Chapter 21 #2
Juliet trailed behind, silent now, watching me as I came to a stop beyond the deck and turned toward her.
Her breath the only sound in the darkness as she crossed her arms, holding tight to the tension she hadn’t yet let go.
I didn’t wait for her to ask more questions.
Instead, I claimed her lips with mine and let the intent fill her through the long, demanding kiss.
My hands moved from her face to her collar, slowly unbuttoning her flannel shirt. “Shift,” I urged.
Her eyes flashed with uncertainty, her gaze as hesitant as the tremors I felt against my chest as I kissed her again. “Out here?” She asked, so human and unsure. So small against the massive expanse of the night.
“Out here,” I echoed. I shrugged the shirt from her shoulders, leaving it in a puddle around her bare feet.
My hands moved to the waistband of her cutoffs, fingers tracing her skin with warmth that beckoned her to trust me more than her own fears.
I peeled them from her, one deliberate tug at a time.
She trembled, the question heavy in her eyes and in the quiet night around us. I kissed her again, deeper this time, a promise that anchored as well as provoked. “Shift,” I ordered once more, moving back and away so she had the room to.
For a moment, she looked like she’d break. For a moment, she didn’t know if she could. Then I watched as she closed her eyes, an exhale escaping her like the beginning of a prayer.
Her body convulsed, folding in on itself and then back out as she arched toward the moon, slender arms stretching in defiance and in release.
I saw the dark blonde of her fur first, bristling like rebellion from beneath her skin, and then she was on four unsteady legs.
Her wolf trembled where Juliet had stood.
She was magnificent.
I let her see how much I wanted this for her, letting my change take me with speed and force.
I was black and gray to her honeyed coat, the familiar shape and freedom overtaking my senses.
I loped to her side, pressing our bodies together and feeling the sheer, wild energy that poured from her unrestrained.
My touch sent waves of new feeling through her, each nudge and caress charged and electric. She buckled against me at first, uncertain and new, and then—when she felt me there, understood me there—her limbs untangled, sure and strong and alive.
We broke into a run, side by side across the open compound land. Her hesitance turned to joy, and I watched as each step grew bolder and more confident. She was learning this. She was learning herself.
We kept close, the dark and the open space ours alone as we moved. The smells and sounds, the colors and lights—everything bled into a sensory palette unique to our wolves. It filled us with reckless, unapologetic wonder. It filled us with each other.
I pushed faster, testing her as the ground passed beneath us in streaks of bluegrass and blurred shadow. She surged ahead, taking my challenge and throwing it back, fierce and untamed and leaving the old fear behind. I knew how the thrill of it seized her because it seized me, too.
We slowed when the night became a physical weight on our backs, panting and exhausted, but full and renewed. I nipped her ear, sharp enough to spark and to tease, and we shifted together. The intimate freedom left us breathless and exposed and even closer than before.
I pulled her to me, more than human. Human again and stronger for the animalistic abandon we’d just shared. “How’d that feel?” I asked against her lips, already knowing and needing to hear it from her.
Her face was flushed, chest heaving as she caught the breath that the night had stolen. She let out a laugh, the sound halfway to disbelief and more than halfway to pure exhilaration. “Unbelievable.”
Her expression grew tender, and her hands traced the length of my arms. Her damp hair fell across her face, and she was radiant, despite all of it, because of all of it.
“Better than searching the news channels, yeah?” I said, feeling her respond to the deliberate nearness.
She nodded, still in that wonder-drenched daze. “So much better.”
Her release, the joy she felt in this strange additional part of herself—everything bled through our connection, everything washed over us, and everything was enough.
She shivered against the night air, so I drew her back inside. Breathless with her and with what we’d been given.
The wild freedom still clung to our skin when we returned to the cabin, flushed and unsteady with the release and with each other.
I shut the door behind us as Juliet sank into my chest, new joy and fierce love overwhelming her with unexpected relief.
She grabbed the robe from the hook by the door, and I pulled on a pair of sweatpants.
Her breathing slowed and steadied against me, and I felt her fill with what I could only call contentment. It was the closest I’d seen her to relaxed since the night she showed up in Dairyville, shaking and too thin and on the edge of collapse.
“I forgot you could run like that,” she said, the sly tease in her voice softened by the genuine awe beneath it.
I tangled my fingers in her still-damp hair, letting the moment and the sensation settle over us both. “You were keeping up just fine.”
She gave me a look that was equal parts challenge and affection. It was a look I wanted to pin down and hold so I’d never forget it. The sudden courage I saw in her knocked the breath from my chest.
The memory of her helplessness was almost gone. Replaced by the reality of us, like this, now.
