Shifters Forever The Boxed Set Books 1 - 6 (30 page)

T
anner hoisted
Dominic in his arms. It was the big unveiling. The big reveal. He hadn’t told anyone about Marti’s son.

He and Marti had spent a week together enjoying each other and the toddler shifter. Marti swore that Dominic was a completely different kid, that Dominic hadn’t ever been as outgoing and happy-go-lucky as he’d been in the last week.

Tanner didn’t know about that, but he knew he’d never seen Marti happier than she’d been while he was staying at her place with them.

They’d spent one very emotional evening discussing what had happened to her. She told him about her career as a trainer for paint horses. He didn’t understand the whole thing, but evidently she’d been one of the top trainers—she told him Joe had even known of her. Tanner knew Joe had been involved in rodeos for a while.

Then one night, when she was alone, brushing down a horse, a man had attacked her. She’d known the man wasn’t just a man when he shifted after raping her.

At first she’d thought she was seeing things, but then when Dominic was an infant, she did some research. She’d gone to a Native American tribe in the Northwest and talked to someone there about what had happened to her. They’d told her it was a shifter.

She’d realized that Dominic was a shifter when she noticed his eye color changing when he was extremely angry or happy, just as the Native American seer had told her. He’d also told her that other shifters could be a danger to her son and to keep them away if possible, and that she could use block to eradicate the scent.

Marti hadn’t realized that she was around shifters at first when she’d taken the job with Mae, but after she did, she’d decided to stick around in order to learn more about Dominic.

“I hadn’t planned on getting so attached to everyone. They’re like family now.”

“Your family?”

“I’ve been more or less an orphan since I was a kid. My mom died, and my dad hadn’t been in the picture since before I was born.” She shrugged. “Good thing I saved up a lot of money while I was training. That allowed me to settle down and pick a career that would allow me some flexibility.”

“Why interior decorating?”

“I had a friend who taught me a little when I was younger. It was all I had to go with, other than working with horses.”

Tanner had fallen more and more for her during the week, even though he’d never have thought it was possible to love her more than he already did.

Now they were going to have dinner at the diner. Grant and Chelsea were on their honeymoon, but Tanner had called Teague and asked if they could get together in the private dining room. Teague said he’d talk to Kane, Joe, and Doc.

He shifted Dominic to the other side.
Little shit isn’t light.
Dominic had decided that he couldn’t be apart from Tanner’s bear, so that’s how things went now.

In truth, Tanner found that Dominic completed a part of him he hadn’t thought needed anything.

Teague was outside waiting for him. He didn’t seem surprised to see Marti, but it was clear that Dominic threw him for a loop.

“Who’s this little fella?” Teague patted Dominic on the back. Then Teague’s nostrils flared. “He’s…”

“He’s Marti’s son.”

Teague nodded slowly, looked from Marti to Tanner, then to Dominic.

“Polar bear,” Tanner said.

Marti nodded.

“Awesome.” Teague smiled. “Looks like I have a nephew. You’ll love the family…”

Tanner realized he hadn’t told Teague his name. “Dominic.”

The little bear shifter snuggled up, tucking his head under Tanner’s beard.

“Let’s go.” Teague said. “I’m famished. So hungry I could eat a horse.”

“Do bears eat horses?” Dominic asked Marti in his cute little boy’s voice.

Teague laughed a deep belly laugh. “No. Well… Not normally, little bear.” He tweaked Dominic’s cheek.

M
arti looked
at Dominic in Tanner’s strong arms. Her son was thriving. She sat back, her tummy full. They hadn’t made plans, but Tanner had said he was thinking of moving to Bear Canyon Valley, and he wanted to know if Marti and Dominic would join him.

“I’m not just gonna live with you.”

He reached into his pocket, fished around and pulled out something. She caught a glimpse of white and blue. He opened his fisted hand.

The garter.

She pressed her hand to her mouth. “Are you…”

Dominic was in Teague’s arms, playing with the toys Marti had brought to keep him busy. “Momma,” he whispered, except his whisper wasn’t much of one.

Teague and Kelsey smiled. Kelsey’s smile was melancholy, and Marti knew it was because she’d lost a baby a while back. She hoped they’d be blessed with one soon.

“Yes, baby.” She gave Dominic her undivided attention.

“Tanner asked me if he could be your husband.”

She looked up at Tanner. “Oh, he did?”

Tanner’s black eyes glinted with merriment. An amber glow began from the edges of his irises and moved inward. The bear was close to the surface.

“And you said?” she prompted Dominic.

“He has to ask you,” Dominic giggled.

“That’s not exactly what you said, is it?”

Dominic shook his head, a guilty look on his face. He turned red and chewed on his lip.

It occurred to Marti how much he was just like her, from the kinds of things that embarrassed him, to his independence, to the way he thought. She knew he’d talked a lot to Tanner about being a bear and keeping bear secrets, and about fathers and sons.

