Shifters Unbound Guardians Mate Read Online Free

  PRAISE FOR THE SHIFTERS UNBOUND NOVELS

"Danger, desire, and sizzling-hot action! . . . Jennifer Ashley walks the razor's edge of primal passion."

—Alyssa Day, New York Times bestselling author

"[A] must-purchase series for paranormal romance lovers."

—Fiction Vixen

"Stellar world-building."

—Publishers Weekly

"Ashley's Shiftertown books are the closest thing to a sure bet in paranormal romance."

—RT Volume Reviews (four ½ Stars)

"Engaging paranormal romance."

—Smexy Books

"One of my top paranormal romance serial with its complex political and social issues and some intense, hot romances."

—All Things Urban Fantasy

"With her usual gift for creating imaginative plots fueled by scorchingly sensual chemistry, RITA Accolade–winning Ashley begins a new sexy paranormal series that neatly combines loftier-adrenaline suspense with humor."

—Booklist

"Admittedly fabulous! I was diddled away . . . Paranormal fans volition be raving over this one!"

—The Romance Readers Connectedness

"This novel [seemed] equally though it was superglued to my easily considering I couldn't pry it from my fingers."

—Rabid Reads

"Wickedly sexy . . . Are y'all new to the Shifters Unbound serial? Already a fan? Either way, I think you'll bask your time with these rambunctious, charismatic, loyal Shifters."

—Harlequin Junkie

Titles past Jennifer Ashley

The Mackenzies

THE MADNESS OF LORD IAN MACKENZIE

LADY ISABELLA'S SCANDALOUS MARRIAGE

THE MANY SINS OF LORD CAMERON

THE DUKE'S PERFECT WIFE

A MACKENZIE Family CHRISTMAS

THE SEDUCTION OF ELLIOT MCBRIDE

THE UNTAMED MACKENZIE

(An InterMix eBook)

THE WICKED DEEDS OF DANIEL MACKENZIE

SCANDAL AND THE DUCHESS

(An InterMix eBook)

RULES FOR A PROPER GOVERNESS

THE SCANDALOUS MACKENZIES

(Anthology)

THE STOLEN MACKENZIE BRIDE

A MACKENZIE Clan GATHERING

(An InterMix eBook)

Shifters Unbound

PRIDE MATES

PRIMAL BONDS

Babysitter

WILD CAT

Hard MATED

MATE CLAIMED

PERFECT MATE

(An InterMix eBook)

LONE WOLF

(An InterMix eBook)

TIGER MAGIC

FERAL HEAT

(An InterMix eBook)

WILD WOLF

BEAR ATTRACTION

(An InterMix eBook)

SHIFTER MATES

(Anthology)

MATE BOND

LION Eyes

BAD WOLF

WILD THINGS

WHITE TIGER

GUARDIAN'S MATE

BERKLEY SENSATION

Published past Berkley

An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC

375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014

Copyright © 2016 past Jennifer Ashley

Excerpt from Carmine Wolf by Jennifer Ashley copyright © 2016 by Jennifer Ashley

Penguin Random Firm supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages various voices, promotes gratis speech, and creates a vibrant civilization. Give thanks you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by non reproducing, scanning, or distributing whatever part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin Random Firm to continue to publish books for every reader.

BERKLEY and BERKLEY Sensation are registered trademarks and the B colophon is a trademark of Penguin Random House LLC.

eBook ISBN: 9780698196254

First Edition: September 2016

Embrace art by Tony Mauro

Cover design by Katie Anderson

This is a piece of work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the production of the author'southward imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to bodily persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Version_1

CONTENTS

PRAISE FOR THE SHIFTERS UNBOUND NOVELS

TITLES By JENNIFER ASHLEY

Championship Page

COPYRIGHT

Chapter I

Affiliate Ii

Chapter Iii

Chapter Four

Chapter 5

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER Nine

Chapter TEN

Affiliate 11

Chapter TWELVE

CHAPTER Xiii

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Chapter 15

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Affiliate Xx

CHAPTER Twenty-One

CHAPTER TWENTY-Two

CHAPTER Twenty-Three

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Chapter TWENTY-FIVE

Chapter Twenty-SIX

Chapter TWENTY-SEVEN

Affiliate 20-EIGHT

Affiliate Twenty-NINE

Affiliate Xxx

Affiliate THIRTY-ONE

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

CHAPTER Xxx-3

Chapter THIRTY-FOUR

EXCERPT FROM Red Wolf

Almost THE AUTHOR

Chapter One

Rae's task on the day of the Choosing was to stand up behind her foster father and agree the absent-minded Guardian'south sword. Absent-minded, because the Guardian was dead, had been for months.

