Mated To Magic (Stark Creek Shifters Book 1) by Barb Shuler (free ereaders .TXT) 📕

being taken advantage of. It also helped him sleep at night, so we both won!

Leaning against my car, I watched everyone clear out until it was just Jayden and me.

“You okay?”

She nodded with a smile and moved over to me and hugged me. “You need to stop worrying so much, Mia.”

I hugged her back tightly and laughed. “When it comes to you, babe, not a chance.”

She pulled back and just shook her head at me. “Go home to your man! I’ll see you tomorrow.”

I made a face at her and she laughed. “He isn’t mine!”

“So do something about it.” She said it like it was so easy. Not wanting to get into this again tonight, or this morning, I got into my car and started it up. After that infamous night, Jayden would always let me go first in case history repeated itself. I knew Dalton was out on patrols, though, so my car would be okay. She also did it so she knew I was out of there. We always texted each other when we got home. It was a habit we had gotten into and just never stopped. It was a comfort more than anything.

I drove the short distance from the bar to our house. I pulled into the driveway and saw that Dalton’s truck wasn’t there. Parking my car in my usual spot, I cut the engine and got out. After locking the door, I kept my keys out, glad that he had turned the light on because I had completely forgotten when I left for the bar this afternoon.

I let myself into the house, turning on a light so I could see, and made my way into the bedroom, setting my bag down on the bed. I wanted a shower, but I was tired as fuck, so I would have to get up earlier tomorrow and have one. I pulled my shirt up over my head, tossed it into my washing basket, and slipped out of my pants after sliding off my heels. Taking off my bra with a small sigh of relief, I grabbed my shorts and slipped them on before putting on my tank top.

Taking my phone from my bag, I sent off a quick message to Jayden letting her know that I was home safe. I put it on charge in the kitchen and grabbed a bottle of water. Drinking it as I moved into the other room, I set my bottle of water down on the table before laying on the couch. I turned on the TV for some background noise, but it was during these quiet moments at home that I thought about my family. Well, the family that I knew. Jayden and Khloe, my other bestie back in Wyoming, were the only people I had apart from Sy and Dalton.

My adoptive family was killed in a car accident when I was sixteen and ever since then I’d been on my own. It was about this time that I discovered my powers. It wasn’t until I was cleaning out my dad’s office that I found my adoption papers and birth certificate with my birth parents on it. I had never searched for them, though. I had always figured that if they wanted to know me, they wouldn’t have left me in the hands of someone else. Sure, I had been curious as to the lines I had descended from, but I didn’t want to be disappointed if nothing came of it. Would they tell me or just turn me away? Were they even alive still?

I knew I could ask Sy, or Dalton even, but again, I didn’t need to. My parents had been Adam and Miranda Anderson. That’s all I needed to know. If they came looking for me one day, good luck to them. After what happened with Jayden, I had both of us hidden using a spell. I didn’t want her found, so I hid myself just in case. Dalton managed to get through that. I was almost certain that I knew how, but it was a talk that we hadn’t had yet. One day.

Closing my eyes, I laid my head on the arm of the couch with a yawn. I pulled the throw off the back, fighting sleep, wanting to be awake when Dalton got home. As my eyelids grew heavier, I knew that it would be a fight that I was going to lose.

3

Dalton

I heard the front door open. After giving the map on my screen one last look, I closed my laptop. The boys were here for a pack meeting while Mia was out running errands. According to the GPS tracker on her car, she was at the grocery store. Would she kill me if she knew that little tiny piece of machinery was stashed inside of her car? Yep. Did I care? Nope.

That little bug would keep her safe. If she was in trouble, I’d know where she was. I’d always do everything in my power to keep her safe. It’s what you did for the person you loved.

The voices of my pack mates, my business partners, my brothers filled the hall and then the room I was using as my office.

“Hey, boss, what’s up?” Kody said, plopping down on a chair.

“Fellas,” I nodded. “Let’s make this quick.”

When I had everyone’s attention, I moved to my desk.

“We apparently need to set some ground rules here. I know this is a new place and it will take us a bit to get the lay of the land and all of that, but we cannot draw unwanted, unnecessary attention to ourselves.”

My gaze landed on Kody. After his stunt the other night, he especially needed to know that wasn’t how we needed to handle people, kids, trespassing on our land. It was a big joke to him. He might have been just having fun, but it could have been a disaster.

“What?” he asked, incredulous.

A growl rumbled up inside of me.

“Dude, you chased those kids