by Kim Fox
Camilla giggled as she swayed from foot to foot. “Oops,” she said, looking tipsier than Layla felt. “Was I not supposed to tell you that?”
“Tell me what?” Layla asked.
“I should stop drinking,” Camilla said, and then she took another sip. Layla placed her finger on the bottom of Camilla’s wine glass and tilted it up, giving her an extra mouthful. She wanted to hear whatever Camilla wasn’t supposed to say.
“No,” Layla said. “You should keep drinking until you’re drunk enough to tell me.”
Camilla giggled as she wiped red wine off of her chin. “I think I’m already there.”
“Tell me,” Layla whispered, leaning in. “I’ll be your best friend.”
“Okay,” Camilla said with a drunken grin. “Twin shifters always share their mates.”
Layla’s mouth dropped. “You mean two guys for one girl?”
“Yup,” Kylee said, breaking into another fit of giggles. “It’s called a triad. Their bears have the exact same genes so they always bond to the same woman. And they have a three-way relationship. Isn’t that crazy?”
Crazy hot!
Layla took a long gulp of wine as she looked over at the twins by the fireplace. She met eyes with both of them and turned away as her cheeks flushed red. They were suddenly much more interesting.
“I know this sounds egotistical, but they seem to be fighting over me,” Layla said.
“Oh, they’re definitely fighting over you,” Camilla said with a nod. “Slate has it in his head that he’s going to be the first shifter twin to take on a separate mate. Royal said that he’s in for a rude awakening.”
Two of them? At the same time? Layla liked the sound of that. Up yours, Owen. See? I am hot as fuck, asshole.
“It’s funny,” Camilla said. “They’re always fighting but when they phase into bears, you would never guess it. Their brown bears get along so well. They never leave each other’s side. Royal told me that their bears are inseparable.”
Layla felt a twinge of jealousy that Kylee had seen their bears and she hadn’t. It will come. Just don’t fuck it up.
“Thanks for telling me, bestie,” Layla said, clinking her glass to Camilla’s.
Camilla smiled. “You didn’t hear it from me.” She winked as she headed over to her man who was gazing up at the stars.
Layla turned towards the fire and felt a wave of heat wash over her, not from the flames but from the two hot twins who were checking her out. They made her feel so sexy. How could she not with the intense way they were looking at her?
She downed her wine, placed the glass on the counter, and strutted over. “Walk with me,” she said, running her fingers along each of their thick forearms as she passed between them. She didn’t have to ask twice. They dropped everything and followed her.
“I want to see the horse stables,” she said, walking away from the group to the stables in the distance. The ranch was dark once they left the light and heat of the fire. Layla looked up at the millions of bright stars in the sky and smiled. She was tipsy and feeling reckless and walking to a private area with her two crushes. Things were definitely going to get interesting.
She was surrounded by hot, muscular twins and her body was craving to be touched by them. It could have been the wine or her slight fear of the dark, but she could suddenly feel her heart pounding in her chest. Not the wine. Not the dark. Definitely the twins.
“I’ve never seen a horse stable with no horses,” she said with a grin as they arrived. It was a gorgeous wooden building that looked brand new. She slid her fingertips along the newly stained wood as she walked inside. There was a long hallway down the middle with a dozen or so box stalls on each side.
Slate flicked on the soft lighting and Layla gasped at how beautiful it was inside. Black iron gates with freshly cut cedar planks, old antique saddles hanging on the wall, dark wooden beams across the ceiling, and of course, the two hot twins adding to its appeal.
“The horses are coming tomorrow,” Karl said in a soft tone. His voice was deep and husky and sending warm shivers cascading through her.
“When the horses come,” Slate said, “I can take you on a horseback ride along the river.”
Every muscle in Karl’s body seemed to tighten. “Or, you can come with me up to the lake. The leaves are starting to change colors. It’s beautiful.”
Slate didn’t like that. He turned to his twin with a tightness in his eyes. “I asked first,” he said in what sounded like a snarl.
