Carla woke in her king-sized bed alone, with a pounding headache from the alcohol she’d drunk the night before. Pushing her eye mask up her forehead, she reached over and opened her nightstand drawer, while she eased herself up to sitting. She took the ibuprofen out, popped the top off of it, shook two out, and put them into her mouth. Lifting the bottle of water next to the lamp, she guzzled its contents and tossed the empty plastic container onto the floor.

“What a night!” She giggled, before plopping back down and covering her head with the blanket. “So worth the hangover.”

After a few more hours of sleep, she woke and felt refreshed, no longer in pain. She showered and dressed in a skimpy outfit similar to the one she’d worn the prior night, intending to return to the bar where she’d picked up those two hunks of men. She was hoping they’d be there and that they could have some more kinky fun together.

It was rare to find anyone willing to play the way she wanted to. Most guys called her a freak when she drunkenly confessed her fantasies, but those two had jumped at the chance when she invited them back to her place to fulfill them. She had the time of her life—one she’d been dreaming about since she inherited the farm. In addition, they were shifters, with bodies that surpassed any of her former lovers. She came harder with them than with any other human man or woman.

The roar of the big one, Brick, as he came from the way she worked him echoed in her mind. She hadn’t strapped him to the milking apparatus that was used on her cows. That would’ve been too painful for a man to bear. But hoping to one day fulfill her sexual peccadillo, she’d found an item reminiscent of it on a sex toy site. The device had a hollow cylinder for the man’s cock, and it was operated by a hand pump attached to the base. Since the piece arrived, she had kept it inside the barn, hidden away in a spot that only she knew about, waiting to be put to good use.

Remembering how Brick bellowed when his milk surged into the cylinder, her walls clenched. She licked her lips at the memory of the taste of it, as she drank it down, and the way his eyes darkened, watching her.

“Oh, yeah, he’ll be wanting more of that.”

She smiled, as she picked up her clutch and headed down the stairs.

Just then, there was a knock at her door.

Her heart jumped, and she yelled, “Back so soon, you, studs? I was headed to find you again. I’m ready for round two!”

Going to the entrance with swinging hips, she opened it to find three men, two of whom held shotguns aimed at her. All of them were in military garb from head to toe.

“Hands in the air!” one of them snarled. He moved forward, as she stepped back. “Where the fuck is it?”

“I-I-I,” she stammered, almost tripping over her feet, “don’t know what you’re talking about! Where is what?”

“Braxton’s book!” another guy yelled, as he stomped into the house with hard footfalls.

“What?” she screeched.

“Don’t play dumb with me, bitch!” the first one hollered, pointing the barrel at her forehead.

“Oh, my God! Please don’t kill me!”

“Tell us where it is!”

A kid then crossed the threshold. He had a weapon, but he held it with the muzzle down towards the ground. He looked at her in sympathy, before hardening his gaze.

“Colonel, with your permission, I’d like to talk to her. Sergeant Matt is scaring her half to death. You’re not gonna get any intel like that.”

The Colonel waved his hand forward, and Matt lowered his weapon and went to stand with Joe.

“Ms. Dyer, my name is Dylan.” The young man set his gun against the wall and approached her with his hands out to show he was not a threat. “We’re trying to find something, and our search led us here.”

Her eyes flitted from him to the other two men who were staring at her intently, determination and hostility etched in their features.

She looked back at Dylan, as he said, “We’re searching for a book. Let me describe it to you, and you tell me if you’ve seen it. Okay?”

“O-o-o-kay!”

“It’s made of black leather, but the front and back are covered with fur. It’s kinda old, so it could be that some of the hair has fallen off, only there in patches. Do you remember something like that being around here? Maybe your daddy had it and showed it to you before he passed on.”

She shook her head fast, as tears fell from her eyes.

“I’ve never seen anything like that! I swear it! My daddy wasn’t a reader! He worked the farm from morning till night!”

“What are you, a shifter lover?” Matt sneered from across the room and pointed to a spot on the floor, before striding over with hard steps to where she was shaking with tremors of fear. Grasping her by the back of the head, he forced her to look up into his face. “Answer me!”

“My library is on the other side of the house! Please! Go check for yourself! I don’t have it!”

“That’s not what I fucking asked you. Are you a shifter’s whore? Lowering yourself to spread your legs for those mongrels?”

“No,” she whispered.

“Check her neck for the mark,” Joe called out.

Matt shoved her head forward to her chest and jerked her hair up.

“There isn’t one,” he replied.

Carla stood still, not moving an inch, hoping with all her might that Brick and Duke would miraculously charge through the door and save her. She may have only known them briefly, but they didn’t seem the type to approve of women being abused. They had a good time, and not once had they mistreated or manhandled her… unless she asked them to.

Joe walked around the foyer, scanning the floor, while in her foggy memory, Carla recalled asking Brick and Duke to change, so she could see their wolves. They’d obliged, stripping before they transformed, and then padded around the house.

Duke had gone to the door and scratched it with his paw to be let out. As she watched from the wrap-around patio, he and Brick ran across her land, playing what seemed like some sort of tag, knocking each other over. It was a beautiful moment, seeing them streak through the grass with pounding, powerful movements under the moonlight.

“What’s this?” Carla returned from her thoughts to see Joe squatted down in front of where Duke had left a jagged scratch on the door. “It’s fresh.”

“I was keeping my best friend’s Labrador while she was on vacation. He wanted to go outside, and I didn’t get there fast enough to keep him from doing that.”

Joe picked something up off the floor, brought it over, and lifted it to her face.

“That ain’t retriever fur.”

“Then, I don’t know what it is! I have money! I’ll give you whatever you want! Please!”

Carla looked at Dylan, pleading with her eyes for him to do something, but he didn’t.

“I’m sorry,” he mouthed when his eyes met hers.

Joe backhanded her, and she fell in a heap to the floor.

“Did you beg them, too?” He kicked her in the stomach, and she curled into a ball, with one arm wound around her waist and the other over her head, as she screamed for him to stop. “Private! Find the library she mentioned and search it!”

“Yes, sir,” Dylan said, as he saluted, snapping his heels together.

From where she lay, she watched through the gap of her arms, as Dylan walked farther into her house.

They were going to kill her. She was certain of it, and she racked her brain for anything that could change their minds.

“I didn’t have a choice! I was forced!” She shouted the lie. “It was two against one! How could I fight them?”

Crouching down in front of her, Joe glared at her and roared, “I don’t believe a word you said! But even if you are tellin’ the truth, it don’t matter a whit, woman.” He stood, motioning to the other man. “You’re tainted with their stench, and it must be purged from the earth.”

The last thing Carla saw was Matt raising his shotgun, as she screamed in terror. There was a tremendous sound, and then… nothing.