Bridge Hollow Shifters: The Complete Collection

by Samantha Leal

  When she looked up to him and his eyes were fixed on her, she knew she didn’t want to wait any longer. She simply couldn’t. Whatever her aunt had to tell her, was going to have to just wait… and she would deal with the consequences later.

  “Kiss me,” she whispered.

  Anson’s fingers stroked her neck and she trembled. The sensation of his rough hands at her throat was sending her into a mess of desire. Her pussy ached and she was already soaking wet for him, longing for him to rip off her clothes and take her right there and then over the desk in the middle of the store.

  “Are you sure?” he whispered. “If I do, I’ll imprint on you.”

  “I’m sure,” she said as she pushed herself up on her tiptoes.

  Their lips met and when he parted hers with his tongue and slipped it into her mouth, he took her breath away. The energy around them seemed to explode with passion and possibility, and she felt something forge between them. Something strong and binding, something that had been brewing since the moment they had both been born.

  His big arms gripped hold of her and she could feel his strength. He was such a big, muscular man, and she felt tiny next to him, but he was making her feel so safe and secure, none of that mattered.

  She wrapped her arms up and around his neck, kissing him deeply and melting into him, never wanting the moment to end.

  When their lips finally broke apart and she looked into his eyes, they were completely golden, and his pupils were dark and wide. He was panting and she could see the change in him, the animal was coming to the surface, but it didn’t frighten her.

  He wrapped his arms around her shoulders and pulled her in close. They were both breathless and wanting more… but they knew they had to wait.

  The kiss was just the beginning… he had imprinted on her now and she was marked as his. But to claim her, that was going to be the ultimate commitment, one that would join them together as soul mates until the end of time.

  Being so close to him and not being able to have him, was a new pain all its own. Krystal had to exercise the most willpower she had ever had in her life. To distract themselves, they started to work at the task at hand… the store. They wandered to the doorway of the basement and she opened the door to show Anson inside. The icy blast of air came hurtling toward them and he squinted his eyes as if to shield them from it.

  “There are barely any lights down there…” she said. “Could you help me find some extras?”

  Anson was staring intently ahead, but he didn’t seem to have heard her.

  “The cold,” he said as he shivered. “I’ve never known it to be like this.”

  Krystal grasped around for the light cord and pulled it. The small bulb above them came buzzing to life and the sinister staircase came into view ahead of them. It really was a terrifying sight, especially at night, and she was glad to have someone else there with her or she never would dare go down there.

  Anson smiled at her weakly, as if he had a bad feeling, but then he turned on the light on his cell phone and shone it further into the opening of the earth below.

  “I’ve owned this building for years,” he said. “And I’ve never known it to feel like this.”

  “With the cold?”

  He nodded.

  “I’ve only felt cold like this once before around here…” he seemed instantly wary. “And trust me… it wasn’t good.”

  “I came down here the other day and it was exactly the same… it was so chilling I almost couldn’t stand it. My legs ached after I had come back up to the store.” Krystal told him.

  Anson sniffed the air and she saw the amber return to his eyes. She was sure she heard a low growl come from deep inside him and it took her aback. She stepped away and watched how he became more animalistic, his shoulders hunched up and he growled again.

  “Anson?” she said with worry. “Are you okay?”

  “Step back,” he said, but his voice had changed, it was deeper and gruffer, and it was muddled in amongst a roar.

  She gasped and moved quickly out of the way, back through the doorway and into the hall, looking into the basement entrance a the large stone steps that ran deep below.

  Anson growled again and he turned and looked at her, his eyes flashed menacingly, but she wasn’t afraid. There was something about this that made her feel calm, as if she knew he was in control and if he had to shift, then it would be for a good reason.

  She watched as he rose up high from a crouching position, and then she gasped and clung to the wall behind her and watched in a vague sort of enchanted horror as his clothing and skin began to rip apart and fur sprang up in its place. The bear was growling, and Anson’s human shape was quickly morphing. To watch it happen in front of her very eyes was exhilarating, but she also knew she had to keep her distance, she wasn’t yet sure what he was capable of… would she be in danger from him when he was like this? Or would he still be able to keep control of himself and not let the animal completely take over?

  Anson screamed and let out a guttural roar as the dark, brown fur whipped around his entire body, he grew to almost twice his size and was so massive and hulking that he blocked out the light coming from the doorway.

  Krystal’s heart was pounding, and she was breathing so quickly she couldn’t hear anything over the thumping of her heart and her own ragged breath. She reached out and let her fingertips skim his fur and she smiled, she felt a connection to him still and she knew then she was safe.

  “He imprinted,” she whispered to herself.

  He had marked her as his, whether he had fully claimed her yet or not… he was bound to her now, and he was committed to her protection. She smiled and held her hand on her heart.

  Anson growled and rose to his hind legs. He was now fully the bear and his jaws were wide and massive as he roared into the basement. The chill from deep within kept getting stronger and stronger, so much so that she felt as if her fingers were beginning to freeze.

