Shifter's Choice Read online

  Also by Annalise Nixon

  F'd Up Fairy Tales

  Feeling Froggy

  NORCAL SHIFTERS

  Between a Wolf and a Hard Place- The Complete Collection

  Bargain with the Bear

  Saving the Wolf

  Norcal Shifters- The Collection (Books 1-3)

  Shifter's Choice

  Shifter's Challenge

  Secrecy. Loyalty. Desire.

  * * *

  Who needs a band of brothers when you can form a pack of shifters?

  Captain Bryce Renault filled his Delta Force team with the deadliest wolves on the Army’s payroll. Each member loved their country, but Uncle Sam wasn’t ready for the truth.

  Thirty freaking days was all that stood between him and freedom—until he met her.

  * * *

  1st Lieutenant Candace Murphy is one of the newest members of the Night Stalkers, a high-speed combat ready helicopter squadron. From her first G.I. Joe, she knew she wanted to be an Army pilot. After sacrificing everything to get there, nothing would stand in her way.

  Except she didn’t foresee colliding with six feet of sex on a stick.

  If you delight in headstrong women and sexy men who love a challenge, then you’ll love Annalise Nixon’s Shifter’s Choice. It’s a stand-alone novella in the Norcal Shifters series.

  Shifter’s Choice

  A Norcal Shifters Novella

  Annalise Nixon

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Prologue

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  About the Author

  Chapter 1

  Dixie’s Roadhouse was a shithole.

  As soon as he stepped through the door, he was assaulted with loud country music, dim lights, yellow-blond hair with dark roots, and peanut shells scattered on the floor. But damned if Bryce Renault wouldn’t miss it.

  “Hey, beautiful.” He waved at Lorna May, the owner and primary reason most of the G.I.’s chose Dixie’s. The cheap cold beer and hot women held their own special attraction.

  “Hey, yourself.” She plunked a bottle of Bud in front of a burly civilian and nodded to the rear of the bar. “Your crew is back there playing pool and breaking hearts.”

  “Thanks.” Bryce winked at Lorna, ignoring the scowling wall of a man moving full speed in his direction.

  “When are you going to stop flirting with my woman?” Claude glared at Bryce, curling his fingers into fists the size of small hams.

  “Never. I want her to run off to California so I can treat her like the goddess she is.”

  “Are you kidding me?” Lorna May shook her head and grabbed three empty bottles with one hand and wiped the bar top with the other. “It took me thirty years to train that one. Not doing that again.”

  “You wound me.” Bryce slapped a hand over his heart as Claude’s booming laugh rang over the music. Lorna’s tongue was as spicy as the homemade salsa she fed him when he dined with their family. But her heart was as big as her smiling brown eyes.

  “How much time you boys got left?” Claude scrubbed his hand down his whiskered chin. With his dark skin and massive size, it was easy to see him as his bear.

  “Twenty-nine days.” Bryce couldn’t contain the grin. Just the thought of no longer being at Uncle Sam’s beck and call lightened his heart. “Not that I’m counting.”

  “Just make sure you and that pack of hooligans don’t destroy my bar before that happens.” Claude crossed his arms and glowered.

  “Hey, that wasn’t our fault.” At six three and a solid two hundred twenty-five pounds, Bryce wasn’t a small man. But standing next to Claude made Bryce thankful he and the bear shifter were friends. Most shifter groups stuck with their own, but Bryce believed more in cooperation than politics. Luckily Claude and Lorna May accepted Bryce and his newly formed pack with open arms.

  The neon Coors sign flickered behind the crowd of jean- and miniskirt-wearing patrons vying to order drinks. He felt a pang of longing for his old life in Sacramento as he recalled nights spent at Sanctuary, the bar that belonged to his best friend’s pride. Bryce would be home soon, but his life would be drastically different from the one he planned to leave behind.

  He watched Claude search the crowd and pause when he caught sight of his baby girl.

  Bryce hoped like hell this wasn’t the night some yahoo stepped out of line with Claude’s daughter. The authorities never found the last guy.

  If there was anything left.

  “I’ll catch up with you later.” He shook Claude’s hand and retrieved his shot of Jack neat, but not before placing a kiss on Lorna May’s knuckles. Talk about poking the bear. “You let me know when you change your mind.”

  “Boy, get out of here.” She snatched her hand back and swatted at Bryce as he backed away.

  He sauntered past the scarred wood tables surrounded by a mix of locals and military. His steps slowed when he walked by a redhead with a rack made for Penthouse. Perhaps his bed would finally have an occupant other than him.

  It had been far too long.

  “Yo, you’re just in time to watch me kick Shane’s ass—again.” Jake stood at the end of the pool table, a teasing grin on his too-handsome face. An Army brat with a black father and a Korean mother, he had that whole ethnic ambiguity thing going on, which was an asset on missions. That, combined with his gift for languages, got the team out of many a tough spot.

  Bryce noticed the absence of the rest of his small pack. “Where is everyone?”

  “One guess.” Shane, a taciturn but insightful and loyal man, racked the last of the balls and stood. “You should try it. Your bed has been pretty empty lately.”

