I paused to gauge his reaction. His lips were pursed, but his eyes were swimming with fright.
I was getting in his head and planting roots, and I loved it. My plan was working. I only had a few more minutes to pull it off.
“At the stroke of midnight, I’m going to shift. This is not something that I chose for myself, but I too had to once succumb to a Master who forced another shifter to put the curse on me. It was the ultimate betrayal by another shifter, but I have always known in my heart that the true culprit was the Master.”
“What does this have to do with me?” The Master attempted to feign innocence. “I hardly committed a crime here. It wasn’t me pulling the strings.”
“No.” I shook my head and leered at him. “Maybe not this time, but you can’t tell me you don’t have blood on your hands.”
The man glared at me and refused to say anything further.
“If you don’t tell me where the rest of your crew is hiding out, then I’m going to maul you alive as soon as I turn.”
I said it in as intimidating a tone as I could muster. I knew that he was on the fence based on the contorted way his face moved, as if he was contemplating whether or not I was bluffing. I was patient. I would bully him until he cracked all the way.
“Trust me,” I added. “It’s not going to feel good when I rip you limb from limb.”
The Master shuddered and glanced over his shoulder.
“What are you looking at back there?” I jolted his face back toward me. “There’s nothing out there to save you, old man. Just darkness and disorder.”
But then the inevitable began to happen, and the sharpened pain began to acutely stab at me, like a thousand little needles being imbedded into my skin. I knew what that meant. I let out a roar of searing pain that soon turned into a bellowing howl of a werewolf in trouble.
Tufts of fur began to sprout from my shirt and speckle all over my arms and legs and chest. I let out an angry groan. I had no choice but to release the Master. The pain was significant. I was suffering and in agony.
As soon as I let go of the Master, he bolted. He fled as if his life depended on it, because honestly, it did. I fell to my knees as my gut twisted. I let out one last enormous howl.
By the time I was able to look up again without the blinding pain blurring my vision, the Master was long gone, faded into the black void of the mountainous forest.
26
Sophia
The tension among the shifters in the rebellion camp continued to rise to near boiling points.
I couldn’t explain it, but I had an eerie feeling about most everyone at the camp. I was unsettled and found myself pacing around outside the tent while everyone else was trying to get some rest. I didn’t mind the chill in the air. The nippiness helped clear my mind of the heat that was burning me from the inside out.
It was no use. After a while, I still felt like a furnace on the brink of a fiery explosion. I unzipped the tent and climbed inside, surprised to see that Blaze, Ayden, and James were all awake, sitting there talking.
Part of me felt resentful that they hadn’t included me in their conversation, but as I stared deep into their eyes and was met back with fondness and comfort, I calmed down a little. I was still sizzling over the fact that the Master had escaped right under our noses, but I knew I wasn’t alone in that.
We needed a saving grace. We needed something profound and wonderous to happen to break the clouds and help us see the light of day once again.
It was the middle of the night. Cameron had left to go searching for the escaped Master some time ago. I couldn’t help but worry for him and his wellbeing. My mind couldn’t stop replaying terrifying visions of him being slain in the darkness, alone in the cold.
As if reading my thoughts, James spoke to me. “Cameron can take care of himself. I see the fear in your eyes. I want to comfort you.”
I chuckled anxiously. “How can you all read my mind so well? Am I that predictable?”
Blaze frowned. “Predictable? No. Certainly not. I like to think of it as us being incredibly connected on a spiritual level.”
I smiled. “That sounds like a better way to put it to me, too.” Then I looked at each of them and wondered something. “How come you didn’t come out looking for me when you woke up and noticed I wasn’t in the tent?”
“We could hear you mumbling to yourself.” Ayden chuckled. “And we could see your shadow.”
“Ah.” I nodded. “That makes sense.”
“We wanted to give you a few minutes to yourself,” James confessed. “Everyone deserves a breather every once in a while.”
I plopped down beside him with a sigh and relished the solace of having them each near me. He patted my knee and I was filled with a sense of endearment. A tingle of pleasure went up and down my spine.
I felt like I could be open and honest with them, that I never needed to hide the secrets in my mind. I could tell them the truth about what I felt without having to dread impending judgement.
I was vulnerable, yet I was also like flower waiting to bloom. I just needed to feel the sun and the rain against my skin, to feel like my purpose meant something to the world.
“The fact that Cameron hasn’t resurfaced with the Master…” I began, feeling the terrifying tremble begin to rise in my bones.
“He can’t,” James gently reminded me. “He can’t come back to the rebellion camp until his werewolf shift is over.”
“I know.” I trailed the diamond pattern of the sheets beneath me with my finger.
They had been taken directly from the beds of Leo’s hotel room to stock the shifters here with something that they would be able to find familiar and comforting.
“He will come back,” Ayden reassured me with a kindhearted smile.
I met his gaze. “But will he be alone?”
Ayden exhaled a deep sigh. I watched his shoulders rise and fall methodically. “That’s something we will unfortunately have to wait to find out, sweetheart.”
“It feels impossible to wait…” I trailed off in a whisper with an ironic chuckle.