The woods were quiet, dark, and cold. Any sane Shifter would still exist in bed, snuggled under a few blankets, looking frontward to a warm shower and a hot cup of coffee.

Just no, the Shifters of the Western Montana Shiftertown had crept out only before dawn, following Eoin, Rae'due south adoptive father and leader of this Shiftertown, to meet whether the Goddess was in a skillful mood.

Four times in the concluding six months they'd trudged out here in the gloom and cold, waiting for the Goddess to pick a new Guardian. They'd come at a full moon, a new moon, a waxing moon, a bluish moon. They'd turn toward wherever the moon happened to be and wait.

All the immature men of the Montana Shiftertown who were past their Transition were required to attend, including Rae'south foster brothers. They formed the now-familiar circle, some excited, some fearful, some only wanting to get back to bed.

Eoin, a Feline Shifter who was generally mountain lion, sent Rae an encouraging look. Rae was a Lupine, blackness wolf, but she conceded that her foster dad was handsome—for a Feline. He was currently mateless, which made him a target for every female Shifter near and far. What some of them would do to endeavour to sneak into his bed was across ridiculous. Rae sometimes felt like his bodyguard rather than his girl.

"Non long now," Eoin said to her. Even speaking softly, his vocalism was a full rumble.

"And then we can go out for breakfast?" Rae asked. "I could use a stack of waffles. With salary."

"Certain, sweetie," Eoin answered with a smiling, then turned to the circumvolve. Across the young males, the rest of the Shifters waited, broken-hearted and impatient.

Months ago, their Guardian, Daragh, had been killed past humans, his sword stolen. Rae even so fumed over that terrible deed. The humans had been found, punished, the sword returned past an unlikely messenger and Daragh sent to grit, but no new Guardian had been chosen. The Goddess had not answered their call.

The faintest light came through the

stand of trees, turning the mist that had gathered ghostly white. The Shifters dropped into silence as Eoin raised his artillery.

"Goddess, female parent of the states all, lady of the moon," he began in a loud vox, "we beseech thee. Send usa your light to touch the Guardian, that near holy of men, then that he may do thy piece of work."

Rae loved listening to her father speak. Her primeval memories were of Eoin reading her books, soothing her to sleep, wrapping her in condolement, letting her know she was protected when he was near. The sword, which she held point downwards past the hilt, vibrated in fourth dimension with his words.

The sword gave her the creeps, but no one else would touch it—it had burned those who'd tried, as though it were scarlet-hot. Even Eoin'due south trackers, the bravest of the brave, refused to put their easily on information technology. For some reason the sword didn't burn Rae, and then she'd had to step upwards. She didn't heed then much when it was sheathed, but for the ritual the sword had to exist naked, the runes on the silver blade catching the dawn light.

They'd done this four times. Rae prayed to the Goddess that the fifth time was the amuse, so she could hand the sword to the new Guardian and never hold it again.

Eoin went on chanting. He repeated his plea to the Goddess, his artillery loftier.

In the old days, Shifters had worn robes and crowns of leaves and crap similar that for these rituals. Eoin wore jeans, a sweatshirt, and thick-soled boots, sensible attire in the Rocky Mount woods. Rae, and every Shifter hither, wore something similar.

Perhaps they should have donned robes and painted themselves with moon goddess symbols, she decided. Or danced naked at midnight. It would make the aforementioned deviation. The Goddess wasn't coming. She never did.

"We beseech thee!" Eoin shouted.

His words echoed through the forest as the lord's day climbed higher, brushing the treetops with gilt light. The mists thickened and the air became colder.

