Alpha's Mate: A Steamy PNR Shifter & Fantasy Romance Collection (Hot Shifters Book 3)

by Casey Morgan

  I was a witch now. A witch who could do magic—granted I was still learning and behind all of my classmates. But it was still cool.

  I looked down at his growing bulge pointedly, letting one of my hands trail down to toy with the button on Ice-Eyes slacks. My fingers trailed ever so slightly against his lower stomach. His dress shirt had been lifted a bit, and just the feeling of his tight stomach and taut muscles under my fingertips was enough to make me tremble.

  “I want to…” I said as I dragged a single finger just along the outline of his cock.

  Jasper shivered and let out a sigh, his eyes darkening considerably.

  This was going to be fun.

  Now I was on top of him, sinking onto his hard cock. My breaths were completely uneven, and I had to keep my lower lip between my teeth to hold in the moans I feared would be too loud.

  Jasper’s lips were pressing heated kisses into my neck and chest as I sat in his lap, rocking his cock in and out of me. The first time, it had hurt a little bit, but Jasper was slow and gentle until I grew impatient. Now, I was confidently riding him, naked save my moonstone necklace. The feeling of him inside me was such a good stretch, as if he was made just to fit into me. The groans that fell from his lips every time I would pick up the pace a bit were music to my ears, and I let out some moans of my own, burying my face into his shoulder to try and hide the sound.

  “Don’t be shy, Ruby, I think you sound wonderful,” Jasper said with a big smirk, bucking his hips up into me at a surprising angle. My eyes widened at the sensation, and I let my head fall back in pleasure.

  “Right there, please…” I whispered, not even sure what I was really asking for.

  Jasper took my suggestion and began lifting his hips to plunge his cock deeper into me. It felt sublime, and as I bounced on his cock, I felt my necklace almost begin to vibrate, and I swore I saw it glint in the dappled forest moonlight.

  Suddenly, I was plunged into Jasper’s head. I could feel every emotion and see every memory of his. It was fascinating, to say the least.

  Since I had already probed him about Thorn, I wandered through the boy’s memories. Some of them were quite interesting, and I let myself fall into the nostalgic feeling of his childhood, which was so different from my own. Jasper had grown up with magic, knowing he was a shifter from a very young age. Some of the memories were so fun and playful, like running around as a small polar bear in the woods.

  Suddenly, I came across a more recent memory of books laid out in front of Jasper, his hands roaming the pages. He had been studying the magic of shifting. As I viewed the memory through his eyes, I began to tingle with excitement.

  The book in front of Jasper explained the core truth of shifting: the animal is the dominant form, and the human has to control it. When a shifter changes into their animal form, it is essentially their true form showing through, breaking free from the human confines.

  Wow. I had no idea.

  Growing up as a human, completely unaware of shifting, much less the nuances of it, was beginning to prove detrimental to my time at Ironwood. I was sadly behind in my classes and knowledge of the world of magic in general.

  Despite this, the knowledge splayed on the pages in front of me in my lover’s mind made me feel a bit more confident. I now knew the basics of shifting. Surely this would help somehow.

  I decided to draw this knowledge from him with the succubus necklace, letting it fill me with a euphoric feeling, and before I knew it, I was tumbling over the cliff of my orgasm. It felt absolutely otherworldly, and I vaguely sensed Jasper falter in his strokes, moans falling from his pretty lips.

  When I came down from my high, I was in a state of bliss. Jasper had indeed orgasmed alongside me and was now pressing soft kisses to my chest.

  “That was amazing,” he said, grinning up at me and reaching a hand up to tenderly tuck a loose strand of hair behind my ear.

  I nodded absentmindedly, more focused on the fact that my head now contained essential knowledge about shifting, knowledge that would definitely help me grow into my own as a witch.

  I slid myself off of him, still panting, and I winced at the dirt covering my knees. Jasper noticed this and asked if I was alright, concern painting his features. I shrugged, still too focused on the knowledge I had just gained. He asked again, pulling me towards him in an attempt to cuddle. I let him, only because I didn’t have the energy to put up a fight.

