by J. D. Light
"You'll work up an appetite soon enough." He bounced his eyebrows up and down, kinda making me uncomfortable.
"Why is your face doing that?" I asked, pulling back away from him, even though he was more than four foot from me.
"Why is your face doing that?" The deep, slightly amused voice came from behind me, and I turned to find a stern-faced Thompsyn looking at his crazy boyfriend with all the exasperation. Even if there was laughter in his eyes.
"Papa Bear!" Bennett sat the plate down on the edge of the table, and ran at the man, jumping into his arms.
I managed to keep the thing from toppling into the floor, scooting it toward the middle and trying not to laugh at Thompsyn's exasperated sigh.
"Never call me that again."
"Come on, Syn. This could turn into some sexy role-play. I'll be the lost, scared and hungry Goldilocks, and you can feed me your way to hot, and way too hard bear meat."
I couldn't have stopped the giggle if I'd been attacked by a bear, just then.
Thompsyn looked at his boyfriend, absolutely horrified. "Never say bear meat, either."
I looked up toward the entrance to the kitchen behind Thompsyn, to find Green watching me with a soft smile on his overly handsome face.
"Foster and Burke will be here in about ten minutes. I figured his animal will be a bit less intimidating when we explain. Especially, given Rory's experience." He was definitely talking to the blonde and his giant man, but his eyes never left mine.
"Oh yay! Another mate talk. I missed Burkes," Bennett said, pouting, even as his man continued to hold him like a giant child. "I bet that was some funny shit."
Ronny walked up behind Green, smiling in his laid-back, sweet way. "Sutton is coming too. And I just got off the phone with Flynn. Bunny is going to cover Ridley's shift, and managed to talk Arry and Ward into waiting tables, so he and Ridley can be here to. Hopefully camaraderie will help."
I was completely confused, but my brain was momentarily distracted by Bennett scrambling down from his man with a maniacal laugh. He pulled his phone from his pocket, and immediately started typing something out.
"What is it that you are doing, Ben?" Thompsyn asked dryly.
It probably took a lot of patience to have Bennett as a boyfriend.
"I'm going to have my mom text me a picture of Ward and Arry in aprons. I guarantee she gave them the frilly ones she hides in the ba––" Suddenly, he barked out a laugh, throwing his head back.
"I knew my mommy loved me! See!" He spun the phone toward us, showing us all a picture of a big, lumberjack looking dude, scowling in the direction of the camera, with his arms crossed, and a pretty yellow and white apron, with ruffles, that said, "I'm always sunny side up" across the top. "I didn't even have to send the message! She was thinking about me, already."
Bennett sounded entirely too gleeful for such a big guy.
Green's eyes widened as he leaned in to get a look at the picture, and then he barked out a loud, beautiful laugh, as Ronny and Thompsyn did their best to hold in smiles and laughter.
"Green, can you please hack all their social media and post these as their profile pictures?" Bennett asked, spinning the phone again, so we could see the next picture.
This one was of a black man, rolling his blue eyes and smirking in his, which was printed to look like his head was on a bikini model's body.
"Duh!"
They both snickered like children, and I looked at the other two men in the room, wondering where all the adults were.
Ridley came running in the room, looking worried, and I was again caught off guard by just how pregnant he looked. Without his apron hiding his belly, it was even more pronounced.
"Did Bunny send you the pictures? I was trying to cook, and started laughing so hard, I almost karate chopped myself in the face when I pulled to hard on the cabinet door."
And then Bennett was laughing harder.
"I'm giving you one more week Ridley. You don't need to be standing on your feet all day in your condition anyway," Flynn said, marching into the room. "What he failed to mention, was the knife that was in his hand when he did it. I about had a fucking heart attack."
So, maybe Ridley did have something seriously wrong. Like a tumor or something. He seemed so happy. Hopefully it was operable.
Ridley snapped his fingers in front of where I was avidly staring at his belly, catching me completely. My eyes snapped up to his, and he was smiling sweetly. "I'm not dying, Ror. We have a lot to explain to you. Everything is going to be okay. I promise."
