by Sadie Moss
“I don’t know,” I admitted, shaking out my arms to try to dispel some of the angry energy coursing through my system. “I just had to get out of there. I felt like I was gonna explode.”
“Figured it was something like that.”
Sucking in a deep breath through my nose, I opened my mouth and let it out. “Did the guys send you after me to babysit?”
“Eh.” He shrugged noncommittally, his sinful grin flashing in the darkness. “I think that was the idea. But honestly, if they were serious about it, they should’ve picked somebody more responsible to play babysitter. Me? I’m just gonna tell you to do something fun and stupid. Best way to blow off steam there is.”
I stopped walking, turning to face him. “How fun? How stupid?”
He waggled his eyebrows, the devilish glint in his eyes tempting me already. “Well, I can’t tell you that until you agree to do it.”
It wasn’t like me to be reckless. I’d spent most of the past ten years following prescriptions and doctors’ recommendations to a T, never once putting my immediate satisfaction over my future health. But I wasn’t the same person I’d been all those years I was locked up in the Strand complex. The three months I’d been out had changed me more than I would’ve thought possible in such a short time.
But I wouldn’t risk our safety. Wouldn’t risk doing anything that could hurt my mates or endanger the Lost Pack—again.
Jackson must’ve read my thoughts, because he put a knuckle under my chin, lifting my face. “I’d never put my pack mates in danger on purpose, Alexis. Never put you in danger. Do you trust me?”
I nodded, drawn in by the beautiful amber of his eyes and the seriousness that shadowed them as he spoke. The darkness fled from his expression as he smiled in satisfaction, dropping his hand to grab mine. “Good! Then come on.”
He led me farther into the forest, navigating easily through the patches of moonlight that covered the ground. He stopped near a tall pine. The limbs didn’t begin sprouting from the trunk until a few feet over his head, and he tugged his shirt off before draping the garment over a thin branch. With his eyes locked on me and a challenging smirk on his face, he kicked off his boots and dropped his pants before slinging them over the branch too.
The air seemed to heat as he stood naked before me, holding out a hand expectantly. I followed his example, stripping off my clothes without looking away from him, and watching him watch me made my skin tingle all over.
He draped my pants and shirt over the tree branch above his head then stepped forward, dipping his head to kiss me once, softly.
The lingering anger combined with the growing excitement singing through my blood made my breath come a little faster as he drew back, biting his lip. Then the muscles and bones beneath his skin rippled. I let the shift flow through me too, wincing at the burst of pain that flooded me as my body transformed.
The scents of the forest struck my nostrils more acutely, and I sniffed the air before shaking out my fur. Jackson’s white wolf nudged me with his nose, licking my face before wheeling and bounding away. I followed, a playful growl rising in my throat. I had to let him lead since I didn’t know where we were going, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t race him.
I nipped at his tail to let him know I was right behind him, and he shot me a look over his shoulder before bounding around a large pine. Moonlight shone down on us, bright enough for my keen wolf eyes to pick out the details of our surroundings. As we veered north, the ground beneath our feet began to slope upward, gently at first and then more steeply. My tongue lolled out as I panted, but my gait didn’t lag.
Finally, Jackson slowed to a trot as the terrain flattened. I pulled up alongside him, taking in our surroundings. I’d never been here before—it was just far enough away from camp to be outside our usual hunting grounds.
The hill we’d climbed ended in a rocky plateau that overlooked a small lake. A breeze rippled the surface of the water, making it sparkle and dance in the moonlight.
Jackson padded lightly to the edge of the outcropping, tilted his head back, and let out a long, full-throated howl. The sound filled my ears, prickling along my spine and making my hair stand on end. It was so beautiful, so fierce, so pure. An answering howl poured from my lips without conscious thought, spiraling up through the air to greet the moon hanging in the cloudless sky.
We sang together like that for a while, and with every sound that poured from my throat, some of the weight I carried on my shoulders lifted.
