Blackberry Wine

by Blackberry Wine [MF] (epub)

  She stopped to finger the keyboard to that oddly clean ancient computer.

  As if something connected her with Thomas on the other end. What had happened? Did the extermination ray work like an EMP blast? We'd been on the computer talking to her then the machine suddenly died. Maybe it was old. Maybe the timing was right. But if those damned aliens are coming, I can't risk her safety.

  "It's so strange being down here," she matter-of-factly said, turning back to her invisible path like a sentry on duty.

  Life underground is normal for Shifters. We survive down here. Many Normals used subterranean retreats for protection too. What is so different for her? "What do you mean?"

  "I've never had to hide underground." She pivoted at the end of a wall to head back the way she'd walked. "It's all very different since the Parkers changed things."

  That I'd arrived or because Ebony had? "I don't understand."

  She snorted softly, pausing to study me. "Thomas has always taken care of me. Always had the answers. And now I have to wonder how to care for him." She scoffed, her boots resuming their grit-grinding sojourn. She thrust her nose toward the orange ceiling. "It's like he's suddenly become so old and the child is now becoming the parent."

  Is she making that up or being honest? It's best to just go with the subject. "Be thankful for that."

  She turned back to me.

  Curiosity smoothing out the thoughtful creases on her brow. "Not everyone gets to care for an aging parent."

  She nodded gently and leaned back against the wall.

  Too far away. But she needs her space to come to grips with her realization. Time to prepare for what Wolf wants to possess. We have the few hours ahead to resolve this little issue of mating between us. I just need to mark her down here while we're trapped together.

  "What do you think the aliens will do?" she asked out of the blue.

  Without looking me in the eye. Why?

  She just stared at the wall's base at the bottom of the staircase.

  "I have no idea, Raven. Don't worry. You're going to be fine."

  She shot me a quick confused glance then returned to pacing. "You're down here because that death ray will kill you too. So, how can you say I'll be fine?"

  Perfect lead in. I stepped toward her.

  She turned to face me, a confused mask twisting her beautiful features.

  My arms crossed still, I halted a step away from her and stared into those eyes. Eyes that widened like the beauty's who saw me for the first time that day.

  Mine! Wolf gurgled.

  Who wouldn't mark her? "My Wolf knew the first moment he saw you that you were his. He isn't about to let anything happen to you." No. Not even allow Buck to bungle that one. Buck's going to have to find tail elsewhere. She's wagging hers at me.

  She blinked once, thoughtfully, very slowly, until she anchored that innocent gaze back upon mine. "What does Ebony mean by rites of possession?"

  Why did she have to think about that right now? "I don't know. Probably something along the line of what happens with a Wolf and his mate."

  She gulped one faint pop.

  Thinking again. That always gets a female into trouble. "A Shifter marks his mate, Raven. Then there's the Mating Fever."

  Her nose tilted toward the ground a bit.

  Just enough to allow her to hide behind her dark lashes while she eyed me. Coyly? Maybe. I should grab her and throw her over my shoulder. These high ceilings will keep the extermination ray far enough away. But she doesn't look like the kind of woman who likes being toted around because a guy's got a Gods-be-damned killer erection.

  Wolf, find something else to do besides trying to rip free through my cock.

  "Colt?"

  Hell, I'm thinking as much as Buck yammers. I focused on those glinting eyes.

  "If Thomas is dead--"

  "He isn't dead."

  Her worried mask clouded with insistence. "You can't know. And if he's gone, I can't run this place alone."

  Females. I grabbed her upper arms and pulled her against my chest. "I'm not leaving you here alone or anywhere."

  She took a deep breath, pushing those soft Kitten mounds of hers into my bare chest.

  Breasts are amazing. And I want to squeeze both of these until her hips start gyrating.

  Wolf shook his stick.

  At me, the mangy cur. Well, I can play fetch. And by the way she stared up at me, head slightly tilted back, lips barely parted, she's definitely ready to play something. I leaned down into the path of those little puffs of warm air she exhaled.

