Wolf Tales 11 (22 page)

The sky had cleared, the moon glowed overhead once again. He stood and shook himself, sending snow crystals cascading in all directions. Liana shook her coat clean as well. She stood as if poised to flee, watching him. Waiting.

Adam searched for her thoughts but found a solid wall blocking him.
Typical female.
She wanted to bond, and now she locked him out, but it was all part of the ritual, part of the challenge she offered him.

It appeared he must prove himself worthy of her. He
only hoped he could. She was, after all, once a goddess, but he loved her. She loved him. It was time, and challenges be damned.

He pawed her shoulder and she growled. He hoped it was an instinctive response, not a sign of temper, but with her thoughts closed to him, how could he be sure? He gazed into her eyes, those amazing gray-green eyes of hers and knew this was the one, the only woman, the Chanku bitch he wanted for all time. There was no doubt in his mind. In truth, at this point, there was nothing more than need and the overwhelming sense that he must have her. She was his to protect, his to love, his to worship. This female, this time, was right.

And that, he realized, was the difference between what he’d felt for Eve and how he felt about Liana. Where he’d needed Eve in the physical sense, where he’d loved her and cherished the woman she’d been, the need had not been this great, this all-consuming. Her loss and the pain he’d felt had been selfish in comparison—she’d left without his permission. He’d grieved his loss more than he’d mourned her death.

She’d abandoned him without reason, and he’d missed her horribly, needed the affirmation of her love, and yet he’d moved on. Very quickly, in fact. Looking back, he realized he’d moved on from Eve without guilt, without regret. She had her new life. He had his—except, he knew, on some intangible level, that he needed Liana to survive. He would always need her, and he would always love her.

Her mind was still blocked, but he shared those thoughts, the depth of his desire and the power of his love. He hoped she was at least listening, if not broadcasting.

She said nothing. She stared at him for the longest time, and he would have given anything to know what was going on in that brilliant mind of hers. Then she trotted across the small meadow to the circle of fresh grass and primroses still blooming, the spot where they’d stood with
Eve just a short time ago. There, in the circle blessed by their Goddess, Liana planted her feet and gazed back over her shoulder, inviting Adam to mount her.

A wave of absolute relief washed over him. He hadn’t realized just how worried he was. What if she’d changed her mind? No matter. This was as plain an invitation as he was going to get.

He stepped from frozen snow to soft grass, from winter into spring. He could have sworn the frozen air felt warmer the moment he crossed into that blessed circle. Once again he raked Liana’s shoulder with his paw. She didn’t growl this time. Instead, she braced her legs. Turning her head to gaze over her shoulder, she watched him, bearing his weight as he mounted her.

He and Eve had mated only a few times in their wolven form. This was Liana’s first time as a wolf. It took Adam a moment to settle into the change in his shape, the altered perceptions, even longer to find the proper position for penetration. He braced himself, clasping her body between his front legs and burying his nose in her thick fur. A low whimper sounded deep in his throat as he inhaled her rich, wolven scent and smelled the powerful perfume of her heat.

His hips had begun thrusting the moment he mounted her, an instinctive act of mating that he barely controlled with the remnants of his human senses. Then his feral needs took command. His spine curled as he hugged her close, plunging and thrusting until his sharp thrusts finally found their target.

Liana’s eyes never left his as he buried himself in her warm sheath, as the knot at the base of his cock swelled to full size, filling her, tying the two of them together.

Adam felt a momentary disconnect. Even though he’d done this before when he mated with Eve, this was Liana. This was the woman who had agreed to be his mate, the one he would bond to tonight and for the rest of his life.
He planted his hind legs firmly in the thick grass as Liana’s inner muscles clenched and pulsed, holding him tightly within her channel.

His thoughts were still open, still searching. His mental barriers were completely down as he consciously searched for Liana. Still, there was the slightest sense of fear he had to force aside. Fear tempered by trust as he opened himself to her amazingly brilliant mind.

