by Alexis Davie
Owen’s arms wrapped around her, pulling her closer, and Sophia began to push him, guiding him through the living room, the hall, and towards her bedroom. Once they were inside her room, Owen picked her up, falling back onto the bed with her on top of him. Sophia quickly started to try pulling Owen’s shirt off, and Owen broke away from her to help her remove it. Then, his hands moved to his jeans, starting to unbutton them, and Sophia sat back on her knees to take off her own clothes, completely disrobing herself as Owen did the same.
Sophia took a moment to just stare at the gorgeous naked man underneath her. She rested her hands against his chest, feeling it rise and fall in sync with his breath, feeling his heartbeat like she had done earlier, the steady beat thumping against her fingers. She stared at his dark eyes, his gaze that of a starving wolf. She looked down at the bandage around his waist, at the patch on top of the wound that had brought them together, and she bent down to kiss it, her hand wrapping around his member to stroke it.
Owen pulled at her, his voice coming out in little grunts that sent pleasure coursing through Sophia’s body. He grabbed her waist and her thighs and pulled her forward, giving her no choice but to crawl forward on her knees until she was kneeling on top of his head, her hands reaching out to hold onto the headboard of the bed.
“I wanna taste you,” Owen groaned, his arms pulling her thighs down toward him. He was so close to her that Sophia felt his breath graze the skin of her crotch, his stubble tickling her flesh, and her own breath caught in her throat. “I wanna taste you,” he repeated, and then his tongue was licking at her center and Sophia gasped out loud, her fingers curling around the headboard.
She allowed herself to lower her body a little, closing the small gap between her most intimate area and Owen’s mouth. It seemed like that was exactly what Owen had hoped she would do, because he exhaled in what sounded like relief, gripped one of her thighs, and dove his tongue deeper inside of her, causing her to cry out in pleasure. She bit her lips and shut her eyes, letting her head fall against the headboard; she wanted to focus on what she was feeling, on the sensations coursing through her, as Owen brought her to her climax.
“Owen,” Sophia breathed out, as he used his fingers to spread the lips of her center open. Owen wrapped his mouth around the bundle of nerves in her core, and Sophia bucked her hips forward, feeling his touch down to her very bones. She cried out his name, her arousal escalating with each passing second.
“O-Owen,” Sophia muttered. “I—oh, my god—I’m…” Owen gave her center a teasing lick, and she tightened her legs against the sides of his head, tightening her grip on the headboard. “If—if you keep that up, I-I’m not going to last much longer…” Her words were shaky, and they came out of her lips in a stuttering whisper.
Owen pulled slightly away from her. Sophia opened her eyes, and she choked on a gasp at the expression she saw in Owen’s gaze, his pupils fat with lust.
“Good,” he grunted before he pulled Sophia down further on top of him and lapped desperately at her core with his tongue. Sophia’s voice grew higher and louder as her orgasm built inside of her, her body wound up like a coil, curling into herself as Owen brought her closer and closer to the edge, his tongue and lips pleasuring her until Sophia climaxed on his mouth with a cry, her hands dropping from the headboard to the bed beneath her.
She was shaking when she lowered herself on top of Owen, her palms cupping his head to kiss him, and his mouth was hot and open against hers, allowing Sophia to taste herself on his tongue. A shiver of pleasure ran down her spine. Owen rolled them over so that she was lying down under him, his strong, long body pinning her down to the bed as his hands caressed her sides, and she sighed into the kiss.
“I want you in me,” Sophia exhaled against his lips. “I want you to be inside of me,” she murmured, her arms wrapping around him. “I want you to take me.”
Owen groaned out loud, and his next kiss was rougher—more desperate. He bit down on her lower lip, and one of his hands curled around her neck to tilt her head up and kiss her even more firmly. That same hand then started traveling down her neck, between her breasts, down her torso, stopping on her crotch. Owen kissed her again as he pushed one of his fingers into her wet, open center, and Sophia arched her back up into him, desperate for more of his touch, for more of him.
