by Lily Thomas
Andrea found her heart thundering away in her chest as she drove back to the hotel. Eagerness had her palms sweating, and her hands jittering around on the steering wheel. The bracelet was singing her name, and she found it so hard to resist. The moment she arrived at the hotel, she rushed up the stairs, taking them two at a time.
Closing the hotel room door behind her, Andrea turned the lock, stripped off her shoes, and jumped onto her bed with a slight jostle. Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out the bracelet and moved it between her hands.
She had to be crazy. Every time she went back to this other world, she was attacked by something. Not by fluffy stuffed animals but by sabertooths and dire wolves with really sharp teeth. Yet she couldn’t help the yearning that caused her heart to ache as she wished to travel back. The sun had clearly fried her brain since she couldn’t get enough of it. Sure, it was scary going back in time, but there was also a thrill factor that was hard to resist.
Slipping the wooden bracelet onto her wrist, Andrea laid her head down on the soft downy pillow and shut her eyes.
Andrea woke up in a field. The soft grass cushioning her body, which was once more naked. The only thing that came with her from her world was the bracelet, which she now had a theory about. Since the bracelet had been created in the ice age, it was allowed to come back and forth with her. The wooden ring felt cold around her wrist, her body heat having not warmed it.
Birds sang around her. Their joyous noises rang through the trees around her. Closing her eyes, she let the natural noises wash over her senses. Modern humans didn’t realize how many mechanical noises there were around them. No one in the twenty-first century actually knew what silence was… not like it could be.
As Andrea pushed herself onto her bare feet, she listened carefully to the noises around her. She could hear small animals rustling around in the leaves that covered the ground, but she didn’t hear anything large and dangerous. There was no growling. Nothing to make her fear for her life.
After studying the ice age for years, she knew the time was wild and dangerous. But every time she’d been here, she’d been jumped, and she figured she was owed a better visit by now. Three times was the charm or something like that.
Not knowing where to go, Andrea picked a direction at random and just walked. The first few steps were a bit hesitant, but soon she walked through the area with a bit of a bounce in her step. She was in the ice age!
After a couple of hours of walking, the excitement wore off, and her feet began to ache, and she knew she’d just walked several miles since she arrived here. There was so much to see and process. This land kept pulling her in, even with all the dangers.
Right as she was about to plop a seat on some soft looking grass and massage the soles of her feet, a desperate trumpeting sound rang through the air.
Andrea’s head shot up as her heart stopped in her chest. “An elephant?”
Then she remembered when she was. The ice age. If something out here sounded like an elephant, then it had to be… a mammoth! Picking up her pace, she sprinted towards the desperate sound that pumped through the air.
Andrea knew she should run in the opposite direction. The animal could be trumpeting because of predators or something dangerous, and here she sprinted right towards it.
Breaking out of the forest, she stopped dead in her tracks.
There was a gradual slope from where she stood, and below her was a tar pit. She’d excavated plenty of these as an archeologist. Tar pits were fantastic for preserving history, but they were horrible for animals who didn’t know better. There were even tar pits that laid undercover, like water.
Her green eyes widen as she saw a massive mammoth struggling in the black sticky goo of the tar pit, and her heart went out to the poor creature. The poor thing would most likely die of dehydration or drown in the tar pit. If a predator arrived on the scene, it would probably…
Speak of the devil.
A sleek tan furred sabertooth strolled into the area below her.
Andrea sank onto her knees as she attempted to blend into her surroundings. She knew she should turn tail and leave the area, but this was too interesting for her to leave alone. Her life was all about studying the ice age, and here she was about to get a first-person view. It was too hard to resist.
The mammoth caught sight of the sabertooth and let out a horrible noise that had Andrea clamping her hands over her ears. It struggled greatly, but only sank deeper into the tar pit, which sloshed around as the massive legs strained.
The poor thing!
