One True Mate 1: Shifter's Sacrifice
One True Mate 1; Shifter’s Sacrifice
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 © 2016 Lisa Ladew All Rights Reserved
Book cover by
The Final Wrap
*waves* Hi Rebecca!!
Cover model:
Burton Hughes
Photographer:
Eric Battershell
Special editorial assistance by
The Blurb Diva
and
Savan Robbins
. Without you, I would be lost, and much less interesting. Thank you.
Thank you to Kristine Piiparinen for all of your help with everything, again, as always <3
Thank you beta readers, arc readers, babes, and all of my readers. Goodness you make writing worth doing and so much easier and fun.
I also want to thank Fay Reid, Sandra McAulay and John McAulay for being my Scottish language and culture consultants.
Thank you Carin Borland for your evil help ;)
And special thank you to Amanda Quiles, my Shifter Guru.
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 shifter. Rare.
Echo - an animal with the same markings of 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
, 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.
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
wolfen
dies, the funeral is for the benefit of humans, but the important ceremony is the
zyanya
. The pack mates 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.
The three wolves raced through the forest at top speed in the waning moonlight, the large one in the lead urging the others to go faster, harder, push themselves to their limit. But even his perseverance couldn't hold the other two for long. As they neared the clearing, the two black wolves slowed, panting and grinning and gigging each other with their hips, the one with the brush of white on the very tip of his tail snapping playfully at a pocket gopher who chose that moment to push his head out of his hole to see what was going on.
The black and gray wolf in the lead, with the boomerang-shaped patch of white on his left shoulder, didn't slow. He pushed himself harder, driven from somewhere deep inside to give everything he had until the very last second, like always.
He felt the danger coming from his left a split second before it reached him, but there was nothing he could do. It was coming too fast. The large animal hit him on his left flank and they both tumbled together, a mass of fur and limbs, over the forest floor, their teeth snapping, their mouths frothing, as they both snarled and tore into each other, their bodies only stopping when they slammed into a tree.
The wolves separated, rolling away from each other. As they rolled, they both shifted into human form, fur disappearing, legs lengthening, thickening, hips changing shape, muzzles shortening, claws retracting and reforming, eye color changing. Both males scrambled to their feet in fighting stances, naked, but still ready to throw down.
"What is your problem, Mac?" Trevor Burbank, a tall, Mack-truck of a man, shouted, but before his second-in-command could answer, the other two wolves caught up to them, both launching their bodies at Mac and knocking him to the ground when they made contact. "Fuck," Trevor swore, running forward to get into the fray before his brothers tore Mac to pieces.
Trevor elbowed his way past the furiously shaking bodies of his brothers, one at Mac's thigh, and one at Mac's throat.
"Get your
mutts
off me," Mac snarled.
Aw, hell no. He didn't just say that. Trevor clamped his hands around the jaws of the wolf at Mac's throat and pulled the opposite way of the bite-down, knowing Mac could heal his own leg if he shifted, but if his throat was torn open, he could bleed out before he ever had a chance to recover from that. "Trent, Troy, he's not worth it, let him go," he forced out, all of his energy focused on keeping Trent from killing Mac right then and there.
Mac screamed and Trevor knew that Troy was grinding into his leg, maybe all the way to the bone. "Troy, stop!" Trevor demanded. He aimed a few kicks at Troy's flank while still cranking Trent's jaws apart. Blood flowed down his fingers and across Mac's neck. The minimal pain in his hands told him only some of that blood was his, and as he looked closer, he could see several of Trent's teeth violating Mac's skin.
"Trent! Lay off! You're gonna fucking kill him! He's an asshole, but you can't kill a
wolfen
for being an asshole, the
Citlali
will fry you!"
Finally, Trent eased slightly. "Let him go," Trevor continued, his voice taking on a soothing quality. "Even
dogs
like him have their uses. He doesn't have to like me."
Trevor ignored the growl that came from Mac's throat and caught his brother's thought like it was a ball launched at his face.
He
does
have to respect you.
Trevor grinned sourly.
We can't force him to
, he sent back.
We can let Troy bite his balls off though.
Trevor laughed out loud, relieved to see Trent letting go of Mac's throat, even if it was reluctantly. He turned to look at Troy who had also let go, but Mac's thigh was a mess of dirty hamburger. Too bad, so sad.
As soon as Mac was free he scrambled to his feet and limped away, leaving Trevor and his brothers on the cold forest floor, watching the blood drip from Mac's leg and neck.
"The Chief wants you in the office in thirty minutes," Mac threw over his shoulder, just before he shifted and loped off.
Trevor watched him go, admiring the fierce strength of Mac's pure white animal, even as he disliked the male. Trevor wanted to like Mac, it would make his working environment much easier, but with as much as Mac hated him, Trevor had no choice but to feel the same. He didn't blame Mac though.
Mac thought Trevor was a fraud, and Trevor agreed.
What little was left of Ella’s past lay spread out in front of her in the large attic, packed into boxes or sitting in random spots, as if left there by a busy toddler. Ella eyed it, knowing she shouldn't go through anything, she should just allow the resale shop to come in and take everything, but she was feeling grumpy that it had to happen at all. She
knew
there was nothing valuable in the boxes, but she still felt obligated to check. God helps those who get off their asses, and all that.
If she didn't come up with fourteen thousand dollars in the next two weeks, she would lose her aunt's house, and she had no idea if that would be a blessing or a curse. So her ass would be in motion until she figured something out.
Turning her attention back to the dark and dusty room, she tried to mentally divide it into the most likely spots to search, but was distracted by a soft rubbing against her leg. She looked down to see Chelsea, a black and orange harlequin cat twisting its body around her ankle and she smiled, bending to pet the feline on the head. As she did, her aunt's other cat, an all-black cat except for a bit of white on the tip of his tail, named Smokey, rubbed against her too, then looked up at her with sad, golden eyes and meowed once.