Page 21 of Shifter and the Succubus (The Pack #1)

Jason walked across the hangar bay toward the small group of people congregated by the jet. Misha, Kyle, and Jean Luc greeted him as he dropped the duffel at his feet.

“I wasn’t expecting a big send-off, especially since we’ll only be gone a day or two.”

Misha shrugged. “We just wanted to wish you well. I wish I could go with you.”

Jason smiled before slapping him on the back. “I know, big guy, but what if Callie goes into labor? I would never forgive myself if you missed your baby’s birth.”

“Mish is an expert at delivering babies. Although he seems to panic when it comes to Callie. So we’ll keep an eye on both of them,” Kyle said. “And we’ll keep working on the smuggler case.”

Jean Luc stepped forward. “I hope that your discussion with your parents goes well.”

“It doesn’t hurt that you get to spend some quality time with Sabrina either,” Misha said.

Jason narrowed his eyes at him, and Misha held up his hands. “I know. You both agreed to be just friends. Doesn’t mean you can’t get to know her better while you’re traveling. We’ll need to take a trip sometime—a road trip—and maybe check out diners across the US!”

Kyle shook her head. “Slow your roll, Thelma. You can plan a trip with Louise another time.”

Misha chuckled as Sabrina walked up to them.

“Sorry if I’m late.”

“Father’s pilot is ready to go when you are,” Misha said.

They finished their goodbyes, and Jason and Sabrina got settled on the plane. Within minutes they were out of the hangar and on the runway.

Once in the air, Jason rolled his shoulders to loosen them.

“How are you feeling?”

He was sick of that question. “Haven’t needed to be tranquilized in the past twenty-four hours if that’s what you mean.”

“I meant how are you feeling about seeing your parents again and talking to them about being adopted?”

He sighed. “That I need to know the truth, and I should have talked to them long before this.”

Sabrina shrugged. “There is no timeline for you working through your emotions. But I think it will be good for you to finally know the truth.”

He sat back and let the hum of the plane fill the silence.

After a while Sabrina spoke up again. “When was the last time you were home?”

“I haven’t been home since I found out I am part shifter and adopted. I call on the phone and we talk, but I haven’t been able to face them.” He grimaced. “Childish, I know.”

“You were just trying to get a grasp on your new normal. Tell me about your childhood.”

Jason thought about it for a moment. “Good overall. I remember playing outside a lot. Growing up on a dairy farm is hard work. I helped my parents with chores and milkings, but they also insisted that I got involved in sports and other things at school when I wanted. They didn’t expect me to work sunup till sundown on the farm. ”

“Were they surprised when you wanted to go into the military?”

“Dad somewhat. Mom, not so much. She always called me her little explorer growing up.”

“And they weren’t upset about you not following in their footsteps?”

Jason’s chest tightened. He had been more upset about it than they had. The guilt he felt never fully went away. Peanuts really, compared to the guilt he felt about what he had done to Misha, Kyle, and Dalton. He seemed to be plagued with that emotion on a daily basis.

Sabrina looked at him with her all-knowing stare. “You don’t have to tell me. I’m sorry if I’ve said something to upset you.”

He shook his head. “You haven’t. My father never pressured me to take over the farm.

My grandfather had assumed that my father would take over the farm and, from what Mom told me, laid a lot of guilt at Dad’s feet.

He swore he would never do the same to me.

I wonder sometimes if Dad had something else that he wanted to do with his life.

He and Mom love each other and always tell me they’re happy, but I still think, what if? ”

“It sounds like your parents are pretty wonderful.”

He blinked. “They are and I know they love me…”

“Which makes it hard to understand why they would keep your adoption a secret.”

How did she always know what he wanted to say before he could get the words out? “Exactly. I just can’t imagine why they wouldn’t tell me. And how did a part-shifter baby end up adopted by human dairy farmers in Wisconsin anyway?”

“Maybe no one knew you were shifter. We don’t know what happened to your biological parents.”

Which made it all the more imperative for him to get the truth from them.

And he was not looking forward to that conversation.

“I don’t know how I’m going to even ask.

It’s not like I can tell them the truth of how I found out I was adopted.

I don’t think telling them the leader of the Shifter Nation smelled shifter in my blood and decided to have me investigated is going to go over well. ”

Sabrina smiled. “True. I’m sure you’ll think of something. Do you know their blood types?”

Jason groaned. “I do, and I can’t believe I didn’t think of that before. Mom had a file with all their medical info in case we had an emergency. Dad’s is O positive and Mom’s is B negative. I’m A negative, which means I can’t be their son.”

