Mated: A Paranormal Romance Shifter Anthology
Page 13
Sam snorted. “Oh, that makes me feel much better.” He nudged her knee with his, the hair on his legs prickly against her skin. Having him close made her feel calmer, despite the strong urge to rub her nose in his beard.
“What happens now? We stay here, you show me the ropes, then what? How do I even do it? This morning, Bren went ‘poof’ and there he was.”
He shrugged. “There’s no good way to explain it. You’ve already felt it, that overwhelming, almost coming-out-of-your-skin feeling? That’s the shift trying to happen without your control. You want to avoid that. But that’s the energy you call up when you want to do it.”
“And you stay in control, even when you’re—?” She couldn’t bring herself to say the word yet.
“A wolf? You’re still aware, yeah, and you control when you shift back.” He leaned back on his palms. “Depending on who you ask, we’re descended from legendary warriors the gods imbued with the ability to shift for battle, who stood guard over the wounded and traveled into literal hell to bring back food during famines, or we’re descended from clanless boys who raided cattle and spent too much time out in the open, exposed and vulnerable to wayward magic that turned them feral. It wouldn’t do you much good in either case if you lost your human consciousness in the process.”
“No, I guess it wouldn’t.”
“Do you want to try it?” He nudged her knee with his again, his expression almost mischievous.
“What, now?”
“That’s part of why we’re here, so you can learn to shift safely. Come on. It’ll feel good to run off some of the nervous energy, I promise.”
“What if I get stuck?”
“You won’t.”
“Promise?”
“I promise, you won’t get stuck.” He got to his feet and pulled his shirt over his head. “You will need to take off your clothes, though.”
“Wait, what?” He’d distracted her with his bare chest.
Sam chuckled. “You should see your face. The clothes don’t go with you when you shift. I’ll turn around, but you’re going to have to get naked. Unless you want to struggle your way out of your underwear when you have no thumbs.”
She laughed at the mental image of a wolf stuck in her bra and panties. “Okay. Turn around.” Sam turned his back. “You’re coming with me, though, right?”
“I’ll wait for you to shift and I’ll follow, okay?”
“Okay.”
Callie shucked her clothes and left them in a neat pile on the steps. Sam’s voice behind her told her to call on the restlessness, the desire to run, and let it take over. She remembered her dream of running through the woods, the feel of the dirt under her feet, the smell of pine branches brushing past her face, and she let the urge to run flood her system. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Restless energy rolled over her skin in a cold wave, her skin prickling with goose bumps as her shoulders bunched and stretched. Her back arched as the prickling feeling traveled up her skull in pins and needles that made her hair stand on end. Her hands hit the ground with a soft thump and when she opened her eyes, she instinctively knew she had done it.
“Good job.”
A voice, her favorite voice, behind her. Sam, Sam, Sam. She trotted over and rubbed against his leg, down her spine from nose to tail. His bare leg, all the way up. The first time since they were little kids she saw Sam naked and she wasn’t even human.
The next thing she felt was a nose under her chin, a greeting, then a check to her shoulder. His meaning was clear. Let’s go. She followed. She’d follow him anywhere.
* * *
Sam ran ahead. He’d take her to the tree line and back down; exhaustion was good for a wolf. The more tired she was, the more control she could hope to have over the urge to shift. Callie caught up easily and nudged his chin with her nose. She kept pace with him, her body brushing against his as they ran. She was goddamn flirting with him. But it wasn’t Callie. Callie had no idea this was courtship behavior, that her wolf was doing her damnedest to provoke the wild, feral part of him into staking a claim on her.
He wouldn’t do it. Maybe he needed the exhaustion as much as she did. He sprinted in a final push to a clearing and dropped in a patch of grass under the scrubby pine trees, bent and twisted from the wind howling through the mountains all winter long. He shifted and lay naked and panting in the grass, the air, brighter and crisper up here than down in the valley, drying the sweat from his skin.
Callie dropped next to him and rolled onto her back. Her shift rippled through the grass as her body took shape and settled into place beside him. He turned away from her, allowing her a measure of modesty if she wanted it.
“That was fun.”
He smiled to himself. “Good.”
“I didn’t know it was a race, though.” She poked her toes into the back of his calf.
“Callie—”
“I know what she’s up to, I’m not stupid. Flirting is kind of universal, I guess.”
“It’s not that simple.”
She groaned. “I know, I’m sorry. You don’t have to say it. I’m like a kid sister and you’re only here because you’re supposed to be watching out for me.”
He heard the hurt in her voice, hated rejecting her, hated the voice in his own head crying, She’s ours! She wants us! Take her! But he let it go. Better for her to be temporarily hurt than be stuck with him for life. She might understand flirting and desire, but she had no idea what it would mean to him, that he would be fighting the voice begging him to claim her, to make her his. It would never be as simple for him as a quick fuck to get it out of their systems.
“Come on, I’ll race you down to the cabin.” He shifted and waited for her to follow, then ran for his life back down the mountain.
He was on the porch and fully dressed by the time she trotted up the steps. Sam opened the door for her and nodded her into the room. “You can change and get dressed inside. I’ll wait out here.”
