District Shifters Collection

by Lola Gabriel

  I fell into the nearest seat, and my beautiful wedding dress faded, becoming the black dress of a mourner.

  I watch now as a gorgeous blonde-haired woman with the bluest eyes I’ve ever seen walks along the aisle. She is wearing my wedding dress. I want to jump up and rip it from her, to tell everyone Noah is mine and she’s stealing him, but I still can’t move. I am trapped, watching this horror unfold before me.

  She reaches Noah, and he takes her hand from the hand of a man giving her away; her father, I presume. It strikes me in that moment that neither Noah nor the mystery girl look entirely happy, but I guess that’s just wishful thinking on my part.

  I sit through the ceremony, tears running down my face.

  “You may kiss the bride,” the pastor says.

  Noah leans in towards the woman and…

  Chessa Lord jumped awake. She stifled a scream as she sat upright, her hand clasped to her chest. She was panting, her heart racing as the scenes from the dream flashed before her eyes again. It had felt so real—too real to just be a dream. Tears filled her eyes, realizing that this was likely more than just a dream.

  For as long as she could remember, she had had prophetic dreams. They were always more vivid than her other dreams, and she always remembered them in great detail. She reminded herself that her dreams didn’t always come true in the exact way she had envisioned them. Maybe this dream was just a reminder that after nine years away from Noah, he was still in her thoughts every day.

  She got out of bed, telling herself it didn’t matter. Noah was her past, and she had to let go of him. Even if it was true that he was marrying the pretty blonde stranger, what did it matter to her? She wanted Noah to be happy. That was why she had let him go when she was just eighteen.

  Part of Chessa had wanted Noah to talk her out of leaving him, to tell her there was a way they could be together. She had known in her heart there wasn’t; not any way that didn’t involve her becoming a burden to him. And when he had let her go, she had known that she’d been right to walk away—for both of them. The thought of growing old and feeble while Noah stayed young and fit had been too much for her to bear.

  Chessa pushed those thoughts away. She wasn’t going to spend the day letting the old feelings, the ones she had worked so hard to bury, come to the surface. She went to the bathroom and got in the shower, turning the heat up as high as she could stand it to be. She turned her face up to the water, letting it pelt off her skin and wash away the dream.

  She finished her shower and went to get dressed. By the time she was ready for her shift at the diner down the road, she was humming to herself. She went downstairs to make a pot of coffee and put two slices of bread into the toaster. Her cell phone rang, the vibrations rattling through the countertop. She snatched it up and frowned when she saw the name on the screen. Lexi, her twin sister. Why would Lexi be calling her so early?

  “Hello?” she answered, pinning the cell phone between her shoulder and her ear as she went to the fridge and pulled out the butter.

  “Hi, Chessa,” Lexi said.

  Chessa’s head jerked up, and she grabbed the phone in her hand. Something in her sister’s voice had set alarm bells off in her head.

  “What’s wrong?” she demanded, going to sit down on a high stool at her breakfast bar, the butter forgotten.

  “Don’t panic, because she’s okay,” Lexi said. Her words did nothing to ease the panic fluttering through Chessa’s body like butterflies, cramping her stomach and making her heart race.

  “Who’s okay? And don’t panic about what?” she questioned, wishing not for the first time that she and Lexi shared the rumored bond some identical twins shared so she could just pluck the information from her mind.

  “Mom had a heart attack last night,” Lexi said.

  “What? Is she okay?” Chessa asked.

  “Yes, honestly, Chess, she’s okay. It was a mild one. She’ll only be in hospital for a day or two. But when she comes out, she needs to rest, and she’ll need someone to care for her, and—”

  “I’ll do it,” she interjected.

  “I’m not calling to guilt-trip you into doing it alone. I’m calling so we can arrange some sort of schedule where we can take time off from our jobs and sort it out between us. We might need to pay for a nurse for a few weeks, too.”

