Filed To Story: Secret Shifters Next Door Series PDF Free
“Mariah, it’s a really long story. Complicated and weird, and… well, I promise I’ll tell you about it soon.”
Mariah shook her head and smiled. “It’s fine. Take your time. I really like having Tate around. It’s nice, you know? Anyway, I’m going to go read for a bit.”
I watched Mariah walk up the stairs, still shocked by what she’d asked. She knew. What’s more, she seemed fine with it. The girls had really taken to Tate, had embraced him even. Once again, I wondered if I was making the right decision by bringing him into our lives. It was a huge risk. Not just because my heart was at stake here, but theirs as well.
SEVENTEEN
TATE
If Harley knew where I actually had to go, I was sure she’d change her mind about allowing me into her life. Miles had set up a meeting with an Alpha from a wolf shifter clan to the south. They’d also had pack members disappearing, but unlike a lot of the others, they’d found the bodies. We wanted to talk to him and try to figure out what he might know. We also wanted to see if the body we found and had buried was one of his. If so, we’d give them the location so they could get some closure.
We met him at a rest stop off the highway halfway between our towns. The spot was always pretty deserted, which made it a good location to meet up. No one would hear what we were talking about. The others were already there when I pulled up.
Steff, Miles, and Blayne were already in conversation with the Alpha as I walked up. The Alpha glanced up and said, “Is this the other guy?”
Miles glanced at me. “Yeah, this is the last of us.”
He stepped forward and put his hand out, “Doug. Good to meet you.”
“Tate. Likewise. So, what did I miss?”
Miles said, “We were talking about the body we found. It’s not one of theirs.”
Doug nodded. “Yeah, the description doesn’t match any of my missing guys. Doesn’t sound like anyone I know from the other wolf packs around here. Could be a guy who was on his own, maybe getting close to going feral. Sorry I couldn’t help with that. I’ll keep an ear out if I hear anyone looking for somebody.”
“Have you or your guys noticed any new people around? People who have maybe just moved in, or somebody who came to town for work or something?”
Doug mulled it over for a minute. Then he shook his head. “Nothing that rings a bell, but there was something I wanted to bounce off you guys.”
My ears pricked up. “What do you have?”
“Well, we’ve lost several members. Two of them we… found, afterward. Both were in similar shape to the one you guys found out in the woods. Tortured, killed.” He paused and looked off into the distance. I could only imagine how tough it had to be to find a member of your pack, a friend, like that. “Anyway, both of them had something in common before they went missing. They each mentioned seeing a woman. Someone following them. She wasn’t familiar to either of them. They didn’t think anything of it, just thought it was weird. I didn’t either until the second guy disappeared.”
We all looked at each other. Strange. Shifters sometimes dated human women, but it was always a short-lived casual affair. For the most part, we never told anyone what we are, plus you couldn’t mate with or have kids with humans. Well, at least we thought that couldn’t happen—until me. The same woman hanging around shortly before two shifters were abducted, tortured, and killed? Pretty damning evidence.
“Hunters?” Miles asked.
Female hunters weren’t unheard of. They weren’t even that rare. The thing was, it took one special kind of woman to take
down a wolf shifter. Usually, men led the way when it came to attacking and killing shifters. That’s the way it had been for hundreds of years. Things could always change, though.
We nodded in agreement. Nothing made sense other than it being a group of hunters. The only one who didn’t nod was Steff. He’d been standing off to the side, staring at the ground, deep in thought. He finally pulled a folded manila envelope out of his back pocket and stepped forward.
“It’s a witch,” he said.
We all froze and stared at him. Witches were not a common occurrence, even in the world of shifters. Oh, they were out there, but I’d never had any dealings with them.
“What makes you say that?” Doug asked.
“This,” he said, holding up the envelope. “Pictures I took of the body we found.” He pulled them out. The image of the desecrated man brought a new wave of nausea to my gut. “The cuts here all across the body. Some of them are from a silver knife or something, sure. Miles smelled the silver, but most of these wounds aren’t from a blade, they look more like a whip or a lash. Look.”
We passed the pictures around. I was the last in line, and I had to force myself to look at the wounds. He was right. Most of the wounds were thin and even, like a slice of a knife. The bigger wounds were laid open, like the skin had split. It did look like he had been whipped. I frowned as I handed the pictures back to Steff.
“A silver whip?” I asked, thinking it sounded stupid even as I said it.
Steff shook his head. “Not possible. They could have maybe had a custom-made cable woven from silver and used that, but the wounds would have been even bigger. No, this is magic. Witches can use their spells like weapons. In my old pack, we worked with a coven once. I watched them use their magic like
that, like a weapon. One of the spells they used the most was like a whip of mystical energy. It worked just like that. When I saw this body, I knew the wounds looked familiar, but it took me a little while to remember where I’d seen it before. Either a witch is hunting shifters, or even worse, a group of hunters has recruited a witch to help them.”
The news slammed into us. Hunters were dangerous in their own right. They knew about us, had learned how to track and find us over the centuries, had specialized weapons and equipment, but to also have a witch working with them? It was like giving a nuclear missile to a splinter terrorist group. There was nothing worse.
“Well, the only way I know of to catch a witch is with the help of another one. I know who to call. I’ll be gone for a couple of days. She doesn’t have a cell phone or anything,” Miles said.
“Are you sure that’s safe?” I asked.
He nodded. “I’ll be fine, I’ll keep my head on a swivel. I’ll text you guys every few hours so you know I’m good. I better get going.”
With that, our little group broke apart, scattering to the wind as we left in our separate cars. I drove back to Lilly Valley, my mind swirling with the implications of what we’d discovered. A witch? Fucking terrifying. A human I could kill. Another shifter? I knew how to fight that. A witch? I was in the unknown. Unlike Miles and Steff, I’d never met one. How would I know when I met one? Would I have any way