“Thank you again Ms. Martin. I’ll see myself out.” I strode to the front door and turned the two locks and slid the chain free before exiting into the sunshine.
I drew my phone from my other back pocket and checked the time, 2 p.m., still plenty of daylight left to hunt this bastard down. Jade wouldn’t be happy with the slim lead but it was all we had.
The phone chirped in my hand and I jumped. Ev had changed the messaging tone to sound like birds. It was incredibly annoying and made my inner Eithina want to run and hunt, which had been his point.
Where R U? Dean’s message read.
“Shit!” I was supposed to be in a meeting. Like I said, booked solid.
Chapter 17
The night was just as hot as the afternoon had been which seemed unfair somehow. The grass at the Pack property in Delaware County was taller than it had been all spring. Once we got to the Manit site, the grass was flat, pounded down by hundreds of feet three times each month. Dean and I strode to the center of the circle and he clasped my hand in his, squeezing. I wasn’t in a long white gown this time but it felt just as strange.
Amelia, the Pack’s Utu or justice, stepped into the circle. Her long-flowing silver hair and white irises stared into us. She was literally blind but for some reason, I always thought she could see me just the same. She was going to have to touch me for this ceremony and I wasn’t looking forward to that prospect.
Part of her Utu magic enabled her to hear the Pack’s thoughts to search out justice and it was stronger through touch. The first time she’d read my thoughts, I had been accusing Jackson of hiring strays to kill me. Now, I wasn’t accusing anyone of murder but she still creeped me out. There were things I didn’t want her to know, things I wished I could forget. Sharing them with her, wasn’t top on my list. And I wasn’t sure how to keep her out.
“I won’t pry, I promise,” she whispered so no one else would hear.
“Damn it!” I stomped in frustration.
“Leave her alone, Amelia.” Dean’s growl of friendly warning didn’t have the usual conviction in it that he used when he threatened someone. It was gentle, respectful.
“As you wish, Gaoh,” Amelia said, a small smile tugging at the corners of her full chocolate-brown lips.
Every time he talked of her, his voice deepened and his entire body relaxed. She had been one of the few he’d allowed around him when Janey died all those years ago. Maybe that was my problem with her. Maybe I just didn’t like the way she had weaseled into his affection. What the hell was wrong with me? I wasn’t jealous of Amelia. I wasn’t.
“We can begin at your leisure,” Amelia said, her gaze darting from him to me with genuine contentedness lighting her expression as she grinned. I knew she heard the ramblings in my head but I couldn’t stop it and it didn’t seem to matter because her solid white eyes found me anyway, staring at me as if I were the second coming.
“Begin,” he said but I knew he was anxious, too, by the way he clutched at my hand, squeezing just a bit too tight. My knuckles ground together as he squeezed. I ran my hand up his tense forearm, petting the firm muscles under his tanned skin. His body was so warm and so strong, I couldn’t believe he was nervous.
“I’m okay,” I mouthed.
He breathed deep at my reassurance and relaxed. Releasing the death grip he had on my hand just a bit, he nodded.
“Welcome!” Amelia said, her rich alto carrying out over all the attendees.
The entire Pack had shown up and all 146 of them were as silent as the grave. A sense of them washed over me, anxious, excited, and ready. Their collective anticipation tingled the air around them to the point I could almost taste the electricity.
“We have never welcomed a true Eithina into our Pack, we do so tonight. Shift and welcome her.” Her voice was strong and demanded the Pack’s respect.
Clothes soared into the air as the pack stripped down to nothing. The quick pop of bones cracking and realigning, groans of pain, and giggles of pleasure filled the night.
“They’re so anxious,” I whispered, trying to keep my own eagerness to join in their fun under control. The Pack’s emotions were contagious and my Eithina wanted so much to join them, to run with them, to protect them, to lead them. “Be patient,” I hissed to her.
They are ours, she responded, a soft whisper through my mind.
“Not yet,” I said.
Amelia watched me with her colorless eyes, framed by her flawless ebony skin and amusement coloring her cheeks.
