Shifter Dads Box Set Volume 1: Books 1-3 Read online

  Shifter Dads Box Set #1

  Book 1: The Red Dragon’s Baby

  Book 2: The Midnight Dragon’s Mate

  Book 3: The Golden Griffin’s Baby

  By Zoe Chant

  Copyright Zoe Chant 2019

  All Rights Reserved

  The Red Dragon’s Baby

  Shifter Dads, #1

  By Zoe Chant

  Copyright Zoe Chant 2019

  All Rights Reserved

  Table of Contents

  Copyright Page

  Copyright Page

  Chapter 1: Katie

  Chapter 2: Ronan

  Chapter 3: Katie

  Chapter 4: Ronan

  Chapter 5: Katie

  Chapter 6: Ronan

  Chapter 7: Katie

  Chapter 8: Ronan

  Chapter 9: Katie

  Chapter 10: Ronan

  Chapter 11: Katie

  Chapter 12: Katie

  Chapter 13: Ronan

  Chapter 14: Katie

  Chapter 15: Ronan

  Chapter 16: Katie

  Epilogue: Katie

  The Midnight Dragon’s Mate | Shifter Dads, #2 | By Zoe Chant | Copyright Zoe Chant 2019 | All Rights Reserved

  Chapter 1: Cam

  Chapter 2: Lachlan

  Chapter 3: Cam

  Chapter 4: Lachlan

  Chapter 5: Cam

  Chapter 6: Lachlan

  Chapter 7: Cam

  Chapter 8: Lachlan

  Chapter 9: Cam

  Chapter 10: Lachlan

  Chapter 11: Cam

  Chapter 12: Lachlan

  Chapter 13: Cam

  Chapter 14: Lachlan

  Chapter 15: Cam

  Epilogue: Lachlan

  The Golden Griffin’s Baby | Shifter Dads, #3 | By Zoe Chant | Copyright Zoe Chant 2019 | All Rights Reserved

  Chapter 1: Lila

  Chapter 2: Flynn

  Chapter 3: Lila

  Chapter 4: Flynn

  Chapter 5: Lila

  Chapter 6: Flynn

  Chapter 7: Lila

  Chapter 8: Flynn

  Chapter 9: Lila

  Chapter 10: Flynn

  Chapter 11: Lila

  Chapter 12: Flynn

  Chapter 13: Lila

  Chapter 14: Flynn

  Chapter 15: Lila

  Epilogue: Flynn

  A note from Zoe Chant

  More Paranormal Romance by Zoe Chant

  If you love Zoe Chant, you’ll also love these books!

  Chapter 1: Katie

  Welcome to Oak Ridge, the sign read.

  Katie had been driving for six hours. Noah had been fussy, not used to being in the car seat for so long. Every time he started whimpering, upset that his mama couldn’t pick him up and hold him, Katie had to fight the urge to pull over and take a break.

  But then anxiety would prickle at the back of her neck, and she’d find herself checking the rearview mirror to see if anyone was following her. So she’d keep driving.

  Now, she’d been winding through the mountainous forest for a couple of hours, and this was the first town she’d seen. She wasn’t sure when another one would appear, so maybe it was finally time to stop.

  No one could have followed her, right? She’d turned completely randomly for the first hour, switching highways a few times, and ending up in the middle of absolute nowhere. There would’ve been no way to predict her route. It had to be safe to stop.

  Not that she thought Victor would’ve sent assassins after her or anything. But she was never going back to that stifling, awful house again, and there was no way Noah was going to grow up there, learning the lessons those people taught.

  They were going to start a new life, far away from Katie’s old mistakes.

  In the backseat, Noah made the distressed noise that meant he’d woken up and wasn’t happy about it.

  Katie braced herself, and sure enough, an unhappy wail filled the car.

  “Okay, honey,” she called back. “Mommy’s going to find a place to stop. We’ll get you fed and your diaper changed, okay?”

  At six months old, though, Noah wasn’t much for delayed gratification. He kept crying.

