Be Were: Paranormal Shifter Romance (Southern Shifters Book 5)

by Eliza Gayle

  She had to keep trying diplomacy or she'd spend the rest of her life running. And if more family members were working with Carmen, she couldn't take them all on alone. "I can't. What you are asking for is too much. Did you all vote on this? I find it hard to believe everyone in the family is on this bandwagon." Now she had to leave and see what happened. Had Carmen truly gone off the deep end or would she settle for no? Considering the lengths she'd gone to this far, it didn't look good.

  Hoping for the best, Niki turned to go, and sucked in a sharp breath.

  Dean.

  Her big, badass jaguar stood in the brush directly in front of her, barely visible in the dark.

  In a flash of movement, he lunged toward her as pain exploded at the back of her head, radiating through her entire skull. Her vision wavered and started to go dark.

  Shit. No.

  19

  Dean flew past Niki as she crumpled to the ground. With the blood lust foremost in his brain, he leapt through the air and landed on the woman who'd struck Niki. The desire to tear off her head and gulp down her blood hit him hard.

  In a flash of cracking bones and flying fur, Dean found himself on top of a wiry and surprisingly strong white cougar with vicious teeth an inch from his throat.

  The woman rocked back just enough to kick up her powerful hind legs. The energy behind the move knocked him back but he quickly rolled to his feet and lunged again. Despite him outweighing the little cougar by more than fifty pounds or so, she was a lot stronger than he expected and had no problem dodging his strike.

  With another twist and a side lunge in the dirt, Dean slashed outward with his claws and caught the cougar's side right above her left foreleg. The female scrambled backward as blood spilled onto her white fur. She peeled her lips back and growled before launching onto his side. Within seconds, the bitch managed to get all four of her paws around his jaguar neck and hang on.

  The crazy cougar bit down on his neck and Dean fought to keep her away from his jugular. Apparently she'd had the same training as Niki because she was damn near impossible to shake. He snarled and fought for the upper hand. Blood roared in his ears as the fight turned deadlier, with his blood now spilling onto the ground with each new bite.

  Before he could shake the woman free, a terrifying screech filled the air a second before a heavy object flew into the middle of the fight. Another white cougar—and this one smelled like his mate. She'd shifted. The two small cougars rolled into the underbrush and fought viciously, paws striking and teeth ripping. He didn't know whether to pull them apart or leave them alone. Two sets of blue eyes glowed almost white in the darkness, as kicks and bites were traded faster than he could see them. They were both covered in blood now and he couldn't tell whose blood was whose.

  Fear for his mate kicked into gear and he changed to the half-shifted man beast. Still covered in fur, but with hands instead of paws, he grabbed the bitchy one by the neck and flung her across the small clearing where she crashed into a pine tree—and still managed to twist and land on all fours.

  He checked on Niki who sat stunned with a portion of the other cougar's hide still hanging from her mouth. Satisfied, Dean turned toward the other woman and with the wildcat scream he launched himself at the injured cougar. Another blur whipped by him and he witnessed Niki hit first with her opponent twisting just enough out of the way to miss the full brunt of the assault. Except when the dust settled, his gaze landed on Niki, desperate for a sign she was okay. She looked at him with an emotion he couldn't describe and she held up a blood-drenched paw with sharp razor-like claws glinting in the moonlight.

  One look at the other cat and it was all over. He could see she'd been gutted from neck to hip. She collapsed in the dirt and Niki sat down on her haunches nearby. The Carmen woman who'd threatened his mate wouldn't be getting back up.

  Dean stretched his arms and let his jaguar flow back into a human before running over to check on them both. "Are you okay?" His gaze roamed over the bloody cougar sitting calmly in front of him. She nodded.

  The injured cougar lying nearby had not shifted back to human. Often times in hybrid-shifters either the human or the animal became dominant instead of being equal. In this case he'd guess the cougar was dominant for this woman or she would have reverted back already. Four long days in a mad scientist's lab brought about a lot of strange education. Maybe Simon wasn't mad, but he sure as hell wasn't normal.

  "This is what Simon told us about," Kitty said, pointing to the dying cougar lying on her side.

  "Yeah. I'm still not convinced it means anything except as another way to identify a hybrid. And maybe in certain situations a weakness."

  Simon had also broken the news to Kitty, the Comyn female alpha, while they were in lockdown at the clinic that she wasn't full blood cougar as she thought. Which explained why she apparently couldn't hold the cougar form as long as she'd needed to before her scars became permanent.

  All kinds of surprises came from Simon's lab.

  "Come here, babe." He reached down and scooped a bloody and naked Niki into his arms. They were in the middle of the woods so he couldn't offer her anything to cover with and only had his heat to give. He wrapped his body around hers and held her until she stopped shivering. They were both worn out from the fight.

  "You're sure you are okay? No pain anywhere?"

  "I'm fine," she rasped still breathing heavy from the fight.

