Shifter's Lady Read online

  The Warriors of Poseidon Series by Alyssa Day

  ATLANTIS RISING

  High Prince Conlan’s Story

  ATLANTIS AWAKENING

  Lord Vengeance’s Story

  ATLANTIS UNLEASHED

  Lord Justice’s Story

  ATLANTIS UNMASKED

  Alexios’s Story

  ATLANTIS REDEEMED

  Brennan’s Story

  ATLANTIS BETRAYED

  Christophe’s Story

  VAMPIRE IN ATLANTIS

  Daniel’s Story

  HEART OF ATLANTIS

  High Priest Alaric’s Story

  Specials

  “Wild Hearts in Atlantis” from WILD THING

  Bastien’s Story

  “Shifter’s Lady” from SHIFTER

  Ethan’s Story

  Shifter’s Lady

  A Warriors of Poseidon Novella

  A Special from Berkley Sensation

  Alyssa Day

  BERKLEY SENSATION, NEW YORK

  THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP

  Published by the Penguin Group

  Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

  375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA

  Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) • Penguin Books Ltd., 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England • Penguin Group Ireland, 25 St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd.) • Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty. Ltd.) • Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd., 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi—110 017, India • Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, Auckland 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd.) • Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty.) Ltd., 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa

  Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

  “Shifter’s Lady” previously appeared in Shifter, published by Berkley Sensation.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

  SHIFTER’S LADY

  A Berkley Sensation Special / published by arrangement with the author

  PUBLISHING HISTORY

  Berkley Sensation Special / November 2012

  Copyright © 2008 by Alesia Holliday.

  Excerpt from Heart of Atlantis by Alyssa Day copyright © 2012 by Alesia Holliday.

  Cover image of Mountain Lion © Eric Isselée/Shutterstock. Cover image of Landscape © Zvonimir Atletic/Shutterstock.

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

  For information, address: The Berkley Publishing Group,

  a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,

  375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.

  ISBN: 978-1-101-56509-4

  BERKLEY SENSATION®

  Berkley Sensation Books are published by The Berkley Publishing Group,

  a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,

  375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.

  BERKLEY SENSATION® is a registered trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

  The “B” design is a trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

  This one is for Ann Thayer-Cohen, who gave me the title and who is an extraordinary moderator and a great friend. And, always, for Judd. And to my readers—thank you! Please visit me at www.alyssaday.com for excerpts, free downloadable screensavers, and a free short story for members only—“Atlantis: In the Beginning.”

  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

  Heart of Atlantis

  About the Author

  ONE

  Big Cypress National Preserve

  West of Miami, Florida

  Midnight

  Moonlight silvered down through the branches of the cypress trees, shadowing the gnarled limbs and trunks into the menacing forms of ogres from a child’s nightmare. The blood tracing geometric patterns in the dirt was no specter of childish terror, but the very real damage from a vicious attack.

  Swearing under his breath, Ethan circled the fallen panther—the sixth one attacked in two weeks—all the while scanning the chill winter’s dark for a glimpse of the unnatural predator who’d attacked it. He’d heard the animal’s screams of pain while patrolling more than a mile away and had immediately broken into a full-out run, but the attacker had disappeared into the winter night.

  At least for this panther he’d been in time. This cat was still alive.

  As the wounded panther—a good-sized male—lifted its head to snarl, Ethan drew his lips back from his teeth and preempted the cat’s defiance with a warning growl of his own.

  “Sorry, my friend, I know you’re hurting,” he said, pitching his voice to the low rumble of an alpha male asserting its dominance over a pack member. “But if you won’t let me get close enough to help you, we’re going to have to go the tranq dart routine.”

  Lifting his head, he scented the air again, memorizing the rank odor that had assailed his nostrils as he approached the clearing. His shape-shifter senses were preternaturally sharp, but even in his human shape, Ethan could track a scent trail. This one was distinct from any of his own pride, but it was somehow oddly familiar.

  The cat on the ground snarled again, weaker this time. The gouges clawed out of its side and belly glistened a deep crimson stained black in the moonlight.

  Ethan took one last, long look around and dropped down into a crouch next to the animal. “It looks like the bastard who did this to you is gone. So let’s get you to someone who can help.”

  The panther bared its teeth in one final act of defiance before Ethan grasped the sides of its face in his hands and stared into its eyes. He sent a mental touch into the cat’s mind, simultaneously muting the pain the animal was suffering and delivering a simple message: Pride-brother. Alpha. Help you.

  As he lifted the heavy body into his arms, careful not to jostle the cat more than necessary, he uttered a grim promise. “I’ll get him for you, friend. Believe me, he’ll pay.”