Andrea’s heart broke in her chest. She wished she could help the creature, but there was nothing she could do except watch. This was the ice age. There weren’t any bulldozers around, because it would take a bulldozer to pull that massive animal out of the tar.
The sabertooth circled the large tar pit. His pink nose pressed low to the ground as he sniffed and tried to figure out if he could make a meal out of the mammoth.
Andrea expected to see him jump onto the back of the mammoth, but the sabertooth seemed too nervous about the situation. And she didn’t blame the animal. She would never go near a tar pit. She already felt too close, and she was a fair distance away.
A sudden wind blew her loose hair into her face as it shook the branches above her with a rattle.
Brushing her hair down, she caught sight of the sabertooth who’s large head was high in the air. Sniffing. Then the black eyes shifted in her direction.
Andrea’s heart froze as she waited for the sabertooth to make a decision. She didn’t want to dart and crash through the forest if the sabertooth decided to ignore her scent.
With a ginormous leap, the sabertooth sprinted in her direction. It’s short, but muscular legs ate up the distance.
“Shit!” Andrea leaped to her feet and darted back into the forest. She was tempted to climb a tree, but she wasn’t too sure if a sabertooth could climb or not. Most cats were able to climb to some extent, so she continued to zig-zag through the forest.
How many times did she need to be chased by predators to stop coming back here?
Unfortunately, it was too late for her to do anything about it. The sabertooth crashed through the forest after her, and the animal was eating up the distance between them. She didn’t even bother sparing a glance behind her. She was either going to make it or not, but if she didn’t, then she prayed this was just a dream.
A tree root reached out of the ground, and Andrea hopped over it, but her toes skimmed the root just enough to trip her. Throwing out her hands, she spun in the air and let her back take the brunt of the fall, so she didn’t break her wrist.
Oomph!
Raising her eyes, Andrea found the sabertooth barreling towards her. Its massive canines stretched from its top jaw down past its lower jaw and ending in a sharp tip. The ginormous hairy paws ate up the ground.
All Andrea could do was gape at the sabertooth with a slack jaw as her brain tried to catch up with what was happening.
A blur of black fur leaped over her head, landing straight in front of her.
Andrea’s jaw hit the ground as she stared at a straightened black furred tail, and the hind legs of a giant dire wolf. She’d dug up one of these animals in her job, but it hadn’t been quite this large. Dire wolves were larger than the twenty-first century grey wolves, but still, this one was quite the specimen.
Even from her position behind the dire wolf, she could see all the muscles rippling under its thick pelt of fur. She wanted to reach out a hand and stroke its fur, but this was no house doggy. This was a mean fighting machine who could easily rip her hand off.
The hair on the haunches of the black wolf raised as it let out an ominous growl.
The sabertooth and the dire wolf collided with snapping jaws, glinting teeth, and ferocious growls that ripped through the air. Every time the sabertooth tried to skirt past the dire wolf, the wolf would reangle itself, so it stood between the sabertooth and herself.
For what
ever reason, the dire wolf had come to her rescue, and she wasn’t about to let it go to waste.
Andrea’s brain finally caught up with what was happening, and she dashed to her feet and darted deeper into the forest. The sounds of the fight carried through the forest and spurred her on. Her feet might hurt, and branches might scratch at her naked skin, but nothing was going to stop her from putting distance between herself and the dangerous predators behind her.
Chapter 6
Rokki had come sniffing around the area where his human had disappeared a day ago. He wasn’t sure if she would come back or if she would even come back to the same area, but he couldn’t restrain his dire wolf. The beast wanted to find her and keep her safe.
She was his mate.
This world they lived in was not an easy one at all. There were predators behind every tree and bush, and it wasn’t just the predators one would need to worry about. Mammoths and woolly rhinoceros were known for their ill tempers and killed plenty of people.
With his wet black nose pressed to the ground, he followed any scents that might lead him to her.
