Page 19 of Shift of Heart (Shifter Lords #1)

Chapter

Fourteen

I ’d just brushed the last of the discarded leaves into the trashcan when the front window shattered, glass exploding into fine powdered dust. I threw my hands up in defense, the glass shredding my arms into ribbons. Pain tore through my limbs, and a scream tore from my throat.

A massive dark figure sailed through the window, one moment a wolf, the next an angry, furious man. Blood dripped from my arms onto the floor, the only thing that could betray my nature, but Caelan was too pissed off to notice.

He stalked toward me with a predator’s grace, any touch of gray gone from his eyes. Golden light enveloped the room, his gaze honed on me.

“Why?” His voice was a low, graveled snarl. “Have I done something to you, Evie Quinn?”

I stayed behind the massive wooden work table, even as I knew it wouldn’t stop Caelan if he wanted to reach me. He kept walking, slow and measured steps.

“Yes,” I said simply.

His head cocked in a quick, even movement, an alien gesture that sent terror rolling down my spine. “Do tell,” he rasped.

“I told you no multiple times, and you refused to listen to me.”

He stopped on the other side of my work table and took a deep breath.

One of his hands reached out, grasped the underside of the table, and flipped it into the air, sending it sailing into a display.

Shattering ceramics and glass were the only sounds at first, followed by my soft breath of dismay.

Suffering filled my senses, plants dying, their stems and roots damaged beyond repair.

I swallowed down my fear. “You’re going to pay for that.”

“Bill me,” he snarled. Caelan was less than a foot away from me, glorious in his nudity, though I was too scared to admire his virility because I was pretty sure he was about to murder me. Even so, I couldn’t pull the trigger on those other plants, shockingly undamaged.

I didn’t back up. Why would I? He’d just keep following me. Instead, he reached for me and picked me up, massive hands spanning my waist, his fingers tipped in deadly claws. I gasped in surprise as he walked me back until I was crushed against the wall and Caelan’s body.

A memory assailed me.

Pounding music, my broken heart, a handsome man with an accent made for seduction.

A liaison in the woods for a picnic the next time and a shift in the air.

Finn was his name, a temporary distraction from my wounded soul and ruined life, until he picked up my scent away from the crush of hundreds of bodies in that club and changed into something I hadn’t even seen in nightmares.

Then the claws and teeth and pain and violation came until I was a ruined husk under the Inverness stars. I remembered the grass feeling like a soft blanket as my lifeblood pumped into the earth, and even the flowers couldn’t save me as the creature’s magic ravaged through my veins.

“Evie.”

From a horrific divorce to a brutal assault, then death in a stunning countryside, it was about par for the course during that time of my life. And all I remembered was his hands and his breath, and the split of my skin when his claws raked through my stomach.

“EVIE!” Caelan’s roar shattered the memory.

My magic erupted.

Crimson magic flung the Shifter Lord away, his hands violently ripped from my waist.

“No.” My voice was a ruined bark as the shift came on. Claws extended from my fingers and toes, ripping through my sandals. I pointed a hand at Caelan. “GET OUT.”

But the Shifter Lord’s eyes were on my face as a crimson glow shaded the room in a wash of bloody light.

“What are you?” he breathed.

“GET. OUT.” I flung my hands out and sent the Shifter Lord flying once more.

His bark of surprise was cut off as he hit the outside concrete with a loud crack.

I spun and ran to the back, snatching my purse and car keys. Magic sizzled in my veins as I fought with everything to deny my shift. I slipped on broken glass and went down hard, cursing through elongated fangs. My shirt hung in tatters, and my pants were ripped right down the side seam.

A broken sob escaped me as I staggered to my feet.

The sound of crunching glass made me freeze. “Evie.”

My shoulders slumped. “Don’t make me kill you, Caelan.”

He huffed a sharp breath. “Let me help you.”

I ignored him and bolted through the back door, my speed enhanced by magic and fury. It took me three times to open my car door, and when I got in, I hissed as glass smashed against the seat and my bare legs. When the car started, headlights illuminated Caelan’s bloodied, naked figure.

I squealed out of the parking lot just as sirens sounded from several blocks down.

My entire body shook. Blood poured from dozens of wounds, and a stray thought about being forced to reupholster my car’s interior brought a surprised chuckle.

