Sworn to the Wolf (18 page)

Chapter Seven

“Dare I ask what you females were discussing?” Laurent asked as he walked back to the cabin with Rain.

“Lust. Sex. Desire. Fucking. Blowjobs.” Rain laughed. “It started when I asked if we could have sex and it turned into a whole discussion about it. Apparently the overwhelming lust I feel for you is something common between Mates.”

“You feel overwhelming lust for me?” Laurent growled as he followed her into the bedroom and caught the shirt she tossed off.

“Laurent, before our first date—when, if you remember, I had sex with pretty much a total stranger—I hadn’t had sex in nearly a year and I wasn’t really that bothered by it. It wasn’t that I didn’t like sex, I certainly liked coming. Still do.” She winked. “But no one really made me
crave
it before. Suddenly you come into my life. You make me wet just from inhaling your skin. I crawl all over you and lick you in front of people I barely know.
Yes
, I feel overwhelming lust for you.”

He followed her down to the mattress, tossing off his clothes to the pile where hers were. “Good, I wouldn’t want to be alone. I can’t stop thinking about you.” He nuzzled his face in the valley between her breasts. “So?”

“Hmm?” Rain asked, distracted by the hard-bodied man lying across her naked body.

“Can we have sex tonight?”

“Oh yes,” she said and in less than a minute Laurent had entered her and began to fuck her slowly and thoroughly. “Oh! I like a man with follow-through.” He chuckled and leaned down to capture a nipple in his mouth.

“You taste so good, like berries and cream.” He laved her with the flat of his tongue.

“Berries and cream? Really? Must be my new soap.”

“Your taste is fresh, sweet. Reminds me of summer mornings.”

“Oh that’s very good. With lines like that your bed must have not been empty much.” She grinned.

Suddenly he withdrew and she whimpered in alarm at his absence.

“Hey!” she cried. “You have work to do. Where do you think you’re going?”

“I don’t want to lie across your stomach, you had a serious wound there. Plus I want to try another position. Turn over.”

She blushed, rolling onto her belly. “I’ve never done it this way before.”

“Have I told you how much it turns me on that I get to be the one who shows you new things?” He stroked questing hands all over her body and she arched into his touch. “Ass up, head down,” he said and a thrill rode her system. The position felt very submissive.

His hands took her hips and helped her into position. “Good god, you have such a luscious ass.” The wiry hairs on his thighs prickled the backs of her legs as he moved just behind her on his knees. Her hands fisted and released the sheets with anticipation.

The blunt, fat head of his cock nudged against her gate and slipped inexorably back into her cunt. A long, low groan escaped from her as he hilted completely and pulled back out, nearly all the way.

“Oh that’s the ticket.”

She heard the strain in his voice. The power of knowing she tested his control roared through her.

“I must agree with that assessment,” she gasped out.

“It lets me look at that gorgeous ass. God, I just want to bite it.” She jumped when he slapped one cheek with the flat of his hand. “Sweet.” His fingertips danced down her spine, over the crease of her ass and tickled the star hidden there. She froze at first but gasped as the warmth of the touch radiated to her pussy.

He chuckled. “So much to you, Rain. So many things to try, to touch and taste.” The touch faded as he traced down her thigh and moved to hold her hip. “I love your pussy, all cocoa pink. In this position it’s bare, open and accessible to me in any way I want or need it.” His other hand moved to her clit, bringing fingertips to stroke over it for a few moments before tracing up her belly to pinch a nipple as her breasts swayed with each thrust he made into her.

“And here is another part of you I love to touch. This way I can just reach up while I’m fucking you and play with your nipples. Make you squirm in that sexy way you do every time I touch them.” She shivered at his words followed up by action.

“Deeper,” she gasped.

“I don’t think I can get any deeper.” The fingers on the hand at her hip dug into her muscles as the strength of his thrusts increased.

“No, I mean, you get so much deeper this way.” She moaned as he rolled a nipple between thumb and forefinger.

“Oh yeah,” he agreed, sliding a hand down her stomach, stopping at her clit, which he mashed with an experienced thumb. “So wet and slippery, your clit. Like a hard little button.” He chuckled as she writhed back against him. “One I like to push over and over.”

