A Mate For Phoenix (Forbidden Shifters Series Book 4) Page 25
And right now, that included stopping the other Portland agent from murdering Ida Greer in broad daylight. If the other agent did something as stupid and foolhardy as all that, then this whole thing ran the risk of being exposed. He’d be exposed as being an agent, and Quill knew that the idiot would give up everything if an investigator so much as sneezed on him. And dammit, he knew that Quill was an agent too. He’d give him up. And prison it would be.
No. Quill would never be locked up again. Not if he could help it. He had to stop the other agent. There was no other choice. His foot pressed on the gas even harder.
***
So. This was happening. This was real.
That was Ida’s mantra as she gripped the edges of the backseat as the driver screamed the van around corners at high speed. The driver who had a ski mask over his face. The driver who had abducted her from the street.
It was going to be okay, she told herself. Phoenix, Orion, and Dawn had all seen it happen.
She grimaced. Her three shifter friends who had no idea what license plates were. Did they even know how to call the police? Did Orion even know how to work his phone? With any luck, they’d get in touch with Wren and she’d bring the force of the entire FBI down on this asshole’s head.
But in the meantime, Ida really, really needed to stay alive.
“Where are you taking me?” she asked, pleased when her voice didn’t shake.
“Don’t talk!” the man screamed back at her, obvious panic in every syllable.
Ida froze. There was something oddly familiar about that voice. She’d met this man before. She was certain of it.
Ida looked around the van, searching for any clues as to what was about to happen to her. No obvious weapons. No chloroform rags -whatever those looked like. No hacksaws or shovels or anything too ominous. Except…
Ida slid to one side and surreptitiously kicked at the black duffel bag under the bench seat she sat on.
She gauged her level of danger. When the man had dragged her into the car, he’d been surprisingly gentle.
He’d been moving fast, but he hadn’t hurt her. He’d even barked at her to put her seatbelt on as they’d peeled down the street.
Ida squinted at the back of his head. If he was taking her away to do something terrible to her, why the hell would he care if she put her seatbelt on?
She quickly ducked down and unzipped the duffel, needing to know what was inside.
“No! Don’t look in there! Dammit!”
Ida blinked in confusion. There were a bunch of new clothes. Women’s clothes. With their tags still on. Next to that were a few pairs of shoes. A box of hair dye. A bag of new makeup. She blinked at the clear plastic bag filled with cash and on top of the cash sat her driver’s license. Only, instead of the name Ida Greer, the name Samantha Williams was there.
She blinked up at the man driving the car. These were the kind of supplies that people in movies used to start their lives over with new identities. This man, whoever he was, was kidnapping her from her life and then giving her a bag to start over with a pseudonym? What in the devil was going on here? She felt the van turn and then gravel start to spew under its tires. She knew that wherever he was taking her, they were leaving civilization. That was not going to work for her. She had to do something. She lunged forward, grabbed the driver by his head.
“Hey!” he shouted, the car swerving dangerously, trying to shake free of him. Ida was thrown backwards, but his ski mask came with her. She blinked at a very familiar man.
“What?” She whispered to him? “You? Why are you doing this?”
***
Phoenix’s heart stopped in his chest as the van they were gaining on started to swerve dangerously. As much as he wanted the van to stop, he didn’t want it to crash. Ida was so small, so human, so delicate. He couldn’t stomach the idea of anything happening to her.
They’d followed the van outside of Portland, into the mountains. There was nothing, no one around off this back road. Nothing but the sky and the trees.
The van swerved again, it’s back tires skittering. It was slowing down. Just enough that if he were able to get to it, if he were able to slash its tires, he could get it to stop moving. But how to slash the tires?
He looked down at his hands and he knew. He just knew. There was no time for perseveration. No time for questioning who he was and what he could do. What was a little forest fire in the face of his own heart? In the face of this ferocious love for Ida? He wouldn’t let it stand.
He took a deep breath and let it out. Felt it start to happen deep in his gut, the way it always started.
Yes. It was working.
“What are you…” Quill asked from the driver’s seat, but Phoenix tuned out the rest of the question.
He fixed Ida in his mind, firmly and securely, the woman he loved.
It was a painful shift. His body tearing itself apart to put itself back together. His left side screamed with excruciating agony. It was too soon, but it didn’t matter. He didn’t have a choice. He was shifting for the woman he loved.
“Wait!” Quill shouted, skidding the car to a stop as Phoenix slammed out the passenger door, rolling on the ground, mid-shift. He felt his fingers sharpen into claw, his palms becoming paws. His knees cracked backward, his clothing tearing off of him as his mouth gnashed the air, ripping into a snout, his ears lengthening and repositioning, his teeth re-shaping into daggers. And then the fur, the tail, the howl, tearing out of his throat.
And then the sprinting. He’d never run faster in his life than he did right now, all four of his legs in perfect concert. He ruthlessly ignored the searing pain in his left side. He was gaining on the van which was now swerving dangerously toward trees, threatening to skid off the gravel road and into the forest on either side.
