The Lion's Arranged Mate: A Paranormal Lion Shifter Romance (4 page)

CHAPTER THREE

“You are versed in lovemaking, are you not?” Anastasia said, pulling her shorts down below her navel, and the rim of a black thong greeted him. Alan couldn’t take his eye away from the low-cut frill of it, the small triangular fabric that barely covered the mound of her pubis. He saw that there was very little pubic hair; whether it was natural or shaved he couldn’t’ tell.

She knelt down on the couch beside him and tugged with two pinched fingers at his shirt. He gulped and took it off, revealing his bulky pectoral muscles and a hairy muscular chest. Working with Cameron on projects had kept him from acquiring a gut, and in its place was a broad ridge of muscle. He sniffed as she twirled her fingers through the matrixes of the hair, and pulled at her own red locks with a seductive look.             

“Aren’t you going to touch me?” she asked.

He hesitantly raised his hand and cupped her right breast, and she closed her eyes and spread her luscious red lips, revealing the pink tip of her tongue inside. Even his massive hand could barely navigate the full spread of her breast, which he squeezed under his rough palm, causing her to gasp a little.

“You smell like danger,” he whispered, leaning toward her neck that she bared for him. He knew that it was an ultimate show of submission, especially coming from a Wolf. In the pack, the selfsame gesture could be taken as a surrender to a challenge. In this case, it was the opposite. She was coaxing him, cajoling him into unleashing his own inner animal passions.

“Lick me, and see if I taste the same,” she hummed.

Alan kissed her neck, felt goosebumps rise across her skin as he worked his tongue across her, nuzzling the soft tender flesh with his teeth and leaving a wet smear of his saliva in its wake. He worked his way higher, still cupping her breast, and gave it another little squeeze as she pushed her chest out. His mouth went lower now, tracing a trail down towards her breasts, and she opened her eyes and watched him eagerly.

Her nipples were dark and surrounded by large areola, and when his lips passed across them, they hardened like small round berries. She gasped again, and held his head against her as he sucked, pulling hard on the supple flesh with his teeth until she let out a barely audible scream. Both her nipples were stiff now, sensitive to the touch, and Alan suddenly felt a weird compulsion to try and make her cum by touching only her breasts.

He knew he was greedier than that. He wanted more. He pulled away from her breasts and went for her mouth this time, sliding his fingers lower toward her waist as he did. She was his equal as a kisser, and it became another kind of game as they wrestled, each trying to outmaneuver the other’s tongue. He tasted her saliva, sweet and fragrant, and when he found her tongue at last, sucked hard on it. She groaned aloud and let him, sticking her tongue deep into his mouth and holding it there.

By now, Alan’s hand had found the lip of her thong and his hand had moved down over the soft fabric. She leaned against the couch and spread her legs wider, opening her thighs to his touch. His hand moved over her pubis and he hooked his fingers and pulled upward, and she groaned and twisted against it.

“I want all of you,” he declared, surprised at his own brashness. His voice was barely able to distinguish itself from the pouring rain that rattled on the roof above them. Another lunge of thunder shook the cabin’s frame. In the chaos of it, they had become their own true forms.

Anastasia stood up and pulled her thong down, revealing a patch of pubic hair the same color as her hair. Alan stood up as well and unbuttoned his jeans, pulling both boxers and pants down together until he stood naked. He looked at his bride-to-be with a feral hunger, and she shrunk from it.

She no longer had the strict formal look of a teacher – her eyes had settled, become a dreamy sort of daze.
Even a pure blood Wolf can’t resist her own urges
, he thought, and watched as she climbed back onto the couch and propped herself on her elbows and knees. She threw a look over her shoulder, and Alan gripped his penis and pulled the foreskin back.             

He bent down on his own knees on the couch, and saw the gleaming wetness of her vulva peer back. Her buttocks spread wide, revealing the little pucker of her anus and the darker colored skin of her perineum. She jutted her ass toward him, inviting him in.

“Are you sure about this?” he asked.

She simply smiled – the first time he had ever seen a real smile from her – and nodded as he guided the tip of his penis toward her. She reached under her legs and helped him, urging him to rub the head against her labia. When he did, she groaned again, lowering her head against the pillow and opening her mouth. Alan reached down and pressed a finger against her labia and she squealed again, her abdomen quivering.

