by Amanda Perry
“Your council will have four additional seats. It will be made up of the humans you help choose. We need humans you trust. Of course, we need to be able to trust them as well, so the final approval will come from myself and my bond mates before they are appointed.”
“I can live with that.” Clive relaxed into his seat, his posture a little less rigid.
Picking up the file on the Stevens family, Reid cringed at the realization he hadn’t looked too far into Clive’s family. He knew just about everything there was to know about the man, but his family was a mystery. He knew Clive had two children, a boy and a girl. His Beta had taken care of the housing and smaller details once Clive accepted the job. He also knew the female child had upset Lorelei already, not a hard task to accomplish. “I’m sorry about yesterday, by the way. I should have been here to meet with you and your family, but I was called away for security meetings.”
“Your Beta explained,” Clive stated, holding up a hand. “No need to apologize. What are the next steps?” Clive leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees and blew out a deep breath.
It was the last straw for Reid. He’d spent the better part of the last hour trying to hide his erection and holding his breath to avoid the alluring scent of lavender and vanilla teasing and taunting him. He needed to get the human out of his office now.
“There’s a lot more to be discussed. Are you and your family available for dinner?” Reid stood from behind his desk, angling his body in a way that the human wouldn’t notice his semi-aroused state.
Clive stood as well, taking the hint from the Alpha. “I bet I can get my kids to agree to this evening.”
“That’ll be perfect. I’ll have everything arranged for six o’clock tonight.” Reid rounded the desk and held the door open for Clive. “It was a pleasure meeting you, Clive.”
The human shook Reid’s hand and exited the office. “The pleasure was mine.”
Reid pushed a hand through his hair and blew out a breath, whispering to himself. “I’m not so sure about that.” After opening his office window, he walked to his desk and dropped back into his chair, savoring the fresh air.
Bruce strolled into the office, cocking a brow at Reid. “That was an awfully fast meeting, boss. I thought you two would be clustered together for at least half the afternoon.”
“Fuck! I really need to get laid. I think it’s been too long.” Reid hadn’t meant to speak his mind aloud, but his brain was still befuddled. Anyway, he didn’t mind his Beta hearing him. They’d been friends since they were small, so he was comfortable around Bruce.
Bruce laughed heartily. “Maybe this will be your lucky night. I took the liberty of inviting Lorelei for dinner so she can babysit the human girl and keep her entertained. Brody and Bryant can keep an eye on the boy.”
“You’re just hoping I’ll fire you, aren’t you?” Reid growled menacingly at his Beta. “I can’t stand that bitch and you invited her over for an entire evening. What the fuck, Bruce?”
“Call it payback for bringing the little devil onto the compound.” Bruce slid into the chair Clive vacated moments before.
Reid paused at Bruce’s comment. “Little devil? You mean the human girl?”
“That’d be the one. She’s like that little cartoon character that spins in circles really fast and destroys everything in his path.”
“The Tasmanian Devil?" Reid frowned. How could one little child cause such an uproar in only a few hours?
“I hate that show. But yeah, that’s the one.”
Reid snorted. “I’ll have a talk with the girl and her father tonight. I’ve had more than one complaint about her already.”
One of Bruce’s triplet brothers, Bryant, took that moment to storm into Reid’s office, slamming the door closed so hard, Reid thought he heard it split. “Stupid human brat. I should go take what’s mine.”
“You okay, brother?” Bruce asked, not in the least bit worried about his brother. Bryant ran hot and let things get to him too easily. He was the least predictable of the triplets.
“No, everything is not fucking okay! That new human girl stole my honey.” Bryant came to a halt in front of Reid’s desk, his hands resting on his hips.
Reid forced his expression to remain neutral. “Come again?”
“The girl, the new little human girl. She took the last jar of honey from the grocery store. It was mine and she took it.” Bryant’s voice raised with every word he spoke.
Reid rolled his eyes. “I suppose asking Brody and you to investigate an incident with the girl is now out of the question, huh?”
