by Becca Van
“Krista?” She turned to meet Keisha’s gaze. “When you’re done looking about, meet us in the far back corner.” She pointed.
Krista nodded and gave her the thumbs up, then turned back to her perusal of the shelves.
When she saw a stack of workbooks which would be perfect for her pupils, she couldn’t resist grabbing them. There was also boxes of pencils, pens, glue sticks, and other goods that would be great for the classroom. Krista carried the box of exercise books to the counter, then went back for the smaller boxes and hoped a couple of the other women wouldn’t mind helping her carrying them all back to the house since there was no way she’d be able to deal with everything on her own.
She smiled and greeted the thirty-something native woman. “Hello.”
“Hi. You must be Krista.” The woman offered her hand, and she shook it.
“I am.”
“I’m Catori, mother to Abey and Bly. You’re going to be teaching my girls.”
“Oh, I’ve already heard how wonderful they are.” Krista smiled. “It will be a pleasure to meet them.”
Catori nodded as she rang up Krista’s purchases. “These are for the school, yes?”
“They are.”
“Leave them here and I will get one of the men to carry them home for you,” Catori said.
“Oh, thanks, but they’re all busy building the school.”
Catori shook her head. “They’re all big and strong. They wouldn’t want you to carry such a heavy load. You’d be in big trouble if you did. Leave everything with me.”
“Okay. Thank you.” Krista took the receipt for her credit card payment and turned away.
“I have something for you. Just give me a moment to go in back and get it for you,” Catori said and rushed away before Krista could respond.
She gazed about as she waited for the other woman to come back. When the hair on the back of her neck started to prickle, Krista spun back around and met the brown eyes of an older woman. She must have come out from the back of the shop while Krista had been looking about.
The elderly woman blinked, her face went slack, and her eyes went an opaque white color. “Many will come and many will die. There will be a bloodbath.”
Krista swayed on her feet as all the blood drained from her head. If she hadn’t locked her knees, she would have fallen onto her ass. The older woman blinked again, her eyes returning to their natural color, frowned, and smiled at Krista uncertainly. “Can I help you with something?”
Krista shook her head and took an unsteady step back. She glanced at Catori as she hurried toward the counter and gave the elderly woman a speculative sideways look before meeting Krista’s eyes again. “Please accept this small token of my appreciation for teaching my girls,” Catori said as she skirted the counter and walked toward her. She passed Krista a small vial of perfume. “Your men will like it very much.”
Krista gaped at the two women before snapping her mouth shut and nodding. “Thank you, Catori,” she said a little croakily.
Catori waved her off. “Go and join your friends. I will be out to take your orders in a minute.”
Krista swallowed around the tight constriction in her throat and strode toward the back of the store to the café section. She slowed her pace and tried to get her pounding heartbeat and panting breaths to calm down.
What the hell was that?
“What have you got there?” Kenna asked when Krista sat beside her.
Krista gazed at her hand blankly for a moment, sucked in a breath, and opened her fingers. She met the other woman’s eyes. “Catori gave it to me as a gift for teaching her daughters.”
“That was nice of her.” Kiana leaned forward in her chair. “What is it?”
“I think its perfume.”
“Give us a whiff,” Keisha said.
Krista handed the small bottle over and watched as Keisha pulled the stopper out and inhaled. “Oh wow. That’s…like nothing I’ve ever scented before.”
“That is amazing,” Kailin said after breathing in through her nose.
“You can smell that?” Krista asked. The other woman was at the opposite end of the table to Keisha.
“Yes. You can, too. Just suck in a deep breath,” Kenna said and then did just that. “Oh my god. That is the best perfume I’ve ever smelled.”
“It smells like chocolate and sex,” Keisha said.
“It smells like my mates’ aromas all combined together,” Kiana stated.
“Really?” Kailin quirked a brow. “To me, it smells like pizza.”
“What do you think it smells like, Krista?” Keisha asked. She put the stopper back in and passed the vial to her.
Krista was aware of all the women watching her avidly as she removed the stopper and lifted the bottle to her nose. She sucked in a deep breath and frowned with concentration. To her the perfume reminded her of sunshine and rain with honey, milk, and almonds. The more she sniffed the calmer she became, and all her trepidation of only moments before faded into the background.
“Well?” Kenna nudged her arm. “How would you describe the bouquet?”
“Like home,” Krista answered without any hesitation, and she wasn’t talking about her childhood home. The odor reminded her of Bas, Beck, Byron, and their house. A house she’d quickly become very comfortable in. So comfortable, in fact, she never wanted to leave.
Catori came and took their orders and hurried away.
Krista couldn’t stop her thoughts from circling in her mind. Would the men still want her to move into the rental once it was vacated, or would they want her to stay with them now that she was their mate? She hadn’t asked any questions other than about them being sabear shifters, and even then she’d only queried a couple of things. It had been the women who told her about the men and their animal halves. Krista began to wonder if she’d accepted all this too quickly. She still hardly knew them, nor them her. Nonetheless, she wasn’t sure she would’ve been able to stay out of their bed any longer anyway. They’d singed her with hungry heat every time they’d even glanced her way. Plus, it was way too late to be second-guessing herself. She was already partially bonded to them and there was no reversing it. Not that she really wanted to.
