The Gift of Sky and Soil (Father Sky Book 1)

by Gillian Zane

  “Are they wolves that she turned into humans, or humans that turn into wolves?”

  “The latter,” I said. “She made it so they have the strength and speed of the wolf. Like werewolves.”

  “We’ll kill you, rip you to shreds,” the hurt wolf hissed, his voice gravely and deep.

  “Fucking gods and goddesses, and now shape shifters.” Zeke walked to my side, and I felt the increase in power as I neared. He looked at the injured man and shook his head.

  When the man tried to roll away, I popped him lightly in the head with the gun. He looked up at me and snarled, shooting me a glare. I glared right back.

  The female wolf stood; her transformation complete. She too was nude, a short, squat human. Her matted hair sat atop her head like a halo, her body smeared with dirt, ungroomed and wild, she hunched her back and growled at us like her wolf side was the dominate side.

  “Grab your boyfriend, and get the Hell out of here,” I growled back.

  “You will die, Sky Worshippers.” Her voice was heavily accented with some kind of Eastern European staccato and thick with menace.

  “Doubt it.” I pulled the trigger, and she flinched. The bullet hit the ground near the man, sending up gravel. He hissed as if something had struck him.

  “Go,” Zeke added to the conversation, and I emphasized it with the point of my gun. The wolf man didn’t turn his back on us. He crawled backward slowly until he was near his mate. She helped him to his feet. He cried out in pain as she gave no consolation to his shoulder injury.

  “Load up the ATVs, I’ll watch your back,” I hissed to Zeke. My eyes never left the two wolves as they slowly walked backward into the woods.

  “This isn’t over,” the female wolf called as the woods thickened around them.

  “Sure, blah blah,” I responded. Zeke moved super quick, loading up the second ATV, and as he was strapping it down, I lost sight of the wolves. I hurried to the vehicles, got behind the wheel, and started the big truck, keeping my gun trained on the woods. When I heard the slam of the tailgate, I breathed a sigh of relief. Once he was in the passenger seat, I clicked on the safety of my gun and put it in the console between us.

  “Let’s get the hell out of here,” he said, and I couldn’t have agreed more. I slammed the truck into drive and sped off.

  “You need to learn how to shoot a gun.”

  “Why? I have female Rambo by my side,” he laughed.

  “I don’t know if I should take that as a compliment.”

  “It’s a compliment.”

  39

  The spectacular woman I now found myself completely enamored with parked the monster truck she had purchased that morning and looked at me with a huge smile on her face. She had mud caked to her cheek and splattered across her cleavage, but she was the sexiest woman I had ever had the pleasure of looking upon, not to mention the privilege of actually touching. She had removed her long-sleeved shirt and sat only in her sports bra behind the wheel of the giant truck. If I had been a redneck, I would’ve been in heaven. Hell, I wasn’t a redneck, and I was in heaven. She was so fucking sexy. I might have said it out loud. She smiled even bigger, and I found myself pulling her over the console and kissing the smile off her face, grabbing her hair and setting it free of its ponytail I buried my nose in it, taking a huge breath. She smelled so tantalizing. How could someone smell like the air before a storm?

  “You were amazing.” I kissed along her cheek, not minding the mud because I knew I was just as muddy.

  “That was scary as shit, but so exhilarating,” she sighed, her hand brushing at something on my shoulder. “When I thought they were wolves, I felt bad, you know, I didn’t want to kill animals, especially ones that are so majestic and probably being controlled by something. But I just knew, I knew there was more to them. I knew they were human, and they really wanted to kill us, like I did with the man in the bar. It’s like I know everything about them as soon as they get in range of my senses.” Her voice came out in pants. I had freed her breasts from the tight sports bra she wore and was enjoying myself.

  “Uh huh,” I mumbled as I sucked one very perky nipple into my mouth, marveling at the spicy taste of it.

  “I didn’t kill them, though, even though they wanted to kill us.”

