Daddy Shifter's Fake Fiance (Stonybrooke Shifters)

by Leela Ash

  “Without Milo, I don’t want to think about what would have happened. I just hope that we put enough distance between us and Caston’s men.”

  Mike shook his head. “They will be too worried about who takes over than what happens next with us. We are safe. I promise that I will keep you safe.”

  “I don’t want you to promise that Mike. Just promise me that you won’t leave me like that again. I can’t lose you too.”

  He promised, sealing it with a kiss. She moaned underneath him and the sound drove him crazy. He knew he wasn’t supposed to want her. It was the wrong time. But he felt a surge of need go through him and she leaned down to get another kiss from him. She was facing him, her body pressing against him, feeling the same need run through her.

  “You want me Jessa?”

  Mike was surprised by her nod. There was nothing she wanted more than to feel his touch on her, healing her of everything bad that had happened. She wanted to forget about the bad men and just focus on Mike’s healing touch. He was the only one who could ever make her feel like that. Mike made her feel like there was no new world, that everything was normal. Being with him was normal; the only normal thing that she had going in her life.

  His lips moved from her mouth and then down to her neck. He was rougher than usual, biting her neck and then licking up the hurt spot. She whimpered and then moaned, her body grinding down onto his. Taking his hands, she pulled them away and leaned in, pushing her chest into his face. He obliged her by taking a tip into his mouth through her shirt and biting down gently with his teeth.

  “Mike how could I not want you?”

  “But you don’t like me like this.”

  She tried to muffle the gasp that came out of her mouth when he grabbed her and flipped her onto her back, pinning her down with his hard body. “This is how you like me.”

  Jessa could do nothing but nod her head. It was exactly how she liked him, in control and her body free to be his. His hips were as suggestive as his mouth and as he pulled her clothing free of her body, she was left trembling in anticipation. It had only been a day, but it seemed like forever. There was a time, hours even, that she had thought she had lost him. Jessa needed the reassurance that he was there and not going anywhere.

  “No, this is not how I like you.”

  His head came up and he had a question on his lips. It was left unsaid. Instead, she pulled his shirt up and over his head, his hard muscles bunching up as he moved. Running her small hand down his chest, goosebumps followed her touch and she leaned up a little to reach the waistband of his pants. “I certainly don’t like to see all of this on you.”

  Mike stood up and stepped out of the pants way faster than she could have done it herself. She smiled back at him before he came back to the bed. She found him quickly in between her legs and he was finally in reach of her hand. She grabbed him lightly and stroked him as he became more excited. She pulled him closer until he was inches from her and her legs were over his. She was almost back on his lap, stroking him gently. She was hot and wet and so ready for him that she could have cried.

  “Please, just another inch.”

  He moved closer so that the tip was pressed between her wet lips as she rubbed him back and forth against her. Repeating her plea, he moved closer and she felt a little more of the thick head push her open. She whimpered with not getting what she really wanted. Jessa needed all of him inside of her, right then.

  Lying back, she pulled her panties off and before she could get them to her knees, he had pulled her legs up and pushed forward quickly with his need. She cried out and he shushed her, trying to remind her that they were not alone in the house.

  Biting her lip, she closed her eyes as he brought more of her to him, raising her legs higher to let him drill deeper. There was no soft beginning and rough finish, but constant stroking. He knew what she needed and he gave her exactly that, deep and fast inside of her, until Jessa started to implode from the inside out. He held her shaking legs up and finally pushed them down and to the side as he settled in against her for more.

  Her wetness only made him slide in deeper, leaving less friction to slow him down. Jessa’s hands gripped the bedsheets underneath her and his hand covered her mouth to stop her from waking up everyone within a mile radius. It did little more than muffle her screams as he moved deeper to finish them both off.

  Every time he was inside of her, it was never long enough and before he could stop himself, Mike was going headlong into his own wave of pleasure, trying desperately to not be completely overtaken. She clenched him hard as he pulled free.

  “I always hate that part.”

  “What?”

  “When it’s over.”

  He chuckled and kissed her. “Just give me a few minutes. You are trying to suck me dry.”

  Climbing on top of him and giving him a kiss, Jessa let him know how much she liked his new idea.

  9

  “Mom do you see that?”

  Jessa looked over to the sea where her son was pointing. They had finally made it to the coastline, and in record time. Although Milo was wounded, it seemed to make him that much more determined not to slow the others down, and ultimately they had been moving faster than they ever had before.

  She smiled back at Shane, thinking that his comment was about finally seeing the ocean. It was about time; they had been hearing and smelling it for over half an hour. “It is beautiful, isn’t it?”

  “No mom, look. The people.”

  Jessa gasped softly, following her son’s gaze. There were several hundred people, coming and going along a beach. Behind them were tents and the smell of food. It looked like a small community on the water, just like she had been envisioning, whether she was too afraid to acknowledge her hope or not. Immediately, Jessa was filled with mixed emotions. There was the hope that they were nice people, just trying to make it like they were, but there was the nagging feeling of what-if. What if they were just like the others she had met?

