Furever After (BBW Paranormal Romance)

by Arielle Lewenhart

  “Oh, none taken,” I said. “Think about it from my perspective: I’m 19, and there’s absolutely nothing for me to do here. But I may have a solution for you; we actually have rooms upstairs, but they’re rarely used, since we so often see visitors. You’re welcome to them, but they may be a bit musty.”

  The two of them once again spoke in that strange language. I couldn’t identify it; it sounded like no language I’d ever heard before. Ethan turned to me. “How much is it?”

  “I think you two can have it for free,” I said, laughing. “You look like you’ve had a rough day.”

  He smiled that strange smile again. “You’re very kind. We appreciate it. To be honest, we don’t have very much money; we’re kind of on a budget here.”

  That seemed strange to me. Neither one of them looked like they struggled for cash; in fact, both had the air of people who knew their way around money. But it wasn’t really any of my business, so I didn’t pry. “I’ll go get the rooms ready, then. You two finish your soup, and if you want more, just ring the bell there. Some more will be out shortly.”

  They thanked me again, and I stepped into the hallway and went upstairs to get everything ready. For the first time in what felt like ages, something exciting was happening again.

  —

  I knocked lightly on the door of the room, and James opened it. “Yes?” he asked.

  “I’ve brought your dinner,” I said. “I figured you two would be hungry again soon, and since you’re guests here, I thought I’d bring it to you. Don’t worry, it’s not soup again. The cook whipped up something special for you, so I hope you enjoy it.” I could see past James to where Ethan lie on the bed in his beat-up jeans and a plain white t-shirt, the fabric clinging to the contours of his well-toned body. It was enough to make me forget my manners for a moment.

  “Thank you, Liz,” James said, his smile gentle. “It’s much appreciated. We actually just woke up from a nap a few minutes ago. Well, I did. Ethan’s snoring ensured that.”

  I laughed. The two of them liked to tease one another, but they seemed like such good friends. “Did you sleep well? Is the room okay?”

  James nodded. “We slept very well, and the room more than meets our needs. We’re rather simple men, when it comes down to it. Give us a warm meal and a soft bed, and that’s all we need. The nap helped to take care of some of the chill from earlier.”

  “That’s good,” I said. “You have to be careful not to catch a cold from being soaking wet all day.” As we spoke, I heard the doorbell below jingle. “I’ll check back later to pick up the dishes. You can just leave them in front of the door. Have a good night!” James nodded as I pivoted on my heel and ran downstairs. Another set of customers, on a day like today? That was extremely surprising.

  What I saw when I got downstairs made my blood run cold. The men that came in did not look like regular customers; they were dressed all in black, with chains hanging from their clothing. Their leader bore a nasty scar that ran across his face, and he had his foot on one of the tables. He had spiky blond hair that was raised in a faux-hawk through the center of his head, and most of his companions bore similar stylings. What struck me most about the men was their eyes; they looked yellow, almost cat-like.

  “Can I help you?” I asked, keeping my voice and smile pleasant despite the apprehension I felt.

  The man looked at me, his eyes raking over my body in a way that made me feel as though I need a shower. “You have no idea, little girl,” he said. His sneer was cold, and the gazes of his friends made me want to hide. “But actually, we’re looking for a couple of guys. We think they may have stopped by here earlier.”

  A couple of guys? They couldn’t mean James and Ethan. What would these thugs want with them? “Sorry, but you’re the first customers we’ve had today.” I shot a glance to the counter and breathed a sigh of relief when I saw that it had been cleaned.

  The man chuckled. “That so?” Before I could react, he kicked the table over, shattering it against the wall with the force of the blow. I flinched; I hadn’t expected them to be so violent. “Stop lying to me, you little bitch.” He strode towards me, but I couldn’t run away. I was too scared, too afraid not only for myself, but for my mother and the two men up stairs. He grabbed my chin in his hands. “I know they’ve been here, and if you don’t tell me where they went, I’m going to have my way with you. And then I’m going to let each one of my friends here do whatever they want with what’s left. And then, maybe, if you’re lucky, you get to have me again.”

  My blood had turned to ice at this point. I felt tears welling in the corners of my eyes, but I refused to give in. I’d dealt with men like this before, I could do it again. Except it had only been school yard bullies, not an entire gang. My heart thudded in my chest.

  What was I supposed to do?

  I wasn’t strong enough. I couldn’t run. And I couldn’t give up Ethan and James…

  A voice, sharp and brittle as steel, cut through the air. “Take your hands off of her.”

  The thug’s grip loosened, and I gasped and turned around. James stood in the doorway behind me, his hair tousled and his shirt half-buttoned. Ethan stood behind him, stifling a yawn. “No, James! You need to get out of here!”

  He looked at me. “Hush, Liz. Go to your mother. Ethan?”

