“Why does that change with Angel?” Dakota growled with fury in his words, and I glanced at him warily. Another cough caused me to stumble, and Rex grabbed my shoulders to steady me with a worried frown.
“Ryker, she isn’t looking good,” he murmured after looking me over. Something leaked from my nose, and I sighed inwardly. I’m doing better than I did the first time my health failed.
“That’s because Angel has to decide whether she wants to be a shifter. As for your question, young Dakota, what changes is that Tyger, Snow, and Arctic won’t let her go off alone. They wouldn’t have let me either, but we would have had to fight the shifters too. Not in a physical sense, but mentally. Until they found the strength to trust us, they wouldn’t have gone anywhere we asked. Why risk a worse fate? Angel represents truth and the ability to heal. And that’s without them knowing she’s an empathy healer. Does that answer your question? Yes, I know you will come along too, young wolf,” Ryker replied with a soft chuckle. “I wouldn’t dream of taking your cousin to war without letting you come along to fawn over her.”
“Damn straight,” Dakota muttered under his breath, his anger fading while he became thoughtful. My heart warmed a little upon realizing that Dakota thought of me first before anything else. I was trying to fight my dismissal of being that important to someone, and that helped a little. Someday I hoped to express my gratitude to Dakota for being such a wonderful cousin. Another cough shook my body, and something warm leaked from my ears, which I found irritating. Stupid wolf blood tearing my human body apart. At least that’s what I believed was happening.
Finding the strength to meet Ryker’s eye, I rasped, “yes.” Thankfully, the vampire didn’t need an explanation, raising his wrist to his mouth within a beat of my heart. He offered it to me and I made a face which caused the vampire lord to laugh. I didn’t dare look at the werewolves surrounding me, although I met Rex’s gaze after a nervous swallow. I didn’t trust my legs to bear my weight, but Ryker wanted me to approach to prove I meant my agreement to become a shifter.
“All right, sweetheart, I’ll help you take those few steps. Marcus is jealous, but he deserves it. Dakota, well, he can take your other arm because we like him,” Rex murmured conspiratorially while trouble twinkled in his eyes. I couldn’t stop the soft laugh that bubbled in my throat, not that I genuinely fought it. Dakota smiled while taking my other arm with such gentleness that my soul would have purred were it able to. Huh. I wonder if I will gain the ability to purr? That would be cool.
“I dare your monster to restrain you once you’re a shifter,” Dakota chuckled with cruel delight in his eyes. “Sure, he might hurt you, but you’ll fight back if he tries to rape you. Three humans won’t have anything on a shifter, not after what I’ve seen and heard of Tyger and Arctic.” Heh. I’m sure Arc would tear my monster apart if he dared show his face here. I’m sure he will, but I don’t doubt the people I love will protect Matty if I can’t.
Jeanne kissed my forehead when I stood before Ryker, squeezing my shoulders with a warm smile. “I can’t wait to get to know my granddaughter,” she declared with happiness. “So, you can stay here, or we will stay with you. I have lost too much time as it is with you and my grandson. And we shall have to inform Shelly while you’re changing, so she’s ready to meet you and Matty once you’ve recovered.”
Marcus kissed my forehead as well, followed by Dakota and Rex, and it was time. A gentle squeeze to my shoulder reminded me of Jax’s presence, which seemed to be relieved and hopeful. Eyeing the vampire, I grimaced, and Ryker laughed. Kissing my forehead, he tickled my side, so I gasped. Before I could realize his intentions, my back was to the vampire’s chest, with his wrist in my mouth. The first swallow was disgusting and caused pain throughout my body. The next brought darkness.
Monster
The dark receded, leaving only pain when a sense of urgency woke me. At first, I didn’t understand. All I knew was the pain. Even my eyelashes hurt, which I didn’t know was possible. I lacked the strength to open my eyes, although I perceived sunlight through them. Muffled voices filled my ears, along with intense tingles chasing the pain away from my hand for a moment. My heart thumped, and my soul brightened, then tugged at my conscience and I found myself elsewhere.
It was like a dream, only everything was fuzzy. I was there, but not. When I looked at myself, my hands were transparent. Not in the sense I could see inside them, but through them. Whoever chose that color for the floor needed to get their eyes checked. Hideous. Downright hideous.
“Very well. Beat them all,” a cruel voice chuckled. “Then sterilize them. We don’t want such useless shifters breeding with our humans. My, the world would fail with so much incompetence wasting its resources.”
Anger burned in my veins at his words and I looked up, ready to snarl an insult to wipe off the smirk I expected the stranger to wear. Instead, I found myself surrounded by blurry forms on the floor. Six. There were six of them. Six souls damned to be beaten with their ability to have children stolen from them. By a goddamn vampire. Twenty shadows surrounded them, making it clear the poor shifters were outnumbered.
The next second, part of their forms became less blurry to reveal silver collars around what I assumed to be their throats. Don’t you dare, you bastards. In the center of them stood what I assumed to be a vampire since he was an ominous shadow. When someone moved, a person I could see but hadn’t noticed, the shadow in the center raised his hand to press a button on the remote he held. Screams of pain came from the six blurry shifters while the one I could see groaned his agony.
Blood leaked from the collar around his neck and my heart ached. Pain. They were in so much pain and suffered so much. The lord of the house chuckled and pressed another button, causing them to flinch with loud yelps. Did he shock them too? Bastard! I stepped towards him, only for the vile man surrounded by shifters to move back a step. Seriously!? Why show me this if I can’t help!? To torment me!?
