Shifters Forever Worlds Mega Box: Volume 3

by Thorne, Elle

  The baby. We have to find out what happened to the baby.

  He forced his bear to move past rage and the overwhelming odor of blood to concentrate on the baby’s particular scent. The signals were mixed. The baby had not been with her out here. But there was a trail left by the baby’s scent.

  Braden raised his head, inhaled deeply, letting the various aromas sit on his senses while his lungs burned with the effort of holding his breath long enough to process.

  There.

  He picked it up. It was faint as hell, but—

  There it was!

  Another shifter. One he didn’t recognize out of all the Bear Canyon Valley shifters that he’d met thus far.

  The burning grew in his lungs, setting them on fire with the effort, but still he held it in deep, processing.

  Hyena? A hyena shifter?

  And so faint?

  Hunter’s block, he realized. The shifter had used hunter’s block and it had just begun to wear off.

  I’ll be damned.

  He looked down at the still unmoving Dakotah. Her dark hair splayed across his arm. Her eyes were closed as if she were asleep. And if it weren’t for how ashen her skin was under her dark complexion, and the trickle of blood on her forehead, he’d think she were sleeping.

  Braden was consciously aware of the fact that his bear was synchronizing his heartbeat to hers the whole time Braden had been trying to assess the scents.

  We’re not bonded, he warned his bear. Don’t put the cart before the horse.

  His bear growled in response, a warning snarl to back off.

  Wait.

  What was that?

  Braden felt his heartbeat begin to slow. It was slowing to match her declining heartbeat.

  No! Fuck, no!

  Her heartbeat was becoming weaker, fainter. He couldn’t lose her. Why was her blood pressure dipping? Why was her heartbeat getting slower?

  He needed to get her to Doc’s.

  Now.

  Hoisting her carefully into a fireman’s carry, Braden jogged as steadily as he could without jarring her until he finally reached Doc and Mae’s. His breathing came out in gasps, his body drenched in sweat as he hit the door with his shoulder, not bothering to knock, cracking wood and loosening the knob. The door gave immediately.

  He glanced at Dakotah. She was unmoving, still out.

  Doc and Mae ran into the living room, Doc carrying a weapon that looked more like a mace than a bat. He lowered it when he saw Braden carrying Dakotah.

  “What’s happened?”

  “She was outside.” He sucked air in. “Her head…” He turned so that Doc could see the wound.

  Doc moved Dakotah’s hair aside. “Not good. Let’s get her where I can take a look at her.”

  “What about the baby?” Mae’s hand flew to her mouth and she ran out of the room.

  “Follow Mae. That’s the room Dakotah and the baby are staying in. I’ll take care of her in there.”

  Doc led the way, Braden followed, carrying Dakotah sideways through the hallway.

  Mae came flying out of the room, her eyes wide, her face pale. “The baby. He’s gone.” Mae’s bottom lip trembled.

  “Set her down here,” Doc said to Braden. “Mae, babe.”

  Mae turned his way, a tear making its way down her cheek. Her dark eyes flashed with a blue fire.

  In the distance, thunder rolled.

  Doc took Mae’s hand. “Call Grant and Griz. Have them reach out to the Navarro brothers and Joe. Let me see what’s going on with Dakotah.” He locked eyes with Braden. “Can you stay with Mae?”

  Braden looked down at Dakotah. The last thing he wanted was to leave her side. But he knew Doc was worried about Mae.

  Dakotah’s eyes fluttered.

  Doc waved him away. “Go. I don’t know what her reaction will be to you being here. She shot you after all.”

  “But—”

  “I’d appreciate if you look after Mae. I’ll take care of Dakotah.”

  Braden contained his anger and the accusations he wanted to hurl at Doc that Dakotah had slipped out of their house, that her baby was missing. He didn’t know enough about what happened yet. He shut the lid on the fury that wanted to erupt from both, him and his bear.

  Mae was in the kitchen on the cell phone, pacing, her voice raised.

  “I don’t know. Griz isn’t answering his phone.” She glanced at Braden then turned her attention back to pacing. “Can you also call—”

  A knock came from the front door.

