Shifters in the Snow

by Jacqueline Sweet

  Most wolf shifters lived in the mountains and in other northern areas. That sounded okay for a vacation, but Danika would take warm beaches and summer thunderstorms over mountains and plains any day. She did long for a chance to see snow, which she’d never experienced before. Even as a child, she thought it be fun to do silly winter things like make snow angels and snowmen.

  Her mother was from a North Carolina pack, and Danika remembered her stories of making snow ice cream. Even at that small thought, her heart ached a little. She pushed any sad memories back and picked up her speed until all her surroundings became a blur.

  Danika spent her entire life in Florida and couldn’t imagine living anywhere else. She loved being a part of the Kala West Wolf Pack. At least, she did until today.

  Nope. She wasn’t going to think about that. Not how Lance had ambushed her with information she had long forgotten. She ran faster until the world around her blurred out and sped by her.

  Running was her solace. It was good in human form, but in her wolf skin, she felt closer to the world around her. Her feet felt at home as she swerved between bushes and trees. She only had a few miles to go until she reached the coast.

  Water. The Gulf. That was the main reason she couldn’t leave and go up north. She’d miss swimming in the Gulf, and right now, her sanity depended on a long swim in the cool waves. That was better than a cold shower any day, and she needed something to distract her completely. It may have been December, but at least she could still swim without it freezing her tail off.

  As she got near, she could smell the water lingering in the air. It was late, so no one would be at her spot, the one place she went to think and swim shit away.

  Her brother’s voice still played in her ears.

  “You will do this for our pack, Dani,” Lance had said.

  “For the pack, what about what I want?”

  “We are the leaders of the Kala West Pack. Everything we do is for them, not us.”

  “You’re the alpha. Why does it matter if I marry Cole?”

  “The witches and warlocks in town are getting stronger by the day. Their Elemental Board members ensured that by reinstating their triad bonds. We don’t have a way to mimic that. All we have is our connections with other packs.”

  “So you’re selling off your baby sister for power?”

  “Damn it, Dani. You’re not even my real...”

  “Oh, don’t stop now, Lance. Might as well admit it out loud. I’m not your real sister, right?”

  “Dani, I’m sorry.” Lance’s face reddened.

  “You don’t think I get that every time I see my reflection?”

  Tears built up behind her eyes. She was not going to cry in front of him. Not now.

  He ran his fingers through his hair. “I didn’t mean—”

  “They may not have been my real parents, but I loved them too.”

  She shifted and ran before he could respond. He called after her, but she wasn’t turning back. She needed her spot.

  As she came to the water’s edge, she dipped her front paws in, letting the cold water cover them. She looked each way multiple times before shifting to her human form. She felt her bones crack with the stretching shift as the tickling of receding fur revealed smooth flesh.

  The cool air nipped her sensitive skin, and the water felt colder without the fur to block out most of the temperature.

  She took a deep breath and strode through the water, taking her time so the cold went through her and she could feel every sharp prickle of moisture.

  One last breath filled her lungs before she submerged herself to block out all that was wrong in the world above sea level, if only for a few precious moments.

  Chapter 3

  Sometimes life was just fucked up. Blaine couldn’t help but think that his was a little more horrible than average. Even on the beach, away from any other signs of life, he could still hear Christmas music. Classic songs of bells and warm chestnuts haunted him wherever he went. Hell, he hated the holidays, all about happy families and joy, things he didn’t have and probably never would.

  It was bad enough that people in the warlock community hated him for being part werewolf shifter. Now, his brother Baxter had to go and do some crazy shit and kidnap the Mistress of Spirit and Carmen Brixton, a daughter of one of the most respected families in Kala West. His family had already received death threats as a result.

  He had to get away from the witches and warlocks who hated him. He had thought about finding the Kala West Pack and asking to join their community, but who would want a shifter who couldn’t shift?

  Many times he’d tried to change, even felt his animal crawling under his skin, begging for release. It was the worst during full and new moons, but he was always drawn outside all the same.

  The full December moon glowed over him as he walked down the beach.

  He cracked his neck to release some of the tension building there and traveling down his body.

  Being outside was peaceful, and he was coming close to the place he had gotten in the habit of passing, the spot where everything made sense, the pier where he was saved in more ways than one.

  He was only twelve when he saw her, the girl with skin like hot cocoa, hair that was wild about her head from swimming, and big, curious eyes to match.

  He regretted not ever seeing her again, but he had been scared of what Pete would do to her. The man had proven his disgust for shifters. His stepfather already hated him for being what he was, a warlock with tainted blood, words his stepfather enjoyed throwing around.

  “Get me a beer, Taint Blood,” he said with a snicker. “Watch your mouth, Taint Blood.”

  Blaine didn’t know how cruel those words were until he got older.

  The guy had been a full-out asshole growing up, an abusive coward who drank too much. Heavy drinking and magic never mixed. That’s why his stepfather died a few years back from getting his potions bottle mixed up with his beer bottle.

