“That’s another factor to consider.” Ralph wagged his finger at the lady as if he partially agreed with her complaint. “We aren’t all adults here. There are children’s lives at stake.”
“Which is all the reason to keep marching on,” the same dark-haired, boxy man pointed out.
I let out another deep sigh and rested my head on the back of the chair. We weren’t getting anywhere.
“We need to keep infiltrating more villages where there are Master castles still operating,” another muscular man said. He was holding hands with a toned and trim woman.
She nodded. “We need to take them out until there are none left.”
“The Masters will just keep coming back,” James interjected. “As long as shifters exist, there will always be hate and backlash.”
Ayden scowled. “The Masters and their guards will always be among the percentage of humans who are jealous of us. They will never stop until they destroy our race completely.”
“Well I am definitely not part of that number,” Leo said and gave Ayden a knowing look.
Ayden cast a seated, yet respectful little bow to Leo. “And I will always be grateful to you for that.”
“There has to be some viable way to stop them,” Blaze reasoned.
The guards were so loyal to the Masters that there wasn’t any viable way to persuade them to switch sides. If they were guards, then they were on the Masters’ teams for life. It was like going to the point of no return.
I was beginning to grow increasingly unsettled by the talks and the disjointed arguments fluttering around the campfire. I stood and slipped away from the group. I needed a minute or two to clear my head and halt the screaming in my mind. While the others continued to bicker back and forth about what to do and where to go, I quietly slid into the shadows.
I climbed into my tent but didn’t zip it up. I wanted the air. I craved the gentle breeze. I longed for refreshment and the tingle of the chill from the outside.
I rested my head on the pillow, lying flat and still as I stared up at the triangular pitch of the tent’s gray cloth ceiling.
I closed my eyes, and after a few minutes, I heard rustling on the other side of the tent. My eyes jolted open and I sat up, propping myself up on my elbows.
“Hello?” I asked to the shadows. “Is someone out there?”
Cameron’s head popped from through narrow slit in the open doorframe of the tent. The fabric waved softly in the breeze.
He gave me a handsome grin. His hair was messy, but in a sexily disheveled way. He didn’t have a full-on beard, but he had enough scruff for me to play with and graze against my fingertips.
“It’s just me,” he said. “Can I come in and join you for a little while?”
My heart skipped a beat and my stomach flipped with excitement. “Yes.” I pushed myself into a sitting position. “Yes, absolutely. Come in.” I beckoned to him with an enthusiastic wave of my hand.
He was grinning from ear to ear as if he felt exhilarated by just being in the tent with me. His eyes flickered with naughtiness and I felt the energy of his mischief radiating off of him and absorbing into me.
“You had enough out there, I assume?” he asked with a grunt as he plopped down next to me.
“Yeah.” I nodded and glanced down, idly twisting a loose thread from the blanket around my index finger.
“Me too.” Cameron sighed and leaned back against the pillow.
He smiled and gently hooked his arm around my waist, drawing me back to nestle in the cozy crook of his arm.
We lay together in perfect silence for a few moments. My heart pounded with desire. There was erotic magic buzzing like electricity through the closed tent. The sexual chemistry between us was as hot as the flames in the campfire outside.
Cameron began stroking my arm. “You are so soft,” he said.
“It feels really good when you rub me like that,” I whispered. I felt a permanent smile on my face from his touch on my skin.
I was drawn to him like a magnet. He smelled spicy and rugged, like the outdoors. He was the epitome of masculinity, the perfect counterbalance to me. When I was with him, I felt like a delicate doll, a flower who desperately craved the water of his affection in order to properly blossom.
“I understand though, what it’s like out there…” he trailed off.
“What do you mean?” I asked when he didn’t elaborate any further.
His body heat was warm and soothing. I could get used to this. I was addicted to the way he felt pressed up against me. I was in a trance-like, euphoric state. Everything I was worrying about seemed to melt away.
