by J. D. Light
"See you in a few, Pocket Bear." I sauntered out, flexing my ass a little harder than normal with each step.
And his eyes never left me. I could feel them burning holes in my pants.
The street outside was quiet, and I didn't see Richelle anywhere. Which was a little unnerving, considering I knew she had to be around here somewhere, watching and waiting for the drugs to take effect.
I climbed the slight hill that made up the last block to my apartment and frowned as I came to the mouth of an alley nearly completely overgrown with some form of ivy.
I'd walked by it more times than I could even think to number, and it had always seemed pretty and peaceful. But at the moment, it felt eerie and dangerous.
Watching the opening as I passed like I was waiting for the fucking boogieman to reach his arm out of the greenery, I wasn't watching where I was going and tripped over a crack in the concrete, face-planting a chest nearly as big as mine.
Looking up, I met the hazel gaze of one of my teammates, and grabbed my heart and sighed in relief.
"Damn, Dillon. You scared the shit out of me."
Laughing, the man shook his head. "Are you okay? You kinda look like you need to sit down."
He gripped my shoulder like he was steadying me, and dread settled in my stomach as I realized he was treating me like I was drunk. The same way he had that night at the party.
Because I had tripped, he had mistaken that for being inebriated. But Dillon knew I didn't like to drink and it was the middle of the damn day. He had absolutely no reason to think I was anything but sober and just tripped over the shitty-ass concrete, unless he knew I'd consumed something. And I didn't have a bottle in my hand.
Giving him my dopiest smile, I nodded overexaggeratedly, trying to remember all the things I laughed at my drunk friends for over the years. "I don't think my legs work," I slurred. "Can we sit on the curb, please?"
Dillon's smile barely curved the corner of his mouth, and for the first time since I'd met him our freshman year, I could actually see the coldness in his eyes. "Here, I'll help."
Grabbing my arm, he looped it over his shoulder, wrapping an arm around my waist and leading me toward the overgrown alley.
I needed to get away. Or at least delay him for a minute until Parker could get there and help. I might have been bigger than Dillon, but if he was involved in the whole drugging and kidnapping me thing, there was a high likelihood that he was a shifter, and from what I understood, I probably wasn't much of a match for a shifter.
Pretending my knee gave, I slid down the side of his body, letting myself go completely limp.
"Fuck, Richelle," he grumbled, latching onto my wrist and trying to bounce me back up onto his shoulder. "How much of that shit did you give him? You better not have fucking overdosed him."
Letting my head fall back, I made us stumble backward, glancing down the street to see if I could possibly see Parker. Where was he?
"Relax, Dill." She emerged from the alley, and I let my head loll that direction so I could watch her. "Same amount as last time."
"Well, he sure seems a lot more messed up than last time," Dillon growled, bouncing me again.
Grabbing a handful of my hair, Richelle pulled my head around to hers, trying to look into my half-closed eyes. When she seemed to not be getting the information she wanted, she peeled one of my eyelids back, frowning into my face.
"That's weird," she mumbled quietly, getting a little closer to my face. "His eyes don't look dilated at all.
Oh shit! Now would be a great time to show up, Parker.
Groaning internally, because this was probably going to hurt, I threw my head forward, head-butting her in the nose.
The scream-honk sound that left her was, if I'm honest, pretty fucking terrifying.
Dillon was still standing there in shock when I wrenched free and turned, tackling him to the ground while Richelle bitched and held her nose, not even bothering to help out the guy I'd just tackled, probably thinking he should be able to handle me.
If I hadn't surprised him, I had no doubt he would.
The body below me started to move oddly, and for a second I laid there in shock, not understanding. Until suddenly, I did. I scrambled off of my teammate, moving further away from the overgrown alley but keeping my eye on the twitching, changing mess that was Dillon.
Yellow-gold fur sprouted from every available inch of his body.
I managed to get my feet under me, squatting low on the ground but slowly moving back, needing to turn and run but scared to take my eyes off of him.
A foot landing directly into my ribs knocked the breath out of me and sent me sprawling onto the sidewalk just as the biggest lion I'd ever seen gracefully stood from the ground where Dillon had been and roared.
It felt like every cell in my body vibrated with the sound.
There was a second roar coming from down the street, and even though I'd never heard Parker while he was in animal form, I felt my body relax.
I had backup. I wasn't alone.
A raging ball of brown, beautiful fur sprang from the bushes, immediately going for the larger lion, attacking him like every video I'd ever seen of a police dog going after a man with a gun.
It was amazing and crazy, and I wasn't paying attention to the blond psycho who'd just kicked the shit out of me, so she kicked me again.
Turning to look at her as I wheezed, the shock of the situation started to wear off, and I realized if I wanted to keep from getting the shit kicked out of me again, I was going to have to actually do something.
Spinning on my ass, I kicked out my own leg, catching her with my heel in her knee and sending her stumbling back. I rolled forward, getting my legs under me, and then sprang to my feet, readying myself for her to come after me again.
The growling and yowling going on behind me made me wish I could turn and make sure Parker was all right, but if I took my eyes off Richelle, she was likely to knock me out, and then I definitely wouldn't be any help to my man.
