I looked down at myself and realized how disgusting I probably was. My leggings were torn and dried blood was crusted to them, the same with my t-shirt, and my hair was tangled and knotted in a way that made me feel like some kind of wild woman that had just emerged from the woods even though Gael had treated me with the utmost grace and respect. Suddenly, I couldn't wait to get in the shower.
Even though I had to hobble my way there, leaning most of my weight against the walls and doors as I passed, I made it and it was like I'd stepped into bathroom heaven. Soft colors that didn't look at all masculine decorated the space and made it feel like the spas I always saw advertised on my old TV. A shower the size of my old cell made up the back half of the room complete with a built-in seat and multiple shower heads. Whoever these guys were they had to be loaded.
I stood under the water for longer than absolutely necessary as I watched the dirt and blood melt away from my skin and felt the tangles loosen from my hair. When I was done I took a moment to look at myself in the mirror. Bruises littered my skin, my cheekbones and collar bones stuck out more than the last time I had seen myself naked, and I had bags under my eyes. Lovely. I could tell why the man in the woods had stopped for me, I looked like a mess.
Without looking in the mirror again I pulled on the clothes that had been left for me and found myself having to roll the pants up at the legs and down at the waist to get them to fit, while the t-shirt was a thin gray material with some kind of name on it that I could only guess to be a band, not that I knew much about music these days. The Beast was careful about what he allowed me to watch and read, he claimed he didn't want to accidentally corrupt me and ruin my magic. Such bullshit. He had stopped caring about that a decade or two ago, as though it was becoming too much of a chore for him to keep up with what I was and wasn't allowed to watch and read.
Once I was clothed I finger combed my hair, trying not to leave much of a mess behind as I felt handfuls of hair wrap around my fingers. I pulled them off and pulled the ones out of the tub before flushing the white strands down the toilet. Was I paranoid? Yes. Did I think these men would hurt me? I wasn't sure, but I knew that things like hair and fingernails could be used by witches to hex someone, so I figured better to be safe than sorry.
Happy that I wasn't leaving anything that could obviously be used against me behind I picked up my dirty clothes and left, going back the way I came until I saw a set of stairs. When I reached the bottom a delectably sweet smell wafted to my nose and my mouth started to water so badly that I was swallowing again and again to clear it. Following my nose I found Gael in the kitchen with what I could only assume were stacks of pancakes and waffles around him. I saw some eggs in his pan and my stomach turned. The Beast had gone through phases where he fed me nothing but specific foods, one of which was eggs, claiming that it would help me level up sooner, even though we both knew it was more related to my age than anything else.
"Hi," I said quietly as I set my folded, dirty clothes down on top of a stool that sat on the other side of the counter from Gael.
"Hey," Gael said over his shoulder before spinning around. When he did his eyes went wide and he cleared his throat. "Hey," he said again as his eyes raked down my body. Was he attracted to me? I dismissed the question almost as soon as I thought it. He was a wolf, if he was attracted to someone it was going to be another wolf, or at least someone with more backbone than I had, someone who would have managed to escape the Beast a whole lot earlier than I did, someone who didn't let fear cloud their judgement. "Pancakes, waffles, butter, syrup, fruit, whipped cream," Gael said as he pointed to the different items on the table and interrupting my melancholy thoughts. I should be ecstatic that I'd made it out, that I was meeting someone new, but my brain was drowning in my fear of learning how to interact in the present world.
"Thank you, this all looks amazing," I replied.
"Hopefully it tastes that way, too."
I snorted involuntarily which caused one of Gael's black brows to arch in a way that was oh, so sexy.
"Something funny about that?"
I grinned at his mock offended tone. "Not at all, but if you knew what I'd been eating for the last century you'd know that this is like a five star restaurant in comparison." I'd meant it to be a joke or at least humorous, but from the way his eyebrows drew together and the concern that seemed to etch itself into his forehead I knew I'd failed in that aspect.
