Long Lost Read online

  “But I’m still human,” I said.

  “You are.”

  “And that wasn't supposed to happen.”

  His big brown eyes studied me, “Who’s to say what should happen. I only read the signs as best I can. I’m wrong. Often.”

  I remembered my dream of Madeline and her stacking dangerous bits and items high up on ladders. And the other of her putting me up when I’d fall over. How vague and odd and hard to decipher. “I am starting to understand why,” I said and laughed. “Set up a town hall meeting,” I said.

  “What?” Ellis stepped back into a streak of sunlight. I could see the sun now that the officers had opened all the curtains and blinds. They’d held me captive all through the night. A long night of labor that dawned a new day as a family.

  “Get everyone to the town hall,” I said.

  “Ruby, you just had a baby,” Ellis reminded me. Kincaid seemed to pause and stare at us before he resumed eating.

  “Really?” I teased.

  He smiled and Samuel said, “I think Ruby has an idea.”

  “I have an idea that there will be wolves who are going to make a martyr out of Victor and Madeline. And those who are going to take issue with the fact that I didn’t change.”

  Ellis looked confused.

  “Please?”

  He nodded and left, asking an officer for a cell phone.

  “What are you going to do?” Samuel asked, touching the baby’s head.

  “Become,” I said.

  He nodded.

  “How’s Bertie?”

  He grinned. “Fine and dandy and happy to have been here to take down such scum.”

  “And Tyler? Is that her, Samuel? Is that his true love?” I eyed him over there with Iris, checking her over, pulling her close, hugging her. It was sweet and wonderful and hurt my heart just a little bit. Only the jealous, petty part of me.

  “What does your instinct say?”

  When I pushed my small hurt feelings aside, a bright yellow feeling wafting off of them. “That’s her,” I said.

  “I concur,” Samuel said.

  “Poor Peabody,” I sighed. The baby was making rowdy sucking noises that made us both chuckle.

  “Hungry boy,” Samuel said. “And Peabody will be fine. There is a certain come-to-your-rescue orange tabby who is tending to his wounds.”

  I grinned. “Do tell! And I want to meet her. To thank her.”

  “We’ll set it up. But you need to slow down, Ruby. You just gave birth—in captivity—and you’re trying to rule the world already.”

  I shut my eyes and felt myself drift a bit until Ellis whispered, “Ruby? The ambulance is here to take you to the Town Hall. Doc’s waiting. He’s going to check you over and clean you up en route.”

  I nodded. “Okay, come with us, because no one is taking my baby from me yet.”

  He laughed softly. “Yes, ma’am. We’ll all ride together.”

  “You know it, yes ma’am,” I sighed and fell asleep again.

  * * * *

  I wouldn’t tell Ellis, only Samuel knew at first. I was raw and sore and felt both weak and powerful beyond belief.

  “I’d like you all to meet our son. Kincaid Ellis Bach,” I said to the town who’d gathered. Ellis held up the baby and there were cheers and cries and Doc’s wife kissed me soundly on the head.

  “As you can see, he’s born of me but Ellis is his daddy. If you look very closely in his beautiful blue eyes you will see a familiar striation.”

  There was a murmur.

  “Now, this was never supposed to happen. A wolf born of woman. We were sure that I would change during the birth, and as scary as that was for an average run of the mill human like me, it was something I was very much willing to do. To be a family, to be your Alpha’s mate, to be this amazing child’s mother. It would make us even stronger as a family and a pack.”

  More murmurs.

  “But I didn’t change. I came through the birth human. Doc assured me that if the trauma had changed me, I would know by now. I would have shifted as soon as blood met blood.”

  A constant tide of low talking flooded the small building and I smiled.

  “But I didn’t change.”

  They knew the story of Victor and Madeline. Ellis had taken care of all of that before they’d helped me to the stage and into a padded easy chair someone had brought up. I waited for the talk to die down and waved the tiny microphone attached to a karaoke machine with speakers. “And thanks to whoever this belongs to. It’s nice to not have to shout to say that I would like to willingly become a wolf.”

  And there was the silence.

  “Ruby,” Ellis said. So softly that even in a room full of shifters, I thought only I could hear him.

