Shifters Forsaken: Shifter Romance Collection Bks 1-5

by Mia Taylor

  “Just like that?” Briar demanded. “No argument?”

  “Just like that,” she assured him. “No argument.”

  ~ ~ ~

  It was after midnight when Briar finally fell asleep and Berlin made her way back down to the family room, her iPhone in hand.

  “Are you sleeping?” she asked when Vivian answered.

  “Not yet. I’m feeling really charged, you know? Like something’s coming.”

  “Something is coming,” Berlin assured her. “But I’m not sure we can handle it.”

  “If anyone can handle it, Berlin, it’s you, me and our bears,” she replied softly.

  “I’m glad you feel that way because I need you to do something for me.”

  “What’s that?”

  “I need you to find Daniel Wexley.”

  Vivian was silent for a long moment.

  “That’s not really hard. He’s still the CEO of Ambrosia Pharmaceuticals. He’s still living in the same town he’s always lived in—Ashbridge.”

  “He knows who you are, right?” Berlin asked nervously. “You met him when you were doing your article?”

  “Yeah… why?”

  “Never mind. I’ll go to him alone.”

  “NO!” Vivian’s voice was firm. “Berlin, that man is a menace. I was a thorn in his side but I didn’t cause him any great danger. You, on the other hand, you can create a whole lot of trouble for him. You can’t confront him alone.”

  “We need to understand everything about what he did to make the brothers the way they are. I promised Briar that I wouldn’t go for Ryker in San Francisco—”

  “Wait, what? You found Ryker? He’s in San Fran?”

  “Oh shit!” Berlin mumbled. “I shouldn’t have said anything.”

  “Why not?” There was defensiveness in Vivian’s tone.

  “I-I really can’t talk about this with you, Viv. I’m sorry I brought this up, but with Ryker living as Andrew Parsons in witness protection… oh, man, I keep putting my foot in my mouth, don’t I?”

  There was a long, ominous silence.

  “You’re telling me all this on purpose,” Vivian snapped. “Why didn’t you just come out and say it?”

  “It has nothing to do with the fact that your brother is a mob lawyer and will probably arrange for a hit on Ryker if he’s ever found,” Berlin assured her. Vivian gasped.

  “Are you sure?”

  “Nope. I’m not sure about anything except that I didn’t tell you anything about anything.”

  There was another pause.

  “Viv?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Please don’t put Ryker in any danger. He probably isn’t a saint but if anything should happen to him…”

  “You don’t need to tell me, Berlin. I’ll take care of it. You be safe dealing with Wexley. Tread very lightly. Trust me.”

  “You too.”

  “Mom?”

  Berlin’s head jerked up and she leapt off the sofa.

  “I gotta go,” she whispered to Vivian. “Stay in touch.”

  “You too.”

  She disconnected the call and gathered her daughter in her arms.

  “What are you doing up?” she asked, scooping the sleepy girl into her arms.

  “I had a bad dream.”

  “Oh no, baby. What was it about?”

  Stella buried her nose into her mother’s shoulder and sniffed lightly.

  “It was terrible,” she murmured. “I was lost in a dark forest.”

  “Oh, like Hansel and Gretel?” Berlin asked, gliding up the stairs with her daughter in arms.

  “No…” Stella sighed. “Like a bear. I dreamt I was a bear.”

  Berlin inhaled shakily and kissed the top of the girl’s head. “It was just a dream, baby, just a dream.”

  Stella raised her head and stared at her mother with a wary look. “Then why did it feel so real?” she demanded.

  Berlin had no answer for Stella, her heart thudding wildly in her chest.

  How can she be experiencing the change already? She shouldn’t be having these dreams until she’s at least eleven.

  But in her gut, Berlin knew exactly why her daughter was so far advanced than other bears her age. Her genes were manufactured, not bred.

  Chapter Eight

  Twenty Years Ago: Fallon

  She pushed the plate aside and glowered at Kevin.

