Ruby’s Pride

by Romy Lockhart

  So we went off to find a magical well, just me and two gorgeous naked men who happen to be able to shift into lions. I’m pretty sure I’m already having way more fun than Dorothy ever did. At least the first time she came to this place.

  Ugh, Ruby. That’s no way to think. This place isn’t real and you know it.

  Well, yeah. I mean it’s way too perfect, even with the presence of great evil that actually tried to drown me before. There’s no way this isn’t a fantasy my brain cooked up when that cocktail fried it.

  “So how far away is this well?” I wonder out loud after we’ve been walking the yellow brick road for a while, with no kind of civilization in sight.

  “It will take close to a day to get there,” Corwin tells me, his mood still sour beyond belief.

  He seemed fine with Warner supposedly being mated to me. I wonder what his relationship with Ax is like. Maybe they don’t get along. It did seem as if Ax was closer to Ransom so it feels kind of weird. All of that is just going by the seriously limited time I’ve known them though.

  “In these heels?” I shake my head and imagine myself into a pair of sneakers. The glimmer of magic around my feet isn’t quite as mesmerizing as the first time, but it is kinda cool to watch it happen.

  It feels so much better when the heels turn into soft running shoes with padded soles. They’re still spotlessly white like the rest of my clothes. I probably look more like a nurse than a bride now. I’m not sure if that’s better or worse.

  “Neat trick,” Ax says.

  “Thanks.” It was kind of fun, but I’m slightly freaked out about what I’m going to be wearing once I wake up from this fantasy. I hope to hell I’m not wandering the streets naked or something.

  We continue walking until I shriek in delight at the sight of strawberries growing at the side of the path and go rushing toward them. I pluck one from the bush and my stomach grumbles.

  “They’re real! Thank God! I thought I was hallucinating.” I take a bite and the taste makes me moan. They’re so sweet and juicy. I eat a dozen in rapid succession, not caring if I look like a crazy person.

  I turn around and find Corwin raising an eyebrow at me.

  “Are you done?” he asks, as if I’m a kid doing something necessary but irritating.

  “Fuck no,” I tell him. “And where the hell was that question when Ax was licking me out?”

  “Oh, we could get back to that,” Ax tells me, stroking my arm. “Anytime you want.”

  “I think I may have a favorite mate,” I say, smiling nastily at Corwin who just sighs and looks away.

  “Just hurry up. We’re going to be pushing it for time as it is.” He walks on ahead.

  I produce a plastic tub out of thin air and quickly pick the biggest strawberries on the bush to eat later, on this apparently day long trek we have ahead of us.

  “He won’t notice if we go behind these bushes for a few minutes,” Ax murmurs in my ear as I put the strawberries into my bag. Temptation calls as his hands stroke over my chest.

  I flush at the thought of it, but shake my head. “We should keep going.”

  No more sexcapades, I tell myself. Getting home before I’m so in love with this place I never want to leave is my number one priority now. I can get cock back home as easily as I can get it here, I know, but somehow that’s a whole lot less appealing than it used to be. I glance at his semi and bite down on my lower lip. No man on earth has a cock as big as this. I’m going to have to find a heavy duty sex-shop to get something even closely resembling this magnificent specimen, and even then, it’ll never feel the same.

  I re-consider the bush. Ax reaches out and brushes a finger under my lip. He sucks on it as he gazes at my mouth.

  “You had juice from the fruit,” he tells me.

  “Oh, I wish,” I tell him, running a finger down his rock hard chest. “So do you.”

  Now a different kind of hunger is the cause for my salivations. The ache deepens. Getting to a sex shop is going to the top of my priorities once I get home now, but I have to get there first. I swallow the lust I’m starting to drown in and turn and chase after Corwin before Ax’s sultry stare can cause me to strip out of my clothes. His dark-haired brother has walked far enough away to almost disappear from sight around a sudden sharp bend in the road.

  “Corwin, wait up!”

  He slows to turn, but doesn’t stop. He starts to fucking sprint, the asshole!

  “What the hell is wrong with your brother?” I curse out as Ax catches up to me.