  “I want to go home with my husband and my child and the next time you see me, I’ll be one of you. For real,” I said.

  I met a few sets of interested eyes. Saw some surprise, a good amount of respect, and tons of acceptance. It felt like the right decision.

  Kincaid started crying and already I could tell by that cry that he was hungry. I put my arm out toward Ellis and said in the microphone, “Now if you’ll all excuse me I have to feed a hungry boy.”

  Chapter 27

  If you’ve never become a werewolf, I assure you, it hurts.

  We spent the better part of the night on our bed, the baby nestled between us, just watching him. Thanks to Doc’s magical bag of pain killers, I was in very little pain. He also did a tremendous job patching me up, a fact that Ellis confirmed.

  When the morning came, Ellis put Kincaid in the cradle the Burns family had sent over. They’d also sent along about a million diapers, baby items, and clothes.

  “Will it hurt?”

  “Yes.”

  “Will you make love to me first?”

  “Ruby, you just had a baby. I think that would hurt worse than changing.”

  “Will I heal from all this when I change?” I asked, meaning the damage Kincaid had done.

  “Yes, almost immediately.”

  I shrugged. “So then it hurts, I’ll live.”

  “No,” he said. “I will not make love to you. Now write that down because it’s the first and last time I’m ever going to say it.” He smiled and the flash of white teeth and bad boy façade almost did me in. “But we’ll be together. How’s that?”

  I shook my head. “I don’t even know what that means.”

  “Are you ready?”

  When he came toward me, I felt my heart speed up. Fear and lust and love so big it hurt.

  “Now?”

  “When, then?” he cocked his head.

  “Now is good,” I said. “I’m just nervous. I love how you didn’t try to talk me out of it.”

  He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. “Ruby. I know there’s no talking you out of anything you’ve decided on.”

  He settled on the bed and I felt his warmth surround me. “You’re a smart man, Ellis Bach.”

  “I try.”

  I was bare except for a robe that he peeled back to expose me. My belly was soft and much smaller but still more substantial than I’m used to. He touched my skin and I moved up into his touch. “Now just stay still and let me.”

  He kissed me and I parted my lips to kiss him back. I took his tongue into my mouth and he stroked my skin. All of me tingled and all of me wanted him.

  The baby made some small noise in his cradle and we froze. When nothing happened, Ellis moved to kiss my breasts, my belly. He found me with his thumb, putting pressure on my clit so that I moved under him with my need. There was no mistake I wanted this. My body was sore and I was insanely sensitive, but sometimes love and want override everything.

  He wasn’t going to fuck me. He wasn’t even going to penetrate me, but he was going to give me pleasure.

  He made small wet circles with his thumb and kissed me so gently I hummed.

  His teeth worked from my jaw to my throat to my collar bone and his tempo sped up. My pu
ssy was swollen and wet and I was so turned on that I felt no pain, only a great pulsing heat and need. I hadn’t thought it possible. I had figured I wouldn’t want him within ten feet of me after having a baby, but I wished he’d enter me and take me as he changed me.

  But I knew he wouldn’t. He loved me too much to hurt me, even if I was okay with it.

  “Ellis,” I whispered, already on the verge of orgasm from his almost lazy way of touching me.

  “Yes, Little Bird?”

  “I’m going to come.”

  “I know,” he said, chuckling.

  “Because you can smell it on me?” I asked, too joyous to roll my eyes.

  “Yes, but soon you’ll know what that’s like.”

  My legs moved restlessly and I bowed up, clutching the bed sheets, biting my tongue so as not to wake Kincaid. I came with a ripple of pleasure that made me feel like I might burst. His teeth sank past the barrier of my flesh and the pain and goodness of it was exquisite. He had penetrated me, once more, in a way that would change everything. Forever.

  And yes it hurt. Ellis sat back, talking to me in his gentle voice. I heard him say, “Don’t worry, it won’t scare him. He’ll sense what it is.”

  I heard him say, “I love you, Ruby. You’re doing great.”

