She was at the edge, pleasure building, her thighs quaking, when he finally slipped his finger free. “Asshole.” She cursed breathlessly, yelping when he suddenly hoisted her up, forcing her legs around his hips.
She managed to unbutton his jeans, reaching inside to guide his cock free. It’s a hot and heavy weight in her palm. He impatiently batted away her hand, and began to sink his entire length into her, inch by inch. The noises coming from his mouth were guttural as he bottomed out. He held still for a moment, pressing their mouths gently together as he let her get used to the feel of him. Warmth blossomed in her chest as he pulled back, pressing their foreheads together, puffing warm breath across her lips.
When he couldn’t stand it any longer, he braced her against the wall and built a steady rhythm to the sounds of her gasps. He drove into her urgently, chasing his release. Both hands were gripping her hips tightly, urging her back into his thrusts as he snapped his hips forward in a brutal pace. Their hips rolled together, igniting pleasure within her body with every firm thrust.
She breathed his name like a prayer, a full body shiver wracking her body violently as her orgasm rolled through her like a roar of thunder. She could feel her walls fluttering around him in the throes of her receding orgasm. She was wrapped in bliss, her toes curling in her shoes at the strange, warm sensation when he finished inside her.
The muscles of his back flexed and jumped under her touch as she clutched him closer. His hands slid up her thighs, carefully helping her back down to her feet, they trembled from exertion of anchoring herself to him. The heavy weight of his cock slipped free when her feet were firmly on the ground and she stared as Nick tucked the softening length back into his jeans. His eyes were dilated when he stared back at her, his hands gentle as he pulled up her jeans. He had to button them for her, her hands were shaking too badly.
He tilted her face up and moved his mouth insistently over hers, his tongue sweeping between her lips, rolling against her tongue. He bit softly at her reddened mouth, his busy hands pulling down her shirt and jacket until she was once again fully clothed. One of his hands landed on her cheek, his thumb stroking her cheek softly.
He rested his forehead against hers, thumb swiping across her plump lower lip. “I have to go before they come looking for me.” He said and she understood, but she didn’t want him to go.
She fisted her hands in his jacket as if to physically to prevent him from leaving, but although she didn’t want to let him go, she knew she had to. They couldn’t be caught, not until Nick could explain their relationship to his strict older brothers. So, she kissed him sweetly and loosened her fingers from their death grip on his clothes.
Don’t leave me, not after that. “I’ll see you at dinner.” She said instead and offered him a shaky smile. He stared at her like he was committing her face to memory, nodded, and walked out. She stood in the barn, leaning against the empty horse’s stall, wondering how long it would take for her thighs to stop aching.
Chapter 8
Dinner that night was a tense affair. Nathan had given her the most scathing look he could manage while he filled up a plate for his wife. After he disappeared up the stairs, Benji didn’t say a word to any of them, picking sullenly at his food. Charles seemed to be in a similar mood, speaking only to answer Emmie’s questions about his day and the drive from the station back to the house. The hostility at the table might have bothered her if Nick wasn’t a solid presence at her side, their legs pressed flush together underneath the table.
“I’m going upstairs.” Benji finally said. Nick and Kira shared a secret smile as they watched him walk away from the table.
Once he was gone, Charles seemed unwilling to try and salvage dinner. He retreated to his armchair by the fire while Emmie began to clear the plates. Kira jumped up to help her, wondering if it was worth the risk to slip a few chunks of meatloaf into a napkin for the wolf. It turned out she didn’t have time to decide, Nick was also helping clear away plates. This must not have been a usual occurrence, judging from the surprise on Emmie’s face.
“What?” He asked defensively. “I can’t help out from time to time?”
“No, you can.” Emmie said. “You just usually don’t.”
Nick’s fingers suddenly seemed to find every way they could to touch her, they brushed when they made to grab for the same plate, grabbed her side to move her from Emmie’s way, snuck down to cheekily pinch and grope her inner thigh. This earned him a smack as she was still sore from their time in the barn together. They laughed quietly together, stopping only when their flirtation garnered attention from Charles, who watched them with disapproving eyes from his armchair.
“I better get upstairs before Charles actually murders me.” Nick murmured, hands cupping her waist for a fraction of a second, before the warmth and weight of his hands left her completely. She could feel Charles, eyes narrowed, his stare piercing into her back.
“Don’t come to my room tonight.” She whispered. “I think they’ll be watching.”
He nodded and stepped away, moving quickly up the stairs. She ignored Charles, not deigning even to look at him. She walked into the kitchen after Emmie and grabbed a rag to dry and put away the dishes. They worked in companionable silence while Kira worked up the courage to ask what needed to be asked.
“Are you sure Nathan’s wife is okay? I still haven’t seen her leave the room. Maybe she needs a doctor.” She broached gently.
“Oh, Andi will be just fine. It’s nothing serious, just contagious.” She repeated her words from the first day Kira arrived in their home. “But I think she’s starting to get better. You might be able to see her soon.”
“Well… You said she was contagious, but Nathan’s been with her every night.” Kira pressed.