  TWO

  Atlantis

  The next morning

  Marie stood on the emerald-hued grass and stared, nearly transfixed, at the white marble temple inlaid with jade, sapphires, and amethyst, memorizing it anew, though she’d lived and worked within it for more than three centuries of days. She wanted to burn its image into her very being, in the event—the almost impossible event, she reminded herself—that she were never to see it again.

  Her temple. Her sacred responsibility.

  The one she was abandoning.

  Her breath quickened, and an obstruction the size of one of her favorite sea sapphires lodged in her throat. “Erin, I—”

  Beside her, Erin sighed and shook her head, her blonde curls shimmering in the magically created sunlight that replaced the rays of a sun that ha
d never dared venture so far beneath the sea. Erin put her hands on her hips in that peculiarly human gesture that both she and Prince Conlan’s beloved, Riley, favored when they were frustrated.

  Humans. Marie marveled anew at the idea that she had two human friends, when no human before Riley had set foot in Atlantis for more than eleven thousand years.

  “Not again, Marie,” Erin said firmly, tapping her foot in mock impatience. “We are not going over my duties in the temple one more time. As First Maiden of the Nereids for more than three hundred years, don’t you think it’s time you had a vacation?”

  “But Lord Justice—”

  Erin sobered, the playfulness fading from her face. “No one wants to find him more than Ven and I do, Marie. You know that Conlan and Ven and all the warriors have done nothing else but search for Justice since he…since he…”

  Erin’s voice trailed off, as she visibly fought for control. “He sacrificed himself to that monster to protect me. To protect Ven and me. We will never give up.”

  Marie hugged the shorter woman, offering up yet another silent prayer that Lord Justice yet lived. After admitting to the shocking truth that he was half brother to Prince Conlan and his brother, the Lord Vengeance, Lord Justice had offered himself to the vampire goddess Anubisa in exchange for his brother’s life. Marie had heard the tale of it many times but still could not comprehend the courage it must have required to voluntarily submit to the goddess of all Chaos.

  Especially knowing of Conlan’s seven years of torture at her hands.

  Erin took a deep breath and stepped away from Marie’s hug. “But life goes on. It always goes on. Women still come to the temple for help with their pregnancies and childbirth, and even though I am no temple-trained midwife, the gems give me the healing power to help them.”

  Marie smiled at the understatement. “You are our gem singer, Erin. You sing the healing power of the stones to our women and babies. You healed Riley and the unborn heir to the throne of Atlantis. Do not discount your Gift.”

  “I don’t discount it, or I never would have agreed to this. The responsibility for the unborn children of Atlantis is an enormous one, far too much for a single witch,” Erin replied. “Or at least it would be if you hadn’t trained me yourself, surrounded me with your very knowledgeable temple acolytes, and watched as I used my Gift to sing healing and peace to women in labor.”

  Marie’s desire to visit her brother, Bastien, and meet his new love, Katherine, pulled at her, but still she was torn. “I feel as though I were abandoning my duties at a time when all Atlantis must work together.”

  Erin’s blue eyes softened with sympathy. “I know. But you deserve this time, Marie. And your brother and Justice were very close, weren’t they?”

  Marie’s lips curved into a smile. “Yes, always. Thick as jellyfish, those two.”

  “Thieves.”

  “What?”

  “We say ‘thick as thieves,’” Erin said, laughing. “Although I must admit that thick as jellyfish makes more sense.”

  Marie studied the witch who had captured Lord Vengeance’s heart and restored the glory of the Temple of the Nereids through her gemsong. Abruptly, she nodded. “Yes. You are correct. Bastien will be nearly insane with rage and worry for Lord Justice, and even more so from the frustration that he could not immediately join the search. I must go to him.”

  Almost as if on cue, an icy wind swept between and around them and resolved itself into the shimmering form of Poseidon’s high priest, Alaric. He wore his customary black clothing, and the fire in his green eyes burned starkly in his drawn face. “Are you ready for the journey, Lady Marie?” he asked, his voice raspy as if little used in recent days.

  “I am,” she replied, inclining her head to the priest. He carried such a weight of bitter anguish with him, but it was not the pain of injury or illness. She sensed it was an emotional suffering but would never presume to impose upon his privacy by asking, no matter the whispers that had circulated about Alaric and Quinn, the sister of the prince’s beloved.

  If Alaric ever chose to share his anguish, she would listen. It was her role in life, and she had been content with it. To watch, to listen, to heal as best she could. Such a life was not without its rewards. She glanced at the temple one last time and smiled, then lifted her small travel bag from the grass at her feet and nodded again. “Please call the portal, if you would.”

  Alaric merely stared down at her for a long moment before he spoke. “Know that I am against this journey, my lady. We face more danger Above than we have for millennia, so now seems to be a ridiculously foolhardy time for you to venture from the safety of Atlantis.”

