A Shapeshifter's Kiss: Broken (Part One) (A Paranormal Werewolf Erotic Romance Novelette)

by Ana Meadows

  “Hmm, I’d like to see them,” he said.

  “My pictures, really?” she asked, surprised. It was the first interest he had shown in her other than sex since they’d been in Montana, and for the past year he almost completely stopped expressing interest in her work altogether.

  Jack put his arm around her and said, “Of course. I like to see what my talented baby has been up to.” Raine was suspicious of his sudden attention, but like a child starving for it, she ate it up.

  When they got back to the room Raine took out her laptop and showed Jack her pictures. He didn’t seem particularly interested in the ones she had taken in town, but he absolutely loved the ones that she had gotten out near the tribal land.

  “Wow, that river is so clear even in the pictures you can see the fish in it,” he said. “Where is this land again?”

  “If you go past the diner at the end of town you’ll run into it about two or three miles up the hill. You really should see it, it’s gorgeous. Maybe you could take a walk out there with me tomorrow?”

  “Hmm, we’ll see. Your photos are so good I already feel like I’ve been there already. Who did you say owned this land?” Raine was beginning to figure out where Jack’s interest stemmed from.

  “The Native Americans who live on it now. I don’t know their name. I doubt they would be interested in selling it though, Jack if that’s what you’re thinking.”

  “What makes you think they wouldn’t want to make a hefty return off the investment their grandfather’s or whoever made?”

  She shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve just heard they’re very protective of their land. I have no idea what they’d want to do with their own land.”

  “I know what I’d like to do with you right now,” Jack said, taking the laptop from her hands and setting it aside. He took her face in his hands then and gave her a long, sweet kiss. Something had changed in his mood between the diner and here. Raine wasn’t sure what it was, but it was nice. “I love you,” he said, suddenly. She knew she shouldn’t be, but she was taken aback by his unexpected declaration. It wasn’t that he never said it, but it was that he rarely said it.

  “I love you too,” she said. Jack kissed her again, this time more passionately.

  When he came up for air that time he lifted her hand to his lips and kissed each one of the fingers and then the back of her hand. Raine was having a hard time catching her breath as he kissed his way all the way up her arm until he reached her neck. She tilted her head back to allow him better access as he covered it with sweet, soft kisses. He moved his lips up to her earlobe and gently kissed and licked her ear. Raine let out a long, erotic moan. Damn him for being so sweet! Jack pulled his head back and smiled at her before he covered her mouth with his again and slid his tongue seductively between her lips. As he kissed her this time he ran his fingers lightly up and down her back, sending shivers along her spine. His other hand drifted down and found one of her breasts through her shirt. He rubbed the nipple with his fingers until it stood at attention and then he continued to slide it down to the bottom of her shirt, lifting it up and over her head in one swift motion. He reached behind her and unhooked her bra and after tossing that aside as well, he lowered his head and started to kiss and lick between her breasts. When he moved his mouth over to her nipple she shuddered again. As he sucked on one, he teased and taunted the other with his fingers, almost driving her to orgasm without even removing her pants.

  When he finished working her up through her breasts, he stood up and put his hands out to her. At this point, Raine would have followed him anywhere and she wasn’t even ashamed to admit it. She stood up too and as he kissed her again he unbuttoned and unzipped her pants and slid them and her panties off. She unbuttoned his shirt then and while she kissed and massaged his chest, he slipped a hand down and began to explore the warmth between her legs. Raine’s hands were shaking as she undid Jack’s pants and pushed them and his boxers to the floor. She stopped when she got to his ankles and dropped to her knees, pushing them the rest of the way off as he lifted his feet. Then, without even using her hands, she sucked his manhood into her mouth.

  Raine closed her eyes and immersed herself in the way he felt, and then the way he tasted and then without conscious thought she gave him what she knew he needed, taking him somewhat deeper into her mouth and then completely. Jack’s hand was on the back of her head now but he only rested it there, letting her pleasure him in her own way, until he couldn’t take it any longer.

  He reached down and took Raine under her arms and pulled her up to him. His tongue entered her mouth again and before she knew it he had her pushed back onto the bed. She felt his hardness gently nudging her between her legs and finally with one long, electrifying, motion he slid inside of her. The sudden, intense shock of it caused Raine to break their kiss and let out a moan of indescribable pleasure that originated from her very core. She accepted Jack in a slow, steady rhythm at first then gradually they gained momentum. His strokes matched the thrust of her hips perfectly, satisfying her deepest needs. Raine slipped her hands around him and placed them on the cheeks of his muscular butt. With her urging, his pace quickened even more. His strong arms held him above her and his abs tensed with each thrust. She could feel the surge and the swell inside of her just as he was ready to explode and she gripped his butt tightly as they reached a body-shaking climax together.

  He cradled her and waited until she could breathe once more and until her heart no longer hammered so hard against the wall of her chest, and then he slowly, reluctantly withdrew. He slid to the side and when she could find her voice and speak again she looked into his dark blue eyes and said, “Oh my God, Jack. That was incredible.”