“Whatever it is, she’s guilty.” Bryant nodded decisively. “I’d bet money on it.”
“Yeah, that’s what I thought. You won’t be able to maintain neutrality. I’ll ask someone else to check into it.” Reid pressed the palms of his hands into his eyes. “This is becoming a complete cluster fuck.”
“She also touched Elijah’s ass,” Bryant mentioned casually as he took the remaining seat next to his brother. “I’m not sure why, but I saw it with my own two eyes. She just reached out and grabbed a handful of ass.”
The Alpha’s head shot up and his incredulous stare had the two bear shifters bursting into laughter. “Are you shitting me?”
“Sort of,” Bryant shrugged. “She did touch his ass, though it wasn’t a full-on assault.”
“You two are fucking impossible,” Reid chuckled at his friends.
Bruce held up two large hands. “Us? You’re the one talking about needing to get laid out of fucking nowhere.”
“You could call Lorelei.” Bryant, Bruce, and their third triplet brother Brody were forever poking fun at Reid for the way Lorelei threw herself at him. He wanted nothing to do with the crazy female, but she never took the hint. He’d had a few one night stands before, but he’d be damned before he went there with Lorelei. He wouldn’t touch that vapid bitch wearing ten condoms and encased in a suit of armor. Unfortunately, she hadn’t gone so far as to break any true laws allowing him to kick her out of the compound onto her bony ass.
“I hate you guys. You’re fired.” Reid pouted behind his desk, glaring at the brothers.
“You can’t fire us twice in one week,” Bruce reasoned with an easy smile.
Bryant nodded his agreement. “And you already fired us on Tuesday.”
“Get out of my office, the both of you.” Reid feigned anger, though his amusement shone through. Bryant and Bruce left him, laughing heavily as they went.
5
Remy
The last of Remy's energy dissipated while putting away the groceries. Normally, with the plethora of offerings, she'd be tempted to make something fancy for lunch. But with her head pounding and her stomach turning in on itself, all she could think about was finding a strong pain reliever. She hunted down her bottle of medicine and took two of the little white pills. Changing into a pair of comfy sweatpants, she located the rest of her supplies and made herself comfortable on the couch. Her stomach felt like it was being perforated by tiny pitchforks, poking at her insides until all she wished for was a merciful end.
The sound of the front door slamming shut startled Remy awake. Wiping the drool that had accumulated on her chin, she shifted her head to see who dared disturb her. If it was Todd, she wasn't above tying his ass up and leaving him in the forest with a bucket of fresh meat next to him. If she was feeling merciful, she’d even leave a bottle of water.
As she shifted on the couch, the heating pad she’d placed on her stomach slipped and fell to the floor. Not wanting to move too much, she stared at it forlornly. A hand appeared in her field of vision, plucking the pad from the floor and placing it back beside her.
“Hey, hon. Feeling bad?” Her dad’s concerned face appeared above her. Her dad was the greatest. He always knew when something was wrong, even without the obvious signs she now portrayed.
“Yeah. It feels like my stomach is trying to turn itself inside out,” Remy miserably replied. The pain medication ha
d kicked in, but it barely diminished the pain, making it only tolerable. Her periods in the past were mild compared to what she felt now. She’d never experienced the gut-wrenching agony so many women complained about until today. Must have something to do with the move.
“Anything I can do for you, honey?” Her dad swept his hand through her hair, comforting her with the small touch.
“Thanks, Dad. I’m good. I’m just gonna lay here and die.”
Her dad raised an eyebrow at her dramatic statement. “The Alpha invited us to dinner. Do you feel up to coming to the pack house?”
“If I go, I may end up killing someone or begging the Alpha to end my misery. It’s a fifty-fifty chance at the moment. Either way, it would be bloody and then the Shifters would go into a killing frenzy and then the Vampires and Fae would retaliate and then I would be labeled as the stupid human woman who started the war to end all wars.”
Her dad’s dubious expression had her pausing in her end of the world as we know it speech. “What? Too much?” she asked sheepishly.
Holding his thumb and forefinger an inch apart, he replied, “Just a tad.”
