by Anthology
His fingers dug into the flesh of her backside, hard enough to leave a mark, and she whimpered.
Instantly, he loosened his grip with a murmur of dismay.
“Again,” she whispered against his mouth.
He hesitated only a second before hauling her even closer, tighter. Her breath caught in little sobs of wanting, and she rubbed her mound against him.
“So hot.” He ground upward into her. “So needy.”
Yeah, she needed this. She squirmed, and when he didn’t let her down fast enough, she slipped through the confines of his coat and went to her knees in front of him.
She flicked open the top button of his fly and feathered her fingertips along the upper rim of his waistband until he sucked in his breath, the muscles in his abs tensing. “I believe you said zippers are too hard for teeth?”
He dropped the empty coat to the floor. “Annie…”
At least that’s what she thought he was trying to say. But the sound came out mostly as one long moan. His hands clenched and released in her hair, as if he wasn’t sure whether to hold her there or push her back.
She tongued up the zipper tab and caught it between her teeth with a little click.
He stared down at her, his eyes streaked with gold all the way through. The sharp edges of his cheekbones burned with his aroused blood, blending with the birthmark.
With exquisite care, she eased the zipper down, hissing out a long, hot breath over the dark curls of his pubes.
She only got about halfway down before his cock came surging out to meet her. Kind of dangerous since the zipper teeth were still right there. She guarded the satiny flesh with her hand as she flayed open the denim panels to reveal him in all his glory.
She already knew he was straight as a pool stick and thick as a beer bottle, but holding him made her pussy clench with the excitement of having him again.
Well, her pussy would have to wait.
She gave him a lollipop lick, and his head slammed back into the door behind him. She hummed a laugh low in her throat while licking him again, and his body bowed toward her, quivering.
Time to get serious.
7
She was seriously going to make him come.
Blaze couldn’t hold back his animal rumbles of pleasure as she lapped and sucked him from base to slit and back again. Though the cheap trailer door was chilly against his spine, her mouth was hot as the summer sand after skinny-dipping in Angel Creek. She traced each bulging vein, and her gusting breath fanned the shadow flames of lust racing backward from his cock. His balls were tucked up inside his jeans so hard and tight they’d probably fit in the damn coin pocket.
He bucked his hips helplessly, and she gulped him. He’d never, ever…
“I’m going to come,” he warned with a gasp. He set his hands on her shoulders to nudge her away.
But she tilted her head back to look up at him through the tangle of her blond hair, and his erection surged smoothly down her throat. He let out a low, heartfelt moan.
Though the trailer’s thin curtains blocked most of the winter evening, her dark eyes gleamed with hunter’s light. The glimmer of red in the depths shocked him.
The wolf fever.
If she started to change and panicked, she might bite his dick right off.
But for deep throating, it was a risk he’d just have to take.
“Last chance,” he gritted out.
She growled back, and he came.
With each pulse of his orgasm, he panted her name, until the last iteration was little more than a whisper.
Her growl also softened to a rough breath that vibrated through his cock.
She was choking but not willing to back down. Gently, he withdrew, another pulse going through him at the sight of his slicked flesh easing from between her reddened lips.
“God, you’re beautiful,” he murmured as he traced one fingertip over her ear to tuck back her mussed hair.
Still on her knees, she tilted her head into his palm and half closed her eyes, the wolf fever banked for the moment. “You taste like tamarisk honey.”
“I work on an arbor crew and we were out in the canyons cutting salt cedar today. That’s why I left so early this morning. But I had to take a break and go beat off from thinking of you.”
Her slightly swollen lips parted with a pleased smile. “I hope you didn’t get caught.”
His cock jerked, and he grunted.
Her smile turned sly. “You like that idea?”
“I don’t share,” he growled.
“Maybe you’d like to watch me—” She let out a little yelp when he reached down to haul her to her feet.
He spun her around and put her back against the door, right where he’d been. He braced his forearms on either side of her head and leaned in close.
“I guess I’ll have to watch you real close.”
She canted her head, lashes flickering over her dark eyes that glinted again, but not with the wolf fever, just a sensual challenge. “Maybe I like to get caught.”
“Then I’ll catch you.” He snaked his head down to kiss her.
She flicked her tongue against his, and he tasted a hint of the sweet-dark honey, thick as molasses, that bees crafted from the tamarisk.
Still pinning her against the door, he reached for the button of her jeans.
She blinked at him. “But aren’t you…”
“Here’s a thing about werewolves,” he said. “We can go all night. And we can go…all…night.” With each word, he kissed her and shoved her jeans farther down.
She kicked off her sneakers, jeans, and panties like a cat shaking water off its paws, bumping his stiff cock with each thrust. On the last shake, she tucked him between her legs.
He groaned as his dick slicked through her wet cleft. “Did you come when you sucked me?”
“Almost.” Her cheeks turned pink. “I felt…I almost felt like I was licking myself.”
To the beast, one with its surroundings, every sensation, every movement, every encounter was a call and response of self and other, an endless circle that even death didn’t break, a unity.
A mating.
But they couldn’t be mated. Not at midwinter. He hadn’t even seen the moon through the clouds in weeks.
