“Okay. I mean, I will. I’m fine.” He joined me on the cot and pressed his back against my chest and stomach, sandwiching me between him and the wall. I would have complained if his back wasn’t so well-shaped and strong. I put my head between his shoulders and fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.
The next morning, he kissed me goodbye as the sun came up.
“I don’t want to go.”
“I know, Em.” Em! He already had a special name for me. “But I’m sure your family is worried about you. Don’t want them to panic.”
Our hands squeezed one another as I rocked side to side on my feet. “Can I see you again?”
“Of course. Come see me tomorrow night. Right here. I close up around eight.”
“All right then.” I stepped forward to give him a kiss, and he grabbed my back to hold me there against his lips. I breathed him in. He smelled like salt and the desert air. His lips tasted like the sweetest water the Earth had ever known. We finished and laughed at ourselves for a moment.
“See you tomorrow, Alex.”
“See you.”
The walk home was like nothing I had ever experienced. The sun was brighter, and the air was softer than it had ever been. Every car horn and loud argument sounded gentle and far away. Even the grey stones in the ground glittered in a new way. All I could think was, ‘Someone likes me. Someone sees me and wants me around. Someone who isn’t family or a classmate or anything. Finally. It’s happened.’
The moment I walked into the prison, the spell was broken.
“Mom!” Nate’s voice slapped me right in the face with its force. “She’s here. She came back.”
“Oh, my goodness!” Meredith ran up to me and flung her arms around me. “We were worried sick. Black Feather said something about you never coming back again. Did you two have a fight?”
“He said that?” I rolled my eyes. “You have nothing to worry about. He’s embarrassed because he tricked me into kissing him.”
“Bleh! Gross!” Tom and Nate rolled their eyes and made retching noises at the mention of kissing. “Girls are so weird.”
“Boys aren’t much better,” I retorted. Kneeling, I held my arms out to them. “Can I have a hug?”
They ran up and gave me tight, exuberant hugs. The force of it made me lean back a little bit, and I nearly fell.
“Don’t flatten her, boys. She’s had a long night. You hungry, dear?”
We let each other go, and the boys told me about all the wonderful food they had had that morning. “We had these things called pancakes! They’re circles!”
“What?”
Meredith explained that some of the shifters had been walking around with the reading device and finding all different texts for it to decipher. One of them picked up a box full of white powder and found some writing on the side. Turned out, it was a lesson in how to make a kind of bread called pancakes.
“Emily, you have to try them,” Nate said. His eyes bulged out of his head while talked about their taste. His mother just shook her head.
“I don’t think it’s got a single drop of anything useful. When I was little,” she said, sitting on my bed and letting the boys crawl all over her, “we had a lot of overweight humans around. I’m willing to bet they ate pancakes every day.”
“Wow.”
“Sounds great.”
She put her face in her hand. “Boys, I’m trying to tell you why this is a bad idea.” Her head shook with the exhaustion of it all, and she reached a hand out to me. “We’re so glad you’re all right, hon.”
“Actually,” I said, blushing, “I’m better than all right. I think I might have a boyfriend.”
The phrase sent my brothers screaming out the door. They kept screaming all the way down the aisle between cells and didn’t stop until they shifted to go and hang from their spots on the ceiling. When they finally fell silent, Meredith gave me an interested look.
“You met someone?”
I told her everything. She listened without making any comments until I got to the end, then patted my hand. “Well,” she said as she stood to move on, “I know you’re not going to listen to this, but I want to say it now.”
I grabbed her hand tightly. “What?”
“He’s human.”
I let the hand go. “Meredith! I know he’s human. You don’t have to tell me that.”
“Well, apparently,” she continued as she moved toward the door, “I do need to tell you something else.”
She fell silent as she worried a lip between her teeth. Then she said over her shoulder, “This relationship you’ve formed is a very bad thing.”
