Falling for Shifters: A Limited Edition Autumn Shifters Collection

by Lacey Carter Andersen

  “For me? No. But since I’m expected to ride herd on the pups, my day’s been a busy mess of last-minute preparation to make sure they don’t tear everything down and set it on fire.”

  She grinned. “Well I feel like I’m ready to jump out of my skin.”

  “Go for a wild run.”

  Maya couldn’t remember her last wild run outside of the wolf moon. Lupine spent most of their lives in their human form, but it felt good to slip into wolf form and explore. Get lost. They called it wild running, but like the concept of running beneath the wolf moon, it wasn’t always literally running. Sometimes it was nice to just wander.

  “I may.” She elbowed him. “If you don’t tell my parents.”

  “I won’t. I understand the overprotective thing, but I never understood them being against you embracing your wolf.”

  “Probably because of that one time I dove into the river after a storm and washed up miles out of our territory with a sprained wrist and bruises from head to toe,” Maya admitted.

  Miller’s laugh boomed. “That was impressive.”

  She didn’t laugh, but half-smiled at the memory. It wasn’t funny to her, still. That incident had solidified her parents in tamping down her freedoms. Yet, thinking of it now, as dangerous as it seemed, other young lupine had gotten into far worse scrapes.

  “Do you know where the runners supposedly are?” She hurriedly added, “I should do my best to avoid running into them.”

  Miller shook his head. “Just don’t go all the way to the boundary in either direction. I think they’re actually outside of the pack territory this time. They’ll come in once the sun goes down.”

  “Gotcha.” She patted his shoulder and headed off to the stream, her usual relaxing spot.

  The run was an excuse. Maya wanted to find August before the sunset, or they’d have little time together before the moon pulled them down.

  With no place to start, her task would already be challenging. Chances were that Leon would want to keep August and Maya apart. This likely meant they wouldn’t be at their previous location. In her wolf form, she could cover more ground and better track her target. The drawback was that she’d have to leave her clothing behind.

  Did she have the nerve to come upon August without a barrier? She wasn’t entirely sure. It seemed the only option. It wouldn’t be brazen of her, of course. He’d understand. Sure, she could technically ball her shirt and pants up and carry them as a bundle in her mouth, but she’d done this enough in the past to know that it left her jaw sore and would drench her clothing with saliva.

  She stripped by the trickling flow of water and folded her clothing carefully before stacking a heavy rock over her things. The breeze tickled and chilled her, raising the hairs on her entire body. She didn’t detect any trace of August, or Leon for that matter.

  Bending down, she welcomed her wolf forward. A rush of energy jolted through her bones and within seconds the cool breeze was nothing against the warmth of her dense coat. She stretched and wriggled the tightness from her haunches, black paws pressing into the soft dirt of the riverbank.

  She sniffed the grass and scented the air. Her thoughts had simplified, as they always did when she shifted from her human skin. Her wolf had a single goal and nothing else mattered. Shifted, she could detect the faintest trace of August, and a quick search revealed a glove trapped in a small dam of leaves and rocks in the current.

  He’d left a clue. Maya crossed the stream, leaping from a fallen log to clear the flowing water. From there she followed the current up, finding another glove a few miles north of where she’d started. This one was on the ground near the base of a tree. Something he’d tossed?

  Her eyes scanned the surrounding area while her nose dipped and took in the scent of leather and lupine. The afternoon sun filtered through the towering trees, illuminating floating dust in an almost ethereal beacon where she currently stood. He’d been here not an hour before and placed it intentionally. She’d bet on it.

  She lopped down an unmarked path, one not trodden by many feet or paws, following his scent. Leaves stood out to her as if he’d outstretched his hand as he’d walked and shook them. As his trail grew stronger her heart sped.

  Though it went against her desires, she forced herself to slow her pace, at the same time sinking low to the ground. It would be easier to move through the trees, as dense as the forest was here, and yet she had no wish to leap around and hug prickly bark while naked. She’d have to remain in her wolf form for now.

