Chapter 1

Dean

"Shit!" I sucked the blood off my finger.

There was nothing worse than a paper cut. It hurt like a sonofabitch.

"Bernice, can you get me the file on the satellite infrared system?" I snapped. "And a Band-Aid," I added.

She returned a few minutes later with what I'd asked for, as well as a glass of water.

"Another paper cut?"

I glared at her, but she was entirely unaffected by my attitude. I appreciated that she didn't take any of my shit. She also appeared to be immune to my charms. Bernice Dean was probably the only woman in all of Ravenden that didn't think I hung the moon and stars. I appreciated her even more for it.

"Yeah."

"You know, if you read these things on the tablet I got you, then you wouldn't get these cuts. And you wouldn't force me to kill another tree every single day printing out these manuals and things all the time."

I rolled my eyes.

Bernice Dean, like all of the Dean Flock, was a protector of Earth and plants and trees and shit. So of course she was going to harass me about such a thing.

"I hate reading on that thing. You know that," I complained.

She shook her head as she left the room.

I patched up my finger and pulled out the file she'd just brought while smiling as I thought of Bernice. What would I do without her?

The woman was old enough to be my mother, maybe even my grandmother. Like all Deans, she was a distant cousin to my mother. I supposed to me too. And yes, that's where my name came from: Dean Davenport, the best of both Flocks, my mother would tell me when I was young.

Helena Dean Davenport had married up in the hierarchy of raven shifters, but maintained close ties to her birth Flock, which also topped the elite of our kind.

I didn't really care about that sort of shit. It made no sense to me why someone felt entitled over another just because of their last name or the family they were born into.

Fortunately for me, my siblings were breaking down those barriers, especially when it came to mating.

My sister Gia had found her true mate first. David was a great guy, but still a relatively unknown. He wasn't from Ravenden and we had no real idea what family line he came from. They were true mates though, so what difference did it make? Plus, our mother could imagine he was from some high up snooty, elite family line and there was no one that could refute her.

But then my oldest brother, Elias, mated Kim Grimes. Talk about a scandal. If there was a true ladder of raven society, it would be a toss-up whether the Grimes Flock or the Pierces were at the bottom while the Davenports were the clear winner at the top.

It was all ridiculous, but Eli and Kim had really stirred things up around here. With our brother Ryan's help, they'd even gotten both the Grimes and Pierce Flocks representation on the Ravenden Congress.

Then Ryan mated Gracie Montgomery. The Montgomery Flock was respectable in the middle, but Gracie was a firefighter. Much to the horror of many, she continued to work as a first responder in the community, even though my mother and her friends would much rather see her sitting on the committee and attending teas. That wasn't Gracie at all and never would be.

Fortunately, Ryan knew this and, despite his occasional apprehensions as her mate, he had no desire to clip her wings.

The good news for me was that they'd all screwed up so badly in the eyes of our mother that I could probably announce I was mating a blow-up doll and my mother wouldn't bat an eye. As far as she was concerned, our family had already been through the ringer and survived. There was no way I could sink any lower than my siblings already had.

Plus, I was pretty sure I was her favorite. Aren't the youngest children always the mother's favorites?

I was convinced I could do no wrong in her eyes, but I'd certainly tested that theory in my teenage years.

It wasn't that I had been a bad kid or anything. I was largely a nerd at heart. I loved video games and still spent too many hours playing. When I wasn't doing that or working, I was either spending time with my family or sharing a bed with a beautiful woman.

I loved the ladies, and they loved me.

It was never hard to find companionship, even in a small town like Ravenden. I never pretended it was anything more than it was and I was well aware of the reputation I'd acquired throughout all the Flocks, but I didn't really care about those sorts of things. I was young and free. What was the harm in having a good time as long as it was consensual?

I did have my standards, though, and my rules. I never hooked up with the same girl within a seven-day period. I used to say in the same week, but then it became a gray area determining when the new week rolled over. If I said on Monday, then a woman might expect to see me on Sunday and then again on Monday. That wasn't happening. The seven-day rule was a much better option.

I simply didn't do attachments or make any false pretenses about it. I was there for sex and that was it. If someone wanted more than that, then they need to find another tree to nest in.

Because the Davenport house was so big and only my parents and staff lived there, I hadn't seen the point of moving out. All my siblings had flown the nest, but I sensibly remained at home, where I had the entire upstairs all to myself.

This did not mean I ever entertained there. I had a strict rule about that and never brought anyone back to my place. It was their place or nothing. Well, the occasional hook up in my car or out by the cliffs still happened, but still never at home.

I considered my options and checked my schedule.

Damn.

I wasn't going to be able to take a long lunch today with a call to Westin Force scheduled at one.

Westin Force was a special ops group of shifters who worked to protect shifters worldwide. They had been imperative in helping me establish my role and credibility as the head of security for Ravenden.

