Hidden in the Shadows: Shadows Series, #2

By Noelle Rahn-Johnson

Squatting on the forest floor, hidden behind and under the tall, thick ferns, Jamison watches as a red macaw flies and dodges trees, scrambling away from two others chasing him.

When Sam meets Jamison's almost black eyes, attraction, heat and 'mate' screeches through his brain, but can Jamison and Sam make it work or would it be just a quick roll in the leaves?

Sam's parents abandoned him when he came out to them as gay not too long ago. And that didn't sit well with their flighty and all-mighty life style. So, Sam has lived his adult life alone and severely depressed.

Will Sam being gay affect this lumbering muscled man and send him scrambling away? Could the hulking man want more than just him and a roll in the leaves? Will their animal shifters be accepting of each other? One flying and the other a chest pounding, beefy shifter?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Noelle Rahn-Johnson
• Release date: Dec 6, 2019
• ISBN: 9781393146940

Noelle Rahn-Johnson

Noelle currently lives in Northern Minnesota with her husband, their four children, two dogs, two rats, a handful of goldfish, and a very spoiled cat. She spends most of her days puttering away on the keyboard with a breathtaking view of a lake in her backyard as a source of tranquil inspiration. Her and her husband were high school sweethearts, and will be celebrating their 25th year of wedded bliss in August of 2017. She enjoys fishing, reading, shopping, writing, and spending time with her family. Noelle's writing career debuted with her first m/m romance, Returning for Ryder, in September 2016 with a publisher. Originally intended as a standalone novel, it seems Noelle's fans have other ideas and she will be penning a second, and a third in what is now to become The Returning Series. She is no longer signed with this publisher and has now independently publishing this book and the rest of this series. Noelle has also indie published her In Pieces, Book One, in the "Pieces Trilogy", a heterosexual contemporary romance. She also has released book 2, Shattered Pieces and book 3 Broken Pieces. Naughty Night Press LLC recently signed Noelle for her MF Shifter Paranormal Romance, Remote in the Shadows, to be released in April of 2017. Noelle not only thrives on her love of writing, weaving worlds full of passion and romance for her readers to crawl into, but also the excitement of her readers when they know she's getting close to another release date. She plans to release many more books in the coming years for their enjoyment. Be warned, no matter the genre of her work, Noelle's books will all contain explicit language and smexy romance scenes! 18+ audiences only!

Book preview

Hidden In The Shadows

By

––––––––

Noelle Rahn-Johnson

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and events are strictly the product of the author or used fictitiously. Any similarities between actual persons, living or dead, events, setting or locations are entirely coincidental.

––––––––

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Dedication-

––––––––

As always to my dad.

For showing us the love of books when we were kids. It’s been a motivating starting point for me in every book.

Acknowledgements-

First and foremost, to my hubby, and my kids. Thanks for the ride and putting up with me all this time. For accepting me and all of my quirks. For loving me for who I am.

To my readers, friends, followers, fb friends and fb family out there, thank you so very much!

For a book that wasn’t supposed to be, it’s now in a series of 5 books!

Thanks to my readers and followers and loyal people for pushing me, motivating me and wanting another book from this series. You all make it worth it. Thanks for riding with me on this journey!

To my personal The Naughty Squad Group- Thanks so much for being there when needed.

To my private Noelle’s Naughty Beta’s messenger group. Thanks for your positive support and for me to bounce things off you for feedback. I couldn’t have finished this without your help.

Thanks to Shannon Nemechek for creating a kick ass cover. As always!

Thanks to Sallyann Cole for her massive awesome editing and formatting skills.

Thanks to my daughter, Cheyenne for helping me with songs for the line-up, for letting me bounce ideas off her, and for just being there.

To my special peeps-

*Rose, you’ve been there all along, thanks for your help and friendship.

*Shantel- My adopted daughter on fb. Your day will come. Keep pushing forward. Thank you for being a great friend. Thanks for helping with the editing process. For letting me vent when characters don’t play nice. And for just being you.

Music line-up

Badflower      Ghost

Memphis May Fire     The Old Me

Imagine Dragons     Birds

Shinedown      I’ll follow You

Audioslave      Be Yourself

Secondhand Serenade     It’s Not Over

My Darkest Days     Can’t forget You

Amity Affliction     Drag The Lake

Adelitas Way      What It Takes

Any Given Sin     Dynamite

Seether       Weak

Shinedown      How Did You Love

Papa Roach      Give Me Back My Life

4th Point      Sick Of It All

Smash into Pieces     Let Me Be Your Super Hero

Like A Storm      Love The Way You Hate Me

The Neighbourhood     Reflections

Table of Contents

Dedication

Acknowledgements

Music Line Up

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

Epilogue

Chapter 1

Jamison

I’ve lived on the very outskirts of this town called Remote, Oregon for all my adult life alone. For three reasons only- It’s beautiful, private and quiet. Those three things alone make it worth my while, but also my animal can go ape wild if he wants too and we don’t need to worry about humans interfering. My beast doesn’t like being alone, but I can’t help that.

There are a few shifters in this area, but we pretty much keep to ourselves. Shifters are all over the world, not just where their animal is originally native from.

I live in a small two-bedroom, one-bathroom rustic cabin home. I have wood to burn for heat, and a small heater in my bedroom for those freezing cold nights when my balls are about to fall off. I also have electricity and running water, so I’m not too far off the grid, but I do like my peace and quiet. And my small home is right on the edge of the forest and mountains.

Currently, I’m in my animal form munching on the berries I love so much, and my huge sausage looking fingers squish a few, so I lick the berry juice off them. I drop a few as I’m startled suddenly by a loud squawk and a few screeches coming from somewhere in the upper boughs of the massive pine trees. I’m sitting here in the depths of the forest, forced to listen to the constant squawking of the damn birds flying overhead.

