by C. Sunrise
With inhuman speed, Kace jumps out of bed, picks me up, tosses me on the bed, jumps in beside me, and throws the blanket over us. I’m shocked and amused by his ability to do all of that in the blink of an eye.
I want to do that.
“Your prince is here, milady,” he says as he grabs my hand and kisses my knuckles. “And he’s more than happy to take care of you again this morning and any other time you need to be taken care of.”
He winks and I can’t help but blush thinking about how good his growls felt as they vibrated along my body. How his tongue had me writhing with pleasure. The way he navigated my body perfectly, making it impossible for me to form a sentence.
How is he ready to go again so soon? He truly is a beast.
I’m doing a shitty job at taking things slow and figuring my life out before getting involved with anyone. If my body had its way, I’m sure I would spend the whole day, maybe even the whole week, in bed with Kace. I need to cool things down before we get to the point of no return… if we aren’t already there.
“Listen, my prince.” I pull my hand from his grasp. “As much as my body would like that, we both know my mind needs something else right now. A true prince would put his personal feelings aside and do what’s best for his princess and her mental state. No one wants to be stuck with a bat-shit crazy princess.”
He looks up at the ceiling, deep in thought for a moment before flipping the covers off my body and scanning me up and down. He looks me in the eye and taps his finger against his lip.
“Hmm. That’s a tough choice…” he trails off as he scans my body again.
I grab the sheets and pull them over my body and smack him on the arm. He laughs and pulls me into him and kisses the top of my head.
“I’m kidding,” he says, as he brushes hair out of my face. “Kind of. I care about your mental health and want you to be sane. However, I don’t want to lose the crazy you who growls against my co-”
“A little modesty would do you some good,” I say as my hand quickly covers his mouth. He laughs under my hand and then licks it, successfully making me remove my hand from his mouth. “You’re starting to act and sound a lot like Blaze right now.”
His eyes shoot daggers at me.
“Don’t you ever bring his name up again when we are naked like this,” he growls, looking down at our bodies pressed against each other. “Or I will be forced to punish you.”
“Maybe that’s what I want,” I reply with a smirk.
What the hell has gotten into me? Hello self-control, are you there? It’s me, Whoopsie.
Kace growls again, as his pupils take over his irises.
“Kitten,” he warns.
“Stop.” I place my hand on his chest. “I’m sorry. We need to stop this. We know how we both feel and we both know what we do and don’t want right now. This,” I wave my hand back and forth above us, “is not helping things. We need to slow this down before things get out of control.”
Kace sighs and nods. I give him a chaste kiss and hop out of bed. Grabbing the pants Kace gave me yesterday, I walk into his walk-in closet to find another hoodie to wear—deciding I prefer wearing his clothes to my own.
I pause on my way out of the room to stare back at the demi-god in the bed, grateful that the sheets aren’t leaving much to the imagination.
“Kitten, I can smell you.” He growls.
I squeal and run from the room, chased by his thundering laughter.
TWENTY-ONE
A strong pair of arms wrap around my waist as I flip a pancake and I end up dropping it beside the griddle.
“That one’s yours.” I point at the rogue pancake with the flipper. He chuckles and kisses the top of my head. I turn to see he has put on a pair of jogging pants and nothing else. My eyes take great pleasure in soaking in every inch of his delicious body from his deep v all the way up to his sexy bed hair and back down again.
“Hey, eyes are up here,” Kace says with a smile as he flexes his chest, popping his pecks up and down.
Son of a… damn it, hormones. How can I possibly still be so damn hungry?
I grunt and turn around to face the stove, making Kace chuckle behind me.
“You didn’t have to make me pancakes, you know. I was just teasing you… but thank you.” He walks to the cupboard and pulls out two plates. He places them beside the stove just in time for me to toss a pancake on each.
“Don’t worry, there’s another one coming for you,” I say as I notice his furrowed brows as he stares at his plate. “Get us some juice and set our places at the table, by then your food will be ready.”
“Yes, ma’am. I mean, princess,” he says, and I shake my head.
Once the last pancake is ready, I join Kace at the table where we both thoroughly enjoy the pancakes. These might be the best pancakes I’ve ever had. Maybe it was the cast iron griddle or maybe everything just tastes better after sex. I look forward to doing this again to find out—in the name of research, of course.
Kace cleans up the kitchen after breakfast and I go throw my clothes from yesterday into the dryer. Kace put them in the wash yesterday, but we got a bit distracted and forgot to move them to the dryer. They should be ready an hour or so and Kace and I already have plans to do more training in the meantime.
I walk into the living room and jump around like a boxer in a boxing ring, throwing occasional punches. It’s moments like these I really wish I had a good sports bra or in this case, any bra at all.
“You’re going to give yourself a black eye,” Kace teases as he walks into the room observing and appreciating my bounciness.
I grab a pillow and throw it at him. I opt for a less bouncy fighting stance, much to his disappointment, and prowl around him like a wild animal stalking its prey.
“So, Kace,” I begin as I walk around behind him. “What are you going to teach me first? How to take out an attacker from behind?” I lunge towards him, and he casually dodges to the side, shoving me onto the couch.
