Damaged Pack Shifters: The Complete Paranormal Collection

by Leela Ash

  2.

  “We’ve still got some cleaning up to do around town,” Derek announced the next day as he looked around at all the occupants of the living room. Every member of the Damaged Pack was in the room and so were Joshua and Megan. “I think Luke’s gonna take point on this one,” Derek decided.

  Luke looked up from studying his hands — which was pretty much about all he had been able to manage since he had clapped eyes on Marissa yesterday — and forced a thin smile, “Sure thing, Derek. What do you need me to do?”

  “As you all know, the strays are gone and so is Nabradia, which means all threats of Alabad have been contained,” Derek began. “It also means any of us who want to return to base, can do so. But before we leave, I think we still need to do some things for the town like cleaning up, beautifying it, and if possible, getting some investors to come invest in the town. That ought to create a few jobs or two.”

  Bo cleared his throat as he looked around at Luke, Jack, Drake, and Derek. They were closer than brothers yet they had drifted apart for fifteen years because they had all left town; he was the only one who had returned almost immediately and stayed all these years. Heck, they probably wouldn’t be gathered here if he hadn’t called them home when Nabradia had tampered with Joshua’s health and introduced strays into the town in a bid to get Alabad to Weirna. Now they were talking of leaving again?

  “I thought you were all back for good,” Bo protested.

  Everything in Luke rejected the notion and he glared at Bo, “Where did you get a foolhardy idea like that?”

  He had barely survived two minutes in the same room with Marissa and it had been a serious battle not to wrap his hands around her slim throat and squeeze the very life out of her. He certainly couldn’t bear to come back to Weirna for good and have to see her every day.

  Jack winked at Megan, “I’m back for good.”

  No one was surprised. Jack had recently fallen in love with Jeanine’s boss, Megan, renovated his old family home and gotten his biological parents back to town. The real surprise would have been if he wanted to leave.

  Drake chuckled, “Oh, I have no intention of staying back now that the Wicked Witch and her plans of bringing Alabad to earth are gone.”

  “What’s Alabad?” Megan whispered to Jack.

  He grinned at her, “Witches’ version of hell. Only the most horrible witches can escape through when the gates crack open. And if they do, they unleash absolute mayhem; we don’t want that.”

  “What do you mean, Drake?” Joshua asked from his perch by the fireplace. His voice was high and strained but almost no one noticed.

  “I’m just waiting for the say so and I’m out of here. I daresay old Luke wants to get back to painting bridges and flowers in London too,” Drake finished with a wicked chuckle.

  Luke gave him a good-natured shove. His brothers had never been able to understand his love for painting because, to their way of thinking, it wasn’t macho enough. Jack was a firefighter, Derek owned a wildlife resort somewhere deep in the African Safari, Bo was a construction god, and Drake was a Hollywood stuntman.

  Every shifter needed an outlet for the high levels of adrenaline coursing through their systems which was why they always seemed to find themselves in jobs that gave them frequent bursts of adrenaline. For him though, painting was his lifeblood. He wouldn’t trade it for a million adrenaline rushes.

  Not even the rush you felt when you saw her? his subconscious whispered. He snorted. Ever since he had clapped eyes on Marissa, it had been like being yanked out of the present and tossed into that dark place he’d been several years back. One look into her pale grey eyes and that familiar pain hit him with all the force of a sucker punch. His body had remembered the feel of her soft, feminine hands stroking down his back and shoulders, cupping his dick and squeezing, clutching his buttocks as she urged him to go deeper and faster.

  He had fallen in love with her when they had both been fifteen and waited eight long years to make love to her. He’d thought it was the most perfect night of his life ever until Sara Stanley had unleashed a maelstrom and shown her daughter, Marissa, for the lying, cheating, sniveling snob she was.

  He ground his jaw now, fighting down the same almost uncontrollable wave of anger that coursed through him every time he saw Marissa or heard her name.

  “Derek, just give us our duties and let’s get this wrapped up,” Luke ground out testily.

  Derek flipped open a little notebook, “Kelly insists on also getting a role this time around.”

