Shift After Dark

by Liz Paffel

  Chapter Thirteen

  Isla was struggling to breathe normally by the time her panties went flying to the floor. Gavin’s body heat was almost stifling, but she relished it, wanted more of its blatant masculinity, comfort, and raw, pure sexuality. She’d already seen him naked and the image of his body hadn’t left her since.

  His hot mouth touched the inside of her left ankle. She jerked at the contact and his hand snaked out to hold her leg tight. A blend of sharp, stinging bites and soothing licks made their way up her leg, pausing at the bend in her knee where he kissed the ticklish flesh until she was writhing, then up, up her thigh. His breath washed over her center, rippling her curls, and making her burn with need. It wasn’t just need; it was desperation.

  When his tongue dipped into the upmost crease of her thigh, little shock waves pulsed through the center of her. Isla’s grabbed his hair in a desperate hold. Gavin growled and bit her skin, his hands grabbing her hips and pressing them into the mattress.

  He rose above her, his face determined and dark.

  “The first bite will mark my intention to make you my mate.” One hand came to rest beside her shoulder. “Expose your neck.”

  Isla heard a wet, sliding sound followed by a soft hiss. She didn’t have to look to know his fangs were out. Tense fear and unnerving desire puddle beneath her belly button. She wanted this, but it terrified the very root of her human soul. Isla cautiously reached behind her head to move her hair out of the way. Gavin watched her with the intense eyes of a predator, an inscrutable expression making him impossible to read. She turned her head, forcing herself not to hesitate. Deep, tight breaths forced out of her mouth as she struggled to control her breathing.

  Gavin’s lips hovered above her flesh. Her chest and abdomen clenched on instinct. His hand urged her thighs farther apart, his fingers spreading through her curls and finding her clit with an intense, circling stroke, wrenching the fear straight out of her brain. He stroked around and around the nub, the rumble in his throat growing and vibrating in her ears.

  Isla struggled to hold still but her hips thrust up against him of their own accord. His finger swept right down the center of her, plunged inside with sweet intensity. She cried out her pleasure. And his fangs sank deep.

  Skin gave way as shards of ice impaled her neck, spreading a chill like roots through her insides. Her palms pressed against his chest. Gavin gently grabbed her wrists and wrestled her arms to her sides. Panic flared hot and cold, numbing, and burning no matter how she tried to smash it down. Gavin pulled back, his fangs withdrawing from her neck with the sound of released suction.

  “Do you trust me?” His accent was strong and thick. His eyes changed—pupils round and humanoid but one iris radiated an eerie amber-yellow glow in honor of his grizzly while the other remained true to the man, blue and familiar. Both eyes radiated his desire. Despite his preternatural attributes, she did trust him. Implicitly.

  “Yes.”

  A rumble reverberated in his chest, coiling out of his mouth as his lips touched her neck. The sound wasn’t human. It rocked her with the heady reality of the animal contained inside his beautiful body.

  “The second bite binds you as my mate. This one won’t hurt you, love. I promise.” His voice was the feel of black velvet, the heat of cedar wood smoke and the burning singe of hard bourbon. Isla went completely still. He was the Gavin she knew and trusted, but the hard set of muscle and a wild gleam in his eye showed his change.

  This was the dominant Gavin, the possessive one. Warily, Isla spread her arms against the mattress and let her body go limp. She looked down and lowered her eyelids. He hovered over her for a moment, and then, seemingly satisfied that she was going to stay put, slipped off her and began to undress.

  She couldn’t stop from watching as he grabbed the back of his shirt by the neck and ripped it off with one hand. Her heart flipped at the ripple of hard muscle across his abdomen and the stunning moon tattoo crossing his body. When he slipped out of his jeans, it became nearly impossible for her to breathe. Gavin’s body was all sleek, hardness dusted with soft black hair. Before she could fully appreciate him, he moved back over her, his hand cupping her face for a long kiss. One knee pushed hers apart, and he settled between them. Heat from his pelvis flooded hers as he slid low against her belly.

