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

by J. K Harper

  “So it’s true what they say about bear shifters,” Simone said. “You’re invulnerable.”

  “Not quite. The saying goes, no weapon forged by man can hurt me. And it’s true enough. But magic works. Fire is uncomfortable. And the natural weapons of other shifters are always a problem.” He took more cautious steps forward.

  “Is that where all those scars are from?”

  “Is this really the time to talk about this?”

  Simone shrugged, not that he could see. “Well, I could talk about how I really want you to take me home after this and how I want to have sex with you like right now, but I thought that might be distracting.” She laughed. She was doing it again, being too flip when she should be serious.

  Rhett turned to regard her, even as he took a step forward. He stepped poorly. One of the runes was not messing around. A bright blue light exploded from the floor, like lighting, racing up the big bear’s body and wrapping him in a thousand glowing blue tendrils.

  There was a snap of light and then, in the space of a breath, where Rhett had been was now a crystal statue.

  “No!” Simone yelled, but she didn’t move. It wasn’t too late for her to use the magic coin—the bug-out coin—and to be home. All she needed to do was flip it and before it landed she’d be back in her kitchen. Could she take Rhett with her? Would that even work? The spell might not read the crystal as a person, it could just take part of him along. Magic could be fickle and demanding.

  But the rune under Rhett’s feet kept sparking and spitting out blue lightning, like it wasn’t done with the job yet. If she touched him, surely she’d be trapped as well. But why was it sparking? It’d done what it was designed to do—it should be dormant after.

  Rhett’s crystal form began to crack with a deep, sonorous sound. The light grew brighter as it tried to contain him, but it was a losing fight. She almost felt sorry for the magical trap. It’d just been trying to do its job. It wasn’t its fault it had tried to grab one of the toughest shifters in California.

  The cracks grew louder and more frequent and then the crystal exploded—and where it had been was now an enormous bear that nearly filled the hallway with its bulk. Simone’s breath caught in her throat. He was the most beautiful animal she’d ever seen, with a golden honey-colored fur and luminous brown eyes that were unmistakably Rhett’s. If the rune had trouble catching Rhett, it completely gave up in the face of the bear’s might. None of the spells in the Queen’s dungeon would have a chance against him as a bear.

  Rhett-the-bear gave Simone a look and she knew, immediately, what he was saying. With just a glance he communicated that he wanted her to climb on top of him, to stay safe. She’d never had that before with anyone else—communicating with a glance—and the realization made her sway on her feet. This was someone she understood, and who understood her. They’d only just met, but the rapport was unmistakable and breathtakingly precious.

  One of the things that had creeped her out about the werewolf she dated for a hot second in college was that in wolf form he was alien to her. She couldn’t see any trace of his humanity in his eyes. The guy just looked like a giant scary dog.

  But with Rhett it was different, it was like he was more of a person as a bear, like all of the secrets and feelings and hopes and dreams he kept bottled up were now there walking around on four massive hairy paws.

  He gave her a look again that said, climb on top of me. Except that would be impossible in her dress, so she wriggled and writhed and slid the form-fitting dress up to her waist, revealing her thick legs and her black underwear to Rhett. And then she grasped his fur—his warm fur that smelled like sunshine, even in the dungeon—and clambered up on top of him. It was not a graceful clamber. She sort of flailed her way up, but she did get on top of him, which was the important part, so she called it a win. With her fists buried in his fur, leaning forward like a jockey, she said, “Find my heart.”

  Rhett raced through the dungeon. It was so much larger than she’d planned for. On her own, she never would have found her heart. Even if she’d managed to avoid all the traps, the place was just too big to search. She’d still be there when the sun came up, when the Queen regained her senses, and then there’d be hell to pay.

  But the bear seemed to know where to go. He sniffed at the air and followed some trail, leading them straight to it. He trampled every rune and trap, but they all shattered under his paws without activating. The next time she had to rob a highly secure magical vault, she was definitely going to do it riding a one-ton supernaturally strong bear.

