Homecoming: A Cloaked Devices Short Story (Cloaked Devices 0.5)

By Cecilia Robert

**Mature Content Warning** 17+ for language and sexual content.

Five years ago, twenty-three-year-old panther shifter Sera Czedar left her home and her newly mated groom in a humiliating position after a mating ceremony gone wrong. She built a new life for herself in Varselles, the City of Outcasts where shifters exiled from their clans in the Seven Kingdoms can go for sanctuary.

Five years ago, panther shifter Levian Grayson was abandoned on the bonding bed by his bride, Sera. After years of tracking her, he arrives in Varselles, intent on staking his claim on her once and for all, even if it means hauling her over his shoulder just to make sure that happens.

Sera has always known her homecoming would eventually catch up with her one day. The one thing she can’t bear to do is hurt Levian, which will happen as soon as he finds out the reason she left him. Is she ready to take that path? Most of all, will Levian still want her when the truth comes out?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Cecilia Robert
• Release date: Oct 17, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301917488

Cecilia Robert

I write YA, NA and Adult. My motto: Passion rules. I enjoy writing stories about people finding love in the most unexpected of places,and also about people finding their true purpose in life coupled with adventurous journeys, whether it's urban, fantasy, sci-fi, contemporary or paranormal romance. There's always a happy ever after, no matter how long it takes for the characters to get there. When I'm not working in my full time job, I don my supermom cape, or in most cases find myself trapped between the pages of a book in search for a hero who'll make me swoon with just a look or a word. My favourite form of therapy is knitting. Best. Therapy. Ever.

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HOMECOMING (A Cloaked Devices Short Story)

(Cloaked Devices 0.5)

By

Cecilia Robert

SMASHWORDS EDITION

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are a product of the author's imagination and are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons living or dead, is coincidental. This eBook is licensed for your personal enjoyment. Thank you for respecting the authors work.

Copyright ©2013 by Cecilia Robert. All rights reserved including the right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit in any form or by any means.

This one is dedicated to:

YOU.

Let your inner cat roar once in a while.

Table of Contents

Copyright

Dedication

Acknowledgements

Prologue

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Ten

Eleven

Twelve

Thirteen

Fourteen

Fifteen

Sixteen

About the Author

Acknowledgements:

A huge shout-out to my early readers for the priceless feedback that made this story better: Sarah Brown, Kirsty Vizard, Nanette Bradford, Angela Brown, Priya Kanaparti, Jillian. Thank you for making me laugh and cry--in a good way--at the same time.

Another huge shout-out goes to Taneesha at Kaidan's Seduction, Megan Cole at There's This Book, Stephanie Parent at Stephanie Parent Reader, Meradeth Houston at Write Stuff, Sarah Brown at Head Stuck in a book, Angela Brown at In pursuit of Publishness, Vicki at Writer of Wrongs, Cara Crabtree at A Passion for Reading, Angie at Gigi's Book Blog, Samantha Martin at Faerie Tales Books. Thank you for helping me out with the ARC review tour. I am truly humbled and will forever by grateful for taking a chance on me and my book.

Thanks to Ravven at www.Ravven.com. You're Midas on heels, Lady! You totally knocked my socks off with this one.

Thank you to my readers, old and new, for taking time to pick up my books and read, for the notes and emails that brighten up my world on so many levels. You make this so more fun and worth every minute. And to all the bloggers who generously give their time to read and support authors, thank you!

My Editors: Anne Victory & Tricia Kristufek

Format: E.M. Tippetts Book Designs

PROLOGUE

Seventy-five years ago, Earth was a place thriving with humans. Shifters lived among them, albeit hiding their true nature, until one morning when the world woke up to find everything had gone to hell. World War II had begun. A group of human scientists invented bacteria that would scare the population. They were wrong. The plague that emerged as a result of these scares almost eliminated the entire populace. Only the blood from shifter clans could save the survivors.

Now Earth is a wasteland. Uninhabitable. Gifted humans, very rare and valued highly, live alongside the various shifter races in Anndesia, under the protection of the clan leaders.

