Shifter Domination Complete Set E-Book

Marilyn Fae

• Herausgeber: Boruma Publishing
• Kategorie: Erotik
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2020

Beschreibung

Werewolf Alphas, whirlwind romances, and lots of sex. This four-book collection of steamy standalone stories take pain and pleasure to a whole new level. The rich, dominating alpha males bind, spank, and take innocent young woman in all the ways possible. Outnumbered and outmatched, there's nothing they can do but submit.

~~~~~ Excerpt ~~~~~

"Do you know why some vampires prefer human blood, Kristy?"

"We're delicious?" she answers faintly. She feels lightheaded already. She definitely shouldn't have climbed into the car, no matter how intimidating Peter looks.

He makes an appreciative sound, like he's thinking about it already and she should really stop giving him ideas about eating her. "Yes, and your blood isn't mixed with whichever animal Shifters are half of. Shifter blood tastes and smells like animal blood, you see. Vampire blood tastes stale and recycled. Yours, however, is completely untainted. Completely perfect. Just like you, Kristy."

She laughs, a little hysterical, hoping the little noise would ease the tension in the car. "Why am I here, Mr. Peter?"

He sits back and leans his head, eyes closing. Ironically, the sudden absence of his intense scrutiny on her body makes her feel more tense. "Have you thought about our proposition, Ms. Kristin?" he asks.

She thinks proposition is the right word. He doesn't want just her blood. He wants her body and soul too. She nods. "I don't- If it's about the money, I'll find another job. I'll keep working. You don't have to worry about that. I'll- I'll pay you back."

He chuckles. "You can work everyday for the rest of your life and you still wouldn't be able to pay me back everything I'm owed, little one," he says and reaches into the side pocket by the door of the car, retrieving a stack of papers and then putting them in her lap. "Sign these," he says, dropping the pen on top. "From today onwards, you belong to me."

Deep down, she had known this was coming from the day she agreed to take his money. Right now, she's wishing she hadn't signed away her rights so easily, wishes she had looked for alternatives.

It's hard to focus her eyes with the nerves eating away inside her, gnawing uncomfortably under her skin with every inhale. "Should- shouldn't I read these?" she asks, flipping through the pages without reading anything because her eyes are burning with unshed tears and she's panicking inside, heartbeat going erratic, cold sweat forming on her forehead and fingers trembling so hard that the papers shake in her hands. She has to grip it tighter. Even the paper it's printed on feels expensive.

"You could," he says. "But you have to sign them afterwards anyways. You're already behind on payment and you don't want to know what happens to people who don't pay me back, love."

She is a little bit curious about what would happen to people who don't pay him back, but she also doesn't want to risk a demonstration. Things like 'complete surrender of basic rights'.

Leseprobe

Shifter Domination

Shifter Domination Complete Set

Werewolf | MFM | BDSM

Marilyn Fae

Copyright 2019 Marilyn Fae

This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental. All characters depicted in sexual acts in this work of fiction are 18 years of age or older. No part in this book may be reproduced, transmitted, stored, or distributed without permission of the author or publisher.

This four-book collection of steamy stories take pain and pleasure to a whole new level. The rich, dominating alpha males bind, spank, and take innocent young woman in all the ways possible. Outnumbered and outmatched, there's nothing they can do but submit.

Here, you will find:

Obsessed

April hides her cat ears under a hat and keeps her tail wrapped around her waist. She doesn't want anyone to know what she is. The eighteen-year-old shifter is afraid of her own shadow and just wants to be left alone. That becomes impossible when she catches the eye of her employer and boss, Mateo Kenzo, a powerful Shifter who is used to getting what he wants, when he wants.

Mateo is immediately obsessed with the young shifter almost half his age. She's a lovely little thing, perfectly angelic with a pureness that calls to be protected... to be mated, his to take and possess.

Start Reading Here

Passionate Alphas

When Alpha Werewolf Erik goes on vacation, the last thing he expects to do is fall hard for the most unobtainable young woman in town.

It begins like this.

It is a sunny morning when Erik Hunter sees a young woman, an eighteen-year-old with ears like that of a cat's and a long tail hidden beneath her white skirt. She's innocent in the way only the sheltered are, unknowing of how dangerous it is to be outside on her own. She must have a mate somewhere, or a guardian to keep her safe. Otherwise, she would have been ravaged already.

