Night of the Wild Stags

by Golden Angel

  This time all four of them exchanged glances, as Riley looked up as well. Yeah, she was a terrible liar. Why and about what he didn't know, but obviously she was in trouble. His buck lifted his head, wicked antlers at the ready, but there was no one to fight at the moment.

  Unfortunately they didn't get the opportunity to talk with her more about it, because Dr. Tran came back in the room and kicked them all out. She needed to examine Kiara's animal, for which she wanted privacy.

  As soon as they were in the hall, Dorian felt restless and uneasy. His buck didn't like being separated from Kiara. He wasn't a big fan of it either, to be honest. Over the past two days he'd kinda gotten used to hanging around her room with his brother and cousins, waiting for her to wake up. Which... was kinda creepy when he thought too much about it, but they weren't trying to be creepy, they just wanted to make sure she was okay.

  He had been trying to convince himself it was just because, as the ones who found her, they all felt responsible, but he was starting to think it was a little bit more than that.

  "So... is anyone else feeling oddly really attached to Miss Kiara?" Gavin asked, shoving his hands in his pockets and hunching his shoulders slightly, as if he was afraid everyone was going to deny their pretty obvious feelings.

  "Yup," Alec said, giving the closed door a look of longing, which was pretty out of character. Alec loved women—plural. He wasn't really the type to pine after any particular one. Yet, somehow Dorian wasn't surprised. This particular woman seemed to have definitely gotten under their skin.

  "Do you think it's the mating phenomenon?" Riley asked, tilting his head to the side and staring off at nothing in particular, as he often did when considering a question.

  Alec pinched the bridge of his nose, taking in a deep breath and sighing. "Can you just call it mating, please? Or hooking up? Screwing? Anything but mating phenomenon?"

  "I just think it's possible something about Kiara has triggered our call to mate," Riley said haughtily. "Maybe there's a pheromone in her olfactory makeup or—"

  "Aaaaah! Stop," Alec whined, putting his hands over his ears and making his older brother grin. Since Alec's head was down, he couldn't see Riley's expression.

  Someday Alec would realize when his brother was trolling him, but it apparently wasn't going to be today.

  Ignoring both of them, Dorian cleared his throat. "I'd like to stay here and help her. Instead of going on vacation."

  He wasn't too surprised when they all immediately agreed.

  ******

  Kiara asked for privacy to rest after Dr. Tran finished examining her doe. She was exhausted after shifting twice and it was a lot to absorb.

  Although her doe didn't feel any different in her head, the little animal now weighed nearly a third more than she used to, had put on twice the amount of muscle she'd had before, and sported a mouth full of very sharp teeth. Once she'd changed, she'd also discovered she had a newly found craving for red meat. Once she'd shifted back to human, she'd asked for a large steak. Rare.

  The deep rumble of voices in the hallway outside her room indicated the four stags who had rescued her hadn't gone anywhere. She didn't know what to think about that. Part of her was thrilled they were still there, another part of her was wary.

  Her doe came down on the thrilled side. The animal didn't see them as a threat at all. In fact, her doe seemed a little cocky now, but Kiara supposed she couldn't blame her. After all, she'd gone from being very easy prey whose best defense was hiding, to becoming a predator.

  But why were the men still there? The question niggled at her as she finally fell back asleep.

  Several hours later, she woke up again when the door to her room opened. Immediately, Kiara came alert, her doe searching for the threat and ready to take it out. The first reaction was familiar, the second definitely was not.

  "Hi Kiara," Dr. Tran said, smiling as she came into the room. Behind her was a woman with auburn hair and friendly grey eyes, smiling at her in a sympathetic and understanding manner. "This is Jesse O'Neal—sorry, Bunson, she's mated now. Jesse was here not too long ago as well."

  "Hi, it's nice to meet you," Jesse, the redhead, said cheerfully, grabbing a chair and pulling it over towards Kiara's bed. "So, I'm Jesse. I was a squirrel until I had the Torch and now I'm a squirrel-tiger hybrid."