The mind of a woman who had once been a goddess. A mind with enough power, at one time, to kill any mere mortal foolish enough to attempt a link. Trusting Liana, loving her, Adam reached into the heart of her thoughts, reached for whatever she offered.

Her barriers dissolved and her mental pathways blossomed, opening entirely to him. She offered everything, a link as full and complete as two minds could achieve. She gave him answers to questions he’d not even known he had.

He felt as if he’d tumbled into another space, a different world, and in so many ways, he had. Her mind was like a time machine, a trip through memories of a life before recorded history, of people who were culturally different, yet physically the same as those who walked the Earth today. He saw creatures that no longer existed—huge, mountainous mastodons with gleaming tusks, and powerful dire wolves with their heavy bodies and powerful jaws. Small, shaggy horses moved in herds across vast grasslands, and hunters trailed after, primitive men from an ancient time.

Fast-forwarding through her memories and knowledge, he saw the rise and fall of tribes he recognized as the earliest years of ancient Chanku on the Tibetan steppe. Shapeshifters from the beginning, yet they appeared to be more civilized in many ways, a more advanced people than their neighbors, but why?

He walked her paths of knowledge and discovered small
secrets of their kind, even the largest one, the one she’d not thought important enough to share. He might have laughed if not for the constant onslaught of information—so much information he knew it would fill his brain, that his mind might explode with all the amazing things Liana knew and remembered.

Eve hadn’t stolen her memories after all. No, it appeared she’d merely taken what she needed as Goddess. Liana’s mind was filled with knowledge and so many lifetimes of memories that Adam wondered if he’d remember it all.

He saw everything, felt everything, shared everything. The way Liana did her healing, how she’d felt when she first realized she had been cast out of her role as Goddess, the things she’d done for which she would always feel shame.

He was with her when she took a younger Anton to her bed, when she sent the wizard on his unexpected journey of discovery to the monastery that still held their history within its magically protected walls. Adam shared her shame over those long weeks when she’d held Matthew Rodgers against his will in a fruitless attempt to make him her consort.

He saw that for what it was, that she’d been desperately searching for the kind of love she’d only discovered now, here, with him. She’d spent hundreds of lifetimes searching—a search that ended with Adam. That knowledge made it easier to absorb the memories of every man she’d bedded over the ages, the hundreds of men she’d taken without permission or even their conscious knowledge, though Adam couldn’t help but notice every single one of them, except for Matt, had gone to her willingly.

He could have stayed there in her memories forever. He knew he would return, again and again, to learn from this amazing woman, but tonight they had a purpose in their bonding, and goals yet to accomplish.

He knew the moment the mating link was complete. While he hated the thought of leaving this wondrous treasure trove of memory, Adam sensed Liana’s desire to move forward.

She was almost childishly anxious for the next step. He realized why when she shared the moment with him, releasing an egg, the one that would become their child.

One egg.
Memories of Tia Mason’s frightening delivery swept through him, but he brushed worry aside. This was Liana’s experience. Their child. Each of them was an individual with his or her own path to follow—their own risks, their own success. He would not borrow trouble. Instead he concentrated on the sense of their future in that unseen ovum.

Powerful waves of emotion crested in and about his mind, his heart, and his soul. Liana’s emotion, as she realized this act would change both of their lives forever.

Just as their mating would change them. Her desire for a girl child, the daughter Eve had not been able to bear, was a powerful force, and it made him love Liana even more. She might have been a selfish and self-centered goddess, but she was a generous and giving mate.

Time passed in the small circle of spring. The grass was cool against his paws, the flowers dipped their heads to the moonlight, and he held a sense of timelessness, the feeling that they’d somehow slipped earthly bonds and floated outside of the cares of their world. He blinked and glanced about, afraid, but he’d not separated from his body and neither had Liana.

They were still tied, their bodies linked physically and emotionally. Now though, instead of the driving need he’d experienced earlier, Adam knew a contentment unlike anything he’d felt before. He and Liana so perfectly united, their wolven bodies aligned, their human hearts linked, their thoughts one.

