38. Merged
THIRTY-EIGHT
MERGED
Jack
A black thong.
A fucking black thong. Under a pair of ass-hugging jeans.
And the tightest pink T-shirt ever invented. With no bra underneath.
The universe was fucking with us. Either that, or Cas and her Joined thought it was funny to taunt me with everything I wanted, but couldn’t have, tonight of all nights.
When I’d seen her come around the side of the cabin earlier in the day, her nipples so fucking pointy that all I could think about was sucking them into my mouth through the fabric of her shirt, I’d had to escape.
I’d avoided her all fucking day. It had been easy enough to convince Clay to put me to work, building the bonfire, carrying case after case of beer out to the coolers that were half buried in the ground in a rough semicircle around the fire.
Just until the moon sets, I kept telling myself when I felt the itch of her somewhere nearby, but not close enough. Just avoid her until the moon sets.
I knew I was kidding myself that the moon was the only factor I needed to worry about if I planned to keep my hands off her.
Need to taste her. Need her blood and her orgasm in my mouth … the monster grumbled.
Well, you can’t fucking have them , I told him sharply. You keep your needs to yourself.
Our needs , he corrected. And I knew, in the heat racing along my spine, that he was right. I needed them just as badly as he did.
The day wore on, and the clearing began to fill with Shifters. My nerves ratcheted up to eleven as more of them trickled in. I could feel it thrumming in my blood. The tingling, jangling need to let loose, to give in to the wildness that lurked inside me.
But every time I blinked, flashes of another night, in another clearing, under another full moon popped up behind my eyelids. Of the pain, and the humiliation, and the degradation I’d felt. Of being certain I was going to die in that clearing at the hands of those fucking freaks.
These Shifters seemed different, but under the influence of too much beer and the full moon, would they become monsters like that? Was that really how all of them … us … were, when it came down to it?
Never , I told myself, snarling. I will never be like that.
The sun set in a splash of crimson and violet and indigo, and like a switch had been flicked, everything became crazier.
Music began. A thumping bass that reverberated through my bones, that bubbled in my blood.
And the smell of her, mingled with the woodsy smoke from the fire, curled through my nostrils and sent sharp pangs of arousal into my groin.
She’d arrived in the clearing from wherever she’d been lurking all day.
I instantly clocked her. Even in the dark, my Shifter eyes noted every detail. Her glossy, auburn hair, no longer tangled from our escape, hung loose over her shoulders. Fuck, her tits looked amazing in that top, all perky and biteable. Her ass in those jeans … I wanted to grab fistfuls of it, to spank it while I sank myself into her from behind.
Her chest rose and fell with rapid breaths, making her tits jiggle. I ripped my gaze from them, finding her face. Her eyes darted around, taking in the surroundings. My heart vibrated in my chest.
Was this her nerves I was feeling? This must be so incredibly foreign to her. And here I was, selfish prick, avoiding her because of her irresistible body instead of helping her through her agoraphobia, supporting her as she was surrounded by beings she had seen as enemy number one for much of her life.
I took a faltering step. I had to go to her.
Yesssssss, the monster hissed.
Not for that, you cretin! I snapped. Because she’s freaking the fuck out, can’t you feel it?
I feel everything she’s feeling.
As if to punctuate his words, my dick jerked in my jeans. In the jeans that fit me like they’d been made for me. Just like the clothes Cas brought for Seven fit her like a fucking glove.
Another step closer.
And another.
And then a group of tall, muscular dudes, who all looked in their mid-twenties, surrounded her.
What. The. Fuck?
They want her. They want to have what is MINE! the monster roared.
My blood surged through me with such force my head spun.
Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine. Mine.
Every thump of my pulse repeated it to me. I was sick to fucking death of denying it.
I was moving. Fast. Around the edge of the clearing, closing in on where she was dancing, hips swaying. The males watched her, mesmerized.
One stepped closer, ready to pull her to him.
Red. Everything went red.
Mine! we roared.
We were sprinting. We would tackle that brainless meat sack to the ground, and he would know pain like he couldn’t even imagine. Claws erupted from our fingertips. Our teeth shot long and sharp.
We were twenty feet away … ten … five …
Make it painful , we agreed.
The soon-to-be dead male was flung sideways, just as we were about to grab him by the throat. We looked down, panting.
Clay was on the ground, tangled with the confused male.
“Get the fuck out of here, Bran,” he muttered to the stupid, stupid male, who scrambled to his feet and backed away, hands raised, head bowed. Submitting to us.
We snarled, our need for violence thwarted. Our lip curled, our red-tinged gaze roving over the other, startled males. They scattered at the sight of us. Leaving Seven, eyes wide, lips parted, chest heaving.
“Mine,” we rumbled.
“Jack,” Clay said behind us. His hand dropped to our shoulder. We shrugged him off, not taking our eyes off our prize.
“Jack, you cannot avoid it,” he murmured.
I shook my head, momentarily shaking the monster away.
“I have to,” I hissed, locking my straining muscles in place. It took everything in me to resist the urge to tackle her to the ground, to tear off those skin-tight jeans, tug aside the fucking black thong, and sink into her. I fucking burned to sink into her. My cock. My teeth.
We wanted that. Because for a moment, just now, the monster and I had shared this body. Properly shared this body for the first time. Because another male was about to touch what belonged to us.
I’d fucking merged.
Merge with me again! the monster demanded. Let us end this agony!
“You cannot avoid it,” Clay repeated. “But … you must remember to be the male she needs you to be. Even when the wildness tries to overtake you. Be who she needs, Jack.”
I looked at her properly. Her eyes glittered. Her hands twitched by her sides. She smelled of sex … sex we had yet to have … sex she needed—we both needed.
Sex we both wanted. Even if giving into that desire was the biggest fucking mistake we could make.
“Run,” I growled, taking a step closer. She didn’t move.
“Run, Seven!” I snarled louder this time. “Run fast. Because if I catch you, I won’t be stopping.”
She sucked in a breath, turned, and darted nimbly into the forest.
WHEN we catch her , the monster crooned his promise.
Our promise.