  “If you would have, it would have been justified.” I turned her around, which was easier than I expected. Her ass faced me, her arms braced on the dashboard. I pulled her jeans down, exposing her beautiful tight ass clad only in a tiny pair of lace panties. We had dressed for war, and she’d wore a lace thong. My dick jumped in anticipation and appreciation.

  “Ass higher.” I smacked her ass, and she pushed up and back so it was in my face, perfect and lovely. I slipped a finger across the scrap of fabric and yanked it aside so I could taste and lick. Perfect. She was utterly perfect. She moaned and ground against me, her ass pressing against my face. I wanted her riding my dick like this, but I needed her to come. I spread her ass cheeks, so I could have better access, and pressed my face as deep into her flesh as I could get, licking her ass, licking her pussy, my tongue deep inside of her. I had to get it just right since I was at this angle, nice long licks of my tongue. I slid a finger between the lips of her pussy and found that hard nub and began to rub. Harder and harder, I circled it while I pushed my tongue into her, lapping at her wetness.

  “Zeke, Zeke,” she moaned my name, and I felt my dick throb in response.

  Harder I licked as she rocked against me, finding the rhythm she wanted until she was shivering and slapping her hand against the dashboard as she came.

  I yanked my dick out of my pants and brought her down on it, not letting her have any time to settle into the orgasm. Fully embedded inside of her, I cried out because damn, did it feel good. She was so tight and warm, so responsive to my touch. My palms grabbed a hold of her breasts and pulled her against me, letting her set the pace as I pinched and pulled on her perfect nipples.

  “God, Zeke, you fill me to the brim.”

  Well, that was it. It took everything in me to hold myself back. I wanted it to last a little longer, but if she kept talking like that, if she kept moving like she was, I wasn’t going to make it a minute. I was becoming the king of quickies with Miley.

  “Don’t hold back. I know you want to come. Come,” she said, and her voice vibrated with that power of hers, the brat. I came, and I came hard, holding on to her desperately as I emptied everything I had into her tight, hot pussy. Making some weird guttural noises as if I didn’t have the ability to voice my feelings, I laid my head against her back and shivered.

  “Damn, well, that was a good way to channel all that pent-up adrenaline,” she laughed as she slid off my lap, pulling up her jeans and underwear with one motion.

  “I think I need a nap.” I made no attempt to fix my own pants.

  “Get yourself together. Liam and Lily are coming. They were in the garden. “

  “I have a feeling getting a bit of privacy is going to be challenging from now on.” I tucked myself away and zipped my pants, but I’m sure my face was covered with Miley. She handed me her shirt, and I wiped at my face.

  “I don’t have an issue with a little exhibition. We’re going to have to learn how to give each other space, without actually having space. I’m pretty sure Liam saw us in the garden yesterday.” She opened the door, my mind still reeling from the sex and her use of the word exhibition, and Liam possibly seeing us and what that meant to me. I could possibly get behind that. I jumped out of the truck and followed her. Well, not the Liam part. Just the exhibition part. I felt kind of kinky. I had never felt like that before.

  “Did you find it?” Liam asked.

  “We didn’t make it to the clearing. She has guards,” Miley answered and went on to tell the story as Liam helped me unload and clean off the ATVs. They were covered in mud, and it took a little bit of elbow grease getting them clean. When we were done, we parked them by the two other ATVs Miley had purchased. I know she was wor
ried about money, but Liam and I had been working on a side project that could hopefully benefit all of us. I did not want to feel like a charity case, or that Miley was my sugar momma.

  “I got the land transferred,” he said when we unhooked the trailer and had the truck parked in its new spot next to Miley’s SUV.

  “Into that corporation you started?” I asked.

