Ways in the Guardian: A Menage Romance Book Collection

by Barbara Downey

  “I don’t know why my father gave you your own room when there is one to be had in here. I can assure you that it’s more comfortable too.”

  I bit my lip, hoping that the wolf wasn’t aggressive and violent. “The room I have is just fine, thank you.” I collected myself one more time before I let out my thoughts. “I’m flattered that you are attracted to me, but things have changed since I’ve first met you. I have a boyfriend and I’m exclusive with him and only him.” I braced myself for a slap or for him to yell at me but instead he offered me a spot on one of his sofas.

  “Please, Lena. Sit down.” When I obeyed he continued. “You aren’t by any chance talking about the shifter that is currently on our land. The shifter that I could have murdered at a moment’s notice are you?” I felt like I’d been sucker-punched. Adam had seen Matthew too. I was stunned I couldn’t think of anything to say that could help my situation. “I smelled him the minute we came outside.”

  “Please don’t kill him.” I pleaded. “He is worried about me. He will only attack if you hurt me,” I narrowed my eyes, “or rape me.”

  Adam laughed. “Well that leaves us in a situation because the only way I won’t alert my people on patrol of his presence is if you willingly go to bed with me.”

  I swallowed hard. This was the moment I had always feared but knew was going to happen if I helped the enemy. I could see now that truly were my enemy as much as they wanted to keep my home safe and beautiful.

  “Fine.” I answered. “I will do what you say.”

  Adam looked at me surprised like he hadn’t expected it to be so easy. “Fantastic, why don’t you come here then?”

  “No!” I exclaimed and then held back my tone. “I mean not yet, if he’s out there I want to tell him what I’m doing and why.”

  “Very well.” He gestured towards the door. “You have five minutes.”

  I couldn’t believe that he was allowing me to go on my own. I power walked out of his quarters and into the woods. I didn’t look to see who was watching or if anyone had followed. What I was about to do was going to mess up all the hard work that I had done. But I refused to be used and abused by someone.

  Matthew was there, and I ran to his bear form and hugged him so tightly that his fur tickled my skin. He probably thought that I was telling him to go, or what I had told Adam, that I would have to betray him, but instead, I whispered in his ear. “We need to run. Now.”

  Matthew gestured to his back with his snout and I climbed on, grabbing on for dear life as he thundered down the hill. It wasn’t long before I could hear wolves howling behind us, but I was too scared to look and I kept my eyes wrenched shut as we made our way over the borderlands and safely into bear territory. We had just declared war and Evergreen Hills was about to become a war zone, but I knew in my heart I had done the right thing. There had been no other way.

  *****

  In the weeks that followed, the feud reignited with renewed fervor. For the first time in years bears and wolves were crossing the borderlands to attack one another on enemy territory. The townspeople were more convinced than ever that something needed to be done to the wild animal population. They decided that developing the land wasn’t the best choice but instead had animal control out there relentlessly hunting for animals that seemed dangerous.

  It felt bad to fail, and at the end of my sophomore year, I found myself putting in applications to transfer away from Evergreen Hills, away from Washington completely. In a way I felt a lot like Helen of Troy; I’d started a war and the only way I could stop it was to remove myself completely. I’d go to a place where Adam had no power, a place where I could finally feel safe.

  I’d had to leave campus housing and when I was at school I only stayed in the buildings I had class. I had to make sure there was someone to walk me to class. Even though it was neutral territory, Adam was always there, and I knew if I was alone he’d snatch me up and take me back to wolf territory.

  Matthew and I ultimately decided to transfer together and that summer we left Washington behind and moved to the University of Maine. Sprawling forests where we could still make a difference, but Matthew was the only person who had two forms and the bear form stayed hidden.

  It was bittersweet to leave Darren behind but he assured us that his place was with the clan. He would come to visit us when he could and I couldn’t believe that we used to be three kids fooling around. So much had changed. It made me wistful, but I didn’t need that anymore. I finally knew what true love was and had been willing to break rules and almost die for it. As much as the future scares me, I know that with having Matthew by my side, everything will have a way of working out.

  THE END

  See the next bonus story at the next page!

  6 of 25 Bonus Stories

  The Abduction

  “Are you really sure about this?” Laura asked Charlie, her heart skipping a beat as a ripple of both fear and excitement ran through her body.

  “Come on, Laura, you know very well that I would never let anything bad happen to you. I'm sure that we’re going to have a good time at the mines. And when we come back, we are going to be rich; think of all the money that is stashed away in those caves!” Charlie said to Laura, a woman that he had been interested in for a long time. Somehow, he had never quite gotten the nerve to tell her exactly how he felt.

  “I know that I can always count on you, but going to those haunted caves is completely something else, you know. What if all the tales that we hear are true, and that there are ghosts, aliens or whatever there?” she breathed out softly.

  “Oh, tell me that you honestly believe in all of that crap, Laura? Those are fairy tale stories for little kids and not adults like us,” he said, looking at her and noting the way that her breasts were moving up and down on her chest in a sexy way, bringing all sorts of dirty thoughts to mind. “Anyway, why don’t you look at it this way; there are both good and bad aliens and the good aliens or ghosts are most likely going to look after us, okay?”

