by Leia Stone
13 I’m Grounded
I parked the Jeep in front of Gran’s cabin, but neither Cass, Molly, nor I got out until my security detail skidded to a stop next to us.
“They’d better not be planning on giving us shit,” Cass muttered. “I’m not in the mood.”
Yeah, neither was I.
Blondie and Ginger, the beefcakes Brock had sent to tempt me before we’d found out I had a bun in the oven, sidled over to my Jeep in long, efficient strides. My furious gaze focused on them through the window, even though it wasn’t their fault that Calista’s capture had sucked a big one.
I didn’t lower the window until Blondie knocked on it. Couldn’t they give a girl time to recover after what I just went through?
“Why are you all wet?” was the first thing Blondie asked, and not a good sign as to how our conversation would progress.
“Maybe I felt like going for a swim,” I replied, feeling a bit guilty that I was being surly at them when it wasn’t their fault.
Ginger stepped next to the blond wolf and peered into the car. “Are you guys going to get out or what?”
Or what, I felt like saying, but figured I’d act like a big girl instead of the brat I felt like being.
“Or what,” Cass grumbled behind me, and I shot an understated smile at my grumpy bestie. He’d been bummed about how things went down as much as I.
Blondie pulled the car door open for me, and I stepped out with minimal groaning.
“Why are you groaning? What the hell happened back there!” the blond wolf with the cobalt-blue eyes asked. Clearly, Brock had trained them in the art of smothering.
O-kay, then. I should’ve known subtlety wasn’t my strong suit. “Nothing. I’m fine,” I lied.
Blondie reached out to help me, accidentally brushing my right hand, and I winced. He shared a concerned look with Ginger, but I suspected they were more concerned about what Brock would say to them if they let me get hurt on their watch.
A wave of sympathy rolled through me. I didn’t want them to pay for my mistakes. They probably thought I was a slutty lunatic knocked up with their alpha’s baby—and who could blame them?
“I got hurt in the takedown, but all I need is to rest a bit and I’ll be fine.” What I really meant was that I needed to see if I could find a witch healer, to come by and fix me before Brock figured out what happened.
Blondie and Ginger shared another look. ‘We’re in so much shit,’ Ginger mumbled.
“Seriously,” I said, putting on the best face I could. I figured I probably looked like a drowned, er, fox. “I’d like it if you’d go back to the house, and tell Brock that I got a bit tired out from following up on my lead, and that I just want to go to sleep.”
The wolves didn’t look like they were buying it, and I didn’t blame them.
Molly stepped out of the car and wrapped an arm around me. “I promise I’ll look after her. I’ll get her out of these wet clothes, and into bed right away.”
This time, Ginger waggled his eyebrows and Blondie grinned. Molly slapped Ginger, who stood closest to her, on the forearm. “Not like that, you pervs.”
That only made the wolves’ grin bigger, and Cass chuckled behind us.
I liked Molly.
“Hey, we’re happy to help however we can,” Ginger said in his deep, musical voice, and I swore I felt Molly’s heart skip a beat. The girl was as much a goner for the hot wolves as I was—only I’d been fool enough to fall for the alpha, because who was I kidding? I was into him more than I should be. No matter that he was my baby daddy, I barely knew him.
But don’t you know him? Time isn’t a good measure of knowing someone. The annoying thought popped into my mind.
I growled at myself, but apparently I did so out loud and the wolves looked at me, surprised.
“I’ll be fine. Please, just go back to the house and tell Brock I need to rest for a bit. I don’t want him coming to check on me, I just want to sleep. It’s best for the baby.”
The wolves’ eyebrows nearly shot off their foreheads in twin looks of shock. “Baby?” the redhead asked.
“You’re pregnant?” the blond one asked.
“Fuck,” I mumbled.
I assumed Brock had held a mass meeting, and told his entire pack. Stupid.
“They didn’t know,” Cass observed.
Really fucking helpful to know now. Why was Brock keeping it a secret from his pack? Obviously some of the pack knew, but maybe just his most trusted wolves.
