Rebirth (Rogues Shifter Series)

by Gayle Parness

  I took a few moments and thought about Ethan. Did he have strong feelings for me? I loved him like a brother or a best friend, but never more than that. Garrett stayed frozen in place waiting for my answer. No longer breathing, his face was strung tight with tension.

  “I don’t know for sure how Ethan feels about me. I care about him, but I’m not attracted to him—the way I am to you. He’s never tried to kiss me or anything.” I felt my face flame again and looked down. “I can still work with Ethan and the team; it won’t be a problem for me.” I bit my lip for courage and tentatively touched Garrett’s silent chest while my heart continued its frantic drumming. His hand holding mine felt cool tonight and instinctively, I knew he hadn’t fed before he came to the cottage earlier.

  I looked back into his eyes and found the courage to be honest. “I want to be with you.” I was shocked by the intensity of my feelings, amazed by my brazenness. I wasn’t acting like the old unsure Jackie, yet I’d never felt more like myself.

  “You’re a seventeen year old girl.” He shook his head and moved away, staring out the windshield. “You don’t know what you want or who you want to be with.”

  That pissed me off a little so I pushed on his shoulder and he turned his head to look at me again. “Don’t patronize me. You think I don’t know what I want? You don’t know me at all, then. I’ve been through a lot more than most women my age or older. Anyway, back in your day, women were married off at 14.” I scowled.

  He saw that I was irritated with his attitude so he tried to lighten the mood a little. “Ah, yes, the good old days when we could sell our wives for a few cows or beat them daily if it pleased us.“ He smiled teasingly and turned toward me, indicating his hair, clothes and his car. “In case you haven’t noticed, I’m up to date with the customs of modern civilization.”

  I smiled and let go of my anger, reaching out to gently stroke his hand with my fingers. “I have to warn you. Rob told me that I have a strong will. I don’t give up when I set my sights on something.” I rested my hand on top of his and felt him slowly wrap his fingers around mine, all the time staring at me, trying to gage the truth of my words. His expression was mixed: desire in his eyes but his mouth turned down with worry.

  Feeling brave I asked a question I wasn’t sure I wanted the answer to. “What about you? Are you free? You said you had people that you fed from, are they your—your lovers?” I looked down at my hands, expecting to hear the worst.

  “Vampires obviously feed to survive, but feeding isn’t erotic unless both partners want it to be. I haven’t had a serious relationship with a woman for a long time. I’m considered a freak; a shifter turned vampire. Not a particularly desirable long term mate. Casual short term relationships don’t really interest me.”

  He turned my face toward his with a gentle touch and I watched specks of silver glisten in his eyes. “You have to understand that this isn’t like human dating. If we do this, then I’m claiming you as mine. It doesn’t have to be for always. You’ll probably find that dealing with the reality of what I am is too difficult. This claiming is just a way of committing to remain exclusive while we’re together. We can’t be together any other way.”

  I nodded and smiled shyly at him, then almost laughed. I mean was he kidding? Who'd want to trade in a Ferrari for a Hyundai?

  “Will you still be able to work with me as your trainer?” He was stalling, trying to convince me that I shouldn't choose him, yet I knew he wanted me. My inner cheetah purred.

  “Yes.” I smiled and grabbed his shirt, tugging on it to try to bring him closer. This time he came willingly. “So in order for us to kiss each other, you have to claim me?” I smiled widely, amazed that this beautiful, elegant man cared for me and even more amazed that I felt comfortable enough around him to be honest about how I felt. I flashed on maybe looking in the mirror, afraid that I'd see someone else staring back at me. I was so not acting like my old self. It was liberating.

  “That’s the deal.” He arched an eyebrow and smiled, obviously amused by my question.

  “And then I can only kiss you and you can only kiss me, right?"

  "Yes." He laughed.

  "Then claim away.”

  A gorgeous grin spread slowly across his face, making him lose the serious, mature expression he usually wore and look like the young male he would always be. He took a moment to play with a thick strand of my blonde hair. “Would you like to guess what my animal was when I first changed?”

