Damaged Pack Shifters: The Complete Paranormal Collection

by Leela Ash

  Jack blinked back sentimental tears as he watched Megan with her parents. This was what the love of a parent should look like, he thought. His own parents had proved unable to love him when he had changed from being human to being a shifter. If he ever had a kid of his own, he would love it as much as his own parents had loathed and feared him.

  His own kid? Where had that thought come from? He never wanted kids. He would be a terrible father.

  Really? So why did you make love to Megan all those times without protection? His mind taunted him. Or is there some reason you think she can’t have kids?

  Fine, he had made a terrible mistake, he thought with an inward groan. But it had felt so right; sliding into her tight wet pussy and watching her eyes widen with surprised pleasure and wonder as she reached fulfillment in his arms.

  “Who’s the handsome man you’ve brought home?” Megan’s mother asked in an arch tone.

  Megan threw a glance over her shoulder. Jack had slammed his door on the passenger side of the car closed and he was walking up to them, his hands clasped at his back.

  He was looking deliciously handsome, she noted. He caught her looking at him and winked; the infuriating man.

  Megan thrust her chin in the air and introduced him as “Just Jack” to her mother. She absolutely refused to dwell on the eyebrows that were arched almost all the way to her mother’s hairline.

  Merlyn Delaney grinned at the tall, handsome young man, deciding she liked him at once. He had an open, friendly face and he seemed decent.

  “Good afternoon Ma’am. It’s a great pleasure to meet you, Mrs. Delaney,” he told her, and he sounded sincere.

  “No need to stand on such formality, my dear. Call me Merlyn. I had to teach Megan to call me Mum after years of letting her call me Merlyn, you know,” she laughed.

  He looked at her in confusion.

  She caught his look and replied, “Well, we didn’t know how long we were going to be her foster parents for. ‘Mum’ seemed presumptive at the time, until we decided to adopt her.”

  Adoption. Megan was adopted then. How had he not known that? He wondered, staring after her.

  “You did an amazing job raising her,” Jack said, and he meant it.

  Merlyn turned pink, “I knew I liked you, son. Come on, you can sit by me for dinner,” she added.

  Dinner was an excellent affair with Merlyn and David going out of their way to make Jack feel at ease. They need not have bothered. In mere minutes he had charmed every single member of the family until everyone was eating right out of his hands— apart from Megan and Shepsirr.

  Megan looked as though she wanted to grab her entire family and carry them off to safety but Shepsirr looked suspicious, as though he thought Jack wanted to carry off the family silver!

  Jack directed a question at Shepsirr in an effort to encourage him to join the discussion. All he got for his efforts were sullen replies and even more suspicious glares.

  When dinner was over, Megan went up to her room, stripping off her clothes the moment the door closed behind her. Her mother followed her in with a fresh supply of towels and her eyes rounded in surprise when she saw her daughter’s lacy underwear.

  “You never wear lace thingies. I know, because I’ve tried several times to get you into them,” Merlyn blurted.

  Her mother was a trial, Megan thought with an inward groan. Of course, it had to be her mother that discovered her new underwear. She’d splurged last night after work and she’d worn a new set of lace underthings for the first time in her life. She had felt wicked and sexy and it had been her secret because no one had seen it.

  Now her nosy mother would never let her hear the end of it.

  “Megan? You’ve said nothing,” Merlyn complained as Megan sidestepped her and headed for the bathroom.

  “Hint, hint,” came the response and the door clicked shut.

  Merlyn’s grin spread across her face as she considered what had just happened. Megan had always favored unappealing, good-girl cotton and now for the first time in her life, she’d worn sexy lingerie just like any young woman would. It was the most riveting occurrence.

  She made her way to her room, treasuring the knowledge with happy tears.

  The next day dawned bright and clear. Jack went for his usual morning run. It gave him a chance to look around the town. It was quaint and peaceful and he could easily picture Megan running around as a kid in the streets of the sleepy little town. She must have been happy, he decided. She seemed well-adjusted enough.

