Wicked Souls: A Limited Edition Reverse Harem Romance Collection

by Rebecca Royce

  I looked over to where a pimply teenager in a genuinely hideous gold vest was ripping tickets. He looked bored, but I didn’t think he was just going to let us in. However, next to the candy bar was a large set of double doors that said, “Do not enter. Staff Only.”

  It may as well have waved a red flag and said, “I Dare You!” underneath. Next to it was a self-service candy area, and I wandered over to it, going to the Hershey Kisses that were closest to the doors. I filled up a cup like I belonged there, waiting until Reese caught up and was standing behind me. I used him as cover as I took a quick look around, and then pushed Reese through the doors. With another quick look, I went in after him.

  The hallway on the other side of the doors was empty, thank fuck. However, Reese was pressed against the wall and he didn’t look happy. In fact, he looked about ready to snap. Maybe I shouldn’t have been so damn weak and left him behind already.

  “What. The. Hell?”

  I rolled my eyes.

  “Look, Peanut Butter Cup, please don’t get all hysterical on me now. I promise that when we are done running from the very bad men, and I mean very bad, I will answer any question you want to ask. But right now, you have two options; you can keep it together for a little longer, or you can go off on your own and hope to God they don’t catch you. But I wouldn’t bet on you escaping their notice. You are as stealthy as a Thanksgiving Day Parade.”

  He wasn’t the only one losing patience. High tension situations made me a little bit testy as well. If I ended up a leopard skin rug because this guy was throwing a tantrum, I was going to be pissed.

  I gently nudged him down the hall that led off the “Staff Only” area and he begrudgingly went. We moved at a steady pace until we came to the furthest door at the end of the hall.

  I stuck my head through and looked for any gaudy gold vests, but it was all clear.

  Sending up a thank you to the goddess of small fucking mercies, and I darted out into the hall, pulling Reese along with me. I tucked myself so close to his body that I could feel his warmth. He really could be quite pliable when he wanted to be.

  I laced my fingers through his, justifying it to myself as maintaining our ruse, but I recognized that a part of me just liked the feel of his skin against mine.

  My face warmed a little at the thought.

  Before Reese could register the heat in my face, I pulled him through the double doors of the closest cinema. The noise and darkness swallowed us whole and I heaved a sigh of relief. I reluctantly released Reese’s hand and beckoned him to follow. Walking slowly up the stairs to the middle of the cinema, I sat next to a group of people who appeared to be teenagers. Reese sat down next to me, hemming me between humans.

  The action flick was playing in front of me and it appeared that the bad guy was winning, considering the banged-up state of the hero. I glanced over at Reese, who was staring unseeingly at the big screen. A car exploded, and the flash gave me a clear view of his face. He might be a problem that I didn’t want to deal with, but he was a very cute problem.

  He was good looking in a nondescript way; a long straight nose ran into lips that were pressed thinly together, his eyes framed by long eyelashes and roundish glasses. The most remarkable thing about him was his golden hair. I briefly wondered if he was one of those guys who dyed their hair at the salon, but then I remembered how shaggy he was. There were limits to how shaggy you could go while still being fashionable, and Reese overshot that mark significantly. However, there was something else about him, something that wasn’t physical, that my body responded to in a more primal way. Reese felt me staring and turned toward me.

  “You never told me your name.” His whispered words brushed against my skin, and I realized he was close enough to kiss. I frowned. I should give him a fake name, that was the smart thing to do. Unfortunately my impulsive, or stupid, side won out.

  “Celeste.” Reese nodded and turned back to the screen, his arm pressed against mine. My heartbeat quickened, but it was probably just the adrenaline from my near death experience. Yeah, that was it.

  And to think, I never used to lie to myself.

  I turned back to the screen, trying to appear as if I was watching the movie, but slowly my eyes drifted closed. Shifting always drained me, and coupled with the adrenaline comedown, I felt bone weary.

  As much as my mind fought it, my body went languid and I fell asleep.

