“Oh—I know. You don't do a lot of talking, Merck. It's all about doing.”
Anger flashes through his eyes. “That's not fair. I am a Changer. It is my role in this life, for the good of all Lycans.”
“So there will be little Lycans,” I comment quietly.
“Yes,” he replies in loud relief like, the dumb doctor is finally getting it.
Well fuck him. I stand, and he does too.
“I've never been one to follow the path of least resistance, and I'm not inclined to now. Arden's—Arden's gone.” I bite my lip to stop the quaking. “And there's a pack of stupid Mutables...” Merck raises his eyebrow, and I ignore his obvious irritation, “...waiting to ʻbreed meʼ.”
I don't say anything about the possible Lycan hubby. Or Drake.
“But that doesn't mean that I've got to be part of an arranged match with some man I've never laid eyes on, give up my work. My freedom.”
Merck smirks. “You'll have to give up something.”
I want to punch him. “I know what you're thinking.”
“The same thing your body has been trying to get you to do since you met me.”
A tear slips out of my eye. I'm cornered and frustrated, and my sadness has turned into rage.
I glare. “Fine, I'll fuck you, Changer. But that's all it'll be. I'm not saying yes to this mating thing with a stranger.” I spit my words into his face.
He stands before my seething rage and says nothing. When he holds out his hand, something inside me dies.
My humanity.
5
Narah
“Did you hurt her?”
Murphy.
I'm dizzy and flat on my back.
Not a good place to be. I peek from behind the slits of my eyelids. The house I was inside isn't there anymore.
The dragon is.
I roll to my side, hopping to my feet, arms loose, hands fisted.
Murph smirks. “Damn darling, I thought you were in trouble.”
I scowl, fighting coughing. “What does your blood tell you?”
Murphy cocks his head, mentally analyzing our tie. “You'll live.”
“Right-o.” I turn my head to Dragon. “What's your story?”
His gaze narrows on Murph. “Your associate was a hindrance in my acquisition of Talyn Phisher.”
A huff breaks out of me before I can stop it. “Not my problem.”
He walks to me and we stand chest to chest. Actually, it's my nose to his sternum. I could really pop that about now. With my new vamp strength, it'd be kindling.
I don't.
Because the dragon has not really shown violence toward me. I show restraint. Generally not my first reaction.
“Female. I will not harm you. Stop inciting me to do so.”
We lock gazes for a handful of seconds. I sigh, retreating a step. Murphy comes behind me. Has my back. But we both know who is the more lethal of us.
It will always be me.
But Murph knows my secret. And now, for reasons unknown, so does Dragon dude. Got a lot of hate for that.
I glance at the blown up house behind him. “What happened to the house?”
“Propane tank, love. I think it's a brilliant outcome.”
“Agreed.” My eyes narrow on the dragon.
“Drake,” he says, holding his big hand out. I give him my non-dominant hand in return. He notices, a slight lift of lips touching his mouth, an echo of a true smile, but what probably passes for humor with the inscrutable dragon and his strange half-form.
“Narah Adrienne.” I jab my thumb behind me. “This is Murphy.”
His nostrils widen, scenting us. “Your youngling?” he asks, but it's more like statement.
I lean toward him and he stands his ground. “Good sniffer you got.”
His smile widens, a dimple appearing. “Nice blade.” He hands me my obsidian blade, hilt first and my eyes sting.
The business end faces his torso. It's a show of extreme trust. And the change in our status isn't missed.
I lift my eyes to his. “What do you want?”
“You know what I want.”
I sigh, sheathing my dirty blade and placing my hands on my hips. “Listen, I'm an enforcer. We've just began taking on supe cases. I'm out of my league here. But I do know that Dr. Phisher is not interested in changing.”
Drake tips his head back. “It doesn't matter that she isn't interested.” Disdain rolls over his features. “Interest has nothing to do with changing. It's about living. If she doesn't breed with someone who can transition her—she dies. It's a simple concept, Narah.”
