Shifters Gone Wild: A Shifter Romance Collection

by Skye MacKinnon

  I pattered down the stairs, eager to check my guest was alright. I didn't want anything bad to have happened to him, even if I did have a lot of questions. I doubted I'd ever get the answer to any of them though. It wasn't like the jackal was about to start talking to me suddenly. This wasn't a cartoon.

  Pushing open the door to the living room, I stepped in, steeling myself against whatever mess I found inside. While I knew enough about jackals to recognise one, I didn't know how they'd respond to being stuck in a random room far away from their natural habitat.

  I shrieked and jumped back as I saw what had really happened.

  "Hello Serket."

  "Don't call me that," I hissed.

  "Why not, it's your name?" The man leaned back on my sofa with one of his legs against the other and waggled it about.

  "No one calls me that."

  "I heard. Sera is it now? That's not very different from Serket."

  "It doesn't need to be. What are you doing here?" I recognised him. It was hard not to. All the gods knew one another.

  "I've come to find you."

  "And now you have. Goodbye, Sed." I waved in the direction of my front door, hoping he got the hint and left.

  Instead, he chuckled. "Not so fast."

  "Yes, so fast. That was a nasty trick you played. Pretending to be a jackal just so I'd help you." I crossed my arms and glared at him but only because a part of me was jealous. Not only was it an amazing idea but I longed to take my animal form every once in a while, but was too scared to actually do it.

  "I wasn't exactly pretending and you know it."

  "You weren't being honest either. Why didn't you just come straight up to me and tell me what you wanted in the first place?" I ignored the fact I'd have walked away.

  "For exactly the reason you're thinking now."

  "I don't remember you being a mind reader."

  "And I don't remember you being awkward. As I recall, you were one of the more helpful types. Always trying to heal and make things better."

  "Which you used to your advantage."

  "Exactly, you haven't changed much at all, Sera."

  "What are you doing here, Sed?" I repeated, noticing that he still hadn't answered my initial question.

  "Why don't I tell you over breakfast?" He gave me a cheeky smile that made me very glad he wasn't naked. It would have lost some of its charm if he had been. One of the advantages of being a deity was that we didn't have to lose our clothing while in animal form. Some of our followers hadn't had the same advantages. We'd tried to teach them but it never worked.

  "Fine. What do you want?"

  "Whatever you're having," he replied.

  I sighed and made my way to the kitchen. I'd planned on feeding the jackal anyway, this technically wasn't that different, at least not in theory.

  Pulling eggs and milk from the fridge, I whipped up two quick omelettes. I'd have made something fancier but I still needed to go to work after this and didn't have the time.

  I plated the food and set it on the table along with a steamy coffee pot and some orange juice I'd somehow left unopened in the fridge.

  "Thank you," Sed said as he tucked into the meal.

  I smiled. Despite my surprise and annoyance that he was even here, I still loved the look of joy on his face as he ate. I'd only crossed paths with Sed a couple of times, we hadn't known each other any better than recognising each other’s faces and status. As a lesser god, he'd been below me in the hierarchy so I'd never paid much attention to him.

  At least until I'd been taken down a peg or two by being forgotten. That had been a wakeup call and a half for me.

  "Are you going to tell me?" I asked, taking a bite of my eggs.

  "You know who I am?"

  "Yes, but it's generally frowned upon not to introduce yourself when you break into someone's house."

  "I didn't break in. Your brought me here."

  I glared at him. Technically, he was right but he'd done it under false pretences and I wasn't about to forget that.

  "Sorry, I'm Sed, the protector of Kingship." He rolled his eyes at the end, probably because of the ridiculousness of the whole situation.

  "Is there much of a need for that at the moment?"

  He snorted. "Not really. There's kings about but they don't believe in me." He shrugged as if it wasn't a big deal. "What about you?"

  "People always need healing,” I pointed out.

  "Yet you're working as a vet?"

  "A veterinary nurse, not a vet," I corrected.

  "Is there a difference?"

  "Veterinary school." I ate more of my omelette, ignoring his probing the best I could.

  "So, basically you're minding your own business healing animals instead of humans? That's not the Serket I remember."

  "That's because you're the only one who remembers me," I muttered under my breath.

  He laughed. "That's not true. It's actually why I'm here. Osiris has been poisoned."

  My mouth fell open and my fork froze in mid-air. I was only dimly aware of the egg dropping off my fork and hitting my plate. I had more important things to concern myself with like the poisoning of one of our main gods. If he was in danger then it wasn't just me who was in danger of being forgotten. The others would be heading the same way for certain.

  "Well that takes you off the culprit list," Sed said cheerily, shovelling eggs into his mouth without a care in the world.

  "I was on it?" I squeaked.

  "As far as we can tell, the poison came from one of your scorpions."

  "What? My...what?" I didn't even keep any of them myself anymore, so how had one gotten into the hands of someone else in the first place? I had no followers. No one knew enough about me to use them either.

  "One of your scorpions. From your temple?"

  I shook my head. "There's nothing left of my temple. It's been gone for centuries," I countered.

