by Bianca D'Arc
“Nope. Never have,” she admitted and finally brought the forkful of cake to her mouth.
Her eyes went soft as she tasted the first bite, and he imagined naughty things about inspiring that sort of languid look on her face. She was a sexy little thing, and she lit a fire in the pit of his belly that would not be quenched.
“That’s okay. I dabble,” he assured her, teasing. “Like, I can foresee that you’re gonna get kissed before this day is through.”
“Oh, you see that, do you?” Her expression lightened, just as he’d hoped, and she jumped into the nonsensical banter with both feet. “Oma always gives me a peck on the cheek when I say goodnight to her.”
“No, the kiss I foresee is way more intense than a peck on the cheek, and it’s definitely not from your granny,” he told her, knowing the wild desire she inspired was probably showing on his face, but she wasn’t backing away.
She looked down though, unable to hold his gaze, and sipped at her wine, forestalling having to answer for a moment. When she looked up and met his gaze again, her cheeks were flushed just the tiniest bit. He found it utterly enchanting. How long had it been since he’d been with a woman who could still blush as the merest hint of his plans to kiss her?
More often than not, in recent years, sex had been gritty and needy, with someone who was just as worked up as he was. Usually another shifter who had to scratch the itch or have her wild half drive her mad. Those encounters had been fast and fleeting, over as soon as the urge had dissipated, but both parties had left happy and still friends. He just hadn’t felt any sort of bond with those women, nice as they were to favor him with their bodies. And none of them had felt a bond toward him.
He’d know if they had. Shifters mated for life. When the bond formed, both parties felt it, and that was it. Mates. Forever.
“Do I get a say in this?” she asked, her voice dropping into an intimate whisper.
“You most certainly do,” he replied, dropping his own tone down a bit, fostering the changed atmosphere between them.
She tilted her head a bit, considering him, then nodded gently. “All right then. I’ll take it under advisement, but you know, even Oma’s visions aren’t always one hundred percent accurate. A lot depends on correct interpretation.”
“Fascinating,” he murmured, and he hoped she knew he was talking about more than just her words. He found this woman to be utterly beguiling, even when she wasn’t trying to be anything of the sort.
He could almost feel her innate magic reaching out to him, twining around him, stroking his fur and caressing him. Warming him with her phoenix fire that didn’t burn. He could only imagine what it would be like to bed her when she had come fully into her power. He wasn’t quite sure he would survive, but it would be a hell of a way to go.
They ate their dessert as the sun began its slow descent across the desert. He noticed how she followed it, glancing at it every few moments from the corner of her eye, as if she couldn’t help herself.
Maybe he could distract her a bit and get her to know him a little better at the same time. He’d pretty much decided that he wanted to get to know everything there was to know about her over the course of the past couple of hours. She fascinated him on every level, and he wanted to be there when she discovered her true power. He wanted that fulfillment for her, like he’d seen Lance come into his destiny.
Lance was his friend, and he’d been there for the guy, but Diana was…something different. Stone didn’t just want to be there for her, he found he needed to be there. His wild side wanted to protect her, and his human side wanted to remind her of the joys of being here on Earth, and help her remember to come back and not die in fiery immolation.
That would just be tragic. And Stone didn’t do tragedy. At least, not well.
“Do you want to meet my wolf?” he asked her as they finished the cake and lingered over the wine. She looked mellow as she watched the sun travel across the sky, and he was feeling a little frisky.
She looked at him, ripping her gaze from the sun’s progress. “You have a pet wolf? Or do you mean…?”
“I mean… Me. In wolf form,” he replied with a teasing grin. “Maybe watching my shift will help you discover your inner phoenix. At the very least it may help you not be apprehensive should you find yourself wanting to grow feathers and jump into the air.”
“How did you know?” she asked, naked emotion in her expression.
“Wolf cubs start to shift at different times. Those whose wolves make them wait until puberty, or even later, start to get apprehensive about the entire process. First timers are notoriously nervous, especially if they haven’t been exposed to the process enough. I have a current Pack member who grew up in a human orphanage, not knowing what he was. The first time he shifted, he was fifteen years old. It totally freaked him out, but he was lucky enough to come across a magic user who steered him in my direction. We sorted him out and helped him overcome his fears. I would like to help do the same for you, Diana.” Every single word he spoke was the truth.
What he didn’t tell her was how he felt compelled to help her. Driven by some higher force to show her the secret ways of shifters and help her come into her true power. She would be magnificent. He just knew it.
“That’s kind of fascinating and scary, all at the same time,” she told him.
He smiled and stood, moving a few feet away to disrobe. He had to admit, just to himself, that the idea of stripping in front of her turned him on in a way he’d never felt when stripping off with his Pack. Nakedness among shifters was a necessary thing. A simple matter of course. But being naked in front of Diana held an unexpectedly sensual component.
Was this what it was like to have a shifter mate? He didn’t know because he’d never felt the mating bond with any of the shifter women he’d bedded. Just need. No time for subtlety. But he wanted to be all sorts of subtle with Diana.
“What are you doing?” she asked, her voice suddenly sounded a little strangled as his fingers started undoing his shirt buttons.
