Deceptive promises, p.1
Deceptive Promises, page 1
Deceptive Promises
Cider Falls Shifters
Book Five
By R. E. Butler
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Excerpt from Lyric & The Cats (Wolf’s Mate Generations Book One)
Other Books by R. E. Butler
About the Author
Copyright
Chapter One
Ivar McIntyre sat up in the hospital bed and looked out the window. The room was in the back of the pack healer’s house in the town of Cider Falls, where he’d been for the last week. Two of those days he’d been unconscious, thanks to his pack, which had followed his instructions to incapacitate him expertly.
There was a creak outside the partially closed door, which he recognized from having heard it every time Shelley, the pack healer, came into the room.
She knocked softly. “Ivar?”
“I’m awake.”
He straightened in the bed a little, tucking the sheet around his hips. He was wearing a hospital gown and nothing else. His clothes had been cut off him when the security team had found him at the edge of Cider Falls near death.
“How are you feeling?” she asked, tucking a lock of hair behind her ear.
She stopped next to the bed and looked at the machine which was keeping track of his vitals.
“Much better, thank you.”
She examined him, using a touch so gentle it reminded him of his mom, who’d been killed when he was a teenager, along with the rest of his people. Only his sister, Yva, had survived. At least he thought she was still alive. She’d been abducted when he’d been left for dead. He’d spent the last ten years searching the world for her, tracking every clue, no matter how small or unlikely it was.
In his spare time, he worked for Vega Sonight, a purebred wolf who used Ivar for any and everything he needed.
Including what he was doing now—infiltrating Cider Falls and playing on their sympathies. They were guarded because he was a stranger, but they pitied him because they believed he’d been attacked.
Pushing away the thoughts of his long-dead family, he focused on the healer. Shelley was an unmated purebred wolf and wore the brand on her wrist of being an exile. She had healing magic, something that was pretty rare. Her hands glowed a soft pink as she checked out his injuries. He could feel the magic healing him as she moved, a warmth filling him from the inside out.
Cider Falls was full of exiles, both purebreds and hybrids. They even allowed humans to live and work among them. Rehlik the alpha was, as far as Ivar could tell, a good male who had a heart for his people. His trusting—yet cautious—nature was going to eventually get him killed. Vega wanted to take over Cider Falls, and that meant either Rehlik walked, or he was carried out in a body bag. After meeting Rehlik up close earlier, Ivar was sure the male would fight to the death to stay alpha of the town.
“Would you like to shift?” Shelley asked, straightening and giving him a smile.
He blinked in confusion. “What?”
“I mean, you’ve still got some healing to do. My magic can only do so much, and shifting is helpful for healing. Whoever attacked you did a number on you. The remnants of your injuries can be healed with a shift. I can call for some of the security team to shift and hang out with you in the woods.”
He hadn’t explored the woods in his shift. Prior to being carried into the town while unconscious, he’d simply walked in and skulked around in the shadows. He’d spent the last decade infiltrating anywhere he had an iota of hope of finding Yva. On order from Vega, he was supposed to infiltrate the town and learn what he could of the alpha and high-ranked males, then come up with a plan to take them all out so Vega could slip into position as alpha without anyone the wiser.
As an exiled male, Vega had been living in hiding with his pack, keeping mobile to stay off the radar of the Federal Shifter Alliance—FSA for short. Every shifter—from purebreds like Rehlik to hybrids like his second-in-command Trace—was subject to the FSA, which governed them. An exiled male or female had only three days to register with a new alpha or officially start their own group—which involved paperwork and money—in order to avoid being imprisoned. But exiles rarely knew where to go, and most ended up on the run and caught after a time. The FSA’s laws were archaic.
Ivar wasn’t exiled. There was no record of him or his group ever existing. His parents had ensured that no one knew about gryphon hybrids, so he didn’t have an exile mark and could move easily among purebred groups, which generally hated hybrids and exiles.
Being a shadow had its perks.
“I think that would be nice,” he said. It would give him a chance to use his heightened senses in the woods and get an idea of how the security team functioned.
“I’ll make a call. It shouldn’t be more than a few minutes.”
“Thanks, Shelley. For everything.”
“Of course. I’m just glad to see you awake. I was really worried there.”
He hadn’t had someone care about him since he lost his family. Vega didn’t really care about him; he cared about what he could do for him. Ivar was loyal to a fault and wouldn’t betray his alpha no matter what. Only his sister held his loyalty over Vega. If only he could find her. Then he could bring her to Vega’s pack and keep her safe.
He climbed out of bed, stifling a groan at the aches that shot through him. He stopped in the little bathroom to use the facilities and then found Shelley in the kitchen of the home that doubled as the pack’s hospital.
“You’re just in time,” she said. “Rehlik and Breaker are on their way. Did you want to eat anything?”
“I’m good for now, thanks.”
