Dark and Damaged: Eight Tortured Heroes of Paranormal Romance: Paranormal Romance Boxed Set by Colleen Gleason Read Free Book Online

stairs in an instant, going on all fours to keep his head down.
    He nearly slammed into Bree on the landing. She was indeed mussed and warm from sleep, her hair tousled, her eyes bleary. “What the hell is going on?” she asked in confusion. “Mom, what are you
doing
?”
    Nadine, in a robe, her bleached hair sticking out every which way, was standing at her bedroom window overlooking the front of the house, shotgun in hand.
    “I’m about to shoot some Shifters who’ve decided to camp out on my lawn.” Nadine said testily. “You all back off!” she called down to them. “All the way to the street. Or I call the cops.”
    None of the Shifters moved. Nadine lifted the shotgun, sighted, and pulled the trigger.
    The
boom
of the gun rocketed through Seamus’s senses. Bree screamed and clapped her hands over her ears. The cat, who’d followed them, streaked from this bedroom and into Bree’s.
    Outside, there was shouting, a couple of the Shifters boiling apart from where Nadine had aimed. She hadn’t hit any, Seamus saw from a quick glance. She’d shot at the ground, a warning.
    Seamus positioned the mirror on Nadine’s dresser so that he could see out the window without any of the Shifters below being able to see him. He counted four in front of the house. Probably the same number were in back, with more out of sight on the perimeter. That’s how he would have positioned his trackers.
    Seamus knew who the leader was, the one who stepped forward, his hands raised in a placating gesture. Not surrender—this Shifter didn’t know the meaning of the word.
    “I know you have a Shifter in there,” the man said, his rumbling voice carrying. The hint of Irish accent was clear. “Send him out, and we go home. We have no wish to harm you.”
    Seamus had never met Dylan Morrissey, but he knew a lot about him. All Shifters did. The man used to be leader of the Austin Shiftertown. When his son took over, Dylan became more of an overseer, roaming the Shifter territories in South Texas, making sure all Shifters kept in line. Rogue and feral Shifters were to be rounded up, brought in, Collared, and processed. Dylan and his trackers did a lot of that.
    Dylan had been instrumental in shutting down the bunker that had housed Kendrick and his Shifters. He’d destroyed it and left Kendrick’s Shifters in the wind. Dark anger spiraled inside him.
    “You’re still on my property,” Nadine shouted down. “Now get the hell off it. Want me to have you rounded up and caged?”
    Dylan didn’t move. He was flanked by a man with a sword—a Guardian. Probably his son, Sean Morrissey, the Guardian of the Austin Shiftertown.
    The very large Shifter standing behind the two of them had to be a bear. Only bears had that much bulk. The fourth was tall and hard, with tattoos all over him, his head shaved.
    Trackers, Seamus surmised, and tough ones. The bear would be stronger than all of them put together but not as fast. The Morrisseys were lions, like Seamus—he’d be more or less evenly matched against each of them individually, though Dylan had a rep of never being beaten.
    Seamus wasn’t sure about the tatt guy. Feline by the look of him, but Seamus couldn’t tell what kind of cat he was. If something like cheetah, then the guy could outrun Seamus but probably not outfight him. The guy looked like he could hold his own, however. He radiated self-assurance.
    A fifth Shifter walked around the house to join them. He was big like the bear, but with close-cut black hair, tatts, and an attitude that could only be Lupine.
    Dylan tried again. “I know you have a Shifter in there. We can scent him. Send him out, and we’ll be gone.”
    “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Nadine said. “You get off my property,
then
we’ll talk.”
    Dylan made a minute signal to the trackers. Nadine and Bree wouldn’t catch it, but Seamus recognized the body language. It was,
Find a way in and take him
.
    Seamus turned from the mirror,