by L. A. Boruff
“Ready?” Jareth asked as he stepped closer.
A huge gust of wind nearly knocked all of us off our feet.
“Ladies? When I change get on my back and hold on tight.” I ordered; they both nodded their understanding.
I received puzzled looks from all around. Well, except for Jareth and Kragen.
“Sadie, we will lead you to the other side of the storm, and then we’ll only be a few miles away from our den. We can make it before the real storm hits,” Jareth told me.
I nodded my understanding, but not my agreement. Backing away to make more space, the bodies of the men did the same, I caught glimpses of interest before I shifted into an elk.
Calista, nor Electra, wasted any time before they’d climbed on passing the child and backpack back and forth until they were all situated with Kia in between the two of them. Her body curled in a tight ball. Calista grabbed what mane I had, and Electra had one handheld tightly to Calista and the other holding Kia.
I stomped my foot, their legs tightened.
“Ready,” Electra told me.
Four of the men took off at a dead run, including Jareth who’d shifted into a massive wolf. I could tell this was his preferred form. Kragen stayed behind me as I took off after them with three others spread out on either side of him. Grim stayed at my side. The wind was whipping through the trees. Several times either Calista or Elecrtra cried out in pain as a smaller branch or limb clipped them. They both huddled as low as they could, with Electra trying to cover all of Kia. Theirs legs so tight, I thought I would have bruises in the morning if not for my healing abilities. Dodging trees and other debris didn’t even come close to getting me up to the full speed of an elk, but it was faster than my other form.
There was energy and magic being used by some of the others to allow them to keep up. The massive storm opened its doors again as torrential rain came down in sheets of wavery glass. Visibility became harder further slowing us down. Everyone had spread out over the mile we’d run so far, so I’d lost sight of a few of them already. The wind now screaming as much as howling around us pushing at us even as we pushed back trying to stay on course. Still, I knew we were already drifting some. Branches and limbs crashed and flew around us, several of the guys had stopped big branches from smacking into the girls and me. If we got out of this, I would have to give them a big kiss of thanks!
In the background, I would say not even a half a mile away was the impact of large trees hitting others or the ground as they were torn away at the root. We had to go faster. Lightning struck a tree not fifty feet to the right of me. Fear took root at the thought of it hitting us. The need to get Kia to safety drove me to go faster despite all the obstacles. The yelling of the guys around us as they kept up with each other, giving directions or warnings equally. Or just trying to stay within hearing distance so no one would get lost.
I raced forward trying not to lose my passengers or hit something as the instincts of the animal rose to guide me to safety. A different type of shouting came to me, but I didn’t take the time to try and decipher it. I’d lost sight of the three men and the wolf in front of me a few minutes ago with the rain pouring like a fast-moving river as the water rises becoming deceptively dangerous. Already, the ground was becoming muddy making it even harder. The shouting faded a little. Grim was staying close but the mud was sucking at his paws slowing him. We needed another plan.
Grim? The moment we get to a clearing with enough room, I’m changing to dragon. You know the drill run up my tail and get with the others. It’s going to be rough so try and find a scale or horn you can capture with your teeth.
Yes! Fly out of danger. You should have done already, Grim said in disgust.
Stupid mutt. If he was so smart, then he should have told me earlier.
My name came on the wind, but I couldn’t tell from which direction it was blown away so fast. It seemed we ran through the storm passing it by, but I was fairly sure we were working our way outwards away from the storm. I no longer heard trees crashing or falling. Finally, after an eternity, we came to a clearing. The moment I had enough room I changed. Electra and Calista squeaked as their legs spread wider, then some alarm as a few of my protective spines and horns grew, forcing them to adjust around them. The good news, it gave them something to hold onto. Turning my head, I watched as Grim found enough traction to run up my tail. He found his spot. Looking around, I tried to spot any of the males, but we’d lost each other. Occasionally, I would hear my name on the wind, but not where it came from.