Remy harrumphed.
“Love you, kiddo.” Her dad ruffled her hair affectionately before walking out of the room.
“Love you too, old man,” she called out after him.
He paused in the doorway. “I’m going to grab your brother and head up to the pack house. I’ll make your excuses to the Alpha.”
“Thanks, Dad.”
He nodded, then smirked. “I knew you were listening to my conversation with the Beta this morning.”
He left her with her mouth hanging wide. She may have gotten away with her eavesdropping had she not mentioned the Vampire and the Fae. The small slip up cost her.
The house quieted down again after her father dragged her complaining brother behind him. Todd bitched and moaned the entire way out the door. His voice so loud, Remy continued to hear him even as the ATV sped away.
Switching the television on, Remy channel surfed until she found a favored old movie to get lost in. At one point, Remy paused the movie and left her cocoon on the couch. With tears running down her face, she navigated the hallway to the bathroom in search of a box of tissue. Remy had purposely put on a comedy but the sappy parts still had her in tears. She hated being so emotional. It must be the change of environment throwing her body so far out of whack.
Banging on her front door startled her. She’d finished watching the previous movie and had switched to a horror film. The sudden, unexpected noise sent her thoughts spiraling. Visions of flesh-eating monsters who thrived on the corpses of fallen comrades played in her mind. Remy’s imagination expanded on that image, creating a backdrop of scorched earth turned to a desert wasteland with masked, half human hunters prowling the night for prey. Her heart in her throat, she looked around the room for a weapon.
She spotted the fireplace poker sitting innocently in its stand and made a grab for it as if it would disappear any second.
“I know you’re in there, human. Open the damn door. Some of us have better things to do,” a familiar voice whined, making Remy half wish it truly was a flesh-eating monster out to steal her internal organs.
With a longing look at her movie, she hit the pause button once again on the remote and replaced the iron poker. Walking to the door, she jerked it open, expecting the worst.
The Barbie Shifter she’d encountered at the store earlier stood on the front porch. She’d changed her outfit to a low cut, short as hell black dress, complete with six-inch heels. Her whole ensemble screamed, “Fuck me, I’m easy and probably diseased.” Rolling her eyes at the Shifter’s uninspired outfit, Remy snarked, “What do you want? Are you here to finish our conversation from earlier?”
Pushing rudely past her, the Shifter Barbie huffed and held up a paper bag. “Your father mentioned you were under the weather so my Alpha insisted I bring you dinner.” Looking Remy up and down in contempt, the woman’s lip curled. “Should’ve known you were faking it. What’s wrong? Afraid to sully yourself around my kind? You shouldn’t be worried. You’re far too fat to be considered attractive by any of our men. Hell, even the goblins wouldn’t want to fuck someone like you.”
Remy had curves. Being short, those curves were more pronounced and noticeable than someone taller than her. Shifter women, on the other hand, were all tall, thin, and graceful, three things Remy would never be. “I’m not fat. I have curves. Men love my curves. They like having something to grab onto as they plow into me screaming in ecstasy, not in pain from a bony ass. It’s something you’ll never experience, being a skeletal bitch in heat. I bet your last lover only fucked you out of necessity, to scratch an itch. No wonder Shifters are so desperate to incorporate humans back into their society. They want real women. Not fake Barbie dolls like yourself.”
Rage contorted the woman’s features into an ugly parody of humanity. Her nose elongated and her cheeks expanded slightly. Razor sharp teeth extended from her mouth, pricking her bottom lip. The woman was slipping her human skin, slowly allowing her animal to make an appearance. Shifters were all about control. They lived and breathed the belief that control was absolute and without it, the Shifter bloodlines would descend into total anarchy. Control was the only thing that separated them from their animal counterparts.
A little alarmed at the turn of events, Remy glanced over at the fireplace, judging the distance between her and it. Reaching the iron poker, which she’d stupidly put back in its place, might be the only thing that saved her life tonight. Shifters were fast, but once in mid-shift, they were vulnerable. If clothes started to tear, Remy was going to take the chance and go for the poker. In the meantime, maybe she could calm the woman down using the diplomacy tactics her dad had been shoveling down her throat for years. “Calm the fuck down, Barbie. If you go mental, who’s gonna clean up the mess?”
