Motley Crewed Shifters - Chapter 21: Chapter 21

Sleep had eluded me for months after the divorce. But I never really slept well.
At least, not since I was a child with an innocent’s experience of the world. No worries or cares to keep me awake.
And yet, for the first time in ages, I blinked myself awake, feeling more rested than I had in years. There was something different.
And no, it wasn’t the large man spread out next to me with acres of tanned, heavily muscled skin on display.
Whoa.
Then again, maybe it was him.
Mine. Bite. Claim.
“What?” I squeaked.
“Hmm, Sugar?” Max sat up and asked in a voice that was entirely too sexy for the freak out I was having.
Did good sex make you hallucinate?
“Um, what, that is, when did we move in here?” I asked, looking around at his bedroom.
All the furniture looked antique, like maybe it came with the place. It had been refinished and glowed with what smelled like a week old coating of lemon furniture oil.
Wait. How the hell did I know that?
I took a deep breath, picking through the scent of cleaning products, freshly laundered clothes, not so fresh clothes that I assumed were in the hamper in the corner, really good sex, and a spicy masculine scent that lingered in the bedroom.
“Penelope?”
Mate. Bite.
The strange words in my brain were accompanied by a long rumbling growl. It only took me a moment to realize it was loud enough for Max to hear. I clapped my hands over my lips.
“Oh my God. Something is wrong with me,” I muttered behind my fingers.
“Easy, Sugarplum. I can explain,” Max said, raising his hands in front of him as if calming a frightened beast or child.
He looked hesitant, and that made me angry. So, I dropped my hands from my face and I snarled.
“Shit!”
I scrambled backwards off the bed. Fear spiked through me and whatever it was talking inside my head, well, it didn’t like that at all. Angry growling filled my brain, and I held my head in my hands, whimpering at the sounds.
“Oh my God, I am going crazy,” I cried.
“No, no, no, no! Penelope, it’s okay, I swear it is,” Max said.
Something inside me told me to listen to Max, but I was too panicked to listen. I shook my head and backed up, hitting the wall with my naked ass.
The sounds of the front door opening met my ears, and I snarled as the scent of Wolf, Bull, Bear, and monster met my nostrils.
“Boss? You okay?”
“Alpha?”
“Look at me, Sugar. It’s okay. They’re good. They’re our Crew. They won’t hurt you. I swear.”
“W-what’s happening? Oh, my FUCK!” I roared as I caught my reflection in the mirror.
I gaped, mouth wide open as I took in my new appearance. My skin had turned a dark, burnished red and there were patches of fur covering my breasts. I gasped and when I looked down, I saw my legs had transformed into something else.
Something with cloven hooves. Like a goth fawn or something out of a fantasy.
My features had sharpened, and my hair turned black. I had long black fingernails, and that wasn’t all. Large, bat-like wings sprouted from my back.
I could hear the men scrambling up the stairs. Their concern was batting at me like a thousand slaps of the sea against the shore.
I closed my eyes, finding it hard to focus. It was like everything was coming in too fast and bright. Too loud and just too much.
“Pen, Pen, relax!” Max said, crouching down in front of me.
I reopened my eyes and screamed. The Max I knew was so not the Max I saw.
This Max looked like the Devil, so I turned and ran, er, flew, busting through the glass window and taking off for the forest. The sound of Max roaring my name was almost as deafening as the furious pounding of my heart.
I didn’t know how to use this new body, and it wasn’t long before my wings grew tired and I couldn’t fly anymore. I crash landed onto the forest floor, grunting in pain as my furry ass made contact with a bare patch among the grass and pebbles that dotted the creek just behind Max’s property.
Something sizzled along my skin, and I groaned with the effort it took for my skin to change back into its normal hue. A momentary relief filled me.
Then I remembered I was naked, in the middle of nowhere, and now I was a monster.
I sank to my knees and let the tears fall, curling into a ball, and listened to the water flowing beside me as I wept.
This part of Barren County was actually very lovely. The grass was still thick, even though Fall had officially begun. The trees were a pretty combination of pines, evergreens, beeches, walnuts, and oaks.
The leaves had started turning and there were more shades of amber, gold, orange, purple, and red than I’d ever seen before. But maybe it was my new eyesight, making it look that much more magical.
The sound of footsteps approaching had me lifting my head, and I saw Max, hands still up, a look of utter dejection on his otherwise gorgeous face as he came nearer, holding a robe and slippers in his hands.
“Please don’t leave again,” Max growled, and I heard the plea in his tone.
“How can I go? I’m a monster.” I sniffed.
“You’re not a monster,” someone else said, and I jumped.
“That’s Emmet. Don’t worry, the guys are staying back. But, uh, they wanted to meet you.”
“Give me that,” I hissed, taking the robe from him and putting it on my body.
“You brought your friends out here?!”
“Uh, technically, we’re his Crew,” another voice said.
