by Rae Foxx
"Claim me," I begged, lapping at Evan's cock, tilting my hips to give Owen easier access to the pulsing need that had now taken over everything.
That warm desire that had dwelled for years in my body spread everywhere, my chest tightening as everything burned, as I throbbed. As I needed.
The twins didn't need to be told twice.
Evan gripped my head, his fingers soft against my jaw as he coaxed me to open, coaxed his cock in as far as he dared, my tongue licking and lapping as I sucked and tasted every salty drop of the delicious cum he was feeding me. Owen's hands gripped my hips, his touch soft as he pressed into me, both of my mates gentle as they pressed into me for the first time as both of them sank their teeth into my tender flesh, marking me as theirs in only the way shifters did. I cried out in a combination of pain and ecstasy.
As I was taken for the first time.
Fucked for the first time.
God, I never wanted it to end.
It never had to.
2
"Well, I never thought I would be back here," I mumbled under my breath, dropping the tattered suitcase that was packed with the last of my belongings on the ridge that overlooked my home.
Puritan Village, Oregon.
Yes, I was born and raised in a place called Puritan Village, and it was exactly as pure as it claimed it was. Good. Sin-free. Perfect.
Well, if you think oppressive communes were perfect.
Which was probably why standing here was such a big deal. I had spent a lot of time convincing my poor parents to send me to the most expensive school, as far away from them and their matchmaking eyes as I could get. They hadn't wanted to let me go, and not because of the money. Bloodwood Academy was known to be a 'whore factory' as my mother had called it.
And here I was, coming home with two mates who I had already had sex with.
Before we had been officially mated. Which we couldn't be because there were two of them. At least, those were the rules around here.
"What am I doing here?" I dropped the suitcase that time, not even turning when it popped open and the penis-emblazoned cover of the harem book flopped out.
"Getting money. Saying hi to your parents. Hoping that they will change their minds and let us stay," Evan said, slinging his arm around my shoulders as he dropped his own case, which did not pop open, probably because the two had had a competition to see who could use the most duct tape to shut their cases.
Evan clearly won.
Owen, on the other hand, was already scooping my stuff back into its case.
"That last part is not going to happen," I reminded him, stepping away from the warm weight of his arm to round on the two of them. "Remember, this place is full of old school shifters who worship…” I paused, not quite sure if I wanted to drop that bombshell on them just yet. Continuing on; “Here, just looking at the opposite sex is a sin. Eating sugar on a Sunday is a sin. Not reading the Good Book every day is a sin. And I can promise you that everything we have done so far is definitely a sin."
"Well, I wasn't planning on doing any of that in front of them," Evan said, looking down to the village that was laid out below, the twists of smoke that curled up from the chimneys heralding morning. People were going to be coming out to take care of the cows and sheep soon. "They don't seem like they would like it much anyway."
"They don't look like they would like much of anything.... do they worship their alpha?" Owen scanned the cluster of houses, the wood-sided cabins and brick stores on main street looking like something out of a wild west movie. I didn't have to see what he was looking at to know what he was talking about though. The church at the end of the street.
As a child, I had always been scared of the marble building. The big square of white had no windows and only one set of doors. It was easily the biggest building in town, and with the giant cross and the turrets, it looked like a god’s castle.
It was also the home of the Alpha, so in a way, Owen was right.
"Nearly," I said, scowling at the chapel and shivering a bit at the twist of ice that was moving up my spine. "Which is why we need to be careful. If they find out about us, we will have to face his punishment."
I couldn’t help it, I shivered, my back shaking as I side-stepped away from the chill.
"Is he going to tie you to a stake or something?"
"Burn you like a witch?"
"March you through the streets and follow you around with a bell?"
"Ahhh, I know! Public belt spanking."
The twins went back and forth, giving each other a high five with each guess. I just stared at them, and blinked, "Yes."
"Oh," they said together, the joy at what they had thought was a giant joke faded immediately.
"You need to stay in the forest until I get back. You can steal eggs and hunt doves or something. I'll come get you when I'm done." I gave them a grin before I scanned the few streets to find the shiplap-covered house I had grown up in. The perfect little dollhouse that had all that cold dread from the monster church fading into warm fuzzies.
I had only been gone a few years, but nothing had changed. I was sure the house with its scrolled eaves and hand-blown glass had looked the same for the last hundred years.
Puritan Village.
Yep.
"I dunno, I don't like this Scarlet," Owen said, both of them coming to flank me again. "If they're so dangerous then we should just leave..."
"And how are you planning on starting a new life with no money? I have enough there to get us started. Besides, it's my parents. They wouldn't feed me to the wolves." Well, the alpha wasn’t a wolf and more like a really crotchety old jackal with a missing canine, but the sentiment still applied.
"Says the girl who was raised in a cult," Evan whispered, finally looking away from the massive chapel house at the end of the road to the lines of smoke-filled chimneys, and the cows that stood in pens behind.
