Southern Shifters: Fast & Furless (Kindle Worlds Novella)

Fast & Furless

(Eliza Gayle Southern Shifters World:
be Were
spinoff)

Yvette Hines

Fast & Furless

Finally ending her obligation to the government, Brita is ready to live a life of freedom. Always a loner, even in a secret military task force, she now looks forward to getting lost among the tourist of a small town resort area. No more violence or killing that is her new motto. The day a stranger walks into her place of work and mistakes her for someone else, everything changes. She’d always been told that she was one of a kind—no others like her. She sets out on a mission to discover the truth and to find her pack—if one exists. Maybe, just maybe they can be the key to unlocking the mysteries that have held her bound.

Alek was feeling restless. The choker of Alpha is dangling to close to his neck. He needed time to decide if he wanted to engage in a dominance battle. His life didn’t seem to be leading anywhere else, but he refused to just given in because it was what was expected of him. He believes time away from his world and the open air of the Blue Ridge Mountain area could bring him just the clarity he needs.

In a whiff, his relaxing vacation becomes encumbered by a demanding anomalous whose one sexy-ass feline. Brita’s arrival brings out the base needs of his cat and he can’t simply stand back and let the local shifters handle it… No. He’ll do whatever it takes to prove to Brita that he’ll be by her side—and she is his.

“I hear you’ve finally been sprung.” Kal teased through the phone. He had been on the military taskforce with her for several years before he left three years ago. His contract with the government had been different than hers. Hell, all the ‘volunteers’ had a different agreement then she did.

Smiling, Brita took in a deep breath as the crisp fall air blew in through the window of her car. “Yes. It took too long, but it happened.” Two years to be exact.

“So what are your plans now?” Curiosity laced his voice. She knew, but like all the other shifters that worked with her, he wanted to know her. Kal had been the closest of all, but still she kept him at more than an arm’s length away.

“Putting Texas in my rearview as we speak. I’ve always enjoyed the mountains.” That was the only good thing about her last assignment, two years in Afghanistan. There were great cliffs and mountains to run along. Now she wanted trees to go with those ridges.

“I can understand that.” He paused for a moment. “I could really use someone like you on my team here in New Mexico.”

She shook her head, even though he couldn’t see it. No more teams. “Uh, I’m going to pass. You run some security company if I can recall.” She stared down at her hand that clutched the wheel. It was one of a pair that had maimed and killed more than her share of people. All government criminal and enemies of her country and the world, but her hands were still painted with their blood just the same. The Seals she’d worked beside had the honor of interrogation. Interrogation was used when leaders wanted answers. When she and the other nine shifters were sent in, no answers were needed—just heads on chargers. Numb to the things she’d done and seen, she didn’t know how to react. She had been designed that way. Her earliest memory, she was running through trees chasing down a wild boar and gutting it. She’d been four.

Kal’s chuckle broke into her musing. “Yea. But, it’s a lot of wiring and detail work for rich corporate events. That’s all. No guns, rarely any violence. If you don’t count escorting out a drunk person or two.”

“I hear you. I’m going to try living on the East Coast.” The stretch of highway before her was barren at such a late hour. She didn’t mind it one bit. The only sound was the spinning of her wheels and the humming of her engine. Even the night animals were drowned out.

“If you ever change your mind, you’re always welcomed here. The Timberon Pack would welcome you with open arms.”

“Thanks for the offer.” She would never take him up on it. Kal was an Amofeli shifter. A type of lynx cat that had serious chameleon traits that had served him well in the Middle East deserts.  He was also part of a tight family of like shifters. No way would she fit into his world, or any shifter community for that matter. She was the only one of her kind and it was best for her to stay alone. “Enjoy your life with your wife and that baby on the way.”

“You don’t have to tell me twice.” There was a heavy pause before he continued, “Take care of yourself, Brita.”

“No one else will.” She ended the phone call before it ended up with more emotional undertones than she could already sense.

Taking the exit that would lead her Northeast through Arkansas and up into Tennessee she rolled the other three windows down in the car. It must have rained earlier that day because her car became filled with the rich smell of damp soil and wet wildlife. It all smelled like freedom and her body calmed for the first time, in…she couldn’t recall when. She wasn’t on alert. Didn’t feel the need to look over her shoulder at her six and nothing but open road was before her.

