ROMANCE: CLEAN ROMANCE: Summer Splash! (Sweet Inspirational Contemporary Romance) (New Adult Clean Fantasy Short Stories) (92 page)

              After he finished up, they both pulled out of her and set her down.  Farrah was in heaven, and she loved the feeling that this gave her.  It was better than anything before, and she knew that it was one of those things that made her go crazy with lust.  She felt happy, and for the first time in a while she felt sexually satiated.

              “What did you think? Did we prove to you that we like you?” Maxwell asked.

              “You did.  Definitely no doubt in my mind,” she admitted.  Farrah hadn’t felt this good ever, and she liked it.

              “Good.  Because once we’re done with this project, maybe we can meet more often later on,” Darian replied.

              Farrah agreed; she wanted to meet up with them to do this again sometime.  She now had an insatiable craving for them both, and she was happy that they weren’t just interested in each other.  They wanted her as well, and she knew that it was the truth.

              After they got themselves together, they finished the project.  It took no time, and they were able to submit it early.  Needless to say they got the jobs, and they were all high executives.  That didn’t mean that they didn’t have fun with each other though.  In fact, they had even more fun now than they did ever before.  Farrah was happy to be in this quirky relationship with them, and always looked for to their after-hours meetings in the boardroom.

THE END

Alpha Enchantment
(Part One)

Like lightning, the pain coursed through Hailey’s body with unrelenting intensity. She couldn’t move an inch from where she had stumbled down. It all happened so fast. All she could recall was a grunting noise – a deep and eerie sound that came from down the alley. She shrugged it off at first and assumed it was some stray dog or a homeless man – there were a bunch of them who set up camp in the abandoned lot next to her apartment building.

It was an elaborate tent city. From her apartment it looked like a sea of colors – almost pretty in a strange way, but up close you could see the dripping thatched-up tarps and makeshift heaters and burners. There were all kinds of people there, of all ethnicities and backgrounds. New York was a diverse and international city, and so was this little community. She hated looking at the lot everyday when she opened her blinds to let in some sunlight. It isn’t because she hated those homeless people, but because looking at the grim reality of that lot that was a stone’s throw away from the hustle and bustle of what was portrayed to be a land of opportunity reminded her of the life she left back in Ohio.

A deep grunting sound from that God forsaken lot – that was all she could remember. After that, all that existed was pain. She laid there as she felt blood leaking out of her side. She tried to reach for it, but that caused even more pain. She figured now that she might have been stabbed. Stabbings weren’t uncommon in these parts of the borough. She thought of that one girl – barely 16 - who was found dead just two blocks over. It was all over the news just a few days ago. It was just another mugging, they said. Apparently, it isn’t safe anymore for young girls to be walking all by themselves in the city.

Regret throbbed through her head. Why hadn’t she just accepted the ride her friend from work had offered her? Caleb wasn’t a bad guy. In fact, when she started working as a nurse at St. Martha’s Hospice, he was the first person to ever acknowledge her existence.

You would think that working with medical professionals would be swell and drama free, but Hailey was shocked to find out that even middle-aged women can act like bratty high school girls – much like those from back home that had bullied her all her life for being different.

Caleb was different though. He was kind-natured and very helpful. He wasn’t too bad on the eyes as well. In fact, Hailey found him to be quite beautiful. Yes, not just good looking but actually beautiful. He had long blond hair that rested just above his shoulders. He would tuck it behind his ear, exposing his chiselled jaw. He had pale skin – Hailey figured it must have been from always having to work the graveyard shift. But it wasn’t the kind of pale that looked sick and tired. It was this glowing sort of pale with a tinge of red that only intensified whenever he blushed. Also, there were those lips - lips that looked so soft without appearing too feminine. Those were lips that any girl would want against her own, she had always thought.

He was exquisitely tall and very lean too; not skinny, but lean. She was certain that underneath those hospital scrubs was a body with rippling muscles. Every now and then she’d get a peak of Caleb’s chest pushing against his shirt. He really was the very definition of a sexy man.

