Shifters and Spice: A Shifter Romance Box Set

by Desiree Holt

  “So…” Sam said, not sure if he wanted to be the one to suggest sharing body heat.

  “Cara took a deep breath. “It’s cold. And… it’ll only get colder if the fire dies down.”

  “And we only have one blanket.” Sam added.

  “Probably best to…”

  “Yeah.”

  They had stripped a bunch of pine needles off of branches to help cushion the floor. The shifters crawled over to it and curled up together. Sam draped the space blanket over them and settled down.

  It was warm, wonderfully warm, under the blanket with Cara pressed against him. It had been a few years since he had dated and even though this was purely platonic it was still a nice feeling. His inner cheetah purred happily at the contact.

  Sam tucked his arm under his head as a pillow, but wasn’t sure what to do with his other one. He settled for keeping it rested awkwardly against his side.

  “Goodnight,” he said.

  “Goodnight.”

  Chapter 5

  Day Two

  A ray of light broke into the cave, directly on Cara’s face. Still mostly asleep, Cara started to roll over to avoid it but something heavy was pinning her down. Confused, she woke up further. For a moment she was startled by her surroundings. As her eyes adjusted she recognized the cave and quickly regained her bearings. The heavy object was Sam’s arm, draped over her. Cara froze, unsure of what to do.

  Her inner wolf basked in the closeness and Cara felt herself relaxing. True, she wasn’t the most extroverted, but there was something undeniably cozy about her position. Even though the fire was just dimly glowing embers, it felt warm in the cave. Cara started to relax back against Sam with a content sigh. His arm tightened just a bit around her.

  Then she felt something.

  Something hard and insistent pushing against her thigh, right where it met her butt cheek. Cara went rigid in horror.

  Sam had a morning erection.

  What do I do? she thought frantically. She tried to ease herself away from him a little, but with the space blanket wrapped tightly around them Cara only succeeded in brushing against him.

  Her partner moaned in his sleep and his hips gave a tiny jerk.

  “Sam!” Cara yelped.

  “Hm?” he muttered sleepily.

  Cara rolled away from him, accidentally taking the blanket with her. As Sam sat up, suddenly cold and disoriented. Even though she was fully dressed, Cara pulled the blanket over her chest.

  “What the…” Sam stammered, looking around. “Cara? What…”

  “You…” Cara gestured helplessly to his erection. “You were…”

  Sam’s eyes widened and he clapped his hands over himself. “Oh my god, I’m so sorry! I was asleep, sound asleep, I would never…”

  The she-wolf nodded. She knew that the whole thing was an accident, but was still more than a little freaked out. Good lord, their first night and she had already come into much, much closer contact with Sam that she had intended. And yet, the sight of him stammering and blushing was adorable. Cara felt a smile forming.

  “It’s okay,” she said. “I know you didn’t mean to.”

  Sam grinned nervously at her. “Sorry.”

  Now that her shock was wearing off, Cara noticed that it was freezing out from under the blanket. The fire was dead, or close to. She crawled over to it and started poking the ashes with a stick and blowing at it. The coals were still glowing. Little flames flared up and Cara offered some smaller, dry twigs. They caught quickly. She turned for some larger branches, only to see Sam had joined her and was holding one out. Soon, the two of them had the fire roaring again.

  Cara backed away, coughing. She had gotten a faceful of smoke.

  “You okay?” Sam asked.

  “Yeah, just smoke.” As she finished coughing though, Cara noticed she was really thirsty. “I think we need to make water a priority today.”

  Sam nodded. “And keep an eye out for more food.”

  * * *

  The paths they had carved out carrying branches were still there, which made it much easier for the shifters to get further down the mountain and into the woods.

  They went together, so that if they found water they could both drink. After they were fully awake and ready to go, it became clear that they both had headaches which were probably due to dehydration.

  Luck ended up being with them. They went out beyond the last of Sam’s tracks the day before, but not too far, before finding a small stream. The pair followed it until they found a part that was fast moving enough to not freeze. The only way to drink was by standing in it, but they willingly dropped their front paws in and began to drink their fill.

