20 Shades of Shifters: A Paranormal Romance Collection

by Demelza Carlton

  Chapter 24

  Three days passed without any incidents. Their groceries were delivered, the property was patrolled, and they lived in a bubble, free of whatever turmoil was happening around them. Her cougar basked in the sun on the patio. She was too frightened to leave the confines of her home. It was like the quiet before the storm.

  Samantha felt like she was living in a pressure cooker and soon it would have to be opened and all the steam would escape. Barry was in the house doing research, pretending everything was normal. Their discussions were benign, never focusing on what they had initiated. The tension was so thick; it was difficult to breathe at times.

  She stretched, her paws reaching out as if grabbing something unattainable. In her feline form, everything weighing her down was almost forgotten. Every time the wind shifted, she caught the scents of the cougars patrolling her territory. Their presence made her cat uneasy.

  Her stomach growled. It was time to shift and start preparing lunch. But she continued to lay on the cushioned lounge chair. She was not used to the inactivity the last several days involved. Her mind was too distracted to work. She had a full schedule once they arrived in Denver.

  The phone rang. It was a harbinger of something bad that motivated her to stop thinking about shifting and actually do it. She jumped from her chair and shifted in front of the entrance to the mud room. Her clothing was laid out where she had left it.

  When she entered the kitchen, Barry was shouting on the phone. She had never seen him lose his temper before. He was sexy in this state of agitation.

  “You left her unchaperoned?” he yelled. A short silence followed as whoever was on the phone responded. “I know she’s not a prisoner in your house, Nate. But Mom’s in a fragile mental state.”

  A chill ran down her spine. It had been a minor miracle Nancy’s children had kept her away from the hardware store. The business had been her means to escape her unhappy home life. It was ironic the same man who made her miserable in their home was civil while they were at work.

  “Yes, I will check the hardware store.” Barry reached for her hand when he noted her presence. Just his touch had the ability to soothe her concern related to her best friend.

  Barry ended the call and swore aloud. He pulled her into his embrace. His nose buried in the crook of her neck, taking in her scent.

  “What has happened?” She knew the answer, but she wanted her guess validated.

  “My mother took off in one of the cars,” Barry replied. “She said she was getting the mail and left.”

  Samantha couldn’t blame Nancy for seeking freedom. She knew what it was like being a prisoner in her own home. Nancy didn’t have the security of having her own possessions around her. Cougars and wolves were meant to roam, not be stationary.

  “I’m going with you,” she announced.

  Rather than arguing with her, Barry nodded. He either agreed with her or didn’t have the energy to fight. With Nancy missing, every minute was precious.

  They headed for her front door when there was a light knock. Samantha knew it was Nancy. The only question was who she had come to see. Her son or her supposed best friend.

  She sprinted to the door and took a crying Nancy into her arms once she opened it. When Nancy drew away from her to breathe, Samantha noticed her face was bruised. Anger brewed to a boiling point.

  “Did that bastard hit you?” Samantha cried.

  Barry muttered something and was out the door before she could stop him. It was unfortunate his keys were in his pocket. It wasn’t a reach to figure he was going to confront his father.

  She led her friend into the living room. “Nancy, is Dave at the hardware store?” After her friend nodded, Samantha knew she needed to get Barry backup from his brothers. “I’ll get you some wine.”

  Leaving Nancy, Samantha headed for the kitchen where Barry had left his cell phone. She called Nate and gave him an update on his mother’s location and where she suspected Barry was headed. In order not to enrage another member of the Simpson family, she didn’t tell him Nancy had been battered. It was bad enough Barry was behind the wheel furious.

  Samantha poured Nancy a glass of wine and filled another glass with water. One of them had to have their wits about them. She doubted Dave would show up at her house. If he did, they had three cougars still patrolling the grounds. As a second thought, Samantha pulled a steak out of the refrigerator and put it on a plate.

