The Crane Curse Series Complete Boxed Set (Shape Shifter Romance)

by Liliana Rhodes

  "Thank you for taking the time to meet with us, Mr. Smythe," Erich said. "I'd like to introduce you to my associate Rafael."

  "Yes of course, I know Rafael. You forget I know everyone, even if I haven't met them. And please, call me Jerry."

  Jerold "Jerry" Smythe led them through the house to a room in the furthest part of the home. Outside the windows, the chains on an empty swing set rattled in the breeze. The office had wood paneling and large metal filing cabinets along one of the walls. Along a side wall was a gold polyester couch that sat perpendicular to a simple metal-framed desk with a wood grained table top. As Erich and Rafael sat in black leather sling chairs, Erich thought they stepped back in time to the 70s.

  "Jerry, I'm not sure how much information they gave you over the phone," Erich said.

  "I don't need information, I am information. One moment, let me get my daughter. I'm grooming her to take over."

  Jerry left the room, and soon Erich heard Pinky's voice coming down the hall.

  "I don't understand, Dad. We run a nursery school. What more is there?" she said.

  "You're more stubborn than a mule, Pinky!" Jerry said, his voice echoing from the hall into the office. "Just try to stay quiet for a few moments and maybe you'll learn a little more about what your family has been doing for centuries. If you weren't so busy running after shifters all the time, you'd realize we have important work going on here."

  As they entered the room, Jerry smiled warmly again before turning to Pinky and pointing to the couch. After she slumped down on the corner, Jerry began speaking again.

  "Pinky has a lot to learn, and some of that is patience. Please forgive her," he said as Pinky folded her arms in front of her chest. "I don't usually talk about the purpose of the school here, but since I have my daughter's attention for once, I'd like to give you some background. I trust that because both of you men are on the Council that you will be discreet."

  "My family was one of the first settlers of Leeds Point back in the 1700s. It became apparent very quickly that Leeds was a very special place as far as paranormal activity was concerned. As a matter of fact, there have been reports of a portal hidden in Leeds that connects us with the spirit world, but that's a story for another time. One thing that is certain is that creatures of all types have always been attracted to Leeds Point. This is why so many shifters and other beings live in our small community."

  "I knew it!" Pinky said, then quickly covered her mouth. "Sorry, please go on, Dad."

  "My ancestors were open-minded people, but they knew someone had to keep track of all these beings and police the happenings around here. That was when they created the Talisman. The Talisman originally was a small group of people who catalogued the supernatural goings on around the area. Eventually, we realized it would be easier to keep tabs on everyone if they all needed to pass through a common place, kind of a paranormal Ellis Island. That's when the nursery school was created."

  "I'm sorry, sir," Erich said, "I understand you're teaching your daughter something, but things are different now. The Kapok Council now manages everything. Yes, the nursery school does serve its purpose, but you're mostly a library now."

  "That is what you're expected to think, Erich." Jerry leaned against the desk as his face became serious. "I feel comfortable telling you all of this because I know of your involvement with Abel. I'm the man behind it, behind all of it. Don't even try to pretend you don't know what I'm talking about."

  Jerry met his gaze evenly, surprising Erich that a non-Alpha had the nerve to speak to and look at him that way. Normally Erich would have fought back and put the man in his place, but he was curious to hear more and was surprised to find out Jerry and the Talisman were the source of his assignment.

  "Continue," Erich said. "We're among people we both trust."

  Jerry nodded and his warm smile returned. "Most people believe the school works for the Council. And while we do provide them with information, it is the Talisman who secretly controls them. It's complicated but needed for security."

  "Who is in this Talisman, and why have I never heard about it?" Pinky asked.

  "There is only one now," Jerry said. "It's passed down from one generation to the next, but the others didn't survive." He waited for understanding to cross his daughter's face, then nodded. "You have a lot to learn."

  "So wait, I get to be the one person in this crazy town who doesn't have any power or anything at all and the one cool thing I get, I have to be quiet about?"

