Forever Fated Mates: A Shifter Romance Collection Read online

  “I’ll give you a little warning,” Steve said as he came around the passenger side to assist her. “Mom has been a holy mess ever since she got the news. I can’t tell you how many times she’s called me, fussing and worrying and carrying on.”

  Leona frowned as she waved away his assistance. She didn’t want anyone helping her. She didn’t need it, and she sure as hell wasn’t going to walk into that house using her big brother as a crutch. “I guess I can’t really blame her, given what she must’ve gone through with Dad.”

  “Yeah, and that was awful, but you’re the baby. She’s been desperate to get her arms around you, and it’s all I could do to keep her from packing up and flying out to Baghdad herself.”

  She had to laugh a little at that. Her father had been a military man through-and-through. Nothing fazed him, no matter how crazy or difficult. If there was anything that gave him the slightest bit of worry, it showed as little more than a slight crease between his eyebrows. He’d charge forward and just deal with it, until that last insurrection had dealt with him instead.

  Their mother was a completely different person. She had plenty of anxiety, and she didn’t hesitate to express it. She’d certainly voiced her opinion when Leona had decided to join the Army. Leona had been somewhat protected from that by all the time she’d spent away from home as she completed one training program after another and advanced through the ranks, finally achieving her dream of becoming a Green Beret. But even then, the letters she’d received from her mother had been full of concern, wondering if she was safe and if she was still certain that military life was for her. Leona could easily imagine how difficult it would’ve been for those who surrounded her mother when she’d gotten the news that yet another member of her family had been injured in the name of war.

  “Now she doesn’t have to fly out there. She can see for herself that I’m completely whole and fine.” Leona paused at the bottom of the porch steps and looked up at her family home. It was just the same as she remembered it, yet it looked completely different now. The bright red front door framed by white siding and a covered porch were the epitome of American living, especially with the stars-and-stripes flapping noisily in the breeze from the pole her father had installed proudly in the front yard. Some of the flowers in the beds that flanked the porch had been swapped out for different plants, young ones that hadn’t yet grown full and bushy. Leona loved the place, but it was like coming home to a dream, something she only vaguely remembered and couldn’t be sure she was still a part of.

  That red front door burst open before Leona had a chance to think about it any longer. A large woman with her graying hair pulled back in a tight bun shot through the opening and down the stairs far faster than anyone her age should’ve been able to do, her arms wrapping tightly around her daughter.

  “Mom!” Leona said, both choking and laughing. “You’re going to suffocate me!”

  “Then at least I’d know right where you were!” Mrs. Kirk admonished. “Come on in and sit. Steven, help your sister!”

  Her brother gave her a look, and Leona understood. They both knew she didn’t really need help, but it would make their mother feel better if they could put on a show. She put a hand on her brother’s elbow and went inside, but she was careful not to lean any of her weight on him.

  “Hey, there she is!”

  “Welcome home, Leona!”

  “We missed you!”

  Her eyes had barely adjusted to the interior lighting before she was being hugged, kissed, and patted on the back by everyone packed into the living room. Leona could hardly move through the sea of friends, family, and neighbors. She hadn’t seen some of them in years, but they were all people she loved. It moved her in a way she hadn’t expected, and she was too overwhelmed to do much beyond nodding and smiling. And of course, there were plenty more questions about how she was feeling. These were all answered with her now-standard issue answer of, “I’m fine.”

  “I tried to warn you,” Steve whispered in her ear.

  “Just shut up,” she said with a forced smile.

  The truth was that Leona had dreaded nothing more than coming home. She didn’t want the fuss and the mini ticker-tape parade that she knew her mother would insist on. But if nothing else, she was a good and loyal daughter. She would do this and get it done, and then she would go on with her own life.

  But there was something both surreal and lovely about seeing so many people she knew and understanding that they cared about her. She quickly blinked to interrupt the beginnings of tears that burned at the backs of her eyes. “This is really great,” she managed to murmur.

  “Leona!” A pair of slim arms grabbed her from behind.

  She patted her sister’s shoulder, happy to see that Tracy had been able to make it up from D.C. “Hey, Trace! How are you?”

  Her sister held her at arm’s length. “Looks like the Army treated you better than the letter indicated. Now we’re just going to have to go shopping and do something about those clothes. You look like you’ve dressed yourself from of Steve’s hamper.”

  “Aw, come on! What’s wrong with this?” Leona looked down at the jeans and t-shirt she’d chosen to wear instead of her uniform. It was comfortable and functional, unlike the tailored blouse and pencil skirt her sister wore.

  “Tracy, you can bug her about that later. Come sit down, Leona! Steve, get her a pillow!” Her mother had her elbow now, and she guided her to the recliner that had been her father’s. “Honey, I’ve waited far too long to see that beautiful face of yours, and now I want to hear it all from your own lips. Tell us just what happened. Don’t leave out a single detail, now. We’ve got all the time in the world.”

