Ghost Wolf: Paranormal Shifter Romance (ComeShift Series Book 1)

by Sky Winters

  “I know, but… Why?” She blushed a little, grabbing at a packet of Sweet n’ Low just to have something to fiddle with while they waited for their drinks.

  “I thought you were cute,” he said. “And I figured that a cute girl like you shouldn’t be spending her Valentine’s Day alone in a small bookstore.”

  The waitress came back to deliver their bottles of beer and ask about what they wanted to eat. Eric ordered the spinach and artichoke dip. Summer ordered some hummus.

  He seemed amused by that. “It’s practically the only way I’ll eat fresh veggies,” she explained, sticking her tongue out at him. “It’s funny to me that you think I’m cute. I could say the same thing about you. When you came into the shop, I thought you looked way too innocent and sweet to be riding a motorcycle.”

  “Oh, looks can be deceiving,” he countered. He took a long sip of his beer.

  Summer nodded. “So, who came up with the name ‘The Celestial Sentinels’? It’s not the toughest sounding name. No offense.”

  He gave her a confused look. “Who says all guys who ride motorcycles have to be tough? Anyway, it’s pretty heroic to be a guard…”

  She supposed that was true. “What do you do when you’re not guarding?”

  He chuckled darkly. “Drink your beer.”

  Summer took a sip, smiling at the taste. She didn’t drink very often, but boy did she feel like she had a pretty good reason to tonight. “My husband left me today,” she said softly, frowning at her bottle. When she looked back up, she noticed that Eric was giving her a sympathetic look.

  “Why the fuck would anybody do that?” he asked, surprised and disgusted but keeping his voice low like she had because it was not the kind of conversation that everyone in the bar needed to overhear.

  She shrugged sadly. “He wanted someone younger, I guess.”

  “Younger?” he asked. “How old are you? …Er, if that’s not impolite. You don’t have to answer.”

  “I’m twenty-nine,” she answered.

  “Pfft,” Eric said. “That is definitely not old. I’m thirty.”

  Summer smiled ever so slightly. “That’s ancient.”

  Their appetizers came and distracted them for a few moments. She dipped a piece of celery into the hummus and ate it with a satisfying crunch. They shared the two dips and the assortment of things with which to eat them, reaching across the table when necessary.

  “I’m a security guard,” he said. “Well, I was… I was fired. Let go, they called it. So I am currently looking for a new job.”

  She cringed a little. That was slightly off-putting. She wasn’t sure she wanted to be dating a guy who was currently unemployed, but maybe she could help him with that. It wasn’t as though unemployment was so rare these days. “What are you doing for money for the time being?”

  Eric bit his lip and slowly shook his head. At first, she thought that meant that he had no idea, but then he answered. “I have some saved up,” he said. “It’s not ideal, though. But I’ll be all right. Enough about me. What do you like to do when you’re not selling books?”

  Summer let out a little laugh. She and Tom used to do a lot of things, like going on long walks and seeing movies. Lately, she hadn’t done much of either thing. She’d become a bit of a homebody. She sometimes wondered if it was depression over what she considered to be a defect. She could not have children, and that made her feel like a failure for some reason. She knew she wasn’t. She told herself she wasn’t. But she didn’t fully believe it.

  “I used to hike a lot,” she said, keeping her feelings to herself. “I wasn’t hardcore or anything, but I’d go out for long walks and explore forests and stuff.”

  He smiled. “You eat hummus and you love nature,” he said. “I’m dating a hippy. This is becoming a set up for a joke,” he teased. “A biker and a hippy walk into a bar…”

  She finished her bottle of beer and, stopping the waitress, asked for another. She also ordered the avocado sandwich she had been eyeing. “What’s the punchline of the joke?” she asked.

  Leaning across the table, Eric kissed Summer on the lips. She kissed him back, feeling as though the beer and something else were now going to her head.

