ShiftinDirty-ElizaGayle (15 page)

Marcy dug through her bag and grabbed a pair of gloves, putting them on lightening fast.
 

“You’re doing great, Sienna. Now I need you to vigorously rub her sides at the rib cage kind of like you’re washing your hair.”

“Shouldn’t you be doing this?”
 

“Nope. You’re doing fine and I’ve got to take care of the rest.” Marcy walked into Sienna’s line of vision with a pair of odd shaped scissors in her gloved hands.
 

She started rubbing the baby’s side.
 

“Rotate her back a little so her feet are a bit higher than her head and keep going.”
 

Sienna was pretty sure the only one in the room not holding their breath was Marcy. Gage and Nikki were both watching her and what she did to the precious shifter baby.

When a strangled baby cry rang out, both Nikki and Sienna began to cry at the same time the door crashed open again. This time no one growled and she realized that the rest of the family had arrived.

“Sienna you have a lot of explaining to do,” Marcy whispered.

Not that it made a bit of difference. Every shifter in the room would have heard her.
 

“What happened? Is the baby—” Sienna turned and held up the crying baby in her arms. “Your daughter is fine.”

 
She took a towel from Marcy and tried to clean her up as best she could before taking a second and wrapping her up tight as instructed.

“You need to give her to the mother and try to get her to nurse. It will help the rest of the process.”

Dean nodded at Marcy, taking the child from Sienna and walking her to the table.

“Nikki, baby she’s so beautiful.”

“I can take over from here.” Another woman Sienna had never met tried to eject Marcy from the chair in front of Nikki.

“Unless you are a doctor, then no you cannot.”

“Look—” The other woman started.

“I said no.”
 

“Ladies.” Bhric walked over to interrupt at the same time Gage pulled her away from the fray.

“Who is that woman?”

“Kitty. She’s the mate of the alpha from the Comyn wolf pack.

I shook my head. He might as well have been speaking Greek. “I have no idea what that means.”

“It means that she’s from the same pack that Simon our doctor belongs to. I heard he was training her to become his assistant but I have no idea how far they got. I’m guessing Dean and Bhric got Nikki’s messages and dragged her over here. Maybe your Marcy can teach her how to handle this in the future.”

She looked at the group surrounding the pool table. “I wouldn’t count on it. Marcy looked pissed and she doesn’t always play well with others.”

“We’ll let them figure that out.”

She turned back to Gage. “Why, what are we going to do?”

He lifted his eyebrows.

“What?”

“We need a shower. Might as well do that together.”

She did, but leaving Marcy was not a good idea.
 

“Yeah, you’re crazy if you think I’m going to leave my best friend with a roomful of shifters that I’m pretty sure she knows something isn’t right about them, so you and I can go bump uglies.”

“Uglies? What the hell, babe?”

She started to laugh at the horrified look on his face. “Sorry, it’s something my mom used to say because she didn’t want to use any of the “real” words.”

“Please don’t ever say that again. It’s terrible.”

“Are you saying you don’t want to bump—”
 

Gage leaned forward and covered her mouth with his hands before she could say it again. “Serious, babe. Horrifying.” He shuddered.

She nodded her head, smothering a giggle and he released her.

“I need to get cleaned up. And I need some new clothes.”
 

He nodded. “I’m sure Nikki has something you could borrow.”
 

“I love that you think there’s any way in hell I would fit into her clothes, but that ain’t happening.”
 

She stepped closer to him.

“Gage.
Babe
. I need to go home.”

Chapter Fifteen

After being told flat out that she couldn’t return home and tired of arguing about it, Sienna had retreated upstairs to Gage’s room for a private and lengthy shower. The craziness of the last two days was really starting to get to her.

God. Had it really only been two days?

She toweled off her hair and wrapped another towel around her before returning to the bedroom. There, she found a neat pile of clothing laid out on the bed. From casual to almost formal and everything in between. Someone had made sure she enough choice to find something that worked for her.

After passing over the jeans and the skirts, Sienna grabbed a black pair of yoga pants and put them on. She also discovered a soft heather gray t-shirt in the pile that felt great against her skin. Unable to decide on which sweater to choose, she wandered into Gage’s small closet and looked around. She wasn’t exactly snooping, more like seeing if he had any more of those cozy flannel shirts like the one he’d worn today.
 

In the far corner she hit the jackpot. With a wide assortment of shirts to choose from, she pulled a green plaid from its hanger and put it on. Because Gage was such a big man, his shirt fell half way down her thighs. She loved it.
 

Moving back to the bathroom she looked in the mirror and groaned. Her eyes looked tired and her hair—God what a mess. What she wouldn’t give for a salon and spa appointment right about now. She’d have to talk to Gage about making that happen really soon.

Sienna paused. She was already acting and thinking like she’d decided to stay. While they kept telling her she wasn’t safe, she hadn’t actually pushed the point or tried to leave.
 

Why?

She began gathering her wet, unruly hair into a high ponytail. She had to admit she’d been offered an exciting adventure unlike anything she’d ever imagined. She could treat it like a nightmare of epic proportions or embrace the opportunity to live a totally different life with a man who saw her as a treasure instead of a burden.

Her old life didn’t exactly turn out how she planned, who was to say this wasn’t exactly where she was supposed to be? Life was weird and that didn’t have to be a bad thing.
 

She sat down on the bed and slipped her cowboy boots back on. At least she had her own shoes to wear.
 

