you and AJ find out what you can about our new roomies and what they need. I imagine we’re going to have a long list. We have a lot of extra stuff here, but I’ll plan to make a run to the store after dinner for anything else if I have to. This apartment has two bedrooms and two bathrooms. There are extra rollaway beds in the closets. You’ll find new toothbrushes and other stuff in the bathroom drawers. Condoms in the bedside tables…” She grinned. “You guys comfortable bunking together?”
Jazzy nodded, but she couldn’t bring herself to look at the bed, or at Logan or any of the others. It suddenly clicked that she was sleeping here tonight. This was all just way too weird.
Last night she’d slept under a bush in the park. She glanced at the bed where Nicky still looked lost and scared, and ran her hand over the smooth spread. She couldn’t remember when she’d last slept in a bed with real sheets.
And she’d never, not once, slept with Logan.
Of course, watching the way he’d handled himself with Mik and AJ, she wasn’t so sure she wanted to anymore.
He’d played at being the alpha in their little pack. Here, up against Tala’s men, he wasn’t much more than a mangy mutt.
A very sexy mangy mutt, but a mutt just the same.
Mik interrupted her rambling thoughts. “Okay, you know we’re Mik and AJ. Miguel Fuentes and Andrew Jackson Temple, to be more specific. And you are?” He looked directly at Jazzy with those gorgeous eyes of his, and smiled.
And she forgot entirely about Logan. “Jazzy Blue,” she said.
“That a real name?” AJ laughed.
“It’s the only one I’ve got.” She wasn’t about to tell him her very first john had named her. She’d long ago forgotten the name she was born with. It was too foreign sounding and difficult to pronounce. Her pimp liked to keep things simple.
“I’m Chris March. They call me Deacon.” Chris shook hands with both AJ and Mik. Jazzy thought that was pretty classy.
“Nicholas Barden.” Nicky shrugged. “Just Nicky.” He dipped his head, but didn’t offer his hand.
“I’m Matt. Matthew Rodgers.” Matt sort of scuffed his feet and smiled. Typical. He was even more shy than Beth.
“I’m Elizabeth Garner. Beth.” She blushed and chewed her lower lip.
“It’s nice to meet you, Beth.” AJ held out his hand and she grasped his fingers very briefly, but Jazzy had the feeling she’d rather be far, far away instead of touching the hand of a strange man.
Mik leaned against the door and counted off names. “Okay, we’ve got Jazzy, Matt, Deacon, Nicky, and Beth.” He looked directly at Logan. “What’s your name?”
Logan glared at Mik for a minute too long. Jazzy wanted to kick him. “His name’s Logan,” she said, sensing the rising tension between the two men. “He’s really good at acting like a jerk.”
AJ laughed. Mik merely folded his arms across his chest. “Got a last name, Logan, or is that it?”
“That’s the only name I’ve got.”
“Works for me.” Mik sort of dipped his head in acknowledgment. “I think we’ve got enough clothes and stuff here for you guys to wear. Closets are full and so are the drawers. Everything’s clean. Just take what you need that fits. We’ll make a run to the store later and add in whatever’s missing, and we’ll get rooms straightened out for you as soon as we can. For now, take an hour to rest and get your bearings, feel free to explore the place. This is an old mansion we’ve renovated. Three stories, lots of small apartments like this, though in most of them the beds aren’t made up or the closets stocked with clean clothes. We’ll have dinner in the main dining room around six. It’s another floor up. Stairs at the end of the hall.”
With that, he smiled at Jazzy again, spun around, and left the room with AJ.
Jazzy watched the two of them go, and wondered what the hell was coming next.
The door shut with a soft click. Logan stood up and immediately began pacing. Nicky raised the blanket again and stared at his crotch. Beth turned around to say something, realized what he was doing, and blushed ten shades of red.
Deacon leaned against the door; Matt sat on the bed beside Nicky and bumped shoulders. “I’d help you put them back, bro, but no way am I touching your dick.”
“I’ll do it.”
Jazzy almost slipped her neck out of joint, turning around at the sound of Beth’s offer. “You’d put his studs back in his…his…whatever?”
Beth nodded, but her usually dark olive skin blushed brick red.
“You’d do that for me, Beth?”
She nodded again.
“I’ve got a JL, a Jacob’s Ladder. At least I had one. That’s why you found so many of ’em after I shifted. I used to have barbells running the length of my dick.” Nicky stood up and tightened the towel around his hips. He grabbed Beth’s hand, scooped up the little pile of silver barbells she’d left lying on the spread, and tugged Beth along behind him. “We’ll be in the other bedroom.”
Jazzy stared at the door Nicky closed behind him. “Who’d of thought Nicky had a JL?”
Deacon just shook his head and laughed. “Who’d have thought quiet little Beth would offer to put those suckers back in? Especially when they’ll just fall out again next time he shifts.”
“What do you mean, next time he shifts?” Once again Logan was pacing like an alpha dog on meth. Jazzy realized she was finding him less and less attractive.
“Tala said we’re all shapeshifters.” She stood up and glared at Logan. “I, for one, believe her. Haven’t any of you been having the dreams?”
Logan blinked and looked away. Matt slowly nodded agreement and Deacon gave her a high five. “You, too? And here I thought I was the only one flipping out.”
Jazzy nodded. “Yep. Me, too. Dark forests, the sense of running, hunting wild game. It’s like some sort of freaky feral memory.” She wrapped her arms around her waist and shivered. “I can’t wait to do it for real, if you want the truth.”
3
Beth followed Nicky into the second bedroom. It was as big as the first one, the colors all dark browns and greens and pale blues. Colors that suited both of them with their not-so-white skin, dark amber eyes, and darker hair.
Nicky sat on the edge of the bed. The towel still covered his nakedness, but he was obviously aroused and there was no way the terry cloth could hide anything that noticeable.
Beth stood in front of him, not quite between his knees but still close enough to touch him if she wanted. She couldn’t believe what she’d offered to do for him. Her hands shook so badly she was afraid even to try picking up one of the little silver barbells. No way in hell would she be able to touch him there and actually stick something into a hole in his skin. The whole idea grossed her out….
Turned