  “Thanks for the concern, Dad, but my dick and I are just fine.” If not a wee bit lonely. “You done?”

  “Well…” Shane smirked and slid his fingers into the front pocket of his loose jeans.

  “Yes, you’re fucking done.” They were a pack of deadly misfits. He and Shane had met at jump school, then buddied up at Ranger training and were placed on the same team, where they met Jake. Through the years, they’d managed to find a few others and create one of the most successful Delta teams in recent history.

  Bryce assumed few shifters joined the military for fear of discovery. It wasn’t like they morphed into slobbering raving monsters beneath the glare of the full moon, but their beasts needed to run free and unfettered. Winding up in a city zoo, or worse—the pound—sucked, but damned if the extra skills didn’t come in handy on missions.

  “You need anything, Bryce?” Astrid, Claude and Lorna May’s daughter, hugged her tray to her chest.

  “Yeah, for you to return to college.” He glared at the yahoo near the dartboard, who was checking her out. “You need to find yourself a good little bear—after you graduate.”

  She huffed and frowned at him, looking like a younger version of her mother. “You sound like my dad.”

  “And let me guess, all seven of your brothers?” He laughed at her cute little frown.

  “I’m sure they wouldn’t mind if you asked me out.” Bryce coughed, and this time she laughed.

  “Not funny, brat.” He pinched her nose, and as he always did, ignored her crush. She’d get over it. Besides, he may as well have been her eighth brother. Even if he was attracted to Astrid, she was too young and too innocent. Oh, and he didn’t do virgins. “You’re too good f
or the likes of me.”

  She rolled her eyes, then turned her thousand-megawatt smile in Shane and Jake’s direction. After grabbing Bryce’s empty glass and the empty plastic pitcher from the table, she said, “You guys want another round?”

  “That’d be perfect.” Bryce waited for Astrid to leave, then pulled his smartphone from his back pocket, found the pictures he was looking for, and handed the phone to Jake. “Fifty acres in the California foothills, partially cleared, with utilities and the perfect place for our packhouse.”

  Shane studied his boots and inhaled deeply before he met Bryce’s gaze. “I’m not comfortable with you fronting the money.”

  “I have it. We need it. Shane, my friend, none of this would have happened without…” Bryce stopped speaking and scouted the room.

  Nothing.

  The beast he shared his body with pushed its way forward in Bryce’s psyche, and a low growl rumbled in the back of his throat.

  “Bryce.” Shane tensed, looking around for their enemy and preparing for battle.

  Bryce shook his head and opened his mouth to speak, when a scent sweeter than the most expensive perfume and cleaner than a breeze after a spring rain captured him. “Be right back.” He grasped that smell like a lifeline and followed it into the main area of the bar.

  “We got your six.” Jake stepped up to Bryce’s right, and Shane to his left.

  “I don’t need help with this confrontation.” He grinned, knowing he looked every bit the wolf. “That would require sharing, and I plan to dine alone tonight.”

  Bryce stalked to the bar, driven by his beast to locate their prey.

  He paused in the center of the room, raised his nose, and inhaled. For a second, he panicked, unable to smell her because of the damned cigarette smoke.

  “Ladies and assholes,” a lanky Hispanic male drawled into the mike, “y’all keep that dance floor and the ladies warm, we’ll be right back.”

  Garth Brooks sang, something about friends and low places, and Bryce walked to the space housing a small stage and reasonably sized dance floor. Couples two-stepped clockwise around the edges of the floor, while four pairs remained in the middle, swaying side to side.

  Beneath the mixture of sweat, lust and liquor, that scent reappeared. He filled his lungs and focused. Bryce scanned the room, searching, hunting—for her. Nothing but a woman or a mortal enemy could rouse his wolf in public.

  He’d always assumed that when it came time to mate, the pairing would be political, practical. Love had no place in his world. Building a strong, productive and happy pack? Well, that shit meant everything.

  Until now.

  Instead of pushing through the crowd and starting their mating dance, Bryce paused. He needed a few minutes, because the stronger her scent, the more out of control he felt. For as long as he could recall, he’d hated his father for mating with a woman he didn’t love because of damned pheromones. In this dark bar, in this tiny town, he was about to meet his mate.

  He took two deep breaths and held his shit together. Publicly shifting into a giant wolf in the era of cell phones was an express ticket to a government lab, if he was lucky. If the council got to him first, he’d meet Lucifer face to face.

  Emotions under control, he raised his head, ready to seal his fate.

  He damned near tripped over his boots when her saw her. A woman, all deep brown skin and big hair, scowled up at an oversized redneck with his arms around her waist.

  The woman appeared annoyed, at least until the yahoo pulled her tighter against his body. Bryce took two steps before her words stopped both him and the corn-fed clown in their tracks.

  “If you want to keep those balls of yours intact, I’d suggest you let me go.”

  “And who will do that? A little bitty thing like you?” The jackass grinned, seeming more clueless than malicious.

  Then she turned and looked at Bryce.

  He was an apex predator and a killer before he joined this man’s army. But staring into those soulful eyes, he felt… trapped. Until she grinned.

