by Isa Hunt
“You're . . . you've got the wrong person,” I muttered, stunned with shock and disbelief. “Seriously. You have the wrong person. I'm not like you. I'm not a shifter.”
“Oh, I'm pretty sure I have the right person,” he countered. “Very, very sure.”
“I've never . . . done what you guys can do in my life! I can't shift! I don't have an animal form!”
I could feel panic rising up inside me with a vicious, destructive force. Suddenly heat was flushing across my skin, and I was finding it hard to breathe.
“Pull over, pull the car over, pull over and let me out,” I stammered. “I don't want this. You've made a mistake, you're wrong, I'm not a shifter, I'm not, I'm not . . . ”
“Just calm down, Kelly,” he said in a soothing voice. “I know it must be a shock to hear this, but—”
“A shock? A shock? You're crazy! You're insane! I told you, I'm not a shifter! I've never shifted forms, and I never will, because I can't, I can't, okay?”
“That's only because you don't know how to yet. But trust me, you'll learn. Your ability just has to be triggered, and activated.”
“Bullshit!” I snapped. This was too overwhelming, too crazy, just too much to handle. “It's all bullshit! I don't want this, and I've had enough of all this insanity! Pull the car over and let me out, right now! Stop the car!”
“Your dreams,” he said, remaining calm despite my state of near-hysteria. “Your dreams of fire and mountains. They mean something.”
It hit me like a bucket of ice water dousing me.
“How . . . how the hell do you know about my dreams?” I managed to murmur, utterly stunned.
“All dragon shifters have them,” he replied coolly.
“Wait . . . what? Did you just say . . . dragon shifter?”
Paul nodded.
“I did. I told you that you're a very special shifter, and that's why those guys are after you. And why we have to protect you. You're one of the last red dragons left in the world.”
“R . . . r . . . red dr . . . dra . . . dragon?” I managed to stammer. This was all so crazy that I was almost losing the ability to speak.
“That's right. In the old days, they were called fire drakes. Dragons who can spit fire.”
It sounded utterly crazy, but in a way, it made sense – my dreams of mountains, of fire – and that feeling of fire burning in my deepest core.
“But you said that, that a human can't become a shifter, that a shifter is born that way. My parents weren't shifters.”
“You're wrong again, Kelly,” he said. “Let me ask you a question: do you know who your father is?”
“I . . . I never met him, no. My mom didn't ever talk about him, except to say that he died when I was still a baby.”
“And your mother? Did she ever mention anything about dragons?”
“No, of course not.”
He sighed.
“Of course she didn't. She was trying to protect you. That's how you ended up in that little town in Florida. It wasn't where you were born, you know.”
“It . . . it wasn't?”
“No. You were born in the refuge of the red dragons . . . It's a place high in the Sierra Nevada range. But there was a struggle for power. A struggle that became a war. You see, the dragons have traditionally been the rulers of all shifter kind over the centuries. You, dragons, are the rarest of shifters, and you, Kelly, are the last of a bloodline that goes back thousands of years. And for thousands of years, the dragons ruled over the other shifters with fairness and justice. Your mother was my father's ruler, for a time, and Benoit's father. And dragons, you see, pass on their powers in a matrilineal way. The power is passed down from female to female.”
“And my brother? What about the men of the line?”
“They are dragons too.”
I felt a pang of sadness shooting through me. “He disappeared years ago.”
“It must have been the dragon blood, Kelly. Dragon blood reacts unpredictably in men,” said Paul. “The dragon blood must have made him crazy.”
“Do you know where he is? Is he . . . still alive?” I asked, feeling a sudden jolt of hope shooting through me.
Paul shook his head.
“I don't know. I'm sorry . . . All we can do is pray that if he is alive, he hasn't fallen into the hands of Artemis.”
“Artemis? Who's that?”
“Artemis is the man who started the war. He's a blue dragon – a lightning drake.”