  He shakes his head. “He simply does not want you to die.”

  We run after him, but he never seems to slow down enough to catch up to, and within half an hour of this death-sprint bullshit I’m drenched in sweat and flagging. I exhale raggedly and stop running.

  “I can’t, I just can’t...”

  Ax gets in front of me and crouches. “I am going to shift, and you are going to get onto my back.”

  I stare at him in disbelief as he glances back at me. “What? No. Don’t be crazy.”

  I’m not going to ride a freaking lion! What the hell kind of idea is that?

  “It is the only way we will catch up.”

  He shifts in an eye-blink, and I mean that literally. One second he’s a mountain of a man crouched before me, the next he’s a huge-ass apex predator with a rumbling growl and a fluffed up mane of reddish-gold.

  “Holy shit,” I whisper, before looking down at my sweat-drenched white clothes. I look like I just entered a wet T-shirt contest and won the pointiest nipples award. Wait... “No. There is another way.”

  Ax the lion snarls at me, bugging me to get on his back. I shake my head vehemently, in case he can’t understand what I’m saying in that form.

  I fix the profuse sweating first, then the clothes, then I picture myself a few steps ahead of where Corwin is right now, standing in front of him with my arms folded and a smirk on my face.

  “Now,” I whisper.

  The swirl of glittering magic cascades around me, and then it’s gone and I’m standing in front of our leader, smirking hotly.

  He stops and gapes at me.

  “What’s the matter? Think you can outrun us this whole way?” If I sound smug, it’s because I am. This magical powers thing rocks. Why hadn’t I figured this out before that damn ugly ghost tried to drown me? I could have made him disappear with a freaking nod.

  He scowls at me. “We don’t have a moment to waste. Did I not mention that before, Ruby?”

  “Seriously, Corwin. You’re acting like an ass. What’s gotten into you?”

  “You really have to ask?” He frowns at me. “The girl who thinks it’s okay to mate to everyone...”

  “Excuse me?” Slut-shaming, from a guy who got his first lay in the middle of the woods a few hours ago? No freaking way.

  “You should not be mating with my brothers when you’re supposed to be leaving.” He hisses the words at me as Ax arrives at his side and shifts back into his human form.

  Corwin stalks past me and I sigh at Ax who shrugs and offers his hand. We walk together behind his inordinately moody brother. I start to wonder what kind of fucked up brain I have that it wants to thrive on this kind of melodrama instead of letting me have some sweet birthday ménage action.

  “You’re cool with sharing, right, Ax?” I ask, glancing at him sideways.

  He smiles, and it’s bright. There’s no hint of thunder in his clear blue eyes. “Ruby, if you were to stay with us I’d be the happiest man alive. Whether or not you decide to mate to all of my brothers as well.” He leans in and lowers his voice slightly. “Actually, I think that’s what would make all of us the most happy. Even if it doesn’t seem like it right now.”

  Oh, okay. You must be the devil on my shoulder, Ax. Trying to encourage me to stay put in dreamland. Corwin is clearly the angel, attempting to force me back to cold harsh reality where I don’t have the job I busted my ass to get, and my friends are so afraid of me they lie about their love lives.
Ugh, why do I have to leave this place again?

  Chapter 13

  The sky darkens slowly over the next few hours, clouds obscuring the sun from sight. I zip forward a few times, and the guys choose to walk most of the rest of the way as lions. They tell me they have to spend at least half of their time in that form by way of explanation, but I’m pretty sure it’s so Corwin doesn’t have to answer my questions anymore. When I try to keep up conversation on my own, he growls a lot and narrows his eyes at me.

  By the time the grey pathway appears into an abandoned looking town, I’m more than ready to get the hell out of this nightmare. The guys lead me onward, not changing their forms.

  “Damn it,” I mutter as I follow them toward the town.

  It’s overcast above, and there’s a real absence of light as we trek forward. I cross my arms under my chest, fighting off shudders. The buildings we walk past are run-down. Wind whistles through windows with broken shutters. It seems to howl through this entire place.

