It’s okay, little wolf, just breathe. We can run in a moment, and that will help, but just breathe now, Cade’s voice sounded in her head.
She blinked her new eyes, eyes that took in everything around her, including the wolf in front of her, the wolf that she was suddenly sure was Cade. Cade?
The wolf nuzzled her again and gave her a push to get her on her feet, all four of them. That should have been weird, but somehow wasn’t. She also noted with some relief that the pain was gone. Blessedly, wonderfully gone. She was shaky, and really, really freaked out, but that was tempered by the fact that the debilitating pain of the last several hours was gone and replaced with just a lingering weakness. She tried to talk and it just came out like more of the same puppy noises that she had made earlier followed by a hesitant bark.
Cade lowered his head toward the ground, making a chuffing noise that sounded suspiciously like laughter to her new wolf ears. His eyes shone with amusement as his tail wagged. You are one cute little wolf, but we are going to have to teach you how to sound like one.
Cade? What the hell just happened? If he could talk inside of her head, she supposed she could give it a go and try to talk into his.
You shifted, Marybeth. Now, let’s run. That suddenly sounded like the best idea that she had ever heard. Her legs wanted to run, her heart and head wanted to run. Her soul wanted to run. She looked up at the sky that seemed to glow with moonlight and stars and at the shimmering cottonwoods that were singing to her, their leaves rattling in the wind. Run, run.
So, she ran, right past Cade, and toward the rabbit she had heard earlier. It flushed out and she gave chase, watching with some awe as Cade easily overtook her and then grabbed the rabbit in his jaws before it could find another hiding place. She supposed she should be grossed out by that, watching him dart and then strike, breaking the creature’s neck, but she wasn’t. She felt…proud. She felt elated. She felt…good. So good, she couldn’t remember the last time she had felt this good. She pranced around Cade as he came up to her with his prize, leaning first on her right then on her left. He stood before her and cocked his head to the side, studying her, and she did what her instinct told her to do. She lowered her head and sank to the ground, waiting for him to come closer. She didn’t question it. It just seemed like what she should do, and felt a little wolfish shiver when her actions brought out a low, purring growl from the wolf in front of her.
Little wolf… The words sounded growly even in her head… Look at me, little wolf. She did so, but stayed on the ground, just shyly raising her eyes and stretching out her neck, baring it before him. He dropped the rabbit in front of her and padded closer, nosing her fur right under her ears, which felt unbelievably good.
Cade didn’t know quite what to make of his little wolf, Marybeth. She had no idea what was happening to her mere minutes earlier, but now looked like she had been born a wolf, submissively waiting for him on the ground as he brought over the rabbit she had flushed out. He didn’t sense any fear or confusion in her now, or any actual submission for that matter. Just…joy. He nuzzled his nose into the fur on her neck again, delighting in how soft she was, how good she smelled. Are you hungry, little wolf? Or would you like to run some more?
I think I want to run. Her head rose off the ground and they rubbed together for a moment, in the manner of wolves of the same pack. She felt so familiar to him now. So right.
Okay, let’s run. There would be time for explanations and answers to the inevitable questions later. Cade took off along the river bank, skipping and jumping over logs and branches, stopping and crouching playfully when she caught up to him. They ran like that for a while, Cade moving ahead and then letting her catch up to tag her and then run forward again. Eventually, he circled back around to where he had left their clothes and flopped down panting. Time to shift back.
Marybeth followed behind and circled around where he lay, not stopping, but not running anymore either. He watched her for a moment, letting his wolf eyes take in the moonlight glinting off her fur as it set over the river. God she was a beauty, her ginger coat taking on fiery highlights, reflecting the moon. He shifted back to his human skin, letting his muscles stretch out and contract, and did so as slowly as possible, letting her watch.
“Your turn, lovely little wolf.” He smiled lazily at her, knowing from experience that this was the easy part. All the pain that went into shifting into the wolf somehow didn’t translate to shifting out. She blinked at him a few times and then shimmered, her fur disappearing as his had, in almost an instant, until she was a gloriously naked girl, panting next to him on the ground. He just couldn’t stop his hand from coming up and stroking back her curls, which were slightly wet with perspiration. “You did so amazingly well.” His hand stayed there as he waited for her reaction. She didn’t push him away and he wasn’t inclined to leave.
