Falling for Shifters: A Limited Edition Autumn Shifters Collection

by Lacey Carter Andersen

  Sighing in both contentment and uneasiness, I changed out of my jeans and into a pair of comfy yoga pants. I wasn’t sure why I was so nervous. Perhaps the remnants of what I went through yesterday? Yeah, that must be it. Dad and my brothers weren’t home when I arrived from town, which was weird because they had a big job tonight. They usually prepared all day before something like that.

  Climbing down the ladder again to begin prepping dinner, I thought about the danger the shifters were in tonight. They hadn’t done anything to me, well, one of them hadn’t let them, but why? The white wolf had every opportunity to kill me but—

  “Ahh!” The scream ripped from my throat when rough hands gripped my hair and dragged me off the ladder to the ground.

  “Why did you lie?!” Father’s voice raged while James forced me to face him.

  Desperately trying to stand on my own two feet, my hands flew to the back of my head with a whimper and I fought my brother’s hold. It was futile. My head started throbbing something fierce, and I was certain he’d ripped out a good chunk of my hair.

  “Answer him!” Jacob demanded, his eyes as wild as my father’s.

  I couldn’t. Especially not when Dad threw something at my feet, and I looked down to find my shotgun, and what was left of my vet supplies strewn over the grass. The twins dropped my jeans and shoes next to them, they were shredded by wolf claws.

  My blood chilled in my veins instantly. “I didn’t lie,” I stuttered, not knowing which was worse at this point, the lie or the truth. “They must have come after. I-I left those there because—" The words broke the instant my father’s hand back-slapped me—my head flying to the side.

  “Do not lie to me!” he roared like the devil. “There were twelve-inch pawprints all over the riverbank. I also found tracks of you retreating to climb the tree, and that beast following you.”

  Tears stung my eyes after he hit me and an instant migraine hit me, my left eye throbbing, but it was nothing like the pain that awoke in my heart. I didn’t bother to answer or to lift my head again, I just glanced at the grass, defeated, while teardrops fell on my cheeks. Over the years they had made sure I learned my place in this family, it was futile to fight it.

  “Look at me!”

  Blinking the tears away, I glanced up at my father and saw him step closer. A mixture of rage and unfathomable intrigue swirled in his gaze. “There were three sets of Wolf Shifter tracks there. There was clearly a fight for the prey… Why didn’t they kill you?”

  Avoiding his eyes, I shook my head and immediately regretted it when my brother’s grip tightened.

  “Let her go,” Jacob ordered, and James immediately obeyed him like a good soldier.

  I stumbled forwards but managed to regain my balance enough not to fall on my face. Caressing the back of my head, I took slow breaths to calm, the last thing I needed was to ugly cry in front of them. They didn’t like a weepy woman.

  “I don’t know,” I finally answered in a submissive voice. My father nodded, letting out a heavy breath while I hugged myself.

  “You were lucky, little girl,” Jacob spat, disgusted by me. “They could have ripped you to pieces.”

  I knew better than to answer, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized it was true. “One of the wolves saved me from the rest,” I muttered, wiping the wetness from my cheeks, and held my torso again.

  “How?” Jacob demanded, coming closer.

  “I-I’m not sure, but he found me first and didn’t attack. I hurt him with the shotgun to get away, but he fought the others so they wouldn’t follow me.” I tentatively glanced at my dad, to see confusion capture his expression.

  “You shot him?”

  Regretting it the instant it happened, I shook my head. “I hit him with it like a bat.”

  Scoffs and humorless chuckles reached me, their disdain of me clear as day. “You can’t even do one thing right,” James snorted.

  “Perhaps there is an opportunity here, Bubba.” All heads turned to Jimmy, and he shrugged. “I’m just saying, if he tracked her to the river but didn’t do anything to her…”

  “And he fought the others to protect her…” Jeremy added, leaving the rest up for interpretation.

  Scratching his beard, my father finally nodded. “Good thinking, boys. Prepare her for tonight.”

  Fear and confusion slapped into me. “Prepare me for what?”

