Shifting Gears

by Maia Dylan

  “How are things going, Hannah?”

  Hannah froze at the sound of Ash’s voice on her phone. She looked around her workshop, breathing a sigh of relief when she didn’t spot either of her mates.

  “Why are you contacting me, Ash?”

  “What do you mean?” Ash’s tone was the right mixture of concern and confusion. “I told you when we spoke a couple of days ago that I would call you soon. You sound strange. Are you okay?”

  “No, not really. Why did you reach out to me on that social network?” Hannah asked, turning to walk into her office. Even without the glass in the wall, she hoped it would offer some privacy.

  “What exactly are you asking me, Hannah?” Ash responded after a pause.

  Hannah decided to just get to the crux of it. “Did you know that I was their mate? That I was destined to Ryker and Bastian?” There was a telling silence on the other end of the phone that got Hannah’s back up. “You did, didn’t you? Somehow you knew, and you signed up to that social media network, and then you struck up a friendship with me.”

  “Aww, now, Hannah.” Hannah jolted a little in shock at the harsh tone in Ash’s voice that had a distinct thread of arrogance through it. He had never used that tone when he was speaking to her before. “You say that like it might have been a little inconvenience for me, when in reality, it was a complete fucking pain in my ass! You are a human.” The contempt he injected in that one word spoke volumes. “And I had to actually talk to you as an equal. A fucking equal! What a joke.”

  “So, you did know that I was their mate? How in the hell were you able to do that? Unless you took a page from your old man’s book and decided to use that old black magic shit. Let me be honest with you, Ash, and yes, I know the concept of honesty is completely foreign to you and your kind, but try to use what limited IQ you have to follow what I’m saying here.” His angry growl had her quietly rejoicing. “Using black magic to force a mating didn’t work so well for your father, so why do you think it’s going to work any better for your dumb ass?”

  “Because I am nothing like my father!” Ash roared down the phone, and Hannah flinched away from the handset. “That man was weak. He should never have allowed his pack to be forced from their lands, and he sure as fuck should never have allowed that clan of bears to keep Blackwater Falls. I will take back what is mine, and burn that fucking clan to the ground.”

  Hannah laughed bitterly. “You think you have what it takes to take down my mates and their clan? Fuck that! I saw the way your wolves ran from the highway that day, and that was only against two of the Blackwater Falls clan. There are more of them here now. How the hell do you think you can win against them?”

  There was a poignant pause, and Hannah started to panic. “Because now I know how to rid myself of your mates, once and for all.” Ash’s tone was now calm, and he sounded almost smug. “I’ll be seeing you soon, Hannah. Real. Soon.”

  The click as he disconnected the call sounded loud in her ear. She lowered the phone and pressed the palm of her hand against her pounding heart. She had no idea what in the hell had just happened, but Ash seemed to think he now had the upper hand in this imminent battle. But how? What in the hell could she have said that would give that bastard an advantage?

  She turned from where she had been standing by the far wall and ran out into the workshop. She had to speak to her mates. The three of them had to figure out what Ash was up to, and if something she had said did, in fact, give that lying, scheming, son of a bitch an advantage, she’d never forgive herself. Well, at least until she killed him herself, and then she might feel a little more forgiving.

  ****

  "Ash knew that Hannah was our mate," Ryker announced to the clan who had gathered at the town hall. The room erupted into a cacophony of questions and noise. When you considered the fact there were more than twenty bear shifters in the room, the noise level was pretty damn deafening. Because of the arrival of the younger generation of clan members, they’d had to move their meetings to the hall. Their home was too small now.

  "Well, you certainly don’t believe in sugar-coating anything, huh?" Hannah asked dryly from beside him, and he shrugged. He'd never been one to mince words.

  Landon spoke from the back of the room. "How in the hell was he able to do that?" He had no doubt voiced the question most had uppermost on their minds, and the volume in the room dropped considerably. "If there is a way for us to find our mates, then I for one am all for hearing more about it."

