Chapter 30
CICELY
As soon as I can move again after slamming the second crystal, I scramble to get the taser he knocked away.
It’s like he knew. He knew what it was; he remembers that it knocks him out.
And not only did he knock it away, he also ripped the belt from my waist and flung it and the stun gun out of reach.
His teeth and claws have done some damage to me.
I thought I was safe from biting, but the mask fell off when he shifted. Jared didn’t have the chance to fasten it before he passed out. And I don’t know why he passed out. And why it feels like I’m practically on fire. My blood. My limbs. All of me.
Before I slammed the second green crystal, Jared’s wolf let out the eeriest howl I’ve ever heard. It was almost deafening. If we haven’t pinged on the surveillance camera, the guys down the road will absolutely have heard that. They’ll be coming any time now.
My clothes are torn, practically to bits, so I don’t worry about getting them off. Instead, I shift. I shift to wolf, knowing the remnants of fabric will fall away and hopefully not trip me up so I can try to outrun him. Run for the road, for the river.
But mistake. Because the clothes aren’t the only thing that fall off me. The bracelet falls, too. I should’ve pushed it up higher first on my arm so it wouldn’t slip off. But he’s on me.
Fuck. I’m pinned. As wolf. I can’t use the crystals, the taser, or the stun gun.
He lets out a loud bark of warning before his teeth close around my neck. Either his teeth haven’t pierced the skin of my neck yet or I don’t feel it yet. I don’t know. I only know I’m impossibly hot right now. And disoriented. And I’m thinking, this is it…
It’s over. And my poor mate will have to live with this. He won’t survive it, I know that. He was barely surviving before, believing he was the cause of his mother’s and sister’s death. He’ll stay in this form forever or he’ll find a way to die.
My heart hurts so much right now.
My life flashes before my eyes. It’s a rush of images instead of one picture or memory at a time.
It’s more of a collage that blurts into my mind all at once with my family.
Jared. My friends. My reflection as my wolf in the water of the river where I first met Jared.
The seven members of council all standing together dressed up the day Tyson and Ivy got married – looking happy that the council is finally seven.
Something hard, cold, and large slides between my back legs.
He’s growling out a long, deep, warning.
And the temperature changes. It goes warm. No, hot.
And…
Jared’s wolf is fucking my wolf.
Holy shit!
Something snaps alive in my chest. Something new. Something strange. It’s…I don’t know what it is.
But I can’t focus on that because what his wolf is doing to mine feels incredible. And it’s taken over my need to survive, taken over everything I am. I’ve never had sex in this form before. I always held out hope of who I expected to mate with and saved this.
It feels otherworldly.
My wolf whimpers as I lift my rear end higher, digging my claws into the grass for stability against the heavy, frantic movement happening.
His wolf licks the mate mark as well as the side of my wolf’s face and growls a low growl again. His knot emerges. Fuck! I’m a puddle of sensation.
I’m writhing under him, feeling things I’ve never felt.
Not just between my wolf’s legs, also in my veins, my chest, and my…
everything. More whimpers from my wolf. And now a howl from me.
I don’t know why I do it, I’ve never done this before, but now he howls as well.
Warmth surrounds me as well as floods me and the vibrations rev higher, climbing toward the moon itself. Filling me, surrounding me.
Wait. He's purring.
Purring!
That new thing in my chest is him. He’s there with Jared. And right now he’s got a singular focus. Me. Not killing. Not attacking. Just… me.
“Cicely, shift!”
That’s a female voice. A familiar one. I don’t know whose voice it is. I smell no one and see nothing new other than the even brighter amber glow around the moon in the sky.
“Shift, Cicely! Now! Quickly!” the familiar voice is urging, desperate. “Then tell him to shift!”
I shift. It feels dangerous and crazy, and I hope I’m not going insane and it really is one of the Young witches telling me to do this.
Jared’s wolf’s tongue again strokes the mate mark and I croak out, “Shift, Jared!”
An instant later, I hear Jared’s voice.
“Cicely?” He’s still on me, still in me. And he’s Jared again!
That command was one of the Young sisters, I don’t know which one.
We’re still locked by his knot. His hands find mine. He threads his fingers with mine as we moan together, in unison. He’s purring! Jared is purring for me. Tears prick my eyes and I let them fall as I’m overcome with emotion.
His knot releases and I turn to my back, reaching for his face, which is full of sexual promise, full of love. He’s still hard. He slams forward, filling me.
I’m bawling and moaning and holding onto him like my life depends on it.
“You’re in heat, beautiful,” he tells me.
I’m liquid. Melted. A puddle of need. I wrap my legs tight around his thighs and say, “Fuck me, baby.”
But cold shocks between my legs, and I think it’s shocking us both by the look on his face, the stark terror. He shifts again. He shifts again and oh shit… I’m not just under his massive wolf again, his wolf is breaching me.
I need to shift. I can’t. I’m perfectly still. I might even be holding my breath. My eyes close and I tell myself to breathe, but my lungs aren’t listening.
The purring gets louder. My eyes open and meet his.
They’re still the slitted eyes of the super predator and now they flare, and they perfectly match the shade of the moon that’s the backdrop behind him.
He lays on me, paws resting on either side of my head, covering me with his heavy, furry body that’s no longer cold, now it’s warm.
The purring continues, pauses, and the knot recedes but then immediately snaps out again.
I close my eyes again, swallowing a scream, telling my body to shift. But it doesn’t.
It doesn’t. I can’t shift. I’m… stuck.
This has never happened. None of this has happened, of course, but my wolf hasn’t ever not cooperated with a shift command. I can shift as fluidly as I can walk. It’s as simple as telling my body to do it. Except for now.
I’m spread out on the ground under Jared in this frightening form.
And being knotted means there’s nothing I can do but lie here trembling.
I’m trembling with fear and also with sensation.
Because the knot is vibrating inside me, against every sensitive nerve ending inside me as well as between my thighs.
He shifts to Jared again. His expression is filled with shock.
His knot releases, spilling heated liquid between my legs.
I must be in heat, because I don’t jump off and re-arm myself with the weapons or the bracelet, don’t stop and grab the mask from the ground.
No, I maneuver him to his back and I grab his shoulders, riding his cock, which is still hard and hot in me.
I grab his jaw and attack his mouth with mine.
His fingers drive into my hair, and he kisses me back.
“I… felt it. Him,” he says between kisses. His voice is filled with wonder.
“I feel him too. He’s in here.” I put his hand to my chest.
I pull back. There are tears in his eyes.
“You still feel him?” I ask.
He shakes his head. “No, but I did when I shifted. Each time. He… wanted to share you with me.”
I kiss him again.
He shifts. Shit. I try to shift to wolf again, but I can’t. Why can’t I shift? I’m looking at Jared’s wolf who’s now lying on his back, all limbs up and purring. And even with those amber eyes and menacing teeth, right now he looks sort of… goofy on his back like this.
I roll off. He turns to right his body and pins me again, barking, like he’s pissed off at me. A claw pierces the skin of my shoulder. I stay perfectly still and he’s back inside. Like it’s his right. I feel that in my chest, the sense of possessiveness.
I again try to shift, plead with my body to comply. Mercifully, it does. And he keeps going, his wolf fucking my wolf, purring while filling my wolf with more seed.