“So I’ll always look like this?”
“You’ll age slightly. Never look more than thirty. Not sure why, but that’s some kind of magic age.”
“It’s a big deal for humans. You’re supposed to be grown up by then.”
“Ah, okay.”
“It doesn’t sound like you really had a childhood.”
“Me? No. The others did. A more typical Dire childhood, anyway. They were trained in the warrior way, but they had fun.”
“They don’t know how you grew up?”
“Until last week, they didn’t know I had a brother.” That confession would be the first of many. He started, hearing something she never could. “They’re out there tonight. Circling.”
He rubbed his arms and shuddered.
“Stay here with me tonight,” she said, and he knew she was giving him an excuse not to see his brother if he wasn’t ready.
It would be only a matter of hours, but sometimes that was all you needed.
He folded against her, warming her with the heat from his body. “Want to stay out here?”
“Will we be safe?”
“Yes.” In this cold, screened-in bubble, he could hold her in his arms and she could stay close to the moon.
“Do you ever wish on stars?”
“Is that a human thing?”
“I guess so. You worship the moon; we wish on first stars, or shooting ones. I guess I used to.”
“You still can, Kate.”
“So I should still believe that wishes could come true?”
“Maybe now, more than ever.”
“If we could stay out here like this forever . . . alone.”
“Wish it were that simple. But sometimes being tied to people isn’t the worst thing.” He stared up at the sky, then looked at her. “I was alone for such a long time—all I wanted was contact. How can I throw away people who are trying to help me?”
“Because you’re scared of getting hurt. Scared that, if your brothers make you leave, you’re alone again.” She stroked a hand through his hair and his libido rose. “You’re close to your Dire brothers—they’ve stuck with you.”
“What if they don’t, after everything I’ve told them? What if, when all is said and done, they want me to leave when Killian does?”
“I don’t think they’re like that. They’re warriors like you, and they don’t turn away easily. You haven’t—from me or from them.”
He buried his face in her neck, breathing her in, wanting to believe every word. “If they do . . .”
She looked him in the eyes. “I won’t.”
Chapter 28
Kate looked luminous.
Stray could see the outline of her body under the button-down shirt she’d borrowed—braless breasts, nipples tight, her legs crossed, a darker triangle between them. The shirt hit just above midthigh, and her bared legs seemed to shimmer under the moon. Her cheeks flushed as she stared up at the white orb. Her entire countenance was one of supplication—of reverence.
He desired her more than anything he’d ever known.
He’d never had that relationship with the moon—she distressed him, troubled him, and, as he’d told Kate, she could control him if he wasn’t strong.
But now, watching Kate, he began to wonder what was so wrong with letting the moon take him over for a while. Protect him. Lead him.
“I think the sharing helped,” she said softly.
“I’ve never told anyone any of this. Fuck.” He ran his hands through his hair as hers caressed his back, half massage but mainly giving comfort.
He wanted more of her touch.
“Have there been a lot of women—wolves—in your life? Your bed?”
Her thoughts told him she thought she was being selfish in wanting to be the special one for him. He was glad to be able to reassure her. “No one like you, Kate. Never.”
She swallowed. “Because . . . I’m witch.”
“Nothing to do with that. There’s never been anyone like you—no one’s ever gotten into my heart. Do you understand? No one.”
He wanted her with a force he couldn’t explain. Sex had always been easy for him to find. It was something he loved, unabashedly, as all wolves did.
“I’m bound to this prophecy and my brother. Now I’m bound to you. Can’t escape. You know my family hurt me—abused me. I didn’t tell you that they kept me in a silver-lined cage for the first twenty years of my life.” Stray paused, like he was wondering how much farther he should go. But he’d gone nearly all the way, so he stepped off the cliff and told her his final fear. “I’m nobody’s pet. No one’s slave. Do you understand that?”
“I can’t undo the familiar bond,” she started.
“No, that’s not what I’m saying. I’m telling you that my wolf chose you before you called me. Before all of this, my wolf knew. At first I thought I was just telling myself that to make it all okay, but I know now—Brother Wolf would never lie to me. He couldn’t.”
In agreement, the wolf howled in his ear.
Kate watched him carefully, her words measured. “So what are you telling me—you’re okay with this? You want this?”
He tugged her close, the heat from his body overwhelming her. “I want you.”
“I don’t know why. I’ve brought you nothing but trouble.”
“No, you brought me so much more.”
Stray couldn’t help himself. More important, he didn’t want to. He pressed against her, nuzzled his head in her neck until he felt her body relent. She whispered something he probably wasn’t meant to hear, but with his wolf hearing, there was no mistaking the I’m sorry or the hushed yes that escaped her.
Yes.
His hands traveled down to her hips as Brother Wolf surged. Not your turn, boy. No, it was all Stray’s, and it was far too late to stop.
He skimmed off her lacy white boy shorts and his hand sought her sex. Wet and ready for him. He put his head back and howled.
Her fingers dug into his shoulders, like the sound excited her. She arched in to him as he traced along her folds, teasing her until she demanded more.