A few moments later, he met the alpha again and was introduced to Breaker, part of the security team. Ivar had seen the big male when he’d scouted the town. He was a hybrid, but Ivar wasn’t sure what sort.
“You look well,” Rehlik said as their trio walked away from Shelley’s and into the woods behind her home.
“I feel better.”
They walked in silence for several minutes, then stopped.
“We’ll run for a while,” Rehlik said. “Be cautious not to leave our territory, which is marked with red ribbons. Since we’re not sure who harmed you, we don’t know if they might be lying in wait for you. The security team is on alert and you’re safe here, but it’s always best to be cautious.”
Ivar stared at the alpha for a long moment, then nodded. “I won’t leave the territory.”
“When we’re done with our run,” Breaker said as he tugged off his shirt and laid it over a low tree branch, “I left clothes for you at Shelley’s so you can get cleaned up and dressed.”
“Thanks.”
The males stripped and shifted.
Ivar hadn’t been in his shift in ages. He couldn’t actually remember the last time he’d shifted. He was always too busy, either hunting for Yva or working for Vega. Shifting had always felt like a luxury anyway. He’d been paranoid as a teen to shift once his family had been killed because he’d never trusted anyone enough to show his hybrid to. But if he didn’t shift in front of Rehlik and Breaker, they’d be suspicious, so he really had no choice.
He took off the hospital gown and shifted.
His body was a black-furred tiger, and his head and forelegs were that of a snow owl. He had white feathers around his neck and on his tail.
Ivar realized that the males with him had frozen in shock at seeing him. He’d told Rehlik what he was, but the alpha was still clearly surprised to actually see him.
Ivar shook himself out, a few white feathers dislodging with the motion, and stretched, his tail whipping back and forth.
Rehlik was a large timber wolf. Breaker was a hybrid snow leopard wolf. His wolf was white with black spots.
The alpha let out a bark and trotted forward, Breaker and Ivar at his side.
Ivar’s mind spun as the pace quickened, the wolves easily keeping up with his cat’s long stride. He was thinking about Yva mostly, and the hopelessness he often felt at knowing she’d been kept captive all these years. He never entertained the thought she might be dead. That was a hell he didn’t want to contemplate. He occasionally thought of Vega, who he knew was waiting for word from him. He’d have to figure out a way to contact him without arousing suspicion, and also fully scout the town.
Something stirred in him as he raced alongside the males, dodging fallen trees and shrubs.
It was like his heart was beating for the first time.
His beasts sat up in his mind, his tiger roaring in surprise.
Was it possible? No.
No, it wasn’t.
Ivar was not feeling a mating pull to a female in Cider Falls.
Not only did he believe he didn’t deserve one for the blood-stained li fe he’d led up to this point, but he was planning to destroy the town from the inside out.
And Yva took precedence over all else.
There was no male more unworthy of a truemate than him, that he was sure.
Mentally ignoring his beasts, who wanted to find out if what they were feeling was actually a pull to a truemate, he focused on keeping pace with the males and tracking his way around the woods. There was no time for anything but Yva and Vega, no time to fill the holes in his heart left by his murdered family and the life he’d led.
No time for anything, least of all love.
Chapter Two
Cymbre Daniels, falcon shifter and nanny extraordinaire, swiped up to close the dating app and sighed. She sank a little deeper into the couch and closed her eyes, listening to the quiet house. The baby was still sleeping and would most likely for the next half hour. The older child was at school and wouldn’t be home until later that afternoon. She’d been nannying for the family since little Davy was four and the mom, Carole, was pregnant. The family was human, from the dad who worked in finance and traveled a lot, to the mom who was a pediatric nurse.
As a shifter, and an exiled one at that, Cymbre had wondered if they’d even accept her as their nanny. Humans didn’t really understand shifters, and they absolutely didn’t understand exiles.
What felt like a hundred years ago, Cymbre had been exiled from her falcon nest. She’d known about Cider Falls, the exile-friendly town led by Alpha Rehlik, and had traveled from her former home in Michigan to Kentucky to join up with the pack—keeping with the FSA’s laws.
Most shifters didn’t know about exile-welcome places like Cider Falls unless someone they knew happened to have the knowledge. In Cymbre’s case, her alpha’s mate told her about the town and gave her traveling money. It was a small kindness that Cymbre didn’t deserve but was forever thankful for.
Thinking about her exile made her wrist burn, where the brand from a witch was etched forever into her skin.
She liked colder temperatures best, when she could wear long sleeves and not be constantly reminded that she was the reason people were dead.
Her phone buzzed, and she opened her eyes to look at the screen.
Her best friend and housemate, Arely, had texted.
How’s the munchkin-watching?
Good. She’s sleeping and I’m bummed.
Why are you bummed?
Because I can only find humans to match with on the shifter dating app.
Arely sent an emoji that looked like it was thinking. Why only humans?
