Shifters Forever Worlds Mega Box: Volume 1

by Thorne, Elle

  “Do it again,” the woman said. “This time get it right.”

  The man raised a weapon, aimed at Anya.

  She wanted to duck, to turn, to move, to do anything to avoid being hit, but then she’d put Pepper in the line of fire.

  The tranq hit her with the force of a bullet, then sank deep into the flesh of her thigh. It burned as it coursed throughout her.

  Time to put a different set of skills to use.

  Anya collapsed to the ground, ensuring she landed just so. Her vision was unobstructed, but she’d flung her arm over her face so they couldn’t see her eyes were open.

  Time to test Cas’s investment. Though the tranquilizer continued its path throughout her, Anya didn’t lose consciousness. She stayed on full alert, cognizant of her surroundings.

  “You shot her!” Pepper’s voice was shrill. “How dare you.” This time it was Marleis’s voice.

  “Shut up or we’ll shoot you, too, elemental.” This came from one of the shifters, a giant of a man.

  Anya seethed at the way he was treating Pepper, but she couldn’t give it away she wasn’t unconscious by doing anything about it.

  “It would be easier if you just used a tranq on her,” said the other shifter.

  A shiver surged through her at the sound of his voice. That voice! She knew it. She’d heard it before, but she couldn’t place it.

  Damn, she wanted to turn her head to get a better look at his face.

  “Come here, Pepper.” He was speaking again.

  His voice brought images to her mind. She thought of the day Astra’s mother died.

  Anya blinked hard. Now, why did that come to mind?

  “I’m not going anywhere with you.” Marleis’s voice was cold. “Neither is Pepper.”

  A whirling sound behind Anya made a steadily louder sound. Whatever it was, it was coming closer.

  “I told you to tranq her. Now look what you’ve done.”

  Anya risked moving her head, hoping whatever was behind them was holding their attention.

  The four intruders were watching a waterspout rising from the lake and traveling toward them on solid ground.

  The waterspout made a creaking and crackling sound, a rectangular block of ice that was more than twelve foot tall.

  “It’s a fucking glacier,” the man said.

  The ice moved closer, the crackling growing louder and louder. Anya chanced a glance at Pepper’s eyes. They gleamed a blue fire.

  A large pop signaled the breaking off of a large sliver of ice. The spear of ice flew off the glacier and hurled toward the man with the weapon. It struck a tree by his head, splintering into hundreds of tiny pieces.

  Instead of scattering around him, the shards of ice became projectiles and seemed to be seeking him out the way a heat-seeking missile hones in on its target. The barrage of ice struck the man, piercing his flesh, driving into his body with great force. The man screamed, his eyes turning a gold color then red. The tree next to him burst into flame.

  Pepper stood there, her hands clenched into tiny fists, feet shoulder-width apart, head thrown back. “You will leave.”

  One of the shifters was barreling toward Pepper, intent on tackling her.

  Anya leapt up from her spot, shifted into her tigress before she could come up with a plan, and hurtled herself for the shifter.

  He froze. A gleam shone in his eyes, a triumphant, almost joyful gleam.

  “I know you,” he said. A slight creaking sound, a pop, and a crunch and he’d shifted into his animal.

  . A lion with light streak in his dark mane.

  Anya gasped. She struggled to breathe but found there wasn’t enough air. Her mouth working to take air in, her lungs burned with the effort, but still—

  Nothing.

  He pushed for a sync, and, without thinking, she allowed it, opening the communication link between them to be able to talk in the way that shifters did, without using their voices.

  So, you do know me, little tigress. It’s your turn to die.

  It definitely was him.

  She shut the link down immediately. He was the one that killed Astra’s mother. But how was he still alive? Doc killed him, didn’t he?

  The memories tried to return. She tried to bring them back, but all she could really remember was Astra’s mom—dead and bloody.

  Her tigress roared. A bellow so loud Anya wondered if it wouldn’t be heard in the villa—if maybe it would cause Signora Portofino to come running.

  He shifted to his human form. “So, you do know me.”