“Put it in, put it in,” she begged, craning toward him.

He gyrated his hips and pushed his shaft into her opening, and felt another wave of ecstasy overtake him. She leaned forward with the motion, groaning and twisting again, her red hair a beacon of fire on her head. Alan bit his tongue, trying to keep from coming immediately – a wet slurping sound emanated from their sexes as they mingled, and he pushed himself further in.

“Ahhh, geezus,” she murmured. “I’m so wet…”

“I know you are,” he gasped, gripping her waist and jutting himself into her again and again. She bent her spine upward, and he massaged the graceful arc of her buttocks, forcing them apart again as he plunged against the flower of her sex, crushing it.

Anastasia grit her teeth and lifted herself back up on the palms of her hands, and Alan reached under her waist, squeezing her ribs and running another hand over the bristles of her pubic region. She put her own hands on each of his, and tried to sit up on her knees as he slammed against her ass.

As she made her way to an erect position, he felt his penis bulge against her vagina, swelling inside her still, and then she screamed. His penis had ground against her G-spot, causing a momentary rippling orgasm to fluctuate through her body. She reached behind her, pulling Alan’s head against the back of her neck and his hands rubbed her bouncing breasts.

“Harder, fuck me hard, Alan,” she pleaded, “make me come again.”

“Can I come inside you?” he breathed.

His voice was only a rasp, and he wasn’t sure if he’d actually said anything. It had been so long since he’d known the pleasure of a woman, and part of the reason was because it so enlivened the Lion in him that he was always afraid he would lose control. Even now his heart was racing, his breath panting hot against her sweaty neck. His hand now pressed against her pubic arch, and he found the hard center of her clitoris. When he touched it, she bucked forward, thrusting her buttocks up so hard he drove into her violently and nearly came.

She flattened against the sofa, her breasts spreading out against the fabric of the cushions, and he collapsed on top of her, spreading her legs wider as he thrust again and again. She was unbelievably wet now, and he could smell the pre-cum soaking both of their thighs.

Anastasia could only reach upward, bending her fingers over the edge of the couch, and held on. Her hands tightened and she drove her face hard into it to keep from screaming again. Alan was fully on top of her now, coursing into her wetly, and her buttocks were sodden with sweat. Runnels of her own fluids trailed down her open thighs, seeping from her vagina where his cock was submerged in her.

“Cuh… coming,” she barely spoke the words.

At that instant, he came as well, falling onto her back and reaching out for one of her hands. Their fingers twined together as he expelled himself deep inside her with several grunts. She shivered in a sort of reverie as his seed exploded against her vagina, filling her with a white light. Her own orgasm was like lightning, and afterwards she could only hold herself to the couch – every body part felt as if it didn’t belong to her, and she was almost afraid to move.

Alan pulled out of her, still half-stiff, and the opening of her vagina remained open for a moment, a pink tunnel oozing his own seed over the lip of her pubis where it dribbled onto the sofa. He clung to her still, his mouth suckling her back, until she rolled over against him and her face was against his. Both of them continued to breathe hard, occasionally opening their eyes to inspect the other.

Anastasia looked different. Relaxed. Beautiful, but not in the cruel unflinching sort of way he had taken her for when he’d seen her at the airport. He lifted his hand and stroked her cheek, pulled a lock of her disheveled red hair over one ear.

“You really are beautiful,” he remarked.

“You are too,” she gasped. “I… I’ve never had anyone... to do that me.”

“… Have sex with you?” He lifted an eyebrow.

She laughed again, an authentic laugh that made his heart swell. “No. Well, yes… but not like that. Not… so intense. I don’t usually have multiple orgasms.”

“Well, I think you were already warmed up,” he said, and then instantly regretted it. Now it was her turn to raise an eyebrow, and she scanned his face trying to deduce his meaning. When he continued to give her a fixed stare, she suddenly remembered the first time he’d taken her for a ride on the back of the bike and blushed.

Shit, why did I bring that up
, he thought.

But instead of cursing him, she merely shook her head. “That was your fault, y’know. I never rode on a bike before. And every time you stopped and took off the seat was vibrating and rubbing against my…”

“Why didn’t you say anything?” he asked.

