Shifter Starter Set

by Candace Ayers

  I pushed the door and growled down at her shocked face after the flimsy thing fell off its hinges. “For some reason, your constant backtalk and sass turns me on.”

  “You’re a psycho!” She watched me casually put her door down and then stomped her foot. “Go!”

  The boys stood just inside in what I gathered was some sort of very small kitchen, staring out at us. The smaller one looked excited about his aunt being angry with me. When he caught me glaring at him, he snapped his gaze away and hurried out of the room. Nick stood trembling slightly, his back straight. He was trying to be brave and I felt myself admiring the young male. Frightened or not, he wasn’t going to leave his aunt’s side unless she forced him to.

  “I am not leaving you here alone and unguarded. This house would not stand up to an attack. I broke your door down and I barely touched it.”

  “Well, you’re a freak.”

  “A freak?”

  She sighed and threw her hands up. “Whatever. If you want to sit out here and watch over the door that you just broke down, feel free. Could you try to keep the bugs out, too?”

  “You would like me to stay?”

  “I want you to go home, but you don’t listen well.” She went around and grabbed Nick’s shoulder. “You and I are going to have a long talk tomorrow.”

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  They both disappeared and I stood wondering what the hell she expected me to do. Surely, she didn’t really expect me to keep the bugs out all night. I was a dragon, not an exterminator. I put the door back, a little worse for the wear, and trailed along after her.

  The hallway they’d gone down led to two rooms. Behind the door on the right, I could hear the boys arguing. Nick was angry at his little brother for getting him in trouble. Casey didn’t seem to care. Behind the other door, I heard my mate settling into bed. Her intoxicating aroma beckoned me. I stepped into her room and pushed the door closed behind me.

  “Oh, no you don’t.” Sky sat up in her bed. The blanket that fell to her waist revealed that she had removed her breast covering. Under her oversized shirt, her breasts hung free and swayed in a way that made my mouth water. “Get out of here!”

  I shook my head and stepped closer. “I am getting tired of you telling me to leave. Why do you do it? I know you can feel that we are mates. I know that you feel attraction for me as I do for you. Why do you fight it?”

  “First of all, I don’t know what you’re talking about with this mate business. What does that even mean to you? Second of all, you’re a stranger who followed me home and is now standing in my bedroom uninvited, even though I’m telling you to get out. I should call the cops and have you arrested. I should.” She pulled at her hair. “I don’t even know why I’m not doing it. I should. I should just grab my phone and call 911. You’re probably going to snap and murder us all in our sleep and it’ll be all my fault because I didn’t call for help. And all because I’m not thinking with the right part of my body.”

  I quickly stepped to her side and knelt. “I would never hurt you. I wouldn’t hurt the young males, either, because you love them and that would hurt you. Even though the young male is rude to you.”

  “Nick isn’t rude… He’s just testing his boundaries.”

  “I didn’t mean Nick.” I shook my head. “Look at me. I’m on my knees. I would never hurt you. I would give you my sword and let you run it through my chest and pierce my heart before I hurt you.”

  “You have a sword? Why am I not surprised?”

  “Every dragon has a sword.”

  “Why do you call yourself a dragon?”

  “Because I am a dragon.”

  “You’re not a dragon.”

  “I am a dragon.”

  “Prove it.”

  “You want me to show you here?”

  She crossed her arms. “Yeah.”

  “Female, I am not some puny house dragon. I am a powerful, fierce fire-breathing, earth-shaking dragon. I would destroy your tiny shack if I shifted here. I would destroy your neighbor’s shack, too.”

  Suddenly, she barked out a laugh. “Oh, I get it. This is about your penis size, isn’t it? ‘Big, earth-shaking dragon’ is a metaphor. This whole thing is some weird penis joke? It’s sooo big, you’d destroy me. Uh huh. Okay. That’s great, big guy. I’m going to bed. Don’t let the door hit ya’ on the way out.”

  I sat back on my heels. “What? This is not about my penis.”

