Filed To Story: Secret Shifters Next Door Series PDF Free
Her touch and the eye contact finally got my bear’s fury to taper down. My breathing slowed and the heat that had been coursing through my body receded. The need to sprint through the crowd and drag Ryland down and rip his head off disappeared. I let out a long sigh, my shoulders relaxing.
April looked relieved. She grinned at me, but the smile never made it to her eyes. I saw what was there. And when I took a breath, I could smell the fear. She was scared of me. Scared of me, yet she took my hand and led me away from the crowd.
“We’ll be back later,” she called over her shoulder.
I followed blindly, moving between camp chairs and blankets, all with couples and families enjoying the day. That should have been us, but that hunter had to come by and ruin everything. Now, I wasn’t sure what was happening.
April led me back to my truck and held her hand out. “Give me the keys.”
I looked at her outstretched hand dumbly.
She shoved her hand closer to me. “Give me the keys, Steff.”
I did as she said, pulling the key ring out and dropping it into her palm.
“Get in the truck. I’m driving.” April walked around the front of the truck and got in the driver’s seat without waiting for me. My bear whined in fear and trepidation. The same feelings were flooding through me. I opened the door and got in with a sigh, not liking where this was going.
She pulled the truck out onto the main road and drove away from downtown. I watched her pensively for a few minutes before I opened my mouth to speak. “April, what are we?—“
She held up a hand. “Not yet.”
I sagged into the seat and was silent. After a few minutes, I started to notice where she was taking us. She was going back home. My suspicion proved to be true when April pulled into our neighborhood. She slammed the brakes, barking the tires, and put the truck into park. Without another word, she got out of the truck and walked straight toward my house. I got out to follow her and watched her find my house key on the key ring and let herself in. I heard my alarm panel start beeping, and I jogged up to turn it off before the siren wailed.
After I punched in the code, I found her in my living room. She was pacing back and forth. Not knowing what to do, I simply stood there. Every time she’d turn to walk in a different
direction, she ran her hands through her hair manically. She looked like she was on the verge of a panic attack.
After what seemed like an eternity, she stopped and looked at me, pinning me in place with a look so intense I almost shriveled away from it. “What are you?”
My breath caught in my throat.
Oh, shit. “Um, what do you mean by that?”
“I mean, that a few minutes ago, I wasn’t looking at a man. Your eyes? That growling noise, the voice, everything? It was like I was looking into the face of a feral animal, Steff. What the fuck is going on?”
Deep inside, my bear writhed in shame and heartache at being called feral. “I was mad, okay. I sort of lost control, I guess.”
She leveled a finger at me. “No. Not an explanation. People’s eyes don’t change color when they’re mad. People don’t growl like dogs when they get angry.”
Being compared to a dog offended both me and my bear. But what could I say? I’d fucked up and I couldn’t figure a way out. In a couple of seconds, my brain spun and worked through dozens of possible stories or excuses.
My eyes changed color because of a reaction to contact lenses? It sounded like a growl, but it’s just me fighting off a chest cold? None of those were even remotely plausible or believable.
“I think you’re reading too much into that. It was probably the way the light reflected off my eyes or something.”
“Goddamn it,” she shouted, sending a bolt of fear through me. “Steffen, tell me what the fuck is going on right now. If you keep lying to me, we are done. Do you understand that? Done forever. I’ll never speak to you again.”
That was too much for my bear to stand. I could feel it trying to take over. It was desperate to keep her—so was I. The beast
inside me was punching me to tell the truth. I couldn’t hold back any longer. I might explode.
I held my hands up. “Okay, all right, I’ll tell you. I need you to know that I was going to tell you. It’s all part of why I left back then.”
She crossed her arms and bolted me in place with her stare. She didn’t say anything. Instead, she was waiting for me to speak. The look on her face was as strong as any verbal command.
I took a deep breath, then glanced at the ceiling and prayed for a good outcome. “So… I’m a bear shifter. That means I’m a shapeshifter and can turn into a bear.” My heart started beating madly in my chest, and the words started to tumble out, rapid-fire and without time for April to interject. “You see, me and all my friends are. Miles is a wolf, Blayne is a panther, Tate is a dragon. Yes, I know that sounds even crazier, but yes, dragons are real. Shifters and humans can’t have relationships. We can’t have kids together, and the possibility of exposure is too high. That’s why I left you all those years ago. I wanted you to have a normal life. Harley is Tate’s mate. Once the bond was formed and he claimed her, she became a dragon, too.
“Oh, damn, I forgot that part. The curse also makes the human mate become a shifter. If that ever happens, you’ll be a bear shifter. That’s a lot of baggage. Like the worst STD ever or something.
“Anyway, there was this witch, I can’t get into all that, but she was helping these hunters who go all over the country hunting and killing shifters like me. They were working around the state and finally set their eyes on us. She cast this—oh, shit, I sound psychotic—spell. She cast a spell that cursed all four of us. We’re fated to have a human mate. If we don’t create a mating bond with them, we die. Like screaming-in-agony type pain. It looks
like I’m fated to you. So, now you’re part of all this, and can you see how fucking hard this was to bring up?”
I flopped onto the couch, breathing heavily like I’d run wind sprints. I looked over hesitantly, and April was slowly lowering herself to the couch, a wary look on her face. Wary and overwhelmed. Both the bear and I were terrified of being rejected. The thought that she would turn her back on us was almost more than I could take.
My heart couldn’t beat any faster than it did when she finally spoke. Her voice was barely a whisper. “That bear in your backyard?” She looked at me. “Was that you?”
I nodded, not knowing what else to say. She stared at the floor for several long moments before she looked up again. “Back in school, you left me. You didn’t trust me with this secret. You didn’t trust me?”