Shifted Love: Volume 1

by Davenport, Fiona

Even with as loud as she was being, Zeke and Talon still didn’t move. “What in the world are they doing?” I asked.

  Alena sighed and rolled her eyes. “They’re in a staring contest. It must be a boy thing because I don’t understand.”

  A deep growl tumbled up Zeke’s chest, and Calliope picked up her daughter. “A man thing, sweetie. Our beta is definitely not a boy, even if it might seem like it because he’s trying to stare down a six-year-old.”

  “Seriously?” Allegra murmured as she crossed the room to set her hand on her mate’s shoulder.

  Without looking away from my son, Zeke pressed his hand against hers. “I’m not going to back down from a challenge, even if it comes from a pup whose balls have barely dropped.”

  “Zeke,” Allegra gasped, yanking her hand out from under his to slap him upside the head.

  “Aha! You blinked, so I win,” Talon boasted as he jumped off the couch to race around the living room, waving his arms around in celebration of his victory.

  “Only because my mate made me blink,” Zeke grumbled.

  My son didn’t seem deterred by Zeke’s reason for losing. “It doesn’t matter because I win!”

  As Talon ran past me, I snagged the back of his shirt to pull him against me. “Remember what Daddy and I said about how important it is to be gracious when you win?”

  “Yeah, I’m not supposed to be a sore winner,” he muttered, rubbing the sole of his shoe against the floor. “Sorry.”

  “Ahem.” Allegra nudged Zeke. “Now would be a great time to demonstrate to all the kids how not to be a sore loser.”

  “Fine,” he huffed as he got to his feet and walked over to stand in front of Talon and me. Holding his hand out, he added, “Good job, Talon. You listened to your wolf just like your dad taught you.”

  “Thanks, Uncle Zeke.” Talon grinned while they shook hands. “I thought we were just joking around at first, but my wolf said I couldn’t look away because it would be a sign of weakness.”

  Zeke ruffled Talon’s hair and smiled back. “Keep paying attention to your instincts, and you’ll make a fine alpha some day.”

  “Just like my daddy.” There wasn’t a hint of doubt in my son’s voice. He was a born alpha, just like Zeke. His level of dominance had caused a few problems when the kids had started kindergarten, but the school had been understanding of the situation because the teachers were used to dealing with young shifters. Most of them were part of our pack and adored their alpha’s son.

  “Speaking of your daddy, let’s head home and see how he’s doing with Kyla and Brea,” I suggested.

  “Okay,” Talon agreed with a grin as he ran toward the door.

  “Thanks for taking care of the kids while we got our girl time in.”

  Zeke waved off my gratitude. “Watching the kids for a couple of hours was nothing compared to what I’d do to put a smile on my mate’s beautiful face.”

  “So true,” I murmured, following my son outside. My best friends and I had really lucked out when we’d decided to head off to college. We’d found men who loved us beyond reason and were building the happiest of families.

  Her Tiger

  Calliope Taft has wanted a hunky shifter of her own ever since her best friends let her in on the secret of their existence. Just when she started to give up hope, a sexy tiger shifter claimed her as his own.

  Tane Ruslan hadn’t expected to find his fated mate right across the street when he returned home to Timber Ridge. Now that Calliope was where she belonged—with him—Tane intended to make all her dreams come true...and keep her safe from the bad guys who came looking for her.

  1

  Calliope

  “Life is so unfair,” I sighed, shaking my head at Allegra while she unashamedly ogled her man’s butt as he walked out of the kitchen. As happy as I was that my best friends had found happiness with incredible guys—who just happened to be able to shift into wolves—spending my holiday break from school with Allegra, Zeke, Larissa, and Kace had left me feeling lonely.

  I’d always felt a little bit like the odd man out in our trio, and being the only one without a mate of my own had intensified the feeling. Not that my friends had ever been anything other than accepting and supportive. I had no doubt they both loved me like a sister. Heck, they’d even shared their families with me.

