Petting Them: An Anthology of Claw-ver Tails

by Tate James

  A sly grin crept across Boden’s face, and he gave me a moment to squirm in my own awkwardness before replying. “She’s not a shifter, but she knows about us. And in case you’re wondering, the girls aren’t his biological kids. Maeve was his sister-in-law, and when Adriel’s brother was killed, she and the girls were going to be kicked out of their house. Ad married her to circumvent some bureaucratic shifter bullshit and let them keep the family home.”

  If anything, this almost shocked me even more. It was such a... nice thing for him to do. It didn’t match the angry, sarcastic man I’d known for all of a day.

  “So, they’re not...” I trailed off. What was I asking here? If the path was clear for me to make a move? Jesus Christ Supercats, like it wasn’t enough that I’d almost let Boden fuck me in the woods like a wild animal and Hunter was clearly interested, I needed Adriel too? He wasn’t even remotely interested in me!

  Boden smirked. “No, they’re not romantic. But he loves those little girls like they’re his own. He’s angry and frustrated because he knows he won’t be around as much to see them grow up or keep them safe. It’s misplaced, but he’s blaming you.”

  “No shit,” I murmured. “But why? Can’t he just... not be a guardian? I didn’t ask for you all to tag along, don’t forget.” Vaguely, Boden’s earlier words came back to me, and I answered my own question. “No, it doesn’t work like that, does it?” Boden shook his head and sighed.

  “Sorry, Cleo. He’ll get over it eventually. He’s known this would happen for a long-ass time, so he just needs to suck it up.” He scraped back his own chair and stood. Placing his hands on my cheeks, he bent down so our faces were level. “It’s our sworn duty to protect the descendent, and it’s a damn high honor. None of us would trade this for the world, not even Ad.”

  “I wouldn’t be so sure,” I whispered, frowning. Adriel had really been an asshat the whole time I’d known him, but I guess it sort of made sense in hindsight. I was pretty confident he’d happily give up his calling to be rid of me, though.

  Boden gave me a small smile, his eyes running over my face and pausing briefly on my lips like he was thinking about kissing me, but then he released my face and straightened back up. “You don’t know him like I do. Just give him time and patience. Or don’t... Maybe a good kick in the nuts is exactly what he needs.” He made his way to the hall where the others had disappeared. “You can have the master bedroom where you showered. This cabin is protected so the Bastites won’t find us here.”

  “Thanks,” I said, trying not to chew a hole in my lip due to anxiety. “Good night.”

  “Sweet dreams, Cleo,” the blond man told me with a wink. Wasn’t hard to guess what sort of sweet dreams he was wishing me, given that wink was hot enough to set the damn house on fire.

  Alone in the kitchen, I groaned and dropped my face onto the table. Maybe I would’ve been better off with regular old, run-of-the-mill psychopaths and serial killers. I totally could have handled that situation better than all this magic.

  What in the actual fuck was I going to do?

  “Sleep, Cleo. You’re going to sleep.” I muttered the words to myself under my breath, like it made me less crazy to say it out loud. “In the morning, this won’t look so insane. Surely.”

  As reasonable as that all sounded, I knew damn well it was only going to get more nuts before I adjusted to the whole thing. Call it a hunch.

  I still had kittens to rescue, too!

  6

  When I woke, it was with an odd sense of deja-vu. A hot, hard body was wrapped around me, and I was sweating my damn nipples off.

  “Hunter?” I mumbled, trying—and failing—to wriggle out of his anaconda grip. “What are you doing in my bed?”

  “Sleeping,” he replied with a husky, half-asleep voice. “You started having a nightmare, and it was keeping me awake.”

  I frowned into the darkness, trying to remember what I might have dreamed but coming up blank. “So you decided to become my personal barnacle? How did that fix anything?”

  “You stopped thrashing around when I came in to check on you, so I decided to stay and let us both get some sleep. Besides, you’re the perfect little spoon size, did you know?” Hunter yawned heavily and stretched, but dragged me with him so I ended up sprawled across his chest with my legs straddling his waist. Which really wouldn’t have been such an issue except that my underwear was still drying from the sink wash I’d given them, and I was still commando.

