Shifters Forsaken: Shifter Romance Collection Bks 1-5

by Mia Taylor

  “Who’s that person to you?” Seon flicked her dark hair and pointed to Kit who stood outside the window, pulling stupid faces. Artiz appeared less impressed with the display, his eyes narrowing in slight suspicion of Kit’s golden irises.

  “Uh…” Isera hesitated, before a faint blush decided to creep over her face. “He’s just a friend.”

  “Really? Just a friend?” Seon raised one disbelieving eyebrow. “I don’t think so. Artiz, looks like our Isera made a new ‘friend’ when we were looking for her. The kind that you get horizontal with.”

  “Seon! Come on!” Isera flung her arms in the air, and Kit copied the gesture outside. “Okay, fine. He’s more than a friend. Though it did take me a little bit to get over the fact he was a wyrm. You know how I feel about them.”

  “Right. How we all feel.” Seon nodded agreement. “But obviously we know that these ones are different. Somehow. Though we need to inquire into that. They want to move with us though. They heard about the school which you kind of failed to mention.”

  “Yeah. I was caught up in some things. I’ll explain later. But I’m glad to know you guys are okay. I hoped to get back to you sooner, but I honestly had no idea where I was. No idea how to get back, even if these people let me go.”

  Seon clasped Isera’s hand again, her expression earnest. She wore her favorite black fur robes with the fluff around her gloves. For a brief moment, Isera caught a shadow of the fear that had gone through her friend upon losing Isera. The same friend she got jealous of.

  How could I have ever been jealous of her?

  True that impulse might take some time to get over, but Isera suspected she wouldn’t feel that same level of resentment as before. Not now that she understood better the true cost of power. It weighed heavy on her body, as if pulling everything inside her to her feet.

  “We’ll go home soon and give the good news. And hopefully our new, uh, allies will help give a much needed boost to our magic.” Artiz gave a thin smile at Kit. He would get there in the end. Hard to shrug off a lifetime of suspicion and pain.

  Isera’s friends had certainly missed her, anyway. Not much had changed, though they spent plenty of time away from the school to look. They discovered the magic user and had shepherded her to safety. But it turned out the wyrms had heard the same report and were also searching for said magic user. Hence why they lingered in the area, and ended up capturing Isera when she went to refill their canteens.

  “It’s not going to be as easy as it was before,” Seon said. “We’re going to be clashing with the wyrms more. We’re going to lose people before they ever discover what their magic means.”

  All costs. All too much to think about. Not when Isera still needed rest, and for her bruises to heal. Not when she needed separation from those images burned into her skull. Of the Old Ones. The dark blood coating the once luminous pool. Kit lying on the ground, and that sheer panic that blocked her throat and squeezed her thoughts.

  Walking back out into the streets, she joined her elbow with Kit, both of them surveying the damage. It must hurt for him. To see his home a shadow of what it once was. Those usually relaxed and smooth features had pinched themselves up in a reveal of stress. Thin lines formed around his mouth, as if he had taken to grimacing a lot in the past few days. And a haunted, absent expression filled those golden eyes when he moved his thoughts just enough outside his control to allow them to wander off.

  No. Whilst she worried about the minor corruption of seeing someone boil to death, he had seen the destruction of everything he had ever known. A history pummelled to dust. She squeezed his hand, leaning against his shoulder. Hoping she helped share some of the burden in his heart.

  “Let’s go someplace private,” Kit said. “Not my house, where Narak and his wife and Fran are making noise. Somewhere where nobody can interrupt us.”

  “I like this idea,” Isera said, lips breaking into a smirk. “And what do you have planned for our private time?”

  “Oh. All sorts of things. A nice talk. A little cuddling. Maybe a little exercise.”

  “You hardly need any exercise. You’re healthy and fit. Plus you can just turn into a gigantic dragon if you need to do anything.”

  “Ah, but you should never stop exercising. Especially if you find the right person to do it with…” he raised her hand up, planting a kiss on her knuckles. Desire shot through her body like before.