“When was your blood type matched?”

“In the Army.”

“You can’t blame yourself for not thinking about that connection, Jason. But that at least can be your reason for asking your questions.”

She had become his voice of reason. His touchstone. “Thank you. For everything. You keep saving my ass, Sabrina. I don’t know how to repay you.”

“You don’t need to repay anything. We’re friends. Teammates. You have a found family with the team.”

“I know and it’s hard to believe after what I did.” Cue guilt again.

“The only person who is still holding on to that is you. You were trying to fight against evil. You just needed to understand that not all supes fall into that category.”

Jason sighed. “I still feel like I have a lot to make up for. And now I’m causing trouble again.”

Sabrina grabbed his hand. “You are not causing trouble. We’re going to figure this out.”

The warmth of her hand on his distracted him, but he didn’t want to call attention to it for fear she would move it. There was something so right about them touching. She had touched him in the past, but in her role as a doctor. Even if she was only trying to comfort him, this was different.

And so much better.

Yes, he knew that they couldn’t be together, but he could forget about things for a moment.

Sabrina lifted her hand. Had she read something in his expression that made her back off?

“I know we can’t be together. I’m a bad bet, especially since I can’t control whatever is happening to me.”

Sabrina scowled. “That isn’t the reason we can’t be together.”

Jason turned to face her. “Wait. What do you mean?”

Her expression closed down. “I don’t mean anything.”

His heart sped up. “That’s a load of crap, Doc. The way you said that means there is a reason why we can’t be together. I thought you didn’t want to be with me, but it feels like it’s more than that.”

She didn’t say anything for a bit, and Jason thought she might not answer him, which didn’t help his thumping heart.

“Did Misha walk you through his Demon 101 slideshow presentation?”

Where had that question come from? “Yeah. He explained the twelve demon clans on earth and then when the five realm demon clans started moving here, he trained me on them as well.”

“What did he tell you about Succubi?”

“Not much. You absorb energy during sex. And you are the only Succubus he’s ever met.”

“Succubi, or you will also sometimes hear Incubi used for males of my clan, can eat and drink, but our true sustenance is from energy. Most of that energy comes from sex. Over the centuries we’ve established rules to follow to keep others safe.

We do not take energy from someone who is unwilling.

We gain energy from humans and other demons.

Vampires are not compatible with us for energy exchanges and should be a last resort. ”

“And shifters?”

She hesitated again. “Shifter energy is very powerful. So powerful that it can become addictive or cause a Succubus to take too much. As a rule, Succubi do not have sex with shifters.”

Jason blew out a hard breath. “So I wasn’t imagining things. I thought you might have feelings for me, and then after we found out I was part shifter, you backed away from me. I thought it was because you didn’t want to deal with a mutt who probably would never have any shifter powers.”

Sabrina shook her head. “That isn’t the case. It was to protect you.”

His world tipped sideways. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“You were so angry when you first found out you were shifter. You didn’t want anything to do with the pack or Kyle because they had kept the truth from you. I didn’t want to pile that on top of what you were dealing with.”

“So why tell me now?” Jason pushed.

“Because you’re embracing your shifter side, and I don’t want you to ever think there is anything wrong with you. That you wouldn’t be enough for me. I won’t let you believe that.”

His heart deflated. “Except there is something wrong with me. It would be one thing if I didn’t ever show any shifter powers. Instead I have something taking over my consciousness. What if I hurt someone?”

She reached for his hand again. “We’re going to figure this out. I won’t stop until we do. Hopefully we’ll learn something from your parents to help us.”

He concentrated for a moment on her fingers tangling with his. His heart trying to beat again. But it wasn’t so simple, not after what Sabrina had just told him. And he needed clarification. “Going forward, you will be honest with me, right?”

“Yes.”

Her scent swirled around him, sandalwood front and center with other notes in the background.

“You wouldn’t go out with me or see if our relationship could have become more because I’m part shifter and you aren’t allowed to be with a shifter.”

“Correct.”

“So you like me,” he said rather than asked. He couldn’t stop the smirk he sported whenever he gave her a hard time. And damn how he needed her to say the words.

And she couldn’t keep the playfulness out of her baby-blue eyes. “I do, you arrogant male.”

He chuckled on the outside while doing cartwheels on the inside.

She never shied away from giving it right back to him.

And even though he had a crap ton of hurdles blocking his way, he knew his attraction wasn’t one-sided.

Feeling her hand in his, even if that was all they could ever do, was enough to move forward.