by Tara West
He had the nerve to lick his lips lasciviously. “Is it?”
“You need to work on your pickup lines.” She pointed a thermometer at him, wishing it was a magical wand, and she could zap him into the next dimension, far, far away from her. “Actually, don’t bother. I’m not interested in anything more than a professional relationship, and I never will be.” She didn’t even want that with this man. After she made her rounds, she was determined to call her uncle and get Jimmy the hell out of her clinic.
He turned so red, he looked like a volcano ready to blow. “Think you’re too good for me because you’re a fucking doctor?”
Oh, so he was one of those assholes. She knew his type. The short shits with the big attitudes. He probably had a micro penis, too. “You know what I think?” she said evenly so he wouldn’t know how pissed off she was. “I think you should change the bed pads.”
“Eh.” He blew out spittle with an annoying face fart. “No thanks.”
Amara clucked her tongue. Eilea worried Amara would tell her fathers about Jimmy’s lack of respect toward her. The last thing she needed was four possessive, angry shifters getting involved. It would not end well for Jimmy—or for any of them if the government found out.
“Do you have problems taking orders from women or does that apply to everyone?” Eilea drawled.
“I don’t have problems taking orders when they’re fair.” His pitch rose to a girly squeal, and the veins in his neck popped like raging rivers. Yeah, micro penis.
“It’s not your place to determine what’s fair.” She impressed herself by keeping it together this long, and it was fun knowing her cool demeanor was making him angrier. “If I tell you to change the bed pads, you do it.”
Shaking her head, Amara marched out. Eilea wondered if she was about to alert the Lupescus.
“Fine.” He turned up his nose, looking like a disgruntled toddler who’d been sent to time-out. “Forget I asked you out. I’m no longer interested.”
“Golly gee”—she snapped her fingers, heaving a dramatic sigh—“and I was so looking forward to an evening of cheesy pickup lines and noxious gas.”
Jimmy was about to say something when Amara returned with her father, Geri, his eyes lit with determination. Before Eilea could stop him, Geri grabbed Jimmy by the neck and dragged him out the door. Amara returned to her patients, showing no alarm that her father had had a federal agent in a headlock.
She chased after them. “Geri, wait. What are you doing?” Jimmy was annoying, but she didn’t want her mates charged with murder. No, wait, they weren’t her mates, but murder was murder, and she couldn’t condone it.
Geri emitted an ear-splitting howl that rattled her insides. She shielded her ears and then her mouth and nose when Jimmy let out an explosive fart, struggling in Geri’s grip.
Geri tightened his hold on Jimmy’s neck, releasing a string of Romanian expletives that she didn’t recognize, with the exception of the word quallu.
The makeshift front door burst open, revealing two pale, hairy monsters with heaving chests and gleaming axes, and a snarling wolf beside them. Jimmy was so fucked.
Chapter Ten
JIMMY’S EAR-PIERCING scream alerted Drasko, who ran to the front of the clinic, the thunderous booms of his heavy feet rattling Eilea’s brain. He stopped short of Boris and Jovan, every inch as large and intimidating as they were in his big ape-like form.
“What’s going on?” he demanded, his deep bellow shaking the ground.
Bile projected into the back of her throat when Boris spun Jimmy around like a baton, dangling him by his ankles while Marius, still in wolf form, snapped at Jimmy’s scalp.
Jimmy flailed like a fish out of water. “Help,” he rasped, then yelped when Marius snapped at his neck.
Geri waved the axe precariously close to Jimmy’s groin. “He was flirting with our mate, and when she rejected him, he insulted her.”
“Y-your mate?” Jimmy wheezed. “I didn’t know.”
Eilea turned up her nose. “I’m not their mate.”
Jovan looked at her with a grin so possessive, it made her flesh crawl. “You will be.”
“You beasts listen to me.” She craned her neck to glare up at the two big brutes. “I handled Jimmy already.”
Boris let out a sinister chuckle. “But we haven’t.”
“I won’t bug her again,” Jimmy cried, snot dripping from his nose to his eye. “I swear.”
