by E Hall
Shifter Diaries:
Life Fated
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Sweet Paranormal Wolf & Fae Fantasy Romance Series
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Book 1
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by
E. Hall
Shifter Diaries: Life Fated
Copyright© 2020 E Hall
All Rights Reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any informational storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the author/publisher except where permitted by law.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
*Note: portions of this book was previously published under a different pen name of mine. The content has been revised and updated.
Cover Design: Melony Paradise of Paradise Cover Design www.paradisecoverdesign.com
Website: http://www.ehallauthor.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/ehallauthor
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 1
Let’s Connect
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Also by E. Hall
Are you a fan of fantasy and magic?
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Dear Diary,
Today is the last day of high school. So does that mean it’s the first day of the rest of my life? Everyone around me is excited, rushing from the front doors of the building, cheering, practically losing their minds because it’s finally over.
Seriously, Melissa Gimbel just streaked past screaming at the top of her lungs and threw an armful of books all over the front sidewalk. Leroy Hale and some of the other guys from the football team just did a team tackle on the front lawn. Others talk about a bonfire tonight to burn all physical evidence of high school. It’s madness.
But that’s just it. It’s over. No one is talking about how bittersweet it is. I’m not sure I want to leave...said the first high school graduate ever.
I’ve always felt so different. Story of my life.
Maybe it’s because I don’t feel ready for what’s next. Probably because I don’t know what’s next. If I’m honest, the future feels bleak.
At least at school, I felt like I belonged. Well, sort of. I was so lucky to have Mrs. Hershey for English for two years in a row. She’s the only person in the world who told me it’s okay to daydream. Don’t get me wrong, I worked hard. Top ten percent of the entire class at Roosevelt Valley High, in fact. I’m graduating with all A’s for four years. My mom is so proud of me.
But now what? I’ll work at the doughnut shop all summer. She wants me to go to community college and earn a nursing degree like her. It’s an admirable profession, but I’m not sure it’s for me. First, the sight of blood makes me, well, never mind.
I don’t want to disappoint her and the program offers great financial assistance, which above all, I need.
What I really want to do is creative writing, but that wouldn’t pay the bills. I have to be practical, I know. But here I am, standing on the edge of the future and...
And I feel like I’m made for something more. But what?
It’s a kick a stone down the street and slouch down on the front steps kind of feeling, leaving me kind of lost. Diary, what do I do?
Love,
Kenna
Chapter 1
Kenna
I have the strange and startling realization that this is a last time—the last time I walk home from high school. It’s usually looking back that something solidifies as a last time because rarely do I recognize those moments in the present.
There was the last time I had salt on my French fries after learning that I have a weird allergy.
There was the last time I saw my favorite band perform live at a festival before they broke up a week later, citing creative differences.
There was the last time I saw my neighbor Milly before she passed away—when I was younger, she used to look after me when my mom worked.
It’s weird that I don’t have to set my alarm tomorrow, wake up, slog through AP calculus, hang out with Andi at lunch, and look forward to Mrs. Hershey’s creative writing class.
I kind of want it back. Or is it more that I’m clinging to what’s familiar because I don’t know what’s coming?
My mom jokes that I’m a deep thinker.
As I approach the apartment in the two-family house that we rent, papers fly through the air and land on the front lawn. No way Melissa Gimbel made it here ahead of me and is celebrating. We’re hardly friends.
I pause on the sidewalk. Magazines come next, then a sweatshirt, a remote control car, and an assortment of things that belong to Matt, my mother’s boyfriend. Or by the looks of things, her ex-boyfriend.
This can’t be good.
I hustle up the stairs and open the door.
My mother plucks a trucker-style hat off the coat rack and whips it out the window. “I am done. He’s gone. Goodbye, Matt,” she hollers even though he’s not here.
I always knew he wasn’t the one for her. My mom is fiercely independent even though she goes through boyfriends like Matt went through socks.
Unlike her, I’ve been boyfriendless for the entirety of my high school career. It’s odd, but in my daydreams, I’ve decided that for sure the one is out there for me. Yes, I believe in love at first sight and soul mates and all that. I can’t explain why, even though Andi has grilled me endlessly. I just do.
My mom grips me by the shoulders. “Kenna, I always knew that I deserved better. Don’t ever just settle for any guy.” She goes on to warn me about men. Then says, “Well, there was that one time Matt washed my car inside and out. He had his moments. He could be sweet at times. Like when he brought me ice cream after a long week at work. Nothing wrong with that, right? If he shared.” Her eyes flash. “And that was just it. He always ate most of the ice cream.” She throws her hands in the air.
