“You should just go home and let me do this. You have the worst taste.”
“Say that one more time and the only thing you’ll be tasting is a coffin!” she yells, lunging at Jules.
Stepping into the middle of them, I shake my head and sigh, giving them both liquid eyes of misery.
“This is hurting me. You guys know I can’t stand conflict,” I say, putting every bit of misery I can stand into the sound.
I’m almost positive it would have worked, if not for the fact I spot a teeny tiny little stroller ornament that immediately catches my attention.
“Oh look how adorable! This will be great, Han.”
“It’s hideous.” Both say it at the same time, snarling when they glare at each other and both say it again, each one wanting to be the first.
“Shut up.”
“No, you shut up! Stop. I told you not to get in my head again.”
“Then don’t make it so easy. I don’t even know what your deal is, there’s like two useless little thoughts floating around in the empty gourd you call a mind, and they’re hardly worth noticing—oh! Blain? You like Blain? Gross Julia. Just gross,” Hannah gasps, laughing so hard she has to bend at the waist when Julia gasps and lets off a muffled shriek.
“Stop it! Goddammit, you stay out of my head. Why I told Logan I’d do this is beyond me. I can’t stand your ass.”
“You said yes because you know he’s trying to plan a surprise for me and hoped your ugly ass would distract me all day,” she quips, waving a hand in the air when Julia opens her mouth to deny it.
I’m grinning because I know what the surprise is, and Hannah’s been trying to get it out of me for days. It’s so freaking easy lately to keep her out of my head it still makes me laugh.
She doesn’t like Celine Dion for some reason, and since I started working for Blain, I listen to her a lot. Mrs. Seers loves her, I know she does. Most people just have trouble admitting it out loud because they think it’s uncool.
I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like Celine, except Hannah, but I’ve already decided she’s just not normal.
“I don’t even know why he bothers. You’re such a bitch,” Julia mutters, walking towards where I’m still holding the ornament, her face tight with annoyance.
“I give good head! Even pregnant I know how to make a male fall to his knees.”
“I thought it was you on your knees,” Julia retorts, making me giggle and blush because Banner…
Goodness, now that he sees that we can have sex without me going bye bye, it’s like it’s opened up this whole new world of possibilities for me. I don’t know why or how I’m supposed to not want Banner, but at the moment I have him.
Partially. I still work for Blain, still live in my cabin, because let’s face it, all that mating talk and Fated stuff just isn’t in my culture. I want Banner. That’s a given, but in my world, we date, so that’s what we’re doing.
I haven’t mentioned the whole blood thing yet, and neither has he. We’re on this sort of unsteady ground at the moment whereby he’s treating me like I may still die the minute he puts his dick in me, and I’m just grateful that when he does he loses all control and forgets that we need to be careful.
All in all, it’s all good, and I am finally on the right track with this relationship. I think of it as a marathon. We’re having sex, getting to know each other, and eventually I will take things forward.
After I get my diagnosis. I may want all the family, mating, baby stuff with him, but it’s not going unseen or unacknowledged that I am still not well, and I don’t want to saddle Banner with a sick woman.
I feel awful most days, though I’m happy to report I haven’t passed out again, so that’s an improvement, right? Althea still takes my blood, still insists on testing everything and seeing me every Friday, but as yet, no cure.
She’s also working on some super-secret formula thing for those poor scentless people. I’ve met Cyrus and Rylan Harris, some of their females, and a few kids that are adorable.
I don’t get the big deal about not having a smell or whatever, but apparently when you’re a shifter it’s a super big deal. I’d just be really happy if I didn’t have BO for the rest of my life, but that’s just me.
“Not that one! I don’t like that one. My young will be raised with class, you back town hick.”
Tuning back to the ever-evolving conflict that these two have whenever they meet, I watch Hannah snap her fingers at a sales lady and start discussing price and delivery. I know that the store or anyone who brings the furniture won’t be allowed past the very edge of town to deliver it.
