“Actually, it is. Come on.” He took her hand and pulled her out of the chair. Despite the day’s unseasonable warmth, the breeze on Lily’s skin was cool and refreshing as they left the cramped little office. She took a deep breath and the corners of her mouth curled up in a small, satisfied smile.
“Where are we going now?”
“I assume you would like to go home,” he said, and she easily picked up the note of sadness in his voice. “But I can take you anywhere you like.”
“Home is good,” she replied, and gave him the address. She was surprised by her own disappointment that he hadn’t offered to take her back to his house. Like it or not, she was starting to grow attached to him. How the hell was she supposed to explain that the one and only place she wanted to go was back to his bed, monster or not?
* * * * *
The drive was long and silent. More than once, Rowan caught her watching him, but said nothing. He wanted to quiz her; to find out what she was thinking and if he had any chance at all of winning her affections. He’d been tempted to lure her back to his home by way of his gallery, but thought better of it. Bribery didn’t seem to work on this one the way it would on so many others. She’d already trusted him enough to give him one more day, and he did not want to lose what little footing he still had. Nonetheless, he couldn’t help but wonder at the look of heartbreak in her eyes.
Amazingly, the problem of the old god had not once crossed his mind as he treated her to a day seeing the Savannah sights. As the haunting memory of Loki’s demands filtered through his mind, his mood darkened considerably. She would notice, too, because she was perceptive. Rowan had to clear his thoughts.
He focused on the scenery as they left the city and moved into a more suburban, almost rural, setting. He’d never been anywhere near her little community, even on his longer runs. He’d never had a reason. As they entered her neighborhood, he noticed that it was a beautiful area, and her small house backed up to the woods leading away from town. He pulled the car into her driveway, and a plan started to form in his mind. She definitely had a sense of adventure… He only hoped she was the outdoor type.
* * * * *
Lily’s mind was a whirl of thoughts as he helped her out of the car and gathered the purchases. The bags alone told how much money he’d spent on her, and the thought turned her stomach. She had nothing to give him in return.
Except…
The attraction was undeniable, but also inconvenient and more than a little frustrating. She’d never wanted someone the way she wanted him, but she’d also never been faced with the reality of someone not entirely human. Or willing to spend exorbitant amounts of money on her. That made her more uncomfortable than anything else.
She spent the entire ride home agonizing over how to get him into her home, while simultaneously questioning the whole idea of wanting him there in the first place. But when he took the decision from her by leading the way to her front door, she sighed with relief…only to be immediately flooded with worry that her home wouldn’t be up to his standards.
“This is cozy,” he commented of her small living room, again removing the fear. “It feels like coming home.”
What the hell?
“Uh, thanks,” Lily muttered, and squeezed past him to drop her purse on the coffee table. “Want a drink or something?”
“Thank you, but no. I was thinking perhaps we might take a walk together.” Lily brightened.
“I’d like that,” she replied, and started toward the back of the house. “Just let me change my shoes.”
Chapter Six
Closing her bedroom door, Lily fell against it in a heap. Conflicting emotions again nagged at her, leaving her torn between wanting him to follow and needing a moment to recover. The concept of him having a second nature was a distant and vague problem. She had a much more immediate problem; she needed to deal with her stuttering heart and butterfly-filled stomach. Why his being so close had such an effect on her was so strange, but she liked it. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d enjoyed a man’s company so much.
Hell, she couldn’t remember the last time she’d had a man’s company.
Lily slipped off her sandals and pulled her sneakers out from under the bed. Her shaking hands made it impossible to tie them, so she threw them to the floor and stalked into the bathroom to splash cool water on her face. Despite the repeated tries to calm herself, Lily couldn’t forget about the pressing problem. A large shape-shifter wandering around her house, waiting to go for a walk. She just hoped he had more on the agenda than a walk, and felt the flush of embarrassment for daring to hope. Lily thrust her feet into her shoes, wrangled her hands into submission, and laced them a little too tightly.
