Shifted Protector: Ravenswatch Clan, #3

By Sophie Jackson

Evil men broke me. He was sent to protect me. Now he is determined to heal me.

 

I left the city broken in mind and body. My trauma and pain are my secret and I guard it well. No one must know how damaged I truly am.

 

The wolf shifters saved me, but they also terrify me; especially with war brewing between shifters and humans.

 

I am not looking for love. Deep down, I don't think I am capable of love anymore. But here I am, alone with that scary shifter with the intense stare I have been avoiding. We have to work together to try to stop the war, no matter the dangers ahead.

 

I always told myself I was too broken to be loved; seems fate had other things in mind.

 

Just how far am I prepared to go to save my protector?

 

Shifted Protector is the third book in the dark sci-fi wolf shifter romance series Ravenswatch Clan by SVB Jackson.

 

Set against the background of a shifter/human war and the fight for survival, this series is both strong on passion and plot.

 

If you love strong, feisty heroines, partnered with dashing, dangerous heroes, (who truly are the good guy) and plenty of sexual tension, then you will love this thrilling and steamy science fiction romance series.

 

Buy Shifted Protector today and start your journey into a new world of passion, drama, and otherworldly desire.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sophie Jackson
• Release date: May 14, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224959594

Sophie Jackson

Sophie Jackson began her writing career in 2003 working in traditional publishing before embracing the world of ebooks and self-publishing. She has written over 80 books, available on a variety of platforms, both fiction and non-fiction. If you would like to get in touch, you can email [e-mail] or follow her on Facebook, www.facebook.com/SophieJacksonAuthor or check out her website for more of her works.

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Before you Begin

This novel is the first story for Lotto and Fang .

The Ravenswatch Clan series is a shifter romance set in a sci-fi universe. Each set of lovers feature in two adventures (I call them duets), so you get double the romance, double the passion, double the adventure.

Each novel is a complete, standalone story, so you can read them in any order, however, characters do cross over. There is also a wider story that runs through the whole series.

How you read these books is completely up to you. Read them as standalones, as duets or go for the whole series in order to get the full picture of the world of Ravenswatch Clan.

Whatever you choose to do, I hope you enjoy reading these novels as much as I enjoyed writing them and I wish you many happy hours of Shifter love.

Sophie

If you would like to know more about the series please visit my website

www.sophie-jackson.com

I also have a Facebook group for fans of my science-fiction and fantasy works

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One

Fang

Iwoke up to another clear, crisp day on the Great Plains.

Just the sort of day I loved.

The sort of day to go running across the grasslands, to go hunting. To just enjoy being alive. I don't ask much from life, the outdoors, freedom, sunshine on my skin. As long as I have my friends around me and food and drink, then I don't need much else.

That morning I rose and stepped outside the door of my house, looking around me at the world I inhabit.

I am a shifter.

I live out here on the Great Plains, in the village of my people. I am part of Clan Ravenswatch. We're one of the biggest clans and also the one closest to the Great Capital.

Within the tall, towering concrete walls of the city reside the humans. They fear us and perhaps they have good cause, because in recent times some shifters, (not of my clan, I might add) have become aggressive towards them. Pushing back as they see the humans spilling out onto our lands.

They say we once lived in harmony. But when that was, I don't know. I only remember a time when the shifters were feared by humans and when the shifters looked at humans with distrust.

Which makes it even odder what has been happening recently. I am not one to overthink things; to be honest, I just get on with living day-to-day. But it had crossed my mind how unusual it was that our clan elder, Fenrir, had recently allowed three different human females to join our village.

The most recent of these additions had arrived only a few days ago. They were accompanied by a shifter from the Clan Blue Bear. His name was Raven and the story he told of what his clan was doing and what they planned to do was alarming. Our elder Fenrir welcomed him into our clan along with the two human women he had brought with him.

I didn't give this too much thought. I considered it wasn't my place to question what our elders did, and to be honest, I don't really have an issue with humans being among us. I have never been particularly bothered about them.

Some shifters are incredibly twitchy around humans, afraid to even mention the word human, as if it is a jinx or curse. Me, I just look at them as someone who can't change into a wolf form. They're weaker than shifters. They don't live as long as us, but apart from that, they are pretty much the same when they are in their human form.

In any case, worry is pointless, and today was a beautiful day.

I was going to get up and go for a jog around the entire village just to get the blood pumping and to enjoy the crisp air outside. It would be a few days before I was wanted for another hunting party, and I like to keep busy.

I am always restless, and I just like to run.

The freedom of movement, the physicality of the exercise.

Some people think I am a little mindless because I take such pleasure in simple activities, and I don't tend to say much. I only speak when I find it truly necessary. But I am not stupid, and I see a lot more than people imagine. It's just that I don't care to get involved. Not unless there is some real reason for it.