‘He should’ve told you if you were supposed to keep it a secret,’ Cass echoed in my head, mirroring my exact thoughts.
“Please,” I pleaded to the wolves. “I just need to be alone.” Molly pressed closer to my side.
“With my friends to take care of me,” I added.
Molly beamed at being referred to as my friend, and my heart panged for the girl who was so desperate to be a part of the supernatural world, that she’d sell herself as a blood mistress to a vamp.
“Go now,” Molly shooed them, bolstered by my acknowledgment. “Cass and I will get her all fixed up.”
Blondie pursed his lips and Ginger scowled, but eventually they both nodded while bouncing suspicious looks across the three of us. When they finally retreated to their car, and backed out of my driveway, I sighed in relief.
“Help me inside please, Molly. I feel like a giant kicked me in my proverbial nuts.”
“You look like it too,” Cass admitted.
“Thanks for being a true friend, Cass.”
“You got it,” he acknowledged, because he knew that even though I was being sarcastic, I also meant it. The demon imp always had my back, and brutal honesty was just one of his gifts.
Together, my friends guided me into Gran’s cabin, where I prepared to sink onto the couch and not move for a year—or until Brock came knocking to check on me. But Molly caught my arm and shook her head. “Let’s get you out of those wet clothes first. I have the feeling that once you go down, you won’t be getting back up.”
“Right you are,” I agreed, skirting the couch, and heading for my old bedroom, where I’d left my duffle bag full of clothes.
“Good idea,” Cass added behind us. “That bitch drenched me too. I can’t stand having my saucy bits being wet.” He paused long enough for a wicked smile to cross his face. “There are exceptions to that rule, of course.”
Ew.
He riffled through his fanny pack, then pulled out a Ziploc baggie. He brandished a scrap of sequined fabric from inside it, and waved the short shorts triumphantly in the air. “Voilà! I’m always prepared.”
Next he unclasped his fanny pack, set it on the coffee table, and started to wiggle his Speedo down.
“Whoa!” Molly and I called out at the same time.
My good hand flew up in front of my eyes. “Give us a sec to get out of the room, will ya?”
He chuckled. “You two are the only ladies who don’t want to see my goods.”
Molly and I backpedaled into the bedroom, and she shut the door behind us. “Phew. That was a close one,” she breathed.
“Yeah.” I grinned even though I was bone tired.
I actually liked my new life here in the boonies of Oregon. Away from the bustling rhythm of Los Angeles, I’d somehow found my groove. Sure, I was knocked up, but Molly was turning out to be the girlfriend I never had but always wanted—someone else to cringe when Cass tried to pull his man bits out in front of me.
Kicking off my boots, I bent to flip them upside down, but stopped at the sharp pain shooting through my ribs. “Damn,” I hissed.
“Let me,” Molly said, turning my boots upside down so the water could trickle out of them, and onto a towel she placed there.
They were my favorite kickass leather boots. I worked my pants down my legs, and waited for Molly to help me slide my crop top with shelf bra off.
She averted her eyes to protect my modesty. She hadn’t yet realized I didn’t have any of that. A string of past werewo
lf boyfriends had relieved me of what little shyness concerning nudity I possessed; I’d never had much of it to begin with, honestly. Once you’re around a pack, and you see them shift back and forth between forms enough times, you get over nudity pretty fast.
I pulled a flowy sundress out of my bag and stepped into it, switching out my wet undies after. “That’s much better,” I announced, and she looked my way.
“Now let’s get you to that couch.”
“Sounds like heaven,” I said, leaning into her. By the time we exited the room and I flopped onto the couch with a grunt, Cass was sporting iridescent booty shorts, bare impy feet, and a concerned look on his face.
He slid onto the couch next to me, his pink fur damp to the touch. “You nearly drowned, Ev.” His big puppy-dog demon eyes focused on me.
I swallowed. “I would have if you hadn’t saved me.” I was trying not to think about it because it’d been scary, especially now that I had a passenger.
He waved my implicit thanks off dismissively. “That’s what besties are for. But seriously, are you okay? Is the... is the baby okay?”
