by Rose, Aubrey
I’d tell her and she’d call me an idiot and rub my face in it and then tell me how to fix it. But the gnawing pain in my stomach told me otherwise. I knew it wouldn’t go down like that. The fix wasn’t that easy.
“What about tonight?”
I shrugged.
“What about tonight?”
“You can’t fight, you have a date.”
“How the hell do you know about that?”
Now it was Gina’s turn to shrug.
“Natalie and I hang out now and then. You know, shopping, lunch...”
As if I didn’t have enough to deal with, it appeared that the two women who knew more about me than anyone else in the world had become best friends behind my back. To be honest, I was pretty surprised that Gina even did things like go shopping. I’d never really paid attention to what other people did in their downtime.
“I’ll catch her next time. She’ll understand.”
Gina smirked.
“What?”
“You’re going to call her first, right?”
“I don’t know her number.”
“Are you kidding me?”
“I know where she lives. She knows where I live. We make plans. I show up.”
“Or not…”
“Yeah, or not. Shit happens. Plans change. She’ll understand.”
“I’ve got her number somewhere.”
“Great, you call her then, Gina.”
“Jesus Christ, Hutch! How can you, of all people, know so little about women? I can’t call her and cancel on your behalf!”
“Why do you care so much, anyway?” I snarled.
“Because she’s good for you, Hutch. She’d be good for you, and what’s good for you is good for the pack. I don’t want you to screw this up.”
Gina was beginning to get on my nerves. It had been a spectacularly shitty day so far and I’d much rather be fucking Nat than fighting some out-of-town deadbeat tonight. My stomach hurt, my head hurt, and if Gina didn’t back off soon, I was going to forget how fond I was of her.
“Look, if it’s so hard, I’ll dial the number for you and—”
“Just fucking leave it, Gina.”
I rounded on her, searching for the strength inside. The strength that let me lead the pack. I needed to remind her of that. I needed to remind them all. I led them. I kept them alive. I kept them fed. And I didn’t do it hiding behind a desk like a ghoul. And we didn’t have to live in tiny apartments like dogs. If I said we fought three nights a week, we fought three nights a week. And I’d be right there with them, leading by example.
“Hutch?”
Something was wrong. Something was off. I’d been laying down the law. Reminding Gina of her place in the pack, but all that came out were angry snarls and whines. I fought against the change, but it was a struggle. I was too angry, too emotional and it was easier to just let the beast take over and forget about all the bullshit and the lies. By the time I could speak again, I was panting and covered in sweat.
“Do what you like. I’ll be in the gym.”
My head still wasn’t in the game when I stepped into the ring. But I had it together. I put two fingers to my heart, out of force of habit rather anything else. I scanned the crowd. Cute little blonde thing in the front row screaming my name. A few weeks ago that would have been a no brainer.
For a second I thought I caught a glimpse, but no. Similar hair, similar build, but she wasn’t in Nat’s league. It wasn’t the same without her here.
I spun once before coming to a halt facing my opponent. With a shrug, I pointed at him. Yeah buddy… you; you’re the one I want to fuck tonight.
The crowd went wild. Hooting and banging their feet on the floor. Zeke, my thick-necked opponent, didn’t take it nearly so well. I blew him a kiss, and then sidestepped a telegraphed haymaker.
There. That was more like it. I felt my confidence return. Fuck the ghouls, fuck Gina, this was where I lived. I bounced from foot to foot, circling the muscle-bound meathead as I searched for, and found, the balance that had been eluding me. I ducked under a long slow right and then—
BAM!
I ran straight into his other fist. The left he’d been setting me up for. I went down, my head spinning and my eyes watering. That one was going to leave a mark.
I grabbed for his leg as I fell, but for a big man, he was light on his feet. He sidestepped and lashed out, catching me across the ribs with his other foot.
“Come on!” he roared at me. His voice rumbled deep, carrying the strength of the wolf that shared his skin. “Come on!”
