by Casey Morgan
“To help who?” I asked, confused.
All this time, Melchior had acted as if everyone in this forest needed my help. Yet this guy – who still hadn’t told me his name – was acting like I was here to help only some people.
He had also talked about good people and bad people.
Was there some kind of a division here in Bethel Forest?
Whose side was good and whose was bad?
Whose side was I supposed to be on?
He was still very close to my face, looking at me intently, but not saying anything.
“I guess that’s another question you don’t want to answer,” I said. “But you have to tell me your name. It’s only fair.”
What were these shifters so secretive about?
It’s not like I hadn’t figured out they were shifters. And that was about as crazy of a thing as I could think of to discover.
I knew there was still a lot I didn’t know – a lot of secrets about this forest, including my relationship to it, why I had ever lived here in the first place, why I had left, and why Melchior had asked me to come back “home.”
But you’d think they could start by telling me basic details.
Name, date, DTF?
Down to fuck?!
DTF? WTF?
I blushed when I thought that, not sure how it had popped into my head. I couldn’t help being attracted to this shifter, just as I was attracted to Melchior.
Apparently, I had found my type: big, strong, hot guys who turned into wolves and kidnapped me and kept me captive in pear trees.
I was beginning to think he wasn’t going to answer me, even on this one simple question that he had promised he would tell me. He must not have been a man of his word. Or a wolf of his word.
But after a while he breathed a deep sigh, as if he wasn’t sure whether he should tell me or not but was going to anyway, and said, “Simeon.”
“Well, Simeon, it’s nice to meet you. Even though there were definitely nicer ways you could have gone about it.”
He actually smiled a little bit at this, the sides of his mouth curling upwards.
And I thought he was going to kiss me.
He leaned in even closer, his mouth very close to mine.
I knew I was supposed to resist him. He had taken me captive. And I was still thinking about Melchior. But my pussy got wet and it clenched tightly for this new shifter. Simeon.
He could run off with me any time he wanted.
He moved that last little final centimeter, and I swear he was just about to make our lips meet, but then a whole bunch of wolves came running out of nowhere.
That figures.
I had finally managed to find not just one but two guys I’d honestly love to give my virginity to – even though apparently, they weren’t only guys, but they were also wolves – and every time I tried, some big drama ensued.
Simeon turned around and stared at all the wolves, and so did I, of course. It was hard not to miss them.
All the partridges that had gathered in the tree flew off in a hurry, and I wished I could join them. Simeon’s dove stayed close to his side, though. Or at least, close to the space above his head that it always seemed to occupy.
That was one faithful dove.
And a brave one, too, because it didn’t seem to be afraid of the wolves like the partridges were.
Simeon didn’t seem to be afraid of them, either. It must be that they were his “pack,” or whatever it was called.
The wolves stopped when they reached us.
One of them growled something to Simeon.
He must have been number two in charge.
Simeon was clearly number one.
Just as I sensed that Melchior was number one in his pack, and Melchior’s pack clearly didn’t get along with this pack.
See? I could be a fast learner when I wanted to be.
As the wolves talked to Simeon, he growled a bit, but mostly ignored them. He was looking overhead at where the partridges had flown. Then he was looking all around the forest, as if trying to sense danger.
While I had time to myself to think, since I didn’t speak Wolf, I began to feel a bit guilty about being turned on by Simeon and wanting him to kiss me, when I felt physically and emotionally attracted to Melchior.
How could I be so into both guys at once, especially when I knew they didn’t get along?
I didn’t get much more time to think about it, though, because suddenly the number two wolf began to shift right before my very eyes. It was the reverse of what I had seen Melchior do, except that it was hotter, because his broad shoulders and muscular chest and six pack abs and handsome face appeared in place of all the wolf features.
Damn. How come all these shifters were so hot?
“Hi,” the former wolf, current man, said, looking up at me in the tree, after his snout turned into a mouth and nose and he was apparently able to speak Human now. “I’m Gideon.”
I was already liking Gideon, too. Not just because he looked a lot like Simeon – which is to say, really smoking hot – but also because he was by far the friendliest of the three wolf shifters I’d met so far.
I had a feeling I was going to meet some more.
That tended to be how things kept happening around here.
“Gideon and Simeon, huh?” I asked. “You guys brothers or something?”
“Um, yeah,” Simeon said, and I felt myself blushing and feeling dumb.
That explains why you’re both so friggin’ hot.
“Tie her up,” Simeon said, throwing a rope to Gideon. “And don’t touch her.”
I had no idea where that rope had come from. One of the underling wolves must have brought it to Simeon while I was busy watching Gideon shift.
I had so many questions.
First among them was:
Why can’t he touch me?
What if I want him to?
Oops. I guess that was two questions.
I was concentrating so hard on the part where this gorgeous man-beast wasn’t allowed to touch me, that I think I missed the part about the rope at first.
He’s going to tie me up?
Why?
And how is he going to tie me up without touching me?