  “Yeah, that one. I have it based out of the Bahamas, nothing is traceable.” Liam had been working his magic with the computer. He could bypass any kind of security with just a click of the mouse. I had him dig up the property records around us. Who owned the land to Miley’s south and north? I didn’t want any surprises. She had neighbors that were about a mile up the road, old family friends, but there was nothing but empty land around her. From Liam’s digging, he had found that the land had been owned by a developer, and they had plans on turning all of this land into subdivisions. Pick house design number one through five and pick paint color one through ten type of development. That developer went under in 2020 and filed for bankruptcy. The bank that held the land after that also went bankrupt in 2022 when the housing market crashed. The land had been transferred and held-up in one court after another. All it took was a few documents, a transfer of a few numbers from one account to the next, and if what Liam was telling me was right, we owned the land now, or really a corporation based in the Bahamas owned the land. Nothing could be traced back to our name.

  “I got a few credit cards in the company’s name as well. They should be in your Apple Pay, use them how you like,” Liam nodded. This would take so much stress off of Miley.

  I knew she was worried about security. The gate camera had picked up someone lingering by the gate early this morning, watching the place. We didn’t recognize the guy, and he definitely wasn’t a neighbor, and oddly, seemed to be on foot. Since there were a bunch of Mother Earth minions that wanted us dead, ones who could turn into wolves, I was pretty sure the guy being there wasn’t a coincidence.

  We needed to build fences. High fences. Put up security cameras. Alarms that would warn of us about an incoming attack. All of that would cost money. Not to mention we were already low on supplies. We had to buy lumber to build a better chicken coop. The list went on and on and on. All of it needed money. Money Miley was bleeding through, quickly. Now we could contribute.

  “Good job,” Miley swatted my butt, and I turned around and grabbed her, trying to kiss her. She pushed me away and laughed.

  “Stop playing hard to get,” I grumped.

  “That is not something I play, ever.” She shook her head and shot me a sexually charged look.

  “Y’all need to tone it down a bit, all I have is my sister,” Liam growled.

  “Not my problem.” I grabbed for Miley, but she side-stepped me. Her phone chimed, the tone said someone was at the front gate. My adrenaline shot up, everything on alert. She opened the app and looked up at me.

  “It’s not a delivery, just an SUV.” She held the button down to engage the speaker that was installed on the entry gate. “Can I help you?”

  “The father sent us,” was the quick response.

  40

  Miley and I used the ATVs Liam and I had just cleaned to approach the front gate. Miley had grabbed her gun, strapping it to her belt, not afraid to open carry on her own property. Even though they said they were sent by the Father, that didn’t mean they weren’t lying. What better way to lure us away from the others?

  “Seems he isn’t wasting time. Should we expect new people every day?” Miley asked as we neared the gate.

  “He probably can’t take that chance. I’m sure the mother is recruiting like crazy.” I pulled the four-wheeler up to the gate; keeping the visitors on the other side of the wrought iron was enough protection until we felt them out.

  “Can you get out of your vehicle, please?” Miley said with emphasis behind her words. Three doors opened. Two men and one woman got out of the luxury SUV. They all looked similar, siblings or at least cousins. They looked like they had all just stepped off some exotic beach, sun bleached hair and tanned skin, each one a different ethnicity but still similar, all a little disheveled and tired. Not one of them looked like they spent much time indoors.

  “Who are you?” I asked.

  “I’m Mason, this is my friend Flynn and his cousin Melissa,” his accent wasn’t from around here, staccato and the way he formed the vowels as if English wasn't his first language. I shot a questioning look at the cousins since Flynn was clearly Asian and Melissa looked like your typical Caucasian VSCO girl. I was proud of myself for knowing the VSCO girl term. An ex had an obsession with TikTok and would make me watch endless vids that made fun of stereotypes. Not some of my most stimulating days.

  “You said someone sent you here?” Miley got off her four-wheeler and went to the gate, peering at the three newcomers.

  “He said you would know who we were talking about, you know, the Father, yeah?” Melissa's accent mimicked the first but not as clipped. I was going through my mental database trying to place it. Something like this would drive me crazy until I figured it out.