  That smirk. He had the same smirk when he swatted Astra’s defenseless mother. But wait… A spear of pain pressed on Anya’s brain as she remembered…

  Astra’s mother hadn’t been defenseless. She was an elemental. She’d summoned fire. Flames had surrounded the other shifter right before this one killed her with the swat that severed her jugular.

  Anya shifted quickly, ignoring the discomfort of the shift. “You killed her.” Her voice was hollow, the words spoken as if by someone else. “You killed Astra’s mother.”

  And now he’s here to kill Pepper.

  “She wouldn’t go peacefully. She wouldn’t let us take the girl.”

  He’s here to kidnap Pepper. Just as he was there to kidnap Astra.

  “You can’t.”

  “You couldn’t stop us before. What makes you think you can now?” He took a step closer.

  “Bale.” It was the woman. “This isn’t the time for a personal vendetta.” She threw him the pistol the dead man had dropped. “Take her out. We don’t have the time to indulge you in a death match.”

  He raised his arm to catch the pistol.

  A loud crack and the breaking of a shard from Marleis’s iceberg creation made him look in that direction.

  The shard traveled, swiftly and deadly, midair, knocking the pistol out of Bale’s reach.

  Anya’s tigress snarled in her head, demanding a shift. Anya yielded. She owed her this chance at retribution.

  The tigress dropped back on her haunches, muscles bunched, and she leapt for his throat.

  The second shifter dove for the weapon, plucked it from the leaves, and aimed it at Anya.

  A pop, and the dart was buried deep in Anya’s muscular thigh. She snarled but didn’t let it deter her.

  Bale swiveled just as she reached him, making her miss the mark of his throat.

  She seized his shoulder, sharp fangs inches into human flesh.

  A growling came from deep within Bale’s chest just as he shifted into his lion. He shook his body, throwing Anya off.

  Anya’s head cracked against the hard trunk of a tree then she collapsed on the ground.

  He advanced toward her, blood pouring from the wounds Anya inflicted.

  She rose to her feet, disoriented from the blow to her head.

  A scream reverberated in her mind. Was it from the memories or was it nearby? She looked around, saw Pepper with her mouth open, indigo eyes glowing.

  A loud roar from the side overpowered Pepper’s scream. Expecting it to be the lion, ready to kill or be killed, Anya braced herself.

  She wasn’t ready for the extraordinarily large grizzly that seized the lion in its grasp, ripping the its tawny hide, digging six-inch long lethal claws into the its mane, seeking to maim it.

  She recognized the grizzly, instantly.

  Kane.

  The lion turned, sinking his teeth into the Kane’s bear shoulder. He bellowed then lowered his head and buried it into the lion’s neck.

  The second shifter intruder morphed into a fox, leaping for Kane’s bear neck.

  Anya leapt into the melee, making a beeline for the lion’s exposed under-neck.

  A human scream came from the opposite area of Pepper.

  Astra was shrieking, her eyes glowing and fluctuating from green to yellow.

  Lightning erupted from the ground near Astra’s feet. The forked bolt crackled through the air, piercing the lion’s side, traveling through th
e massive beast, then boomeranging and entering the fox. The fox dropped to the ground, almost severed in half by the lightning spear.

  The lion opened its cavernous mouth to roar, only its roar was more like a rat’s squeak as blood poured from its mouth.

  Kane’s bear released the lion, letting the creature drop to the ground.

  The woman’s eyes glowed red. Anya rushed her, leapt onto her, one fierce bite, a loud crunch, and the woman lay lifeless at her paws.

  Astra massaged her temples, blinking slowly.

  Kane shifted into his human and ran toward her.

  Anya rushed for Pepper, shifted, then took the shaking child in her arms. “Are you okay?”

  From the forest, a white tiger came bounding out.

  Rafe.

  He shifted into his human form.

  “There’s no sign of anyone else. I’m thinking they were working alone.”

  “What are you doing? How did you know?” Anya glanced from Kane to Rafe then to Astra.

  “Astra said we should stop by and check on you. The housekeeper said you’d been gone for a while. So, we split up and came looking.”