“I thought you said that female dragons had power.”
“That's how it's always been,” Paul said, “and Artemis's sister ruled over the Eastern part of this country's shifter refuges – but he desired her power, and against all laws and traditions of shifter kind, he murdered her and usurped power – and then went after the other dragons. He wanted to rule over all of the shifter kind, and the only way he could do that was to eliminate all the other dragons.”
“So . . . he killed my father?”
“No. Well, kind of. Your father – or rather, the guys who could have been your father – are dead. They died fighting Artemis and his forces – evil shifters who flocked to his banner to support him in his struggle for power.”
“What do you mean 'guys who could have been my father'?”
He sighed.
“Well, you see . . . dragons are very different to the rest of us. While we have male alphas, like myself and Paul, dragons have a matriarch. And that matriarch doesn't take a single husband – she takes a group of alpha shifters from other shifter species to be her mates, in human form. So, your mother . . . she had multiple mates.”
“Wow . . . so you're telling me . . . my mom used to have, uh, multiple lovers . . . All at the same time?”
“That's right,” he said. “And if you want to trigger and activate your shifting powers . . . You need to do this too. You need to be with – and I mean that in the physical sense – your own alpha mates.”
“At the same time?”
“Yes. At the same time.”
“Let me guess what you're gonna say next,” I said. “You and Benoit, you're both alphas of your packs, or tribes, or whatever . . . So that means . . . that you guys intend to be my mates? My lovers?”
“That's it. And we're not the only ones . . . But if you want to trigger your powers as soon as possible, you can be with Benoit and me . . . together.”
CHAPTER 13 – KELLY
“Together . . . at the same time . . . as in, like, a threesome?” I asked.
“Yes, that's it,” replied Paul calmly, as if this was the most normal thing in the world.
My first instinct was to say no – but I held my tongue and didn't respond right away. Instead, I tried to force myself to be a little more open-minded about the whole thing. Being in a threesome was one of those things that I'd joke about with my friends, and that people would say they may have secretly fantasized about once or twice. But I didn't know anyone who'd ever actually done it.
Okay, wait, let me backtrack quickly: I'm pretty sure I knew a lot of people who'd had threesomes, but they weren't exactly my friends. The kind of freaks I served – or, rather, used to serve – at The Full Moon would probably have thought of a threesome as being something boring and conservative. Those people were into way wilder stuff than that.
So if all of my former customers, as freaky as many of them were, had done such things, why was I so hesitant to even consider the idea?
Maybe I wasn't, actually. I mean, yeah there was the fact that Paul and Benoit were both ridiculously hot guys whom I both felt a sense of attraction for, but then there was this whole new revelation, about me . . . well, not being me. Or, at least, not being me I'd always thought I was. I was one of them – if what Paul was saying was true. It made sense, though. He knew about the vivid, intense recurring dream I kept having, and that feeling of fire deep down inside me, wanting to explode. And he knew about my mom, and my brother, and father . . . well, fathers, if he was to be believed.
And apparently, the way to unleash these latent powers within me was to, well, do it with two guys at the same time. And not just two regular dudes – two guys who could turn into freakin' animals.
I had to admit that this particular thought got me at least a little excited. Benoit and Paul weren't just regular guys, even aside from the fact that they could shift into the forms of a wolf and a bear, respectively. They were also elite fighters, powerful men who both seemed to apparently be quite wealthy too, as well as being the leaders of their respective packs, or tribes, or whatever they were. They were royalty, in a sense, you could say . . . And both of them wanted me.
Well, Benoit hadn't said anything to that effect, but I'd seen it in his eyes – the way he looked at me, the way he was willing to die to protect me. Yes, he was quite a reticent guy, not at all like the talkative, easy-going Paul . . . but there was a fierce intensity of passion and vigor that burned in his wolf eyes, I had seen it, and it could not be denied.