Emmie paused, mouth falling open as if she had no idea what to say to her.
“Nathan’s already had it.” Charles interjected from the living room. So he was listening to our conversation.
“Oh, that’s right.” Emmie smiled nervously. “I’m so silly, I can’t believe I had forgotten that. Nathan was sick before you arrived, he got better, but I’m afraid he already passed the bug to Andi. We’re just keeping her quarantined for my sake, I don’t want to get sick while I’m carrying the baby.” She explained.
“No, right. That makes sense.” Kira said, but she didn’t buy it. Something was going on here that they didn’t want her to know. Maybe Nick will tell me the truth if I ask. They continued to work in silence for a few minutes until Emmie spoke up again.
“I don’t think I’d spend so much time around Nick if I were you.” She told her.
“Why would you say that?” She asked.
“Well, it’s not really my place to say but I’d hate for you to get mixed up with the wrong man.” Emmie began and lowered her voice until Kira was straining to hear her soft whisper. “Nick isn’t really their brother. Not their full brother anyway. One day, their father just shows up with Nick, he couldn’t have been more than two years old, and expects their mother to take care of him. Didn’t even apologize and she had already been having a rough time of it after giving birth to Benji and now having to raise someone else’s bastard?” She shook her head. “I couldn’t imagine… The arrangement didn’t last long, she went into the woods one day and didn’t come back out.” She said meaningfully.
“She ran away?” Kira asked.
“Oh no, much worse than that. She took her own life, hung herself from one of the trees. It was Charles that found her.”
“That must have been difficult for him.” She conceded.
“It’s worse than that… After their mother did what she did, their father got mean, and stayed mean until the day he died.”
“He hit them?” Kira asked.
Emmie nodded her head slowly, lips pursed. “Charles was the oldest, he got it the worst.”
“Emmie, don’t misunderstand me, that’s horrible what they went through, but none of that was Nick’s fault.”
/> “Excuse me?”
“It wasn’t his fault, Emmie, he was just a child. He couldn’t help the circumstances that he was born into.” She tried to explain but Emmie was looking at her like she had sprouted a second head.
Her lips were pressed into a thin, hard line when she went back to her scrubbing. “Maybe you should just head to bed.” She suggested in a way that took the suggestion part right out of it.
“Maybe I should.” She agreed and set her rag back on the counter. It was clear to her that Emmie was set in her way of thinking, they were never going to agree, so she crept upstairs as quietly as she could and waited for the rest of the house to fall asleep.
When the clock in her room flashed midnight and the house was settled, dark, and silent, Kira snuck down to the kitchen to grab her forgotten plate from breakfast. The wolf would eat good tonight on eggs and a decent pile of bacon.
The poor thing’s tail thumped wildly when she let herself into the shed. “I told you I would come back.” She reassured him and put the plate on the dirt, unfastening his muzzle. The wolf ate with as much gusto as the previous night and while he did, she talked. It felt good to share her insecurities with someone, even if that someone was actually a well-mannered wolf. She told him about her escape from Harvey and the salvation here that Chloe had offered on a silver platter. She even told him about the little things that plagued her when she was trying to fall asleep at night. Why were they so invested in her relationship with Benji? Why hadn’t she ever met Nathan’s wife?
After the wolf ate, he laid his head on her thigh and listened to her with rapt attention. When she was done, she could have sworn that he looked sad. That didn’t last, anger flashed across his eyes when she held up the muzzle and she once again had to talk him back into the thing. She left him for the second time, swearing that she would release him as soon as he was strong enough.
***
She swore she had just been in her bedroom, trying to fall asleep but when her eyes fluttered open, she found herself trying to adjust to the low light of a wooded glen. The sun was disappearing beneath the distant snow-capped head of a mountain peak, the setting sun cast the snow in reds and golds. Whatever sunlight was left filtered through the wide bows of the fir trees, casting long armed shadows across the edges of the glen.
She was laying on a soft patch of grass, her head pillowed on one of her arms while the shaggy head of a massive black wolf snuffled its muzzle into her palm. Her heart raced in her chest despite the knowledge that this had to be a dream, brought on by her midnight feeding of the wolf. But it felt so real, the scrape of its tongue across her palm, the long, thick whiskers on its snout tickling the sides of her fingers, and its large, bright blue eyes staring into hers. Blue eyes, it is my wolf then. But when she started thinking of the wolf as hers, she didn’t know.
She waited to see how this dream would unfold. Her body completely still other than the gentle rise and falls of her chest. Her wolf pulled his snout away from her palm and settled its long, lithe body next to hers in the grass with a soft huff, the warm air gusting over her face. She slowly raised her hand to stroke over the soft, shaggy fur of his head and back. It huffed softly at her, clearly wanting something, and tilted his head so her hand could scratch behind its ears.
After a few minutes of gentle petting, the wolf rolled to his feet, nudging his nose impatiently against her side.
“What are you doing?” She laughed. “Oh, I see, you want me to get up.”
