by K. R. Grace
I gasped in awe as the tunnel opened up and we approached a giant waterfall. My parents took me to see Niagara Falls once when I was seven. As awesome as that sight had been, it paled in comparison to the magnificent view in front of me now. Water flowed from the ceiling of the cave, cascading down rock formations before it landed in a jade green pool at the bottom. Everything looked pure, untouched, untamed.
“Beautiful,” I spoke reverently. And to think this was just beneath the surface of Drake’s backyard. Gah, I’d never leave if this were mine!
“Yeah, it is.”
I tore my eyes off the falls to look at him. He hadn’t even been looking at the water. His gaze was solely trained on me.
I cleared my throat before refocusing my attention on the path in front of me. I drove us over natural bridges and under plunging cavern walls until suddenly we were approaching the entrance of a giant, open area.
“You can park here,” Drake said, breaking the silence. I put the car in park, cut the engine, and looked around. There were five people sitting, talking to each other. Well, two huddled in opposite corners while the other two seemed to be in some sort of heated debate. In the center of it all was Meliena. What the heck?
“Here, you’ll need to give this to Bugsey, she’ll be your friend for life.”
I looked at the jar of peanut butter he was holding out to me and then back up at him. “Seriously?”
Drake chuckled. “Trust me.”
“Who’s Bugsey?”
Drake pointed the girl huddled in a corner. “That’s her. She’s a little skittish around people, but she’s cool once you get to know her.”
“So, are these your friends?” I asked as I surveyed the small crowd, if a small cluster of five people could even be called that.
“Yep. Come on. It’s time you met them.”
We both climbed out of the car, and I reluctantly handed Drake the keys in exchange for the jar of peanut butter. As soon as our doors shut, all talking ceased and five pairs of eyes were on us.
“Hey, guys. This is Star. Star, this is the gang.” Drake made a quick introduction as we approached them.
I wondered if it was too late to make a run for it.
Chapter Eighteen
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Drake
I watched everyone study Star, each trying to decide if she was someone to be trusted. It didn’t matter what I said about her. She had to pass the test before they would open up to her. This meeting was important because they needed to accept that Star was my life now. I’d choose her over them if it came down to it, and they needed to know why firsthand.
“Hi, I’m Stella.” It didn’t surprise me that Stella was the first to step forward. Of course, she made no move to shake Star’s hand. Thankfully, Star seemed to pick up on the silent cue and merely flashed Stella a bright smile.
Please let them like me, she silently pleaded and my heart took a dip in my chest. I hoped so, too.
“Nice to meet you, Stella. I love your hair.”
Stella shrugged. “It’s genetics. No die in the world gets rid of it.”
Rake stepped up next. “I’m Rake. The good-looking one in this bunch.” Before Star could say anything, Rake picked her up in a giant hug. My body went rigid at the sight of another man touching her. He plopped her back onto her feet and moved to turn away. Star grabbed a hold of his arm, causing my insides to burst into flames.
“You seem like a nice guy, Rake.” Star smiled innocently at him.
Rake winked and made a move to disengage himself from her grasp. She tisked. “Now, if you’d be so kind as to hand me back my wallet, we can continue as friends and nobody gets hurt.”
Sly chortled while Stella rolled her eyes. “Really, Rake? You tried to lift her wallet?”
It happened so fast. I wasn’t aware I was moving until I had Rake pressed up against the cave wall, his feet dangling off the ground. My hand squeezed on his windpipe as I growled at him.
“You touch her like that again and I’ll have your dead carcass mounted on my wall. Got that?” I tightened my hold until his face turned purple.
“Yeah,” Rake wheezed before I tossed him into a heap on the ground. As he huddled down on all fours gasping for air, he retrieved Star’s wallet from his back pocket. Star gave him a pat on the back as she took it and stuffed it into her jeans.
“I-I’m S-S-S-Sly.” The skunk shifter’s face was ten shades of red as he kept his head bowed and hand extended. I silently prayed he’d stay calm.