  “Okay, Charlie, I give up, when do we leave for the mines?” she said in surrender.

  “We will leave in the morning, and you had better wear some clothes that are practical,” he said to her, squeezing her shoulder as he hugged her and prepared to leave.

  “Ha, are you going to tell me what to wear too?” she said, grabbing a pillow off the couch and tossing it at him.

  He hit the pillow aside as he laughed. How he enjoyed everything about this woman, from her beauty to her intelligence and humor. Every time he looked at her, he realized that he was falling more and more in love with her. Everything about her seemed to sweep him off his feet and he knew that, in the near future, he was going to have to tell her exactly how he felt. His feelings went deeper than he dared to admit and as each day went by they grew stronger and stronger. She was in the process of picking up another pillow to toss at him when he quickly grabbed her and pulled her into his arms, holding her tightly. As he looked down into her eyes, he realized that she was looking right back at him, and he thought he saw passion written all over her face and in her eyes. Her pupils were golden and they had grown large, sort of reflecting the same emotions that were showing in his eyes.

  “I'm not going to let you toss another cushion at me,” he said to her softly, his lips so close to hers, he could swear that they flicked over hers lightly as he talked.

  Her body was pressed into his and it was almost as if they were meant for each other; they fit together so well. The scent of her shampoo mingled with her natural scent went straight to his head, arousing him in a way that he could not understand. She looked up at him, but this time instead of looking into his eyes, her eyes checked out his lips, and they found their heads moving slowly together. Their lips connected lightly at first and as Charlie pulled away, Laura put her hands around his neck and pulled him back, their lips sealing tightly together.

  Her lips parted readily to let his tongue into her mouth as they began kissing each other, tasti
ng and searching each other with their tongues. Charlie felt a surge of arousal coursing through his body right to the most sensitive parts of his body. He felt as if he was on fire, and Laura was the only one that could put out that fire. She stood on the tips of her toes so that she could reach him easily, and Charlie held her by the hips, feeling the way that she too was trembling from all the desire that she felt within.

  “I'm really sorry about that. It should never have happened,” she said as she suddenly tore her lips away from his and pulled away from him.

  “But Laura, there is nothing to be sorry about; you and I are both adults and I think that we should be doing things so we don’t have any regrets. Maybe this is the way that it was meant to happen,” he said to her, trying to pull her back by the shoulders, but she removed his hands.

  “No, Charlie. You and I are just great friends, and let’s not ruin it for ourselves…because if we continue like this, I can see us having sex within no time,” she said to him slowly, the words coming like a slap against his face, since what she was clearly trying to avoid was the very thing that he was dying to do to her right at that moment.

  “Okay, I'm going to respect what you want,” he said to her, turning around so that she could not see the huge erection that had popped up in his pants, forming a tent in his crotch. “I think I'll leave now; don’t forget that tomorrow you and I are off to hunt for treasure at the mines.”

  “Yeah, pass by in the morning to pick me up, and as you go to sleep tonight, dream of the riches that we will have when we leave the mines,” she smiled at him, although he knew the only dreams that would fill his mind would be dreams of making love to her, something that looked like it would never come to pass.

  He kissed her lightly on the cheek and hurried out of the house. What was this woman doing to him? No other woman had ever made him feel so hopelessly in love the way that Laura made him feel, but from what she had just said, it was clear that all that she ever wanted from their relationship was friendship. Charlie knew that this was just the beginning, and that with perseverance, he was going to make her his.

  Charlie and Laura had known each other since they were in prep school. He had been a couple of classes ahead of her, and in the beginning they had been just more like playmates, since the neighborhood where they came from had very few kids. As time had progressed, Laura had grown into one of the sexiest women that Charlie had ever laid his eyes on, and she seemed to draw the attention of all the guys around. Many had tried hitting on her, but she always turned them down, which was probably one of the reasons that Charlie was so scared of messing things up. He feared rejection the same way that he feared death, and Charlie feared that if he made a move on Laura and she turned him down, he would die.

  *****

  Gurgi looked around the spaceship to see if everything was in order. He had a mission to accomplish for the master, and he intended to make sure that everything went as planned. He looked at himself in the mirror, checking out his green figure. His mission was to catch some human beings, and if he was going to do that without raising any suspicion, he was going to have to transform himself so that he resembled them. Human flesh was used by the aliens on his planet for sacrificial purposes, and he knew that if he and his superior managed to catch some, they would be rewarded dearly by their master, who was like a king in their land.

  “Okay, are you guys ready for us to go down?” said Merlow, the captain of the craft, who was in charge of the mission. They all nodded their ascent. “Perfect, Gurgi, you and Zarkosy will change into human beings and go to the mines at the end of the town. Remember, we don’t want you to risk melting and risking your identity, and so you are not to leave the area with the mines. Now, the more human beings you can lure, the better for all of us. Is that clear?”