I realized that the question about why he had to do it was the one I should be asking Simeon, since some of the other ones – about wishing his brother could touch me, right after he and I had almost made out – might make him a little upset, so I did.
“Why does he have to tie me up?” I demanded.
Simeon didn’t answer, of course, and I didn’t know why I had thought he would. So, I turned to the more affable Gideon and asked the same question, as he was already taking my hands and binding them to the tree branch I had just been trying to revitalize, or whatever it was that both Melchior and Simeon had been wanting me to do to it.
He just shrugged and gave me a half eye roll in Simeon’s direction, as if to say, “I don’t know but whatever Simeon says, goes.”
None of this was making any sense, least of all the fact that Gideon was touching me while he was tying me up, in direct contradiction to his brother’s orders. So, I began to realize that Simeon didn’t mean it exactly literally. He meant that Gideon wasn’t supposed to touch me for the purposes of pleasure.
And, boy, did I want him to do that. The only thing I was paying attention to now was the bolt of electricity that was running down my spine and all throughout my body as Gideon was tying me up. It was almost as overpowering as the feeling I had first had around Melchior.
Maybe this entire forest was enchanted and was sending love potions my way.
Or at least lust potions.
Simeon looked back at us, as if to make sure that we weren’t having sex already.
Gideon nodded at him, loyally, and Simeon said, “See you soon.”
I wasn’t sure if his temporary farewell was aimed at me or Gideon or both of us. But Simeon soon shifted into a wolf and ran off with the rest of the pa
ck.
Now I was as confused as ever.
Chapter Three - Simeon
Leave it to Melchior to try to claim the One True Hope as his own.
That wasn’t going to happen. Not in my fucking forest.
Or, not in my part of it, anyway.
Bethel Forest may only have been one forest in name, but it might as well have been three, due to the packs who inhabited it and our territorial, competitive nature.
I was so annoyed as I ran off with my Lumi pack to go fight off Melchior’s Eira pack. Melchior always had a way of ruining things around here. Marilyn should have been ours for the taking, not his. And by kidnapping her, I made sure that she would be.
“Stay here,” my pack member Celyn said, as he pointed to a woodsy border of a clearing. “I’m going to go see what the situation is.”
“You pulled me away from… the task at hand,” I reminded him, not wanting to say what I was thinking, which was, from that delicious treat of a woman, Merilyn, “in order to come fight, and now you’re making me wait?”
Celyn shrugged, and said, “I was told to get you but not to bring you into harm’s way until it was absolutely necessary. May It Be As He Wishes.”
I rolled my eyes, so sick of that phrase that everyone always said around here.
“Fine,” I told him. “But hurry back.”
I wasn’t a patient man.
I thought about Marilyn, tied to the tree, helpless and naked, and wanting me. I knew she wanted me. I could see her breathing increase and her face flush when she looked at me. I could hear the desire in her voice.
I was glad my brother Gideon was tying her up for me. When I got back, I would feast on her. I wanted to taste her pussy, to suck on her hard little clit until she came. I wanted to make her moan and whimper for me, and beg me to fuck her.
I would keep her bound while I slipped my cock into her soft folds. Only once I had plunged deep inside her would I let myself give in to my unbridled passion. My big, hard cock would fill her to the brim while I pumped my seed inside her.
I needed an heir. I had once been in charge of the Lumi clan, until Gaspar had made me give up power in order to save my brother’s life.
Gideon had always been a liability. I knew he had more power and strength than he let on, but he never showed it. Life was easier for him if he just let me fight all our battles for us. And Gaspar knew he was my weakness, because, since he was my flesh and blood, I couldn’t just let him give up and die.
And so, for now, Gaspar was in charge of the Lumi, at least until I was able to get my brother to see the benefits of fighting instead of being the pacifist he was. I needed him to join forces with me to conquer Gaspar.
There were more pressing issues at hand, of course. Jessalyn was ramping up her attacks on all of us, in her move to consolidate more power in Bethel Forest. We three tribes – the Eira, the Lumi and the Neige were fractured and each in charge or our portion of the forest, with tentative alliances that were quickly thrown asunder as we became enemies again – but Jessalyn maintained power over all the shifters in all three clans due to her use of magic.
We sometimes worked together to make spells to defeat her, but she always found ways of increasing her power even more. It was usually best to just leave her alone.
Now, though, we had to act. Marla’s baby was supposed to be our one true hope, to unite the forest against Jessalyn and defeat her once and for all. But with Marla dead, and her baby in Jessalyn’s strong grasp, all hope could be lost.
Of course, there was hope in Marilyn, if she really was what the rumors spreading throughout the forest said she was. I hadn’t put much trust in those rumors because they had been started by Melchior, our current rival. But now that I had seen her, and questioned her for myself, I couldn’t help but believe they were true – she might be the One True Hope.
Here we had all been thinking the baby was our One True Hope, but a baby is nothing without someone to raise it. So, maybe Marilyn really was that person.
I was pondering all of this when Celyn came back.
