Chapter 18

Anna

 

I gave a gentle knock on Talen’s door and waited. It was unusual that he spent any amount of time in his room other than to sleep. He generally preferred to be outdoors and I would normally find him out in the forest. The door opened and Talen gave me a smile. “Anna, come in.”

I slipped inside the room and he started to close the door behind him. “Can you leave the door open?” I asked with a sheepish grin. “I don’t want to give James a reason to try and murder you in your sleep.” Talen paled but tried to play it off with a laugh.

The guest room Talen was staying in had a bed and a nightstand but not any other furniture, so I sat crossed legged on the floor. We sat outside like this all the time for our lessons, so Talen didn’t hesitate to join me. “What do you know about the hurricane?” I prompted. “Is this a fae attack on us?”

Talen frowned. “I can’t be sure this far away from it. But your intelligent wolf explained that it is an unusual phenomenon for this time of year.”

I rolled my eyes. It was probably a compliment that Talen referred to Caleb as ‘the intelligent one’; his nicknames for the other guys weren’t as kind. I’d spoken to him on more than one occasion about being respectful toward my pack mates, but I think he enjoyed getting them riled up. “I don’t want to wait until it gets closer to figure this out,” I told him with a frown. “How close do we need to get to be able to sense if there’s magic?”

Talen shrugged. “Some of the Winter fae like to use their magic to create blizzards, I can usually feel it when I’m within a couple of miles.”

“But a hurricane is more of a warm weather thing. How likely is it that this is someone from Winter?”

Talen hesitated before answering. “There are some other Summer fae who were banished to Winter, but it’s unlikely that they have enough power for something of this magnitude. The Summer fae banished to Winter or the human world are weak and have been cut off from their main source of power for years. If I had to guess, this is the work of several of the more powerful Summer fae banding together.”

“But why?” I asked in frustration. “I’ve never done anything to them. It’s Winter that should have a grudge. If anything, they should be grateful to me.”

Talen shook his head. “Froston has many enemies. They undoubtedly heard that his daughter is alone and unguarded in the human world and wish to get back at him by harming you.”

“With a hurricane?” I asked dubiously. “They move so slow that it won’t even be here for over a day. I could be across the country in several hours by hopping on a plane, and they would have wasted their effort.”

“But by the time you return, your lands will be destroyed and your humans devastated.” Talen chided me. “You forget how different the fae world is from here. Destroying a fae’s territory effects their wealth and ability to survive. If they’ve never lived in the human world, they won’t understand how different it is here. The fae don’t have disaster relief and don’t band together in times of crisis. They circle around like vultures, waiting to see what they can get out of it.”

“That’s terrible,” I said in surprise.

“Your humans weren’t so different several centuries ago,” Talen told me.

I sighed. “What’s step two? Once we identify if it’s magic, how do we stop it?”

Talen cocked his head at me. “You and I alone may not be powerful enough to stop it. We could try to influence its path, try to turn it away from here.”

“Turn it into the middle of the ocean so no one gets hurt?”

Talen blinked. “We could, but as long as it’s over water, there’s going to be a source of power for it. It would be more difficult to maintain once it’s over land, and the fae would lose interest once they realized they were only harming humans.”

I gave him a sharp look. “But I guess you don’t have a hurricane-sized piece of land that’s uninhabited?” he asked drily.

I shook my head. “The coast is completely saturated.” I chewed on my bottom lip. “I think normally a hurricane is at least a hundred miles in diameter, but I’ll check with Celeb on the specifics of this one. I need to figure out just how close we have to get to be able to put a stop to this.”

Talen gave a sigh of defeat. “I guess I will be following you into the storm.”

I patted his knee before I stood. “Don’t look so glum, this is your chance to work some interesting magic.”

“I’d better rest up then.” Talen flung himself on the bed as I left and closed the door behind me. Talen was slowly learning right from wrong, but he had spent his entire life thinking of humans as a lesser species. It was going to take more than a couple weeks to completely change his way of thinking. He was slowly opening up to the idea of wolves being his peers, but seemed prejudiced against anyone without the ability to use magic. I was determined to teach him that the amount of power and magic a person had didn’t make them important. There was so much more to a person’s character, and every life had worth.

I went to Caleb’s room next to find him engrossed at his work on the computer. I ran my hand through his soft brown hair as I peered over his shoulder. “Is that the satellite image of the hurricane?” I asked curiously.

“Yup,” he said distractedly. “It’s currently six hundred and forty five miles southeast of here, moving at eighteen miles per hour.”

“So we have a day and a half before it gets here? Caleb, I need to get close to it,” I told him. “Talen and I should be able to sense if it’s powered by magic.”

“And if it is?” Caleb turned to look at me. “Anna, this is a hurricane. A force of nature. How do you plan on stopping that?”

I sat on his lap and put my arm around his shoulders. “Caleb, I’m still learning about what I am and how to manage my magic, but I’m not normal. I think I am kind of a force of nature.” I looked into his eyes. “I stood in the ocean during a storm and absorbed a bolt of lightening. That shouldn’t be possible by the rules of science, but I did it.”

Caleb stared at me in shock. “No, that shouldn’t be possible.” He swallowed and avoided my eyes. “Anna, I don’t think I really understood what it meant that you could use magic.”

I cupped his face and tilted it up toward me so I could look in his eyes. “I still don’t understand it, but I’m learning. I’m still a wolf, I’m still Anna. I don’t want you to look at me like that,” I pleaded with him.

