by Demi Dumond
I wished I would have changed out of my regular tee shirt because I really stood out. I hadn’t brought any flannels to the academy, so I was out of luck.
We pushed through the double doors and into the crisp night air. It was a beautiful night. I missed being out here so much. Being cooped up in the academy twenty-four seven was making me crazy. I can’t imagine what it was like for these poor wolf shifters.
I looked around and noticed that they were all carrying bundles of firewood tied together. Lots and lots of firewood.
I looked at Rafe. “What’s with the wood? I’m sorry, but I completely forgot the marshmallows. I didn’t bring any chocolate either. And let’s face it, nobody really likes the graham crackers.”
“Hey,” Ivy said. “I like graham crackers.”
“My bad,” I said, holding my hands in the air in a mock surrender.
Rafe stepped in between me and Ivy. “There’ll be no hiding from the dragon on a night like tonight. And I assume you’ll need the dragon for the spell. I figured why not make a giant fire and let him come to us?”
I couldn’t think of a single reason why that wouldn’t work. One glance at the grinning faces around me told me the bonfire was going to happen whether I liked it or not anyway.
“Okay,” I said. “Let’s get this party started.” With one last glance up at the windows of the other dorm rooms where I knew we were being watched, our merry band of wolves and a random fae, or whatever the hell I was, trekked into the forbidden forest in search of the dragon.
We all had flashlights, adding to the eeriness of the event as we weaved around the trees via the dirt path going farther and farther away from the academy.
This was an interesting turn of events, us looking for the dragon instead of the other way around. I followed the wolf shifters, since they seemed to know where they were going. And they did. After only a ten-minute hike we came to a fairly large clearing.
The wolves got to work setting up the huge bonfire. If it didn’t work to bring the dragon, it might work to signal a passing plane. It was odd concept, the idea of being trapped here in the academy.
As soon as the fire was lit, the mood of the shifters changed from worried and cautious to raucous.
They came here to party. Flasks came out of almost every pocket. Shit. Why didn’t anybody tell me this was a bring your own booze event.
I could totally use some alcohol after the day I’d had. Even in the short time that I had learned about magic, I knew that liquor took the edge off of your inhibitions enough to do some radical spells. The trick was to get just to the point of minor intoxication and before you started losing memory of the key details of the spell you were doing. It also made it more fun. I kicked myself for forgetting.
Right on cue, Rafe materialized in front of me with what looked like a handle of vodka. He’s the only guy I know who was so big, his pockets could hold bottle that large. He offered it to me.
“Straight up, huh?” I asked.
He shrugged. “It’s not a sorority party.”
I accepted it and took a long pull. Everything was taking on a surreal atmosphere with the flames and the dancing around the fire and the shifters shedding clothes and- hold on, the shifters were shedding clothes. I looked at Rafe. He just shrugged and smirked. “Wolves don’t wear clothes, Keira.”
He backed up and threatened a strip tease. I took another long sip from the bottle. Then I stepped forward, grabbed his shirt, and pulled him closer. Too close. I inhaled his scent and had to force myself not to kiss him.
“A couple of things before you disappear on me,” I said, trying to force my arousal to the back of my mind. “I want you and your wolves to stay back when the dragon comes. This thing with the spell and the dragon, it’s either going to go really well or very, very badly. Just so you know.”
As soon as I heard the words come out of my mouth, I realized the irony that I had just summed up my recent life. There’s some very real truth in the first few minutes of a vodka binge.
I lost my train of thought. I was a lightweight when it came to drinking, and the straight vodka had gone to my head.
The fact that Rafe continued the strip and was now shirtless did nothing to clear my mind.
The next thing I knew I was tilting my head to stare at his six-pack abs and the very pronounced V-shape dipping down into his jeans. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t interested in the show continuing. It was just getting good. But I had to fight it. I was here to do a spell, not to do Rafe.
