Elders, clan leaders, and sires. Nothing about the three could help me with my proposal today. "Do elders ever share what they learn?" I casually stepped off through remnant Ice-Age debris of cobbles and boulders littering the tufts of wild grasses in the meadow, and offered a smile.
She chuckled, yanked her horse to a stop in grass just at the edge of the meadow.
Probably to avoid Bolt's tripping on cobbles littering the grassy expanse.
"No," she called. "But when we're talking about our sires, nothing need be factored into the mix to explain the insanity haunting every day of my life. Besides, lead Shifters and their little secrets have always been annoying."
Well, that could have been a cheap shot at me since I'm assuming leadership of Father's clan when he steps down from his alpha position.
She threw a leg toward the ground and slid from Bolt's saddle, turning to face me in a tan shirt buttoned up until forming an open "v" beneath her chin.
Still wearing the same blue jeans with one patched knee I'd seen her wear for two years. Sensible. Thoughtful. Not the type to fritter away money on extra clothes. Something I could remedy once we'd mated because I'd give her everything. "Well?" I casually claimed a spot near a weathered beige boulder two long strides from her brown hiking boots and couldn't help but grin.
I'm too Gods-be-damned anxious to just stake my claim. Foolish at thirty. There's definitely a foolish gene in our clan's gene pool. And I'm most unfortunate to not have had a merciful bullet placed between my eyes with Wolf and my thoughts of mating the alpha's daughter of a feuding Shifter clan hounding me for years.
Stupid. Yes. I'm chasing freaking tail--a hobby usually abandoned during youth. But the trader and his topaz pendant are burning away the buffering years of logic and reason that kept a future Shifter clan leader composed. Mature.
Casting me a sideways glance, her brow furrowed. "You're acting strangely." Her gaze quickly rolled in one assessing movement from my combat boots to my grin. "Maybe I should go?"
Hell no. "Happy birthday." I thrust out my palm holding the dangling gold chain and pendant.
Like a silly boy who hadn't a clue in the world how to deal with girls. Well, it's not like there are plenty around to practice on. I'd just have to try to look serious.
Her gaze snapped to the glinting offering.
One that I'd polished clean of decades' worth of oxidation to produce a brilliant golden sheen.
Her pale-blue gaze flicked to mine. But she only stared.
That assessing gaze could have said something. Anything. Like call me the idiot I am. "It's yours." I pinched the pendant and hefted the fluid links high. "I bought it last fall."
Still she watched me.
Digesting the fact I'd planned to give the necklace to her since last fall. What did she think about a stupid warrior's big plan? She definitely reassessed what she wanted from me. Nothing. I certainly wouldn't want me.
She continued to study my expression.
So petite and perfect. A waif like the legendary European gods of the forest that tended to plants. The fairies. If only she'd wear the gift. Something of mine I actually traded two mares for three years ago for credit to purchase the gold. But she didn't need to know that it took everything I had to keep from begging her to defy our feuding sires and mate with me all these years. Until the time was right. "It reminded me of you."
She barely wagged her head. "If they see it, Boa--" her warning died as if outright mentioning it might end our meetings.
That her sire would interfere. That she wanted to meet up with me. Is her father what holds her back? If she won't take my token, I'd be Gods-be-damned rejected though. Wolf too. Humiliated if she decides to tell everyone about my infatuation with her. "Keep it in your pocket then." Anything to change the subject and find something less humiliating to do. I extended the pendant and chain a bit farther.
She eyed the dangling metal.
So fucking long as if it would strike like a rattlesnake. Take it, Willow.
Her gaze slid to meet mine. "Boa," she whispered her chastisement.
She knows. Knows what accepting it entails. Knows her sire would tie her up and drag her tail across country to separate us before my fangs broke her pale flesh.
But, still, she stared. Too long for a man who'd waited and strategized for years to win her for his own. What thoughts whirled behind those confused blue eyes?
She just stood there.
Trying to read my eyes. I think.
"Say it," she whispered.
Those two ephemeral words howled like a whirlwind in my mind.
I would have rather heard three. What do the two mean? Are they a demand to hear me beg for the bite?
Her slim legs knifed, snapping up the distance between us to claim a spot mere inches from my boots where she anchored a serious gaze on mine. "If I'm being asked to defy my sire and accept your clan for life, Boa, say it." Her steady gaze softened to project a plea.
Just a fraction. Enough to take the edge off her demand. To ease any fear I had of being refused. Hell, she'd met with me, sat in caves with me, on cliffs, spoke of the way the world worked. Gave every signal she favored me that a woman could without actually touching me or speaking the words. She wants a declaration of love.
Better want one.
Gods, to grab her. But I have to do this right. Would she run if I touched her? Yes. Touch her then I'd know what her actions mean. I carefully reached, gently slid some fingers beneath the velvet skin of her chin, and tilted those heart-shaped pink lips toward me.
Warm velvet skin. So damn soft.
