Shifting Gears

by Maia Dylan

  Ryker grinned, his body flooding with adrenaline and bloodlust as his bear pushed forward. “Oh, you arrogant prick, I accept your challenge.” He flicked his hand, partially shifting so that his claws shot forth. “My bear and I long for the taste of your blood, and nothing will stop us from getting it.”

  He reveled for a moment in the shock that filled Ash’s eyes, and then he stepped forward with a shout that morphed into the roar of a pissed off bear as he allowed the shift to explode through him. Ash shifted just as quickly, and as Ryker stepped forward, they clashed together in their animal forms. Ash leaped onto his back, biting into the large mound of muscle at the back of his neck, and Ryker roared in pain and anger that the prick got first blood. But this was a battle to the death, so it didn’t matter who bled first. It only mattered who was left standing at the end.

  With a mighty swing of his giant head, he dislodged the wolf, who slammed into the wall beside them. He heard bears roaring in challenge at each other and spared a glance toward where his brother was now locked in battle with Karl. From the ferocity that Bastian was exhibiting against the smaller bear, it would not last long.

  Ryker spun back to Ash in time to see the wolf leap at him, and he swiped at the wolf in midair, pulling him from the air, and raking his claws as deep into the soft underbelly of the wolf as he could. Inside his bear, he cheered at the pained yelp the wolf made. Then everything was lost beneath the haze of red that befell his bear as he mauled Ash’s wolf to death. When he locked his large jaw around the mortally wounded wolf’s throat, there was little fight left in him. In fact, Ryker felt the moment Ash simply submitted to death and went limp.

  A few moments later, his bear dropped his kill to the ground and roared his triumph as he stood over the body. When he heard his brother’s roar fill the air a moment later, his heart filled with elation.

  When they stopped, there was a moment's silence before he heard his mate cry out. “Those bears are my mates, ladies. Drool if you like, but know that they’re mine.” Ryker swung his head to look at his mate and grinned, as much as a bear could, to see her sitting up, leaning against Lucas, and watching him and Bastian with pride shining in her beautiful green eyes.

  He heard Bastian chuff in challenge and swung quickly back to face the threat of Ash’s wolves. Some of them had already fled, but a brave few remained, a stubborn gleam in their eyes. He rose onto his back legs, roaring his challenge to the pack, prepared to take on each and every one of the bastards. One by one his clan shifted and all stood to roar with him, showing those wolves that the clan endured as one.

  The sign of a good leader was how the rest of the team came together in times of adversity. It was not surprising that the rest of Ash's pack took off. The Blackwater Falls clan was strong. They were united.

  And fuck anyone who thought to come in here and change that.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “Take me in, mate,” Ryker growled in her ear, and Hannah shivered at the hotter than hell timbre in his tone. “Take me in and ride me.”

  Hannah whimpered as she lowered herself steadily over his hard cock, taking everything he had to give her. When she was full to the point of slight discomfort and settled completely in his lap, she exhaled. “Oh, God, that feels so good!” she whispered.

  A hand pressed into the small of her back had her leaning forward and she would have braced herself on her arms, but Ryker wouldn’t let her, pulling her down until she was completely pressed against his chest. “No, sweetness, you've still got a cast on your wrist and your wound is only a week old. It’s not healed. Let me hold you.”

  It was hard to believe that it had only been a week since the night Emily had saved her. That was how she thought about that moment a week ago. Not as the time her mates had to deal with a threat to their clan, not as the time she’d watched her mates kill. No, that was the time her mates’ great-aunt Emily had saved her life. Both Bastian and Ryker had believed her immediately. If she hadn’t had the warning and acted when she did a split second before Ash pulled the trigger, she would have taken that bullet to her heart and not her shoulder. Emily hadn't been back to visit her since that day, but she and her bears had left flowers on her grave and thanked her for saving her.

  Letting those thoughts drift away, Hannah sighed as she snuggled against Ryker’s chest then moaned at the feel of Bastian using his lubricated fingers to prepare her to take him. “You are so fucking beautiful, baby,” Bastian said in a voice filled with reverence.