Caleb was indeed beautiful, but what really caught Hailey’s attention wasn’t his oozing sex appeal, but his amazing eyes. They were this shade of blue that she had never seen before on anyone. They weren’t your typical blue eyes. They were dark and deep. They were a stark contrast to the brightness of his entire persona. Caleb’s eyes reminded her waves during a storm. Thrashing about wildly – pounding the shore with sheer power and unhinged force. They, in their own beauty, had a sort of danger to them. It was this danger that Hailey was trying to avoid, because she sensed the trouble she could get into with him.

She blamed her introversion for what had happened. If she just accepted that ride from a guy she might actually like, she wouldn’t have been in that dark alley, gasping for breath, almost dying slowly and excruciatingly.

It was just so dark; the streetlights weren’t able to seep through that corner where she fell down. The neon flashes from the beaten down tattoo parlour in the building next to the alley where she laid gave her momentary images of her surroundings in a grim red tone. The white washed graffiti laden wall that framed the very spot where she laid had an indiscernible image of a man haphazardly painted all over it, with eyes that looked down upon her in dismissive pity.

No one could have seen her. She remembered how she was walking all alone, without a person in sight for blocks. But then again, there was that lot, with all those people. They might have mugged her, she thought.

She immediately dismissed the idea as an impossibility. She decided she was definitely not mugged. She took a class from some volunteer police officers a few months ago. Her friend made her come with her, and it was the worst time she ever spent in a room full of uniformed men. One thing she did learn though was that the best way to save yourself if you were being mugged was to just give whatever the mugger was asking for. She knew she wouldn’t have fought back, so there was no reason that the mugger would have attacked her. If it was a mugger, wouldn’t she at least remember and wouldn’t she be missing her purse?

What else could it have been?
She thought, while another surge of pain took possession of her. She started breathing in shallow intervals. Her experience as a nurse taught her enough to know she was now in an extremely critical condition.

When she had first come to, she noticed a buzzing sound at the back of her head – it was quiet and almost inaudible. After a few minutes of being there, that sound was all she could hear; a buzzing sound that only grew louder and louder. All she was waiting for now was that thing that vision you hear about when you are near your death – flashes of your past life. But it didn’t come.
All for the best
, she told herself. She wouldn’t want to see a rerun of the most depressing show in the history of this planet just before she was about to kick the bucket.

The buzzing grew louder and louder. Slowly the cold cement where she laid melted into something warm and soft. The red neon flashes merged in with the white light that only seemed to flicker in the distance that has now become stronger and brighter. The light was now engulfing what was left of her vision. She knew, right then and there, she was dying.

*****

The wind was cold, too cold for a summer’s night. Out in the distance was a looming figure. Its presence lit up the night sky with a serene strength – pulsating through the air was energy and vibrancy that he was all too familiar with. He was a werewolf like his father, his mother and all those that came before him. The moon had a control over his life whether he liked it or not.

The harvest moon meant something special to his pack. It had always been their symbol since time immemorial. In the past, they’d offer sacrifices to the moon that they held sacred. In ancient times, that meant a pure and chaste young woman – a virgin. When he was a lot younger, he had learned from his great grandfather that there were times when just a virgin sacrifice was not enough. There were times when their tradition dictated a more special form of sacrifice.

“What is more special than a virgin sacrifice Papa?” He asked the old man.

“Does it really matter anymore?” Don Luis replied. With aging hands he patted the boys head and sighed as sigh of remorse.

“We have betrayed our people. We have betrayed our moon.” He said with a look of anger.

He thought that it was quite a gruesome way of living. Luckily, times have finally changed for his family. They no longer offered virgin sacrifices like some barbaric tribe, he thought. But that look in his great grandfather’s face, haunted him even up until today.

We have betrayed our people
. The line kept replaying over and over again in his mind. He knew it would come back to him eventually, and it did. Now more than ever, he must not ever betray his people, especially now that his father had passed away and he was to become an Alpha.

“My son, it is time.” A woman dressed in red tapped on his shoulders.

“Yes mother.” His heart was pounding as his mother slowly ushered him back into the suite that had been his family’s home for years now. In fact the whole entire building was owned by his family.