I was caught in a half-shift and would stay that way until morning. I’d found no way around that particular quirk of my magic. When the Chimera shift started, if I didn’t allow it to finish, I’d be stuck this way until dawn.

My cell rang.

I fished through my purse and glanced down at the screen.

Moira.

“Not a good time,” I growled.

“Shut up and listen,” she said urgently.

I stilled.

“Police are crawling all over the shop. They’re looking for you. Caelan is speaking with them.”

“How do you know?” I stopped at a red light and let my eyes flutter shut.

“I’m watching from the shadows. This is bad, Evie. Really bad.”

“We’ll deal with it.” My words sounded garbled. The fangs. I hated the fangs.

“How?” Moira whispered.

“We’ll talk tomorrow. Can you have Ash call the repairman out? The window needs repairing tonight if he can. The entire thing is shattered.” I cursed under my breath when I realized I’d left those plants out. If anyone touched them…

A flash of darkness streaked by the window. I whipped my head around but saw nothing.

“Evie?”

“I promise we’ll deal with it.”

“Caelan is gone, but the police are leaving.” She exhaled a heavy breath. “I’m not sure what he did, but he might have saved our asses.” Moira paused. “Or condemned us.”

I let out a half-hysterical laugh. “We’ll see if I’m still alive tomorrow.”

“Evie.”

“I have to go. Tell Ash and Tess to take the day off. You too.”

Moira sighed. “I love you. Do you need me to come?”

“No!” I pinched the space between my brows. “I’m sorry. No. I’m okay. Just rattled.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Moira—”

“No arguing.” She hung up before I could do just that.

The ride home was agonizing. I should go to the hospital simply to have someone pick the countless shards of glass from my skin I couldn’t reach, but it would bring too many questions. My body had already healed over the smaller ones.

I thought about calling Moira back, but it was late, and all I wanted was to be alone. The drive home wasn’t far, but it felt like hours. When I finally dragged myself into the house, I went straight to the bathroom. I’d get what glass I could reach and worry about the rest tomorrow.

Moira always wanted to help. Maybe I could get her to pick the rest of the glass from my skin.

Freshly showered and with most of the glass gone, I sat down on the edge of the bed and took my first deep breath since Caelan flew into my shop. He’d taken me by surprise, and I wasn’t sure why I was surprised by that.

“I need to get out more,” I muttered through enormous fangs. The only social outings I had were with Moira, Ash, and Tess. Assuming I’d known how Caelan would behave was profoundly dumb of me.

And now I had a destroyed shop and a pissed off Shifter Lord on my tail.

Sighing, I rubbed my hands over my face.

I’d get up early and head to the shop to see the damage during the daylight.

But first there was one more thing I needed to do.

Shifting into my original dual form would help push the worst of the rest of the glass out and keep me from trying to fall asleep in this half form.

Right now, I had massive lion fangs, sporadic patches of hair all over my body, and claws on my fingers and toes.

Not to mention an extreme craving for bloody meat.

The meat would have to wait. All I had in the fridge were a couple of packets of yogurt and some granola stuffed in the pantry.

I focused on my inherent magic, allowing it to wash over me.

Soothing earth magic rolled over my body, and I sighed as the feeling of soft winds and blue skies tingled against my skin.

A few moments later, my mass shrank, and my human form faded away, leaving me sitting alone on the bed in wren form.

I asked my mother once why I was a Fairy wren instead of a regular brown one, and she scoffed and said, “Darling, the fae does nothing halfway. Why be brown when you can be all the shades of the sky?”

Once I fell asleep, nothing would wake me until the Chimera magic faded away.

I hopped onto the windowsill and pushed the blinds aside with my beak.

Nothing suspicious leapt out at me, but I stayed there for a couple of minutes to see if Caelan had followed me home.

In this form, he could pop me into his mouth like an hors d’oeuvre and I’d be helpless to stop him.

Time was more difficult to fathom in this form, but I stayed on the windowsill for a while until I was satisfied no one lurked outside.

I nudged the blinds back into place and flitted over to the little basket I kept on my dresser, outfitted with a soft blanket and a small bowl of fresh water.

Ruffling my feathers, I shook a few more pieces of glass out of my feathers and settled down to sleep.

Exhaustion settled into my fragile bones, and it didn’t take long until I was swept away into a deep, healing sleep.