Bearing the Shifter (Shifter World - Book Four) (Series of 13 Short Stories)

The vampire shook her head. “You were meant to always keep this on. It keeps your bond strong.”

“What bond?” Maddy asked.

The vampire looked up at her from the necklace. “Your bond with your sister. Not only were you torn from each other, but your bond was severed.”

Maddy felt more tears slide down her cheeks.

“Come on, I’ll walk you home. You really shouldn’t be alone out here at night.” The vampire took hold of Maddy’s elbow.

“Other than finding a crazy-ass vampire who wants to suck my blood, what else would I have come across?”

The vampire laughed. “Plenty, little bird. You’re a Fated Mate. Your scent alone will bring them to you.”

“Who?” Maddy asked silently.

The vampire stopped and looked into Maddy’s hazel eyes. “All Supernatural creatures, Maddy Trenton.”

Maddy swallowed. “Uhm, what’s your name?”

The vampire smiled. “Bridget. Bridget Bentley.”

Maddy smiled for the first time since meeting this crazy vampire. “Nice to meet you, Bridget. Now, can you tell me what the fuck you’ve been babbling about?”

Bridget laughed. “Yes, but first, we must get you to your mate.”

~🏈~

Rolando growled when he saw the vampire enter the apartment behind his mate. “Maddy, get away from her.”

Maddy frowned at him when he pulled her away from the vampire.

The vampire chuckled. “Relax, shifter. I mean your mate no harm, well, anymore.”

“What does that mean?” Rolando asked, looking down at his mate.

“She tried to drink my blood,” Maddy whispered.

Rolando snarled as he pushed his mate behind his back.

“Relax,” the vampire said, watching him. “If I hurt your mate, the Goddesses will kill me. And I don’t plan on dying.”

Rolando didn’t stop snarling. Maddy placed her hand on his back.

“Please, Rolando. She knows me… and… and my past. Please let her explain.”

Rolando stood up straight and turned to his mate. “Your past?”

She nodded. “Before my birth parents died. And she knows what this necklace is.” She held up the star. “Please, Rolando, I need to know what she knows.”

Rolando sighed heavily. He can’t deny his mate the answers she seeks. He nodded, then turned to the vampire.

“You have one hour, vampire.”

The vampire smirked, then took off her jacket. “Whatever you say, shifter.”

The three of them moved to the couches, and she took one while the mates took the other.

“Now, talk,” Rolando said.

“Oh, I can see that you two are the other half of each other.” The vampire smiled.

“Get on with it,” Rolando growled.

“All right.” She huffed. “My name is Bridget Bentley. I was born in Fourteen-fifty-eight.”

“I don’t want your life story,” Rolando sneered.

Bridget sighed. “This is my story, shifter. Now let me tell it.”

Rolando grumbled, but when Maddy lightly touched his arm, he sat back and motioned for the vampire to continue.

“As I was saying.” Bridget smiled. “I wasn’t born a vampire. I guess that’s why my appetite is harder to control than some of the others. I wasn’t born to it; it’s like an infection… Anyway. After three hundred years of slaughtering humans and draining their blood, I was visited by a very powerful witch.

“Though she was a white witch, she had powers beyond imagination. She told me that she had a dream about me. Of course, I scoffed at her. But she pinned me down with her magic and made me listen.

“No amount of mind control had any effect on her. She told me that I had a destiny, that the Goddesses had chosen me because I was a good human. But who’d have imagined I’d become such a monster of a vampire?

“She told me that in a few hundred years, I was to be the guardian of a very powerful set of twins. Two Fated Mates, who was destined to change the future.”

Rolando looked at his mate. She has a twin?

“When I found Tara and Tia, they were the cutest little babies I’d ever seen, and I knew I had to protect them. But the witch came to me again and told me that I could not be their guardian until after they’d found their mates. She then gave me two identical necklaces and told me to give them to the twins. The necklaces will keep their bond strong and help them form their destiny.”

