At that point I wished the moon’s effects would kick in any time now. “Thorn, I’ve never had sex before. I’ve had lots of opportunities but—” And now I sounded like I was a freak of the week. Stop talking now, Nat, before you make things worse.
“Whether you’ve had sex or not doesn’t matter,” he whispered. “I’ll be honest though. The fact I could mark you as mine and only mine makes me want you even more.”
I bit my lip. That was the hottest thing I’d ever heard in my life. He’d left me speechless. I closed my eyes and clenched my fists. The desire was there, but there was no time to act. Only time to feel the delicious tension coursing through me.
“I’m not done with you yet, Natalya,” he breathed. “We’ll deal with concluding this conversation later.”
The time had come. I could feel it. My bones were beginning to collapse, bend, and contort until I became my true form. The whole process was painful each and every time, but tonight was different. Anticipation dulled each break. Budding pleasure made the searing heat in my limbs endurable.
As we ran off together into the night, I told myself this run would be perfect. I wouldn’t be sitting alone in apartment. I was with someone and we’d explore this forest together.
Chapter 6
The morning after running with a pack is like coming down from a massive high. I’d never been so content.
I looked around. The shadow of trees obscured our view of the sky, but the rising sun was coming. I didn’t want to get up. Thorn’s hand rested on my hip. His front pressed against my back. My whole body hummed, just thinking of feeling his hands all over me.
He growled as his hand clenched my hip, and his hips pulsed against my backside. Nervous flutters danced across my stomach. I sighed and closed my eyes tightly.
Why was I so nervous right now? Wasn’t this what I wanted? To be alone with Thorn and have his body so close to mine we could almost be one.
Being a virgin sucked.
“Turn around, Nat,” he whispered against the back of my neck.
“What happens if I do?”
“A kiss.”
“That’s it?”
“Would you like for it to be?”
The way he gripped my hips told me that wasn’t the case.
I wanted him to take my virginity and run away with it. I wanted him to make this yearning go away—but a kiss was one thing and sex was another. Werewolves mated and humans fucked. I wasn’t fond of that word, but it conveyed the truth.
“You’ve gone quiet on me,” he said.
“Thinking.”
“About what?” He kissed my neck.
“Aren’t we just here to run? I didn’t expect to do this so soon...Hmmmm... ” His hand had crept up to my breast and my body melted like a willing traitor. “...after we kissed.”
“When we do anything in our relationship doesn’t matter,” he said simply. “It’s why we do it.”
Good point. “And why would we ruin our friendship with a one night stand?” I frowned. “One morning stand?”
He kissed my shoulder and pulled my hair to the side to expose more of my neck. “What makes you think I just want to be your friend?”
“I can’t answer that.” Any other questions would prove difficult with all the places he was touching. He turned me around.
“How do I prove this isn’t a one time thing? That I’ve been thinking about you and me ever since we met in that registration line a few months ago.”
I didn’t know what to say.
He lightly kissed my lips. “Maybe I should tell you about all the times I’ve thought about you. The times when you didn’t think I could see you walking across campus. You might think no one truly saw you, but I did. When I lived in South Toms River I wished we could have gotten to know each other. I feel like I missed out on falling for you sooner.”
My stomach flipped, only to flip again. Thorn Grantham kept leaving me speechless.
He continued. “I believe fate brought us together in that line. When I think about how I lost my car keys and ended up getting in line later—at that very moment you were in front of me—it seems like we were fated to meet. To come together.” He shuddered and stretched out on top of me.
Our lips met again. This time his touch was commanding and unyielding. Doubt swam away as he kissed my lips. My neck. My collarbone to my breasts. His featherlight caresses rained down my belly to down to the place I never expected a man to kiss me.
Our bodies finally became one, and he refused to let me look away. He nipped at my lips when I closed my eyes.
“Look at me, babe, ” he said softly. “I want to see how beautiful you are.”
His heat matched my heat. It was everything I’d wished for.
As we both peaked he whispered words so tenderly I barely caught them: “You belong to me now, Natalya Stravinsky.”
Maybe I was imagining things, but I never knew this act would make me feel so complete. So loved.
Until the very end I hadn’t looked away. I fell in love headfirst and didn’t look back.
Chapter 7
A few hours later, Thorn and I walked hand and hand back to the spot by the lake where we’d left our clothes.
Unfortunately, they were now gone.
“No way,” I groaned.
Thorn settled for a curse and then took off to do a sweep. He came back empty-handed. Wow, that dampened the mood. First rogues had attacked our camp, we made a run for it without supplies, and now someone had taken our clothes.
At least we had nothing left to take. Positive thinking, right?
“Who would’ve stolen them?” I asked with a dry laugh.
He shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess there’s a woodland creature strutting around the forest with two pairs of jeans and some shirts.”
I looked down at my nakedness. Was I gonna have to weave myself some clothes? “The original plan won’t work if we’re like this. Two folks walking down a highway butt naked is illegal.”
“No, we won’t. We’ll double back and try out the campground with the humans. If that doesn’t pan out...”
I made a motion for him to continue. “And if that doesn’t pan out we’ll...”