“Okay, Gaspar says to come now,” he reported.
I resisted rolling my eyes. I was the one who had managed to track down Melchior and Marilyn and yet Gaspar wanted to take over from here. Typical Gaspar.
True, it hadn’t been very hard to find them, since Melchior had let his inner animal lust get the better of him, and had been too busy fooling around with Marilyn to stay focused on what I assumed was his main goal of getting her to Jessalyn’s castle and rescuing the baby. Still, I was the one who had put in the blood, sweat and tears, and now Gaspar was undoubtedly going to want to take not only the credit but also the prize. He likely wanted to steal Marilyn away from me, which wasn’t happening.
I was with him on the goal of defeating Melchior, of course. But Gaspar had better be fighting alongside me, because Melchior and his Eira pack were no joke. He was as strong, fast and quick-thinking as I was, and his pack members rivaled my own. We would need all hands on deck, with strong participation from everyone except Gideon – because no one wants to bring a pacifist into battle – in order to not only claim victory over Melchior and the Eira pack but also to just plain stay alive.
When Celyn and I got to the clearing, we were immediately ambushed by some members of the Eira pack. I was clawing, scratching and biting at them, and they were doing the same to me. But they were small battle wounds compared to what I knew fighting Melchior would be like.
“Where is he?” I asked Celyn, who had also been fighting off Eira pack members, as soon as we could both catch a breath.
“Over there,” he said, pointing towards the further end of the clearing.
I started running in that direction, but came skidding to a halt when I saw who Celyn had been referring to: Melchior. He was currently fighting off some of my pack members, who were doing a piss poor showing against him and his much bigger coalition of pack members who had come to fight.
I came skidding to a halt, my back legs becoming entangled with my front legs as I did so, causing me to sit down quickly on my ass. But I quickly recovered, pulling my tail out from under me and trying to look aloof. I didn’t know if Melchior had seen us yet, and I didn’t want him to.
“Not him, you nincompoop,” I hissed under my breath at Celyn. “I meant Gaspar. Where is Gaspar?”
Celyn shrugged.
“You know he doesn’t always inform me of his whereabouts. All he does is tell us when we need to be somewhere and when.”
I let go of a low growl, trying to be quiet, but fearing that my anger would reel its angry head so much that I would let Melchior know I was here, if I hadn’t already. As much as I was always anxious to fight Melchior or any of my rivals, I knew that right now was probably not the best time.
I wished I could change into human form so that my inner animal anger wouldn’t take over so obviously. It had the tendency to get me into trouble, and my cooler human head usually prevailed. But I would be at a disadvantage over the wolves who were fighting for their lives right now if I did that. And if I needed to get out of here, which I had a feeling I would, I needed the fast body of my wolf shape.
I looked around, feeling sure I was being set up for something. There were only a handful of Lumi compared to the vast army of Eira. And it bothered me that Gaspar wasn’t willing to fight Melchior if he thought it was so important.
He was sending me to do his dirty work. And I didn’t think it was only for the purpose of getting rid of Melchior so that the One True Hope could help our pack rather than his.
Gaspar always had an underlying purpose. We had once been close friends, almost as close as my own brother Gideon and I were, but his pursuit of power came at the cost of our friendship.
I guess the same could be said in the reverse, some part of my brain told myself.
But now was not the time to second guess my current hatred of Gideon. The fact that we had been friends once only meant that I knew the depths of his quest
to always be in control. I knew how his mind worked, and how this could all be a trick.
“Are there more Lumi coming?” I asked Celyn, telling myself I had to hurry up and make a decision.
Melchior would see me soon, if he hadn’t already. And then my only choice would be to fight him to the death, with my paltry pack numbers compared to his. At the moment, I still had options, but I needed to choose between them before the choice would be taken away from me.
“I don’t know,” he shrugged. “He didn’t tell me that, either. But to my knowledge, no. You were the only one he told me to bring here, after the initial pack members lined up.”
That made my decision easy.
He was setting me up.
And I wasn’t about to be a pawn in his game.
I would have to let my brother know what to do.
I could only hope he would follow my instructions instead of trying to be some kind of savior. But they were simple enough that even he should be able to do it.
Chapter Four - Marilyn
Once I was all tied up in the tree, I thought for sure that Gideon was going to have his way with me. Maybe he would tease me like Marilyn had. Or make it clear he wanted to do something with me, like Simeon had.
But instead, he just under the tree, wiping his forehead and saying, “There. Hope that’s good enough for him.”
“For your brother?” I asked, trying to make conversation.
Maybe I could get information out of him, since Melchior and Simeon hadn’t been very helpful in that department.
“Yeah,” he said, shrugging.
“Does he always call all the shots?” I asked him.
I didn’t know what had gotten into me, but I was thinking maybe I could goad him into getting angry enough to tell me things I wanted to know.
I didn’t know why I thought this might work, though, since I had tried it several times with my father, growing up, and hadn’t ever gotten any successful results. I wanted to know what had happened to my mother. How it came to be that she died.