Realms and Rebels: A Paranormal and Fantasy Reverse Harem Collection

by C. M. Stunich

  “You can’t just walk out there and give yourself up to them,” he said. “It was stupid to stay here in the first place, in the same house where they took your grandma. Let’s get out of here.”

  “No way,” I said. “You can run away squealing, but I’m going to see what they want. They might negotiate for her release.”

  “You’re crazy,” he said. “You can’t fight a pack of wolves.”

  “Watch me.”

  “You’re going to get yourself killed.”

  “I’m not afraid of werewolves,” I said. “I have enough magic to burn their entire valley without breaking a sweat. And I’ll do it if they won’t give her back.”

  “You’re delusional.”

  Shaking out my old black dress, I stood up straight and scowled at him. “Do you mind?”

  “Not a bit,” he said, flashing a grin.

  “Out.”

  He shrugged and retreated. A minute later, I stepped out of the bedroom. My dress concealed every inch of skin from the neck down, but Efrain was still looking at me like I was wearing Granny’s flimsy, see-through old thing. I wasn’t sure whether to be annoyed or flattered that he couldn’t stop ogling me.

  “I know somewhere safe we can go,” he said as a howl sounded outside.

  My eyes darted from the window back to him. I had no reason to be scared, but it was the eeriest sound I’d ever heard. “That sounded close.”

  “My brother’s house is just over the ridge. Let’s go.”

  A howl sounded again, so close it seemed to press into the cottage, filling the space around us.

  I shivered. “What do they want?”

  “They won’t negotiate with you when they’re in wolf form,” he pointed out. “And if we don’t get out of here, they’ll break in through the windows or burn down the house. We’ve got to get out of here. Now.”

  “Okay,” I said. “But if they attack us, you’ll see why I’m not scared of them.”

  “Be brave, not stupid,” he said. “Sometimes the bravest thing to do is run. Now hop on my back and I’ll give you a ride.”

  I rolled my eyes, but he didn’t wait for an answer. He grabbed me and slung me over his shoulder, ignoring my cry of surprise as he dove through the window in a shower of glass just as the front door exploded inwards.

  Efrain, however, was apparently a quick thinker. Like some kind of shapeshifting superhero, he transformed into a stallion in midair. Clothes exploded into tatters as we landed. I clutched onto him for all I worth. Snarls sounded inside the house, but I hardly heard them as he took off towards the shifter valley.

  My arms slid around his neck and I lay forward, holding on tight as he began to gallop. I could feel his huge, hot, muscular body moving between my legs. The motion of my hips keeping rhythm with his stride sent warmth spreading through my body. I was literally riding a man. Sort of.

  We raced through the trees and along a path. At last, he slowed. I sat up, laughing, and petted his neck. Wrapping my hands into his mane, I looked around, my hips moving in a slower rhythm to match his.

  After a while, he stopped outside a small trailer, outlined in the moonlight. I slipped from him, my breath coming in clouds in the night air. As he nuzzled my neck and then a little lower, I laughed and wrapped my arms around him, scratching his ears. He took the opportunity to shift into human—of course. I should have guessed that was coming.

  As much as I knew I should step away from him, I couldn’t resist staying in his arms for a second. He was almost as big and muscular in human form as he’d been as a stallion. I could feel the ridges of muscle on either side of his spine, his tight abs and firm pecs pressing against me, with only my dress between us. His head dipped slightly, and his nose brushed my hair as he inhaled deeply.

  Something about the intimacy of that gesture brought me back to reality, breaking the spell that had fallen over us. “What did they do to my grandma’s house?” I whispered.

  “I don’t know,” he said, hesitating before stepping from my arms. “Let’s get inside in case they follow us here.”

  “This is your brother’s house?” I asked, looking at the small trailer skeptically. “And this is supposed to keep us safer than my grandmother’s house?”

  “There’s not a pack of wolves outside,” he said with a shrug.

  “I don’t think my mother would like that very much,” I said. “I mean, it was one thing to let you stay at Granny’s with me. But waltzing into a stranger’s sketchy house? How do I know your brothers aren’t going to ambush me?”