She slunk into the cabin and Sam sat on the steps, praying he would be able to make dinner and put her to bed without a fight. He didn’t know how many more times he could push her away before he broke. The door creaked on its spring but he kept his eyes on the water rushing over the stones in front of him.
She sat on the step above him in shorts and a flannel shirt. She leaned back on her hands, thrusting her small breasts up, the two round swells of flesh perched on her rib cage, right at his eye level. “That was not a fair race.”
“You weren’t that far behind.” He stood before he could pull her into his lap and stick his face in her tits, her neck, leave a trail of bite marks on her skin. “I’m going to get a fire going for dinner.”
Callie grabbed his arm before he made it two steps. “Wait.” He stopped but didn’t turn around. Callie stepped in front of him and slipped her hand into his. “I’m sorry I keep throwing myself at you.”
“It’s okay. You’re not yourself.” He wanted to hug her, soothe whatever hurt or shame she was feeling, but he pulled his hand from hers instead. “You don’t know what you’re doing.”
“Goddammit, stop talking to me like I’m a child,” she growled, and balled her fists. “You said you don’t want me to hate you when this is over, but I’m going to fucking hate you right now if you won’t stop telling me I’m not myself, like I’m not in my own head. I hear that voice, but it’s my voice. She’s a part of me. And this is never going to be over. Unless there’s some miracle cure you haven’t told me about, this is it. I’m one of you.”
“And I will always be sorry. No one should have to go through this without warning, without a choice.”
“Oh my God, that is not my point.” She raised her hands like she wanted to push him, but settled for stomping a foot instead.
His own frustration bubbled over to meet hers. “What do you
want me to do? Take you to bed only to have you regret it later when you realize it was only because you were desperate and I was convenient?”
“If you don’t want me, fucking say it. Don’t try to make it sound like you’re being all noble and trying to spare our friendship.”
She stood there, practically vibrating she was so pissed off, and he couldn’t lie to her. “Callie, I have always wanted you. But you don’t want me, not really.”
She closed her eyes and took a deep breath through lungs that two nights ago had been filling with blood, drowning her from the inside. “You’re an idiot. Why did you never make a move? You treated me like your kid sister.”
“I had to. It’s complicated.”
Callie sat back down on the porch. “Un-complicate it.”
He sat on the ground across from her, ready to bore her with pack politics until she calmed down. “My family is one of a handful of packs in northern New England, and those families created a council generations ago as a form of self-governance and protection of our interests. My dad is on the council because he’s the leader of our family, pack alpha, whatever you want to call it. I’m expected to take his seat when he retires or dies, whatever comes first. Probably death.”
She didn’t laugh at his lame attempt at a joke. “You’re not the oldest, though. What about Ryan? And what does any of that have to do with me and you?”
“We don’t choose succession by age order. Ryan—Ryan isn’t cut out for leadership.”
She let out a soft huff. “I see your point.”
His older brother shirked responsibility like water off a duck’s back. Ryan was far happier teaching kids how to snowboard and hitting on their moms at the lodge over spiked hot chocolates. “Exactly. So it’s on me. And I’ve always been expected to pair off with a woman from another pack.”
“That’s never stopped you from hooking up with anyone.”
“Yeah, hooking up. I’ve never really dated anyone. I’ve never lied about being available long-term. And you... I never wanted to risk losing you as a friend.” And having to leave her to be with someone for the sake of clan alliances would have broken him. Could still break him.
“What if I don’t care? Don’t I get a say? What if all I want right now is to get this out of my system? It all comes back to you thinking you know what’s best for me. Or that I’m going to be some poor, pathetic girl who falls hopelessly in love with you and you’re going to break my heart.”
“That’s not what I meant. I never wanted to screw this up.”
“It’s pretty fucking screwed up now, don’t you think?” She cocked an eyebrow at him. “How much worse can we make it? I want you, you want me.” She shrugged. “Let’s agree that whatever happens, we were friends first and this was probably inevitable, whether by booze or wolfiness, so why not make the best of it while it lasts?”
She made a deranged kind of sense. Except it was never her heart breaking he was worried about. If they did this, he would never be the same. But when she bit the corner of her lip and offered herself to him, even if it was only temporary, his senses fled. Sam did the only thing he had left to do. He got up, brushed the pine needles and dirt from his pants, hoisted her over his shoulder and took her to bed.
Chapter Five
Callie squealed when he dropped her ass-first onto the bed. The old springs protested loudly as she bounced and she blushed, saw Sam’s cheeks go pink, averted her eyes and promptly burst into a fit of nervous giggling.
“We don’t have to do this. I can take a walk if you need to relieve some tension.” His waggling eyebrows only made her laugh harder.
“Yeah, that worked out real well this morning,” she said as she brushed her hair out of her face.
“What did you do after I left?”
Her face flamed. “I imagined something like this.”
“Like this how?” He moved in closer to her, framing her body with his, but not touching her yet.
“You, throwing me on a bed.”
Sam rubbed her neck with his nose, from her collarbone to the tip of her chin. “We got that far. What else did you picture?”
