Army Beasts Out now!!
As a treat to my readers I'm giving you the first Chapter of Army Beast to tenpt and tease you!!
ENJOY!!
Chapter One
With every stroke of the feather her skin felt flushed and heated. It was trailed down her neck across her chest and around her nipples leaving her gasping in pleasure. Her hands and legs were bound with silk scarves, and she was spread eagled on the ornate four poster bed. She felt the feather tease her torso with small swirls and circles. It barely touched the top of her pussy, and the circles got bigger. She ached to feel it between her legs. She lifted her hips in anticipation but only to have the soft caress of the feather pulled away. She moaned her disappointment, and a husky laugh came to her ears
“Ah you want me to touch you there,” the deep voice said knowingly.
“Yes,” she whispered. “Please.”
“I love it when you ask nicely.” He chuckled. “You are such a good girl.”
The feather began its slow movement across her body again and went to the core of her desire. She bit her lip when she felt the soft flick against the lips of her pussy. He spread the moist sexy fold of her snatch and passed the feather over her clit, and she cried out.
“I can’t resist,” he murmured slipping his finger inside her. “I love to watch my how you squirm beneath my touch. How your body accepts it and clings to it before letting go. Your juice is already coating my fingers and dripping down. Your body is so responsive, and it drives me crazy.”
She moaned and lifted her hips to meet the insertion of his digit. Each time he sent it deeper inside her until she could feel her orgasm begin to build. Her head thrashed on the pillow, and when he whispered “Come for me, sweetheart,” she let herself go reaching for the pinnacle of her release….The sound of her alarm woke her from her dream. Promyse groaned and rolled over to press the button on the clock and lay back with her forearm over her eyes.
“Stupid alarm, you could’ve at least let me get to the good part,” she grumbled and swung her feet out of the bed.
Six a.m. in Wyoming and she could feel the cold of the floor against her feet before she burrowed them into her soft bedroom slippers. She went over to the thermostat and turned it up to high hoping to ward off the chill of the night before. Promyse walked down the hallway and through her living room heading to the adjoining kitchen. She stopped and looked at the big stone fireplace longingly wishing she could light a large fire and sit down with a hot cup of coffee and relax for a leisurely morning. But there was no time for that. She had to be at work in Carter County municipal building promptly at eight. And in Wyoming in November, she could wake up to ten feet of snow on the ground so she chose to head into town early.
She smiled to herself while she made a pot of coffee. She poured one hot cup for herself and put the rest in her thermos for her drive in. It took at least forty-five minutes for her to drive into town, and she had learned from her residence of Carter County early on—don’t be caught outside without a survival bag in your car and some hot coffee in your thermos. The weather got tricky, and you had to be able to survive until someone could come to your rescue. She felt like a survivalist woman. Promyse grinned. No one from her old hometown would believe she lived in a place where it got so cold. But that was her old life. She moved here for a reason, and she did not regret her decision in the least.
Her smile turned to a frown when her thoughts went back to her dream. Her hot, spicy, sexy dream. When will I be ever free of him? she thought sullenly, even though she knew it would never happen. Zane Wakefield had as much hold on her heart as the day she fell in love with him. But that didn’t mean happiness. Loving Zane meant secrets, lies, and half truths. He was in the military, but in what part she never had a clue. She only knew when he came home everything was intense, down to their lovemaking. She began to feel overwhelmed with his life while she faded away. Every time she tried to talk to him, it was the same promise, We’ll talk later, honey, and he was gone. Until one day those words were the last thing he got to say to her before she packed up and headed to a new uncharted life.
She put him out of her mind for the moment and got ready for work. Soon she was shoving her arms through her thick parka and heading out to her truck. Damn, its cold! The external thermostat read twenty-five degrees. She assumed it meant twenty-five below zero because her face felt frozen over in minutes. Instead of the compact car she owned in Fayetteville she drove a big Dodge Ram fifteen hundred. She threw her bag in the back seat and used the chrome foot rest to climb in the front. The hemi engine started up with a growl instead of a purr when she stuck in the keys. Promyse could see why men loved trucks so much. You felt powerful with it under your hands.
