Chapter 17
TIPPY
Sure, the food at Fangs Fine Dining was delicious tonight. But it was pretty much wasted on me. I wasn’t in the least bit hungry. My stomach was in such a tight knot it was hard to force anything down.
But somehow I did. I even smiled and chatted. And all the time, I avoided Jax’s gaze—which was hard, because he kept staring at me. He seemed calmer somehow, even though he clearly had gotten himself into a fight, going by those cuts on his face and neck, and the big bruise on his cheek.
Tangled in a briar bush, my vixen ass.
But considering he had no vape with him, yeah, he did pretty well, laughing with Arlo about how Friday night poker at Digger’s wasn’t the same without him, and complimenting Sammy on how well she looked.
When the dessert menu came round, Sammy yawned.
“Tired?” Arlo checked in on her, his eyes full of loving concern.
“Yeah, bub’s been kicking all day. Those little hooves sure pack a punch.”
“Hooves, not feet?” Jax kinked an eyebrow.
“Oh yeah, definitely hooves.” Sammy chuckled. “Not looking forward to when he pushes his way through my poor human birth canal.”
“Ouch!” I winced in sympathy.
“Don’t worry, newborn minotaur hooves are soft as butter,” Arlo reassured her.
Sammy grinned. Far from appearing worried, she looked like she was looking forward to her birthing experience.
What would it be like, I wondered, to be a mom of a little one? To love and nurture it. An image of a youngling floated into my mind. It had distinctly wolfen features, and green eyes.
Stop right there, Tippy Honeywell.
Ten minutes later, we’ve paid our bill and we’re all standing on the busy evening street. I linger with Arlo and Sammy as we say our goodbyes, hugging them for longer than necessary. I’m too chicken to be left alone with Jax.
“Take care on the mission, mate,” Arlo says to Jax. “I hope the portal cape behaves itself. Its sense of direction can be a bit off kilter.”
Sammy playfully punches her mate’s huge bicep. “Don’t diss it. If it hadn’t taken you to that parking lot, we never would have met.”
“You’re right, I owe the cape my happily ever after.” He hugs her to his flank and I’m painfully aware of Jax by my side, our arms almost touching.
Finally, they walk west toward their den, while we head east to ours.
We barely talk, beyond exchanging some polite niceties about the food and how well Arlo and Sammy seem to be settling in down here. It’s ridiculous. Jax has never been this polite in his life, and it’s making me feel even more edgy.
I’m still so confused. And upset. With myself mainly, I guess.
I was entrusted with an important task: to eradicate Jax’s addiction. And on the first night I blew it by turning into a horny little vixen.
Oh goddess, I came so hard under the stroke and thrust of his fingers. All I wanted was his wolfen cock deep inside me. I gave no thought to anything else. And what’s more, the desire in me has coiled up all over again, and I feel hot and ripe and needy for his touch.
I really am in trouble.
I glance sideways at Jax, striding by my side.
His profile is beautiful, majestic almost, with his dark hair swept back from his forehead.
And yes, Arlo was right, he is different.
But it’s more than simply not vaping. He seems grounded, and there’s a quiet confidence to him.
If anything, it makes him more alluring.
I so want to give in to the pull of this attraction. I want to move into his flank, feel his arm around my shoulders pulling me close, as if we really are… meant to be together.
But of course I don’t, I just start talking shit, any shit really, to stop the feelings taking over.
“I don’t know where you’ve been and I don’t want to know, Jax, but those cuts are going to need treatment.
And that bruise is looking nasty. I’ve got some tincture that will stop the swelling, but you’d better hope it doesn’t get infected…
I mean, running around in a place you don’t know was…
very foolhardy of you, and clumsy…obviously, if you landed in a briar bush. ”
He turns his head and smiles at me, with that lip quirk that never fails to make my heart flip.
“Thanks, Tip,” he says softly, his gaze caressing me. “Where would I be without you?”
I gulp, unable to find an answer to those quiet seductive words, and hope to hell that my legs, which have suddenly turned to Jell-O, will carry me home.
When we get to the den, I dash inside and grab my little bag of tinctures, my tail swishing around wildly. I stuff it into my belt to stop its antics.
“Sit down. I’m going to put something on those cuts and bruises,” I order.
He gives me that look again, his lips twitching at my flustered state, lids drooping over seductive eyes. Then he sits and places his hands calmly in his lap.
“Did you notice I haven’t vaped all evening?”
