Page 23 of Cursed by Death (Ruby Jane #1)

R ally led me over to the small two seater table in the corner of the room and had me sit down in one of the rickety chairs.

Rally stepped back into the middle of the room and immediately began stripping out of his clothes. I thought about doing the right thing and looking away to give him some privacy but I didn’t have that in me and I wasn’t capable of it. I tried. I was incredibly greedy and I didn’t want to miss any part of him shifting in front of me.

Yeah, that had to be it.

I was taking it for the gift that he was so freely choosing to give me. And, besides, if he didn’t want me to look then he would have gone into the other room to take his clothes off.

He threw each piece of clothing that he took off at me. I neatly folded his shirt, pants, and briefs and stacked them in a tidy little pile on the otherwise empty table. Thankfully, he didn’t throw his dirty socks at me but tucked them into his boots.

He sat his boots off to the side and stood there before me in all his naked glory.

He was thick around the middle but not fat. More like stocky or sturdy. He had hair on his chest and stomach but I didn’t really take a good enough look at it because my eyes were too drawn to the bruises blooming to life all over his middle from being punched by that loser. He must have packed one hell of a punch and Rally hid whatever pain he was in very well.

My eyes dropped lower to his cock almost as if they couldn’t help themselves and were drawn down to it.

Like the rest of him it was thick and wide. At the moment it was also very erect.

I forced my eyes back up to his face to find him watching me intently.

I shrugged sheepishly, mildly embarrassed. I wasn’t going to apologize for looking, though I probably should.

If Rally was embarrassed I couldn’t tell. He stood there confident and proud, not even attempting to cover himself up. Then again, he clearly had a lot to be confident about.

“Are you ready?” he asked me quietly, almost as if he were afraid of spooking me.

I had to clear my throat before rasping out, “Yes.”

I was ready. At least I thought I was ready. What exactly was he asking me if I was ready for again? I licked my lips nervously. Did he mean his cock? Because I was definitely ready for that, or I could be in a few seconds. It wouldn’t take me very long to get there.

I sat up straight as his body hunched over and he was suddenly on the floor and on his hands and knees. His back rippled as something moved beneath his skin, something very much alive that lived within him.

He dropped his head to the floor, panting, looking almost as if he were in pain.

I wanted so badly to touch him, to brush the hair back from his damp, sweaty forehead. I wanted to soothe him in whatever way I could in order to take his pain away from him. It was a very strange reaction for me to have for another person because it wasn’t one I was sure I had had for another person since being in foster care and living with the twins.

He lifted his head and his eyes practically glowed. They were the eyes of a wolf.

His back bowed and he threw his head back. A howl left his throat as his body changed form.

After what I had already seen so far, I thought the transformation from human to animal would be painful, and maybe it even was, but it didn’t look like it. It appeared to be seamless.

One second, I was looking at Rally and the next second the largest wolf I had ever seen stood before me. He had eyes the colors of honey and his fur was a thick reddish brown.

It was hard to believe that the dangerous animal standing before me was Rally, the man who’d held my hand at my only friend’s funeral.

“You’re beautiful,” I murmured quietly as I reached out to rub my fingers through the soft hair on top of his head.

The wolf made a huffing noise as it stepped up to me. He laid his head in my lap and stared up at me with those honey colored eyes of his.

I kept talking to him, hoping he could understand me, and saying things I might have been too uncomfortable to say to him if he were still in his human form.

“Thank you for changing in front of me, Rally, and trusting me with this. And, thank you for inviting me to the challenge tonight, even if you didn’t like how I felt about it. I still appreciate you inviting me. And I’m so sorry if your people are giving you a hard time about me because I’m not like you. I’m different. If I had to choose a mate for you it absolutely would not be someone like me. You deserve so much better than that.”

I couldn’t handle him staring up at me with those honey colored eyes of his anymore so I closed mine as I continued to run my fingers through the soft hair on his head.

“Hey,” I heard Ginger say from another room. “I’m looking for Ruby. Is she in here?” I heard the murmuring of male voices but I couldn’t make out what they were saying to her.

