Claimed by the Beast Bundle (18 page)

Chapter 4

Hank rumbled in to camp with only a few seconds to spare. Guntar sighed and stopped eyeing the thick steak that was cooling on the plate beside the fire pit. Crystal barely noticed; she’d risen to her feet and turned to face Hank as he parked his bike and climbed off it.

Hank stretched his neck, the pops audible from a dozen feet away, and slipped his leather jacket off. He hung it from his handlebars and turned in time to catch Crystal as she all but threw herself on him. Hank chuckled, the sound and feel of his raspy voice in his chest sending shivers through her.

“Well, hi there,” Hank greeted her. “I could get used to this.”

Crystal craned her neck up to look at him. “You could?”

He smiled and nodded.

Crystal wanted to leap on him and kiss him. She squeezed him tighter and risked a glance back at the others. They were all watching. Damn it!

“Hungry?” Crystal asked.

“Starving,” he replied. “And I’d hate to let that steak go to waste!”

Reluctantly, Crystal backed away enough so Hank could move towards the others. She managed to capture his hand in hers and held on to it, satisfying herself with the small contact. Guntar chuckled and Adrian sighed as they walked back to them.

“Where’d you go?” Guntar asked.

“Hang on,” Hank said before he stabbed the fork on the plate into the meat and lifted it up as a solid chunk. He bit into it, tearing off a chunk and releasing a spray of juice. After he’d wolfed down the steak in a half-dozen bites, he wiped his mouth on the back of his hand and glanced down at Crystal as though he only now realized what a pig he’d made of himself.

She grinned up at him, amused by the abashed look on his face. She’d almost been as savage when she’d eaten her dinner a few minutes earlier. There was something about the simple meal that brought out the beast inside her. She’d been thrilled by how it felt, rather than scared. There was no way to go back, she figured, so she might as well enjoy it while she could.

“You missed some,” she whispered.

“Huh?”

Crystal crooked her finger at him. He bent down and let her reach up and wrap her hand around the back of his neck. She leaned in and pressed her lips against his chin. His scruff tickled her lips and combined with the flavor of Hank mixed with the juices from the venison to steal her breath away. She sucked on his flesh and licked his chin before he turned enough to slide his lips against hers.

“That’s enough.” Gwen startled them and broke them apart.

Crystal jerked back and would have fallen if Hank hadn’t been holding on to her. Her chest ached and her stomach was on fire. She was panting for breath and barely caught herself to stop from reaching for him. She squeezed her thighs together and groaned.

“I think opposite sides of the fire might be best?” Gwen decided.

Hank frowned and glanced down at Crystal. She gathered herself to leap on him when Adrian’s hand wrapped around her upper arm. She stiffened and turned to look at him.

“You heard the lady,” he said.

Crystal nodded and let him pull her away and then put himself between them. Hank lifted his lip briefly and then shook his head and relaxed. Crystal had to take several deep breaths and stare into the fire to clear her head.

“You good?” Gwen asked.

Crystal let out a final breath and nodded. “This is crazy,” she muttered.

Gwen laughed. “Reminds me of when I met Guntar.”

Guntar groaned. “We definitely have to keep you two apart then. I’m not sure Hank could handle that.”

“Hey!” Hank said.

“You did all right,” Gwen reminded him.

Guntar grinned and admitted, “Some of the best fun I can remember.”

Adrian cleared his throat, putting an end to the conversation.

“So you’re okay?” Gwen checked again.

Crystal nodded and cast a longing glance at Hank before saying, “Yes, but if this keeps up, I’m going to need to start packing extra underwear.”

Gwen snorted and, after a pause, Guntar started laughing. Even Adrian chuckled at her joke, leaving poor Hank to look around in confusion. He smiled at last but it was obvious he was playing along and trying not to draw attention to his flushed face.

When the moment passed, Adrian turned to her and asked, “Can you stay with us tonight?”

Crystal’s eyes went to Hank’s and she opened her mouth to jump on the offer. Before she could howl in triumph, Gwen added, “With Ember.”

Crystal clamped her mouth shut and felt the heat in her cheeks. They all knew where she’d been going. She nodded. “Sure. But lock the doors.”

“Don’t worry about that,” Gwen said.

“Why?” Crystal asked. “I mean why should I stay here instead of at my home?”

“We’ll get an earlier start,” Adrian explained. “We don’t want to be in the swamp at night.”

“Afraid of snakes and gators?”

