by JJ King
“Wild River?”
She nodded.
“Then let’s go.” He stood up slowly, cringing, careful not to move his injured shoulder as his body reknit muscle and bone. “Fuck!” He sighed, looking over at Raphael’s body. “We’re going to have to take him with us. He’s going to ruin my car.”
It felt good to really laugh so she did. She laughed until tears ran down her face and the pain from her healing shoulder dulled.
Working together they managed to get the body into the car without any of the neighbors coming out to investigate. Quinn threw a blanket over the man and tucked it around his limbs. He went to the front of the car and retrieved something small from the glove compartment, peeling back plastic as he returned.
“Fresh pine smell,” he explained, earning another of her grins.
“I love you so much.” He folded her into his body and squeezed her tightly.
“I love you, too.”
♀♀♀
Katherine and Quinn needed a vacation.
The pack had a secure location where wolves like Raphael were held. Katherine knew she should care about finishing the job with the psychopath and seeing him put away, but she laid all her trust in her father and brothers and let them take care of it. She’d had a rough couple of weeks and she deserved a bit of a break. Her parents and brothers were well meaning but there was only so much love one could handle before it got to be a bit too much. They stayed only three days at the family home before deciding that a suite at the Dauphin for a week, or a month, would be the perfect place to recuperate and spend some alone time with one another.
They laid in bed, face to face, breathing in each other.
“By the way,” Katherine murmured, half asleep from sexual exhaustion. After four days in the hotel, they were still going strong. “What did you do to me when you showed me your dream?”
Quinn forced his eyes open a slit and mumbled, “What do you mean? I just showed you what happened when I became a Dreamer.”
Katherine idly rubbed her hand against her abdomen and frowned, “Was I only supposed to see what you showed me? I wasn’t supposed to feel anything?”
Quinn opened his eyes, awake now, and pushed up, hovering over her. “What did you feel? Can you show me?” His raised his hands questioningly to her face.
She nodded slowly, suddenly feeling nervous about sharing the thing inside her. He caressed her cheek and closed his eyes.
The heat blossomed within her and seemed to move of its own volition to where Quinn’s hand connected with her skin. A wave of happiness overshadowed any other feelings she’d had, even when Quinn’s hand began to tremble and tears began to run from his closed eyes.
She stared in wonder as he opened his eyes and looked into hers. She smiled, suddenly very aware, and took his hand from her face, bringing it to her stomach and laying it against the seat of her power, to where a small seed of life pulsated with all the hope of a new generation.
THE END
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My Brother’s Keeper
Chapter One
Daphne closed her eyes and willed herself not to knee the drunk asshole in the balls.
She’d been having a great time on the dance floor with her best friend Julie and the six other women who, along with her, made up their group of girlfriends, until some random guy decided he had the right to grab her ass.
When he squeezed, anger, fueled by tequila, coursed through her veins and she whirled around, a low growl escaping her lips before a hand shot out and whipped her back around.
“Get out of here perv!” Julie shouted at the drunk, flashing him the finger and spouting choice words in his direction. She held Daphne in front of her, away from the dancing crowd who were mostly oblivious to the incident and ran her hands up and down Daphne’s bare arms. “Get a grip Daph, you’re glowing a bit.”
Daphne squeezed her eyes shut, keeping her head pointed down to the floor and breathed deeply, sucking in stale air and body odor and exhaling frustration and rage with every breath. She focused on blocking out everything but Julie’s unique citrusy scent and after a moment it worked enough to calm her down. She sighed and looked up at her friend who was watching her with a cocky grin on her gorgeous face. “Oh my God Daphne! You almost wolfed out there! We should probably stop drinking.” Julie started to giggle.
Daphne didn’t feel like giggling at the moment. She never allowed herself to lose control, but, since it was girls’ night, she’d gone balls to the walls and drank six or seven, or maybe ten, shots of tequila, plus a couple more glasses of wine, with her girlfriends. From her past drinking experiences, she knew that alcohol didn’t affect wolves quite the same way it did humans, but she seemed to have passed the point where even wolves got hammered.
She had been one second from beating that man to a pulp, in public; that wasn’t good. And letting her eyes glow? That was even worse.
Ever since she was a child Daphne’s eyes had glowed when she was in the midst of terrible anger. It wasn’t a common occurrence amongst her pack or any others that she’d heard of, but there were stories of wolves whose eyes glowed like hers, so at least she wasn’t a freak of nature.
Daphne glanced at her watch and sighed in relief, 1:47 a.m., time to get ready to head home. They had been partying since supper time, so her bed would be glorious. Her feet were sobbing for release, but it had been the perfect night up until that loser had decided to grab her, and she wasn’t about to let him ruin her mood and the end of their girl’s night.
Daphne grinned at her friend and gave her a big hug. “You saved me!” Julie had actually saved the man but, realistically, she’d probably saved Daphne’s career as well, since public brawls with drunken men didn’t always look so good on a lawyer’s rap sheet.
They joined the other girls who were, thankfully, unaware that anything had even happened, and danced for another song before collectively heading to the little girl’s room and then out the bar to look for a cab.
Sarah, Julie’s youngest sister pulled at Daphne’s arm and pointed across the street. “Look! Street meat! I want some.”
“Gross Sarah. Those hot dogs are probably disgusting.” Delia chimed in, then headed straight to the vendor. She ordered a large dog and loaded it with sauerkraut, onion, mustard, ketchup and hot peppers.
Daphne laughed as she watched the woman take a bite. “I thought you said they were disgusting?”
“Disgustingly good,” Delia muttered through a mouthful of meat.
They all caved and bought one of the extremely large hot dogs then sat, squeezed together, on a bench and ate their food. Despite her initial reservations, the hot dogs were amazing, especially in her inebriated condition, although the fresh air was helping her head clear up nicely.
A group of guys strode by and grinned at them, clearly amused at the sexual significance of their eating sausage. What they didn't know was that each and every woman in the group could out eat, outplay, and outperform each and every one of them. They were sisters, cousins, and friends, and every single one of them was a wolf.
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My Brother’s Keeper
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Hey, I’m JJ King! Thank you for taking the time to read Blood of Eden! If you enjoyed it, please consider telling your friends or posting a short review.
Word of mouth is an author’s best friend.
Little about me. I was born and raised on an island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. This rock, my rock, is seeped in superstition, stories, fables, and myth, which is why my mind is constantly filled with nonsense and fantasy! Fortunately for me, I get to write them down and have wonderful readers like you enjoy them. The Guardians is my first series, but I’m working on a second, a Greek monsters series coming soon.<
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