“Yeah,” I answer softly. I jerk my chin up. “Let the Lycan. He's a Changer, she's Lanarre—royalty for the werewolves. He can get her fixed, and then she can figure it out.”
Drake shakes his head. “He won't ʻfigure it outʼ for her. He'll change Talyn then hand her over to the Alpha of his den. He will choose whatever male within the pack he deems worthy.”
I wrinkle my nose, hope fleeing. “She's not gonna dig that noise.”
A laugh bursts out of Drake, and Murph snickers behind me.
I elbow him.
“Oof!”
Drake glances at a sullen Murphy then his eyes come back to mine. “You're very plain-spoken, Enforcer Adrienne.” The glint of humor sparkles in his eyes.
“You have no idea,” Murphy grumbles from behind me.
Jerks.
6
Merck
Talyn walks to the sink, fills a glass of water and downs it. All the time her eyes shoot daggers at me.
She drinks the last of it, popping the glass down hard on the pure white quartzite countertop. She brushes by me like a guy that wants to begin a fight and strides to the bathroom.
I follow her, stopping when she opens and shuts the door in my face. I press my fingertips to the door. I listen to the sounds of running water, a toilet flushing.
The door swings open and my hand flies to the jamb. Glad I'm holding on to something.
Talyn's naked.
“Like what you see?” she asks with bite.
I do. Very much, recovering nicely from my shock.
But her manner doesn't work. It's not her. It's like someone's invaded Talyn, and an imposter is in her place, using the shell of her body.
She shoves off my chest with her palms, and I move back of my own volition.
“What are you waiting for?” Talyn calls over her shoulder.
I follow, tracking the smooth sway of her wide hips, round ass and wasp waist. She's a female made for birthing pups.
I keep that tidbit to myself. The mere mention of which, would secure my castration. I smile at the thought.
Talyn moves to my bedroom, a straight shot from the bathroom.
She tears off the covers. They float downward, puddling on the smooth poured concrete floor. She lies down on the bed, spreading her legs.
I halt like I've been sucker-punched.
I really like what I'm seeing now.
“Go to it, Merck. Stick me with your Lycan weenie and make me a wolf.” She lifts her head up, eyes lasering on me. “Do it, you coward.”
I blink.
My dick's a limp noodle. I've never been less turned on in my life.
Talyn's spread open, pink, wet and ripe in front of me, and I can't bring a boner to life if it was my dying wish.
“Cat got your tongue?” she asks in a purr.
Hell yes it does. I open my mouth, can't speak. My eyes dip to her ripe pussy, her fleshy thighs are mouth-watering.
I want her.
But not like this. I'm a Changer. If I tell myself that enough times, maybe I'll believe it, and do my fucking job. She's splayed out before me, ready and waiting.
Her wolf howls for me. Not in the space where anyone can hear, but in the space of my head.
My heart.
And it's cramped. “Talyn,” I begin, clearing my throat, “I do want to change you.”
“Then get to it.” Acid
drips from every syllable.
“I won't rape you.”
She lets her head fall back and laughs. “Everyone wants to have sex with me, and then when I offer the all-you-can-eat-buffet, you're not hungry? You get cold feet? I mean—cock?”
I shift my weight, my uncomfortable stiffy like a flagpole between my legs. I put my hands to my hips. “My wolf knows if you're truly willing. And while your wolf wants this—what I offer. You, the woman, doesn't.”
Talyn spreads the folds of her pussy and I look, helpless not to. She slips a finger deep inside herself and I groan, my dick twitching.
“Still wondering if I'm ready?” She works her finger in and out, groaning. Talyn's needy—for a relief only a Changer can give her. My cock hardens further, my intellect departing.
Moon dammit.
I have to think of Talyn, and how opposed she was to the Change. How her best friend Arden just died. How alarmed I should be that I don't want to turn her over to Charles.
My Alpha won't have soft feelings for her. She'll be a breedable Lycan female. Better yet—a Lanarre. They've been known to throw moonless changers. Keeping Talyn is not only an illegal act, but a deficit to Lycans as a species.
