by A. E. Grace
“I can deal with him myself.”
Leon moaned dramatically. “I fear you’ll have to.” His eyes twinkled. “Don’t tell me you came here to ask my permission to kill my son?”
“I don’t need your permission,” Liam said. “I came to ask why.”
“You know why.”
“I never knew why!” Liam barked, the pain in his past resurfacing.
“The shift broke him. That is that.”
“How can the shift break him? How is that possible?”
“Not every mind is equipped to handle the shift, boy. Not every mind can handle the complexities of a dual existence, of animal and man… merged. Come here, boy. Come closer, let me show you something.”
Liam stepped forward, eyes narrowed. The wolf-man before him extended a finger, and he squinted at it. The skin was rough, cracked… it almost looked like tree bark.
“What’s happening to you?”
“I told you. I am mating with Her,” Leon said, rasping out a laugh. “She is turning me into something else.” He turned his finger over, and on the other side, growing from the bark-skin, Liam saw a shrub, a single stalk with a single green leaf.
“That plant is growing out of you?”
“Yes,” Leon said, licking his row of sharp, yellow teeth. “Interesting, is it not?”
Liam took a step back. “What are you becoming?”
“I am merging with Her.”
Liam shook his head, unable to parse the gibberish. “Why couldn’t Marcus handle the shift?”
“My son’s misfortune was that the shift was thrust upon him.”
“How is that possible?”
“I forced the shift into him.”
Liam recoiled. “There’s no way.”
“There is always a way!” Leon hissed, before erupting in a coughing fit. “But Marcus did not want the shift.”
“You forced him to turn into a shapeshifter even though he didn’t want it? He’s your own son!”
The creature shrugged with exaggerated effect. “Sacrifices must be made for progress.”
“You’re a monster,” Liam whispered.
“I am. But now I know how to create a shifter. Imagine that? Oh, how the world is going to change, Liam, you poor orphaned bear. Now go, boy. I do not seek your company any longer.”
“Where is Marcus? Where is he right now?”
“My son has just killed a man in the desert in Australia. He has escaped the authorities, and is now coming after you.”
“How can you know this?”
“She grants me this knowledge.”
“Her? Mother fucking nature?” Liam shouted. “Give me something I can use, Leon. Give me some concrete information.”
“Why? I owe you nothing.”
“You made the monster that murdered my family!”
“Marcus is his own man. Thrust not his crimes onto me.”
“So you know for sure he’s coming after me again?”
“He has sought you on and off for over a century. He will not stop. Form no connections, boy, or you will lose them to him. Like you did your sister… your father… your mother.”
Liam balled his fists, struggled to control the white-hot anger that started to bubble in his body. “I’m not afraid of Marcus. I will kill him if I have to.”
“Then do it,” Leon said, waving a claw-tipped finger at him. “I don’t care about him anymore.”
“Some father you are,” Liam growled, turning and stalking away.
“Soon I will be a father!” Leon shouted at his back. “Of a whole new generation of shifters!”
*
“He can turn a shifter?” Terry asked. “He can make one?”
“He was lying,” Liam said. “It’s bullshit.”
“How do you know?”
“It’s gibberish, Terry! There is no way.”
“You can’t know that.”
“I’ve always known Marcus as a wolf. I never heard of any of this bullshit about Leon being able to turn shifters before.”
“So you’re just going to dismiss it?”
“There is no evidence.”
“Why would Leon lie?”
Liam turned to her. “Terry… I know you are interested in shapeshifters.”
“I am.”
“In becoming one?”
She nodded her head. “Yes. I would like that.”
“But you can’t put your hopes in what Leon said. My bet is that it’s all a lie, and if it isn’t, then it’s dangerous. Let’s assume he did turn his son… look what Marcus ended up becoming.”
“That might not happen to everyone.”
“And what if it does?” Liam countered. “What if only a young mind that is awoken to the shift naturally can assimilate the animal? What if a normal person’s, like yours, can’t? What if that’s what made Marcus mad?”
Terry chewed on her lower lip. “I’m just interested, Liam.”
“I know,” he said. He put out his arms, and she fell into them, and he hugged her and pressed his nose against her head. “I just don’t want you to get your hopes up.”
“Thank you for telling me all of this. Thank you for letting me in.”
“Do not thank me yet,” Liam said. “I may have made a target out of you. Now I have something to lose.”
“Something to lose?” Terry echoed. She felt a swell of nerves in her belly.
“I… I want you all the time. I think of you constantly. I feel drawn to you, like I am caught in a current that pulls me to you. I wanted to leave you at the border crossing. I wanted to never see you again, so you could not be put in danger.” His face hardened, and the lines grew deeper. “But I could not stay away from you.”
Terry blinked. “I’m glad you didn’t,” she said a moment later in a soft voice. “I learned something amazing, and I met a man I feel like I connect with.”
“If the wolf comes after me, then he comes after you.”
“Then we’ll fight it together,” Terry said, doing her best to imbue her voice with firm bravery. When he didn’t reply, she said, “I took a risk to come out here, my big adventure. It keeps getting bigger. I don’t want it to stop. I want my world to grow. Take a risk with me.”