"Not a cult," I folded my arms and rolled my eyes, they had been making that joke since I had first told them about my upbringing. Standing here above the village and staring down at the frightening church, I was starting to think that they might actually be onto something.
"Stay here," I reminded them, giving them a glare before I began to make my way down the hill toward home. "I'll only be a few hours."
I gave them another grin, and for the first time, they didn't return the smile. They just stood, their eyes flitting between me and the chapel. The fear in their eyes was really making me start to question all of this. If we didn't need money and clothes so bad I might not have even suggested it, but I had lost everything in the fire, including all the money I had taken with me. We could have gone to the twins’ home in Texas, but they had been even more tightlipped than I had about their upbringing, so here we were.
Leaves crunched underfoot as the air broke in clouds of white. It had only been early fall back at Bloodwood, but this high north it was edging closer to winter. I weaved my way through the old rail fences that I had jumped more than a few times in my youth and tiptoed over the creaky wooden sidewalks that lined the dirt roads of main street.
It wasn't just my house that looked the same, it was everything. Even the items that graced the store windows were the same. I hadn't realized it much when I was growing up here. But walking through it now it was as though the whole place was trapped in time.
Well, all but the front door to my childhood home. That had been freshly painted, probably by my younger sister.
Three knocks later, and the door was thrown open, shrieks of joy filling my ears as I was pulled into more than a few sets of arms, my mother sobbing on my shoulder.
"You're alive! I thought you were dead when I'd heard about the school. Sending you there with all that sin, the witches and their devilry. The whole place was bound to burn, but I knew the Good Creator would preserve you, that your fox was brought by the First, and he would not let you perish. Praise be to Oberion!"
Yep, my hometown worships my best friend’s fa
ther, who in real life is a jerk married to a bigger jerk. How Ivy turned out normal is beyond me.
I cringed, not that anyone noticed how they were crawling all over me. It was all a jumble as my siblings began to sing praise, and the door was shut behind me.
Yep, I had totally made a mistake.
---
As weird as my family was, as much as I had drifted away from their beliefs, they were still my family. And I still loved them. I loved the hugs and the way the old couch creaked when you sat on it. I loved the low boom of the piano as it echoed against the floor and their voices as they sang. I loved the taste of real mashed potatoes and my mother’s yeast rolls that were drenched in duck fat.
I loved it all.
Which was probably why I had stayed far longer than I had planned. Night had fallen about an hour ago, dinner had been consumed, pie had been served, and I was still here.
I sat in the middle of the couch, singing hymns with my siblings while Mama did her sewing and Papa read the Good Book by the one bright lamp. The last note of the night rang out, and Papa put down his book to clap, the ruddy bulb on the end of his nose bouncing as his pipe did.
"Beautiful children, beautiful," he beamed, giving us all a grin before he returned to his book. "Now, off to bed with ye. We've got a busy day tomorrow, what with the final harvest and your sister being home. Bed! Bed!"
My two brothers and sister all jumped to attention, giving kisses and hugs before they traipsed up the steps to their rooms, each of them giving me a look as they left.
A rock had dropped from my throat to the bottom of my stomach, the screaming weight hitting hard at the look they were giving me.
Jealousy.
No child got to stay up after Papa announced bed, but I wasn't moving, and, with the Antarctic chill my parents were giving me, I was certain I still wasn't exempt from this rule.
"Mama?" I ventured after a minute, watching my mom as she continued her stitching, neither her or Papa looking up as I fidgeted on the edge of the couch. "Mama, I have a question."
Still no answer. That rock in my stomach was getting heavier.
Mama pulled the needle through the fabric, the soft pop of the needle against cotton as loud as the swish of my father turning pages in the silence.
God, I forgot about this part. I had forgotten about the 'ultimate obedience' part of life here. Worse, I forgot about the patriarchy.
Mama wasn't going to respond because Mama didn't have permission to respond.
That heavy rock was turning into poisonous dread. That wasn’t okay but standing up to her wasn’t going to do me any good.
"Papa," I ventured, and his eyes came to a stop, his hand that was reaching to turn the page freezing mid-air. Well, at least he was paying attention to me. Into Armageddon, I go. "Papa, I know you've heard that the school burned down, and I came home to—"
"We are glad you are here," Papa said, turning his page as he answered, his focus not deviating a single letter. "We hated sending you to that school, the creator has brought you home. Praise be, Oberion.”
“Praise be, Oberion,” Mama half-whispered, smiling as she stitched.
“Yeah, cause he’s a real treat—”
“I knew it from the moment that you knocked on the door,” Papa continued, ignoring that I had even spoken. “Your mother has already made arrangements."
"Arrangements?" I stuttered out, already knowing where this was going. "I don't need arrangements; I already have plans. I'm going to—"
"The creator has brought you home, Scarlet," my father interrupted me again, giving me one dark glare before he went back to the book. "You have no need to go anywhere else. This is where you belong. Your mother has already made arrangements."
"I don't need arrangements," I snarled, my fox butting and gnashing in my throat. She knew what they were talking about too, and she really wasn't happy.
