30

Like he could read my mind, he glanced over at me and grinned. I flushed and looked away. I pushed down my feelings of embarrassment and quickly shucked off my lightweight gown, and my underclothes too, leaving them folded with my cloak in the gazebo. I turned around to face him, bare as the day I was born, with my hair falling loose over my shoulders.

Elias’ eyes burned gold as his gaze roved over my body. “You’d better shift, little wolf,” he growled, “or else I’m going to take you right here.”

Desire shot through me. I bit my lower lip. “See if you can keep up and maybe you’ll get your way.”

Then, with a soft sigh, I shifted.

It was so easy it was nearly effortless, like leaping into cool, welcoming water. My wolf surged forth, and my paws hit the moss with a strong thump. I shook out my white pelt, then tipped my head back and inhaled the cool air. It was better than I had even imagined, layered with the smell of water and mud, mushrooms and fauna, decay and growth. I felt electrically alive. The air crackled with energy as Elias shifted, and the immense, dark paws of his wolf met the ground. He flicked his big ears at me, gold eyes gleaming, and then bared his teeth in a playful challenge.

I yipped once brightly, and then took off into the woods as fast as I could run.

We tore through the woods like pups. I was more agile than he was and leapt easily over roots and fallen trees, darting through the brush following nothing but instinct. But Elias was just as fast as me, and his paws thundered against the dirt as he chased me. Sometimes I let him get close, just so I could take a sharp turn and lose him again. It was thrilling. The world shrank down to the pace of my run, the breath in my lungs, the sense of my mate following just behind me.

In this moment, everything was perfect.

I barreled through the brush and skittered into a clearing beside a gurgling stream. I got my bearings and moved to push off my back paws and leap over the stream. Before I could, Elias exploded out of the brush. He slammed into the side of my body, tackling me to the soft moss. I yipped in delight. The only thing better than being chased by Elias was being caught. I kicked my back legs into his belly, trying to push him off, but my strength was no match for his sheer bulk. He pinned me easily, and then fit his jaws over my neck.

I whined, low and long, as his teeth pressed gently into my throat. I tipped my head back, jaws parted and tongue lolling out, as I submitted to him. My whole body went pliant beneath his, and the sheer release of submission was unlike anything I’d ever felt before. My tail smacked against the earth. Even while under him, I couldn’t hide my pleasure.

He growled back, pleased at my display, and released my neck.

Then with a crackle of energy, he shifted back into his human form. He still had me pinned, except now his familiar, handsome face was grinning golden-eyed down at me, as he sifted his fingers through my white pelt.

It was a strange sensation, being in my wolf form while he was human, but something about it was intoxicating, too. I couldn’t think of any other time when I’d let a human touch me as a wolf. He slid his hands through my pelt, up and behind my ears, then dragged his nails gently behind them. My whole body shivered in pleasure at the sensation; every touch felt heightened. My tail wagged harder and beat against the dirt.

He laughed, low and quiet. “Such a cute little wolf.”

I dragged my tongue over his cheek. He laughed again, bright and unrestrained. Then I shifted back myself, my wolf dissipating to reveal my bare human form, flushed with exertion, beads of sweat immediately forming on my forehead and chest. Even after shifting back, his hands were still tangled in my hair, and his warm, muscular body pinned me to the moss. I wrapped my arms around him.

“Cute, huh?” I murmured, and then caught his lips in a searing kiss.

We melted against each other under the warm midday sun, half-obscured by the thick canopy reaching above the clearing. The forest was quiet and the only sounds I could hear were the rustling of the breeze in the leaves and the gurgle of the stream beside us. It was so easy to imagine that the world extended only to the forest, and the man in my arms.

Our kisses became more heated and desperate as we rolled on the soft moss, hungry for contact, but still thrilled from our run through the woods. This time, when he entered me, it was with my body on top of his, Elias’ hands firm on my lower back as he rolled his hips with instinctive, animal ease. He swallowed my moans into a claiming kiss, and it took no time at all for his sweet touch to pull a dizzying orgasm from my body.

I rested my head on Elias’ broad chest, lulled into an easy, relaxed half-sleep by the steady beat of his heart. It was early afternoon, but I only knew that because of the placement of the sun in the sky above. It was such a warm, beautiful day, that I wanted to do nothing else but lie in his arms.

His thumb traced circles on my shoulder where his arm wrapped around me. “So,” he murmured, “once we’ve finished up negotiations in Shianga, where would you like to go next?”

“Next?” I asked. “Aren’t we going back to Frasia?”

“Well, yes,” he said. “But for our next trip. Hopefully, just a vacation. Where have you dreamed of going?”

I wriggled closer. There were so many places I’d imagined visiting: the sandy beaches of Osna, the dense lush forests of Askon, even the far deserts of northwestern Shianga. But before I could say anything, a great shadow fell over us, blocking the golden sunlight.