They’ll have to drop it off at a specified “humans allowed” building where the enforcers work.
“You okay?”
I turn, look at Julia, and manage to nod my head, the headache I’m nursing pounding away in my skull though I don’t show it, not even when my stomach roils and I feel as if I’ll pass out any second.
The fatigue that’s come on lately is what’s killing me. I can’t explain it. I sleep no less than twelve hours a night when I’m at my own place—three times a week now that Banner is my sex partner—and still I’m tired.
I’ve started taking more vitamins, doubling and then tripling the dosage, because without them I can barely function. I’d laugh about that and say I have a dependency issue, on vitamins, but it’s not funny.
I pee all the time because I basically drink coffee by the bucketful. I’ve even considered one of those helmets they use for beer, the kind with the tube you can suck on without using your hands, but that would just be weird, and besides, I doubt Banner would overlook it.
Sighing, I watch Hannah haggle with the sales lady and snort. God, the woman has loads of money and she’s still a cheapskate. I pray that today isn’t going to be a whole day of constant strife and shopping.
I want to go home and crawl into bed and sleep for hours before Banner comes to get me for Sunday dinner at his folk’s place. It’s now mandatory, and even Lync goes—though Ros still seems uneasy around the guy.
I don’t blame her, having a three hundred pound feral at your table—snarling and barking—isn’t exactly great. I am however glad to report that he’s putting on some nice weight, and if he keeps it up, he’ll be almost as wide as Banner is.
“Cass?”
“Oh! Sorry. I uh, I didn’t sleep for long last night,” I say sheepishly, blushing when she grins and wiggles her brows at me.
I don’t correct her assumptions that I was up all night in Banner’s bed because technically it is true. I was upstairs in Banner’s bed. The only difference is that I fell asleep while he was showering and woke up this morning in a puddle of drool with him grinning at me.
Then we had sex.
Is it awful to say that if I could have chosen, I’d have gone back to sleep? Probably. Definitely, considering the orgasms he gave me. It’s just that I’m so tired I feel like my bones have lead in them and my head is a never-ending, low-level hum of pain.
“Sooo, you and Banner, huh? I can’t tell you how happy I am that—”
“Yeah, yeah, she gets it. You’re gonna get all mooshy about how happy you are that he found someone and how much you like her. Blah, blah. We get it. Cass is amazing, and Banner is happy that he can finally have sex with his Fated without killing her,” Hannah interrupts, saving me from another talk about where me and Ban are going.
Not that I don’t want to talk about it, just not now. My pat answer is we’re taking things slow. Translate that to, I am still sick and not sure what will happen. All I know is that I’m a little iffy about mating and stuff if I have to do some blood thing. That could kill me.
Suffering fatigue so I can have sex and be happy is one thing. Dying is quite another. Hannah agrees, thank God, so I get to have my own cheerleader who snarls at everyone to mind their own damn business while I wait and hope they figure this out.
The fact that I don’t conk over every time he touches me is an impro
vement. However, what I am feeling is not making me hopeful.
Julia sneers, sniffs, and turns on her heel to stomp away, her head held high, while Hannah looks down at me with concern.
“She’s right. You do look tired. You okay, preza?” she asks softly.
“Fine. I’m just tired. Had a late night.”
This one is a lie, and I feel awful telling it, but if I know Hannah she’ll tell everyone with her mind meld power before we even leave the store, and then I’ll get home and have Banner on my doorstep and…
And I just don’t need the stress. I want to be happy for a while, even if it’s stupid. I’ve long since stopped worrying about Gregor showing up, so that worry is gone at least, but come on, I think that takes a back seat to being super-sick and keeping it a secret from everyone.
“Yeah, I’ve had those. Come on, let’s go get some cocoa.”
“It’s spring.”
“Tell that to the young’uns.” She snorts, making me laugh.
