Shifting Intentions: Shifting Hearts Book Two

by Ivy Hayes

  “Gwen. . .” I trail off, not sure what I want to say to her.

  She is still trembling, she says, “Yes?” Then bites her lower lip. I run my thumb over her plump lip, causing her to release it.

  “You are beautiful.”

  She blushes a deeper shade of red at that.

  We stare at each other for a long moment, entranced by each other’s lust.

  “I should go. Someone is bound to come in here to check on you.”

  “You can borrow some of my clothes to get you to your room.”

  She shakes her, “I can’t. What if someone sees me. They will think we did things in here.”

  “I hate to break it to you,” I say with a grin, “but you don’t really have any other options, unless you are going to wear the sheet through the halls.”

  “If anyone sees me, they are going to think the worst.”

  “It’s better than them knowing the truth. Hopefully no one will see you, just be as sneaky as you can be.”

  “You promise you won’t tell anyone?” She looks at me with such worry in her eyes I can’t help but frown.

  “I will never tell your secret. No one will hurt you because of this.” I try and put as much sincerity in my voice, pleading that she will trust me.

  “Thank you,” she trails off and I can see her thoughts pondering, “but I have a hard time trusting you right now.”

  “You will again, eventually,” I try and reassure her, “lying to you was never my intention, but I still went along with it. I hate that it ended up hurting you.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Don’t get mad at them, but it was your brother’s idea. Grant asked me to keep the truth of our engagement from you in the hopes I would make you love me all on your own and you would accept my hand in marriage. The goal was for you to never know about the agreement between our fathers.”

  She shakes her head, “You guys had to have known I would find out though.”

  “We hoped you wouldn’t.”

  “Why did you go along with it?” Her question floors me, I can’t tell her the real reason why, that it was a plan from my father to gain intel on Cliffden, but I can’t ignore her question either.

  “Before I met you, it was because I had yet to find anyone I even remotely liked, so I figured I might as well marry and get started on having an heir, and I agreed with your father’s plea for peace. After, though, it was because from the first moment I saw you, you were the most beautiful and fascinating woman I had ever seen. Gwen, I started to fall in love with you nearly instantly.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  “Because I was scared. I didn’t want you to react badly – which I knew you would – and lose you from it.”

  “Hearing it from you would have been easier. I would have been angry, yes, but it wouldn’t have hurt me nearly as much.”

  “I am sorry. I will never hide anything from you again.” I pull her into a hug and resign myself to the path is just set myself on. I will tell Gwen and her family the truth about my father’s plan to attack, I just need to be well enough to get rid of Theo when I do.

  She lets me hold her for a long time, but I finally separate us and say, “Gwen, you need to go get dressed. This won’t look good if someone comes in and we will have some awkward explaining to do.”

  “You’re right.” She starts to rise, then pauses, “Um, can you close your eyes?”

  I laugh, it’s a little late for her modesty to stay intact, but I close my eyes anyway, since she asked, “Be fast, the sight of you is a temptation I am likely to succumb to.”

  I feel her weight leave the bed and she says, “Don’t you dare open them.”

  I hear her rustling around the room and finally her voice, “Okay, I am dressed.”

  She only put on one of my shirts and it reaches to the top of her thighs, leaving just enough to make my imagination run wild. She looks bashful and I don’t think she realizes how incredibly striking she is.

  I gulp, “That is a good look on you.”

  She lets out a tinkling laugh, “No, I look ridiculous, but it will do. Wish me luck.”

  As Gwen moves to the door, I add one more piece of advice, “Gwen. Don’t go anywhere alone with Theo, no matter what.”

  She stills with her hand on the door and looks back at me, “Okay.”

  TWENTY-ONE – GWEN

  I head straight to my room, but I was not nearly as worried about being seen as Parker thought I was. I didn’t want to run into Theo, though so I hurried to my door. I made it in and got dressed as fast as possible then went around to the rooms of my whole family, knocking on their doors gently.

  In just under ten minutes all of us are in the library with the door closed.

  “What is all this about?” My father asks.

  “Before I can start, does anyone know where Theo is?”

  Grant speaks up first, “I think he is still in his room asleep, I have been up for a while and haven’t heard any noises from there.”

  “Okay. We need to all talk quietly than, I don’t want to risk him overhearing any of this.”

  “Why?” Gregory asks.

  “We shouldn’t trust him. I had this weird feeling from him yesterday, then Parker said something this morning that immediately proved my gut reaction. I don’t think he is here for any good reason and his overhearing of this conversation might be disastrous.”

  “Okay. Well, what is the emergency?”

  “Before I get to that, I need to say something else first.” I look at Gregory and Grant, “Parker told me that you both came up with the plan of lying to me to give me a chance to love him on my own. I appreciate the fact that you both tried to do what you could to save my feeling, but you were wrong. You should not have lied to me, that wasn’t fair.”

  Gregory starts to talk, “Gwen, you have to know,” but I cut him off.

  “I am not finished. I understand why you both did it and I just want you to know that I will get over your betrayal, eventually, just give me some time to be upset with you both.”

