SHIFT (Mackenzie Grey #1)

by Karina Espinosa

  I didn’t know how much help we could be, but after spending the last few days with Jonah, I didn’t want to sit around and do nothing. He might be taking his anger out on me right now, but I’d like to think we’re at least friends, and friends don’t back off when the other needs help.

  When we arrived at the warehouse, it was packed to the hilt with men and women who I could only assume were werewolves. Amy stuck close to me—smart girl—but her face was awestruck by all the very…uh, good looking guys milling around without shirts. Jonah wasn’t lying when he said they needed to wear the minimum to be able to shift at a moment’s notice. The women were fully clothed but the men barely had anything on—only jeans—and it was freezing cold out. Amy’s face peeked out from the gap between her scarf and hat.

  “Bash!” Jonah yelled from across the main floor and waved him over. He froze in mild surprise when he saw me. Sebastian approached him and I started to follow until I heard my name.

  “Mackenzie!” Blu squealed and wrapped her arms around me. “I’m so glad you’re okay. I was so worried when the guys went out looking for you and then when Jonah didn’t come back. How are you?” she rambled and I noticed her eyes were bloodshot like she’d been crying.

  “I’m fine, Blu. Are you okay?” I asked and motioned to her face. She took a tissue from her pocket and dabbed her eyes.

  “I’m sorry, it’s just really hard right now with Jackson missing,” she said. I patted her arm because I knew I had to be sympathetic and while he may have been an asshole to me, maybe he wasn’t a bad guy to the rest of them.

  “Do they know anything about his disappearance?”

  She nodded. “He was patrolling Central Park with his team when they were attacked. Andrew was killed and Jackson was taken. Sam came back but he’s been out of it and speaks incoherently. They think it might have been vampires,” she said, her eyes wide with fear. I didn’t know what to say so I gripped her hand.

  “Well what do we have here? An unmated Luna and a lone-wolf…pathetic,” V said as she approached us. Amy tensed beside me and I gripped her wrist through her coat. Bash’s girlfriend was our new Diana Stone and Amy was going to go head to head with her if given the opportunity.

  Blu dropped her eyes and searched for something interesting on the ground. She started to worry her hands and I had to put mine on top of them so she wouldn’t scratch enough to draw blood.

  “I’m sorry, who are you again?” I said.

  She sneered and flicked her sleek blonde hair back. A group of about three Lunas stood behind her. This was starting to look like a B-rated version of Mean Girls.

  “I’m Sebastian’s soon-to-be mate and I suggest you don’t forget that—I’ll soon be the Lunas’ Alpha.” Her pearly white teeth shone brightly as she smirked.

  The thought of her being with Bash already made me want to vomit and knowing she’s going to be an Alpha of some sort was making me feel bad for Blu. She’s obviously not part of the ‘in’ crowd with these chicks.

  I chuckled. “Oh yeah?” The dumb bitch nodded. “Well I guess I’ll wait to remember when you actually become Alpha—until then—who are you?”

  That earned me a friendly growl from our resident vixen. Amy giggled beside me.

  “You think you’re so cute don’t you—”

  “Yes I do.”

  “It wasn’t a question! Don’t interrupt me again,” she glowered.

  “Mums the word,” I said and ran an invisible zipper across my lips and tossed the key behind me.

  “You’ve never been a part of a Pack, so let me school you on how it works around here. You’re a Luna, which means you listen and do as I say until you’re mated. Don’t go around changing the status quo, Mackenzie Grey,” V snarled. The posse behind her nodded their heads in conviction as if this chick was the next Messiah. “Do I make myself clear?”

  “Crystal,” I said cheekily.

  She huffed and turned around, barreling through her group of followers.

  Once they all dispersed, Amy and I hunched over cackling. With hands on our knees, we tried to catch our breaths between laughs.

  “Kenz! You can’t talk to Vivian like that! She’ll ruin you,” Blu said, red in the face.

  “Ruin me? Oh please, that girl needs a reality check.”

  “You don’t know how things are run around here. She governs all of the Lunas and she’s right, once Sebastian is mated to her, she’ll have complete and total control of us. She’ll be our Alpha.”

