by Liza Street
“You wanna walk?” Dristan asked. He didn’t like it that Laura might be sent off as an Exchange. It didn’t sit right with him, her leaving the pride. And the lion part of him raged at the thought of her belonging to someone else. But right now, it sounded like she needed a friend, and before anything, they’d once been friends.
“Sure,” she said. “Too cold for standing still.”
Without needing to discuss it, they walked away from the house, skirting the edge of the pond that wouldn’t be readily visible to those inside. Dristan realized he’d probably be screwed once Marlana discovered he’d cut out of the party early.
The air was crisp and fresh. There were no clouds, and the stars shone down like tiny lighted crystals. Dristan and Laura walked in silence for a ways, getting out of range of anyone who might venture onto Marlana’s back patio.
“So the Klamath Pride, huh?” Dristan asked, breaking the silence.
“That’s one option.” Laura sighed. “The other is becoming a Guardian.”
“So I heard,” Dristan said. “How’s that going?”
“Bruises everywhere, I have to train on my own time, and I swear the Channings are going harder on me than they ever did on each other. Ben and Doug are the worst—it’s like they’ve got something to prove.”
Ben and Doug were closer in age to Dristan’s twenty-nine years than any of the other lions in his peer group. He’d never been able to get along with those two because they were too obsessed with dominance and figuring out who was on top. Dristan didn’t have time for that shit.
“Yeah,” he said, “that sounds like Ben and Doug all right. But it looks like you’re learning some useful skills.”
He couldn’t keep himself from smirking as he thought about that Klamath Pride asshole on the ground.
Laura laughed. “True.”
“Why not be an Exchange?” Dristan asked.
“I don’t want to leave. This place is my home, and if I go somewhere else and marry into some other pride, who knows how often I’ll be able to come back? I’d rather get my ass kicked on a daily basis than live anywhere else, even if it’s just for a couple of years.”
Dristan nodded and kicked at the snow. “That makes sense.”
As much as he couldn’t stand the thought of Laura leaving, he wasn’t sure how he’d survive being here in the same pride with her, day after day, knowing he couldn’t have her.
Maybe it made more sense for him to go away, after all.
Seven
They walked for a long time, not speaking. Dristan kept stealing glances at Laura as she walked beside him. Her dark hair shone in the moonlight, and her skin was luminescent, as if she carried a warm glow inside of her. She looked so fucking pretty, out here in the woods. He rubbed his chest, trying to cover up the ache inside.
Abruptly, Dristan stopped. “It’s gotta be after three a.m. We should head back to Marlana’s.”
Laura didn’t respond, but he couldn’t do this anymore, so he started walking back in the direction of the house.
Laura hung back, and when he turned, he saw that she was wringing her hands together. Nervous habit of hers—she’d been doing it since they were kids.
“Wait,” she said. “You smell sad. What’s wrong?”
“Nothing. It’s late, I’m just tired. The party’s probably over, and I don’t want to get in trouble for disappearing.”
“You know better than to lie to me.”
She was using her bossy know-it-all voice. When Dristan was younger and she used it on him, he would wrestle her down until she hollered for mercy. Now he just wanted to kiss it away.
“You don’t really want to know,” he said.
“You sound like you believe that, but I think I do want to know.”
He stopped walking again. “It is late, Laura. We’ve been out for I don’t know how long, and Marlana’s bound to be wondering where we are, not to mention your parents and your brother and sister. This isn’t the kind of party a couple can just disappear from and not have people notice. People are going to assume things. Maybe expect things. And you of all people know something about expectations, right?”
He’d been careful not to say it in a cutting way, not like he had in the Hart’s parking lot, but Laura’s face fell, anyway.
“Look, I’m not trying to hurt you,” he said.
“Fail,” she whispered.
“What do you want from me?” He couldn’t hold in the raw sound of his voice, and he knew his face was open. He was inviting yet more rejection.
“I don’t know,” Laura said. She wrung her hands together and stared at the ground before looking up again. “I mean, I know what I want, but I—screw this. Screw everyone else. It’s just you and me here, and what I want? I want you.”
She stepped toward him and kissed him. Her lips were sweet like honey, and her mouth tasted like champagne.
He pulled away. “Laura, I can’t keep getting jerked around.”
“No more of that,” she said.
She paused, and he waited for her to explain herself.
Finally she spoke again. “I’ve been thinking about this a lot the past couple of weeks, ever since that night outside of Hart’s.”
It was hard to see in the starlight, but she looked like she was blushing. She also smelled aroused, and Dristan could remember why—he could remember the wet warmth of her against his hand.
She continued, “I want you and I don’t know what’s in the future, but right now, tonight, and tomorrow, I want you. Can that be enough?”
She’d be his undoing, but he’d take whatever she was offering. “Yes,” he answered. “It’s enough.”
Pulling her closer, he wrapped his arms around her and held on tight. Part of it was wanting to feel her body pressed against his, and the other part was ensuring she couldn’t get away. She didn’t know what was in the future, but she was here now and he wasn’t going to let her go.
He kissed the side of her neck and caught a glimpse of the apple shape tattooed into her skin. He traced it with the tip of his finger. “Tell me about your tattoo?”