“It’s nice to meet you, Sly. I like your shirt. The Who is one of my favorite bands.” She shook his hand as she spoke softly.
Sly smiled brightly, briefly making eye contact with her before he released her hand and shuffled back to his corner. “M-mine too.”
Odd, seeing him touch her hadn’t had the same affect on me. Maybe it had something to do with the fact she initiated it.
Star turned to Bugsey who remained huddled in her corner, frowning at us. I knew Bugsey wasn’t a skeptic of Star because of our talk the other day. Unfortunately, her emotions tended to be erratic, so it was possible she could go off on Star for no reason.
“You must be Bugsey. Someone told me this was your favorite.” My girl held out the jar of peanut butter.
The squirrel shifter’s eyes lit up and she darted forward, grabbing her gift and clutching it to her chest. “Thank you.” She hurried back to her corner and proceeded to eat her treat.
I turned to Meliena who was stretched out on an old van seat, her dark brown eyes glowering at me.
Really, Drake? You brought her here? I thought Destiny made it clear where things stood for you.
Instead of replying, I ignored her and focused my attention on Star. “These are some of your nightly protectors.”
Star turned to the group and gave them her biggest smile yet. It was a side of her I’d never seen. I was used to snarky Star or melancholic Star or pissed off Star or relaxed Star. I had never seen this care giving side of her. It completely changed her persona, softening her edges, making her trustworthy.
“I’m sorry if I’m messing up your lives. If there was any way to change this mess, I would.”
Here’s a thought, leave the area and never come back.
I sent a warning in Meliena’s direction. Not. A. Word. Liena.
She huffed and tossed her braid over her shoulder before standing. “I have class. It was good to see you again, Star.”
Before Star had the chance to say anything, Meliena disappeared down one of the dark tunnels. Star slid up beside me and wrapped her arm around my waist. I hugged her against my side as I turned to face the rest of the group.
“It’s okay, Star. We know you didn’t ask for this.” When Stella smiled, her eyes lit up, and she looked so much like her raccoon self that I couldn’t hold back my own smile.
“Still,” Star frowned, casting her eyes downward.
I gave her shoulders a squeeze, making her train those emerald eyes on me. God, I needed to kiss her. It took a few minutes for me to remember we were still standing in front of my friends. Actually, it took Rake coughing like he had smoker’s lung to get my attention.
“The Falcons seem to be keeping their distance. I think we’re in the clear for now,” Bugsey surprised us all by saying.
Normally, she couldn’t be bothered until she finished her peanut butter.
“It’s just a rouse. The Falcons aren’t the type to sit back,” Stella muttered as she pulled out her hand sanitizer and began to furiously clean her hands.
“M-maybe n-no one felt a connection for S-Star and they all l-left.” Sly shrugged hopefully.
If only.
I noticed Rake was exceptionally quiet. As the others continued to talk about the Falcons, I tuned into his thoughts, trying to figure out what was up with him today.
He’ll flip if I tell him. I’m so screwed.
Unfortunately, he focused his attention on the conversation between Stella and Sly, and I did
n’t get anything else out of him. What did he have to say that I would be upset about?
“Rake? What do you think?” I asked, hoping he would see this as his opportunity to tell me what was going on.
His eyes shifted around the room at the others before he looked at me. There was a split second where he debated on whether to tell a lie or the truth. I didn’t give him the chance to decide. Instead, I grabbed him by the arm and dragged him away from the others.
“Please don’t kill me,” Rake whispered.
Shit, what had he done?
“Spill it, Rake.” I growled as I fisted my hands onto his jacket lapels and pressed him high up against the wall.
He choked and sputtered for a few seconds as his face turned red. His flailing feet connected with my shins but not hard enough to cause any pain.
“I had a little too much to drink at Mike’s Bar last night, and um, you know how I get when I’m drunk. I can’t shut my mouth and all the truth I normally can’t tell starts spilling out. And, well, I might’ve told Hayden Sterling where Star lived.”