  Hannah giggled. “I’m not so sure my ass is the most beautiful thing about me, love. Ow!” The sound of the slap Bastian had given her right butt cheek resonated through the room. "Good thing I love that library of yours."

  Bastian placed his hand over the sting and eased the heat out a little. “You love us more, and I will hear none of that. You are the most beautiful woman in the world, and that naturally leads to the fact that your ass is the most beautiful ass in the world. Now, stop distracting me. I want in.”

  Hannah relaxed into Ryker’s embrace and gave herself over to Bastian’s ministrations. She moaned at the feel of him scissoring his fingers within her, embracing the slight pinch of discomfort and the burn it brought with it. “Fuck, you are going to strangle my cock. Make it hard for me to last any length of time.”

  Ryker laughed from beneath her and it sounded strained. “She will, brother, but you’ll go willingly, I promise.”

  Hannah exhaled when she felt Bastian pressing the blunt head of his cock against the ring of muscle that surrounded her back entrance. She pushed out, like Ryker taught her, when Bastian pushed forward. Inch by slow, torturous inch, she felt her lover slipping into her. After a few thrusts, his hips were nestled against hers and she felt him push an open-mouthed kiss against her shoulder. Inches from where the exit wound was still healing.

  “Too damn close,” Bastian whispered, “we were too damn close to losing you, baby. My heart couldn’t handle it, if you—”

  “Stop it,” Hannah said in a strong voice. “I’m here, you’re here, and we’re together. Although, not moving as fast or as hard as I would like, in all honesty. There will be no more thinking about that tonight. Tonight is only about the pleasure. Which I want. Now. So, move.”

  Bastian laughed, then sat back slightly. “Your wish is my command, baby.”

  What followed had Hannah growling, whimpering, and cursing her pleasure to the room at large. Ryker and Bastian both set a rhythm that started off in unison and ended as it had the first time, in erratic thrusts that had her orgasm spiraling out of control and hurtling toward her. In what might have been an hour later, or only moments, Hannah gave herself over to her release and hurtled off the face of the earth, or at least that was how it felt. She fell into the dark warmth of her pleasure, shuddering and shaking as waves of it continued to roll over her. Vaguely, she was aware of Bastian and Ryker both roaring their own releases to the room, and then she collapsed against Ryker, desperately trying to draw air into her lungs.

  All three of them moaned when they pulled from her a few minutes later, and although she didn’t hear him leave the room, she heard Bastian start the water in the massive bath in the bathroom. She sighed in contentment and stayed as she was, melted against her mate. She hadn’t moved so much as an inch when Bastian came back to the bed and collapsed beside them.

  “Bath will be ready in a moment, baby,” Bastian murmured, his voice a little raspy, and her heart filled with pride knowing that it was like that because of the pleasure she had given him.

  “What will we do now?” she asked tiredly.

  “I was thinking a bath, a nap, and then do this all over again in a couple of hours,” Ryker said as he tightened his arms around her.

  She giggled and lifted her head so she could look at her mates. “No, I mean now that Ash is gone. You killed him, so does that mean the pack are part of the clan now?”

  Bastian shot her a look. “Oh, hell no! They’re rogue unless they can determine a hierarchy.
They might be able to do that without the toxic influence of Ash’s madness.”

  “We need to figure out that council, too,” Ryker added with a sigh. “I think there’s going to be more to that dodgy wolf shifter council representative at some point. He had a connection to Ash, and we need to find it.”

  Bastian pressed a sweet kiss to her shoulder. “We don’t know what’s going to come next, but something tells me whatever it is, we’ll handle it. And at the same time, we’ll provide for you, protect and cherish you, love and laugh with you, and our children until the three of us are old and we have to shift gears again and do nothing more than snuggle.”

