by Alice Gaines
She tipped back her head and let loose a throaty groan of possession. Mine. This male is mine.
He was heaven and sin, savagery and a long, slow fuck. As his hips moved, his hands massaged her ass, creating a wave motion -- in, out, up, down. A thorough plundering of her wetness. Each downward motion brought her hardened clit against his pelvis, working double magic, in the deepest part of her and against her most sensitive flesh.
“Don’t stop,” she whispered. “More. Please.”
“Hold tight, baby.” He quickened his movements until the pressure against her nub was constant, the pleasure nearly unbearable.
“I’m going to come,” she said. “Oh, God, now. I’m…” The words ended in a shriek as her pussy went wild in an orgasm that shook her to the roots of her hair. He kept moving the whole time the storm crashed over her. Inside, she grasped at him rhythmically as if the climax would never end.
Even through all that, she felt him tense and heard the roar building in his chest. He jerked upward a few times, so violently she had to clutch his shoulders with all her strength to hang on. At her very core, he released his essence inside her, suspending them both in bliss so profound she went limp with it. He settled her back on the railing just as she would have fallen. His arms still cradling her, she sagged against him and sighed.
“Perfect,” he murmured after a few moments. “Did you feel it?”
“Mmmm,” she answered. “How could I miss it?”
“Not just the orgasm,” he said. “We made a child.”
Her heart thundered in her chest as she sat, leaning into her mate’s big body. A child. The word hardly registered. How could she make a new member of the pack when she hardly understood her own place in the group?
* * *
“Did you think about what I said last night?” Gray asked.
Sitting in the Adirondack chair next to Cara’s, he didn’t turn to face her as he said it, but she could feel his attention focused on her like the beam of a magnifying glass, anyway. For some reason, the whole day he’d watched her all the while pretending not to. The scrutiny gave her an odd feeling in the pit of her stomach. Not at all welcomed but not at all unpleasant, either. Much like what he’d said to her the night before.
“We discussed a lot of things,” she answered.
“Anything more important than whether you conceived?” Still, he kept his face forward, his expression neutral.
“Would you like that?” Her voice came out so small, she could hardly hear it.
He finally turned and looked at her. “I can’t imagine anything better.”
“That figures.”
“You don’t want my offspring?”
“It doesn’t matter what I want,” she answered. “It’s going to happen eventually.”
“You could try to sound a little happy. I’m your mate, after all.”
“I’m sorry.” She put her hand on his arm and squeezed. “You deserve better.”
“Don’t you dare start that shit again,” he said.
She stared at him. “You swore. You never swear.”
“I don’t care. That I’m-not-good-enough crap sets me off.”
“It must.”
Before they could get into a full-blown argument, a soccer ball came careening toward them, headed straight for Gray’s head. He caught it before it hit. “Seems like the whole family’s out to get me.”
Joe’s oldest, Tommy, ran over to retrieve the ball, but Gray held it out of his reach. “Is this your weapon, young man?”
“It’s not a weapon,” Tommy answered. “You’re silly.”
Gray leaned over the young one. “You don’t call a big bad wolf silly.”
Tommy stuck out his chest. “I’m a wolf, too.”
“Oh, yeah?” Gray said.
“Yeah,” Tommy answered. “I’ll shift, and you’ll see.”
Cara did her best not to bruise Tommy’s considerable ego by laughing. The child thought he was invincible and stood up to every challenge, whether real or imagined. He’d face down a huge male like Gray if given the opportunity.
“Careful.” Gray chuckled. “Where I come from, even the smallest wolflings are bigger than you.”
“Are not,” Tommy answered.
“Tell us where you come from, Uncle Gray.” That from Ilse’s boy, Ricky, who held his sister, Sally, by the hand. Her thumb firmly in her mouth, Sally stared at her new uncle out of huge, blue eyes, so different from her brother’s brown ones.
“I come from a place very far away.” Gray gestured expansively into the distance. “Not over the first hill or the second one, but lots and lots of hills.”
Cara couldn’t tear her eyes away from her mate and the little audience he’d gathered around him. The children had adored him immediately, and only strict instructions from their parents had kept them from hanging around him every moment.
“What’s it called, that place where you live?” Ricky asked.
“Well, it’s called…” Gray glanced at Cara for help, but she just smiled back at him. He started this. He could finish it without her help.
“It’s called Grayland,” he said finally. “And all the wolves are gray.”
Ricky, the family skeptic, eyed his new uncle with some suspicion. “All of them?”
“It gets boring after a while,” Gray said. “That’s why I found your Aunt Cara.”
“Where was that, Aunt Cara?” Tommy asked.
She crossed her arms over her chest. “Under a cabbage leaf.”
Ricky snickered.
“You have to understand that cabbages are as big as houses in Grayland,” Gray added.
“They are?” Sally asked, now having lost interest in her thumb.
“Oh yes,” she answered. “Bigger than my cottage. I saw them myself.”
“You’ve never been to Grayland, Aunt Cara,” Ricky said.
“How do you know where I’ve been, squirt?” she answered.