  Allegra’s parents welcomed me into their home whenever I wanted a place to crash, and Larissa’s dad had done everything in his considerable power to look out for me when my parents were traveling, which was often. I knew my mom and dad loved me, but they sometimes got so wrapped up in each other and the business they owned together that they kind of forgot about me. I had spent a lot of my childhood with my nanny, and it had left a mark on me.

  “Huh?” Allegra asked, her brown eyes hazy from the doozy of a kiss Zeke had given her before leaving.

  “I want a hunky shifter of my own,” I grumbled.

  “And I want one for you,” she agreed with a grin, tapping her finger against her chin. “We just need to figure out a way for you to meet more of them since nobody in the pack was your fated mate.”

  “I think maybe it’s time for us to come to terms with the fact that I’m not going to find a wolf who’ll know I was meant to be his the moment he sees me like Zeke and Kace did with you and Larissa.” I pressed my hand against my chest as a deep-seated longing surged through my veins. With my abandonment issues, I craved that sense of belonging more than anything. Not finding it in Timber Ridge had me wondering if I should ditch my plans to get my bachelor’s degree in design and just head to New York instead. I could try to get an entry-level job somewhere and work my way up from there. Which was all kinds of wrong since I was the only one out of the three of us who’d even wanted a college education in the first place.

  “But you can’t just give up,” Allegra cried. It took me a moment to realize she wasn’t suddenly able to read my thoughts and was replying to what I’d said about not being anyone’s mate.

  “It’s not as though I have much of a choice. You’ve already paraded me past every single unattached male shifter in Timber Ridge.” I shrugged and reached for a lemon-filled donut. Zeke had barely rolled out of bed this morning before he’d hopped into his truck to drive almost an hour round trip to hit up a specific bakery because it was what Allegra was craving for breakfast. He’d remembered which kind were my favorite and had brought them back for me, which had earned him an extra kiss from my best friend. Not that she really needed an excuse since the happy couple was already lip locked most of the time.

  “Then we’ll just have to look elsewhere,” she insisted after polishing off the maple bacon donut she’d devoured in no time flat.

  I wrinkled my nose when she reached for a Sriracha-drizzled one next. “In all the years I’ve known you, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you eat anything other than plain old glazed or strawberry jam filled.”

  She set the spicy donut on the napkin in front of her, and her teeth bit into her bottom lip. “Yeah, the baby’s really messing with my taste buds.”

  Since I had a big chunk of donut in my mouth, I nodded in response. After I chewed and swallowed, I grinned big because Allegra’s baffled expression as she patted her belly was adorable. The past month had been a whirlwind for her, ending with Zeke telling her that she was pregnant a few days ago. It was too early for a test to confirm she was carrying his baby, but his shifter senses had picked up on the pregnancy right away. They hadn’t been able to keep it a secret from anyone in Timber Ridge since the news spread like wildfire as soon as the first shifter scented it on her. Even though her parents had quickly gotten on board with her relationship with Zeke when we all went home for the holiday, she hadn’t gotten up the nerve to tell them yet. I’d hitched a ride back with them, and her relief at passing that hurdle had been obvious. But I knew she worried that her overprotective mom would head straight for Timber Ridge as soon as she learned of the pregnancy and never leave. Which I could totally see happen with ho
w much she hovered over Allegra, something I was envious of since I wished my mom would give me a sliver of the attention she got from hers.

  I pulled myself out of my pity party when Allegra reached for her donut. “Give that to me,” I huffed, snatching the donut out of her hand. “I’m not entirely convinced the baby is telling you that sriracha sounds like a great idea since you’re so early in your pregnancy, but the reason you want this doesn’t really matter. We both know you’re going to give yourself heartburn if you eat something this spicy.”

  Allegra’s lips curved down in a pout. “You don’t know that it’s too spicy. Maybe the sweetness of the donut will overpower the sriracha, and I’ll barely taste it.”

  I lifted the donut to my mouth and licked some of the red drizzle off the top. The heat hit my tongue, but it was quickly followed by the sweet from the sugar. Allegra might’ve been right about being able to handle the donut, but I wasn’t willing to admit it to her in case she was wrong. “There’s no way you’d miss the spiciness.”

