Asylum_A Shifter Society Novel_A Reverse Harem Novel Read online

  “Hey!” Talia hailed her as soon as she cleared the threshold. “You’re early...you didn’t kill Uncle Con did you?” Her straight black eyebrows drew down in confusion, and a wry smile curved her lips. “I mean, if you did, we should definitely figure out a plan. Body disposal can get messy.”

  Kassi dropped down onto the bench across from the other young wolf, grinned at the very idea of taking on Conal, and snagged a piece of bacon from Talia’s plate. “Nope, left him simmering with Jake.” There was a deafening silence in the room at her words, and Kassi glanced around. “What? You guys are ridiculous,” she muttered. Kassi leaned close, rested her elbows on the table and Talia met her in the middle. “Why is everyone so uptight about Jake? Dom wasn’t going to let Jake in and I thought Con was going to rip into him upstairs. It was intense.”

  “He was pissed at Uncle Jake?” Talia asked, her face scrunched up. Kassi shook her head and tried to steal another piece of bacon, but Talia smacked her hand.

  “He was pissed at Dom. There’s something there I swear, I can feel it anytime they’re in the same room,” Kassi explained, half her attention still on the bacon. “Jake was smiling when I left so I guess Con’s good with him.”

  “Uncle Jake is early,” Talia whispered. “Usually he’s in and out before everyone else knows he’s even on the property. Only family knows, but Mom must have sent him back early for some reason. The party isn’t until Saturday night.”

  Talia shoved Kassi, who’d heard only half of what she’d said. “Huh? Sorry. I’m starving,” Kassi explained. “There’s never this much food left over by the time I get here.”

  “Go,” the younger wolf waved her off. “Get your food and then we can go up to the commons. There’s no one there this time of day. I’ll find out why Jake’s early.”

  Kassi piled her plate full, overfull if she was honest, snagged one of the apple danish at the last minute and sat the heaping pile of goodness on the table next to Talia, who merely looked at the haul and raised both eyebrows. Leaving her hoard of goodies she went back for a bottle of juice and a milk. The serving counters resembled school kitchens, serve yourself silver pans full of steaming food laid out single file across the marble tops. Kassi’s nose twitched at the aroma, but she already had food, she reminded herself, now she needed to just snag her drink. Then she could sprawl out on the comfortable cushions in the common room and feast.

  Two large industrial refrigerators were positioned on the opposite side of the wide room, one containing drinks, the other held food and snacks, along with the frozen items. She dodged the bitches, A.K.A The Mothers, and in her haste to avoid a confrontation with them ran face first into Dom. It was luck and her wolf reflexes that kept her from landing on her ass. Again. If she kept this up she’d have a bruised backside by the day's end. “Damn it, Dom. I’m in the middle of something right now,” she said. Stepping to the left to go around him, she faltered when he stepped with her, blocking her way.

  He didn’t say anything at first, and the smile that curved his lips wasn’t a pretty one. “Why don’t we have breakfast somewhere a little more private?”

  ‘As the female, you decide when, where, how, and if you choose a bedmate. Make that perfectly clear.’ Conal’s words came back to her, and she stiffened. She wasn’t ready to take a stand yet. Not when she was an outsider still. Taking a stand only meant making yourself a bigger target, and that was the last thing she wanted. “I’m busy,” Kassi told him instead. “Talia is expecting me.” Which wasn’t a lie at all. Talia was expecting her.

  “Talia, huh?” Dom crossed his arms, still looming over her in a way that neither part of her liked. Not her human half, nor her beast. “I didn’t know that’s what Con liked you to call him, but I guess you gotta do what you gotta do to stay.”

  Something shifted in her then, whether the insinuation that she was having sex with Conal for a position or the blatant disrespect to the person she saw as her Alpha. Kassi didn’t care to stop and think about it. Hadn’t Conal told her repeatedly that patience was key? That her temper would be the end of her if she didn’t reign it in? She never listened.