He intends to do exactly that. But when he realizes that she is spoken for by the local Alpha Lion Shifter, he decides to come up with a different plan. After all, he's not opposed to sharing.

Passionate Alphas is a steamy short story with two Alpha Males and an innocent young female who is taught to submit in private and in private, with ropes and punishment and everything in between.

Start Reading Here

Bound & Humiliated

Kristy makes the terrible mistake of walking out of her job, the only way for her to pay back the loan sharks that she had promised to pay back. She's already behind and it's only a matter of time before their patience runs out.

Well, she's going to pay now, but not in the way she had been expecting. The Vampire King wants her and he's not stingy with his attention. Being more than a thousand years old, he's incapable of siring his own children, so he has enlisted the help of a Werewolf Alpha who is more than willing to be of service.

The Alpha is merciless with her first time, using ropes and leather to keep her bound and at the mercy of their powerful hands. The camera crew recording her humiliation doesn't make things any easier for her either. Luckily for her, she's going to enjoy every second of it.

Start Reading Here

Cruel, Kind Love

Aria loves her Master Darius. The werewolf Alpha saved her when she was just a young kitten and has been taking care of her ever since. He makes sure she wants for nothing and is always ready to do whatever it takes to make her happy... Except let her out of the house. He says it's too dangerous for her outside and he's right. With her cat ears and long fluffy tail that broadcasts exactly what she is, it's too easy for her to be are captured and abused by cruel men.

She knows he keeps her safe, but she wants more than to be treated like something precious that to be kept at arm's length. She's eighteen now, old enough to be mated, old enough to have kits (or cubs) of her own. And she wants it to be with Master Darius.

What she doesn't know is just how much her Master loves her. He wants her to the point of obsession, wants her entire world to revolve around him and he would go through any length to keep it that way. What he didn't count on is for his twin brother to break into his home and take her.

Start Reading Here

This anthology contains scenes of exhibitionism and voyeurism, werewolf knotting, MFM threesome (no MM), domination & submission, dubcon, catgirl, pet play, lactation, werewolf knotting, size difference (large male, petite female), come inflation, creampie, gangbang, and bondage.

Shifter Domination 1

Obsessed

Domination | Size Difference

Marilyn Fae

Copyright 2019 Marilyn Fae

This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental. All characters depicted in sexual acts in this work of fiction are 18 years of age or older. No part in this book may be reproduced, transmitted, stored, or distributed without permission of the author or publisher.

This steamy short story contains scenes inappropriate for 18-years and below.  An innocent virgin is filled and knotted by a strong Alpha Werecat. It also contains exhibitionism and voyeurism, domination and submission, dubcon, size-difference (large male, petite female), bareback creampie, lactation, and rough sex. 

Look Inside

"Do I scare you?" he asks.

She nods, wondering why he's asking for something that's blatantly obvious. He terrifies her.

She spies the slightest curve of his lips before she looks down again. She wants more than anything to wrap her fingers around her tail and rub her face with the tip to soothe herself. Her long tail twitches with the desire to do exactly that and his gaze lands on her stomach, where she has her tail wrapped firmly around herself.

"You have nothing to be afraid of," he says.

She doubts that. Even now, she feels imprint of his fingers on her arm, sure to leave bruises. Unlike werewolves, werecat don't have that superspeed healing. They're a lot more agile, though that help her species when they were being hunted down. Hard to outrun a gun. She wonders if she can use her agility against him. Maybe she can get the window open and climb to her freedom.

"Would you give me a kiss, kitten?" he asks out of nowhere.

She stands shock still for a second, blinking dumbly because surely she's heard him wrong? He's not asking- She peers up at him carefully and sees the seriousness in his gaze. A rosy blush rises to her cheeks when she realizes he's being serious. She wonders if the CEO for the company she works for has a screw loose. "I don't know you," she says, interlinking her fingers in front of herself and looking determinedly anywhere except his face.

"That's not a no," he says.

She takes a step back, and her back slams against the door that is blocking her escape. His hands are on her waist, lifting her up so he can line their lips together.