  A pleasant fog settled over her brain as Gavin’s hands and lips moved across her skin, teasing every sensitive place. Without a word, he flipped her onto her stomach and his lips worshiped everywhere, trailing over her spine to the curve of her ass. His hands cupped her hips, threading his fingers under her belly and pulling her hips up against him. The hard length of his erection pressed against her ass. A mixture of soft and hard sounds swirled around her, his voice; hers, making it hard to tell where one ended, and the other began.

  Sensations were everywhere—her brain stopped trying to process them all. Gavin sought her clit, pressed against it mercilessly. Moans clogged her throat, pressure building from the need to release everything swirling inside. She was going to fall... to fly, but his hands slid away. A whimper of protest left her lips. Gavin sat back on his legs and pulled her down, facing outward, on his lap. He brushed the hair away from her neck, baring the wounds he’d made earlier, the soft hairs on his chest tickling over her back.

  “Sit just as I put you.”

  His lips touched her neck, and she shivered, allowing him to position her on her knees with legs spread wide over his powerful thighs. His thick erection lay against her inner thigh as he settled her down atop him. One arm crossed between her breasts, pulling her back against the hot, silken length of his torso. The other smoothed down between her legs to resume to slow torture that had her hanging on the edge of flight a few moments ago.

  The fog came back, followed by a soothing hum in her ears that dared her to fall. Gavin’s fingers stroked faster, harder and the intensity of pleasure made her sink boneless into his embrace. Growls and soft, enduring words sounded against her neck. She was sinking and rising, wanting to hang on, and wanting to soar.

  “Just let go, love.”

  Gavin kissed behind her ear, his palm cupping one breast and flicking the nipple between his fingers. She moaned, maybe cried out. She couldn’t tell anymore. Was she floating? The pleasure was so hot... so intense...

  Gavin lifted her, positioning himself between her legs. She braced her palms against the rigid V-shaped muscle running from his hips to his lower back. Gavin smoothed a hand over her spine, gently running his nails along her flesh. He pulled her hair, forcing her head to the side so he could claim her lips. Lost in his mouth, his hands, she had no will left as Gavin helped her body sink down on him.

  Slowly, he filled her, stretching, and pulling until her inner nerves tripped over themselves and imploded from the feeling. Gavin filled her completely, driving her to the edge of the precipice. Spread your wings and fall.

  Isla ground her hips on him, asking, begging, but he held her tight. As his mouth sucked over the bite wounds, she had the fleeting thought that these were her last moments. He lifted her and brought her down hard, once, twice, again. Release ripped out of her body with a violent shudder. Isla heard her own scream, but Gavin’s words broke through,

  “Trust me.”

  Sharpness in her neck... deep, hard tugging against muscle and tendon and vein hid in the shadows of an orgasm that reached through every nerve in her body. Euphoria lifted her, surrounded her in pleasure so intense that her soul was blinded with it, covered with it, swaddled in it as she floated far, far away in the euphoria.

  Maybe... maybe on the other side of this little death, she’d finally start to live.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Gavin woke with a start.

  Isla sat stiffly on one side of the bed, her hands covering her ears as she rocked back and forth. He put his hands on the mattress to position himself, his palm sinking into something warm and wet. The smell hit him then, rich, and sweet.

  Her blood.

&
nbsp; He darted off the bed and ran around to her, kneeling beside her where she looked blankly into the early morning light. Blood ran between her hands, trickling through her fingers. Her lips moved though she didn’t make a sound.

  “Isla?” Gavin lightly gripped her wrists. The coolness of her skin and rigidity of muscle gave him a jolt.

  “I can’t see.” She blinked, but he could tell the light was gone from her eyes. The bottom fell from his heart as anguish poured in. The tumor had taken her sight. Suddenly, her mouth made a perfect O seconds before a ripping scream burst from her lips. Isla tore at her hair and pushed against her cheeks.

  All color drained from her face as she tipped over onto the bed and cried out. Pain was thick in the sound, tearing him up even as it destroyed her.