  The problem was, now that she was five minutes outside of pack territory, uncertainty surged through her. She’d only crossed the border a few times in her life, and each time she wasn’t alone. This wasn’t a trip to town with a half-dozen packmates.

  The slip in her thoughts was the danger of being a lone wolf outside of the ancestor’s protection. Her inner wolf sought control to ease the chaos in the wake of true loneliness, now that she no longer felt the connection to pack.

  Only the most disciplined lupine could master being alone, and those were the ones that could become runners. It wasn’t something that was taught or learned, from Maya’s understanding. It was a balance one was born with, and she already knew she lacked it.

  She focused her thoughts as best she could, overcoming the urge to panic. August’s scent was a comfort, and she leaned into the familiarity of it, which helped ease some of her wolf’s anxiousness.

  In her singlemindedness to find August, she hadn’t paid attention to Leon’s accompanying scent, and now she accounted for it, further dousing her internal panic. She followed the intermingled trails, peering into the distance to see a patch of orange through the woods. Creeping closer, she came upon Leon swinging in the hammock, reading. August was on the ground nearby, seeming to doze against the wide base of a tree.

  For a few moments, she sat and watched, trying to decide on a course of action while her pulse and breathing evened. Her wolf calmed immediately upon seeing lupine kin, even if they weren’t pack, and even if she couldn’t feel the ancestors’ protection.

  She circled wide around their camp until she was behind Leon. This placed her in August’s peripheral vision, but she couldn’t tell if he was awake. He was slumped and his maroon hoodie was pulled over his head. She searched around, found an acorn, and bit into it. August stirred at the gentle crack. Leon didn’t.

  She spit out the bitter nut and crouched as she stepped forward. August yawned and said something low to Leon, who responded, but Maya couldn’t hear the conversation. After another back and forth, August stood and shuffled away from their camp, in the opposite direction from where Maya currently waited.

  She watched him disappear and waited to see if Leon would follow. Leon simply turned a page in his book, nothing alert in his behavior.

  Maya made her way to August, once again giving Leon a wide berth in her pathing. She found August leaning against a tree, arms crossed and eyes scanning the forest.

  “I would’ve guessed a medium brown,” he said upon seeing her. He pulled off his hoodie and tossed it to her, revealing a tight black t-shirt that clung to his muscled arms and chest.

  She rose from her wolf form and pulled the hoodie on, doing her best to keep the movement unrushed and casual, as if she didn’t care what he saw in the meantime. She did, but she wouldn’t let it show. Still, she swallowed at how his eyes skimmed her body, and his stare lingered on her breasts before she zipped up the hoodie and closed the distance between them.

  “Brown what?” she asked.

  “Fur. I honestly thought you’d have that nut-brown coloring.”

  “Like a squirrel?” She smiled crookedly.

  “Exactly.” He pulled her close, his hands tugging the cotton fabric of the borrowed garment until she was in his arms. “For stealth reasons.”

  His proximity ignited the lingering fire in her blood, and she rose on her toes to kiss him. Banter could wait. This couldn’t. She crossed her wrists behind his neck, pulling him down and
deepening the kiss. His chest and throat rumbled, a needy sound that weakened her knees. His hands trailed down, fingertips skimming her exposed bottom where the hoodie had risen up.

  She couldn’t tell if his touch was hesitant or teasing, but either way worked to rile her.

  “I missed you,” she said against his lips.

  “I don’t have much time,” he groaned. “Leon was furious.”

  “Can he do much about it?”

  “Besides report me to your alpha or mine?” He arched a brow.

  Maya didn’t reply. He could get in plenty of trouble. She likely wouldn’t. Reid wouldn’t punish her harshly over this. She’d get a verbal warning, most likely. August, however, would quickly be banned from coming near Bronze pack territory for life.

  And his own alpha? He could exile him. For August to be caught fraternizing with a female lupine while undergoing discipline, it would be a slap in the face of authority. Especially given why he was currently being punished. She couldn’t exactly blame Rostom if it pushed him over the limit.

