Chapter 7
Werewolves?
So this was bad. This was really fucking bad. They didn’t relate to reality right. A group delusion. Shared psychosis. Yeah, that was what this was.
And had Lincoln said mate? That was worse. They wanted me to… Ugh. R-rated group delusion. Not that they weren’t hot, but I needed sane people around me. Especially now, after the breakup. Their delusion explained the massive dog though.
“Sure,” I said, forcing myself to remain as calm as I could.
Feeling like shit didn’t help with that.
“Sure, sure.” My throat was on fire, and I really wanted that tea with honey.
I had to get out of here first though. There was no time for tea.
“How about we talk about all that later.” I moved the covers off my legs.
Ugh. Oversized flannel all the way down.
Double ugh. They’d put that on me while I was out. “I should go,” I said. “Now.”
The dog growled and jumped off the bed even as Ellis pushed me back down. “You’re not going anywhere. You need to rest, Marcus.”
Elsewhere. I needed to rest elsewhere.
The damn dog put its front paws up on the bed and kind of howl-barked at me. I looked into its copper eyes…and the thing just sort of morphed upward and out until it was a person.
The redhead. The naked redhead.
Had been a dog. The redhead had been a dog, had been—
“What the fuck?”
It had perhaps taken two seconds all told, nothing like the drawn-out, painful transformations you saw in horror movies.
I was pointing. At the redhead. Who had been a dog. He looked at me in a smug way. And he was naked. Damn.
I looked at Ellis. “What was in those pills? Because the way I’m hurting, it can’t have been paracetamol. What kind of drugs did you slip me?” Okay, even with the sore throat, I sounded panicked. I needed to keep calm.
Ellis opened his mouth to say something, but before he could, the redhead spoke.
“We didn’t give you any fucking drugs. What do you even think is going on here?
Do you think we dragged your shapely ass back home because we enjoy breaking the werewolf truth to humans?
You were hurt. You were out in the woods, and you were bleeding. ”
“Enough,” Lincoln said. “He’s panicking, and you’re not helping, Dom.”
Right. Dominic. The redhead was called Dominic. He was naked. He was a naked ginger, looking at me with eyes that had gone from copper to green.
Dominic growled. “I know, but—”
All of them whipped their heads around.
“Ah, fuck. Better put on some pants,” Dominic said, then he walked out of the room. I tried not to look at his ass, I really tried, but the fever made me do things.
“Marcus,” Lincoln said, bringing my attention back to him. “I think Steven’s here. We should talk more, but if you feel more comfortable going with him, we understand.”
I heard growling from somewhere else in the house. Apparently, the drugs were good enough for me to hallucinate growls.
Lincoln ignored the possibly imaginary growls and went on.
“If you don’t want to see him, you don’t have to, and we’ll send him away.
” He paused and did a very intense staring thing.
Under different circumstances, I might’ve found that sexy.
Right now? Right now, I wasn’t sure. “You’re safe with us, always.
Here, in this house, with us around, no one will hurt you while one of us still lives. Do you understand?”
Well, wow. That was right out of the hottest lines ever in the playbook. I blushed, and it had nothing to do with the fever.
“He’s right.” Ellis’s hand rested lightly on my forearm. When had he put it there, and why did I never seem to notice this big guy touching me? Was he a fucking magician?
“Damn right he’s safe.” Dominic looked into the room from the hallway, busy pulling a T-shirt over his head. “Might even nip someone if you ask nicely.” His grin was both pretty and wicked. Fuck. I really wasn’t thinking straight.
“Let me leave.” This time, when I tried getting out of bed, Ellis didn’t push me back.
Lincoln sighed. “I’ll let him in.”
He left the room. Dominic followed, but not before scowling at me. Not that I gave a hot fuck.
I wanted to run right out of there, but the moment I was standing, blackness rushed in, and I swayed. I’d have collapsed too, if Ellis hadn’t been there to steady me. My head was pounding with renewed vigor.
“I have you,” Ellis said. “It’s all right.”
Nothing was fucking all right. I wasn’t fucking all right. This wasn’t fucking all right. And fucking werewolves? What the actual fuck?
“Where is he?” I heard Steven bark from somewhere.
That was definitely not all right. This vacation was supposed to be all about how I would get away from that jerk. Who had fucked a fucking undergrad. While being in a relationship with me. And then he’d come home and slept in my bed. Ugh.
I was wearing socks, I realized as I looked down at my feet and tried to force the blackness away.
“I don’t like him,” Ellis said.
Well, that made two of us, not that I would tell the big guy holding me upright. I took an experimental step. I wasn’t super steady, but Ellis made it so I didn’t wobble too much.
“Let me through.”
Steven again, and some growling. Damn, they took their werewolf thing pretty fucking seriously. And the drugs. How had the drugs made me see…that? And where was the dog? The dog had to be real. Or had Dominic been on my bed this whole time, and I’d hallucinated that he was a dog? My head hurt.
Ellis maneuvered me through the house. What I saw of the place was chic, all glass and wooden furniture, lots of windows and large rooms. Rustic, but chic. It was classic “move away from civilization but with loads of money to make it comfortable” style.
Steven was fuming on the doormat, Lincoln and Dominic blocking him from going any further. The moment he saw me leaning on Ellis, Steven focused on me.
“What the fuck were you thinking not returning my calls, Marc? I was willing to talk this over, but instead you run away. Is that your mature response to an argument?”