  Dropping his fangs, Gavin sunk them deep into the side of her taught neck. Guilt punched him hard, but he ignored it as he delivered a dose of serum from his palate into her vein. Helplessly, Gavin gathered her into his arms and pressed her tightly against him.

  Her blood slicked against his naked chest. He couldn’t save her. The disease was at its peak and he was helpless to stop it.

  Her cries shook him to his core as a quiet desperation filled him with an urgency. He would never get her to his people in time. There was nothing left for him to do.

  Except take her life.

  She tensed in his arms, her body arching as another cry ripped from her throat. The serum should have taken effect by now, but her pain was breaking right through it. He could deliver the fatal amount, give her peaceful, euphoric death, and end her torture.

  Gavin smoothed long, red strands of her hair aside and looked at the smooth length of her neck, already so bruised by his assaults. His fangs dropped once again. He bent and touched them to her perfect flesh.

  Emotion pumped through his soul. He didn’t want to end her life without saying goodbye. If he could help her into twilight, she’d be able to feel him cradle her while her heart took its last beats.

  Sinking his fangs deep again, he delivered another dose of serum and lay her onto the bed. Her cries stopped. Her eyes, dull and sightless.

  He should have turned her last night and taken his chances. Maybe, by some favor of fate, she would have survived the change. If not, her body would have succumbed to the twisted biology and replaced one type of torture for another. She wouldn't have survived it, but the idea of having given it a chance weighed heavily on him now.

  A loud crash came from the front of the cabin.

  His hearing picking up footfalls from the porch. Another crash, and the scent of bear’s blood and death wafted into the house.

  Come out and play, or I’m coming in. She smells delicious, Gavin.

  Fuck!

  Gavin stepped cautiously into the living room and headed to the front door. A figure passed by the windows, dark and hulking. It dragged something behind as it paced on the porch. The dead bear.

  Enough!

  There’d be no more back and forth, no more baiting.

  The pulse in his neck beat so hard, it hurt as he threw open the front door and stepped out.

  “Here I am.”

  The werewolf spun on its hind legs, his green eyes narrowing at Gavin’s bold move. He gripped half a bear carcass in one paw and threw it to the side.

  “This ends now,” Gavin said calmly.

  The werewolf stood like a human, its curved legs thick with muscle. Long, hooked claws sprouted from each toe. Despite having changed from man to an animal, the wolf retained human features. This was a half-SVH, more human than vampire or animal.

  “You’re right. It does end, for both of you.”

  In one swift move, the werewolf backhanded something in Gavin’s direction. A flash of metal, a blinking blue light. He reached up to grab it midair, too late.

  The shock collar homed in on the signal from the chip inside his brain, looping around his neck in a perfect arch, clicking and locking tight.

  He braced himself, every muscle going hard as the first shock came. It razed through him, cutting from the base of his skull to the tips of his toes. Another followed, stronger than the first. With a cry, Gavin fell to his knees.

  “You thought your collar was gone forever, didn't you? The Agency thought they'd better hang onto it; in case someone was brave enough to hunt you down on their behalf."

  Gavin’s chest heaved. His muscles quivered in a weakened state. No matter how many shocks he got, his body would never adjust. He’d learned that in the war. Each Ahpret had been implanted with a brain chip, the signals calling their collar to them no matter where they were. If they dared get out of hand, or attempt an unordered shift, a series of three stacked shocks would drive them to the ground and paralyze them.

  That had been two. Where was the third?

  Pushing himself to his feet, Gavin expected another blow, but it didn’t come. His skin burned with the need to shift. The collar was an old technology, faulty after all these years, probably. Hopefully.

  “Why do you hunt me?”

  A piece of metal shone from the werewolf’s human hand. The remote.

  “The Agency wants you, obviously. They’re after your King.”

  Of course, they did. They wanted every Alpha of every SVH pack in the nation. They figured gathering up the Alphas would expose the King. That hadn’t happened the way they’d planned, and Gavin was the last piece of their wicked puzzle.

  “Kaleo is dead.”

