Shifter Legends (10 page)

That little girl looked right into her soul, and what she saw reflected there was all the violence that was in store for Briana. All the wrong choices.

She wasn’t surprised when later that night rumors of a fire caused by a meth lab gone wrong got back to them. Grant had been right, the cops were entirely part of their Pride. She couldn’t believe that no one had seen them, nothing had been reported of their altercation.

It was just the way Shifters work, and she wasn’t going to deny their power again.

She was just wary of it.

☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼ ☼

Briana woke up to those eyes staring at her from her dream. Days after the fire it was still all she could think about as she stirred, her body sore from the seemingly constant workout she was getting. It was easy to lose the days, and get lost. Have all her thoughts become a part of the pride.

Between the training and the sex, she had little time for rest, let alone thought. She stretched out, her arm hitting a body.
Shit.
She had fallen asleep next to Grant, again. She seemed to make her way into his bed more nights than she slept in her own.

 She knew the Club wasn’t going to show the two of them favoritism and lately it seemed like Eliza was on her ass. She jumped up and dressed quickly. Maybe she could make it back to her bunk without anyone noticing.

“Where are you going?” Grant asked, reaching for her.

It was like a magnet pulling her to him, but she resisted.

“I can’t, Grant. I need to get back to my bunk. Eliza will kill me with laps if I don’t.” She knew she wasn’t wrong. That woman seemed determined to make her the hardest working Cougar in the entire pride. It was starting to get annoying, but she had no power to fight it. She just wanted to avoid Eliza’s wrath.

“I could always order her to leave it alone. It isn’t like we haven’t tried. We are mated, Briana. Surely it is time to speak up about it.” He stood and padded over to her, pulling her into him.

Why was his touch so damn hard to resist?

“I don’t want to be treated differently,” Briana growled. “Do you think I like being singled out all the time? That I want to be known as being powerful
and
defiant? Isn’t it enough that everyone already knows me name because I am mated to you. Do I have to have a bad reputation to go along with it?” That came out a lot rougher than she expected, but she meant every single word.

 It was enough to be the strongest Alpha of the new Pride, and to be already mated. She didn’t want to be singled out because she wasn’t working with her group.

Besides, Luke and Lauren had grown on her. Since the fire they had been almost inseparable. Except for when she was with Grant. Sure, Luke took a little getting used to, his humor was off putting, and his attitude was casual. Lauren was… a bit ornery at times, but they genuinely liked each other. She didn’t want to jeopardize her bond with them.

“I know you don’t, but what about our needs, Briana? These feelings aren’t diminishing. I know you feel it too. How can I rule when I barely get the chance to think straight?” Grant’s jaw hardened. She could see what he was thinking, know what he wanted. Her.

It would be a lie to say that she didn’t feel the exact same way.

She hated when he did that, mostly because she was powerless to say no to him. She kissed along that very jaw.

“It isn’t for too much longer. We are being restructured in a day or two, you said so yourself. Can you wait two days?” She pleaded with him. She just wanted to be normal. Even if for a couple of days.

“I guess, but expect me to interrupt you in the middle of your practices, I need your touch.” Grant kissed her collarbone and let her go. “Alpha privilege has its perks.”

She finished dressing and was out the door in minutes. Before she reached the end of the corridor the pangs she had for him were already starting.

Why the hell can’t I just be myself?
She asked as she turned down another hallway, back to the training barracks.

She would never be that girl she was, ever again. No longer helpless, no longer a victim, Briana was powerful. But it meant losing her identity. All she wanted was to keep her internal strength.

She threw herself down on the bunk and squeezed her eyes shut. There was nothing she could do, no one she could turn to. She was a Mountain Lion Shape Shifter. Briana may not have asked for it, but it was a fact that she could not deny. All she could really do was stay with the Pride. Maintain the flow. Her small group would be up in less than 20 minutes and she wanted to get as much rest as she possibly could.

Silence. Sweet, rare silence. She sighed and embraced the whole thirty seconds she had of it. Until the barrack buzzers started going off, letting everyone know it was time to get up.

Two more days and she could sleep in her own room, with Grant’s arms wrapped around her, and she wouldn’t have to do this back and forth scampering anymore. Two days.

“Morning! I didn’t see you slip in last night, what time did you get in?” Lauren’s voice was light, like she had had a good night’s sleep.

“I got in kind of late, but mostly I had trouble sleeping.” She wiped her eyes with her arm and tried not to look too tired. It wasn’t convincing, and she knew she was failing at it.

“Again? You can’t keep running yourself ragged. It isn’t good for anyone, especially when we are training. You ready for our run?” She asked as she smiled. She was pretty, thin. The kind of woman that Briana expected someone like Grant to go for. Someone who matched.

“Yeah, I should be fine,” She said, shrugging it off.

Lauren stripped down in front of her, changing into her running clothes. Shifters were always doing that, just baring themselves everywhere. She wasn’t modest, not by any means, but she just couldn’t get used to it. Her modesty was something that she fought for, especially when she was stuck in a holding place, like a group home.

They had no idea what it was to have any sort of modesty at all. It was like they didn’t care who saw them. Especially the shifters who grew up in the Pride. Like Lauren.

“Briana, I… I think we are friends now, right? I mean we spend so much time together, and you don’t seem to want to bash my head in. So I was wondering… what is like to be mated?”

“Mated? It’s… hard to explain. Why do you ask?”

“Well, now that I have shifted ‘properly,’ as my mother keeps calling it, she won’t get off my back about finding a mate. I just, I don’t know. I feel like everyone who is mated… well they either seem really unhappy, or they’ve lost their autonomy. Well, everyone but you.” Lauren was one of lineage shifters, not a recessive, like her. She was strong. Independent. Briana couldn’t imagine her any other way.