By the time she left the bedroom, Rowan had already found and disappeared into the yard. A thrill of anticipation shivered into the pit of her stomach at the sight of his broad shoulders blocking her back door. He was a massive man, and in his arms she felt small and safe.
The wounds on her hips ached in response, but she pushed the pain to the back of her mind and skipped down the hall toward him.
“Just promise you aren’t taking me out into the woods to kill me,” she joked, and squeezed past him to sprint across the yard. He chuckled, and the deep, throaty sound tied her insides in knots.
“I have no intention of harming you, Lily.” He closed the distance in three long strides, and clasped her tiny hand in his large one. Together they walked deep into the woods, conversation often idling in favor of taking in the beauty of their surroundings. Several times Lily heard Rowan breathe deeply through his nose, his chest expanding with each breath. More than once she had to stop herself from reaching out to touch him. She wanted to…badly. But she wouldn’t. She was still a little afraid of him, and of this thing growing between them.
“So how does this shifter thing work?” she asked as they crossed a small creek.
“What do you mean?”
“You’re over six hundred years old… How long will you live?”
She caught the ghost of a smile on his lips. “Until I find my mate.” She pulled him to a stop and turned to stare at him with one eyebrow raised.
“Really? Like magic or something? You just know you’ve found your mate and that allows you to stop living?”
“Not exactly,” he replied, his eyes picking up a sparkle that mocked her. She wanted to smack him. And kiss him. And smack him. But mostly, kiss him.
“Then do tell. I can’t exist another second without you telling me.” She snorted, and the laughter broke out of him. Rowan tugged her hand, pulling her hard against his chest, and wrapped his arms around her. Lily nearly suffocated against his chest and she hardly noticed for every nerve in her body firing at his sudden nearness.
“I will tell you anything you want to know,” he replied as he let her go. “Let us keep walking and I shall explain.”
“Okay…” she muttered, stepping away.
“I think better when I am on the move.”
“Understandable.” She swallowed hard, trying to push down the desire to crawl back up against him. “Tell me.”
Rowan took her hand again and tugged her forward. Lily glanced up at the sky, surprised by the clouds forming above the trees. The day had been so warm and so pleasant that she hated to see it ruined by an evening storm that could bring in more cold, dreary weather.
“My kind have quite a shelf-life,” he said after a moment’s thought.
“So I gathered,” she replied with a smirk. Rowan cut his eyes at her.
“I think the oldest unmated shifter recorded lived over four thousand years. She never mated because she enjoyed the feeling of immortality. The last time she was seen was not long after I was born. No one really knows if she died, or simply shifted to exist in animal form.”
“Okay,” Lily said. The whole thing sounded like some strange fairy tale. Though she’d seen him mid-shift, her mind still couldn’t process it as the truth.
“When we mate, part of wh
at makes us who we are is transferred to the other. I suppose you could call it magic… Many cultures do.”
“You know this sounds insane, right?”
“I know. But to fully understand me, you need to know this.” Fighting the urge to laugh, Lily motioned with her hand for him to continue. “Mating, for my kind, is more than just sex. More than a simple commitment. There is what I suppose you would call a ritual.” He fixed her with a hard gaze. “Not to be taken lightly by either.”
“I understand,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper from the intensity of his gaze.
“When I mate, part of my soul will transfer to my woman, thereby extending her life and allowing mine to end.” She stared at him, her mind blank, yet teeming with this new information. The only way to reconcile it was to listen as if he were telling her fiction. If and when the time came, she would face reality. But not here, out in the woods alone with him. “When my mate passes to the next life, I will follow.”
“Wow.”
“What?”
“It’s so romantically tragic,” she said, lost for anything else to fill the void. Rowan’s hard stare softened, and a lopsided smile took over one side of his face.
“It is. But after almost six hundred and fifty years in this life, it would be a welcome tragedy.”