That snarling, however, finally pulled their focus. The inability to control your shifter was as much a sin as everything else here, and mine was ready to erupt.
"I don't need arrangements," I continued, even louder, my fox yipping and snarling.
"You need more than that if you think this behavior is appropriate given your betrothal."
I would have screamed in his face if my mother wasn't beaming in absolute joy.
"I'm not betrothed." It took every scrap of control not to just shift and clamp my jaw around the book and shake the thing into a million shreds of paper.
Papa ignored the continued growls, giving me a low look of disappointment that had always cut me to my core. My parents never yelled, they just gave that look, and if you didn't fall into line, they would whip you and take you to the Alpha to be dealt with. Just the thought was straightening my spine.
"I suggest you get a good night's sleep, darling," Mama whispered, her own voice shaking in fear as she continued her needlework. "You'll need it for tomorrow."
I really didn't want to know what I was going to need sleep for, but I clearly wasn't going to find out. This conversation was over, both of them focused on the tasks in the silence.
I waited, my back straight as I listened to needles pop and pages turn, trying to decide if I could break the old lock on the door and just leave... not yet... I might as well go to bed, get the money I had kept under my floorboards, and crawl through my window off to another life.
The couch creaked as I stood, the floor just as loud as I made my way to the stairs, every step booming in the candlelight.
"Oh, and Scarlet," father said just as my hand hit against the railing, one foot on the bottom-most stair. "I would like to thank you for your help in purchasing a new cow. The money came at just the right time. Oberion truly is mighty in his gifts, he clearly led you to store that gift for us."
Oh my god.
No.
The world slowed down as I bolted up the stairs, not even caring about the sound of my feet against the stairs. Not caring about propriety, or silence, or anything.
I burst into my room, the tiny space taken up by toys and a small twin bed. I couldn’t care less about nostalgia; however, it was the loose floorboard in the corner that I cared about. It was the hidden space underneath that I had spent years squirreling money into.
The space that was empty except for a fold of paper.
'Darling child, I knew that the creator would bring you back to us. He has given me a prophecy of the future you will bear for us, and the fruit of your loins that will bless our family. The work you will do will be great unto your seed, and the blood of the cow has brought you home.'
Okay, maybe it was a cult.
3
The window slid open with the stealthy silence I had come to expect over the last few days. The soft grind of the window against the frame was barely louder than the wind that was whistling in the trees, louder than the soft sound of paws as not one but two sand cats padded their way through the window and into my room.
Evan and Owen, sexy sand cat twins extraordinaire.
My mates.
Beautifully.
Secretly.
The feeling of them re-entering my space pulled all of the heat and need that I had been wrestling in my gut for the last few hours into overdrive. Like my lusty nether regions were powered by a high-velocity engine. I was all warm and wet and growly. I squirmed, excitement buzzing in my veins as one of the house-cat sized predators jumped onto my bed, the other already shifting back into his human form to slide the window shut.
Silent.
For brothers that wrestle, fight and cause an all-around ruckus, they had become exceptionally skilled at being silent. Just another requirement when your super-conservative parents are just two doors over.
I never thought that at twenty-one I would be sneaking contraband boys in through my window into a room filled with frilly pink pillows, walls covered with art of baby foxes with bonnets on, and a twin bed.
Twin beds were hardly made for silent, stealthy sex.
But
I was loving it.
It was exhilarating for more reasons than the twins who were crawling over my bed to reach me.
Mostly because I was openly defying my parents and their arranged marriage that they were trying to set up for me.
I had no intention of marrying the fox that lived two doors down. I had found most of the money my parents had stolen from me, and the twins had been slowly taking clothes through the window every morning.
Tomorrow morning, we were going to stage an epic escape from this cult-town while everyone was busy at the weekly pack meeting, otherwise, they might all come after me with pitchforks. But for tonight...
I tilted my head out of my soft comforter at the wet touch of a nose against my forehead and came face to face with two bright yellow eyes and a scruff of orange and white fur.
Owen. His fur had more orange than his brother’s. Evan had remained in his human form after closing the window and was slipping into the bed behind me, arms wrapping around my waist to pull me into his long naked form.
"Morning, baby," he purred in my ear, his voice more of his cat than usual.
"It's not morning," I mumbled, even though I lay back against him, pressing my ass into his groin and sending a shiver through the powerful shifter. I glanced at the clock. "Okay, it's two in the morning."
"Well, you know what they say about cats," Owen’s voice was just as much of a low whisper as his brother’s as he left his cat form to kneel on the other side of my bed. His fingers were soft as he brushed the tangles of bed-hair out of my face. "They like to play at night."
I tried to groan and shove him away, but the groan came out as more of a moan thanks to the rod that was twitching against my ass and the hands that were pulling me into him. Into the cock that was wedging itself between the bare cheeks of my ass.
Yes, I was naked.
The twins were naked because it was impossible to keep clothes on when you shifted in and out of your animal, but I was naked because I knew that these two would slip into my room at some point during the night, and I knew what they would want. I knew because I wanted it too.