One True Mate 5: Shifter's Rogue Read online

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  So many thanks to…

  Glossary

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Chapter 42

  Chapter 43

  Chapter 44

  Chapter 45

  Chapter 46

  Chapter 47

  Chapter 48

  Notes by Lisa

  One True Mate 5; Shifter’s Rogue

  by Lisa Ladew

  All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons or organizations, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.

  Copyright © 2017 Lisa Ladew All Rights Reserved

  So many thanks to…

  Book cover by The Final Wrap <3

  Cover model: Matt Zumwalt. Rowr.

  Photographer: Shannon McPeek

  Muse by The Blurb Diva, Anette King, (www.theblurbdiva.com/) . Many hilarious convos about random Mac mannerisms ensued in the last 7 or 8 months. Made the book harder to write (I had to figure out how to stick all the bits in), but a thousand times more hilarious.

  Of course, no book of mine could be finished without the help and influence of Kristine Piiparinen and Amanda Quiles. Thank you both. Amanda really went above and beyond with this book with some great ideas for me. No spoilers. <3 <3

  Thanks to my boys (Joe, 14, Broin, 4, and John, 52) for holding down the fort and understanding my quirks and passions.

  And then there’s the readers. You who love this story, this world, this universe. It loves you back. Big time.

  Glossary

  Bearen - bear shifters. Almost always work as firefighters.

  Citlali - Spiritual leaders of all Shiften. They are able to communicate with the deities telepathically, and sometimes bring back prophecies from these communications.

  Deae - goddess.

  Dragen - dragon shifters. Rare.

  Echo - an animal with the same markings as a shiften. Usually seen as a harbinger of bad things, but could also be a messenger from The Light.

  Felen - big cat shifters. Almost always work as mercenaries. They are also the protectors of Rhen’s physical body and a specially-trained group of them can track Khain when he comes into the Ula.

  Foxen - the Foxen were created when Khain forcibly mated with female wolfen.

  Haven, The – final resting place of all shiften. Where The Light resides.

  Impot – a shiften that cannot shift because of a genetic defect caused by mating too close to their own bloodline. Trent and Troy are not thought to be impots because they were born during a klukwana.

  Khain - also known as the Divided Demon, the Great Destroyer, and the Matchitehew. The hunter of humans and the main nemesis of all shiften.

  Klukwana – a ceremony where a full-blooded shiften who mates another shiften does so with both in animal form, then the mother stays in animal form during the entire pregnancy. The young in the litter are always born as their animal. Wolven from a klukwana always come in at least 4 to 7 young. Bearen are always two cubs, and felen are unpredictable, sometimes only one. Shiften born from a klukwana are almost always more powerful, bigger, and stronger than regular shiften, but many parents don’t try it because of the inherent risks to the mother during the (shorter) pregnancy and the risk that the shiften young may choose not to shift into human form. A lesser known possibility is that the shiften young will have a harder time learning to shift into human form, especially if no one shifts near them in the first few days after birth.

  KSRT - Kilo Special Response Team, or Khain Special Response Team. A group of wolven police whose primary goal is to hunt down and kill Khain, if that can be done.

  Light, The – The creator of the Ula, humans, Rhen, Khain, and the angels.

  Moonstruck - Insane. Shiften who spend too long indoors or too long in human form can become moonstruck slowly and not even realize it.

  Pravus - Khain’s home. A fiery, desolate dimension that sits alongside ours.

  Pumaii - a small group of specialized felen tasked with tracking Khain when he crosses over into our dimension.

  Renqua - a discoloration in a shiften’s fur which is also seen as a birthmark in human form. Every renqua is different. The original renquas were pieces of Rhen she put inside the wolves, bears, and big cats to create the shiften. Every pure-blooded shifter born since has also had a renqua. Half-breeds may or may not have one. Some foxen acquired weak renquas when they mated with shiften. Also called the mark of life.

  Rhen - the creator of all shiften. A female deity.

  Ruhi – the art of speaking telepathically. No humans are known to possess the power to do this. Not all shiften are able to do it. It is the preferred form of speaking for the dragen.

  Shiften - Shifter-kind. Beings who can transform into their animal forms on command.

  Ula – Earth, in the current dimension and time. The home of the shiften.