His pulse stuttered and sped, but his cock stayed rock hard, thrusting up into her pussy like a bee delving for nectar.
She leaned her head back and closed her eyes, her core clenching hot and wet around him. He set his teeth to the side of her neck and nipped her. Her mewl of dark pleasure spiked through him, and his erection swelled even more. With each pump of his hips, her ass thumped against the door—honey, I’m home.
“Oh god, you’re so deep,” she said. “I feel you in my heart.”
It couldn’t be, but it was. They were bonding. Her wolf hadn’t even risen yet. They’d made each other no promises. He didn’t know her last name.
And none of that mattered.
“I’m coming,” she whined. “Don’t stop. Oh, don’t stop.”
He clenched his jaw and tightened his thighs, holding her fast even as he pounded her into her shuddering climax. His head whirled with the scent of winter jasmine, too delicate for the desert, but here nonetheless.
“Oh yes, yes, yes,” she cried.
But would she still say that when she discovered she was mated to him?
* * *
She’d never showered with anyone else, but Annie decided she could get used to sharing the hot water if it meant she had someone to massage her scalp and shoulders.
Well, not just someone…
Blaze.
How could he be so sexy-rough—pounding her against a single-wide door, for god’s sake; they could’ve broken right through and ended up humping in the backyard of a roadhouse—but then take the borrowed comb out of her hand and tease out the knots himself?
Maybe it was because he was a werewolf: part man, part beast.
And it was the beast who was sweetest.
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After they toweled each other off, she grimaced at her clothes. They’d been with her since Albuquerque and had seen better days even before that.
Blaze must’ve caught her expression. He took her hand and pulled her out to the bedroom then threw open the accordion closet doors.
She eyed the selection. “Whose are these?”
“Whoever needs them.” He winked at her. “Shapeshifters sometimes have trouble remembering where they left their clothes. And that’s when they aren’t drinking.”
She snorted and flicked through the hangers. “Lot of pearl snaps.”
“I think I could maybe try a zipper,” he said solemnly.
She pulled down a long-sleeve western shirt and towel-flicked it at him. He twisted easily out of the way, grinning.
The clothes were all men’s fashion—seriously, even in the werewolf world she bet only males forgot where they put their clothes—but besides the shirt, she found denim in a smaller size that fit her well enough to be almost cute boyfriend jeans and were actually nicer than her own pair. The socks were all too big, but considering the cold and the thin soles of her sneakers, she didn’t mind the extra bulk.
“No underwear,” she said.
“Too bad, so sad,” Blaze said, not even trying to sound sincere.
She chased him out of the bedroom—since males didn’t care about being buck-ass naked, apparently—and got dressed.
But when she emerged, tying the two edges of the button shirt around her midriff, he too was clothed.
“I don’t think this outfit is going to get me as many tips tonight,” she said, looking down at the heather cotton.
Blaze ambled toward her and pulled her into his arms. “Here’s a tip: your smile is worth all my money.”
Even while she rolled her eyes, she slipped her arms around him and ducked her hands into the rear pockets of his jeans to squeeze his butt. She pursed her lips in mock disappointment. “Not much back here. In money or meat. Somebody should feed you.”
“You tricked me with the promise of cookies and then put me to work,” he complained. “Which reminds me. You gotta take it easy at Gypsy’s tonight.”
She scowled at him and tugged her hands back. “Oh yeah? Says who?”
He caught her fists before she could pull away. “Feel that? That’s the wild animal in you.”
“No, that’s the mean bitch in me who comes out when people try to tell me what to do.”
“Isn’t that what I just said?” He smirked and reeled her closer when she squirmed against his hold. “The moon is rising,” he continued, “and it’s calling to the wolf.”
Her wolf.
She let out a slow breath and her spine wilted a little. “Oh.”
“Yeah. It’s better for you—and for everyone else—if the beast can emerge in its own way, in its own time. That’s all that matters for now.”
She nibbled at her lip. “Can I do anything to hurry it along?”
“Can you hurry the springtime?”
“Maybe if I growled a little more?” She hoped he knew that was sort of an apology. She didn’t want to be a bitch; Tomas would’ve wiped the floor with her.
“Maybe.” Blaze kissed her forehead, so she thought he did know. “Are you hungry for real this time?” When she nodded against his lips, he spun her toward the kitchen. “Then go make me a sandwich.”
She wriggled out of his grasp and glowered at him. “Seriously?”
“Nah. I’ll do it.”
While he arranged the Grampa’s sandwiches neatly on matching plates, she sat at the Formica counter with her oversized-stockinged feet propped on the stool cushion, her chin on her knees, admiring his lean, strong beauty. Except for that one pool shot he’d missed, he always moved as if his body was his to command. Her mood swung again when she remembered last Christmas sprawling at Tomas’ boots, unable to rise, her ribs grinding with every awkward breath.
Never again.
When Blaze placed the triangular wedges of sandwich in front of her, she asked, “What was the best part of becoming a werewolf for you?”
His eyebrows shot up then plunged as he settled onto the stool beside her. “I’ve never thought about it. I was born this way.”