Phoenix’s mind was not of a human, but not of a wolf either. He was blissfully in between. With one tremendous leap -not as graceful as he used to be before the fire- Phoenix sunk his front claws into the side of the van. Clinging, he slashed one of the back tires with his back claws.
The van swerved hard and lost most of its speed. Phoenix was off and around to the other side, slashing those tires as well.
The van skidded to a stop and Phoenix heard two slashing pops coming from the front of the van, almost in unison. He knew that if he were to look up there, he’d see Orion and Dawn in their wolf forms, following his lead. He heard a door fling open and he bounded around to the other side only to see Ida stumble out of the van, clumsily landing on her hands, skinning her knees, tears in her eyes.
He could scent the adrenaline. The fear. He rushed to her side, nuzzling her, sniffing her for injuries. She screamed and scrambled back until she really, really looked at him. “Phoenix?” she whispered.
He nodded his head and realized that she was probably freaked out by seeing him in his wolf form. But then she lunged forward, tossing her arms around his neck and burying her face in his fur, fully and completely trusting him.
“Phoenix, it was—“
The door to the driver’s seat flung open and a man jumped out of the van, attempting to sprint into the woods, away from the wolves. Phoenix bounded after him, easily eclipsing the human’s speed, and landing two heavy paws on his back, knocking the man to the ground.
The man rolled, landing face up, scrambling back, but Phoenix didn’t chase him, didn’t do more than growl. Because there, staring him in the face, was a man he’d thought of as a friend.
Watt blinked and scrambled and backed away. “Tell him, Ida. Tell him. I wasn’t going to hurt her, man, I swear. He wanted me to kill her, but I was just going to take her a few states over and convince her to start over for a while.”
This was confusing enough without also being in his wolf form so Phoenix shifted back into his human form, advancing on Watt and placing a heavy, bare foot on his chest so that he couldn’t get away. “What are you talking about.”
“They’re after you, man. The government. They’re t
rying to recruit shifters. They want you. And your siblings. When they found out that you were in love with Ida, they decided to get rid of her. Thought it would be easier to convince you to join them if you were unattached to any humans. They wanted me to kill her. But I wasn’t going to. I was just going to take her away for a while.”
“He wanted you to think that I’d left you, Phoenix,” Ida said from right behind him, placing her hand gently on his back. “That way you’d be easier to manipulate into joining whatever government cult he’s a part of.”
“What,” Phoenix growled, increasing the pressure on Watt’s chest, making his traitor of a friend gasp for air.
“They’ve got my sister, man.” Watt groaned and gulped for air, his handsome face twisted with pain and shame and fear. “They’ve got her. I know it. They won’t give her up unless I give them what they want and what they want is you. I never meant to hurt anybody.”
Ida scoffed. “Except for Phoenix, Orion, and Dawn, when you decided to hand them over to some government wackos.”
“I just want my sister back,” Watt said, letting his head thunk back on the ground, tears leaking out of his eyes.
Phoenix wanted to kill Watt. It would be so easy just to keep compressing his chest. His neck. He could shift back into his wolf form and tear his throat out. But his words resonated in Phoenix’s head. He was doing all of this for his sister.
Phoenix lifted his foot an inch and apparently Watt was a smart man because he skittered away from Phoenix as fast as he could.
He was scrambling back like a crab, his eyes bouncing from Ida to Phoenix to Orion and Dawn, still in their wolf forms on either side of Phoenix.
“I never meant to hurt anyone,” Watt whispered again. “I swear.”
And then he was on his feet and sprinting away into the woods.
“Phoenix.”
He felt her warm hands on his shoulders, her cheek against his chest and then he tore his eyes away from the spot where Watt had just disappeared. He didn’t need to chase him down and tear his throat out because here was Ida, safe and in his arms. He turned toward her hug and ducked his head to lay on her hair.
“Ida.” Phoenix thought of the moment she’d tossed her arms around his neck as he’d been in his wolf form. He thought of the trust and the bravery that took for a human. “You were scared of my wolf.”
She laughed a teary laugh and tipped her head back. “Are you joking? I’ve never been so happy to see a wolf in my entire life. And I knew you’d never, ever hurt me.” She glanced around at the other wolves and lowered her voice. “You shifted, Phoenix.” Tears sprang to her eyes. “You’re healing. You fully shifted. That’s so incredible.”
There was so much to say. So much to explain, but Phoenix jumped when he heard a car door slam.
He looked around and there was Quill, finally getting out of the car. “Let’s get back to the city,” Quill called, glancing around the woods in a nervous sort of way.
His siblings shifted back and got back into their clothes, Phoenix’s were destroyed, though, so all he could do was slid into the back seat and pull Ida close to him. She was quiet and trembling and hugging him so tight the entire drive.
He wanted to say everything to her. But they were surrounded by other people and what he had to say was so private. He especially didn’t want to say anything in front of Quill.
They were silent as they pulled up to the house, Dawn and Orion jogging up to the house on their own. Quill clenched his jaw and watched them go, so much nervous energy emanating off of him.
“Did you know?” Ida asked after a second. “Quill, did you know about Watt?”
Quill shook his head. “No.”
Phoenix was positive that he was lying.