  Jerry sighed, sounding annoyed. "Yes, Pinky. That's right. And don't ever discount being normal. I don't have to use my ability to know I'm not the only person in this room who thinks you're quite extraordinary."

  Pinky looked down at her feet, obviously embarrassed. Erich sat back in his chair and stifled a chuckle, proud that his assessment of Rafael earlier had been correct.

  "So are you going to help us or not?" Erich asked. He was tired of all the games. It was time to finally bring them back to the point of his visit.

  "Of course I'll help," Jerry said. "I'm actually quite intrigued by all of this. You have a witch with no name...aha! Faith. Thank you, that'll make it a bit easier. And you want to find out who she is, where she came from. Very interesting indeed. Do you know anything else?"

  Erich grunted. He didn't want to answer but knew Jerry would take the information from him anyway. "She met Abel in high school."

  "Hmm, even more interesting, and that definitely narrows it down. Abel moved here from out of state his senior year of high school. We should be able to find something out about her. I'll put my protégé on this assignment." Jerry looked over at his daughter, who was lost in thought.

  "Who? Me?" Pinky said as she realized he was talking about her. "An assignment? How much time do I have?"

  "I need everything you can find as soon as possible," Erich said. "Abel might be without a pack, but he's still dangerous. I'm sure he has something up his sleeve. If I can find out more about Faith, then maybe I can figure out his plans and how he intends to use her."

  "And perhaps why she's with him?" Jerry said with a smirk.

  Erich stared at Jerry, a fire burning in his belly as he fought to not hit that smirk off the other man's face. Luckily, he was smarter than his instincts. He needed their help. And if Jerry was telling the truth about the Talisman, then creating an enemy out of him was the last thing Erich needed.

  "Just get me everything you can find out," Erich growled through clenched teeth.

  Chapter Five

  Faith stood on the porch as Abel, in full coyote form, stalked into the forest. He would be gone for a while as he hunted for food, giving her the time she needed to get back to the clearing and hope Miranda appeared again.

  After slipping her arms into her sweater, she reached around behind her for the belt and knotted it at her waist. Stepping back onto the porch, she felt a little guilty for sneaking out on Abel. He had been very upset when he realized she wasn't there last night. So upset, Faith was surprised he left her to hunt. The fresh bruise on her temple when she returned didn't help matters.

  Fingering the silver crane at her neck, Faith stepped off the porch then stopped. Did she really want to find out about her family? What difference did it make after all this time? She couldn't fool herself though, she needed answers and was willing to do whatever it took to get them.

  As she entered the clearing, she looked up at the moon as she did the night before. Everything looked the same, even felt the same. The only difference was that yesterday she followed Miranda there and now she had no idea how to find her again.

  Faith thought about Abel's teachings on witchcraft. The one thing he repeated was that if she believed she could do it, she would. That faith in herself got her very far in his teachings, and she pulled on it now as she imagined Miranda in her white nightgown, running through the woods.

  Slowly, as if appearing from an old movie projector, Miranda appeared in the clearing. She wore the white nightgown again and s
miled warmly at Faith.

  "I knew you'd figure it out," Miranda said. "You're lucky I showed up, I'm sure you've heard stories about these woods being haunted. What's funny is in all this time, no one has bothered calling me. I have so much to say, yet no one seems truly interested."

  "No, I don't think it's that at all. I think people like the tale, the idea of the woods being haunted. If they called you, then they'd have to deal with reality."

  "Well, my reality is why I'm here and have been here for so long. At least it feels long. I'm sure it's been at least thirty years." Miranda looked up at the moon then around the clearing. "Feels much longer than that."

  Miranda walked towards the tree line and kicked at some loose white stones, but they didn't move. After taking a few steps back, she grinned at Faith. "Watch this," she said.

  A flash of white light hit the ground and spread out until it reached all the stones. Throughout the clearing, the stones glowed, the majority of them collected into a large square resembling the foundation of a house.

