by R. A. Boyd
With his blue eyes still centered on the caramel-skinned beauty, Jax sniffed the air as she practically ran away with the can opener like her ass was on fire. He and Damon had scared her. And turned her on. He could smell it, her arousal like a fine wine wafting from an open decanter ready for him to taste. But the sweet aroma was tainted by sorrow and fear. He wanted to kill what made her feel this way.
“It’s her,” Jax said, panting as if he’d just run a sprint. His heart raced to match the woman’s. A low rumble slid its way up his throat, and it took everything inside of him not to go after the voluptuous woman and claim her as theirs.
Damon glanced at Jax who was still watching her. “Jax. Get a grip. She’s sad. And we frightened her.”
Jax dipped his head once and adjusted his cock. He could taste her in the air. Her wide hips, large breasts, and cinched waist did things to him. To the both of them. They watched her as she left the store, both of them frowning as she passed the cars and kept walking across the parking lot.
“She’s walking in this?” Jax said, more to himself. He shook his head as he watched her stop in the falling snow and double wrap the straps of the bags around her arms.
“Fuck that,” Damon said, already starting toward the door. “Not while I have breath in my body.”
The snarl that carried in Damon’s voice made him sound more shifter than he really was. Finally finding their third let them both know that their dormant beasts were now within their grasp. This would finally be over.
Jax looked down at the cart and then back to the woman walking up the slippery hill. He shook his head. “Damon,” he said with a sigh. “You go. She’ll probably think we’re trying to kidnap her if we both go. I’ll go check out with Neil and pack the car to meet you. And get your eyes under control.”
Jax looked to the checkout lanes and saw Neil, the only other person in the store and son to the local Raven shifter’s Alpha, typing away on his phone. Fuck The entire shifter community would know by morning that they had possibly found their mate and third in their triad. That may not be a good idea just yet, but right now he didn’t give a single shit. They’d found her. Her. He sighed and shook his head.
Damon’s eyes were glowing white like the florescent lights that illuminated the grocery store. He closed them, and when he looked at Jax again they were back to their strange hazel color.
Looking at Jax, Damon smiled and said, “If this is what we think it is, the time of the Ghost Shifters is coming to an end. She can make us whole again.”
Chapter 2
Silence surrounded Cass, and the only thing she could hear was the panting of her own breath and the crunching of her warm boots in the cold snow. To fill the quiet, she hummed a made-up tune that she always seemed to remember when she was alone. Especially when she was in the shower. Andrew would try to match her pitch but always fell short. She would laugh and tell him that he couldn’t sing along to her impromptu song. Heck, I don’t even know what’s coming next, she would say, laughing with him.
The heavy sound of footfalls made their way behind her, and for a split second Cass panicked. No one should be out in this storm. Including her.
“And those sexy tree kickers,” she said quietly.
“Need help carrying those—” Damon began, but was interrupted mid-sentence.
Cass let out a short ack and spun around so fast she lost her balance. She started falling, and in such a short amount of time too many thoughts starting running through her mind all at once: typical November 18th action, her eggs were going to break her fall and lastly, the sexpot from the market was stalking her to take away her can opener.
She flung her arms out to brace for the inevitable impact, which may not have been that terrible because of all the snow. Before she hit the ground two strong arms wrapped around her and stopped her from hurting herself. And her groceries.
Cass looked up and saw those odd hazel eyes staring back at her. Her breath was coming in pants, and foggy ringlets tore from her open mouth. Her heartbeat pounded in her throat and she could hear her pulse make impressions in her exhalations.
“I didn’t mean to scare you,” he said, one hand cradling her head and neck while the other hand was planted firmly on her lower back. He didn’t move to pick her up.
She looked at him, frozen, her eyes going from his dusky hazel ones and down to his lips. Up and down. Eyes and lips. Just like in those silly romance movies where people fell in love at first sight.
This wasn’t one of those. He’d followed her from the grocery store. Was he trying to rob her?