  “They…” Anya faced Astra. “Did you recognize him?”

  Astra nodded, wincing with every up and down motion of her head. “It’s over.” Her eyes rolled to the back of her head, and she fell against Kane, unconscious.

  “She needs to get home. I’ve got to get her some help.”

  “You should leave immediately,” Anya agreed.

  He frowned. “There’s one problem.” He pushed Astra’s hair away from her face then pierced Anya with a stare that was almost accusatory. “She won’t go. She feels she’s connected to you, that she can’t just say, ‘Been nice meeting you, thanks for the memories.’ She can’t do that.”

  Anya had a job. And there was Pepper. And Bryson. And…her feelings for him. “I have to protect Pepper.”

  “The threat to her is gone.” His face was hard, but his eyes held a plea.

  This was it. It was Anya’s turn to do the right thing for Astra. She’d blamed her tigress for letting Astra down once, would she let her down now, too?

  Chapter Thirteen

  Bryson took one look at the two females in his life and knew the shit had hit the fan.

  Damn. She’d have been better off coming to Paris with me.

  Pepper was pale and asleep in her bed. Anya was even paler and sitting in the chair by the bed. From the what he could tell, she’d been dozing with one eye open.

  The moment she spied Bryson coming into Pepper’s nightlight lit room, her eyes had shined with tears.

  “I let you down.”

  He glanced at Pepper. “She’s not hurt, so what makes you say that?”

  “I should have listened to you. Maybe we’d have been better off going.”

  “Maybe not. In theory, this should have been the safest place. Who knows…if they’d followed us, maybe they’d have had success.”

  A cold spell ran over him, a feeling of dread like he’d never felt.

  “Are you up to discussing it?”

  She sat straight in the chair. “I can give you the details.”

  “I have the details. Rafe and Kane are downstairs.” He’d seen the bloody, tattered clothing. He’d heard every painful, frightful details.

  “Still? I thought they’d have gone.”

  He and Kane had a talk, while she was up here watching over for Pepper. Bryson had already made a decision, but the talk with Kane solidified it. “We need to talk.”

  “You’re firing me.” She looked down. “I suppose I deserve that. My first failure.”

  “Failure? You risked your life to save my daughter. If it weren’t for you, Pepper wouldn’t be…” He couldn’t get the words out. Thinking of anything bad happening to Pepper made it so he couldn’t hardly talk. Bryson tipped her chin up with his fingertips. “I’m not exactly firing you.”

  She studied his face. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “I’d like for you to stay with Pepper.”

  * * *

  A range of emotions traveled through Anya, from disappointment to rejection to elation, and now disappointment of a different kind…

  He wanted her to stay with Pepper. To watch over Pepper.

  The heat of embarrassment and even anger washed over her. What they’d shared meant nothing. She was his daughter’s protector.

  Her tigress had been wrong. He didn’t consider Anya as a mate. The pain of this knowledge cut her deeply.

  Her tigress snarled.

  I’ll deal with you later. Anya pushed the tigress back.

  “Do you think Pepper still needs a bodyguard?”

  Bryson raised a brow. His jaw wore a five o’ clock shadow. He rested large hands on muscular thighs. “Bodyguard?” He shook his head. “No. She needs…” He paused, scrubbed his hands over his face as if this was a difficult thing to put into words. “Pepper needs a mother. Her own mother is as much as dead, now.”

  Anya was crushed. So, he wanted her to stay around and play mommy to Pepper. As much as that thrilled Anya, because she’d come to love the little girl, it meant she’d have to pretend she and Bryson had never shared…

  “I can’t.” She looked away from his eyes, but even that wasn’t enough because she could feel his gaze analyzing her. She jumped to her feet and went to the window. Staring out at the trees shuddering slightly with the breeze, she muttered, “I’m sorry.”

  She felt him move, felt his essence behind her, then she saw his reflection in the window.

  “Is it because you don’t want me?”

  I want you too much. “No. Why do you think that?”

  “You said you couldn’t stay.”