The more she thought about her handsome, sexy mates, the more her arousal grew. The embers had been simmering inside her from the moment she’d opened her eyes this morning, and the flames had fanned higher and higher until she felt as if her insides were ablaze. The pain in her womb and pussy were back, but this time the intensity was stronger and hurt more, but she was determined to ignore her lust for as long as she could. She wanted to spend time with the four women getting to know them on a deeper level.
Krista had never had any real friends before. She’d had her work colleagues and a lot of acquaintances, but no close friends. Although that was partially her fault since she’d been so mistrustful of people after being hurt emotionally and physically by the two people who’d been supposed to love her, she knew it was time to change. It was time to open her heart and mind and leave her past where it belonged. It was time to make a stand and a get rid of all the excessively damaging luggage she’d been carrying around with her for so long.
The present and the future were here and now, as well as ahead of her. What was in the past should remain in the past.
All the angst and anxiety she’d been dealing with for so long faded away and the load which had been on her shoulders was no more. She’d made a conscious decision to look forward instead of backward, and for the first time in her life she felt empowered, felt in control of the direction she was taking.
All of them thanked Catori when she brought them their coffee and cinnamon buns.
It didn’t matter if Bas, Beck, and Byron wanted her to leave. She was going to refuse. She’d argue until she had no breath left if that’s what it took.
Krista had always been in control of her life and worked hard to get where she wanted to go, but where other people were concerned she’d always held
back, kept herself closed off so no one else could hurt her. Her parents had hurt her emotionally as well as physically. Her brother and sister had hurt her when they’d left and never contacted her. She’d only ever trusted the young kids she’d taught, because they had no hidden agendas and spoke their minds whether you wanted to hear what they had to say or not.
Krista knew it was time for her to reach out and make an effort to connect. If she didn’t she was always going to be on the outside looking in.
She was changing in a good way, and she knew she had her mates to thank for that. They weren’t only sex on sticks, they were caring and protective. And in that moment, she knew that they wouldn’t want her to leave their home to live separately from them.
She’d been looking for problems that weren’t even there. If she kept that up, she was going to destroy their relationship before it even had the chance to get off the ground.
Krista was going to embrace her new life and all the wonderful new people in it.
And then it felt as if her heart dropped down through her stomach when Kenna asked, “What did Wakanda say to you?”
Even though she hadn’t known the elderly woman’s name, she immediately knew who Kenna was asking about.
“I’m not sure really,” Krista replied.
“Tell us what she said, Krista,” Kiana said with a commanding tone.
And just like that, Krista found herself telling the other women what the native woman had said.
“We need to tell the men,” Keisha said.
“It’s a wonder your mates aren’t here already,” Kailin frowned. “You went as white as a ghost and looked as if you’d seen one, too. Shouldn’t her men have felt her fear?”
“You know the bond between mates strengthens differently for each group,” Kenna said.
The other women continued to converse, but Krista tuned them out. She was once more wracked with guilt over the jeopardy she was putting everyone in. When she heard her mother starting in her head, she shoved her out of her mind.
None of this was her fault. She hadn’t asked those gang members to infiltrate the school and start shooting. She’d done what every other teacher and parent would have tried to do and protected her kids.
Nevertheless, she couldn’t get the native woman’s words out of her mind.
I am so fucked.
Chapter Eleven
“Do you think Krista’s all right?” Byron asked as he drilled the screw in, securing the sheet of tin onto the school roof. He and his brothers had been putting the roof on for the last couple of hours while the other men were working inside putting up the dry walls, filling in the gaps, and finishing off the bathrooms and kitchen. All in all, they were ahead of schedule. If they kept up this pace the school was going to be finished a week before the new term started.
“She’s with the other women,” Bas said. “She should be fine.”
“Why can’t we feel her yet?” Byron asked as he placed a hand on his chest right over his heart. “I felt her as I claimed her, but then she faded. I don’t like it.”
“Maybe she has a wall up,” Beck suggested. “The other women are quite proficient at blocking their men when they put their minds to it.”
Byron sighed with relief and rubbed at the tight muscles at the back of his neck. His sabear was feeling the loss of their mate, too, even if she was close by. He and his animal needed to feel the emotional connection to their mate to calm their unusual aggressive proclivities. Byron and his brothers didn’t like being around normal humans much, and they’d all become more unsociable after retiring from the SEALs. He’d also never suffered fools gladly, but his impatience was getting worse, as was his belligerence.
He knew logically that he was feeling so antagonistic because the mating bond with Krista wasn’t complete, but that didn’t make his aggression any easier to swallow. Trying to push his unfavorable emotions aside, he met Bas’s gaze. “Has there been any movement with the Immoral gang?”
