20 Shades of Shifters: A Paranormal Romance Collection

by Demelza Carlton

  This was all news to him. Maybe he needed to have talked to his brothers more often. Marc and Nate were so similar, he generally felt like an outsider.

  “We were so proud of you getting into medical school and managing to convince the council to pay for it. Dad went ballistic when he found out. Alpha Hopkins had a meltdown when Dad threatened him. There was a round of name calling. Nate and I were in the back of the store when the very public argument took place. We didn’t realize you had scored so high on the MCAT. Hopkins said you’d end up being more important to the community than a narrow minded, archaic omega.”

  Barry whistled at the name their alpha had called his father. He had been relieved Tobias Hopkins hadn’t been at the meeting this morning. If the mixed council had voted them down, he knew he could always appeal to his alpha. Maybe that was why Tobias wasn’t there.

  “But there is a second reason I wanted to call you,” Marc admitted. “There is a faction within the community that wants to unseat Hopkins. They have a candidate who is strong enough to possibly defeat Tobias in battle. Your relationship with Samantha will be one of the issues they will raise.”

  Samantha hadn’t stated whether she would join him in Colorado, but now he had to force a decision. Her life would become unbearable here if she stayed behind. He had planned for them to make love again, but he had more pressing matters to discuss with her.

  His hand fisted as he tried to control his anger. “Thanks for the information. I promise to stay in touch.”

  Barry ended the call and took a moment to bring down his heart rate. Samantha would immediately pickup on his racing pulse and become concerned. He wanted her to come to Colorado with him out of love and the desire to be with him, not out of fear of staying in Eclipse.

  When he entered the bedroom, Samantha was on top of the sheets and stretched. A feline move, if ever he saw one. It was sexy as hell.

  “Good morning.” Her words were accompanied with a large yawn. “Are you coming back to bed?”

  His eyes roamed her naked, inviting body. Although his mind wanted to have a frank discussion with her, his body had other ideas. His erection provided her the answer she was looking for. She rolled onto her back and extended her arms in welcome.

  What harm would an early morning tousle do? Maybe she would be more pliable about joining him in Colorado after the exhaustion of making love. She was certainly a sight hard to dismiss.

  He was about to join her in bed when there was a loud crash. It sounded like it came from downstairs. He glanced at his jeans, but decided against dressing. His wolf would be in a better position to deal with anyone who trespassed.

  “What was that?” Samantha whispered. She gathered the sheets and covered her exposed body.

  “I’ll go downstairs and check,” Barry replied. “Call your pride police.”

  Barry left the bedroom and quietly stalked down the stairs. He didn’t pick up the scent of another shifter or human in the house. After checking the kitchen, he headed for the living room.

  A brick was on the floor below a broken window. Someone had thrown it and took off running. The harassment over their relationship had started.

  A gasp drew his attention. Samantha, wrapped in her linens, was behind him. “Why would anyone do such a thing?”

  Chapter 17

  Samantha watched as Barry swept up the broken glass. He had dressed and his shoes protected his feet from any chards. She needed to put on some clothing as well, since the cougar police force had been called.

  Each shifter community within Eclipse had their own police force that handled crimes where the victims were shapeshifters. Their officers didn’t stand out as law enforcement. Their sole purpose was to handle any crimes among their own in a circumspect manner.

  There was also a police station in town that handled more visible crimes and any issues dealing with tourists or non-shifter homeowners. The force consisted of only shapeshifters and the various extensions of the force worked together in order not to duplicate efforts.

  After years of not requesting state or county assistance, the traditional state and county law enforcement agencies didn’t bother with Eclipse. No crime that fell in the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s jurisdiction was ever reported.

  A decade ago, the Eclipse State Bank was robbed. The wolf pack’s police force tracked down the two robbers and they met shifter justice. No one ever came looking for the two fugitives.

  Since her legs were shaky, she held onto the banister as she made her way upstairs. She put on a pair of well-worn jeans and a capped sleeve blue shirt. Instead of applying makeup, she moisturized her face and ran a brush through her hair.

  Samantha was on her way downstairs when the doorbell rang. She opened the door to two men in jeans and beige shirts, the non-uniformed clothing that identified them as cougar police officers. Although she had seen them in town, this was the first time any law enforcement officer came to her home.

  “Come in,” Samantha said as she backed up, allowing the two large shifters to enter.

  Harvey Smith was the first through the door. At the time she was dating Ian, Harvey had been a close friend of his. She was uncomfortable knowing Ian had a direct channel to information about her. Ian hadn’t bothered her in years, but it still concerned her.

  The second officer was Warren Addams. He was in his mid-twenties. Warren had gone to school with Barry. The officer played sports with Marc and Nate when they were in high school. She had on occasion gone to the Friday night football games that were so popular in the community.

  Both officers had tawny blond hair, were roughly the same height, and wore reflective sunglasses. They could have been brothers. Each man had the same shocked expression on their face when they noticed Barry.

  Harvey was the first officer to recover and addressed her. “I understand there was a break-in.”

  “Not a break-in, but someone threw a brick through my living room window,” Samantha informed them.