“Ohmigod,” she murmured as orgasm swallowed her up, blinded her to anything but his cock deep inside her and the hands on her body. The way the man could make her come always surprised her. He knew his way around a woman’s pink parts, that was for sure.

“God that feels good,” he whispered as he pressed into her one last, hard, deep time and came.

Long moments later he brought them both to the mattress, not withdrawing from her but moving to the side so his weight wasn’t on her. She lay in the curve of his body, his cock still embedded within her, and it seemed like no moment had ever been more wonderful.

“I love you. By the way, do you ever get soft? Is that like a werewolf thing?”

He chuckled, clearly startled by her questions. “The way you change subjects. I can’t say I’ve ever met anyone else like you. To answer your questions—I can’t say, baby. It’s not something that’s come up. Did Anthony get soft? Did he bring you pleasure at all?”

She laughed. “Yes he got soft and no he brought me no pleasure. He was an in the dark, only as naked as an unzipped fly, shove it in without regard to me being ready kind of guy. Thrust four times, come and get soft and zip up and be done.”

“Another reason to dislike him then. Watching you come is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.” He nuzzled into her neck and breathed in deep. “Tomorrow night at nine you’ll transform and our wolves will mate for life. I can’t wait.”

“Does it hurt?”

“Transformation or mating?”

“Transformation.”

“I was born a wolf so I can’t say from experience. It’s very natural for us and totally painless. But Archer, one of the Pack members who was transformed some years ago, says the first time is akin to bad growing pains. The long bones are especially hard hit by the shock of the transition. What happens when we change is as much metaphysical as it is physical and biological. It’s hard to put into words but it’s like you slip your consciousness as a human off and slide into your wolf. Archer says after the first time it’s not nearly that bad.”

“Okay.” She chewed on her lip thoughtfully. “Can we talk to each other? While we’re wolves?”

“Well, not in words but the Pack is connected in a very real way. We can send bursts of feeling and images. There’s a lot of bumping and nipping. I’ll guide you by moving you with my head. There’s also howling and barking, growling and whining.”

“Growling like in anger? Or that sexy way you growl at me?”

He laughed. “Mainly in anger or agitation. I save the sexy growl just for you.” He sighed. “Sometimes fights break out. Almost always within a Pack fighting is over position or a female. There are times females fight each other. Like when an unmated female presents herself to a Mated male. Blooding is usually what it takes to make the other wolf back down. Sometimes it has to go further and you have to incapacitate and, very rarely, kill.”

“What! Are you telling me that I might have to kill someone?” She scooted away and he slipped out of her. Sitting up, she clutched the sheet to her body.

“Not
someone
. Your wolf might have to kill another wolf to save your life or mine or someone else you care about. If a wolf doesn’t back off after blooding and keeps coming after you it’s kill or be killed. If you don’t fight to protect yourself you’ll die and where would I be then? Chances are I’d die too because after the bonding ceremony we’ll be very connected to each other.”

“Remind me to get back to the connection thing later. Laurent, I don’t know how to fight! I know you probably think I do because of how I grew up, but we were sheltered from the violence of my father’s world.”

“I think no such thing. It works this way—Mates are generally the same level of strength as the other. So for instance even though Kari is a tiny thing in comparison to the rest of the Pack she’s got strength, agility and speed comparable to Andreas’s. No one messes with her. Mostly because she’s an Alpha but also because she had to kill another female on her transformation night. That female was five inches taller and outweighed her by at least forty pounds and yet Kari snapped her neck like a twig. You’ll have my strength, speed and agility. I’m Third. That means I rank higher than everyone in the Pack but Sean and his mate Emma, and Andreas and Kari. You’ll be Third as well. No one other than Kari or Emma could stand a chance against you. Your wolf will know what to do.”

“You said something about presenting? What’s that?”

“Ah well.” He shifted his eyes and she narrowed hers in response. “It’s when a female offers her rear flanks to a male, tail up and exposing her sex. Presenting herself for mounting.”

She sighed and rolled her eyes. “Okaaay. So is there anything else I need to know?”

