Page 47 of Shifter and the Succubus (The Pack #1)

Sabrina’s heart thumped in her chest as Lucas rushed down the hall toward her. His face was devoid of color, and his always stoic expression had melted away.

Her heart raced and she felt sick to her stomach. It was bad news. It had to be. He was going to tell her the Fade had progressed quicker than they could have imagined. She wanted more time. Pretty selfish of her given she had lived for over a thousand years. But she wanted to be with Jason.

Lucas stopped in front of her and sucked in a breath.

“Just tell me. It’s bad news.”

Lucas shook his head and held up his tablet. “The opposite. When I checked your energy earlier, it felt normal. And the marker, it’s gone.”

She had to have misheard him. “What?”

“I ran the test four times: there is no gene degeneration, and your blood work looks good.”

She pulled in a shaky breath. “I don’t understand how this could have happened.”

Lucas smiled. She hadn’t seen a smile from her brother in over a century. “I don’t either, but you’re healthy.”

Joy burst from her, and she immediately wanted to tell Jason. “I need to find—”

Alarms sounded. Now what?

“What’s that?” Lucas said.

“It’s the compound alarms. It signals to find shelter.”

Bea rushed out of Callie’s room. “What’s going on?”

Sabrina’s phone rang and she flipped on the speaker. “What’s wrong, Boris?”

“We’re back by the lake. It’s Jason. He shifted and Griffin is here trying to keep him calmed down and get him away from Kyle and the twins. Come now.”

“I’ll stay here and keep everyone else calm,” Lucas added.

Sabrina and Bea ran out the back entrance of the hospital to the park.

Kyle had both the boys by their collars as they stood trapped on the deck. Boris directed people away from the park, and Griffin slowly approached Jason. But instead of his human form, a large cougar paced along the bank of the lake. Like Jessica. He was magnificent.

Sabrina took a careful step toward Jason. Energy pulsed from the cat, and she recognized it. He swung his head in her direction and roared.

Sabrina threw her arms up, and energy blossomed outward like a giant blue bubble swirling around Kyle and the twins. Sabrina’s heart stuttered. She had no idea how she expended that amount of energy, but she wasn’t going to worry about that now.

Sabrina. It’s me. Jason’s voice echoed in her head.

Griffin held up his hand as if to stop her from coming closer. “Let me talk to him and see if he understands me.”

“He does,” Sabrina said as Jason continued to talk to her.

“How do you know that?” Griffin said.

She tapped a finger to her head. “I can hear him. It’s Jason. He’s confused on how to change back.”

Griffin’s eyes widened in shock, and he looked at his sister.

“What?” Sabrina asked.

“We’ve never seen someone who can communicate telepathically with our animals,” Bea said.

“Jason, I’m going to change into my animal so that you can sense me turning back, okay?” Griffin said.

Jason nodded at the same time Sabrina heard him say yes in her head.

Griffin pulled off his clothes and crouched down, shifting quickly into his lion.

“Woah!” the twins exclaimed.

Griffin padded over to Jason, who sat down. They butted their noses together, and Griffin lay down next to him.

“What’s he doing?” Sabrina asked.

“Getting Jason to calm down. It’s hard to change back if you’re upset,” Bea said.

Misha rushed up and gaped at the energy dome over the twins and Kyle. Sabrina dropped the shield, and he went over and gathered the boys up and carried them away even though they protested loudly.

Kyle walked over to them. “Mish is taking the boys back to the hospital. He’s going to bring back something for Jason to wear since his clothes are a shredded mess.”

“What happened?” Sabrina asked.

“We were walking around the lake, and he stopped suddenly and said that you were upset. He was trying to get to you when he started to change. I grabbed the boys and tried to get away until he roared, so we stood still, the boys actually listening to me, until help arrived. Cats love the chase. I didn’t want him to come after us. ”

“Were you upset a few minutes ago?” Bea asked.

She had been upset when she saw Lucas. He could feel that? “Yeah, I was.”

Bea looked between Sabrina and Jason. “So he is linked to you too.”