  Kelly was Derek’s wife and she was human, but she did have a gift. She was pristinely ungifted, which meant magic couldn’t harm her. Luke hadn’t thought much of her gift — or her person for that matter — until he’d seen how she’d managed to go up against Nabradia and come out unscathed. He’d become an instant fan after that.

  “Nabradia is dead. What possible work could be left?” Jack wondered aloud.

  “Luke, you have an artist’s eye for beauty. I’ve spoken to the Mayor about cleaning up the rest of the mess from the Witches’ conference and then revamping the town. We’re looking to turn the entire Coyana Waters area into a tourist attraction of sorts to make some more money for the town.”

  Luke stilled for a minute, unable to believe his ears, then he spat, “And just how would you make the sights visible to the humans? Are we gonna imprint on the entire damn town? Last I heard, only shifters can see the sights unless the humans are imprinted on.”

  “I can see them too, but I’m human,” Kelly corrected, coming in bearing a tray with glasses of juice drinks balanced atop it.

  “You don’t count,” Luke replied. “The sights are magically hidden and magic doesn’t work on you.”

  “Well, in that case whoever hid them, can unhide them,” Kelly declared.

  Drake frowned, even as he hurriedly reached out and snagged for himself the biggest glass, “Why are you getting us sissy drinks, Kels? We prefer beer.”

  “And yet you grabbed the biggest glass of all,” Jack pointed out.

  Drake shrugged, his handsome features splitting in a wide boyish grin, as he took a sip of the cool watermelon juice, “I’m a growing boy.”

  And he was, Luke thought, grinning at the other man. Drake was the tallest of them all at six-five, and yet the youngest at twenty-nine. It somehow seemed as though he burnt more energy simply by being a dragon. He compensated for that by eating a lot. He was also a nickname-junkie. He’d shortened Kelly’s name to Kels, and taken to calling Jeanine, Curly because of her curly hair. Now even Bo called his wife Curly.

  “Guys, pay attention. We’ve got a serious problem,” Derek said as others jostled for their glasses.

  The laughing and teasing ended and everyone looked at him. Derek was the leader of the Pack so when he got serious, everyone got serious.

  “The Salem witches are all gone,” Derek began. “Nabradia saw to that when she stormed their conference, turned them into mice, and killed them all. But we need witches. They create so many spells we need, and we’re not gonna be able to live without them.”

  “What do we do?” Bo asked.

  “Someone has to try to get some witches back here,” Derek said.

  “I thought Nabradia killed every last witch in the world,” Kelly demanded, directing the question at her husband.

  Derek shook his head, “No. The Salem witches were the most powerful witches on earth. She killed all the Salem witches and those visiting witches who had attended their conference. But there’s still got to be packs of witches living somewhere.”

  Everyone looked at Drake. He raised an eyebrow, “What?”

  “If anyone can sense a witch, it’s a dragon,” Jack said.

  “Yes. And we’re trained to kill each other too, not to extend invitations. No can do. I’m not going hunting for any fucking witches. I say let them stay dead,” Drake grated.

  “Drake, be reasonable,” Bo cajoled.

  Drake stared stubbornly into his gla
ss.

  “It’s decided. Luke and Drake would work together to beautify the town and if possible get the witches back here,” Derek declared. “The Mayor knows about our plan to make the Angle a tourist destination. Joshua’s discussed that with him.”

  Luke groaned in despair as he asked, “So all we need now is a witch or two?”

  “I never thought I would say this after the evil that was Nabradia, but yes, all we need is a witch to restore the balance in Weirna,” Derek agreed.

  “Well boys, if all you need is a witch, look no further,” a familiar voice laughed huskily from the hallway.

  All heads whipped in that direction and they all stared in numb disbelief as their worst nightmare sailed through the doors: Nabradia.

  Nabradia was heart-wrenchingly striking, as always, decked in her customary flowing black robe with long black hair that hung down to the back of her knees, lips done in bold red lipstick, narrow violet eyes, and skin so fine it seemed almost translucent.

  Her lips spread in a wide smile as she raised her right hand to reveal the gun she held and then she cocked the gun and aimed at the little group in the living room.