Chapter Five
True Love
The next few weeks were the best of my life. I went to see Alex almost every day. We kissed, we snuggled, and we talked. Everything he said was fascinating; everything he liked, I liked. He introduced me to fruit. He explained that a long time ago, back when his dad was around, fruit had come in lots of different varieties. Humans and animals could get big, small, purple, red – anything. Now, there was only one kind.
“It’s a hybrid of four different fruits that they grow in greenhouses. It takes just a little water, and it’s ready in a few weeks. That’s why everyone’s eating it; it’s easy to grow.” He handed me a purple, bumpy thing that felt heavy and juicy in my hands. “Here. Try it.”
I smelled it and smiled. “Mm! It smells so nice.”
“That’s because it’s sweet. Take a bite.”
My teeth went right through the skin, and the juice ran down my chin and onto my neck. It was like fresh water, but better. Nothing in a bottle had ever tasted like this. I had to close my eyes while I chewed it was so good.
“Like it?”
I nodded, and he laughed at me as he wiped the juice off of my face. “You look like a little kid.”
My tongue licked my lips, and the sight of it made him kiss me again. He grabbed the fruit out of my hand, held it over us and squeezed so the juice ran down our faces as we kissed and bit each other’s lips. My shirt sopped up most of it, so I pulled it off without even realizing I had. The air in the station was warm against my bare skin, but it was scalding hot once he touched me.
“Wow.” His eyes stayed on my breasts for a while. He reached for them gingerly. I grabbed his hand and put it right on top.
“You like it?”
“Yeah,” he breathed. He started kissing my neck and my shoulders. He even bit into my collar bone for a moment, which I loved.
“Alex…”
“Mm-hmm?”
“I want to make love to you.”
He stopped and looked up. He was already breathing heavy. “You do?”
I nodded and stepped back from him. He stood and watched as I slid my shorts and panties down to the floor and kicked them aside. We looked at one another–him dressed, and me in the nude–until we both started to get truly excited.
“Come here. Come hold me.” He complied and wrapped his arms around me gently. I felt so safe there in his embrace. I slid my hands up under his shirt until he lifted his arms so that I could pull it off.
He got naked as fast as he could and then walked me over to a little counter. “Sit up here.”
“No.”
His eyebrows went up. Had I changed my mind? I pushed him aside gently, and then leaned over the counter so my butt stuck out toward him. “I want it like this.”
“Oh, Em,” he groaned. He walked up to me and felt my butt cheeks with his hand, then gave me a little slap. “Okay. Okay, let’s do it here. Like this.”
He positioned himself behind me, and I laid my head on my arm, looking to the side. I felt him slide in gently, and I gasped a little.
His hands grabbed my hips. “You okay?”
“Yes. I feel you.”
“Does it feel good?”
“Yes. No. Wait.” My breath was caught, so I forced myself to breathe and then relaxed the muscles in my legs. Once I let myself go, I could feel the friction we created bet
ween the two of us, and I started to move into it, rocking back and forth. “Yes. I like it. That feels really good.”
He moved himself in and out of me slowly, letting me feel all of him press into and against me. His torso laid on my back, and I grabbed for his hands. Our fingers interlaced together as he pumped his hips more and more. I loved it so much I thought I might faint.
“Oh, Alex. It’s wonderful! I think I might die.”
He kissed me and said something about not worrying, he would die with me. He started to move faster, and I liked that even more. But I was about to die; I felt it. Something was overcoming me, and I couldn’t stop it. Alex made deep, choking sounds, and I was sure he was about to perish as well. What could I do? I had no idea it felt so good to be faced with death. He slapped my ass and slammed into my hips as a big, deep cry came out of him. I felt it come right through me like a sunburst, a knife bursting out of my chest.
“Ah! Ah! I’m dying! I’m going to die! Alex, help me!” But he was in worse shape than me. His hard cock was throbbing inside me, and I felt something come out of him. Was it blood? Was it the last little piece of his life?