Excerpt from Anndesia History by Solomon Drakovic

Chapter One

Some people say there is something quite tragic about missing half of your soul. Tragic wasn’t a word Levian would have chosen for what he’d gone through the last five years, or for his state of mind and emotions. Lonely, yes. Hurting, oh, yes. Feeling as though he’d been living in a black hole with no light in sight? Fucking yes.

Tragic was just a word without emotion.

He breathed in deeply to calm his panther. His cat had become anxious with every passing day, then completely agitated when the detectives he’d hired returned with no news about his mate.

He exhaled slowly. Where are you, Sera? he murmured under his breath, closing his eyes, like he’d done so many times over the past months, and hoping that somehow, somewhere, the threads of the bond that connected two mated souls would work in his favour.

Still no news? asked a familiar male voice to his right.

He shook his head but didn’t turn around. He wasn’t in the mood to entertain anyone today, but his best friend, Uriel, didn’t seem to care enough to respect Levian’s wishes.

Huh, Uriel said. You need to leave this room. Go out. Drink yourself into stupidity and burn out your liver or something.

This time Levian turned to face his friend and fought the urge to roll his eyes. Uriel was sprawled on the red divan, a gift from Levian’s mother. One of his long legs was propped on a footstool; the other was tossed over the back of the divan. Uriel had been living with cats too long—he was beginning to resemble one in mannerisms, was becoming too brave and annoying. Just like Levian’s kin. At least Levian could stand Uriel because he knew when to shut up.

One of Uriel’s arms was folded behind his head while the other juggled two fireballs he’d just created from thin air. Unlike the shifter races—humans that could shift their forms at will. His ancestors were among the lucky survivors who’d been brought to Anndesia through a portal after Earth fell apart and the plague annihilated most of the human population seventy-five years ago. The survivors had been cured of the disease by mixing their blood with the shifters’ blood. Although Uriel couldn’t transform his body into any creature, he was powerful enough to set the whole place on fire—an ability borne from the cure.

And now he was about to set Levian’s books ablaze. Levian cringed as Uriel spun a finger, creating a whirl, and began tossing the flaming blue ball all over the place. This is what happened when Uriel got bored.

Levian growled in warning. Shouldn’t you be out there bending people to your own will, Uri?

Uriel chuckled. Actually, it’s teaching them to control their powers. But I’ll take the will-bending thing. He grinned at Levian, then said, So, what do you say?

Levian narrowed his eyes. Time for you to leave.

And let you have all the fun, wallowing in pity? What kind of friend do you think I am?

Levian scowled and went back to staring out the window. Silence followed, interrupted by the whoosh of a flame or cool air close to his ears when Uriel blew whirls his way. He knew Uriel well enough to know he was trying to distract him.

Minutes later, footfalls sounded down the hallway and drew closer to his study.

He waited, eager to roar at whoever who was heading his way. Gods, he was cranky as hell. Like one of those aged panther-shifters who didn’t have anything better to do than complain the whole damn day. Uriel was right. He needed to leave this room before he became more cantankerous. He opened his mouth to talk but stopped when the scent of antelope-shifter slammed into his throat. His mouth watered—he couldn’t remember the last time he ate. His cat eagerly clawed at him, whining.

Behave. We will not break the agreement. Of course he wasn’t about to break the two-hundred-year-old contract that forbade any sort of hunting or stalking of the smaller, less-powerful shifters, which would start a war. The Revolution War two hundred years ago had taught everyone a lesson—so many lives had been lost on a bloody, useless fight to determine who was strongest in the food chain. And that established a king-on-rotation law. Each shifter clan was entitled to choose one who would represent them on a five-year tenure before stepping down for a different leader.

The man in the doorway cleared his throat noisily, then said, We have news, my lord.

Levian’s back stiffened and he clenched his jaw.

We have news.

He’d heard those same words, or a version of them, nearly a hundred times in the last years. He wasn’t holding his breath for any new developments. Gritting his teeth, he continued to stare out the window of his study, watching a boat bob lazily in the Rhine Sea. The faint grind and click of machinery in the harbour reached his ears. Today the usual calm he felt from those sounds was missing. He glanced up at the blue sky, hoping for a miracle that would stop his heart from bleeding dry.

