Chapter 17
Kylian
After being scolded by my mate, I tried to make it up to him on my knees in the shower.
Once again he didn’t let me finish but bent me over and slowly took me from behind.
Then he crouched down, licked my pussy and sank his fangs into my ass cheek—which caused my fangs to descend on autopilot—setting off a series of orgasms that rocked my body so hard, he had to hold me in his arms when my legs turned into jelly.
I think I’m going to enjoy being mated.
We raided James’s refrigerator, pantry and bar on the way out and I found a small locked box and a banker’s envelope full of cash in his dresser.
I’m not a thief but it’s not like James is going to need this stuff if he comes looking for us.
If he backs off, cash and whatever is in this box will be minor payback for what he did to my mate’s store and motorcycle.
And trust me, if James backs off, he’ll be making out on the deal. It’s either this or his life.
We hike rough terrain and climb a series of treacherous boulders to a giant cave hidden by the surrounding boulders, trees and scrub brush. Dropping our packs, I fall to my ass and shed my coat, sweating and panting to catch my breath.
“You okay, babygirl?” Erick stands above me and offers me a bottle of water.
The bastard didn’t even break a sweat. “Oh fine, just more out of shape than I realized.”
He crouches down and puts his mouth near my ear, growling softly into my hair. “I’ll be working you out nightly once we get home, mate.”
A furious blush hits my cheeks and my pussy clenches at the thought.
Cricket and Doralee come over the ledge, the cougar shifter wearing a classic smirk on his face. Did he hear what Erick said with his supersonic shifter hearing?
Which immediately has me wondering if my hearing has become more acute throughout the day? Or my eyesight?
Dammit, Kylian, live in the moment. There will be plenty of time to work on your shifter abilities after we deal with the problem at hand.
I check in with my bear who stares back at me like she’s waiting for me to do something.
What that is, I’m not sure. I wish I understood what she needed from me. Whatever it is she wants, I’ll do it.
At least she’s showing herself to me now, which is a huge win.
“This is beautiful,” Doralee says, stretching her arms overhead while overlooking the vista.
“And strategic.” Erick points over the ledge in the direction we came from.
“The only road within ten miles is that highway, so if anybody pulls off, we’ll see them coming.
After that the terrain is rough but easily traversable as a bear, cougar, or wolf.
If they come at us, I suspect it’ll be as their animals. ”
“This is a great scout point.” Doralee sits on a flat rock and poses with her rifle pointed toward the vista, looking every bit of the bad ass I now know she is.
We talked about her skill and experience while waiting for the guys to load Thor into the helicopter.
She even offered to teach me how to shoot, which I’m excited to learn.
“Is this where you come when you take your annual sabbatical?” Cricket says, leaving us and following Erick inside the cave, his voice echoing off the walls.
Doralee sets down her rifle and drags her bag over to her seat. She’s got a big smile on her face as she rummages through her pack and pulls out a box.
“What’s that?” I ask curiously.
She unzips and shows me before picking up her rifle and attaching it. “It’s a scope.”
I stare at her, mesmerized by her confidence. “You really are a badass.”
Grinning, she retakes her position overlooking the vista, this time using the scope. She takes a deep breath and lets it out slowly before pulling the trigger. The sound of the rifle is so loud, it ricochets off of the cave walls behind me.
Turning to face me with an even bigger smile, she says, “Got it.”
“What did you get?”
“While we were hiking in, I propped an old sign against a rock. Totally annihilated it.”
“Everything okay out there, babe?” Cricket calls.
“Just fine, sweetums,” Doralee grumbles back but winks at me and whispers, “Makeup sex.”
I giggle and scramble to my feet to follow her inside, a series of glow discs illuminating a path into a vacuous cave twice the size it appears to be from the outside. “Oh wow. This place is enormous.”
“This is the first chamber but there are smaller chambers through there.” Erick keeps his back to us and points to the left. Cricket and Doralee follow his finger to investigate.
Erick continues to pull stuff out of both of our packs, arranging and then rearranging them into piles, almost like he’s fidgeting more than moving with purpose.
“Is everything okay?” I ask.
“I’m just thinking, babygirl.”
