How It Started

by T. S. Joyce

  They were water, moving as one, so smooth. She didn’t have to think, because his confident touch guided her and made her feel good, as if he knew every one of her buttons to push.

  “Amos,” she whispered as he pushed into her a third time, and a soft, deep chirping sound clicked in his throat. There was no time to question it, because he knelt in front of her and took her jeans down her legs with the motion. He yanked them right off her ankles and tossed the jeans behind him. On his knees, he gripped the sides of her lace panties at her hips and pulled them down slowly.

  All she felt…was confidence. Amos looked at her like she was a goddess, so how could she give insecurity power right now?

  As he pulled her panties down, he leaned forward and kissed her sex, and she could feel his tongue right there against her sensitive nub. Her knees were gone. Gone. She couldn’t hold herself upright if she tried. He pushed his tongue into her once, and she pitched forward. He caught her like she weighed nothing, and tossed her over his shoulder.

  The swat surprised her. He spanked her once, hard, and she flinched, but then the tingling set in. Please let there be a handprint.

  He carried her into the dimly lit bedroom and time slowed as he carried her past the dresser mirror. His eyes were glowing and his smile was wicked in his reflection. He turned her ass to the mirror just enough for her to make out the red handprint on it.

  “Mine.” The word brought chills of excitement up her spine. Ooooh, he was fun. Dominant, and cared if she felt good, and surprising. She matched his smile. “Yours.”

  The clicking in his throat sounded again. She could feel it through the soft parts of her belly against his shoulder. Amos set her on the bed and pushed her knees open farther, splaying her out across the bed for his pleasure.

  He lowered to her, kissing along her jawline as he massaged her breast, not too hard, not too soft. Every pressure point he hit on her was perfect. And oh, she was lost. He could’ve done anything to her right now and she would’ve found pleasure in it. Sex had never been like this with anyone. She trusted him.

  She trusted him.

  That was important.

  She cupped his face and dragged those hungry gold eyes to hers. “I trust you,” she said on a breath.

  Amos leaned in and kissed her hard with the violence of a storm, and then nipped her lip before he eased back and told her, “Tonight, you can.”

  Mmmmm, yummy man.

  He took her fast. Fast and smooth. On the end of his last word, he covered her body with his and slid right into her. God, he was big, but he’d prepared her. He’d made her wet, and stretched her out with his fingers, and as he sank deep, deep into her, she moaned his name and raked her nails down his back. His muscles rippled under her touch with every stroke he drove into her, and she was gone. Lost and gone.

  Amos gripped her waist as he drove into her, harder now. His breathing went ragged to match hers, and she’d never arrived here so fast. She’d never felt this good, or this consumed by a man. He was fire and he was eating her alive.

  A spark caught in her center, and her body exploded, pulsing hard around his thick shaft.

  He rammed into her, froze, and uttered, “God, it feels so good,” as she pulsed on and on.

  She didn’t know anything in that moment. Not her name, not who she was, not who she’d been, not who she wanted to be. She was his prisoner now.

  Amos suddenly withdrew from her and rolled her over. “Up,” he demanded in a sexy, growly voice.

  With a wicked smile for the headboard, Leanna drew her knees under herself and propped her ass into the air. His hand found her tit as he slid into her from behind. He’d taken good care of her, and now he was taking care of himself.

  Felt so good. Soooo good. She gripped the sheets and gasped out, “Harder.”

  Amos gripped her hair. Perfect grip. God, he was good at this. She arched her back and he slammed into her harder, and deeper. Faster. His breath was hitching now, and the clicking in his chest was filling her head.

  Harder. Harder. So powerful. Leanna pushed up and gripped the headboard. The entire bed was shaking and this was the sexiest thing she’d ever been a part of. She was going to come again. She was going to…she was…she…

  Leanna moaned out his name over and over, and Amos slammed into her deep, and pulsed warmth into her as he clamped his teeth gently onto the back of her neck.

