"But, Lyssa," Thorne said, his expression turning serious. "If your instinct... if either of our instincts become a problem, we have to come back right away. Do you understand?"
I nodded. "I understand."
I half expected Cyan to say no when I handed him back the hastily-dried cell phone and told him I wanted to hunt with Thorne, but whatever leniency I'd earned from enduring my overly-harsh punishment in the woods still seemed to be working in my favour. Cyan agreed, and I hurried off to pack supplies and bedrolls for two people. When Thorne was ready to go he shifted into his wolf and stood patiently while I buckled the custom-made straps of our knapsack around his chest.
"How come clothes work but bags don't?" I muttered. Thorne licked his muzzle and rowfed in my direction. I grinned and ran a hand through his chestnut fur, giving him a tickle between the ears as I gave the knapsack an experimental tug. "That feel good?"
He bobbed his head affirmatively, and I let my wolf rise to the surface and take control. My body lowered towards the ground, my arms taking on the same characteristics as my legs as my paws settled against the cool earth. The wind ruffled my fur, and a hundred new scents flooded in from all sides. I snuffled, savouring the freshness of the transformation, and bounded off into the woods with Thorne in tow.
We headed South at first, in the direction we were supposed to be going, but once we were nearing the outskirts of our territory we broke off and turned towards the city. It would take almost a full day to reach the suburbs at the edge of the forest. With any luck we could arrive there early tomorrow morning, spend a leisurely day doing whatever we wanted, and still have enough time to get back before we were too long overdue.
We stopped in the early afternoon to rest and drink from a bubbling stream. I splashed playfully through the water, enthralled by the glittering droplets as I tried to catch them with the tip of my nose. I got so much joy out of the simple things when I was a wolf. It was like having a warm blanket wrapped around my mind to keep away all the worries and stresses that bothered Lyssa the human. I didn't dwell on Cyan or my instinct or my feelings towards Thorne. I was on my way to see my sister, and that made this a good day.
The sun had even broken through the clouds to dapple the forest with a beautiful pattern of shadows and sunshafts. Thorne watched, looking confused and ever-so-slightly perplexed as I chased my water droplets. He was a very solemn wolf. I bounded up to him and flicked a spray of water his way with my tail, yapping merrily when I heard him sneeze. When I turned around he had his head cocked to the side, like an elder reprimanding a disobedient child. I splashed him again, and once he'd finished blowing water from his muzzle his lips drew back in a playful snarl. I dashed away from him down the bank, and was rewarded by the sound of his paws sploshing through the water after me. I made him chase me up and down the stream half a dozen times, filled with elation as I barked and panted in excitement. Occasionally Thorne's teeth would nip at my tail, and I'd dash forward in a panic until I was confident I'd gotten away again. It felt good to let everything go and let myself feel like a kid again. Goodness knows I'd needed it after the last few days. I made a mental note to remind Lyssa the human to let her wolf take care of things again the next time she was feeling down.
Once we'd played for long enough Thorne caught up to me easily and gave me a firm bat with his paw, letting me know play time was over. I was a little disappointed to realise he could've outpaced me at any time he wanted during the game, but I climbed out of the water and shook myself dry. Our little rest hadn't turned out to be very relaxing at all, but I still felt reinvigorated by the game in the stream, and I was ready to push on again.
We settled into a steadier pace, and by the time dusk began to fall I was starting to recognise some of the surrounding geography from my long walks in the forest as a kid. I could almost smell the familiar scent of home. Before long my night eyes were adapting to the dark, and Thorne called a halt. A full moon had risen in the cloudless sky. I shifted out of my wolf form and unbuckled the harness from his back. He took a moment to stretch, and I gave him a much-needed scratch across the shoulders where the straps of the pack had dug in.
"Sorry, I'll carry it on the way back if you like."
Thorne ruffed and reverted to his human form as well, sighing as he regained the freedom to perform his own scratchings. "Let's just hope you didn't soak our bedrolls in the stream back there."
"Oh, come on." I grinned. "You liked it too. Wolfie just wanted to play for a bit."
"I can't remember the last time I let my wolf play."
