Petting Them: An Anthology of Claw-ver Tails

by Tate James

  “Oh my God, this is so stupid,” I panted. “I’m just taking Cash the knife, if I can. I’ll unlock those chains I saw.

  I squatted by the door and peered around the corner, keeping myself as small and inconspicuous as possible. Adam was already in bad shape, his head bowed, hair falling around his face. Blood stained his shirt and dripped between his knees, possibly from a broken nose.

  Shit.

  Cash was fighting two men in the corner. One of them managed to grab him from behind and the other pummeled him. I slipped in the door and crawled around the back of the chair, listening for Adam’s breathing and looking for any severe wounds. His deep, ragged sigh brought tears to my eyes. He was bruising, and blood still gushed from his nose, but Adam seemed okay, otherwise.

  The chains holding him were locked in place with several zip ties. I almost laughed aloud. This, I could do something about. I cut the ties with my knife, and whispered to Adam to get out, and I would help Cash.

  “I’ve got my knife. I’ll get it to him, Adam, I promise.”

  A slight nod was the only answer I got. He stayed in the chair, body slack and unresponsive…except for one tightly fisted hand. I didn’t know if he’d obey me, but he was definitely conscious.

  I stood and rushed the man hitting Cash at the same time as he drive the back of his head into the last one’s face.

  “Goddamn it, were you waiting for me?” I yelled, making Aldean, the one who’d been punching him, spin around in shock. He dove for me and I jumped back, forcing him right next to the still form of Adam, hands behind his back like they were bound in chains. “Take my knife, Cash,” I called out, and Aldean glanced behind him. But Cash and the other man were still grappling, and Aldean was wise to my distraction technique.

  “Keep the knife, girl. Yo’ gonna need it,” he grinned evilly and licked his yellow teeth. “I’m the new alpha, and I hear you’re my new witch. He grabbed his crotch and advanced a step, now inches from Adam in the chair.

  “She may need it, but I don’t.” Adam was behind him in the blink of an eye, clawed, grotesquely elongated fingers wrapped around his throat.

  “You aren’t smart enough to be alpha,” I muttered, and glanced toward Cash, just in time to see him slam the last man against the wall and shout at him to stop fighting and be still. But I wasn’t the only one with a knife. I shouted a warning just as silver flashed in the dim lantern light and Cash roared in pain.

  Aldean crumpled to the floor as Adam released him, strangled unconscious. “Don’t kill him,” Cash panted. “We do not kill our family.” The man had dropped the knife and stood with his hands raised. “Goddamn it, Hib. You’re better than this. You know our ways and this is not how we settle disputes.”

  “You gave yourself the mark, Cash. You didn’t wait for the challenges.”

  “You’ve had years to challenge me. I didn’t give myself anything. I went to Fatima, the same as anyone else. This is the mark she gave me. She demanded the vows. Would you have had him,” he pointed at the crumpled body on the floor, “as your alpha? Someone who threatens to rape the pack witch?”

  “You…You’re really a witch?”

  “I led Cash to you with a vision. I warned Adam of your attack with the same.” I didn’t say I was a witch. I couldn’t and frankly, the word gave me the willies.

  Movement near the door made me drop into a crouch, ready to fight or run, whatever Cash commanded. Devon came into the light, panting and covered in a sheen of sweat.

  “Goddamn it, took me too long to find you. I missed the good stuff.”

  Unexpected tears burned my eyes. Of course he’d come. Devon was pack, and I belonged to him, just as much as I did Adam or Cash, and they belonged to each other. He skirted the room and put an arm around me.

  “Hi,” I whispered as we watched Cash face off against the other man.

  “Hey, Boo, miss me?”

  Cash glanced our way and Devon snickered, ducking his face into my hair.

  “You stopped the sheriff’s man from shooting Adam,” Cash reminded me. Wolves don’t use guns. We don’t need them. Knives, teeth, claws are all that’s permitted.” He turned to Hib. “There will always be trouble in Breaux Bridge for us, we don’t need to make…” He hissed and grabbed the wound in his side and shook his head. “We don’t make trouble for each other. But when I get this healed, you and I will have words”

  He backed away and Hib ran for it, out the door and into the night. I’d seen this place, bloodier and more terrifying in my vision. Because we’d stopped horror from becoming reality. I’d stopped it. And suddenly, there was nothing more to fear from myself.