  Standing in icy water was not the cheetah’s idea of a good time, but Sam ignored the voice in his head and eagerly gulped down the water. Even Cara was feeling the cold, but her inner wolf was much happier.

  The banks of the stream looked like clay, which gave Sam an idea. He slashed at it with his claws, trying to break some off. Cara watched him curiously, wishing she could speak in animal form. Shifting back into a naked human in the snow just to ask him a question seemed like a terrible idea.

  The mud was frozen, but the cheetah’s claws were sharp and persistent. Sam succeeded in getting a chunk about the size of a tennis ball. He took a deep breath and stuck his face into the freezing water to grab it in his mouth. He nodded to Cara, and started off at a slow lope toward the cave. Once he was sure the she-wolf was following, he broke into a sprint. It felt like the fur on his face was turning into ice and his paws hurt from the cold. He couldn’t go nearly at full cheetah speed, but he didn’t mind, it allowed the wolf to keep up with him.

  Once they were back at the cave, Sam started shifting back, mud still in his mouth. He spit out the ball of clay and stomped his feet for warmth as he dressed.

  “What’s with the mud?” Cara asked as she pulled on her clothes.

  “It’s clay, I hope,” Sam said. He bent to retrieve it to examine. “If it’s good enough, I should be able to actually make it into a cup and bake it over the fire. It won’t hold much, but we’ll be able to melt the snow and drink it.”

  “That’s brilliant,” Cara said. “One of your anthropology tricks?”

  Sam nodded. “A number of cultures use river clay for dishes. I’m afraid I never paid much attention to pottery during my fieldwork, but I’ve seen it done.”

  “I thought all anthropologists did is dig up broken pottery.”

  Sam laughed and stared rolling the mud in his hands to warm it. He was about to correct her when he saw her grinning and recognized the joke. “Very funny.” He smiled at her. “I meant making.”

  He managed to break the clay ball in half and held it out to her. “I think we can warm this up enough to work with faster in smaller pieces.”

  Cara took it and started rolling and mushing the clay between her hands. It was almost hypnotic work. The pair sat by the fire, working the clay together in silence. When it was nice and soft, Cara handed it back to Sam. She watched as he carefully molded it into the shape of a cup.

  As she stared at his hands, her mind started to wander. She had more than a few sore spots from all of the physical labor and poor sleeping arrangements. Sam’s hands looked like they could give a serious massage. Cara couldn’t resist imagining how Sam’s hands would feel, rubbing at her sore muscles. They’d probably be just as soft and warm as the clay. Smooth, but powerful against her skin.

  Somewhere along the way, she thought of his morning erection. Imagined it pressing against her as his hands worked their way over her body. Sam was absently biting his lower lip as he worked and it was too easy for Cara to imagine kissing him… or biting.

  “There,” Sam declared, breaking into her thoughts.

  “What?” Cara jerked to attention, mortified by her little fantasy. The full moon, she realized. The approaching phase would make both shifters more primal. They’d be hungrier, more emotional… and hornier.

  “The
cup,” Sam said, holding it up. “It’s done.”

  “Right, right.” Cara hoped he didn’t have some crazy mind-reading ability. “What now?”

  “Now, I’m going to set it near the fire and hope it bakes dry. I don’t know how well it’ll hold water, but we’ll see.”

  “How will we know when it’s done?”

  Sam shrugged. “Dunno. I guess I’ll just keep checking.”

  “We should try hunting,” Cara suggested. She needed to get out and exercise. The wolf wanted something and if she didn’t get to run, she’d want to have sex instead. And that was not happening.

  “Yeah…” Sam sounded reluctant.

  Cara immediately regretted the suggestion. It was obvious that her animal form was far more suited to the environment than his. Even she was fairly miserable in the conditions. She was sure Sam was sucking it up and not complaining.

  “Maybe you should stay and watch the cup, in case it starts baking too fast and cracks or something,” she said, giving him a way out without having to lose face.