  The other woman lay dying and Dean couldn't summon an ounce of pity. He'd heard most of the conversation between the two women and her plan to lock up his mate indefinitely still made him a little nuts. He had enough to handle with his mate always trying to run from him. She couldn't leave. Dean wouldn't let her.

  She was afraid of the unknown and he'd be damned if her family interfered again. He gripped her tighter if only for his comfort and stroked her skin. Touching her felt good. Soft.

  "How'd you find me," Niki asked.

  "You didn't really think we were just going to let you walk out and not have a way to track you did you?"

  Her breath hitched on a sigh. "Not really. But I never scented anyone nearby so I wasn't sure what the deal was."

  "You did make it a challenge for us though. At the Jeep, we had to split up to make sure we covered all the ground. You'll have to share with me how you managed to split your scent like that."

  "Girls don't tell their secrets. And who is we?"

  "Bhric and Calder are out there. In fact..." He made a series of calls that sounded like bird chatter and not long after they were returned with similar ones.

  She looked up at him. "I like the little secret call thing you and Bhric have going. You going to teach me that?"

  He smiled when he answered. "Men don't tell their secrets either."

  Epilogue

  Niki stared out over the backyard and breathed deeply while the sun beat down on her skin. With the forest only feet away and a huge patch of wildflowers growing just beneath her, she and the cougar felt at peace. At night, when the moon lit up the area, she often made her way outside so she could shift and find the solitude she still needed. She'd fallen in love with the property back when Bhric took her in and she loved that Dean had agreed he needed to keep his whole family together. Albeit with a few changes. The familiar sounds of men working with saws and hammers filtered up to the new balcony just completed for their suite. Dean had taken on the renovation of Dark Moon with a passion and the project had progressed at lightning speed. It still served as the hangout for a group of bikers, but it no longer looked ready to crumble in a slight wind.

  She rested her hands on her ginormous belly. According to Simon, she probably only had a few weeks to go until the birth of her son and she was feeling the pressure of impending motherhood more than ever. She still didn't think she had it in her to be a real mother, but she trusted in Dean and his desire to be a father to get her through it.

  After Carmen's death, it had taken weeks of negotiation and a threat of clan war to gain freedo
m from her family. To prevent any further retaliation, she'd agreed to participate in the research into shifter fertility with conditions. Once a week she traveled to the Comyn pack clinic for testing and observation, where another of her sisters worked side by side with Simon.

  It wasn't an easy adjustment for her family to share with other shifters and she often had to deal with some hostility on their part. Fights broke out here and there, but they were handling it. Of course Dean or Calder accompanied her to every session and both men growled and hovered through the entire thing, making sure everyone knew where she belonged.

  Belonged. She was still getting used to it all. Dean on the other hand, went all in from the beginning. He'd sensed her as his mate that first night and never looked back. A more decisive, bull-headed man she'd never met.

  "Standing there like that, I can't even tell you're pregnant. Turn and show me, babe."

  Niki smiled at Dean's voice behind her. "Come closer and I'll show you just how huge I've become thanks to you."

  "Keep talking, babe, you'll make my dick hard."

  She laughed. "Your dick is always hard."

  "That's your fault." He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her tight against him, making sure she felt the raging erection he always had for her. His hands roamed her stomach for a few seconds before they headed north to her breasts. "You look and feel amazing." He nuzzled her neck until he found the ultra-sensitive spot just a few inches below her ear.

  She dropped her head to his chest and savored the sensation of his teeth scraping across her skin at the spot he'd marked her that first night.

  "You're a bastard."

  "Uh-huh. That's why your nipples are hard and I can smell the heat between your legs." His hands disappeared from around her middle and made their way up her back. He untied her halter top and pulled it down until her breasts were bared to the fresh air and sunshine.

  Niki bit down on her lip and moaned as a shiver worked over her. Somehow, even though she felt big as a house and could never get comfortable, he made her feel beautiful in a way that had nothing to do with her formerly skinny ass.

  "You were supposed to be a one-night stand. Don't you ever follow the rules?"

  "Fuck no. Not when it comes to you."

  "You realize that between you and I and the rest of this patched together family, this baby is going to come out saying 'fuck' all the time."

  "Fucking-A," he said.

  He bumped her butt with his groin and pushed her forward. "Bend over and hold onto the railing. I don't want you to fall."

  "Right here?" she asked. "Do you want everyone to watch?"

  "Lunch break, sweetheart. They're all in the house stuffing their faces in front of the air conditioning."

  Wow. With Dean's hands on her body she hadn't even noticed when the work noise ceased. He lifted her arms and she grabbed onto the black iron bars.

  "Not that it would have mattered anyway." He lifted her sundress and peeled her panties down her legs. "As horny as you are, you'd let me do whatever I want."

  "I would—" Before she finished her protest, he slipped a finger inside her, robbing her of breath. Dammit. She moaned and pressed into his hand. He was right.

  His tongue ran the length of her spine and she arched to meet him. "Told ya," he said.

  As if she wasn't already starting to melt in his hands, he squatted behind her and pushed face first into her heat, using his wicked tongue to drive her insane.