  Ryker laughed as he sat up with her so that she was straddling his hips. “Oh, hell no. We will never be so old that all we can do in bed is fucking cuddle! No matter how many gears we shift. No, I promise you, sweetness, you stick with us, and we will give you the life you never thought possible. All you have to do is bear with us and we’ll make all your dreams come true.”

  Hannah giggled at his bad joke as he carried her into the bathroom, Bastian right on their heels. No one knew what the future held, and she certainly wasn't going to go ask a witch for any clues. She had shifted gears to get here and live a life she had never dreamed of, but one thing was for certain. These crazy bears were her checkered flag and her finish line, and they always would be.

  ****

  She stepped out of the shadows, the air around filled with the scent of sage and lavender. She stood for a moment, basking in the light of the full moon above her, and stared over what had been the Ashford pack land, but now belonged to her. She knelt down to the ground, and placed her hand over the earth, the slight hum and vibration sending a wave of welcome that told her she was in the right place. This was her home. This was where Earth Mother meant for her to be.

  She moved her hand over the ground, weaving and casting the spell that would open a small space beneath it. As soon as the hole was deep and the soil now rich with nutrients, she placed the parchment that held the Ashford Pack’s signature written in his blood, signing all rights and ownership over to her. Of course, there were legal documents lodged with her attorney that said the same thing, but this right here would cement her ownership on this land, and no one could break that.

  She removed a ceremonial knife from the scabbard strapped to her thigh, gripping the blade tightly in her left hand welcoming the pain of the blade as it bit into her hand. Blood flowed down her hand, across the blade and into the pit before her, coating the parchment and falling into the soil itself. As soon as the first drop touched the earth she felt the bond, the connection that tied that land to her, cement within her, and she inhaled deeply. She was home.

  She had been planning for this for as long as she could remember. This land wasn’t just payment for services rendered. It had been calling to her since she was six years old. And now that she stood here, and could claim this for her coven and herself, she could find out why.

  The End

  www.maiadylan.com

  BONUS SAMPLE CHAPTER

  CHASING FAETE

  Beyond the Veil, 1

  Elena Kincaid, Maia Dylan, and Sarah Marsh

  Copyright © 2016

  Chapter One

  “Fuck, fuck, fuckity fuck,” Erica half growled, half moaned as she entered an alleyway she had stumbled down, only to find that she reached a dead end. And wasn’t that just painfully ironic, she mused, considering she might potentially be about to meet her own dead end.

  Ha!

  Even with the threat of certain death hanging over her, she still thought herself quite funny.

  It was late at night, and she could hear the steady thump of rock music coming from inside the bar she had just passed. The air was thick with the smell of stale beer, cigarette smoke, and urine. She glanced around the dark alley in a panic trying to find a means of escape, but could find none. On one side of her, she saw a side entrance to the bar, but unfortunately, there was no handle on this side of the door, only a lock that required a key.

  She pressed herself against the brick wall on the darkest side of the alley, biting back a moan as the move put pressure on her wounds. Erica took three deep breaths, releasing them slowly. She only had about two or three minutes before Alefric’s guards found her. She was a healer with no equal, and needed to heal herself enough to fight back or this was going to be one hell of a short escape story … and one that no one would hear.

  Closing her eyes, Erica called upon her inner healing light, sending it deep into her own body. She felt the warmth of it flooding through her, seeking out her injuries. She ignored most of them, and directed it to the two stab wounds on her right side, hoping to stem the blood loss enough to give her a fighting chance.

  A noise coming from the front of the alley had her coming fully back to herself and her eyes snapping open. She had managed to close off one wound, but the other still bled sluggishly. She wasn’t losing as much blood as she had been before, but too much for her to hope to last too long.

  “Come on out now, Erica,” a man’s voice called out, and Erica shivered in dread. She recognized that voice. “Why don’t you just come on out, and we’ll take you back, all nice and peaceful like.”