He would give it to her.
“Beautiful,” he whispered and she tightened her arms around herself like no one had ever called her that before. And he was glad, only because he liked being the first one to put that smile on her face, the flush on her cheeks and neck. At that moment, under the moon, it didn’t matter that she was witch and he was wolf. It only mattered that they were together for whatever purpose, and that this dance was as old as time.
She fitted against him, molded willingly to his body. He lifted her, arms around her hips so their mouths could meet and, to his surprise, she wound her legs around his waist.
“Yes, now. Please,” she murmured, and he couldn’t hold back. The air was saturated with her scent and he took her hungrily, a dying man in a desert until he drank her in.
“I want to fuck you. Mark you. Lick you until you scream, clutch the sheets, until your body is worn out from my loving you. God, I dream about tasting you, Kate. Want to spend hours between your thighs. I want to make you mine the way you’ve made me yours.”
His words were visceral, like licks of heat on her skin.
“You’re wet for me, aren’t you?” He shrugged out of his pants, nuzzled her neck and she gasped a little. “Show me, Kate.”
God, she couldn’t do this. He was so free with his wants and needs and she was like a shy virgin.
Well, she was a shy virgin.
“Wolves are primal. We love sex and everything associated with it. Why not revel in it with me?” he cajoled, his hand on her thigh. “Let me all the way in, Kate.”
She had nothing to lose. Her legs trembled as Stray opened her thighs, gazed at her sex and gro
aned. She let him strum her body with his fingers and his tongue until she was naked in the moonlight.
“This isn’t about familiars. This is about me and you, not wolf and witch.”
His eyes flashed something she didn’t recognize, but his mouth was on hers before she could figure it out. And then it didn’t matter because he kissed her like nothing else in the world mattered except her.
She felt cherished. Hopeful. And she needed him in a way she’d never thought possible.
He moved down her body leisurely, well aware he was driving her crazy with every touch and caress. When he reached the juncture of her thighs, without further prelude, his mouth locked hungrily to her core and she gasped at the intensity of the sensations that shot through her.
She knew he wouldn’t stop until he’d gotten his fill. The way he held her spread open, she was helpless to do anything but enjoy the way he ravaged her. He licked and laved until her clit was a tight bundle of throbbing nerves and then something rippled deeply inside of her. She couldn’t stop the perfect cascade of orgasms that flowed, one after the other with no buildup or warning in between, shocking and delighting her.
She was aware she was calling Stray’s name, should be embarrassed by how loud she was, but Stray encouraged it.
He climbed back up her body, his cock jutting, heavy and hard, and she needed that now.
“Hurry—fill me,” she heard herself plead. She should’ve been embarrassed at how forward she was, but again, Stray didn’t mind, judging by the way he watched her approvingly.
He hovered over her, and then slid inside, slowly, until she jerked and took him all the way in. A heated groan escaped from his throat, and she felt the fever rise inside of her again as he made love to her.
She was taken. Possessed. Overwhelmed. “Please, Stray.”
God, she could draw him looking like this. It appeared as though he ached for her, his gaze intent, cheeks hollowed and for a long, hot second she reached up and traced his lips with her finger.
He drew in a sharp breath like he wasn’t used to care of any kind. And she wanted him to be.
“You deserve good things,” she told him softly. When she moved her hand away, he buried himself more deeply inside of her with another long groan. And then he bent his head, whispered, “So do you—and I’ll show you some good now.”
With that, he began to thrust inside of her—seemed as though he was actually growing larger inside of her as she moved in complete, utter pleasure against the hard length of his body.
“Show me everything.”
He did, the sex hard and fast now, like neither could hold out longer, and she didn’t feel like a virgin at all. No, she was as wild and as free as he was, and she loved it. Reveled in all of it. Never wanted it to end. When his orgasm hit with hers, the look of sharp relief on his face satisfied her as much as the pleasure contracting inside her womb.
“Happy birthday,” he murmured in her ear.
Happy birthday indeed.
* * *
Kate lay in Stray’s arms under the moon, feeling safe for the first time in forever. It shouldn’t be that way, she knew, but nothing in her life had gone as planned at all, and, at the moment, none of it seemed important.
Her hands threaded through his thick, dark hair. It hung heavy and straight to below his shoulders and she loved the feel of it. It was as silky and the same color as . . .
“Brother Wolf’s coat, yes.” He smiled. “Doesn’t happen all the time. Just for the brothers with abilities.”
She recalled Vice’s shift to a wolf with a white coat and Rifter’s to gray. “You said Rifter could dreamwalk.”
“He was cursed with his, not born with it. But we love him anyway.”
Such acceptance. A real family unit lived and breathed inside these magical walls and she was close to being a part of it.
If she was turned away when she was no longer of use, as she suspected, it would kill her. But for now, he most certainly wasn’t turning her away.
His hand stroked her back and, although it was still a bit sensitive to the touch, she realized the rough feel of the mark wasn’t there. She put her own hand back to touch it and her skin was nearly smooth.