How does such a huge man move so fast?
I quickly roll off the couch and bounce back onto my feet.
“How do you move so bloody fast?” I glare at my opponent. “You’re like a giant ogre ninja. I want you to teach me that.”
“You want me to teach you how to be a giant ogre ninja?” He quirks his eyebrow and turns his head to follow me as I stalk around him again.
“I want you to teach me-” I lunge towards him again when he tries to whip his head around to his other shoulder to continue watching me.
In the blink of an eye, I find myself on the couch again.
“Not cool!” I shout as I slam my fists on the couch in frustration. I growl and stand to face Kace.
“Well, aren’t you aggressive today?” Kace chuckles, enjoying his victories. “I was thinking we’d start with the basics.”
“I’ve already taken boxing and kickboxing and some other martial arts here and there.” I shadow box in front of Kace as a smile spreads across his face. “So, let’s skip to the advanced part where you teach me your super speed so I can kick your ass.”
Kace lets out a hearty laugh and shakes his head.
“Okay, I promise I’ll give you a chance to try to kick my ass after we’ve worked on you controlling your beast. I’m guessing that your beast is trying to take over considering your eyes have been flashing all shades of blue and green at me since I came into the living room. Your beast seems to have a little pent up energy, so we will have to work on your control before we even consider letting that thing out to play.”
“Boring.” I pout and cross my arms over my chest.
“Don’t worry, Kitten,” he says with a smirk. “You’ll get your chance to roll around with me again soon enough.”
Eye roll.
“Roll your eyes again and I’ll be forced to punish you.” He winks and my eyes almost bulge out of my face as I clench my legs together.
Focus. Focus. Mind out of the gutter.
I take a deep
inhale, holding my breath for a few seconds before releasing it slowly. Kace crosses his arms and grins, enjoying how my body responds to him.
“Fine, then.” I sigh. I step closer to Kace so he can see my eyes. “Here you go. How’s this for control?”
I call out the colours for my eyes as I change them to match. Once I learned exactly how to make them change to specific colours and what it felt like when they changed, it was easy to make them change on command.
Kace hums and nods his head. “Great. But can you stop them from changing?”
Good question.
“Turn them back to your normal blue colour,” he instructs, and I oblige. “Now keep them that colour.”
I nod as he steps closer to me, biting his lower lip suggestively. The pressure immediately building in my eyes as they fight to change colour.
“You need to find your happy place, Kitten,” he says. “A place where you’re at peace.”
Happy place? Where is my happy place?
He places his hands on my hips and pulls me into his body and I lose control of my eyes.
“Control your eyes, Kitten.” He growls. “Find your happy place.”
“How the hell am I supposed to do that with you rubbing yourself on me and growling against my body?” I say, raising my voice. I try to push him away from my body, but he wraps his arms around me, pinning me tight against him.
“Change them back to normal, Kitten,” he says calmly. “I know you can do it. It’s basically the same as making them change colour, except you want to think of something that calms you.”
“Ugh.” I groan in in frustration. “Okay, fine. Let me think.”
The first place that comes to mind is the beach. Standing on the beach during sunset. Just me and the water. No one else around.
The pressure slowly decreases in my eyes.
It’s working!
I feel teeth nibbling on my neck and I moan and the pressure in my eyes immediately responds—in a bad way.
“Control your eyes,” Kace commands as he continues his gentle attack on my neck.
“How the hell am I supposed to concentrate with you doing that?” I shriek at him.
“Quit whining and just do it!” He commands in a deep and assertive voice, which vibrates through my body. I’ve never heard him sound like that before, and it was quite intimidating and oddly arousing.
Damn it, even when he’s an asshole it turns me on-these hormones could really set feminism back a few centuries.
I feel a sharp burst of pressure and force myself to think about the beach. The nice, calm beach-just me, the sand, and the water. Watching the sunset. Suddenly Bel appears beside me and we both stand there enjoying the sunset. It’s just like the good old days, before things got so damn complicated. A smile forms on my face, and I feel the pressure releasing in my eyes. I continue focusing on the beach and imagine my parents standing there with us too. We’re all just standing there peacefully, staring out at the water.
“Ouch!” I shout as I’m torn from my happy place. I bring my hand up to my lip, checking for blood and glare at Kace, waiting for an explanation.
“Finally.”
I continue to glare, waiting for him to say more. I tilt my head and roll my hand at him, indicating for him to explain. He sighs and I notice he is buck naked.
When did that happen? Not that I’m complaining. But what? Is he blushing?
“You were zoned out.” He smiles and rubs the back of his neck. “I want to be proud of you for that, but it kind of hurt that you could ignore me so well. My beast was not happy about it.” He shrugs and pulls his pants back up.
“What exactly were you doing to me while I was zoned out?” I raise my eyebrow and gesture towards his pants.
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” he replies, and I glare at him. “Kidding, Kitten. You know that I would never take advantage of you like that. If I was that guy, I would have done it the first night we met when you kept asking me to come to bed with you.”