  “I see them baby. Well, it looks like we have finally made it.”

  She squeezed Mike’s hand and he smiled back at her. “Are you ready?”

  Jessa nodded. She was as ready as she was ever going to be.

  Shane tugged on Milo’ good arm and the boys began running down the beach toward the settlement. She had never been able to show Shane the ocean before, and the sight of his excitement made her heart swell. It was almost as if they didn’t live in a post-apocalyptic world. She had always hoped that her son would be able to find a way to simply be a kid. Even though he had recently shot and killed someone, he was still a young boy, who was thrilled to be showing Milo the shells he was finding along the beach. She rested her cheek against Michael’s arm, and they continued forward toward the settlement.

  ***

  Everybody watched in concern and bewilderment as the small troupe of people wandered down the beach. A tiny boy was beaming as he ran along the beach, followed by a taller, much older boy. His face was set in a grimace of pain, and his arm was bandaged. Behind the youngsters were two adults; a beautiful woman holding onto a rugged, powerful looking man.

  “You suppose they’re friendly?” Andie said to her mother. Her mother shrugged.

  “I’m not sure anyone with a boy that young could be all bad, but you never know these days,” she replied.

  Soon the small group made it to the settlement, and stood awkwardly, taking in the scene.

  “Welcome,” the matriarch of the village said warmly. She had been around as long as the hills, and everybody trusted her to judge the true character of the people who passed through. It seemed these people had her blessing, and so they knew without a doubt that they could trust them.

  “What happened, child?” she asked, walking creakily to Milo. She touched his bandaged arm gently and Milo hissed in pain and fear, pulling it away from her.

  “He was shot by a motorcycle gang,” Jessa replied, coming forward and laying a comforting hand on Milo’s shoulder. Milo r
elaxed into it for a moment, and turned his eye on the woman. She gave him a warm feeling; like someone he had known long ago but couldn’t remember.

  “Did they follow you here?” she asked, frowning.

  “No, ma’am. We took care of them. We protect our own,” Michael interjected.

  “Good, good,” the woman said. “I’m happy to meet you. We’ve been building this community for years now, far away from the influence of other people. We don’t want their kind around here. And to be fair with you, if you turn out to be too much trouble, we’ll have to come to an agreement, if you catch my meaning.”

  They did.

  “That’s fair,” Jessa said, looking around at all the people. There was a large abundance of food. Livestock were roaming all around, being tended to and played with by groups of happy children. There were no signs of the deep worry lines that creased the faces of most of the other groups that they had encountered over the years. These people were relaxed and only worried about outside trouble coming in to ruin their happy homes.

  “Good. Let’s say we give it a week to decide whether we’re a good fit for each other? And if not, we can part ways peacefully.”

  “We’d like that very much, ma’am,” Jessa said, knowing in her heart of hearts that they had just found their new home.

  Epilogue

  “He’s going to be a fighter,” Michael said with a grin, stroking Jessa’s stomach. The baby had been growing rapidly since they’d arrived on the coast, where Jessa’s heart had been telling her to go.

  “Actually, I think it’s going to be a girl,” Jessa said, beaming up at him. He grinned broadly.

  “A daughter…”

  “Yes,” Jessa said.

  “It’s time for your fruit, Jessa. These help the baby grow strong,” Andie said. Andie was a young girl around Milo’s age. She was close to being an adult but not quite. Her mother was a very skilled healer, and had medical training that Jessa didn’t. She had been able to patch up Milo and take the shrapnel out of his arm. Jessa had feared he might never be able to use it again, but with the help of Andie and her mother, he was already getting some movement back.

  “Thank you, Andie,” Jessa said, taking the fruit. “I think Milo was looking for you.”

  “Oh!”

  Andie hurried out of the tent in search of Milo.

  “Young love,” Michael said, inhaling as if the idea were the most refreshing thing he had ever heard.

  “It’s sweet,” Jessa agreed. “I didn’t expect them to hit it off.”

  “Me either,” Michael agreed. “But then, I’m sure some would say the same about us.”

  Michael took Jessa in his strong arms and started showering gentle kisses all over her body. He let his hands roam between her thighs and she gasped softly.

  “It’s daylight,” she whispered, smacking him playfully.

  “All the more reason,” he said into her ear, his voice sending shivers down her spine. “Shane is in school, and Milo will be busy all day with Andie…”

  Jessa closed her eyes as she surrendered to Michael’s advances. They made love well into the afternoon, and lay together, their fingers intimately entwined.

  “Who would have thought we could have found ourselves in paradise?” Michael asked softly, kissing her fingertips.

  “It must have been fate,” Jessa said. They exchanged contented smiles and dressed slowly. Shane and Milo would be home at any time, and they would soon be having dinner as a family. What more could she ask for?