  “No, no, it’s fine. I’m sure it’s just massive. I’m just really tired and I have to be to work early.”

  “Little mate, you’re irritating me.”

  She made a show of fluffing her pillows. “Well, we’re even.”

  I stood up and glared down at her. “In my old world, I would not have even asked. You would have welcomed me. Begged me, perhaps.”

  “And in my old world, you’d have a really large penis and be sane. And you’d know how to use it. And you wouldn’t be coming on so strong, but you wouldn’t forget to call, either. And, you’d cook, clean, and know how to dance like the guys in Magic Mike.”

  I frowned. “What world are you from?”

  “Shreveport.”

  “I don’t understand anything you’re saying, except that you wish me to have a big dick.” I gestured to my pants. “I have a big dick. Can I get in bed with you now?”

  She shook her head. “No! You’re not getting in my bed.”

  I pressed my lips together and tried to think of a way to coax her to allow me to lie with her. I was tired but I wanted desperately to caress her soft, delicious little curvy body and hold it next to mine as we slept. She was being stubborn. “Come on, mate. I will hardly even touch you.” I knew it would take only a couple well-placed strokes before I had her begging.

  Even though she shook her head, she looked as though she wanted to smile. “Get out of here, Beast. Whoever named you that was wrong, by the way.”

  I scowled at her, suddenly ready to leave her room. “My mother named me that because she knew I’d be strong and rule over our kingdom. She was not wrong.”

  I left her in her bed, feeling like I’d just ended up punishing myself by walking away. Perhaps I should have tried harder. I did not know how to woo a human female. Had my mate been a dragon female, it would have been easy. I would not have had to do a thing. A dragon female would have begged, pleaded for me to claim her. I did not want a dragon female, though. I wanted my beautiful human mate.

  Instead, I was lying on a tiny piece of furniture trying to figure out a way to position my large body on it in a more comfortable pose. It was old, saggy, and uncomfortable and things poked me from inside of it.

  Then, I was awoken by some large mutant rodent purring at me from atop my chest. I pushed it off and shuddered. I had no cause to harm a small, non-threatening creature, but I wasn’t fond of furry things that crept up while I slept. No sooner had the vile thing touched the ground, than it was back on my chest. It swatted at my face then settled in, getting comfortable while I stared at it.

  It stared back with bright yellow eyes. The dark slits in the middle reminded me of a snake I’d known in the old world. That snake had had a nasty streak and I wondered if perhaps I should be more cautious. Perhaps I should destroy the tiny creature for the safety of my mate.

  “Mate!” I bellowed out to her, hoping she could explain what the hell the thing on my chest was and whether it was of the harmful variety.

  She came stumbling out of her room a few minutes later, her hair standing up and her eyes only half-opened. “What in the world are you shouting about?”

  “What is this creature?”

  She blinked a few times and then smiled. Her smile was so sweet and unguarded that I lost concern about the rodent on my chest and focused only on the blood rushing to my dick. “That’s Bax. He normally stays outside at night. He must’ve got in through the door you busted down.”

  “What is a bax?”

  She laughed. “He’s a cat, silly.”

>   I frowned. I’d heard of cats before. I’d even seen them. The thing on my chest was no cat. It was huge and it looked like something out of the horror movies Armand watched. “This is not a cat. This is some sort of deformed, mutant rodent.”

  She scooped the thing into her arms and held it against her chest. “That’s not a very nice thing to say. He’s just a little rough looking. He went up against a gator several years ago. He came out on top, but he has some battle scars.”

  Battle scars. I had those. That knowledge caused me to look at the little creature in a different light. “Okay. Put him back. He is a worthy companion, I guess.”

  She shook her head but put the creature back down on my chest. Her fingers grazed my bare chest as she did and I heard her suck in a breath. Instead of staying and exploring, though, she hurried away. Her door shut a second later and a lock clicked.

  I chuckled. My female was cute. A lock, as though I couldn’t easily level the entire house to get to her.

  The little mutant settled back on my chest and purred when I touched its head the way Sky had. Maybe he wasn’t so bad. Fierce little creature.