Boris and Jovan laughed, revealing sharp fangs.
“He works for the government. I don’t want you going to prison for me.” She tried to appeal to their reasonable sides.
Jovan’s smile widened. “Can’t go to prison when there’s no evidence.”
Jimmy let out a wail, followed by a liquid fart.
Boris howled, fanning his face and trying to hand off his captive to Jovan.
Jovan backed up, waving Jimmy away. “What the hell is wrong with this quallu?”
“He might be a skunk shifter,” Geri said.
“I’m sorry. I’m really sorry.” Jimmy moaned, tears and snot dripping down his forehead. “I didn’t know she was taken.”
“It doesn’t matter if she was taken,” Geri snapped, swinging the axe at Jimmy’s groin once more. “You don’t talk to women that way.”
“You’re right.” Jimmy turned pleading eyes to Eilea. “I’m an idiot. I’m so, so sorry, Eilea.”
She stiffened. “Dr. Johnson.”
“Right. Dr. Johnson.” He sniffled, dragging a line of snot back inside his nose. “I’m sorry. I won’t bother you again. Please don’t let them kill me.”
“Guys, let him go.” She heaved a sigh, not sure if she felt pity or disgust for Jimmy. “I’m sure he’ll be on his best behavior now.”
Boris grunted and turned on his heel, stepping over the salt circle and heading toward the forest with long strides, Jimmy still in his grip. His brothers quickly followed.
Jimmy’s wails grew louder.
“Guys!” She hollered.
Geri turned, pointing the tip of his blade at the salt circle, which was still intact. “Stay inside, Eilea.”
She raced to the edge of the circle, careful not to cross it—not because she was obeying their orders, but because she was genuinely afraid of that ghost. “What are you going to do?”
“Don’t worry,” Jovan said over his shoulder. “We’ll bring him back.”
“Sure they will,” she grumbled, turning pleading eyes to Drasko. “In how many pieces?”
“Meh.” He shrugged broad shoulders and grinned. “Probably no more than six.”
She clutched her churning stomach. Considering Jovan had ripped the head off a federal agent once before, she was afraid for Jimmy.
Amara appeared in the doorway.
“Stop them,” she said.
“Why? He dishonored you.”
She was frustrated and furious with these hard-headed shifters. “But your fathers can get in trouble.”
“No they won’t.” Amara turned up her chin, revealing a too-confident grin. “Your uncle will make sure of it.”
“If you say so.” Eilea brushed past her and strode to the infirmary. Would Uncle Joe protect the Lupescus? Maybe because his world revolved around the shifter species but not because he cared about his niece’s honor.
EILEA HAD A HARD TIME focusing on her patients while she worried about Jimmy being decapitated. Yeah, he was a first-rate douche, and she despised working with him, but she still didn’t agree with murder. If ever there was any hope of Eilea forming a bond with the Lupescus, they’d ruined it. The thought saddened her more than it should have, and she berated herself for not doing more to stop them. She’d been so numb from shock that her critical thinking skills had gone right out the window.
She heard a commotion in the waiting room. Geri had returned with his gleaming axe, his green jacket stained with what appeared to be black paint. He sat in a chair beside the front door, whistling as if he hadn’t a care in the wor
ld.
She marched over to him. “Where’s Jimmy?”
He quirked an eyebrow, looking at her with a crooked, fanged grin. Of all his brothers, he seemed the most feral, an air of danger clinging to him like a shroud. She remembered he’d been the only brother to experience demon burn. She wondered what he was doing when he suffered the burn. She imagined he’d been hunting some foul creature. She’d no doubt by the way he held the axe, like an extension of his arm, that he’d seen his share of battles.
“Why do you care about him so much?” he said, with a subtle accusatory tone.
“I don’t care about him.” She averted her eyes, not because she was lying, but because the animalistic gleam in his eyes unnerved her. “I care about you getting into trouble.”
His fanged smile broadened. “You have nothing to worry about.”
“So you didn’t kill him?”
“Not yet.”
Her spine stiffened and she let out a curse. “I don’t agree with murder.”