  Apart from that… indefinable quality of ice she hid behind. Sometimes it seemed as though she was convinced she had to hide and now he wondered whether it was for herself. It seemed almost as though she were hiding something, just like he was.

  A small baying sound to his left made his gaze whip around. Two yellow eyes blazed at him from the shrub and the hyena bared its teeth. Jack threw it a cursory glance and continued to run. The hyena left its hiding place and began to trail him.

  Jack slowed his steps to a leisurely stroll. The hyena kept coming and finally Jack stopped and turned around to face the animal. He had met only one shifter hyena in his entire life before.

  “What do you want? Let me guess, Archstone Tribe?” He knew a shifter when he saw one.

  The hyena gave him a considering look as though surprised he wasn’t terrified of it. Then with a mighty shriek, it came careening through the air in a move against him. Jack easily side-stepped at the last minute and it crashed to the ground with such force that he felt the slight vibration beneath his feet.

  It whined pitifully. “You brought this on yourself,” Jack said conversationally. “I know you’re a shifter, okay? Change back to your human form and we can talk.”

  The hyena ignored him. Its eyes were closing as though it were dying.

  Jack squatted beside it pinning it with a level look, “I’ll leave you here, wounded, for the first car that comes along to crush you into dirt. Unless you change right now.”

  It shut its eyes. The furry body began to disappear, merging gradually with smooth skin until a teenage boy appeared in place of the hyena.

  Jack gaped when he recognized Shepsirr. The boy seemed wounded.

  “Shepsirr! Are you alright?”

  The boy’s eyes were filled with pain, but it was fading as he glared up at Jack. “I’m fine. Stop touchin’ me.”

  Jack obliged at once and stopped touching him.

  Shepsirr lifted himself to a seated position. He seemed to be waiting for something.

  Then it hit Jack. The boy seemed to be waiting for Jack’s reaction to his shifter form. He looked so petulant and defiant too, that Jack began to laugh.

  The tips of Shepsirr’s eyes went red and Jack realized he must have mistaken it as laughter aimed at him.

  Jack shook his head, “You’re quite a character, Shepsirr, and no, I’m not laughing at you. I think it’s cool what you can do. I bet you can run fast too and you’ve got tons of other abilities like a real superhero.”

  Shepsirr stared at him as though he’d grown two heads. “I can turn into an animal,” he reminded Jack earnestly. “I’m a freak.”

  Jack rolled his eyes, cast a quick look around and seeing no one else, he shifted form quickly. His mountain lion was dominant, solid, and impressive and Shepsirr’s squeak was gratifying, he decided.

  He changed back into his human form and offered Shepsirr a jaunty grin, “Then we must both be freaks. And since I come from a family of shifters, all my brothers and my father are freaks too, huh?”

  Shepsirr reddened again. But this time he climbed fully to his feet. “Jack? I can’t believe you’re a shifter. You’re cool.”

  In a flash of clarity, Jack understood. He laid a hand on his shoulder as he told him, “Shifters are cool. We help protect humans because they’re physically not as strong as we are. We protect them from bad guys, okay? We’re the cops, with abilities.”

  Shepsirr’s eyes widened and Jack sighed inwardly. He ha
d gone and done it now. He had planted a Superhero image in the boy’s head.

  He climbed to his feet, “Want to go for ice cream?”

  Shepsirr’s eyes rounded. “It ain’t even 9am yet!”

  Jack shrugged, “I won’t tell if you won’t.”

  As they raced each other to the ice cream parlor, Jack tossed out a question he’d been wondering about since he found out about Shepsirr. “Does Megan know?”

  “Of course, she does. But what she gon’ do? She a mere human,” Shepsirr finished. “She’s the only different one.”

  Mere human? They were going to have to talk about that one, Jack decided as the ice cream parlor loomed ahead.

  “Do you like her?” Jack asked, after they placed their orders.

  Shepsirr nodded eagerly. “She’s friendly and really nice to me even when I’m mean. But shifters and humans don’t really mix, you know? We’re just different!”