  “You are going to help us lure them out of the mountain and kill them.”

  My eyes widened as pure horror rushed through my veins, burning every cell in my body. “What? No!”

  “Finish building the machine, and make sure everything is ready. We only have two hours left,” Dad ordered like it was nothing, walking towards the house.

  “No, Dad. Please!” I yelled after him, wanting nothing to do with the killing of those animals. The twins grabbed me by the arms, holding me back, and I didn’t know who I was more scared for, the wolves or myself. “Dad!”

  “Shut her up, will you?” my father asked his perfect son. “The last thing we need tonight is a hysterical woman.”

  “Good job, little girl,” Jacob praised, stepping closer while I struggled to breathe. “It looks like you are finally good for something.”

  “You can’t kill that wolf!” I irrationally begged. “He’s done nothing!”

  Pulling out his gun, he shook his head. “You are a fucking disgrace. Those beasts killed our mother and you still defend them? You should want to burn them all to hell.”

  No. The fight died in me with his words, confirming the fear I held all along. The raw emotion flowing through me like wildfire scorched my throat. Fresh tears fell just as the butt of my brother’s gun crashed against my temple and I fell to the ground, my cheek hitting the earth just as darkness and pain surrounded me.

  Chapter Seven

  When consciousness returned to me, I was standing against something. My brain pounded against my skull, a second from bursting open. Swollen eyes tried to blink awake, getting only shadows when my eyelids finally lifted.

  I was still outside, the chilled breeze of the night brushing harshly against my arms… my arms… I couldn’t move my arms. Or my legs. Glancing down, I realized my vision was severely impaired. It was so blurry that I only saw gloomy shapes, and the lack of light wherever I was didn’t help. A remote part of me worried at the state of my eyes, why couldn’t I see properly?

  Blinking harshly, I tried to focus on something but the pain in my head was paralyzing. Was that what was happening to me? Was I paralyzed?

  Glancing down again, I recognized my feet on the grass, one shoe on, one shoe off, and I forced myself to focus enough to recognize the brown ropes wrapping around me.

  Ropes…?

  Still distorted, my vision didn’t tell me much else, but the soothing sound of the rushing river nearby filtered into my ears, pushing away the loud noise of my beating heart. Letting my tired eyes fall closed, I let my body tell me the rest. I knew I was at my river, tied to something, but what? Stretching my fingers backwards, I touched the splintered bark of the ancient tree. I was tied up to the tree… why?

  How did I get here? Why was I tied up? Why couldn’t I remember anything?

  Dragging my tongue over my cracked lips, I tasted the dried blood there and slowly the memories returned to my broken mind. It hurt to think, but not as much as the realization that finally formed in my mind.

  I was bait. Wolf Shifter bait.

  Growing up, I’d always wondered if my father really thought I was nothing more than a worthless woman. If I would ever be half as important as his perfect boys were to him, or if he just liked treating me that way. Now I had the answer.

  Letting my head fall back, I rested it onto the tree, cringing when the tender scalp pressed against the hard trunk, but I didn’t care. None of my injuries hurt like realizing that my family, imperfect as it was, didn’t care if I lived or died as long as they got to kill the monsters.

  Tears attempted to re
ach my eyes, but I didn’t let them. I wasn’t going to cry for them. If this was all I was worth in their eyes, they didn’t deserve my sorrow. Swallowing the knot in my throat, I prayed. I didn’t do it often, but I lifted my eyes to the dark sky and begged for all that was holy that if I survived this by some miracle, I could finally leave this place.

  I only had eight hundred dollars saved and I knew that wasn’t nearly enough to make it in another city, but it would be enough to get me the shnookerdookies out of here, and then I would find a job somehow. Even if I had to sleep under a bridge, it didn’t matter. I was gone.

  Rustling leaves on the other side of the river halted my thoughts, and my heart instantly began to slam against my chest. I blinked again, forcing my eyes to focus if only a bit more, and my right eye began to clear.

  It appeared I was alone, but I knew better than that.

