Sarah
“This is humiliating!” I whisper, trying to cover my naked body with my hands. The cold night air bites into my skin, numbing the pain of the fresh mark, yes, but stinging everywhere else.
Sydney, in his wolf form several feet away, paces back across the patio and says into my mind, ‘If you shift, you’ll be warm.’
He did this on purpose. He didn’t so much as offer me a robe, probably to enjoy the sight of me in just my skin, shivering and at his mercy.
“I know,” I bite out, annoyed. “I don’t know how!”
‘You’ll feel it. Just tell your body what you want it to do.’ He comes to a stop, and in a glimmer of movement and faint light, shifts back into his human form. “See?”
I frown at him before squeezing my eyes shut. All right, body. Shift. Turn my hands into paws, or whatever.
Nothing.
I run my tongue over my canine teeth, testing. He’d noticed they’d sharpened after I marked him, but they feel normal to me.
“Sydney, I can’t do it.”
He shifts back into a wolf like it’s nothing for him, and I groan, my teeth chattering.
‘Try,’ he orders.
“I am!” I say out loud. I’d throw my hands in the air for emphasis but one arm is clutched to my breasts, keeping them somewhat out of view. He doesn’t deserve a show after making me stand naked in the cold like this.
‘Tell your body what to do. I can feel it in you. Your wolf is there.’
‘I’m not just a wolf, remember?’ I tell him through the mind-link, which is suddenly clear and open between us. Benefits of being mates, I presume.
He huffs a wolfish breath, flattening his ears to the top of his head. His stance is menacing, and a flicker of fear licks up my spine. “Syd?”
‘Try, or I’ll… chase you, and scare it out of you.’
‘You wouldn’t.’
‘Do you want to test that theory?’
I back toward the house. He bares his teeth at me as he takes a step in my direction, his ruff standing on end.
“Sydney! Stop it!”
‘One,’ he says, taking another step.
“Absolutely not,” I bite out, my teeth clashing as a bitter breeze ghosts over my skin.
‘Two.’
“This is-is asinine, Sydney! Do not ch-chase me. I am naked–”
‘Three.’ He lunges, and I take off at a full sprint, resisting the urge to scream.
I run around the side of the house toward the door leading to the garage, but he’s hot on my trail. I can’t wrench it open fast enough before he’s close enough to take me by the ankle in his powerful, lupine jaws if he wanted to.
I keep running, naked as the day I was born, and cross the boundary of the wolf trail leading toward the cottage I didn’t end up needing.
My bare feet slip over ice as I descend the trail, huffing and puffing. This is crazy. What is he going to do? Jump on me? Bite me?
I know he’s holding back, which makes this worse. He’s probably incredibly fast in his wolf form. I wouldn’t normally stand a chance.
Coming to my senses, I skid to a stop in the dark, empty woods and whirl around.
But he’s not there.
“Sydney?”
A rustling of branches behind me has me whirling back in the direction I was running.
“Where are you?”
He’s hunting me. Stalking me like prey. Real fear creeps through me despite the knowledge that this man would never, ever hurt me. He’s my mate. That’s in his blood.
A crack echoes through the forest. My skin pebbles as I slowly turn toward the sound. “Sydney?”
What if it’s not Sydney?
That idea spins its way through my body in a rush of fear so great I find myself suddenly dizzy with adrenaline.
Another crack, and a shadow ghosts through my peripheral vision, and there’s no way in hell I’m staying here.
I start running again, frantically jumping over rocks and piles of half melted snow. My heart starts to race so fast I find it hard to breathe, and then a snapping sensation ripples up my spine, vertebrae by vertebrae.
I choke out a breath before I fall forward, my legs unable to hold me upright. My face slams into the cold, icy ground with a crunch.
I’m rolling, head over heels.
Paws over paws.
Oh, my Goddess. I did it.
‘Stay on your feet!’ Sydney bellows into my head.
I try to find my footing, but my legs feel like jelly as I wobble back to all fours. I look up at a nearby ridge, only a few feet above my head.
Sydney stands there, his wolf illuminated by the clear, crescent moon behind him. His eyes glow with power.
But then he takes off, disappearing into the night.
I follow, slowly, trying to figure out this new body and the new, unusual powers propelling me forward. I feel stronger and somehow lighter as I maneuver off the well beaten trail, following my senses of sight, sound, and scent. Those senses are so much stronger now. I can sense him nearby as I cut into a snow covered clearing illuminated by the moon.
‘Try to run,’ he says into my mind, so I do.
It’s tricky work. I trip over my own paws several times before my front legs and back legs start moving in tandem.
‘Now jump,’ he says.