  "Is that where your house was?" Faith asked.

  Miranda nodded as she looked wistfully at the glowing stones. "It hasn't been long enough for there to be nothing left of the house. My great-great-great grandfather built this house centuries ago using a stone foundation. Almost my entire family had been born here, died here, too. So did I, just not in the same way as the others."

  Faith was afraid to ask but could see Miranda wanted to talk about it. "What happened?" she asked quietly.

  Miranda smiled, her eyes wet with tears. "Thank you for asking. It's the only way I can talk about it," she said then shrugged. "Strange dead rules, nothing you need to know about. You were probably too young to remember, but just thirty years ago things were much different here in Leeds Point. Nowadays, shifters can be themselves and not have to live in fear. Back then, shifters were just beginning to make themselves known to society."

  "So you're a shape shifter?" Faith asked.

  "Yes, or I was. Being a spirit now, I lack the body to hold onto my animal spirit. But when I was alive, this clearing and the surrounding areas were my territory. I was an Alpha wolf. My entire family were Alphas. It's hereditary you know, not much different than those bright green eyes of yours."

  "Who..." Faith couldn't utter the words.

  "Killed me? Well, some asshole, obviously," Miranda said. "Trust me, I've been angry about it for thirty years. He took me from my life, my baby."

  "You had a baby?"

  "Yes, a son. He was everything to me. I never had a reason to live before him. That night I had just put him to bed. He was only five years old then, so young...things like that simply shouldn't happen," she said then was silent. "A group of four men came with torches. I heard them coming and grabbed my boy. It was just me and him and I needed him to be safe. I carried my half-asleep son into the woods, into an area I knew was thickly overgrown, and begged him to stay there. Then I came back here.

  "They had set the house on fire," she said as her face filled with horror. "They were looking for us, calling for my son. They called us devils and said the fire would purify us and rid us of our evil. I killed three of them before I sensed my son coming closer..."

  As her words faded, Miranda began running like when Faith first saw her the night before. She turned back, and Faith finally saw the expression on her face was a mixture of love and worry. Then as she turned to continue forward, something stopped her. Miranda turned towards Faith and dark red blood spread across her white nightgown. As Miranda collapsed to the ground, Faith ran to her and fell onto her knees beside her, sobbing.

  "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to make you cry," Miranda said, sitting up, suddenly healed.

  Faith wiped her tears with the tips of her fingers and shook her head. "I'm so sorry that happened to you. I just...I'm so sorry. You said I can help you. Just tell me what it is and I'll do it."

  "That man never got my son, but he did take from me the one thing I had from his father. My husband was in the military and had recently been deployed. I'm sure they knew that when they attacked. Before burying me, the man removed my wedding ring and slipped it into his pocket, but he never made it home."

  "What happened?"

  "When an Alpha dies and a child is left behind, another Alpha must protect that child. My son's godfather was Alpha of the next territory, Connor Overstreet. He felt my death and arrived as quickly as he could. My spirit watched as Connor destroyed that man, ripping him apart as if he was nothing. The ring fell to the ground but Connor didn't know about it. He found my son and took him away before he could see what happened."

  "Did your son stay with Connor? Wait, is he...?"

  She laughed. "No, he's not Caleb. Caleb was born later. Unfortunately, state law and shifter law don't coincide and back then no one really cared about shifter law anyway. My son was taken from the Overstreet family and placed into an orphanage until his father returned from duty. I watched him grow. I saw the incredible man he became and then when he was ready, he chose to follow in his father's footsteps and enlist. My son had fallen in love by then with a beautiful girl and I hoped to see them marry. I wanted to give him my ring to give to her. But then she stepped in," Miranda said bitterly.

  "She? Who? What happened?"

  "The same woman who deserted you at birth," Miranda sneered. "She was just like those men, she hated shifters and didn't want her daughter to be with one. She broke them apart and did everything she could to keep it that way."

