HOTSHOT BROTHERS: Coyote Shifters

by Hunt, Sabrina

  Willow was murmuring in the background, “Pea, that happened to Burr. When he was marked by the spider demon’s Blood Brush. Ash came off his tattoo. Could it be like that?”

  “Maybe, my dear. It’s hard to say without seeing it…” Pea responded.

  “I’m sorry.” Hazel cut them off, sounding miserable. “All of the sudden I couldn’t teleport out to you. I could try again – somewhere else.”

  I thought about it, then said reluctantly, “Too big of a risk. What if you get stuck out here, too? Two is hard enough to keep hidden. Though I’m not sure if its minions are precautionary or if it knows. We’ll only use you as a last resort, Hazel, okay?”

  “Are you sure, Rayner?” Willow asked.

  “Yes,” I said heavily. “It makes me feel better to know you are all there. How’s Sky and Kalin? Where are they?”

  “Out and about,” Aunt Sil said. “They’ll be sad to have missed you.”

  “Give them my love and tell them to keep hanging in there.”

  There was a murmur of goodbyes and I was about to hang up when Pea interrupted. “Ray?”

  “What is it?” I asked, wishing I was home with them and that my brothers were awake.

  “This burden we’ve placed upon you is not one you should fight. Or question. You are more than capable of upholding it and winning against this darkness. Please – hold on.” Her voice was trembling. “Above all else, remember that. I think it will help.”

  “Okay, thanks. I will.”

  “And Ray? Don’t push yourself too hard, either. Rest.”

  “Thank you, Pea.” I sank down to the floor in front of the fire and leaned back against the chair. “See you soon.”

  “Be safe my dear.” With that, she hung up and I placed my phone facedown.

  Worry and exhaustion were jabbing at me. All I wanted was to rest, to take a blasting hot shower, and crawl into a soft bed.

  I must have dozed, because the next thing I knew, Paige was shaking me awake, her wet hair braided and pinned up. Blinking up at her, I sighed. “Sorry.”

  “Rayner, don’t–” She stopped herself and tugged at my shoulder. “Go take a shower and get in bed.” Her voice was firm but kind. “You need a decent night’s rest.”

  Standing up, I yawned and let her lead me into the bedroom. “But where will you sleep?”

  She glanced away and her hair hid her face. “It’s a big bed. We’re adults. It’s fine.”

  “Okay,” I murmured, too exhausted to disagree. “Hey, Nim needs to sleep–”

  “Out in the front room and not on the carpet. I know. There’s a sign. Now go.”

  After the shower, I was feeling more awake and ready for bed. Digging through my bag, I winced at the griminess of my clothes. I hoped there was a washing machine on site that we could use early tomorrow morning. Or maybe even a store where I could buy a few more things. I hadn’t packed enough. Even though I’d booked this room for a few days, that was only to throw off anyone who came asking questions – I was planning on leaving tomorrow.

  Preoccupied with plans, I went into the bedroom, drying my hair, and Paige jumped. She was in bed reading and she shot me a look. “Forget something?”

  I glanced down and backed into the bathroom. I was still wearing a towel. “Ha. My bad.”

  She laughed as the door closed and even I let out a rueful laugh. No matter what, things were always going to be a little weird between us, weren’t they?

  Once I was clothed, I came back out and crawled in. A happy sigh exuded from my very bones as I sank into the cool sheets and fluffy embrace of the bed. “This is a great bed.”

  “Isn’t it?” Paige enthused. “I’m going to check the tag tomorrow so I can invest in one.”

  “Probably expensive as sin,” I murmured. “When’s your birthday? I’ll get it for you.”

  “Bit of a contradiction, hm? But okay sure, next month,” Paige said, shifting down and setting her book aside. I watched her through drowsy lids. “Everything okay at home?”

  “Mm?” I stirred and opened my eyes, an uneasy drumroll starting in my chest. “Yeah. Why?”

  “You seemed more worried than usual when you got that call,” she said, biting her thumb. “Hazel okay? Ben? The rest of your brothers?”

  My lies pressed down on me and I sighed. “Why are you asking?”