“Where was I again? Oh yeah, the dragon. I don’t want anybody else getting hurt because of me, understand?” I waggled a shaky finger at him. I probably shouldn’t have skipped lunch. No matter how much I tried, I couldn’t get my eyes to leave Rafe’s hands as they moved down to his zipper. The next thing I knew, he was shucking his jeans off and was fully commando.
The man was spectacular in every sense of the word. He stood there grinning before me, not a stitch of clothes on. And wasn’t even the tiniest bit self-conscious. Why would he be? He was so sexy and very well endowed.
I felt my cheeks get hot, even in the chill air. My body reacted to him, soaking my panties.
Glancing around, I saw the rest of the wolves also in various stages of undress.
Rafe took a few steps toward me and I held my ground. I had just the right amount of vodka to kiss those full, handsome, lips. In fact, I wanted every single bit of him now.
I nearly whimpered at his closeness, my body crying out for his touch. Instead, he stopped inches from my lips and flashed that dimpled smile for me.
“Stay away from the dragon,” he said. “Got it. Trust me, we’re perfectly happy letting you take care of this one.” And then with a smirk, he turned and walked away. I would have been really sad to see him go if he didn’t have the hottest ass I had ever seen.
For a fleeting moment I wanted to chase him down. I wanted to drag him to the ground and climb on top of him. Then I was angry with myself. Knock it off, Keira. Instead, I stood there like an idiot, the only one with all of my clothes on, staring at his ass as he walked away from me.
He went over to check on Ivy. She was sitting naked, cross-legged and eyes closed inside of a circle that looked like it had been drawn with a stick.
I already understood why she was Rafe’s girl. She was honest and fearless and spoke her mind. She was also gorgeous. Nearby her was a lit pipe that smelled like burnt herbs. She picked up the pipe without looking, took a huff, blew out an impressive smoke ring, and then set the pipe down.
“Nothing yet, Rafe,” she said without even opening her eyes. “Now, back off and give a girl some room, would you?”
Rafe backed off. My eyes followed a line from the circle that Ivy was sitting in to where another line in the dirt connected Ivy’s circle to the larger circle of the campfire. Up until this very moment, I was under the impression that my spell was the only one that was going to be cast tonight. I was wrong.
“Hey, Rafe,” I said. “What’s Ivy doing?”
“Old-school shifter communication technique,” he replied. “We can’t hear our pack. That’s not good.”
“Are you saying that Ivy can smoke her way into communications outside the academy?” I asked.
That would be incredible. I glanced in her direction. Whatever it was she was doing, she looked like she was super out of it. She definitely was not sober. If she did manage to communicate with the outside world, I hoped she would remember it.
Maybe shifter metabolism was different than human or whatever I was. What did Professor Kiln call me? Dark fae. I couldn’t wait to spend some time at the library finding out what the hell that meant. But right now, I had to focus.
“Hey,” Rafe said, “you have your methods, we have ours.”
I held my hands up to him. “Sorry.”
“Shut up, both of you,” Ivy said.
I wandered closer to the fire as the pack began shifting into their wolf form. Soon howls and whines filled th
e air. I needn’t have warned them to stay back. In their wolf forms, they’d be ten times faster than me anyway. And much more lethal.
Only me, Rafe, and Ivy remained in human form. I warmed myself by the hot flames, trying to keep my mind off of Rafe’s bare ass.
The area had gone from crowded and rowdy to silent so fast it surprised me. One minute Rafe was giving me a striptease, and the next I was warming myself alone by the fire. At least this was what I was used to.
Then I noticed something that seemed off. Either the vodka was still kicking in, or the fire was acting strange. As I watched it, the flames turned a hot blue and shot higher and higher into the sky until they cleared the green treetops.
I took several steps back and stared upward at the beautiful sight of the black sky with a few prominent stars and the blue flames licking above the tops of the trees.
And then I spotted it. The hunter’s moon. It just now crested over the tree line up into the open sky.
