“Do you think you can help us find this thing and destroy it?” she asks me. “It killed the love of my life and I want it dead.” She steps forward in her vehemence and Lincoln growls at her to step back.
“Us?”
“Me and my Pack. We are vulnerable without a new Alpha male. We must find this thing and stop it.”
“Is your Pack with you now?”
“Yes, I didn’t want to leave them alone.”
“Very well. You can stay in these woods tonight and tomorrow night when in Wolf form, until we can figure out what it is. I can only assume it reverts to human form during the day and outside of the full moon, or it would have attacked more.”
“Yes, my thoughts exactly,” she agrees with me. “Thank you, Your Majesty, for your kind offer. We would be honored to share your land with you.” She lowers herself to the ground in a submissive position and I huff at her to get up.
“Just remember that land is the only thing we are sharing,” I say as I step even closer to Lincoln.
“Yes, ma’am,” she says quietly.
“Call me, Liv, please. I really don’t go in for all this formal crap.”
She stifles a surprised laugh and says, “Yes, of course, Liv. Thank you.”
She runs off deeper into the woods, leaving Lincoln and me alone. He lies down at my feet and I curl up next to him. He swishes his tail over me protectively and I ask him, “Have you ever heard of anything like this before?”
“No. It doesn’t sound natural to me.”
“Me either. I’m thinking…” I gulp and he finishes my sentence, “Man-made.”
“Exactly,” I sigh. “Just another thing to add to my ‘to kill’ list.”
“Don’t worry about it. I will do all the legwork. You will probably only have to show up and kill it,” he says, snuffling at me, teasing. “You have enough to deal with.”
We stand up and run then. He takes me all over the woods and I feel like we have covered miles. He shows me places I never knew existed and I take it all in, in wonder. He leads us back to the clearing and we flop down. I put my head on his paws and he sighs. “I like this. Just the two of us, like this. It’s special.”
“You are special,” I say to him and wiggle closer.
“Do you think you might be ready yet?” he asks shyly.
Uh-oh. I had been afraid he’d ask me that. “I’d rather we Shift and then I could kiss you and touch you,” I say with my own shyness.
He Shifts abruptly and says, “Well, I don’t need convincing.” And I Shift myself and he throws himself at me, his mouth on mine, flattening me to the cold, damp ground. Again, I can feel the chill and it bothers me momentarily, until I heat up all over as Lincoln drives into me without preamble, ripping me wide open as I scratch my nails down his back in response to his urgency. He yelps as I draw blood and breaks our kiss to rasp, “Turn around.”
I flip underneath him, and he kneels up, bringing my hips with him, and again he is inside me, pounding away until I start to vibrate all over. My fingers buried deep in the damp soil clench further and the ground begins to rumble underneath us like a tremor as I explode in ecstasy. “Oh fuck, Linc,” I cry out as I push back with my hips until he is sitting on his heels and I am on his lap facing outward. His hands come straight up to my breasts and he tugs sharply on my nipples before he drops one hand to play with me. I tilt my head back to his shoulder and he lets me go to pull my head back further so he can kiss me, nipping at my lips with his sharp teeth before he pushes my head to the right and slowly, sharply sinks his teeth into me. I grab his arm and lower my fangs against the sensitive skin of his wrist, grazing him in question. He grunts his acceptance and I bite into him, sucking slowly, savoring the taste of him. We come together and let go of each other at the same time, panting heavily.
“Wow,” he says in my ear. “That was definitely worth Shifting for.”
I giggle and turn on his lap to face him. He shuffles underneath me and lies back, and I flop forward onto his broad chest, caressing him gently. “I love you, Linc. You make me feel so cared for and safe, without being all overbearing.”
“Oh, I can be overbearing,” he says with a laugh. “I just don’t think it is necessary in your case.”
“Exactly my point,” I say as I sit up. “You know that I can take care of myself. I wish everyone else did.”
“I’m glad you brought it up as it leads into something I have to say quite nicely,” he says, also sitting up. “What the hell do you think you are playing at with The Thirteen? You call him by a name and have tea and conversation? I dunno, Liv. Something strikes me as very off about that.”
“I know it does. And I want to thank you for staying out of it before. He has changed, something has shifted in him. When he came to me on Saturday, it was…different. He told me a bit of his past, who he is. His name. You heard what he said about having a change of heart. I want to know what this bigger picture is.”
“You still plan on killing him though?” he asks and then says, “Right?” forcefully when I don’t answer.
“Of course, but now I am going to feel bad about it. But I want to know what his end game is. If he wanted to kill me, I have no doubt that he could have done it by now. Or certainly at least tried again. I just…I don’t know,” I say, slapping my hands lightly on his chest and copping a good feel while I’m at it. It doesn’t go unnoticed and he grins at me before the scowl returns. “Don’t tell the others,” I say. “They will just go all crazy on me. I can’t deal with it.”