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

by Liliana Rhodes

  "What is it?" she said to herself as she picked it up.

  The silk ribbon was a closed loop, and attached to it was a golden amulet in the shape of a shield. Picking it up, Pinky examined the sculpted image of a dragon surrounded by a ring of fire. She ran her finger over the grooves of the flames that gave them dimension, then smoothed the ribbon against her fingers so it hung flatly.

  The image was familiar, but not because of her father. She never saw her dad with anything like it before. Why would they think it belonged to him? Without realizing it, she started shaking her head, the back and forth motion speeding up as her certainty grew. She looked up at Rafael and pushed the amulet back into his hand.

  "I don't know why you dumb bears think this has anything to do with my father. This is probably just one of your ridiculous excuses to come by my house," she said as she folded her arms over her chest.

  Rafael stepped closer to her, his eyes glowing golden. He towered over her with his shoulders back and face peering down at her.

  Pinky knew she crossed a line with him, but she was too stubborn to apologize. His teeth clacked loudly like an angry bear's, startling Pinky and making her involuntarily take a step back.

  "That's enough," Caleb said, stepping forward with his hand on Rafael's chest. "I don't understand what's going on here, but this isn't helping matters."

  Rafael grunted, his eyes still focused on Pinky. He held the amulet out to her in the palm of his hand and flipped it over so the dragon was facing down. Pinky sighed loudly as she pretended to be annoyed by him, then read the back of the medal.

  Pinky

  She blinked to make sure she read it correctly. Yup, definitely her name, she thought. Her mind raced as she tried to come up with other possible reasons for the word 'Pinky' to be on the back, but nothing came to mind.

  Taking the amulet back from Rafael, her eyes filled with tears. She felt ridiculous and didn't want to cry in front of either man, especially not Rafael, but she couldn't help herself. Keeping her eyes down, she sucked in a deep breath and tried to keep her composure.

  "Erich said it had my dad's scent?" she asked, her voice small.

  "And his blood," Rafael said softly as he relaxed his frame.

  She looked up at him but couldn't ask the questions. His blood? Do you think he's dead? She searched his face for the answers, but all she saw were his eyes slowly changing back to pale blue.

  As if reading her mind, he pointed to a few dark splatters on the ribbon. "We're guessing there was a fight, but we don't know. Don't put too much into the stains, Pinky. They might be old. I also picked up another human scent there, but it was too faint."

  "Erich wants to talk to you, Pinky," Caleb said. "He asked if you'd meet him later at Night Shift. He'll be in his office."

  Pinky felt a cold flush spread over her. Erich knew it was her fault, she thought. Otherwise he would've come with them.

  "Okay, I'll be there," she said.

  She didn't have much of a choice. When it came to something Erich wanted, she had to go. Erich wasn't the type to let something like that slide. She was the reason her father was missing. It was all her fault.

  Chapter Two

  Gravel kicked up under her small yellow Toyota as Pinky pulled into the parking lot of Night Shift. She had been going there regularly for ten years, ever since she got her first fake ID at sixteen.

  The sun had almost set, leaving dark stripes of pinks and yellows in the sky. Pinky spotted Erich's oversized black pickup truck towards the side of the tired wooden building and parked next to it. She could sneak in through the back door if she wanted to, but Bubbles was working the front door and would be pissed if she didn't say hello.

  She flipped down the visor and did a quick check of her hair in the mirror and frowned. Weeks ago, she dyed her hair back to a brown she thought was close to her natural color, but it didn't look right. Maybe it would help if she remembered what her real color was to begin with. It had been a long time since she let her hair go natural.

  None of it mattered though. Pinky didn't care about her hair as much since her dad went missing. She was having a hard time caring about anything since that happened. The only reason she was keeping it together was for her mom and the twins. They needed her so she had to stay strong for them.

