20 Shades of Shifters: A Paranormal Romance Collection

by Demelza Carlton

  A sob caught in her throat. And she forced it down. Papi had always said that crying didn’t help anything.

  She sniffed.

  Sometimes she felt like she was going crazy, reliving memories that could never have happened. But she had to stay strong.

  What would have happened if she didn’t have Finn? How would she have gone up against the senator on her own? That was if she had survived falling into the river. She should count her blessings, another thing Papi was always telling her, and something she usually found easy to do.

  So blessings... She had friends she never knew she had. Powerful friends, she guessed. Powerful enough to go after a senator. To protect her. Tomorrow, Jacob would be back safely with her. And soon they’d be home…

  But that thought brought a niggle of unease. Could she walk away from Finn? He wasn’t from their life. And she didn’t want to live in the city, even if he asked her. Perhaps later for Jacob, but that was a long way off. Would Finn want to give up all this? And even if he did, how would he ever fit in at Haven? She somehow didn’t think he was good at following rules.

  But she was moving way ahead of herself. She needed to slow down.

  He wanted to kiss her and maybe more. He’d said nothing about marrying her.

  She wandered into the bedroom and came to a halt. The bed was piled high with packages, all with the logo of the shop they’d visited that morning. From the looks of it, Bella must have bought all the clothes they’d chosen. When did they ever think she was going to get to wear them? All the same, she couldn’t help herself. She started tipping the bags out onto the bed. More jeans, T-shirts in jewel colors, skirts, sandals, underwear. She found her own clothes folded in one of the bags, the colors so drab, the material rough under her fingers.

  There was a note on the last bag. Torr said you might need this, hope you like it, Bella.

  Inside was a dress, dark-red, silky material. She held it up to herself; it was long and would reach almost to the floor. She frowned. Despite the length, there wasn’t much to it. She couldn’t imagine showing so much flesh. Papi would have a fit. She giggled at the thought. There was also a shoe box with a pair of high heels in the same color as the dress. And a pair of panties, tiny, also the same color.

  Why would she possibly need something like this? Without thinking too much, she dragged her T-shirt over her head, kicked off her sandals, and unfastened her jeans, tugging them down and off. She stood for a moment in her underwear, then stripped that off too. She picked up the panties; they were not much more than a scrap of lace. When she pulled them on, they left her bottom bare. She tried not to think about what that looked like and pulled on the dress quickly, smoothing it down over her body. It was sleeveless, with a high neckline, some sort of built in bra, and scooping low at the back. She caught sight of herself in the mirror. She looked like a stranger, her hair loose around her shoulders, her lips red and slightly swollen from Finn’s kisses. She walked slowly toward the mirror, reaching out and touching her face in the glass.

  For a moment her surroundings vanished, and an image flashed in her mind. She stood on the edge of a desert, yellow sand, deep blue sky, the sun bright overhead, so she could almost feel the heat on her face. She was waiting for someone, and she was happy. Then he was there, and he was so beautiful that the sun’s light was dimmed. She couldn’t make out his face, but he had golden wings, spread wide. And she loved him more than life itself. He took a step toward her, and the image was gone, and she was back in the bedroom.

  Wrapping her arms around herself, she backed up and sank onto the bed. She felt as though time were unraveling. Dragging her back.

  Her emotions had been so intense. It was wrong to love anyone but God that much.

  Such love could only end in pain and loss.

  And a shiver of foreboding ran through her.

  Outside the door, Finn leaned back and closed his eyes. For a moment, it had been as if he held Damaris in his arms. Heaven had once been his home, but from the first moment he’d touched Damaris, he’d known he would always find his home in her arms. They’d had a year together.

  He’d believed she loved him, but he also understood that she was wary of admitting that love, even to herself. She’d had an unhappy marriage; her husband had by all accounts been a total dick. Though she claimed she would have gone through it again for the sake of her son.

  She’d loved that boy so much.

  He took a deep, steadying breath and straightened. Then headed down to the control room. Bryce was alone when Finn entered.