  They kept on drinking their beer. When her sandwich arrived, she ravenously ate it, hoping that she didn’t seem like a drunken pig or anything. She was hungry and she didn’t often have an excuse to go out and enjoy something she hadn’t made herself.

  Eric watched her eat the sandwich, smiling at her and helping himself to the remnants of dip that remained on the plates before him.

  “Do you mind if I say something?” he asked suddenly. He seemed pretty tipsy by now, but he was still forming sentences okay, which relieved Summer because she did not want a ride home with an inebriated motorcyclist, even if he was the vice president of a club.

  She shrugged, swallowing a piece of sandwich before responding. “Go ahead.”

  “I think your husband must be out of his mind insane to leave you,” Eric said. “Especially on Valentine’s Day. I mean, who does that?”

  Summer looked down at her plate. “I don’t think he cared what day it was, really. I think it had been a long time coming.”

  Eric shook his head, irritated with her ex and he had never even met the jerk. “Well, I guess it’s probably bad to say, but I’m glad that he walked out on you today… Because otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to take you out.”

  She blushed, smiling a little. “That’s one way of looking at it.”

  CHAPTER THREE

  Making Love With His Ego

  As soon as they were done with their food – and definitely done drinking their beers – Eric led Summer out of the restaurant and back to his motorcycle. He got their helmets out of the storage space. They put them on. Summer felt very giggly all of a sudden. “What’s the plan now?” she asked him. “What else is on your Valentine’s Day date agenda?”

  He smirked and helped her onto the bike. “Wait and see,” he said, getting on in front of her.

  Wrapping her arms around his waist was much less awkward when she was tipsy. She was much less concerned about who he was or what was going to happen when she had some booze in her.

  They rode off down more sloping streets. At one point, she let out an excited, “Wheeee!” that made him laugh. Their motorcycle finally stopped back outside of Cabbages and Kings. She took one look at the place and made a face. “I don’t want to go back to work now,” she complained.

  Eric shook his head, smiling at her. “This is where we met. I don’t know where you live.”

  She grinned at him, blushing faintly. “You want to see where I live?” she asked.

  He nodded and she rattled off her address. He put it into his phone’s GPS and turned up the volume. He wouldn’t be able to look at it, but he’d be able to hear the directions. At least, he hoped so.

  As the bike took off once more, Summer hugged him around the waist and rested her cheek against his back, smiling. She didn’t care that he was unemployed anymore. He had saved the day for her and made her feel better. She felt determined to help her Celestial Sentinel find a new job.

  Once they reached her house, Eric parked his bike in her driveway. He helped her off the bike and she excitedly took his hand. Last time she had been in her house, she’d been miserable. She wanted Eric to fix that now, too.

  “Wow, this place is big,” he said, looking around. It was a house with two bedrooms and a master bedroom. It was clearly more space than one girl could possibly need.

  “It was bought with a family in mind,” she told him, closing and locking the door behind them. She tossed her keys onto the nearby kitchen counter and shoved her hands into the back pockets of her jeans.

  Glancing at the pink outline of a heart on her chest, Eric came closer. He brought his face to hers and kept his mouth teasingly close to touching her mouth. “Do you still have a family in mind?” he asked her in a whisper.

  She shook her head slightly.
“I should warn you right now that I’m damaged goods,” she whispered back. “I can’t have kids.”

  He lunged at her within that small space and suddenly his lips were on hers. He kissed her hotly and deeply, letting his tongue gently dance against hers. “You’re not damaged goods,” he said after he’d broken away, resting his forehead against hers. “You’re exactly what I’m looking for.”

  With that, he lifted her up into his arms and carried her through the house, finding the master bedroom without much difficulty since it was the only room with a bed in it. He placed her gently down onto the bed and lay down so that he was practically on top of her, kissing her and running his hands all over her stomach and breasts and waist.

  She pulled off his leather jacket and tossed it to the floor before reaching down and undoing his fly. Bringing out his penis, she took it into her mouth and licked and sucked at it, making Eric moan as he got even harder.