  A poke in the ribs jerked me awake and the noise around me was deafening. I sat up ramrod straight, trying to reorientate myself. Where the fuck was I?

  “Celeste, wake up! They’re here,” an urgent voice whispered in my ear. My eyes shot open, any residual sleepiness long gone. Hunters. Reese. Fuck.

  My gaze flew to the entrance and the three big shadows standing in the doorway to the cinema. They split up, one taking the front row and the other two taking either side of the central seating. I was sure we’d lost them and swore silently under my breath. It must have been a slow month for bounties if they were on my furry ass this hard. I looked for the exits, but they were down the front and we’d have to walk right by them. Damn it.

  Tension thrummed along Reese’s body, and that would be a giveaway in itself. Only one solution, but in the spirit of being truthful to yourself, I didn’t try and think too hard about other options.

  “Play along,” I whispered as I swung my leg over his lap, pulling his face to mine and pressing my lips firmly to his. His body was stiff, but his hands wrapped around my back of their own accord. My thoughts were pulled away from the imminent threat when Reese’s mouth softened beneath mine and he began to kiss me back. He ran his tongue along the seam of my lips with quick flicks, like he was tasting me, or maybe testing my defenses. My blood was already thumping in my ears, and as his teeth scraped over my lip, I had to stop myself from gasping as if he had burned me.

  My hands gripped the back of his head harder, tangling in those golden curls that felt softer than imaginable. I opened my mouth and my tongue met his, quickly stroking it as he ran his hands over my hip, tracing a tingling line down my thigh. Heat flooded to my core and my chest constricted until I thought it would be impossible to breathe. I had to stop this, or we would be fucking in the back of the cinema like a couple of horny teenagers while people who literally wanted to sell me roamed the halls. Fuck, I was an idiot.

  I pulled back from Reese’s face enough to see the hunter descending the stairs, our faces so close together that if it hadn't been so dark, I would have been able to count the pale freckles that ran across the bridge of his nose. We sat there for a moment, Reese staring into my soul from barely an inch away, and I was suddenly uncomfortable with the scrutiny.

  “We need to get out of here,“ I whispered. I needed the cold Chicago air to cool me down. We waited until the men left the cinema, and ran down the stairs two at a time to the emergency exit beside the screen. Reese pushed it open and the light above it started flashing.

  “We better hurry before someone realizes the alarms have been tripped,” Reese muttered, holding the door for me. Running down the corridor towards another red exit sign, I could feel the cold night breeze flowing into the room. It definitely emptied out into the street. Reese pushed that one open as well and this time an ear shattering alarm went off.

  “Keep running. I want to get the hell out of downtown,” I shouted back at Reese, leaping over trash and ducking around overflowing dumpsters. I wasn’t going to get myself trapped in another back alley, that was for damn sure. As soon as we were back onto Main Street, I ran out in front of the first cab I saw, making it slam on its brakes.

  Reese opened the door and pushed me in first, and then got in beside me. The cabbie was peeved about almost running me over, swearing in a language I didn’t know and throwing me the stink-eye in the rear-view mirror.

  “You know, you could have just raised your arm and whistled like a normal person. You don’t have to get yourself killed hailing a cab, you know,” he huffed. “Where to?”


  I was surprised when Reese rattled off an address in Lincoln Park West before I could answer.

  The cabbie nodded and drove off. I glanced through the back window one more time to see if the bounty hunters had caught up. Thankfully, I couldn’t see them amongst the shrinking crowd. I settled back into the cracked vinyl seats of the old cab.

  “What’s at Lincoln Park? Are you going to put me in the Lincoln Park Zoo?” I didn’t know if it was too soon to joke about such things. It also occurred to me that I probably shouldn’t just hop into a cab with a stranger, even if we had just shared a near death experience and an unbelievable kiss. I just couldn’t be bothered stressing about one more thing tonight. Besides, the chance of Buttercup over there beating me in a fight was non-existent, in my opinion. Not that he wasn’t powerfully built, he had well-muscled forearms, broad shoulders and was well over six feet, but he couldn’t take a snow leopard either. My eyes roamed over his chest and shoulders, hungrily taking in every inch of him.