“If I shift in my clothes, I’ll ruin them. Most clothing doesn’t take kindly to the changing shape and size of my arms and legs, not to mention the different dimensions in different places. Almost all shifters have to physically take off our clothes if we don’t own a sweat shop somewhere that can keep us in new shirts and pants twenty-four-seven.” He chuckled as he pulled the tails of his shirt out of his waistband.
“What kinds of shifters don’t have to…uh…undress?” she asked a little breathlessly, her eyes drifting around the room but still stealing glances at his progress. He noticed she wasn’t watching the sun at all, anymore. Good.
“Well, it’s only rumors, but they say the super magical shifters don’t need to undress. Their clothes simply go someplace else and then come back when they resume their human form. Wolves are somewhat mid-range on the magical power scale, so we need to do things the old-fashioned way,” he told her, tossing his shirt over the chair before starting on his pants.
He saw her swallow visibly then reach for her wineglass, and he had to smother a laugh. She was incredibly cute, this woman. Cute and classy, and with no real concept of the power she hid within. If it was up to him, he’d help her discover her true destiny. He wanted that for her. He wanted to see her at her full power. He had the notion that she’d be a true and just arbiter of the Goddess-given fire she carried in her soul.
“I remember now. Oma said that bears were very magical,” she said, her tone a bit squeakier than it had been before as he lowered his zipper.
“Yeah, they have a lot of concentrated power in their big, burly hides. But they still have to undress.” He kicked off his shoes and socks, letting his pants rest, unzipped, just below his hips.
He didn’t want to traumatize the lady, merely get her mind off the sun and onto the possibilities of being a shifter. Much as he wanted to wave his dick around at her, it probably wasn’t the best strategy at the moment. She’d been raised human—albeit
with a knowledge of magic—after all.
“As long as I make room for my tail, I can shift from this point without ruining my pants,” he told her. “A bear couldn’t do that. They have fat asses in their fur.” He laughed, and she gave a slightly nervous answering titter. “Don’t be scared now. I’m still me, no matter what outer shape I wear. I won’t hurt you, no matter what. Okay?”
She nodded, seemingly lost for words as she watched him. Stone lowered his pants the strategic amount necessary then let the change come.
Magic buzzed around him, and he felt the painful ecstasy of his body reforming into his other self. He went from standing on two feet to kicking away his useless pants with his hind legs. He hadn’t taken time to pause in the in-between fighting form. He didn’t see the need to unnecessarily scare Diana, and he knew that form was fearsome. Later, if she didn’t run, he’d show her the advantages of the half-shift, but for now, he went straight to his furriest, fluffiest shape, hoping she liked what she saw.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Diana felt the magic buzz across her senses, but she didn’t feel threatened. It felt…comfortable. Familiar, somehow.
She’d never been especially sensitive, though she knew the basics of magic. Oma had prepared her, in case she grew into her power as she aged, but that day had never come, though she’d retained all the arcane knowledge usually reserved for magic users. By rights, she probably shouldn’t know half the things she did, but she was glad for it.
Knowing what Stone was made him somewhat less scary, though when he finally sat on his haunches before her in his wolf form, she found her nerves zinging in her body. He was enormous! Bigger than any dog. Bigger than any wolf she’d ever seen on the internet. He was absolutely massive. And fierce.
And he had his tongue lolling out the side of his mouth like a big goof. She smiled at him, and he seemed to take it as an invitation to move closer. He padded up to her chair slowly then stopped right in front of her, looking at her with those cunning eyes.
She could still see him in there. She could see the sparkling intelligence of the man she’d spent the afternoon with. He might be in wolf form, but now that she’d witnessed this, she knew she would never mistake a shifter for its animal form. He might be in the shape of a wolf—an enormously huge wolf—but he didn’t feel like a wolf to her, if that made any sense.
Oh, he had the animal wildness, but it was tempered by a keen human intelligence. She thought she finally understood how shifters could be both animal and man—something she’d never quite grasped before.
He tilted his head to the side as if to ask, “Well?”
“This is…pretty impressive,” she told him. “I didn’t expect you to be so large in your wolf form,” she went on, not sure how to express her thoughts and how much she could say without sounding foolish.
Not being able to talk with him was a definite drawback of the animal form, she quickly realized. She’d never had a pet. The apartments and condos she’d lived in with her grandmother hadn’t allowed them. So, she’d never really gotten into the habit of keeping up one-sided conversations with animals. She supposed there was always time to learn.
He moved closer, putting his large head over her knee. Surprised, she raised her hand, not sure what to do next.
“Do you want me to scratch behind your ears?” she half-joked. When he nodded his head vigorously then rested his jaw on her lap, she laughed outright. “You realize this would be really weird if you were still in human form,” she told him, reaching behind his pointy ear and scratching lightly.
His fur was so soft. She hadn’t expected that. She sank her fingers into his lush pelt and almost gasped. The sensual thrill of touching him sent a little thrill from her fingers, straight down her spine. She suppressed a shiver as best she could, but he seemed to know. His eyes twinkled, and his tongue reached out to lick her resting hand.
