Her Shifter Bodyguard (Shifter World Novella - Book One) (SERIES OF 13 SHORT STORIES)
Chapter Eleven: When Pigs Fly

“No fucking way!” Dustin bellowed.

Just the image of that had Dustin’s heart racing.

“It’s not real,” Sharissa said, cuddling against him.

Dustin took in even breaths to steady his heart rate.

“Not a good idea, Tate. Very dramatic, but how will you explain how she got out of your trance?” Daryl asked.

Tate snorted, “you shifters are too smart for your own good. Fine, I’ll tell him I dropped her off a Highrise, and her body went splat….”

“Shut the fuck up!” Dustin hollered, jumping to his feet.

The vampire chuckled as he held his hands up in defense. “Easy, shifter.”

“Get the fuck out of here!” Dustin shouted, pointing at the door.

“Easy now, Dustin,” Daryl said, laying a hand on his brother’s shoulder. “We need him, and you know it.”

Dustin snorted, and Shar pulled him down in his seat, then soothed him by rubbing his back and laying her head on his shoulder.

“I’m just fucking with you, my friend,” Tate said with a devilish grin. “And besides, it should be something believable.”

“Fake a car wreck,” Dominic said. Everyone turned to him, and he shrugged. “On your way to Vega, you were in a car wreck. You, of course, survived without a scratch, being a vampire and all. But it killed Shar on impact. Something you couldn’t have foreseen happening and something he cannot dispute.”

“We’ll need a real crash in case he looks it up,” Dylan said.

Dominic shook his head. “Tate can put the image into Vega’s head that he saw the report and identified the body.”

“You must be the smart one of this group of idiots,” Tate said with a grin.

“Watch it,” Dustin growled.

“Okay, so now that we know what we are doing. How are we going to pull it off?” Daryl asked.

Tate grinned at the group of enormous men. “Leaveit all to me.”

~🐱~

“Do you think he can pull it off?” Lyvia asked as she sipped the glass of red wine Dustin had set in front of her on the coffee table.

Shar shrugged. “Dustin trusts him.”

“I can’t believe a vampire hypnotized us,” Lyvia said with a chuckle

Shar snorted. “It seems he’s good at all kinds of tricks.”

“Well, I read that vampires can read the minds of humans,” Lyvia said with wide eyes.

Shar nodded. “He heard mine pretty well. He says he gets tidbits, but the tidbit he got from me was personal.”

“I like what you were thinking about,” Dustin said as he leaned down and kissed Shar on the cheek.

She smiled up at him, “only because it was about you.”

He laughed, “just be glad you weren’t thinking about knotting.”

Shar made a face at him, and he chuckled, then moved around to the chair which faced the couch she and Lyvia were sitting on.

“What are you going to do if this doesn’t work?” Lyvia asked, watching Shar.

Shar shrugged. “I’m not sure.”

“I’ll kill him myself,” Dustin growled.

“No,” Lyvia said, looking at him. “You need to protect your mate. We’ll hire someone else to kill the asshole.”

Dustin laughed and smiled at her.

Shar smiled at Lyvia. She was glad that Lyvia was a shifter, so she could share what was going on with her. If she had been human, they would have had to have Tate erase her memory of the other day. But since she’s a part of their world, they let her in on everything. Shar felt they were going to be great friends, and she hadn’t had a friend in a long time.

“You’re giving me that look again,” Lyvia said, looking at Shar.

Sharissa felt her blush and turned her head, “sorry.”

“What is it?” Lyvia asked, placing her hand on Shar’s shoulder.

Shar let out a sigh. “It’s just, I don’t have any friends, and I was just thinking about how you and I seem to be becoming friends—unless I’m wrong,” she said, her head whipping to the side to look at the female shifter.

Lyvia grinned, “you’re not wrong, Shar. Even if you weren’t mated to a shifter and having all these crazy problems, I think you and I would still become amazing friends.”

Shar smiled. “I think so, too.”

A phone rang, and Shar almost jumped off the couch.

Lyvia chuckled as she squeezed Shar’s shoulder to comfort her.

“Sorry,” Dustin said as he stood and pulled his phone from his pocket. “Kraftman,” he answered.

“You’re lucky,” Lyvia sighed.

“I know.” Shar grinned as she watched her mate talk on his phone.

“I would give anything to replace my mate.”

Shar looked at her friend. “I have a feeling that you’re going to. Don’t know when, but you will. Tate says it’s a mate connection. Like I can sense other mates, male or female, who’ll replace the other half of their soul soon.”

“Had you felt anything like that before you’d found yours?” Lyvia asked.

Shar shook her head. “I didn’t even know there was such a thing as Fated mates—until I met the Kraftman brothers.”

“And one of them attacked you,” Lyvia chuckled.

Shar smiled at her, “just wait until you replace yours. You will see.”

Lyvia nodded and said, “I can’t wait. So, how do you have these feelings now?”

Shar shrugged. “Tate said it’s part of the markings,” she said, holding up her wrists.

Lyvia ran a finger over a scar and smiled. “It’s like they branded you.”

Shar nodded and whispered, “branded by love.”

Lyvia grinned, “I knew it.”

Shar looked up at her. “What?”

“You’re in love with your mate.”

Shar smiled. “Is it that obvious?”

Lyvia chuckled, “to everyone but your mate.”

“That was Tate,” Dustin said as he rejoined them.