Stretching my wings out wide to loosen the muscles took but a moment, before I commenced flapping them to gain enough air under them to lift me. The result was even more rubbish, mud, and the remains the wind was leaving behind as it pelted my sides flying in all directions. Lifting almost straight up, the wind kept trying to force me into the trees, so I strained to gain altitude quicker. Finally, I made it up, letting the wind guide my movements until I could orient myself. Relief flooded me to see the biggest part of the storm was just behind us going southeast. I roared a challenge at it, hoping the guys would hear it and know that I was no longer on the ground. I turned northwest and flew not into the remaining storm but skimming the outskirts of it.
The false darkness lit with lightening, but it was further away. Thank the Goddess. Roaring again, aspiring for a return acknowledgement so I knew the others had made it through the worst.
A lone howl further to the east answered me. Good. At least, Jareth knew I’d made it. The heavens lite up like a Christmas tree for a brief moment, the rain parted, and a rent opened almost a mile long right down the middle of the storm system, racing its way across Idaho towards Montana.
Oh, shit! Monsters poured through in their own panic as the demon layer met with Earth’s layer. Those that could fly did; the other’s ran as if their lives depended on it and it did. A storm in their own realm leached into ours close to overtaking those fleeing. Wyverns, harpys, large bat like creatures, erinyes, and a host of other smaller creatures flew like the devil himself was chasing him. I turned more northeast working my wings to gain speed with the wind. Just before I passed the rent, I caught glimpses of hellhounds, wolf demons, and a host of others I had no name for running through the forest never stopping their stampede to find safety. It had started.
One of those bat-like creatures separated from the rest was suddenly before me. The claws on its wings took a swipe at me. I banked ever conscious of my passengers. Turning my head, I let loose a gout of flame in the creature’s direction. It screamed in pain as I clipped one of its wings and it hastily flew away. The storm from the rent swept through, causing even more havoc.
Gaia, please let us make it back to our home safely, I prayed fervently.
I had a feeling Gaia was a little busy at the moment and we were on our own. I shifted directions several times. The wind and rain never letting up, but I finally saw the lights of the city. Scanning the horizon, looking for something to show me the way, I finally spotted our area of town. Heading straight for it, I alighted and as I shrank the others slid off me making a bee line for the door. It was open by the time I finished shifting back. Pausing to look over my shoulder, I prayed to the Goddess that the others had made it out safely. The door closed behind me.
The devastation I’d seen, that had already occurred, showed a swath had been cut right down the middle of the city leaving a path of debris and broken buildings. I’d heard alarms, sirens, and screaming throughout the area. There were small fires here and there, but the rain was keeping them under control. This was a fucking nightmare, and it was only the beginning. In only a few hours, I would be twenty at midnight. Gah! What a birthday present. Turning away from the chaos descending, I let the door close on the old world. Now, I all I wanted to do was hold Kia for a while and get some rest.
Later that night, I tossed and turned trying to find some peace. Grateful, Kia was willing to sleep in her own bed. While I couldn’t hear the turmoil or crazy going on as
the world was restructured, I could sense it deep in my bones making it hard for me to find rest. Finally, I drifted off. My last thoughts on Jareth and Kragen hoping they made it back to their own fortresses.
17
October 31, 2026
Hands skimmed over my body, jerking me from the sleep I desperately craved. Confusion settled over me, I was standing, and I couldn’t move my arms or legs. What the hell! There was something over my eyes. Where the fuck was I? What’s happening? My head twisted this way and that trying to get whatever it was that covered my eyes to slip off.
My head was grabbed, making me freeze. Another set of hands made sure the blind fold didn’t move.
“No, Sadie. Tonight, you will be punished,” a male behind me stated in firm hard tones.
I’d heard that voice before. Where?
My heart was beating so fast and loud, I almost didn’t hear his words.
“You need to let me the fuck go!” I snarled as bravely as I could while tied spread eagle, vulnerable.
