by Romi Hart
“I agree.”
25
Zanthe
Under the cover of night, we moved through the trees. The sounds of giant wings beat above us. There were far more than one giant, winged creature hiding in the darkness.
Staying close to the ground, Crina carried the bundled baby in her arms, rushing to the cave’s entrance. My one hope was that my brother wouldn’t want to be a hero.
It had been the worst mistake to take a moonlight family stroll. Or so I’d thought. Crina stopped moving as the sound kept going, eventually leaving us with nothing but silence.
I transformed into my bear for a moment to listen and smell. When I found nothing, I turned back into my human form. “That was odd.”
Standing up straight, she began going toward the cave at a reasonable pace. “I agree. And I think it’s time that we started figuring out what we need to do. Living in isolation isn’t going to work much longer.”
Freedrick met us as we came into the cave, the frown he wore told me he too wasn’t happy about staying in isolation. “This hiding is getting old.”
“How about you take Roark and play with him while Crina and I have a meeting about what can be done to end this hiding, as you call it?” I took Crina’s hand after she gave the baby to my brother. “We will come to you with some kind of a decision once we’ve made it.”
Cooing at the baby, Freedrick had all but forgotten his agitated state. “Take your time. Me and baby Roark will be playing. Won’t we, cutie-patootie?”
Leading Crina all the way to our quarters, I turned to face her, pulling away her layers of clothing right away. She looked down as my hands made quick work of things. “And what are you doing?”
Jerking my head at the small river that ran through the cavern, I let her know what I was doing. “Our meeting will be held in the bath.”
“It’s a bit cold for that, isn’t it?” She shivered as I left her naked.
Getting rid of my clothes, I soon joined her in the buff. “It is a bit on the cold side.” Picking her up, I walked into the water until it was up to my waist before easing her down to impale her soft, warm body on my long, hard cock. “This should warm us as we bathe.”
Slowly, stroking my arms with her long fingernails, she moaned in agreement, “Yes, this will work just fine.”
Moving her up and down, I let our upper bodies graze together. “We’re going to have to make a move to above ground.”
Her nails bit into my shoulders. “Are you sure it’ll be okay for Freedrick to go up?”
“I’m thinking about making a transformation in him.” Leaning her back, I let her body float on the water’s surface, as I moved her back and forth to stroke me.
“What sort of transformation are you talking about?” She groaned as I rubbed her clit with my fingertip.
“I’m talking about making him look like something other than a man.” My brother had a vague feminine look about him. His face and hair could be pulled off. It was his massive body that would give us trouble making it look as if he was a woman.
“So, you want to make him look like a woman?” she asked, then clenched her thighs to entice me to move her faster.
The water sloshed around my waist as I moved her body faster. “Do you think we can find or make clothes to fit him? Like dresses? And what about shoes? Do they make women’s shoes that big?”
“Amazon’s,” she said with a groan. “There’s a clothing company called that. It’s for women of above-average size. I’m sure we can find him something to wear there. We can look online. I’ll get his measurements. We could pull it off. But what will he say about that?”
Her body tensed around mine for only a moment, then she sighed, and the tension went away much to my joy. “He’ll say yes to anything at this point. It’s been a year since we’ve been down here. He’s ready to get out. Get some action. You know what I’m saying?”
My brother was restless. More restless than he’d been in a very long time.
Crina brought up a good point, “But he’ll be portraying a female. Won’t that be – um, confusing?”
Pulling her body up, I held her close to me as we moved, making waves. “I’m sure he can figure that out himself. It’s time we get back to the world above ground. We’ve hidden long enough.”
“My family would love to meet you and Roark.” She kissed a line up my neck. “And we could let them give us a small wedding. It would make them happy to have us married their way. It’s literally jumping over a stick. No big deal at all. But it’s festive and it’ll make them feel closer to you and our son.”
“Family.” I breathed her in. “A real family.”
“Yes, that’s what we are.” I nibbled on her earlobe as she moaned, “And that’s what we’ll always be. And for a while, my parents will be a part of that.” She buried her face in my shoulder. “I shouldn’t think about when the time comes that they’ll go, and I’ll stay behind.”
“It would be that way anyway, my sweet,” I reminded her. “No reason to get sad now.”
“I know.” She sniffled. “It’s just hard not to get a little melancholy when thinking about not having them around any longer. But it’s been a year since I’ve seen them anyway.” Pulling her head back, she looked at me with wide eyes. “You don’t think that Codut knows about them, do you? You don’t think he would use them to get Freedrick, do you?”
I hadn’t until she said something about that. “Let’s not think about that right now. This last year has been nothing but worrying about the future. It’s time to stop worrying and start preparing.”
“For a battle?” she asked with shimmering eyes. “A battle that will incorporate my family and maybe even our son?”
“I won’t let that happen.” I wasn’t sure how I could stop it, but I wouldn’t allow that to happen.
Codut wanted my brother. If he had him, then he wouldn’t even think twice about me and my family. But how to give him my brother, without giving him, my brother?