“Thanks?” she said, still being held mere inches from the ground. “Can you help me get up, please?” she said, unraveling her arms from her bags.
He regarded her strangely, and for one breath Cass thought he was going to bend down and kiss her. Instead, in one smooth movement, he pulled her to standing and helped her remove her arms from the bag handles that were twisted around them. She let him take the bags from her, and she stood there, really getting a good look at him this time.
His dark green tee-shirt was tight around his arms, and the ink that made its way from beneath the fabric looked like the ends of beautifully drawn wings. A type of script that she didn’t recognize scrolled along his arm, from the bend of his elbow to his wrist. Through the shirt, she could see his flawlessly puckered nipples.
She cleared her throat at the thought of putting her warm mouth on those nipples and biting them, listening to him groan in satisfaction. His eyes were going from one color to the next, from yellow to brown, from brown to hazel. And he was fast.
“Whoa,” Cass said, shaking her head. “You’re a shifter aren’t you?” she asked. She followed up by slapping her gloved hand over her mouth. “I’m sorry. That was rude. It’s cold as heck out here and you aren’t even shivering and your eyes are changing colors, but that doesn’t give me the right to ask you that.”
Shifters had come out to the public over twenty years ago. Most people just accepted their presence, but there were a few butt-holes that still believed they were unnatural and heralded the end of the word or were ‘sons of Satan.’ Truth was, shifters had been around just as long as humans and had every right to be free in public just like everyone else.
Cass lowered her eyes, thinking of how much of an idiot she was, and when she looked back at him he was smiling.
“It’s fine,” he said, his deep voice like warm syrup against her skin. “I didn’t mean to scare you. I’m Damon.” He pulled her bags onto one of his arms. “Can my friend and I drive you home?” he asked, still focusing on Cass as he did in the market. “He’s probably packing up the truck by now.”
Cass shook her head and took half a step back. “No, I’m good. I’m not too far.”
She went to reach for her stuff and now it was his turn to take a step back.
Damon reached out his hand and gently placed it on the bend of her elbow. She inhaled quickly as a warm jolt made its way up her arm originating from his touch, and he smiled when he saw that she’d felt it too.
Cass felt something for him at that moment. If she was honest with herself, she felt that something start back in the store when she’d touched him. And his friend. It was a heat in her middle that made her feel something other than grief or indifference. Those two emotions had been her only companions for the past two years.
But him. He made her feel something. That something was most likely lust, and she’d managed to convince herself that she needed to get over it. But having him be here right now with her was making her question that. What the heck was she feeling for this sexy-shifter-stranger? It intrigued her more than anything.
“You shouldn’t be walking around in the middle of a blizzard by yourself.”
Cass started to protest. “Look, Damon—”
“I can’t let you fall,” he said, giving her arm a little squeeze to let her know that he had her. “If it makes you uncomfortable then you don’t have to be in the car alone with us. I’l
l walk you home and Jax can pick me up.”
Cass looked at him, and then over his shoulder. She could see the other guy from the store standing in front of a huge silver pick-up truck in the parking lot. The guy, Jax, was watching them and waved when he saw them looking. Cass raised her hand and gave a two-fingered wave.
She looked back at Damon, and a small smile took over her lips. “I’m Cass,” she said, reaching out her hand.
Damon’s large hand covered hers and warmed it through her gloves. “Like Cassandra?”
“No. Like the vain queen Cassiopeia, though I’m more self-deprecating at times than vain. My mom loved names in Greek mythology but didn’t bother finding out who the people that held those names were. Call me Cass. And you’re Damon.”
He looked down at their still joined hands and nodded. “Yes. I’m Damon.”
The snow was coming down pretty hard, but Cass barely even felt the cold. Standing here with Damon pushed all that away. For the first time in a long time, Cass decided to embrace that warmth, and see were November 18th could take her.
