Moonlight Journey: A Reverse Harem Shifter Romance (The Witch and the Wolf Pack Book 6)

by K. R. Alexander

  Speaking of time … I couldn’t actually find camp on my own.

  I turned. I didn’t have to ask someone to come with me, though. All six were padding after, including Andrew—who’d made a miraculous recovery.

  “Wait a minute. I’m going to camp. You’re going to search.”

  They regarded me impassively.

  More shaken by the bear scare than I cared to admit, I found I was glad for the guard seeing me safe back to our campsite after all.

  They escorted me within sight of tents, where lights gleamed from battery operated lanterns and cook stoves.

  I switched off my flashlight and bid them goodnight.

  Zar and Jed still tried to follow.

  “Please split up. Find them. I’m good here. It’s not that cold. No bears. Check in later if you want. Once the other campers are in bed.” I touched their heads. “Have fun.”

  They went, sort of. I wasn’t convinced some really weren’t lurking.

  Maybe hunger, if not moral obligations, would get them out all together again. They needed to hunt.

  I had a cold sandwich from Dubois, enjoying this with half a bottle of water before also enjoying the camp restrooms with running water and electricity.

  The campers were turning in by the time I also found my sleeping bag. I suppose that was all the quiet needed because I hadn’t even shut my eyes, just lying down and thinking of the pack out there, when claws scraped lightly over the tent nylon.

  I let out a breath as I sat up to unzip the flap.

  “Zar, really. I know you can find—”

  It wasn’t Zar. Jed shoved his way into the tent, filling the space.

  “What are you doing?” I hissed.

  Jed wagged his tail, which I could hear rather than see, a light swish, swish. He stood over me, chin on my shoulder, pawing at me.

  “We’ve talked about this. Yet I don’t feel like you listen.”

  He sniffed in my hair, hooking a huge, rough paw on my arm to pull me against him.

  “I’m not a wolf, Jed. Stop it.”

  He sank on his elbows beside me, not lying down but offering me a play bow.

  I’d been doing some canine research in bits and pieces lately, mostly on the plane. Andrew and Jason had mentioned the stressful element of sex in that form and I’d caved and looked up the anatomy. A male canine’s penis swelled at the base during mating and tied him to the female for some time until this relaxed. Everyone has their own evolutionary adaptations. I wouldn’t judge. But, to me, the most interesting part was the courtship body language—including things like sniffing the face and back of her neck, putting his head over her back, play bows, play chasing, and pawing and mounting each other.

  Jed and I did not need to master our courtship signals. But we needed to master other communication skills.

  I wasn’t sure how to work on the gap as long as he would persist in ignoring everything I said. Then, if I took drastic action, I crushed him.

  I couldn’t be another villain. It seemed to me Jed had enough of those. But this thing—this species divide and his being able to understand my view on his being in different forms—was so important to me, I wondered if there may need to be more magic involved to get him to pay attention.

  Jed, still wagging, stood and sniffed into my hair again.

  He was so much happier in fur it was horrible. It wasn’t that I wanted him to change and be miserable. Yet there were plenty of reasons I needed him to change—and him to understand that.

  “Jed—” I pushed against the mane of his thick neck. “Do you want to talk?”

  It wasn’t like I would sleep, thinking about them all out there with other shifters who might not actually be friendly toward us after all. I’d only brought myself back here to let them move freely.

  Jed hovered until I pushed back the sleeping bag and reached to grab my jeans, shivering in long underwear.

  “Let’s go up to get your clothes and maybe we can have a talk on our own for once. Jed—”

  He’d hooked his paws under my legs when I raised my knees and was trying to hump my legs.

  Still wagging his tail, he moved in to lick my face instead.

  “Get out. Let me get dressed and I’ll walk back to your stuff with you. And be quiet.” I had to threaten him by holding my hands up in his face, but he finally retreated.

  I pulled on the jacket and shoes after my clothes, then had to use the flashlight to zip up the tent and make my way back up the trail.

