THE FOLLOWING HAS NOT BEEN PROPERLY EDITED YET.
Chosen Book 15
Prologue
Graham
I swallowed, my nerves nearly vibrating me right off the roof I was sharing with my best friend.
Witt and I had met in the little boy's home about six years ago. By that time I'd already lived in four foster homes and two other boy's homes. I'd thought that one would be just like the other's. Me getting picked on until I snapped and beat the hell out of someone and then got moved.
But as soon as I'd walked into that building, I'd found the soft green eyes of a blond headed boy not much older than me and I'd felt a peace I'd never felt in all my eleven years and I'd spent the next six years searching out those green eyes every time I needed that peace.
It didn't hurt that at thirteen, Witt had been a pretty big kid and not even the older teenagers messed with him.
"What's wrong, graham cracker?" Witt asked, bumping my shoulder with his.
He didn't technically live here anymore. Had been moved out since about a week after he graduated high school last year, but Miss Jan, the lady that ran the house with her husband Mitch, always let him come hang out still, so he would drop by almost every night and come to our spot on the roof so we could just hang out like always.
"You look like you did the day you wrecked Miss Jan's car," he said on a chuckle when I hesitated.
"Me?" I said indignantly, glaring over at him. "You were the one driving!"
"Yeah, but you were the one that screamed dont' hit that cat when that tabby wasn't even in the road, so I swerved for nothing." He turned those gorgeous green eyes on me and I nearly forgot what we were talking about.
Fortunately, I had plenty of practice ignoring the fluttery feeling inside my stomach when my best friend looked at me like I was the only person in the room. I knew he didn't mean it the way I wanted him to and I'd had to practice swallowing down this overly hormonal need to press my mouth to his.
"Uh," I said, raising my eyebrows and a finger in the air. "You'd been driving on the sidewalk right before that because you were gawking at that girl. It was completely understandable that I'd think you'd do it again."
"I was not gawking at a girl," he said indignantly, making me snicker. "I was gawking at the little red sport's car."
"Well," I said, shrugging. "My decision to save that cat's life is still a sound one. I have not regrets."
He laughed, rolling his eyes. "Okay, you've almost successfully distracted me. Now spit it out. What's bothering you?"
Just like that, I went from warmly reminiscing about a simpler time in our lives to my stomach dropping out. I bit my lip, whipping my sweaty palms on my jeans. "I have something really important to tell you and I'm afraid you're going to hate me."
"Whoa," he said softly, throwing his arm around my shoulder and pulling me close. "You know I could never hate you, Graham." He dropped his head down on mine, giving my shoulder a jostling squeeze. "You've been my best friend for four years. There is nothing you could tell me that would change that."
"I'm gay," I blurted, ready to get it out so I wouldn't sit there for the rest of the night chickening out."
Witt froze, but he didn't drop his arm as he pulled his head back so he could look at me. "You're…what?"
"Gay," I whispered, watching the eyes I knew were a pretty light gray but looked deceptively dark in the dim light of dusk.
"Oh." He blinked, his head tilting to the side as he rolled that information around in his head. "How long have you known?"
I gave a nervous laugh, taking the fact that he still had his arm securely around my shoulders as a sign that he wasn't too bothered. "About three years. But I've just accepted recently that it isn't going to change."
"What made you decided it wasn't going to change?" he asked, frowning. He swallowed hard. "Do you have a boyfriend or something?"
I watched his face closely as he looked off into the distance. I wished I knew what he was thinking in that moment. He almost looked pained and my stomach flipped with nerves. "No," I said hesitantly, licking my lips. "I just know I'm definitely attracted to guys. Not girls."
I didn't miss his sigh of relief and I frowned, wondering if the idea of me actually being with a guy would maybe be too much for him. Not that he'd have to worry about that anytime soon.
First of all, I wasn't at all ready for anyone besides him to know and second, the only man I was in to was completely off limits because I was a moron and was crazy about my straight best friend.
I sighed, shaking my head. That would happen to me.
"Have you told anyone else?" he asked after a moment, turning his head to look at my face, a small smile curling the corner of his mouth and making me relax again.
I shook my head, watching his gorgeous face and wishing I could kiss him. "No." I looked away, doing what I always did when temptation grabbed ahold of me and biting the shit of my lip. "And I probably won't. Not until I'm able to take care of myself like you do."
"Hey, Graham?" Witt asked, drawing my attention back to his smiling face.
"Yeah?"
"Everything is going to be okay."
"You think so?"