She sang along with the radio while she drove and pulled her truck into the usual spot in front of the municipal building. She grabbed her stuff out and looked at the time. She had half an hour to spare when she went through the security check at the front door and headed up to her office in vital statistics. She worked with marriage licenses, and she loved seeing the young couples coming in with love in their eyes and a fresh outlook on life. She wished she could be a fly on the wall to see them live their lives, to have families, and to grow as a couple together. It was something she always wanted, love and a white picket fence. Promyse sat at her small desk with her assortment of knick knacks and got ready to begin her day.
“Don’t forget, Ms. Promyse Fitzgerald, birthday cupcakes in the lunchroom at one.” The smiling cherub face of her friend Emily looked over her cubicle wall.
“I thought I told you guys I didn’t want anything for my birthday?” Promyse smiled.
“Don’t you go thinking you can get away with having a secret birthday around here.” Emily smiled. “You’ve been hear for a year now, and you see how we do it. Cupcakes at one and presents. Don’t you forget.”
Promyse grinned. “Yes, ma’am.”
“What plans do you have tonight?” Emily asked.
“Doug is picking me up and we’re going to head into Mosely’s for dinner and a movie,” Promyse said.
Doug Lowell was the local bookstore owner and he was safe. He stared at her with open admiration and often commented about how he never understood why someone as beautiful as her went out with him. It was because she knew she would never feel for him the way she felt for Zane, and he would never push.
“You’re going to end up filling out one of those marriage licenses for yourself one of these days if you keep up with him,” Emily teased.
That would never happen, Promyse knew that. Her life was good, simple, and uncomplicated. While she pretended there wasn’t a hallow place in her heart.
* * * *
The neon light of the motel blinked on and off casting a red glare into the dingy room in a repetitive way that drove Zane crazy. He paced back and forth in the small area feeling cooped up but having no place to go. This was some crazy shit going on, and he was smack dab in the middle of it. He was the one being blamed, and he didn’t know what to do. Being the second in command in one of the army’s most elite units was the highlight of his career. Who knew he would be essentially the one to bring the Army Beasts down, even though he was innocent of the crime they said he had done. Zane was about ready to go out the door and rip the neon vacancy sign from its post outside. A knock on the door had him striding across the room and dragging it open. He already knew who was on the other side.
“It took you long enough to get here,” he snapped.
“Well hello to you too,” Casey Johnson replied as he walked in. “You don’t screen who is at the door?”
Major Casey Johnson was the head of the Army Beasts unit. He ran a tight ship, and his wife Nia was their unit transcriber. Only a few people knew who they really were, and she was one of them.
Zane scoffed. “Please, your scent is easy to recognize, especially with Nia all over you. What’s going on out there?”
“It’s bad. They’re saying you mauled the specialist attached to be with us on this mission,” Casey explained.
“You know that’s not me, Casey,” Zane yelled. “Come on, after all these years don’t you think by now that I know, that we all know how to control the animal in us!”
Casey held up his hands. “Of course I know this wasn’t any of us. Nia picked up something on the digitals. The death was graphic, but it wasn’t any of us who killed him. There was some background noise she is trying to clean up.”
“Then what’s this about? Why am I in hiding and on the run?” Zane asked.
“Because someone is trying to take us down from the inside, and if you get caught and court marshaled, then whoever it is can put the whole unit on the chopping block,” Casey said. “Do you think they will let us go free? They’ll cage us like animals, and we won’t ever let them take us. So we’ll end up living on the run, and I’m not about to let that happen.”
“Then what are we going to do? I can’t sit in this place for however long until we get this resolved.” Zane sat on the saggy mattress. “I’ll go crazy, Casey.”
“You can’t go back to Fort Bragg with us or be anywhere in North Carolina,” Casey said. “What about that girl you were dating last year?”
“Promyse?” Zane gave a soft laugh. “She booked a while back. Can’t blame her. I put a lot on her and never gave her anything in return.”
“I know you kept tabs on her and where she went. You have too many connections not to know,” Casey replied. “Go to her for a few weeks until we get this settled. Maybe you’ll resolve some old issues.”
“You want me to run and hide like I’m guilty,” Zane answered.
“No, I want you to go off the grid until we can clear your damn name,” Casey snapped. “I trust you, Zane, but you have that stupid knack of acting first and thinking later. We can’t do that in this situation. Where is Promyse living now?”