“We’ll be sneaking back to the car,” he finished.
I sighed and started walking without him. He’d catch up. It wasn’t his fault we’d lost our clothes, but I was still irked.
Hours later, it took us forever to reach the campgrounds. The sun was low in the sky by the time I saw smoke trails—a sure sign humans camped nearby.
“I wish we could go back to the clearing and get our backpacks,” I said.
“I do, too. A lot of that stuff I borrowed from someone else.”
“When can we get them back?”
“Do you want to walk up there without a stitch of clothing on and see how well negotiations go with the rogues?”
“Would it hurt to try?”
He blew out a long breath. “Before you get any ideas I’m not letting them see you naked. Right now you smell good enough to eat. You’re mine now. No dice.”
That made me grin. “So what do we do now?”
We ended up stealing from the humans.
Sneaking into to the campground without being seen was quite the adventure. Even with twilight on our side. We ran from tree to tree, trying to make sure our naked bits didn’t get flashed to folks.
“How about that car?” He pointed to the first target: a truck with an RV attached.
“They smell young.”
We took positions to search the back of the truck, but our luck ran out when young couple left the RV to start grilling. And the lady was the perfect size and height too. The guy not so much. We dodged a bullet with that one. Thorn wouldn’t be able to get one leg into the man’s short jeans.
Finding another source wasn’t easy. We went from one camper to another and couldn’t find much. It wasn’t like the old days where folks left their unmentionables out. Finally, we were forced to get
Thorn a pair of oversized jeans and a T-shirt that had been left on a line outside a camper, while I grabbed a sundress someone had discarded after swimming. All of the clothes didn’t smell good, but our options at this point were limited.
Night had fallen again by the time we headed for Thorn’s black SUV. I stopped short on the way when I realized something. “Ugh, we are so stupid! How are you gonna drive us anywhere, Grantham?”
His slow grin filled his beautiful face. “I’ve been caught naked more often than you can imagine.” He chuckled. “Once burned, once learned.” When we were outside his car, he scooted underneath, and after a bit, he emerged with a small magnetic box holding backup keys.
Just seeing the keys inside filled me with relief. Already I could feel a hot shower pouring down my back.
Camping is so overrated.
Chapter 8
I was back in my dorm room. Just being back was bittersweet. I had my personal things around me—at least my suitcase since I’d left it in the SUV. But as I sat in my room, having just stepped through the door, I wished I would’ve said something more to him other than, “Talk to you later.”
I could’ve been suave and said, “Hey, come up for a while.”
Or maybe, “What are you doing tonight?”
What sounded even better was, “Let’s have wild hot monkey sex in my dorm room.”
None of those cool statements came out of my mouth. Instead of even trying to kiss him, I got nervous, I said my goodbyes, and I ran away.
I rested my hands in my face. “Why am I like this?”
I tossed my suitcase on my bed and noticed the light on my answering machine was blinking. A rarity.
I hit play.
Thorn laughed came through the speaker. “I can’t believe you just left me like that, Nat.” He sighed through the phone, and I got closer to the machine. “I waited for five minutes to see if you’d come back out, but you didn’t. Now, I’m not a man to chase after women. Maybe you’ll call me, maybe you won’t, but at least I hope you’ll open your door.”
Open the door?
I turned to look at the dark wooden door on the other side of the room. Was he really behind it?
I quickly crossed the space and checked. There he was waiting for me.
He leaned against the doorframe with his arms crossed.
“Hey, you,” he said softly.
“Hey...”
He captured my lips before I had a chance to speak. By the time we parted I was breathless.
“You left so fast,” he said “I know this trip didn’t go well, but it wasn’t that bad, was it?”
“Not really.” I shrugged. “I guess I ran out of words to say. I’m scared to be honest.”
A few girls passed behind him in the hallway, but he didn’t move. “Why?”
“I’m not that good at this relationship thing. Also I’m not your type, Thorn. I’m flawed.” I swallowed the lump growing inside my throat. “I have obsessive compulsive disorder and it affects my life a lot.” There I said it. After the words came out a weight lifted off my shoulders—but my heart grew heavy instead. My shame was now out in the open.
“I knew that already, babe,” he said softly.
I couldn’t speak for a bit. “Really?”
He pulled me close, and the sigh I let out turned into a content hum. Then I recalled all the things he’d done for me: the towels on the ground, avoiding the puddles, and the way he protected me whenever he could. “Remember when I told you I’d been watching you for a while? I’ve seen it, but I don’t care.”
He caressed the side of my face. “You’re beautifully flawed and you’re just what I need. What I’ve always needed in my life.”
We had a bit of a crowd now, but Thorn hadn’t let me go.
“So what do we do now?” I asked him.
Finally, he closed the door behind him. “You got any plans today?”
I smiled brightly. “With you I do.”
The End
Chapter 1
Reader Note: This story takes place after Compelled (Coveted #3)
South Toms River, New Jersey, swarmed with busybodies. If you checked under the nearest rock, you’d find one lounging there in wait, hungry for any juicy information a complete stranger would need to know.