  What happened next was an explosion of motion. Dom hadn’t expected her to snap, for her small body to shift from one form to another in a burst of energy and blood. The human body wasn’t made to house a beast. A shifter’s body must prepare itself, let the Grace inside them expand the skin, hollow the bones, loosen muscles, so that at the moment when one body gave way to the other, the transition was a smooth one. Sudden shifts? They weren’t by any definition smooth. Her wolf didn’t care that he was bigger, stronger, or even that he outranked her. None of that registered. Her focus was on taking out an enemy.

  She shook out her fur, splattering the floor and walls with blood and skin matter, snarled in his direction. He held out both hands in surrender, but she didn’t stop, and he didn’t shift to protect himself either. Kassi’s teeth made purchase with the fleshy part of his thigh, and she gave a satisfied growl when blood ran free. His fist came down on her head, but she shook it off. She didn’t notice Talia calling for Conal. Someone wrapped wiry arms around her neck, pulled until her teeth left the muscle of Dom’s leg. Kassi snarled, lunged again. Tables and chairs were knocked over, and the bodies around her moved out of the way. Except for the one clinging to her back. The leech-like hold was annoying, but only a mild deterrence. She tried to shake it loose, but the smaller male who smelled like family only clung tighter to her back.

  Dom’s quivering form was a welcome one. He vibrated from head to toe, and she knew he’d lose his skin. Her claws raked his chest, and a deep growl reverberated through her chest.

  “KASSIDY!” Nothing could have stopped her in that moment but that particular voice. “Back off now. This isn’t the place.” Kassi snarled back in response, amber eyes still locked onto Dom, but she stopped her attack.

  The hands dropped from her neck, the weight of the clinging male disappeared and Jake’s face came into focus in front of her. In between her and Dom. He gave her a wet dream of a smile that she didn’t care about, and edged closer as he spoke. “Come on Kassi, he can’t taste that good. Come play with us instead,” he coaxed. “I promise I taste better.” He gave her a wink, and pushed at her chest until she backed up into another body. Conal’s fingers threaded into the dense fur on the back of her neck, instantly soothing.

  “Come play Kassi,” Conal echoed his brother’s words.

  Now that the intense focus on Dom had dimmed, shame seeped into her consciousness. Kassi turned, her body brushing against both Jake and Conal as she tried to slink out of the room.

  Talia followed, and now that Kassi was thinking again clearly, she could scent every person following her. Conal was directly to her left, fingers still threaded tightly in her fur, and Jake was at her right within reaching distance. As if she’d turn back and go for Dom again. Kassi wouldn’t even think of it, not now that she was thinking rationally again. Tyler took up the rear with Talia, and that’s when it hit her exactly who had tried to stop her attack. Tyler. The familiar scents of them wrapped around her, soothing a part of her she didn’t understand.

  Her feet took her towards the back of the house, through the open doorway of Conal’s office. Instead of shifting back, as that meant she’d have to talk, she curled up on the rug. The four Santiago’s, Conal, Jake, Tyler and Talia, padded in behind her. Kassi’s nose twitched towards the door, a blatant reminder that her food still sat uneaten on the far table in the kitchens. The door clicked shut quietly behind the twins, and for a blessedly long time no one said a word.

  Conal and Jake each took one of the wide leather chairs, while the twins curled up on the sofa. Kassi slunk her way to Conal’s feet, nose to the ground, ears drooped and tail tucked between her legs. Would he let her curl up by him? Jake seemed to understand immediately what she wanted, and spoke to the top of her head. “Curl up by me,” he urged her. Tossing a questioning look at Conal, who nodded, Kassi did just that. Circled around twice and lay with her head on her paws as close as her overly large body could get to him. Two seconds later Talia and Tyler each got up and curled up next to her, their heads pillowed against her fur, and a sigh of contentment rumbled out of Kassi...

  Pack was family, and family loved you even when you screwed up. They were her family, even if they didn’t realize it yet, Kassi thought.

  chapter three

  Kassi slept straight through the day, and well into the evening. She slept the sleep of the brutally exhausted. Her body had ripped through its stores of energy in the change, and needed to rebuild and repair the damage. At some point, Kassi woke to find silver fur giving way to ink covered skin, muscles elongated, limbs changed, but she couldn’t stay awake and drifted back off with a shiver.