"Do you mind if I ask what that means? I mean we found you running through the woods like your life depended on it, leaving a hefty blood trail in your wake and looking a little crazed, and not just the normal shifter crazy either." He smiled softly at the end to ease the blow of his words, but they still stung.
Leaving a hefty blood trail? I could only imagine how the Beast would react to that, and if he scented them around me and where the blood trail ended then they could be in danger. My heart seized in my chest. All they had done was be nice to me and yet I was bringing danger to their doorstep. I stumbled backward from the counter and tried to calm my breath, but the harder I tried the worse it got. The room began to fade around the edges like I was looking down a tunnel, and a tingling sensation ran through my limbs while I began to retch as I fell to the floor.
"What the fuck did you do to her?" a male voice sounded behind me.
Suddenly there was a pair of deep brown eyes in front of me; I tried to scurry backward and ran in to something, forcing me to freeze in place and confront those eyes that felt like they were seeing too much if I wanted to get out of there. Did I want to get out of there? Maybe? Probably? I'd never had anyone make me breakfast before so maybe I'd stay and eat first. My mind was spiraling in too many directions and I couldn't do anything except panic about the Beast tracking them down and slaughtering them for laying their hands on me.
Chapter 4
Selene
Everything changed when he put his hands on me. I knew he had meant it to be gentle, to keep me focused and present when he rested his rough, dry palms on each side of my face, but it couldn't have been any more opposite. It felt like my whole world shifted, probably because I did. I wasn't sure what happened but the second this wolf touched me my kitsune form surged forward and I was left looking at him through my fox eyes. She seemed to like him very much.
I was never allowed to shift before, or at least not while I was under the Beast's control. The longer the time between shifts lasted the more my fox and I became different beings. She was all rage and fire, everything I had to stuff down to deal with the Beast, to prevent him from punishing me, so being in her form and being calm? It was something I hadn't experienced in over a century and it made me want to cry.
"Are you seeing this?" another male voice asked.
I spun toward him baring my teeth. Had he been there the whole time? Why hadn't I sensed him? Was I so dulled to my nature that I'd lost the ability to listen to my kitsune? I felt my tails undulating behind me and watched as his eyes were transfixed on them. I flicked my gaze around the room and saw that all three of them were. There was this new man, the man from the woods, and Gael. They looked similar but were definitely not related as far as I could tell. Even my fox nose was telling me they were originally from different packs, although their bonds ran deep enough now that they were their own pack in a way.
"Selene." Gale's voice caught my attention and my head swung toward him. "You have to calm down if you want to shift back."
I knew that intellectually, but try telling that to my kitsune. She was interested, and I mean interested, in these wolves. It wasn't even that I was upset in this form, all the negative feelings that I usually experienced when I occasionally lost control and shifted before we no longer present. I felt lighter, freer, than I had in as long as I could remember.
She didn't want to let go, and I couldn't bring myself to force her, but I begged her to find some food. Even in this form the hunger gnawing at my belly was painful. Carefully, without losing track of any of them my kitsune padded arou
nd to the counter between Gael and the man from the woods.
With a push I felt the elation as my kitsune jumped up onto the counter, her nose leading her to the food in front of us. She grabbed a couple waffles and began to chow down. Her tails finally ceasing their undulating movement as she focused on the task in front of her.
After the waffles came fruit then pancakes until her hunger was satiated. I only got faint hints of the flavors in my mind which was definitely not right. I should be experiencing them as though I was the one eating the food, not just smelling the food as someone else ate it. I shoved my frustration at my kitsune and she did the fox equivalent of a shrug and kept on eating while the guys all stared.
"I don't think she has any interest in shifting back, bro," the guy standing in the doorway said.
"Really, Ozzy? Care to make any other obvious statement?" the man from the woods growled.