“Don’t pay any attention to any other males who attempt to approach you sexually. You’re within your rights to snarl and smack the hell out of any male who tries to mount you or even who attempts to sniff you too long. Of course you won’t have to because I will if anyone even tries.” He sniffed indignantly.

“This all sounds so surreal. I can’t believe I’m a freaking werewolf. Now tell me what you mean by the comment that after the bonding we’ll be so connected.”

“It’s hard to put into words really but I’ll do my best. Right now you and I are married according to human law. As werewolves we’re together because we’re a mated pair. The attraction between us is chemical as well as biological. We have a strong attraction. Right?”

She nodded and gestured to the rumpled bed. “Duh.”

“Okay. So we could go on and have a lifelong relationship. Have kids. Be together until we die, blah, blah, blah. But as a part of the transformation ceremony you’ll be bound to me as well as the Pack. It’s sort of like a magical spell that marries our souls as well as complementing the marriage we’ve made in our hearts. We’ll feel each other’s emotions more easily. The connection between us will be very strong and lifelong. My father never remarried or sought another after my mother died. He never wanted to. She was it for him. He never rejoined a Pack either. His heart died when she did.”

Rain took his hand. “I’m sorry. I love you, I do. And I simply can’t imagine losing you. But I’d live for our children. I want you to know that.”

He got to his knees and looked deep into her eyes. “You don’t know what that means to me. I loved growing up here and I love the Phinneys. But...”

“But it feels like your father died when your mother did. You feel like he didn’t think you were worth fighting for.”

He sighed and his mouth twisted in a ghost of a smile. “You know me.” He brought her hand to his chest, over his heart. “No one has ever known me like you do. It means...it’s everything.”

She kissed him slowly, pouring all her emotion into it. Wanting him to know what she felt. “I love you. I’m honored to know you, to love and be loved by you.”

“You’re too good to be true.”

She winked. “Keep that in mind. So can I turn any time then? Not just the full moon?”

“Of course. The full moon is the trigger for the first time you change. But your transformation will enable to you to change at any time you wish after that.”

“Will the children be there?”

“No. Children aren’t able to change until puberty. They’ll all be at Sean and Emma’s tomorrow night. The lodge will be, erm,
quite lively
tomorrow. Definitely not a thing for children to see.

“Although they do grow up around a lot of nudity and casual attitudes about sex and sexuality, they aren’t around on Gathering evenings. Until they turn twenty-one, they have no official ranking in the Pack. They have the years from first transformation until twenty-one to finish school and find a place in the Clan. Sometimes they have the ranking level of their parents, sometimes not. Generally the higher the rank of the parents, the higher the natural ability and resultant rank of the children. Tomas, Devon and Sean, Andreas’s sons, will definitely be Alpha level in ability. I don’t know how it’ll all shake out with three of them. One will most likely show more strength like Andreas did.”

“What about Hellie? She’s so smart.”

“Females hold no rank outside the rank of their mates.”

Her dark eyebrows shot up as her body stiffened in outrage. “No way! You’re telling me women can’t be Alphas unless they’re Mated to one?”

“Yes.”

“How completely absurd! That...that’s totally sexist. And stupid. In all of the generations of werewolf culture a woman has never stood up and called bullshit on that?” She was indignant and god help him it turned him on.

“Well interestingly enough there’s a move right now to bring about greater rights for female werewolves and to create better relations between the shifter races.”

“Shifter races?”

“Yes, there’re more than just wolves. There are werebears. Big cats, weretigers, panthers and jaguars. At least one Clan in Canada and one just east of us have unmated female Seconds. Things change I suppose, over time.”

She jumped to her feet to begin to pace, speaking with her hands. Her movements had become more graceful and fluid since she’d been bitten but he knew he’d be committing a fatal error to stare at the beguiling way her breasts swayed. So he tried to sneak-ogle her.

She rounded on him, eyes flashing. “Laurent Cole, if you think our daughter is going to always be held down, tied to what some man does or is, you’re out of your mind! Don’t some wolves just opt out of the Clans? Go it on their own like your father did?”

He scowled and crossed his arms across his chest but admittedly the way her eyes moved down to take in his muscles pleased him and took the edge off his anger.