  “It’s not fair,” she said, shaking her head. “And I know life is rarely fair to start but…”

  “We’ll make the most of this.” He slipped free of her hold and looked down her body. “You came dressed accordingly. I’ve missed the taste of you.”

  She bit her lip as he tried to lower himself and pushed him back against the tree. “No. I want to do it.”

  “Do…”

  She ran her hands over his chest, his muscles hot beneath her palms. She traced down over the hard ripple of his abs and fingered the top of his jeans. “This.”

  “It’s not the best idea. If I remain clothed, then—”

  He sucked in a breath as she knelt before him and freed his already hardening length, quickly before he could protest about what was right and wrong. Her fingers shook but even if she’d never done this before, she’d at least managed to unzip him without causing him injury, which was a start.

  “It’s dangerous,” he said, his tone careful.

  She gazed up at him, noting the tightness around his eyes, the wild lust he tried to contain. A simple fact, and she valued it over everything else he could have said. He wasn’t going to dissuade her or assume she didn’t really want this. He understood that perhaps she was naive in many ways, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t make a choice.

  He only reminded her of what she already knew. The sun was bright, but the moon already pulled at them, preparing them. They could easily tip over control and balance only to tumble into actions that would ruin them both. She’d never faced her cravings head on. Maybe this wouldn’t be enough for them. Maybe they wouldn’t be able to stop once they started. And then where would they be?

  She didn’t answer him, only dragged the flat of her tongue over him from base to tip, tasting him.

  The action was new to her, and yet felt natural. It’s what she longed to do, and by the way he swore under his breath, it was what he wanted, too. Heat built between her thighs, heat she tried to ignore for the sake of her sanity. She kissed the head of his cock and wrapped her hands around the silky shaft.

  “Tell me how,” she whispered.

  He scrubbed a hand down his face before replying, “Suck it.”

  Though she was already on her knees and ready, his direct reply sent a tremor of arousal through her. She took him into her mouth, wrapping her lips around the flared crown and pushing further, sucking gently. The contrast of hard flesh covered in soft, satiny skin was a marvel to her. She’d seen the naked male form before, but not in this context.

  Not only was he hard and in her hand, he was hard for her. She’d done this to him, and it was all for her. She never thought she’d be driving a male wild, yet here she was. A sense of pride swelled in her, that she’d gone from feeling unwanted and invisible to being the one in charge of another’s pleasure.

  Her tongue swept his tip, finding slick salty fluid gathered there. The taste sent a quick wave of desire through her. She squeezed his length and stroked up and down, guided by the way his hips gently rocked and the low sounds he made. Her gaze flittered between staring at the firm surface of his stomach and up into his eyes. A faint glow circled within them, an indicator of his primal need rising to the surface.

  “It’s so good, Maya,” he hissed.

  She cupped his sac with one hand, fascinated by how the warm flesh tightened against her palm. Her thumb ran over the base of him where his shaft met the hanging skin and a pulse of longing swept through her. No, not longing… it was possessiveness. She wanted all of him for herself, for her alone. Always.

  His hand brushed over her hair, the motion shaky and hesitant. She took him deeper into her mouth, until the head of him brushed the sensitive back of her throat and she froze for a moment. He crushed her curls in his fist and grunted. A string of swears slipped from him in a deep exhale, encouraging her.

  She took a staggering breath and worked past the discomfort, finding pleasure in her unrelenting need to bring him to his peak. Her eyes closed, and she fell into a steady rhythm, imagining what it would feel like to have him moving inside her for real, filling her the way her core ached to be filled.

  Too soon a hiss fell from his lips. “I’m almost there.”

  The tiniest spark of panic ran through her. Everything she knew about sex had been learned from overheard discussions, and from what she’d heard of this particular act, she needed to decide a course of action—quickly.

  Overthinking won out. As she debated letting him jerk off on the ground versus in her mouth—she wasn’t about to make him spill on his own borrowed hoodie—a shot of warm liquid poured over her tongue. She stilled as his length pulsed and emptied, surprising her with the salty and somewhat tart taste of him. She swallowed, deciding it rude to spit, but also finding the sensation decadent and pleasantly naughty.

