by Roxy Mews
“Being a vampire is not just a dietary adjustment from humanity. We have a different makeup, but externally the only thing that changes on me is a little elongating of two teeth when I feed.”
“Enamel erections?”
His smile was fabulous.
“Yes. Something like that. I have always felt like I had something simmering beneath the surface. You just came near me, and I feel like a part of me woke up.”
“Do we have to make a decision tonight?”
“No. But by sundown tomorrow, we need to either present ourselves to my Family, after informing yours, or we have to run.”
According to Jake, Vampire Barbie was putting a lot on the line by lying to their father. Keeping your Protector’s whereabouts from the Family figurehead was a big no-no.
“One night?” I asked.
“One.”
I nodded. If I only had one night left, I knew exactly what I wanted to be doing.
I started to strip.
Chapter Nine
My clothes were long gone. I was naked. I was in the woods.
“This was not what I had in mind when you took your shirt off.” Jake did not seem pleased.
I cocked my head at him. I would have responded, but it’s not really possible in wolf form. I loved going furry. There was no room in my head for problems. I had control, but only of the most vital things. My wolf wanted to run. She wanted to play and she wanted to celebrate with her mate. I wanted to see Jake’s wolf. Could he fully change since he was a hybrid? I barked at him.
“Don’t do that. I can feel my skin crawl. Are you expecting me to change into a dog too, or do you want me to throw a stick for you?”
That totally deserved a growl. I walked up and nipped him on the leg for good measure. When he just pulled away, I did it harder.
The single drop of blood in my mouth created the most insane sensation. It was his smell times a thousand. I nearly shifted back to have him take me, but I needed this before I dealt with reality. I was about to be a captive in some form. I was either fleeing, or entering a new life I had no idea how to live. I needed to share with Jake something that was me. Something that was him, too.
Daddy always said that if I found a mate…well, he usually said “God help him”. In those rare moments when we weren’t sarcastic, Daddy said we would find the one who would bring out every side of us and love us more with each discovery. I wanted to pull out every part of Jake and love him more.
I bit him again, dragging his ankle with me.
“Gah! Knock it off. Damn it all.” He charged at me, and I jumped out of his grip. Lunging from side to side to keep him off balance, I took off. The cursing behind me turned from words to more guttural sounds. My head whipped toward the sound, and my tongue lolled from my mouth in a grin. He was shifting. A great black wolf ripped from his clothes.
Jake slipped and fell as his shoes didn’t completely fall away. It was like watching that scene in Bambi with him slipping and stumbling across the ice. Just like that cute little deer, the potential leader in Jake was working its way to the surface. He would master whatever he sought to.
My wolf recognized him as the Alpha male that he was. His wolf may have been new to him, but the power wasn’t. His power was completely under his control—and he pushed it toward me. He wanted me to stop. Strangely my wolf shared some of that power, too. It would take a lot more than a zap of power and a barked command. But then, it didn’t matter. His feet were under him, and he rode that power to propel his feet.
He charged for me. The forest floor, not tamed here, was just paths worn by heavy paws. The majority—from what I could smell—were my Pack. Shrubs we passed were still in the growing season, and the young sprouts snagged and snapped as I beat the bits of debris further into the ground beneath me. The infamous cement pillar whizzed past. If a wolf could chuckle, I would have. We needed some better memories of that watch post.
I brought us around the pole a few times. I dodged through the trees and was able to lose him for a bit as he stumbled. He was learning quickly. I wouldn’t be able to out-maneuver him for long. Before he caught me, I shifted. I leaned against the pillar naked. The cool rock scraped against my skin, still sensitive from the change.
Jake caught up with me. Then he stopped. I had never seen a wolf so still. He barely breathed. Guess he kept a vampire trait or two while in wolf form. He stared at me like that for a while. I couldn’t hold still like he could and started to fidget.
