Shifter’s Valentine Read online

  Shifter’s Valentine

  A Fada Shapeshifter Story

  Rebecca Rivard

  Wild Hearts Press

  Contents

  The Fada Shapeshifter Series

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Saving Jace (excerpt)

  Also by Rebecca Rivard

  About the Author

  The Fada Shapeshifter Series

  *BEST SHIFTER SERIES of 2018 ~ Paranormal Romance Guild Reviewer’s Choice Awards*

  THE FADA.

  Shapeshifters created during Dionysus’s infamous bacchanals from a mix of fae, human and animal genes.

  They’re ruthless, untamed—but when they love, it’s forever.

  The Rock Run River Fada (a clan of river-based shifters)

  Stealing Ula (#0.5—Nisio & Ula, a prequel set in Ireland)

  The Rock Run Trilogy

  Seducing the Sun Fae (#1—Dion & Cleia)

  Claiming Valeria (#2—Rui & Valeria)

  Tempting the Dryad (#3—Tiago & Alesia)

  The Baltimore Earth Fada (a clan of land-based shifters)

  The Darktime Trilogy

  Saving Jace (#4—Jace & Evie)

  Charming Marjani (#5—Marjani & Fane)

  Adric’s Heart (Book 6 ~ Adric & Rosana)

  Fada Shapeshifter Short Reads

  Lir’s Lady (#3.5—Lir & Isleen, set in Ireland)

  Shifter’s Valentine (#3.6—Chico & Jenny)

  Sea Dragon’s Hunger (#4.5—Cassidy & Nic)

  To stay informed and be eligible for giveaways and sneak peeks of upcoming novels, go to rebeccarivard.com or sign up for my newsletter. As a thank you, I’ll gift you with “Lir’s Lady,” a steamy short story!

  You’re also welcome to join my Wild Hearts Readers Group on Facebook. I post pics of the Fada Shapeshifters world and hot guys, run giveaways for my Wild Hearts only, and we talk books and other fun things.

  Prologue

  April of the previous year

  The crowd tonight was huge, and every single person a rabid Lita fan.

  Chico watched from the wings as the band played the first notes of her latest hit. The crowd roared with excitement.

  The night fae’s sultry voice soared above the seething mass, at times fierce, at times heart-rending. From his place at the side of the stage, Chico could see tears on people’s faces as they screamed the words about an unfaithful lover along with her.

  Lita’s pale face lit, feeding on their sorrow.

  She prowled with the mic to the edge of the stage, all lean, hot sex in a silver tank top and black pants that could’ve been painted on her long legs. As she growled about the woman’s vengeance, she fisted her hand above her head. The crowd shrieked with fury.

  Lita tossed back her long black hair, drinking it in. Night fae fed on negative energy—the darker, the better. For her, anger and despair were like sunlight to a flower.

  Only Lita was a vile, twisted flower. One who’d sunk her hooks into Chico for six long months.

  When he’d signed the contract to be her bodyguard, he should’ve realized that what she really wanted was a fada in her bed. Chico’s father had warned him against working for a night fae, but he’d stood firm. In six months with Lita, he would earn five times what he ordinarily made in a year. He could give a nice chunk of cash to the clan and still have enough left to do anything he damn well pleased for a long time.

  And Deus, he’d earned every fucking penny of it.

  But his contract was up, and as of tonight, he was out of here.

  Lita strode off the stage. With her came the faint scent of metal and decay. A human couldn’t smell it, but to a shifter’s enhanced senses, a night fae’s stench was unmistakable—and stomach-turning.

  Lita caught his eye. She didn’t even smile, just jerked her chin at him.

  He knew the drill. He was to follow her to her dressing room. She was humming with energy, and she wanted to work it off with him.

  He turned and followed her backstage.

  Inside, his gut knotted. He suspected she’d been working a glamour on him for the past six months, and a part of him feared that even with the contract up, he wouldn’t be able to break free of her.

  He squared his shoulders. The only way to fight a night fae’s darkness was to think positive thoughts. He pictured the Chesapeake Bay and the beautiful corner of Maryland where the Rock Run Clan’s base was located. He thought of his mom and dad and his friends, especially Tiago, who was like a brother to him.

  In the dressing room, Lita put her hand on his chest. A fine sheen of sweat coated her face and her pale amber eyes glowed. Six months ago, he would’ve been panting to have her, but now all he could see was the darkness beneath the beauty.

  She ran the tip of her tongue over scarlet lips. “How do you want it tonight, fada?”

  He removed her hand. “I’m here to say goodbye. My contract’s up as of midnight.”

  Her face hardened. Suddenly, she didn’t look so beautiful.

  But she had no option but to let him go—the fae found it almost impossible to break their word. They might try to twist things to their advantage, or trick you into agreeing to something you didn’t mean to, but once the fae entered into an agreement, they were bound by its terms. If Lita even attempted to break their contract, she’d get violently ill—and risk bringing down the wrath of older, more powerful fae upon herself.