  “Yes it was,” he said. His eyes were closed and he was smiling. Raine felt a little pang in her chest. He had been so romantic just a little while ago. She had hoped for just a little more. She wondered sometimes if maybe it was she who was expecting too much. Within minutes he was sleeping, and once again when the sun came through the curtains of their window, even on a Saturday morning, he was already gone to work.

  Chapter Four

  After breakfast Raine took her camera and walked up towards the mansion at the other end of town. It sat up on a hill and she imagined that if you were up there looking out of one of the windows you could see everything. It was a huge two and a half story Queen Anne style house with a hipped roof covered in cedar shingles and the exterior walls covered in clapboards. There was a three-story tower that rose just above the roof. It looked like it was standing guard over the house. A broad porch extended across the front with decorative brackets, railings and a porch roof.

  There were two huge double doors that entered into the house and two sets of doors that faced outward from the decorative balconies. They contained panes of decorative glass that glinted in the sun, almost blinding Raine as she stood at the base of the hill and looked up at it. A cobblestone, half-oval driveway with entrances to the northwest and southeast of the house curved toward it from the road. The rest of the grounds were covered with a lush, green carpet of grass with flowers and ivy growing up along the black wrought-iron fence that surrounded it. Just in front of the house, in the middle of the driveway was a cast-iron rendition of a wolf with a fish in its mouth that sat in the center of a pond with water coming out of the fish’s mouth. Raine snapped pictures from where she stood, again wishing she could get inside the fence to take more. She followed a path up around the back of the house and there she could see lush gardens surrounding an octagonal shaped pool. It seemed an awful waste to her that one reclusive man lived here alone. She was curious about him, and why someone with so many obvious resources would chose to make himself a virtual prisoner in his own home. She wondered what the house was like back in the days when it was occupied by a family.

  She began walking along the perimeter of the mansion property when she came back upon the fence that surrounded the Native Americans’ land. It wasn’t the same part of the fence sh
e had seen before of course, but she hadn’t realized how large their lands were until just now. As she was walking, she caught sight of movement in the trees on the other side of the fence. Suddenly a huge elk stepped out almost causing her heart to jump out of her chest, which was silly for two reasons, she told herself. First of all, he was on the other side of the fence, and secondly he was calmly grazing in the soft grass and not even paying any attention to her. Raine began snapping photos of him as he continued to graze. She spent the rest of the morning taking photos of animals that seemed to barely notice she was there. She hadn’t realized they were surrounded by so much amazing wildlife. She saw more elk, a bison, a lot of rabbits and squirrels, but most amazingly she saw two little black bear cubs. Raine was intelligent enough to know that where there were two baby cubs there had to be a big mama lurking. She also knew that the fence she was standing behind wasn’t likely to contain a pissed off mama bear, so she snapped a few photos of the adorable cubs and moved on quickly. She headed back into town along her usual route for lunch and to give some thought to where she would go next. She felt like she had really run the gamut of the town today after photographing the mansion and the wildlife.

  “Hey Shirley,” she said when she walked into the Peach Diner.

  “Hi there Raine. What are you up to today? Taking more pictures?”

  “Yeah, I got some good ones of the mansion and I was able to get some really nice shots of some wildlife on the Native American land, from behind the fence of course.”

  “Did you see any movement up there at the mansion?” Shirley asked her.

  “No, the gates were all locked. I just took voyeuristic photos of the outside,” she said with a grin.

  “Rick’s butler or whatever he calls himself comes in a few times a week for take-out. He’s a tough nut to crack though. I can’t get any information out of him. For all any of us know he could have killed that boy and buried him in the rose bushes. I was hoping you were able to snap one of him…alive,” she said the last with a grin.

  Raine laughed. She loved the characters in this town. Shirley was one who thrived on gossip. “I’m afraid not,” Raine told her. “But I’ll aim right at the windows next time, just in case.”

  Shirley took her order and brought her drink and then Raine asked, “You have any more suggestions for me for photos? I think I’ve taken pictures of everything.”

  “It is a small town,” Shirley told her. “It’s too bad you didn’t cozy up to Jacy when you met him the other day. There’s some pretty stuff up there on their land. That river is gorgeous and because everything is so clean and safe up there the animals just roam out in the open almost.”

  “You’ve been inside the gates?” Raine asked her, excitedly. She was trying to ignore the little tickle in her belly that the name Jacy had given her.

  “It’s been almost twenty years now. I used to date Jacy’s older brother. He came down here to town mostly and we’d go out to dinner or a movie in Helena. But one time, he snuck me up there after dark. He said that he’d catch a lot of flak from his relatives if they caught us. They’re not supposed to bring outsiders in without permission. We had an amazing make-out session down by the lake.” Shirley had a far-away look in her eyes as she remembered.

