Chapter Thirty-Seven
Mal
Slow, Hot & Sweaty
This…
I’m rarely at a loss for words—something that’s pissed off my father countless times throughout the years—but right now there’s not much I can say because there’s too much that I want to say.
The part of 25-year-old Malcom Ryan Sterling’s brain that controls logic and reason says there’s no fucking way in hell I should let my imagination entertain anything other than enjoying here, and now. This moment. Not even twelve or six hours ahead of now.
Because realistically, I have no fucking clue where I’ll be tomorrow or next week or next month.
I don’t know what’ll happen with my father, or with my initiation.
If I even make it that far and I’m not shipped out of here to some unknown destination.
I don’t know what Todd’s thinking, either.
His actions feel like safety and even more—like what I really wish I could label love—but I have no clue if that’s his default or something special reserved for me.
The truth is, I’ve never felt anything like this before, but I’ve also never had a short-term, much less a long-term, romantic relationship.
This could simply be what other people get to enjoy all the time, even if they’re not in a committed relationship, when they’re not deep in the closet and terrified of their father killing them over who they love.
I have no idea if, during or after initiation, I’ll meet someone I feel an instant mate bond with.
It finally drifts into my conscious brain there’s music softly playing through an outdoor speaker above us. I don’t know when he turned it on, but the mellow mix of music from jazz to country to slow rock is a nice backdrop and I’m digging it, even though I’ve yet to hear a song I know.
The last thing I want to do is move. I’m comfy, I’m fucking flying still from what we did, and part of me feels desperately afraid that if we go our separate ways now that I might never get this opportunity with him again.
“Part of me wants to be tucked into bed,” I say, “and part of me wishes I could go on a nighttime run.”
His chin nuzzles the top of my head again. “Why not both?”
I tip my head back to look him in the eyes. “Yeah?”
“Yeah. We can run here. I run all the time. It’s safe.”
A slow, bluesy, soul-rock kind of song comes on, and as I start grooving to it, my brain actually tunes in and processes the lyrics.
That’s when I realize it’s a sexy song about getting it on. Damned sexy song, too.
He must spot the moment I make the connection because his lips curl in a sexy smile. “JJ Grey & Mofro,” he says. “‘Slow, Hot & Sweaty’ from their Georgia Warhorse album.”
My mouth goes dry. “Uh, oh. Funny, never heard of them.”
His smile widens. “They were around long before you were born,” he says.
I have to moisten my lips because the sexy lyrics damned sure aren’t helping my self-control any. “I like it.”
“Jax always teases me that I should’ve been born in an earlier time because of my choice in music,” he says. “I’ll have to play you deep cuts from some of my favorite groups that you’ve also likely never heard of.”
“I’d like that.”
I’d like it even more if it was a soundtrack running in the background while we’re fucking each other’s brains out, but a guy can wish, can’t he?
“So, do you?” he asks.
I blink. “Um, do what?” Sexy time? Slide myself up and down your body? Beg you to never let me go?
“Want to take a night run with me?” he asks.
“Oh! Yes.” Fuck yeah, I want to see what the sexy elk looks like shifted.
I know what bio-elks look like, but I’ve never seen one up close and personal.
And I’ve never run with anything but wolves from my own pack because of—well, you know all the damned reasons, which can be boiled down to the two words “Randolph Sterling.”
I climb out of his lap and he stands. I finally process, naked like this, just how massive a man he is. I’m 5’-10” and he’s damned near a whole foot taller than me.
I also quickly stand because I realize that his standing has put his cock right at my mouth level, and it’s too tempting for me not to tackle him and have at him again. He tasted spicy and warm, like chai, like cinnamon, like forev—
Nope.
I shut that thought down because I don’t want to fuck myself, fuck my heart—fuck up my life any worse than it already is.
He climbs out of the tub and grabs towels from a short cabinet I hadn’t spotted until now. He starts to hand me one but I shake my head. “Naw, it’s okay.” I shift and shake myself, making him laugh.
“I try to do that when I’m shifted and I’ll end up twisting my head off my body,” he jokes as he towels off.
Then he hangs it up on a hook on the wall above the cabinet and steps out from under the overhang.
I hadn’t moved from next to the hot tub and, as I watch, he languidly stretches his arms over his head, cracks his neck, stretches his body and legs, then drops to all fours.
And my jaw is left gaping as I watch him smoothly become a huge fucking elk. I don’t know if that’s how big they get as bio-animals or not, but he’s…well, he’s massive.
And he has one hell of a gorgeous… rack.