Okay, so maybe she wasn’t the greatest at diplomacy and still needed another few years of training. It wasn’t her fault she was such a slow learner. It was dumb asses like the idiot in front of her that should be required to take lessons in etiquette. The world would be a better place for it.
A growl sounded loudly within the confines of the room. The bitch was losing it and fast. Inspiration struck. “Besides, aren’t you under an Alpha’s order to not harm me or any member of my family?”
The growl cut off suddenly. The Barbie’s features rearranged themselves once more into her plastic human form. If Shifters were able to kill with looks alone, the glare the female sent her could reduce her body to a pile of ash.
“Here!” the woman yelled, chucking the bag she held at Remy.
Surprised, Remy failed to catch it and the bag hit the side table situated by the front door. Plastic containers, filled with food, fell from the bag, thumping loudly against the floor. Lids erupted on impact and liquid sprayed upwards, arching back onto the sender.
A loud squeal followed by a string of profanities that would make a sailor blush drew Remy’s attention from the mess on the floor and back to the woman in front of her. Splotches of food dripped down the black dress. Noodles with red sauce were distinctive against the dark material. “You stupid, mongoloid! Look at what you did! This was a brand-new dress. I bought it special for my date tonight with the Alpha.”
Just wanting the woman gone, Remy ignored the pile of bullshit the Shifter threw at her. The bitch was on Remy’s last nerve. If she lost her temper, she had a feeling she’d be hunting for a shovel to bury the body in the backyard. The way the pain in her stomach was building back up, the last thing she wanted to do was dig a whore-sized hole in the dirt.
“I can let you borrow an outfit. If you leave your dress with me, I’ll make sure proper care is taken in fixing it.” Remy’s teeth hurt from clenching them so tightly. She knew her dad would be proud of her, but that knowledge did little to alleviate the nauseated feeling that settled in the pit of her stomach at the necessity of taking the higher road.
“Fine. You’d better make sure my dress is returned to me as good as new. Otherwise, I will inform the Alpha and he can deal with your sorry ass.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let’s go, Barbie. I’m sure I have a spare pair of sweats around here somewhere. The sooner we get you changed, the sooner you can make yourself scarce.” Remy turned, already walking down the hallway.
“Sweats? Do I look like the kind of girl who would wear sweats? Some of us have class, unlike you.” Barbie followed, bitching the entire way. “Besides, anything of yours will be much too large for me.”
“It’s that or nothing, Barbie. Take it or leave it. I don’t give a rat’s ass what you decide.”
Barbie sneered but didn’t protest further as Remy shuffled around in her closet. It took her a minute since her clothes were still boxed up, but she found an old pair of sweats and a plain blue t-shirt. “You can use the bathroom to change.”
Barbie slammed the bathroom door, not offering any type of thanks. Remy stood in her doorway, waiting for her to finish. When the Shifter came out, she shoved her dress at Remy. “You better make this fucking perfect before returning it to me.”
“Sure thing.” It was a small price to pay to get the royal pain in her ass out of the cabin.
As Barbie stomped her way out the front door, Remy smiled at the vision she made. The Shifter female looked idiotic wearing sweats too short for her tall frame, a t-shirt that rode up too high because it was also too short, and a pair of fancy heels. Remy hoped the bitch ran into all her friends on her way home.
Shutting the front door tightly, Remy pressed her back against it and glared down at the mess left on the floor. The dumb woman didn’t even offer to help her clean it up. Resigning herself to doing the work on her own, Remy tossed the dress in the trash, then grabbed the cleaning supplies and mopped up the ruined food.
As she put everything back in its place, she realized she was still hungry and her potential dinner was no more. She didn’t feel up to cooking, so she checked the pantry. Grabbing a few snacks to tide her over, she headed back to the living room.