  He panted above her, but she couldn’t yet lift her eyes. She drew a final lick over his softening cock and it twitched for her. His scent grew stronger, and her own, too. In the act of bringing him to climax, her thighs had grown slick. The heavy perfume of arousal hit her nostrils and made her salivate.

  When she finally stood, aided by his hands tugging her up, she felt dizzy and needy. She kissed him, her hands wandering his chest and tugging his shirt as if she’d rip it from him.

  He pushed her away. “No more,” he growled. “We can’t.”

  “I need you inside me,” she insisted. Part of her understood his reluctance, but it wasn’t the part winning the battle over her body.

  “You have to go.” He pulled her close enough to press his lips to her forehead. His thumb stroked her cheek. “Go somewhere. Reflect. Let the moon come and calm you.”

  “I want you now!”

  He hushed her with his fingers, pressing them to her lips and staring her down with dark, commanding eyes. The glow had faded away, but the wildness remained. “I’ll find you again.”

  The promise gave her strength. She retreated a few steps and shrunk to the ground, her wolf immediately filling her with a sense of clarity. The lust still lurked, but her wolf understood rules and it understood survival. She snatched the bundle of maroon that had fallen from her form in transition and ran away with it balled into her muzzle.

  Chapter Eight

  Maya woke naked, muddy, and energized. All of this was quite normal for the morning after a wolf moon. Now would come the part where she made sure she hadn’t broken any limbs or gained fresh scratches or bruises, as she was prone to doing when streaking through the forest in her wolf form all night.

  Someone beside her shuffled, and she rolled over expecting to find one of the cousins she’d grouped up with for the night’s adventure.

  Instead she found August’s dark stare, appraising her.

  Snippets of the moonlit night came to her. She’d strayed from the pack and found him. They’d explored together.

  The emotions she’d been suppressing came to her now in a rush. She wanted August. Had fa
llen for him somehow. Her heart and mind could have debated these things, but not her wolf. Her wolf had made up her mind and chosen him.

  Her eyes skimmed him, once again overwhelmed by the nude form of him, a work of art carved in a deep brown that radiated with warmth and life and power. He was within reach, and her fingers twitched to explore.

  She opened her mouth to say something, but he was on her in a blink, kissing her lips with hungry, impatient sweeps. He settled over her, one of his strong thighs between her legs while he nibbled her chin, her collarbone, her shoulders. Her hands travelled over him, stroking his warm skin and enjoying the feel of him. She kneaded at the taut muscles of his back and pulled him closer, wanting to rub the entirety of her skin against his.

  He cupped her breast and squeezed, drawing a delighted squeal from her. Then he scooted down her body and drew her hardened nipple into his mouth, teasing it wickedly with his tongue and teeth.

  “Mine,” he murmured against her, tickling her, “My Maya.”

  She leaned down, inhaling his fragrance as she ran a hand over his short hair, threading her fingers through the tight curls and cradling his head to her breasts as he laved each mound and sent shivers through to her core.

  “More,” she whispered.

  His teeth tugged her flesh, making her gasp and suck in a breath. She glimpsed his eyes and saw an amber glow rimming them. He snarled and his fingers swept her entrance, dipping into the slippery seam of her folds to find her so ready, so willing. They entered her, her back arching and hips lifting in response to his touch. He worked his fingers in and out, bringing a smooth rolling wave of pleasure that built so quickly she almost came within seconds.

  He pressed his brow to her shoulder for a moment, and a tremble ran down his body, sending vibrations through her bones. “I want…”

  “Yes,” she gasped. “I want it too.”

  “We—”

  “Please,” she insisted.

  He changed his position, and one hand slid under her lower back, lifting her hips as he moved between her legs. The tip of him slid along her folds, the sensation maddening and overwhelming. His hard length was like heated velvet wrapped around steel, and she moved with him to rub her body against his.