  I froze against Hunter’s chest, not wanting to draw attention to my naked pussy pressed against his rapidly hardening cock. He still wore boxers, so maybe he wouldn’t notice?

  “Maybe this was a bad idea,” he murmured with a sleepy grin as his palms slid down my back and encountered the bare skin of my ass. “I’m currently considering all the ways I can take advantage of this situation.”

  Without conscious thought, I gave a little wriggle, then gasped when his hips bucked softly in response. Dammit. Why couldn’t my guardians be crusty old dudes. Or ladies! I never had been into pussy...

  Oh wait.

  Biting back a laugh at my own mental joke, I pushed up with my hands on Hunter’s stupidly chiseled chest to look at him.

  “Why would that be such a bad thing?” I was feeling flirty. Or maybe just horny. Whatever, he was the one in my bed, not the other way around. “Unless you also have a wife and kids?”

  His lips pulled up at the corners, like he was trying not to laugh at my sarcasm. “I don’t, and I hope Boden explained that situation a little better than that.”

  I rolled my eyes and huffed.

  “It would be bad,” Hunter continued, his hands both now gripping my ass cheeks as his erection rocked against my core in a lazy sort of way, “because technically this is a big old no-no from the powers that be.”

  Well, that made me pause. “How so?” I asked, my question only a fraction breathy with arousal. I was interested to hear what he meant by that, but to be totally honest, I was more interested in learning what it would feel like to lose those pesky boxers of his...

  “Our job is to keep you alive, not fuck you stupid. No matter how badly we might want to.” He let out a small, frustrated groan but didn’t make any moves to stop the torture.

  I frowned, then shook my head to try and regain some of my senses. “But earlier, Boden and I—”

  “Were about to break the rules in a big way,” Hunter finished my sentence for me. “But I can keep a secret if you can.” His dirty wink and smile suggested he wasn’t just talking about keeping my tryst with Boden quiet.

  I smirked back, leaning down to kiss him but hesitating just an inch from his lips. “You can, but can Adriel?” I sat back up and tried to ignore the urgent throbbing between my legs. “More to the point, would he? Loveless marriage and adopted kids aside, he still doesn’t seem super inclined to do me a solid, and I can’t imagine he’d be thrilled if I slept with both of his buddies.”

  Hunter wrinkled his nose and pouted in a way that said I had a valid question.

  Sighing heavily, I peeled his strong hands off my ass and scrambled off him. Hot sex with Hunter wasn’t going to happen. At least not until I could be sure Adriel wouldn’t go running off to tattle to whoever was in charge. I had no idea what the punishments for Hunter or Boden would be, but given there were people literally trying to kill us and magic was a real thing, I wasn’t messing around with the risk.

  “I’m going to grab a glass of water,” I announced. “You should go back to your room.”

  “I should,” Hunter agreed. “But do you want me to?”

  “Fuck no,” I groaned, running my hand through my hair, then grimacing when I spotted the hot-pink strands. “But you should.”

  With that, I stood up and tugged my borrowed sweatshirt over my ass and made my way out into the dark hallway. I never really needed lights on at nighttime, so I just trailed my fingers along the wall until I reached the kitchen.

  Once there, the light from the
moon lit up enough of the room that I was able to locate a glass and fill it with water from the tap. Leaning on the counter with one hand, I sipped my drink and peered out into the still night. There was something so serene about being in the forest at night. No cars or sirens or other manmade distractions...

  “You’re going to get us all killed, you know,” Adriel’s angry accusation startled me so hard that I dropped my glass into the sink with a clatter. Miraculously, it didn’t break, but the same couldn’t be said for my nerves.

  Turning to face him, I folded my arms to hide my trembling hands. He stood so damn close I needed to crane my neck to look at him, and his mere presence was making me sweat. I don’t know what it was, but angry, sarcastic men were just such a ridiculous turn-on it wasn’t even funny.