  Bubbles blocked the entrance as he did almost every night. The large man with his long thin braid kept his expression stern as he looked people over before letting them in. To Pinky, he was Willie Nelson on steroids. Lots of steroids. Pinky hung to the side until the last of the crowd was inside and then snuck up behind the big man and tried to wrap her arms around him.

  "You're going to give me a bad reputation," he said, smiling as he turned around and hugged her back.

  "I know, I know. That's why I waited. No one's around to see you're really a big softy. I've always wondered, are all your people the same way?"

  "The manatees? Yes. People think we're big and a little dumb, but in human form we look pretty intimidating. I like it that way."

  Pinky noticed a fresh long scar on his forearm and gently touched it.

  "Ship propeller?"

  "Yeah, I drifted too close during a nap. Those fucking things get me every time! You'd think I'd learn."

  She smiled and rubbed his arm gently. "You need to find a nice quiet place to rest. Maybe a lake."

  "Nah, it's the ocean or nothing for me. Besides, have you seen the lakes around here? They're not much better with their water-skis. I'm safer in the deep." He peeked into the bar then turned back to Pinky. "I heard Erich wants to talk to you. Maybe he knows something about your dad."

  "Yeah, thanks. I'm afraid he does," she said as her stomach dropped to her feet and guilt filled her again.

  "Rafael is working the bar tonight."

  "Now why would I care about that?" she said with a grin she tried to hide.

  "Because when it comes to him, he's your propeller."

  "Exactly, if I'm not careful, he'll hurt me bad."

  "No," he said, shaking his head. "Not him. I know him. He's a good guy, Pinky. And deep down you know that, too."

  She shrugged. "I've been with 'good guys', remember?"

  "Not like him. Trust me."

  Pinky shrugged and entered the bar. She had heard it all before. Okay, so she never heard it from Bubbles and she trusted him, but still. She didn't think she could trust Rafael, or any shifter for that matter. Not when it came to dating. In the end, the only thing they wanted was to use her.

  Walking through the dingy bar, Pinky pretended to not notice the attention she got from the shifters as she walked past. She knew it was just her humanity that they were attracted to. And no one was more human than Pinky. She was one of the few people in Leeds Point with nothing special about her at all. That made her that much more attractive to them.

  She couldn't help but look towards the bar and pick out Rafael. He was wearing a blue cotton button shirt with the sleeves rolled up under his elbows. His broad shoulders filled out the shirt, which was unbuttoned low enough for her to see the swell of his muscular chest. She tried tearing her eyes away from him as she walked towards the door at the far end of the bar, but she couldn't.

  Her eyes met Rafael's as he poured a draft beer into a tilted chilled mug. She forced herself to quickly look away, hoping he didn't see her, but when she glanced back, he had such a sexy half grin that she had to resist the urge to jump over the bar and onto him.

  "Damn shifters," she muttered under her breath.

  The safest place for her to look was down at her feet as she hurried to get to the door. She needed to remember why she was there, and it wasn't to gawk at Rafael. She slipped her hands up into her long sleeved t-shirt and nervously folded the edges of her sleeves between her fingers as she weaved through the crowd.

  Pushing the wooden door open, the fluorescent lights in the plain white hallway blinded her briefly. Leaning with her back against the door, she took a deep breath to calm herself.

&nbs
p; Shouts came through the door from the bar, and she resisted the urge to find out what was going on. Some shifter probably sniffed the wrong girl, she thought. She had to get to Erich and face the music. It was time for her to finally accept responsibility for what she did.

  As she walked down the sterile hallway, her Converse squeaked against the floor. Erich's office was just ahead and his door was open, which was unusual. Everyone knew Erich Krause. The hulking grizzly Alpha grew up in Leeds Point like almost everyone else in town. Well, everyone except Rafael. She mentally kicked herself for letting her thoughts drift back to him.

  "Pinky, come in," Erich said as she approached his door.

  "I'll never get used to that," she said as she entered the sparsely furnished office. "Was it the squeaking?"

  "No, I caught your scent."

  "You'd think I'd be used to that by now," she said, shrugging.