“There you are, then,” Gray said.
Sally walked up to Gray and rested her hands on his knee. “Tell us more about Grayland.”
He scooped her up and put her in his lap. A few weeks ago, he’d been a collection of parts strewed across the workbench in her lab, and now, he was a nurturing wolf male, and a good one. Something inside her turned warm and gooey. It wouldn’t be so bad to have his child at all.
“Let’s see,” he said. “Where I come from, there are rivers of honey, but we have to leave most of that for the bears.”
“I’d fight the bears for it,” Tommy declared.
“The bears in Grayland are fearsome,” Gray answered. “Heck, even our deer have fangs. They don’t run away. They fight.”
Tommy huffed. “I’m not afraid of a dumb deer.”
“If they don’t get you, one of the birds might.” Gray spread his arms wide and flapped them over the children.
“I saw an eagle once,” Ricky volunteered.
“Our birds are bigger. They’re so big, we call them bonzo birds.”
Cara chuckled and then covered it with a cough.
“The bonzo birds are so big, they block out the sky,” he went on. “They have fangs, too.”
“Birds don’t have teeth,” Ricky said, but he didn’t sound so sure of himself any longer.
“Bonzo birds do. Long, pointy ones,” Gray answered.
“Bonzo bird get me?” Sally asked as she leaned into Gray’s chest.
He closed his arms around her. “No, honey. Bonzo birds don’t chase little girls, only little nasty boys who bother them.”
“I could kill a bonzo bird,” Tommy said.
“Of course, you could.” Gray ruffled the child’s brown hair. “See, Sally? Tommy will protect you.”
“Besides, there aren’t any bonzo birds around here,” Cara added.
“Your pack will always keep you safe, honey.” Gray kissed the top of Sally’s head. “Your grandma, your mom and dad, and all your aunts and uncles and cousins.”
�
�Doesn’t your pack miss you?” Sally asked.
Gray stared toward Cara over the little girl’s head. This time, she would help him if only she could think of an answer.
“Uncle Gray’s pack wants him to be happy with us,” Ilse said. She’d probably watched the whole display from a distance, and of course, she’d thought of exactly the right thing to say.
“Who wants a run before dinner?” Ilse said.
I-do’s went up all over the place.
“Good,” Ilse said. “We’re all going.”
“Even Grandma?” Tommy asked.
“She needs to run, too,” Ilse answered. “Come on. Everyone.”
The children all took off in the direction of the other adults. Ilse went to follow but then turned back to Cara and Gray. “Everyone,” she said.
* * *
Cara might not realize it, but she held her tail at a flirtatious angle as she ran. Gray deliberately fell behind, even though the pack traveled at a speed slow enough to accommodate the wolflings. Even on their first chase through the woods near her lab, he would have let her stay ahead of him so that he could enjoy the view of her rump as the powerful muscles of her wolven form bunched and extended. Then, his lust had put everything from his mind but catching her and mounting her. Now, after all the times they’d coupled, he could show more patience. Or could he?
Tommy ran at the head of the pack, next to his father, leaving no doubt which male would protect the clan into the next generation. The rest spread out behind, darting between the redwoods and kicking up the remains of fallen needles. The forest floor felt soft with the stuff, and it muted their steps, leaving nothing but the sounds of their heavy breathing to give witness to their passing. Cara belonged to a fortunate pack -- all of them strong and healthy with untouched forest of their own. You could say they were blessed, and now, he was, too.
The matriarch, Bess, caught up to him, signaling behind them with an incline of her head. He glanced back to find Sally struggling to keep up with her short legs. Her pink tongue hung from her mouth as she panted. When Bess stopped and headed back toward her granddaughter, he nodded that he understood. The youngest and the oldest would turn for home, and no doubt a wholesome, hot meal would await the rest of the clan at the compound.
In the moment he’d hesitated, the rest of them had gotten ahead, so he sprinted off after his mate.
Now, she hung behind the others, but not from exhaustion. Swishing her tail seductively, she sent him a clear message. She had a different sort of chase in mind. The knowledge went right to his gut, sending his imagination into overdrive. He hadn’t had much self-awareness the first time they’d mated as wolves. He’d been little more than a machine. Now, he could experience her as a living being. One who had tied himself to her for life or longer. One who loved her more than ought to be possible for a mortal creature.
As he watched her hindquarters, the fever built inside him. Her scent reached to him, pulling him along after her. The clever thing meant to lead him on a chase, obviously, as she sped ahead, launching herself over fallen logs. She leapt higher than she needed to, showing off her strength and grace, dazzling him with her beauty. Fine. Let her tantalize him. She’d pay a price for that when he caught her, and they’d both enjoy the consequences.
On and on they went. Faster now, until blood rushed in his ears. With each bound, the hunger grew stronger until it formed a chant in rhythm with his steps. Want, want, want, want.
He could overpower her if he wanted. He could launch himself on her and sink his teeth into the fur at the back of her neck while he slammed his cock into her. The waiting would make them wild for each other and the eventual rut more intense.