  “I’m not hungry,” she growled. “You eat it.”

  He sighed and rose from the table, taking the plate with him.

  “Don’t you ever get tired of fighting?” he asked. “How many years are we going to go on like this?”

  She laughed at him.

  “Don’t you ever get tired of having the same conversation over and over again?” she retorted mockingly. “I don’t trust you and I never will.”

  Kevin didn’t respond. He turned away from the dining room and headed into the kitchen where he began to do the dishes. A flash of guilt slid through Fallon but she instantly silenced it, knowing that she had no reason to feel shamed by how she was acting.

  What does he expect? That I’m going to forget he lied to me for two full years while he worked for my nemesis?

  So what if he had done everything he’d promised, taking her out of Dalhousie and presumably away from Beatrice? For all she knew, he was still checking in with her, even if she did have open access to the computer and her own cell phone.

  So what if he’d built a comfortable, stable life for them in San Francisco where he worked manual jobs so that they stayed off-grid? Fallon was convinced it was all a show while he waited for her walls to shift and she wasn’t falling for it again.

  Fallon knew she was free to go anytime she wanted. She wasn’t a captive, and after the initial shock of what had happened had worn off, she contemplated leaving Kevin and starting anew somewhere else, but where? At least she knew that Kevin was a liar and with that knowledge, she felt bizarrely safe.

  I’ve been alone for so long that I’d rather be with a man I don’t trust than brave the unknown again. What does that say about me?

  She wondered what Dr. Philips would say about that, the memory of how she had begged to be hypnotized striking her for some reason.

  Thank God he had the good sense to refuse me. My memories are all I have left. Without them, my boys truly would be lost.

  Fallon found herself watching Kevin from her seat at the dining room table. Her companion was humming to himself, a trait which particularly irritated her.

  Why is he always in a good mood? He deserves to be as miserable as me.

  “Why are you staring at me?”

  “Because the Monday night line-up on cable sucks,” she retorted but she was slightly embarrassed she’d been caught. She rose to her feet and ambled toward him in the kitchen.

  Without thinking, she picked up a dishcloth and began to dry the dishes. If Kevin noticed, he didn’t comment as he continued to move around the kitchen, putting things away from the dinner he had so painstakingly created.

  Inexplicably, a rush of affection stole through her.

  Are you on crack? Stop looking at him like that. He’s the enemy, just like Daniel and Beatrice.

  But something in the back of her mind told Fallon that he was nothing like Daniel or her sister-in-law, that whatever Kevin had done, he had done unwittingly.

  Not that she had ever given him a chance to explain himself.

  “What did you ever find out about my boys?” she heard herself ask. Kevin paused and tipped his head to look at her, his eyes shadowing slightly.

  “Nothing. I told you, I don’t want to know about your—”

  “I know the crap you told me,” she interjected coldly. “But I also find it very hard to believe that your employers didn’t look into their whereabouts. What did they find out?”

  Kevin sighed and shook his head.

  “I don’t know,” he muttered and there was deep resignation in his voice. “I honestly have no idea.”

&
nbsp; Fallon arched an eyebrow.

  “You mean to tell me that with all your connections, you never looked into it yourself? Even after you fell in love with me?” She couldn’t keep the caustic edge from her tone.

  “I know you still don’t believe me, Fallon—”

  “I’m not discussing the validity of your bullshit feelings, Kevin. I want to know if you ever learned anything about my boys.”

  He exhaled and leaned back against the counter, gnawing on his lower lip as he considered his next words.

  “I found out about two of the boys only,” he confessed. “The two middle boys.”

  Her eyes widened in shock.

  “What?” she gasped. “You’ve known where they were all this time?”

  A wave of dizziness washed over her as she realized what he was saying. If Kevin knew about them, Beatrice most certainly did.

  “Has she taken them? What happened to Briar and Vaughan?”