We moved to the small dining area, drawn by the smell of Ma’s handiwork. She’d left covered plates for us on the table. Fried chicken, mashed potatoes, enough calories to rebuild the weight she’d lost from worry and worse. I pulled out her chair and took the seat beside her.
“We’ll find them,” I said, letting the assurance linger as she uncovered her plate and picked up a fork.
Juliet hesitated, reading my eyes and searching for cracks that didn’t exist. I felt her silent questions pushing against our connection. I wouldn’t keep anything from her.
“They’re out of the country?” She finally asked, careful and afraid.
“Maybe,” I admitted. She needed the truth, even when it cut.
I saw the brief flicker of despair at the news, the way her shoulders slumped and her hands fell back to her lap.
But I saw other things too—things she might not even know were there.
The tiny, persistent lights of hope still burned brightly beneath the rest. I watched them and marveled, half at their strength, half at her.
“I’m hoping within a week,” I said, my voice a command and a comfort. “We should know by then. Each thing we learn leads to something else.”
She nodded, her gaze brightening a touch, like it was feeding from the certainty I was pouring into her. “And you’re sure she’s…?”
“She’s safe,” I finished for her, biting back any hint of the doubt that gnawed. The reminder of Harrison’s ruthlessness chilled my spine, but I couldn’t let it infect her. “He’s not moving as fast as we are.”
It was a gamble, but it was true. She was his bait.
Juliet nodded again and then ate in quiet bites, each one a silent affirmation of trust. Of belief. She finished almost absentmindedly, leaving nothing on the plate.
I brushed a loose strand of hair from her face, tucking it gently behind her ear as we sat together in the soft lamplight. “The guys are working nonstop,” I promised, and it hung between us like an unspoken gift. They vowed to do this for her.
When she was done, I rose and pulled her to me. The two of us moved upstairs with quiet, hurried steps.
I led her into the dim bathroom, filling the tub with hot, steaming water. It swirled in lazy curls that matched the promise of what came next. The deep clawfoot tub filled just high enough so it wouldn’t overflow, hot and welcoming and perfect.
Her body relaxed further when she saw what I’d planned, a happy sigh escaping her parted lips. I felt the sound like a wave, riding on our connection, filling the room with anticipation. She trusted me. With everything. It was the knowledge that only made me hungrier to prove I was worthy of it.
I stripped off her robe with deliberate care, each movement a claim, each inch of exposed skin bringing us closer. I pulled her naked body tight to mine before helping her in. She sank into the steaming water, eyes half-lidded with new warmth and drowsy gratitude.
I stepped in behind her, the heat a welcome jolt to my already charged system. Her back pressed to my chest, and my hands moved in slow, thorough strokes across her body, chasing the stray drops of worry until they melted, liquid and harmless, into the rising steam.
My touch was patient, knowing, coaxing the last of her tension out from the shadows where it hid.
My fingers slid over her stomach and made their way between her thighs, drawing a quiet whimper from her.
Even in the tub’s warmth, I felt the slick wetness of her heat coating my hand.
She lifted her right hip ever so slightly as I entered her with two of my fingers.
Her sweet moans filled my chest with the pride that comes from knowing I was fulfilling the needs of my mate.
I placed kisses along her neck as I continued to move my fingers in and out of her pussy, loving the feel of her.
“You are the most captivating being I’ve ever known, Juliet. My love. My mate.”
She leaned her head back and looked over her left shoulder, then reached back with her hand and grasped my head with her hand, pulling me down so she could devour my mouth while my fingers thrust inside her harder, her moans reaching a crescendo.
I pulled my fingers free and circled her clit with pressure until her hips rose from my lap, reaching for my hand.
Her release came with a shout, her tongue still lapping at my own as she continued to kiss me with everything she had.
Even as her body quaked and shuddered against my body, my hand held her in place.
When she finally went still, it was the perfect quiet of exhaustion and bliss. I felt it envelop us both, a weightless wonder, soft and consuming as the fog around us.
I stood and exited the tub and dried myself off. Then I reached for her hand. I dried her with the same attention to detail as I had when I made her come undone. Wrapped in a thick towel and in my love, knowing that she was safe and she was mine I carried her into our adjoining bedroom.
I tucked her into bed, watching her long lashes flutter once before the depth of her weariness and the security of our bond closed them for the night.
The truth of it: she was safe, and she was mine.
The truth of it: I had to keep it that way.
I stood watchful, breathing slow and steady, letting my presence and my resolve wrap around her sleeping body. This woman was a part of my soul. I’d waited so long for fate to bring her to me, and I would destroy anyone who thought they’d take her from me.