STORY EXCERPT

“My brother, who is much younger than me…um…came across the dagger. His friends wanted to give it to a person they know who pays for such items, but I wanted it to be returned to the person who owns it, so I brought it to you.”

“How do you know about me?”

The scary, fierce look was back on his face. Elsie refused to be cowed. “I play chess. I used to belong to a chess club.”

The Alpha spoke very slowly, as if he was dredging the information up from the bottom of his memory. “Someone at your club lost their travel chess set.”

“That’s right. Your company returned it to him.”

“That was several months ago.”

“Yes, about three months ago. I had to leave the club just after that.”

“Why?”

“I wasn’t able to pay my membership fees. They gave me an extra six months free because—Well, they did, but I still couldn’t pay.” Because her mother had died, and she hadn’t had a paying job for twelve months as her mother had needed her. But the neighborhood they lived in now didn’t look good on a resume. Especially one that had only intermittent work for the past five years because she’d always put her care for her mother higher than her need to keep her job.

And I don’t regret that at all. I will cherish the memories of Mom and me spending time together on her better days.

“Getting back to this dagger. Your brother stole it.”

“No, he didn’t.” Her response was instant and heartfelt, although possibly not one hundred percent accurate.

“He might have been the look-out person or something, but not the actual thief. He doesn’t want to join the gang and end up in jail. It’s just that in our neighborhood, well…” Elsie ran out of words.

How would these people have any concept at all of the grinding poverty in the neighborhood where they lived now? Before her mom had gotten sick, they hadn’t been rich, but they had been surrounded by good, hard-working people and kids who went to school. But her mom’s illness had drained every cent of the family’s savings, and then gradually they’d sold everything they could, even the car. Finally they’d moved into the cheapest apartment they could find. Her brother, so much younger than her, had suffered the most.

Even on the days when he went to school, she didn’t think he learned much. Some of the teachers didn’t care what the students did or even if they went to class. Others cared, but spent most of their time trying to maintain discipline. Elsie didn’t think very many of the teachers managed to instill much learning in the students. After a while, her brother had simply avoided school.

She really couldn’t blame him.

The Alpha gave a hand signal to the other man, who left the room, closing the door behind him. The Alpha poured them both a second cup of coffee, leaned back in his chair, and said, “Why don’t you begin at the beginning and tell me why a young woman would arrive at a shape-shifter enclave on foot, with spare clothing hidden inside a coat.”

Elsie sighed. “It’s a very long story. Five years long.”

For the first time, the man smiled. “Do you think you could cut it down and tell me in five hours?”

Elsie’s breath caught in her throat. When he smiled, he was amazing. His eyes sparkled, the creases on his forehead smoothed out, and he looked like what he was, an exceptionally handsome man.

“I’ll aim for five minutes. My mother had cancer. It was much too late to operate when it was discovered. It was already in her spine. She quit her job and had chemotherapy and took pills, but like I said, it was much too late. She got a lot sicker quite quickly, so I left my job and took on part-time work so I could be with her and help her.”

“You said your brother is much younger. Was he working?”

“He was twelve. He’s seventeen now and still in school. When he goes. We had to move into a cheaper apartment, and the schools in the district aren’t…aren’t…well, I’m sure you can guess.”

He nodded, and she took a mouthful of coffee, bracing herself to continue.

“He said he has to be seen with one of the gangs to be safe. I expect it’s the truth. Like I said, it’s not a nice neighborhood. He’s resisted joining, but he has to cooperate with them. The gang has started working with a man called The Fixer. He tells them what to steal and which houses to go to and steal it. He’s even given one of the older boys a car so they can travel anywhere around town.”

“How did you learn about the dagger?”

“The person who’d ordered it changed their mind, and The Fixer hasn’t paid for it yet. The gang left it with JJ, and he’s supposed to hand it over when the time comes. I begged him not to. He’ll end up in jail for sure. The Fixer doesn’t care. He laughs at the boys when they go into danger. I’ve told JJ to leave town, to go away, and he wants to, yet he won’t.”

“So you’re going to run away instead? Will JJ follow you?”

“I don’t know. I’m planning to go to another state and get a job and then send for him. I have to do it fast though. The rent on the apartment is only paid for another month. That was all the money I could get. No one wants to hire a woman with no reference.”

Elsie realized she sounded bitter. She wasn’t. Her mother couldn’t help getting sick, and JJ couldn’t help only being a boy still. She was the adult. It was up to her to find a job and make a new start for herself and JJ. And she’d do it, too.