  Kevin shook his head and placed his own dishtowel over his shoulder. He drew closer to her and removed the plate from her hands.

  “They were both adopted to good families. I think the baby was too, but his adoption was very difficult to investigate. I suspect his family is very influential.”

  More terror seized her heart.

  “The Wexleys! The Wexleys got Ryker too!”

  “No, Fallon,” Kevin told her tenderly. He made no move to touch her but Fallon could see he was looking for a way to comfort her.

  “How can you say ‘no’? You have no idea what happened! You just handed innocent children into the hands of predators. You…”

  Her voice broke and she buried her hands in her face.

  “Fallon, when Beatrice came to me, she made it sound as though you were the one who was unfit, that the children were in danger and that they needed to be quarantined by Ambrosia.”

  She raised her head slowly. “What?”

  “That was why I agreed to help her but it didn’t take me long to realize that something else was happening and that you weren’t the problem. Ambrosia does not have a good reputation in the pharmaceutical industry. They are known for paying bribes to the FDA and cutting corners in medical research just to make money. It took me all of ten seconds to understand that they had used your kids in some kind of experiment and I wasn’t going to let them get their hands on them again. So I looked into where I thought you might have left them.”

  Fallon’s brow furrowed. “How the hell would you know? I never once told you anything!”

  “No…” he agreed softly. “But you do talk in your sleep. You said their names and told them to let the nuns take care of them. You told them that Kentucky has lots of horse…”

  “Oh my God…”

  “So I started looking into convents and orphanages who might have taken in four boys thirteen years ago and I found where you had left them.”

  Fallon collapsed onto a chair and continued to stare at him, dumbfounded.

  “Like I said, I found Briar and Vaughan. Their paperwork indicates that they are in good homes. Cypher would be eighteen now and if he wasn’t adopted, he’d be on his own, wherever he is.”

  “Why did you bother looking into them if you weren’t going to tell Beatrice?” Fallon’s heart was so full, she was certain it was going to burst. Her boys were alive, at least two of them. They had been raised in good homes.

  Oh Cypher, I hope your life was not painful, darling. Ryker, I hope you are loved.

  She stared at Kevin, waiting for him to respond. He visibly swallowed.

  “Well?”

  “I…I wanted to have insurance in case Beatrice came after me.”

  Bile filled her throat and she shook her head in disgust.

  “So you would have sold out my children to save your own skin.”

  Kevin grunted. “Can’t you see I would do anything to protect you? I’ve kept you safe for years, Fallon, and you still look at me with hatred.”

  “You’ve known for years where my boys are and you never thought to mention it?” she barked back. “Yes, I can see you’re really on my side.”

  “Fallon.” He lowered his voice and sighed. “Why do you think I didn’t tell you?”

  “I have no idea why you do anything you do,” she snapped. “But I’m sick of listening to your excuses. Where are my kids?”

  “This is exactly why I didn’t tell you!” Kevin roared. “Because you’d want to go, guns blazing, to find your kids. And then what? What will you do then?”

  She blinked at him. “What does that mean?”

  “Are you going to show up on their doorstep and cry, ‘Hi! I’m your mom. Did you miss me?’”

  “Of course not!”

  But even as she answered, she suddenly understood exactly what Kevin was saying. A pang of pain sliced through her heart so deeply, it almost brought Fallon to her knees.

  “I need to see them,” she murmured. “At least once.”

  “It’s a terrible idea, Fallon.”

  She looked at him with wide, unhappy eyes.

  “You claim to love me but you keep the most valuable thing from me. These are my kids, Kevin. I carried each one of them in my womb for nine months. I fed them, read to them, played with them, cuddled them. I nursed them when they were sick and snuggled them in the morning. It was me they ran to when they were scared of thunderstorms and lightning. This is my flesh and blood, literal extensions of myself. You can’t expect me to just ignore the fact that they are out there.”

