Shifters Forsaken: Shifter Romance Collection Bks 1-5

by Mia Taylor

  “What’s going on?” Briar asked, quickly withdrawing his palm. Berlin could see it wasn’t so much Liam which made him nervous as the fact that there were strangers standing unexpectedly in his entranceway.

  Berlin found herself studying his angular face with interest. There was something distinctively familiar about him, something…

  “I believe that Miss Matthews is going to be your upstairs neighbor,” John replied. Slowly, Briar shifted his eyes toward her and their gazes locked for a long moment.

  “Briar lives on the main floor so I trust you won’t be hosting any wild parties or practicing tap dancing,” John chuckled.

  “If we do have those parties, we’ll be sure to invite Briar,” Liam replied smoothly and Berlin resisted the urge to smack him.

  How does shit like that come out of his mouth with a straight face? she wondered, rolling her eyes.

  “Oh, are you moving in, too, Mr. Bueller?” John seemed confused.

  “NO!” Berlin declared, her tone firmer than she intended. “It’s just for me.”

  Her eyes were still lost in Briar’s sky-blue ones, her own beryl irises darkening as she searched them for recognition. There was something stirring beneath the surface, something…

  “But I’ll be spending lots of time here,” Liam insisted, Berlin assumed for Briar’s benefit. “That’s what an agent does!”

  Berlin continued to take in his attractive face, the sweeping dark hair, brushed back in a thick mass of waves to show off his well-shaped face.

  The blue in his densely lashed eyes was accented by the bronze hue of his olive skin and Berlin saw that he still seemed to tower over her, despite her five-foot-seven frame. If she allowed her gaze to travel, she could make out the muscles of his broad chest beneath the thin material of his white t-shirt.

  “Well,” Briar offered after a moment of awkward silence. “Nice to meet you.”

  He turned to let himself into the ground floor apartment but cast Berlin one last look over his shoulder before disappearing inside.

  “He’s a good tenant,” John told them, gesturing for the duo to follow. “He works for Branch Technology downtown. Keeps to himself from what I understand. Liz, on the other side, is a single mom. She works from home, a virtual assistant or something, and her daughter is young but polite and quiet—for a toddler, anyway. I’m particular about my tenants.”

  He shot them a meaningful look and Berlin forced a smile.

  “You should be,” she agreed. “You won’t have any problems from me.”

  “I don’t get that impression or I wouldn’t be giving you the paperwork,” John replied. “I’ve been a landlord for twenty-six years and I’ve never had a skip or lawsuit. Gut instinct is everything in this business.”

  He offered her a gentle smile.

  “Instinct and Google, of course.”

  Berlin chuckled, following John to his new pick-up truck in the driveway but she couldn’t pry her mind away from the downstairs resident.

  There was something about him, something tickling her mind with urgency but that she couldn’t quite grasp.

  Ah well, she thought, trying to dismiss the newfound fascination. Whatever it is will come to me. After all, he lives right downstairs.

  Chapter Two

  Branching Out

  “Oh! That’s horseshit!” Vy howled. “Did you see that? What kind of call was that? Where do they find these refs? The yellow pages?”

  Around her, the men muttered their agreements but Briar was barely paying attention to what was happening on the screen, although he did idly wonder if yellow pages were still produced. His mind was in six different places, despite the din of the sports bar around him.

  He signalled the server for another beer and downed the remnants of his, pushing the glass to the side.

  “What’s wrong?” Cory asked, sensing his friend’s mood. “You still pissed about what happened at work today?”

  Briar grunted and shrugged his shoulders.

  “I don’t know,” he confessed. “Yes and no. I don’t know why they’re merging with Belladonna. That company is on its way out. They should just absorb it and—”

  “I don’t want to talk about it!” Cory groaned. “I was just asking why you were brooding.”

  Briar shot his companion a look, marking the irony down for posterity. Usually it was Cory who couldn’t stop complaining. For the round-faced man to backpedal out of a bitching session was… well, odd. Briar didn’t push the issue, and instead nodded at Vy.