I set my backpack down. Another last time, at least with my binder and school stuff inside.
My mom tilts her head. “Oh, honey. Today was your last day of school. Congratulations and welcome to adulthood.” She lets out a high laugh, as though adulthood isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
Whatever Matt did must have b
een bad. She rarely raves like this. Only the times she broke up with Dan, Antonio, and the guy who sung in the shower at the top of his lungs—mostly heavy metal.
“Kenna, I don’t want you to have these kinds of relationships. Truly. When you meet that special someone...” She lets out a long sigh and gets an unfocused, faraway look in her eyes. “Don’t let him go.”
She rarely talks about my dad, but that glossed-over expression tells me she’s thinking about Greyson Slade, my father, who I’ve never met. Something happened when she was pregnant, he’s gone, and she won’t talk about it.
My mom abruptly gets up. “Okay, time to finish giving ‘ole Matt the heave-ho.”
I follow her toward the bedroom.
She fills her arms with his clothing. “Come on, help me out.”
I have to admit, I didn’t like Matt and not only because he had a habit of belching loudly.
My mom ceremoniously tosses Matt’s T-shirts and boxer shorts out the window.
I do the same only with a pair of shoes. I blink because for a moment it was like one of his muddy boots floated, suspended in the air. Then I shake my head. Must have been a weird trick of the light.
A man walking his dog looks up at the exact time my mom hollers, “I deserve better than finding out about Alice from Betsy while he was on a date with someone from Boston named Carine.”
Both the man and his dog give her a questioning look and carry on.
“I take it he cheated?” I ask my mom.
“On me with Alice, Betsy, and Carine. He may as well been working his way through the Alphabet. How many more until he reached the letter J?”
Jacqueline Slade doesn’t suffer fools except when it comes to men. She slams the window closed. I find the way it makes the sill shake strangely satisfying like she’s closing a chapter on her life.
But like me, what next? Will she just move onto another guy?
She pivots in my direction, as though having the same thought. “I will be single for a while. Live life on my terms. If I want to watch a rom-com, I will. If I want to eat an entire tub of ice cream, I’ll do that too.” She looks around at our small living room on the second floor. I take her hand and squeeze, hoping to calm her.
“But I will share with you, Sweetie.” She slouches on the leather couch and lets out a sigh.
I drop beside my mom and let go of her hand. I’ve been through so many breakups with her it’s almost like I’ve had my own, even though that’s hardly true. I recognize that this moment is the eye in the storm. She’d like to feel more satisfied with her outburst but doesn’t. I know the drill.
As for relief? Upon ending high school, I’d like to feel more of that at my sudden freedom.
Instead, I feel restless, unsettled, and if I hadn’t been so distracted by these last few months of final projects and exams, I’d have realized that I’ve been feeling that way for a while.
“Do you have to go to work this afternoon?” my mom asks, calmer now.
“No, I took it off since it’s the last day and all.” I’ve been working at the same doughnut shop for the last three, going on four years. People always ask if I get tired of doughnuts. Nope. Never met one I didn’t like. I have a serious sweet tooth.
But the job at the doughnut shop was supposed to be temporary. Looks like I’ll be there for the foreseeable future.
I kind of imagined my life would be different. More exciting.
The front door flies open.
Matt has a magazine in one hand and a pair of pants in the other. “What is going on, Jackie?”
“You weren’t supposed to move in, but you certainly made yourself at home. I was cleaning up around here.” She rises to her feet, clenching her fists. Apparently, my calming presence wore off.
My mom is scary when she’s mad.
“You have some nerve throwing my stuff out the window,” he says.
“No way, Matt. I’ll stand up for myself and not let you walk all over me or sweet talk me or convince me that it won’t happen again. You cheated three times, and that’s three times too many. You and I are over.”
“What do you mean over?”
“I don’t know how I could make it clearer. You and I are no longer seeing each other, dating, a couple, or watching Used Car Sales Wars while you eat ice cream and burp.”
I wrinkle my nose. I’m still on the couch, trapped between them as this real-life drama unfolds. It’s not the first time. My mom says I help keep her centered, so as much as I want to retreat to my room, I hang around to make sure things don’t get out of hand.