  They rocked like that…both of their bodies throbbing, and there was this beautiful silence in her head. She didn’t know anything. No problems existed. There was no chaos in her head—just precious silence.

  She exhaled and sank onto the bed, and he pushed into her one last time before he slid out and laid down beside her.

  His hands were strong as he pulled her back against his body, and his skin was feverish. Felt good. She didn’t know how long they laid like that, but every muscle in her body relaxed.

  “I feel safe,” she whispered.

  Amos didn’t say anything—he only pulled her tighter against his chest.

  Minutes dragged on before he spoke.

  “Divar.”

  “What?” she asked sleepily.

  “You asked who hurt me.” Amos rolled her over to face him and she stared in horror at the bandage that had come loose. Animal claw marks tarnished his perfect skin.

  She traced the jagged edge as softly as she could. “Amos, it looks like you were attacked by a bear.”

  “No more half-truths.” He kissed her forehead and pulled her in against him. Right up next to her ear, he whispered, “I trust you, too.”

  “Divar is a bear?” she whispered, confused.

  “I have something in me that isn’t like you. I’m different.”

  “Werewolf,” she murmured.

  His heart was pounding hard against her cheek. “The feathers I gave you are mine. I wanted you to hold a part of me when you create your art. I don’t know why. I wanted you to think of me when you worked. I wanted you to…know me.”

  She didn’t understand. She didn’t understand what he was saying. Leanna eased back, because this all felt big. She pressed her palm against his racing heartbeat. “You’re safe, too.”

  Amos licked his lips and uttered, “I’m not supposed to be with you. It’s hard between your kind and my kind, but I’ve seen it work. It can work. I thought you were fragile but maybe you can be strong enough.”

  “Okay. Slow down.” She cupped his cheeks and he leaned into her touch as that clicking sound escaped his throat. “What are you?”

  Panic flared in his lightened eyes. “Something you wouldn’t understand, and I’m scared that if you know, you’ll leave, and I don’t want you to leave. I want you to stay.” His words tumbled out one on top of the other.

  “Hey,” she said softly. “I’m not going anywhere. I really like you.”

  “I want you to like me more and more, Leanna.” His eyes were wide and he looked like he wanted to run.

  “Then give me a chance to understand.”

  “You can’t tell anyone. Not your sister, not a friend, not your parents, no one. It would put me and Trev and all of my people at risk.”

  He was close to telling her. She just knew it, so she stuck her pinky out and told him, “I pinky swear to never spill your secret. Trust is important to me. It’s maybe the most important thing to me, and if I’ve earned your trust, I won’t throw it away.”

  Amos propped up on his elbow and dragged his fingertip down her jawline, and then slowly down her arm. Down, down, he pulled his touch until he reached her offered pinky. He interlocked his pinky with hers.

  “I’m not a werewolf, but I can shift into an animal.”

  “What animal?” she whispered, already knowing the answer. Already imagining those beautiful feathers he’d gifted her.

  “Bald eagle.”

  Chills rippled across her entire body. This was insane. It was a crazy conversation, but she believed him. His admission clicked his half-stories into place.

&nb
sp; There were his eyes…

  And the clicking in his throat…

  The feathers…

  The claw marks across his chest that seemed not to bother him…

  She’d known from the moment she’d met him that he was different…she just hadn’t guessed how different he was.

  “You can turn into an eagle?” she asked carefully.

  “Yes.”

  “You can fly?”

  “Yes.”

  “Will your animal hurt me?”

  “Never.”

  She let off a sigh of relief and went quiet for a couple of minutes. She needed to process her racing thoughts, and he allowed it. He only watched her and waited.

  What he was saying was crazy. A man who could turn into an animal? Was it magic or science? She’d always been enamored with the werewolf movies, and though she’d wished there was some truth in the fantasy, she hadn’t actually imagined shifters could be real.