  Eventually, the two warm spots curled up against her moved and a new burning heat curled around her, but she didn’t rouse until the shadows in the room deepened and the fire roared to life. The heat that her own body curled back against never left, and she was more content than she’d ever been. Whoever was behind her made her feel safe and warm. Drifting in that foggy, in between state, where the body still sleeps but the mind gradually changes awareness, Kassi inched closer to the wonderful warmth. The smooth cadence of voices reached her ears, and even though the warmth and heavy thrum of sleep was too great to shake off completely, still her mind cataloged the words.

  “You should have been doing this all along!” The heat behind her tightened an arm around her as it spoke. Soothed and comfortable, Kassi buried her face in the blanket that carried the scent of Alpha.

  “I can’t, and you know why. Damn it, Jake.” The Alpha swore. His voice had dropped to a harsh whisper from across the room.

  “She needs this. You know better! So d
amn young, she could have gotten killed today, all in your defense. Con, if she was a pack member this would never have happened.” Kassi could feel the vibrations of the words through her back where it was snug against the solid wall of heat. But something didn’t feel right. A whine slipped out, and the warm voice spoke again. “Shh, you're safe. Sleep.”

  A part of Kassi wanted to obey that voice, but it wasn’t quite the right voice. The warm, strong arm banded around her again, tightened and pressed her closer until she drifted again. “See. Even now she fights it. You are wronging her by making her live like this, Con. It’s a half-life and you know it. Either you fix it, or I will. We agreed to this arrangement, and you better keep your damn end of the bargain.”

  “She’s been fine up until now, she gets the attention she needs from the twins. The three of them have banded together,” the Alpha muttered. Kassi sighed, arching into the comforting embrace as her body stirred to life in tiny increments.

  “You know better than to believe that. As a young wolf she needs, hell they all need, the comfort and basic attention of the Alpha. I bet you a bottle of your bourbon that she tries to get close to you again. She can’t help herself...her beast can’t help it. It’s instinct. She’s a pack animal with no true pack.” The words were whispered, the voice straining to not wake the sleeping young wolf in his arms. “You aren’t helping her by keeping her isolated.”

  Kassi shook off the odd dreams, the extreme exhaustion. Blinking her eyes open, she tried to sit up and failed. Disoriented, the room danced around her, and she closed her eyes again. The world tilted, and her eyes felt like sandpaper. Never one to wake at anything less than a full sprint, Kassi struggled to orient herself. The bed beneath her was hard, not soft like her own, and that’s when it registered she was on the floor somewhere. She was assaulted by the scent of fire, smoke, wood, Alpha and something else, someone else, closer than it should have been assaulted her. She wasn’t in her own room at all. No, she knew the scent of this place. She was in Conal’s office still.

  “And the dead rises,” a husky voice laughed above her. Her beast was drowsing, she could feel the primal presence in her mind drifting. She’d like to remove the voice, but, her eyes still wouldn’t focus properly so murder wasn’t possible. With her body still cozy and humming from sleep, she wasn’t moving anywhere and didn’t want to, so murder could wait. The voice and source of her warmth chuckled, swept her hair out of her face with a rough palm. “Breath for a second, you slept a very long time.”

  When her eyes opened again, it was a relief to see everything in its proper place. The desk no longer swirled about the room in dizzying circles, the fire danced in the fireplace instead of up the walls. It was blissful. Kassi turned towards the voice. Jake, she realized, inhaling, and he was much closer to her than she thought. This was who she’d rested against. His scent was eerily similar to Conal’s. She stretched, felt something slide from her shoulders and made a grab for it. Someone had tossed a blanket over her at some point. “Hell of a welcome we gave you,” she muttered into the thick blanket. “Sorry...”

  Conal’s voice cut through the room like a whip. “Kassidy.”