I struggled to my feet, my own strength fleeing as my vision swam, and my face ran straight into that haymaker again. Well shi—
BAM!
The world went black.
Chapter Twenty
Natalie
He was thirty-two minutes late.
I looked at the clock again. I couldn’t handle this. Late? After he’d promised me he’d make up for his no-show last night? If he thought I was one of those girls he could toy around with, he had another thing coming. Gina had assured me he’d be here. Assured me he knew how badly he’d screwed up. I’d love to have been a fly on the wall for that conversation.
It was kind of funny how the two of us had bonded over mutual frustrations over Hutch’s shortcomings. Gina obviously loved him. Heck, she practically worshipped him. But with that love came an intimate knowledge of his flaws. She didn’t exactly make excuses for him, but she did try to prepare me for him.
The roar of the motorcycle coming down the street made me sigh in relief, then tense with nervousness again. I hoped he hadn’t been speeding the whole way.
Peering out the window, I saw him get off of the bike, a slight limp in his step. Before I could even get off the couch, though, he was knocking at the door.
I opened the door to a panting, sweaty Hutch. He held out a bouquet of wildflowers. I took the flowers and inhaled deeply.
“Hutch, these are beautiful!” I said. If he was going to make an effort, I would try to do the same.
“Sure are, huh? Got em from the house two blocks down.”
“You—you stole flowers from someone’s garden?”
He waved his hand in the air dismissively.
“Ah, they had a bunch of em. Too many, really. They should pay me for pruning.”
I strained a smile through my clenched jaw. It was sweet of him, really.
“And here,” he said, pulling a card from his back pocket. “I almost forgot.”
I took the crumpled card and looked at it. It was handmade, that’s for sure, and the edge was wet where I’m sure Hutch had sweated through onto it. There was a splotch of red on the front, with some smaller splotches on the bottom. I squinted at it, trying to make out what it was.
“Oh, no, it’s upside down.” Hutch rotated the card in my hands and looked up at me expectantly. I still had no idea what it was. I smiled and shook my head.
“It’s a paw print,” he said. “You see, the—uh, the claw marks.”
He pointed to some red smudges I had been sure were mistakes.
“Oh, right! I see it!”
“Open it up.”
“I’m sorry,” I read out loud, “I love you.” I frowned. “You’re sorry you love me?”
“No! I’m sorry, and also I love you. I love you!”
His face was so eager that I couldn’t help but crush him in a hug. As ridiculous as he was, I couldn’t stay mad at him, especially after he’d given me this. Not the card, but the sentiment.
“I love you, too,” I whispered.
“Come on, then,” he said.
“Where are we going?”
He beamed as though he was the first person in the world to come up with a date idea.
“We’re going,” he said, pausing for dramatic effect, “on a picnic.”
***
I swear Hutch must have downshifted on every red light. The vibrations were so strong that at the last light I swatted his sh
oulder.
“Do you have to do that?”
“I’m getting you warmed up!” Hutch shouted back over his shoulder.
“I’m warm! I’m more than warm! I’m burning hot!”
“Well, in that case,” Hutch said, pulling onto a side road, his laughter rumbling along with the motor. I blushed even though he couldn’t see me. He guided the bike down to the end of an empty loading pier.
“Mademoiselle,” he said, lifting me off of the bike. “Welcome to Chez Hutch.”
Pulling out a white bed sheet, he grinned. He cleared out an area at the end of the dock and set down a bottle of wine and a paper bag full of what I supposed was food.
“Come sit,” Hutch said, plopping himself down on the sheet.
“What is this place?”
“Old packing plant. They used to do distribution off of this pier, but the plant shut down and nobody ever comes out here. I used to race my bike through their lots.”
“It looks so empty.” The river water rippled along the edge of the dock, and across the river was an empty loading field, overgrown with grass. “Like the apocalypse happened, and we’re the only survivors.”
