1
The sun was blistering and the air hung heavy like a wet blanket on a damp day. Shauna Fredricks chewed her lip until it was sore as she paced the pretty little park in her home town. Something was off today and all she wanted to do was go back home and lock the doors and shut herself inside her tiny house on the edge of town. She wanted to hide her son from the ugliness that chased them, but she couldn’t, she had to let him be a little boy and that meant getting out into the sunshine.
She tried to shake the feeling that crept up her spine, but she couldn’t. Something was in the air, it felt alive with electricity like it did just before a storm leveled the whole town and she had seen that, once as a kid, in this very town. This was different though, she thought as she looked up at the clear blue sky. Fall was in the air, but not a single cloud. This storm was coming from somewhere else, but it was coming. Her skin felt alive as the hair lifted on her arms.
Someone was watching her, but she couldn’t figure out from where or why they would want to. She’d been careful, no one knew who she was and the things she’d done.
No one even suspected. That was important. She took a deep breath and heard Dakota’s laughter. She had to keep him safe. He was all she had left. She’d given up everything to keep him safe, it had all been for him and she didn’t care what anyone thought, but she had to keep him safe until he was a little older. Then she could do what she knew she had to do. She would reach out to others for help, but she wanted it to be on her terms, in her own time.
She let out a long breath. It was all she had control over in this crazy world and she was reluctant to let it go. Maybe she was tempting fate, maybe she should make that call.
She lifted her phone from her pocket and pulled up the number that would end her running, her hiding, the constant fear. One call and she would be safe, but at what cost?
She couldn’t take it anymore, not today. She opened her mouth to call her son and her blood ran cold when she heard the familiar snarl and then the scream of a child. She had known better than to bring Dakota out today, but he had begged her to take him to the playground. It was so pretty out and he loved the sun and the fresh air was good for him. She’d given in, telling herself that most of the other kids would be in school anyway. Most turned out to be not enough.
Now she was trying to calm a frantic nanny as she held a cloth to her young charge’s arm. The bite wasn’t deep, just a scratch really, but that wasn’t the problem.
“How could you bring that thing to the park where normal kids play? I’m calling the police! We have a right to feel safe in our own town! Where is that thing’s leash?” Nadine McFadden declared, her round face growing redder with every word. Shauna understood, but it didn’t help calm her own anger over the poison the woman spewed from her thick lips.
“He isn’t dangerous normally and he most certainly isn’t a monster in need of a leash! He’s been sick and I guess he isn’t in control right now. I’m so sorry this happened, but we need to calm down and for heaven’s sake stop over reacting.” She said as she held her son. He had changed back, but now he was terrified and the fear in his eyes broke her heart. Shauna knew that could mean another loss of control and that wouldn’t help anyone. “Please, let me pay for the doctor bills, there is no need to involve the police. It was a simple accident. Kids bite sometimes. I am terribly sorry, but my son has the right to be here. The law says so. We will do anything that needs to be done, but I will not stand for name calling or insults.”
“The law does not say that his kind can attack innocents. He’s a monster. That kid belongs in a cage.” Nadine accused. “How did a thing like this happen anyway? You aren’t like that. I’ve known you for years, since you were in diapers, I think it would have shown. Nobody is that good at hiding and lying, not even a lawyer.”
She spat the last word like a curse although she’d been pretty happy to see Shauna when she’d given her free legal advice a few weeks earlier.
Shauna prayed for patience. No, she wasn’t like Dakota, but her life would have been easier if she had been. “That isn’t the issue. Now, let me give you my contact information and I would like the boy’s parents’ information so we can get this resolved.”
“I will not give you any information. The police will handle this. I can’t have that thing killing us all in our sleep.” She had already dialed 911 and was now speaking with dispatch. It was only a few minutes before a couple of officers approached, weapons drawn. Dakota shivered in Shauna’s arms. She had managed to dress him in a change of clothes she had in her bag, but from the way his eyes rounded and gleamed, she knew they would be in shreds if she didn’t get him calmed down.
“Where is it ma’am?” One officer asked. His gun shook in his hand as if he were about to encounter Godzilla instead of a scared little boy.
“Right here. This is Dakota. He is a shifter, a wolf. He has been ill and lost himself for a few minutes. He bit Mrs. McFadden’s charge on the arm. It wasn’t a deep bite, just a scratch. I have offered to pay any doctor’s expenses, but she insisted on calling you.” Shauna was losing her patience fast and the way everyone stared at Dakota as if he were some sort of freak was making her hackles rise.
“Ma’am, I’m going to ask you to step away now. We can handle this from here.” the officer instructed her.
That was the last straw. “Step away? You want me to step away from my son? Have you lost your damned mind? I know my rights and believe me, I know his. This was an unfortunate accident, no different than if he’d pushed another kid down. It’s being blown out of proportion. If her charge had bitten my son, none of this would have been an issue. I will not step away from my child who is seven years old. I am his mother and as a lawyer, I will protect his rights.”