It was so beautiful. I felt like I could have stared at it forever. I didn’t know if it was the magic or that I hadn’t been out of the Academy in weeks, but all of my senses were crystal clear tonight. Even with the vodka. It was almost overwhelming.
Rafe came and stood next to me by the fire, making a show of warming his hands. But I could tell by the beads of sweat on his body that he wasn’t cold.
“What are you still doing here?” I asked him. “Aren’t you going to go run with your pack?”
“Maybe later,” he said. “I’m here to protect you.” As he said it, my eyes went from his eyes to his shoulder. The bandage was gone, but the wound remained, although now it was almost fully healed.
I couldn’t argue with his bravery, the guy took a bullet for me. And now he was standing out here at night waiting for a dragon to attack. Instead of running wild with his pack, he was standing here, protecting me.
He fixed me with the stare that would have made me clench my thighs together even if he weren’t fully naked and we weren’t alone in the forest under a bonfire.
As it was, my entire body ached for him and I felt like my skin was on fire. The air between us was electric with sexual energy. I had never felt anything like it.
“I’d do anything for you, Keira. You know that don’t you?”
I took a step toward him. All I wanted to do right now was to pull his face toward mine into a deep kiss and run my fingers through those his hair. Okay, I wanted to do a lot more than that.
My body literally trembled with anticipation and desire. From the look on his face, he was trying to resist as badly as I was. I knew if I stayed this close to him, I was playing with fire. Maybe I was done playing it safe.
With as seductive a smile as I could manage, I bit my upper lip and crossed the last bit of distance between us. His eyes flashed with flaming lust.
Unable to contain myself any longer, I reached up to kiss him. The touch of our lips sent a shiver of arousal throughout my entire body.
My hands went through his hair as his hands explored my breasts through my tee shirt.
I moaned as he slid his tongue into my mouth. Then his hands made their way down my body, making me regret my decision to still be wearing clothes. I wished them gone. I no longer wanted anything to stand in the way of our naked flesh.
The flames of the bonfire licked and snapped, casting a red-hot glow on our passion.
He grabbed my ass and lifted me up. His kiss was needy, lustful and wild. As his tongue thrust into my mouth I moaned again as his hands explored my body through my clothes.
He took a step toward the fire and dropped to his knees. Then he released me. I whimpered with desire as I watched him. He cleared a spot next to the fire of branches, twigs and rocks and then he turned his gaze back to me, his eyes ravishing me even with clothes on.
I could feel the throbbing desire between my legs. In fact, I couldn’t think of anything else.
I pulled off my shirt while he finished clearing a spot on the soft, green grass next to the crackling fire. He returned with another kiss as his fingers unsnapped my bra.
I squirmed out of my bra. Then I unzipped my jeans. That was all the invitation he needed, in one motion he swept me off of my feet again and laid me down on my back on the forest floor, slipping my jeans off. Then my panties. A rush of exhilaration hit me when the soft wind hit my exposed, delicate, flesh.
He knelt on all fours above me, taking in my naked body with his eyes.
I panted for the feel of his touch on my body. I grabbed his shoulders and pulled him in for another kiss. My breasts pressed against his bare chest.
I could feel the rumble of his wolf through his body. It sent a fresh wave of ecstasy through me. His fingers made their way to my soaking wet flesh between my legs. I moaned again into his mouth. Already, I was nearing climax.
Then he dropped the kiss and moved to my nipples, sucking and nipping at them, sending more ripples of pleasure.
He slipped a finger between my legs, expertly finding the spot that drove me wild. My orgasm exploded through me. I screamed and arched my back onto the soft grass, writhing in pleasure.
He closed his lips around mine, absorbing the scream. Then he grabbed my wrists and held them against the ground as he brought his hips up to mine and teased his giant, erect cock near my entrance.
I tried to squirm onto him, but he pulled back, teasing me. I struggled against his massive hands. One, because I wanted to feel his massive cock inside me and two, because I wanted his magic hands to go back to their rough caresses. Every part of my body screamed out for him.