“I would be risking you.”
“Maybe the wolf has given up the hunt. Maybe it won’t come.”
“He’ll come.”
Terry squeeze his hand hard enough to pull his eyes back to her. “Then can I help you in any way? Is there any possibility I can still become a shapeshifter?”
“No,” he said. “I’m sorry. But if it hasn’t woken in you yet, it won’t at all.”
“Then I’ll help you like I am now. Maybe we can trap him.”
He moved suddenly, cradling her face in his hands, and pressing his forehead against hers.
“You are one brave girl,” he said, grinning. “I knew that the moment you said you left your old life behind.”
“Not as brave as some,” she said.
“But braver than most. I smelled it on you, you know?”
Terry blushed. “Sorry?”
“On the train. I smelled your worries, your doubt. It’s something only animals pick up on.”
“So I’m not brave. I am worried.”
“Despite your worries, you still did this. You were not afraid of my bear. Shapeshifters have only given you thirst for more. I like you.”
She grinned. “You’re really weird sometimes, you know?”
“We live for centuries,” he said. “This camp… the last time there were shifters here was over one hundred years ago.”
“I always knew there was something off about you,” she said. “And now I learn you are century’s old. Why do you look so young?”
“It is the shift. It heals. I don’t know why, but it keeps us looking young.”
“And strong,” she said, placing a hand on his chest. “I wish I could become one of you.”
“It is also a curse. You must hide your true self. You must
withstand the call of the shift. It is like a drug. You can become addicted to your animal form.”
“Still. I think it would be amazing.”
“Come on,” he said. “Let’s go. I don’t want to stay in this graveyard any longer.
*
Terry felt tired, and suggested to Liam that they just go back to their guest house and lounge around on the balcony, watching the city, and sipping on cool sour-lime summer drinks that were popular in Vietnam.
He had agreed, and together they drove back to the city, her elbow out of the passenger side window of their rented truck, and the wind in her hair.
It was when they got into the room that Liam stepped inside, shutting the door behind him, and closed the distance to her in three powerful strides.
He gathered her up in his arms, forehead against hers, and looked into her eyes.
“Coming in this time, are you?” she asked.
“Yes,” he said.
“Who invited you this time?”
But he didn’t reply. He played with her hair, stroked her face, and then he leaned down and kissed her. Their kiss was tentative at first, a touching of lips, explorations of wet tongues, but she felt his fire ignite, and his mouth grew hungrier, and he pushed her up against the wall, held her arms above her head, and crushed his lips against hers.
She felt his warm breath against her neck, and when he licked the edge of her ear, her knees wobbled, and she felt a surge of heat erupt inside her, as if fireworks were going off.
Emotions swelled within her, ones that were unfamiliar, new. She felt like she belonged to him, felt like she was his, truly and only his. It was the strangest feeling she’d ever had, of… of belonging.
“Oh, God,” she hissed, pressing her body into his, feeling his warmth radiate into her. His desire for her gave her confidence, made her feel sexy, desirable. She could feel his iron hardness through his jeans.
“I’m going to have you,” he growled. “Right here, right now.”
Butterflies fluttered in her stomach. Her body pulsed with a nervous anticipation. She felt a swelling at the juncture of her thighs, a pressure, a yearning in her belly that told her that she wanted him too.
But… but there was more to it than that. She realized that she didn’t simply want him. She wanted to watch him. Her mind was brought back to when she had spied him through his window, stroking his thick cock, bringing himself to bear, to completion.
It had been so sexy, and it had been an image she was completely unable to shake. She wanted to watch him again. She wanted him to do it for her.
“Liam,” she whispered. “There’s something I need to tell you.” She pushed off his hard chest, fingers tingling from the firmness of his muscles, and looked him in the eye. “I watched you masturbate the other night.”
There was a pregnant pause, one in which she seemed to teeter on a tight-rope, as if she had just put everything in jeopardy. She didn’t know why she told him that she had peeped! It was insane!
“Did you like it?” he asked, and he took her hand and pulled it down his body. She could feel the ridges of his defined abdomen through his shirt. He kept going until she was at his cock. She could feel how erect he was for her, and she longed to get him out of his clothes.
“Yeah,” she said, nodding, biting her lip. “I did.”
He leaned into her, smelled her neck, and she could smell him too, musky, manly. It aroused her, stirred within her a deeper desire.
“Do you want to watch me again?” he asked, and he flashed a sexy smirk.
“Yeah,” she said. “I do.”
He backed away from her, and slowly began to remove his clothing. He pulled his t-shirt off, and the hard lines of his defined body came into view.
“Unbutton your blouse,” he told her.
She laughed, shaking her head. She’d never… put on a show before. Her fingers went to the buttons on her blouse, and his eyes fell to her chest.
“Slowly,” he whispered.
She undid the buttons one at a time, until her blouse hung open, but was still tucked into her high-waist maxi skirt. She went to pull it out, and let it slip off her shoulders, but he shook his head.