“The air is a little stale but at least there are no exits or entrants and it’s protected from the wind.
” Cricket comes back with Doralee following behind him a few minutes later, her brow furrowed.
“There are markings against the walls and floors. They look like claw marks. But there are also chalk and crayon sketches that look like a child drew them.”
Erick nods but keeps his eyes on the supplies. “Yeah. My brother and I drew them when we were kids.”
“Brother?” I ask at the same time Doralee asks, “Was this a camping spot?”
Cricket wraps his arms around his mate, pressing her back against his chest. He says nothing, but she seems to read his mood and presses her lips together.
“Um, no. This is where we lived from the day our mother gave birth until the day she died.” Erick turns and brings his eyes up to meet mine. “Actually, it was until our sixth birthday, which was the day my uncle killed my father, mother and twin brother.”
“Sweet Fates.” I cover my mouth in horror and then rush to his side, burrowing my way between him and the supplies to throw my arms around his waist.
He wraps one arm around me and presses a kiss to the top of my head. “To answer your question, Cricket, yes this is where I come every September.”
“Fuck, brother, I’m sorry about your family. I didn’t know,” Cricket murmurs.
“Nobody does. I’ve never talked about it.”
Cricket nods thoughtfully. “I guess most of us avoid talking about our childhoods. I suppose that’s why we joined Sierra—because our families and home life sucked.”
Erick snorts and nods his agreement.
“Is that why—” I trail off, unsure of what I should ask in front of an audience. If he never told his pack about his parents, what else don’t they know and why is he telling Cricket now?
“Yeah, babygirl, that’s why I was raised in the system.”
“Six years old? I hope they found you a good family,” Doralee says, her voice barely above a whisper.
“Nah. I bounced between families and group homes for ten years. You can imagine it was hard to place a shifter kid with human families. They always sensed there was something off about me, family pets hated me, and I made the parents nervous.”
“You had to go through your first few shifts surrounded by humans? How the hell did you do that?”
Erick takes a couple steps back until his back hits the wall, all the while keeping his hold on me.
He slides down until his ass hits the floor and then pulls me onto his lap.
His arms are loose around me and he slides one hand between my thighs.
I lean against his chest, listening to his heartbeat thump loudly against his ribs.
Cricket mimics Erick’s motions, taking a seat against the far wall with Doralee between his splayed legs. She leans back but keeps her focus on us—on Erick.
“It wasn’t a problem for me. I knew how to shift long before I went into the system. My parents were adamant we had control over our shifts, which I guess is why I didn’t shift in the diner today. Some training is ingrained soul deep.”
“You shifted for the first time before you were six years old? That's amazing. I've never heard of that before.”
“You have, you just didn't believe it existed.”
Erick hooks his finger under my chin, lifting my head so I’m looking him in the eye. “Have you ever heard of Farnon?”
I frown and shake my head. “No. What is that?”
He looks across the cave at Cricket. “I suppose you know what it is?”
Cricket nods slowly. “I’ve heard of them. They’re a myth, a folktale, an old story told at Pack Moon rituals when shifters have nothing else to talk about. It's also a word used as a slur in antiquated, backassward, closed shifter communities cut off from the modern world.”
“And?” Erick prompts.
“It’s when shifters are born in their animal versus human forms. They spend the first few years of their lives as animals, which supposedly makes them feral and—” Cricket trails off.
“Dimwitted and incapable of integrating with the human population. Packs believe they’re a curse and any Alpha wanting to keep control over his pack will do everything he can to keep their existence a secret—even terminating his own blood.
” Erick fingers one of my curls, his dark brown eyes rimmed with gold unfocused as he looks at me.
Although it’s not really at me but more into me, like his bear is looking at my bear with a lot less of his usual enthusiasm.
“I’m Farnon, babygirl. The day my brother and I were born as cubs and not humans, our uncle as pack Alpha ordered his beta, our father, to take us deep into the woods and kill us.
But my parents were fated and there was no way my father could kill his cubs, which would have destroyed his mate.
Instead he hid us in this cave before returning to his pack where his brother as Alpha told them his mate and cubs died during childbirth. ”