  After a few minutes of a blissful blowjob, he moved away a little and pulled off her jeans and panties. Then he ducked down between her legs and returned the favor, running his tongue all over her clit and lower lips.

  “Ohhh,” she moaned. “Oh god!” Tom had never done this for her. He’d never been too concerned with giving her orgasms and making her want sex with him. Which was weird, considering that he’d wanted to get her pregnant.

  Tom was a dick.

  Eric successfully got Summer nice and wet. Then he sat back up, fingering her a little as he smirked sweetly. “Are you ready?” he asked. “Do you want this?”

  Summer nodded eagerly. It felt so good to be asked. She hadn’t expected biker boy to be so polite to her. She wasn’t sure what his deal was, but she liked it. “Yes,” she said. “I definitely do.”

  With her permission, he slowly pressed himself inside her. She let out a gasp and lifted her legs, wrapping them around his middle. “You’re tight,” he said with a slight groan. “It has been a while, hasn’t it?”

  She smiled up at him. “I was waiting for you to come along and stretch me.”

  “Stretch you with my big cock?” he asked playfully.

  “Mmhmm, with your big cock.” She writhed a little against him, her head spinning from the alcohol and the pleasure.

  Eric licked his finger tips and brought them down to her clit, fingering her as he thrust inside her. Summer closed her eyes tightly as she suddenly came. “Oh, Eriiicc!” she bellowed. She felt as though fireworks were going off in her brain but it was dizzying and wonderful.

  He clung to her as she came, then pulled her t-shirt off of her and sucked at her right breast, speeding up his movements. She felt a rush of something as he came inside her. Summer smiled at Eric, feeling a bit delirious, and he kissed her.

  “There’s nothing damaged about you,” he whispered, carefully pulling out of her. “You’re perfect.”

  She watched, breathless, as he got out of the bed and went to the bathroom to clean himself up.

  When he came back, Eric got into bed again and cuddled with her. She was used to being alone after sex, listening as the silence became filled with snores. She didn’t expect to be cuddled afterwards. It felt nice, though she didn’t quite know what to do now.

  “Is your Valentine’s Day going better for you now?” he asked her, kissing her cheek and the side of her neck as he held her close.

  “I think my year is going better for me now,” she answered, smiling at him and taking his mouth onto hers. After a wonderful make-out session, Summer shivered. “It’s not fair that you get to keep your shirt,” she said, only pretending to complain.

  He sat up and removed his black t-shirt, handing it over to her. She took it, grinning an impressed grin, and put it on. It was small and tight on him, which helped to show off his muscled body. On her, it was long and loose enough to cover her private bits. It fit like a nightgown, and it was made even better by the fact that it smelled like him.

  “Do you want some tea or something?” she asked him, standing up and rubbing her face in an effort to get her mind working again and stop thinking about sex.

  That was hard to do when he stood beside her, naked.

  She looked down at his sizable cock and blushed, smiling. “Here.” She picked up her red shirt with the pink heart on it and handed it to him. “You shouldn’t have to be cold either.”

  Eric put her shirt on and she laughed. It didn’t exactly cover him up, but it sure was funny and cute. “I’m going to stretch it,” he said, sounding almost embarrassed.

  That just made her giggle more. “I don’t care. Do you think I want to wear that shirt to work again?”

  Summer went into the kitchen to make some tea and he followed her. He sat down on one of the bar stools that she kept by her little breakfast bar. He hissed somewhat at the feel of the cold surface on his bare butt.

  “So, I’m curious,” he said as he watched her put the kettle on the stove and select two tea flavors from her pantry. “What do you work in that restaurant if you hate it so much?”

  She thought about it. “I don’t really hate it. ‘Hate’ is too strong of a word. I actually really like working in the bookstore part. I’m glad I met you there. I just… Well, who likes working in a place where the clientele is so largely tourists?”

  Eric shrugged. “But bands play there.”

  “Mostly crappy bands,” she argued. “And most of the time, we just have open mic nights. I’m starting to think that I should just work in an actual bookstore.”