  Stupidity to the very end, and Blaine had never been so grateful that his stepfather’s death left just him, his mother, and younger half-brother.

  The sadist was gone, but the town remembered the false idea of him. Witches and warlocks in Kala West only saw the good side of Pete, but his family had too many other sides to deal with.

  Baxter was Pete’s biological son, the one he favored and treated like royalty. Blaine was the bastard half-breed that Pete didn’t want to deal with.

  Their mother, as much as he loved her, was too weak to fight for herself, let alone for her oldest son, so Blaine took it. He got through it more as his powers strengthened.

  He got so used to being pushed around by Pete for the dumbest things that he learned to block him out.

  Pete dying was a blessing and a curse. Blaine and Baxter had to provide for their mother by working odd jobs in town. Everyone was happy to hire Baxter, but Blaine was shunned. The magical community of Kala West didn’t fully trust the other Supernatural beings, even though they had a treaty of non-violence with some groups like the werewolves. Blaine was a reminder that other magical beings existed. No matter how hard the community tried, they wouldn’t be able to shut out all the others that lurked outside the safety of Kala West.

  Blaine’s magic provided an internal escape for him, from Pete and the others who refused to accept his mixed parentage.

  That’s how he blocked out falling off the pier. He didn’t know whether Pete dropped him on purpose or not because he had gone so deep within himself that he was nothing but a shell of a child.

  Even the cold December water didn’t wake him from his mind. It took a girl to bring him back, a girl shifter who he still thought about after all the years that passed since then.

  Although he had blocked out most of it, he remembered feeling Danika’s hand on his face. That one touch stirred something in him, reminded him of life.

  He couldn’t explain it, but she had awakened his magic in time for it to save him. She had saved him.

&n
bsp; He stared at the pier that had since closed down. Part of him always took this route on the beach, hoping he’d see her again, but years had passed, too many to realistically encounter her once more.

  He looked out towards the moon-lit water taking in the serenity and calmness. A figure stood far out in the moving depths with their back facing him. The shape looked like a woman.

  It was strange to see someone in the water this late in the year. It wasn’t unheard of, but it was still too cold to swim in. He looked around for a stash of clothes, but he didn’t find any.

  He looked back up in time to see the head go underwater.

  He couldn’t stop staring out as he waited for the head to come back up, but it never did. A good minute passed.

  By the second minute, he was in the water and swimming toward the missing figure. He couldn’t reason with his mind why he had to get there. It was as if his wolf and magic shared a secret and weren’t letting him in on it. He just knew he had to move and the faster the better.

  When the woman reappeared, he knew her instantly. The face just now occupied that of a woman who looked like an enchantment come to steal him away.

  “It’s you,” he said. “You’re the one who saved me.”

  The name came back to him as if their encounter had happened yesterday.

  Danika looked at him with those same wide eyes that had stayed with him since all those passing years. Although most of her was hidden by the water, he thought she was the most beautiful creature he’d ever seen.

  He felt his magic rumble through him as if waiting to boil over to greet something significant. It recognized her too. It remembered her presence, the comfort he felt by her touch, the kindred of wolf finding wolf, magic discovering another type of magic.

  His element moved out to grasp for something, anything to connect with her and make sure she stayed with them, his magic and his beast, every essence that made him who he was and craved the woman he now saw in front of him.

  Blaine couldn’t help but ease closer to her, and he was grateful she didn’t turn away from him.

  He was close enough to feel her soft breath on his skin, which only made his body come alive. He became aware of the hardness pressing against his wet jeans, begging for release.

  It worsened when he saw her lips, plump temptations that teased him under moonlight. He realized in that moment that she was naked under the shield of water.

  A gentleman would have asked if she needed help, but he was never known for manners.

  He hoped like hell that she felt the same as he captured those lips with his own and found solace in the curves of her body melded up against his.

  She was rich softness, the kind you could explore endlessly and never get tired discovering. She tasted like life and berries, a mixture that made him addicted to her favors.

  When she wrapped her legs around his waist, he prayed to the gods above that she would never release him.

  Chapter 4

  When Danika broke through the surface, she knew someone was getting closer to her. She could hear another heartbeat, sense their panic, and smell their fear. What were they afraid of? No one had seen her shift. She’d made sure of that, so they couldn’t have feared her, could they?

  The fear shifted as the person shortened the distance between them. It didn’t smell like fear from danger. This scent had a different emotional pull than the way a person or animal feared for their own safety.

  A sensation underneath all the senses was familiar as well, a feeling she had before. She looked around and finally come face-to-face with a man. A man she both knew and didn’t know. Blaine.

  She couldn’t speak, but she could feel. The water warmed suddenly as if a flame had shot right through it. Heat filled her core and expanded all the way down her limbs.

  He looked so different, but it was the eyes that told her it was him, the boy who she would have fought for, killed for all those years ago.

  His hair was curly and short, but not long enough to hide that penetrative gaze, one that still held her captive, but this one was no longer that of innocence. He took her in with the aura of a man with desires, a man with hunger. It was backed by something a simple touch wouldn’t satisfy.