Briana nodded. She knew that concern all too well. “It’s the most amazing and most frightening thing I have ever experienced. I want to be near him all the time. Touch him. Hear him. I want to please him, but at the same time, I want to push back. Show I am still my own person.”

“Are you?”

“Oh, very much so. I won’t let who I am mated to be the single defining aspect of my life. I still have my own mentality. My own will. I think it is important to just assert it, you know? I think that is the key for me. I don’t have a lot of experience, but it seems to be working.” Except for the fact that she was miserable without him. That she knew her pull to him could be used as a weakness.

“Yeah, you’re right. And besides, at least this Pride lets you mate with who you want, you know? They don’t care if you choose a man or a woman, either. Most packs force heterosexual pairing. So that we continue the line.”

“Is that why this Pride also has a lot more non-lineage shifters?” Briana asked, intrigued.

“Yeah, not everyone will take them in. Considers them ‘impure’, but if you ask me, it is a load of bull shit. Look at you, you are one of the most powerful shifters we have, and you don’t even know who the cat was in your family.” Lauren had a way of making her feel a lot better about herself, especially when some of the others looked down on non-lineage shifters. Even in their Pride.

Briana hadn’t been there for more than a week, but she was already figuring out the dynamics of the new Shifters, and the entire Pride.

“Let’s go, Super Alpha,” Lauren called as she pulled her outside, her tongue sticking out as she teased Briana. Luke was already there and waiting.

“You look like hell,” He said as he smirked. “Someone has to tell that Alpha to let you sleep.”

She elbowed him right in the gut.

Luke was a nice guy, he really was. When you got past that jock exterior and his inability to keep his mouth shut.

“Just shut up, and let’s get this over with. I don’t want to piss Eliza off again. I swear that woman has it out for me.”

“Well, what do you expect? Have you seen the way she looks at Grant? She clearly thinks you stole her man.” Lauren ran and talked like it was nothing, the breaths coming easier to her.

Over the past few days Briana struggled less and less, but she certainly wasn’t as athletic as Lauren. Even with the new cat in her, pushing her, giving her the energy she needed. She had a firm, muscular body underneath a layer of soft, supple curves. She knew that much, but she was no athlete.

“I didn’t really get a say in the matter, Lauren. It isn’t like I sought him out and stole him. He just… came to me.”

“Uh huh, I bet he did.” Luke winked at her and then flew past her, showing off his natural talent, Lauren following him.

She sighed and kicked it up a notch. Just because she wasn’t naturally athletic didn’t mean she wasn’t competitive. Besides, the cat was screaming inside her head to pick up the pace.

***

The entire training group was there, standing in the gym, waiting for Eliza. Sweat was still pouring off of Briana after a day filled with training. Three miles, strength conditioning, cardio, and a round of boxing training was enough to make most humans drop.

Since the fire they had more instances of violence in town. Any shifter, visiting, or working there was not above an attack.  The more they fought the invading gang, the more those assholes resisted. The Motorcycle Club tried to keep the rumors down. Tried to keep what was going on away from the Pride and the recruits. Besides, it was part of her new life, as a cougar.

She wasn’t human. Her cat craved the movement. Needed it. Even if she wasn’t the best, she had a lot of stamina and her cat was finally silent, complacent. She could feel the tendrils of it, hoping and wishing for the chance to shift. Her cat always wanted out.

“This is what most of you have been waiting for. A chance to let your cat out,” Eliza said as she looked over the group. “Not all of you will be able to. And it won’t be easy. We will start with small groups of 6, working through the groups that have the most contact with their cat presence, to the least. Over the next few days we will be taking you out into the woods, giving you a chance to really stretch your legs and get to know your surroundings.” She walked up to Briana’s group and the group situated next to it. Alice was the leader of that squad, and they were good. She could tell their cat was awake in them by their raw strength and energy. They kept up with Briana’s group, matching them in almost every exercise.

They would certainly be one of the first to have the opportunity to shift.

Just as Eliza was about to talk, Briana felt all her hairs stand on edge, like her entire body was magnetized and pulling away from its skin. She was shaky, because she hadn’t really gotten a chance to see Grant all day. He had been in “meetings” whenever she asked around. Being a Second was starting to get on her nerves. Briana turned in the direction of the pull to see Grant, hard-jawed, making a beeline directly for her. The look on his face was not a happy one.
Great
. Just what she wanted, a pissed-off Alpha coming directly at her.

His pace only increased when their eyes connected, his large strides narrowing the distance between them in mere seconds. Before she realized he was up against her, his arms wrapped around her, his strong hands gripping her back as he bent down and captured her lips, taking what was his in front of everyone without a second thought about who was standing there in the gym. He pressed her back until she was against the wall of the training building. He was so strong. So forceful.

The most powerful man she had ever felt. The most powerful Shifter.

Briana let his emotion take her away with him, the flood of endorphins releasing the pleasure that she had been waiting to feel all day. The pleasure that she couldn’t help but crave since they had mated. He was filling her senses and her soul, making her forget where she was and who she was with.  Fuck it, she clung to him and begged him to take more. Kiss her hard. Harder.

He obliged.

When he finally came up for air Briana was met with Eliza’s angry stare. Just what she needed, another reason for Eliza to hate her. The new Shifters also had a look on their faces that she could only describe as off-putting. Another reason that she stood out, and not in a good way.

She sighed, trying not to look chagrined. The kiss had been worth it. Had been needed. If only they could get somewhere private.

“Hey, ass wipe. Do you think you could resist mauling my students until after their training is over?” Eliza asked, a sour look on her face. She was clearly joking, but he did not receive it well.