The Shifter Protector's Virgin (Stonybrooke Shifters)

by Ash, Leela

  The Shifter Protector’s Virgin

  STONYBROOKE SHIFTERS

  Leela Ash

  Copyright ©2017 by Leela Ash. All rights reserved.

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  Introduction

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  STONYBROOKE SHIFTERS

  DADDY SHIFTER’S VIRGIN

  A SECRET BABY FOR THE SHIFTER

  THE SHIFTER’S MAIL ORDER VIRGIN

  DADDY SHIFTER’S FAKE FIANCE

  THE SEAL SHIFTER’S SECRET BABY

  CLAIMED BY THE ALPHA DADDY

  NANNY TO THE SHIFTER

  OAK MOUNTAIN SHIFTERS

  HER BILLIONAIRE SHIFTER BOSS

  HER SECRET PROTECTOR BEAR

  Also from Totally Romance…

  LOST CREEK SHIFTERS

  ARLO (Book 1)

  SCAR (Book 2)

  BLU (Book 3)

  BODHI (Book 4)

  KODHI (Book 5)

  Table of Contents

  1.

  2.

  3.

  4.

  5.

  6.

  7.

  8.

  9.

  10.

  11.

  12.

  13.

  14.

  15.

  16.

  17.

  18.

  19.

  20.

  21.

  22.

  Collections

  OAK MOUNTAIN SHIFTERS

  FORSAKEN RIDERS MC ROMANCE

  Lost Creek Shifters

  Bear Shifter Romance

  Billionaire Romance

  Dystopian Romance

  MC Romance

  Dragon Shifter Romance

  Wolf Shifter Romance

  Highlander Time Travel Romance

  Victorian Mystery

  1.

  “Rhett, you already know that we don’t want you here. You’ve fucked up enough, man. We’re not taking any more chances on you.”

  Rhett’s chest tightened. He was never going to escape his past. If his parents hadn’t been killed when he was at such a young age, he probably wouldn’t have gotten mixed up with the gang of ruffians that loved to terrorize Stonybrooke. They were a band of misfit kids really, but Rhett had taken the lead, easily becoming the alpha of the group. He had gone too far on more than one occasion, leading the rest of the wolf-shifters living in Stonybrooke to shun him.

  But nothing was quite so bad as the moment he had fallen from grace, and Rhett cringed, not wanting to remember that horrible night.

  “Look, I know I’m not welcome here but I really need to get some yesha root. It’s important.”

  “You’re going to have to find a supplier somewhere else. That stuff doesn’t come cheap, even here.”

  “You grow it here!” Rhett exclaimed. “Where else am I supposed to find it on such short notice?”

  “You should have thought of that before you pulled the shit you did.”

  Rhett gaped at the group of wolf-shifters standing shoulder to shoulder to block his way into Stonybrooke. He had gone to school with the youngest of them, a beta named Tom. The other two were middle-aged, people who had hoped that Rhett might be able to be reformed and sent back into the wolf-shifter society without any qualms.

  “Yeah. I guess you guys are right,” Rhett mumbled. “I’ll get out of here now.”

  “You do that.”

  Rhett turned away, doing his best to keep the concern and hurt from showing on his face. Sure, he had brought all this on himself; he shouldn’t have turned his back on the only pack he had ever known. But at the same time you would think that the wolf-shifters would be better than this. It was true, he had made plenty of mistakes in his day, but that didn’t mean that he was a bad person. He just needed a second chance.

  “Yo, Rhett, what did they say?” Sammy asked once Rhett returned to the little bear-shifter village that had taken him in after he had been exiled. The place was called Tanka and he had a few friends there, but nobody too close. He had always been a little wary of the bear-shifters as a kid, and they were wary of him. Now, though, it seemed they were a pack just as much as he had been a pack with anybody else. At the very least, they would never kick him out just for being himself.

  “They aren’t going to let me in. I don’t get it.”

  “Well shit,” Sammy said frowning. “That sounds pretty much like what we thought though. They don’t like you too much out there, you know. I just wish we didn’t need the root so bad. The elders are going to be super disappointed.”

  “Yeah, the ceremony is getting close,” Rhett agreed.

  The entire village of Tanka was in a bustle about the upcoming Summer Solstice Celebration. It was extra special that yea because it happened to align with the planet Raes aligning with Earth. This only happened once every seventy years, and the bear-shifters were busy putting together a celebration unlike anything Rhett had ever seen before. The whole process was mystical, and there seemed to be a role for everybody to play.

  Rhett couldn’t help but feel left out. They’d sent him on a mission to contribute to the ceremony. He needed the root, because it was supposed to play a very important part in welcoming in the dawning of the new age. But he had failed. And not only had he failed, he was also the only wolf-shifter in the village who didn’t have a role in the ceremony yet. There were only a couple of other wolf-shifters in Tanka, but they stuck together and had not welcomed Rhett among their ranks. It was lonely there, and he was desperate to redeem himself for his miserable misdeeds. Even though they didn’t know why he had been exiled, they still treated Stonybrooke as their home and looked down on him for being driven away. However, they didn’t know the whole story, Still, they tried to keep their disdain toward him to themselves.