  THE END

  Love and Survival in the Time After

  Leela Ash

  Copyright ©2016 by Leela Ash. All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic of mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Chapter 1

  Layne's heart was in her throat as the footsteps behind her receded. It had been a long time since she'd had a confrontation with one of the tribes. This time she'd gone to the wrong watering source. She thought that the public pool would be safe, for some reason. Although most of them were dried up, you could usually find at least a supply of sunscreen to protect you from the harsh sunlight, or if you were really lucky, there would be enough clean water left to quench your thirst and fill your bottle.

  She'd been due for a refill for a while now and although it was reckless, she had been desperate enough to get herself into danger. She had a bottle of beer left from the last batch she'd brewed, but that was strong enough to dull her senses and get her into trouble. Besides, it would just dehydrate her more. She would have to remember that this area was ruled by the Jackals – the name for the small gang of people who had claimed this turf. After the virus hit and wiped out most of the population, leaving only a few lucky survivors in every city, the tribes had been a way to find peace and security amongst other people who were dealing with the same crisis. There had been safety in numbers, or so they told themselves. While many had been afraid to wander the deserted world alone, moving forward with others didn't seem that bad.

  She herself had been part of a group in those first few chaotic years. Being a talented chemist, she'd aligned herself with a team of doctors claiming to seek a cure to the problem, but as it turned out most of them were frauds and civilians, delusional with a self-important mission they weren't educated enough to accomplish. Everybody was hoping for a miracle and she'd been lured in by their pretense. Ultimately, the group split due to bruising of egos and no real direction and she'd been on her own ever since then, trying to make sense of how things had gotten so far out of hand.

  As a scientist, she had to trace the line of cause and effect. A pharmaceutical company had ordered vaccinations against what they claimed was an alien virus from space – which was absurd, but everybody was so desperate for answers that they accepted the explanation. Now everybody knew that the first guess had been way off, but back then that was the government's grounds for getting as many people as possible under the needle for a miraculous vaccine that they had commissioned the company, Grow Inc, to develop. In a sad, ironic twist of fate, the virus they thought came from a meteorite that had landed in St. Petersburg, had actually been the result of lax safety precautions, as a team of scientists experimented with a cure for the common cold. They'd flown the team to Russia to try and evade SFT (Safety in Future Technology) safety standards, and the end result had been disastrous.

  The antivirus had been promising, and they had been convinced that by pushing the envelope, it would be successful. In initial experiments it had a 100% success ratio, though it hadn't been tested over the long term. After the meteorite crashed into the yard outside the Russian facility where the American scientists had been mentoring a group of people who were working together to rid the world of disease, that was when the results of the virus began to be seen, and how the SFT had gotten involved, claiming that the virus, because it was so difficult to contain and treat, had extraterrestrial origins.

  If they had checked more closely, they would have seen that the people that they had injected with the initial strain of vaccination had become carriers of the malicious virus, infecting everybody they came into contact with without even knowing it. A few cases had been reported in America shortly after the scientists returned, and before long half of St. Petersburg was in chaos. People were coughing up blood and begging for release from a pain that nobody could pinpoint, but everybody could agree was the worst they had ever felt. It seemed to move throughout the body, inflaming certain parts for a small amount of time before retreating and coming back with double the force.

  Because of the rapid spread in St. Petersburg, everybody assumed that was the origin of the virus, and the city was put under strict quarantine. Unfortunately, it was no use. It spread all over the world with startling speed. Nobody thought that the virus might be in the vaccination. Ironically, the claim was t
hat because the first vaccination had been successful enough during the preliminary trials, it should be utilized now, in this time of crisis. The SFT felt they had no choice and allowed the vaccinations to reach the mainstream market. Every day, for weeks, hundreds of people lined up to receive their vaccine, thinking it would be the only thing that might save them.

  Carriers were being created left and right, but those whose immune systems weren't as strong, or whose bodies didn't contain an immunity in their genes, were left defenseless against it. Days after the vaccination, the coughing would begin, until finally people began to catch on that it wasn't an alien virus that was killing people – it was one being spread by the vaccine.

  But it was too late. Within a few years, almost everybody was gone. With the exception of a few green-tinged carriers who had made it through, a few genetically privileged people, and some who had managed to escape both the carriers and the vaccinations until the virus finally became dormant. Life as they knew it had crumbled. Layne had no family or friends left, and she had felt so lost and alone, crying on her doorstep when the small group of “scientific” people had wandered past. They saw that she lacked the green-tinge of the carriers and the paleness of the infected, and welcomed her into their group saying they were heading somewhere safe, somewhere far away from there, and they were going to find the cure. Would she help?

  She didn't want to leave, but she also knew that she couldn't stay. From that point forward, her survival would depend upon her ability to move on, and that's all she needed to know.

  Chapter 2

  Jax scooped a handful of water from the stream he was kneeling at, examining it closely. It was clean, he determined, and he drank deeply, wiping his mouth, allowing a few stray drops of water to drip off his chin. His dark, alert eyes scanned the trees. The wind moved boughs peacefully, but he wouldn't be fooled by the serenity. He thought he had heard a sound.