Not Quite Beast

by Kaye Draper

  Not Quite Beast

  Not Quite Book 2

  By Kaye Draper

  2019

  Dedication

  I value every one of my readers and friends who support me in the crazy, wonderful adventure of writing. Thank you to my patrons. A special thank you to Jennifer Sapa, RepunZill Oriana, and Kate McKenney for helping me create, and to Frank Boston for the proofreading and constant encouragement. I couldn’t make this dream into a reality without you!

  Chapter 1

  I dodged the twelve-foot-long tentacle that lashed my way and rolled, coming to my feet in a crouch. I tried to train my gun on the nasty squid-looking thing's head, but it wouldn't hold still long enough for me to line up a good shot.

  "Sabertooth!" one of the city guards yelled. I rolled my eyes. That fucking nickname needed to die. The guard pointed to my left. I lashed out with my claws, severing the tip of another tentacle as it whipped in from the side. The monster howled in rage and reared its ugly-assed head.

  I squeezed off a shot, blasting a hole in the thick gray hide of the monster's body. That just seemed to piss the thing off even more. Like usual with full blown fiends, the most reliable way to ensure they stopped moving was to put a bullet—or twelve—in their brains.

  "Hold the fuck still," I muttered, jumping over a tentacle as wide as my torso while I tried to get closer. The writhing appendages had rough, spiked cups on them that probably helped it move across the dry land of the wastes. But I wouldn't be surprised if there was also poison involved. That's how fiends usually rolled. Couldn't make it easy on the rest of us.

  The guards saw me moving in and tried to distract the thing, but the fiend was focused on me, since I was the only one who'd managed to land a blow. I put my handgun back in its holster and bent to draw both my knives from my leg sheaths, my eyes still tracking the wildly waving mass of tentacles. I crouched low, my leather pants and combat boots growing tighter as I let my half-shifted form come forward, strengthening my legs and lending me speed.

  I might not be able to fully shift into the saber-toothed cat that was my birthright, but at least I could draw on this little bit of advantage. Blowing out a breath, I pushed through my legs, leaping onto the nearest tentacle.

  I stabbed both knives into the slippery thing and used that as leverage to stay on when it tried to shake me off. Wrapping my legs around the muscular appendage, praying I wasn't about to get a poisoned spike through the thigh, I freed one knife, reached up and stabbed it in again, repeated the gesture with the other knife, and dragged myself upward. I tried not to focus on anything else while I scaled the tentacle beast like a mountain. But it was a relief when I reached the main body and things stopped moving around me in a dizzy blur.

  Shouts and cursing came from below. Probably the guards. I always got the same questions. "What are you doing, Sam?" "What were you thinking, Sam?" "Are you out of your mind, Sam?"

  Why they insisted on asking me stupid shit like that when it was obvious what I was doing—my job—I'd never understand.

  The guard nearest me craned his neck back and gaped up. "Are you insane?"

  I huffed. They couldn't even be original with their stupid questions.

  I jabbed my knives in again and dragged myself up toward the creature's head. One nasty, blood-shot orange eye swiveled toward me and I saw myself reflected there. Huh. Maybe the guard had a point. It did look a little strange, me hanging off this thing like a monkey in a tree. I thought about trying to blind the beast, but it had a dozen eyes, and I'd probably only get one chance.

  I didn't have time for this shit. I left one knife stuck in the thing and pulled out my gun again, nearly losing my grip in the process, thanks to the movement, and the blood slicking my hands. But I still couldn't get a reliable shot lined up because the damned thing kept moving, undulating around in perpetual motion.

  "Hold the fuck still!" I yelled, fed up with this whole fiasco. I wasn't even getting paid for this. This was the last time I helped someone out of the goodness of my shriveled black heart.

  The creature roared, opened its beak-like mouth, and spewed a fountain of thick black ink up into the air.

  I choked on the foul smell and tried to wipe the gunk from my face with the back of my hand. My reflexes had me tucking my face into my shoulder to avoid the worst of the spray hitting my eyes, otherwise it would have blinded me.

