Shifters Forever Worlds Epic Collection Volume 3

by Elle Thorne

  Doc put his hand on Braden’s shoulder. Bain put his hand on Braden’s other shoulder, restraining him.

  “Whoa,” Doc said. “Where do you think you’re going?”

  “I need to check on her.” Braden tried to shrug their hands off his shoulders.

  They tighten their grips.

  “Check on who?” Bain asked.

  Braden tighten his lips into a line. He wasn’t going to tell them anything.

  An uncomfortable silence filled the room while Doc, Tanner, Teague, Joe, and Bain stared at Braden expectantly.

  The silence was interrupted by Doc’s phone vibrating.

  The sound was loud to Braden’s shifter ears, breaking the uncomfortable quiet.

  Without taking his eyes off Braden, Doc put the phone to his ear after swiping the screen to answer it. “This is Doc.”

  Everyone stared at Doc while he listened on the phone.

  “Okay, thanks.” Doc swiped to end the call. “I won’t need to go after all.”

  She must be dead.

  Everything within Braden collapsed. His entire world shattered. All hope vanished. That’s all this could mean. If they didn’t need Doc, she was beyond help.

  Dead.

  He let that thought sink in, felt it plunge to the very depths of him. He didn’t even stop to analyze why it bothered him so much. That this woman’s death, a woman whose name he did not even know, a woman who shot him, crushed him.

  He felt his bear’s spirit deflate as deeply as he felt his own. A long exhaled breath escaped him. He stared out the window and suddenly found himself hating the visage of the mountains.

  There was a silence in the room that made Braden turn away from the view and look at the other men.

  They were all staring at him.

  He was used to people staring, those wielding searing hot, red-tipped strips of metal right before they placed it on his bare skin. The memories of that and the devastation at the woman’s demise was too much. The anger within him reflected in the dirty look he gave them.

  Doc glanced away from Braden, turning to Joe, Tanner, and Teague.

  Next to Braden, Bain squeezed his shoulder. “Do you want to tell me what’s going on,” he asked softly.

  “It’s Dakotah. The woman from the compound,” Doc said softly to the other men.

  Braden’s sensitive bear hearing picked up the words.

  That must be her name.

  Dakotah.

  He rolled the syllables as he spoke them in his head.

  Doc, Joe, Tanner, and Teague all approached Braden’s bed, surrounding him.

  Doc cleared his throat; he gave Braden a hard look. “If I had to put this together, and maybe… make a timeline,” he crossed his arms over chest, his glower lancing Braden. “I’d say she snuck away from the compound, bowled over Ciara, then found the cabin.”

  Braden did not say a word. He put on his best poker face.

  Doc continued, “At the cabin, she shot you, then… I’m guessing she left you dying, took the truck, had a wreck, and now she’s with Griz.”

  And still Braden said nothing. Gave away nothing.

  Doc nodded, as if to say, so be it. “She’ll need to stand trial. But for now, we’ll treat her. And Griz is having Ciara come out. Seems he thinks she can be of help with her. She’s got mind skills.”

  An eruption of joy overwhelmed Braden. That meant she was still alive. That joy was quickly replaced.

  A thread of fear laced throughout Braden’s veins. He hadn’t been able to get passed the word trial. “What do you mean a trial?”

  A muscle ticked in Doc’s jaw. “Shifter court. She shot a shifter. You. Or did you forget?”

  Fury replaced fear. “It was an accident. And I loaned her the truck.” He gritted his teeth. “No trial.”

  “Hmmm.” Doc wore a dubious look. “Stay here. Don’t leave this room until I tell you that you can.”

  Braden frowned.

  Chapter Nine

  Dakotah was still in that state of semi-sleep, semi-awake. That state where you process before you fully wake. She knew something was wrong before she opened her eyes. If not wrong, then very different. The smell, it smelled clean, antiseptic, like a hospital. And she was lying on sheets—clean, fresh, crisp sheets. These were not the sheets at Deep Hollow, the compound where the shifters kept her captive. No, she definitely wasn’t there.