  "My mother? You know my mother?"

  "She couldn't keep them apart forever though. True love has a way of finding each other again, plus they were fated to be together, you know. But for so long he was lost. Lost without his other half, his mate. You've met him. You knew him as a child and were one of the few who accepted him despite his being a shifter. You later kept him safe when Abel imprisoned him with the other wolves."

  Faith recalled the handsome wolf shifter she moved into one of the cells that housed the shifters who had lost their minds. When the pack captured and brought him in, she recognized him as the boy she knew long ago and vowed that if she couldn't save any of the others, she would do what she could to protect him.

  "You mean your son is Knox Whitman?" Faith asked.

  Miranda beamed with pride. "Yes, Knox is my son and the only reason I didn't become one of those crazed spirits who runs around attacking people. I've spent my time following him. I've seen his ups and his downs and he is finally happy and whole again. He asked Eliza to marry him."

  "Eliza?"

  "Your older sister. You have a family, Faith. A family worth knowing. That dreaded woman is dead. She's actually trapped here in this clearing with me. I think it's her final penance," she said as she giggled. "Knox and Eliza live in the small house at the end of the path. Go there, tell them everything I told you, and bring him my ring."

  Miranda pointed to an area not far from them, and something began glittering in the soil. Faith stood and walked over to find a simple gold band with an antique cut diamond. Miranda appeared in front of her and smiled warmly.

  "Thank you, Faith. You've helped me do the final thing I needed to before I can rest."

  "Does that mean you're going to leave?"

  "No, I can't leave my Knox. I'll always be around, but now I can rest. I might not be a part of his life, but at least I get to watch. Thank you again, Faith."

  Miranda faded and left Faith alone in the clearing. She looked at the ring, a family heirloom, and for the first time she wasn't jealous about someone having a family. She finally had one herself.

  As she stood to go, she heard Abel howling nearby, then the wind picked up. The hair at the back of her neck rose and a chill ran down her spine, but not from the coyote. She wasn't alone anymore. Turning, she saw an older woman with short black hair in a yellow housecoat.

  The spirit furrowed her brow above her emerald green eyes and tilted her head as she looked at Faith. "How did you find me?"

  "Who are
you?" Faith asked.

  A flash of light shot towards Faith, then filled the clearing. The woman was gone. She didn't need the answer though, Faith knew to her very core that she had just met her mother.

  Chapter Six

  Faith peeked out from behind the kitchen curtains into the yard. Abel had been out all night working on whatever this new contraption was. She dreaded talking to him when he was like this, but she didn't have much choice. Taking a deep breath, she opened the kitchen door and stepped outside. Abel paused for a moment, sniffed the air, then continued soldering joints together.

  "You should stay inside," he said without looking up at her.

  "I was going to go out. We need some things from the market."

  Abel stopped and looked at her, his eyes narrowing as he looked her over. "Why are you dressed like that? That's too nice for the market. Is that new?"

  After years of Abel being controlled by the coyote, years of him not noticing her, barely even seeing her, she didn't think he would notice if she wore a nicer skirt with a fitted top in a dark green color that complemented her eyes. She planned to see Knox and Eliza like she promised Miranda she would, and she refused to make a bad first impression.

  "Dressed like what? I didn't do laundry so I had to wear something I haven't worn in a long time," she lied and hoped he didn't press further.

  "Whatever," he said as his focus returned to his project. He waved his hand to dismiss her and she turned back towards the house. "Bring Erich with you. People might be looking for you now. He's close. He's always close," he snorted.

  She entered the house and grabbed her bag and the keys. They had an old blue sedan Erich arranged for them to use, and she hopped into it without any intention of finding Erich or telling him where she was going. She maneuvered the car through the tree-lined dirt driveway and down to the narrow county road. As she turned the vehicle onto the asphalt, she hit the gas and began picking up speed until a bear appeared in the middle of the road. Slamming on the brakes, the car skidded off the road to a stop, just missing the bear.