He gave me another one of those jostling squeezes and let go, standing. "I do."
"Are you leaving already?" I asked, standing too.
He pulled me into a hug and I could have sworn he took a long, lingering sniff of my head, but maybe he liked my shampoo. "Yeah," he answered, pulling back to look into my eyes. "There is something I need to figure out. I might be gone for a couple of weeks but I'll be back, okay?"
"Okay," I whispered weakly. I hated it when we weren't together. It always felt like half of me was missing when I even went a day without seeing him. How was I supposed to last two whole weeks? "Where are you going?"
"I found out about some other shifters a few states over," he said, reaching up to run a finger down the side of my cheek. "I'd really like to understand myself a little more, you know? I'm going to go see if they would be willing to talk to me."
Witt and I found out he was a shifter at exactly the same time. It had been less than a month after I'd moved into the house and we'd been out in the woods climbing trees.
It was so sudden. We'd just climbed out of one, Witt catching me when I nearly fell on my face because I'd pushed of the branch too hard when I'd jumped that last part.
His head had shot up, his nostrils flairing as he put me back on my feet and he's spun quickly, growling low and long. I'd frowned, not sure what to make of his strange behavior… And then he'd just shifted.
I'd rushed forward as his body started to contort, grabbing him, worried he was in pain. Fur had sprouted beneath my fingers and his clothes ripped. Before I knew it, I had my hands on the shoulders of adolescent lion, his main only partially grown and his body long and thin.
I'd jerked my hands back, gasping and he'd turned his big frightened lion eyes on me, making a noise that sounded a bit like a groan and a roar and then he'd shifted back.
We'd both sat there, staring at each other for long minutes before we both burst out in shocked, nervous laughter.
He'd shifted a few more times, getting fast and faster each one, letting me pet him, laughing when I found his happy spot at the crook of his jaw where his main grew.
I'd ran back to the house, sneaking in and getting him some more clothes and we'd kept out mouths shut about it, slinking off to the woods once or twice a week so he could shift and we could play.
As hard as it was to be away from him for what felt like was going to be forever, I knew he needed to learn about himself.
"Two weeks," he whispered, looking down into my face with sad eyes. "We can do this, right?"
THE FOLLOWING HAS NOT BEEN PROPERLY EDITED YET.
Hounding Camp: Terra Mortis Book 6
Chapter One
Shepard
Looking around, I spotted the group I usually tried to avoid, but somehow always managed to get pulled into. I was just grabbing my lunch and going. I refused to be pulled into another asinine conversation about super heroes or whether they should do a crossover movie with the frogs that fell in toxic sludge and grew into real boys and the bug guy that climbs on walls.
Especially when Larrin spent over forty-five minutes last time quizzing me about what exactly he would have to mix to make a super-rat. I mean, I knew the answer, but I wasn't going to tell him.
"Hello, little one," Grey Wright said beside me, making me realize I'd been standing there staring at the ridiculous group for far too long.
Grey was now a part of that group because he mated one of the original members's brother. They spent more time here on Terra Mortis than they did in the demon realm, but I'd heard Grey, the king of the fifth demon kingdom, let a minion run it for the most part.
He trusted his minion explicitly along with his head of security, and I found that oddly sweet. It was hard not to like the demon king. I'd never met one so humble in my life and I never felt like I was faking the calmness I usually had to fake around royalty.
"Hello, your majesty," I said, giving him a nod.
"Will you please call me Grey?" He smiled softly and I couldn't' keep myself from responding in like.
The demon king seemed to be very protective of my kind along with the minions in his care and in other's care, and though I should probably find his sweetness a bit patronizing, I knew it actually came from a place of caring and not his way of letting me know he was better than me.
"Sorry." I cleared my throat, glancing back at the table and scanning its occupants for the real reason I tended to avoid it. "Force of habit."
Camp was nowhere in sight and I couldn't quite lie to myself and say I wasn't a bit disappointed by his absence. I'd though he was back from whatever errand he'd been sent on, but apparently he was gone again.
Would it have been too much for him to stop by just once to harass me at the lab before he left?
"Have you heard about the old one?" Grey asked, moving forward and I moved with him.
"Hagler, yes," I whispered, not sure how to feel about that. "My mother called me this morning."
On the one hand, Hagler had been a good man, but I hadn't known him at all. I'd never even met him when I lived in limbo and he'd been our neighbor. On the other hand, he had been a hellhound and when one was murdered, it almost always meant we were being hunted.
