The Shifter's Mate (Paranormal Pleasures) (2 page)

This day so far had just been a rapid-fire lustfest for Lauren so far. She really needed to tighten herself up, if this whole summer wasn't going to end up as a fiasco.

Her desire for Caleb wasn’t completely unprecedented. For a short while, no more than a few weeks, they had dated—kind of. Going to hang out at bowling alleys or malls with mutual friends, but spending most of that time together, and sliding off alone to make out. But then he started getting in all those fights...and then he disappeared from her life, up until the point just recently when she saw him apply for this work.

Frankly, Lauren didn’t feel safe with him around, but she was in no position to argue with her boss on hiring policies. It was, strangely, the one area where Heather’s easy-going persona became very serious.

“Everyone deserves a chance to help others,” she told Lauren a few weeks back. “And I need a supervisor who understands that. Isn’t that you?”

Not being stupid enough to lose her job, Lauren of course said that it was.

Even with her fear of Caleb’s potential, she cast more than a couple glances back in his direction as she positioned herself at the front of the counselor crowd once again. She remembered him as skinny and pale. He was still pale, but he had definitely grown into himself—his muscles wiry and visible, the kind of dense-but-slight build you might see on a man working construction.

“Could everyone follow me, please?” Lauren called out. “Everyone’s here, so let’s all go grab a seat at the complex.”

Obediently, they all followed Lauren to the main complex—the combination cafeteria and recreation center. Half of it was open to the outside, glass panels making up the walls. All the tables were picnic tables, good for eating or crafting, and any number of different types of classes.

The camp owner—spunky, trim, Heather—stepped up on the wide porch, waving her hands about, trying to herd everyone forward. Earlier in her life, she had been a ballet instructor, and still retained that same signature tone and beauty somehow reserved to dancers—including the vibrant mass of chocolate hair falling in deep, beautiful tresses down her back, ending just over her still-firm butt.

“Hello, everyone!” Heather called out, guiding them closer to the porch. “I’m just so glad you’re here. Today is such a wonderful, peaceful day to start our community and our efforts at building the future. I don’t know about you, but I just get such a sense of serenity and well-being from being in nature like this.” She closed her eyes, smiling and touching her heart with her hands. Some of the newer folks gave each other confused glances—the veterans just knew this was how Heather was. “I just hope you’re all overwhelmed with gratitude like I am, to be surrounded by so much of nature’s glory, and really just embracing the good will of all of you to come and help us in our mission.”

She paused for several moments, eyes still closed. Some of the new folks closed their eyes as well, peeking open a bit to see if that was what they were supposed to do. Lauren, with Maryse’s sudden involvement and the cocktail of mixed feelings that had been served with Caleb's arrival, was feeling rather the opposite of gratitude.

Today was no longer off to a brilliant start.

After another deep breath, Heather nodded over to her supervisor.

“Okay. So, Lauren has a few announcements, and I would ask that you all pay special close attention, okay? She’s so smart and wonderful, and I think she just has the best ideas.”

Lauren struggled not to roll her eyes. Technically, Heather had a few announcements—sent and re-sent in email form to Lauren over the course of the last few weeks in preparation for the camp. But Heather abhorred being seen as an “authority figure.” She just wanted to be everyone’s friend, to learn and love and laugh with them in their youthful abandon. That was how she put it, anyway.

So, Lauren was “bad cop.” She could handle that. It was good experience for the life she would have in the ruthless, cutthroat business world that she hoped to join in her professional career.

“Okay, we don’t have too many new additions to the rules which I emailed to everyone last week. Just a few reminders. After last year’s spaghetti incident, the camper curfew has been scaled back to nine at night, with lights-out at ten. Wake-up is at now at six-thirty. That means less sleep for us, especially those of us on cafeteria duty, which will be distributed among everybody. I suggest getting to bed by ten-thirty. You have to be up by five-thirty at the latest to get everything ready.”

There were, as she expected, a few groans. The most theatrical of them came from Maryse, who buried herself into Bryce's thick, strong arms. Lauren did her best to quell her jealousy.

