Realm Shifters

by Forever Fantasies Publishing

  “Are you sure you’re feeling well?”

  The subject was changed so swiftly that Kyla didn’t have time to make anything up. “I haven’t exactly felt great,” she admitted. When he looked worried, she rushed on. “But it’s nothing serious, I can tell. I think it’s just the time shift.”

  “Did it last this long before?” he asked shrewdly.

  No. “It lasted a while,” she answered, evading a full answer. “Nameer, trust me. I’d know if something was seriously wrong.” There was only one sure fire distraction. Luckily, it was no sacrifice. “Turn the TV off,” she said, sitting up and crawling into his lap. “We’ve got better things to do while we wait.”

  Nameer frowned. “Kyla, I want to speak with you--”

  Her phone rang and she thanked God silently. “Sorry, I’ve got to get that.”

  She answered quickly when she saw Steve’s name flash up at her. “Do you have it?”

  His voice was gritty with exhaustion. “Yes. It’s ready.”

  “I’m on my way.”

  “Don’t worry about it. I’m already headed to you. Had to get it out of the lab before the higher ups saw it and wondered what the hell I was doing. GPS says I’m two and a half hours away.”

  Kyla disconnected the call and grinned at Nameer. “In two and half hours, we’ll have what we need.”

  He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her down for a kiss in his relief. She returned the kiss with interest.

  “Whatever should we do with the next few hours?” she asked.

  He scooped her up and carried her into her room. “I will speak with you,” he informed her. “But I suppose it can wait for a few hours.”

  Nameer deposited her gently onto the bed and she propped herself onto her elbows.

  “You look like a man with a plan,” she teased.

  “For you? Always.”

  He reached over and slid open her nightstand drawer. Kyla felt a flush start at her collarbone. She wasn’t exactly a freak but she had a few things in there that she hadn’t expected him to find. Namely a blue rabbit vibrator and a selection of lube for the rare times she brought someone home.

  “When were you digging through that?” she demanded.

  He gave her a smile and a shrug. “I’m curious about you. Show me what you do with this.”

  “Isn’t it obvious?” she asked.

  “I suppose so,” Nameer agreed easily. “But that doesn’t mean that I don’t want to see it.”

  He laid the toy down on the bed beside them and leaned down, kissing her breathless. “The thought of you pleasing yourself with this when we’re apart from each other only makes me want you more.”

  Nameer undressed her as he teased her tongue with his, tweaking her nipples and kissing her thighs as the clothes fell to the floor. “Kyla, I love to watch you come,” he said, hooking one finger under her panties and pulling them down. “You played with yourself our first night, came all over my tongue and fingers...why be shy now?”

  It was a good point. She sat up, pressing her lips to his and tugging his shirt off. She ran her hands over the scars that showed up white on his dark skin. Then she reached over and pulled a tube of lube from the nightstand drawer.

  Making sure he was watching, she drizzled some of it onto her pussy, adding to the wetness there. The sweet scent of cherries filled the room.

  “Lick me,” she said.

  He lowered his head eagerly, running his tongue over her clit. “You taste so good,” he growled against her. The sweet taste of the lube was only a bonus. He licked up her slit, lavishing her whole pussy with his tongue. He loved that she kept it bare; it seemed to make her much more sensitive.

  When she began to work her hips upward, wanting to be filled, he took the toy and slid it deep, making her gasp.

  There were only a few buttons on the device and he pushed one experimentally. The egg shaped thing inside the plastic began to vibrate and Kyla moaned. He pushed the button again and it moved faster, again, and it moved even faster. Her hands were tights on the sheets now. Nameer pulled the shaft out, removing the vibrations from her clit.

  “No,” she moaned. “More, I need more.”

  “Not yet.” He thrust the toy laconically, letting her arch for it. “I want to tease you.”

  And himself. His cock was throbbing as he watched her eager little pussy take the toy deep, clenching tight when he pulled it away. Her clit was swollen and the shaft of the toy was slick with a combination of lube and her own arousal.