  She guided them to the broken window. Warren navigated around the brick and pushed back the window treatment to examine the remaining glass.

  “Did you touch anything?” Warren asked.

  “I swept up the glass and placed the chards in a paper bag,” Barry advised. “It’s doubtful you’ll get any fingerprints off the larger pieces, but I didn’t want to destroy any of the evidence.”

  “I’ll head outside and dust the exterior for prints, just in case,” Warren said.

  Harvey took off his glasses. His amber eyes surveyed Barry. “What were you doing here?”

  Warren stopped when he heard his partner ask the question she imagined he was wondering himself. Samantha looked at Barry in a panic. She couldn’t answer the policeman’s question if her life depended on it.

  “I’m surprised the news isn’t all over town,” Barry finally answered. “Samantha and I are an item. We were brought before a mixed council meeting and weren’t censured from the community. There is a movement within the wolf pack that wishes to unseat our alpha and bring about a more conservative lifestyle. I imagine this is the first attempt to drive me and Samantha out of town.”

  Samantha hadn’t heard about the plot before now. He had a long phone conversation with someone this morning. She was too eager to make love to him to ask him about the call. The brick coming through the window had changed their short-term plans for the morning.

  Although the cougars were more liberal when it came to outsiders, she could see the hatred in Harvey’s eyes. It angered her that Barry’s presence would have any impact on the policemen doing their jobs. She paid her taxes and was damn determined she would get the type of protection warranted.

  “Your focus shouldn’t be on why Barry is here, but who threw the brick through the window,” Samantha growled. Harvey’s head turned, another surprised look on his face. “Secure the damned brick and see if you can learn anything from it. I’m the victim here and shouldn’t have to be interrogated as if it were my fault someone trespassed
on my property and created damage.”

  Harvey stood a little taller in his anger. “Don’t tell me how to do my job. Something caused someone to throw that brick. I need to understand what motivated the perpetrator and it’s too damn bad if you feel uncomfortable by my questions.”

  Barry put his arm around her shoulders to provide comfort. She was embarrassed by how she reacted to Harvey’s question. She now understood. He asked her sensitive questions to understand who would be prompted to behave in such a manner.

  Samantha looked at the floor in embarrassment. “Like Barry said, we are in a relationship. I am seldom in town and don’t socialize much. There is no other reason I can think of why someone would vandalize my house.”

  Officer Smith took plastic gloves out of his pocket and put them on. “If you have another paper bag, I’d like to have it. I doubt we’ll get a print from the surface of the brick, but the lab can try. It’s unlikely we are going to find who was responsible. We don’t have cameras on the streets this far from town.” He turned to address Barry. “Are you staying here permanently? This may be an isolated attack or the beginning of something more significant.”

  Warren came back in from outside. “I didn’t get any prints off the window or the frame. He was probably some distance away when he threw the object. There is a pretty solid breeze. I couldn’t pick up any significant scent.”

  They answered a number of routine questions and the two officers left. For the first time since she inherited the house, she didn’t feel safe living here. She was grateful Barry was present for now. It troubled her she didn’t want to be alone in the house she loved and took great pains to decorate.

  Barry found it difficult to stand by mute as Samantha was questioned. Interrogated would have been a more appropriate term. He had little dealings with either of the officers, but didn’t like their rude behavior toward his mate.

  He had gone to high school with Warren Addams and never liked the guy. On more than one occasion, he had witnessed Warren preying on weaker shifters. His brothers stood around and laughed at their friend’s antics. Barry always found bullying a cowardly act and he tried to stand up for the poor kid being ridiculed. When Warren’s wrath targeted him, his brothers would come to Barry’s defense. If anyone went home bloody, it was Nate or Marc.

  Eclipse wasn’t large enough to support more than one high school. Elementary schools were segmented by the population. It was important to teach the kids during their formative years not only in the home, but in school, how to control their animal. By junior high school, the community started to integrate their children. The shifters found various means to keep human children away from their kids until they reached an age they would not shift in anger.

  The town was small and isolated enough, they didn’t participate in interstate sports. Only shifter children made high school teams that traveled to other shifter communities to play competitive sports. Their superior strength and speed, even in their human forms, prevented them from playing with non-shifters.

  He finally put an end to the questioning when he noted the circles under Samantha’s eyes. “That’s enough. You have everything we know at this point. Maybe you should interview my father and some of the men who threaten our alpha’s status in the pack.”

  “We need to coordinate with the wolf force,” Harvey said. “How much do your brothers know?”

  “Certainly more than I do,” Barry admitted.

  Marc had provided him the small bits of information he was able to share, but he didn’t want to throw his brother under the bus. He still had to live in this community when Barry returned to Colorado. There may have been more public confrontations like the one Marc had described this morning.

  “I recommend you stay here as long as possible and try not to be seen in town together,” Warren stated. “Owens Grocery Store will deliver under special circumstances.”

  “We haven’t done anything wrong,” Samantha cried.