  “Why aren’t you answering?” Paige challenged, her palm landing on the bed between us. “I knew it. Something is wrong. Last night, what you said–”

  “What did I say, exactly?” I asked, sitting up.

  “You were having a nightmare and calling for them.” Suddenly she was gripping my hand. “Rayner, I know I’ve been acting like I don’t want to know, but you can tell me…” Her eyes went wide. “This is what’s bothering you, isn’t it?” she asked.

  For a moment, I wavered, wanting to give in. But after what happened last time, I knew I couldn’t trust myself. Gently I disentangled her fingers and then squeezed her wrist. “I appreciate that, Paige. But you’re already doing more than enough. I can’t ask this of you.” Rubbing my face, I yawned and eyed the pillows. “There is a lot going on, but this isn’t the time. Sorry.”

  “Of course,” Paige said, pulling back, and mortification arranged her face into a comical kind of panic. “I didn’t – it’s fine. Good night.” She rolled over and dove down into the blankets.

  I settled down myself, staring up at the ceiling. In my mind, I was letting myself wade into dangerous waters, imagining what would have happened if I told her everything. Dreaming about what her touch would be like, what it was like, and about that kiss again.

  In that tangle of fantasy, I slipped into dreaming about Paige, reaching for her like every fool who’d ever strained after a star and thought he could get it.

  Chapter 12

  I was smiling in my sleep.

  A content sigh fluttered between my lips and I snuggled closer to my pillow. My fingers were knotted in soft cotton sheets and I was warm as a cat in a puddle of sunshine.

  Stretching out like said feline, I let my feet rub around the sheets, still caught in the tangle of a pleasant dream. I couldn’t remember what had happened exactly, but there was a leftover impression of comfort and security.

  Cool air teased across my chest and I shivered. Was a window open?

  Blearily, I opened my eyes and focused on the steep rising ceiling. A tinkling melody was sounding somewhere. And I frowned. That’s not my ceiling. Wait, this isn’t my room.

  At that moment, I became conscious of an arm wrapped around my back and the fact that the tease of air across my flushed skin was rhythmic. As well as a noticeable pressure on my shoulder and breast. Looking down, I sucked in a breath.

  I’d somehow curled around Rayner so that my nose was inches from the top of his head. He was half sleeping on my chest and half the pillow, one that we were sharing. My fingers were knotted in his shirt and my knees were tucked up against his abdomen.

  Shifting in his sleep, making a sleepy growl, his stubbly cheek brushed against the tender swell of my breast. Delicious desire curled up from between my legs.

  Rayner pulled me closer and then settled against me, still asleep. I couldn’t move. How was it that this was the second day in a row I’d woken up in Rayner’s arms? Did he do this?

  I glanced around and a cold shock of embarrassment went through me.

  I did this.

  In my sleep, I’d managed to roll over to Rayner’s side of the bed and plaster myself against him. He was so exhausted, there was no way he’d woken up and probably had just responded on instinct. In fact, he was probably dreaming about some gorgeous blonde right now.

  At that moment, I realized his other hand was between us, resting on my ribcage and the heat between my legs became unbearable. Tingling all over, I tried to figure out how to extricate myself, but I couldn’t escape him. Not without waking him up.

  No, there had to be a way. Maybe if I got a pillow–

  “Huh?�
�� Rayner stirred and pulled back, staring in confusion as he opened his eyes onto my chest. Then he stiffened and looked up. “Paige?”

  As we sprang apart, Rayner scrambling back, he slipped off the bed and went over in a sprawl of limbs. “Ray!” I exclaimed, clambering after him and then wincing as I got the edge of the bed. He was sitting up, rubbing the back of his head and looking bewildered. “Are you hurt?”

  “Probably just gave the people below us the wake-up call of the century,” he muttered, standing up and rolling his shoulder.

  “Never mind them, are you okay?” I asked.

  “Oh, uh, yeah.” He did a double take as he glanced at the bed, then at me. “Uh…”

  We stared at each other as I reddened and his lips twitched.

  “Listen, Ray…” I started to say.

  “Laundry,” he blurted out and I stopped. “Errands. I need more clothes. Do you?” He was scrambling around the room, grabbing up his wallet and thrusting a card at me. “Here, take this. Get whatever you think we need. Easier if we split up. Meet back here? Later?”