  “You three seem pretty capable of keeping yourselves alive,” I retorted. “The whole claws and fangs thing probably helps with that.” I mimed claws and fangs, but he didn’t even crack a smile. Stoic bastard.

  If anything, his glare just sharpened, and he placed a hand on either side of me on the sink, effectively boxing me in. Damn, that was sexy.

  “I didn’t mean the three of us. I meant the world, Margaret. You’re a hot mess. Since the moment you met us, all you can focus on is either sex or serial killers. We showed you that magic is real, and what was the first thing you did?” His accusing sneer scorched me, and I shifted uncomfortably. “You somehow wound up with your legs wrapped around the general of the Shifter Alliance like he’s some fuckboy you met in a club. This isn’t a game, Margaret. It’s the fate of the damn world.”

  “I’m well aware of that, Adriel,” I snapped back, feeling defensive as all fuck, even if he did pose some damn good points. “Might I remind you that this is all new information to me? I had no idea magic even existed until I saw Hunter turn into a huge-ass cat, so excuse me for requiring a little bit of time to wrap my brain around it all.” Gathering up my anger like a security blanket, I jabbed him in the chest with a finger. “As for Boden being in some army... well... that’s also news to me. It’s not like you’ve all just been offering this info up on a silver platter.”

  Adriel’s dark lashes narrowed around his eyes. “When, exactly, would you have liked us to explain this all to you? When you were drowning in booze last night? When you had Boden’s lips wrapped around your perky little tits in the woods? Or maybe just now when you were panting all over Hunter?” His lush lips curved into a cruel smile, and I floundered for a sassy response.

  “My tits,” I responded in a tart voice, “are not little.”

  This was equally the worst thing to say and the freaking best because as if on reflex, Adriel’s gaze dropped to the body part in question. The oversized sweatshirt had slipped off one of my shoulders, and the neckline hung dangerously close to exposing one of my moderate-sized breasts.

  “Fucking hell,” the bronze-skinned god of a man muttered. “You really are something.”

  The way he said that did not sound like a compliment.

  “If you’d kindly get the fuck out of my way? It’s late, and I’d rather be anywhere but here with you right now, Adriel,” I lied, swallowing hard and trying not to sound nervous.

  His gaze slowly returned to my face from my chest, and a humorless smile touched his lips. “Liar.” He called me on my bullshit, leaning in even closer until I could practically feel his body heat radiating off him. “You think I don’t see the way you look at me? The way your gaze lingers on my body and your breathing speeds up when I’m close?”

  Adriel crowded me tighter against the sink, and damn it if my traitorous lungs didn’t do exactly what he’d said. What fucking game was he even playing at? He’d made his contempt pretty damn clear.

  “You’re dreaming,” I denied his accusations with a shaking voice, “I’m more turned on by that toaster than you.”

  This was, apparently, the wrong thing to say. Adriel’s green eyes glittered with the challenge I’d just presented; I saw his lips curl even tighter in a cruel sort of smirk before his head dipped low and his lips brushed my earlobe.

  “You can’t lie for shit, Maggie,” he informed me, his warm breath tickling my ear and neck in a way that should not have been as erotic as it was. Ugh, holy fucking cats, I’m in trouble. “I think we both know that you’d happily let me fuck you over this sink right now.” One hand left the countertop, and I gasped as his warm fingers met the skin of my thigh.

  Holding his gaze defiantly, I desperately tried to control my breathing and heart rate as his hand caressed my skin, drifting higher underneath my sweatshirt. Lightning shocks of desire zapped through me, despite my better judgement, and it was all I could do to keep my feet under me. Given that I was about three seconds from melting into a puddle of sexually frustrated goo, I needed to end this little standoff ASAP.

  Reaching down, I smacked his hand off my thigh, then shoved his chest as hard as I dared.

  “You might be hot, Adriel, but no amount of rippling abs or dreamy ink can excuse a bad personality. And for the record, I don’t fuck married men. So keep your paws to yourself and stay the fuck out of my way.” Thankfully, my words were buoyed with righteous indignation to cover up the trembling arousal he’d set alight in me.

  With a disgusted glare, I pushed past him and out of the kitchen.