  She looked at Braden, her eyes wide.

  Braden put his finger over his lip for her to be silent and raised his other hand, indicating she should stay. “I’ll see who it is,” he whispered. Who could it be anyway? How could anyone she called be here already?

  He snagged Doc’s mace-like weapon from the wall he’d propped it against and took long strides toward the door.

  One deep breath.

  He raised the weapon, ready to swing, and put his other hand on the knob.

  He took another deep breath and braced for action. Twisting it slowly, he jerked it open.

  “Shit!”

  “Language,” said the big shifter in front of him, soaking wet, a scar slicing his face in half, and a tiny bundle in his arms, swaddled in a baby blanket.

  A scream blew up behind Braden.

  He half-whirled, keeping his eye on the drenched shifter before him while he processed the visage of a very pale, struggling Dakotah being held back by Doc.

  The baby’s shrieks cut through the noise, raising it to a new level.

  “Holy shit,” Braden muttered.

  “My baby!” Dakotah’s screech almost came to eardrum splitting level. She jerked loose from Doc’s grip and lunged for Griz.

  Griz had a perplexed look on his face.

  That’s when Braden noticed it.

  “Oh my God. Is that blood?” This came from Dakotah who must have noticed the blood on Griz’s arms and shirt at the same time as Braden.

  “The baby’s fine,” Griz said, holding the child out to his mother. “But why the hell didn’t anyone tell me the baby is an elemental? Every time he cried, I’d get doused with a downpour of rain. Once, it actually hailed. Look at this shit.” He glanced at the baby. “Oops. Language. Sorry, little fella.”

  The expression on Griz’s face was almost comical, and Braden was sure, one day, they’d all laugh about it, but today, not so much, what with all the concern about Dakotah and the baby’s wellbeing.

  “I was going to tell everyone I believed he was an elemental,” Mae said. “But I’ve never seen one so young. I figured it out earlier when his eyes went blue, but I thought it could be because he’s a newborn.”

  “So how’d you get bloody, Griz?” Braden asked, keeping a cautious eye on Dakotah as she held the baby.

  Dakotah looked a little shaky. Braden took her arm, led her to the chair and helped her sit in the plush upholstery.

  She looked up at Braden. First, she studied his face, then she turned her attention to his body, focusing on his chest. “You’re okay,” she said almost with an exhale of relief.

  Deep within Braden, his heart and his bear did a little flip, happy that she cared. “Yeah.”

  “I’m sorry—”

  Braden raised his head slightly, stopping her. “You didn’t know.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Dakotah stared at the massive man she’d shot not long ago. The concern in his eyes was evident. She wanted to talk to him. She felt like she had so much she needed to say, but how could that be when she barely knew him? And yet looking into his eyes, there was something that said she’d known him for a long time.

  Confused, she focused her gaze on her son so the man could not read the expression in her eyes.

  “Braden.” This came from Mae, who was the wife of the doctor, as far as Dakotah could tell.

  A few months ago she would not even have believed shapeshifters existed. And until a few hours ago, she would
not have believed that any of them were good.

  And yet, when she woke, her baby was gone and she went out to find him, only to be attacked in the darkness and left to die. The big man she’d shot, the one Mae just called Braden had saved her life and brought her here.

  And as if that wasn’t enough, the other giant shapeshifter with a scar that made him look menacing had held her baby as if he was the most precious treasure and brought him back safely.

  Tears welled in her eyes, slowly escaping and dropping onto the baby’s blanket.

  There was a knock at the door.

  Dakotah’s eyes widened, she grabbed the baby tighter, so tightly he let out a little squeal.

  “I’m sorry, baby.” She put her lips on his forehead, helping him quiet down.

  “Griz,” Doc reached for a wicked looking bat type of weapon. He raised it, then indicated the door with a nod. “You got that?”

  The man with the scar, Griz, inclined his head once and step closer to the door.

  He opened it. There stood the same woman she had kicked and shoved when she tried to get out of her vehicle.