“Please,” she begged him, her voice barely audible. Owen pulled his finger out of her, and then Sophia felt his member rubbing against her center, teasing at her opening, what she longed for within her grasp but also out of her reach at the same time. He exhaled a soft, breathless chuckle against her lips, and Sophia moaned impatiently. “Please, Owen, I want you inside me, please—”
Her words died in her throat when Owen finally pushed his erection into her center in one smooth motion, his member swiftly sliding in and out of her as he began to thrust his hips.
Sophia locked her legs around him, pulling Owen closer, gasping into his mouth as his shaft filled her, rubbing against her bundle of nerves with each of his thrusts, building up her climax again. She wrapped her arms around him, and the next time Owen pushed his member inside of her, he hit the spot deep within her that made stars explode in Sophia’s eyelids.
“Owen!” she gasped, throwing her head back against the bed. Owen’s lips were soon on her neck, sucking on her pulse point, and her entire body trembled as he sped up the pace of his thrusts. He was so big, and he filled her so deeply. Sophia pulled his head up to kiss him, and Owen pushed his mouth to hers like he wanted to devour her, like he wanted to steal the very breath from her lungs.
He didn’t know he already had.
The next time Owen’s member pushed into her, it threw Sophia over the edge, and she climaxed once more, her cry of pleasure a muffled scream that got buried between their mouths as he kissed her again. Owen thrust inside of her one more time, two, three—then he groaned, and he released his seed inside of Sophia, continuing his thrusts until he was finally still, both of them gasping to catch their breaths.
“I love you,” Sophia sighed, the words escaping her like water leaking out of a cracked dam.
Owen chuckled, a soft puff of air that brushed Sophia’s mouth, as he leaned down to press another kiss to her lips.
“I love you, too,” he whispered. He rolled off her and lay on his side, his arms immediately pulling Sophia closer. Her own arms wrapped around his back, and she buried her face on his chest, smiling contently.
She was glad she had insisted on him sleeping on her bed. The couch wasn’t spacious enough for the two of them.
* * *
THE END
New Beginning
1
Evergreen Grove, Montana seemed welcoming enough. At least at first glance. The population, according to the sign Nina had seen, was just big enough for the place to call itself a town, though not big enough for it to be particularly memorable. Few were the places Nina could recall after she had left them behind, and even fewer were the places she could recall fondly. She didn’t think Evergreen Grove would be one of them, but she needed to rest and hunt before moving on to her next stop.
When was the last time she had hunted? A week ago? A month ago? Time became a blur when she wasn’t in the same place for more than a few days. However long it had been, Nina thought it might be better in the long run if she hunted in this quiet, small town and then moved on, rather than go on without hunting and pay the price the next time she decided to hunt.
Besides, she was…hungry. Starving, actually. The mere thought of finding prey was almost enough to make her salivate. She really ought to start keeping better track of these things.
Evergreen Grove was supposed to be something similar to a rest stop on the highway, a pause in the road Nina had been traversing for the past ten years. A decade on the run had taught her that she was not safe anywhere, that she had to keep moving as quickly as she could if she wanted to stay alive.
It wasn’t that she couldn’t take care of herself; it was sim
ply that she’d rather not take any chances.
But…as soon as she made her way to the woods on the outskirts of town, Nina reconsidered her rest stop choice.
The woods were quiet, calm. Even though Nina knew she had to look out for hunters and other animals she might need to fight for prey, being surrounded by trees and feeling the soft grass beneath her paws and seeing the light of the full moon above her always soothed her racing mind. It wasn’t her home. No place was her home, and no place would be—she knew it—but it was the closest thing she had to it.
Being in the woods was the closest she would get to ever feeling like she was home again, and Nina wanted to take it for all it was worth.
