Early the next morning, Alexandru wiped the excess water from his face and ran his fingers through his short, dark hair. While he had bathed after Ka’ya returned last night, he felt he needed another one – this time to cool the fire growing inside him. Hell, at the rate it was building, he decided he was either going to self-combust or be given a gold medal for control.

After he’d returned to camp last night, he discovered that Ka’ya had made a pallet next to hers. Granted it was done to maximize protection against the elements and possible predators, but it was still next to hers. Another groan escaped him when he remembered how beautiful she looked in the glow of the fire when he first found her.

He had been on the verge of collapsing. The fight with the female Gonda had been brutal. When they both went over the cliff, he thought for sure his time had come to an end, but something shifted inside him. As they plummeted over the side of the cliff, he had ripped the arrow out of the female’s forearm. She had twisted away from him, but not before she lashed out with her claws and raked a path down his chest.

He had landed on her back. Once again, she struggled to throw him off. Soaring upward again, she cleared the edge of the cliff where the path was and rose higher. Once she was high enough, he rolled off her back. He knew she would turn and attack him and she had.

As she turned to dive for him, he threw the arrow in his hand with deadly accuracy. The sharp tip and long shaft drove through the red vein, piercing her heart, and burying itself all the way to the fletching. He rotated in midair and changed.

At first, he didn’t understand what had happened. He had been bracing for a hard landing one second and the next found himself soaring down along the cliff. His body was large with fiery red feathers. The few Gondas that tried to attack him found themselves engulfed in flames.

He had spiraled down to the valley floor and transformed less than five feet above the ground before he had collapsed and lost consciousness from blood loss. It was dark by the time he woke. The promise he had made to Ka’ya had given him the strength to push up off the ground and search for her. It had taken a little while, but eventually, the faint smell of burning wood carried on the breeze had led him to her.

He looked down at his clenched hands. The memory of the taste of her blood made his mouth water. The small amount he had taken had left him craving far more.

“Not now, damn it,” he growled.

The wolfhound that had accompanied him down to the river whined and looked at him with a puzzled expression. A wry smile curved Alexandru’s lips. He could sympathize with the wolfhound. He’d been cursing and muttering for the last ten minutes.

“Not you,” he replied ruefully. “It would appear my body has a mind of its own and is refusing to listen to my brain. I don’t suppose you ever have that issue do you?”

“I don’t think he understands,” Ka’ya chuckled, walking up behind them. “I was worried about you. Are you feeling unwell?”

Alexandru released the deep breath he had drawn in and turned to face Ka’ya. She had braided a section of the blue in her hair and pinned it back. Alexandru could feel his fingers twitch. He wanted to unbraid it and bury his fingers through her hair while he….

“Alexandru, are you alright? Your… Well, your eyes are glowing and you have an expression that looks very much like you are in pain on your face,” she commented.

“I’m fine,” he said in a slightly strangled voice before he cleared his throat. “I’m fine. I’m just hungry.”

“I have some of the cake my mother gave me,” she said, starting to turn away from him.

“Ka’ya,” Alexandru called, stopping her.

She turned back to him. “Yes.”

“It isn’t food I want. It’s you,” he quietly informed her.

Ka’ya’s eyes widened before a smile curved her lips. “Then that makes two of us,” she replied.

It took a second for Ka’ya’s words to sink in. A soft curse escaped him and he moved without thinking. One moment he was by the river, the next he had his arm wrapped around Ka’ya’s waist and was drawing her close.

“I want you,” he bluntly informed her.

“I can tell,” she chuckled before she sobered and gazed at his chest. She reached out and ran her hand down his bare chest. “I still cannot believe how quickly you can heal.”

Alexandru reached up and held her hand over his heart. “Does it frighten you?” he asked, curious.

She tilted her head back and studied him for several long seconds before she shook her head. Her fingers caressed his flesh and he swore each stroke fanned the flames inside him higher. She seemed to recognize the effect she was having on him because her touch became bolder.