“No, leave it like that. You look sexy as hell like that.”
Terry swallowed as Liam’s eyes devoured her. He stepped closer to her, and his hands were at the button to his jeans. He let them fall down his muscular legs, and Terry could see the bulge of his curled cock in his boxer briefs, a dark spot where he had beaded his pre-cum.
He took her hands and placed them flat against his toned stomach, and then he pushed them down to the elastic of his underwear. She slipped her fingers beneath, felt his hot skin, felt the buzz of his trimmed pubic hair, and then felt his hard cock. She pulled it out through the top, so that she could see his tip, and smeared a droplet of his juice over his wide dome.
“Come on, then,” she whispered, grinning at him. “Aren’t you going to let me watch?”
He stepped back again, and pulled down the front of his underwear and hooked it beneath his balls. Terry looked at his cock. Liam really was a gifted man. She couldn’t let her eyes leave him as he began to pump himself, as his body tightened and tensed, as he brought his hand up and down his girthy manhood.
She stood against the wall, face flushed, her core growing hotter, gaze fixed on his pumping hand, and felt a storm of lust rage in her mind, extend down her belly and into her center.
He groaned in a low voice as he began to feel pleasure, and his lust-laced eyes met hers, and his face was a tableau of desire and hunger.
“Lift your arms above your head,” he said, and she obliged immediately, putting more of her weight against the wall. His eyes devoured her body, every curve and stretch of skin and flesh. They lingered on her breasts, and she almost imagined he could see straight through her blouse and bra to her pebbled, hard nipples.
“I find you so hot,” he said, pumping himself faster and faster. “Do you like what you see?”
“Yes,” she whispered, voice barely audible, breath hitched in her throat. It was too much, too hot. She could take it no longer.
She dropped to her knees before him, grasped his cock and wrapped her lips around his wide tip. She began to suck him off feverishly, overcome with an insatiable lust. He lifted his own hand away, moved it to the back of her head, and she pumped him as best as she could, in time to the bobbing of her head.
“Terry,” he groaned, body stiffening, leg muscles going tight. She saw him raise to his toes, and she heard him utter, gutturally, “Terry, you’re going to make me come in your mouth.”
But she didn’t let him out of her mouth. She doubled her efforts, determined to bring him to bear. His hands found the back of her head and he pulled her onto him, pushed himself deeper down her throat.
She could smell his musk, and it only spurred her on. She was determined to give him the best fucking blow job of his life.
“Fuck, like that,” he said.
She began to press her tongue against the back of his head, against that small stretch of sensitive skin. His fingers wove through her hair, gripped onto it, and he pushed her deeper down onto his manhood.
Terry opened her throat as best she could, swallowed the gag, and it was the hottest sight ever to see him bring his hips back, to thrust into her mouth a little.
His thrusting grew more intense, and she stopped her own moving, just held her mouth open for him as he began to fuck it, always pushing her tongue against the back of his tip.
He let out a deep groan of pleasure, and she saw his thighs tense, and he came into her mouth, his thick cock twitching wildly. She struggled to swallow each copious jet of his hot seed. “Fuck,” he growled, his whole body growing taut with pleasure.
And then it was over, and he was panting, and she let him out of her, and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.
He stooped down and lifted her up, and planted a hungry kiss on her lips. She kissed him back hard, pushed her to
ngue into his mouth, and together they held onto each other until their kiss broke, and he pressed his forehead against hers.
“That was great,” he said, grinning, and he took her hand and led her to the bed. Once there, he stood behind her, and removed his underwear, before his fingers were at her neck.
He stroked the back of her neck, leaned into her and kissed her there, and then his fingers went to her blouse and he pulled it out of her skirt. She let it fall back off her shoulders, and she could feel Liam kiss her neck, hear him smell her.
“You smell so good,” he whispered. “The very first time I smelled you, I knew you were special.”
She hummed at him, his taste still in her mouth, and felt as he unclasped her bra, and she let it fall off her front.
His hungry hands went to her breasts, and he devoured them, kneaded them eagerly. The press of his manhood – still hard – was at her back, and she felt him lick a swathe of skin up her neck, and she shivered in delight.
When he dropped to his knees, Terry was for a moment puzzled, but then when he attacked the zip to her skirt with his teeth, she laughed, shaking her head.
But to his credit he managed to pull it down, and with a little help from her, squeezed her out of her long skirt, along with her underwear.
He spun her around, still on his knees, and kissed her down her belly, running his hands up and down her thighs. He buried is nose in her pubic hair and smelled her, and she was expecting to be stung by modesty, but did not feel it at all.
“On the bed,” he told her, getting up, hard penis swinging left and right. She grinned, moving backward until she came to the bed, and she climbed onto it gingerly. “I’m going to eat you out until you come,” he told her, and he slapped her thighs open, and settled himself in between her legs.
Liam dotted small kisses up the inside of her thigh, and she felt her nerves set on fire in the wake of his lips. His powerful hands held her thighs open a little more, and as he drew in closer to her womanhood, she arched her back up, eager to meet him.