  Down to those petal-soft lips, and sucked on her mouth like I needed the air she breathed.

  Mark, Wolf growled.

  Oh, I'll mark her and more.

  ****

  Everything about Colt made me feel so safe. Maybe because his strength wrapped around me. And the way he growled only reassured me he had no intention of letting anything hurt me. Ever. Even though there was some intense internal aching driving me insane down there. If only I could wrap these wobbly knees around his waist and figure out how to act naturally with a man between my legs.

  His lips kneaded across by cheek, dragging the short scratchy stubble of his circle beard with their march.

  Something inside me took over and arched my body backward.

  Like instinct. Because I seemed to present everything to him. To his wandering palms. To his thrusting hips.

  I better not appear stupid, subconscious.

  "Raven," he whispered the hottest syllables against my ear.

  Oh to rub against that mouth. He needs to kiss me more. So much more. I rubbed my head into his lips and nose.

  He growled softly.

  His skin began to prickle my palms.

  "There isn't much time," he said. "And this isn't the most comfortable place to mate."

  We have to mate. Or I could wind up mated to one of those damned extraterrestrials. Rites of possession or my bedroll? Who wouldn't choose Colt? "On my pallet."

  "But Raven, Wolf is becoming difficult to control. He could get rough."

  The way the need inside me is growing, I'll die if he doesn't do something. "Please."

  ****

  How is a man to keep his Wolf in check with the female he's wanted begging to play fetch? I thrust my nose back into her silken hair and sucked in a deep breath loaded with the scent of a mate.

  Warm. Seductive. Just like Blackberry Wine.

  Mark, Wolf snarled and clawed through my bones.

  My skin stung with fire.

  Too soon. Wolf's coming too soon. I better lay her down before he tears through everything. I lifted her light weight and took the four steps to lower her to her pad on the floor.

  She clung to my neck with that noose of an arm hold.

  Good. Because there's no turning back.

  Not with the salty metallic promise of the blood throbbing through her jugular. Must slow down Wolf. Or she'll think of nothing but rites of possession for the rest of our lives.

  ****

  He wormed out from beneath my arms, where the long mass of him laid flush next to my side, and he shimmied those warm palms of his up beneath my shirt's hem.

  Sending my aching body squirming beneath the reverent pressure of his hungry touch. What is he doing? Trying to drive me mad? Well, that's what I thought until he cupped those huge hands of his around my breasts and squeezed.

  Need. So much insatiable need shook my core.

  My knees popped open as I groaned.

  With the speed of lightning, he wedged himself between my legs and shoved my breasts together, rubbing his thumbs across my hard little nipples.

  Even through the bra's fabric, his touch was firm enough to send gooseflesh dimpling every inch of my arms.

  He gurgled a little knowing growl.

  As if he knew he'd set my body burning. Or could feel my nipples tightening. Painfully.

  In one swift motion, he ripped my t-shirt down the middle.

  Chapter
8

  So quickly did my shirt rip that the breeze he kicked up cooled me down.

  For just a breath. Because his fingers turned my breast's tight little pearls he fingered like a dial on one of Uncle Thomas's electronics. God, I just needed something between my legs. More than his firm body. More like that club he'd paraded around for me to study. Down inside me is where I need the attention. Not just the weight of him lying between my legs because that's not working now. Nothing is. I clawed into his hairy shoulder blades and held onto that massive back for dear life.

  He chugged another chorus of growls and wrapped one of my breast's knotted nubs with those taut lips of his.

  Just tightly enough to ensure my nipple would never relax again. That's probably what he wanted to see given all the male jerks that paraded through the homestead with trade on their minds. Men and nipples. But Colt…

  Colt's different. So very different.

  He dragged that little coil of my sensitive tender flesh along the edges of his sharp teeth.

  All the way to the bitter end. Sending my body into another fit of squirming. "Colt," I whined.

  For something. Anything to end this emptiness consuming me. I wrapped my legs around his denim-covered iron ass to hang on. To try to clutch at something like my sanity.

