The Chosen One Universe Volume Three: An MM Paranormal Fantasy Shifters Series

by Macy Blake

  He debated taking the truck, but he opened a portal instead, aiming for the apartment. He wanted to get him as comfortable as he could as quickly as possible. Anyone who’d been through what happened at this house deserved his respect.

  He picked Nick up and carried him bridal style and stepped through the portal into a darkened one-room apartment. He quickly laid Nick on the bed. Then he checked the freezer for ice but only found a bag of corn and a tub of cherry ice cream. He grabbed the corn and went back to the bed. It would be better than nothing. Anything to help keep the swelling down. He didn’t mean to hit him quite so hard, but between the threat Nick posed and his momentum as he flew toward him, he hit him harder than he planned to. He laid the corn across Nick’s forehead and left him to rest. While he waited, he took a look around. There wasn’t a lot to it. One-room studio apartments didn’t lend themselves to privacy. Living area, kitchen with a square card table standing off to one side, and a bedroom nook.

  The living area was set up more like a command center than for any kind of comfortable entertaining. Maps and charts lined the walls, and two folding tables were pushed up against each other, covered with more maps. There was a drop of blood on the map on the table, marking the spot where they had just been.

  “Goddess,” Jedrek mumbled. He glanced at the notes pinned to the wall, stopping at an old newspaper clipping. The headline told of a car accident taking two lives. He perused the article, stopping and gasping at the words. The couple had been survived by their three children: Nick, Michael, and Sawyer Smith. He took a step back and stared at Nick where he lay unconscious across the room.

  He was the Chosen One’s brother?

  Jedrek turned back to the wall, taking in the years of notes and the meticulous method Nick had used to search. It was impressive, even more so that he’d actually found the place at all. They’d kept it locked down so tightly that only a magic user should have been able to pick up on it. They couldn’t really prevent the random hiker from showing up, but they had been able to make it nearly impossible to find the house unless someone knew what they were searching for.

  Of course, as the Chosen One’s brother, it didn’t really surprise Jedrek that Nick had been able to find the house. It opened up a whole other realm of questions, though. Jedrek would definitely have to get some answers from Nick the moment he woke up.

  Jedrek couldn’t help but smirk at his next thought, though. Cosmo was going to shit bricks when he figured out just who it was he’d tried to kill, and Jedrek couldn’t wait to see his reaction. It would have to wait, because Nick was starting to wake up.

  Nick

  A throbbing ache woke Nick and he debated the wisdom of opening his eyes. But then something cool dripped on his face. He sure as shit didn’t put it there. He felt like he’d been run over by a Mack truck. Had he finished his shift? Goddess, it hurt to think.

  Wait. He’d been…

  He sat up quickly, immediately regretting it, and a bag of frozen corn fell onto his lap. His head spun and his stomach lurched, but he managed to force it down. He groaned as he recognized where he was. His own bed. Had it all been one of his infamous nightmares? No, it couldn’t have been.

  “No. No, no, no. What am I doing here? I need to save them.” He stood up and stumbled toward the door.

  “Nick. Stop.”

  The Viking from the house was there. In his place. It had been real. It had been real. He’d finally found it. But they were back at his apartment? His head throbbed and he resisted the urge to put the corn back onto it. He had no idea what had happened or how he’d managed to get back home.

  “What the hell?”

  “Close,” the Viking said, smirking. His eyes glowed orange, and Nick took a step back. “Please, sit down. We need to talk.”

  Nick gulped and nodded as he sat back down on the bed. It wasn’t like he had that much furniture anyway, and this…whatever he was stood between him and the only chair in the room. “You, uh. You know my name.”

  “Yes. Sorry. I found your identification in your wallet. My name is Jedrek.” He held a hand over his chest and gave his head a slight bob as he introduced himself.

  Memories came back. He’d gone through the house. He’d attacked this guy. He’d…

  “You knocked me out.”

  “Yes. You seemed intent on destroying me, and I couldn’t let that happen.”

