Taste for Alphas: Paranormal Fantasy Shifter Romance

by Milly Taiden

  “Don’t worry,” Tor replied back in the driver’s seat. “I know who to call.”

  After what felt like forever, but must have been no more than forty-five minutes, they got to the private clinic. The building had guards and big gates. She didn’t have time to wonder why, but made a mental note to ask later.

  They were met outside by a medical team with a stretcher. Lara was rushed inside. Tor held her back, informing her that they’d let them know when they could visit with Lara.

  She gulped, her chest felt tight and her lungs burned from how much it hurt to breathe. Lara was in so much pain. She could only hope her mother got relief soon. She’d never been able to feel her like she had this night.

  “I can’t believe she was attacked in her own home.”

  He curled his arms around her and pulled her in for a hug. She burrowed her face into his T-shirt and inhaled. The scent of man that was his alone calmed the frantic beating of her heart.

  “I hate to say this, but I’m surprised they left her alive.”

  She gasped, glanced up and met his gaze. “What do you mean?”

  “Sayeh and the Noir are not nice people. They don’t care about anything but themselves and their sick need for revenge against us. Humans are pawns. They’d easily kill your kind without a second thought.”

  She allowed him to hug her tighter and pressed her head to his chest. His heart beat under her ear. The rhythmic sound gave her something to focus on. He glided his hands up and down her back, soothing away her fears. Though she’d spent her life locked out of Lara’s emotions, she still cared about her. How could she not?

  The woman was her mother. She remembered a time when she was a little girl and Lara had been loving and caring. Those were the brief memories she held on to every single day. If she didn’t, she’d just have another reason to feel unwanted, something she refused to do.

  She sat in the leather sofas in the waiting area next to Tor, holding his hand as if it was the most natural thing in the world. At that moment, it was.

  “I hope she’s okay,” she sighed. “I haven’t felt her pain in a while.”

  “I’m sure she will be fine. The hardest part is over, we got her here and she’s alive,” he told her, his arm going around her shoulders and squeezing her into his side.

  “You know something?” she asked, glancing down at their entwined fingers. “I don’t really know much about you, other than the fact you’re a great kisser and amazing in bed.”

  He gave a soft growl and pressed a kiss to her temple. “What do you want to know?”

  She glanced up at his eyes. There was a rim of silver around his dark irises. It gave him that beastly look she had become a huge fan of. “Tell me anything, but help me keep the worst scenarios out of my mind or I’ll go crazy waiting for the doctor to come out.”

  “Okay. I’ve lived through many eras. One of my favorites was the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The clothing the women wore was much nicer than the stuff they use now.”

  She smiled and thought back to a movie she and Lexi had once watched. “Those long dresses like in Jane Austen?”

  “Something like that. They were sometimes fluffy, but the necklines were low. Still, they were nice. The designs called more attention than what’s used now.”

  “What else did you like about that time?” she asked.

  “It was easier to shift, though it was harder to get clothes back on. Those breeches were a pain in the ass.” He laughed. “It was easier to fly at night. There were no videos or planes or people looking for UFOs. It was simple.”

  “Wow,” she shook her head, “I didn’t realize how difficult it must be for you guys now.”

  “It’s not that bad, sweetheart. We are very careful, and for the most part, stay up in our mountain. We have our businesses and only deviate from our regular human lives when something important happens.”

  She grinned. “I still haven’t been able to help you guys figure out anything about your mates.”

  “You’ve only been with us a few days. Give it time,” he said and lifted the hand he had entwined with hers and tipped her chin back, lowering his head to give her a kiss she needed oh so badly. His lips brushed hers and peace glided over every cell in her body.

  There was no urgency to the meeting of their mouths. He gave her warmth, strength through their touch. She wanted to say love, but the idea that a man she’d met just a few days ago could make her feel love was extra scary. She pulled back from their kiss, her heart racing and her blood pumping in her ears.

