Twisted (Rogues Shifter Series Book 3) (15 page)

Sinc and Rob volunteered to clean up and Farrell said goodnight and left through the patio doors. Sasha had sent William out with Heinrich to feed, since he’d already gone and come back. He was busy on the computer when I came into the living room.

“Dress in sweats that you don’t care too much about. It’s muddy and you’ll be on the ground a lot.”

“Are we using staffs?”

“You’re starting at the beginning: general physical endurance training.”

“Oh come on,” I wh
ined. His head popped up with a stern glared directed my way. I looked down at my hands. “Sorry. I just thought I was going to get to learn to use weapons.”

“After you build up some strength.”

“I’m much stronger then I look.”

“I certainly hope so.” He looked me up and down skeptically.

“Fuck you, Sasha.”

“Hold onto that anger. It’ll get you through when you think you can’t take one more step.”

“That won’t be a problem.” I stormed upstairs and changed into sweats, then went into the den and put on the TV. I watched the news for a few minutes. Apparently a huge storm was moving down the coast from Canada with heavy rain and wind. It was supposed to reach our area tomorrow morning, but Garrett and his crew would get hit with it first. I hoped they’d find some decent shelter out there.

I opened my laptop and checked out the weather site, then picked up the phone and called Garrett. It went to voicemail so I left him a message telling him exactly what the outlook was for southern Oregon. Hoping I’d helped, I closed the computer and took it back to my room, sitting with it at my desk.  I’d left my door open but I
heard it close and glanced up.

William was standing inside my room with his back to the door grinning at me. He’d just come back from feeding and was totally wired. He looked pretty amazing tonight, with his red hair all spiky and his shirt unbuttoned and his eyes dotted with silver. All my alarm bells went off at once. He wasn’t acting like himself. Something was up.

“Hi William. Open the door, okay?”

“Guess what I had tonight?” His voice was lower than usual and sounded kind of sexy.

“Too much alcohol?” He laughed and took a step toward me. “Just open the door, please, William.” I’d gotten up and backed against the wall.

“
I tasted a shifter. A nice little leopard volunteered and, god her blood was something—amazing. Is your blood that good too?”

He took a few more swaying steps toward me and I scooted as far away from him as I could, which wasn’t far. He breathed in my scent as he walked and I could see his fangs poking out.
Shit
.

Still this was William, he wouldn’t hurt me.

His eyes had turned solid silver as he reached out for my hand and lifted it to his mouth. He sniffed and then licked it, all the time staring at me and trying to glamour me.
Crap!
I sent ‘
Emergency’
down to Sasha and he was opening my door two seconds later, just as William was pulling me closer to him.

“William!” Sasha grabbed him away from me and threw him into the hallway. William hit the wall,
cracking the sheetrock, then stood and hissed at Sasha, who shoved him roughly into the den and then down onto the couch. Sash was strong enough to rip William’s head off, so William didn’t try to get up, although if looks could kill, Sasha would have been writhing in agony.

“Rick
, get up here.” Sasha’s eyes were silver and his fangs were out as he turned toward Heinrich.

“You let him drink from a shifter?”

“He’s almost 30 years old. As long as she volunteers he can drink from whoever he wants.”

“No Rick,
he can’t. What the fuck were you thinking?” Sasha was furious, especially since Heinrich wasn’t taking this seriously.

“She was a nice girl. N
o drugs in her system.”

“That’s not the point. He’s just getting used to taking
a full meal from a human. He’s had no experience with shifter blood. Look at her.” He pointed toward me. I was standing in the doorway, my eyes wide and my body shivering. “He would have ripped into her with his fangs and he wouldn’t have stopped there.”

Heinrich saw my frightened state
and his expression changed to concern. “I’m very sorry, Bridgett. I should have known the richer blood would have that effect on him. I hope that you’re alright.” He turned back to Sasha. “Sorry, Sash, I screwed up.”

“
No shit! Go patrol around for awhile so I can straighten this out.” Heinrich nodded and left. Sash looked at me and said softly, “Tell me exactly what happened.”

Even though Will had frightened me badly, I didn't want Sasha to hurt him, so I hesitated.

"You need to tell me the truth."

This was serious. If he'd come across another shifter, he might have forced her.
“I was in my room. He walked in and closed the door behind him. I asked him to open it but he didn’t. He told me he had shifter blood tonight and he wanted to know if my blood tasted as good. He walked over to me and sniffed my wrist and then licked it. I called you.”

“Did you offer him your blood?”

“No, but he didn’t bite me.”

“Because you were sma
rt enough to call me.” He turned to look at William who’d calmed down completely and was sitting with his elbows on his knees and his face in his hands. “I would have had to kill him if he’d taken your blood without permission.” I heard a catch in Sasha’s voice.

“Yo
u wouldn’t have done that.”

“I would have called Garrett first, but he would have agreed. I think I’m going to have to send you back to Maya’s.”

“Don’t do that. I’ll leave.” William was staring at the floor. He turned to look at me and his eyes were drowning in guilt. I felt awful for him.

Sasha shook his head. “Will, you can’t leave. You’ll be out there on your own hunting and killing, becoming exactly what Eleanor and Lily were. Garrett and Heinrich and I would have to hunt you down and kill you.”

“Maybe that’s what you should do. Just execute me. I almost hurt her.”

“No.” I started to walk toward him but Sasha stopped me by grabbing my arm. “It wasn’t his
fault. It was the blood.” I jerked my arm away from him.

“He knew it was a stupid move
to drink from that girl.” Sasha shook his head.

“He’s right, Bridgett.”

Sasha walked over to the couch and stood in front of Will. “So now that you’ve had shifter blood, how are you going to keep your fangs off of Bridgett? Because if you don’t, then you’re dust.“

“Don’t you and Heinrich drink shifter blood?” I asked.

