Shifter Romance Box Set
Page 49
Shannon has a sinking feeling. Whatever the ferryman and his fellow denizens of this place request of Lucien and Kirk will not be pleasant. Or legal. Or beneficial to the world at large.
She wants to shout out, “No! I am not worth it. Don’t do it! What they will ask you to do will potentially be far worse!”
But no voice issues from her throat. In alarm, she observes her hands and feet. They are fading even faster than possible.
“Yes, I agree,” Lucien says without hesitation.
“Yes, I agree,” Kirk echoes him.
No.
But her thought is too weak, as if even her mind is going.
“Very well.” There is a smile in the ferryman’s voice. “On behalf of Pangaea, I accept your barter. Now in order to restore life to her, you must bring her to the Tree. Climb on board.”
Lucien scoops Shannon up in his arms, and they all clamber onto the barge. Surprisingly, or perhaps not surprisingly in this place, the barge does not bob and the water does not splash with their added weight. They all settle onto the floor of the barge – with Lucien and Kirk supporting Shannon between them – and the ferryman poles them off.
“Hurry,” Kirk says, but the ferryman ignores him.
Time passes strangely in this place. Shannon sees strange trees – some of which are alive with moving branches. Beings which are crosses between animals – stags with men’s penises and hairy legs, goats with pigs’ tails, giant butterflies with faces of cherubs – stare at them as they pass from behind the trees and shrubs. Some follow them down the banks of the stream, jabbering excitedly in their language.
“I think we’d be right at home here,” Jared says to Kirk.
“No. These are not shapeshifters.”
“They are more dangerous than shapeshifters. They crave our live source, our vitality, our energy. Do not engage any of them,” Lucien warns.
“You speak as if you’ve travelled this place many times,” Kirk observes.
“Not many times. But I knew of it since I was a child. My sister and I were curious, and so we conducted our own forays into this place without my father’s knowledge. Sometimes, we barely escaped with our lives.”
Kirk smiles. “Yeah, I know the feeling of childhood curiosity. It happens to us shifters too, but in a different way.”
There is so much she doesn’t know about the two men in her life, Shannon thinks.
Time passes, and soon, the ferryman stops poling the barge.
“The Tree,” he says.
Shannon averts her head. Her vision is becoming a blur. She sees a majestic tree on the bank, which towers over everything else. The tree’s hoary branches are swaying on their own like arms with spindly hands to no wind she can feel on her skin. Or perhaps her skin is already incorporeal.
“Tell us what we must do,” Lucien says tersely.
“The Tree stands on hallowed ground. There is a cross section of ley lines and nodes under its roots. But its magick has to be activated by you.”
“How?”
“Love binds the three of you and her brother as well. Therefore, the most potent magick which can be harnessed is sex magick.”
Shannon stirs at this.
“How?” Kirk says, echoing her faint thoughts.
“How do you think?” Lucien says. His mouth is set in a grim line. “Help me with her. Jared, can you walk?”
“Yes.”
Together, they climb out of the barge and lay Shannon on the ground beneath the tree. The grass here is sparse, and the earth is a shifting surface of sand, rock, slate, and granite – all interchanging geologic features on a strange bed. Shannon can feel the power emanate from the tree, the ground, everything around her like a primal surge – a sustained blast of energy. She is almost buffeted by its sheer, raw force.
Lucien gently strokes the hair from her forehead.
“Shannon, listen to me,” he says. “I’m going to make love to you, and if it isn’t enough, Kirk will join in to add his power. You will not be hurt. It’s the only way to make you better. You understand?”
She nods. Or thinks she nods, but can’t be sure because she can’t feel her neck.
How am I going to experience this lovemaking then? she wonders. This is all so strange. So worrying. So wondrous. So terrifying.
They are all naked, and so there are no clothes to shed.
“Kneel at her head and hold her hands,” Lucien instructs Jared.
Jared does so. He pulls up her arms so they are outstretched. He kneels, and she can see his anxious face peering down at her.
“You’ll be OK, Shannon.”
“I shouldn’t have made you come,” she says weakly.
“No. It was meant to be like this.”
Lucien straddles her. His cock is already erect. He parts her legs, although she can hardly feel them.
“Shannon,” he says, his stunning blue eyes full of complex emotions, “look at me.”
She looks at him. He enters her, but she cannot feel a thing. Her body here has already vanished to the point of almost nothingness. Still holding her gaze, he rocks against her.
“Shannon,” Kirk says, and his voice is full of pain. He is by her side, and he is stroking her body, her breasts. Once again, she cannot feel anything.
This is surreal, she thinks. Both her lovers are working together frantically, trying to save her life in this cold, visionary landscape.
She can’t breathe anymore. She can’t speak. She can’t feel. She can’t react.