  “We’re going to my place. I need a beer and you need to explain…everything.” I was so distracted by the muscles of his chest I’d forgotten I’d even asked a question. I nodded, and it felt nice just to hand over control to someone else for a little while, at least while I was in the relative safety of the cab. Again, I wished I could explain away tonight’s events on alcohol, or the effects of hallucinogens. I searched his face for any sign that he might be a heavy drug user. No shadowed, sunken eyes or haggard features. In fact, he looked in peak condition. Fuck it.

  I sighed, the weight of my secret resting heavily on my shoulders. I might have been twenty-three, but on days like today, I felt a hundred. I really hoped that I wouldn’t cast under the eagle eye of the Shifter Council because of this shit. Not that anyone would believe Reese, he was just one man. He’d probably end up on the front page of some trashy tabloid, a secondary story to ‘Jessica Alba and Alien have a secret extra-terrestrial love affair’.

  I looked at Reese intently. He looked solid, trustworthy. But with secrets like this, you could never really trust anyone who wasn’t a shifter. That was something I had learnt the hard way.

  “Stop staring at me,” Reese muttered. I was about to make a snarky comment when the cab pulled over, the driver slamming his brakes on with a little more force than necessary. Reese’s hand shot out, banding across my waist so I didn’t fling forward. Naw, he was back in my good books again.

  “Seventeen bucks,” the driver grunted, reaching his hand between the seats. I fumbled for my purse, realizing I left the damn thing in the alley. However, Reese was already there, handing over a fifty and telling the cab driver to keep the change. I wistfully thought that one day I’d love to have enough money to say “keep the change” so cavalierly, but I only had fifty bucks to my name and a full time job was hard to hold down when there were always people chasing you. I got help of course, there was a group who called themselves ‘Eden’ that gave people like me a place to stay and some money if I needed it, but I didn’t like staying there for too long. I was a loner by nature, and I liked it that way. There was no need to rely on anyone else for anything. I prided myself on the fact that I hadn’t begged for help since my mother kicked me out at thirteen.

  Reese slid out of the cab and held the door open for me. I stepped onto the sidewalk in front of a beautiful grey stone building with bronze arched windows. It had a small, dark green awning and green mat that rolled out onto the sidewalk. It was elegant art deco, and I let myself imagine for a moment that I was some kind of movie starlet in a beautiful gown, with a handsome date.

  The cold chicago wind brought me back to reality real quick.

  I would never have the opportunity to be anyone important. Hell, I wasn’t even wearing damn shoes. A dirty wrap dress and bare feet were a far cry from an elegant ball gown. I’d lost my shoes, jacket, and my tights back in the alley, along with my purse. I never kept any ID in it though. I’d take my risks with the cops over the hunters learning where I lived.

  It wasn’t until the adrenaline wore off that the cold evening breeze even affected me. They were predicting early snow this year, and from the bite in the air, I believed it. Reese must have noticed me shivering because he shrugged out of his leather jacket and wrapped it around my shoulders. I pushed my arms through the sleeves and was immediately enveloped in his residual body heat. He looked down at my feet.

  “You aren’t wearing any shoes.”

  For some reason, his blandly delivered statement made me want to cry, but I blinked them back. Reese frowned at my feet again, then walked over and scooped me up into his arms like I was a child. Before I’d even recovered from the shock of being in his arms, Reese was striding across the icy cold pavement and didn’t put me down until we were inside the warmth of the building's lobby. I just stood there, Reese’s jacket almost covering all the way to my knee, its arms too long, and I just couldn’t move. I stood there rubbing the soft leather between my fingers, staring around at the luxurious entryway like an orphan off the damn street .

  Still, I looked over at Reese and smiled. “That’s the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me.” My voice could barely be heard above the wind. Reese looked at me dumbstruck.