  Holy fucking hell. She was freaking dazzling, and a little disturbing now that he’d found himself in her crosshairs.

  Bryce took two steps and shifted his gaze from the beauty to the beast about to feel his wrath.

  The man’s gaze followed his soon-to-be-former dance partner’s, and he puffed his almost impressive chest. “You know him?” He stepped between Bryce and the woman.

  Neither Bryce nor his wolf liked the woman leaving his line of sight, not with an enemy present, but he remained still. Aggression poured off the prick about to get knocked out, and Bryce cracked his neck, welcoming the challenge.

  “I’ve had enough of your shit. Move.” She stepped to the side, attempting to pass the man, and encountered his arm. “Seriously?”

  Bryce debated whether to rip the male’s arm off or watch how the little spitfire handled herself. His wolf, however, wasn’t having it. Something about her scent was off, but between her annoyance and the male’s increasing arousal, it was difficult to decipher.

  “Sweetheart, the feeling is not mutual.” Instead of pulling away, she stepped toward the man’s body, twisting her wrist free as she placed a leg behind him and shoved.

  The man’s eyes widened. Then, like a tree the microsecond before it toppled, he hesitated. Which would the unwise and unwanted suitor choose, the woman or his pride?

  * * *

  Unlike Bryce, she had no intention of awaiting the moron’s decision, she dodged. Instead of running to the front door and away from the Neanderthal glaring at her, the feisty little fighter gifted Bryce with the deepest dimples he’d ever seen. Then, she lunged—at him.

  “Sweetheart,” she said as she fell forward, trusting him to catch her. He grabbed her around the waist reflexively as she collided with his chest and wrapped her arms and legs around him.

  Bryce believed himself a tactician, a leader, a man hardened by battle. But standing with her pressed against him, her scent driving him mad, made him want to claim her the way his ancestors had claimed mates: hard and in public.

  Instead, like a dumbass, the only thing he gave her was a slow blink—until she lowered her mouth to his.

  Chapter 2

  The touch of her tongue across his lower lip accompanied by a soft throaty moan set him off. No, that was an understatement. Instinct and desire hopped in the driver’s seat, steering Bryce and his wolf into a head-on collision.

  This woman belonged to them. They’d found their mate in Bumfuck, Mississippi, twenty-nine days before Bryce was supposed to venture into his well-planned future.

  Bryce ignored the whistles and catcalls as he tightened his grip on her thighs and carried her to the hallway leading to the restrooms. Were she some random woman, he would take her into the wheelchair-accessible restroom and finish this. With this woman, he needed hours, no, days to explore her perfect body.

  He pressed her back against the wall, angling his hips so she’d know precisely how happy he was to make her acquaintance. A part of him expected her to push him away, tell him to stop. Instead, she pulled him closer, slipping her fingers beneath his long hair, scraping his scalp with her short nails.

  A shiver wracked his body, and he held her tighter, knowing he never wanted to let her go. Not tonight, not fucking ever.

  “You go, girl,” a woman with a two-pack-a-day voice said before disappearing inside the ladies’ room.

  He reluctantly ended the kiss and pressed his forehead against hers while he regrouped and caught his breath. The heady perfume of her arousal reinforced he was not in this alone. “Hey,” he said faintly. And wasn’t that smooth?

  “Hi.” She studied him for a few seconds and nibbled on her lower lip.

  “What’s your name?” Bryce pressed his torso tighter against hers. No way in hell was he ready to release her, but he needed to bury his fingers in the nimbus of black curls dusting the tops of her shoulders.

  “Candy.” She grinned again, and like e
arlier, it held mischief and mystery. Good thing he had plenty of stamina. He kissed the dimple that appeared on her right cheek. “Nice name. It suits you.”

  “No stripper jokes, or I swear I’ll kick you in the nuts.”

  Bryce pulled back and stared into her serious brown eyes. He pressed his lips together to keep from laughing. “Only if you promise to kiss them all better.”

  “Wow, seriously?” She shook her head.

  “Hey, you jumped on me.”

  “I had to shoot my shot.” She played with the hair at the nape of his neck.

  “It wouldn’t have mattered. I’ve spent my whole life running. Once I saw you tonight, I realized I’d lost.”

  Her eyes widened, and she burst out laughing. It was a rich, full sound that made his balls tighten. Oh yeah, he wanted her doing that often, and with him. She was bold and brave, passionate without feeling pushy. This was a woman who knew what she wanted, and tonight, as he stood with an armful of Candy, she left no doubt it was him she desired.

  It became his mission to see to it that tonight became every night—and morning.

  “You’re adorable.” She patted his cheek like he was a kindergartner. “I appreciate the rescue, but I have to go. I’m starting a new job tomorrow.”

  He studied her for a minute, nodded, and sat her on her feet but kept his hands on her waist. “What do you do?”

  “Guess.”

  “I don’t know. You’re tough, ingenious, and funny as hell.”

  “Impressive.” She raised to her tiptoes and placed a quick but sweet kiss on his cheek above his beard. “But I’d like to walk away mysterious.”

  “I’d prefer you not walk away at all.” He hoped she sensed his sincerity.