Mated: A Paranormal Romance Shifter Anthology

by Kerry Adrienne, Sionna Fox, Shari Mikels

  In the movies, it was always the one who spoke softly and carefully who was the most dangerous. She believed that about JT. Not only did he own all this land that she was on without permission, but he easily spoke to—and rebuked—a crazy man flanked by two huge wolves.

  JT walked a few steps closer to her. He was still farther away from her than Bobby and the wolves, but JT was on her level at the river bank, not up on the hill looking down at her. “Tell me. You got lost. What were you doing that got you lost and had you missing all of the many No Trespassing signs we have posted.”

  Kate tried to get a read on him, but all she got back was cold. Everything coming off of him was just...cold. It wasn’t that there was nothing. It was like he was ice. “I was chasing an eagle.”

  He gave the slightest nod, except...it was diagonal. Not a yes, not a no.

  A noise to Kate’s left grabbed her attention.

  The wolves were on the move, making their way down the steep incline.

  “An eagle,” JT said.

  Kate whipped her eyes right in time to see JT traveling down river again, closing the gap between them while advancing toward the approaching wolves. He casually waved his hand at the wolves, pointing toward them and then behind him, and they altered their path, ending up directly behind JT.

  Oh, God. She was going to be sick.

  JT was definitely the most dangerous of all the creatures, especially if he could command those monsters to do whatever he wanted them to do.

  Those weren’t normal wolves, and this wasn’t a normal situation. She was even more concerned that there was no way she could get out of this alive, or at the very least, unharmed.

  JT and his wolves stopped their journey directly across the river from Kate. His appearance was average enough, what with his red, black and white plaid flannel shirt, but even that conflicted with the spring growth on the trees and the pollen in the air. It reminded her of winter. Once again...cold.

  Going by looks alone, though, was always a dangerous thing. Didn’t “they” always say most serial killers looked “normal”?

  Besides, she was in the backwoods, alone, with no cell service. The only thing keeping her from completely collapsing was the expanse of water between her and the wolves, though were wolves water-averse?

  All she needed now was the negligee and high heels and she’d be ready for her audition in any teen horror flick.

  And gee, for some reason, that line of thinking didn’t ease her mind at all. No, all it did was increase her anxiety to stomach-churning levels.

  JT stepped closer to the river’s edge. “What’s going on in that pretty little head of yours? Because you’re awfully quiet over there.”

  Kate wanted to back away, but glanced up to see the rifle still pointed directly at her. Instead, she righted her art bag as surreptitiously as she could to her side and not in the way of her arms or legs needing to move.

  White-hot rage replaced the cold she’d been picking up from JT. Growls made up the accompanying soundtrack. And Bobby’s steady stream of annoyance changed to anger with an undercurrent of fear. “What the hell is Atlanta PD doing up here so far north? You don’t belong here,” JT said.

  Her damn T-shirt.

  “No. I’m not—you don’t understand.”

  “I understand you’re wearing something that marks you as being an Atlanta Police Officer and I want to know what you’re doing here and what’s in that bag of yours.”

  Shit.

  She’d never given a single thought to how her life might be in danger because the only workout clothes she now owned happened to all have Atlanta PD on them.

  It was then she realized that the only things moving on her were her brain and her heart. Oh, and maybe her lungs, but she couldn’t guarantee that. Those puppies kept freezing on her like she didn’t need to bother with breathing all that often.

  JT ran two steps and leaped onto a rock on his side of the river. The rock was jagged on top and yet he easily kept his balance.

  She was helpless, couldn’t even run away, and her brain was screaming in terror when she wished it was her voice. The experience brought to mind The Scream by Edvard Munch, and she projected that helplessness the only way she knew how, she screamed for help mentally.

  It wouldn’t do her any good, but there’d been this voice in her dreams that would comfort her on nights she’d been anxious or scared or had a harrying experience at work. And more than anything, she wanted the comfort and strength that voice always brought to her through her subconscious. For almost twenty years, she’d accepted that voice as a secret companion, and if she were going to die here and now, then she wanted to hear that soothing voice inside her head one more time.

  “That’s a neat little trick you’ve got there. Who’re you trying to communicate with?” JT tilted his head and the wolves lowered their heads and whined.

  Huh? “What do you mean?” Kate wished she knew how to mentally send the sound of a dog whistle to the canines just to take them out of the picture.

  JT narrowed his eyes. “You’re communicating with someone. Or trying to. Something’s happening.”

  Hoping and wishing she could certainly wouldn’t make it so. But how could he know...? “I truly have no idea what you’re talking about.” Everything inside her was starting to fall apart, and she was beginning to lose the strength to stand much longer.

  “I don’t believe you.”

  Kate.

  That voice.

  Her protector’s voice.

  The one that cradled her like a full-body down pillow and wrapped around her senses like a silk sheet.

  JT jumped to another rock, on her side of the river. One Kate could barely make out because the top skimmed the surface of the water.

  She’d never heard that voice during her waking hours. It had only ever come to her in dreams. But dammit, that voice? That voice was worth living for and finding. There was no fucking way she was going to let herself die on the side of a mountain.