“In some little podunk town in Wyoming called Carter County.” He laughed. “The girl moved from Philly to North Carolina and then moved all the way to Wyoming go get away from me. I don’t think she wants to see me showing up at her door.”
“As small as it is don’t your people hunt those lands when the pack moves?”
“Maybe. I don’t know anymore,” Zane said darkly. His pack was none too happy when he set off on his own. So he never kept track of them or their habits anymore.
“It’s as off the grid as you are going to get, so suck it up and head out.” Casey flipped open his phone. “I’ll get you transport to Colorado, and then the trail will end cold there.”
“It will be good to shift and run for a few hundred miles,” he said truthfully.
“Does she know what you are?”
Casey posed a question that Zane had thought about constantly over the last year. What if he had told her what he really was? Would that have made a difference or make her run all the faster? He never stopped thinking about her. Practically every day her face would pop into his mind. Promyse and her sexy wide smile that carried to her chocolate brown eyes and her long black tresses that she pampered. She had full lips and milk chocolate skin what called him to touch her whenever she was in the room. There were a lot of maybes, but he knew the reason why she left. A bunch of unanswered questions and a man who would never stayed still long enough give her a good reason to wait around..
“She doesn’t know who I really am,” Zane answered.
“Then I suggest when you knock on her door that is the first thing you tackle.” Casey began talking on the phone, and a few minutes later he hung up. “You’re leaving out of a private airstrip here in Albuquerque. You’ll head in to Colorado and from there make your way into Wyoming on your own. Are you good on the private account to get what you need there?”
“Yup, the plan B account is good and active, and I can get everything I want.” But not the one thing I truly need, he thought.
Casey nodded. “I’ll get you to the plane and head back to the scene.”
“You know they’ll blame you for helping me?”
“Then they’ll have to prove it, won’t they?” Casey grinned.
When they left the motel a drizzle of rain had begun. Both men were silent as they drove to the small airport. Casey drove right onto the tarmac where a plane was waiting with its engines already running.
“The pilot is Hank. He is a friend of mine,” Casey explained. “He’ll probably have to stop and refuel before he gets to Albuquerque, but you don’t have to get off.”
“Cool.” Zane held out his hand, and Casey clasped it firmly. “Thanks, Major.”
“Give me your ID and wallet. I’ll let you know what we come up with. Buy a throwaway phone and call Nia’s private line.” Casey gave him a look. “Run hard and fast, Zane, until we get you home.”
Zane handed over everything that proved he was who he was. Suddenly he felt bare and naked. He nodded and stepped out into the night. By the time he looked back at the car, Casey was going through the gate and heading away from the small airport. After he quickly greeted the pilot, they took off, and he was in the skies heading toward Wyoming and Promyse. He wondered how she would react to seeing him on her doorstep.
When she left she didn’t even give him a chance to say goodbye or to ask her to stay. He came home and could tell she was gone. He spent weeks trying to find her until she got a job in Carter County. He wanted to go after her and bring her back home and decided against it hoping she would come back on her own. But weeks turned to months, and then months into one year. He didn’t know how to even broach the chasm that had been formed between them. Today is her birthday. His heart gave a thump wondering who she spent it with? He wondered how he would react if he saw her with another man. I’d rip his head off. Zane felt anger rise inside and pushed it back down. It was one of the reasons he was being framed. He had a temper, and they were going to use it against him.
Through the long flight and refuel many thoughts ran through his mind. Who was trying to frame him? How he could help find the truth? Did Promyse still love him because he sure as hell never stopped loving her? Most of all he wondered if she would turn him away. He didn’t know if he would be able to take her turning her back on him again. She left when he needed her. By the time he got off the plane his body was filled with nervous energy, and the only way he could get rid of an excess of energy is to run.
The airstrip bordered a wooded area in Colorado. He bid the pilot goodbye and headed off deep into the trees. The sun was already coming up, and his natural instinct and direction took over. It would be over two day’s run to get into Wyoming even though he was so close by. He could probably make it in one if he only stopped for a small rest. He could be to where she lived by night fall. Zane knew her address, but he wouldn’t need it. He would know when he was close. He would smell her. Her scent was never far from his mind. Zane looked around knowing he was far enough into the trees not to be seen. He stripped quickly and hid the clothes in underbrush. He closed his eyes and let the feeling take over him, the excitement that crawled along his skin.
