“The road less travelled huh? Alright, I’m game.” I said as I took water out of my back pack and followed along behind Kaia.
Our conversation trailed off as the trail became steeper and they began to concentrate on the rock-covered path. Occasionally having to climb over trees and boulders, my friends became lost in their own thoughts and mine turned to the scene in the restaurant this morning. Hale had come in and looked over to me with a smile. He didn’t come near me but he gave a wave.
I waved back and picked up some oatmeal and an orange slice, not caring what I ate now. I went back to the table and spooned the food into my mouth, not even mixing it with jelly to make it palatable. I’d sit there watching him forever if I could but the ladies insisted I go hiking with them. I suppose I needed to keep walking but this was literally the man of my dreams. I could stare at him forever.
I was still protesting, not really wanting to walk away from Hale when he was so near when he looked over at me from his table with Knox. Once more, he smiled at me and I could see the burning hunger of my own eyes returned in his. I could have also sworn he’d mouthed the words “later” at me. I nodded, certain that’s what he’d done, and went off happily with my friends. My cheeks flamed as I looked at him one last time, remembering the way I’d begged him to handcuff my hands behind my back in my dream, the way I’d begged him to fuck me as he bent me over his kitchen table.
I couldn’t imagine really doing such things but in my dreams, I was free to do as I chose. It seemed bondage was one of the things I really, really wanted. I was still considering it, marveling at how the memory of the dreams made me feel when Kaia came to a halt suddenly. I hadn’t paid much attention but I knew we’d been going back and forth, crisscrossing for about fifteen minutes now.
“What’s up?” I finally asked as she sat down on a boulder, her frustration clear.
“I can’t remember how to get back. There’s no trail and no signs.” She said, staring at her map.
“Hale will find us before long. Don’t worry. I don’t think those guys will leave us out here for long.” I sat down beside her and put my arm around her.
Some instinct told me to call for Hale, mentally, to reach out to him with my mind. I concentrated on where we were and on silently calling his name. I knew he’d come.
“Let’s go back to that area by the river, at least its cooler there.” Cora finally said.
“That is a cooler spot and you can put your feet in the water to relax you, Cora. Let’s go.” I agreed.
We sat there for about an hour and then Kaia wanted to leave. I’d been sitting with my eyes closed, calling to Hale, and told her we needed to wait.
“He can’t know where we are, Tessa. Our phones are back there, how’s he going to find us?” Kaia demanded. I pulled at her hand and pulled her down beside me, handing her a bottle of water from my pack.
“Calm down, darling, he’s coming. Never fear.” I probably sounded like some new age cult member but couldn’t help it. And when the sound of an ATV came to our ears I looked over at her grinning. “See, he’s here.”
Kaia turned, her eyes narrowing as the men appeared. She shook her head before turning to help Cora up. I don’t know what she’d decided on but I knew Hale was near before I saw him. I could feel his presence.
“Need a lift?” He asked with a handsome smile as I climbed into the huge ATV, my legs shimmying up close to his.
“Yes, sir, I do. And maybe some lunch too.” I had apparently gone brain dead in the span of two seconds and that’s all that came to mind to say.
“Mm, sir, I like the sound of that. Good. I have a dinner planned for you that I think you’re going to love.” With that he revved the engine and we were all off, racing to get back to the resort before night fell.
They drove in the direction of the resort but at the intersection of the trail head Hale turned right when the others turned left. I had to assume dinner was somewhere else then. We drove for a few miles and then Hale turned down a road I hadn’t even noticed. He steered us down the road and we finally stopped at a three story log cabin of very dark wood. My jaw dropped at the sight of the very beautiful, very well-lit house.
Hale didn’t just have a little money; he had a lot of it. When he drew me into the house I decided, even a lot of money didn’t qualify it. Tons might be closer. Money coming out of his ears might be even more apt.