“Who is that? Or should I say what is that? What are you? What did you do to me?!” I hissed.
“You’re a Devil. And I’m Zeke,” a cowboy with wavy hair and crazy purple eyes came out of the trees first. He squatted down about a dozen feet away and nodded.
“I’m the devil?”
“No, you’re not the devil. You are a Devil. Like me. A Jersey Devil,” Max explained, glaring at his Crew mate.
“A what?”
“You know the stories, don’t you?” Another man, this one big as an ox, said as he came to sit beside Zeke.
“But that’s just a myth,” I said.
“About that,” a third man, with blond hair and his arms covered in tattoos stood beside Max. “We’re all the stuff of myths and legends, Miss Abruzzi.”
“Each of us is a last chancer,” another strange man said. “I’m Kian, by the way.”
“I’m Penelope,” I mumbled and sat, er, fell down on my butt.
“Easy. Are you hurt?” Max asked and went to reach for me.
“Don’t,” I said, and he flinched back.
The look of pain on his face hurt to see, but I couldn’t think clearly as it was. Having him touch me would only make it worse.
I looked around at the big, scary, but handsome men and frowned. They were all huge and good looking, though none held a candle to Max as far as I was concerned.
“W-what’s a last chancer? What are you? What am I?” I asked, turning to Zeke.
He was the first one who struck me as being brutally honest. Max had promised me the truth. But he’d obviously left out a huge portion when he’d fucked me.
Like the part where his dick was going to turn me into a freak.
“Actually, it wasn’t his dick. It was his bite,” Kian answered.
“Oh my fuck, did you just read my mind?” I asked, my panic returning already.
“Did I?” Kian asked, looking around at everyone there.
“Holy shit,” Max mumbled. “So, before anyone asks, I think when you all acknowledged me as your Alpha, we really did create something here. Something that bound itself to us with magic. Telepathy is only part of it,” Max said.
“I don’t understand.”
“I’m sorry, let me explain⁠—”
“Not you,” I said, still too upset with Max to look at him just yet.
Something clawed at my insides, and I hunched in on myself.
“Easy, you’ll hurt yourself,” the biggest man there said, frowning hard.
I could see something inside of him, something big and furry. A Bear! He could turn into a Bear. Oh damn, I really needed to know what was happening.
“Alpha, is it okay if I talk to your mate?” Zeke asked.
Max’s displeased growl filled the space. All those big, powerful men hunched in on themselves, like they were trying to be smaller somehow.
Max felt bigger. Heavy too. And he was hurt and upset. That was my fault. I felt that down to my soul, and tears pricked my eyes. I did not want to hurt him. But I needed answers, and I needed time.
“You can talk to her, but I stay. I can’t leave her here with you,” Max told him, and I snarled.
“Fuck off,” I said, affronted by his chauvinistic display.
Good mate. Protective.
The voice inside me seemed to approve of Max’s behavior, but I rolled my eyes and crossed my arms.
“He’s not being any more of a jerk than normal, I promise,” Zeke said and laughed. “His Devil is likely going apeshit right now, wanting to reclaim you ten times over. You see, Miss Abruzzi, you are Max’s fated mate. Not everyone gets one of those. You two are lucky.”
“Lucky? I finally find a man I want to be intimate with and I have sex for the first time in years and now I turn into a monster!”
“Your Devil is gorgeous, Sugar,” Max mumbled, but I was too pissed at him to give him any attention.
“Am I dangerous?” I asked, but it was a stupid question.
Of course I was dangerous.
I could now sprout claws, wings, fangs, and a fucking tail.
“Yes,” Zeke replied.
“But you’re already doing so well controlling your Devil,” Max said, shooting Zeke an angry glare.
“With time, you’ll get even better. But you should probably take a few days off,” Dante mumbled and rubbed a hand over his head.
I frowned, looking at my hands to see I’d changed into that, no, into my Devil again.
“Oh no! How do I make it stop,” I panicked, trembling as I stared at my claws.
“Easy. Please, let me help,” Max said, and he looked pained.
The truth is whatever was inside me, I could feel it pining for him. My heart squeezed and as the tears rolled down my face and the next wave of pain hit me, I nodded.
Max vaulted over the distance separating us, lifting me into his embrace. I swear, even my skin sighed as he tucked me close to him.
“It’s disconcerting, I’m sure, to learn there is more to the world than you knew,” Zeke continued, his voice low and soft.
I nodded, sitting up a little as Max cradled me to him, like I was something precious.
You are precious to me, mate, his deep, dark voice whispered inside my head, and I lifted my face to his.
“So, you are all Jersey Devils?”
“What?” the huge one said.
“Fuck no,” tattooed boy barked.
“Actually, Miss Abruzzi⁠—”
“Call me Penelope,” I interrupted Zeke.
Once more, Zeke’s gaze flicked over to Max’s before he answered me. As if he was asking for permission.
