by Amy Cissell
The next day we started working on the weir. It was easier on my body than combat work, but my brain felt overtaxed almost immediately. We took a couple hours every afternoon for physical training, since although shield magic was hard, we were spending a lot of time sitting on our asses.
Finally, on the day before we were to head back to Rapid City, Florence was able to take the weir we’d both crafted and maintain it at a distance of two miles from me without me needing to channel energy into it. We figured I’d be preoccupied with the gate opening and wouldn’t be able to participate in that part.
“This is good,” she pronounced. “We will get together every couple of days to mesh our magics and practice bringing up the weir and you falling out of it so that we’re not rusty when the equinox rolls around, but for now, we are done.”
“Now what?”
“It’s time to fly.”
My tattoo shifted against my skin, and my breath stopped in a combination of excitement and nerves.
“Have you shifted yet?” Florence asked.
“No.”
“I suggest that you strip down so that your clothes aren’t ruined in the process and start to meditate. It’ll come slowly but naturally.”
I walked several yards away from our camp and sat cross-legged in the dirt and started the breathing exercise I’d worked on with Florence. I fell into a meditative state—something that was much easier for me now than it had been a couple of months ago. I saw the form I was to take. I spent time looking at it, feeling it, learning the breadth of my wingspan, the balance afforded by my tail, and the length of my snout. My vision changed as my eyes shifted on my head. When the dragon felt whole, I pushed my thought throughout my body. A swell of magic passed through me. Heat rushed over me, and everything hurt for the briefest second. I was taking up much more room than before. I snorted in amusement and smoke rose from my nostrils.
I stretched out my wings and moved them experimentally. I took a few steps forward and rose into the air. Flying was magnificent. I suffered from baby-bird syndrome and crashed to the earth several times. I was able to stay up longer and longer, and soon, it felt almost effortless. After a while, my shoulders began to ache, so I landed and whumped up a great cloud of dust.
“How was it?” Florence asked after I changed back.
“The most magnificent thing that’s ever happened to me.”
“Now you have this as an escape, should you need it. I would caution you against using it unless it’s dire. Dragons in populated areas tend to raise questions.”
“As long as I get plenty of practice time, I can resist turning into a dragon at every minor threat.”
“Now, off to bed. Tomorrow, we’ll go back to that beautiful man of yours, and I’m sure you’ll want to be well-rested.”
A flutter of excitement stirred.
Chapter Seventeen
AS SOON AS we hit the interstate, I got my phone out to call Isaac. I hesitated, though, and decided to contact Finn first.
“Hey Finn,” I thought as hard as I could. “We’re heading west from Wall and should be in Rapid City in about an hour. I’m going to call Isaac to square away a meet up place, and I’ll let you know where that is in case you’re not with him.”
Hopefully, that would take care of any hurt feelings for the next week or so. I dialed Isaac’s number, and he answered on the first ring. “Hey, Princess.” His deep voice did delightful things low in my belly. “Finn says you’re an hour out?”
“Roughly. Can you pick me up at Florence’s store?”
“Of course. I can’t wait to see you.”
“I hope we’re not staying too far away.”
He laughed. “See you soon.” The phone went silent. I guess we were done with that conversation. I shivered as I imagined our reunion. Florence was great and all, but I missed my guy.
She shot me an amused look. “If you don’t mind toning it down a bit,” she said. “I’m not interested in a play-by-play.”
I glared are her. “Seriously? You can read my thoughts? I was sure I was imagining things.”
“I can, but I don’t usually bother. I’ve learned to tune it out and only dip in if I’m nosy or need information. I haven’t been reading yours this whole trip. However, when you yelled at Finn a bit ago, it grabbed my attention, and I haven’t managed to tune you out yet. If you could think about baseball or England or anything with less nudity, that’d be great.”
I stuck my tongue out at her. “I’m glad you’re coming with us, Florence. I like you.”
“I’m glad. I like you too.”