  Bryce had been the first of them to find his love, and he’d failed. That had been four years ago. He’d nearly broken from the pain of the second loss. He’d gone so far as to ask Torr to kill him, to finish it. In the end, Bella had saved him. She was an empath and able to take another’s pain into herself.

  The sadness still lurked in his brother’s eyes, but he was at peace. Of course, once the thousand years of the Covenant was completed, he would have to return to Lilith—or die.

  “Can I ask you something?” Finn said.

  Bryce turned to him. “Of course.”

  “What happened? When you failed. How…?”

  “Did she die?” Bryce asked.

  Finn took in a sharp breath. There. It had been said, and pain ripped through him at the thought. If he failed, Rachel was going to die.

  “When the five days were up, she fell into a coma. Her body shut down. I don’t think there was any pain. And she was ready to die; she’d suffered so much.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “So am I. But it’s done, and if I had the chance to change things, to have it as though we’d never met, I couldn’t do it. She taught me what it was to feel love. Maybe someday we’ll meet again.”

  Finn knew exactly what he meant. Love had always been an abstract emotion before Damaris.

  “So,” Bryce said. “Torr said to tell you the extraction is on for tomorrow lunchtime. We get the boy out, bring him back here. Then tomorrow night, there’s a party at the White House. The senator will be there. We’ve got you and Rachel an invite. Go face him, make sure he understands that he’s lost this one, and if he goes near Rachel or her son again, he’ll lose a whole lot more.”

  Finn hated parties, but he saw the sense in facing the senator in a public place, surrounded by his peers. It should finish him once and for all. If Rachel died, the senator might come after Jacob again. And that couldn’t be allowed to happen.

  God forbid it came to that.

  Chapter 14

  Rachel sat in the back of the black van and clasped her hands on her lap to stop them from shaking. On a monitor across from her, she could see Jacob. He was alone in a bedroom, sitting in the middle of a big bed, arms wrapped around his knees. He looked composed, but sad. And she longed to be able to hold him.

  Soon.

  Yesterday, she hadn’t seen Finn again after he left her, and she couldn’t believe how much she had missed him.

  Phoebe had brought her dinner and stayed to share it with her. She’d also brought her two-year-old daughter with her to be introduced. Sophie had her father’s dark-red hair and green eyes and was, even at two, a little beauty. She’d been lively company and kept Rachel from too many dark thoughts. She suspected that was the plan. Phoebe had told her that Finn was off somewhere with Torr and Cade, but hadn’t gone into details. And something had kept Rachel from asking. Phoebe had plied her with red wine, which she’d drunk because she just needed to get through the night. Time to worry about turning into a lush when she had Jacob back. Once he was safe, she could start to think about what she should do next. She had an idea that returning to Haven and her old life was not an option. The Elders were pushing her to take up one of the offers for her hand in marriage and she knew she couldn’t do it. Not after meeting Finn. Even if nothing came of that, deep down she knew he’d changed everything. Changed her indelibly and forever.

  She’d actually fallen asleep as soon as her head hit
the pillow and slept deeply, for once without dreams. Until she’d woken in the night to find her golden wolf lying beside her, his huge head resting on her stomach, his gray eyes watching. A sense of safety washed through her, and she’d fallen asleep again to dream of angels.

  Now they were parked outside the senator’s house. Waiting for the all clear to go in. Not that she was going in herself. Apparently, she would be a liability, and she could sort of understand that. The guards would be armed, and she hated guns. She’d probably freeze up at the sight, and they’d have to rescue her as well.

  A hand tugged one of hers from her lap and squeezed it. She cast a sideways glance at the man sitting on the bench seat beside her. Finn was dressed in black pants and a black T-shirt and a matching leather jacket. Beneath it, she knew he had two pistols in shoulder holsters; she was trying not to look. And praying that it wouldn’t come to a shootout.

  “Don’t get shot,” she muttered.

  “Not part of the plan, sweetheart. And my plans always work.”