She pursed her lips. “So your parents are both werewolves? And they raised you always knowing what you were? But what if you did think about it?”
He spun his plate in front of him. “I don’t know.” He stared down, but she wondered what he was really seeing. “It’s all fine, I guess.”
Fine. She knew how many ways to interpret that. “Did you ever want to be just human?”
“No.” He was silent for a long moment. “My mother was human, didn’t know anything about shapeshifters until my father mated her.” His shoulders rounded. “She…she didn’t choose it.”
Annie jerked, and her socks slid off the stool. “He forced her?” An ugly chill creeped through the borrowed clothes.
“Most werewolf pups are male. I have a brother, and every shapeshifter couple I know in Angels Rest has boys. Any werewolf male who wants a mate has to find a human woman who can accept the change.”
“But your mom didn’t accept it,” Annie noted. “You’re saying she was raped.” When Blaze didn’t respond, she thought of the bubbly Dare who had offered to answer all her questions. No way had anyone ever hurt her. “I can’t believe it.”
Blaze pushed aside his plate. “She loved my dad, wanted to marry him. But she didn’t know that meant taking the wolf too. Until it was too late. That doesn’t happen anymore. Our pack alpha outlawed forced conversions.”
The bruise on her face that she’d almost forgotten about throbbed in sympathy with those women who’d come before her.
It was one thing to choose to become a monster… But had she really chosen this? Or had Tomas forced her too?
She clutched the unknown shapeshifter’s shirt tight around her belly. “How did your mom get over it? Did she…forgive him? I mean…you’re here, and your brother too…”
“We’re twins, born from the first mating season when he took her. She did her best, but sometimes she couldn’t even stand to look at us.” His voice cracked, taking Annie’s heart with it. She leaned across the space between them to put her head on his shoulder.
He buried his face in her hair, his voice still rough but muffled. “They fought one night—well, they fought a lot, but it was Christmas Eve and I was hiding in the downstairs closet, waiting for Santa Claus, so I heard it all. She told him the only gift she wanted was to get rid of the wolf. When my brother woke up, Dad was gone.”
“Oh, Blaze,” she whispered. And she’d thought her last Christmas in the ER had been shitty. “Why do these things always happen at the holidays?”
“So we appreciate the every days more?” He let out a gusty sigh. “I know what he did was wrong. The way things were done, maybe, but wrong. But…he was great with me and my brother. He took us running in the hills, taught us how to be wolves. And men, when we needed to be.” He rubbed his cheek against her hair, and she wondered if he was wiping away a tear. “It doesn’t mean much to you because you don’t know our ways, but werewolves don’t just leave their pack. They don’t leave their mates and their pups behind. He left when he wanted to stay, and my mother stayed but she wanted to leave.”
Blaze lifted his head. The gold ring was nowhere in his eyes, and the birthmark burned on his blanched cheek. “I swore I’d never do what they did. I’d rather be alone than mated to someone who didn’t want me.”
She wanted to tell him he wouldn’t be alone, but she knew he wouldn’t believe her. And why should he? They both knew that alone was the default setting in the universe. She sagged back on her stool. “I’m sorry,” she said. Because, really, what else was there to say?
Until she had a werewolf to back up her big, bad words? Nothing at all.
8
They finished their meal in silence, and Blaze regretted telling Annie the story about hiding in the closet. T
hat Christmas was over and gone.
He just wished this holiday could be different.
But as the daylight faded into a flurry of snow and they tidied up the trailer in preparation for Annie’s happy hour shift at the roadhouse, he felt their interlude of playing house was coming to an end. And when he locked the front door and hid the key, the thud of the lawn gnome on the frozen earth had a bleak finality.
They walked over to Gypsy’s, their heads ducked against the wannabe storm. Before he could open the door for her, Annie put her hand on his elbow, bringing him to a reluctant halt.
“You were right when you said I don’t know your ways. I didn’t even believe in werewolves until you changed for me.”
He narrowed his eyes. “You said you already knew and you told me not to lie to you.”
“I was desperate and looking for a miracle.”
“A Christmas miracle.” He couldn’t hide the bitterness in his voice. “From a monster.”
“And you gave me one.”
He shook his head. “We don’t even know for sure if the virus was transmitted.”
“The virus wasn’t the miracle.” She trailed her hand down his arm and burrowed her fingers into his tight fist. “You’ve made me believe in good guys. You were willing to save me.”
“By biting you. By fu—”
She placed one fingertip over his lips. “By caring.” She raised their joined hands to her bruised cheek and pressed his knuckles over the faded mark. “Despite what happened to you back then, you were willing to take a chance on me now. And I can’t tell you what that means to me.”
He tilted his forehead down to lean against hers. “You don’t have to say it.”
They stood there a long moment until the jukebox inside fired up.
“I want a hometown Christmas.
I want a country Christmas.
Let’s make it the merriest Christmas this year.”
They went inside, and Gypsy immediately summoned Annie behind the bar. Blaze found a corner table where he could watch her. Each hour that passed without her wolf rising meant she was less likely to make the change.
