Shifters in the Shadows: Seventeen Paranormal Romances of Sexy Shifters, Dangerous Vamps, & Things That Go Bump in the Night

by J. K Harper

  “Hmph,” Quentin muttered.

  “Oh, come on, man.” Cortez reached out for a brotherly punch on the shoulder that nearly drove Quentin off the beam. “You're driving the rest of us crazy. You've been a total asshole. Seriously, you need to chill out. And there's only one solution for that."

  Caught up short, Quentin stared at his brother for a long moment as his brain scrambled around trying to figure out how to answer that. Finally, he said in a low, dangerously soft rumble, "Asshole? Really? First of all, Cortez, you're the reason we're in here replacing that damn beam. Better not ever bring that dumbass party boy crew of yours up here again. Swinging from the rafters," he muttered, shaking his head. Like frat boys or something. As Cortez drew breath to speak, Quentin shook his head and held up a hand. "No, hang on a second. Next, I want to know what the hell you mean. Some sort of asshole? What the hell does Abby have to do with me being an asshole?"

  This time, it was Cortez's turn to stare at Quentin, brows furrowed in surprise. “Because she's your mate, and you won't get her to come over here,” he said. “You're pissed off about it. Thus, you act like an asshole. Asshole,” he added in a companionable tone.

  Quentin ground his teeth. “There's a plan,” he said tightly. “I'm not an idiot.”

  "Fine," Cortez said, quirking one eyebrow as he shook his head at his brother. "So you do have a grand scheme to get Abby over here for good so you can be happy, your bear stops being a grumpy old fart, and we can maybe survive the rest of the next seven months and three weeks and whatever days and hours that you're in charge till mom and dad get back?"

  Clenching his jaw, Quentin got up and went over to the large east-facing window, where he shoved his fists onto his hips and glared out the enormous window that boasted the best view on the entire property. Well, he liked to think his own cabin had the very best view. But of course they never said that to guests. His bear rumbled about in his mind, alternately irritated at Cortez, at inter-species shifter politics, but mostly frustrated at not being able to just charge across the mountain to grab his mate and bring her back here to his den, safe and sound where she belonged.

  Quentin liked to think of himself as a gentleman, even if he was a big bear. If Abby had plans for her own life, in her own pack, he couldn't just stomp over there and demand she change everything for him. Even if that was the only thing he wanted to do.

  Quentin took a measured inhale, held it, and exhaled. He did it five or six times. Finally, he replied to his brother's question when he figured he could talk without his bear growling through his words. "No plan. I'm just pissed because there's this thing going on this weekend. Tonight, actually,” he admitted.

  Cortez raised his eyebrows, gesturing for him to go on.

  Reluctantly, feeling his ire heat up even more, Quentin went on. “So her pack has this thing. They do these pack runs all the time, right? They go out and run around under the moon. You know. It's a wolf thing."

  Cortez grunted from where he had stayed seated on the beam. Now he was peering up at the cracked beam overhead, critically and maybe just a bit sheepishly. He saw Quentin looking at him and waved a hand in his direction. "Go on, go on. Running. Full moon. I'm listening."

  Quentin looked back out at the fiery race of color zigging and zagging all over the mountains. Despite his inner agitation, he felt slightly soothed by the sight, as always. "This weekend is a big one. It's the hunter's moon tonight. Happens every October. Each wolf pack in the country goes out for a full moon run. Some packs do it just by themselves, but others invite wolf shifters from all over the place to come join in. Kind of like a pack gathering sort of thing." Quentin shrugged. "Abby's pack is a big deal. They have a huge run for this full moon every year. Wolves come from all over the place to run with them."

  "Mm-hmm," Cortez said. His boots thumped as he walked the floor across what sounded like the length of the overhead beam.

  "So they run," Quentin went on, "and they hunt deer and stuff, just hang out and have fun. Wolves running in the moonlight. And," he hesitated a slight bit. "And sometimes they meet their mate during the hunter's moon. They go hunting for a mate. Hunter's moon."

  "Okay, cool, yeah," Cortez's voice came from the far end of the hall. "Sounds like you have a plan after all. You can go over there, run with them, and officially mate with Abby. Boom and done, right?"

