Filed To Story: Secret Shifters Next Door Series PDF Free
He stopped whispering to himself and looked at me. “I don’t trust you.”
The words caught me off guard. They hurt me, and they pissed me off.
“Oh, you’ve made that very clear.” I sneered. “I know you think your dick is some kind of fucking wonder drug, but it wasn’t good enough to make me uproot my whole life and my kids’ lives for the chance to sit on it again. Get that shit out of your head right now, once and for all. Get over yourself. Our move here was for the safety of me and my kids. That’s it. That is, one hundred percent, the only reason. If you dislike me that much, then keep doing what you’ve been doing. Ignoring me and disappearing. You seem to be really good at both.”
My heart hammered in my chest. I couldn’t remember ever being so pissed. My mind played out scenarios where I kicked him in the balls or slapped his face. Anger was making me say things I would never have otherwise. Though, for some reason, along with the anger, there was an undercurrent of heat that I couldn’t suppress. I’ve never been so angry, but somehow I also had feelings for him. Not quite sexual tension, but it was close. It only made me angrier with myself. It was a dangerous game to play.
Something ominous seemed to bubble up within Tate. It wasn’t visible, but it was like an aura or a mood that I could sense. It was intimidating, and I had the weirdest feeling that I wasn’t looking at a man but some beast. Something deep and dark lurked just below the surface.
Calming myself, I reminded him what he’d said before. “Remember when you said your life shouldn’t touch ours? Well, it goes both ways. I don’t want our life touching yours, either.”
I whirled around and practically sprinted to the car. I got in, locked the doors, and pulled out of the parking lot without looking back. I didn’t speak to the girls; I just drove. The girls could obviously tell I was in no mood to chat or even talk because when we got home, they said goodnight and went straight to bed without me asking. That made me feel like shit, too. I’d turned a fun day and evening into a tense, weird night. Great, really fantastic.
An hour later, I lay in bed, unable to sleep. As I absently rubbed my stomach, I realized my pillow was soaked with my tears. I hadn’t even noticed I was crying. I rolled over and buried my face into my bed. I really couldn’t have picked two worse people to be the father of my child.
SEVEN
TATE
The holiday weekend had gone by without any incidents. I hadn’t seen anyone acting shady or strange. Though, that wasn’t true. I had been acting strange. My dragon had taken over my body and had used my voice and mouth. That had never happened beforenot to me, and not to any other shifter I knew. After that, I’d probably been pretty shit at looking for hunters. Hard to concentrate when the beast inside you was demanding to mate with a human.
Steff and I were at the office early on Monday since we’d all planned to meet up and debrief over the weekend’s activities. Blayne and Miles were running late, so we started without them.
“Weekend was a wash. No sign of anything other than drunk tourists, screaming kids, and partying college students. I never saw anything remotely close to a hunter. Not that I’d ever seen one before,” Steff said.
“Me neither. Pretty quiet.” I didn’t go into detail about the weirdness that was my weekend.
Steff leaned back in his chair and sipped at his coffee. “Do you think Miles might be wrong? About there being hunters, I mean. If they were here, you’d think they would have acted by now, don’t you think?” he asked.
I shrugged. “Maybe they’re being cautious.”
His expression said he didn’t buy it. “The last attack was pretty far from here and actually going in the opposite direction of the others. Even if they are in the area, maybe they’re moving away from us.”
“Miles said it was an hour outside of town. That sounds pretty close to me,” I said.
“Okay, yeah, but an hour’s drive is still like seventy-five miles away. To me, that’s pretty far.”
“Well, either way, until they act or show themselves, we’re at a dead end.”
Steff looked at me and frowned. “Are you okay, Tate?”
Immediately anxious, I asked, “What do you mean?”
He glanced down at my leg. I followed his eyes and saw my leg bouncing nervously while my right hand was picking at the fabric of my jeans.
Steff said, “You seem a little more on edge than usual. Are you sure you didn’t see anything strange this weekend?”
I’d gone over what had happened with me and Harley a hundred times since Friday night, and I was coming up blank. The dragon had been clear. The words that had come out of my mouth hadn’t been mumbled or incoherent.
Mate. It had needed to get that into my head. Steff was one of my best friends, but I had no idea how to broach this subject.
Finally, to break the awkward silence, I said, “Have you ever heard of a shifter being mated to a human?”
Steff’s head jerked up, and he shook his head, almost like I’d thrown a glass of water in his face. “What?”
“It’s just a question. Have you ever heard of that?”
Steff shook his head slowly. “Nah, man, because it’s not a thing. Shifters aren’t fated to mate with humans. A fated mate is always another shifter. At least, that’s the way it is with bears.”
I’d asked Harley what she was, thinking the abrupt question might throw her off guard and get her to reveal herself. Instead, she’d looked at me like I was crazy. None of my senses picked up anything magical about her or her kids. As far as I could tell, she was a hundred percent human. What the hell could have happened to cause my dragon to react the way it did then?
Steff was looking at me with concern. “Why are you asking about this?”
I could almost see the wheels turning in his head. He was smart enough to figure it out. I slumped in my chair and opened my mouth to tell him, but the others walked in before I could. I clamped my lips shut.
“Hey, guys,” Blayne said, taking a seat beside me.
I nodded and watched Miles close the door and sit on the desk. From the corner of my eye, I saw Steff studying me. Trying to ignore him, I went back to bouncing my leg and plucking at the seam of my jeans.