The Shifter's Soul

by R. A. Boyd

  They all helped clean the dining area. Teague walked back up the stairs and washed his hands. “He told me to go fuck myself but thanked me for bringing his plate. Apparently, Audra took him his lunch. He asked that she not be allowed near him again.”

  Jax put his hands on his hips and leaned back, barking out a laugh so full it filled the entire hall. “Sounds like she’s the designated food giver to that twatwaffle.”

  “What about Jace?” Simon muttered, looking out the front window in the direction of where his brother lived. “I just met Charlie. If she would have rejected me…” he trailed off, shaking his head.

  They wall knew the rest of those unspoken words. If Charlie had turned away from him, he would have been the next one to be put down. And not in the ‘sleeping for the next one-hundred years’ sense. Soul or no soul, his mate turning away from him would have been an end to his life. Every man in this room knew it.

  Simon cleared his throat and walked toward the door. “You all deal with the rogue. Let me talk to Jace,” he said, stopping to look over his shoulder.

  “Wow,” Damon said, voice full of disbelief. His almost yellow eyes were wide as he crossed his arms over his chest. “You volunteering to talk to Jace about his feelings?” He looked at Simon like he’d never seen him before. “I’m going to do something really nice and sweet for your mate. She deserves it. And don’t give me the fucking finger.”

  Simon chuckled and turned back toward the door. “I wasn’t.”

  Before he even had a plan of what he was going to say, Simon was standing in front of Jace’s door waiting for him to answer. He’d already knocked two times. He knew Jace was in there. He could hear him moving around and muttering to himself.

  The night was cool. It wasn’t warm enough for the crickets to start their night songs just yet, but the call of the owls and the Ovenbirds could be heard all throughout the woods that surrounded their community. A few foxes ran by, their reflective eyes shimmering in the darkness. It was nice. He hadn’t taken the time to pay attention to things that didn’t concern him in so long, but when he and Charlie walked to the community hall for dinner earlier, she had pointed out a deer watching them from the woods. Simon had seen the animal but didn’t take him into consideration until Charlie quietly whispered that Bambi’s dad was watching them.

  Simon pulled himself from his distraction and knocked again. Finally, tired of standing there, he opened the door and walked in. All the lights were off, but he could see just fine.

  “Can’t you take a fucking hint?” Jace said from the couch. He sat in the corner of his living room on a large grey recliner drinking a beer.

  “Nope.” Simon walked into the kitchen and grabbed a beer from the fridge. It wasn’t his favorite, but it would do. He sat down on the couch opposite his brother, used the edge of the table to pop the cap off the long neck, and took a long pull from the bottle. “What happened?”

  Jace switched his gaze from Simon to the wall, eyes moving as if some movie only he could see played before him. “You the new resident shrink since you found your mate? Good for you.”

  They sat like that for a while, Jace watching the wall as Simon checked his phone to see if Charlie had called or left a message. Is this how it was having a mate? Always wondering whether or not they were okay?

  “She didn’t want me.” Jace finished off his beer and slammed the bottle on the table next to him, hard enough to send a crack up the thin neck of the bottle. “Emma just left. She fucked me, bit me, and left. Hell, I don’t even know why she bit me.”

  Simon shook his head back and forth, letting the words sink in. The anger, the sadness, that were weaved through Jace’s admission slowly dug into his bones. “I remember Emma. She doesn’t seem like the type of person that would do that.”

  “Well, she fucking did,” Jace spat out. “I knew it was her. I knew she was mine. It took me a while to get the courage to go find her, but I did.” He let out a humorless laugh and put his feet up on the coffee table. “I tracked her down, got her number, set up a date, and the moment she hugged me, I knew she was mine. We had lunch, she came back to my room, and when I came back after my shift she was gone.”

  That wasn’t Emma. She had been one of the sweetest people Simon had ever met. The only reason Jace and Emma separated was because he let her go. He told her he couldn’t give her children and then told her to leave. She took his words to heart and left New Rose, and never looked back. Was this some kind of sick payback for Jace rejecting her?

