by Kim Fox
Layla was hoping that they were going to call for help and get her that much-needed helicopter, or at least tie the rope that was supposed to be holding her around a thicker tree, but they decided to dive into the earth instead. What the heck did they think was going to happen by jumping off a cliff with no parachute? Probably the same thing that’s going to happen to me if I don’t get down.
Layla turned back to her numb fingers and the razor sharp rocks. She had more pressing things to worry about than the two dead flying squirrels below her.
Just my luck. I call for help, two hunky guardian angels come flying out of nowhere, and even they can’t survive my bad luck. Her misfortune was starting to get stronger, not just affecting her but everyone else around her.
And her luck was about to get worse.
The numb fingers on her right hand gave out and she almost slipped off the cliff. “Holy Crappucino!” she screamed, swinging her body back towards the cliff with her left hand and grabbing back on. “Well, this has been fun,” she said to the cruel cliff, “but I’m going to go home now.”
Her heart was racing to the point of near explosion as she reached down with her clammy hands and grabbed a jutting rock down by her waist. “Ouch!” she said, jerking her hand back. The rock was sharp and her finger was wet with fresh blood. So that’s why the brunette in the gas station had those sexy Lara Croft gloves. It wasn’t just because they looked cool. Maybe I should have done some research first before trying to climb the toughest cliff face in Montana.
She wiped the blood onto her shorts and tried again. Her limbs were shaky and her muscles tense and sore. It was a long way down and at this pace she would be down just in time to leave as the weekend crowd arrived in three days.
“I can’t do it,” she whispered, clinging to the rock with white knuckles. She closed her eyes as her chest burned. Where’s that fucking helicopter I ordered?
The ground was too far away and her limbs felt like Jello. She tugged on the rope that was supposed to be her lifeline and it just slid through the metal carabiners easily. Maybe it is tied around the tree. It didn’t look like it but she was pretty high up. She tugged it harder and it just fell away from the thin tree trunk, unraveling like her last hope.
He’s going to come back. He’s going to come back.
The instructor wouldn’t just leave her up there, would he? He was probably just in the bathroom. He’d be back any minute. He had to be.
She glanced over her shoulder and saw the spitting image of her instructor down below. He was rolling out of the parking lot on a skateboard with his headphones on. “No!” she screamed. “You skinny little fuck! Get back here!”
He didn’t get back there.
I’m going to be up here all night. She closed her eyes, trying to calm her breathing to avoid the panic attack that was coming any second now.
Layla pressed her clammy forehead against the rock and took big gulps of air. “What?” she whispered. It was a miracle. The two flying squirrels were alive and they were climbing up the rock towards her at an incredible pace. It wasn’t a helicopter with a secure seatbelt and a bag of peanuts but she’d take it.
They seemed to be arguing as they flew up the cliff in a blur.
“Are you okay?” one of them asked as they got closer.
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “Not okay. Definitely not okay.”
“Don’t worry, I’m coming,” he said.
“We’re coming,” the other one snapped back.
“I don’t care if your mothers are coming,” she screamed. “Please, just get up here.”
The two guys finally reached her and she was so happy that she felt like crying. The shock of seeing how handsome they were was the only thing that held back her tears.
They looked exactly alike with the same golden hair and matching honey colored eyes. She was still clinging to the rock above them and couldn’t get a proper view, but Holy Crappucino they were hot. She would have thought that she had died and gone to heaven if her fingers weren’t burning, her hands weren’t cramped up, her shoulders weren’t aching, her head wasn’t pounding, her feet weren’t throbbing, her, well, you get the picture…
The two of them climbed up on either side of her and she jerked her head back and forth between them. “Thank God you guys showed up,” she said with a breath of relief. “I can’t hold on for much longer.”
“I’m Slate,” the guy on her left said.
“And I’m Karl,” the guy on her right said.
“Awesome,” she said with a tight jaw. “Can we do the introductions when we’re on the ground? Who has the parachute?”
“Parachute?” Karl asked, swallowing hard.
Layla’s heart began racing again. “You didn’t bring a parachute?”
Karl looked to his brother. “Slate?”
Slate gulped.
“Did you guys at least tie the rope to a tree so that I can rappel down?”
They both gulped.
Great! Just my luck that I get the two dumbest guardian angels in heaven. Thanks a lot, God! You screwed me again!
“Hold onto my back,” Karl said, dipping his shoulder towards the rock like she was just going to hop on.
“No!” Slate snapped. “Hold onto my back!”
Layla cringed. “I’m not letting go of this rock until a helicopter arrives and I’m firmly strapped to it.”
“Sorry,” Karl said, biting his lip. “We’re fresh out of helicopters.”
“Then what the fuck are you guys doing here?” she screamed. “Do you have a jet pack? A ladder? A fucking trampoline?”
Her panic attack was in full swing now. She was suddenly very cold and her chest was aching. Her vision became spotty and she closed her eyes as the world started spinning.
“Are you okay?” one of them asked.
What kind of stupid question was that? She was the most un-okay that she’d ever been. Those two fit girls gave her this stupid idea, putting it in her head that she could do it. Layla hoped that she landed on their cool car and cracked their windshield when she inevitably fell off of this stupid cliff.
