Her lips couldn’t have hit his hard enough. Her mouth collided with his and her tongue parted his lips, making sure he understood that she felt the same.
“I love you too,” she said as she pulled away. “God, that sounds stupid. No, I love you. I do. I know I do. Come on.”
She took his hand and pulled him away from the picnic tables and around the side of the rectangular building that had served as her schoolhouse. There, behind it, was a giant tent that one might expect to see on a Native American reservation. It was a teepee, which didn’t make much sense in Australia, as her friends used to joke, but Horace had constructed it and used it as a home for his magic. Tonight, it would be the birthplace of Rafe’s new life.
“That’s so cool,” Rafe said.
Kalina’s heart fluttered and her stomach ached. Nerves kicked in hard. She’d had sex many times in the past, but she’d never been in love before, and she’d never done anything like she was about to do now. She could see that Horace had lit the fire inside, and blue shadows illuminated the entrance. It was too late to turn back now. Horace never wasted his magic and he would be livid if she changed her mind. She took a deep breath and looked over at Rafe with hopeful eyes. She trusted that once he entered, he wouldn’t leave until they were done. If he did, she would be heartbroken. She was trusting him now.
“Don’t let go of my hand,” she warned him. “A part of your body has to be touching mine at all times once we enter. Do you understand? If you let go of me, it could hurt you bad. Once we enter the tent, my energy will be flowing into you. Without that link…”
“I get it,” he said. “I won’t let go of you.”
She nodded and breathed deeply again. Her feet shuffled forward one slow step at a time as she pulled him with her into the tent. The blue haze enveloped them as they entered.
“Ah,” Rafe said, not from pain, but from surprise.
The pain hadn’t started yet.
The heat of the inside was on them immediately, covering their skin in sweaty moisture. She’d been inside the tent a hundred times at least, but only once for anything as serious as this. This was where she’d had her transformation. Nothing on the inside had changed at all. The strange markings were still on the walls, lines and circles and zig zags. Animal skins covered the floors and six pillows marked the spaces where the elders sat when meetings were called. Horace had told her once that some of the other shifters came there to converse with him. Many had died over the years, but still some traveled from far and wide. Incense burned on small tables at four points around the circular space. The only thing newly added, and definitely for their benefit, was a light blue blanket. Kalina recognized it as the one that had covered her bed as a child. Now, it would provide a different kind of comfort.
“Don’t let go, re
member,” she said.
“It’s so hot,” he said. “It’s hard to breathe.”
“You will smother with me,” she joked. “It’s part of the process. We will grow weak together and come out the other side much stronger.”
As she held onto his hand, she used her other to begin removing his shirt. When it was almost all the way off, she switched hands to remove it all the way, always making sure her skin was against his at some point of their bodies. He helped her remove his pants and stopped there. She smirked as she looked down at his boxers.
“Oh,” he said as he pulled them loose and kicked them away too.
His cock was already halfway hard. How could it not be? The heat combined with the erotic scent and the blue magical mist created the most sensual of moods. Kalina placed her bare foot on top of Rafe’s to keep the connection as she lifted her dress over her head and let it fall to the ground. She’d worn no panties or bra. She often went without since she never knew when she would need to shed her clothes and hit the water. Plus, around Rafe, she’d started to shed her clothes on dry land too. She loved the man and wanted to feel him inside her every moment she could. This wasn’t a date night where she needed to pretend to be human in a bar full of locals. This was altogether different. Tonight would be extra special.
“When I look at you,” Rafe said, “I can’t breathe. You are the most immaculate thing I’ve ever seen. Your body and your face and your smile and your hair…”
As he spoke, his cock hardened until it was completely solid, and she hadn’t even touched him yet. It was clear he liked her that much and the thought of it made her wet. This guy was hers and she was going to change him. He would never leave her now. She knew that. Not only did she trust him, but the bite would make him her mate. Sure, the connection could be broken by someone else strong enough, or if one of them were weak enough, but she knew that would never be the case with Rafe. He was different. He was already one of her kind, only trapped in human form.
She took his hand and led him to the blue blanket where she lay him down on the ground on his back. The heat of the tent sent beads of sweat running down her neck and over her breasts. It rolled down her stomach and into her pussy. She was wet in so many ways. Rafe’s body was the same damp and so fucking sexy. She wanted him. She needed him. Gently, while keeping her eyes glued on his, she reached out and took his cock in her hand. She strengthened her gaze and focused on him as she slowly stroked him. His mouth opened to gasp, and she watched as the blue mist seeped into him. She smiled. It would work. She believed in it and she knew she’d made the right decision.
Kalina leaned her head back and inhaled, letting the blue mist enter her, and as she did she felt sparks, like static down her throat and into her chest. It filled her body and reached deep into her core.
“Do you feel it?” she asked Rafe.
“I feel something,” he said. “When I breathe. It…it feels so strange.”
“Allow it inside you,” she told him. “It comes from the fire. Look.”
He turned his head toward the campfire at the center and they both watched as blue embers drifted from the fiery flames and what should have been smoke wasn’t grey and rolling but was blue and lifting from the fiery wisps in waves, filling the tent. Seeing the fire made her hornier. It wasn’t sex that filled her mind. It was life. It was all things. But that turned her on in indescribable ways. She knew Rafe was feeling it too. She’d felt it for the first time when she was sixteen years old and had made the transformation alone. Now, she was able to share that with Rafe. The thought turned her on even more. Sweat poured down her forehead and over her naked breasts, down to her nipples, and she loved the tickle of the trickle making its way down her body.
“I need you,” she told Rafe. “Are you ready?”
“I’m so ready,” he said as he pulled her hand from his cock and tugged on her, gesturing for her to come to him.
He started to rise as if he were going to take control of the moment, but she pushed him back down.
“No,” she said. “This is something I need to lead you through. You are mine. I need you to understand that. From this moment on, you are bound to me and no other.”