Deer Heart [Shifter Crossroads 3]

by Zenina Masters

  The reindeer in her did not like being followed.

  It grew more restless when their scent came to her.

  Wolves. She stopped in her tracks. “What are you doing?”

  She glared at them with eyes that—she had been assured by family and friends—were unnerving.

  The most forward of the pack came toward her and stroked a finger along her sweaty bicep. “We were just out and scented a deer. What could be more natural than a pack of wolves following a deer?”

  She smacked his hand away. “You can follow if you like, but don’t touch. Natural or not, this deer is not up for being hunted.”

  He gave her an astonished look, “Then, why have you come to the Crossroads?” Venny put into words what she was just starting to understand. “I want a mate who runs beside me, not after me.”

  The men were confused, so she turned and ran off, gritting her teeth as the sound of pursuing footsteps followed.

  She put up with it for half a block and then stopped again. They weren’t as fast as she was, and they collided with her, setting a slight problem in motion. The impact sent her stumbling backward, and one of them reached out to grab her arm. It was no doubt intended to steady her, but he wrenched her arm, and she screamed in pain and heard the tearing of fabric.

  Instinct took over, and her deer defended her.

  She got to her feet and instinct sent her chasing those who had so recently chased her. She caught one of the wolves on her antlers, and she flicked him off to one side, sending him into a building wall.

  The other two ran, and she thundered after them. One by one, she hooked them and flicked them into the dirt. With her pursuers dealt with, she rose up on her rear legs and pawed the air.

  A black and silver wolf padded up to her and looked at her with pale grey eyes. She shook her head and stamped her foot, but he stayed in place.

  With a smooth move, he started to trot down the street. Curious, she followed him.

  The dark wolf led her past dozens of curious folk, some of whom were wearing their pyjamas.

  She followed him until he took her to an irresistible meadow that begged her to run through it.

  She pawed the air again and took off at a full gallop.

  Running as a reindeer was a rare luxury, and she took full advantage of the open space with no hunters.

  After hours of engaging in bursts of speed, she walked back to the dark wolf and touched his nose with hers in gratitude.

  He licked her cheek and walked with her to the Open Heart. In the front yard, she shifted back to a naked human and staggered slightly. Her legs were all wobbly after the workout she had given them.

  Arms came around her and helped her into the building.

  Dira was standing by with two blankets. She shook her head. “I felt you would need these.” Athon wrapped a blanket around Venny before putting one on himself. “Thank you, Dira. You were right about many things.” Venny looked at the exchange between them but was too tired to do much more than say, “They shouldn’t have chased me.” Dira tut-tutted. “No, they should not. I am guessing that they know better now.” Athon frowned at Dira and helped Venny up the stairs. “I waited until you ran yourself out. If it is as long between shifts as I guess, you must be exhausted.”

  She nodded and leaned against him. “I am sorry for the head butt.”

  “I deserved it.” He helped her open her door and settled her on the neatly made bed. “I am just lucky you didn’t use your horns.” She smiled, and he tucked her into the sheets. “I am glad you came to get me. Thank you.” He stroked her forehead and frowned. “I know what it is like when the beast takes over. You have to tire it out and sooth it so that it doesn’t feel neglected. You are a very impressive reindeer, Venezia.”

  She yawned. “They say one of my grandparents was a moose, and it affected my size. No one can figure out the albinism.”

  He chuckled. “You are the image of Christmas. You only need a green wreath to complete the look.”

  She blinked, waking up slightly. “What?”

  “When you wake up, we will discuss this sort of thing.” He yawned. “I will be getting my own nap right away.”

  Venny bit her lip. “Stay here?” It took all of her courage to ask that simple question.

  He grinned. “Are you sure? I believe I am a bit of a bed hog.”

  She blinked and took a deep breath. “I will chance it. I can always shift and flip you over.” Athon chuckled and crawled into bed next to her, tucking her against his aroused body. He didn’t seem inclined to act on it, so she settled and matched her breathing to his, slipping into sleep.