  Katie hoped Oak Ridge had a hotel.

  As if answering her thoughts, a sign appeared on the left—a sign made of literal, actual wood, rather than painted metal. Sleepy Oak Cabins, it advertised. A smaller hunk of wood, hanging from pegs underneath the text, read, Vacancy.

  Katie slowed her car, fascinated. She’d never been out in the middle of the country like this before. In her experience, hotels used neon, or the signs with the plastic insert letters. Not wood.

  “What do you think, Noah?” she asked her son. “Should we check it out?”

  Noah’s cries increased in pitch. Mommy, he seemed to be saying, if you have the time to ask me questions, why aren’t you using it to take care of me?

  Katie winced. “Okay, baby. Just a second.”

  She turned off where the sign pointed. About a hundred feet in, the pavement disappeared and she was driving on dirt.

  Katie had just enough time to wonder if Sleepy Oak Cabins were even still in operation when a building came into view. A car was pulled up to it, and the lights were on in the windows.

  Katie breathed a sigh of relief—and then had another spike of anxiety. This wasn’t a Marriott. It wasn’t even a cute bed-and-breakfast in a vacation town with a hundred Yelp reviews. She’d just pulled out onto a random road, following a sign.

  She should’ve made more of a plan. Should’ve had a place to go, instead of just picking a direction and starting to drive.

  But of course, there wasn’t anywhere to go. That was the problem. She’d left the only home she’d ever known.

  As Noah started genuinely screaming, she fumbled for her phone. Hardly any service, but enough to quickly Google Sleepy Oak Cabins Oak Ridge.

  They didn’t have a website, but there was one Yelp review. We go here every year for our anniversary, it started, and went on to describe the cabins, and the elderly owners, in glowing terms.

  Okay. Okay. Probably not serial killers, then.

  Not that she had many other options.

  Determinedly, Katie got out of the car, went to the backseat to get Noah, and marched up towards the front door.

  Noah quieted down once he wasn’t trapped in the horrible prison of the car seat any longer, although he was still whimpering a little, and if he didn’t get some milk and a change soon, Katie knew that another meltdown would be on its way.

  “We’re going to meet some new people,” she told the baby, jouncing him a little on her hip. “Aren’t you excited? We didn’t get to meet too many new people for a while there.”

  Noah whimpered. Katie took a deep breath, quelling the buzzing tension inside her—no one could know where she was, she reminded herself—and firmly pushed open the door.

  She was hit with a wave of warm air, and stepped in to find herself standing on a beautiful wood floor, looking across the room at a fire crackling in a fireplace. Not a gas fireplace, a real fireplace.

  “Come in!” came a voice to her left, and Katie shook herself out of her reverie and turned to meet the host.

  An old woman sat behind an enormous wooden desk. She stood up as Katie came over, a wide smile breaking out over her face.

  “I wasn’t expecting anyone today,” she said. “Hello, dear, and welcome! I’m Rita.”

  “Katie,” Katie said, coming forward with a surge of relief. Faced with an isolated cabin in the woods, she’d been half-expecting something out of a horror movie, not this comfy foyer with a nice hostess. She shook Rita’s hand, discovering that she had a surp
risingly strong grip for an old lady. “And this is Noah.”

  “Hello, honey,” Rita said softly, smiling at Noah.

  Distracted from his woes by a new person, Noah took a second to decide what to think, but then he broke out into a toothless grin. Katie breathed a quiet sigh, relieved that there wasn’t going to be any screaming while she tried to book a room.

  “We, um—we need a room for the night. Maybe a couple of nights, I’m not really sure what our plans are.” Would it be better to stay in one place for a little while and work out her plans, or move on as soon as possible? She wasn’t sure.

  “Of course, dear,” Rita said, her face lighting up. “Summer season’s over and skiing won’t start up again for a couple of months, so we’re completely vacant right now. Is it just the two of you, or...”

  “Just us,” Katie said, with as much uncaring confidence as she could muster. She didn’t want anyone asking where Noah’s dad was. “I don’t know if you have a crib available, or I have a Pack-n-Play in the car...”