  I knew as soon as he asked. “A cheetah.”

  And there it was: the other reason I’d spiraled toward him from the moment I’d met him on the island. He’d even said it himself when he was talking about Ethan finding a nice cougar to settle down with. We’re attracted to our own and he was one of mine.

  He pulled me even closer. His delicious scent filled the small space. One hand came to rest gently on my hip, the other traveled to behind my head, weaving long fingers through my hair. “Are you sure?” I nodded, never taking my eyes from his so he would know it was the truth.

  He leaned in to whisper in my ear, “Jacqueline Crawford, I claim you as my mate”. He pulled my mouth to his and kissed me very gently, almost unsure, his vulnerability making my heart ache and my body catch on fire. Pulling away from me he checked my expression one last time for any doubts I might have, but all he saw was me smiling with an unrestrained joy.

  "And I claim you, Garrett Cuvier," I whispered. It was good to clear that up right from the start.

  He laughed softly and ran a gentle hand down my face, his eyes sparkling with tiny silver gems, his nose taking in my scent as if it was his first meal in centuries. When he kissed me again, there was nothing tentative about it at all.

  Chapter Twenty

  Several kisses later, when I tried to unbutton his shirt, Garrett stopped me, grabbing my hand. “We have work to do tonight so you don’t smash any more windows, although I may not complain if you hit Ethan on the head with a lamp.” His hair was a little mussed where I'd dug my fingers into it and his eyes were streaked with silver; a sign of strong emotion, he'd once explained. I was flushed and tingling all over and really didn’t want to stop, so I stretched over to kiss him again.

  However, he had other ideas. He pushed me gently back in the seat and locked my seatbelt in place. "We’ll be taking our relationship slowly.” When he saw my pouting face he laughed and pulled the car away from the shoulder of the road.

  “Garrett, you claimed me as your mate. Doesn’t that imply that we’re actually, umm, doing more than just kissing?”

  “For supernaturals, a mate is a partner. Some supernaturals have a three-part ritual for creating a permanent bond with their chosen mate. With vampires it’s rare because they tend to be promiscuous, but for shifters and weres it’s quite common. We have plenty of time.”

  I sighed, knowing I wouldn’t be changing his mind tonight. I could still taste him in my mouth and it made me smile smugly. He'd claimed me, so he was mine as much as I was his. I snuck another glance at his lips. Okay, I could wait, although it was never my best thing.

  While he drove, I asked more questions. “Do you have a family?”

  “The shifter family I was born to has been dead for over a hundred years. I’m close to my cousin Aaron, the werewolf I spoke about earlier. As a vampire, I’m bonded to my maker.” His expression turned sour.

  “What does that mean, to be bonded to your maker? What’s he like?”

  He frowned. “She is Eleanor. She’s very beautiful, clever in certain ways, and very powerful because of her age. She's also a brutal bitch. She uses her beauty as a weapon. To me, she’s repulsive. Most of her creatures obey her without question, the others suffer constantly. I’ve watched her murder hundreds of innocents over the years just to amuse herself. She changed me, my father, mother and sister just because we were cheetah shifters and she wanted to know if we would survive the change. I did, barely. The rest of my family died. It was never my choice to become a vampi
re.” His voice had lowered in volume and pitch, but its intensity indicated a rage that burned so deeply I felt frightened for him.

  He pulled onto a dirt road that led farther into the woods and parked after a few more minutes. “Eleanor spends most of her time at her villa in Carmel. If she calls me mentally, I’m supposed to show up, although I’m usually able to block her out of my mind. It infuriates her. She’s also unaware that I can feed from a shifter without taking blood, which has come in handy the few times she’s locked me in a cell to starve me into submission. She uses shifters as servants, so they’re always around the villa. I’m kind to them so they don’t mind helping me out.

  She doesn’t know how strong I’ve become using the lines and she doesn’t know that I can still change form. Apparently her little experiment has backfired on her. I’ve always been a pain in her ass.” He tried to smile but his eyes were still full of pain as he opened his door and stood.