  Most of his friends in the room all nodded in agreement, and Ryker growled low in his chest, allowing his dominance to edge out into the room, bringing the voices to an end. "You are all acting like this is something to be celebrated, but it's not. He used black magic to identify who she was and to bring her here." The room seemed to inhale at the same time.

  "Why?" Isaac asked.

  "For the same damn reason his father did, I would expect," Bastian answered as he looked around the room. "Some of you were there thirty years ago when Harford brought our great-aunt back here. They were after Blackwater Falls, and nothing was going to stop them from getting a slice of this town. Now it seems, with Chubbuck's death, Ash has a plan to see that come to fruition, and for some reason, he has brought our mate to this town as part of it."

  "All of this comes back to that fucking wolf," Ryker said, and even he could hear the angry frustration in his voice. "He's not going to come at us head-on, not like his father did. He is working on something bigger, and if I were to guess, deadlier. He made it clear that day out on the boundary road that he wanted to kill me and Bastian. He believed that without us, the clan would be leaderless, and he could somehow step in."

  "Well, that’s kinda true," Lucas pointed out. "None of the males that have been born into the clan since you and Bastian have carried the dominance of an Alpha. If you cannot sire a male who does, then we will need to go to the council." He looked around at the bears who had recently returned, and they all nodded. “You boys bring strength back to the clan, but none of you carry that mantle.”

  Ryker nodded. "But knowing he wants to kill us is no surprise. He and his kind have been wanting that for as long as I can remember. What we need to work out now is what the crazy bastard’s plans are, and how they involve our mate."

  "Ash was the reason I even knew about the garage being on the market," Hannah added. "I hadn't even heard of Blackwater Falls until he sent me information about the garage and the sale. I had been looking to purchase a business like this one for years, but they were all out of my reach, financially. When this one came in just under what I could afford at the time, I jumped at it."

  Ryker frowned as he mulled that over. It raised a few questions for the previous owner, but he couldn't see Karl anywhere in the crowd. That, in itself, had alarm bells ringing. When your Alpha called an emergency meeting, you dropped everything and attended. Karl had never been the most active or social member of the clan. In fact, he kept to himself. He and Bastian had often talked about the older man and his tendency to not only keep to himself, but completely isolate himself from the more social aspects of being part of a clan. Lucas had even used words like “narcissist” and “antisocial personality”, but he’d never hurt anyone so they had just let him be. This was the first time he had openly defied an order from his Alpha though.

  Hannah seemed to jolt beside him, dragging him from his thoughts, and he stared at her in question, but she smiled at him and shook her head. He frowned but turned back to the clan gathered before him.

  "Did any of you know that Kyle was unhappy at the garage and looking to sell before he actually made the announcement that he'd found a buyer?" Ryker asked and watched as the crowd all looked around as if trying to spot him themselves.

  "He's often talked about wanting to get out of Blackwater Falls," Henry answered from the back of the room. "I and my mate always thought he never seemed happy here. The older he got, the more aloof he became."

  “He seemed only too happy to
accept my offer,” Hannah said, but she sounded a little distracted.

  "He sure as fuck was no good at his job," another of the clan added. "My truck never ran right until the Alpha female got a hold of it." Ryker shot a glance at his mate to gauge her reaction to her title in the clan. She jolted slightly, which told him she'd registered the name, but reacted no further.

  "What the hell does that mean?" Bastian asked as he turned to face Ryker. "You think Karl has something to do with all of this?"

  Ryker was about to answer, but rapid movement at the back of the room caught his attention. He turned quickly to see what caught his eye, and every cell within him filled with horror. Ash stood at the back of the room, a shit-eating grin on his face, and a line of giant wolves standing just behind him. There had to be at least twenty of them, with more filing into the back of the room. But it was the handgun he held in front of him, trained at the front of the room that had him scared. The bastard must have used whatever spray or spell it was that suppressed their scent to be able to get into the hall without detection. Before he could react, the boom of the weapon discharging filled the room.