  7

  Sky

  I woke up to the smell of…smoke! Something was burning! Thinking of the boys’ safety, I shot out of bed and flew through the house. Instead of the boys, I found the unhinged stranger, Beast, standing in front of the stove staring at it like he wanted to smash it to pieces.

  Eyeing him at the stove, every incredible hunky inch of him, brought back memories of the night before and I had to put my hand out to brace myself on the counter. He was still just as sexy. And still here. Yep, it wasn’t a dream. I was still harboring a stark raving mad hottie.

  “How do you work this contraption?” He glared at the stove, grabbed the cast iron skillet by the hot handle, and swore up a storm when it obviously burned his fingers. Tossing the skillet across the room, he slammed his fist down on the stove creating a severe crater down the middle of it.

  Alarmed by his injury, I ignored my ruined stove and rushed over to grab his hand. His flesh was red and blistered, but as I watched, it faded back to normal skin like time-lapse videography.

  I turned his massive hand over in mine, too focused to realize that touching him felt like sticking my tongue on a battery to test if it still had juice. His skin was rough and callused, rougher than I expected for a man who lived in a fancy house like his. What did he do for a living? I really hoped it wasn’t illegal drug running or something.

  His olive skin was dusted with dark hair that matched the dark waves on his head. He had beautiful hands. Masculine, strong. Strong enough to crush my stove. Strong enough to lift me as if I’d weighed nothing.

  “The burn…” I looked up at him. “Where’d it go?”

  Standing that close to him was a mistake. He was devastating that close. I could see the colors of his eyes, black with glittery flecks of gold that seemed to burn and glow, the stubble covering his jaw and chin, the softness of his mouth. A scar ran through one of his eyebrows and stood out, paler against the darker tone of his skin, another on that soft upper lip.

  “I told you. I am a dragon. We heal. Fast.” He caught my fingers in his and pulled me into his hard chest. “Good morning, sweet little mate. I tried to make you breakfast.”

  My insides swooned. It was stupid and weak, getting all jelly-legged because a man tried, unsuccessfully, to cook me breakfast—then broke my stove. The bar was low, apparently, and swoon I did. Internally. Externally, I tried my best to hide what the feel of his chest pressed against mine did to me. Judging by the growl emanating from Beast’s throat and the giant rod poking me in the stomach, I didn’t think he was oblivious to my swooning. Or maybe he was doing swooning of his own.

  “I think I shall have you for breakfast, instead.” His deep voice was intense, full of promises. His hands took my sides, the soft parts of my body that I’d rather no one touched, and squeezed as he pulled me even harder into his chest.

  My mouth opened, whether to tell him to stop or to moan, I wasn’t sure. I was instantly acutely aware of that strange buzzing. Energy, intense, right before the point of stinging, sizzled between us.

  “What’s he still doing here?” Nick’s angry voice cut through my lust-fog and sent me tumbling away from Beast.

  I almost toppled straight to the ground, but Beast caught me and righted me. I smoothed down my night shirt and moved back towards my bedroom. “Be nice, Nick. You’re the one who went trampling through his property uninvited. And illegally, I might add.”

  “He’s…” Nick shook his head. “I think he’s dangerous, Aunt Sky.”

  Beast shrugged and puffed out his chest. “I am dangerous.”

  I cut my eyes to him. “Not helping.”

  “I mean… He’s not like us. He’s a…” Nick stopped himself and looked around. “God, this is so crazy.”

  Casey strolled into the room and looked around. “It’s not crazy. He’s a dragon.”

  I groaned and ran my hands through my hair. “Okay. I’m going to go get dressed and then I’ll take you guys to school.”

  “No way. We can take ourselves.” Casey’s eyebrows furrowed. “What happened to the stove?”

  “Nothing.” I kept my eyes away from Beast, afraid of the look I’d see on his face. How had he convinced the boys that he was a dragon? “How do I know that you won’t leave school? Or just not show up at all?”

  “Maybe you should just trust us?”

