by Zoe Chant
God, she was making him so hard. Still, he kept it slow, focused on her pleasure. Later, he told his cock, as it yearned to taste those tender folds he was even now entering with his finger.
She was wet, so wet, so open; she took his finger easily, and then another. "Remy," she moaned again. Glancing up, he saw her head thrown back, eyes closed, all her attention focused on the pleasure she was receiving. One hand still rested on his head; with the other, she steadied herself on the table as her knees went lax with the sensations coursing through her.
He worked her clit with his tongue. He was dripping wet himself now, soaking through his boxers. Just seeing her like this, hearing her like this—She didn't seem to be aware of the tiny, involuntary sounds she was making. Suddenly she clenched around his fingers and gasped out, "Remy, I'm going to—"
Her words died off in a moan as he swiped her clit with his tongue. Her body arched back and her fingers tightened against his scalp. She gave a soft, wordless cry, and he felt a sharp, pleasurable tingle course through the claiming mark on his neck, a distant echo of the ecstasy she was feeling. Her hips jerked sharply and he kept his fingers in her, his tongue on her, as she quivered through a long orgasm.
When she finally began to relax, he drew his head back and straightened, but kept his fingers in her. Rhythmic flutters clenched and released against his fingers, the last fading shivers of the pleasure she'd felt.
She opened her eyes slowly and looked down at him. Her lips were parted, her face slack and sated. "Remy," she said.
"I think we've established that you know my name by now."
She laughed and leaned forward to kiss him, kissing her salt taste off his lips. His fingers were still buried in her; he could feel her soft folds shift around him every time she moved. It was unbearably hot. She pulled away and already a fresh wave of arousal was mounting in her eyes.
"Think we could get that underwear off you, big boy?"
"Oh, yeah." He lifted his hips and she pulled down his boxers. His cock sprang free, standing up all on its own, turgid and waiting. Remy pulled his fingers out of her, and watched her face as he did so, the visible pleasure at the slow trailing release. Then she moved forward and carefully settled herself over his cock.
Yes. She was so wet, so read, and so right. He fit her perfectly; she was just tight enough, a wealth of sensation in every stroke as he thrust his hips upward.
Saffron adjusted herself so she had both feet planted firmly on either side of the chair, one arm around his neck and the other hand gripping the table. Although his first strokes were careful, unsure how much she could take this soon after an orgasm, she thrust back in a way that was wild and wanting. It was clear that she didn't want to be delicately made love to. She wanted to be taken, and when he thrust powerfully upward, it tore a low cry out of her. Sweat glistened on her bare limbs.
"Saffron," he said raggedly, thrusting deep into her, faster and harder.
She worked her hips, riding him as fast as she could. They moved together, the chair creaking under them. Saffron's eyes were open this time, staring into his, glazed with ecstasy. The mark on his neck tingled sharply, and he could feel himself mounting the edge, driving toward his pent-up release.
When he came, it was shattering, a tremendous white-hot wave rolling through him. Saffron jerked, too, in the grip of her own orgasm. Her head fell forward against his shoulder and she clutched him wildly, her fingers digging into his back, curled like claws. He gasped against her hair, pumping himself empty into her.
They both relaxed, slowly. One of his hands had become knotted in her hair and he carefully freed his fingers from the tangled strands.
"I never knew sex could be like this," she murmured against his skin.
"Me neither."
Unfortunately, sitting on the chair like this, their sated cuddling couldn't last. Sweat was cooling on his shoulders and back, and his leg was beginning to cramp slightly under her weight. She seemed to sense his discomfort, and peeled herself reluctantly off him, pulling off of his softening cock.
"Food now?" she asked, reaching across the table for the sack of burgers.
"Food yes. Food for sure. I worked up an appetite."
They would be okay, he told himself, watching his naked, glorious mate unwrap the burgers. They'd find a way. Right now, still floating in afterglow, he believed to the bottom of his soul that, between the two of them, he and his mate could do anything.
Chapter Eight
Saffron's fox woke her.