  "You don't play fair," she cried.

  "Hell no. Not with you, babe." He continued his delicious torment on her while Niki grabbed the railing with all her strength.

  Goddess, she loved him. Against her will at first and now on both their terms. She loved him more than she thought possible. He quickly stood, unfastened his pants and aligned between her legs, poised at her entrance. "Don't just think it, Niki. Tell me."

  "You cannot read my mind," she said.

  "I don't have to. You always get quiet when it pops into your head. Don't be afraid of it anymore." He was pushing inside her and she couldn't breathe. "Say the word, Niki. It's time."

  He leaned over her and licked his mark. They were already halfway there and he was waiting for her. He'd done what she asked and not said a thing all these weeks. Until now...

  "I love you, babe. You know I do. And we've already established if you run again I will find you."

  "That's because you tagged me like some kind of pet."

  Dean laughed. "Pets don't usually bite, kick or cuss at their owners." He pulled out of her and then pushed back in. "You aren't a pet. You're a miracle."

  She stilled. "What?"

  "It's true. I was alone on Christmas Eve. The worst time of the year to have to be alone and you showed up literally out of nowhere and saved me." His voice cracked a little. "What were the odds of that? A billion to one?" His hand began to draw patterns across her back as he talked. "You showed up with the missing piece of an angry and bitter man and gave me hope again."

  Tears slid from her eyes. "But I left you."

  "Didn't matter. You gave me purpose. I knew that night you were my mate and that's all I needed to begin the healing process. You saved me."

  More of her tears fell as he moved faster. She closed her eyes and remembered how she felt that first night. He'd kissed her and her body had melted. He'd made love to her and something irrevocable had shifted inside her. She would never have admitted it or even accepted it back then, but he'd saved her too. Her mind swirled with emotion as the sensations he created now took over. She opened her senses wide and took him in. The scent of her mate overtook her. Wild, earthy and one hundred percent male. His work roughened fingers against the smooth skin of her back slid across the fine, almost invisible hairs of the cougar she always wore.

  "Dean," she whispered.

  "Babe," he whispered. "You're driving me crazy. I can't wait much longer."

  His thrusts were hard but shallow, making her eyes roll back.

  Her cougar was giving her hell too.

  "I love you," she hesitated for only a fraction "My mate."

  He reacted with a full-body vibrating roar. It shattered her as he leaned forward and grabbed her neck with his teeth before he bit down, sliding them deep into her body. Blood pulsed through her veins as she shook violently. Their two halves shifted into place and connected. There was no chance of going back.

  But then again there never had been.

  <<<<>>>>

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  Ready for more Southern Shifters? Shiftin’ Dirty, the fifth in the series is now available and you can read the full first chapter at the end of this book.

  If you want more information on all of the books in my Southern Shifters series, you can find the full reading order and links at ElizaGayle.com

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  Turn the page for the full first chapter of Shiftin’ Dirty, the next book in the Southern Shifter series!

  Sneak Peek From Shiftin’ Dirty

  By Eliza Gayle

  Copyright 2014

  All Rights Reserved

  Book Description:

  Bringing home a human can only go two ways. All out war or death.

  Robert Gage is surrounded by sex and his wolf is ready to climb the walls. He doesn't need a mate, but he could use an outlet for his frustration. Someone to warm his bed until morning and then go on her way. He especially doesn't need a human woman who likes to poke her adorable nose in everyone's business. Except her scent and her curves are already messing with his head.

  Sienna has about had it with the male spe
cies after her latest boyfriend leaves her behind with a stupid note and a mountain of debt. Unfortunately, the only job she can get is in a bar full of rough and scary bikers who seem to think she's an easy lay. She's about to teach them a ball-breaking lesson when one of them growls and the other turns into a creature right out of her worst nightmare.

  Now a hunk-a-licious big biker is screaming at her to run because her life depends on it. He wants to take her home where she'll be safe. Yeah...okay.

  Chapter One

  Sienna Templeton squeezed her steering wheel as she stared at the run down bar across the parking lot. The long row of bikes parked out in front of the building taunted her, making her more nervous than normal. The idea of working in a biker bar almost made her break out in hives. Not only did it sound vaguely dangerous, she highly doubted she’d fit in.

  However, this was it as far as job prospects went. All of her other options were exhausted and this was the only opening she hadn’t already applied for and been turned down. The — she glanced up at the red lettered sign above the front door — Thunderhog Roadhouse, was her last chance at avoiding bankruptcy court or at the very least homelessness.

  Ever since she discovered her boyfriend of sixteen months, thirteen days and one ridiculous hour had split town with the entirety of their savings and anything she owned of value after racking up thousands of dollars in charges on her credit card, she'd been camped out on her best friend's couch while looking for a new job.

  That was six weeks ago and she was either going to get her own place or end up in jail for killing Marcy, her best friend and sex addict. God love her, she was a good woman with a great heart, but to live with her was the equivalent of a new level of hell.