  Marie answered him with the respect due a warrior priest who had fought with and healed her brother and the rest of the Seven countless times, even though she’d thought this discussion finally put to rest when he’d agreed to call the portal for her. “As always, your opinion and advice are valuable. But I am not without defenses, as First Maiden. The goddess will not abandon me should danger threaten.”

  When he looked as though he would interrupt her, she held up a hand to touch his arm. “I know, Alaric. I know. But he is my brother, and he has need of me, though he would never admit to it. I must go.”

  He tightened his lips, and she saw the muscles in his jaw clench, but he said no more, merely lifted his hands in the air, closed his eyes, and called the magic. The magic of a high priest who was more powerful than any ever before anointed by Poseidon was truly mesmerizing to behold. The portal, sometimes capricious in how and when it responded, would never dare to disobey Alaric. On his command, the shimmering oval appeared first as a tiny gleam of light no larger than the palm of her hand then widened and expanded into an ovoid sphere sparkling with the effervescent colors of a thousand gemstones.

  She’d seen it before, of course. She’d watched her brother and his fellow warriors, those elite who formed the Seven and protected High Prince Conlan, travel through the portal nearly as many times over the centuries as there were gemstones in the Temple. But the sight never failed to amaze her, and today even more so.

  Today she was finally the one who would travel through the portal.

  There were no farewells remaining to be said. No final instructions to be dispensed. She was simply ready, and so she smiled her thanks to Alaric and Erin and stepped into the portal. Into her new adventure.

  Even as the magic surrounded her, Marie wondered at the chill that swept over her skin. The swirling winds of the transference whipped the murmured words from her lips as she spoke them. “Am I excited? Or simply afraid?”

  Big Cypress National Preserve,

  in front of Kat’s cabin

  Ethan leaned against a tree about as far as he could get from Bastien without displaying overt rudeness, but he met the huge Atlantean warrior’s gaze in a shared moment of utter disbelief after Kat pulled the silver tube out of her pocket for the eighth or ninth time. The completely professional, cool, calm, and collected Katherine Fiero, highly regarded National Park Service ranger and daughter of the late alpha of the Big Cypress panther pride, was actually checking her lipstick in a hand mirror.

  Like some kind of…female.

  Then she bit her lip in a nervous gesture, and Ethan nearly laughed. He coughed, catching it in time, but she rounded on him and glared. “If you’re going to mock me, get the hell out of here. I don’t need any more witnesses to me making a fool of myself in front of Bastien’s only sister.”

  Bastien blinked and then patted her shoulder as if she were an unruly cub. She whirled, her tawny hair flying, and snapped her teeth at the Atlantean, reminding both of the men that Kat Fiero was also a shape-shifter with the newfound ability to transform into more than one hundred fifty pounds of feral panther.

  “Stop patting me. What if she doesn’t like me?” She’d tried to hide the fear behind her words, but Bastien clearly had heard it, too, since he stopped trying to talk to Kat and swept her up into a fierce embrace. The love and
passion in Bastien’s expression made Ethan wish he were somewhere else.

  Anywhere else.

  Since Bastien and Kat had mated, or reached some Atlantean magical state that the warrior called the “soul meld,” the two had been inseparable. Their hunger for each other was so powerful that Ethan was sure even a man who wasn’t the alpha of Kat’s pride would have been aware of it.

  Since Ethan was the alpha and had once entertained hopes that he and Kat would someday settle down with each other, being around the pair was something akin to taking a serrated blade to the gut. He gave them another minute, then growled his displeasure. “If you’re done groping each other, how’s the cat doing?”

  Bastien released Kat but shot a warning glance at Ethan. “Perhaps you should concern yourself less with us and more with whoever or whatever is attacking your cats.”

  Ethan snarled at him. “Don’t push your luck, Atlantean. I may respect your fighting ability and our alliance, but don’t even think about questioning my concern or efforts on behalf of my panthers. Shape-shifter or the single-natured.”

  Bastien inclined his head. “As you say. None can doubt your commitment to the members of your pride or to your panther counterparts.”

  Kat’s eyes narrowed. “Do I have to toss a little of my mojo your way, boys?”

  Both men stepped back from her, lifting their hands in surrender. Kat’s Gift calmed aggression and sent waves of peace flowing through even the most antagonistic predators, and Ethan suspected Bastien didn’t want it used on him any more than Ethan did.

  Ethan wasn’t in the mood for peace. “About my cat?”

  “His injuries were really severe, Ethan,” Kat said. “Dr. Herman is the best, but he said it’s touch and go.” She shook her head. “If you hadn’t gotten there when you did…”

  “Yeah. I’m a big hero.” Ethan forced the words out through clenched teeth. “Such a big damn hero that I’ve let five of our cats die. Maybe six now. Six out of a total population of Florida panthers of maybe ninety, max. At this rate, they’ll be facing extinction again, like they were back in ’55.”