BOX SET: Shifter 4-Pack Vol 2 (Wolf Shifter, Dragon Shifter, Mafia, Billionaire, BBW, Alpha) (Werewolf Weredragon Paranormal Fantasy Romance Collection)

by Candace Ayers

  Now, it was as though I had been wearing my own bleary spectacles all my life only to take them off all these years later. Until she arrived and freed me; a week ago, after narrowly avoiding death, my world turned from darkness to light. It made me wonder how I had lived before this, never knowing what was really in front of me. Everything looked dazzling, and every breath I took was a sensation.

  For the most part, that is. Because whenever my gaze fell on the woman, nothing seemed quite clear. In a singular night, we had been as close as two humans can be, and yet now I wondered if we could be any further. This woman was an enigma. But, as mysterious as she was, she was also exquisite. That morning kiss was the last time we had embraced for days now as she concentrated on charting us a new course and trying to decide where we would go next.

  After a long night of tossing and turning, I could no longer keep my eyes closed. Remy was up again, and I wondered if the world seemed as loud to her as it did me. I took slow, deep breaths in case she looked my way, but she never did.

  Her hair tumbled down her bare back. She stood tall, turned away from me as she stripped. Her clothes rested in a puddle around her feet, and through the darkness of the early dawn I saw her outline. Remy, whoever she was, was unbelievably beautiful inside and out but seemed to be encompassed by an eternal melancholy. Her swift change brought her into a wolf, covered in the dark red fur that matched her hair. A small thrill raced down my spine, watching her. She raised her head to the stars, and disappeared.

  Once again, I was alone. I laid back down, for there was little else to do now. It had been several days since that poignant night. We had melded, we had fought, we had loved, and she had changed me. My hands trailed over my ribs to my hips where the scar lingered. We had been vulnerable to one another, naked and hurt, and it was all so natural. We weren’t sure how to act now that we’re no longer naked and hurt. As we traveled, in both night and day, little was said.

  Remy was out of range and I put another few sticks on the dying fire before turning over and closing my eyes against the morning sun. So much had happened, changing my life, but now that I didn’t wear the grey spectacles, there only arose questions that I didn’t know how to ask and I wasn’t sure she would answer anyway.

  Exhausted, I found myself dozing and soon dreaming.

  The dream was the same one I’d been having since those nights I had spent gripped in the throes of fever, ever since things had blown up in my face. It brought me back to my home, mixing reality with terror. Besides the noise of the world, this often kept me from a peaceful night’s rest.

  The sun was shining above as I walked to the bakery one morning in town, enjoying the fresh air. It felt normal, as I had done it every day for years, taking my path from my grandparents’ home off to my workshop. Everything seemed alright until I passed the home of the county sheriff, only to be reminded of her.

  Even in my dreams, I could see her so clearly. Eliza Helena Hayburn. Her long blonde hair would tumble down her back and her eyes were the darkest green I had ever seen in my life. We had grown up near one another, and I had dreamt of the day I might take her hand in marriage. We had been friends and I had thought she loved me. I thought we would have a future together.

  Unfortunately, things didn’t turn in my favor and she became Mrs. Robert Jamison before her twentieth year; married to the one man I had never been able to be agreeable towards. Everyone in town knew that the orphan Ben constantly fought with Robby, the mayor’s son. No matter what I did, he always appeared to beat me. He had won the final round. He had my woman. I never understood how.

  In the dream, she called to me from the window. She sat there on her couch, waiting for something or someone. Her sweet melodic voice waved me over to the door, but I could never enter. I tried, and her laughter abruptly changed into cries of help. She would disappear from the window and I attempted to find a way inside. The windows disappeared and suddenly I was stuck at the door, banging and shoving against it, but she was lost to me. Soon I was doused in sweat, using every breath to reach for her. Each time, I went hoarse as I continued to call for her. Yet, it never worked.

