Filed To Story: Secret Shifters Next Door Series PDF Free
The Wizard of Oz
?”
I gave a half-shrug, half-nod. “Kinda, I guess. Not really the same, though. They don’t dress in robes or wear pointy hats or eat kids. They’re just regular people. The only difference is that they have gifts that allow them to do stuff. Crazy stuff. The hunters hired a witch. Her name was Emily?—“
“Was?”
“Well…she’s dead. I was getting to that.”
“Dead? A woman is dead, Blayne?”
“Dammit, Ava, let me get through the damn story, all right?” I snapped.
A pink flush crept into her cheeks as she glared at me, and I worried she was going to get up and storm out of the coffee shop. Thankfully, she didn’t. Instead, she sank back in her chair and crossed her arms. “Fine. Go on, then.”
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to snap at you, but this is important.” When she didn’t respond, I shrugged and continued relaying the story. “Anyway, this witch Emily cast a spell around Lilly Valley
that affected all the shifters in town. At the time, there were only four of us—me and my three partners Miles, Tate, and Steff. The spell was meant to be the end of us. It forces us to mate with a human, which is supposed to be impossible.
“I’m not sure if you know that. Shifters and humans can have relationships, even get married if they wanted. But to claim someone and become mates is something that is only supposed to happen between shifters. This curse forced something that was supposed to be impossible. If we don’t pursue our new mate and make them fall in love with us, we die a slow and painful death. The only way to escape that fate is to claim them as a mate or…have them outright reject you.
“This curse has struck each of us. I’m the last one. Once it’s through with me, it’ll be over. So, that’s what this conversation is about. My fated mate has been revealed to me.” I drummed my fingers nervously on the table, not wanting to utter the next words, even though I knew I had to.
“It’s you, Ava.”
Instead of the relief I’d expected to feel, more stress piled onto me. My shoulders bunched into knots as my panther raged. It knew what I was going to say next.
“All you need to do is reject me here and now. Then the bond will be broken and we’ll be done with this. You’ll go your way and I’ll go mine, and we’ll never have to speak again.”
As I spoke, I watched the look on her face slowly change. It went from irritation, to disbelief, to surprise, and now she sat there looking stunned. I folded my hands in my lap and waited for her response.
FOUR
AVA
Blayne’s words echoed in my head as I sat in stunned silence and tried to make sense of everything. Witches were real? That alone was something I’d have to unpack later. Curses and spells and fated mates, that was what this conversation was really about. Blayne, the man who hated me more than probably any person I’d ever meet, was telling me that some witch had cast a spell. And somehow that spell had made me his fated mate. Could all of that actually be real?
I had no reason
not to believe him. For one, the story was too far-fetched for it to be some joke he was playing on me. Also, if he were going to lie, he wouldn’t have made up a tale about me being his mate. If anything, he’d probably have made up a story about how I needed to get away and stay away forever—which was exactly the vibe he was giving off. No way would he have talked about me being his mate unless it was the absolute truth.
Blayne hated me so much that I knew for a fact he hadn’t wanted to utter those words. Christ, he’d looked almost physically sick when he’d said it. That hurt me. Even when Liam had been alive, Blayne and I had never had much of a relationship, but it still hurt to have look at me like I was the living embodiment of Satan.
With all that to consider, the last part of his statement kept bouncing around my skull. I was his fated mate? The spell had caused it. If the spell had caused it, could that possibly mean that it was something that could really come to fruition?
“Has the spell ever been wrong?” I blurted. “Has it always been right?”
Blayne stiffened and pink heat spread up his neck to his cheeks. He shook his head, refusing to meet my eyes. “I…well…I wouldn’t say
right as much as it happened to, sort of, work out for the other guys.”
“Did the women or men they were paired with actually become their mates?”
“All women, and yes, but that obviously isn’t the case here. The curse got it wrong.” Sadness cut through his irritation and anger. “Which is kinda shitty, since I was probably the only one looking forward to finding a mate.” He let out a frustrated sigh. “Fate has always been a bit of a bitch to me, though.”
That took an almost physical bite out of me, like a sharp puncture to my psyche. He was clearly talking about Liam’s death. He’d always blamed my family for his loss. My family, but more specifically me. He couldn’t have hated me more if I’d been the one to pull the trigger.
As much as he despised me, I also lived with the shame and heartache over what had happened to Liam. I couldn’t stand watching someone be in that much pain.
“Blayne,” I said, forcing myself to not lean forward and put a hand on his. “I can’t imagine how much it must hurt you that the curse chose me to be your mate.”
“The curse can suck it,” he snarled. “I’m the master of my destiny. And I know for damn sure that in this life or the next, I’d never choose you.”
There weren’t any venom in the words, just a simple statement of fact, so they didn’t hurt. How could they when I
felt the same way? I wouldn’t have chosen him, either. I mean…he was Blayne. When I’d dated Liam, he’d always seemed like the goofy little brother, even though they were twins. Nearly identical, but completely different in almost every way.
I gave a single nod. “Okay, how does this work? The whole rejection thing?”