Filed To Story: Secret Shifters Next Door Series PDF Free
My brother and his other shifter friends teased and bullied me. It was the only way he could have any power over me. It was always name-calling and embarrassing stuff. He knew I was stronger. One day, when I was twelve, he decided to try to do more than just torment me.
He and five of his friends jumped me in the woods behind our house. They’d brought baseball bats, telling me that since I loved baseball so much, they’d make sure a bat was the last thing I saw. All these years later, I still wasn’t sure if he’d actually meant to kill me to take my spot as Alpha. The boys all ranged from fourteen to fifteen, but again, I was a burgeoning Alpha. I was stronger than all of them. I was faster and knew how to fight. I had four of them on the ground before I turned and saw my brother, bat cocked, a manic look in his eyes. He swung. He’d swung so hard that if it had been a baseball, he’d have knocked the cover off it. It wasn’t a baseball, though.
I’d been too quick, and ducked out of the way. His bat had slammed into the head of one of his friends who’d been standing behind me. The sickening
thwack had echoed through the woods as the boy collapsed. His legs and arms had jerked and spasmed, drool and foam trickling from his mouth, and I could see his skull had been crushed in at his temple. His eyes
had rolled so far up that all I could see was the whites. While we all gaped at him and before any of us could think to run for help, he gurgled one final breath and went still. Dead, right there at my feet.
My brother, in panic, had rounded up his remaining friends and sprinted out of the woods. I’d been in shock, staring at the dead boy for almost fifteen minutes. By the time I knew what was happening, the entire pack had come running into the woods, having been alerted to the accident by my brother and his friends. The problem was that they hadn’t told the truth. None of them had. The story they told was that they’d been teasing me like usual, but I’d lost my mind in anger and had beaten their friend’s brains in with my baseball bat.
Finally snapping out of my daze, I told my mother and father that it was a lie. I’d never have done something like that, but the evidence was too strong. Four different boys, and my own brother, swore it was what had happened. Plus, the bat my brother had used was my own bat, stolen from my room. It still lay, bloody, in a pile of leaves beside the body.
The look in my parents’ eyes had sent me into a sobbing, blubbering mess. They looked at me like they didn’t even know me. All the love they’d ever shown me throughout my whole life dried up in those moments in the forest beside the body of a dead boy. They never saw the look of silent excitement and joy that appeared on my brother’s face when my father declared I was no longer his heir. That I would be banished to my uncle in some place called Lilly Valley.
They sent me away twenty-four years ago, and I hadn’t heard from my parents since. Cut off completely and thoroughly. No birthday cards, no Christmas presents, not even a phone call. It was like they’d died. More accurately, like I’d died. The pain from back then was the only thing close to what I felt now. The loss of a pack bond was like a physical stab to the chest.
I’m sorry, I said to my bear, trying to ease his pain. I finally stopped running as I came to a broad stream deep in the woods. Usually I’d let the bear play in the water and maybe try to catch some fish in his massive jaws. Tonight, neither he nor I were in the mood for playing. Instead, I lay by the water, my massive furry body collapsing on the rocks and sand on the edge of the water. The bear whimpered again and covered its face with a paw. The pain was almost intolerable.
What should we do? I asked. We both knew what it would mean to claim April. What her life would be like. Her life would be irrevocably changed. She would have a secret that would have to be concealed forever. It was an impossible thing to ask of someone, but the pain that was radiating from my bear was beyond words. Nothing had ever been so heartbroken and devastated as the beast that lived within me. This wasn’t just me, it was a part of me, and it had a say too. Or at least it should. So far, all I’d done was push its wants and needs away. Its desires had not been important. Now, lying here by the stream, the sadness cascading across my mind, I had a hard time reconciling my plan.
My thoughts turned back to April. Was it really the best thing to push her away? Was that truly the only option? I couldn’t imagine her ever forgiving me, but I had to see if she could. Could we at least try? There was no way to know if she would ever want the life being my mate would bring to her. No, but shouldn’t she at least get the chance to decide? My bear perked up at my thoughts, a glimmer of hope sparking in my chest. Any hope was better than none.
When I came back out of the woods, my bear was much more at ease and content. Changing my plans about April had done wonders for the beast side of my soul. It was disturbing how angry it had been with me. I’d noticed it before, when I’d been doing everything in my power to push April away. Now
that he’d relaxed, the absence of his disdain for my decision was more evident. He’d been on the verge of hating me for what I was doing. That was something that made me feel… well… weird. How could part of yourself hate another part of yourself? It was like my right hand hating my left foot. So strange.
As I exited the foliage, I shifted back to my human form, and the first thing I saw was flashing blue lights in April’s driveway. What the hell? Why were the cops at her house? I went into a panic at the thought of something terrible having happened to her. Had some stalker found her all the way out here in the middle of nowhere? I sprinted along the tree line and rounded the right side of my house, so no one would see me coming from the trees.
I peeked around the side of my house and saw April talking with a deputy. When neither was looking my way, I stepped up onto my porch and then down the steps, making it look like I’d come out of my house. I stood for a moment and listened. I was too far away for human ears to hear, but I was able to pick up the words clearly from where I was.
“Okay, Miss Knight, one more time, so I’m clear. What did you say you saw?”
April huffed a breath out and pointed back toward the forest. “Like I said on the phone and the first time I told you. I was at my sink, and I looked out my window and saw a massive, like, enormous grizzly bear in my neighbor’s backyard.”
“Shit,” I muttered. I’d been stupid. She’d seen me. Christ, she would have seen me shift if she’d looked outside a few seconds earlier. I was such an idiot.
My bear didn’t seem to feel the same way I did. Hearing April describe how powerful and huge he was had caused some weird preening sensation to flood through me. Was he actually being haughty? Good grief.
Leaving that portion of my mind to bask in his own masculinity I walked toward April and the cop. The deputy saw me first and nodded to me. “Sir, are you the resident next door?” He pointed at my house.
April saw me and her eyes brightened. “Steff, did you see it?”
“See what?” I asked, playing dumb.
“The lady says she saw a bear in the woods behind your house.” I could hear the very vague irritation starting to cloud his voice.
I frowned. “Like a black bear?”
“No, sir, she
says it was a grizzly bear. From her description, it was almost a thousand pounds.”
“But we don’t have grizzlies in Colorado,” I said.
The deputy shrugged. “That’s what I told her.”
“Hey, douchebags, I’m standing right here,” April said, jamming her fists into her hips.
The deputy raised his eyebrows. “Excuse me?”
April’s face went crimson, and she dropped her gaze. “Uh, shit, sorry. I mean, I’m telling the truth. I know what I saw.”
“Officer, I just got back from a hike in the woods, and I didn’t see anything. I think, if a bear was here, it’s long gone.”
The deputy was still giving April a hard stare, but he turned his glare on me. “I’ll send a report in to the wildlife authorities and the park rangers. See if any tagged bears have moved out of their usual roaming area.” He glanced back at April. “Any tagged
black bears. You all have a good night.”