“What’s the deal with that big-ass energy bubble, Sabrina? I didn’t know you were that powerful,” Kyle said.

“I didn’t either. I’ve never wielded that amount of energy before.”

“What are you thinking, Bea?” Kyle asked.

“I’m not sure yet. We might know better once Jason shifts back and we can talk to him.”

Griffin sat up and started to change very slowly, his feline body pulling and turning back to human. A minute later energy pulsed toward her again as Jason transitioned back into his human form.

Sabrina rushed over to him. “Are you okay?”

Jason rested his hands on either side of her face. “I’m okay. You were upset. What’s wrong? Did Lucas have bad news?”

Sabrina yanked off her doctor coat and handed it to him. “I was upset. But it ended up being good news.”

He pulled it on and then held her at arm’s length so he could look at her. “Tell me.”

“Lucas ran the tests. The marker for the Fade is gone.”

Bea and Kyle gasped at the same time Jason pulled her close and held on. She could feel Jason trembling. “It’s okay.” She looked up at him as tears ran down his face.

Kyle was crying too, and Bea looked close to joining them. The two of them backed away and motioned for Griffin and Boris, who had headed their way, to give the two of them a moment of privacy.

“How is it possible?” Jason choked out.

Sabrina blinked back her own tears. “I don’t know, but I’ll take it.”

“Me too.”

“I love you, Jason Watson.”

“And you’re my reason for breathing, Sabrina Miller.”

The hospital waiting room was packed again with the same large and colorful cast of characters as before.

Instead of waiting to hear about the arrival of a baby, they were waiting for news on Sabrina and Jason.

Lucas had taken more blood from both of them, and had Lela come and read their energy as well.

Now Lela and Lucas were having a conversation about the results in the lab, so Sabrina took Jason’s hand and led him out of the exam room.

“Where are we going?” Jason asked.

“To the waiting room. Lucas might as well share the news with everyone.” She hoped that everything was still okay and she wasn’t setting herself up for heartbreak.

That for some reason the Fade marker was still there or Jason’s blood work would show the issues he had before.

But either way they needed to be with their friends and family when they got the news.

Everyone looked up at them with varying degrees of concern. “We don’t know anything yet. So we thought we would join you all out here,” Jason said.

“Of course,” Irina said, shooing Boris and Alexander out of their seats so that Sabrina and Jason could sit down.

Sabrina bit the inside of her cheek to keep from laughing that Irina was already bossing Alexander around. Even though Irina looked like she could be Xan’s grandmother, they were pretty much the same age.

“I told Misha and Callie they could go home with the baby.”

Irina patted her hand. “We know. But they are taking their time leaving since they want to be here for you both.”

Jean Luc looked down the hallway. “Lucas and Lela are coming this way. I will go get Misha.” Jean Luc disappeared, using his vampire speed to go to Callie’s hospital room. A moment later, Jean Luc reappeared again, and heavy footsteps came down the hall as Misha joined them.

Everyone stood as Lucas came to a stop in front of them and Sabrina held her breath. “I have checked Sabrina’s blood work again. The marker is definitely gone.”

Jason wrapped his arm around her shoulder and squeezed.

Lela spoke up. “When I examined Sabrina, I saw healthy energy, not the darkness I saw before.”

“What about Jason?” Sabrina asked.

Lucas nodded. “I just looked at his newest blood work. The earlier issues he had have not returned. And what is even more strange is the mutations to his shifter DNA strand are gone.”

Sabrina’s heart raced at the announcement.

Jason gaped at him. “How is this possible?”

Lucas scratched his chin. “I don’t know how any of this is possible. Sabrina is cured of the Fade and you have the powers of a full shifter.”

“Come along everyone,” Boris said. “If we are going to have a strategy session on this, we need something to write on.”

Only Boris would call this a strategy session. They headed down the hall into the conference room and sat around the table with a few people leaning against the wall. Sabrina looked at her teammates, the Shamat clan who had practically adopted her as their own, and Lucas and Alexander.

“Lucas, do you want to lead the discussion?” Irina asked, holding up a marker.