  “I don’t know that I can let you go, Morgan,” he said.

  She frowned. “What do you mean?”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Someone cleared their throat and they both turned to see the doctor.

  “Mrs. Polley is doing well. She’s got some broken ribs, lots of bruising, and a sprained wrist and ankle, but otherwise, she’ll be fine. We need to keep her here for a while. There’s some swelling at the back of her head I want to monitor and to ensure no internal bleeding is happening.” He smiled and glanced from Morgan to Tor. “She’s asking to speak with you both. She’s pretty heavily medicated for the pain, so she might not make much sense.”

  Morgan nodded and glanced at Tor. “Let’s go.”

  Before they went inside, she tried to steel herself for her mother’s emotions and pain. As she approached her, she got the sense that Lara was trying hard to bring back the wall she’d always kept around her emotions. Morgan could see the bruises on her mother’s face much clearer now. There were black and blues forming on her jaw, finger marks around her neck and bruises on her arms. She felt like throwing up from just seeing that.

  “I’m okay, Morgan,” she said softly. “I know this is not a pretty sight, but I’m going to be fine.”

  “What happened?”

  Lara glanced at Tor and then back at her. “I need to tell you some things, Morgan. Things I’m not sure you’ll understand.”

  Morgan went around the bed and realizing her mother needed comforting, sat at the edge of the bed and held her hand. “You don’t have to explain if you’re not up to it. It’s fine.”

  Lara smiled and shook her head. “No, baby. I have to.”

  The name took Morgan by surprise. Her last memory of Lara calling her baby was when she was four years old. That was a long ass time ago. “Lara, is everything okay?”

  Lara’s eyes filled with tears. “I’ve missed you calling me mom for so long,” she choked out and squeezed at Morgan’s hand.

  What the hell was going on? Had she been hurt worse than Morgan realized? “You have?”

  Lara nodded. “When you were little, it was the most amazing thing. All you did was say mommy all day long.”

  “I don’t understand what’s going on here. My boarding school said calling you mommy wasn’t appropriate and a term you didn’t like.”

  Lara choked on another sob. “You were so small. And your abilities were too much for you. I didn’t know what to do.” She sniffled and gave Tor a slight nod when he handed her a box of tissues. “You don’t remember, but your father died of a heart attack on a trip to the fair.”

  She frowned, racking her brain but coming back with nothing. She had no recollection of her father’s death. She remembered him, but she only knew he’d died of a heart attack when she got older, never really getting all the details before. She knew from her mother’s pain that she had no reason to lie to her about this. Everything she said was true. “I don’t remember.”

  “I know.” She cleared her throat. “When Michael fell to the ground in pain, you did the same. It was heartbreaking to see my daughter feeling the same pain her father felt as he died.”

  Dear god. A knot formed in her throat. She couldn’t imagine seeing her child going through something like that. “But I don’t remember.”

  “It doesn’t matter. After losing your dad, I had a hard time with my emotions and you were paying the price. At first, I really thought I could h
andle it, but when my instability grew, I didn’t know what to do.

  “Your gift grew more with each passing day. I’d come home to find that you’d gone to the park and someone thinking of suicide had come too close to you. The pain you were in was…too much,” she met Morgan’s gaze, giving her a pleading look.

  “One of your daycare teachers was being abused by her husband and things just got worse.” She pursed her lips. “I called someone who’d been a lifelong friend of your father’s. She mentioned she’d helped open up a boarding school that might be the place for you. Away from so much emotion and where you’d be able to grow up with less pain around you.”

  “You sent me away when I was four.”

  Lara nodded, devastation clear in her gaze along with regret. “I know. It killed me to do it, but then I realized this was the best thing I could do for you. I built my walls so when you finally came home, I wouldn’t leak and you’d be able to come back to me. Except, you didn’t want to come back.”