  If my family had left me here as bait, it meant they were hiding somewhere. Ready to shoot their enemies down, hoping for blood, and a few more heads for their collection. Glancing all around me, I tried to pinpoint their location. Except, it was dark, the camo uniforms they used always hid them perfectly against the vegetation, and they were pros. There was a reason they got paid the big bucks for their services; they never failed a job.

  Swallowing, I let go of my intention to find my brothers or father and endeavored to survey the other side with my good eye. Well, as good as it could be, my actual eye ached like someone had squeezed it to death.

  The glow of the full moon was dim tonight for some reason, but it allowed me to differentiate between the still and rustling leaves just as the sound of movement came again. A white muzzle stuck out of one of the bushes, giving way to the large head of a white wolf, and he glanced around, looking for something that didn’t seem to be me.

  The breath halted in my lungs when I saw him retreat, and another one popped out on the other end, about fifteen yards away. It scurried from one side to the other, going into the trees once more. Fear began to curse through me, and I glanced back again, searching for any sign of my brothers. Blinking, I noticed the barrel of a rifle slowly sliding through the leaves, and I shut my eyes tightly to clear my vision a bit more before searching the immediate area.

  What appeared to be the silhouette of a head began to form behind a tree, and then a body a few feet away with something massive between them but I couldn’t distinguish what. It didn’t matter if I could see them or not, I knew they were armed to the teeth. Urgently, I turned to the riverbank to find two huge white wolves slowly making their way to me.

  Their heads were low, and a growl began in their throats. Fear gripped me at their arrival, but confusion filtered through the emotion. Their eyes were not set on me, and they seemed to be smelling the ground even though they appeared to be stalking towards me.

  What was happening?

  Three more humongous Wolf Shifters came out of the trees, dispersed around the area, but they seemed to be pacing, not approaching my side.

  “No!” I yelled to them, not knowing if they could understand me. “It’s a trap!” I bellowed, struggling against my bindings. I knew they could shift into some sort of a human form, but I had no idea how evolved they were. “Go away, it’s a trap!”

  “Shut up, you dumb bitch!” Dad roared from somewhere, and bullets began to fly.

  The wolves turned faster than my eyes could follow, as though they were prepared for it, running towards my brothers and father.

  “No!” I raged, jerking against the ropes to no avail. Someone else would probably be more worried about herself than her predators, but an all-consuming desperation tore through me. “You have to go! They are going to kill you!”

  “No, they won’t…” The male voice made my head whirl around, finding someone I never thought I would see in the middle of this.

  “Pretty Boy?” I gasped and saw the crooked smile begin to form on his lips as he untied me, but the instant his eyes fell on my temple and the blood dripping into my mouth, an anger like I had never seen before froze his every inch.

  I must have been hallucinating because I swore his eyes glowed a dangerous yellow, and sharp canines descended from his upper teeth. A gentle hand cupped my cheek, yet I felt it tremble against my skin from the sheer wrath coursing through him. Leaning in, he licked the blood off my lips, pressing his mouth to mine softly—like I was the most delicate thing that existed, and my world tilted as he kissed me.

  The next second, he tore the remaining rope away from me with a single pull, freeing me. “Stay behind the tree,” he ordered in a barely contained voice, and began to run with the others.

  What the fuck was going on?! Yes, I cursed, but it seemed appropriate.

  Gripping the tree for dear life, I watched the wolves run, dumbfounded. They zigzagged along the trees on their way to the hunters, effortlessly avoiding the bullets. Blinking, I tried to make sure I was seeing correctly. First of all, Pretty Boy was running with the wolves, as fast as their humongous paws allowed them, but how? Second of all, he was naked as they day he was born, but I could only see his ass. Sexy.

  Shaking my head, I tried to focus.

  “Broad blade arrows!” I warned the shifters when the familiar whistle reached my ears. In a way, those were more dangerous than bullets, because the blades sliced through the animals’ body with ease, and then extra ones extended from them, tearing their insides on their path.