The unexpected press of his lips on hers startles her enough to suck in a sharp breath and his tongue darts past her parted lips in an instant. She is thrust back against the solid door and her eyes blink close as he kisses her. His lips are surprisingly soft against hers, pressing with an urgency that takes her breath away. His knee works between hers, coaxing her legs apart with ease.

She knows she should be fighting back, pushing him off and getting free but his grip is firm and she feels like prey trapped beneath a larger, stronger predator and his lips on hers feel nice. He licks into her mouth, tasting her and dominating the kiss entirely. She doesn't know if he's a good kisser or not, being so inexperienced herself. She feels tingles all the way from where their lips are touching down her spine to the tips of her toes.

Her fingers find their way to the lapels of his suit, clutching tightly.

Tentatively, she tries to kiss him back. She picks up the bitter tang of coffee and something else she can't discern. The small gesture makes him growl, his fingers tightening around her waist, leaving more bruises the shape of his hands on her skin. The deep sound of his growl vibrates down her spine and makes every nerve ending in her body come awake with lust.

Too quickly, his lips part from hers, his breath grazing her jaw as he exhales softly against her skin. He leaves a trail of kisses down her neck and shoulders and she gives into the uncontrollable shiver as her body betrays her and she tilts her head to the side, offering her more of his neck. He trails open-mouthed kisses down her collar bone, sucking occasionally to leave blue-black bruises on her pale skin.

Prologue

"Mom, no!" Jack grabs his mother by the arm and yanks her back. "No!" he snarls at his mother, upper lip pulled back, teeth bared in a brave show of defiance. She has a pair of shears in her hands and a manic look in her eyes.

"I have to," she screams.

"We just have to be careful!" Jack insists, pulling her away from the little girl curled in the corner of the room. She's shaking, eyes wide in fear as she look at the two people she loves most in her life fight about her.

"If she can't hide them, we have to get rid of them!" her mother insists.

"How're you going to explain her injury in the hospital? What're you going to tell your friends?" Jack demands, biting back At eighteen-years-old, he has been taking care of their little family ever since their father disappeared ten years ago. "Things have changed now, Mom. They aren't killing people like us anymore," he says.

"People like her!" An accusing finger points towards the young girl in the corner.

"I'm like her too!" Jack all but shouts, yanking off his cap. His fuzzy orange ears swivels back, agitated.

A look of pure horror crosses her face. It's clear she hasn't thought about her son's animal ears for a long time. Jack keeps them well-hidden. None of them thought April would present as a werecat. The gene for shifters in their generation is weak at best. It should have been bred out completely and yet there she is, six-years-old girl fully capable of pretending to be human if not for the pair of white-tipped orange ears on her head and the long tail curled around her knees.

Their mother's eyes are red-rimmed when she turns to her. She drops the shears on the ground. The loud noise makes April jerk back further into her corner. "Mommy?" she calls out.

It is her voice that breaks the spell of fear and anguish that had ensnared their mother when she first saw the ears on her head. But instead of the motherly instinct that would call her forward and protect her only daughter, she takes a deliberate step back and away.

"I've- I'm done. I never signed up for any of this," she stumbles towards the bedroom and drags a luggage from the cupboard. That is already packed full tells Jack that she had been planning to leave for a while.

He ignores her in favor of crouching in front of his terrified younger sister. "Are you alright, April?" he asks.

She nods and reaches her arms beseechingly at her older brother.

Jack sighs and lets her cling to him, hugging her tight. "It's alright. I'm going to keep you safe."

Chapter One: Hide

April yanks her beanie over her eyes and tries to make herself as small as possible behind the computer screen. It's not that hard. She's eighteen but looks younger because they didn't have much to eat growing up. Jack tries his best but they don't always have enough food on the table and as a result, her growth had been somewhat stunted. She probably takes a little after her mother too. Jack had suffered the same circumstances and is a relatively big man. Meanwhile, she's barely five feet tall and is too skinny for her own good.

She's filled in all the wrong places, in her opinion. Breasts too big for her small waist and round hips that only makes it harder for her to hide her long tail. She curls her tail around her waist.

It's her first day at work and she's glad that they've put her in the basement because it means she doesn't need to explain why she's wearing a beanie down here. The long colorful skirt tied around her waist also does a good job of hiding her tail when she's tired of having it curled around her waist too.