“Awww, besties for life!”
The rest of the trip went quickly. I tried to get Florence to talk about her love life and the kind of woman she was interested in, but she refused to discuss it.
We pulled into the strip mall parking lot a few spaces down from Isaac’s Jeep. I unbuckled my seatbelt as fast as I could and opened the door, nearly tumbling to the ground in my haste. Finn was climbing out of the Jeep on the side closest to me, and Isaac was already out on the other side. I ran over and was in Isaac’s arms seconds later.
Every feeling I’d suppressed for the last two weeks came bubbling up.
“Hey,” he said, looking down at me.
“Hey,” I replied. I was afraid if I kissed him now, I wouldn’t be able to stop, and I didn’t want to get arrested for public parking lot sex.
He reached out and brushed his knuckles over my cheek. I grabbed his face between my hands and pulled him down to me, trying to stay in control. I brushed my lips lightly over his and then buried my face in the crook of his neck. His arms went around my waist, and he pulled me tightly to him.
“I missed you a ridiculous amount, Princess,” he whispered to me.
“Ditto.”
“How was magic summer camp?”
“More like magic boot camp. I did learn to fly, so the torture was worth it.”
“You can fly?”
“Yep. I’m a dragon. I can fly, set villages on fire, plunder for treasure and steal maidens to…ravish, I guess.”
“Does that make me a dragon layer?” Isaac asked and winked.
I rolled my eyes. “Very funny.” I leaned in and kissed him again.
We’d managed to keep our clothes on, but we did have an audience. I grabbed his hand and turned back towards Florence and Finn. Florence had my backpack in her hands, and Finn was standing next to her, arms crossed. “It’s almost enough to make you feel extraneous, isn’t it?” he asked Florence.
She looked at him. “Don’t let your jealousy make you do something stupid, Finnegan Byrne. If you follow the course you’re currently contemplating, you’ll lose her forever.”
He disappeared.
“Dammit!” I yelled.
“Sorry,” Florence said. “I probably should’ve offered that warning privately.”
“What’s he contemplating?” I asked.
“That’s for him to share. I’ve already said too much,” she said. “I need to go make sure my nephews haven’t broken anything or spent all my money. I’ll be in touch. We should get together on Saturday at my house for a few hours. I’ll call you with my address.” She turned and walked inside.
“I guess we’re dismissed,” Isaac said.
“Now what?”
“Now, I take you to the motel we’re staying at and show you how much I missed you.”
I climbed into the passenger seat and scooted over into the center.
“Shouldn’t you buckle up?” Isaac asked.
“I trust you to not get into an accident.”
He pulled out of the parking lot. I ran my fingers up and down the inseam of his jeans, always stopping short of the bulge that was beginning to strain impressively against the denim. I leaned over and asked, my lips moving against his jeans, “How much further?”
“Ten minutes,” he replied. “And if you don’t stop that, I can’t guarantee we’ll make it accident free.”
I bit down ligh
tly, and he groaned. “Eleanor, that is inappropriate vehicle behavior.”
I reached over and undid the button and eased the zipper down. I slipped him out of the convenient flap of his boxer briefs and ran my hand up and down his shaft.
“You’re going to kill us both.”
“You’ll have to drive very, very carefully.” I took the entire length of him in my mouth in one smooth movement. He gasped, and I laughed around him. I moved up and down slowly. One of his hands came to rest on the back of my head, moving me into a faster rhythm than I’d started with. It wasn’t long before he jerked against me spasmodically and then erupted in my mouth. I stayed there until I was sure I’d captured every last drop and then slid up and off him, cleaning him with my tongue. He was already hard again by the time I finished my ministrations, and I smiled as I tucked him back into his underwear.
“That was the warm-up,” I said.
“I hope the main attraction can wait until I’m not driving” He sounded stressed.
I laughed and pressed a chaste kiss to his cheek. “I can wait a few more minutes. I do feel a bit uncomfortable in all of these clothes. Maybe I should take some off?”