  She realized that she was complaining about her job to somebody who didn’t have a job and immediately felt regret. “I’m sorry. A job is a job, I suppose… What sort of thing would you like to do, now that you’re an unemployed guard and not a full-time guard?”

  He smiled a little at that. “Well, I probably shouldn’t guard anymore.”

  They both laughed softly. She poured the hot water over their peppermint tea and brought a mug over for him, sitting beside him at the bar with her own mug of cinnamon apple tea. The smells of both flavors mingled in the air and were invigorating. “There could be a career in your motorcycle interest,” she suggested. “A lot of places could use delivery people. Does that sound horrible to you?”

  “Nah, it doesn’t sound horrible,” Eric replied. “That’s a good idea. I was also thinking that I could be a roadie or something, since we were talking about the bands that play at your place. I guess I’d have to get a car for that, though.”

  Summer sipped her tea, thinking. “You could always join the staff in my place, who handle the sound and set up for shows.”

  Eric snapped, smiling at her. “Now that’s a great idea.” He took a sip of his tea and moaned softly. “And this is great tea. You are really good at stuff. I’ve clearly picked out the right girl.”

  She blushed, pleased and flattered.

  “I don’t know where your ex-husband gets off letting you think that having kids is the most important part of being in a relationship,” Eric said. “And what’s even more incorrect is that he made you think there was something wrong with you for not being able to have kids. He’s an asshole. I’m sorry.”

  It comforted her just to know that Eric didn’t feel the same negative way about her predicament as she did. She needed to stop thinking of it as a predicament anyway. It was just life. Someday, if she wanted, she could adopt some kids. She wasn’t so old yet that she even felt the major call to be a mother.

  “No, you don’t have to apologize. He is a colossal asshole. And I’ve found someone better.” She kissed Eric and gently stroked his hand with her fingertips.

  After they finished their tea, they went back to the bedroom and went to sleep, nestled warmly in each other’s arms. It felt amazing to be in someone’s arms again, and no matter how much she told herself she deserved it, she couldn’t help feeling like she was also completely blessed. She couldn’t wait to tell Rose and see what her friend would have to say. Rose would probably say something about karma and signs. She loved that this time
Rose had been right about her relationship and it hadn’t actually come back to hurt her much. She was going to be okay.

  Her Valentine’s Day had been the best one she’d experienced so far. And the evidence of it would come in the morning, when she rode to her work on the back of Eric’s motorcycle to retrieve her car.

  CHAPTER FOUR

  Don’t Fake It, Baby

  For a time, it seemed like everything was finally working out for Summer. She had a sexy, new boyfriend who cared about her. Work was going okay and had stopped annoying her so much now that Eric was in the running for a job there. She’d signed her divorce papers and sent them off to be signed by Tom and processed by their lawyers. She had nothing to worry about anymore.

  She came home from work one evening to find Eric sitting on the couch. This in itself wasn’t so odd. They basically lived together now. But, instead of watching TV or looking for jobs or something like usual, he was just sitting there, watching her.

  As soon as she was fully in the house, he rose up from the couch. “We need to talk,” he said.

  Oh no. Those were never good words. “Okay,” she said hesitantly though trying to keep her voice bright. She set her purse on the kitchen counter and went over to him. She gave him a hug like she always did when seeing him after work or after a few days of time apart.

  He gestured for her to sit on the couch and she did so. He sat beside her and took her hand. “There’s something I need to tell you,” he said. “Something I haven’t been forthcoming about, but there’s a good reason why…” He sighed.

  Summer was concerned. She didn’t want their happy little bubble to burst, but something was up and she knew that it was upsetting Eric. Was he secretly married? Her mind was racing, trying to figure out what it was. “Well, if there’s a good reason, then I’m sure it can’t be that bad.”

  “Before I met you, almost right before I met you, I robbed a convenience store.”

  Well, shit. It was that bad.

  Her eyes widened at him. “I’m sorry, what?”