  Common sense should have told her to move away from him, but she wasn’t operating on rationality as her wolf found another that fit her perfectly. She felt her animal uncurl itself and rise to the surface as he came closer. If he hadn’t taken her mouth in a kiss, she would have stolen it from him. Her need was too great to detain, and she could feel the restraint he gave in that kiss.

  No thoughts came to her as she wrapped herself around him and allowed herself to just feel.

  The water bubbled slightly around them as they became one magical entity.

  He felt amazing so close to her, and she needed more.

  Without giving it a second thought, she ripped the shirt he wore off of him. Her hands found the muscular shape of him and explored every taut inch as his mouth consumed her.

  His fingers dug into her ass, getting her closer so she could feel the hardness of him pressed against her. She moaned against him as he slipped his fingers into her from behind, never leaving from the kiss.

  Magic rolled through them. She’d never felt such raw attraction and desire course through her veins as she did with Blaine so close to her.

  They were no longer in control as his water element and magic enveloped them and flowed around their merging bodies.

  Without putting much distance between them, she reached down and unzipped his pants, pulling out the hardness that awaited her. He felt long and thick in her hand, but none of that mattered. She needed him to be inside her or she was going to cease existing.

  “Blaine, please.” She had never said his name out loud before. She was always afraid if she did, he would be a figment of her imagination and disappear. Now, she was grateful for treasuring it and using it with his in front of her, caressing her, adoring her.

  She centered him close to her entrance, prepared to feel him fill her completely.

  “Are you sure?” he asked between harsh breaths.

  She could tell he took effort in waiting, but she didn’t want to wait anymore. Parts she didn’t know existed craved this man, and the only thing that made sense was satisfying those pieces of her that she didn’t even know could be made whole.

  “Yes, Blaine,” she said. He didn’t need more encouragement as he pushed forward and into her until she could feel him stretching every bit of her.

  Nothing mattered in that instant that he was inside if her. She dug her fingers into his back holding on for life as began to move slowly. He pulled out of her and then thrusted back inside with a force that made her cry out.

  His pace was glorious torture, and she didn’t know whether she wanted to savor him as he used a methodical and sensually slow pace to drag it out or to plead for him to move faster so she could feel more of him. It was all too much and not enough.

  “Amazing,” Blaine said. “You feel amazing.”

  Closing her eyes made her savor him more as he began to move in a quicker pace, hitting her clit at all the right angles. Shivers were forced from her until she was nothing but bundle of ecstasy.

  He shifted and hit that spot deep within her, the one that almost had her screaming her lungs out. She kept it down to a loud groan by biting down on his shoulder, marking him as hers.

  Part if her felt pride at the claiming, staking her claim on his pale skin.

  Mine, she thought. All mine.

  Danika never thought of herself as a desperate person. Still, she couldn’t help the thoughts that filled hers mind as Blaine filled her body.

  If anyone tried taking what was hers, she’d hunt a bitch down first.

  He shifted again, bringing her focus back to him and him alone.

  His breathing picked up, and she could hear the speed of his heart increase. The warmth between them and all around them eliminated all the bitter coolness that could have dist
urbed their intimacy.

  As he got closer to pulling the strongest orgasm she’d ever had from her, Danika experienced something brand new when she closed her eyes again. She saw his wolf, at least she thought it was his wolf by the same color hair she knew him by, a brown that reminded her of cinnamon and allspice. There was no mistaking the wolf with the same brown fur the color of his hair and the eyes that she always dreamed about night after night, haunting her memories of him.

  He was powerful and certain. She could tell just by the way he sat, observing the world around him.

  She saw her midnight-colored wolf nuzzle his as if stirring it into action and begging it to come out and play with her. His wolf was beautiful and larger than hers. Together, they seemed to go together as if their wolves knew what existed between them before they knew.

  The wolf stretched back and howled into the air, releasing a call in the wild. Hers joined in to make a sound that was whimsical and primal all once.

  Danika opened her eyes to find him staring at her with a gaze that glowed back at her, a light that showed his other magical self, the magical warlock that she was happy to accept as he became a part other.

  His magic seeped into her until it soaked through her bones went through her blood and became part of her. He was sharing a part of himself with her, which both scared and exhilarated her. That knowledge was enough to take her to a sensitive high that merged on the brink of pain.

  She didn’t know whether to laugh, cry, or scream. She sensed what it was like to hold his magical element within her. The water became her and she became the water. There was no end and no beginning, an unending cycle of power and pleasure to create the ultimate him.

  His arms tightened around her, as if he thought he would lose her to some hidden abyss, some aspect of life that revealed all the mystical secrets within.

  Danika responded by kissing him, using all her remaining energy and strength to let him know that she was there with him the entire time.

  “Close,” she said, panting. She didn’t want the feeling of him to end. It was too much and not enough. She had never in her life felt the magical bond she had with Blaine as he took over her mind, her body, and the deepest parts of her soul. There was nothing like it that she could compare it to, nothing to explain the full need that filled her from head to toe.