Page 67 of His Atonement
"What in the actual fuck?!" I screech as I shoot up out of my seat then go ass over elbow and land on my back.
The tiger comes around the table, gets ridiculously close to me and I start scooting backwards until I bump into something hard and super hot to the touch.
I tilt my head back, and look up slowly to see an even bigger dragon, an almost solid black one with little flecks of gold dancing in his inky eyes.
As quickly as I can move, I start crawling toward the table, duck under it, then nail my head on the wood when I come nose to nose with a fucking reddish brown wolf that has to be the size of a goddamn sedan.
But when I start backing away from that thing, I'm pulled out from under the table by Vok, who, you know, has fangs that are three goddamn feet long and eyes glowing red. Which is nothing really compared to the fact that Cora's whole body is glowing bright fucking blue and the table is now surrounded by three more black dragons, a green one, a red one, and a fucking jaguar.
But that's not all, oh no.
When I jump on the table to try to plan my escape, I see fucking cheetahs and bears, lions and more wolves and tigers, all of them moving toward us slowly, seemingly docile all considering they are enormous and terrifying.
"Jesus fucking Christ, Allie!" The biggest dragon, the one with the inky black eyes, leans forward, wisps of black smoke coming from his nostrils just before he gently nudges me in the stomach. "Fuck! Shit! Fucking shit fucker!"
It snorts, shakes its humongous head then nudges me again.
And for some fucked up reason I reach out and touch his snout.
"Holy shit,” I whisper as he lets me basically pet his really hard scales. "Holy fucking shit."
I touch one of the black and gold spikes with my finger, feel the intense heat, the razor sharp tip and when my eyes flick to the dragons, fuck me, that's when I see.
"Andrej?"
He snorts, and nudges me again.
"Oh my god. This… this is incredible.” I turn to Allie, who is smiling with so much pride, and a little smugly if you ask me, then look at the tiger—Gracie—with a wicked scar over her left eye that is way more intense than it is when she's people. "I take it you didn't have some freakish lab accident to lose that, huh?"
Grace steadies me against her agile body, helps me get off the table and leans into me, rubs my hip just like a house cat would, and when I bury my fingers in her ultra soft fur, she fucking purrs.
"This is fucking incredible.” I giggle while Grace marks the hell out of my leg the way cats do. "I am so fucking sorry I ever doubted any of this."
"It is to be expected,” Vok says, looking way more normal. "One that has never been exposed to creatures such as us tend to react about the same the first time."
I look at Allie and frown. "But you and Casey didn't."
Allie laughs. "I didn't, no, but when Milos told Casey he was a dragon she kicked him in the balls and said to keep his crazy to himself."
I turn to look at Casey, who is cracking up, with—very obviously—Milos’s dragon standing behind her. "I did. I totally kicked him in the balls. I almost maced him too. Didn't matter that he very literally kissed the pants off of me, I didn't want anything to do with some nut job." Milos nudges her and Casey turns, shoots him a smile, and kisses his snout. "It wasn't until I agreed to go on a second date with him that I believed it and that was only because he shifted in front of me."
"Ok. So everything I've ever known about this sort of thing is bullshit because it is in fact real. Shifters and fae and vampires, all of it is totally real.” I nod, and keep petting Grace because it's keeping me grounded, which I definitely need so my symptoms don't start up. "But I gotta ask…"
Allie sighs. "I told them you'd want to take pictures."
"How could I not! Allie, I mean, come on!" I turn to the group that just changed my entire perspective. "You guys are absolutely beautiful. It's not like I'd take photos and submit them to some magazine or something. I'd never do that. It would be for me, for you. I'd even hand over the negatives after I developed the film. Hell, I'm willing to have someone supervise in order to make sure I'm not running copies to hock at National Inquirer."
"Close your eyes for a minute, Frank. Let everyone shift back and then we'll talk about your new project.” Allie smirks and shakes her head. "You are such a pain."
I close my eyes tight with a huge grin, waiting on bated breath for the people versions of my new friends—my clan—to reappear, but when Allie gives me the all clear, I realize everyone turned except Grace.
"You stuck?" I giggle as I look down at her.
She shakes her big head, pushes me toward the bench, then once I sit puts her melon in my lap.
"I see. Gonna play therapy animal while I soak all this up?" She basically smirks but keeps her head there and lets me pet her while we talk.
"Allie said you'd want to take photos of our other half,” Kai says as he leans back in his chair, thankfully clothed because seeing any of these men shirtless after that shit would probably make my brain mushy.
