by Eve Langlais
Entering my home was the same and yet so different. Some of the furniture had changed, like the old comfy couch was now a bigger, plusher version. The television in its wooden box swapped for a massive flat screen. But the clock on the wall was still the one grandpa had made my mom. The pictures on the mantel, my family. Me, Mom, Dad… Smiling back in a time before my world changed.
I picked up one of my dad swinging me in the air.
He stood behind me. “When you were little, you always trusted me to never let you fall.”
“Because I knew you wouldn’t.”
“I wish you’d remembered that when you got scared.”
I ducked my head, and tears threatened. He hugged me again. “Don’t cry. I didn’t mean to say it as punishment. I’m the one who’s sorry. I should have worked harder to make you feel accepted and loved.”
“I thought you hated me for being different.”
“Never,” my mother exclaimed, joining the family hug. “We were worried, and we should have spent more time talking to you than to doctors.”
“The important thing is you’re home now,” my dad stated.
And it was still my home.
My room appeared absolutely the same. Down to the makeup in the vanity. Dried out and useless now, but another indication of how much my family missed me. Which was why when dinner ended, and we’d spent hours catching up, I agreed to stay the night. My mother had a hard time seeing me off to bed.
She kept touching me. Afraid I’d disappear.
I wouldn’t. I might not be able to change the past, but I could do something about the future.
However, speaking of future, there was someone else I had to see. I thought about going back downstairs and using the front door like an adult, but…I grinned as I threw up the sash to my window and sat on the sill.
I stopped before swinging my legs out. I hopped back into my room, found a pad of paper and a stub of a pencil in my nightstand, and left a note on my bed.
Gone to bother Derek. I will be back in a bit. Love Claire.
Just in case they checked on me, I didn’t want them thinking I’d ditched them again.
I exited the window and balanced on the slim porch, making my way over to the trellis. It was a little trickier to climb than I remembered. I’d not kept in practice living in the city. I made it to the ground in one piece and began walking across the back lawn that edged the woods. Derek was staying with his folks, and that was only a few streets over, so imagine my surprise when I heard a whistle.
He stepped out from behind a tree and cocked a brow. “Going somewhere, Enny?”
“To see you, as a matter of fact.”
“What a coincidence. I was doing the same.” He walked toward me. “How did it go with your parents?”
“Good. Lots of crying.” I grimaced. “Lots of chocolate cake.” I rubbed my belly and smiled. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“For helping me realize I could come back home.”
“I think deep down you always knew you could.”
“I wish I’d reminded myself sooner.” My nose wrinkled. “Wanna come back to my room?”
“And end up killed by your father for deflowering his daughter? Uh, no,” he said with a wry grin.
“Were you planning some debauchery, Big? Because I would totally be up for that.”
“Claire Mahoney, are you trying to seduce me?”
“Who says I’m trying. I am seducing you.” I stepped close enough to grab him around the hips and pulled him close. A seductive smile teased my lips. “Kiss me.”
“I want to do more than kiss.”
“Then take me. Claim me.” I leaned up on tiptoe. “I love you, too.”
His arms crushed me at that point, and it didn’t matter we had no bed. I was going to have him.
Right here. Right now.
Our lips melded together in a searing kiss. I melted against him, loving the tight wrap of his arms. The only way this hug could be improved was if we wore fewer clothes.
I shoved away from him and stripped off my nightie, leaving on only my underpants. I then insisted he take off his shirt. Running my hands over the toned smoothness of his body delighted me. Except for the bullet holes. Red, puckered wounds on his skin.
I kissed each of them, the unmistakable symbol of his love for me.
“You missed one,” he said.
“Hold on a second.” I undid his pants and pushed his jeans down around his ankles. Another mark on his thigh earned a kiss. As for his shaft…
I pressed my mouth to it and blew hotly. He groaned and reached down to yank me up. “Don’t you dare start.”
