Keeping a steady pace, I continued my brisk walk as I dug through my bag.
A sharp prick to my finger and I found exactly what I was looking for. I flinched, instinctively pulling away from the stabby bit, then clenched my fist around the handle of my letter opener. It was sharp enough to do some damage, as my sore and bloody finger could attest. Maybe it wasn’t so useless after all.
I slowed my stride.
Whoever was out there did the same, keeping the distance between us just far enough that I couldn’t catch his or her scent. No question it was a shifter stalking me and not a less intelligent predator, or it wouldn’t have slowed, but struck instead.
After a few more paces, I knew what I had to do. I took off like a rabbit, racing as quickly as my legs would carry me, knowing that my stalker would do the same. Then all at once, I changed directions and skidded to a stop, hiding myself behind the thick trunk of a pine tree.
The bark scratched my back through the fabric of my dress. I held my breath. The air seemed to chill as I held myself as still as I could.
Hurried footsteps approached, slowing as they neared me.
A wave of dizziness clouded my head, while my insides felt hollow. The seconds seemed to drag, taking forever to pass.
I squeezed the letter opened in my damp palm and steeled my nerves. Not sure if I had the backbone to stab, but sure as sugar I was ready to flee, I jumped out from my hiding place.
Standing right in front of me was Cypress.
“You?” I couldn’t believe it. Here I was expecting trouble, and it was only Cypress. “I could have stabbed you.”
His brows shot up, clearly not expecting my ire. At least something fazed him. Then his attention flicked down to my letter opener, and he flattened his lips into a line as if he was suppressing a smile.
This situation was not funny.
I put my hands on my hips. “What are you doing here?”
“I’m here for you, Laurel.” His expression softened. “You know it’s past curfew, and unsafe out here. What were you thinking?”
I was thinking about starting the rest of my life sooner rather than later. I was thinking there was no reason to wait another day before I claimed the dragon of my dreams.
“You followed me,” I said. “You have no right—”
“I have every right.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “I’m a sentry. It’s my job.”
I threw my hands up in exasperation. Cypress flicked his attention to my fist, and to the letter opener I had been unwittingly swinging around. I dropped my hands and slid the tool back into my bag.
“Were you planning to stab me?” he asked.
I shrugged.
“Peel the wax and pop open my...paper?” That smug look returned, like he was about to laugh at me.
“What? You’re so—” I shook my head not even sure what I was going to say. “Go home, Cypress.”
“Not going to happen.”
Of course. “Then at the very least, don’t get in my way.”
I turned on my heel and started back on my way. I’d have to think of some way to lose him. Or not. Cypress didn’t matter. What mattered was finding my mate and proving to him that we were meant to be.
I couldn’t hear his steps or see him in my periphery, but I could feel Cypress behind me. He was only a few paces back, an annoying shadow I couldn’t seem to shake.
Chapter Four
Cypress
“If you won’t tell me what you’re doing out here, I’ll be forced to guess.” I leaned forward as I spoke and hoped Laurel could hear the smile in my words.
She didn’t respond, just as she hadn’t looked at me since she’d told me to go home. I couldn’t leave her even if I wanted to.
My best guess was that her meeting with the alpha had gone poorly, that he was dissatisfied with the map she’d brought to him. But if that were true, she could have left earlier in the day to complete her work, or waited until morning. There was no logical reason for Laurel to wander the forest in the middle of the night.
A thin branch whipped into my chest. I pushed it aside.
“You used glow-in-the-dark ink to create your map,” I said, venturing a guess as I’d threatened, “so now you have to trace the lines with visible ink using moonlight.”
She said nothing.
“You’re sleepwalking,” I said, guessing again. “You have no true awareness of where you are, and will remember nothing when you wake.”
The game path turned and converged with a wider passage. The tree line offered enough berth for us to walk side-by-side, but with Laurel ignoring me, I hung back.
“Okay,” I said, searching for something even more ridiculous to say. “I’m asleep and this whole thing is my dream.”
She snorted, but kept her focus forward. It turned out that she was in fact listening, which only encouraged me to continue.
“There’s an invisible bird on your shoulder telling you what to do.”
Laurel turned her head and parted her lips as if she were going to say something to me over her shoulder. Her shoe caught on a root, and she stumbled forward.
A tightness filled my chest. If she’d twisted her ankle, I’d catch her. I’d carry her, if she’d let me.
“Are you okay?” I hurried to try to help her.
She righted herself and thrust her palm toward me. A blush washed over her cheeks. “An invisible bird, really?” She averted her gaze and sucked in a deep breath. “No more talking. Please just go home, Cypress.”
I stopped. The tightness of concern morphed into a clenching fist around my heart. Rejection.
She turned and started walking, gingerly avoiding putting weight on her hurt foot.
Why wouldn’t she let me help her? Why did she always have to push me away?
Something on the ground caught my eye, crisp white on dark dirt. I reached down and picked up a scroll that Laurel must have dropped. It unrolled in my hands.
I opened my mouth to try to tell her, but became distracted by the beautifully scripted words on the page.