  Being Lita, she tried anyway, amping up her glamour until she shimmered with an unearthly beauty. Chico had seen grown men fall to their knees before her, begging for just an hour in her bed.

  Hell, he’d been one of those poor, deluded asses himself.

  “Please, Chico.” Soft, seductive tones.

  The glamour tugged on him. Just one more time—what would it hurt?

  He set his jaw and resisted with everything he had.

  Picture Rock Run and the Chesapeake Bay at sunset. Think of his family and friends…

  Time froze as the two of them fought a silent battle. His internal clock told him the instant that midnight arrived. Relief flooded him. He wrested his gaze from hers and took a step back.

  “I’m leaving, Lita. Unless you’re breaking our contract?”

  Emotions flitted across her fine-boned face—surprise, anger, maybe even a little hurt. The acrid scent of metal and decay increased until he could hardly breathe.

  “Go then,” she spat out. “But you’ll never have another woman like me.” She gave him her back and began stripping off her clothes.

  He inclined his head—and escaped.

  1

  “He’s here,” Kym hissed at Jenny.

  Jenny nodded from her post at the cappuccino machine. She didn’t need to turn around to see him. Every nerve ending in her body had gone on high alert. She handed two cappuccinos to the customer who’d ordered them and turned to the next person, a brunette in a purple knit Ravens hat.

  Just beyond, he waited. Mr. Dark and Dangerous.

  Kym’s nickname, not hers, but it fit. He had a hard, rangy body, cropped brown curls and a perpetual stubble. A strong-boned face contrasted with a sensuous mouth and heavy-lidded eyes. Outside, a light snow drifted d
own, but he wore his usual black leather jacket over jeans and heavy motorcycle boots.

  The whole package just oozed sex.

  But he was also a fada, a shapeshifter. A river fada from the nearby Rock Run Clan. The fada were the badasses of the magical world. Big, ruthless, a little wild—and they didn’t have much use for humans.

  In other words, the last man Jenny should be interested in. She was done with good-looking, arrogant men. So when he’d tried to flirt with her, she’d shut him right down.

  But he kept coming back.

  She’d dreamed about him. Twice. Hot, vivid dreams, where he pinned her to the mattress and murmured to her in his sexy accent. Rock Run had been founded by Portuguese fada, and even its younger members spoke with a slight intonation.

  In the dream, his body was hard on hers, his hands pressing hers to the mattress on either side of her head. He gave her a leisurely kiss and then stared down at her with heated eyes.

  She’d moved restlessly. “I want—”

  His mouth had curved. “Oh,” he said, “you’ll get what you want. But first you have to say please.”

  Bolts of arousal had raced up and down Jenny’s spine. “Please. Please.”

  “Excuse me, Miss.” The woman in the Ravens hat frowned at Jenny. “Is my coffee ready?”

  Jenny’s face heated. She handed over the cup and then turned her most professional smile on Mr. Dark and Dangerous. “Good morning. The usual?”

  “Morning.” His answering smile was intimate, as though he knew exactly where her thoughts had drifted. “And yeah.”

  Her solar plexus flexed. She smiled back, for real this time. The light snow had left water drops on his face and hair, and a few still clung to his thick, curly lashes. Her gaze caught on those glimmering lashes, mesmerized.

  His eyes creased in amusement. “A café mocha,” he prompted.

  Her face got even warmer. She gave a jerky nod and turned to the coffee machine. His first time in the shop, she’d expected him to order a double espresso. He looked like the kind of guy who took his coffee strong and black. But it turned out he had a sweet tooth, and he loved chocolate. Something they had in common.

  Not that it mattered. She knew trouble when she saw it, and this man might as well be wearing a large T on his broad chest.

  Still, that didn’t stop Jenny from topping his café mocha off with extra whipped cream, the way he liked it. She told herself that was simply good customer service.

  “Here you go, sir.” As she handed him the cup, their fingers brushed.

  “Chico,” he murmured. “My name’s Chico Nobrega. And you are?”

  Damn. There went her nerve endings again, lighting up like a freaking Christmas tree. But she managed to speak normally. “Jenny Erdrich.”

  “Jenny Erdrich,” he repeated, and somehow her plain, ordinary name sounded exotic in his husky tones. “Nice to meet you.”

  He glanced around. The morning rush was over, the shop empty except for a couple of customers frowning at their laptops. “Can you take a break? I’d like the company.”

  Her brain said no, but her mouth said, “I don’t know…”

  “Go ahead.” Kym shooed her in Chico’s direction.

  Kym was a small blond firecracker of a woman who was writing a graphic novel. Like Jenny, she was dressed in the Java Shoppe uniform of black shirt and pants, but the ends of her short curls were tipped a bright green, and she had a matching chartreuse crystal in one nostril. They’d met Jenny’s first day at the coffee shop and bonded over their shared love of art, the Marvel Universe, and Batman (even if he was a DC Comics hero).

  Jenny knew how Kym saw her. Nice. Responsible. Hardworking. The kind of person who did everything by the book. Except for her jewelry—that was where Jenny poured out her heart and soul. She fingered the silver pendant around her neck, a free-flowing dolphin inscribed on an oval with a spray of diamond stars.

