Shifters Gone Wild: A Shifter Romance Collection

by Skye MacKinnon

  "Never flown private?"

  I shook my head. "How can you afford this?"

  "I've made a few good investments over the years." Sed indicated to one of the plush seats settled around a table and I took it.

  Within seconds, I had my seatbelt secured and was readying myself for take-off. I might be flying in luxury but I wasn't risking my safety. I didn't even know what would happen if I fell out of a plane and through the air. I couldn't technically die but that didn't mean hitting the ground at high velocity wouldn't majorly hurt me. It would hurt my pride too.

  "They must have been some really good investments."

  Sed gave me a proud smile, clearly, he felt he'd done well with his investments. "Thank you. I've dabbled in a lot of things but it's art that made me a lot of money. You can't be that badly off yourself, either?"

  He'd seated himself to look effortlessly causal but I could tell there was real curiosity behind his question.

  "I wouldn't say I'm well off but I have savings." I'd had the distinct disadvantage of being a woman. Not just that, a tanned woman. Earning decent money for my skill level hadn't started until the past hundred years or so. Before that I'd had to find a sympathetic male doctor who'd let me help out. Except for the decade I spent as part of a secret society of female doctors. That had been a particularly fun time. I'd been able to see similarities between how they acted towards each other and how our priesthoods had worked. It was certainly the place I'd felt the most at home outside of Egypt.

  "That's always good. I know some of the gods are still running off the wealth they used to have."

  I gave him a weak smile. If I tried, I was sure I could put more than one name to the gods that felt that way. They were always the most dangerous ones. They didn't think the end of our culture meant anything to them. They were fools. We all had to adapt with the world or we'd end up completely forgotten.

  Not unlike me.

  "Have you always trained in medicine?"

  I nodded. "It's part of who I am, there's no escaping it for me."

  "Don't you ever get tired of that?"

  "It's part of who I am," I repeated, a frown pulling down between my eyes.

  "That doesn't mean it has to be all of who you are."

  I took a deep breath, trying to work out what I wanted my response to that to be. Deep down, I knew he had a point but I didn't want to think about it too hard. Without being a healer, I wasn't sure what I had anymore. I liked animals but that was all linked to the same thing. I liked to cook but that was more of a necessity in life.

  "Hey, I'm sorry." Sed's hand settled over mine, a calmness spreading through me as a result. "I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable."

  "You didn't," I lied.

  He gave me a pointed look that revealed just how unconvinced he was of that statement. There wasn't anything either of us could do to change the way I felt though. Nor did I want to. I'd been so preoccupied with surviving and my waning magic that I'd forgotten to live my life. I used to love to dance and play music. I wasn't very good at art but I loved to watch the masters of it at work. And yet I couldn't work out when the last time I'd done any of that was.

  "I like to dance," I blurted out, the words slipping through my thoughts and out into the open.

  "Any particular style?" There was no accusation in his tone, nor was there any amusement. He genuinely cared about my answer.

  Warmth filled me. After the night we'd shared together and our conversation now, I was starting to think there really could be something between us. It would take time to work out still but I could probably relax enough to let myself fully fall for Sed. And this wouldn't be like any of the other times. I wasn't sure how I knew but I was certain of it.

  For him, I'd take a chance. One I'd never expected to take again.

  "I don't think so," I answered honestly. "I learned in Egypt but there's been a lot since that I've wanted to try..." Images of swirling skirts and perfect makeup swam through my head. I'd never compete in a dance competition, I wouldn't believe that to be fair to the humans around me, but getting dressed up and learning the moves properly? That was something I wanted.

  "Why don't you settle on one to try first and we'll learn after we've sorted this out," he promised.

  "You mean that?" I could hear the eagerness in my own voice but I didn't even care. At this point, I was sure he knew how I felt about him.

  "Of course. It sounds like it could be fun. I always want to learn new things."

  "Thank you," I whispered.

  "For?"

  I opened my mouth, readying myself to say for the opportunity to dance. Almost instantly, I closed it again, realising it wasn't just that I was thankful for.

  "Everything," I answered instead.

  "You don't need to thank me, Sera. I'm just doing the right thing." But something in his eyes suggested he didn't quite believe what he was saying. He had another motive, I just hoped it was the same one influencing me.

  Chapter 10

  I'd been worried I wouldn't be able to remember the way to the temple. I hadn't been to it in a long time. Even longer than to my main temple, and the world had changed dramatically in that time.

  Ducking between two large stones, I pushed some greenery out of the way, holding it out of the way so Sed could come past too. I didn't want him getting his face scratched because of a careless moment. Especially when he'd done such delicious things to me on the plane. I was hoping for a repeat performance on the way back. Not that I'd admit it if anyone asked. I was determined to keep my feelings under wraps for now, though I'd be lying if I said I didn't think he'd already caught on.

  "How much further is it?"

  I waved away his puffing. He wasn't out of shape and we both knew it. We couldn't really put much weight on no matter what we ate. One of the many perks we had. As if the immortality and magic wasn't enough.

  "Just another few corners," I replied.