  “Sorry boys, we’re resorting to… well, manual transmission today, because I’m not about to use my magic and give Derek’s bitch here,” she paused to give Kelly a killing look, “a chance to turn my magic on me, like the last time.”

  They all stared, knowing exactly what she was referring to. Nabradia and her daughter Alcacia had kidnapped Megan, and in the battle, Kelly had body-slammed Nabradia’s death spell back to her and it had instantly killed her daughter Alcacia.

  “Hands where I can see them, now!” she ordered.

  They all raised their hands in the classic sign of surrender.

  “Hey dragon, face away from me. We don’t want an untimely blast of fire from your mouth now, do we?” she called, waving her gun in Drake’s direction.

  Drake glared at her and then in stiff silence he turned around and faced the wall, his hands still lifted to either side of his head.

  Nabradia giggled, the sound very much like a naughty little girl. “Oh Joshua, old friend, you really should see your face. You thought I died with that Nana Lourdes bitch, didn’t you?”

  Joshua ground his jaw, anger in every line of his body as he raked a contemptuous glare down the length of the traitorous witch who had violated every covenant she ever made with the Weirna shifters and tried to harm them all.

  “The thought did cross my mind,” he conceded.

  His understatement made her throw back her head and she let great gales of laughter escape her. “You’re so funny. Anyway, here’s what’s going to happen: the witches are all dead, I’m dropping my plans of bringing Alabad to earth and in exchange, you all stop hunting me and honor our old agreements.”

  “How do we know you won’t still try to bring Alabad?” Luke grated.

  Nabradia glowered at him for daring to question her, “Because I said so. You’ll just have to trust me.”

  “Fat chance,” Megan spat.

  “Why the hell should we honor an agreement you’ve broken in a thousand ways?” Derek growled.

  Nabradia stared at him, her eyes glowing with a malevolent light that spoke of deep dislike. “You can choose to dishonor our agreement, Wolf. But I warn you, if you dare, I will bring something worse than Alabad right to your doorstep,” she enunciated. “And just for kicks, I’ll make sure your bitch’s little boy is the first one dead.”

  Kelly blanched at this mention of her seven-year-old son Tom. She stepped forward with a mother’s righteous anger as she growled in rage, “How dare you threaten my son?”

  She had barely taken two steps before a bullet slammed straight into her shoulder and she went down with a howl of pain as blood spurted from the new wound, spattering in several directions.

  Everyone gasped in disbelief and started to rush towards Kelly. Nabradia’s voice sliced through the air like a whiplash, “Stay where you are!”

  They all froze and looked at her. She brandished her wand, “Your human shield is down. Now nothing stops me from unleashing my killing spell and taking down every being in this room. I’ll be very happy to do just that if anyone makes so much as one fucking move towards her. Besides, that was just a warning shot to the shoulder. The next one will be to her forehead so don’t test me.”

  Derek growled and started to move towards his wife anyway, but Kelly’s weak cry stopped him, “No, Derek. Stop. I’ll be fine. Do as she says.”

  Nabradia beamed her approval at the fallen woman, “Well done. I knew you had some brains beneath that dreadful mop of red hair.”

  Kelly shot daggers at the witch with her eyes as she tried ineffectually to staunch the flow of blood with her hands.

  “Now Joshua,” Nabradia continued calmly, as though they were discussing the weather over dinner, “I stopped by to let you know I’m very much alive, and you’ll be seeing a lot of me. But you’ve got to stay out of my way and try not to mess with my plans this time. And Joshua, you had better rein in your boys, otherwise, I promise you, it’s gonna be messy.”

  Silence.

  She nodded towards Kelly’s prone form, “I think I just proved that this Nabradia is different. You all were responsible for putting me in the Dragon’s Pit with Nana. You wanted the crystals to destroy me. You sent me to hell. But now I’m back boys; and you better believe that I’ve brought hell with me,” she announced with a cold, high-pitched laugh that chilled the blood of everyone in the room.

  She was still laughing as she slammed her way out the front door.

  3.

