RILEY
She sat in their kitchen only three days later, waiting patiently for dinner to be done. She had received a text as she left work that read:
Unknown number: The pride has dinner together every night. I expect your here at least four times a week. -Brenton
Then she received several more.
Unknown number: Heard you are coming to dinner! Can’t wait, pretty girl!
Unknown number: Hurry up before my brother busts a nut in excitement. Please. -Gabe
Unknown number: I’m going to kill all of them.
She had given Andrew a hard time the entire ride home for giving out her number without her permission. He felt bad but Riley wasn’t really that angry. Plus they made it easy to tell who’s message was who’s. The death threat was obviously Zachary (now MadSexy in her phone), Troy (now SexyPest) was the only one who called her ‘pretty girl,’ and the other two were nice enough to leave their names. Brenton became HotAlpha and Gabe became RacyRacer since she knew he loved to race the bikes he made with Troy. He had made sure to tell her all about that just the day before.
She refused to feel bad over the names for them in her phone. She needed their numbers any ways and it wasn’t like they would ever know.
“Dinner’s done!” Andrew hollered. “You go sit in the dining room. I’m not letting you help.”
She laughed and waved. She didn’t really want to after shuffling food around all day for a living.
All the guys filed in, joking. Troy wrapped her in a hug and swung her for a moment.
“Pretty girl, how are you today?” He grinned at her.
“I’m good. What’s all this about?”
“We have pride meetings at dinner,” Brenton walked in and smiled at her. He was working hard to make for being an ass to her at the bar. “You should be here for at least half of them. And it’s free food.” He pulled off his blazer and placed in on the back of his chair. He sat at the head of the table and point to a chair to his right. “You go there.”
She sighed heavily and nodded. She watched the others grab their seats as well. Andrew was next to her, he seemed happy about it. Troy and Gabe were next to each other, while Zachary sat at the other end of the table.
“Today we’re going to run down some shifter world basics for you. Also, all of our positions in this pride,” Brenton began talking as Andrew served out the food. She had learned one thing since Saturday. Only Andrew touched the food until everyone was ready to eat. He was apparently the only one trusted with it.
“I’m the Alpha, obvious. I run everyone. I make sure everyone is safe, happy and doing their own jobs,” he pointed to himself. Then he pointed to Zachary. “Zachary’s my second, I already told you that. He’s in charge of all our security needs. He also sits on the board with me for Kingson Inc. The family company to which I am CEO. He’s also, if you can believe it, our lawyer.”
She knew they were rich but she never thought Brenton was the CEO of a company.
“So is being in charge just something you do?” She raised an eyebrow at him and he nodded. “And Zachary, you’re a lawyer?” He just growled something about being soulless.
“It’s my thing. I love business and organization. I’m good at keeping others on task and delegation of specific duties.” He smiled at her, baring his teeth. “There aren’t many shifters in the world willing to fuck with me for a lot of reasons. I’m a strong Alpha, I’m wealthy enough to ruin them, and I don’t like shifter politics so they leave me and therefore my price alone. That now includes you.”
She nodded and pointed at Andrew, who was busy eating.
“Him?”
“Andrew is our general house keeper,” Brenton winked at her. She blinked at that. Weird. “He handles everything in this house and now your apartment, to make sure we’re all taken care of. He also owns the diner now. We bought it for him so he didn’t feel like a house husband. Not that he would be a bad house husband…”
“Thank fuck,” Andrew mumbled with a mouthful of food. Riley started eating as well, noticing Troy and Gabe were already hitting seconds. Brenton also took a moment to eat a little. They bought Andrew the diner. That made more sense since Andrew said he wasn’t rich like all of them.
As the food frenzy died down, Brenton kept going.
“Gabe is our tech guy. He helps Zachary with the tech side of security and he compiles needed information for me when I request it. Troy just is here and that’s fine. Not everyone has to be the most useful.” Brenton rolled his eyes and Troy glared at him. Riley nearly snorted her drink as she tried to stop laughing. “He helps me with my company on the more paperwork side of things. He’s also our medic.”
“What about me?” she pointed her fork at her chest and watched Brenton’s eyes follow where it was pointing. Finally, he cleared his throat and shrugged.
“Truthfully, we never really needed another member. We want you happy. We all went to college and you should too. When you figure out what you want to do with you life, then we’ll talk about how those skills could help the pride.”
She nodded slowly and then stopped.
“College? I don’t have the money for-”
“Don’t think about money anymore,” Zachary growled from his spot. “It’s not a concern. Our pride is worth over a billion dollars and now you are a member of the pride.”