Marybeth supposed she should have been a little freaked out—she had just changed into a wolf and then back again for heaven’s sake—but she just couldn’t get over grinning with joy long enough to be upset. That had to have been the most spectacular experience of her life, and not just because it came after one of the most horribly painful ones either.
“Wow. Just…wow. I don’t even…how…” She knew she wasn’t making any sense, but she wasn’t sure she cared. She leaned into Cade’s hand, feeling more connected to him than anyone else in her life, past or present. Which was actually a little weird, but felt too good to worry about. Usually she would have been embarrassed to be naked with a guy, even one she had slept with, but right now she wasn’t at all, and maybe it was her and maybe it was the hot glint of desire she could see in his eyes and maybe it was a bit of both. Didn’t matter. She just wasn’t freaked. She was happy. “Sooooo…werewolf, huh?”
Cade’s hand momentarily tightened in her hair before he let go and sank back to the ground propping himself up on his elbows. He looked up at the sky and setting moon.
“Yep. Though usually, this is not, and I stress this part, not how one is made into a wolf.” He looked up at her as she sat up beside him. “You should never have been bitten like that, and you should never have spent even a moment of your first shift alone.” His hand reached out and took one of hers, bringing it to his lips in a gentle kiss. “I am so sorry that happened, baby.”
“How did that happen?” Marybeth was too enchanted to pull her hand out of his grasp. No one had ever kissed her hand before. So romantic. Which was weird since they were both just recently canines of the wild variety and hadn’t possessed hands, and not weird since they were indeed, both naked and it was kind of romantic. That this powerful creature would kiss her hand now was almost unbearably erotic and she thought that it had to be unintentional. She understood now, as she had understood on their amazing run by the river, that Cade had been trying to help her this whole time, and she felt foolish about thinking he had been trying to kidnap her. Sure, it was a logical assumption if one didn’t take into account supernatural werewolf behavior, but one that just seemed odd to her now with his scent in her nose and his hand in hers. She felt as safe as she had ever felt in her life. The state of their undress didn’t even bother her, and that was truly weird given that she was kind of an admitted prude when it came to her own body. She seldom showed off her physical assets, generous though they were, but now, after what they had just experienced it seemed a far-off concern.
Still holding her hand, cradling it in his on his chest, Cade studied her through lowered lashes. He chuckled. She really was remarkable, his Marybeth. His? Couldn’t be his. He didn’t even know her last name, for crying out loud. Sounded good, though. His wolf huffed in satisfaction, prowling around inside his skull wanting to run more with her. The fact that she was not panicking about actually being a werewolf was intriguing to him. He figured most people in her position wouldn’t just be sitting next to the river with a guy they barely knew buck ass naked. He wasn’t sure what they would be doing, but pretty sure it wouldn’t be that. Unlike him, an
d every other shifter he knew who was bitten rather than born, she hadn’t asked for it, hadn’t been prepared for it. Yet here she was, grinning at him, at the moon, at the water. She was glorious. He went back to her question. “Honestly, I just don’t know, other than you were bitten by a were and now, well, now here you are.” He squeezed her hand again.
“A were? Is that what you guys call yourselves? Weres?”
“Yep. And it’s not ‘you guys.’ It’s us. You, little wolf, are pack.” He started playing with her fingers. “Well, if you want to be, you could be pack. Though there would be complications if you decided you didn’t want to be part of this pack. You could be a lone wolf, but that seldom works long term. We,” Cade gestured between the two of them, “and all other wolves need contact with other wolves, whether on two legs or four.” He stroked her arm now, fascinated anew by the light smattering of freckles he found there. Her skin was so soft, her arm was so soft. Before he even knew what he was doing Cade had pressed his nose against her and inhaled her fragrance near her collarbone. So lovely, so feminine. “God, you smell good.”
He realized she had tensed up and made himself back off. “Sorry. Just, with the run and you… Yeah, sorry.” He let her go and settled back against the grass, not bothering to hide his erection. Where was he going to hide it? He glanced over at her and immediately noted where her wide eyes were drawn. Smirking, he waved a palm in front of his groin. “My eyes are up here, sweetheart.”