“I’m naked. Care to take a wolfy break? I love running through the woods and all, but there are other things I enjoy doing without clothing. You seemed receptive before we shifted.” I sent out my best coy look. Jake still didn’t move.
Well fine.
“We can still run. I know when you first change, it’s almost like you can’t imagine changing back.” I stepped away from the pillar, and he growled at me, taking a step toward me. My back flattened again. “Or I can stay here.”
I watched his body ripple and shift. It took him a couple of tries, but when he stood before me naked and shining with a glimmer of sweat from the effort, I didn’t think I’d ever seen anything more beautiful. His cock was jutting toward me. He sniffed the air, and that heavenly beast between his thighs jumped and bobbed. I was hypnotized.
“I can smell you.”
I bet he could. It took me a few breaths to remember he had eyes. They were shifting back and forth, from that delicious feral gold to his sharp silvery grey. I couldn’t decide which I liked more.
“I want more.” He growled toward me.
Yum.
“I want more of your scent. Spread your legs.” My ankles nearly buckled in their quick obedience to his command. He was my mate, and he would be my Alpha. Were situations different, this man—this power—would lead a Pack to be reckoned with. It was a shame he wasn’t interested in leading one.
My mind didn’t travel far along that track, before Jake yanked my attention back.
“Touch yourself for me. I want to watch you come apart before I don’t have the control to see your beauty. Show me how stunning you are when you take pleasure.”
My fingers slipped into my mouth for a little moisture. Turns out, I didn’t need it. I was practically dripping down my legs at the way his eyes ate me alive. But as I hollowed my cheeks and extracted my fingers, that growl of his caused delicious ripples of pleasure across my skin.
My hands trailed across my nipples, and I couldn’t resist a twist and pinch to relieve some of the pressure his gaze was building in me. I watched as his hands lowered to mirror mine. As I spread my lips, he gripped that beautiful cock with one hand and squeezed his balls with the other. I wanted to be the one touching him. My hands struggled with the rhythm. Forget masturbation. I wanted more. Too bad my mate was into torture.
He dropped his cock. Well it didn’t really drop. His shaft bobbed up and down and then began to point directly at me again. A drop of precome that had been used to ease his strokes shone on his finger as he wagged it at me. I much preferred what he had been wagging at me earlier. “You stop, and I stop. I told you what I wanted. Are you going to deny your mate?”
“I am trying to do the opposite of deny you right now, and you seem to be the one putting a kibosh on the action.”
“Touch your pussy for me, Amber. An orgasm should help ease your temper.”
Bastard. If he wasn’t going to touch me, then I was going to drive him crazy first. And I’ll be damned if I was going to go unsatisfied in the process. I took the finger that had been against my clit and placed it against the side of my nose. I inhaled.
“I smell really good, don’t I, Jake?” I wound my finger around my mouth before the digit popped inside my pursed lips. His eyes didn’t leave my mouth as I pulled the finger out oh so slowly. His cock jumped when I pressed a kiss against the fingertip.
I was grateful for the pillar behind me, as my brain went to goo when he started to stroke, again. He wasn’t even aware he had begun t
o give the power back over to me. He wasn’t the one running the show anymore. But I would let him think whatever the hell he wanted as long as he let me touch him. He adjusted his stance and hooked a finger under his balls. The strokes intensified. Fluid leaked from his shaft only to be stolen by his hands.
“Rub your clit for me.”
I obeyed. Not because he was my mate, but because I wanted his hand to keep moving. I wanted him to go harder. The more I thought about it, the more my pussy contracted in anticipation.
I was in a haze of hot, when a voice about twenty feet away poured a bucket of ice water on my libido. “Don’t make me kill you before we’re introduced.”
Jake rushed to stand in front of me, blocking me from view of the voice. Even though I wasn’t about to continue cavorting with my mate, I had gotten used to nudity once I was changed. This man’s presence while I was recovering from a shift was nothing new.
“Hi Daddy.”
