17. Amethyst
Seventeen
Amethyst
A hand caresses my bare thigh. Lightning hums through me, awakening every nerve with a pulsing sense of need.
My breath hitches as his firm grip slides under the emerald lace of my panties and gently guides them down.
The chill autumn air dances against the sensitive skin of my center, quickly replaced by the warm breath of his mouth.
Seductive hazel eyes stare up at me.
With a possessive swipe his tongue is on me. A satisfied groan whispers across my skin as he swirls tantalizing circles around my clit. One hand drops to the bed fisting the sheets as my head falls against the pillow. With the other I thread my fingers through his silky, dark hair.
A finger dips inside me, then another. A gasp spills from my lips as my grip in his hair tightens, desperate to pull him closer.
I need him everywhere.
He produces another ungodly sexy sound in response to the grip on his hair. Fuck, he’s going to make me come. The delicious stroke of his tongue. The stretch from his fingers moving in and out. The moans. Creators, the moans.
He works me into a frenzy as if he’s studied my body for a lifetime already. His fingers hook inside me and my hips jerk. I move in time with him, pressing myself harder against his mouth, chasing the high building within me.
An unintelligible sound echoes throughout the room as I burst.
My arm desperately searches for my phone on the nightstand. Fingers flailing around for purchase, I can’t get a grip. Growling my frustration through gritted teeth, I push the cover back and sit up.
There’s the damn thing. Settling the phone in my hand, I tap the screen to check the time. 6:22 a.m. Damn, I’ve hardly slept at all...
My mind sinks back into the dream. My cheeks feel hot enough to melt. Who needs sleep when you can just have a wet dream about your boss? As wired as I feel, I may never need to sleep again.
Inhaling a breath, I fall back to the pillow, exhaling while staring at the ceiling. Get a grip, Amethyst. For the millionth time, Skyler is your boss. Don’t let your lust ruin his career.
Skyler is also my friend. He’s oddly familiar, even though I haven’t known him for very long. He’s caring and protective. Humorous... ridiculously attractive and shares my interests. A tinge grumpy with a soft spot for me.
Okay, so he’s my totally-perfect-vision-of-a-partner, friend .
Yet the way I can still feel his fingers inside me and hear him moaning is very un-friend-like. It was just a dream, but it felt like reality — a reality I could get used to. My thighs squeeze together remembering his tongue’s exploration. My own fingers journey down my stomach, across my thigh.
All it would take is one touch to fall apart, drunk off the vision of Skyler’s fingers fucking me. My eyes close and my lips fall open.
My hand freezes; I give my head a gentle shake to clear it. I can’t think like this. Skyler may not even feel that way about me. Not to mention our complicated work relationship. Managers and associates cannot have relationships.
Then quit.
I swallow the lump in my throat. I could, but what if I never saw him again? Having Skyler in my life, even at arm’s length, is better than not having him at all. Plus, Burrow’s is making me feel somewhat like a normal person again. I have to stay.
Sighing, I take the inappropriate thoughts and bottle them up. Once the lid is secured, I place the bottle in the back of my mind, out of sight.
Rolling on my side, I pull the blanket up around my shoulder. Two messages are waiting when I unlock my phone.
Skyler
Your jeep is at Temra’s Towing and Repair. I didn’t want you to worry with calling a tow. Rest up Sunlight.
If you need a ride to the shop I can pick you up a little after 12 when Wren gets here
Well, there goes that plan. The lid has effectively fallen off.
Sleep is not happening. That means a shower it is. I always get my best ideas there, and I need to think of how I want to respond to Skyler. Nearly kissing is one thing. Physical affection... I’ve experienced that before.
Having Delilah towed for me? This warm feeling inside — dare I call it love is completely foreign. I have never felt for anyone what I feel for Skyler.
Flicking the bedside lamp on, I reach to set my phone down, but my hand stops midair.
What. The. Fuck?
Deep marks are gouged into the wood of the nightstand like a wild animal has been in my room. I drop my phone to the bed and turn my hand up to examine my fingernails — definitely human.
A vision flashes in my mind of that wolf vividly jumping into me. Pine trees whipping by as the cool night air whispered across my... snout? The fallen autumn leaves crunching beneath paws. The wolf’s paws. Not mine of course. Right?
Did I do this?
A maniacal chuckle rises up my throat. No, that’s not possible. My parents are human . Maybe I’ve just got my head in the clouds after spending all this time around Skyler. But if I didn’t claw the nightstand, then who… or what did?
Mom should be home now from her night out. I’ll shower and have breakfast, then head over. She’ll be able to make sense of all this; she always does. Moms have this way of always saying the exact right thing to reassure.
First, a message. No shower thoughts necessary after all.
Amethyst
Gunning for a promotion from Angel to Savior? A ride sounds great. Thank you… endlessly.
Slipping through the matte red door and into the kitchen of Mom’s house, a knife falls from her hand, clattering on the floor when she sees me. “Creators, Amethyst! You scared the hell out of me.” She points a scolding finger at me.
I wrap my arms around her waist for a brief hug, mumbling a quick, “Sorry.”
“I didn’t even know you were home. Where’s Delilah?” I bite the inside of my cheek, the questions I was ready to ask dying on my tongue. Stepping back to lean against the counter, I answer, “She broke down on my way home last night after coffee with a friend.”