She was faster than I gave her credit for, and I almost got a broken nose from underestimating her when she swung at my face. The next time she swung, I grabbed her arm, jerking her forward and off balance as she tripped over my planted foot. It didn't matter much though, because she was a shifter. She got her balance back quickly and spun, jerking her arm and me with it.
My body collided with hers hard, and I started to fall. Acting on instinct, I wrapped my arms around her and twisted my body in midair, slamming her into the ground with the momentum of my fall and the weight of my body.
While the breath was still knocked out of her, I pinned her arms with my knees. I had a moment of crisis, remembering all the times I'd been told not to hit girls. But then I remembered that this woman drugged, sold, tried to drug, kicked, kicked, tried to punch, and was in the process of trying to kidnap and sell me for the second time…I punched that bitch right in the face. Repeatedly.
When I finally felt her fall limp beneath me, I got to my feet, spinning to find my mate.
The blood. Oh fuck, the blood. For a moment I started to panic at the sight of all that blood, but then I saw the lion stumble sideways and fall down, revealing my growling mate on the other side of him.
The lion made another attempt to rise, but his body merely shuddered as he gave a decidedly lionish moan and dropped his head back to the sidewalk.
Parker was shifting as I continued to look back and forth between the blond woman on the concrete and the bloody lion, scared one of them was going to pop right back up at any moment.
The fuck if I knew how resilient shifters were.
A naked Parker hit me hard in the chest with his body, wrapping his arms around me and burying his face in my neck. I squeezed him back, trying desperately not to start sobbing right there on the street less than a block from my house for everyone to see.
"Harley, if you don't fucking put me down, I'm going wait until you’re cum-drunk and looking stupid facedown on the bed, and t
hen I'm going to pour candlewax straight into your asshole."
Parker pulled back slightly, his gaze following the direction of the voices, a sexy smile already playing across his features.
"Jeez, Little Shit! That was fucking graphic. And mean," the giant of a man I vaguely remembered coming into the room and checking on Parker after I'd been rescued from Camp Crazy Cult, who was carrying another man over his shoulder, said, his face scrunching up in obvious surprised disturbance. "I just knew you weren't going to listen to me. You'd have followed me out that door before I even got it shut. At least this way, I could toss you in a bush and do what I needed to do before you managed to get out, and I'd know you weren't picking up a giant rock and beating some dangerous shifter over the head with it."
"Oh, Claus. You know you're the only man I want to beat over the head with a giant rock," the man slung over the giant's shoulder grumbled.
"It's all right, Har. You can put your disturbing little mate down." Parker went to pull away and greet his friend, but I grabbed him, smashing him against me, and turned my back to the couple, blocking out the sight of my gorgeous fucking man.
"I don't think so." Pulling my shirt off over my head, I handed it to Parker, glaring when the man glared at my bare chest and then down at the material. "This might be absolutely irrational and possibly a little unhealthy, but I'll do my best to keep my shit covered in the locker room, if you do the same when you shift. Now, you are currently looking at your loincloth until we can get to my house and you can get some fucking pants on."
A smirk slowly sliding onto his face, Parker took the shirt, sliding it up his legs and over his sexy ass like an awkward skirt. "Deal," he said finally, somehow making the most ridiculous outfit look sexy.
"Lookin' good, P," the guy who'd been thrown over the big guy’s shoulder said, chuckling quietly. When his eyes met mine, they were a bit cold, but I didn't get the impression it was because he didn't like me. More, he didn't warm up to people easily.
Even so, though he was the smallest man in this group, he was the one I found myself the most afraid of.
"Thanks, Carter. But maybe you shouldn't hit on me with your mate standing right there."
"That's not funny," the big guy and I said at the same time.
Grabbing me, Parker wrapped his arms around me from behind, leaning his head around me to look at his friends. "So, who's the lion? I feel like I've seen him before, but I'm not sure where."
"It's Dillon. The guy I'd gone to the party with when I was kidnapped. But I think Richelle was the one who drugged me."
"I wonder why I didn't smell him? I could have sworn there were no shifters on the team," Coach Walker said, walking down from the direction of my house and looking around with wide eyes.
"I didn't smell him either. Probably had some delphinium on him, like I did at the coffee shop," Parker said, moving around me. "Did you get the video sent to the email address I gave you?"
Nodding, Coach looked back at the two shifters knocked out on the ground. "Those two are going to be waking up soon. How are we going to keep them from running off?"
I hadn't even noticed Carter slip away and over toward the downed shifters, but his "I got this" behind me was followed by the terrible sound of something hard meeting something fairly hollow, and when I jerked around to see what was happening, he was raising a rather large rock from the lion’s head.
"Damn it, Little Shit!" the giant growled, marching over to his man. "If they have brain damage, I can't get information out of them."
Shrugging, the cold-eyed man tossed the rock before his man could reach him, hitting Richelle right in the face. "Please," he said, waving a hand in the air. "Shifters have ridiculously hard heads. They might be a little rattled, but they'll still be functional."
***
"Fuck, Parker," I groaned, easing a third finger into his hole, more than a little nervous that I wasn't going to be able to do this without exploding as soon as I got inside him. "You're so warm and tight."
