by C. J. Pinard
I stared hard at him, realizing I’d found someone just as sick as me. “Well, I’m not sure if I should be mortified by that, or... extremely turned on.”
I was the latter, but he didn’t need to know that.
“I’m pretty sure it turned you on.” He grinned at me.
I gasped. “What? No—”
“I can smell your arousal,” he whispered.
Dammit!
“I, uh...” Looking down at myself, I shook my head and went to stand. “Need a shower.”
“Me, too,” he replied as he, too, stood and began stripping his blood-covered clothes off.
I clamped down on my very sore lips, thanks to last night’s fangs, and yelped in pain. “Ow. No lip biting.”
“I’ve been telling you that for weeks,” he said under his breath with a laugh.
There was a small, portable toilet and some gallon jugs of water in the corner of the tent. I made him turn around while I took care of my business.
Once I was done, I pulled my pants up. “I’m good.”
He turned around. “Poke your head outside, would you, and tell me where the sun is?”
I nodded and went to the door, looking behind me to ensure he wasn’t going to catch any rays as the door opened. He was safely standing against the far wall, and he nodded.
As I unzipped the door, I gasped at the scene in front of me. Not only was the area we were in breathtakingly beautiful, the setting sun had cast an orange-pink glow over the glass-like lake, the tall stick-like trees reflecting mirror images of other. I closed my eyes and breathed in the mountain air.
What I saw next stole my breath once again. Two tiny women were bent down at what was left of Beth, and when they heard me, they looked up. I slowly stepped out, and immediately, the scent of lavender hit my nostrils. The two sets of purple-blue eyes looking up at me told me I was dealing with otherworldly creatures. Then I remembered the conversation I’d had with Sanja, and she had mentioned the word Elven—or elves.
“What are you doing?” I asked them.
Both had very light-colored hair, cut short, and their features were so delicate, they seemed doll-like. They couldn’t have been older than twenty-something.
One looked at the other, then back to me. “We came upon her, but realized she’s not a vampire’s victim, but a vampire herself.” The one who spoke had a high-pitched lilt, and she looked down sadly at the mostly ashy body. She looked up at me once again. “With that said, she did not need to die so violently.” She pointed to what was left of Beth’s head a few feet away. It was mostly hair, ash, bone, and a thin layer of flesh and muscle.
I shuddered.
As the elf flicked her gaze back to mine, I lifted my chin, suddenly feeling defensive of Kellan. “You have no idea what went on here last night. Now, answer my question: What are you doing here?”
The other one stood, her hair a silvery color with red streaks throughout that shone in the setting sun. “I believe your original question was, ‘what are you doing?’ Not, ‘What are you doing here?’.”
I narrowed my eyes at the tiny woman, who couldn’t have been more than five feet tall. I was close to five-foot-seven and towered over her. “Don’t talk in circles, elf. Answer the question.”
She grinned, her rosy cheeks lifting. “No need for hostility, young wolf. We were just leaving.”
The other one stood up, and together, with speed like a vampire, they jumped off the outcropping that overlooked the lake. I blitzed over, but by the time I reached the cliff, the two were gone.
“What the—?”
My words died on my tongue as I saw two shimmering balls floating in the sky before they disappeared into the sunset.
I turned back to the tent, still dumbfounded. After climbing inside, I zipped the door tight and saw Kellan, still shirtless, standing against the bed with his arms folded. I realized I’d stared a little too long at his broad shoulders, muscular chest, and the ridges and bumps of his rock-hard abdomen when he cleared his throat. “My eyes are up here.”
I bit back a grin. “Fair enough. Anyway, the sun’s almost down. Maybe ten minutes before it’s behind the mountains.”
He nodded. “Good. Now what did the Elven folk want?”
I snorted and turned toward a large plastic box I hoped had some food. “Since you heard the conversation, your guess is as good as mine.”
“Were they males or females?” he asked, which I thought was odd.
I closed the box, realizing it was just paper plates and plastic dinnerware. “Females. Couldn’t you tell?”
