Shifting the Shifter (Shifter World - Book Six) (Series of 13 Short Stories)
Chapter One: New Fated Mate: Activated

-Present Day-

“Why are we walking into a club?” Dustin asked as he pulled his mate to his side.

“Because this is where the spell said to go,” Pearl said as she opened the door.

The large bouncer looked at them and said nothing. Shar could feel the man’s eyes follow them, and a chill ran down her spine.

“What’s next?” Dylan asked as he placed his arm around Josie.

“Next, our vampire friends talk to some people and replace out where the Cage is.” Pearl turned to look at Tate and Bridget.

“On it,” Tate said, then turned and walked toward a group of drunk women.

Bridget snorted. “Always thinking with his dick,” she said, then turned in the opposite direction and headed toward a group of men.

The others laughed as they watched her approach the men.

“What do we do?” Daryl asked.

Pearl looked at her watch. “Shit, we don’t have much time before the new Fated Mate is triggered.”

“Are we here to break up a fighting ring owned by dark witches and wizards or to replace the newest Fated Mate?” Gerald asked.

Pearl looked at him. “Both.”

“So, she’s here,” Daryl said, looking around the club.

Pearl rolled her eyes. “While Tate and Bridget are interrogating people, we should move around. We don’t want to bring attention to ourselves by just standing here.”

The others nodded in agreement and started moving among the crowd of clubbers.

An hour later, Tate and Bridget found them and reported no news, which wasn’t good news.

“What about the bouncer?” Shar asked, looking toward the door. “He keeps looking at us. It’s very creepy.”

Tate looked at the bouncer in question and chuckled. “Smart,” he said, kissing Shar’s forehead.

The two vampires walked over to the bouncer, and ten minutes later, returned to their friends.

“Bingo,” Tate said with a grin.

“He knows a lot,” Bridget said.

“Where’s he going?” Shar asked as she watched the man leave the club.

“Oh.” Bridget turned to watch the bouncer.

“He’s been here for a long time,” Tate said. “I told him to take a walk until he gets tired, then stop and sleep wherever he stopped.”

“Tate!” Shar hissed. “What if he stops in traffic?”

Tate looked at her, his eyes squinted. “Shar, do you want me to show you all the stuff we saw in his head?”

“He’s not a good person,” Bridget whispered.

Shar took a deep breath and let it out.

“Let’s go.” Tate took hold of Shar’s arm and pulled her away from Dustin.

“Hey,” Dustin complained.

Tate turned his head to his friend and winked, then looked down at Shar. “Are you angry with me, Sharissa?”

She sighed. “No, Tate.”

“Good. Because when you see what this place is hiding, you’ll want to kill that asshole yourself.”

“He got off easy,” Bridget said as she took hold of Shar’s other arm.

Shar sucked in a breath when a flicker of what they’d seen in the bouncer’s mind floated into her head. A tear slid down her cheek.

“Bridget,” Tate growled.

“Sorry, she needed to see some of it,” Bridget said as she pulled away from Shar.

“Can we track the asshole down and just kill him?” Shar asked, wiping the tears from her cheeks.

Tate smiled. “He’ll get his. Believe me. But for now, we have other matters to contend with.”

Shar nodded.

“What did you do to my mate?” Dustin asked with a growl when he saw Shar’s tears.

“Nothing,” Shar said as she moved from Tate to her mate. “Bridget showed me some of what they’d seen in the bouncer’s mind, and it wasn’t pretty.”

Dustin sighed as he held his mate close to his side.

“Through here,” Bridget said when they came to a large double door.

“Locked,” Lyvia said as she tried the doorknob.

“Not for long.” Tate walked up to the doors.

“We need to surprise them,” Pearl warned him.

“Of course,” Tate smirked as he took both doorknobs in his hands and turned them.

The knobs clicked, and the doors opened.

“Wow,” Josie and Maddy whispered as they walked through the doors.

It was so loud that if not for their extra sensitive hearing, they wouldn’t have heard the twins.

“Let’s make our way down to the cage,” Pearl whispered.

Tate closed the double doors behind them and twisted the knobs so no one could escape.

“All these people are guilty in my book,” Bridget hissed.

“Look at you.” Maddy chuckled. “You’ve turned a whole new leaf.”

Bridget snorted. “You know I despise humans. Shifters are a part of my world. I never had anything against them.” She shrugged.

“And that’s who they have fighting in these fights,” Tate said as they made their way down to the cage.

“Get that filth out of my cage,” someone said over a microphone.

“That would be the announcer,” Tate informed them.

“And now!” the announcer shouted into the mic. “The fight you have all been waiting for!”

The crowd went wild.

Tate stopped in the middle of the aisle. “Do you smell that?”

Everyone sniffed the air.

“Unclaimed Mate,” Dustin growled.

Everyone looked around, hoping to spot her in the crowd.

“Where is she?” Dylan asked his mate.

Pearl grunted. “Just wait.”

“Wait?” Dustin asked as he watched other male shifters around them sniff the air as well. “They smell her too. We need to get to her.”

“No,” Pearl said.

They looked at her.

“We need to put a stop to this before we look for the Fated Mate. Besides, I have a feeling the Fated Mate will come to us,” she said as she looked around at her family.

They didn’t understand her, but they trusted her.