“It was all I could do not to cum all over the back of your jeans,” she said shyly, “and… and I kind of liked it. It was weird. Just… being close to someone like that. And having myself stimulated…”

He smiled and kissed her again, and her breath filled his mouth. He brought a hand down and gently stroked her labia again, moving a finger between the sticky folds and causing her to press herself against him further as she tilted her head back.

“That’s… the spot…,” she murmured.

“You’re remarkable,” he said, holding her close and tracing circles around her swollen clitoris.

“…how… unnnnh, how so?” she asked, her fingers clenching on his arm again, and her hips butting against his finger, asking to be satiated.

“How many orgasms are in you?” he whispered into her ear.

She grinned, her eyes still closed. “I… I might make it… four or five, if you… just… don’t stop,” she cried, “god, don’t stop… until I come. Put your fingers in deeper.”

Alan kissed her neck and inserted his finger, felt her vagina tighten around it as he fucked her again, still not sure what to make of this new woman in his life. She was everything he wasn’t, and yet there was something so unassailably attractive about her that he couldn’t help but be bewitched.

God, she’s tireless
, he thought, working her toward another climax.

CHAPTER FOUR

The next morning found the two lovers curled into each other on the couch with sunlight slanting in through the window. Alan woke first, and ran his fingers down Anastasia’s thigh, over the lip of her waist, tickling her ribcage until she shivered and opened her eyes demurely. Her red hair caught the light and refracted it back, even redder.

“Hey you,” he said.

“Hey you,” she replied, and put her hand on his chest. “I guess… I guess we’re pretty well married now, aren’t we?” There was nervousness in her voice, and it didn’t suit her - she had been out of her element for almost a week, but she still exercised an incredible confidence. Now, the bottom of her voice had fallen out.

He drew an arc above her forehead with his finger. “I think that would be a safe assumption,” he kissed her on the nose and rolled out of bed, his naked muscular thighs still glinting dark and tanned as he made his way to the small kitchenette. “So, as my first act as husband, I’ll make us something to eat. Any preferences?”

“You’re very good at reversing gender roles.” She grinned, pulling the thin blanket on the back of the couch over her sloping breasts. “Anything you like. Let’s make it small… I want to try something later.”             

“Something to do with food?” Alan asked innocently enough.

“Mmm, more or less,” she smiled.

Alan went through the motions and made them a couple of eggs each in a large cast iron frying pan, and then proceeded to make the coffee. He wasn’t a snob about most things, but coffee was something he took very seriously. He had brought with them fresh beans and a grinder, as well as individual filters – if Anastasia was single-minded about overcoming each and every challenge he gave her, he was equally committed to a few select tasks.

Making a killer café au lait was one of them. Anastasia dropped the blanket back on the chair and crept up behind him, winding her hands up under his armpits and stroking his naked chest, even as she pressed her breasts into his back. The dip of her waist rubbed against his buttocks, and he felt the scrape of her pubic hair. For a moment, he held the coffee grinder in one hand and a cup in the other and seemed confused.

“I’m not… distracting you too much, am I?” she whispered against his ear.

“Er, obviously not,” he lied, “I can… easily make coffee without being distracted by a beautiful naked woman pressing her body against me.”

Anastasia kissed his back and moved her hands down his waist, jutting her pelvis against his buttocks again in a playful gesture. “He thinks I’m beautiful,” she said out loud to no one, and he made a sucking sound with his teeth. “Fine! I’ll let you make me coffee…” she relented, tumbling backwards over the couch again where she splayed her nakedness in front of the dead fireplace.

After they’d eaten, they both wandered outside, still naked. They were far enough from any prying eyes that they’d both wordlessly taken it for granted, and clothes hadn’t even entered their mind. As they greeted the sun and Anastasia sunk her feet into the warm grass, he merely watched, taking in the sight of her frolicking across the alpine.
If Cameron could see us now, he’d go green with envy
, Alan thought, and then wondered how his brothers were getting along with their brides-to-be.

Anastasia called out to him, waving him toward the lake. He ran after her, enjoying the feel of the grass under his feet. Up ahead, she turned suddenly and stepped down toward the icy shore of the lake, dipping her toe into it.