“Or what?” I asked, feathering kisses on his jaw. “Because it’s my turn.” Between one heartbeat and the next, he had me pressed up against a tree, and he dropped to his knees, raising the hem of my short nightgown. Each inch he lifted had an accompanying kiss on my thigh. Left leg. Right. He moved up, and I leaned against the rough bark, reached behind to grasp it to hold myself steady. When he reached my panties, he mouthed me through the fabric. A poor scrap of silk that didn’t stand a chance when he ripped it.
Not that I minded. Let him lick me.
Except he didn’t lick. He instead ran his fingers over my wet lips and then flicked my clit. My hips arched right into his face.
His mouth was there to catch me, his tongue to tease me further. He lapped at me until I moaned and squirmed.
Only then did he rise and spin me around, warning me with a soft growl to, “Brace yourself.”
I grabbed hold of that tree and pushed out my bottom. I throbbed for his touch. Ached for him to fill me. He flipped my nightgown up over my butt and parted my thighs by inserting his foot between mine. He guided his rigid shaft between my cheeks, rubbing it against my damp cleft, teasing it over my swollen button.
I wiggled and tossed him a coy look. “Do I have to get on my knees again to get some action?”
In reply, he pushed himself between my nether lips. Sank himself deep inside me, making me feel whole.
But that was only the beginning. He began to thrust, in and out of me, working up a rhythm that brought short pants and dug my nails into the bark.
He slammed into me, and I welcomed the thickness of him. Craved it. I could feel the pleasure building inside me. The satisfying sound of slapping flesh joined by our dual moans.
Reaching that blissful edge, I gasped. “Bite me. Mark me.”
“Are you sure?” he murmured as he leaned forward along the curve of my spine.
“I don’t want to ever lose you.” Not again. I’d finally found what I’d been missing in my life, and I wasn’t about to ever let it go.
His hips slowed their pounding to grind against me as he nuzzled my shoulder. He sucked on the skin while reaching for my breasts. Cupping them. Kneading them. Rolling my nipples into hard points.
I gasped for air by that point, at that cusp where pleasure made me whimper as if in pain. I ached. I needed.
He bit me and unleashed my climax. It rippled through my body. Caused my channel to flex and squeeze the length of him. Milking him.
I felt more than heard his rumble as he came, his teeth still buried in skin, creating a connection between us that only death would part.
Our heaving and moaning stilled. Our bodies cooled. I giggled.
“What’s so funny?” he asked.
“Do you realize we’ve yet to make it to a bed?”
He pulled out of me, and I turned around to face him. “And that’s a bad thing because?” he asked with an arched brow.
“I love you.” The words burst from me, and I threw my arms around his neck. When he kissed me, I bit him.
He didn’t complain, although he did yelp. “Did you have to tear off half my lip?”
“It’s just a flesh wound. Don’t tell me you’re afraid of my nasty big pointy teeth?”
“Please tell me you meant to half-ass quote Monty Python.” He sounded so hopeful.
For some reason this made him insanely happy. He lifted me off the ground and whirled me around.
I only wished I could bring him home, but Derek was right. My daddy might just kill him if he found Derek in my bed. But I’d see him first thing in the morning.
He saw me to my trellis, watched me climb in. I blew him a kiss before shutting the window.
I sighed happily.
So this was love. I rather liked it. Lucky me I’d get to enjoy it every day as the throb in my shoulder reminded me I’d just been mated.
I wanted to giggle and shout it to the world. I should be quiet lest my parents hear me.
Speaking of hearing… A hum of voices appeared to be coming from downstairs.
I crept to the edge of the hall and listened. Bad, I know. However, it wasn’t just kitties that were curious.
The murmur proved indistinct. So I moved closer and finally began to make out phrases.
“…like I already told you, she’s not here,” my dad said.
“Impossible. The tracking device shows her nearby. You can’t hide her forever.” My eyes widened as I recognized the voice despite having only heard it once.