  When she entered the living room, she handed the glass of wine and the raw meat to Nancy. She wanted to create a safe environment for her. If Nancy wanted to explain her condition, she had the freedom to do so.

  Nancy took a sip of wine and put the steak on her eye. Samantha sat back, fighting tears, watching her friend. She had been there for her when Ian had struck her. Nancy never judged or gave her advice, she was just there. She could do no less.

  “Where is Barry?” Nancy asked. She removed the raw meat from her face and looked around.

  Somehow, she had missed her son react to her condition and storm out of the house. Would Nancy have tried to stop her son from confronting his father? The truth was never a good thing to hide.

  “He got one look at you and took off,” Samantha replied. “I called Nate when I was in the kitchen to give him a heads up. He should beat Barry to the hardware store. Why didn’t you ever tell me Dave was physically abusive?”

  Her friend lowered her eyes and took a healthy drink. “I was too embarrassed.”

  “But you knew Ian had been abusive, I would have understood,” she replied.

  “You had the sense not to marry Ian.” Nancy took the steak and put it against her eye again. “I wasn’t as smart as you were. My parents thought it was a good match, so I married Dave. He had the reputation of hitting other women, but I thought he’d treat his wife differently. When I became immediately pregnant he didn’t touch me. It was only recently that he fell back into his bad habits.”

  Samantha hissed at that statement. A bad habit was biting fingernails or drinking too much. From what she could piece together, the abusive behavior restarted before she and Barry got together. At least, she wasn’t responsible for what her friend was going through.

  Nancy leaned back and closed her eyes. Agitated, Samantha got up and paced. Barry was about to confront his father and she was helpless to stop him.

  Barry’s fingers clutched the steering wheel. He was parked in front of the hardware store. Nate’s car was beside his. Samantha must have called his brother after he left the house. She was always one step ahead of him. A born alpha, he kept claiming. Just thinking about her caused him to calm down.

  He opened the car door and got out. His steps were measured, working to control his anger. Fury had caused him to storm out of Samantha’s house without so much as checking on his mother. Pure instinct had driven him. For the first time in his life, he wanted to do another harm. As a doctor, he had sworn the opposite.

  When he walked into the hardware store, it appeared it was business as usual. Non-family members were helping customers. He headed for the back where the offices were located.

  As he walked down the hall, he heard growls and a yelp. He ran and entered his father’s office. His brothers were standing over his father’s prone body. Blood was all over the carpet.

  Both his brothers shifted into their human forms, healing most of their injuries. His father was unconscious in his wolf form. The bastard deserved to bleed to death, but he didn’t want his death to haunt his brothers for the rest of their lives.

  “Get a first aid kit,” he shouted to his brothers. Nate ran from the office. “Marc, contact Alpha Hopkins and tell him what happened. Tell him we also need the paperwork to sever the relationship between our parents where the pack is concerned. We’ll get an attorney for the other stuff. Mom is going to Colorado with me and Samantha until this blows over.”

  Marc stood over him and smiled. “Our alpha is right. We need more than brawn to properly run this pack. I may have never
said this, but I’m proud of what you have accomplished.”

  He never went after his family’s respect. But now that he had Marc’s, he was surprised how much it mattered to him. He had their support where Samantha was concerned, but it was different than respect. It only reinforced he needed to improve the relationship with his brothers and find excuses to come home, rather than reasons to stay in Denver.

  Nate came in with the first aid kit and a roll of paper towels. He pulled out pieces of the paper towel and had his brothers hold it over the worse wounds their claws and teeth had created. He found the smelling salts, opened the packet and placed it underneath his father’s nose. The ammonia should bring him to consciousness and allow him to shift.

  The wolf’s head jerked at the odor and his father quickly shifted to his human form. While his father was in a disoriented state, Barry quickly examined his body for any life threatening injuries. The shift had healed him, leaving only superficial wounds.

