by K L King
He looked back at her and dropped his head.
Right, he was an animal and they didn’t talk. At least that made sense. “You’re so soft. I wonder if you like it when I rub you like this?” She rubbed a hand down one of his legs and then another. She gently petted the fur on one of his paws. “I never in a million years would have believed any of this if I hadn’t seen if myself.” She sighed heavily. “Can you please change back for me?”
He backed away from her a few feet and then almost instantaneously, a naked Deacon burst forth from the wolf’s body. “Are you alright?” he asked.
“Am I alright? What about you? That was so unbelievable. You are so beautiful. I mean, your wolf is so striking.” She blushed as she walked closer, trying not to stare down at his unclothed body. She forced herself to keep her eyes on his face and not his deliciously naked body. When he grasped her shoulders with both hands, she rested her hands on his chest. “I don’t even know what to say about all this.”
Deacon chuckled nervously. “Well, I’m just glad you didn’t run out of here screaming.”
She stared into his eyes. “It’s weird, but looking at the wolf, I knew it—I mean you—wouldn’t hurt me.”
“I couldn’t ever,” Deacon said, pulling her closer to him. “I’d die first.” He dipped his head toward hers, gazing deep into her eyes.
She then did something that the Iris of a couple of months ago would never have done. She decided to be brave and take a risk. She rose up on her toes and kissed him forcefully. Iris wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him tight against her, rubbing her body along his. Deacon took the hint and lifted her up like she weighed nothing and carried her over to the bed.
He lay her down and climbed on top of her carefully. He held her in his arms, just staring at her.
“What?” Iris asked breathlessly as she tried to pull his mouth down to hers.
“Just give me a minute. I’m still so surprised that you are OK with this. With all this?” He gestured to himself.
“Well, I really want you. I wanted you even when I thought you were a bossy cop. I guess that if you happen to be a wolf, I’ll have to be OK with that. I’m more worried about being a shifter myself. That’s going to be harder to accept, I think.” She tried to pull his head towards her so she could kiss him some more.
He laughed and then leaned toward her mouth and kissed her. He licked the seam of her lips tentatively, slowly. Iris responded right away, emitting a little moan that seemed to drive him crazy judging by the speed with which he then drove his tongue inside her mouth. He lifted her shirt up and off her in one quick motion. Iris shed her sports bra as Deacon tore her shorts off her body. He ground his body against hers and pushed her legs apart with his knee, settling himself over her.
Iris opened her mouth in response, teasing him with her tongue. “I’m still dirty from the hike. We can’t…like this,” she protested weakly, pulling back slowly.
Deacon responded by driving his tongue against hers. “Doesn’t matter.” With his left hand he reached up and tore her panties away.
Iris let out another moan as she wrapped her legs around his hips and tried to pull him closer.
He kissed along her jaw and down her neck, sucking hard. He rubbed his hand against her clit, using her own wetness for lubrication. She lifted her hips in response.
“Please,” she begged, grabbing his firm ass with one hand and squeezing. He began thrusting one finger and then two into her slowly as she writhed beneath him. She covered his hand with hers and urged him on harder.
“Greedy little mate,” he teased, “Did you want something?”
He placed the head of his cock at her entrance and tormented her, gliding it across her entrance back and forth.
“Please. Now,” she pleaded as her body trembled against his.
“Are you sure? You said you didn’t even like me. You said I kidnapped you, remember?” Deacon asked with a smile.
She panted. “I may have misjudged you, but you’re still bossy. And you did kidnap me, but it was for a good reason. Yes, I want this. Please.”.
He pushed inside, groaning as Iris gasped. He was so big—it felt so so good, so incredible. He continued to piston back and forth inside her. Iris raised her hips off the bed, following the rhythm he set. He moved faster and faster as she began to pulse beneath him. His teeth nipped all along the hot skin of her neck and shoulder. As he moved on top of her, his mouth was once again on her neck, licking and tasting.