“You’re mated.” He sent a whole lot of emotional baggage my way with those two words.
My mom had been killed during our turning. Daddy didn’t ever think there would be another for him. He had a Pack to lead now. I was the last bit of his human life that remained.
To say I was conflicted about leaving the nest was an understatement. Daddy needed me like no one else had. Because I was older when I was changed, we leaned on each other like friends. Sadness, anger, frustration and fear formed a muddled cloud on his face. His eyebrows twitched. He was trying to keep his emotions in check, but they always leaked out through his eyebrows.
“You know how they always say it happens. I got knocked upside the head by a two-by-four. Daddy, this is Jake Meyers, the lumber. When he’s not growly and possessive, he’s really a pretty good guy. He’s even got a really important job as it turns out. How about that, Daddy? I’m mated to a career man.”
Daddy snorted. Then he twitched. His eyebrows started going again. “Why does he smell like…like…”
“A vampire?”
“Yes.”
Jake had covered his privates. Guess the vampires weren’t as good with nudity as wolves. Or he just didn’t want his erection poking his father-in-law when they shook hands for the first time. Probably didn’t help that Daddy was fully dressed.
“I am going to get a complex with everyone talking about my smell.” Jake turned toward me and his eyes gave me a caress that I would have much rather had from his hands before turning to address Daddy. “I smell like a vampire because it is half of my heritage, sir.”
“You’re a hybrid?”
“Yes.”
“Wait, Meyers? As in the local Meyers Family?”
I watched as both of the men in my life tensed. More crap I didn’t know about, apparently.
“Yes, sir. And I know that as Amber’s father, that would make you Richard Paulson, Alpha of the Paulson Pack.”
Daddy’s eyes found mine. His eyebrows flickered, but it was Jake who got his words. “You know of the treaty. I have a Pack to think about and my leadership in it. I don’t want to put us in the middle of a war, but I am having serious regrets right now about my decision all those years ago.”
“I just shifted for the first time, sir. My control might not be the best, yet. Just a warning. Yes, we are mated. As for the treaty, I am not sure how far into the gray we are dancing.”
Daddy came closer and reached over Jake’s shoulder to brush my hair aside and look at my matemark. “Do you know what you are getting into, Amber? Do you have any idea the mess you are about to encounter?”
“I’m learning more every day. But Daddy, he’s my mate. This,” I touched Jake’s shoulder. “This is it for me.”
Daddy nodded once and walked toward the trees. In a few steps he grabbed a duffle he must have dropped when he saw his daughter about to get busy in the woods. He tossed it, and it landed at Jake’s feet.
“Get dressed, please. Jake, there are clothes that will fit you as well, I assume. Doc handed me the duffle and gave me directions. I have no doubt that he would have packed for everyone here.” The man who raised me then turned and grumbled like a disgruntled teen under his breath. “A guy can’t even get a heads up about his kid getting mated. I need a new Beta.”
“Daddy…”
“I’ll meet you back at the cabin. I deserve a chance to, if nothing else, say good-bye to my daughter.”
“Daddy…” But before we could say more, the man who raised me and stuck by my side as we both fought our way into a new world, shifted where he stood. His clothes ripped from his now furry form, and he took off toward the cabin, without any conversation.
Growing up, Daddy and I were never very talkative. Back in the days that we didn’t howl at the moon, fathers and daughters held little more than polite conversation. One positive thing that comes out of the change is how much you can learn about the people you love. We talked a lot more now.
The changes we went through together were experiences no one but us shared. He was my Alpha now, but my daddy always. I didn’t look forward to telling him I had to leave him. I looked forward to him seeing all the stuff I broke in the cabin even less. Daddy really liked that lamp.
Chapter Ten
The walk back to the cabin was remarkably slow considering we were both badass supernatural beings. It was sad that a hybrid and werewolf were terrified of Daddy. Granted Daddy was a badass Alpha, one of the only turned weres this side of the Mississippi with his own Pack, but still.