  “Crystal,” Gurgi said, feeling somewhat excited, since it was his first time on earth and also because he was the youngest one of the group.

  “Okay then, go and prepare yourselves. There will be a ship to take you closer to Earth for your mission,” Merlow said through the loud speakers in the space ship.

  Gurgi wasted no time in heading to the chambers where they could transform into their human forms. He knew that it was a tricky thing going down to earth, but Gurgi had always loved challenges. They were not to stay in the sun for too long or their bodies would react and, also, they were not to go near sharp sounds as those could make them explode. That did not seem too difficult since the mines where they were going to lay in ambush for human beings had been deserted for a long time. The humans probably had discovered that it was where the aliens abducted their people. As he and Zarkosy came out of the transformation chambers, they looked different. They had injected themselves with an enzyme that had the ability to make them look like human beings for a couple of hours before they changed back into their natural forms.

  “Now that you are ready, you may proceed to board the shuttle that will be taking you down. Make sure that you land it in a place that cannot be spotted easily by the humans, otherwise your mission is going to be a flop,” Merlow said into the speakers from the cockpit.

  The captain could see most of the parts of the ship through cameras, and was, therefore, able to control almost everything that was happening.

  “One more thing before you go, Zarkosy and Gurgi. Do not, I repeat, do not be tempted to have sex with the human beings before they have gotten here and been treated with enzymes. This could have an effect on you,” the captain said, stopping Gurgi and Zarkosy in their steps as they had begun going to the shuttle.

  Gurgi wanted to ask what sex was, but he did not want to look stupid in front of everyone, and so he opted to keep his mouth shut. He had just turned 50, which, in the land of the aliens, was his prime youth age and he should get himself a life partner as soon as he found one. The shuttle to take them down to earth was ready and they got in. Gurgi felt weird in his new form, although he felt sort of excited with the new look. According to him, he looked much better than Zarkosy, although they could change the way that they looked if they wanted. They also had the ability to make themselves resemble any human being that they wanted.

  Gurgi took the cockpit of the shuttle, belting himself in and then looking back at Zarkosy to see if he was ready to go.

  “Okay, let’s do this,” Zarkosy said to him as Gurgi pressed a number of buttons on the dashboard before him.

  The shuttle launched itself off the space ship and soon they were descending down to earth at an alarming speed. Gurgi kept the craft under control, bringing it to a stop in a clearing in the middle of a forest near the mines. He and Zarkosy them began making their way towards the mines. It was early in the afternoon and the aliens were glad that they had picked a day when there was no sunlight, the weather looking as if there would be a storm brewing soon. Thick clouds hovered in the sky, and in the distance they could hear thunder. Gurgi noted the way that Earth looked so different from their land. There was a lot of greenery everywhere, but the things that he could not wait to see were human beings. He’d heard so much about them, beings just like him but living on a different planet and their bodies made of a different composition. Now he was finally going to meet them so that he could satisfy his curiosity. They were the main reason that he had signed up for this mission and undergone all of the necessary training, before being finally shortlisted to take part in the mission.

  *****

  “I'm feeling tired, let’s rest a little before we continue searching the caves,” Laura said to Charlie, grabbing his hand and pulling him down with her to sit on a huge rock boulder.

  She leaned her head against his shoulder, glad that she had accompanied him to the mines. To her, it was something more like an adventure out of the city, something out of the normal buildings and traffic that they were used to. Laura thought back to the kiss that she and Charlie had shared the previous day. No matter how hard she tried to get it out of her mind, she could not. It had to be the sweetest kiss that she had ever gotten i
n her life, and although she would never admit it, she was craving another one, just the same way that her body was also craving Charlie in other ways. Even just leaning against him right now, she could already feel the blood within her veins racing, goose bumps forming on her forearms. In between her thighs, she could also feel her desire spreading through her body, her moistness spreading into her thong in the most arousing way.

  She could feel her clit throbbing with desire in between her pussy lips and she was wondering for how long she would be able to keep insisting that she and Charlie could never be anything more than just friends. She really enjoyed his company as a friend and that was why she could not understand the other emotions that had been building up within her over the last couple of months. And then there was the fact that he might not interested in her at all, since he had never made a move on her in all this time despite the fact that they were almost always together after work.

  “Help me,” they heard a male voice saying softly from somewhere within the cave, and Laura immediately sat up, not sure if she had heard someone, or if she was just imagining things. “Help me!”

  It was the same voice again, and this time both she and Charlie stood up.

  “Who could that be? It sounds like he might be hurt pretty bad. Think that we should go in and look for him?” Charlie said, looking at her and then looking back at the entrance of the cave.

  “I really don’t have a good feeling about this, Charlie, maybe we should just skip the whole thing and go home,” she said to him, although, knowing Charlie well, he would never abandon a person that needed his help.

  “Are you out of your mind, Laura? Put yourself in that man’s place and assume that you were hurt or something, but the only people that could help you decided to leave you behind; how would you feel?” he said, taking her hand and beginning to lead her towards the entrance of the cave.