She'd heard of this happening, a shifter's animal warning them of danger. But it had never happened to her before. She'd never really been in tune with her fox the way some people were with their shifter animals.
But since meeting Remy and recognizing him as her mate, she had been more aware of her fox than ever before. And now she was startled out of a sound sleep by a sudden jolt of alarm from the vixen inside her. Saffron! her fox cried. Wake up!
Her eyes snapped open. She and Remy had fallen sleep after eating, curled together on the cabin's narrow bed. Now it was full daylight outside the cabin, sunshine streaming through the windows. Beside her, Remy was awake as well, sitting up and staring warily toward the cabin door. She wondered if his bear had awoken him just as her fox had done for her.
"What is it?" she asked him softly.
"I don't know." He got out of bed and padded to the window. He was naked and gloriously so, his strong muscles rippling beneath the skin. The injury on his leg had healed to nothing more than a pale mark, not quite a scar.
"See anything?" she asked softly.
"No, I—" He stopped and tilted his head to one side, a gesture more animal than human. His eyes narrowed and he hissed between his teeth, then spun around in a single fluid motion and swept up her discarded clothing. Tossing it at her, he said, "Get dressed. We're going to have company."
"What?" she demanded. "Who?" But of course she knew.
"I hear motorcycles. Not too close. They'll be having to fight their way up the same road we came up last night. But they'll be here soon."
Saffron scrambled to her feet, galvanized by a sharp burst of panic. As she hastily dressed, she heard snatches of it now too: the distant roar of engines, muffled by the cabin walls. They rose and fell, now loud, now soft, as they went up and down hills and had to pause to deal with the obstacles she and Remy had navigated the night before.
But Remy was right. They had minutes, no more.
"Only one road out of here?" Remy asked, pulling his T-shirt over his head.
"I'm afraid so." She pulled her jeans over her hips and zipped them. Her initial panic had faded, leaving her unexpectedly clearheaded. She had been afraid for too long. Now she was just determined.
Remy scooped his phone off the table and stuffed it into his pocket. He stared regretfully at the saddlebags, then knelt and took something from an outside pocket. It was a hunting knife, probably the biggest one she'd ever seen, in a leather sheath. He strapped it around his waist.
"I wish I carried a gun," he said, seeing her staring. "This is the only weapon I have." He reached out and took her hand. "C'mon."
Outside on the sun-warmed porch, the sound of engines was a lot louder. Saffron knew how noises could carry in the silence of the forest, though. It sounded as if the motorcycles were about to burst into the yard, but she thought they were probably farther away. Still, the fear she'd been trying to push down climbed into her throat.
Remy ran around the back of the cabin, leading her by the hand. As they passed his motorcycle, she cried, "We can't leave your bike behind!"
"Have to. No choice. It's not going to help us in the woods."
They entered the trees. It was mostly pine forest this high up, and Remy led her around patches of brush, walking on a deep carpet of pine needles that sprang back where they'd stepped.
"Shouldn't we shift?"
"Not yet. As animals, we'll have to leave everything behind, and we won't be able to talk to each other. What
kind of shifters does Creed have in his gang?"
"It's a mix. About half of them are birds, mostly birds of prey. Creed's an eagle. For the non-birds, I know there are a couple of deer, some cats like mountain lions and lynxes, a black bear, and a few snakes and crocodiles and things."
Any one of them wouldn't be a match for Remy in his shifted form, she knew. Probably a half-dozen of them wouldn't be. But could he take on the entire clan?
"Screw this, I'm gonna call in the cavalry." Remy let go of her hand and pulled his phone out of his pocket without breaking stride. He dialed a number; there was a pause and he cursed loudly. "Voice mail? Cody, you asshole, pick up. We're at the cabin, and we're in trouble. If I ever needed you, big brother, it's now. We're heading up into the mountains behind the cabin, and we're going to try to lose them—" He broke off, glancing up with a flinch as a shadow passed over them.
Saffron looked up too, and cried out in dismay. A hawk swept low above the treetops, its wide-winged shadow flickering along underneath.
"Remy, they've found us!"