The sunday kept climbing. The mist turned to fog. The Shifters shivered and rubbed their artillery, wanting to shift, caress upwardly to something hirsuite, or at least go the hell dwelling.

Eoin finally lowered his artillery, letting out a sigh, defeated. A whisper of breeze echoed his sigh, then died.

The Shifters didn't look happy. Eoin, every bit Shiftertown leader, was supposed to solve problems like this. He should ask the man government to bring in a Guardian from another Shiftertown or figure out a way to apply the sword himself—something.

If the more than ascendant Shifters got too impatient, they'd beginning challenging, and then things would really hitting the fan. The human regime didn't allow Shifters to modify leaders without their approval but that wouldn't affair if Eoin were dead.

Rae picked up the sword'south sheath from the grass, her complect of black pilus falling over her shoulder. A thin finger of light made it through the fog to dance on the bract every bit she lifted information technology to slide information technology into the sheath. The runes glittered and seemed to movement.

They did that sometimes. The sword was one creep-toid slice of metal.

The tip of the blade jerked out of the leather sheath. Rae'southward optics widened in surprise, then she let out a cry every bit the sword shot upward, dragging her arm with it.

Rae tried to driblet the sword but her hand was fixed to the hilt, her fingers not obeying her command to let go. The sword jerked again, nigh pulling her arm out of its socket.

Rae grabbed the hilt with her other hand, holding on while her heels came off the ground.

"Dad!" she yelled. "Assist!"

Eoin, who'd moved off to speak to his trackers, spun back to her. At the aforementioned time, the sword yanked itself upward and Rae was pulled all the style off her anxiety.

She yelped in terror, but she couldn't pry her hand free. She had no idea what the damned sword was trying to do—return to the Goddess? Fly to the adjacent Guardian?

Eoin ran for her, his trackers behind him, merely before they could reach her, a brilliant shaft of light shot down from the treetops and enclosed Rae, the sword, and the sheath that lay on the footing.

Pain seared through her, as though every cell in her peel, every bit of iron in her claret, suddenly burned hot. Her Collar went off, arcs of electricity driving into her throat.

Rae screamed. The audio echoed upwards through the trees, crescendoed into a piercing shriek, and swooped dorsum downwardly again. The Shifters clapped hands over ears, some falling to their knees.

The sword lifted Rae a few more feet in the air, then information technology all of a sudden went slack, and Rae fell hard to the ground. She lost hold of the sword, and the blade plummeted toward her, point downward.

Eoin dove for information technology, but he couldn't attain it in fourth dimension. The sword plunged straight into the world between Rae's outstretched arms, quivered, and went still. The light died and Rae's pain faded.

"What the hell?" i of the trackers growled.

Rae slowly climbed to her feet, groaning all the way, having to use the hilt of the stupid sword to brace herself.

Eoin had halted a few anxiety abroad, his face drawn, his eyes wet. "The Goddess has Chosen," he said in a hushed voice.

"What?" Rae tore her easily from the sword. "What are y'all talking nearly? Information technology was a lightning strike, or something . . ."

Eoin seized Rae'due south hands and turned them upward. Burned into each palm was the symbol of the Celtic knot, the sign of the Goddess. Though Rae'due south hands were clearly branded, she felt no pain, not even itching.

Her heart hammered. "No mode. Dad—no!"

Tears rolled downward Eoin's cheeks. "The Goddess has Chosen," he repeated, his vocalization breaking. "We have our new Guardian."

The Shifters, Rae'due south brothers nigh of all, stared at Rae in shock. Dead silence filled the clearing, cleaved but by the morning time breeze that sprang up to clear away the mists.

An elderly Feline male stepped forrad, giving vocalism to the thought in the caput of every Shifter present.

"Merely she's a woman!"

* * *

Zander's cell telephone rang. "Aw, son of a . . ."

Zander vented to every deity, familiar and obscure, as he hoisted himself from the chair at the stern of his boat. His line-fishing pole, secured to the deck, went on enjoying itself dangling bait in the water, while Zander trudged down the swaying gunkhole, shading his eyes against the setting sun, to where he'd left the damn phone this fourth dimension.