When we stopped, silence rushed back in around us. Jackson’s body shivered beside me before he shifted back to human form, and he rose to stand, looking down at me with a mischievous grin.
“You ready for this?”
Oh. We’re not done having fun and being stupid?
A little thrill of excitement went through me, and I shifted too. Noah had once compared the shift to cracking your knuckles—painful at first, but less and less so the more you did it. That analogy had grossed me out at the time, but it had actually been really accurate. Shifting still hurt, but the pain was nowhere near what it had been the first few times I’d done it. My body was adjusting to it.
Jackson bit his lip, not even trying to hide the way his gaze skated appreciatively over my naked form. “You ever gone skinny-dipping, Alexis?”
My eyes opened wide, and my gaze flew down to the water below us. “Um… no. Not many chances for that at Strand.”
“That’s what I figured. ’Bout time we fix that, I’d say.”
“What, right now? Right here?”
His eyebrows rose, a gleeful smile spreading across his face as he took my hand, clasping it firmly in his larger one. “Right here. Right now. You trust me, don’t you?”
I nodded jerkily. I did trust him, but we were a long way up, and that water was a long way down. And what if it was cold? What if there were rocks?
“Good.” He leaned down to press a kiss to my lips. “Because I got you. I promise.”
Then he turned and leapt off the ledge.
I went with him, my brain seeming to temporarily disconnect from my body as my feet pushed away from solid ground. For a split second, terror filled me, and I clung tight to Jackson’s hand, letting out a piercing shriek.
Wind whipped at my hair, tossing the brown strands around my head as my stomach rose into my throat. The dark blue water rushed up to meet us, and a strange sort of euphoria replaced the fear rushing through my blood.
I was flying.
I was free.
Then we hit the water, plunging beneath its glassy surface.
There were no rocks, but it was cold. I lost Jackson’s hand for a moment as I flailed in the murky depths, kicking my feet and pumping my arms until I broke the surface. I sucked in a deep breath, pushing my wet hair out of my eyes.
I was laughing and gasping, treading water like a maniac as I cast my gaze around, searching for him. “Jackson!”
His brown hair broke the surface a couple yards to my left, and he swam over to me with long, powerful strokes then tugged me into his arms. He was a much better swimmer than I was, and I let him bouy me as he looked down at me with laughing amber eyes.
“So? What do you think?”
“Holy shit, that was—I was—we flew!”
“Hell yeah, we did.”
It was a little warmer close to the surface, but the cool water surrounding me just made the heat of Jackson’s body that much more apparent. I wrapped my arms around his neck, feeling my slippery skin press against his.
“How did you know about this place? Have you been here before?”
He shook his head, droplets of water falling from his wet hair. “Nah. I passed by it once when I was hunting with West and Rhys. We didn’t stop, but I made sure to remember where it was, in case I ever got the chance to come back.”
I craned my neck to look back up at the plateau we’d leapt from. Even from below, the distance looked pretty impressive. When my gaze moved back down to Jackson, I tighten
ed my hold on him. “Thank you. For bringing me here. This was just what I needed.”
His pleased smile shone brighter than the moon, and he hitched me higher in his arms, adjusting his grip so he could use one arm to swim backward. I kicked my feet to help propel us through the water but didn’t let go of him just yet—partly because I didn’t want to stop touching him, and partly because I wasn’t hugely confident in my swimming abilities. I could dog-paddle well enough not to drown, but I wouldn’t be winning Olympic medals anytime soon.
“It should be warmer over by those rocks.” He jerked his head behind him, in the direction we were heading. “It’s shallower, and it would’ve been in the sun most of the day.”
Sure enough, the temperature of the water surrounding us began to rise. By the time we reached the large, smooth boulders that rose out of the water, I felt like I was swimming in a warm bathtub. My feet brushed the ground as Jackson deposited me with my back to a rock, pressing his palms to the stone on either side of my head. I grabbed onto his forearms, gazing up into his eyes.