  “What’s up, do you feel okay?” he asked.

  It was almost sweet, but it felt too intimate. I cringed a bit at the words. To save face, though, I nodded, shooting him a small smile and saying, “Yeah, everything’s fine, that was really good.”

  Jasper smiled wide, his perfect teeth glinting in the dappled moonlight. His blue eyes met mine, and my stomach dropped. He was getting attached, I could tell.

  Dammit.

  That was the last thing I wanted. Attachment wasn’t my thing, and now that I knew how good sex could be, especially with the added benefit my succubus necklace provided, I certainly wasn’t going to settle down with just one guy. There were too many opportunities here for me at Ironwood, handsome opportunities at that. I needed to take full advantage of them.

  However, I couldn’t let Jasper down hard like that. I put on my best cuddly smile and beamed at him, giving him a small kiss on the jaw.

  “Thanks for taking me out here, I appreciate it.”

  “Of course, you deserve nothing less,” Jasper said softly, looking at me with way too much softness in his eyes.

  I had to stop myself from rolling mine.

  It was quiet for a moment before Jasper spoke again, this time tilting his head in a question, “What made you choose me? Out of all the guys here at Ironwood…”

  I didn’t want to tell him the real reason, how I only really chose him for the information he could give me. I gave him a white lie instead, “You’re just so… Upbeat and fun to be around, you’re like a toddler… But a sexy toddler,” I finished with a giggle. Jasper started laughing and snuggled deeper into me.

  Alright, that’s it. I couldn’t handle the closeness.

  “Shoot, I forgot I have an essay to finish,” I mumbled, shooting him the best fake smile I could, “Thanks for everything, Jasper.”

  I gathered my uniform up, not daring to look back at the disappointed boy I was leaving in the woods. Well, hopefully he wasn’t too disappointed. I had given him the night of his life, hadn’t I?

  Chapter Two

  I just needed to focus.

  Magic was still new to me after only attending Ironwood for a little over a month, and frequently, my experiences with it were explosive. But if I was careful with my hands and listened with a keen ear as Professor Goldwin explained how to proceed, I would be fine. Potions class was an okay class, in my opinion. On the one hand, it was definitely something that I could handle, if anything, it was like cooking. On the other hand, besides a handful of people, I really didn’t like my classmates.

  Few students had made an effort to be friendly with me. Most were cold. Apparently having a stranger in class was almost unheard of for the magic community of Love’s Hallow. The majority of the students who attended Ironwood Academy had been in school together since preschool. To them, I was a freak. They turned up their noses at me and talked about me behind my back. It was not endearing.

  As I added ingredients to my spell pot, my thoughts drifted back to the previous night. Jasper really was a well of good information, but he was just so clingy. I wasn't a one-man woman, and I wasn’t sure how I could make him understand that without losing him. I didn’t want to stop hanging out with him, and I definitely did not want to stop fucking him.

  The whole situation was starting to make my head hurt, and I was barely focusing on the potion anymore. It was going to be fine, though, considering that Angie, my best friend and roommate, was my potions lab partner, and she was smart.

  I must’ve gotten totally lost in my thoughts since I heard Professor Goldwin c
lear his throat a few times. I looked up to the front of the room, meeting his bright yellow eyes, which were glowing from a small round face flanked by waves of golden-yellow hair. Usually Goldwin had his hair pulled back, like an old hippy, but occasionally, he left it down.

  The professor was a dwarf, so he had to stand on a stool in order to reach the table provided by the school. I had expected him to be somewhat bitter about it, but he always insisted that it was better this way, since students could see him from any point in the cluttered classroom.

  He gazed at me with his lips pulled down in a frown, and I felt slightly nervous. I must’ve missed something important in the assignment for him to be glaring at me in such a way.

  “Ms.Thrushmoor, would you care to join us?” Goldwin asked, raising his voice slightly and getting the attention of some of the other students. “Remember, participation in class is vital to your grade. Don’t let Ms. Birch do all the work.”