  Holy... Kiara knew about the Torch, although she'd never met anyone who had it, of course. Because the small shifter diseases were so devastating and—until recently—there was nothing that could be done about them, the sick were often quarantined. She'd heard the Torch felt like being burned alive from the inside out, there was nothing to do but give the victims morphine and try to keep them from feeling the debilitating pain until they finally passed. And Jesse had survived that!

  “What’s it like? Um… being, being both?” Kiara asked, fumbling over her words because she didn’t really know how to phrase it. After all, they were talking about the impossible. Fortunately, Jesse seemed to know exactly what she meant.

  “Well, for one, so far it seems to be a little different for males and females,” Jesse said, her expression turning more serious as she leaned forward. “Are you about the same size you were before when you shift?” Kiara nodded. “Yeah, same for me and for one of the other females I know. My sister-in-law actually. I’m basically a squirrel with some serious claws and she’s the Beast of Caerbannog… uh, Monty Python?” Jessie tried to explain when she saw the look of confusion on Kiara’s face. But Kiara still had no idea what the other woman was talking about. “Aw, seriously? You poor thing, you’re so sheltered.”

  Kiara smiled, because it was obvious Jesse was speaking lightly, teasing, but her smile felt a little brittle. Even though she’d been very sheltered, because of her job she’d figured out exactly how sheltered she was, and being on the run she’d proved it. There was an entire world she hadn’t known about until she’d left the community. “You have no idea.”

  Apparently not realizing exactly how serious Kiara was, Jesse continued. “Well, she’s basically a little murder bunny. Her older sister though, is the size of bear, as are all her brothers. And my brother, except since we’re half-tiger he’s really the size of a tiger, but basically it all makes for some very large, very weird looking bunnies and squirrels.”

  “And… you’re… it’s not…” Kiara sighed and wrinkled her nose. She was just going to have to be blunt. “No one is repulsed by this?”

  Since she already wanted to be permanently finished with her old community and shifter society in general, she’d had no problem signing the form Dr. Tran had given her. It was just one more barrier against returning, she hoped. Although, considering how formidable her doe was now, even if Sebastian wasn’t completely repulsed by her new genetics, perhaps she could finally face him on more equal footing. Still, the idea that Jesse and these others she spoke of were completely accepted by all the other shifters around them was a bit shocking to her.

  She’d expected to be shunned.

  “Oh, I’m sure there are some,” Jesse said, still cheerful. Her expression saddened for a moment. “My aunt refused the treatment and she wasn’t approving of my brother and I having it done, but I like to think she understood in the end. We weren’t ready to die yet. So far I haven’t run into anyone bothered by it, mostly they’re just incredibly nosy and want to see what my other half looks like. So get ready for all the questions.” She rolled her eyes.

  Kiara’s own eyes widened. She wasn’t expecting questions. She hadn’t really been expecting anything at all from anyone. All she’d known was that there was a cure here at Lakewood. She hadn’t known what the treatment actually was until Dr. Tran had explained why she had to sign a consent form to receive it.

  Now all her assumptions were being turned on their head and she didn’t quite know what to think.

  Apparently regular shifter society was even more different than she’d anticipated.

  “So, ah, speaking of questions,” Jesse said, looking r
eluctant but like she was too curious not to ask. “There are four very attractive, very worried looking men just hanging out in the hallway outside your door… how come they aren’t in here?”

  “They…” Words were failing her again. But how could she explain what she didn’t understand? “They rescued me, but for some reason they stayed afterwards… but I don’t actually know them.”

  The look Jesse gave her now was full of amusement. “Do you want to know them?”

  “What would I do with four males?” Kiara asked, completely confused—and even more so when Jesse coughed out a laugh.

  “Ah, I can think of a few things, but I’m pretty sure my mate wouldn’t approve.”

  Immediately, Kiara’s shoulders hunched in on themselves as she tried to make herself smaller, a slight feeling of panic fluttering up in her. Her doe was caught between wanting to flee and looking around for something to fight. Of course, the second impulse was new. Kiara was much more used to fleeing.

