Dreaming of the Shifter (Shifter World - Book Five) (Series of 13 Short Stories)

Pearl nodded as she flung—whatever it was they had sent their way—back at them, making the wizards run for cover behind the truck.

“Because when we win, and we will,” Pearl said with a grin. “The dark witches and wizards will be banished because no evil will survive what is coming. And your sets of twins will be the backbone to their destruction.”

Both women covered their stomachs with their arms.

“Now, do you see why you are so important?” Bridget asked with a smile.

“Duck!” Daryl shouted as one of the wizards threw a fireball at them.

“Okay, I’m done talking about this crap. We should be killing.” Gerald said as he started shifting.

The other shifters grinned as they, too, started to shift.

“I wish they’d passed that onto us.” Josie chuckled.

“I know, right,” Maddy said with a happy smile as she touched her mate’s side.

“Shall we start?” Pearl asked with a wide grin.

The wolf howled as the bear and cougars growled.

Pearl swept her arms over her head, and a strong wind swept the wizards off their feet. The shifters jumped over the others and made their way toward the wizards, their mates close behind them.

Pearl ducked another fireball and threw her white fire at the wizard, flinging fireballs at them.

“We’ve got this one!” the twins exclaimed as they jumped on top of the wizard, who was getting ready to attack the bear.

“They’re so magnificent,” Bridget said as she watched the twins fight as one.

“You’d think they’d never spent a day apart, let alone more than twenty years,” Tate said as he watched the two identical women beat the crap out of the wizard.

“Don’t think they have it in them to kill, though,” Bridget said with a chuckle as she jumped into the air and landed on the wizard’s shoulders. She took hold of his head and ripped it off.

“Bridget!” Maddy screamed.

Bridget grinned. “Sorry, little bird, but they have to die.”

“One down!” Josie shouted to the others.

The three wizards left bellowed when they saw their fellow wizard’s head in the hands of the female vampire.

“Oh lord, drop that,” Maddy grumbled.

Bridget grinned, then tossed the head over her shoulder.

Tate jumped into the air, landed behind the twins, and kicked the wizard, who was sneaking up on the twins, in the stomach. The wizard went flying backward and landed a hundred feet away from them.

“Go after him,” Bridget said with an annoyed growl.

Tate growled back. “This is why we never worked, Bridge. You’re too fucking bossy,” he said, then disappeared.

The twins stared at Bridget, eyes blinking.

“You two dated?” Josie asked.

Bridget smiled. “For fifty years or so.”

Both girls laughed.

Pearl swept the wizard away from her mate, flipped over Dylan’s cougar, and kicked the man in the stomach.

“Hands off my mate.” She growled.

The wizard stared at her. Now he knows she’s a Fated Mate. And as of now, it is off-limits unless he wants the Goddesses to kill him.

“I can kill your mate.” He growled.

“You won’t be safe from the Goddesses no matter if you kill us or our mates. We’re all important to this war they foresaw.”

The dark wizard laughed. “They only need the Fated Mates to have the kids that will destroy us,” he said as he sent a bolt toward Dylan’s cougar.

Pearl screamed as she tried to push the bolt away from her mate, but she wasn’t fast enough. The bolt hit its target.

“NO!” Pearl screamed so loud everyone stopped moving.

Dylan went down hard, and everyone watched as Pearl ran to his side.

“Please, no,” she cried as she watched him shift to his human form.

“Dylan!” Daryl howled once he shifted back to human form.

“Fuck!” Dominic hailed as they all rushed to where Dylan lay on the ground, Pearl over his still form.

“Grab him!” Daryl shouted, pointing at the wizard who killed his brother.

Tate and Bridget took the wizard down but didn’t kill him.

“This can’t be right,” Pearl cried.

Rolando and Gerald pulled the other wizard over to the others. They forced both wizards to their knees.

The wizards laughed.

“We have prevented one birth,” one of them said with a snarl.

Tate growled as he took hold of the man’s hair and pulled his head back. “I wouldn’t be so sure, you fucking piece of trash.”

Bridget sniffed the air. “She’s with cub.”

Daryl, Dominic, and Drezden looked at Pearl. At least she and their brother had created their cub before he died.

“NO!” Daryl bellowed.

“Dylan,” Pearl cried, placing a hand over her mate’s heart. Nothing.

“You’re going to pay for this!” Dominic yelled as he went after the two wizards.

Time froze. Everyone and everything stopped moving. Dylan took a deep breath as he looked at the scene around him. His mate crying at his side, his brother’s trying not to cry, Dominic going for the wizard’s throat.

“Dylan Kraftman.”

Dylan turned around and sucked in a sharp breath. The woman who stood behind him was beautiful, and the glow around her told him she was… no…

“Yes.” She smiled. “I am Senshire….”

“Goddess of love,” Dylan said, staring at her.

She chuckled. “Yes. So, you can see why I am directly linked to the Fated Mates.”

He nodded and looked at his mate, then his body. “You protect the Fated Mates.”