I have no idea where he is, but he must be nearby, watching me. His voice in my head has lost that teasing, boyish gleam and is now serious and laced with heat. It propels me forward, and I find myself suddenly desperate to find him.
I’ve never felt this way before. It’s too good of a feeling to ignore. Why did we ever start living our lives mostly on two feet when we could have this?
I reach the street leading into downtown Shadowcrest. It’s silent, early morning, too early for others to be awake, but Sydney isn’t here.
I pad across the street, panting, and take off at a sprint again once I reach the woods on the other side.
I follow his scent as the desperation to locate my mate reaches new heights.
Soon I find myself in front of the cottage, the pink door beckoning me inside.
‘Sydney?’ I say through the mind-link.
I walk up the stairs and nudge open the door. It was already slightly askew, and he’s here, I can feel it.
My heightened senses burn with the thrill and desire to find him, to claim him again–over and over.
What’s wrong with me? Is this normal?
I gasp as the snapping sensation happens again. My breath is forced from my body as I shift, unable to stop it from happening.
But Sydney is there, holding me upright. I look up into his eyes. They shine with pride.
I grab him and kiss him, hard, our teeth and tongues clashing in a delicious dance. He backs me against the wall and groans, his cock rigid against my bare leg. Goddess, we’re still naked. There’s nothing between us as he reaches between my legs and curses under his breath when he finds out how wet I am.
“Fuck, Sarah,” he growls, stabbing two fingers inside of me. His thumb presses on my clit, moving in slow, teasing circles. He buries his head in the crock of my neck where the bruises he left earlier thrum to life with fresh pain, accentuating my desire.
This is definitely a mate thing. This feeling like I’ll die if I can’t him right here, right now.
He drags me to the ground and enters me without ceremony. I scream his name to the ceiling. There’s no one around to hear us now.
He’s rough with me. I like it. I claw his back with my nails as he grinds his hips against mine and fucks me like an animal.
When we’re through–spent, and heavy with exhaustion–the sun is just breaching the horizon and sending sprays of soft, pink light through the frosted windows.
Sydney is fast asleep, his cheek pressed against my breasts, his arm wrapped protectively around my waist.
I look up at the ceiling of the cottage and watch the light play across it, tears welling in the corners of my eyes.
Happy. Safe. Warm. Whole.
Things I’ve never allowed myself to feel before.
I will do anything to remain this way.
* * *
Cosette pulls a twig out of my hair without a word, but her expression says everything I need to know about her sentiments.
She’s doing her best to look displeased that Sydney and I stole away in the middle of the night and shifted together, but she can’t stop the way the corners of her mouth are twitching into a smile as she brushes through my tangled hair.
Blake bounces in my lap, gnawing on the edge of the vanity.
The door to my old room opens, and Sydney appears, dressed with his hair combed back away from his face.
His eyes meet mine in the reflection of the mirror. He arches a brow. Cocky bastard.
“I’m leaving,” he says, more chipper than usual.
“Where to?” Cosette asks, whirling to face him.
“I have a meeting with Ryan. I’ll be back in a few hours.”
Cosette huffs as Sydney closes the door, but he pauses to wink at me before shutting it completely.
I blush deeply. Cosette smirks.
“Would you be interested in a contraceptive draft, by chance?”
The blush deepens to pure crimson as it creeps down my neck. “Uhm, no, I don’t think so.”
“Good,” she says, chuckling to herself. “Blake could use a sister.”
I roll my eyes to the ceiling and laugh, unable to stop myself.
Cosette sets the brush down on the vanity and starts braiding my hair, but her expression turns serious. “Sarah, the dinner at the castle is tomorrow night, and you’re going.”
“Yeah.” A crack forms in the bubble of delusion I’m holding onto for dear life. “I don’t think I have a choice.”
“Queen Ella arrived in Crescent Falls this morning,” she says, swallowing hard.
Another crack, this one threatening to shatter the bright, happy mood I’m in completely.
“Is it possible she can sense what you are?”
“I don’t know,” I answer honestly.
Cosette nods at our reflection in the mirror as she ties my hair off and winds it into a bun at the nape of my neck.
“I fear the truth might come out before either of you are ready.”
“I know,” I whisper.
I don’t want to think about that. I want to go back to last night, when all that mattered was Sydney’s touch.
But she’s right.
This is serious.
Maddy already knows Blake is Sydney’s son, and now Sydney’s mark is on my body. We can’t go back to the way things were before.
“I think you should tell them the truth,” Cosette murmurs. “I don’t think we have much of a choice anymore.”
“I know,” I repeat, and that bubble shatters, crashing down around me.