  “What, no one has ever offered you a jacket before?” He looked at me like I’d lost my mind, but it was true. With the exception of Eden, which was an impersonal organization, no matter how good their intentions, no one had ever offered me anything for free, even temporarily. I looked at his bare arms, which were starting to get goosebumps from the chill.

  “I mean no one has ever gone without, for me.” This time it was little more than a whisper, and I wasn’t sure if he’d heard. I wasn’t sure I wanted him to hear. He gave no indication that he had; he just ushered me further inside, muttering something about us both freezing to death.

  We were greeted by an elderly man behind the desk, and he looked like the stereotypical doorman you’d see in movies.

  “Evening Mr. Reese. It’s a little breezy outside to be running around in just your shirtsleeves, don’t you think?” Reese just smiled and shrugged, walking directly toward the bank of elevators.

  They opened almost immediately and we were ensconced in luxury. He tapped a card he’d pulled from his wallet and the doors closed. The dark marble tiles and gold fittings made the elevator look far more luxurious than my crappy little studio apartment. There were mirrors on three sides of the elevator and I grimaced at my reflection. My hair was a tangled mess and my face was grimy. I looked ridiculous in Reese’s jacket, like a naughty child who had to be dragged home after playing in the mud. I self-consciously smoothed my hair, watching the numbers rise until the door finally slid open, directly into his apartment.

  He stepped in before me, beckoning me to follow as he reached around to flick on the lights. I gasped as I took in my surroundings. The place looked like it had been pulled straight out of the centerfold of an interior design magazine. The low modern furniture took up most of the space, with splatter wall art giving a bit of colour to a scheme that was predominantly monochromatic.

  I sat down on the couch, perching right on the edge so I didn’t soil it with my filth. “My God this is hard.”

  “Of course it is. It’s for decoration, not for sitting on,” he laughed. “That’s a direct quote from my interior designer when I said pretty much the same thing. Do you want a drink or anything?”

  I looked down at the pristine white couch and then my dirty clothes. “Would it be okay if I had a shower?” It only took one fancy room and I was back to a scared little girl all over again, out of place among the picture perfect life my mother had created. A cuckoo in the nest. I was terrified that I would stand up and there would be a dirt mark where I sat.

  “Sure you can. There are towels under the sink in the bathroom. Do you want to wash your clothes as well? I can give you some of mine to wear in the meantime?” I nodded, touched by his thoughtfulness.

  Minutes later, I was under a steady stream of w
arm water, and I let it wash away the night.

  Chapter Two

  Reese

  I needed to get my head on straight. Everything about the girl seemed designed to fry my mind until I wasn’t sure what day of the week it was. I went and got her some clothes out of my drawer, trying to find something that I wore in college so it wouldn’t just fall off of her tiny waif body. The last thing I needed was to see her naked again. When I saw her running down that alley, the sight of her small, tight body was almost enough to make me forget that only a second before, she’d been a big cat. I shook my head. Maybe this was all just a really vivid dream, because there was no way in hell it could be reality. I knocked on the bathroom door. “I’ll leave the clothes outside the door.”

  I stood there for a moment, unsure what to do. This wasn’t like me; I knew my place and my purpose. I was one of the richest bachelors under thirty; I didn’t get there by dithering.

  But I couldn’t shake the feeling of her tiny frame in my arms as I carried her across the pavement. She had to be half-starved. One look at her dirty feet had been enough to send me into Sir Galahad mode. I’d make her some food so at least she’d have a full stomach for tonight.

  Decision made, I strode toward the kitchen. Unfortunately, the only thing I knew how to make that was guaranteed to be edible was grilled cheese. It would have to do.

  As I prepared food in my ultra-modern-slash-easily-dirtied kitchen, I couldn’t shake the image of her standing in front of me in the entranceway of the building, staring up at me with those big grey eyes like I was some kind of hero. The whole thing made my soul ache.