The sense of freedom was so overwhelming, her throat burned as it tightened. Six months she’d spent in some dark room in undisclosed government facility being deprogrammed. They hadn’t wanted to let her go. However, she’d made a bargain before her last assignment. She’d get them a top ANCID terror group chief for her liberty. For three months they’d argued with her, sent in some of the best negotiators to convince her not to leave the ‘security’ of the only world she’d known. Her mind had been made up a long time ago and nothing they said would convince her otherwise. Not even the threats that she was a property of the government. She reminded them that since 1865 it was illegal to own a person. Even a manufactured person still had rights. Thank you, Lincoln.

Yesterday, they had blindfolded her, flown her hours away and then driven more hours before finally removing the mask and releasing her in the middle of an empty mall in Katy, Texas. The only thing she had was her identification and credit card. When they drove off in their midnight SUV at three a.m. it had been the best feeling of her life. She didn’t care she had to walk miles to a car dealership or that she’d have to wait three hours to buy a car, she was on her own time.

Her own time. Those three words even now made her giddy.

~YH~

“Well, look what the cat dragged in. Dean!” Bhric, his cousin and hybrid, crossed the new looking wood floor of the Dark Moon Roadhouse bar, rushing toward him for a beast of a hug.

“If I’d known I’d get such a hearty welcome I’d been way before now.” He clapped his older cousin on the shoulder and ignored all the hybrids and shifters sitting around at tables jawin’ and drinkin’, but still keeping eyes on what was happening at the door.

The cornucopia of varied animals from bear, wolf, panther and some notes he couldn’t figure out assailed him. His cat was only used to the dual combination of jaguar and wolf, the two notes that blended his family pack. However, his two cousins had a quarter bear in them, but when their parents died in a fire and they left, so did the bear trait.

“Alek, your ass should have come years ago when we first invited you.” Bhric gave him a punch in the side, firm but barely hard enough to make him grunt. “Come on in.”

“Alek! I’ll be damned.” Dean came in from the back lugging a crate of booze on his shoulder when he spotted him.

Moving to the bar, Alek Zusmen gripped palms with his cousin that was two months younger than he was. “Fuckin’ good to see both of you. Things haven’t been the same since you two left.” Alek meant that. He’d been closer to Dean and Bhric than he had to his siblings. Part of the reason was the fact he had all sisters. They were fierce bad-ass shifters in their own right, but still emotional as hell with hair trigger temper.

“I guess you haven’t gotten those three sisters mated off yet,” said Dean, a shifter just a tall as he was, but more wide in the shoulders because of the bear in him.

Alek recognized the course of topic and understood his cousins didn’t want to discuss the reason behind their departure for their prowl and them heading out on their own. Their parents’ death was a horrific situation, the loss bulldozed over everyone in their county. So, he steered clear of the discussion too.

“One down. The other two are too busy giving the patrol unit a run for their money. My dad refuses to put either of them on the position, though.” Alek slid onto a stool and accepted the neat bourbon Dean glided along the polished bar his way.

“Maybe that order could be handled by the next Alpha.”

Shit. “Maybe.” Alek tossed the liquor back with one shot and savored the burn along his throat. He needed something to focus on other than the single choice that was hovering a grasp away.

He didn’t miss the stare Bhric and Dean gave each other than him. There was a lot of spoken and unspoken dialogue in those glances. They both knew his father, their dad’s brother, had been made Alpha upon their dad’s death. Since neither of them came back to claim the title when they hit maturity it would fall to him. Not unchallenged though. An alpha always had to fight against the males in the pack—proving he was the strongest. Alek didn’t fear the show of strength, it was the weight of the responsibility he wasn’t sure he wanted on his shoulders.

“How long you with us?” Bhric took a spot on a vacant stool beside him then picked up the bottle and refilled his glass, this time taking the level almost to the rim.

He gave Bhric a nod of thanks. Alek, just like any of the shifters around, didn’t have to worry about getting drunk off much less than a full bottle of alcohol. At that much they would at least start to feel it. Glancing over at the bottle he did consider for a moment switching it out for the glass in his grip. However, he had a strict rule about getting drunk in a place where he didn’t know his surroundings. This sliver of land between Comyn and Gunn Clans was a strange area to him. Even if it was neutral as his cousins had told him about it was still unfamiliar.