I’m not sure. I guess because I put in my profile that I’m exiled. No shifter is going to want to date me when I’m branded.
That’s not true. Lots of our people are mated and they’re exiled.
Cymbre let out a grumbling sigh. I probably shouldn’t even bother. I don’t think I’ll get a mate anyway.
Why not? You’re pretty and fun and sweet.
Thanks, babe, but my past is too horrible. I might get a guy to be interested in a tumble in the sheets, but I honestly don’t think I’ll get a forever guy. I think my romantic-mojo is too tainted for that.
No such thing.
You’re just an optimist.
Yes, I am, but also I believe every shifter gets a truemate, exiled or not. Your guy is out there somewhere. He’s probably wondering where you are.
I’m right here, dang it.
Arely sent a laughing emoji. Just stay positive.
I’ll try.
That sounds positive.
All right, seriously. Let’s move on from my lack of love potential to whatever it was that you texted me for.
Diem asked if we wanted to have dinner with her tonight. She’s making chicken and dumplings and I know that’s your favorite.
Hell yes!
Cymbre did the cooking in the house for herself and Arely because her bestie was one of the school cooks and didn’t like to come home from work and cook again.
She said we can come over after six.
Perfect.
Cool, I’ll see you when you’re done with work.
She sent a kissy-face emoji and Arely sent one back. She stared at her phone’s home screen and the dating app, but then decided it was simply too depressing to even consider looking around on the site again. It wasn’t that she had a problem with dating humans; she’d dated several over the years. She just wasn’t sure she’d be able to tell if a human was actually interested in her, or if he was only curious about dating an exiled shifter.
Her sensitive hearing picked up the sound of baby Riley stirring in her crib, so she stood and stretched, picking up her phone. As she walked back toward the bedroom, she deleted the dating app. It made her heart hurt too much to think that she might never find someone to spend the rest of her life with.
* * *
Cymbre and Arely walked through town to Diem’s, who lived in an apartment above the bookstore she owned. The lion-wolf hybrid was sweet as pie and enjoyed sharing her love of books and reading with others. She could also cook like crazy and made the best chicken and dumplings Cymbre had ever had.
“Have you seen the stranger around town?” Arely asked.
Everyone knew about the half-dead hybrid male found by Trace and his mate, Jewel, who’d been a Hunter in the FSA before she’d been exiled for helping out a mated trio in Cider Falls. The male had awakened a week ago, and the gossip around town was that he was a big cat and bird hybrid, but Cymbre hadn’t heard what combination he was. She was curious about him, but if he was sticking around and joining up with the pack, then she’d meet him eventually.
Her bird let out a little call of curiosity, which she ignored. She couldn’t figure out why she was so lonely all of a sudden, like she’d had a hole in her heart that she hadn’t realized was there until the last day or two.
“At least he survived,” Cymbre said. “I can’t imagine going through what he did physically.”
“There’s a lot of purebred groups out there that will try to kill a hybrid rather than just exile them and let them go.”
Cymbre knew that for a fact. Her alpha made sure she knew that he was well within his rights to kill her for what had happened to the nest, and it was only thanks to his good graces that she was allowed to walk away on her own.
“True,” Cymbre said. “Have you seen him?”
“Nope. I just heard a couple of the teachers talking during lunch today.”
“What was on the menu?”
“Corndogs with a garden salad and black and whites.”
Black and white brownies were a favorite of hers.
“Did you save me one?”
“Two, actually. I left them on the kitchen counter.”
“You’re honestly the best,” Cymbre said, hooking her arm through her bestie’s and smiling.
“I try.” Arely returned her smile.
Diem was waiting for them in the bookstore. “Lock the front door,” she said, straightening from where she was shelving a stack of new books. “I’m ready to close for the night and eat.”
Cymbre twisted the lock. There was a time when no one locked doors in Cider Falls, but that wasn’t the case anymore. Someone was causing trouble for their people—or several someones. The scuttle around town was that a male—most likely—and his people were attempting to take out Rehlik and his mate, Weylyn, and take over the town for themselves. If that were the case, Cymbre bet the male was exiled and on the run from the FSA along with his people, and taking over was the only way to get a territory of their own without alerting the authorities to what they were up to.
Whoever it was liked to leave bear traps in the hunting grounds, even going so far as to leave them at the houses of a few people to try to harm them. They’d also blown up the gazebo in the center of town and nearly killed the alphas.
So now they locked their front doors at night and the security team kept a constant patrol to look for trouble.
She hoped like hell trouble stayed far away from her.
Their trio climbed the interior stairs to Diem’s apartment. The moment they entered the front room, the delicious smell of roast chicken made Cymbre’s mouth water. She set the table while Diem turned off the burner and placed the dutch oven on a ceramic trivet in the center of the table. Arely filled glasses with ice water and wedges of lemon.