She mines her depths. The very place I want my mouth, my cock.
I lick my lips, wavering.
How can I admit something to her I'm not willing to admit to myself? I take a step toward her, the delicious smells of her arousal hitting me like a physical slap.
My eyes stay riveted to her pumping finger. I blow apart when her hips lift, highlighting the entire show.
Growling, I cover the distance between the door and the edge of the bed in two strides.
Her finger slides out of her glossy wetness and she lifts her hips high. I dive forward, my little head thinking for the big one.
I don't wait, grabbing the globes of her ass, I stab my tongue inside her.
“Ah!” Talyn screams into the space. “So good.” She spears her fingers through my hair, pushing my face deeper between her legs and the heat I've been wanting.
I don't resist, planting my fingertips on either thick thigh, I push them wide and her tenseness melts. I lap at her entrance, and she shudders.
The fingers of my right hand release her thigh, walking their way to her clit. They land, tweaking and rolling the slick little nub of flesh between my thumb and index finger as I work her rhythmically.
I don't go down on Changes. But Talyn isn't a change for me.
She's a mate.
I can't ignore the beat within my own brain. I don't want to transition her.
I want to claim her.
7
Narah
“So now what?” I look between the two of them, shoving my singed braids behind me.
Drake surveys the smoking remains of the Mutablesʼ hangout.
Rape-station. My eyes narrow on the place, and I can't say I'm sorry for its destruction.
“We locate the client?” Murphy suggests automatically.
“You know I'm trying to hold onto the hope you're smart, right?” I ask him.
Drake whistles. “You're a bit of a shrew, Enforcer Adrienne.”
I flip him off. “Yeah, I know. I grow on people.”
“Like a wart,” Murph comments.
I cross my arms. “Okay,” I hold up a palm, “I can be a bit of a bitch.”
Murphy's mouth pops open, his black eyes disbelieving.
I take a deep breath, let it out. “Or maybe more than a bit.”
Sirens begin to wail.
Smoke rises in a lazy spiral, coals like orange eyes stare unblinking back at my perusal. “Let's split,” I say, tapping Murphy's arm.
“And me?” Drake asks, brows like arrows above his glittering eyes.
My eyebrow sweeps up. “You don't seem like you do a lot of milling around.”
His lips quirk. “You have mates.”
“Yeah.” I sound sullen, even to myself. I tip my head to look at him, he's so tall. Like my guys. I sigh. “You've got a keen sniffer,” I say for the second time. He smells that I'm pregnant—he scents my mates, plural—on my person.
Drake says nothing for a moment then, “And you carry their child.”
I nod, flicking my eyes away. Bastard. Guilt rushes in. Crippling, horrible.
The sirens grow louder. “Why are you unhappy about this news?” His eyes crinkle at the corners, a puzzled smile strapped to his face.
He's a pretty man, for a dragon.
I tell the truth to a stranger, when I can't even admit it to myself. “Because I live for being an enforcer. But now I'm all fucking expecting and that.” My shoulders jerk high enough to hit my ear gauges then drop.
He folds his arms, chuckling.
Nothing funny about my news.
Why didn't I kill him when I had the chance? Oh yeah, I got knocked out in the blaze. My eyes narrow. “Let's go. You can yuk it up after we're out of here. I don't want to explain this mess to the local law.”
His eyebrows hike. “You avoid your own?”
I jerk my head back, a sour pucker slapped on my face. “Ah—newsflash—they're not ʻmy ownʼ.”
“Then what are they?”
“I'm an enforcer. They pick up the low level criminals. We get the ones who go before the Magistrate.” Even saying the M word curdles my stomach.
A hand lands on my shoulder.
I lay my own over Murphy's, deeply grateful for his presence.
Drake watches us closely, his gaze noting the intimacy. But he's never been the sire to a youngling. Until he is, Drake can keep all that assload of judgy I see swarming his face to himself.
Blue and red lights can be seen in bright rhythmic flashes in the distance.
“Narah,” Murph says softly, squeezing my shoulder once.
I nod. “Let's go.”
