by Lisa Ladew
Ella curled her toes in her wet shoes and bit her lip. How she wanted to ask if she was the right woman, or if what they’d just done had been nothing but a one night stand. She didn’t quite dare though. She didn’t think she could handle the answer she didn’t want to hear. “How about my place? I have a guest bedroom.”
Trevor shook his head. “Please,” she said, reaching out to touch his arm. “I need to sleep in my own bed. I gotta take a shower. I need to feed my cats and just be at home. It’s safe, I know it is. We don’t need to be here.”
Trevor looked down at her fingers and sighed. “Ok. Your place. As long as it sm─ seems safe.” He bent over his phone to send another text message.
Ella smiled. Usually she was no good at all at convincing anyone to do anything, but Trevor responded to her differently than most people, especially now that their awkwardness seemed gone.
The drive around downtown and to her place only took ten minutes that late at night. Ella had never been so happy to see her aunt’s house. They parked in the driveway and all got out, the dogs and the man following her up the stairs of the front porch, waiting expectantly as she unlocked the door. Trevor took her hand as she pushed it open, pulling her back and telling her to wait there, in the doorway with the dogs. He moved through the dark front room and the hallway easily, with no fear or hesitation, his head held high. Ella watched his powerful form as it disappeared out of sight, realizing that she wanted him again.
***
Trevor moved through the rooms upstairs and down, smelling every inch of the house. Khain had not been there again. He wasn’t sure if he was being smart or stupid, bringing her here, but he did know he could get in trouble with his boss. This was definitely against the rules.
But an awful lot of rules had been lifted or downright ignored lately. He would take his chances.
He tromped back down the stairs and smiled at Ella. “Clear. Come inside.”
“Oh thank goodness,” she said, moving into the kitchen and calling out for her cats. She opened some cans of food, and cleaned out their water bowl and their perpetual feeder. “Do you want to take a shower?” she asked Trevor as the dogs both took a seat in her dining area. “I could dry your clothes in the dryer, and Trent and Troy are welcome on the couch if they want to─”
Before she could even stop talking, both dogs ran for the couch, each jumping on one end. They took up most of it easily and Ella smiled ruefully as if realizing there was no room for either her or Trevor now. “Wow, did you train them to do that?”
Trevor stared after them and shook his head. “I would love a shower.”
“Ok, you know where the bathroom is. Towels are in the closet. Leave your clothes outside the door. When we are all dry, I’ll make some food. Tacos, maybe?”
Trevor smiled at her. “Tacos would be great.” Maybe this had been a good idea, coming to her house. “Um. How much meat do you have?” He stumbled over his words. “Because Trent and Troy eat a lot, but if you don’t have enough we could go to the store.”
“They eat tacos?”
Trevor pressed his lips together. “They love ‘em. Just no shells. And Trent likes mayo on his.”
Ella laughed and Trevor thought he’d never heard a more beautiful sound. At least the wolves were good for something.
Chapter 27
Trevor watched Ella finish off her last taco, thrilled that things had been going so well between them. The only sketchy moment had been when he’d put Trent and Troy’s food on the coffee table instead of on the floor. Oh, and again when he’d turned on the TV for them, saying they wanted to watch The Amazing Sea Wolves of Chernobyl. She’d raised an eyebrow but laughed it off, while he kicked himself for being so stupid. She made him feel comfortable.
They’d been talking for over an hour about silly stuff. The past, their families. Trevor had been careful, not wanting to lie to her, but skirting around the truth also. He almost wished she’d call him on it. He would spill everything, given the tiniest provocation, even though he could lose his job, his status, everything for telling a human those kinds of things. He’d already mated her once so it was not a stretch. He almost didn’t care, but if she thought he was crazy? Threw him out of her house? He would care about that. People that turned into animals was a hard thing for most humans to swallow.
“So you’re a workaholic, then,” she said, smiling at him over the almost-empty table, the lights down low, the only other sound from the low volume on the TV.
Trevor took a long swallow of his beer before answering. She said she didn’t drink, but the beer was still in the fridge from before her aunt died. “I guess I am. My work is important, but I like to think that if there were something equally important in my life, I would give it the time and energy it deserved.”
She cocked her head at him. “Like a relationship?”
Trevor swallowed hard. “Yeah. Exactly.”
She nodded and played with her can of sparkling water, her eyes shaded. Trevor took a cautious sniff of the air, trying to scent her emotion, but he couldn’t tell what it was. He’d never been any good at that. Troy was the master at it.
Hopeful, Troy sent from the couch, not looking at him.
Ella frowned and looked that way, making Trevor watch her closer. This was not the first time he’d gotten the feeling she caught his conversations with his brothers.
Now she’s confused, now suspicious.
Trevor caught Troy looking at them over the back of the couch from the corner of his eye. He was still watching Ella. Her eyebrows furrowed and she pointed at Troy.
“Did you…?”
Troy ducked behind the couch quickly.
Trevor tried to hide his alarm by taking a swallow of his beer.
Ella shook her head. “Never mind.”
Trevor spoke quickly. “How about you, do you work?”