  Quentin managed to talk around the sudden tic in his cheek. "Not quite. It's a wolf mating thing. Meaning they meet their destined wolf mate at these things a lot of the time. Abby is at just the right age when a lot of them apparently meet. Magical mating hunter's moon, blah blah blah."

  This time, dead silence greeted his words. Quentin turned around to see his brother standing stock still at the other end of the room, staring back at him. By his posture, Cortez was completely focused on what Quentin had just said.

  "A wolf mating thing," Cortez slowly echoed. He cocked his head to the side. "A wolf mating thing." This time, his voice somewhat mocked the words.

  A glare began to bracket Quentin's face again. “Yeah. So?”

  "Are you serious?” Now, Cortez's voice was incredulous. It was also a bit challenging. “It's a wolf mating run, and you're gonna let Abby run in the middle of it with a bunch of male wolves who are looking for their mates? Abby, the woman you keep telling us is your mate? The woman we all know is your mate?"

  “She doesn't want me there. It's a wolf pack thing.”

  Cortez shook his dark head, a small curl on his lip saying what he really thought about that. “Where the hell are your balls, man? You're letting her get away.”

  Quentin roared as his fury rampaged through him. His bear side suddenly threatened to burst out of his every pore. "Hell, no, I'm not!”

  “Yeah!” Cortez egged on.

  “You're right.” Quentin slammed one fist into the palm of his other hand. “I can't let her be there without me. So I'm gonna show up, too. Show up for that hunter's moon mating thing, because Abby damn well is my mate."

  Cortez strode across the room until he was close enough that Quentin could see the shining of his eyes that meant his own bear was close to the surface as well. "Let me get this straight, insane big brother of mine. You plan to go over there tonight, to a huge wolf shifter gathering thing, that's one of their big deal things that they do, and just walk in there, a lone bear shifter, and what? Grab your wolf shifter mate out from under their noses? There's no way they'll let you get away with that." The challenge still rose in his voice.

  Quentin glared. "I don't really think they're that bloodthirsty. Besides, look at me. I'm a fuckin' grizzly bear. A grizzly bear! Wolves might mess with me, but they can't take me down."

  Sharply, Cortez said, "Yeah, they can. If there's like a couple hundred of them."

  His bear marching through his mind in renewed rage, Quentin roared even more loudly as his thoughts filled with images of a hundred young, mate-hungry male wolf shifters eyeballing Abby like she was some sort of prize. "A hundred male wolves? All there for this mating run thing, the same thing Abby is going to be at?"

  "Oh, yeah!" Cortez said, pumping his fist in the air like some enraged Spartan warrior of old or something. "And they're all gonna take a look at that Abby of yours, decide she'd be the perfect mate for them, then snatch her out from under your nose instead! You can't let that happen."

  "Hell, no, I can't!" Quentin roared back, feeling the bear hairs bristle out of his human skin as his equally enraged bear thundered and walked around just beneath the surface. "That's my mate we're talking about!"

  "Your mate!" Cortez agreed, glaring with nearly as much fury as Quentin.

  Then, "Shit," Quentin muttered. "How could I let her go back there by herself? Probably a ton of wolves already in town, ready to start sniffing out their new mates."

  Cortez nodded. "Damn right there are," he agreed. "If I were you, I'd get my ass over there right now. For all you know, she's already been sizing one up, and that's why she's been reluctant to come live ov
er here with you."

  At that, Quentin saw nothing but dark, angry red. This time, though, it was at his own brother's challenging words. "She'd never do that to me." His voice was so dangerously still, so dangerously quiet, that Cortez froze right where he was.

  Then, to Quentin's surprise, instead of looking nervous as Quentin advanced on his brother, Cortez smiled instead. "Course she wouldn't," he said, so easily that Quentin paused mid stride. "She's your mate, man. She's been brought up to believe that she can only mate with another wolf. But look here. I don't know a lot about women—"

  Quentin snorted at that. Cortez was a renowned ladies man. He might not know much about mates, but he sure knew a lot about women.