  Like a perfectly choreographed dance, the white wolves jumped, spinning in the air and narrowly missing the arrows. Landing, they finally reached their hunters and lunged for them. Pretty Boy leapt forwards too, but his body burst mid-air, transforming, and landing as a gorgeous white wolf.

  Shock rendered me speechless. I gasped, pulling away from the tree. It couldn’t be… he couldn’t be one of them. Not a monster.

  I wasn’t sure why, but emotion reached my throat with the thought, burning my insides while I saw the wolves fighting my brothers. One of them caught Jacob by the shoulder, his jaws clamping over his torso and arm tightly. He shook him in the air like a rag doll, throwing him several feet away.

  Staggering back, I struggled to breathe, witnessing the bloodshed before me. Except, the shifters weren’t killing my family. They were hurting them enough to cripple their attempts at ending them. The rest of them were destroying all the weapons with their sharp claws and teeth, slicing through them like butter. Another wolf shot after James when he ran away, catching him by the leg and dragging him back.

  “Please stop!” I begged, tears falling from my eyes. What my family had done was wrong, what they did every day was horrible, but they were still my family… Are they? They wasted no time to risk my life for their benefit.

  Pretty Boy turned towards me with the shout, and my eyes widened, seeing my father take advantage of that. Jumping to his feet, he reached for a nearby shotgun and aimed it at the back of the sexy stranger’s head.

  “Behind you!”

  Pretty Boy dropped to the ground, rolling out of danger, and missing Jack’s shot.

  Loud barking resounded across from me, pulling my attention. One of the shifters pinned Jeremy to the ground, viciously growling at him, but didn’t notice Jimmy reaching them and aiming his gun to the wolf’s side.

  Without hesitation, he unloaded the weapon on the poor animal, and my hands flew to my mouth in a loud gasp. Pretty Boy barreled against Jimmy then, reaching him in the blink of an eye and knocking him unconscious. Another shifter nudged the now injured man onto his back—he had transformed after being shot.

  “Let’s go!” Pretty Boy commanded the others, still in wolf form, and began to run to the river, to cross it back to me.

  Jeremy remained on the ground, unable to move—probably from terror. He was surrounded by wolves, but they were not a threat to him as long as he stayed down. One by one they began to retreat as Pretty Boy ordered, and I realized I no longer saw my father. Urgently, I searched for him and found him rolling his secret weapon out of the trees and int
o place.

  My eyes widened in fear at the machine. It looked like a giant crossbow and a military cannon merged into one, holding a broad head blade arrow the size of a broom.

  The arrow was thick and could probably kill a Dragon, if such things existed. It would certainly impale a shifter’s entire body, killing them in one blow. All reason left me, and I reacted. Grabbing one of the sound grenades from the crevice in the tree, I activated it and threw it towards my father.

  “Get out of the way!” I began to run to the sexy stranger. The sonic boom made everyone fall to the ground, but it was too late. Jack had already fired.

  Jumping a millisecond before, Pretty Boy turned in the air. His jaws caught the huge arrow, crushing it with one bite until the splintered pieces fell into the river. He landed without breaking his stride, running straight for me.

  Unfortunately for Jack, he had been cocky, only bringing one round of ammo for his imposing weapon. “You choose them above your own family?!” Dad roared, eyes filled with rage like a demon. “You are as useless as your mother…” Pulling a gun from his back, he fired two shots.

  The beautiful white wolf ran faster when the explosions reverberated in the air. Unfortunately for me, they weren’t intended for the Wolf Shifter.

  The bullets reached me faster than he did.

  The impact blew me back, slamming me against the rocks along the river bank. A howl filled with fury and despair echoed around me, but I could only focus on the trembling hand lifting from my stomach. Bright red blood seeped through my fingers, and horror burned through me almost as fiercely as the bullets did.

  Growling and barking like rabid dogs, two of the retreating wolves charged towards Jack, crashing against him just as Pretty Boy, once again a man, knelt beside me. His hands also shook while he wavered between cradling my face and putting pressure on the wounds.

  “Don’t close your eyes,” he begged, the panic clear in his expression when he carried me in his arms, and a ragged moan ripped from my throat with the movement.