  Leona sat, but her heart rose up in her throat. She knew this part would be coming. There was no getting out of it. It didn’t matter that she’d already recited it all to every doctor and officer who needed it for their paperwork on her way home. It didn’t matter that it was the most terrifying thing to ever happen in her life. They wanted to know. It was part of their story now. She knew they would need to hear it, and at least if she recited it now for everyone to hear, she’d only have to do it once.

  But as she looked around to see all those expectant faces, her tongue froze to the roof of her mouth. Leona could easily see it all once again right before her eyes. She could give them every tiny gruesome detail, from the almost inaudible click that told her she’d made a life-altering mistake to the deafening roar of the IED as it shoved against gravity. There was even that unmistakable blackness as she’d been thrown several yards away, the ringing in her ears, the way the soldiers around her were hustling with alarm even though Leona hadn’t quite figured out what had happened. She’d been stunned and confused, watching the action passively for a long moment while she’d tried to understand what the problem was. After that, of course, was when the pain and shock had begun rippling through her body, torturing her even as the medics rushed to the scene. She could still see their faces, their brows wrinkled as they worked on her.

  It was all there, and still just as clear as if it’d happened a moment ago, but she couldn’t say it. It was too much. Instead, Leona forced a smile. “Maybe a little later, Mom? I’m pretty tired from my flight.”

  “Of course, darling! Steve, get her some coffee! Do you want some cake? We got you a beautiful cake.” Mrs. Kirk gestured at the coffee table.

  Leona recognized the confection as coming from Larry’s Cake Castle, the local bakery and her mother’s destination for weddings, funerals, baby showers, and birthdays. The frothy buttercream frosting looked disgustingly sweet, and it made her stomach churn, but even that was better than regurgitating all the particulars of her incident. “Is it chocolate?”

  “I wouldn’t think to order anything else! Steve, cut the cake!” Her mother bustled forward to find the cake knife and fuss over whether the paper plates she’d bought were sturdy enough.

  The next half an hour was a blur of noise and happy faces. Leona did her bes
t to appease her mother, knowing just how important this was for her, but it was all too much. It was when she saw her uncle’s solemn face at the back of the room, the subtle gesture with his head toward the hallway, that she finally saw her chance for escape.

  “Excuse me for just a minute,” she murmured as her mother blabbed on to her second cousin about all the medals Leona had earned. She slipped from the chair—with no assistance from Steve this time—and down the hall, spotting her uncle’s form just as it disappeared through the door to the study.

  She followed him inside and shut the door behind them, grateful for the peace and quiet. She breathed in the scent of her father’s study, which had remained unchanged for as long as she could remember. The brown shag carpeting and wood paneling were leftovers from a trend that had died out long ago, but her father had used it to his advantage. He’d filled the room with overstuffed leather furniture, sports and military memorabilia, and even a mounted deer head that his father had killed during a hunting trip.

  “Looks like someone’s still keeping the liquor cabinet full.” Her uncle was rooting around in the solid wood cabinet in the corner behind the heavy oak desk where her father used to sit and pay the bills every month.

  “Mom said she does it because she wants to honor his memory, but I think she really just likes to throw back a shot of whiskey every now and then.” She sank down onto the couch, the leather cool against her heated skin.

  “Can’t say I blame her. Want some?” He rose with a bottle in one hand and his eyebrow arched.

  “Damn right I do.” She gladly accepted the glass of amber liquid he handed her a moment later, trying to remember the last time she’d taken a drink. “I haven’t done this in forever. I didn’t want it to interfere with my military ambitions. I guess that’s down the drain now.”

  Her uncle perched on the edge of the desk with his own glass and gave her that same somber look he always had. Like her father, nothing ruffled him. “You taking it all in okay?”

  That was at least a different version of what everyone else was constantly asking her, and she knew that her uncle at least partially understood. He’d served ten years before retiring after his older brother’s death. “Well, Sarge, that’s yet to be seen. I have a lot to figure out, and having a house full of people doesn’t make it much easier.”

  He watched the whiskey in his glass for a moment. “You should be glad this is all it is. Gena was going to rent out the community hall and invite the whole damned town. Your mother thought you deserved a hero’s welcome.”

  “That would’ve gone over well,” Leona sighed as she rubbed the leg that shouldn’t be there. It hadn’t been there just a couple of weeks ago when she’d taken that one wrong step. It was only by taking on her lion form that she’d been able to heal, but of course the general population wouldn’t understand how she could’ve magically grown her leg back. It would’ve been more than awkward to explain. The new skin was still pink and tender, the bones still figuring out how to support her, but that was a battle that only someone like herself would understand.

  “You can’t really blame her. You know she was never happy about your dream of following in your father’s footsteps. She thought all that was over with, but no. You gave her several more years’ worth of sleepless nights.” Sarge knocked back his drink and poured himself another.

  “And if I had it my way, there would be many more years of them.” Leona loved her mother with all her heart, but she wasn’t going to let anyone tell her what to do. Except, of course, for the Army. “Hey, don’t look at me like that. It’s my life, and I was made for the service.”

  “You going to try to get a desk job?” her uncle asked. “I’m sure there are plenty of them.”