It was all too much. The height, the pain, the exhaustion. Even two of the hottest guys that she’d ever seen weren’t enough to keep her eyes open.
She fainted.
The last thing that she remembered were her fingers slipping from the rock, the free fall backward, and then strong hands grabbing her arms.
“I saw her first,” Slate complained as Karl tossed the beautiful woman’s unconscious body over his shoulder. “Let me take her down.”
“You saw her first?” Karl answered with a laugh. “What are you, twelve years old?”
He scurried down the cliff at record speed as Slate chased after him. The weight of the curvy climber wasn’t slowing him down in the least. It was actually making him move faster. He wanted to get her down onto solid land before she woke up. She hadn’t seemed too pleased to be on the cliff.
“I have dibs on her,” Slate called out as he hung from one hand.
“How about we let her decide?” Karl said as he dropped three feet to a rock that was jutting out of the cliff. He grabbed onto it easily with one hand while holding the sleeping beauty with the other. “Do you think that she’s going to want the hot guy who rescued her or his sarcastic sidekick?”
“She’s sleeping!” Slate said as he tried to catch up. “And we look the same. I’ll just tell her that I saved her.”
“Let’s just save her first,” Karl said with a shake of his head, “before we start fighting over credit.”
They climbed down the rest of the way in silence and Karl laid her down on a flat rock once she was safely on the ground. He stood up beside Slate and they both stood there, staring at her with their hearts pounding. She was beautiful. A little sweaty and full of dirt and scratches, but beautiful nonetheless. Even Slate was speechless for once.
She was nice and meaty, exactly how a bear shifter liked their women. Her hips were big
and full, perfect for grabbing ahold of. Karl could already feel himself starting to harden just from looking at her.
Ah no. Slate was staring at her in the same way. This was exactly the type of girl that Karl could picture them sharing. She would have been perfect to complete their triad if Slate wasn’t so stubborn and insisted on having his own mate.
The woman groaned as she opened her eyes, and both of them dropped to their knees, one on each side of her. “Am I dead?” she asked, looking from one to the other.
“You look as beautiful as an angel,” Slate said, “but you’re definitely not dead.”
Damn. Why didn’t I think of that good line?
“Let me check,” she said, reaching out with both hands. She dragged her fingertips down each of their abs, closing her eyes and smiling.
“How can that let you know if you’re dead or not?” Karl asked.
“It doesn’t,” she said with a grin. “I’m just celebrating being alive.”
She pushed herself up to a sitting position and took a deep breath as she looked up at the intimidating cliff in front of her. “Fuck you,” she said, giving the mountain the finger. “Bitch.”
Karl and Slate both laughed. “Want me to beat her up for you?” Karl asked.
“Nah,” she said, standing up and shaking her hands as she stared it down. “She’s all mine. Thank you guys,” she said, looking them up and down. “I thought you two had died. You know, since you jumped off the cliff with no parachutes.”
She glanced back at the broken trees that Slate had snapped in half with his head. “How are you guys alive?”
Slate flashed him a worried look as Karl raced to think of an explanation that didn’t involve their supernatural genes.
“Are you guys shifters?” she asked, looking at them funny.
Karl gulped. “You know about shifters?”
Her face lit up. “You are shifters. Wow, that’s so cool. What kind? Raccoon? Donkey?”
Slate’s face turned up in disgust. He thought that anything below an apex predator was an insult. “We’re bear shifters,” he said, thrusting his chin in the air.
Karl just shook his head. Thorn would be pissed if he knew that Slate was going around telling strangers that they were shifters. But for some odd reason, Karl was happy that she knew.
“My friend in high school had a cousin who was a deer shifter,” she explained. “She phased for the first time at my friend’s house during a sleepover. It was awesome.”
It was fun talking to her but she was full of little scrapes and bruises. It broke Karl’s heart to see her all banged up like that. He did want to see her all banged up, but in a different way. “We should get you to a hospital,” he said.
“You should get me to a bar,” she answered with a laugh. “I need a drink after that. Or maybe a dozen.”
“Let’s do it,” Slate said, rolling his shoulders and flexing his arms. Karl felt a twinge of jealousy when he saw her glance at his biceps. “We can go back to our place and celebrate being alive. We have beer and wine.”
“And food?” she asked with a hopeful face.
“And food,” Karl said with a nod.
Her gorgeous face lit up with a smile. “Normally I wouldn’t leave with strange men but you wouldn’t have saved my life only to kill me a few hours later, would you? Let’s go!”
Karl grinned widely as a lightness overtook his chest. She was coming back to their ranch. This all seemed to be feeling like fate.
“I’ll follow you,” she said, stretching her arms. “Where’s your car?”
Slate pointed to the top of the mountain. “On the bitch’s head. Can we get a ride up?”
Her whole body tightened as she looked up to the top. “Hop on my back.”
Karl would have loved to. He was dying to mount her.
“Just kidding.” She pulled out her keys and tossed them to Slate. “I’ll take you up, but you’re driving.”
They walked to her car in the parking lot and Karl hung back a step so he could take a peek at her gorgeous round ass. “We never got your name,” he said.