“Shannon, stay with me,” Lucien says. He intensifies his movements. She can tell he is doing this by the rabid pumping of his hips against hers.
“She’s disappearing,” Kirk says to Lucien. “Please . . . do something.”
Lucien pulls out. His beautiful features are strained.
“Kirk, help me get her up.”
They pluck her from the ground, and she doesn’t weigh anything at all. Lucien lays his long body down.
“Shannon,” he says, “don’t be alarmed by this.”
How can she be alarmed by anything? Her feelings are already hollow. Her emotions are already null.
They sit her up and spread her legs so that she is straddling Lucien instead. He penetrates her again, and she doesn’t feel a thing. They have to support her body because she is so limp.
Then Lucien says: “Kirk, do what you must.”
They flop her body, joined to Lucien’s, so that she is chest to chest with him – but because he is so tall, her breasts can only rub against the lower part of his ribcage. Kirk goes behind her.
“I’m not going to hurt you, Shannon,” he says.
I can’t be hurt anymore, she thinks drowsily.
She can’t be sure because she is too listless to turn her head, but he penetrates her anal passage – her tight virgin hole – with his hard penis. Now she is sandwiched between the two men who love her and who would give anything for her. Kirk starts the rhythm while Lucien steadies her, and she is jerked back and forth.
Ohhh. If only she can feel something.
Something is definitely happening. The power is surging through the ground and the geology of its surface is changing at a rapid speed. Dizzying colors light the earth up as if it is a disco panel.
“Keep going,” Jared urges them.
The power is seeping into her body through Lucien’s on the ground. Heat suffuses her flesh and tingles run all over her limbs and torso, as if her blood circulation has been started up again. She can actually feel the rubbing of Lucien’s groin against hers now and the slapping of Kirk’s hips against her buttocks.
Her pussy and anus begin to experience the raw, massaging motions of the two penises in them. She grips her fists. Jared sees this and catches hold of one of them.
“It’s working,” he cries. “Faster.”
The two men’s body heat permeates her cold skin. Now her nerves are running riot, eliciting sensations all over. It is as if all her senses are being stimulated again – touch,
pain, heat, cold, pressure. She is experiencing them all at once, and the shock threatens to eclipse her.
The fulfillment of double penetration declares its presence. She can feel herself being filled as she has never been filled before. Both men’s cocks are huge, and it seems that her groin – front and back – are stretched to bursting. The thin membrane between the two majestic rods of flesh is compressed and pummeled joyously.
“Ohhhh!’ she cries out with the agony and ecstasy of it.
“Stay with her,” Jared says. “She’s almost whole now.”
The sex magick flows into her like a churning tide. It is a whirlpool, and she is in the vortex of it. It slams into her and carries her with it, and she can feel her orgasm building like a penned up geyser. She is thrown higher and higher, until she is at the very apex of the energy. There she is – at the very peak. At the very eye of the tornado.
She throws back her head and screams.
The two cocks are raw inside her. Lucien is the first to cum. She can feel his sperm gush inside her passage. Kirk comes immediately after that, and she can also feel his wetness shoot deep inside her. Their semen fill her twin passages copiously, and it is as if she is drowning in their seed.
Her climax seems to last forever, made far more potent in this place. Life bursts into her limbs, her head, her breasts. Her clit is throbbing with need.
Kirk pulls out, panting. He pulls her off Lucien. She crumples to the ground, totally spent by all that has been happening. Her breath comes out in short, sharp exhalations. At least she can breathe in the strange air of this place again. Her heart is a hammer within her ribs. Her breasts and genitals ache, and there is a soreness in her anal passage she has never experienced before.
But she is alive, and more alive than ever!
“Shannon, are you all right?” Lucien gets up. A sheen of sweat covers his body.
Kirk collapses himself beside her. His chest is rising and heaving.
“Yes,” she says. And then in a louder voice to assure herself, “Yes!”
Together, they all laugh and embrace one another. There is no shame in what they have just done, Shannon thinks. She loves both Lucien and Kirk equivocally, she is sure of it, and she loves Jared as much as anyone could love an adopted brother. She is alive. Magnificently so. And now she understands the depth of their commitment to her, just as she is committed to keeping them alive and well.
So all is right in her world.
For now.
THE ARRANGEMENT
They are making love on his new, wide super king-sized bed. She is straddling him and bouncing on his hips. His hands are on her breasts, tweaking her nipples. Her back is arched and her head thrown back.
She reaches her orgasm soon enough, as does he. Once satiated, she collapses on top of his lean body. Both are panting and spent.
“I love you,” he says.
“I love you too.”
She creeps up to kiss his mouth.
“I have to go,” she says.