“Yep. Full marks for that,” I rap out like a schoolmistress as I dig around in my medicine bag. I shake witch hazel and lillipod essence onto a swab and press it against the cut on his throat. He just stares at me, not even wincing, even though I know this stuff stings like all hell.
I am so aware of his breath, warm against my skin, as I check out his grazes.
He smells delicious, a little salty, and sweet, and male.
To try and distract myself, I ask, “So… how did you do this? Really?”
He doesn’t answer for long moments.
“Okay, the truth is I jumped over the wire into the Braden wastelands.”
I sit back on my heels and stare at him. “W-what? Why?”
He smirks slightly. “I needed to do something to get my wolf under control.”
“So you got into a fight. That’s so stupid, Jax, especially with the mission just around the corner. What if you’d gotten hurt?”
“I didn’t.”
“But you could have.”
“I shifted, so that leveled the playing field.”
“Oh—I see.”
“We—my wolf and I—taught them a lesson they won’t forget in a hurry.”
I gape at him. He smiles ruefully. “It needed to happen.”
“Hell, you are crazy!”
“Right now, yeah. Probably.” His voice drops an octave. “Crazy about someone.”
My ears twitch, and all my senses light up. But I pretend not to hear, because this is a complete turnaround from the events of earlier, and I don’t know how to handle it.
“I know it was probably stupid,” he adds, “but it calmed my wolf, helped us to bond.”
“I’m so happy for you both.” I know I sound peeved. But I was here waiting for him and going out of my mind with worry. I change the subject. “Okay,” I clip out, “you’re all tidied up. It’s time for your night-time potion.”
“I don’t need it. I haven’t had a single urge to vape tonight.” He looks down at his hands, resting on his thighs. They’re not fidgeting, not even a smidge.
“Well, you can have it anyway…” I huff. “I’ll disguise it in a hot chocolate or something.”
I put the medicine bag back in my room, then busy myself warming milk on the stove.
All the time, I can feel Jax’s eyes on me.
I hear his chair scrape on the flagstones, then the soft pad of his feet.
I whisk the chocolate into the warm milk, then add the powdered elixir.
I know he’s getting closer, and I’m so jumpy my tail literally unhooks itself from my belt and starts swishing from side to side.
I grab it and try to stuff it back into my belt, but it refuses to comply.
“Tippy.” His voice is husky, soft, mere inches from my ear.
I grab the mug and turn to hand it to him.
He takes it. Puts it on the bench next to us.
I stare at him, chewing at my bottom lip. “Aren’t you going to drink that?”
“Like I said, I don’t need it.”
I tsssk loudly, and press my butt into the kitchen bench to stop my tail from reaching out and stroking all over his chest.
And then he turns me toward him and takes my hand. He turns it over in his palm, and we watch my claws flex and unflex as my arousal pulses to the same rhythm.
He lets out a low growl of pleasure, and it goes straight to my clit.
And then he says, low and husky, “About what happened between us… It wasn’t that I didn’t want you.
Gods, Tippy, I’ve wanted you for so fucking long…
” When his voice cracks with emotion, that’s it, I’m done for.
I’m like a fish caught on his line, about to be reeled in.
And worse, as I stand sandwiched between him and the bench, my tail, which clearly goes nuts when I’m aroused, flicks around his hip and curls tight around his butt.
His pupils dilate—yep, he’s felt it. But he keeps talking. “I couldn’t trust my wolf. But we’ve sorted our differences now.”
“You have?” I gulp, trying to tug my tail away. But it remains steadfastly wrapped around his butt. The urge to stroke his ass is unbearable.
His eyes darken a shade more. “Yeah. We worked out we were both in love with the same girl.”
I stand frozen, lips dry, heart pounding. My tail, damn the thing, winds tighter, binding him closer. I feel his cock, a hard ridge against my belly.
His face is now distinctly wolfen, beautiful despite his broken and bruised skin.
“It’s always been you, Tippy,” he says softly.
“Long before I was wolfen, it was you. Even when I was programmed and numb inside, you reached inside me and pulled my soul out of the abyss. You saw me, Tippy, imprisoned, in hell… and you saved me,” he whispers.
“I want you… need you Tippy. Not your potions, not your green smoothies. Just—you…”
He hooks a tendril of my red hair in his fingers. “Are you just going to stare at me—or are you going to tell me you feel the same?”