Coming out of college with a degree in cyber security wasn't enough. After a few incidents, it was clear we needed more physical security. I had the conceptual background for it, but it was far from my dreams of sitting behind a computer all day. Much to my surprise, I still did plenty of that and often enjoyed being out of the office even more.

It was funny how life worked out sometimes. I'd been in the right place at the right time when the need arose. Still green out of college and looking for my place in the Congress, Westin Force had rolled into town and, somehow, I'd convinced my dad, who convinced the leaders of the Congress, to take a chance on me. I liked to think I hadn't let them down.

My phone rang, and I picked it up to answer.

"Dean Davenport."

"Hey Dean, it's Michael. We've had a situation down here and I'm going to need to postpone our video call today."

"I hope everything's okay."

Michael was one of my strongest contacts with Westin Force and had proved himself to be a valuable mentor for me. It wasn't like him to cancel a meeting.

"It's not at the moment, but I'm praying it will get better soon. My team joined some of the others down here in Australia and there's been a Collectors incident. I can't go into detail right now, but things have taken a turn for the worse. But because of this we're sending some of our recruits out to various sites for a security briefing. I recommended sending a few your way to go over everything. With you being witches and your history with Collectors, I think it's prudent to add Ravenden to that list. Unfortunately, it will be a new younger team of recruits coming out. I believe Patrick O'Connell will be joining them, so you'll at least have a familiar face in the mix. He'll explain things in more detail. Let's just say the Collector network as a whole is becoming much bolder."

"That doesn't sound good."

"It's not." There was some commotion in the background. "Hey, I've got to run. We may have just gotten the lead we've been waiting for. I'll touch base soon."

He disconnected before I could even say bye.

"Huh. I wonder was that was all about?" I said, while staring down at the phone in my hand.

For a split second, I considered the fact that I was now free to call Jill, Ashley, or even Serafina for a lunch break quickie, but shook my head and hit the intercom button that was a direct line to Bernice.

"Can you call over to the diner and place an order for lunch delivery? A turkey club and curly fries."

"Extra crispy. I know."

"Thanks, Bernice. You're the best."

"You just remember that when it's time to sign my Christmas bonus."

I laughed. "You got it."

I spent the next hour pouring over the infrared specs, knowing it was nothing more than a pipe dream, the sort of toy Westin Force may justify, but there was no way I could for our tiny town. It was still fun to learn about it, though.

When Bernice knocked on my door, I shuffled the papers back together and stuffed them in my bottom drawer.

"Come in."

"Heard someone was eating in today."

"David? What the hell are you doing here?"

He shrugged. "Someone has to make deliveries and you're my last."

Handing me a bag of food, he sat down across from me and pulled out another for himself.

"I'm not used to getting a lunch visit from you. It's usually your mate."

"She worries about you. Sent me to check on you instead, because it's a busy day at the diner."

I groaned. "Well, I hope you'll be less nosey than she is."

"You skipped family game night last week. Give me an excuse that she'll believe and all will be good in the world."

"It's none of her business."

"I agree."

I grinned at him. "Tell her I was having a threesome with the Pierce twins."

"Dude!"

I shrugged, satisfied that would shut my sister up for a bit.

"Is that really where you were?"

I thought back to last week and shrugged again. "Don't remember if that was Thursday night or Friday. So maybe."

He sighed and shook his head.

"What? No wait. I know what your problem is. Gia has stripped you of your man card. Seriously, that has to be it. She's neutered you."

He laughed. "You have no idea what the hell you're talking about. Just wait."

"Wait for what?"

"Your true mate."

I scoffed. "I'm twenty-four years old. I am not ready to settle down. I don't know if I'll ever be."

He snorted. "Famous last words. Do you really think I was ready for Gia? She turned my entire life upside down."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then you lost your memory and still found your way back to her again. You literally fell for her twice. And don't even get me started on the whole head thing. Why did you take so long to tell us you got your memories back?"

He shrugged. "Didn't think it was important."

"Not important? My sister sounded like a lunatic after she mated you. And you could have corroborated her crazy-ass story."

"I thought you believed her and supported her."

"Of course I did, but that doesn't mean it wasn't bat-shit crazy."

"Would you tell that to her face?" he challenged.

"Yes," I said defiantly.

One second I was staring across my desk at David and the next Gia was sitting there. Startled, I jumped back, tipping the chair over, then tripping over it and falling on my ass.

Gia, or rather David, laughed.

"Dammit David, don't do that shit. You know it freaks me out."

David was a mimic. Where all of us in Ravenden could shift from our human form into our raven form, David could literally shift into anything. It could be another person, like now, any animal, or even an object. He was the absolute worse person on the planet to play hide-and-seek with.

"You've made your point. Now shift back to yourself. It's creepy staring at Gia knowing it's actually you."

He chuckled as he morphed back to himself.

"You should have seen the look on your face. Priceless."

"Shut up," I said as I shoved a fry into my mouth.