A large open area greeted us with a very ornate double stair coming down each side of the room. I don’t know how many rooms the place had but I knew I’d get lost if I wasn’t careful. He guided me up the stairs into a bedroom and opened a door to reveal a bathroom bigger than my bedroom back home.
“I believe you’ll find all you need in here. If not let me know and I’ll get it for you. There are clothes in the closet, if you’d like to change. I bought them for you today. I’d like you to put on the sapphire blue dress with the buttons down the front if you don’t mind me making a request. I think you’ll be extraordinary in it.” He kissed the side of my face before he left.
I ran a bath in the tub that could serve as a pool for a family with small children and swam around in the very hot water before I went to work making myself beautiful. After I got out and towel-dried my hair, I looked around for a hair dryer and makeup but couldn’t find any. All I found was a hairbrush and the clothes.
I remembered his words of the night before and realized he’d wanted me to come downstairs with wet hair and a fresh face. Feeling obliging, I walked out of the room, the beautiful lingerie he’d picked out fitting perfectly as the long dress he’d chosen slid around my legs in a serpentine manner. It was something I’d call a goddess dress, more like a toga than a summer dress. The neckline tied at the back of my neck and held the dress up. A few buttons down the front would allow me to open the slit in the front up to my neck if I wanted but didn’t do much to hold the dress together otherwise. The silky material felt luxurious, expensive, and I screamed with glee on the inside at just how decadent it felt to put it on.
Hale met me at the bottom of the stairs and guided me to the dining room, a large room with a very long table taking up most of the room. He set me down beside his chair in the middle, our places set. I saw no forks or spoons and looked at him questioningly.
“I am going to feed you, with my fingers. You will do the same.” He looked completely serious and my body responded at the thought of his lips wrapping around my fingers. I picked up a leaf of lettuce, covered in salt and vinegar, and guided it to his mouth with no further questions. His mouth opened and he took the leaf into his mouth, his lips sucking the salt and vinegar from my fingers.
I moaned at the first intimate touch.
“Control yourself my dear.” He said to me in a low voice.
I nodded my head and let him feed a smear of mashed potatoes to me. I sucked the creamy concoction from his fingers and saw his eyes darken as I did so. He next gave me a piece of steak he tore from the meat and chewed as he watched my jaw work.
We fed each other until our food was gone and a man came in to take our plates. Hale dismissed the man for the night and he nodded his head in acknowledgment before leaving the room. Hale turned to me, no words yet to be spoken and looked at me.
“You are beautiful Tessa. As beautiful as Kaia and Cora, if not more beautiful. You are also mine. My mate. Will you undress for me?”
I’d shivered as he spoke and I was certain my dress would reveal a telltale damp mark as I stood. That dinner had been an exercise in control and more than once Hale had to remind me to maintain control. I knew what I was in for, what was coming. Somehow, those dreams, as crazy as it sounded, must have been real. They had to have been. And now here he was, about to take me on the wildest trip of my life. I stood knowing that I could say no, that I could leave at any time, and the slightest word from me would stop anything more that was about to happen.
I slid my hands over my unfettered breasts, and up to the tie. I pulled the silken bonds apart and
let the material pool at my feet. As I freed myself from the restraints of the dress Hale stood, a set of handcuffs in his hand.
“You only get those when you ask for them.” He said as he turned me to face the table. He lifted me, settling me on the edge as he stared at the panties I still wore.
Lifting my hips he pulled the lace away, revealing a thin strip of hair that only ran so far. The rest of me was bare. Placing my feet on a chair Hale spread my legs wide apart and I leaned back on the table. He gazed down at my body for a moment, admiring it, before his hands slid up my waist, his body bending to look at me closer.
His lips barely brushed my flesh, his tongue darting out as he reached my right nipple. His fingers followed the path his tongue blazed, and as he moved his mouth to my right nipple, his fingers found my left. My hips jolted as twin bolts of pleasure burned down to my stomach and I gasped. He sucked at the tender flesh, harder, harder, until I was moaning in pleasure.