It wasn’t long before the trumpeting of a mammoth carried through the forest. With no sign of his human mate, he couldn’t help the curiosity of his beast. Rokki loped through the woods, the paws of his wolf form barely making a noise as he prowled closer to the racket.
As Rokki approached, the sounds of the mammoth became desperate. Another predator must have come to see what the commotion was about. And within a few more steps, he heard something crashing through the forest.
Then a sabertooth let out a horrific growl that had even Rokki’s heart fluttering around inside his chest. Sabertooths and dire wolves were competitors when it came to being on the top of the food chain.
His fluffy wolf ears pricked forward as he heard a female voice utter something. It was either another language, or he was too far away to understand her, but the voice had his dire wolf lifting its head in interest.
Sprinting, all four of his muscled legs propelled him over the forest floor. Trees, rocks, and bushes blended together in a blur of green and brown as he streaked through the forest.
When Rokki caught the scent of the sabertooth, he knew he was getting close. A woman’s cry of despair echoed through the trees, and Rokki pushed his beast as much as he could.
Flying out from behind a particularly large trunk, he flew over the female’s head to land in front of her, presenting her with his rear. Her scent drifted over him and filled his nostrils. The pungent odor of sweat and fear filled his nostrils. Now that he was here, she didn’t need to worry about the sabertooth.
Rokki and his dire wolf would sacrifice their life if the sabertooth forced it. No one touched their mate.
The beast charging at him showed no signs of slowing down or turning tail.
For a split second, a spear of fear pierced his heart, but then determination set in. Failure wasn’t an option for him because he had a mate to protect.
With a leap forward, Rokki crashed into the sabertooth with a snarl of fury. The woman behind him was human and his mate, meaning she was vulnerable and precious. If he lost her to the teeth of a predator, his life would be at an end as well. He’d never heard of a dire wolf getting a second mate. He would lose his opportunity for offspring.
The sabertooth swiped a set of dangerously sharp claws through the air. Rokki felt the air swoosh the fur on his snout, but thankfully the beast hadn’t landed a blow. He snapped his jaw of menacing teeth at the sabertooth and almost got some flesh, but the beast spun away from him, getting closer to the human female.
Rokki jumped to place himself between her and the sabertooth once more. He snapped his jaw with a click before leaping back at the sabertooth. This time he barreled into the beast and tackled it to the ground.
Large canines snapped dangerously close to Rokki’s neck, and he shivered at the thought of one of those puncturing his flesh. With a swipe of his back paw, he dug in his rear claws and scraped a couple of long gashes on the sabertooth’s leg.
The sabertooth let out a howl of pain, and Rokki backed off, allowing the beast to go on its way. And it took the opportunity. The sabertooth slinked away, trailing blood as it disappeared into the thick forest around them. If he didn’t have to kill the sabertooth, then he was happy to let it go. It was nothing but an animal driven by needs like hunger.
Rokki turned with a wolfy grin plastered across his snout until his eyes fell on empty space behind him. There was nothing but grass, trees, and bushes around him.
Where in the gods had his mate gone?
With a snarl of frustration, Rokki sprinted through the underbrush as he let his nose lead him true.
So far, each time he’d encountered his mate, she’d been in trouble. And now he feared that she would put herself in danger once more. He still didn’t understand why she chose to run around naked. Most humans preferred to cloth themselves.
As Rokki followed the scent of his mate to a less dense part of the forest, he spotted her running not too far ahead. Slowing down to a lope, he followed behind her. Her wide hips swayed at him, tempting him to chase after her and plant his bite on her neck, but he restrained himself. He could still smell the fear drifting on the air.
His eyes drifted up her body until he saw one of her hands pressed into her side. It appeared his mate wasn’t one who was used to running. Good, because as much as he loved a chase, like any wolf, he wanted to plant his mark on her neck.
Rokki’s mate placed a hand on a tree trunk and glanced over her shoulder, her green eyes meeting his. Her eyes widened, and then she burst into another sprint.