  She knew Kym liked her. Who didn’t want a dependable friend and co-worker? She’d never say Jenny was boring.

  But Jenny was beginning to think that maybe she was.

  She glanced back at Chico and made up her mind. “Okay, sure. Why don’t you sit down, and I’ll be right there?”

  He nodded and took his usual table against the wall, where he could see both the front and back doors, a warrior to the bone.

  As Jenny fixed herself a hot chocolate, he wrapped his fingers around his cardboard cup and stared into it, forehead furrowed, mouth a short, straight line. Suddenly, he didn’t look like a badass. He looked…lost.

  Her brows drew together.

  Chico glanced up and the lost look vanished, replaced by a cocky grin. “Coming?”

  “Be right there.” She took her hot chocolate and joined him.

  The table was only large enough for two chairs. Chico came to his feet and pulled out one for her. As she sat down, he pushed it in for her, so close she felt the warmth of his body along her back.

  She had the crazy urge to curl up, catlike, into his heat. It had been so long since she’d been really, truly warm, which was odd, because she’d grown up in northeastern Ohio smack in the middle of the snowbelt. Compared to that, Maryland winters were barely a blip on the cold scale. But she’d spent the past two years in southern California, and she couldn’t seem to adjust to a real winter again.

  Chico shrugged out of the leather jacket and draped it over the back of his chair. Her breath hitched. Lord, the man was beautiful—hard-muscled, his skin a warm olive. His soft gold T-shirt stretched across his chest, and a tat swirled around his bulging upper arm.

  His eyes met hers, and his lips curved in a way that promised all sorts of interesting things.

  “So,” he said as he retook his seat, “tell me about yourself. You’re not from around here, are you?”

  She shook her head. “I grew up in Ohio, but most recently, I’ve been living in L.A.”

  “Why did you leave?”

  Because I found out my bastard boyfriend was cheating on me.

  She shrugged. “Too expensive. And I missed my dad.”

  “He lives in Ohio?”

  “He did. He—” Her throat closed. It was still hard to say it out loud. “He passed last August.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  She gave a tight nod. “Mom died when I was a kid. But Dad—he was a big, strong guy with so much energy. I thought he’d live forever.”

  He touched her hand. “That must have been hard.”

  “Yeah.” She looked at his fingers on hers. They were blunt, work-roughened. Like her father’s had been.

  “You miss him.”

  “Every day.” She instinctively touched her silver dolphin pendant.

  “That was your dad’s?”

  “No, I made it. Dad—he died really sudden. One week he was okay, and the next he was gone. But the night after he died, I had a dream. When I woke up, I made this in his honor.”

  In her dream, it had been a hot summer night and her dad had gone for a swim in the creek behind their house. She’d stood in the trees and watched, knowing it was only a dream, but happy to see him strong and healthy and doing something he loved.

  Then he’d changed to a dolphin and swam up into the night sky, leaving a trail of silver droplets like stars in his wake. She’d flung up her hand. If she could just touch him one last time…

  But he was too far away. She’d closed her fingers and woken up, eyes wet with tears, wanting her dad with all her heart.

  In the morning, she’d taken out her tools and started the pendant.

  “You did that?” Chico’s brows lifted. “It’s good. Did your dad have something to do with dolphins?”

  “No. He just loved to swim.” Pain contracted her heart. She drew a breath. “Look, can we talk about something else?”

  “Of course. But I’m honored you told me about him.”

  She moistened her lips. She hadn’t expected this. Chico was hot, but she’d figured he was shallow. She did not want to find
out that beneath that gorgeous face and body there was a real, caring man. One who made her want things she hadn’t wanted since Ryan…

  She took a gulp of hot chocolate. “I should get back to work.”

  He inhaled slowly, and then gave her an apologetic smile, almost as if he’d scented her wariness. Could fada do that? She’d heard they could scent a lie, so maybe they could smell other emotions, too?

  “It’s only been a few minutes,” he said. “And she’s not busy.”

  In fact, Kym had taken advantage of the lull to sit at the counter and check her messages.

  “Stay,” he added. “Please?”

  Jenny hesitated, and then dipped her chin. “I guess I can stay another couple of minutes.”

  “So how did you end up in Maryland?” He sipped his café mocha.

  “I came out here to study with a master jeweler. She sells her pieces in New York, in high-end catalogs—all over the world. I’m mostly self-taught, but you can only get so far that way. There are things I don’t know—certain techniques, how to work with different metallic alloys—so I asked if she’d take me on as an apprentice. She looked at my site on Etsy and here I am.”

  “You must be good.”

  She moved a shoulder. “I have a lot to learn.”

  “So, you’re in Grace Harbor for how long?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe I’ll stay for good—I like it here. I love being on the water.” The small city of Grace Harbor was bordered by the Susquehanna River to the north and the Chesapeake Bay to the east. “And I like how friendly everyone is. You can’t walk down the street without two or three people saying hello.”