by Skye Jones
He ran his thumb down my crevice before gently pushing inside me. Without any warning, I shattered. I clenched around his thick digit as a powerful orgasm raced over me. He licked me through it, placing gentle kisses on me as I shook with small aftershocks. My limbs turned to jelly, and he caught me as I sagged onto him.
I’d never experienced anything like it. The feeling of being so turned on, but also utterly safe and at ease with a man was new and intense. Instead of slaking my desire, my powerful orgasm only fanned the flames higher. The removal of his thumb caused a need for him inside me so fierce it should have freaked me out. Should have, but didn’t, because I brushed all my worries aside and focused on sensation and want and need.
“I’ve got to be in you. I need you so badly.” Louis picked me up in his arms as if I weighed nothing and carried me out of the kitchen.
Chapter Eight
We headed down a light and airy hallway, past a couple of closed doors, to an open one at the end. We entered the room, and I giggled as he dropped me onto the massive bed dominating the space.
I slept on a hard, single bed in my flat, and this huge, soft extravagance, covered in crisp, white cotton sheets, almost made me weep with happiness. My smile at the luxury fell when he crawled up the bed, over my body. He regarded me with an intensity I loved. He kissed me, and I tasted the echo of myself on him.
My core throbbed with remembered pleasure from my orgasm of minutes ago, and I wanted him in me before the sensation subsided. I reached between us and wrapped my fingers around him. I stroked him and he groaned. It gave me a surge of satisfaction to please him this way.
“Do you have condoms?”
He shook his head. “We don’t use them. Our females can only get pregnant two to three times a year, when in their heightened time, and we don’t suffer diseases.”
Brooke had told me shifters didn’t get diseases, and I was on the pill. Should I throw caution to one side for once in my life? I rubbed the precome leaking out of his engorged head over his shaft, and Louis growled low in this throat. Any other time and I’d have dragged it out. Played with him for a while and relished the feel of him in my hand. Watched his reactions as I worked him. Lust overrode any chance of dragging this out, though. I widened my legs and guided him to my entrance. His thick tip touched me and he hitched in a breath, pupils expanding.
“Izzy. Are you sure?”
“Please,” I said.
He pulled my leg up over him so my ankle rested on his back, by his hip. His other hand he used to grip my neck as he bent his head to kiss me. Never taking his mouth from mine, he pushed his thick length into me. Our mouths continued in a heated, damp kiss as he filled me to the hilt.
The sensation of having someone so large was utterly new. His cock stroked my internal walls and built my desire for more. He hit new nerve endings, and the first few thrusts were an exquisite mix of pain and pleasure.
I sensed him being careful with me. Controlling himself, when I didn’t want him to. “Don’t hold back,” I said.
Louis grunted and nipped at my neck, dragging a moan from me as his teeth scraped my flesh. His fingers twisted in my hair and pulled until my neck arched. It was dominant but careful. It didn’t hurt me, but it told me who was in charge here.
“My wolf rides me hard. We want you so bad.”
“You have me. I want you in return, all of you.”
At my words, he moved with purpose. His hips thrust into me in powerful movements, and I greedily arched up to meet him. All the skin on my body tingled and shivered as I became nothing more than a live wire of lust. I trembled at the overload of sensation as he kissed me hard.
Louis tore his mouth from mine and dropped his lips to my neck. He nibbled again at the skin there, licking, nipping, and causing me to writhe under him. Our movements became almost frantic, and I snaked my arms around his back to pull him into me even harder.
Louis murmured against my neck. “So perfect, so beautiful. Mine. You’re made to be mine.”
His possessive words sent a thrill coursing through me. I did feel made to be his. We were like two clay figures melted down and rebuilt as one beautiful, moving sculpture.
A sudden, sharp bite at my neck made me cry out in surprise and pleasure. The moment Louis bit down against the tender skin on the side of my throat, I started to come. It eclipsed me. Tore me down to my elemental parts as wave after wave of pleasure racked my body.
