Chapter 5
Vatten
Canton Valley Farm
The party was just about in full swing. Well, if you could call an assembly line of shifters passing boxes, bags, and furniture into a house a party.
I watched from under a sugar maple. They were efficient and laughed and talked as things were passed from one set of hands to another over and over again until everything disappeared inside the house.
Then some of them broke apart from the group to set up tables and chairs and the other half brought out food to cover them.
“Say hi and make friends?” my dog asked from within his inner sanctum.
His tail was wagging ninety miles an hour.
The screaming goof loved to meet new people but I wanted to watch them a little longer first. Usually, when I traveled for work I met the client, fixed the problem, and went home.
This time the formula had been broken and like my polar bear ancestors before me – I didn’t trust the strange.
If it was strange it was best to see if it was edible first. Only, people weren’t the sort of food I wanted to eat.
Still, something in the air was off. Something electric and staticky. It hung from the thick air.
Philip had asked if I could see spirits but he hadn’t asked if I could feel this shit. What was this shit? Sometimes it was spirits. Sometimes it was negative energy. Sometimes it was just the fact I was a bit of an empath in the way that most dogs were.
A cherry red pickup truck that looked as if it never saw a single day of work in its life pulled in a bit late to the party.
Two men were inside of it and stayed there talking for a long time.
I made up a story about them in my head.
They were true-mates discussing their kid’s problem at school.
He liked to scratch up the furniture and hated to have his nails cut.
Yesterday, he scratched up the teacher’s desk.
I liked to make up stories to go along with the people I saw when people watching.
The man in the passenger seat flashed the driver a sad-ish smile before stepping out of the truck. A second later the driver’s side door opened and everything inside me exploded into sparks. I choked on the canine sounds that my inner beast tried to force from my throat. Oh, no. Oh, shit!
The driver’s scent wrapped around me like a warm blanket.
It splashed on me like it was a lake I could play in.
His scent was everywhere all at once and it burrowed itself into me more with each breath I drew into my lungs.
He was a cat. A housecat. His boyfriend was a lion or a dragon or maybe some mix up of both.
More lion, though. Definitely more lion. But the housecat – he was mine.
Oh, no! His poor boyfriend!
My dog forced a high-pitched bark up my throat and it vibrated off my tongue.
Everyone looked at me, including my mate and his boyfriend.
The cat’s pupils dilated and his nostrils flared.
His mane of hair ruffled in a breeze around his face.
Fucking gorgeous. I wanted to hide in that hair – to sleep under it.
To roll around and--- His gaze met mine and for a second I thought I had died.
My thoughts all exploded into a billion little stars.
Then I had to move. My feet sprinted me across the grass to where all the cars were parked without asking my permission first. It took every ounce of my being not to jump up on him and lick his face.
No, first I had to apologize to the lion-dragon but make it clear that his boyfriend was my true-mate.
“I’m so sorry,” I said, reaching out for the lion who took a big step back.
He was an omega like me. Poor guy. Maybe I could find him another alpha to be his boyfriend.
Maybe he could live with us as a roommate or something.
“I’m so sorry that your boyfriend is my true-mate but he is.
He’s mine now and I don’t think I’d be very good at sharing.
I get territorial and I mean he is mine after all.
We chose each other in the Other World and I hate to use the line but I licked him first technically.
If you lick—Never mind. I’m so sorry that this is hurting you.
I’m so sorry. We can be friends, though.
You can never have enough friends, right? ”
A new scent rushed into my head. It was the lioness who had baby talked me before. Evie.
“What did you two do to Vatten?” Evie demanded with a hiss and the men took a step back.
“I don’t know what his problem is,” the lion said. “He ran up to me and started barking or screeching or whatever that sound was.”
I facepalmed. I was speaking in dog to a lion. Yep. That right there was the story of my life. I glanced at my cat for help. A grin pulled at the corners of his mouth.
“Eran! Jade! What did you do?” Evie hissed.
“Evie,” my guy said. “He’s --- He’s mine.”