  Sam looked like he was considering it, but all too quickly agreed. “Good idea. I can keep the fire going and have it nice and warm in here too. I know we have the fire-starter, but I don’t like letting the fire die… you just never know.”

  “Sounds good. I’ll be back then!”

  * * *

  Sam averted his gaze as Cara stripped, but she moved suddenly into his line of vision and his prey drive flicked his eyes in her direction before he could stop himself. He was just in time to see her bending over. He looked away, but the image of her ass was already burned into his mind.

  He tried thinking about how sore he was, or hungry, or cold, but the picture of her kept coming back.

  He even recalled how embarrassing his morning wood had been. Her reaction of horror. And yet, his brain kept trying to turn it into a positive fantasy. What if she hadn’t recoiled? Had rubbed back against him.

  “Stop it, stop it!” Sam wasn’t sure if he was talking to his human or his cheetah side.

  Six days away from the full moon and he was already thinking with his dick. This was going to be a long challenge. Thank god she wasn’t in heat.

  He focused on the cup, watching the clay dry, and tried to remember the times he had seen it done and how they had baked their clay.

  The sky was just beginning to darken when Cara returned, empty pawed. She shook her head sadly, then began to shift. This time, Sam stared into the fire until it burned his eyes, determined not to look at the naked female.

  “Not a thing,” she said once she was shifted. “How’s the cup.”

  “It’s looking good. I think a good slow bake is what it needs.”

  “Shall we eat those entrails?”

  Sam barely had time to nod before the shivering woman shifted again. The cheetah slipped off his clothes, shifted, and joined her in the snow. He dug out the nearly-frozen remains and the two chowed down.

  Soon, they were shifted, clothed, and sitting by the fire. With nothing else to do, they talked again.

  They were still talking when the moon rose high into the sky and the stars came out.

  As much as Cara considered herself an introvert, she felt at ease talking to Sam. Every conversation topic flowed easily into the next. Even after they built up the fire and snuggled under the space blanket she wanted to keep talking. When words finally turned into yawns, the pair laughed and agreed to go to sleep.

  Chapter 6

  Night Two into Day Three

  Cara awoke with her shoulder killing her. Sam had an arm around her again but, thankfully, nothing else. She tried to roll over, which the weight of his limb made difficult. The space blanket behind her lifted, letting the cold air hit her. The temperature had dropped and the fire was low.

  The she-wolf had no choice but to get significantly closer to Sam to stay warm. It was cozy enough under the blanket that she wasn’t worried about the dying fire. They could rebuild it.

  Unfortunately, rolling closer brought her almost face to face with the cheetah. Sam, mostly in his sleep, adjusted himself and Cara ended up with her head tucked under his chin. It was so warm there. The faint sound of his heartbeat was soothing. She was just drowsy enough to not fight it. She rested her arm over his waist, sighing in relief as she stretched, and let the rising and falling of his chest against her lull her back to sleep.

  The next time she awoke it was from an R-rated dream. Cara was almost disappointed. In the dream she and Sam had been naked, sleeping just like that, but he had woken up and started kissing her and… well.

  She blushed and wondered how to extract herself without another embarrassing morning. They were much closer this time. Her arm over him, his over her, and their legs were all interlocked. Her cheek was still pressed against his chest. And, yup, his penis against her thigh.

  Cara sighed. She supposed she couldn’t fault him, not this close to the full moon. Their proximity and the phase of the damn moon was triggering dreams and fantasies in her, the poor cheetah couldn’t help what his body did in his sleep. But still, the man should’ve made a clay cup for himself or something.

  The absurd thought made her laugh out loud. She caught herself quickly, but Sam stirred. She slipped out from under his chin and watched as his eyes blinked sleepily open. It was cute. Had he always been that cute?

  “Hi,” he said, clearly still half-asleep.

  The single, almost confused word made Cara smile. “Hi,” she whispered back.

  Their eyes met and time seemed to slow. He’s going to kiss me, she thought.

