horror stories, had seen those who tried to live on the outside. Hunters, the pressure to pretend, and the inability to shift when needed without fear of exposure could truly harm her kind. Her new friend Sophie could attest to that. Living among normal people for most of her life, Sophie had nearly scared herself to death the first time she’d turned. Thankfully an Ac-taw had found her and taken her under his wing, eventually bringing her to Cougar Falls.
The gray wolves had a few Orders around the country. One in Texas, another in Wisconsin. Sure, Ac-taw could live outside of Cougar Falls, but the threat of publicity about their kind endangered not only individuals, but the entire Shifter species. Each and every Ac-taw in the States had gone through the clans in Cougar Falls at some point to establish their own territories. Which made Sophie’s case so unusual.
Julia sighed. She loved her sisters, but she missed home. She missed sitting in her comfortable office typing up files and answering calls for Gerald. Her boss and friend, Gerald made her feel good about herself. Though many of the silver foxes had expressed interest in mating, she didn’t want to tie herself down. Not yet. Eventually she’d have to find someone special. She even wanted to have children. But deep down she worried about how they’d turn out.
If anyone learned the truth… The silver foxes might very well kick her and her sisters out of the clan. Hell, they worried about social status more than the flighty raptors. If they decided to expel Julia and her sisters, they’d have to leave town. Julia couldn’t imagine life away from Cougar Falls, which was why she worried so for Meghan.
The only good thing about her younger sister marrying Jason and living in Seattle was that as long as she kept her shifting private, no one would care what she turned into.
Groaning at the reminder of that one major stress she’d been dealing with in her well-ordered world, Julia decided to sink into oblivion. Maybe a good sleep would clear her thoughts.
She prayed not to dream of Ty.
She did anyway.
Ty raced through the woods, feeling free for the first time in days. He found evidence of nearby foxes and wolves, but no one minded his pass through their territory, mostly because he refrained from marking anywhere but the few places he needed to find his way home.
On his way, he passed a group of kits protectively guarded by a pissed-off mother. Cute little red foxes. Their curious faces surprised him by stirring in him a need to look after his own family, which didn’t exist. Of course thoughts like those swayed his recollections to Julia.
Again he remembered her that night weeks ago, when she’d asked him so nicely, with alcohol on her breath, to make love to him. The first night off he’d had in forever, no trouble on the horizon. He’d planned to spend it with his friends drinking himself silly. Instead, he’d helped Julia get home and into bed, ignored her plea to fuck, and spent his night alone, masturbating to thoughts of how good she’d actually be in bed.
And now he was trying to run through the woods with a hard-on. He stopped, panting, and sniffed around for the stream he’d recently passed. He found it up ahead and drank to relieve his thirst.
After sating himself, he entered a small, unoccupied enclosure near some boulders and curled up for a rest. He really had been up all day and night. Panicked to find her, he’d made sure, at least, that Gerald had things well in hand to help Sarah before he’d left. If the bears and wolves ate each other in the meantime, so be it. And as far as the silver foxes trying to pass that new mandate about mating…so long as they paired him with Julia, he didn’t care.
Fuzzy with exhaustion, he didn’t consider marriage to the shifty fox a bad thing. He fell asleep dreaming about what should have been.
“Please, Ty. Make love to me. I want you.” Julia sighed, her breath sweet with alcohol and
Maurizio de Giovanni, Antony Shugaar