by K. F. Breene
The only consolation to Ann’s failure was that it wasn’t specific to her. Whatever was going on in that facility, they’d figured out a special formula that could affect her kind.
A tremor of fear worked through her.
For that kind of knowledge, they must have experimented on shifters, and those experiments would probably have been invasive. She had a lot of courage, but if she was unable to protect herself, the smart thing to do would be to get the hell away from the problem.
Unfortunately, then she’d be letting Tim down. She’d volunteered for this duty, and failure would make her look like an idiot.
“One more day, but then I have to call it.” Charles’ voice took on an edgy quality Ann rarely heard from him. “I’ll get a few more pictures, and then we’re coming back. Seriously, Jameson, there’s no point in toting her, or any shifter, around behind us. They get all weird by that stuff. To get a look inside, we need a few of our kind—or even humans— with a good magical disguise. If we wait too long, they’ll probably figure us out too, and then we’re fucked.”
Ann moved to the kitchen and started picking out cans for dinner.
“Fine. Put Sasha on—I need some nasty magical traps to lay.”
Ann got busy making a meal while Charles laid whatever spells Sasha was trying to walk him through. Then something occurred to her.
When Charles got off the phone, shaking with fatigue from working the spells, she placed steaming bowls on the table. “If they had a shifter running around yesterday, how come he didn’t get pulled in by the smell?” she asked.
Charles plopped into the chair with a sigh. “If they’re smart enough to come up with something that affects shifters like it does, I’m sure they have an antidote. Or maybe he was a rogue shifter who won’t be bothering us again.”
Charles scooped some chili up. “I have some nasty things set around here.” He chewed for a moment. “Sasha dumbed down her spells, but she had to get creative. She’s been trained too well by Toa. The enemy will get a nasty surprise, that’s for sure.”
“Which will probably start a war between that facility and us.”
“Yup, but we have no choice if we want to stay safe. Tomorrow we’re going to snap off a few more pictures, try to get the front of the place, then leave. Jameson wants to plan how to get inside and see what’s going on. The question is: leave you here, or take you with me...”
“If I go, I’ll probably just be in the way.”
“And if you stay, you probably won’t be here when I get back.”
“There’s that. I can just take the car down the hill and wait.”
Charles scooped a spoonful into his mouth as he stared at her, his smoky-gray eyes troubled. “I’m sure they have vehicles. I’m not sure they would follow you, but… I just don’t know, Ann. This is a bad situation.”
“Let’s just go snap off some pictures now. Tonight. Then we’re out of here.”
He nodded as he scooped another mouthful. “I thought of that. We could, but they’ll be roused. We only have a few hours before daylight. There are bound to be more people around the facility in the day, not to mention the lack of shadows for me to hide in. Humans are stupid, but a big guy in plain daylight they would notice. Probably.”
“I feel like baggage.” Ann ate her chili regardless of her lack of appetite.
“You look like an old bag.”
“Nice.”
Charles grinned as he finished off his bowl. “Is this all we have? Because I’m still hungry. Also, all this danger has made me horny. You ready to screw yet, or what?”
“I’ll screw you if you give me blood.” Ann shook her head at herself as she got up to dump another can into the pot. “What is wrong with me? I can’t believe I just said that.”
“So… just screw? No blood?”
She slowed down her movements, thinking.
Something in her said his blood, and that link, was a safety net she couldn’t do without. A heavy weight in her gut was a warning that there was a good chance she’d be taken. Either tonight or tomorrow sometime, they’d find her and drag her away. Charles was vicious and an excellent fighter when he had to be, but he was just one. And they probably had guns.
The question was, did she want to be tied with him forever?
Yes, she did. But would she still want to be once she’d found someone else and started a life?
Probably not, but it was impossible to think that far ahead, especially with the danger in front of her.
She sighed and went back to her bowl, leaving the stirring spoon on the counter. “You can take it from there.”
Charles frowned at her before getting up to stir the pot. “I was having a nice time being lazy and getting waited on.”
“Uh huh. Fascinating.”
She ate slowly, finishing at about the time Charles finished his second portion. By the way he glanced at the store of cans, he was thinking about a third. The man could eat.
She washed her bowl and put it in the rack as he came up behind her. She stalled at the sink, hoping he would wrap his arms around her. When he didn’t, she washed her hands and finished up.
“Get a move on, varmint. You take forever at this domestic stuff.”
She smiled as she turned toward him and wiped her wet hands on his shirt.
“Ah, c’mon! This is a new shirt.”
Laughing, she finished drying her hands and walked to her duffle, taking out a book. They had nothing to do but wait and sleep. She might as well try to distract herself.
Charles came over a few minutes later. He reached in his bag and took out a strip of putrid brown knitting with a ball of yarn attached to it. He settled onto the bed next to her, knitting needles at the ready.
“That is… terrible.” Ann flicked the ball of yarn. “What are you making, a knitted log of dog poop?”
“That’s just hurtful.”
“Charles! That is the exact color of poop. Or one of the colors, anyway. One of the grosser varieties. Why in the world are you making something out of it?”
His needles started working, tick-ticking in the quiet room.
“What happened to the pink… wrap… thing?” she tried.