  “They’re not going to gobble you all up, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

  “What are they?” I asked. “They’re shifters, right?”

  “Yeah. Wild boars like me.”

  “Okay,” I said. “I think I can hold my own against three pigs.”

  6

  My parents would freak if they saw me walking into a trailer with a strange man covered in tattoos. Now that he’d shifted and was leading me into the trailer, I could see exactly how many tattoos. His arms, chest, and back were covered in ink. Below that, he had a tiny purple flower on one butt cheek, which was kinda cute. Under all those clothes, he had a flower tattooed on his ass. For some reason, it made me like him a little more. He must have a soft spot inside there somewhere.

  At any other time, I might have welcomed the new sensations stirring inside me. They weren’t exactly unpleasant. There was something irresistible about talking to a new person from a completely different world. I loved my fellow witches, of course, but the familiarity made conversation both easy and mindless. A stranger, on the other hand, held endless possibilities for discovery and danger.

  The trailer was stuffy and small. I seriously doubted it would hold up to a pack of wolves for even a minute. A light went on when we walked in, and a guy appeared in the hallway. When he switched on the light in the tiny living room where we’d entered, I couldn’t help but smile. Where Efrain was all muscles and swagger, this guy radiated a relaxed confidence. He was also adorable, more angular than muscular, tall and lean, with a mop of messy bronze hair that almost concealed a pair of enormous ears. He was wearing a robe and a pair of worn slippers with pink pig faces on his giant feet.

  I couldn’t help but smile when my gaze met his twinkling blue eyes. When he returned my smile, a dimple sank into his left cheek. “Hey, there, little lady,” he said, looking me over as I did the same to him.

  “Hi,” I said. “I’m Cayenne.”

  “Spicy,” he said, still grinning.

  “Yeah, sure,” I said.

  “Not funny?” he asked, thrusting out a hand. “I’m sure you get that all the time. Must be annoying. I’m Oral. As you can imagine, I should know better than to make jokes about someone’s name.”

  “Cayenne wants to go into the Second Valley and get her grandma back from the wolves,” Efrain said, emerging from a room behind me, where he’d ducked to get dressed. “They kinda ran us out of her house, so we thought we’d come here and take refuge.”

  “Sure,” Oral said, scratching his mop of hair. “Sorry I don’t have the place cleaned up better. I wasn’t expecting company.”

  “Doesn’t look like you’re too surprised to see your brother, either,” I said, glancing at Efrain. “I thought you said you’d run off and joined some other pack.”

  “I did,” Efrain said. “I told you I got exiled.”

  “Not much of a lone wolf,” I said, smirking at him. “Did you cry ‘wee wee wee’ all the way home?”

  “Damn,” Oral said, clapping Efrain’s shoulder. “She’s as brutal as Violet.”

  “Who’s Violet?” I asked.

  “He didn’t tell you about Violet? Bro, I thought you were going to see the wolves with her, not falling in love.”

  “I have a cousin named Violet,” I volunteered.

  “I’m not in love,” Efrain growled, glaring at me.

  “Then why didn’t you tell her about Violet?” Oral asked.

/>   Efrain turned his glare on his brother. “It didn’t come up. Where’s Nelson?”

  “He heard some weird noises,” Oral said, stepping around a small round table and into the kitchen. “Would the lady like a beverage?”

  “Sure.”

  “I got cheap beer, Kool-Aid, and clamato juice.”

  “On second thought, I’ll pass.”

  Oral laughed. “Kidding. I have soda, too. Grape and orange.”

  “I’m really more worried about finding my grandma and figuring out why they’re after me.”

  “She don’t mess around,” Oral said to Efrain. “I like her. If you marry her, can I be your best man?”

  “I’m not marrying her,” Efrain said, glowering.

  “Are you sure? I gotta claim the best man spot before Nelson gets it.”

  “You’re the worst man I know,” Efrain said.

