“Please, please don't lick here ......” I opened my eyes in a daze and looked down as the man was licking and tweaking between my breasts.
Seeing my reaction, he chuckled softly and ran his teeth lightly across the point on my chest, and I couldn't help but let out a sticky moan, “Mmmm ......”. I couldn't see his face, I was so close to him, trying to meet his eyes again ...... I unconsciously hooked my arms around the man's neck and curled my body upwards, my full breasts brushing against his solid pecs, making his breathing even more ragged.He buried his entire head between my legs, sucking and licking with his mouth. I could feel the soreness in my belly growing stronger. “Want it?” The man's voice, husky and low with lust, rang in my ear, cutting across my earlobe as he spoke, stirring my whole body. With an accompanying clear gasp, I shyly responded to him, “ Uhm .......”His cock was just the right size to fill my pussy and I could feel it moving in and out. Mixed with gasps, his voice once again rang in my ears, “I love...”“Ring, ring, ring,” the alarm clock suddenly went off and the man in front of me disappeared. “Damn,” I cursed under my breath as I looked at my wet panties. Just another dream, and like before, he appeared in my bed whenever I slept deeply. The alarm clock interrupted my good dream and also meant that a new day had arrived and it was time to go to work again.Borderline is one of the few places in the city that allows both normal customers and Magics, so despite the long hours, barely adequate pay and uncomfortable uniform, it is perfect for me as one of the only places that will hire someone who is marked but has no marketable magic skills.Like all children, I was tested for magic when I was only a few days old. Since my specific bloodline is unknown and my magic is unidentifiable, I was marked with a delicate swirling pattern around my upper right arm. While labeling everyone according to their species might seem concerning, it actually saves a lot of lives.Normal humans make up about fifty percent of the population in big cities like this. Some magics are easy to identify. Shifters inherit their abilities from their parents, so they are marked as Shifters from birth on their arms with varying marks depending on their individual species.Witches and Sorcerers also inherit their power from their parents and are easily identified. People like me however are harder to categorize. I was left outside the hospital for magical beings when I was only a few hours old. After days of tests to confirm I was not any of the known species but that I did in fact have magic. I was marked as an unknown.My special magical skill is the ability to see threads of fate.Now when people think of the threads of fate they always think of the red thread that is meant to tie them to their destined soul mate and blah blah blah. Yes I can see them. But there are other threads too, in different colours with different meanings.There are blue threads connecting people which seem to represent that the pair are fated to be friends. This doesn't mean they won't have other friends or anything like that. Just that those specific people are destined to meet and that they will become close friends eventually.Another thread is the black one. This one shows up between people who are fated to be enemies. I tend to avoid people who display too many of these threads.If someone has a lot of fated enemies they probably aren't the kind of person I want to be around anyways. Occasionally I come across other threads, but I don't always know what they mean.I suspect that green threads are for fated mentor/mentee relationships. I often see them connecting young people to old, students to teachers or children to grandparents.The only other thread I am fairly sure of is white. I rarely see people with white threads, and when I do they tend to be doctors, fire fighters or other do-gooder types. My best guess is that they are fated to save the people they are tied to with white threads. I see these threads constantly and it is a confusing mess, all the threads twisted around each other. No one ever has more than one red thread though. One soul mate per person, no need to be greedy.I'm fairly sure that everyone has a red thread, even if they haven't met the person yet. I can also tell if the people whose fate is predicted by the thread have already met. If the thread is light and floaty like it's caught in a breeze, I know that they have not run into each other and solidified the relationship yet. If it is more solid and the thread is tight, I know that they have.Now this might sound like a cool ability. It really isn't