“Worse. The economy happened,” Hutch said, snorting in laughter at his own joke. “And there are no survivors.”
“You’re doing alright, aren’t you? With the fights? They seem to be a lot more frequent than when we first met.”
Hutch shrugged.
“Are you doing okay with that? I don’t want you to get hurt.”
“I’m fine. In fact, I’m not fighting for a while. Gotta rest up, you know. Don’t worry about me.”
I could tell he wanted to drop the subject, so I let it go.
“How about some of that wine? What kind is it?”
“Red,” Hutch said brightly, passing the bottle over. “And then we have… let’s see. Summer sausage. A cheese that is a hundred times as expensive as regular cheese.”
“Mmm, a sharp aged cheddar. Excellent choice.”
“Do you like red wine? I wasn’t sure what kind you liked.”
“This is a Cabernet,” I said, holding the bottle up.
“Is that good or bad?”
“I don’t know,” I said, smiling. “Let’s open it up and see.”
“Oh. I—hm.”
“Did you not bring a corkscrew?”
“It’s okay, I learned from someone how to do this.” Hutch tugged a pocketknife out of his pants. “You just gotta be careful.” He stabbed the cork and twisted the knife until it came out. “See? VOILA!”
“You are a genius,” I said. I waited while he looked around. “What is it?”
“The genius forgot cups,” Hutch said. He looked forlorn.
“That’s okay,” I said. I grabbed the open bottle and took a long swig. It was surprisingly tasty, and the look on Hutch’s face was even tastier. When I offered him the bottle, he leaned over and kissed me softly.
“Now,” I said, “how about some of that ridiculously expensive cheese?”
Hutch was busy cutting up the cheese and sausage, and I arranged them as little sandwiches on the paper bag. We munched happily on the delicious picnic dinner and on the chocolate truffles he produced from his jacket pocket. They were a bit melted, a bit smushed, and totally delicious.
“Thank you for all of this,” I said. Hutch put his arm around me and we sat on the sheet together, looking out over the river. The sun was beginning to dip down toward the horizon, and the red and orange clouds were reflected in every ripple of the water. The water itself was cloudy and polluted, but when the sun hit it at this angle, it looked utterly beautiful.
“I screwed up last night. I should have called.” Hutch looked out at the water as he spoke. The cuts on his face glistened in the light.
“It’s alright.”
“I won’t screw up again, okay? I promise.”
“You can’t promise that. Just promise to try your best.”
Hutch nodded his head seriously.
“I will. Natalie, I—”
“What is it?”
“I’ve never wanted to be so perfect. But I want to be perfect for you.”
I reached up and pulled his head down to mine in a sweet kiss. He tasted of wine and chocolate, and I wanted nothing more than to spend every night like this, close to him.
“You are perfect for me,” I whispered.
He kissed me softly, rolling me onto my back.
I kissed him harder, letting a bit of my animal self-emerge.
He kissed me on my neck. His mouth moved down my collarbone to the hollow at the base of my neck. Then he scooted down on the sheet and kissed me through my panties. I squealed at the pressure that sent thrills through my body.
“Hutch!”
“What? I’m a little busy down here,” he said. His fingers pulled aside my panties and he kissed me softly, lightly, a breathy kiss that teased me more than it satisfied me.
“We can’t do this here!”
“It’s an empty yard. And it’s almost dark.”
He was right. The sun was already below the horizon, and the sky was quickly fading from blue to black. Still, being out in the open made my nerves twitch.
“I don’t—ohh!” His tongue plunged into me and my entire body rolled with pleasure. My fingers scraped against the sheet underneath us.
He licked me hard, his tongue stroking my most sensitive spot slowly, so slowly… I moaned again as he eased off.
“I’m sorry, what were you saying?”
“Don’t stop, Hutch!”
He moved up, unzipping his pants. I felt him hot and hard against my thigh.
“Yes, oh god, yes.”
He slid into me halfway, his cock so hard and throbbing that I could barely take it.