“No.” Bas frowned. “And that worries me.”
“It could mean that they’re laying low after some of their members caused trouble,” Beck said. “I’m sure the cops have been all over them and are keeping watch.”
“I’m not so sure about that,” Bas said. “It could also mean that the fuckers are planning something.”
“Do you think they know where Krista is?” Beck asked.
Byron nodded and explained when Bas quirked a brow at him. “She booked and paid for her flights here using her real name. It’s only a matter of time before they find her.”
“We’ll be ready,” Beck snarled. “We’ll take those assholes down as soon as they step foot on the island.”
Byron nodded his agreement and then growled when his animal came closer to the surface. He and his sabear would rip the fuckers to pieces. No one was going to get near his mate and survive.
Krista may not know it, but she completed him in ways no one else ever could or would. She was his whole world, and he would die to protect her.
He just hoped it didn’t come to that.
Byron wanted to build a solid loving relationship with her, wanted to have children and grow old with her. Krista was the love of his life.
* * * *
Barty scowled at his ringing cell phone. The fucking had thing been going non-stop all fucking day long. He wasn’t sure if he should answer it or not. He’d been getting fucktards calling him and saying that they knew where his target was but most of them had been false reports. He was thinking about throwing the thing across the fucking room so it would shatter into a million pieces, but that wouldn’t be favorable to his end goal.
The dickheads who’d given them fake leads only wanted to get their hands on the ten grand, but so far he hadn’t had to pay a dime. The way things were looking, he’d be keeping the reward money after all.
With a sigh of resigned frustration, he picked up his phone, swiped his finger across the screen, and answered, “Yeah?”
“I know where the woman is,” a man said.
Barty rolled his eyes and leaned back in his seat. “Is that so?”
“Yes.”
“Where is she?” he asked when the bastard didn’t expound.
“Gambell, Alaska. She applied for a new teaching position. From the information I was able to gather, a new school is being built. She’s only going to have four students.”
Barty pulled his phone away from his ear, hit the speaker function, and stared at the screen. The number calling was blocked. “Send me what you’ve got, and if there’s any proof to what you say, the money is yours. Make sure you send a contact number.”
There was no reply but a distinctive click sound in his ear and he knew the call had been disconnected.
He was about to get up from his seat and head into the warehouse where the men were taking stock of the last shipment when his phone pinged. Another swipe of his finger across the screen to activate it and he sucked in a breath. There was no doubt in his mind that the caller had been legit. There was a photo of the bitch at an airport. Another photo was sent, and then another. The other two were plane tickets. One was to Nome, Alaska and the other was for a private charter to Gambell, on St. Lawrence Island off the mainland, and they had the slut’s name on them.
For the first time since his brother died, Barty smiled, but there was no humor in it. His lips curved up with satisfied, malicious intent. He knew where the cunt was, so now it was time to make some plans.
* * * *
Krista left the other women in the café and meandered toward the shore to the north of town. There was a breeze blowing, and she was sure the temperature was on the minus side of the thermometer, but she wasn’t cold. That was one thing she wasn’t going to miss about being fully human. Another was never having to worry about getting sick again. That was a definite plus. She narrowed her eyes when she saw something moving through the water in the distance and gasped when she realized she was looking at a whale. The longer she stood staring a
t it, the more in focus it became. It was like looking through a telephoto lens on a camera. She watched as water sprayed up out of his blowhole and its tale slapped down onto the surface of the sea. It was an amazing sight and one she’d never forget as long as she lived. Krista had never seen a whale close up, and while this one wasn’t exactly close either, she had no trouble seeing it frolicking about happily.
She jolted when she heard a barking sound and turned glance to her left. No less than two hundred yards from where she was standing were two sealions basking in week afternoon sunlight. Their brown coats gleamed silkily in the rays, and she wondered if they were as soft as they looked. Although she wanted to touch one of them to find out, she remained statue still. They were wild animals, and she could see the small sharp claws on the end of each web-covered toe.
After another few minutes, Krista turned away and headed toward the west side of town where her men said the school was. She was excited to see it in person. Bas had shown her the plans, and she hadn’t been able to fault it. The men had included everything a normal school would have. There were three classrooms, as well as male and female restrooms, a kitchen, and there was even going to be a fenced off play area where the children could play outside.
Krista pushed her thoughts aside and concentrated on following the sound of hammering. She meandered along the west side of town and stopped in her tracks when she saw all the men working on the outside of the new school. Her gaze was drawn to the roof, and her heart immediately started to race when she caught sight of Bas, Beck, and Byron. Liquid desire heated her insides. Her pussy spasmed with need, and her nipples hardened. Juices wept from her entrance and coated her folds. They were such a magnificent vision, she wiped her chin to make sure she wasn’t drooling. Bas had his back to her, and though he was wearing a long-sleeved T-shirt and jeans, she could still see the muscles in his back rippling and flexing. He had such a sexy ass she was tempted to climb up onto the roof and take a bite out of it.