  “Betrayal? We were just trying to make it easier for you.” Gregory replied.

  Ash jumped in, “My love, she has every right to be mad. Apologize and don’t try and talk your way out of this.” I could tell my sister-in-law was upset by the news, just as I was. I give her a small smile, thanking her for being on my side.

  He grumbles, “You’re right.” Then turns towards me, “I am sorry Gwen, I will do what I can to earn your forgiveness.”

  “Me too,” Grant adds.

  My father had been silent through the whole exchange, watching me with careful eyes.

  I continue, “Father. You, I don’t know if I will ever forgive. You raised me to be strong and independent, but you threw that all back in my face by arranging a marriage for me. It is terrible. I deserved a chance to find my own husband and fall in love.”

  I refuse to cry, so I focus on my anger towards him. My father’s treachery was the worst, this all happened because of a scheme he concocted.

  “I don’t want to hear any excuses or explanations, it was wrong. You were wrong.”

  He remains silent, my mother adds, “She is right, John. How could you do this to her, and without telling me your plan?”

  “I did what I thought was right,” is all he said.

  “Are you still going to try and push for this marriage?” My mother asks him.

  “I don’t know,” he sighs, “I just don’t see any other way. The peace between Westhaven and us is tenuous and I want to make sure everyone, the family and the town, are safe for all the future years to come.”

  “So, Gwen still has no say in her future and happiness?” My mother says calmly but looks as if she is seconds from exploding.

  “About that,” I cut in, “Father, I have a proposition for you.”

  “What is it?” He asks.

  “See, the thing is, I started to develop feeling for Parker and I actually quite like him. I don�
��t love him – yet – but I am willing to see where this goes. All I ask is you don’t push me one way or the other. If you try and force me to marry him and I am not ready, I will leave here and never look back.”

  I still don’t know what to make of my strong feeling for Parker, but the truth of the matter is, I feel more for him than I have for anyone else. I want to spend more time with him and see where things might go. If this morning’s actions are any indication, I desire him, and I know he desires me, which is something I don’t want to brush away, especially when I now know what it would feel like if I were to never see him again.

  “I see.” He stops talking, I am going to assume that means he accepted my terms.

  “Now, since that is the end of that matter, at least for now. I have something exciting to tell you all. Remember to stay silent, what I say cannot fall on other ears.”

  They all nod so I continue, “I shifted last night.” I beam, elated to join the ranks of shifters in my family.

  The room is silent for a second, as it takes them all a few seconds to process what I just said. Ash is the first to speak.

  “What is your animal?”

  “A Labrador.” I respond.

  “His injury affected you enough to cause your shift?” Gregory asked

  I shake my head, “No. Well yes, but not just his injury, I think it was a mix of everything. My resentment at all of you, my fear of possibly seeing a dead body, and of Parker being injured.”

  And my heartbreak.

  Ash spoke up again, “Oh boy, does Parker know? You were in his room all night.”

  I turn beet red, “He does know. He figured it out when he awoke, and I was asleep naked on his bed.”

  My mother looked panicked, which was mirrored in all the eyes I saw in the room except Grant’s. He spoke up before anyone could put their panic into words.

  “He won’t tell anyone. Parker isn’t that kind of a guy and he cares for Gwen, he won’t put her in danger.”

  I nod, “I don’t think he will either.”

  “We can’t risk it,” my mother says, “not with Ash being pregnant and four of us here being shifters.”

  “Yes, we can,” Grant says, “I trust him completely.”

  My father shakes his head, “No, he can’t be running free with this knowledge.”

  “Can we at least give him a few days before you decide his fate?” I plead.

  “We can give him at least a chance, at least.” Ash said, surprising me by coming to his defense, given she is the most vulnerable right now.

  “Just a chance, that is all I am asking for.” I look at my father with all the hope I could muster.

  He shakes his head, “No, what if he sends out a letter?”

  “We won’t let him,” Grant answered.

  “But what about his cousin?” Gregory asked, jumping into the conversation.

  “He,” I say, “I am very sure we don’t have to worry about. Parker warned me to stay away from him and I take it he does not like him, at all.”

  “I can agree with that,” stated Grant, “Theo was nothing more than a bully to Parker when I was in Westhaven.”

  “Alright, fine. He can have a couple days, but I will be talking to him. It is your secret, Gwen, I just hope you understand you are putting yourself at risk.”

  “I do, but I am confident he is not a danger.”

  The room starts to break up, everyone heads back to their respective rooms, I put an arm on Grant when he passes by me, “Can you stay for a second, I have one more thing to ask you?”

  “Okay,” he agrees, and we wait for the room to empty out.

  When the others are out, he asks me, “So, what’s this about?”

  “Do you know where Parker’s horse, Powder is? I need to see the body.”

  “She should still be one the road, unless someone moved her off the side, we haven’t had a chance to go back and clean it up.” I try not to grimace at the image of Powder dead on the side of road, alone.

  “Can you take me?”

  “Why?” He looks skeptical.