Dr. Creepy. How dare he disturb my parents.
I was ready to charge into that room and rip him to shreds when a noise from behind stopped me. My nose wrinkled at the lack of smell a moment before the needle slipped into my skin and I murmured, “Oh Fudgsicle. Not again.”
Chapter 20
Derek meant to go home. He even made it to the edge of the woods before he turned around.
Something is wrong. Claire was in danger. He couldn’t have said how he knew; he just felt it.
He began walking back to Claire’s house. A wisp of smoke tickled his nose. He broke into a jog as he saw an orange glow coming from behind some curtains.
Fire! Every animal’s most base fear.
“Claire!” He yelled her name, even as he knew she couldn’t answer. He raced around the side of the house to the front, the slam of car doors drawing him.
A man in spectacles turned to gape at him, and Derek instantly hated him. He smelled wrong. Of hospitals and blood. It didn’t help the man’s cause that he yelled, “Don’t come near me or I’ll shoot.”
Derek snarled, “Where is Claire, asshole?”
The fellow chose to turn his back and put his hand on the passenger door.
Like hell was he escaping. Bigger teeth pushed from Derek’s gums and filled his mouth while claws tipped his fingers, but he kept his man shape as he plowed into the guy with glasses. They hit the ground hard, the fellow squeaking. The man himself wasn’t a threat, he whimpered under Derek’s weight, but there was no mercy in him, not once he caught a whiff of his mate.
He lowered his face to the man’s shirt, but the scent wasn’t coming from him. Derek looked at the car.
Before he could wrench at a door, it swung open and smacked him. He reeled back and snapped.
“You.” A word growled as Derek glared at the man stepping out of the car.
“Yes me, puppy chow.”
“I thought you were dead.” Derek cracked his knuckles. “Guess I should rectify that.”
“You wanna go, let’s go, then.” Toby tore off his sunglasses, and his flesh bulked, his body thickening and ripping the seams of his shirt.
Rather than wait to see what monstrous hybrid he would become, Derek leaped.
Toby dodged, his body still changing. Derek swung around, his hybrid shape hard to hold but powerful, given Toby was turning into some type of lizard man.
Derek dove at him again, grabbing the other guy by the arms, grappling with him. His jaw opened wide, and they struggled, Derek snapping his teeth.
The fellow on the ground proved helpful finally as he tried to crawl away and instead tripped Toby. They went down in a heap, and Derek finally managed to clasp the scaled neck. He chomped down and yet very little crunched.
Derek didn’t let that stop him from shaking his head. Toby braced his arms under his body and shoved, flinging him away. Fuck the hybrid shape. Derek shifted even before he hit the ground. He wanted the skill of his wolf for this battle.
Rising to his paws, he dove again, this time going for the ankles, dodging Toby’s shortened arms. He wrapped his muzzle around a limb and earned a satisfying crunch as flesh split and bone cracked.
Toby yelled and tried to remain standing on one leg. That plan failed when Derek switched ankles. Once the guy hit the ground, it was over quickly.
Derek shook the blood from his muzzle and eyed the car. The man in the glasses had recovered and sat behind the wheel cursing as the engine revved but the car didn’t move. “Who the hell rents a standard transmission?”
Shifting back to his man shape, Derek reached in and yanked out the keys.
“You’re not going anywhere, little man. Where’s Claire?”
“Here.” She popped up from the back looking tousled and bleary eyed. “What happened?”
“You were being kidnapped again.”
“Again!” she squeaked. “Seriously. What part of ‘get lost’ did you not get, Dr. Creepy? Once I stop seeing three of you, I am going to rip your head off and shove it up your hiney.”
For his part, the scientist didn’t look perturbed. “You won’t kill me.”
“I’m pretty sure I will, and if I don’t, Derek or my daddy will. Research shows once an evil scientist always an evil scientist. Only one thing to do.” She ran a finger over her neck and made an odd squicking noise.