A plan swirled in my head as I took Crina up to a height that left her screaming, “Zanthe!” Her nails dug into my back, raking across it, leaving her mark on my flesh, the same way I’d done hers time and time again.
Kissing the top of her head as her body sagged in my arms, I gave her a moment’s rest. Any time we had alone, I took full advantage of now that we had a baby who took up most of our time.
Not that time with our son wasn’t precious. But time with his mother was equally as valuable.
Trembling, she took a deep breath, the sniffed along the side of my head. “You might not believe this, but I can smell you, Zanthe.”
“I do believe you.” I sniffed her hair. “No matter what shampoo you use, no matter what type of scent of soap you use or perfume you wear, I can still smell your unique scent underneath them all.”
“I love being a bear-shifter.” She sniffed all over my head then kissed me. “It’s cool.”
“I agree.” I loved being a bear-shifter with her more than I loved it before she was one. “Playing in the snow with you, in our fur, is something amazing.” I’d never had sex as a bear. With Crina, now I could, and we had. “Sex in the snow as bears was fun. Would you like to give it a go in the water?”
“As bears?” She blushed, sexily. “I’m game if you are.”
“And I’m always game,” I let her know as I let her go and morphed into my bear.
Moving back, she made room for her big bear to come out to play. “Life with you is more than just bearable.” How Crina loved making bear-puns. “It’s unbearlievable!”
Another word for the dictionary I was writing of new ones she came up with. But she’d used it correctly, in my opinion.
Our lives were unbearlievable and I had the idea that they would stay that way for a beary, beary long time.
Victor (Anarock Shifters, Book 1) - Special Preview
1
“Suit up!” Major Dickerson barked the order. The pilots gathered in the locker room at Ba
rksdale Air Force Base outside Shreveport, Louisiana, all jumped to obey.
Riley Strickland slammed her locker closed and tucked her flight helmet under her arm. She quelled the butterflies in her stomach and dropped into her biofeedback pattern. She learned this technique to calm herself in situations like this.
Her teammates handled the stress by cracking jokes back and forth, but she tuned them out. She long ago stopped letting their remarks annoy her even when their voices cut into her concentration.
She shrugged into her bomber jacket and followed Rover to the briefing room. He kept his back to her and trained his flinty gaze straight ahead. He never talked before a mission.
Pineapple and Lancelot snorted at some toilet humor behind her back. The more they laughed and punched each other’s shoulders, the more they revealed their buried anxiety at this call-up. The team wouldn’t get called up at all if the situation wasn’t pretty serious.
Bishop hustled up next to Riley and bumped her arm. “What do you think, Pocahontas? Do you think you’ll come back with another trophy like you did last time?”
She didn’t turn aside. She locked her gaze on the briefing room door ahead. Maybe Rover had the right idea. Maybe she should cultivate an impenetrable exterior so the others wouldn’t pester her at times like this.
“I don’t know, Bishop,” she breezed. “Maybe I’ll come back with your virginity as my trophy.”
Pineapple and Lancelot guffawed louder than ever. Bishop wheeled on them with his fists flying. “Shut the fuck up!”
Riley bit back a grin and took her place next to Rover. The minute she got inside the briefing room, her smile evaporated. She focused all her attention on the virtual map glowing from the light table.
Major Dickerson pointed his stylus at a large green patch tracing the varied Louisiana coast. “Two scout choppers spotted a flock of dragons rising out of Biloxi State Wildlife Management Area—here.”
He indicated a swath of islands south of New Orleans. Riley’s stomach flipped against her best efforts to stay calm. She swallowed hard to get her throat working. “When you say a flock, how many are we talking about?”
The Major scowled at her. She knew him too well to think he disapproved of her speaking out of turn. This team moved way beyond those petty concerns a long time ago. “The pilots didn’t say, which I take to mean there were too many to count.”
The others fell silent—all but Rover. That guy proved his worth a thousand times in battle. He earned his position as the team’s leader. “If that’s the case, it means this whole thing has gone way beyond what the suits in Washington want us to believe.”
“I think we can all safely assume we’ve been told a fraction of the real truth.” The Major circled his stylus. An area of ocean near New Orleans lit up. “This is the area the BLM admits got contaminated by the spill. It doesn’t come anywhere near Biloxi, but with the weather and currents, that means nothing. The slurry could have washed ashore anywhere. For all we know, it traveled farther down the coast, too. It could have contaminated the whole fucking bayou by now.”
“It would have to do a lot more than that to produce these mutations,” Riley pointed out. “We can’t be talking about an isolated spill. There must have been a leak going on for years to change the local wildlife into full-blown, fire-breathing dragons.”
Major Dickerson rounded on her. “You’re not here to discuss conspiracy theories, Lieutenant. You’re here to put those things down before they reach New Orleans. As long as they stay over the Wildlife Management Area, the government can plausibly deny their existence. If they get near New Orleans and millions of people see them flying around, Washington could have a massive PR disaster on their hands.”
Pineapple chortled. “Do you mean like toxic waste mutating gators into dragons isn’t enough of a PR disaster already?”