“I know what it’s like to be torn,” he said. “Conflicted.”
I lifted my head and peered at him. “Are you talking about their arguments?”
“Yes.” He let out a long sigh and stroked my hair.
I loved it when he played with my hair. It gave me incredible tingles from my head down to my toes when his fingers brushed through each strand with effortless care.
“Sometimes it’s just better to let go of the noise and turn the sound off in your mind,” I said.
Cameron chuckled. “Like pressing the mute button?”
I laughed. “Yes, something like that.”
“I came from a rebellious family,” he said. “So I know what it’s like to want to go out there and charge through the streets, destroying everything that is unfortunate enough to be my path. But I know that’s not always the smartest way to go about resolving a conflict.”
“Not really,” I said and raised my hand to gaze at our intertwined fingers.
“I want to fight, but I want to go about it the right way,” he said. “The wild part of me wants to drive a stake through every Master I see, though.”
“I can understand that,” I said. I met his gaze and saw a flicker of sadness there. He was constantly haunted by the ghost of his former Master. The werewolf spell that had been cast upon him was monstrous and cruel.
“I still wish there was a way I could help you,” I whispered.
Cameron let out an exasperated sigh. “Maybe one day.”
“The pot of anger has already been stirred a lot tonight,” I said. “Tempers might flare soon as opinions start to clash.”
“I just don’t want you to get hurt in the process.”
I glanced at my watch. “It will be midnight soon.” My heart plunged with disappointment. I didn’t want Cameron to have to leave me. I blamed his former Master for this terrible crime.
Cameron roped his arms around me and squeezed. He planted a kiss on the top of my head.
“It sounds like we better make the best of our time together, doesn’t it?”
I lifted my chin and gazed at him. “Absolutely.”
He shifted his weight and began planting tender kisses on my neck and shoulders. He trailed his kisses farther south until he reached the little mound of hair right on top of my pubic bone.
He opened the folds of my pussy lips with his tongue. I arched my back and squeezed his shoulders, spreading my legs apart to allow him easier access. I let out a moan of ecstasy as his tongue continued to explore the pink crack between my legs.
I wiggled and squirmed with pleasure as his tongue found my clit and he planted exceptional kisses on the engorged and swollen areas. He swirled his tongue in magical circles around my clit and I grabbed a fist full of his hair and gently tugged on it. My moans were sensual and deep.
He was skilled at going down on me. I lifted my pelvic bone and thrust myself upward as he buried his head between my legs. The moment was extremely erotic. My eyes fluttered closed and I pressed my naked inner thighs to his ears, snaking my legs around his neck and shoulders. I came wildly, the flood of my warm cum dripping down my legs.
I moaned into his ear and nibbled on his lip. His skin prickled with sensual goose bumps. I felt his excitement in the form of a hard and throbbing cock that pressed up teasingly against my pussy lips.
I wanted him to b
e inside of me. I opened my legs again as he rolled on a condom, staring at me with a sexy, smoldering gaze the entire time.
I was ablaze with sensuality, ignited from the flame of desire sizzling between us. Cameron pushed himself inside of me. I gasped at his girth. He let out a glorious grunt and his eyes rolled back in his head as he burrowed his hard snake deep inside of me.
He pressed his body against mine. I craved the closeness between us, the warmth of his primal heat supercharging me. After a few seconds, he began to growl with ecstasy.
His thrusts became jerky and a little rough. I could tell that he was trying his best to dial it down a notch or two. I understood. It was in his nature to be aggressive. It was all he had known his entire life. It took a long time to change behaviors. I was patient with him, but it still felt incredibly good with the way his shaft rubbed up against my swollen clit and my sensitive pussy lips.
I wasn’t one to protest when it came to intimacy with him or the other guys. My feelings for them were growing stronger by the day. We didn’t live in easy times, but I felt so safe when I was with them. We had continued to bond over the past few months, and I felt as if each time we made love, it instantly forged our individual connections and intensified to massive heights.
