Luna Ascending (The Wolves of Fenrir Watch Book 1)

by Zana Wilder

  The youngsters, keen to redeem themselves in anyway, talk over each other.

  “The shifter brought back up – a good witch – but she stayed hidden.”

  “Are there good witches?!” another interjects

  “That shifter was bad-ass! She fought them with her bare hands”

  “Yeah, but the good witch helped...there were spells against the Coven!”

  “Nah! No such thing as a good witch! One of them just has shite aim”

  “Bollocks! You couldn't see properly... I could!”

  They explain that the shifter didn't change to her wolf immediately, but tried to fight the Coven in human form, assisted by an invisible 'good' witch. They're a bit hazy about the exact details, contradicting each other repeatedly. They agree though, that things came to a head when Marciel arrived.

  “The de Vaudou creep arrived – he had a screaming match with the shifter”

  “Then IT happened”

  “Yeah, that was freaky”

  “The lightening, it all bunched up.”

  “It struck the shifter, but she didn't seem to care. Total badass”

  “She's invincible! She just shifted and attacked!”

  The teenagers saw the cougar kidnapped as Marciel and the elder Coven members flitted away, leaving a few witches to block the wolf-shifter's path.

  “She killed them all” they breathed, awed.

  “She stood over me, protecting me”

  “She checked I was okay”

  “She was amazing!”

  I shake my head much the way my wolf would, trying to clear my thoughts, ignoring the rest of their jabbering. Again, I can't tie it all together. Who's this unknown shifter? What relation are they to Freya? Was Freya the 'good witch' the kids sensed and is that why her scent goes a different way?

  It's all a mess, it doesn't make sense and neither do the goofy grins on my father and Angus's faces. I glare at them.

  “There's only one foreign scent here, not two – it's a hybrid” my dad says surprisingly gently “Not it, she... your girl... Aaron, she's a hybrid.”

  It hits me so hard I sit down in the blood soaked grass with a thud. It's very un-alpha like, and I don't give a fuck. I sniff the air, realising they're right – there's no foreign shifter smell... only Freya. I bet she came to save Liz. She must have tried to use her powers, and whatever physical strength her human form had.

  Something forced her to shift, without knowing she could, to protect her friend and my pack. A glow of pride seeps through me. I think maybe I'm prouder she tried with her bare hands to protect my paralysed wolves, than of her shifting for the first time to fight.

  I turn back to the youngsters, hearing them chattering amongst themselves, describing to each other again the moment she shifted, how she had screamed at Marciel and told him her side was chosen. A thrill goes through me.

  Mine, my wolf growls.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  Freya's POV

  I regain awareness, and I'm running again. It feels different, I feel different. Everything's very intense, the sunlight through the trees, the sounds. The scents of the forest have never hit me so hard before.

  Suddenly as I take a deep sniff, I blanch, unsure I can believe my own senses. It's there though – fuck knows how, but I can smell Aaron. There is no mistaking that it's him, and he's getting closer. I put on a spurt of speed, my anxiety taking over.

  If Tavey and the young wolves haven't recovered, and I've no fucking idea if they will, then all he'll have sensed was that I was there. He won't know that I was trying to save them. And he must have known that Marc and I were engaged. Marc's scent was there too... Shit! I force myself faster, my mind rushing on. He'll assume I had something to do with the attack.

  Raw emotion pours out of me and I drop to all fours, screaming. On hands and knees, it finally hits me. I really care about Aaron. My feelings for Marc were manipulated, but deep inside I always harboured a need, for my big, rough, down to earth man, for Aaron. To him, I'm now the enemy. Another wave of pain hits me, my emotion so overpowering it knocks the wind from me. My body feels like it's folding in on itself.

  Glaring at my hands in the dirt I will myself to get up, to run. I let out a yelp as I see my hands change, they're elongating, growing hair and claws. My tongue lolls over my teeth which seem to grow sharper inside my mouth. Holy fuck, what's happening?! Is this what happened before when I was fighting the Coven?! I'm off again, this time on all fours, running away from whatever I've become.

