by R. A. Boyd
Andi pursed her lips and flattened out her bangs. “Yes. That is what’s important.” She walked closer to her sister and pulled her into a hug. “Cassiopeia, I’m sorry I’ve been this way. It just hurt when he left and I didn’t know how to handle it.”
“Well, Andromeda, it’s not like you were the sweetest person to begin with.” She put her hands up to calm her sister. “But that’s just who you were. You’ve always been kind of pushy and opinionated, and that’s fine. I admire that about you. He knew the strong woman he was getting when he proposed. But then, you were just kind of mean. You just switched gears when he left and you let your pain rule you. But I’m one to talk, right?”
Andi looked off to the side and then finally met Cass’s gaze. “We didn’t ever think you’d be all right again. Are they the reason you’re all right?” she said, pointing to the kitchen. “You look like you again.”
Out of some unknown emotion to her, Cass fluffed her hair and smiled in the direction of the kitchen. “They’re a big part of it. They helped me let Andrew go. I was holding on so tight to him that I couldn’t let either one of us get better.”
Confusion blanketed Andi’s face, but Cass shrugged and grabbed her arm. “Come on. Let’s eat. And God help you if you make a comment about what’s on my plate.”
“They couldn’t keep their freaking eyes, or hands for that matter, off of you.” Andi looked in the mirror and smoothed out her hair. Where Cass’s was wild, past her shoulders, and coily, Andi’s was short and straight. “It was like watching the opening scene to a porno.”
Cass bit her tongue, literally, and stared at her sister. “You could have left. Besides, that’s just how they are. They like touch.”
Cass had known a few things about shifters, and one of them was touch. Depending on the type of animal a shifter had inside of them, they relied on touch to bond. It healed them, made them feel more connected to one another. Apparently, ghost shifters where no different.
Andi’s eyes shot toward hers in the mirror. “Are they shifters?”
“Yes. They are. Problem?”
It wasn’t Cass’s secret to share that they were Ghost shifters. In fact, it wasn’t Andi’s business to know. Even though she could feel the rift that had been dividing them for years slowly begin to heal, she still didn’t want to trust her sister with something that could bite her or her mates in the butt.
Andi shook her head and then turned around. “So they’re like pack leaders? Alpha and Omega?”
“Yes.
“And they already know that you’re their mate?”
“Yes.”
“And they’ve chosen you forever?”
“Yep.”
“And they won’t die.” It wasn’t a question.
Cass gave her sister a sad smile and felt the burning of tears beginning behind her eyes. “No. They won’t. Not for a long time. You really were worried about me.”
Andi leaned against the small table in the corner and shrugged up one shoulder. “Of course I was, Cass. You’ve been stuck inside your head for two years. I was afraid I’d walk in here one day and find that you’d…” She rolled her eyes heavenward and swallowed thickly. “I’m happy that they’ll be here for you. That they’re strong enough. Even though it feels funny to see you with two guys who you are apparently having sex with, barf, it makes it better that they’re yours and that they’ll live for a long time. I am so going to tell mom.”
Adrenaline spiked in Cass’s chest as panic set in. She hadn’t thought about telling her mother. Heck, she hadn’t even thought of telling anyone just yet until her sister came over unannounced. Not that their mother was super conservative but what mother wants to think of her daughter being with two men. It was all just so new to her. Less than twenty-four hours ago the only thing that Cass had been worried about was making it through the snow storm with her lights still on while she ate from a can of tuna.
“Andromeda Danielle Wolford-Theobald, you better not tell mom,” Cass said, walking toward her sister with her finger pointed at her. Her ears felt red hot at the thought of their mother finding out she was with two men. Two, grown, hard, big, tatted up men. She was going to have to break it to her in person. “It’s my relationship and I’ll tell her when the time is right. We just met—”
Andi sucked in a dramatic breath and let her mouth fall open to an over exaggerated ‘o’. “Holy shit, you just met them? And they are spending the night? And you’re having sex?” Her voice rose with each question. “And I know you’ve been having sex because your face is freaking glowing and you winced when you sat down to eat. This is so freaking priceless.”
“I thought you were trying to be nice?”
“Oh, Cassiopeia, my dear, slutty little sister. This isn’t me being mean. This is me being a big sister.”
“You’re almost forty. Act like it.”
Andi’s brows furrowed as her eyes widened. “I’m only thirty-seven, damn-it. And fine. I’ll let you tell her. Maybe,” she said, her eyes shrinking down to little taunting slits.
“Get out.”
“Walk me to my car.”
Cass moved toward her sister with a playful grin and helped her put her coat on. Bending down to slip on her winter boots, she shivered as Andi opened the door and the freezing air hit her right in the face. She decided she was too lazy to go to the closet to get her own coat so she grabbed her hat and scarf that she’d left on the table beside the door.
“Come on, walk faster so I can go back inside,” Cass said, jumping up and down while rubbing her hands up and down her arms.
Right before Andi opened her car door, she turned around pinned Cass with a serious eye. “Did you tell them?”