  My smile faltered. “Is she really going to be mated to Bash?”

  “Most likely. They’ve been together for years. He hasn’t been with anyone else,” Blu said as she pulled her phone from her pocket. She read something on the screen and then looked up to the second floor. One of the wolves was waving for her to come upstairs.

  “I have to go upstairs and check on the survivor, want to come?”

  I cleared my throat. “Yeah, sure.” I didn’t know why I felt this irked about Sebastian and V but it wasn’t sitting well in my stomach. It’s not like it was my business, I wasn’t even part of the Pack—it shouldn’t matter.

  We followed behind Blu up the stairs when Amy sidled beside me.

  “You okay, Kenz?”

  “Yeah, why?”

  “Because you look constipated, what’s up?”

  “Nothing, just ticked off at that V chick,” I said.

  We made it to the room where they were keeping the hurt werewolf and beside him was another wolf with a mop of dirty blonde hair. He seemed as if he was once attractive but that wasn’t what caught my attention. It was the big slash across his face. It extended from just above his right eye, over his nose, a smidge of the left corner of his upper lip and just below his jaw line. It was intensely scary and interesting all at the same time.

  “Everything okay, Caleb?” Blu asked as we entered.

  “I don’t know, he started mumbling something but I couldn’t understand,” Scarface said. His green eyes met the three of us. “What’s she doing here?”

  Blu worried her hands and began to stutter. “Sh-she’s Mackenzie, sh-she came here with Sebastian.”

  I cocked an eyebrow and reassessed the man in front of me. I must have been missing something about him if he had Blu all nervous. Did she like him?

  “The lone wolf?”

  She nodded.

  “I’m right here, you know. You could just ask me,” I said as I approached the bed of the unconscious wolf. He looked very young—no older than maybe nineteen. His eyes were sunken in with dark circles. Slow and shallow breaths puffed out from between his purple chapped lips.

  “You’re not Pack. What are you doing here?”

  “Man,” I sighed, “you guys are so welcoming. It’s a breath of fresh air, truly.”

  “Get out, Luna, and take the human with you,” Caleb said to Blu, but never taking his eyes off me.

  “I have a name, tight ass. It’s Amy, not human,” Amy muttered.

  “I said, get out,” he gritted between his teeth. My hands clenched into fists beside me.

  “What crawled up his ass?” Amy mumbled as Blu dragged her out of the room.

  Once it was just the two of us, his eyes roamed up and down my body. Chills racked me and not in a hot Alpha way—in a creepy, he’s-a-possible-serial-killer way.

  The silence stretched over us for what felt like forever. He walked around the bed to where I was standing and stood at arm’s length.

  “Where do you come from, Mackenzie?” he whispered and I got a close up at the scar on his face. We were both about the same height and it was more gruesome than I thought.

  “Who gave you that scar?” I countered and he stiffened.

  “I asked you a question first. Answer me.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Seriously? I came from my mother’s womb. What’s the deal with your face?”

  His hand came up and grabbed my face roughly—squeezing my cheeks inward.

  “Don’t play games with me, littl
e girl. You might have Sebastian and Jonah fooled, but not me. I’ll find out your secret sooner or later.”

  I pulled away from his grip and scowled.

  “Secret? What are you smokin’? I don’t know anything about why I’m what I am. And I don’t appreciate you putting your hands on me, so I’ll be nice this time. But do it again, and your balls are mine.”

  I turned to leave the room when I heard a grunt. And it wasn’t coming from Caleb, my new best friend. Times like these, I was starting to miss Jackson’s brand of asshole.

  The wolf on the bed tried to speak but his mouth was too dry. I pushed past Caleb and reached over the night stand for the glass of water. Lifting the boy’s head, I tipped the glass to wet his lips.

  “Are you okay?”

  “Get away from him!” Caleb latched on to my arm holding the glass and pulled me away—spilling the water on the bed.

  “What the hell!”

  “You’re not a Luna and you’re definitely not Pack. Keep your filthy, mutt hands off him.”