  Leona sighed and ran one hand through her hair. She still had her blonde locks pulled tightly back into a low bun. Her honorable discharge meant she could wear it any way she wanted now, but old habits would be hard to break. “Hell no. I can’t just sit around. That’s not me.”

  “It never has been,” Sarge agreed with a smile. “I remember when I had to get you down from that tree in the back yard. Or when you joined so many after-school activities that you were almost never home for dinner. Or when you wanted to save that old tree at the park—”

  “Yeah, yeah. I get it. I’ve always been a pain in the ass,” Leona laughed.

  “Yes, but you’re one of my favorite pains in the ass,” he joked back. “Really, though. What are you going to do now?”

  Leona looked down resentfully at her leg. If she’d been human, it wouldn’t have been there. The IED would’ve gotten rid of it, and the doctors would’ve sewn her up, fitted her with a prosthetic, and sent her home. But she wasn’t, and neither was the medic who’d attended to her in the field. He was a shifter as well, and he’d forged her way back home. No one was going to understand how a leg that hadn’t been there could suddenly be there again, and so she couldn’t do anything but lie about it.

  “When I enlisted, I was so excited to be a part of something bigger than myself,” she said quietly. “I wanted to make Dad proud. And I can’t lie: I wanted those medals, too. I wanted to see new things. Do new things—maybe even things no one else had done before. I had such big plans, but now I don’t know what I’m going to do with myself. Anything with the Army is out, and I hate that.” She felt the sting of tears again, but this time, they weren’t the tears of joy from seeing her family gathered in the living room.

  “Yeah, I’ve been thinking about that. The first thing you need to do is take some time for yourself, Leona. I know that’s hard for you, but you deserve it. Take a vacation. Go to the beach or the mountains or wherever suits you. Do what makes you happy without worrying about anyone else. Then, when you’re ready to come back, I might have an idea for you.”

  She felt the spark in her own eyes as she looked up at him, something that she hadn’t felt for weeks. “Tell me.”

  “When you get back,” Sarge insisted.

  Leona pursed her lips and tipped her head. “Come on! You can’t leave me hanging like that. At least give me something to think about while I’m on this vacation.”

  “A vacation you’ll never take if you think there’s a better option,” her uncle pointed out. “All right. Fine. Have you heard of the SOS Force?”

  “Can’t say that I have.”

  Sarge put the lid on the whiskey bottle and replaced it in the cabinet. “They’re an elite troop of shifters who are called in to handle serious gripes between clans, and they serve the whole country. It’s a small force, but all of them are Special Ops.”

  Her heart and stomach bounced off each other in excitement. “Are you kidding me? That’s perfect! How do I get a hold of them?”

  Sarge straightened. “I don’t know all the details, but I’ve got a phone number.”

  “That’s fantastic! I’ll take it down and go from there.” Her skin prickled with anticipation at the thought. A military team that served the shifter community was the perfect place for her. No one there would question her injury.

  “I know you’ll do great,” Sarge agreed, putting his arm around her shoulders as they headed for the door of the study. “And Leona?”

  “Yes?” She looked up into his long face. Age had been getting a hold of him. There were wrinkles around his eyes and mouth that she didn’t remember seeing there before.

  “Your father would be very proud of you.”

  She pressed her lips together for a moment. “Thanks, Sarge.”

  2

  Hudson rocked back in his desk chair, looking away from his computer and out the window. He hadn’t even noticed the hours passing as he’d worked, but that was part of what had made him so successful. When he rested, he rested thoroughly. When he worked, he didn’t know how to stop himself.

  His company, Taylor Communications, certainly reflected his work ethic. He’d heard all the headlines about it being the fastest-growing tech company on the market, the ratings touting it as one of t
he best places to work, and the accolades from world leaders about his efforts to spread technology to less developed parts of the world. Those honors reached far past any goals he’d set for himself when he’d first decided to get into the business, but still he knew there was something missing.

  But, upon checking his watch, he knew he’d have to think about it another time. He was already late. Hudson rose from his desk and headed out the door. The rest of the floor was already empty, his secretaries and assistants having already left for the day to return to their families. No one was there to see him take the express elevator down to the lobby, hop in his car, and speed across town.

  The building that housed the SOS Force’s headquarters was much different than his own company’s business. A squat concrete building on the edge of Washington, D.C., it could’ve passed for a small warehouse or maybe an attorney’s office. The only thing that really would’ve given its true identity away was the heavy security in the form of electronic locks that required both retinal scans and fingerprints. He and the others had added a bit of extra protection in the form of a parking garage in the basement so none of their cars would be recognized out in the open.

  The other three were already there, their cars in their spots. Even Drake, who’d been in the process of moving, was in attendance. Hudson knew he’d better get his ass into the conference room.

  “There you are,” Flint said from his seat. His feet were on the table and his fingers were clasped behind his head, looking smug at not being the last to arrive for once.

  “I got a little tangled up at work,” Hudson said as he grabbed a bottle of water out of the fridge and sat. “I’ve been working hard on this whole issue of getting cell service to some really remote areas of the Middle East. You know me; I just got started and I didn’t stop.”