She hopped to her feet and followed the wolf as he trotted to the edge of the glen and into the wilds beyond. The trees grew in tight clusters the farther they walked, the sunlight streaking through the thick branches overhead, casting dancing flickers of light on the trail below. A bed of dead limbs cracked under their weight and a ground squirrel dove back into his hole with an angry chitter at the disruption they were causing.
“Where are you taking me?” She asked curiously. “Is this where you used to live?” She pressed, giddy at the thought of seeing little wolf puppies. She ducked to avoid a particularly low hanging branch, eyeing the narrow, thick wall of trees that penned them in from all sides. As the undergrowth began to thicken impossibly around them, it became harder and harder to maneuver through the overgrown trail when it suddenly opened to a small clearing. It was unobstructed by the dead foliage from the trail behind them. The grass was a rich, youthful green that brushed against the top of her knees and perfumed the air with a soft, clean scent.
Straight ahead, on the edge of the clearing, was a tree the size of a redwood. The bark was smooth and grey, branches twisting from its base at all angles, some bowed down towards the ground like a willow while others looped, and some pointed directly towards the heavens. The leaves were large and fanned in a five-point design, colored the lightest shade of lavender with dark purple veins.
The most enchanting this at all was the opening that was carved into the base of the trunk it was just large enough for one person to stand in its entryway. She couldn’t see how far it stretched inside the cave, the entrance was black in the low light of dusk. She couldn’t fight the urge to walk up to the entrance and then she was taking a step inside. All the hair on her arms stood straight up, her heart fluttering against her ribcage as vibrating energy cocooned her, lifting the ends of her hair. It filled every empty space between her bones.
Her fingers traced along the smooth wooden walls as she basked in the energy that surrounded her. It was addictive and cleansing and she felt as if she could stand here forever with her body thrumming and the air crackling with life around her. Kira missed the soft steps behind her, jumping only when a large, warm hand fell on her shoulder, squeezing it gently.
“You have to help me, Kira, you’re the only one that can let me go.” A rough voice whispered into the shell of her ear.
She turned around at once and stared at the tall man who stood just beyond the doorway. He was slender, with lean muscles that were clearly defined through the tight navy t-shirt pasted to his chest. His shaggy, black hair fell messily to just barely brush the top of his shoulders, but the most striking thing about him was his blue eyes, the same as her wolf, staring raptly into her own.
“I’m sorry…Do I know you?” She asked dumbly.
“My name is Ezra, I-” He cast his head over his shoulder, watching with despair etched into the lines of his downturned mouth as the sun sank lower beneath the mountain top. “I don’t have much time.” He continued, grasping her hard on the upper arms. “You can’t trust them, any of them, not even Nick.” He said urgently.
“What are you talking about?” She demanded.
“The Woods family, you can’t trust them. They’re killers, murderers, liars!” He was practically shouting at her.
She broke out of his hold, taking a step away from him. “No, no, you’re wrong.” She insisted. “They took me in, and Chloe is my best friend.
“She’s the worst one!” He cried. “You have to let me go and get out. Get out, Kira before they trap you like they did to Emily.”
“Emily?” It was her voice that breathed the name, but she did not recognize doing so, things were getting murky, a fog was rising in the forest.
“Kira, no, Kira, stay here, you have to listen to me. Kira!”
She bolted upright in her bed, chest heaving, heart thudding wildly beneath her breast. The sun was just beginning to rise outside, streaking the sky in red. It was just a dream, she told herself, just a dream.
To be continued.
Keep reading for an exclusive first look at the next chapter in Kira’s story.
The Guardian of Lone Wolf Peak: The Fall
“Kira,” her name spoken from those lips was a sound that belonged in her dreams.
The man that stood in the center of the dirty shed was the same man from her dreams. He was filthier, with an overgrown beard, and he was naked, but he was still the same. He had the same piercing, blue eyes, the same leanly muscled body, the same sculpted jaw and high cheek
bones. He didn’t move, frozen on the spot as if he were afraid of startling her.
“Kira,” he breathed, his voice was rough from disuse.
“Ezra?” She questioned, remembering his introduction from her dreams.
He nodded, a jerky, quick motion. “Kira,” he pressed on. “You have to let me go.”
Her eyes moved involuntarily to the shackle clamped down around his ankle. Her hands flew to smoother the gasp that escaped her lips. The shackle was even tighter around his human ankle, it bit and dug into the skin, creating a grotesque indentation around his lower calf. There was no way blood was flowing into that foot. He must be in incredible pain.
There was a dull roar in her ears, she couldn’t hear whatever else he was saying to her though she could see his lips moving. Her mind was trying desperately to process what it had just seen. What did I just see? She asked herself hysterically because what she swore she had just witnessed was the gruesome transformation of beast to man.
Ezra was reaching out for her but she jerked back and nearly lost her balance, slamming her hand against the shed wall to keep herself upright. Her fingers were tingling, going numb, the sensation traveled all the way to her toes. She couldn’t breathe. There’s no air in this room, was her last conscious thought before darkness swelled around her and she began to fall.
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