Free Shifters Gone Alpha by Michele Bardsley, Sydney Addae, Sedona Venez, Ellis Leigh, Julia Mills, Renee George, Skye Jones, Brandy Walker, Lisa Carlisle, Solease M Barner, Cristina Rayne, Lynn Tyler Page A

child. I don’t want you to kill him.” Ty’s eye color swirled with lighter shades of violet. “His power is mine!”
    Heart racing, shallow breathing, tightness in her chest—yes, Sol thought, this was definitely what fear felt like. A surge of energy rippled through her skin, and Ty, or at least the thing wearing his body, was blown several feet from her. Solange didn’t wait around to see if the doppelganger got up. Instead, she took off in a sprint back the way they had traveled. Blackness consumed the night the further she ran. The stars, the moon, the grass, the entire world disappeared.
    She imagined the thing pretending to be Ty was right behind her, coming after her, but she couldn’t hear his footsteps, or anything for that matter, no laughing coyotes or mocking ravens, only her panting breath as it whooshed out with every footfall. All of a sudden, crash , her body smacked against something solid and the hard wall shattered like sugar glass.
    Sol fell to her knees through the barrier. When she looked up, Red Sun sat across from her, and Ty still occupied the floor to her left. She was back in the medicine man’s shack. She struggled to stand. “What did you do to me?”

 
     
    Chapter Eight
    Solange barely had time to catch her breath, to realize she was safe, when Ty asked, “What did the spirits reveal?” His voice had deepened, slowed to a sexy timber. She felt the words slide down her body like hands of a lover. Punching the man sounded like a great plan, but her trip “through the looking glass” would have given even Alice reason to pause.
    “None of its real,” Sol said.
    “It is real.”
    She stood up and walked out of the shack. It was nighttime, nearly identical to the setting of the so-called vision, and she wondered if she was still under the influence.
    “I don’t understand what’s going on, Ty.”
    “You are a witch,” he said gently, “and I am a bear shifter.” Ty began to take off his clothes, which Sol thought was totally wrong time, wrong place, especially after that wild announcement. She stared at his muscled form, too stunned to speak. God, his body was magnificent. “Don’t be afraid, Solange.”
    “Uh-huh,” she managed to grunt out.
    His bones snapped and twisted as fur sprouted along his skin.
    When his face took on the shape of a bear’s maw, Sol stumbled back. “Stop!” she shouted, remembering the vision. The thing that had been Ty in the vision wanted to kill a bear. No, not just a bear, but Ty. “Please, Ty. Stop. ”
    His shift faltered, and his body once again became human. “You cannot accept me.” His open hands fell to his side.
    “It isn’t that,” Sol said. For the first time, she believed. And if everything happening was true then Ty’s life was in peril. “The thing. The creature from my walk. It’s wants to kill your bear. It wants your power. If you change, she’ll find you. I don’t know how I know, but I do.” She dropped to her knees with exhaustion. The entire day seemed to catch up to her all at once.
    “You need rest,” Ty said. He knelt beside her and picked her up. “Tomorrow, we’ll search for the witch.”
    Easily, and much to Solange’s surprise, he carried her without even straining. In her heart, she understood the truth. She and Ty had a destiny together—and she didn’t want to fight it anymore.
    She wanted to embrace it.
    * * *
    Ty carried Sol to a sweat tent his uncle kept out back. The tribal elders held council there once a month, so his uncle kept it clean and comfortable. He placed Sol on a pallet of furs on the floor near the far end, past the pit filled with stones. “Try to get some sleep.”
    “Yeah, like that’s going to happen.”
    Ty lay down next to her. He needed her like he needed water to drink and air to breathe. His kind were natural enemies with hers, so why did having her near him feel so right? Red Sun had called Sol Ty’s mate.
    How could that be possible?
    When she rolled to her