by Rae Foxx
“I’m picking up a package from my Aunt Nancy...I mean Poetry. I'm new in town." I added it on like it would help him chill the fuck out - and it did. He exhaled as his shoulder sagged, those shaking hands falling to the countertop.
"Oh good! We hadn't heard of a new member coming to stay, you gave me quite a fright. I thought you were a Bountier." He fumbled and stuttered before turning and looking through a pile of boxes that teetered ominously in the corner.
"A Bountier?" I asked, sending the guy squeaking and quaking again.
"Yes, we are all outcasts, and some... well... Here's your package!" He interrupted himself as he set down a box that was bigger than the twins’ torsos with a loud thud. On the outside, it read 'Lick it, Lick it Good'.
"What the fuck?" I squeaked as I signed the paper the guy had thrust at me, still staring at the box and its contents, which just got worse with each line I read.
'34 tubes of delicious watermelon pleasure glide. Perfect for all orifices.'
“Oh fuck a duck!”
“Excuse me?!” The postman hollered, irate. I ignored him.
I had bigger problems. Like the fact that my aunt had sent me to the post office for fucking watermelon flavored lube.
Lube. Fruit lube.
Shit on a shingle, this was ridiculous.
I wasn’t sure what part of the Vagile Ajna was mystical at this point. Beaded curtains, check. Burning sage, check. Weird teas and crystals on the shelves, check.
Glass dildos and lube...not so much.
Made me wonder what was behind the beaded curtain even more.
“That’s some of the tamer merchandise she receives, young lady," He smiled, tucking paperwork into an ancient, battered filing cabinet. "You really aren't a bounty if that's sending color on your cheeks."
“Yeah... well... ummm, thanks,” I managed to mumble out as I hefted the box off the counter and tucked it under my arm.
"Tell your aunt I'll see her Thursday, and that I bought the leather." The guy wasn't even looking at me anymore, thank god, because my stomach was officially twisting. I practically ran out of the post office, trying to figure out how to get back to the vagina shop before someone caught me with lube.
A box of fucking lube.
“Ssscarlet, isn’t it?” A voice like that film on the roof of your mouth after you eat something greasy crawled over my consciousness, the letters stretching through my ears uncomfortably as I turned to see the owner. There was no way that voice belonged to this man. This man was ebony perfection, everything about him perfectly created, like he was a god. A Mahogany god.
The looks must be the only thing he had going, however, because his voice was terrifying and he smelled like a river or that murky goop that grows on the top of stagnant bodies of water. My animal didn’t appreciate his proximity.
“Yes. How can I help?" Or not help. I shifted the lube, trying to angle it so that he couldn't read it, which he was clearly trying to do.
A box of lube under my arm wasn’t the way I wanted to introduce myself to people.
“I’m Mayor Sssstevenson, but you may just call me Mayor like everyone else.” His tongue flicked out after he spoke, and his eyes dropped to the box in my care. So much for discretion.
“Nice to meet you, Mayor. I’ve got to go.”
“Mmmm…” He said, trailing his slimy and icy fingers over my arm. “Going so fassst.”
Wait a goddamn minute. Lots of S’s. Cold, and smells like a rotten river. The mayor of Cummings Cover was a fucking snake shifter. I could only imagine what crime or indiscretion landed him here. He probably ate the eggs of his young or some shit.
“Yeah, first day of work and all. Don’t want Poetry to think I’m slacking off. It was nice to meet you.” I attempted to muscle past him, just as Evan and Owen made their way around the corner toward me. Thank god. A snake shifter was the last thing I wanted to be around for very long.
“Mmm...that’s an interessssting box you have there. May be ssssuspicioussss," The hiss of his voice was crawling all over my last nerve. Well, maybe not last. The touch of his slimy fingers against my outer thigh snapped it with ease.
"Excuse you!" I yelled, stepping away and pulling the twins right to me.
“Hey, there you are, mate,” Owen yelled from across the street, clearly enunciating the word mate as they bounded over and purposefully put themselves between me and Hisser-Face.