The announcer announced one of the fighters, and the crowd booed. “And our returning champion, Queen Bee!”

Pearl and her group stood in the center of the aisle and watched as a man in a hoodie walked into the cage. The front of his hoodie was open, and his head was down. The hood over his head blocked his face from the crowd.

“Tonight’s fight,” the announcer said. “Bedon Sontoiya!”

The crowd went wild, and the shifters on the stairs sucked in a sharp breath.

“You see why we must shut this down?” Pearl whispered.

The shifters in their group nodded, their silver eyes blazing.

“What did he say?” Maddy whispered.

Rolando pulled Maddy close and kissed her forehead. “Bedon Sontoiya,” he whispered.

“It means, ‘To The Death,’” Gerald said with a growl.

The girls whimpered.

“There are the owners,” Pearl said, pointing to a man and woman standing on a platform over the crowd.

“Yep, that’s them,” Tate said, looking up at them.

“There’s the vampire they pay to nab the fighters,” Bridget growled. “She’s a disgrace to vampires everywhere. Working for dark witches and wizards.”

“I think we can sneak up on them. Their attention is on the fight,” Pearl observed.

“A group of shifters, vampires, humans, and a witch. Yeah, I think they’ll be surprised.” Dylan laughed.

“Gerald?” Rolando asked, watching his best friend.

Gerald Copperfield couldn’t take his eyes off the fighter with the hoodie. No matter how hard he tried to look away. He liked how confident the man was. Even though his head was bowed, he had strength and talent and knew it. His head is only bent for show; he’s not afraid of… anything.

“Gerald? Are you okay?”

Gerald heard Rolando’s voice, but he couldn’t pull his thoughts away from the fighter.

“It’s happening,” Pearl whispered.

“What is?” Dylan asked, looking at his mate.

Howls and growls erupted in the crowd.

“Ah fuck,” Dustin said, looking around. “The Fated Mate is in heat” He watched shifters jump from their seats and look around for who the smell belonged to.

“I thought it only happens if their eyes meet,” Lyvia said as she looked around.

Raj pulled her against him. “Yeah, that’s how it worked for us.”

“No,” Dustin said, looking at Lyvia. “You were in heat the minute we stepped into the building. I didn’t think anything of it because all female shifters go into heat. Just not as strong as when they’ve found their mate. It got unbelievably strong after you and Raj saw each other.”

“He’s right.” Pearl looked at the wolf in their group. “Gerald!” she shouted.

Gerald shook his head and looked at the Witch.

“If somehow the Alpha Mate spots his mate before the mate spots him, that can trigger it,” Pearl said.

“Oh.” Lyvia looked at Raj. “I’d felt a pull to Raj when I’d seen him on the ice, but I didn’t know what it was until he looked into my eyes.”

Raj nodded. “I smelt you but didn’t know you were mine until I saw you.”

“The minute I saw Sharissa, I knew she was mine,” Dustin said, pulling Shar against him.

“The Alpha Mate has spotted the unclaimed mate,” Pearl said.

“How do we replace the unclaimed mate?” Shar asked.

“We already have.” Pearl looked back at the cage.

At the same moment, the fighter pulled the hoodie off his head and looked up at the crowd. He stopped when he saw their group staring at him.

“Mine!” Gerald howled.

Before anyone could stop him, he took off for the cage.

The group stared at him wide-eyed, then chuckled.

Josiah stared at the group of shifters, humans, vampires, and… Is that a white witch? His eyes locked with the large black man staring at him.

“Mine!” the giant shifter howled as he ran to the cage.

“Fuck!” someone shouted from the group of misfits.

Josiah had felt something change in him a few minutes before he’d come into the cage, and a minute ago, he felt his body shift. Something was happening inside him, and he had no clue what was happening. All he knows is he has to kill his opponent. Damn that vampire bitch.

“You’re mine!” the black man shouted, pointing at him from the other side of the cage.

“You’ll have to wait for your turn, big guy!” the announcer yelled over the mic with a laugh.

“Why do you want to fight me?” Josiah asked, staring at the large black… wolf.

Gerald’s body sang when he heard his mate’s voice. “I’m not here to fight you.”

“Man, you smell good,” the other fighter said as he moved toward Josiah.

Gerald watched his mate stare at his opponent.

“Hey, no sniffing, let’s get to fighting!” the announcer said, but the crowd was restless, and most of the male shifters in the room were already climbing up the cage wall.

“What’s going on here?!” the dark wizard yelled from his place. “Kill each other already!”

“I don’t want to kill him,” the other fighter said as he sniffed Josiah. “Shit, I’m not even gay, but I want to fuck the shit out of you.”

Josiah stared at the other fighter. He’s seen the man fight before, and he’s no pussy. What the fucking hell was wrong with him?

“Mine!” the giant wolf shifter said, shaking the cage.

Josiah watched in amazement as the shifter tore a hole in the cage.

“Fuck this, I’m getting me some!” the other fighter shouted, then jumped on top of Josiah.

“Get the fuck off, my mate!” Gerald thundered as he pulled the hole in the cage’s wall apart further so he could fit his large body through.

Josiah growled as he shoved the other fighter off him, then spun his legs in the air and jumped to his feet. The fighter came after him again. He easily dodged him, then laid a blow to the man’s back. His hood flipped back over his head as he fought off the man.

He didn’t need to see to fight the man.