  Pinky dropped onto an old couch across from Erich's desk and pulled the amulet Rafael gave her out of her jacket pocket. She studied it for a moment before leaning forward and showing it to Erich.

  "You found this, didn't you?"

  Erich glanced at her hand and nodded. "That's what I wanted to talk to you about," he said. "You know I found this in the clearing, you led us to the location. But there's something you're not telling us, isn't there?"

  She nodded slowly, not wanting to admit anything just yet. Of all people, she knew Erich would be the most disappointed in her. She always thought of him as the older brother she never had and now with his stern look and narrowing eyes, it was obvious he was upset with her.

  He straightened in his chair, his eyes never leaving her, and she realized how he had been such a successful Alpha for all those years. Erich's presence commanded attention and respect. She thought that with most Alphas, it was just something they exuded, but when Erich wanted to, he seemed even more powerful and intimidating.

  "What are you hiding?" he asked, his voice almost a growl.

  Pinky couldn't will herself to speak. She shook her head as her stomach sank even further. Erich's expression didn't change. She couldn't tell what he was thinking, but she was sure he was as disappointed in her as she was. Looking down at the rubber soles of her sneakers, she wished she could vanish.

  "I know you better than you think," he said, his voice softening. "You never went on that trip your dad asked you to go on, did you? And you knew where to look for him because he asked you to go with him, didn't he?"

  Pinky nodded, but couldn't look at him.

  "Why didn't you go?"

  "I didn't want to," she choked out. "I was finally accepting my fate of working at that stupid school that's been in our family forever. And what happens? I get told that I'm supposed to become some kind of do-gooder librarian of the supernatural—"

  "Shut up," he barked. "This isn't all about you. Did you ever think about how important your father is to this town? Did you stop and think about how much he believed in you? He was counting on you. I was there when he told you about the Talisman. The look of pride on his face…" he shook his head. "He loves you, Pinky. I wish I had a dad like that."

  "You think I don't know that?" she said, sitting on the edge of her seat. "You think I don't feel terrible? Or that I'm not blaming myself? It's my fault he's missing. He might even be dead! And all I'm finding out is that the dad I thought I knew is someone else, he's not who I thought he was all this time!"

  "You know exactly who Jerry Smythe is. He didn't change," Erich said. "I'm sorry, I know how hard this must be on you and I know you've been blaming yourself. But if there's something you know that you haven't told us, you need to tell me right now."

  "I told you everything! He was meeting someone in the clearing, that's all I know. I don't know who he was meeting or anything," Pinky said as she tried to control her feelings. "He told me how important it was for me to go there. He said he needed me there," she said, her eyes filling with tears. "And I let him down. Whatever I do, I always let him down. He never asked me for anything and the two times he did, I couldn't even do those things for him. This is all my fault."

  Pinky buried her face in her hands. She didn't know why she let her dad down, but she did. She had been selfish and now he was missing.

  "Did he say why he was meeting this person?"

  She shook her head. "No, I don't think so, but I really don't remember," she said slowly as her mind spun. "He had been researching the Crane Curse again, or still. But I don't know why. Everything has pointed to it being nothing more than folklore, like the Jersey Devil."

  "What did he say about the Cranes?"

  "Nothing really. He thought the portal was real. He said something about Abel opening it and wanting to use it."

  "But Abel's dead," he said.

  "I know, that's why I didn't listen and let him go alone. I thought he was losing it and letting all this crazy business go to his head."

  Erich was silent as he knitted his eyebrows together. He sat back in his chair again and stretched his legs out in front of him.

  "And what about the family friend? The one whose husband was found dead in Abel's hideout. Did you ever hear more about him?"

  "You think they're linked?"

  "I think your father is a much smarter man than you give him credit for. He wanted you to visit them and you never did. I really think you should go."

  "But– never mind," Pinky said, interrupting herself. "You're right, I have to go. It's the least I can do now that my dad is missing."

