When Angelita had bitten me the first time, the one to claim me as her mate, I’d thought the colors and light that had exploded in my mind were some of the prettiest I’d ever remembered seeing. I’d been so wrong.

The pictures that screamed through my head as Angelita bit me the second time? Stunning. Magnificent. Striking. They created entire worlds in seas of blues and reds, brought down from the heavens to sink into a blanket of green. I watched for minutes or hours, lost in their changing patterns. In the way they threw light all across my field of vision. It wasn’t until the brightness faded that the true nature of the gift she’d given me shone through.

I didn’t just see light. I saw shadows. Shapes. And there, on the edge, stood the figure of a girl I’d know anywhere even though I’d never seen her before. I knew those curves, the attitude she held in every inch of her body. I would know my mate even though a pinkish-purple light bathed her in its vibrant aura. So much more dynamic than anything normal senses could see.

My God, nothing would ever be as beautiful as my Angelita.

Time stuttered, stopping and starting as my senses changed course. Colors faded and light darkened, but still, Angelita stood to one side. Always in that same pinkish-purple. Always close. If I strained, I could hear her whispered words, but it took too much energy, so I sought comfort in her shadow and let the changes move over me. She stood guard, it seemed, never leaving my side. Protective of me.

The first sign that my mind had been invaded by another being was a brush of fur against me. Not on my skin, not outside my body—inside it. I could feel the footsteps of an animal moving within my head. Disconcerting, but something told me not to be afraid. Not to fight him. He and I would be joined for the rest of our days, just like Angelita and I. Might as well start off on the right foot.

The wolf made himself at home, sniffing through my memories and thoughts. Playing them back like football tape after a big game. Studying the moments. He whimpered when he found the place where I stored the loss of my parents and my sight. Growled at the remembrances of the battle at Merriweather Fields. But when he got to Angelita? To our hours of talking over the computers and all the time we’d spent together? His growl turned needy, his whine desperate. He liked her. He wanted her. Needed to see her with his own eyes and take in her scent. I couldn’t blame him.

What had to be hours passed that way, long bouts of nothing, and then the wolf would move or sniff out something else to learn. Sometimes quiet words caught my attention from somewhere outside my body, or the colors would light up brighter than before. It never mattered what woke me from my sleep-like state, I always searched out one thing. My Angelita in the bright light. My heart and half of my soul. I always found her.

My wolf found her too. She riveted him, held his attention like nothing else could. A protective feeling cocooned us when he watched her, a need to keep her close and safe. To bed down with her in a warm den and block out the rest of the world. He and I would get along just fine.

I sent thoughts to my wolf, ones of yes, ours, and must protect. Random things to know about her, about us. He absorbed all of it, his feeling of impatience growing the entire time. I felt the same—I wanted to get back to my mate. To wake up and tell her all that had happened. To figure out how to shift so the wolf inside me could get to know her in his own way.

It wasn’t until much later that a voice broke through my fuzzy thoughts clear as day. One I’d follow anywhere.

“Come back to me, Julian.”

Angelita. I pushed at my mind, shoving past the haze of my subconscious. It hung heavy and thick, almost wrapping itself around me. Tangling me in its foggy clutches. The wolf jumped in with me, clawing at the tattered edges of our shared world until he dug his way back to crisp, clear reality. Working together for the sole purpose of reaching our mate.

I came to fast, needing to relieve the fear I’d heard in Angelita’s voice. But when I opened my eyes, I froze. Colors. Still. Not shapes really, not anything as vibrant as what I saw in my head, but definitely something. I’d expected blackness with spots of gray where bright lights shone. Instead, colors bandied about the room, across the ceiling, and down over the edge of the mattress. And still, there sat a shadow of a girl inside a pinkish-purple light. My mate.

For the first time since he appeared, my wolf worked against me. He wanted me to shift so he could take control, wanted to meet his mate. Thankfully, he listened when I thought wait to him. He didn’t like it, but he took the direction. I made sure he knew he’d get his turn, but first…

“Leelee.”

She jumped, her head flying back. That shadow blocked her face, made it so I couldn’t see her features, but I didn’t need to. I knew her. And I loved her.

“Hey.” She grabbed my hand and leaned closer. “How do you feel?”

I couldn’t resist her. I reached up and cupped her cheek, staring at that shadow she threw. “You’re so pink.”

Her head cocked, and I laughed. That one would need an explanation.

“Seems to have come through okay,” Rebel said, his voice moving closer. He didn’t glow like Angelita, didn’t cast the same sort of shadow either, but I suddenly knew with a surety I hadn’t felt in ages where he stood. How he moved. “How’re you feeling, kid?”

“Good. I’m good.” I sat up and stretched, letting my senses take in the rest of the room. The rest of Rebel’s property. The beast inside allowed it…for a little bit. “But my wolf wants me to shift. He wants to meet his mate.”

“He wanted something, and you were able to hold him back?” Bez. In the far corner, on his feet, resting one shoulder against the wall. The scratch of fabric against drywall gave him away.

“I didn’t have to hold him back. I told him to wait, and he settled down.”

“Well, that’s a first,” Rebel said. “You ever hear of that sort of control?”

Bez grunted. “With mated pairs, sure, but these two haven’t been mated long enough to build their bond up like what I’ve seen in the past. The wolf should have been able to overwhelm Julian without a moment’s pause.”

I shrugged, still staring at Angelita’s glow. “We have a common goal.”

Angelita leaned in, the glow growing stronger. Brighter. Happier? “And what’s that shared goal?”