“Fresh from the glacier,” he said behind her, “what do you say? Do you want to head up the ridge?”

In answer, she bent low and dipped her hands into the pond, craning her back. Her change was fluid and seamless as the flesh gave way and a heavy mat of grey fur began to sprout from her. It was like watching a time-lapse as the smooth pelt expanded down over her arms and legs, and the faint sound of flesh stretching and bone rearranging sounded in the air.

In moments, a tall dire wolf was standing with all four paws in the water and looking back up at him with an inviting glance. He smiled and made his own transformation, although it wasn’t quite as practiced. His long swooping tail extended out behind him and a halo of soft fur extended in a fierce mane.

Anastasia broke into a run first, ploughing through the shallow water at her ankles and making for the narrow line of scree that wandered up the main rocky slope behind. With a playful growl, Alan took after her, his huge strides covering massive distances on the soft marshland, but as the terrain became steeper, it was clear that Anastasia had the advantage.

She seemed to follow some unseen path, magnetically drawn upward, her large canine ears always craned behind her to gauge how far away he was. When Alan finally reached the top of the bluffs and dipped down the other side, he found her sitting on her haunches next to another glacial kettle lake, her tail wagging ferociously and her head cocked.

Alan slowed down to a trot as he approached and she nuzzled her head against his. His purr was almost deafening, and physically shook her as she continued to lean into him. Then with a playful lick, he jumped past her and swatted the pool, causing a frigid wave of water to soak her thoroughly. Even in wolf-form, there was a moment when her expression was aghast, quickly followed by a determination to get even. Alan didn’t have any time to react before she’d pounced on him, and dunked his own great yellow head below the surface of the lake.

The whole afternoon they spent in their true forms, wrestling and wandering and lying on the soft alpine tufts of matted grass, and the sun was only just beginning to descend as they slowly, hesitantly, made their way back down the scree trail where the small black shape of the cabin waited for them. As they neared it, however, Anastasia suddenly stopped, and lowered her head, her lupine eyes fixed on the structure. Alan noticed her out of the corner of his eye, and lifted his own head to try and discern what it was that alarmed her.

She crouched lower, shuffling out of her wolf form until a supple naked woman was lying on the grass instead. Her expression was even more tempered now, a mingled fear and surprise bordering on dread. Alan huddled down on his paws and changed back as well, edging closer.

“What is it?” he asked in a hushed whisper. She was still staring straight ahead.

“I’m… I’m so sorry, Alan, I… I should have told you.”

“Told me what?” he hissed, his beard scratching the low grass. “What’s going on? Did you see something?”

“They’re here,” she murmured in a low perilous voice. “I don’t know how, but they found me. They’re here to take me back. Oh, Alan… I’m sorry…”

“Sorry for wh-”

Before he could finish his sentence, a man’s voice roared out across the marsh, and Alan looked up and saw a dark figure near the cabin looking in their direction. “Anastasia! I know you’re there! I can smell you a mile off. Show yourself already. You know why I’m here.” Seconds later, several other shapes emerged behind him.

Reluctantly, Anastasia sighed and stood up, and Alan did the same, his gaze circulating back and forth between the red haired woman and the mysterious strangers who had arrived at the cabin. He took her lead as she walked carefully toward them, unabashed by her own nakedness, her powerful slim thighs carrying her with a practiced grace and decorum.

As they neared, Alan saw that the stranger was a well-built man in his late thirties. He was dressed all in black, from his jeans to the extravagant vest that emphasized his strong hunter’s physique. The motley crew behind him seemed to have followed their leader’s example, and all hung back, looking very much like a restless gang of delinquents. There were two jeeps, both spray-painted a dark grey, beached on the open landing.

“I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised to find you naked,” the leader said, when Anastasia finally came to a stop in front of him, her long neck held high in a sort of formal courtesy, “but it took me longer to find you than I’d hoped. You didn’t make it easy.”

“I wasn’t trying to,” she said stiffly.

“And who’s this, then? He smells like a cat…”

Alan grimaced and his hands flexed into fists, but he held his ground.

“Leave him out of this,” Anastasia flashed, and her eyes became dangerous arrowheads, “and you can take your little pack of mongrels and leave as well, Elias. I’m not going back with you. I was granted secession by the Council… unless you’re thinking of defying
them
?”