It's colder here than it is anywhere else in the building and even though she works with a team of other people, she can see that they are all bundled up too. It's not suspicious at all for her to be wrapped up all the time.

She lets out a sigh of relief. It's her first day at work and she's already paranoid about being found out. It really shouldn't matter these days though. Shifter acceptance have come a long way. People like her are no longer being hunted down like animals.

Still, a lifetime of hiding has taught her not to trust anyone and that kind of conditioning is hard to get rid of, especially since she spent the better part of her youth hiding in the middle of nowhere with her older brother.

Jack has taken care of her for such a long time. It's only fair that he doesn't have to worry about her now that she's officially an adult.

"You must be the new girl."

She peeks up from beneath long blond lashes and keeps her hands to herself even when she sees him offering his hand for her to shake. "Yes," she answers softly. She's long since mastered the art of not being liked. She keeps her long hair down and hides her golden eyes with dark contacts. The over-sized clothes she wears makes her look frumpy. She had been compared to a walking sack of potatoes once and she thinks the description is accurate.

It helps that she doesn't meet anyone's gaze when she's spoken to. It's a miracle she got the job in the first place, but everything had been doing remotely and the interviewee had only required that she be capable of answering calls, so she was deemed satisfactory.

"April Snow?" he asks, retracting his hand with a frown when it becomes clear to him that she's not going to shake his hand.

She nods. "Yes, sir."

"Right. My name's Mike. I'm in charge around here, so if you have any questions, just bring them to me."

"Yes, sir." She can feel him judging her lack of enthusiasm.

"Right," he repeats.

She has a feeling he says that a lot.

"Alright. If you don't have any questions, your cubicle is this way," he says, guiding her down a long hallway with cubicles of people who all seem like they're deep in work. One glance at their screens lets her know they're actually playing some sort of video game. She frowns. "Keep up," he says, catching her attention straying.

"Fuck! Fuck! Heal me!" Someone shouts loudly.

Her ears twitch under the beanie and she turns to the source of the noise. He's several cubicles down and out of sight. She hears someone grumble a vulgar response and then the same man shouts a loud:

"Thanks, Fucker."

She grimaces and the man guiding her avoids her eye steadily, moving with slightly more stilted motions ahead.

She chews the inside of her cheek and keeps her thoughts to herself. It's just her first day at work. She doesn't want to get in trouble for ratting out her colleagues. All of them seem to be engrossed in the same game. She scowls at the man guiding her to her cubicle and wonders if he's into the same game. If she was a stranger coming down to visit, she would've thought they were some sort of Beta testing center for new games and these people were looking for bugs in the games. But no, they're supposed to be her colleagues.

Maybe their shifts haven't started? Or they could just be sharing the same work space and these aren't actually her co-workers.

She keeps her thoughts to herself as he points her to her desk. It's like all the other desks, except this one hasn't been personalized and there aren't empty cups and takeout containers in her work space. It's clear that the computers they've been equipped with are top of the line but based on the job description, she doesn't think it's necessary at all. It's all very curious.

"You should've been emailed the instructions?" Mike asks, jolting her out of her thoughts.

She nods curtly.

"Do you need help understanding anything?" At her brisk shake of her head, he says, "Right. Then, let me know if you need any help."

And she's left alone. The cubicle she is assigned couldn't have been better if she had chosen it on her own. It's situated in the very end of the room in a corner with a bird's eye view of the entire room, making it so that she would be able to tell if anyone's coming her way. The moment she's logged into her account and put her headphones on, the backlog of trouble tickets pop up onto her screen and she knows she's in for a long day of work.

Chapter Two: First Contact

Her suspicion her first day of work was entirely accurate. Her colleagues are more interested in their game than getting work done and it shows. That's not to say they don't do any work because they wouldn't have been able to keep their jobs otherwise, but they're specific in which jobs they accept. They answer to trouble tickets from the higher ups, but the tickets from employees and assistants, people who can't get them in trouble? Those tickets gets pushed to the back of the pile.

She has a ticket that is dated from three years ago and upon further research, the employee hasn't been working in their company for two years, and yet the system had never updated that either.

