by A. C. Arthur
X cleared his throat. “I’ll camp out here to keep watch,” he said.
Rome nodded. “You. Go to the north side and rest. You’re no good tomorrow if you’re tired and cranky and ready to kick ass instead of think.”
“I’m not a toddler,” Nick said with a scowl, then wished he’d simply kept his mouth shut because that response sounded like he was exactly that.
“Just do it and stop bitching.” Rome was already turning away with Kalina, fully prepared to ignore any more of Nick’s protests.
But Nick wasn’t going to protest.
His parents, Henrique and Sofia Delgado, a Topètenian and the missionary born in Panama he’d fallen in love with, had built a home in a section of the Gungi called North Side. Even though Nick did not live in the Gungi, his father had worked closely with the Elders before his death, and Nick was a commanding officer with the stateside shifters. This meant their home was of royal status and was kept for use by descendants of the Delgado clan only. The dwelling sat with its back against vines and fig-lattice-covered trees. It was a peaceful locale—which worked out for Nick, who intended to get some rest.
Because come hell or high water he was finding Ary tomorrow. If he didn’t there was going to be hell to pay.
Chapter 4
Nick never dreamed. He never spent time wondering about the “what ifs” or “has beens.” That was useless and a waste of time. He was a busy man and didn’t take kindly to wasting his time for any reason.
So as he lay beneath the netting that covered a clean mattress on evergreen logs, he welcomed sleep but cursed the vivid images that tagged along under the pretense of slumber …
She was close, her scent undeniable.
Soft, innocent, elusive, enticing.
Nick sat straight up, his eyes instantly focused past the thin layer of mesh surrounding his large platform bed. It was late night in the forest, sounds of its inhabitants echoing through the air. Crickets, leafhoppers, and cicadas were singing an evening lullaby.
His bed was in the center of the second room of the bungalow owned by his parents. After years living in the States they’d returned here, to the forest, to their home. Nick was nineteen now and had left the forest when he was four. His younger sister, Caprise, was with them, experiencing her first time in the Gungi. Henrique and Sofia Delgado understood the importance of knowing where one came from and embracing that heritage. They also knew that in the coming years Caprise’s body would change; the acordado would begin, and she needed to learn as much as she could early on from the other females in the village. Caprise was anything but happy about the trip, but Nick attributed that more to the fact that she’d left some young boy back in Washington, DC, pining for her than her actual distaste for the shifters and the forest. Caprise was a pretty girl, with a cheerful personality and a body that would most likely have Nick fighting off every male within feet of her. She was a Topètenia Shadow Shifter, just like Nick and his parents. And they had come back here to usher her into her destiny. But there was another destiny to be fulfilled on this night.
Outside, the female moved slowly, stalking him as she would her prey. When he’d lain down in the bed, he knew she was approaching from the patch of trees that separated the Topètenia from the Gungi border. She lived there in a series of huts connected to form their main house and the tribe’s healing center. The center skirted the perimeter of the Gungi. She lived there with her parents. Nick knew because he’d seen her with them at the santa casa and followed her home. Their hut was a distance away from the other tribe members because her father, Davi Serino, was a curandero. He and his wife, Sheena, provided all the medical care in the village. Aryiola was their only child.
With stealthy movements, Nick pushed back the netting and let his feet soundlessly hit the floor. She was nearing the door now, the scent of her growing need sifting through the windows as a tailwind to the evening breeze. Naked and fully aroused himself, Nick made his way across the room and into the large opening toward the back of their bungalow. His parents and Caprise were asleep, their rooms facing the front of the unit. The interior was dark but he didn’t need light to guide him. He came to a stop at the back door, where he stood perfectly still, his body tense and waiting, knowing that she was just on the other side.
Her cat appeared seconds after he eased the door open; entrancing eyes, the color of fading sunlight, appeared luminescent against the dark forest backdrop. She’d awakened early, her body assuming the graceful curves of a young female jaguar sooner than most female shifters, which was most likely due to her healing abilities.