  I got out of the car and went to him, putting my arms around his waist and nestling against his shoulder. My body fit so perfectly against his, as if we were designed to fit together. “I’m sorry that you lost your family, but I’m glad you told me.” He was wrenched away from a happy life as a shifter and forced into becoming a vampire, finding himself totally alone, surrounded by his enemies. I shuddered, thinking about what he must have gone through.

  He seemed surprised that I was supportive and not repelled by his past. Leaning down, he kissed me gently. “Very few people know what I've just told you and I need to keep it that way."

  "You can always trust me."

  "Yes, I know." He tucked a stray hair behind my ear and smiled. "Come, we have work to do.” He kissed my forehead and then taking my hand, he led me to a fallen log which we straddled facing each other.

  We sat together and worked for an hour at strengthening my mental shield, visualizing it standing strong in the daylight and the moonlight. Garrett found he was able to pull extra line energy through me to enter that small part of my mind that was resistant to the block and help me fill in any chinks that might allow leaks.

  Finally we were finished to his satisfaction. We walked back to the car where he took off his jacket and started to unbutton his shirt. His eyes gleamed with excitement. “Change to your cheetah, because we’re going hunting.” When I didn’t move, he grinned and said. “I’ll turn around until you shift. I’m shifting too.

  “Into your raven?”

  “At first, but then I thought that with your help I might try my cheetah again. It’s been such a long time since I was myself. When I shift to animal form I can actually hunt and eat. It’s incredible to enjoy food again.”

  He folded his shirt in half and placed it carefully on the back seat. My gaze skimmed over his broad back. “How can I help you?” I asked. He turned and I drank in his pale muscular chest and his hard flat stomach. I swallowed, my throat feeling a little dry. I wanted to touch him.

  “I can add some of your line energy to mine, boosting the shift. It shouldn’t affect you.” He bent over and the boots came off. I bit my lip, completely enthralled. “We’ll meet up at the clearing about a mile north of here. See if you can track a bird, little cheetah.”

  I saw him start to unfasten his pants and I quickly walked, probably blushing, to the other side of the car, stripping and transitioning in record time. My cheetah stretched luxuriously at first, but my ears shot up as I heard flapping wings above me. He'd headed north. I ran after him, scenting Garrett and raven both.

  He made it to the clearing before me, but not by much. Hunger gnawed at my stomach. My cheetah self was getting annoyed by the unreasonable delay. The scent of a plump raccoon was making me restless as I paced beneath the oak tree, growling softly and digging in the dirt. His raven had landed on a thick branch ten feet above me, fanning his wings and ruffling his black feathers. I tapped into the lines in an effort to hurry things along, causing a familiar warm static to buzz through my chest. My stomach lurched violently as I felt energy being pulled through me and sent up to him, so I snarled and growled another warning. I wondered idly how raven would taste. Deciding I'd had enough, I called up my diamond wall and put myself behind it, only to realize that by doing so, I might have denied him the chance to change.

  When I heard the growl, I looked up again. Strikingly beautiful, a large male cheetah snarled playfully at me from the branch above. He jumped gracefully from the limb and landed next to me without a sound, his tail flicking with excitement. His large wet tongue licked my face, causing me to purr and rub against him. A strange sort of chirping sound popped out of my throat and he chirped back, butting his head into mine and cuffing my face with his huge paw. I bit him gently on the ruff and he took off toward the unlucky raccoon.

  We hunted that night together under the gleam of the full moon, chasing each other, hiding then pouncing, sharing our kills. There were several unlucky creatures that filled our bellies and several other lucky ones that we let go after running them to ground. I’d shifted and hunted a dozen times, first on the island and then while training with the team, but this night the experience was something more. Hunting together with Garrett as cheetahs, sharing our unique magical gift, bonded us in a bone-deep visceral way.

  We sat in a clearing by a narrow stream, splashing each other and batting at fish as they swam by. He tugged at my wall, so I opened a small hole and let him into my mind. I felt magic flow between us in a loop, making my heart race. Our cheetah minds were only able to send short phrases or pictures to each other, but it was the most intimate experience of my life.