  Venny woke with a start. Her body was trying to tell her something, and it was a heavy pulse that started between her thighs and moved outward from there. She was going into heat.

  The timing sucked. The last time she had gone through a heat, she had been prepared. Plenty of batteries and worn-out sex toys later, she had come out the other side sore but sane. Here, she didn’t have any of the supplies she would normally have laid in. The trip to the Crossroads was all too sudden.

  She tried to ease out of bed, but Athon’s arm around her tightened. “Good afternoon, Venezia.” His voice was a low rumble against her shoulder.

  She swallowed. “Good afternoon, Athon. I think it is time to be getting up.” He sniffed along her neck. “You smell amazing, wild, sweet and hot.”

  She shivered as he continued to move along her body, learning the scents of her arm, hip, belly and breasts in turn. He pressed her to her back and moved over her, holding her down as he learned the keys offered by her body.

  “Um, Athon, this is kind of sudden.” She squirmed and tried to break free of his grasp.

  He kissed her, and she debated her stance on not sleeping with a man on the first date.

  Technically, it was their third date if she counted the dance, the medical centre and today’s romp.

  As she worked out the logic, he was busy caressing her into a senseless mass of heat. His lips grazed hers, enticing her into participating fully.

  Cautiously, she reached out and stroked his ribs, moving up over muscle and skin marked by scars. He growled low as she touched him, but it was a deeply interested growl. She could tell by the damp head of his cock and the dripping precum against her thigh.

  She was wet, her body was aching for someone to fill it and he was here, her perfect mate. The ideal man for her was a wolf, and she was going to have to come to grips with it.

  Venny stroked his back and smiled as the slick skin spoke to his eagerness. Speaking to him without words, she lifted her legs to wrap around his waist, opening to him completely.

  Athon pressed the head of his cock against her, and with one slow surge, he bore down until he was seated inside her. He growled and she groaned.

  She panted as her body fought to adapt, but he stayed still and let her.

  He kissed her softly, licking at her lips and nibbling at them in turn.

  When she sighed and leaned into his kiss, he stroked his tongue along hers. He shifted inside her, and soon, his tongue mimicked his thrusting.

  She welcomed both invasions, but her sighs and moans were soon no longer contained by his mouth, and he pressed his teeth against her shoulder, setting off a shuddering wave of pleasure that she wanted to repeat.

  “More.” She leaned her head in submission, and he bit down on the cords of her neck, the sharp spike of pain gave her the burst of ferocity she needed to scream her release into the air of her room.

  He pressed his mouth over hers, but his howl of satisfaction was just as loud. His hips jerked against her and held.

  Venny felt a wedging sensation, and to her shock, she was stuck, attached to Athon.

  She blinked up at him and raised her eyebrows.

  “You couldn’t have gotten out one second earlier?”

  He nuzzled her neck. “This ensures that no one else will answer your heat. You are mine, Venezia. You had better get used to it.” She smiled
. “I am getting used to the idea, but I still have no idea what you do when you are not hunting for tail, so to speak.” He smiled, his cold, grey eyes warming. “I am a nature photographer. I travel and take images of any natural phenomenon that takes my fancy. If cameras worked here, I would have been taking shots of you earlier. You are spectacular.” She blushed. It was strange knowing that he didn’t mind the albino thing. “Um, how long are we going to be stuck like this?”

  “Five minutes or possibly an hour. I can’t tell.” He licked at her jawline and kissed her again.

  She sighed and gave in to the pleasure of his kiss.

  He pulled an inch away from her and asked, “What do you do for a living?”

  “I am a bush pilot. I fly medical supplies and food to the northern habitations and occasionally bring patients back for medical treatment.” He blinked. “You are kidding.” She shook her head. “Licensed and certified to fly. That’s me.”

  He grinned. “Do you have your own plane?”