  I see The Well up ahead, right before Corwin breaks into a sprint toward it. He shifts to human as he reaches the big stone feature and leans over the ledge, peering down.

  “Quickly,” he snaps, turning back to us.

  I barely get the chance to think before Ax grabs me up in his arms and carries me over.

  I grab onto him tightly and frown. “Hey! What the...”

  “My brother is right, Ruby. This must be done before the sun falls.”

  He lifts me over the chasm. One glance downward and panic floods me. It’s pitch dark, no sign of the bottom. No glimpse of any kind of visible portal. No sign that I wouldn’t just be plunging to my death.

  Ax lets me go and I struggle to cling on to him. My grip falters. My heart leaps into my mouth.

  Then I’m falling, and it takes a second for the panic to subside enough to make me realize I have an out here. My magic! I imagine myself behind Corwin and Ax and whisper, “Now!”

  I don’t see the glimmer, my eyes close as tears run down my cheeks. I stumble as my feet find solid ground. I open my eyes and sob gratefully as I stare at the ground. I’m not dead.

  Corwin turns quickly, the thunderous expression on his face close to full-out rage. “You have no idea what you’ve just done.”

  I wipe at my tears. “I just stopped you from murdering me, you fucking asshole.”

  Ax’s expression is concerned as he glances from me to Corwin and back again. “Her life was in danger?”

  Corwin scowls at him. “Of course not. The portal opens a long way down. I have seen it work. Many times before.”

  Ax doesn’t look sure. I know I’m not.

  “You can’t just throw a girl down a hole and expect her not to freak out.” I seriously want to slap him right now. I realize I’m trembling and I just want to walk away from them to go somewhere and scream out my frustrations in peace.

  “Come over here,” he practically growls.

  How do I keep managing to pick assholes to sleep with?

  “No,” I snap, turning away.

  “I need to show you something. It will... reassure you.” His tone is clipped. He’s trying to be calm about this.

  I laugh, shaking my head. “Being thrown back down there isn’t going to reassure me.”

  He scowls, crouching down and picking up a stone. He stands back up.

  What the hell? Is he going to try to brain me with that thing?

  “Come over here,” he says.

  “Fuck no,” I tell him, glancing around and wondering what my options are. I can use my magic to run away from them, but where should I go? How will I find a way home on my own?

  He sighs and puts his hand over the mouth of The Well, the stone visible in his grasp.

  “Watch what happens when this falls. You need to be over here to see it.”

  I frown at them both before coming over, and standing at the opposite side. Ax seems just as curious as I am, despite how ready he was to drop me before. The trust between these guys is implicit, clearly. I look down as the stone falls, watching and waiting. It disappears into the darkness below. I refuse to blink while it seems to still be falling.

  Just when it seems The Well is bottomless, or the stone must have been spirited away to another world after all, a resounding splash echoes up the structure. I turn my gaze toward Corwin.

  “Is that supposed to reassure me?”

  His expression darkens. “Night has fallen. We are too late.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  Ax comes toward me and I back away, stumbling when I realize my heels have reappeared, and falling backward when they catch on the long material of the old lady night dress. What the hell?

  Ax stops me from falling onto the hard ground, but I flail, trying to get out of his grasp.

  “I’m not going down that fucking well. Let me go!”

  He holds tight even while I claw at him, gouging deep scratches in his shoulder and arm.

  “I will not try to do that again, Ruby. You have my word.” He picks me up.

  “Put me down!” I scream at him.

  I try to use my magic and it doesn’t freaking work! I’m so screwed right now.

  “We will have to try again in the morning,” Corwin says, sounding irritated. “We’ve missed our chance.”

  “No,” Ax says, shaking his head slowly. “I trusted you, Ransom, and you lied to me. I am taking Ruby home. She stays with us now. We will protect her. You can leave the woods and find your own place to live. You are no longer my brother.”

  Of course. Ransom has hated me since the moment he first locked eyes on me. It would make sense for him to try to remove me from his brothers’ lives. I look up at Ax as he carries me out of the creepy abandoned town. I’m hardly in a trusting mood right now but I’m exhausted and I don’t seem to have much choice but to let him carry me.