  A tingle ran over her skin when he called her sweetheart.

  On the drive here, he’d regaled her with stories of his previous missions. They sounded dangerous. More dangerous than this. The last one in the jungle in South America. This was apparently going to be a piece of cake. She glanced out of the tinted glass of the window, gnawing on her lower lip.

  “He’ll be all right,” Finn said.

  She looked at him then. “Will you?”

  He smiled. “I’m pretty hard to kill.”

  She supposed he was right. After all, he’d been shot only two days ago and recovered almost immediately. Of course, he’d been a wolf when he was shot that time. Maybe it was different if he got shot as a man. And she couldn’t even believe she was thinking that without screaming hysterically. How had her life gotten so…weird?

  Someone banged on the door of the van, and Finn gave her hand one last squeeze and got to his feet. He headed to the rear as the door opened, but hesitated and came back. He leaned down and kissed her hard and fast on the lips. “I’ll be back soon.”

  She clamped her lips together and nodded, watching as he jumped out of the back and disappeared, the door slamming behind him. The screen on the laptop still showed Jacob sitting on the bed.

  Everything seemed to slow as she strained to hear, expecting at any moment the quiet to be shattered by gunshots. She forced herself to sit back, relaxed her muscles one by one. She would be a wreck if she didn’t calm down and no good to Jacob. She closed her eyes and breathed in deeply, out then in, and her heart rate slowed a little.

  When she opened her eyes, someone had entered the room with Jacob. A woman she didn’t recognize. She spoke—there was no sound, so Rachel couldn’t hear the words—and he shook his head solemnly.

  Then she jumped as the van started up and moved away slowly. The house was surrounded by high walls and a gate. Finn had told her they would drive inside once they had neutralized the guards. Neutralized—that was a good word. She hoped none of them would be seriously harmed. The van pulled to a halt again.

  Then Finn was on the screen, close to Jacob, and the woman was backing away, looking at something behind him. Finn crouched down by the bed and spoke to her son, and his face broke into a big smile, and he nodded. Finn straightened, held out his hands and picked Jacob up. They vanished from the screen.

  Rachel got up and hurried to the back of the van, pushed open the door. They were inside a walled yard, on a gravel drive, big metal gates behind them and a three-story, elegant house in front of her. A body lay sprawled on the steps leading to the front door and another at the bottom of the steps. She swallowed, then jumped down onto the gravel, staring at the front door, willing Finn and Jacob to appear.

  Finn had told her that—according to her father—this was the house where she had spent the first years of her life. She searched for something familiar, but found nothing. Had she played on these lawns? She couldn’t remember.

  The door opened, and a man appeared—not the one she was looking for. She recognized Cade, Phoebe’s husband, dressed in black, the same as Finn, together with Bryce and Killian. They fanned out behind him. Cade held a pistol loosely in his hand, almost as though it was an extension of his arm. He caught sight of her and nodded.

  A moment later Finn appeared, carrying Jacob. When he saw her standing by the van, he hurried across, stopping in front of her and lowering Jacob to the ground. For a moment, she couldn’t move, just stood and stared at her son, as though, if she reached out and touched him, he might vanish.

  “Mom?”

  And she opened her arms. He jumped into them, and she hugged him hard.

  “Mom, you’re hurting me.” But a wide grin spread across his face. “I told great-grandfather that you would come. He said you didn’t want me anymore, that you’d said I could live with him, but I knew he was lying.”

  She put him away from her, but kept her hands on his shoulders; she didn’t want to let him go. “I love you, and I’ll never leave you. Never believe anyone who tells you otherwise.”

  “I won’t.”

  She kissed him on the forehead, then sniffed. She hadn’t realized how scared she was underneath, however much she’d told herself that Jacob was fine, that his great-grandfather wouldn’t do anything to harm him. She’d been terrified. Now, the adrenaline oozed from her system, leaving her shaky.

  “We need to get out of here,” Finn said. She nodded. “Ready to go, Jacob?”