He grins uneasily. She knows he would rather prefer she spend the night with him, but they have an arrangement and she intends to stick to it, even though he is reluctant.
“I’d ask you to stay, but I know you won’t,” he says.
“I’ll stay tomorrow night.”
“Sure. Leave me when I’m penniless.”
“You’re far from penniless.” She laughs.
Lucien stretches out on his bed. He has moved out of the Chatterly and into a small rented house. He has forgone his considerable inheritance, but he is striking out on his own now. He is in the midst of registering his own real estate agency.
“Starting from scratch,” he says.
Though she knows it is not quite from scratch because he is using his own savings. He has sold his Mustang and the Mercedes and bought a second hand Lincoln instead.
“The only thing stopping me from leaving this place is you,” he tells her. Although his tone is cavalier, the look in his eyes is wistful.
“I know. And I’m really grateful to you for staying.”
She doesn’t want to leave. Her brother is happy here . . . so far. And she has Lucien.
And someone else.
That someone else’s car revs up Lucien’s driveway now.
“Uh oh. Someone’s here to steal you away from me,” Lucien says.
He says it jokingly, but Shannon knows that his heart is heavy about it. But he accepts that this is what she wants and he would not begrudge her this.
The doorbell rings.
“See you tomorrow.” Shannon parks a kiss on Lucien’s forehead before scampering out of bed and pulling on a robe.
She goes to the front door and opens it. Kirk stands there, smiling – as beautiful as the heavens themselves.
“You ready for our hot date?” he asks.
She kisses him lovingly.
“Had a rough day?”
“The worst. Bad crush injury. Eight hours in the OT straight.”
“You must be exhausted.”
“I am.” He grabs her waist and murmurs, “But I can still fuck.”
“Why, Dr. Fitzpatrick! Your language is becoming progressively worse since you have been mingling with the likes of – ”
“A Walker,” Lucien says. He is shirtless and only clad in his jeans, which he has pulled on for decency. “Hello, Kirk.”
Shannon says, “I was going to say Jared, but you’ll do too.”
“Hi, Lucien.” Kirk puts his arm possessively around Shannon. She knows he is not completely OK with this either, but he too loves her and respects her wishes.
Because it is very clear why she has to do this, and she made known to them her reasons.
“Don’t make me choose between the two of you. I can’t. I realize that now. I love both of you equally, and I’d do anything for both of you. So don’t make me choose, because I can’t and I won’t. I’d rather die first.”
And because she had nearly died, they acquiesce. She doesn’t think it is emotional blackmail at all. She is merely stating the truth as she knows it.
“Get dressed,” Kirk tells her. “Then we’ll go for dinner. And later we’ll go back to my place.”
He says this while eyeing Lucien meaningfully. His message is clear. You get to make love to her, and so will I.
Maybe they will always be wary of each other, Shannon thinks, but at least they have come to a truce, no matter how uneasy it is. Kirk respects what Lucien has done for her and believes he had nothing to do with his brother’s death, even though he is still suspicious of the Walkers in general.
Nevertheless, this is as good as it gets for the moment, Shannon thinks as she slips on her underwear and dress. So the three of them should best enjoy it until the next hurdle strikes. And she knows it will strike. It is just a matter of time before the ferryman comes to collect.
And then they would need to pool all their wits and collective powers to face the world and beyond.
The End
About The Author
Dawn Steele is the New Adult romance pen name of Aphrodite and Artemis Hunt. Aphrodite Hunt, Artemis Hunt and Dawn Steele have had 23 books in the Top 100 Amazon Erotica, 1 book in the Top 100 Amazon Romance, 12 books in the Top 100 of the overall Barnes and Noble store and 1 book in the Top 100 Amazon New Adult.
Dawn believes that true love will conquer all, even if the circumstances appear cagey at first glance. That is why all her books have ‘Happily Ever After’ endings, although she will tease you with twisty plots and subplots to make you think this will not be so in the beginning.
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Blind Wolf by Aubrey Rose
Copyright © 2013, Aubrey Rose – All Rights Reserved.
All Rights Reserved. This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is strictly prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author/publisher.
CHAPTER ONE
Julia
It was just a normal day at work until he arrived.
Julia piled the stack of books on top of the rolling shelf. Her back ached—the college library had gotten in a shipment of new books. Thirty-four boxes of them, in fact. Julia knew it was thirty-four boxes because her boss had made her carry every single one of them into the back storage room, and then unload every single one of them onto the shelving racks.
"Hurry up," Helen said, craning her neck out of her office and adjusting the glasses on her wrinkled, hooked nose. "We're closing soon."
"I know," Julia said, rolling her eyes so that her boss couldn't see. "I'm almost done."
"Really? Those books need to be shelved tonight."
"What?" Julia straightened up and then bent over again, her back twinging with pain.