Eve Langlais - Scared of Spiders

The gushing ichor burned as it splashed down on her. Not that she noticed. Out of strength, she closed her eyes.

Clint couldn’t believe his eyes when he saw Josie-sweet, timid Josie-brave her fear and come back to help them. He didn’t have time to shift and yell at her to run away, but he saw with horrible clarity the leg that shot out to stab her in the stomach. She dropped to the floor, and a red film descended over his eyes. Grief and anguish gave him new energy, and he attacked the spider that wouldn’t die. He and Brandon had scored numerous hits on the beast, and while it leaked bodily fluids, they had yet to weaken it.

It didn’t help that his mind was in a constant battle to remain unfettered. The arachnid’s powers of persuasion were unbelievable, and Clint was thankful that the rest of the pack was busy elsewhere preventing the spider from calling its reinforcements.

A vicious swipe that he failed to dodge, staggered him. Shaking his head though, Clint and his wolf refused to give up. He prepared to run the leg gauntlet again, seeking the soft underbelly and the heart of the creature. The spider skittered back, right over Josie’s still body. Clint howled in renewed anguish.

Then the miracle happened.

Incredulous, he could only watch as Josie, not dead after all stirred beneath the arachnid. With her face contorted and her eyes squeezed shut in fear, she screamed as she thrust up with a jagged rod of metal. At the high-pitched squeal, Clint knew she’d hit the mark. As the light in the spider’s eyes faded, Clint with a burst of speed leaped at the bulky body that slowly folded downward. His momentum was enough to send the teetering corpse sideways and away from Josie, even as she exclaimed “gross” in response to the gushing fluids.

He had no sooner hit the floor, than he shifted to a human and ran to Josie, who’d barely missed getting squished. Her courageous act must have sucked at the last of her reserves, for she now lay still as death. As he scanned her body, Clint howled, for her injuries were numerous.

Brandon, who’d also shifted back, knelt beside him, his face twisted in grief. “Dammit, Clint, do something. She’s dying.”

I know she is, but how do I stop death? Clint gathered up her bleeding body, and tears pricked his eyes-unmanly perhaps, but he couldn’t help them. And Josie thought she wasn’t brave. He’d never seen anything more courageous in his life than her confronting her all-too-real nightmare. In that moment, he knew what to do. He just didn’t know if she’d survive it. However, if he didn’t try, she’d die for sure. “We need to shift and bite her.”

Brandon looked over at him with red-rimmed eyes. “But that could kill her.”

“She’s dead if we don’t,” Clint replied grimly.

Brandon stared down at her then glanced back to face Clint. “Both of us?”

“We haven’t marked her as our mate yet. Are you prepared to lose her as a mate if my bite alone alters the bond? Besides, it’s bound to be more potent if she receives the bite from two of us.” Or twice as deadly.

“Enough said.”

Clint lay her back down and shifted, as did Brandon. They both grasped her lower forearm in their jaws, and he projected one thought to Brandon before he bit down. “Now!”

As soon as Clint tasted the metallic tang of her blood, he backed off and shifted back. He and Brandon sat on their haunches, naked, bruised, and dirty, and waited to see if their action would save or kill the one they loved.

For a moment, Clint thought they’d failed. Her breathing slowed, her skin turned waxy.

Then she scared the crap out of him.

She let out a strident scream and she, arched her back. Clint and Brandon dove for her, trying to hold her down, but her body in the grips of the change, one like he’d never heard of, bucked them off. They could only watch as she thrashed on the ground. And then the most disturbing-perhaps even amazing-thing happened.

She shifted into a wolf, then a bear, then a bird. Then a panther. Almost too quick to see, her body morphed into a dizzying amount of shapes, and Clint finally understood what the spider had meant when he’d said Josie was a prize.

Clint had heard of them-shapeshifters who could adopt any shape-but like many he’d thought them legend.

Dozens, then hundreds, of shifts later, Josie resumed her human body, naked and without a single damn blemish to mark her ordeal.

There was only one problem. She wouldn’t wake up.

Josie woke to kisses. She smiled as her lovers slid their bodies across hers, the skin-to-skin contact making her tingle from head to toe.

Then she remembered, and she opened her eyes as she sat up abruptly. She looked down to her stomach and gaped at her unblemished skin.

“You’re healed,” stated Clint.

“But how?” she asked as she turned her attention to her men as they lay on their backs in her bed at the ranch. They grinned as she ran her hands over their bodies, searching for injuries that didn’t exist, well except for a few red scar lines.

“We’re shifters. We healed,” said Brandon, who shrugged.

“I’m not, though,” she said, puzzled, for she still clearly remembered the burning pain of her injury.

“Yeah, well, about that. We had to bite you to save you.”

Josie gaped at them. “You did what?”

“It was the only way. You were dying. We couldn’t let that happen.”

“So, I’m a werewolf like you now?” she said, remembering what they’d told her.

“Not exactly,” Clint hedged.

Josie narrowed her eyes. “Explain.”

Brandon spoke first. “Um, how well do you know your parents?”

The words of the spider shifter came back to her, and her eyes widened. “My mother. He said she could shift into anything she wanted. But he claimed it was dormant in me.”

“Not anymore,” announced Clint.

“You mean, I can be any animal I want?”

“Yes, but you’ll probably have to practice. Don’t worry, we’ll help you learn.”

I’m a shapeshifter! Josie waited for her usual anxiety to grip her. Momentous news usually did it to her. But, to her surprise nothing happened-the small pit of tension she’d lived with so long was gone. She felt free, and beaming at her two very naked lovers found herself in the grips of another emotion. Make that urge.

“Sounds good, but can we do it later. I’ve got something else I need to practice first.”

“What’s that?” asked Brandon, the carnal interest in his eyes matched by his rising cock.

Clint moved behind her and pushed aside her hair to kiss her nape. “I think Josie’s ready to try what we talked about.”

“Among other things.” Josie crooked her finger at Brandon, who came on his knees in front of her. His hard cock poked her in the belly, and a gushing warmth moistened her cleft.

She found his mouth with hers, initiating a kiss that had him panting in moments, probably because she’d also grabbed the throbbing shaft that jabbed her and stroked it. She broke the kiss and leaned her head back to offer her mouth to Clint. He kissed her hard as he slid his hands around her waist and up to cup her breasts.

Josie moaned when Brandon with his index finger found her clit and rubbed it. She lost control of the situation but didn’t care as they pushed her down onto the bed. She opened her eyes when she felt her arms pulled above her head and held in a strong grip. She gazed up at Clint who smiled wickedly at her. She returned his smile. Brandon, kneeling between her thighs, pushed her legs up and apart, exposing her. She couldn’t help the blush that stained her cheeks, and Clint chuckled.