  I smiled at him. “Of course, Professor.” There was no way I wanted to upset the little teacher. He was one of the few staff members on my side here.

  Goldwin raised one wild golden eyebrow like he was certain that I wasn’t taking this seriously. “This is a delicate stirring technique, so you all need to be paying attention. It’s important that you all understand that potions aren’t things to be handled half-hazardly. They are precious and fragile. Even the way that you stir them is important!”

  As the professor continued to rant on passionately about the importance of stirring direction and speed, Angie tugged on the sleeve of my shirt. Her brown eyes twinkled with mischief. I watched as her nose scrunched like a cat as she prepared to tease me.

  “What were you thinking about?” she questioned in a low whisper. “Must be interesting if it has you spacing out in class.”

  Angie knew how inexperienced with magic I was. She was also, often, my tutor. Without my roommate, I would never have been able to stay at Ironwood. The headmaster did not want me here, for reasons unknown, and he had made an effort to kick me out. I, however, had been trying my best to stay. My late grandmother had paid my tuition, and I intended to get her money’s worth. Plus, I didn’t have anywhere else to go.

  Again, I remembered my night of fun with Jasper. The thought made me blush slightly. There was no way I was telling Angie about that. There was friendship, and then there was oversharing. I knew this would be the latter.

  I chuckled and looked back down at our spell pot. “Nothing much.”

  “Awww, you’re no fun. Come on, tell me.”

  Angie playfully pushed on my arm and shoulder in an attempt to sway me to share my secret. I laughed and pushed back. Unfortunately, our pushing got a little too rough. Angie hit the potion that she had been stirring with such care earlier. The green liquid shifted in the pot and spilled over the edge. It splashed onto Angie’s skin. Her eyes went wide.

  I didn’t have any time to ask her if it burned or if she was okay, as the shock of it making contact with her skin caused her to suddenly shift into a cat. The transformation was almost simultaneous with the yelp she let escape. I had closed my eyes in reaction to her yelp, but when I opened them again, Angie was in cat form.

  Learning that Angie was a cat-shifter had been a shock a few weeks ago. I had never seen anything like it before, but now it was a sight I saw too often. By the time shifters were adults they usually had a good handle on their abilities. There was the occasional loss of control when the moon was full, but that was the exception, not the rule. Angie didn’t have control. In fact, her restraint was getting worse and worse.

  The poor, black Angle cat had curled in on herself in an attempt to hide her new form. Jumping from my seat, I immediately felt sorry for her.

  “Oh, look!” a student, a few tables over yelled. “Kitty Paws makes an appearance!”

  I turned around in an attempt to find the person spitting insults, but it was practically impossible. Within seconds, multiple people were scoffing, insulting, and teasing Angie. I felt disgust and contempt towards my peers. It really wasn’t Angie’s fault. It wasn’t her choice to be a cat shifter, and it certainly wasn’t her desire to just suddenly shift.

  Her twin brother, Drew, told me Angie had almost gotten a hold of her powers, but then Halloween happened. Ever since that night, it’s become a serious problem. Every single time something startles her, scares her, makes her angry, or makes her an abnormally amount of uncomfortable, Angie shifts.

  Just the other day, we were in our room, and I accidentally dropped my pencil case. My roommate had jumped in the air in shock and landed on all fours in cat form. There was even a point in time that she was frustrated with a paper she had to write, and even that was enough to cause her to shift. At this point, in all of our opinions, it was getting ridiculous.

  Not to mention, it was starting to take Angie forever to shift back. When we were alone or in our room, this wasn’t a problem. She would often take a nap and then wake up human again. But now—in class—there was an immeasurable amount of pressure for her to shift back as quickly as possible. I knew that wasn’t going to happen, and she knew that wasn’t going to happen. The poor thing was drowning in the insults thrown at her by the kids surrounding us.

  “Everyone settle down!” Professor Goldwin’s voice chimed above the noise. “Get back to your potions immediately!”