With a blush her red hair and pale skin couldn’t possibly hide, her eyes jerked up to his face. “Okay, sorry, it just…” She paused, gnawing on her lower lip. “I mean, Jesus, how do you even get that thing in your pants?” Her eyes widened again, and Cade figured she probably hadn’t meant to say that out loud. She blushed again, and Cade was fascinated by the color that flowed over her full breasts. He had never noticed a woman blushing before. Hell, he didn’t think he knew any other woman who blushed, period.
Cade cleared his throat, feeling his cock throb and jump on his stomach. God, just her looking at him, and that blush. He wanted to fuck her, right now, but he couldn’t…could he? It wouldn’t be okay, she wasn’t used to how it was with shifters, the sexual nature of the moon. She had had enough to deal with for one night. He closed his eyes and tried to think of something, anything that would get his stupid dick to behave. Laundry lists, oil prices, cleaning the grease trap at the bar. His eyes snapped open when her hand landed on his chest right between his pecs and threaded in the hair there.
“Marybeth,” his voice was a low growl, filled with sexual aggression, “you should know that I am hanging on by a thread here, woman, and what you’re doin’ now is not the way to get back to the truck with your virtue intact.”
Okay, he tried reason. Not that he was going to move her hand or jump up and put on his pants or anything. He was only human…well, partially. He had also been given a whole lot of temptation. A wolf can only take so much. He had just watched that very fuckable ass shimmy around when she shifted, and heaven help him, her scent was getting stronger. Much stronger.
“Unless you want to end up on your back out here under the moon, you should put on your clothes. I don’t want to scare you but I can’t help but want you. You’re like every wet dream I’ve ever had and we just shifted, which, by the way, is going to make you horny, so unless you want to be fucked…” He let the sentence trail off waiting for a response. He didn’t wait for long.
“Okay.”
Chapter Four
Honestly, Marybeth didn’t know exactly what she was doing, but lord help her, she wasn’t going to just let him get her all hot and bothered and then play the white knight. She didn’t need a gentleman right now. Her skin was burning again, but she didn’t feel the need to shift like she had before. She felt a need for contact, contact with Cade. Marybeth didn’t know if it was something to do with being a new werewolf or whether it was just Cade himself, but she wanted him, wanted him all over her, inside her. She realized she had never truly desired a man before. If this was desire, she had only felt a pale shadow of it.
Cade’s breathing was coming in pants, like they had just come out of their run. His face was full of a sexual aggression that took her breath away. No one had ever looked at her like that before, like they would die if they didn’t touch her, didn’t have her. She moved her hand down his chest over his abs watching in fascination as every hard muscle along the way jumped and rippled.
“Out of time, sweetheart.” He practically growled it at her as Marybeth suddenly found herself on her back in the grass, her hands in one of Cade’s over her head, his body straddling hers. She had never felt so contained, confined, constrained and so turned on at the same time. Cade growled, sounding like the wolf he was. He ran his face along her body, from her rib cage to her jawline, inhaling deeply. “Mmmm…you smell incredible, little wolf.” He followed his comment with a long lick of his raspy tongue, over her neck and jaw and onto her lips where he was surprisingly gentle. She had expected him to pry her mouth apart and kiss her hard, but instead it was a gentle lick, a series of little kisses and when she did open he hovered for a moment, sharing her breath. His eyes were wolf gold when he stared into hers, owning the moment. She would have done anything for him right then, anything.
“Say you want this, that you want me…I need to hear you say it.” His hips pushed against hers, his cock branding her thigh with heat—a kind of alarming amount of her thigh. Jesus Christ, that is never going to fit inside of me. Marybeth was kind of a size queen when it came to guys but even she felt a little intimidated. She didn’t answer right away, couldn’t, was too overwhelmed with everything she was feeling, with everything that had happened. She closed her eyes, trying to find some sort of internal anchor before they took that final step. She wanted him, yeah, could barely breathe with the need to have him inside her, but, lord, it wasn’t like she needed to jump off any more emotional cliffs tonight, and she had a hard enough time disassociating sex and emotion.