  “You tried calling her?” Simon asked, lightly putting his half-full bottle on a coaster.

  “She made her intentions clear. Maybe she thought she was doing me a favor by biting me. After I told her who she was to me and what it meant, we went back to my room, had sex, and then she took her teeth to me without me even asking.” Jace ran his hands up his face and let out a pained snarl that echoed through the room. “I just don’t get it. She was happy. Really happy. And then she was gone. No note. No call. Just gone.”

  Simon swallowed and cleared his throat. He didn’t have the words to help. There was nothing he could do except sit here with his brother. Maybe that would be good enough. He stood, went to the kitchen and grabbed five bottles of beer, and then set them all on the table.

  “Wanna watch television or some shit?” Simon asked, using the edge of the table to open another beer.

  Jace’s blue eyes darkened as he nodded, pushing his hair from his face. “Yeah. Sounds good. Want some chips or whatever? And a fucking bottle opener. You’re scratching up my table. I made it like ninety years ago. You’re messing it up.”

  Simon scratched the back of his head. “Yeah. Chips. Bottle opener. You going on that date with Emma next week? Audra will bleed you if you don’t.”

  “Yeah. I’ll go. I want to know what I did wrong.”

  Picking up the remote, Simon pressed the button to turn the television on and then handed it to Jace. It was his house. He should get the first crack at what they watched.

  “Yeah, J. You should see what happened. I bet it’s not what you think.”

  Chapter 8

  “Six margaritas to start, and keep them coming,” Charlie said, smiling as big as her face could open. This was going to be so much fun.

  The petite waitress winked and walked back to the bar. Charlie had come to this bar almost every night when she first came to New Rose. It sat right next to the Inn, and their Maryland crab soup was delicious. In fact, she was going to order a bowl and take it home to Simon. Wow. Take it home to Simon.

  Simon was home now.

  Even thinking it made crazy butterflies zoom around in her chest. That big, sexy, growly man was hers. He was her home. Somehow, his family had become her family too. And here she was, having a good time with the women who called her their sister.

  In all her years she’d never had a girl’s night out. The women on television did it all the time, but Charlie had been busy taking care of her mother, brother, and sometimes her grandfather. She had already warned them that she was going to get drunk off her ass and that they would have to drag her to the truck. Charlie was the only human in the bunch and had a low tolerance for alcohol. Tonight was going to be epic.

  “What brought you to New Rose?” Paige asked. She took a sip of water and looked at the starters menu. “Anyone want potato wedges?”

  “Potato wedges sound good.” Charlie nodded and mentally added wings to the growing list of appetizers they were all calling out. “Well, I came to New Rose to get the hell away from my dad,” she said, answering Paige’s question.

  Cass went from laughing at something Riley said as she looked over the drinks menu to staring at Charlie with an inquisitive eye that made her look more predator than the sweet woman who didn’t curse. Her smile dimmed and tightened to a small grin. “Is there a reason you’re trying to get away from him?”

  Simon hadn’t shared her secret. Sweet man.

  Charlie took a deep breath and squeezed her shoul
ders up toward her ears. This would be the second time she’d told her story in as many days.

  Cass held up her hands, eyes worried as she shook her head back and forth so fast Charlie had to stop herself from laughing. “It’s none of our business,” she said. “You’ll tell us when you’re ready.”

  Well, she was ready. These people were going to be her people, and according to Cass’s words from earlier, they were already her people. If her father decided to bring trouble to New Rose, her people had a right to know.

  She told them of taking care of her family while her dad was in jail, why her father had served time, and the accident. She thought of leaving out the part where her father tried to smother her, but she needed them to know how serious he was about making her pay for something that wasn’t her fault.

  Audra lifted her hand to signal the waitress. “I’d sure like to meet your dad,” she said before giving off their food order.

  Charlie didn’t know Audra too well, but something told her that the small woman was deadly and meant permanent harm to her dad. “No, Audra. I don’t want you getting into trouble for hurting my dad. Karma will get him.”

  “You didn’t know Karma was my middle name?” Audra’s voice was low and growly. Her pretty brown eyes went to a solid black as she spoke.