  Kheelan. He was the captain of Alefric’s guards, and her chances of getting out of this alive had dropped from around sixty-five percent to closer to ten. He stood a foot taller than her five foot four, was lean but muscular. His long black hair was tied back with a leather tie, and Erica believed he did that so the scar that ran from the corner of his left eye to his jawline was clearly visible. He was as ruthless as he was evil, and he took a sadistic kind of pleasure in seeing her in pain. Erica had promised herself that if she ever made it out of the Elven realm she would rather die before she would allow herself to be returned. Kheelan was a large part of the reason for her making that decision.

  Erica fought back the tears and drew her anger and her rage around her like a cloak, a trick she had learned from her mother. She pushed her fear and her pain behind the cloak. Lifting her head and squaring her shoulders, she pushed off from the wall and stepped out into the alley, not stopping until she stood in the pale glow of the murky “Exit Only” sign above the door to the bar.

  She stood proud and tall, no one would suspect she was as hurt as she was. “Hey Khee, aren’t you sick of doing all of Alefric’s dirty work? Or do you just like being his bitch?”

  She knew she’d scored a direct hit to his ego when Kheelan’s dark eyes flickered red. “I believe you still hold that position, Ittee.” Kheelan spat the Elven word for a whore at her, and Erica had to force herself not to laugh. She had been with only two men in her entire life. Kheelan on the other hand had fucked his way through half the ranks of the Elven guard, male and female, and she was the whore?

  Erica tensed when three more of his guard stepped into the alley behind Kheelan. “You know, Alefric was gravely concerned when he was told you had left the Elven realm. I have never seen him so distressed,” Kheelan said with a smile, but, because the man had never smiled once in his life before, it came across as more of a snarl.

  “Firstly, let’s call it what it was—an escape,” Erica said. “I didn’t just leave. You make it sound like I was simply over for tea and biscuits and left without saying thanks. I had been held captive in that realm … in my own home, Kheelan. I can assure you, I certainly wasn’t going to fucking thank you for the beatings and the torture.”

  Kheelan’s face slid into its usual leer. “But, princess, you took them so well! When you would make me work for your cries and screams, mmmm.” Erica had to swallow the bile that rose in her throat at the perverse sound of pleasure the sadistic bastard made. “I lived for those days.”

  They had kept her shackled in a small bedroom located near the dungeons. Alefric claimed that he was being hospitable by not throwing her in a dirty cell, though sometimes he liked to remind her of his hospitality by isolating her in those cells for days if she was being particula
rly unruly. The shackles prevented her from not only using some of her unique powers to fight back or even to heal herself.

  Determined not to show any weakness, Erica shrugged. “Well, that seems only fair. I lived for the days, and let’s be honest there were a lot of them, when you disappointed your King, and he had you beaten on the stairs of the palace.”

  Kheelan’s eyes now blazed red, and Erica grinned knowing that she had won this round. But, because she was a woman who never understood the concept of quitting while she was ahead, she decided to add one final little verbal jab.

  “I have been meaning to tell you this for a while now, Kheelan. I know you were jealous of all the times Alefric turned his unwanted attentions on me, but take it from a woman who knows, there’s not a lot there to covet if you know what I mean.” Erica waggled her pinky finger in the air to drive her point home and just in case he was too daft to understand her meaning. She had never actually seen Alefric naked, but Kheelan didn’t need to know that. Kheelan definitely had, and by the angry look he presently gave her, she knew she had hit the nail on the head.

  “Shut your mouth, bitch! How dare you talk of our King like that! He—”

  “He is no King of mine!” Erica yelled, losing hold of her anger for the first time. “He is nothing more to me than someone I want to kill. He murdered my family, destroyed our kingdom, and he deserves to die slowly and very painfully. Now, you came here to do a job, asshole, so why don’t you stop with the endless posturing, and inane fucking pissing contests, and just come at me.”

  Erica drew the curved blade of her kind from the sheath she wore behind her back, charged it with energy, making it glow an eerie blue, and slid with practiced ease into her battle stance. Her right foot slid back, leaving her to balance on the balls of her feet. She held her sword in a two handed grip and dropped her weight back on her right leg.