“Where are you going?”

“I don’t know.”

“What?”

“There’s a diner where the trucks stop about five miles from here. I’m going to walk there and find a truck driver who wants a passenger. I’ll go wherever he’s going.”

The Alpha jumped to his feet, gray eyes blazing. “No you will not.”

ADULT EXCERPT

She’d known all along being with three men would be extreme. She’d been more than ready to be fucked three times so each of them could have an orgasm. She’d even toyed with the idea of multiple men at once, although she’d never expected it to happen with her feet crushed between a sexy man’s backside and a wall with a second man pressed to her back and a third man standing on a table. That picture still made her brain want to say it wasn’t possible. It might not be possible, but Amory was feeding his cock into her mouth right now, so it was sure as hell about to happen.

As soon as Amory’s cockhead was in her mouth, Elsie shivered with lust and flicked her tongue over his head and into the slit. Damn, he tasted nice. Much better than her own bland cream. Where Favian had been salty with a hint of spice, Amory was tart yet spicy, and when he gripped the back of her head and urged her to swallow him down, she did. It took her two attempts, but her throat knew what to do now and accepted him much faster than it’d accepted the dildo.

He felt a hell of a lot better than a dildo, too. Warm and hard yet flexible. And much easier to swallow because of it.

Now she was moaning at the delicious taste of Amory’s pre-cum as well as the intense sensation of two cocks inside her. The three men must have been communicating with each other somehow because they all pulled out of her and then slammed in simultaneously. The explosion of penetrative possession was too much for Elsie. She screamed and climaxed, digging her elbows into Favian as her body shook in release.

Brayden gripped her shoulders, and Favian pinched her nipples, sending more earthquakes of release racing through her body. Amory pulled his cock out of her mouth and then pressed it in again. She tried to lick his cockhead, but her mind had exploded along with her body, and it was too difficult to think about anything. All she could do was revel in the sensations rolling through every inch of her body from the soles of her feet pressed against the wall to the top of her head, held in Amory’s hand.

“Now,” said Brayden.

The three men pulled out of her again, and she understood how patient they’d been with her, warming her up, preparing her, and then waiting while she came. But she still couldn’t think of much beyond that as she licked all around the head of Amory’s cock and traced along the join between the cap and the shaft. Favian and Brayden moved together, in a slow, measured fucking that drove her insane with the building tension of their in-pause-out metronomic beat.

She scraped her teeth over the head of Amory’s cock and then ran her tongue gently down the side of his shaft before sucking his balls. Once again she wished she had the use of her hands to cup and roll them. But likely if she did have her hands free she’d be hanging onto Favian or the wall. Being up off the ground like this was erotic, but also a little frightening. She knew why they’d done it though. It was for the same reason they hadn’t taken the bondage tape off her wrists. She had zero control, and they had it all. She was meant to learn to trust them.

The strange thing was that she did trust them, completely. But that didn’t take away her questions or her desire to do things a different way. It wasn’t lack of trust but rather her years of having to be the planner and decision maker in her little family that had made her that way.

Although it was very special to have men wanting to care for, men who were taking the worry out of her life.

Favian and Brayden were pumping into her faster now, in and out with no pause at each stage. She thought they might be fucking her harder, too, but it might have just seemed like it because of the increased speed.

Amory gripped her head again and urged her to swallow him down.

Elsie smiled around his shaft, swallowing him, opening the back of her throat, and swallowing again. His shiver as she did it told her more than words ever would that she’d gotten the technique correct at last.

Favian was playing with her nipples now, cupping her breasts and stretching and elongating the nipples as he fucked her. It was good to meet a man who could multitask. But then he was the one who’d been able to flog her at the same time as he tickled her with the feather, so she shouldn’t be surprised.

Brayden pushed a hand down between her body and Favian’s and rested his longest finger on her clit, rolling the tiny button and then rubbing it.

Just like that, she knew she was going to come again. Once again the intensity of so many men, so many hands, mouths, and cocks on her and in her, was going to send her into release. But this time she wanted the men to come with her. It took her three or four attempts, but she managed to grab both Favian’s and Brayden’s cocks with her cunt and ass muscles, holding them in a tight grip for three seconds before letting them go. She had Amory’s cock in her mouth at the same time, hollowing her cheeks to suck his cockhead. She was determined to treat them all equally, and that was one way of doing it.

The men sped up some more, fucking her together, faster, harder, deeper. Aha. They’re as desperate to come now as I am.