  He’d been out of his mind, and yeah, he’d pretty much wanted to do some damage to this guy and the little furry one, who was nowhere to be seen. His nerves were shot, something crawling beneath his skin demanding he defend himself. Get answers. Find the others.

  “Sorry, but I need to move.” Nick stood on wobbly legs and started to pace around the room. Too much had happened, and he needed to work it out in his mind. In all the years of searching, he’d never imagined what he’d actually do when he found the house. He’d definitely never imagined finding a giant of a man with flaming eyes who, on second thought, seemed to be keeping an eye on the place. Which reminded him. “How did we get here? We were there.” He shivered as he said it. He glanced out the window and noticed it was light out, but he had no clue what time it was. Last he remembered they were in the dim hours of pre-dawn. How long ago was that?

  “I brought you back here when you passed out.”

  “When you knocked the shit out of me, you mean.”

  Jedrek shrugged at his response. “What were you doing there?”

  “I could ask you the same thing.”

  They stared at each other, each waiting for the other to offer up an explanation. Nick would be damned if he caved first. He had no clue who this guy was, or if he could be trusted.

  Jedrek uncrossed his arms and waved one toward Nick’s research wall. “I need an explanation.”

  And he clearly wasn’t going to tell Nick a thing until he got one. Nick clenched his jaw, fighting the urge to go into attack mode again. For the first time in a decade, he had someone with information. He couldn’t lose this chance because he had a sneaking suspicion he wouldn’t get another one. Nick sighed. “Fine. I’ve been looking for that house for a while.”

  “How long?”

  “Does it matter? No one was there anyway.”

  “I know,” Jedrek replied.

  “How did you know? Did you kill them?” Nick’s lip curled in a snarl, his out of control emotions getting the best of him once again.

  “No,” Jedrek said quietly. “We would never hurt cubs. No matter what. We saved them.”

  It took a second for Jedrek’s words to sink in, but when they did, Nick’s legs went weak. “Saved? When? Who?”

  “It was around ten years ago now,” Jedrek replied gently.

  Nick’s legs did buckle under the implications, and he landed hard on his knees. “Ten years… the whole time… they were already… the whole fucking time.”

  He shook his head and stared at the floor. He jumped when he felt a hand on his shoulder after a moment. Jedrek had moved across the room without making a sound.

  “I’m sorry,” Jedrek said. “I can tell you have been searching for a long time.”

  “How?” Nick rumbled, his mind filling with questions.

  “The little one managed to get away and find help. They have lived with an alpha we trust since then.”

  “Little one? How many were there?”

  “There were six when we found them.”

  “Six. Holy shit. If I had only…”

  He couldn’t finish the thought. His emotions were choking him and robbing him of his words. The hand on his shoulder squeezed tighter.

  “How long were you there?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “How did you get away?”

  “I can’t remember.”

  “Okay. How long ago was it?”

  “Fourteen years,” Nick whispered. The tears he’d been holding at bay finally started falling freely.

  “Oh, Goddess,” Jedrek murmured.

  “My memories
were blocked for a long time.” He reached into his pocket and tugged free his keys. “This… it kept them from me.”

  Jedrek glanced at the charm and his eyes widened before he turned back to look at Nick.

  “What is it?” Jedrek asked.

  “I don’t know,” Nick confessed. “It muted the memories for so long. Protected me from…what, I don’t know. Until Mama told me it was time to take it off. Mikey has one too.”

  “Do you know where she got them?”

  Nick shook his head. “A friend of hers made them. I was so angry at the time. If I had been able to get back there, I might have been able to help.”

  “I don’t think it would have worked out that way. They would have been after you. You, getting away, that would have been disastrous for their plans. It protected you. That charm, it must have been blessed. By the mother goddess herself. And she blessed you with it. That charm is the proof of it.”

  The charm warmed again, the second time it had done it. Nick held it tightly and wished he had more answers.