  “Kiara? Are you okay?” Jesse asked, reaching over to take Kiara’s hand in much the same way Alec had.

  “Will he be angry with you? Your mate?” Kiara asked softly, feeling a slight tremor go through her body. Jesse’s eyes widened, her gaze sharpening as she stared at Kiara.

  “No, my mate would certainly not be angry with me for any thoughts I had,” Jesse said firmly. Her lips pressed into a flat line and then she pushed them into a smile before continuing. “I don’t see a mating mark on your neck but… do you have a mate who hurt you?”

  “A mating mark?” Kiara asked, honestly confused but also happy to avoid the question.

  The other woman’s sharp eyes weren’t fooled but she still answered Kiara’s question. “Like this.”

  There was what looked like the scar of a bite on her neck as she twisted her head, pulling down the collar of her shirt slowly to show Kiara. Fascinated despite herself, Kiara leaned forward. “Do all of his mates have one?”

  “All of—?!” Jesse’s words cut off and Kiara sat back, worried she’d overstepped her bounds somehow. “Kiara… Dr. Tran said you’re a Pudu deer? I’ve never heard of that before. Maybe if you can tell me a bit about your mating rituals, I can tell you how my mating is different.”

  That made sense. After all, Kiara knew from reading that human mating rituals were different from her own community’s. Her ever-present curiosity and the lack of threat she felt from Jesse spurred her forward.

  “Well, Pudu deer are very solitary normally, but we’ve been forced to live in closer quarters than usual because our numbers are so small,” she explained, her voice automatically taking on Sebastian’s lecturing tone as she went over the information he so often used when instructing. “Pudu deer usually only meet to rut... my mate visits—visited—me on Wednesdays.”

  She kept her eyes downcast, not wanting Jesse to see how unhappy the arrangement had made her. After all, she should have been thrilled to have a mate at all. But while many of the females in her building had not seemed to mind, Kiara had longed for something more than a weekly visit from her mate. The Pudu herd had all lived together in the same building and the females were required to work so as not to create a burden on the few males. The advent of the internet had made the entire herd happy as they were able to work from their own places and not have to risk the various diseases killing other small shifters as they kept completely to themselves. Kiara had taken a job as a copy editor, which was where she’d read her first human romances and realized the kind of life she was longing for even before she knew it had existed, the unhappiness she hadn’t been able to put into words.

  Jesse’s hand squeezed hers, but her voice remained calm and balanced. “Did your mate have other mates he was visiting on different days?”

  Blinking back a tear, Kiara nodded her head, still keeping her gaze averted from Jesse’s. She didn’t know why she was so different from the other Pudu deer.

  “I don’t know why I was the only one unhappy,” she confessed, the words spilling out under the gentle assault of Jesse’s quiet, listening ear. No one had ever wanted to listen to her before. “Well, maybe not the only one, but most of them were content to just have their day with our mate… I read some human books though and what they described—one mate, just one, with emotion and touching outside of copulation, and… that’s when I realized, that’s what I wanted. So… I told him… I told him I no longer wanted to be his mate… He was so angry. He told me he’d kill me before he let me leave.”

  Kiara shuddered. He’d looked like he wanted to kill her too, the last time he’d found her. She’d hurt his standing with the others by running away, she knew she had.

  “Kiara… Kiara, look at me, please,” Jesse said, firmly but gently. Kiara lifted her gaze to the other woman’s sympathetic, warm eyes. “That is not how mating is done here. I have heard something about deer herds before but… all parties in the mating must consent and want to be in it. There is always emotion, and touching, and intimacy, not just sex.”

  Listening fervently, Kiara gripped Jesse’s hand back as the other woman told her everything she knew about shifter matings, and the little she’d heard about deer herds. Kiara didn’t think she’d mind sharing so much if there had been more than just Sebastian’s weekly visit to attempt a breeding, but there had never been any emotion there. No love.

  And she hadn’t been willing to live without it anymore.

