Shifting Snows

by Paulin, Brynn

“I know you have chores.”

  “Man…Danel…why do you have to be a jerk?”

  “My job as alpha mate. Get to it, men.” He nodded toward a nearby wheelbarrow and a pair of shovels.

  “What are they doing?” Macy asked as she and Danel walked away.

  “Clearing away snow. They’re not the only ones to shovel, but we do what we can to keep the living area clear. Gets a little claustrophobic otherwise.” Deep drifts also made it more difficult for the females and children, who were non-shifters, to get around, but that was a part of Tavian Leap yet to be revealed.

  “Looks like there’s more snow on the way, too.”

  “It’s that time of year. It’s the Snow Moon and that means lots of snow. Merry Christmas,” he quipped.

  “Oh!” Macy put her gloved hand over her mouth.

  “What?”

  “I didn’t think about that. I’m going to be stuck here for Christmas.”

  It rankled him that she used the word “stuck”. He pushed it aside. He supposed if he had family elsewhere, he’d feel a little stuck too.

  “I guess so,” he said. They wouldn’t even get a helicopter in until at least March. Frankly, he was a little worried about that. They’d run out of condoms soon.

  “I’ll have to call and let my dad know. He’ll understand. It’s not the first time I’ve been away over a holiday. Do you decorate?” she asked, hopping to the next subject.

  “Not usually.”

  “Oh.”

  Guilt sank into his stomach. Wasn’t he just the spirit crusher? First, he told her she was stuck here then no Christmas fun. “We could though…” he offered tentatively.

  Macy’s amber-brown eyes lit up. “Really?”

  “Sure. We can bring in a small tree and you can find stuff in my workshop and around the house to decorate it. You can decorate however you want, actually. My sister-in-law, Marta, is our school teacher. She might have some glitter or something. We need to head over to see if she has some spare clothes.”

  Macy hadn’t had much need beyond the garments she’d worn in, shirts she’d borrowed from him and Sorin and the bathrobe she’d commandeered, but she needed regular clothes for getting out and about in the village.

  Pulling her into his arms, he cupped the back of her head and kissed her. It had been at least an hour since they’d been together and he was already feeling needy. He liked it when she just wore his shirt. Maybe, he should just take her home.

  No… She needed to meet people. That was his task for the day and his torture to bear.

  “I’ll go find a tree while you visit with Marta.”

  And maybe a romp through the frigid mountain air would cool his libido a little.

  * * * *

  No one had a right to be this content. Macy hummed happily as she surveyed the five-foot tree Danel had placed in the corner of the living room. Sorin had looked at him as if he’d lost his mind, and Abel had snickered. Calin, however, had quickly produced a couple strands of white twinkle lights from the wedding a few months ago, earning himself a kiss that made the others jealous.

  “Hey,” Danel had pointed to himself. “Supplied the pretty tree.”

  “Right,” Macy had agreed. She’d drawn his head down, kissing him thoroughly.

  “And got it set up,” he’d added.

  “I’ll do the lights for you,” Abel had offered.

  Sorin had just shaken his head and left the room. She looked up now as he reentered, carrying a blue blanket with gold embroidery. To her surprise, he draped it around the base of the tree.

  “A bit of our homeland,” he said, as she studied the Himalayan design. “What do I get?”

  They’d all get something. She bit her lip, pleasure filling her. “Abel? Close the curtains, will you?”

  She reached for the hem of the dress she’d borrowed from Marta and skimmed it up her thighs as the room dimmed. Automatic lights popped on to softly illuminate the room—another of Danel’s contributions.

  Before she revealed her lack of panties, she dropped the skirt and reached for the dress’ zipper. Calin was immediately there to help her. His hands smoothed over her bared back, and she was suddenly happy she was small enough to go braless—especially when his palms reached around to cup her breasts.

  “I’m first today,” he said. “I brought the first gift.”

  “I don’t know,” she hedged, teasing. “Danel brought the tree.”

  “You can ride me and give him what he likes,” Calin suggested.