Tanner had been very honest with him, holding nothing back, but at the same time not telling him anything that would hurt him.

“When are Grant and Chelsea due back?”

“You anxious to get to work?” Mae laughed.

“No, but I felt bad for leaving so early.”

Mae looked at Tanner, then at Marti. “They understand. We all understand. Passions run deep sometimes.”

Marti blushed and bit down on her lip.

D
ominic slept
in Tanner’s arms, his heartbeat synced to Tanner’s. His cheeks were a nice tan color from going outside and playing in the woods with Tanner.

The first time Tanner had told Marti he wanted to take Dominic out for a run in the forest, he’d thought she was going to have a heart attack. She’d sputtered and stammered and tried to make excuses for him not to go.

Tanner had stopped her and told her that this was important to Dominic and he needed it.

She’d accompanied them and watched wide-eyed while Dominic shifted and then ran through the forest with Tanner. The next day, when Dominic asked to go, Tanner asked her to stay at home and let him take Dominic alone. Marti agreed, though she was extremely nervous. The next day it didn’t seem to bother her as much. She’d just kissed them goodbye and let them go.

The day after that, when Dominic had asked to go, he’d had to tell the boy no. Tanner didn’t discuss it with Dominic, and he didn’t tell Marti much about it, but he found a scent in the forest that gave him pause. There was a dual purpose to the lunch today, and it was to talk to the others.

“Grant’s not here, but I still needed to bring this up.”

“What’s that?” Tanner asked.

“When I took Dominic out the other day, I caught a scent. Another shifter.”

He studied their faces. He didn’t find surprise on Joe’s or Teague’s. Doc raised a brow.

“No shit,” Kane said.

“So how is it that Joe and Teague don’t seem fazed by this?”

Joe pushed his chair back and leaned away, his body deceptively casual. “I don’t think she’ll hurt anyone. Seems she just needs a place to stay for a bit.”

“I scented a young one with her.”

Joe nodded. “Yeah, I saw his tracks too. I don’t think they’re hurting anyone.”

“Teague?” Tanner turned to his brother.

Teague looked at Joe, then he turned his glance toward Kelsey. Tanner had known Teague all his life. There was guilt on his face. For sure.
Oh, shit.

Teague cleared his throat. “I’m thinking that’s the one that scared Kelsey.”

Kelsey’s head snapped in their direction. “I asked you if that was a shifter. That’s the one that had the baby.” Her face became splotchy red with anger. “You said no.”

“I didn’t.” Teague took her hand. “I didn’t answer at all, babe.”

“But you knew,” she accused him.

“I thought you’d been through enough. I wanted to spare you some pain.”

She snatched her hand away from his. “You… you…” She took a deep breath, then let it out slowly as if to calm herself. “You had no right.”

“I know. I know. You’re right.” Teague shook his head slowly. “I’m sorry.” He turned toward Tanner. “I thought she’d left, though. I didn’t see a reason to ever bring it back up.”

“She didn’t.”

“She’s raising her baby in the forest? In the wild?” She sounded horrified.

“It’s not impossible,” Doc said. “Though I don’t think that’s the best of circumstances to raise a shifter child in.”

“I take her food,” Joe said.

“There’s more to this than you’re telling us, isn’t there?” Mae finally spoke.

“Does she have allegiances that will be unfriendly toward us?” Astra’s green eyes were large with concern.

Tanner had told Marti that shifters had killed Astra’s mother, and that the Anya that Astra had mentioned at the rehearsal dinner was a white tiger shifter who used to be her best friend when she was a kid. Anya had saved Astra during the attack when her mother was killed, but been wounded in the process. That was why Astra had mentioned a trip to Europe. They thought she might be staying with a shifter called Rafe. Astra wanted to see her childhood best friend and savior again.

“I don’t think she’s a danger,” Joe said. “Why don’t you let me look into it?”

“Let me know, Joe.” Mae took a bite of her apple pie. “If there’s another shifter in Bear Canyon Valley, we need to know more about her.”

“Will do.”

Marti looked at Tanner, concern in her eyes, then glanced at Dominic.

“He’s fine. You’re fine.” Tanner reached over and placed a kiss on her lip to stop her from biting it. “Leave some of that for me, woman. You don’t need to worry about yourself or Dominic. That’s for me to do.”

His voice was husky, his bear obviously close to the surface, ready to rise to whatever needed to be done.

N
ext in the
Shifters Forever
Series:

T
emptation

T
his one’s gonna
catch you off guard. Maybe!

Y
ou knew
this was going to happen, didn’t you? Vax has a series. Check out
www.ellethorne.com
for more on Vax and his friends. It’s in the shifter pages! It’s also available… Keep reading!

J
oe’s got a problem
. There’s a curvy bear shifter trespassing in Bear Canyon Valley. And he’s been charged with taking care of the matter.

