by Tasha Black
Watching closely, and knowing it was coming, Ainsley had expected to be able to see the change better. But it was as seamless as before. One moment he was a man, the next he was a wolf.
Erik stood in the meadow, the breeze ruffling his shining black fur. His stance was proud and powerful. He was enormous.
When he turned his amber gaze to her, Ainsley couldn’t help shrinking back a little.
Instantly he folded his ears down against his head, gave her what could only be described as a smile, and wagged his tremendous tail. It whipped the grass down in a wide swathe around him.
Ainsley laughed. Instantly he flattened his chest and paws to the ground, leaving his hind end elevated. In this position he capered in a circle around her.
His clowning was so unexpectedly silly, Ainsley couldn’t hold in her giggles. Finally she reached her hand out to stroke his velvety coat.
Erik straightened to his full height and bumped his head lightly against her shoulder.
She let her hand run down his shoulder. As she did, she could feel the ripple of powerful muscle just below his satiny top coat.
One moment she felt the cool sheen of his fur. The next she was stroking the warm flesh of Erik’s human bicep.
He was standing so close to her. The implication of his head against her shoulder was different now that he was a man.
They held the position for a moment. Ainsley didn’t want to breathe. She could hear his heart beating a reassuring thud. He nuzzled the curve between her shoulder and her neck as he pulled away. Ainsley shivered involuntarily at the teasing contact.
“Now, I want you to try and picture your wolf, Ainsley. You’re not going to change, yet – just try to imagine her.”
Ainsley closed her eyes. It was easy to imagine that beautiful wolf with the slender snout, the color of the sunset. Her skin began to prickle and she opened her eyes in a panic.
“Did you feel that?” Erik asked.
“My skin was tingling.”
“That means you’re close. Now I want you to think of what makes you feel powerful.”
That was easy. Ainsley pictured her closet full of tall shoes and gray and black suits. She imagined the sound her high heels made as they beat the concrete floors of the brokerage and the smooth feel of a strand of milky Akoya pearls against her neck. She heard the hiss of the bank doors opening for her as she arrived to deposit an incomprehensibly large monthly commission check.
Nothing happened.
She opened her eyes and looked to Erik.
“What did you think about?”
“Work.”
It seemed that he looked at her almost pityingly.
“Don’t think about work.”
What was she supposed to think about then? Her dead parents? Her egged house?
“Think about something that makes you happy,” he answered the question she hadn’t asked.
Instantly her mind went to Grace. Her friend was smart and kind and funny. And Grace’s parents and grandmother were like family to her too. She thought of the tree canopy sheltering the town. And the shelter of all its residents - the women and men who had watched over her as she grew up on Tarker’s Hollow’ shaded sidewalks. She felt herself buoyed up by their love.
A hum began to generate – it was like her muscles were vibrating.
“Now picture the wolf!” Erik cried. He sounded a hundred miles away.
Suddenly, Ainsley’s wolf was upon her. She wasn’t just imagining it, she could feel the soft red fur and smell the peppery scent. She stretched her consciousness into long slender limbs and soft paws.
The boundaries of her human form dissolved, and she slid into her wolf as easily as water being poured into a glass.
She opened her eyes. The horizon looked wider and greener.
Erik stood before her. She could smell his shampoo, the faint sweat under his arms, everything he had eaten that day, the paper of the parking ticket he’d held and the clay soil his equipment had dug out of the ground. He smelled proud and sad at the same time – a purple-ish smell that tickled and soothed her nose at once. There was a wet thumping sound blasting out of his chest, which she quickly realized was his heart.
Everything in her periphery was blurred but that didn’t matter, because Ainsley could smell and hear absolutely everything. A few miles away, Grace Kwan-Cortez started up her patrol car in the borough parking lot. Ainsley would have known whose car it was even if it had been pulling out of a parking lot in Springton. Instantly she felt a rush of air that smelled of spice and pine and musk – then she realized it was emanating from the swish of her own tail.
The grass felt cool under her paws and if she listened she could hear hundreds of ants and bugs, scurrying industriously among the blades.
It was too much. The sensory overload pressed in on her from all sides. Her heart raced in panic. She had to make it stop.
“Ainsley?”
Erik’s voice hit her like a sonic boom. She lowered her head and tried to cover her ears with her paws.
“Ainsley.”
She could tell he was whispering, but the timbre of his voice was a deafening spectrum of sounds.
“Listen to me, Ainsley. I know you’re feeling a little overwhelmed. You can’t take it all in at once. Focus on one thing, the sound of my voice, and let the rest wash over you. It’s like a river, you can’t stop it. Just let it pass by, and choose where to put your attention. You can do it. And I promise, it gets easier.”
His voice soothed her. She concentrated and her heartbeat slowed. She let the sensory input pass like he said. Like water. It flowed by and she picked up the parts she wanted. The breeze. The ants. Erik’s breathing. Then let them go.
Everything was fine.
Erik’s hand on her shoulder startled her.
Ainsley jumped.
Her legs were like springs. She found herself sailing through the air. It was exhilarating.