As they walked up the snowy hill, Damon couldn’t stop himself from grinning. He wanted to keep touching her. He had to fight himself to let go of her hand when she’d properly introduced herself. It would creep her out if he kept holding on, and that was all he wanted to do. He knew that this right here, Cass allowing him to walk her home, was a great feat. She seemed to be hesitant, but she was letting him be next to her. Hell, she didn’t even know how much of him she’d already owned. Shifters knew when they’d met the one for them, but she was human. This would take time for her.
As soon as he’d touched her in the store, he’d known it. It was like life being called into existence all over again, and he was being resurrected; he was being woken up from a long, barren hibernation. With one touch electricity had radiated from her and settled into him. Jax sensed it too.
Damon glanced at her and his insides rejoiced. Her small smiles and sideways looks did something to his chest, and the pheromones flowing off of her in waves were fucking delicious. She wanted him but felt guilty for it. The scent of guilt burned his brain. Was she married? Seeing someone? The thought alone made a low growl vibrate his chest, but he could tell she couldn’t hear it.
“Why are you out here walking?” he asked, one arm hovering behind her back, just in case she slipped.
He listened to the calm cadence of her voice as she told him about tuna, a dangerous college kid, and her car. Damon barked out a laugh when she told him a tin can was still lodged in her kitchen wall.
“Sounds like you have an anger problem,” he said.
She’d taken the time to unwind the scarves from around her face and was talking to him like they were old friends. Even with her skin the color of lightly creamed coffee, Damon could tell that her nose was cold. He wanted to nuzzle her nose and warm it up, hold her close to keep away the sporadic shivers that ran through her body when they’d stopped talking for too long.
He sighed in amazement when the light from a street lamp shone in her face just right and illuminated the snowflakes that rested on her eyelashes. She was angelic.
“Me? I don’t have an anger problem,” she said, laughing. To Damon, it sounded like ringing bells. “The past few days have been pretty rough.” She shrugged and looked at him sideways. “Thanks for walking me. We’re almost there.”
Damn. He wanted more time with her, but he couldn’t rush it. She was human and didn’t know what he knew. For the first time in God knew how long, the remnants of the beast he once housed inside his body scratched at his skin. The sensation of it caught him off guard. Damon sucked in a breath so fast it made him dizzy.
“Fuck,” he said, stumbling sideways. He hadn’t felt this way in… how long had it been?
Cass jerked forward and had her hands on his chest, holding on to his shirt as if that alone would keep him upright. “Oh my goodness. Damon, are you okay?” she asked. Worry pooled in her eyes.
“You’re worried about me?” He steadied himself by holding onto a nearby lamppost. The wood was solid and rough beneath his fingers. If he could hold on to this, maybe he wouldn’t float away on whatever feeling she was pulling from him
She shrugged and took the chance to run her hands down his chest and to his abs. “Well, yeah. I don’t want you to hurt yourself,” she said.
Damon could tell that she wanted to say something more, but she held back and watched him. He was mesmerized by her concern. Her whiskey brown eyes were wide, and she’d pulled her bottom lip into her that sexy mouth of hers and was chewing on it. His dick thumped against the seam of his jeans. He’d been hard this whole time, but her touch surged heat through his body and his cock wanted out; wanted inside of her.
“Cass,” he said, moving his hand down to cup hers as she held it against him. “Are you feeling me up?” he said with a smirk.
She looked down at her hand as it stroked his toned abs, and then she tried to snatch it away. “Oh, my gosh! That was horrible of me,” she said, still trying to get her hand away from his, but he held on tight. “You’re about to pass out and I’m copping a feel.”
Damon laughed, his Adam’s apple bobbing in his throat. The sound filled the open space, and when he looked back at her his eyes were starting to glow.
Cass quirked her lip up and shook her head, pointing at his eyes. “Well, apparently you don’t mind. Your eyes are lighting up so you’re either really pissed off at me or really…” She didn’t have the courage to follow through with that statement.
“Really turned on,” he said, finishing her sentence.