  “I do. It seats two and isn’t for commercial use. It’s currently in storage. Why?” He rolled until he was under her and she was astride him with his cock still wedged inside her with the knot holding her in place. “Because I have always wanted to get into the true wilderness, but hauling all that equipment, not to mention supplies, has stopped me.” Venny was chuckling. “You want to form a partnership where I fly you to remote and wild locations and you take pictures?” He looked up at her and cupped her breasts, rolling her nipples with his thumbs. “Why not?” She shifted her hips despite being fixed in place. “I am thinking.”

  Chapter Six

  The flare of desire that rode her and ensnared him had faded for the moment. They had gone two more rounds bound together before his body had released hers, and Venny was having trouble putting her legs together.

  She winced as she levered herself out of bed and waddled into the bathroom. A hot shower loosened her muscles, but it also woke the wolf in the other room.

  Athon stepped under the spray and scrubbed her back with slow motions. His hands explored slowly while his mouth was preoccupied with her neck. She groaned and leaned back against him, loving the heat of his body sliding across hers.

  “I am guessing that my colouring is no longer a problem?” She turned in his arms and licked at the column of his neck.

  “I will deal with any problems as they arise.”

  She could feel something rising between them, and she groaned. “Please, I am sore.” He laughed. “Just because it’s there doesn’t mean you have to do anything. Relax and let me wash your back, and I will try to rub the tight muscles into a more comfortable state.” She grimaced. “We wrecked the bed.” He kissed the tip of her nose. “We have more than one room here.”

  Venny brightened. “Oh, yeah. I forgot.” He moved around her and quickly washed off all traces of their three hours of writhing locked together.

  Venny stepped out of the shower and wrapped herself in a huge, fluffy towel.

  Athon finished, turned off the water and his broad torso nearly edged her off the mat on the floor.

  She twisted and handed him a towel, shy now that they weren’t under the influence of her raging hormones.

  She tiptoed past him and returned to her bedroom, looking at the devastation and wrinkling her nose at the scent of enthusiastic sex.

  Athon wrapped an arm around her waist and he inhaled deeply and a heavy-lidded expression overcame him. “What is that scent?” She flared her nostrils, and it came to her. “Oh. Oh dear.”

  “What?”

  “That is my heat starting. It will pull you to me no matter your opinion on the subject.” She bit her lip and looked up at him through her lashes. “Will that be a problem?”

  He grinned and lifted her, his towel draped around his hips and her body wrapped in hers. He carried her out into the hall and down to his room.

  The general layout was the same, and the bed felt identical as he placed her gently on the covers.

  She yelped and laughed as he grabbed an end of her towel and rolled her free of it. She braced herself on the far edge of the bed, and he chortled, discarding his covering and diving for her.

  Venny slithered off the bed and landed on her butt, glaring up at him as he reached for her. She batted his hands away and gasped as he simply lifted her by her wrists.

  He pulled her up against him so that they were both kneeling on the bedding, body to body, with her wrists held in one hand while he cupped her jaw in the other.

  He nipped more than kissed, but she didn’t mind. The warmth of sensual pleasure was waking her body once again. The grazing of her skin by the sharp points of his teeth spoke to his loss of control where she was concerned. The prickles of pain caused her muscles to clench and a wet heat prepared her for him once again. She was sore, but once more couldn’t hurt, could it?

  “You know, Venezia, I believe I could get drunk on the taste of you.” Athon murmured it against her lips as he paused to lick them.

  She would have pushed him away, but his hand on her wrists kept her from doing more than a slow shimmy against him. He laughed softly and pressed his mouth against her neck, biting slowly, dragging his teeth against her until she shivered in unending waves in his arms.

  “I love how you respond.” He stroked her hair away from her face and tilted her chin up so that they were looking into each other’s eyes.

  She blinked as she saw the sincerity in his gaze, and she tried to look away, but he wouldn’t allow it.

