Reality
Changing His Reality
Jason Thorne lost his emotions four years ago. After getting kidnapped and then meeting and rescuing two men—vampire’s personal slave Toby and tiger-shifting Tyler—he suddenly discovers he’s starting to get his feelings back. When the three men move in together, the attraction between them grows. But Jason is afraid of losing his feelings again and he doesn’t want to act on it.
When Tyler Rhodes agreed to help search for his friend’s missing brother he didn’t expect to be caught, locked in a cage in his tiger form and starved. Only Toby smuggling him food kept him from dying. When both Tyler and Toby got rescued by Jason and his mysterious powers, Tyler is determined to do everything he can to convince his men that relationship between them can work.
In all the chaos that comes next it’s Toby and Tyler’s task to convince Jason that they can make it work and change his emotionless reality forever.
Genre: Alternative (M/M or F/F), Ménage a Trois/Quatre, Paranormal, Shape-shifter, Vampire/Werewolves
Length: 43,662 words
CHANGING HIS REALITY
Reality
Sophie Martin
MENAGE AMOUR
MANLOVE
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Ménage Amour ManLove
CHANGING HIS REALITY
Copyright © 2014 by Sophie Martin
E-book ISBN: 978-1-63258-433-5
First E-book Publication: October 2014
Cover design by Harris Channing
All art and logo copyright © 2014 by Siren Publishing, Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including electronic or photographic reproduction, in whole or in part, without express written permission.
All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
PUBLISHER
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com
Letter to Readers
Dear Readers,
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Regarding E-book Piracy
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This is Sophie Martin’s livelihood. It’s fair and simple. Please respect Sophie Martin’s right to earn a living from her work.
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DEDICATION
For my mother, who encouraged me to write this book and try my luck in publishing it. It looks like she was right, as always.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Epilogue
About the Author
CHANGING HIS REALITY
Reality
SOPHIE MARTIN
Copyright © 2014
Chapter One
Jason Thorne discovered that getting kidnapped made him mildly irritated. Considering that mildly anything was as far as his feelings went…well, it wasn’t that bad.
He was coming back from his favourite pub quite late in the evening when the whole kidnapping business happened. He liked going to the pub, sitting there nursing his pint of whatever-he-felt-like for the day and reading whatever-book-he-was-currently-on. It was his way of socializing, of being with real people even if he wasn’t really being social and had no real company except for his book and his beer. Still, it was his ritual and he liked it. If his mother called him and asked if he went out at all, he could with clean conscience say that yes, indeed, he went out just the other night.
His mother never lost hope that he’d meet someone special, fall in love and live happily ever after. It didn’t happen for her, but she believed it would for her only child. Jason himself was pretty sure it wasn’t in cards for him. What with him being different and all. He loved his mother though—as far as his ability to love went anyway—and indulged her dream of true love coming and sweeping him off of his feet. In all reality, Jason lived a pretty solitary life and was content with it.
Content was another feeling he was able to experience. It wasn’t happiness and it wasn’t indifference, but something in between. It was one of the best emotions he could still feel.
Jason stopped feeling anything beyond some very limited emotions when he reached his twenty-fifth birthday. Before that he was a normal person. He laughed with joy and held his tears when he was sad, as he fiercely believed men shouldn’t cry. He got angry with politicians and sometimes furious with some stupid fuckers who abused those weaker than themselves. He worked in an animal shelter, so he saw plenty of that. But his life turned upside down when he started to get close to his twenty-fifth birthday. He started feeling this weird coldness creeping into him and taking root somewhere deep within his soul. He didn’t know what it was, didn’t know how to fight it or even that he should have fought it at all. So slowly, day after day, the numbness took possession of his very being until nothing was left of the real him on his birthday.
He still had some friends back then, before his new cold demeanour chased them away, but they started to feel really uncomfortable around him. When they went for a night out in a pub to celebrate his big day, he discovered he couldn’t really feel anything. Nothing about turning twenty-five, nothing for his friends, nothing at all. Hell, the state of lacking emotions lasted almost half a year, and in this time he lost all of his friends.