The animal inside him wanted to be free. His skin turned to fur, and his legs reformed to suit his lower powerful mass. Zane let out a powerful roar that echoed and made birds fly away in fear. He inhaled the scent of the forest, the moss, the damp wood, and he could even pick up a hint of smoke from a cabin chimney. He began to run. His heart raced, not from exertion but excitement. He picked up speed to match his new form. The pads of his paws met the cold ground, going over rocks and down valleys and across creeks. Soon he was moving so fast that even the small branches from the thickets that pulled at him did not slow his speed. It was exhilarating, and he never wanted to stop. He spent too long cooped up in human form sitting in his uniform on base in North Carolina. This was the longest he had run in months unless he was on a mission. He stopped to rest near a spring right over the Wyoming border. He was higher in elevation, and the air was brisk and cold. The water from the creek tasted fresh and clean, and he drank heartily before he found warm thick underbrush to rest and doze for a few hours. He lifted his head when he heard the snapping of a twig. A rabbit caught his sight and even though he could have caught it easily, he gave it a reprieve. He sent a low growl in its direction, and the animal ran away in fright.
By the time he woke up and began to move again it was early afternoon and he had made excellent time. He found her house through the forest by night fall and saw the smoke curling lazily from the chimney. There was a truck in the driveway along with a blue ford Explorer. He wondered who her visitors were. He sat to wait, and the hours passed until he saw the door open. Zane watched as a man stepped out onto her porch, and she followed him out laughing. Her dark hair was pulled high into a ponytail. And she wore white snow boots to match the form fitting sweater that hugged every curve. Zane emitted a growl from where he sat, and it was loud enough to make the man look around warily.
“You might have mountain lions close by, Promyse. Better be careful.” The man’s voice was weak in Zane’s opinion.
“I’m always careful, Doug. Thanks for caring,” she replied.
Zane blinked. He hadn’t heard her voice for a year. Doug. What kind of name is that anyway?
The man called Doug fixed his glasses and leaned in for a kiss, but instead Promyse hugged him and placed a small peck on his cheek. Zane wondered what they were doing in her home for hours and didn’t like where his mind went to find answers. He watched the SUV drive away with its snow chain cutting into the ground, and Promyse stepped inside and closed the door. Better to get this over with now. He padded out from his hiding place to the front door. He bumped it with his head in his version of a knock and waited for her to open the door.
The door swing open, and she began to speak. “Doug, did you forget your scarf again? I’m beginning to think you do it on….”
Zane watched her brows furrow because no one was there, and he swatted lightly at her leg with his paw. When she looked down her eyes widened, and she emitted a scream that could wake the dead. She tore away inside leaving the door open, and he casually padded in after her.
“Holy shit!” She threw a book in his direction and headed across the living room floor to another room He heard the door slam and walked patiently toward it in panther form before changing into his human skin.
He knocked on the door, and she screeched.
“Honey, open the door.”
“Who the hell is out there?’ she demanded to know. “There is some big damn panther out there, so I suggest you run. Wait why are you in my house? Jesus! A serial killer and a panther, just my luck right after Doug leaves! I’m calling the sheriff!”
“Promyse, it’s me, Zane,” he said calmly.
She cracked the door open, and her wide eyes wide went to slits when she saw his face. “What are you doing here? There a panther running around. It must have went out the door.” She looked at him standing nude, and her eyes became round saucers again. “Why the hell are you naked?”
“Happy birthday?” he said with a grin.
She opened the door and stalked out. “How did you find me, and again, why are you naked?”
He shifted back into panther form. It was his nature after all, and he watched her with patient yellow eyes. Her mouth opened and closed once then twice before she crumpled to the floor in a dead faint. That went well, he thought and shifted easily back to human form. He walked to the door and closed it before taking her prone form from the floor and laying her on the couch. He could have found her bedroom and lay her on the bed, but anytime he and Promyse got near each other and a bed was involved, all rational thought ceased. He would wait for the invitation back to her bed, and when that happened he was never leaving again.
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