"No wonder he's such a grump." I stood up and opened our pack, searching for the flint and tinder.
"I don't think we should start a fire tonight," Thorne said.
I looked up, squinting in the darkness. "Why not?"
"Didn't you pick up the scent a few miles back? There were other werewolves around here recently."
"I didn't." I mentally kicked myself. I'd gotten so caught up in the excitement of seeing my sister that I hadn't even thought to keep my senses sharp.
"They smelled like they were from the Mine Pack."
My skin prickled. If there was one group of werewolves worth being paranoid about, it was the Mine Pack. Their scent usually carried a faint hint of coal dust from the old mine where they made their den. It was a scent we'd all been warned to watch out for.
"Do you think they're close?"
"I don't know." Thorne shook his head. "They might be long gone, but we'd better play it safe just in case."
I buckled the knapsack closed again and glanced around the spot we'd picked to make camp. Then my eyes drifted upwards to the canopy of trees. "Well, I know one place we'll be safe." I slung the knapsack over my shoulder and hopped up to grab one of the lower branches of a nearby oak, hefting myself upwards until I could swing a leg over the branch and straddle it. "C'mon butch, we'll find a nice cosy spot up here."
Thorne looked up at me uncertainly. "In a tree?"
"Sure. Like you said, better safe than sorry." I balanced my feet on the branch and straightened up, looking for a good place to secure our bedrolls amongst the branches.
"This is what you call safe?" Thorne said.
"Of course it is, come on up."
He paused. "How?"
I gave him an incredulous look. "Just climb! Haven't you ever climbed a tree before?"
"No."
I slid down to the branch again and braced myself against it, offering him my hand. "What did you spend your childhood doing?" I groaned as Thorne's weight strained against my shoulder until he found a handhold.
"Playing basketball. That's the sort of thing kids do in the city. You know, when they don't have a forest in their back yard."
"Urgh, you're terrible at being a boy," I said as the pair of us balanced on the branch and began to climb higher.
"You could do a better job of being a girly girl, too," he said.
I looked over at him and flushed, feeling a farm flutter in my belly as he grinned at me. "I guess. Come on, you go first so I can catch you if you fall."
We found a comfortable nook half way up the tree where a cluster of thick branches splayed out from the trunk, and carefully arranged our bedrolls in a spot where they weren't likely to fall. Thorne's was a couple of feet to my right, at an angle so that we were half-facing. He still looked nervous, and I kept having to reassure him that, even if he did roll over, the worst he was likely to suffer was a few bruises before the branches broke his fall.
I didn't tell him about the half dozen nights I'd spent sleeping in trees when I was a kid. I'd taken running away from home pretty seriously back then.
"Why did you come out here with me, Thorne?" I said after we'd snuggled into our bedrolls.
"I told you, I like you. And I can't think of anyone who deserves cheering up more after the last couple of days."
I looked down at my feet, feeling very warm in my cosy wrapping. "How much do you like me?"
"Lyssa... come on, you
know we can't do this."
"I just want to know," I said. "The other night, was it just your instinct? Or was there more to it than that?"
He paused. "No, it wasn't just my instinct. Maybe if things were different—maybe then we could be more than friends. But they aren't, so what's the point?"
"I just wanted to know," I said quietly. Thorne sighed and reached over, giving my hand a squeeze.
"We don't have to have a relationship like that to be close. I can help you control your instinct, but you're going to need to find a mate who can take care of it properly. That person can't ever be me."
"Who then? Cyan?" I felt Thorne's hand twitch. "He asked me to be his mate, you know."
Another long pause.
"Maybe you should say yes. He's the alpha, after all."
"Yeah, yeah. It's the chance of a lifetime. I knew that's what everyone would tell me." I pulled my hand away.
"What is it about him that bothers you so much? I know he's harsh, but there are alphas who're far worse. I'm not trying to defend him, but..." Thorne frowned. "It's like there's some gulf between you and Cyan that no one else can see."
