Wolf, Shifted by Rebecca Ethington
Nova
“Holy shifter orgy.”I spoke far too loud, not that anyone noticed or could even hear through the wall of noise I had been dragged into. Kat had ‘firmly’ escorted me from Greyson’s office to the ‘welcome dinner’ that I had seen all those wolves hustle into in their fancy dresses when I was trying to make my escape; except they weren’t wearing fancy dresses now.
Hell, they weren’t wearing anything…
And here I was thinking my cutoffs and ‘MOIST’ shirt were going to make me stand out. Now, they were both advertising something that I really wasn’t wanting to give. Considering how many arms and legs were sticking out of the body pile in the corner I really wasn’t interested.
The massive room was clearly ornate. Marble floors, huge chandeliers, and a stage that would probably fit at least a dozen shifters in their wolf form.
It was beautiful, if not strangely devoid of windows. It was claustrophobic to be surrounded by four solid walls. Even with the flashing strobe lights and dancing disco balls it almost felt like the walls were closing in.
But that could also be from the fact that the walls were lined with naked couples. Maybe orgy wasn’t a strong enough word for what I had walked into.
“Okay, so this was a great field trip, but I’m going to leave now.” I tried to back up, but Kat wrapped her spider fingers around my bicep like a vise and dragged me into the room.
“Don’t be a baby. Greyson says you come here. So, you come here. Besides, you don’t want to miss Hank’s speech.” As much as she sugarcoated her voice, the threat was not missed.
Not like having Hank speak would really be a threat, but I happened to be here against my will and didn’t exactly want anyone knowing who I was. Cleared or not, that was not the kind of celebrity I was interested in.
“I’m pretty sure everyone here is going to miss his speech…” My protest wandered off as Kat dragged me past a cluster of tables that had clearly been meant for people to eat on.
And not… not whatever they were currently doing.
Now, a muscular man with a perfectly trimmed beard was pressing a woman facedown into the slick surface, her dress was over her back as he folded her in half. As the long, thick length of him moved into her.
Out of her.
In…
With every thrust something deep inside of me heated and warmed, my toes curled in my shoes as my breath hitched.
I was no stranger to sex. I liked sex. I have had sex. I had enough robotic boyfriends over the years to know my way around my body.
But the way that wolf was taking her. Claiming her. Pounding her. There was something feral in that. Beautiful. Even my wolf was taking notice.
My breath hitched again as the man wrapped his fingers around the female's hips and pressed into her, his eyes digging right into mine.
“Fuck me,” I breathed before Kat yanked me back over to her.
“Stop your ogling,” Kat hissed, her breath warm on my ear as she leaned into me. “Unless you want that? You were so sure that Greyson wanted to mate you, should we go back and ask him if that’s the case? Ask him if he will fuck you like that?”
“God, do you even know how not to be a bitch?” I jumped away from her, lip curling as she grinned.
“Only time will tell, Nova.” I could tell there was something else there, something dark. But, before I could even raise my voice to ask, someone was calling to her.
“Kat!” A half naked man was racing toward us, hand in the air as he screamed her name. Kat’s expression went from ‘pure bitch’ to absolute terror as fast as a slap.
I didn’t even know she could feel that emotion.
“Stay here.” Kat rounded on me, finger in my face before she bolted through the crowd and right to the guy who seemed way too happy to see her.
Anyone excited to see her might have had one too many to drink; but this guy actually looked like a decent person. Poor guy, she was going to rip him to shreds.
I watched her for a second before I turned, laughing to myself that Kat actually thought I would stay there.
She really was a fool; either that or that guy had something hidden in his jeans that made her forget all reason.
It was too soon after my last escape attempt to try again, so instead, I wandered through the dancers, finding a table that was still piled with food. Or rather, piled with meat on sticks. I guess it was kabob night at my kidnapper’s orgy party.
Three kabobs in hand, I weaved my way toward the darkest corner where thankfully it was a little quieter, and didn’t smell so much like sweat and sex.
I hadn’t even reached the punch bowl yet and I could already smell the alcohol. Someone had put a lot of vodka in there. Whoever it was, was clearly my kind of girl. Or guy. Didn’t really care, I would sing them praises for providing me with such a gift.
I had only ladled half a cup when a shadow loomed over me.
If Greyson had been ripped off the cover of a romance novel, the guy who now stood across the punch bowl from me had been perfected within its pages. He wore a well cut suit that only helped to accentuate the perfect muscles beneath, shaggy blonde hair fell perfectly over a strong brow and his grey eyes were focused right on me. They widened, the purple gaze of a wolf peering through.
My wolf slammed against my rib cage with such force that I gasped. She had been so docile around Grey, so calm, so appeased. But one look from this Alpha, and he was clearly an alpha, sent her to attention. He stared at me, lip twitching as his brow furrowed slightly. The look was captivating, his features pulling perfectly. Shifter balls! He was hot!
Cords of sparkling energy wrapped around me, my skin pricking as though I had been dunked in both ice and fire simultaneously.
The whimpers of my wolf shifted into a whine of need, of desire. She was writhing inside of me, begging for escape. Begging for him.
What in holy shifter hell are you doing? Calm down!
“I wouldn’t drink that,” he said in a low voice that tickled over my skin.