  Before the tears fell, another voice would interrupt me from behind. Every time I turned around, it was the sheriff with his dog. He would blame me, accuse me violently of doing unspeakable things to his wife. He blamed me for everything, but for some reason I could never defend myself in the dreams; my throat wouldn’t work and I was paralyzed. He yelled for what felt like hours and only when his rabid mongrel began to chase after me was I able to move.

  I took off and though each dream’s path varied, the destination was always the same. Since my grandparents had passed, my blacksmith shop was my home. I knew it better than the back of my hand, and everything was always exactly where I had left it, waiting for me.

  I would grab at my tools, but they grew too heavy for me so I tried to keep running from the bloodthirsty dog. My heart was in my throat and that dog would nip at my heels all the way to the corner of the store, where everything was on fire.

  Suddenly it was hot and I couldn’t breathe. The dog was gone and I was trapped inside the shop, unable to find any doors or windows. I screamed for help but no one ever came. I didn’t know how, but I knew he had set it; it was always him. And every dream ended with the flames engulfing me, trapped and dying.

  Just like that, I would wake up in a cold sweat as though I had just been transported to safety. The sun was up when I sat, wincing at the sore muscles and wishing I could sleep for more than a few hours at a time. Curling my legs up to my chest, I rubbed my eyes to see clearly.

  We were in a valley beside another mountain. It was hard to determine how far we had come and establish where exactly we were. Just two days ago, we had filled up on supplies in a town we had passed through, buying food and blankets for our journey. We were headed in no particular direction, but Remy seemed to know what she was doing.

  We had traveled into the night, unable to find a decent place to rest until we found this valley and cleared a small area for ourselves. Now in the early light of day, I could better sense the world around us. My mind was occasionally overwhelmed with the new strength of my senses, but at the same time, I embraced it and spent hours just sitting there and listening.

  I could hear the stream just less than a kilometer to the west, and somehow I just knew it carried trout. To the east of us stood the mountain, and there were goats jumping towards the top. I knew that goats smelled of nothing but dirt and manure, but something about them was suddenly so tantalizing, I had to remind myself to act as a civilized human being and wait to prepare a proper breakfast.

  North led us back towards civilization, a few miles away. I thought back to my own hometown, for it was practically another lifetime. It was hard to remember everything normal outside of the dream. Even now I struggled to see the streets exactly as they had been before I left, the faces of my neighbors in a disjointed vision.

  The only one that came to mind was Eliza. A pang of hurt echoed in my heart but soon began to fade like the love I once had for her. It had come to naught and she was only a distant memory. Eliza had never loved me back, and I had spent much too long wasting away for her.

  Remy was an altogether different story. She came to mind as a light breeze trailed from the south, and I could smell her. Her scent was unique and I couldn’t forget it if I spent the rest of my life trying. She smelled of the earth after rain, of damp leaves and wildflowers. I closed my eyes and when I finally reopened them, she had returned and had begun redressing in her human form.

  I took a deep breath, attempting self-control and trying to look away from her but I couldn’t resist. I saw the silver-white scars trailing her body, the soft contour of flesh over muscle, and I saw the pink in her cheeks from her morning run. My breath caught as she turned to me, and I swore silently because she had to have noticed my quickened heartbeat.

  For a moment, we only looked at one another.

  This lady was nothi
ng like Eliza, a delicate woman filled with daydreams and silks. No, the woman before me was strong, confident, and dangerously beautiful. I listened to the movement of her breath, calm and shallow. If she had similar thoughts and feelings, she was much better than I at hiding them. She watched me as I pulled on my shirt and she tightened her skirts.

  “I caught breakfast,” she announced, breaking the silence. I recognized the smell of warm blood and fresh meat and I looked at the feathered birds, stomach growling. These birds looked too fat to fly and my mouth watered, ready to feast. We rebuilt the fire, plucked the fowl, and cooked them until they were tender and juicy. My senses were torn between the woman before me and the meat my body craved, but her silence made it easier for me to distract myself.