  But she wasn’t scared. Amos still looked like Amos. His touch was still gentle as he drew little circles on her thigh. He still was here. He hadn’t had sex with her and run, but instead had given her the gift of his secret afterward. He was drawing her in closer, not pushing her away, and she had to trust that he’d found her for a reason. That she was as important to him as he felt to her.

  “Is Trev like you?” she asked at last.

  Amos gripped her pinky more firmly, and said, “He’s Crow Blooded. It’s how I know he isn’t mine.”

  “You’re wrong,” she whispered.

  Amos’s dark eyebrows drew down.

  Softly, she said, “You just haven’t figured out what ‘mine’ means yet.”

  “Have you?” he asked.

  “What do you mean?”

  “It happens fast for my kind. When I brought you to this bed, I said ‘mine,’ and you answered ‘yours.’ Do you understand how heavy that is for me?”

  Her eyes burned with tears, but they were good tears.

  “Why?” he asked, catching a runaway tear with the tip of his finger. “Are you sad about what I am?”

  Choked up, she shook her head. “No, silly bird. I’m just happy you trusted me with something big. Now, all of this feels real.” She grabbed his hand and rested her cheek on his palm, hugging his hand close to her as she uttered her truth. “I wanted it to be real.”

  She could see his good heart in his eyes as he searched her face. She watched the change in him. The panic, the fear, the apprehension…it faded into the sheer relief she also felt.

  He’d been building walls his entire life between himself and the outside world. She understood. He’d had to. But for her? He was taking a sledgehammer to his carefully constructed walls and offering his hand through the hole he’d made.

  Amos’s admission was him asking her to come in.

  To know him.

  To see him.

  She’d never felt closer to anyone else in her entire life.

  “You’ve been through a lot, and you deserve steady, and easy,” Amos murmured. “I know you do, but I can’t leave you alone. Are you disappointed?”

  “Disappointed that you’re different than me? No. I like you the way you are.” She kissed his palm and grinned. And as he cradled her against him with a strength that made more sense now, she asked, “When can I see it?”

  He chuckled, and the sound warmed her from the inside out. “Woman, you should be running away screaming right now.”

  “I have a terrible scream. I sound like a man. Neither one of us would enjoy that. Plus, I have the coolest booty call in the whole town. Maybe in the world.” She pitched her voice lower. “Hey Susan, how is your boyfriend?” She pitched it higher, “He’s great, he just got a job at the bank and we are saving up for an in-ground pool and he joined a bowling league and our 401k is looking pretty healthy.” In a lower voice she said, “Oh yeah, well my dude is a mother-fuckin’ were-eagle.” Leanna arched her eyebrows at him. “Win.”

  He belted out a laugh. “Who lives in a trailer park, and has like four pieces of furniture, and has friends who are monsters.”

  “You don’t even realize how cool you are, and how hot, but don’t worry, I will teach you.”

  He sighed and crushed her against him, and she swore she could feel his lips brush the top of her head. “Thank you.” He’d said it so softly, she thought she misheard him for a second.

  “For what?”

  “For not running.”

  Leanna wrapped her arms around him and nuzzled her face against his shoulder.

  She was happy. His admission hadn’t ruined what they had. It made their bond deeper. He trusted her. He really trusted her, and this feeling swirling in her heart was better than anything.

  She’d been on the verge of love, clinging to the edge of it because she didn’t want to dive into a man’s arms when he wasn’t capable of catching her.

  Tonight, she’d learned that Amos could.

  He’d just changed everything.

  “Thank you for not running either.”

  Chapter Twelve

  There was something on Amos’s front porch.

  He threw his truck into park and shoved the door open. It was three in the morning, he was tired, and he had an early estimate appointment in the morning.

  The second his boots hit the dirt, he felt watched. The fine hairs on the back of his neck lifted, and he scanned the dark woods. He smelled bear. “Divar, I told you not to come near my trailer anymore. That’s my territory.” He was met with silence.

