“Yeah,” she murmured. “This life. You. You’re mine.”
His grin made her heart soar. “Just promise you won’t pee on me like you do to everything else you consider yours.”
She probably turned a dozen shades of red, but she played it cool. “There are other ways to mark my territory,” she whispered, stretching upward to kiss him.
She wasn’t a wolf anymore, but she still felt the instinctive desire to claim what was hers, and she made that clear by wedging her hand between them to cup his erection.
“Oh, thank the Maker,” he breathed. “Finally.” In a smooth, blindingly fast motion, he lifted her onto the corner railing so her spine bit into the post and her legs were hooked over the log rails. The position left her wide open and exposed . . . and wildly turned on as she clung to his broad shoulders while he tore open his jeans.
His erection sprang free of its denim prison, and her breath caught in her throat. She’d seen him naked hundreds of times, had even seen him aroused and pleasuring himself. But as a wolf, she hadn’t had the same reaction. Not even close.
Now her mouth watered as he closed his hand around his shaft and stroked from the plump head to the thick base. He watched her with hooded eyes, his scent growing thicker and muskier with every stroke.
She gripped his powerful shoulders, her nails scoring his skin hard enough to make him hiss, flashing massive, sexy fangs. He pumped his fist more slowly now, teasing her, letting his fingers caress the heavy sack between his legs before dragging his palm back up to swipe his thumb over the crown, catching the silky drop of precum at the tip.
“You like watching,” he said, his voice vibrating through every one of her erogenous zones and stealing her ability to do anything but nod. A cocky smile tilted one corner of his mouth as he released his erection and lifted her hands from his shoulders to pin them over her head, forcing her to grip the post. Before she could ask what he was doing, he dropped to his knees and buried his face between her legs.
She cried out at the first probe of his tongue, and when he licked her slowly, sensually, while looking up at her with those smoky eyes, she arched in ecstasy and damned near fell off the railings. Lightning fast but without stopping what he was doing with his tongue, he gripped her butt, lifting and bracing her against the post.
“Lobo,” she moaned. “Yes . . . right . . . there.” Throwing her head back, she let herself succumb to the sweet sensations of his mouth on her sex, his lips nibbling at her swollen nub and his tongue spearing her aching flesh. She melted against him, and dear God, she was on fire.
“You taste like honey, Tehya,” he murmured against her. “And apples. I fucking love apples.”
He eased his finger inside her slick heat and pumped slowly as he kissed her deeply. Intimately. Tremors shook her and a sultry moan rattled her all the way to her core, adding to the amazing sensation whipping her into a frenzy.
Ecstasy spiraled through her, spinning faster and faster as his clever tongue lapped at her. She was close, so close. . . . He captured her clit and sucked, and she screamed as the orgasm crashed over her. Distantly, she heard the flap of bird wings as the startled creatures flew out of the nearby trees, and then she heard Lobo whispering her name as he came to his feet and stepped between her legs.
“You’re so beautiful when you come.” His voice was rough, raw, and he was just as rough and raw when he entered her in a single hard thrust.
He didn’t give her a chance to adjust to his enormous presence or to catch her breath. He braced his hands on the post and pounded into her, his hips slamming against her thighs. The vortex of pleasure and heat spun up again, and she wrapped her arms around him and clung as if she could get even closer.
“Don’t leave me again,” he said, lowering his lips to hers. “You’re everything to me.”
He fused his mouth to hers, capturing her moan of acceptance. She wrapped herself tighter around him, stroking his back, reveling in the flex of the hard muscles under his smooth skin. He ground against her, his shaft hitting just the right place, and she came without warning, a sudden, explosive blast that rocked her all the way to her bones.
She felt Lobo stiffen and jerk reflexively, and a shout tore from his throat as hot jets filled her. His expression . . . ah, damn, she’d never seen anything as amazing as this powerful man locked in the sweet agony of sex. The tendons in his neck strained, the veins next to them pulsed, and her fangs punched down hard.
“Yes,” he whispered, sensing her need. “Feed.”
She tapped the back of her fangs with her tongue, a sharp instinct guiding her. During her feverish delirium of transforming from a human into a vampire, she’d scoured the SuperWeb, looking for any information she could find about vampires. She vaguely remembered reading something about glands behind the fangs that produced an agent that made penetration more pleasurable.
Glands that were harvested from vampires for use as extreme luxury arousal ointments. She shuddered. Humans were horrible. But they were probably onto something, so she’d have to experiment with using her fangs on more sensitive parts of Lobo’s body.
