Scared of Spiders (9 page)

U
nbelievable
.
Clint couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw Josie—sweet, timid Josie—brave her fear and come back to help them. He didn’t have time to shift and yell at her to run away, but he saw with horrible clarity the leg that shot out to stab her in the stomach. She dropped to the floor, and a red film descended over his eyes. Grief and anguish gave him new energy, and he attacked the spider that wouldn’t die. He and Brandon had scored numerous hits on the beast, and while it leaked bodily fluids, they had yet to weaken it.

It didn’t help that his mind was in a constant battle to remain unfettered. The arachnid’s powers of persuasion were unbelievable, and Clint was thankful that the rest of the pack was busy elsewhere engaging the rogues and thus preventing the spider from calling its reinforcements.

A vicious swipe, which he failed to dodge, staggered him. Shaking his head though, Clint and his wolf refused to give up. He prepared to run the leg gauntlet again, seeking the soft underbelly and the heart of the creature. The spider skittered back, right over Josie’s still body. Clint howled in renewed anguish.

Then the miracle happened.

Incredulous, he could only watch as Josie, not dead after all, stirred beneath the arachnid. With her face contorted and her eyes squeezed shut in fear, she screamed as she thrust up with a jagged rod of metal. At the sound of a high-pitched squeal, Clint knew she’d hit the mark. As the light in the spider’s eyes faded, Clint, with a burst of speed, leaped at the bulky body that slowly folded downward. His momentum was enough to send the teetering corpse sideways and away from Josie, even as she exclaimed “gross” in response to the gushing fluids.

He had no sooner hit the floor than he shifted to a human and ran to Josie, who’d barely missed getting squished. Her courageous act must have sucked at the last of her reserves, for she now lay still as death. As he scanned her body, Clint howled, for her injuries were numerous.

Brandon, who’d also shifted back, knelt beside him, his face twisted in grief. “Dammit, Clint, do something. She’s dying.”

I know she is, but how do I stop death?
Clint gathered up her bleeding body, and tears pricked his eyes—unmanly perhaps, but he couldn’t help them.
And Josie thought she wasn’t brave.
He’d never seen anything more courageous in his life than her confronting her all-too-real nightmare. In that moment, he knew what to do. He just didn’t know if she’d survive it. However, if he didn’t try, she’d die for sure. “We need to shift and bite her.”

Brandon looked over at him with red-rimmed eyes. “But that could kill her.”

“She’s dead if we don’t,” Clint replied grimly.

Brandon stared down at her then glanced back to face Clint. “Both of us?”

“We haven’t marked her as our mate yet. Are you prepared to lose her as a mate if my bite alone alters the bond? Besides, it’s bound to be more potent if she receives the bite from two of us.” Or twice as deadly.

“Enough said.”

Clint lay her back down and shifted, as did Brandon. They both grasped her lower forearm in their jaws, and he projected one thought to Brandon before he bit down.
“Now!”

As soon as Clint tasted the metallic tang of her blood, he backed off and shifted back. He and Brandon sat on their haunches, naked, bruised, and dirty, and waited to see if their action would save or kill the one they loved.

For a moment, Clint thought they’d failed. Her breathing slowed, her skin turned waxy.

Then she scared the crap out of him.

She let out a strident scream and arched her back. Clint and Brandon dove for her, trying to hold her down, but her body, in the grips of the change, one like he’d never heard of, bucked them off. They could only watch as she thrashed on the ground. And then the most disturbing—perhaps even amazing—thing happened.

She shifted into a wolf, then a bear, then a bird, then a panther. Almost too quick to see, her body morphed into a dizzying amount of shapes, and Clint finally understood what the spider had meant when he’d said Josie was a prize.

Clint had heard of them—shapeshifters who could adopt any shape—but like many, he’d thought them legend.

Dozens, then hundreds, of shifts later, Josie resumed her human body, naked and without a single damn blemish to mark her ordeal.

There was only one problem. She wouldn’t wake up.

N
othing
better than being woken with kisses. Josie smiled as her lovers slid their bodies across hers, the skin-to-skin contact ensuring she tingled from head to toe.