  She tipped down one shoulder and let the dress fall then shrugged the other, letting the garment tumbled to the ground. “Sounds fair. Who has a condom?”

  All four men pulled packets from their pockets and held them up.

  “Good boys,” she laughed. “Okay, Calin. On the floor.”

  “Ooh,” Danel laughed, with a playful shudder. “I like when she gets all demanding like that.”

  “Hmph,” Sorin laughed. “We’ll see who’s demanding later.”

  Macy shivered at his dark promise. Last night, he’d threatened to tie her up. Maybe tonight…

  She focused on Calin who’d shoved down his pants and dropped to the small area rug. His hand stroked over his cock to roll on the protection.

  Mmm…she liked his partially undressed condition. Maybe she’d be the only one naked. The sex seemed naughtier that way. Smiling, she mounted him backward, facing his feet. She closed her eyes, enjoying the sensation of sinking onto his wide shaft and feeling the full sensation deep inside her. Slowly, she rocked and enjoyed him. She played with her nipples as the others watched.

  Sorin knelt over Calin’s legs and leaned his mouth to her ear. “Somebody likes being bad,” he whispered.

  “Yes…” she hissed. Her eyes locked with Danel’s over Sorin’s shoulder and she crooked a finger at him. “Pants down,” she ordered.

  Sorin chuckled, and his lips brushed her ear again. “Someone wants a spanking.”

  “Sweet heaven, Sorin,” Calin exclaimed. His hands grasped her waist as she rode him faster. “What did you say to her? She’s like a fist.”

  “Just promising presents.”

  “The kind of presents that make her scream,” Abel commented. “We hear her at night.”

  A flush crept over her chest and prickled up her neck. “Abel,” she retaliated. “I think you should let Calin suck you. I want to hear you scream.”

  “Sorin?” She drew his ear to her. “Will you fuck Danel while I suck him?”

  He didn’t answer, but kissed her hard, then rose.

  She glanced over her shoulder to see Abel kneeling over Calin while Calin wrapped a hand then his lips around his partner’s long cock. Somehow, she managed to keep his hips moving with hers. She closed her eyes for a moment as her pussy slid over his length. She loved this fucking, laidback and easy. No one was frenzied. That would come. Tonight. She had a feeling Sorin would pound her hard; he had that look in his eye, and she wanted him just as badly.

  Her pussy squeezed Calin.

  She pulled Danel closer and leaned into his cock, taking him deep. His hips jerked as she worked him with her tongue and teeth the way she knew he liked. From her peripheral vision she saw Sorin grasp Danel’s hip. There was a thunk as Sorin tossed a tube of lubricant to the floor then Danel’s choked cry echoed through the room.

  It turned her on. She jerked faster on Calin as her orgasm sped up on her. Grasping Danel’s thighs she fucked her mouth up and down his cock with the driving speed Sorin used. She wanted to match Sorin and blow Danel’s mind.

  Behind her, Abel screamed as Calin brought him. Her reaction fisted around Calin and he grunted as his release poured from him while her channel spasmed around him.

  Danel’s moans flooded the room. She focused solely on his cock as he thrust into her, impelled by Sorin’s shaft shoving into him. Carefully, Calin pulled from her, and she readjusted her stance as she shot her tongue over Danel’s glans. She reached up and cupped his sac, rolling and squ
eezing his balls as they worked him. He swore and rewarded her with his rough fingers in her hair. He tugged and guided as he fucked her, mindless as Sorin pegged him.

  She didn’t care. This was the out of control man she loved. Purposely, she nicked the underside of his head with her teeth. Danel lurched. His salty cum sprayed onto her tongue and she swallowed it, taking as much as she could, though some escaped to fall to her breasts. It trickled down the slope to roll to her stomach.

  Pulling free, she looked up, watching him. One of Sorin’s hands splayed on Danel’s belly and his other wrapped under Danel’s arm, grasping his shoulder. Danel’s face contorted with tortured pleasure.