Just when he couldn’t endure another moment, another stride, without burying himself in her, she skirted around a tree into a large ring of redwoods. He plunged after her to find nothing but ferns that reached to his shoulders. Greenery everywhere, but no wolf and no sounds of her running away from the other side. She’d disappeared but somehow had left her scent behind. He breathed it in, and just smelling her almost made him come on the spot. She must be here. He hadn’t chased her all this way, needing her desperately the whole time, only to have her disappear. Not possible.
The ferns next to him shifted, and something wet and scratchy made a long pass over his aching member. He yelped at the shock and nearly lost his balance. Cara had crouched in the greenery around him, and now she was licking him all the way from his balls along his shaft.
Mount, his mind shrieked. Ass. Now.
As if she’d heard him, she rose and presented her hindquarters, lifting her tail out of his way. He climbed onto her, clutching her sides with his paws, and shoved his member into her wetness.
Born or built, he’d been created for this moment. He surged forward, retreated, and then filled her again. His hips kept moving, and he couldn’t have stopped if he wanted to. Her flanks shook as she held herself still for his penetration, and she tipped her head back to let out a cry of delight.
No more chasing. No more coyness or flirtation. This was sex at its most elemental. Cock. Pussy. Giving. Taking.
Shift!
He hadn’t thought that. She must have, and he heard it with a part of his mind she occupied. As her fur disappeared and her limbs grew longer and less muscular, his body mirrored hers, and they changed together. Now human, his hands held the soft skin of her hips and he moved in and out of her slick chamber. He could watch his huge human member, its crimson color signaling how close he’d come to orgasm, as it slid in and out of her wetness. An unbelievable sight. So erotic it burned itself into his mind. She strained backward to meet his thrusts, as eager as he was for the plunder. This magnificent woman wanted him as much as he wanted her.
Now, he could bend and run his hands all over her body. He reached around to fondle her breasts and stroke the nipples into tight peaks.
“Gray!” she shouted. “Oh, don’t stop. Fuck me.”
He moved his hands lower along her body, over her ribs to her belly. When his fingers found the curls that covered her sex, he probed for the lips and parted them. Her clit was stiff and swollen. Easy to find. When he rubbed it, she sucked in a breath, and her whole body trembled.
“God, yes,” she gasped. “I’m going to… oh, don’t stop… I’m going to…”
She shrieked as the orgasm claimed her. Her muscles gripped him, snapping the last shred of his control. He came with her as her sex continued convulsing around his. Hot lust shot from him in waves, and she took it all. They passed life between them. And love. And the promise that they’d never separate, not even in death.
When they’d finished and he had no strength to remain upright, they collapsed together against a blanket of crushed ferns. He did manage to roll them onto their sides and clutch her to him, spoon-fashion. His pulse still thundered in his ears, and from where his hand lay between her breasts his fingers detected the fluttering of her heart. His own heart felt as if it would shatter, and he took an unsteady breath. What he’d found was so precious, so irreplaceable, he’d die if he lost it. So, he’d have to make sure he kept her safe and happy and with him always.
She stretched. “I can’t tell if you’re a better lover as a wolf or a man.”
“We can keep trying both ways until you figure it out.”
“I think you’re right about something.”
He nibbled at her earlobe. “What would that be?”
She lay perfectly still for a moment. “I think I’m pregnant.”
“Cara.” He tugged at her shoulders, urging her to turn, until she faced him and he could stare down into her warm brown eyes. “Are you sure?”
“Not completely.” She bit her lip. “But, I feel… well… different. More complete.”
“Does it feel good?” He held his breath, waiting for her answer.
“Miraculous. Oh, Gray, I love you so much.”
His chest threatened to split open with joy, and maybe -- just maybe -- his vision swam. “
You’ve never said that to me before.”
Her eyes widened. “I must have.”
“Nope. I’ve been paying close attention.”
“I’m so stupid sometimes.”
“Never.” He kissed her. Softly, to savor the sweetness of her mouth. After all the passion they’d shared, the gentleness finally sealed the deal. She was his mate, his life. He’d never be parted from her again. Even in death, their souls would remain connected.
When he ended the kiss, lifting his face away from hers, she smiled up at him with such love in her eyes, he nearly did weep. Before he totally lost control of his emotions, she laughed and tugged something from his hair. A twig from the redwood above them, complete with one of the tiny cones that held the huge tree’s seeds.
“We’d better get back before the others come searching for us,” she said.
“And tell them the good news?”
“That I’m pregnant?” she asked.
“They’ll want to know.”
She pushed him aside and sat up. “Not yet.”
“When? You’ll start showing soon.”
“I don’t know.” Her shoulders knotted with tension. “Not now.”
“Cara, why?”
For several moments, she didn’t answer but only stared off into the forest. She finally sighed. “I still don’t feel… I’m not really… I don’t fit in.”
“Because you don’t have a special ability?”
“Well, I don’t,” she muttered.
“You’ve created life.” He draped an arm over her shoulder. “Inside you.”
“Any female can do that,” she answered.
“Only you could make my child,” he said.