  Then, Sam blinked awake and leaned back. “Sorry, uh… good morning.”

  Cara sat up, letting the warm blanket slowly fall away. She honestly wasn’t sure if she was disappointed or relieved that he hadn’t kissed her. With a shiver, she turned away from him and saw that their wall was partially collapsed.

  “Oh no!” she cried.

  “Oof,” Sam said. “No wonder it’s so cold.”

  Even as he spoke, a strong wind whipped through the cave, scattering the ashes from the fire, blowing pine needles out from under the shifters, and rattling what was left of their branch wall.

  The wind also instantly removed all traces of sleep from the pair. They jumped up and went to work. The partial wall was acting like a wind tunnel and making the wind even more powerful. It quickly became clear that they couldn’t easily get the fire going without fixing the wall first.

  As they stacked the branches, the cold wind blew fiercely at their backs.

  “Well, this sucks,” Cara muttered.

  “Yeah.” Sam shook the snow off of his bare hands. “We’ll get it fixed though.”

  They mounded snow up around the base, which gave Cara an idea.

  “What if we pile the snow higher this time? Like an igloo almost?”

  Sam rolled a bit into a ball. “It’s the right consistency. Let’s try it.”

  The sun was high in the sky and the shifters were exhausted by the time they were done, but the snow wall went up to the top of the cave, and then a bit higher, for support. The branches acted as a brace to hold up the thick wall of snow.

  “Let’s go get a drink, see if we can hunt,” Sam said. “And then come build in the front too.”

  They went inside to change and noticed that it was much better inside the cave. Even without the fire it felt warmer. They stripped off their clothes and shifted quickly, then headed down to the stream. After drinking their fill, they split up to find prey.

  Sam returned to the cave first, paws half-frozen and aching, with nothing to show for it. He shifted back and set about re-starting the fire. Cara still hadn’t come back by the time the fire was roaring, so Sam left the cave and started building a wall around the entrance, hoping he’d be able to create a roof to make the cave even more cave-like and keep it warmer.

  Cara returned without any luck. The she-wolf slunk into the cave and shifted.

  “The wall looks great,” she said, pulling
her clothes on. “I don’t suppose you were able to catch anything?” Sam shook his head sadly. “Guess we’ll be hungry then.”

  “Guess so.” Sam dusted off his hands and joined her in the cave. “I’d like to keep working on the wall, but it’s already getting late and if we have no food…”

  “We can try your cup,” Cara said. “At least get some water in our human forms.”

  “Good idea.”

  Sam packed the clay cup full of snow and set it near the fire. The pair watched as the snow melted. The cup darkened as it absorbed water, but showed no signs of leaking it out.

  “Amazing,” said Cara. “You can drink first; it was your idea.”

  “Cheers,” Sam chuckled. The cup was warm, but not hot, from the fire. He drank slowly, savoring the water. It was chilly, but refreshing.

  When he was done, Cara filled it up and took a turn.

  Even though they were both starving, the water took off the edge and the cave was warm and cozy. They tried to sleep early, hoping a good sleep would help them feel less hungry in the morning.

  * * *

  Day Six

  “How do you feel?” Sam asked, absently poking at the fire with a stick.

  “Hungry,” grunted Cara.

  They hadn’t had anything to eat since the entrails. Sam had a headache that wouldn’t go away and Cara had felt like vomiting for two days. Their hunger was making them both irritable and snappy. The full moon was in just two nights and was not helping matters. Their animals wanted to run and either fight or screw, but one of the two needed to happen. The late night talks had turned into late night avoidance.

  The only saving grace was the structure they had erected outside of the cave. It was practically an igloo now, with a low opening to allow them in and a hole in the top for smoke. They could hardly tell if it was daylight, which helped the miserable shifters sleep longer and longer.

  “I’ll try hunting,” Sam said. He took his time taking off his clothes, it was warm enough in the cave that he didn’t instantly start shivering. He shifted and headed out, ignoring the pounding in his head.