  She watched as Anson’s sniffed the air again and then he charged down the stone steps, breaking off pieces of wall from either side as he went. The building seemed to shake, and Krystal screamed but held her own out there. She clung to the wall by her fingertips and closed her eyes, just hoping and praying that something more terrible than her grizzly shifter boyfriend wasn’t about to come crawling back out of the basement and rip her into pieces.

  Below, she could hear banging and crashing, the bear was roaring, but apart from him there wasn’t another sound.

  Suddenly, it all went quiet, and Krystal waited for a moment, wiping the tears from her eyes and composing herself before she stepped forward on shaking legs.

  She peered in the doorway and at the crumbled walls and broken stone steps. As a bear, he must weigh so much that he had completely broken them and the stone was scattered all around the base of the staircase.

  “Anson?” she whispered.

  Her voice seemed to echo down there, and she tried to pick up the courage to move to the top step, but she didn’t know if it would collapse if she did.

  “Anson?” she asked again.

  The silence seemed to be deafening. It consumed her and her heart was racing so powerfully it was causing her ears to ring and her head to spin.

  Finally, there was a noise from below, as if someone was moving wood and earth, and then a massive heave as if something had been pushed over. She moved back against the wall and closed her eyes.

  Should she run? Or should she stay?

  Her intuition was telling her that Anson was all right, she could still feel him, and she didn’t want to run. If she were to be with him, then this would be her life. She had gotten used to the concept of shifters long ago… but actually seeing one turn in front of her was another ball game entirely, and she knew it was going to take her some time to adapt.

  She breathed out and tried to focus.

  “Anson?” she said again.

  “I’m okay…” his voice broke the silence from below and she gasped
and slunk against the wall, her feet giving out from beneath her with complete relief.

  He coughed and she heard him moving closer, as if he were beginning to climb back up the stairs.

  “Do you need help?” she asked.

  “No,” he replied. “I’m coming.”

  She clutched her arms to her chest and tried not to look too stunned and afraid, but as soon as he emerged and she saw the man she had fallen for, all her fears melted away. He was still there; he was still Anson.

  He had pulled back on his ripped jeans, but his torso was completely bare, and she could see his muscles and how big and defined they were. His shoulders were broad, and they looked strong and powerful. She gulped and tried not to drool.

  God was he sexy.

  When he fully climbed back out and was standing in front of her, she could see instantly that he was cradling something in his arms. Her heart began to pound even harder and her eyes were fixed fully on it, so much so she felt as if she could have burned holes into the top of it.

  It was a book.

  A big, very old looking book…

  “What… what is that?” she whispered.

  Anson gripped it in his hands and looked down at her before he shook his head and sighed.

  “I don’t think we even want to know…” he replied.

  13.

  Anson closed the door to the basement and locked it quickly with the key before he turned and looked around for something to block the doorway. Over at the very back of the store he could see an old dresser and he moved quickly and grabbed it with his big rough hands, passing the old book to Krystal and heaving the chest with all his might.

  “What are you doing?” she asked him. “What’s going on?”

  He looked up at her and could see the fear in her eyes. He didn’t want to alarm her, and he surely didn’t want to scare her away, but this was vital. He had to block the exit to the basement as best he could, and fast.

  He pulled the dresser right in front of it and then he moved and started to collect the unopened boxes that were still stacked high in the back hallway. He moved as fast as he could, grabbing a box and slamming it on top of the dresser, creating a barricade so that the door wouldn’t be able to be opened from the inside out.

  “Anson?” Krystal said again, with a little whimper in her voice. “You’re scaring me.”

  He leaned back against the wall and his breathing was fast and sharp. He had used so much energy when he had shifted, he now felt weak and he was so worried he didn’t know how to make it all better again.

  “Okay,” he said as he looked at the barricade he had made with the dresser and full boxes. “That should do. Let’s go.”

  He grabbed hold of her hand and raced with her toward the door of the store.

  “Wait!” she called. “Please let me know what’s going on.”

  The candles and lights were still lit, but Anson’s eyes kept darting back to the basement. He swallowed and rubbed his big, rough hands over his face and stubble, and he could feel the sweat pooling on his abs.

  “The cold,” he said, a chill running over him as he remembered it. “It’s what has been happening here in Bridge Hollow just before evil stirred up… something is below us… Something bad.”

  Krystal’s eyes widened and she moved quickly around the room blowing out the candles and grabbing her things.

  “What shall we do?” she asked as she looked at the book in her hands. It felt soft, but it was icy cold. The leather was almost frozen, and it was chilling her hands to the bone.

  “We need to leave,” he said. “Grab what you can, we have to get out of here now.”

  Anson drove the truck as fast as he could away from the store and stopped on the other side of town. He rubbed a sweaty hand down his face and turned to look at Krystal. She looked so beautiful, but he could tell she was scared. Her breathing was rapid, and her eyes were wide like a stunned animal.

  He reached over and gripped her hand to reassure her.