  “I’m getting tired of asking these same questions over and over and getting non-answers from you.”

  Now that he was closer, Kate could see the knife handle sticking up out of JT’s boot. “I’m sorry you don’t like my answers, but they’re all I’ve got.”

  JT jumped to her side of the river then, once again defying what should’ve been natural laws of physics and motion and what the average person could do.

  Kate forced herself not to flinch. To stay as still as possible.

  “Thing is, I’m looking at you from the Atlanta PD, wanting to know why it is that a cop from down there would be up here on my land.”

  “I’m not a cop,” Kate said.

  JT ignored her response. “And we ask you how you come to ignore all of my No Trespassing signs, and you tell us you were chasing an eagle and got lost.”

  “I was. I wanted to sketch it.” She wasn’t helpless. Not completely. Terrified beyond anything, yes. But she wasn’t a ten-year-old girl facing down animals. Kate was in her thirties and she’d been trained in self-defense as a requirement for her job.

  Now she just had to convince her body to act on what her mind wanted it to do.

  Yeah. That.

  I need you to hang on for me. Do whatever it takes.

  “Then I asked you who you’re trying to communicate with and you pretend like you’re stupid. That pisses me off the most, see, because I can feel the energy, so I know something’s happening.”

  Kate called on one of her skills from her time in high school marching band—use of peripheral vision without moving the eyeballs—and took in her immediate surroundings to try to determine what she might use to defend herself. To use as a weapon.

  She opened her hands out in front of her to show she wasn’t a threat. “I went for a walk. I wor
k out in Atlanta PD T-shirts. I saw an eagle. I wanted to sketch it. I hoped it would land so I could see that. I didn’t see any No Trespassing signs. I’m sorry.”

  A huge stick lay to her left, almost like a small log, but she couldn’t tell from her position if it was stuck in the mud and river silt. A stick to her right lay on top of a pile of leaves. It was longer, but much thinner and wouldn’t help her out. Of course, if she couldn’t dislodge the larger one, it wouldn’t do her any good either.

  “I don’t like it when people lie to me. We’ve got signs posted everywhere. You would’ve had to trip over one in the direction you came from.” JT stalked closer to her. “And I noticed you didn’t deny the communication this time.”

  I’m almost there.

  Here here? At this river, here? How?

  Kate needed to keep him speaking instead of acting. “I don’t know what to say or how to react to someone accusing me of talking to people with my mind. I’m sorry, but it just sounds really bizarre.”

  She wanted a simple existence.

  She’d thought she’d deserved that at this point.

  “Don’t patronize me, little girl. I’m the last person you want to cross right now,” JT said.

  Kate once again evaluated her options, quickly discarding the idea that she might be able to get to any kind of weapon and use it in time.

  Plan B it was then. One of her self-defense instructors liked to explain that a knee was only supposed to bend in one direction. If it was forced to bend in any other direction, it would only fold that way once, leaving your attacker whimpering on the ground. Kate wasn’t going to assume that JT’s knee was normal since nothing else about the situation or any of his physical feats had been normal so far, but knees still had to be weak on everyone. Right?

  “I get that. I do. And I’m not trying—”

  JT took two steps back, peering over his left shoulder into the trees that dotted the riverbank.

  Kate spared a glance to her left, and the wolves, too, were focused on the trees on her side of the river. Bobby swung his rifle and had it aimed that same direction instead of at her.

  Several seconds later, Kate finally heard footsteps approaching at a fast clip, although she couldn’t see who it was.

  “What are you doing here?” JT asked, crossing his arms at the chest. The white-hot rage he’d been steadily streaming at her now turned into hatred.

  “JT.” The man sounded like the voice in her head, but the trees and hill muffled him.

  Maybe she was just projecting hope onto some poor, unsuspecting sap.

  “Cousin,” JT spat with disgust.

  Sooo, the newcomer was a good thing. The enemy of her enemy was her friend, and all that.

  Leaves rustled above and to her right, and even though to this point she hadn’t taken her eyes off JT, everything in her, every instinct, every curiosity, compelled her to turn her head.

  He wore medium blue jeans and a light green Henley T-shirt that hugged his muscular chest. The sleeves of his T-shirt were pushed up to reveal muscular forearms while his arms dangled casually at his sides.

  His strong, defined jaw squared off before reaching the white-blond hair covering his head. A couple shocks of dark brown hair sat high on his head, as if they were reverse gray patches.

  Despite the animosity directed at him from JT, this man’s face and emotions radiated warmth, even happiness. Comfort began to drown out the negative emotions that had bombarded her since this whole ordeal began.

  And, oh, his eyes. His eyes bore into her, creating a connection that spanned not just the small distance between them, but the energy fields that surrounded them.

  Gravity tilted. Vertigo threatened. And then everything in Kate’s world righted itself.

  “Kate. Mrs. Brighton said you got lost. She sent me out to come find you.” I need you to nod yes, even if you’re not. “Are you okay?”