  Kit found a place in a small hut, heavily reinforced with windows. The former occupant of this place clearly liked their privacy, and had left their keys in a hanging flower basket outside.

  Inside, Kit wasted no time. He started to push Isera against the wall, before recalling her bruises. His touch became lighter. Isera closed her eyes to sink into the sensation of hands gliding against her clothes. When he stretched, part of his fur shirt lifted to reveal bare flesh, and she planted her cool hands against his sides, earning a gasp.

  Hard to believe at times she now lived in this moment. A moment where she wanted nothing else but to surrender to someone else, to be both strong and weak in the same breath. And to think she used to be that resentful girl glaring at her talented classmates from the corner of the room, being forthright and casual to everyone, except for when it came to the things that shadowed her heart the most. Things she never wanted to admit to anyone. That shame always clawed at her mind too, because she knew she shouldn’t feel that way.

  Now it didn’t matter. Now she knew better.

  Her lips sought out Kit’s, and she wrapped her arms tighter about him. So easy to fall into this, keep falling and never stop. Her heart had that hollow pound to it, the beat felt in every part of her nerves, clanging against her chest. Every touch meant something. Every touch sent crackles of energy and arousal through her body, coiling in her stomach and mixing up with the wriggling sensation there.

  “Perfect,” Kit whispered into her ear, as he shrugged off her top, exposing her breasts. His lips touched her cheek, ear, neck, before trailing to the spot between her collarbone. The hands heated up upon contact with her skin, and she groaned when he began to glide over her breasts. Being so vulnerable elated and terrified her in the same moment. And she never wanted the feeling to stop. It just needed to continue, to drift off to these little explored waters.

  Life wasn’t just about being with somehow. It was about moments, holding onto them, never letting their worth diminish. Moments with her friends. Moments of realization and appreciation. And moments of love.

  Finally succeeding in taking off his top, she explored his chest with the press of her body and the roam of her fingers. She left no part of his flesh out, wanting to memorize him like a map, to remember where all the blemishes were, and the patterns that made him the person she desired today. She was gentle when it came to the bandages, letting the rough material tickle her palms, making sure he didn’t show any signs of pain.

  He lowered her to the bed, now tearing at her pants. She helped him by wriggling her body to tease off the fabric, and watched with a smile as he pushed down his own pants. She welcomed him into her embrace, into her body. That point of contact, when they locked together made her shudder, and grit her teeth to suppress a moan. She continued mapping out his skin, his muscles, staring into his face where those golden eyes seemed to draw her soul towards him. She saw herself reflected in them, saw how perhaps he looked at her, and a stranger looked back.

  I’m not like that, am I?

  Apparently she was to him. He kissed her passionately, thrusting into her, guiding them both to that moment of orgasm, where everything came together and spread out, rewarding them for that moment of pleasure, of that sometimes selfish desire to be lost in someone else. People treated this act like a crime in places, especially if done out of wedlock.

  Well, not that humans married much anyway. Most never even wanted to admit to having a partner, in case it drew attention from their enemies. But some made it through that dark wall anyway, finding small measures of happiness in a world
unwilling to give it to them. Kit adored her. She didn’t know why at times, since she didn’t think herself as someone worth loving, but if he did love her – she wanted to make damn sure he never regretted that decision.

  Those lips had a way of kissing out the tension in her, relaxing her muscles and letting her sink and float at the same time. His movements in her stirred something deep and primal, urging her towards that orgasm. It washed over her in a wave which anchored her limbs to the bed, and he continued moving inside her, gasping along with her, until he came as well. His breath came out in delicious bursts of emotion. His chest heaved up and down, and those eyes shifted to a faraway place, before focusing back on her. They grinned and kissed one another on the lips again, and Isera helped roll him until she now lay fully on top of his body. There, she acted as a blanket, whilst he stroked her hair, and his heartbeat attempted to return to a reasonable pace.

  She liked pressing her ear against his chest like this, to hear that insistent drumming and to catch the moment when it slowed. She had worried that he might react against the pressure upon his bandages, but he didn’t protest, or act like it hurt. She’d been as careful as possible, but sometimes in the heat of the moment, she’d lost control, perhaps pressed into him too hard.