It was all good. So much better than he’d ever dreamed,
this sense of becoming one with a woman he’d once thought he hated. Amazing, what time and love could accomplish, which brought him full circle, to think of the time, and the fact there were people counting on him tonight, counting on Liana, on the power of their mating and the energy their bodies and minds could provide.

He had no idea how much actual time had passed. He didn’t know if they were anywhere close to Anton’s schedule, if they’d missed the deadline or hadn’t reached it yet, but he felt his climax growing, knew he couldn’t hold back any longer.

Liana’s tight sheath contracted around his thrusting cock, squeezing him in a pounding rhythm that left him no other recourse. Praying it wasn’t too soon, hoping like hell they’d gotten this right, Adam tightened his forelegs to better grasp his bonded mate.

It’s time,
she said, and Adam knew she was right. Sensed Anton’s mind linking with his, synching with others about the country.
I love you, Liana. Now and forever.

Her laughter brushed his thoughts, the first powerful shocks of her impending climax almost brought him to his knees.

Now!

The big wall clock loomed large in the bedroom, an alien and only partially welcome presence ticking down the seconds and the minutes to the long-awaited moment when the women might finally let them find release. Groaning with the combined pleasure and pain he’d been trapped in for what felt like forever, Stefan Aragat checked the handcuffs holding him bound to the thick, iron railing on the bed. He glanced once more at the big clock Xandi had hung on the wall just for tonight, and sighed. He wasn’t going anywhere, any time soon.

Not that he particularly wanted to leave.

He rolled his head to one side and caught Oliver grinning
at him. The look of absolute bliss on Ollie’s face had Stefan biting back a laugh and sending his partner in bondage a private message.

Nothing worse than a damned submissive getting exactly what he wants.

Oliver managed a big wink and a grin, in spite of the fact his dark skin was beaded with sweat and he had a death grip on the chains holding him so tightly bound. No doubt, he was exactly where he wanted to be and loving every minute.

Stefan tried flexing his shoulders. It wasn’t easy, as tight as his loving spouse and her cohort in crime had tied him. Oliver was restrained even more, if that was at all possible, but the damned guy loved this stuff.

The vote was still out as far as Stef was concerned, though he had to admit, when the girls finally let them come, it was going to be amazing. No doubts there. In the meantime, though, he was having a hard time finding the humor in the whole situation.

He’d been ready to blow for at least the last half hour, and that was after using amazing control for the hour before. He hadn’t expected so much creativity from Xandi and Mei, but it appeared that when the two of them got together with a bottle of Anton’s best wine, their imaginations went beyond inventive.

He looked at the clock. Again. The hands must be stuck, because he was almost sure they weren’t moving. They still had a good fifteen minutes before the girls took them over the edge.

He stared at the second hand. It
was
moving. Barely. Why was it, the closer they got, the slower time crawled? Stefan wasn’t sure he’d be able to last. Not with that damned vibrator in his ass, pressed way too close to the magic button. Thank goodness his prostate was practically numb from such continual attention, but it still felt way too good. The weirdest thing was the way the subtle vibrations
in his ass made the nipple clamps vibrate exactly enough to drive him nuts.

Hands and feet restrained, an anal vibrator with batteries that showed no sign of failing, and nipple clamps just tight enough to keep him on the edge between wanting to scream and wishing someone would tug on them. Just a little? He glanced at Mei and thought of suggesting it, but she was too busy with her own vibrator.

Watching her slide that big pink phallus between her legs, seeing it disappear deep inside her pussy, had him licking his lips and wondering what she had planned for him next.

So far, their plans had worked perfectly. Switching mates for the night didn’t seem like that big a deal. All of them switched around on a regular basis, but having Mei’s total concentration for an entire evening while his mate serviced Oliver had definitely had a weird effect on Stefan.

He glanced at Oliver and decided it had been pretty effective on him, too. Xandi was doing her best to take Oliver to the edge without letting him go over. She appeared to have found new levels of torture for Oliver.