“We know, lubirea mea,” he said with a wink. “We would never do anything to hurt you. We just want to protect you.”
Heat fanned her skin as he continued to look at her with intense silver-blue eyes. When he licked his top lip with an impressively long, thick tongue, she got lightheaded.
He leaned back in his chair, crossing wiry, muscular arms. “I don’t need to read your mind to know what you’re thinking. Your facial expressions give you away.”
She froze when he set the axe on the floor and unfolded himself from the chair, rising like a phantom emerging from the grave. Leaning over her, he threaded his fingers through hers, whispering hot and heavy in her ear. “Let me take you into your office, mândră. I will show you what my tongue can do.”
Heat pooled between her thighs. Her knees wobbled like two wet noodles and she had to drape her arms around his shoulders to steady herself.
When he leaned into her, nibbling her ear with sharp teeth, her head went back, giving him easy access to her neck.
“Stop,” she pleaded, though she rubbed her taut nipples against his chest.
He trailed hot kisses down her neck, growling against her skin and making her soak her panties. Dear God, what was this man doing and why was she letting him do it? Amara and Raz had to be watching, and Nakomi would be furious when she found out, but she was so damned horny, she didn’t care.
When he ground his hips into hers, and his denim-clad erection pressed into her belly, she just about orgasmed then and there. She lifted her leg, dragging it up his calf when he dug his fingers into her ass, branding her.
“Let’s go to your office,” he rumbled in her ear. “Let me give you pleasure.”
“Yes, oh yes,” she cried, going limp against him. She knew she wasn’t thinking clearly, knew she’d regret surrendering to temptation, but she couldn’t see past her much-needed orgasm.
He was leading her to the office when the makeshift door slammed open, revealing Drasko Thunderfoot in human form, grim determination in his eyes.
“Just got word the Moosenecks are sick; all three packs— elders, sons, and grandsons, plus their mates and babies. Hakon told them to go straight to the lodge. The feds are dropping supplies in the parking lot.” He dangled a set of keys. “We need to get moving.” He sniffed the air and gave Eilea and Geri the once-over. “Sorry if I interrupted something.”
She was at a loss for words. Geri didn’t help by staring at his feet, his pale cheeks turning crimson. She’d never been more ashamed in her life. Luckily, Drasko had deflated her libido with the news of sick children. She pulled away from Geri, ashamed at what she’d been about to do. What the hell had she been thinking? How could she give herself to him when she knew he was only using sex as a means to claim her as his mate? Correction, as a mate to four hot and horny brothers.
“The Spiritcaller pack is too sick to move,” she said, worried they wouldn’t survive the trip and desperately needing to say something to fill the awkward, deafening silence.
Drasko grimaced. “Jovan and I will move them.” He brushed past them on his way to the infirmary. “I need to notify the others.”
As if on cue, Jovan appeared. He, too, was back in human form and looking too sexy to be legal in faded jeans and an unbuttoned flannel shirt revealing a muscular, broad chest with a smattering of blond hair. Like his brother, he was smeared with black paint. He had globs on his cheek and chest. What had they gotten into?
He gave Geri an accusatory look, nostrils flaring.
Geri shot Jovan an apologetic look. “I wasn’t going to take her virginity. Just mark her.”
Um, take her virginity? She’d lost that long ago to her first boyfriend during freshman year of college. Jesus, she was almost thirty-five. Did they really expect her to be a virgin? Well, they were in for a disappointment. Not that they should judge. They had five children.
She gestured at the infirmary window, where her patients resembled corpses more than men. “I think this is a bad idea. We should bring more beds here, fill up the exam rooms.”
“Every choice we make from here on out will be a bad idea,” Jovan answered, “but some choices are less bad than others.”
“Is dismembering a federal agent a less bad choice?”
“Who said we dismembered him?” Jovan chuckled.
She gave him a stern look she hoped would intimidate a man who could turn into a ten-foot hulking beast in the blink of an eye. “Where is he?”
“You sure you don’t have a thing for him?” Geri asked.