“Oh, Jax. Yesssss.” It’s almost a sob that falls from my lips. “From the moment I first saw you.”
And then I close my eyes, lift my face, and wait.
Our noses rub. And then we kiss for the second time today.
This time, it’s gentle, the way his mouth explores mine. I feel the scratch of his beard, the softness of his lips molding to mine. It’s like a long drink, quenching a thirst so deep, as though his kiss is reaching into my very soul, my deepest corners, exposing all the years of unspoken longing.
My arms go around him, we bind closer, and I’m drowning in a sweet, slow, tortuous pleasure, until Jax’s lips becomes more urgent and suddenly the flame of desire explodes, pulling me under. Consuming me.
When he pulls away, I whine in protest. The air practically crackles as our gazes lock. Green and amber fuse. Gently, he touches my cheek, slides his fingertips around my jaw. When he hooks a finger under my chin, I can only gaze up at him, in thrall.
“Do you trust me?”
“Yes.”
“Me and my wolf?”
“Yes, oh yes,” I sigh softly.
With a growl of triumph, Jax lifts me into his arms and strides into his room.
He lays me down on the bed, smiling as he kisses me while undoing the buttons on my shirt and pushing down my flimsy bra.
He growls softly as he releases one breast and sucks hungrily on the nipple.
I cry out, arch up to meet his lips as his ministrations move to my other breast, giving my other hungry nipple as much care and attention as the first.
His hands explore over my ribs, across the soft mound of my belly, down to the little red patch of fur between my legs.
I tug at his t-shirt and obligingly he rips it off, leaving my hands to roam over his delineated pecs, the muscles of his abs, the little v of tantalizing hair.
Daringly, I cup the huge bulge between his legs and he lets out a shuddering groan. I unzip him and free his cock, my fingers shafting him as he rises above me, and then we shed our clothes. We’re finally naked.
“You are the most beautiful creature in the world. I want to see you shift into vixen again,” he murmurs.
“I can’t just make that happen. I don’t—I don’t know why… it just happened spontaneously earlier.”
“We’re learning alongside each other, my wolf and your vixen.” He kisses my ears, fondles my tail with a kind of awe. “The times I’ve watched this little tail swing from your skirt at Digger’s.” He grins. “It drove me crazy. But you knew that, right?”
“Maybe.” I smirk.
His touch moves over the ridge of my pubic bone to my pussy and his hand dips along my seam, stroking an agonizingly slow path toward my entrance.
“I’m going to take this slow, it’s your first time.”
“I want all of you, I want everything…” I say, my fingers on his cock making it clear what I mean by everything.
“Not this time. We’re both new to this, babe. And wolf dick isn’t the same as human dick.”
“So you’re a knotting virgin.”
He laughs. “Guess I am.”
I whine a protest, but seeing the size of him, I accept that he may be right.
Primal longing spreads through me. If this is my heat, then bring it on, I think incoherently as I lie back, dragging him with me, then arch my hips and shamelessly spread my legs.
Jax looms over me, so much bulkier than he used to be, yet still very much a man, not a wolf, even though I sense its presence in him keenly. Yes, his wolf is there in every touch, every caress.
He pets me until I’m drenched and squirming before he finally settles between my legs. Bracing above me, he asks, “You sure?”, the lust blooming strong in his eyes yet still held back.
“Yes,” I murmur and pull him into me. “Never surer.”
I feel his cock at my entrance, then gently, gently he enters me.
I arch back on a mewl and he sweeps a hand over my brow, gazes into my eyes.
“Okay?”
I nod. “So good.”
I wind my legs and tail around his flanks, tugging him close. There is no pain now as he pushes deeper, just a throbbing, delicious stretch, the joy of being filled by his cock.
When he moves in me, I rise to meet him, the edge of his swollen knot pressing on my clit, providing the friction I need to satisfy the building fire inside me. And build it does, until I can hold back no longer. I break apart spectacularly, keening his name as I come.
He lets out an expletive, heavy and thick. His eyes darken to a deep green, then his lips descend on mine, and we kiss desperately as he moves faster, thrusting deeper, yet still holding back his knot from fully entering me.
I orgasm again, binding him to me as I shudder and clamp down on his shaft with my internal muscles.
He stills as he comes, his body tensing, all the muscles taut. He breathes my name on a broken, ragged cry as he spills into me.
It’s so beautiful that for the third time, I break apart and our pleasure binds us.
Me.
And Jax.
And his wolf.