  Her gaze dropped onto me once or twice, focusing on my hip. I thought back to that night in the cave; I still didn’t regret it. I was more concerned now that perhaps she did. I remembered the moment her teeth had cut my skin, how I had felt the change begin.

  I saw farther, smelled more, and heard everything around me. She had brought me into a vibrant life and I wouldn’t return it if given the option. I looked at Remy and wondered about her since I knew so little. We had been as close as we could be, but it hadn’t changed much between us. Eliza had made my heart patter, but Remy could have ripped my heart from my chest and I would have thanked her. It seemed I lost all my senses whenever I met her gaze.

  We were both at a loss for words. Again, we ate in silence and I tried to sneak looks without her noticing. My mind churned over new thoughts and I sought to form them into words. Where would we go from here? Did she mean what she has said to me and what she had done to change me, or was she ready to leave me behind?

  “Fine fowl,” I said at last, unable to take the silence any longer.

  Her gaze moved from the skies down to myself. “Oh. Yes, they are.” Remembering the spark in her eyes from that night, it hurt to see her blank expression when she looked my way. Swallowing, I turned away and dropped a bone at my feet after sucking out the marrow.

  “How is your leg?” I had noticed her limp, but she had yet to complain. There was no longer a bandage on her thigh but it was still red.

  She shook her head. “It’s all right.”

  Silence fell again. Her striking blue eyes wandered, purposely avoiding me. They searched the skies and she frowned. I followed, and realized I could sense there was another storm coming. It could be here by tomorrow. She spoke my concerns immediately.

  “We should find cover for tonight,” she announced reluctantly.

  I nodded, standing and looking around. Without a distinct destination, it made us unclear of the direction we should travel. Hesitating, I wondered, “Perhaps we should stay near here; we could build a shelter to stay dry.”

  She shook her head before I had finished speaking. “No. We’re still too close to others and that town. We should head west till the stream, and then continue south. That will give us enough distance.”

  “Are we going anywhere in particular?” I had asked this before because sometimes it really sounded as though she knew where she wanted to go. She shook her head as I put out the fire and she gathered our belongings. Pulling her hair back in a knot, Remy walked in and out of our campsite, looking rather alert.

  After taking care of the campsite, I walked toward her to see if she had noticed anything I hadn’t. Her gaze drifted behind me and I saw her eyes widen slightly and then nod in approval. I ignored the skip of my heart and she did the same. “It’s like we were never here.”

  I nodded. “So it’s best we were on our way.” I grabbed the satchel from her and threw it over my shoulder. Our hands touched, but she stepped away as though I were diseased. I bit my tongue to keep from saying anything, and we started for the stream.

  We had gone half the distance when I decided to voice another concern I had been considering. She changed in the evenings and mornings to hunt, but I never joined her. It left us disjointed, apart for hours at a time, so I finally decided to bring up the subject.

  “Should we still…” I hesitated on the correct terminology and approach. My senses were much stronger, but so far that’s all I had been able to test. “Walk as humans? We could go farther if we both changed.”

  She grudgingly nodded. “True, but it’s still better to hold back, to hide our strengths. And I’d rather we were... safer when you to change the first time.” I thought she would expound on this, so I waited. We reached the stream with the sun high overhead before I realized she was finished speaking.

  The strange woman walked beside me, keeping up easily though my strides were longer. We crossed the prairie land away from the mountain and goats to go towards the running river. We made our own trail but left nothing behind, hardly a scent. As we grew closer, the rush of the river grew louder and it turned out to be larger than either of us had expected. Instead of a few feet, it had to have been more like several yards in width.

  Remy and I reached the rocky banks and stopped, wondering if we truly did want to go to the other side. I had hunted and lived among men longer than she, and knew our best move would be to make this passage. I began to take my clothes off in preparation for crossing the waters.

  She ignored me, still staring at the water. “I didn’t think it was so deep.” She went to the edge of the water, leaning forward as though she might see the bottom. It made me smile, finding something she wasn’t so confident in. “Perhaps instead we should just walk alongside this?”