  Chapter 26

  Jed bounced around in the dark, nuzzling my hands, play bowing, chasing his tail.

  You’d have thought he’d said, “Will you—?”

  And I’d said, “Yes.”

  I wondered if Zar was nearby as my mind raced over how to approach Jed in a way that would be relatable to him. No one appeared as we picked our way through the forest to their things in rucksacks and dog backpacks.

  “Let’s go for a walk,” I proposed. “You and me, in skin. And we can talk on our own. We need a little exercise in one another’s perspectives.”

  I found his bag and switched off the light.

  “Here—”

  Jed almost knocked me over, jumping against me, clasping my legs with his forepaws and pinning my knees together. I dropped bag and light and grabbed a tree, then jerked my hands away as a vision of catching fistfuls of bloodthirsty spiders sprang to mind. Real smart since, then, I really did fall.

  With an exclamation, I hit the forest floor, knocking the breath from me, face bashing harmlessly into canvas instead of a spider’s lair.

  “You idiot, that’s enough!” I made my hands glow in his face but Jed only flinched, his teeth closed around the hem of my coat. “Change. How many times do I have to tell you we can’t be like that when you’re in fur? This—let go of my jacket!” I sat up, shoving him back with a foot against his chest, still glowing. “This is not okay. Jed?”

  He bit my jeans instead, seeming to want something to hold onto.

  “You need to listen to me or our relationship is going to get very difficult. If you’re frustrated change and talk to me. Hey! If you hurt those—” I leaned forward sharply, shoving the white glow into his face.

  Jed jumped back.

  I sat there, lowering my hands as the glow faded, facing him in moonlight and shadow of the forest as we both panted.

  “Listen,” I said quietly. “You are being a total asshat right now and I am not going to tell you again. If you want a more intimate relationship with me on any level, you must be in skin. I understand compromise in relationships. I’m not in the habit of ‘my way or the highway’ stands when I’m making friends or dating. But this is not optional. I think of you in a different way in fur and skin and I can’t help that. Besides, I don’t want to help it. When you’re in skin my brain says ‘human.’ When you’re in fur, my brain says ‘animal.’ I’ve already told you this but you’re not listening. This is really weird for me and I’m not explaining again. Change. Then let’s talk and you can tell me how you feel also.”

  He stood there, watching me in the dark.

  “I shouldn’t have come out here. I’m going to bed. You go help your pack.” I turned onto my knees, brushing off my jacket, thinking of spiders.

  Jed jumped on me, clasping his forepaws around my waist—the total bastard.

  He knocked me onto my hands and knees, chest on my back, thrusting against my jeans as he clung to me with his forepaws. He didn’t hold back about throwing his weight onto me either, slamming me down to the mulch ground.

  Right. I’d been as nice as I was going to be.

  Someone was about to get his feelings hurt. And his fur singed.

  I called fire, wind, my own skin rippling with it, the leaves above us swaying.

  Jed leaned in, his nose in the hair at the back of my neck, pressing tight as if fulfilling his own fantasy. He knew I wasn’t a wolf. He wanted me to be in fur as much as I wanted him to be in skin. To him, this was the compromi
se already. He could pretend the rest.

  I think the soft whining was what got to me. Perhaps he wasn’t even aware he did it. Or maybe it was the weight and size of him, like another human being against me, that had me thinking about him in my own terms. Or maybe that I’d just thought I wanted him in skin.

  “Jed, change,” I gasped—instead of setting his fur on fire.

  The magic still tingled around me. Or was that the sensations he was giving me?

  “Change.”

  He ignored me. Lost in his own fantasy? Breeding his wolf mate?

  He’d been ignoring me a lot lately. Not the sort of thing I wanted to reward. Well … screw the training program.

  Seeing Kage and Jason together against the tree… Advances and wrong timing, mostly from Zar, plus others in the past days… I should be able to lead them and stay on good terms and still keep my pants on. But, like the training, I didn’t really want to all of a sudden.