  When I returned to my bedroom and found the bed vacant, I breathed a heavy sigh of relief. After Adriel’s scorn, I couldn’t have handled Hunter’s advances. I needed another shower... preferably a cold one this time.

  Some time later, after shocking myself with ice-cold water and then mentally berating myself for being such a scatterbrained nitwit, I turned the hot water up and started washing my hair. Again. It was probably pointless, but I kept thinking if I washed it enough, then the color would fade down to something less garish.

  The ensuite for the room I’d been using had a really pretty view from the shower, so I took my time soaping up my hair while staring out into the still, dark night.

  Something moved between the trees, and I squinted to get a better look. Maybe a deer? Or was it one of the guys in cat form?

  Wow, never thought that would be a casual question on my mind. How easily I had just accepted the fact that they turned big and furry and clawed.

  No, that wasn’t an animal... it was a person. But not one of the guys. This person was too slight in build and was currently running away from the cabin as stealthily as possible. As I watched, the shadowy person paused and turned back to the house.

  I hadn’t bothered to turn a light on in the bathroom, so he probably couldn’t see me watching, but I saw him. Clear as day under the moonlight. He was tall but with a leaner sort of build than my cat guardians. His jet-black hair was shaved short on the sides and left longer on top, like he’d done it for a mohawk then couldn’t be bothered with the gelling. What was most striking, though, was the silver scar running the length of his face and bisecting his eyebrow. That eye was lighter than the other as well, and I guessed that if I saw him up close, it might be clouded over with blindness.

  As I watched, he took something from his pocket and pressed a button.

  Throughout the house, explosions detonated, and the darkness was erased by the intense glow of orange flames.

  That handsome, scar-faced motherfucker had just blown up the cabin!

  For a second I stood there, frozen in shock as he stared straight back at me. Apparently the light from the burning house had lit up the night enough that he could now see me. All of me. His gaze flickered down my naked body, then he smirked, gave me a little salute, and disappeared into the forest.

  The second he disappeared from sight, it was like the spell had broken.

  “Holy fucking cats!” I screamed, leaping out of the shower, grabbing the first towel I could reach, and dashing from the bathroom. The whole damn house was ablaze, and fire was already licking up the bedroom curtains as I ran through into the hallway. The guys must have all heard the explosions, too, on the
ir way into my room as I came crashing out.

  Needless to say, I somehow ended up in a naked tangle of limbs with—ugh, for cat’s sake—Adriel of all people.

  “Come on, we need to move,” Boden snapped, lifting me off Adriel and throwing me over his shoulder. The three of them moved through the burning house with quiet grace and slipped us out of a broken window at the back of the property.

  Once outside, it was clear to see what had happened. Small bombs had been placed around the perimeter of the structure, about three feet from the house itself. The flames produced by the explosions must have grabbed onto any flammable substances.

  “Why not inside the house?” I asked with a frown as Boden set me down on my feet under the protection of the trees. “Why only around the outside?”

  “Protection spell wouldn’t have let them any closer; that’s how I know it was Bastites. No one wishing us harm could have got within three feet of the house,” Boden replied, coughing a few times before grimacing. The smoke had been getting really thick as we exited, but there was something... not right.

  “I don’t think they were actually trying to kill us this time,” I commented, frowning up at the burning house. “Otherwise wouldn’t they have waited around and killed us when we left?”

  “She’s got a good point,” Hunter agreed, ruffling his fingers through his hair and scowling around us, like he thought the Bastites were hiding.

  Adriel grunted a noise and ran his eyes over me. “Shame she doesn’t have any clothes to keep that good point company. Were the towels all on fire too, Mags?”

  “Shit!” I yelped, frantically trying to cover all my lady bits with what I now realized was a washcloth, not a towel. Mother. Fucking. Cats. “Well,” I huffed, giving up on my boobs and deciding to just cover my taco. “I guess now you can see for yourself. My tits are not little.”

  Adriel rolled his eyes, but I swear there was a twitch of amusement in his face before he turned his back on us and stomped into the woods.