  “Got it,” he said, stopping yet another yawn. He walked around James, grabbed me by the arm, and led me down the hall into the kitchen. “Don’t argue with him,” he said quietly as we walked. “Just stay in here with your mom, keep quiet, and don’t draw any attention to yourselves. And don’t call the police.”

  “But —“ Ethan put a finger on my lips, leaning down to look eye to eye with me. He smiled that same curious smile as before. “It will be fine, okay? Now be a good girl and wait here.”

  He turned and walked down the hallway. I couldn’t see him after he turned the corner, but the moment he did, I heard a shout and a cry of agony. The voice didn’t sound like either he or James.

  I waited in the kitchen for a few minutes, listening to the obvious sounds of a brawl in the other room. Finally, I could’ wait any longer — I darted out the kitchen, walking along the wall as quietly as possible, and peeked around the corner. I had to bite down on my hand to keep from shouting.

  All of the thugs save the leader lay on the floor, bruised and bleeding. A few had obvious broken bones. The leader looked menacingly at both James and Ethan, neither one of which seemed to be injured in anyway. James was giving him a stern command. “Get out of here, Clay. You know you aren’t welcome, and you know you can’t defeat an alpha. Give it up.”

  The thug named Clay spat on the floor. “You’re no alpha! You’re just a coward who hides behind his brother and won’t fight his own battles.”

  James sighed again. “You know I rose to this position long before Ethan showed up. He has no desire to be the pack leader. We just travel together, that’s all.”

  “Shut the hell up,” Clay said. And then he began to change. His hands clenched and unclenched, his fingernails extending into claws just as golden-yellow hair burst forth along the back of his hands and his forearms. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. His face shifted into a snout, hair springing from along his neck. He looked like he was half-man, half-lion, but neither James nor Ethan seemed surprised. In fact, Ethan looked bored.

  He leaned against the wall, occasionally poking one of the fallen thugs in the ribs with his foot, yawning every so often. James just looked annoyed.

  In the blink of an eye, Clay lunged forward, his hand-claw swiping through the air with a force and speed I could feel even from across the room. James stepped aside to avoid it, seemingly unaware of the danger he was in should the claws make contact. Clay missed, his momentum causing him to stagger, and James spun and landed a kick in Clay’s side that sent him flying across the room with a sickening crunch. Clay seemed to change back to normal in seconds.

  James walked and stood over him. “You know t
he penalty for losing a fight, Clay. Especially one forbidden by Clan Law. You’re hereby exiled. Now get out of here and never let me see you again. Next time, you won’t live to walk away.” James landed another vicious kick in the man’s side, making Clay cry in pain. There was no telling how many broken ribs he had.

  James opened the door, and Ethan leaned down and picked up two of the thugs, lifting them as though they weighed nothing, and tossed them through the door. The two of them systematically picked up the fallen fighters and deposited them onto the street outside, before turning to the overturned furniture. “Well, this will be hard to explain,” James said.

  Ethan looked up and made eye contact with me. “Maybe not as hard as you think.”

  James followed his gaze to my bewildered stare, and sighed. “Well then.”

  I didn’t know what to say. The two of them were as nonchalant as if they had only asked for coffee, rather than beaten an entire gang of thugs senseless on their own. What was wrong with them? Actually, what were they? James turned one of the table and its chairs upright, and then gestured for me to come sit down. “Liz, I have some things to explain to you.”

  Ethan shot him a surprised look, and it was one of the few times I’d seen genuine expression cross Ethan’s face. “Are you sure about that, James?”

  He only nodded. “After what she’s seen, nothing but the truth will suffice.”

  I took my seat next to James, and Ethan sat down across from us. Now that I was close, I noticed a few scratches and bruises that both of them bore. Still, considering the state of injuries the others involved had, I’d say they got off easy. “You’re hurt!”

  “It’s nothing,” James said dismissively. “Now, tell me what you say.”

  I relayed the story back to him from my perspective, that I had seen a man seemingly transform into a…large cat. Or at least partially. James only nodded in agreement, murmuring encouragement to me as I continued to talk. When I finally finished, he said, “You aren’t far off. That man was a shifter.”

  “Like…a shapeshifter?” It seemed unbelievable, like something out of science fiction.

  “Yes,” said James. “They do exist, despite what society at large believes.”

  “What did he mean when you called you the alpha? And what did you mean about Pack Law?”

  Ethan chuckled. “She’s a lot more perceptive than even you thought, James.”

  James ignored his friend, continuing to explain the situation to me. “Well, it means that I’m a shifter too, for starters. They call me the alpha. I’m the leader of a pack. It’s the most desired position, similar to CEO or president, I suppose. I resolve disputes, handle feuds, etc. I’m basically king.” As he said that, James allowed just a glimmer of arrogance to shine through. Ethan scoffed and rolled his eyes. “To become the alpha,” James continued, “You must defeat the current leader in combat. That means that young upstarts are always attempting to take me on. Clay was no different, with one exception: he split off from the pack and formed a splinter group. They’ve been chasing me and Ethan ever since.”

