One True Mate 3: Shifter's Echo

by Lisa Ladew

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Glossary

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Notes from Lisa

  One True Mate 3; Shifter’s Echo

  by Lisa Ladew

  All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons or organizations, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.

  Copyright © 2016 Lisa Ladew All Rights Reserved

  Book cover by The Final Wrap smooches Hi, Rebecca!!

  Cover model: Jonny Kane

  Photographer: Eric Battershell

  Special editorial assistance by The Blurb Diva and Savan Robbins. <3 Here’s your ode: Monterey Jackass. I laughed for a month.

  Thank you, Marci and Chris Passaglia for the dart smacktalk and info!

  Mucho thanks to Kristine Piiparinen for your above and beyond help and hot—guy scouting skills.

  Thank you, beta readers, arc readers, babes, and all my readers. You put the fun in fun.

  Thanks, as always, to Amanda Quiles, you are a genius!

  And lastly, but firstly in my life, thank you to my husband for your constant support in all things book related, oh, and for raising our boys to be good men.

  Glossary

  Bearen - bear shifters. Almost always work as firefighters.

  Citlali - Spiritual leaders of all Shiften. They are able to communicate with the deities telepathically, and sometimes bring back prophecies from these communications.

  Deae - goddess.

  Dragen - dragon shifter. Rare.

  Echo - an animal with the same markings of a shiften. Usually seen as a harbinger of bad things, but could also be a messenger from The Light.

  Felen - big cat shifters. Almost always work as mercenaries. They are also the protectors of Rhen’s physical body and a specially-trained group of them can track Khain when he comes into the Ula.

  Foxen - the Foxen were created when Khain forcibly mated with female wolfen.

  Haven, the – final resting place of all shiften. Where The Light resides.

  Impot – a shiften that cannot shift because of a genetic defect caused by mating too close to their own bloodline. Trent and Troy are not thought to be impots because they were born during a klukwana.

  Khain - also known as the Divided Demon, the Great Destroyer, and the Matchitehew. The hunter of humans and the main nemesis of all shiften.

  Klukwana – a ceremony where a full-blooded shiften who mates another shiften does so with both in animal form, then the mother stays in animal form during the entire pregnancy. The young in the litter are always born as their animal. Wolven from a klukwana always come in at least 4 to 7 young. Bearen are always two cubs, and felen are unpredictable, sometimes only one. Shiften born from a klukwana are almost always more powerful, bigger, and stronger than regular shiften, but many parents don’t try it because of the inherent risks to the mother during the (shorter) pregnancy and the risk that the shiften young may choose not to shift into human form. A lesser known possibility is that the shiften young will have a harder time learning to shift into human form, especially if no one shifts near them in the first few days after birth.

  KSRT - Kilo Special Response Team, or Khain Special Response team. A group of wolven police whose primary goal is to hunt down and kill Khain, if that can be done.

  Light, The – The creator of the Ula, humans, Rhen, Khain, and the angels.

  Moonstruck - Insane. Shiften who spend too long indoors or too long in human form can become moonstruck slowly and not even realize it.

  Pravus - Khain’s home. A fiery, desolate dimension that sits alongside ours.

  Pumaii - a small group of specialized felen tasked with tracking Khain when he crosses over into our dimension.

  Renqua - a discoloration in a shiften’s fur which is also seen as a birthmark in human form. Every renqua is different. The original renquas were pieces of Rhen she put inside the wolves, bears, and big cats to create the shiften. Every pure-blooded shifter born since has also had a renqua. Half-breeds may or may not have one. Some foxen acquired weak renquas when they mated with shiften. Also called the mark of life.

  Rhen - the creator of all shiften. A female deity.

  Ruhi – the art of speaking telepathically. No humans are known to possess the power to do this. Not all shiften are able to do it. It is the preferred form of speaking for the dragen.

  Shiften - Shifter-kind. Beings who could transform into animals on command.

  Ula – earth, in the current dimension and time. The home of the shiften.

  Vahiy – end of the world.

  Wolfen - a wolf shifter. Almost always works as a police officer.

  Wolven - wolf shifters, plural.

  Zyanya - When a wolfen dies, the funeral is for the benefit of humans, but the important ceremony is the zyanya. The pack mates of the fallen wolfen run in wolf form through the forest, heading north to show the spirit the way to the Haven. When they reach a body of water, they all jump in and swim to the other side, then emerge in human form.