My arms were tied out wide, while my legs were tied the same. Whatever was around them was soft and didn’t bite into my skin, perplexing me. Shouldn’t they be hurting me? I tried moving my legs to see what give I had when I realized that there was some type of bar between them. Oh, Goddess, what is this? Where’s Kia? The nagas? How was I taken? Please Gaia! Help me! I was suddenly so terrified; I didn’t know what to do. My body began to tremble against my will. My necked pulsed twice, but there was nothing else. I didn’t understand.
“You left us and must be punished,” growled a new male voice.
I’d heard this voice, too. I searched my memory, but my mind could only focus on Kia and where she’d been taken.
“Where is Kia? What have you done with her!” I bit out through gritted teeth so they wouldn’t chatter, giving my true feelings away.
“Sadie, Sadie, Sadie,” A crooning, drawling voice chastised me. “Don’t you know? This is only a dream.”
No, it couldn’t be! It was too real. A hard slap on my ass, jolted me from my spiraling thoughts. A callused hand rub lightly over the sting.
A dark sinful voice growled low into my ear. “You left us behind, and you must be punished.”
What? What were they talking about? I didn’t leave anyone behind.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about!” I denied, my heart in my throat, wondering if this was the end.
But the crooning voice said this was dream. It can’t be. Everything seems so real. I needed to see!
“Take the blind off, please,” I begged. “Goddess, I hate begging. I hate that I’m acting this way. What does this say about me?”
“It says you’re not stupid, and you’re searching for a way to get you out of this situation.” The crooning voice was back against my ear.
Did I say that out loud? So muddled by everything that was happening.
I jumped when he took one of my lobes in his mouth, sucking it deep and tonguing it. A flash of heat shot straight to my core. My nipples hardened.
A rough, heavy chuckle sounded from in front of me. I jumped as fingers lightly skimmed across my puckered nipples. “Liked that did you?” The rich, sinful one asked me huskily.
The moment his fingers skimmed my nipples I realized I was bare ass naked. My jaw dropped. How could I have not noticed it before, when the one behind me slapped my ass.
“What the hell is going on?” I rasped still not believing this was a dream.
A pair of fingers went to the back of my head undoing the knot of whatever was over my eyes. It loosened and the soft material scrapped across the flesh of my face before I was blinking into the dim light of the room. My eyes focused and my jaw dropped for a second time at the grinning, hungry looking Kragen. A finger traced down the center of my spine, my flesh pebbled with goosebumps. Straining to look over my shoulder, my mouth dropped again to see Jareth.
“I don’t understand.” I was pretty sure my brain had completely short circuited and I was on repeat.
Kragen’s whiskey coated voice had my head snapping back around as I looked into his espresso eyes. “We told you, we have to punish you for leaving us.”
He leaned into the front of my body, and I tried leaning back but I had very little wiggle room. Kragen’s nose touched my cheek before he used it to caress down my face to where the arch of my neck meets my jaw, then it was his tongue that traveled straight down to the throbbing vein of my neck, before he sucked the flesh into his mouth. I groaned, my head falling back giving Kragen better access.
“Goddess, Sadie you smell so damn good,” Kragen rumbled against my throat, my whole body shivered in response. My throat swallowed hard causing him to return to sucking on my neck harder, never breaking the skin. I was going to have the mother of all hickeys.
A nip on my shoulder by Jareth had me squeaking in surprise, but not before adrenaline coursed through my body. His bites became a little harder as Jareth’s mouth grabbed the meat of the muscle leading to my neck. I was surprised the two didn’t bump heads. Clamping down to just this side of pain, before Jareth’s tongue bathed the throbbing spot. A dark fire lite within me. His mouth kissed and licked its way across to my other shoulder blade to do the same thing on that side. A gasp of surprised pain escaped as the bite became real and he sank his canines deep into the muscle. I screamed with the pleasurable pain it brought with it, my body bucking at once trying to get away and to thrust back into Jareth. Something was released into my body.
