“Welcome home,” I smile, leading her through the entrance hall. “The main house has been in my family for generations, but we’ve upgraded it in the last few years. Lounge is through there, there’s a full entertainment system with whatever streaming service you prefer,” Pointing through the door at the bottom of the stairs, then directing her to the big double door on the other side, “Kitchen, that’s my domain mostly, and the dining room is sort of extended onto the back of that. There’s a sun room through the back, Lucas’ room in the summer, pretty much, and it looks onto the deck and the paddocks. Five bedrooms on the first floor, and we have an Omega room in the loft with a bedroom, nest, bathroom, and a small kitchen too.”
As I speak, I walk her through each room, watching the change from panic to a sort of wonderment. With each room, she relaxes and explores a little. It’s with a pang of fear that I realize she just fits into this space like she’s been here forever, breezing through and mixing her scent with ours. Venturing into each room, she thinks we don’t notice as she picks something belonging to each of us and stuffs it into her dress, padding out her chest further. Without my pack mates' stronger senseof smell, everything’s a little diluted, but I can smell her sweet cocktail puffing with each pilfered item. Maybe, if we are really lucky, she’s thinking less about escaping now and more about her approaching heat. We can only hope.
By the time we’re at the nest, she’s practically purring. With painted white walls, there are fairy lights strung across the exposed beams. A pit bed full of uncovered pillows sits in the middle, and with a squeal, our Omega tosses herself in. Rolling around in the duvets and pillows, she bundles herself right up. Bright eyes peer out as she beams at us, and her Omega purr starts up properly—a delicate whirring sound that teases my muscles into relaxing and returns her pleased expression.
“What do you think?” Standing next to her, I take a second to balance myself as I squat down. I don’t trust myself not to topple into the nest with the padded edges. “Anything you need, we’ll get it for you.”
“Hmmm,” Purring again, her head pops out a little more, cheeks squished where the blankets are tightly wrapped, “More purple.”
Nodding sagely, I turn to our Alphas in the doorway, “Needs to be more purpler.”
Clay and Atlas look at each other, searching each other's faces for some sort of clue to what's going on, as I smother a chuckle. Skye echoes me with a shy giggle, and I meet her eyes. Bad decision. I’m not able to fight this laugh, choking its way up my throat until I am bent over, cackling. Skye joins in, snorting and hooting in her mountain of soft nest.
Heaving air through my mouth, tears catch on my lashes, and heat flushes through me as I wipe them away.Whenwasthe last time I laughed like this? Had we truly only met this woman tonight?At the door, a perplexed grumble comes from one of the men, and sets us both off again. Neither of us holds back, howling and feeding into each other until I am clutching my ribs.
Catching her breath, Skye unearths herself and reaches out to tentatively pat me on the leg.Shit.Every muscle freezes, and my laughter stops dead in my throat, strangling into a groan as she pets the metal limb there. Instead of commenting, she just redirects to pat my thigh. I wonder if she feels the mangled scar tissue there, but she says nothing, just giving me that big smile.
“Thanks, Teddy,” She murmurs with the softest voice. I wonder if I’ll ever hear her say that whilst I’m inside her, calling my name out in that same breathy tone. Seeming to sense the change in the mood, and probably the twitch in my pants at eye level, her throat bobs and her pupils blow. Thick rum, lime, and mint fill the room in a sharp tang, and I can’t help but inhale.
“I… I… Uhh.” Husky and unsteady, she clears her throat and clambers out of the nest, “I gotta use the bathroom.”
Retreating quickly into the attached en-suite, the door slams a little too hard, and the lock click is deafening. Too much too fast, we pushed her too hard, especially when we all know she’s not comfortable and wants to escape. I might have been getting somewhere with her until my damn traitorous libido kicked in.
“Her scent,” Atlas groans, adjusting himself as he bends to bury his nose in the bedding. You know what, I take it back, I'm downright gentlemanly, and I’m glad he didn’t do that whilst she was here. But the second problem hits as I watch the fur appear across the backs of his hands with some weird, fascinating magic, or whatever it is that lets them shift. Clay steps in, positioning himself between us and watches Atlas come as close to rutting as we’ve ever seen him. Out of the three shifters, he has the worst restraint and self-control, but we’ve never seen his animal come so close to the surface that he has those reflective lenses across his eyes.