  “So what happened? Between you and him?” Raine asked her.

  Shirley sighed and said, “I wasn’t the girl the tribe was looking for him to be with, I guess. I haven’t seen him in years, which is a good thing because I still feel the love when I do. Ridiculous after all this time, huh?”

  Raine smiled at her and said, “The heart wants what it wants. But that’s too bad that he couldn’t be with you because the others disapproved. They have that kind of pull over their family members?”

  Shirley looked like she was going to say something and then she thought better of it. Instead, she said, “Let’s just say they have a ‘pack’ mentality up there. The leader, or the alpha I guess is the proper term, pretty much decides everything.”

  “A pack mentality, huh?” Raine said. “Interesting, I wonder if that came from living up there surrounded by all of those animals for so long.”

  A man sitting on Raine’s left that she hadn’t even noticed said, “Or maybe it’s because they are animals themselves. Shirley, can I get a cup of coffee here?”

  Shirley rolled her eyes at the old man, but she went to get her coffee pot as Raine studied him from the side. He was an older white man with a beat up cowboy hat, dusty boots and jeans.

  Raine thought about asking him what he meant, but he didn’t look like the friendly, conversational type so she decided to let it go. It wasn’t hard to read racism into his words anyways and a conversation with a bigot was pointless. She finished her lunch with no more interjection from her counter partner and after thanking Shirley she set out once again on her way.

  Raine automatically headed back up to the fence line. This time she followed it along the perimeter of the lake. She snapped more pictures and realized that as she walked, the climb got steeper and the brush was deeper as well. She started worrying about snakes and other things in the grass and had just thought about turning back when she noticed that part of the fence was lying down. It was a pretty long stretch of about eight feet and it looked like maybe a large animal had broken the center post and then stepped on the barbed and electrical wire, knocking it to the ground as well.

  Raine looked around to make sure she was alone. This presented her with a moral dilemma. She had clearly seen the ‘No Trespassing’ signs. She had taken photos of them even. She could feel the land practically pulling at her though. Raine stepped gingerly across the barbed wire, being extra cautious of the electrified wire as she did so. She stood on the wrong side of the fence, frozen to her spot for a moment, feeling like a criminal. After several minutes of a raging internal battle, she rationalized it by telling herself that all she would be doing was taking photographs. She didn’t plan on harming anything on the tribe’s land, and she would be in and out before anyone even knew she had been there. There was a trail that ran alongside the river and as she followed it she began to ascend almost immediately through an old growth forest of hemlock and red cedar. As she climbed further she came to an area of dense spruce-fir forest. It almost seemed as though sundown had come, as the firs were dense enough to block out the natural light of the sun. She kept walking and snapping. There were little clearings where deer were grazing and Raine’s breath was taken away time and again by the dazzling displays of nature all around her.

  She got a little winded as she climbed further up. It seemed that the climb was continuous and there were very few flat spots where she could catch her breath. Raine was in good shape, but it had been a long time since she’d taken a climb like this one. She had walked a little over two miles and was thinking she should probably head back before nightfall really came. She wasn’t sure what time it was exactly as she had left her phone back at the house. Just as she turned around, she heard a bark and a series of long howls. She stood shock still and looked around until her eyes landed on a pack of wolves off in the distance. They were far enough away that she could stand entranced by their beauty without feeling threatened. She snapped a few photos, mostly of the big, soft-looking tan one that seemed to be leading the others. She wasn’t sure why, but she had a feeling he was the one who had been watching her from behind the tree line that first day. Instead of turning around, she kept walking, soon coming to a long stretch of huckleberry bushes. That was when she realized that perhaps she had gone too far. Raine saw the bear cubs, both with a handful of the purple-ish colored berries. They were so darned cute that for a second she forgot the danger they could pose. Then suddenly she heard something behind her and before she turned around, she knew that it was going to be their mother.

  She was as black as they were and standing on two legs. She had to be close to seven feet tall and Raine guessed that she weighed close to three hundred pounds. She had her sharp, grey claws held out and looked li
ke she was ready to use them. As Raine had turned to look at her, the bear let out a growl that sounded like it was emanating from deep inside. Her eyes were dark and scary and they were trained right on Raine’s.

  “I don’t want to hurt your babies!” Raine said, knowing it was a pointless conversation. Bears weren’t like dogs. You couldn’t just talk to them in a sweet tone and expect them to eat out of your hand. She took an unsteady step to the right and that was when the bear pounced. Raine squeezed her eyes shut tight, not wanting to be a witness to her own mauling. She felt the slice of the claws as they tore open the leg of her jeans and cut through flesh. The pain surged through her and as she fell to the ground her leg also twisted at an unnatural angle, causing almost as much pain as the claws had inflicted. She wished she was a religious girl, so she could at least say a prayer as she waited for the bite that she knew was coming. This wasn’t exactly the way she had planned to die. Raine heard another growl then that didn’t sound like the bear and the sound of a scuffle.