by Sadie Jacks
“And apparently that normal life doesn’t include me. I hear you loud and clear, Ransom. You don’t have to shove it down my throat.” I spun back towards my rooms, head held high, spine stiff. He wouldn’t run me off. It was my fucking house.
“What the fuck are you talking about? Of course you would be in it! I want you in my life, Kiema. But obviously you are the one who wants to get away from me. So fine. Go. Go hide away with strangers. They haven’t been sick. They don’t turn into animals. You’ll be better off with them.”
I stopped moving as soon as I heard that he wanted me. I turned around when I heard the next sentence.
“You want me?” I asked, hating myself for the question.
He tossed his head back and screamed at the ceiling. Hands ripping at his hair. As the sound died down, he lowered his head. Walking over, he got right in my face.
Noses touching, he enunciated each word perfectly, “Of course I fucking want you.” He glared at me.
I was wrapped around the stupid man before he could open his mouth again. Claiming his lips with my own, I climbed his body like it was a jungle gym.
His hands went to my ass, pulling me tight against him.
“You drive me fucking insane. You know that, right?” He backpedaled us to the kitchen island. Setting my ass on the edge, he attacked my pants.
I worked on his belts. With a savage grin, I yanked on the sheets that covered him, leaving his belts in place. His cock sprung up and fell right into my hands. Rubbing his shaft the way he’d showed me he liked, I kissed every part of him I could reach as he fought with my clothes.
“You’re the one who—” My words were cut off by his mouth.
“No more talking.” With a growl, he grabbed the edge of my shirt and ripped it up the middle.
Lifting me, he made quick work of getting my pants off. Sliding a finger through my slit, I wiggled as he gathered my cream on his finger. I blushed when he licked it clean.
“You taste so fucking good, Ki.”
“You’re so dirty. Now get inside me.” I scooted to the edge of the counter, my legs already up and locked around his hips.
“Yes, ma’am.” He slid inside me. Both of us groaned. I had never felt so full in my life. It felt like he was deep enough to touch my heart. I ground my pelvis into his.
“Pull my hair,” I ordered.
He chuckled darkly. “Like that hint of pain?”
“Gaia, yes.”
I moaned into his mouth as he did what I asked. Pulling my mouth free, I scored my nails down his back as he set up a fast pace.
“Ransom.” Within moments, I was ready to plunge over the cliff.
“Almost, baby.”
“Please.”
His hips lost their rhythm.
“Fuck. Rub your clit for me, angel. Let me see you go over the edge.”
I thrust a hand between our bodies. My clit was so hard, so sensitive, it took only a couple of passes before my sex clenched down hard.
Ransom growled low as he bit the other side of my neck and slammed into me. My head tipped back as another wave rippled through my sex. He pumped his hips hard, almost unseating me from the countertop.
After a couple of minutes, he slumped into me. Our bodies coated in a fine sweat.
A delicious ache developed as he removed his teeth from my neck. He laved it twice with his tongue before standing upright again.
I hissed as he slid from my body. I was going to be so sore. I smiled at the thought.
Chapter 32 – Ransom
I panted into her hair, licked the bead of sweat that purled behind her ear. I waited until my heart settled back into a normal rhythm before I spoke.
Her shiver made me smile.
“Just so we’re clear, you’re staying with me. You don’t get to leave.”
“Just so we’re clear, you’re staying with me. You don’t get to leave,” she repeated, emphasizing the changes.
I chuckled. “I can live with that.” I wrapped my arms around her, squeezed her tight. “Fuck, Ki. You ripped me apart,” I whispered into her hair.
Her arms came around me. “You shredded me first,” she said into my shoulder.
“How?” I set her away from me so I could look into her silvery eyes. “Seriously. How? I thought we were good and then you shut me down and shut me out.”
I watched her as she studied me. She really didn’t understand.
“When you said that if you didn’t change, you would need me forever.” Her beautiful face tightened.
I ran the words over again in my head. Nothing sprung out at me as negative. I kept my face and voice neutral. “And that didn’t tell you I wanted you?”
She rolled her eyes at me. “My parents need me, Ransom. You needed me to heal you. I need to be wanted, not needed.”
I winced. I’d made her feel like a commodity, like a thing instead of a person. I kissed her hairline. “I’m sorry, angel. That’s not how I meant it at all. I want you. I want all of you. I will want you forever.”
She looked surprised by the last sentence. Hell, I’d surprised myself by saying it. But it was true.
“Yeah?” She still looked unsure.
“Yes.” I nodded and kissed her again.
She shivered in my arms as her skin pebbled.
“Cold or horny?” I asked. I was ready and willing to fix either problem.
She laughed, her dimple winking at me. “Both. And starving.”
I kissed her again and scooted her back on the counter. “You get some clothes on, I’ll fix dinner, and we can make some real plans.” I bent down and retrieved my sheet.
I laughed as she tugged on the belts I had looped together that were still around my waist. “Clothes, Kiema. You’re too sore for any more sex right now. More’s the pity.”
