Slow Shift by Nazarea Andrews (best ereader for pdf .TXT) 📗

I’m not the sociopath who thinks one person’s mistakes makes everyone related to them bad.”

Mia snarls and Lucas digs his claws into her throat, just enough to make her still while Tyler dips down.

“Your niece? She’s going to marry that boy—the one my Shaman claims as brother. She’ll be Pack by the time she gets pregnant, and her child will grow up in my Pack, raised by ‘wolves and magic.” He smiles meanly. “I want you to die knowing that.”

Mia screams and across the glade, Aurora wails. Lucas sighs, soft and content, as he rips out her throat.

~*~

“Matthew Drake was found dead in his hotel today,” John says, and Chase just looks at him.

He’s exhausted. The fire didn’t do as much damage as Mia hoped, as Tyler feared, because Chase’s magic was good at protecting what was his—but it did enough. He’s spent the past three days helping make the place livable again, and knows they have a long way to go. The RV has long since been sold, but Tyler and Lucas are buying a new one to use until they finish the house.

“That’s nice,” Chase mumbles, collapsing on the couch.

“Mia and her sisters are still missing, too.”

“Thought Brielle got an email about being called away?” Chase says into the pillow.

“Andre Drake thinks it was faked.”

Chase doesn’t respond.

“Chase,” John says, exasperated.

Chase pushes himself up to stare at his father. “Dad.”

John stares at him, then nods slowly. “Ok. Yeah, I think—she must have been called away by work.”

His heart aches, but he nods and drops back into the couch.

~*~

It takes until February to remodel the house. Chase thinks it would have taken less time, but Tyler decides to add a second floor, and the only reason it goes so quickly is that he throws his own money and all of his people into the project.

Chase thinks it’s a coping mechanism, but since Tyler wakes up shaking and sobbing into his chest more than he doesn’t these days, he doesn’t complain. Tyler can have any and all coping mechanisms as he wants.

It’s past time for an addition, he thinks, as he watches Lucas Skype with Aurora. Their tiny pack of three has already grown, and he thinks of Ben and Brielle, and his father, and doesn’t say anything at all about the additions.

~*~

Andre Drake walking into his bookstore isn’t surprising. It’s overdue, so he straightens from where he’s slouched over the counter and steadies himself.

“Where are my nieces?” Drake asks abruptly.

Straight to it then.

“Burned and dumped in a hole beyond our territory,” Chase says, unflinching.

Andre goes pale, like having a theory confirmed is more than he expected, more than he knows what to do with.

“When Tyler was seventeen, he fell for a pretty new librarian,” Chase says, watching him. “She fucked him and let him fall for her. When he was eighteen, when he was celebrating the Solstice moon with his Pack—he slipped out to see her, to tell her his secrets. But she was already gone. She and her sisters organized an accident, and warded the car to ensure even a supernatural like a werewolf wouldn’t survive. No one did—no one except his oldest brother, who was catatonic for years after.

“Do you understand that kind of loss, Drake? Do you understand your nieces didn’t abide by the code when they followed your father’s orders to fucking rape an underage boy and kill his entire fucking family? We killed her, Andre. My Pack deserved that retribution, and your Witch Council gave us that.”

“The—the Council sanctioned this?” Drake gasps.

Chase gives him a sympathetic look. He pulls up the email on his phone and forwards it to Drake. “Check with them if you don’t believe me, but I was never going to leave my Pack open to retaliation from other witches. This was a clean, sanctioned kill.”

“Are—my daughter, my wife...?”

“Neither have harmed the Reid Pack, and neither are threats to us.”

Relief makes his shoulders sag and he nods, taking a step back.

“Drake,” Chase says, “Ben is my best friend and he knows. It’s only a matter of time before Brielle does as well.”

Fear or rage make his face tighten, but the witch doesn’t respond before he leaves the bookstore.

Chase watches pensively, then texts Lucas and Tyler.

>>What do you think about expanding our Pack?

Chapter 25

Harper is grinding mistletoe when Chase slips in. The druid doesn’t react, doesn’t bother to greet him, and Chase hides his smirk as he settles on a stool, running his finger in a circle and letting the shavings of rowan chase it.

“Mr. DeWitt,” Harper says, a touch of exasperation leaking into his tone.

The Shaman laughs. “You called? What’s up?”

“The Drake killings. I assume they were your doing.”

Chase tilts his head, studying the druid. He doesn’t dislike Harper, but he doesn’t trust anyone who failed their Pack as much as Harper failed the Reids.

“Our kills were recompense for the deaths of our Pack at the hands of Mia Drake, Matthew Drake, and their coven,” Chase says, straightening, “They were sanctioned by the Witch’s Council and clean kills.”

Harper’s frown is disapproving and disappointed. “You killed, Chase.”

“I did,” Chase says readily. “And I’d do it again to protect them. Mia trapped the Reids in that car and crushed it with them inside, then set it on fire, Harper. Matthew? Do you know how many deaths he has on his hands, how many Packs his coven tore through? I’m not going to feel guilty for ridding the world of those animals.”

“They weren’t,” Harper says, and Chase stills. “They were humans and you let the werewolves kill them.”

“Because they’re more important, right? Than werewolves. Humans are more important than animals.”

“I didn’t say that,” Harper snaps, defensive.

Chase laughs. “You didn’t have to.”

Harper carefully sets the mortar and pestle down and wipes his hands. “What you’re doing—it’s dangerous. You aren’t meant to be involved, Chase. You’re meant to observe and advise, but never to change things. You—we—are not part of their world.”

Chase shakes his head as he stands. “No. You weren’t. And your Pack was slaughtered. So