Circle of Wolves

by Jacqueline Roth

  His hands cupped her face and he kissed her with a tender need that made her moan softly into his mouth. He smiled as he looked up at her, those blue-gray eyes freely proclaiming his desire. “My love,” he whispered softly. “My mate.” The word so foreign to the life he’d lived came so easily.

  Kira wrapped her arms around his neck and just before she pressed her lips to his she whispered, “My cerieshe.” She tangled her fingers in his hair and pressed his kiss down harder. Her tongue swept his and she felt the beginning of the bonding slide through her mind. She felt more than just the kiss. She felt more than just his lips. She felt an echo of passion and need that wasn’t hers. She felt a glimmer of pleasure and delight that did not come from her own mind. And she felt uncertainty.

  Evan pulled back frowning slightly. “Cerieshe?” he whispered. “What does that mean, Kira?” He’d heard the word a few times now including from the mouth of the curse wolf Kelan. If it meant anything like what he thought it meant…

  Kira smiled softly. “It means, my darling that you are my destined one. That we are more than mates by choice and by love, we are mates by destiny.”

  His smile was wide and sweet. “That’s beautiful, my love. I feel as if I’ve been searching for you forever. As if we were meant to be.”

  Kira traced the line of his lips. “Cerieshe isn’t an endearment, Evan. It is real. I told you that you carry the soul of one of the Ancient Ones. It seems so do I. Our souls, yours and mine, have been united before. We were mates, joined together throughout eternity by Fate. What we are is rare. I’ve never known anyone else, besides my grandmother, who actually found their cerieshe. In her case it was not such a happy thing that he found her, even if the Fates had decreed it to be so. For us it is different. My soul recognized yours the moment you kissed me. I know you felt it too even if you didn’t understand it. We have been searching for each other. Across time, across lives, we are cerieshe.”

  Evan kissed her. There wasn’t a fiber of his being that didn’t believe what she was saying. Had anyone else told him this he’d have dismissed it as a sweet romantic notion. But what was happening inside him, the way he’d felt with her this past week, how quickly his soul, his heart, had come to cling to hers told him this was real. Fate had linked them and he’d be damned if he’d question it.

  His hand came up and cupped the back of her head as her arms wrapped around him. She met his kiss fiercely and surrendered her mouth to him as he plunged his tongue inside. Something raced through him that was more than the passion and need she fanned to the point of inferno. He pulled back and looked into the flushed face and bright eyes. She had chosen him. A woman who could have had her pick of any man, any Wolf, had chosen him.

  As he had done the night before, Evan swept her up into his arms and carried her to the bed. The large wooden frame sat on a raised platform and the four corner posts rose nearly to the ceiling. The sheer, gauzy white curtains had been freed from their cording and were drawn at the foot and opposite side of the bed. On this side the fabric was free of its confines but it hung open, waiting for them.

  Evan set Kira on her feet at the edge of the bed. He stepped back from her, smiling wickedly. He wouldn’t disappoint her. He was her hunter, her wolf and he’d show her she’d chosen well. He slipped his hands into the waistband of the pants he wore and slid them over his hips. His body was ready for her, not as ready as it would be once her hands finally touched him but it stood eager to please his mate. The flush on her face and the brightness in her eyes as she stood there watching him echoed inside him in a way he didn’t understand. But for the first time in his life he damned well didn’t care that there was something he didn’t understand.

  Kira didn’t lose her breath when she saw him. She didn’t fear her heart had stopped. The opposite was true. The blood of the wolf roared in her veins and her heart pounded furiously. Her breathing came from between parted lips as if she was already in the midst of his touch. Such a beautiful man. Not just the perfect body but the eyes. Those kind, intelligent and loving eyes burned brightly at her with something new. Something that resulted from the pull of the risen moon, from the drive to mate, from the primal beast that stirred in him.

  He looked like a predator.