  She’d become best friends with Lexi and Amira. They had the same problem but Lexi’s parents lived in Switzerland at the time, so when they took Lexi home on weekends they also took Morgan and Amira along with her. They became her family. When her mother tried to take her back years later, Morgan didn’t want to go. Lara had rejected her once. Why would she want to be with her?

  She wanted so badly to understand, but all she had were her childhood memories of wanting to go home and being told no. “I don’t understand what this has to do with your attack tonight.”

  Lara lowered her gaze as if Morgan had struck her. “I’m sorry for sending you away, Morgan, but I did what I thought was best at the time. I missed you every second of every day you were gone. When you finally returned, you were so big and you didn’t call me mom anymore. I’d sacrifice anything for you, but once you returned, you pulled further and further away from me.” She picked up the glass of water on the bedside table and took a sip. “I became withdrawn and depressed. It helped me wall my emotions and keep you safe from the things I saw, the things I felt.”

  Morgan glanced at Tor. He hadn’t said anything that whole time, just stood by and listened, his hand on her shoulder offering silent support. “Who attacked you? Why were you attacked?”

  Lara inhaled hard and let it out slowly. “Big guy. Lots of tattoos. Dark, red eyes. They wanted to know where to find you.”

  “Me?” She gasped. “Why?”

  “They want to kill you. You’re special, and if you live, it means the beginning of an era of rebirth for the Drachen.”

  Morgan’s eyes widened. “Because I’m helping them.” Lara didn’t answer. “I knew it. That’s not going to stop me from what I’m doing.”

  “Tor will keep you safe until we know the next step,” Lara said. “I just wanted to apologize to you. Maybe there was another way to do things, but I swear to you,” she said and gripped Morgan’s hands in her own. “I wanted to keep you safe. I wanted to keep pain away from you. You were so young. It wasn’t fair.”

  Resentment and anger tried to make a home in her heart, but she pushed them away like she always had. She’d always known Lara was a good person. Not because of the emotions she hid from Morgan, but because of her aura. There was a light around her mother that she’d always been drawn to but kept away from so she wouldn’t get hurt with Lara’s rejection.

  “You don’t need to worry about me,” Morgan said.

  “That’s right,” Tor finally spoke up. “I’ll make sure she’s guarded at all times.”

  She glanced up at him. “That’s not what I meant.”

  “Too bad, that’s how it’s going to be,” he replied. The authority didn’t bother her. She sensed how worried he was about her so that was his way of taking control.

  “I know,” Lara said. “Thank you. Morgan,” she squeezed her hand. “I’m here to answer any questions.”

  Morgan shook her head and frowned. “Why now? After all these years. Why?”

  “I saw myself dying earlier. I’m not sure why I’m still alive, but I saw it happening and my one regret was letting this distance come between us. Allowing you to keep going through life without knowing how much I care about you.”

  That was kind of hard to believe at that moment when so many years had passed with Lara not once making a move to build a bridge between them. “Thank you.”

  Lara’s eyes closed and opened less frequently.

  “You get some rest. I’ll be here,” Morgan told her.

  Chapter Nineteen

  After a while watching her mother sleep, the machines buzzing and beeping in the background, Morgan realized she needed someone to help take care of Lara. She had some urgent patients she had to see the next day. She brought her glasses up to the top of her head and wrinkled her nose. The view might be clearer, but her mind was still hazy.

  In a daze, she left the room, slowly walking to a quiet spot down the hallway by the elevators. Nurse after nurse and doctors bypassed her without another word. The unit was especially quiet, but that was probably normal in an ICU.

  She still couldn't wrap her mind around someone wanting to hurt her. Lara said they wanted to know where she was, but why?

  Morgan had no enemies. Even her exes broke up with her in a nice way and they all tended to stay civil. They weren't friends, but nobody wanted her mom dead.

  With a sigh, she leaned her head onto the window overlooking the outside. She saw the parking lot from that spot and thought about how she could help Lara. The only person who she felt comfortable talking to about that was probably asleep, but her best friend would understand.

