Page 40 of Mortal Mate (Shadow Shifter)

Dannika looked at the floor, unable to meet Steele’s eyes. The picture he painted was too horrible to imagine. Her analytical brain could understand their mating protocols, but the woman in her could never condone it. “So your mating habits are the same as the wolves.”

“Yes. We mate a female in the human world. Date them, possibly marry them. Six months after the child is born, we fake ours and the child’s death.”

Her hands fisted at her sides. “Those women. It’s not fair.”

“No, it’s not.” While his eyes held remorse, there was a hardness to them. He believed their ways were just under the circumstances. If he wasn’t presented with a viable alterative, shadow mating practices would remain.

“I’m going to find another way. This can’t continue.” Her heart broke for those women, for the devastation losing their family must have caused. How many of those women ended up at the shelter?

Steele arched his eyebrow. “Why do you think your survival is so important? If you live, if you can bear shadow children, then you may produce a female child. Your existence represents the possibility of a new way of life.”

Dannika shivered. “Geez, no pressure.” She walked away from Raine, needing the cold. “I have to learn to be a shadow shifter before I can consider anything more.”

The tension in the room was palpable. Metal cords wrapped around her neck, threatening to extinguish her existence. She inhaled to ease the lack of breath in her chest. The memories of her past resurfaced, of feeling trapped by circumstances beyond her control. The world turned on her at every step, never allowing her a foothold.

Then Raine’s hands were on either side of her face. “Breathe, Dannika. You’re having a panic attack.”

For a moment, she was that little girl again, trapped in the closet while her world collapsed, listening to the screams, then dreading the silence that signaled her foster brother’s death. She had failed her family time and time again. How could this be any different?

Raine’s lips touched hers, and the dark thoughts evaporated. Heat coiled in her abdomen as lust raced through her veins. She clutched his shoulders, trying to get closer to the haven of his body before she remembered they weren’t alone.

“Sorry. I haven’t had an episode like that for years.”

Raine touched his forehead to hers. “We both know why you reacted to Steele’s comment that way. You are reeling from the reality of being the only female shadow, our last hope for the evolution of our species. I wish I could reassure you, but there is nothing I can say that alters the truth.”

Dannika hated he was right, but Raine was also looking for reassurance that he was the man she chose. She wanted to give it to him, to tell them that her body came alive for him and him alone. While that was true, her connection to Colton was growing.

She turned to Steele, needing a distraction. “If you were all shadows, what sparked the reapers’ existence? Who made the first kill?”

CHAPTER20

Dannika turned toward Colton as he approached the door. “You don’t want to tell me?”

“I do. I think you should know everything about us and our history. Let’s go outside. My animal is feeling cagey. We don’t spend a lot of time inside our homes.”

Raine took her hand and led her outside onto the wide veranda.

The shadows cast by the branches blocking the moonlight caressed Raine’s skin, making him appear ethereal. She didn’t fight the urge to run her fingers over his cheek. A jolt of electric fire raced through her blood and pooled in her core.

She pulled her hand away, not wanting to be distracted by her sexy shadow mate. “Tell me about the first reaper.”

Steele had remained inside the house. Colton reached up and grabbed a branch, leaning against it as he gazed longingly at the forest. “It was fifty years after the war. Many shadows had taken mates and lost them. The mating protocols were in place and, for the most part, the shadow shifters were flourishing.”

“Something changed,” Dannika said.

“His name was Mikail. When his son was in his tenth year, Mikail went into a form of depression. We have no purpose. We existed and had children, but we had no mate and no destiny. The Bokor had warned us not to drink human blood. That we would become no better than the infected. He wasn’t wrong, but he glossed over the worst part.”

She swallowed hard. “What?”

“Mikail was desperate to feel... anything. The week before he turned, he killed two dozen animals. He searched for something to make him feel alive. When it didn’t work, he killed a human,” Colton said.

“And he turned reaper,” she whispered.

“The clan didn’t understand what a reaper was. Mikail returned excited and revived. He admitted to killing dozens of animals and the clan assumed it caused the red eyes. They learned the truth when he killed his son.”

Dannika sucked in a breath. “I thought reapers couldn’t drink from shadows.”

Colton dropped his hand from the branch. “His son was only ten. He was born human. His demon had yet to emerge.”

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