Matt rocks back on his heels and folds his arms in front of his chest. “We both know that I’m a man with an appetite, Jackie. You work all hours, practically sleep all day—”
“That’s because I work the night shift at the hospital.”
They bicker back and forth for another two minutes, each of them taking lower blows. Meanwhile, I’m taking notes on how not to have a relationship. My mom has a lot of great qualities, but having a healthy connection with men is not one of them.
I’ve had enough. I press my hands over my ears and make a big show of trying to ignore them.
Matt yells, “Why are you doing this, Jackie?”
“Because you cheated. And that’s not all.” My mom picks up the magazine he brought back in. “You blew into my life, and now I’m sweeping you out of it.”
“What about the ice cream?”
“Call me crazy, but I hate ice cream.” She doesn’t hate ice cream at all. She loves it. But she hates him right then.
I do too. Why can’t he take the hint?
He was so smug and making it out like it was her fault he cheated.
“I’m leaving town,” my mom declares as if deciding on the spot. “I’m all done here. I’m done with you.”
My mouth hangs open.
“You’re quitting your job?” Matt asks.
“I’m quitting my job. I’m quitting you. I’m quitting this apartment.”
“But where are you going to go? What are you going to do?”
“My sentiments exactly!” I say, but they don’t pay attention to me.
“What don’t you understand about us being broken up? What I do is no business of yours.” My mother seethes.
I don’t let myself think about what this means. Will I stay here or go with her? We’ve moved several times over the years, so it’s not a huge surprise, but it’s news to me.
Matt steps toward her. Anger streaks his face. “You can’t do this to me. Not right now. Not when I just got laid off.”
My mom narrows her eyes. “Not. My. Problem. Matt.”
He gets in her face.
My muscles tense as protective anger fires hot through me.
She snarls. My mother can hold her own. “You ought to ask Alice or Betsy or Carine if you can leech off them.”
“I don’t know what you're talking about.”
I roll my eyes, seeing right through his lies.
“Leave,” my mother hisses.
“No.” Matt puffs up and squares off. He’s average height and goes to the gym, but isn’t overly strong.
A surge of rage races through me. I envision tearing the dude’s head off. The violent vision scares me. My stomach pools with nerves, shooting straight to my legs, and I feel like I have to sit back down.
Matt takes several steps closer, backing my mother toward the corner.
I blink, and at that moment, seeing her smaller than him as he tries to intimidate her or whatever it is he intends to do next causes the nerves inside me to harden, sharpen, and turn into something else entirely. I shoot up from my seat with all the anger and rage a person can possess.
He grips her roughly by the shoulders.
“Leave her alone.” My vision goes red. No, not just my vision, my fingers, my entire being seems to burn up, humming with electric energy, and then it blasts from me and into Matt’s chest.
Chapter 2
Corbin
My wolf focuses on scents, textures, and the energy surrounding him, but after rotating my strength and agility practice, I leave the training grounds and shift back to physical form. Later, I’ll practice weapons and defense as well as tactical and strategy along with the rest of Pack Hjalmor, the warrior wolves of the north.
I take a deep breath, appreciating the dense forest that gives way to the snowcapped mountains even in the early summer. It’s rare for them to thaw. Wispy clouds streak the sky. To the east are the ice fields that lead farther north. To the southwest is the lake that I look forward to enjoying this summer, finally.
Below, I take in the homestead I created for the pack. The main lodge sits in the center, far from the main road. The slate path leading to my small cottage sits behind it. Members of the pack walk between the several out buildings, pavilion, and outdoor lounge area. The stacks of firewood grow as everyone takes turns splitting logs. The verdant fields stretch into the distance and toward the river where we grow our own food. Again, pack members take part in farming along with tending to the grounds, trails, and daily household chores. Even I, the Alpha, am on the rotation to clean the toilets.
I believe in the dignity of work and that no one job is more important than another, despite the wolf hierarchy. We all contribute. Having meaning and purpose fill our days no matter if the task is menial or involves protecting the humans in the nearby village is vital for a healthy pack.
I stand, warm in the sun. My pulse still thunders in my veins. I’m sweaty, eager for the shower that awaits me as I near the clearing surrounding the vast Headquarters in the middle of nowhere Polaris, Concordia.
It took my brother and me over a year to build the enormous lodge with its fieldstone base and massive beams. However, it’s my pride and joy despite the circumstances that leave me as the sole owner. Not only is it my home, but it’s also a sanctuary for my pack.
I start toward my cottage a measure away from the main house when my hackles lift.