that great. Fate knows what it's doing and doesn't need any help from me, so basically all I can do is watch the threads and judge people silently for things they don't even know exist. Because of the threads, I have a bit of a reputation at work as a daydreamer. The sleeves of my work top are long which cover my mark. At work I keep it covered and as long as people don't look too closely at me, I usually can pass for an ordinary human which makes serving human customers far easier than serving the Magics who tend to be stuck up towards humans. I have rather pale skin and I am quite average in height and physique.A throat clearing behind me jerks me from my brooding and I almost stumble as I turn on the spot in my high heels. I definitely lack the grace that some Magics are naturally blessed with. I cringe slightly under the glare of my shift manager Anthony. I must have paused longer than I thought. I straighten my back and grab the tray of dirty dishes I had placed down a minute ago and continue on my way to the kitchen to swap it for a tray of food to deliver to table twenty. I am just placing the last glass of wine down in front of a coven of Witches who are in the middle of their monthly 'girls night' when I notice for the first time, a blue thread drifting gently from my own chest.I trace my eyes along the thread. It is leading out the door of Borderline and out onto the street. I ache to follow it and meet whoever it is attached to. Due to my odd marking I have never really had any good friends, at least not since I was a kid. A fated friend is pretty much my dream come true. For a moment, I consider ditching the last couple hours of my shift and going anyway. But it is a Saturday night and we are only halfway through the dinner rush. I would lose my job which I really need. I take a deep breath and remind myself that the thread means it is fated. I will meet and befriend the person eventually, even if I don't go searching for them. I resign myself to waiting and hope that the person doesn't take too long to meet me. I've been lonely for a long time.In fact, I'm looking forward to my red thread more than anything else. It's been a long time since I've been on a date. Even though I seek some pleasure from that dream every now and then. Sometimes I wonder if that man is even real. I've been waiting for my red thread to arrive already.About an hour has passed when I finally glance at my blue thread again. I gasp as I realise that the person it is connected to is in the restaurant right now. It leads to a woman sitting at table thirteen.She looks to be in her early twenties like me and has pitch black hair with a slight wave to it cascading down her back. It is only a couple inches shorter than mine. Her skin is tan and even from over here I can see she is absolutely stunning.Trying to keep my nervousness from my face, I approach the table to take her order. As I come close, she looks up and meets my eyes and I am surprised to see they are a golden yellow colour. I glance down at her arm. She is wearing a gorgeous black dress that is probably worth more than I make in an entire month.Thankfully, it is a halter neck which leaves her arms totally clear so I can see her mark. Her marks are black and the design wrapping around her arm is striking, I notice there are slashes through it that look like they might be mea
I finish the last few hours of my shift in a blur. I'm still ecstatic because of my first real friend at last.Anthony gives me a funny look as I give him a cheerful wave on my way out, something I have definitely never done before.I live on the third floor of a tiny, cramped and somewhat rundown building. At least the rent is cheap and the landlady is the sweetest woman. Probably the closest thing I have to an actual friend.She is a little old lady, human, but unusually accepting of Magics. She lives off the rent from the residents of the building and spends her days in her own little apartment on the bottom floor.I used to have the bottom floor, but about a month ago it became clear that Maggie, the landlady, would not be able to manage the stairs much longer. I offered to swap with her. The climb is annoying, particularly after a long day at work. But I am only twenty-two years old. Not nearly old enough to complain over something as easy as a couple flights of stairs.Trading a