  And then they turned a corner, and she was face to face with her heart. She hadn’t really been prepared for the sight of it, hadn’t known what to expect. In her mind, it had been in a drawer full of junk in a disused room, or maybe in a hall with a thousand other hearts on display. She’d always assumed it was just another trophy to the Queen, but the room it was in was softly lit with candles. A low divan rested against one wall, and in the center of the room, in a shimmering cylindrical case, was her heart. It was larger than she remembered and golden.

  Beside her, Rhett shifted back to his man form. “That’s your heart? It’s beautiful.”

  Simone couldn’t tear her eyes away. Tears streamed down her cheeks. “She’s been taking care of it, do you see? It has a place of honor here. This whole time—all these years—I’ve been worried that my heart wasn’t being cared for, that it was rotting in a heap someplace. Because who knows, right? It is not a normal thing to trade away your heart. There aren’t standard protocols for care and treatment. I mean, she could have done anything with it. Anything. But she kept it safe and I don’t have to feel guilty for abandoning it.”

  Rhett was silent. Mercifully silent. He seemed to be a man who knew when not to say something, which was great, because whatever he could have said at that moment would have been wrong. This wasn’t about him. It was all for her.

  Simone could feel her heart. Really feel it. Not just the mechanical thumping of the pumping blood, but all of the messy emotions that went along with it. Being so close now they were stronger than ever. She wanted to weep and laugh and eat cake frosting right out of the tub. She wanted to watch love stories where one of the lovers died tragically in the end to save the other and she wanted to blow her nose on an entire box of tissues while doing it. There were so many things she’d forgotten about.

  It would be amazing to feel again. But first she needed to get her heart back.

  The container was glass, like an old-timey museum display, while her beautiful golden heart sat on a little satin pillow. It seemed like she could reach up and lift the glass off the pedestal, but it couldn’t be that easy.

  “What do you see?” Rhett asked.

  “Nothing. And that can’t be good. No way she puts a million traps on the floors and none on the case.”

  Rhett knelt down and looked closely at the glass case, squinting hard as if by glaring at it he could shatter it. “I can see power in the glass, but I have no idea what it means.”

  “I should have planned for this. I should have brought something to counteract this. When I heard about the party I only had a little time to prepare.” Being so close to her heart, her emotions were overwhelming her. “But if I cast a spell, it’ll set off all the alarms, and what if I’ve come all this way only to fail? I can’t leave here without my heart. I can’t.”

  Simone reached out to lift the top off the case, but Rhett caught her hand just before she made contact.

  “You don’t know what that will do. It could turn you into a statue, like Sarah. It could burn you alive. Any one of those wards I trod on would have ended you.”

  “So you do it.”

  “I can’t. I can’t steal from her. It’s in my contract.”

  Simone fought back tears and focused instead on the blistering rage that was burning inside her now. “If only I could see the way you see. I could make sense of this. I could find a weak point.”

  Rhett stood straighter. If
he’d been a cartoon character, a lightbulb would have appeared over his head. “I can do something. I can help.” He turned to her and cupped her face in his hands. Simone’s rage melted away and her eyes involuntarily closed. His touch was amazing. How could someone with such rough hands feel so gentle?

  “Do you trust me?” he asked.

  “Sure,” she whispered. “Do your worst.”

  And then his lips were on hers. He was all heat and strength and sunshine and she was melting in his hands. Simone had no idea how making out could help get her heart back, but she was eager to find out. Rhett’s tongue licked at her lips and she remembered to open her mouth then and then his tongue was in her mouth and even though on an analytical level it sounds gross it actually felt really amazing. In that moment Simone finally realized what the big deal was with kissing. Her chest was tight and her fingers tingled and nearby, in a glass case, her heart raced like crazy.

  Rhett broke the kiss off. He had a hunger in his eyes.