Cass knew exactly what she was talking about. Why she chose to have Laurel so early in life were her secret to tell. “No. If you want to tell them then that’s up to you. I don’t know why you act as if it were some huge secret. In hindsight, you actually made the right choice.”
They both knew that people had a tendency to look down on girls who got pregnant while they were still in high school, but Andi had a good reason and had done it on purpose. If she hadn’t made the choice she wouldn’t have had Laurel or any other child to speak of. Even when Cass was twelve and Andi was sixteen she supported her sister.
That’s how Cass knew she wanted to wait to be a mother. She’d helped raise Laurel as if she were her own to make sure her sister got better. Although Laurel was as cute as they came, Cass knew that having children would come later in her life. It was a big job, and their mother had been helping Andi get through the biggest storm in her life.
As a child, there were so many mornings when Cass got up to go to school and was tired from taking care of an infant. A teething baby. A moody toddler. But once Andi was better she took over the care of Laurel as if it were her life’s work.
“Well,” Andi said, shrugging and opening the door. “I’ll tell them when they like me a little better. They won’t even call me by my name. Did you notice that? Cass’s sister this, and Cass’s sister that. That hate me.”
“They like you just fine. They just didn’t like you being mean.”
“But I’m working on it.”
“Yeah. You’re working on it. At least now you know that you were a mean bitch,” Cass said, goading her sister. “And knowing is half the battle.”
“Ohh, Cassiopeia Geneen Wolford-Stephens. I’m definitely going to tell mom you said the B-word.” She got into her car and then looked up at her sister shimmying to stay warm, practically beaming in the sunlight. “I want us to be close again.”
Cass smiled and started walking back toward the house. “Me, too. Be careful and call me when you get home.”
After her sister made it out of the driveway that Jax and Damon had so kindly shoveled, Cass ran back into the house and slammed the door. She silently cursed herself for going outside with no coat on. She was freezing, and jumping up and down wasn’t doing anything to make it better.
&
nbsp; “You are going to get thoroughly fucked if you keep wiggling your ass and tits like that,” Damon said as he watched her from the couch.
She smiled but kept jumping, and then finally toed off her boots. “I’ll take it if that’ll make me warm up faster.” She ran over to him, grabbed the blanket off the back of the couch, and jumped next to him.
Good Lord, the man was warm. She snuggled into him and put her face into his armpit, and he pulled her close.
Running his hands up and down her arms and legs, he said, “Shifters are warmer. You are freezing.”
“And you’re like an electric blanket. I love your deodorant.” Her voice was muffled as she held her face close to him. “You smell really, really good.”
He kissed the top of her head and wrapped both arms around her, and she loved it. She reveled in the feel of someone being by her side to keep her warm, to talk to, to make her feel adored.
“Are you free all day? We’d like you to take a ride with us,” Damon said as she finally started to still.
“Most of my job is online. I can fib and say that the storm took out the cable lines.” Cass wanted to stay next to him and Jax as much as she could. She thought about it for a minute and then shook her head. “I hate lying. It’s pointless. So, no, not free all day. But I can just start later this evening and still be done by midnight.”
Damon tilted his head and looked at his watch. “It can wait. I don’t want to rush you.”
“Wait for what?”
“To meet our clan.”
Chapter 7
Jax watched Cass as she sat between him and Damon in the truck. One of her hands sat on his knee, and the other was entangled within Damon’s fingers. He smiled at the thought of her picking up on their traits already. She was finding peace in their touch.
Hell, none of the members in the clan were too touchy-feely, but when shit hit the fan and things went bad for them a reassuring touch did something that helped ease their pain. The memory of what Heaven was like or how it felt to fly with their brothers and sisters had been pulled away from them as a mercy. But even back then, he knew they had all relied on one another and that touch was important, too.
The animal inside him was a pack animal, and packs calmed their members with touch and with sound. Cass took that part of them already. When he first saw her yesterday she looked like she didn’t even want to be in her own skin, let alone be comforted by someone else. Now, here she was drawing strength from them.
And they were getting it from her, too. She’d changed since last night. She sat up straighter, held her chin high, and her voice was stronger. Cass was healing herself and he was proud and thankful that he got to witness it.
While they sat at a red light, Jax took his hand and rubbed it against her cheek. She leaned into him, turned her beautiful face toward caress, and kissed his palm.
A deep, robust purr sounded off in Jax’s chest. He slapped his hand over his throat and winced. “Woman, we haven’t even claimed you yet and you’re already bringing out more of my animal than I’ve seen since the ability to shift was taken away from us.”
Leaning over, she smiled and kissed his chin. “Is that a good thing or a bad thing?” she asked with a wicked grin. “I made you purr.”
His cock swelled and thumped against his sweatpants. Jax sat forward in the bench seat to adjust himself. “Saber-tooth’s don’t purr.”
“Sure sounded like you did, brother,” Damon said, teasing.
“I’m sure your turn is coming too, brother.” Jax would have reached out and punched him in the arm if Cass hadn’t been there between them, laughing her sexy little ass off.
“Well,” she said, still holding on to his leg as he began to drive. “I will take that as a compliment.”