Confused, I nodded, and followed right along behind everyone else, as they all made their way to the living room.
Flynn pulled Ridley into his lap in the chair that almost faced the front door, looking a bit protective. Thompsyn and Bennett took the other one, again making me struggle to suppress a giggle at just how funny, and somehow cute, they looked when Bennett crawled into his giant's lap. Ronny sat on the arm of the couch, while Green sat on the seat closest to the other arm.
He patted the seat next to him, and I took it, still a little confused by the sudden seriousness in the room. It made me glad that Green didn't mind me being close. The tension was really starting to make me nervous
Sutton, Burke and Foster walked in, Sutton leaning against his man's side, and Foster and Burke moving to the other side of the coffee table from me, standing with Foster's arm slung over the cute little blonde's shoulders.
Flynn cleared his throat, drawing everyone's attention. "I hope you don't mine, but Ronny shared your story with me, and I shared it with Foster. If you choose, none of it will leave this room, but these are both men that I trust, so I needed them to know what we are dealing with when it comes to this pack that is searching for you."
"I don't mind, Mr. Becker. It's a sucky story, but I don't have anything to hide. Well, except obviously myself."
"Good. I'd hate to make you any more uncomfortable than you already probably are. And I would really like it if you called me Flynn…or alpha, if you prefer something more formal." His eyes bored into me. Making it clear he was saying more.
And I got it. Gasping, I tensed to stand, but Green placed his hand on my thigh, grounding me.
Flynn was one of them. He was a monster. And everyone in this room knew. Were they all monsters too?
"Sh, pretty angel. I promise you are completely safe." Green rubbed up and down my thigh, soothing me, even as I was starting to wonder if he too was one of them.
"Ror?" Ridley called, pulling my attention back in his and Flynn's direction. "I'm human. So are Burke and Sutton." He eased his long, lean body off of his man's lap, swatting Flynn's hands away when the man tried to pull him back.
"He's scared, Gingerbread Boy. What if he runs? He might hurt you." The big, scary man looked at Ridley like he was the most precious being on the earth, reaching up to gently rub his swollen belly.
"Rory, you'll be careful, won't you. You won't hurt me, right?" Ridley smiled, already knowing the answer, but obviously knowing Flynn needed more reassurance.
"Never," I whispered. "I would never hurt Ridley. I've been scared most of my life. It's something I still live with every day. I'd never hurt an innocent just to save myself."
The compassion in Flynn's eyes nearly floored me. Those were not the eyes of a monster. I'd seen the eyes of a monster up close and far too personal many, many times. This man was just that. A man. A man who was worried about his lover.
Nodding, Flynn released Ridley's hand, and the redhead moved toward me, crouching in front of me, and turning just a little. He lifted his hand, and pulled the collar of his shirt aside, showing me a very distinctive shape on his neck.
Gasping, I placed my right hand over my own birthmark on my chest, and reached out my left to lightly trace Ridley's. "How is this possible?"
Sutton came around in front of me, also, lifting his shirt and showing me his side, while smiling happily at me. There was no denying the shape and color were the same as mine.
> I sat there, gaping at the two, even as they put their clothing back to rights and returned to their men.
"Syn, show him yours," Bennett said excitedly, bouncing on the man's lap.
Thompsyn chuckled, but lifted his arm, and parted his armpit hair to show me the same slightly raised, scar looking mark on his armpit.
"You really need you to shave that shit, so we can show it off." Bennett said, when Thompsyn put his arm back down.
"No."
Burke moved forward next, reaching a hand out, when he sidestepped the coffee table. "And if you will come with Foster and me, we both have somethin' to show you. Green, I'm sure you want to come too, but you better turn your head when I drop trou, or my fox will have a lot to say. We just won't know what it is."
"Damn it, Burke! I just got that out of my head from the last time!" Sutton leaned his head against a chuckling Ronny's shoulder, who just smiled indulgently at Burke, like he was his goofy kid brother instead of his brother in-law.