“He is asking for permission. You see, we’ve created something here, Sugar. Something like a community, and well, I’m the leader. The Alpha.”
“Oh,” I whispered, but I wasn’t sure what he meant.
Not really.
“Okay, so short version,” Emmet interrupted. “Max here is the only Jersey Devil, aside from yourself. I’m what you’d call a Werewolf, though I prefer Wolf Shifter. Dante there shares his soul with a Grizzly Bear, and Kian with a Bull. Zeke, well, maybe you should take that one, pal,” he ended abruptly.
Holy fuck. There was a lot of information in there, I just couldn’t get past the Texas drawl.
Werewolves. Bears. Bulls.
Those words were important. But perhaps the most important thing was Shifter. They were all Shifters. All men who could change their shape into that of an animal.
I turned to Max.
“Are we Shifters?”
“Not like them, but in a way, yes. You see, the first Jersey Devil, much like the legend, was made when my ancestor, a powerful Witch, struck a bargain with Demon Rosier. They became lovers, mates really, and their offspring was the first Jersey Devil.”
“Like the story,” I said, remembering the time I read it when I was a teenager.
“Sort of,” Max breathed, tucking my hair behind my ears.
Both our skin was back to normal now. Night had fallen, and the moon was visible in the sky.
“I guess it would be fitting if it was a full moon,” I teased.
“Actually, the last quarter moon is kind of our thing, Sugarplum. That’s why I couldn’t stop myself from claiming you, marking you with my bite. I am so sorry I didn’t ask your permission first. I never meant to take that decision from you,” Max confessed.
“What decision?” I asked, and I stiffened in his arms.
“Well, mates stay together. And Fated mates, if you tried to leave you would both likely get sick. Hell, maybe even die,” Emmet said.
“What?!”
“Please, Pen. Just listen,” Max said, but I was already shrugging out of his embrace and standing.
“You mean I don’t have a choice in this?”
“The truth is, there are things in this universe that are older than we know. The supernatural world exists alongside the human world and has done so since forever. But the universe is fickle, and the Fates have their own agenda. Still, now and then, they throw us a bone,” Zeke explained.
“A bone?” I asked, pissed off as all get.
My chest vibrated with the force of my growl, and I felt fire at my fingertips. I looked down and hissed, there were actual red sparks shooting and fizzing on the ends of my claws.
“Oh my God!”
“Easy. The fire won’t hurt you,” Max said, his voice way too calm.
I was so stupid. I felt tricked. Bamboozled. And yet there was a part of me that just wanted to vault back into his arms and let him take care of me. But when had a man ever done that?
“I’m not him. I won’t pay for Burt’s mistakes, dammit, Penelope, I love you!”
“Oh, don’t you dare,” I spat.
“You. Are. My. Mate.”
“You should have told me the truth,” I countered.
“Look, Penelope, every supernatural group has stories about fated mates. Two halves of a soul that, when reunited, can overcome any hardship. Only the lucky are blessed to find their fated mates.”
“So you are saying Max and I are lucky?” I snarked.
I was in no mood to hear how lucky I was right now. I was so confused. My heart said yes. God knew my body did, too. But my mind was finding it hard to let go.
“You are goddam right you are,” Kian grunted and stomped off.
Great. Now, I pissed off the cowboy—literally.
He was a Bull, after all.
Anyway, this was all crazy. Impossible even.
My chest heaved with the effort it took to breathe and I closed my eyes, trying to rein in the beast. Warm hands clapped onto my waist, and Max pulled me back into the warm circle of his arms.
Was Zeke right? Did Max think he was lucky? Or would he get sick of me and toss me in for a new model, too?
“I’m so fucking lucky to have found you, Sugarplum,” he said, squeezing me tight, and fuck me if that didn’t feel good.
“Is it true? Am I your fated mate?” I asked him because I had to know.
Time seemed to slow. Max turned me around to face him, his hands never leaving me. And that was good. I felt calmer under his touch.
The sounds of the guys leaving the area were loud in the background, but all my attention was on Max.
Mate. Claim. Bite.
I closed my eyes for a moment and swallowed down the constant rumble there. Max exhaled, his warm breath fanning my cheek. His hands slid up my body, caressing my neck and throat, cupping my face and tilting my head back.
I wanted him to kiss me so badly.
“I knew you were mine the second I saw you,” Max whispered. “I knew were you mine, and I swore to the gods I was going to have you. You belong to me. Every inch of you. These lips,” he growled and kissed me, hard.
“These tits,” he said, opening the robe and cupping my breasts, tugging on the hard nipples.
“This soft, perfect belly,” he continued his appraisal.
“This delicious ass I can’t wait to fuck. And this right here,” he rumbled, sliding two thick fingers between my folds, and shoving them into my needy slit.
“Your pussy belongs to me, Sugarplum. It’s mine and I want it. Now.”
Oh. My. Fuck.