She shook her head, but when he pulled back, she was smiling. “I was an idiot.”
“Really?” he said, pretending to be shocked. “You?”
“Shut up.”
“So tell me,” he said, reaching behind her neck and touching her skin there again—so soft.
She was quiet.
“Okay,” he said, “when did you get it?”
“After the last time Mateo and I broke up.”
That was not the answer he’d been expecting. “I’m dying here.”
“Well, Mateo and I tried really hard, you know? To be together?”
Yeah, he knew. Thinking about it didn’t make him very happy.
“When I was a kid, I was obsessed with the phrase ‘apple of my eye.’ I think I read it in a fairytale retelling or something. I wanted to be the apple of someone’s eye.”
He knew he had a skeptical look on his face.
She laughed. “It’s true—believe it or not. And after that last break-up, I really knew Mateo and I weren’t meant to be. But I’d put so much energy into being someone’s everything, and after that I felt stupid. I decided to be my own everything.”
“Ah,” he said. “That actually makes sense.” If she wasn’t careful, she’d end up being the apple of his eye. Hell, maybe she already was, but he couldn’t tell her that. Instead, he gathered her in his arms once more. He nuzzled her neck, thinking he wanted to find that tattoo and kiss it. She’d shared some vulnerability with him, and it meant a lot.
She tilted her head up, offering him her mouth. He listened carefully—she was holding her breath, waiting. He wanted to kiss her uncertainty away, reassure her with touch and affection, remake her into the strong woman she really was. He lowered his head and took her mouth with his.
Laura exhaled into him, her breath, his breath, mixing together. He deepened the kiss, felt her melt into him.
“I want more,” she said. “I want to put my mouth all over you.” She yanked off her top, then her skirt and thigh-highs.
Dristan gave himself two seconds to appreciate her nakedness before he was stripping, too.
The night air was cold on his skin, but he barely felt it. If anything, the contrast of cold to hot turned him on more. The cool air everywhere else, and Laura’s hot mouth as she moved from his chest down to his cock. She took him in her mouth, her tongue doing things he couldn’t begin to describe.
He stroked her silky hair, fighting not to take control, to let her have her way with him.
With a soft sucking sound, she freed his cock from her mouth. “I want you,” she said. “Inside me.”
“Hang on, let me get a condom—”
“Don’t need it,” she said. “I’m on the Pill.”
Shifters couldn’t contract any diseases, so they only needed to worry about contraception, and Laura already had it handled.
Grinning, he picked her up, and her breasts mashed into his chest. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and her legs around his waist, pressing the hot, tight heat of her against his stomach. He lowered her slightly. “Pull me inside you,” he rumbled. “I’m gonna fuck you standing up.”
She reached beneath her thigh, found his jutting cock, and guided it into her. Dristan threw back his head, wanting to shout to the skies that this moment, here with Laura—this was where he belonged.
He felt her inner walls squeezing him, milking him, and she squirmed, trying to get more friction. He’d give her friction. With a growl, he began withdrawing and plunging back in again.
Laura whispered, “Yes, right there…”
He moved faster, loving her harder, listening to her moans get louder. Her eyes closed.
“Look at me,” he demanded. “See who’s making love to you out here in the woods. See me.”
She opened her eyes and kissed him hard. Tongues moving together in time with his thrusts.
“I’m almost there,” he whispered in her ear, punctuating the statement with a rough bite.
“Me too. A little higher—yes. Yes, Dristan!” Her blazing green eyes met his, and he felt himself empty into her.
Instead of putting her down, he held her closer, not wanting to break the connection.
But it was Laura, and she’d taken what she wanted before leaving him last time. Would she disappear from his life again?
She grabbed his face with her hands, forcing him to look at her. “Dristan,” she said. “That was amazing. You’re beautiful.”
He nodded once and set her down. Her legs seemed to be shaking just as much as his, which gave him some satisfaction.
She looked at him hungrily. “I seem to remember you had a short refractory period. How long until we can go again?”
He laughed. “Okay, Dr. Laura. I just need a few minutes. But I can do something to keep you busy while we wait. Stay still.”
He kissed her shoulders, rubbed his palms over her nipples. She rolled her head back and moaned. When he moved behind her, she tried to turn to follow him, but he held her in place. “I wanna try something,” he said.
She stilled. “Okay.”
Without warning, he lifted her in the air. She squealed, laughing as he spun her until she was upside down, her back against his stomach, her knees bent over his shoulders. Her pussy, right there in front of his mouth.
“Mm, perfect,” he said, giving her a long lick.
Laura gasped. He could tell she wanted to move, to control what was happening, but here like this, she was at his mercy.
One lick, another. Lazily, as if he had all the time in the world. He could hold her here for an hour if he wanted to.
“Dristan…” she said, her voice pleading.
He felt an evil grin form on his face, but instead of making her suffer, he thrust his tongue inside of her without warning. Her shout of surprise turned into moans.
As he licked and sucked, he felt himself getting hard again. He pulled his mouth away from Laura and she whimpered. Slowly, he eased her down so her feet were on the ground. “Grab your knees,” he said.