  "Are you sure about that?"

  "Yes, I'm sure my temple doesn't exist."

  "How?"

  I laughed bitterly, considering what my life had become and what I could admit to him. Names were a big deal in Egyptian culture and admitting mine had been forgotten...

  Then again, he'd said himself that the people he had to protect no longer believed. Maybe he'd understand better than I thought.

  "No one remembers my name," I said slowly. "No one's been to my temple in a millennium. No one's said my name in six centuries, at least not enough."

  "Your powers are fading," he observed.

  "My powers are almost gone."

  "Including your immortality?"

  "No. That seems to be fine. It's just my magic itself that seems to be an issue. I healed a kitten yesterday and won't have enough power saved up to do the same for at least another couple of days."

  "Wow." He leaned back in his chair and took a deep breath. "I'd heard rumours of it happening but had no proof. I don't have extra magic myself." He shrugged as if that explained it, and in some way, it did.

  All gods were immortal and most of us could change into an animal form. But being able to do other things wasn't always an option. Sed was one of those. He offered protection but more in the form of watching over people and sending signs if they were in danger. The gods like me had magic other than that. We could do things like heal or create water.

  "Sorry, I really can't help."

  "I didn't ask you to yet," he said.

  "I know. But it's coming, right? It's poison from my scorpions and I'm a healing goddess. It's only logical."

  "You need to help, Serket."

  "Stop. Calling. Me. That," I ground out.

  "But if I don't call you that, then how are you going to let yourself be remembered?" He cocked his head to the side, clearly confused about it.

  "Maybe I don't want to be remembered. Maybe I like the quiet life where I don't need to do anything for anyone. Where I can take care of animals and make sure they have healthy lives."

  "Maybe, but I don'
t think so," he said.

  "Oh, and why's that?" I raised an eyebrow, not looking away from him.

  I was dimly aware of my breakfast going cold in front of me but this was more important. If what he was saying was true, we were all in serious danger. Myself included even if I didn't want to admit it.

  "Because you haven't actually told me no. You've said you can't help and for some reason really believe you can't, but you haven't told me no."

  I slammed my hand down on the table and looked deep into his eyes. "No," I said firmly.

  "Please?"

  "See yourself out and make sure you lock the door." I rose from my seat and left the room. I had to get ready for work even if I knew I wasn't going to be able to think of anything but his words all day. Why did he do this to me? Couldn't he just have left me to go about my normal life? I'd been perfectly happy without the interference of the other gods.

  "Damn it," I muttered, throwing myself back down the stairs and into the kitchen. "Alright, I'll help," I said before realising I was completely alone. The only sign he'd been here was the empty plates on the table.

  What had I done?

  Chapter 4

  It wasn't until I was pulling into the car park that I realised I'd forgotten to text George the night before. I hoped he hadn't been too concerned about me, I didn't want to cause extra worries for him. Not when there were enough of those in our clinic anyway.

  I rushed to the door, pulling it open and throwing myself through it despite the fact I was early.

  "I see you didn't get your face eaten off," George said, a jokey note to his words.

  "I'm so sorry, I was exhausted and just crashed." That was honest at least. I had been tired and gone straight to bed, I'd just done it after taking care of the jackal who wasn't a jackal.

  "I figured. I drove past your house on the way to pick up dinner for Joyce and saw your car there."

  I smiled weakly, unsure how I felt about him checking up on me like that. In some ways, I liked it that he cared about his staff but this was a whole new level.

  "I hope it wasn't too out of your way."

  "Not at all," he countered. "There's a great little pizza place on the way."

  I relaxed, sure there really wasn't anything more to it than that. "What have we got on today?" I asked as I hung up my coat.

  "Not much. No one else has been brought in overnight. We do have a gentleman in the waiting room wanting to look at the animals we have."

  "Oh?" I perked up. If we played this right, one of our charges could be going to a loving home and be taken care of properly.

  "Yes, if you want to deal with him while I do the checks on our newest resident?"

  "Okay." I'd have suggested it even if he hadn't. One of the other nurses could help him with anything medical that went on. Without my healing powers, I was only as good as any of the others.

  Not waiting any longer than I had to, I almost skipped into the waiting room, only stopping short when I realised who it was sat waiting for me.

  "I thought you'd left." I forgot my earlier change of heart, mostly due to the intrusion of Sed now being in my place of work without any invitation.

  "I did. And I came here." He slapped the magazine he was reading down on his leg, revealing the horoscope pages. "Do you read them?" he asked, seeing where my gaze had strayed to.

  "No," I lied. In reality, I read them religiously. I had an odd fascination about the whole thing, one that hadn't faded over the years.

  "Pity. Shall we see what it says about you? Scorpio, right?"

  "You think just because of who I am that my star sign is Scorpio?" I demanded.

  "No, I'm saying it because I do know when you were created."

  I stayed silent, not knowing what I could say about that. He'd done his research, that was for sure.

  "Scorpio...you should expect a big decision to come up and your choice will make a big difference in the way your life will play out."

  "How fitting."