  “Of course we have a crib,” Rita said firmly. “I’ll get my husband to set it up right now.” She dug a phone out of her pocket and began texting away.

  Katie had to stifle a laugh at how incongruous it was—the wooden building tucked away in the trees with a roaring fire in the fireplace, a kind, wrinkled old lady welcoming her in...and using her smartphone to text her husband.

  She guessed the country wasn’t going to be as totally foreign as she’d been afraid of.

  “There we go,” Rita said, setting the phone aside. “It’ll just take a few minutes to get the room ready. How about we make you and little Noah comfortable while you wait?”

  Katie protested, but Rita came around the desk, and somehow, she found herself bustled over to a couch, a plate of cookies provided, and when Noah started fussing again, Rita pointed her to a bathroom that had a fold-out changing table.

  It was all a little overwhelming. Katie took a minute in the bathroom to breathe deeply, and blink back the stupid tears that were threatening behind her eyes. It was just a nice old lady. A nice old lady doing her job. She probably wanted Katie to double the number of Yelp reviews this place had.

  “That’s not fair,” she whispered to Noah, taping up the new diaper. “She probably really is just nice. Nothing wrong with that, right?”

  Nope. And Katie was totally capable of smiling, eating a cookie, and going off to her cabin to sleep without having any sort of weird breakdown in the process.

  “Everything’s fine,” she told Noah as she snapped the onesie back in place. “We’re just on vacation. Getting out of the city. On our way to visit family. Right?”

  Noah batted at the taped-up dirty diaper, and Katie barely rescued it from getting smacked across the room like a volleyball.

  Her son always knew how to distract her, that was for sure.

  Back out in the main room, Rita had gotten everything set up for her to stay in the nearest cabin. “Just sign here, dear,” she told her. “Will that be card or cash?”

  “Cash,” Katie said, keeping her chin up.

  Pawning the jewelry that Victor had bought her when they first started dating—jewelry she hadn’t even worn in over a year—had gotten her a nice stack of bills, and she’d decided not to deposit them in her empty bank account, in case Victor had somehow figured out how to get access to it. But she’d wondered if it would make anything more difficult.

  Rita didn’t give her a suspicious look, though, or even pause to blink; she just nodded with a smile and said, “Then that’ll be fifty dollars for the night, please.”

  Now it was Katie’s turn to blink. “That can’t be right,” she said. “For a whole cabin?”

  “It’s the off-season,” Rita said placidly. “We have a discount.”

  Katie stared at her, but Rita’s kind smile stayed unwaveringly on her face.

  “I don’t want any kind of—of special consideration,” Katie said finally. “This is a business, and you deserve to get paid a fair price.”

  “This price is more than fair,” Rita said. “Things aren’t very expensive out here in the woods. Fifty dollars, please.”

  Katie didn’t know how to argue further, even though she was sure fifty dollars couldn’t be the price of a cabin for the night, no matter what time of year it was. Still, she counted out two twenties and a ten from her precious stash of bills, and handed it over.

  She could always leave a generous tip in the room before she left. Yes, that was a good idea.

  Even though she had no idea how long her money was going to last.

  Still, she couldn’t stiff a nice old lady.

  Rita finished up the booking and came outside with her to point the way to the cabin. “These woods are very safe,” she told Katie. “There’s paths and trails everywhere, and no dangerous animals—or people—in the area. I always tell people that their kids can play outside, they can go on walks together, and there’s nothing to worry about.”

  “Good to know,” Katie said. She had had a little niggling anxiety about having a door that just opened into the...forest. What if there were bears or something?

  She peered out to where Rita was pointing out the cabin, and saw it just down the dirt road, tucked into the trees. The actual road she’d been driving on was totally invisible from here, even though she knew it was just a little ways out.

  “You’re a little young to play outside just yet, aren’t you?” Rita was saying to Noah. “But you’re just the right age to discover the woods for the first time. So many things to look at!”