A blaze ignited, traveling down the bite through my nerve endings sparking the muscles into spasms as it went until it reached my pussy. The most sensitive nerve of all throbbed as I whimpered at the sensations it was evoking. It had a pulse of its own; my mind was a tumbling mass of need and bewilderment. A trickle of blood from Jareth’s bite made its way down my chest till reached the top edge of my breast.
Kragen’s mouth at my throat was gone leaving another throbbing point on my body, only for him to place his hot tongue over the blood and swipe upward gathering every drop of blood as it went. Stopping just before he reached where Jareth still held my bleeding shoulder in a tight grip. Why Kargen hadn’t bitten me like Jareth I didn’t know.
“Fucking heaven,” Kragen’s voice was tight with thirst as he straightened back up to face me. “Sweet, sweet, Sadie. You’re ours. Ours to pleasure, ours to punish,” he whispered over my mouth just before he dived in with a punishing kiss.
My mouth opened in protest only to be stopped as he invaded and claimed it. Our tongues rolling over each other, dueling for dominance.
“Mine!” The velvety voice of Jareth snarled, now harsh with power pulled away from the bite between my neck and shoulder. “You may run from us.” A lick just above my left shoulder blade, nip, I jumped. “You may hide from us.” Now a lick just above my right shoulder blade on the other side. Nip, I jumped again. “But you will always be found and brought home, little one.” Jareth’s hot breath breathed into that ear, before grabbing my hair forcing my mouth from Kragen’s to his for a deep, dark, bruising kiss.
Blood trickled down both sides of my left shoulder from Jareth’s bite now. I moaned into his kiss making it and him hotter as he sucked on my tongue. Oh, Goddess. The thump, thump, thumping between my legs had me wanting to rub my thighs together as I sought relief. My core blazing and dripping at the same time. The blood had reached just above my nipple, when the hot mouth of Kragen covered it and the blood, sucking both down. Pulling hard on the sensitive nub. A slice of pain on the end had me flinching, Kragen had nicked the tip with his fang, before that hot mouth left my nipple bereft as his tongue traveled up my chest to the still bleeding bite.
Jareth pulled back; my breathing now labored as I tried to catch my breath. My eyes locked with his.
“Let it go now, Sadie,” Jareth ordered, I had no idea what he meant, and it must have showed.
Kragen’s tongue raked across the bite marks and the wound sealed. Making me whimper with need. My nipple pulse
d in time with my clit distracting me. I watched a bead of blood form on the tip of my now rosier nipple threatening to splash to the floor.
“Sadie!” My eyes snapped up.
I hadn’t realized I’d lowered them as my whole being wanted to focus on those twin pointes of aching need and that bright, crimson pearl.
“Drop it, the glamour, now,” Jareth commanded forcibly.
I knew I must have looked dumbfounded and befuddled as I caught the softening of his features before they hardened once more.
“We want you. All of you.” I shook my head no, unable to speak.
No one had ever seen my true form except Kia and my parents.
Smack!
My ass stung.
“Drop it!” Jareth’s words charged the air.
I shook my head again.
Smack!
The other cheek felt the bite of pain.
My clit pulsed; my nipple ached.
“Drop IT!” Jareth ground out the last word.
“I’m afraid,” I hissed, equal parts fear, anger, and plain lust battling inside me.
“Little one, never be afraid to be you.” Jareth was now in front of me.
Those golden-brown cognac eyes stared into mine letting me see the truth in his words.
It was a dream. What could it hurt? I could admit it in a dream. Right? They were mine. Mine. Just as much as I was theirs.
Opening my eyes, I found two scrumptious men, one larger width wise than the other, both standing in front of me their arms crossed waiting patiently for me to decide. Neither wore a shirt and Goddess I wanted to run my hands through Jareth’s chest hair and up the smooth plains of Kragen’s chest and over those lovely dark nipples. Both had tapered waists, bounce a quarter off them abs. Following the dark hair of each as it traveled down both to their Adonis belts made me want to see where it led. I did a double take. They were wearing chaps. Black leather chaps with cod pieces. They both followed my eyes and then rolled them in exasperation.