“Am I hurting you?” Cameron grunted into my ear, slowing down his pace slightly.
“No, baby,” I whispered in his ear and soothingly raked my fingernails down his back. I hugged him close to my body. “It feels so good. Keep doing what you are doing. There. Just like that.” I sighed a delicate moan directly into his ear.
Cameron pumped his cock in and out of me. I loved feeling his hardness from the inside. I knew I was going to cum soon. I wanted to hold onto it for as long as I could so that we could cum together. The experience of climaxing at the same time was nothing short of magical.
Cameron’s breathing increased and he let out an urgent groan. I arched my back and released the built-up pressure of ecstasy. Cameron unloaded his hot seed into the condom bag.
We lay there for several seconds afterward, naked, sweaty and just holding each other. I never wanted to let go of him. I yearned to stay wrapped up in his arms forever.
When he finally pulled out of me, he was still a little shaky and quivering. His hair fell over his eyes. I gently brushed it away, off of his temples. He was so sexy. His eyes were piercing, dark and gorgeous.
“I don’t want to leave you.” The agony swelled in his eyes and stabbed me in the heart.
“I don’t want you to go either, baby,” I said.
“I curse that fucking Master every night of my life,” he said through gritted teeth.
“Maybe there is someone I can look to for help,” I said, thinking of the woman with the crystals. Cameron had yet to meet her.
He cocked his head to the side and looked intrigued. “What are you talking about?”
“I met this woman,” I said, rubbing his back as we talked. Our legs were still wrapped around each other. “Ayden and James don’t really seem to like her, but I think she’s fascinating. She was doing these…rituals.”
“Rituals?” Cameron grinned. “You think she can help me?”
“I don’t know,” I said and frowned. “But any prospect is better than none.”
“I suppose you are right about that.” Cameron sat up and pushed his shirt back over his head. He put his jeans back on.
I felt crestfallen. I wished we had more time to talk and figure out a solution to his problem.
“Don’t go.” I whimpered into his ear and clamped my hand around his. I felt myself pouting. My body slumped in disappointment.
“Trust me, it’s the last thing I want to do, sweetheart.” He pressed his lips to mine. He looked me up and down. I could almost see the wheels turning in his head and the fantasies pouring into his mind.
“To leave you here…naked and vulnerable and needing me…” He grimaced as if it was too raw an outcome to bear.
I had an instant flashback to when he was eating my pussy before. I desperately wanted him to do it again, but I knew he couldn’t stay. It was a horrible choice that I knew broke him from the inside out, just as it did to me.
At that, he slithered out into the darkness outside of the tent like a thief in the night, robbing my heart and taking half of it with him. My mind was a frenzy that I couldn’t shut off. He had finished me, given me two intense orgasms that made my head spin.
And just like that, he was gone again, leaving me in deafening silence. It seemed like an eternity ago that we were moaning in each other’s ears with passion and love.
At that moment, I made a mental vow to try my best to discover a way to cure him of his werewolf curse. I couldn’t settle for just having fragmented sessions with Cameron here and there. I wanted all of him, forever.
16
Cameron
I glanced up at the star-peppered sky. It was after midnight. The full moon was high in the atmosphere now, shining silver through the trees and revealing its circular shape as it popped in and out of the treetops. It was almost as if it were playfully engaging me in a personal game of hide and seek.
I was about an hour into my werewolf shift. An owl hooted off in the distance. A dove cawed. The wind whistled through the trees. The branches swayed like dancing shadows in the night-cloaked wilderness.
I saw my breath in front of my face. It came out in plumed little clouds. The air was frigid, but it didn’t bother me. I had enough fur spread on my body to keep warm. I walked on my hind legs through the mountain woods, searching, hunting. I didn’t have a destination. I didn’t even know what I was searching or hunting for. I just knew I had to stay on the move.