“You know what I love about you, Alexis?” He cocked his head, grinning at me.
My heart thrummed in my chest. “What?”
“After all the shit you’ve been through, you still get excited about stuff like this. You still love trying new things. You go nuts for fast food. You dance, and you laugh, and you fucking love donuts as much as I do. You live.”
I blushed, turning away from his earnest gaze to examine the arm clutched in my hand. His skin was lightly tanned, and the corded muscles bunched under my touch. I’d never realized how fucking sexy forearms were. “Well, yeah. I mean, that’s what we all do, right? Live?”
“Nah. Not always. Some people let what happened to us beat them down, tear them up inside until they’re hardly more than ghosts, echoes of people living day to day because they just don’t know what else to do. They’ve stopped dreaming. And that’s the worst thing you can do.”
Tears stung my eyes at the truth of his words. I’d seen it myself in a few of the shifters who lived here, and I was sure Jackson had seen even more of it during his time at the San Diego Strand complex. Because at some level, whether we were physically being held at a testing compound or not, all of us were still captives of Strand.
They had irrevocably changed our lives, and we could never escape that.
“You know what I love about you?” I asked softly, letting go of his arms so I could lace my fingers behind his neck.
His hands skated down my sides under the water’s surface to settle at the dip of my waist. “No. What?”
“I love that you find happiness wherever you are. You don’t wait for it to come to you. You make your own.”
A smile tilted the corner of his lips. “We only get one life, Alexis. I don’t want to waste it.” His eyes warmed, and his fingers pressed deeper into my skin as he stepped closer to me, until only a thin layer of water separated our bodies. “And right now, I can’t think of a single reason not to be happy.”
Chapter Nine
My heart picked up speed like an engine revving, pounding hard in my chest as his words hovered in the air between us.
Somewhere outside this bubble we were locked in, I knew there were dozens of reasons to be worried, angry, confused, and hurt.
But right now, cradled by the calm water of the lake and locked in Jackson’s embrace, I couldn’t think of a single reason not to be happy either.
This was perfect.
This was what I’d been waiting for all my life, all those years I’d been shut away in the Strand complex.
He lowered his head, pressing his lips to mine. He kissed me eagerly, sweetly, passionately, letting our tongues dance and our breaths mingle. I tightened my grip around his neck, wanting him closer, and he obliged, lifting me as he straightened and pinned me to the boulder with his large body, never breaking his lips from mine. The surface of the rock was cool on my bare skin, and as our bodies slid against each other, I could feel his hardening cock trapped between us, pressing into my pelvis.
“Jackson,” I breathed into his mouth, “I want you.”
“Fucking hell, Alexis. I want you too. So damn much.”
He finally pulled away from my lips, peppering kisses all over my face and jaw, down my neck, and over my shoulder. He raised his head to nip at my earlobe before tracing the shell of my ear with his tongue, and I whimpered softly, shifting against him.
“Should we—?” I asked, jerking my chin toward the shoreline a little way away.
He lifted his head for a moment, that wicked gleam I loved so much back in his eyes. “Nah. I think we’re good right where we are.”
As if to prove his point, he rocked against me, and the feeling of his slick skin sliding over mine made my entire body burn like fire. The water seemed to connect us somehow, wrapping around us both and making everywhere we touched come alive.
“Ah. Good point,” I gasped, and he laughed before dropping down to kiss me again, sweeping my mouth with his tongue.
My fingers tangled in his wet hair, clinging to the damp strands as he kissed me with a wildness and passion that nearly overwhelmed me.
As if the two of us together was the antidote to death, to fear, to hate.
As if we could conquer all those things if we just stayed like this forever.
Jackson pulled me away from the smooth rock face, spinning us until he was holding me in open water. His feet still touched the ground, but mine didn’t—not that I was trying. I had my legs locked around his waist, ankles crossed as I dragged myself up and down. He was rock-hard now, and his thick cock slid between my folds as I moved slowly, teasing him and myself.
