Kyra
She'd never slept with anyone outside of a bed. But she was pretty sure that Derek wanted to sleep with her on the beach. Or maybe even in the ocean.
Kyra found herself having a great time on Martinique too, despite the weight of Jesse's disappearance.
They did end up making love on the beach, sometimes twice a day. They ate, they swam, they fished, and they lay in a hammock with their legs tangled together. Everywhere they went they asked about Jesse, but no one had seen him.
"We'll need to leave soon," Derek said. “Roman needs me back at the pack." He lifted her hand and kissed it. "Maybe we can sneak away again in the future for a happier reason.”
"That would be amazing." She meant that, but there was no way it would ever be possible. Once she and her coven enacted their plan, she would never see Derek again. The thought sent a pain straight through her chest.
"Would you like to go out to the jungle and run as our wolves?"
"Yes. I would love that.” She had traveled the world with the coven, but if she ever shifted, she was alone. The vampires would never have accompanied her out into the wilderness. They had taken care of her as well as they could, but there were some things they just wouldn't do. Even when she was young, they had assured her she would be fine going on runs by herself. She remembered one distinct time when they had gone to visit Romania. Even humans had heard the stories about vampires originating in Romania. They had not actually originated there, but there were still quite a few covens living in castles in the countryside.
Weeks had gone by while they stayed with an ancient vampire coven, and finally she could put off shifting no longer. They would not allow her to shift during the day, only at night, under the cover of darkness. She begged Victor to go with her. There were a lot of scary sounds that came from the forest.
Tentatively, she put her hand on his cloak. "Will you come with me?”
He’d actually knelt down in front of her at that point, a very fatherly behavior for someone who had no desire to be a father. If he ever acted like a guardian, then she was lucky.
"Kyra, you are a little wolf. There is nothing here that can hurt you. Only a vampire possibly and that is not even a certainty. All of us are accounted for. You are old enough to go out alone.”
"But I'm scared."
"Being scared is normal. You must work through it." And then he led her out of the castle by the hand and closed the heavy wooden door behind her, bolting it closed.
She had stood on the front steps and pounded on the door for a good twenty minutes until her hand actually hurt, which was hard for a wolf shifter. Finally, she realized that no one was coming to save her.
What he didn't understand, and maybe he did not care, was that as a wolf shifter, she was supposed to be part of a pack. She was supposed to be able to walk around with wolf shifters and run with other wolf shifters twenty-four hours a day. She would be aware of where they were in the woods in front of her and behind her. That's what she'd learned from the few times they'd visited a pack when she was a child. They’d never been allowed to stay for long though.
So she never had that feeling of belonging. Thanks to Roman’s father, and thanks to his pack in Alaska, her chance at a normal shifter life had been ripped away from her. She might be part human, but the need to belong to a pack was very strong.
However, she lifted her chin. This was her life now, a life devoid of other shifters, and she must become like a vampire, living in a group only for protection, never for companionship, and content to be alone, completely solitary in her pursuits.
She might never enjoy it, but she would learn to tolerate it. And she would thrive.
She wondered now how much of this pep talk was for her own sake and how much of it was for the vampire’s sake. At first the question had tormented her. But some time ago she had accepted that their mission aligned with her mission. She didn't have to love them like family to recognize that.
She was startled back into the present with Derek's hand around her shoulders. "Are you okay?"
"Yes, I'm fine. I'm just looking forward to shifting in a new place.”
He never mentioned it and she hadn't asked, but when she shifted, her world was more alive. It was brighter, louder, and more exciting. She wondered if there were shifters who just decided never to become human again and lived out their days in their animal form. The thought had crossed her mind. She could definitely see the appeal.
They stripped off their clothes and put them into a tree branch. And then they became wolves.
She leapt into the undergrowth of the forest, inhaling the strong scents of the local plants. Even the flowers were more vivid to her wolf. Derek nudged her with his nose indicating that she follow him. They cut a sharp left and ran. She came to a sudden stop when she saw the waterfall. He looked at her, the question clear in his eyes. She couldn't hear any words from him, but the intent was clear: Would you like to jump. Would you like to swim in the waterfall?
She would like to do both of those things. For just a few minutes, she could let go of the bleak mission she’d assigned herself. She could just be a normal wolf shifter female in her twenties, who was on vacation with a hot male.
A hot male who’d let her be free for just a little bit.
He shifted back into his human form. She couldn’t tear her eyes away from his sculpted muscles. He wouldn’t be out of place as a piece of artwork in a museum. She wasn’t one for fanciful notions, but he really looked like a Greek God as he dove into the water.
She followed right after, and they both swam in the cool water, then they both lazed on a sun-warmed rock.
He rolled over and kissed her, running his hand over her flat stomach. “I want to taste you,” he said.