Authors: Jessica Miller
The French Quarter Hostages
Menage Shifter Romance
By: Jessica Miller
© Copyright 2016 by Jessica Miller
All rights reserved.
In no way is it legal to reproduce, duplicate, or transmit any part of this document in either electronic means or in printed format. Recording of this publication is strictly prohibited and any storage of this document is not allowed unless with written permission from the publisher. All rights reserved. Respective authors own all copyrights not held by the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to any person, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
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Elizabeth fought to get free of Jake’s tight grasp. He was squeezing her so tightly in his bear form that she could barely breathe. She was tucked under his arm like a carcass, and was bouncing around like a rag doll as he climbed as fast as he could up a thick, bald cypress tree in the Louisiana woods.
“It won’t hold us!” Elizabeth yelled, as the ground disappeared beneath them, as bright green spindles caught in her tank top and jeans, and as sharp, dry branches ripped through the surface of her pale skin. Elizabeth tried to tuck her long blonde hair in her shirt for fear it would be ripped from her scalp in the ascent, but she was bouncing around too much and needed to hold on.
Jake growled something to her that must have been a swear word in whatever growly language bears speak. She could not understand Jake or his best friend Chris when they transformed into bear form. Chris was already several feet ahead of them in the tree, and Elizabeth tightened her grasp in Jake’s, black, thick fur as they raced behind Chris. Jake was just following Chris’ lead, but all Elizabeth could think about was how Chris was likely weakening the spindly branches in his enormous grizzly bear form above them.
Chris must have read her mind, because as he climbed higher he got smaller until the massive girth of a grizzly bear receded into the broad shoulders of a thirty-year-old man. Chris’ tousled blonde hair danced in the cool Louisiana night and his long body ascended the tree with great ease until he settled on a high branch. Elizabeth could see the curves and shadows of his many defined muscles even a few feet down, as they drew nearer to him, Chris’ deep green eyes burned into her. His square jaw was clenched like he was angry, but she knew he wore that stern face more out of habit than out of menace.
When Jake sat her on a branch across from Chris who was bare-chested aside from torn blue jeans riding low on his hips, Chris still stared at her. She knew he wanted her reaction, maybe even an apology. She had told the friends, Chris and Jake, that they were full of shit. She did not think that two hot guys trying to pull a fast one over a bookish college student could be supernatural creatures.
Elizabeth was only in Louisiana for the spring semester since her school, Michigan State, was doing an environmental student exchange with Dillard University in New Orleans. All she wanted was to save the planet, and save at risk animals like the bear population, from shrinking in the Cajun state. Never in her wildest dreams would she have thought her earth-consciousness would land her high in a tree in the Louisiana forest with two men who had the ability to transform into grizzly and black bears. Not to mention, inadvertently, she managed to run into a menacing voodoo priestess.
“I think you owe us an apology,” said Jake, flashing her a boyish grin. He had already transformed back into a man, a man nearly as muscular as Chris, but who took the world half as seriously.
“It’s not a joke, man,” Chris said, scowling at him.
“It’s pretty damn funny from where I’m sitting, bro. If Elizabeth had listened to us about not poking the metaphorical bear that is Louisiana voodoo culture we would all be enjoying ourselves back in New Orleans. I just want to take this time to gloat, and bask in what a shitty person Elizabeth must feel like right about—now,” Jake said, whipping his head around to look at her, and subsequently flashing her a cocksure grin.
She gritted her teeth, knowing he was right. Jake’s blue eyes twinkled with humor, contrasting with his inky-black hair. He had this way of blasting you with the truth through his sarcasm, and she had to admit she was happy that he and Chris saved her.
“That’s not going to help us get down from this tree,” Chris said, scowling. Scowling melancholy seemed to be Chris’ way of backhand slapping you with the fact you were doomed, and Elizabeth’s stomach sank with guilt.
“Look, I get it. I get it. I screwed up. I’m sorry. Just—just would you believe me if I told
you
I was a magical transformative bunny rabbit?” Elizabeth said, feeling exasperated.
“Bunny rabbits? You compare the lords of the forest with rats with long ears?” asked Jake, raising an eyebrow at her.
“We are not the ‘lords of the forest’, idiot,” Chris said, rising to his feet and surveying the land.
After an afternoon of passion between the three of them, Chris had told her that werebears could see for miles, and Elizabeth wondered what it would be like to basically have binoculars for eyes.
“Well, it would catch on if you say it too. People will catch on, and we’re the biggest, so if people disagree, we should eat them. I think that’s only fair,” Jake said, shrugging his massive shoulders.
“Shut up, Jake. Jesus, why don’t you keep a lookout so we can get out of this damn tree?” Chris said, turning his head slowly like a barn owl.
“You see anything?” Elizabeth asked, staggering to her feet. She was experiencing vertigo from being up so high, and the ground was swaying beneath her.
“You should sit,” Chris said, more as a command than a suggestion.
Elizabeth wanted to protest, but he was right, so she plopped back down on the thin, gray branch.
“I really don’t think they followed us this far, man,” Jake said, lazily surveying the quiet countryside.
Chris did not seem to agree, because now his head was darting left and right, and he was sniffing the air.
“No, they’re here. They just don’t know which way to go. We need to get out of here,” Chris said, looking at Elizabeth.
“Go where? I can’t spend my semester running from supernatural psychopaths. I have school!” Elizabeth said, crossing her arms.
She felt like a petulant child, but she had near perfect grades, and this was her senior year at Michigan State, and she wanted to do well. She had to do well. No one in her family graduated or even attended college, and here she was with a full ride to college, and a reputable internship at Dillard to study wildlife hands on. This was an important step to her final college career goal. She wanted to work for the Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, D.C. She just had to graduate from this program to be considered for their entry level research program, but here she was stuck in a tree instead of saving the trees. This one misstep was throwing off her plans. It was like one domino fell after the other after the other, and her world was crumbling. Elizabeth sat up when she saw a glimmer of light dance about a hundred feet below in the underbrush.
“Don’t move a muscle,” Chris said. He must have seen it too.
“Guys, it was nice knowing you. We are totally fucked,” Jake said, shaking his head.