“Keeping you safe and warm and close. That’s it. It’s all we both want.”

Rebel sighed. “You two never did do things quite the way we expected.”

“That they didn’t.” Bez stepped toward the door, a heavy shadow pulling across Angelita’s light as he distanced himself from her. “Call your team. Let’s take these two on a run.”

“Sure thing,” Rebel said before grabbing my shoulder. “Glad you made it through, kid. Your sister would have had my balls if anything had gone wrong.”

“She’s had your balls for years,” Angelita said with a giggle.

“Truer words have never been spoken. We’ll give you two a few minutes while we wrangle some guards for a run. Holler if you need us, though.”

The second the door closed behind him, I grabbed Angelita and pulled her in for a long, deep kiss. Licked between her lips and plunged my tongue in deep. She tasted sweet, like candy, and the feel of her skin touching mine sent rockets shooting up my spine. Every sense had increased with the addition of my wolf, every nerve overfiring and drowning me in feelings. But in that moment, with my mate’s body warming mine and her taste on my tongue, all that extra input seemed like a blessing. One I would never not be grateful for.

“God, I love you.” I bit her jaw, licking and sucking my way to her neck. “I want you so fucking bad.”

“Run first,” she said, moaning slightly, as if the idea of being around the Feral Breed Motorcycle Club sounded as frustrating to her as it did to me. “I want to see your wolf.”

“He wants to see you. So much.” I yanked her closer, lifting her so she straddled my lap. She took over from there, rocking her hips against mine, riding the ridge of my hard cock. “What happened to the run?”

“We’ll get there.” She rocked harder, pressing deeper as electricity raced through every cell within my body. I’d never felt anything like it, never been so close to losing control so soon.

I gripped her hips, my throaty growl puncturing the relative silence around us. “You’re going to make me come.”

“That’s the whole idea.”

So I did. I came right there in my shorts with Angelita falling right along with me. Came with a groan that shook the bed and matched my mate’s. The pleasure detonated throughout my mind, rocking me to the very foundation of my being before building me back up. Angelita clung to me, arching and curling her body into mine. And when we finished, when the pulsing completion of our little bump and grind finally quieted, she kissed me, even biting my lip and growling under her breath.

She grabbed my face, holding me still. Looking into my eyes until I could feel her gaze. “So pink, huh?”

“Pink and purple, really. I don’t have a name for the color, but it’s yours. And your shape—a shadow of you.” I ran a finger over her cheek, unable not to touch her. “That’s what I can see.”

Angelita stiffened. “Is that okay? I mean…I didn’t expect you to see anything just because of the turning, but this…it’s sort of…”

“A blessing.” And I’d never think of it as anything less. I didn’t need the see the colors or shadows, not really. But I’d be grateful for them every time I got to let my eyes roam over my mate, no matter what sort of input came through. “Anytime I get to see even just the outline of your body is amazing.”

“So you want to see my body?” she asked, her voice teasing as hell.

I wasn’t in the mood to tease, though. I tangled my fingers in her hair so I could pull her back to my lips. My mouth. Sliding between her lips for more of her sweetness until she pushed me back.

“Fuchsia,” she said. Gasping. Wanting to go again. Wanting more. Fuck, I understood that so much.

But first… “What?”

“Bright pinkish-purple. Fuchsia is a name for that sort of color.”

“Huh.” I bit her jaw simply because I could. “Fuchsia it is, then, mate.”

She shivered, her hands gripping tight. Her body warming as I ran my teeth toward her ear. “We need to run.”

“We do, and then…” I licked up the length of her neck, letting my wolf come through. Letting him scent her, taste her. His throaty growl vibrated through my chest, making Angelita freeze.

“Julian?”

She had no reason to fear my wolf. “Run first, alone time later. Your smell, your taste, the way your body brushes mine… Everything feels just a little different, a little more intense. I want to test that in various positions to make sure I’m right.”

“That sounds like a lot of testing.”

I grinned and pulled her in for another kiss. “If it takes all night, I’ll get it done. You’d better not run too hard, Leelee. You’re going to need your energy.”

She hopped off the bed with a laugh, heading for the door. “Why don’t you go ahead and shift, Julian? I’ll get us outside.”

My wolf didn’t need to be told twice, and neither did I. He’d been patient…it was his turn to take over. I wasn’t sure what to expect—a need to search for him, a fight between us as he took control—but if there was supposed to be some learning curve to move from one form to another, we didn’t need it. One second, I sat on the bed in my human skin. The next, I stood on all fours, covered in fur and adjusting to wolf senses. His sight matched mine but had the brightness and detail level of my unconscious state. Scents, though…sounds. So much stronger, even more than I’d expected. Everything around me smelled like sex and our mate, something that made me whine. Made us want to roll around the mattress to make our fur carry that same scent. To let the other wolves know Angelita belonged to us. To stake our claim.

“C’mon, Julian.” Angelita sounded so happy, so relieved. It was a tone I wanted to hear for the rest of our lives. So I prodded at my wolf and made sure he understood—we had one job, and it started and ended with her. If his answering chuff was any indication, he was completely on board.

“Are you coming?” My girl had stepped outside, taking her fuchsia light with her. “I want to run with you. Just wait until you feel the earth under your paws.”

She wanted to run as wolves, so we would. Hell, we’d chase her all through the woods if that made her happy. Because at the end of the day, she’d given us so much more than we could ever repay her for. But we’d never stop trying.

So with a yip, we dove off the bed and raced outside. Chasing after the one woman we wanted to catch.

Following the fuchsia.