“More,” I moaned.
He began to rock slowly, in and out. His swollen cock worked its way deeper, and his muscled abs rubbed against me with every thrust.
His movements were so slow that I could hardly bear it. When I’d thought of him before, I’d thought he would be a fierce lover, fast and hard, but right now he was moving in slow motion, his ferocity transformed into a deep patience. It was as though he was enjoying teasing my nerves out to their fraying point.
Despite myself, my legs wrapped around Hutch as he thrust. I wanted—no, needed him inside of me. I wanted him to fill me with his huge cock, to split me apart. My legs clenched his body hard and as he thrust, I began to meet him, tilting my hips up to take him fully. My head lolled back. The reflection of the sky on the water made the river seem bluer than it really was. He moved into me and I closed my eyes, closing out the world.
As he moved, his mouth moved also. All along my neck, up to my ear. His tongue flicked the soft part of my earlobe, sliding over and warming my skin with his heat.
“Hutch,” I breathed.
Then he shifted forward and began to push harder into me, but still slowly. Every motion forward pierced me to the core, filling me, swelling me with every thrust of his thick hard cock.
I couldn’t take it. I couldn’t take it. I wanted it so badly. My body screamed for release, and still he moved slowly, deliberately, his mouth teasing my skin, his cock sliding out and teasing me along my slick thighs. I had never been so wet, and during one hard thrust I let myself open up a little, open up my senses, just to let the animal see.
Immediately the orgasm hit me. I buried my face into his shoulder and screamed as the shudders sent my nerves unraveling. The sensation, oh god, every sense was amplified and I came over and over again, my body shaking in his. My legs clasped him in a tight lock as I pushed myself against him and let the waves of release pour through me like water. Everything was bright and spinning around me, and I shuddered once more as the last of my orgasm hit me.
I looked up into Hutch’s grinning face. He knew what I had done, and he knew why I had done it.
“You got it,” he said. “You can control it.”
Panting, I reached out and touched hi
s face. His gorgeous, damaged face. The scarlet cut looked brighter, and even though I clamped down on the animal inside of me, the colors still stayed bright, the sensations around me still heightened.
It was incredible, this new way of seeing the world. I wanted to hold onto it, hold onto this way of seeing things. I wondered if I could.
Then Hutch bore into me, shaking me from my thoughts and making me ache again.
“Again,” he said.
“Again?”
He grinned, and I saw a glint of wolf in his eyes as he thrust into me hard enough to make me moan in pleasure.
“Let’s see if you can do it again.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Natalie
A few days after Hutch had made amends, and then some, for standing me up, I got a call from Gina. Over the phone her voice was hushed, furtive. She told me I needed to come to the fight that night. She didn’t say why. I didn’t bother getting dressed up, and I was glad I hadn’t. It let me slip through the crowd without anyone noticing me, or recognizing me as Hutch’s girlfriend.
Now, watching Hutch get pummeled, I knew why Gina had called me.
The other shifter landed a punch on Hutch’s jaw and I saw the impact ripple through his body, felt it in my own body. Sweat trickled down his arms and dripped off of his elbows as he staggered back.
He’d been limping before. Here, though, the limp was even more pronounced. He wasn’t using his left leg at all, and as a result, he wasn’t able to dodge punches that he should have dodged easily. I’d seen him fight before, and I knew what it was supposed to look like.
This wasn’t it.
The crowd around me surged forward at the next punch, their fists in the air. In the midst of the chaos, I struggled to breathe evenly. It had been different when Hutch was healthy. But as the other fighter rained down blows on his shoulders and back, I cringed back. I didn’t want to see Hutch get hit. I didn’t want to see him get hurt. Not like this.
The other fighter was smaller and more agile, darting around Hutch like a bee buzzing around a bear. His sting, though, was much more painful. My heart beat faster as I saw him come in for another hit, on the side of Hutch’s head. Hutch reeled back and fell to the mat.