  “Jed,” I panted, breathless and burning while he rocked against me, the weight of him exciting. “Change. Change and … I’ll take my clothes off.”

  For the first time he hesitated. He lifted his muzzle from my neck, then slid off, dropping all four paws to earth. I heard his heavy panting, though didn’t look around. I was just as hot but also didn’t move to take off my coat or anything else. Not until I knew he meant it.

  He stepped back. I tried to block out that horrible, painful sound of the change with my own scramble of clothing. I dropped the jacket and pulled off shirt and long underwear top in one go, then sat back on my knees to pull down jeans and underwear. I struggled with yanking my shoes off, and almost had everything away when Jed was back.

  His skin felt hot as my own. He knocked me forward once more to find the same position against me, on his knees rather than paws, holding on with hands while he threw too much weight into my hips and back. He said not a word. I never even caught a glimpse of him as he mounted. I followed his lead with silence, mouth open for panting breaths, hands on the jacket. Crushing as his weight was, I wanted it—leaving me more aroused, more part of the fantasy with him even if I’d put my foot down about that one big detail.

  He thrust blindly as before, his thick shaft rubbing across my thighs and butt, sending out fresh ripples with my nerves responding—all frantic heat and force.

  Holding her tail aside. This was the mate he’d found, separated from the pack to court, and she’d chosen him—at least for now.

  He honed in and I leaned into him, knowing what he would be like before he found me, yet craving him anyway. The head of his dick, swollen and already wet, joined with me and he shoved in, shifting his hips. He gripped tighter, surging forward. He would have knocked me flat with the powerful, even slightly painful rush of his thrusts, only he was holding me up and against him all the time. Also, I’d known he’d be primeval, a wolf taking his mate, and was braced.

  The whole thing, the night, setting, power and force of him owning me, combining around the sensation of him deep inside, coming in half a minute, all pushed me right there with him. I climaxed after him, quiet, only gasping through my mouth as he did, while he was still thrusting.

  He held himself in, weight and force of his hold just as strong, at the same time keeping me pulled tight to him while I still shivered, my own pleasure slow to fade.

  He relaxed even more weight into me as I resisted, keeping steady on my hands and knees. He held on as long as possible—minutes while he could pretend the canine tie locked us together. Instead, he relaxed and gradually slid back. Most guys seem to think they’ve ejaculated about a pint, but, all exaggeration aside, this felt substantial trickling down my skin as he unwillingly withdrew.

  Breathing hard, covered in a film of perspiration that would soon chill me, I sank to my side on the jacket and shirt. I had to pull Jed’s hand before he followed, lying down naked on the mulch, facing me.

  I kissed his open mouth, feeling sharp stubble and heat off him, still aroused with the wet sensation between my closed thighs, all the way to my knees.

  Jed pulled away from the kiss, a sudden, reflexive motion, like I’d startled him. He paused, leaned in, but didn’t do much to return it, hardly moving his lips.

  I withdrew gently, kissing his lower lip, inviting him to follow. He offered only one tentative return kiss, then away again.

  “What’s wrong?” I touched my fingertip to his lips.

  “Never kissed before,” he mumbled, leaning back from me on his side and looking at my hand.

  “You’ve never…” Huh. “No problem. Do you want to? Or not so much?”

  He hesitated.

  “Just give it a try and see,” I said. “You can use your tongue. Try what’s comfortable for you.”

  He tried with a hesitant lick to lips, hardly touching. I returned an equally soft kiss. In this way, ever so slow and gentle, we kissed and felt over one another’s lips. All the time he remained uncertain. I couldn’t tell if he was warming up to the idea or only trying to do what I wanted—when he would have been happier just with a lick to my nose, then curling up against me.

  After a minute, I eased back and brushed down his stubbled jaw with the backs of my fingers. “You’ve never kissed? Never been with a female in skin? Didn’t you have anyone in your own pack? A Sable female you ran with?”

  “In fur.” He watched my face, his eyes lit by a faint glow from the moon.

  “Do you understand why I’ve told you we’re not a good match?”