She jumped again, her panic forgotten. She couldn’t stop.
She bounced a few times on stiff front legs. Then she leapt into the tall grass and flattened herself on her belly by instinct. Her own trickiness filled her with glee.
Electrified, she bunched up her muscles and soared out of her crouch to land next to Erik.
He threw back his head and laughed. When he opened his mouth she smelled the bread and cheese and tomato soup that were in his belly. She could also smell a happy smell that was red and ripe.
She was filled to bursting with affection for him. She relieved it without a second thought, by knocking him in the chest with her soft head and burrowing her snout into his armpit. The scent of his sweat was multi-layered and she examined each layer like she was peeling an onion. Today he had been happy, nervous, overheated, angry and sexually stimulated.
He raked his fingers through her undercoat and massaged away at a spot she hadn’t realized was itchy. Without thinking she leaned over and stroked his face approvingly with her long, sensitive tongue.
He laughed again. The sound was so delightful that she had to break away and bound across the meadow.
Suddenly there was a burst of tangy, spicy scent.
When she looked back Erik was back in wolf form and leaping toward her joyfully.
His form was so massive, and his smell so masculine she instinctively flattened herself to the ground.
The thundering of his paws ceased. She peered between the waving grasses but couldn’t see him.
Slowly she raised herself. She pricked her ears forward and heard his gentle panting very close by. He was laughing at her again.
Quick as a thought, she leapt out of hiding and pounced on him, clamping down on his thick black ruff and shaking it like small prey.
He yipped in surprise, then rolled her over to pin her down.
Though she knew he was playing, a secret part of Ainsley was deeply affronted.
In spite of her smaller size, she slipped from his grasp and tried to take hold of his ruff again. The inky black fur
slipped through her jaws and he roared in surprise, bared his teeth and placed them around her neck.
To her complete mortification, Ainsley peed a little. The tangy smell was overwhelming.
Erik fell on it instantly, snuffling and licking the grass and then spraying a steaming river of his own musky pee on top.
Ainsley pranced away, oddly pleased.
Erik circled her, then took off.
As his shadowy form streaked across the field Ainsley worried for a moment that she wouldn’t be able to keep up. Then she coiled her muscles and sprang forward with all her strength.
Her heart sang as she sailed across the meadow, halving the distance between them in two impossibly long strides.
Erik stopped on a dime. Ainsley took a final leap and landed next to him.
His ears were pricked up and he leaned forward intently.
Ainsley leaned forward too. She swiveled her ears forward and immediately heard rapid ticking and smelled a lovely smell. It was like steak and potatoes and red wine and pie and ice cream all at once.
Immediately her mouth was filled with saliva. She compressed her powerful thighs in preparation to spring on the tasty morsel before her.
Erik’s black paw covered her red one. Why did he want to stop her?
She listened again. The ticking was coming closer.
When it seemed to be only inches away Ainsley could contain herself no longer. She sprung forward, claws extended, to pin it down.
She landed with her paws splayed wide on the empty grass. A cottony tail disappeared into the woods before her.
Without a thought Ainsley tore after it. But she could hear its ticking heart recede. Something was faster than she was. Amazing.
She continued to run anyway. Her muscles shot through with pleasure at the squeeze and stretch of every leap.
Suddenly another smell beckoned. It was cool and clean and it didn’t retreat at her pursuit. She flew toward it. She could hear Erik bounding behind her.
When she saw the creek in front of her she panted happily. With dancing paws, she navigated the rocky bank and thrust her muzzle into the icy cold water. Her clever tongue knew how to transfer the water into her gullet, and she drank deep.
She heard the splash of Erik joining her, and raised her head to see him lapping up the water. It shimmered like diamonds in the dim light of the woods.
She was in such high spirits she couldn’t help attacking him again. She leapt for his ruff and he dodged. She landed in the cold water with an enormous splash.
Her oily top coat prevented her from being instantly saturated. She leapt to the bank and shook herself with abandon.
Erik immediately chased after her and she flew down the bank madly, crashing through the underbrush.
Suddenly there was a rush of familiar smells. She stopped short. Erik tumbled into her and they fell to the ground in a furry jumble.
He pawed at her playfully, but Ainsley rose and inhaled. Erik fell away from her and sat back on his haunches, waiting.
The smells and sounds were so familiar. She smelled her human’s distress and excitement. There were also older, stranger smells. And the jangling of the breeze through a particular tree’s branches sounded like home.
It was too much for her. She threw her head back and howled in bewilderment.
Chapter 10
Erik’s mate was howling in distress.
She was his mate.
He knew that now. In wolf form everything was easier - his emotions were primary colors and easy to understand.
Regretfully, he reached for his human self so that he could comfort her.
When he stood beside her as a man again, she looked up at him with mournful golden eyes. He stroked her shimmering auburn fur. It was soft as silk at her cheeks and thick like a pelt over her spine.
He spoke as softly as he could.
“Ainsley, shut your eyes. Think of your human self. Reach for her hand.”