“That’s on hold. I figured I’d make this for you, first.”
“For me?” She stared incredulously at the horrible brown yarn. “Why?”
“I happen to know you never throw away a thoughtful present. You even wear said thoughtful present at least once. And since you made fun of the wrap, I thought you might need something knitted for you. Like a hat. That everyone will see when you wear it.”
“And the color?”
“Is really ugly.” He grinned as his needles worked even faster. “You’re welcome.”
She had to hand it to him, he could really move those knitting needles. Too bad he picked weird designs and hideous colors…
“What are you reading?” he asked, glancing over.
She showed him the cover of the book, featuring a bare man-chest with a wolf in the background.
“Ah. Women’s fantasy, huh? Reading about the perfect guy?” He smirked as he glanced out the window, not needing to look at his hands while he was employed. “Read to me. We can role play the sex scenes.”
“How do you know it has sex scenes?”
The needles stopped for a moment. He looked at her with one raised eyebrow.
She smirked with a red face, looking down at her book. “Okay, fine, it has sex scenes. It also has shifters—werewolves. I get a kick out of how wrong they get our kind.”
The tick-ticking started again.
“Read to me. I like hearing about sex if I can’t have it,” Charles pushed.
“I’m not going to read to you. They are having a heart-to-heart about his damaged past at the moment. You’ll just laugh.”
“I also like comedy. Those books have it all. C’mon.” He nudged her with his elbow. “I’m bored. I don’t need to really focus to knit—it’s just something to occupy my hands
while I wait for stuff. It’s calming.”
Ann gave a loud sigh, unable to help the smile, nor the red face. “Fine.” She looked through the page, finding the paragraph she’d left off, when Charles’ body went rigid. His muscles flexed. The room fell into silence as the needles stopped.
Ann looked up as Charles’ eyes went distant. His arms flared with color.
“What?” Ann whispered, her stomach churning with what she suspected.
Charles jumped off the bed. “Turn off that light.”
Ann dove for the camping lantern next to the bed, flicking it off as Charles reached the window. He leaned against the side, peeking out. Ann went to the window across from him, doing the same thing.
“Did they cross?” she asked as her gaze scanned the still and looming trees outside.
“One triggered. It was a tamer spell—like a bunch of mosquitoes all biting at once. Nothing else has been disturbed.”
“It was over there?”
“On this side, yes.”
Ann’s stomach flipped. “Was it close to the car?”
Charles looked at her, the moonlight lighting half of his handsome face. “Yes. Why?”
“Did you cover your license plate?”
Charles sighed as he looked back out the window. “Doesn’t have one yet—the car is brand new. They can’t track me that way.”
Ann met his sigh. “That’s probably what they were after, though. Probably wanted to have a look in the car, and maybe the cabin, too. Are you feeling with your magic right now?”
“Yes, but I don’t feel anything. I don’t have much range, though.”
They held their positions for what felt like hours, waiting in silence.
“I wonder if they know what that magic is,” Ann wondered quietly. “If they know what you are.”
Charles looked her way again.
“I had no idea of your kind before the Council approached us,” she elaborated. “It wasn’t something anyone talked about. There are still people in Tim’s various packs that don’t know about you. His immediate one does, sure, because we work with you. But a lot of your clans are still hostile toward shifters, so Tim has only informed the various sub-alphas and they are keeping quiet. He hasn’t told a lot of the lower ranks. You are most definitely an anomaly to humans, but probably also to the shifter around here. Don’t you think?”
Charles looked back out the window. “I kind of hope I’m not, because then that shifter would know to stay away. But you’re probably right. Regardless, I don’t feel anything. Whatever it is, it isn’t trying to get through anymore.”
“Or else it’s waiting and watching…”
“Now who’s ruining the chi?”
Ann crossed to the bed and picked up her book. She flung it to her duffle. “I don’t think a light is the best idea.”
“And you need it.” Charles crossed back to his side of the bed and picked up his needles and yarn again, not relaxed, but no longer tense, either.
“No. I don’t need it. I can do a lot of things in the dark. Like sit here, watching you knit.”
Charles huffed out a laugh and folded up his hobby. “Or sleep.”
“Yeah. Actually, that’s a better idea, because without heavy shades on this place, I won’t be able to sleep well in the daylight. My kind is usually awake during the day.”
“Uh huh. Fascinating,” Charles mimicked her from earlier.
Ann rolled her eyes and stripped off her shirt and bra, bending to her duffle for a tank top to sleep in. That on, she stripped out of her pants, changed her underwear, and put on little shorts. When she turned back around, Charles was staring at her, knitting supplies still in hand. The soft moonlight streaming in the windows draped across his face, amplifying his handsomeness.
“What?” she asked.
“You have, quite possibly, the best breasts I have ever seen. They’re perfect. Perfect size, perfect shape, they taste good… It’s really not fair that you keep them to yourself.”
“I don’t intend to.”
“Really?” Charles stripped off his shirt and out of his pants so fast her mouth dropped. When he dropped his boxers, his thick erection bounced up, ready for her.
Her core heated, wanting him inside her so bad her knees got weak. Her nipples contracted with the thought, advertising her desire through her tank top.