  When his father had his wits about him, he pushed his sons away. Rather than being perturbed by the barrage of insults, Barry was amused by the array of names they were called. He examined each of his brothers’ faces to see how they reacted to his father’s words. The loss of his father’s affection was a foregone conclusion where he was concerned, but his brothers had always been close to him. His treatment of their mother had set the foundation for what would ultimately occur. Neither of them seemed particularly upset.

  Alpha Hopkins walked through the door. His brothers had dressed, but his father was still naked on the bloody carpet. Although he was still a member of the pack, Barry didn’t believe he belonged any longer. His brothers would represent the family for whatever would occur next.

  “I’m going to wash up and head back to Samantha’s,” Barry told his brothers. “Mom will spend the night with us and we’ll talk in the morning.”

  Neither of his brothers tried to stop him. Barry headed for the private bathroom in the office section of the building and washed his father’s blood from his hands. He started laughing when he thought about washing his hands of his father.

  A sense of freedom embraced him as he made his way back to the car. He wasn’t sure if it was because he was heading back to Samantha, had the respect of his brothers, or the finality of the relationship with his father. Maybe it was best not to think about it too much, just enjoy it.

  He turned on the radio and drove to Samantha’s. It was not the structure he was returning to, but the woman who held his heart captive. She had already agreed to return to Colorado with him. This short trip to visit his parents had turned into a life changing week. It was overwhelming, but he knew it was destiny.

  Soon after he parked, Samantha was outside to meet him. She embraced and kissed him. He was truly home.

  “Are you all right?” Samantha asked. Her eyes surveyed his face. “I kept checking my phone for messages without alerting Nancy to what I was doing. My carpet has a huge depression from where I was pacing.”

  Barry tightened his hold on her. “Everything is fine. By the time I got there, my brothers had incapacitated my father. Alpha Hopkins is there now.”

  Hand-in-hand, they walked to her front door and entered. His mother was safe, sleeping on the couch. He checked her eye without waking her. The steak he noted on the table had brought down the swelling.

  “Let’s prepare dinner and I’ll give you the details,” Barry said. “I’d like my mom to spend the night if that’s all right.”

  He was rewarded with a blazing smile. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

  Samantha was slicing vegetables for a salad when her phone rang. She reached for it and her pallor quickly paled as she listened to the voice on the other end. Her shaking hand dropped the knife she had been holding.

  Chapter 25

  Samantha ended the call and stared into space. Barry was asking her something, but she was in a fog. Panic consumed her. She couldn’t put two thoughts together.

  Barry grabbed each of her shoulders and shook her. “What’s wrong?”

  “I need a drink,” she mumbled.

  He forcefully held her in place. “You don’t need a drink; you need to talk to me. What happened?”

  She hesitated. If she repeated what Levon Baker told her, it would make it more real. The fog in her mind was getting denser. Barry squeezed her shoulders a little harder, bringing her back to reality.

  “One of the patrol officers was checking the far end of the property.” She took a deep breath before she continued. “Harvey Smith was found dead and Ian’s scent was all over his corpse. They are bringing his body to the road so it can be taken to the medical examiner.”

  A chill ran down her spine. Harvey was a friend of Ian’s. If he’d kill a close friend, she was in real danger.

  “Did he mention how long Harvey has been dead?” Barry asked.

  Samantha staggered on her feet; she needed to sit. Barry helped her to one of the kitchen table chairs. “Levon said his body was still warm. There’s a possibility Ian has shifted and is somewhere on the property. We should have one of your brothers pick up your mother.”

  “My mother is a crack shot,” Barry told her. “I understand she has a concealed weapon permit and probably has a gun in her purse. By some miracle, she hasn’t shot my father yet.”

  “Oh, God.” Samantha put her head between her knees. He was joking and she was about to lose her lunch.

  Barry left her side and filled a glass full of water. He returned and guided the glass into her shaking hands. “Sip, don’t gulp it. Try to relax.”

