Shattered: Running with the Devil Book 7

by Jasmin Quinn

  He was thankful for so much, for the people in his life, for Janice, who Kostya seemed to favour over everyone including his parents. Rusya thought perhaps it was because Janice gave him the blue bear. Whatever the case, when Aunt Janice had Kostya, Rusya and Esma were able to steal a few minutes alone together, simply being in love.

  Eduard had disappeared and both Rusya and the police were looking for him. The length of his life would be dictated by who found him first.

  And one other thing shifted. Rusya asked Astrid to step in as houseman. The woman’s talents were wasted as service staff. In the crisis of the moment, she took charge, anticipated the next move, pulled the house staff together, talked to the gate security like she owned them. Rusya could not possibly say thank you enough times so he rewarded her instead with a better paycheck and bigger responsibility. She took her new job seriously, training both physically and on weapons, changed her title from houseman to Estate Security Lead, got a more comfortable chair for visitors to her office and ruled with an iron hand, except of course when it came to Kostya.

  Her little love.

  Rusya overheard her as she was talking with Kostya in her office, rocking him in her arms, telling him that one day she would have a daughter and the two would be married. That was her promise.

  The End

  Excerpt 1: Basic Instinct

  (SHIFTERS OF DARKNESS FALLS BOOK 1)

  Available April 26

  CHAPTER 1

  Trist was one of the last to the enter the lodge. She’d been on a fruitless shopping trip to Darkness Falls, trying to track down some fresh limes to go with a bottle of tequila she’d bartered in exchange for some babysitting. It was Friday afternoon and usually her housemates and she would go into town and hang around Becker’s Tavern. Harris Palmer, bartender, full-blooded human, hot as they come, made awesome margaritas. Problem was it was too close to the heat cycle for the unmated female shifters’ of the pack. Trist hated when it happened on a weekend, because it meant she and her housemates were indoors for 48 hours. Saturday, Sunday gone, heat cycle over just in time to get up on Monday and go to work.

  Gideon had called an unscheduled pack meeting, an unprecedented event because he ran a tight ship and didn’t like anything that messed with his to do list. But the Territory Council Meeting was last night and something big went down because Gideon, Varg and the elders had been locked up in the pack lodge all morning, not even breaking for lunch.

  Trist hovered at the entrance to the hall and looked around the room for an empty chair. Trist’s pack was 62 strong, which was a big pack for a shifter community. And not the only pack in the Darkness Falls area. It was actually one of four, though her pack was referred to as the Dominants for good reason. It was almost three times larger than any of the others in the area and held the largest territory around Darkness Falls.

  Everyone was there, all the members of the pack as far as she could tell and there were only a couple of free chairs. Right up close and personal with Gideon and Varg. Trist’s stomach took a little twist as she wound her way through the chattering crowd and dropped into a chair less than six feet away from the two male shifters who led the pack.

  Gideon tossed Trist a dark throwaway glance as she sat, then continued his pacing, pausing to exchange a few words with Varg. Gideon had every right to be as arrogant as he was. Alpha to one of the largest known shifter packs, strong, aggressive and generally untamed. But he knew how to lead and everyone in his pack was well looked after. Trist was just barely more comfortable with Varg, the beta, Gideon’s second in command. She liked him better than Gideon, though she wasn’t all that good with any authority, not in the ‘flip-you-off’ way. No, more the ‘turn up her belly and whine’ way.

  As Gideon started to draw the meeting to order, Leah strutted in with her usual go-fuck-yourself attitude, looked around for a chair, spotted the empty one next to Trist and headed straight for it.

  Fuck.

  “Thanks for blessing us with your presence, Leah.” Gideon growled as she dropped beside Trist and uttered a quick, whispered, “Hi.”

  Leah looked straight at Gideon, into his eyes, and said, “Thanks for waiting to start the meeting until I got here.” Then she dropped her gaze quickly. She’s was a fucking nutcase for so many reasons. The omega of the pack, bottom of the rung because she’ was a rare latent. She couldn’t shift. That made her smaller and weaker than every other wolf. But she didn’t act like she was at a disadvantage and Trist thought that one day, it was what would get her killed.