Later.
Right now, the vein in his throat was throbbing in a mesmerizing rhythm that made her mouth water. She struck fast, sinking her fangs deep. His groan vibrated against her teeth as she drank, and then he was moving again, his hips pumping even more furiously than before. Hunger and pleasure swamped her, allowing for only a dim awareness that somehow they’d ended up in his bed, and the hand-carved headboard was banging against the log wall.
They peaked again, this time together. A perfect circuit of sexual energy sizzled through them—she could actually feel what he was feeling, hope, happiness, contentment—and somehow it was all connected inside them both.
Pleasure and warmth flowed over her for so long that she lost track of time and place. She thought she might have lost consciousness too, but eventually the world came into focus again. She and Lobo were tangled together on the bed. At some point he’d stripped, and now they were skin to skin, and he was still inside her.
He blinked drowsily and gave her a lopsided smile. “Well,” he said in a raspy, sexy voice. “You marked me, just like you said you would.”
A drop of blood dripped down his throat, and she gasped in horror. “Oh, shit.” Shoving up on one rubbery arm, she swiped her tongue over the punctures in his neck to heal the wounds. “I’m sorry. Does it hurt? Will it scar?”
He chuckled, a deep, masculine sound that fired her up all over again. Oh, yes, being a vampire was way better than being a wolf. Well, mostly. There was nothing like running through the forest on four legs and howling into the night.
The beautiful thing was that now she could play in both worlds.
“I wasn’t talking about your bite.” He pushed up on one elbow and pointed to some angry raised lines just above the scar from the recent arrow wound.
Frowning, she traced the contours of the design with her finger. What the heck was it? A leaf? No . . . a feather. “I don’t understand.”
He captured her hand, bringing it to his mouth to kiss her knuckles. “It’s a mate mark. According to legend, it appears when a match is approved by the gods.” He winked. “Or something like that.”
She wasn’t sure she believed his legend, but she couldn’t deny that it sounded wonderful. “What does that mean exactly?”
“It means I’m yours,” he said, pulling her on top of him and tucking her head against his chest. “My precious Tehya. You’ve saved my life in so many ways.”
And he’d done the same for her . . . so many times.
12
Are you sure about this?”
Lobo grinned at Tehya as they stood, completely naked, at the top of a ridge that overlooked the forest that was their home. Their own personal playground.
Sure, they’d begun to consider MoonBound their home as well, especially now that Tehya worked there a few days a week as the clan’s resident dentist and Lobo served on Hunter’s
advisory committee. He’d been accepted into the fold—not just accepted, but welcomed. There were a few holdouts, older members who eyed Lobo with distrust; but Hunter was sure that a war with the humans was coming, and someone with Lobo’s abilities could only be an asset.
Hunter was definitely not his father.
But as happy as Lobo was to finally be a real part of a community, he also recognized that at heart he was a loner, content to dedicate the majority of his time to Tehya—and soon, he hoped, their growing family.
“Absolutely,” he replied. “I want our children to share our gifts. That is the only way to ensure it happens.”
She worried her bottom lip between her teeth for a moment. “And you really think skinwalkers will be accepted in the future?”
“Times are changing, Tehya.”
Hell, they were changing faster than he could ever have predicted. The more the clans came together under Hunter’s vision, the less important their differences became. The common enemy was the human race, and vampires could no longer afford to fight over ideology, prejudices, or ancient grievances.
“Okay,” she said breathily, “let’s do it.” She shot him a playful wink, and then she was off and running, shifting gracefully as she went.
Son of a bitch. How did she do that? She had far less practice than he had, but she could shift much more quickly, and she could do it on the run without missing a step. Nicole suspected it had something to do with the fact that less of Tehya’s energy was spent on the transformation because she could shift only into one species, while he could morph into almost any land mammal of somewhat similar size. A brown bear pushed the very top of his limits, while a large coyote was at the bottom. In her dry, scientific way, Nicole had explained the role of checks and balances in nature, but what it boiled down to was that Tehya always got a head start when they went for their runs.
He’d catch her, though, and this time when he did—
He growled in anticipation as he completed his shift. Throwing his head back, he howled through the last of the pain, sending Tehya a message.
I’m coming.
Pulse pounding, he raced after her, ears flat, his claws digging into the soft earth with every bounding leap. He caught glimpses of her silver fur weaving through the vegetation in the distance, moving fast. She was running full-out, making him work for this.
The effort would only make this better.