  “I said I’ll do it,” Chessa repeated. “I know you’re not trying to guilt-trip me, Lex. I want to do it. Look, I work as a waitress in a two-bit diner. I have nothing to keep me here. But you’re building a dream career, and you can’t just up and leave Seattle. You told me there’s nothing for you in Alaska, remember?”

  “It was different then. Mom was okay,” Lexi pointed out.

  “And she’ll be okay now. You said it yourself. So let me do this, okay?”

  “Well… if you’re sure. I mean, I don’t mind helping out, of course, but I’m just starting to make a name for myself here, and if I leave now…”

  “I’m sure. I’ve got some money put aside that I can use to live on, but really, if I’m living in Mom’s place, my expenses aren’t going to be much. My lease is month to month, so there’ll be no problem there. And I’m sure if I explain it all to my boss, he’ll understand, and I’ll get a good reference from him. I can waitress in Alaska just as easily as I can here.”

  “Thank you, Chess,” Lexi said. Chessa could hear the relief in her voice. “You have no idea how much this means to me. Is there anything you need? Anything at all?”

  Chessa paused. She hated to have to ask Lexi for money, but she reminded herself that this was for both of them; for their mom.

  “Actually, there is,” she said. “I hate to ask this, Lex. Like I said, I have some savings, but I’ll have to use all of it to do this. I’ll need a flight to Alaska, and—”

  “Consider it done,” Lexi interrupted her. “When do you want to fly home?”

  Chessa did some mental calculations. She could have her things packed up and her affairs in order by the end of the day. Her apartment came furnished, so she had no worries about storage. Everything she owned would fit in two large suitcases.

  “Tomorrow morning, if you can,” she answered. “And I’ll need the extra baggage allowance.”

  “I’ll sort it and text you the details,” Lexi said. “And don’t hesitate to call me if you need anything at all, okay?”

  “Okay,” Chessa replied, already telling herself that she wouldn’t be making that call. She knew Lexi wouldn’t mind, that money was no object to her, but Chessa had her pride, and she didn’t want to be seen as Lexi’s “poor” sister.

  “I love you, Chess,” Lexi said.

  “Love you too, sis,” Chessa responded. She ended the call and sat for a moment, staring into space, trying to get her head around what Lexi had told her. Her mom had had a heart attack. How did something like that even happen? Her mom was young, fit, healthy. It didn’t make sense.

  The smoke Chessa noticed coming from the toaster roused her from her thoughts, and she jumped up and switched the toaster off. She pried the slices of blackened toast from the slots, dropping them into the sink as they burned her fingers. She wasn’t hungry now, anyway, and she settled for a large coffee as her breakfast.

  She thought again of her mom, her mind going back to her teen years. It had always been just her, Lexi, and their mother. Their dad had died in a car accident when the girls where just three years old. The three of them had always been close, and Chessa suddenly regretted not going back for a visit before now. She and her mom had kept in touch through phone calls, texts, and Skype, and her mom had been out to her place over the holidays several times, but Chessa had always avoided going home, in case she ran into Noah.

  He had returned to their hometown after college. He had no real choice in the matter. His destiny was to one day become the alpha of District 175, and that meant he couldn’t stray too far from home. Which meant that if Chessa returned home, there was always a chance she would bump into Noah and all her old
feelings would resurface.

  Chessa told herself that her decision to go and care for her mom had nothing to do with Noah, that she didn’t feel a stirring of excitement in the pit of her stomach at the thought of maybe seeing him again. As much as she repeated to herself this wasn’t about Noah, a small part of her knew it was. Of course she would have dropped everything and gone to care for her mom wherever she was, but Chessa had to admit that she was curious as to what would happen if she did see Noah again after all these years.

  Her dream floated back into her mind, and for a second, she was deflated, floored by the image of the beautiful blonde in her wedding dress marrying Noah. Suddenly, she sat up straighter, and a smile played over her lips.