  The woman with the white hair and eerie light eyes.

  So she was one of them? Dakotah waited to see if the interaction would be friendly.

  Griz hugged the woman. “Ciara, I’m glad you came out.”

  “Of course,” the woman said as she stepped into the room, her eyes zeroing in on Dakotah and the baby. “I figured you would need me.”

  “You figured right.” Mae gave the woman a hug.

  The woman, her white-blond hair pulled back into a braid approached Dakotah. “I’m Ciara. I think our first meeting was not underneath the best of circumstances.”

  Dakotah felt her face heat, to think that this woman was so gracious about the way she treated her. “I apologize. I didn’t know…”

  “If I were one of the ones at Deep Hollow…” Ciara said. “It can’t be easy for you, having gone through what you have with them, then this. And now the baby, coming early. He’s fine, you know? Even though he was born early, his shifter heritage will help him.”

  With every step the woman had taken, she had gotten closer to Dakotah and the baby. And with every step, it felt as though a wave of serenity washed over Dakotah. The panic she had felt, the indecision, the insecurity, all of that faded away, being pulled out like a slow tide.

  “What’s happening?” Dakotah stared at the woman.

  Ciara’s eyes were glowing, and deep within her irises, there seem to be a kaleidoscope.

  Dakotah rubbed her eyes. Was she seeing things? She looked again. No. The woman’s eyes were definitely glowing.

  “What are you?”

  Griz stepped closer. “Ciara is a distant cousin of mine and she has special skills. Those skills allow her to help. You trust me, Dakotah?”

  Dakotah glanced from Griz to the baby and back to Griz. He had saved her baby’s life. That blood on his shirt meant he had to fight someone to help her son.

  “I do trust you.”

  “Then do not be concerned, Ciara will not hurt you. None of us will.”

  Looking at the gentle giant before her, his eyes filled with sympathy, though he could easily have snapped her like a twig, Dakotah felt she could trust him with her life. After all, he’d saved her infant’s life.

  Then the strangest thought occurred to her, seemed to come out of the blue, actually.

  My baby doesn’t even have a name.

  “Your name is Griz?” she asked the scarred shifter.

  He smiled, then let out a small chuckle. “That’s what I’ve been called for most of my life. But my name is Larsen.”

  “Larsen.” The name rolled off her tongue so easily. “Larsen,” she repeated.

  In her arms, the baby chortled.

  “I think he likes the name Larsen.” Dakotah made a soothing clicking sound.

  Griz leaned in, chucked the baby under the chin. “I think he likes his uncle Griz.”

  “Why wouldn’t he? You saved his life. You protected him from the lion. Did you kill him?” Dakotah found herself hoping Chad and his shifter lion self were dead. Not just for vengeance, but for the safety of her baby.

  Griz frowned. “Lion? What lion?”

  Dakotah frowned, confused.

  “I scented a hyena near where I found you,” Braden added.

  “Yeah, it was a hyena I had to kill.” Griz looked at the baby. “I had to kill him. There was no way he was going to let me bring that baby back. What’s his name, anyway? The whole walk over here, all I would call him was baby. Maybe that’s why he made it rain on me.” Griz smiled a crooked smile because of his scar.

  “Name?” Dakotah looked at the little one in her arms. She glanced back at the giant man. Her voice was choked up and she said, “His name is Larsen, of course.”

  Griz’s eyes flickered wide just a split second as she caught him off-guard. He put his hand on his chest. “Larsen? After me?”

  “I don’t know any other Larsens.”

  Seeing his emotional response, and this man who had seemed so tough and stoic made the lump in her throat grow larger. She glanced at Braden, who was looking at her with an expression that scared the daylights out of her, at the same time, filled her with feelings she couldn’t begin to grasp.

  Braden gave a slight nod as if he approved.

  And to Dakotah’s surprise, his approval meant a lot to her.

  “That’s an honor.” Griz dropped to one knee next to Ciara and Mae in front of Dakotah. He put his hand on the baby’s forehead and said, “He needs a godfather. I volunteer for that position.”