  “Venny, we know what we are getting into. I choose you knowing what you are.” She licked her lips. “I choose you, knowing what you are, but I have to tell you something.” Her licking her lips had wrecked his focus for the moment, but when he was able to concentrate once again, he raised his dark brows. “Yes? I am all ears.”

  He actually pointed his ears into wolf shape, and she giggled before she remembered how serious this was. “I am going into heat, and I am going to drag my mate along with me. Do you know what that entails?”

  He smiled. “Lots of sex.”

  She grimaced. “Yes, whether you want to or not. My body will demand it, and yours will answer.”

  “How often does this happen?”

  “In reindeer shifters?”

  “Yes.”

  “Every five years at first and then every six months until the heat is answered with a fawn.” He smiled, “How long do we have until it hits full force?”

  She bit her lip. “I am guessing twenty-four to thirty-six hours. What we felt before was simply a warning shot.”

  He grinned and held her tight to him. “Fire away.”

  A slight flexing of her body using his grip on her hands to propel her brought her lips to his. He held her head while she tasted him, licking at his lips before he let her inside to duel with his tongue.

  She exhaled on a low moan and her stomach rumbled alarmingly, sending a blush to her cheeks, chest and neck while Athon leaned back in surprise.

  He grinned sheepishly. “If I am to keep you as a mate, I had better provide for you.”

  He released her hands, and she wanted to shake her horns in frustration. Instead, she got to her feet and went looking for the towel she had arrived in.

  “I will return to my room and get changed. I am assuming we will be going to the café?” He pulled on a pair of silky boxers and smiled with strands of his dark hair falling over his eyes.

  “The restaurant, so keep that in mind.” She wrapped herself in the towel and tiptoed back to her room, the bed was neat and tidy once again, no trace of the devastation that had occurred. “Wow, she is really quick.” An assessment of her clothing choices directed her to a deep silver dress and scarlet pumps. The dress was cut low in a drape over her breasts and to her coccyx in back. Friction against her skin held it in place, as underwear was not optional.

  Her eyes and the shoes were the only splashes of colour, and as she twisted from side to side— getting a good look in the mirror—everyt
hing important was covered by at least four inches of fabric, and the skirt hit just above the knee, so no danger there unless she tried to run. This was not a dress designed for sprinting. She looked down at the heels that raised her three inches. They weren’t designed for moving at speed either, though they would make excellent weapons.

  She ran a brush through her hair and wrinkled her nose at her reflection. Her eyes were bright, her skin glowed and her hair shined. It was amazing what finding a mate would do for a woman.

  Venny checked her phone for messages and emails. Two calls from Pierce and five from Kevin.

  She grinned and dropped the phone back into her bag. There would be time enough to listen to messages later in the evening, or perhaps the morning or even tomorrow afternoon.

  When there was a knock on the door, she paused on the other side, as giddy as if she was heading to prom. She opened the door to see Athon lounging in her doorway. His eyes got hot as he looked her over from head to toe, and she let him look.

  “I am wondering if I just ate a leprechaun, because I have never been this lucky.” It wasn’t the smoothest of opening lines, but it made her smile. Her stomach rumbled again, and he returned the grin. “Shall we?” He gallantly offered her his arm, and she took it, letting her door close behind her.

  Dira smiled at them as they passed her desk and waved a quiet farewell.

  Chapter Seven

  “So, Venny, do you enjoy your job?”

  They had ordered, and he was sitting, holding her hand and caressing her palm with his fingers.

  She fought the tingles and answered him. “I love it. I love flying across the tundra. The only thing better would be to run across the snow and turf.”

  He smiled, his grey eyes crinkling at the corners. “Running is the only way to see the wild.”

  “Where do you live?”

  He chuckled. “Alaska. Juneau. I also have another home in Seattle for when I do shows and exhibitions.”

  She blinked. “Your photography is that popular?”

  He shrugged. “Apparently. It has enabled me to live outside a pack, which is convenient as I had no interest in killing my brother for the Alpha spot.”