  "It is, rather." Sed smiled at me, a genuine one that did weird things to my insides. He was a handsome man and apparently, I wasn't oblivious to that.

  "What does yours say?" I asked.

  "Cancer," he said needlessly and tapped the page. A slow smile curled up his lips. "It says love is on the cards and I should keep my eyes open for a beautiful Scorpio."

  "It doesn't," I scoffed.

  "Alright, it didn't use the word beautiful. But the rest is there." He held up the magazine for me to check but I shook my head. If he was willing to show me then there wasn't any doubt he was telling the truth. Annoyingly.

  "What kind of pet are you looking for today?" I asked, changing the subject as one of the other nurses walked in. We'd have a lot of explaining to do if we got caught talking about anything particularly dangerous.

  "I was hoping to see any arachnids you had."

  I tittered. He was just too much. Yet I kind of liked it. "We don't have many, but if you come this way, I'll show you what we do."

  Sed rose to his feet and set his magazine back on the table. I gave it a longing glance, still wanting to be sure he'd gotten the right dates and horoscopes. If he had, then my own was eerily spot on and I didn't want to think about the consequences if his was too.

  The room we kept the arachnids and reptiles in was deserted, as was normal. Most of the time, we only came in here when we had a reason to. None of these creatures needed people around like the dogs and cats did. Apart from Jerry the tortoise, but we often took him into the other room so he could walk around. He'd struck up a friendship with one of the cats who'd been with us for a few months. It was adorable to watch.

  "We only have a few animals in that might interest you." I waved my hand towards the back wall where three tarantulas lived in their lonely glass tanks. As always, I felt the pang of disappointment that we didn't have any scorpions here. While they weren't likely to be my sacred species, anything that made me feel more at home was welcome.

  "That's a pity. I was really looking for a rare and treasured species of scorpion. I was hoping to pick one up here."

  A blush rose to my cheeks and, not for the first time, I was grateful for the bronze tint of my skin which covered it up.

  "Then I'm not sure I can help you," I responded.

  "You can. Come to Egypt with me."

  I glanced away, wanting to agree and wanting to tell him under no uncertain terms would I be going to Egypt with him.

  "What good would that do?" I whispered urgently.

  "You can heal Osiris."

  I shook my head. "I can't, Sed. I don't have the magic to heal a human even when I'm at full strength. A god is another matter entirely. I don't think it'll be possible."

  "Sera, please?"

  "Please what?"

  "At least try?" His eyes widened, showing the true earnestness behind his request. He truly believed I could make a difference. I wished he was right.

  "I really can't help. I have no magic to do this. I don't wish this death on Osiris at all. I just can't help."

  "We can find your temple and get to the bottom of what's happening with your scorpions. Get your powers back," he tried desperately.

  "I don't think it works like that," I responded. "My scorpions are tied to me not my magic." And just finding some wouldn't do anything to bring my powers back into existence. As far as I knew, the only thing that would do that was if people remembered who I was. And without even a core group of followers anymore, that was almost impossible.

  "Please, Sera, try."

  I sighed. As much as I thought it was pointless, there was a part of me that wanted to try and fix it. Osiris had always been kind to me, he didn't deserve the fate he was being dealt and if there was something I could do to help that, then I should do it. Duty wasn't something I could shirk.

  "Alright, I'll try. But I can't promise anything."

  Sed's shoulders slumped as a weight lifted off them.

  "One question."

  "Of course,
" he responded.

  "Who sent you?"

  "Osiris suggested I searched for you. But that might just have been so he could get me out of the way. I don't believe he was too happy with me doing my job around him."

  "Your job?"

  "Protecting kingship."

  Ah. Who better for him to transfer his duties to than Osiris, one of the best known Pharaohs in the world. At least, one of the best known and still living Pharaohs. Ish. Osiris was a complicated one to say the least. He'd squirreled himself away once people had stopped believing. All of us struggled to fit in a little bit but he more than most. With our human forms, we could live among humans without a problem. Osiris, on the other hand, would always have stood out with his green skin.

  "When do you want to set off?" I asked.

  "How soon can you get away from here?"

  I frowned, thinking hard. "I have all my holiday left to take but I'll need to arrange it. How long does Osiris have?"

  "A month or so? It's hard to tell."

  I nodded. "Alright, give me a couple of days and I'll be ready to go."

  "How's everything going in here?" one of the other nurses asked.

  "Oh, good thank you, Rebecca. I'm afraid we don't have what this gentleman is looking for."

  "It's very regretful but I suppose that's the case when you're looking for something rare." Sed gave me a lingering look that couldn't be mistaken for anything else, even if I'd wanted to.

  "Thank you for coming in." I smiled to him and ushered him towards the door, only relaxing slightly once he was outside and our waiting room was once again empty.

  Unable to help myself, I picked up the magazine he'd been reading. Reading through the horoscopes, I was somewhat surprised to find he'd been telling the truth. All I could do now was hope it would turn out in a way that wouldn't destroy me. Especially with what his horoscope had said.

  Love.

  That wasn't something I'd considered in years. I'd had no reason to. Yet now, it was the only word there was any room for in my head.