  “Um, okay,” I said quietly, accepting it. I hadn’t thought to bring extra credit cards or anything. But I didn’t know how I felt about spending Rayner’s money. “Hey, are we staying here another night?” I glanced out the window. “Oh, wow. That is some serious rain.”

  The melody I’d heard from earlier was the steady downpour of a storm blotting out the world. I had a feeling we weren’t going anywhere anytime soon. Oh boy.

  “Rain?” He went to the window and stared out. “Damn, it’s pouring.” Rubbing the back of his neck, Rayner paced back to his bag and grabbed it. “Uh, yeah, guess we have to.”

  With that, he vanished into the bathroom and I stared at the door, before curling into a small ball of utter humiliation.

  I think I must have imagined that kiss the other day.

  It was somewhere around two or three in the afternoon and Rayner still wasn’t back. I’d taken Nim out, had breakfast, gone shopping, and then come back for an early lunch, fed Nim, did laundry, and went out shopping again. Depositing the bags, I sighed as Nim came over to greet me.

  Rayner was avoiding me.

  Maybe tonight I should sleep on the floor, I thought to myself.

  Throughout the day, I’d been consumed with remembering how it felt to be held by Rayner. To hold him. The brush of his breath. The scrape of his beard. And the pressure of his lips.

  It was like the headiest of drugs. And I was desperate for another hit.

  Wandering around the room, I straightened up aimlessly. Then I grabbed Rayner’s bag from where he’d left it by the bathroom door after changing this morning. It was heavier than I’d been expecting and I dropped it, scattering the contents everywhere.

  “Eep!” I squeaked, hurrying to pick everything up. At any moment, I expected Rayner to reappear and catch me, giving him even more reason to hate me.

  I stopped as I reached for a black notebook and my face fell. No, Rayner didn’t hate me. He didn’t have a mean bone in his body. But I’d been throwing him so many mixed signals, he must have been losing his mind. I was losing my mind.

  With a sigh, I picked up the notebook and was about to flip it closed when my name caught my eye and without meaning to, I began to read.

  It’s been decided. I have to go get Paige.

  This is my worst nightmare. Or rather, it’s another layer of the nightmare I’m already in. As though it’s not bad enough my brothers are lying in a coma of dreams fettered by a bloodspell of the SW, now I have to go confront a woman who probably hates me. With good reason.

  I never dreamed I’d see her again, no matter how much I dreamed about her.

  Each word seemed to set off a mini explosion in my chest. My hands shook as I reread the last sentence over and over again.

  I knew I shouldn’t, but my hand seemed to turn the page of its own accord.

  The last few days have been a special kind of hell. Besides the time that Ben took off, Wes had to take Kalin through the desert, Burr went missing in Alaska, oh, and of course, when I left Cree in charge of Sky – we haven’t been apart much. And never like this.

  It’s hard to sleep or function when the four better parts of yourself are trapped and dying. When you have to walk among the women they love and offer up the barest scraps of comfort, never mind that one of them is your younger half-sister. A girl you’ve just managed to gain forgiveness from.

  Dying? Ben, Wes, Burr, and Cree were ill? My vision swam. What was happening?

  I thought we had so much more time to end this fight. To stop the SW. And now I’m on my own, with my four best friends’ lives hanging in the balance. I’m trying my damnedest not to give into fear, but it’s hard when you know you’ve been pinned like a mouse by a cunning eagle.

  It played us into a corner we cannot hope to escape without a miracle.

  A miracle I have to demand of Paige. We have to pin our hopes to her – hope she can make sense of this riddle of legends and maps and mountains.

  We have to find the place and time to seal the Deadlands by the solstice. If we can cut off the SW’s connection to it, then the binding holding my brothers should fail. In theory, anyways.

  Nothing is a guarantee in this world of shadows and spirits.

  How do I tell Paige this? It’s one thing for this to be my burden. I never wanted to pull her into this – especially not after Arizona. Before then, things were simple. Or seem simple in retrospect. Plus, the ease with which Hazel stepped into our world gave me hope that Paige could, too.

