Winter Tails: A Limited Edition Winter Shifters Collection

by Fox, Piper

  Drew, to her surprise, wasn’t standing ready to fight. Instead, her partner was at the table, seeming lost in thought.

  “You good?” Hasan asked his friend.

  The dark gaze flickered up. His gaze locked with Hasan’s for so long that she wondered if they were having an unspoken shifter conversation.

  Then Drew shrugged. “Good as I’ll ever be.”

  Stepping closer to the table where he sat, she released a sigh. “Look, I’m sorry. It happened between us a while back and we didn’t do anything more because….. for this exact reason. But now-,”

  “He Marked you.” Coming from Drew, it wasn’t a question; it was a fact.

  Of course, she should have known that Drew would know that; they were the same species. Shifters could tell; it was their world, their legacies. So, she simply nodded. “Yes.”

  “Then it’s done.” Getting to his feet, Drew no longer looked bothered. A serious expression had settled over his face. “The strength of a Mark can’t be undone, no matter what I think.”

  Approaching Hasan, he dipped his head slightly, a small show of respect. Hasan inclined his, and extended one hand which Drew took. Head still dipped, Drew touched his forearm to Hasan’s, their old sign of brotherhood.

  Knowing that Drew’s bowed head was a sign of his acknowledgement of Hasan’s Mark on her, but no necessarily of submission, she made sure to stay back. She was quite aware that any slight shift in the balance of power could turn their truce quickly in another direction.

  Two full-grown demon-wolves wasn’t something that she was equipped to deal with at the moment.

  After a while, the men broke contact. Something passed between them and the air seemed to hold less tension.

  Hasan turned to her, his pale eyes glinting. “Time to storm the SX HQ.”

  Pulling on his jacket, Drew stood beside his friend. “Damn right. Time to get revenge, or die trying.”

  * * *

  The area around Shax’s home was silent, a lone building seated in the middle of a snowy field. Kimone crouched with the guys in the forest surrounding the field.

  “All right, let’s do it.” As one the trio raced across the snowy field silently, their footfalls muffled in the snow.

  The first wolf they met at the door was no match for Hasan’s ferocity. Hasan snapped the shifter’s neck without hesitation.

  ‘There’ll be more right behind him,’ she thought, and turned gazed at both of her guys intently, knowing they would pick up her thought.

  As they turned the corner, three wolves stood waiting, crouched low. But to their surprise, instead of attacking, all three wolves began to back up.

  Looking at each other, the trio followed the wolves apprehensively.

  Right into a large room, an obvious fighting ground, where dozens of shifters waited. Low growls emitted from around the room. It was obvious that they’d been expected.

  “Ah shit,” Drew murmured.

  She’d only barely acknowledged the trouble they were in when the air, already cold, became bitterly frigid. “What the-?” she gasped as she could suddenly see her breath coming in puffs before her. The sudden biting cold wasn’t because of a mild temperature drop; it was more like the deep chill of a polar vortex.

  Shivering, she watched the stone tiles on the ground form ice as it began freezing in patches.

  Gritting her teeth against the bitter chill, she flinched, her eyes blinded from the flash. Pain reverberated around her brain and though her skin still chapped, she slapped her hands to her ears painfully.

  A voice spoke from directly in front of her. “Hello, little ones. Daddy is here.”

  “Well, well, well, the sons have returned to the fold.” The winter demon’s eyes seemed to ripple and shift as he studied him. Shax stood well over seven feet, an imposing figure even among the throng of giant wolves.

  Forcing her fear to the pit of her stomach, she just watched the demon. Though they had hyped themselves up to think they could win, their chances of survival were real slim. Seeing Shax in person, had instantly transported her back to her not-to-distant days of being a Dream-Walker for Tevit.

  Even though Shax aligned himself with shifters, he was still a Hell Prince, and the Hell Princes were known for their sadistic nature above all.

  Shax, if he wanted to, could kill them all with a flick of his fingers. All they had going for them was the idea of ‘Pack rules’. Her gut tightened.