"Yeah, just get here as quick as you can," he told his brother, and shoved the phone back into his pocket.
"Your clan will still be hours and hours away," Saffron said, trying to fight down her worry. "Unless your ranch is a lot closer than I thought it was."
"It's not," he said grimly. "So we have to avoid them for a few hours. Think we can do it?"
"I don't know," she admitted. "I didn't do so great the last time."
"I used to spend a lot of time running around in the woods with my brother and cousins when we were kids. Hopefully I still have some of the skills."
***
Remy took Saffron's hand and led her quickly through the sun-dappled woods. It seemed so peaceful and serene out here. But the flitting shadow passing over them had been joined by two more, circling like carrion birds above fresh roadkill.
They scrambled up a ridge leading higher into the mountains. There was no way to avoid the circling sentries overhead, so Remy decided to focus on putting as much distance as possible between themselves and their pursuers. They could travel faster, and leave fewer tracks, as animals.
"I think the time's come to shift," he told Saffron. "I'm going to shift first so you can buckle my knife belt onto my bear, all right? Then it'll be your turn. We're going to head higher and deeper into the mountains, get away from the road as much as possible so they have to follow us as their beasts instead of using vehicles. It's the only thing I can think to do."
"All right." Not one to waste time, she began stripping off her blouse. "We should've brought the backpack with us."
"I don't think either of our animals is the right shape to carry it. We'll just have to improvise." He jammed his cell phone into the sheath with the knife. It didn't fit well, and he had a feeling they'd lose reception if they went higher in the mountains, but he hated the idea of being completely out of touch with his clan. He shed his clothes with the ease of practice and shifted to his bear.
The world changed, as it always did when he shifted: colors faded, scents became sharper, and the bear's fighting instincts rose to the fore. He suddenly felt much more in control, more confident of his own ability to fight. There were few things in the natural world that could take on a full-grown, enormous grizzly bear.
But as Saffron had pointed out the day before, bears weren't bulletproof. And he had her safety to consider, as well.
"Where do you want me to put the knife?" she asked him, and his ears swiveled in her direction. It was fascinating to hear her, to see and smell her, through the bear's senses—like experiencing her for the first time all over again. He held out one massive foreleg, and she buckled the belt around it above the elbow, tightening it to its smallest notch. He shook his leg to make sure it would stay. It felt strange there. He wasn't used to the feeling of wearing something when he was a bear.
Saffron was now stripped to the skin. She bundled their clothes up and stuck them into a hollow under a tree. Remy grunted impatiently at her; it didn't matter if they hid the clothes or not, since their enemies would probably be tracking by smell or flying above, and it was time they couldn't waste. She merely rolled her eyes at him and shifted into a small gray fox.
It was the first time he'd seen her fox. She was a beautiful vixen, but of course he'd expected nothing else. Her paws were small and dainty, her face delicately masked with black. Despite the urgency of their situation, Remy sensed her delight, a reflection of his own, in experiencing the world through her fox eyes and ears. She frisked to his side, and he lowered his great shaggy head to nudge her with his nose before lumbering off into the woods.
Bears might look slow and clumsy, but were actually very effective at covering ground. He and Saffron headed up the ridge, trying for speed more than stealth. Above them, the birds of prey continued to circle, letting out wild cries to alert the other Black Wings to their presence.
They'll have to come after us on foot, Remy thought. And he and Saffron had a head start. Even if they couldn't easily lose their pursuers with the hawks above them, all they had to do was stay ahead until his clan could come to help.
If his clan was coming.
They will, he told himself. Cody, at least, would drop everything to help his brother, ever since they were kids. He might growl about it, and tease Remy afterwards, but he would always help. Remy was confident that Axl would, too. The remaining members of his clan might go either way. Gannon would probably stick with Alec, and Alec ... Remy didn't know what their alpha was thinking half the time. But still ...
The point is, help will come. All you have to do is stay in the clear until they do.
A sharp alarm bark from Saffron's fox alerted him to danger an instant before something hit him like a hammer blow out of the sky. It was gone a moment later, leaving Remy reeling and startled, with blood streaming into one of his eyes. He shook his head, his ears ringing.