Foster sighed, like the weight of the world rested on his shoulders as he let his head drop back, completely exasperated. "I guess I'm going to have to break out the paddle tonight, huh NBB?"
"Not judgin' those who liked to be spanked, but if ya touch my ass with that paddle, I'll use the flat end to stretch your asshole."
I'd already given the man my hand, but thought about snatching it back, when him hoisting me, put me far too close to his face when he said those words. I knew he wasn't talking to me, but there was nothing quite like having something like that said directly into your chin.
"So kinky, Baby." Foster chuckled, snagging Burke around the waist, and dragging him into the hallway, as Green rose and ushered me to follow the bickering two.
I gave Green an are-you-sure look, before throwing another one around the room, but everyone seemed to be in different stages of laughing, smirking or eye-rolling, so I assumed they were harmless.
"Alright," Foster said, rubbing his hands together. "Green, turn around. Baby, time for show and tell."
Green snickered as he gave Burke his back, and the man that had just threatened his boyfriend with what sounded like unpleasant sodomy, reached for the button on his jeans, as he too spun away.
When his cute little ass was exposed, I suddenly understood why. He too had the same birthmark on his left ass-cheek.
"How is this possible? And how did you guys know I would recognize it? How did you know I had one?" I didn't reach out and touch Burke's, but I did stare at it a little longer than was probably proper when looking at another man's ass.
But regardless of how cute Burke's butt was, I wasn't staring because of that. I was just in shock.
Foster reached out and grabbed a handful of Burke's cheek, breaking my stare-off with it, and making me giggle, while Burke swatted at him, and jerked his pants up. "Damn it, Foster. If I have to go back out there with a fuckin' hard-on, I'm gonna be tying you up and taking it out on your ass."
A full body, very visible shudder ran over Foster's body, and I gasped as I watched his eyes shift. "Well, what did you expect? Your ass was out. I can barely control myself when you're fully clothed."
Burke moved into Foster's body, pressing himself completely to his man. "Then you shoulda turned away too."
Foster moaned, leaning down to suck on Burke's lips. "I don't care how long we are together, I'm not going to miss an opportunity to look at your ass."
"Should we leave?" I finally asked, when the sexual tension was getting so thick, I was about to choke on it.
"Are you decent, Burke?" Green asked, still not turning around.
Shaking my head, I whispered, "He's clothed, but they're both being a bit indecent at the moment."
That made all three of them chuckle as Green turned around.
"Mates." They all said at the same time. Like that fucking explained anything, but I didn't comment.
"So, you know that everyone but Sutton, Ridley and I are shifters, right?" Burke asked.
Shifters? Was that what they called the mo…beings that could change between human and beast?
"What about Thompsyn? He has the birthmark too." Though, if anyone were going to be a shifter, I'd have thought Thompsyn would be one. The wolves were almost always bigger than an average person.
"Thompsyn's a shifter. He's just a special case. His mother was chosen––" Foster motioned toward Burke's ass, making me want to giggle a little, but I managed to hold it in. "––had the mark. It was actually passed down to him. But we'll get into that later."
"Do you know what kind of shifters any of us are?"
"You're not all wolves?"
Shaking his head, Foster smiled. "I'm a fox. Your boy Green there is a leopard. And Thompsyn is a grizzly."
"And someday we're going to have grizzards!" Bennett yelled from the other room, making everyone but me laugh.
And maybe Thompsyn, because I was pretty sure I heard him groan.
"Basically, I'm here to shift for you, so you can see that, just because we can turn into wild animals, doesn't mean we aren't still completely in control. And just because you had terrible, horrible experiences with shifters in the past, doesn't mean we are all like that." Foster reached out like he was going to put his hand on my shoulder, while he was leaning down just a bit to look me in the eye, but he snatched it back, smirking when Green growled.
"Right. Don't know what I was thinking," But something about the ornery look in his eyes told me he knew exactly what he was doing. "Are you ready for me to shift? Do you think you can handle that?"