  As if in slow motion he turned to his mate, and in that instant of clarity he knew exactly what Ash's plan had been all along. Once he and Bastian were completely bonded with Hannah, their lifespan was tied to hers. If she were to die, then he and Bastian would immediately lose the ability to shift, gradually weaken, then pass into the arms of their ancestors with her, not wanting to live another moment without her in their arms.

  His heart stuttered within him as he watched her fall. With Ash’s speed and shifter accuracy, there was no way he’d missed. Ryker and Bastian reached out toward her at the same time to catch her as she fell. They both dropped to the ground beside her. When she crossed over Ryker would willingly go with her. His love for her was all-consuming, and there would be nothing left for him here without her.

  At the sound of evil laughter at the back of the room, Ryker looked up, his gaze clashing with the satisfied smugness of Ash’s. His bear surged forward in rage at seeing Karl standing beside him, looking almost disinterested in the goings on around him. Ryker would follow Hannah, there was no doubting that, but he sure as fuck was going to wait until his bear had the chance to dine on the hearts of her killer and the traitor that stood by his side.

  Chapter Thirteen

  "Ash was the reason I even knew about the garage being on the market." Hannah felt compelled to come clean. She was still coming to terms with the whole mating thing and needed the clan to know that she might well be a part of whatever plan Ash had. "I hadn't even heard of Blackwater Falls until he sent me information about the garage and the sale. I had been looking to purchase a business like this one for years, but they were all out of my reach, financially. When this one came in just under what I could afford at the time, I jumped at it."

  She should have been a little wary. Her dad had always said that if it looked and sounded too good to be true then it probably—

  “He is coming for you.” Hannah jolted at the sound of the female voice in her head. It was the same voice that had tried to warn her the night of the break-in at the garage. She noticed Ryker looking at her in concern, and she smiled up at him to try to ease his anxiety. His frown remained so she knew she wasn’t successful. “You need to listen to me this time, child. He is almost here.”

  Goddamn it, was she going crazy? Too many concussions maybe?

  "Did any of you know that Kyle was unhappy at the garage and looking to sell before he actually made the announcement that he'd found a buyer?" Hannah half listened as Ryker asked a question she had been thinking herself.

  Then the voice spoke again. “Please, child. His father was responsible for my death, and it almost cost my kin their birthright. Don’t let his son be responsible for yours.”

  Holy. Shit. Was this Emily?

  "He'd often talked about wanting to get out of Blackwater Falls," a tall man said from the back of the room, and indicated the woman sitting beside him with a nod of his head. "I and my mate always thought he never seemed happy here. The older he got the more aloof he became."

  “He seemed only too happy to accept my offer,” Hannah said in an effort to hide her shock.

  “Yes, my name is Emily, and when I say ‘now’, you need to drop to the ground. Just fall down as fast as you can.”

  "He sure as fuck was no good at his job," another of the clan added. "My truck never ran right until the Alpha female got a hold of it." She barely registered the conversation around her now. Her heart began to pound as she realized that she was in danger. Imminent danger, that was apparently heading in her direction, and he had her directly in his sights.

  “Be ready,” Emily warned.

  "What the hell does that mean? You think Karl has something to do with all of this?" Hannah heard Bastian ask the question, but her attention was held by a blur of movement she spotted at the back of the room.

  “Now!” Emily cried out, and this time Hannah followed her instructions, letting her knees give out and dropping straight to the floor. She heard the rapport of a gun and at the same time felt a flash of pain across her left clavicle as she headed for the ground. The pain was so intense, it robbed her of breath and speech when she would have called out a warning to her mates to drop with her. Bastian and Ryker reached out to her simultaneously anyway, and both dropped to their knees beside her.

  Her mates were growling, and she could feel the anger and grief rolling from them. As she lay there fighting shock and nausea, she closed her eyes. She knew she was bleeding. She could feel the warm slide of her blood flowing from the wound on her shoulder.