Then she remembered what had happened. Her eyes shot open as she sat up abruptly. She looked down to her stomach and gaped at her unblemished skin.

“You’re healed,” stated Clint.

“But how?” she asked as she turned her attention to her men as they lay on their backs in her bed back at the ranch. They grinned as she ran her hands over their bodies, searching for injuries that didn’t exist, well, except for a few red scar lines.

“We’re shifters. We healed,” said Brandon, who shrugged.

“I’m not, though,” she said, puzzled, for she still clearly remembered the burning pain of her injury.

“Yeah, well, about that. We had to bite you to save you.”

Josie gaped at them. “You did what?”

“It was the only way. You were dying. We couldn’t let that happen.”

“So, I’m a werewolf like you now?” she said, remembering what they’d told her.

“Not exactly,” Clint hedged.

Josie narrowed her eyes. “Explain.”

Brandon spoke first. “Um, how well do you know your parents?”

The words of the spider shifter came back to her, and her eyes widened. “My mother. He said she could shift into anything she wanted. But I guess up until now, the power was dormant in me.”

“Not anymore,” announced Clint.

“You mean I can be any animal I want?”

“Yes, but you’ll probably have to practice. Don’t worry. We’ll help you learn.”

I’m a shapeshifter!
Josie waited for her usual anxiety to grip her. Momentous news usually did it to her. But to her surprise, nothing happened. The enormous ball of tension she’d lived with so long was gone. She felt free, and beaming at her two very naked lovers, she found herself in the grips of another emotion. Make that urge.

“Sounds good, but can we do it later? I’ve got something else I need to practice first.”

“What’s that?” asked Brandon, the carnal interest in his eyes matched by his rising cock.

Clint moved behind her and pushed aside her hair to kiss her nape. “I think Josie’s ready to try what we talked about.”

“Among other things.” Josie crooked her finger at Brandon, who went to his knees in front of her. His hard cock poked her in the belly, and a gushing warmth moistened her cleft.

She found his mouth with hers, initiating a kiss that had him panting in moments, probably because she’d also grabbed the throbbing shaft that jabbed her and stroked it. She broke the kiss and leaned her head back to offer her mouth to Clint. He kissed her hard as he slid his hands around her waist and up to cup her breasts.

Josie moaned when Brandon found her clit with his index finger and rubbed it. She lost control of the situation but didn’t care as they pushed her down onto the bed. She opened her eyes when she felt her arms pulled above her head and held in a strong grip. She gazed up at Clint, who smiled wickedly at her. She returned his smile. Brandon, kneeling between her thighs, pushed her legs up and apart, exposing her. She couldn’t help the blush that stained her cheeks, and Clint chuckled.

“Oh, baby, you are so damned cute.”

She would have replied, but Brandon chose that moment to run his wet tongue up her silken slit. Her back arched, but the rest of her stayed locked, held down by her men who seemed determined to make this a moment to remember.

Brandon buried his face against her sex and lapped from her like a man parched. Josie panted and mewled, the exquisite strokes of his tongue driving her quickly mounting pleasure too high, too fast. She fought to hold on, to prolong the pleasure, but when Clint shifted his position and latched his mouth onto a tight nipple, the extra sensation was too much.

Her climax exploded, and she screamed.

Slowly, the waves calmed, but her body felt like a wire wound too tight. One erotic move and it would shatter again.

“That’s my girl,” murmured Clint before biting down on her nipple, sending a pleasurable jolt down to her cunt.

Brandon, between her thighs, his tongue still busy, groaned in agreement.

“Too much,” she finally managed to gasp. With a chuckle, Clint released her nipple and captured her lips instead.

Brandon’s mouth stopped its torture as well, but only so he could change tactics. Something slapped against her clit, and Josie jumped, almost biting Clint.

Again and again, Brandon slapped and rubbed the head of his swollen cock across her clit. The fire they’d just sated built up again, and suddenly she found herself astride Clint, his rigid rod poking at her sex.

“Ride me, baby.” His smoky eyes held hers as he lifted her and seated her on his cock. Her channel, so wet, took his thick length easily and, perched atop him, so deep.

