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  Cage

  Savage Creek Shifters, Book Three

  Rachelle Stevensen

  Copyright © 2021 by Rachelle Stevensen

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Cover by Elisa Leigh

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  Prologue

  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

  Epilogue

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  BLURB

  Cage Langston hasn't had the easiest life. He witnesses his parents brutal murder and almost died that night too. His wolf wasn't enough to fix the burns that covered his body, and someone thought to help him with a gift. But they didn't know that gift would change Cage forever. As the first known hybrid, Cage is afraid of what his life will be. How it will affect the mate he knows is his. So he stays away from her, even though it tears him apart. Will he get the answers he needs? So he can claim his girl?

  Wren Anders has been in love with Cage since she could remember. She has always been protective of him and he was her best friend. But as they grew older, he pushed her away and Wren never knew why. She still refuses to give up on him and knows deep down that they are meant for one another. But when all is revealed, is Wren going to stay? Or will it all be too much?

  Find out in book three of the Savage Creek Shifters series.

  Prologue

  Cage Langston

  Age 5.

  Cage was nervous. It was the first day of school and he didn’t want to leave his mom.

  He knew he had to, but it was scary. The building was big and overwhelming.

  And there were a lot of new kids, all of them running around and playing.

  He burrowed closer to his mother’s side and she looked down at him, her brown eyes smiling, “It’s okay sweetie. I promise. You will be just fine.”

  He nodded, knowing he was a little shy. He didn’t talk to many people and struggled to talk with new people. He was an only child and they lived on the outskirts of town, so he didn’t have much chance for playing with other kids.

  Aside from Deacon that is. Deacon would come to play with him and they would change into their wolves and play.

  Deacon was fun. And his mom was nice. Helen liked Deacon’s mom a lot.

  His parents, Helen and Chance Langston also didn’t talk much. They were quiet and were happy to observe from a distance, and not speak.

  He was much the same, but now here he was, faced with having to go into this new environment and leave his mom for the first time.

  Helen gently nudged him, “Come on sweetie. Where is my brave boy? The one not afraid of snakes or spiders? The one who changes into his wolf to chase away anything scary? Hmm?”

  He looked down, “Right here.”

  His mom knelt in front of him, “You are going to love school. I just know it. Don’t be afraid of the kids and making friends. I know you will be fine. What is the only rule?”

  He looked at her face, “No telling anyone about my wolf.”

  His mom smiled, “There it is. I will be right here after school to pick you up. Okay?”

  He nodded, and she looked around, “Look, there is Deacon. Go on baby. Have the best time. I love you.”

  He hugged her and kissed her cheek, “Love you too.”

  Then he ran off and found Deacon, who grinned at him, “We are in the same class!”

  Cage smiled and they played until the first bell rang. Cage’s belly filled with butterflies again, as they started to walk into the building.

  When they made it to class they met a boy named Ryke Haynes. He had dark black hair that was a little messy and was grinning at them and then he coughed and coughed again as more of the students came into the classroom.

  Cage knew something was wrong and so did Deacon. They watched as a scale-like pattern in red rippled across Ryke’s skin and his chest started to grow.

  Cage stood, “Ma’am, we need to use the bathroom. It’s an emergency.”

  The teacher gaped at him and didn’t even try to stop them as they rushed Ryke from the room.

  When they got to the bathroom, a dragon ripped free from Ryke and in doing so, shredded his clothes.

  Cage was in shock beside Deacon as they looked at the dragon the size of a small pony.

  His eyes gleamed gold and Cage knew they needed to call Ryke’s mom.

  He left the bathroom and ran to the office, asking the woman behind the desk to call Ryke’s mom, Rowyn. That he had an accident and needed new clothes.

  The woman lifted her eyebrow, but didn’t say anything, just called Ryke’s mom and Cage hurried back to the bathroom, seeing that Ryke had changed back.

  “Ryke, your mom is on her way.”

  Ryke looked up, “Thanks, Cage. I wasn’t ready to change into a dragon today.”

  He smiled, “It must be hard finding your animal when you haven’t been born with one always at your side.”

  Ryke sighed, putting his head back against the wall, “I never thought I would meet my mate. Mates are rare. That’s what my mom says. So she wasn’t worried about me going to school. She thought I was safe.”

  They stayed with Ryke until his mom came and then went back to class, where he too started coughing when he walked back into the room.

  And then he locked eyes with a girl in the front row.

  She had blonde hair that was twisted in two buns on the top of her head and green eyes. She had dark lashes that framed her eyes and her face was heart-shaped, with deep dimples in her cheeks, that were evident even when she wasn’t smiling.