“Argument,” I snorted out, my voice barely there.
That cheating bastard. He tried pushing past Dominic and Lincoln again, but that was a big fat no on the feasibility front.
“Let me through, you assholes.” Then Steven returned his attention to me.
“You think you can just give it up to these guys and make me jealous? You look worked over. What did you do, suck their dicks all night long? Fine, I’m angry, Marc, but this makes us even, so stop being a damn brat, get your shit, and let’s go. ”
To top that off, he clapped his hands as if to set off the tune he wanted me to dance to.
Someone was growling. At least one someone. It might’ve even been me.
“I broke up with you,” I rasped out. It would’ve been nicer to be able to say it without having to tack on a rumbling cough, but hell, it had to be said.
“I broke up with you because you fucked someone else and thought I’d never find out.
” Blackness rushed in again, and I shook my head to dislodge it.
“Did you at least use a fucking condom, Steve? Or do I need to get tested for everything? Like, what were you even thinking?”
Ellis pulled me against his side, and this time I noticed, and I let him. Steven had the fucking nerve to roll his fucking eyes at me. “Don’t be such a drama queen, Marc. It was one time after you blue-balled me for weeks. It’s not something you ruin a relationship over.”
Apparently in Stevie-land, I was supposed to be okay with him fucking other people. Oh, the fucking nerve of him. “You ruined this relationship,” I said. “You. Not me.”
Steven sighed. “We can discuss who gets to be the scapegoat on the way back. We should get going. I already missed a day of work to come and get you, and I’m not going to miss another.”
No way was I getting in a car with Steven the fucking innocent.
“You know what? You can piss right the fuck off and never come back. And you know why? Because you and me? That’s over, Steven.
I don’t want to build a life with someone who cheats on me because I’m tired, because I have a deadline to meet. Just get lost.”
“You heard the man,” Dominic said, not missing a beat before getting right in Steven’s personal space. “You’re no longer welcome here.”
“The fuck’s that supposed to mean? You can’t keep my boyfriend from me,” Steven said.
“Ex, it would seem,” Lincoln said calmly, crossing his arms.
I didn’t have a great view of Steven, not anymore, but I saw his fists ball and his face screw up with anger and annoyance.
Dominic was a big guy though. Not Ellis’s size, but he still had half a head on Steven, and he gave off a strong “please try something so I can kick your ass” vibe that even I caught, and I could barely feel the steadiness of the floor under my feet.
Steven, clearly being smarter than when he’d cheated on me, stepped back. “Fine. You want sloppy seconds? All yours. Enjoy his pathetic, whiny ass.”
Dominic closed the distance that had opened when Steven had retreated, pushing him away from the door with mere presence alone.
Rather than closing the door in Steven’s face, Dominic and Lincoln followed him out onto the porch, which had wildly flowering geraniums in a good half dozen pots placed all over. Huh. Werewolves who liked flowers.
The two of them watched a still-fuming Steven get into his car and drive off too fast down the driveway, spraying gravel.
Lincoln came back inside and asked, “You okay?” Dominic was still looking after Steven’s car.
“The fuck do you think?” I was leaning heavily on Ellis now, who apparently took this as a cue to walk-drag me to a large living room couch and pull me down there next to him. “You’re not werewolves. You drugged me. And the only person I could’ve escaped with is an asshole I couldn’t escape with.”
“The only drugs you had were low dosage paracetamol, Marcus, and I think you know that.” Ellis’s arm had somehow come around me, and he’d pulled me against his side. Lincoln was on the couch as well. When had he sat down? Damn, how high a fever did I have?
“Would you like to see me shift?” Lincoln said. “Or Ell?”
No, I wouldn’t. “Yes.”
Lincoln nodded and stood, then stripped his clothes off. Damn, that was a fine piece of man, just like Dominic. Muscle where you wanted it but rarely found it…where Steven definitely didn’t have it.
Once he had all his clothes off, Lincoln pulled my chin up. “I’m not complaining, but my face is up here,” he said, setting my cheeks on fire. “Now watch.”
I nodded and watched, and just like with Dominic earlier, only in reverse, Lincoln sort of contracted.
Like a rubber ball maybe. But that sounded off and too cute.
It didn’t take him more than two seconds.
Less, even. Then there was a jet-black wolf where a moment ago, Lincoln had been, eyes a bright azure.
“Wow,” I said, and Ellis chuckled, the sound coming from deep in his massive chest.
“What, so Linc gets a wow, and I freak you out?” Dominic had wandered back inside at some point, and was now casually stripping as well.
“I’ll go have a look to make sure that dickwad doesn’t decide to double back.
I’m getting all kinds of vibes off of him.
I’ll just say I told you so, because it makes me feel good. You two got our boy?”
“I’m not your boy,” I said, but Ellis was really warm, and I relaxed against him.
His breath brushed my cheek, and I turned to find him looking down at me as if I were the most precious thing he’d ever laid eyes on.
“Yeah, we got him.”
What was wrong with me? Why was I still here?
Had true crime taught me nothing? You should never trust handsome strangers who were too charming and entirely too good to be true.
You also weren’t supposed to trust strangers who turned into freaking wolves, wolves.
Little Red Riding Hood should’ve taught me that last bit.
It finally hit me. “Fuck. You guys are werewolves.”