  Where am I, she wondered, surveying her surroundings.

  This was a hospital room. Her last memory was driving that truck, and then tipping over into a huge ditch and rolling. The rolling had seemed never ending.

  And with that thought came a realization.

  Something was wrong. Very wrong.

  She snapped up right to a sitting position, eyes flying open at the same time. “My baby,” she whispered in horror.

  Her baby was not in her.

  She lost the baby. It was gone.

  This is my punishment for not wanting it at first. For having doubts. It serves me right to punish me, but why make an innocent baby pay?

  She shoved her fist into her mouth, biting into her knuckles to dull the pain in her heart.

  The sound of a baby’s cry split her thoughts.

  Dakotah jumped to her feet, then collapsed to the floor, unable to stand on weak legs. She brought the IV bag and its pole crashing down on her.

  The door flew open, and a big man stood before her, a concerned look on his face. “You were unconscious. While so, your baby came. He’s early.”

  “I know you,” she said. She’d seen him during the shapeshifter fight at Deep Hollow. “You’re one of those… One of them…” She jerked the IV out of her arm. “Give me my baby. Now.” She didn’t care who she had to fight, and if they were shifted into bears, lions, or even a pack of wolves.

  She wanted her damn baby, and now.

  She threw herself at him, lunging, aiming for his neck.

  He held on to her arms at the wrists, immobilizing her. “I’m a doctor. Your baby is fine. You can see him. I know where you were. I’m not one of them.”

  She jerked her hand out of his grip. “Yes, you are. I saw you change. I saw you turn from a bear into a man. You are one of them.”

  “No. I may be the same type as they are, but I am nothing like they are. You’re safe here.” He released her wrists and took a step back, held his hands up as if to reassure her that he was harmless.

  “Yeah. And I was born yesterday.” The room began to spin, but Dakotah ignored it. She wanted her baby. She tensed her legs and leapt toward the door.

  He was still talking. “I’m not like the ones at that compound. I’ll take you to your baby. He’s hungry. He’s premature, but…” He seized her by the arm just as she had gotten past him.

  That brought her up short. “How do I know you are not like the ones at Deep Hollow?” Again, she jerked on her arm to free herself.

  No luck.

  His grip was a steel band.

  Then it hit her. He said “but.” He said her baby was hungry, premature, but…

  “What do you mean but? But what?”

  “You hate shifters.” He paused, rubbed his jaw. “Your baby is a shifter. A lion cub shifter.”

  “I know that!” She shoved at his chest with her free hand, then began to beat on him. A boy! She had a baby boy. Elation didn’t have time to sink in because she had to get her child. “But he’s still my baby. That’s for me to deal with!”

  She raised her hand for another round of pounding on his chest when he caught her wrists again.

  “You can’t deal with that alone. You don’t know how to raise a shifter. You don’t know how to teach him to shift.”

  “That’s my problem.” And then, the emotions, the everything of it, hit Dakotah like a ton of bricks.

  Tears burst forth and she was angry with herself for losing control of her emotions. Helpless anger always created tears for her. And she hated that. Which made her angrier.

  She began to writhe t
o free herself from his iron grip.

  The man stepped to the side and raised his hands. “You’re free to go to your baby,” he said softly, and indicated the door.

  “They’ll come for me. They’ll come for my baby.”

  “The ones from Deep Hollow? There’s no one left there,” said another man as he stepped in the door.

  She looked at the newcomer.

  This man was even bigger than the first. A big, scary man with a large, wicked scar that ran across his face.

  A woman followed him in, holding a bundled baby.

  Her baby.

  She handed him to Dakotah.

  Dakotah studied her baby’s face. He was perfect. Beautiful, though so very tiny. “You’re sure he’s okay?”

  The man who said he was a doctor nodded.

  “All of those shifters are dead,” said the shifter with the scar.