  “We challenge!” Drew’s voice rang out clear and true, throughout the room. “A fight to restore the balance in the aftermath’s of Jakeel’s death.

  The demon’s brows lifted. All the shifters were staring at him, frozen in place as they waited for his response.

  Shax’s head dipped once. “Respond as you will, Pack.” The demon was giving the Pack the freedom to handle the situation as they wanted to.

  At that, one shifter stepped forward. An air of authority wafted off of him. Instinctively, she knew that this was the leader of the Pack.

  “We accept your challenge. But we have one condition: it must be a fight to the death, in order to make balance for Jakeel’s death. The human was not enough.”

  It was as Hasan had said. The shifters would require blood.

  “But what of our loss? The human was our friend,” she said loudly. Shifters or not, she wasn’t going to let them dismiss Vee like trash.

  All eyes snapped to her, and the Pack leader growled once. The growl was a warning, she knew. The Pack leader didn’t want to fight her, but would do so in order to maintain respect.

  Hasan touched her arm slightly, but said nothing. He didn’t need to; she got his meaning. Be quiet. You’re not one of us.

  “Ok,” Drew stated. “We’ll fight now.”

  The Pack leader dipped his head.

  Another shifter stepped forward, this one slowly transforming as he did, until his wolf stood next to the Pack leader. The new wolf had a heavy smoke-colored coat that reminded her of heavy smog over the city. A pale of ice blue looked over at them, menace glinting within.

  Drew didn’t budge, but she could feel the pain wafting off of him. The huge slice down his left arm would be a serious hindrance in the fight. Worry nipped at the edges of her mind, but she pushed it away for fear that the shifters pick up on it.

  The Pack leader stood waiting. “Who will fight on your side?” His eyes bored into Drew, as if he couldn’t wait to see Drew defeated.

  Suddenly, Hasan stepped forward. “I will.” Without hesitation and before either she or Drew could budge, Hasan was changing into his wolf form.

  A gasp slipped her lips, and she could feel Drew bristle next to her. But per the Pack law, once a challenger stepped forward, there was no backing out.

  ‘Last time I checked, I wasn’t Pack.’ Ignoring the warning, she stepped up next to Hasan. “He can’t challenge.”

  A loud snap echoed and the smoky wolf lunged at her with a loud bark. She realized belatedly that the snap had been the sound of his massive jaws opening and closing as he bore down on her.

  Suddenly she was thrust backward as Hasan’s paws hit the front of her chest, shoving her back.

  Strong arms yanked her backward, and Drew hissed into her ear. “Too much talking. Stay back, Kimone!” His fingers tightened painfully on her shoulders, his grip not unlike down like steel clamps. Even with his annoyed tone, she could feel his heart pounding in his chest. Like her, he was worried for their friend.

  Without warning, wolf-Hasan launched himself at the smoky wolf, sending the other shifter flying back into the crumbling wall. Then a barrage of vicious bites descended on the other wolf’s face from Hasan’s saliva-coated jaws, and she relaxed a tiny bit, seeing that wolf-Hasan had the upper hand.

  Until the other wolf began to fight back.

  With any other fight, it would have been no match; wolf-Hasan’s lean, muscular physique to the other’s slim, lanky frame, but it was clear that shifters worked differently. The speed with which the smoky wolf rec
overed from the attack was practically impossible, as was the way he forced Hasan back. With a quick twist, he’d freed himself and had snaked around to suddenly seize Hasan by the neck, burying his jaws into the thick white fur. He began shaking him violently, lifting Hasan’s front paws off the ground.

  Heart in her throat, Kimone watched the white paws scrabble uselessly along the floor, struggling to find a grip.

  Flinging Hasan back into the opposite wall, the smoky wolf howled angrily, eyes glowing with fury as his Packmates joined in. He charged within seconds, but by that time, Hasan was waiting. The half-second that it took for the other wolf to race forward, was all the time Hasan needed to recover and charge him again.