  Amos swatted at the back of his neck and strode for his single-wide. The pile of clothes on his porch moved slightly, and he froze. It was a man’s jacket he didn’t recognize, but just at the edge was a little hand.

  “Trev?” he asked.

  He jogged up the stairs and lifted the jacket to find Trev, sleeping soundly. One of his fists was clenched, and he pried it open slightly to find the tip of the stick he’d taken from Amos’s nest.

  It wasn’t Divar’s bear he smelled.

  Amos turned to the woods. “Brick?”

  The woods came alive with movement as the giant, silver-eyed bear shifter stalked from the tree line. “The boy snuck out of the house and ran off around midnight. I found him here.” Doesn’t matter how tame a Bane brother seemed, the growl in their voices gave away how dangerous they were.

  Amos looked at the small boy. “That’s three miles of uneven terrain. Did he Change to get here?”

  “Don’t know. Don’t think so. I’ve been watching over him until you came home. If you’re bonding to a mate, you need space. He was fine. I covered him up. I tracked him and he smelled human the whole way. He made a straight line to your door from an unfamiliar place, alone, through unfamiliar woods.”

  Amos ran his hand down his jaw exhaustedly. “Fuck.”

  “Do you know what he is?” Brick asked.

  “He’s a crow. He said he’s got black feathers.”

  “I don’t mean his animal, Amos. The animal doesn’t matter like you think it does. I mean do you know what he is?”

  Amos shook his head. He didn’t understand.

  Brick looked troubled as he dropped his gaze to the boy. “He got broken, like the rest of us here. Trinity and I talked, and you know we want to help. He’s a good kid. Trinity adores him, and he gets along with Tucker. I see friendship for them if he stays local. But Trev ain’t like a puppy you can find a new home for and he’ll just adjust, and live happily ever after.” Brick jerked his chin at the boy. “He picked you.” Brick turned to leave, but Amos stopped him.

  “I’m not any good at this,” he admitted. He didn’t know why he said that. It was a dangerous game to admit weakness to a Bane. He shook his head. “I’m not any good.”

  Brick shifted his weight and looked into the woods with a faraway expression in his eyes. “I’ve been there. Sometimes I’m still there. Tucker ain’t mine by blood, but that doesn’t mean jack-shit to a kid. They want to know they belong to you. That’s all. They want
to feel safe and then you will watch a journey you didn’t know existed. That kid will grow, so long as you have his back, and teach him what you know, and be understanding. Watching him grow will be the joy of your life, if you don’t run from it.”

  “You think I should keep him?”

  “Doesn’t matter what I think, Amos.” He jammed a finger at the kid. “Matters what he thinks.”

  Brick disappeared into the woods and Amos turned to the bundle on his porch. He’d traveled miles to get back here. Why? Trinity and Brick had a sweet set-up. The boys had been playing in a treehouse, prepping to have a campout together when he’d left. It was a miracle he hadn’t gotten lost.

  He knelt down and stared at the bundle. In the shadows of the jacket, he could see Trev’s face, relaxed in sleep. Something stirred in his heart. Something important that had begun the day the kid had taken that damn stick from his nest, and flowed through watching Leanna with him, to being with her tonight, and finding his boy on the porch waiting for him to come home.

  My boy.

  Okay.

  Okay, Trev.

  Fuck. Okay.

  He stood. What was this stupid feeling? What was this awful burning sensation in his eyes?

  With a sigh, he picked up the boy and cradled him in his arms. He unlocked the door and carried him inside, through the living room and down the hall to the little fort Trev had built in the extra room. His room. Fuck.

  He set him down inside and pulled Brick’s jacket off, because he didn’t want the boy smelling like another.

  Amos pulled off his own jacket and put it over Trev’s little body, and fuck whatever that said about him.

  Trev was sound asleep and holding that little stick so damn tight.

  Amos wiped his knuckles against cheeks that had never been damp before. Between Leanna and Trev, his heart felt like it had been ripped wide open tonight.