“Are you saying you want to die?”
“Not at all,” he corrected, squeezing her hand for emphasis, “but the ability to lead a quasi-normal life is intriguing.” He tugged her forward again, pulling her deeper into the woods. In the distance, the sound of rushing water blotted out the quiet of the forest. Lily knew there were falls in the woods, but she’d never been so far out before. But even that wasn’t enough to distract her from the thousand questions bubbling up in her mind.
“When you mate, do you still shift?”
Rowan smiled at her in the waning light. “We do. Of course, the excitement of a new relationship often triggers the shift, and a new mating can be dangerous for both parties involved.”
Lily stumbled, but whether from the shock of the statement or the rotted log under her feet, she didn’t know. Rowan’s arms were around her, lifting her from her feet before she even realized she was falling. He’d told her earlier that his shift was triggered by sleeping with her… Did that mean something? Was she meant to be his mate? Her insides did a summersault.
“Are you well?” he asked, steadying her.
“I’m fine…” she lied. She was as far from fine as a person could get without being in a padded room.
“You do not look fine.”
“I’m all right, I promise.”
“I don’t believe you.” Lily tried to pull back and stand on her own, but his arms were firm and unmoving around her. One big hand brushed across her cheek and neck to rest under her hair. Lily’s head fell back and she looked up at his sparkling blue eyes, again feeling that pang of jealousy at the thick eyelashes surrounding them. “If you were all right you wouldn’t be shaking the way you are.”
She was shaking, but not from fear. Anticipation overrode every other emotion, and she leaned toward him, seeking his mouth. Rowan bent his head, just out of her reach, and smiled. He brushed his lips across hers softly, and Lily sighed with relief. He pulled her tighter against him, lifting her to her toes, and slanted his mouth across hers, drawing her breath into him as his tongue dipped and twined against hers.
Just as fast, he backed away, holding her at arm’s length. “How well do you know these woods?” he asked with lunatic glee as the light in the trees took on Rowan and the pink tones of an evening storm. Lily froze, the reality of her situation rushing into her mind.
“Oh, my God,” she gasped, pulling away from him and backing away. “You did bring me out here to kill me!”
“No,” Rowan howled, panic crawling into his features, “I simply asked is all.”
Lily wasn’t convinced, even when her back hit a tree. She hesitated. “Pretty well…” she said, trailing off into a pause.
“Could you find your way back on your own?”
“Yes…” she drew the word out over a whole breath. He smiled, but the humor was gone. His handsome face looked feral. She didn’t like it at all.
“Good,” he said. “I want to play a game.”
“Are you insane?” she shrieked, stumbling back over the tree’s roots to hide behind it. Not that it would protect her should he decide to attack.
“Perhaps.” Rowan reached for his collar, one by one tugging the buttons loose. Lily’s mouth watered at the sight of his tattoo-streaked chest coming into view. “Before you and I can make any decisions about what this relationship is or is not, you need to see the truth.” So he was planning on mating with her. His shirt fluttered to the ground, and Lily had a very hard time concentrating on his words. All she wanted was to trace the lines of ink with her tongue. “You need to see me for who and what I am.” His shoes came off into his hands and thumped to the ground, leaving his feet bare. Even his toes elicited a reaction from her aching body. When he reached for his belt, Lily bit her knuckles and pressed her face against the cool wood of the tree to stifle a moan. Rowan smiled. “And then you and I will play a little game of hide and seek.”
One by one he popped the buttons on the fly of his jeans. Lily’s mouth went dry in anticipation of what was hiding beneath. The game she could handle so long as she got to look at—and eventually touch—that glorious body.
“What…what are the stakes?” she asked in a cracked voice.
“You get back to your house first, and I leave you alone.”
“And if you catch me?”