  She couldn’t be serious. Even if it was, Charlie didn’t want Audra involved. To keep her from getting angry, Charlie tried to change to subject. Right in the middle of her talking about her time spent in New Orleans, Audra handed her a little rectangular card.

  “Holy crap,” Charlie said, looking at the driver’s license and then showing it to Paige. “Your middle name is Karma. Did you do that on purpose?”

  Eerily similar to a bobblehead doll, Audra nodded and gave a smile that showed way too many teeth. “I did. People kept saying that karma was a bitch and that karma would make bad people pay. Well, I’m that bitch and I love making people pay. It’s my pleasure.”

  Cass reached forward and put her hand reassuringly over Charlie’s. “Don’t worry. You’re safe. One of us will eat him if he comes after you.”

  “And it’s not a crime if they can’t find a body, right?” Riley asked, giving a thumbs up sign as the waitress brought their drinks. “No body, no jail.”

  The woman caught that last part and looked at each of them, giving a smile that showed she didn’t know if they were joking or not. She pff’d and shrugged, obviously thinking the women were playing around. She had no freaking idea.

  Charlie glanced out the window of the bar, watching the wind blow the leafless tree branches around. “I don’t think it works that way, but I appreciate the thought.”

  As the night went by, they sat and talked, and Charlie was happy to find out more about her new sisters. Audra insisted that Charlie refer to them as her sisters now. Even Willow. She wasn’t a Ghost shifter or mated to one, but they all agreed that she was just as much their family as anyone.

  It seemed as if Audra made a point to get Willow liquored up. She ordered shot after shot of tequila, and when Willow wasn’t paying attention, Audra had even given the woman a few extra shots.

  Charlie snorted into her small plate of crab balls as an old song blared over the speakers. Audra jumped up and started dancing in front of her chair. She did the Robot, the Running Man, and threatened to make them all dance if they didn’t take another three shots with her.

  Everything in the room was louder now, and when Charlie stood up to grab the napkin she’d knocked on the floor, the room tilted as she started to fall. How many shots had she taken?

  “Whoa there,” Cass said as she reached over and caught Charlie by the elbow and straightened her before she landed on her forehead. “Please don’t hurt yourself. I really don’t feel like handing Simon his butt tonight. He’s been so good.”

  He was good. And Charlie was drunk. “I’m out of the drinking game for the rest of the night, sisters,” she said as she reached for her glass of water. All of the ice had already melted. Condensation gathered on the outside of the glass and she nearly dropped it.

  Willow, who looked as drunk as Charlie felt, straightened the straw and pushed it toward Charlie. “Why do you bring your own straw?” she asked, motioning toward the thick, yellow, silicone straw.

  “To help the environment,” Charlie said, voice slurring as she spoke. “I carry two reusable straws with me at all times. Don’t let me leave it here, please.”

  Willow nodded, giggling and throwing her arms wide like she was measuring something. “I’m more than sure Mother Earth thanks you. How thoughtful of you,” she said. She was drunk. Her head bobbed side-to-side offbeat as she tried to keep up with the tempo of the song playing. Her eyes were sleepy, and she kept fluffing her hair. It was dark and straight, but she kept teasing it. “I’m staying.”

  As she should. She was too drunk to leave by herself.

  “Good,” Charlie said, digging into her bag to find her phone. She sent a message to Simon, telling him to come get them.

  By this point, they were all drunk and needed one of the boys to pick them up. Riley kept promising to text Teague to pick them up but forgot what she was doing every time she reached for her phone.

  “You’re staying?” Cass asked, voice going high with excitement.

  Willow nodded. She took a sip of the tequila and grimaced. “Mmm-hmm. I’m staying. I want a man to look at me like your men look at you. I’ve wanted it for years, but I was so dedicated to my coven.” She hiccuped and covered her mouth as if trying to hold back the vomit. “The coven has been my life for freaking ever, and I always felt guilty for wanting more. But nope. Nope. No more of that. Being here with you made me realize that I want a normal life.” She hiccuped again and then giggled. “I want sex. Good sex. But just one man. No offense Cass, but I don’t think I can handle two men.”