I wake to a loud banging sound. It takes me a moment to realise it is someone knocking really, really loudly on my front door.I groan and pick up my phone to check the time. Eight twenty-two AM. Who could possibly be visiting me?Maggie should be at the markets right now and Logan on his way to school, besides, neither of them would ever knock so... aggressively.I force myself to climb out from under my covers and shiver as the cool morning air hits me. I glance in the mirror as I pass it and realise my ponytail from the night before has twisted and now sits awkwardly on one side of my head with half my hair pulled loose in a weird loop. I pull the tie from my hair and slip it over my wrist. The banging continues.“I'm COMING, chill out already would you.” I grumble. Oddly enough the banging does actually stop. Whoever is on the other side of the door clearly has great hearing if they heard what I just said. That or they gave up on me answering and went home. I hope for the latter
The more time I spend with this Shifter, the more I begin to think fate got it wrong. I wonder if there is a way to break threads or get rid of them in some way. I've never seen it happen before. Even in death people are tied together. I once walked past a cemetery and saw an old man visiting his wife's grave. The red thread still flowed from his chest and vanished down into the ground connecting him forever to his beloved. It was depressing but also sort of romantic in a morbid kind of way. I glanced back at the man sitting at the table across from me. I can't imagine being linked with him forever. I really hope fate knows what it's doing, giving me this man as my soul mate.“Yes, I will be friends with your twin sister. It is fated.” He scowls at me.“You aren't even a Shifter, why would fate want you to be friends with my sister?” Now it’s my turn to scowl back at him.“What does that have to do with anything? Everyone has a fate Mr Kane, regardless of the circumstances of their
Paul swears and raises a hand towards me, but it never connects. Bellamy catches him by the wrist and holds him firmly. When he speaks his tone is deadly.“Get out. Never speak with Ryann again. I suggest you look into finding other accommodations since you are so against the presence of Magics.” He doesn't make any threats, but his tone and the look in his eyes is enough. Bellamy releases Paul who backs away before fleeing down the stairs to his own apartment. I had hoped that this neighbour might last a little longer than the last few, it seemed it wasn't going to happen. Note-to-self: apologise to Maggie for scaring off her residents. I sigh.“I shouldn't have done that. He didn't need to know that I'm a Magic. Now Maggie is going to have to get a new resident for the second floor again. She did warn me that he didn't seem terribly open minded.” I grumble, more to myself than to Bellamy. He shrugs. Suddenly he seems a lot less hostile, in the last minute he's changed from oppos
“Or maybe I can just tell my shift manager that I have to leave...” Shaun grabs my hand and places it on his arm. I want to yank it away but I feel like I probably shouldn't antagonise this guy, at least not until I'm sure he's not a threat. Seeing no real option but to go along with it, I leave my arm there and allow him to lead me from the restaurant. There is a black car parked out front. Shaun opens the door for me to get in and climbs in beside me. Aaron makes his way to the drivers seat. I rack my mind to consider why a Shifter Alpha would want to see me. Something to do with Bellamy of course, but what? Had he made some complaint about me? Or had he somehow figured out that I was his soul mate and planned to drag me kicking and screaming to the Shifter compound? The fact that he has involved his Alpha is hardly promising. I don't know a lot about Shifter politics and rules, but I do know that, to a Shifter, their Alpha is the highest authority that they answer to. If I am
“You're right.” He grumbles out.“Excuse me?” I question. He repeats himself.“You're right okay? I should have tried asking you first. I will try to remember to do so in the future. I have been worried about my sister and after hearing she got engaged I might have gone a little out of control. Don't worry about your job. I know the man who owns Borderline, I will make sure you don't get in trouble for missing your shift today.” He takes a deep breath and releases it.“I am hoping that you will agree to help me protect my sister by further investigating Tristan.” He manages to keep his voice calm but seems uncomfortable. I do notice that he hasn't actually apologised. But I guess admitting he is wrong is the first step.“I thought you didn't really believe in my power?” My tone makes the statement a question. Bellamy shrugs.“I'm not sure I do. Maybe it is just because you seem to be the only other person around here who is suspicious of Tristan, but I find I really want to trust you.