Kylee’s words came back to Layla. Twin shifters always share their mates. Maybe these two needed her help to make it happen.
“Boys,” she said, putting a little sway in her big hips as she walked over to them. Both of their faces softened as they turned to her. God, they make me feel sexy. In the two years that she had been with Owen, he had never looked at her like the way they were looking at her now.
Their postures relaxed as they watched her approach. “Can you two stop arguing and just enjoy the moment?” She could see their breath quicken as she stopped in front of them. “I like you both.”
She stood on her toes and gave them each a long, soft kiss on the cheek. When she pulled away from the second one she felt a nice warm glow circulating through her body.
The boys must have been feeling the same thing because they were both staring at her with glossed over eyes and parted lips.
Roars of laughter came wafting through the open door. The squad were all laughing around the campfire having a great time.
“Come,” she said, sliding her hands into theirs. “No more fighting over me. We can all have fun together.”
Karl glanced at Slate and he turned away, looking ashamed.
“Let’s go back to the fire,” Layla said, cutting the tension. “I need a drink. And I could go for a flaming marshmallow too.”
She pulled their hands gently towards the door and they both smiled as they followed her out. Slate hit the light on the way out and they were plunged into darkness once again. Layla had no fear of the dark with these two strong shifters beside her. Nothing could harm her with them by her side.
They walked back down in comfortable silence, and Layla couldn’t wipe the smile off of her face even if she tried. It felt so natural and right being with the two of them. This morning she didn’t think she would ever have another boyfriend again and a few hours later she was crushing hard on not just one, but two guys. Maybe my luck is turning around.
Layla took a deep breath of the welcoming and friendly smell of the wood burning in the fire. It reminded her of family vacations, camping with her parents long ago. The smell brought her back to memories of sitting on her father’s lap with his comforting arms wrapped around her as he told her about his first date with her mother.
Everyone was laughing at a story that Thorn was telling and Layla couldn’t help but smile along even though she had missed the beginning of it. She reluctantly let go of the strong hands she was holding and sat down in an empty seat. Karl sat down on her right and Slate on her left. She couldn’t think of anywhere else on the planet where she would rather be. She smiled at both of them as she settled into Thorn’s story.
“So now we’re in the middle of the zoo, Stetson’s clothes are shredded on the floor, and people are screaming. I mean, freaking the fuck out.”
“I would be too if there was a polar bear loose at the zoo,” Camilla said, wiping the tears from her eyes.
Scrappy was sound asleep in Thorn’s arms. He stroked the dog’s belly as he continued. “So I’m pleading with his bear to turn back, but I don’t know which would be worse: to have a polar bear running around or Stetson naked.”
Kylee was holding Stetson’s big hand and massaging it as he let out a deep belly laugh. Layla couldn’t help but join in.
“So the zookeepers come flying over with itchy trigger fingers and before I can say a word they fire eight tranquilizer darts into his ribs,” Thorn said. “He collapsed like a house of cards.”
> “Why did you phase in the first place?” Camilla asked Stetson as she refilled her wine glass and then passed it along. Slate jumped up and disappeared, returning a second later with three empty wine glasses. Karl took the wine bottle and filled them up.
Stetson shrugged. “My bear loves cotton candy,” he said with a chuckle. “He goes nuts with it and it’s the only time that I can’t control him. He got a whiff of the pink stuff and he just burst through my skin.”
“What happened next?” Kylee asked with a huge grin on her face.
“We can leave that part out,” Stetson said with a smirk.
“No!” Kylee shouted. “Thorn, what happened?”
“Well, I just grabbed his clothes and walked away,” he said with a laugh. “The zookeepers dragged Stetson’s unconscious polar bear into the polar bear cage and left him there.”
Slate roared out a laugh. “I would definitely have paid the entrance fee to see that!”
“Did they make you ride on a tricycle while balancing a beach ball on your nose?” Karl asked.