Caleb pressed his forehead to mine. “It doesn’t matter if you’re a goddess or a human, I still love you,” he said softly.

A smile stretched across my face before my lips met his in a gentle kiss. “And I love you.”

I moved to get more comfortable on his lap, but then decided to straddle him on the chair. I think I surprised both myself and him with that move.

But he didn’t complain when I ran my hand up his jaw and to the back of his head before leaning forward for my kiss. Our lips met, and my entire body tingled in awareness of everywhere he was touching me.

Our kisses got more heated, and he ran his hands up my thighs to grab ahold of my bottom and pull me flush against him. I panted as I felt him pressed against the heat building in between my thighs. He was clearly enjoying this just as much as I was.

“Anna, I wanted to wait for the right time. I wanted to make this romantic,” Caleb murmured to me. “You deserve rose petals and candles and all kinds of things I can’t think of right now.”

“All I need is you,” I told him as I kissed my way down his neck.

He ran his hands under my shirt and up my back. My skin was on fire everywhere that he touched. He tugged my shirt up with a questioning look. I didn’t even hesitate; I just helped him get it off.

He took a deep breath before running his hands up my abdomen to cup my breasts through my bra. I gasped when he teased my nipples, the pleasure was so intense. He leaned forward and unhooked my bra with one hand but hesitated before removing it completely, as if waiting for me to protest. I didn’t.

He gently cupped my naked breasts in his hands, and I watched with hooded eyes. He circled my nipples with his thumbs and they pebbled in response. Pleasure shot through my body, and I could feel warmth pooling in my core.

He took one of my nipples in his mouth and swirled his tongue, teasing me. I couldn’t help but start grinding against him in pleasure. I wanted him with an intensity that I couldn’t even describe.

Caleb was moaning as I ground against him. He gave my nipple one last kiss and stood while holding me up by the ass. I wrapped my arms around his neck and pressed my body up against his as he carried me to the bed and set me down.

He reached to unbutton my jeans. “Take off your clothes, too,” I begged him. I wanted to see him naked.

He chuckled. “I want to see you first.” He took off my pants and panties at the same time and I was completely naked in front of him. I started to cover myself in embarrassment when he stared, but he pressed my hands to the bed and stood in between my legs.

“Don’t hide from me,” he murmured before he captured my mouth with his again. He devoured my mouth and nudged my legs open further. My bare nipples brushed against his shirt and ached for his touch again.

I panted and looked at him with desire. I wanted him. “Okay, Caleb,” I told him with a grin. “Now’s it’s my turn to take your clothes off.” I slid his t-shirt up over his head to reveal his abs and a sexy Adonis belt. There was something about that part of a man’s body that drove me wild.

Caleb pulled away so he could unbutton his pants and my eyes explored his body as he stripped. He was lean and fit for a guy who spent most of his day at a computer. I watched with anticipation as he dropped his boxer briefs. He was even more beautiful than I could have imagined.

We explored each other’s bodies with gentle caresses and tender kisses. I kissed my way down his abs and took him in my hand to tease him as my mouth got closer and closer. He watched me as I licked the head of his cock and slowly took him into my mouth. “Anna...” he groaned. I used my mouth and hands to please him until he was breathing heavy and ready for me.

We switched positions so that he was on top and I wrapped my legs around his waist, aching for him to be inside me. He teased my entrance with the head of his cock and I moaned.

“Anna, are you sure?” he asked as he searched my eyes.

“Yes…” I told him breathlessly.

He very slowly slid inside of me, and I could feel every inch of him caressing me from the inside. He captured my mouth with his as he started moving inside of me. We started out slowly, still kissing and exploring each other. As the pace quickened, I had to pull away from his mouth to catch my breath.

The pleasure was building up inside of me and I squeezed my legs around his hips to move with him. He looked into my eyes as our pace became more frantic and I saw he was losing control just as much as I was.

My pleasure had reached unbearable heights again but this time I grabbed hold of him tightly so that there was no chance of him stopping. I shattered into a million pieces as waves of ecstasy shot through me.

He followed soon after as my muscles contracted rhythmically around him. We both let out shaky breaths and my muscles felt too weak to hold me up. We clung to each other, and he ran his hands through my hair before giving me tender kisses.

“Are you okay?” he asked with concern.

I gave a shaky laugh. “I don’t know if I can walk any time soon, but yeah, I’m more than okay right now.”

He smiled and ran his thumb over my swollen lips. “That was amazing.”

I sighed happily. “Yeah.”

He held me close. “I never want to let you go,” he murmured.

His phone started ringing on his desk and we both ignored it, instead we traded more kisses. Whoever it was hung up, but promptly called back. He groaned. “I should probably get that.”

I reluctantly let him go and tried to stand. My legs were a little shaky but I reached for my clothes and started to dress. Caleb stood at the desk and answered the phone, unabashedly naked.

I couldn’t hear much from his side of the conversation but I did see his frown growing. I heard him agree to meet with whomever it was. I tossed him his pants after he hung up the phone and he gave me a grin. He pulled on the pants but came to me for another kiss.

“Everything okay?” I asked him.

“Yeah, Trevor needs me to get him some info, stat.” Caleb looked worried.

“Anything I can help with?”

He gave me another kiss. “No, it won’t take me long.”

“Alright,” I pulled away from the warmth of his body reluctantly. “I’m going to find Austin and let him know I’m going storm chasing.”

Caleb shook his head. “Good luck with that.”

I shrugged but decided that I wanted a shower first. That would give me time to think about a good way to approach Austin with my shitty plan.