"Dude, I was just trying to help. We don't even know if her human side is aware during her shifts so I don't think talking to her is going to help." He leaned against the door frame and crossed his arms over his chest doing his best James Dean impression. Yes, even being locked away for centuries I knew who James Dean was, it was the modern celebrities I couldn't keep track of.
"Can't you feel it? Her confusion and frustration?" Gael said, surprising me with the tender expression I caught on his face when I looked up.
Feel it? What was he talking about?
"Of course I can, but I can also feel how much she likes those waffles, so I don't think that necessarily means her human side is present," Ozzy replied.
My kitsune huffed a bit making a sound like a laugh and they all looked at her, or rather me, once more.
"She's still in there, still present. If that chuckle wasn't enough to convince you then look in her eyes. I mean really look; not from the fucking doorway either," Woods Guy said.
Ozzy walked over to me, and I finally looked at him with my human side. His hair was pulled back in a ponytail and he had thick eyebrows that were now drawn together as his dark brown eyes bored into my own. The closer he got the more curious my kitsune became until she abandoned her food entirely and sniffed at him. His short beard covered the lower half of his face with just enough room for his lips to poke through, more on his way to lumberjack than runway model, but still sexy.
"Yeah, she's still there," he said quietly and reached out a hand toward me.
I wasn't a dog to be pet and I nipped at his fingers accordingly. At least my kitsune and I agreed on that. As though that was what she had needed, to feel as though she and I were on the same page, I felt her begin to retreat. My body expanding as the fur vanished like a ripple over water until I was left sitting naked on the kitchen counter with the crumbs of my kitsune's meal in front of me.
Someone cleared their throat and all three of them spun on their heels and gave me some privacy. The t-shirt I had been wearing had survived the change, the one nice thing about shifting to a smaller animal was that sometimes some of the clothing made it through the shift intact. The sweats, however, were a different story. Claws had torn holes in them, but they were still wearable for privacy's sake, although they wouldn't make it through the wash, they were barely holding together as it was.
"I'm decent," I announced once I found a good place to hold on to the sweatpants so they didn't fall down or fall apart.
"It's a good job we'd gone shopping. Here's some things we thought might fit you better than our old sweats and t-shirts," the man from the woods said.
The bag he handed me was filled with clothing, and not just clothing but panties and bras as well. I couldn't remember the last time I'd worn a real bra. They weren't something Beast felt like he needed to spend money on since, as he put it, he didn't care if my ’tits sagged all the way down to hell’ because I wasn't going to be impressing anyone.
Tears sprang to my eyes as I tried to get my emotions under control. "That's so kind of you," I said, hoping my voice didn't betray how much this gesture had affected me.
"Why don't you go and change and then we can talk?" the man from the woods suggested.
"Sure, but can I know your name first? I can't keep calling you ‘Man from the Woods’ in my head."
"Bodhi," he replied, and the way he said it sent a shiver down my spine. His voice was almost like a low growl and was definitely not completely human. "Yours is Selene?"
I nodded before tucking a lock of white hair behind my ear.
"And you're a kitsune?" Bodhi added as though he hadn't just seen my eight tawny colored tails.
I nodded again although more slowly this time as I tried to gauge the mood in the room. Did they understand what being a kitsune meant? Did they understand what having eight tails meant? Would they sell me back to the Beast when he came looking? The questions were endless.
"What do you know about kitsune?" I asked, my mouth moving before I could stop it, as though my fox needed to know the answer even more than I did.
"You're rare, like, crazy rare and the more tails you have the older you are," Gael said surprising me. I would have expected Bodhi to be the one to answer, since he seemed to be the leader of their little group, but he wasn't and when I glanced back at him after giving Gael a nod, I saw surprise flickering on both his and Ozzy's faces. They hadn't known.
"So, what, you're eighty?" Ozzy asked.
"Try nine hundred," I said with a smile, watching as his mouth dropped open in shock.
"But you only have eight tails," Bodhi added.