  “Is this how it is when you’re alone?” he asked, pushing his pants down and gripping his own shaft.

  Her eyes opened at the question and then grew hungry as she watched him stroke himself while he fucked her with the toy.

  “No,” she said honestly. “This is better.”

  He looked proud of himself at that and he pushed the toy deep, letting the vibrations take her to the edge. A reward for an answer that pleased him. Kyla’s hips worked up off the bed.

  “Oh, I’m nearly there, I’m nearly there,” she moaned. “Please let me come!”

  He pulled back and she cried out in disappointment. Nameer teased her with the just the tip of the toy while he stroked himself from the base of his shaft to the crown of his cock. She couldn’t take her eyes off of his hand. He swept his thumb over the head, gathering the moisture that had beaded there before stroking back down. His eyes hadn’t left her pussy; his cock was throbbing visibly.

  “Let me come,” she begged. “Let me come so I can have you inside me.”

  That did it. He began to thrust the vibrator into her with the same rhythm he was pumping his own cock and then, when she could take no more, he let the rabbit rest on her clit just long enough.

  Kyla screamed, her pussy clenching around the toy. “I want you; I want to come around you!”

  He pulled the toy free of the tight grip and sank deep into her. She was still coming and he fucked her mercilessly through it, adding pleasure on top of pleasure until she was no longer capable of screaming. All she could do was hold on and gasp his name.

  Kyla wrapped her arms around him, holding on tight as she buried her face against his neck and rode out orgasm after orgasm. She could feel his pleasure building too, part of the mating bond they shared. There was pressure building in his shaft, an ache that he relished.

  “I can’t take more!” she finally gasped out.

  He snarled against her. “Good, because I need to fill you.”

  He slid one arm under the small of back and pulled her that extra inch closer. She felt the heat of him fill her up, sending her into one last orgasm. She could hear him growl her name, but all she was really aware of was the intensity of the pleasure of being Nameer’s mate.

  ******

  There were dark circles under Steve’s eyes when Kyla opened the door to let him in.

  “Have you slept?” she asked.

  “No,” he said flatly. “Can you get your boyfriend to help me carry these boxes in?”

  “How many to do you have?” she asked. He was already loaded down.

  “Enough to get my brother home,” he said grimly. “At least, I hope so.”

  “Come down to the garage then.”

  She pulled her squad car up beside Steve’s Ford and he began loading it up. “These,” he said, handing her a grenade. “Are the antidote in a vapor form. Pull the pin and throw it into the toxin clouds and it will cancel it out.” Nameer reached over Kyla’s shoulder and took it, looking it over carefully.

  “And these,” Steve went on. “Are the vaccines. It should be effective up until the final stages of poisoning.”

  “How did you do this so quickly?” Nameer asked.

  “My brother means as much to me as your kingdom means to you,” Steve answered. Then a hint of his old good humor shone through. “Helps to be brilliant.” He put his hand on Kyla’s shoulder. “Get him back home safe.”

  “I will.” She held out a piece of paper and Steve glanced down
at it.

  “What the hell is this?” he asked once he’d gotten a look at it.

  “I cashed out my retirement,” she said. “I want you to have it.”

  “Why?”

  “Because,” she said. “I’m not coming back and I won’t exactly need my retirement fund in Khaytab.”

  Steve pushed the check back at her. “I’m not taking this. What if you decide to come back?”

  “You might need it,” she said, folding it up and tossing it into his car. “Who knows what kind of funding you’ll need to deal with Darabin? Please, Steve. Otherwise it’ll just go to waste.”

  He was clearly conflicted, but eventually he agreed. Kyla gave him a smile. “Now, go home and get some sleep. We’re leaving as soon as you do.”

  As they watched Steve drive away, Nameer took her hand.

  “Are you sure?” he asked. “This is a lot to leave behind. There are many conveniences here that Khaytab doesn’t have. There are things we can work toward...but we might not ever have during my rule.”

  Kyla smiled up at him. “I made my choice. There’s nowhere that I wouldn’t follow you.”

