“You’re amazing, Dani,” Cole whispered. “I love seeing you suck my cock. Your pretty face looks so sexy with my dick in your mouth.”
His words and her own actions were making her so wet, she was sure her aroused juices were leaking out of her pussy and sliding hotly down her thighs.
She felt Cole’s hand on her naked back, sliding down over her voluptuous hips before exploring her ass cheeks, squeezing and stroking the softness there.
She closed her eyes and moaned against his cock when his searching fingers found her pussy and slid over the slick lips. He delved inside her with a single finger, felt how ready she was, and slid a second finger inside her pussy. She clenched her inner muscles against them, showing him how she would tighten around his cock when he fucked her.
While he slid his fingers in and out of her pussy, Cole stroked his thumb lightly over Dani’s asshole. She had never been touched there before, but the sensation of Cole’s thumb stroking her made her suck his cock even deeper, desperate to have it inside her. She needed to be filled by him, to have this beautiful dick stretch her pussy. The only way she could feel complete was to be joined with Cole.
She lifted her face to look at him, letting him slide out from between her lips. “I need you to fuck me, Cole.”
He slid out from beneath her and quickly donned a condom from his backpack. Dani waited on her hands and knees, certain she was going to go out of her mind if he didn’t mount her soon.
Finally, she felt his hands on her hips and the head of his cock nudging against her pussy. “Put it in me,” she moaned.
He thrust into her, making her feel complete as he filled her with himself. She squeezed her pelvic muscles tightly against him, making Cole grunt with pleasure.
He began to fuck her, holding her hips tightly, pulling her back against him each time he thrust forward so he could get as deep as possible.
Dani knew he wouldn’t last long, and neither would she. The afternoon walk in the woods, the naked swim, had gradually built up the sexual tension between them, a tension that would now be released through the act of sex. There would be time for gentle lovemaking later; for now, what they each desired, what they each needed, was a powerful fuck, a union of the most primal part of themselves.
Her orgasm hit her suddenly, rising like a tidal wave that swept her away into the depths of pure pleasure. Dani screamed Cole’s name as her body quivered and her inner muscles tightened and released around his thick shaft.
Cole reached the point of no return, grabbing Dani’s hips and pulling her back against him so that he was balls deep in her tight pussy when he came. He grunted, “Oh fuck, Dani! It’s so good!” and thrust into her as he released his seed.
Dani, still coming down from the peak of her own orgasm, closed her eyes and enjoyed the sensation of Cole’s cock twitching inside her body.
When he finally pulled out, they lay together panting in the heat of the fire. Cole kissed Dani and looked into her eyes. “That was incredible,” he said. “You are an amazing woman, Dani.”
She smiled and snuggled into his big, muscular arms, laying her face on his chest and listening to his powerful heartbeat.
“This all feels so perfect,” she sighed.
“It is perfect,” he said. “It’s our destiny to be together.”
She looked up into his eyes. “That sounds very deep.”
He smiled at her, but she detected something more behind that smile, as if he was trying to tell her something.
She sat up. “What is it? Is something wrong?”
“No, nothing’s wrong.” He stood up and took a candle from the wall. Holding it up to a part of the wall that had been in shadow, he illuminated a series of wall paintings on the rock.
“This is what I came to show you,” he said. “Then I need to tell you something very important.”
9
Cole stood before the ancient Indian paintings, determined to tell Dani his secret but knowing deep inside that she was not going to like hearing it. Her hatred of shifters was deeply ingrained into her personality. Cole hoped that her connection to him as a mate would override her prejudice, but he wasn’t so sure it was going to work out that way.
But he had no choice. He had to be truthful with Dani. If she was going to allow him to perform The Claim and be bonded with him for the rest of her life as his mate, then there could be no secrets between them.
Cole had decided to use the wall paintings to explain to Dani that shifters weren’t inherently evil, as she seemed to believe. Like humans, there were good and bad shifters in the world.
He had found the cave soon after moving to Silver Rock, his heightened senses leading him here one night when he was patrolling his territory. The Indians who had been here before Silver Rock even existed had known about shifters, and lived in peace with them. The paintings on the walls proved that.
Now, they had to prove to Dani that shifters were not monsters. Cole was gambling that the story he was about to tell her would prepare her for the revelation that he himself was a shifter. Surely after all they had shared and experienced together, Dani couldn’t think him a monster.
She had started to put on her clothes because, despite the fire, the cave was much cooler than the woods outside. Cole watched her, and felt his lust returning. He knew her intimately yet he couldn’t seem to get enough of her. She excited him as no other woman ever had, and he felt a twinge of despair at the thought of losing her by being honest with her about who he was.
When she was fully clothed, she sat by the fire, and waited for him to begin.
Cole remained naked. The symbolism wasn’t lost on him; he was about to reveal himself to her fully.
“I wanted to show you this cave,” he said, “because of these paintings on the walls. A long time before the town of Silver Rock existed, this area was inhabited by a tribe of Indians who told legends of people who could shift form and become bears and wolves.”