  Leah grinned at Trist like they shared a secret and Trist threw a smile back at her, but it was small and uncomfortable. Leah and Trist weren’t friends but not enemies either. Leah didn’t have many allies in the pack and Trist often found herself in the uncomfortable position of coming to Leah’s aid, defending her, extracting her from the trouble she got into almost every other day

  Gideon didn’t respond to Leah’s provocativeness, which was a clue that something big was happening. He stood at the front, hands in his jean pockets, staring out at everyone. He was big, taller than most men. Solidly built and hard. His hair was dark, his eyes black as obsidian. But his wolf, it was slate-grey. It was as incongruent as it was awe-inspiring. His eyes settled on Trist for a few seconds before they moved on and Trist thought it was because Leah was beside her, leaning into her like they were besties, her small hand on Trist’s shoulder as both waited for Gideon to speak.

  “We had a productive Council meeting last night. Lots of good progress, meeting in the middle. And I’ve managed to talk Lucien into giving us back the tract of territory that bridges Smokey Creek.”

  A few excited hoots and hollers erupted. The tract of land was small but it was an important access point to Smokey Creek and Gideon’s pack had been without direct, easy access for a while. This win would open the pack’s territory to ease movement back and forth to Darkness Falls Lake, which the Creek fed. It would expand the pack’s hunting grounds. A big coup.

  But not everyone was applauding. A voice from the corner shouted, “And what do we have to give up to those loser rebels in exchange for territory that was rightfully ours to begin with?” It was Jacob, a bit of a loner although he was mated once, not anymore and Trist didn’t know why. Not Trist’s favourite because he was intense, cranky, liked his privacy and was old enough to remember the days before Lucien broke away from the pack and challenged the Alpha of the Rebel pack. The days before Lucien won that challenge, then chose to keep his new Alpha status, rather than merge the two packs and stay as Beta to Gideon.

  All eyes were on Gideon waiting for the answer to Jacob’s question. Gideon had never been one to mince words. “It’s not what they want, it’s who.”

  The murmurs got louder, words of confusion. “What the fuck, Gideon?” Jacob again. “Who do they want?”

  Gideon’s eyes considered Jacob, then flitted around the room. “They want Trist,” he said as his gaze settled on her.

  Trist went hot and cold at the same time. Stunned, frozen. Leah’s grip on her shoulder tightened before she jumped to her feet, jumped up on her chair so she could make sure she had a good view of Gideon and everyone in the hall had a good view of her. “Are you out of your fucking mind?” Her voice was shrill, loud.

  It reflected what Trist felt inside. “Leah,” she said, a small quiet uneasy warning.

  But Leah ignored her. “Since when are we fucking slaves to be traded?” She was furious and she wasn’t wrong. There were several murmurs of assent around the room.

  Gideon’s face was dark and Trist worried he was going to strike the little latent. He was losing control of the meeting. “Sit the fuck down, Leah or I’ll have you dragged out of here by your hair and locked up!”

  His voice was loud, commanding and his wolf was straining at him, wanting out. Wanting to savage her. Leah hopped off her chair but didn’t sit. “Explain.” She stood stiffly, arms crossed, chin jutted, eyes staring into Gideon’s.

  Trist grabbed
Leah by the arm and slammed her ass down in her chair before Gideon decided on a two-for-one giveaway. It was bad enough Trist was being dealt, no way she wanted to take Leah with her. “Stop it!” Trist said as she struggled to draw breath into her lungs. Her wolf was cowering, the stupid bitch, but Trist understood why. This was too fucking much to handle. It was hard enough living in Gideon’s pack without being thrown to a whole new pack of wolves.

  Leah yanked herself out of Trist’s grasp, glared at Trist for a minute like she was the traitor and then turned back to Gideon. “You owe Trist an explanation. You owe us all one.”

  Gideon paced a few steps, then stopped, looked at Trist, directly at her and she couldn’t hold his gaze. “This is my pack, I’m your Alpha. I fought for this position. If you don’t fucking like my decisions, you have two choices, leave or challenge me.”