  “Trust you? After the stunt you pulled last night?”

  “Jeez, Sky, don’t have a freak out.”

  Beast growled, loudly, and, for the briefest of seconds, I wondered about the whole dragon thing. “I may not have the pleasure of eating you for an afternoon snack, but I will still make you suffer if you talk to my mate like that.”

  “Can you not threaten my nephews, please?”

  “The small male started it. He is disrespectful to you. He deserves to be upended and spanked like the baby he is.”

  “I’m not a fucking baby!” Casey’s outburst shocked the room. His hands were balled into fists at his sides and there was a dark scowl on his face.

  I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Casey, in that moment, didn’t look anything like the little boy I’d brought into my house six years prior. He looked like his father—angry and raging, ready to tear apart the world for whatever injustices, real or perceived, he felt had been thrust upon him. “Stop it, Casey.”

  “You stop it!” He shook, his small body vibrating with rage and whatever other extreme emotions were surging through him.

  “Casey…” Nick stepped forward, but Casey shoved him away.

  “I’m sick of both of you! I hate you. I hate everything here!” He tried to run past me but I stepped in front of him and wrapped my arms around him. “Get off of me! Get off! I hate you!”

  I held him tighter, even as his fists landed a rain of punches on my stomach and sides. “Stop it, Casey. This isn’t you. We can’t behave this way. We have to talk and work things out. We’re a family.”

  Casey was suddenly yanked away from me and suspended in the air. Beast glared at him and shook him when Casey tried to strike him, too. “Why do you treat the female caring for you that way? Does she not feed you? Does she not give you a room and a home with your brother? What would make you think that it is a wise choice to talk to her like that? What would make you think that it is a wise choice to strike her?”

  I put a hand on Beast’s arm and fought back tears. I didn’t know why things were falling apart all of a sudden. I supposed they had always been skating the edge of collapse, or at least explosion—but this? Casey’s behavior was shocking. I still didn’t want Beast to actually shake him senseless, though.

  “No, you will not defend him right now. Not after he just laid his hands on you. I will fight my every instinct to bite his little head off, but you must stand back and let the young male answer.”

  I stepped back, unsure of my place in my
own house. As much as Beast talked about hurting Casey, somehow I knew instinctually that he wouldn’t actually do it. Which was stupid. How could I possibly know what an unbalanced stranger who followed me home and wouldn’t leave would do—in any situation? Maybe I was behaving unbalanced. I didn’t know Beast. He’d just let himself into my house and there I was, suddenly co-parenting with him.

  “I want to go home!” Casey screamed it at the top of his lungs, tears filling his eyes. “If dragons can exist, then I should be able to get my dad back. And my mom. I want them back. I don’t want to live here!”

  My heart broke into a million pieces for the little boy in front of me. He acted so tough most of the time, so beyond his years, that I’d forgotten that he was just a kid. He still had baby fat on his cheeks that made them preciously round. He believed in dragons, for Christ’s sake. He was wandering, lost. We were all wandering lost.

  8

  Sky

  Beast lowered Casey to the floor and rested his hands on his shoulders. “Where are your parents?”

  Casey said nothing. It was Nick who spoke. “Gone. Our mom left when we were little and Dad’s in prison.” Nick stepped forward and shoved Casey. “And he’s not getting out. Mom’s not coming back, either. Get it through your head. You want to go back to foster care? Don’t mess up what we have here because you think you can wish them back.”

  Casey covered his face with his hands and sobbed, his whole body shaking with the effort.

  I snapped into action, realizing I’d gone comatose for too long. I grabbed him and pulled him into my chest again. When Nick sighed from behind him, I grabbed him, too. I held them both to me and tried my best to keep myself together. I did suck at this.

  How did single moms do it? I felt as though I was treading water and the undertow kept tugging, threatening to drag me below the surface. And it was only getting worse. Now that the boys were in their teens, becoming young men, I was responsible for not only playing the role of mom, for which I was ill equipped, but also trying to ease their transition into manhood by being a substitute for the dad that was no longer around.