  Dakotah couldn’t help it. At that moment, she burst into tears, and then the house’s roof was pelted by large raindrops.

  “There goes little Larsen,” Griz laughed. “Thought you were gonna soak me again, didn’t you?”

  A smile came to the baby’s face.

  “On a serious note,” Braden said. “If you killed the hyena, where’s the lion?”

  Griz shrugged. “Maybe he’s not coming?”

  Chapter Twelve

  Hysterical laughter burst out of Dakotah. The baby winced and flinched at the shrillness of her laughter. “You’re crazy if you think Chad is not coming for this baby. He came every week to make sure it was healthy and to see it on the ultrasound. Chad’s not giving up on this baby as long as his vile heart is still beating.”

  And I hope I get to help his heart stop, Braden thought. “How’s this baby an elemental? You’re not one.” He studied Dakotah’s face. “Are you?”

  Dakotah shook her head. “I think his dad is. But…” She shrugged. “I could be wrong. The doctors gave me some injections. I don’t know what was in them.”

  Griz whistled under his breath in disbelief.

  “What the fuck,” Braden uttered.

  “They’ll pay,” Griz said. “One way or another, they will pay.”

  “They already did,” Doc reminded him. “We took them all down at Deep Hollow, remember?”

  “Nah. We didn’t, or there’d be no one after the baby. Clearly that lion shifter must still be around.”

  “I can’t believe they did that to little Larsen,” Mae’s dark eyes flashed blue.

  “What do you mean?” Braden was confused. “You’re an elemental. You do fine.”

  “I’m not a shifter elemental.”

  Dakotah sat up straighter in the chair. “What do you mean? What does that mean?”

  Mae shook her head.

  “Please don’t shield me from the truth. I can’t handle any more shocks. I need to know what I’m facing; what baby Larsen is facing.”

  Doc put his arm around Mae. “You should tell her. It’s only fair she knows what she’s up against. Just as Bryson and Anya need to know what Pepper has to face.”

  “Pepper?” Griz asked. “You mean Lani’s friend Pepper, the one that lives next to Lani and Cross? The Intuitive?”

  “No. Different Pepper,” Doc explained.

 
“We’re gonna have two Peppers in the valley?” Griz smiled. “That won’t get confusing.”

  “No,” Mae laughed softly. “We’re taking Anya, Bryson, and Bryson’s daughter Pepper to Colorado when we go see the Order of Elementals. Astra and Kane are going too.”

  Dakotah tipped her head to the side, trying to process all of this. “Why are you taking them there?”

  “Well, I’m hoping the Order can help them cope with their elementals and keep them from killing the shifter. Shifter elemental hybrids rarely make it to adulthood. The elemental often kills the shifter’s animal. If one’s shifter animal dies, the body that housed that animal can die too.”

  “What?” Dakotah flew out of that seat as if she’d been ejected from a fighter plane’s cockpit. The baby screeched in protest. “What do you mean shifter elemental hybrids rarely make it to adulthood? I—my baby—we need to get help too.”

  Mae patted Dakotah’s shoulder. “Join us. We can get some help for Larsen at the Order.”

  “I’d like to.”

  And Dakotah really would like to. She would definitely do that, except she didn’t know where she would be when that happened or how she could do that. She looked down at Larsen’s innocent face.

  I’ll find a way.

  The baby locked eyes with her, and then opened his mouth and released the largest wail she’d ever heard.

  At the same time, in the background thunder rumbled.

  Doc laughed. “I think he’s hungry.”

  “Excuse me.” Dakotah turned toward the bedrooms. “We’ll be back in a few.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  Braden watched Dakotah leave the room with baby Larsen, and found himself wishing he could go with her. The idea of her being out of sight, even for a second, even in the next room, bothered him.

  “How are you recuperating?” Doc asked.

  Braden shrugged. “Shifter blood. Fast healing. What can I say.”

  Doc nodded.

  The look in Doc’s eye concerned him. It did not bode well. Now more than ever, he wished he were somewhere else.

  “Speaking of healing,” Doc said. “What’s the situation with those scars?”