Denali

He stalks me through the pine trees. I can’t hear the tread of his heavy paws, but I know he lopes just behind. The moment I pulled up in the parking area at the base of the Temescal Ridge trail, I yanked off my clothes and shifted, leaving Nash sputtering in bewilderment.

Catch me, lion.

I want Nash to embrace his animal like I do. He’s been making it the enemy for far too long. He should feel the joy of the hunt. Of the chase. Of stretching his long, sleek body out for a fifty mile an hour run.

I left Nolan at preschool and rearranged my appointments. I could’ve brought Nolan with us, but Nash is so unsure of his lion. I need to give him my full attention and I don’t want him worrying about fathering Nolan. Because even though he’s cautiously attempting the role, I know he’s still getting used to it.

I love letting my lioness out. Running at top speeds, chasing rabbits, tracking scents. I love being wild, one with nature.

A huge paw comes down on my hind end and we tumble to the ground. I roll and spring back up. In a flash I’m down again, on my back. Nash steps on my throat to hold me down, then licks my face. He’s magnificent. Bigger than any lion I’ve ever seen—twice as big as my lioness. His mane is sandy blond, eyes amber. His paws are the size of a dinner plate. His long tail flicks behind him.

Both of us purr. He’s happy. I swear I can sense the joy bubbling up in his lion as plainly as I feel the sun on my fur. The dull static I sensed from his animal when I first met him is gone.

He removes the paw holding me down and I scramble up and tussle with him, trying to bring him down. Of course, it’s impossible. He toys with me, lets me scamper around him and nip at his throat before he tackles me to the ground again.

Suddenly we’re in human form, though I don’t remember thinking I wanted to shift. Did his lion somehow alpha command it? Just like the afternoon he showed up at my cottage, I’m on my back beneath him, only this time, we’re naked. The forest floor beneath me is soft and springy with undergrowth, nature’s gentle bed for two lions.

He rocks his hard erection between my legs. “You like to be chased, my lovely lioness?” He nuzzles my neck.

The head of his cock prods my entrance without guidance from either of us. We don’t have condoms with us and I don’t think Nash even remembers, but in that moment, I surrender to fate. If we’re meant to produce another perfect cub, I’d take it. Everything feels easy and possible with Nash’s heart beating over mine.

He thrusts into me leaning up on his hands to keep his weight off. “I love you, Denali.”

We both freeze. He has a deer in headlights look, as if he had no idea he was going to say that.

Hard determination slams down on his face. “It’s true,” he says fiercely. “I don’t care if we don’t have the longevity to prove we can make it. You’re mine.”

I lift my hips to urge him to move inside me again. “Is it love or is it a lion’s claim?” I ask softly. Because there’s a difference. The lion’s claim is his animal’s choice. Love is a human emotion. Does Nash even know love?

Torment flickers over Nash’s face. I see his doubts about himself, what he’s become, but he shakes his head. “I wouldn’t have said it if it weren’t true.”

Tears prick my eyes because I believe him. The words had just fallen out. He loves me.

I wrap my arms around his neck. “I love you, too, Nash. You’re mine.”

His eyes blaze with light and he slams into me. The birds in the trees twitter and chatter, like our energy feeds them. The sky starts swirling above us, or maybe I’ve grown dizzy with lust. All I know is that everything on the mountain seems to contribute to our mating—the trees, the leaves, the flowers, the other animals. There’s a magic in our joining. A beautiful consummation, as if this is our true mating. The one we were destined for. Not that crazed bite back in a cell.

I’m not surprised at all when Nash bellows and sinks his teeth into my shoulder, in the same place he chose last time.

I buck against him, my orgasm unravelling in waves of pleasure and release. There’s no pain. Only fulfillment. This was meant to be. A union of shifter souls. We belong together, to each other. There’s no denying or escaping it now.

It is done.

Nash

I don’t mean to bite Denali. Like the first time, I didn’t know I was going to do it until my teeth are already buried in her flesh and I taste her blood. I release her and lick away the blood. “I’m sorry, baby.”

“No.” She stops me. It’s a queen’s command. There’s no room to argue with her. “This is how we were meant to mate.”