  “She’s losing it over the basketball game.”

  “She loses it over everything,” he reminded Briar and they laughed.

  “I heard that!” Vy yelled across the table. “And it’s better than sulking over the stupidity of corporate America. Anyway, I want to enjoy my final days at Branch without regret.”

  The men looked at her with confusion.

  “What do you mean, your final days? Where are you going?” Cory demanded. “You quitting? Why didn’t you say anything?”

  Vy snickered and rolled her eyes at them like she took them for idiots.

  “You can’t be that naïve,” she grunted. “With this merger means lay-offs are inevitable. We’re bottom of the barrel, boys. Programmers are a dime a dozen and it’s not like we have seniority.”

  Cory and Briar glanced at each other and it was clear that neither man had entertained the idea.

  Great. One more thing to weigh on my mind, Briar thought although he knew in his gut that he was far more valuable to Branch Technology than Vy had suggested.

  Briar had started with the company fresh out of high school, something which most people could not aspire to do without a college degree.

  Of course, his circumstances had been slightly different than those of the average high school student and his talents had been discovered accidentally.

  Well, accidentally on my part. How was I supposed to know that the government was onto me?

  He had always been tech-savvy, even as a child. His parents had been driven to the brink of insanity with his endless need to take things apart and put them back together again. If not for his propensity to improve his inventions, they probably would have put an end to his tinkering and Briar would have been set off in another direction altogether.

  He loved computers and gadgets, and by the time he was twelve, he had learned the act of hacking as if it was his first language.

  Smiling wryly, he remembered how he’d been caught breaking into the DMV to change his older brother’s licence class so he wouldn’t have to endure the exam.

  That was the first time he’d been caught. He was thirteen. The final instance, the one which led to jail time, had been a blessing and a curse.

  A curse because I got caught but a blessing because they recruited me.

  Apparently, his escapades in the cyberworld had caught the attention of several major companies and they all wanted him for their own. At one point, even the government had offered him a freelancing position which he had politely declined.

  His parents had been appalled at the idea.

  “They want you because you’re a criminal?” his father, Dave, demanded. “How… unethical!”

  Even at the tender age of eighteen, Briar had been cynical enough to snort at his father’s moral outrage.

  “Yeah, Dad, the one percent are very concerned about ethics,” he replied dryly. “That’s how they got so rich.”

  But that had been almost fifteen years ago. Maybe he wasn’t as useful as he gave himself credit for, even if he did try to keep up with the latest technological trends.

  “Hello? Are you still in there?” Cory called, snapping his fingers in front of Briar’s face and he was brought back to the dark, noisy bar.

  “He’s thinking about where to apply,” Vy chortled and Briar shot her a dirty look.

  “I’m thinking that I need another beer,” he replied, looking around the crowded establishment for their waitress.

  “Drowning
your sorrows won’t help!” Vy called and Briar was finding her voice grating on his already thin nerves. He hadn’t been sleeping well since the night of the full moon but alcohol seemed to be helping him somewhat.

  His light eyes rested on the waitress making her way back to the table with a tray balanced on her hand.

  “Here you go, Briar,” she purred, leaning across him suggestively. “I snuck you a shot, too.”

  She winked and Briar blushed slightly, grateful for the dimness in which they were surrounded. Vanessa had made no secret of her interest in him but Briar did not feel the same about the seductive server. She was far too… out there for his liking. It wasn’t just the flashy reds she seemed to adore or the dripping crimson lipstick, but her attitude was almost predatory and it turned him off.

  There needs to be some kind of challenge. What’s the fun in being chased all the time?

  “Thanks, Van,” he muttered, reaching for the beer and taking a swig.

  “What are you doing tonight?” Vanessa asked, not taking the dismissal easily. “Wanna go to an afterhours with me and some of the girls?”

  Cory leaned in, his eyes brightening with interest.

  “Sure do!” he chimed and Vanessa ignored him as if he wasn’t even there.

