When he grabbed both buttcheeks and parted them, I felt his spit trickle down the crack, and shuddered when it pooled in the pucker of my ass.
None of them had ever taken me there, and to be honest, it wasn’t a big turn on for me, but when he started rubbing it with his finger, a finger that was de-clawed, thank God, I groaned as he pressed it in with a care that spoke of his love for me.
Moaning as he pressed down, his digit rubbing against his dick inside me, I squeaked as I rolled up onto tiptoe, and he responded by powering into me.
A shriek escaped me as he squeezed another finger into my ass, and I felt the soft liquid of his spit as he lubed his way in, and when, with his other hand, he spanked me again, I had no alternative but to just let go. Just to fly into the heat, the light, the goddamn inferno that was the power of my orgasm.
His knot appeared barely seconds later as I felt it locking into me, and when it did and he spanked me again, I felt the vibrations deep inside me, rocking against the fingers in my butt.
My head knocked into the wall with a dull thunk that had me laughing, even as I moaned and groaned through the pleasure of my release, of his release too. He snorted, then reached over and rubbed my head as he carefully pulled his dirty, dirty fingers out of me.
“You okay, darlin’?” he rasped, his voice low and husky.
“Perfect,” I replied, meaning it.
Carefully, he helped me stand, which was great because my boobs were aching already, but the new angle had us both hissing.
“We gonna waddle to the bed?” I teased, looking over my shoulder at him, loving the tender kiss he pressed to my temple, which made the way we were connected all the more powerful.
“Nope, we’re gonna waddle over to that bench over there.”
I eyed the filigree iron with a crinkle of my nose. “Remind me to change the furniture out here, hmm?”
“Most definitely,” he agreed as he shuffled us the few steps forward, before he took a seat and brought me with him.
He rearranged us so that I was more comfortable, before he slipped his hands between my legs and began to touch my clit. A hiss escaped me, one that had me arching against his chest, as my pussy pulsed around his knot.
“Too sensitive,” I grumbled, slapping at his hand.
He stopped, but bridged our fingers together over my mons. “This is home,” he rasped. “You know that, don’t you?”
I knew what he meant, and I twisted my head slightly so I could bury my face in his throat. “I love you.”
“I love you too. But sometimes, those words aren’t enough,” he countered. “Sometimes, they don’t even begin to quantify exactly how much I feel for you.”
“You show me in a million ways, my darlin’,” I whispered back. “And that is more powerful than anything you could ever tell me.” I kissed his pulse point, then closed my eyes. “How come you can turn your fingers into claws now? Hmm?” I asked drowsily.
“We’ve always been able to do it. Just avoided it around you. We didn’t want to freak you out.”
“What changed?” I harrumphed. “Am I impossible to freak out now?”
He snorted. “After what we’ve been through? Yeah. You are.”
My nose crinkled, but I just grumbled, “Wake me up when Knight squawks for milk?”
He laughed softly, but his head rested against mine. “Always. Little booger deserves a good meal or twenty after what he’s done for the pack.”
“Should get a medal,” I whispered sleepily, and though he answered, I let myself drift because, for the first time in a long while, I was safe and replete, filled with my mate, his knot pulsing away inside me—a living, breathing connection that would never, could never die.
The cackle faded away before it had a chance to soar higher, louder, taking over the clearing where I found myself.
It wasn’t the same as the one in my other dream. If anything, it was a totem circle. Only it looked different.
Then I registered it was different.
It wasn’t my totem.
But the way the cackle died? I knew that meant the threat had gone.
I was safe. The hyenas were no danger to me or to Lara anymore, because when I whipped around to find the source of the cackle, there was only silence. Peace.
Relief had my attention shifting elsewhere—to more interesting, newer things, and I blinked at the totem, then stared up at the different animals that decorated the obelisk.
Ours celebrated wolves, but this one housed a bear, a tiger, a wolf, and an eagle. It was massive. Made ours, one that felt like it scraped the sky, appear teeny tiny.