  “We’re going to be okay,” he said. “But I have to get this book to my pack.”

  “What’s inside?” she asked. She was looking at it as if she were afraid to open it.

  Anson shifted in his seat and took a deep breath.

  “For a while, we have had our suspicions of what has been happening here…” he began. “Connections to the old mine that collapsed over a hundred years ago… but we have never been able to find it.”

  She looked up at him and her eyes were so innocent, he just wanted to pull her to him and never let her go.

  “My aunt is away searching for some kind of parapsychologist,” she said. “She thinks that it’s the spirits of the people from the mine that have come back for revenge. She thinks their spirits are still here in town… hunting us all down.”

  Anson shook his head.

  “We thought that too at one point,” he admitted. “But now… after finding this… I know the truth.”

  He looked at the book and reached for it.

  When he had opened the door to the basement and felt the cold, he had known something was down there. His family had owned that building for decades, if not longer, and he spent a lot of time there. It was no coincidence that Beau had been drawn to it for her venture… it was clearly a hotspot for paranormal activity.

  As soon as he had stepped inside and he had sniffed the air, he had known that danger was down there. He smelled all the things that had clung to the sites of the other events and tragedies that had happened over the past year. He smelled death and decay, he smelled the blood of the vampire that he and his pack had killed along with the wolves. He smelled a world that was not of his own.

  His instinct had kicked in and he had raced at the spot in the basement that had been the strongest and he had turned it over, attacked it, not knowing if something was there waiting for him or whether he would destroy a wall and let something free.

  And that’s when he found the book.

  Buried in an old safe, hidden behind the back wall of the basement.

  The wall had come down so easily, he didn’t know how he had never done it before. But he had never shifted into his bear form inside the building, and he had never felt what he was feeling down there like he had that day.

  “This book,” he said. “It has all the answers.”

  He opened it and squinted at the old writing in calligraphic ink. Someone had spent a lot of time creating this tomb, and it was all written there and clear for him to see.

  The legend of Bridge Hollow… documented forever and written for someone to find it when the time was right.

  It turned out the time was now… and that someone was him.

  His eyes scanned the words and a knot formed in his throat as he read… it was so much worse than any of them had realized… and now, it was going to fall on him to break the news to the rest of the shifters of the town…

  He had been chosen.

  …The Smyth family of early Bridge Hollow made a pact with the native American Indians of the area that once they purchased the land and took over that they would not dig for gold nor build on the proposed site. Many mistakes were made over those months, but ultimately, once the mining accident happened on that sacred land, a great new threat was unleashed on our world.

  A veil was pierced, between good and bad… The mine opened a vortex, a place in time and space, that allowed creatures from other dimensions to travel here to us and to come into our world.

  To save the planet Earth, the mine was sealed and built over, it’s real location never revealed to the many people who questioned its existence over the years. The new and existing town of Bridge Hollow was fully built upon it, with this place where this book will reside, the actual gateway to the mine and therefor the other world itself.

  Another mine has been created to lure wandering eyes and keep our secrets safe. Many people died that day and their families need somewhere to grieve. But it is too dangerous here. The mine they believe collapsed is loca
ted on the mountain and shall henceforth be the only mine known to have existed here on this land.

  The real gateway to the other world must forever remain sealed or there will be grave consequences. It is the shifter families of Bridge Hollow, the packs of animal men, who must protect this place, and therefore the rest of the world as we know it.

  Krystal was reading with him and he could feel her shaking.

  “Holy shit,” she whispered. “Is this all true?”

  Anson looked at her and nodded, “I’m afraid so…,” he said. “And now, I need to get this book to my pack, and fast. We have been looking for the mine for months and had believed it to be up on the mountain… why we weren’t told of this sooner is a mystery all its own… but we have to act fast. We need to secure that gateway as best we can.”

  Krystal nodded and he smiled at her before he cupped her face and pulled her lips to his. He kissed her and she tasted so sweet and inviting, he had completely fallen for her and would do anything to protect her and Heidi. He had to get the book to the pack, then he had to go home and make sure that Krystal and his family were safe. He was weighted under responsibilities, but thankfully he had been there at just the right time. The cold in the basement had been so intense, it could only be a matter of hours before the next wave of evil burst through and raged hell on the town.

  “Come on,” he said as his eyes glinted at her. “Let’s go.”

  She gripped his hand and it felt so good to have her by his side. He felt stronger than ever, and he knew it was down to her.

  14.

  Krystal’s head was a complete mess as she looked across at Heidi sleeping soundly in her bed. Her cell phone was clutched in her palm and she was still shaking from all the revelations the day had brought with it. When she had called Anson and asked for help, she had no clue of what they were about to find. Sure, she knew things were happening in the town, that bad stuff had started to creep its way in and that people were scared… but never in a million years did she think she would be caught up in it to this level. That she would be right there when an ancient manuscript was discovered to explain to the shifter packs of Bridge Hollow the true extent of the threat.