  “Not tonight,” Briar sighed, feeling like a broken record. The girl just did not give up. She never failed to ask him out every single time she saw him and then storm off in a pout when he refused. He wished that there was another decent bar close to work for the office crowd to congregate because he was getting sick of her drama and refusal to accept that he wasn’t interested.

  “I’ll go!” Cory insisted. “Text me the address.”

  “I wasn’t talking to you, Boring,” Vanessa snapped and Briar felt himself bristle. It was one thing to be flirty to the point of being obnoxious with him but being rude to his friends was another matter altogether.

  “Don’t talk to him that way,” Briar growled. “And learn how to take rejection, Vanessa. How many times do I have to turn you down? I’m starting to think you get off on being told no. Sorry, I’m not into masochism either. I’m not going out with you. Are we clear?”

  He rose as the server’s face twisted into a mask of shocked anger. Reaching into his pocket, he tossed two twenties on the table.

  “Keep the change. Maybe buy yourself an hour of therapy,” he growled before turning to Cory. “Come on. I have beers at my place.”

  Cory stared at him with some kind of hero’s worship in his eyes and jumped to follow him.

  “What about me?” Vy yelled after them. Briar stifled a grunt but waved her forward.

  “You’re an ass anyway!” Vanessa yelled after them. “You better not show your face back here again or I’ll have my manager throw you out!”

  “Mature, Van, very adult. You gonna have your daddy beat up my daddy, too?” Briar muttered but he was already at the exit and doubted that she heard him.

  “She’s nuts but she’s so hot!” Cory gasped as he caught up. “Why don’t you go out with her?”

  Briar cast him a scathing look and even Vy slapped Cory in the shoulder.

  “You have no standards whatsoever. She’s a miserable bitch. After the way she talked to you, how can you say that?” Vy demanded, rolling her eyes. “I’ll drive.”

  They piled into Vy’s Range Rover and zoomed out of the Chippie’s parking lot.

  “I guess we’re going to need to find a new place to hang out after work,” Cory grumbled.

  “Not if we get fired,” Vy chimed in optimistically, steering the car north on Agate Street toward Franklin Boulevard. “If we get fired, Eugene is our oyster! We can drink at a new bar every day until our piddly savings disappear and then we can buy tall cans after begging for change outside the liquor store.”

  Briar didn’t respond to the bantering, his eyes trained out the window into the fading light of day. He was getting a headache and he suddenly wished he hadn’t asked them to come over.

  I’ll kick them out after a couple beers, he vowed but he was also grateful for the company. The idea of spending the evening alone when he had so much on his mind was not pleasant.

  “We’re not getting fired,” Cory cried. “You’re being an alarmist.”

  “And we don’t need to find another place to go for drinks. Vanessa is like a dog with a bone. She won’t rest until she gets in Briar’s pants, mark my words. The next time we go in there, she’ll be all over him like always,” Vy commented. “She’ll probably even beg him for his forgiveness.”

  She grinned wickedly at the car.

  “Oh please, Briar, forgive me!” she cooed in a sugary voice which was supposed to emulate Vanessa’s sultry tone. “I will make it up to you, I swear! By any means necessary!”

  “I’m not going back in there,” Briar insisted, ignoring Vy’s silly depiction and Cory’s laughter. “I’ve had enough of her crazy. She’s really not right in the head.”

  “Can you blame her? I mean, she’s sexy as hell and you keep shutting her down. She’s probably never been told no in her entire life.” Cory seemed stunned that Briar sincerely had no interest in the sultry waitress.

  “She’s young,” Briar replied. “She’ll get used to it.”

  The Range Rover pulled onto Garden Avenue and Briar instantly saw the moving truck out front.

  “New neighbors?” Cory asked as they drew closer. “Oh, hey, isn’t that your house?”

  Briar hadn’t forgotten about the woman upstairs, not for a day. Ever since he’d first laid eyes on her, he felt like he’d met her before.

  Unexpected flashes of her clear green eyes would pop into his mind when he was at work or as he closed his own eyes for the night.