  She reached up to mimic his actions and remove her gown when he stopped her by closing the few steps between them and catching her hand in his. He lifted it to his lips and kissed the backs of her fingers before turning the hand and pressing his lips to the soft palm. He trailed his hot kisses across her wrist and up the tender inner arm. He followed the curve of her arm until he was softly kissing her shoulder. Releasing her hand he slid his long fingers beneath the thin strap and eased it over the curve of her shoulder. He followed it with his mouth, teeth gently grazing her skin until it fell to rest at her elbow. He lifted her other hand and repeated the action until he had freed her from the straps of her gown. He slid the satin down her skin, following in its wake with the stroke of his tongue and the brush of his lips. Her skin came alive in a way that she’d never known.

  She was not virginal. It was not the way of their people. Their kind delighted in the pleasures, use and exertion of their bodies. And this included sex. She’d known lovers before this man. But it had been a very long time since she’d felt a man’s touch. Not since Val had she allowed the pull of the running moon to drag her under. With Evan, it seemed as if she would not exist if he did not touch her, touch her here and now.

  The coolness of the artificially chilled room brought a wave of tingles up her now bared skin. Evan lifted his head from where he had kissed the hollow at the base of her throat. He pressed his body against hers until she felt the edge of the mattress against her hips. Evan placed his hands on those hips and urged her back onto the bed. She sat on the edge and he wrapped his arm around her waist.

  The platform kept them at the same height they had while standing. Evan leaned down only slightly to kiss her. His hand moved up to capture one breast and squeezing gently, he rubbed the nipple with his thumb as his mouth claimed hers. The waves of pleasure radiated out from the taut peak and through her body. The warmth and heat between her thighs was growing. She wanted him. She knew enough of what would come to know that soon they would lose themselves entirely to the mating. It would consume them with a ferocity that often left the mated pair raw and shaken in body, mind and spirit for hours afterward. But right now she made herself focus on the man before her.

  She ran her hands over his shoulders. Her nails traced shapes on his back. His head lowered and he sucked her nipple into his mouth. An intense pleasure shot through her and Evan’s head came up quickly, meeting her eye in surprise. He’d felt it too. The bonding was beginning. “It’s okay,” she said soothingly, she ran her fingers over his face.

  “Kira, I could swear I felt…” Evan searched her eyes.

  “My lips on you?” He nodded. “It’s the bonding. It’s beginning.”

  A smile spread across his lips. “I’m all in favor of that kind of beginning.” He held her eyes as he lowered his head and licked at her nipple. The pink tip rolled over his tongue and he felt his own nipples tingle and burn as he teased her. He sucked her and felt her pleasure radiate through his own body.

  Kira gasped as the sensation of his tongue rebounded from him to her. Her tongue curled in her mouth and it felt as if she could taste him, feel him there. He watched her, his eyes partially closed, as the wave of need swept over them both. Evan eased her onto her back and she moved to allow him to follow her. He knelt between her legs and leaned over her. She brought her leg up and ran her toes down the back of his thighs. He shuddered faintly and she felt the tremor inside her own skin.

  His mouth claimed her breast and she felt the sensations crescendo and pull into a tight knot inside her. She was more than ready for him and the moment his hand slid between them to caress her folds he knew it too. Each stroke of her excited flesh brought an answering jerk from him.

  “Kira,” he groaned into h
er ear. “I think this just might kill me.” His voice was laced with laughter.

  “I think we’re just getting started,” she whispered as she kissed his ear, running her tongue along the outer edge. The sensation shot back through her.

  He smiled against her throat. He returned his attentions back to her breasts as he continued to stroke her. He pushed them both almost to the point of climax and then backed off. “Breathe. Breathing is good,” he gasped, pulling away from her.

  She growled in protest. She wanted him now. She could feel him deeper inside her mind, not as fully as she would for the echo had grown only to a shadow but it was there. Evan rose up on his knees beside her. She clambered up and wrapped her arms around his neck. He held still, his heart racing in her ears as she teased his lips with her tongue, pushing between them until she could explore his mouth. A loud sigh came from him and he wrapped his arms around her tightly.