Taking a pass over us they fly higher, in the upper branches. I see flashes of red. I either drop or squish a few more tender berries in my hands and my beast is getting agitated. I’ve been hearing the birds for a while now and they need to stop. I can feel the low grumble vibrating in my beast’s chest. My nerves are wearing thin. Both in animal and human.

Suddenly, three birds fly right over my head, and it looks like one is being chased by the other two. Damn fucking things. Don’t know why they can’t fuck off somewhere else. When you see an animal out of its normal home environment, you know it’s a shifter. And I know these macaws are shifters. I’ve never seen them here before.

When I look up again, I witness the first bird slam into a thick tree branch. He’s lost his bearings trying to escape from the other two chasing him. I watch as his lifeless body plummets to the ground and lands in the soft leaf litter and dead pine needles only a few feet away from me. That will leave a sore spot for sure, smacking into the tree like that. I trudge over to make sure the little guy is okay and still alive.

The other two birds fly away as I come upon the downed bird. I believe he’s a macaw of some kind. I don’t know anything about birds or bird shifters. He’s lying on his back, wings spread out behind him. Legs and feet out straight. Doesn’t look like there’s anything broken, or disfigured, but I know he’ll have one hell of a headache and a badly bruised shoulder when he wakes up.

I lean down and notice his chest moving with his breathing, so at least that’s a good thing. I tell my beast with our mind communication how to carefully handle the feathered thing, bringing my furry, meaty arm down parallel with his body. I fold in his wings into the sides of his little body and slowly roll him onto my arm.

Tucking him in between my chest and arm, I meander back to my home to get this little guy back to health. If I were to leave him out here, who knows what could hurt him even further, or what might eat him for a snack.

As I make my way back to my little home, I glance down to the bird. He is a pretty sight. When the sun hit his red, yellow, blue and green colored feathers, they flashed and shined in flight. It was magnificent to see. The light caught them just perfect and made him shine. He truly is a beautiful bird.

As I trod up the front steps to my meager home, I shift back into my human form. Opening the front door and shutting it behind me quietly, I bring him over to my couch and gently lay him down on it. I make sure his head is propped on a small pillow, then grab the light throw blanket from the back of the couch and drape it over his small body.

I don’t know anything about the macaw shifters, if they are able to shift back and forth clothed or not, so I can give him some dignity when he wakes, just in case. I, on the other hand, am stark naked at the moment. I choose to strip naked then shift because I’m nowhere near anyone else, so who’s going to see me?

I grab a pair of sweats and tee shirt from the dresser in my room, I dress quickly, not wanting to scare my guest with my nakedness. As I’m tugging my legs through the legs of the sweatpants, I notice it’s almost dinner time. I nowhere got what my human or animal needed in those berries and ground foliage, but I need substance, and now. Thinking, I need meat at the same time I hear my stomach growl.

Thirty minutes later, I’m cooking on my grill on the far side of my porch outside, flipping over the steaks, I hear a small cry out of pain from inside the house. The windows are still opened slightly, even though its late summer on a cooling evening.

I shut the cover of the grill over the meat, turn down the flame and walk inside quickly with my beer bottle still in my hand. Can’t leave a good beer outside. You never know who or what could come get it. Not making that mistake again. Damn squirrel shifters.

As I make my way back inside, I glance over to the couch where the macaw was sleeping. But now there’s a thin bodied, red-haired man, trying to sit up. He’s clutching his right shoulder and ribs. I also notice he’s wearing a light green tee shirt when he tries to sit up. I set my beer down on the small side table and he looks up to me.

When our eyes meet, his facial expression is funny. A scared, shy little bird until the recognition of how big I am registers and his eyes go as big as dinner plates! I know I’m a big guy, but I’m not intimidating in the least. Well, at least I don’t think I am. I’m the quiet, gentle giant. I always have been. Protector of those I care for or tried to anyway.

Hey, um, I saw you smack into a tree and you went unconscious. I say awkwardly. I brought you back here to rest. Are you hungry? I’m cooking steaks on the grill and baked potatoes.

Um, yeah, I’m hungry. Thank you. He whispers. Like I said, scared, shy little bird.

Lay there and rest, dinner is almost done. I go to turn away and ask, Do you need anything for pain, or are you healing fine? I say quietly, and my voice goes even lower than its normal deep tones.

No pain meds needed, thank you. My animal is healing me fast enough. I was just startled when I woke up. I didn’t know where I was. He says shyly, while looking to his fidgeting fingers on his lap. The blanket covering him for the most part.

I’ll be right back with our food. Bathroom is down the hall if you need it. I point in the direction. I grab my beer, set the microwave to cook the potatoes then head back outside to man the grill and check on the steaks.

A few minutes later I’m walking back inside with the plate of steaks. Shutting the door behind me and tossing the empty beer bottle in the recycling container next to the door, I set the plate of steaks on the kitchen table. Then I grab the spuds from the microwave. I heard it ding and shut off as I walked in. Perfect timing.

I grab plates from the cupboard, and whatever else we need to eat and drink and then motion him to come to the table. I felt his eyes watching me this whole time. I watch as he stands up in his human form, wearing jeans and tennis shoes as well as the tee shirt. That answers my question if he shifts with clothes or not. I watch as he makes his way slowly over to the table with me.

I notice he’s quite small. Small as in short. As in petite. As in thin. This red-headed, skinny little white boy has very little muscular physique to him. So frail, so small. He sits across from me and scoots his chair in.

What would you like to drink? I have beer, water and milk. I ask him as I walk over to the fridge, peeking in there to make sure I still have milk, just in case.

Milk, please. Thank you. I nod and grab the container and pour us each a glass, then