I toss a look at Drake. “You can come. Where we're going, it's safer than just standing here with a bunch of BBQ'd Mutables.” I shudder. “What a paperwork nightmare.”
Murphy frowns. “What do you mean?”
“It's an expression. I just meant, I don't want to dick with the documentation. My thumb'll get sore.” I'd be pulsing for a day straight.
I wink, sprinting toward Sioux Falls. I know Murph will follow, and I don't give much of a shit if Drake the dragon does.
8
Talyn
My wolf doesn't give a good goddamn about shame. She's all about breaking free.
Becoming.
She tears at me, forcing my hips into Merck's face. I fight. Lose. I just can't resist.
The little seed that makes me Talyn Phisher remains. Buried in the need of this thing I'm changing into.
But that part of me germinates. Taking root.
I'm not going to assimilate into some Lycan cult. Where they pass off women to whatever man they deem worthy.
I'm not becoming the star attraction for their orgy.
But right now it's all about Merck's wet attention to my throbbing sex. He kisses my labia, taking his time on each fleshy ribbon of sensitive skin that lines my entrance. His tongue pumps as his fingers pinch my clit.
I moan, my breathing changes—my entire body flushing with broiling heat. Deep down, I know that Merck bringing me pleasure won't change me.
I need his seed deep inside to make me whole. My womb will open, and accept the cooling relief only a certain male can give. Talyn, the woman, doesn't know that.
But the wolf hiding underneath my skin does.
His tongue leaves me and I feel the edge of my orgasm hovering on the precipice of my pleasure. I want to rip his tongue out of his head because Merck doesn't care.
Because I'm using him to change me so I can become this thing. Maybe I'll escape the role they so neatly carved out for me.
Merck crawls up my body. Those blue eyes never leaving my face.
I drown in his gaze as Talyn tries to swim to the surface.
Somehow his jeans are long gone.
Somethi
ng large and stiff skims along the flesh of my stomach. He curls his body protectively around me, ignoring what must be the biggest case of blue balls in the universe.
Because that's what Changers do, my struggling intellect inserts into my thoughts like a tossed SOS ring.
They sex women and turn them into wolves.
I stiffen and Merck cups his hands around my face. “I won't change you unless you want it. And right now,” he gestures at our bodies pressed so tightly together, “this is what you've been fighting since the moment I met you.”
I nod wordlessly, silent tears cascading down my face. My wolf shimmers over Talyn, through her, superimposing her needs over my own.
I gasp at the sensation of overlapping beings.
I can still survive this. I have sex with Merck and I become.
What does it matter? Arden's gone.
My life's a shambles. I lift my chin. “I want it.”
I slide my hand between our bodies and grab the steely length of him, squeezing hard and he groans.
His head dips, eyes blazing from underneath hooded lids. “Yes,” he says in a whispered breath.
What I couldn't have known, is how much I wouldn't want to leave him after we had sex.
9
Narah
“I can't just take a dragon shifter into Final Enforcement.” I flick my palm at the office. “They're kinda sharp—enforcers. They're gonna notice.” I don't hold back on the sarcasm.
Come to think of it, I never really do.
“That's not an issue, Enforcer Adrienne.”
I toss my wrecked hair over my shoulder, the scorched ends light against my back. “Lose the scales or we can't have the pow-wow, Drake.”
“Jesus, Narah...”
“Can it, Murph.” My eyes are targeted on Drake like a big six foot seven inch bulls-eye.
He smirks.
Then like water running down a drain, the scales stop shimmering, becoming dull and flat-looking. The hard edges disappear, going to smooth, then the rigid texture of each scale wavers, flattening and finally ending in a dusky, flesh tone.
Drake's ears shrink, the tips melting from pointy, to nubs, then flattening against his skull and just becoming ears again. Steam stops rising from the less-interesting orifices of his body, his nostrils narrowing to within human norms. He stands there with his stunning greenish-gold eyes, sandy hair and striated ropes of muscle.
Shifter Alpha Claim 1-6 Omnibus Page 14