Ella took a deep breath through her nose and let it out, like she was about to say something she didn’t like. “I don’t. I need to though. Although the only thing I’m probably qualified for is some sort of nursing, and I need to go to school for that. I’ve been taking care of my mom or my aunt since I was fifteen. They were sick.”
“That must have been hard.”
Ella nodded. “It was hard. And now they’re both gone. So I have to get over it and figure out what to do with my life from here on out.”
“Did you go to college?”
Ella’s eyes unfocused. “I did. For a very short time. My mother took a turn for the worse after a few months so I came back home. She begged me to.”
Trevor was about to ask her if she had any other family when a small noise sounded towards the door. He looked up to see the black and gold cat that had taken such a liking to him before, coming in the kitty door.
He watched it closely to see what it would think of the wolves in its domain. It came straight for him, jumping in his lap, ignoring everyone else. He held out his hands and tried to keep the look of distaste off his face.
“Wow, she really loves you,” Ella said, and her voice was warm. Trevor smelled desire flare from her. That he could distinguish.
He forced his hands toward the cat. If Ella liked the cat and liked that the cat liked him, maybe she would like it if he managed to like the cat, too. Somehow. He rested his hands on the cat’s back. Not too bad. Soft. It smelled ok, like grass and wind and dry corners. A strange vibration emanated from the cat and he pulled his hands back, barely keeping himself from pushing if off his lap to the floor.
“Aw, she’s purring.”
Trevor held himself back from any sudden movements. Cautiously, he placed first one hand, then the other back on the warm collection of fur and muscles on his lap. It felt good, the purring. Soothing, like something a mother would do to calm a child. “What’s her name?”
“That’s Chelsea. She was my aunt’s cat, and now I guess she’s mine.”
Trevor ran a hand down the cat’s spine, almost liking the way the fur felt under his fingers.
Chelsea rubbed her face against his leg. They hadn’t seen the echo yet and he wondered why.
Ella got up to clear the dishes.
Trevor half stood, wondering what the etiquette was when a cat was on your lap. Could you just push it off? “Let me help.”
“I got it. You relax. You work too hard as it is.”
Trevor sank back into the chair and ignored Troy’s snorting from the couch. He had lots of practice ignoring Troy. Instead he watched Ella move, the sway of her hips as she walked, the way her hair shone in the dim light. He felt an erection swell in his pants and suddenly the cat had to go. He picked it up and placed it on the floor with one last pat to its head and tried to shoo it away.
Ella came back, around the table to where he was, putting one hand on his shoulder. “We never talked about where you were going to sleep tonight,” she said softly.
Trevor felt his cock go rock-hard with just those few words. He reached up and covered her hand with his, which made her arousal scent intensify, and just like that he was lost again. He wanted her so much it hurt.
“I’ll sleep wherever you tell me to sleep,” he rasped, his entire body suddenly thick and ungraceful.
“Good,” she said, and pulled him out of the chair. She looked back at him. “Should I leave the TV on?”
He nodded, then allowed himself to pulled up the stairs.
***
Trevor couldn’t wait until they made it into whatever bedroom she was taking him to. By 3/4s of the way up the stairs he leaned forward and bit her on the ass, holding her hips in his hands. It had just looked too enticing.
She shrieked and laughed and tried to pull him up farther, but he grabbed her and spun her around, ready to take her right there, against the wall on the top step. He sunk against her, plying her mouth with his, pressing his erection against her as she moaned and writhed under him. He wanted to do this right, wanted to make her orgasm at least five times before he came himself, but the need to be inside her was too great. Maybe he would be able to temper himself once that happened.
He picked her up, holding her thighs as she wrapped her arms around his neck.
“You’re so strong,” she murmured against his lips.
Now he felt like taking her right there in the hallway, holding her up the entire time, lowering her onto his cock like he was curling a weight. If only she would say more things like that. An insane urge to throw his head back and howl hit him, and he distracted it by continuing to the bedroom, setting her down gently, and stripping off her clothes.
She stood naked before him, looking at him shyly, letting him look at her.
“You’re beautiful,” he told her, not quite daring to touch her just yet. “The most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.”
She looked down and color flushed from her cheeks to her breasts, turning her coloring from snow white to pink blush and making her nipples draw into tight, hard points that made him weak. “I couldn’t possibly be.” Her hands covered her belly.
He drew her to him, unable to believe what she had just said. “How can I convince you?”
“Take me. Take me like you took me in the rain. Like you would die if you couldn’t have me for one more second.”
Trevor groaned deep in his throat, feeling emotion sweep through him. She knew him intimately.
He pulled off his shirt, kicked off his boots and dropped his pants, and when she licked her lips at the sight of his cock he almost came right there, almost sprayed the ceiling with the proof of his attraction. But no, he could not waste that.
He turned her and pressed her over the bed, then was up and inside her in one movement. She cried out hard but pressed back against him even though she almost sounded like she was in pain. “Are you ok?” he asked as her face pressed into the pillows.
“God yes,” she gasped out, turning her head so he could see her profile. Only then did he notice the wolf teddy positioned on the pillow next to her head. He froze, fully inside her, his balls pressed against her body.
It was black, with silver and gray markings on its chest and legs that matched the markings of his own wolf exactly.