  “Hurt you to speak?” he asked.

  “No nice.” I answered.

  He teased me by biting my ear, then sent me happy memories of his childhood with his cheetah mother, father and sister. He playfully bumped his head against my shoulder, making my cheetah attempt to smile.

  I was so happy. Gone was the worried young man with the troubled past and the difficult self-appointed job of training a bunch of young rogue shapeshifters. Here, in the forest with me, he was free to be playful and carefree.

  “Mine,” he sent and my cheetah purred, content..

  Garrett sat up suddenly, all senses on alert. We both sniffed the air and twisted our ears toward the faint sound of howling in the distance. He motioned for us to run back toward the car, so we raced over the terrain, only to realize that there were several of them and that they'd surrounded us, closing their circle. He bumped me toward the nearest tree and indicated that I should climb. When I didn’t, he bit me firmly on the leg, reminding me who gave the orders and who should be following them. “Climb now!” he sent. I started clambering up, not too happy about it even in cheetah form. He followed and we hid, still as death, under the hanging branches of the black oak.

  I smelled them long before they reached us. The smell was woodsy, but also rotten like carrion left in the sun. There were three wolves, huge and filthy, looking undernourished and ill treated. One carried a pack in his mouth. Two of them were cut up and bloody, but all three were sniffing around the bottom of the tree, hunting us. They suddenly stared up and howled in triumph. They tried to climb, but wolf bodies aren’t made for climbing trees. They soon decided on another tactic as one of them changed back to human, a relatively quick but very painful shift, judging from the man’s loud moans. The others growled and snarled, circling the tree.

  They were obviously werewolves, and we were in trouble. I tried to indicate to Garrett that he should shift back to bird form and get away, but I didn’t know if my message came through to him. He rubbed his head against mine, looking me directly in the eye. “Underfed and weak. Stay here”, I was shocked into silence when he smoothly jumped down to face them. I sent out a warning chirp, but I’d forgotten, during our moonlit romp, what Garrett was.

  I could feel him pull in the magic, buzzing through my body in huge waves even though it wasn't directed toward me. His shift was almost instantaneous, as if a magician's veil had been pulled away, revealing
the surprise beneath. It seemed to cost him nothing in energy, unlike the wolf who still panted from the pain of his transition.

  Garrett stood silently behind the exhausted man, his eyes a swirling silver blue. Wicked fangs extended from his gums, curling his lip into a noiseless snarl. His fingers became claws as his muscles tensed to attack.

  The man had pulled a gun from his pack and was moving to point it at me.

  “Why don’t you come down so we can play?” He squinted and looked in the higher branches. “Where’s your friend?”

  The next instant he was flying through the air, screaming, his gun on the ground and his broken arms flapping uselessly against his body. Garrett turned to the next were, the largest in wolf form, and in a blur which I could barely track, twisted his lupine neck, breaking it with a loud crack. Then the dead wolf was thrown across the clearing to land on top of his wounded comrade. The last wolf had jumped on Garrett and bitten the back of his neck, trying to slip around to the front and rip out his throat, but Garrett twisted easily and used his fist to crush the werewolf's skull. He dumped the body on the other two and crushed the skull of the man still screaming at the bottom of the pile.

  When it was over, he crouched on the ground, resting. He was bleeding steadily from his neck wound so I jumped off the branch and ran to him. He stood slowly and turned to me, his eyes still solid silver, his fangs fully extended, his hands clenched into bloody fists. A killing rage contorted his features, so I backed up slowly until the tree trunk stopped my progress. There was an otherness about him that chilled me to the bone, so I remained in cheetah form, and sat, waiting to see what he would do.

  He took two steps in my direction then suddenly swayed and stumbled. Dismissing my anxiety, I ran to him so he could lean on my back to steady himself. I realized that he must have used an extraordinary amount of energy tonight changing from vampire to bird to cheetah to vampire again and then fighting the three wolves. Plus his skin had felt cool earlier, so I knew he hadn't fed before he'd brought me to the woods tonight.