  19

  “Cash and I must heal ourselves, Frankie. Will you help us?”

  I scoffed. “Of course. You didn’t even have to ask.”

  The shared a look that told me I’d just agreed to more than I realized, but neither said a word as Adam hogtied the unconscious Aldean on the floor with his own chains, and Cash leaned on Devon, holding his side.

  “We heal faster than humans, but that bowie hit deep, and I need bigger magic to heal it, he whispered.

  “Is there any word other than magic we can use, I just can’t wrap my head around it.”

  Adam chuckled and went to Cash’s other side, the two friends flanking him, limping together as they led me into the woods.

  At a patch of soft grass Devon helped Cash lie down, then turned to me. “Sure, Honey, there’s another word we can use.” He grabbed me by the waist of my jeans and pulled me to him with a low growl. “Sex.”

  I glanced down at Cash, who was already struggling out of his shirt. He pressed the bloody wad of fabric to his side and cocked an eyebrow at me, then looked up to the sky and back again.

  “Moon’s full. Bigger magic on a full moon. Bigger sex, too.” He grinned, but it fell away from his face. “Devon. Stop.” Devon halted mid button and looked to his friend. “It also binds you to us if you do this. You will become our pack witch, our seer and healer.”

  “Do I have to fuck everyone if I do this?”

  “Hell no,” Adam hissed under his breath.

  “Like Adam said, hell no. But you will have to give yourself to me.”

  “And Adam and Dev?”

  Cash laughed and groaned in pain. “Gods. I shared a room with these assholes half my life. I share my house with them now. Do I get anything to myself?”

  “You will,” I replied, and Adam and Dev each took a step back from me. “But not tonight,” I continued, “and not every other night, either.” My heart pounded in my ears at my words. I’d never been the adventurous type, never considered dating more than one guy at once, let alone more than one in my bed simultaneously.

  I took Adam’s hand and slid it up under my shirt, reveling in Cash’s sharp intake of breath as he watched. “Cash didn’t finish. He knew you had gone and went after you.”

  “I get it,” he breathed. “Alpha’s first.”

  But he slid the top over my head and bent over my breast, pulling my nipple into his mouth and sucking it to a hard point. He repeated it with the other, his hands working at the button and fly of my jeans as he teased me, sliding my pants over my hips and down my thighs. All the while, I felt Devon’s eyes on us, molten chocolate that made me tremble as much as Adam’s hands did.

  When my pants were around my ankles, he steadied me as I stepped out, and slid one hand up between my legs to press against the mound between my thighs. “Go, heal Cash. I’ll be waiting.”

  I took his hand and led him to his best friend, holding out my other hand to Devon. “I never said you had to wait.”

  They helped me undress Cash and I kissed him, my hand wrapped around his growing erection as Adam and Dev took turns fingering and playing with me from behind. I bent over and took Cash in my mouth, feeling light and power grow between us until I was certain if I looked up, we would be pulling the moon to us like the tide.

  Adam lifted me, slid me down onto Cash, and straddled him
behind me, pressed hard against my ass as I rocked my hips, stroking Cash and myself to orgasm as the shirt fell away from his side and I watched the wound vanish before my eyes, before Devon rejoined us, his teeth and tongue on my nipples forcing me to close my eyes and savor the ecstasy.

  The power…the magic that made that possible made me tremble and clench harder, driven by new, secret knowledge that we shared. I bent forward and kissed him, my fist wrapped tight around Dev’s cock so we were all joined in the mounting pleasure. I moaned into Cash’s mouth as I felt him spasm inside me, pushing me over the edge to a shared climax.

  Before I could catch my breath, Adam pulled me off Cash and laid me on my back, thrusting himself inside me as Cash turned and took his turn, licking and sucking my neck, my breasts, his cock growing hard again as it rubbed against my hip.