She spent around fifteen, perhaps twenty, or even thirty minutes sniffing her environment in search of food before she finally caught the scent of what she was sure was a deer. Hunting was like an ongoing game of hide-and-seek: most of the time, she was the one seeking someone (or rather, something) else out, and she hid the rest of the time.
After ten years of playing the game with opponents she didn’t know, Nina had learned that patience was the key to winning—no matter what position she was in. She was perfectly capable of roaming the woods of any given town for hours on end, refusing to throw in the towel until she had found something substantial enough to keep her going for a few days—a few weeks, if she was lucky.
She was perfectly capable of remaining in one spot until she was sure any danger was gone, until she was sure her pursuer had given up on finding her. Until she was sure that she had won this round of hide-and-seek.
Nina was in pursuit of the deer she had smelled when she stopped dead in her tracks. Her ears were pricked, alert, and her entire body was frozen in place. She couldn’t see anything out of the ordinary, but that didn’t mean there was no threat. It didn’t mean that nothing was out of the ordinary. Her instincts had kept her alive for ten years. They had never steered her wrong, and she wasn’t about to start questioning them now.
She headed to a nearby thicket and shifted back into her human form to hide behind it. She didn’t know if this new player was another predator she would have to compete against or a human hunter that she would have to hide from; it was best to stay exactly where she was.
The soft crunching of a branch caught Nina’s attention. She turned her head to the right and saw the deer she had been trying to find a few feet away from the thicket of bushes, and she cursed her luck. As far as she had been able to tell, that deer was the only source of food in these woods, and Nina really didn’t want to leave Evergreen Grove without having fed herself.
It didn’t take long for her to see the threat she had sensed only a moment ago. To Nina’s left, hidden in the shadows cast by the surrounding trees’ foliage, was another wolf. His fur was brown, a similar shade to Nina’s, and his eyes were dark, as his lips pulled back in a snarl, showing his fangs. He was a lot bigger than wolves tended to be, and Nina felt bile burning in her throat.
Was he… was he another werewolf?
He didn’t seem to have noticed Nina—which was a relief, since Nina would rather not fight him if she could avoid it—as his eyes were trained on the deer obliviously sniffing at the grass. This was unfortunate since that was Nina’s prey, and that meant she would probably have to fight him for it.
The wolf took a few steps towards the deer, and Nina tightened her hands into fists. She had seriously hoped to stop at Evergreen Grove only to rest and hunt. Then again, the universe had never appeared to take her wishes into account, so why should this occasion be any different?
The brown wolf lunged at the deer at the same time Nina shifted back into her own canine form, intercepting the animal before he could steal her prey.
The good news was that the brown wolf wasn’t all that much bigger than her. The bad news was that he was still bigger than her, and he had clearly been in more fights than Nina had. She was able to bite him before her opponent pushed her off, immediately pouncing on top of her, his jaw closing around her throat with a ferocious grip that had Nina yowling in pain. Nina managed to kick him strongly enough with her hind legs to get him to slightly let go of her, and she threw one of her paws against his muzzle, her claws viciously scratching him until his fangs had released her.
Nina stepped back as the brown wolf did the same, the two of them circling each other, the deer they had both been chasing now long forgotten. She saw him preparing to lunge at her again, and she had just begun to ready herself when the brown wolf in front of her was pushed to the ground and held there by… yet another wolf.
The first thing Nina noticed about him was that he was bigger than both of them. His fur was darker than the brown wolf’s, and his eyes were glowing yellow as he snarled threateningly at the wolf beneath him.
Nina took a few steps back before she could stop herself, and she shifted back to her human form before she could think about it or give her body permission to do so. Her suspicions about the brown wolf had been correct, but she had never expected a second werewolf to appear out of nowhere. She had never even expected Evergreen Grove to have werewolves.
Why here, in the town that was supposed to be like a rest stop along the highway? Why here, in the town where she was already pushing her limits by not going after that deer and feeding like she had planned? Why here, of all places?