  The creature wasn't so smart. It roared, confused. And, for just a second, it held still.

  I didn't waste the opportunity. Lifting my gun, I shot it in the head over and over until we started toppling.

  I jumped free as the thing hit the ground, tucking and rolling to avoid being crushed or breaking any bones. Something still managed to snap, sending a sharp pain through my wrist. I tumbled and rolled to a stop on my back in the sand, panting and laughing as I stared up at the clear blue sky.

  The damned thing would probably still be fighting us hours from now, if it hadn't accidentally blinded itself with its own damned ink.

  A shadow fell over me and I blinked up at the worried face of a young city guard. "Sabertooth? Are you…okay?"

  My laughter stopped and I pushed myself to my feet, scowling. "Don't fucking call me that," I muttered, brushing past him and going to the still-twitching fiend corpse to retrieve my knives. They were my favorite tools, and the enchantments on them cost me a pretty penny.

  I glared down as I tried to find a clean piece of clothing to wipe my blades off. I was completely covered in black goo. Turning to the nearest guard, I yanked him close and pulled his shirt tail out of his pants.

  "Hey!" he yelped. "What the hell?"

  I calmly wiped my blades clean on his shirt before sliding them back into the sheaths on my thighs. "Thanks,” I said, giving him a pat on the cheek.

  The guard's face was turning a fascinating shade of mottled red. I stepped away before he could start a fight he wouldn't win.

  "Next time take it out from one of the towers," I said to the half-dozen assembled city employees. "Engaging a fiend this big on the ground when you're only human is suicide."

  "Oh, fuck off, mutt," one of the older guards yelled over to me, from where he was instructing the others on how to move the corpse. "No one asked your mangy cur ass for help."

  I arched a brow at him. Right. Cause they totally could have handled this alone before the thing broke through the fence and took out a small portion of the poor district.

  "Don't worry," I said in a cheery voice. "Next time I'll just let it eat your ass."

  I turned and walked away. I was filthy, exhausted, and I'm pretty sure one of the small bones in my wrist had been broken, judging by the way it itched as it healed. All that, and I wasn't even going to get paid a bounty. I was a special kind of stupid. What kind of idiot helped people for free? Especially ungrateful humans?

  Dumb, Sam. Real dumb.

  A thought occurred to me, and I grinned to myself as I looped back around to see what the guards were going to do with the body. Calamari that size would sell for a pretty penny down at the corner market…and I wouldn't have to buy groceries for a while if I stocked my freezer with giant squid.

  Chapter 2

  When I got back home, there was a leprechaun on my doorstep.

  I pulled up to the old cannery and deactivated the wards I had set around the place. Once I parked, I closed up the doors on the garage bay and reset the perimeter wards. I was a stingy motherfucker, but protection wards and security for the once place I could be myself were well worth the hefty price tag.

  Fin stared at me for a second when I climbed out of the vehicle. Then he shook his head and headed up the metal stairs to my loft apartment. "I'll start some dinner while you get cleaned up," he called, his voice full of suppressed l
aughter.

  I glanced down at myself, just now remembering I was covered in fiend squid ink. I sighed and reached into the back seat to retrieve a hefty paper-wrapped packet of calamari. I had made a killing dragging the tentacles to the local cur butcher. And as a bonus, it freaked the human guards right the fuck out.

  Hopefully my nose didn't lie, and the stuff was actually edible.

  I sighed as I looked at the driver's seat of my Jeep. I was going to have to clean the worn upholstery. I wasn't so worried about the stains, but the ink stank. I was nose blind to it at this point. But I was pretty sure I'd notice the next time I got into my vehicle and it smelled like rotting fish stewing in a sewer.

  I cranked the window down and slammed the door, hoping some ventilation would help.

  I made my way up the stairs, shifting the paper package under my arm so I could rotate my wrist. It only gave a small twinge, so it was probably well on its way to healing. I fought a grin when I suddenly thought of all the reasons having a functional wrist might be a good thing.