  Each time Devon tried to back away, Cash drew him back to us, but Adam went fast and roared his orgasm to the sky while it was Cash I clutched in my hand, stroking him hard and fast.

  “Devon, please,” I panted, my body too liquid to sit up, but still raging with need. Devon lifted me and I went to my knees, sucking his turgid cock as Adam and Cash held him upright, his knees shaking as I sucked hard and fast until he throbbed and released down my throat with a strangled cry.

  “My God, woman,” he sighed, his voice ragged.

  “I want you all again.” I was ravenous, starving for them like nothing I’d ever felt before.

  “Of course,” Cash laughed, gently prying my hand off his erection. “But first, we must get you home. We need to run.”

  He leapt to his feet and hoisted me in his arms like I weighed nothing, laughing as he took off at a sprint, running so fast I was afraid to open my eyes, scared I’d fly out of his arms or we’d crash into a tree.

  The others kept his pace, running along side us, weaving in and out of the trees and cheering with every fallen log we flew over, until the blazing lights of home appeared ahead of us, guiding us the last few hundred yards.

  Cash didn’t release me until he laid me on the bed and kissed me. “The moon is full and we’ve used a lot of power tonight. She claims her due, and we must run.”

  “What were we just doing?”

  He chuckled and glanced at Adam, who was grinning ear to ear. “Different kind of running. Now. Don’t get scared.” He backed away from me, and his face contorted in pain for a moment, then in a ripple of fur, a cinnamon wolf stood at the foot of the bed, staring at me with golden eyes.

  “Get some rest. We’ll be back soon, and then we will wear you out.” Devon winked, inhaled sharply and in the same wave of power and fur, stood on all fours, his fur a thick, rich chocolate.

  Adam joined them, his fur a pattern of silver and black, and the three stared at me with eyes that were feral, but familiar. Mine, I thought as I stared at the giant wolves. You are all mine.

  They took off, leaving me sitting in the bed, naked under the covers, awaiting their return and, I was sure, incapable of sleep. But the adrenaline wore off and I finally gave up, letting my heavy eyelids close, shuttering out the moon that hung low in the window.

  20

  It was nearly dawn when they returned, but they kept their promise, and when they were done with me, I wasn’t sure if I’d even survived. We slept in a pile of bodies, so I was warm and protected between them all, and when I awoke, I remembered again my vision, so exultant that I almost cried out and woke them. I’d seen my own future, and it was better than I could have imagined.

  Better than anyone could have imagined for me.

  I let them sleep a while, carefully extracting myself and redressing in my sundress after locating the bathroom and washing the sex and sweat off me. Then I jumped on the bed hard enough to bounce them and demanded breakfast.

  It was sunny, cloudless, and Breaux Bridge was more beautiful than ever. I walked between two of my men, one arm in each of mine as we sauntered up to the café for coffee and beignets. We’d be meeting Devon later, but for now, it was just the three of us enjoying a lazy morning.

  “Morning Mom, Dad. How’s the coffee today?”

  Neither of them seemed surprised to see me, but it was in my father’s eyes that I saw recognition of a truth he’d wondered silently as my mother I had tried to hide me.

  He didn’t answer me but pointed a finger at Cash. “I see you finally took over your father’s business, LeBlanc. Make sure you treat her right.”

  Cash nodded. “I will. I’ve got to get your daughter trained up in the business too,” he sighed. “Poor thing went and got herself a job at Em’s place before I could tell her she’d be working for me, too.”

  My mother’s face was pure confusion, my father’s nothing but pride. Of course, he’d been Beaux LeBlanc’s best friend. Why wouldn’t he know that someday, his daughter might be close to his best friend’s son.

  Then, another, stranger thought came into my head…

  “You always knew, didn’t you Dad? That I’d come home?”

  He tapped the corner of his eye and pressed his lips together. “I kind of saw it coming, yeah.” He pulled out the seat next to him and Adam and Cash grabbed chairs from other tables and joined us.

  The waitress brought more coffee and powdered-sugar coated goodies as we sat, and I looked around at all of my family, my chest tight with emotion.