She smiled. “And their mates.” She nodded.

He snorted. “Yeah, you’ve done a fine job of that.”

She chuckled. “Yes, well, I can only talk to you if you’re dead or as powerful as your mate,” she said, looking at Pearl. “She has loved you for a long time, you know.”

Dylan nodded. “Yeah, I know.”

She looked back up at him. “I know you must have many questions.”

He snorted. “Yeah, well, I’m dead….”

“Not permanently.” She shook her head. “Did you honestly think I’d let one of my favorite creations die?”

He stared at her, and she laughed.

“Dylan, you and your brothers were born for a reason.”

He nodded. “For this upcoming war, or whatever it is.”

She nodded. “Yes, that is part of it. But even without the war, we chose to put you five in these bodies because you were our favorite spirits. And when we split you, it was the most beautiful experience we’d ever witnessed. You five and your mates are the most powerful of them all. And the twins, their children, are essential. I was not able to bring their parents back to life, but I can make sure their children fulfill the destiny they themselves were deprived of.”

“What is their destiny, exactly?” he asked as he turned to look at the twins. One of whom is mated to one of his brothers.

“They were to become very strong with their bonding, but the dark witches and wizards saw an end to that, so I and the other Goddesses linked their destiny with their children’s. So now their cubs will fulfill what they could not.”

He nodded. “But that doesn’t tell me what it is.”

“The dark witches and wizards will not stop you from stopping the humans, but they will not help either. When the war is over, and the Supernaturals are in their own haven, they will try to attack. Pearl is strong enough to keep them out, but we will need the twins to eliminate them.”

He stared at her, blinking. “Kill them?”

She shrugged. “Or deprive them of their powers. Either way, we need them.”

He nodded. “Do you want me to tell Josie and Maddy?”

“Yes, I want you to tell them everything you have seen and heard. I want them all to know that I am here for them. My sisters and I did not create you all to just abandon you. And I want you to know that not only are the female Fated Mates protected by the Goddesses. Because, if you numskulls would look at it the right way, all of you are Fated Mates, so you are all under protection.”

Dylan laughed. Why had they never seen it that way before?

“Because you only think of the female mates. There is so much more to it than you have seen. Soon you will understand what I mean,” she said with a wicked gleam in her eyes. “And one more thing.” She smirked. “You are an Alpha Fated Mate.”

“But I’m not an Alpha,” he said, his eyebrows furrowed. “My father is the Alpha.”

She shook her head. “When you found your mate, did you not feel it? It’s what made you walk over the table and take your mate.”

He chuckled at the memory. So, he’s an Alpha Fated Mate.

“All of your brothers are Alpha Fated Mates. But as you pointed out, your father is the Alpha of your clan. There is a difference. All the Alpha Fated Mate means is you are the more aggressive one. You’re the one to impregnate your mate, not the other way around. And you don’t have to be a shifter to be the Alpha Fated Mate. If a human male got with a female shifter, who do you think would be the Alpha?”

He chuckled at that. It made sense.

“Is everyone going to come to us?” he asked.

She nodded. “Yes. Everyone will be drawn to your clan. And your clan is going to grow. It will no longer be a family clan. You will all be family, whether blood or not. And Pearl will know where to find others. We’ll keep feeding her information.”

Dylan nodded. “Thank you for the information, Senshire.”

She smiled. “When I revive you, I want you to send a message to the dark ones.”

He nodded. “What do you want me to tell them?”

“Tell them that ALL Fated Mates, and their cubs, are protected by the Goddesses, and next time they try to kill any of you, we will not show mercy.”

“I am to show them mercy?” He asked, confused.

She laughed. “No, you are going to kill them both. But they will be allowed to return in spirit, to tell the others, before they’re pulled down to the pits of hell. Where, by the way, they will not get a seat next to the Devil, as they believe. Most don’t know this, but he has very little to do with what they do, they may do it under his name, but it’s not like he goes around recruiting them.” She snorted and shook her head.

“So, if I’m not showing them mercy….”

“Oh, dear boy, you are our mercy.”

Dylan blinked.

She grinned. “If we have to kill them ourselves, it will not be pleasant or quick.”

He nodded in understanding. The Goddesses can be very vindictive when it comes to their creations.

She smiled. “That we are. Witches and wizards were not our creation. They’re humans who were blessed with magic; some use it for good, some for evil. Though having magic puts them in the Supernatural category, like your human Fated Mates, but unlike your mates, we had not put them on Earth.”

He nodded. “I understand.”

“Now, you have a mate and cub to return to.”

He stared at her. “Already?”

She chuckled. “Pearl knew what she was meant to do, and she has loved you for a long time. So yes, already.”

He smiled. “I’m going to be a dad.”

“And a good one. These children are important. That is why they need both parents. Now, go rip off the heads of those men who think they’re above the laws of our world.”

He nodded. “Thank you.”

She smiled. “I do hope not to see you again, Dylan Kraftman.”

He smiled as he held his fist in the air. “Here’s to a thousand years.”