  Out of the mouth of babes, Jack thought staring at the little dark head of hair in front of him, as Shepsirr began to devour his ice cream.

  “Where were both of you? I was so worried,” Merlyn Delaney demanded, arms akimbo.

  Shepsirr had the grace to look flushed as he began to trace an indecipherable pattern on the sand with the toe of his sneakers.

  “We went for a morning run,” Jack volunteered.

  Megan came out of her room looking cute as a button in a tiny little sundress that stopped just above her knee.

  It was almost noon, Jack realized. His talk with Shepsirr had taken half the day. Something about the little boy had tugged at his heart strings until he had caught himself half-wishing Shep was his kid.

  That was when he had put a screeching halt to their day.

  “Come have breakfast, son, you must be famished,” David Delaney said with a gentle hand on Shepsirr’s head. For the first time Shepsirr didn’t toss it off. He walked obediently beside David to the dining room and David exchanged happy glances with his wife.

  Megan strode out to the front yard, her gaze roaming around as though memorizing the place. She looked a little wistful when she saw her swing set. None of the boys would go near it; they thought it was too feminine.

  With a sigh, she sat on it, letting her thoughts roam. She needed to reach a decision about Jack. She loved him and she had told him but he had said nothing in return.

  Now he had followed her home, her entire family had gone and fallen in love with him too! Even Shepsirr had warmed to him so much that her parents were flabbergasted.

  As though she had conjured him, Jack materialized beside her.

  “Hey, Pretty.”

  She rolled her eyes at him.

  He moved around to stand behind her. “Hold on to the swing properly.”

  She shook her head, “Don’t you dare.”

  He gave her a slight push. In a rush, memories of her childhood came. She saw herself shrieking with childish delight and begging David to push her higher while her mum watched from the kitchen window and begged them to be careful.

  Jack pushed her again, and again and again until she was enjoying the motions. In no time, she was screaming and begging him to go higher. She was shrieking again and laughing again like a child. She didn’t notice her entire family converge on the verandah to watch. David and Merlyn had tears in their eyes as they watched their daughter; it had been so long since Megan laughed with such careless abandon.

  Merlyn’s motherheart turned in her chest and she slid all the way in love with the young man Megan had brought home. He was wonderful and she would not rest until Megan made him hers, she decided.

  As soon as Megan slid off the swing, Shepsirr and Tyler and Rick were jostling for position and begging to be next. Megan stayed, clapping and laughing and urging them on. Soon Jack had cajoled Merlyn to join the fun and she was shrieking merrily as her sweetheart, her husband of over thirty years, pushed her on the swing set as he had done when they were mere teenagers.

  That evening as Jack and Megan headed out to drive back, Merlyn walked up to him with tears in her eyes.

  “You’ve changed my daughter, Jack. You’ve brought back her laughter and you’ve made her feel young again. When I saw her lacy underwear, I almost had a coronary, in a good way. You’ve convinced her to live again and for that I will always love you.”

  Jack frowned. What had made Megan stop living?

  Her mother laid a hand on his arm, “Her father and I love her more than life itself. But in the end, we became her burden.”

  She placed a light kiss on his cheek and traipsed away. Jack looked at her, and back at Megan who was already climbing behind the wheel of her car. He was already turned on by the thought of her lacy underwear beneath her clothes. He couldn’t wait to see her in it.

  But how had the parents she loved so much become her burden, he wondered as he slid into the passenger seat and buckled up.

  He cast one last look at the house and caught Shepsirr’s watchful gaze. The boy gave him a thumbs-up and as Jack returned it, something Shepsirr had said in the morning resonated in his mind once more: She’s the only different one.

  Hot damn, how had he missed that? It was a family of shifters!

  Suddenly everything else made sense.

  20.

  Palma was sweating profusely beneath the blanket as she trudged towards Joshua Cox’s home. He was the only one who could help her but she had to get him to believe her first.

  Her gentle knock was answered almost at once and she was so relieved when Joshua himself opened the door.