  She jerked her head once in some semblance of a yes.

  JT widened his stance and kept his arms crossed. “What do you think you’re doing? You know this woman? How?” He narrowed his eyes into a glare. “And what are you doing with a cop?”

  “Yeah, what’re you doing with a cop?” Bobby asked.

  Great. He’d made his way down to the river bank and stood directly across from her on the other side of the river. Much, much closer than he had been.

  The new guy made his way down the hill, easily navigating tree roots and the like, all while focusing on JT with a few glances at Kate mixed in.

  “I’m helping Katie back up the hill and escorting her back to the Brighton Hotel, where she’s staying as a guest. On vacation. What does it look like I’m doing?” I’m assuming you’re here on vacation.

  Katie? Really? That had been way easier than it should’ve been, the whole talking to someone else in her head.

  He smiled at her. Seems right.

  I don’t think so. By the way, what’s your name?

  Callan.

  Thanks for the rescue, Callan.

  Looked like you were doing fine all on your own.

  JT bent and pulled the knife from his boot but held it at his side, then got in Callan’s face just as he was passing. “I don’t know what kind of bullshit you’re trying to pull by bringing the law around here, but I don’t like it, and I will make you pay.”

  Callan remained calm.

  Kate waited for fear to leak through his emotions to her, but all she got was Zen-like peace.

  I’m a sketch artist. Or used to be. That’s it.

  “Sometimes, my dear cousin, people happen to get lost in the woods. And sometimes those people happen to have worked in the law enforcement field at one point. That doesn’t mean that they currently do. Nor does it mean that they’re out to get you.” Callan turned his back on JT and walked straight to her. The moment he touched her arm, his energy nearly knocked her over as electric tingles flowed from the point of contact throughout her body.

  He turned back to his cousin. “Sometimes, JT, your paranoia is just paranoia.” His voice was just as soothing out loud as it was in her head.

  Kate tried lifting her foot, but her shoe was stuck in the river mud as if it were concrete holding her in place.

  Callan wrapped his arm around her waist and gently lifted her straight out of the sludge.

  Her brain barely worked enough to scrunch up her toes so she could hold on to her shoes. The second, possibly even more important thought was, Oh God, his arm is around my waist. Although she wasn’t sure it was quite so coherent as it went on track repeat the entire time Callan dragged her up the river bank.

  “Hey,” JT called out behind them. “You and your pack and your family and your friends and everyone else you know need to stay off my land.”

  Callan looked over his shoulder. “And you need to make sure that your signs are well maintained, especially after we’ve had storms in the area.”

  JT’s warning tickled the edges of Kate’s mind. It wasn’t quite right. But she’d been through too much, and she was at the end of being able to process anything other than Callan’s touch. Her adrenaline crashed and there was nothing she could do about it. She was just so freaking sleepy. Her feet were too heavy and she stubbed her toe against a tree root. She tripped.

  Callan caught her, his one arm staying at her back and the other swooping under her legs. “I’ve got you.”

  Kate breathed in his clean, woodsy scent. It, combined with his protective hold, embodied feelings of home.

  He put his lips close to her ear. “You look like you need some rest.”

  She laid her head on his shoulder and gave herself over to some welcome sleep.

  Chapter Three

  Callan took the Brighton Hotel’s back porch steps three at a time, dropped Kate’s muddy shoes
at the top of the porch and passed through the screen door to have them met by Mrs. B.

  “Oh, child! What on earth happened to you?”

  “She’s fine, Mrs. B,” Callan said.

  Kate quietly groaned.

  “Some animals scared her nearly to death and her legs are quite a bit shaky. I figured it was easier for me to carry her back here.”

  Luckily, Kate’s face was turned toward him and she missed the look Mrs. B gave him. A look that managed to combine “I know how far you carried her and that’s not normal” with “I think you liked having her in your arms.”

  Callan gave her a casual shrug.

  “Take her on into the sitting room and I’ll make you both some iced tea. I’ve still got a few cookies left, although no chocolate chip cookies. She seemed to really like those earlier. I’d have to bake another batch—”

  “Tea and whatever cookies you have left will be fine.” Callan carried Kate into the sitting room, dropped the bag she’d been carrying next to the coffee table, then settled on a love seat with her still in his arms, on his lap. If she insisted on sitting on her own, that was fine, but she’d still be next to him.

  Mrs. B returned with two glasses of iced tea and a plate of cookies. She gave him an arched eyebrow but didn’t say anything about Kate being on his lap. “This is the last of the cookies. I need to finish doing clean-up in the kitchen, but I can get you anything else if you need it.”

  “We’ll be fine, Mrs. B Thank you.”

  After she left, he turned Kate so he could see her face better. “Let’s get a little bit of food in you before the adrenaline crash happens.”

  “S’already happened,” she said. “I just want t’sleep forever.”

  “Yeah, I bet. Let’s have you eat something anyway.” He helped her sit up straighter, and when she didn’t try to move off his lap—probably because Mrs. B had put the tray down on the corner closest to where he was sitting—he took that as a small victory.