  “I don’t think it was an accident.”

  TWENTY-TWO – GWEN

  Powder was still laying in the road where we left her after getting her off Parker yesterday. Grant and I dismounted our horses then walked over. I wasn’t sure what I was looking for, basically anything out of the ordinary to explain why a healthy horse would fall dead and land on its rider.

  Grant found something before me and I hear him say, “Well, you’re right, Gwen, something malicious happened. She was stabbed in the eye.”

  I walk around to look at the horse’s head and see what he saw. I stare at her face, confused until he adds, “Do you see that hole, right to the side of this eye? It was caused by a dagger, most likely.”

  “Why would anyone do something like that?

  “My best guess is to get it to buck off its owner, but I don’t know who would do it. Bandits wouldn’t waste a healthy horse to just take down its rider.”

  I shake my head, “It wasn’t bandits, it was Theo.”

  “Theo? Are you sure?”

  I nod, “I saw him walk his horse into the barn as I was leaving to go on my ride, he claimed he was coming back because his horse had a damaged shoe, but I know he was lying, the horse was walking just fine.”

  “And,” Grant added, “they were riding together. Parker invited him along during breakfast.”

  “Do you think he was trying to kill Parker?”

  “I have no idea, but I don’t like the idea of him being alone in the house with anyone. Parker was right to warn you to stay away from him.”

  “What should we do?” I ask.

  “We need to keep an eye on him and make sure Parker is safe, who knows what Theo will do to him if he gets the chance to be alone with him.”

  “Oh my, I hadn’t thought of that.” Suddenly worried, I say, “We should get back, now.”

  He nods, “Yeah, I will come back here later with Gregory and bring the horse back to the manor, we will need the proof if we decide to go to the constable with this.”

  When I enter the house, the first and only person I see is Theo. He is standing in the entry hall, looking through some of the relics that line the walls. I don’t want him to see me, but I can’t turn back as this is only way into the main living area, unless I climb through my window again. I contemplate doing just that but shake it off as I won’t be scared of entering my own home.

  Squaring my shoulders, I prepare myself for the tension then walk further in the room. After a few steps, he notices me and shoots an inviting smile. I try not to wince.

  “Good morning, Gwen.”

  “Hello, Theo. Are you enjoying yourself?”

  “I am.” He walks towards me, closing the distance, “There are some interesting pieces in here.” He reaches out and touches my arm then adds, “Would you be willing to tell me the histories of them?”

  My skin itches at the contact and I flinch at his invasion of my personal space. I take a step back, moving more than enough distance for him to lose his grasp on my arm.

  “I can’t right now, I apologize, but I am far too busy this morning.”

  He closes the distance between us, again, and it takes everything I have not to verbally lash out at him.

  “Maybe later, then? I want to spend a little more time with you.” He smiles at me again, as if that would help his case.

  “Are you kidding?” I ask, incredulous, “I am engaged to your cousin, why would I spend alone time with you?”

  “You don’t have to be engaged to him.”

  “What on earth do you mean?” I couldn’t hide the snap in my voice.

  “His father always liked me more, I bet we could work something out, if you preferred someone other than Parker, that is?”

  “I don’t even know you.”

  He touched me again and my stomach turned.

  “We can fix that. Spend some time alone with me later.”

  I
t sounded like a command, not a request. The idea of spending any time alone with him makes my skin crawl, that is not going to happen.

  “No. But thank you.”

  Then I stalk past him, leaving the entry hall without looking back. I am furious and repulsed but picking a fight with him would be the worst thing I could do right now. I don’t know why he tried to hurt Parker or what he is capable of, if I were to set him off when I was alone with him, I shudder at the thought of what I might happen.

  I take a second on the stairwell to catch my breath and let my anger abate, calming myself as much as I can before I enter Parker’s room. He doesn’t need to see me upset, he would only dig at what the issue was the no doubt try and do something about Theo, but he can’t, he needs time to heal before we make any moves.

  My relief is immediate when I see him asleep and safe on his bed. Not wanting to disturb him, I grab at book at random of the shelf and climb on his couch, prepared to read until he arises. Before I have a chance to open it, his door opens, and I stiffen, suddenly fearful thinking Theo followed me. The tension passes as I see it is my mother in the door way. She does a quick glance to take in the room and seeing Parker asleep, she motions for me to join her outside. I put my book down on the side table then silently make my way over.

  She waits until we are outside with the door shut before she says anything, “Let’s go somewhere more private.”

  “Alright, where?”

  “My room,” and she leads the way. When we enter, she pulls me into a hug and asks, “How are you, really, Gwen? Are you worried?”

  Oh, she wants to talk about my shifting. With all that is going on, it’s been slipping out of my mind.

  “No. It’s surprising, but I am not. It helps that you I know other shifters and you all are safe. If my situation was different, like how Ash’s was before she got here, I would be terrified, but I know I will be okay. Father will keep me safe.”

  She brushes my hair back, “We all will. That’s actually why I brought you in here.”

  “Oh, you didn’t have to get me alone to tell me that, I already knew it?”