He held his face inches from mine, taunting me. Then he kissed me roughly, his tongue taking over.
“Spread your legs,” he commanded.
With a happy whimper I complied. Lying there completely naked, I spread my legs wide for him in the middle of the forest. I had never been this wet or this turned on in my entire life.
He worked his way in slowly, letting me acclimate to his size before he started thrusting. Both of us writhed in ecstasy by the fire under the hunter’s moon until we collapsed in a sweaty heap in each other’s arms.
20
Rafe
She was all I ever wanted. My mate, lying here in my arms, basking in the afterglow. In the middle of the forest by a roaring fire and under a hunter’s moon. It was perfect.
If I could have written this ahead of time, it wouldn’t have been this perfect. And the sex was legendary. The only thing I could concentrate on, even now that we were finished, was the feel of being inside of her.
The fact that she wasn’t a shifter didn’t affect the bond we shared at all. I could feel her emotions, the warmness of her skin. I never, ever wanted either of us to leave this exact spot.
At this very moment I could feel all of nature. I was one with Keira. I was one with the forest and the moon and the stars, and the wind. Then I felt the first rumble.
I tensed. Keira felt it too.
“Shit,” she said. “He’s coming.” She quickly got up and located her clothes. She started throwing on her jeans and her shirt. Then she turned to look over her shoulder. “Ivy! Rafe, we’ve got to get her out of here.”
I glanced over at Ivy, surprised she was still there. The connection spell should have been completed by now. She sat there stone still, not smoking or moving. In fact, it looked like she was barely breathing.
She should have broken out of that trance a while ago and joined the others in the forest. I tried to think back to the timeline. We got here and started drinking, started the fire, and then she had initiated the spell.
We had partied for a while, then the other wolves left, then Keira and I had our time together. I glanced at where my watch would be, but it was the harvest moon, so I had taken it off in anticipation of shifting. “What time is it, Keira?”
There was another rumble beneath my feet. This time it was stronger.
She looked at me like I had a horn growing out of my forehead. “Um, eight-thirty, why?
Do you have somewhere you need to be?”
“Something’s wrong,” I said, “the spell she did, the trance that Ivy’s in, it’s never taken this long.”
Ivy sat there, a calm expression on her face. That’s because she had no idea what was coming. I wasn’t the shaman in my shifter village, I was the alpha’s son. I was muscle, not medicine. I wasn’t sure what to do or how to break her out of the trance.
Keira ran to Ivy and threw her arms around Ivy’s waist and started tugging her out of the circle. “Help me,” she yelled, “we don’t have much time.”
“No, Keira!” I shouted. I had no idea what would happen if a shaman got yanked out of their circle mid-spell. As far as I knew, it had never come up. Then again, whatever the side-effects were, they couldn’t be as bad as getting eaten by a dragon.
I rushed to Keira’s side and helped her tug on Ivy, only Ivy wouldn’t budge. “What the hell?” I asked out loud as I tugged and pulled, and still Ivy stayed put.
Even worse, she was still unconscious. She weighed next to nothing; I should have been able to carry her halfway to the academy by now.
I heard the whines and the howls from the pack in the distance. They could sense the danger Ivy was in, they were waiting on my command.
I wanted nothing more than to find a way to help Ivy and keep Keira safe without putting the rest of them in danger. I could feel their eyes and sense that they were following our every move, waiting and watching.
Another rumble shook the ground, this time dislodging a couple of the rocks forming a circle around Ivy.
Sensing that it was pointless, Keira pushed me away from Ivy.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Get back,” she yelled. “I have no idea if this will work or not.”
When I saw the expression on her face, I took a step back like she asked. She looked like she was calling to her magic. How would her magic interact with the shifter magic already in play? Especially if her magic was dark? Then I could feel it, Keira’s connection. To me, to the forest, to Ivy.