What the hell was that?
But then he looked up and understood. Saffron had told him that Creed was an eagle shifter, and the biggest bald eagle Remy had ever seen was circling above the trees. Eagles were among the biggest birds in the world, and this one must have a ten-foot wingspan, at least. Creed's eagle was so huge it seemed unreal, like something from the last Ice Age, or a movie special effect. It seemed impossible that anything so big could actually fly.
Creed's claws curled and he let out a piercing shriek before diving again.
This time Remy was ready for him. He reared up on his hind legs and roared. The pine forest rang with that most terrifying of sounds, the roar of an enraged grizzly bear. The eagle banked sharply and cut off his attack at the last minute, swooping to the side instead and making a grab for Saffron with his talons.
Saffron yelped and dodged. Creed's claws missed her by inches and he soared skyward again, while Saffron fled into the denser undergrowth, letting out a small fox scream. Feeling a little more confident in the brush, she whisked around and crouched low to the ground, flattening her ears and wrinkling her little muzzle in a snarl.
Remy roared again in utter fury. How dare he! Remy had put his mark on her, and Creed was in clear violation of the unspoken rules that all shifters were supposed to abide by. You didn't mess with another shifter's mate. You didn't.
So Creed thought the rules didn't apply to him, huh?
Overhead, Creed screamed out his thwarted rage, and Remy roared back in a deafening bellow that echoed off the mountains. The huge eagle folded his wings and stooped in a dive. Remy swung his enormous paw, its great claws curved like scimitars. Creed rolled to the side in midair, swept under Remy's claws and slammed into his chest. As big as Remy was, the impact of the enormous eagle knocked him off his feet. As they fell, Creed tore out great hunks of fur with his claws and then sprang away, leaping for the sky with tremendous beats of his wings while Remy snapped at him.
Remy staggered back to his feet. The attack hadn't done much damage; he was too well armored with thick f
ur. His head was the real vulnerability, and the one the eagle was best positioned to exploit. Blood was clotted thickly around his left eye from Creed's first attack. If the eagle's aim had been a little better, Remy might be completely blind and helpless right now.
And Creed was already swooping back in for another attack, this one aimed squarely at his head. Rather than trying to dodge, Remy met it instead, opening his jaws and twisting his head to the side so he took the brunt of the eagle's beak and claws on the heavy ruff of fur around his face. But now Creed was wide open for a counter-attack, and Remy snapped down with his powerful jaws. Suddenly Creed was on the defensive, fighting to get away with backbeats of his wings. Untouchable in the air, he was supremely vulnerable in close combat; one snap of those grizzly jaws could crush his fragile avian breastbone.
The hawks came swooping in to help their leader. Their smaller claws tore at his ears and eyes; their wings battered his head. Remy shook his head, trying to get them off. He tasted blood, but Creed broke free in a shower of feathers and was laboring skyward again, catching an updraft to soar out of the trees and circle in a wide arc.
Panting, Remy shook his head to clear his vision. That had almost worked, though. All Creed could manage were hit-and-run attacks; if Remy could just get hold of the bastard, it would be over.
A series of sharp alarm barks came from Saffron's direction, and she shifted, her larger human form bursting halfway out of the brush. "Remy!" she shouted, and winced as her hair caught and tangled on the bushes around her. "They're here!"
Shit. Creed's attacks had a secondary goal: to slow them down. And while Remy was caught up in trying to kill the eagle-shifting asshole, Creed had managed to delay them long enough for the rest of his clan to find them.
They came bursting out of the trees all around Remy and Saffron. The fastest were first: a mule deer stag with stubby antlers, a racing bobcat, a slim gray coyote. A mountain lion appeared over the top of the ridge above them, and a huge diamond-patterned python slithered up from below. Two red foxes leaped out of the undergrowth to snarl at Saffron, who remained naked and crouched in her human body, clearly unsure how to handle this. A black bear lumbered out of the woods and lowered its head to snarl.