Lucas nodded and took the marker from her and walked up to the whiteboard that covered the front wall. He wrote — Fade cured on one side of the whiteboard and DNA cured on the other with the word HOW circled in the middle.

“And it can’t be a coincidence that they were both cured at the same time,” Misha said.

“So would that mean that they were both exposed to something that cured them?” Jean Luc asked.

“One would think,” Lucas answered. “I had tested one drug on Sabrina a week ago, but it didn’t appear to work, and even if the response had been delayed, it doesn’t explain how Jason’s mutation has corrected itself.

” He put the lid back on the marker and tapped it against his chin. “You did exchange energy last night.”

“But didn’t Sabrina giving Jason energy cure him to begin with?” Talia asked.

“Yes. But that was one sided and not sexual in nature.” Lucas turned to Sabrina and Jason. “Last night was the first time you had sex, correct? The first time you had a combined exchange of energy?”

“Yes,” Sabrina said as Jason stiffened beside her. Her poor man turned an interesting shade of red as Lucas wrote sex on the board and then shifter energy .

Sabrina shook her head at Kyle and Misha, who both looked like they were ready to pop.

“Well good for you, dears!” Irina announced.

And the dam broke as laughs rippled around the room. Even Jason smiled. He leaned over and whispered in her ear, “We can make a run for it and head to a deserted island, just the two of us.”

The laughs finally died down and Kyle piped up, “Don’t forget they have some sort of mind meld thing going on now.”

Lucas’s eyebrows rose, but he nodded and wrote mind meld on the board.

“Tell us more about that,” Bea said.

“I could feel that Sabrina was upset about something, and when I tried to go to her, my animal took over.”

“And when I got close to Jason’s cougar, I could hear his thoughts,” Sabrina added.

Kyle leaned forward. “Spill what you’re thinking, Griffin and Bea. I can tell you have an idea.”

Griffin nodded at Bea to continue. “It might explain things. Stories from the dawn of shifters.”

“What type of stories?” Irina asked.

“About fated mates. Our animal and human side would meet our other half, and we would become one with the other.”

“I thought you said that was a myth, Bea?” Jason said.

She smiled. “I did. But it feels very real right now.”

“And what does that mean?” Sabrina asked, her head spinning.

Bea looked at Griffin before responding.

“We don’t know exactly. Whispers of more power, of control.

As shifters, we have been persecuted in the past, and so we hold our history close inside the packs.

But there was talk of special, united powers between fated mates.

Of being one mind and one heart. We will need to speak to the elders and see if they might have more information for us. ”

“So we could be fated mates?” Sabrina asked.

Griffin nodded. “Yes. I think so from what we’ve seen so far. If it is true, you healed each other and are connected now. And it could also mean that your powers will increase.”

“Like it did with your energy shield,” Kyle said.

Lucas set the marker down. “Fascinating. I will need to study you both. We’ll need more tests and blood work.”

“You are not watching us have sex,” Jason blurted.

Her poor, shy mate. Fated mate.

“I don’t need to. I can monitor you when you have a platonic energy exchange and take blood.” Lucas practically shook with excitement. “You know what this means, Rina.”

She smiled, not believing what she was about to say. “We might have a cure for the Fade.”

Griffin frowned. “You can’t force a fated mating with shifters to cure your people.”

“No,” Lucas said. “But we may not need a mating to recreate the cure. It could already be in Sabrina’s blood. She may hold the key to an antidote. I will need to stay for a while longer to do some more testing.”

Griffin folded his arms. “You can stay at the estate for now. But make no mistake. If you do anything to hurt my pack, I will not stand for it. Are we clear on that?”

Lucas looked him straight in the eye. “Of course.”

“This calls for a celebration!” Irina announced. “I have food at the house. Everyone needs to come over to eat.”

Of course she did. Jason wrapped his arms around Sabrina and hugged her tight before spinning her in a circle. Surrounded by all the people that mattered to them, she couldn’t think of anywhere she would rather be.

Although Jason’s suggestion of a deserted island with just the two of them sounded heavenly.