I was in my right mind, but I wasn’t safe enough to remain at the camp with the others. I was afraid of what I might do. I couldn’t take the risk. Not now, not when I cared about Sophia so profoundly. I wondered if I was falling in love with her.
I glanced up at the moon again, craning my neck as I resisted the urge to howl through the darkness. It wasn’t safe. I had to keep looking over my shoulder to make sure I wasn’t being followed. Every little movement counted and it was vital for me to stay alert. I couldn’t afford to slip up. I had to keep my senses acute, sharpened.
Anyone could be out here watching, just waiting for an opportunity to pounce on the vulnerable. But I was anything but that. I could protect myself, and I could defend the rebellion camp in the process.
I patrolled the area, but steered clear of encountering anyone loosely wandering the edge of the camp. I knew how to keep my distance. I stayed close to the perimeter, but not so close that I would become a danger to anyone in the campground.
I gritted my teeth as my cheeks flushed in anger. I cursed the Master who had forced this dreaded disability on me. I craved normalcy in my life. I hated the fact that I had to leave Sophia in the middle of the night and troll the woods.
I missed her warm body. I yearned for the tender touch of her silky, smooth skin on me. I wished that her slender legs were draped over me at this very moment. I felt my cock tingle as I fantasized about our naked bodies intertwined as we wrestled under the sheets, heating up the tent with our sexual chemistry.
Instead I was alone in the dark, feeling like half of my heart was missing from my body. When my mind jolted back to reality, it was cruel how alone I felt.
I started thinking about the woman with the crystals that Sophia had mentioned before. I was intrigued. I was always hopeful that there was someone who could reverse the werewolf curse. If I didn’t have hope, I had nothing. Optimism was what kept me alive.
I yawned. My eyes watered and I began to feel the effects of fatigue. I wasn’t nocturnal, even though I had to become a werewolf from midnight until dawn. Oftentimes, when I wasn’t restless, I would find a large trench under a bed of fallen leaves and sleep the pain of my life away.
Things had gotten substantially better after Sophia had entered my life. The outcome of my days didn’t seem as bleak. Maybe it
was the fact that I had something to look forward to, something to keep me going. Sophia was that beautiful rose in my life that was thriving radiantly under the sun.
If I kept my thoughts consistently on her, it would inspire me and get me through the rest of the night. I would spend my time counting down the hours until I got to reunite with her. I couldn’t wait to kiss her, to snake my arms around her tiny waist. I wanted to breathe into her neck and feel the softness of her hair tickling my cheek.
I had an urgent craving for her. The passion between us was sensual and remarkable. When I was with her, the cares of the world melted away. She was healthy for me, the counterbalance to running through these woods.
I was trudging along, just absentmindedly gazing at the ground as I kicked at rocks and damp leaves on the dirty mountain path. I pondered trying to hunt for squirrels and rabbits to bring back to camp to cook on the fire.
That’s when I heard the sound of groaning. I immediately halted in my tracks. The breath suspended in my lungs. Every muscle in my body tensed. My senses peaked and the hairs stood up on the back of my neck.
I glanced over my shoulder. I must have wandered farther down the path than I had realized. I had gotten lost in my own thoughts. The wailing and moans of agony screeched through the air.
I ducked behind a tree, careful to hide my body behind the large pine trunk. I allowed myself to breathe again, annoyed with myself for not paying better attention to the path.
My muscles ached. I was still tensed up like a wind-up toy, ready to snap. That’s when I noticed something haunting moving in the shadows. It was another werewolf. I had to blink to make sure I saw it correctly.
Stumbling upon another werewolf in this region was extremely rare, to say the least. I was far from home, far from anything else I had ever known. I narrowed my eyes to study the beast as it moved through the forest.
One of the first things I noticed was that it was behaving erratically. It was a male, moving about in wobbly circles. His arms and legs were jerking as if he was in pain, almost as if a current of electric shock was rippling through his body.
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