  The wolf shook its head and growled. “So, I’ve heard. Which makes you even more valuable, your Highness.”

  Gavin! It hurts.

  Isla’s voice whispered through his mind. He let out a hard breath. There was no getting to Isla without testing the viability of the collar.

  I need you.

  The wolf grinned with a grisly show of teeth.

  “I figured she’d hang on a while. She didn’t seem too sick when I dropped her off.”

  Gavin did a double-take. The wolf rushed him, his head slamming into Gavin’s lower belly. They tangled in a mess of limbs and claws, the wolf’s teeth sinking into his thigh with a vicious tear. The collar vibrated a second before it delivered a shock, searing every muscle fiber in Gavin’s form.

  His body jerked into a plank as he fell backwards. Completely stunned. Barely able to breathe.

  “There, there, your Majesty. I’ll be sure she goes quickly.”

  One second. Two. Five. Finally, his chest expanded for a full breath. He curled his fingers, willing the rest of his body to recover now. Right now. He had to get to her. Had to...

  With a roar, Gavin rolled sideways, throwing the wolf off him. He gripped the wolf’s wrist, reaching for the remote.

  “Tristan, why? We trusted you all these years.”

  Their driver, the kindly man with blue eyes, Tristan, had been their secretive point of contact when a patient needed a ride to the resting house. All this time, he nor Bjorn had suspected him of betrayal.

  The wolf’s eyes softened for a fraction, just enough for Gavin to recognize the man beneath the animal.

  “Shut up.”

  Tristan depressed the button right before Gavin knocked it free of his hand. With a grunt, he fell forward, catching himself with his hands.

  Make it stop. God, please make it stop.

  The wolf was on him in an instant, completely turned now, claws and teeth breaking Gavin’s human skin, lacerating fascia, and muscle. Going for bone and blood.

  The beat of the bear inside Gavin threatened to rip him open from the inside. He had to shift before his bear consumed him in its rage to get out. Feeling the shock fading from his body, Gavin grabbed Tristan around the neck, pulling at fur, squeezing against bone. With a grunt, he rolled them.

  He punched the wolf’s head. Once. Twice. The wolf hung on, his claws punching through the space between Gavin’s ribs.

  With a heave, he tossed Tristan to the side. Blood soaked Gavin’s clothes, the pain of his injuries nothing to what he was going to infl
ict as soon as he shifted. His body began to morph of its own accord, his neck pushing against the collar that squeezed and held tight. Twisting and pawing at the device, it finally snapped enough to accommodate his thicker neck, but the wires still held on.

  “Tell me why you betrayed me.”

  “Fuck you.”

  The remote had sunk into a small indent in the snow. Gavin eyed it. The collar might be mostly broken, but he couldn’t afford the possibility of more shocks.

  He advanced on Tristan, head butting him and rolling him back into the snow. Gavin clamped the wolf’s foreleg in his mouth, snapping the bone like a twig. He howled in pain, recoiling though there was no where to go.

  Gavin pressed both front paws onto the wolf’s chest, sending all his body weight onto Tristan.

  “Tell me and I’ll kill you quicker.”

  A sour scent rolled off the wolf’s coat. It was the same stench of fear permeated on human skin that he’d detected on the man he’d fed from in the cabin. Only this time, it was laced with death. Tristan must have polished him off.

  With a grunt, Tristan brought his back legs up, his claws raking over Gavin’s underbelly. He recoiled in surprise just enough that the wolf twisted back and forth and freed himself. Gavin lurched forward as the werewolf rose onto his back legs. There was no match here. Tristan, even at his impressive size, was no match for Gavin’s grizzly. The unfair advantage almost made him feel bad, considering how quickly he could end the wolf’s life if he wanted. Tristan was too desperate to take the disadvantage into consideration. He’d spent so much time baiting and trying to draw Gavin out and until the night of the shooting, hadn’t made a full advancement.

  “The Agency promised to let me command a new Ahpret military unit. I’d be a king of my own pack. They wanted the Ahpret King in return. You happened to get in the way, so now there’s a price on your head, too.”