A painful cough had me glancing at the shifter I could see and I bit my lip. His hair was golden brown tipped with black, and his eyes were a bright, burning gold. Hatred oozed from him while he got his arm beneath his body and tried to push himself up. A bright blue light blurred his edges and some part of me recognized that meant he was a delta, a third. We don’t have a third. Another yelp came from the shifter and I realized they shocked him to keep him from shifting. Bastards!
Shaking my head when information flooded my mind, I stumbled a step and my pain flared so much I saw nothing for several moments. Tyger is a beta, or Snow is. I’m not sure. Probably Snow. Arctic and Ryker are alphas, so those positions are filled. To be a proper pack- Pfft. Pack. No, we will be better than a pack. I don’t know the word for it yet, but we will be so much better. Regardless, we need a third, not a delta. No, we’ll have better terms too. We won’t strive to be better. We will be better. Arctic’s edges are gold, while Snow and Tyger’s are silver. That I knew this disturbed me. Does this mean that others don’t see their edges glow at all? One second, they’re human, the next an animal?
With a groan, I shook my head again to force the information to stop. It was great that the vampire blood unlocking my werewolf blood gave me information while making me a shifter, but now wasn’t the time. The room came back into focus, or as much as I could see. Enforcers will be- No, not enforces. We won’t enforce. Protect. Protectors will be violet. Shifters who can belong to us will be silver. I am black. What? Why am I black? No. Focus. Stop! Make it stop!
Gasping, I hit my knees. While I sucked air into my lungs, the skin between my shoulders itched and I raised my gaze to meet burning gold eyes. Now they softened to a burnished gold and a soft sigh escaped my lips. “Omega,” the jaguar greeted with wariness in his eyes. Jaguar? How do I know he’s a jaguar?
“Hello,” I replied, feeling lame. My soul radiated pleasure, and I gasped when my pain lessened. But that only enabled me to sense the pain that tormented the jaguar shifter. God, he suffered. I sensed the tur
moil plaguing the other shifters too, but his was greater. They made an example of him because he was the most dominant. He led, so he bled. Rude.
“What are you staring at, shifter? Need me to remove your eyes so visions no longer plague you?” A vampire hissed, and I growled. The jaguar smiled despite himself and shook his head.
“Peace, omega,” he murmured. “You can’t help here.” Like hell I couldn’t. Before I thought better of it, I stepped towards him. He didn’t move. Oh. So I’m allowed to approach this shifter, huh? Whatever. Within seconds, I knelt beside him.
“Don’t,” the vampire from the center hissed, and I jerked my head from the shifters mesmerizing eyes to find an inky shadow behind him. “He sees something you cannot. Do not touch him.” Ignoring the vampires, I returned my gaze to the shifter who shouldered as much pain as he could to spare those who followed him. They relied on him. Listened to his advice, and he never let them down. I sensed their loyalty, love, and faith curling around him.
With tears burning my eyes, I cupped his bruised cheek, wishing he didn’t suffer so much for daring to exist. He never asked to be born. My pain increased until my teeth ached and my soul wept, but I refused to leave him to suffer. However, the pain chased away a shadow. I remained transparent, but the vampire in the center, the lord of the house, was no longer shrouded in darkness. And he saw me. Or a shadow representing me.
“Well, well,” he laughed with delight filling his eyes. Oh god, they were so cruel. “So we have an omega and an empathy healer in a neat little package. Female to boot judging by your slight form, hmm? Don’t make me put you in your place.” My eyes jerked backed to his since I had looked down, and I discovered he glared at the jaguar shifter.
“You shouldn’t have come here,” the jaguar whispered, his hand laying over mine on his cheek. The next second, he jerked me behind him while he growled at the vampire lord. Freaking manhandled again. Still, I hadn’t stolen all of his pain, so I huffed. His amusement wrapped around me a moment later, and his fear of the vampire who knew of my existence.
“I had no choice. My soul brought me here,” I replied, and he glanced at me over his shoulder, his growl dying a sudden death in his throat. “I think we need you. And you need us.”
“We?” He asked, turning back to face the vampire with a low snarl while the man watched us with amusement.
“Me and a few other shifters,” I replied. I kept my response vague, in case the asshole could hear me since I heard him.
“Definitely female by your voice,” the vampire chuckled. “Perfect. While I can’t see you, I assure you, my dear, I will find you. Change of plans. Don’t hurt these shifters. Reward them instead. They’ve given us a precious gift since we now know there’s an omega who is also an empathy healer. And a shifter even, unless I miss my guess. There have been a few who’ve had out-of-body experiences while they changed. Keep my shifters calm and don’t antagonize or harm them. When we bring our newest shifter home, we don’t want her miserable because she senses their pain. No. She will have… other things to worry about.”
A low growl tore from my throat when shame filled the shifters on the floor and the jaguar trembled with rage. How dare he torment them like that? Mocking them and making them feel as if they betrayed me. If I could, I would steal their pain too. But I couldn’t even touch their emotions, although I sensed their turmoil. I hated him. Loathed him. Wanted to wipe the smirk off his face and beat him with it.
“Over my dead body,” the jaguar warned with a low snarl.
The vampire laughed in response. “Oh no. Never. You draw her. You will be wrapped in cotton and protected since your pain angers her. Building a pack, are we? If you want him as your third, you must come get him, dear.” I growled again, and he laughed with delight. I looked around, panicking, when everything darkened until I could only hear his voice. Was my pain pulling me back into the darkness? Or was my time up? “Very well, I’ll bring him to you. How about that? I must find you first, but I know someone up to the task. Yes, tracking down young women is his specialty. He does it with precision and cruel intentions. Why, some might even call him a monster.”
Bouquet of Regret (Angel's Shifters Book 1) Page 40