“I’m okay, I think. I just need to find a witch healer. I don’t know about the baby, but I sense things are all right.” I really, really hoped they were, because I didn’t know anything about babies. I was so unprepared to be a mother. Chewing at my lip, I brought a hand to my flat belly. “I don’t feel anything different, but what do I know?”
“Maybe we should take you to see the pack doctor, Sabine, to check on the baby,” Molly suggested.
The urge to shout, no way! and fight for my independence rushed through me, but that would be selfish, and I didn’t think mothers were allowed to be selfish. Not anymore. “All right,” I said resignedly. “But we have to do something to get me healed up before we go, or Brock will freak the fuck out, and never let me out of his sight again.”
Not that I was sure I would mind that. The damn werewolf had grown on me. Why couldn’t he be an asshole and ask me for an abortion so I could hate him forever? It’d be easier.
“You’re right,” Cass agreed. “We can’t have the alpha smothering you.” He shook his head. “That won’t do for my beautiful Evie.”
I blinked away tears. Damn pregnancy hormones.
Cass rose and reached for his fanny pack. “Damn. My phone’s soaked. That’s where I had all the witch numbers Gran gave us.”
I groaned. There was no point in even checking my phone. It was shot to hell for sure.
Cass and I looked to Molly, who only shrugged. “I have no idea who to call,” she confessed, not that I thought she would, but it didn’t hurt to try, right?
“So we’re fucked,” I concluded. “It’ll take some time to make contact with a coven without having direct numbers.”
“And there’s no way your alpha will wait that long to come see you, especially after his men tell him what happened tonight,” Cass added. “Even if he buys the line that you’re sleeping, I doubt he’ll stay away for more than an hour’s nap.”
I tried to ignore the way him calling Brock “my alpha” made me feel. Focus, Evie. I also tried to ignore Brock’s earlier proposition for me to sleep over tonight, with little luck. “All right. So what else can we do?”
We sat and chewed on the problem for a bit, but the only significant contribution was Cass saying that Blondie and Ginger were sure to tattle on us. And he was right. The wolves owed their alpha allegiance, not me. They were probably telling him I looked like sopping wet hell right this second.
“What about shifting?” Molly finally offered, and Cass and I swiveled to look at her.
I blinked wildly. “Shifting?”
“Yeah, you’re a fox shifter, right? Shifters heal when they shift.”
Leave it to the supe groupie to remember this.
“You’re right,” Cass added. “Evie, you have to shift.”
“Bu-but what about the baby? Will I hurt the baby?”
“I don’t think so,” Cass stated, but he looked to our expert on all things supernatural for confirmation.
Molly shook her head. “No, you definitely won’t hurt the baby. I’m sure of it. Pregnant werewolves shift all the way up until the final trimester. It’s only at that point that the baby is too big to fit inside your rib cage when you shift. Until then, you’re safe.”
“You’re sure?” I pressed.
“A hundred percent.” Molly nodded enthusiastically and I wondered if she had some kind of supernatural handbook in her purse. I wouldn’t doubt it.
“All right, then. It seems like that’s our only option. I guess I’d better get back out of this dress.” But then I realized that was the least of my problems. “How the hell do I shift?”
“Easy,” Molly offered, jerking her bright purple bob up and down. “You just picture yourself as a fox in your mind, and flow with your body when it starts shifting to conform to that image.”
Oh sure, super easy.
“Okay. I’ll try it, I guess.” Because really, what choice did I have? I’d never leave Brock’s house again if he caught me with a broken wrist, and two cracked ribs.
A werewolf’s natural possessiveness was bad enough, but an alpha’s was a thousand times more pronounced. And I was pregnant with his bloodline heir. The guy was going to be a stage-five clinger for sure.
Once I was ready, buck naked in the middle of my childhood bed, I remembered how painful the first shift had been. How did I ever forget? Oh, that’s right. I’d found out I was carrying a werewolf’s baby.
“Will it hurt?” I asked, a little too squeakily, without opening my eyes.