She turned with a radiant smile. “Layla,” she said, offering her hand. Karl shook her hand and his fingers tingled while his chest fluttered. He desperately wanted to pull her in close and kiss her warm luscious lips but he just smiled back instead.
She turned to Slate next and shook his hand. Karl swallowed hard as he watched his twin’s flushed face. He could tell that Slate was feeling the exact same thing. He was watching her with pure desire in his eyes.
“Alright,” Layla said, clapping her hands together. “Let’s go get fucked up!”
She skipped ahead and Slate turned to Karl with his eyes narrowed into a glare. “She’s mine,” he whispered.
Karl’s eyes dropped to the pavement. This wasn’t going to end well.
“Hurry up guys,” she said, turning around as she got to her car. “Layla thirsty.”
Slate flashed him a warning look as he climbed into the driver’s side. Nope. Definitely not going to end well.
Layla smiled at Karl before turning back to the cliff. She pointed at the mountain with a sneer on her face. “This isn’t over. Bitch!”
four
“What are you getting yourself into now?” Layla muttered, shaking her head as she followed the boys’ pickup truck down a gravel road. The place was really secluded, covered in trees, and no one had any idea of where she was. She was probably driving into a horror movie with all of the bad luck that she’d been having lately.
Or, you could be driving into a porno movie. She had seen the way that the boys had been looking at her and the way they were subtly fighting for her attention. She was covered in blood, sweat, dirt and tears and they were still looking.
Layla had heard that bear shifters were jacked with testosterone and had a higher sex drive than human men. If that was true she’d be in for a wild ride and she was willing to risk getting murdered to find out.
She glanced at her face in the rear-view mirror and cursed. You look like you just woke up from a coma. Her face was still pale except for her bloodshot eyes with the dark rings under them. Her hair was slick with sweat and sticking to her head. She was a five on a good day but now she was looking more like a negative five. Her clothes were a mess and she was in desperate need of her makeup bag.
And that wasn’t even taking account her smell. She had to keep her arms glued to her ribs to keep from passing out. I need a shower bad. She was about to get a drink with the hottest set of twins ever and she smelled like an NFL locker room after a sweltering July practice.
She seriously considered turning around but the road was so narrow, lined with trees, that she couldn’t. Shit. What were you thinking? They were way too hot for her. She had been so high on adrenaline after waking up and being alive against all odds that she had foolishly agreed to go back to their place. Now that her adrenaline was gone, along with her exuberant mood, she was having some serious second thoughts.
The road ended and the boys drove the pickup truck into a kind of ranch. “What the hell?” she whispered as she looked around. There were six cute little wooden cabins in a line in front of the forest. There was a round stone firepit in front of them with a bunch of chairs placed around it, and an outdoor kitchen off to the side.
This is so cool. There was a fabric barn with cattle and a couple working inside off in the distance and an empty structure that looked like horses’ stables nearby. All of that and a spectacular view. The mountains were stunning, thrusting up into the beautiful blue sky, and there were forests and rolling hills and of course, the two sexy bear shifter twins.
They stepped out of the truck and flashed her the same sexy smile. Fuck smelling like a hockey bag, fuck looking like a newly turned zombie, and fuck my homeless woman outfit. I’m still going out there. Opportunities like this didn’t come along every day and Layla was sure as hell going to seize it.
She took one last glance in the rear-view mirror and tr
ied to fluff up her hair. It wasn’t cooperating.
“Are you coming?” one of the hot twins asked. She still couldn’t tell which one was which. I’ll just call them hot and hotter.
She took a deep breath and stepped out of the car. The air was so clean and crisp out here even with the faint smell of the cows in the distance. Layla always loved that fresh farm smell.
“This is where you live?” she asked, looking around in shock. “This was not what I was expecting.”
“What were you expecting?” hotter asked.
“Yeah,” hot added. “We are in Montana.”
“I’m not sure,” she said, closing the door and walking up to them, “but it wasn’t this.”
There was an enormous shirtless man in a tiny pink apron doing the dishes in the outdoor kitchen. His arms were bigger than Layla’s legs, and that was saying a lot. He must be an elephant shifter or something.
“That’s just Stetson,” one of the twins said. “Don’t worry, he’s harmless. Unless you piss him off…then he’ll snap your spine like a twig.”
“He sounds great,” Layla said with a gulp. “How can I tell you guys apart? You look exactly alike.”
“Not exactly alike,” one of them said. “I have a freckle right here.”
“Okay,” she said with a grin. “Should I call you freckle face? Which one are you?”
“Slate,” he said. “But you can call me whatever you want.”
“Me too,” Karl added.
Then hot and hotter it is!
“I’d like to call you both bartender,” she said with a grin. “Where’s my drink that you promised?”
They both scattered like mice running towards the fridge in the outdoor kitchen, elbowing each other and cursing along the way. Layla laughed as she walked over.
The big guy lowered the spatula in his giant hand and glared at her. “Who are you?”
“Stetson, that’s Layla,” Karl said as he fought with Slate to open the fridge door. “She’s with me.”
“No,” Slate said, elbowing his brother away. “She’s with me!”