“That farting little creep?” she said, aghast. “Do you hear yourself? How can I even think of other men when I compare them to....” She bit her tongue.
Jovan bridged the distance between them, grabbed her shoulders, and searched her eyes, his expression a mixture of desperation and desire. “To what?”
She turned away. “Never mind.”
“Why do you deny this attraction between us?” He leaned into her. “Do you think I can’t scent the desire between your legs? Imagine four men pleasuring you at your whim. You’d no longer have to use your showerhead.”
He knew about that? How fucking embarrassing.
She struggled free, hating how turned on she became at the feel of his skin. “It won’t work.”
He jerked her against him. “You won’t know unless you try,” he cooed.
She wanted to give into temptation and let him try, but she would not surrender her independence to these shifters, despite the promise of mind-blowing sex at her command. “I’m not like you,” she said.
“That doesn’t matter to us,” he said.
Would he feel the same way if he knew she wasn’t a virgin? Would he be angry with her or her past lovers? How would his brothers react? When he tried to nuzzle her, she bit her lip so hard, she drew blood. The taste of it brought a vivid memory rushing back of a beautiful woman trying to coax Eilea into drinking blood-tainted wine. Holy shit! Was that a dream or had she been visited by a goddess offering to transform her into a shifter? Nausea overcame her and she went limp in Jovan’s arms, barely aware of him calling her name and then carrying her to an exam room.
He laid her on the table, eyes shifting from blue to blinding white. “Are you okay?”
“I, um,” She almost blurted that she’d just remembered almost drinking blood wine, but she thought better of it.
Geri held her hand to his heart. “She’s been working too many hours. Humans don’t have our stamina.”
Truth be told, she was tired. Fucking tired. She got up on her elbows. “I’m fine,” she lied.
Jovan’s brows drew into a deep V. “No, you’re not.”
“I’ll rest when we get to the lodge.”
Geri scowled at his brother. “She’s lying. She’s going to tend sick patients first.”
Jovan’s features darkened. “Not if I can help it.”
Their overbearing nature was enough to drive her insane. She grabbed Jovan’s arm and pulled herself upright. “Yes
, I’m tending to my patients first, but then I am resting. Promise.” Had she just caved? Why didn’t she tell them off for being controlling assholes?
She let Jovan help her back to the waiting room and lower her into a chair. “Stay here,” he said, kissing her temple. “We’ll load the patients and supplies.”
She shouldn’t have basked in the attention, but she did, maybe too much. Little things like Jovan kissing her forehead set her heart aflame. Damn her for falling for these shifters, and damn her for recalling her dream, for she was almost certain she remembered the goddess telling her she had one more chance to accept the opportunity to become a shifter.
LUC MOPPED HIS BROW after helping the last of the Moosenecks into his truck. Since his fathers had become sick, his pack had stepped up to fill the chieftain’s role. He didn’t relish the responsibility. He’d gone to almost every homestead close to the portal and sniffed out the sickest shifters. All of them had been able to drive except for the Moosenecks.
Not one of them had understood what was happening. They were all walking around in a daze while itching the scabs on their arms into bloody oblivion. Luckily their houses were close together. Luc had to make three trips to the lodge, starting with the youngest Moosenecks, including a seven-month-old baby flushed from crying. By the last trip, he was feeling disoriented, too. It took him longer than expected, as he kept having to stop to refocus.
After he’d helped the elder alpha Mooseneck into the front passenger seat of his truck, he sat at the steering wheel a long time, trying to remember where he was going.
He looked at the cardboard sign taped to the center of the dash: Take the Moosenecks to the lodge.
Oh, yeah, the lodge.
He started the engine and put the truck in drive, gently rolling down the hill toward the front gate. After he pulled out, he stared at the fork in the road. Which way was he going?
He looked at the cardboard sign again: Take the Moosenecks to the lodge.
Was it left or right?
The elder Mooseneck was slumped in the seat beside him. The man’s paper-thin skin was ashen and covered in raised welts, his large nose and the sagging skin on his neck dripping with sweat. He looked like a plucked pelican, roasting on the spit.