She sorts the tickets into problems that she can fix from behind the desk and those that require her to emerge from the basement and actually show up physically. There are enough troubleshooting for her to do behind the desk that she would be busy with it for years before having to go fix anything upstairs and thankfully, she's not completely bereft of hardworking colleagues either. James is more than ready to leave the basement to fix up whatever problem the people upstairs have with their computers, and Jenny doesn't mind the trip either.

Most of her colleagues confounds her. While she knows now that not everyone is playing games on their computers, it's also clear that most of they aren't doing the work they should be doing either. The computers down here are top-notch but the systems upstairs are outdated. She isn't skilled enough about computer systems to know how to fix things but she knows the men here are fully capable. Her work is pretty much automated with a list of instructions on what to do with each troubleshoot number that the computer spits out.

She suspects that's why they couldn't be bothered with updated the system upstairs. Right now, all she needs to do is get the person on the other end of the phone to read out the error code, flip to the page in her book on which buttons to press on her computer and the problem goes away. On the rare occasions that it doesn't, either James or Jenny would go upstairs to check.

They could make the system run smoother, given the time and resources. They just couldn't be bothered to do it.

The problem is the man in charge, Mike Tohemsky. Mike has no idea what he's doing and he's hired a bunch of what appears to be his college frat brothers who has grown older in age, but not in mentality.

The people who do actual work tend to burn out rather quickly for good reason. There should be fifteen people working together, but right now, only five of them are doing it. James, Jenny, Lilith, April, and Omi.

James has stayed there longest. "Two years," he tells her when she asks how long he's been here. "I'm handing in my resignation tomorrow."

She looks up at him in shock.

"I'm handing mine in next week," Jenny murmurs without looking up from her sandwich.

A part of her wants to ask what's going to happen to the rest of them when they leave? Jenny and James do the bulk of the work around here and she's nowhere near qualified enough to handle.

"You don't have to look so devastated. Omi is still going to be here," James say, catching her expression.

She looks down quickly. She doesn't like Omi. He lingers near her cubicle even though he should be busy doing his own work and he likes to pat her head like they're friends even though they're not.

"Couldn't we talk to HR?" Lilith pipes up after looking around to make sure there's nobody to overhear them. She's six months April's senior and the stress of the job is beginning to show in her darkening eyebags.

"How do you think Mike got the job? Head of HR is his mom."

That makes too much sense. April sighs into her own tuna sandwich and tries to ignore the heavy feeling in her chest. James and Jenny are the first friends she's ever made and she'll be sad to see them go. It'll be hard to adjust not having them around during lunch.

"We'll keep in touch," Jenny says, as though reading her mind. "You have our numbers, right?"

She nods.

Jenny smiles brightly at her and she can't help but relax a little. Jenny's very pretty and very nice. April hopes she can find a better job.

She knows she's not going to be leaving anytime soon though. As bad as things are and as hectic as her working hours get, it's kind of perfect. Apart from Omi, everyone else leaves her alone and it's impossible to get in trouble as long as she keeps her head down, which she is adamant on doing.

Of course, it is only hours after she thinks this that everything falls apart.

She's just finished another long day at work and is making her way up the stairs to the exit when she smashes into a wall that wasn't there the day before.

There are raised voices from somewhere behind them that she can't hear through the sudden ringing in her ears. She blinks up at the wall and frowns. Walls don't have arms that would shoot out and catch her arms in a strong grip to keep her from falling. And walls certainly doesn't have designer suits with shirts so crisp that she could've cut herself on their edges. And walls definitely don't smell like sandalwood and pine with a hint of burning alcohol and something else that makes all the nerve endings in her body come alive.

She peers up and up. The man is ridiculously taller. Her breath hitches when she meets the golden eyes of a man she had looked up to since she was a little girl.

Mateo Kenzo is the reason why her species aren't hunted down like animals now. His identity as a Shifter had been kept hidden up until ten years ago, when he climbed up the social ladder and found a position of power so intimidating in the country that they had no choice but to bend to his will when he demanded that shifters be treated as equals.

Overnight, things had changed. Families with half shifters like her, shifters incapable of hiding their animal characteristics are so used to hiding that they don't immediately return to society. Most of them are still in hiding even now. Or that's what her brother likes to tell her. She knows most of them are dead.