Maddy touched her necklace. Could what this vampire is saying be real? But if so, why were she and her sister separated?

“I don’t know the answer to that, little bird,” Bridget said.

Maddy scowled. “Stop reading my mind.”

Bridget chuckled. “I’ve been waiting for more than twenty years for this day. Even knowing I will never feast on a human again, I have waited anxiously for this day to come. And now, we need to find your sister.”

Maddy frowned. “I’ve tried. But I think her adopted parents changed her name, too.”

Bridget nodded. “If she was wearing her necklace, we could use yours to find her. But I have a feeling that, like you, she hasn’t worn hers since you were three.”

Maddy nodded. Bridget was probably right.

“Hour is up,” Rolando said, looking at the clock on the wall.

Maddy snorted. “After all that, you’re still going to kick her out?”

He shrugged. “Who’s to say she isn’t lying?”

“How about the part where I didn’t kill your mate?” Bridget asked with a grin.

“Rolando,” Maddy said, lying her head on his shoulder. “She knows more about me than I do.”

He sighed heavily. “Fine. What else do you have for us?” he asked as he laid back against the couch and pulled Maddy against him.

Bridget smiled that smile that only a vampire could smile.

~🏈~

The next few days went by fast. Maddy felt like she needed to be somewhere else, and the feeling kept getting stronger. Three days after she’d met Bridget, she told her about the feeling, and the vampire smiled.

“It is your soul searching for your sister. Also, there’s a place where we’re all supposed to meet for some kind of war or something. Not sure about all that. But I guess we’ll figure it out at some point.”

“Oh.” Maddy frowned.

“Why so glum?” Bridget asked.

Maddy shrugged. “I’m not sure. I guess I miss my sister… but how can you miss what you’ve never had?”

“You had her for three years, Maddy. That’s long enough to form a bond.”

Maddy nodded. “I guess. I wonder what she’s doing.”

Bridget grinned. “She’s with her mate.”

“She’s a Fated Mate too?”

“Of course. Didn’t you hear me tell you that she found hers when you found yours? Probably about the exact same time, too. Allowing time difference in States.”

Maddy smiled at the thought that she and her sister had found their mates at the same time. She wondered what kind of shifter her sister’s mate was. A bear like hers? A wolf, like Gerald? Or maybe some type of large cat.

“You ready?” Rolando asked as he came into the living room.

Maddy looked at her mate and smiled. Tonight was another home game, and they were all going. Rolando hadn’t wanted her to go because of his teammates, but Bridget promised to protect her.

“Yep,” she said, jumping to her feet.

“I just don’t see the lure of it,” Bridget said with a sigh as she got to her feet.

“No one asked you to,” Rolando grumbled, and Bridget grinned.

They still didn’t get along, and Maddy wasn’t sure if there was anything she could do to make the two like each other. She’d thought it was because she’s a vampire, and he’s a shifter, but then Gerald told her that plenty of vampires and shifters are friends. Turns out, Rolando holds the vampire’s past against her. Especially since she’d almost eaten his mate the night they met.

“Let’s go,” Rolando grumbled.

“What about Gerald?” Maddy asked as they headed for the door.

“He’s going to meet us there,” Rolando said as he opened the door and let them pass through before he closed and locked it.

It didn’t take long to drive to the stadium. Rolando kissed Maddy before he ran for the locker room.

“He loves you,” Bridget said with a smile.

“We’ve only been together a week,” Maddy said, looking at Bridget.

Bridget shrugged. “You’re his Fated Mate. It’s very rare for love to not blossom. But it’s you he loves, not what you are. I think he’d have fallen in love with you even if you weren’t his mate.”

Maddy sighed. She hoped the vampire was correct. She loves him so much; she can’t stand being away from him for too long. Even if she and he weren’t fated to be together, she knew she’d still love him.

“Let’s get to our seats.” Bridget smiled.