  Fin and I had agreed to take things slow, because of his sexual preferences and my insecurities and lack of a clear gender. But I was rapidly getting tired of being cautious. And hunting down monsters always made me feel a little wired and reckless right after.

  I kicked the apartment door closed behind me and let out a breath, some of the tension easing from my shoulders. I was happy to be home, where no one was going to stare at me or try to hunt me. Being a freak got tiring.

  Savory smells reached my nose as I entered the kitchen. True to his word, Fin was already at the stove, using the step stool I'd made him to reach a pan of heavenly smelling eggs. I was never allowed to tell him how damned cute that was.

  "Did you buy me groceries?" I said, surprised. When I left this morning there was nothing in my fridge or cupboards besides half a bottle of vodka and some goose jerky. Hence my joy over free seafood.

  He wrinkled his nose at me and gave me a disgusted look from beneath his thick red brows. "For fuck's sake, Sam, you reek."

  I grinned. "You always know how to make a girl feel special, Finny."

  He waved a spatula at me, tilting his head in confusion. "I didn't buy you groceries. Why would I? Your fridge is chock full of shit already. And just where’d you get the cash for steak and bacon, anyway? You go on a hunt without us again?"

  I frowned and went to put my calamari in the freezer. I could barely stuff it in there, for all the crap that was neatly stacked on the racks. I closed the door and opened the fridge to find it well stocked also.

  I frowned. "Someone broke into my apartment, got past all my wards and locks, and…left me ass-tons of food?"

  My scowl deepened and my nose twitched when I caught a hint of a familiar scent.

  "Who the hell would do that?" Fin said in confusion.

  I reached out and picked up a package of strawberries, holding it up to my nose so I could scent it over the shitty squid smell that clogged my nose. Letting out a hiss, I shoved the container back into the fridge and slammed the door. It was faint, but the person who handled that package last smelled like the ocean. Like beauty, and power, and home.

  I growled. "Fucking Angel."

  Fin stopped stirring the eggs and stared at me, his own handsome face forming a scowl. "The damned siren? Why?" He frowned at the eggs. "Is it poisoned?"

  I huffed a short, dry laugh. "No. He's just trying to suck up. The asshole. Like feeding me is going to make up for anything."

  I turned, ignoring Fin's confusion, and headed toward the bathroom, peeling off my ruined clothes as I went. Fucking Angel. I hated him. What I hated even more, was the way my weak heart clenched in pain at the mere thought of him.

  When we were kids, he'd always pull the same shit. He'd tease me about how skinny I was, then drag me to the kitchen of his mom's whorehouse and wheedle the cook into making me homemade biscuits and gravy and stuffing me with baked goods and sweets.

  He'd sit there and watch me eat, like it was the greatest thing he'd ever seen. The dumbass.

  And of course, I was just as dumb, since I'd missed how all those stupid little things he did added up to him caring way more than he should. But Angel had ruined any chance of anything more. He'd completely lost my trust.

  Besides, I had Fin now. Stupid, sweet, annoying Fin, who had known I'd probably be home soon and waited at my door just to make me dinner because he was that kind of guy. Fin, who would never betray me to make a quick bit of coin. And possibly the only other person I could risk letting know all of me. Someday.

  I showered quickly, scrubbing so hard my skin turned red in an effort to get all the squid stink off me. Then I hurriedly dried off and pulled on some clean clothes. I tried to play it cool as I went back to the kitchen. Like I wasn't some girl gushing over her first crush.

  For fuck's sake, I was a mess lately.

  Fin smiled at me from where he sat at the table, his short legs dangling from my normal-sized dining chair. He'd made a huge pile of scrambled eggs, toast, bacon, juice. My belly rumbled and I sat down and dug in.

  Fin's smile widened. "I know it's nothing fancy, but I figured you'd want something quick, if you've been out all day." He raised an eyebrow. "What was that mess, anyway? You take a contract without us again?"

  I rolled my eyes and finished a bite of eggs and toast. Fin insisted we were a guild. I insisted he was crazy. So, I still took my own jobs. Though I did try to include him and Emerson on the trips I thought wouldn't get them killed. They were determined to be hunters, so they had to learn somehow.