  Vahiy – end of the world.

  Wolfen - a wolf shifter. Almost always works as a police officer.

  Wolven - wolf shifters, plural.

  Zyanya - When a wolfe
n dies, the funeral is for the benefit of humans, but the important ceremony is the zyanya. The packmates of the fallen wolfen run in wolf form through the forest, heading north to show the spirit the way to The Haven. When they reach a body of water, they all jump in and swim to the other side, then emerge in human form.

  Chapter 1

  Macalister Niles, Mac to his friends and enemies, stared at the massive teakwood shelving unit that took up all of one of his walls, trying to determine what was off about its contents.

  At a glance, everything looked ok. The tiny terrariums he’d found in his favorite cereal, Alpha-Bits, were pointed at the Sesame Street mini-beans, so Big Bird, Grover, and Elmo could see the plants inside. The entire collection of Pokemon collectibles were neatly lined and sorted by color and cuteness. The Darkwing Duck Fanny Pack was perfectly equidistant from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles bowl and the spooky spoons, the light-up spoons, and the dinosaur spoons.

  Mac bent and checked a lower shelf, then the next, but the unopened sticker packs were all in place, the rings, whistles, and temporary tattoos all looked perfect, and the mini pinball machines were exactly as he’d left them.

  He got down on his knees to examine the shelves that would have been the perfect height for three-year-old Mackenzie, his now long-gone little sister, to comb through. The wacky wall-walkers, monster bike spinners, glow-in-the-dark skeleton pirates, ghost detectors, and monster disguises were all exactly as he’d placed them. Mackenzie would have said they were adowwable. She always had liked the strangest shit for a little girl. No Barbies for her. She had only liked it if it had four eyes or simulated entrails… or, of course, if it came out of a cereal box.

  Mac stood to eye the unit as a whole, moving around a bit to see it from a different angle. He saw it! The replica of Mackenzie’s favorite blanket that lined the back wall of the shelf had shifted off-center on one side, revealing a sliver of the wood behind it. Mac stepped forward and gingerly reached his hand past all the treasures, pulling at the red spiky blanket, trying to get it just right, barely hearing the car pull up in his driveway.

  Heavy footfalls sounded on his porch, and Bruin’s deep but somehow gentle voice reached him. Talking to himself.

  “Is this the place? This has got to be the place.”

  Spring had not quite arrived, but it was trying hard and the sunshine of the morning had been enough to make Mac leave his security door open, so only the screen door was between him and Bruin. Shit. Instant regret, not only for that, but for inviting Bruin to his house at all. Bruin would be the first person to see the place in… ever?

  It had been his family’s place, where he’d spent most of his boyhood, but after the females had been killed, his father had pined for his mate and had died young, drank and sorrowed himself to death, leaving Mac even more alone than he’d been. Since his father’s wake, had he ever invited anyone over?

  Mac’s jaw tightened at the memories wanting to flood in on him. He’d had it no worse than anyone else and he wouldn’t act like he did. Boohoo had no place inside his head.

  He tugged at the blanket one more time, then stepped back to survey his work as Bruin pulled the screen door open gently and stepped inside, making the room seem too small, suddenly, even though Mac wasn’t even looking at him. Bruin had that effect on most rooms.

  “Mac! I knew this was the place!” Bruin cried, excitement in his voice, like he hadn’t seen Mac in months, years maybe, when in fact they’d seen each other less than ten hours ago. Mac grinned and faced him, his grin faltering as Bruin’s eyes shot past him and took in the room instead.

  Mac knew it was a hot mess, but it was his hot mess, and it made him feel… better, somehow.

  Bruin took in the spiky red blankets hung in the center of three of the room’s walls, the red upholstered reclining chair, also done in that spiky red fabric that looked like it was rough, but really was surprisingly soft. Faux Fur Fabric Long Pile Monkey Shaggy was the name of that particular fabric, and fire red had been Mackenzie’s favorite shade. She’d never gone anywhere without her blanky, burning through so many of the things that their mother had bought an entire forty-eight-foot roll of the fabric to cut and sew the blankets herself, and damned if Mac hadn’t continued the tradition, even after both of them were gone. Sometimes he would make a new one, just so he could pretend Mackenzie was waiting anxiously behind him for it, pretend for forty-five minutes or so that she was still alive, that when he pulled the blanket out of the sewing machine, cut and tied the threads, then turned to her with it in his hands, her baby blues would widen and she would rush to him, hugging and kissing him first, then take it from him reverently to rub across her plump cheek. Ba-ba, she’d called the blankets, even after she could say blanket correctly.

