Seriously Shifter

Hello and welcome to the Seriously Shifter Giveaway Hop! I was delighted to find this hop because, well, who doesn’t love a shifter? They’re very hot right now which I totally understand. I love reading ’em and writing ’em. Here’s a snippet from my most recent shifter story, Out in the Cold, which appears in Evernight Publishing’s Alpha’s Claim: Manlove Edition anthology, which hit both the Amazon and All Romance eBooks bestseller lists – woohoo!

Completing his stretches, Kane Wimborne grabbed his keys and left the house, locking the door behind him and pocketing the keys. Jogging down the driveway of his large mansion, he paused at a keypad to punch in the code that would open the gates and allow him off the property.

He’d barely gotten through the gates when he saw something that made him stop dead. A human-shaped bundle was lying next to the wall on his left. Instinctively, his hand went to his pocket to check if his phone was there. Yes, he could phone for help if it was needed.

Cautiously, he approached the shape, with many possibilities running through his head. It could be a homeless person or a drunk who had simply been looking for a sheltered place to sleep. It could be someone who was injured. Or he could be about to step onto a crime scene. Conscious of this last point, he called out before getting any closer—he didn’t want to inadvertently mar any evidence, should that last be correct.

“Hey. You all right?” He felt stupid saying the words, because someone lying next to a wall first thing in the morning couldn’t be classified as all right, for whatever reason they were there.

As there was no response, he edged a little closer and was about to shout again when a weird sensation overtook him. A sensation that he hadn’t felt in a very long time—the one that told him another shifter was nearby.

He’d already been on edge, but now he hurriedly looked around him, confident that even in the dull morning light his superior vision would immediately highlight anything out of place. There was nothing. Except for the fellow shifter who was on the ground in front of him, obviously.

It was clear the wall-hugger was a shifter, given that all of Kane’s senses told him there was no one else around. There rarely was at 5:30 in the morning. Now Kane realized what a good thing this was—he didn’t want any witnesses, just in case any random shifting took place. It was entirely possible—it was a natural response to threats, especially if one was injured.

And if he or she wasn’t injured, why in the hell were they here?

No longer bothered about contaminating a crime scene—he wouldn’t be calling the authorities on another of his kind, whoever they were—Kane crouched down beside the prone figure and searched for its neck, then its pulse. He found both, which was a relief, and at the same time he’d ascertained that the “it” was in fact a man. The stubble on the neck and jaw gave it away. It was either that or a bearded lady had absconded from the local circus.

After calling out a couple more times, Kane decided that the softly-softly approach was clearly not going to work. Checking that the two of them were still alone—what he was about to do could easily stir the guy into changing—he grabbed the man’s shoulders and shook him, hard, then slapped his face for good measure.

It took a few seconds, but finally, the man came round. Groaning, his hand came up to his face, where Kane had hit him. Then his other hand moved to the other side. As the guy attempted to sit up, Kane reached out to help him, then gasped.

He should not have slapped his face. All he’d done was add additional pain to an already affected area. A badly abused area, in fact. The other shifter looked like he’d taken a serious beating, or fallen from the top of a very tall tree.

“Christ,” Kane said, still supporting the man’s back, so he didn’t flop back down onto the pavement. “What the hell happened to you?”

Now, check out the awesome giveaway, then scroll down to visit the rest of the blogs on this hop! Enjoy!