  Kassi’s body thrummed as tight as a wire, and she turned, giving Jake her back. All at once the languid feel of comfort and safety was gone. Her shoulders tightened, back stiffened, and nerves bubbled up from her stomach and out her mouth. “I’m sorry. I know I promised to be good the other night, and I didn’t mean to cause trouble so soon. Dom is of the mind that because I’m your live-in whore I can be his too. He said-”

  Jake stepped closer, silencing her before Conal could with a hand on her shoulder. “We heard what he said. The video footage was quite clear.”

  And yet, Kassidy thought, she was the one getting that hard look from the Alpha. She was the outsider. When Conal didn’t say anything, just leveled those dark eyes on her, she squirmed. “Con..” she whined, trying to tug loose. Didn’t Jake understand? He could kick her out. She’d caused trouble again, for the thousandth time. Couldn’t he feel the rift? It pulled at her beast, brought up that primal side of her until she choked on it. Her beast craved the Alpha’s praise even more than the human half of her did. “Please don’t make me leave,” she said, but she knew she could beg and promise to be good, but it wouldn’t help if Dom didn’t stop. “I’ll take care of Dom, I’ll get him to stop.”

  And she would, she promised herself. If all he wanted from her was sex, would he stop if she gave him that? She could do that. If sleeping with that asshole meant she got to stay, she would stomach it. If he would lay off Conal, stop pushing rank and leave her alone? It was worth it. She could get back to normal. And once he had her, the drive to take what he shouldn’t have would be gone, and thus no more temptation. No more trouble.

  Conal must have seen the decision on her face, because he snarled and stalked close, almost sandwiching her between the two of them. “No. Get that idea right out of your head. We don’t reward bad behavior with sex, Kassidy. And if he wants to push me, he can. Me. Not you. Not Jake. This isn’t about you or even his dislike of Jake. He wants my position.”

  Jake spoke, his voice carrying a touch of humor. “You aren’t the pack whore. That’s not how our society works. Dom knows you’re young and will do anything for approval. Let Con deal with Dom, you’ve got other stuff to think about.”

  That shut her up, if only for a second. Other stuff? She had nothing else. Training. Blah. Turning her face up to Conal, her confusion written on her face, she prompted him. “What stuff?”

  “The chance you’ve been waiting for,” Conal said. “I told you when you first came here that there would come a point you’d have to prove yourself. You’re as ready as you can be.”

  Kassi looked at Conal, then to Jake. When neither of them said anything else, she had to wonder what she’d done to finally be ready. Had it been the fight? That couldn’t be right, she’d fought with Talia and Tyler dozens of times.

  Leaving the thought to later, she made to stand, when Jake pulled the falling blanket back up on her shoulder. “Best keep that on, I’m not sure my virgin eyes can take much more,” he flashed her another Santiago grin. Dimples flashing, white teeth against a sun kissed face and Kassi couldn’t help grinning back in response. With the blanket secured around her shoulders, she stood and padded on silent feet to the door.

  “Kassidy,” Conal called out. She paused but didn’t turn, almost afraid he’d change his mind. “You’ve got time to fuel up, but I need you back here ready to shift as soon as possible. Meet me in the backyard by the old willow.” Kassi nodded, and slid the door shut with a soft but audible click and took off towards the kitchens at a dead run.

  The kitchen was quiet, very much a different place than the one she’d left earlier. A single light illuminated the bare room, but it was more than enough for her to see. Kassi slid sideways across the room and pilfered the two refrigerators as well as the cabinets, then snuck her entire tray of goodies up the stairs into her room. She needed to eat, fuel up in the most basic way possible, and then shower and dress.

  Her room wasn’t large, but it wasn’t tiny either. A full size bed dominated the small space. It had a simple iron frame covered in a patchwork quilt her mother made that always carried the faint scent of lilac. It was more than enough. Kassi climbed onto the bed, unloaded her tray and without thought of anything else, began refueling. First was the cold-cut sandwich loaded with veggies, followed by the apple and an orange. That took the biting edge off her hunger and she lingered a bit too long over the crumb cake. An entire glass of milk followed.