  “We need more time to ourselves,” Kit gasped, before opening his mouth to inhale a huge gulp of air. “I hope where we’re going next, we’ll have that chance. Otherwise I might just take you wherever.”

  “And traumatise your little sister? You’re not a nice brother, are you?”

  Kit’s chest shook in silent laughter, before he sighed and rested his arm on the lower curve of her spine. “I promise you that when she gets a boyfriend, she’ll be as loud as she possibly can, just to mess with me.”

  Yes, Isera could see that happening. Definitely. “I still find it hard to wrap my head around the fact that there are good wyrms out there. And how… different you are. I still feel like at times that I’ll just wake up and realize it’s all been some beautiful dream, and I’m back in my bed in the school, one of the last to get up because I just want to stay in those warm sheets for a while longer.”

  “Imagine my surprise to find a human on the outside with magic. In all the twenty years we’d been venturing outside, we never encountered any signs that the world was healing. That the magic was fixing itself. Seeing those old cuffs on you… I knew what they meant, you know. It’s what we use on our younger magic users if they’re struggling to control their powers. Never to make them a prisoner.”

  Isera brushed her cheek against the coarse dark hairs of his chest. “I wonder what this will all mean for us now. What it means for the future. Imagine the whole world understanding that something is inherently wrong.”

  “You know they won’t listen,” Kit said. “It’s not as simple as that. It will take time. And part of it involves us coming out of the shadows. We’ve been hidden long enough. You’ve been suffering long enough. It’s time for us to help.” He then hugged her fiercely, making her wince from the bruises. “I would appreciate it if you don’t do anymore heroic sacrifices, though. I’m falling… pretty deep in here with you. I don’t want to have to think about losing you as well.”

  “Says the person that I found bleeding to death,” Isera said. Even thinking about it sent a punch to her gut. Her insides twisted until she returned to the present, to the truth – that he lived. “I wouldn’t mind you doing significantly less dying on your part as well.”

  “I’m sure we can come to an agreement on that.” He chuckled, before falling silent. She used the silence to think as well, influenced by the relaxed, melting happiness within.

  Transferring all these uncorrupted humans, drakes and wyrms wouldn’t be easy. They might need to found a new town somewhere. They couldn’t stay here, obviously, without the shielding, and with the wyrms wanting to expand out into the eastern Frostlands as it was. Soon everything here would be razed to the ground, gone. The magic in the false sky would die out, showing nothing but a dark ceiling. The pool of life would wither and turn into brackish water. The Old Ones would be removed and burned, to make sure the wyrms didn’t extract any of their magic.

  And they’d be facing something new and potentially terrifying together. Prejudice for a start. People who wouldn’t trust these wyrms, no matter how much you explained otherwise. Wyrms hunting down magic users. Drakes engaging in cold war conditions. Humans rallying when they saw the changes being wrought in the world through blood, sweat and tears.

  Maybe it would have been better for people like Kit to stay hidden. To stay safe. At least they didn’t suffer from these dangers then.

  But keeping someone safe didn’t mean keeping them happy. Did it?

  Whatever happened, she needed to focus on not letting the fears and worries overwhelm her. She needed to trust Kit, trust in that good soul and heart of his, which would see them through the storms to come. She must… could not… let fear stop them.

  From wanting to sacrifice herself again to not deal with the pain of her actions. From wanting to push him away because having him almost die in her arms and inflicting extra pain to keep him alive… it almost made her roll right back into that shell again.

  Perhaps Kit sensed some of her thinking, because he pressed his lips to the top of her head, and stayed in that position. She calmed down.

  Yes. Trouble would come. It always did.

  But that didn’t mean she should let go of the moments that mattered. Not this moment, and not the others waiting.

  A new home awaited him, an old one for her. A new life waited to greet them all. New knowledge. More power in their desperate struggle.

  More ways to tip the scales in favor of them.

  She patted Kit on the chest, and slowly eased off him, getting dressed. “Come on. We’ve got some things to do.”

  He sighed. “Yes. We do. Don’t we?”