Bellamy sounds incredibly embarrassed. My eyes are wide. He couldn't possibly have figured it out could he?“Um...” I am unsure how to ask my question but Bellamy catches on fast.“It is generally accepted that a Shifter should have a mate before taking over as Alpha. Due to my parents' sudden passing, I had to take over early. It has caused some... friction... among the other Shifter groups. They don't respect me as they should because of it. Some demand that I should step down and allow a mated Shifter to replace me, one of the Betas. I have no intention of doing so and most feline Shifters here follow me easily enough. But a mate would simplify things. If you say you're here for me, my sister will believe it.” Bellamy pauses before speaking again, his voice halting.“Do you- oh no, I promised not to ask. Never mind.” I released a deep breath. If Bellamy outright asks me who his soul mate is, or if I am his soul mate, I am really not sure I can lie to him. I really don't want to hav
My automatic reaction is to panic and to mentally scream NO ABSOLUTELY NOT! She is just a child. She is way too young to already find the person she is fated to be with, not to mention she has been through too much. What if he is immature or goes through a jerk phase as he grows up? Or worse, what if he is a lot older than her? Four or five years might not mean much when she’s an adult, but at her age that is a LOT. And who could it be? Is he going to be good enough? What if I don’t approve of him, what if he’s a bad influence. I’ve seen people with red threads who hated each other and were terrible for each other when they were young and as they matured became more right for one another. Is it too soon for them to meet? She’s just gone through an incredibly traumatic circumstance and she does NOT need some guy messing with her head right now. I take a deep breath and try to relax. I don’t know who it is, we might not even be meeting him right now. The thread just tells me that he’s s
The next few days pass almost too quickly. Bellamy and I have our meeting with Sara and her father. He was a little curious as to why I was there, but he didn’t say anything. He wasn’t pleased, but he did agree to back off of Sara a little bit and seemed to appreciate the added security that we are arranging for the university students. On the drive home, Bellamy is grumbling about it. “He was barely polite to you.” He complains. I roll my eyes.“He was polite enough, how polite should he be to a stranger in his house telling him how to parent his child?” I point out Bellamy shakes his head.“You’re his Alpha, my mate, he should know better.” He continued to scowl.“It’s not like he knows that. We haven’t actually told everyone.” I remind him gently. Now it’s his turn to roll his eyes.“Of course he knows. It’s the worst kept secret around, remember? He’s just the traditional type. Isn’t sure how he feels about having a non-Shifter as an Alpha. He’ll get over it.” He says firmly. I f
“Well, I think that it might actually be nice having an extra person around the house. Extra security and company. Besides, you spend most of your time here anyway. Might as well save you the commute. That is, as long as no one else has any objection?” I say pointedly looking at Megan. Sure, Bellamy could object but I already know that he won’t. Megan briefly makes eye contact with me, gives a slight nod, then finds something to stare at on the ceiling. She is clearly trying to look like she doesn’t care but she is blushing bright red. True to form, Darrien is watching her closely trying to work out how she really feels about my suggestion. Realising that she isn’t going to provide any input, he decides to push it a little. “Megan? I would like to hear your opinion. I am still courting you and I don’t want to screw anything up by making a decision like this without your input.” Darrien says clearly. His voice is mostly calm with just the slightest hint of anxiety as he monitors her r
I wake up late in the morning, it might even be early afternoon. I wriggle around a little which prompts Bellamy to do the same, he is apparently already awake. He raises a finger to his lips to shush me before I speak and I can see why. Kiara is still sleeping, lying in the bed between us. She is still loosely holding onto my arm, even in sleep. I slowly disentangle myself from her light grip and slide out of bed. Bellamy follows, clearly doing his best not to jostle her and wake her up. She definitely needs the sleep. She was restless for a good part of the night and almost definitely was having nightmares, but she seems like she’s sleeping soundly now. My own sleep was blissfully quiet. No visions or anything thank goodness. I’m looking forward to having several weeks of steady sleep and so help me if anything tragic or dramatic happens for the next few weeks then whoever is responsible should probably be terrified of me. We step into the hallway to talk without disturbing Kiara.