  The dream wasn’t to be taken literally. It had been a warning that she would encounter Noah again. And it was a warning that she shouldn’t let him get away this time, because if she did, there was always someone else who would take her place.

  Her delight soon faded. Nothing had changed. Noah was still an immortal, and she was still a normal human. Their relationship would still be as doomed as it had ever been. She couldn’t let herself forget that.

  Chessa made her mind up to forget about Noah, or at least to forget about some joyous reunion between them. She would go back to Fairbanks, do her duty, and then she would start to make some real decisions about her life.

  When she had left college, she’d had big dreams of a career in law. But something had always stopped her from fully committing to it, just like something had always stopped her from putting down any real roots. She had stayed in California after college, but she had never really felt like she belonged here. She’d moved from apartment to apartment, always on a monthly lease, and she’d moved from one dead-end job to the next. Because in the back of her mind, she had always felt it: the pull to return home. The pull to return to Noah.

  Now it was time to grow up and leave those childish dreams where they belonged; in her past. She would find her path. She would get a job at a law firm, maybe in Chicago, maybe in New York. And she would live her life, forgetting all about Noah and what they had once had.

  Her decision made, Chessa was ready to face the day. She downed the rest of her coffee and stood up. She had a lot to do, and she didn’t have time to sit here dawdling and wasting time.

  2

  Noah Cressner arrived at his parents’ house with a sinking feeling inside of himself. He had received a phone call from his father earlier that day formally requesting he join him and his mother for dinner. That meant something bad was coming, as it always did when you got a formal invite to the home of the alpha of the pack, even when the alpha was your father.

  He stepped inside the house. His mom came from the kitchen and smiled widely when she saw him. She wiped her hands down her pink and white floral apron as she stepped towards him. Her expensive looking curls bounced slightly with her steps.

  “Noah! It’s good to see you. How are you?”

  She embraced him. Noah gave her a quick squeeze, confused by how happy she seemed to be. Was it possible he had misread the call? That it wasn’t a formal invite but just a father inviting his son for dinner? The notion went out of his head almost before it had a chance to really settle in when his mom smiled again.

  “Your father is in library. He requests your company. Dinner will be served in half an hour.”

  Noah nodded his head absently and headed for the library, the dread back inside of him. He hadn’t misunderstood anything. This was official business, yet his mom was happy. What could it possibly mean? When the answer came to him, it felt like he had run into a brick wall. His parents had to have found him a mate.

  It had been made clear to Noah upon his return home from college that the fun was over. No more messing around with mortals, as his father had so delicately put it. It was time for him to grow up and accept his responsibility to the pack, which would one day become his. Noah had tried to tell his father that he was still in love with Chessa, but his father wouldn’t hear it.

  He could see now that his resistance to the alpha’s orders had been a mistake. He should have pretended he was actively searching for a mate instead of refusing to step up. Now the worst had happened. His parents had found him an immortal mate. He knew he wasn’t going to accept her, and he knew it was going to cause an argument, but he was past caring about that. The responsibility for the pack weighed heavy on his shoulders, even now, before he had taken over.

  Noah had given up his chance to travel the world and pursue a career. Instead, he lived off an allowance that freed up his time to deal with pack issues. And now, he was expected to give up on love. Well, he had other ideas about that.

  The day Chessa had walked out of Noah’s life had been the most painful day he’d ever lived. He had let her go; he’d had to. She had told him she was doing it for him, but he didn’t think that was entirely true. She had obviously given the matter a lot of thought, and she had realized being with a shifter wasn’t for her.

  When he was eighteen, he had believed, like Chessa, that their relationship had a time limit. He knew that there were a few successful transitions from a human to an immortal, but they were few and far between, and many mortals had died in their quest to turn. He wasn’t ready to risk Chessa’s life. But he had done plenty of research, and the answer had been handed to him once he returned from college and his father began coaching him on everything he would need to know as a pack alpha.

  There was a way for certain humans to turn into shifters or other immortal beings safely. As long as their blood contained a certain protein called Sanmere, they could become an immortal being without dying.

