want with them?” She poured hot water into a cup. “Want to try our new citrus blend?”

  I smiled. “Sure. I was just curious.”

  Kitty handed me my cup. “Hmm, yeah. I bet.”

  I pulled the card out of my wallet and handed it to her. “Nice chatting with you, Kitty.” I winked.

  I grabbed a newspaper sitting at the counter and slid into my seat.

  The vampire watched me over the top of her coffee. I didn’t know they could drink anything other than blood. All I knew was that they were dangerous and growing up I was forbidden to go near them. Delilah had her back to me, but she moved in animation as she spoke with the vampire. A smile crossed my lips when she giggled. You could hear her joy. My smile made the vampire grimace even more.

  Delilah turned to see what her friend was so cranky about, and I got a good look at her. Her skin was sun-kissed, her blonde hair had streaks in it that were lighter than others, and her lips were a soft pink, I couldn’t quit staring at her lips. When they pursed, I looked back down at my newspaper.

  My mark picked up her coffee and put her purse strap over her chest then headed toward the door with a final glance my way. The vampire followed behind her saying something as she pointed to the back of the café. Delilah nodded and went out the front.

  The vampire slid into my booth across from me. “Why are you following her?” she hissed.

  Interesting. She’d said not us but her.

  “Her family wants to make sure she’s okay, probably because she’s hanging out with a vampire.” I said, leaning forward, challenging her. She wouldn’t strike in here; it would only aggravate her.

  “Her family knows I’m her roommate. Do you think they would have allowed me to live with her if they didn’t know? You damn werewolves are so protective. It is probably her pack that put you on her.”

  I leaned back. “Her pack? I thought she was human?”

  The vampire crossed her arms. “Oh, she is, but her adoptive parents aren’t.”

  I stared at her for a second, uncertain. Wolves were taught from a young age that vampires weren’t to be trusted, yet I believed her. Why would they allow her to associate with a vampire?

  “I have to follow her. It’s my job.”

  She leaned forward and tapped the table. “Listen, you have to do what you have to, but you need to know she has no idea her family are wolves. Her father doesn’t want that for her, not unless she marries one. Then they’ll let her know, but that will not happen if I have anything to do with it.” She shook her head. “A pack would crush her soul.”

  I watched her. “I guess I’ll be seeing you around.”

  She narrowed her eyes and held out her hand. “Since we both want to keep Lyla safe, I’m Vonny.”

  Good to know: Delilah went by Lyla. I took the vampire’s shockingly cold hand. “I’m Jack.”

  Chapter Eight

  Packs that ran on human time were new to me, we only followed moon time: New moon, full moon, and so on—where were we in the month, not hours. Our wolf selves felt the time; those who dealt with humans followed clocks, but I never had to, and I wasn’t sure I’d get used to it. My father always said that being punctual was never my strong point, and by the line of cars parked by the gym, my watch told me that I was far too late.

  My day had been spent following Lyla and Vonny from a distance as they applied for jobs. I’d followed them until they went home.

  Now I pulled my bike underneath the oaks by the metal building and ran inside. Damn, I was starving. I’d grabbed a quick lunch and swung by to see Captain, but that had been hours ago. There was no time to eat now.

  The opening was huge. The entire building was lined with mats, and there were about fifty people lined up with Odecir and Corbin standing at the front facing everyone.

  Odecir scowled at me and yelled, “Nice of you to join us. You need a phone, bro. Ramirez, help pretty boy here get ready.” The entire class turned and watched me. My wolf wanted to fight or flight. I took a deep breath to cal
m him. So much for keeping my head down.

  Great. Ramirez—out of all the people, Odecir had to choose him. Could my day get any worse? He was in the middle of the line, but he nodded to Odecir and jogged over to me.

  Ramirez looked me up and down smiling. “Let’s get you a gi. You are about six foot?”

  My wolf growled, but I smiled, nodding.

  He relaxed a little at my smile. “You’re probably a size A1.”

  I followed him to several shelves. Ramirez pulled out a black uniform, checked the size and tossed it at me. There was a patch on the back, a large black wolf. I recognized it from being at his fight.

  My stomach growled. There was no way I’d get through this without something to eat, but I’d have to suck it up and try. Ramirez grabbed a few protein bars and shoved them into my chest.