“You are one, you know. She is you, you are her. You don’t have to speak to her. She knows already,” Amelia said, smiling at me as if she was indulging a child.
“Are you ready?” Dean asked, diverting my attention and my glare from Amelia. The moon shone off his bald head and his shoulders were wide and strong. In my gut, I knew just as I would follow Patrick anywhere he wanted to go, I would do the same for Dean. They were my beacons, guiding me home.
“Ready,” I said, finally letting go of his hand. Stripping down as quickly as possible, I focused on Dean’s power, the Pack surrounding me and wrapped my body in its energy. Before I could think about it, my vision shifted from color to shades of gray and I was steady on four paws instead of two feet.
Dean circled me in his shiny silver coat, rubbing up against me and coating my long, lean, muscular body with his scent, wanting everyone to know I was his. He stuck his cold nose beneath my tail and I yelped in surprise. He plopped down on his hind quarters and grinned at me, if you could call that lopsided expression on his wolf face a grin.
“All right,” Amelia laughed. “Let’s begin.”
I sat down next to Dean with my back straight and my chest out. The wind shifted through my fur, carrying the scent of the tall grass, the herd of deer moving across the acreage, and the rabbits scampering in the opposite direction. Swaying with the wind at eye level, the grass created a wave of shag for the Pack to run and play.
Ignoring the urge to run, I watched as the entire Pack, now in wolf form sat patient, waiting. Some sat up high with their necks stretched out to see; some lay down, resting their muzzle on their front paws; and still others cuddled together and waited for the Pack to be completed.
“Gaoh, you have ruled this Pack well, you have given us a safe place to hunt, to run, and to kill. You have protected us and found an equal protector for the Pack in Dahlia. You will be as one with the Eithina as the Eithina will be one with you,” she said with a stern expression furrowing her brow.
I huffed. It wasn’t very grown up but I didn’t like being told what to do. Utu or not, I was Eithina. Let’s face it, being Eithina had nothing to do with it. I had a problem with authority in general.
Dean nudged me and nipped at my ear. It didn’t hurt but I knew he wanted me to be a grown-up and stop pouting.
“Dahlia, you have protected us, cared for us, stood judgment over us, and given of yourself to us. We welcome you as Eithina as the Gaoh has welcomed you into his heart.” Her chocolate lips curved up into a brilliant smile, showing a row of gleaming white teeth that even in human form seemed dangerous. “To become one, the Gaoh and Eithina will share flesh, tasting of each other’s power to share with the rest of us as one pack.”
This was the part I wasn’t so keen on. It was going to hurt like a sonovabitch.
Dean trotted around me, nudging at my hip with his cold nose. He whined, a soft high-pitched apology. I nudged him once with my muzzle to tell him it was okay. The waiting was killing me. Just get it over with already.
Before I could think, he sank his teeth into the fleshy meat around my hip and thigh. Pain seared through me as he bit clean through, tearing a tiny bit of flesh from my body.
Swallowing it, Dean turned and crouched down, resting his belly on the ground. He rolled his head to the side, exposing his neck to
me, making it easy so I wouldn’t have to dig for my piece of flesh. I sank my nose into his fur, breathing in the warm musky scent of forest and male.
My eyes rolled back in my head from the sheer pleasure of his scent. It was the smell I remembered in the middle of the night when he wasn’t there and that helped me shift, always reminding me of home.
I opened my jaws and buried my teeth into the soft flesh of his neck. Scorching blood coated my tongue, tasting of iron, magic, and earth. A small chunk of him fell on my tongue and I swallowed quickly without thinking too hard about it.
A shock wave of power exploded out from us, sifting and touching each one of the wolves. A chorus of howls echoed into the night’s sky, a familiar, beautiful, and perfectly in-tune song. I hadn’t understood before how their song was an expression of their happiness and a communication to each other. Now, it was an expression of pure joy that I felt clear down to my paws.