Unsure as to why I was here, I stepped forward, knowing that where I was standing wasn’t the totem’s inner circle.
It was a risk.
I knew that.
Our totem sent energy through us every time we breached the outer circle, that was how, I felt certain, Knight had helped heal his fathers, our pack. It was clear to me that he had healing gifts, but they’d been amplified by the totem, and I’d never not be grateful about that because, damn, he’d saved so many people.
Had spared so many lives.
He was a hero, and he wasn’t even six months old yet!
As pride filled me, I felt the buzz as the totem did its scanning thing, and I made my way into the inner circle.
Before my eyes, and the second I was inside, the totem morphed, the bear, tiger, wolf, and eagle separating from the stand and turning corporeal.
The bear lumbered forward, the tiger and wolf pounced down to the ground, and the eagle soared into the sky, circling where the obelisk once stood.
I staggered back at the sight. But even though there was no visible barrier between my position and where I’d originally been standing when I’d found myself here, I ran up against one as my body collided into it. The animals didn’t come closer to me though, so I watched them warily, wondering if they were going to attack as I stuck to the edge of the circle.
But they didn’t attack.
If anything, they changed once more.
The eagle flew down to my level, and the wind from his wings became a tangible thing. Pictures and colors and moving objects blurred until it was like I was seeing a kind of rudimentary cinema screen.
My mouth worked as I saw a woman drift onto the screen, followed by another and another.
I recognized them all.
My mom. Merinda. Maribel.
The sight had my brows lifting.
They were pregnant, and as the eagle carried on flapping its wings, babies appeared in front of them.
First me. Then Cyrilo, who immediately faded into the shadows. Then Jana, who suffered a similar fate, which told me they were dead in this ‘movie,’ then Lara.
In front of me, little balls of light appeared, dancing around my head like in the Tom & Jerry cartoons. When Tom had been knocked out and he’d been dazed, stars had circled him. Well, lights moved around me now.
But in my arms, Knight was there.
I counted the lights, and gasped when I counted four. Then Daniel was there, standing to the side, but a part of my unit. My family, even if it wasn’t by blood. He was different. Not as young as I knew him now, but older. A man. His eyes were tired, loaded with a sadness I wanted to cure but couldn’t.
Behind me, a shadow appeared, distracting me as it grew and grew. Not like with Cyrilo and Jana, who had faded into nothing. Mine was the shape of a wolf. It speared out of me, twenty feet into the sky, larger than me by a hundred times. Its snout was to the side. Its teeth bared.
When it froze, my role evidently played, I darted my attention to Lara.
She had morphed from a child and into a woman, the darkness behind her bloomed into a single light that was so bright, I shielded my eyes.
At her back, a massive orb appeared, and within seconds, I saw the crescent moon. It turned her skin into silver, but her eyes gleamed back at me, glinting like they were metal too. Her belly became round with child, and she patted it
lovingly, before her arms were suddenly full.
When that segment froze as the baby morphed into a man I didn’t, couldn’t recognize, I turned to Merinda. In front of her, Eli, Austin, and Ethan were standing. They smiled at me, reached out for me, and I longed, with all my being, to go to them. To reach back for them, but I couldn’t. I was here to watch.
To play witness.
Knight appeared in Eli’s arms, only he changed. Dropping to the ground and growing up before my eyes. His hand reached out to the side, to where Maribel stood. Seth appeared, and he was doused in shadows. Like Cyrilo and Jana, only, he was still standing. He didn’t fade into nothing as they had.
Then another baby appeared, transforming into a woman. Only then, behind the girl, just like it had with Lara, an orb blossomed into being, but it was golden. A thousand times more powerful than what was evidently the moon behind Lara.
She stepped forward, a smile on her lips, and everything faded away into the darkness behind the sun. Everything apart from Knight, Lara’s son, and Daniel.