As she grazed her fingers over his shoulders, he shivered. A smile spread across his lips, an expression of acknowledgement.
No words needed to be shared between the pair. They both knew, and always had. They were mates, even if neither had been ready to admit their bond with words.
All this time...no, it couldn’t be. I kept reading.
But both were more than prepared to show the other with their bodies.
I stopped walking and looked toward Laurel. I had no idea that she felt this way. She wasn’t ready to say it with words, not out loud, but she poured her heart onto paper.
I knew I should stop reading and give her the scroll. But her words were a rush, and I was hooked. I had to know what she imagined passing between us next.
Soft at first, he grazed his lips over hers. She melted against him, her body flush with need. The scent of her desire clouded his senses, peeling back any semblance of control.
His tongue parted her lips, in a kiss that was as primal as it was insistent.
She clawed open his shirt, needing to feel every inch of him. Soon she would, as he hiked her skirt up and pressed between—
“Cypress! Don’t tell me that’s—”
She spread her thighs for him, giving him everything that she was. He extended his dragon wings and lifted her into the air.
Dragon wings? I raked my fingers through my hair, unable to stop myself from continuing the story.
Celedon’s love python penetrated her lady cave, connecting them as one as they flew up into the air.
It wasn’t me. Her story was about someone else. My heart sank.
Without warning, Laurel ripped the scroll from my hands. She pinched her lips together, and her whole body shook. I wasn’t sure if I should take a step back or wrap her in my arms.
“How could you?” she said. “Did you slip this out of my bag?”
I raised my hands in defense. “No, of course not
.”
“This is private. What I do, my comings and goings, they’re none of your business, Cypress.”
“Laurel—” I wanted to make this right. I wanted her to understand that I’d meant no harm.
“You must really think little of me to—”
“Think little of you?” Shocked, I stared at her. “How could you ever believe that?”
She balled her hands into fists. “You read my story. You’re going to tell me that it’s stupid. That I’m ridiculous for coming out here.”
“No. I would never.”
The tension eased from her shoulders just a touch, and she lifted her brows. She stared into my eyes with trepidation.
“Your story’s incredible,” I said.
She narrowed her eyes and frowned. “Don’t lie to me, Cypress.”
She turned and started walking.
I let out a sigh of exasperation. “You know I’m not lying. You can hear the truth in my words.”
When again she did not respond, I hurried after her and put my hand on her shoulder. She turned and faced me, but didn’t meet my gaze at first.
Her mouth was tight, her cheeks were pink. And her field-green eyes were glossy.
She was delicate. She was exquisite. She was my everything. Seeing her upset pained me in a way that nothing else could.
She crossed her arms and looked up at me, resilience and defiance overtaking that small flash of vulnerability she had shown.
I swallowed the lump in my throat. “Your story is amazing, but you have the wrong hero.”
“What?” She closed her eyes and shook her head before looking at me once more.
“May I?” I nodded toward the scroll held tight in her hand.
She weighed my expression. I imagined she saw on my face what I saw on hers—fear.
Slowly, she outstretched her arm and offered what I’d asked for. I took the parchment, cognizant of how much this moment could mean for us, and rolled it open.
Laurel hugged her chest as if she were cold.
“No words needed to be shared between Cypress and Laurel,” I read, filling the story in the way it had always been meant to be told. I didn’t look at her for fear. I couldn’t bear the thought that she would hate it, that she would cling to her crush on a man she didn’t know, when the truth was written here in her own words the entire time.
“They both knew, and always had. They were mates, even if neither had been ready to admit their bond with words,” I read. “But both were more than prepared to show the other with their bodies.”
My heart raced, and I looked up. Her gaze was wide and she looked me over as if seeing me for the first time. I closed the scroll and repeated the last words from memory.
“Soft at first, he grazed his lips over hers.” I took a step closer and cupped her cheek in my palm.
She leaned into my touch and her eyes flickered shut. Her sweet scent enveloped and ensnared me. She leaned her palms against my chest, and her warmth spread across my skin and carried straight down to my cock.
Her heart fluttered as she tilted her chin up in anticipation.
I ran my thumb slowly across her bottom lip, and she gasped in response. I stole the sound and the moan that followed in a kiss.
Knitting her fingers into my shirt, Laurel pulled the fabric as she deepened our kiss.
She tasted even sweeter than I’d imagined, like coulu fruit and summer rain, like destiny. My heart did cartwheels in my chest, while my stomach clenched.
One moment, one kiss, and all too quickly she was pulling away.
Laurel lifted her fingers to her lips. She opened her eyes slowly, and I waited for her to say something, anything.
Time stood still, until all at once, it struck down like lightning.
My footing slipped, though I hadn’t moved. Too fast to react, our bodies collided, thrown together and lifted up into the air in a net.
Chapter Five
Laurel
Plucked from my feet, captured in a net, all I could think about was the man pressed against me.
Cypress towered over me in stature, but he’d never once intimidated me. His chest was solid muscle beneath my palms. Everything about him was hard, except his heart. He held his arm protectively around me. I fit perfectly against his chiseled body, like this was where I was always meant to be. The taste of him lingered on my lips. Not just the taste, but the feeling, too.