  I shook my head, trying to take in all of the information. “So, assuming I take this all to be true,” I said, “Then you two are running?”

  Ethan laughed. “Not at all. Like we said, we’re just traveling. Those idiots are the ones who wanted to follow us.” He turned somber for a moment. “I do apologize for the mess we made to your restaurant, Liz.”

  I shook my head. “Don’t worry about it! But…if the alpha is the most desired position, why don’t you try to take on James?”

  James shot Ethan a look, and I was afraid I’d asked the wrong question. Ethan looked at James, raised an eyebrow, and chuckled. “Why don’t I take you on, James?”

  James answered with a sigh. It felt like he was used to dealing with Ethan’s antics, and knew how to handle him. “Ethan could defeat me if he tried. He’s actually the stronger of us. Lucky for me, he has no desire to be leader. And it’s a good thing for everyone, too — he has no patience.”

  Ethan was drumming his fingers on the side of the table. “He’s right. I can’t stand all the politics involved in the role. I want absolutely nothing to do with it.”

  “I have just one last question. How can you tell if someone is a shifter?”

  They were both silent for a moment, and answered in unison: “The eyes.”

  “A shifter has different eyes from a normal human, and the eyes are always the first to change. Watch.”

  As I stared at the two men, their eyes grew slightly more slanted and took on a golden color, gleaming in the restaurant lighting. James’ eyes were yellow and sharp, like those of a lion on the prowl. Ethan’s bore similar qualities, but his right eye was more orange, with green tints to it that James didn’t have. I thought it was strange, but I didn’t ask.

  After that demonstration, their eyes turned back to normal. I sat in silence for a for a moment, reeling at the information, and also at the fact that I accepted it without hesitation. Nothing about these two men smelled of deceit, and given what I’d seen, I’d either wake up in the morning and realize this was all a dream…or I’d carry a new perspective about the world. And that made me realize another question. “Wait a minute. Why did you tell me this? What happens if I tell anyone?”

  James smirked. “What happens if you tell someone you saw a group of men fighting and a few of them turned into half-man, half-cat hybrids? They’ll think you’re crazy, most likely.”

  I realized he was right. “That must be convenient for keeping things secret…”

  “It really is,” was all James had to say. I shook my head, having come to a decision, and grabbed them by the arm.

  “Come on, back to your room. This can be cleaned up in the morning. We need to treat those injuries.”

  “That really isn’t necessary, Liz.”

  “Now!” I barked, more harshly than I meant to. I heard Ethan laughing behind us.

  “Better listen to the lady, James. She might be able to take both of us out.”

  I led the two men to their bedroom and instructed them to sit on the bed while I went to fetch the first aid kit, flipping the “Open” sign to “Closed” along the way. I just needed a moment to myself, to gather my thoughts and figure out how to approach the situation. So there was an entire world of people out there who possessed abilities that seemed impossible, but there they were. And two of them were in my restaurant. I had asked for excitement, and it had certainly been delivered. What was the Chinese curse? “May you live in interesting times?”

  I found the first aid kit in the kitchen and carried it back upstairs. “Okay you two, let’s see those injuries. James, take your shirt off.” I blushed a little bit while saying that, but he had a cut along his neck that ran below his shirt, and I needed to have better access to treat it. James shot a glare over my shoulder, so I guessed Ethan had done something to taunt him. While he seemed reluctant, he pulled the shirt up and over his head, revealing a body criss-crossed with scars, but chiseled out of solid stone. His chest was the most built I’d ever seen, with pectorals bulging outwards, defined in well-cut lines that tapered to eight huge, perfectly-outlined abs. He had the body of a Greek god, and it was amazing to look at. I could feel the blush rushing up my face, the heat radiating from my skin. I saw a smirk twitching at the side of his face, and I knew James was well aware of the effect he had on me.

  “Is there a problem, Liz?” he asked, quietly. I shook my head no, ignoring the heat burning deep in the pit of my belly. I was shocked at my body’s own reaction; I had gotten instantly wet looking at him. I focused on his injuries, lightly dabbing the cotton ball at the thin cut. It looked as though it was already healing, the wound slowly closing.

  “You heal quickly,” I said.

  “One of the traits of being a shifter,” he said. “Particularly the alpha. I suppose you could say it was magic. That’s what most of the clans believe.” Something about his tone made it clear he disagreed.


  “What do you think it is?”

  “Genetics. The alpha is the leader. Perhaps there is an underlying genetic aspect that triggers when you become the leader that allows you to heal faster. That’s what I think. So many of the others are wrapped up in tradition that they can’t see modern science for what it is.”

  “To be fair,” I said, “You’re something from a fairy tale.”