  Prologue

  Four Weeks ago

  Serenity Police Department, in Wade Lombard’s, Deputy Chief of the Serenity PD and Head of the KSRT, office

  Crew Arcoal leaned against the doorway to Wade’s office, watching the craziness inside with a heavy heart. Wade and every member of the KSRT, the police special response team made entirely of wolf-shifters, whose only purpose was to fight the demon Khain, were inside. Also present was Graeme, the dragon shifter from Scotland with special abilities none of the wolves had, and the two brothers of the team’s lieutenant, Troy and Trent, both of whom could not shift into human form and were wolves bigger than Great Danes. The police department passed them off as dogs, but barely. The nine males, all as big as football players, were yelling over the top of each other while Troy howled and Trent stared on in steely disapproval, making the room seem smaller still.

  Crew watched Trevor’s face. He was the lieutenant of the team, and the reason they were all gathered there. The worst had happened. His female, the only one true mate found, had been taken by Khain into the Pravus, the dimension where Khain lived that existed alongside the real world. Trevor had no options, no way to get to the Pravus, no way to save his female. So he was going to offer himself as a trade.

  Crew shuddered, a black darkness consuming his insides, because he knew that would be him soon. Except his female would probably already be dead. He gritted his teeth. Would he survive it?
There was nothing in this world he wanted more than a mate. His mate. His promised mate who the angel had designated for him alone, but Khain had promised long ago that when Crew had well and truly fallen for her, Khain would end her life. Crew had sensed nothing but truth in the statement, and he knew Khain had the ability to make it happen. Tricky, merciless, murdering demon.

  Crew felt Wade’s energy shoot through the room and all the male voices cut off. Crew flicked the energy away from him with a finger, wondering if Wade had really wanted to bind him, too. Or really thought he still could.

  Wade was the citlali of the Serenity Police Department, the spiritual leader who had the special ability to immobilize shiften, beings who could transform into one specific animal on mental command, when they got out of hand. Wade also could talk to Rhen, the goddess who had created them all, although her communication came in the form of prophecy that was not easily interpreted.

  Wade lifted his chin and spoke loudly. “Everyone listen to me. Graeme says he can’t get us over there for twenty-four hours. I say we use that time to plan our offensive. Nothing like this has ever been done before, and we need to have a strategy.”

  “She’ll be dead in twenty-four hours,” Trevor said from the couch, his voice shaking in a way Crew had never heard before. He imagined his own voice shaking that way as his female died in front of him.

  “She won’t,” Wade said. “He…” He didn’t finish that sentence.

  Trevor stood up. “Crew, can you get a message to Khain for me?”

  Crew stared at Trevor for a long time. Re-forge the connection between himself and Khain that Crew had foolishly initiated when he was thirteen years old? The connection it had taken ten citlali to break? The connection that had sealed his fate and his one true mate’s fate forever? The connection that had split his world into two lives? His two lives were this life that he thought of as his real life in the real world, and the one he lived when he fell asleep, and thought of as his dream life. Except the dream life had teeth.

  Crew hadn’t known that Trevor was aware of his ability to converse with Khain. Wade must have told him. When Crew’s mother and almost every other female shiften on the planet had been murdered, Crew’s father had been unable to care for him, and Wade had taken him in. Wade had been against Crew digging around in Khain’s mind, but Crew had done it anyway, and been paying for it every day since then.

  Trevor’s eyes tried to stay strong as he waited for an answer, but Crew could hear the breath he held captive in his chest, and the way his heart sped up. Crew’s answer could determine whether Trevor’s mate lived or died. Or lived as the concubine of a demon.

  Of course, Crew couldn’t, wouldn’t, say no. He nodded.

  A sickly, strained hope flooded Trevor’s visage. Crew heard his message in ruhi, telepathic communication that only certain shiften were able to use, loud and clear. Thank you. Anything I have is yours. Anything I can do for you, ever, it’s done. I owe you a pack-debt.

  Crew pressed his lips together, hoping he would never ask Trevor for anything, especially not something as bloody as a pack-debt. If he could find his way out of this world for good, he wouldn’t need to ask Trevor for so much as a ride to work.

  Trevor spoke. “Tell him he can have me. Tell him if he lets her go, I’ll give myself to him. I’ll hold my head up so he can cut my throat. Be sure to tell him of the two prophecies that involve me.”

  The males in the room exploded in opposition to that plan. Crew waited until they quieted and Trevor explained himself, then looked at him one more time, his expression resolute.

  Crew nodded stiffly and left.

  The trek to his office in the tunnels was quick, but turbulent, his mind whirling. Was he really going to do this? Yes, he’d keep his word. What other choice did he have? He would not let that female die over there if anything could be done. No one deserved that, to be alone in the monster’s den, with no help coming.

  Once in his office, he tossed piles of books from the floor into the corners. He would need room to pace, to not feel trapped by his own powers.