“Then I have you.” Her stomach did a flip and every nerve in her body sang with excitement. She’d gladly throw the competition for another tumble with him. “There is a catch…” he trailed off, and stepped out of his jeans. Tattoos ran over his hips and curled down his thighs and calves, drawing her gaze to the apex of his thighs where he displayed a proud erection Anything, she thought, to have him again. “You must witness my change.”
Wait, what?
Dread flooded her chest. All sense of desire vanished as she stared at him. This game didn’t seem like so much fun anymore. When it was in the past, she could handle his second nature…but to face it, to be hunted by it, was more than she could stand.
“Do not fear me, Lily,” he said as the air around him began to shimmer. “I swear you are safe with me.” His voice took on a second timbre, as if passing through two sets of vocal chords. “I will never hurt you.” She watched in horror as his fingers elongated and his fingernails split the skin, warping into the talons she’d seen earlier. His face shifted, the muscle and bone beneath his skin twisting and pulling and stretching. Within seconds, the change was complete. Standing before her was a large, stocky wolf, covered with a thick, silver coat with black marks twisting through it. Other than the tattoo-like patterns, only the intelligent blue-and-gold eyes remained of the man she knew.
Lily bit back a scream and turned to run. A laughing bark followed her into the trees, clenching her heart in a fist of terror. She ran like the wind, leaping over downed trees and dodging low branches in her race to get back to her house. Her ears searched for footfalls behind her, but heard none. The smell of rain hung heavy in the air, and humidity crowded her lungs, making it hard to breathe. She dragged in a deep breath and turned to the left, cutting towards what should be her nearest neighbor’s yard. If he were following, it would be too obvious to go straight home, and as the monster he was he would overtake her without a problem.
Her breath came in harsh, heavy gasps and despite the demands of her mind to run faster, she found herself slowing, her goal growing more and more distant. Her legs grew weak and rubbery, and every sound echoed as her fear-stricken mind told her he was right behind her.
She should have been back to the house by now. Had she turned the wrong way? Was she so distracted by his presence that she didn’t realize how far out he’d taken her? Panic rose with each
beat of her heart, with each sluggish footstep. What felt like a hand reached out for her ankle, stalling her progress forward.
Lily gasped and collapsed to the forest floor. She knew he was toying with her, as any predator was wont to do with its prey. It was dark now, and the moon was only visible in slivers between the clouds and the cracks in the canopy. In the distance, lightning brightened the backs of the clouds. He should have found her long ago. Her legs were too tired to carry her, her body too fatigued from the night before. Still, she shoved herself up and trudged on. Only, nothing was familiar now. It could have been the exhaustion, but Lily knew better. She knew she’d gotten herself lost in the woods.
With a monster.
She shoved away from a tree and sprinted forward. Her second wind hit. The endorphins kicked in and she ran with renewed vigor back the way she came with the single intention of getting home and locking the doors. She turned when she thought she recognized something, and within moments, house lights could be seen winking between the trees. The lightning was growing closer, and followed by small, angry rumbles of thunder. Nearby, a wolf howled, the sound like a hunter’s cry to her tired mind, and that was the point when Lily knew she wasn’t going to make it home.
Terror-stricken, she pushed herself to the absolute limit. Her body ached, her legs like rubber encased in skin, and her head pounding with the exertion. The brightly burning porch lights beckoned to her, calling her forward into their safely welcoming glow, but her feet tangled in the underbrush and Lily tumbled to the ground. The dust of decomposed brush fluttered up around her face as she went down, gathering in her weary lungs and causing a series of hard, painful sneezes. She covered her face with her hands and tried to stop them, but the expulsion of dust from her body was adamant.
Lily tried to push up from the ground but her arms refused to work. Even if they had, she doubted her aching legs would support her weight, even to break the tree-line and find her back porch. It was close…close enough that she could see the neighborhood, see her safety. But her body revolted, refusing to give in and let her push like she had before. Her energy spent, she could do little more than lie in the dirt and wait to either recover or be caught.
Loki's Game Page 6
