Page 1 of Shifters Unifying (Shifters Destiny: Willow Creek Shifters #2)

CHAPTER ONE

emma

Six-Mile Manor

Saturday

Late October

It’s Acheron.

That’s what the bearded ginger fox shifter, Jasper Sionnach, had said. He and Olivia Reeves, my mate’s right-hand woman, stood on the threshold to our bedroom, waiting expectantly.

“What?” I rasped.

“It’s Acheron,” Jasper repeated. Even the freckles across his cheeks and the bridge of his nose seemed to scream with the horror of it.

The words slammed into me, knocking the wind from my lungs and the lust from my mind. Had we really forgotten about everything since we’d locked ourselves in the bedroom? They’d warned me. Three more revelations sledged me in the chest.

Riley.

Shannon.

Oh, shit. My mom!

I turned to Olivia. “Do you know where my cell phone is? I should check in with my mom. She’s got to be worried that I haven’t given her an update… on anything.”

Olivia tucked a long strand of her blonde hair behind her ear, and her gray eyes flashed. She glanced to my fated mate, Logan Blackwood, the dark-haired alpha of Six-Mile Pack and the guy I’d just been fucking for basically three days straight.

Jasper took the tray of food from her while Logan swiped another chicken biscuit and shoved it into his mouth, munching noisily.

She stepped over the threshold and tucked her long blonde hair behind her ear before she answered. “It’s in the study.”

“Notifications?”

She winced. “A few.”

“More than a few, I’d bet,” I snapped. “Hopefully, they’re all okay.”

Olivia’s mouth twitched, but she didn’t answer.

Irritation burned through me, but it was from the compressed worry welling up and spilling over. I took a deep breath and blew it out in a slow stream.

“I’m sorry, Olivia,” I said. “None of this is your fault, and I don’t blame you.”

“Well, I do,” Logan barked, shoving a hand through his longish, dark hair, sending it sticking out in all directions. His bright blue eyes glittered with fury. “You know better than to interrupt fated mates.”

Olivia’s grey eyes flashed, and she rounded on the alphahole, brandishing her finger like a dagger. “And you know I wouldn’t have interrupted except for the very clear instructions I had been given before you two locked yourselves in the manor to fuck.”

I pressed my palm to Logan’s forearm and took a deep breath of his scent: smoked whiskey, fresh cut pines, and the spicy scent of high-dollar cigars.

So wild. So feral.

So mine.

At my touch, his stance changed, and he looked back at me, visibly trying to gain control of his anger. It was as though I could see his wolf self in my mind. The points of his ears drooped, and he sat back on his haunches.

“She wouldn’t have bothered us unless there was a big reason,” I said.

He grumbled something similar to an apology under his breath.

“How do you know it’s Acheron?” I asked.

“We’ve discovered a location at the border of our territory,” she said. “It stinks of him and his putrid magic.”

Logan frowned. “New? How did our patrols miss it?”

Olivia put her hands on her hips. “We think it’s newly visible.”

“Newly visible? Was it masked?” I asked.

“Magically,” she said. “Warded like our previous Gathering Place.”

“Then he has that magic, too,” I said. “Absorbed from the shifters he’s killed?”

“Likely,” Olivia said.

“Why expose it now?” Logan interjected.

Her mouth pinched, and a shadow crossed her face.

Jasper sighed but remained uncharacteristically silent.

“Fuck,” Logan snarled. “He wanted us to find it, to send a message.”

“We think so,” Olivia answered, and her eyes turned glassy with unshed tears. She paused to clear her throat. She was a badass, and it had to be bad for her to be bothered

“What’s there?” I demanded.

“Shifters,” she murmured. “All dead.”

Logan’s gaze narrowed. “How many?”

“A dozen.”

Logan slammed his fist into the wall before he threw his head back and howled, an anguished sound that reverberated through my chest.

I wanted to demand she tell me what they’d found, needed to push her to tell it all. Instead, I asked, “Anybody I know?”