“Now, what that
also
means is that I expect for no one to have a hangover...or a sudden ‘24-hour flu.’ I know when you are drinking—and for that matter, so do the campers. This is just a reminder that there is
no
alcohol allowed on these grounds, and certainly no drugs of any other kind.”

More groans—this time, mostly for comedy’s sake. Or, so Lauren hoped.

“We can have a great time at camp, and still be professional and adult,” she finished. “So, no partying, everybody. This is a professional environment.”

* * * * *

T
en hours later, almost all the counselors were acting unprofessional and doing lots of drinking at a party of  Maryse’s design. They were hanging out in the small crafts cabin near the lake, tossing down beers and shots in card games and dares.

Maryse already fucking loved summer camp.

She got to be away from her parents, fucking her hot, stud boyfriend every night, and would soon be showing off in bikinis and tight shorts for an entire summer and actually
get paid
for it. What was not to love?

“Drink up, everyone!” she called out, holding a bottle of rum high. “We’re young and we get to do whatever we want!”

A cheer resounded through the small crowd, nearly everyone agreeing with her. Maryse was very used to everyone agreeing with her—all the people she met were so desperate to get on her good side, desperate to see her gorgeous face break into a smile.

All of them, of course, except for Lauren.

Lauren acted like she was above Maryse—beyond the blonde’s realm of control and influence. Clearly, all she wanted to do was make Maryse feel inferior.

And so, it was fun for Maryse, completely subverting Lauren’s command like this, with the party. It took barely any coaxing on her part to convince everyone to come down. The only hold-out, in fact, was that foreign chick, Natalya, but whatever. She could do what she wanted.

In Maryse’s mind, Lauren didn’t deserve to be in charge. Positions of authority ought to be reserved for people who were simply better than others. And Maryse was undeniably better than anyone at the camp...even her loverboy, Bryce.

Bryce was super, of course, for the time being. Maryse had every intention of breaking his heart in a few months—probably as soon as her trip to France began later this summer.

“I’m sorry,” she would say, patting his dopey, handsome little head. “I just don’t see this working out when I’m going to be going to million-dollar galas every weekend and you’ll just be...here. Tossing some ball around at some third-rate university.”

Probably, just to keep him calm, she would be stroking him off as she said it. The thought made the blonde beauty sort of aroused, knowing that even as she broke her current boyfriend’s heart, she could still make him cum at the same time. Irresistibly gorgeous—that's what she was, forever. She had no doubt in her mind of her proper place in the universe.

She would have broken up with Bryce already, actually...but then she would have delivered the broken-hearted stud right into Lauren’s waiting arms, and Maryse simply wouldn’t allow that. Bryce was
her
man, to please and break as she liked.

With this party—and with just conniving her way into the job as a counselor again—Maryse was eminently pleased of being able to knock that snob Lauren down a peg or two.

Her big tits intimidated the hell out of Maryse. Maryse’s own pair were, in her opinion, rather divinely gifted—but Bryce was a boobs man. She had even intercepted a text from one of his friends just yesterday—after she had already decided not to work as a counselor for the summer.

You spendin six weeks with lauren tanner? Shit son. Jealous of all them tittties you gonna be swimmin in. She gonna give it up to you for sure.

Maryse knew that, when she was around, Bryce was as loyal as they came. But stuck with Lauren for so long, in front of her huge, sexy tits in a swimsuit or tight little summer tops...Bryce was only human. And Lauren would, without a doubt, definitely give it up to him.

And so it been easy for Maryse to make the decision to stick around for the summer, and stick around Bryce, and that meant noodling her way back into her position as a counselor. This afternoon, Lauren was against it, but Heather insisted that Maryse stay.

Everyone deserved a chance, after all. Such a gracious lady. Very easy to manipulate—though that was hardly a spectacular quality for Maryse.

Maryse, very clearly the winner in this little duel, graciously invited Lauren to the party tonight. And so the brunette was there, talking with that weirdo Caleb in a corner. Maryse had invited her more out of a desire to humiliate her—seeing more of Lauren’s rules broken and to make her bask in Maryse’s triumph.

Lauren probably was there just to gather intelligence, maybe to keep herself from appearing too snooty to obey. Young folks were often so rebellious. Maryse could respect such a tactic.