  “Jerk.” She shook her head and laughed as she grabbed a strawberry jam-filled donut to replace the one I stole. “I guess it’s better if you eat the stupid donut since you like hot things way more than I do.”

  I dropped the sriracha donut on the napkin in front of me and picked up the half of the lemon-filled one I hadn’t eaten yet. “Nah, I’m not sure I want to breathe fire all day.”

  “Breathe fire,” she echoed, clapping her hands together in excitement. “That’s it!”

  I had zero idea what she was talking about, but I recognized that gleam in her eye enough to know I should probably be at least a little worried. “What’s it?”

  “Maybe you didn’t find your hunky shifter here because you’re going to end up with a dragon!” She wagged her brows.

  “I don’t know why you’re acting like it would be such a great thing for me to be paired with a dragon.” I rolled my eyes and shook my head.

  “Yeah, well...I don’t understand why you’re being all pissy over the possibility,” she grumbled.

  “Remember how Larissa said that Kace told her there weren’t that many dragon shifters?” Allegra nodded. “If fate matched me with one of them, the odds of me finding my guy just went way down.”

  “Oh, good point.” Understanding dawned in her eyes. “Maybe the problem is that most of the guys around here are wolves, and you were never much of a dog person.”

  I glanced at the kitchen door and lowered my voice. “You probably don’t want Zeke to hear you using the D-word like that.”

  “Another good point.” Laughter bubbled up her throat. “But I bet he wouldn’t have minded if we’d told Kace and him that you wanted a big, sexy kitty for Christmas since you’re more of a cat person.”

  2

  Tane

  I loved my family, but after spending more than a month with them, I was beyond ready to be back in Timber Ridge. Not that I regretted the trip since it’d been important for me to be there to help my dad. But after the risk to his recovery passed—along with our fear—my sisters got up to their old tricks. They loved nothing more than giving me a hard time, and having me home for so long gave them plenty of opportunities. If they weren’t pushing me to get out there more and up my odds of finding my mate when they knew damn well it wasn’t that simple, they were giving me shit about living with wolves and being Kace’s third.

  Tiger shifters didn’t normally live in packs, but I loved the life I’d built in Timber Ridge. I knew Kace and Zeke had my back, no matter what. They were more like brothers than pack mates, which was difficult for my sisters to wrap their heads around since the only people they let inside their walls were family. They were best friends, and everyone else was an outsider in their view. Only the pull of the mating bond would be strong enough to get my sisters to truly open up to someone.

  Mating was sacred among shifters, but finding the person fate intended for you didn’t happen for everyone. There were shifters who went their whole lives never experiencing desire. Never giving their heart to someone. Never feeling as though their soul was whole. The fear that I was going to be one of those shifters lived inside me, but it eased a little when I heard that Kace and Zeke found their mates only a day apart from each other. Their luck gave me hope that I might be as blessed.

  When I got back into town late last night, I’d headed over to Kace’s place to check in with my alpha. I’d been about to walk down the sidewalk leading to his house when I heard female moans and quickly realized I should wait until morning for my visit. Kace has always had an open-door policy, twenty-four-seven, but now that his mate was in his life, that rule was bound to change since they’d need some privacy.

  My tiger had been agitated as I’d turned on my heel and headed to my house instead. Even though I was finally home and in my own bed, he hadn’t settled during the night. If anything, he’d been more wound up after the few hours of sleep I’d managed to get. After showering and yanking on some clothes, my plan was to drop in to update Kace—mostly because I wanted to meet his mate and give them my support—before letting my tiger out for a run. With everything that had been going on with my dad, I hadn’t had the opportunity when I’d been in New York. I figured my beast was antsy because he’d been cooped up for too long. Anxious to give him what he needed, I jogged up Kace’s steps and knocked on his door.

  I waited until he called out for me to enter, and then I pushed open the door to step into his house. Kace had a pretty blonde tucked into his side, and his possessive hold made me grin. Since I was looking at his mate, that earned me a growl from my alpha. I pressed my lips together, dropped my gaze to the floor, and tilted my head to expose my neck in a gesture of submission.