  The unimaginable feel of bones, breaking, mending, shifting slammed me. I felt my skin turn hotter than the sun and felt fur erupt from it as if each hair were a needle. My jaw cracked, burned, elongated and then went numb. I looked down through blurred vision at one point and saw myself a sandy colored creature with stripes of reddish brown.

  Then Ellis was there, my white wolf, waiting.

  He took me then too, but that didn’t hurt a bit. The pain of birth was gone. The pain of change was gone. And then there was just us. Together. Inseparable.

  * * * *

  Kincaid was four months old when Tyler finally bit the bullet and moved into Town. My move to unite the pack and make us strong had worked wonders and most of Town embraced Iris’s new love, whether he drank blood or not.

  Samuel looked at what had happened with my abduction, realized life was too short, and asked Roberta to marry him. She accepted and I walked the baby down the aisle because he was the ring bearer. Something that cracked Ellis up to no end, since Kincaid couldn’t walk yet.

  All the accelerated nature of his had ended at birth. He was moving at a good average kid clip. Though I did notice he seemed to be a bit faster to respond to things and a bit stronger than the average human baby.

  Peabody now resided on the edge of town with the Marmalade shifter Dede. He was planning to ask her to marry him over the summer. My money was on him breaking and asking her much sooner.

  Ellis and Kincaid and mommy made three and we were back in our tiny little house across from the warehouse.

  Life was good. Life was peaceful. The baby was holding his own bottle and Ellis was telling him he’d one day rule the world or something like that when the phone rang.

  “Hello?”

  “Ruby?” Peabody’s brogue was thick and intense.

  He was either really happy or really upset.

  “Yes sir?” I asked. “Did you ask her already?”

  “What? Oh, no. No, Ruby, that’s not why I’m calling.”

  “What’s up, Pappa Bear?” I asked. I didn’t like his tone.

  “Dede and I ran into someone in town today.”

  “Not our Town. Over town line?” I asked.

  “Right. His name was Simon. And Simon told us something we didn’t know.”

  My fingers went cold, my nose too. “What’s that?”

  “Victor had a brother.”

  My stomach felt watery. “Well, lots of people have brothers.”

  I would be calm and rational and it would all be fine. But I noticed a fine tremor had taken up in my hand.

  “He had a twin brother, Ruby. And according to Simon, his twin brother Vernon made Victor look sane.”

  “Okay,” I said, hearing the baby giggling at something Ellis was saying or doing.

  “And there have been some folks who’ve seen him around,” Peabody said.

  “Okay,” I said again.

  “And I just wanted you to be prepared,” he said.

  I felt that flicker-itch-burn to shift working through me. I felt a growl roll up out of my chest before I was aware it was coming. I heard Ellis hurry toward me, holding the baby. I saw the concern and inquiry in his eyes. I gritted my teeth, just about done with all this bullshit if you ask me.

  I just wanted my man, my baby, my life. That was all.

  “Oh,” I said to Peabody, my voice tight and low, “Don’t worry. I wasn’t ready last time. But this time—this time I am.”

  The End

  ABOUT SOMMER MARSDEN

  Sommer Marsden is wine-swigging, wiener-dog-owning author responsible for Learning to Drown, Hard Lessons, Base Nature, Lucky 13, the Zombie Exterminators series and multiple other erotic novels. She currently writes erotica and erotic romance for Ellora's Cave, eXcessica, Resplendence Publishing, Pretty Things Press and Xcite Books. You can find her private releases through her almost invisible e-press December Ink.

  Sommer's short work can be found in over a hundred erotic anthologies including Alison's Wonderland, Sex at Work, Threesomes, Best Women's Erotica 2009, 2010 & 2011, Lust at First Bite, Liaisons, Hurts So Good, The Sweetest Kiss, With This Ring I Thee Bed, Nice Girls Naughty Sex, Slave to Love ('11) and Torn. She has written for Forum UK, Love Stories, Desire, Hustler Fantasies, and Penthouse Variations.