  “Eat up. Grab more if you need them. Corbin has all kinds of food stuffed everywhere because of our metabolisms. You should see Odecir’s. Panthers are even worse than us. Go change through those doors.”

  I reached up and grabbed the food reluctantly. What was the change in attitude from Ramirez? Neither my wolf nor I trusted him. He went from wanting to murder me to being almost decent. I had no option but to trust him. Odecir and Corbin did, so I had to. I turned around and walked through the doors to change my clothes.

  Chapter Nine

  My body fucking hurt. I could barely move without pain crawling through my body. Even the tips of my fingers hurt. I stretched my hands, making a fist and releasing it again.

  My senses spiked. I jumped, growling. Ramirez stood over me with a large grin.

  “Time to get up, pretty boy. Odecir sent me in here to get you. We’re going on a run. Change and meet us under the oak trees.”

  Dammit, I was hungry, hungrier than usual. My body wasn’t used to this physical activity. I moved to sit up, but my head pounded and my body ached. Ramirez had his arms crossed as he leaned against the doorway.

  “It’ll get easier, I promise.”

  I grunted as I tossed my legs onto the floor. “Yeah, how long does that take?”

  There was a lengthy pause before he answered. “Give it a month or two you won’t feel like death anymore.”

  I ran my hand over my face. “Great.”

  Ramirez turned to leave the room. I pulled my clothes off, tossing them on the bed. I made my bed after seeing Odecir’s bed tidy, then changed into my wolf self. That even hurt more than usual. Nothing wanted to move this morning. Why was I doing this? Oh, because Corbin told me I had to. I grabbed a couple of protein bars off the dresser before I changed.

  My wolf padded out to the trees where a couple hundred shifters stood. Most were werewolves. I could pick Corbin out of everyone else. He certainly wasn’t the biggest wolf, but he stood out. He had an amber aura about him like he had in my mind. His fur was dark black, and his eyes were blue. He watched me with interest as I ran up. Dammit, I was the last one again.

  Next to Corbin was a large black panther, almost twice the size of Corbin. I presume that was Odecir. As soon as I joined the ranks, everyone ran. The last time I’d really run in this form, just to stretch my legs, was the day I’d found my father bleeding out. The day I ended his life. My wolf growled at my memory. I shook my head; we’d done what we had to do.

  Now my wolf wanted his time to just run, and we did. We ran with everything we had. We ran faster and faster, passing shifters left and right. Before I knew it, I was running with Odecir, Corbin, Ramirez and Jonathan. Jonathan was a medium-sized brown wolf with the white spot on his hind quarter. He turned, growling at me. Corbin charged me. My wolf and I panicked. Corbin rolled over me. He stopped, turned around, jumped toward me and ran. Odecir had a huge grin. he nudged me with his large head then ran after Corbin. It took a moment to realize they were playing and not attacking. Ramirez ran past me after our alpha and professor. I hopped up, running after them.

  I lost track of time. We ran and ran and ran. My wolf and I felt freer than we had in our entire life. I had no responsibility. We never caught back up with Corbin until they were laying under the oak trees. The pack all stumbled in and laid out. I looked up to the rising sun. I had to get going. The girls would be at coffee shops soon but first I needed some food.

  It looked like the rest of the pack had the same idea. Everyone headed back to the barracks.

  The girls were at their usual table when I arrived at the café. Vonny looked up and smiled when she saw me. A smile from a vampire still weirded me out. I grabbed my tea and a paper then headed back to my corner table.

  I skimmed the want ads, but there weren’t many listed. I wasn’t sure if this was the norm since I’d never had to look for a job in my life. I looked up to see Vonny watching me, I wasn’t the only one who noticed. Lyla turned around to look at me then looked back to Vonny, who scowled.

  Lyla stood and walked toward me. Shit, shit, she was coming straight at me and I couldn’t leave. She slid into the booth across from me, crossed her hands and leaned forward. This was the first time I’d been so close to her. She smelled like sunshine and sunscreen. It made me happy.

  Her blue eyes narrowed. “Listen to me, lover-boy, I see you following us. You aren’t Vonny’s type, and I thought I’d say something before she gets pissy. Sometimes she’s a little hard to deal with.”