"Mate?' He was clearly disappointed. Good. Allow me to rub salt in that wound fuck-face.
“Evan, Owen, this is Mayor Stevenson. Mayor Stevenson, these are my mates.” The snake man extended his hand to shake but my men ignored him, they were too busy staring wide-eyed at the box tucked under my arm.
“Oh, cool. We’re gonna need that later to go with my special present in my pocket." And I was blushing again. Inhaling was an impossibility, and I quickly smacked Owen's arm with my free hand as the Mayor stood there, smiling.
The fucker was smiling.
Gross.
"Yeah, bye," I said, not even caring about formality as I busted my way down the street and away from the old man that ran this town.
“Was it really fucking necessary to mention how much you fuck me in front of the Mayor?” I asked the second the twins caught up to me.
Owen and Evan chuckled and they high-fived over my head. “When there’s a fucking snake slinking around your woman, you’re damned right it is necessary. That python was one hiss and flick of his tail away from constricting the shit out of you. Nasty fucker.”
A python. Huh.
As we walked back to Poetry’s store, I noticed the butcher was open again. The sign had been flipped again to read open and the fluorescent lights inside were back on.
“Damn, I could go for a burger,” Owen said and tipped his chin at the butcher, nostrils flaring as he licked his lips.
"Good luck with that," I mumbled, except that the nervous Nancy from before didn't seem quite so crazy. The muscular man stood in the window and gave a weird, stiff wave.
“Guess I am less scary when I’m carrying lube around.” Or I just looked less like a Bounty.
Not sure which was better.
10
Cummings Cove was tiny, yet somehow the Agile Vagina, or whatever the fuck it was called, was always full of people.
Every day, all day, people flitted in and out of the store, only waving nervously at Evan, Owen, and I before Poetry welcomed them with a smile and a sweep of her scarves. She would then escort them through her beaded curtain and into the back room that was so full of smoke by the end of the day that Poetry had to burn more sage to cover the smell. An entire store of products and everyone went to the back room.
People kept coming, smoke kept growing, and giggling gasps echoed so loudly from the curtained room that I could hear them clearly in the stock room where I was carefully placing the plethora of flavored lube.
We were on day three, and I was still unboxing and stocking lube. Turns out Poetry sold more than just the watermelon variety.
“What do you think they are doing back there?” I asked as I grabbed the last box and restrained a giggle.
Tangerine.
Who in their right mind needed tangerine-flavored lube?
"You are unboxing your last crate of lube, what do you think they are doing back there?" Owen asked as he and Evan pulled book after book from the backroom shelves, giggling over titles like 'The Path to Inner Bliss and Alignment' and 'Meeting your Inner Child.' Most of them featured happy people doing some kind of yoga poses in front of a sunset.
They were probably the only things back here that I had expected from a holistic gifts store.
"I dunno, aligning people's chakras?" I said like I knew what I was talking about. I tossed the thankfully empty book aside before collapsing into the wicker chair we had used to prop open the back door in the hopes of coaxing a breeze inside. Not that it was summer here, but after working in the stock room all day I was coated with sweat and stank like a skunk.
I didn't care what kind of breeze found its way in here, I would take it. Thankfully it was a cool night wind that whipped through my hair and chilled my still-sweaty neck. I closed my eyes, breathing in the fresh air of freedom.
"If you haven't figured out what they’re doing back there, I'm not going to be the one to tell you." Owen grinned at me in that mischievous way he always had, his eyes twinkling even in the dim light of the storeroom.
Cummings Cove was fucking weird, I had to admit. Every store was a bad sex joke and I had spent days unboxing lube, yet it was like a weight had been lifted. A calm feeling replacing it. I could feel it in my spine, I could see it in the joyful clarity in Evan’s and Owen's eyes.
"Sex, then, they are doing the sex," I said confidently, looking at all the lube. It made sense anyway.
"Maybe, but that's not all. Breath deep, kitten, and you'll figure it out." Evan gave me a wink and a smile before turning to Owen who was furiously tapping him on the shoulder to point out something in the book they were pouring over.
Only then did I notice the nipples on the cover. Nipples and a whole lot of pubic hair.
