Wild Pride (The Kingson Pride Book 1)

by Kristen Banet

  Could this be true? Did it hurt to say yes and just find out? They hadn’t threatened her or anything. They seemed like an odd group of guys but Sheriff trusted them. That meant a lot to her.

  “I keep my apartment,” she finally mumbled. She took a deep breath and spoke louder. “I want to keep my job and my new cat. And you let me continue with my regular life outside of this,” she waved her waved at the nude ones. Troy, Gabe, and Andrew. Only Andrew had the manners to seem a little embarrassed. Fuck, her boss turned into a cat and was currently practically nude in their backyard. He was built and looked good. Much better then she had expected. She started to laugh.

  “Every time I go to work, all I’m to think about is this!” She pointed at him, hysterical. This was crazy. A growl had her laughing harder and she looked up to see Andrew as a cougar walking towards her. She squeaked and pressed herself into Brenton, who only chuckled. “My boss is a fucking cat!”

  Andrew didn’t stop his advance and just flopped onto her feet and Brenton’s legs. She laughed harder at Brenton’s grunt of pain.

  “Get off, fast ass,” Brenton snarled. She noticed it didn’t have that Alpha command to it he had used on her earlier. Andrew only rolled away slowly and looked at her. “Two hundred pounds. You’re going to break my fucking legs.”

  “Shit, he’s two hundred pounds?” She pointed at the cougar. Brenton nodded.

  “He’s the middle weight out of us. Me and Zachary was both in high four hundreds. Gabe and Tony about roughly a hundred and twenty or so.”

  She blinked.

  “Four hundred pounds?” She sputtered and he only continued to nod.

  “Want to see? Andrew, Troy and Gabe will stay human for you.”

  He didn’t really give her a chance to response. He stood up and fist bumped Zachary and they both began to strip right in front of her. Holy shit. Andrew shifted back to human while she wasn’t paying attention.

  “Why are you getting naked?” She watched the show anyways. She didn’t understand it but she was going to enjoy it.

  Zachary had the best tattoos she had ever seen. A tiger on his left pec, a Japanese style back piece, two half sleeves, one nautical themed and the other was tribal work. His right thigh was steampunk and made his leg look mechanical. All the work was black and gray and it was all stunning. Brenton didn’t have any ink, only his beautiful bronze tanned skin smooth in the sun and God damn they were both glorious.

  Troy was the only walked over and flopped down on the grass next to her. He supplied the answers she needed.

  “Our clothing doesn’t shift, and it’s hard to remove a shift or boxer briefs as a cat without destroying them. So we strip before we shift unless we don’t have time. That’s why Zachary had towels for us.” He grinned at her, motioning to his own long, lean and well maintained form. She blushed after looking over that form and trying to ignore the bulge under the towel. “It’s just something you’ll need to get used to. I would hate to see what happens to a bra during a shift. But yeah, nudity is like, super natural for us. We grow up with, irregardless of sex.”

  She nodded slowly and looked back to the very nude backs and asses of Zachary and Brenton. God have mercy on her. She didn’t even believe in God but she was convinced some higher power was in her life now.

  One second, two male models(they had to be models, right?) were before her, smiling at each other. The next second a fucking giant male lion was in Brenton’s place and a similarly sized white tiger was in Zachary’s. They both turned around and she stood up slowly. Brenton was the only who came close. Andrew was holding her now as the lion closed the distance.

  “Zachary is technically heavier and longer then Brenton,” he mentioned casually. “But Brenton is just fucking impressive.” He smiled at her and she swallowed. The lion was now only a foot in front of her.

  “Can I touch him? Do ya’ll understand me?” She looked between Brenton and Andrew. Both nodded.

  She placed her shaking hand out and Brenton’s massive head bumped into it. He could rip the entire fucking arm of it he wanted to. Fear lanced through her but she tried to stay brave. She rubbed him gently and placed her hand in his mane, feeling the texture of it. Finally, she snatched her hand back looked at Zachary.

