Chapter 6

Cleona gasped as she stumbled down the steps of her porch. She stared out at the lane, the outlines of the trailers illuminated in the faint morning glow. The neighbors who also got up in the wee hours nestled inside with their kitchen lights burning bright, casting glows out their tiny windows.

None of them the wiser to what had changed in their midst.

This had all been orchestrated, set into motion so many years ago. And Leander’s father was at the heart of it.

She needed answers.

She needed her sister.

But first, she needed to run.

She power walked to the woods behind her trailer, the fear of the unknown making her heart pound out of her chest.

With the protection and privacy of the trees surrounding her, she peeled her robe from her fevered skin and let the cool, damp air of dawn wash over her.

Her muscles tightened and flexed at her movements in an unfamiliar way and her nerves skittered and spiked to new heights with a disquieting sense of unease.

With just her Keds, she took off at a run, not knowing what to expect and prayed she wouldn’t end up just being some crazy woman running through the woods,  completely naked.

And here she had once worried about being viewed as trailer trash. Clad in only Keds, tits out, and racing through the woods would do it for sure.

Her strides lengthened, her vision sharpened, and her hearing became painfully acute. The skin stretched over her ribs shifted as she accelerated, the sights and scents of the morning overwhelming her.

The scent of vegetation, distinct and abundant, filled her lungs. She blinked, sucked in a breath, and her arms elongated.

She landed on her front paws, fur rising out of the hair follicles in her skin. Her breath came out in pants as she took off faster, her mind bursting from the discovery of a barrage of new sensations. The sticks and twigs of the forest floor dug into the rough pads, her claws reaching into the earth for purchase. Intense colors almost so bright she couldn’t stand to look at them, and the scent of last night’s rain bathing rich vegetation leaving a damp, sweet scent surrounded her.

Branches whipped at her with her burst of speed, but her fur protected her from the sting of each lash. Laughter bubbled up, but came out in a canine chortle with the exhilaration pulsing through her with every lunge.

She could do this for hours.

But Leander.

She needed to go to Leander.

Skidding to a halt, she shifted direction and aimed back the way she came.

She’d hold on to her new abilities. She’d learn her history. She’d take her place.

But she’d take her mate first, and only because she wanted him, not because fate told her she had to.

She slowed to a walk and took several cleansing breaths, her muscles flexed, relaxed, shifted, and before she knew it, she stood upright on her bare feet at the edge of the woods.

Draping her robe over her shoulders, she snagged her shoes and headed straight for Leander’s porch.

She raised her hand to knock just as he yanked his front door open.

Her heart lurched when his steely eyes met hers.

He stood before her in low-slung blue jeans with the button open. Muscles stretched across his wide chest, rising and falling with his deep breaths.

His hair stood up as if he’d just rolled out of bed warm and rumpled, using the denim over his thighs for decency.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” she said, pushing him inside and closing the door behind her.

“So is this a new thing of yours, the whole running around in a robe thing?” he asked with a sardonic smile.

“No,” she said, opening the lapels and letting the soft fabric slide from her bare shoulders and pool on the floor at her feet. “This is just for you. For us.”

His stormy eyes roamed over her, his hands flexed at his sides as if he clenched them to resist reaching out, but yearned to touch her all at once.

He circled her with slow steps, his gaze devouring her. With every sweep of his eyes, his muscles flexed and swelled as if the sizzle of attraction between them fueled his power.

His inner warlock.

“We’re changing,” he said quietly, his voice filled with wonder.

“More than you realize,” she said, reaching out and running her fingertips from his sternum to his naval. “I shifted.”

His eyebrow shot up. “When?”

“This morning,” she murmured as she dragged her finger along his ribs and circled around his back. Her gaze landed on his broad shoulders and the faint white lines rising from his flesh. “What’s this?”

“What?” he asked, glancing over his shoulder.

“You have a mark,” she said, tracing the Celtic symbol. “You don’t know what it’s from?”

He reached over his shoulder and craned his neck. “No. I felt a burning sensation when we kissed yesterday and I had my vision, but I just assumed it was part of the picture that I didn’t understand. I never checked it.”

“It looks like the white lines of a brand almost,” she said, rising up on her tiptoes to press a kiss to the skin there.

He froze the minute her lips grazed him; a low hum simmered and rose from his throat.

“Did you call Maeve?” he said, his words low and gritty with surging lust.

“No,” she said, tracing the hollow of his spine to the top of his jeans before finishing her perusal.

“Why not?” he asked, his gaze raking over her taut nipples, the muscle along his jaw under his beard jumping as his teeth locked with tension.

“I needed to come here. Straight here. I don’t want this to be something we do because it’s destined. You’re who I choose, no matter our destiny.”

His nostrils flared and he snagged her wrist and pulled her in to him, her breast meeting hot skin. “I don’t know the ways of my family. I’m not sure I can protect you from what’s to come,” he said, tracing his fingers over her collarbone.

His touch…for three months, she’d dreamed of the way he would cherish her skin and the fact that he didn’t make it crude by grasping at her nipple or between her legs right away told her he understood that giving oneself was a gift.

“Maybe I’m supposed to protect you,” she said, pressing her lips to his chest, just over his heart.

His hands went to her hair, threading through the strands, and tugging them back, turning her face up to his. Lowering his lips to hers, he lingered over her, running his tongue over her bottom lip and humming.

“You smell like the rain forest and taste like a cool waterfall,” he murmured before diving in for more and setting her aflame with his masterful, coaxing mouth, and curious tongue.