He shook his head. “Some of the younger males sound like females.”
Odd, but might be useful later on. I opened another bigger plastic container and smiled when I saw packaged food like chips and juice boxes, obviously for the child. I pulled open a bag of corn chips and began munching on them.
Kellan stared at me, smirking.
“What? I’m hungry.”
He nodded. “I can see that. After you’re done, let’s bathe in the lake.”
“Good idea. No. Wait.” I made a face. “It’s probably freezing.”
“You’re not gonna freeze to death, Ayla,” he said, amused.
I rolled my eyes and popped the straw into the juice box. “Yeah, but brrr.”
He looked at the juice box, then back up at me. “You’re so childish. I think I prefer the wolf-girl.”
I snorted, and after draining the juice, I crumpled the box and tossed it onto the bed. I then stripped off my shirt and kicked out of the pants. The undergarments I’d put on last night had been more than shredded so I’d discarded them before putting on Beth’s clothes. I now stood now in nothing but a smile.
“How about now?” I put my hand on my hip and posed like a runway model.
I heard him suck in a breath as his eyes traveled the length of my body. His gaze then went serious, and a smoldering blue flame flared in his eyes.
“That’s what I thought.” I chuckled. I turned and went back to the supplies in the tent. I spotted a bottle of shampoo in another box and grabbed it. As I turned to leave, Kellan snatched my hand and spun me around to face him. With his eyes still ablaze, he pressed my very naked body against his. Except he still had on his damn dress pants.
With his gaze drilling into mine, he seemed to be unable to say what he was thinking.
“Spit it out, Conley.” I grinned up at him.
“You are... so beautiful,” he breathed just inches from my face, and I could feel how much he thought so by the way he pressed himself against me.
The cocky smirk on my face died, and was replaced by a stoic expression after swallowing hard. When I reached up to touch his stubbly cheek, he seemed to lean in to my hand a little. “How can you think I’m beautiful after you saw me at my worst last night?”
A small smile lifted his beautiful full lips. “I think you’re confused, Ayla. You weren’t at your worst.”
“I never intended for you to ever see me that way,” I whispered truthfully.
“Why? Are you ashamed of what are you are, little wolf?” he asked, searching my eyes for the truth.
I went to chew my lip and stopped when pain reminded me I was still healing. “I... I don’t know.”
He untangled himself from me, grabbed my hand, and led me out of the tent.
I broke the surface of the water, leaned back, and dipped my long hair in, hoping I’d rinsed the rest of the shampoo out, along with all the blood and dirt.
Kellan stood in the water, watching me with icy blue eyes. His dark hair was pushed back from his forehead, and I had to catch my breath when he raked his pale hand through it to keep the locks from falling into his face.
“Come here.”
I nodded and walked in the chest-deep water toward him. He immediately snaked his arm around me and pressed me up against his hard body. He reached a finger up and traced it down my cheek, to my jaw, then down my neck. I closed my eyes and tilted my head back at the sensation.
Every nerve ending felt like it had set aflame, and not even the cool water in which we now stood could douse it. When his lips lightly touched the hollow of my throat, I opened my eyes and stared at the sky. The sun had set, and the stars were beginning to peek out above us. The full moon shined its blue light down on us, and I was reminded that in just a few hours, I would once again become a crazy woman-wolf.
Pushing that thought from my mind, I reached around Kellan’s muscular back and up into his hair. I lightly scraped my fingernails along his scalp and he let out a low vibration of a growl against the side of my neck. I still had hold of his hair as he reached the shell of my ear and began to lick. My body erupted into goosebumps, and I involuntarily thrust my hips against his. Still devouring my ear, he reached around and ran his hand down from my waist, across my hip, and then to the globe of my ass. After kneading it a few times, he used it to push my body even closer to his. As if it were the most natural thing, I lifted that leg and wrapped it around his waist, the water giving us blessed buoyancy. When I felt Kellan’s hard arousal against my core, I may have whimpered into the crook of his neck.