"Don't stop, Silver. I need you inside me. Come on." He grunted when I curled my fingers.
I had him face-first against the window that overlooked the Las Vegas Strip, where we'd come for his mission. He'd told me I could stay in Kansas, knowing I had a game in less than a week, but I could see in his eyes that he was hoping I'd go. And since I couldn't seem to be without him for more than about twenty minutes without going through withdrawals, I felt this was really the only way.
Coach had been just fine with me taking the week off practice, telling me I'd been through enough traumatizing things within the last few weeks, I deserved a break. I wasn't sure I was actually traumatized, but I would use the freely given excuse to spend time with Parker.
Whose hips were at that moment thrust backward just a little so that he had a delicious arch in his spine. The room was dark behind us, but the view of the lit up city before us was almost as breathtaking as the round cheeks of his ass right in front of me.
Slowly, I eased my fingers out of his hole and buried my face in the back of his neck, nipping at the skin.
I'd had to wait a good six hours to get to this position right here. When we'd gotten back to my house, we'd barely had time to pack our bags before Parker had to be in Vegas, because Boston was on a case and there was a chance he might need the team.
Between packing, checking in at the airport, flying, getting our luggage, and checking in at the hotel, I'd barely had time to kiss my man, forget getting a chance to show him how glad I was that he hadn't been eviscerated by that lion by fucking him stupid.
As I pressed inside, I forcefully checked the urge to cry. He was perfect and amazing, and I was so very, very happy he was mine. The lump in my throat threatened to suffocate me as his ass strangled my dick deliciously.
"Parker," I whined against his skin, holding my hips still. "I love you. I love you so fucking much it's terrifying."
Turning his head, he rubbed his cheek against mine, and I felt the wetness there. His voice was a cracked whisper when he spoke. "I love you too, Silver Bell. When I walked up and saw Dillon turning into a lion, I was terrified I wasn't going to get out there in time. It really wasn't logical, because they wanted you for selling, and he was probably trying to scare you more than actually kill you, but…I just couldn't think logically at that moment."
Easing out of his body, I kissed the tears on his cheeks, wishing I had a hand free to wipe my own. But my hands were right where they needed to be: grabbing his hips so I could hold him still as I thrust back into him. Hard.
We both moaned, and Parker's gorgeous face smoothed over in absolute ecstasy. He was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen.
"Listen, Pocket Bear. You're mine now. That means your life is far too precious for you to be taking stupid chances. Promise me you are going to be safe." I pulled out slowly again and slammed right back in, grunting softly.
"Fuck. Yes. I promise, gorgeous. I promise. Just keep fucking me."
So I did.
Epilogue
Parker
I wanted to laugh at the stupid look on Boston's face, but I had to keep my shit together.
It was just that he looked so constipated, his face warring itself trying to hide his interest in the small man sitting like a good little boy in an uncomfortable-looking chair next to Oscar's desk.
If the way the guy's eyes kept cutting to Boston and then away again was any indication, he was feeling it too.
It would absolutely figure that Boston would find his mate in the pet of the disgusting man sitting behind his huge high-dollar wooden desk in his expensive office. I kinda felt like it was karma stepping in for all the by-the-book no-nonsense crap he spouted all the time.
And there was no doubt the little cutie was his mate. Boston's cold ass had never had any interest in anything or anyone beyond a quick get-it-over-with fuck, or whatever had to do with his latest mission, but the man's eyes had tracked over to the quiet guy sitting obediently more than a dozen times in
the last thirty seconds. For Boston that was practically a marriage proposal.
I glanced at the gorgeous man handcuffed to me, wishing we weren't in front of everyone, because I knew my mate would be laughing right along with me if we weren't supposed to be playing terrified, obedient little chosen.
When I glanced up at Harley, who was playing the other runner with Boston, I noticed his eyes were wide and definitely dancing. He was struggling just as much as I was. We seriously had to get out of this room before we all lost it and blew our cover.
When Boston glanced in my direction, I could tell he wanted to murder me, but he just gave my chain a firm jerk, making me stumble sideways a bit. I coughed to cover my laugh.
Foster was practically vibrating where he was cuffed to Carter and being held on his leash by Harley. That man had calmed a little since mating Burke, but I had no doubt he was thinking the same thing I was.
Watching Boston around his mate while we dealt with Oscar was going to be so much fun…for us.
EXCERPT FROM HARLEY AND CARTER'S BOOK NEXT PAGE!
FOLLOWED BY AN EXCERPT OF THE FIRST BOOK IN MY NEW SERIES!
Cake and Awkward Smiles releases October 2, 2018!
Corrupting Kross: Terra Mortis Book 1 releases October 9, 2018!
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Cake and Awkward Smiles
Chapter One
I swallowed, not understanding how my body could be reacting to just the sight of a man. And not just any man. One of them. One of the runners.
But his black hair and equally dark, almost soulless eyes kept calling my attention. And his hugely muscled body wouldn't let it go. He was wearing a black, long-sleeved shirt that molded his body in ways that trapped the eyes. Especially, with the three and thin spattering of dark hair peeking through.