Jules and I spend hours running around the forest, chasing each other and howling at the moon. We don’t speak, not with words, anyway, yet I somehow understand him by the way he moves and the noises he makes, not just in harmony with my wolf, but with his, too.

The longer I barrel through the trees and chase fireflies across the grass, the more I understand why werewolves enjoy shifting. I feel like I haven’t been fully alive until this night.

I feel like I could live this way forever.

But as the moonlight begins to fade, along with the stars, my new body tires as my wolf grows sleepy. One second, I’m down on all four, running faster than any human, and the next, I’m curled up in a ball amongst the flowers and bushes.

I roll onto my front and prop up on my elbows, just in time to see Jules transform back into his naked, human self.

He kneels in front of me, his expression guarded. “So, how was it?”

“It was … everything.” I smile as I sit up, no longer caring that I’m naked. My mind is too wired, too restless, too bursting with energy. Every part of my body is. “What color was my fur? I couldn’t tell.”

His smile is beyond stunning. “Your fur was similar to mine, but a little less black and with more tints of purples.” He strokes my cheek and a purr vibrates in my chest. “You were—are—beautiful.”

“So are you.” I climb on top of him, straddling his waist, and seal my lips to his. I want all of him. Every part of him now.

His muscles tauten as he moves back. “I don’t think we should do this right now,” he pants out heavily with confliction. “Even though we’re shifted back, our wolves still have a lot of control over us, including their urges and desires.”

My eyes water, but not with tears. “I don’t feel like she’s still controlling me.” When I blink, the trees around me haze away. “I feel like myself.”

His eyes snap wide, his lips parting. “Lake …” He stares fixatedly at my eyes. “Your eyes …”

“I know. They feel funny … Have for a couple of days now.” I don’t want to talk about my eyes. I want to kiss him, consume every part of him, soul and all.

When I lean in to again fuse my lips to his, he doesn’t stop me this time. He wholly kisses me back, pressing his palms against my bare back, urging my chest closer to his. I kiss him slowly, tracing his tongue, his lips, his piercings, while I scrape at the flesh of his back.

I want to kiss him until the sun comes up, merge our bodies and soul, feel every inch of him. But all too soon, he’s pulling away.

“Your eyes …” His chest crashes against mine with his ragged intakes of air.

I press closer, wanting to hold him tighter …forever. “What about them?”

The violet of his eyes glow brighter than the stars. “Your eyes are violet,” he whispers, then his lips meld against mine, savoring me with a soft kiss.

The delicate kiss quickly turns wild as we claw at each other, a tangled mess of passion and heat as he lies me down on the ground amid the flowers and fallen leaves.

Never once do his lips leave mine as he lies over me, supporting his weight with his arms and kissing me even deeper. I loop my legs around his hips, wanting, needing to have him closer.

He groans hoarsely as the tip of him presses against my entrance. “Lake, I don’t want to pressure you—”

I cut off his protest with a fervent kiss as I lift my hips to meet his. He moans again, his fingers drifting along my shoulder and along the peak of my breast. A shudder rolls through me as he brushes his fingertips across a nipple, tracing circles as he nips at my lips, my jawline, delving lower until his teeth sink into my neck.

An inhuman howl rips from my chest. I ride out the euphoria until I can see clearly again. Then I push him back and bite the spot of flesh just above his collarbone. He groans with his head tipped back, his fingers traveling down my side and hips. When he reaches my thigh, he breaks my bite, only to mark my neck with another imprint of his teeth.

Sheer ecstasy rushes through my veins as he bites me harder while slipping his fingers inside me. I cry out, the noise echoing through the night and sending leaves from the tree branches falling around us.

I scream myself hoarse until I can scream no more. Then he removes his fingers from me and stares down at me with eyes glowing so violet I have no doubt how he feels about me.

“We can stop if you want?” He struggles to breathe. “I don’t even have any protection.”

“It’s fine… I’ve been on something since that day…” As the moment starts to slip away, I draw him to my lips, refusing to let the past control me anymore. I pull his body closer. He moans deeply as he starts to slip inside me, and for a faltering moment, I tense, that dark memory tainting the light he shines over me. I force the memory away, shoving it back into the shadows where it belongs, and whisper the words fighting to escape off my tongue.

“Jules … I love you,” I gasp as he sinks all the way into me.

“I love you, too,” he whispers, giving me a moment to adjust.

Then he begins rocking his hips, and I move with him slowly, until my body relaxes.

I start to lose control. So does he. Then our bodies slam together as we bite and claw at each other’s flesh.

Every part of the moment is perfect, even the scrapes and bite marks. And in the end, as we come apart together, all I see is violet.

Amazing, warm, loving, forever violet.