“You shouldn’t be here,” he whispered.
She grunted, tossing her head around and to the side. Stepping from the cover of trees, her tail swished as she turned and walked slowly away.
It was an invitation, one Nick knew he should ignore. Not ignore, but decline, respectfully. Curanderos were like a quiet royalty to the Topètenia. They were needed like water and supplies to keep the race alive. For that reason it was forbidden for them to marry outside their race—meaning they were not to mate with any shifter other than a curandero. Their life was dedicated to the tribes’ welfare and nothing else.
Yet Nick had felt drawn to Ary since the moment he’d set foot in the forest. She was three years younger than him. A more beautiful shifter he’d never seen. They flirted with each other every time she came into the village and whenever he happened to be near the medical center—which was frequently since he knew she was there. He wanted her, there was no doubt about that. But he knew better. Or he should have.
Still, here he was, now shifted into his cat and following her into the forest. She was leading him away from the village, along the river’s edge. When she stopped it was close to a waterfall, a scene that made the forest look like an exotic vacation destination instead of the dangerous lair that it was. Her cat moved close to a rock, backed up, and stood still, shifting until it was her five-foot-five-inch, honey-toned naked body he saw.
Inside his cat grunted, its heart rate picking up the moment a breeze caught her calor. It was a different scent, sort of a signature that only her companheiro would recognize. Other males might scent that she was in heat, needy, vulnerable. His cat scented her need, her desire, to mate only with him.
As he shifted Nick recognized the implications, knew what each inhale and exhale they both took meant. Stepping toward her, his human heart thumped as the next steps would bind them inextricably. She would be his and he would be hers, for all time. And though she was only sixteen, though his lineage put him closer to the Elders and the Assembly and hers made her a permanent fixture in the Gungi community, though there would no doubt be others surely against what they were about to do, Nick could barely find the strength to care.
“Do you know what you’re doing, Aryiola?” he asked, his voice a low rumble against the crashing sound of the water.
She took a step closer to him, her long brown hair ruffling only slightly in the wind. When she looked up at him, her eyes grew brighter, hungrier, and his body hummed with desire.
“I am making the first move, as the Americans would say.”
Her voice was refreshing compared with the Americans he’d been used to over the years. She had the accent of their native Portuguese language even though all Shadows were required to learn proper English. It was soft and husky with need, still a bit young, but definitely coming of age. He wanted to hear her speak again and again so that the sound would never be forgotten.
“If we do this, we can never go back to what we were. It’s dangerous,” he warned, but his hands were already moving. His arm reached out until his fingers cupped her face.
Ary leaned into his touch, turned slightly so that her lips brushed his palms, and whispered, “Then tell me to go.”
Those words would not form on his lips. He could not send her away, could not deny what he’d been feeling for weeks now, what was obviously destined between them.
Nick grabbed her hand, pulling
her behind him as they moved. If anyone happened near this bank they would be seen, their interlude over well before it had a chance to begin. They entered the water, its coolness sluicing over Nick’s heated body. Ary was right behind him when he turned, tugging her even closer. Instantly her legs wrapped around his waist and Nick groaned, lowering his head to claim her lips.
She was so ready for him, her lips already parted, her mouth opened and eager to receive him. His tongue delved deep, seeking, searching until it scraped alongside hers, finally finding heaven. Her arms wrapped around his neck, matching the hunger of his kiss precisely. His fingers tangled in her hair until his blunt nails scrapped along her scalp. Water lapped around them but it was all Ary, everything about her, that consumed Nick.
Moving farther out into the water, their mouths remained connected even when the heavy fall of water rained down on them. Ary clung to him and Nick held her tightly, not wanting to let her go for even a second. His legs continued to carry them both until they’d passed right under the glorious waterfall and now stood on its other side, sheathed by its damp curtain.