  They loaded up the squad car with the few things she wanted to take with her and then got in. Nameer grinned at her as she cranked the car.

  “Excited?” she asked, putting the car in gear and handing him the time shifting device.

  “We’re going to make one hell of an entrance,” he acknowledged.

  She grinned back. “Damn straight.”

  ******

  Danny heard the shouts and screams only moments before a crowd of people burst through the castle gates, led by some of his guardsmen. He looked over the high wall and saw a green haze. His heart sank. He’d really hoped that Kyla and Nameer would get back before this happened. To his surprise though, he found himself ready to die for a country he hadn’t even known existed a month and a half ago.

  “Get inside,” he shouted to the soldiers in the training compound. “Get the masks!”

  Some of the guards at the gates were already stumbling, clearly in pain. Lirana, who had been training with him, stepped closer.

  “You get inside too,” he said quickly. “Hurry.”

  She pulled a mask out of the pocket of her pants and strapped it on. “No,” she said, her voice slightly muffled behind the layers of leaves and silk. “What have I been training for if I can’t fight with you?”

  “This isn’t a fair fight!”

  “No,” Lirana agreed. “It’s not. We’re better than them in every way.”

  Danny stared down at her for a moment, completely taken aback. Then he laughed, pulling her close. “Don’t get hurt, baby.”

  She looked up at him, her violet eyes clear and calm. “I’ll only make that promise if you do.”

  She’d been sharing his bed for a week now, and Lirana really wished that they’d been making love the whole time. If she died before she got a chance to be with him, she was going to be very put out.

  “I promise,” Danny said recklessly. There was no way to guarantee it, but it would take a lot to pull him from Lirana. He wondered again if it was a mating thing.

  The Seeban army burst through the gates, throwing smoke bomb style vials of the toxin. Khaytab’s army met them head on, Khaza leading them. Danny saw Seeban soldiers fall to the more powerful army, but he also saw the shifters faces twist with pain as the battle raged on and the toxin began to bleed through the masks.

  Danny looked for Lirana and saw her away from the fog, throwing knives with deadly accuracy. A Seeban soldier, poised to take Khaza’s head off, fell with a knife in his eye. Khaza glanced back but Lirana had already chosen her next victim. Danny wanted to shout his encouragement, but he also didn’t want to draw any attention to her, so he stayed quiet.

  The clash of swords and yells of pain from both sides almost blocked out the sound of the time shift, but it didn’t cover Nameer’s shout of excitement when the squad car burst through the portal onto the battlefield. He threw something and Danny braced himself. It looked like a damn grenade. When it landed, smoke rose. Rather than adding to the fog, however, it cleared it away. The toxin simply...vanished.

  Danny shouted in victory as the Seeban army momentarily paused in disbelief. The squad car came to a screeching halt in front of him, right on the castle lawn. Lirana ran up beside him, staring at the car and its occupants in amazement.

  “Hey there, partner!” Kyla called cheerfully. “How long has it been?”

  “A month and some change,” he answered, taking the grenade she handed him and passing it to Lirana. “Take it, pull the pin, throw it into the fog,” he instructed. “Find the most congested areas, but be careful!”

  She nodded and ran off into the fray. Two Seeban soldiers got a little too close and she dropped them both without breaking her stride. They fell with her throwing knives in their throats.

  “Was that Lirana?” Nameer asked incredulously.

  “Yep,” Danny said proudly. “Why not get out and do some of your own dirty work?”

  Nameer grinned and shifted seamlessly into his tiger form, diving into the battle with a rallying roar. Khaytab’s soldiers, already bolstered by the disappearing fog, gave an answering battle cry. The return of their king was the push they needed to fight through the pain. It was over soon enough. The grounds were littered with fallen Seeban soldiers and the rest were prudent enough to either surrender or run.

  Kyla showed several people how to give the inoculations to the soldiers who’d been infected before she and Nameer arrived. Nameer got the Seebans who’d surrendered to cells in the lower levels and Khaza assigned guards to them.