“The first time is the worst.” Molly’s voice was confident. “After that, each time gets easier, until it stops hurting entirely.”
That wasn’t wholly reassuring…
“All right. Here I go,” I replied anyway.
Cass and Molly stood like sentinels on either side of the bed as I called up the mental image of myself as a fox. Sharp violet eyes, four legs, bushy tail—the fox from the video Brock had shown me on his phone, minus the terrified gaze.
Molly was right, it hurt a smidge less than last time, but I still screamed like a banshee. I was well aware of how keen wolf hearing was, and how many wolves were probably in the house on the top of the hill, but I couldn’t help it.
Once the shift was complete, all I could do was pant for a bit while I worked to recover from the pain of the change. Amazing how easily my body shifted its shape at my mental command.
Only afterward did I realize that I had the image wrong. Following Molly and Cass’ shocked looks, I peered down at my tail.
I’d conjured not one tail, but two.
What the ever living fuck?
14 Stage Five Clinger
“What is that?” Cass screeched, pointing at my two bushy tails.
Molly’s mouth was pressed into a frown. That definitely wasn’t a good sign coming from our all-things-supernatural expert.
‘Oh God, I fucked up the shift!’ I mind-screamed to Cass.
My bestie plopped onto the bed and edged close to me. ‘Do you feel okay?’ His voice was gentler this time as it entered my mind.
My heart jackknifed in my chest, my skin burned from the shift, and I was terrified to find out that I had two tails. Other than that, I was fine. I lifted my right paw and wiggled it back and forth; it was sore but there was none of the sharp pain that’d been there before.
A sudden purple light shot from my chest to wrap around my injured paw. I scurried backwards, deeper into the pillows, trying to get away from it.
“What the hell is that?” Cass asked Molly. We assumed the girl had all the answers.
The violet light was soft and cloud-like as it floated around my paw, and then slinked up my leg to encase my rib cage. A warm tingle settled into my body, and when I tweaked my wrist again, it didn’t hurt at all.
Molly finally found her voice. “No way.”
I looked down frantically to see where the light
had gone, but it appeared to have dissolved.
‘Did it hurt you?’ Cass now had a small dagger in his hand, ready to attack the purple light, I presumed.
My little fox head shook. ‘I … I think it healed me.’
Molly grinned ear to ear, as she reached out and stroked my tails. “I know what you are.”
I didn’t want to stay in this form any longer. It was freaking me out, and the way Molly was looking at me added fuel to my freaked-out fire.
As if my body knew my intent, the snapping of bones signaled that I’d started to shift back to my human form. It was less painful than before, but only marginally. Good thing I’d always had a high pain tolerance.
Within two minutes I was returned to my human self again, lying naked on top of the covers. Molly threw me my dress and looked away. Cass didn’t bother averting his eyes. He’d seen me naked hundreds of times, but he kept his gaze eye level.
“That was some crazy shit,” he admitted. “Are you a healer witch?”
Shrugging into my dress, not bothering with underwear, I hugged my knees, letting the long dress billow out and cover me so that only my toes peeked out. “I donno. Maybe. I feel better, like totally better.”
Molly shook her purple hair. “Nope. She’s not a healer witch. She’s a kitsune.”
My eyes widened and Cass actually burst into laughter. “Kitsune? That’s Japanese folklore. I agree being a fox would make one think of that, but—”
“She is!” Molly cut him off then. “Kitsune have multiple tails, healing powers, and a bunch of other shit. She’s totally a kitsune. They’re real, or at least they used to be. I’ve read about them in my supernatural origins book.”
Gooseflesh broke out on my arms at her confidence. My father was Japanese…
“Cass…” I was about to tell my bestie my thoughts when a fist banged on the door like an angry policeman’s.
“Evie!” Brock roared.
I rolled my eyes. “Let’s table this discussion for now. We can do research tomorrow, okay? Don’t say anything. I can’t deal with him knowing about this yet.”
Brock finding out I was some freaking mythical healing kitsune, would land me in his basement—or his bed—for the rest of this pregnancy, and I needed to find that damn siren and bring her in first.