They made their way to the stands and found their seats. The game started fifteen minutes after they sat down, and Maddy jumped to her feet when her mate came out onto the field. He looked straight up at her and blew her a kiss. She giggled as she cheered for him and Gerald.

The game seemed to go by fast. Their team was winning, and there were only a couple minutes left. Rolando and Gerald were both excellent players. She wondered why they hadn’t been caught by the NFL yet.

“Maddy,” Bridget whispered.

“Yeah?” Maddy asked, looking at her new friend.

Bridget smiled at the knowledge that Maddy thought of her as a friend.

“We need to go straight to the car after the game.”

Maddy blinked at her. “But why?”

Bridget closed her eyes. She could hear the thoughts of some of the players—they didn’t bode well for Maddy and Rolando. She opened her eyes and looked at Maddy.

“His teammates have some horrible idea that Rolando should have shared you with them.”

Maddy blinked. “Seriously? They’re still thinking that?”

Bridget shrugged. “I can hear it….”

“Okay.” Maddy nodded. “But we need to let Rolando know where I am.”

“Of course,” Bridget said with a nod and a sigh of relief.

Maddy jumped to her feet with a shout. They won the game.

“Come on.” Bridget got to her feet and pulled on Maddy’s hand.

They made it to the car before anyone else had left the stadium.

“We don’t have the keys,” Maddy said as she leaned against the car.

“You’ll be safe here with me,” Bridget assured her.

Maddy nodded. “Yes. But Rolando will wait outside the locker room for us, not knowing we’re waiting for him here.”

Bridget rolled her eyes. “Call him and tell him where you are.”

Maddy giggled as if she thought it silly that she hadn’t thought of that. She pulled her phone from her pocket, searched for his name, and hit call. They heard a noise and looked in the car.

“He left his phone in the car.” Maddy pouted.

Bridget groaned. “Stay in the shadows. Hopefully, they’re all in the locker room, and you’ll be safe,” she said, then disappeared. Bridget landed in front of the locker room just as Rolando walked out. “Maddy is at the car,” she told him.

He eyed her. “Why?”

She told him what she’d heard in his teammate’s minds, and he growled so loud she felt everything vibrate around them. Fuck, a mated shifter is dangerous.

“Several of the guys left the locker room pretty fast; I thought they wanted to get to the party, but….”

“Fucking hell,” Bridget growled, then disappeared.

~🏈~

Maddy leaned against the car as she waited for Bridget and Rolando to show up. She hoped they did soon; she was starting to feel a shiver run up her spine.

“There you are.”

Maddy looked up to find the “guys” standing not far from her and the car. ’Fuck.’

“Please, I don’t want any trouble,” she said as she moved down the car—away from them.

“Trouble came the day that jackass brought you into our house and didn’t share you,” one of the men said as they moved toward her.

“I’m his mate… girlfriend,” she said, looking at each of their faces. “Not some floozy.”

They laughed. “Girlfriend, floozy, what does it matter?”

“It matters a lot,” Maddy squealed.

“That jerk never shared his women,” one of the men said.

“He never brought any home,” another said.

“So, the one time he brings one home, he won’t share,” the quarterback said.

“We share ours, but he can’t share?” another snorted.

“He never partook in any of the women we brought home,” another said as he stopped. “Guys, he’s never participated, so he doesn’t owe us.”

The others snorted, and the quarterback glared at him. “Go if you’re not game.”

The man shook his head. “You guys are asking for retribution.”

“Fuck you,” the quarterback said, then looked at Maddy. “Grab her!”

And just like that, five men grabbed hold of Maddy’s arms and pulled her away from the car. She tried to fight them off. She even got one or two of them off her and kicked them hard enough in the shins to make them cry.

“Enough!” the quarterback shouted as he backhanded her.

Stunned, Maddy stared down at the ground.

“We don’t have long before someone finds us. We need to get her away from here,” one of the guys said.

“No,” the quarterback said, greed in his eyes. “I want her now. Get her on the ground.”