“Kelly?” said Paul, interrupting my thoughts. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, yeah,” I stammered, almost embarrassed. “I was just uh, thinking about stuff.”
“You seemed to just drift away for a while.”
“Like I said, I was uh, I was thinking about stuff.”
He nodded, keeping his eyes on the road. We were still roaring along at over a hundred and twenty miles per hour, a speed that I was starting to get used to, even though it had scared me at first. Paul seemed as chilled as ever as if he were cruising along on some relaxed Sunday drive.
I thought again about the whole dragon thing. Could it be true? I mean, never in a million years had I imagined that dragons existed, yet now I was being told that not only did they exist, but that I was one! It was mind-blowing, to say the least. And I wouldn't have believed a word of it had I not seen, with my own eyes, men changing into animals. If that was possible, then the sky was the limit with regards to what might be out there.
I might just be a dragon . . .
And it seemed that there was only one way to find out. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that it was something that I had to do.
“Pull into the next motel we pass,” I said to Paul. “And get Benoit to do so as well.”
“Why?”
I smiled at him, feeling a surge of attraction flowing through me as his deep brown eyes, set in that incredibly masculine face of his, met mine.
“Because I'm ready. I'm ready to be who I was born to be.”
He smiled and nodded.
“I knew you'd come around to the idea. We'll pull over soon.”
As we drove on, I started to imagine what this was going to be like. I hadn't had sex for quite some time now, and I had to admit that I'd been really missing it, especially the last couple of weeks. I'd never been this forward with guys I'd just met, but these two had just risked their lives for me, so I figured that at least proved that they were trustworthy.
I was very attracted to both of them. I would admit that. Again, it wasn't a situation I'd ever been in before, but it was true: I'd felt immediately attracted to both of them the moment I'd looked into their eyes, and the more I was around each of them, the more those feelings grew.
I was ready for this. Yes, I was ready for this.
“Motel up ahead,” said Paul, slowing down. “Are you sure you want to do this? And I'm not just talking about the act itself, I'm talking about the consequences. Once we awaken your hidden powers, your dragon shifting abilities, they'll be with you forever. It's not something that can be reversed. Right now you're what we call a 'sleeping shifter'. When you're 'awake', though, you can never go back to 'sleep' again.”
I thought about this for a moment. It was a big decision. And the fact that I could never go back was kinda scary . . . but it was exciting as well. Thrilling, in fact.
What I was about to do to take this step into the unknown . . . It filled me with all kinds of feelings: rebelliousness, wicked delight, and of course nervousness.
We pulled into the motel parking lot.
“Wait here for a sec,” said Paul. “Benoit and I are gonna make sure everything is safe first.”
He and Benoit got out of their cars and scouted the area for a few minutes to make sure that it was safe. After a while, Paul came back, opened the door and took my hand to help me out of the car.
“It's all clear,” he said with a smile.
“Yeah, but it won't be for long with that freakin' blood red Ferrari of yours,” remarked Benoit sourly, glowering at Paul. “You're way too loud, and you attract way too much attention. Look at my Porsche – much more subtle, much less likely to attract attention.”
Paul shrugged his huge shoulders.
“I liked it, so I bought it. I've got a need for speed, man, and that car delivers.”
“I'd consider the need for secrecy and subtlety more important, but that's just me,” countered Benoit sarcastically.
“Boys, boys,” I said, “let's not argue. Come on, let's go on in and relax. We've been on the road for a while, and I don't know about you two, but I need to stretch my legs. Paul has explained everything to me, Benoit, about what I am, and what I need to do to become what I was born to be.”
Benoit's usually serious expression lightened, and he gave me a rare smile, a smile that greatly accentuated his angular handsomeness. He almost looked shy now, and I swore that I saw a hint of color reddening his cheeks.
“Should we have a drink or two to relax?” he said. “They sell liquor inside.”
I knew that I would need a drink or three to get me loosened up enough for what was about to go down.
