Chapter Skye
Skye
My ass aches from sliding down the tilted roof, but at least now I have the pleasure of soft dirt between my paws.
Everything is brighter and sharper, my nose picking up all the trails as I take in heavy breaths with every stride.
Wild heather dominates this landscape, and the recent rains pull that rich earthy smell to the forefront, covering my fur, and an excited howl creeps up my throat, stifled before it can escape.
I can’t remember the last time I felt so free, so wild.
Being in the auction facilities for the last five years, I couldn’t shift at all, even when my body damn near tore itself apart at the full moon.
I cried myself to sleep in the quiet of my own room, feeling my wolf slipping away with every muted shift.
Even before that, my dad had banned it, and my mother hadn’t liked it much either…
I feel like a whole new animal, reborn with a pup-like vigor as I bolt through the undergrowth with claws shearing through the soft earth and wondering how long it’ll last until my torn dress is discovered beneath the cars and my footprints change to paws.
A foreign howl wails through the night.
That is not a welcoming call from one wolf to another. It is a hunting bay, an Alpha's call to his mate… To me. Yet all it does is drive me harder.
A second howl sounds.
Both Atlas and Fury are hunting. Goddess help me, not only am I running from my scent-matched Alphas, but my Omega and wolf are fighting every second for control, demanding we turn back.
Worse, there’s not a hint of fear from either as we flee our Alphas, only an electric excitement pulsing through my veins with every heartbeat, demanding our pack works to prove themselves to their mate.
With their much longer legs, it won’t take long for them to catch up to me, and I wonder what their wolves are like.
Do they have dark, smoky fur, or maybe pale moonlight?
Pushing everything to the back, I let myself run on pure adrenaline, charging through the trees.
Dread fills me. I’m far enough into the woods to have a head start on them, but I’m not alone.
There’s a creeping kind of feeling, like something’s watching me.
Only the sound of my paws, muffled by the moss and dirt, reaches my ears instead of the incessant chatter of wildlife.
Surely they haven’t covered that ground already—
Something hits me from above like an asteroid.
Razer blades cut right through my fur and into my hips, a clamp locking around the back of my neck.
Dirt and dust fly up around me as I crash to the ground, pain screaming through every inch as the heavy weight forces me down.
Yelping, I fight against it, lashing out with teeth and claws, but I can’t reach.
Instead, I opt to try and quiet myself, work out what the fuck it is before I injure myself more.
Not a wolf, the scent isn’t right. The deadly points in my hip and shoulders mark claws and thick pads holding me.
As much as I can, I turn my head to see the most beautiful coat I’ve ever seen.
Golden, with the glow of spun silk, it is decorated through with pitch black rosettes.
Spots within those rings, and my head drops to the ground.
A jaguar. There is a jaguar on my back. Of all the fun facts that I store in my brain, I remind myself that Jaguars have one of the highest bite forces of any animal on the planet.
Fuck.
Surely I’d be dead if it were hunting, right?
Do they play with their food? High and reedy, my whines transform along with my body until I’m shifting, my body screaming that this is the worst idea.
Losing the fur that's protecting me even a little against those deadly points. Yet as I shift, the claws retract themselves, leaving only a well of bloody points dripping crimson. The jaws open and drop me to the ground, but the weight doesn’t move; the big cat crouches over my back instead.
I feel the fur retreating, thick black hair draping over my body instead, and a palm pressing between my shoulders, another stretching to clasp my hands in front of my head, and I’m suddenly very aware of the he on my back.
Hard against my spine, I feel him throb in time with his heartbeat as I try to wriggle away.
“Please, no,” I beg under him, “Please, I don’t want this, let me go…”
“Stop fucking moving. They will be here to get you in a moment.” The voice behind me snarls, and I freeze, turning my head comically slow like a horror movie to meet the furious golden glow behind me. Glaring back at me, his lips raise in a sneer, my feline pack mate.
“Lucas?!” I yelp again, but he shoves me back down by the hand on my back, holding my naked chest into the dirt. “Why the fuck are you hard? Do struggling women get you off, asshole?”
A vicious snarl rips through the woods, and he drops his weight down on me, slamming me right back down, “You are a shifter too, don’t act stupid, you know it happens when we shift.”
“Skye?” Atlas calls as he jogs through the thick trunks towards us.
My eyes dart downwards to see his… Thick trunk also.
What the fuck. But he doesn’t even blink as he turns back to the heavy tree line and gives me a flash of the back tattoo spread across his broadness, “Fury, Luc has her, it’s good. ”
“Hurry up and take her,” Lucas calls, repositioning himself to my side so he isn’t straddling me anymore, and the long dark lines of him glow in the moonlight like some fallen fae warrior.
My heat rears its head a little, but I push it back down again.
They’re very pretty men, and that's all I can let myself believe. I can’t let myself get attached to any part of them.
Staring out towards the trees, my whole body quivers, exploding with heat as my Cardinal appears.
If Lucas is a warrior, then Fury is a god.
His tanned skin glitters, black tattoos marking nearly every inch of his bare abdomen and waist, warping him against the dappled light.
There’s a dark band of ink around his waist, and it looks like he has…
Is that a corset tattooed around his waist?
It brackets his slender hips well, but once more I’m drawn down to where silver glimmers.
Eyebrows shooting through my hairline, I look up.
“Do all of you get off chasing women through the woods?” I snap, though the anger is offset by the fact that I can't stop staring at their cocks.
Fury gives me an odd look as he drops to a crouch next to me, reaching out with one large hand to cradle my chin.
Tilting my head from side to side, he looks me over with pursed lips.
“It happens to shifters when they change back. Ignore it. You didn’t grow up with a pack, did you?
It’s one of the first things you learn.” Running his palm the width of my back, he scowls at the wounds from Lucas’ claws as well as the bruising from my beatings over the last week.
“Did you have to be so rough with her? It’s her first day here. ”
The man behind me shrugs, “She’s lucky I didn’t kill her.”
Growling at his pack mate, Fury tugs me up to my feet.
With my hand gripped in his like I might blow away at any moment, he pulls me back down the path towards the house.
Nodding at Atlas, the other man shifts smoothly, padding towards me.
His wolf is nothing like what I imagined, almost mimicking my own.
I imagined a big golden wolf for him, nothing like the big gray animal with the black chin and belly, spattering of silvers and whites across the top like he’s been frosted.
He’s absolutely beautiful with those big, steely eyes peering at me.
Without a thought, I reach out to him, fingers brushing through the fur of his head and ruffling his ears.
His fur is much coarser than I expected.
I’ve never felt my own, so I’m not sure what I'm expecting, but the thick and almost wiry hairs aren’t it.
Lucas is gone when I turn back around, and Fury shakes his head before walking me through the trees again.
Atlas lopes around us, stopping to circle every once in a while or to look behind him, and I take in the scenery of my new home.
Home. Can I call it that? Can I really stay and build something for myself?
No… As soon as they get me home, I’ll be punished for my escape, and I’ll be reminded exactly why I can’t stay here.
As if he can read my mind, Fury tightens his grip on me, clutching me to his warm side, “Now, little Omega, let's talk.” His voice is a purr, smooth and sinful as we make our way back to the house.