“That’s the circus,” Stetson said with a laugh. “But I did have to wave at the little kids.”
“How did you get out?” Kylee asked, looking up at her man with amazement in her eyes.
He grinned. “I waited until the zoo closed, I phased back, climbed the fence, and Thorn was waiting for me in the parking lot with the car.”
“And your clothes, I hope,” Layla added.
“Definitely with the clothes,” Thorn said with a chuckle. “I don’t want his bare ass, or his bear ass, on my car seats.”
“What were you guys doing at the zoo in the first place?” Kylee asked.
“We were on an important mission,” Stetson said, rubbing the back of his neck.
“Oh really,” Royal said with a knowing grin on his lips. “Tell them what your ‘important mission’ was.”
Stetson lowered his eyes in embarrassment. “The sea otter had babies and we wanted to go see them.”
Kylee kissed her man’s red cheeks as everyone laughed around them.
Layla sipped on her wine, feeling wonderful as she looked at the smiling faces lit up with the warm orange glow of the fire. The flames were warming her feet, while the hot twins by her sides were warming her insides. A quiet settled over them as they listened to the crackling of the wood burning and the hooting of an owl in the distance. Tyler ripped open a bag of marshmallows, took one, and then handed it around.
Karl handed Layla a stick as she took a marshmallow from the bag. She was truly happy in the moment. It made Owen’s remarks less biting since she wouldn’t have experienced any of this without them.
“I’ve never been very good at roasting marshmallows,” Layla said as she lowered it over the fire. It flared almost immediately as it burst into flames. “Told you,” she said with a laugh.
“You know that a food must be good for you if it’s flammable,” Camilla said with a laugh. She popped a full marshmallow into her mouth with a smile. “But they’re soooooo good.”
“Tyler,” Thorn said. “Would you mind?”
Tyler grinned and then suddenly his whole face went slack. Layla gasped as his eyes began glowing a bright white. “What’s going on?” she said, grabbing onto the sides of her chair as her adrenaline spiked. He looked like a monster.
Two comforting hands dropped onto her arms. “It’s okay,” Slate whispered.
“He’s just doing his thing,” Karl said, stroking her arm.
“What is his thing?” Layla asked in a panic, still staring at his glowing eyes.
“There’s a skunk walking over here,” Slate said. “Tyler is taking care of it.”
“How?” she asked. She couldn’t take his eyes off of him. He was completely still and barely even breathing.
“He’s a skin shifter,” Karl explained. “He can take over animals and control them. He’s just taking over the skunk and guiding him away in the opposite direction.”
Layla couldn’t smell a skunk but she had heard that shifters had a really good sense of smell. Her deer shifter friend could smell if someone was coming from a football field away.
“He’s taking too long,” Royal said after a few minutes had passed. He sounded concerned.
“He knows what he’s doing,” Thorn said, but he was staring at Tyler closely.
Karl shifted in his seat. “He is taking too long. Snap him out of it. That’s the last thing we need.”
“What is happening?” Camilla asked, looking around with short jerky movements. At least I’m not the only one in the dark here.
Royal punched his arm. “Get out, Tyler!”
Tyler swayed to the side but he didn’t break out of the trance.
“That won’t do anything,” Thorn said. “He has to come out on his own.”
They all started looking nervous and agitated. Layla began chomping on her fingernail as she watched with butterflies in her stomach.
“Tyler you asshole,” Slate said, grabbing a marshmallow from the bag. “Don’t you dare link-up with a skunk.” He yanked his hand back and threw the marshmallow at his friend’s face.
Tyler came to, his eyes returning back to normal, at the exact moment that Slate’s marshmallow hit him in between the eyes. “Ow!” he said, jerking his head back in shock. “Is that what you guys do when I’m channeling?”
“Yes,” Karl said with a nod. “We throw marshmallows at you. The entire time.”
“Except when Slate has his hand down your pants,” Royal said. Camilla hit his arm.