“I would prefer not to kill your father.”
And that was not something to say to a still unorgasmed woman when she was about to make a major life decision with no nookie to calm her nerves.
“And I would prefer not to de-ball my mate, so it’s a good thing neither of us is going to do anything we’re talking about, isn’t it?”
Jake and I were only a hundred feet or so from the cabin at that point, so if we raised our voices just a little bit more, Daddy was going to overhear our fight. Great.
“I am just saying that I will defend myself. Should your father attack me, my control at the moment may not be the most trustworthy. If he tries to take what is mine from me, it will not go over well either. I may not know much about Pack life, but I know darn well that mate comes first. So if we go in there, are you going to give me the place at your side?”
“What do you mean if we go in there? We owe my daddy some explanation.”
“So we decided what we’re doing, huh?”
There was always a flaw in my plan. This was supposed to be our last carefree hurrah. I was supposed to run around all wolfy and then have some happy sexy-time with my mate. He was mine, but still so new to me that I wanted to start uncovering the mystery of my statuesque mate. I could learn a lot about a person when they were naked. Or at least forget about what I didn’t know.
Speaking of stuff I didn’t know, I realized Jake was so new to me that I didn’t even know his middle name.
“What’s your middle name? Or are you too old to have one?”
He ran his hands through his hair and gripped his scalp. He didn’t loosen his hold as he replied. It did awesome things for his abs that were visible through the thin tee Doc had packed for him, but I was just too nervous about what we had to decide to think about jumping his bones. Much.
“Eugene. What does my name have to do with anything?”
“Just realized if I was about to lose my life I should at least know the middle name of the man…er…wolf…uh…vampire…whatever that I’m losing it for.” I knew he was frustrated. Dammit, so was I. He stood with his hands gripping the back of his neck, now just waiting.
Any other Alpha wolf would have demanded action. A werewolf would have probably ignored me at that moment and just gone inside to deal with the situation himself. The hybrid in front of me stood strong and gave me, maybe not the lead, but at least an equal say. He was waiting to let us walk in together. This is what I wanted. I wanted a mate who could run with me, play with me and let me run
through the obstacle courses my brain sometimes took me on.
“I’m in, Jake. All the way. We go to your Family tomorrow. Either you carry my dead body out, or I walk out as a hybrid the likes of which nobody has ever seen before.”
He moved toward me with that supernatural speed that had my heart beating in time with his steps. I was in his arms, and his mouth descended on mine. His tongue broke the barrier of my lips, and I opened on a sigh to his assault. My heart was still racing as we broke apart.
I would like to say that I calmed as we took those final steps up to the cabin, but I think all that heavy emotional work was taking its toll. I had the happiness of my mate and the excitement of his new wolf, right alongside the horrible realization that I was making the final walk to tell my daddy that I was leaving him.
The tears on my cheeks escaped my notice until Jake brushed them away with a slide of his thumb. He tilted my face up to meet his as we hit the front porch. “I am yours as much as you are mine. We belong. But that’s not why we will make this work. We will make this work because I am a stubborn son of a bitch and you are the first female I have met in the entirety of my life who has brought me to my knees with want. I would beg for you. And I beg for no one. But if you were to leave me, I would fight whoever stood in my way or die on the journey just to be able to have another chance.”
Before the last syllable of that fantastic speech made it past his lips mine were over his. Maybe it was all the life or death talk, or maybe it was the fact that I was facing a transformation that neither of us knew was survivable. However you want to look at it, I took strength from him.
We entered the doors to find my daddy sitting in one of the dining-room chairs, much like I had seen Jake the other day. His head was down and his hands were draped between his knees. The tears in his eyes, even through they didn’t escape, said the goodbye before his words could even leave his mouth.
“I would have killed him to have you back, but no matter my actions, I’ve already lost you.”