“Please, Eleanor, for the love of all things holy, don’t take anything off right now.”
I sat back in my seat and fastened my seatbelt. “If you insist, but you’re missing out on seeing my tits that much sooner.”
“I barely kept us on the road when I wasn’t seeing you naked. If you take your top off, I’ll be forced to pull over and take you right here on the shoulder of the road.
I considered. “That’s not the worst idea you’ve had.”
“We’ll be at the motel in less than five minutes.”
“You old people are so conservative. Always wanting ‘rooms’ and ‘beds’ and ‘privacy.’”
“You’re abusing the air quotes a little,” Isaac said. “Back hallway in a dance club? Shower?”
I waved away his words. “We didn’t have sex in either of those places. Doesn’t count.”
“Ohhh…I see where you’re going with this,” Isaac said. “Tell you what. Humor me on the room and bed now—especially since we’re here—and I’ll come up with something that will knock your little exhibitionist socks off later.”
“Deal.”
Isaac pulled into the parking spot in front of room 126 of a cheap-looking motel. I opened my door, grabbed my backpack, and then followed Isaac into the room. As soon as the door was closed, we were in each other’s arms.
His hands slipped down to cup my ass, and he lifted me up. I wrapped my legs around his waist. His mouth was plundering mine, and he stopped only long enough to tug my shirt over my head. He strode forward, and my back slammed into the wall. It reminded me of the aforementioned bar hallway, and I slipped my hands down between us to tug down the jeans he hadn’t rebuttoned.
Isaac let go of me, and my legs slid to the ground. I unfastened my own jeans and pulled them off. Isaac reached around behind me to unhook my bra and my breasts—my nipples already hard and aching—swung free. He sank to his knees and squeezed them together, flicking his tongue over first one nipple then the other. He sank down lower, and his breath was hot against the thin material of my panties. His tongue swept upwards, and I lost the ability to keep my knees locked enough to hold me upright. Isaac grabbed my hips to steady me, then grabbed my panties with his teeth and pulled them down.
He lifted me up and manipulated my legs until they were over his shoulders. He buried his face between my legs and fucked me with his tongue until my throat hurt from screaming. When I thought I couldn’t take anymore, he tossed me on the bed. Less than a second later, he was on top of me and between my legs. He plunged into me and paused as I gasped.
Isaac moved against me, faster and faster, and I raised my hips to meet his, wanting more of him inside me. We came together, and I saw stars.
When I’d recovered enough to feel my limbs again, I opened my eyes. Isaac was propped up on one elbow looking down at me.
“So, Princess, that’s about how much I missed you on day one.”
I smiled and pulled him down to me. This time, our kiss was gentle and full of promise. “I can’t wait to find out how much you missed me on the other thirteen.”
He pulled me into his arms and held me tight. “I don’t think I can do that again.”
“We can take a short break. At your age, I don’t expect instantaneous recovery.”
He swatted my ass. “You know what I mean.”
I hugged him closer. “Me, neither. But we’ll have to, won’t we? There’s a full moon every month.”
“There’s no help for it. We’ll have to separate for those.”
“If we get to have incredible reunion sex every time, it might almost be worth it. Maybe I can figure out how to make my cycle sync with the moon’s, so it’ll be extra convenient.”
“Maybe you could get a vampire lover to take care of you during your moon cycles. Free meal for them, cramp-lessening orgasms for you. Everyone wins!”
“Isaac Walker, that is a disgusting but not altogether terrible idea.” I punched him in the arm. “I’ll see what I can do.”
“Do you want to talk now?” Isaac said. “Tell me about your camping trip?”
“Not really, but I suppose we should. You go first, though. I want Finn to be here when I talk about my trip.”
“What’ve you been up to the last couple weeks? I know you were with Finn when I called, but have you seen much of him?”
Isaac traced circles on my bare skin as he answered. “Not really. We spent some time discussing strategy, but he mostly avoided me.”