She sputtered and did shoot water from her nose at that. Andrew threw a cloth napkin at her, laughing hysterically. Troy and Gabe nearly fell out of their chairs. Only Brenton and Zachary waited patiently for her to fix herself. Her nose burned, it was pretty awful. She wanted to crawl under the table and hide from the embarrassment.
“What was that, Zachary?” She finally coughed out as Andrew rubbed her back.
“He’s right,” Brenton smiled mildly at her. “But it’s not something you need to worry about right now. Let’s just say… we took over all your bills behind your back yesterday and everything you make is now your own.”
She swung her head to Brenton and shook it wildly.
“You cant- You can’t do that!” She wouldn’t take their money like it, it wasn’t acceptable.
“We can, we did, it’s done.” Brenton calmly told her. “This is how our world works. When you are in the inner circle of a pride, you are taken care of by pride resources. With a pride this small, there is only an inner circle. And since I’m very wealthy, it’s not much of a problem. Since Troy and Gabe are also incredibly wealthy, it’s even less of a problem. The five of decided a long time ago to pool all our resources to the pride too look out for each other. Now you’re one of us and we’re not changing that to make you comfortable. This doesn’t break any of the promises I made to you.”
She kept sputtering until she realized no one at the table was on her side.
“So.. my apartment is-”
“Paid off for the next ten months until the end of the lease,” Gabe finished for her. “Your phone is paid for the next year unless you go wild with data charges on it. I also paid off those loans you had in your name from before you moved to Wild Junction.”
She felt a little dizzy. That was ten grand in loans from buying her car that broken and stranded her in this town. And from fixing the car more then once before she ever made it here.
“This is normal,” Andrew whispered in her ear. “It’s okay.” She could only sigh heavily. She had a clean slate. All her money was now her own. “Don’t faint on us.” She really wanted to.
“We’re also going to put you on our health insurance. Use it. Obviously don’t tell doctors what we are,” Brenton’s was that mildness she was wondering how he kept up. “But don’t be afraid to use it. It’s the best money can buy and you’ll never pay anything out of pocket. One of your jobs as a pride member is to stay healthy so if we need you, you can answer the call.”
She nodded, staring back him. An important question struck her. She should ask it now, screw their meals.
“Do shifters need special birth control?” She felt the words fly out of her mouth and she wanted to shove them back in her mouth. Brenton grinned at her now and she wasn’t sure she was okay with that.
“No, use what ever type you please.”
She looked away from him with difficulty and all the guys were watching her.
“What?” She finally snapped. “It’s an important question! I would hate to start using it and it fail me because I never asked! You guys just so happen to be the only shifters I know!”
“We aren’t susceptible to nearly any human disease in that area, but keep using condoms,” Troy mumbled. “Just in case. Not that your birth control question was inappropriate or anything.”
She was stunned. A sex question and Troy was clamming up. Zachary was smiling lazily at her and Andrew’s ear were red. Gabe was studying his plate and refused to look up at her. Brenton was still grinning down at her, all arrogance. Like he was assuming that he would be the reason she needed it. Cocky mother fucker.
“Moving on,” she finally hissed at them. “What next?”
“We are not the only type of shifters out there.” Brenton turned back to serious. “There’s a ton of different varieties. Wolves, bears, foxes are all obvious. I don’t even know all of them. If you run into one we haven’t introduced you too, just turn the other way. We don’t mess with each other and wars between the species haven’t happened in centuries.”
“Wars?” She nearly laughed at that. She shouldn’t have, it was serious topic. Which was why she wanted to laugh instead.
“You don’t need to worry about that,” Brenton patted her hand. “You need to worry more about Feline specific problems.”
“Like what?”
“Like how most felines are conniving monsters. We do battle with assassinations and in board rooms,” Zachary snarled softly. “Kidnappings, blackmail. We probably the most fucked up section of the shifter world. Other species purposefully avoid us to keep from getting tangled up.”
She leaned back in her chair. Assassinations? Kidnapping? Blackmail? What the fuck was wrong with these people? Was this really the world she was born to? No. She was born to the human world.
“Zachary,” Brenton sighed. “You could have softened that.”
“We don’t. We actually live here so we aren’t involved in that world anymore.” Andrew leaned down to her and bumped shoulders with her. She nodded slowly. “Don’t worry, we aren’t roping you into anything illegal.”
“We left that world because it kill all of our families. The town says they all died in accidents but we know better,” Brenton sighed heavily. “You just happening to be in this town actually set us off when we found out. We thought you might have been a plant from another pride looking to use us or gain something from us.”
“But I didn’t know who any of you even were a week ago.”
“Yeah, we figured that out in about twenty minutes,” Troy chuckled. “At least I did.”
She nodded slowly and Brenton shrugged, unapologetic.
“Is that why you’ve been trying to get to know me?” She hissed at him. He shook his head.