He should only throw the bloody thing overboard. The point of beingness in a fishing gunkhole all solitary off the declension of Alaska was being alone.

Zander knew why he didn't toss the phone even as the thought formed. If someone had dire need and they couldn't reach him, he'd never forgive himself.

Zander'south two braids swung against his cheeks as he reached for the phone he'd left on top of the cooler. He figured he might equally well grab another beer at the aforementioned time, and came upwards with a phone in one hand, a can in the other.

"Go for Zander," he growled.

He stilled every bit a voice from far away rumbled in his ear. Kendrick, a white tiger Guardian and leader of a ring of rogue Shifters, wouldn't call for no practiced reason. Zander's reflection in the window of the wheelhouse showed his night eyes growing wider and wider as he glued the phone to his ear and listened.

"You want me to what?" he yelled when Kendrick finished. "Seriously, what the fuck? How am I supposed to teach her to exist a Guardian? Hello? I'yard non a Guardian."

"I know." Kendrick's voice wavered with the bad connexion. "Merely she needs—"

At the terminate of the boat, the line-fishing pole started to fizz. "Kendrick, I'm busy. I don't have time to babysit a woman who thinks she'southward been called by the Goddess to be a Guardian, for crap'southward sake. There are no female person Guardians! I'k supposed to be the crazy i. When you regain your sanity, call me back."

Zander moved the phone just Kendrick'due south stern voice had him listening over again. "Oh, you've got to be kidding me," Zander snarled. "You're going to play that card?"

Over the whirring of the line-fishing pole came the drone of a motor, a boat rushing toward him across the deep waters.

Zander yelled into the telephone. "Do you know how

much shit you're in right now?"

Kendrick rumbled something Zander couldn't make out, but he heard the amused bite in Kendrick's voice. The man and his beautiful little mate must be laughing their asses off.

Zander clicked off the phone and tossed it downwards. The boat moved closer. Three figures stood on its deck—the man piloting it, a alpine stern-looking Feline Shifter, and a smaller woman—a Lupine—with a Sword of the Guardian strapped to her back. The sword'south hilt gleamed in the light of the sinking sun.

"Perfect," Zander said. "Just effing perfect."

He squeezed the can of beer until the popular-superlative burst open, then he poured the cold liquid down his throat, wiped his mouth, and strode to meet the intruders.

Chapter TWO

Rae looked beyond the tossing water at Zander Moncrieff and couldn't decide whether she should leap overboard or leap onto his gunkhole and smack him.

He was huge, a bear Shifter, with muscles bulging out of a blackness sweatshirt with a Harley logo and difficult legs stretching out bluish jeans. He wore a long black squeegee glaze that whirled in the unceasing wind and thick-soled boots for walking around a wet deck. Zander's white blond hair was cut short against his head, except for ii dreadlocks that hung on either side of his face up, swinging downward to his shoulders. He'd braided blueish beads into the dreads, stark against the white. His trim goatee beard was, in contrast, jet black.

His optics were the aforementioned black, burning with anger and glaring at Rae. Rae read a boatload of other emotions behind those eyes—pain and a loneliness that ran deep.

Goddess-touched, Eoin had called him. Brimming with ability only never quite plumbing equipment in.

Similar me, Rae thought with a jolt.

Zander's fury reached Rae across the narrowing space between the boats. He was not at all happy Eoin wanted to bring Rae aboard.

Well, tough shit. Rae didn't desire to be out here either. One twenty-four hours she'd been an innocuous Lupine Shifter, hanging out with her friends and comfortable with her family, the side by side she was a Guardian, sent away to the middle of the northern Pacific to exist trained past a polar conduct anybody claimed was insane. Doesn't play well with others, they'd said.

The boats bobbed up and downwards out of sync, the waves becoming more pronounced the closer the boats slid to each other. Rae was getting seasick. She'd been fine riding on the gunkhole from the island where the minor airplane had landed, simply now that both boats were rocking in the calm, rising and falling at dissimilar rates, she grew featherbrained.

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