We walk out of the store and towards the little restaurant where Julia is arguing with the waiter at the table, and I sigh, surreptitiously popping another vitamin while Hannah waddles in front of me.
God, I seriously hope something changes soon because working two jobs, sleeping with my boyfriend, and mothering a feral wolf is not easy. A girl has to have stamina.
********************************************************************
“You look like hell, Kepner. Kilter keeping you up at night?” Blain snaps when I walk into his office and place a tray of cake and coffee on his desk.
“Yep.”
He watches me carefully lift the coffee carafe and I concentrate on not spilling when the effort to lift it takes so much out of me a light sheen of perspiration pops out on my brow.
“I hesitate to ask this since it may give you the mistaken impression that I care, but are you alright, Kepner?” he asks, taking the carafe from me when I almost drop it.
“Just tired,” I say, yawning so wide I feel my jaw crack.
For the last few weeks I’ve soldiered on and watched spring finally spring into full boom, turning the woods and town into a kaleidoscope of color.
It hasn’t been easy. Most days I sleep for about an hour before Banner comes over to pick me up and take me back to his place. I can’t keep this up though. I’m fading faster, day by day.
Just last week I had to go back to the clinic and tell Althea I lost my pills because I finished them all and didn’t want to admit that I’ve been chewing them like candy.
On the up side of things, Mrs. Seers is now out of bed for at least a few hours every day, and she talks to me like I’m a human being. Even Blain seems to have accepted me and my brand of cheerful, going so far as to offer me a permanent position with a pay raise if I ditch Banner and come in four days a week instead of two.
I said no for the simple fact that when I’m at Banner’s and Lync is out doing whatever Lync does when he disappears I get to be lazy and sleep for a little while because the house doesn’t need much cleaning anymore. Just a light dusting and vacuum-Banner eventually found the vacuum and replaced it after laughing his ass off when I told him what happened to the thing.
But, and I say this with an unbearable amount of smug pride, Blain likes me. He really, really does. Just the other day instead of telling me how terrible I look, he gave me a deep penetrating stare and told me to go home since his crazy fucking mother is on the loose and no one, not even a human should have to deal with her in my state.
Progress.
Sometimes.
The day before yesterday, he backslid slightly and dropped a cup of coffee on the floor I’d just mopped, his eyes mocking me after he said, “Oops. I guess you’ll have to clean that up.” All while staring at me knowingly.
I won that battle by smiling and saying, “Well, you must have slipped. Can I get you some more of the cookies I baked.”
Baby steps, I think, stepping back from his desk with another yawn.
“Has that meddling quack found nothing then?” he asks, stopping my progress towards the door.
I turn, take a deep breath, and feel spots dance in front of my eyes. I’m falling before I can even think to stop myself and wake on the couch in Blain’s office, his face hovering over mine when I blink my eyes and groan.
“Kepner—”
“Sorry, I must just need more sleep. I—”
“You’re an awful liar. Terrible in fact, so don’t even try it with me. You annoy me something fierce, female, but I cannot have my workhorse underperforming because you’re sick and none of those idiots can find a reason. Wait here.”
It’s not like I have the energy to argue, I think, flopping back on the couch with a tired sigh. The next time I wake up, it’s to see an old man standing over me, his frown of concentration not changing when I clear my throat and try to sit up.
Blain doesn’t let me, snarling at me to stay still and going so far as to push me down roughly.
“Stay down, you fool! Bartley is trying to examine you.”
“Huh?”
“Is the twit alright, Blain? Oh dear, this will cause a terrible scandal if she dies in service to us.”
I almost grin when Mrs. Seers says those words because even I can hear the concern in her voice, and I see it when she looks at me from the doorway, her eyes going soft when I moan.
“Shut up! Why are you even here? I thought Thursdays are drinking days, you old lush.”
“Don’t be ridiculous! I do that when the human isn’t here because she irritates me terribly if she thinks I’ve been drinking,” she sniffs, making me chuckle hoarsely.