I watched as their hands reached out, collided, tangling, and as they formed a unit, shadows danced forth, whispering over the sun, bringing darkness with it.
When Seth stepped forward, straight through the sun, breaking the foursome’s hands apart, I gasped, and with that, I found myself no longer in the clearing.
No longer in a dream.
I jerked into wakefulness at the same time as Knight burst into tears, and with the knot having disappeared, I untangled myself from Eli, kissing him when he roused from a nap too, and made my way to my son’s bassinet.
When I made it, I almost screamed when I saw his eyes gleamed golden, but before I could wonder if I was losing my mind, I rubbed my own and saw that his were normal when I opened them again.
I wasn’t sure what I’d just seen. The future?
I knew from Jana that no future was fixed. Everything could change. Free will could alter anything and everything, but that didn’t stop me from lifting Knight up and holding him to me.
Tightly.
Seventeen
Lara
Nevaehai was incredible. Knowing what it was, where I was, all of it was enough to make even the most apathetic person dance a jig, but who I was with made it a million times better.
I peered up at the sky, an endless twilit sky, and smiled as I rocked my head to the side when Todd asked, “What are you thinking?”
We were both as naked as the day we were born, lying in the middle of nowhere, relaxing as we slowly got to know one another. Kisses, lovemaking, laps in the Pond of Dreams, food with a single wish—this had to be what heaven felt like.
“I was thinking that I was going to push you away, and that I was a dumbass.”
He snorted. “You were scared.”
“You’re right. I was. Of everything.” I hummed as I thought about the information that my brain was storing away, filing in an order that only I’d ever be able to understand. However long we’d been here, my brain was still working hard, still filing away, still trying to bring order out of chaos. “Funny.”
“What is?”
“That now I know there’s no point to it.”
“To being scared? Fear isn’t a futile emotion. You had a reason to be frightened,” he soothed, making me smile as I rolled into him, settling my leg on his thighs where his dick rubbed against the upper curve of my leg.
“I did, but not where you’re concerned.”
“You could sense I brought change. And you’re stubborn,” he appeased.
I crinkled my nose at him. “You’re too understanding and accepting for your own good.”
His eyes sparkled at that. “In this, I can be. You’re here, aren’t you? You’re mine, aren’t you?”
“Now you’re just smug.”
“Exactly,” he retorted with a laugh. “I can’t win.” He pressed his hand to my side and, with a yawn, rocked his head back. “The love I have for you is something I can’t even begin to quantify.” His eyes were warm as he looked at me, loaded with emotion and sentiment that couldn’t be mistaken. Couldn’t be ignored. “It was always there, always waiting to bloom, but now it’s here, it’s like I’ve never been without it.”
My heart felt too full, and though I didn’t want to cry, I was choking on the emotions and sentiments he was pouring my way. Because I was speechless, I just reached over and cupped his chin, then bit my lip when he repeated, “I love you, Lara. I know, to you, it might be swift. We barely know each other—”
That was when I stopped him. Shaking my head, I informed him, “You don’t have to say that to me anymore. We do know each other. Deep inside, where it counts. And I love you too, Todd.”
The curve of his lips deepened, but I felt his satisfaction. Felt the inner peace that came with my declaration.
“I never thought I’d come here, so to be here with you is a gift I never could have foreseen,” he whispered, tucking a lock of hair behind my ear. “You should remember that. Just because we know so much that our brains could explode with it, you must never forget that we can’t control the future with it. We can’t stop something from happening, even though we know change is on its way.”
I could see the sense in what he was saying, even knew there was a futility and an arrogance in believing that one could change the future, but when it boiled down to protecting family and friends, I knew that had to be close to impossible.
“Father knew he’d die at Rainford’s hands,” Todd informed me, his tone soft, his words quiet. “But he didn’t stop it. Did nothing to prevent it.”
“Why? How did he know?”