I jerked a bit, trying to read the title. The hard-bound sex book didn't have a paperback version, did it?
"The Kama Sutra." The one book without a sex title in this place was covered with nipples and pubic hair and had my twins staring at it with wide eyes.
“What in the…” Evan turned the book sideways before moving it closer and further away like the damned people would move as he did. Like a low-budget, cartoon porn. Which was probably why Owen's eyes were bugging out of his head as he cocked it sideways and squinted, putting his nose to the page.
"More mystery?" I asked, pushing myself up from the comfort of the chair, my heart pounding against my ribs a bit. There was no way there were two copies of that book, was there?
It was nothing like my book. My book was all about bonding and sex with multiple mates. This book was clearly about sex while using torture devices and awkward positioning. The poor girl in the picture was curled into a ball, butt in the air, knees by her ears as the man penetrated her.
“Um," I said, the sound drawn out as I battled with feelings of both horror and arousal. Because that was normal. "That looks like it might give me a blood clot...in my brain.”
"Either that or you'd fall and snap my dick right off." Even I cringed at Evan's exclamation, the poor guy grabbing his junk as he imagined it.
Owen didn't seem to notice. He hadn’t given up on the aneurysm position quite yet.
"The harem book had so many more good ideas. We all might pull a muscle or something trying the shit from this book.” I didn't want to think of the 'or something' seeing as Owen flipped to the next page to reveal a girl tied into a backbend.
"Speaking of snapping, I would be in two pieces if we tried that..."
"You haven't even tried. You can't know if you haven't tried." Owen was clearly desperate to fold me in half.
“Find one that won’t kill us and I might try it,” I said and looked back out the window, laughing to myself at my assumed win.
"Nah, we can try this one," Owen spoke up, his hands making some kind of weird motion before he jumped to his feet and closed the gap between us. "Fold over the chair, Scarlet."
Tingling arousal pooled in my belly at the command in his voice. His eyes became clouded and dark as he gripped my hips and turned me, angling me towards the wicker chair and the open alley behind. His hands slid over my hips; palms flat against my low belly as he prodded me forward, back to the wicker chair.
"Like this," he whispered in my ear before he turned me again, his hands in control as he lowered me back, laying me over the armrests of the dusty old thing. His hands were firm on my waist as he kept my ass on the armrest next to him, letting my back sag into the seat and angling my hips up to him. The chilled night breeze that was slinking in through the door snaked over my skin, cooling me as Owen's hands ran down my inner thighs. He spread my legs and exposed the thin line of fabric that covered me; the thin line of fabric that Owen was already hooking his finger under and moving aside, exposing me to him.
"Hmmm, wet." I shivered as his finger ran alongside my opening, teasing the tender flesh with one hand while the other grazed the skin of my thigh, moving up and down as he caressed me and he held me against him.
"All you needed was a little assistance," Evan moved beside his brother. Both of them stood side by side before my exposed pussy. Their hands ran up and down my thighs, while each of their fingers circled my opening. Teasing. Taunting. Destroying.
I moaned and shook, arching and shifting as if I could tempt those fingers inside. Tempt them to fill me.
"Fuck, kitten," Evan moaned, my own pleasured purr echoing his as the tip of his finger entered me. Teasing me even more.
"Stop teasing me, fuck me," I begged, still shifting against the hard wicker of the chair in an attempt to reach them. It wasn't the most comfortable position, but I didn't care. The feeling of their fingers as they moved inside of me, as they grazed over my swollen clit, was too inviting.
God, I was starting to understand the appeal of that book. I would gladly take any position if it meant being touched like this. Being loved like this.
The boys just chuckled at my demand, both of their fingers pressing into me as I moaned and bucked. The hands around my thighs tightened as they both lowered, as together they ducked and tasted me. The warmth and moisture of their tongues moved in harmony as they explored the creases of my sex, as they tasted and lapped at the throbbing desire of my pussy.