  She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand as she sat back on her heels and watched them. Sorin’s head rested beside his partner’s as he took him. Both of their eyes were closed, and Macy didn’t think she’d ever seen such a beautiful thing. The two of them together were awe inspiring, and more than anything before now, she wanted to capture a photo of them together like this. Their faces were… This was magic. Intense. Feral. United. Totally in love.

  She wanted to be that in love someday. She wanted someone that in love with her. Her heart ached with the need. Captured by their rapture yet feeling outside of it, she watched them. She ignored her longing and focused on their passion, determined to find the same for herself.

  Chapter Seven

  After cleaning up, Macy finished putting the lights on the tree then put on warm clothes. She needed a walk to clear her head. She’d always been so self-contained, this need for all-consuming love startled her. What disturbed her, though, was that she wanted it from Sorin and Danel. As she’d watched them reach their culmination, it had hit her as hard as a speeding train, giving her no time to dodge or deny it. The knowledge was just there.

  She had to get away and think.

  Over the past week, she’d grown close to Danel and Sorin and even felt the dawning of what could truly become love. She didn’t want to push that or explore that. Not yet. It still seemed so nebulous, and she was afraid it was only their forced proximately. Conversely, she had discovered that you learned a ton about a person—or persons in this case—when you spent nearly a week in bed with them.

  She grinned. She liked spending time with Sorin and Danel, clothed and unclothed. Still…they were holding something back. She saw it in the looks they sometimes exchanged. It undermined her security with them.

  Sighing, she wandered across the village, the dry snow crunching beneath her boots. She smiled at Luka and Mattie as they came bounding through the opening that led to the outside. When they saw her, they frowned. Consternation furrowed their brows then they glanced behind her and their faces cleared. With a wave, they raced off, running behind a row of homes.

  The outside. That was what she needed. A wide-open space.

  The corridor path was hard packed and she traversed it quickly while the snow fell around her much like that first night. She wondered if perhaps it was possible for her to make it down the mountain. Her heart protested. No way! She wasn’t leaving them.

  She stopped short, blinking. She. Wasn’t. Leaving. Them?

  They hadn’t even asked her to stay. They loved each other. Why would they ask her? She rubbed her gloved hand over her face. She had to stop making things difficult. This was sex. She was here until the snow cleared enough for her to pass. Period. The end.

  Shaking her head at herself, she left the stand of pines that hid the opening in the rock face. She waded between two large drifts, quickly seeing the truth in their determination that the mountain was impassible. She’d just decided to turn back and walk around the trees when a menacing growl raised the hair on the back of her neck. A trio of wolves emerged from an outcropping of boulders.

  Her heart leapt into her throat as panic froze her.

  “Macy!”

  She swung around at Sorin’s voice. He and Danel ran from the trees, leaping past her. She swung back around as electricity sparked the air around her, accompanied by sickening pops and tears. Where her men should have landed, two snow leopards dropped to the ground, planting themselves between her and the wolves. Their teeth bared, they hissed.

  The wolves growled, hunching and backpedaling as the larger animals advanced.

  They wouldn’t let the others at her, but as her terror receded, her mind grappled with what she was seeing.

  Sorin and Danel.

  Huge snow leopards.

  That first day…there’d been a leopard….then…Sorin…

  Many of the villagers were from Sorin’s “homeland” where he’d said they were “hunted”. She knew they’d come from the Himalayas, and she knew snow leopards were indigenous to that region, not Colorado.

  They were shifters.

  She watched them stalking forward, their gorgeous smoky-gray coats with black rosettes mesmerizing her as they walked. Their long, thick tails swayed slightly as they moved, barely sinking into the snow when they crossed it as easily as if they wore snow shoes. Wait…

  Sorin and Danel had tails…

  She gasped as the truth hit her again then she did the only thing her brain commanded her to do. Run! Just run! Run, run, run!

  Behind her, she heard the screams of the cats as they attacked the wolves that had come after her and the yelps and howls of the injured canines. And she ran, moving as quickly as she could through and around drifts.

  Her lovers were something that shouldn’t even exist; an impossibility. Part animal. And she had to get away. She’d never outrun them, but maybe she’d find somewhere to hide. A crevice somewhere… Just a week ago, she’d had the same thought before Sorin had taken her down.