  “My mate,” he whispered against her lips. “My cerieshe.” He turned her shoulders slightly and she smiled widely before turning her back to him. Yes. Finally. This was what she wanted. If he’d wanted to make love in a human position, she’d have consented gladly but something deep inside howled with delight that he had chosen to take her this way.

  His touch was different from what it had been the previous night. Then it had been gentle, wooing almost in its tenderness. Tonight he was different. Tonight it was as if he’d finally thrown open the door between the man and wolf and had found a way to be both. The power of his arms around her didn’t make her feel weak or trembly, it made her desire blaze. And something else. The magic. It seemed to crackle between them as if it was alive and surrounding their bodies. Yet she couldn’t feel afraid, not with Evan’s arms about her.

  She raked her nails over his forearms and leaned her head back against his shoulder. His hands came up to cup her breasts and his lips brushed her neck. She let herself get lost in the feelings his hands created and in the sensation of his lips as they moved across her shoulders. He gently parted her thighs with his hands. She felt his hard length against her flesh, pressing to her softness as it slipped between her legs. His arm circled her waist and he reached between them, hovering at her entrance.

  “My love,” he spoke gently. “I am yours.” With those words he thrust himself inside her and sensation exploded like a white hot light inside her mind. His body shook as he held her. She knew it but couldn’t form a thought as the sensation of him hard and thick inside her roared through her along with the feeling of her own warm wet flesh wrapped around him. The bonding between them ripped away any sense of self, any personal identity. She was Kira. She was Evan. She was the sensation of his powerful thrusts inside her. She was the stroking on his flesh of her tight channel. She felt not only the sensations of her body as he pushed deeply into her, his hands teasing her breasts as he moved but the sensations of his body as he growled low in his throat from the tightness of her around him. She felt the joyous response at knowing she pleased him and his thrill at knowing he was driving her to madness with his touch.

  The point came when neither knew anything but the rolling, rebounding, overwhelming blending of emotion and physical sensation that drowned them beneath its crushing force. It surged into something that their minds were barely able to contain. Something that exploded through their bodies. Something that circled over them continuously until they were too exhausted, their minds and bodies pushed too far past endurance to feel any more.

  She felt strong arms around her as surely as she felt what was happening within his skin. If this was the bond, no wonder no one could explain it. There were no words for the looping of sensation and emotion. Each touch returned to the giver with the reactions of the receiver, only to create a reaction that added to the flow and cycled through them again.

  Could anything be more idyllic than what she was feeling? Could there be a more perfect man than the one who held her and thrilled at her touch?

  His eyes were closed tightly as he tried to make his thoughts still themselves. There was so much happening in the space that was his mind that it seemed overcrowded and noisy. Her head was on his arm and she was curled into his chest as they lay facing each other. His face was buried in the tangled curls of her hair. There was too much in his mind, feelings he didn’t understand or identify as his own filled him in a riotous jumble. Her hair tickled his skin but he could also feel a finer softer hair and solid warmth pressed against his face. Their breathing was synchronous and it seemed as if their heartbeats were as well.

  He pressed his face harder into the top of her head and tried to sort out what was happening. This was something to do with the bonding. It had begun with their kiss, after the ceremony. He had felt hands on his face when there were none, when the only hands touching were his own and the face being touched was hers.

  Struggling to sift through it all, he felt her lift her head. “Look at me, Evan.” He opened his eyes and stared into hers. “Look at me. Find me in you and recognize it. Then you will be able to find yourself.” He nodded trying to breathe deeply. “Look at me, Evan. Find me.”

  Her eyes told him what she felt and he searched for it. He searched for the absolute adoration and devotion and found it. He found her. She smiled. Her hand came up to touch his face. “That’s better. I was starting to get lost in your confusion too.”