“Don’t know yet. Couple days, a week…” He shrugged and allowed his voice to drift off not wanting to confirm a time.

“Well, you’re family. Stay as long as you want. I’ll let Niki, my mate, know you’re here and you can have dinner with us at our house across the way.”

“I haven’t even been invited over for dinner since it was built.” Bhric grumbled.

“That’s because your ass is in my face all day long at this place,” Dean countered as he went down the bar to pass around some more drinks ordered.

“Asshole.” Bhric was chuckling and warmth filled his golden gaze as he stared at his younger brother.

It made Alek feel better to see with his own eyes that his cousins had patched up whatever bad blood had been festering between them. He didn’t know the details of the rift, but was glad it was over. That had been another reason he’d stayed away so long, he loved his cousins equally and didn’t want to have a visit where he would be torn between them for his time. He’d much rather hang with both of them without underlining anger boiling.

“Everyone, this is Alek, he’s our cousin…treat him like he’s one of you. ‘Cause he is,” Bhric declared to the whole room.

One shifter after another held up their glass or mug to him or came over and shook his hands as a greeting.

Dean returned to his end of the bar. “You can stay upstairs in my old room since it’s vacant or my old place a few miles from here.”

He lowered the glass, half empty this time. “If you don’t mind, I’d like your old place while I’m here. May need some time to myself.”

“You got it. There’s a small bar I own across the parking lot but you shouldn’t have anyone bothering you.”

“Thanks, Dean. I appreciate it.”

~YH~

“Thank you, come again to McCoy’s Quick Stop.” She handed the person their food and gave the family of four a cursory smile. The two children gave her a wide-toothed grin as they held two ice cream cones and walked out the door with their mother and father. Taking a moment while the restaurant store was empty to clean the tables, she grab her rag then rounded the counter from the food prep area and into the customer area.

Compared to what her life was like before this would seem to most like a step down. She was paid a wage barely above the minimum, but she didn’t do it for the funds. Peace of mind could not be bought.

Her nose became tweaked at the unique scent that greeted her. Before she could acknowledge it fully the person spoke.

“I’m surprised to see you here?”

Turning away from the man first trying to see who he was speaking to. Had someone else come to the store that she missed somehow? Unlike when she was on missions she kept her senses off alert. In the month she’d been working there only humans ever came around the Pigeon Forge area—mostly vacationers.

Not seeing anyone else, she canted her head back to the man. Shifter. Some kind of panther mixed with mountain lion. The woodsy musk turned her stomach. She took a step back. “Excuse me?”

“Niki, it’s me, Justen. What are you doing here? Last time I saw you in Dark Moon, you were mated and about to push out a pup or cub.” He chuckled and made some gesture toward her.

She moved on instinct, swinging out with a fist into his shoulder joint. His arm dropped on contact and he staggered back.

“Fuck. What was that for, Niki?” He rubbed his shoulder, wincing.

She kept her stance wide with her fists raised to her waist. “I don’t want to hurt you. But you’re mistaken.” 

“What?” He frowned and appeared to eye her harder. “But—”

The chatter of people entering the place reminded her where she was. Righting herself, she gave the man another glance as she started back toward the service counter. “Order or leave, sir.”

When she got back in position, she greeted the newcomers. In her peripheral she saw the tall shifter eyeing her intently. Her hackles were up and she wanted to run or fight. She didn’t like being caught off guard.

“You’re right. My mistake.” He called out then disappeared among the tourist crowds rushing into the store for food and souvenirs.

“I’m here, Brita.” Rachel, a plump red head, came rushing in, bright smiles for the customers and grabbing completed order forms from the dial.

For the next few hours the place stayed busy and Brita didn’t have more than a few passing moments to think about the stranger from earlier. When she finally got off, she drove the five miles to her rental apartment. At her door, she stood there for a moment and listened, trying to hear any sound that was out of the ordinary. She could hear the night birds, the crickets and frogs chirping to their mates. One of her neighbors was having a party in one of the lower levels and the drumming of the music added to the night sounds. But nothing else.

A quick glance over her shoulder, her sharp eyes took in more than any human and twice as much as a shifter. No one was following her.