It was only then I realized I was staring at him in a dumbfounded stupor, mouth hanging open, hand frozen in air. I shook my head, forcing my wolf to calm and my heart to steady. I was clearly winning in the first impressions department.
“I know it’s spiked,” I said stupidly as I finished ladling out the light pink fluid, sure at one point it had been red.
“Then you’ll want to avoid it. Well, unless you want to wake up halfway across Arkansas tomorrow.”
“I see nothing wrong with that. As long as it gets me out of here.” Even though I suddenly didn’t feel quite so ready to leave. I locked my eyes with his as I slowly, deliberately took a drink. I never looked away, not even when a sheepish grin crossed his face as I gasped like some kind of love sick teenager.
Too bad I was currently drinking boozy punch. I inhaled alcohol and promptly began coughing and gasping as everything caught fire. Not the love sick kind either. I might have caught actual fire with how this burned. No wonder they tell you not to inhale alcohol.
“Are you okay?” he asked as I coughed, rushing around the table with his hand already prepped and ready to start smacking me on the back.
“She’s fine.” Cue Kat. She was at my side before the hot guy could even reach me. She didn’t even turn to help me regain my breath, she just stood between me and the guy as I coughed behind her.
“Not fine,” I gasped, not that either of them were really paying attention. Well, he might have been, but I couldn’t tell that from behind the wall that was Kat.
“Don’t you have someplace to be, dog?” Kat’s voice was ice as she stood there, a low growl bleeding through the riotous music. The sound was almost musical, the sound of the guy’s wolf hypnotic. All of that burning heat from the alcohol moved everywhere and I stood up, still gasping as I faced the standoff that Kat and the guy were having. Both of their wolves were snarling now.
“Leave,” Kat continued, not giving him a chance to continue before she turned, grabbed me by my arm again and dragged me away, back through the writhing crowd and toward the stage set up at the far end.
I stumbled behind her, focused on that guy who stood there looking absolutely lost. I wanted to fix it. I wanted to rush over to him and make it all better and hold him and kiss him and…
What in the fresh hell was wrong with me? What was wrong with my wolf?
All of these pheromone spraying wolves were absolutely going to drive me mad. I was going to have to find something to punch, and soon, just to remind myself that I could.
“I told you to stay there,” Kat snarled as we reached the stage and she pulled me around to face her. I was still staring after the guy by the punchbowl, not that I could see him through the crowd anymore.
“And I told you to leave me the fuck alone.” I pulled my arm out of her grip, my eyes flashing as my lip curled and my wolf snarled.
Good. I hadn’t completely turned into a softy.
“You don’t get to tell me what to do, Kat.” I put as much venom into her name as I could.
“You really don’t get—” Whatever Kat had been about to say had been cut off by the high pitched squeal of a microphone being turned on. The music died down, the writhing bodies slowed, and everyone turned to where Hank was now standing on the stage.
“Welcome everyone to the first night of Moon Year!” Hank announced as the crowd cheered, he waved to the screaming throngs of people as he smiled. He was fucking smiling. I honest to God didn’t think the guy could smile; but now that I was seeing it, I never wanted to again.
His smile was just as creepy as he was. His eyes glinted, his lips curled, and he looked like a twelve year old psychopath about to light a cat on fire. I tried to step away but Kat pulled me right back to her.
“Tonight marks the start of the traditional gathering in which we welcome new pups into their first shift, and initiate them as adult members of the pack. It is also the time that all unmated adult members come together in the hopes of finding their fated mates.” He smiled again, leaning into the microphone as he wagged his eyebrows like a ‘50s game show host. “Do we have any lucky pairs yet?”
Cheers went up from two different sides of the ballroom as wolves announced their findings and everyone went crazy. Screams and cheers rang in my ears before Hank tapped the microphone and everyone fell to silence.
“Good to hear it. I am sure we will have more fated mates soon.” More cheers exploded through the hall and Hank gave another greasy smile that people seemed to find attractive for some reason.
Had I walked into hell and not realized it? Or had that punch bowl been spiked with something other than vodka?
I was suddenly glad I had sacrificed my punch to the floor gods back there.
“Tomorrow will begin the training for our pups, as we prepare them for their first shift, and then for the training and pack initiation that comes after. Anyone is welcome to sign up for a one on one meeting with our High Alpha, it’s a great way to get to know him, and to make yourself known.” There were some shrieks and giggles from some girls in the back corner and my stomach flip-flopped. Geeze, you would think the guy was a K-Pop idol with that reaction. “This will be a great time to party, to meet new wolves, and of course to support our High Alpha as his lands grow!”
Everyone cheered again, Hank was now dancing on the stage as I began to seriously question if I had accidentally side-stepped my life right into the lap of a cult.
A cult that screamed even more as Greyson Dillon walked onto the stage, waving and grinning as he repeated what Hank had just laid out. Except where Hank had danced and pranced over the stage like a loon, sending everyone into a screaming mass, Greyson Dillon was staring right at me.
Smiling at me.
My skin buzzed, my wolf purring in a strange hum that seemed to make everything vibrate, that took me right back to that couple I had seen when I had first walked in.
I swallowed, my wolf whimpering as that same feeling as before filled me and my toes curled in my shoes. As I thought about how it would be if I was the one folded over the table; and if the smiling High Alpha was the one who was claiming me.
Fuck.