Major Dickerson pursed his lips and narrowed his eyes. He always did that to shut down discussion. “This team will fly out over Biloxi. If last time gives us any indication, the things will come out to meet you. You’ll engage them and shut down as many as you can. If the terrain gives you even the slightest clue that any more of those things are waiting to rise, you’re to bomb the place to kingdom come and leave nothing alive. Are we clear?”
The whole team responded in unison. “Sir! Yes, Sir!”
Despite their apparent enthusiasm, though, Riley could tell her teammates agreed with her. The pontiffs in Washington didn’t want anybody knowing what was really going on, not even the pilots tasked with cleaning up their mess. That wouldn’t stop inquisitive people from seeing the truth. This business couldn’t come from a spill, not even a large spill, and they would never admit the spill was anything but a trifle.
No, she saw these dragons in combat. She fought them in the air and even shot them down. No isolated spill could create those things. They must have been exposed to high concentrations of toxic waste over a long time.
Major Dickerson pitched his stylus on the light table. “You’re dismissed. Be safe out there, all of you.”
The five pilots left the briefing room and headed for the flight hangar. They instinctively assumed their flight formation pattern crossing the runway. They always did even when they weren’t airborne.
Rover took the point with Riley and Bishop side by side behind him. Pineapple and Lancelot brought up the rear. When they first left the briefing room, Pineapple and Lancelot still joked. As they neared the hangar, their conversation changed to anxious murmurs.
“How are the five of us supposed to take on a whole flock of those things?” Pineapple whispered.
“We handled them last time,” Lancelot replied. “We’ll be fine.”
“We handled them last time because there were only three of them,” Pineapple returned. “We teamed up on them. We never could have faced them one on one and the Major said there were more than the chopper pilots could count. This is going to be a bloodbath.”
“Will you shut the fuck up?” Lancelot hissed. “You’re making me nervous.”
“I’m just saying,” Pineapple countered. “How do we know they don’t have hundreds of those things down there?”
“Down where?” Lancelot fired back. “Biloxi is flat as a skillet. They couldn’t be hiding in the razor grass. For Christ’s sake, Pineapple, use your god damned brain for once.”
“I am using it, man,” Pineapple argued. “Think about it. If the spill traveled as far as the Major says, more of those things must be living out in the swamp. We could be in for a serious problem going out there with only five pilots.”
Rover interrupted them by sliding back the hangar door. The scraping sound cut off any more talk. Riley thanked the stars for that. Their speculation only gave voice to all their worst fears. It didn’t help them mount up and go out to face those monsters.
In the short time since this team assembled, Riley and her comrades faced the worst horrors imaginable. The last time she encountered these dragons, they killed two pilots with their fiery breath and destroyed another plane. The pilot survived by ejecting over Lake Pontchartrain.
Rockets and gunfire did nothing to these creatures. Conventional weapons bounced right off their scales. Riley and Rover only succeeded in killing them by pulling a near-suicidal maneuver that almost cost their lives. They circled the dragons’ heads, stalled their engines, and then fired their jets into the dragons’ faces.
The scorching afterburn blinded them and made them crash into the ground. Then the pilots targeted the unprotected flesh connecting the dragons’ wings and limbs to their bodies. The dragons had no other vulnerabilities.
Riley tugged her helmet over her head and climbed into her plane. She was in her zone. She didn’t want to relive the past or to entertain fantasies about the future. She had a job to do. These five planes stood between the dragons and New Orleans—maybe even the whole country. They have to get rid of these things before the monsters decided to start attacking civilian areas.
Rover taxied o
ut of the hangar. Bishop went second—not because of any particular rank order. Riley didn’t care who went first. She and Bishop took turns following Rover in situations like this. Pineapple and Lancelot bickered over the same issue for nearly five minutes before Rover hit the tarmac. He punched his throttle and his plane rocketed into the air.
The instant he gunned the engine, all chatter died. One after the other, the pilots took to the sky. They climbed to twenty thousand feet and resumed their formation.
Rover’s deep voice crackled in Riley’s ear. “Passing Kisatchie National Forest.”
“Copy that,” Bishop clipped back. “False River coming up fast. A hundred miles to New Orleans.”
“Keep your radar open for any unfriendlies.” Rover’s head swiveled to one side. “Anything on your side, Pocahontas?”
“Nothing yet,” Riley replied. “If they came from Biloxi, they might not have migrated this far inland yet.”
“Yet,” Rover muttered.
The team fell silent again. No one wanted to think about what lay ahead. Riley let her hands pilot the plane. She dove into herself and went through a few cycles of her biofeedback routine, but it didn’t help her right now.
Dragons. The Navy made this team sign non-disclosure declaration as part of their security clearance, but Riley would never tell a living soul about the dragons. No one would believe her. Who in their right mind would believe a toxic spill off the Louisiana coast could change local wildlife into these deadly dragons?
Pineapple’s voice pierced her brain. “Holy fucking shit! There they are! Where the fuck did they come from?”
The whole team spun around to look, but it was too late. Five enormous dragons rose out of thin air on Riley’s port wingtip. In a fraction of a second, they dwarfed the fighters.
“Evasive maneuvers!” Rover roared. “Split off and get behind them.”