There were rocks on this side, some rugged, some flat, jutting in and out of the cliff behind. Then there was a small opening in the wall, an alcove that would perfectly hold two bodies. Reluctantly dragging his mouth away from hers, Nick maneuvered them slowly over the rocks until they were out of the water, bare feet slapping against stone lightly covered with vegetation. When they came to the alcove, Nick turned to Ary wondering if now would be the moment she begged him to stop. But when he looked into her eyes, he only saw what was most likely mirrored in his own—desire, plain and simple.
“You are the one for me,” she said, moving closer and coming up on her tiptoes to cup his face with her hands. “Now and forever.”
Nick didn’t know what to say, didn’t know how to respond to such a declaration. Never before had he felt what he was feeling for her, not with the numerous young women he’d had in the States, not with anyone. The moment he’d set foot in the Gungi again, Nick had known this would be different. This time the forest would take a part of him he wasn’t sure he was ready to give up. What he hadn’t known was that it would be this tiny bit of a woman, this amazingly talented shifter. He had no idea before he came and now he couldn’t think beyond her, beyond the softness of her hands, the slick coolness of her wet naked body pressing against his hard and aroused one.
He kissed her again, because all he could do was act. Words were not easily coming to him, but his body knew exactly what to do. This kiss was even hungrier, laced with a definitely wicked edge as her teeth scraped along his jawline, her hands moving down his muscled arms, over his rock-hard abs, around to grab his tight buttocks.
Nick’s hands had a journey of their own to travel, coasting down the long line of her neck, over the handful-size breasts with hardened nipples. She gasped as he squeezed each breast then lowered his head until he could take the small globes into his mouth one at a time. Her body arched for him as his tongue drew sensuous circles beneath her breasts, over her stomach, delving deep into her navel.
When he thought she might break in two from bending back so far, Nick grasped her waist, wanting desperately to see all of her. Taking a step back, he gazed his fill: from the breasts he’d just tasted to the small curve of her hips, the muscle of her thighs, and the juncture covered with what he knew would be soft brown curls. He slipped a finger there, right between the plumped folds of her vagina. She hissed through her teeth, braced her hands on his shoulders, and opened her legs wider.
Nick moaned at the feel of her slick heat. Back and forth he slid his finger, touching the tightened bud of her clitoris at the front, then sliding back farther to awaken the opening that would soon take him deeply. She was tight there, virginal, he knew, and his blood pumped even faster. He should go slow, make this a memorable first experience for her. But it didn’t seem like the time for romance. The way Ary was bucking beneath his touch, calling out his name, her fingernails scraping along his skin, said she wasn’t really in the mood to wait much longer, either. He wouldn’t hurt her; that was not an option for Nick.
His cat was struggling to break free, pacing hungrily, wanting, needing. Standing straight again, Nick grasped Ary’s hips, turning her so that her back faced his front. He grunted and licked his lips, loving the view from behind just as much as the front. Her back was straight, good posture, strong bone structure, leading to slender hips and a bottom so round and so plump he wanted to weep with joy.
“Why did you come?” he asked, trying desperately to keep all the reasons why he shouldn’t be doing this at bay.
With his palms splayed on both her generous globes he spread her cheeks apart, marveling in the beauty he saw there. She’d flattened her palms on the smoothest edge of the rocks, bending forward to offer him more. Now she was in a perfect stance, her legs spread, her ass and pussy open to him.
“I came for you,” she said with conviction.
Moving his thumbs closer to scrape along the opening slit in her buttocks, Nick fought like hell to keep control—if only for a moment longer. “What do you want from me?” he asked just before a ragged moan escaped.
Lifting one hand, Ary reached between her legs to grasp his thick erection. “This,” she answered simply.
With a growl he pulled out of her grasp, cursing as his erection continued to jut forward, aiming for the opening that now made him salivate.
