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Without answering, Tate leaned out and called across the hall, “Mariah! I… uh… your mom wants to take a walk in the woods. Can you watch the baby?”
“Yeah, sure. I guess. Weird, but whatever,” Mariah called from her room.
The woods? Oh shit. My skin was burning and itching too much for me to ask questions, but I had a pretty good idea what he meant. He helped me up, and I leaned on him as we went outside. My body was fully healed from giving birth, but my legs were like jelly. My hair was soaked with sweat by the time we got to the backyard and into the forest. We got to a semi-open area in the trees, and Tate eased me down onto my knees in the moss.
“Okay, Harley, look at me. You need to relax and find that other part of you. The magical part deep inside. Do you feel it?”
I was shaking with fear and excitement. I could sense something. A warmth deep inside my mind and chest. There was something else there as well. I’d never experienced it before, but it was like something else was inside my mind. Something somehow both foreign and familiar. It was scary, but not in the
way I’d imagined. It was a similar fear I had just before giving birth.
“I’m not sure how it’ll work for you, since you’re human, but it should be similar,” Tate said as he rubbed my back.
Closing my eyes, I focused on the sensation, pushing deeper into myself. Like the layers of an onion, everything that made me who I was peeled away slowly. Inside, deep down and brand new, something else rose up to greet me.
“Trust the dragon, Harley. She’s part of you, she won’t hurt you,” Tate murmured in a soothing voice.
Doing as he said, I relaxed my last defenses. Opening my body fully to the new entity that had been born out of my soul, I freed the dragon within me. When I did that, my whole essence was immediately filled with fire. Not a destroying or painful sensation. It was a warm blanket. A loving hug from a lost relative. With my eyes closed, I still sensed the way my body was morphing and shifting. When I finally lifted my eyelids, I looked out at the world through wholly different eyes.
My wings stretched out, and I tilted my head around on a thick, muscled neck to inspect my new body. The other presence was right below the surface, like a twin sibling. I loved the dragon the way I loved myself. It was amazing to have this gift, for that was exactly what it was—a gift. Tate gazed up at me with pride, awe, and love. Within seconds, he himself had shifted. Leaning close to me, he pressed his snout against mine.
Deep in my mind, telepathically, he whispered, “You are so beautiful. I’m so grateful for you.”
Not only could I hear his thoughts in my own head, but they sounded more sincere. Not that he didn’t mean it when he spoke, but through the mind, things were purer. I nuzzled against his neck and sighed.
THIRTY-NINE
TATE
The girls decided he needed a half-year party the summer after Tory was born. The idea of giving a kid a six-month birthday party seemed pretty strange. If I was totally honest, I thought it was stupid, but everyone else in my home thought it was an important milestone, so I was outvoted.
We did the whole bit, cake and all. After the lunch of burgers and dessert, Mariah scooped up her brother and walked around with him. The older girl made baby noises and talked to him. Even from here, I could see the way he stared at her, like she had hung the moon herself. I’d never seen a baby look at someone with so much love like Tory looked at his sisters. He loved them, and they loved him. It filled my heart with joy. For the hundredth or so time, I wondered how I’d gotten so lucky. So blessed.
Jordyn followed Mariah out to the front yard where a blanket was set up. They lay Tory down and played with him while Harley and I sat on the porch, watching them. They were far enough away that they wouldn’t hear us speaking.
I leaned over. “We’ll need to tell them soon. About me, and Tory. About you.”
Harley looked at me, and the anxious look she always got when we talked about this reappeared. She sighed and fidgeted with her hands.
After several seconds, she said, “I’m worried they’ll be afraid of me.”
Glancing out at Jordyn and Mariah, I knew the answer to that. “They are smart and strong young ladies. They’ll take it in stride. They know that you would die for them. They won’t fear you. At the end of the day, no matter what, you are their mom. Mother is the first and most precious of words children learn. Simply because they get older doesn’t mean that changes.”
“You’re right. We’ll figure out a time,” Harley said, a serene smile on her face.
Taking her hand, I played with her wedding rings with my thumb. After all these months, it was still surprising how some simple jewelry could make me so happy. The rings on Harley’s hand were a symbol of what I had. Of happiness.
Once dusk came, I called Steff over to watch over the girls and Tory, then took Harley back to my clearing. Our clearing now. The evening was clear and warm, the sky that beautiful purple that comes right as the sun goes down. My heart was at peace, but down the line, danger would return. The hunters wouldn’t be deterred forever. It was part of why I tried to get Harley out here as much as possible. To learn how to use her dragon to its full power.
I had no intention of letting her be in the final battle, whenever that came, but by God, I’d make sure she was ready to defend herself and our children if it came down to it. That was what we usually did when we came out here, but tonight was different. As we shifted and took flight, we simply flew together. This night was for us. To swoop and dive, to enjoy the breeze under our wings. Here with my mate, my wife, we could just fly. So we did.
FORTY
STEFF
Baseball, man, freaking baseball. Summer was my favorite time of the year. It was when I could get back to the thing I loved most. The world’s greatest game. I coached the Lilly Valley city pee-wee team every year. I loved it. If I’d wanted it, I could probably get a job coaching older kids pretty easily, but there was something about the little ones. Teaching them the love of the game so young felt sacred, so I stayed where I was.
Today was when all the new kids arrived for the first practice. With all the issues of the last few months—babies, gangsters, hunters—it had slipped my mind to go over my roster. Today was the first chance I had. Thankfully, the volunteer assistant coach had taken care of things while I handled all the personal stuff.
I’d been at the field watching warm-ups. The assistant coach was already there. I waved and made my way over to him.
“How’s our new team looking?” I asked. I’d coached the team to pee-wee league champions over the last five years, so I had a lot to live up to.
Coach nodded toward the field. “The two over there doing grounding drills were in the lower level last year, so they’ve
already got a jump start. Should have several who can handle the game pretty well.”
As he spoke, my eye caught a kid running laps around the bases. His hair caught the light of the sun and reflected the same bright coppery red of my own. The same copper red every man in my family had had for as many generations as I could remember. Watching him run, my thoughts went somewhere else for a second before I returned to the conversation. The kid turned a corner, and I saw the last name printed on the back of his jersey.