  It was true that Noah was totally ignoring Rita in favor of staring at a tree to their left. Katie suppressed a smile. “Thank you so much,” she told Rita. “We’re both very grateful.”

  “Nonsense, nothing to be grateful for,” Rita said. “Now, off you go. You must be tired.”

  She was. She was so, so tired. It would be nice to have a quiet, safe bed for the night.

  Katie bundled Noah back into the car seat, drove the tiny distance to the cabin, and then unpacked everything again. She had a little key that let her in, and she found herself in an actual, genuine cabin.

  Everything was the same gorgeous wood that had been in the main building, and there was a beautiful little kitchen, a living room with another big fireplace, and a door leading to a bedroom with a comfy-looking queen-sized bed, and a sturdy wooden crib set up in a corner.

  The crib had sheets on it and a little yellow baby blanket draped over the side. A plate of cookies sat on the kitchen counter with a little note that said, Enjoy!

  “Fifty dollars, my butt,” Katie said dazedly, looking around at all of it.

  “Bah!” said Noah.

  “Bah is right,” Katie told him. “You hungry?”

  Noah batted at her.

  “Yep,” Katie said, and went to the bedroom to nurse.

  The bed was insanely comfortable. Of course. She had no idea how she’d lucked into a place like this. Maybe they really could stay a few days, instead of just one night.

  Of course, the longer she stayed, the more money she was definitely swindling out of that nice old lady. It would probably be better to move on.

  Although if they were otherwise vacant...but did fifty dollars even cover the expenses of keeping up this cabin for a night? Plus, they really needed to figure out where to settle down permanently, as fast as possible before her money ran out.

  “I don’t know, Noah, what do you think we should do?” she asked her son, who was peacefully sucking down his dinner.

  Nursing was filling her with the type of easy contentment she’d never thought she’d have again, before Noah was born. She looked down at the tiny body pressed up against hers and she knew she’d do whatever she had to if it would keep this baby safe and in her arms.

  “We’re going to do it, kiddo,” she told Noah. “We’re going to make it on our own, and we’re never going to have to worry about your dad again. I promise.”

  Chapter 2: Ro
nan

  Rita had been by again.

  Ronan stared, exasperated, at the Tupperware sitting on his doorstep.

  There was a little note taped to it that said, Thinking of you! Eat up!

  Sighing, he picked it up and brought it inside. He set it down on his kitchen tablet and left it alone for a moment. Whatever was in the Tupperware would be delicious, but he didn’t want to imply that he was giving in.

  I’m not one of you, he’d told her, more than once. It’s safer for everyone if you just leave me alone.

  Nonsense, she always said, and he’d never been able to change her mind.

  To be fair, he could have left town anytime in the last two years, gone somewhere where no one would have any idea who or what he was.

  Oak Ridge was a town of magical shifters. He’d known it when he first came here, full of fury and heartache. He’d thought he might be able to set up in town, make a new life for himself away from the violence of his upbringing.

  But he’d flinched away from the smiling townsfolk. People who’d grown up with loving families, doting grandparents, picture-perfect holidays.

  It was like looking at the sun. He just couldn’t handle it. He’d go blind.

  But he couldn’t quite bring himself to leave, either.

  So he’d bought this cabin out in the woods. He’d learned later that it had originally been a kind of an outrider cabin for Rita and Luis’s complex, a place for people to stay when they really wanted to be way out in the woods.

  But once the old couple had started really getting up in years, they’d found it too hard to keep up, in the middle of the forest, away from any real roads that a car could get down. So they’d put it on the market, where it had stayed, because who wanted to live out in the middle of the woods?

  Ronan did.

  It had originally started as a way to keep himself away from everyone, and everyone away from him. And what did a dragon shifter need with roads, anyway? He could park on one of the forest turnoffs and fly to his car whenever he needed it. And no one could get at him.

  And he couldn’t get at anyone.

  Not that he was afraid his dragon would go berserk and just start attacking people at random. But part of him was always watchful. He’d seen what the ferocious dragon’s instinct could make people do.