  She smiled at him now and he looked down as he felt a blush run across his face.

  He hurried to his seat and sat down, listening to the teacher.

  Deacon sat behind him and when it was time for recess, they ran out and played.

  And when his mom picked him up after school, he was practically bouncing up and down with excitement.

  She listened as he told her what happened and she was shocked that Ryke had changed.

  She didn’t know about another shifter family that lived in town.

  And now that she did, she was glad she knew. It would help to keep them all safe.

  And when Cage went back the next day, his friends were there and they played before the first bell.

  He watched for the girl with blonde hair and dark green eyes and saw her. She had on a red shirt with a blue skirt and had a red bow in her hair.

  The girl that she played with had the same outfit, down to the bow, but the other girl’s hair was darker than his girl.

  Ryke was staring at the other girl and Cage wanted to laugh.

  They had found their mates. It was unheard of for kids that young.

  He told his mom that day, and she turned in the car to look at him, her eyes wide.

  He also told her about Ryke and that he too had found his mate. His mom had driven immediately home and called his dad, who came home a little bit later. And they sat him down and told him what it meant to be a mate, how important it was to treat her good and love her no matter what.


  That she deserved only the best from him and if he couldn’t give it, then he needed to wait until he could.

  He nodded and swore to them that he would do all he could to treat his mate with love and kindness.

  They had hugged him, told him how happy they were for him and that was it.

  It was something they needed to know and now that they had discussed it, it was something they didn’t need to speak on.

  To all of them, she was someone that would be his friend until they were old enough and that was enough.

  And as the weeks went by, he and his friends played as much as they could and got to know the girls.

  Their mates, Wren and Ever Anders.

  Wren was quiet; like him, most of the time.

  Other times though, especially when she was mad, she wasn’t afraid to tell anyone how she felt and he loved hearing her inner thoughts.

  Ones she didn’t give to just anyone.

  As that first year went by quickly, Cage loved going to school. Not only for learning but also the fun he and his friends had every day.

  He had no idea that that life was going to change in just a few short months.

  That it would never be the same again.

  -----

  A few months later.

  Cage had been asleep for a few hours when he woke to the smell of something burning.

  He sat up in his bed and started coughing.

  The ceiling was covered with a rolling cloud of dark smoke and he got out of bed, bringing his favorite stuffed animal with him.

  “Mommy? Daddy?” He called out while a cough came up his throat, but no one answered.

  He went to where his door was slightly ajar and saw more smoke filling the house.

  He coughed, again and again, and hurried to his parent’s room, where he found his mom’s body on the floor. Looking like she was sleeping. Or so he thought.

  She shouldn’t be asleep on the floor, so he ran to her side.

  “Mommy? Wake up! We have to get out of here!”

  She didn’t move, and the heat in the house started to grow unbearable. He coughed again and again.

  He shook her shoulder, “Mommy! Wake up!!! Mommy!!”

  She moved slightly with the movement, and he recoiled so violently, jumping away from his mom, he fell to the side, twisting his leg and hurt his ankle.

  His mom’s chest was red with blood and his hand was covered in it.

  She had a gaping hole where her heart should have been and Cage threw up, again and again.

  And he coughed, over and over, tears streaming down his face as he looked at his mom, but his wolf nudged him, basically telling him to move, that he couldn’t stay or he would die.

  Cage gave his mom one last look and turned from the room, and ran down the hallway, but was stopped at the front door when a huge wall of flame licked its way over the door.

  It was already in the living room and he saw his dad’s body on the ground.

  The smell of burning flesh reeked in his nose and Cage wanted to throw up again.

  He tried to run out the back door, but it too was blocked by a wall of flame.

  He was stuck.

  He raced to one of the windows and tried to pry open the latch, but the metal was so hot it burned his hand immediately and huge blisters formed on his skin in an instant.

  It hurt and he cried out at the pain of it, cradling his hand to his chest, needing to get out of his house.

  He backed away from that window and ran to his room, but one of the walls was on fire and as he tried to back out of the room, he heard a crack and watched in horror as one of the big beams in his room started to fall.

  He tried to jump out of the way and managed it, but he jumped further into his room which was quickly being overtaken by smoke and flame.

  He coughed and cried out when another beam fell, this one pinning him to the floor and breaking his leg in the process, catching his pajamas on fire and making him scream in pain.

  He tried to put the flames out on his pants, but his blistered hand didn’t work and he screamed as the flames moved up his leg, to his stomach, his arm, and to his face and neck.