Louis swore and stilled inside me. I felt him swell as his hot seed erupted. He grunted his pleasure into the crook of my neck.
When it ended and our breathing returned to something approaching normal, Louis rolled off me and onto his side. He pulled me into him, one thick arm wrapped around my waist, holding me tight.
My body thrummed with leftover pleasure, my insides liquid and warm.
“I want you to stay here for a while.” Louis splayed a large hand over my belly.
I froze at his words. I needed to get home—for work, if nothing else. Each time I thought of my damp flat, my crappy job, and facing my friends, I died a little inside. The truth of the matter was I felt more alive in this moment, in this man’s arms, than I had in years. Leave I must, however. Any other course of action equaled madness. Maybe a few more days. To rest up. Heal my wounds. Then I thought of my friends. The worry they must be going through. As far as they were concerned, both Gregg and I had disappeared. Which brought me to another problem. Without a body, I possibly faced a whole ton of trouble regarding Gregg going missing.
“I think I have to go back,” I said.
Louis exhaled heavily, but I felt him nod against my skin.
“Part of me, a big part, if I’m honest, doesn’t want to. But there are questions to answer. My friends will be worried sick. Even my dad will be freaking out at this point. I’m scared, though.”
“What of?” Louis tightened his hold on me and I relished it.
“I know there’s no body left…with Gregg.” I tried to repress the shudder running through me at the idea. “I went missing when he did, though, in the same woods. The police are bound to look at me.”
“We can fix this problem for you.”
“How?”
“The pack has some pretty big connections, people who are like us, who have other…powers. They can help.”
Okay, I so didn’t want to know what those powers were, but help sounded good. “Do I have to agree to stay to get help?”
“No.” Louis’s warmth left my body and I turned over to look at him.
The hurt in his eyes hit me in the gut.
“You’re mine now, Iz. There’ll be no one else for me. How I felt about you when I first tracked your scent to the clearing in the woods—it’s only built as I’ve grown to know you these last few days. You are so brave. You may not see it, but you are. You’re also kind.” He smiled. “I’ve seen you interact with my people. You’re gentle and attentive. When one of our elders came into the hospital with a burn, you sat talking to her for hours even though you were exhausted.”
“So…you were watching me as well as guarding me.”
He flushed a little. “Perhaps, yes.” He grinned, full on and boyish. It stole my breath. “I can’t not watch you when you’re around. You’re my addiction.”
Wow. Those were intense words.
“The feelings I’d developed for you before we made love, they were nothing as to now. When my kind finds someone they bond with, it can be intense. We mate. For life.”
I’d learned as much from Brooke. She’d explained how shifters relied on things such as scent to help them find their mates. Once compatible pairs found one another, they began to bond. If they mated, then their bond became set for life. I sat bolt upright in the bed.
“Wait a minute. Have we mated? I mean, Brooke said it might not happen with us because you are not an alpha. Also, they don’t know much about what I supposedly am, this empathine thing. She said we might not bond in the same way she and Drew have. I know we’ve
had sex, but surely mating means something more. Like a human marriage or something?”
He hitched one broad shoulder and blew out a breath. “All I know is, for me? This is it. For you, I’m not sure what will occur. If you do experience the burning and want to leave, the medicine woman can hopefully help. If you want to stay, once you drink my blood at our bonding ceremony, the burning ought to stop.”
“Blood?” I tried not to gag.
Louis merely nodded and carried on. “The ceremony seals the bond. But this…what we did now…makes the bond. At least for me.”
My mind raced. “Are you telling me we are mated as far as you are concerned?”
“Yes. There will be no other.” He shrugged. “I accept this.”
Sharp sadness washed over me. Louis sighed and his face hardened.
“Don’t pity me, Izzy.” I loved how he used Iz or Izzy, as if we’d known one another a long time. “I chose this knowing how it most likely ends for me. I lived my life alone before you came. I will be the same when you leave.”