  “You all met him?” I asked. I joined Miley at the gate and beckoned the strangers closer. I took a deep breath, searching for the smell of Earth, but only found the distant smell of wind and ozone. That should mean they were legit. But you never knew.

  “We did, we got recruited together by the mother,” Melissa said.

  “And we turned her down together,” the one named Flynn said.

  “She thought we would be easy since we are environmentalists,” Mason laughed.

  “We’ve been in New Orleans working with the Save the Coast campaign for the last year,” Melissa added in explanation.

  Miley looked at me, and I nodded. There was really no other way for us to verify, only if the father himself told us. But the feeling of rightness generated from them was enough for me. Miley would be the best judge of the character, and if she was willing to let them in, I would back her.

  “You aren’t blocked from them, right?” I asked her.

  “No, open books, they’re telling the truth.” She stepped back while opening the gates to let them in. “There is a house at the end of the path, follow us in. Park next to the garage by the truck and trailer. You’re welcome here for as long as you want to stay, or if you piss us off. You’ll have your own space for the time being. All we ask is that you help out. Pull your weight, and don’t be assholes, that kind of thing,” she smiled, and I grimaced at her forthright tone as the three got back in their SUV.

  “Welcome to Silence,” I said half-heartedly. Who knew Miley had a salty streak in her, or maybe she just wanted to set the tone from the beginning? “Welcoming committee, you are not,” I called to her when we were out of earshot.

  “I don’t know how to deal with people just showing up. I wish I had a little confirmation on this one. what if we let in one of hers? All they have to do is say we're with the father.”

  “You can basically read their minds, right?” I asked, because I really didn’t know how her gift worked exactly.

  “More like a feeling, like I just know,” she said.

  “You pegged some pretty specific details on the last couple of encounters. I find the mind reading thing might need to be honed in your case.”

  “I think I know what I can and can’t do. Like you, I just get feelings, and I know you so I pretty much know what’s on your mind.”

  “What am I thinking now?” Blue socks. Blue socks. Blue socks.

  “I don’t know what my socks have to do with anything, I’m not even wearing any.”

  “Case in point.

  “What the hell do you mean?” She was frustrated. This was the first time I had seen her like this, it was kind of cute. She might even be mad at me because I was pushing her. I wondered if she would take it out on me in bed, later? That would be awesome. Angry sex. I almost wanted to push her so that would happen.

  “I was thinking in my
blue socks, didn’t say anything out loud.” I smiled at her as I got on the four-wheeler and took off down the path with her yelling something in my wake that sounded something like “Blue fucker!”

  We sat around the kitchen counter, all staring at one another after proper introductions. Liam and Lily stood off to the side, not sure of where their place was yet. It was clear Miley was the leader of this group, and therefore, I was second lieutenant or whatever was second in charge. If my masculinity was a point of insecurity, I would have rebelled at this current situation, but luckily, I had no issue with letting the woman rule the roost. She could handle it.

  “All three of you were recruited by the Mother, together?” Miley asked again. All three nodded.

  “Where?” I asked. “Where were you when it happened?”

  “Not too far from here, actually. We were collecting samples from the lake—they opened the spillway again. We haven’t been able to get to the coast since the last shut-down so we’re using our free time to monitor the lake,” Melissa answered. “Might as well use the rest of our grant money before we go home.”

  “Where is home?” Miley asked.

  “California, by way of Hawaii,” the one I think was Flynn answered. I should have known their accents were Hawaiian.

  “Good grief, what part?” Lily spoke, her hand going to her mouth. California was a war zone. Earthquakes had rocked Southern California, decimating most of it, followed by fires that couldn’t be controlled or extinguished. The land quickly became uninhabitable to humans within a few short weeks. North California had been hit by a tsunami caused by the earthquakes, and so the majority of the habitable region of the state was north and inland, everything else was a wasteland.

  “We were on the big island when the volcanos started becoming active. Our parents have money so we all got out together. We resettled in Sacramento,” Flynn answered, and when we all turned questioning eyes to him, he shrugged.