  The cold water felt wonderful as it bathed her parched throat. Samantha hadn’t realized how thirsty she was. Her head was pounding. She never handled stress well.

  She debated with herself if they should wake Nancy and have Nate or Marc get her. Barry was right, her best friend was a great marksman. But she didn’t want her involved in this mess. She had enough to deal with related to her failed marriage.

  “There are ibuprofen in the cabinet by the sink; can you bring me two?” She continued to rub her temple, but the headache had not subsided and was quickly becoming a migraine.

  Barry pulled the bottle out of the cabinet and poured two capsules into his hand. He handed them to her and she took the pills, chasing them down with the water left in her glass. Under normal circumstances, she’d head upstairs and sleep off the headache. But not today.

  “I don’t mean to pry, but I need to understand what we are up against,” Barry said. He knelt at her feet and had such a concerned look on his face. It warmed her heart. “How violent was Ian before?”

  How she wished she could have forgotten that time in her life. One minute, she was convinced she loved Ian, the next minute he cheated on her. She wondered if she hadn’t caught him if she would have ended up in the same position as Nancy was in now.

  “Things were good for a while with Ian,” Samantha confessed. “He was fun and carefree. I needed a little spontaneity in my ordered life. But I wasn’t enough for him. He cheated on me and ended up becoming violent when I kicked him out of my house. Can you imagine, he blamed be for his inability to be faithful? Plus, his old apartment had been rented and he had nowhere to go.”

  “Samantha, how violent did he get?”

  She lowered her eyes. “He beat me and I had a couple cracked ribs. Levon put out a restraining order against him. Your mother and the rest of my friends were unaware of what happened. I headed to Kauai to recuperate. A friend of mine had a property in a secluded area. It was constantly raining, but my cougar loved the rainforest. When I got back, I confided in your mother.”

  “You deserved so much more,” Barry commented.

  “Most women do,” she whispered in response to the last comment. It was not meant to be a verbal comment, but a mental commentary on the state of some men overpowering women with violence as a means to an end.

  The drugs had quickly reduced the magnitude of her headache and she was no longer nauseous. She rose
and placed the glass in the dishwasher. For several minutes, she stood looking out the window above her sink. Knowing what would soon occur, she turned away from the window.

  “Was he still around when you returned from Kauai?” Barry asked.

  Samantha smiled. “Levon had run him out of town. I was still on edge and ended up buying a gun. If he broke into the house in his cougar form, I wouldn’t have been able to stop him on my own. Levon taught me how to fire the gun. I don’t think Nancy even knows I own one.”

  “Where is the gun now?” Barry asked.

  “It’s upstairs in the gun safe. For some reason, I feel safer during the day. I thought with all the protection Levon has provided, it would have caused Ian to stay away. I guess I was wrong.”

  She looked at Nancy sleeping peacefully on the couch. Her head was still pounding. “I’m going upstairs to lie down and close my eyes. My stupid headache hasn’t completely gone away yet.”

  Barry approached and looked over her shoulder at what was happening outside. He brought his lips to hers and wrapped his arms around her. How could anything bad happen when she was in his arms?

  “While you do that, I’m going to check with Levon. I may be able to provide some assistance.”

  Samantha doubted he could help, considering he was a wolf. There was always an uneasy peace between her pride and the pack. They opened their town to different shifters, but that didn’t mean the cats totally trusted the wolves. Everything that was happening was driving a wedge between her and her pride. Although she didn’t want to admit it to herself, she may have to choose between her mate and the community she always counted on.

  Barry exited the house through the kitchen door. His timing was fortuitous. Two men came out of the rear woods carrying a body bag. He immediately spotted Levon Baker, who approached both men.

  Being a doctor, Barry had to face death everyday. He had to put a distance between himself and his patients, knowing a number of them would die. It was hard losing someone he had tried to save, but death was inevitable for everyone. Shifters lived longer than humans, but they still faced the slow deterioration of their bodies and illness.