Iris instinctively realized what she needed to do. She had felt a pull toward Deacon ever since she first laid eyes on him. She was safe with him. She was braver with him. She had learned he was a supernatural beast, but she hadn’t run. If this wasn’t fate, she didn’t know what was. She needed to be his and for him to be hers. A thought came to her—bite. He needed to bite her. A mating bite. She gave him her neck as he continued to piston in and out of her. “Claim me. Make me yours,” she said.
Just as he climaxed, flooding her channel with his seed, he bit her hard where her neck met her shoulder. Strangely, there was no pain, only pleasure. The sensation so good she couldn’t stop the keening sound she emitted as they moved together as one. He gently licked the claiming mark and then, slowly, their breathing returned to normal.
He placed both hands on either side of her head and stared at her intently. Her eyes filled with tears, but her mouth stretched into a smile. “Are you OK?” His lips were set in a line and his forehead was creased as if worried..
She placed her hands on his cheeks and drew his mouth to hers. “I’m very happy. Scared, but happy.” She kissed him deeply.
A loud knock sounded at the front door.
Chapter 22
Iris squeaked and Deacon moved to cover her. “Shh. You just stay put. I’ll take care of this.” He kissed her softly on the lips. He quickly put on his jeans and went to open the front door as Iris plunged under the blankets.
Annie was standing at the front door to Iris’s cottage, holding a picnic basket. “How are you guys holding up?”
“Fine, I mean good. We were just getting up. How did you know we were here? Sorry if we left in a rush last night. It was just too much for her. She wanted to get away…”
“Tessa called and let me know. Don’t worry about leaving in a rush. It’s always a shock. No matter how we explain it, it’s always hard to take. How’s she doing now?” Annie asked.
“Ummm…” Deacon’s cheeks flamed.
Annie smiled and blushed. “I’ll just assume she’s doing better now. Anyway, I just came here to check on Iris and brought some breakfast for you both, just some muffins, coffee, and juice. Your mate might be hungry,” Annie said, handing him the basket.
“Thanks, Mom.” He gave her a big hug with one arm, holding the enormous basket in one hand.
She patted him on the back. “I’m just so happy for you. You deserve to finally be content. Please bring her by when she’s feeling up to it. I’m sure she’ll have more questions as she processes everything.” Annie kissed him on the cheek and then headed back to her car.
Deacon huffed a laugh as he walked into the bedroom. He saw his sweet mate hiding under a mountain of blankets and pillows on the bed. “You can come out, beautiful. The coast is clear.”
She poked her head through the mess with a big smile. “So, what’s next?” she asked.
“Next is shower and then breakfast.” He held up the basket full of food as he sat next to her on the bed. “That was my mom. She brought us over some breakfast. She was worried about you. She wanted to invite you over when you’re feeling up to it.”
As her stomach rumbled loudly, she peaked inside the basket. “That was really nice of her.” She reached in and pulled out a couple of muffins, offering some kind of berry variety to Deacon. “Wait!” she shrieked. “What about the bakery? Oh, my God. What day is it anyway?”
Deacon chuckled as he watched her scramble around for her phone while clutching a blanket to her chest
with one hand and a muffin in the other. “Don’t worry about it. I talked to Tessa before I came to bed last night. She’s not expecting you at work today. I told her what happened, what you found out. She thought it would be a good idea to take today and tomorrow off. Think about it all. Let things settle.”
“I think I’d rather be busy than be here by myself just thinking.”
“You won’t be by yourself. I’ll be with you. That is, if you’re OK with it. I’m not trying to be bossy. I just like being with you.” To Deacon’s great relief, Iris smiled at him.
“Yes, I think that would be nice. I like being with you, too.”
“There are some more things I need to tell you about my family, but it’s hard to talk about.”
“There’s no rush, is there? It’s already been twenty-four hours of strange and unbelievable news. Can you wait to tell me?”
He smiled. “Yeah, sure. It can wait.” He kissed her on the lips again with a smack. “You go get started in the shower. I’ll be there in a few minutes.”