  It was quiet, silent like the room was holding its breath. Not a word. Gideon this angry was a rare sight to behold. A sight none of the pack wanted to witness. It was usually followed by the death of someone or something. His eyes moved between Trist and Leah, who had her head lowered. Trist thought Leah might rise to Gideon’s challenge, leave, not fight, but the Omega didn’t move. Her hackles were up though. Even though her wolf was latent, it was still inside her, an unruly, stubborn, untrained pup.

  “It’s unprecedented to do this. Yes.” He glanced at me again. “But not unheard of. Lucien’s pack is small and they need more women.”

  “So you offered to whore out Trist?” Leah again and Trist gave her head a small shake as she rubbed a hand across her forehead.

  “I didn’t offer Trist. They asked for her.” Other unmated females in the room murmured at this statement. A little relief, a little jealousy, a little fear. Trist got it on all levels. She had no idea why they’d want her.

  “What happens the next time we need to trade? Maybe not with Lucien, but maybe Ren. He hasn’t got enough females either.” This came from Cooper’s very reasonable voice. The pack doctor had a clinic in Darkness Falls for all the shifters in the community. It was good for the pack to have him. He brought in good money, had good access to medicine. Was charming, smart, easy to be around. Even humans came to his clinic.

  And he was right to ask about Ren. Ren led the Mountain pack. They were fearsome big wolves. If anyone could challenge Gideon and win, it would be Ren. Trist had met him once, seen him a handful of times on the rare occasions he came down from the mountains. She never hung around to see what he was about though because his reputation preceded him. He was hard on other packs, hard on women. He was one mean fucker to quote Leah.

  “This will only happen once and because it’s Lucien asking. I wouldn’t make this bargain with anyone else. Or over anything else. There’s nothing else we need to bargain for but this tract of land. It’ll set us up well for winter.”

  Then Leah, fucking Leah said, “Maybe Trist has something to say about it. You know, her future for a goddamned piece of dirt and grass. Trafficked as a sex slave because your brother can’t find enough of his own females to screw into submission.”

  Trist closed her eyes to Leah’s hard words as the pack’s attention shifted to her. She wasn’t a public speaker, didn’t want attention on her. She worked hard, she was a good pack member and she liked margaritas with fresh lime juice, which was fucking impossible to get in this northern BC community any time of the fucking year.

  It was so quiet in the hall and Leah nudged Trist, her eyes filled with expectation as if Trist had something profound to say. Trist stood on shaky legs, looked around at the pack, her pack for however long was left before she had to go. Then to Gideon, trying not to cry. She said her words softly, but it didn’t matter. Everyone’s wolf could hear her. “I don’t want to talk about this, please Gideon. I don’t want this to be so public.”

  Gideon’s eyes softened and Trist could see the regret in them, in how he’d handled this. “Meeting’s over,” he shouted. “Everyone get the fuck out. Trist, you stay.”

  Trist sat down as Leah stood and gave her a small kick in the shin. “Well that was very brave of you,” she said as she stalked away. The latent female made Trist crazy. Leah now mad because Trist hadn’t ranted and raved and defended herself.

  No one else said a word to Trist as they left the hall. They were shifters, their human side embarrassed, confused, but their shifter side now saw her as a lamb. An outcast no longer part of the pack. Not sure what to do or say to their future enemy, once she was handed off to Lucien.

  Shifters didn’t have farewell parties and shit like that. At least not in Darkness Falls.

  Trist had a few minutes to regain composure as Gideon and Varg had a quiet conversation. Her mind flitted to Lucien and his pack. She was confused about why they’d singled her out. She had nothing to offer beyond her untried ovaries. She was average everything. Just middle of the pack, where she liked to be. She kept her head down and out of trouble. Did what she was told. Is that what they wanted? Average? And Leah was right about the trade. Lucien and Gideon were conspiring to force-mate Trist. It happened, she knew it happened, but not in this neck of the woods at least not that she’d ever heard.