“The brand . . . it’s almost gone,” she said. “When we were together—did you know that would happen?”
“It’s not the sex,” he told her. “Your brand will disappear when your powers fully integrate, and there’s no way to tell when that will happen.”
“But this pull I feel for you won’t,” she said.
He grinned, pulled back a little. “The wolf needs to run. I’ll be back in a few. Stay inside here, okay?”
She nodded and, in seconds, he blurred and shifted into Brother Wolf, who was a beautifully ferocious animal.
And this time she wasn’t scared at all, watched him nudge the door open and run across the lawn, his body sleek, muscles moving powerfully, rippling under his fur. Her entire body tingled, telling her they were for sure entangled in ways she could never explain.
All she knew was that she never wanted it to end, wished she could run with him through the deep, dark woods. He was all mystery and power and she burned for him.
Burned.
She stepped out onto the lawn because he was right there. Because she wanted to be closer to him.
As if he knew, Stray turned to her and ran straight at her. If she didn’t know better, she’d have thought he wouldn’t stop running.
He didn’t.
Instead he leapt over her, and when she whirled around, he stood, watching her. Grinning, if that was possible.
“Sneaky wolf,” she muttered and Brother howled in the night, the sound echoing for longer than it should have in the dense quiet.
It was unsettling and arousing at once.
She moved back into the screened area and glanced down at the sketch she’d done of him her first night in the house. She’d seen the scars on him before, many times by this point, but they always struck her, the way they seemed to peek through the Brother Wolf glyph so the wolf and Stray both bore the marks of pain.
Kate had grown so used to pain—obviously, so had Stray. That they’d found each other under such extraordinary circumstances seemed something of a not-so-small miracle; and being a lapsed Catholic, she knew those didn’t come along often, if at all.
Both their families were scared of them, clouded by their past experiences.
Both were destined to be part of a prophecy that could cause irreparable damage.
After another half hour or so of the wolf running through the yard and howling, Stray shifted back and moved to stand over her. “What are you thinking? You look sad again.”
“I can’t be around Jinx. This can’t work. You’ve already had to give up one pack. I won’t let you give up another,” she protested.
“You don’t get to tell me what to do.”
“Stubborn.”
He cocked a pot/kettle eyebrow and she could do nothing but concede.
“I don’t see the future. I read the past and present, what’s in people’s minds now. And according to that, your brother is—”
“Jinx is not evil. You’ll find that out for yourself,” he said in a tone that made it clear he was through discussing it. “Out here, with the moon, can you show me your powers?”
Her first instinct was to give an automatic no, but then her brand tingled and her hands went out and hovered over the ground. Despite the cold and the season, warmth radiated there and a crocus appeared, purple and perfect.
Stray picked it, held it out to her. She sniffed it, then rubbed the soft petals on her cheek. “I can’t believe it. I can do this with my mind?”
“Lila was alive for seven thousand years,” Stray told her. “She could do a lot of things.”
“Like invading people’s minds.” Obviously, she’d been doing her calling without even realizing it.
“For the greater good.”
“So you say.”
“So I know. Trust me, because you’ve got to trust someone. I know you realize it can’t be Leo Shimmin.”
Sometimes, it was about choosing the lesser of two evils. And while she’d gotten chills meeting Jinx, she’d had no such feelings about the rest of the family. Whatever she felt, she’d warned them. She had to believe that they’d do something to protect her from whatever it was. “I do.”
“Good. Now use the moon. Let her help.”
“Does she help you?”
“She would rule me if I let her.”
“But you’re stronger.”
“Now I am. In the beginning, it wasn’t that simple.” He moved closer to her, pulled the blanket over them, tucked the grimoire close to her body as well. “Come on, let’s see if we can sleep now.”
And they remained there, the moon bathing them in her comfort.
Chapter 29
After a night of rifling through cemeteries and getting sick over the remains of butchered corpses and heavy demon activity, Jinx drove home to face the music, even though it was barely dawn.
He knew damned well what the witch felt. Knew that Stray did as well, by literal osmosis. What he didn’t know was how to deal with it without telling the rest of the Dires what a fucking mess he’d caused.
They had too much else to worry about—he wasn’t putting another thing on their heads. He’d deal with purgatory himself.
Rifter was, of course, waiting for him in the kitchen, arms crossed, his alpha wolf flag flying high. But Jinx was in no mood for any of his shit, king or no king.
“Where were you?”
“Hunting,” Jinx told him.
“I told you not to go out alone,” Rifter said, and yes, the wolf had, right after Kate’s meltdown. Because if there’s something evil she’s seeing, it could be a premonition, Rifter had lectured.
Now Rifter narrowed his eyes. “Jinx, what’s the goddamned problem?”
And that’s when he fucking lost it, because he couldn’t stand here and look his king, his friend, in the eye and keep lying to him. So he did what he knew would get him the hell out of the spotlight. “Right—forgot I’m evil Jinx. Maybe I shouldn’t be allowed to do anything alone. Maybe I should be chained inside the house with Harm.”
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