Josie gasped and dug her fingers into Clint’s chest. From behind, Brandon cozied up to her back, the head of his prick poking at her back door. Clint distracted her by gripping her hips and sliding her forward then back hard.

The motion bumped the head of his cock, buried deep, against her sweet spot. Back and forth he slid her, almost managing to distract her from the wet finger that probed at her rosette.

It felt strange, not bad exactly but different. She felt a cold dribble down the crack of her cheeks and wondered at it until the added lube allowed Brandon to pop his finger in.

“Oh.” She couldn’t prevent the gasp as her tight ring stretched to accommodate the intruding finger. Uncomfortable, she squirmed.

“Push out against it,” growled Brandon. She did and found the pressure eased somewhat. Before she could decide if she liked it or not, he popped a second in. She went still, really not sure anymore about this intrusion.

“Bend over and kiss him,” Brandon ordered, his voice strained.

Josie obeyed, leaning forward until her breasts brushed Clint’s chest. His head rose to meet hers, and their lips joined in a scorching kiss. Bent forward like this exposed her back door, and Brandon used this to his advantage, working a third finger in, making it even tighter. Her body had made the transition since the first probing digit from uncomfortable to exciting, erotically so. With Clint’s cock still sheathed in her sex, Josie found herself rocking back against the fingers in her second hole and enjoying it.

As if this were a signal, the fingers slipped out, only to be replaced by something thicker. She lost herself in Clint’s kiss, trying to ignore the pushing pressure at her rosette. She did cry out when Brandon finally popped the head of his rod past the tight ring. Big and too tight, that was the only thing she could think of. Worry was forgotten as Clint thrust his hips up into her while Brandon reached under to twist and tweak her nipples.

Overwhelmed with pleasure, she relaxed, and Brandon eased his cock in to the hilt. Josie’s sex spasmed at the full sensation, quivers that repeated as the guys set a rhythm where one withdrew while the other plowed in. Josie, caught between their bodies, just enjoyed the ride.

How could she not? The rub of their skin against hers. The feel of Clint’s and Brandon’s mouths on her neck. The pleasing fullness of their thrusting cocks. The sensory overload of her G-spot being struck. Her body tightened, squeezing them, and as she hit the peak, they bit down on her neck while their cocks spurted hotly within her.

Pain. Pleasure. Heat. And incredible bliss. Josie didn’t have enough breath left to scream as the orgasm of all orgasms rolled over her. And over again. And . . .

It took her a while to come back down from such bliss, and when she did, she found herself sandwiched between them.

“Wow.”
What else is there to say?

Clint chuckled. “No kidding.”

“So, when are we going for a repeat?” joked Brandon.

Josie moaned. “Oh my God, I don’t think I’ll ever move again.” At his chagrined look, she smiled mischievously. “But don’t worry. As soon as I convince my body to work again, I’m all for trying again.”

Laughter sounded as they all gave in to mirth. After all, what wasn’t there to be happy about? One nagging thing. And Josie, the new and improved Josie, found the courage to broach it first.

“I know we’re mated now and everything, but I wanted to say, mate or not, I . . .” She swallowed, and tears pricked her eyes as she bravely said the words in her heart. “I love you, Clint. And I love you, Brandon, and I am so glad you’ve chosen me as your mate, even if I’m not a wolf or a bombshell

or . . .”

Clint placed a callused finger on her lips and stopped her. “Oh, baby, haven’t you figured it out yet? We love you, every adorable, sexy part of you.”

“What’s not to love?” said Brandon, his tousled blond hair contrasting against Clint’s dark crown as they both stared down at her. In their eyes, she saw the love she craved. And the smoldering heat that promised untold future pleasure.

“Well, in that case, how about we have a shower, and after we’ve locked the doors against visitors, you show me in front of a roaring fire just how much?”

Of course the shower led to slippery, soapy fun. And the impromptu dinner tested the sturdiness of the breakfast bar. But when they did eventually make it to the rug in front of the roaring flames, they showed her and told her just how much she was loved.