  “Welcome home, Tane,” Kace finally grunted. “Glad you’re back.”

  My lips curved up in a smirk as I lifted my head again, but I didn’t aim it in Larissa’s direction. I didn’t mind doing shit to get a rise out of my alpha, but I wasn’t going to piss all over his mating bond to do it. “I guess what they say about the power of the mating in the beginning is true.”

  My chuckle was a little bit forced because I wanted what he’d found. Larissa shouldn’t have caught on to what I was feeling, but when Kace glanced down at her, she wiggled her eyebrows with a conspiratorial smile. He chuckled and shrugged, before turning back to me.

  “Tane, this is my mate, Larissa,” Kace introduced us. “Larissa, Tane, my third.”

  “I’m happy for you both,” I replied. The sexual tension between the two mates was so damn thick that I swore I could smell it. “I’ll leave you to...whatever I interrupted.” My smirk was more genuine this time, and Kace rolled his eyes.

  “Everything good in New York?”

  I nodded and filled him in on shit he already knew, just in case his mate hadn’t been looped in yet. “Yeah, my dad fell and broke his hip. He shattered it so badly, they needed to do surgery to reset it immediately, which was probably for the best anyway. If his shifter healing had already kicked in, the bone might have healed wrong. Even though my sisters were there, I wanted to be at the hospital. He came through it like a champ.”

  “Happy to hear it. Now get the fuck out of here so I can be alone with my mate.” His demand was pretty much what I’d expected once I’d caught a whiff of an unmistakable scent on Larissa, so I laughed and spun around. Striding out of his house, I shut the door behind me and stalked down the steps.

  I was heading toward the motorcycle parked in my driveway when I spotted the door to Zeke’s house opening. “Hey, man! Glad to see you’re back,” he called.

  I changed direction and jogged across the street to greet my friend. “It’s damn good to be back.”

  “C’mon, you weren’t gone that long,” Zeke chuckled.

  “Long enough for everything to change around here,” I pointed out with a grin as I slapped him on the back. “When I left, all three of us were unattached, and now you and Kace have mates.” I shook my head and laughed. “Hell, not j
ust mates either. Babies, too.”

  Zeke grinned back at me, looking happier than I’d ever seen him. “You heard about that already?”

  I cocked my head to the side, taking in his reaction. “Holy shit, man. Allegra’s pregnant, too?”

  “Too? Who else is pregnant?” His gaze darted over my shoulder, and his grin widened. “Larissa’s pregnant?”

  I tapped the side of my nose. “Smelled like it to me.”

  Zeke waved toward his house. “Come inside. You can meet Allegra. She’s going to be thrilled to find out one of her best friends is pregnant the same time as she is.”

  “One of her best friends?” I asked as I followed him inside, wondering how many of them she had before a luscious scent hit my nostrils and any thought beyond finding the source wiped from my brain. I barely heard Zeke reply, “Yeah, she’s got two of them. Just like Kace, you, and me. Calliope’s here too, so you’ll get to meet her. She’s staying with us until her college classes start back up next week.”

  If Calliope was who I thought she was, he was wrong—she’d be staying with me. And not just until next week. She’d be with me for the rest of her life. I didn’t share that with Zeke since I wasn’t sure I could get any words past my throat. Instead, I stalked behind him as he walked through his living room and into the kitchen. The scent grew stronger as we neared the door, sending flames of desire coursing through my blood. When he pushed it open, throaty feminine laughter wrapped around me, and I felt it all the way to my dick. I was rock-hard as we neared the two blondes sitting at the kitchen table. The one with the gray tint making her hair an ashy color carried the smell of Zeke and his baby all over her. Thank fuck, because the little firecracker with a hint of red in her hair was meant to be mine. All fucking mine.

  “Hey, baby. I just heard something that you’re going to love,” Zeke said as he went behind his woman and dropped a kiss on the top of her head.