  “I don’t expect you to ignore that,” Kevin pleaded. “I expect you to think about how much worse it will be on you if you appear. You left your children thirteen years ago, Fallon. Nothing you can do or say now will make it better for them. Assuming they remember you at all.”

  She gasped at the idea that they might have forsaken her. A hand touched her heart and she began to gasp as the breath was knocked out of her chest.

  “D-don’t say that,” she choked. “I’m their mother…”

  “And you will always have a special bond with them but you don’t want your reconciliation with them to be against their parents’ wishes. You need to wait until they are old enough to understand, to see you and make their own choices. You have no right to them now.”

  “Oh my God!” Fallon wailed, dropping to her knees as she buried her hands in her face. “Oh my God, how did I let this happen?”

  For the first time in thirteen years, Fallon realized that she would likely never be reunited with her sons. It had never hit her so fully as it did in that moment and she sobbed in anguish as Kevin wrapped his arms around her shoulders.

  She didn’t resist. For the moment, Kevin was her only anchor in the storm and the gale was only getting worse.

  Chapter Nine

  Present Day: Vaughan

  “I don’t get it—where are you going?”

  “I told you—San Francisco.”

  “For what now?”

  “I have a lead on—”

  “Bullshit, Vivian. What’s really going on?”

  She looked surprised by his words but she shook her head. “I have no idea what you mean,” she insisted. “I have a lead—”

  “I’m coming with you, then.”

  Her mouth gaped open and Vaughan jumped up, reaching for his plaid button-down which was hanging off the side of the sofa. He felt her eyes on his washboard stomach and smiled to himself.

  At least I know I’ve still got it after all these years together.

  “What about your students?” Vivian protested and Vaughan snorted.

  “You know I teach online. You know that online means from anywhere, right?”

  “I know but…”

  He peered at her, buttoning up his shirt to study her face closely.

  “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you didn’t want me to come,” he told her quietly. “What is going on?”

  She exhaled and flopped onto the armchair, draping her long legs over the side of the armrest.

  “I d
on’t want you to freak out because I know you’re trying to lay low as always but…”

  “You’re on the bear trail again, aren’t you?”

  “We know where your brother, Ryker, is.”

  Vaughan felt an unexpected stab of worry in his gut. “Why are you going? Why not Cypher or Briar?”

  “I can’t speak for them,” Vivian mumbled but Vaughan knew she was holding something back.

  “Vivian?”

  “Justin may work for the mob.”

  Vaughan found himself confused by the shift in conversation but not surprised to learn that his brother-in-law was into shady stuff.

  “Okay…”

  “He might have ties to Ryker and if Justin finds out where he is, well, it won’t be good for your brother.”

  “Then don’t tell him.”

  “I won’t!”

  “What else aren’t you telling me?”

  Vivian looked away again and Vaughan was growing impatient.

  “Well?”

  “Ryker is in witness protection. There seems to be some concern about how we approach him.”

  “Oh Jesus, Viv…”

  “I know! I know, but babe, imagine what it would be like, reuniting you again! You might remember stuff that you had forgotten. You might be able to pool your minds together and find your real mother…”

  “Wait a second… are you saying that Ryker is in the mob too?”

  “I don’t know all the details,” Vivian said quickly but Vaughan knew his wife well enough to know that she had more than enough details in the matter.

  “Viv, he could be dangerous.”

  She placed her hands on her hips and shook her head defiantly.

  “Everything is dangerous!” she protested. “We can’t just live up here in the mountains and pretend that there isn’t a world going on around us. You’re part of something bigger, Vaughan, whether or not you want to admit that. Your brothers found you for a reason. We need to see this through.”

  He considered her words for a long moment before nodding.

  “Yeah,” he agreed. “You’re right. I’ve hidden out here long enough. It’s time to reconnect us.”

  A wide beam broke out over Vivian’s face and she threw herself into his lap, kissing his face happily like an overexcited puppy.