Need surged and had her scrambling on tiptoes, desperate to get closer and wrap her arms around him and feel his heart beating against hers.

He clasped the back of her thighs, the firm pressure of his fingertips digging into her flesh, sending shivers of anticipation singing through her as he lifted her. Seeking relief from the throbbing craving that pulsed between her legs, she wrapped her ankles around his back as their mouths warred for dominance in a searing kiss.

He drew back and dragged his lips over her chin and down her neck. She smiled with every lick of his wet tongue against her sensitive skin.

“I dreamed about this,” he whispered against the skin just below the shell of her ear. “I never thought I’d actually feel you in my arms. The risk was too great,” he said, dragging his lips over her shoulder.

“Risk of what?” she asked, sliding her fingers along his short, soft beard, and into his hair.

His eyes locked on hers. “Of not living up to the man you needed me to be,” he said quietly.

“You’re hard on yourself,” she whispered as she touched his bottom lip.

“Maybe,” he said, pressing his forehead to hers.

She held his face in her hands. “I’m an adult. I’m responsible for myself and my choices. It’s not up to you to live up to anything if we’re just taking pleasure in one another,” she said quietly.

“Except it’s more than that now. I think it’s always been more than that between us,” he said.

She smiled. “Definitely more. Mate now. Fight evil later.”

He growled against her throat and swung her around, making her hair fly out behind her. The feeling so much like the freedom she tasted in the woods when she shifted.

The feeling that told her that in his arms, she’d find freedom.

Her breasts rubbed against him, stoking the fire, as he carried her into his bedroom.

The scent of him filled the space, a combination of spicy sweetness that made her want to taste him from head to toe.

Her senses all tried to push front and center, but it was her sense of taste that she called on as she set her mouth to his skin when they tumbled onto the bed in a tangle of limbs.

***

The broken edges of Leander’s life slid into place when Cleona stood naked in his living room, giving herself over to him. He thought investing in this park would give him a place, tucked away from a world that made him constantly question who he was, and where he belonged.

Without a memory of his father and his mother gone, he’d been plagued with unanswered questions, gaping holes in his history that pride had prevented him from exploring until it was too late.

He took her hands, linking his fingers with hers, and stretched her hands high, pinning them against his bed as he feasted on the vision of her laid bare before him.

High-tipped breasts called to his mouth and tongue making his already rock-hard cock jerk in his jeans.

The mark on his back heated the more he touched her, the burn a symbol of what they were meant to be.

Sucking her into his mouth, he rolled the tight bud between his teeth and soaked in the sound of her moans and the way she held his head to her breast begging without words for more.

He reached for the snap on his jeans, desperate to free himself from restraint and bury himself inside her wet heat.

 He curled his hand around her thigh as he yanked the material down his legs and kicked free. His battle brought him within a foot of the curls nestled at the heart of her, distracting him from the need to sink into her.

Dropping to his knees, he ran his lips from the inside of her knee along the skin of her leg. Reaching the juncture of her thighs, he sucked in a breath and savored the musky scent of her arousal there.

“Leander, please,” she pleaded, her hands curling into fists on his sheets.

“Please what?” he rasped, running his nose over her curls and kissing her other thigh.

“Taste me,” she said with a whimper.

“Hmmmm, I’m getting there.”

“Get there faster,” she demanded with frustration lacing her voice.

“Bossy.”

“Alpha,” she replied.

He glanced up at her. “You sure about that?” he asked.

“I don’t know how, but yes, I’m sure. Now do it.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“And don’t call me ma’am. That’s my mother.”

“I love your mother and all, but so not the time to mention her.”

“Leander,” she said on a growl, not a human growl, but something low and lethal sounding that had his hair standing on end and the heat searing between his shoulder blades.

He told himself he didn’t have to, but he lied. With her demand he’d already begun lowering his head to the heart of her even as he told himself he still had free will.

He licked into her then, his tongue strong and sure, sliding between her wet folds to taste her. She lingered on his tongue, the tang of arousal fresh and sweet as he swirled around the tight bundle of nerves hidden there.

Her back arched as she practically levitated off his bed letting out a choked breath.

He grinned against her wet pussy at the sound of her pleasure, lifted her thighs over his shoulders, and licked into her again while he reached up to roll her tight nipples between his rough fingers.

She shuddered and grew wetter under his tongue, the taste of her now a part of him.

He throbbed for her, the kind of pulsating need that bordered on pain. With her whimpering on the edge of oblivion, he rose up, guided his cock between her slick folds and thrust deep.

“Ahhhhh,” he groaned before the sound morphed into a hiss as he arched his back with the searing pain spread across his shoulder blades. Sweat broke out on his forehead, and he blew out a breath as he slid out of her and back in, sending the mark on his back into a frenzy.

Instead of the pain halting him, it motivated him to bury himself deeper, to thrust faster, until tears welled in Cleona’s glowing eyes and she let out a choked scream.

She squeezed around him, her muscles locked impossibly tight as though her body refused to let him go. Rearing up, she sunk her teeth into his shoulder, the pain sharp and obliterating all focus on the burning in his back.

She latched on and shook, like a wolf shaking its prey.

The sharp pain morphed into a shot of sweet pleasure as heat flooded him and his body kicked into a claiming of its own and spilled into her.

He let out a hiss, cradled her head, and let her finish what her body urged her to do to claim her mate.

His alpha called the shots and no matter the pain, he’d comply.