“Because he just did. He was good at reading people. Kingsley Rainford treated my entire family like we were slaves. But, equally, the only person who could take him down in the pack was me—after my father had died and I’d transcended.”
Words like transcended and ascended were getting to be a part of my vocabulary now, so I barely batted an eye as I understood he meant the kumiho spirit had passed into him with his father’s death.
I bit my lip. “I’m sorry, Todd.”
“Don’t be,” he said gruffly. “We all die at some point. We’re just lucky if our death comes with a purpose. If we had left the pack, if Father abandoned his fate, then we wouldn’t be here now, would we? You wouldn’t be the Moon Child.”
He said that, but I knew he was torn up about it because if he wasn’t, he’d have left Daniel alone.
“Why was it so important that Daniel be sent away?” Now I knew him better, now I knew a lot of things better, I realized there was a reason for everything.
“Remember what I just told you not to do?” I blinked at that, then nodded when he repeated, “You can’t control the future?”
“Yeah, I remember.”
“That was me. Trying to control the future.” He cleared his throat. “No good will come of Daniel remaining with the Highbanks.”
“Do you know why?”
“No. But I know you’re the Moon Child, which is a catalyst.”
“For what?”
“The birth of the Sun Child.”
“What will they do?”
“Change society forever.”
“Oh, not much, then?” I teased gently, resting my hand on his chest, and finding myself surprised by the pounding of his heart.
Infinite knowledge was a burden, but it spoke to me of this man, told me of his goodness, his wrongdoings. It told me of his strengths and his weaknesses.
He didn’t want to be pack alpha.
But he knew there was no one good enough for the job.
He was holding it…holding it for our child.
Crazy how only a few days had passed since I’d first met him, and already, I could think these things without wanting to puke.
Just being in the same room as him had been too much. Going to a diner had been an attempt at proving to him that we were wrong for each other, that he was wrong about who I was to him.
Now?
I couldn’t get close enough. Skin to skin was too far apart.
The thought had me rolling onto him, straddling him and sandwiching his hardening dick against my belly.
“What are you doing?” he asked, his lips curving into a smile.
“If you have to ask, then I’m not doing it right.”
He snickered, reached up and cupped my breasts. As he tested the weight of one, he nipped the tip of the other. His fingers slipped down and along my waist, settling between my thighs where he managed to slip two between my labia and began to rub my clit. Hissing, I jerked up higher onto my knees, rocking my ass back so I could give him better access.
Letting my hands rest on his thighs, arching my spine, I spread my legs wider, watching him watch me as he played with me.
He rubbed my clit before he slipped the digits down, pushing the tips of two into me. The heel of his hand ground down, making me arch my pelvis some, and I groaned as soon as he hit the right spot.
Head falling back, I rocked my hips against him, loving that my juices were leaking onto his cock, lubing him up for when I was ready to take this to another level.
He teased me for a long time, and I let him, loving that he was connecting with my body, that he was learning me as much as I was learning him. His calmness, his innate sensibilities might not have been a turn on for a woman who liked things rough and raw, but I didn’t.
I loved how he moved, how he touched me, how each caress was for a reason. Purposeful.
He made love to me, and it made me fall for him just that little bit more.
He was right in a sense, but wrong in others—I’d been scared all my life. Of my feelings, of other people’s feelings, of how they affected me, and of what I could see and hear. I’d been petrified of being locked in a psychiatric ward, and I’d felt sure that was how I’d end my days. Locked up, believed to be crazy.
But I wasn’t.
I was very sane.
Everything happened for a reason, and I’d found my reason. He was here. Beneath me.
The need to connect rammed me hard at that moment, and I reached for his dick, nudging his fingers away, and slotted him into me. As I did, I saw the fox in him, the spirit that had told me from the start that he was lying to me, that he wasn’t telling me the truth, and I watched it unfurl from its resting place inside him.
Moon Child: A PNR Shifter Romance (The Year of the Wolf Book 2) Page 28