Barely keeping her composure, she answered, “Yeah. When I find someone that likes me, I intend to share them with him every time he wants to play with them.”
“I like you. And sharing is caring. So let’s do this thing.”
“Likes me for longer than a night. Or day, depending.”
“I’ll like you for many days. Over and over, too. And over.”
Ann rolled her eyes and crawled into bed. “Loves me, then. When I find someone that loves me, I will share the breasts.”
Charles slid in slowly, his gaze lifting to her eyes. The sparkle of heat had dulled, replaced with wariness. Ann’s heart sank.
“Anyway.” She pulled the covers up to her chin. “We should probably get some sleep. I bet you someone will turn up in the daylight. An official someone too, just checking in with the inhabitants of this cabin.”
“Ann…” Charles turned on his side to face her, his body flush against hers. He ran his thumb across the base of her chin. “If you want blood, or a blood link, I’ll do it. If it’ll help, or ease your mind, I will do it.”
Ann let her head fall so she could meet his gaze, nearly lost to the darkness. His face was so close to hers their breath mingled. Her body hummed with the proximity, feeling his delicious muscles pressed against her and his hard length against her thigh.
“I’m on the fence about it,” she whispered, her eyes dipping to his shapely lips. “I want it right now, yes. I want you right now. But we both know we want different things. Creating a tie at this moment might be really dumb for the future.”
“Losing you would kill me, Ann. If you get taken somehow, and I can’t find you…”
“We’ll be careful.”
“There’s no guarantee in this place. We might not even last the day. And it’ll be you that’s taken. They seem to have ‘catching shifters’ down pretty well. They won’t know about me until people are dead, and by then it might be too late.” Charles laid his hand against her cheek. “I don’t really want to feel you with anyone else, but if it means your life, and your happiness, then I’ll do whatever it takes. You deserve that, and if it’s in my power to give it, I will.”
“Did you read this in a ‘how to sweet-talk chicks’ book?” She ran her hand up his arm, across his collarbone, and then down his chest, feeling the definition. A slow burn started in her sex, aching to be touched.
“No. Not this. I mean it, Ann. Whatever you need, I’ll do.”
She leaned forward, touching her lips to his. Electricity shocked through her body, having her opening her mouth and leaning up on an elbow, deepening the kiss. He rolled onto his back and brought his arm around her, pulling her in tight.
“Feeling you with someone else wouldn’t make a happy life for me, Charles,” she said softly as she leaned over his chest. Her lips just barely glanced off his, savoring the feeling of being so close. “You know that.”
“I can block the link,” he whispered, his hand under her tank top and lightly grazing her skin. “You won’t feel me with anyone else.”
“Can I block it from my end?”
He paused as a crease wormed between his eyebrows. “I don’t know. You might need magic to do it. I don’t know how the link would work with shifter magic.”
“You might not even be able to feel me in shifter form.”
“It’s worth a try,” he said softly. His head lifted to connect with her lips again, his kiss slow and deep.
Her hand felt his rock-hard abs before slipping down, finding the other rock-hard part of his anatomy. She stroked that velvety skin gently, hearing a low moan deep in his throat.
“How do we do i
t?” she asked, feeling a strange sort of excitement bubbling within her.
“It’s an intimate and erotic thing, sharing blood. So when you feel it, cut my vein—or bite it if you can—and drink. Humans can have a hard time digesting blood, but we can try it and see.”
“I’ve eaten raw animal—I can handle blood.”
Charles’ hand found the back of her neck, pulling her harder into the kiss. Her breath sped up, as did her hand, feeling the anticipation. Wanting the hard and fast connection of his body in hers.
He sat up in a rush, lifting her to a seated position, before ripping off her shirt. “I have no idea why that is so hot.”
“What? Eating raw animal?” Ann sucked in a breath as Charles licked a taut nipple. He sucked it in, fondling the other expertly. She ran her fingers through his hair, breath speeding up.
“Hunting. Killing.” Charles pushed her to the bed so he could strip off her small shorts and panties. “It’s natural and primal. It’s something humans don’t do. It speaks directly to my primal side. It’s fucking hot, Ann.”
One hand on each of her inner thighs, he pushed her legs open and licked up her sex, having her gasping in sudden pleasure. He sucked her clit, twirling the nub with his tongue at the same time. Sensation started to pound at her, speeding up her heart. A finger dipped into her, then two, rubbing to compliment the sucking.
“Oh… God,” she breathed, running her hands up her face and clutching at her hair. “You are so good at that.”
His finger worked faster as his mouth worked harder, the sensations more intense. Pulling at her middle. Breath coming out in ragged pants. She moaned, then again, loud and desperate. Her hips swung up as those fingers worked. As his mouth pleasured her.
“Oh, Charles. I’m going to—” An orgasm shook her body and chattered her teeth. She arched up, clenching and flexing, riding out the waves of pleasure.
Charles kissed up her stomach, ready to fill her body with himself.
Not this time, though.
She sat up and slid out from under him, pushing his shoulder gently. He rolled over at her unspoken command, looking up at her with eyes on fire, sparkling in the moonlight streaming through the window.