“Nobody from town,” she bit out. “And they were probably thankful for death when it finally came.”

A shudder tripped down my spine, and cold chills danced over my skin. Three steps brought me to the threshold of the bedroom. “I have to check on my mom and Riley and Shannon.”

Logan stuck out his arm, blocking me from leaving the room. “You’re in no condition to see them. You’re naked, and you don’t have any idea how you’re going to explain any of this to your mother.”

Chewing my bottom lip, I glanced down at his arm across me, at my naked body, covered in bites, scratches, and a few bruises from our time in the bedroom. “I need to see them.”

Logan’s grasped my shoulders and turned me toward him. “You will. Get dressed, and we’ll go together.”

“Aye,” Jasper said. “You’ll get there, lass. But I’m afraid to tell ye, Acheron’s encampment isn’t the only reason we interrupted ye two. Another meeting of the alphas has been called. For today.”

“By who? Who dared?” Logan roared, and he pulled me hard against him.

Images of him licking and sucking every inch of my body tripped through my mind. Best sex of my life. Fucking good… Heat rushed between my thighs, and my breath caught. No, no, no… Focus, Emma. Now wasn’t the time to get lost in fated mating daydreams.

“Emma, don’t tempt me. So help me, I’ll drag you back to bed,” Logan growled, his gaze dropping to my bare breasts, his arousal clearly growing.

I knocked his hands away, stepped out of his reach, and crossed my arms over my chest. Fuck me.

Let me. His voice rumbled through my head. Be a good girl and let me.

Desire tripped down my spine and pooled between my legs. Shit.

I took another step back. The only way we were going to accomplish anything useful would be with space between us. Logan sighed and turned back to Jasper and Olivia.

“Who called the meeting?” he asked again.

“Torbin,” Olivia answered Logan. Her gaze flicked toward me, and she tipped her head as she studied me. “Torbin summoned the alphas to a new Gathering Place at the edge of Bear Trees.”

“Bear Trees?” I echoed.

“That’s the name of their territory and their clan.” Olivia leaned toward me and lowered her voice. “You have to go there before you can do anything else.”

My face scrunched. My mom had to be worried to death. She loved me as much as if she’d given birth to me. “Now? I have to go there now? What about my mom? I’ve got to get back to Willow Creek.”

Olivia shook her head. “No can do. You’re the declared multimorph, so your presence is necessary, and it’ll take over an hour to get over there.

It might be a good time to suggest a way to beat Acheron, and we don’t want to keep the others waiting.

” She paused. “If you have any good ideas, it’d be a great time to bring them. ”

“I hope ye have a good idea, lass,” Jasper added. “We need one.”

“Always comes back to that, doesn’t it?” I sighed, dropping my arms. “Unavoidable destiny. You know, if you’d told me six months ago that I’d have abandoned my practice in favor of this,” I gestured to the surrounding house, “I’d have told you to take a piss test for drugs.”

Logan said nothing, but the muscles in his jaw worked.

“I better get dressed,” I said.

“Modesty has no place among shifters,” Logan said, and he raked his smoldering gaze over me, setting my skin on fire.

I shot him a dark look and waved toward his already hard dick. “Well, I’ve got to do something about my being naked, or I’m going to have to do something about that.”

Jasper’s belly laugh ricochetted throughout the first floor of the alpha’s house. “Aye, she’s got ye there, lad. She’s got ye there.”

Logan stepped toward me and grabbed his dick. “You should do something about this. You are my mate.”

I caught my bottom lip between my teeth and dragged a breath in.

A buzz began in my ears, and his desire poured through our bond, fanning the flames of my own. I couldn’t think about anything but the feel of him inside me. Best lay of my life for the rest of my life, and I wanted to spend the rest of my life in our bedroom.

“Emma,” he growled. Every muscle in his body seemed to clench, as though he could hear my thoughts.

“We’ll be downstairs.” Olivia’s eyes twinkled, and she winked at me. “But you only get fifteen minutes to shower and get dressed and whatever else you’re going to do.”