  “Too bad you’re stuck with me,” Oral said, handing Efrain a beer. “But I don’t buy the love bit. I’m pretty sure the last dozen times you’ve met a girl, you introduced yourself by whipping out a picture and asking if she’d seen Violet.”

  “Again, who’s Violet?” I asked. If they weren’t going to take me to find Granny Golden tonight, at least they could tell me a good story. Plus, I didn’t really like the thought of Efrain mooning over some girl. I liked him better when he was mooning over me. It was stupid, I knew. He was a shifter, and I was a witch. But that didn’t stop me from being attracted to him, despite his ability to rub me wrong at every turn.

  “Violet is his ex,” Oral said. “She ran off and left him, but he’s sure his wit and charm will win her back if she’ll just give him another chance.”

  “Shut up,” Efrain said to his brother before turning to me. “That’s not what happened.”

  “So, who is she?” I asked.

  He paused, then gave a disgruntled nod. “He’s right,” he said. “I didn’t want to come out and ask you for a favor without helping you first. But I was going to ask if you’d help me find her. I heard the witches have a seeing stone.”

  “I don’t think so,” I said, shaking my head slowly. A seeing stone was a fairy charm that someone could put behind a looking glass and see anyone in the world. I’d heard about them from my fae father, but we didn’t have one.

  “Oh,” Efrain said, his shoulders slumping.

  His dejection irked me, and I crossed my arms over my chest and glared at him. “So you weren’t helping me because you were nice. You were helping me so I’d owe you.”

  “She got you, man,” Oral said, clapping Efrain on the back again.

  “It wasn’t like that,” Efrain said to me, but he ducked his head and wouldn’t meet my eyes.

  “Fine,” I said. “It doesn’t matter. Thank you for your help so far, but I can’t get you a seeing stone, so you don’t have to help me anymore.”

  I turned, swishing my cloak dramatically as I exited the trailer. I promptly stepped onto the wobbly cinderblock steps and pitched forward.

  “Cayenne,” Efrain called, lunging for me.

  But he was too late. I leapt off the steps, fell, rolled, and ended up back on my feet.

  “She’s nimble, too,” Oral said, grinning at me. “Like that cheerleader I did in high school.”

  “Who’s this?” asked a voice behind me.

  I spun around to find a naked man standing behind me. He had a blonde, military haircut and a strong jaw, piercing green eyes, and a generous allotment of muscles.

  No one was freaking out, so I had to assume he wasn’t a wolf. I gaped at him for a few seconds too long before remembering myself. “I’m Cayenne, who are you?”

  “Nelson, their brother,” he said, nodding at the others. “You don’t look like the kind of woman who usually ends up here. Are you lost?”

  “I’m…uh…visiting.”

  “You weren’t that speechless when I shifted in front of you,” Efrain grumbled behind me.

  “Maybe because you’re an ass,” I said.

  “I see you’re well acquainted with my brothers,” Nelson said. “Let me grab some clothes and we’ll get acquainted, too.”

  “No hurry.”

  “Attire’s optional around here,” he said, looking me over with keen interest. “So if you’d rather get acquainted without them…”

  “That might be distracting,” I said, though I wouldn’t have minded seeing him or his brother without clothes a little longer.

  I knew my mind was just trying to distract me from the horror of my grandma being taken. But that didn’t make it any easier to resist the urge to reach out and trail my fingers across his sculpted abs. He had tattoos, too, though I couldn’t make them out clearly in the dark.

  Nelson slipped past me, close enough that I could feel the heat of his body in the cold night, but not so close that I could touch him. I closed my eyes for a second when he passed, catching a whiff of something wild and animal on the air. A shiver trembled through me.

  “Guess he didn’t find anything out there,” Efrain grumbled.

  “Are all shifters that brave?” I asked. “My parents would be casting a protection spell and forbidding me from going outside until noon the next day if they heard a weird noise.”

  “My brothers are brave,” Oral said. “I’m more into, you know, staying alive.”

  “He’s our little housewife,” Efrain said. “He likes to make dinner and all that shit.”

  Oral grinned. “I’m telling you, it’s why I get all the girls.”