They love me. I know they do. I’m a mushroom.
Right now, I feel like the mushroom that just got trampled by a bear though. The thought is hilarious because I suspect my very own bear may be the problem here, but I don’t want to admit it. Althea may be right, and the very fact that I’m with Banner is killing me. Slowly.
“Fucking hell. Just shut up then if you’re going to lurk. Bartley! What is the problem? You’ve had two hours to look at her blood and figure this out!” Blain snaps, growling at the doctor who looks to be a shifter though I can’t tell because he’s old as the hills.
His grey hair stands out like puffs of cotton candy from the sides of his head while the top is flat and makes him look like one of those Victorian guys with the weird rolls on the side of his head.
Uh well, it’s unique at least.
“She’s showing signs of poisoning.”
“I know that, fool! I didn’t bribe that bimbo at the clinic to make a copy of her records for nothing. We already know all that. What I need you to do is explain why and find a way to fix it!” he barks, throwing me a furious glare. “Are you trying to kill yourself, you imbecile? You’re half starved, you look awful, and you’re useless to me in this condition.”
“Love you too, buddy.”
He growls when I try to smile and end it on a grimace when my head starts pounding. I don’t get it. I’ve been eating healthy, sleeping, and taking my pills. I should get better. Even Althea said that Gregor’s essence should have left my system by now.
“I don’t get it. I’ve never been sick before. Not ever. Hell, the one time I broke my arm falling down stairs I told my mom it was healed two days later, but they still refused to remove the cast. I’ve got a great immune system,” I mumble, closing my eyes when I yawn again and can’t keep them open.
“Two days?” Doctor Bartley asks.
“Hmm. Of course, I could have been wrong. It’s just that…” Yawn. “I could move it, and I even climbed a tree to get a kitten down and it felt like it was better.”
My eyes droop, refusing to open when I try to blink and I fall asleep again to the sounds of cursing and a lot of snarling.
Chapter Eighteen
Cass
“Oh! Yes, right there,” I moan, pushing my hips into Banner’s downward thrusts, my body going hot all over when he leans down and
swipes his tongue over my neck, the wet heat settling at my pulse point when he sucks at the skin and growls.
I feel so full of him, so filled with bursts of one on-going orgasm after another. I should be exhausted by now, I know I should because he’s been inside me constantly for hours, never pulling out, just giving us both a breather before he starts thrusting again.
“You feel so fucking good, baby,” he groans, pushing in deeply when I whimper.
The sound of him filling me, the smell of sex, the cries of our lust is strong in the air and I come again, this orgasm stronger than the constant pleasure that already has me soaring because it slams into me so hard I feel every part of me shake with sensations.
I haven’t stopped coming since he kissed me when I walked out of the bathroom, and it’s only gotten worse as time drags on. I’m insatiable, so filled with burning lust that even Banner tried to get us to rest.
I just shoved him to his back and started riding him, my desperation and lack of control too strong to deny.
“Baby. Shh. It’s okay,” he grunts when I grab his ass and try to get him to move.
He keeps his pace slow, almost gentle as he always does, but tonight I need more! I can’t explain it, but all day, the moment he crossed my mind, it was like being poked with an electric prod, the current setting me on fire.
I feel out of my mind with it, needy, burning inside my womb that only settles somewhat when I feel him come and fill me up. Only then does the painful need cool a little and only then can I breathe.
It feels like I’ve taken lady Viagra or something, and if I don’t do something, I’ll crawl out of my skin. My sex feels swollen, wet to the point I should be embarrassed because it’s everywhere, and I have long since stopped caring that Banner’s thighs are soaked with me. Everything is just…
Need.
It’s a need so deep it hurts me not to feel him all over me, smell him, and taste him.
“Oh my God please! Please. You need to do something!” I scream when the tight ball inside me gets tighter and starts a cascade of painful arousal in my womb.
Greyriver Shifters Page 88
