Page 1 of Out of My Flocking Mind

Chapter One

Home might be where the heart is, but more importantly, it’s where my vibrator is.

My time on the run had taught me to appreciate how nice it felt to go to my quiet house and enjoy a lovely orgasm or two all on my own. No annoying men, no other complications. Just me and bliss!

I’d spent most of the past two weeks since my entire life had gotten turned upside down, since I’d cleared my name after getting framed for murder, since I’d gotten a seat on the council doing just that.

Despite the messiness of, well, everything, I’d taken my ass back to my own little house and shut the rest of the world out.

Not that it had mattered. I’d gotten a visit from Galen—the pack alpha who still seemed determined to talk me into becoming his mate—but I’d refused to answer. And fuck, I had never worked so hard for a climax as when I’d pretended not to hear him knocking at the front door. I couldn’t let him win, though, and had refused to let him steal even one moment of joy from me.

My phone vibrated, which was not the specific tool I needed to do that at the moment. Still, I rolled over and picked it up from my nightstand, frowning as I read the screen.

I wanted to ignore the call, but my finger moved without me thinking it through to answer.

“You’ve ignored me for over a week.” Ruben’s voice came out annoyed as ever, with him speaking as though already mid-lecture.

“And? I didn’t know I had to answer to you. You aren’t my boss anymore, right?”

The long moment before he answered had me smirking, wondering if I’d finally gotten the better of him. “You don’t have to leave your position as a courier. Besides, even if you choose to do so, as a sitting council head, you still must answer to me. You are not immune from my authority.”

I moved my lips along, mocking him without making a sound. I didn’t need him to realize just how childish I could be.

“Stop acting like a child.”

I sat up, then peered around. “How did you know? Are you spying on me or something?”

“I have better things to do than sneak into your pigsty of a home and peep on you. Your naked body lacks the appeal for me to sink that low. I simply know you well enough to predict you couldn’t just behave yourself.”

“Wow, rude much? You, for sure, won’t see me naked now.” I pursed my lips, then tried to shake off the annoyance. I needed to focus so I could get off the phone and back to my own little orgasm-filled world. “So, why are you calling me?”

He paused then, which made me want to laugh. I knew that pause, the one that said he wasn’t sure what to say next.

Of course, where I expected such things from people like myself, people who often ended up in situations over their head that they hadn’t planned for, hearing it from Ruben was beyond weird.

I had to fight the urge to ask if he had a fever or had somehow lost his mind. I had a feeling that even if either were true, he wouldn’t tell me.

Finally, he let out a breath that could have almost been a sigh. “After everything that happened, you really wonder why I might call you?”

I pressed my lips together, then leaned back in my bed, tossing the trusty vibrator aside. Ruben had a deep voice sexy enough to help in my fantasies, but unless he stopped lecturing me or I grew a kink for that, I had a feeling I was getting nowhere until we finished up our little conversation.

“So this is a ‘hey, how’re you’ call? Well, I’m just peachy keen, thank you very much.”

“You have been ignoring all calls, from what I understand.”

“Haven’t seen a reason to speak to anyone.”

His censure came down the line without him having to utter a word. That was the strength of his disapproval aura, though. I’d bet it could bend space and time to make someone feel bad. “You show up and turn the system on its head, then think you can disappear as though it had never happened? You added a seat to the council, Grey, a seat you now occupy.”

“Technically, I didn’t create it. That guy did.”

“Speaking of, would you happen to know who he is?”

“I figured you’d know better than I would. I know I’m a weird guy magnet, but I don’t have all the answers. He made me, and I never saw him again in person until he showed up at the trial. He said I could call him Knot, but beyond that? He never even told me he was coming.” I let out a soft laugh at that, at how he’d saved me and annoyed me at the same time. “How can you not know? You know everything.”

Ruben let out a rough, disgruntled sound full of frustration. “I know what is in the old books, the forbidden ones, but there are still countless tomes locked away even from me. I’ve found that the old stories say there were gods other than the four represented by the council seats. Some died, some were killed, some simply had no wish to participate. They each have a color of their own, but those colors are not listed anywhere I could find to identify.”

“So no who’s-who of the Spirit world?”

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