He lifted the candle to illuminate a crude depiction of people in various forms from fully human to fully animal and everything in between. The next set of paintings showed the animal shifters and the humans trading and living together.
“The Indians of this area lived in peace with the shifters. See, these pictures show how they traded with each other. Some of them even married, blurring the distinction between the human and shifter bloodlines.”
He moved the candle across the wall to a painting that depicted a ship on a beach. There were figures on the ship that were human and some that looked like the shifters in the earlier pictures. “This shows the arrival of the European settlers to America. See how some of the settlers are half animal like the Indians in the other picture? Some of the early settlers from Europe were shifters, too. Bear and wolf shifters from the Black Forest in Germany, the highlands of Scotland, and the fjords of Iceland.
“They left their homes because of persecution and came to the New World to find peace. That never happened, of course. Discrimination exists everywhere, so the shifters were just as persecuted here as they were in their homelands. So they hid themselves from the rest of the world, or lived with normal humans but kept their shifter natures secret.”
“Okay,” Dani said, “so there were shifters around here for a long time. And the Indians thought they were cool. I get it, but that doesn’t change my mind about them. As far as I’m concerned, they’re monsters. I told you that, Cole, and no amount of old paintings are going to convince me otherwise.”
Cole sighed. This approach wasn’t working. If he was going to convince Dani to accept him as a shifter, he was going to have to go all out or nothing.
He replaced the candle on the wall ledge and pointed to the scars on his abdomen. “You asked me where I got these scars. You wondered if I had been attacked by a shifter. I told you that I had, and that was true. But it wasn’t the whole story. I got these scars a few years ago from a bear shifter I was fighting against for territory.”
Dani frowned. “I don’t understand. What do
you mean you were fighting for territory?” She seemed confused, but some part of her must have understood what he was saying because she stood up and slowly backed away toward the passageway that led outside. “What do you mean, Cole? What territory?”
“You say all shifters are monsters,” he said. “Do you think I’m a monster?”
Her eyes widened. She was confused and terrified. Cole’s bear wanted to go to her and hold her, tell her there was nothing to worry about. But Cole knew that would only make matters worse. Dani was almost in the passageway now, ready to flee from the cave. She steadied herself on the rock walls with trembling hands.
“You’re one of them,” she said. “You’re one of them and you never told me. You lied to me.”
“I never lied to you. I’m telling you now because I don’t want there to be any secrets between us, Dani. You are my mate.”
“No,” she said. “No, I’m not. Stay away from me. Don’t ever come near me again.” She turned and fled, her sobs echoing in the lonely cave even after she was gone.
10
Dani burst from the rocks, her eyes blinded momentarily by the sunlight. She stumbled into the river fully clothed and splashed across to the grass bank on the other side. Even though she was dripping wet, and her clothing weighed her down, she fled into the trees as fast as she could.
She couldn’t believe Cole was one of them: a shifter. Yet she did believe it and she felt betrayed. She felt dirty. She had let him touch her, make love to her.
Hot tears stung her eyes as she crashed through the trees. She wasn’t sure if she was heading in the direction of the path, but she didn’t dare stop. She had to get home as soon as possible, even if she had to run all the way.
Why hadn’t she brought her phone with her? She cursed herself for being so stupid, even though she knew there was no signal up here, which was why she hadn’t brought the phone in the first place.
She tripped over a branch, and scrambled to her feet. She had run so fast, she could barely breathe. She had to stop for a moment and catch her breath. Leaning her back against a tall pine, she told herself to stay calm. Running blindly around the woods wasn’t going to help her reach safety.
She stumbled around for a while before she found the path and ascended the rise that offered a view of the valley below. Dani wished she were down there in one of those houses, away from the woods, and shifter paintings on cave walls, and Cole.
He had lied to her by not telling her he was a shifter. How could he do that when he knew her feelings on the matter? Of course, that was why he hadn’t told her, so he could get into her pants and take what he wanted before dropping the bombshell. How convenient. He just had to wait until he was bored with her, then tell her he was a shifter. That was a sure-fire way of getting rid of her.
Only problem with that theory was that Dani was sure Cole hadn’t become bored with her. He had seemed too eager to please her. He had bought her paints. He had made love to her in the cave with such passion that there was no way he was bored.
And she had fallen for him. What hurt her most about learning that Cole was a shifter was the fact that she would miss the man she thought he was. If she was honest with herself, she had to admit she had fallen in love with that man. She still felt the same undeniable emotions for him, the same tremble of anticipation whenever she thought about him. But now, she had to ignore those feelings and hope they would eventually go away.
Cole was a shifter.
A monster.
He was exactly the same as the monster that had ripped her back open with its claws.
But Cole had done something even worse. He had ripped her apart from the inside, crushing her heart and making certain she would never trust anyone or anything ever again. How could she, after being so hurt by his betrayal?
Dani reached the parking area. She had been so happy when she had arrived here in Cole’s truck, and now she was walking home with tears streaming down her face. The day had turned from good to bad in an instant.