Feelings started coming back after that, but they were different, crippled somehow, not at all like they used to be. So Jason didn’t even try to make new friends. Especially after he discovered that he was different. Different in a way the lack of
feelings didn’t even begin to describe. Different than every other human on Earth. Just different.
All these thoughts passed through his head while he was being driven in some kind of car, surrounded by his captors. When he was coming back from his weekly outing to the pub, he got intercepted by a bunch of guys. They were big, they looked like brutes, and they proved to be exactly that.
“Hey,” said the leader. “What’s a pretty boy like you doing out here all by your own? Won’t your mommy miss you? It is surely past your bedtime, pretty boy.”
Jason measured the man with his usual cool gaze. He wasn’t surprised or insulted by being called pretty. Even if he was able to feel insulted, it wouldn’t be by this particular word. He was pretty. People told him that often enough. He had big, clear grey eyes surrounded by long, dark lashes that most women would kill for, his dark blond hair was thick and wavy, and he had a face that belied his age. People often mistook him for a teenager. They also said that he looked really innocent. He usually shrugged it off. He wasn’t anywhere close to being innocent. Before his weird transformation, he had his fill of different sexual encounters, relationships, and simple hookups. He also wasn’t naïve. He saw too much of human’s brutality to stay innocent.
As he had no answer for the man, he simply stood there and watched him. The brute apparently grew tired waiting for his response as he ordered his cronies.
“Take him. He’s apparently slow, but it won’t matter for the boss. He’s pretty enough, doesn’t need to be smart, too.” After that, the men jumped him, and even though he struggled, they captured him, bound his hands behind his back, and put some kind of sack over his head, tying it over his mouth for a good measure. The leader of the thugs warned them. “Don’t damage him. You know boss doesn’t like his new property damaged.” Being bound, blindfolded, and gagged, Jason decided to see where this was going and ceased all struggling.
They packed him in a car then and started driving. The drive took quite a long time. Apparently they weren’t from his town. Jason wondered for a moment where his book went. He doubted they took time to pick it up from where he dropped it and felt a slight pang of disappointment. It was a good book. Interesting, with fast pace of action. He would like to learn the ending. He sighed as much as he could with the coarse fabric covering his mouth and decided to either try to pick it back up when he finished the whole being kidnapped business or borrow it from the library. He preferred to own those books he deemed worthy of buying, but there was no helping losing it if someone decided to pick it up or if it rained while he was still kidnapped.
Jason changed his train of thought. The car was still moving, which meant that the people who kidnapped him had to have come from a good distance. Also, the timing and a spot from where he got taken were both awfully convenient. He decided that they had to have been watching him for a while to know where to strike and also that, most probably, nobody would be looking for him. Sure his mother would notify the authorities when she realised he was gone, but no one would be able to give police any details as he wasn’t close with that many people. Meaning he wasn’t close with anyone except his mom, period.
All of the above meant that these blokes did their homework. This in turn meant that it wasn’t some random kidnapping, but a more organized action, and the mentioning of “the boss” made Jason think it could have to do with human trafficking. Well, he reckoned all that there was left to do for him was wait and learn the truth when they finally reached their destination.
It took them quite a while longer, and as Jason wasn’t any good with judging time without his watch, he had no idea how long had they really been in a car. Finally they stopped. The front passenger door opened and one of the thugs left the car. Then a sound of metal door being opened could be heard. Jason was familiar with the sound, as they had metal door in a shelter’s storeroom where all the dog and cat food was kept and they made the exact same sound. There was another sound as if these were double doors. It made sense as soon the car was moving slowly again and stopped shortly. Another sound told Jason that the doors were now securely closed.
Well, he thought to himself, here we are. He was mildly curious of what would happen next. The thug on his right opened the car door and exited the vehicle pulling Jason after him. Soon, shutting of the car doors notified Jason that all of his kidnapers were out of it. Then the leader spoke.
“I’m gonna tell the boss we got him a new toy. You all keep an eye on him. And don’t you dare damage him before I show him to the boss. He won’t be happy if we deliver damaged goods.” Jason could almost feel it in the atmosphere that none of these guys wanted “the boss” angry with them. He could judge it by how still they suddenly went and how one of the guys’ hand tightened on his bicep for a second before returning to its previous secure-but-not-too-tight hold. Jason was once again mildly curious about this “boss.” Who could that person be to instigate such fear in these goons? He decided that this will be one interesting meeting.