  I'm not sure how long I've been running. Whatever creature I've become, it has physical limits too. My lungs burn with every inhale and my limbs are thick and heavy, each forward stride is more effort than the last.

  My new sharper animal senses are dulled by extreme fatigue. It's like trying to run in a swimming pool. I barely register how close Aaron is before he barrels into me. He bowls me clean over, off my feet and we roll several times before he pins me to the ground.

  My breath rasps and I can only hear my heart thudding in my ears. Somehow he's inside my head, demanding roughly that I shift. I panic, writhing at his invasion of my thoughts. The realisation I have no idea how to change back hits me sending another wave of terror rolling over me.

  He glares at me, pinning me ever more firmly until I stop fighting. Still on top of me, looking into my eyes warily, he shifts to human form.

  My exhausted brain can't understand why he would make himself vulnerable. My first instinct is self preservation, and I tense ready to attack while he's in this weaker form.

  Within seconds though I feel oddly calmed, simply by his body touching mine. My brain climbs down from its complete and utter devastating panic. My breathing slows, and I gradually become aware that he's talking to me, slowly, gently like you would a child or an injured animal.

  I finally tune in and realise he's repeating the same thing over and over, chanting it. He tells me he knows what I am, tells me it's okay, tells me he knows what happened in the clearing, that Tavey is okay and so are the youngsters. Relief hits me like a wave. I take a deep steadying breath in and feel my body give an odd squeeze and a twist.

  Exhaustion hits me like a brick, and I realise I'm human again and completely and utterly naked. I'm completely naked, pinned underneath an entirely naked Aaron.

  Relief, exhaustion, desire.

  As I look up, feeling self conscious, I realise Aaron still has me pinned by the wrists and is looking warily into my face. A ripple of need runs through me, despite my fatigue. I arch my back up to capture his mouth in a kiss. He pulls back in surprise.

  I've misread his body signals. Embarrassment and shame floods over me. It's just as quickly gone when he pins me down more firmly. This time his lips capture mine, his mouth devouring me. A foreign voice in my head clamours at me - 'mate!' Ignoring it I kiss Aaron back fervently, whatever the fuck that voice is, it'll have to wait.

  This is delicious, but I'm fighting full-body burnout, nearly fainting with fatigue. Aaron must have noticed, because the next thing I know he's swept me up in his arms, as if I weigh nothing, and is carrying me gently.

  I come around, propped against his chest in a little hollowed out cave at the side of a cliff. I can't have been asleep for long. It's daylight and my tiredness is still all-consuming. Despite the huge fatigue, I feel like myself, wholly truly myself for the first time in my adult life.

  In a half dream-state I touch Aaron's bare chest, running my fingers along the curves of his pecs. I want so badly to explore him, all of him, but my tired body just can't do it.

  He takes a deep shuddering breath and catches my hand, stopping things going further. I watch his face, entranced. He caresses my bare ring finger looking pleased, and then touches my wrist where my charm bracelet used to sit.

  Aaron starts talking almost as a way of distracting me, distracting us, from getting more intimate while I'm so weak. He explains quietly his theory about my charm bracelet. He thinks that it was magical – laced wit
h spells to keep me and my magic contained.

  I frown. “That bracelet was as present from my auntie – that doesn't make sense. I could understand Marc wanting control but...”

  I freeze looking up into his darkening face. Mentioning Marc, without clarifying what I thought about him, was a mistake. Aaron and I haven't talked. He doesn't know how completely my opinion of Marc has changed. Shit. My stupid mouth. I've only just found this feeling, I don't want to lose it again so quickly.

  “The ring!” I gabble "The ring too!”

  Aaron watches me inscrutably, forcing me to continue without giving me a clue about what he's thinking.