  “What do you think they’re going to do now?” Tommy asked, walking with Rhett toward the bar. “Do you think we’re going to be able to get our hands on the yesha root? What if we can’t do the ceremony?”

  “They wouldn’t just call off the ceremony,” Rhett said with a laugh. “They’ve been having a festival for every solstice since I moved here. There’s nothing so different about this one except the whole Sacred Maiden thing.”

  “Well, the Sacred Maiden thing is a pretty big deal to our kind, you know,” Tommy said. “This could be big for the bears. You may not know it yet, but there is some real power shifting happening and it’s up to us to make sure that it goes off without a hitch. You’re going to have to tell the elders about what happened with the yesha root. They can probably send one of the other wolf-shifters to get it. Just be honest with them about it because this is important.”

  “Yeah,” Rhett said, prickling. The last thing he wanted to do was give away his only true job in regard to the upcoming ceremony to the asshole wolf-shifters who had alienated him from their group, but he supposed it was the only way. The elders needed to know what was going on and if he couldn’t get the yesha root, then somebody had to.

  “Go on, man, it’s
important.”

  “I’m going,” Rhett exclaimed. “I mean, I thought we were going to have a drink or something first, but you know, I guess I can just come back later.”

  “Damn right you can,” Tommy said with a grin.

  Tommy disappeared into the tavern and Rhett sighed. So much for comradery.

  He trudged along the idle streets of Tanka and headed toward the elder’s encampment. They refused to be confined to the human-like dwellings most of the other shifters had resorted to during the past few hundred years, and in a way Rhett found that dedication to the old ways very admirable. However, there were times when the elders struck him as a little bit too traditional. The dogma could be a little bit stifling, but who was he to judge? They had accepted him and taken him in when nobody else would. He basically owed them his life and he would gladly put it on the line to appease them.

  “There he is!”

  Rhett was surprised by Shenar, the beta of the elders in the encampment. He ran up to Rhett as quickly as his knobbly old legs would allow him to and beamed at him, putting both of his hands on Rhett’s shoulder. “We’ve been awaiting your return. Come, there is much to discuss.”

  “But I—”

  “No, no, we will speak once we are inside under the marquis. We must have everybody gathered to make the big announcement.”

  “But Shenar, the root… I couldn’t—”

  “Hush, boy, and come!”

  Rhett pursed his lips and followed Shenar under the canopy, where the five elders were seated at the long table, a bounty of food placed before them. They were eating lazily, their eyes focused on different points of the encampment until Shenar came in waving his silk-clad arms.

  “Everybody, the youngest wolf-shifter has arrived. The one with the gift.”

  “I told you, Shenar, or I was trying to anyway… that they wouldn’t let me enter into Stonybrooke. I couldn’t get the yecha root. We’re going to have to get it some other way. I don’t have any gifts for you.”

  Shenar grinned. “Come Aranth.,speak to him about the decision.”

  Aranth, the alpha bear shifter of Tanka stepped forward and Rhett shrank back. The bear-shifters were generally very broad, well-muscled people. However, the more they aged, the slenderer they became. Yet somehow Aranth still seemed to have maintained most of his youthful vigor and vitality and still towered over Rhett, who had been the biggest and the baddest of the boys in his gang. Even at thirty years old, Rhett was a force to be reckoned with, yet Aranth could probably smite him right where he stood.

  “Young man, we are aware you were not given an assigned task for the Maiden’s Harvest festival. That is because we were in debate about the best job for you. Please, have a seat.”

  Aranth led Rhett to an empty chair at the table and Shenar remained standing, looking over the festivities with his hands clasped and a pleased smile spread across his face.

  Rhett stared over at the other members of the elder’s council who were gazing at him lazily from over their meal. Rhett personally couldn’t fathom what the bear-shifters saw in such food; it was bland and had a tendency to feel heavy in his stomach. Still, it was food that had nourished him when nobody else would give him even a scrap of bread. It was food he had always been grateful for.

  “Do you want to be a part of the Maiden’s Harvest ceremony, Rhett?”

  Rhett nodded dully. Of course he did. At that point, he would’ve been happy just to be told he would be sweeping the confetti off the ground after the parade.

  “We’ve thought long and hard about the position best suited to you and although you may not have succeeded in your task to retrieve the yesha root, there’s something far more important at stake. Would you be willing to take on a great responsibility and see to it this ceremony is a success?”