“You’re okay. You’re okay.” He pulled me into his arms as he gasped for breath. “It’s supposed to feel like that. You’re not dying.”
I shook in his arms. He was covered in sweat and felt as weak as I was. He kissed my head and stroked my hair.
“I didn’t want to scare you. I’m sorry.”
“It was so wonderful. You didn’t scare me. The feeling did.” I looked up at him. “I really thought that was the end. I had no idea sex was so…so….”
He laughed at me and pulled me back into his arms. “Yeah. It is.”
After I’d had a taste of sex, I found I was ravenous for it night and day. I could hardly wait until the sun went down before I nearly sprinted back to the gas station. My clothes were off before I could even say hello.
We made love every day that we could get together, sometimes two or three times before the sun came up. Meredith kept trying to talk to me about my situation, but I had nothing to say to her. How could she know what I was feeling? She was older; she’d been married and had children years ago. No one else knew what I was experiencing. It simply wasn’t possible.
“All right, little miss,” Meredith said to me one day. “You’re staying in tonight. The boys want to go hear the story in the library tonight, and you’re taking them.”
“What?” I spun around and looked at her. “Meredith! I’m all ready to go and meet Alex. I didn’t put on all this makeup to go to the library. Besides, it’s perfectly safe. They can go alone.”
“I know they can. But it would mean the world to them if their big sister would take them.” She blocked the doorway and gave me a mom look. “I’m not asking.”
My eyes closed, and I sighed so big my shoulders went up and down. “Fine. Fine, I’ll go. I’ll ask one of the airbornes if they’ll take Alex a message.” Meredith smiled and moved aside.
“Tom! Nate!” The two ran up to me at top speed and slammed into my legs. Maybe they really did miss me. “Hey.”
“Are you taking us to the story?”
“Please come with us, Emily!” Tom grabbed my hand and looked up at me with his little boy eyes, breaking my heart into a million pieces. I really hadn’t been much of a big sister lately.
“Of course, my darlings.” I squeezed his chubby little hand in mine and smiled down at him. “I wouldn’t miss it. I just need to talk to a friend of mine and see if he can deliver a message for me.”
The boys accepted this, and I trotted up the stairs to see if I could find Grey.
Grey is a hawk that used to work for Bachmann. He claims that he was spying on the president the whole time he was in his employ, but it’s always hard to know for sure. Shifters that agreed to work for the government got a few benefits the rest of us never enjoyed. They always insisted the work was terrible and grueling, but it was hard to empathize with shifters who got free housing and a human meal once a day.
I found him in his quarters, quietly reading a book. “Hi, Grey. Can I come in?”
“Emily!” He put his book down and jumped up to give me a hug. “I haven’t seen you in months! I hear you’re living with the bats.”
We had the obligatory chit-chat, and then he finally asked. “So? Need something?”
“I do.” I cringed a bit. Asking for a favor was always tricky. “I need a messenger.”
He crossed his arms and nodded seriously. Every shifter thinks they’re the one who’s about to save the world. They all love it when someone needs their help. “Okay. Well, maybe I could do that.”
“Weren’t you a professional messenger for years? Like, most of your childhood?”
“Sure. But not for fun. My dad needed me to work. You know that.”
I put my hands up in surrender. Sorry. “I hate to ask, but it’s important. I’m supposed to meet someone in the city tonight, and I can’t. I have to take my little bat brothers to the library. Do you know the old gas station right on the northern edge of town?”
“Oh, Alex?”
My jaw dropped. “How do you know him?”
“Through Tina. He’s helped her out a few times. Heck, I might just go hang out.” He stopped and looked at me out the corner of one eye. “What’s going on with you and Alex?”
I shrugged. “Nothing much. He’s just expecting me to come over, and I can’t. I don’t want him to think I’m ignoring him. Will you just tell him I have a family thing, and I’ll see him tomorrow?”
“Sure. Alex is my friend, and so are you. I’ll deliver the message.”
