Wednesday Words: Jericho Junction

Up for some fun? And the more the merrier? Thought I’d throw another shifter story out there, but this one involves a female cat shifter, a bear shaman, and his adversary and reluctant partner, an athmae–demon. Lots of moving parts, but everything fits where it’s supposed to. *grin*  Enjoy this excerpt from Jericho Junction. It’s a little steamy–you’ve been warned. 

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Annoyed with his grandfather, but more, with the bear he now had no choice but to claim, Seino snarled, “You want me? You now have me. Catch.” He tossed his sword to the bear, not surprised when Jericho not only caught it, but swung it around without a problem. Only a blood relative or mate could wield another’s blade without having his soul ripped away and devoured by the demon bone. So much for sex without the entanglement.

Jericho nodded. “Nice weapon.” He turned to Fel. “Well, Master Fel? My name? What does it mean?”

“All in good time, Jericho.” Seino’s grandfather cackled, threw the remaining two—two?—amulets at Seino, then disappeared with a warning. “Two days, Seino. Then return to the place of the bear’s birth. It’s there you’ll find the last part of the puzzle, and the key to the answers you seek.”

Jericho frowned at Fel’s departure.

Seino caught the amulets in one hand. “Happy now?” Without asking, he snapped the fingers of his other hand and watched one of the necklaces settle around the bear’s neck as if  it belonged there. He pocketed the other, not even wanting to know what he would be forced to do with it.

“Hell. You had to collar me with it, didn’t you?”

“An appropriate description.” Seino liked the look of the bear wearing his amulet, even though he didn’t exactly want the mating.

“This thing is warm.” Jericho studied it. “What’s with the symbol? Kind of resembles a bear crossed with a dark fae.” He glanced up at Seino’s exposed ear. “Or a Kin, I guess.”

“Smarter than you look, aren’t you?”

“Hey, don’t get snippy with me because I managed to outwit you, hotshot. Ready to beg yet?” The smug expression on the bear’s face was Seino’s undoing.

He reached out and mentally commanded his sword to return. Then he grabbed Jericho by the hand and teleported them into his favourite spot in the forest. A flat area he often napped upon. A place where he would bring lovers and let them satisfy him, if they tried hard enough.

The place where Jericho would learn what it meant to belong to a Protector.

Jericho blinked at Seino, not sure what to think. The demon’s skin was still ink dark, yet here, in this place, he seemed perfectly normal. Jericho didn’t understand what the hell had just happened, but his chest burned, as if something seethed inside him.

“Oh shit. Am I possessed?” The amulet wouldn’t come off. And the one on Seino’s chest sat perfectly, not moving at all either. Magnetised to his skin, were that possible.

Seino laughed at the question. “Possessed? Not yet. But you’re going to be.” The demon stripped down to nothing, pretty as you please.

Jericho couldn’t breathe. He’d never looked at a male and seen him the way he now saw Seino. With carnal need. Has to be the amulet.

“What did you do to me?”

“Ah, I think the question is, what did you do to me?” Seino walked forward, and Jericho realised they no longer stood in the same place as before.

Around them, the woodline and vegetation looked slightly different, covered in red. Like the colour of Seino’s eyes. His bare feet matted soft green grass, and there were stakes in the ground attached to chains. And manacles.

“Why are you naked? Why are we here? What the hell, man?”

“Tsk, tsk. Come, Jericho. Time to play with your new master.”

Jericho stood flummoxed, not having anticipated any of this. “Wait. What?”

Before he could argue the point, Seino touched him again. Jericho blinked to find himself on his knees, naked, his ankles locked to the chains staked into the ground. His arms up and spread, attached to manacles chained to the trees. To the trees? Naked?