“You did what?” I roared as I slammed him into the wall.
“I’m sorry, Drake. I didn’t mean to. She was just so hot and came on so strong. I was hopeless, man.”
“So you let her lead you around by the dick? You sorry piece of shit!” I threw him down onto the ground. “Doesn’t family mean anything to you? You just put us all in jeopardy!”
Rake didn’t even try to move. He pulled himself into a fetal position and covered his head, waiting for my next blow. Well, it wasn’t going to come. He wasn’t worth the mess I’d have on my hands.
“Get out of here. If I catch you in this cave, on my property, or anywhere near Star, I’ll kill you.”
I didn’t wait for him to pick himself up and leave. Instead, I turned and stalked back toward the others. Rake was family. But, Star came first now, and I had to eliminate anyone who would be a threat to her.
When I entered the main room, I found Star sitting in Bugsey’s corner with all the others circled around her. Sly and Bugsey weren’t their usual jittery messes. Instead, both sat calmly, smiling at whatever Star was saying. Even Stella seemed more stabilized than usual. Not once did she reach for her hand sanitizer or freak over the dirt floor. Star finished speaking and they all erupted with laughter. Our eyes met as she glanced over in my direction, and her smile grew even wider.
You have amazing friends, Drake.
That was true, but she was the most amazing person the Creator ever made. And God help me, I was in love with her.
Chapter Nineteen
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Star
“We like to call this our Island of Misfits.” An endearing smile spread across Stella’s face.
“What do you mean?” Yeah, there were some things about them that stood out in normal society, but nothing screamed supernatural beings.
“We can’t function like normal people. Drake took us in and gave us a safe place to be ourselves.”
“You all live in this cave?” My jaw dropped as I looked around at the cold, damp cavern. As much as I said I’d never want to leave this place, no amount of money in the world would get me to live down here.
Sly chuckled. “N-no, we each have a c-cabin on the property.” He ran his fingers through this short black and white hair. The chunks of white were about two inches wide and ran from his temples to the nape of his neck.
“Oh.” That made much more sense.
“Yeah, Drake let us build whatever we wanted, and promised we could stay here as long as we needed.” Bugsey smacked her lips after finishing off a glob of peanut butter. If I had to guess, I’d say she was the squirrel shifter. The girl loved her nuts.
“So, what do you do during the day?” I asked, trying to stay focused. These were Drake’s friends. I wanted to get to know them and let them know they could trust me. For some reason, that was critically important.
“Sly, Rake, and I are nocturnal, so we mostly sleep during the day,” Stella answered.
“And I work out of my house as a copy editor.” Bugsey said before she cleaned the last of the jar.
“I work the third shift at a recycling center. We do stuff like turn plastic bottles into yarn and pulping old pencils into paper.” Sly added.
“I work nights as a chemical engineer for Y-12.” Stella shrugged like it wasn’t a big deal. If she had that type of job, the girl had to be a freakin’ genius.
They seemed so normal. I had a hard time imagining them as lethal shifters. I’d already figured out Sly was the skunk shifter. The poor guy smelled funky. I wondered if bathing in tomato juice would work for him. I’d have to remember to talk to Drake about that.
Stella was obviously the raccoon based on her silver and black hair and the way she was constantly washing her hands with hand sanitizer. That left Rake as the coyote, but he was MIA at the moment.
I noticed Drake kept himself removed from the group. He sat on an old bench seat watching us. I wanted him to come over and join me but didn’t have the guts to send him a blatant invitation. The longer I was around him, the more I craved his touch.
He abruptly stood and stalked away into one of the tunnels. Something was wrong. His body language was screaming at me to comfort him.
“Sorry, I’ll be right back,” I smiled at everyone before I hopped off my crate and hurried toward where Drake had disappeared.
The light from the main room faded behind me as I struggled to find him.