He looked down at me, and after tilting my chin up with his fingers, he leaned down and pressed a searing kiss against my mouth. I immediately returned it, and when his tongue licked the seam of my lips and demanded entry, I didn’t deny it.
While our tongues mingled and danced, he seemed to grow even harder just centimeters from where I needed him. As he broke the kiss, I gasped out loud.
“Kellan... please...”
“What do you want, beautiful girl?” he asked against my mouth.
“You. All of you,” I replied breathily... needy, selfish, and almost desperate.
He smiled, and with his free hand, he reached under the water and grabbed my other thigh. He wrapped my leg around his backside so now both of them were gripped around his waist. I hooked my ankles together.
“I’m going to fuck you now, Ayla. Is that what you want?” he asked in a low voice over the sound of the water lapping up against our bare skin.
“Yes, I do. I want you, Kellan.”
Without breaking eye contact, he squeezed my backside with both hands and thrusted into me. I let out something between a squeak and a moan while he did the same. With me still gripping his shoulders, he pulled out, kissed me on the mouth, and then slammed back into me.
He did this several times, and I whimpered each time I felt the loss. Finally, we found a nice rhythm, and with my legs wrapped around him, he took advantage of the water’s weightlessness to remove one hand from my backside to grasp one of my breasts in his hand and bring it to his lips. He pulled it fully into his mouth and ran his tongue along its most sensitive peak, causing me to cry out. What he was doing with his mouth, combined with what was going on below the surface of the water, created a sensation I hadn’t ever quite felt before.
He removed his mouth from my breast and licked his way into my mouth again. We continued to kiss while moving in perfect sync with our bodies. I lost my breath and then found it on a strangled cry as my entire body exploded with pleasure.
“Oh, yeah, beautiful girl, that’s it, baby... Oh yes, that sweet pu– oh...” He groaned out his release with me.
Once I’d caught my breath, I leaned my face against his shoulder, as his fingers drew lazy circles on my back. I was standing in the water now, still wrapped in his arms. I looked up at him, the blue moonlight bathing him in its light. He leaned down and kissed my nose and smiled.
I smiled back. “Why don’t you take me back to Denver so I can turn into a monster in peace this time? What do you say, sexy?”
He frowned, and then searched my eyes. “I don’t know, should you be alone right now?”
I nodded. “I did it last month. It was awesome. I lounged around my apartment, played video games, ate a crapload of Chinese takeout, caught up on emails.” I furrowed my brow. “I’ll admit, typing with those nasty claws sucked, so I only tried it once on my laptop, so I left the business to the Daytime Ayla. But I’m definitely caught up on my Netflix shows, I can tell you that.”
He chuckled and unwrapped himself from me. “I love how I can never predict what is going to come out of your mouth.”
“And I love everything you do with yours, Mister,” I whispered.
He shook his head, grabbed my hand, and led me out of the water and back to the tent.
Chapter 5
Yeah, I’d lied to the sexy vampire. I hadn’t ever spent a shift alone. It was too late to head up to Wolfe Point, and I didn’t want him hanging around my apartment, as I still wasn’t comfortable around him when I was the wolf-girl. I didn’t like to lie, but I hoped he would trust me to be alone. This would be the first full moon on my own—hence the whole mix-up as to when the damn thing would be at its highest. I had that shit set in my phone, but to be honest, I mostly relied on Aden to keep me straight on it. It was clear I needed to stop doing that. Knowing when the first day of the full moon would be was not rocket science, but the Internet was at my disposal and I had no excuse for not using it.
Today was day two, and I knew I’d be fighting the fever and turning hairy here within a matter of minutes. After our sexy tryst in the water, we’d gone back to the tent to put our clothes back on. Kellan decided we needed to torch it, but I was hesitant. I couldn’t imagine starting a forest fire; having it be my fault that any part of the park’s beauty or the wildlife had been destroyed. Plus, I knew a couple packs used this area for their shifts. I had convinced Kellan to just remove any evidence we’d been there. We then took down the foil and blankets from the windows, and after wiping every surface of any fingerprints, we put their clothes and ashes inside. Kellan found the gun Alexander had dropped and wiped it clean of prints. He skillfully chucked it into Sprague Lake before we headed back to the city so I could transform in peace—whatever that meant.