  Teeth gleaming even as his white coat was streaked red from his wounds, Hasan launched himself at the other wolf, two hundred pounds hitting the other one head on. As he landed, his shining teeth sank right into the smoke-colored coat, as did his claws. Blood welled up at puncture, spraying slightly upon impact. His earlier cockiness gone, the slimmer wolf seemed to feel the impact of every blow. Blood was flowing freely from a long gash on his head and his movements began to slow.

  Apparently, Hasan decided that the fight was over and barked once, loudly, in the other’s face before backing away. He crouched, barked once more at the still creature, saliva flying, and then turned to look at her, slightly out of breath.

  A low growl began in his throat, just as she screamed, “Hasan, look out!” But it was too late. Head wound still bleeding, the smoky wolf bounded to his feet and latched on to the underside of Hasan’s throat before her warning was finished. The only evidence of his earlier beating was the dark patched of blood covering his slick fur. His strength seemed to fully restored.

  She could even see the bluish glow that emitted from the other wolf’s eyes as he tore at Hasan’s throat. Panic filled her as she watched Hasan struggle for his life.

  ‘To the death.’

  “Fuck this Pack!” Drew shouted.

  Before she could turn in his direction, a light gray wolf barreled past her and leapt on top of the smoky wolf, sinking its teeth in deep. A keening whine began from the smoky wolf, who now had Drew on top of him but was still refusing to release Hasan.

  Without thinking, she released the wave of dark magic that she had been holding, flinging it toward the mass of wolves that had begun to rush forward at Drew’s interference. Flames erupted in the air before the shifters, a bright fire-ball that sank down into a wall of fire. Lucky for them, she had remembered to yank it back in time, so instead of being obliterated, the shifters were just blocked.

  ‘The last thing we need is an all-out war between lesser demons and shifters,’ she thought.

  “This breaks the Pack rules,” the Pack leader called from the outside of the fire. Flanking him on every side, were the rest of the Pack, all alert and ready to strike. There were no more growls, she noticed; they had gone way past the time of growling. No more warning; the wolves were ready to attack.

  “Well,” she tilted her head and trained her eyes on the Pack leader, “as my colleague so carefully said back there, fuck this Pack and your rules. You wanted blood for the death of Jakeel. You killed our friend Vee in retaliation. Your boy spilled a lot of Hasan’s blood on your floor. That’s enough blood. Vee’s life was worth a lot to both of us, it doesn’t matter about her being a human. So, either the SX Cabal needs to back up off of us and call this whole this off, or I release my dark magic and start a war between all of our people.”

  She raised one brow. “What’s it going to be?”

  Hate flashed back at her from the leader’s eyes. He was silent for a long time, but finally he dipped his head into a submissive position. “Fine. The Pack withdraws from this fight.”

  Without missing a beat, she snapped, “Drop the winter magic outside too.”

  All eyes snapped over to Shax, the Hell Prince who had sat watching it all.

  Kimone’s heart skipped a beat, realizing that she had forgotten Shax’s presence. The demon didn’t have to abide by any of her demands whatsoever, and then they would be right back at square one.

  To her surprise, Shax inclined his head, eyes shining brightly. “I had forgotten how much I enjoyed those two little pets. Hasan and Drew will owe me a debt that I will collect at a later date.” Then he snapped his fingers. “Winter is cancelled, for now.”

  Then he dematerialized into nothing, and instantly, the temperature in the room shot up by several degrees.

  Warmth flooded her, finally stopping the tiny trembling that had shaken her body since they’d arrived.

  She was grateful for that, but she made sure to keep the fire barrier up. They were still on the wolves’ ground and there was another important matter to attend to.

  Hasan.

  Heading over to Drew’s side, she noted that the smoky wolf had already left the fight and slinked over to his team. Surround by his Pack, he lay on the ground, chest heaving up and down. Unlike Hasan who lay at Drew’s feet motionless.

  His throat was ripped out.

  ‘I can heal him.’ Immediately, she dropped to her knees and pulled the demon power forward. Laving her throat over the wound, she worked until the gaping hole was no more than a tiny nick.