“Not frighten. I would say more like intrigues me,” she murmured, sliding one hand up his chest while her other hand moved lower. “Just as your kiss last night did. I want you, Alexandru.”

Alexandru lowered his head and captured her lips with his. His tongue swept forward, pressing against hers and encouraging her to open for him. She did, parting her lips to him like the clouds unveiling the sun. The arm he had wrapped around her waist tightened and he crushed her against him. The hand between them teased the flesh along the edge of his jeans while his other hand slid down to cup her ass and press her against him.

There was no denying the evidence of his desire. The move ignited a fiery need in Ka’ya and she tangled her fingers in his hair, holding him as she deepened their kiss. Alexandru could feel the call of her blood to his. This was a primitive call to mate, to claim, and to brand her as his. He knew about the driving desire – he just couldn’t remember who’d told him about it. He slowly ended their frantic kiss, moving his lips along her jaw to her throat.

“I need you, Ka’ya,” Alexandru groaned.

“I left the pallet out,” she murmured near his ear.

Alexandru pulled back and gazed down at her before sliding his hand around and grasping hers. His fingers tightened around her hand when she gave him a shy smile. He didn’t miss the excitement, or the flash of uncertainty. Both expressions hit him hard. He suspected that Ka’ya was unaware of the information she had unconsciously shared with him – that she was innocent.

Grasping her hand, he guided her back to their small camp. He gazed down at her as his hands moved to the fastenings of her shirt. She had left off the leather vest that she normally wore. His fingers paused when the back of his hands brushed against the soft mounds of her breasts. It was obvious from the feel that she was not wearing a bra. The idea of her going without one made his body harden. If he had known before – and now that he did – Alexandru swallowed. It was going to be very difficult for him to walk next to her and not visualize her without a bra.

“You’re killing me!” he swore under his breath.

“This kills you?” she asked, puzzled.

“I want to bury my…. Damn it, if I had known you weren’t wearing a bra,” Alexandru breathed deeply through his nose. “Even your scent has me ready to come like a school boy.”

Ka’ya released a delighted laugh. “I take it all of these things are a good thing,” she reflected with a shy, pleased grin.

“Yes, very good,” he replied in a strained voice.

“Then, let me help make it easier,” she replied with a seductive glance.

Before Alexandru could undo the next button, Ka’ya reached down and gripped the bottom of her shirt and pulled it up over her head. She tossed it onto a nearby rock and reached for the fastenings of her trousers. She toed off her boots and set them aside.

Alexandru’s hand reached out and he cupped one bare breast in his palm. The move drew a soft groan from Ka’ya. He kneaded her breast before pinching her nipple. Ka’ya straightened and gazed back at him with eyes filled with desire.

“You like that,” he asked.

“Yes… Yes…,” she replied, pushing her trousers down and kicking them aside.

Alexandru drew in a deep breath. This woman standing proudly in front of him took his breath away and made his blood burn. He felt his teeth start to lengthen. Reaching out, he ran his hands down her body, enjoying each tantalizing touch.

He cupped both of her breasts in his hands before he bent and nipped first one, then her other nipple. Her hands shot out to grasp his forearms. Alexandru teased her right nipple with his tongue, feeling it grow under his masterful touch. He brushed his teeth against her breast and felt his mouth water. He wanted to bury his cock in her as far as he could go while he buried his teeth in her and drank from her sweet, healing blood.

Already he could picture how he would take her. He didn’t realize that the visual was so intense that he actually pierced the flesh of her breast until he tasted the sweet iron of her blood. His arm swept around her to keep her from collapsing. He slid his other hand down between her legs. The slick moisture between her legs told him that she was not immune to the gentle sucking on her breast.

Concerned with her comfort when they came together, Alexandru slipped a finger along her sensitive channel. Encouraged by the movement of her hips, he pulled out far enough to slide two fingers deep inside her. He paused when he felt the thin membrane that proved he had been right in his assessment of her innocence.