  “Gotta tell you Dad, I never did see this. Not for one second.”

  He winked and chuckled at my mother’s looked of bewilderment. “Don’t worry. There’s more to come.”

  About the Authors

  To read more from these authors please follow on Amazon:

  Amazon.com/Graceley-Knox/e/B06Y4NDX3V

  Amazon.com/D.D.-Miers/e/B00X6SVXQS

  Or visit their website:

  www.knoxandmiers.com

  FERAL MAGIC

  PART ONE

  TATE JAMES

  Description

  Volunteer kitten rescuer Margaret “Cleo” Carroll is having a monumentally crappy day. She was kicked out of her rental, her cat just died, and she’d rather stick rusty spoons in her eyes than beg help from her parents.

  Her house-bus breaking down on the side of the road in Butt-Fuck-Nowhere is the last straw. So when three drool-worthy strangers offer her a deal that seems too good to be true, tequila is to blame for her accepting.

  But once a deal is made in the name of magic, it cannot be undone. The consequences of reneging are severe, and Cleo has no desire to spend the rest of her days as a rodent. Especially not after her new travel companions show some claws of their own.

  A girl with no idea who she really is, three men who are much more than they first appear, and an ancient goddess on a power trip.

  All Cleo wanted to do was rescue some kittens.

  1

  “Could this day seriously get any worse?” I screamed, throwing my phone onto the passenger seat in anger before slamming my forehead on the steering wheel and letting the horn sound a long and angry note.

  It’d all begun before the sun was even up on the horizon. My cat of eighteen years, Willow, had finally succumbed to old age and passed away in her sleep. After crying for a solid hour, I’d had to box her up and bury her under the rose bushes at my best friend Meg’s house, seeing as my landlords were stuck up bastards who refused to let me plant in the small yard of my rented house.

  Next, my boss called to say they would be cutting back my hours because the store wasn’t busy enough to support so many staff. And by cutting back, he apparently meant completely. Fired. I was fired.

  Then, in a bid to cheer myself up, I’d gone to the salon to get my pastel purple hair touched up and ended up somehow walking away with a hot pink eyesore. Served me right for accepting an appointment with a trainee.

  All things considered, I’d been feeling pretty crappy already when the call came asking for my help. I hadn’t even blinked twice before saying yes to a kitten rescue mission in Texas—a full thirty-four hour drive from my home in Portland.
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  Now, a full six hours into my journey, I regretted my hasty decision to leave.

  Growling obscenities under my breath, I leaned over and fished around for where my phone had landed. My fingers gripped the flat-screened device like it was evil incarnate, and I ground my teeth hard as I hit redial.

  Remember those pretentious asshole landlords I’d mentioned? They’d just called to say I was being evicted.

  “Mom?” I snapped when she answered the phone in her irritatingly sweet voice. “You can’t just evict me like I’m some sort of squatter behind on rent. That’s my home!”

  “No, Margaret, it’s an investment property for your father and I. We only let you live there while it was a good investment.” My mother paused, and I could picture her lips pursed as she fiddled with her pearl necklace. Not the fun sort, either.

  I rolled my eyes so hard I swear I almost pulled an eye muscle. “Please stop calling me that,” I groaned. “My name is Cleo. Has been ever since I was five years old.”

  Prudence, my straight-laced, blond-haired, blue-eyed, suburban-housewife mother, snorted in disgust. “Because Meg decided all girls from Egypt must be related to Queen Cleopatra? That’s both ridiculous and awfully racially insensitive. Margaret is a beautiful name, darling, it suits you.”

  “Whatever,” I muttered, feeling like I was fifteen again. “Point is, you can’t just kick me out while I’m not even in the state. There must be laws against that or something.”

  Prudence hummed a noise under her breath, and I knew I was screwed. “Well, I’m sure there would be if you’d ever signed a lease. But given that we never drew up legal papers, we can legally do anything we like.” She paused to let that sink in, and I scrambled for words. “Margaret, darling, we aren’t just throwing you out into the gutter. You can stay here with me and Dad until you find something else, but unfortunately we won’t reconsider on the sale of your house.”