“Did you spend time with the pack?”
Isaac’s hand on my back stopped. “Why do you ask?”
“You said you were going to try to figure out what was going on with them. I kind of thought you’d need to spend time with them to do that.”
He resumed the light strokes that were beginning to drive me crazy with a need I’d thought sated a couple minutes ago. I shifted a bit so I could tweak his nipples with my fingers.
“I did spend time with a couple pack members. They were wolves I’d known when I was younger. One of them was Rebecca.” He looked at me cautiously, as if he was expecting me to react in some way.
“Rebecca is the Alpha’s mate?” I asked.
“Yes.”
Something about the way he was approaching this was weird. “Are you expecting me to be jealous?”
He nodded.
“Did you fuck her?”
“Not this trip,” he replied.
“Have you since we met?”
“No. We haven’t been involved for a long time.”
“Why would I be jealous?”
“Because you’re a woman, and women are jealous creatures.”
“You have got to be fucking kidding me. That’s what you think would send me over the edge? Knowing you talked to someone you used to have sex with? You’re five million years old; you’ve bound to have racked up a few exes.”
“You’re not jealous?”
I laughed. “Oh, Isaac. We spend an insane amount of time with someone I used to sleep with. Pretty sure I have no leg to stand on when it comes to jealousy. Even if I were a jealous person, this isn’t the kind of situation that would induce jealousy.”
“Eleanor Morgan, you’re remarkable.” He kissed the top of my head.
“So, what did you find out about the pack?”
“Greg is abusing what little power he has and there is a mutiny pending. All of the male pack members who would’ve been powerful enough to challenge him have met with unfortunate accidents in the last year. Six shifters died, and although all of their deaths were declared natural, it is too much of a coincidence. Greg’s second barely has enough power to tie his own shoes. It is dangerous, and he can’t see why.
“He’s making his pack vulnerable because he’s afraid he isn’t powerful enough. He challenges every shifter that comes through an
d has killed most of them.”
“If his entire pack is weak, wouldn’t a more powerful pack be able to come in and take over?” I asked.
“That is the danger. Without anyone to fight reliably, he will likely lose his territory, his pack, and his life.”
“I noticed you said earlier that he’s only taken out the males.”
“You caught that, did you? Do you remember how he bragged that Rebecca could be an Alpha if she wasn’t a woman? She will challenge him at the next full moon and has asked me to stand second for the challenge. If he refuses to fight her, he’ll have to fight me, and this time, it will be to the death.
“It’ll put him in a tough place. Will he accept challenge from a woman—a creature he regards as inferior—or will he fight someone he’s already lost to publicly?”
“What do you think he’ll do?” I asked, trying to keep emotion out of my voice.
“He’ll choose her, thinking that it’s a sure win. He is a coward at heart.”
“Can she beat him?”
“If they fight as wolves. If they remain human, it’s less certain as he has several pounds and a few inches of reach on her. As the challenged, he’ll get to select the form in which they fight, but Rebecca thinks she’ll be able to goad him into choosing wolf. It’ll be the first night of the full moon and a fight to the death with the moon rising would test his control. If he were to shift mid-fight, he would have to forfeit or risk being set on by the entire pack.”
“Brutal,” I said.
“Yes.”
“I’m sure Rebecca is a lovely person, but I hope he accepts her challenge. Am I right in assuming that you won’t want me at this fight since it will be at the full moon?”
“You’re correct. You may be a dragon, but I’d rather you not have to test your new powers of flight in a field full of angry shifters.”
“Fine, but if you don’t call and tell me what happened the moment you can, I’ll set you on fire.”
“Deal.” He kissed me. “Thank you for being so understanding about this.”
I kissed him back. “What else could I be? I love you.”
Isaac froze. I poked him in the ribs. “Seriously, the first time I tell a guy I love him and this is the reaction I get? Now I know why Finn has such a complex.”