  Warren shifted his weight from leg to leg. “Legally, you haven’t. That doesn’t mean there aren’t members of the community who will be offended by your relationship. They certainly wouldn’t want their children exposed to inter-species dating.”

  It wasn’t a stretch to figure Warren would join any cougar organization similar to his dad’s group that would want little interaction between the groups. The cats still carried most of the power in the community. That’s what had handicapped wolf isolation groups from gaining strength.

  Barry could see the color drain from Samantha’s face. She seemed unsteady on her feet. He guided her to the sofa and placed her there. It was time to relieve themselves of the supposed help they received from the cougar police force.

  “I’ll show you gentleman out.” Barry fisted his hand to control his anger. “I will contact Alpha Hopkins and have a report filed with our pack police force. The attack was as much on me as it was on Samantha.”

  He knew the statement would anger the two officers. It was their responsibility to coordinate with the wolf pack. With Samantha endangered, he wasn’t going to rely on anyone else to safeguard her.

  He opened and locked the door after the two cougars left. When he returned to the living room, Samantha was sitting exactly where he had left her. She looked shell-shocked. Warren’s statement had caused her to regress into victim mode.

  “I’ll take care of getting the window repaired.” Barry pulled out his phone to call Marc. “Do you have an alarm system in this house?” He hadn’t noticed any when he arrived. Samantha in her cougar form could easily handle any human burglars who felt her isolated location was tempting.

  She shook her head. “I never thought I’d needed one.”

  He wasn’t sure how long they’d retain her house. Even if it was for another week, he wanted a state of the art system installed.

  Barry scrolled through his contacts and selected Marc’s phone. He wasn’t sure if Marc was working today, but he’d take care of everything he needed with due diligence.

  The phone rang three times before it was picked up. “What do you need?” Marc asked.

  “Shortly after you called, some asshole threw a brick through one of Samantha’s windows. I need it replaced and an alarm system installed. Time is critical.”

  “If I can bring the kids over, I can get to it right now. I’ve seen Samantha from time to time, but haven’t talked to her in years. It would be nice to get reacquainted.”

  “I’ll be thrilled to watch the girls while you get us squared away. I don’t know if I’ll have the opportunity to see them again.”

  “Give me about an hour,” Marc said. “We redid Samantha’s windows about five years ago. I’ll check the plans and bring everything I need to repair or replace the glass and frame.”

  He smiled at his brother’s thoroughness. Marc tended to think big, while Nate was more granular in his thought process. If he’d called Nate, his other brother would have had him take measurements and report about the condition of the wood. Odds were Barry would have gotten it wrong and Nate would have to return to town to get more materials.

  When he turned to talk to Samantha, she was no longer sitting on the sofa. He wasn’t sure if she needed time alone or if he needed to seek her out. There was still so much about his mate he didn’t understand.

  Chapter 18

  Samantha was relieved Barry had taken charge and was dealing with the broken window and installing a security system. Her mind was barely functioning. She was both the happiest and most miserable she had been in her life.

  While Barry talked to one of his brothers, she headed to the kitchen to pour herself a glass of wine. It was early still, but she needed something to fortify her nerves. From overhearing a portion of the conversation, she knew three little girls would soon be in her living room. She loved children at a distance.

  Rather than pulling out a Chardonnay, there was a bottle of sparkling wine she had chilling for a special occasion. Treating herself to a mimosa before noon would be less evid
ent she had a drinking problem. It contained orange juice, after all.

  She always loved the sound champagne made when the cork was extracted from the bottle. It was such a distinctive sound. With a small knife she cut a slit into the foil and then removed it. As she had done hundreds of times, she loosened the wire cage and then pressed the key down. She grabbed a dish towel and wrapped it around the bottle. She then twisted the cork until she was rewarded with the familiar popping sound.

  After opening the bottle, she pulled out three glasses. Each glass was filled half full with orange juice and then topped off with the sparkling wine. Finally, she added a tablespoon of Grand Marnier. She looked through her cabinets for plastic glasses the girls could drink their juice from. If she was lucky, their father would bring the appropriate cups with tops and straws.

  When the doorbell rang, she headed to the front of the house to let Barry’s brother in. She was shocked when Alpha Levon Baker was standing on the other side of the door. Her alpha provided her no warning he was coming.

  A knowing smile crossed Levon’s face. “May I come in?”

  Samantha was immediately embarrassed by her rude behavior. “Please, enter.” Rather than leading him to the living room, she guided him to the kitchen. “I hope it’s not too early for a mimosa.”

  Even though she was tall for a cougar female, Levon Baker towered over her. His shirt barely confined his biceps. It was hard not to notice how well he filled out his clothes. They had gone to high school together and even then women swooned when he walked past. His body was so enormous; most people didn’t notice his soft featured face. No one ever dared to call him beautiful.

  Her alpha took the offered glass. “Considering what I have to discuss with you, I think it’s very appropriate. Is Barry Simpson still around?”

  She called out Barry’s name, not completely sure where he had disappeared to. He came in through the mud room. If she wasn’t mistaken, he was securing the door he had entered through earlier. It made sense to lock down the house as much as possible.