The man’s feet shuffled as he fidgeted. Levian’s nostrils flared as the scent of the panicked antelope wafted towards him. He looked over his shoulder to Sevic, one of the detectives chosen for Operation Find My Mate, as Levian had named the search, Sevic fiddled with the black hat clutched in his chubby fingers. His brown-eyed gaze met Levian’s, then quickly darted away. From the corner of his eye, Levian saw Uriel snuff the flames he’d been toying with and sit up on the divan. Levian tried to assemble his jumbled thoughts and emotions in preparation for dealing with whatever news awaited him.

Around him, everything pulsed with life. Normal. The Rhine Clan, which consisted of panther-shifters living along the Rhine Sea, continued to breathe, eat, and breed—something they were very good at. One thing they seemed to have forgotten in their haste to populate Anndesia was one of their own: the one who had slipped through Levian’s fingers—in the most literal sense of the words. His runaway mate. Sera.

Levian hadn’t forgotten her, though. Not by a long shot. If only there was some kind of medication in Kórskan kingdom, or the other seven kingdoms, to dull the pain that had consumed what was left of his soul over the years. He most certainly wouldn’t have done anything about it anyway. He’d prayed to Variyah, the goddess of love and mates, but she hadn’t answered him. In most cases the gods left everyone in peace, not demanding anything other than loyalty. Dedication. Devotion. Hadn’t he done all that? Loved Sera enough to be given a chance with her? Dedicated and devoted his life serving them?

He sucked in a breath and flexed his fingers. Well, he just hoped Sevic really had news for him. It was getting a little bit too difficult not to bite someone’s head off.

Right now Sevic's fidgeting was making it difficult for Levian to concentrate on anything other than his cat, which was screaming, Go chase the snack, you idiot!

He took a deep breath, grimacing. Speak up. And stop fidgeting, Sevic. I’m not going to bite your head off. Or maybe I will, depending on your news.

Sevic swallowed audibly.

Levian growled low. Calm down, Levian. You really need to leash that temper of yours. Over the last five years, he’d scared away half his clan. He had yet to master his temper.

He sighed, trying to shrug off the hopelessness coiled around his heart. He was the clan’s Beta, for crying out loud, not some simpering virgin cub pining over his first love. Levian turned to face Sevic, and this time he tried to school his expression to a more pleasant one. Tell me.

Sevic cleared his throat and licked his lips. My sources at the Department of Information here in Vanezia have informed me she—her ladyship, Sera Czedar—was reported to have paid a very high sum of money for an antique book. In Varselles.

Sevic had Levian’s full attention, and his heart raced in his chest. The part of his soul that had wilted the moment his mate had skipped town unfurled, injected with a dose of hope. When?

Two days ago.

"Two days ago? And why am I just hearing this now?" Levian snarled.

Sevic stumbled back and wiped his forehead with the back of his hand. W… we had to make sure we had the right person.

Levian straightened, shoved a hand through his short, spiky hair, and glanced at Uriel. How could I have missed her? We were in Varselles. Three goddamn times!

See? There’s that rage again, Uriel said with a drawl, jabbing a finger in his direction. That’s what stopped you from sensing her.

Levian concentrated on imagining how many ways he could wipe that smug expression from his friend’s face, instead of focusing on how spot-on Uriel’s words were. His ego had suffered extensive damage after he’d failed to track down his mate.

Without warning, he moved away from the window. His body was an explosive mixture of emotions: hope, love, betrayal, anger. He wasn’t sure how long he could keep the cap on without detonating. His cat was howling and pacing for its mate after hearing the news. It was only a matter of seconds before it took full control of them both.

He needed a drink. Desperately.

Levian stalked to the cabinet that contained a variety of alcohols. At that same moment, Sevic stumbled back quickly. Levian rolled his eyes and flung open the glass doors of the cabinet. Seriously, Sevic really needed to get a hold of himself. Levian grabbed the brown bottle he always kept for occasions like this and squinted at the label.

Falling Embers, 90 percent alcohol content. That would do.

After pouring the liquor, he tossed the shot back, dumping the contents into his mouth and feeling it burn a hot trail down to his stomach.

Holy shades of hell! It was like swallowing and shitting flames. Even his ass was on fire.

He grimaced, then tipped the bottle to refill his glass and gulped it down too. He heard Uriel say something, but it melted along with the