The dark faced man named Elias seemed taken aback for a moment by her threat, but the jeering crowd behind him bolstered his courage and he grinned it off. “You were promised to me, Anna. Pack law overrules any other law – even if they’d have us believe otherwise.”

Alan watched their exchange carefully and it finally dawned on him. This man Elias and his brood had the same brusqueness, same bare-bone mentality and straightforwardness of Anastasia, except that hers was refined.
They’re Wolves
, he realized. And a whole pack of them. He stepped forward presumptuously; saw the flicker of awareness trigger in Elias’ eyes. “I don’t know who you think you are, but Anastasia’s right about one thing… I think you should leave.”

“Do you know who I am, cat?” Elias snarled, irritated to be interrupted.

“Enlighten me,” he said in an even voice.

It was Anastasia who spoke up, her eyes never leaving Elias, as if she might be able to train them into his heart like daggers. “I didn’t want to tell you, Alan. It didn’t seem like there would ever be a need, and I thought… I thought I could move on from it,” she began. “In the Stormfang Cloud we have rigid codes of behavior, ancient laws. And one of those laws involves mating.”

“Don’t be so blasé about it, Anna,” Elias sneered, “call it like it is… marriage.”

Alan froze, the word cauterizing something in the back of his mind, and a pained look spread on Anastasia’s face as she accepted its condemnation.

“What are you telling me? You’re already married?”

“Not so much as the standard definition applies,” she said, “but I have been promised to another. The youngest daughter of the Pack leader is always bestowed on the Pack’s strongest warrior and hunter. It has always been this way.”

“You don’t mean…” Alan started to say, but Elias beat him to the punch.

“Anastasia is
mine
. She was promised to me,” he snarled, his anger rising, and a purple vein stood out on his forehead, “and the second an opportunity arose to try and run from her obligations, she took it!”

All eyes went to her again, and she seemed to cringe from it. Respectfully, Alan lowered his own eyes, wished there was a way to throw a curtain over her filial betrayal, or better yet a way to nullify it altogether.
She was promised to another man
, he thought again. He took a moment to size up Elias. He was strong, lean in the same way Cameron was lean, although his muscle seemed to have been the sort that was developed while in form – he’s made a life out of hunting, and it shows.

The mangy black hair was thick and greasy, but attractive in a smug sort of way. Behind him, the other men were getting restless again, kicking at the dirt under their feet or reaching for hidden items in their black pants.
They look like goddamn Yakuza
, he thought for a moment.

“I don’t understand,” Alan said, putting himself between Anastasia and Elias again, his own naked torso and abdomen still flexing with the remaining adrenaline of having run down the mountain. “I thought the Council arranged the marriages between the different clans in order to avert war. Why would they choose… someone who was already spoken for?”

His question was open-ended, and the way Elias’ lips shriveled into a scowl and Anastasia lowered her eyes, it wasn’t hard to guess.

“It was the only way to free myself from the Cloud’s obligation. I offered myself as a bride – the Council saw preventing civil war as an overruling priority to my own commitments,” she explained carefully, and lifted her chin again, but the steadfastness she had demonstrated earlier was gone.

“But why?” Alan said, and saw another pained look on her face and wished he hadn’t asked.

“Because she’s a coward,” Elias put his hand on his hips. “She’s always tried to evade me. When she saw this… this arrangement as an opportunity, she took it without thinking. Well, how is it working out, Anna? You traded one prison for another… at least with me you’re with your own
kind
.”

“You are
not
my kind,” she snapped, “and I would suffer
any
thing to be away from you!

Something primal welled up in Elias’ eyes as he darted forward, his heavy black and polished boots skidding on the stones as he raised his hand toward her. It was one thing to have abandoned the Stormfang Cloud, scorned her responsibility to him, and taken off with a feline of all things. It was quite another thing to speak to him so seditiously and in front of his own pack.

Anastasia saw his open palm descending toward her and froze, her muscles tightening her into a statue, and she merely tilted her head to one side, awaiting the blow. She had earned this, hadn’t she? She had broken the covenant of her own people - she knew why. Elias was a monster, if ever there was one. He was blood, he was Pack, and as the daughter to the leader, she had bred into her the primeval institutions of the wolves.