My breath rushed out in relief. “Thank you, thank you, thank you! Next time you need anything, just let me know.”
He nodded and smiled at the thought of needing my help. Screw you, bud. Everyone acts like I’m useless, but boars are tough as nails and happy to fight.
Soon, we were all piled into the library, shifters on top of shifters. Most of us had to take our human form to make room for everyone, but a few of the smaller species shifted into small birds, tiny mammals, or graceful cats to help them perch in hard-to-reach corners. I was sure Nate and Tom would want to hang from the ceiling as the story was read, but they held onto me.
Tina came forward with the device and everyone cheered. “All right,” she said, “I’ve found a really scary story for you all.” Everyone chuckled and let out little fake gasps of fear. Humans had a very funny idea of what was scary. “So, I hope you’re all ready for the true story of The Yellow House.”
My brothers both let out little screams, and everyone laughed as I hugged them close. The laughter helped them relax a little, and they stopped pulling my skin off my body for a moment.
The lights dimmed, and a female voice filled the room.
“It was October when we moved into the yellow house. My room was on the second floor, last door on the left. Even that first day, I noticed how quiet that part of the house was, how cold the doorknob felt. I should have run, but I didn’t. I just opened that tiny door and stepped inside…”
We were all hypnotized by the voices of the characters, the sound effects added to the recording to make it more compelling, and the music in the background. I found myself clutching the little boys on either side of me just as much as they held me. I knew it was only a story, but it terrified me all the same.
The narrator went on to describe the tiny oddities she found in the house: the painting shoved into a closet, the old journal with only one entry in the center, the dish that somehow flew off the shelf and shattered on the floor. Then the ghost in the house got more cavalier, shoving people down the stairs, messing with the home’s electricity, spoiling food.
Just as the narrator was about to confront the spirit and tell it where it could get off, the library doors flew open. All together, we let out a terrified scream at the sight of Grey, disheveled and dirty. In his hand, he held a torn piece of paper.
“Grey! You ter
rified us.” Tina stopped the story for a moment and put her hands on her hips. “What is up with you?”
He didn’t answer. He just handed her the paper. She took it and went completely pale at the sight of it. She looked up at me and then over at Grey.
“What is it, Tina? What’s up?”
“Tell us!”
“What’s happened?”
Tina handed the paper to someone close by, and one by one, we started to hand it around. Each person paused as they held it in their hands. I could see tears in Tina’s eyes as she watched the crowd, watched each shifter realize what had her so frightened.
Finally, it came to me. On the sheet was Bachmann with a fist raised to the sky. He was punching a snake with a human face through the air while a group directly behind him cheered and smiled. It wasn’t a drawing. It was a photo. At least, the humans were a real photo. The shifter image looked a bit fake, and I prayed it was. I was sure it was Blue, but the face was so badly printed that it was hard to tell.
What had my attention was another male in the photo. Right behind Bachmann, cheering and raising his own fist in victory, was my Alex.
The shifters around me wanted to see it next, but I couldn’t let go. Nate and Tom peered at the paper, and then at me, then back to the little flier in my hand. How could this happen? Was I a pawn in Alex’s game? My heart jumped in every direction while my brain went silent. I couldn’t move.
A female bear finally took it from me and frowned in my direction. “Something you want to tell us, Emily?”
I did. I wanted to tell them everything, but I just shook my head. My legs trembled under me as I stood slowly. “I have to go and talk with someone.” My voice came out in a squeak. I stepped over those around me gingerly and made my way out without explaining. What could I say to them? There was no time to explain. I needed answers fast.
Outside the palace, I found a white wolf waiting for me. Tina. I gave her a smile, and she nuzzled my leg. Together, we started down the path to the Open Zone and then to the city. There, we both walked in human form, but I loved smelling the wolf-scent on Tina. It made me feel more at home than anything else to smell a nearby shifter and good friend.
Briar on Bruins' Peak (Bruins' Peak Bears Book 7) Page 44