Wolf leapt and clawed at my ribcage.
Her lips parted just enough to breath an audible sigh. But she stood motionless. "What do you want from me, Boa?" she whispered.
Like my throbbing soul couldn't communicate my motive. Couldn't she feel it pounding in my fingertips? "I want to love you and protect you."
She blinked slowly.
Ever so slowly closing her eyes. As if the words seeping beneath her skin were medicinal. Therapeutic. Not Gods-be-damned painful. Not terrifying.
Her eyes slowly opened, her pale-blue gaze anchoring back on mine. "Why didn't you ask four years ago when Father thought I needed to mate? That I'd never mate beyond my nineteenth year. Back when I feared he'd mate me with Wolverine whether I wanted to or not?"
Because she wasn't ready to mate me. And her sire would never force her to take a man she didn't want. We all knew that she's the light in his world even though he's an ass twenty-five hours a day. I gave her time to come around and tormented myself in waiting until the time felt right. I didn't torture her. But what does she want to hear? She knows me for my intelligence. I'd use that to my advantage. "You can't hold the wind, Willow." I stood there holding her curved chin and rubbed the pad of my thumb across the softest skin near the corner of her mouth.
Skin I wanted to devour. To ingest the flavor of her. To give Wolf what he wanted. To grab her in my arms and hold her where she'd never feel like she has to run for safety again…"But I'd wait forever to stand in the gale."
Her brow pinched just a smidge between her squaring eyes.
Eyes tearing with a shimmer. As if I broke through the barrier between us. Unleashed the wind of that carefree spirit. That was Willow. Some sprite of the forest. Wandering. Melding with Earth and sky. At one with nature. Everything so many Shifters would fight over to possess. But no one can possess the wind. You have to wait for it to come for you. Like a hunter watching, waiting, laying a trap for its prey.
Her silence began to eat away at the significance of the words we should have been sharing.
Maybe that's fear in her troubled mask. Maybe she's just trying not to wince at my implication. At how she could never mate with me. That our clans warred.
"That's why I love you," she whispered.
What?
My heart froze.
Love. The only word I needed to hear.
Bite, Wolf insisted and tor
e frantically at my ribs.
Down. Sleep. Let her absorb the news as much as I need to.
We stared at each other for so long that only the piercing cry of a hawk broke us from our trance.
She reached up to curl her warm palm around my wrist.
Bite!
To tempt fate with carrying my Wolf's scent back to her sire's village. I pulled my arm from her draping grasp. "Not yet. I don't want you risking your safety when you return home."
She pressed the length of her curves against my thrashing heart anyway and snaked the intoxicating warmth of her arms around my pounding heart, encircling my bare chest.
Pushing her shorter body into mine.
Wolf gurgled possessively.
I tried to choke down the threatening sound because that animal would scare off my mate. I'd have to kill the Gods-be-damned cur then. One way or another.
She inhaled deeply, her chest pressing those soft breasts into my heart in the process. "Sometimes you've just got to live dangerously." She smiled, gliding her silken palms down across the curve of my ribs to my back for what seemed a better angle to press her firm curves against me. "Like when I'm in the wilderness by myself. Running from the madness of my sire's home." She leaned those sweet lips forward and pressed their soft velvet into my chest's bare skin.
One soft kiss. I dared not breathe, move, blink, or I'd jolt awake from this dream. Who is trapping whom?
That kiss branded me with the hottest bolt of fire I thought could sear me from heart to groin. Cooked. Inside out. Ready for dining. I'd been caught, gutted, prepared, and roasted. Thank the Gods.
Wolf snarled and hopped into a bouncing frenzy.
Out of control. If I didn't put a leash on the beast, he'd rip through my hide and flash his fangs. Endangering my mate. Frightening her if she wasn't already frightened from leaning against the club Wolf had stuffed down my pants.
"Aren't you going to put that necklace on me?" Her hot breath singed the rise of flesh above my breast. "It's kind of like a leash, you know. Funny. I never wanted to belong to anyone." She fluttered her lacey eyelashes. "By anyone else."
Not good throwing the wrong words at a Shifter about to lose his Wolf. "Behave." I chuckled and stepped back.
Her heat followed as she stepped with me. "I'll let you command me this one time." She snorted a snicker. Her arms fell away from my needy skin. She turned, lifting her cascading white hair out of the way, and she allowed me to wrap the chain around that firm slender neck.
So fragile near my huge dark hands. Warm. Delicious.
Wolf licked his lips.
The salty metallic scent of her blood throbbing beneath her white skin lodged in our nostrils.
Mark, Wolf growled.
Or I did.
She giggled almost wickedly and dropped her hair, turning to me, throwing her arms around my neck. "That's it. Growl." She rose up onto her toes and pulled my lips down to meet hers.
So damned soft. Hungry. Like she'd waited a lifetime for the kiss. To feast upon my mouth. As if she starved for attention. Craved my bullying tongue. Needed to glide those palms over every inch of my aching chest where Wolf struggled to burst free. Maybe she's in cahoots with him.
