Lifting this soda bottle only two inches feels like I’m lifting a boulder off a damn mountain. I could lift it with my hand for a fraction of the effort it takes to do this.
Frustrated, I release the bottle and watch as it slams back into the table. It swivels a few times and almost falls over, but manages to stay upright and unbroken, which is more than I can say for the first twenty bottles. I need a moment to gather myself, to breathe, and then I’ll try again.
Across the street, my mates have set up a little man cave, making me feel like I’m a fucking spectator sport. They’ve set up chairs and are watching me so intently that it makes me feel a little like a sideshow freak. I know that’s not how they see me, and I’m glad to have them observing in case anything goes wrong, but that doesn’t help me feel less self-conscious. I just hope the shifters who came with us as extra guards aren’t watching from the house down the street.
I shove the thought away. It’s not helpful to my state of mind.
“You okay?” Ridge calls from the yard.
I wave at him to ind
icate I’m fine, then square back up to the soda bottle. The thing feels like my current arch nemesis. I loathe it.
But I try again.
For another hour, I practice levitating the bottle over and over. I feel like I make progress, but it happens in such small increments as to be insubstantial.
When I can’t handle trying to levitate things anymore, I move on to a different spell. And then another. And another. Until the sun sets and I’m losing light and patience all at once. Every spell seems to take tremendous effort, and I’m stretched to my max almost to the point of tears.
I lean over the card table, my palms resting on the surface as I draw in a few much-needed breaths. Rotating my neck to work the kinks out, I catch Dare’s gaze where he’s sitting on the edge of his seat by the sidewalk. I grimace in a “sorry I’m failing you all” kind of expression.
This isn’t working, and I know it. He has to know it too.
Dare stands and comes to my side, where he removes the spell book from my hand and sets it on the table with the various objects I’ve used during the afternoon hours.
“You need a break,” he says, then tugs his t-shirt off. It flutters gently to the ground with all the broken glass I know we’re going to have to clean up later, then he reaches for the waistband of his shorts.
A small flash of heat rushes through me as he shucks his pants off, and for a brief moment, I think maybe he intends to fuck me standing right here where God and everybody can see us. Instead, magic shimmers over his form, all color and light and that little zing of energy I can feel because of my witch side. Then Dare’s huge black wolf does a playful bow before nudging me with his giant shoulder.
I stare at him, still caught up in the fantasy of me and a naked Dare with the wind on my skin as he sinks between my legs. He nudges me again and then yips, his teeth latching onto my shorts.
Oh! I’m supposed to shift.
My cheeks flame, even though I know he can’t read my thoughts while I’m in human form. Mind speak only works when we’re both wolves. I tug my tank top and shorts off, then let the change roll over me.
Now this—this comes easy. Shifting to wolf costs me nothing but a single thought, and the magic pours through me, elongating my limbs, bending my body, fur growing, ears perking, tongue lolling out happily. The absolute and immediate relief feels like plunging into cool water on a scorching day.
I bounce a couple times on my front paws, and Dare responds by darting in and nipping at my heels before he bounds away. Without giving much thought to it, I follow him, my legs pumping. I chase him all around the village, up and down old dirt roads, past the meeting house, past Elder Jihoon’s tiny shack where he once told me I had a wolf hidden inside me. We race down one road and up another, darting between buildings, playing tag and pouncing on one another. There isn’t a place in the village we don’t see, though Dare never ventures outside the perimeter, just in case there’s any possible witch threat waiting beyond the safety of the town.
My wolf howls with happiness as she stretches her legs. I feel good. I feel free. The evening sun glows rose red, and the ground is still warm from the day’s heat. I put on a burst of speed and pounce on Dare’s back, taking him down with a playful bite to the scruff.
We roll on the grass, nipping and biting. He latches on to me, but I manage to get away. Then he takes me down, and we tussle a moment longer until I have him pinned on his back.
Suddenly, magic flows between us, and Dare’s fur begins to sink back into his body. My first immediate thought is dammit, the fun’s over, but then the human part of me notices the very naked human part of him.
So I follow suit and shift back, despite my howling wolf’s protestations.
When the magic fades, I’m straddling his naked hips. I know it’s an indecent position to be in, being out in public and all, but I don’t care enough to crawl off him. I’m too distracted by the warmth of his skin, and the pressure of his body between my legs. Plus, we’re hidden behind a building at dusk in an empty village.
Nobody’s around to catch me doing something I shouldn’t.
So I move. Just a little shift of my hips, enough to slide with aching, beautiful slowness against his body.
Dare’s eyes darken, and his hands come to rest on my hips. We stare at one another for a moment, and his gaze drops to my lips before he rakes it down my entire body. I straighten a little, pressing my core against his hard length and giving his eyes access to the rest of me. The desire that simmers between us, never far from the surface, bubbles up and threatens to take over.
I lean forward, sliding my hands up his smooth, muscled chest. I kiss his collarbone, then trail my lips up his neck, feathering kisses as I grind against him. Then I place my lips close to his ear as I whisper, “I can be quiet.”
I pull back a little after I speak, wanting to see his reaction. Even more heat flares in his deep brown eyes, and the gold flecks gleam like bits of flame.