Chapter 23
Iris walked into the adjoining bathroom and turned on the shower. She stared at herself in the mirror as the water heated up, surprised at what she saw. She was still a mess following the hike and all the crying she had done, but she looked truly happy. Her cheeks were pink and her lips were swollen from Deacon’s attentions. She saw the mate marks he had given her on the side of her neck. Deep inside she had known what these bite marks meant; she wasn’t exactly sure how she knew. It was almost as if hearing about shifters had awoken a long-buried instinct within her.
It was as if he’d had no choice—she was his mate. It was as simple as that. She couldn’t help smiling as she stepped under the warm spray of water. She let the water course over her body, thinking how different her life was than just a few months ago.
Iris had been intimate with a couple of men prior to Deacon. She had been in two brief relationships while in culinary school. Neither of her prior relationships lasted longer than a couple of months. The men had been nice enough, but there hadn’t been much of an emotional connection. Sex in the past had been nothing compared to what she had just experienced. It had been brief interludes with the lights off, more like going through the motions. With Deacon, there was a mental and physical connection that she had never had. She was at peace as she closed her eyes.
As she let the warm water run over her back, Iris heard the bathroom door open and then felt a presence in the shower with her. Deacon coated his hands in soap and wrapped his slick hands around her body, rubbing her breasts. His naked body pressed against her back. She leaned against him as he continued to roughly massage her breasts with both hands. He bent his head and nuzzled the side of her neck. He licked along her mate marks. “Did I hurt you?”
“No, it feels fine. Better than fine, in fact.” She reached behind her and grasped his cock with one hand. She must have surprised him by the way he jumped. He growled at her as she continued to rub up and down on his member slowly, while he pulled at her breasts, kneading them. Deacon nipped at her neck and ran his tongue across her jaw. He nudged her legs apart and plunged into her depths with one push from behind. She moaned, pushing against the shower wall with both hands. Deacon lifted her up with one arm and thrust inside her deeply over and over. Before long they were both spent again with Deacon holding up a shaking Iris.
Deacon thoroughly toweled Iris off and then handed her a fluffy blue bathrobe. It was her favorite, the one covered with pink bunnies. She giggled when she saw him with the robe in his large hands, towel around his waist.
“What?”
“It’s just funny seeing you with such a silly—”
He stopped her giggles with a passionate kiss. “We do need to talk about something that can’t really wait, something not having to do with my family,” Deacon said. He walked back over to the bed and sat, lifting her onto his lap after she covered up with a robe.
“OK.” She bit into a muffin and maneuvered herself to face him. “I’m ready. As long as it’s not stranger than what you’ve already told me, I probably won’t pass out this time.” She tried to give Deacon a smile.
He leaned his head toward hers. “Riley.”
She flinched. “What about him? I can’t get rid of him. I love him and he needs me.”
“No. It’s not that. Did you notice any similarity between my wolf and Riley?”
Iris stared at Deacon with a blank face. “You can’t mean to tell me…” She shook her head. “He’s smaller, and his eyes aren’t yellow like your wolf’s. No, I don’t think so. I’ve been around him for a while, hours and days at a time. I feed him dog food. He’s never shifted. You really think he’s a shifter?” she asked as tears came to her eyes.
Deacon grabbed both her hands and started rubbing them. “Yes. The other shifters in town have noticed as well. We can sense other shifters. It seems like he’s sick or hurt somehow, and that’s why he hasn’t been able to shift back to his human form. As far as eating dog food, I’m sure he would prefer meat, but how would he let you know?”
“That poor man!” Iris cried freely now. “I’ve been treating him like a dog for months. I put a collar on him and a leash.”
“Wait, calm down. You saved his life. He kind of adopted you as his friend. He was, and still is, very protective of you. If he didn’t like how you treated him, he would have left. He could have left at any time.”
“I need to talk with him. Does he understand what I say to him? He must, right, if your wolf understood me?”