  He released one breast to snake the hand between our bodies and to used it to pry one of my legs loose from his ass.

  He's so strong. But the other leg won't be as easy to remove unless he aborts the grip his hand has where his hot tongue sucks on my breast.

  Oh, no. Was I confused. He wrestled my other leg loose, backed his all-consuming presence off my body, leaving me feeling even emptier until he ripped the pants off my waist.

  Oh, yes. He did that. Ripped one of my three favorite pairs of blue jeans. Right. Off. Me. Gone. The fabric vanished except for the legs where the straps from my pistols belted the thick durable cotton to my thighs. "Colt--"

  The orange glow of his Wolf in his eyes snuffed the scold from my lips. "Where are your panties?" he asked without one trace of Wolf in his voice.

  They must be inside what he'd tossed away of my jeans. He doesn't look like he's going to believe me or be willing to check the scraps for evidence. But he does look willing for something. Something like touching that amazing body of his. I slid my palms across his firm shoulders and over the warm succulent muscle of his breast.

  He snarled.

  And my palms traveled farther across the scratchy Wolf hairs that had popped through his skin everywhere. I think my subconscious had wisely inhaled my words with my last statement though.

  Yet.

  Why is that word grading into yeti? Thomas has way too many books in his library. I really have to stop reading so much.

  Colt groaned while watching my hands travel lower to the tight ribbed muscle of his waist.

  His massive human hulk is still as easy to make out as before he sprouted some wiry body hair. Wearing his Wolfen hair or not, he's not getting away before he tends to the ache he nurtured inside me. This mating can't be anything like the alien rites of possession. No. Because Colt makes me feel really good.

  He stared down at me with those banked coals he had for eyes. "Mine," he said.

  As clearly as he spoke before we kissed. Really, there's nothing frightening about Colt. Nothing at all.

  He dropped down to my navel, feasting with grunts.

  Too contentedly for my sanity because he's moving farther and farther away from me and making my belly jolt beneath his tickling tongue. He's teasing me. Why can't he just finish by mounting me and making me a woman? "Colt." I grabbed for him, reaching futilely.

  He made the craziest sound--a combination of an evil chuckle and a growl.

  Otherwise ignoring me. He's going to have to apologize for that when he can look me straight in the eye without his Wolf glowing in his eyes.

  Oh, I was wrong again, because he wormed a finger down through my pubic curls, down between those little private lips of flesh, down to circle that other little nub women have. With one wicked fingertip. Around and around until the room spun in a whirlwind of my gasps and cries. I can't escape the way his weight pinned me on the blankets covering the hard unyielding floor.

  "Mine," he snarled.

  With just enough possessiveness that I forgot about the fistfuls of blanket that weren't helping me hang onto my sanity and uncurled my fingers to find him staring at me, watching me. And what did I do?

  My damned subconscious decided to dance against that fingertip.

  What are my hips doing?

  The glow in Colt's eyes sparked back and forth between two shades of gold.

  ****

  My little kitten rubbed her slippery lump of a clit against my finger so much that I thought Wolf was going to explode before even entering her. That would be tragic. But her mounds of breast are jigging so much that all I want to do is ram inside her. Not wise with a virgin. I need her to crave sex. Not cringe while calling it rites of possession. So, I eased off of the torture button, sliding my finger along the slick crease down to her magic entrance to the Well of Immortality.

  But she never stopped worming around on the bedroll. No. She just baited Wolf with those hard little nubs of nipples and the dampness between her legs.

  What would she feel like? Tight? Anxiously hungry around my cock as I plant the seed of our legacy?

  Her gyrating hips calmed but her inner walls still clutched my finger.

  Mark, Wolf insisted.

  Wolves. I'd toss him an eye roll, except he's using the same Gods-be-damned eyes! Mine.

  Her hips shifted forward, then back.

  Nudging my fingertip as if attempting to it convince it to test that special place a mate reserved for her Shifter.