“I know.” Ayden propped his arms behind him and looked nostalgic for the better world that we had all known at some point or another in our lives.
Now, it felt like we were always trying to snatch the dreams of those lives back, but the dreams remained one step ahead of us.
James pounded his fist against his thigh, but not aggressively. It was mainly out of pent-up frustration. “I just don’t understand what happened, what went wrong.” He looked at each of us as if we had the answers. “How could he have just…vanished?”
“He didn’t vanish,” Ayden countered. “He was set free. Released. Escaped.”
“The blame isn’t on us,” Blaze said. “It’s on…them.” He pointed his finger outside of the tent flap. “The ones who were supposed to be watching him around the clock.”
“Yeah.” I nodded in agreement.
My head was a mess. My neck and shoulders throbbed due to stress and anxiety continuously streaming through my veins like water through a firefighter’s hose.
“I just feel so drained from all this constant chaos,” I admitted. “When are we going to catch a break?”
It was a rhetorical question, of course, but the guys still seemed to reflectively ponder, each one wanting to come up with the answer in order to satisfy me.
Ayden was the only one brave enough to admit that he didn’t hold the key, not yet, anyway. “Honestly, I have no idea.” He gave me a look of chagrin that melted my heart and broke it at the same time.
He began rubbing my back. The sensation was amazing. He was incredible with the motions and movements of his fingertips grazing against my bare skin. I closed my eyes and uttered a soft sigh of contentment. For the moment, I was going to allow myself to relax and drink in his glorious attention.
I wanted to consume every drop of their affection. The one peaceful part in my mind celebrated the fact that we were a team, a unit.
We were all unique and different in our own ways, sure, but each one of these men had something wonderful to bring to the table. I appreciated my relationship with them in exclusive ways that brought me enormous amounts of joy.
Ayden continued to rub my back while Blaze whispered in my ear. “Do you want me to go down on you, pretty girl?”
I met his gaze and my mind exploded with fantasies of his tongue rolling over my clitoris. I wanted him to push back the folds of my tight vagina with his fingers and push them into the heartbeat of my soul. Where the warmth dwelled inside of me, that was where I was able to find the most ecstasy.
“Yes,” I breathed out with joy.
He gently laid me down, then Ayden moved over to stroke my hair, brushing his fingers through it with fantastic motions that gave me a pleasure overload. There was so much to discover in the way they touched my body and brought me to orgasm. I savored every moment with them.
Blaze shoved my panties down to my ankles and rolled them off. Then he pushed his face between my legs. He didn’t waste any time lingering around down there. There was no teasing and taunting or driving me crazy. I already felt like I was on the brink of pleasure eruption.
He cut right down to business. I moaned and spread my legs apart as he buried his face in my crotch. He set up camp, using his mouth as a tremendous pleasure tool to send me plunging over the edge.
He showered my sensitive and swollen lips with delicate kisses from his soft mouth. The satisfaction in the way he kissed me so tenderly drove me crazy. I dug my hips into the sheets and arched my back, climaxing in seconds.
Blaze sat up and grinned, my warm cum off his lips and chin. He was practically glowing, just like I felt inside. We had sensually connected, and our chemistry was remarkable.
“I want a turn next,” Ayden said in a sexually feisty tone. His eyes danced with insatiable hunger.
“Who am I to say no to round two?” I chuckled with glee, opening my legs again as Ayden parted my pussy lips with his tongue and began to flick it around on my throbbing clitoris.
I could practically feel my heartbeat pounding in between my legs, and Ayden was wonderfully talented in helping me experience that melty, creamy, tingly feeling.
It was a fantasy come true to have multiple men that I cared about so much, loved even, taking turns going down on me. The fact that they reveled in bringing me ample amounts of pleasure to help pull my mind from the trenches of my burdens.
I moaned. I felt my mouth curl in sensual bliss. Ayden was like a painter, using profoundly perfect brush strokes of his tongue swirling down and around on my sensitive flesh, driving me crazy with desire.
My inner thighs began to quiver as James heightened the experience of pleasure for me. I felt a rush of ecstasy as he reached in underneath Ayden’s hand and began rubbing my tight asshole.
“That feels so good,” I moaned, wiggling around while their hands and mouths explored the lower half of my body. “Yes,” I moaned again. “Right there.”
“Do you like that, baby?” James asked with a grin.
Ayden couldn’t ask me. His mouth was still like a suction cup on my engorged pussy.
“Yes,” I purred. “Keep doing that.” The sensation of his fingers playing around on my asshole while Ayden ate me out were pure ecstasy.
“Can I push my finger inside of there?” James asked with a naughty twinkle in his eye.
I knew I was probably beaming. “Yes, do it.”
I moaned with delight as James wiggled his finger inside of my asshole and buried it as deep as he could. The combination of his finger inside of my ass while Ayden licked my vagina was too much for me to bear.
“I’m going to cum soon,” I warned them, panting hard and rasping.
“Cum, baby,” James said.
Ayden wiggled his tongue furiously fast to help me achieve orgasm in the blink of an eye.