“Hey!” Slate said with a frown. “You promised you wouldn’t tell!”
Tyler plucked the marshmallow off his lap and tossed it into his mouth. “I guess it serves me right for channeling in front of you freaks.”
“What just happened?” Camilla shouted. “What does link-up mean?”
Tyler frowned.
“The boys were worried that you were going to link-up with the skunk,” Thorn explained to him.
“Oh,” Tyler answered with a laugh. “That’s the last thing we need. Stetson already smells bad enough.”
“What does it mean?” Camilla asked, sounding exasperated.
Tyler cracked open a beer as he gazed into the fire. “My people, the skin shifters, can slide our energy into animals.”
“And you can control them?” Layla asked in amazement. She had never heard of anything like that before.
“Control is such a harsh word,” Tyler said with a wince. “We like to think of it as guiding them.”
“He controls them,” Royal interrupted.
Tyler rolled his eyes. “Whatever. We call it channeling. But if we linger too long in an animal’s skin at any one time, we can link-up with them.”
“Does that mean you’re trapped in their skin forever?” Camilla asked with wide eyes.
“Not exactly,” Tyler whispered. “Our energies sync together but I can release the animal. But the animal can’t really release me.”
“What does that mean?” Layla asked.
“It means that the animal becomes very attached to the skin shifter,” Tyler said. “They’ll follow them everywhere.”
“And genius over here,” Royal said, “almost linked-up with a skunk. So now you know why we freaked out.”
“It’s not uncommon for skin shifters to have an entourage of loyal animals following them everywhere,” Tyler said.
“How come you don’t have any animals following you?” Kylee asked.
“I used to,” Tyler said, running his hand through his brown hair. “I had spent too long channeling a raccoon when I was a kid and he linked-up to me. He followed me everywhere for six years. I called him Robber.” He still looked sad as he said his name.
“That’s so strange,” Camilla said, staring at him.
“It gets weirder,” Tyler said with a chuckle. “Some animals have shared minds. Any animal in a pack, herd, or flock, have shared energies and minds and if you link-up with one, you link-up with the whole
pack.”
“Really?” Layla asked. She could just picture Tyler walking around with a pack of wolves surrounding him.
Tyler nodded. “My cousin Rhett linked-up with a raven by accident once. The bird was in a flock and before he knew it he was linked-up with the whole flock of them. They follow him around everywhere, even to this day.”
“That’s got to be annoying,” Karl said with a laugh.
Tyler chuckled. “I was scraping the bird shit off my truck for a week after the last time I saw him.”
“Is your whole family skin shifters?” Layla asked.
Tyler took a deep breath as his sad eyes dropped to the fire.
“I think we bugged Tyler enough,” Karl whispered.
“I’m sorry,” Layla whispered back. “I didn’t mean to upset him.”
“It’s okay,” Slate whispered, placing his hand on hers. “Let’s just drop it.”
“Who wants another beer?” Tyler said, jumping up with a forced smile on his face. He left before anyone could answer. And he never came back.
The night lightened up again as Slate told everyone the story of how they found Layla stuck on the cliff like an anti-Spider-Woman. The wine was flowing and Layla was feeling good as the members of the Squad disappeared off to bed, one by one.
Royal was the last to go. She said goodnight to the handsome prince and then gulped when she looked from side to side.
It was just her and the twins left.
six
Owens cruel words were still burning in Layla’s ears. She needed them to be gone. And fast. Layla was never one to have a mean, overly harsh self-image of her body. She always liked her curves and she had even thanked her mother once for giving them to her. She wanted to be the proud, big beautiful woman that she was.
“Do you guys think I’m sexy?” she asked.
The two twins took away Owen’s burning words, smoldering them to ashes with their heated stares. Their hungry looks were so intense that she gulped.
I guess that answers that question.
Slate swallowed hard. “You’re the sexiest girl that I’ve ever seen,” he said in a deep, husky voice. “I could stare at you for days.”