“Oh my God in Heaven… is that how it happened to him? Did Dakota get bitten? Oh good Lord, poor little Max. We need to call a doctor. We can’t have him turning into a monster too.” Mrs. McFadden fanned her ruddy face.
Shauna closed her eyes. “No. Dakota wasn’t bitten. He was born a shifter, like all shifters are. You can’t turn someone with a bite.” She rubbed her forehead where she felt a headache starting. “That is science fiction.”
“Then you tell me how! I demand to know. Every bit of this nonsense sounds like science fiction to me. It’s all a curse on good and decent people. Did you find him or something? I knew your mama and she is as human as me. That has to be it. You found the little wretch and took him in. Honey, I know you have a soft spot for these creatures, but they aren’t natural. They are evil. I know you went through a rough patch when that husband of yours died, but this isn’t the way to heal.” She offered Shauna a sad smile. “You need to let them take him where they can make sure he doesn’t hurt anyone else.”
“He is my son. I love him and I will never let anyone take him from me.” Shauna vowed.
“You can’t have a normal life with that little monster hanging onto you. Everyone would understand child.”
Shauna was trying hard to keep her cool, but if this woman touched her she would lose it and she would do more than bite.
“Mrs. McFadden, please, this is none of your business.” She said calmly and stroked a hand over her son’s back.
“We were told that they weren’t a threat. What on earth will we do? We will just be overrun. What else are they not telling us?” She was working herself up into a fit of hysterics as she fanned her overheated face. Little Max stared wide eyed up at Dakota, pain forgotten as he got an up-close look at a real shifter. Shifters had been known to the public for less than a month and the world was still in a frenzy of fear. Lucian Everly was no fool and he had insisted upon having a set of laws written so when the time came, they were ready. Shauna and her husband Maverick Blackstone had written those laws. It had taken them more than five years, but they were done and with little time to spare. It had been less than six months since Maverick’s death and the laws were in place. He would have loved that.
Shauna fought down the pain that lanced through her at the thought of her husband. He would have loved all the insanity. He would have been one of the first to declare himself a shifter and with pride. He loved what he was and had found it an honor to write the laws and he’d been murdered for it.
Shauna had gone into hiding after his death, to keep Dakota safe. She had hoped to stay under the radar for a few more months at the very least, a year or two at most.
Nadine had worked herself into a frenzy and Shauna knew there was no way she could calm her, so she gave up. Instead she turned to the officer. She’d known him for years, he’d been younger than her in school, but she knew him. He was acting like she was some sort of alien.
“Please ma’am, step away now. I have called animal control…”
“No. If you need to take Dakota, you will take me too. I am his parent and you know I’m a lawyer. You have no right to separate a child from his mother, human or shifter.” She was ignoring the comment about animal control because if she didn’t she would lose her temper and that wasn’t what was needed.
“Mamma? Don’t let them…” Dakota sniffed. His big blue eyes looked glassy and the heat in his body told her his fever was back. He was a shifter and would heal from cuts and wounds, but he still caught a cold or virus on occasion. It did heal faster, but he still suffered. It would take a few years for his immune system to build enough for him to fight off illness. Shifters were amazing in that way, almost immortal. He would need to be.
“There is no way in hell anyone is taking you away from me. I promise you that little man.” Shauna walked to the police car and climbed in. Dakota crawled into her lap.
She needed help, she knew that and wasn’t too stubborn to ask for it, not when Dakota was in danger.
She pulled her phone out of her pocket and dialed a number she’d hoped to never need.
“Ma’am, I need to take that.” The officer said, but Shauna ignored him. When a deep voice came over the line Shauna shivered.
“My name is Shauna Fredricks. Maverick Blackstone was my husband, my mate. Our son is in trouble and I need help. I’m being taken to the Pruitt County Sheriff’s station in Kentucky. Please, please help us.”
“I’ll be there as soon as I can. Sit tight and don’t trust anyone.”
The line went dead and she had no idea what she had just set in motion, but she trusted it. That voice was all the hope she had, it was family and Dakota needed family in a desperate way. He would come, she knew it. She just had to make sure she could hold them off until he got there.
She handed over her purse and phone. She wouldn’t admit to being afraid, but she was, terror coursed through her at the thought of losing Dakota or having him exposed to the world. There were so many who didn’t understand that shifters were just people. There were so many who saw them as evil, something to be exterminated.
“I’m sorry mama. He pushed me down and my wolf defended me. I’m sorry.” Dakota whimpered. “I should have been stronger.”
Shauna ran a hand over his dark head. “It will be ok baby. Your mama knows a thing or two about the law. We will get through this just fine.” She forced strength into her words. Dakota was a shifter, he could hear a lie and she wouldn’t allow that, not today. She had to believe her words for them to sound truthful.
She missed Maverick. He would know what to do, he’d always known what to do. Even when things had gotten dangerous, even when he’d been too weak to get out of bed, he had made sure she knew that there were options for her. One option had always been the Howlers MC.
Shauna had always found it absurd that the notorious gang was the only law the shifters really feared, but theirs was a different world. Now she hoped the MC would be able to help her.