The head of his cock rubbed my clit, and I groaned, holding still right there, biting my lip. Then I shifted up and sank down, taking just a little of him inside me before rubbing my clit against the thick head again, using his cock to bring me closer and closer to release.
From the rumbling sounds and grunts of pleasure that fell from his lips, I didn’t think he minded being used one bit. One hand splayed across my back, keeping me supported in the water, while the other tangled in my hair. He grabbed a fistful of my wet locks close to my scalp, using that grip to angle my head and deepen our kiss.
“Oh God, Jackson,” I choked out. “That feels so good!”
I moved harder against him, the feel of his cock against me and the pressure on my clit making my whole body buzz.
When the hand at my back moved lower, cupping my ass, I moaned into his mouth.
When it moved over, one finger sliding between my ass cheeks to press at the hole there, I yelped. My eyes flew open in shock, and I pulled back slightly to stare up at him.
Jackson’s eyes flashed with humor, though his nostrils flared and his chest rose and fell with heavy breaths. “Don’t worry, Alexis. I’ll stop if you don’t like it. Just tell me—how does this feel?”
As he spoke, he slipped his finger deftly inside the tight ring of muscle. The water probably helped, and he didn’t go deep, only up to the first knuckle maybe. But the intrusion still felt strange, and my body tensed unconsciously.
It didn’t hurt though. And the look on Jackson’s face, the way his eyelids drooped and his cock pulsed as he watched my reaction, made my lower belly turn to molten liquid. My core clenched, making me tighten around his finger too, and I moved slowly against him, the pleasure building again in my clit, radiating out from the hard, sensitive bud.
He slid his thick finger a little deeper, and I rocked against him harder, burying my face in the crook of his neck and biting down on his damp skin.
“Fuck, Alexis. Fuck yes. Come for me.”
Jackson sounded just as wound up as I was, and he moved his finger in and out of my ass, matching the movement of my hips as I chased my release. When it came, it nearly bowled me over, tearing through my body like wildfire as my arms and legs clenched around him.
I gasped, sucking in air as the waves of my orgasm finally faded.
He slipped his finger out, moving both hands to cup me under my thighs and lift me higher, his gaze hot as he smiled down at me. I could feel his cock at my core, teasing my entrance, hard and thick and right where I wanted him.
“You liked that?”
“Uh huh.” I bobbed my head unsteadily, still dazed.
“You need a minute?”
“Nuh uh.”
His grin widened. “That’s my girl.”
With that, he pulled me down hard, impaling me on his thick length. He was big, maybe bigger than Noah or Rhys, and the water wasn’t actually the lubricant I might’ve thought it would be. But it didn’t matter. I was so fucking wet for him.
We both cried out as our bodies fused together, and he held me there for a moment, letting me adjust to the intrusion. Then he turned and pressed me back up against the boulder, using it as leverage as he drew back and thrust into me.
My head tipped back in ecstasy, but I’d forgotten where we were. The back of my skull smacked against the hard surface of the rock, and Jackson froze, his eyes widening.
“Oh shit! Are you okay?”
I’d probably have a bump later, but I didn’t care one tiny bit about that right now. I forced my half-lidded eyes open, grabbing onto Jackson’s shoulders. “Don’t. You. Dare. Fucking. Stop.”
He bit back a grin. “Damn. You’re feisty when you’re turned on. I like it.”
His protective instincts wouldn’t let it rest at that though, so he brought one hand up to cradle the back of my head, shielding it from any more accidental knocks as he drew back and pushed into me. It was a good thing too, because my head immediately tipped back again, the feel of him inside me overwhelming my senses. I squeezed my eyes shut, breathing in harsh pants as he began to thrust harder and deeper.
“Oh God. Like that. Please, keep going. Don’t stop.”
I muttered senseless pleas and commands, arching against the cool surface of the rock behind me. My breasts broke the surface of the water, and Jackson dipped his head, licking and sucking my wet nipples. My inner walls clenched hard around him, and he grunted.