  I shook my head. From the look of it, we would need to do some swimming eventually, so I told her just that. Remy continued to look unconvinced. “The current isn’t nearly as strong as we are,” I assured her. “It’ll be easy. It’s a warm day and it’s about time we bathed.”

  She offered a wry chuckle with a shake of the head. “No. I mean, swimming is- it’s… well, it’s-” Remy stumbled over her words clumsily, beginning to stutter.

  It hit me like a brick to the face. “You can’t swim?”

  The look on her face gave it away. She turned from me, hiding her face as though she were ashamed. Holding back a grin, I rolled my eyes at her. Reaching forward, I grabbed her shoulder to turn her to me.

  “Swimming isn’t necessary for one who changes,” she grumbled as though she were a child in trouble.

  I couldn’t hold back my smirk at her pout and her inability to look me in the eye. “Then it’s a good thing I can. Take off what you don’t want wet, and I’ll carry you.” After another minute of easing her into the idea, she eventually took off all but her shift, and I put everything into our bundle.

  The water was cold when I took my first steps wading in, and the current was stronger than I had anticipated. My new senses continued to confuse me and I wondered when I would get the hang of them and start understanding my body again.

  Still, I had swum before in colder and stronger waters than this. I went in as far as I could while still standing, and threw our bundle across. It caught in some branches near the bank, dry and waiting for us on the other side. I turned back to the banks, and there Remy stood exposed and just out of reach of the water.

  For a moment, I watched her fight with herself as she slowly waded into the water, taking in deep breaths and wincing at the chill before finally taking my outstretched arm. She shivered and I noted how the river came up to her chest; another step could knock her off her feet.

  “You had best not drop me,” she muttered crossly as she wrapped her arms around my shoulders. They were familiar to me instantly as I pulled her closer and closer.

  I chuckled, her breath tickling my neck. “If I did?”

  I found her legs and wrapped them around my hips. She didn’t answer and I glanced around to be sure there was no debris or large creatures coming our way. Taking a deep breath, I mentally prepared myself for the task ahead and turned my head to tell her what was going to happen next. “It’s best to swim beneath the surface, so you’ll need to hold your breath.”

&
nbsp; She didn’t sound happy about it. “How long?”

  “Just take a deep breath,” I said. I listened to the rhythm of the water, praying I knew what I was doing. I heard her draw in air as I gulped in as much oxygen as I could, and dove us beneath the waves. I hadn’t gone swimming in years, but it was as familiar as the back of my hand.

  After a few strong strokes, I broke the surface and we gasped for air. I looked around and we weren’t quite halfway as I had expected. Treading water and swearing beneath my breath, I cleared my throat and shook water from my hair. It wasn’t going to be easy like I had hoped. Not only was the water deeper and colder, but it was faster and Remy wasn’t helping.

  The grasp around my neck drew a little tighter, and I squeezed her elbow for comfort. Another deep breath and I forced us under. The current was always strongest in the center, and every stroke was harder than the one before. It took everything to pull us through, but I had forgotten about Remy and she suddenly let go, disappearing from me in the murky waters. My heart skipped a beat and I frantically tried to find her.

  I kicked my way to the surface, gasping for air and looking for her.

  “Remy!” I struggled to catch my breath even as I looked for her, wondering what had happened. My heart hammered in my chest and I struggled to find that familiar head of dark hair. There was nothing.

  It was only a second later when I spotted her a few yards downstream, clutching a large branch lodged out from the bank. Swallowing my heart back down into my chest, I let the current carry me, wrapping myself around Remy where she struggled to stay afloat. Luckily, the log was firmly rooted against the bank and didn’t seem likely to take us any further. Taking a deep breath, I touched her arm for comfort.

  “This is madness.” Her teeth were chattering and she shook her head at me.

  “What happened?” Remy tried to free herself from my grasp, but nearly slipped beneath the water. I wrapped an arm around her waist, and that’s when I realized that some of the wetness trickling down her face had not originated from the river, but from the corners of her eyes.