  Jacob nodded. Finn scooped him up, and he giggled—clearly, he hadn’t been harmed by the last two days. He’d trusted her to come and get him, and she would never betray that trust again. She would make sure that he never had reason to doubt her love. Finn placed him in the back of the van.

  “You next,” Finn said.

  As she turned to climb into the vehicle, there was a loud crack. Something smashed into her, crashing her to the ground, and the air left her lungs in a whoosh. She lay for a moment, winded, trying to work out what had happened. More cracks.

  Gunshots.

  Finn covered her body with his own. A line of shots kicked up the gravel so close he could feel them whiz past. Then Cade and the others were shooting back.

  Beneath him, Rachel wriggled, trying to get free, and he tightened his grip. “Stay still,” he muttered in her ear.

  “Jacob?”

  “He’s safe. In the van. It’s bulletproof.” He glanced up to check. He could make out Jacob cowering in the back, Killian in front of him, stopping the boy from running to his mother.

  They hadn’t been shooting at Jacob. Or him. If they’d wanted to hit him, they could have done it easily while he was lying here. Rachel was the target. And his fury rose inside him like a living thing.

  The sky darkened above them, thunderclouds rolled in, and lightning flashed. A bolt hit the building.

  “Go,” Cade shouted, and a continuous volley of shots rang out. Finn dragged Rachel to her feet and almost threw her into the back of the van, climbing in after her. Cade got in behind them and someone slammed the doors and they were moving. The van pulled away with a screech of tires.

  Rachel slowly raised her head, then scrambled to her feet and hurried to Jacob, who was staring wide-eyed. Killian moved out of the way, and she hugged Jacob as though she would never let him go.

  Cade caught his eyes, a frown on his face.

  “Who?” Finn asked.

  Cade shrugged. “I have no clue. Bryce is going to see if he can get one of them alive.”

  “They must have been watching. Expecting us to come.”

  “You think it was the senator? That he brought in some backup?”

  “No.”

  It couldn’t be Lilith. If she killed Rachel, the Covenant would be broken. Presumably, Rachel would be reborn. He would no longer be bound by the rules of the Covenant, and Lilith would lose any hope of regaining her control over either Finn or his legions of wolves. No way would Lilith risk that.

  And the
re was no reason for Gabriel to want Rachel dead.

  That left the senator and Cassia.

  He didn’t think it was the senator. He was unlikely to believe Rachel had the contacts to take Jacob back by force.

  So his bet was on his intended bride. Who claimed she loved him, but had a strange idea of what constituted love.

  Probably inherited from her mother.

  Chapter 15

  Finn leaned in the doorway, watching as Rachel tucked Jacob into bed.

  He couldn’t take his eyes off her. She was so beautiful. In a long red dress that skimmed her body, revealing more than it hid.

  She sank down onto the mattress beside her son and stroked his hair.

  After they’d gotten back, she’d spent the rest of the day with Jacob. Feeding him, mainly. The boy ate as if he hadn’t been fed since he was taken. Finn couldn’t believe how much food one small boy could get inside him. Otherwise, he seemed to have suffered no ill effects.

  And Finn had spent the rest of the day watching the two of them. The attack at the senator’s house had shaken him. And while this was the safest place in DC, he still hadn’t been able to drag himself away, and he should be out there with the others, trying to find out who had ambushed them. Bryce hadn’t managed to take one of them, so right now, they had no clue. Apparently, as soon as the van had pulled away, their attackers had vanished. And they had been unable to contact either Lilith or Cassia.

  At least tonight, they would hopefully remove the senator as a threat once and for all.

  Rachel hadn’t wanted to leave Jacob.

  Finn had finally persuaded her that they needed to confront her grandfather, and tonight was their best option for that. He hadn’t told her where they were going—that might have made her even more reluctant—just that it was an opportunity to face the senator in public where he wouldn’t be able to make a fuss. There was no way he could be a danger. Otherwise, they would have to go visit him; he had no other public appearances over the next few days.