“Sure thing.”
Benoit looked almost relieved, and he hurried off to buy some drinks while Paul led me to our room. We stepped inside, and I went and sat down on the queen-sized bed.
“You're everything I hoped you would be,” said Paul, smiling warmly. “I've been waiting for this day for years.”
“You have?”
“It's my duty as alpha of my tribe to be your mate. It will cement my position as alpha.”
“I see . . . Is it the same for Benoit?”
He shrugged.
“I'm not sure if it's the same with his wolf pack, but I suspect it's similar. He might seem a little shy, but he's been waiting for this moment for a long time as well.”
“Talking about me, huh?” said Benoit as he walked into the room, carrying a bunch of drinks.
We all laughed, and I found that I was already feeling a lot more relaxed about this whole situation. Benoit tossed me and Paul a beer each, which we cracked open. I was still feeling kinda nervous and worried, so I downed mine pretty quick, and asked him for another one. I got into that one pretty quick as well, and soon I was feeling a lot more relaxed and open. I could see that Benoit was also feeling this way, and his usual air of tenseness seemed to have loosened up. Paul was as relaxed and chilled as ever. He came and sat down next to me on the bed.
“Are you ready for this, Kelly?” he asked.
I breathed in deeply and thought about it one last time before answering.
“I am,” I eventually said.
“Well let's get things moving then . . . ”
He put one of his huge arms around my shoulders and moved in for a kiss. Initially, I was still a little nervous, but as soon as he pressed his lips against mine I felt a surge of arousal ripping through me. I slipped my tongue into his mouth and felt passion flowing through my body as we kissed.
As we were kissing, I felt the bed move as Benoit planted himself down next to me on the other side. He took my hand in his, holding it gently and stroking it, running his fingertips with a feather-light touch up and down my forearms, sending little thrills coursing along the surface of my skin.
I knew that he was waiting for a kiss as well, so I gently disengaged from the kiss I was sharing with Paul, and turned to my right. Benoit stared into my eyes with his bright, intensely-colored green eyes, and I saw a deep hung
er glowing in them.
“You're so beautiful, Kelly, so incredibly beautiful,” he said. “I've dreamed of this moment for so long, so very long.”
He then leaned gently into me, and his lips parted mine, and then his tongue was in my mouth. Powerful jolts of arousal were now tearing through my veins. I'd never kissed two guys within such a short span of time. It felt so rebellious, so naughty . . . and so intense as well. I could feel a fire inside me alright – and it was concentrated between my thighs. A delectable heat was growing with force down there, as well as some intense wetness.
As I was kissing Benoit, who was a fantastic kisser, with immense skill, I felt one of Paul's huge hands cupping my left breast. As if Benoit had sensed what Paul was doing, he moved his hand up to my other breast and slipped it inside both my top and my bra, squeezing it and massaging my stiffening nipple between his forefinger and thumb. It felt so good, so intense, that I couldn't help gasping with delight into his mouth.
Any reservations I had had about this thing had long since vanished. I was into this now, more into this than I ever could have imagined. I disengaged from my kiss with Benoit and then turned to smile at Paul, who was massaging my left breast with his huge hand and stroking my thigh with his other hand.
“I think we all need to slip into something more comfortable,” I said, arousal flushing my cheeks and chest with red.
The guys needed no further encouragement. Paul started disrobing right away, and on my right, Benoit pulled his shirt up over his head. I'd seen how perfectly-chiseled his smooth, tanned torso was before, but I couldn't help staring in awe at it when I saw it again. As I was admiring his torso, he slipped his pants down, revealing his stiffening cock, which was getting thicker and longer, adding a hugeness to its already large size.
I slipped my top off and felt Paul's hands undoing the clips on my bra. As I slipped it off, freeing my breasts, which popped out, pert and firm, Benoit leaned down to kiss and suck on my breast, swirling his tongue around my hard nipple.