Ella wriggled against him and he began a stuttering rhythm, staring into the yellow eyes of the wolf teddy as he did so. Another echo.
He fell forward and knocked the wolf to the floor with a sweep of his hand. He would think about it later. For now, he wanted to concentrate on Ella. He propped himself up on his hands and watched the muscles in her back move as she pressed against him, her little sex noises like the sweetest music in the world to his ears.
His eyes fell upon her left shoulder, exactly at the spot where a renqua would be if she were a wolfen, and he felt his fangs lengthen until they scraped against his lower lip. Thick desire to mark her, claim her, swept through him and he didn’t know if he could fight it. He battled against the desire even as his elbows bent and his mouth opened. She wasn’t his to claim, she hadn’t given him permission.
A female wolfen would tear a male’s throat out for claiming without her permission, and he had no doubt that an ordinary woman had the capacity to do something similar. His desire and his will warred with one another, even as he thrust into her, slamming his stomach against her ass and his cock deep inside her.
He dropped one more inch, knowing he couldn’t, he shouldn’t, when she tossed her head and raised up suddenly, the back of her head colliding with his nose with a loud and disgusting crunching sound.
Trevor groaned and pulled out of her, grabbing for his nose as she held onto the back of her head and rolled over. Blood spurted between his fingers and pain blinded him.
“Oh my God, you’re bleeding. I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” she said, still holding onto the back of her head.
“You didn’t mead it,” he told her, his voice thick with congestion, blood dripping down the back of his throat. His cock waved in front of him like a flag, refusing to soften even in the face of his pain.
She let go of her head and covered her mouth with both hands, trying unsuccessfully to hold back a flood of giggles. “It’s not funny, I’m sorry.”
Trevor smiled at her, his vision returning even as he could feel his nose swelling to twice its size. It was broken, he knew it. “Is it fuddy?”
“No, I swear! I’m sorry!” she cried between giggles. “I’ll get you ice. The bathroom is right there.”
She ran for the stairs and Trevor got up quickly, ran to the bathroom and locked the door behind him. He flipped the switch in his mind, hoping she was far enough away that he could shift. She was. His snout lengthened, bone and cartilage popping into its proper place, the bleeding stopping immediately, as he fell onto all fours, stretching his neck forward while his legs popped out of their joints.
Too late, he saw the lock on the door was little more than a decoration, there was no corresponding piece of metal pushed into the frame that would ensure the door stay closed if someone turned the knob and pushed on it from the outside.
Trevor could hear Ella’s feet on the stairs over the sound of his body reforming, reshaping itself and he stared hard at the door, unable to do anything but continue to his destination.
The door swung open, admitting Ella, naked, with a bag of ice in her hand. Trevor almost stopped mid-shift, but he forced himself to continue. Stopping mid-shift when he’d gotten so far was never a good idea.
Even as his body continued its alterations, he steeled himself for Ella’s scream. He would have to shift back before he chased her. Chasing her as a wolf would only scare her more.
But she didn’t run. Instead, she dropped to her knees and watched until he was done. Then she held out one trembling hand to him, touching him lightly on the muzzle.
“I knew it,” she whispered.
Chapter 28
Ella stared at the gorgeous and insanely huge wolf in her bathroom and everything clicked into place. A giddiness swept over her, making her realize she’d been waiting for something like this her whole life. Something strange and life-a
ltering, but beautiful and amazing at the same time. Something that would tell her who she was and why she was here, something beyond a dying mom and sick aunt and hateful sister and a life she never felt she belonged in. Something awesome.
She ran her hand over the wolf’s ears and fur, not scared of it for a second. It was Trevor, and Trevor would never hurt her. Even as a wolf. She felt that in her bones.
“Can I talk to you?” she whispered. “Can you talk back?”
The black wolf with the beautiful sprays of silver and gray across its front whined and shook its head. Ella laughed and clapped her hands together. It was like Christmas morning, and she got the best present she never knew she wanted.
“Oh!” She stood quickly. “I have to show you something!”
She ran into the bedroom looking for Baron. He was on the floor. She snatched him up and held him in front of her, facing outward as she turned. The wolf had come out of the bathroom and was stalking toward her. “This is Baron,” she breathed. “Look at him. He’s just like you.”
The wolf whined again and sat, cocking its head in a very human way.
“Remember, I told you about him. I got him when I was a very little girl. He was the reason my sister started calling me Queen Ella. I had done something else, before that─” She shook her head and pulled Baron to her chest with one hand as she chopped the air with the other one. “Sorry, that isn’t important. But we were at a store, a wildlife store, and I saw this wolf and I wanted it but my mother wouldn’t buy it for me. I cried for three days and when that didn’t work, I stopped eating. I wouldn’t eat or drink anything until my mother took me back to the store and bought me the wolf. I never asked for anything before or since but I had to have him.” She looked down at the wolf and kissed it on the nose. “I loved him. I still do.”
She walked slowly around Trevor. “I can’t believe how much you look like him.” She reached out and touched his left shoulder where a white marking on his fur stood out. It looked like a boomerang. “Except here. He doesn’t have this marking.”