“I can do a lot in fifteen minutes,” Logan muttered, moving toward the master bathroom. “Then we can shower and get ready, but not until I say so. I’m going to fuck you right.”

A shiver rolled through me, and his commanding tone threatened to buckle. Jasper hadn’t been kidding when he’d warned me about desire and fated mates. My thighs slicked against each other as I hurried after him.

But Olivia jogged around me and caught Logan’s wrist. “On second thought, you come with me, and I’ll show you where we found the formerly invisible encampment.

We’ve got maps out on your desk, and we have a little construction company business to address.

” She gestured for him to go ahead of her down the corridor toward the study.

“I will not,” he said.

“We don’t have time for you to get lost in the bedroom again,” she countered with a glare for Logan and another for me.

Logan’s shoulders drooped, but he didn’t argue. Instead, he trudged out with his metaphorical tail tucked between his legs. Regrettably.

It took a helluva lot to not run after him and drag him back to our shared lair.

However, I was in and out of the shower in ten minutes, dressed in a cropped top and black pants in another five.

I tossed a few things in a bag I found on the floor of Logan’s closet and slung it over my shoulder.

When I padded down the hallway, low voices still emanated from the study.

Logan sat behind his desk, clothed in a t-shirt, jeans and sneakers, while Olivia and Jasper studied a map on a laptop screen.

Olivia glanced up as I entered. She swiped my cell phone from the surface of the desk and handed it to me. “All charged and ready to go. Good to see you dressed.”

“I don’t share that sentiment,” Logan said as his gaze narrowed. He tipped his head to the side, mentally removing my clothes.

I quirked an eyebrow, but I didn’t respond. Couldn’t respond. The sex drive I had for him… My grip tightened on my phone.

“I never thanked you for fixing this,” I said to Olivia, glancing down at my cell. At least two dozen missed calls and so many texts. How did I start any of those calls? None of them were from Riley, and my heart cracked a little. She had to be okay.

“No problem,” Olivia said.

I opened a text message to my mother, trying to decide how to begin. Telling her about everything that’s happened via text isn’t something I want to do. Instead, I type Riley’s name in as the recipient.

Me: Hey, Riley. Checking in.

She didn’t respond immediately, so I opened a text to Shannon.

Me: Hey, girl. Checking in.

Shannon’s name and face immediately popped up on my caller ID. I lifted my phone and turn to the others. “I’m going to take this on the porch.”

Logan’s gaze cut toward me, and a dark lock of hair fell over his forehead, his stubble already visible. Every inch of him contained tightly coiled power, ready to spring at any moment. “You sure about that?”

“Shannon already saw me shift. I should at least let her know that I’m not dead after the kidnapping attempt.”

“Sounds good,” Olivia interjected. She touched Logan’s elbow. “Now what do you want to do about patrols?”

He bent his large, muscular frame back over the maps on his big desk in his giant library, and I appreciated the flex in his ass, briefly wondering if his ass muscles were sore post-mating.

He glanced back at me, and a grin spread across his face. “I’ve not fucked you enough yet to be sore. Are you?”

“No,” I breathed.

“Then I haven’t done my job well enough.”

I groaned. “I’m not going to get used to you hearing every damn thing in my head.”

“Not every damn thing,” he countered. “Just what concerns me.”

My phone stopped buzzing as Shannon’s call transferred to voicemail. “Stop distracting me, Logan. Please?”

“Never fucking ever,” he growled, and his eyes turned hazy. “Come here. Let me devour you.”

The tension in the room turned palpable, and my skin prickled as though a predator hunted me, wanted to devour me head to toe. And I’d let him.

My favorite game of chase… Would it be so bad if—

Jasper beamed at the two of us and smoothed his beard. “Didn’t I tell ye, lass?”

Olivia crossed her arms, an annoyed expression plastered on her face.

What was it Logan liked to say? Oh, yeah.

Fuckity, fuck, fuck.