This would change everything, he knew without a doubt. Neither of them would be the same if he continued to touch her, if he took her. Their lives would be altered; the lives of those around them would be shifted. They’d be breaking the Code of Ètica, going against everything their tribe believed in. He could not mate with her, his mind roared. But Nick’s body was taking full charge. The cat inside that did not follow any code of ethics or rule book provided by anyone or anything was pressing for this joining, strangling the human half until it obeyed.
Gazing down again, Nick looked at the folds, damp not from the waterfall but from arousal, from her own needs and wants. She said she’d come for him, she wanted him. He couldn’t ignore that. She was almost a woman; wouldn’t she know what she wanted? The war raged on between Nick’s mind and his body until suddenly he could no longer take the struggle.
With two fingers he pressed into her entrance, spreading his fingers to make her passage ready for acceptance. Ary bucked wildly against him, thrusting her buttocks back against his hand. Nick wrapped his other hand around her hair and pulled gently, loving the strangled sound that erupted from her as he did.
“Yes,” she whispered. “Take me, Dominick. Please.”
More welcome words he’d never heard.
Nick discovered early how much he enjoyed sex, how his beast needed more to be satiated than normal humans. At an early age he was introduced to a variety of sexual acts, some that gave him great pleasure, others that made him feel a bit darker and more out of control than he liked. But here, right now, he simply wanted to feel Ary wrapped tightly around him. He wanted to breach her entrance for the first time, to claim this part of her that no man or beast ever would again. He wanted to own her in this way. Why? he wondered briefly. So that no other man or beast would have her heart.
That thought startled him. Instead of thinking on it any further, Nick slid his fingers out of her, slowly slipping his thick erection into its place. She sucked at him, pulling him deeper. His release threatened to rip prematurely through him at the sight of his thick length being sucked into her so slowly and surely. He pulled back, watched as his dick now coated with her arousal slid out of her, then clenched his teeth as he pushed back inside her, watching inches of his arousal disappear into the pleasurable abyss.
Removing his hand from her hair, Nick grasped both her cheeks, pulling them apart for an unfettered view. His body was taut with arousal, his mind wrapping slowly around everything that was Aryiola. She bucked and mewled like the big cat she was. The sound echoing through the r
umble of the waterfall, pounded in his head like a litany. With another thrust he pushed farther inside her, until his balls pressed firmly against her wetness. Nick sighed, even as his cat’s growl rumbled in his chest.
“You shouldn’t be here,” he groaned. She felt so good and tight around him. Sweat dripped from his forehead, falling in big slashes onto her buttocks. “You should have stayed away.”
Her movements became more frantic, her thighs shaking beneath him. “I could not. Not a moment longer.”
Nick clenched his teeth as, thanks to her movement, more of his length slid into her canal. “It’s not right. It’s against our laws.”
“It feels right,” she countered and sucked in a breath. “It feels fantastic.”
“We will be punished,” he said then without preamble pulled almost completely out of her, only to thrust back inside with fierce strength.
She screamed, a feral sound surely traveling beyond their cavernous seclusion.
“Yelling won’t save you,” Nick said, pulling out then thrusting deeply inside her once more.
Ary was most definitely small and tight. His big hands almost completely covered her ass cheeks. As he continued to thrust, he closed his eyes, loving the feel of her inner muscles gripping him. She was taking everything he gave her, all his length and most of his lust he’d been holding at bay for the weeks he’d watched her from afar.
Yes, he’d seen Ary at the monthly meetings, watched the sinful sway of her ass as she moved through the courtyard. She knew the males ogled her, males of all tribes, no matter the rules against it. She was a temptress, but a still-untutored one. Nick desperately wanted to be the one to teach her the full art of her bounty. But it wasn’t right. He knew it wasn’t and that there could be no second time for them. Which was probably the reason he tried to hold back even more, to draw out this one moment in time they had.
“This cannot happen again!” he yelled, his groin slapping loudly against her ass.