For a few minutes he lost sight of her, but her scent was a beacon, thick with need. His body responded, heeding the primal call like the animal he was, and from out of nowhere, he found more speed.
She slowed to slip under a massive fallen log instead of leaping it, which proved to be her fatal mistake. He sailed over it, landing just inches behind her. She yelped and bolted, zigzagging through a maze of ferns and spindly saplings, but she’d lost her momentum, and he hit her flank with a shoulder maneuver that spun her off her feet.
Snarling, she wheeled around and bit him in the hip, tearing out a chunk of fur but not breaking the skin. If he’d been able to, he’d have smiled. She was playing rough, and he liked it.
She lunged again, but he rammed her with his chest and knocked her back. Before she could recover, he crowded her, using his superior height and size to force her backward into a mass of brush and fallen logs, cornering her. Now he would have her.
She growled, arguing with every step. Then, in an impressively quick, agile move, she leaped, twisted, and went over the logs.
Clever girl. But she didn’t get far.
He caught her a few yards away, this time bringing her down beneath him. She rolled onto her back and snapped at him, lips peeled back from sharp teeth. Gently but firmly, he closed his jaws around her throat, demanding her surrender.
Heat rose from her, along with her mating scent, and his loins tightened. They posed there like that in a display of dominance he was going to win. She ruled his life and his heart, and he was putty in her soft, slender hands.
But out here in the forest, with a wolf heart beating in his chest and the call of nature pounding through his blood, he was going to claim his mate. He waited for her signal, knowing she wouldn’t drag this out. She wanted this as badly as he did, and moments later he heard the swish of her tail wagging through the twigs and leaves on the forest floor, and she relaxed, submitting.
And yet she still held all the power. The battle had been a test of worthiness for him, not the other way around.
He released her, and she came to her feet, rubbing against him, flirting with him, inviting him. He’d earned the right to take her, and nothing would stop him now. Rearing up, he mounted her, seizing her scruff between his teeth.
They’d mated in the forest before, pretty much daily, but always as vampires, never like this. He was attuned to everything around him, from the whirring of insects to the wind as it rustled through the trees. This was as basic and perfect as life got, and with any luck, they would make a new life today.
Afterward, exhausted, they shifted back, settling against a tree full of squirrels that had gotten an eyeful. Lobo held Tehya against him, her head on his chest as he stroked her hair.
“If you’d made that easier,” he said between panting breaths, “we wouldn’t be so tired.”
She trailed a finger down his abs, leaving pleasant tingles in its wake. “Just for that, I’ll make it harder next time.”
His cock stirred, taking the harder thing to heart. “You’re already thinking about next time?”
“I’m always thinking about next time.”
Sweet Maker, he loved this woman. He loved her even more when her hand closed around his rapidly swelling cock. Her fingers were magic as they slid up and down his shaft, nothing serious, just incredibly arousing foreplay.
When she paused, he damned near whimpered. “Okay, I have a question. Making a baby while in a shifted form guarantees a skinwalker offspring, right? I mean, that’s why we did this.”
“That’s what the elders said.” They’d also said that when a skinwalker died, he—or she—could manifest as a material spirit to haunt those who had wronged him. Being a skinwalker had some serious perks. Perks he wanted to pass on to his young, knowing that their lives would be considerably better than the lives of skinwalkers before them.
“What if only one parent is a skinwalker?”
He pressed his lips into her hair and inhaled the soft jasmine scent of the shampoo she’d gotten from Aylin. “Then they still have a substantially increased chance of having a kid who can shape-shift.” He paused. “But only if the parent who can shift is, ah, in the alternate form when the child is conceived.”
She didn’t dwell on what that meant, thank goodness, because he didn’t want to either.
“Well,” Tehya mused, “what if one person can shift only into, say, a cougar, and the other person can shift only into something like an elk?”
This conversation was becoming less sexy and more wrong by the second. “You had to go there, huh?”
Tehya laughed. “Aren’t we supposed to share everything? Even disturbing thoughts?” She bounded to her feet. “Come on. I want to run some more. And,” she said saucily, “I want you to catch me.”
He let her go this time, giving her a head start. He didn’t shift until he heard her howl, and when he was done, he answered, sending his voice up into the darkening sky. A dozen voices howled in reply, each one distinct. Then Tehya’s call, pure and unique, joined in, calling him to her.
This was life.
And it was perfect.
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BOOKS BY LARISSA IONE
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2016 by Larissa Ione
This title was originally published in 2016 in the anthology Blood Red Kiss
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First Pocket Star Books ebook edition September 2017
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