Free Taken (M/F/M red-hot menage shifter romance) Standalone (Shadow Creek Shifters Book 2) by Madison Johns Page B

to ache. “Did they ask what happened to your sister?”
    “No, and I don’t think they cared since London was having a crisis with so many fatalities. Arielle had a simple funeral and she was buried at the light of the full moon since I was already having problems of my own. It started quite slowly, at first, for me. First, I became quite light sensitive and then the stomach cramps began. I can’t explain to you in any way that you’d understand, Katlyn, but they are so painful that I could barely handle it. One day, there was a knock at the door, and when I opened it, there was the man who had bitten me standing there. I tried to slam the door shut, but he forced his way inside. He’d brought a fresh steak and tossed it at me, encouraging me to feed. He told me that if I didn’t, the pain would only worsen. It tasted awful, but I did what I had to until I fled the city, traveling only at night. I refused to accept any help from Gerome, the man who’d bitten me, who wanted me to come with him to his estate in Sussex. Luckily, he left me alone, but every time I looked out my window, he was always waiting in the shadows. He told me he’d bit me so that he would have a mate all his own, but I refused to submit to him. Gerome was quite the cocky bastard and told me that I’d never survive without him, but he underestimated how determined I was to avoid him at all costs.”
    “Where did you go?”
    “The country. I fed on livestock animals for a time before I took the job as a nanny for a family who were leaving for the United States. They believed me when I told them about my deadly skin allergy and we traveled at night. I spent most of my time in my cabin on the ship, and when we arrived in Boston, I quietly slipped away. I just couldn’t trust myself with an innocent child so close. I eventually found myself in California, working as a maid for an heiress, where I stayed until she passed away fifty years later.”
    “How were you able to feed?”
    “We lived in the mountains and I became quite good at hunting wildlife until that fateful night in 2002 when I was caught feeding on a tourist. Later, they found quite a few others that I had fed on, leaving quite a body trail. I hadn’t planned to feed on humans and kill them, but if I simply fed on them, there would be far more vampires then there are now. I was caught by the locals, but once they figured out I was a vampire, they came up with the perfect punishment. They took me to Devil’s Tower here in Wyoming and threw me into a hole that was impossible for me to escape from. I was trapped beneath a large rock they threw down on top of me and all I could do was stare high above at where the sun would burn me alive when it rose. Luckily, though, I was lying in the shade, but the humans didn’t stick around to find out. I’m not sure how long I was there, except that I fell into a deep sleep and went into a brumation like the lizards do. It’s like hibernation. I didn’t wake up until Brendan and Chase freed me. The blood from their fresh kill awoke me, and when I fed from the deer carcass, they never even flinched.”
    “Why would we?” Brendan asked. “You’re not so different than us. Well, possibly a little,” he laughed.
    “I owe my life and future to you and Chase. I’m so sorry I disappointed you all when I bit Tessa, but I didn’t have much of a choice once I bit her. It’s not like I could kill her.”
    Tessa stretched. “So you knew I’d be turned and you still bit me anyway? What kind of monster are you?”
    Paige shook her head. “I know. It was a rash decision, and I’ll do everything in my power to help you adjust.”
    “What about the others you bit? What happened to them? Are they, too, vampires?”
    “Some managed to escape, and yes, I believe that they are, but others I killed so they couldn’t tell anyone what I was. I’m ashamed to admit that I did that, but the thing is that I was in survival mode. I know now that it was