He watched her swallow a few times, her eyes focusing on everything but him. Cass shifted from one foot to the other, and he thought it was the cutest damned thing he’d ever seen.
“Everything okay,” a voice said from a truck that drifted toward them.
Damon nodded his head. “Yeah, Jax. I’m good.”
Damon looked at Jax and saw his eyes were practically knitted together. If Damon had felt the shift then so did Jax.
“Hi, Jax,” Cass said, staring at him like a curious bird, and Damon could tell that she was there with them in this moment. Her face settled and she wasn’t trying to make a run for it. From them. She was enraptured by them both, experiencing something she probably couldn’t even put in words. Ease and intrigue were rolling off of her. She was okay with it. With them. If his wish meant anything, she was being tethered to them little by little. “I’m Cass.”
Damon smiled as he looked at his lifelong friend, knowing exactly how he was feeling. Looking at Cass was like being kicked in the gut, and he was loving every minute of it.
“Hi, Cass,” Jax whispered.
Damon could see with just one look at Jax that he could sense the change too. They’d found the woman that would deliver them from their sins and make them whole again. The three of them looked back and forth between one another, Damon and Cass standing on the sidewalk being covered in the steady fall of snow. Jax sitting in the truck.
Damon had shut people out for so long that having someone new give a damn about him and whether or not he was okay made him fly.
Clearing her throat, Cass broke the silence between them. “Damon, you should probably take that ride. You’re starting to look funny,” she said, reaching out to open the door for him. “Shifter or not, it might be too cold for you.”
He stood up straight and shook his head. “I’m not leaving you.”
She shrugged and motioned toward the open door. “No. You’re not.” Cass grabbed the door and the handle just inside the truck and hoisted herself up into the cab next to Jax. “You’re not willing to leave me and I’m not willing to let you keep walking after you almost took a nap in the snow. Neither one of you have tried to murder me yet, which given the fact that you’re a shifter you could have done already, so I’ll let you ride me home. This is crazy.”
Damon stood there looking at her in amazement and he knew, knew down in his bones, tha
t she felt safe with them. She knew that no harm would come to her in their hands. She should. He would gut anyone who tried to hurt her and piss on their rotting carcass.
Cass frowned and offered him her hand. “Come on, now. It’s cold out there. I’m sure Jax here doesn’t want to warm up the outside.”
“I really don’t,” Jax said, smiling like a fool. The asshole.
Jax could feel the shit-eating grin etched on his face. This woman who was brave enough to be this close to two dominant beasts was working magic on him, and he’d barely even spoken with her. Her presence in his truck was enough to calm the fire that had been burning in him since forever.
When she wasn’t looking Jax leaned into her as she took off her hat and smelled her hair. Coconuts and peppermint. That combination had never made him feel anything before, but right now, it made his dick hard as the gearshift he held in his hand. He could tell that Damon, his Omega, could feel it too. Neither one of them would get any peace until they’d claimed her.
As Damon climbed inside the truck, Jax reached over Cass’s waist and pulled the seatbelt across her. She jumped as his hand slid across her coat, and he cursed himself for not giving her a warning.
“Seatbelt,” he said. Was that the best he could come up with? He turned toward the front of the cabin and watched the fat flakes of snow continue to coat road ahead of them. He was as nervous as a schoolboy on his first date.
Him. An Alpha with no real animal to speak of. But even with that presence hiding dormant inside of him, he was a beast. He was mayhem in human form and when provoked, or just for funsies if he was sick his shit life, he was the personification of murder. Full shifters feared him, and when he was in even a slightly shitty mood, humans scampered out of his way. He knew it was a blessing that his animal had been locked away. But he had sensed it a few minutes ago. Felt the itch of the beast against his skin.
It had rubbed against his chest just when he’d noticed Damon stumble. This woman was it. If he wasn’t careful he would frighten her off. He couldn’t do that, though. He’d poke out his own eyeballs before he’d do that willingly. He’d let Damon punch him in the balls, as he knew he would, if he risked her happiness.