  She took a deep breathe and stepped toward him. He didn’t move and she kept going closer. Finally she stopped only two feet from him. Shit, he was big.

  “Can I?” She raised her hand and forced it to stop shaking. These two were much scarier then the others. Size and obvious dominance made them the powerhouses of the group. And the perfect way for her to confront her fear of being eaten it seemed. She didn’t know she was scared of that but confronted with the possibility…

  Zachary closed the distance and didn’t stop. He rubbed his entire body length down her side. She let her hand feel his coat. She was petting a tiger.

  “Okay!” She finally said, raising both hands and walking back to the other still human members of the group. “I want to keep my job, my apartment, and my cat. You will answer any questions I ever have. You will let me continue to live my life and not try to force me into anything I don’t want. But I’ll follow pride orders and try to adjust to that. Just don’t try to force me into anything weird or illegal or.. or… I’ll be out of here faster then you can blink.”

  “Yeah, we can do that,” Brenton’s voice rang out behind her, she turned and saw him and Zachary standing there. Brenton had his back turned but Zachary didn’t.

  She got an eyeful and felt heat rise in her face. He was… perfect actually. And… gifted by the size of him.

  “Fuck man, turn around!” Andrew’s voice snapped her out of it and she turned back around in a bare chest. A hand rubbed her back slowly. “You know she isn’t used to this!”

  “Sorry!” Zachary growled back at him. “I’m not used to having a chick who’s not our kind around for this. Shit, even just having a chick around… it’s been years.”

  She slowly removed herself from the bare chest and looked up. Gabe was grinning down at her and leaned over.

  “We smell everything, Riley,” he whispered. This made all the other guys groan.

  “You didn’t need to tell her that!” Brenton growled.

  “What?” she tried to back away but Gabe held her in place.

  “Every mood, every change in the body. We know. There’s no reason to be embarrassed.” He chuckled in her ear after that.

  “I don’t understand?” Riley opened and closed her mouth, looking over her should to Gabe. She scrunched her brow. “I don’t.”

  “We can smell your arousal,” Andrew finally bit out. He sounded uncomfortable with it.

  “Oh… you can…,” she swallowed hard and let her mind process that. Every time she saw them, she was aroused, considering what she would love to do with their magnificent bodies. They were perfection in human form. She remember the dance with Brenton, how she felt his erection and nearly creamed her panties. That was probably the worst moment of them all. “Oh.”

  She felt really hot. She knew she was probably hotter then the sun at this point. She probably looked like she had a sunburn.

  “After you shift for the first time, so will you,” Troy laughed. “You get used it and you learn to stop reacting to every smell and sound that comes your way.”

  “You can hear really well too?” she sputtered it out, trying to move on from the smell topic.

  “Yeah,” Gabe shrugged, still holding her close to him. “Not as fun.”

  She slapped his pec, making him laugh. He did let go of her though and she felt another hand grab her elbow. She looked up, since down was a dangerous direction and saw Brenton, his face tight. He was clothed now and she relaxed.

  “So, when do we want me to shift?” She whispered to him, eyeing him.

  “When you’re comfortable with standing nude in front me,” he growled softly. “That’s only partially a joke…”

  “Oh, that’s right. Did I do alright?”

&nb
sp; “You did good.” He was a little curt.

  She did good, he’d said. Good for the life changing of learning five guys could turn into cats. Wonderful.

  BRENTON

  Brenton sighed as Andrew drove off with her. Zachary stood with him while Gabe and Troy ran to their garage to cause trouble.

  “That went well,” Zachary broke the silence.

  “We all need to sit down and have a long talk,” Brenton growled to his second and closest friend. “About personal relationships. The entire pride… except our newest member.”

  Zachary growled, which Brenton expected. Brenton had known they were all attracted to her physically. So was he. Which was why the conversation needed to happen. She needed to be able to ease into this without them fighting over the ability to sleep with her. Brenton would win in any fight but he wasn’t ready for her to just pick one of them over him and that was a real possibility.