As I sat in front my laptop, searching Linden’s name, my mind drifted back to earlier. Kellan and I hadn’t talked about sleeping together, but really—had we needed to? Not really. We’d had a wicked sexy chemistry between us since the day we met, so us finally hooking up had been sort of inevitable. Did I regret it? No. There was something deliciously devious about the vampire, which contrasted his calm and sweet, that made me unable to resist him.
It seemed that he was completely into me, too. We were such an odd mixture, though. Weren’t vampires and werewolves supposed to be mortal enemies? Ever since I found out what I was, I had been told that vampires were not to be trusted. That they hated wolves and would kill us without thought. That we should avoid them. That they were mentally unstable and slightly insane from living such long lives. But the ones I’d met and befriended did not seem that way at all. Maybe it was because of what I had become after Alexander’s bite that I perhaps tolerated and even found companionship with vampires. Whatever the reason, I refused to put one species into a box and be close-minded about it.
There was one vampire, however, I hated with everything inside me. Truth was, the fact that he was a vampire didn’t really have anything to do with the hate. Had he been wolf, witch, elf, or even human, I would still seethe over and loathe him for what he’d done to my brother. I looked down at my Dagestan dagger, which lay on the table next to me. The overhead light reflected off of it, and I ran a finger over my brother’s name engraved there.
That brought my thoughts back to Kellan. The vision I’d had of him meeting with Linden was forever burned into my brain. I couldn’t shake the feeling that he could lead me to him. That being said, I had to be very careful in the way I broached the subject. In fact, I knew I probably wouldn’t be able to talk to him about it at all. I would have to find a way to get him to take me to Linden by making him think it was his idea.
I got up from the table and closed the laptop. I carefully put it into its case and slid it into my cabinet where I kept my cups. I knew how angry I could get while the wolf-woman, and I didn’t want to accidentally destroy it in a rage. I quietly w
alked toward the bank of windows that made up the western wall of my sixth-floor apartment and looked out at the city.
I thought back on the events of earlier and a small smile found my lips as I remembered the crunching sound of Alexander’s head as I’d removed it from his body. With a small shudder, I closed my eyes and saw the look of terror on his face as he realized his second life was about to end. I’d had no mercy for him, though. I had been so very done. I opened my eyes and looked out at the glittering lights of Downtown Denver, the Rocky Mountains silhouetted behind them. I was glad I’d ridded the world of one more menace. It was unfortunate his son had had to pay the price of having vampire parents, and the look of terror on his lifeless face before I’d buried him would haunt my dreams and nightmares for the rest of my days.
The shrill ring of my cell phone caused me to jump in the silence of my apartment. I walked to my dining room table and saw my brother’s face on the screen.
“What’s up?”
“What the hell are you, Ayla?” came Aden’s frantic voice.
I rolled my eyes at his irrational wolf ire, and replied, “At my apartment.”
“What?” he practically screeched, and I pulled the phone from my ear. And then I decided to just put him on speakerphone.
“Calm down, brother dearest. I’m fine.”
“Were you fine last night? Where did you spend your shift?” he asked, expelling a deep breath. It was what he did when he was trying to calm himself.
I remember seeing a dozen missed calls from him last night, but hadn’t bothered calling him back because I knew I would get the third degree for forgetting. Just like I was getting now. I closed my eyes and steeled myself for a tongue-lashing from him. “I was at the Rocky Mountain National Park.”
I heard him gasp. “What? Who did you shift with? The Rophen pack? I’m really confused right now, Ayla.”
I furrowed my brow, and tried to decipher what he was talking about. I made my way to my dresser and began rummaging through it for a pair of too-big shorts. “Who?”