“How did you know where she was?” Derek asked, hauling the man out of the car and holding him aloft.
“Tracking device. All the subjects have one. Even you.” The doctor smirked.
Derek slapped it off and shook him again. “Where is it? How do we get it out?”
“You hit me!” Dr. Creepy squealed. “You aren’t supposed to hit a man with glasses.”
“I don’t see a man.” He looked to Claire. “Do you see a man?”
“Nope. Just a yellow-bellied coward. And don’t worry about the tracking chips. I have a friend who can remove them.”
“Why did you come here?” Derek asked. “Surely you didn’t think you and your pet project could waltz in here and take her?” Never mind the fact it almost worked.
“I had to once I realized what you had become. I never imagined it worked.”
“What worked?” Claire asked.
“Did your parents never tell you?” the doctor taunted. “They had fertility issues. They required aid getting pregnant, and they came to me. Imagine my surprise when I realized how different their DNA was.”
“Oh dear,” Claire murmured as she emerged from the car.
But Derek was the one to say it aloud. “You mean you’re the reason Claire—”
“Transforms into a killing machine. Yes! Once I realized how special your parents were, I modified their fertility treatment, adding some tweaks.”
It didn’t take much to follow what the doctor did. What better gene to mix in than one for bunnies because everyone always joked about how well they multiplied.
Most people would be horrified to find out they were the result of a mad science experiment. Claire, though…she smiled. “I’m a real misfit, just like my besties. But I think it’s time your projects came to an end.”
She reached for the doctor, and he cried out. “No. If you kill me, you’ll never find the rest.”
“Wrong. If I kill you, I will find the rest. Because now we’re looking.”
He never would know if Claire would have killed the wimp in cold blood because the man suddenly gasped, his lips turned blue, and he keeled over.
Heart attack.
The door to the house was wrenched open by a seething, half-shifted alpha. “Princess.” The guttural word was barely discernible.
“I’m okay, Da—” As if she got to finish that sentence. She got squished in a hug that swept her off her feet.
“Awooo!”
The mournful howl came from Claire’s mom, who stood looking disheveled in her robe, staring at her smoking house. There was no saving it.
That night, even though only her parents’ house burned to the ground, everyone in the pack lost their home. Despite Dr. Creepy having died of heart failure, a decision was made to scatter rather than risk exposing the pack.
As discussions occurred about where to move, Claire couldn’t stop exclaiming it was all her fault and felt horrible until she realized something. “You can all come live with me.”
Except even that plan fell through after Jory caught someone spying on the apartment. Which was why everyone relocated to Quebec.
Mostly because, after much deliberation, Claire declared that, despite its lack of chocolate factories, the French province in Canada had delectable maple candy treats and poutine.
Not everyone from the pack moved with them. Some chose to join other shifter packs. Others decided to try the lone wolf route.
As for Derek and Claire, they bought a semi-detached house. The other half being owned by his new in-laws. It meant they didn’t often have sex in their bed because the glaring from his father-in-law slash pack alpha just wasn’t worth it.
But he didn’t care. He had Claire in his life. His family was safe. He had new friends, and they were out of sight, out of mind from those who would use them.
As to those Dr. Creepy claimed remained in custody? Turned out the doctor was right about one thing. They couldn’t find those supposedly still being held prisoner. Without a clue, they had nowhere to start looking, but at least now the wolf packs and everyone else in the supernatural community was warned. Watching. And wary.
Despite the possible threat to their existence, Derek was happy—and learning that he got the best sex when he came home with a box of fresh treats from a pastry shop close to his work.
As for Claire…she was always moving. Always smiling. Always working on her next scheme.
“Whatcha thinking?” Derek asked, stepping outside onto the porch and wrapping his arms around his mate.
She pointed to their rather barren backyard. “We need to start a garden. I need lots of carrots. Lettuce. Cucumbers would be good, too.”