Chapter 13
TIPPY
Frankly, it’s a relief that Arlo has taken Jax away for a couple of hours.
Hopefully, it’ll be a circuit breaker for the sexual tension between us.
I don’t know how I’m going to survive this weekend without going crazy. My body doesn’t seem to be under my conscious control at all.
I busy myself organizing my elixirs. I have a powder that is stronger than the previous ones, but I’ll need to disguise the unpleasant taste well.
I check the fridge—there’s still a big bunch of spinach, a head of broccoli, and several sticks of celery.
There are apples and oranges piled up in the fruit bowl, too.
I guess I could go to the markets to get more vegetables.
Wolves tend to be mostly carnivorous, but I’ve researched places where I can buy fresh leafy greens.
I’m about to pick up my purse when the phone rings. It’s Clem. “Hi Tip,” she chirps. “I’m dying to know how it’s going?”
“All good, and Wolftown is really—nice. Beautiful in parts.” I start to gabble on about the park, and the plants, and the families of handsome wolf folks out walking.
“So what’s the den like?”
“Nice. Small. Um, really comfy couches and an open fire,” I continue brightly. I fail to mention there’s an outdoor shower with no curtain and the bedrooms have no doors.
Clem makes all the right noises. “Have you met up with Sammy and Arlo yet?”
“Actually, Arlo’s just taken Jax to the gym for a workout.”
Clem chuckles. “Hah, Jax hates exercising.”
“Not as much as he used to. We went running this morning. He seems to have boundless energy. Guess that’s the wolf in him…” My throat dries up and words fail me.
There’s a long pause. “So how are you coping with Jax’s wolf?”
“Oh, you know… It’s annoying… kind of full of itself, and macho… I don’t know if it’s Jax or his wolf being difficult…” I take a deep breath. “But, um—”
I chew on my lip, tempted to tell Clem how my body is responding to the wolf in Jax. Clem is human, sure, but in our human forms we vixens share very similar anatomy—apart from our tails, ears and claws of course. And Clem knows about sex. She makes no secret of her very active love life with Otis.
Trouble is, I’ve never actually told Clem I’m a virgin. I’m sure she thinks I have experience with guys by the way I speak. I can’t tell her now that it all comes out of textbook, can I?
Then there’s the fact that she’s also Jax’s sister, so talking intimately about him seems weird somehow. So now, instead of telling her the truth, I blurt out, “I’m still really angry with Jax.”
I hear her heave a little sigh.
“Hasn’t he apologized about the Bait and Tackle incident?”
“Jax apologize?” I scoff. “Not likely.”
“Goddess,” Clem lets out an exasperated snort, “you two just need to admit you’re mad about each other.”
Woah, I wasn’t expecting that!
“Mad at him more like,” I bluster. “He annoys the hell out of me.”
“You know what you both need?”
The question is clearly rhetorical, so I wait. “You need to just fuck him—or rut him, or whatever vixen shifters call it.”
“My species do not rut.” I try to sound indignant, but even I catch the tremble in my voice.
Clem giggles. “Well, maybe it’s time to give it a go.”
“This weekend is a professional arrangement,” I retort haughtily. “Not an episode of monster love island.”
“Professional schmechanel—I was working for Otis. That stopped us for… well, no time at all, really.” She laughs. “Seems baking a cake together did the trick for us. So why not get it on with my brother over a green smoothie?”
I fall silent, recalling the splat of smoothie on Jax’s towel.
You should have offered to lick it off.
Goddess save me!
“I’m a wixen. We don’t fraternize with wolves,” I protest vehemently, desperate to black out the visuals floating in front of my eyes.
Clem huffs out a sigh. “Really hon, you’re not fooling any of us. You two are steaming hot for each other. I can only imagine what the temperature is like in that little den right now.”
I fall silent. Clem has a point. It’s like a sauna with all the pheromones flying around in here. I can’t blame it all on Jax. My slick pussy and my pulsing clit betray the lie.
“Stop pretending this whole thing is about your potions,” Clem sounds suddenly serious. “It’s you that Jax needs.”
“Don’t be ridiculous!”
“Girlfriend, there comes a time when you can’t fight fate anymore.”
I swallow hard, unable to form words. Sure, I know about the whole fated mates thing, and Sammy and Arlo, Clem and Otis, they are pretty much proof that it happens.
But this thing with me and Jax could never work. We’re both too stubborn, too opinionated.
“Wolf got your tongue?” Clem says wickedly after a long pause.
“I, er, gotta go, I’ve got a potion about to boil over.” There is no potion; it’s me that’s reaching boiling point. “Bye Clem,” I manage to gasp before I hang up.