The smaller brown wolf was the first to shift back into his human form, stumbling to his feet as he brushed dust off his clothes and growled something like, “Can you calm down for like two seconds?! I wasn’t even doing anything!”
The wolf who had stopped him also turned back into a human man, and the difference between the two werewolves in front of her caused Nina’s breath to hitch in her throat. Contrary to the guy who had almost stolen Nina’s prey—who had short brown hair, was a few inches taller than her, and seemed to be around her same age, if not a few years older—was the second many who was probably a full head taller than Nina, or maybe he just looked like he was because of how upright he was standing. The authoritative air around him also made Nina think he was older than both his companion and her. His black curls were in an undercut, and a slight stubble covered his jaw.
He crossed his arms and glared at the younger man. “Is that so? Because it looked to me like you were fighting with a fellow shifter.”
A fellow shifter.
The words made Nina nauseous.
“She started it!” cried the younger man. “I was just minding my own goddamn business, trying to bring something back to the pack, when this bitch jumped out of nowhere and attacked me!”
That was MY prey! Nina wanted to scream. You had no right to take it away from me! But the sentences were stuck in her throat.
Trying to bring something back to the pack, he had said.
Of all the towns she could have possibly chosen as a rest stop, Nina had chosen the only one in Montana that was packed with werewolves.
2
Keppler had to hold back a groan of frustration. He didn’t care how much experience—or rather, lack thereof—Eliot had as a contributing member of the pack, he hadn’t been a member for long enough to have been allowed to go off on his own, and they both knew it. Keppler couldn’t keep an eye on Eliot all goddamn day long; he wasn’t Eliot’s babysitter. Eliot was now part of the pack, and he had responsibilities to take care of, and those responsibilities included not getting into fights with other animals if they could be avoided.
Especially if the animal in question wasn’t entirely an animal, but a fellow shifter.
Keppler turned to look at the young woman. He hadn’t seen much of her fight with Eliot, though he could tell she had been able to stand her ground against him. Her auburn hair was short and pulled back into a messy, disarrayed bun, with strands of hair falling against her temples. She wore a dark gray hoodie that was entirely too big on her, and it seemed to be as worn and tattered as the rest of her clothes: a pair of black pants and sneakers.
She had a few scratches here and th
ere, as well as a cut on her neck that had bled a little, but she seemed to be fine overall.
The young woman had been staring at them with a tense yet shocked expression, like she felt she was in danger around them but didn’t want to show it…like she didn’t want them to know.
Keppler frowned to himself. Why would another shifter feel she was in danger around her own kind?
“I’m really sorry about him,” he began. “Eliot here has yet to learn how a shifter properly behaves himself.”
“I don’t need you talking on my behalf, you asshole!” Eliot snarled.
“Are you all right?” Keppler asked the young woman, taking a step towards her and ignoring Eliot’s indignant squawk. She immediately took a step backward, as if she wanted to keep the exact same distance between them the entire time.
“I’m fine,” the woman growled through gritted teeth. Her eyes narrowed and glared at him and Eliot.
Keppler was surprised at the aggressiveness of her entire body language. She looked like she would shift back into a wolf any moment and lunge at the two of them.
Where had she come from? Why was she acting like this?
There were no other werewolf packs in Evergreen Grove—as far as Keppler knew, at least—but shifters often shared the same etiquette: you didn’t attack each other. You were safe in each other’s presence, and there was a civilized solution to any and every argument or conflict that might arise.
Although Eliot had almost screwed up on that front, Keppler had intervened before the fight had escalated even more. She should know that he wouldn’t let Eliot start any other kind of brawl between them.
“Where’s your pack?” Keppler asked.
The words may as well have been acid to the young woman. She recoiled even further away from them as her glare deepened, and even though the sleeves of her too-big hoodie covered her hands, Keppler could almost see her palms tightening into fists with enough strength to possibly draw blood, if the way her body was silently shaking with fury was any indication.