  "—but I can tell you this much. She may not think she's waiting for you to come get her." Cortez's voice was suddenly serious. "But she is. Trust me. You show up there, do whatever the hell it is you need to do during that run thing, and let her know that you can handle not only it, but also what she needs."

  A sharp wind swirled into the room through the still open front doors as Quentin stared at his brother. "And what exactly is it that she needs?"

  Cortez leaned a little bit closer, as if he was about to share the deepest secrets of the universe. "What she needs,” he said in a low tone, "is for you to show up, be there, and let her know you're never gonna walk away from her again."

  Quentin growled. "I'm not the one walking away from her. She doesn't want me to follow her."

  Cortez rolled his eyes and flung up his hands in seeming despair. Then he advanced on his brother and shoved a strong finger into Quentin's chest. "Listen to me. Yeah, you have been the one walking away from her. You haven't shown her that you mean business about being her mate. That you take it more seriously than anything else in the world. I'm not talking about showing her who's boss, hell no. Now, that would be some stupid cave bear shit. No," Cortez went on, settling back on his heels as he placed his own fists on his hips, pinning his brother with a glare, "I'm talking about you not being afraid to show up in front of her entire pack, and however many other packs are there, and not letting her run by herself. I'm talking about you showing that wolf shifter mate of yours that you sure as hell are her mate."

  Quentin stared at Cortez for a long moment as his mind tripped over itself at the simplicity of what his brother said as well as the stupidity of Quentin's own thought process for the past several months. Damn. Well, he sure as hell was acting like some big, stupid, lumbering bear, wasn't he?

  Not anymore, he wasn't. Turning for the door, Quentin sprinted for it, his steps shaking the floor.

  "Hey!" Cortez called after him. "Where are you going? What about the beam?"

  Quentin shook his head, still running. "You're right," he flung back over his shoulder. "Get some of those lazy ass search and rescue crew mates of yours up here to help you fix this. I," and he thumped himself hard on the chest as he burst out the open doorway and took the stairs four at a time down to the parking area, "need to go get my mate before it's too late."

  Drifting behind him as he ran like a crazy guy for his truck, Quentin thought he heard his brother mutter, "Finally. But you'd better come back in one piece after tangling with a wolf shifter pack. And you need to bring your mate back here with you!" Cortez called out more loudly.

  But Quentin had already jumped into his huge diesel truck, gunning the engine as he tore out the long dirt drive from the property to go down the mountain, then all the way across it.

  To go to the all-wolf shifter hunter's moon run happening tonight, and prove to his wolf shifter mate as well as her entire pack that he was the only one for her.

  Chapter 4

  Abby held her breath for a long moment as she glanced again at the eastern horizon, waiting for the giant hunter's moon to rise above the shadowed ridges of the mountains. A definite chill braced the air around her, heightening the scents of the quaking aspen trees and the stately ponderosa pines that ringed the huge meadow. Letting her breath out in a long exhale, she took in an equally deep inhale, closing her eyes as she allowed her wolf to pull in the multitude of layered smells through her sensitive shifter nose.

  No question about it, autumn was her favorite season. It seemed like it had just fallen with a decisive snap in the last twenty-four hours. The air had turned super brisk, the sky so bright and clean it practically shone, and suddenly it seemed that every single deciduous tree in town had burst into flaming color overnight. Reds and golds sprinkled through the streets and dashed up the hillsides, causing Abby's heart to pound with an extra ounce of joy and a nearly constant smile to stretch over her face with an unfettered delight.

  The only thing she had missed all day was Quentin.

  Frowning now as her wolf danced and howled in her mind, slamming image after image at her of Quentin roaming the mountains in his enormous grizzly bear form, she glanced around the meadow. Now wasn't the time to be thinking about other shifters. This was the annual hunter's moon pack run, the largest one in the country.

  Tonight was all about wolf shifters.

  Narrowing her eyes as her own wolf's high-pitched howl, then almost vicious snarl, rang through her head so sharply the sound of it hurt, Abby let her glance slowly pan over the many wolves in attendance from different packs. From as close as the neighboring affiliate pack to as far as those who had come down from the northern reaches of Montana and even the far western coastal forests of Washington state, wolves mingled, prowled, and laughed with one another, every single one of them waiting for the rising full moon and the call of the Black Mesa pack alpha to begin the hunt.