  “What are you doing?” Simone asked. She hadn’t realized it but she had her arms wrapped around him and she was trying to pull him closer and closer, even though their bodies were already touching. She knew then that they could be naked, smooshed together, and he still wouldn’t be close enough to her. She needed him inside her, as a part of her.

  “I’m preparing,” Rhett said.

  “Why’d you stop kissing me? You should kiss me more. Lots more. I don’t know if I’ll ever feel this way when I’m away from my heart, so we need to make the most of this moment.”

  A smile flickered on Rhett’s face, the first she’d seen. “We’ll make the most of it, but first I want to try this thing that Michael Morrissey told me about.” He pulled her in for a kiss again but when his lips touched hers he breathed into her.

  It wasn’t air though, it was magic. Pure shifter magic, from deep in his heart. It tasted of cold rivers and sweet honey, of running under moonlight and lying in the sun letting it warm your fur. The magic filled her like a cup and made her skin spark with golden light.

  The world was super in focus and blurry at the edges. Time stopped. Time shot forward. Her body was a vapor of sweet spices. Rhett had breathed his magic into her, filling her with strength for the space of one breath, and she needed to use it wisely.

  Simone peered at the glass case and now, sizzling with Rhett’s power, she could see the runes worked into the glass and into the pedestal. Deadly traps waited there, as well as the secret to defeating them. She held her breath so as to hold on to the magic just a bit longer, even as her vision swam and her fingers and toes tingled. Simone fished the magic key out of her dress and tapped it on one precise rune and watched as the spell unlocked like spiderwebs dissolving in the sun, or at least as one of them did. Just as she breathed out Rhett’s borrowed magic, Simone noticed another spell, something sticky and devious, written into the pillow the heart rested on.

  With the magic gone, her sight returned to normal and a wave of dizziness picked her up and tossed her off her feet. She threw her arms in front of her as she fell towards the display case, wondering if it was technically ironic to disable a security system and then trip and fall into it.

  But Rhett was there and he moved so quick that he blurred, and he caught her in his strong arms when she was mere inches from the case.

  “Easy, baby. Easy. Give yourself a moment. I’ve never done that trick before, but I sure felt it.” He was holding her in his arms and looking down at her with a softness that made her trapped heart yearn. “How’d it go?”

  “Can we do it again?” Simone asked. “I took apart the protection on the glass, but the pillow is also trapped.”

  Rhett shook his head. “It’ll be a while before I can do that trick again. Maybe not until after the next full moon? Honestly, I feel a bit weak after doing it.”

  “Thanks for trying at least,” Simone said. She reached up and ran her fingers across his jawline, feeling the lines of faint scars and the hint of stubble on her fingers like fine sandpaper.

  “That can’t be it,” Rhett said. “There’s got to be another way.”

  “No, there isn’t. Not with what I have here. If I had a month to plan, maybe? If I had all my tools and books and could consult some of my old professors, I could do this in a day. But we don’t have much time.”

  “I’m so sorry,” Rhett said, and meant it.

  “But we still have some time and this close to my heart, I can still actually feel.” She felt suddenly shy to ask for what she wanted, as if he hadn’t just given her the best kiss of her life. As if he didn’t want her just as much as she wanted him.

  “You can’t feel when you’re away from your heart?”

  “Not really, no. Sort of? Look, let’s just say it’s complicated, okay?”

  “We should really make the most of this then,” Rhett said, and then he was kissing her again, hard and hungry.

  He lowered her gently to the divan but before she could even think about how it might also be trapped or warded, he was on top of her, all warmth and lips and hands. Rhett yanked down the top of her dress and took her breasts in his hands like he’d been waiting all night to do just that and Simone loved it. He pinched her nipples and rolled them in his fingers, sending electric jolts down her spine, and she let loose noises she didn’t even know she could make. She was yowling and gasping and squeaking and she would have been embarrassed if it hadn’t felt so fucking good.