Her words sweep through me like a warm breeze. My eyes and nose burn for a moment with the magnitude of it. She’s accepted me as her mate.

That scratchy voice in my head that tells me I can’t really have her—that I have nothing to offer but my pain and misery and violence—starts up, but I shove him back. I won’t let anything take away this moment. It may be the first time in my life I’ve experienced true happiness. True, full, unadulterated joy.

Denali is mine. The sun is shining, and the birds are chirping. I’m out in nature and no one’s trying to kill us. At least at the moment. And my body feels incredible.

It’s buzzing with an energy I’ve never known. Strength and vitality flow through my veins. It’s like I’ve just drunk some elixir that gives me superpowers. Is it from mating with Denali? Or letting my lion run? Or both?

Suddenly, I’m playful again. I roll of Denali and lift her to her feet. “Then you’d better run, or I’ll be showing you all the things my lion wants to do to assert his claim.” I slap her ass and shift.

She’s off in a flash, the fluffed tip of her tail swishing as she bounds over boulders, her sleek body leaping with boneless grace.

We run for hours, up and down the side of the mountain. A couple hikers come along, and we have to slip into an opening in a rock wall to watch them pass. Then we bound down to a stream where we drink. I haven’t been my lion this long before. It’s both freeing and terrifying.

What if he grows too strong? What if he doesn’t let me shift back? What if he demands to be let out on a regular basis? And my worst fear of all—what if he kills or maims someone?

But I don’t feel the dark violence simmering in me the way it usually fuels my gut. The sick lion who has to fight to live seems very far removed from the powerful beast strutting through the forest now. I truly feel like the king of the jungle.

I have no sense of time, but Denali must have better integration of her human senses with her lioness, because she leads me back to the car by early afternoon.

She shifts at the door, then reaches for the handle. It’s locked, and I see panic flare in her eyes, because she left the keys on the seat when we arrived.

I shift into human form. “I have them,” I tell her, my voice gruff after being in lion form. I grab them from the crook of a tree where I’d hidden them before following her this morning.

Her smile dazzles. “Always looking out for me, aren’t you?”

I nod, suddenly dead serious. “Believe it.”

She catches my tone and lifts her head, locking gazes with me over the top of the car. She’s unabashed about her nudity, which makes it even more spectacular as the afternoon sun makes her skin glow. “I do.” Her voice is soft.

Something’s changed between us. Something wonderful and serious. The defenses we had up are crumbling and we’re on the same side now. A team.

I toss the keys to her and she catches them easily and opens the door. We both pull on our clothes and climb into her little car.

“So, Nash?” Denali slips a sideways glance at me from under her long lashes. Lovely lioness.

“Yeah?”

“How are you feeling about fatherhood?”

Oh God. My heart starts beating faster. This is important. She’s asking me something important because of what changed between us today. I need to answer this right.

But I can’t lie, either.

“I’m scared shitless,” I admit.

She gives a surprised bark of laughter. “I know the feeling. Fates, when Nolan was born I had dreams that the back door of the car had opened up while I was driving, and his car seat was falling out.”

“Oh, Christ.”

“And I had one where I was still in high school and I’d accidentally left his carrier outside the classroom. Some other kids had picked him up and I was in a panic trying to find him.”

I give a rueful laugh. “It’s a daunting task. One nobody wants to fuck up.”

“Exactly.” She looks over again, her gaze sharp. “Are you up for it?”

The back of my neck prickles. Again, I have the sense my response could change the course of my life. Of our lives.

“Yeah.” I sound wheezy.

“You sure? Because there’s no half-assing this. You’re either in or you’re out. And you don’t get me without being all in with Nolan.”

The prickles are everywhere now—coursing down my shoulders and spine, along my legs. “I know,” my voice sounds strangled. “I’m in. I’m all in, Denali. You’re my family.”

If it’s true, why am I sweating? Why is my heart thundering faster than it did when I ran fifty miles on that mountain?

Do I just want it to be true, but I really know I can’t?

Or will I be able to prove myself to Denali and Nolan? Become something I never knew I could?

I don’t fucking know, but I’d better figure my shit out quick.