  “What happened to Corwin?” I don’t completely understand now that it’s clear his moody brother has been the one I’ve spent almost a whole day with.

  “He is trapped in the basement under the cabin,” he tells me. “Ransom put him there so we could bring you to The Well. He knew Corwin would not allow that to happen now that you are mated to him.”

  He sighs softly. “I should not have let myself believe Ransom had your best interests at heart. I do not wish for you to be destroyed by the darkness, and my brother has been so insistent from the beginning that The Well is a portal for humans. I did not stop to consider that he was being purposefully deceitful.”

  He looks troubled by that realization and falls silent as we walk the path back toward the woods alone. Exhaustion threatens to overwhelm me when I look at the moon full in the sky above. It’s been a day already.

  I’m worried that my magic seems to have deserted me, and that we’re walking out here after dark, when it’s apparently the prime time for that ghostly creature to attempt to attack. But when it comes right down to it, I’m more worried that I haven’t woken up yet.

  Maybe I should have just let myself fall. Maybe that’s what it would have taken to wake up in the real world. I know now, more than ever, that going home is the last thing I want to do, and that’s the biggest worry of them all.

  Chapter 14

  We make it back to the cabin safely, which I find out when I wake up in the same bed I was put in after I almost drowned. It’s warm and I’m nestled against something furry that seems to be creating most of the heat. Sunlight is streaming through the window and my ugly-ass nightdress has turned back into the sexy dress from the day before. I experiment to turn it into a bikini to check my magic is working. The glimmer I see before the transformation happens makes me exhale a relieved breath. I’ve got my magic back.

  It’s only then that I look at the lion resting beside me and find out it’s Warner. He’s bigger than the others, but his ravaged eye is the biggest tell-tale that it’s him. I reach out and stroke his mane, feeling how soft it is, on top of all of that pure muscle.

  I
move my hand back, realizing it’s probably weird to pet him as if he’s a common housecat, but he lifts his head and makes a soft growling noise when I stop. He likes it? Then who am I to deny him? I stroke his head and he gets comfortable.

  “Where were you last night?” I wonder out loud, knowing Corwin didn’t come after us because he was trapped. Warner was already out somewhere. I can’t help wondering where.

  I don’t suppose he’ll ever tell me, considering he doesn’t talk. Still, I can let him know it’s on my mind.

  “Do you know what happened?” I wonder if it’s why he’s beside me now.

  The bedroom door creaks open and I glance up at Corwin’s concerned face. For a second, I’m angry, and I know it shows through when he winces at me. It’s not his fault he has his brother’s face. I can’t seem to help my initial instinctive reaction to be pissed off at him.

  “Ruby,” he says, in a low voice as he comes into the room. “Are you okay?”

  He sits on the edge of the bed, his concerned gaze fixed on my face.

  The most honest answer to his question is no. I’m not okay that I’m still here, and I’m not okay that his brother attempted to kill me last night. I shrug, not quite willing to be that honest with him. I barely know these guys. I need to keep reminding myself of that.

  “I’m hungry,” I tell him. It’s not normal to eat a bunch of strawberries and nothing else all day. I mean, I know this is a dream or whatever, but come on. A girl needs to eat.

  “Ax is making breakfast,” Corwin tells me. “I am sorry Ransom tried to hurt you.”

  Again, I shrug. It’s not like it’s his fault this happened. “He never liked me.”

  “I do not think that is correct, but I do not know what has gotten into him lately.” He sighs. “I will not try to make apologies for him. He has made his bed. Now he must lie in it.”

  I smile at the human expression. “Is that something your grandmother taught you?”

  He nods slowly. “My grandfather taught my father many human things which he made sure to teach us. He wanted more than anything for us to find human mates. He was certain that would be our fate. Our mother was very kind and loving, but there are no others like her in their pride. We were never going to be accepted by them. Our only hope was for humans to come. We tried for many years to find ways into their realm but it did not seem possible. They can come here. We cannot go there.”