“Yep, I’m sure he has understood everything you’ve said to him. He knows we’re all shifters, too. He knows you’re my mate. He knows he’s part of our pack now.”
“We need to help him. We have to figure out how to get him better.”
“We’ll try. Tessa might have some ideas.” He fidgeted uneasily.
“How?”
“She’s over a hundred years old so she may have encountered this in the past. She also has mystical powers…of a sort.”
“What kind of powers?” Iris asked.
“I’m not exactly sure. She doesn’t discuss her abilities, at least not with most people. Maybe she’ll tell us someday. We’ll need to talk with her soon anyway. What’s important is that Riley seems happy. If he wasn’t, he would have taken off. That’s for sure.”
Chapter 24
“I still can’t believe I’m a shifter, and a bear at that!” Iris said as Deacon drove toward Tessa’s Treats. Tessa had called and asked them to come for a talk after she closed up for the day.
“Why not? Would you rather be a wolf?”
“I have no idea. I just don’t feel like a bear. I would’ve thought I’d be something less ferocious.”
“Why do you say that?”
“I’m not an aggressive person. I’m a pretty submissive person,” Iris replied quietly. “That was one of the things my father used to criticize. I didn’t take action. I just let things happen to me.”
Deacon growled. “That’s bullshit. I hope I get to meet your father someday so I can have a few words with him,” he said as he pulled into the parking lot of the bakery.
Deacon walked around the side of Iris’s jeep and opened the door for her. As she stepped out of the vehicle, he grabbed her in a tight embrace and nuzzled against the side of her cheek. She could feel the heat of his body through his thin gray T-shirt. “You look real beautiful right now.” He trailed featherlight kisses along the side of her neck. She was wearing a pale green sundress that gave him easy access for his ministrations. She cuddled into him and giggled.
“If you don’t stop soon, we’ll never make it inside,” she teased.
“I don’t care,” he mumbled against the loose braid of her hair.
Iris pulled back to smile up at him. “You’re the one who told me Tessa is some super powerful being. I would think you wouldn’t want to piss her off.”
“Right.” He pulled back and grimaced at her. “We’d better hurry up.�
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He released her from his hold, but did not relinquish her hand. As they walked in, Tessa was just bringing a tray with some donuts and coffee mugs toward a table in the now closed dining area. She put it down and enveloped Iris in a big hug. “I’m sorry you had to find out that way. Seeing the cougars out on the trail forced the issue. I wanted to wait a bit longer.” Holding Iris’s hands, she pulled back and glanced up at her as if she could read something in her eyes. “How are you doing?”
“I’m not sure. I’m definitely freaked out. I never knew there were shifters… It still doesn’t seem real. I’ve seen May and Deacon both in their wolf forms so far, but it seems so fantastical.”
“What else? Please, both of you sit,” Tessa said gesturing with her hand as she sat at the small table.
Deacon pulled the chair out for Iris without hesitation. Iris gave him a smile and sat. “Well, some things make more sense now. I was hearing a woman’s voice in my head at different times. A deep, husky voice. I thought I was going psychotic, but the voice is my bear, right?” Iris asked.
Tessa nodded. “For some reason, she was, and still is to a certain extent, hiding from you. It may have something to do with the fact that you grew up in the city, away from nature and other shifters. She may have believed it was unsafe. There may have been someone close to you that made her frightened.”
Iris blinked. “Um, I don’t know who that could be. Just my family and a few very human friends. I have typically stayed away from scary types if I could help it. So, Deacon says you’ve been around a long time. Have you seen this type of thing before?” Iris asked hesitantly.
“Really?” Tessa asked, leaning back in her chair. “How old did you say I was, Deacon?” She was smirking at him with one raised eyebrow.
Deacon paled. “I didn’t say. I don’t know. I told Iris you’ve lived in Grey Lake for over a hundred years, taking care of the shifters who lived here. I thought your experiences might help us figure out why Iris has never shifted and why Riley can’t seem to shift into his human form.”