  She pulled her cellphone out of her pocket and dialed Lexi.

  “Morgan,” Lexis’s sleepy-worried voice answered. “What's going on? How’s everything going? What time is it?”

  Nibbling on her lip, she tried hard to hold back the flood of tears clogging her throat. The things Lara had said…she'd hoped and dreamt for so long that one day her mother would tell her she loved her. But it had been so long of Lara holding back. Even though she'd known her mother wasn't lying, and dear god, she'd felt her pain, it was hard to ignore the years of rejection.

  “Not so good,” she murmured. “I just…I'm at the hospital with my mother. She was attacked and it's pretty bad.” She sucked in a harsh breath. “I'm not sure what's going to happen to her.”

  “Oh my god, I'm so sorry. Is there something I can do? Do you want me to come see you?” she offered quickly. “Just tell me where you are and I will get there as soon as possible.”

  She loved her friend.

  “Actually, I was hoping you would be able to help me out. I can't watch her around the clock with some patients I have to see tomorrow. So I really need someone who can help me with making sure she's okay at the hospital.”

  “Of course, anything you need. Tell me where she's at and I'll come right over.”

  “Tomorrow's soon enough. I just wanted to make sure you could get some time off to help do this for me.”

  “Look, girl, I know you and your mother have always had issues, but you need me right now. I'm willing to do whatever is necessary. You're my best friend. I'm always going to be here for you just like you have been for me.”

  She gulped at the knot in her throat and brought her glasses back down on her nose. “Thank you so much. I can’t begin to tell you what this means to me.”

  Lexi yawned and shuffling sounded from her side of the line. “How's everything going with Tor?”

  She glanced around, knowing he’d gone to the waiting area to give her time alone with her mom. “He's good. We've had a bit of a setback with this attack on my mother, and so far, I've got nothing from any of them. I don't even know what kind of help I am at this point. I want to keep trying though. The thought of his race dying out makes me sick.” Better said, the thought of Tor dying because he couldn't find a mate was tearing her apart. “I'd like to see if I can get anything else.”

  Lexi was silent for a moment. “Wh
at aren’t you telling me, Mor?”

  Oh crap. She forgot Lexi knew her better than anyone in the world, probably even her mother. “There's some stuff I'd rather tell you in person,” she said noncommittally.

  “Okay. If that's the case, why don't you come over for a bit now and we can have a few hours talking and catching up.”

  “Hang on a sec, I have to see if I can,” she trailed off and stopped the doctor attending her mom as he went by. “Excuse me?”

  The doctor stopped and met her gaze. “Ms. Polley. What can I do for you?”

  “How’s my mom? Will she be regaining consciousness again tonight?”

  The doctor gave a quick shake of the head. “We gave your mother some heavy pain medication and she’ll be asleep all night and probably most of tomorrow. Please don’t stay if you think she’s likely to wake. Go home. Get home rest and come back tomorrow. We’ll take good care of her.”

  “Thank you, doctor.”

  She watched the doctor walk away not feeling any better about leaving her mother alone in a hospital when there was someone out there who tried to kill her.

  “Okay,” she finally said to Lexi. “I’ll come by, but only until morning when I have to see some patients I’d intended on keeping on the schedule.”

  “Sounds good. Will Tor be okay with you staying here?”

  She frowned. She never asked anyone for permission to go anywhere before. But she lived with Lexi so if he was worried about her safety, he could always stay over in their guest room. Or in Morgan’s room, she’d never complain about that.

  “I’m sure he’ll be fine about it. Anyway, tell me about you. Let’s not talk about me anymore. How are you doing? How's everything at the shelter?”

  Lexi groaned. “I'm okay, things are pretty crazy at the shelter, but otherwise nothing I can't handle. I'm so happy that the family that I told you about, Jennifer Santos and her kids? They’re still with us and it seems like she's finally going to divorce her husband.”