  “I don’t want a girl,” Efrain said.

  “So,” I said. “I can’t help you, which means you don’t need to help me.”

  “We’re still not going to let you go into wolf territory on your own,” Efrain said before I could say it.

  “Fine,” I said, crossing my arms. “If you’re not going to let me go get my grandma tonight, then you’re going to have to entertain me. There’s no way I can go back to sleep tonight.”

  “I can think of a few ways to spend a night that don’t involve sleeping,” Oral said with a suggestive wiggle of his eyebrows.

  “We just met,” I reminded him.

  “And?”

  I tried to think of a response to that. Witches weren’t promiscuous, at least not in our valley. Sex was sacred to us. I hadn’t even slept with Malik, and we’d been best friends for our whole lives.

  “Let’s try something a little less…intimate,” I said.

  Oral and Efrain started laughing like it was the funniest thing they’d ever heard in their lives.

  “What’s funny?” Nelson asked, stepping out the front door. He was wearing jeans and a Razorback hoodie now, and I had to admit, he looked pretty good in that, too.

  “Nothing,” I said, giving the others a pointed look.

  “Cayenne needs something fun that she can do all night,” Efrain said, giving me a truly wolfish look.

  “Like planning how we’re going to get my grandma back,” I said through gritted teeth.

  “Right,” Oral said, his face twitching with suppressed laughter. “That was my first thought, too.”1

  “You’re all pigs,” I said. “Literally and figuratively.”

  “Aw, don’t be so hard on us,” Oral said. “At least you know right up front what you’re getting.”

  “Come on, have a beer and relax,” Efrain said, taking my elbow and urging me towards a circle of canvas chairs arranged around a large firepit in the yard.

  “Oral, grab us a couple, would you?” Nelson asked, tossing some logs into the ring of stones.

  Warmth tingled up my arm from Efrain’s fingers, and I tried not to think about what that meant, about how different it was from the feeling I had when Malik touched me. Malik made me feel comfortable and loved, but never like this—like he might grab me and devour me at any moment.

  I shook that thought away. Efrain had a girlfriend somewhere out there. Too soon, he released my arm, and I shivered, hugging myself. His touch had warmed me in ways I couldn’
t explain.

  Oral had hopped back into the trailer, and I could hear it creak as he trod across the floor. He appeared again a moment later as we all took seats around the fire. Wood and sticks were already piled into the circle of stones, so I summoned a little flame from the center to start it burning.

  “Whoa,” Nelson said. “Who did that?”

  “This one’s got all kinds of tricks up her sleeve,” Efrain said, reaching out to pull my hood off.

  “Hey,” I protested, pulling it up, hiding the dopey grin on my face.

  Oral handed around cans of beer. “Have a brew. Isn’t that what witches drink?”

  “I don’t really drink.”

  “Just because you’ve never done something doesn’t mean you can’t,” Efrain said with a smirk.

  “Are you trying to corrupt me?” I asked, pulling my cloak around me.

  “Just trying to loosen you up,” he said. “Tight is hot. Uptight isn’t.”

  I ducked my head, taking a deep breath to collect myself. This wasn’t like me. I wasn’t bashful. I had never been shy, and I wasn’t going to let a herd of pigs change that.

  I popped the tab and took a long swig. I gulped down the mouthful, just barely managing not to cough it all over the fire.

  “Good, huh?” Oral asked, holding up his can to salute me from across the fire.

  “It tastes like the water used to wash out a garbage can,” I said, wiping my tongue on the back of my hand.

  The guys all laughed. After a second’s pause, I joined in. I started to relax, my mind dropping away from my grandma as the fire crackled and sparked into the night above us. The guys weren’t exactly like the warlocks I knew, but maybe that was a good thing. I had barely left the witch community a dozen times in my life. These guys lived just over a mountain from me, and I’d never even met them.

  Besides, what was the worst that could happen? It wasn’t like they could hurt me. If they tried, I’d just throw a shield up and block them. And I seriously doubted that would be necessary. What were they going to do, flirt me to death?