  “Hey, asshole! I was just trying to help since all you were doing was looking at him like he wasn’t supposed to wake up,” I said and stopped. I could hear the squealing of make-believe tires coming to a halt in my head. Did he hope the guy wouldn’t wake up?

  “H-h-hel,” Sam tried to speak, his brown eyes flashed wide and wild.

  “He’s asking for help, give him water—”

  “You don’t know anything. Get out!”

  Caleb turned his back to me and pulled an envelope from his back pocket. I backed away to the door, but the boy’s eyes were on me and I felt like they were pleading with me to stay. A tear trickled down the corner of his eye. Oh god…

  I ran out of the room and to the second floor railing. I leaned over and scanned the main floor where dozens of wolves were congregated.

  “Sebastian!” I yelled over the room once I spotted him in the middle of a group on the far right side of the floor. It was too loud and he couldn’t hear me—no one could—it was chaos down there.

  My gut told me something was wrong. I went back into the room but came to a screeching halt under the doorframe. Caleb was feeding the wolf some sort of tea. I could see the heat above the plastic cup and what looked like a leaf at the bottom of it.

  “What is that?” I said, slightly out of breath. My heart raced as my adrenaline kicked in. Maybe I was paranoid without reason but there was a gnawing in my stomach that didn’t trust Caleb.

  “Why don’t you try it,” he said with his back to me.

  I scoffed.

  “Do I look that stupid to you? For all I know, you’re poisoning him.”

  “Relax. It’s just an herbal tea to calm him down—chamomile. You should have some, you’re getting worked up over nothing.”

  He got up from the bed and I saw the boy was now sleeping soundly again, his chest rising slightly as he slumbered.

  Caleb turned to me with the cup outstretched. I peered into it and it did look like tea, but I still wasn’t sold on the idea. Instead of messing around here, I should have gone downstairs to get help. I wanted to kick myself for being so stupid.

  “Give it,” I said and grabbed the tea from him. I brought it up to my nose and inhaled.

  My nose scrunch up as a tangerine-like scent flavor tickled my throat. I coughed to get the acid taste out of my mouth but it only built up this thick mucus. Left with no other choice, I swallowed it and felt the bile rise up. That shit was nasty.

  “Smells great, huh?” Caleb said with a smirk.

  “You’re an asshole.”

  “I can live with that. Now I won’t say it again, get the fuck out.”

  I walked out of the room with the taste of the tea still in my mouth, but it was diminishing. I needed to get out of there before he ticked me off and I did or said something I’d regret.

  I went down the stairs and tripped on the last couple of steps. Luckily, Blu and Amy were there to steady me.

  “Whoa, why do you look like you’re five margaritas in?” Amy joked.

  I shook my head, I wasn’t dizzy, but the trip down the stairs exhausted me and I was sweating bullets.

  “I don’t know,” I whispered and tried to get my bearings straight. I sat on the last two steps of the stairs and put my head in between my knees. My bones felt heavy and I didn’t know how long I was going to be able to hold myself up.

  “Did Caleb do something to you?” Blu asked.

  I slowly shook my head. “Caleb?” I questioned.

  Blu raised an eyebrow. “Yeah, the guy upstairs.”

  “Oh, Scarface, yeah. Besides being an asshole? No, I think I’m just hungry.”

  After a few minutes, I felt my body get control of itself again and the feeling of my limbs eased.

  I peered up and caught Blu’s face. She’d been crying again.

  “Don’t worry, Blu, they’ll find him,” I reassured her. They had to find Jackson.

  “Don’t make promises you can’t keep,” Jonah said from behind Amy and I turned to look at him. He glared at me and I was starting to get ticked off.

  “I didn’t promise anything,” I said in a neutral voice, still not feeling a hundred percent.

  He snorted. “What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be back home with your cheating boyfriend?” he said and I clenched my fists at my side. Okay, now I’m starting to feel like myself again.

  A thought stopped me, maybe it was better if I gave him space before I couldn’t control what came out of my mouth.

  “Low blow, Jonah,” I said and got up on wobbly legs. I walked away with Amy trailing behind me. What was I going to do?

  Amy latched onto my arm to steady me. “Hey, what was that about? I thought you guys were, you know, friends,” she said.