  “I’m not blind.”

  “No … I know. But don’t you want more out of a mate? Like the ability to shapeshift?” I stroked his face.

  He didn’t answer, only watching me.

  “Jed? Why had you decided you would never be able to come to this part of the world? What happened?”

  He still said nothing. I was used to that from Jed, though: short conversations with incredibly long silences. I waited.

  After a full minute he reached up to return the gesture of touching my face. He was slow, awkward about it, his fingers stiff. After trying with a few knuckles, he gave that up, his hand dwarfing my face, and used only one finger to touch my cheek and lips.

  I kissed his fingertip.

  He left it there, watching my lips. It was hard to see his expression, even nose to nose, it was so dark. Yet it seemed to me he frowned, maybe looked worried.

  “A wolf can’t … survive alone,” he said at last, seeming to have to work at what word he wanted for “survive.” I understood that he did not mean they could not technically exist alone. There was more to survival.

  “Couldn’t you have briefly visited Canada or the States?”

  He didn’t answer.

  “It’s hard to travel alone. Even for people who are used to the human world, but not used to airports and security and planes.” I shifted so I could take his hand, still awkward, fumbling as he tried to touch me the way he’d seen Zar and maybe others touch me. I curled his fingers around to make a lose fist, more like a paw than these splayed sticks.

  I kissed the backs of his fingers and held his hand gently against my face, allowing him to move from there, stroking my cheek with his knuckles and thumb.

  “You work with your hands every day in the shop,” I said softly. “It’s okay to generalize. Just because you’ve never touched a woman doesn’t mean you’ve never learned how to touch.”

  He opened his hand to brush hair back from my temples, then hesitated and again closed it, more at ease that way.

  I slid my fingers through the black, curly hair, finally stroking his head in skin, making me smile. Bringing my hand down his face, I held it the same way his was, brushing my closed fingers along the stubble of his jaw to his chin.

  He didn’t say anything else, only watching, so I said, “I’m cold. Will you talk to me?”

  “What about?”

  I propped up to pull underwear and jeans back on, trying not to think of the wetness as I shivered. I’d already needed to do laundry
in the next place we stayed.

  “About why you never came here. No one to travel with?”

  “No one in the pack I’d have wanted to go with.”

  I shook out my shirt and picked bits of forest off in the dark, looking down at him while Jed did not move, apparently oblivious to ground or chill, still watching me.

  “If you need to get away and do your own thing, for your own mental health, I’m sure you can make that happen. Maybe you could visit Scotland? Take a boat over to Norway? I don’t know. Ever tried something like that?”

  A long silence while I pulled on the two shirts.

  “My brother—Zar—asked me to stay.”

  I moved the jacket up and lay down again, still cold, head and upper body on the jacket. I would have shared with him, but Jed didn’t seem to care.

  “What do you mean? Zar didn’t want you traveling?”

  “Not that. I intended to leave after they murdered our father. I didn’t tell Zar. I suppose they knew. I stayed in fur for months, first because I was injured after the fight, then because I refused to live like them. After they killed him, I didn’t want to be a part of that pack. I was just waiting until I was healed and strong enough to leave. I could make it to the Highlands, the north coast, all on foot. I could live up there alone as a total wolf and hide from worms. I’d travel at night to get there, raid rubbish or catch a rabbit until I was out in the wild and live however I could. I didn’t want to speak to anyone in the Sable Pack again. My mother and brother turned their backs and let him die. While the rest were there to kill him.

  “Just when I was ready to go, Zar asked me to change back to skin, to stay with the pack. Mum had lost Gabe, then her mate. She only had us left. I was the oldest then. Zar said they needed me and not to go. He was right. I wanted to go anyway, but … I didn’t. I changed back so Zacharias could put the cuff on me for all the trouble I’d caused the night he murdered my father. I wish I’d killed him. It would have been something. I only got his leg. There were too many.”

  He stopped and I waited, wise these days to his conversational style, though there was so much I wanted to say—ask, point out.