Her brother and her are the only two Werecats left in this part of town. Jack tried to reach out to others like them before. All they got were creepy responses from people who seem way too interested in them. Werewolves are much more prevalent because they are more of them to begin with and they're stronger, brute force able to free themselves before getting caught or killed. Cat shifters are not so lucky. They are rarer to begin with and when the culling happened, their numbers dropped drastically.

April has to fight the instinct to rub herself against the solid chest of the man still holding her up. Thankfully, she remembers purring and rubbing up to someone isn't proper human behavior and she scrambles free with a jolt. Molten golden eyes sweeps over her frame in blatant appraisal.

She expects him to glance away once he's done, as most people do because she's mastered the art of being unattractive and unassuming. Yet, she can't help but flush from the piercing evaluation, feeling the heat packed behind the gaze as they fixed on her own eyes with astonishing intensity.

"There you are," he rumbles instead of turning away.

It's really unfair how sexy his voice is. It trembles down her spine, vibrating through her bones, making everything in her body sing and respond in like. She's severely lacking in social interaction, but she's fairly certain that the man is just oozing sex. She quickly looks down. "Hi," she mumbles and tries to put as much distance between them as she can.

His grip on her arm is unrelenting and she only manages to take a small step away before he's yanking her back, pulling her to his chest so he can wrap another arm around her shoulders, trapping her to him. Her face is pressed against his suit and she stops breathing, afraid of ruining it if she breathes too hard or something.

She had been lucky so far. No one knows that she's a shifter. They probably suspect, but they don't know for sure. But Mateo- Mateo is a shifter too, one who is older with much more experience than her. Would he be able to tell? Would he report her and have her chipped and tracked to make sure she doesn't step a toe out of line? Would he figure out she's a Cat Shifter and report her to the Facility that specializes in 'taking care' of rare shifters? They tried to take her away from Jack a few times before and the only reason why they've stopped is because she moved into her new apartment without letting anyone know and the landlady never made her sign a proper lease.

"Sir!" she hears from behind them. "What're you doing here, Mr.  CEO?" Mike calls out his title too loudly, no doubt as a warning for the guys who're still playing their games to stop and at least pretend to be busy at work. If the people on the morning shift are notorious for not working during work hours, then the night shift men might as well have been hired to play games all night long.

Mateo doesn't let her go as he lets his gaze drift to the man. The change in his expression makes her mouth go dry. He looks at Mike like he's worth less than the dirt on his shoe.

Mike takes a step up towards him, only be to stopped by a giant of a man who's suddenly materialized in front of them. "Please keep your distance," he warns.

Mike swallows. "Why- why are you here, sir?"

Mateo fixes him with a look that makes him look away with fear. "You've been misusing company funds, Mike," the man in front of them says. "Mr. Kenzo has looked the other way for a long time out of respect for your late father and your mother, but it's clear that you do not have the same respect for them. Please have your resignation letter sent in by tomorrow."

April's brows creases. It's unexpected for the CEO to come down here personally to deal with something like this. She wonders who Mike's father is but the longer she stands there, the more it becomes clear to her that Mike isn't the reason the CEO had decided to come down here.

"Mr. Kenzo! Please!" Mike pushes the man hard enough to make him stumble out of the way and then he's heading straight for Mateo.

The CEO doesn't take to being lunged at well because one second he's gripping April and keeping her in place, and the next he has Mike tackles to the ground, hand on his throat and upper lip pulled back in a low snarl. "Pack up and leave. I've let you waste enough time and resources in my company. I'm being very generous, Mike. Don't make me regret it."

She doesn't wait to find out if Mike decides to be an idiot and argue more because she uses the moment of confusion and uproar to escape, running up the stairs two steps at a time and disappearing through the door to get away.

Chapter Three: Family

Maybe if she prays hard enough, Mateo would forget all about their encounter. Maybe he hasn't realized what she is yet. She has never met another Shifter except for her brother before, so she doesn't know if she smells any different. Sometimes, she gets a whiff of something familiar when she's walking around in town but it's not like she's following shifters home and figuring out if their scents give them away.

Her phone starts ringing at exactly six pm and she picks up the video call with a bright smile.

"Hi," she waves.