She bent forward, and he took a moment to appreciate the scene in front of him before pressing inside her once more. He moved inside her leisurely now, savoring the feeling of her surrounding him.
He didn’t know how long they spent like that, but by the time she whispered that she was coming and he felt himself tighten up in response, they were both sweating. They came together, and Dristan lifted her from her bent position so he could nuzzle the apple tattoo on her neck. She leaned against him, panting, her arms fluid, movements lazy.
“What time is it?” she asked.
“Nearly morning, I expect.” He pressed a kiss to her temple, then let her go. He found his pants, pulled the phone out of his pocket. “Five o’clock.”
“We’re going to be in so much trouble,” Laura said.
He couldn’t read her expression. It was a strange mix of anxiety and relief. Returning to her side, he pulled her into an embrace again. He ran his palm up and down her back. She was so incredibly soft. He’d risk the alpha’s wrath to do everything over again.
“Did you hear that?” she asked, going rigid in his arms.
He fought the urge to make her stay put. “No. What did you hear?”
She shook her head and opened her eyes wide, searching the darkness. Dristan listened intently, but he didn’t hear a sound.
“I don’t know who or what it is,” she whispered, “but something’s out here with us.”
“Hello?” Dristan called.
There was no answer. If nobody answered, they weren’t friendly. He sniffed the air, and watched Laura do the same.
“I don’t smell anything,” he whispered.
“Let’s go.”
They bent down at the same time, shifting quickly into their lions. It hurt to force the change so quickly, but something about the night had switched from tender and emotional to dangerous.
Now a mountain lion, he glanced over at Laura in her mountain lion form. She was sleek and graceful, a lot like she was as a human. Her ears flicked back, and forward. He got the message as clearly as if she’d spoken: run.
They rocketed west, away from Marlana’s estate. Their pace was brutal, and yet Dristan could hear someone or something keeping pace with them. It had to be another shifter, but why couldn’t he scent it?
Worse, it sounded like it was getting closer. From his left, he heard the snap of a low branch, so he veered right. Laura followed his lead and they sprinted in the new direction. Then running footsteps sounded on their right, much too close, and Laura pushed him back toward the left.
Laura seemed to realize it the same moment Dristan did—they were being herded.
Adrenaline surged through him again at the thought. What the fuck could it be? Mountain lions were apex predators.
Wherever their pursuers were trying to make them go, Dristan wasn’t going to do it. He caught Laura’s eye and moved his head subtly to the left and then they were running again. No way would they let someone force them into a trap. He wondered where they should go. There were caves in the area, but they were still a long way off. Marlana’s was far behind them, but it might be worth the risk if they could get past their pursuers and lead them straight to a house full of powerful mountain lion shifters.
They continued to run, fueled by adrenaline and fear. The fact that he had no clue what was chasing them made this worse.
Their flight was automatic and there was no longer any strategy to it. Laura kept pace with him, probably in better shape than he was because of her Guardian training. Eventually, though, they would have to stop. He slowed his gait and Laura slowed, too. Whoever was chasing them didn’t make a move. This didn’t make sense. Maybe they’d seen just h
ow formidable two lion shifters were, and they were rethinking their attack. Dristan could still hear them moving, but they seemed farther behind than they’d been.
How much time had passed? Hours? Faint light was seeping over the horizon, and it would be dawn soon. He hadn’t realized they’d been out here for so long.
He and Laura slowed to a walk. Nothing came out and attacked them. It made no sense. Whatever had been chasing them, he could no longer hear it.
Laura stopped walking, and shifted to human. Dristan growled. The human form wasn’t safe enough. Better to stay a cat, and fight.
“They’re gone,” Laura said. “Whatever it is, it’s gone.”
Dristan nodded. Gone or not, he wasn’t shifting to human. Not yet.
Sighing, Laura started walking back in the direction of Marlana’s. Dristan walked next to her, every sense on alert for danger. If they’d just been walking through the woods after a friendly, leisurely run, he might have been able to enjoy her nudity. But now he could barely spare a glance at her gorgeous breasts as she walked beside him. Instead, he had to look for signs of whatever had been chasing them.
The whole situation pissed him off.
“They started falling back when it got lighter,” Laura said. “I thought maybe they were getting tired like we were, but the sounds of them falling back were fast.”
She gasped and stopped walking. “Dristan, what’s tireless but afraid of the light?”
Dristan shifted into his human form, his muscles and bones rearranging, his whole body vibrating with the sensation of danger and the desire to protect Laura.
When he was human again, he faced her. “Are you saying we were just chased by vampires?”
Eight
Laura tried not to let Dristan’s beautiful body distract her. What they’d just done out here, before the chase, had made her feel more complete and content than she’d ever felt. Those broad shoulders led to hard pectoral muscles, and abs that would ripple and flex beneath her touch as she skimmed her hand down toward his—
Vampires, Laura. Focus. She said, “I mean, what else could it have been?”
“There haven’t been vampires in North America since…since the frontier days,” Dristan said. “Our ancestors chased them out. North America was for shifters, Europe was for bloodsuckers. In fact, I think everywhere else was for bloodsuckers. Wasn’t there some kind of treaty or something?”