Shift After Dark: A Paranormal Shifter Romance

By Liz Paffel

He's not just a grizzly shifter. He's got more bite than that.

Bear shifter Gavin Perry sent his people to safety from the blood hunters, but danger threatens him at every curve. He dwells in the deep woods biding his time until he can find the man responsible for the disappearance of his King. But the corrupted hunters keep coming, delaying his mission and forcing Gavin to unleash his shifter-vampire hybrid bite.

He trusts no one.

He needs no one.

So when an old friend shows up, begging for his help, Gavin has his suspicions. The bear and the vampire inside him awaken with her scent. The man inside him demands he send her away.

But, he’ll test her intentions and get the truth from her one way or another

Isla Lindsburg is a fugitive with a secret. She didn’t come to Gavin for friendship—or anything else. She came here to die. His wild touch unleashes a secret. It could be the key to saving everything Gavin’s worked to protect.

But will their fated bond be enough to save her?

Shift After Dark is a paranormal shifter romance with bite, heat, and heart!

**Previously published as Winter Shift. This is an expanded, updated, and extended version**

• Language: English
• Publisher: Bryant Street Publishing
• Release date: May 21, 2024
• ISBN: 9781094469072

Liz Paffel

Liz Paffel traded a twenty year career in emergency medical services to write about strange lights in the sky and things that go bump in the night. She's the author of science fiction romance and paranormal romance and lives in the Midwest, USA with her family.

Book preview

1

Beware the big, bad wolf.

The road cutting through the thick pines thinned to a barely discernable path as the driver navigated the snow-covered ground, taking Isla Lindsburg deeper into the forest. Is this how Little Red Riding Hood had felt—tight chested, flooded with fear—as she went into the dark, dangerous woods? Only, Red didn’t know a predator was waiting for her. Isla knew exactly what to expect when she reached her destination, and it was much, much worse than a wolf.

She gripped the handle of her canvas duffel. She’d never been this far from the city, had never seen such pristine beauty. Fluffy snow piled on evergreen branches and twinkled with tiny dots of sunlight. It was magical, and she couldn’t wait to get her first full breath of crisp, frigid wilderness air. It was the small things after all. It’s true. That saying about realizing what’s important when life becomes small and time is suddenly carefully measured instead of abundant. She wasn’t taking anything for granted. Not the warmth inside the car, or the comfort of her jacket against her back, or the anticipation of being immersed in the winter forest.

Or, the final touch of a loved one’s hand.

If only she’d spent more time on that last one.

Her cell phone beeped. Isla jerked at the sound. She’d been holding it so tightly against her thigh, she forgot it was there. Her eyes filled with tears. There was only one person who’d be contacting her, which meant it was time for a final goodbye. The screen blurred behind her tears as she read the message.

Your phone’s tracker says I’m going to lose you in about two minutes.

Two minutes until she forever lost contact with the outside world and the only person who mattered in her life. She typed a response with trembling hands.

I wish you were with me.

I know, sis. I do, too. Remember what I told you about the phone? I don’t want them to find you.

I remember. Tears rolled down her cheeks as she typed with trembling fingers. I love you, Bjorn.

Seconds ticked by as she waited for a response, but her screen remained blank. Forty-eight hours ago, she and Bjorn had the Order Enforcement Agency on their heels. They’d barely escaped. Such was the risk of delivering illegal pain medications to the sick and dying. Isla had never imagined a world where sharing acetaminophen with someone in pain could result in imprisonment and severe punishment.

Bjorn had been begging her for weeks to flee to the woods. To hide and live out the rest of her life with some freedom instead of locked up behind the Agency’s bars. After they’d nearly been caught in an undercover sting for dispensing simple pain medications to the needy, she’d finally taken his advice. But her brother? He’d stayed behind, said he had a safe place. She’d give anything to have him here.

Please be okay, Bjorn, she whispered as she held the phone against her chest.

She didn’t want these last seconds with him to be clouded with anything but the love and gratitude in her heart. She had to believe her brother was safely in hiding. Soon, she would be too. Hopefully.

Her insides squeezed. Safety was relative in this crazy world. She had her choice between the ruthless, often violent, and lawless Agency officers, or the creature in the woods who may help her.

Or turn out to be her worst nightmare.

Bjorn assured her that wouldn’t be the case, but the creature he’d worked with in the military and loved like a brother hadn’t been seen or heard from in years. Maybe he’d sunk so far into his primal animal that she’d be a simple meal for him. Or a plaything. Or—

The LED light on her phone flashed. She gasped in relief.