“No. We couldn’t have a half-breed dying of the Fever here in Wild Junction, so we decided to bring you to keep you alive and others ignoring us like we want.” Brenton was totally professional about it.
They wouldn’t let die since it would cause them problems. Wow.
“But we genuinely kind of like you,” he continued slowly, like he was looking for the right words. “You seem to fit in. So it all works out, really.”
“So I just lucked out?” She put her fork down finally and looked at the rest of them. They all nodded at her, Troy and Andrew both had sheepish grins. Gabe threw her a thumbs up.
“Is sometimes being lucky a bad thing?” Brenton leaned back in his chair, his eyebrows raised in question.
She thought about that for a moment. Relying on luck was a bad thing. Did she rely on it? She didn’t think so. So she got a little lucky this time. She would have to work so that luck didn’t factor into life anymore.
“No, I guess it’s not.” She sighed and shook her head. “I’m just tired of needing to be lucky. I was lucky my car broke down here, lucky Ruth was willing to give me a job, lucky to find an open place at the apartment complex.”
“I want you to move of the Dump,” Zachary groaned. “That shit is not safe or secure. It’s a nightmare to think about you being alone over there.”
“I like having my own space and where would I move? Here? This has been cool and all but I barely know any of you.” She snapped at him, a bit of a growl to her own words. “That was the deal, remember? I did the pride stuff in exchange for my own life.”
“You should stop snarling at me,” he growled back. “I outrank you.”
She huffed and looked at Brenton. He only looked down at her.
“He does. I did say he was my second Riley. He only answers to me at the end of the day.”
Well, shit. He did say that, didn’t he?
“Where do I rank?” She asked, a little pissed off.
“The bottom.” Brenton told her, mild and final. “Everyone here is more experienced, more knowledgeable, and more useful.”
Damn it all. Of course she was bottom of the power rankings here. And Brenton didn’t pull punches, she noticed. They all were more useful then her. She was here because they all kind of liked her, and they didn’t want her to die.
“Give it time. It’s been two days,” he grabbed her chin and forced her to look at him. It was a fatherly type of thing to do but from him, holding his gold eyes, there was something sexual about him touching her face.“You’ll find your place. Just let us walk you through it. We’re not going to force you to move no matter how much we all hate the Dump. We’re not going to take away your friends, none of it.”
She nodded slowly. She agreed to this and Brenton was only upholding his end of the bargain. It wasn’t like she bargained to be in a specific place of power. She probably couldn’t have even if she thought about it originally. She was totally new to all this.
“So, what now?” She asked softly.
“We need to get you accustomed to seeing us shift and teach you about being in your feline form. We like hanging around the house in feline form, you’ll be seeing it a lot. Get ready for a ton of nudity, we aren’t going to care about your delicate sensibilities.” Brenton’s smile was taunting now. “Of course, that will all come up several times over the next few weeks until we all choose a date for you to shift. You will be in that discussion and I’m guessing it will be less then a month until you do. Once you shift, there will be even more problems, like you adjusting to the heightened sense of smell and heightened hearing. Your eyesight will be better but you might not even noticed that.”
“Will I be stronger and faster too?” She wanted to hear more, even as Andrew began cleaning up the table with Gabe.
“Let’s say that your potential strength and speed grows. You’ll be able to push yourself farther with proper physical training. You’ll also live to about two hundred years old.” Brenton patted her arm.
“T-two hundred years?”
“Yup, you’ll age incredibly slowly. So when your human friends turn seventy, you’ll look thirty or forty still.” Gabe was grinning at his spot at the table. “We hit our prime at the same rate as humans but then our aging rate cuts in half.”
“How does that work?” She looked around at them.
“We’re careful. We don’t have human friends outside those who know what we are and we move around. We’ll stick to Wild Junction for a few decades then move away for a few decades or become shut ins. I own places all over the country but we wanted Wild Junction to be home, we missed it,” Brenton smiled at her, an eyebrow raised. “Not looking forward to a couple of centuries?”
“Would I always have live to two hundred or…?” How would she have dealt with that when she’d never known what she was?
“No, shifting seems to activate all the shifter traits in half-breeds. Up until you do, you might as well be human.” Brenton stretched. “Do you want to watch a movie with us or head home?” Brenton sounded like they were all done.
“A movie sounds good. Any plans on what ya’ll want to watch?” She jumped up from the table, happy to stand. As a waitress, she was used to constant movement and sitting for long periods of time got boring. And this was all a lot to hear.
“We were thinking about ‘Hell or High Water’.” Zachary stood up slowly and motioned for her to follow. “We watch movies in the den.”
She followed him, looking back to Brenton, who didn’t move yet. He only smiled after her. Troy blocked her, grinning.