  “Yeah, I fucking know,” Zachary grumbled.

  “Yup. We all physically want her so we need to set up some ground rules. Make sure everyone knows I want to seem in the den when Andrew gets back.”

  At Zachary’s confirmation, Brenton left him on the front porch. He needed to clear his head. The last twelve hours had been more then he expected. He wanted to strangle Gabe and Troy, who were both more then obvious in their affections to her. He wanted to strangle Andrew, who was the nice guy and therefore the only one she actually trusted so far. He wanted to strangle his second for just existing in the same space as her. Zachary hated existing in general, much less near a woman. He wanted to strangle her for being attractive and for finding the guys attractive, because that made this even harder. He wanted strangle himself for wanting her so bad.

  He barely knew her. Her scent stuck in his nose and her husky voice made him and every other guy in the pride rock hard. They needed to give her space and that was the last thing any of them wanted to do. They had never competed against each other for a woman.

  He and Zachary had shared on more then one occasion when it suited them. He knew Troy and Gabe did too. And then there was Andrew being mister nice guy. He’d only had one serious lover in his twenty-eight years and only a couple of flings. If he was interested in her, then he was actually serious about it.

  He closed his eyes and fell on one of the couches in the den. He didn’t really care where he landed. Then he waited.

  Footsteps nearly an hour later got his attention.

  “Sorry, she wanted a bite to eat so we stopped at the diner to grab a couple pieces of pie.” Andrew didn’t sound regretful at all for getting to spend the time with her. “Then she said she wanted to come back tomorrow to hear more.”

  Brenton sat up and looked over his pride and they all fell on the couches. Brenton was on the middle couch. Troy and Gabe jumped on the couch to his right while Zachary and Andrew landed to his left.

  “Who here wants to sleep with Riley?” He decided that he didn’t have the patience for beating around the bush. “Just fucking raise a hand.”

  He did so himself and looked around the room. All of them. Obviously.

  “Yeah. So until the day she shifts, sexual physical contact is off limits. Hitting on her is kept playful and nothing committing. No dates, no making out, definitely no sex. None of it.”

  “Brenton!” Troy looked pissed, Gabe was incredulous next to him. Brenton knew Gabe was a little attached to her already even though they only technically met yesterday. He had dug up her entire life, knew her better then every one else in town even if she didn’t know it.

  “She needs to be able to confront this without all of us trying to get in her pants, Troy,” Brenton sighed. “She needs to come in unafraid, not wondering who’s mad at who because she slept with someone. As a female, her second form will already be vulnerable compared to ours. We need to make her feel safe, not hunted.”

  Silence greeted him at that.

  “And here’s problem number two,” he growled. “Troy, if she sleeps with you and then falls in love with Andrew, how do you think that’s going to feel to her?”

  “Probably a little shitty,” he mumbled back to his Alpha. Brenton nodded.

  “Exactly. We need to give her time until her shift to get to know all of us. Get comfortable. Does that mean we just turn it all of, no.” Brenton laughed ruefully. “I don’t know how to behave with anyone unless I’m in their space and pushing their boundaries. And I’m going to do that, as her Alpha. I have to, no matter what I feel. Troy, you and Gabe are always playful with people. Zachary… Well, we won’t talk about you and how you normally behave. And Andrew is just a good guy. Be those things but don’t work on getting in her pants. She doesn’t deserve that. She needs pride mates, not perverts.”

  “Says the guy who rubbed his erection all over her in public,” Gabe mumbled with a grin breaking out of his face. Brenton groaned and tried to cuff him over the head but Gabe was running across the room before Brenton could even get close.

  “Yes. I did do that. My bad,” Brenton growled.

  “She liked it,” Troy laughed. “Shit, you two were causing a scene on the dance floor and didn’t even know it. I never felt jealousy before I got well acquainted with it seeing that.”

  “Amen,” Zachary growled to Troy. Brenton watched Andrew’s ears turn a little red. Poor guy.

  “Andrew?” He needed to help the guy out.