"It sounded like bounties," Grey said, confirming my suspicions. "Hagler was old and strong. It had to be quite a few."
Bounties were gremlins that hunted hellhounds specifically. Gremlins themselves were an awful species known for causing chaos, but bounties were a special kind of little pricks, taught from early on in life how to hunt and kill hellhounds.
They had little devices crafted for the soul purpose of rendering a hound unable to pop in and out, specifically out and therefore taking it's means of escape. Then they attacked in droves not caring how many were taken out in the process of taking one hound down.
I swallowed, no wanting to think about what they did to the hound once they had it incapacitated.
"Yes." I cleared my throat, realizing too late that I'd allowed him to lead me to the table of chaos. "My mom thinks I should come home. She's worried about me since I'm the only hellhound on Terra Mortis. But I feel just as safe here as I would in the underworld."
"Yes. It's unlikely that gremlins would come here. We have a dragon." Grey sent a smirk Martigan's direction and the dragon returned it.
"Mm, gremlins," Martigan said, rubbing his flat stomach. "I haven't had a nicely cooked gremlin since I was a baby."
"You eat gremlins?" Miller asked, staring at his mate in horror.
Blinking at the wolf shifter, Martigan said dryly, "All dragons do."
It wasn't actually true. Well, it wasn't anymore. But gremlins didn't need to know that. And in all honesty, I couldn't say that all dragons didn't anymore. There were some very old dragons in the world and any of them could very easily have themselves a gremlin snack from time to time.
Miller shuddered, glaring disgustingly at his mate and then Grey and I. "That seems wrong."
"Did someone say something about gremlins?" That voice. I would recognize it anywhere. Because with it, came the pleasant shiver along my body and the accelerated heartbeat. It brought with it the delicious scent of Camp Walt and the feeling in my bones turning to goo as my knees tried to give out on me.
Licking my lips, I took a deep breath, preparing myself for coming face to face with the man I was deeply and stupidly infatuated with.
Turning, I gave the Latin man my driest look, blinking. "Martigan was just promising me a pot of gremlin stew if they come to the island."
His pretty, dark green eyes narrowed and his plump, distracting lips pushed out as he tried to read my face. "I can't tell if you're joking." When I raised my eyebrows, shrugging, ready to walk away, he reached out, latching onto my arm. "Hey! Sit with us."
Shit! That was exactly what I wanted to avoid. For every moment I spend in Camp's company, it became increasingly clearer to me that I was really and truly growing to adore the idiot and I was under no illusions that the feeling was mutual.
I knew he enjoyed messing with me, but for someone like Camp whose life kinda revolved around getting a rise out of people, I was a challenge. The fact that I very rarely allowed people to see what I was thinking or feeling via my expression or tone, made me especially challenging for someone like Camp.
If I ever did give in and let the man see the me I worked hard to hide, he'd probably move on and leave me alone. Unfortunately, I wasn't sure I was ready to let him go. And that was definitely at the detriment of my own heart because the fucker got more and more attached with each encounter.
"I don't want to interrupt," I said finally, not sure how long I stood there, looking into those pretty green eyes and wishing I could just tell him no like I once would have.
Back when my resistance was stronger.
"You're not," he said scoffing, lifting an arm to motion around the table "Look at this group."
Briec flung her long, bright red hair over her shoulder, sending me a sassy smile that for some reason I actually liked about her. "You can call it a cluster fuck if you want to." Eyes growing wide, she spun her head back to look in Young's direction. "Hey, that should be our new name."
"Please, little one," Grey said, from my left, also gesturing toward the table. "You should join us."
Damn. Even though he wasn't technically my boss or even in command of me since we weren't in a war, I found it hard to say no to a man who could easily kill everyone in this room with little to no effort, but chose to sweetly manipulate me into sitting with these people because he liked them and apparently liked me too.
"Okay," I said, giving him a nod.
Pulling out my chair, he waited for me to be seated before sitting down next to his mate. I tried to hide a smile as sweet Ragyn sent me a small wave around Grey's shoulders, but I found it hard to dislike him too. In fact this entire table was full of people I had a hard time disliking.
When I felt my chair being pushed down the table slightly, I turned my head and blinked at the idiot who was alternating between moving my chair and scooting his forward. "What are you doing?"
"Sitting between you and the demon king," he said simply, still shoving and scooting, making a scene and looking like a determined child.
"Why?" I asked calmly, struggling with my mask when he ran out of room to push me so turned and started pushing the very amused Grey.