  “Now,” Danny said when things had settled a bit and he’d made Lirana take an inoculation just in case. “Let’s all go have a talk and get everything straightened out.”

  “That sounds great to me,” Kyla agreed tiredly. “I’m ready to hit the sack.”

  “It’s been freshened for you,” Lirana said, feeling vindicated in her slight obsession with keeping the king’s rooms cleaned.

  “Thank you,” Kyla said, looking happier already.

  “We’ve made new training schedules, my Lord,” Khaza said. “The troops seem to have fared much better in this battle because of them.”

  “And Lirana invented these masks,” Afani said, holding hers up. “They blocked the toxins long enough to give us the advantage we needed.”

  Nameer reached out and took one. “Aire tree leaves and caterpillar silk,” he said, amazed. “Brilliant.”

  Danny noticed that Lirana blushed, but she held the king’s gaze as she thanked him.

  “And Danny, it was your brother who got us the antidote,” Nameer went on.

  “In two days,” Kyla added. “I don’t think he slept. He’s really worried about you.”

  Danny cleared his throat and made good and damn sure that his voice didn’t waver as he said, “I’ll be glad to see him again.”

  “When you do, tell him thanks again,” Kyla went on. “I wasn’t exactly easy on him.”

  “We didn’t have time to be,” Nameer said, patting her on the leg.

  “Why can’t you tell him yourself?” Danny asked. Then he understood. “You’re not going back.”

  Kyla shook her head. “No. Not this time.”

  “What about your plan of going back and forth?”

  “Too much time lost,” Kyla answered, her fingers lacing through Nameer’s. “I’m still not sure how the time difference works. Two weeks was almost a year here. Two days was a month. I’m not going to risk it.”

  Danny nodded. There had been a time when he would have protested, but he found that he understood. And this time, he was confident that Nameer would be what Kyla needed.

  “Lirana,” Nameer said suddenly. “I also have news about your husband.”

  Lirana started. “My...Darabin?”

  “He came through the portal with us,” Nameer said. “But he was captured by humans. I don’t believe he will e
ver come back here.”

  “I see. Thank you for telling me, my Lord.”

  Her gaze was back on the table. She wouldn’t meet Danny’s eyes.

  “You’ve all done well,” Nameer said at the end of the briefing. “And I thank you all for your loyalty in my absence.” He looked around at all of them. “Khaytab would not be what it is without the people in this room and I am indebted to you all. Now, if you’ll excuse me, your future Queen is falling asleep at the table.”

  Afani smiled. “When are you due?” she asked.

  “Due to what?” Kyla repeated, barely able to keep her eyes open. “I’m sorry, Afani, I’m just too tired tonight; we’ll talk tomorrow.”

  Nameer looked from his future Queen to Afani. She smiled softly. His hands were gentle when he helped Kyla up from her chair and escorted her from the room.

  “Is she really...” Danny trailed off when Afani nodded. “Damn. That’s enough excitement for me for one night.” He held out his hand to Lirana. “Coming with me?” He tried to sound casual, but he was incredibly relieved when she took his hand and they walked up to bed together.

  ******

  Once they’d both bathed and she was wearing his extra shirt again, Lirana gathered her courage and said, “Are you really going to go back to Earth?”

  Danny tightened the drawstring on the pants he slept in. “Yeah. Kyla doesn’t have family back there, but I do. And Steve really did a lot to get me home. I’m gonna have to give him hell about missing me.”

  “I see,” she said quietly.

  “Lirana...how do you feel now...knowing that Darabin isn’t going to come back?” Danny never mentioned her husband to her, but he couldn’t help it now.

  “Free,” she said immediately. “We aren’t allowed to divorce. Not traditionally. And I always thought that he was my mate. But now I know that he isn’t.”

  “You know? For sure?”

  She looked up at him. “Danny, I...feel like you might be.”

  “I don’t know what being a mate is like,” he said and her heart sank.

  Then he stepped close and cupped her face in his hands. “Does being your mate mean that I can’t picture my life without you? That I think about you every moment you’re away from me? That nothing has ever felt as good as kissing you feels?”