"H- kit. How- -ur day?" It looks like Jack is on one of his out of treks out in the middle of nowhere. The cell phone reception is bad, causing interference on every other word.

She musters a smile even though she's not sure if he can see anything on his side. She only sees his profile picture on hers. "It's alright," she says. "Something happened at work today," she starts carefully, wondering if she should tell him her odd encounter with Mateo. His words, 'there you are', echoes in her mind and she can't make head of tail of it. Has he been looking for her? Why on earth would he say that?

"Wa- wait-," he says and she hears a static sort of noise from his end of the phone for the next several seconds. Jack has been travelling the world ever since she landed the job. He's one of the best Wildlife Biologist in the country and he have had to put his career on a back-burner in order to raise her. She's pleased that she convinced him to take the job. "Tell me," he says, the reception suddenly much clearer.

Her smile is genuine this time. He's turned the camera on and she can see the view from high up. Trees for miles. "Did you scale a tree, Jack?"

"I'm closer to a radio tower today," he says. "I wanted to show you the view. So, tell me about your work. Anything new?"

She tries to feign nonchalance and doesn't do a good enough job.

"Tell me."

"I saw the CEO today," she says, biting her lower lip. "I think he knows something."

He grimaces. "You know we don't have to hide anymore, don't you, kit?"

"I know." She also knows he feels bad for how paranoid she is about being found now. It's not his fault they were hunted for the better part of her life. Things only got better recently and it's hard to adjust to the idea that she's not going to get gunned down when people find out she's a werecat. Sometimes, she envies her brother. He remembers better times when they didn't need to hide and it is easier for him to go back into the world because of that. His ability to hide his more cat-like features also plays a part.

"Did you tell anyone what you are yet?" he asks. "We could find you a therapist, kit."

"I don't need a therapist," she crosses her arms and tries not to pout. Fails spectacularly. "I'm just- it's weird. Have you met anyone else like us?" she wants to know.

"Not since that old lady I saw in Lithuania," he confesses. "That doesn't mean there aren't anyone like us out there, kit."

"I'm not a kit," she murmurs.

"Tell me about the CEO. Mateo Kenzo right? What's he like?" He switches to the front camera so she can see him. Jack hasn't aged at all, though his brown hair has gotten a lot longer and he could definitely use a shave.

"You look homeless," she says with a shy smile.

He rolls his eyes. "Don't try to change the topic. How did you meet Mateo?"

Heat rushes to her cheeks. She can still feel the phantom sensation of his hand on her arm, his strong grip around her torso, pinning her to him. "He's intense," she murmurs. "He fired Mike." She's glad for that, at least. Maybe they'll have someone who knows what they're doing now and update their draconian system.

"About time," he says. "Maybe now you wouldn't have to work so hard."

She blushes. "It wasn't so bad."

He huffs. "You were taking your work home. Don't think I don't know that..." After a pause, he adds, "You should talk to Mateo. If he wants to talk to you, you should do it. There aren't many of us left. It'll make me feel better if I know there's someone taking care of you."

She shakes her head, looking down to hide her eyes. "I'm fine," she insists. "And he's a werewolf. He wouldn't like me."

He shrugs. "It's worth a try. There's not that many wolves left either. You could have him as your Alpha, kit. It'll be safer for you."

"You're my Alpha," she says softly.

He seems to preen at that for a second before sighing. "I'm too far to be a good Alpha for you right now."

She shakes her head.

"You should also get rid of those contacts and buy clothes that actually fit you. There's a clothing line that's specifically catered for people like you and me now. It's very cute. I'll send you some if I see them, okay?"

Her eyes widen, "I wouldn't- you don't have to waste money on me, Jack."

"It's not wasting money," he sighs. "Look, I'm sorry we had to hide who we are for so long and I fucked up a lot of things for you, but I wish you'd be less-"

"Scared, I know, I know. I'm- I'm trying," she says softly.

"Are you really?"

"I'm trying," she insists. She's really not, but he doesn't need to know that.

They spend the rest of the time catching each other up on their lives. Jack is going off-grid for the next week or so and promises to call her whenever he can. April doesn't think anything would change by then but promises him that she won't do anything crazy in his absence.

She gets off the phone feeling lighter and has almost forgotten about her encounter with her CEO earlier that day.