Filed To Story: Secret Shifters Next Door Series PDF Free
Mariana tugged Celina toward the door of the truck. “Get in.”
I nodded to Celina, urging her to comply. I didn’t want her to get shot for not listening. My brain was running through a thousand plans of attack. Each thought I had ended with Celina on the ground, her brains blown out by the psycho with the gun.
Behind us, Tate had Jared on the ground and was biting him in the throat. It wasn’t hard enough to kill him, but just enough to subdue the other dragon. Tate seemed to have things well in hand. I wished the same could be said for me.
Mariana opened the passenger door, but instead of shoving Celina in, she turned back to me and put her hand out, keeping the gun on Celina. “The drive and any copies.”
Snarling, I shoved my hand into my pocket and pulled out the thumb drive. The heat and smoke from the fighting dragons made it difficult to breathe. I coughed and wiped at my eyes. “This is it. All I’ve got.”
I tossed it to her, and she snatched it out of the air, then looked down at the small piece of plastic and metal. “Are you sure this is all of it? You better not be lying to me.”
I wasn’t lying. Even if I were, there was no way she would be able to tell. I nodded. “You’ve got everything we were sent.”
From behind us, we heard a human scream of pain. We turned to see that Jared and Tate had both shifted back to
human form. Jared was on the ground, writhing in pain. Tate knelt above him, a hand pressed on the younger man’s chest.
“It’s all right,” Tate said. “I know it hurts. Breathe through the pain. You’ve gone too long without ever shifting. The pain will fade…just focus.”
Jared cursed but nodded and closed his eyes. “I didn’t know it would hurt this much.”
Tate shrugged. “It usually doesn’t. But most of us do this a lot younger than you did. I’ve never heard of a shifter going this many years before their first change.”
I’d been too distracted by the scene to notice that Mariana had released Celina. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Mariana walking toward Tate and Jared. Her gun was out, and the barrel shook as she aimed it at her brother.
“Jared?” her voice cracked as she screamed. “Are you a traitor? Have you been working with them all along?”
Tate and Jared snapped their heads in her direction. Tate stood and backed away, getting out of the line of fire. Jared rolled over onto his stomach and put a hand out toward Mariana, as though that would stop a bullet. “Put the gun down. You don’t need to do this.”
“You shut your bastard mouth.” She screamed frantically. I had a feeling that she was one small push away from fully losing it. “Did you know what you were this whole time? Did Dad know?” She was in full-blown hysterics now. Everything felt like it was balanced on the edge of a razor. Anything could happen in the next few seconds.
“Mariana?” Celina said.
The gun swung around and aimed at Celina again. Mariana was wiping tears from her eyes. I clenched my jaw, wishing Celina hadn’t brought the attention back to her.
“You aren’t going to get any answers like this. You need to calm down and put the gun down.”
“Shut up. I know more about what’s going on than you do.” She sneered at Celina in disgust. “God, you were so hard-up for some dick that you fucked an animal like him?” She gestured toward me with the gun. “Fucking disgusting. Bestiality, that’s what it is, or one step away from it anyway. You realize the only reason I pretended to be your friend was because my dad wanted you out of town so he wouldn’t have to deal with the headache of covering up the disappearance of a famous author. That’s all. I was never your friend. I could never be friends with some slut who’d fuck a dog.”
The gun was bobbing back and forth as Mariana became more unhinged. Tate was inching around, trying to get an angle of attack. I did the same, moving closer, hoping I’d have the chance to do something.
“You are one pathetic bitch, you know that?” Mariana said. The hurt in Celina’s eyes made me want to tear this woman’s throat out for hurting her like that.
Jared got to his feet and limped toward Mariana. “Stop this, Mariana. Stop while there’s still time.”
Nothing he said would stop her. It was evident that Mariana was on a mission to make Celina feel small. To try and destroy what little self-confidence she had.
Mariana spun and aimed the gun at Jared. “You’re just as bad. Filthy animal.” She turned and screamed at all of us. “Every one of you. All of you are animals. I’m surrounded by monsters.”
Mariana set her eyes back on Celina and raised the gun. “You know, maybe I can do something for you. One small act of kindness. I can end your worthless existence.”
No. Now was the time. I heard Tate and Jared scream, Celina gasp, and the sound of my feet sprinting toward Mariana. The last thing I heard was the ear-splitting sound of a gun going off.
THIRTY-ONE
CELINA
The gunshot sounded like a canon. A thunderclap of death and destruction. I’d been staring down the black barrel of the pistol only a second before it went off. Dead. I knew I was dead. I clenched my eyes shut, waiting for the bullet to slam into me. In that single instant before I heard the gunshot, I imagined what it would do to my body. The lead slug ripping into my chest, expanding, shredding my lungs and heart, blowing a four-inch hole out my back as it exited, the blood, all of it.
It never happened. The gun went off, and instead of feeling a searing pain blister through me, I felt a puff of wind less than an inch from my cheek. My hair fluttered, and I heard a sizzling
bzzz as the bullet flew past my head. My eyes snapped open, and I saw Miles on the ground wrestling with Mariana, both their hands on the pistol. Tate ran forward to help, but the gun went off again, a furrow of dirt blowing up at his feet.
“Fuck,” he shouted as he jumped back.
“Get…back,” Miles grunted, still fighting Mariana.
He was stronger than she was by tenfold, but it looked like he was attempting to get her finger off the trigger without letting the gun go off again—a difficult task even for a shifter like Miles. Finally, with a slap of his hand, the pistol went flying. It skidded