  Rhett shifted. These guys were treating their little festival like it was some kind of sacred rite. They had a little shindig every year that wasn’t much different than this, besides the maiden of course. And yet, there was always a chosen couple for such ceremonies to perform ceremonial rites that had become watered down over the centuries. Sure, they might’ve had a lot of meaning at one point, but they were never really quite as meaningful these days as the originals had been. It was mostly an excuse to get drunk and have a good time with the rest of the group. Still, it was a big deal to the bear shifters of Tanka, and Rhett’s mouth grew dry at the thought of playing a pivotal role in the ceremony.

  “I would be honored to contribute in whatever way you see fit.”

  “Rhett, you are a tremendous warrior. You have taken on the strongest of the bear-shifters in our clan, and have won. That is really saying something. You aren’t a bear-shifter, but we accept you as one of our own. To prove it, we would like you to put your strength and prowess to good use. Rhett Marshall, would you please do us the honor of acting as the primary Guardian for the Maiden?”

  Rhett was floored. The Guardian was one of the most pivotal roles in the entire ceremony. Everybody had been whispering about who might be the one to protect the Maiden’s theoretical virginity. Of course, nobody really expected her to be a virgin, but in order to act the ceremony out as planned in the most traditional sense, whomever was chosen to play the Maiden would have to be protected for the duration of the month as the ceremony was prepared.

  “I will accept this honor,” Rhett said, standing up to bow at the elders. “Thank you so much for this opportunity. I won’t let you down.”

  “Oh, we know you won’t,” Aranth said with a sparkle in his eye. He held Rhett’s gaze until he almost felt uneasy and then turned to Shenar.

  “Shenar, go take this fine, young Guardian to the Circle. It is there that the rules and responsibilities should be explained to him. It will ensure he does his sacred duty and is bound to his vow.”

  “Of course, Aranth,” Shenar said, coming over to Rhett and waiting expectantly for him to rise from his seat. “Right this way, young man. There is much to discuss…”

  2.

  “Come Gael. We have good news.”

  At the sound of her father’s voice, Gael’s heart pounded hard in her chest. Usually, he only summoned her if something was wrong. The idea that there was any good news to come from her father’s lips was startling, but compelling nonetheless.

  “What is it, father?” Gael asked, stepping into his study. Things had been strange since her mother had died and now that she was getting a little bit older, she was curious about what else the world might offer her.

  “Sit down and read this letter, child. Do it quickly, because you must be off soon.”

  Gael frowned and took the letter her father offered at her. She read it over quickly, a small twinge of excitement fluttering in her stomach.

  “Is it really true, father? About the General?”

  “It is, it is,” her father said with a quick nod. “He was a great man; your ancestor on your mother’s side. She would be able to tell you more about him than I would were she still here with us but as it stands, there is a lot to be learned from the real bear-shifters. Their records are immaculate.”

  “Yes, I’m sure they would know a lot about what the General was truly like. Am I really going to meet them, father? This seems so sudden, and what if this isn’t true?”

  “Oh, darling, it’s true enough… there is the seal on the envelope to prove it. You are going to prepare and leave at once. I am already working on the arrangements.”

  Gael swallowed hard. “Are you sure you’ll be all right alone here, father? I’ve been tending to so much, you would probably need somebody to come by and—”

  “I’ll be fine!” he exclaimed. Gael felt a small surge of pain. He meant it. He did not want her here. She had always known it in some, small way. Her father was an independent man who resented feeling as if he owed any of his time or resources to anybody else. It was impossible for him to show affection to anybody except her mother, and ever since her mother had died, he’d become insufferable.

&nbs
p; Now though, the fact that Gael’s lineage made her special seemed to give him a joy that she had never been able to produce in him. She was special. Her family’s lineage had once traced back to highly reputable bear-shifters. Royalty, really. And Gael’s father had always been in awe of the history of the bear-shifters.

  She knew her father knew the General’s story backward and forward as he was now linked to someone great that gave him a sense of bustling importance. After her mother had passed away he had needed that more than ever; she was all that had ever made them great and their estate was crumbling without her there. He was barely holding on to what he had and he resented Gael because of her inheritance. She hadn’t received it yet, but upon marrying she would be a very wealthy woman indeed, Despite the royalty in her blood waning over the years of cross-contamination with humans, the lineage and inheritance still remained, and could only be passed down to the eldest child, no matter what the other parent had to say about it.

  “Are you ready to go?” her father asked once she had finished packing.

  “I suppose. But where am I going to stay?”

  “There will be accommodations made for you at Tanka. This is an incredibly important event so you had better listen to all the rules and follow them to the letter. Do you understand?”

  “I know, father. Many times we’ve gone over what might happen should they choose me as Maiden, we just didn’t know it would really happen.”

  “We didn’t know for sure, but it was a possibility. Are you excited?”

  Gael let herself smile for the first time. She was excited. Very excited. She had never been selected for anything special in her life and the prospect of getting out of the gloomy estate where her mother had spent her final days and going out and seeing the world without anybody treating her like she was just some snobby heiress was extremely exciting.

  “I am. Please make sure you write and let me know that you are being well cared for. All right, father?”