“You can’t just say he’s yours because he’s a dog shifter. That’s not how domestic shifters work. You know that—” she stopped and the wheels behind her eyes turned, putting together what he meant.
“I speak some dog because of Mac,” he said to Evie. “I think he’s apologizing to Jade because he can’t be my boyfriend anymore.”
The lion’s face turned red. If he leapt at me, I’d stay behind Evie. Lions were big. Dragons were bigger. But in lion society lionesses kicked everyone’s butt.
“I’m not his boyfriend. Not—we’re just friends,” Jade said.
The lion rambled on, but I couldn’t focus on his words. If the lion was Jade that meant Eran was the cat. Eran was mine. My whole body vibrated and it was only then I realized my tail was wagging. Well, it wasn’t out, but my whole body wagged.
Eran stepped past Evie and opened his arms to me.
I pounced and wrapped my limbs around him when I landed.
A bear shifter joined the fray, smelling like my mate.
His sire. I opened my mouth to say hi but stopped short.
There was at least one bear who frequented the farm who used they/them pronouns who Canton had told me about.
It wasn’t Philip but I didn’t remember who the bear was so I kept my mouth closed because I wanted Eran’s tongue in it instead of my foot.
I didn’t get to keep my mouth closed for long because Eran’s mouth claimed mine and as my lips parted under his, his tongue slid inside of my mouth.
I lost myself to him. His hair was everywhere.
It flowed around me like it might capture me and keep me safe from the rest of the world.
Somewhere nearby Philip and the other bear shifter were telling people to give us some space.
Everyone backed off except for them and the lion dude.
I still couldn’t stop kissing Eran. His big, strong hands rested under my ass, squeezing and groping, until it took all my self-control not to hump any part of him I could reach.
“Eh, Eran?” Philip said. “Congratulations, but the school bus will drop off the kids soon. They don’t need sex ed in the fields any more than the horses already give ‘em, okay?” He patted my mate on the shoulder and I barked at him not to touch my mate.
Eran stopped kissing me for a second and Philip met my gaze.
He was trying to be scary but a bear could only be scary if he was willing to hurt you and Philip wasn’t willing. Not for kissing in the field anyway.
“Kieran,” the other bear said. “Maybe take him back to your place? We can talk about the mating feast later. Jacand will be here in a bit and unless you want to be followed….”
“Sire,” Eran groaned.
“Trying to save you the headache,” the bear grinned. “It’s a good day and no one hid under the bed.”
I blinked but before I had the chance to ask who would hide under Eran’s bed my mate started carrying me away.
At first I thought he’d walk right off the farm, but he only carried me past Jade who opened the passenger door for us.
Eran slid me into the seat and pulled the seatbelt across my chest and belly until it clicked.
I grabbed his face and kissed him again.
He didn’t taste like he’d been kissing anyone recently.
Jade probably wasn’t his boyfriend but the looks they exchanged before Eran and I true-mate responded made me curious.
“Guys,” Eran’s sire said as a big green bus pulled to a stop. “That’s the little kids. In about five minutes the yellow buses will bring the middle and highschoolers.”
“Shit,” Eran whispered under his breath.
He paused long enough to hug Jade and ask if he had a ride to pick up someone I hadn’t heard of before and then he hugged his sire who whispered something in his ear that I couldn’t hear before climbing into the truck.
He cranked the engine and we were gone like the kids were from a zombie plague movie.
Gravel flew up behind the truck and I wondered if Eran would buff out the little spots they left behind.
“Jacand is my brother. He’s a teenager but thinks he’s grown.
I love him but…” Eran said. “He has this thing with always being at my place right now. He leaves like these little pieces of mice tails laying around. It wasn’t so bad when Bernard and Nashen were there – Oh, they lived with me until this morning.
They were the reason for the moving party. ”
“Oh! That makes sense! All of it – also our brains aren’t rated teen right now so keeping him out of the apartment is probably fair,” I nodded, gripping the seatbelt with both hands and squeezing it.
“Is your sire non-binary?” I asked and started to explain what I didn’t remember from what Canton told me.