  I'd told myself I was being paranoid when I'd first built this temple. Now I thanked myself for it. If I didn't have this one, I might have lost my magic completely. Though Kuk did know about this temple, we'd gone on a retreat there once to get away from the stresses we'd been dealing with at the time. I couldn't remember what those even were anymore. I might be immortal but my memory wasn't infallible.

  We passed through the next set of trees and I sighed in relief. The temple rose up before us with trees poking through the windows. Abandoned but safe. This place hadn't been an oasis before which was a little confusing for me but I didn't question it too much. The world had changed, I shouldn't expect this corner of it to be trapped in a time void.

  "It's beautiful." I could hear the awe in his voice.

  "Thank you."

  "I didn't expect it to be so big."

  "Was your secret temple smaller than your main one?" I turned back to see his face.

  Sed grimaced, as if unsure how to respond to that. "Not all of us felt the need to have a secret temple."

  I shrugged, not in the slightest bit insulted by that. "It's not looking like such a stupid idea now." I looked at the temple longingly.

  "I guess we'd better get in there and check your cartouches?"

  I nodded, a sense of foreboding settling in my stomach. There was no way of knowing what we'd find in there but I was starting to suspect it wouldn't be good.

  Sed slipped his hand into mine and gave it a reassuring squeeze. I gave him a weak smile, grateful for his support but still unsure about what we'd find inside the temple. I'd never dreaded anything quite this much.

  We approached the front door in silence, both of us lost in thoughts of what was going to happen once we were inside. Even if everything was fine, there'd still be work to do. The damage at my normal temple was enough to cause issues and it needed undoing regardless. We just needed to work out how which was certainly easier said than done.

  The air cooled the moment we got inside and I took a deep breath.

  "It smells stale in here,
" Sed observed.

  "Trust me, that's a good thing," I murmured.

  "Where do you want me to start?" he asked, glancing around and trying to find a bit of wall free of plant growth. Things really had gotten crazy in here. A river must have gradually changed its path over the past few centuries to have changed the landscape this much. No matter, hopefully it would have confused Kuk if he'd tried to find it.

  "Anywhere is good. I have something I need to check."

  He nodded but didn't ask me more, even if he should have. I let go of his hand, instantly missing its warmth in mine. But it was necessary. I couldn't do what I needed to with him in tow. It wouldn't be right.

  Walking deeper into the temple, I saw the true extent of the plant life creeping in. After our visit today, there was a good chance my temple would disappear completely into it. Which was fine by me. This temple being forgotten about completely was the best thing for me given the circumstances. If no one could find it, they couldn't remove my name from the walls and cause my complete destruction. At least, in theory.

  But before I could let that happen, I needed to check on the biggest secret of my secret temple. Pushing back vines, I found what I was looking for and ducked through the arch. One step to the right and I'd find what I was really here for.

  I pushed the button in the wall, causing a grating sound to fill the air. It had taken a lot of time and patience for me to learn how to set up a secret room, especially as it wasn't something I was naturally good at. But I'd known that this was the best way to keep myself safe.

  Slipping through the small opening, I used the little magic I had to create a tiny light in front of me. Shadows danced across the carved grooves in the wall. The carvings were another thing I'd spent a lot of time learning how to achieve them properly. Some of my early attempts were a lot cruder than the perfectionist in me would have liked, but they still served their purpose.

  A sigh of relief escaped. They were safe. All of them. None of the carvings were defaced, meaning no one had gotten in here. It would have taken some doing to destroy the thousands of versions of my name that littered the walls, each of them protecting me from being completely forgotten. I couldn't even remember what it was that had made me so paranoid in the first place but I was certainly relieved I had been.

  Reaching out, I ran my fingers over the grooves, reassuring myself completely that they were really there and not just a hallucination.

  "Pull yourself together, Serket." I hadn't used my full name in so long it almost felt foreign on my tongue. But in this room, it would be wrong to call myself anything else.

  Assured the room was safe, I slipped back out and pressed the button again, watching as the wall slid back into place and hid my secret from the world once more. While Sed didn't have a temple like this, I imagined he'd have somewhere like this, with his name written in stone as many times as he could manage. Most of the gods would have a room like this if they were sensible. Other than the big names, most of us had been forgotten by all but a few over time.

  "SERA!"

  I jumped as Sed screamed my name. It wasn't the kind of shout he'd do if he'd just found something I needed to look at either. It was the kind of scream that meant danger.

  Without thinking too much on it, I rushed back through the arch and into the main room of the temple, glancing around furiously to try and work out where Sed and whoever had attacked him lurked. I didn't want him to be in danger because of me. While being killed was unlikely, he could suffer from a lot of pain.

  More worrying still was the idea that he could suffer the same fate as I was just because he'd helped me. Whatever I did now, I had to make sure that didn't happen. Sed didn't deserve that. Not when he'd done so much to aid me.

  "You," I hissed.

  "Hello, Serket. Long time, no see."

  "And you wonder why," I muttered darkly. It was one thing to think it was Kuk behind everything. It was quite another to see proof of that with my own eyes.

  The blade against Sed's neck wasn't something I could have imagined though.

  "Don't move any closer, Serket. I'm sure you're smart enough to realise I've laced this one with poison too. Your scorpions truly are bountiful creatures. You should be proud of them."