“What did he say?” Shar asked, looking at her mate.

Dustin grinned at her. “All is taken care of. We’ll never have to worry about Johnny Vega and his goons again. It turned out that Vega has a girl in every state, which is creepy as hell. Tate visited each woman, and made them forget about the bastard, then made Vega forget all about them.”

The girls laughed.

“But I thought that would not last,” Shar said when she remembered what Tate had said when they’d suggested that for her.

Dustin shrugged. “It seemed that since they live in different states from each other, the possibility of him seeing them again is slim, but he gave it a shot. But with you, you live too close to Vega—if he saw you, he would get his memories of the two of you back.”

Shar scrunched up her face. “Can Tate take away my memories of him? I don’t want them anymore.”

Dustin moved across the room and knelt in front of her. “Mafilia, you being with that asshole, God, I can’t believe I’m saying this.” He cleared his throat. “You being with him made you the woman you are today, and I love that woman….” He stopped talking, and his eyes opened wide.

“You hated saying that you love me?” Shar asked, her face pale.

He shook his head, “no, Mafilia, I….”

“I think it’s time for me to go,” Lyvia said with a giggle, not that either of them heard her. She grabbed her purse and left her friend’s house. Shar is such a lucky woman. Maybe she’s right, and her mate is close by, and she’ll replace him.

She shrugged and said, “yeah, and pigs can fly.”

A squeal over her head had her looking up. A boar shifter went flying by, and her skin crawled.

“Hey there, Lyvia,” Dylan Kraftman said as he walked up to her.

“Hi,” Lyvia said as she continued to stare at where the boar had landed.

“Sorry about that,” Dylan said with a laugh. “Tate called me and told me a minion escaped his grasp and sent me to replace him. That asshole would have jumped Shar when she came out of the house.” Dylan shook his head.

“Yeah, great rescue,” Lyvia said with wide eyes, her heart still in her throat.

Well, she’d asked for a flying pig.

“Dustin and Shar still up?” he asked, watching her pale face.

Lyvia nodded, “but I wouldn’t go in there just yet.”

“Oh?” he asked, studying her face.

She nodded and explained, “Dustin just told her he loves her, in not so much of a “baby I love you” kind of way. They will be discussing it for a while,” Lyvia chuckled.

Dylan snorted, “that’s my brother. He never had class.”

Lyvia snorted, “he’s a wonderful man, and Shar is lucky to have him.”

Dylan nodded, “she is. And he is lucky to have her.”

“Makes you wonder if there’s anyone out there for us, huh?”

He nodded, “well, I need to replace my flying pig before he escapes,” he chuckled as he ran past her.

Lyvia watched him run after the boar and sighed. “Too bad you’re not mine, Dylan Kraftman. You’re a wonderful man, too. Whoever she is, she will be one lucky bitch.” Lyvia smiled to herself, then got into her car and drove home.

She was still reeling over the fact that she had just seen a pig fly.

~🐱~

“I hated to say that you being with Johnny Vega was a good thing. Because, in some ways, it wasn’t. But if not for him, you would not have come to us for help. And you wouldn’t be this strong, wonderful woman….”

“That you love?” Shar asked with a bright smile.

He grunted, “yes, Sharissa Flemmings, I love you. Are you happy now?”

Shar grinned, “oh, yes, very. Because I love you too.”

Dustin growled loudly, and his cougar purred with joy. Their mate loves them! She truly loves them.

“We’ll be so happy together. You and me,” Dustin said as he pushed her against the couch.

“You, me, and cub make three?” she asked with a grin.

He paused and stared at her. “Shar?”

She shook her head, “not yet. But maybe soon?” She asked, her cheeks turning pink. “I mean, if you want, I can stop taking my pill….” She squealed when he lifted her off the couch and swung her around.

She threw her head back and laughed. “How are you going to react when I tell you there is a cub?”

He growled in her ear, “you will replace out the day you announce I’m going to be a father.”

She smiled as she ran her hand through his hair. “I know we haven’t known each other long, but I feel as though I have known you forever.”

He kissed her lips, then pulled his head back and looked into her beautiful blue eyes, which held the other half of his soul.

“You and I are marked by the Goddesses, separated and split in two. Now that we are one, our lives will begin.”

She sighed, “I love you so much—my heart aches for you.”

He nipped at her bottom lip. “You want to get married?” he whispered.

She stared at him. “You would do that for me?”

“I would move the moon and stars for you, Sharissa. You should know that by now.”

She sighed, “an actual wedding sounds wonderful. But I don’t want to wait until after the wedding to start our family,” she said with a twinkle in her eyes. “I didn’t take my pill today.”

His cougar growled inside.

‘Yes.’

Dustin smiled at his cougar’s eagerness. “Mine.” Dustin and his cougar said as he carried their mate to the bedroom and laid her on the bed.

“Yes,” Sharissa whispered. “I am yours, and you are mine.”

“Forever,” Dustin whispered.

Shar nodded in agreement, “until the end of time.”

This book may be over but their story is not.

THIS SERIES IS A LONG INTERTWINING STORY THAT IS OVER 250,000 WORDS. I DIVIDED IT INTO 13 BOOKS, SO THAT EACH FATED MATE COUPLE HAD THEIR OWN BOOK. SO THE BOOKS ARE SHORT (BUT SWEET). ENJOY!