I love you, too, Isla. Tell Gavin hello for me. Twenty seconds.

Jesus, twenty seconds? No… ten now, nine… the screen started to break with static. Six… five… her tears ran as the phone flashed with brilliant light and fizzled to black. She flipped it over and removed the battery, pulled a little tab in the compartment, and put the battery back. A tendril of smoke curled up from the device, the plastic getting hot in her hand. But she couldn’t seem to let go of it.

She didn’t want to let go.

Toss it out the window before it combusts and takes your hand with it.

She jerked at the driver’s voice. The window on her right lowered from a button he must have pressed up front.

Goodbye, Bjorn, she whispered and threw the phone. It landed in the snow and burst into flame. Isla watched the orange glow flicker until she lost visual. Cold air rippled across her face as the driver closed the window.

A wave of overwhelming grief filled her chest. She’d just said goodbye to her brother, her last living relative.

Forever.

Miss?

Isla hiccupped around the lump in her throat. She couldn’t give in to the rise of emotions inside. Wiping her eyes, she steeled herself. You’re not supposed… not supposed to talk to me.

She’d been instructed not to interact with the driver and assumed the same went for him. The pretense of anonymity was key for those who went to the house. She’d been curious about the driver, though, sneaking peeks at the slight bits of his profile she could see. Bjorn had told her the driver had been taking people to the resting house for four years—driving people in, but of course, never out. He, Bjorn, and Gavin Perry were the only people who knew where the House was and what went on there.

She’d be comfortable there. As comfortable as a dying woman could be.

Looking up front, she caught the man’s gray-blue eyes in the rearview mirror.

I have instructions for you, miss. His voice was gravely but amicable. Isla held his gaze and nodded for him to continue. Bjorn hadn’t said anything about instructions.

His forehead furrowed above bushy eyebrows. The concerned, grandfatherly look about him was a touch comforting.

I will tell you about the SVH.

She trembled. Gavin Perry had a reputation, not only because his human side was a decorated military officer. But because his animal side was said to be a heartless, savage monster. Her brother assured her that he’d left that part of himself behind after the war, when he was no longer required to kill ruthlessly in the name of victory. But how could anyone control a raging animal inside like that?

The SVH hunt from dusk until dawn. The resting house sits on the far end of the Ahpret reservation. They have free reign to live and hunt however they wish. The woods are not safe in the dark. Ever. Stay inside or you’re a free meal… unless, pardon my bluntness, that’s how you’re hoping to go.

She shook her head. Shifter-vampire hybrids, SVH, or Ahpret as they called themselves, were highly predatory in their hunting state. She didn’t intend to meet him while he was starving.

Bjorn told you about the other risk? The hunters? He didn’t wait for her to respond as he looked away. They’re getting braver, encroaching on the reserve more and more in their desperation to get to the Ahpret. You may need to protect yourself.

Something about the way he said, desperation, gave her pause. She crossed her arms and huffed a humorless laugh. Screw the no-interacting rule. She couldn’t sit here and have a one-sided conversation. Besides, the more they travelled, the more her melancholy spiked and made each second more precious. Isla wiped at her wet cheeks, but the trickle of tears didn’t wane. These moments held her last interactions with another human.

My brother said that all the Ahpret have left the reserve for Canada.

One side of the driver’s mouth twitched before falling into a serious line.

The Alpha is still here and if he’s hanging around, I’d bet there are more. He’s in line to be their new king. The SVH are loyal. They won’t abandon their leader. You can bet there are a few who stayed behind to look after him.

Isla had grown up immersed in rumors and grand stories about the SVH of the North Reserve. Humans were enthralled by them, but wary, a sort of like watching a lion behind iron bars. Whispers of humans trespassing onto the very edges of the ten-thousand-acre North were spooky bedtime stories. Media footage of desiccated human remains sent back to the human side were grisly reality.

Everything within the reserve was secretive, and they protected their rights to the land with an untoward fierceness.

Is Gavin Perry the Alpha?

She’d never met the mysterious Gavin, but her brother had relayed enough about their time together in the war that she felt as if she knew him.

He didn’t respond. Not liking the sudden silence, Isla straightened in her seat and leaned forward. What should I do if a hunter shows up?

Desperation made people do stupid, dangerous things. Like encroach on Ahpret land and hunt them for their narcotic-like serum.

He shrugged. Pray.

Hugging herself, Isla glanced out the window. "Why did you put yourself at risk by driving people here? Aren’t you fearful the Agency will find