I took myself for a jog around the village as I had planned. It was early, still only just past dawn, though it was going to brighten into a wonderful day again. Not many people were around. Those that were outdoors were starting on chores for the day. A few children dashed about playing games and getting under their parents’ feet.

I focused on my run, letting the rhythm of my stride carry me on, flowing into the nice pattern of footfall after footfall. Easy pressure on the ground. Body mechanically knowing what it should do.

It was perfection.

I was coming around the edge of the village, where the guest house sits. It backs onto the view over the Great Plains. There is no fence around our village; we all know where the boundaries are. We have never felt the need to fortify ourselves, either against humans or other shifters. I pounded around the curve of the houses and that was when I saw her.

She was one of the human females who Raven had brought with him. I thought of her as ‘the broken one’ because I didn't know her name. I could see, even from a distance, that something bad had happened to her. That it had destroyed her a bit. I didn't know much about humans, or about their culture and what they did to each other, but it seemed to me that this woman had been hard used.

She had been afraid as soon as she walked into the village. She looked at everyone with agitation in her eyes. I knew she had barely left the guest house since she had arrived here. There had been talk about it, how her friend had started to wander about the village and ask questions, even become friendly with some of the other shifters. But this one? This one stayed hidden away.

Maybe she had just been taught that all shifters were dangerous and evil. Or maybe it was something else.

I must have been staring a little hard in her direction. (I confess, sometimes I do that).

It was just that there was something about her. Not only that she was attractive with her curling blonde hair and sensual curved figure. But also there was something about her fragility, her vulnerability, that drew me to her, like a moth to a candle flame.

And yes, I stared too hard. She looked up, seemed alarmed and then hastened back into the guest house.

Damn it, Fang!

I shook my head and tried to think about getting back into my rhythm. I had broken a stride suddenly because of the distraction and almost stumbled in my step, which is unheard of for me. I was about to get myself back into my flow when Onyx appeared from around the side of the guest house.

I thought I would find you out for your morning run, he said, stepping in front of me, so I had to come to a sharp halt.

Elder Fenrir wants to speak to you.

I didn't ask why or what it was about. It was early for such a request, but recent events had probably made certain situations more urgent. I broke stride from my run, nodded at Onyx, and started towards the elders’ meeting house.

I heard Onyx chuckling behind me.

A man of few words, as usual, Fang.

Two

Lotto

Iwas not adjusting well to my new life.

We had been here three days, and I simply felt as if I couldn't cope. Nothing was familiar, nothing was the same, and though nobody had been unkind or harsh to me, I just didn't feel welcome.

Everything was so alien to me.

I was also grateful, of course, that I had escaped the torment that was my former life. But this new life just didn't feel like it suited me. I barely saw my friend Vox who was the reason I was here at all. She spent all her time with the shifter Raven, who she had fallen in love with.

Raven had saved us both and I owed him a great deal. There was never a doubt in my mind about that.

Still, I wasn't sure about being here. I wasn't sure if I could exist in this place.

I didn't leave the guest house. If I went anywhere, it was into the small garden behind it. It was an open space marked at the edges with low stones that gave it a border, and it looked directly over the Great Plains. Because there were no other houses behind the guest house, stepping into the garden made me feel a fraction better; a fraction freer.

I was able to breathe for a second or two when I stood there.

But I still felt lost, afraid, vulnerable. Any moment now, I was waiting for the axe to fall on me, expecting something bad to happen. That was the way everything had been throughout my life. Though people kept telling me I was safe, that I was protected here, I didn't feel it. I just felt alone.

Vox had Raven.

Who did I have?

I had gone into the garden early that morning because I couldn't sleep. I wasn't used to having undisturbed nights; in my former life we had worked odd hours and slept during the day, but this place was different. The shifters made the most of the daylight, and while at night the village did not precisely go quiet, it was clearly not a place that operated 24/7 like the human city did.

I stood out in the garden looking across the grasslands, thinking about recent events. Wondering what my purpose was, what my place was in life.

There was a part of me, (incredible as it sounds) that actually craved the city. The confines of the concrete walls. The ability to stand in a place and not see for miles upon miles. The security of tall buildings everywhere and artificial lights. This place was so open, it made me uneasy.

Not to mention all the male shifters around.

I don't have a good relationship with men at the best of times. There are reasons for that. Trauma in my past. I don't trust men. It's as simple as that.

It was not that I was shocked that within this world there were so many male shifters, of course not. I just wasn't used to being around men quite so frequently. There would always have been a dividing line back in the city when I worked at the Forbidden Fruit. During the day we were all girls together, and the men we saw at night were there for a very specific purpose, they didn't mingle with us.

While here there were men just everywhere. Part of the reason I didn't dare leave the guest house was because I was frightened of suddenly encountering a male shifter. I was ashamed to admit that I was scared of what they might do to me, even though I had been promised protection and safety.

I couldn't get my head around how they all seemed so tall and powerful. They were men used to being outdoors and working physically. The ones who were hunters and guards were heavily muscled. They looked as though they could snap