“Sit next to me and Gabe. Andrew and Brenton had you for dinner.”
She nodded, looking over the snow leopard brother. Well, if that’s how it was going to be…
“Fine, fine.” She let him grab her arm and pull her into the den behind Zachary. Troy threw himself on the middle black leather couch and made her sit in the middle of it. When Gabe finally got it, he claimed the seat to her other side. Zachary sat on the right couch and Andrew claimed the other half of it.
When Brenton finally go into the room, he was wearing sweats and a t-shirt. It was the most casual she had ever seen him, though she’d only seen him for a few days. Everyone else was already wearing sweats and tees during dinner, done with the long day. He sprawled out on the left couch by himself and boy, that was a sight to feast on for a minute.
As the movie started, Troy and Gabe readjusted her until her head was in Gabe’s lap and her legs were over Troy’s. She would have complained but it was really comfortable. Like really comfortable.
Gabe played with her hair the entire time and Troy messaged her legs and feet. She fell asleep at some point.
“Hey, pretty girl,” a hand shook her shoulder. “Movie is over. Zachary is going to take you home.”
She cracked her eyes open and stretched, making a couple guys groan softly. She looked down saw her shirt had ridden up, showing off her abdomen. She pulled it down quickly and sat up. Zachary was waiting patiently in front of her, holding all her things. Troy and Gabe were still pinned underneath her. Brenton and Andrew were no where to be seen by the time she sat up, having run from the room while she was waking up.
She followed Zachary without anything to say except good night to the half-brothers. They both kissed her cheeks after that. That made Zachary growl but she wasn’t sure why.
She climbed into the gunmetal pickup and Zachary smiled to once they were on the road.
“How are you feeling?” He asked her with his gruff, normally cold, voice.
“Good. Smarter. Well rested.” she laughed at herself.
“Look,” he sighed. “I just want you to promise me one thing.”
“Sure, Zachary, what’s up?” She looked to him, twisting to lean her shoulder on the seat.
“I want you to feel safe through all of this,” He pointed at her with one hand, barely looking at the road. “And if you ever don’t feel safe, you call me. Me. No one else. I’ll do whatever is in my power to get you safe or fix the problem. I’ll tell the other guys if anything is really wrong and they need to be there. Brenton knows how I feel about this. When it comes to security, I’m the guy you call.”
“Not the cops?” She raised her left eyebrow at him.
“I’ll decide if cops need to get involved. Since we aren’t human, we can’t always let them in on things. We have to keep up appearances and keep the Secret.”
She nodded to that. It was understandable. The Secret was the existence of shifters. It was important to keep their lives a secret.
“Who do you call if anything makes you feel unsafe?” He asked quietly when they made it to her apartment.
“You,” she whispered back to him. She could tell it was important to him to be that phone call. She was nearly a little concerned by how important it was to him.
“Even if you only get one phone call, it’s to me. If someone grabs you, you try to call me. Clear?”
They walked up together to her front door.
“Clear, Zachary.” She hugged him and unlocked her door. “Thank you for the ride… and for everything really.”
“It’s no problem. See you tomorrow.”
“See you tomorrow,” she called after him as he left.
She fed Star quickly and jumped immediately into bed, leaving her bedroom door open for the cat.
She fell asleep within in minutes.
She didn’t know what she was but when she heard a roar, she ran.
Shapes chased her and she just kept going, trying to stop her heart from jumping out of her chest. A large lion blocked her path and she skidded to a stop, changing suddenly into a human. The shadows behind her were now human as well, as she looked back to them to try and find a way out.
Arms wrapped around her waist, a hard chest touched her back skin to skin. A hand roamed on her ribs, grazing the under side of her breasts. The shadows came closer, and while she couldn’t see their faces, she knew their bodies by appearance.
“Riley,”a soft, velvet whispered on the wind as a shadow walked to her front, tanned skin, long reddish brown hair falling over the shoulders and chest of the beautiful figure. “Trust us.” Andrew’s hands went to her hips, pressing himself to her front.
“I’ll try!” She gasped, a hand running over her breast. “I am trying!”
“Just say yes,” deep, professional. Brenton was behind her.
She tried to take an even breath but lips touched her, stopping her from speaking. A hand wrapped in her hair.
When the lips pulled back, she saw Zachary instead of Andrew.
With every kiss, the face changed. Zachary, Andrew, Gabe, Troy and then finally Brenton.
“Just say yes and join the family,” he growled. “Just say yes.”
“Yes,” she was airy.
And then very awake, panting. She sat up and put a hand over her wild heart. Oh God, that was… something else. Her body and mind were working against her in a way that was… going to kill her probably.
It took her nearly an hour to finally get back to sleep and the next day, she was thankful to not have dreamed about the hot feline shifters that were now her life.