“You should be too,” Adrian said. “We can recover from almost any injury, but there is no healing dead.”

Crystal winced.

“That’s where I went today,” Hank offered.

“You said you were doing research,” Adrian snapped at him.

“It was. Not for a book, for tomorrow. I didn’t go in, just checked along the edges to get a feel for it. I’ve never been in there before.”

“It’s a swamp. What’s so special about it?”

“Swamps have been explored and inhabited less by people than anywhere else. There are hunters and fisherman, but only the people who live in the swamp can hope to begin to understand it,” Adrian said.

“What about the TV shows that show people living in the swamp?”

Adrian snorted. “I doubt they follow real swamp people.”

“They look swampy,” she said. “Long beards, dirty, no shoes.”

He shook his head, ending the line of questioning without a word. “There’s the world the norms believe they live in, and there is the real world that lies beneath them. You’re a part of that world now. Clover is another part of it. And because it is so much safer from norms, the swamp plays host to many other things that are more dangerous than you can imagine.”

Crystal didn’t get it. “If they’re so dangerous, why are they hiding?”

“Because they’re smart enough to know better. As dangerous as any of us may be—even the Beast we killed—what threat do we show against the norms? They outnumber us and have access to weapons and technology beyond us.”

“You could get organized and stand together,” Crystal said. “We, I mean. We could do that. They’d have to recognize us and treat us like people. We are people, I mean!”

Adrian scowled. “History has proved otherwise.”

“He’s right,” Guntar said. “What you read in books and hear in schools is written by the people who survived. The victors. The conquerors. We are feared and shunned. You want to see world peace and have the different companies and cultures come together? Bring our kind together and let the world know of us. They will all band together to destroy us.”

Crystal stared at him and shook her head slowly. “That can’t be.”

“It is,” Guntar said. “We survive by living in secrecy. When we are found out, we are hunted and killed.”

Gwen nodded when Crystal looked at her, confirming what her mate said.

Crystal swallowed loudly and nodded. “Okay, secrecy it is,” she agreed. She jerked her head up and looked at them. “You don’t need to worry about Beth. She won’t tell a soul.”

The sound of a motorcycle drew their attention. Ember drove down the lane, riding faster than was safe on the bumpy dirt trail. She stopped in front of her trailer and dismounted, reaching back immediately to pull the tie out of her hair and worked the braids out. When her hair hung in waves around her head, she walked up to them and looked at Crystal.

“You need a shower,” she said.

“What?” Crystal gasped.

Ember ignored her and looked at the others. “I miss something? She smells like a bimbo who’s been edging for a month straight.”

“A what?”

“Edging?”

“Who?”

Crystal lost track of who asked what, including herself.

“It means taking yourself right to the edge and backing off without getting off,” Hank explained.

Crystal’s eyes were wide as she looked at him. “Really?”

“My research takes me in some strange places.”

“Strange places?”

“Websites and stuff, not, uh, places.”

“Uh huh,” Crystal teased.

Hank’s face reddened.

“Leave him alone,” Guntar said. “A week ago he didn’t know you existed. If he wanted to whore around—”

“I didn’t!” Hank cried out in defense of himself. “I didn’t do anything like that!”

After the new round of laughter died down, Gwen turned to Ember. “Crystal’s staying with us tonight.”

Ember shrugged.

“With you,” Gwen added.

Ember’s face tightened and then relaxed. She shrugged again. “She can take the couch.”

“Hey! I had to do that at my place,” Crystal protested.

“I sleep naked and haven’t washed my sheets in weeks.”

“Gross,” Crystal said. “Couch it is!”

Ember smiled.

Unwilling to let the redhead get the best of her, Crystal asked, “How was your date?”

“Good.”

Crystal was aware of the others snapping their heads back and forth between them as they talked. “Just good? Who was the lucky guy?”

“Who says it was a guy?”

Crystal gasped. Hadn’t Ember told her she wasn’t her type? “Then who?”

“Somebody has to clean up your mess.”

Crystal heard Gwen’s gasp mirroring her earlier one. She turned to stare at the platinum blond and then looked back at Ember. Gwen had told her to take care of Stephanie after Crystal rocked her world with a kiss. Was that where she’d been? Is that why Stephanie had been so cool to her the last couple of days? “Steph—Stephanie?” she stuttered.

Ember smiled and licked her lips. She spun around and walked to her trailer. “I’ll try to leave you some warm water.”

Chapter 5

“Get up!”