  It hurt so badly that he was sobbing, trying to beat the flames out, but with the burning beam on top of him, with his leg trapped under it, it was all in vain.

  More flames just licked at him and the pain became so unbearable that his brain shut down and he let the blackness overtake him.

  Not hearing someone break the front door down, nor call for survivors.

  He didn’t hear them discover his body trapped under the beam, nor did he feel when someone lifted the beam and pulled him free.

  He only woke when someone put a blanket over him, putting out the flames and he cried out at the pain of it.

  His body screamed in pain, and his throat was raw, and his skin felt like it was melting off, like pieces of it just fell from his body.

  When he was put in the ambulance, it jarred his body enough that it overtook him, and he welcomed the darkness again.

  ----

  Over the next week, they had to come in to debride his wounds. To get the pajama fabric out of them and to do it carefully and slowly.

  He would cry out in pain and his wolf would whine. He knew his wolf tried to heal him, but the damage was too much and there was no way it would happen.

  His wolf had retreated inside his head, trying to heal what he could, but it was a massive undertaking. Too big for only him. Cage knew that his wolf was tired and he couldn’t do a single thing to help.

  He was exhausted from trying to heal, the pain, and the memories that flooded him when he shut his eyes.

  He slept more than he was awake as the doctors knew he needed it to heal, both his mind and his body, and the pain was too much for him to keep awake. So he was given all sorts of medicine to keep him sedated. And because of this, he didn’t see someone come into his room and poked him with a needle.

  It irritated his already irritated skin and made him squint his eyes open as much as he was able to see a man’s fingers depress the syringe.

  It was full of something red, and was thick and looked sluggish.

  But as the stuff worked its way into his body, Cage went stiff. It made his blood go cold, and his back arched so hard and high, it hurt, and then he fell back to the bed, and then his body did it again.

  He was thrashing on his bed, his lungs seizing and his heart beating so hard in his chest that it was making the machines at his bedside start to beep, sounding alarms and making so much noise that he wanted to cover his sensitive ears, but unable to move his body.

  He tried to cry out, but his throat was ruined from the smoke and flame. Both inside and out. And the sounds that tried to come out of his mouth weren’t sounds that a human could make.

  He started to shiver like he was cold and then he felt like he was too hot.

  And then he could feel something else in his head. Something deadly. It fought with his wolf for purchase, letting his wolf know that it was in charge now and his wolf not giving in, refusing to back down as the Alpha they were supposed to be.

  But as they fought for dominance in his head, his body could take no more trauma, and the fight made him go into convulsions and his body shook on the bed.

  The violence in his head was getting worse and worse until blood was running from his nose, his eyes, and his ears.

  He started choking on the blood that was running down his throat.

  Someone turned him on his side and he gagged as froth and blood formed on his lips, falling free and the doctors tried to get him to stop, to breathe.

  They gave him all sorts of medication but nothing helped. The pain in his head grew to such heights that he let out an inhuman scream from his ruined throat and fell back on the bed, unconscious.

  ----

  When he woke again, he wasn’t the same. And he knew that with certainty.

  His animal wasn’t the same, and he knew that he would never have just his wolf ins
ide his head again.

  No. Now, there was a second voice in his head, one that was darker and more violent.

  One that kept calling for blood and pain. Cage didn’t like it, it frightened him.

  It had changed his wolf. Down to the core. His wolf wasn’t a regular wolf anymore, it was a monster.

  He could see it now in his mind's eye and Cage wanted to quail from it.

  He tried to call for his mom, for someone, but his voice was no longer working.

  His vocal cords hurt. They felt raw and abused. His body didn’t hurt as much as it had, and he looked down at his hands, his leg, and the burns were starting to heal, but they had done their damage.

  His skin was scarred with deep, dark burns that covered his left leg, his entire torso, his left arm, and up to his neck and his face.

  It pulled his face down in a scowl and when he looked at his reflection in the mirror on his bathroom door, it made him want to scream, to cry his denial.

  But again, no sound was heard.

  He put his hand to his throat, wondering if his voice would ever return. If he would ever feel like himself again.

  Like the boy who had parents who loved him. Not ones who were murdered in the dead of night.

  He wanted to go back to that again. To be the boy that didn’t have something inside him that changed him so completely it was terrifying.

  Instead, a voice in his head said, *You aren’t you now. You are more. I saved you. Healed you.*

  Cage went still, shocked that it could speak to him, *Who are you?*

  The voice chuckled darkly, *Your monster as you so eloquently called it. I know you can see what I did to your wolf. To you. Do you feel pain now?*