She bunched her fingers into the rough wool of the blanket. “I didn’t get much further. You were rough. I liked it.”
Sam nipped her earlobe. “Is that what you want? You want me to be rough?”
“You bit me. It was—” Her voice died in her throat as he bit down where her neck curved to meet her shoulder.
“Like that?”
“Harder. And from behind.”
Sam closed his eyes and growled low in the back of his throat. He opened them and his heavy gaze traveled her body, like it was his hands tracing her skin. She squirmed under him, still not touching, something inside her telling her that Sam had to be in control. He pinned her in place when his eyes met hers.
“This is your last chance. If you say no right now, I will walk out of here and take a very long bath in the very cold river and we can pretend this never happened. If you don’t, if you say yes, I will strip you naked and fuck you hard until neither of us can move.”
She heard his heart thumping, saw the tension in his face and the lines of his body. “Yes. Please.”
He groaned and lowered himself onto his elbows, pressing his hips and his chest to hers, his hard cock notched at the apex of her thighs, and for the first time, their lips met. He fit his mouth on hers and cupped her chin in his hands and kissed her. He nipped at her bottom lip and she opened her mouth to him, his tongue soothing the bite before he slipped into her mouth and claimed it. A soft hum of satisfaction escaped her throat and he growled back at her.
He pulled back and traced her swollen lips with his thumb, eyes full of fire and possession. “Callie,” he whispered, in a voice not entirely his own.
She shivered, arousal and a sliver of fear making her belly clench. Sam lifted a corner of his mouth and sat back on his heels. He pulled his shirt by the neck up and over his head, revealing his muscular chest with its short brown hair that darkened into a line down his belly. Sam had been shirtless in front of her a thousand times, but never like this, never this close and never anticipating the feel of his naked torso against hers. She’d never followed that trail of dark hair to its conclusion, at the base of the cock that was currently straining the zipper of his shorts. She swallowed audibly.
He smirked at her again and leaned forward to put his hands on her belly, inching up the hem of her shirt. Everything about his touch was new but familiar at the same time, and perfect. His work-rough hands scratched the tender skin he exposed as he moved from hip to waist to ribs, bunching the soft flannel up around her breasts. He bent his head and kissed her softly rounded stomach before he bit the crest of her hip and took the tails of her shirt in his hands and wrenched it apart. Snap buttons. No bra.
Callie giggled. “I knew there was a reason I packed this shirt.”
Sam answered by biting her nipple and pulling back, making her hiss with pain and pleasure. He cupped her other breast and pinched with his fingers, rolling and pulling on her tender nipple while he let the other one go from between his teeth. Every touch echoed between her legs. She wriggled her hips under him, grinding against his leg, trying to find purchase, friction.
He wrapped an arm around her waist to lift her up and out of her shirt while he bit and sucked at her neck, the hair on his chest tickling her nipples. Callie scratched down his back and gripped his hips, touching him at last; he groaned and bit down harder on her flesh. They would both be marked by the time they were done.
He pushed her onto her back and kissed her, sliding his hand down the slope of her belly to the button of her shorts. He unfastened it and spread the zipper, dipping his hands down over her panties. She opened to him without being asked, and he rewarded her with a firm swipe of his fingers across her clit.
/> He drew his hand away and she whimpered in protest. Sam sliding down her body and pulling her shorts off while he pressed his nose to her pussy through her panties produced a different kind of whimper. He teased her, almost naked but for a scrap of pale blue cotton, breathing in the smell of her, tapping her clit with his nose, his tongue, his fingers while she clutched at the blankets and writhed.
“Please, you’re killing me.”
He bit her thigh, but pulled her panties down. “No turning back,” he said as he swept her pussy open with his fingers and groaned.
“No turning back. Please.”
He pushed one finger inside, then two, and pressed her clit with his thumb. “What makes you come? Is it this?” He curled his fingers inside her, stretching her, teasing the perfect spot. She moaned in pleasure, but it wouldn’t make her come. “Or this?” He sawed his thumb over her clit, every hard brush like a bolt of lightning and she wailed. “This, then.” He kept sliding his thumb while he pumped his fingers in and out of her vagina. “I want you to come. Will you come for me?”
She writhed on his hand, panting and groaning, her thighs tensed, her toes pointed, and it ripped through her, leaving her panting and shaking. Sam stopped rubbing her clit and pulled his fingers from inside her. The sight of him licking them clean, eyes closed in pleasure, was almost enough to set her on the way to another orgasm.
“Last chance.”
She shook her head. “I want this. Fuck, do I want this.”
“Thank God.” He lay down next to her and pulled a condom from his pocket before he unbuttoned his shorts and kicked them off.
“Oh, and you happen to have condoms on you?”
“I had every intention of being noble. But I did learn when I was a kid you should always be prepared.”
Callie turned on her side and scooted back. She wanted to look at him like he’d looked at her, to touch him, to learn what he liked, to make him come with her hands or her mouth. She reached for him, wanting to take the thick length of his cock in her palm, to feel how hot and hard he was, but he pushed her away and rolled on the condom.