"After the first one hundred years I gained my shifting ability, then every one hundred years after that I gain a new tail, until my ninth, then... I stop." I was unwilling to tell them the truth, that my magic maxes out and I turn into the golden white fox of legend, or at least I couldn't tell them yet.
"If you're such an ancient, powerful shifter then why were you running?" Ozzy asked.
His pack brothers both shot him looks that clearly told him to shut up, that much was obvious even to me, but the way he lowered and tilted his head told me there was something else going on as well. It was thinking about that which let me say, "I was sold by my father to save our skulk, our pack, and have been held captive ever since. I only made it out because I stopped caring whether or not I lived or died since he was going to kill me tomorrow anyway. If you'll excuse me, I'd like to go and change now."
"Bathroom is the last door at the end of the hall," Gael said pointing to the left.
I nodded but didn't make eye contact with anyone as I skirted past them and out of the room. My heart was pounding so hard in my chest I had to pause for a moment to take a deep breath and try and calm myself. Terror flowed in ripples over my skin and my stomach twisted making all the food I'd just eaten threaten to come back up. I swallowed thickly a few times before continuing on to the bathroom with the bag clutched tightly in my hands.
As I walked away I heard Bodhi growl, "Seriously? I thought we were going to ease in to asking about what happened. What the fuck, Oz?"
"She seemed okay," Ozzy responded, his voice pitched slightly higher letting everyone know that he was on the defensive.
"Sometimes I forget you don't know shit about women..." Bodhi's voice trailed off as I shut the door to the bathroom behind me.
I leaned against the wood panels and sighed. The bag weighed heavy in my hands and I couldn't help but look down and feel a little excited. New clothes just for me? That was a luxury I hadn't had in a long time. I pulled the sweats and t-shirt off and slipped into a pair of undies and a bra, both of which fit well enough to leave me concerned. How did they know my size? I pushed the question aside, determined not to sully the moment with questions and just accept the gift they had given me.
As I slid into a pair of black legging-like pants and a deep purple top I felt more human, and more female, than I had in centuries. Literally. I glanced at myself in the mirror and when the two items were combined with my white hair and amber eyes I knew I looked good. Plus, the bra didn't hurt ei
ther. It made me actually look like I had boobs again, not that I hadn't before, but there was no missing them now. I smoothed the clothing down my body dreading going back in there. I knew I needed to tell them about the Beast and what I had brought to their doorstep, but I just wanted to enjoy this comfort of having people care about me for a little longer.
Chapter 5
Gael
When Selene walked back into the kitchen I thought my eyes were going to pop out of my head. The sweats and t-shirt had hidden her petite frame and seeing it wrapped up the way it was, in clothing that actually fit her, made her look even sexier. I could get down with a girl in sweats and a t-shirt, don't get me wrong, but the ones we had given to her were mine and I was by far the biggest of the three of us, so she had been practically drowning in the material.
"Hungry?" I asked. Even though she'd just devoured half the food on the counter in her kitsune form, I knew that it wouldn't be enough, which was why I hadn't stopped cooking through the whole conversation.
She nodded. "Before I lose my courage I need to tell you something." She paused and seemed to be waiting for the three of us to look at her, and my heart froze in my chest waiting for whatever bombshell she was about to drop. "Thank you for saving me in the woods. I'm sorry that you've gone to so much trouble and expense because of me. I won't stay if you don't want me to, but I do need to warn you... My captor won't give me up easily. He's been grooming me for the last four hundred years and he was going to harvest my magic tomorrow, or today I guess, depending on how long I was passed out. What I'm trying to say is he'll try and find me, track me down, and he won't stop until he has me. I'm a prize to him, something that could give him immortality. Well, permanent immortality instead of the spells he's been using to hobble along with until now. He'll kill you all if he has to, if he finds out you've helped me or touched me in any way."
Fury rushed through my veins at her words and the terror, and almost worse, the guilt, I felt echoing down the mate bond.
Bound to Change: A Limited Edition Spring Shifter Romance Collection Page 30