  A path cleared, he bowed his head and began to walk a circle through the room. He took a deep breath and imagined part of his consciousness as a living thing. An ethereal, amorphous entity the color of smoke that pulled away from his soul with a thick sucking sound, then escaped out of his body through his renqua, the markings on his back that connected him to Rhen, their deae, or goddess. Contacting Khain in this manner was something he only had an ability to do in this, his real world, not in the world he visited when he slept.

  The part of himself floated fluidly to the door, then passed through it like a ghost. Once outside, the smoke entity formed itself upright, in the shape of a male. Crew could imagine all of this, seeing both the image of his consciousness walking away, and what it saw through its eyes. It moved its legs when it walked, but its feet did not touch the ground and the speed of its legs had no bearing on the speed of itself.

  Crew felt it throw a wistful glance down a tunnel it passed. That tunnel, if followed far enough, would lead to Rhen’s body. As a child, his consciousness had visited Rhen’s consciousness many times, in a place he’d never thought to ask the name of. A green meadow with cavorting butterflies and small prey animals that never quite seemed to trust him, although they loved Rhen like a mother. How he and Rhen had laughed and giggled and she’d called him a handsome child and tickled his sides and told him life could be so very good, if he’d let it.

  After he’d first visited Khain at the age of thirteen, he’d been forever barred from that meadow, but he did not know why. The Rhen he knew did not get angry, did not punish. So there had to be some other reason…

  Once past the area of Rhen’s body, his consciousness sped up, gliding down the darker tunnel faster and faster, until it was just a blur. Crew knew the end of the tunnel would come soon and he closed his eyes against the impact that would not happen.

  It didn’t. His consciousness passed through solid rock the same way it had through open air. Its speed increased even more, until it was fast enough, then

  sidestep

  The acrid tang of fire filled his nostrils. His consciousness had made it into the Pravus, Khain’s home in a dimension that stood next to his own. It looked around, taking bearings, feeling for Khain.

  But it needn’t have. Khain came to it, his massive, skeletal body rushing across the barren landscape like a freight train, plowing through the middle of his consciousness with enough force to batter it to the dirt ceiling.

  Crew gathered his consciousness together, his body pacing faster and harder in his office while beads of sweat began to form on his head.

  Khain laughed and the sound made Crew think of blood and snakes and murder.

  WELCOME, PUP. I’VE MISSED YOU. THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD. WE STILL HAVE BUSINESS, DO WE NOT?

  Crew winced as Khain’s voice scattered his consciousness once more. He knew what business Khain spoke of.

  That laugh came again. World’s biggest fingers on an earth-sized chalkboard.

  I can dial it down, for you. I wouldn’t want to break your little puppy eardrums.

  Crew jutted his chin forward and his consciousness did the same. I have a message for you, then I’ll be gone.

  Of course. You want the female.

  Trevor Burbank, the head of the KSRT, and mentioned in both the Savior Prophesy and the Demon Death Prophecy, also called Khain’s downfall, will offer himself as trade for her. But she must be unscathed, untouched, still alive and whole. He says he will give his life for hers.

  Khain tsked, his ghastly face twisting. Crew could smell his rotting breath. What if she’s already been… scathed. Should I keep her?

  Crew pulled his shoulders back in his office and his consciousness stood up straighter. Give her to us now. In whatever condition she is in, and you shall get Burbank.

  Khain tapped a jagged claw against an overgrown fang. I’ll consider Burbank’s offering, but whatever shall you give
me, son of Amos and Deborah? You already owe me the life of your mate. You haven’t forgotten, have you? Do you need a reminder of what I have taken from you so far?

  Crew shuddered at his parent’s names in the demon’s mouth, then winced but held his ground as the image of his mother in a coma, bleeding internally from Khain’s poisoning filled his mind. Then, another death he hadn’t seen personally, but had imagined many times, played out in front of his eyes. His dad, drunk, despondent, limping home from the local dive bar after last call. Crew knew his dad had died from falling into a ravine while drunk, pressure from a closed head injury finally choking out his ability to breathe. They’d found him the very next day because Crew had known exactly where to look when his dad hadn’t made it into work. Khain had shown him that death when he was thirteen and worked his way into Khain’s mind for the first time.

  He’d made his father promise, swear on his dead wife’s grave, that he would never drink alone, would never walk that particular stretch of road by himself, especially if drunk. Crew remembered standing at the top of the ravine, staring at his father’s stiff body as rescue pulled him out, and thinking his Dad might not have forgotten that promise. He might have finally decided he was ready to meet his Deborah again.

  Crew’s eyes narrowed as the incident played out in front of him. His father, a large male with intense eyes, had stumbled down the street, throwing longing glances at the ravine that tumbled down into darkness. He took a few steps that way, then returned to the street. Crew gritted his teeth and clenched his fists but knew he was unable to stop anything. This had already happened!