Mate, Wolf snarled.
She shoved away from my thundering heart, sliding her palms slowly down the length of my arms, to finally squeeze one of my hands in hers. "Come on." She stepped back toward her gray mount.
Back toward the trees. Grinning. What is she up to? A man on the verge of getting the only thing he needed to possess for years isn't about to question the hum of the universe. I followed her slow calculated footsteps.
Why the measured placement of her footing? As if this is something she carefully plotted with each brush of grass blades against ankle. With each crackle and pop of forest litter beneath our boots as we maneuvered through the cottonwood grove. With each pulse of blood in my aching hardened cock on our way down to the sparkling river's mercurial water mirroring the pale blue sky.
She halted beside the sky's reflection and smiled. "Swim with me."
Swim? The water is too Gods-be-damned cold for her Normal body.
She pulled the tan shirt's tails out from where they tucked into her jeans and shot me a wicked grin. "You're wasting time, Boa." She reached for one of her brown boots and pulled it free of a thick handmade beige sock.
Something told me the glint in her eyes meant she had plans for more than crocheting, knitting, or darning. More like swimming for pleasure. Pleasure being key here. I'll just have to do the chivalrous thing and keep her warm.
Wolf's gurgling growl shook every cell in my being.
She winked with a wily smile and yanked her shirt over her head, revealing the sweetest black see-through lace bra cupping globes my hands begged to hold. Not oversized. Not too small. Definitely worth clutching.
Wolf whined.
Nothing was left to our imagination about those breasts a man could nuzzle, except the weight of them in his hands.
My cock lurched.
The little disks of nipples, that appeared as pink as her heart-shaped lips, were pinched into pearls and impossible to conceal beneath the denser black flowers woven into the fabric's sheer lace. Gods. To slowly peel the lace away. To run my fingers across that irreplaceable flesh.
Her hands shoved at the waistband of her faded jeans.
She wiggled her hips out of her blue jeans.
Yes. No underneath but alabaster skin broken only by the curve of her sleek form. The way a free spirit would prefer being bound in clothing.
My skin began to prickle with Wolf's insistence to mark his mate.
I choked down a hard gulp of air and held my breath.
She winked, kicked off the jeans, and stood there in nothing but the mind-boggling lace bra and those handmade beige socks bunched down around her ankles, a breeze brushing a few strands of her hair across the flat belly and the white curls of hair Wolf desperately wanted to snort against.
Beautiful body. Perfect. Just enough curve in just the right places. And the smell. Delicious. Salty. The scent of woman. My woman.
Mine! He snorted so briskly that I swear her sire could hear us three valleys over.
Settle down, Wolf. You've got to slow down. Work for your bite.
She smiled coyly, lowering her nose to the ground, eyeing me through the spray of her eyelashes. "Come on." She thrust her chin toward the glinting water, reaching for the clasp between her breasts.
The seductress. How in the hell am I to keep Wolf from pouncing and devouring that thatch of white curls? One flinch. The beginnings of one movement and Wolf would possess his prey. Talk about temptation being a curse.
****
What is the man doing? I'd waited forever to have him touch me, get him to propose, have the kind thoughtful killing machine make me whole with those big hands he keeps to himself. Still, somewhere in all of those years of almost non-existent smiles and discussions of how the meaning of life could return to what humanity defined it before extraterrestrial invasion, AEI, if only people worked to make it happen, he implied we could do it together. That we'd be together. Yes. He promised in those careful intelligent discussions and the patience in his mask. That's what I want. Together. A normal life. Happiness in a cabin shadowed by beautiful mountains cloaked by tall pines and the happy sounds of life. Life with him. But he's just standing there.
Staring into my eyes.
Enthralled. Or afraid to move. How can he be? I'd bared myself to him. All but my breasts. And there isn't anything hiding them anyway. Well, won't be when I finally strip the last vestige of Father's rules from my body. Don't tempt a Shifter with removal of your clothing, especially a Bitterroot Shifter. Wolverine would have been all over me the minute I lifted my shirt tails. That bastard cousin of mine. Not Boa. Not my calm well-mannered Shifter. Who just needs a little more temptation. I fingered the tiny hard plastic between the bulges of my breasts.
Oh, would Father roar if he could see me p
op this clasp and peel the scant bit of lace from my breasts. For Boa, the wrong Shifter. A quiet generous warrior with the mind of a steel trap. My warrior. Who better show some appreciation for my efforts here. I've never stripped for a man before. I tossed the bra onto my jeans.
And still he stands there.
Socks. It's these hideous not-so-enticing socks. I yanked them off to stand in the cool grass. But he didn't budge. Maybe I was wrong about us. How could I have mistaken any of this? He'd even brought gold. Gold isn't something you waste AEI. "B-Boa?"
Loving Lucius (Werescape) Page 28