  “It was hot,” Andrew growled. “I didn’t think I would be okay with it. I wasn’t even jealous. She just looked so in the zone and it was something to watch. Watching her move like that… She was just… so in charge of herself and she owned it.”

  That wasn’t what any of them expect to hear.

  “Finally, someone who sees things my way!” Gabe sat back down, landing next to his brother. “Troy, don’t deny it. You love watching me fuck a girl. I love watching you fuck a girl. Right? So then why would you get jealous if it’s Brenton and not me? We’re all close.”

  Brenton watched Troy consider his half-brother’s words and nod. Brenton and Zachary looked at each other and rolled their eyes. They shared a woman physically, no one was just watching when they played together. But the leopard brothers were just kinky. But so were Brenton and Zachary, so maybe they shouldn’t hypocrites. Andrew was the closest thing to normal the five of them had.

  “I didn’t mean it going that far,” Andrew growled hoarsely. “Can you two just not fuck everything that walks for one day?”

  Brenton snorted. They had all been hoping for that for years.

  “I’ll remind you that Gabe and I have been as celibate as all of you since we moved back here!” Troy snapped, pointing at the rest of them.

  Oh God, he was right. Brenton laughed at it all. None of them had gotten any since they moved home. All of them wanted the same girl and they had to introduce her to the shifter world before she got hurt.

  “Look, back on topic,” Brenton laughed out, waving them all back to the conversation. “Do we all agree that we should at least let her get her first shift in before making our moves on her? Secondary to that, do we agree not fault her choices in partners in the bedroom afterwards if she still wants any of us?”

  They all agreed. Everyone knew the reasoning was sound. Plus, they would easily be able to distract her from her normal game of hooking up with tourists. Just keep her more interested in shifter stuff and she’ll hang out with them whenever they wanted her too.

  “We need her to feel like she can be with all of five us and not be judged by any of us for this to work,” Andrew mumbled. “So, we need to stop ourselves from being jealous and work together to win her over.”

  It was settled. Once she shifted, it was game on to win Riley over to them, not just the pride.

  RILEY

  She sat in their kitchen only three days later, waiting patiently for dinner to be done. She had received a text as she left work that read:

  Unknown number: The pride has dinner together every night. I expect your here at least four tim
es a week. -Brenton

  Then she received several more.

  Unknown number: Heard you are coming to dinner! Can’t wait, pretty girl!

  Unknown number: Hurry up before my brother busts a nut in excitement. Please. -Gabe

  Unknown number: I’m going to kill all of them.

  She had given Andrew a hard time the entire ride home for giving out her number without her permission. He felt bad but Riley wasn’t really that angry. Plus they made it easy to tell who’s message was who’s. The death threat was obviously Zachary (now MadSexy in her phone), Troy (now SexyPest) was the only one who called her ‘pretty girl,’ and the other two were nice enough to leave their names. Brenton became HotAlpha and Gabe became RacyRacer since she knew he loved to race the bikes he made with Troy. He had made sure to tell her all about that just the day before.

  She refused to feel bad over the names for them in her phone. She needed their numbers any ways and it wasn’t like they would ever know.

  “Dinner’s done!” Andrew hollered. “You go sit in the dining room. I’m not letting you help.”

  She laughed and waved. She didn’t really want to after shuffling food around all day for a living.

  All the guys filed in, joking. Troy wrapped her in a hug and swung her for a moment.

  “Pretty girl, how are you today?” He grinned at her.

  “I’m good. What’s all this about?”

  “We have pride meetings at dinner,” Brenton walked in and smiled at her. He was working hard to make for being an ass to her at the bar. “You should be here for at least half of them. And it’s free food.” He pulled off his blazer and placed in on the back of his chair. He sat at the head of the table and point to a chair to his right. “You go there.”

  She sighed heavily and nodded. She watched the others grab their seats as well. Andrew was next to her, he seemed happy about it. Troy and Gabe were next to each other, while Zachary sat at the other end of the table.