“Will you miss me?”
“Miss? No. That word doesn’t cover what I’ll feel. Yearn for? Crave? Yes. Very much. But, I’ll survive it. I’ve survived a lot. I have a good life here. I am needed by the pack. Life will go on.”
I wanted to ask him what else he’d survived, but as I worked up the courage, he pulled me back under the covers and whispered in my ear. “I’ll be okay. You have to follow your heart.”
There came the problem. Following my heart would mean staying, but following my head and common sense meant going home. This interlude represented a fantastical moment in time, nothing more. No matter how much I wanted on some level to stay, I’d never leave my friends and family to spend their lives wondering if I were dead or alive.
Loud shouts from outside rang out. Louis tilted his head, listening. A high-pitched scream made me jump out of my skin.
“Fuck. I have to go, sounds like a fight. I think it’s some of our adolescents. I won’t be long.”
He jumped out of bed and threw his clothes on haphazardly. I settled back to wait. As the minutes dragged by, I started to worry. After a long time—it seemed hours but I didn’t have a watch or phone—I decided to get dressed and go see what had happened.
I peeked out of the door and, not spying anyone about, shot out and closed it behind me. I didn’t want the whole compound seeing what I’d been up to. Remembering my way back to the medical center proved easy, and I found myself back in my room ten minutes later. No one seemed to be around, so I took out the book Brooke lent me and tried to read.
Ten minutes or so later, a knock came at my door, and Brooke poked her head around the corner.
“Hey.” I smiled at her as she came and sat on the edge of my bed. “Is everything okay?”
“It is now. A nasty fight broke out between a few of the young males. They tend to get riled up when they start going through adolescence, and violence can be a bit of an issue. Louis and Drew sorted it, but one of the boys got injured and they’ve been with him in the medical center. He’s only a few rooms away. I’m sure he’ll pop in soon.” She smiled.
Should I tell her what had happened between us? First, I wanted to know something.
“Can I ask you a question?” I hoped Brooke didn’t mind my asking.
“Sure.” She gave a small nod.
“Does Louis have any family? He always seems so…apart. He mentioned something about some bad stuff happening to him, but he didn’t go into any details.”
“Louis has cousins here in the pack. He came here with his mother from Sweden when his father died. His sister came too. Sadly, his mother passed not long after they arrived here. He and his sister became close.” She faltered and raised a shaky hand to her face.
“The male who took me, the rogue, he also took Louis’s sister. When the guys went back to bring him in, they found a doll belonging to her and some other things. She’d been missing for months, and Louis killed Glynn there and then. But killing the rogue who took her won’t bring his sister back. So he does have family here, but no one close. Not anymore.”
My heart contracted with sorrow for my scarred, brave man. My man? What the hell? I needed to stop thinking of him this way. Clearly, my emotions needed a Post-it note from the rational side of my brain ASAP.
“I’m scared I’ll be in a lot of trouble when I go home.” I changed the subject to more practical matters. “Louis says you guys have people who can make sure I’m not, but I don’t see how.”
“You’ll have no memory, and so literally won’t be able to tell the police anything useful. Some of our pack, and others we know, they have specific skills to do with forensics. It’s another way we keep our secret so closely guarded. The police will find a crime scene, and it will point to your innocence. It will also point to what Gregg did. Once we give them a trail to follow and point the finger at Gregg, it’ll only be a matter of time until they uncover his crimes. You can’t be the first. They won’t find his body so will assume he’s missing or on the run.”
She looked down at her hands. “The thing is…if you are going to leave, you need to do it soon. You can’t be gone for weeks. It won’t be plausible. A few days missing with a head injury and amnesia should be something they’ll buy. Weeks? Not so much.