My mind is reeling.
Clem carrying on about me and Jax being fated?
Aunt Felicia giving me the story of Agdar and Leonora to read.
What in the goddess’s name is happening?
My pulse racing, I go to my room, grab the book my aunt gave me, and carry it out to the table. I stroke the worn leather binding, run my fingers over the words embossed in gold: Agdar & Leonora.
This book is surely older than the revolution. It must date back to the early days of the Labyrinth.
Sitting down, I start turning the pages with shaking fingers.
The writing is mostly in rune language. I can understand a few of the letters, but it’s a combination of Silver and Red book words.
But the illustrations… oh my goddess, there’s no need for words.
The pictures tell it all. In graphic detail.
The first illustration is of what is clearly a war zone.
In the background there are flames, and a group of humans in uniforms carrying bayonets.
In the foreground, Leonora, in her human form, cowers under Agdar’s huge form, his arm around her shoulders, his blazing eyes testament to his love for her.
The next picture makes a lump form in my throat. Agdar and Leonora hold hands through the bars of their separate cages, their faces meeting through the bars.
Leonora’s delicate pointed ears poke out from the tousled mane of her red hair.
Tattered clothes hang off her slender frame.
Agdar is straining every muscle to get closer to her, his hands riveted to the bars as if he must surely break through to his beloved.
Around them, other monsters are caged and shackled, but they only have eyes for each other.
I turn another page.
Agdar is disempowering a guard in his werewolf form. Huge paws and claws draw blood from the man’s neck. Clearly Agdar is willing to kill for his beloved.
I flip the page, eager to see what happens next.
Now Agdar carries Leonora away, gazing down at her with such love in his eyes. Her arms are around his neck, her tail curled around his thighs as he runs.
Swiftly, I turn to the next page.
Leonora and Agdar sleep side by side in a cave together. He cradles her in his arms as she sleeps. And I have to smile, it’s so beautiful, so romantic.
And then I turn the page. And my eyes bug out of my head.
Agdar is chasing Leonora.
It’s altogether a different story from the loving image on the previous page.
What has happened? Have they had a lover’s tiff? Why is he suddenly the aggressor?
But then I peer closer at Leonora, and I see joy and laughter etched on her face. Looking at Agdar, his visage, too, is joyful. This is not a lover’s tiff. This is a lover’s chase!
I turn one more page and my breath stutters in my throat.
Agdar towers above Leonora as she lies spread-eagle below him, her legs wide, hands raised up to draw him to her.
It is an act of supplication to his dominance.
I gasp. Agdar is portrayed now as half wolf and half man, and there is no sparing the eyes of the observer.
The image is incredibly detailed and, I have no doubt, pretty accurate.
Shaggy fur surrounds Agdar’s body, his facial features elongated to be distinctly wolfen, his ears pointed. His pecs and abs are huge, fur-covered, and he has an impressive bushy tail.
But it’s his genitalia that hold my vision in thrall.
He is about to impregnate Leonora with his huge cock as she gazes up at him with such desire, such longing…
The head of his cock is almost arrow-like, the shaft swollen to a point that will surely impale Leonora.
And at the base of his cock, there’s a huge swelling.
His knot.
Fox shifters have small knots. Just a subtle swelling at the base of their penis, which I’ve seen in our anatomy diagrams.
But this wolf’s knot is huge. Magnificent.
Saliva gathers in my mouth, my gaze riveted to the page.
Oh goddess, their position is so reminiscent of Jax and me splayed out on the floor at Bait and Tackle.
Did I look hungrily into his eyes the way Leonora stares into Agdar’s?
Heat beats a path through my body, peaking my nipples and setting my sacred place alight. I squeeze my thighs together, trying to still the throb in my clit.
I swear I am almost coming as the pulse in my vulva beats like a steady drum.
My hand sneaks down, fumbles under my waistband as my body begs for relief, and I gasp as I locate the swollen nub, my fingers sliding in the slick of my arousal.
My head kicks back on a soft sigh, ready to give in to my fantasy of me and Jax as Leonora and Agdar.
Suddenly, I hear footsteps outside the door.
I snap my hand out of my leggings and jump up.
Just in time.
Jax bursts into the room, his eyes like blazing emeralds in his taut face.
“Tippy, we need to talk.”
JAX
When I stride into the den, Tippy jumps to her feet, her eyes like saucers and her face flushed.
All through my gym session with Arlo, I’d been agitating over how to apologize to Tippy, how to make it up to her. How to get back to where we used to be before I shifted. Friends again. I guess that’s the best I can hope for.
I made sure I whipped my wolf’s ass with so many push-ups and weightlifts even Arlo was impressed.