Werewolf busybodies were mostly the same—they just happened to spread your business to other werewolves at the pack hunts during the full moon. What differed between the two was how you warded them off.
It just so happened while I was taking Grandma Lasovskaya out for lunch, a rampant gossip spotted us. Even at the diner in the next town off the Garden State Parkway, I should’ve known I wouldn’t find peace. Not that I disliked Renissa Delaney-Danford—yes, everyone from South Toms River used her whole name—but at the ripe old age of forty-five she’d retired from her managerial job due to a faulty office chair mishap and now she lied in wait for her next scandal-flavored prey.
Grandma had been so excited about our lunch date. I’d picked her up early—no sense in suffering the scorn of my aunts believing I’d left her standing alone outside the house. Her soft, light brown eyes perked up the moment she saw me. She wore her favorite outfit: a floral dress with knee-high brown stockings. Warm kisses and hugs came first, and then we set out for our meal. The diner, with its over-the-top light-green color scheme and country music, wasn’t too packed. This place also met my obsessive-compulsive disorder’s requirements in terms of cleanliness. I had yet to see a dirty table and the glasses stacked near the soda fountain were spotless. Even the staff worked like this was a clean-up site for radioactive waste.
We slid into a booth and waited for our server.
“How have you been, Natalya?” Grandma asked me in Russian while I wiped off the table with baby wipes. Might as well give into temptation and clean again.
“Good. I’ve been working overtime at the flea market, but we’ve got a few new college students to break in. If I can’t get them in line, I might have to go alpha on them.”
Grandma chuckled. “Are they werewolves?”
“No.” I sighed, spotting a head turning to look our way in a booth near ours. “That’s the problem.”
Our server showed up, so we switched to English. Pearl had been working here since I was a pup. Time hadn’t affected her charm. The little, old lady was about as tall as Grandma, but she had spunk.
“What can I get for you two young ladies?” she asked with a smile.
I opened my menu, trying to ignore the fine hairs prickling on the back of my neck when I felt like someone observed me. Grandma glanced at her menu. She touched the pictures, going from page to page.
“Two warm cups of tea to start, please,” I began. “Grandma, what would you like?”
“This, please,” she said with a heavy accent as she pointed to the Reuben sandwich.
“Sound great, honey.” The server didn’t miss a beat. “What else?”
I chuckled. Pearl knew we came for a real meal. “Eat whatever you want, Grandma.”
Grandma pointed to two other sandwich platters: a grilled cheese deluxe and a pastrami with all the fixings.
“You packin’ a lunch for home?” Pearl jested.
“Sure…” I ordered two burgers cooked to the point of charred carbon, piping hot fries, and a pork chop sandwich. I would’ve loved some fruit, but my trust only went so far. “That’s all for here. What I don’t eat I’ll take … home.”
Pearl finished her mad scribbling. “Well, it’s good to see women not holding back healthy appetites. Let me get you those two cups of tea.”
The moment our server left, the blonde watching us turned back to her food. The bowl of soup in front of Renissa no longer had steam, but her Coke—which even I could smell from here—was full. Her barely there black eyebrows were too high on her forehead and her red lips pursed as if deep in thought.
Grandma sparked another conversation in Russian about a familiar topic: my brother and her need for him to produce more gr
andbabies. He already had a daughter the Stravinskys spoiled rotten.
I, on the other hand, had yet to get knocked up. Maybe my lady parts were on strike.
“I don’t know why his wife isn’t pregnant again,” Grandma began. “He’s young. His wife isn’t even one hundred years old yet …”
My eyebrow rose. “Grandma, I think you’re mixing Karey up with one of her wood nymph sisters. I think she’s going on thirty—not a century.”
Having woodland creatures for in-laws made the most interesting family dinners. Especially when Aunt Vera pulled out the roasted deer.
“But she’s still young. I was having babies right up until my Pyotr died. Knowing him, he’d have found a way to have me swollen with pups from the grave.” Now the conversation was going in a weird direction, so I was thankful when two servers appeared with all the food.
The busboy paused for a moment. Nope, we weren’t waiting for more friends to show up.
By the time all our plates were placed, there wasn’t room for much else. The glow in Grandma’s eyes was worth it. Delicately, she unfolded her paper napkin and placed it in her lap. She grabbed the grilled cheese sandwich first. Less than a minute later, not a single crumb remained. Real teeth made chowing down so much faster than the dentures some of the older wolves wore.
Pearl returned to check on us. “I can see your grandma was hungry. It’s good to see you making sure your grandma still gets out.”
“She does sometimes,” I replied. “She prefers to keep to herself.” My babushka had the patience of a saint, but dumb humans irked her every once in a while.
Grandma continued to eat, oblivious to most of our conversation since her English wasn’t that good.
Pearl added water to our glasses. “Have you ever considered taking her to the senior center? My uncle goes there, and he’s made so many friends. He’s even got a girlfriend.” She giggled. “You got a man, Mrs. Lasovskaya?”
Grandma looked up and smiled. “No husband,” she murmured in her soft voice. “Widow.”
Cursed Page 4