  She looked down at the dingy floor and sighed. Erich's chair squealed as he leaned forward.

  "This isn't your fault," he said quietly. "Jerry didn't have to go alone, he could have pushed you to go with him. I know him, and he's as pigheaded as you are."

  Pinky looked up at Erich and smiled slightly at his joke. "Okay, I'll leave tomorrow. I'll see if Hannah can stay over with my mom and the twins."

  "I'll tell Rafael."

  "No," Pinky said, knowing what Erich meant. "I'm going alone."

  "Your father is missing, don't you think someone might be after you, too? As Alpha, I'm telling you to take Rafael with you."

  "You're not Alpha anymore," Pinky said and immediately hated herself.

  "I stepped down from the Council, but I'll always be Alpha," he said standing up and looking even larger. "Rafael is going with you. You don't have a choice."

  Pinky groaned. Being near Rafael was hard enough. Going away with him was going to be torture. But Erich was right. She didn't know if she was in danger and if she had to go somewhere she had never been to before, she'd rather have a friend with her. But was Rafael even a friend? With how awful she sometimes was to him, she really doubted it.

  Heading to the door, Pinky spotted a storage box in the corner of the office. Her jaw dropped as she recognized the stamped dragon surrounded by a ring of fire on it. She picked the box up, surprised to find it empty, and spun around to Erich.

  "Where did you get this?" she asked.

  "That's another reason I wanted to talk to you in private. When I saw the amulet, I remembered that symbol from the computer room in the basement," he said, taking the box from her. "I went down there to double check and some of the boxes were gone. This one caught my nose though, it smells like wolf, and not any wolf I know."

  "But how would anyone get in there? This place is surrounded by shifters all the time."

  "You got in there, and I'm the only one who knows about that."

  He had a point, but she still found it suspicious that a shifter would want access to whatever was in those boxes. She wished she had been nosier and peeked in a few.

  "There's more," he said, turning the box around.

  He tapped on the side of the box where 'Pinky' had been scrawled across.

  "That's my dad's handwriting," she said as she grabbed the box. "But why would it have my name?"

  "Your guess is as good as mine, but I'm guessing whatever was in it belonged to you."

  Pinky looked at t
he amulet again. She already accepted that it belonged to her father. There was something about it that made her feel closer to him whenever she had it with her. There was so much about him she didn't know. Slowly, it dawned on her that he asked her to visit family friends she had never met or heard about before. Could they know more about her dad than she did?

  "Hopefully I can find out more on my trip," she said, thinking out loud before walking out of Erich's office.

  She turned down the hall, choosing to go out the back door. The last thing she wanted was to deal with the looks the shifters gave her. She wanted to see Rafael before she left Night Shift, but Pinky had more important things to take care of before leaving the next day.

  Chapter Three

  Pinky. Rafael didn't need to look at the door to know she was there. The bear inside him whispered her name like a breeze blowing through his mind. Pinky...

  Rafael ignored the bear within as he tilted the cold mug in his hand, letting the golden liquid fill it. The bear was never as persistent as when Pinky was around. It was the reason Rafael first came to the small town to begin with. Not that he would ever admit that to her.

  She's looking for you.

  Rafael looked up and met Pinky's brown gaze. She had put on some extra weight since her father went missing, but he didn't care, he actually preferred it. He couldn't control the tug at the corners of his mouth and grinned at her. She made his blood sing and his heart melt, but he couldn't tell her that, either.

  Pinky made it clear she wanted nothing to do with him, despite the occasional peck on the lips or the flirting. It was his fault, he pushed too hard when he first arrived at Leeds Point. He thought he could make it clear that she belonged to him and she'd comply. He didn't realize what a strong-headed woman she was until they finally met. And it made him want her even more.

  As she hurried towards the back rooms, a wolf shifter blocked Rafael's view and brought him back to his work. Rafael didn't recognize the shifter. He was large for a wolf, but nothing in comparison to a bear. The wolf flashed amber eyes at Rafael before leaning towards him.