  Dakotah looked up from the baby, shook her head. “No, the one who will come for me was not there when you were. My baby is his son. That man came in once a week to view the ultrasound.” She barely kept the sob from her voice. She lowered her head to nuzzle the baby, but still caught the look exchanged by the two men.

  The doctor said, “Do you know his name?”

  Dakotah raised her lips from the baby’s forehead to reply. “Chad Pintoso. He lives in California. I heard him tell one of the others at Deep Hollow.”

  The two men again, exchanged a look.

  “What?” She hugged her baby, taking in his sweet scent.

  “Nothing.” The doctor took a step toward the door. “Take care of your baby.”

  Chapter Ten

  Braden had been told to stay in the room and not to interfere. Everyone else cleared out, except Bain, who Braden surmised had been left behind to make sure Braden followed instructions.

  But Braden knew she was there, at the clinic, within close proximity.

  He knew this as surely as he knew his own bear. He scented her. He also knew because his bear had imprinted on her pulse. Seems his bear had also imprinted on her baby’s pulse. Braden knew the baby had been born and was alive. But there was more than that to it. All Braden’s nerve endings whirred on hyper alert.

  Dakotah.

  His body and his bear were reacting to her. And though he wasn’t happy with their request, he knew seeing him would give Dakotah stress.

  And so he was quiet and obedient, though his jaw was set and his fists clenched.

  Until he heard her cry out.

  He sat up.

  Bain rose to his feet. “Don’t do it.”

  “I need to see her.”

  Bain shook his head. “You don’t know the conditions she was in. You don’t know what she’s been through.”

  “I think I can imagine.” Especially since she shot me. But he couldn’t tell Bain that, not when he’d been denying it all this time. “Have you seen her? How’s the baby?”

  “She’s a survivor. So is the baby.”

  “So your Bear Canyon Valley friends are going to keep me here as a prisoner?”

  “Actually, Doc said you’re free to go. Just asked that you don’t disturb her.”

  Bain didn’t have to clarify who “her” was.

  “Can you at least tell me their plans for her?”

  “They’re going to take her next door to Doc and Mae’s house. Keep an eye on her, make sure the baby is okay.”

  “So I can what, just go? Whenever I want?”

  Bain dug in his pocket, fishing out a set of keys. “Take mine. They cleaned the cabin. It’s ready whenever you are.”

  “Just like that?”

  Bain nodded and walked out of the room.

  Braden could hear them, murmuring amongst themselves, even though they were a couple rooms away. Every now and then, he heard his name mentioned. He heard Dakotah’s name mentioned.

  A confusion, unlike any he’d ever experienced set in. His head felt as if filled with cotton. It was his bear, Braden realized. His bear was fighting for control, and the aftermath was leaving Braden in a state of disarray emotionally and mentally.

  His bear was driving him crazy. Every breath Dakotah took, every pulse beat of her baby made Braden’s bear roar.

  And so Braden left, his mind on Dakotah, his heart with Dakotah, and his logic held hostage by his bear.

  He wanted to ask someone, anyone questions about Dakotah and the baby, but he couldn’t talk to the other shifters and their mates who came and went. He was confused by his bear’s actions and reactions, and he was confused by the whole situation. Best thing he could do would be to go for a run in the forest to clear his head.

  He had to get out of there.

  It was the scream that woke Braden. He bolted upright in the dark room of Joe’s cabin. Then he realized, it was his own scream of agony that had awakened him. The scars on his body felt on fire. Much as they felt every night after he fell asleep.

  There was something different about the scars tonight. They tingled in a way they never had. Confused, he frowned in the darkness of the room. A darkness that held no barrier to sight, his shifter sight made everything as clear as day.

  The hairs on his neck rose, every nerve ending buzzed with a vigilance he’d never experienced before.

  Something had happened. He could feel it, sense it, knew it. And his bear knew it, too. In Braden’s mind, his bear’s roars overwhelmed.

  Dakotah. It had to be her.