  I laughed. My reaction caught Lyla off guard. “Why do you think I would be interested in Vonny and not you?”

  Her blue eyes widened. “Because everyone’s interested in Vonny, and besides I’m not interested, lover-boy.”

  I held my hands up. “Listen, I didn’t hit on you. You came to me.”

  She pursed her lips and shrugged. I lifted the paper and waved it. “I’m new to town, and I’m looking for a job. I noticed you both in here the other day, and I heard you are new to town, too. I was just trying to get the guts to come introduce myself. It doesn’t hurt to find friends.”

  Lyla leaned back and crossed her arms. “No one looks in the paper for a job.”

  I shrugged. “I’ve never had to look for a job before. I was disinherited. By the way, my name is Jack.”

  Her eyes lit up as she laughed. “Interesting. I’m Lyla, and that’s Vonny. You’ve intrigued me Jack, we’re on the job hunt, too.”

  “If I don’t search the paper, where do I look, oh wise one?”

  She looked over to her roommate who was watching us with intensity. Lyla looked back to me. “Come sit with us. Vonny looks like she bites, but she isn’t so bad.”

  I snickered. If she only knew her roommate was a vampire. I stood and followed her to their table. The ‘don’t be seen’ had flown out the window at this point.

  “Hey, Vonny, this is Jack. He just moved here, and he has no clue how to look for a job.” As Lyla laughed her entire face lit up.

  The vampire smiled over her coffee. I sat next to her, but I still wasn’t used to her fragrance. It wasn’t bad, just different.

  “Nice to meet you, Jack. What do you mean, you don’t know how to look for a job?”

  Lyla snorted. “I think he made Daddy mad and was disinherited.”

  I smiled and took a sip of my tea. “Yeah, it was something like that, but it was my mum.”

  Lyla’s brows furrowed. “What did you do? I mean, if you don’t mind me asking?”

  I thought for a moment, “I don’t live up to her expectations, let’s just leave it at that.”

  “Fair enough, where you from?” Lyla took a sip of her coffee.

  “Canterbury in England, but my mum is from New England. I spent time here and there.”

  “Which explains your fucked-up accent.” Vonny laughed.

  I snorted. She wasn’t wrong.

  Lyla arched her brow. “And the lack of job?”

  “It isn’t like I haven’t gone to college. I graduated from a small school in New England. I just haven’t put my degree to use yet.” I decided not to tell them about my law degree. As a second son, I was never supposed to be alpha, not the
Duke. I didn’t necessarily need a job, but it was considered appropriate to do something commendable. It didn’t matter, anyway, I only got it to please my mum. Not that she would never really be pleased anyway.

  Vonny pursed her lips and looked down at her phone. “Let’s see, what does someone with no experience do?”

  I’d love to have known what experience she would list on her resume. Who knew how old she really was?

  Vonny tapped on her phone and pulled up a screen, flashing it at me. It looked like a mini-computer.

  “You find jobs on your phone?”

  Lyla giggled. “Are you from the stone ages?”

  “I wasn’t online much,” I mumbled. I wasn’t sure even Vonny knew what our world was like. Until I’d gone to university, I had had little experience with technology, and even then, it wasn’t encouraged. The university was filled with mostly shifters, and our professors were old school. My roommate once showed me how to look something up on a computer in the library but it was slow and frustrating.

  I’d have to ask Odecir to show me how to use a phone.

  “You can tag along with us. Vonny has an interview at an Oscar’s, and I’m putting in applications all over town.”

  I guess that was one way to keep an eye on Lyla although I’d have to deal with smelling vampire all day.

  Chapter Ten

  I scarfed down a full plate of pasta and meatballs, then grabbed a protein drink on my way to Corbin’s office. The stone-faced secretary pointed towards the open door, barely looking up from her computer.

  Jonathan sat across from Corbin, rolling a pencil between his fingers. He glanced at me then back to his pencil, barely acknowledging my presence. Odecir sat in the chair next to him but stood, offering me the chair when he saw me.

  I waved him down. “Nah, I’m good. Thanks.”

  Corbin looked up from his computer. “Sit.”

  He was stern. I did what he said.

  “I see you took my advice and dressed a little better. Jonathon, you gave him a card?