“This just gets weirder and weirder,” she murmured, but didn’t pull back. There was something strangely sensual about the entire encounter, which would be obscene if he was really just a wolf, but knowing the man was in there… Well, it changed everything.
She was hyper aware of his head on her lap. His eyes remained watchful, taking in her every reaction. He saw too much, probably. More than she was really comfortable revealing on such short acquaintance. But then again, everything about their brief relationship was vastly different from anything she’d ever experienced.
Everything was new and different with Adam Stone. Everything was…really confusing.
He lifted his head from her lap suddenly and turned to look out over the desert. Had he heard something? Could he see something she didn’t? She figured that was likely.
Suddenly, a howl rose from the desert. A wolf howl.
He padded closer to the window and raised his head, letting loose a howl that must’ve carried to the other wolf. It sure was loud in the confines of the room. More wolf voices joined in unexpectedly from outside, and Diana realized they were sort of surrounded by what had to be werewolves.
She probably should have realized they would be. They were on what he called Pack lands, and he was their Alpha. His people lived all around here.
The wolf song tugged at something deep inside. Some primal part of her she hadn’t yet realized was there. The complex harmonies told a story that was just out of reach but that fascinated all the same.
It went on for a few minutes then faded away in the distance. The Alpha had added his voice to his Pack’s, here and there, loud and long, but not uncomfortable. Sure, she’d never been around a vocalizing wolf before, but somehow, it felt…right. Familiar, if she could use that word for something she’d never participated in before.
She didn’t understand it. But then, she’d had experiences in her life before that she didn’t fully understand but accepted. Oma’s clairvoyance. The very occasional knowledge that came to Diana when she was in the presence of magic. It wasn’t reliable, and it wasn’t often, but every once in a while…
Yeah, freaky things happened sometimes. Only…they didn’t really freak her out.
She supposed that was due to Oma’s teachings. Or, maybe, there was some dormant part of her that knew and accepted things that would give a normal person nightmares. Maybe that latent bit of her that Stone—amazingly—claimed might soon come to fruition knew all was well with the world…even the freaky bits.
She still felt a bit off-kilter from the wave of magic that had washed over her when he’d shifted. So much so that she felt lightheaded suddenly. She closed her eyes and felt the room spin. Something inside her wanted out, but she didn’t understand how. It was frustrating—and incredibly dizzying.
She felt her body sway in her seat and everything went blank for a moment.
The next thing she knew, a wet tongue was licking her face. A dog? She didn’t have a dog.
No. Not a dog. A wolf. The Alpha wolf. Adam Stone.
She’d been in the back room of his house, having a meal. Then, he’d shifted, and she’d seen his wolf form. Then she’d swayed…and then… She must have blacked out.
Yet, he was still in his wolf form, so it couldn’t have been for long. Diana shook her head to clear the cobwebs and pushed the wolfy nose away gently.
“I’m okay. It’s all right. Just give me a moment.” She sat back in the chair and kept her eyes closed, trying to calm the racing of her heart and the tangle of her mind.
A second wave of magic came at her, and this time, it had the effect of helping calm her. It was as if the first wave—when he’d shifted to wolf form—had rubbed her feathers the wrong way. This new magic settled them back down in the right positions.
Feathers? What the hell?
Was she really buying into his claim that she was going to shift into a firebird?
She thought about that for a moment and realized she was. That part of her that had always longed for magic was alive and kicking and wanting more than anything for his wild claims to be true. She wanted to be a
firebird, like her ancestor before her. She wanted to be a shifter.
That was kind of new. Always before, she’d wished for magic like her great-grandmother or her mother, who had died too young to grow fully into her power. But according to Oma, Diana’s mother had been born with great potential and was casting spells even before she’d hit her teens. Then she’d met a man and had fallen in love. They’d married young and had a baby—Diana—and then, they’d died. Tragically. Accidentally. Much too young.
Leaving Diana with her grandmother.
Her thoughts of the past were interrupted by the sound of fabric and the metallic clank of a belt buckle. She still didn’t want to open her eyes, but it sounded like Stone was being chivalrous and putting on his pants before he came back over to her. She could feel his energy now, moving across the space to join her once again. It was funny how she was now hyper-aware of his movements. It was as if a sixth sense where he was concerned had been awakened, and she wondered idly if she would always be this aware of him from now on.
“Are you okay?”
His deep voice came from nearby. Was he kneeling at the side of her chair? She pried open her eyelids. Yes. Yes, he was.
“I just got really dizzy. I think I blacked out for a moment.”
She shut her eyelids again, against the visual stimuli that hurt her eyes. For some reason, everything was shining and golden. Especially Stone. He was outlined in shiny gold and green. What the heck?
“If you did, it was only for a split second,” he told her.
She was glad to hear it. From the way she’d felt when she’d come back—as if she’d been gone a long time and a great distance—she was reassured to hear it had been a lot quicker than it had felt. She decided to level with him. Maybe he knew more about what had just happened. He seemed to have a lot of arcane knowledge that she didn’t. Maybe the blacking out and the funky vision was a shifter thing.
“It felt a lot longer,” she admitted. “And when I open my eyes now, everything’s shiny. You have a gold-green glow around you.”