The reality of Cypress blew away everything I’d thought I knew.
I wanted to pull off his clothes and explore every inch of his body. I wanted to play out the story I’d written, but with Cypress.
Celedon was a fantasy. I didn’t realize it until Cypress’s kiss, but Cypress was real. What he felt for me, and what I’d always felt for him and never realized—that was real.
I was in love with Cypress.
“Are you okay?”
His voice startled me and pulled me from my thoughts. Leaning my head back against the net, I looked up.
Concern marred Cypress’s brow and settled in his chestnut eyes. I wanted to get lost in his gaze, in the feel of him, and to lift myself up enough to steal another life-changing kiss. I sucked my lips between my teeth to nip the urge.
I nodded. “I’m okay.”
He slid his hand down my back, settling it just above my ass. His thumb circled in a soft caress. I closed my eyes, reveling in his touch.
He twisted his wrist behind me, and the whole net shook. I opened my eyes to find Cypress pulling on the ropes. We jostled, and my balance shifted.
Startled, I grabbed hold of his shirt.
He didn’t seem to notice, or didn’t care. Lifting his hands up over my head, he pulled at the net.
My entire body tensed, including muscles I didn’t know I had. His leg slipped between mine, his thigh pressing deliciously at my core.
“I’m going to get us out of here,” he said.
Maybe it hadn’t been meant as a caress. Maybe I was misinterpreting everything.
No, there was no misinterpreting that kiss.
I had to move. I tried to hook my ankle around his, and shifted my hips. And there was friction.
Cypress stilled.
I moved faster, squirming to get away, when it was clearly impossible. “I’m just going to—”
Instead of away, I somehow managed to flip myself around. The net wobbled. A lattice of netting dug into the entire front of my body, including my face. Better—no worse, definitely worse, Cypress’s huge form pressed against my backside, including a particularly huge form right against my ass.
This was not how it happened in my fantasies.
One of my arms was pinned under my chest, the other stuck awkwardly out through one of the holes in the net.
My face squished into the ropes, I stared down at the forest floor, spotting my bag, which I’d been so sure would prepare me for every possibility. And I laughed.
None of this was funny. It was the opposite of funny, and yet, I couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity of it all. At myself for being the cause.
Cypress shifted his weight behind me, giving me space to move my head. I moved a little, but I didn’t try to look at him. Telling him the truth would be easier if I wasn’t.
“I wasn’t sleep walking,” I said.
Of course he knew this, but he didn’t rub it in.
“I didn’t need glow in the dark ink or to follow something invisible, either.” I sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly.
“Laurel, you don’t have to—”
“I do.” I pushed down my discomfort—at least the pride bit of it. “One day I was out in the woods. And when I saw the Guardian of Land with my own eyes, when I—”
There was a noise in the darkness below. Cypress squeezed my shoulder, signaling he’d heard it, too.
The net jolted down, dropping us a few inches before snapping still once more. I held a hand over my mouth, capturing my squeal of surprise.
A rush of cool night air carried
the earthy scent of shifters. With it came a dryness that belonged to the canyon beyond the forest. Coyotes.
A shiver carried up my spine. The coyotes were our closest neighbors, a prickly lot that had been pricklier than usual as of late. They came to Lycaon Village to trade on occasion, but permitted no one to travel into their territory.
Is that what had happened? In my frustration and focus on Cypress following me, had I inadvertently led us into coyote territory? I hoped not.
“We’re lost,” I called out. “If this is your territory, it wasn’t purposeful that we—”
“This land belongs to Herrik, Alpha of Coyotes.” A deep voice carried up from the darkness.
Two coyotes circled beneath us, while another in human form stood with his arms crossed. Whoever was lowering us toward the ground made four.
What were we supposed to do? Was it possible we’d be let go by promising not to return? Would Thorn send sentries out to find us?
A thousand possibilities passed through my head, none of them pleasant.
The net lowered in jerky intervals until we were halfway to the ground.
Cypress leaned his head into the crook of my neck. His lips brushed against my ear and he whispered, “As soon as your feet hit the ground, shift.”
He was right. No matter what the coyotes had in mind for us, I didn’t want to find out. Our best chance was to shift. Shift and run. Shift and fight. We wouldn’t be a match for them without the strength of our wolves.
The net lowered, and stopped. Then lowered again.
My inner wolf simmered at the surface, ready to take control.
The net touched down, and I let go.
Fur rippled across my skin, and my bones transformed, all in the matter of moments.
Cypress tore through the net with his fangs, creating a hole large enough for him to push his huge wolf body through. He bounded forward, and I kept right at his heels. We shook off our clothes, the sound of our racing hearts filling the night.
Snarls cut through the thunder of my pulse. A coyote jumped onto Cypress’s back, burying a mouth full of fangs into his neck. I inhaled sharply, knowing it had to hurt, but Cypress didn’t react. He kept running. I jumped up next to Cypress, in an attempt to knock the coyote from his back. Cypress turned, leading me in a different direction.
Bound to Change: A Limited Edition Spring Shifter Romance Collection Page 49