  Braden didn’t have to think twice about a plan of action. In fact, there was no plan. He was all action. He was in Bain’s Jeep and headed down the road before he even realized he forgot his shirt.

  He never slept with a shirt on. The burning sensations of his scars were bad enough on their own, but with material brushing his skin, they were sheer hell.

  The closer he got to Mae and Doc’s house, the stronger the tingling sensation became.

  He arrived at the clinic, and softly padded around the building. He found nothing amiss, and he began the short walk to the house next door.

  He hadn’t even made it to the sidewalk that led to the front door when his tingling felt like tiny electric shocks were pinging it.

  His bear roared, and Braden knew he had to listen. It had been the same way when they’d been in battle. Braden wasn’t sure how his bear had these perceptions, but they had never led him astray.

  Taking a deep breath, he assessed the scents. Woods, evergreen, mulch, so many different aromas. The next scent assaulted him as if it was a physical attack.

  Dakotah.

  And then another odor, one he knew too well.

  Blood.

  He immediately took off, turning it over to his bear. Shifting into his animal midstride, a tactic he had perfected while serving in the military. His shifting was silent as he had been taught. The bones stretching, the sinew elongating, all of it, quiet, and practically instantaneous.

  He was in his polar bear form, a massive white being, making its way through the forest, loping at a powerful speed, an undefeatable predator. He stayed on her scent, getting stronger and stronger. And deeper into the woods.

  A form, crumpled and in white lay against a tree. The smell of blood was strong, permeating his fears, making them grow. He picked up speed and stopped before her.

  She was not conscious.

  And no baby.

  Fuck.

  He shifted into his human form quickly, and knelt next to her. There was blood on her forehead. Yes, this was definitely her. And no baby.

  Maybe I’m overreacting. Maybe she left the baby at Doc’s place.

  Would she, though, would she abandon her child? After the things he overheard her saying, and the gut feeling he got about her, no. He couldn’t believe she would do that.

  He put his hand on her shoulder. “Dakotah.”

  She moaned low, lifted her head, and opened her eyes. It seemed she was trying to focus. Her expression registered recognition. “You.” And then her face crumpled, screwing up into an ugly cry. “My baby. T
hey took my baby.”

  And with that she collapsed.

  He caught her just before her head hit the tree she had been leaning against.

  Holding her, breathing her scent in, the blood on her head assaulting his senses, making his bear crazy for revenge, Braden pushed the bear aside.

  The baby. We have to find out what happened to the baby.

  He forced his bear to move past rage and the overwhelming odor of blood to concentrate on the baby’s particular scent. The signals were mixed. The baby had not been with her out here. But there was a trail left by the baby’s scent.

  Braden raised his head, inhaled deeply, letting the various aromas sit on his senses while his lungs burned with the effort of holding his breath long enough to process.

  There.

  He picked it up. It was faint as hell, but—

  There it was!

  Another shifter. One he didn’t recognize out of all the Bear Canyon Valley shifters that he’d met thus far.

  The burning grew in his lungs, setting them on fire with the effort, but still he held it in deep, processing.

  Hyena? A hyena shifter?

  And so faint?

  Hunter’s block, he realized. The shifter had used hunter’s block and it had just begun to wear off.

  I’ll be damned.

  He looked down at the still unmoving Dakotah. Her dark hair splayed across his arm. Her eyes were closed as if she were asleep. And if it weren’t for how ashen her skin was under her dark complexion, and the trickle of blood on her forehead, he’d think she were sleeping.

  Braden was consciously aware of the fact that his bear was synchronizing his heartbeat to hers the whole time Braden had been trying to assess the scents.

  We’re not bonded, he warned his bear. Don’t put the cart before the horse.

  His bear growled in response, a warning snarl to back off.

  Wait.

  What was that?

  Braden felt his heartbeat begin to slow. It was slowing to match her declining heartbeat.

  No! Fuck, no!

  Her heartbeat was becoming weaker, fainter. He couldn’t lose her. Why was her blood pressure dipping? Why was her heartbeat getting slower?