  He thought at first she was an old woman and he started to smile at her. But then her blanket fell away to reveal her face and he froze in shock. It was Palma, one of Nabradia’s most trusted witches.

  “Kelly! Get in here!” he yelled as he slammed the door shut in her face.

  Palma didn’t struggle, just stood quietly. Kelly arrived at a run, the entire family hard on her heels.

  Joshua pointed at the door, “Witch.”

  One word, but it electrified the entire household. “I’ll deal with it,” Nana Lourdes offered striding forward.

  “No, let me. I’m immune to her magic,” Kelly announced grabbing a gun.

  She swung the door open and found Palma still standing exactly as Joshua had left her. “You have two seconds to get off my porch or I’m putting a bullet in your sorry brain.”

  The witch looked parched. Her lips were dry and cracked and her feet looked as though she had trekked until they bled. Kelly sternly refused to feel sympathy.

  “I’m your enemy as far as you know. You can shoot me if you want, but let me warn you first. Nana Lourdes is in danger.”

  Kelly lifted the gun higher. How had she known about Nana Lourdes? The witches only knew her as one of the Council of Seven and not as Jeanine’s grandmother.

  “We know who she really is,” Palma continued. “We’ve known for days because Nabradia sent us to spy on her. Well, now Nabradia knows too and she’s planning to kidnap Nana and force her to give her the real crystals for the Tiara of Oistrophe. She’s more desperate than ever to get into Alabad because she hopes to release Alcacia. Then after that, she plans to kill Nana.”

  Nana stepped forward then to stand a little behind Kelly. She knew Kelly had formed a protective arch with her immunity over everyone in the room but of course the protection couldn’t cover her because she had magic.

  “You’ve delivered your message Palma. Now get lost,” Nana said.

  Palma swallowed, looking shattered. Then she admitted, “Nabradia ordered me to be killed. I was lucky that Luferia had pity on me and let me escape. If Nabradia sees me, I’m dead. She’s been enraged ever since Alcacia died.”

  Nana looked at her, “Our witches’ conference is tomorrow. Make sure you’re there and I’ll send you home with my friends from the East. You’ll only be safe far beyond the territories of Salem.”

  Palma nodded, her eyes filled with gratitude. As she turned to hobble away, Jeanine called, “Hey.
”

  Palma turned around slowly. And then when she saw what Jeanine was holding out to her, she burst into tears openly for the first time in more than a century.

  Jeanine had packaged some food and water in a knapsack enough to last a whole week! Palma reached for it with shaky hands. She hadn’t had a meal in days.

  “Thank you for coming here to help save my grandma,” Jeanine whispered.

  And then she hugged the witch. Her husband Bo almost fainted away from worry and so did her grandmother.

  But Palma hugged her back, letting her tears stream freely at this show of love from the very person she had once tried to destroy at Nabradia’s command.

  If she survived this, Palma vowed silently, she would make sure she rescued as many humans as she could from supernatural beings who would try to harm them.

  The day of the witches’ conference dawned cold and dreary. The sun was in hiding all day until even humans without a clue of what was going on began to comment on it.

  The witches arrived in droves from every direction, landing on the receiving altar and stowing their broomsticks for safe-keeping. There was an excited hubbub as old friends connected and screeched with the joy of recognition.

  As they filed in and took their places, the census takers tallied their numbers. There were over 5,000 witches in all. The hall had been spelled to keep expanding as it filled.

  There was excitement in the air. More than one voice cackled with malicious glee as they heard the tale of how the proud queen of the Salem witches had been sent into hiding with a fake crystal of Oistrophe.

  More than one witch remarked how they had never trusted her. She was a heartless bitch. she made witches look bad, she deserved what she had gotten and on and on.

  No one noticed the men, Archstone shifters, stashed in strategic hiding positions near the roof. Everyone commented on the beautiful decoration of the hall. Great big bulbous lights hung from the ceiling all around the room, their lights reflecting green, blue and golden rays of light. The room looked very beautiful as a result.