  She thought of Ascena’s pack, the fourth pack in Darkness Falls. The smallest. They were all females. Ascena was the Alpha, which was also unprecedented, because Ascena was female and Alpha’s weren’t female. It wasn’t natural. Except in this case, because there were no males in the pack. Ascena’s pack was the human equivalent of a shelter for female shifters who had been abused, thrown out of their packs. Latents. Two in her pack, and one living in Darkness Falls as an independent. Along with Leah, that made four in the area. Latents were so rare, and it was unprecedented to have this many in one place.

  But Ascena wouldn’t shelter Trist because she was a pack of only eight. She didn’t have the power to take on Lucien, let alone Gideon. They tolerated her, let her pack live on its small piece of territory.

  The only other alternative was to leave the pack and that wasn’t really an option at all. Because without a pack a shifter becomes prey. Trist saw the struggles with the independents who came into Darkness Falls. They’d left their own packs for a reason. Either they were a little bit crazy, or weak, an omega at the bottom of pack order with no hope of ever attaining a better status. Some were cast out or alphas without a pack or territory. They had to have a strong will to survive because no one likes a lone wolf. No one trusts them. Not the packs and not the humans.

  Being in a pack was not worse than being alone, even if she was forced to mate.

  Her attention was drawn from her thoughts as Gideon approached her. He savagely kicked the chair Leah had been seated on and Trist’s wolf whimpered at his aggression. She was only a few hours away from her heat cycle and having an alpha like Gideon this close made her quiver inside. She was young, a few months past 19 and not yet bridged. Her choice, it was okay to have sex, not a sin and not a requirement that female shifters come to the nest virginal. But during the heat cycle, female shifters carry pheromones that male shifters respond to. And then their own pheromones get in on the action and pretty soon it’s one big pheromone orgy. Trist could scent Gideon and she knew he scented her because she could smell his desire.

  But he didn’t touch her, didn’t reach out and pull her to him. Not during the heat cycle, because if Trist became pregnant, she would become his mate. And they were not really a match and both knew it. Off-cycle, there was nothing between them. Trist had seen him with other unmated female shifters. He wasn’t yet mated and he fucked around with them, with all women, even human woman. It was the alpha in him. Few women said no.

  But he’d never offered himself to Trist, maybe because he knew she was one of the few who might turn him down. He wasn’t a potential mate for Trist, not even close to being a good match. It was instinct, the attraction between shifters – knowing whose genes best complement theirs, which match will produce the hardiest off-spring. There’s no point in fighting nature, pretending it
doesn’t exist like humans do. No, Trist would know a good match when she met him and he wasn’t Gideon or any of the unmated males in his pack. And he might not exist in Lucien’s pack either, but that wouldn’t matter if the plan was to force-mate her.

  Trist thought Gideon was feeling the guilt but she didn’t know for sure because she couldn’t look him in the eyes. His wolf was too strong right now, edgy, heated, in major Alpha mode. He paced in front of her, towered over her, because she was still seated, hands in her lap, eyes on her hands.

  “Don’t run, Trist, because if you do, you’ll be hunted down. Either by us or by Lucien’s pack. A bargain’s a bargain and this territory is critical to pack survival.”

  Trist wanted to say that she didn’t care, wanted to ask why she should care since she was no longer part of the pack. But she didn’t. Instead, she said. “I won’t run.”

  Gideon exhaled, relieved. Kicked Leah’s chair a little further out of the way and pulled up a different chair, sat facing her, taking her hands. “This has benefits. Maybe you can be the bridge our packs need. Maybe you can heal some old wounds.”

  Trist looked up, to his eyes first, then down again, to his chest. She wanted to tell him to go fuck himself, but he was still her alpha, at least for another day or two and then when he wasn’t, he would be dangerous to be near. He could reclaim her or the males in the pack might. That would start a war between the two packs and Gideon wouldn’t want to go to war with Lucien. They were brothers.

  Trist pulled her hands out of his grip. “When?” She wanted to leave now, wanted to get away from this pack, hide her shame. But she also knew now was a bad time to leave.