  He was the cat. This was what they’d been keeping from her. This was the vulnerability she’d seen in Sorin and the frustration Danel had silently communicated to him. Danel had wanted to tell her.

  And Sorin had refused. He’d known exactly how she’d react. She slowed as her thoughts rolled faster, and she replayed everything they’d said the past week. How they’d often called women “mates” instead of wives. How they’d spoken of male mates and female mates. The way they liked to chuffle at her. How dizzy in love she felt when they kissed her—it had to be pheromones.

  Macy stopped. She dropped to her knees, hunching forward and burying her face in her hands. What was she going to do? It wasn’t just when they kissed her that she felt in love. It was all the time. She just didn’t want to believe it; it was so fast. Well, and they were cats.

  She took a deep breath. Did that really matter to her? Could she live with it? Did they even want her to? Maybe they didn’t feel the same about her as she did them.

  A headbutt to her side knocked her over, derailing her thoughts. A huge paw pinned her shoulder while pale green eyes stared down at her. Almost afraid his huge teeth would take off her hand, she reached out and touched the pure white fur beneath his neck. Her fingers sank into his thick fur. To her surprise, he nuzzled her arm and a vibrating purr rumbled against her palm.

  “Sorin,” she said, looking into those soulful eyes as he pressed his face closer. Another head pushed in and she recognized Danel’s gray eyes. Though it still freaked her out a little, she appreciated that they were beautiful animals. “Danel,” she acknowledged, petting him, too. “I don’t know how to deal with this.”

  Danel growled quietly then dropped heavily to the ground with a loud huff of air. He rubbed his large face into the side of her head, neck and shoulder, purring loudly. Standing over her, Sorin did the same.

  “Seriously?” she asked, dryly, her shock completely fading at their primal behavior. “You’re marking your ownership? Now?”

  Sorin lifted his head and stared down at her, and she was sure if a cat could, he would have been smirking down at her.

  Okay, so they wanted her. “This is a lot to take in,” she protested. “Even if I can accept this and it is convenient having guard cats—hey!” she exclaimed as Danel headbutted her. “Even if I understand this, you l
ive on a mountaintop. I have to go home sometime.”

  Both leopards pulled back. Their fur lifted as they bared their teeth and hissed, eloquently communicating their displeasure.

  Okay, so they wanted her, and they wanted her to stay.

  Sorin looked at Danel who stepped away then Sorin sank his teeth into the shoulder of her coat and started dragging her up the mountainside toward the village. Danel bounded ahead of them and neither listened to her screeching demands to release her.

  Abel and Calin stood just inside the village entrance as Sorin hauled her inside. An embarrassing amount of others watched as well. No one moved to help her.

  “Sorin, let me go,” she pleaded. This time, he released her then transformed while standing above her. She would have needed to close her eyes to avoid the sight, but she couldn’t and in seconds the man stood over her, his arms crossed over his chest.

  “Well, well, look what the cat dragged in.”

  “Very funny,” she snapped scrambling up. Ignoring Danel, who now stood nearby, she stormed into the house. It would have been very satisfying to stomp into her room and slam the door, but she didn’t have a room of her own. She shared with Sorin and Danel. She wasn’t sure what she was so mad about anyway—well, except for Sorin hauling her back to town like some prize elk he’d taken down. Frankly, she understood the secrecy and somehow, she’d come to terms with the shifting. The pack mentality suddenly made so much more sense.

  She was standing in the middle of their bedroom when the two came in behind her.

  “We’re sorry we didn’t tell you,” Danel said.

  Her shoulder lifted, but she didn’t turn. “I understand why.”

  “But you were leaving anyway,” Sorin accused. “Before you even knew.”

  At that, she swung around. “I was thinking, not leaving. I can’t think when I’m with you, except to wonder when we can have sex again—stop smirking!—and I needed some space to clear my head. It wasn’t until a few minutes ago that I realized you’ve been blasting me with pheromones.”

  “Not really,” Sorin replied. “Only just that first time when we met on the outside.”