  Keep up with Sommer on her blog Unapologetic Fiction by visiting http://sommermarsden.blogspot.com

  If you enjoyed LONG LOST, you might also enjoy:

  LEARNING TO DROWN

  By Sommer Marsden

  Ember is into the whole abduction scenario. She tries and tries to coach her boyfriend Damien in the fine art of being her abductor and sexual tyrant. It's not working. One night, while locked in his truck's tool box, she's towed from Damien's property. Lucas Crow, freelance repo man and all around growly dominant, rescues her from her self-imposed prison. He even takes her home, feeds her and gets her cuffs off when it becomes evident that Damien is not coming to her rescue.

  Taken with Ember and her story, Lucas gives her a choice. Stay in her unhappy relationship and play 'games' (basically dominating Damien by dictating his behavior) or stay with him as his 'captive' and learn what true surrender is. It's like learning to drown, giving up to get where you want to be. Ember is eerily taken with this man and his quiet and sure ways. The more she discovers the more she wants to discover. Like his history, his back story, where that sexy scar in his eyebrow came from.

  When Ember meets Matthew Crow, she's not sure she can do what might be expected of her. Matthew's everything his brother isn't. He's mouthy, petulant, younger and spoiled. And he informs her on the way to a repo job, that they share women–he and Lucas. And they're going to share her–and he can't wait to get his taste.

  Ember is torn. Stay and get to experience more of the sexual talents of Lucas and Matthew Crow or leave. Does she stay and learn to drown and maybe experience the erotic levels she truly craves, or does she keep struggling and never learn the joy of submission and surrender?

  Warnings: This title contains spanking, corporal punishment, BDSM, m/f/m sex, multiple partners, sex toys, abduction scenarios, and shades of erotic asphyxiation.

  EXCERPT:

  When that lid swung back, revealing a blue-black sky dotted with pinpricks of white stars, I cried. I imagined this is what it was like to be pulled from the ocean in a riptide right before you started sucking water into your lungs. A very big man gazed in at me, saying nothing at all. My body clenched tight like a fist. I didn’t think it was possible to be colder than I was right at that moment. His mouth moved but all I heard were my own hysterical sobs. I was inexplicably terrified now that I had been saved.

  “What?” My teeth chattered louder. I couldn‘t hear him over
my own clicking jaws. “One more time,” I said.

  “I said, come here. Take my hand.” And then he simply took my bound hands in his. He pulled me to my feet. My body balked at unclenching. It hurt to unbend myself.

  “Green, eh?” He smiled. When my knees gave out, he caught me. Effortlessly. As if I were some tiny boneless rag doll instead of long and leggy and completely awkward at the moment. I realized he meant my bra and panties.

  “I was feeling spring like.” My body melded to him instantly. He could have been Jack the Ripper and it wouldn’t have mattered. He was warm.

  “Too bad for you it’s like twelve degrees,” he said. “But I’m digging the panties. And the thought behind them.” The truck rocked when he walked to the edge of the bed. When he jumped to the ground, I prayed again. Please do not let the large slightly scary man drop me. My legs are bound. So are my hands. All my bones will break. Please let him be athletic. Amen.

  He landed easily but I huddled closer. “Freezing,“ I said. I yawned. I was so tired.

  The stranger smoothed his hand over my ass, thumbed the back of my thigh. His fingers stroked my lower back. His hands tried to warm me but there was too much of me bare to warm. My body responded, though sluggishly, when he palmed my bottom. His heat penetrated me. “F-f-freezing,” I said.

  “I’m working on it. Let’s get you in the cab. I have some overalls in the back and I think a spare jacket. The heat’s on full blast. And then…” He laughed again. It was a nice only slightly terrifying laugh.

  “Then?”

  “We’ll deal with the cuffs.”

  I rubbed my hands together as well as I could while cuffed. I buried my face against his blue jacket and willed myself to vanish. To time travel back and decide tonight was not the night for the abduction game. He opened the cab and the light winked on. His eyes were dark brown and warm. Laugh lines crowded the corners, stubble peppered his chin. Dirty blond hair and a sharp nose. “I’m still here, “ I said. Beyond embarrassed, beyond mortified.

  He pulled the knots and freed my legs, face intent like he was working a puzzle. “Yep. Sorry, it wasn’t a dream, girl. Just you and me. Your knight in shining armor.” He smirked and left me on the cracked vinyl seat. The heater poured warm air over me. I put my hands out to soak it up.