  Jedrek gave his shoulder another squeeze, and Nick was oddly comforted by the gesture. He felt the same unfamiliar urge from earlier, and his hands began to transform.

  “What’s wrong with me?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “I haven’t… the charm, I think it kept me from shifting, too. I haven’t shifted since… that night. The night I got away.”

  Jedrek made a weird grunting sound and his thumb began to stroke over Nick’s collar bone. He wanted to turn his neck to the side, allow more room, but the urge seemed wrong, somehow. He grit his teeth instead and focused on other details.

  “It’s been a weird night. I felt the first ward, but it took me a minute to figure out what it was. The second one kind of pulled at my lion.” He chuckled. “It felt so damn weird. It’s been so long.”

  “Wait a minute. Second ward? And it pulled your lion out?”

  “Yeah. You mean you didn’t know about it?”

  Jedrek shook his head. “No. We only placed an outer ward to notify us of trespassers. I don’t know of any other wards on the place. Did it do anything else?”

  “Not that I can remember. I stopped in front of the house, and then when I took a step forward, something pulled at me. Next thing I knew, I had claws again and my senses were out of sorts. A few more steps, and I felt another tingling.”

  “You never shifted. In fourteen years.”

  “No,” Nick snarled. He pulled away, suddenly annoyed by the interrogation. He pushed to his feet and went into the kitchen, but he was only frustrated by the mess and the smell of old food. He snarled again, but this time it came out lower, more gravely. More like a lion. “Not all the way. I was stuck in a half-kind of shift for years before Mama Thea found me, but she helped me shift back. Then, nothing. Not until tonight.”

  “I’m sorry,” Jedrek said gently. “I’m just trying to get as much information as possible. We would never have placed any wards to force a shift.”

  “We?” Nick asked. His voice still low and not his own. His skin itched and he started to scratch his arm before remembering that his hands were clawed.

  Jedrek’s eyes changed again, the same flames from earlier reappearing and the itch eased, fading into the background. “How much do you know of our world?”

  Nick shrugged. Not enough, that was for sure. But he didn’t want to confess his ignorance. He wished, not for the first time, that he’d insisted Mama Thea tell him what she knew instead of sticking his head in the sand and pretending it all wasn’t real.

  “I am a hellhound. My pack and I are tasked with protecting the human realm and defending the secrets of the supernatural world. We are the champions of the fire goddess.”

  Nick was almost one hundred percent sure he was blinking like an idiot, but what did you say to a guy saying he works for a goddess. Not much, that’s what you say. “Okay?”

  Jedrek sighed. “I know. I have a lot to explain to you, but I need to make sure you’re in control of your shift.”

  “I don’t think I am,” Nick said. His voice felt growly again, lower than it should be. He instinctively tightened his hold on his charm once more, and it warmed beneath his touch.

  “Can you try to shift?”

  “I don’t know.” Truth was, Nick was scared to try. It had been so long, he’d learned to live without it. He didn’t even know how he managed to shift back to human at the house.

  “Could you try it? I’d like to check your form, make sure there are no lingering effects.”

  “Lingering affects? Like what?”

  “Traces of magic, or mutations—”

  “Mutations? You think they Frankenshifted me?” Nick was trying really hard not to panic.

  “No. That’s not it.”

  Nick narrowed his eyes. “That’s exactly it, isn’t it? They’ve done it before, haven’t they?”

  “Calm down,” Jedrek said. “We don’t know what they may or may not have done. The others, they could still shift, but they don’t have partial shifts like you do. It’s okay if you can’t, Nick. We’ll see what we can do to help you.”

  “Fuck. Okay. I’ll try.”

  Honestly, Nick kind of wanted to shift again, just to feel it. He’d felt so powerful when he’d been partially shifted earlier, like nothing could stop him. But he didn’t know if he could, and he didn’t want to make a fool of himself in front of Jedrek. Or anyone. He’d like to be alone to fail at the one thing that should be instinctual to him.

  “Give me a second,” Nick added.

  “Um…”

  Nick looked up. “What?”