Looks like he’s got two problems, because he didn’t count on wanting her.

She’s a curvy bear shifter that wants to be left alone. Tell that to Joe.

J
oe knew shifters
. He knew their ways. He’d been around shifters all his life. He trusted shifters and they trusted him back. His best friend Grant was a shifter. Joe’s grandfather’s best friend was Grant’s grandfather, also a bear shifter. Joe wasn’t a shifter, but he felt like his family was, especially here in Bear Canyon Valley, where the shifters were a tight bunch.

Nothing about shifters surprised Joe much. He’d not seen many female shifters. Most of them were male, at least the bear shifters that Joe knew. As much as Joe trusted shifters, one thing he didn’t yield to was temptation. The temptation to be mated to a shifter. He kept his distance emotionally when it came to shifter females. They loved hard. Passionately. That kind of emotion made Joe nervous.

Joseph Dark—originally, Joseph Dark Eagle Rises After Winter Storm—who now went by Joe Dark, held his breath, fighting to keep his pulse under control. He kept the fragrant, familiar air he’d sucked in locked tight in his lungs. He knew the air and the terrain here as well as he knew every scar and every broken bone on his body.

A tiny rivulet of sweat made its way down his back, creeping toward the waistband on the jeans he filled out, front and back. He itched to scratch the tickling trickle.

He’d used hunter block today. He’d never used it when he was looking for her before. He hadn’t wanted to deceive her, but now that he’d been assigned by the clan to the task of reconnoitering and discovering more about her, he felt a bit of stealth would serve the cause better. The Bear Canyon Valley clan wanted to be sure she wasn’t a threat.

Joe had agreed to look into the female bear shifter who roamed Bear Canyon Valley because he’d brought her food a couple of times. He knew she’d scented him, but as long as he kept his distance, she’d never given more than a snort to acknowledge his presence.

The female had a shifter cub with her. If she’d thought he was a threat, he was certain he wouldn’t be alive anymore. Female bears were extremely protective.

Today, his visit to the forest she frequented was different. Now he had a different purpose.

Joe hadn’t been completely honest with the clan when they’d brought her up to him. He’d hinted that he knew of her existence in a cursory way. This wasn’t exactly true. Joe didn’t regret his deception, because he knew the moment he yielded the truth he’d be subjected to an assortment of questions and then ribbing about her.

He sat in the tree, as high up as he could get, and watched the forest floor below. He’d brought her food, as he’d done a couple of times before.

Food for her and the cub. The little tyke would scramble out of the cover of the trees and head for the decadent aroma the food put out. Usually Joe would bring pot roast or ham, or even a turkey.

The female would eat whatever was left over after she let the little one indulge.

But she never shifted. Joe had no idea what she looked like as a human. Why didn’t she shift? Shifters—at least the ones Joe knew—preferred to be in their human form. Why didn’t she?

He heard a tiny crunching sound. The food he’d placed at the base of a tree three yards away from the one that he was in had to be hard to resist when you were a hungry baby bear. Not that the woods weren’t full of food, but shifters typically gravitated toward human food.

Sure enough, a dark brown figure scampered out from between a couple of trees to the west. The little one snorted its delight, growling and snarling gleefully.

A louder, more ferocious growl joined his. There she was. She was magnificent. Queenly, with a presence that commanded respect and even fear, for some. She followed the cub, her dark eyes alert, her head tilted, always on her guard. Joe knew mama bears. He knew shifter mamas too. It seemed excessive, as if she was on the lookout for something specific.

Was it him? Was she worried about him? How could she be? He’d only known about her a couple of weeks now. She followed the little one until she reached the tree Joe was in.

She stopped suddenly, watching the cub eat, but her head was cocked to the side. Listening. Listening to what?

The bear cub ravaged the ham Joe had brought, tearing into it, shredding it with his claws, swallowing chunks. Joe fought the smile that threatened to make an appearance. He needed to maintain control over his emotions so that she couldn’t notice the change with her bear senses and pick up his pulse.

He breathed a shallow breath of relief and looked back at her.

Shit.

Busted.

She was staring at him, her bear head raised, her eyes focused on him directly. He had no doubt he was the cause of the intensity in her gaze.

Oh, hell, here goes nothing.

“Well, if you know I’m here, you may as well talk to me,” Joe told her. “And you can clearly see I’m not armed.” He tried to convince her he wasn’t a threat.

The cub paused, looked at its mother, then at Joe, and went back to its meal.

Joe heard a low, rumbling sound that came from deep within her chest.

“No. No growling. No bear talk. I know damned well what you are. I mean talk to me like a human.”

She scratched at the ground with her large, sharp claws.

“What if I promise not to come down?”

A creaking and a light crunching sound, and a moment later he saw the woman in her emerging and her bear receding.