  Noah had known in that moment he could have a chance with Chessa. A real chance. He had a couple of the pack members find her for him, and he’d traveled to California, ready to talk to her about taking the test to see if she carried the Sanmere protein. But when he had gotten there, he had talked himself out of it. Seven years had passed since they’d parted ways, and Noah had realized that Chessa would have moved on. She would likely be married, maybe even have children. He couldn’t just barge into her life now and try to claim her once more.

  Noah pushed his dark thoughts aside as he reached the library. He tapped on the thick mahogany door.

  “Enter,” his father called.

  He went in, closing the door quietly behind him. Gideon Cressner sat in a leather easy chair beside a low coffee table, studying a book that was open on his lap. He closed the book when Noah walked in, setting it down on the table. He smiled at Noah and got to his feet, extending his hand. Noah shook it, and they sat down, Noah taking the chair beside his father’s.

  Noah studied the man for a second. He was well over five hundred, although he looked to be about the same age as Noah. His dark hair was thick and full, and his eyes sparkled with youth and life. The only thing that gave him away in Noah’s mind was the spark of wisdom in his eyes—eyes that had seen too much over the years.

  “How are things, son?” his father asked.

  Noah shrugged. “Fine, Dad. There’s talk of a Matchmaker operating in the area, but there have been no real leads, and I’m starting to think it’s just idle gossip.”

  “Let’s hope so. The last thing we need is one of those leeches hanging around the pack. The younger members, their hormones run wild. They could well be tempted by the thought of being able to buy a mate who is capable of turning and producing offspring for them.”

  Noah shuddered at the thought of the barbaric practice of matchmaking. Matchmakers would hunt down any humans they found who had Sanmere in their blood and sell them off to the highest bidder.

  “That damned Esmerelda has a lot to answer for,” Noah remarked.

  Esmerelda, a very powerful witch, had cast a curse over all immortals over two hundred years ago. No longer could immortals produce female children. Only those who had once been human could produce female children, making female immortals extremely rare. It left male immortals with three choi
ces: never bear children, find one of the few female immortals who were unmarried—which was a next to impossible task due to them having to be hundreds of years old—or find a human with Sanmere in their blood. This gave the Matchmakers a certain appeal to some immortals. Although the practice was frowned upon by most immortals, it wasn’t expressly outlawed, and it was generally overlooked by alphas. Still, many immortals took it upon themselves to hunt down the Matchmakers and stop them.

  Noah started to relax a little as he and Gideon discussed pack business. Maybe that was all the dinner was going to be, a discussion about the pack and how to lead them going forward. Noah was more and more sure that was it. How could his father have found him a mate? He would never use the service of a Matchmaker, and it wasn’t like there were exactly hundreds of female bear shifters running around Alaska, or anywhere else.

  Exactly half an hour after Noah arrived at the house, his mother, Sophia, poked her head into the library and announced that dinner was ready.

  “You two really are archaic, you know,” Noah grinned. “Mom in the kitchen slaving over a hot stove. Dad talking business in the library. Maybe you should take to smoking cigars and drinking brandy in the drawing room after dinner.”

  “It’s not so much archaic as us not wanting to poison you,” Gideon laughed. “And trust me, if I cooked, there’d be at least a fifty-fifty chance that’s what would happen.”

  “I kind of like the idea of the drawing room thing, though,” Noah’s mom chimed in. “For me, of course, while you do the dishes, Gideon.”

  They were still laughing when they sat down around the table. Noah cut into a medium rare steak and took a bite, savoring the tender meat.

  “This is fantastic,” he said.

  “It really is,” his father agreed before turning to him, a serious expression on his face. “Now, I think it’s time we discussed why we asked you here. Noah, it’s good news. Your mom and I have found you a mate.”

  The steak turned to cardboard in Noah’s mouth, and it took everything he had to swallow the piece of meat without gagging. “What?”