“Babe. What’s taking so long? There’s a party going...” He stopped in the doorway and stared. “Damn. You look good in my shirt.”

Sienna smiled, relieved he wasn’t upset that she helped herself to his clothes. She also liked the heat that leapt into his eyes when he looked at her like that.

“Did you say there’s a party?”

“Yeah, but I don’t care about that anymore.” He stalked toward her, circling the bed. The predatory look he gave her as he moved sent a jolt south, making her wet with need. He reached for her and Sienna scrambled out of his reach.
 

“Wait. You said party. How did that happen? It’s only been like an hour since I came up here.”

“You don’t know shifters. They’ll use any excuse to get together and have fun and a new baby is like the ultimate celebration. This one might last for days.”

“Days?” She blinked.

“Yes. So there’s plenty of time to do this.” He moved too fast, plucking her out of the air and twisting her so that she landed with her back to the mattress and his weight pressing her down.
 

“Gage. We gotta go downstairs.”
 

He pressed his mouth to my neck and murmured, “What part of days did you not get, babe?”

Oh God. This was really hard when he used his mouth on her. Anywhere. It would be so easy to drown in the sensations already building.

“Mmm.” He growled and she really liked the sound of it.

“Marcy is down there alone, I’ve already been gone too long.” She pressed her hands against his chest and pushed.

His head came up and the heat she saw in his eyes made her melt. There was no resistance when it came to that look, cause she knew where it led. And she wanted it to go there. “We’ll be quick,” he said, pressing his face back into her neck.
 

“I can’t have sex while thinking about Marcy. Do you know how traumatizing it was to lay on her couch and listen to her fucking those guys?”

“You sure she’s not part shifter? Sure sounds like the sex drive of one. Maybe she should stay.” His hands slid under the hem of her shirt, making her bite her lip as the heat of his palm skimmed across her belly.
 

“That is so wrong. She’d be terrified.”
 

“And you’re not?” his teeth scraped lightly along her jaw.
 

“Hard to be scared when all you want to do is make me come again.”

His laugh rumbled across my skin. “It’s all I can think about. You’re like a drug and I want more.” His hand moved farther up her shirt and cupped a breast.
 

She gasped. The shocking heat of his hand to her sensitive skin made her melt. Not that he stopped there. His fingers sought her nipple at the same time he flexed his hips making his cock bang against her clit.
 

Ohh
.

“Not fair. You I know I can’t resist this. Haven’t I proven that repeatedly? But I’m still thinking about Marcy.”

His hand stilled as did his hips.

“Damn woman.” He did that throaty growl and eye glowing thing for a second before his hand disappeared from under her shirt and he rolled them to their feet next to the bed.
 

“You play just as dirty as I do. Maybe more.”

She grinned, so ridiculously happy over how he made her feel. She was fucking giddy.

“Don’t get too cocky, babe. There will be payback later.”

God she hoped so.

* * *

Gage watched over Sienna as she sat at the bar with her friend Marcy. The small celebration had turned into a full blown shifter party, with nearly everyone in the neutral zone as well as some of their allies and friends from the different clans showing up to congratulate the new parents. Shifters were thrilled to see a new baby. It gave them hope that there would be more.

While everyone embraced Nikki and Dean, most of the shifters avoided the two humans in the room. They remained wary, keeping their distance whenever possible.

It wasn’t going to be easy to gain acceptance for his mate. The shifter community, no matter which clan they belonged to, worried a lot about change and feared human discovery and what that would mean to their lives.

“Are you really going to stay here?” Marcy leaned close and whispered her question to Sienna.

Unfortunately, any shifter paying attention in the room would have heard it loud and clear. He surveyed the area, finding no one who seemed to hear but him.

“Yeah, I think I am.”

But they’re not—not normal.” Her whispers were getting louder as Sienna squirmed on her stool.
 

“Guess it depends on what you think is normal. I thought my life with Jason was normal until I discovered him screwing one of his assistants.”

“Skinny bitches who sleep with their bosses right under the girlfriend’s nose don’t count and you know it. This is different. These people are downright weird.”

“You’re weird.” Sienna slid off the side of the stool as she said it.
 

“Are you drunk?” Marcy asked

“Maybe…”

“No wonder you’re thinking about staying. You’ve friend enough brain cells you don’t know up from down.”

Sienna giggled. “Intoxicated is not the same as stupid.”

“Uh huh. What about your dream? You’ve been saving up to open your own bakery as long as I’ve known you. I’m guessing this place isn’t exactly a hot bed of retail. We’re practically in the middle of nowhere.”

“Jason killed that dream when he stole all my money.”

“And getting yourself saddled to a man who sees you as nothing more than a vessel for breeding his mutant children is better?”

Gage jerked at Marcy’s assessment. Jesus, is that what Sienna thought?
 

“You don’t know what you’re talking about.” Sienna’s voice lowered, changing. She sounded sad.

“I know you deserve better. And I can recognize desperation when I see it. Don’t do this.”

“I don’t have a choice. They’ve made it very clear that I can’t leave. So like it or not I’m stuck here. If that means I have to spend my time having sex with Gage, I could definitely think of worse things.”

Marcy grinned. “I knew it. You’ve slept with the giant man. Oh. My God. How was it? He’s got a big dick doesn’t he? I want to hear it all.”

Not him. He’d heard enough. His expectations of Sienna as a mate were too high. He thought he was keeping her here for safety’s sake, but they both knew he wasn’t. His selfish hormones were getting the best of him, making it way too easy to make bad decisions.