A slight shrug of my shoulders and quick bite to my thumbnail. “I have no idea why. Nothing seemed off until I turned on 18. She started smoking and then just... quit.”
Mom raises an inquisitive brow. “I didn’t see her when I came through this morning around seven. Were you up that early to call a tow?”
Both hands reach to push my hair behind my ears and suddenly the floor is the most interesting thing I’ve ever seen. My cheeks burn as hot as the sunlight Skyler refers to me as. The realization that I’m being way too weird about this question is like a bucket of ice water.
Clearing my throat, I meet her gaze again, “No, Skyler called for me. He...” If there’s one power Mom does possess, it’s reading me like the damn Tarot Times , and I’ve already given her far too many details.
I don’t want to admit that I’ve fallen for him out loud. That makes it too real. But her brown eyes are dancing with mischief, and I know that she knows. Now she won’t stop until she confirms her suspicions.
“He gave me a ride home.” I finish, feeling like a kid who just got caught stealing from a cookie jar.
Mom just lets a wicked grin settle on her face as she returns to cutting the vegetables she had been working on before I made her drop the knife.
I’m practically squirming under the crushing pressure of the silence.
Mom glances at me through her thick lashes. Her mouth says nothing, but her eyes say everything. She wants the inside scoop of my feelings for Skyler.
I’m not ready for that conversation. So instead, I blurt out, “I woke up from a weird dream this morning and there were claw marks on my nightstand... not scratches like from fingernails, actual claws, like a wild animal.”
It's too late to take it back now. I simply stop breathing while observing Mom have the most unexpected reaction possible. She freezes mid-cut of a carrot, and I swear her skin pales. Her eyes, which moments ago held playful trouble, were now pinning me in place with fear.
“Mom?” Apprehension creeps up my spine, shoulders tensing. Her eyes fall back to her hands, and I suddenly regret saying anything at all. Clearly, she knows something about this. Which sends an array of unpleasant thoughts through my mind.
What is she hiding from me?
With two painfully slow steps, I lean on the kitchen island beside her. “The dreams,” she asks carefully, planning her next words, “what are they of?”
Jolting upright, my mouth opens, then closes as I struggle to form any intelligent thought. “Well,” I stammer, “there’s always this wolf that...” I’m truly not sure how to explain the dreams. The more I think of them, the less it’s like the wolf is jumping into me. It’s more like...
The wolf becomes me.
Holy fucking hell. Is my mother a shifter? No. No, no, no. But it makes sense. It all makes sense. The dreams, the claw marks, the pull to Skyler. Surely she wouldn’t hide something this important from me.
She…
“ Amethyst...” Mom starts but I shake my head. “No. No! Don’t you dare say it!” Wincing, I wrap my arms around my chest, backing away from her. I’ve never spoken to her like that, but betrayal has wrapped its fist around my heart and fucking crushed it.
I was almost killed! And I could have defended myself all along? Being apprehensive of Skyler when I was one of his kind? No, I can’t hear this. I can never forgive her for this.
“It’s not exactly what you’re thinking, Amethyst.” She pleads. “Please, let me explain.”
Her eyes hold remorse, but it’s too late. All the fury I’ve felt since waking up bloodied and broken is burning through my veins.
“Explain what , exactly?” My voice is calm, lethal. “How if you hadn’t harbored this secret, I wouldn’t have been nearly murdered. How I could have defended myself instead of feeling powerless .”
As my hand touches the doorknob, she cries out, “It was your father! The wolf was your father.” I squeeze the knob until my knuckles turn white. The last thing I want is to cry here.
Mom rests her hand on my shoulder. Gritting my teeth, I let my curiosity win.
“That explains the wolf, but not the dreams themselves. Not the claw marks.” I look at the ceiling, refusing to catch her gaze.
“When I dream... it’s impossibly real. Like I really am the wolf running through the forest... How?”
Moving her hand off my shoulder, Mom wedges herself between me and the door. “Because you are.” She states plainly, which only irritates me further. “But I always wake up in bed. No signs of going outside, or that I’ve even moved at all.” Things just aren’t adding up.
“You’re also... projecting.” She nearly whispers. I look at her then, quirking a brow. “What does that mean?” Defeat radiates from her. Her eyes holding a deep-rooted sadness. “We are witches. Our bloodlines’ power is astral projection.
“Which... skipped me. But seems to have chosen you. Since your magic has awoken late it doesn’t know how to function. You must be shifting in your sleep, at least partially. Explaining the claw marks.”
My jaw drops as I shake my head, words failing me. My mother is a stranger. “I never meant to keep it from you... You never showed any signs of magic, you never shifted. I just thought?—”
“It doesn’t matter what you thought!” The scream forced its way up my throat. “You hid my entire identity from me! I don’t want you to tell me why; all I care about right now is how much it hurts!”
Reaching over her shoulder, I snatch the key to her old car and dart out the door without another word.
Tears rush down my cheeks as I slam the car door behind me. With blurry vision, it takes a few tries to slide the key into the ignition. I check the time on the dash. Not quite twelve.
I should have plenty of time to make it to Burrow’s before Skyler is supposed to leave.