I moaned louder, my hands wrapping around their heads as I tried to push them closer, bring them closer. I wanted more. God, I wanted everything. I opened my eyes to the long alley outside of the door they had propped me up in, my moans and whimpers echoing over stone and vibrating the stars that illuminated the empty lot behind.
The lot that wasn't so empty.
A white wolf stood in the middle of the dead grass and trash. The almost full moon lit the field so that the beautiful animal was like ink against paper in contrast. Its fur was crisp and clean, its eyes bright as they reflected the stars.
Well, eye.
One eye.
Because the wolf was wearing a damn eye patch.
“What the…” I nearly screamed, pulling away from the pleasurable touch of my mates to twist in my chair. Wicker creaked, the twins protested, and I nearly screamed as I twisted around to face the wolf who was just standing there watching me be eaten out as though he had bought tickets to the damn show.
By the time I sat up and faced the field, however, he was gone. There was just an empty field with a dead rat and a used condom or two hidden in the brush.
Which, last time I checked, a dead rat and a condom didn't constitute a wolf, let alone one with an eye patch.
"Did... you...?" I stuttered, looking from the empty field to my mates in absolute disbelief. "Did you see that?"
Please say they saw it… please say they saw it... They hadn't seen it. The two were staring at me in confusion, lips still wet with the taste of me. I was sure they would look much more forlorn at their lost meal if I wasn't looking like I had gone bat-shit crazy.
"See what?" Evan finally asked, his voice strained and pulled, like he was trying to herd a foreign animal. Great.
"The wolf... with an eye patch."
"Like the zoo wolf?" Their skepticism was growing. I could only nod.
Yes, like the zoo wolf. It had been weird enough seeing a shifter wolf in a crate from a zoo. It was even weirder that the wolf had an eyepatch. But to have the wolf appear in the middle of an empty field in a tiny town half a continent away from where you last saw him? Yep. I was nuttier than a fucking fruitcake.
Something about all of that smoke in the store was making me lose it completely. Either that or I was so exhausted that I was seeing things. I was going to have to go for the smoke. Foxes were sharp, we were known for having extraordinary sight even in our human forms
. We don't see things.
Yet I was sure it was there. The intensity of that stare was ingrained into my spine. It had burrowed into my soul and left traces of fear there that I hadn't expected. Not from a wolf.
A wolf that I had first seen in a cage.
A wolf that had followed me here. A wolf that was tracking me.
What was it the postman had thought I was? 'A Bountier.'
The postman hadn't said much about what they were, but he had said enough. This town was full of misfits, banished shifters, and criminals. Surely shifters were going to find those criminals. Like say, ones that killed the alpha in a faraway pack.
"Oh fu—"
Before I could finish, a wolf howl tore through the night, splitting the darkness like a pair of sharp scissors that cut me clean open. The wind picked up, bringing the animal’s scent to me in a whirl that felt like it blasted me with heat, despite the outside temperature. My core pulled taut as dread bathed me, my heartbeat quickening to something more like a rabbit than a fox.
Like I knew I was being hunted.
11
Sleep didn't happen.
And no, it wasn't because I had a full night of rompous sex. There was no chance of that happening after realizing I was being stalked by a wolf, sent after me to avenge the death of a freaky Alpha who had been about to bite off my head. At least, that was my theory. The twins hadn't quite believed me, probably because the phrase 'wolf with an eye patch’ had them worried for my sanity. They had been worried enough to sleep plastered against me again, which was the real reason I hadn't slept.
Well, that and being genuinely freaked out about the wolf coming after me.
I stared at the cracks in the ceiling until sunlight filtered through the window, the old wooden pane locked tight in case creepy-ass wolf decided to barge his way in. He hadn't, although I had heard that horrifying howl more than a few times.
Hunted. Plastered. Sweaty. Howls.
No wonder I hadn't slept.
I groaned against the morning and tried to cuss it away, but it didn’t do more than bring my pre-coffee grumps to a head. Raising my arms above my head, I groaned and stretched before slapping the boxer-clad asses that laid on either side of me. Both twins yelped in tandem, jerking and curling into balls as I used their far-too-perfectly-round and firm buttocks to launch myself off the bed.