“Flesh of your flesh, join in the chorus and be one with the Woodland Pack,” Amelia chimed as her own voice called out with a matching cry for solidarity and longing.
Raising my head to the moon, I released a soulful cry that vibrated against my throat and harmonized with all the others.
Dean took off like a shot across the clearing, bounding through the wolves and leaping when there was no room for him to run. I chased after him. Behind me, the Pack was hot on our heels.
We ran through the tall grass like something was chasing us. Before long, Dean and I were alone with the pack seeking their own hunt through the woods. Stopping abruptly, he raised his silvery head above the tall grass, sniffing the air for any tagalongs. Satisfied we were alone, under a tree, and far away from prying eyes, he relaxed. I nudged him and rested my muzzle on his back, wanting nothing more than to curl up under the tree and cuddle. He lowered his head and sank his nose into my fur, breathing in the scent of me, nuzzling up against my body.
I shifted back to human, lying naked on the ground as I stared up into pale, Caribbean blue eyes. He licked my face, covering my cheek with his warm wolf saliva.
“Ew,” I giggled.
He shifted in a slick, smooth transition, bones moving and realigning themselves beneath his flesh. The silvery hair of his wolf receded leaving his tanned, smooth, and oh so touchable skin. I knew his change hurt but he wouldn’t dare show his discomfort. Anyone watching would take it as a sign of weakness. He’d gotten used to the pain years ago and his shift was usually quick enough that his adrenaline took care of most of the discomfort anyway.
Back in human form in the blink of an eye, he hovered above me on hands and knees. He stared down the length of my body. His hot gaze raked over me with a hungry glint in his bright, blue eyes that flooded my sex with the moisture of my arousal. The hard muscles of his chest, the strong biceps trapping me to the ground, and his thick cock hanging taut and hard between his legs, was enough to make my mouth water as a small wicked smirk turned up the corner of my lips. I shivered in the warm summer breeze, knowing that all of him was mine.
“Ew?” he growled in a deep sexy rumble, making my body tighten, my breasts grow heavy with desire, and my nipples pucker to hard nubs of sensitized flesh.
I bit my bottom lip and reached out, wrapping my fingers around his thick hardness.
Dean’s eyes fluttered shut and the breath left his body in a deep groan of satisfaction.
“You know I don’t like being licked,” I said in a breathy voice that made him rock solid in my hand.
Opening his eyes, his wolf gazed down at me, irises glowing in the dark night as they zeroed in on me. His hungry gaze took in my body from head to toe, devouring me.
“I think you do,” he said with a cocky smile as he leaned down and ran his hot tongue across my hardened nipple. Sensation burst through me in sparks of light and heat and I panted in desperation for more. He raised his head, taking that sweet tongue from my breast and I couldn’t help but arch up to keep his mouth where I wanted it, on me.
“Oh God, yes I do. I do like to be licked,” I moaned, trailing my fingers up and down the line of his silky smooth skin. His hand, callused with large thick fingers, skimmed across the soft flesh of my stomach, descending lower. Dipping into the soft wet strip of curls between my legs, the light caress of his fingers sent quivers through my entire being as if I’d gone years without his touch.
“Wet already,” he growled against my breast as his tongue played and lapped at my nipple. He slipped his finger deep in my wetness, sliding in as far as his hand would allow. My whole body stopped, waiting for him to reach his end and caress that spot that his middle finger was just long enough to stroke. My breath hitched in my throat and I convulsed as the palm of his hand pressed against the hardened nub buried deep in the folds of my sex. Again and again, he strummed me like an instrument.
Raising my hips up to meet his probing hand, I clutched his bald head to my breast and ran my fingernails over his skull, down his neck, and over his muscled shoulders. His lips lifted from me and he licked a line across my body, kissing scorching hot points of pleasure up my neck. Running the tip of his tongue along my jaw line, he tasted the salt on my skin. He nudged my thighs apart with his knees and knelt between them.
“I thought about you all day,” he groaned. “You’re mine now.” He leaned into me and pressed his warm lips against my mouth.