  Cass shrugged and leaned her head down the table as if deciding to take a nap, sat up, and then put her chin on her palm. “It’s a gift,” Cass said, her voice going choppy as the liquor worked its way through her. “No offense. Taken. Willow. I didn’t think I could take two men either, but damn-it I’m happy I tried. It’s. Fun. So much fun. We need to go. I’m ready for two-men fun pronto. I’m drunk and ready to try that thing Damon keeps trying to describe to me. Got a spell to make me more flexible?” she said, eyes bleeding from their whiskey brown to the bright amber of a light beer.

  Audra covered her ears and closed her eyes. “Oh my gosh, please stop. Those are my brothers. You’re going to make me barf.” She started making vomiting noises. “Did one of you call the boys? Check, please!” she called out.

  Charlie looked down at her phone again and saw the little message button. She smiled. She would get to see Simon soon. Unable to speak in fear of throwing up, she showed each of them the message Simon sent. He’d be there in ten minutes. They may not be having sex, but maybe he’d do some of that stuff he did earlier. His mouth skills were vicious.

  “I’ll take care of your check.” A tall man with dark eyes and dark hair stared down at them. His shoulders were broad as hell, and his neck was thick with corded muscles.

  Brown wavy hair that was longer on the top and shaved on the sides made him look like a futuristic biker. His arms were thick. His tight black tee-shirt made his biceps look even bigger. The tattoos on his tanned arms were dark as pitch, giving him a sinister appearance. His lopsided grin made him look boyish. He was kind of cute.

  Charlie held up her fingers and waved it. “Nope. We will pay for our food. We’re all taken.” Except for Willow. Maybe this beefy sasquatch could be Willow’s bed buddy.

  She was about to introduce him to Willow when she heard Cass talking to Audra.

  “What the heck, Audra? Are you okay? Audra? Talk to me.” Cass cupped Audra’s face as she tried to get the woman to look at her.

  But her eyes were glued to the man. And she didn’t look well.

  Audra’s head shook back and forth in jerky movements as her pretty eyes went wi
de with something akin to shock. Or was it fear? Her lips worked, but no words came through. Audra was afraid of him.

  “I need gum,” Charlie said, grabbing her bag. It was going to be fun watching him piss himself once she used her taser and filled him with enough electricity to down a horse. Damn-it all, she was drunk and couldn’t see straight. Her hand dug around in her bag as she watched Cass try to comfort Audra, but Audra was freaking out.

  She slapped her hands over her eyes and rubbed so hard it made Charlie’s eyes water.

  “I’m not crazy,” Audra said, still rubbing her eyes as she rocked back and forth. “Not crazy anymore. I’m seeing things.”

  Willow lifted her head from the table and started to slowly come out of the drunken trance she was in. All color drained from her face when she looked up at the man. “No. I— I don’t…”

  The man let out an ugly laugh that was gruff and deep. “Something wrong? Looks like you’ve seen a ghost. Get it. A Ghost?” Throwing his head toward the ceiling, he leaned back and laughed like he just told them the funniest joke ever heard.

  Fear slashed through Charlie’s chest as his laugh roiled out of him and tapered into a low growl. Charlie looked beyond him to the people in the bar, but none of them were paying attention to what was happening at their table. Couldn’t any of them hear Audra’s chant of ‘No. Oh, please no,’ or the stuttering half sentences that poured from Willow’s lips? Correction. No one noticed what was happening with them.

  As Charlie looked closer, she could see a shimmering gleam that surrounded their little section. The air waved like a mirage in a scorching desert. The music that had once been loud and the random conversations that filled the bar where muted. It was like they were in a bubble that no one even cared to breach.

  A sob crawled up her throat as she realized she was witnessing a spell for the first time. This man had isolated them from the entire bar. What would he do if she used her taser on him? Would he hurt her or one of her sisters in retaliation? She was about to find out. If the little taser could take down a shifter, it could take down a witch.