  “Kira…” He had no idea what he had planned to say. What could he say? What words were there to say to her about this? Then a question sprang to mind. She seemed to be controlling it better. “Why…why is this easier for you? Is it because of the differences between us?”

  “Yes and no. It is also because, though I couldn’t explain it, I think I knew more what to expect than you did. I’ve seen the bond at work my entire life.” She smiled sheepishly. “And because I’ve grown up at the knees of married women chuckling about the responses of husbands to the first mating.”

  “So I’m not…” His voice trailed off and his face was troubled. Suddenly she understood his fear.

  “Weak? God, Evan, no. You are, beneath all your quiet reserve, a very strong and passionate man.” Her smile grew slightly wicked. “Something that pleases me more than I can say. But they say the greater the passion, the stronger the reaction. Sonya once joked that Alexi cried in her arms like a baby at their mating.”

  Her lips sought his and he kissed her gently. “Well, at least I was spared that,” he sighed glad that the wetness that had threatened to spill from his eyes as his body had trembled in her arms hadn’t.

  “I’m told it gets easier. Right now it is like a new wound. It will change from a distracting, overwhelming pain to a dull throb. We will always be in each other’s minds, Evan, only it won’t be as all-consuming. It is also easier if we are not touching.” Her hand stroked down his cheek and followed the line of his neck to rest on his shoulder. “And according to my grandmother and Elena, it will also carry into the transformation. Even though you are a curse wolf, even if you lose everything you are in the change, you will not lose the bond. I’ll be able to reach out and touch you in this way.”

  No words could describe the feeling she had just given him with this statement. He would not lose everything. He may lose Evan Forester but he would retain her. Yet his question remained. “Why isn’t it hard on you? Why do I seem to struggle and you don’t. It can’t be all preparation.”

  “You’re wrong Evan, I am struggling. It is an effort just to pay attention to what you’re saying. I can feel everything you feel and it is as confusing for me as it is for you. I think I’m just a bit better at hiding it. Look, you can feel it. Inside you.” Her hand touched him over his beating heart and he did as she asked. He reached for her, the pieces he was beginning to recognize as her and he found it. Her confusion, her fear and her struggle to retain control. She pressed her cheek to the wall of muscle before her and he felt his own chest against his face. “Try to relax Evan, try to relax and sleep.”

  He wasn’t sure how he’d ever manage
it but he held her tight and felt her chest rise and fall with his. A sense of sleepy peace filled him moments later as she drifted off. His mind was clearer now and he began to sort through what were his emotions, his sensations and what were hers. His physical reactions aside he found himself filled with two basic all-encompassing emotions. Pure unadulterated joy and pity. Joy at what he had found, at what he shared with her. His future stretched out before him and in every moment of it he saw her. This bond between them touched him and drove him in a way he didn’t know was possible. The absolute ecstasy of being so connected to her, of touching her very soul was more than his mind could wrap itself around. He could never have explained it and was thinking Alexi brilliant for even attempting it.

  And there was pity. Pity for those he knew who would never know this. Marcus would never know this and that was sad. If anyone needed someone to reach his soul it was Marcus. Even Seth and Arianna, as deep as their love was for one another, they would never know this. And Julian. He’d probably come the closest to what Evan felt now but he’d lost it. A trickle of guilt nudged its way into Evan and he tried to push it away.

  He pitied them. He had found this wondrous thing and it made him sad to know his dearest friends would never know a love, a joining together like this. The irony struck him as sleep overtook him. He, Evan Forester, forever the one to be pitied, the one they all felt sorry for, the man who had assumed he would never share even a shadow of the kind of lives they led, had something they didn’t. Something they could never guess at or understand. Finally he had somewhere he belonged. Someplace that was his, where he not only couldn’t hide who and what he was but didn’t have to hide it. He was wolf and it was something to be rejoiced and celebrated, not feared and hidden.