  Chapter 3

  After Jesse left Kiara’s room, leaving her rather shell-shocked about the vastly different world she’d been thrust into, the blonde nurse came in to ask if the Walkers could come back inside. Uncertain, but feeling bad that her rescuers were still hanging around outside, Kiara agreed.

  She couldn't help but feel some trepidation, however. Jesse had confided she'd heard that red deer—the kind of deer the Walkers were—sometimes mated in small herds, but in the opposite manner Kiara's community had. One female mate for several males!

  Kiara didn’t think they could possibly be thinking about her that way. She couldn't imagine they were. After all, she was just some pathetic female they'd found on the side of the road. None of the other males in her community had shown interest in her until Sebastian had, and even then he'd only been interested in coming to her bed one night a week. He hadn't actually been interested in who she was as a person.

  She didn’t want to be trapped in another ‘mate’ situation she couldn’t get out of.

  Although, they didn't frighten her, the way Sebastian sometimes had. In fact, as they filed back in, both she and her doe perked up and she realized she already wanted to see them again. Which was frightening, in a way that Sebastian had never scared her.

  Maybe it was just some kind of reaction to knowing they'd saved her life. That made sense. After all, no one had ever saved her life before. Of course, they were also just downright attractive, so add in their rescue of her and her surprising attraction was easily explained.

  Right?

  "Hey beautiful," Gavin said, sliding up to her in the spot right next to her bed Alec had previously taken and made her blink with surprise. He was joking right?

  "Um, hello again," she said as they all smiled at her.

  A feeling of contentment rose from her doe. She liked having them all there. Kiara just didn't understand why. She prodded her animal and just got a sleepy, unconcerned response.

  Like them.

  So helpful.

  Giving Gavin a dirty look, Alec slid in next to the other man. Kiara noticed he didn't try to challenge Dorian, who took the other closest position to her, on the other side of her bed where he had stood before. Just behind Dorian, Riley smiled encouragingly at her, but remained the quiet one she'd initially labeled him.

  "So, now that you're better, where are you headed once you're released?" Gavin asked, his voice casual.

  Uh... Kiara actually hadn't thought about that. After all, she hadn't really been sure she'd be cured. She'd been so focused on getting here...

  She’
d been living in Carson, New Mexico, hiding from Sebastian when he’d found her. At some point when she was fleeing him, heading north into Colorado, she’d contracted the Scourge. It was pure luck she'd made it most of the way to Lakewood before her car broke down, close enough to the facility for her to try to walk. After she'd left her community and talked to other shifters, who obviously hadn't realized she was a small shifter doe, Lakewood had been all the buzz because of the vaccines they'd recently been coming out with, which were supposed to inoculate the smaller shifter populations from the diseases killing them. There had even been whispers of a cure, although the vaccines couldn't fix those who were already sick.

  It had been her only hope and she'd taken it, without really considering what came next.

  "Ah..." she said, a long awkward moment later when they were still patiently waiting for some kind of answer.

  "We're going on vacation," Alec said, apparently without the patience of the others. "If you want to come with us. Ouch." Gavin had elbowed him in the side and was now glaring at him.

  "What did we say about playing it cool?" Gavin hissed at him. Maybe if Kiara wasn't a shifter she wouldn't have been able to hear him, but as it was, she could hear him perfectly clearly and it made her want to giggle. They were acting like they liked her. Like something out of one of the books she'd read.

  "I'm always cool," Alec said grumpily, rubbing his side where Gavin had elbowed him.

  "All evidence to the contrary," Riley chimed in for the first time, teasing his brother. Kiara was fascinated watching the dynamics of their interactions; so silly but so affectionate.

  "Ignore them," Dorian advised, reaching out to take her hand. "Except the first thing Alec said. We would like to invite you to come with us while you recover. We're going to a cabin, not too far from here, but it is secluded and there is plenty of space both inside and outside. I know we're strangers, but anyone here will be happy to vouch for us, all you have to do is ask. You'd be perfectly safe with us."