  Antiope Nagara, the Silent Watcher, glided towards the Archstone Tribe’s boundaries, her robes sweeping regally in her wake, or rather, in Nabradia’s wake. She had taken on the dead witch’s form, after all, so she had to remember to use the dead witch’s name, even in her thoughts, or she would slip up.

  ‘Nabradia’ grinned to herself, twisting a lock of long black hair between her fingers as she considered that she was finally here, after so many years of sojourning, planning, and waiting.

  She couldn’t have arrived this part of the Shifter World at a better time, she thought with a happy giggle. Nabradia — the real Nabradia, Queen of the Salem Witches— was dead and gone, so there wasn’t much opposition. And now, thanks to her ability to shift into the form of any human or supernatural being she wanted, she had taken on Nabradia’s form and quite simply become…Nabradia. Well, maybe Nabradia without the magic.

  She was the only one who knew for sure that Nabradia was dead. She had watched the witch go into the Dragon’s Pit with Nana Lourdes and she had watched the ancient magic in the caves consume them both.

  She adjusted her robes and flicked a bit of dried leaf off the hem. It had been fun seeing the faces of the Weirna Shifters’ Damaged Pack. They earnestly believed Nabradia was dead so when she had shown up, poor Joshua had turned so grey, she’d almost been afraid he would have a stroke on the spot.

  She had wanted to test her disguise to see how well it held up under close scrutiny. She would have liked to test it on Nabradia’s close allies, Luferia and Palma but word had it the witch had destroyed them both along with other Salem witches. So, she had to settle for the Damaged Boys, she thought, realizing even as she had the thought that it had been Nabradia’s mocking moniker for the Damaged Pack. She had been amazed that even with a Dragon in the room and even with Derek’s sense of smell, they hadn’t realized that she wasn’t the old Nabradia.

  It had been fun putting a bullet in Kelly, she reflected. She didn’t have anything against the woman personally but she had enjoyed how shooting Kelly had hurt her shifter family. If there was one thing she hated, it was Shifters. She was a shifter herself but she loathed the entire species and she would not rest until she had wiped them all out. That was why she was in Weirna in the first place.

  She hastened her steps towards the boundaries of the Archstone Tribe. They had been Nabradia’s servants for mon
ths before the witch died. And now, they would serve her and help her on her own quest because they wouldn’t be able to tell that she wasn’t the Queen of the Salem Witches.

  She shivered with almost orgasmic pleasure. Oh, to finally hold the keys of everything she had ever wanted —

  She staggered to a stop as she saw the large gathering of the Archstone Shifters underneath a huge oak tree. A tall young man dressed in a plaid shirt and jeans was addressing the crowd. He was incredibly handsome with sleepy blue eyes, high cheekbones and wavy salt and pepper hair.

  Nabradia started to smile in feminine appreciation, until his words drifted to her, “Now we’ve been rid of the witch, we should elect our own leader.”

  A murmur of agreement went up from the crowd. Nabradia chewed on her lower lip deep in thought. She’d banked on using the Archstones to get what she wanted and here they were plotting their independence.

  With a faint smile playing about her lips to hide her rage, she sashayed forward to stand beside the young man addressing the crowd. She pulled his name up from memory— Nabradia’s memory.

  “Ronan Veer, I’m impressed. I turn my back for two seconds and you pull your balls out of your back pocket,” she sneered.

  He checked when he saw her and then to give him credit, he carefully wiped all expression clean from his face as he lied baldly, “We are glad to see that you are alive, Queen Nabradia. We heard differently.”

  “Did you, now?” she returned, fixing him with a cool, unblinking stare.

  He broke her gaze, flushing a little with discomfort.

  “The Queen of the Salem Witches is alive,” someone whispered, almost reverently, but with a palpable thread of fear underlying the words.

  Antiope didn’t bother to see who had spoken. She was Nabradia now and that was all that mattered. The really great thing about her gift was that once she took on anyone’s appearance, she had their memories as well.

  Low, excited murmurs spread through the crowd as people began to mutter about her appearance.

  She turned to some of the Archstone Warriors, “Thank you for your help during the witch’s conference. You were the reason we won that fight,” she smiled.