I hadn’t said anything yet but as my pleasure built, I wanted to scream his name. I wanted to say so many dirty things, words I’d never said aloud before. Then his right hand moved, down to my hot center. His fingers slid through my folds, finding the beating heart of me before sliding down. With a probing touch his two middle fingers slid into me as his thumb stroked at my clit.
“Hale!” I finally couldn’t hold the word back. His mouth sucked at my nipple while his fingers worked me below.
I felt something, something I’d never felt before, a burning, aching, thrumming, squeezing pleasure that made me want to reach for me. I’d never even touched myself so this was all new to me and I had no idea what was right or wrong. But I knew this need was primal, this urge was millennia old and could not be stopped.
As Hale’s fingers plunged into me over and over, my body writhing beneath him, he broke away to speak to me.
“Not yet, my flower, not yet.” He urged me, his fingers speeding up as if to contradict his words. “Hold back for me just a little while longer.”
I tried to move away from his pressing thumb but he only sought me out, his digit pressing harder, more frantically in an erotic pattern I had not known existed. I sobbed as his thumb and fingers pleasured me, his mouth going to my other nipple to wake it up, to ease the itch it now had.
How could I hold back if he pushed me harder? My thighs squeezed together in a last ditch effort to stop the pleasure filling my body but that had the opposite effect and my body convulsed as the first orgasm of my life broke over me.
“Hale!” I sobbed his name again, my word an apology and a plea for more.
His fingers didn’t stop and he gave a pleased chuckle as he felt his fingers being squeezed. “I could stop this, but I won’t. It’s your first time. That tight little pussy of yours tells me so.”
His words set me off again and I clawed at his shoulders, needing to hold onto something as my body once again took off, pleasure making my muscles contract in ways I didn’t know it could do. My hips writhed, my back arched, and my face contorted, all things I could not control and did not want to. My mate gave me this and I took all of it he could give me.
As the pleasure started to ebb, an idea formed. I remembered those handcuffs and his words. Only when I asked him to.
I remembered the dream, the way I’d felt as he’d taken me and looked over at them.
His eyes caught mine staring at the restraints and he picked them up. “Now?”
“Yes, please. Make me yours.” I asked, my voice certain and strong. I looked into his eyes and asked for the love he promised me.
Hale pulled me from the table and turned me to face it. His hand pushed down at my neck and I lowered my body to the table, pushing my arms behind my back. He latched the cold metal over my wrists and pulled to ensure they were secure.
This was really going to happen!
I’d never felt so safe, so secure, so loved in my entire life. I know it had only been a little over 24 hours but this felt right, it felt good, and most of all it felt like it was meant to be. As Hale undressed behind me, then ran his hand down my back I wondered if that dream had been real, if there had been something to it. Was the man one of these mythical shifters? Could the bend space and time? Had we lived those days and months in those dreams? I certainly felt as though we had.
My thought returned to the man behind me as his tongue found my wet slit once more. His lips sucked at my labia, his tongue diving into the crevice to lick up my juices. I squirmed for a moment and he stood. His right hand held the cuffs, pressing my hands into my back as his other hand guided his hard length into me.
Slowly he worked the hard inches of his flesh into me, filling me slowly. I gasped at the sensation, new and unique but familiar and comforting. Then Hale was moving inside of me and I stilled, letting him set the pace. He leaned up over me, still grasping at the cuffs, and growled into my ear.
“Mine.” With that one word my world exploded once more and Hale followed after me, his body driving into mine in a frantic pace that spoke of desperation, need, and love.
I felt his hot bursts as he filled my womb with his seed, his body shuddering behind me as he let out a wild groan of passion and fulfilment.
“Mine.” He whispered once more as he bent over me, his breath ragged and labored.