“Yes, we’ve had it many times and so it doesn’t have the same effect on us.”

“Well, what if I just give it to him?” They both stared at me lik
e I was an idiot. “Not everyday, and just a little bit under supervision. How long would it take for him to be cool with it? So he doesn’t freak when he has it.”

“Why would you do that for me, Bridgett? I almost drank your blood without y
our permission and I might have—I might have raped you. Or killed you.”

His words scared me.
“ I don’t want to be afraid of you, and I don’t want you executed. If I can help you, then I will.” I smiled at him, but he still looked worried.

“It would definitely work, but Heinrich or I would have to be there to supervise. It would probably take around two weeks if he fed every other day and it will knock you out
, so we’d have to do it when you wanted to go to sleep.”

Suddenly Sasha turned toward the window. “Shit. We have a problem. Rick says we have weres
on the property. Will, are you cool enough to protect her?" William nodded. "I’ll send Sinc up here.” He was only a blur running down the stairs so I raced to the window to look outside. Heinrich and Sasha were standing in front of the house and there were four weres spread out in front of them.

Wait a minute, I knew these guys. They were from my old pack. I remembered Liam saying that he hadn’t killed all of them.

I raced down the stairs before William had a chance to grab me. I
am
a cheetah and that makes me pretty damn fast.

When I came to a stop outside next to Sasha
, he hissed at me. "Go back inside, NOW."

"This is my old pack."
I gave him a ‘calm down’ kind of look and spoke to Fred, the wolf in the front of the bunch. “Hey Fred, what’s up?”

“How are you Bridgett? We’re very sorry to hear of the death of our Alpha, your father.
Please accept our condolences.”

“Thank you
. Did you need something?”

“We four
are all that’s left of the pack. " I looked around at the others and waved. They all waved back, some saying 'Hey' or 'Hi Bridge'. These were some of the more peaceful pack members, all family guys with mostly steady jobs in construction.

Fred continued. "
We’d like to start over, maybe rent 'The Wild' from you, since it’s in your name now. That would at least give us some income to support the families of the dead pack members..”

“I think that’s a gr
eat idea. You should start another pack, and pick your own name, don’t use my dad’s. Oh, and I'm sure you can form an alliance with my sister and her mate Garrett. They’re not here right now, but they’ll be back home in a couple of days.” I heard Sasha hiss quietly again, but I ignored it. “These vamps are from his nest and he has a great team of shifters who work with him too."

Fred glanced at the others who just shrugged. “He works with fae.”

“Yeah, but Liam cleared you. You’re cool.” There was complete silence so I just kept on talking. “Are you pack leader now, Fred?” He nodded.

Sasha was fuming
as he grabbed my arm and stepped in front of me. He spoke softly to Fred. “Bridgett has
no
authority to offer you an alliance.” He turned and glared at me then back at Fred. ”If you’re interested in making an appointment to discuss one, we can speak with Garrett later. Right now we’re busy with a rather important situation.”

“Oh sure, we have to talk it over anyway. Thanks for speaking to us. Take care, Bridgett. We’ll call you about the club.”

“Sure, bye guys.” I waved and watched them leave. When I turned toward Sasha he was glowering at me with such anger that I tried to take another step backwards. Unfortunately, his grip on my arm was painfully tight. “What’s wrong?”

Speaking through clenched teeth he said, “Y
ou will go upstairs and wait for me in your room.”

“I’m not eight years old
.”

“Then stop—fucking—acting like it.
I will be there in two minutes. Go. Now.” He released my arm, his eyes popping with silver. I caught a flash of fang.

Instead of showing him I was scared, I glared back
and then turned around and stomped up the stairs. Jeez, what was
his
problem?

Chapter Twenty-eight

Garrett:
5:00 PM Thursday

As we walked silently through the coastal brush and thinning tree line, I kept my eyes peeled for the albatross. Ther
e was no sign of Kennet, or of weres, goblins or any other supernaturals for that matter. According to my GPS, we’d just crossed the border into Oregon. Still I felt hopeful. The terrain was very similar to that of my dreams and so I kept my eyes on the trail, my nose taking in the constantly changing scents of the ocean, the redwoods, and the occasional wildlife that dared to come close to our motley crew. I’d gotten a call from Bridgett about an upcoming storm so when we noticed the sky churning with black clouds and the wind picking up speed we found a cave and settled in to ride out the worst of the weather.

We never imagined it would get as bad as it did.

Chapter Twenty-nine

Jackie: 7:00 PM Thursday

I’d gotten around the block. I could access the lines now. I started to pull in the magic to contact Garrett, but Isaiah shook his head. “The agreement, Jackie.”

“Can’t I just tell him I’m okay?”

“He’s with the two fae brothers. They’ll zero in on your location, take a ride on the lines and grab you. Then you’ll be referring to me as Master for a century.”

“I’ll tell them not to.”

“And you think they’ll listen to you…why? They’ll grab you and ask questions later.”

“So how long is it going to take me to learn to do the ritual?”

“Probably only an hour. Lets get started.”

Chapter Thirty

Bridgett: 7:00 PM Thursday

I was
sitting on my bed with my computer on my lap and my headphones on when Sasha walked in and closed the door. He pulled the chair out from behind the desk, turned it around and straddled it, staring at me as he leaned on the chair back.  I ignored him, even though he was pretty hard to ignore. I was listening to a song I liked and really didn’t want to have to hear some stupid lecture from Sex-on-a-Stick about how I should have stayed upstairs with William. Didn’t he understand that I knew those guys? He should have been happy that I’d handled them so well. I looked up. He was still staring at me, looking even angrier than before.