  When that did little to calm to the mob, he whistled. The abnormally high-pitched noise shocked everyone silent. More calmly than I ever could manage, the Professor repeated himself. “Everyone settle down. It’s time to return back to your work and focus on your potions.” He took a breath, “Immediately.”

  The class quickly returned to their tables and resumed stirring their potions, although the atmosphere remained tense. Professor Goldwin made his way over to me and Angie’s table, where he propped himself up on a chair.

  “Ruby, could you take Angie to Headmaster Thorn so he can turn her back?” he asked

  Although the professor asked me nicely, I knew that it was not a request. Regardless, I wanted to get Angie out of the classroom, so I nodded and quickly packed everything into our book bags. I slung them over my back and scooped Angie cat up into my arms.

  As I was getting everything ready, two things fought in my brain. I really did not want to go to Headmaster Thorn’s office. He hated me, and I was not sure why. Seeing his face was always an omen for an awful day to come. However, students had already begun to laugh at Angie again. Concern over Angie won against my hatred of Headmaster Thorn, so I made my way out of the classroom.

  I cursed under my breath as I closed the door behind me and took a few deep breaths to calm myself down before beginning my walk.

  Drew suddenly formed in front of me, and out of instinct, I held my hand up. Angie’s twin brother was dead, but that didn’t stop him from being a nuisance. Now really wasn’t the time for him to tease his sister, and I wasn’t in the mood either. Drew could be a dick later.

  But to my surprise, he glided past my hand and looked down at his sister with concern.

  “I’m not going to make fun of her, Ruby,” he explained. “I’m just worried.”

  I looked into his pale, semi-transparent face and saw that he was telling the truth. Drew was frowning, and his eyebrows were scrunched down. He felt just as bad for his sister as I did.

  “Worried?” I asked.

  The ghost nodded. “Yeah, normally this wouldn’t be that big of a deal, but it’s getting harder for her to shift back.”

  “I know. What does that mean?”

  He floated forward a bit into the hallway and put his almost see-through hands into almost see-through pockets. “Well... if Angie can’t control her shifting, one day she may not be able to shift back at all.”

  At that statement, Angie shivered in my arms. I looked down to see that she had buried her face into my chest for comfort. She knew that eventually she might not be able to transform back into a human. The thought must’ve terrified her every single time sh
e shifted against her will.

  “Is that really likely?” I asked.

  Drew shrugged. He wasn’t meeting my eyes anymore. “The one thing I know for sure is that it’s dangerous.”

  I looked down at the frightened cat in my arms. “Well- I haven’t heard of it happening before, so it must be rare.” It was a stupid statement, but I wanted to say something to comfort my friend.

  “It happened to our grandmother.”

  The statement caused me to stop walking, and I glared at Drew. He was so bad at giving information. Whenever something was important, it was like you had to pull the knowledge out of him.

  I squeezed Angie a little tighter as Drew continued to explain. “Angie was close to Grandma, so it hit her the hardest. But one day, the old biddy shifted into a cat and just couldn’t shift back. We really did try to help, but we just couldn’t get her back into her human form.” He kept floating down the hall towards the headmaster’s office and didn’t look back.

  “And?” I asked.

  “And?” he snapped, turning quickly to glare at me.

  “What happened? I mean, to your grandmother.”

  Drew let out an exaggerated sigh. He rolled his ghostly eyes towards the ceiling. “She ran away from embarrassment. We haven’t seen her since.”

  A minute of silence followed. I felt my stomach turn in uncomfortable ways, I didn’t like the idea of my best friend permanently turning into a cat. There had to be some way for her to get this all under control. Although it happened to her grandmother, Angie was still two generations apart, so maybe it wouldn’t happen to her.

  That got me thinking. The closest person to Angie was without a doubt Drew.

  “How about you?” I asked, hurrying towards the ghost. “Could you shift when you were alive?”

  When he didn’t answer, I looked up at him. Even though Drew was a ghost, his face still paled. He fidgeted with his fingers and nervously bit his lip. “Doesn’t matter,” was his only response.