  "No job," I mumbled around a strip of bacon. "Just decided to try the whole good Samaritan thing. I won't be doing it again."

  When he just kept staring at me in shock, I shrugged. "Giant squid thing at the walls. Lots of tentacles."

  He barked out a laugh. "A squid? In the middle of dry land?"

  I shrugged and took a bite of buttery toast. "Fiend. Doesn't have to make sense." The monsters that made their way through to our world when some scientist decided to play with quantum physics might resemble creatures from this plane at times, but that didn't mean they operated by the same rules. Apparently, on the other side of the rift, giant land-dwelling squid monster things existed. And they shot foul-smelling ink out their mouths. I didn't question these things. I just killed shit.

  "Are you going to eat that last piece of toast?" I said, making grabby hands.

  Fin laughed and passed me the baked good. "So, did my magic help?"

  I narrowed my eyes at the leprechaun. "You used your damned luck magic on me? Of course you did."

  I hated luck magic. It was unpredictable and ephemeral. I preferred magic that was more direct and tangible. Like the magic that let me grow claws and teeth so I could shred shit.

  Fin just gave me a smug look. "Tell me it didn't work."

  I scowled and pressed my lips together. But I eventually relented under that intense green stare. I knew he just wanted to feel useful.

  "It fucking blinded itself with its own damned ink. Which is the only reason I got a head shot in. And now I have a freezer full of calamari, because I thought I was out of food at the time."

  Fin just grinned at me and finished his orange juice.

  The smug bastard.

  I polished off the rest of the food, my shifter metabolism more than up to the task of taking care of the spare calories. Standing, I turned to Fin and grabbed him, lifting him up to plop him on the table so we were nearly at eye level. I stole a quick kiss before he could protest.

  Then I pushed his legs apart and slid myself between his knees, trailing kisses across his strong jaw and down to his throat, rubbing my own smooth cheek against his plush red stubble. His small hands rested on my hips.

  "It's cute how you get all horny after you kill things," Fin snarked.

  I pulled back to smirk down at him. "This okay?" I asked, my voice coming out low and growly. "You're not mad that I just picked you up?" I knew how easy it was to offend some
one without trying, especially when they were sensitive about their differences. And I did tend to get obnoxiously alpha after I made monsters bleed.

  He quirked a red brow at me and did a bang-up job of suppressing the smile that wanted to sneak out. "Depends," he said, his voice gruff. "Would you carry me around like that if I didn't have dwarfism?"

  I tilted my head, considering. I was slender for my height, but I was way stronger than I looked. And I was part shifter. So, I enjoyed a bit of dominance every now and then.

  "Absolutely," I said with a nod. "Even if you were the same size as me, I'd probably toss you around once in a while. It…makes my inner beast all growly."

  He huffed a laugh and pulled me closer, his fair complexion going an adorable red color, and his square jaw working to bite back his smile. "I am not going to admit I like being manhandled," he muttered.

  But we both knew it was just self-preservation. He was a typical guy, with the usual need to preserve his masculinity. If he knew how often I thought of him as cute, he'd probably murder me. I scooted him to the edge of the table and pressed closer, rocking my hips so my hard dick slid against his through our clothes. "And this?" I whispered, pausing to nip at his sexy, pointed ear. "You okay with that too?"

  Fin hadn't been with a man before. But he had assured me he was game to try. Still, some part of me was afraid he was going to freak out and run every time we made out. We'd always stopped just shy of actual nudity.

  He just swore and wrapped his arms around my neck to kiss me again, harsh and needy. I took that as a yes.

  I pulled back for breath, my entire body lit up like a torch. Fuck, the man could kiss. "I'm going to pick you up again," I warned with a serious face.

  He leveled a fake stern look at me. "You drop me, and I will kick you in your one working nut."

  I snorted and scooped him off the counter, earning an undignified, but very manly, squeak of surprise before he clung to my neck and did his best to wrap his short legs around my waist. I strode across the apartment toward the bedroom, pleasure jolting through me when he leaned in and bit my shoulder. Hard.