  “Can't anything be charmed?” I blurt “Like... my engagement ring? Marc and I didn't always hit it off. The first time I 'felt' something romantically for him was right after I'd just had a little magical incident. I'd given all his family's 100+ guests a headache and shattered their chandeliers, and in the process, found out I was a witch”

  Aaron grins a little “So, he took advantage of you feeling vulnerable”

  “Not just that” I sigh “I don't know definitely, but I think the tonic he gave me for shock was laced with a love charm. I did think I was in love with him after that night” I finish quietly.

  Aaron's grin vanishes and I rush on before I get cold feet “it worked for a while, but he was always very... controlling”

  Aaron glares at that. “Tavey thought you were being gas-lit” he mutters.

  I pause, thrown to learn they'd been talking about me “Maybe, I never thought about it like that. My feelings for him were starting to wear thin when he proposed.”

  I hold my breath waiting for an outburst

  “I knew you were engaged Freya...go on”

  Of course he did... my thoughts are all muddled!

  “Uh, oh...well... when he proposed, I felt all-sorts of things – my ego was massaged, but I remember doubt flooding my mind – we were an odd match . It wasn't until he pushed the ring on my finger that I felt overcome with an unquestionable knowledge that saying yes was the right thing.”

  Aaron's face is a mask again as I plough on.

  “Until another witch told me to practise my magic without my jewellery on, I was sure I was in love with him, especially when he was near me. It wore off a little when he was away, but whenever he came home that pure certainty that he was the right one for me came straight back. Then, I started practising my witchcraft with my jewellery off... and something changed.

  He was always mentally controlling, and it became more physical too. I'd just started to realise I had to get out when everything kicked off. When I saw him tonight, with the ring off, the spell finally broke and... I nearly did too”

  I steal a glance at Aaron, holding my breath. He's completely, unnaturally still, and I don't know if he believes me. He leans in towards me, his hulking frame intimidating me now. My heart beats faster, then suddenly I'm engulfed in a massive bear hug. It's gorgeous.

  After a minute though I squirm, “Can't breathe you oaf!” I gasp.

  He grins at me, before sobering up and explaining.

  “They did the same to Tavey, Freya,” he says “or at least they tried... with less finesse, and more haste... but it would have worked if he hadn't already marked Liz as his mate. The pack thinks the Coven are going after hybrids – they must have known somehow what you were!” His face clouds in worry.

  My squeal makes Aaron jump in alarm and he glares around for the threat. But I'm busy bashing him on his still very naked chest in excitement.

  “Mated?! Liz? She never told me!”

  He looks contrite “She should have been the one to tell you then..”

  “Pppft” I shrug, “we're still making up, our friendship's been a bit under attack recently. But it's held up.”

  I grin delighted for my friend, but my grin fades slowly looking into Aaron's face.

  “What is it Aaron?”

  He hesitates “...Freya, how much do you remember about your first shift? It's pretty common to forget parts of it... They took the cougar. The Coven took Liz, you know that, right? I don't know if we can get her back”

  Although I knew already, it hits me hard. My brain had blocked that awful part out briefly. My tiredness, and the strain of the day breaks me all over again.

  Chapter Thirty

  Aaron's POV

  I pull Freya's crying, shaking nakedness into me and hold her until her sobs quieten. I can feel how distressed she is, how much the day has put her through. As much as I'm upset for her, I can't get past how right it feels to hold her like this.

  I gently rub circles on her back with my hand, murmuring promises of getting Liz back as she slowly calms. I fucking mean it – my girl's best friend and my beta's fated-mate – we have to get Liz back.

  I'm surprised at how gruff my own voice sounds, telling her how proud I am of her, of the woman she's become.

  A spark of anger for the life she's had goes through me when she looks at me with those big wide eyes and admits no-one's ever told her they were proud of her before. What kind of fucked up childhood did she have that no-one ever took the time to tell her they were proud of her?! And what about her fucking fiancée for that matter?! Ex-fiancée my wolf reminds me gleefully.