Crystal raised her hand with her middle finger on display. She kept her face buried in her pillow and grumbled, “I am up. I’ve been up on and off all night. Your couch sucks.”

Ember snorted. “You eat?”

Crystal rolled onto her side and fell off the couch. She yelped as she hit the ground. She kept going and picked herself up to her knees and then crawled back onto the couch and sat down with her face in her hands. Ember was laughing at her. “Shut the hole that makes the words,” Crystal growled at her.

Ember laughed harder.

“No, I didn’t eat. If you’re asking if I want to, yes.”

“Don’t worry, you’re still not my type,” Ember teased.

“Oh my God! I didn’t even think that. Gross!”

Ember snickered and opened up the cabinet drawers above the tiny kitchen counter. She pulled out a box of Pop Tarts and tossed it to Crystal. “Hope you like strawberry.”

Crystal yelped as the box bounced off her arm. She frowned and looked at the toaster pastries. “Yum,” she muttered. She fished out a foil package and tore it open so she could take a bite out of one of them. It tasted dry and bland. She made a face and set it aside. “What are you doing with Stephanie?”

Ember crossed her arms in front of her belly and stared at her.

Crystal looked up and her eyes widened in shock. “Holy crap! You’re naked!”

Ember glanced down at herself and shrugged. “Told you I sleep naked.”

“Well…you’re not sleeping anymore! Put some clothes on!”

Ember rolled her eyes and turned away. She walked into her bedroom and rummaged around a moment before she came back out wearing leather pants and a camouflage print tank top with nothing underneath it to stop it from poking out. Crystal shook her head and looked away. “Let me guess, you were a fashion model before you were changed?”

Ember looked down at herself and frowned. “What’s wrong with this?”

“Uh, nothing. Ignore me, fat girl talking.”

“You’re not fat anymore,” Ember said. “You’ve turned into a girl with the right curves in the right places. You just don’t know how to use them.”

“What?”

Ember shrugged. “You can be sexy. Sexy as fuck. Good hips, skinny waist, big boobs.”

“Wow,” Crystal said while shaking her head. “And my boobs are not big. I mean they are, but without a bra it’s not pretty.”

“That’s not what I heard.”

“What?” Crystal squeaked. She held up her hand and shook her head. She didn’t want to know. “Never mind. How did this get turned around? I was asking you about Stephanie.”

Ember smirked. “Steph’s your fault.”

Ember was calling her Steph, not Stephanie? Crystal pushed the thought aside and asked, “My fault?”

“You’re the one who made out with her and rocked her world.”

“Oh my God! Rocked her world?” Crystal buried her face in her hands again. “That was so stupid.”

“Pretty much,” Ember agreed. “And now I’ve got to keep her busy so she doesn’t obsess over you worse than she already is.”

Crystal groaned and then looked up as Ember’s words sank in. “Obsess over me?”

Ember nodded. “She’s got it bad.”

Crystal gawked, unable to form words or even thoughts.

Ember chuckled. “Don’t worry. I’m sure some of it has to do with you being in heat. Once you get over that, she’ll back off.”

“But—but—she’s a girl!”

Ember shrugged. “Don’t ask me. You did this to her.”

“No I—”

Ember pushed her lips out and made kissing noises, disrupting Crystal and making her squeal in frustration. She buried her face in her hands again.

“Crys, it’s the twenty-first century. We have gay celebrities and legalized gay marriage in more and more states. Girls liking girls isn’t a big deal anymore.”

“It is to me! I’m not a lesbian!”

Ember scowled at her. “Nobody’s asking you to be.”

“Stephanie—”

“I’m taking care of her, remember?”

Crystal stared at Ember until the words began to fall in place and she realized what the redhead was saying. “Oh my God! You’re—”

Ember’s eyes narrowed and she picked her chin up to stare a challenge at Crystal. “What?”

“I didn’t think—I mean, you said I wasn’t your type. But, um, are you, um, gay?”

Ember snorted and shook her head. She chuckled and turned her head enough to see out the window of her trailer. She stopped and stared and then glanced back at Crystal. “They’re getting ready. You should too.”

“Aren’t you coming?”

“Absolutely. You’re part of the pack; we take care of our own.”

“Sounds like you’re taking care of more than just pack issues.”

“I’m taking care of it, but it’s your issue.”

“My issue?”

“Besides, she’s cute.”

“Oh my God!”

Ember turned away, her shoulders shaking as she laughed at Crystal.