  “You should probably take your clothes off first.”

  Nick could feel himself blushing. He had nothing to be ashamed of, body-wise, but his ignorance had always been a sore spot for him. He hated not knowing things, even though he struggled with learning and had ever since he’d left the house having no education at all.

  But Jedrek wasn’t looking at him like he was stupid. He looked like he understood, somehow, that Nick was out of practice. That he’d forgotten more than he ever knew about how to be a lion.

  He moved to the center of the room and stripped off his clothes before closing his eyes. He took a couple of breaths to center himself, and then pictured himself as a lion. He conjured up every image of lions he could think of. It took a few minutes, but he finally felt that tingle again. His skin crawled and his muscles shifted. The bones realigned themselves, and then he was a lion. Simple as that. He shook out his mane and then turned to look at Jedrek.

  Jedrek looked impressed. A flutter of pride moved through Nick and he shook his mane once more before striding forward. His feet didn’t feel like his own. His legs trembled and he wasn’t quite sure how to move on four legs instead of two. But he moved forward and bumped his head against Jedrek’s side.

  “Wow,” Jedrek whispered. “You’re breathtaking.”

  Nick bumped his head against Jedrek again, wanting him down, lower to the ground. He wanted to scent him, to cover him. He pushed harder, but Jedrek grabbed a handful of his mane and pulled his head up. His eyes flared, flames engulfing them.

  “Control yourself.”

  Nick snarled and bumped him once more. He was the predator here, not this man. He was in control. He was stronger, more powerful. A hunter. He pushed against the man once more then reared up on this hind legs to use his front paws to batter at him.

  The man was strong. He didn’t go down. Nick snarled and it turned into a displeased roar. He demanded submission and this man would give it to him.

  “Nick!”

  The man gave him a shove, and Nick fell back. He rolled away before clumsily trying to regain his feet. He turned and prepared to roar once more, but the man was gone. And in his place stood a large, black beast with flames for eyes. It roared at him and Nick trembled, for once uncertain. He was the predator. Wasn’t he?

  He blinked and human thoughts began to come back. A rumbling whine e
scaped his throat and he sat down. The beast huffed and a puff of steam escaped his lips. A moment later, he was human again. Nick grumbled, but it came out as another displeased roar.

  “You’re going to be a giant pain in my ass, aren’t you?” Jedrek said. “You’ve got to get yourself under control, Nick. Fight for it. Think. Use your human side.”

  He didn’t want to. He liked this version of himself. His senses were telling him everything he needed to know. He didn’t need to think of anything else. He wanted. And he was hungry. And he needed to piss. And he was hungry. Nick snarled, demanding his needs be met. He wanted, and this human would get what he wanted for him.

  But he wasn’t human. He was something else. Something strong and powerful on his own. But Nick wanted.

  Nick snarled again, his frustration building.

  “Come on, Nick. Think.”

  Jedrek

  Under normal circumstances, Jedrek would have a completely different reaction to a shifter challenging his authority the way Nick currently was. But he’d also seen how difficult the shift was for him, and knowing that he’d not shifted in so many years made Jedrek more forgiving than he would be otherwise.

  “Come on, Nick.”

  Behind the lion’s eyes, a predator stared back at Jedrek waiting for the moment to pounce and judging his worthiness as a competitor. Jedrek had been a hellhound for a lot of years, and he knew when he was being sized up. Nick wanted to take him down and prove his dominance.

  And Jedrek had exactly zero plans for letting that happen.

  He’d at least gotten Nick to back away a little, but the danger was still there. Jedrek had taken down bigger, more experienced shifters before, even a few with alpha blood flowing through their veins like Nick clearly had. He could feel the power rolling off of him, pent up for way too long to be safe. Jedrek wanted to get him back in control, mostly because he really needed to let Nick know that his brothers were hurt. But he had to get him stabilized first. No way was he planning to take him to the compound in this state. He had no control over his shift, and that meant he wasn’t going anywhere near the others.