  As I slowly rock the sniffling, hiccuping Freya to sleep I desperately suppress the desire to roll her over and fuck her, here and now, on the cold rocky floor of the cave, in the middle of the wilderness. I keep reminding myself how exhausted she is, just to stop from running my hands up and down her naked body.

  My wolf is surprisingly quiet, and seems content just to be close. This is purely my human desire. I eye-roll to myself; it's something when my wolf is the rational and less animalistic one.

  In the end, after contorting my body to avoid prodding her sleeping back with my uncomfortably stubborn erection, I fall into a light sleep beside her.

  ∞∞∞

  We both wake in the same instant, just as the dawn chorus starts. My hands encircle Freya's lithe waist. I run my fingers gently over her skin; it's like touching silk. My cock hardens just looking at the delicate goosebumps appearing on her arms and breasts as I touch her. Her gloriously pink nipples tighten as I tease them roughly. Freya might still be tired, but her body's responding to my touch.

  I kiss down her jaw line, gently, then more roughly, claiming her mouth. My wolf growls. Mine. I flip her over, burying my face in her neck, resting her butt on my erection. I hear her gasp in surprise as my cock teases her slit, and she responds by arching her back, pushing herself harder against me. I'm surprised by how eager she seems.

  "Do you really want this cock baby?" I'm teasing her, but it's a serious question. After all she's been through...

  My breath speeds up in time with hers when her hand snakes behind her to take hold of my cock. I smile to myself as she teases me, she's not quite as innocent as she looks, my Freya.

  My wolf can smell her arousal and it's driving him to the limit of what he can take. I feel my canines extending and have to yank my head back to stop from marking her beautiful neck.

  Feeling me move away Freya pushes back hard against me and my tip slips into her tight pussy. She lets out a feathery moan and I can't restrain myself any-more. I can't be gentle, I need her too much.

  I'm rough and demanding, I grab her hips, making her work hard against me. And she loves it. I pull her up onto all fours, and slide my dick further into her. Grabbing a handful of her beautiful red hair I make her hiss.

  "Tell me you like it doggy Freya"

  I wrap my arm around her hips and play with her slick clit, before I withdraw my dick completely leaving her gasping for me.

  “Aaron...please” she pushes back against me “please... like this...harder”

  But I'm not done teasing her yet. I roll her onto her back, pinning her under me, then work my way down her delicious body kissing her, nibbling her, claiming each and every bit as mine. I see her eyes widen as I dip my head to lick her pussy. I t
ake my time feeling her climax building as she wriggles under me. Her breathing is hard, and harsh

  “Please Aaron, I'm going to come”

  “Not yet Freya,” I smack her bum firmly to get her attention before turning back to her exquisitely wet slit “I'm not done with you yet beautiful.”

  She inhales sharply at the sting and for a moment I worry it's too much for her, but my kinky little Freya arches her pussy back up toward my face. I take my time, pausing just before she goes over the edge, then ramping it back up again.

  Her hips buck under me, and when I think she really can't take any more I flip her back over up and thrust my dick into her in one fluid movement.

  Being inside her feels amazing, but I can't slow this back down again, I'm way too far gone. My hips slam into her repeatedly and her moans get louder and louder.

  I hold her waist with one hand and grab her pony tail, pulling her head back toward me. She lets out a strangled cry and shudders against me. As she comes so do I, I can't hold it any more, especially feeling her pussy clench hard against my dick.

  My whole body jerks with the ecstasy, and it goes on and on. I've never fucking come like this before.

  We flop back to the ground together. I'm relieved I managed to avoid marking her, just. She is mine, whether she knows it yet or not. I WILL mark her, but she deserves it to be special - not on the cold ground of a cave while we're both still covered in sweat, blood and mud.

  I stiffen, sensing my pack approaching in numbers. Shifters have no issues with naked bodies, but I somehow feel differently about Freya. She's so new to shifting, I can't see her feeling comfortable. A little part of me grumbles to myself, that she's mine, and no-one else should get to see her perfect body naked anyway!