Crystal looked away from Ember and found her purse on the floor next to the bed. She had a hairbrush in it but no toothbrush. She frowned and looked up to ask Ember if she had a spare and then almost laughed at herself. Why would Ember have an extra toothbrush? She lived alone and even at that, they all seemed to eat together. She barely had enough for herself.

Unless, of course, she kept something tucked away in case somebody special stayed over. Like Stephanie.

Crystal shook her head again. She had to get that out of her head! “Hey, um, tell me about yourself.”

Ember stuck her head out of her bedroom. “What?”

“Yeah, if I’m one of the, um, pack, I should get to know you, right?”

“We’re not dating.”

Crystal bit back the obvious retort and went with her second choice. “You’re not my type. Still, I want to know more about everyone. It’s bad enough I feel stupid and useless and so totally in debt to you guys.”

Ember sighed and walked back out with her boots now on. “What do you want to know?”

Crystal shrugged. “How did you get changed? You told me when, but you never told me how.”

Ember stopped and tilted her head. She shrugged after a moment and said, “I was a freshmen in college and I went to a party with a sorority sister. Things got a little crazy.”

“Crazy?”

“Yeah, alcohol, ecstasy, weed…you know, crazy.”

“And that turned you into a werewolf?”

Ember chuckled. “No, I was trying to find my my friend but couldn't. I went looking for her and heard that she'd left with a bunch of frat guys. Frat guys with a reputation.”

“A bunch? Oh my God!”

“Yeah, I had a hunch she wasn’t going to be cool with it and I went crazy. Bad crazy.”

Crystal leaned forward and stared at the redhead. “What happened?”

Ember shrugged and glanced out the window again. She turned back and sighed. “It wasn’t good. I drove all over hell and back looking for them. I heard they went camping, but there was a lot of campgrounds. Plus for what they had planned I knew it wouldn't be a public one. I ended up finding them, but I was too late."

"Too late? Oh no!"

Ember grinned. "Wrong kind of too late. They were already dead. Worse than dead, they were torn apart."

"Holy shit! By what? You're friend?"

Ember shrugged. "I don't know. Probably. There was a pack of wolves feeding. A big grey one seemed to be in charge at first but it was the others that were on me. I ran, but they caught me."

"Oh my God!"

Ember nodded. "Tore me up good, but a black wolf stopped them. That wolf, the black one, was a female. She ended up being the alpha, but I had no idea at the time. She fought back the others she sniffed me up and down and then licked me. Not there, you sick bitch, I meant my wounds. She stared at me and I couldn't help but think she looked sad. Then they turned and left me alone."

"Gone? Just like that? Was that your friend?"

Ember shrugged. "I never found out. I was bleeding bad and I tried to crawl back to my car where my phone was, but I passed out. I don’t remember much after that, except for an animal sniffing and touching me. I had enough fight left in me I freaked out and bit it.”

“It was a wolf, wasn’t it? Another one of them?"

"Different pack," Ember said. "Which is amazing. There aren't that many of us and travel a lot, but almost never run into each other."

"So it was one of your pack. I guess that makes sense. Who was it?”

“Guntar,” she said. “He cut me up even worse trying to get away and that’s how I got his blood.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah, wow,” Ember said. She shrugged. “Beats the alternative.”

“What alternative?”

“If they hadn’t found me, I would have chased after my friend.”

“Your friend, what was her name?”

Ember’s nose wrinkled and then relaxed. “Ally. Why?”

Crystal smiled. “I’m sorry about her.”

Ember turned to the window. “Not your fault. You got nothing to be sorry about.”

“Was she, um, special?”

“She was, um, my Beth,” Ember whispered. She cleared her throat and glanced sharply at Crystal.

Crystal understood what she meant, but didn’t know how—or if—she should explain that her relationship with Beth wasn’t like that anymore. At least not for her.

“And no, I wasn’t sleeping with her. We were just friends. I’m not a full-time lesbian or anything.”

Crystal gawked. “I wasn’t—I didn’t mean—”

“Don’t worry about it,” Ember interrupted her. “Grab your shit. It’s time to go.”

Crystal snatched her purse up. “This is all I’ve got, but I need to brush my hair and teeth.”

“No you don’t.”

Crystal frowned and opened her mouth to insist but a loud pounding on the door stopped her. A moment later, the door opened and Guntar looked in. “Good, you’re ready.”

“No, I—”

“Let’s go,” he barked without listening to her.