The Dominguez’ had come to the United States just after the Civil War. Since then, they have taken strong roots in the upper echelons of the New York society. They owned massive corporations and international companies that have made their surname synonymous to success. This building and many others that decorated the New York skyline were a testament to that.

They entered the living room which was now converted into the ritual space. It looked like the set of some medieval movie, like some weird throne room. Red cloth with golden embroideries had been draped everywhere. At the very center was a little platform. This wasn’t the first time he saw something like this. In fact, this was his third.

The first time was when he was really young – when his great grandfather had passed away and his grandfather was initiated in much the same place as the new alpha. Sadly, he died prematurely by some unknown cause – or was it unknown because they didn’t want to find out what really killed his grandfather, he often pondered. Shortly after that, his father had to go through the same ordeal – the same red draping and the same little platform. He remembered it like it was yesterday. That was why he was so scared.

The memories of the ritual had traumatized his entire childhood, but then again, he never did think he would have to go through it like his father. He was only the second child. Second children don’t become Alphas. At best they’d become Betas, but never Alphas. Unless, of course, if the first born died without leaving an heir.

Guillermo, his older brother had been with his father when the accident happened. Their flight from Quito, Ecuador had crashed into the Caribbean. Their bodies weren’t found, but officials assured them that no one could have survived that crash.

“Anton?” His mother snapped him out of his trance.

“Yes mother.” He answered robotically as he looked to his mother for comfort. She was a beautiful woman, even for her age. Her long blond hair tied into a tight bun, her smooth pale skin that hinted grief and fear shone bright under the incandescent lighting. He stared into her eyes, the only bit of his mother he ever inherited. Those green jade eyes, which were once filled with strength and beauty were now just empty voids that showed misery and sadness.

“It’s time.” She said lowering her head, ushering Anton to the platform.

There were about fifty men in that room. Some were as young as ten years old, much like he was when he witnessed the same ritual back then. There were also older men as well. His uncles, cousins and other male relatives stood there with sullen expressions anticipating what was to unfold.

This was the oldest of all their rituals. This was when an ordinary wolf, became an Alpha.

He stepped forward up onto the platform and took rubber band from his pocket. He proceeded to tie back his jet black hair as the onlookers started to light their candles.

He was young and strong, and he had the body to prove it. He then slowly unravelled his robe revealing his complete nudity underneath. His bulging biceps that tense at his every movement, his abs that riveted across his stomach and his massive dangling cock were a testament to his Dominguez lineage. His dark brooding face that was softened by the same jade eyes his mother had, had now taken a more relax expression.

He was most comfortable when he was naked. Why wouldn’t he be? His chiselled chest was now pounding, not with anxiety, but with excitement.

He felt the energy of the moon course through him as if acknowledging his birth right as being part of the State’s most powerful wolf clan. Slowly, the hair follicles on his back started to ache as the transformation slowly began. It started with his fangs that slowly grew larger and sharper as his eyes grew deeper. His arms started to pulse as his blood rushed to every part of his body as if pumping him with more muscle and strength. Then, excruciating pain forced him to slump forward on all fours atop that platform. His nails became claws and his ears grew larger. He screamed an almost defeated scream as his wolf took over and he stood there in his wolven glory, heaving.

His black fur and the silver streak that ran across his eyes were magnificent. He reached a towering height of five feet tall even when he was on all four of his solid paws.

Then the cymbals started banging and the drums started beating. Men, one by one, then started throwing purple flowers – wolf’s bane - at him. Even the slightest touch of the petals of that tiny flower caused such an intense pain to course through his body. This was the test he had to endure. Only after every single male of his clan had battered him with wolf’s bane will he be born again as an Alpha. He remembered how his father had howled while they, including him, had tortured him with the werewolf’s only weakness.

After an hour, every wolf in that room had thrown their wolf’s bane at Anton as the shaken werewolf was now mustering all his strength to just stand up. He was bleeding from all the burns and cuts from the ritual as he slowly turned back into his human form.

As he stood there, barely alive, he howled – yes, he was now an Alpha.

*****

After a few minutes, his wounds had started to heal and the pain that ravaged his body had now pacified and was replaced by an overwhelming sense of power.