“If you see her will you let her know I’m looking for her, please. I need to get the baby home. It’s getting late and Hunter and I rode with her.”

“I have to go,” I whispered to Rally.

I had completely forgotten that we weren’t alone in this house. I had gotten wrapped up and completely forgotten anyone else ever existed.

I opened my eyes and the wolf was staring up at me.

“I’m here, Ginger,” I called out. “I’m in the kitchen.”

I had to get away from Rally because he was making me feel things that scared the crap out of me.

Ginger came into the kitchen with Hunter right on her heels. He still held the baby in his arms as if they were a happy little family, I wouldn’t say anything but that didn’t mean I couldn’t hold out hope for them.

Fox and another one of Rally’s guards came in behind them. I was happy there were only two of them this time because the room had been a little claustrophobic with all of them in here.

“I need to… oh,” Ginger’s mouth dropped open and she stared at my lap where Rally’s head was still laying on. “I uh… I’m so sorry to interrupt but I need to get the baby home. I had no idea you’d be…” she waved her hand at me as if she were at a loss for words.

I didn’t understand why she was acting this way. I’m sure she’d seen her fair share of shifters in wolf form before.

“That’s okay,” I told her as I ran my fingers through the wolf’s fur one last time. I hated to leave him like this. I felt oddly protective over him like this. “Up, you lazy wolf. It’s time for me to leave.”

The guard standing next to Fox gasped when I shoved the wolf’s head off my lap, but I ignored him.

“You do understand that you’re pushing around a wild animal who happens to be our Prince, yes?” Fox asked me.

I shrugged carelessly. “No. He’s not a wild animal. He’s just Rally. And he’s human beneath all of that fur.”

“None of us are human, Ruby,” he said in a quiet but very serious voice.

That was a conversation I wasn’t interested in getting into now, or, likely ever. If we weren’t human did that make us monsters? I didn’t want to be a monster but I wasn’t entirely sure he had included me in his non-human category.

I didn’t think I’d ever be able to think of someone as sweet as Ginger as being a monster. Or adorable and charming Hunter.

I was definitely more monster than the both of them combined.

I ignored Fox and looked to the other guard in the room standing beside him. “What’s your name?”

He dropped his head, respectfully. “Theo.”

Theo had a deep voice full of gravel, sounding as if he had a mouth full of it. His dark hair was buzzed close to his skull and his eyes were an empty, but almost deadly, grey.

I had a feeling Theo didn’t like me much and was likely a serious asshole. Maybe I was just being judgmental though because he appeared to not like me on sight. Perhaps I was too human for him. Wouldn’t that be a nice change.

All of these shifters not liking me before even giving me a chance was going to give me a complex. What, did I stink or something? My perfume was expensive and wouldn’t come off of my skin until I showered, so it couldn’t be that.

“Nice to meet you, Theo,” I forced myself to say, even though I was pretty sure it was a lie. I probably wouldn’t ever think it was nice to meet anyone who took one look at me and didn’t like me.

The man clearly had bad taste, but if he did his job and kept Rally safe then my opinion on him shouldn’t really matter. I would keep telling myself that even though I absolutely did not believe it.

I patted the wolf on the head as if he were a pet and everyone was staring at me once again. I sighed because being here around the shifters was becoming exhausting. “I have to go, Rally. Text me tomorrow to let me know that you’re really okay, please.”

“You’re not the least bit afraid of him, are you?” Theo asked me curiously.

I wanted to tell him to mind his own damn business, but I decided to play nice. For now. But only because everyone else was watching me like they wanted an answer to the question as well. And I was starting to get pissed because even though I hadn’t answered the question exactly I’d still answered it all the same. “It’s Rally.” For me it was that simple.

The wolf in question made happy noises as he rubbed his face against my thigh.

That was it for me, it was time to go.

“I’ll meet you in the car,” I told Ginger and Hunter.

And then I got the fuck out of there. By some miracle, I managed not to run or look back.