Even shifted, I can see the way his lips quirk, an obvious smile. Then he snorts, tips his head, and heads off down the trail.
I leap from the concrete pad onto the ground to follow, first trotting, then running to keep up. I realize he’s not even running, more a galloping lope that’s got to be slow for him, but with his long legs he’s covering the ground with a fraction of the steps I have to take.
I watch his gorgeous ass—yes, even as an elk it’s gorgeous, okay?—ahead of me and the sound of his hooves hitting the dirt feels like it matches my racing pulse.
“This way,” I hear before he takes a turn into a darker section of thicker woods, and I realize he didn’t speak aloud but mentally.
Oh, cool. I didn’t know other shifter races could talk to each other. I could always understand my close family, obviously, and sometimes other pack members I knew well, but again the whole “my father’s an asshole” thing meant I never got to run with others.
He glances back at me, playfully snorts, and picks up speed. Now I can stretch out and really run, flying across the ground as I keep up, and I hear him laughing as we cover the distance.
Now that I’m paying attention I do faintly smell his scent along the trail, along with cows, and wish I could stop and throw myself on the ground and roll around in it.
In his scent, duh.
But that would be…weird. Wouldn’t it?
I’ll save that for another time. When I’m alone.
If I get the chance.
My tongue lolls and I push myself to keep pace with him, loving every second of this.
Running with abandon without worrying how I look to others, or worrying if I’m sporting wood while doing it, or that my asshole brothers will body slam and Alpha roll me just to be assholes because I’m faster.
I don’t have to sandbag it, either. I can run in a way that, despite my time on the run on the way here, I’ve never been able to do with someone else.
Fuck yeah!
I don’t know how long we run but he says, “Need a break yet?”
“Fuck no! I’m good!”
He chuffs and kicks his back legs out in a playful way as he upshifts into yet another gear.
Okay, now I have to pay attention and dig in and focus. The unfamiliar ground isn’t particularly treacherous, but I really don’t want to take an ass-over-tail tumble in front of him and take a hit to my pride in the process.
He glances back again, as if gauging my pace, and lets out another snort. “You’re doing great,” he says. “I have a perfect spot for a break about five minutes ahead.”
“Sure!”
That’ll be about all I have left in me at this speed. Maybe if I hadn’t just spent Goddess knows how long having the best sex of my life I might have more in my tank.
Still, no regrets.
At all.
He starts to slow and then we hit a small clearing where I smell and hear fresh running water. There’s a small stream on the far side and Todd stops next to it, dipping his head to drink without shifting.
So what do I do? I remain shifted too and stick my snout in the cool water.
I also can’t help sneak a peek at his elk cock. Even in its sheath, I can tell it’s…massive. Makes my own want to harden. I know fucking with both of us shifted wouldn’t be possible logistically, and I doubt I could take him shifted if I wasn’t shifted.
Although I’d certainly be willing to give it the good old college try, not that it could ever happen.
He looks at me, that same sexy smirk playing across his lips.
“It would be fun trying though,” he says.
Thank the Goddess for fur because my face would be beet red. “That’s not forbidden?”
His elk brow furrows. “What’s not forbidden?”
“People fucking shifted and human at the same time?”
He snorts, lifting his head and letting out a bugling laugh. “Hell, no. Is there anything wrong with someone in a costume fucking someone not in a costume?”
That confuses me. “Um, no?”
“Then why should two people give a shit what others think about their forms? Logistically, yes, sometimes both need to be human, depending on their shifted form.” He playfully nudges me with his muzzle.
“Maybe you’ll be lucky enough to talk Jax into fucking you while he’s shifted so he can knot you while you’re in human form.
His knot will have you jizzing and rolling back your eyes every bit as much as the milker did. ”
Holy. Shit. My eyes must widen because he laughs again.
“Yeah, I can tell you like that idea.” I realize he’s nodding toward my erection, which there’s no damned way I could hold back now if I tried.
Hell, I’m not even sure how I’m hard again after everything we already did. I’d probably squirt dust.
“Some people don’t want to fuck shifted,” he continues. “Some people only want to fuck shifted. And then some like to mix it up. Bottom line is as long as everyone involved is a consenting adult, who gives a flying fuck what anyone else thinks? We’re people, not bio-animals.”
I’m still speechless as an entire world of experiences I’d never thought possible opens before me.
“Ah, let me guess. That was something you were told wasn’t allowed to happen?”
I nod.
He snorts, this time not sounding amused. “Your father sounds like an asshole who wants to suck the joy out of everyone’s lives.”
“That’s the understatement of the year,” I say.