  Behind her, Drew’s enormous wolf form hovered, until he finally moved to her side. The huge head nudged Hasan’s still body, sniffing him curiously.

  Then, Hasan shifted.

  A flood of relief washed over her as she knew that her man was alive.

  “Drew,” she told her partner, a slight tremble in her voice, “time to leave. You carry him, I’ll keep the barrier up to make sure we get out of here safely.”

  Epilogue

  “A tough guy like me doesn’t need to lay up in bed. You know that, right?”

  Kimone pushed Hasan back down as he struggled to sit up. “You’re an invalid. You were technically dead. I think that means that you need to take at least a day off.”

  “You can at least untie me.”

  “Nope, doctor’s orders say that you need to stay in place.”

  It was two days after their attack on the SX and Hasan was looking much better. Still, she couldn’t resist keeping him bound to the bed, actually bound. She liked it much better that way. Sliding over the sheets to straddle him, she checked the silk handkerchiefs that she’d loosely knotted around his wrists and the bedposts.

  Leaning forward to kiss him, her heart leaped as he returned the kiss as sweet as ever. Below her, she could feel his heart pounding.

  “What the fuck, man?”

  Sitting up, they turned to find Drew standing in the doorway. But he was smiling at the scene before him.

  She glanced back at Hasan, to find his gaze focused intently on his friend.

  “We even now?” he asked, meaning clear.

  Mischievously, Drew seemed to mull it over, then he smiled. “Yeah. All the way good.” His eyes flickered to her. “But as for you-,”

  “Shut up,” she muttered, tossing him the finger and turning back to the man beneath her. Her partner could wait, but love wouldn’t.

  Sure, they had made some serious enemies with the SX Cabal, with a shaky truce that probably wouldn’t hold up past the next incident. Not to mention the fact that Shax had decided to hold a debt over Drew and Hasan’s heads, one which she hadn’t even told her man about.

  Shit was definitely going to be rocky down the line for them.

  “I don’t care,” she murmured to Hasan’s handsome face.

  Leaning forward, she let their lips touch again.

  * * *

  Enjoyed this story? Be sure to leave a review! Make sure to catch up with the rest of the team in Fury Rising (Book 1). Also, stay posted online for the upcoming release of Fury Born (Book 2).

  About the Author

  Kish Knight is a paranormal urban fantasy author who is ‘just another book character’. Always seeking a story in her surroundings, she has resided in Georgia, Maryland, DC, and the US Virgin I
slands. Wherever she goes, though, she is always on the lookout for fresh ghosts, ghouls, old-world charm, and city spooks. Her forever goal is to create fun, escapist novels with characters of color or otherwise.

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  Resolutions

  Margo Bond Collins and Blaire Edens

  Chapter 1

  Blaize

  “So what the hell are we doing here?” My traveling companion, Wolf, and I rolled to a stop in front of the Amtrak station in El Paso, Texas. I hadn’t ever been here before, despite all my travels across the southwestern US. Primarily because I’d never been Called here.

  And that, I assumed, was because nothing supernatural had ever threatened El Paso’s Amtrak passengers before.

  I put the van in park and leaned back in the driver’s seat to check out the terrain.

  Wolf leaned forward and pressed his nose up against the windshield.

  From the outside, the building was pretty enough — red brick with a copper roof, a bell tower rising to one side, all of it bright and cheerful in the beautifully clear sunlight of a desert winter.

  It didn’t look terribly dangerous. But if I had been Called here, then there was something monstrous lurking inside.

  “You know,” I sighed, “I had hoped we would get a few more days off.”

  Wolf gave me a clear lupine shrug.

  “I guess I’d better gear up, then.” I climbed into the back of my retrofitted van. At first glance, the cargo area looked perfectly innocuous — a thin mattress the top of built-in cabinet with drawers filled with clothes, some cooking gear, a few other odds and ends. But if you knew how to look, where to flip the switches and press the panels, various parts of my mobile home revealed a surprising number of weapons. Well. Surprising for anyone who’s not me, anyway.