Filed To Story: Secret Shifters Next Door Series PDF Free
I tried to take in everything he’d said. It was hard to believe all this was going on. All this subterfuge right under the surface of the human worldkilling, hunting, magic, all of it.
A memory of something Felicity said sprang to mind. “Felicity told me once that she’d had a boyfriend. Someone who got in trouble after becoming obsessed with another woman. She…she said he died.”
“I’m a little surprised she’d tell you that, honestly. From the description, it sounds like a hunter named Ryland. He had the hots for April. Really creepy dude. I’m not even going to tell you all the things he did to get her. Kidnapping was the least of it.”
“But you guys really killed him?” I asked, my voice quavering.
Miles’s lips were set in a hard line. “We did. It was him or us. He gave us no choice. I wasn’t there for it. It was Steff, Tate, and Blayne, but I trust them, and I trust that they did what they had to do. It was good versus evil. Easy as that.”
“No, I get it. It’s just crazy. What you guys are going through,” I said. Then I chuckled and gave him a sly look. “Maybe once it’s all over, I can write a book about it. Fiction, of course.”
Miles laughed and got out of bed. “Sure. Just change the names and locations. You want a hamburger? It’s almost dinner time.”
“Hell yeah. Do you have bacon?” I asked, suddenly feeling ravenous.
“What wolf doesn’t keep bacon on hand at all times?”
He went into the kitchen to start working on the food. I remained on the bed for a few seconds, pinching my arm just one more time. Still real. I shook my head and followed him to the kitchen.
He threw two potatoes into the oven to bake and started making some ground beef into hamburger patties.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, this curse. What does it do to you? There’s no way it just brings me into your life and leaves you to figure it out.”
He sighed and made another patty before answering. “There is more to it. If I don’t claim my mate after a time…things get bad.”
“Uh…first, what’s it mean to claim someone? And second, define bad.”
“Claiming is what shifters do to…I don’t really know how to describe it. I guess it’s our version of getting married, but it’s a bodily connection. The male bites the female. The saliva is injected and it binds us. We become closer than any human connection could possibly be.”
My eyes must have looked like saucers, they were so wide. “Holy shit.”
He nodded and kept working. “Yeah, it’s pretty serious. If a mating bond isn’t performed in time, I’ll go feral. That’s what the curse does.”
“Feral? Like a cat?”
“Sort of. All the legends you’ve heard about bloodthirsty werewolves, dragons, shifters in general? Those are shifters who went feral. We lose our human side almost completely. Hunger, rage, and madness takes over. Along with that, there’s physical pain if I try to reject the mate or if she rejects me. Agonizing pain if I’m honest.”
“So, if you don’t claim me soon, that’s what will happen to you?”
“Basically, but don’t think about it too much. The thing I worry about the most is what will happen to you. The curse will…Well, it will turn you into a shifter. There’s still plenty of time. Steff and April went weeks, if not months, before he claimed her. There’s no rush here.”
That news was new. I would become a shifter? That was not something I’d anticipated. “Seriously?” I asked.
Miles nodded, looking pained. “I didn’t know how to break it to you easily. I shouldn’t have blurted it out like that.”
“No, no, it’s…it’s fine. I mean, April and Harley went through it, and they seem totally fine.”
“Right. I’m sorry. I hate that you’ve been pulled into this. I even thought about not telling you and dealing with whatever came of it. Pain, death, whatever it took to keep you safe.”
“I don’t want that for you. It sounds miserable.” It was the truth. Everything about it sounded like hell.
The pained look on his face vanished as he grinned. “That’s what I like most about you, Celina. The reason I care for you so much.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“After hearing all these…all these crazy, dangerous thingsall you care about is me. What’s going to happen to me? How do I feel? Most people would probably be more self-centered, even if they usually aren’t,” he explained as he washed his hands.
I never handled compliments well. They always made me self-conscious. I looked down, afraid to meet his eyes. “I just don’t want you to be in pain because of me. I couldn’t live with that.”
Miles walked around the kitchen island and took my hands, then put his forehead to mine, staring into my eyes. “I’m telling you the truth. I’m fine right now.”
“Will you promise to tell me if things do get bad? Painful, I mean?”
He kissed me on the forehead. “I promise. Okay?”