* * * *
It didn’t take long for the man to be back. Soon Jason heard pounding footsteps, and the leader grunted.
“Okay, boss will see him now. You can take this thing off of his head.” Surely enough, soon the sack or whatever it was that covered Jason’s eyes was yanked off his head, and he looked around, squinting his eyes not used to even the small amount of light the one single light bulb gave. Jason watched his surroundings intently, even as he was being pulled forward by the thug who still held his arm. He wanted to learn as much of where they brought him as possible.
The room he was in was spacious and empty, save for some big machinery parts here and there. All of it was covered in dirt, and what looked like a year’s worth of dust. He decided he had to be in some kind of warehouse or maybe an abandoned factory. The thug pulled him up a metal stairway, and Jason flinched, seeing that it was the kind with empty spaces between steps. He hated them. He always had this weird feeling as if he was about to fall. He knew logically that the metal was as sturdy as any other stairway with filled steps would be, but his brain didn’t seem to work in logic mode. He always got a bit light-headed when he was forced to walk this kind of stairs. He swallowed audibly and closed his eyes, letting the thug pull him up the stairs. He tripped when he reached the top, and the guy holding him grumbled unhappily as he squeezed Jason’s arm painfully. He eased his hold as soon as Jason opened his eyes and regained his balance.
Nobody said a single thing as they pulled Jason to another huge room. There was some kind of platform there with a sturdy metal cage on it. Jason’s eyes widened slightly as he saw the inhabitant of said cage. It was a tiger. Jason couldn’t say what kind of tiger it was, as he wasn’t familiar with wild animals. He could recite dog and cat breeds but he couldn’t, for the life of him, recognize a jaguar from a leopard. His lack of knowledge didn’t stop him from admiring the regal beast lying currently in a cage and watching him carefully with a half-lidded gaze of its stunning yellow eyes. The animal did not move a muscle even as it trailed its gaze after Jason and the bunch of thugs pulling him further to a single door on the far right side of the room.
Jason moved his eyes from the tiger and scoped the rest of space he was dragged through. There were more machinery parts as well as cardboard boxes and other rubbish littering the floor. There were also a couple of doors beside the ones he was being led to. Only one of the couple seemed used though. The other was half-covered by a pile of rubbish in front of it. That was all he managed to discern about the room as they reached the door and one of the thugs knocked. Booming “Enter!” prompted them to do just that.
The door opened with a creak taken straight from some B-rated thriller or horror movie, and Jason barely managed to stop himself from rolling his eyes. As the other doorway opened with barely a sound, he decided it was specially designed to scare or intimidate new captives. He almost smiled to himself. All he felt was exasperation. It was a good feeling. Well, at least it was for him. It was one of the ones he felt mor
e often. It felt like sighing, shaking his head, and throwing his hands in the air.
He did none of the above, of course. Even if his hands weren’t tied behind his back, he had his dignity. It didn’t mean he didn’t feel a sliver of contentment shooting through him at feeling another emotion in a span of hours. If he knew that to feel he had to simply get himself kidnapped, he’d do it more often. Or maybe not. He frowned. It definitely messed with his routine, and he’d become a creature of habit after his transformation. It helped him, kept him rooted in the here and now. If he abandoned his routine for too long, he started drifting away. Mentally, that is. He would then feel even more disconnected from the real world than he did normally, and he didn’t want to. At least not yet. He wasn’t sure what would happen if he let himself drift too far away from world, but he had a feeling that he wouldn’t be able to live like a regular mortal anymore. And he didn’t want to do it to his mom. She deserved better.
Jason realised that he got carried away by his train of thought again when a grunt and a shove made him stumble into another, much smaller room.
* * * *
He shook himself internally and focused on here and now. He was in a small dimly lit chamber much different from the rest of the building they were in. There were heavy drapes on each wall and weird gothic-looking candelabras on the far wall opposite the door. They shed their flickering light on the person sitting under them. At the same time, they made shadows dance over the form of that man. Jason decided it was deliberate like the squeaky door and lack of real light, designed to intimidate whoever was brought into the room.
Changing His Reality Page 1