I roll my eyes but realise he has a good point. I can sympathise with the inner struggle he must have going on if he is feeling the same insatiable desire that I feel. The urge to rip his clothes off and mount him is overwhelming, and I know he feels the same. I trust him to not take advantage of me; however, he bit my lip and his pants were down.
Could he be struggling to control himself? Is it because we’ve been getting too close? Do we need to distance ourselves from each other for a while?
“Biting your lip was the only thing I could think of to get you out of your daydream,” he explains, knowing what was going through my mind. “You weren’t responding to my body, not even to my growls or my commands.”
“To your commands?” I repeat, immediately offended. “I’m not exactly one to respond to anyone’s commands. So, I wouldn’t take that personally.”
“An alpha command is different,” he says, his voice laced with pride. “It’s how we keep our kind in line and why only the strongest can be leaders of the Hunters. Usually an alpha command works on anyone of a lower rank. Which would seem to show that you are very high ranking.”
“I, ugh,” I try to reply but don’t know what to say. “What about a luna command, is that a thing?” I ask, hoping to change the topic and avoid a rank-related discussion before I talk with my parents and get more answers.
“Oh, so you think you’re my luna now do you?” He winks at me. “If we were mates, then we would be equals, and yes, my alpha command wouldn’t work the same on you.”
I furrow my brow. “But lunas don’t have command over others like an alpha does?”
“Not usually. But there have been some very strong lunas, who have almost the same power of command as alphas. It’s just not very common.”
“Well, this archaic, sexist beast world sounds like it sucks and needs an upgrade.” I huff as I put my hands on my hips.
Kace chuckles. “You could be right, but it could also be an intimidation factor. Most lunas are very smart and cunning, but that isn’t usually seen as intimidating when you are just looking at a person. Alphas and alpha bloodlines, however, are always physically intimidating. We are larger, both in height and musculature, and are naturally stronger and faster. It’s just in our genes.”
I nod, knowing that Kace is one of the largest men I’ve ever met. I have no doubt people would be immediately intimidated by his size. Same with Blaze. Their family definitely has good genes.
Damn sexy genes too.
We continue working on the basics for the rest of the morning. I learn to control my hair colour, since that was the other way my beast was already trying to come out. We practice with my eyes and my hair, over and over again until I master the ability to recognise when the change is happening and stop it before it happens. It’s surprisingly exhausting making my eyes and hair change colour and preventing them from changing. I can only imagine how exhausting a full shift between human and beast forms must be.
Kace explains that I’ll need to recognise the signs of my shifting and learn when to detect the ‘point of no return’ when it would be too dangerous to stop or reverse a shift. I will also need to work on my happy place every day until it’s second nature to take myself there. Practice it, build it, and make it so I’m there as soon as I close my eyes.
I can see the pride in Kace’s eyes as we work. He tells me that most people take months to learn these things, which is why people learn to control their shifting when they’re young. Most shifter children are home schooled until high school or attend special all-shifter schools to reduce the risk of accidental shifts in public. Then by the time they are old enough for their beasts to be considered dangerous, they have already mastered the signs of shifting and have learned how to control their beasts. Part of the job as Hunters is to make sure all children are in school and well-trained.
“Are you curious to see my beast, Kace?” I ask as we take a break and eat home-made sandwiches.
“Of course, Kitten!” He clears
his throat as his voice comes out more excited that intended. “But I want to make sure you don’t die or turn into a homicidal maniac just because I was too impatient.”
I sigh, knowing he’s not only talking about his own impatience.
Is it so wrong that I want to let my beast out?
Talk about the world’s greatest tease. You find out you have a mysterious creature inside you, but you aren’t allowed to see it. I really, really must have been an asshole in a previous life to deserve this torture.
After lunch, and much to Kace’s dismay, I throw on my clothes and we head back over to Blaze’s. They’re all excited to see us and surprised with my progress. However, Blaze is distant and tense and excuses himself a few minutes after we arrive. Kace and I visit with Craze and Laze for a bit before I ask him to take me back to my parents’ house. As fun as this extended sleep-over has been, I’m exhausted and want to sleep in my bed.
I grab my stuff from the spare room and notice a missed call and a voicemail from my parents. I listen to the voicemail before heading out to meet Kace by his Jeep. My parents are enjoying their trip so much that they decided they’ll stay for a few more weeks; they’ll be arriving home at the end of the month. Fortunately, they’ll be back before the Halloween party and my date with Kace.
Once home, I’m happy to find I have the house to myself. With everything that’s going on and everything I have planned; I need some time alone to figure out a game plan. I still have some time off work and I plan on using that time to deal with my problems instead of running from them. Starting today, the world will see a new and improved Whoopsie.
TWENTY-TWO
I’m deep in thought, enjoying escaping to my more pleasant memories, when something catches my eye by the door. There’s a shadow in the sliver of light showing under the door.
Someone’s out there!
“Hello?!” I call out as I stand up and rush towards the door, urgency oozing from my voice. “Is someone there? Please, can you help me?”
I put my hand on the door as I speak, as if I am reaching out and touching whoever is on the other side. The shadow moves. Whoever is out there is walking away from the door.