  It wasn’t just the fact that she was startlingly attractive in a classically beautiful way. Briar was not apt to fall for a pretty face. His experience with gorgeous girls had left him with the stereotype that good-looking women did not have a lot else happening beneath the surface.

  Case in point, Vanessa.

  “Yeah, there’s a woman moving in upstairs,” Briar conceded, unbuckling his seatbelt as Vy stopped the car. As if on cue, Berlin appeared in the doorway of the house, wiping her brow with the back of her hand.

  The afternoon light had almost entirely faded, leaving the bulbs of the hallway fixture to illuminate the new tenant’s back like an aura.

  With that blonde hair and those eyes, she looks like an angel against that light.

  She caught his eye and flashed him a wry smile.

  “Hey,” she breathed. “I hope these guys aren’t blocking your way. We’re almost done but I can have them move the truck if it’s a problem.”

  Briar shook his head, again captivated by her iridescent irises. Her long hair was pinned up in a messy bun, strands of hair falling about her face in disarray.

  “Do you need any help?” Briar heard himself ask and the question seemed to surprise everyone equally, including Briar himself. Berlin’s smile widened and a flash of gratefulness crossed over her eyes.

  “No, thanks,” she said and Briar heard footfalls on the stairs. “I’ve got a crew and, well… Liam.”

  He could almost hear the roll of her eyes as she mentioned his name. Briar wondered how much help Liam was being.

  “Oh, hello, Briar,” Liam purred as he arrived at Berlin’s side. “I see you’ve brought friends.”

  His eyes raked over Vy and Cory before dismissing them as unimportant. He turned his gaze back to Briar, a cat-who-swallowed-the-canary expression on his face.

  “Oh, yeah,” Briar mumbled, feeling inexplicably tongue-tied around the blonde and her friend. “This is Cory and Vy. Guys, this Berlin, my new neighbor and Liam.”

  They exchanged hellos but Briar barely heard, his eyes still fixed on Berlin who seemed to be staring at him in the same, curious way.

  Maybe we knew each other in another life, he mused and instantly was humiliated by the cheesiness of his thought. He was a techy, not a poet. Anyway,
he didn’t believe in love at first sight. He was schooled enough in the way of the world to know that people were not what they seemed.

  I’m sure that Berlin Matthews has dark secrets that I have no interest in knowing.

  “We’re just going to have some beers in the backyard,” Briar said quickly, realizing that they were standing around in silence. The movers brushed by them and Berlin nodded.

  “We’ll stay out of your way,” she promised but Briar shook his head. “Like I said, we’re almost done and then in for a night of unpacking and getting everything under control.”

  “No, I mean, come join us if you’re almost done. There’s plenty.”

  Berlin nodded appreciatively but Briar could still feel every set of eyes on him. Even he was shocked by his own forwardness.

  What is wrong with me? It’s like something else took over my mouth!

  “All right,” she agreed. “We will.”

  “Indeed, we will!” Liam chimed in and the group parted ways, Berlin and Liam toward the truck and Briar into his apartment.

  “Oh, you sly dog, you!” Cory chortled when the door closed behind them. “I get it now!”

  “What?”

  “I can see why you’ve been rejecting Vanessa. Berlin is way hotter! I didn’t realize you had a thing for blondes, though.”

  Both Briar and Vy scowled at him.

  “Shut up, Cory,” they barked in unison.

  “What? I’m saying she’s pretty! Jesus, the world has gone to PC hell. You can’t even compliment someone with everyone getting on your ass!” he huffed.

  Briar headed to the kitchen for drinks but Cory’s words seemed to follow him as he did.

  He’s not wrong. She is beautiful.

  But it was more than that, something deeper and intangible but undeniable. There was a connection he felt but didn’t understand.

  Too bad I can’t pursue it, he thought grimly. Connection or not, no one that beautiful should be tied to a beast like me.

  Chapter Three

  A Friendly Gathering

  Her phone rang for the third time but Berlin didn’t bother to look at the screen. She knew it was August again. The man just didn’t quit but Berlin was not in the mood to deal with him, not when she was in the middle of moving.