She pouted at me, and it had my cock stirring. I eyed her as she hopped down from the island. Her wince had me following through with my original plan of only food and conversation. My cock could wait. She would be here. With me.
The animals inside me roared their agreement.
That was new.
Chapter 33 – Kiema
I did a little more than get new clothes on. I took another shower. I didn’t mind smelling like Ransom, I just didn’t want to feel the slight grit of dried sweat on my skin all night.
“About time. I was about to send out the search party.”
“Which would have been you?”
“Hey, your rules.” He winked at me. “Dinner’s ready.”
I rubbed a hand over my belly. “Thank Gaia. What’s on the menu?”
“Pork steaks and veggies.”
“Sounds delicious.” I sat in my customary spot at the island. The glass of water beckoned me. I took it, drained it in one go.
Wiping my lip, I held the glass out to him. A cheeky smile on my face. “Pretty please?”
He refilled it and handed it back. “A little dehydrated?”
“Yeah. My mouth feels like the desert. Or what I would assume the desert feels like.” I bounced one shoulder in the air.
Ransom leaned in and kissed me. “Feels like a nice fucking mouth to me.”
I rolled my eyes and pushed him back. “Food now. Sex after I ice my crotch.”
He snorted, spraying out his mouthful of water.
I flinched back from the shower, laughing. “So what does the A-team think?”
He raised a brow. “The A-team?”
I nodded; my mouth full. I waved my fork and knife in his direction.
“I’ll tell them you named them that.”
I shrugged again.
“Like I said before, they think I need to shift again.”
I watched him closely as I chewed. His cheeks had gone a little pale and the edges of his mouth kept flexing.
I swallowed. “Freaking you out a bit?”
He nodded quickly, a quick dip of his chin.
“Understandable. What references are they using?”
“Techn
ically there’s just the one. There have been some articles written by people who do that kind of thing. But all of the articles refer back to this one book.” He pushed the food around on his plate. “They’ve been able to find some provenance and authentication documents for the book, but that’s about it. It's currently on display in a museum on the other side of the world.”
“Has the book itself been digitized?”
“Xander says no. Atlas says that a lot of really old books can be destroyed by the light source of digitization. Taryk’s looking into it.”
I smiled. “Xander. Atlas. Taryk. How many others do you have working with you?”
His lips pinched. “Saint and Asher.”
“You all sound like a boy band.” My head tilted. “Why do you look pissed off by that? Aren’t these guys your friends?”
“They’re going to want you.”
I stuttered a laugh. “That will be a change from my everyday life. But that presumes that I’ll want them back.”
“You will. All women do.” He looked at me out of the corner of his eye.
Something tickled my belly. “Do you all share women?”
He mumbled something under his breath.
“Come again? With feeling this time,” I repeated his words to me when I was stretched out on the deck.
He turned to look at me, an edge of defiance in his eyes. “Yes.”
I swallowed. Hard.
“Does that bother you?”
I stifled the hysterical laugh that wanted to escape my throat. I ignored the twinge of heat that invaded my belly. “Can I get back to you on that?”
He looked a little sad at my answer, but I could have sworn he sounded at least a little pleased with it.
What a curious guy.
He nodded. “Yeah. Of course.”
“So about this book?” I really needed to change the subject. Fast.
“Ancient Nature of the Lost Ones written by some unpronounceable name.”
“When was it written?”
“There’s no date, there’s also no cohesive language. It’s almost like a diary that’s been added to over the centuries.”
“Shit.” I rubbed a finger over my eyebrows.
“Exactly. Atlas and Taryk are going to see about getting a private showing.”
I raised an eyebrow. “They have that kind of clout?”
Ransom chuckled. “They have enough.”
“What does the book say about changing into animals?”
“The better question is what do the articles say about that. Atlas, our resident nerd and doctor, says that, according to the articles, shifting was a common form of magic way back when. There’s been supposition that the magic of our world is dying out. That’s why there’s only ten percent of the population with the magical categorization. Most of those are telepaths, precogs, and healers.”
“What happened to the shifters then? Why did some types of magic make it this far and others didn’t?”
He shrugged. “Atlas doesn’t know. It could be survival of the fittest kind of thing. Maybe it didn’t serve an important enough function, so it died a natural death. I really don’t know. We could speculate all day. But we won’t know until Atlas and Taryk get back from seeing the book.”
“How do they think that is going to work? They just waltz up to the docent and say, ‘Hey, we’d like to put our grubby hands all over this piece of ancient history.’”
“No idea. I’m not there, so it doesn’t really matter to me how they get the answers as long as they get them.”
We sat in silence for a couple minutes.
“Have you thought about when you’re going to shift again?” I asked, breaking the quiet.
He checked the clock over the stove. “It needs to be pretty soon. I’m going to set you up so you can talk to the rest of my guys.”
“How are you going to do that exactly? There’re no towers or stations around here. The cabin isn’t wired for access.”
“We might have been setting some stuff up once I got the call my application had made it to final cuts. It will be better than the sucky reception our phones currently have, but it won’t be high definition either.”
I gaped at him. “How the hell have you been setting stuff up?”