  Mac let the thoughts and emotions flit through his mind for a mere moment before he pushed them away, manhandled them into some mental dream chest, and slammed the lid. He both loved and hated his memories of Mackenzie, and the conflict tore at him daily. He clenched his fists and reached for the only emotion that could cover it. Pissed-off-ness. Then he summoned his best super power. Snark. Now he was ready to deal with someone else in his home. Bruin was a good start. No matter what he said to Bruin, the male would not get angry, would not turn away from him.

  Bruin took in the bits of haphazard red without comment, then his eyes landed on The Cereal Prize Shrine. Mac waited for Bruin to laugh, to make fun, for his eyes to widen and maybe for him to back out the door like he’d just entered the den of a freak. But Bruin only raised his eyebrows, pursed his lips, and gave an I-can-dig-it head bob, like maybe he’d even expected it.

  The knot inside Mac loosened slightly, but he still glared at the big bear. “Not a word,” he warned.

  Bruin held up his hands, then mimed locking his lips and throwing away the key. He pushed past Mac, his head still bobbing up and down, to get closer to The Shrine. His thick fingers raised as he prepared to lift a small toy from the shelf.

  “Ah!” Mac moved so quickly he expected to hear wind whistle past his ears. He caught Bruin’s hand in mid air and pushed him backwards a step. “No touchy, big guy. I’ve got extras you can play with after your nap, but right now we’ve got places to be.”

  Bruin bobbed his head again, his eyes still on the little toys, his expression saying he wouldn’t say no to playing with them, or their extras. “Cool. Do we have time to watch I Love the 80s?”

  Mac pushed Bruin back another step. It was like pushing a linebacker who didn’t want to go. At a couple of inches taller than Mac’s six foot three inch frame, and certainly thicker through the chest and shoulders, Bruin was hard for even a brute like Mac to manhandle. “Yeah, you’re hilarious. I get it, cuz my decorating reminds you of the era.” He pushed again. He’d done it. Another person had been in his house and he hadn’t lost it, but emotions he didn’t like to examine were perilously close. It was time to go. Time to do anything else. “Keep moving, big and hairy. Time to go to work.”

  Bruin let himself be pushed. “Can we stop to eat on the way?”

  Mac glanced at the time. 10:04 in the morning. “You didn’t eat breakfast?”

  “I did. I’m hungry again. Besides, there’s a place I keep hearing about we gotta try. It’s out on Route 41, called the Honeybee Garage or something. The pies there are supposed to be the bee’s ankles.”

  Mac stopped pushing, even though they’d almost reached his front door. He half-grinned and stared at Bruin. “The what?”

  “You know, bee’s ankles. Better than bee’s knees, but not quite as good as the bee’s nose.”

  Mac shook his head and laughed, pushing past Bruin to the door and opening it, waiting as Bruin took one last look around his place. “Actually, Bru, I don’t know about bee ankles or noses. I’ve only ever heard of the bee’s knees.”

  Bruin bobbed his head one last time and followed Mac out onto the porch. “It’s just as well. The bee’s nose is pretentious. Don’t even get me started on the bee’s elbow
s.”

  Mac could believe they were having the conversation. Bruin was a font of ridiculousness. “Do bees have elbows?”

  “Are you kidding? They have six!”

  Mac locked his door, shaking his head. Six elbows. Beebows. Got it. He turned to see what Bruin would be driving him to work in, then groaned at the sight of the tiny red Ford Escort with black trim and the ridiculous spoiler on the back. “Bruin, that thing is smaller than the car we had to drive back from California. It’s a fucking lunch pail. How many juice boxes can you fit in the trunk?”

  Bruin strode to it, his face proud. He patted the hood. “She’s a 2003. Gets 32.9 miles to each gallon. I tracked her myself. Name’s Peony Honey.”