  “Your whore is dead!” Ash yelled from the other end of the room. “It is only a matter of time, and the great Blackwater Falls Alphas will follow her into death.”

  So, that was his plan. The bastard only ever befriended her because he knew she was destined for her mates and arranged for her to move here to put her in their path so that he could kill them. What an asshole!

  She forced her eyes open, and her gaze locked with Bastian’s. Her heart stuttered at the pain and grief that shimmered beneath the rage she saw there.

  “I’m not dead,” she whispered as quietly as she could, and she felt the jolt of surprise shudder through both men. “Don’t let him know. Let him think he’s won.”

  She felt Ryker’s hand squeeze once around hers and saw Bastian’s almost imperceptible nod. She watched as Bastian dropped to press a kiss to her temple, pretending to be the grief-stricken lover. “Thank God you’re okay, baby.”

  “I am,” she whispered back. “I’ll have another scar, and Lucas will need to have another look at me, but I’ll live. Go. Kick that fucker’s ass for me.”

  Bastian winked at her as he pulled back. She lay there as still as possible, waiting for her mates to reap the revenge she knew they so richly deserved.

  ****

  “I’m going to fucking end you, wolf,” Ryker snarled as he jumped from the stage and began to walk down the aisle, signaling to his clan to stay back. Ash wouldn’t use the gun. If he took him and Bastian out with a bullet, he would forfeit his life to the council.

  He heard Bastian drop down to the floor and follow behind him. He knew Bastian would have had to fight every instinct within him to walk away from their mate, but they had to make Ash believe that she was dead. That both were prepared to meet him and his pack in battle with nothing left to lose.

  Ash crossed his arms over his chest, and Ryker looked forward to wiping that shit-eating grin from his face. “I’m not sure how you’re going to be able to accomplish that, Ryker. With your mate dead, you can’t shift, and you’re getting weaker by the second.”

  Ryker smiled, enjoying the confused look his reaction got from the prick. “Man, you wolves just never fucking learn, do you? You go to a witch, you dabble in black magic, and you expect not to have your ass handed to you. If history has taught us anything, Ash, you fucking idiot, it's that the cour
se of action you took, never gets you what you want.”

  Ash snarled, his wolf gleaming in his eyes. “I’m about to change history, in this case, asshole!” Ash made a move with his arm, and the large wolves in the room began to growl. All carried battle scars, and Ryker knew he was looking at the pack’s enforcers. The wolves they had faced before had simply been pawns. Ash would have brought them to lay waste to any challenges from Ryker’s clan after he and Bastian died. He would want to keep this as righteous as possible to avoid the Shifters’ Council getting involved.

  “So, what’s next in this grand plan of yours, Ash?” Ryker asked as he continued to step forward, his gaze never wavering. “You challenge me, we fight, you win, your pack here deals with those who would fight in my clan, and then what? You think that will give you the right to Blackwater Falls?”

  “We already have the right!” Ash roared, his face turning that interesting shade of purple Ryker remembered from that day out on the boundary road. “If not for your fathers and that asshole Chubbuck, this land would have been ours! You squander the wealth that sits within your reach.”

  Ryker’s gaze flicked to the man he once called a friend, as he stood dispassionately behind Ash. “Is that why you fucking betrayed your own clan, Karl?”

  Whatever the answer was, Karl was a dead man walking as far as Ryker and his bear were concerned, but he couldn’t help but be curious. After all, he couldn’t imagine anything that might convince him to betray his own.

  “I’m tired of living here,” Karl said in a monotone, and Ryker wondered if the man had ever had a real emotion. “I want to leave, but I don’t want to work. This seemed like a good way to get money. It was never anything personal.”

  “Don’t fucking kid yourself, Karl,” Bastian snarled from over Ryker’s left shoulder. “This is all about being personal.”

  Ash stepped in front of Karl, his eyes flicking to an arctic blue, his wolf close to the surface. “Enough! I want this to end. I challenge you, Ryker Barrett, for the right to lead the Blackwater Clan.”