“My team is highly resourceful.”
My eyebrows dropped. “Uh huh. Fine.”
Ransom winked at me and went to his bedroom. Coming back out he carried a computer, some odd looking contraption that sat on a tripod, and a paper notebook. He set up the laptop and opened his notebook, thumbing through it for a specific page. Running his hand down the lines of smooshed handwritten text, he handed me the tripod thingy. Flipping this, turning that, he hit another button that had the whole top half blossoming like some funky techno flower.
“Point that at the blinking light in the sky.”
I rolled my eyes at his bossiness, but did what I was told. Stepping around the debris in the living room, I walked to the windows and looked up at the night sky. Off to the right, a bright light was indeed blinking. Shaking my head at men and their toys, I set up the tripod.
“All done.”
“Watch the blinking light. It’s going to flash five times really quick, and then slowly for five. After the last slow blink, hit the button on the front of it.”
I watched the light show for a couple moments to make sure I knew the differences in really quick and slow blinking. The correct sequence went by, I hit the button.
A high-pitched whine emitted from the tripod.
“Good. That means we’re all hooked up and ready to go. Let me get the guys linked in. You can come back over here now.”
I moved to his side. The computer wasn’t actually a laptop at all. At least not a kind I’d ever seen before. The screen seemed to cover both the top and bottom sections of the machine. But instead of opening normally from top to bottom, it opened left to right. More like a book than a computer. The keyboard, or rather the hologram of it, was projected onto the countertop just in front of it.
Ransom’s sped over the countertop keys.
Images filled my mind of what those long, strong fingers were capable of. My lower belly clenched, heat shooting to my core.
Six men all sharing one woman. I gulped. I wasn’t not interested in how that could work. The logistics are what scared me more than anything. I was pretty sure I didn’t have enough holes to take all of them at once. And let’s be honest, I might not even be able to touch any of the rest of them.
“Kiema? You listening?”
I shook the thoughts away, turning to face Ransom and the screen.
“Damn, she looks even better in person,” one of the guys on the computer said. His chest and upper body were bulky, like he lifted weights on a regular basis. His brown hair and light brown eyes sparkled in the lighting they’d set up.
“Asher,” another man, this one slimmer and darker, smacked the first upside the back of his head. “What the fuck did we talk about?”
Asher rubbed a hand over the spot, an unrepentant grin on his face. “Fuck, Saint, it ain’t like she don’t know she hot.”
I swallowed back the laugh. I must not have been very successful because Asher shot me a wink.
“Nice to meet you, Asher.” I nodded at him.
I turned to the shorter man next to him. Everything about the second man was darker: his hair, his skin, his eyes. He looked like he didn’t smile too often. More of a thinker, this one. “Saint, it’s a pleasure.” I nodded at him.
“Ms. Feuer,” Saint replied, pronouncing my name with the right accent.
A new face slid into the picture from the right side. “I’m Xander.” He waved before ducking back off camera. He was the spitting image of Asher, only his eyes had looked fully black.
“Hi Xander.” I could feel my professional polite mask slipping into place. The steel spike that usually resided in my spine forcing my body upright was trying to resume its place. I abhorred being the center of attention like
this. Reminded me of the orientation meetings for the ritual each year. Of being stuck in life not of my choosing.
Ransom’s hands landed on my shoulders from behind. I felt the tension of meeting new people fade away under his heat.
“Okay, everyone knows the plan?” Ransom asked.
I raised my hand before I thought about it. Roses kissed my cheek as Asher chuckled. “I don’t know what’s going on.”
Saint glared at the laughing Asher.
“We’re linked into Ransom’s implant. We’re also going to record him changing into his animal collection. I’ve got a live satellite view of the house to track thermal output. I’ve also got an open line to emergency systems if he tries to attack you,” Xander said, ducking back into frame. His raised eyebrows demanded an answer.
“Great. Thank you, Xander.”
He nodded, moved off screen again.
“All right, let’s get this bitching show on the road,” Asher said, rubbing his hands together in excitement.
Saint rolled his eyes.
I imagined this was what it was like to have siblings. I smiled and turned to Ransom.
“Do you know what you’re doing?” I asked him.
“No idea. Last time, I changed back from my animal form because I wanted to touch you with my human hands.”
I felt my cheeks flame, glad to have my back to the camera. Ransom slid his very human hands from my shoulders to my hips before sliding them around and settling them on my ass. When he lowered his lips to mine, I forgot all about the three men on the other end of the line.
Ransom became my entire focus. All my remaining brain function was zeroed in on his lips against mine, the pressure and heat of his hands against my ass. His cock hardened against my lower belly.
Someone cleared his throat from the computer. “I don’t think Kiema wants to give us a live replay of Ransom’s hands on her right now.”
The slap of flesh hitting flesh sounded from the computer. “Damn it, Saint! The fuck, man?”
Another thump, a yell, then, “Asher, you dickwad. We want her to like us, not run screaming from the room.”
I laid my flaming face against Ransom’s chuckling chest. A low buzzing brushed against my head.