  “I don’t know what we were but he’s just pissed he wasn’t around to help Jackson. I think he’s taking it out on me. At least that’s what I understood from Sebastian. We’ll see,” I said and approached the Alpha who was giving orders to a team of five.

  “…and I want team one to take Central Park North, team two takes the South, team three West and team four East. The tactical team I want near the reservoir talking with the Fae. I need to know if they saw anyone that night. Any questions?” Sebastian said. He was in full-on Alpha mode. It was kind of hot. Oh geez, there’s something seriously wrong with me. While I’d been paying attention to him, I hadn’t noticed the five guys were staring at me. I waved at them and got a couple smirks, prompting Sebastian to turn around.

  “Mackenzie,” he motioned to me and I walked over to the table. “Meet our Pack’s captains. Thomas, Daemon, Muhammad, Bernard, and Caleb.”

  I hadn’t recognized him in the group before but as my gaze landed on Scarface, my smile fell. Thomas and Daemon sent me a slight nod and Bernard came over and gripped my hand in a firm shake. He was a burly, gruff guy who looked like a lumberjack with his outgrown reddish beard. To his left—Muhammad—was a guy as tall, but more toned than Bernard. His eyes were two empty pits of black orbs, like if he killed someone, he wouldn’t even bat an eyelash. I assumed he was the tactical team captain, which suited him. He appeared to be Middle Eastern but I could be wrong. He didn’t nod or shake my hand, just gazed at me with those dead eyes. I didn’t even want to look at Caleb, I could feel the smirk on his face.

  “Mackenzie is not Pack…at least not yet,” Sebastian started and I rolled my eyes. That got a couple snickers from the captains. “Keep information limited and make sure she doesn’t leave the building,” he said and my eyes bugged out.

  “Hold up!” I raised a finger to him and the entire main floor quieted. “I didn’t come here to be locked up again.”

  The room fell silent and I almost heard when Sebastian quirked an eyebrow.

  “And what do you suppose I do with you then, Mackenzie? Send you out on the field?”

  I hadn’t thought that far ahead. I was a criminal justice major, I could be useful. Unfortunately my physical activity was ver
y limited. I never even took karate as a kid. Damnit.

  “Kenz,” Amy whispered in warning as she got closer to me, probably nervous with all these werewolves staring us down.

  I ignored her.

  “Are you trying to call me weak?” I questioned and I heard gasps all around the room. My mouth might get me in trouble, but I’ve never allowed anyone to make me feel incompetent.

  “I’m not calling you strong, if that’s what you’re aiming for,” he said and crossed his arms over his chest.

  I scoffed. “Well I am, and I can kick your ass any day of the week,” I said and Amy’s grip tightened and became painful. She dug her nails into my arm. I swear my nerves made me say the stupidest things.

  “Oh yeah?” Sebastian said with a hint of a smile. “Let’s test this theory out.” The captains laughed with one another and started to move the cafeteria style tables out of the middle of the floor, forming a make-shift dance floor—or a fighting ring—I guessed it was the latter. Sebastian’s eyes never left mine as he stripped out of his shirt and shoes, standing before me barefoot, with his jeans hanging low and exposing his V-cut that I couldn’t look away from.

  I gulped.

  “Kenzie, maybe we should go,” Amy said and I knew she was freaking out—hell I was too.

  “Even if we wanted to, they wouldn’t let us,” I muttered as I removed my shoes and coat. Stuffing my hat and gloves in my coat pockets. I walked to the middle of the empty floor space where Sebastian was standing, in my jeans and sweater.

  The wolves—and Amy—encircled us and I saw Jonah cut through the crowd. His chocolate eyes grew to the size of tennis balls. He rushed over to us and pulled me away from Sebastian, the big, bad wolf.

  “What the hell, boss, what are you doing?” Jonah asked.

  “She challenged me, Jonah, you know Pack rules; a challenge doesn’t go unanswered.”

  “She’s a pup, Bash! She doesn’t know this stuff, she’s also not part of the Pack.”

  “Doesn’t matter, and if you ask her, oh how did she put it?” Sebastian looked around the crowd.