When he caught his breath once more he carried me up to his bedroom and explored our new world with me. We talked of things to come, of what we would do together, and how to ease me into his world. I fell asleep finally happy, finally free of my own self-doubt and loathing. I was stepping into a world I did not fully understand but with Hale to guide me, I knew we’d be able to make it. As he settled into sleep and the light of the moon broke through the window I could no longer hold back my curiosity and slid the covers down from his back. There, shining back at me in the moonlight, was a frame of trees and a moon, within it a proudly standing bear, arms open wide.
Chapter 4
The next day Hale drove me back to the resort in his ATV, our bodies closer than they’d been yesterday. Our souls were mated now and our physical selves were close, but our souls were much closer. We drove into the resort and he parked the ATV. Helping me down he pushed my hair back from my face where the wind had pulled it free from its tie.
“That’s the beautiful girl I saw that first day. You stole my heart that day. Will you come back with me tonight? Bring your things and you can stay with me forever. Just move in and later we’ll get your things from home. Or is it too soon?”
I hesitated, like a fool, I hesitated. Not because I had doubts but because I knew it was going to be a headache and I didn’t want to leave my job, I loved my job! I looked at him for a moment and saw his heart break.
“I can’t just decide to leave my job. I’m a teacher. I have responsibilities.” I told him, giving him my first protest.
“I’ll take care of you. I have enough money to support a village. That’s not a problem.” Hale responded.
“But I like my job.” I protested once more.
“You can work here, we have schools.”
“Alright. That’s an idea. I’ll tell you this evening. I have to think about it. It’s a big step for me. I just have to wrap my head around all of this, Hale. It’s not you. I’ve never done anything like this, I’ve never lived with a man, and I’d never even had sex until last night. I just need to assimilate it all for a few hours. I’ll see you this evening, alright?” I moved closer, wanting him to understand.
“Of course darling, I’m sorry. I should have thought. Of course, take your time. I’ll be here waiting, for eternity if I have to.” He smiled as he said the words and pulled me close for a kiss. That was our last kiss.
Three months later, I was sitting in a doctor’s office, stunned and unable to take in the enormity of what had just been said to me. I looked at the results of the test and my heart sank. What was I going to do now? Life as I knew it was about to end.
I went home and thought about the last few months, and those
final moment of my life at the resort. I’d gone up to my room to change and found my phone filled with messages and missed calls. I’d rushed out of the resort, leaving notes for Cora, Kaia, and Hale as none of them were to be found. My mother had been rushed to the hospital with a suspected heart attack and I’d gone home to be with her.
Mom had recovered but it had been a long road so far. That road had been made harder for me by the lack of response from Hale. I hadn’t heard from him since that day, not a word. Between work and going home to take care of Mom I hadn’t had time to talk to Cora or Kaia. I hadn’t heard from any of them in three months now. I knew the ladies were fine from their social media but nothing about Hale.
Mom was recovering now and I was spending more nights at my own house than at hers now but I’d been feeling tired, run down, and just off. Mom insisted I go to the doctor and take care of myself. I’d expected to hear that I was stressed, that my nerves were shattered, not the news I’d received. But it was there, in black and white.
I was pregnant.
Whether he’d abandoned me or not Hale deserved to know about this. I arranged for a nurse to go and stay with Mom and drove down to the Singing Stones Resort one more time. He at least deserved to know he had a child on the way.
In my time away from Hale I’d learned quite a lot about myself. I no longer thought I was a troll that didn’t deserve to be loved or that I was so disgusting I needed to hide every inch of my flesh. I’d figured out my conservative streak had more to do with my own self-hate than anything else. I’d learned to wear clothes that highlighted my good qualities and hid the ones I’d rather not show off. I delighted in who I was and became a more open person.
He’d given me that much at least. I won’t lie and say his rejection didn’t break my heart, because it did, I felt like a piece of me was missing. I had, however, learned to live without that piece of me. Kind of. But he’d given me a new piece, something else to look forward to and to love. The idea was sinking in now. I was going to have a baby. Probably a shifter baby. I didn’t know how any of this worked but I’d figure it out as we went along.
Kane (Alexander Shifter Brothers Book 1) Page 83