There was another vehicle parked next to Cole’s truck. A white Bronco. Dani wiped the tears from her eyes, recognizing the vehicle as belonging to Randy Lewis, Norman’s brother. Maybe Randy could give her a ride home. Then she could lock herself away and try to forget this day had ever happened. She wasn’t sure what she was going to tell Simone. Screw it, she would tell her the truth. Maybe that would open up her friend’s eyes to the existence of shifters.
She tried her best to clean her face on her sleeve as she walked up to the Bronco, but she was sure her mascara had run down her cheeks and given her panda eyes. She looked in through the driver’s window and there was Randy, sitting listening to rock tunes on the radio. Dani was always amazed at how different Randy and Norman were, even though they were brothers.
Randy and Norman had only a slight facial resemblance, unlike Cole and his brothers, who were all alike physically.
Stop thinking about Cole.
Randy saw her and opened his door. “Dani, are you all right?”
His concern brought fresh tears to her eyes. She shook her head. “I need to go home.”
“Get in,” he said, taking her arm and leading her around to the passenger side. She climbed in and sat in the seat, telling herself to stop crying.
Randy got in and started the engine. “Has someone hurt you?”
Oh boy, he had no idea. She had never felt so hurt in her life. “I just need to get to Simone’s grandmother’s house.,” she said.
“Yeah, sure.” He reversed out of the parking area onto the dirt road, and began driving down the mountain road.
They drove in silence. Outside, the sky began to darken as evening approached.
Dani looked over at Randy, and then wished she hadn’t. He was gripping the steering wheel so hard, his knuckles had turned white. His face was set in a grimace, which scared Dani. “Randy, what’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” he said through gritted teeth. “I’m okay.”
He didn’t look okay. He looked like he was about to have a heart attack. Maybe he’d taken too many steroids and they’d pumped up his heart to three times its normal size and it was about to burst. Dani had read about such things on the internet.
“You can just let me out here, Randy. I think I’ll walk.”
He shook his head. Sweat beaded his forehead, dampening his hair. “No, you can’t walk. It’s too dangerous.”
“I want to walk. I’ll be fine.”
“Stop trying to run from me,” he said, snapping his head around to look at her. “You’re always running from me.”
Dani frowned, confused. “What are you talking about? I’ve never run from you. You’re confusing yourself with Norman. I run from him sometimes, but that’s only because he won’t leave me alone.”
“I don’t want to talk about that runt. It’s his fault I lost control that night. It’s all his fault.” He slammed his palm on the steering wheel. “All his fault,” he repeated.
“I don’t understand what you’re saying, Randy. Let me out. Please.” She tried the door, but it was locked. Panic rushed through her veins like ice.
“I told you not to run,” Randy said. He turned off the road and onto a dirt path that led into the woods.
“Where are you taking me?” Dani’s level of fear increased.
“I need to talk with you,” he said. “I need to tell you what I tried to tell you that night two years ago before my stupid brother ruined it.”
“What? You’re not making any sense.” She looked around the interior of the Bronco for something she could use as a weapon. There was nothing. If it came to it, she would have to use her nails to claw at Randy’s eyes. She didn’t know what was going on, but she knew she wasn’t going down without one hell of a fight.
They drove deeper into the woods. It was getting darker now, but Randy didn’t turn on the headlights. He seemed to know exactly where he was going. “Listen to me,” he said. “Just listen, okay? I’ve always liked you, Dani. Always. Even
when I was dating Simone, it was you I always wanted.”
Dani shrank back against the car door. How had she gotten herself into this situation? She wondered if she had time to unbuckle her seatbelt, hit the central locking button, and open her door to escape before Randy could stop her. Probably not; as soon as she unfastened her seatbelt, he would know she was trying to escape.
“I never told you,” Randy continued. “I thought it was just a stupid crush and I would get over it. Especially when you moved to New York and became a city girl. What would you want with a small town boy like me, right?”
He went on without waiting for an answer. “Then something happened to me. Something wonderful and scary at the same time. I was out one night fishing way over by Deer Lake, getting eaten alive by mosquitoes. They were so bad, I was stumbling around in the darkness trying to find the bug repellent when I got attacked by a bear. Except it didn’t attack me. It bit me once then ran away. Look.” He lifted his T-shirt to show Dani a set of teeth marks on his side.
“It didn’t even hurt by the time I got back to Silver Rock a couple of days later. But it made something happen to me. The things I could control before were harder to control now. I used to go to the woods and wake up naked hours later. I had no idea what had happened. Then one day, I went to the woods and I didn’t black out. I changed, Dani. I changed into a goddamn bear. But it was hard to control myself when I was like that. It still is.”
Anger flared in Dani. “It was you. You attacked me. You gave me these scars!”
“I didn’t mean to,” he said. “When you came back to Silver Rock, my feelings for you went out of control. It wasn’t just a crush anymore, it was a need. You probably don’t remember, but you mentioned that you were going camping in the woods that night. I decided I was going to drive out there and tell you how I felt. And something inside me told me that you felt the same way about me.”
Dani shook her head. She had never felt anything for Randy. But she kept quiet. If she angered him now, she had no idea what he was capable of doing to her.
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