Page 1 of Shadows of the Soul

Chapter 1

Chapter One

It’s getting hot in here…

The handwritten letter clutched in my hand fluttered in the breeze, it having left a sour tang on the back of my tongue. If I let the paper go, the wind wouldn’t relieve me of my burden. The elegant scrawl belied the nature of the words. My Grandmother was reminding me of my obligation to update her on the other factions. She was head of The Order—leader of the elementals, and I was uniquely positioned to provide intel on both the shifters and the vampires.

“Bear,” Rebecca declared with a snap of her fingers.

I squinted at the burly man unfolding himself from the driver’s seat of a sparkling new black truck. “Rhino,” I countered.

“How obscure,” Rebecca muttered.

“Final answer?” Maggie asked from her perch between us on the porch swing.

“Yes,” Rebecca and I agreed.

‘Guess the shifter’ was our current game. Hudson Abbot, The Principal, leader of all American pack affiliated shape shifters, Terror of Tennessee, and bane of my life, had gleaned some of my secrets after we joined forces to stop the menace that was killing supernaturals. He’d taken it upon himself to keep a closer eye on me by moving into the converted stables on my property. Consequently, I’d gained a steady stream of random shifters traipsing across my land. Hudson had an unhealthy obsession with learning my secrets, along with his chief of security, Dangerous Dave. They dug and dug. So far they’d come back empty-handed, but one wrong move from me and my world would turn upside down.

Hudson was perceptive, analyzing, dangerous, and damn right annoying. He also kissed me like his life depended on it, and I was a heartbeat and hormone away from becoming a notch on his bedpost.

“You’re both wrong. He’s a mongoose,” Maggie announced. Shifters could sense each other’s animal - it was a pack hierarchy and survival thing. A fox didn’t want to be challenging a lion.

I blinked. Mongoose shifter? That’s new. Shifters were larger than their animal counterparts. How big would he be?

“You know, this could be avoided if you’d just sleep with him. Get it out of your system,” Rebecca said, plucking imaginary lint off her dress.

“If it’s inconvenient, why don’t you sleep with him?” I snapped.

She lifted her nose in the air. “He’s not interested in me. Hudson Abbot only has eyes for a certain fiery-haired, green-eyed elemental. He’d probably move back to pack territory before the weekend if you got naked and dirty with him.”

I glanced at her. “I’m not having a one-night stand with a male who regards me with suspicion and contempt. Also, what are you saying? That I’m so boring in bed he’d run back to the shifter females before the sun had risen?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. You can act bad in bed. Lay there like a sack of potatoes.” She sighed and lifted her hands in the air. “All this passive aggressive flirting is making my hormones crazy.”

“Still, it’s not a good enough excuse. I will not sleep with someone to satiate your hormones.”

“Spoil sport.”

“Sex addict,” I threw back.

Hudson exited the stables and glanced our way. His chocolate brown gaze collided with mine and a sinful smile played on his lips. He was tall, with strong thighs wrapped in blue jeans and a white shirt that bordered on needing a restraining order with how it was clinging to him. The breeze carried the scent of freshly cut grass mingled with a rich wild cedar that was purely Hudson. Ugh, now I was scenting him like a cat in heat.

I sighed and leaned back. “He has enough shifter honeys to keep him occupied. I’m simply a challenge. He doesn’t want me, he wants to prove he could have me.”

“So cynical,” Rebecca murmured. She was right. I was cynical. Cynical kept you breathing. My last relationship ended in my torture and permanent maiming. It was bound to leave its psychic mark. Hudson knew my history, yet he pursued me all the same.

“Incoming,” Maggie said before jumping up and running into the house. The front door slammed behind her. Maggie was a bobcat shifter who’d arrived to me alone, afraid, and abused. I’d offered her safety, a roof over her head, and food. In return, she helped to run my bed-and-breakfast home for the supernaturally inclined. Watching her emerge into a butterfly was worth it. But Hudson terrified her. It wasn’t his fault, he’d outlawed the arranged marriage her father was forcing Maggie into; but while her mind had caught up, her heart hadn’t.

I winced as he breached the ward, my magic pulsing around him, assessing his threat and allowing him through. No murderous thoughts from The Principal today, lucky me.

“You moved the ward boundary?” Rebecca asked.

“With us being the new popular shifter hangout, I had to, or suffer with permanent migraines.”

“It’s dangerous,” she mused.

“It’s necessary.”

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