Nodding, but still definitely nervous, I unconsciously stepped closer to Green, happy when he wrapped his arms around me from behind.
Burke grabbed the blanket that someone handed him around the corner, and held it up in front of his man, as he stripped. When Foster hunkered down on the floor, Burke threw the blanket over his back, and almost immediately, Foster started to shift.
When it was all said and done, there was a beautiful fox with his head poking out of the blanket, and I was shaking, trying not to pass out.
"Foster, would you please lick your mate's hand, so Rory can see that you understand completely what it is we're saying?" Green spoke softly, rubbing soothing circles in the center of my chest.
Burke held out his hand, and Foster licked it, before darting behind the man and sticking his nose directly in the man's crack.
"Foster! How many times have I told you not to do that when you're in fox form?! It's fucking weird."
The fox in question let out a snort of some sort that sounded way too much like a laugh to be anything else, and I felt Green's chest rumble against my back.
Foxes, bears and leopards. Shifters. Men who had the ability to turn into animals, but who weren't monsters.
"Okay," I said quietly, gaining the attention of three sets of eyes. "Not all shifters are bad. Is it just wolf shifters, then?"
"No, Pretty Angel. All shifters are just like people everywhere. You have your really good ones, your really bad ones and the ones in between. It sounds like the ones who held you, were just really bad people." He squeezed me, resting his chin on my shoulder. "But that's over now. You're protected by this leap. We won't let them take you back."
"No! You guys can't do that. You have your own people to take care of. You can't endanger them to protect me. I'm nobody."
Spinning me, Green glared down into my face. "Wrong. You are mine. You are a part of this leap. You belong here, and nobody is taking you away. Do you understand?"
I didn't. Not even a little, but I nodded anyway, not wanting the man to get even angrier.
"Okay," Burke said, linking his elbow with mine. "Let's go finish this conversation." He dragged me away from Green, who still looked mad, but let me go.
"There's more?" I wasn't really sure I could take more at this point.
Burke just laughed.
***
I placed my hand on the slightly rounded belly, that less than an hour ago, I thought was a sign
that Ridley might be terminally ill.
There was a being growing in there. A tiny little human. In Ridley's stomach. That could happen to me. My mark meant I could have a baby growing in my stomach someday.
And I could have a mate out there somewhere. I was destined for a shifter mate.
I glanced at Green, only to find him watching me intently. I couldn't read his expression. I didn't really have enough life experiences to understand every reaction people had. But there was a small smile causing the side of his mouth to curl up just a little.
Whether it was Ridley's baby belly or me, I didn't know.
"No, I won't get boobs," Ridley said in answer to the question Sutton had asked, giggling. "My chest will change a little. Get a little rounder. But Elder Rebecca said it will just look like I've been going a little heavy on the bench press."
"Oh good. I don't think I'd look good with boobs."
I dropped my hand, suddenly feeling incredibly tired. "Can someone point me in the direction of my car?" I asked, rising from my position, back on the couch.
"I'll take you to get your stuff, Pretty Angel." Green all but lifted me off the couch, my body already starting to shut down, even though I was pretty sure it wasn't even noon, yet.
When we got outside, I found my car, parked next to the big truck Ward had brought me here in. I wasn't even sure who ended up bringing it. I think someone had mentioned it, but my mind wasn't running on all the cogs at the moment.
"You'll share a room with me. Is that okay?" Green asked, opening the back door.
"You don't have to do that." I had probably driven the man crazy.
We'd kissed before, which really still blew my mind. Even with all the things I'd learned, that was still one of the moments that had me thinking I was dreaming up some kind of alternate universe.
"Do you have any objections to it, other than you don't want to put me out?" His voice sounded gruff and maybe…cranky? I couldn't really tell what that other emotion was. "Are you scared of me?"
"No!" I said quickly, realizing he thought my hesitation was due to my previous fear of his kind. "I just feel like I've already put you out enough."