  The hunt which for some of the wolves here would be for a mate.

  "A lot of likely-looking candidates for you here, Abby." She startled slightly at the deep, friendly voice at her shoulder. Turning her head, she smiled at Sean as he walked toward her with his arm casually flung over Megan's shoulders. His tone was easy, his stance relaxed as he held his mate close to him. There was no question that the two of them would run together tonight. As a mated pair, they would enjoy the evening together before slipping off to some secluded glade to have their own fun. Abby smiled a bit wistfully, even as she nodded in agreement.

  "Definitely a lot of new guys here," she said, glancing out at all the strange wolves again before she looked back at Sean and Megan. Her best friend gave her a far more dubious glance than Sean had. But she said nothing. "I'm sure they'll be a lot of new mate pairings tonight," Abby casually added, trying to sound excited about that.

  To her utter shock, fierce growls laced her words, deepening her voice and rippling through her entire body with a tensing effect. Sean reared backward, his hackles raising more from startlement than any actual defensiveness. Megan rubbed his soothing hand along his arm, murmuring, "She's just on edge. Sometimes there's a bit of expectation at this run. Your home pack's hunter's moon runs were probably a lot more casual than this one, weren't they?"

  Abby rapidly blinked her eyes, breathing steadily to settle herself and her suddenly outraged wolf, who smacked her mind with angry lashes of her tail. "Wow, I'm sorry, Sean. That wasn't directed at you." She shook her head, trying to clear it. "I don't know where that came from. Abby's right. I'm a little on edge, I guess."

  Sean shrugged and waved it off, the automatic wolf glow of his eyes settling back into their normal human color.

  "True.” He grinned down at Megan, his equanimity restored. “Our hunter's moon runs were a lot smaller, pretty much just for fun. It's a good thing you never met some other guy during one of these, love," he added, a possessive tone creeping into his voice as he leaned down to soundly kiss Megan on the lips.

  Abby watched with more wistful longing. The image of a huge, dark silvertip of a bear rumbled through her mind even as she tried to shove him out.

  After she could come up for air, Megan answered in a teasing tone, "Definitely not. No, I was holding out for a certain sexy guy from the big city." She smiled at her mate, allowing her own wolf to roughen her voice
with a similar amount of possessiveness at the simple pleasure of her mate's existence.

  Abby bit her lip and sighed to herself. She wanted that. More than anything. She wanted to be mated, settled, and part of the well-working team that was her pack. Settled with a wolf shifter mate of her own.

  Her wolf howled so angrily inside her that Abby gasped. An answering gasp rippled through the crowd around her as her wolf continued to howl inside her. Mortified, she fought back against her wolf with every ounce of strength she had, fighting for control, closing her eyes for a second as she struggled. But the gasps around the clearing rippled out to every edge, leaving in their wake only a stark, shocked silence. Her eyes flew open, expecting to see everyone staring at her. Instead, the eyes of every single shifter in the glade, several hundred of them, were fixed on a point behind her. Even Megan and Sean had turned, also staring. Abby felt the sudden danger twisting and rippling throughout the glade. The instant nervousness and protectiveness of every single wolf there.

  Someone was here who didn't belong.

  Whirling, Abby looked in the direction everyone else faced.

  Quentin Walker, bear shifter, strode through the glen full of wary, agitated wolf shifters.

  Heading straight for her.

  Abby's heart slammed into her throat, stifling another gasp as what seemed like a bucket of cold water, followed by a hot, sizzling sensation ripped through her. It took her a long, disorienting moment to find the exact emotion she felt. To name it. Her wolf still howled inside her, this time with an exultant thrill that surged through her with every beat of her heart. She recognized the feeling for what it was.

  Joy.

  Quentin lumbered with easy grace yet deliberate strength right into the midst of all the wolves, his huge form moving with unerring purpose as he headed right for her. A bear shifter, alone among the wolves.

  “Wow,” Megan breathed beside her. “That's pretty hot, Abby. And it's all for you. You sure he's not the one we were talking about earlier?” Her tone was pointed, but kind.