“Drake?” I called out.
The silence was starting to freak me out and the darker the cave grew, the more claustrophobic I became. I was about to turn back and rejoin the others when a strong hand grabbed a hold of me and pulled me against a warm, solid chest smelling of pine and citrus. A hot mouth pressed against mine, and my world melted away.
He sucked on my bottom lip, and my knees gave out. I gasped as I clung onto his shirt. Drake turned to press my back against the cave wall. With a deep groan, he clamped his large hands down onto my backside and hoisted me up against him. On instinct, I wrapped my legs around his waist, clutching his shoulders for support. Something snapped inside me as I feverishly kissed him back. He rocked his hips forward, making my stomach quiver involuntarily as my body surged with desperate, agonizing need. The kiss reached deep into my core and set my body on fire. I wanted to sink my teeth into his sinful lips and mark him as mine.
“God help me, I tried to stay away but I can’t,” he gasped as he tore away from my lips and began nibbling down the side of my neck, back to the sensitive spot behind my ear.
I cried out, rocking against him. Nothing. Nothing had ever felt so good. The fabric of his shirt bunched under my fingers.
He kissed me with a drive that both terrified and thrilled me. My chest pressed hard against his, causing amazing friction where I needed it most. He traced the shell of my ear with his tongue before blowing on the moisture. I shivered violently under the pleasure. Everything in me danced to life, and I felt wholly and completely connected with him.
But it wasn’t enough.
I needed more. So much more.
“No matter what happens, Star, know that I love you so damn much,” he groaned as he pressed against me before he seized my mouth again. “God, I need you.”
I needed him too. If I hadn’t lost my ability to speak, I would’ve told him that. I couldn’t say I loved him yet, because I’d learned the hard way that using the L word before you’re ready had dire consequences. But, I was definitely in “like” with Drake and could easily see myself one day being wholly, and completely in love with him.
If we were given the chance.
I moved to pull his shirt up, desperately needing to touch his bare skin. He let out a low moan before he pushed me away, setting me back down on my feet.
“Not here,” he mumbled before planting a soft kiss on my swollen lips. “Let’s go back to the house.”
He linked our hands and tugged me forward. As
I followed him through the tunnel to where we’d left the car with the others, I couldn’t help but think of something that went against every feminist bone in my body: I’d go anywhere as long as he was there to lead me. Could’ve just been the hormones talking, but I doubted it.
~*~*~*~*~*~
Ron Pope’s “A Drop in the Ocean” filled the silence on the ride back to Drake’s barn. I tried so hard to feel guilty about my growing attraction to him. I really did. But, the result was the exact opposite. In fact, I wanted to climb over the console and maul him as soon as he cut the engine.
But I didn’t because I knew the second our lips touched I wouldn’t be able to control myself.
“Thank you for letting me into your world,” I whispered, not really trusting my voice at the moment.
He gave me a sad smile before unfolding his large frame from the sports car and sauntering over to my side to help me out.
Instead of going straight back to the cabin, we went for a walk in the surrounding woods. He wrapped his arm around my shoulders, and I nestled against him for his warmth. But as sweet as the moment was, I wanted to get back to what we’d been doing in the cave.
“I wish things were different,” he sighed.
“What do you mean?”
“I wish I was a normal guy so I could make you mine without worrying about all the damn politics of my world.”
“Normal is so overrated.”
“You say that now, but wait until the others come into the picture. It’s all happening just like it did before. You’re going to meet them and your heart will be torn. What will you say when you have three abnormal men fighting for your attention?”
I didn’t answer because I couldn’t vouch for something that hadn’t happened. History might not repeat itself. I could meet the Bear and the Falcon and feel nothing. Then again, I could find something in one of them I needed. Something Drake couldn’t provide. I highly doubted that would happen, but I knew it was what he feared…that he wouldn’t be enough for me.
He stopped abruptly and turned me so that I was in front of him, staring into his hard eyes.