  She stretched her hands above her head and wondered if she should be touching him or stroking him or something—anything—but then he kissed her again and all of her thoughts flew away like butterflies.

  “You’re so soft,” he growled. “It’s driving me crazy. And the scent of you. I need more of it.”

  Simone looked up and saw his eyes glowing with a golden fire. It was pure magic and pure lust and maybe, just maybe some love, too. His eyes were the most beautiful thing she’d ever seen. It was like seeing into his soul, looking into those eyes. They may have been fire, but they were honest.

  “There you are,” she smiled. But Rhett just grinned at her and kissed his way down her body. “Where are you going?” she asked.

  “I’m going to get you ready,” he said, kissing the inside of her ticklish thighs and making her laugh uncontrollably.

  “Ready for what?” Simone gasped.

  “Ready for when I fuck you,” he growled.

  “Oh, that sounds nice,” Simone said. “Yes, do that. But we don’t have much time, you know?”

  Rhett gave her a look from between her thighs. “Has no guy ever gone down on you before?”

  “No, never,” Simone said. “I never really saw the point in it.”

  Rhett grinned. “This is the last time you’ll be able to say that,” he said and then lowered his mouth to her wetness.

  His tongue was everywhere at once, licking and sucking at her folds and Simone found that she couldn’t really talk anymore. She tried, but what came out was just a stream of stuttering moans and wails. Rhett was patient and skilled and took his time, taking her lips into his mouth and doing things to them that made her back arch like she’d been possessed. And then he found her clit and started sucking it and she couldn’t help herself from folding the entirety of her body around him. It was magnificent and out of the corner of her eyes, she saw her heart move on the pillow.

  Rhett slid one of his thick fingers into her and started doing something mysterious and mindblowing but Simone was watching her heart. Tremors of exquisite pleasure rocked through her, and as they did her heart jumped and swayed.

  Maybe she didn’t need to grab it from the pillow and trigger the spell. Maybe her heart could get itself off the pillow. It just needed a big enough push.

  “Rhett,” she gasped. “Stop, just a sec. Look, my heart, up there, is moving. And by the goddess you are good at that.”

  “I’ve always considered pussy eating to be a valuable life skill,” he said with a smile. His face glistened with her juices a
nd in a way she felt like she’d marked him as hers.

  “I think we can get my heart to come to me, if you can make me—you know—come. And come big. Like explosive big. Can you do that? Can you fuck me until I come?”

  “Darlin’, I’ve been waiting all night for you to ask me that.”

  Chapter 10

  It was the craziest sex Rhett had ever had, and that was saying something.

  Simone was into it. After being icy and stand-offish earlier, he might have pegged her for a bit of a cold fish in bed—the kind of girl who just lies there and takes it, giving nothing in return. But no, she screamed and writhed and made sounds that made Rhett’s toes curl and his balls tighten. He could listen to those sounds forever. If she hadn’t stopped him, he would’ve eaten her sweet cunt until the sun came up and the Raven Queen found them. “I was just trying to detain her in the best way I knew,” he could say. But that probably wouldn’t work.

  He had her scent all over his face and it was making him lose all control. Her smell was indescribably good. He wouldn’t be able to think straight for as long as he had her taste on his lips.

  Her, his bear roared.

  I know, she’s the thief, Rhett replied, wishing it could stay quiet in this moment.

  But it let loose a furious roar inside him. Not thief. Mate. This one is your mate!

  Rhett looked down at her. At her pillowy breasts and round belly and most importantly her eyes. She was pleading with her eyes, begging to find her sweet release.

  She was his mate. He’d found her. After all these years, she was the one.

  Simone rolled over onto her belly. “Like this? Please?” she breathed. “Please, I need this. Help me get my heart back.”

  Rhett positioned himself behind her and took the length of his cock in his hand. “Simone,” he growled.

  “Yes?”