  They both finished dressing. He held her hand tightly as they left the little hut, emerging back into their ever-shifting world, the hut keeping their words and thoughts safe for now.

  Time for things to change. With new friends at her side, about to mix up with the old. With new ideas, information they never held before, and a rugged determination to do what needed to be done.

  The sacrifice came in the loss of Wizen, the loss of those who upheld it for so long. It came from those prepared to face the outside, even although they feared it. Although Kit acted so calm now, she saw a glint of naked terror there. Understandable. New world, new culture, with his safety blanket ripped away.

  Hers had been ripped away a long time ago. So she knew how to help him. She knew that adjustment he’d need to go through.

  She knew that together, with the old and the new, they’d find the missing pieces to their world. And then heal it.

  The End

  Rescued by Emery

  Chapter 1

  Lingering Guilt and a Loving Deception

  Cora tossed her phone on the bed as she hurried into the bathroom. “Of all the damn days to decide that he wanted to act more like my brother.” Cora watched the way her purple hair flipped after batting it with the brush a couple of times in a sad attempt to give the damp strands life. “Of course. Of course! Why would anything go right today?” She was very nearly screaming at the mirror. Disgusted with her failed attempt to fix her hair, Cora knew that there was nothing that she could do with the little time she had to prepare. She yanked the drawer open and threw the brush into a pile of hair bands, clips, and scrunchies. Several of the items flew out as she tried to slam the door shut. With a barely contained yell, Cora spun and hurried out of the bathroom.

  “Slow down or you are going to get hurt.” A man’s voice emerged from a bedroom as she passed it on her way back to her own.

  “Shut up, Jason. I wouldn’t have to rush if you would have been considerate enough to tell me yesterday.” The words were muttered and nearly unintelligible.

  “Are you muttering? Should I not have told you
about it?”

  With a sigh, Cora stopped and walked back to the door where the voice was coming from. Trying to give him a smile, she responded, “Of course not, Jason, I just wish you would have given me a little more notice than 30 minutes. I mean, you didn’t tell me you were coming to visit either, but it’s not like I needed to prepare for that. Climbing takes a bit of prep time. You taught me that. So not giving me more than a few minutes seems a bit irresponsible. For you.”

  “It slipped my mind. Sorry.” The man had short, sandy blond hair that curled, making him look more like a Greek god than her brother. It still took Cora by surprise because for the longest time Jason had kept his hair long. After graduating from college, he had decided to cut it after his long-time girlfriend had dumped him. They had been together for six years, but he had not been ready to commit to marriage. She had dumped him and moved on to some guy who was a few years older and was established in the financial industry. One thing she had always tried to get him to do was cut his hair. Cora approved of his petty vindictive move, partly because she had always hated her brother’s girlfriend, and partly because he really did look a lot better with short hair.

  She flashed Jason a toothy grin that could have been interpreted as either thanks or annoyance. “I’ll be ready in a minute, just need to grab some of the gear.”

  “Take your time, sis.”

  Cora turned to go into her room before stopping and poking her head around the door frame. “It really is good to have you back. It was a little quiet around here without you.”

  Jason laughed in response, “I really wish I had gotten you on record admitting it.”

  “Yeah, enjoy it while it lasts because that won’t be happening again.”

  “Of course not. Hurry, I’m leaving in 5.” As if to emphasize the time crunch, Jason stood up and started heading toward the door. Cora gave a little yelp and hurried into her room. There was no point in pointing out the contradiction – he had just told her to take her time, and then had turned around and told her to hurry up. Then again, that was her brother – and she wouldn’t want him to act any differently now. Throwing some gear into a large backpack, she slung it over her shoulder, catching her short purple hair in the process. “God damn it!” she yelled, trying to yank the bag off of her hair as carefully as she could. It took several seconds and she was near tears from the effort. Cora hurried back to the bathroom and picked up a couple of clips and bands that had flown out earlier. Stuffing them in her pocket and bag, the young woman hurried down the hall. It was more than she could possibly need, but she wasn’t sure how she wanted to do her hair yet – better to have options than to regret leaving any option behind.