  "I am." I gritted my teeth, trying not to let the words I wanted to out. "What do you want, Kuk?"

  "I'd have thought that was obvious." He seemed rather unaffected by the fact he held someone's life in the balance but I tried not to focus on that too much. Sed was a god. He could deal with a little hurt. I just had to hope Kuk was bluffing and the knife wasn't actually poisoned.

  "You can't have me, Kuk. You had your chance." No way was I going back to the way things had ended between us. While the break up itself hadn’t gone badly, the relationship was difficult at times and not something I wanted to repeat.

  He laughed bitterly. "I don't want you. I'd never want someone so venomous in my life," he spat out.

  Tears pricked at the corners of my eyes. He'd always used that part of my nature against me. There was an irony in the fact one of his shifted forms was a venomous snake.

  "Then what do you want?" I gave a frustrated grunt. He could be infuriating at times. One of the many reasons the two of us hadn't worked out. But not the most major one. That was for sure.

  "I want to obliterate you," he hissed, pressing the knife harder against skin.

  In Sed's defence, he was doing well not to flinch away. I'd certainly have been trying to get free a little more. And being cut in the process. His was definitely the better way of dealing with the situation.

  I shook my head, still not understanding and being a little bit concerned about the direction this was going in. Whatever he planned, I didn't want any part of it, especially if it risked Sed's life.

  "Let him go and I'll give you what I want," I whispered. I didn't really want to do that. I'd rather just get on with my life, but for Sed's life, I would have to.

  Kuk laughed bitterly. "And give up my power over you? Definitely not."

  I scowled. "Just tell me what you want." I gritted my teeth and tried not to lose my temper. My magic had sparked to life but there was so little of it that it didn't even matter. I couldn't do anything about any of it.

  "Where are you hiding your name?"

  It was my turn to laugh. "Really? That's the way you want to get rid of me? By erasing my name?"

  He stared at me, clearly not understanding why I was so unconcerned with that.

  "It takes more than destroying my name to get rid of me completely." I closed my eyes and called on the only powers I truly had left in me.

  Chapter 11

  My body was several times its previous size and my hard legs clacked along the ground as they sprung out of my body and touched down. I clicked my pincers together, relishing the chance to be free of my human form. It had been so long since I'd shifted that I'd almost forgotten how. The only thing going through my mind as my powerful scorpion body took over was that I'd left it too long. I could shift into a smaller version if I wanted to, but that wasn't nearly so freeing.

  Kuk stumbled back, letting go of Sed as he did. I just hoped the jackal god had the foresight to get out of the way before he accidentally ended up in one of our ways. I had no doubt about what Kuk's next move would be. It'd be mine too if I were him.

  His face shimmered as he changed into his female form. He had to do that before he could become the giant snake that had any choice of matching me. Weirdly, his male form took on that of a frog when it shifted, which probably wasn't going to be much of a match for me.

  Her body lengthened and her limbs disappeared while her eyes changed from the beautiful amber I'd stared into so many times, to an eerie glowing yellow. I'd always hated it when she'd used them on me, they always looked like they were up to no good. Though I supposed at the moment, she isn't.

  I snapped my pincers together, hoping to distract her more than anything. Despite everything she was trying to do to me now, I didn't w
ant to hurt her. It went against my healing nature to hurt anyone at all.

  The snake in front of me was slightly larger than I expected, dwarfing me and increasing my heartbeat to crazy levels. I didn't want to go up against Kuket. Or Kuk. Or anyone. Even if Sed needed me to. That was the only reason I was going to manage, that was for certain.

  Kuket hissed at me and I stepped backwards, almost stumbling over my back legs. I was too out of practice in this form for my liking but I had to get over that and used to having more legs than normal.

  She lunged forwards and it took all I had not to flinch again. Instead, I snapped at her with my pincer, not at all surprised when she slithered out of the way. Her tail thrashed into a column, denting it and sending the stone crashing to the floor. I'd have to be careful of her doing that too many times. If we weren't careful then she'd end up bringing my temple to its knees with us still inside. While I could probably survive unharmed in this form, I doubted Sed would, even if he shifted into a jackal. Just one of the advantages of having an exoskeleton.

  Kuket whipped her head around, no doubt trying to find the source of the sound and do something about it.

  I took advantage of her distraction and rushed forward, hitting her neck with my pincer. Not the best move I could have made but I needed to get the upper hand in some way and this was the only way I could see of doing it.

  She reared back, spitting poison at me. If I'd been in my human form, I'd have laughed. I was quite literally the goddess of venomous creatures, that wasn't going to have an effect on me.

  I was dimly aware of Sed shuffling backwards and away from the two of us. I should keep an eye on him and create a distraction if he needed one. The last thing I wanted was for him to get hurt because I broke up with someone thousands of years ago.

  Kuket's motivations really weren't clear to me. She must have gone crazy in the years since I'd last seen her. It was the only explanation I could come up with. Or maybe it was more to do with the fact she'd become like me. Barely remembered and bitter because of it. Not something I wanted to accept about myself either. Bitter wasn't a feeling I liked, that was for certain.