Alexandru reluctantly released her breast and ran his tongue over the twin puncture wounds. They would heal without a mark within minutes. Ka’ya’s cry of distress told him that she missed the attention he gave her taut nipple. She wanted more. He planned to give her what she was begging for – and so much more.

Stepping back, Alexandru rid his body of his clothing. His fists clenched when Ka’ya ran her hands over him. He bowed his head, turning it to the side to keep her in his peripheral vision when she slowly walked around him. Her hands sliding across his chest, arm, and upper back before it moved lower.

His cock pulsed with need, pre-cum dampening the head, when she dragged her nails across the cheeks of his ass. His head twisted to the other side when she continued her exploration. Alexandru gritted his teeth when she teased the crack of his ass.

Her fingers were soft, sometimes hesitant, and curious. He could tell she was as fascinated by his body as he was of hers. Her hand brushed along his hip before she returned to stand in front of him.

Alexandru released the breath he had drawn in a long hissing release when she lifted her hands and rested them on his shoulders for a moment before sliding them down his muscular chest to his flat stomach and finally to his throbbing cock.

“Ka’ya, I’m on fire for you,” he said with a shake of his head. He reached down and wrapped his hand around hers – the added pressure nearly making him come. “I’m not going to last long if you keep exploring me like you are.”

“I like touching you. I like looking at you,” she said, rubbing her hand up and down his cock.

Alexandru’s hand moved with hers as she pumped his cock. His hips rocked back and forth with the rhythm of her hand. When he became too sensitive and knew he was about to come, he forced her to stop. He wanted her to come first.

He pulled her hand free and drew her down to the pallet. In the back of his mind, he wished he could give her a large bed, but there was something wild and untamed about making love to her out in the open with nothing but the trees and river for their walls. He swore that one day soon he would find a real bed for her.

“Let me pleasure you,” he said.

“Touching you pleasures me,” she replied in an urgent voice filled with need. “I ache.”

Alexandru knew exactly where she was aching. Her hips were moving with a desperate edge, rocking back and forth and straining upward. Sliding down her body, he pressed a kiss against her hip before he moved down to bury his mouth against her mound. Her loud cry echoed through the trees.

Spreading her swollen lips, he sucked deeply on the small, sensitive nub. Her hands frantically reached out to grip the edges of the pallet. Alexandru loved the vision of her spread for him. Her arms were spread wide, her nipples thrust upward begging for his attention, and her legs parted wide so she was opened to his touch.

Alexandru buried his fingers inside her, pushing through the thin membrane as he continued to raise her to a higher level of arousal. He listened to her erratic breathing, her desperate cries, and felt the rocking of her hips to know when she was reaching the peak of her arousal. The moment her body stiffened, he rose up over her and aligned his cock with her channel. He thrust forward, impaling his cock as far as he could go in her. Her body stretched and wrapped around him like a glove before greedily pulsing around his cock as her orgasm sent her over the precipice and into an abyss of mind blowing pleasure.

He bent over her, rocking his hips forcefully and thrust deep into her. His lips caressed her throat. Once again, he felt his teeth lengthen. Locked in their combined pleasure, he stroked her neck several times before sinking his teeth into her again, the hunger he had felt earlier suddenly becoming overwhelming.

Ka’ya groaned and her legs lifted to wrap around his waist. The position drove him deeper and for the first time in his life, Alexandru experienced the magical connection with another being that he’d only read about. His body hardened, tensed as his impending orgasm built. The harder he pumped into Ka’ya the deeper he drank from her. His body shook with the intense dam of need until it broke through the banks trying to hold it in, shattering his control.

Alexandru emptied his seed into Ka’ya with an intensity that shook him. He released her neck, knowing that he had taken more of her blood than he should have. He turned his head and buried his face against her heated skin as his body trembled with the last of his release.

Slowly, he pulled back to gaze down at her. Her eyes were closed, her lashes lay like dark crescents against her flushed cheeks. A small, satisfied smile curved her lips. In that moment, Alexandru knew that while he might be lost, he’d never felt so right.