  Mine. Mine. Mine! Wolf growled.

  Well, I wouldn't expect a Wolf to be anything but dogmatic. Her utterly divine salty woman scent isn't helping placate Wolf either.

  "Please, Colt," she barked.

  Well, I'll teach her to be as antsy as my inner beast. I slowly slid my finger into her warm heat.

  Her body shuddered.

  Clamping down around the single finger.

  Wet yet insistent. There's only so much a man can take, not even factoring in his Wolf.

  ****

  Colt moved impossibly fast in a blur. One second he watched his hand where he toyed with me. The next, he had that club of his lined up at my achy notch between my legs. Stripped nude. Every thread of his jeans were gone. Now, if I could only convince him to push and snuff this demand my body is making…"Colt," I begged.

  His cock throbbed where it waited.

  "Slow down," he managed to say in perfect English.

  Controlling his Wolf whereas I can't even lie still. Who could lie still? He keeps sending need jolting through my body. Like with that wiry Wolf hair, scraping a chill everywhere it comes in contact with my skin. Oh, God, the way it scraps tremors along my sensitive tissue around my groin. "Please, Colt. I want to be yours."

  He paused.

  Didn't even breathe or wink. Strange given we were both about to commit to one another of our own volition.

  His eyelids closed and popped open.

  He gritted his teeth, lips drawn back, and sucked in a deep breath.

  Rites of possession. Should I worry now? No. He's made me feel so good. This can't be bad.

  He pulled up one of my thighs to prop it up paralleling his waist with one of his thick bulging arms then met my gaze.

  Why can't he just rub away this sensation of deeply internal loneliness?

  He nodded slowly and sucked down another long inhalation.

  Controlling his beast. That's what he kept saying. He's got to be afraid I won't like what happens. That he'll act like an extraterrestrial with their mysterious terrifying rites of possession. He's trying to slow things down to make me feel safe. Who wants safe with all this Wolf hair rubbing her in the most intimate of places? Well, I'm not here for the slow vers
ion. "Now, Colt. If you can't let me be with you the way you are, then we shouldn't be together."

  His hips moved.

  Shoving that firmness into me. Pushing. Stretching inside me.

  Something barred his progression.

  Straining my flesh.

  Something popped.

  A bit of pressure. With a twinge or sting.

  He froze, a hulk overhead. "Are you okay?"

  Move, or I'll die. "Now, Colt, now." I snaked my other leg around his butt and began to pull him toward me. Pulling that pressure into me. "It's bad enough that I thought you were mated all along. But now you're acting awfully indecisive."

  He gurgled what had to be a warning. Or he merely snarled at the insult. But I'm not going to spend the rest of tonight wishing he'd finished what he started. Forget empty promises like yet.

  My reality of empty dissipated into a dance of methodic motion.

  Of sliding. Of filling me with a mesmerizing thickness that made me want to climb the walls until he pressed his groin into the pulsing tender flesh between my legs. Forcing me to scratch the emotion I felt into his back. Then he replaced his forward momentum with an equally pleasing sensation of him dragging that wedge out of me. All the while he hissed. Only to slide that solid rod back along my flinching muscles. Oh yes. Flinching. My internal nerves couldn't sit still with his indefinable stroking. Pleasant couldn't even begin to describe the sensation.

  This is perfection. A perfection that made my subconscious finally kick into action and counter every move of Colt's long powerful body with my hips. Call it instinct. Call me whatever. If there was ever a reason to jump off a cliff and fall endlessly to warrant elated screaming, this is it.

  I couldn't cap the swelling emotion inside me. Can't stop reacting to it. Mindlessly screaming and gasping.

  I must look ridiculous.

  He's doing this to me though. He must want me to look this uninhibited. Maybe I shouldn't care how I might appear a mindless fool to him?

  But that doesn't matter.

  Really. Not being here with a man who sees beyond my gender and respects me as a living being who can think for myself. Wouldn't Colt want me to express how he made me feel unbelievable bliss?