Sucking his tongue between my teeth, he tasted of mint and Dean. I wrapped my arms around his neck and skimmed my fingers over the slick, smooth skin of his head. He reached between us and guided his shaft to my opening, skimming the hard tip of him along my body then thrusting deep.
Dean filled me up with his thick hardness, sliding into my body as if he’d always been there, belonged there. He ripped his mouth away, breaking the kiss as he gasped for breath and his heart thundered in his chest in time with mine. Dean sat up on his knees and gripped my hips in his large hands. Dragging my bottom onto his thighs, I straddled him and rolled my hips.
“Damn, woman, you’re going to kill me,” he grunted.
I giggled, tormenting him again as I rolled my hips in the opposite direction. Suddenly he thrust upward, touching every part of me.
I stopped giggling.
The slap of skin on skin echoed through the field. Dean ran his hand down the center of my torso, sliding his thumb back into my wetness. He tickled my clitoris while pounding my body and I exploded in blind euphoria as I turned into a well-used, boneless mass of pleasure. I screamed and birds scattered into the sky from the tree above.
Dean didn’t stop with my release. Pounding his hips into me again and again, he stroked the blissful spot deep inside until I thought I would die if I didn’t come again.
“Please, Tre,” I whimpered, helpless to do anything but wait for the explosion.
He swelled, fighting the constraints of my body and I knew he was close. I tightened around him and cried out as another orgasm ripped through me, contracting my insides and sending Dean over the edge. He slammed into me one last time as his cock exploded, pouring his scorching heat into me.
He leaned over and took my mouth, thrusting his tongue deep and licking as if it would be his last taste. I swallowed his growl of satisfaction and he cupped my face in his hands, changing the kiss to something tender, a soft exploration.
Gazing down at me with eyes as clear and blue as I'd ever seen them, he ran his finger across my swollen lips.
“You’re mine, and this mark,” he said, rubbing the smooth skin of my hip with his roughened callused fingers, “proves it.”
“Did you need proof?” I asked, rolling my hips over him again, savoring the feel of him still inside me.
“BABY,” he sighed as his eyes fluttered shut. Lifting me from his body, he collapsed on the ground beside me. “You’ll be the death of me,” he huffed with a wicked grin turning up the corners of his l
ips. His chest heaved up and down as his eyes twinkled with satisfaction.
I’d done that to him.
I laughed at his mock protests. I loved teasing him, making him smile and laugh and know I was the only one who could do it. I loved him.
He slid his hand beneath me and rolled me to him, cradling me against his bulky, hard body. We were both sweating and sticky in the humid summer heat and I didn’t care.
“We should go back,” I said, hesitant to move.
“In a bit.” Rubbing soft circles with the tips of his fingers in the small of my back, he cradled me closer.
I could’ve stayed in that spot forever with him just touching me.
Dean and I fooled around again before we shifted and headed back to the clearing. We ran, exhausted but playful, back through the tall grass. My paws pounded on the soft ground like thunder in my ears as he nipped at my tail. I pushed harder to outpace him. I knew I couldn’t, he wasn’t even panting yet and this wasn’t my true form. He seemed to have endless energy and I . . . well, I was tired as hell and running out of steam. I leapt into the clearing, unwilling to admit defeat, with Dean hot on my heels.
I jumped and rolled onto the flattened ground, pressing my front paws and chest to the ground with my ears up. Hiking my rear end into the air, I wagged my tail. He paced in front of me, his head down, ears twitching and his tongue dangling over the side of his mouth.
Dean stopped, his body tensed as his ears perked up. Lifting his head, he searched the tall grass and trees beyond the clearing. I straightened and listened for whatever he’d heard.
Faintly, just beyond the clearing, someone was whimpering and breathing heavily. He took off like a shot toward the sound, leaving me behind to follow. Two lengths back and getting farther behind as we ran, I tried to keep him in sight so I wouldn’t lose him. Yeah, he’d been playing with me and letting me win. There was no way I could outrun him when I couldn’t even catch up.
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