Jax shook his head and put on his blinker, turning down a long road that led to their property. Besides her sitting on his face this morning and then sinking his cock into her as he watched her orgasm, this was the most fun he’d had in a long time. The woman sitting next to him had his animal wrapped around her finger. He would do anything for her.
“We’re almost home,” Damon said, a tinge of concern in his voice.
And that quick, the atmosphere in the truck shifted. Jax knew exactly what troubled Damon. Even though most of the members in their group would be fucking ecstatic that their Alpha and Omega had found their mate, there was one that might not take to it. Truth be told, the other natural borne shifters in the surrounding communities may not take to it. Them being able to be whole again opened a can of worms that some weren’t too comfortable with.
“What’s wrong?” Cass asked, looking between the two of them.
Jax shrugged and gave her a tight smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “Nothing.”
“That’s bull,” Cass said, taking her hands away from them and folding them in her lap. “We’re not going to play that game. Are they not going to like me? Because I’m human?”
Damon ran his tongue along his bottom lip, and Jax squeezed the wheel so tight that the soft sound of leather being strangled to death bounced around inside the truck.
Jax took a breath and held it in for a few seconds. “When Damon went this morning to let everyone know he got some mixed reactions. Some want to know why this is happening now. What makes now so special.”
“And,” Damon said, reaching for her hand, “some are concerned that we’ll be made equal to lesser shifters. That we’ll no longer be immortal.”
She let off a soft ‘oh’ so quiet that they barely heard her. “So you really don’t know what’s going to happen when you claim me. You don’t know if I’ll be turned, you don’t know if you’ll live a normal shifter life-span, and you don’t know how the other shifters will take this.” Running her hands up and down her legs, she pursed her lips.
Damon cleared his throat. “We also don’t know whether or not our changing will affect the rest of the clan,” he said, clearly bothered that Cass wouldn’t let him take her hand. “Jax and I could get our animals back and the rest of them could be left unchanged until they found their mate.”
Cass clapped her hands together and then splayed them in front of her as if holding the answers. “Well, I suppose that would be the best case scenario. You two would be changed and the rest could decide on their own, regardless of if they found their mate. Right?”
Jax nodded and made another turn of the truck, not even bothering to put on his blinker this time.
The roads were clear of any other vehicles. New Rose, Maryland got fourteen inches of snow dumped on them overnight, and there was barely anyone driving around. Most people were busy shoveling their cars out, or waiting for the city to send trucks to move the bulk of the snow and salt the streets. But out there in the middle of nowhere where the clan lived, it was a ghost town.
Jax made a clicking sound with his tongue and then said, “You’re right. They could choose to stay the way they are. That’s if our change doesn’t directly affect them. We don’t have the answers.”
“Which is one of the biggest things that makes this curse almost unbearable,” Damon said. “We were given the minimum answers and locked out of Heaven. There are no tablets, no prophecies, no heresy of what we’re supposed to do. We weren’t just cursed to live in animal form with no way to communicate and then locked in our human flesh to wander around the Earth. We were completely shut out. You have no idea how calamitous it is to not know anything.”
Jax glanced over at his friend and saw the sorrow etched over his face. “And imagine Damon being the one to bear the brunt of it all, for all of us. I’m the Alpha of this clan, but Damon’s job is the hardest. Millennia of mental anguish to carry for your brethren. Not knowing the answers and still being able to feel their misery. And me as Alpha not being able to do a damn thing about any of it for any of our people. The Creator knew exactly how this curse would haunt us.”
Cass unzipped her coat and pulled it from her shoulders. “If you could go back and change things would y
ou have fought in the war?”
Jax swallowed thickly, feeling the age-old question burn in his mind. It always had. Would he have changed anything? Was free will worth not knowing anything? “Makes sense to say that I would, but I wouldn’t. You have no idea how precious free will is, Cass.”
“And that,” Damon said, finally grabbing hold of her hand, “is the one thing that keeps us going. Look, Cass. We’re home.”
The tree-lined road narrowed where only two cars could probably fit through, but when they cleared the space it opened up into what looked like a tiny town of single-family homes. Almost as if someone had picked up half of a neighborhood, seven houses sat on each side of the well-kept street. Fourteen beautiful single-family, two and three-story homes had already been shoveled out. It looked like the beginning of a Christmas movie scene.
Some were decorated with Halloween lights and spooky shapes on the lawn, and some had already been decked out with Christmas lights and mistletoe. About half looked as if the people who lived there didn’t care what time of year it was. At the apex of the street sat at one story lodge that looked more like a pub than a house.
“Seven of the houses are empty, but we make sure they’re well-kept,” Damon said. “That building you see at the top of the street is where we eat or shoot the shit. It’s almost like a community center,” he said, shrugging and still pointing.
Cass sat in the middle of the truck trying to keep her mouth from falling open. She was in awe. This place sat in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by the protection of tall Loblolly Pines and Eastern Hemlock trees. The ghost shifters had carved out a home for themselves to be alone but still had the advantage of being part of the New Rose community. Why did they have seven empty houses?
She sat forward in her seat and looked around like a tourist. “How have I never seen this place before? I’ve driven all over New Rose and I’ve never come across it.”