I cross my arms in irritation. “Kiara would never! How would she even do that? She’s just a kid!” I object. Dr Dae rolls her eyes at me.“Oh calm yourself girl. I’m not saying she chose to murder anyone. I assume that she was forced to comply somehow. You’ll have to ask the girl when she’s ready to talk. As for the how, the child is a Reaper.” She says it as if it’s obvious but it really isn’t. I know that Reapers exist, but they’re the kind of Magic that most people have heard of but no one has ever met. I suppose Kiara’s dad must have been a Reaper too and why the MRO was so secretive about her markings. Most people are kind of scared of Reapers, they’re kind of the boogeymen of our society. Mostly because they can kill on a whim. All it takes is one touch and they can free your soul from your body. Obviously with no soul you die, and I guess your soul moves on to wherever souls go when you pass on. I suppose that a Reaper would make sense for the representative of Atropos. Her add
Since Kiara probably isn’t up to braving the stairs and she really doesn’t want to be carried around everywhere, we decide to ask Dr Dae to come up to the bedroom. It’s actually kind of weird having so many people in here. Bellamy is a fairly private person, he doesn’t generally invite people to hang out in his… our room. Dr Dae shuffles in clutching her usual bag. I’m surprised that Bellamy isn’t carrying it for her because it looks kind of heavy, but I suspect that she wouldn’t hand it over anyway. I immediately greet her.“Thank you so much for your help. Your contact has become a great friend and she’s a huge part of the reason we were able to find Kiara here.” I nudge Kiara gently with my elbow and give her a little smile. She looks very small and delicate in the oversized, mismatched clothes with her hair dripping down her shoulders. She’s so pale that the bruises on her skin stand out and look even worse than they actually are. Dr Dae gives me a half nod of acknowledgement then
We all turn to face Alex in confusion. I glance up at Bellamy to see if he has any idea what’s going on but he looks just as lost as the rest of us. I continue to stroke Kiara’s hair trying to keep her calm. “Explain.” Bellamy says firmly. Alex flushes red under the attention of everyone in the room. “Uh, well. I assisted Miss Gale in updating her registration with the MRO, and uh, since her position is one of… well almost authority, over the fate’s representatives the updated registration reflects this. So she should be able to make decisions about Kiara’s care like an Alpha would for their Shifters or like a Coven leader would for their Witches. Admittedly it’s a very small group of Magics, but according to the Magic Registration Office, she is in charge of it.” He explains, his voice starts off weak but gets stronger as he becomes more confident in what he’s saying. The police seem a little stunned but I guess Alex isn’t technically wrong. If Kiara were a Shifter, her Alpha would
When we pull up to the house, there’s a police car waiting. There are two cops standing by it, one looks bored and irritated and the other has a fake ‘customer service’ type smile plastered on his face that I know well from experience. Yeah neither of these guys want to be here. They’re probably pissed that we made them come down here. Not to mention uncomfortable being in the Shifter compound. Non-Shifters aren’t invited here often, although I suppose that isn’t exactly true anymore with all our new friends stopping by regularly. Standing beside them looking awkward and uncomfortable is Alex. I bet they’ve been taking their impatience out on him. I narrow my eyes at them and prepare myself. One snotty comment and I am going to tear into them, it’s been a long night. Bellamy parks the car and I wait for him to get out. He speaks with the police briefly and Alex escorts them inside the house. Bellamy returns and opens the door next to Kiara. “Hey, can I help you get inside? The police
As we step outside, I’m confused to find that I actually have no idea where we are. I really was just running and following the tracking spell. I don’t know how far I ran. It’s a good thing the others are here to bring back the cars because I would be wandering all night trying to find my way back. I’m also fairly sure that I left my phone in the car when I jumped out in a hurry. Kiara clutches my hand tightly as the cars pull up on the street in front of us. “Megan, Darrien. You stay here and speak to the police when they arrive. Direct further questions to me. Shaun, you stay with them too.” Bellamy directs as Shaun hops out the car. At Megan’s insistence he stays a good couple of metres away from us.“Yes Alpha Kane.” He responds cheerfully. Aaron and Rio also climb out of the vehicles. Rio stops to chat with one of the other Shifters whose name I still don’t know. Aaron immediately approaches me. Actually a better way to phrase it is that he storms over. He looks almost angry. Or