She was, she had to admit, sort of attracted to Lauren. Maryse had a firmly developed bisexual side—she had been through quite a number of kissing drills with her fellow cheerleaders back in high school. And Lauren certainly was sexy, with those flaring hips and her ever-impressive bust.

From her side of the cabin, where she had been silently drinking away at a bottle of rum, Maryse watched with growing curiosity at the exchange between the heavily tattooed Caleb and Lauren. Maybe it was time for a little espionage of her own—certainly she could get Caleb's blood rising.  Maryse strutted over casually, pretending to drunkenly examine an arrangement of shots for a drinking game getting organized by the twins, Bree and Brittany. Her ass waved high in the air, tight denim skirt plastered on her magnificent buns.

“Girlfriend?” Caleb shook his head no. “That was my sister. My step sister, I mean. Felicia.”

“Oh,” said Lauren. “She's really pretty. I thought maybe you were going out.”

Caleb laughed. “No.”

Felicia
was
pretty. Maryse would have been intimidated, perhaps, if she got a better look at her...but she hadn't.

“It’s just...you never called me,” said Lauren, voice low. “That hurt, you know? And when I saw you again, you had changed so...dramatically. I didn’t think you wanted anything to do with me.”

“I’m sorry. That’s my fault.”

“What
is
it with the tattoos and everything, these days?” Lauren asked.

Caleb shrugged, rubbing his neck. “I felt really out of place, and I got in some trouble. I’ve got some...new friends. They helped me out. Set me straight. That’s all.”

Lauren harrumphed. “That’s like, the vaguest possible explanation anyone could give of anything, ever.”

“That’s all you’re gonna get. Sorry.”

They talked a bit more, but Maryse—to avoid suspicion—had to move out of range, trying to continue her liquor examination and stay inconspicuous.

But still, somehow she had caught Caleb's attention—probably from the flagrant display she was making of her breasts, pushing them together with an elaborate shrug. She smiled flirtily as his eyes danced over the tight curves of her body, a tender lock of golden hair landing in her cleavage.

Maryse watched with some surprise as Caleb grabbed Lauren’s hand and whispered something in her ear. Lauren made a face and shook her head—though Maryse got the feeling it was only because she too had seen Maryse hanging out nearby. A dark cloud came over Caleb’s face and he stormed out of the cabin.

With a delicious grin, Maryse approached Lauren.

“Can’t do what he wants, huh?” Maryse tsked. “That’s a shame. For a girl like you, he’s quite a catch, huh?”

Lauren didn’t honor this with a response.

“Awww, little baby isn’t gonna talk to me?” Maryse laughed. The booze was really getting to her, and so was her success. “I’m soooo hurt. What a bad loser you are, Lauren. When are you gonna just relax and embrace the glory of me?”

For a moment, Maryse felt herself more intoxicated from talking like this than she was from the booze in her system. It was a sort of a relief to have someone like Lauren who hated her anyway—Maryse could say anything to her, and her opinion wouldn’t change, and no one would believe her anyway because everyone was already vying eternally for Maryse’s favor.

What fun.

Lauren still didn’t speak, just giving her a murderous look.

“I think I’ll show you how to have a little more fun,” said Maryse. “Watch.”

She added an extra sway to her ass, her tight denim skirt riding high on her lovely legs. She knew even girls found her hot—half of her friends had confessed crushes on her, and the half that hadn’t still promised to get Maryse’s “okay” before ever doing anything sexual with a boy. All those kissing drills back in high school had unlocked quite a number of feelings...and Maryse loved cultivating all of them.

Bryce was on the other side of the room, talking about sports or video games or some other stupid thing with the chunky, happy-go-lucky Kyle. She wrapped her arms around her big stud's chest and tugged him close.

“I need you,” she whispered in his ear. “Like,
right
now.”

Bryce, surprise coating his drunken face, complied, and followed her to the back of the cabin.

In less than a minute she was, in full view of everyone, slipping into the closet with Bryce. Inside the dark space, her hand immediately found his big cock, feeling him through his jeans. It had been soooo long since he had fucked her with that beautiful jock cock of his. Almost a whole two days.