“We have a friend of the pack, an old fellow by the name of Simms. His family has known about our existence for centuries. He’s kind of a watcher-over of us, in a sense. He lives in a cabin not far from here and is going to be the one to call the police. He’ll say he found you wandering around and took you to his cabin. It needs to be soon. The police have already been here looking for you and Gregg, and we can’t risk the scrutiny. Even if you decided to stay, you’ll probably still have to leave for a period to sort things out with the authorities and your family.”
I sighed and nodded. Part of me wanted to see my friends, but if I were honest, it faded in comparison to the part of me wanting to stay here and see more of Louis. If only it weren’t so all-or-nothing. Staying wouldn’t be the easy solution. Louis wanted it all with me. No new relationship thrived under the weight of so much expectation.
“I’ll go see our medicine woman, tell her to get ready to help you with the burning. As soon as you try to leave, you’ll know if it’s going to happen to you.”
Two hours later, and I found myself in the medical center’s main room with an awful flu-like temperature and the strangest, aching thirst.
I’d tried to leave. After an hour of crying, I’d pulled my big girl pants on and got myself ready. I told Brooke I wanted to go without saying goodbye to Louis. Prolonging the agony seemed a lot worse than a hasty exit. For him and for me. I didn’t want to put him through having to be stoic and brave. I’d written him a letter and had posted it through his front door. It hopefully explained how I needed to leave to clear things up, and how I couldn’t bring myself to commit to a life with people I’d only just met. No matter how strongly I felt for him. And I’d told him my feelings were pretty overwhelming. I also invited him to maybe come see me in the city and get to know me on my own turf. Whether or not he did, well… I wouldn’t know the difference if he didn’t, and I hoped if he did, that somehow I’d recognize him. Even if I didn’t recognize him, I counted on the bond between us still being there and my attraction for him kindling all over again. He’d maybe be able to explain and bring me here if things went well between us. It gave us a chance, and at least I wasn’t just walking out.
Brooke and Drew had driven me out of the gates of the compound and down the dirt track in Drew’s truck. We hadn’t traveled more than a mile when I began to feel awful: achy, sick and so thirsty. Drew attributed it to the burning for sure and turned us back around.
Their medicine woman bustled into the room, a diminutive lady called Marissa. She carried what looked like one of those old-fashioned doctor’s bags seen on period dramas. As she sat by my bed, Marissa gave me a brief smile. “I’ll give you the tinctures and you
’ll grow sleepy. The first is a mix of many herbs, which we think stops the burning. Old texts of ours swear by it, and Brooke thinks there’s enough science to the ingredients for it to be plausible. The second is more…mysterious.” She laughed. “It is herbalism, mixed with some good old-fashioned Wiccan knowledge. You’ll most likely feel like you have the worst hangover, and you won’t remember anything of the last few days, which, from what I hear, is probably a blessing.”
Not remembering what Gregg did may be considered a blessing, but as a psychologist, I understood the heavy burden of repressed memories. The worry over what may have occurred could sometimes prove worse than solid memories of the event for survivors. If I wanted to get home, however, I had little choice but to take their tinctures and forget all about this place and Louis. At least until he maybe came for me.
She placed two small, plastic glasses by my bedside table and patted my arm. “Drink up.”
The moment my fingers touched the first glass, the door to the room burst open and Louis stormed in.
He looked to Marissa. “Leave us, please.”
She pursed her lips but sighed and nodded.
Once she’d closed the door, Louis whirled on me. “You were going to fucking leave without saying goodbye.”
I winced at his language. He’d always been so chivalrous with me. Now he shouted, coarse and angry.
“Don’t be angry. It’s easier this way.”
“Easy for whom?”
He had me there. “Me. You, too, I hope. If I have to go, it seems better to do it quickly. Like ripping off a Band-Aid.”
“I can’t believe you were simply going to leave without seeing me and letting me know.” His hands balled into fists at his side. “Maybe I don’t know you like I thought. A kind person, a decent person, doesn’t do this.”
He paced the room for long moments.
“I tried to explain. I wrote you a note,” I told him.