"You mean besides the fact that he makes me sleep with him?" I grimaced, but Thorne remained patiently silent. We both knew there was more to it than that. I wanted to tell him, but it would mean admitting it to myself. It would mean breaking the illusion of the rebellious young girl I'd always shown to the rest of the pack.
But Thorne didn't judge. I liked to pretend there was some high-minded reason I hated Cyan—that it was all about his strict rules and harsh lessons—but I knew those were just part of life as a werewolf. We were wild, instinctive creatures. I couldn't judge him by the same standards I'd grown up with.
"He was my first," I said at last. "The night I was bitten, when my instinct started to take over, he was the one who found me. I'd never even kissed a boy before then."
"Never?"
I shook my head, suddenly wishing I still had a hand to hold on to. "I know he had to do it. I can barely even remember it happening. But it's just..." I swallowed. "I can't ever get those things back. My first kiss, my first lover. He made that choice for me, and it'll always be there, in the back of my mind."
Thorne nodded slowly.
"You probably think I'm awful," I said, sitting up and wrapping my arms around my knees. "Hating him all this time for something he had to do."
"No," he shook his head. "I think that's a pretty natural way to respond."
"I should be able to get over it, though. I should be able to grow up and move on." My voice was strained, bitter.
"Lyssa, sometimes things happen where there's no good outcome. It's not wrong to want to blame someone afterwards." He reached out his hand again, and I took it. "You don't have to be perfect. I wouldn't expect you to be, not after something like that. And Cyan shouldn't either. Maybe one day you'll be able to forgive him, but don't hate yourself for not trying to force it."
"Thank you." I smiled. "Just don't share it with the others, okay? I don't want them thinking I'm... you know."
"Whatever you think you are, I know you're not. You're a good person."
"You're just saying that because I've got you stuck up a tree."
"Yup." Thorne grinned. "You could push my off my branch at any moment. Come on, let's get some rest. We want to be up bright and early tomorrow."
I nodded, and snuggled back down into my bedroll. My hand stayed entwined with Thorne's in the space between us.
The warmth of his skin kept me awake, wondering. I wanted him to take me in his arms, hold me tight and reassure me, whispering in my ear until I fell asleep. I wanted so badly to be close to him and feel his body cradling mine. But every time I imagined it, I couldn't help wanting more. My instinct nuzzled at me deep inside, stirring thoughts of Thorne's mouth on my neck and his hardness pressing between my legs. If I would just let go of his hand I could stop thinking about it. But I only squeezed tighter.
I hadn't even managed to doze when the sound of crashing branches snapped me back to reality. My eyes flew open as I pictured Thorne tumbling out of the tree beside me. But Thorne was right where I'd left him. The sounds were farther away, somewhere below us on the forest floor. I sat up silently, scanning the moonlit surroundings for the source of the commotion. It was impossible to see everything through the thick branches, but our tree was on the edge of a small clearing, and through a gap in the foliage I could get good view of the open area. A hint of motion caught my eye, and a moment later a dark shape burst out of the undergrowth. It was a female werewolf, her distinctive russet fur and shining eyes setting her apart from any regular wild animal. A second wolf was hot on her heels, growling and snarling as he ripped his way through the bushes, fangs bared.
He was much larger than the female, his dark fur spattered with mud, paws tearing up clods of soil with each bounding step. He was almost on top of her already. Once she was out in the open he dug his powerful hind legs into the ground and leapt forward, knocking the female down and pinning her with a triumphant bark. Thorne sat up next to me, blinking in confusion as his eyes followed mine down into the clearing.
"Are they the ones you smelt earlier?" I whispered.
"I don't know. Maybe."
I watched anxiously as the female struggled, batting the larger wolf with her paws and managing to wiggle out from under him after nipping at his muzzle. The male roared in frustration, but his quarry had barely made it to her feet before he was on her again, biting down on the back of her neck and pinning her once more.
"Do you think they picked up our scent too?" I said as quietly as I could. I was afraid to make the slightest movement.
"I think they're a bit preoccupied to worry about us, but try and stay quiet. That male doesn't look like he'd enjoy being disturbed."