I held onto it for as long as I could. I wanted to experience the mind-blowing pleasure forever, but it burst from me before I could contain it and bottle it up forever. I saw stars in front of my eyes as I came, moaning hard, crying out their names as they sent me over the point of no return.
“Wow,” I said after a few minutes of recovery. I still felt as limp as a noodle. “That was…incredible.”
“You’re welcome.” All three of the guys were giving me enormous, handsome smiles.
Their adoration made me laugh.” Sometimes I think you guys love it more than me.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised if that was true,” Ayden said with a chuckle.
I roped my arms around his neck. “But in all seriousness, I do really love it. A lot.”
He kissed my lips and rubbed my back again. “I know.”
They laid down beside me, and it wasn’t long before they fell asleep, but I still felt a little stir crazy. I had cabin fever. I needed to get out of the tent, because I felt like I was suffocating. It smelled like sweat and sex, which was normally a huge turn on for me, but not on this particular night.
I needed to get some fresh air. I carefully unzipped the tent so that I wouldn’t disturb their peaceful slumber. I didn’t really have a destination. It wasn’t like I was technically sneaking out of the tent. I wouldn’t venture far.
That’s when I noticed a softly glowing orange light illuminating from inside of the crystal woman’s tent. Her lantern was on. She was awake. I saw a silhouette of her figure moving about inside the crevices of her fabric walls. Like a moth to a flame, I was drawn in with curiosity as to what she might be doing in there. I took a few steps toward the woman’s tent, hoping that it would be open and welcoming.
27
Sophia
I wandered in front of the crystal woman’s tent for a few moments, debating whether or not to go inside. The tent flap was open slightly and a light smoke filtered out. The smoke had a very incense-like smell to it that was warming and beckoning my already curious mind.
I adjusted my position so that I could see everything the woman was doing inside the tent. I watched her for a few minutes, peering at her with intrigue building inside my soul.
She moved about methodically, almost entranced. Her motions sent peace washing through my mind. For a few moments, I forgot where I was, what I was doing there, and the dangers of being out in the open of the rebellion camp alone in the middle of the night. The chill in the air no longer affected me.
A breath of new warmth surged inside of me, and I had no idea how it got there. I just knew one thing, and that was the fact that I welcomed and embraced it with every fiber of my being.
The woman had her back turned away from me, so I was able to observe her with a relatively easy amount of privacy. I didn’t want to disturb whatever she was doing in there. I could hear the chanting sounds of her whispers floating through the air as if little fairies were carrying their murmurs in trickles for only the worthy to hear. The woman’s whispers were inaudible, so I had no idea what she was saying, but the sound of her voice was still pacifying to listen to.
I stared at her, purely enchanted. It was as if a magnet was drawing me nearer to her and I couldn’t look away.
The woman began waving a thick stick into the air. It looked like a giant cigarette, only it didn’t smell like one. It smelled like lavender and sage. It had a burning-ember tip much like a cigarette, but it looked like it was wrapped up in leaves, which made the paper rolled around it look fatter. It reminded me of the smudge stick she’d used before, only this one was larger.
The woman waved the stick in the air and began whispering incantations under her breath. She picked up various crystals and held them briefly under the smoke before setting them down again.
She continued to do this rhythmically as if it were a ritual. I shifted my weight. I was starting to get uncomfortable and cold. The movement caused a few twigs under my feet to snap in half, creating a cracking sound
The woman spun around, her curls bouncing jerkily. I attempted to bolt from the premises and jog back to my o
wn tent a few strides away, but my efforts were in vain. She had already spotted me.
“Hey,” she said in a normal voice that didn’t sound at all threatened or angry at my invasion of her privacy. “Come back here.”
I swiveled around with a wince, biting on my bottom lip with nervous energy. “I’m really sorry. I wasn’t trying to snoop—”
“Come in here, girl.” The woman wrinkled her forehead and frowned as if she wasn’t at all put out by my behavior, but instead entertained by it. “For lord’s sake, it’s freezing out there. If I can see your breath, it must mean that you are frigid. Your bones must be trembling”
It wasn’t until she mentioned it that I began to notice how my teeth were chattering and my muscles were involuntarily shaking.
“Are you sure?” I stood outside of her tent walls, feeling slightly hesitant.
“Of course, I’m sure.” She vigorously nodded, waving me furiously with a beckoning hand.
“Okay,” I chuckled. “You don’t have to twist my arm.”
I climbed into her tent where, the smell of sage and lavender was heavy in the air.
“I didn’t mean to interrupt you,” I said.
The woman had a kind and patient expression on her face as she responded. “It’s fine. I’m just cleansing the crystals.”
“With the smudge stick? Like I saw you doing before?”
“Yes.” The woman nodded and beamed at. “The positive energy in the crystals is emitted whenever you cleanse them,” she explained. “My preferred method is with the smudge sticks.”
“That’s really interesting,” I said with an enthusiastic nod. “Do you have to do it a lot?”
“Cleanse them?”
“Yes,” I confirmed.
The woman smiled gently. “To be honest, there is no perfect time. Just whenever you want to purify them. You set your intentions and begin by lighting the smudge stick.”
“Is that what you were chanting before?” I asked. “The intentions to purify them?”
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