With a growl that carried through the air, Rokki launched into a full out run. His front legs stretched out fully as the wind whipped through his shaggy black hair.
His mate turned and saw him closing the distance.
Then she did the unpredictable. She jumped, hooked her hands on a branch, and began to climb a tree. He couldn’t believe his mate. Sure, she was human, and humans could do some questionable things, but he couldn’t believe he was currently watching her climb a tree.
Coming to stand next to the tree, he plopped his haunches on the ground, wrapped his long thick tail around his body, and lifted his eyes to see his mate halfway up the tree. If she thought that would save her from the big bad wolf below her, then he was happy to ruin her dreams.
But he was going to take a second to appreciate the view above him.
From down here, Rokki had the most spectacular view of his mate. She knelt on a branch high above him, and his wolf eyes were able to spot the sweet area between her thighs. It was in the shadows, so he couldn’t make out much, but it still had his wolf growling in pleasure. Soon, very soon, he would know that sweet center of hers.
Then his eyes shifted to her plump breasts, which dangled high above like some berry waiting to be plucked. Another growl had his lip curling up in a wolfish smile. Her rosy nipples were hard and pointed like the tip of a spear. Too bad she was all the way up there in the tree. He was a wolf, not a damn cat, and he wasn’t keen on going up after her… but if going up after her meant in a delicious reward afterward… well, who was he to fuss about climbing a tree.
Letting the shift overtake him, Rokki felt his body snap back into human form, his bones and skin cracking back into place as his fur receded into his body. What felt like an eternity to him, was in actuality, just a few seconds.
As Rokki finished the transformation, he heard a startled gasp above him.
Glancing up, he met the wide green eyes of his human mate. Her grass-green eyes slowly narrowed on him while she yelled intelligible words and pointed an accusing finger at him.
Rokki simply shrugged his shoulders as he shook his head. He had absolutely no idea what she was saying, but she didn’t appear pleased with his transformation. Perhaps she came from a human clan that didn’t trust weres. There weren’t many humans who trusted them, and he didn’t blame them. People who could turn into kill
er predators were a bit scary.
Rokki pointed a long finger at her and then pointed at the ground, while his eyes never left her.
His mate shook her auburn curls. Her eyes flashed in defiance.
Mmm, a bit of fire. He liked a woman who had a fire burning inside her body. She would need some spunk if she wanted to last in his pack.
Rokki didn’t want to climb the tree, but if he had too, then there was no other choice for him.
This had to be a dream. Now that Andrea had just witnessed the massive black dire wolf shift into a human man with a ripped body and a devilishly handsome face. This wasn’t time travel, and her heart sank a bit at that realization. She’d really been hoping it was time travel, but no, it was a dream, because no such thing as a werewolf could exist… even in the ice age.
Once the shock wore off, Andrea narrowed her eyes at the man below her. Even if he was nothing more than a dream, he was hot to trot. Boy, oh, boy. Yum yum! She resisted the temptation to lick her lips.
Those abs were rock hard. Even from this distance, she was positive she could wash clothes on that abdomen, not that she would since that would be awkward. Then her eyes drifted up past his chest to his chiseled facial structure and noticed the scar over one eye. The ice age was a dangerous place, whether it was a dream or not, and his scar was just proof of that.
Then she noticed all the reddish tattoos all over his skin. She had no idea what they meant, but they mesmerized her. There were dots and swirls, and if she remembered correctly, the ice age way of tattooing wasn’t as easy or simple as the twenty-first way.
A thought entered Andrea’s mind, and slowly her gaze shifted lower… and lower until she spotted his cock hanging between his legs. He was flaccid now, but she had a good idea that he would be quite hung once rock hard.
Even though he was a werewolf, he definitely had a body that would soak her panties, if she had any on right now.
The naked man below her pointed a finger at her and then pointed at the ground in clear communication.