The pair struggled for a moment longer, but it was clear the female was exhausted. She was trapped and helpless, and finally went limp as the teeth tightened around her neck. The male released her, panting in exertion as he stood over his prize. He reverted to his human form, and the female quickly followed suit, still lying prone between his knees. The male was younger than I'd expected, naked from the waist up and dripping with perspiration as his chest heaved. A mane of shaggy black hair fell across his face, and his lips were still grinning with his wolf's wild snarl as he unbuckled his belt.
"I recognise him," Thorne whispered. "He's the Mine Pack alpha."
I nodded silently, transfixed by the scene playing out in the clearing below. An intense mix of fear and excitement was brimming inside me, and I could feel my instinct stirring as the dominant male straddled his mate. The red-haired girl rolled over on to her back, bare breasts exposed through the front of a plain smock that looked like it had been recently torn open. The alpha freed himself from his jeans and hefted his partner's legs up over his shoulders, holding her wrists against the ground as he entered her. The girl's screech of anguish pierced the night, but it was undercut with a note of desire. It was a noise I'd made many times during my nights with Cyan. Heat filled my belly as I watched the pair, the girl's pale skin shining in the moonlight as the powerful body of her mate rutted into her.
"Lyssa," I heard Thorne say, but his voice trailed off. I knew we were both thinking the same thing. We should look away, cover our ears, distract ourselves from our instincts until the couple below us had finished. But I was still in control. I wouldn't let the heat inside me take over. And I couldn't tear my eyes away from the ferociously passionate scene taking place.
The girl writhed and squirmed against the earth, her head thrown back and her mouth open in a perpetual gasp of ecstasy. Her long red hair was spread out in a pool beneath her, the pretty locks entangled with the carpet of dried leaves. The male thrust into her relentlessly, claiming her, dominating her. His powerful body heaved with exertion after the chase, but even though rivulets of sweat were coursing down his back he never broke his feverish pace for a second. His face was close to hers, looki
ng her in the eyes as he took her. The girl's pale body looked fragile and petite beneath the muscular beast bearing down on her. His snarls drowned out her gasps, hips plunging into his mate again and again until she was screeching. Every so often I saw her struggle, and the alpha would let her raise her wrists a few inches off the ground before slamming them back down again.
I shivered, imagining the wonderful feeling of helplessness she must be experiencing. It reminded me of how Thorne had held me down that night in the cave. He'd been utterly dominant, never letting me forget for a second that I was his. He'd been just like this male—just like an alpha. The girl clung on desperately as her partner dragged her into his lap. Her fingers were dirty from where she'd torn up handfuls of grass, and they left dark streaks across her alpha's chest as she caressed him. He lunged forward and bit her neck, moving his hungry lips down over her shoulder and breast as he drank in her taste. Her ankles were locked around his waist, her back arched as she moaned in wanton lust.
I knew exactly how she felt. Nothing made me feel more desirable than driving a male wild with passion, until he lost control and all but forced himself on me. That was how Thorne had made me feel, and even Cyan some nights. My instinct was rising fast as I watched the couple writhing and panting on the grass below us. I struggled with it, trying my best to quiet my wolf, but it was getting harder by the minute. I was captivated by the sight. All I wanted to do was give in and relish the carnal spectacle of the couple's lovemaking. It called me in like a moth to a flame, like the droplets of water in the stream had drawn my attention earlier. The simplest, basest pleasures had a special kind of allure to a werewolf.
The male's husky roar of climax filled my ears, and I saw his arms lock around the pale girl's body as he drew her in deep. The glistening muscles on his back tightened in the moonlight, and he nuzzled into his mate's neck fiercely. Her shrill gasp sent a shiver down my spine, and after a long, tight embrace, the couple finally parted. The male let his partner drop to the grass, and knelt down to whisper something in her ear. I saw her nod, eyes glazed with lust as her chest rose and fell rapidly. Her alpha dragged her up and the pair shifted back into their wolves, the female slinking back into the bushes with her head hung low. The male sniffed the air, scanning the clearing with predatory eyes. My breath caught in my throat as his gaze passed over our tree.
Wild Instincts - Complete Edition (Werewolf Erotic Romance) Page 6