  She whirled around. “I can’t stay because I can’t be that to Pepper when I feel the way I do about you.” Her words were a hiss, low because of Pepper but filled with the passion she was denied. “And you said you need someone for Pepper.”

  “I thought the other part was a given.”

  She shoved his chest with both palms. “Don’t think that. Ever. Don’t assume I know what you’re thinking.”

  He turned her around with the speed and supernatural power of his leopard. He kept his eyes locked on hers, while his hand reached for the back of her neck and pulled her closer. Her breath froze on her lips.

  His mouth locked on hers as if perfectly matched parts of a puzzle. Around her, the world seemed to spin off into oblivion as his lips claimed hers. His other hand was on her hip, possessive, keeping their bodies tightly together. A warmth burst throughout her, a heat so pleasant and intense it flooded out all other sensations.

  A low moan slipped from her lips as his tongue plundered her mouth, owning her, denying all doubt.

  He pulled back, leaving her breathless. His blue eyes were warm like a sunny day, but on the cusp of turning cold if his will was circumvented.

  “Will you go where I go?” His thumb slipped under her shirt and traveled lazy circles over the bare skin just above her hip.

  “Always. What are you asking?”

  “I’m thinking of a move to the U.S. It’s been a long time since I was there. I’d like to be around our kind more. I’d like to find out more about Pepper’s elemental, and how to protect her from Marleis should I ever need to.”

  “Where exactly?”

  “Not sure. Bear Canyon Valley possibly. Maybe Denver, where the Order of Elementals is.”

  “I’ll go wherever you go…but there’s one little thing…” She gently nipped at his bottom lip. “That little thing called couple bonding…”

  “Shouldn’t I be the one asking?”

  “What can I say? I’m not an old-fashioned kind of girl.”

  Footsteps approaching interrupted her next statement.

  Kane walked into view. “We have an idea.”

  Anya pulled out of Bryson’s embrace.

  “We’re going to Isabel’s,” Kane continued.

  “It’s unlikely anyo
ne will expect you to be there,” Rafe added.

  Bryson nodded slowly, as if mulling over the idea. “That’s not bad thinking.”

  “Astra’s awake; she’s asking for you,” Kane informed her. “I told her it could keep until we were at Isabel’s.”

  “How long do you need to pack?” Bryson asked her.

  I’m a damned expert at packing and moving. “Two minutes.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Anya, Bryson, Pepper, Astra, Kane, and Rafe pulled into the back of Isabel’s villa. They’d barely gotten out of the vehicle when Isabel, Niko, Sophie, and Jax came out.

  Isabel held her arms out. Pepper jumped from Anya’s and ran for Isabel’s.

  “Cara mia. Are you okay?” Isabel hugged her tightly.

  “Signora Isabel, you should have seen…” Pepper gasped for a breath. “You…” Pepper panted.

  “Relax. I already know what happened. Let’s let that become a memory now. I have biscotti and warm milk for you.” Isabel’s gaze stayed on Anya’s face. “Are you okay?”

  Anya nodded.

  Kane helped a still-weak Astra through the double doors. Sophie and Jax flocked around her.

  No sooner had they’d entered the room, than Pepper squealed—a sound of sheer delight from a five-year-old, not one full of fear.

  “You have a Christmas tree!” She ran to the tree, blinking lights making her face light up. “And presents.” She kneeled and picked one up. “This is my name. Daddy, Daddy, look!” Pepper jumped to her feet, holding the red-and-gold wrapped present.

  Bryson’s expression transformed away from one of worry as a smile grew on his face. He gave Isabel an appreciative glance and mouthed the words, “thank you,” when Pepper turned to show the present to Anya.

  Anya wiped away the lonely tear that had made its way to her face. She sensed a gaze on her and looked up to see Astra’s luminescent eyes also full of tears.

  Anya crossed the room in a few quick strides and wrapped her arms around her best friend from so very long ago. “I’m sorry. I’m so very sorry.”

  “I’m sorry for you,” Astra whispered. “I know your life hasn’t been easy.”

  Anya’s eyes met Bryson’s. “It’s so much better than I’d ever hoped for, though.”