She stared at him a moment more. Then her eyes shut. When she opened them again she was back in her human form.
Her hazel eyes blinked in surprise as she took in her surroundings. She must be realizing they were in their special place.
“We’re here,” she breathed.
“You ran right to it.”
She shivered and then looked down at herself. Erik looked too.
Ainsley’s soft curves were like the subject of a Renaissance painting. Her long chestnut hair hung down in waves that all but covered her generous breasts.
He snapped his head back up to look at her eyes, but not before he had seen enough to harden his cock to bursting for her. He was desperate to bury himself in all that delirious softness.
Her eyes met his, but they were full of misery. She was wrapping her arms around herself as if to hide from his gaze.
“Ainsley…”
“Oh god, please don’t look at me.”
He turned away immediately.
“I won’t hurt you. I promise. I know Clive tried to hurt you. I would die to protect you.”
Guilt washed over him. She could probably see his erection.
“I know you won’t hurt me.”
“Then why are you hiding from me?”
There was silence. He turned back to her.
Her head was hung shamefully.
“I…I don’t look like Cressida.”
“Why would I want you to look like Cressida?”
He was dangerously close to jealousy when it dawned on him.
“Do you think you would be more beautiful if you looked different?”
She nodded without looking at him.
How could he find the words to tell her? He adored the way she looked. And he loved her. She was his Ainsley. He would love her when she was huge with his child and when she was old and stooped. He had loved her when they both were small and dirty. He loved her fierceness and her loyalty. He would never have his fill.
But she wouldn’t hear any of that. Not really. Because she was too busy trying to hide herself from him.
So he simply spread his arms wide.
“Look at me, Ainsley, just look.”
She turned and met his eye. He glanced down and her eyes followed.
Her lips parted at the sight of his rigid penis.
“I’m proud of you,” he whispered, “you’re wonderful.”
Her eyes met his again.
“You were magnificent – a born wolf!”
She smiled happily. The golden flecks were dancing in her eyes again. He could stare into them forever.
Suddenly, there was a hum in the air.
Ainsley began to glow.
At first he wasn’t sure if it was the sunlight coming out from behind a cloud. A haze of soft light shimmered around her head.
Then her lips parted slightly and her arms fell away from her body, allowing him a full view of her glorious curves.
He clenched his jaw, determined not to force himself on her. She had to make the first move. After what she had been through it was important.
She blinked at him slowly, looking hypnotized. Then she caressed his face with a soft hand.
At her touch his resolve broke down. He pulled her close and inhaled her intoxicating scent.
She sighed and crushed her breasts against him. He could feel the peaks of her nipples harden against his chest.
It drove him wild and he dove into her neck, sucking and biting her soft, smooth flesh.
She moaned and sunk her nails into his back. The pain and pleasure egged him on and he lost himself in her scent.
When he pulled up for air he could see that her whole body was glowing. She shimmered and shone like an icon.
He stroked her hair and she leaned into his touch. Sparks seemed to emanate from his hand as he touched her.
He needed to lie down with her, right away. The rocky bank was uninviting. He lifted his eyes to the bamboo and pictured his house just beyond the meadow. He would never make it home - he needed her right now.
She reached for him again and he lifted her effortlessly in his arms and carried her up the bank to the trees. There was a bed of pine needles a few inches thick and he laid her there gently.
She smiled up at him like an angel. His heart hurt and he closed his eyes fighting for control.
He opened them to find her sitting up, eyes fixed on his cock. Her lips were swollen from his kisses. She ran her tongue across them and leaned in.
Ainsley swirled her tongue around just the tip of his penis, tasting him. She licked up and down his shaft. She even probed his balls with her inquisitive tongue, as he writhed and moaned. Then she returned up his shaft to his sensitive head.
He was nearly crying with anticipation as she completed her exploration.
Suddenly she sucked him deep into her mouth. He saw stars as she dragged her mouth all the way up and down his heavy organ. After just a few strokes he had to pull himself out of her grasp. If she went on he would burst in her mouth and he needed to claim her.
He pushed her back down and leaned on his elbows, framing her glittering face.
“Ainsley…” he whispered.
She smiled up at him and he devoured her mouth. She tasted like honey.
He worked his way lower, sucking on her neck and nuzzling her collarbone.
She arched up to him and he breathed in her scent. The tangy spice of her was overwhelming.
Ravenously he fell on her breasts, licking and sucking her stiff pink nipples. He felt her hands tangle in his hair and heard her moans.
The beating of their hearts was loud in his ears. His was alternately rushing and dragging to match hers.
Her hips began to grind into his belly as he kissed his way down her body. He buried his nose in the thatch of her chestnut hair. The scent nearly drove him over the edge. Determinedly, he went lower still.
Ainsley froze. Shivers of anticipation ran up and down her body. Rays of light stretched out of her fingers and toes.
Erik was beyond wondering if he was going to do something right or wrong. He felt as if this were preordained – as if he couldn’t help but please her.
He pressed her thighs apart gently. She was shell pink and so wet it took his breath away.