“Mine…” Following her scent to the bathroom, the shift takes him with every step. His suit strains at the seams, his body even bigger as fur bursts between the ripping stitches like anoverstuffed scarecrow. It isn’t a shock to see the wolfman in front of us, smiling with a baring of sharp teeth, muzzle in the air as he draws scent from around the doorway, then growls with his ears flat against his skull.
“She’s gone.”
Fuck.
Skye
My ass aches from sliding down the tilted roof, but at least now I have the pleasure of soft dirt between my paws. Everything is brighter and sharper, my nose picking up all the trails as I take in heavy breaths with every stride. Wild heather dominates this landscape, and the recent rains pull that rich earthy smell to the forefront, covering my fur, and an excited howl creeps up my throat, stifled before it can escape. I can’t remember the last time I felt so free, so wild. Being in the auction facilities for the last five years, I couldn’t shift at all, even when my body damn near tore itself apart at the full moon. I cried myself to sleep in the quiet of my own room, feeling my wolf slipping away with every muted shift. Even before that, my dad had banned it, and my mother hadn’t liked it much either… I feel like a whole new animal, reborn with a pup-like vigor as I bolt through the undergrowth with claws shearing through the soft earth and wondering how long it’ll last until my torn dress is discovered beneath the cars and my footprints change to paws.
A foreign howl wails through the night.
That is not a welcoming call from one wolf to another. It is a hunting bay, an Alpha's call to his mate…To me.Yet all it does is drive me harder.
A second howl sounds.
Both Atlas and Fury are hunting. Goddess help me, not only am I running from my scent-matched Alphas, but my Omegaand wolf are fighting every second for control, demanding we turn back. Worse, there’s not a hint of fear from either as we flee our Alphas, only an electric excitement pulsing through my veins with every heartbeat, demanding our pack works to prove themselves to their mate. With their much longer legs, it won’t take long for them to catch up to me, and I wonder what their wolves are like.Do they have dark, smoky fur, or maybe pale moonlight?Pushing everything to the back, I let myself run on pure adrenaline, charging through the trees.
Dread fills me. I’m far enough into the woods to have a head start on them, but I’m not alone. There’s a creeping kind of feeling, like something’s watching me. Only the sound of my paws, muffled by the moss and dirt, reaches my ears instead of the incessant chatter of wildlife. Surely they haven’t covered that ground already—
Something hits me from above like an asteroid. Razer blades cut right through my fur and into my hips, a clamp locking around the back of my neck. Dirt and dust fly up around me as I crash to the ground, pain screaming through every inch as the heavy weight forces me down. Yelping, I fight against it, lashing out with teeth and claws, but I can’t reach. Instead, I opt to try and quiet myself, work out what the fuck it is before I injure myself more. Not a wolf, the scent isn’t right. The deadly points in my hip and shoulders mark claws and thick pads holding me. As much as I can, I turn my head to see the most beautiful coat I’ve ever seen. Golden, with the glow of spun silk, it is decorated through with pitch black rosettes. Spots within those rings, and my head drops to the ground. A jaguar. There is a jaguar on my back. Of all the fun facts that I store in my brain, I remind myself that Jaguars have one of the highest bite forces of any animal on the planet.
Fuck.
Surely I’d be dead if itwerehunting, right? Do they play with their food?High and reedy, my whines transform along with my body until I’m shifting, my body screaming that this is the worst idea. Losing the fur that's protecting me even a little against those deadly points. Yet as I shift, the claws retract themselves, leaving only a well of bloody points dripping crimson. The jaws open and drop me to the ground, but the weight doesn’t move; the big cat crouches over my back instead. I feel the fur retreating, thick black hair draping over my body instead, and a palm pressing between my shoulders, another stretching to clasp my hands in front of my head, and I’m suddenly very aware of theheon my back. Hard against my spine, I feel him throb in time with his heartbeat as I try to wriggle away.
“Please, no,” I beg under him, “Please, I don’t want this, let me go…”
“Stop fucking moving. They will be here to get you in a moment.” The voice behind me snarls, and I freeze, turning my head comically slow like a horror movie to meet the furious golden glow behind me. Glaring back at me, his lips raise in a sneer, my feline pack mate.
“Lucas?!” I yelp again, but he shoves me back down by the hand on my back, holding my naked chest into the dirt. “Why the fuck are you hard? Do struggling women get you off, asshole?”
A vicious snarl rips through the woods, and he drops his weight down on me, slamming me right back down, “You are a shifter too, don’t act stupid, you know it happens when we shift.”