  But now she’s being thrown into it like a sheep to the wolves. Paige finding the answers is the key to so many hopes. That isn’t fair. I hate this.

  No, I won’t tell her that. I’ll lie because that’s what I do now. All the time. Especially to myself.

  I know the real reason I don’t want to see her. I’m afraid of how she’ll look at me. What she’ll say and think. At least with the distance and the time, I could pretend things were okay.

  No longer will I be able to.

  Even worse, what if she forgives me? What if she starts to think of me as she did before – or at least how I hoped she did before? How can I tie her to myself when the future is so uncertain? Or if I plan on following through, should we prevail? Of vanishing into the mountains?

  God above, I still remember the first time I saw her. She has no idea, of course, thinks the first time we met was when she fell down that bluff.

  But I was wandering through the woods one sunset and I saw a glimmer of red through the trees. Like a beacon, it drew me in and I stumbled upon her, smiling to herself as she read a book.

  I had to pinch myself to make sure she was real, that I wasn’t dreaming. Then I wondered if I’d found a wood nymph somehow. Only the blue backpack and red-laced boots weren’t exactly nymph-couture. All I wanted was to walk up and introduce myself. Maybe prostrate myself.

  Instead, I slunk away, my heart beating in every corner of my body. I was so distracted, I walked straight by Sil’s and was late to dinner. At said dinner, Burr tossed me a book and I didn’t even see it, it hit me right in the face. Everyone laughed their asses off, even me.

  Yet all I could think about was her, even as I avoided her until she tumbled into my life.

  She’s too smart to put up with any bullshit. Maybe that’s what it is.

  In fact, I wouldn’t blame her if Paige hit me straight across the face.

  A laugh bubbled from my throat as a drop fell onto the page and then another. I was sitting on the floor, crying and laughing. Only Rayner could do this to me.

  Rubbing my face, I closed his notebook, even though I was dying to read more. But I shouldn’t have snooped in the first place. And I didn’t know what to do with that entry, never mind another one.

  Stowing it back in his bag, I set it back against the wall and wandered into the living room, hugging myself. Guilt was worming through my stomach, as I couldn’t help but see all of Rayner’s acti
ons and words in a completely different light. And all the feelings I tried to crush down were rising in a tide. My body seemed to pulse as I remembered that kiss.

  “Rayner,” I murmured. I get it now.

  Then I jumped as the door swung open and Rayner appeared, his hair damp and a laundry basket balanced awkwardly in his hands, bags swinging from his arms.

  “Yo, Paige, I’m…” The basket tumbled out of his hands and he dropped the bags as he vaulted towards me. “Hey, what’s wrong? What happened?”

  Touching my cheek, I felt dampness and wiped at it. “Stubbed a toe.”

  “Oh.” He let out a breath of relief and glanced back at the mess of clothes and bags.

  “Here, let me help,” I said, pushing past him and trying to school my features. I was terrified Rayner would read me like a book and know I’d seen his notebook. Panicking, I glanced into the bedroom. Had I put everything back? “You didn’t have to drop everything,” I scolded.

  “Of course I did. I thought you were in trouble.” There was a patient equanimity to his tone and I went hot all over. Swallowing, I hastened to put the clothes back in the basket and Rayner caught at my wrist. “Paige. You’re bright red and teary-eyed. Are you sure you’re okay?”

  My face flamed even brighter looking down at his big hand wrapped around mine. “Yes?” I flinched at the squeaky upswing of my voice. “I mean. Yes. Of course.”

  “O-okay,” he said slowly, letting me go. I could hear the dubious note in his voice and I kept my eyes down. “It’s just not like you to act this way.”

  Of course it is. You probably thought I was being elegant and aloof the first time we met and the few times after, but I was so flustered I could hardly think straight or even look at you.

  After picking up the laundry and bags, I tried to occupy myself feeding Nim, but I spilled his food across the floor and Rayner looked at me. I squeaked and held the bag to my chest.

  “S-sorry!” I blurted out. He looked bewildered and it tugged at my heart. I started cleaning up hastily, then knocked the water dish over and sat back, my hands over my face. “Ugh!”

  Rayner started laughing and walked over to help me. “Why don’t you let me take care of this? You’re some kind of preoccupied.”