“Marybeth.” The tone of his voice was commanding, gaining the attention of both the woman and the wolf inside, and that was weird enough to snap her eyes open. There was a wolf, an entire other being that was part of her, but still separate, inside her. And that wolf? It wanted Cade as well. It wanted his wolf. It also wanted to roll on its belly and be totally dominated and that…well, as great as the whole thing felt, she really wasn’t on board with that. Mr. Bossy was going to have to learn some manners. She yanked on her hands, with little effect, and huffed out a breath.
“What?” Her irritation came through in her tone.
Cade grinned down at her. He flexed his hips, drawing a groan out of her. “There, there, little wolf, no reason to get techy.” He repeated the move, angling himself over her mound so that his cock pushed against her clit, making her catch her breath. She growled, surprising herself. What the fuck? Did I just growl?
“Isn’t that a sexy sound?” He nuzzled her neck, nipping at the tendons there at the base. “But you need to answer the question, honey.” He was all serious, his eyes glowing into hers, reflective like the wolf he was. “I don’t want you to regret this tomorrow, along with everything else that has happened. I want you to see what I see, how beautiful this all is. How joyful. How running as your wolf, howling at the moon, and fucking next to the river are being alive like you have never been before.” He kissed her lips gently. “You belong with that beauty, that joy, that brilliant bit of life. Let me share it with you, but want it, Marybeth. Want me.” There was a yearning in his voice that did more than his words ever could, though the words did touch her.
“Let go of my hands, Cade.”
Dammit. She wants me to let her go. Fuck him, he was going to do it, too. He was not the kind of guy who would force a girl, no matter how far things had progressed or whether his balls were going to be an attractive shade of Smurfy blue. He let go of her hands and made to roll off her, but found himself on his back with her on top, both of his hands in hers an
d pinned to the ground. Even with her newly discovered strength, which was super-hot, he could have easily broken free but he wasn’t a stupid wolf. He lay there and waited to see what she would do next, hoping that she wouldn’t make him wait long.
Marybeth growled again, sending his blood pressure sky rocketing, and then she rubbed her wet mound along his length. “Just so we get this straight from the get-go, I am not a very submissive woman, despite the stupid wolf inside of me currently acting like a little wolfy slut.”
Cade growled back. He liked the sound of that. “Okay.” He arched up, pressing against her but not entering yet. “Just so we get this straight, I like strong women and don’t need a doormat in my life.” Yep, in his life. He went there. “How boring would that be? And just so we get this straight…” He flipped her over, causing her to yelp with a cute wolfish sound. Trapping her legs under one of his, he pushed her hands to either side of her head. “I’m not a doormat either.” He kissed her, with enough force that she knew he meant business, but not enough to hurt her. “Now that we have that settled…” He paused and rubbed against her, torturing them both with the friction and heat. “How about you let me inside?”
Her eyes scrunched closed and she was panting through her mouth. “Jesus Christ, if you don’t I’m probably going to die, actually die, so…” Cade didn’t let her finish the thought. He moved his legs in between hers, pushing her luscious thighs apart and began pushing into her channel. God, she was wet, and hot, and tight. She was unbelievably tight, like a fist around him and he had to struggle not to come right there.
“Ah, Marybeth…” He didn’t want to hurt her. He looked at her face, suffused with desire, desire for him. He gritted his teeth and entered her another inch, watching her face for signs of pain. “You’re so tight, baby. I don’t want to hurt you.” He rocked back and forth a couple of times, trying to ease his way in. He let go of her hands, which quickly started running up and down his back. “Wrap your legs around me, little wolf, open up…oh, yeah, just like that…” He rocked into her more, supporting his weight off of her with one forearm next to her head, and with the other one he reached between them and tweaked her nipples, causing her to jump a little and make the sexiest little mewling sounds. Oh, yeah, she likes that. He kept at it, rubbing her nipples and rocking into her a little at a time, until he was all the way in, her glorious body flexing around his entire length. It was so good, he thought he might pass out for a second, and took a couple of deep breaths, holding still while she squirmed underneath him.
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