“But I suspected,” Quill finished, a sad look in his eyes.
Apparently having heard enough, Ida slammed out of the car, dragging Phoenix with her. She took him by the hand and led him through Wren’s salon, which just so happened to be filled with women getting their hair done. They all goggled at the sight of Ida leading a very large, very naked man upstairs.
But Phoenix didn’t care. Ida was safe and that was all that mattered.
***
Well, this was the dumps.
And not just because a guy she’d once dated had tried to abduct her and convince her to leave her entire life behind.
She waited until Phoenix was stretched out on his bed and she had his burn cream in her hand to try to explain it to him.
She gently swiped the balm over his stretched and aggravated scar tissue, tears welling in her eyes even though she tried to fight it all back.
“Thank you for what you did, Phoenix. I’ll never forget it. I’ll never forget how you saved me.”
He was laying on his side, his eyes fiercely focused on her face. “It was nothing, Ida. Your safety is the most important thing to me.”
She bit her lip. “I know that it came naturally to you, to protect me. But not every man in the world would jump on the back of a moving van in order to tear out its tires. I’m—” her voice broke. “I’m lucky to have had you in my life for as long as I did. I’m better for knowing you. It’ll take me a long time to get over you, I’m sure. But you’ve taught me something I would never trade. You taught me all about what I actually deserve. A man who will fight for me and be affectionate and sweet with me and treat me well. And move and get a job and everything else you did. I didn’t mean to fall in love with you. I was a fool for thinking that I would be able to stop it. But I did. I do. I love you. So much. And I just wanted to say thank you for showing me the way. What I deserve from life. From love. And I’ll always think of you fondly.”
She couldn’t go on any more. She turned from him and let the tears come. She sat on the edge of his bed, tucked her face into her elbow and sobbed. She knew now that this was the only way this ever could have ended. Loving him was as easy as rolling down a hill. She’d never have been able to stop.
She jumped when a sharp finger poked her in the side.
When she turned, Phoenix was sitting halfway up, a rather confused look on his face. “I don’t get it.”
“What?”
“Why are you talking like we’re breaking up?”
“Because,” she hiccuped through her tears. “Because you figured out how to shift again. So now you’ll be headed back into the woods.”
His face quirked.
She tumbled on. “I get it now, Phoenix. I saw you in your wolf form and you’re just so perfect. So beautiful. I understand why you’d need to live your life in that form. I will never take that from you—”
He stopped her words with a kiss and an even more confused look. “Look, I know we haven’t really been over this, but you asked me not to leave you and I said I wouldn’t. I thought you understood that that meant I wasn’t going to, you know, leave you.”
“What?” Ida stared at him. “When the hell did I ask you not to leave me?”
“The first time we had sex. Remember? Three times you asked me. And then you came.”
I won’t, she remembered him saying into her ear. Promising her. I won’t.
“Oh. My. God.” She smacked her forehead. “You meant that you wouldn’t go back to the wilderness for good? You just gave it to me? Just like that?”
He shrugged. “I’m in love with you.”
“You’re going to stay in the human world?” she whispered.
“For the most part. Maybe I take a week around the full moon every month and go spend time with Orion and Dawn.” He shrugged again. “We’ll figure out what works the best. But I’m not leaving you, Ida. You’re too important to me.”
She pushed him back and straddled him. “Why are you being so nonchalant about this! I’m freaking out! YOU’RE STAYING WITH ME? I GET TO HAVE YOU? I GET TO LOVE YOU FOREVER? HOW CAN YOU BE SO CALM???”
He laughed and drew her down for a kiss, his hands going up her thighs to play around with her underwear. “Do you need me to calm you d
own a little?”
“OBVIOUSLY,” she whisper-yelled into his mouth.
She wore a dress and he was naked, so all he really had to do was tug the seam of her panties to one side to let her wetness slick along his cock. She gasped and collapsed and turned to liquid heat against him as he pushed himself up and into her.
“Anything you need, Ida. Anything you need.”
The End
Other books by Selena Scott
If you enjoyed this book please see below for the links to all of my books available on Amazon. These are also available in the full box sets.
The Dragon Realm Series
Book 1 - Chosen by the Dragon
Book 2 – The Dragon’s Touch
Book 3 – The Dragon’s Desire
Book 4 – The Dragon’s Passion
Secret Shifters of Spokane Series
Book 1 – Danil’s Mate
Book 2 – Emin’s Mate
Book 3 – Maxim’s Mate
Book 4 – Anton’s Mate
Shifter Fever Series
Book 1 – Ansel’s Game
Book 2 – Alec’s Game
Book 3 – Matt’s Game
Book 4 – Kains’ Game
Book 5 – Griff’s Game
Shifters of the Seventh Moon Series
Book 1 – The Shifter’s Shadow
Book 2 - The Shifter’s Embrace
Book 3 – The Shifter’s Seduction
Book 4 – The Shifter’s Desire
Forbidden Shifters
Book 1 – A Mate for Seth
Book 2 – A Mate for Raphael
Book 3 – A Mate for Jackson
Book 4 – A Mate for Phoenix