Highland Wolf Pact (25 page)

Donal nodded miserably. They both knew it was true, even if they didn’t want to think about it.

“Ye lead yer clan, Donal,” Kirstin reminded him of this too. “Ye mus’ do what’s right for the greatest good.”

“Ye’re my greatest good, lass.” He cupped her face in his hands, searching her eyes. “Ye’re m’very heart.”

His words broke her. How could she do this? How could she feel this way, knowing she couldn’t be with him, and still stand? She didn’t know.

“I can’na stay wit’ ye,” she whispered, her lower lip trembling, in spite of her self-admonition to stay strong. “I can’na stay.”

“Then I’ll come wit ye.”

And there it was again. They went around and around, in circles. It was impossible. He couldn’t live in the wulver den with her, and she couldn’t live in the MacFalon castle with him.

“Yer family’s here,” she urged. “Yer obligation’s here. Yer wife...”

They both winced at the word “wife.” Kirstin didn’t like to think about another woman coming anywhere near this man. Even in her human form, Kirstin’s instincts turned animal at the thought.

“But me
mate
is
’ere.”
He kissed her cheek, the tear that slipped down it caught on his lips. “I want ye, Kirstin. I claim ye. D’y’hear me? Yer
mine.
Ye’ll always be mine.”

“I wish’t were true,” she whispered as he kissed her other cheek, another tear.

“Tis true! We can make a life together, lass.”

“How?” she pleaded, wishing she could see a way around it. “If ye marry me, King Henry’ll come down on all our heads. T’will be the end of the wolf pact and the end of the possibility of peace in the borderlands. I can’na be responsible fer that.”

“Let me worry ’bout that,” he insisted.

“And then what?” she cried. “Ye live wit’ a woman ye hafta lock up once a month because she changes into a wolf?”

“T’wouldn’t be the firs’ time a man had to deal with a she-devil once a month,” he replied with a grin.

“Donal!” Kirstin laughed. She couldn’t help it. He always made her laugh, took her outside herself. It was the first thing that had attracted her to him. That and those big, dancing, mischievous, blue-grey eyes.

“But m’love…” She turned her wet eyes up to him, hating herself for saying it out loud, but it was true, and it was the one thing she knew they couldn’t change. “There’d be nuh children. Nuh heirs. We could’na mate while I was… while…”

She flushed, feeling the heat in her face, in her limbs, at the thought of mating with this man, as woman or wulver. The look in his eyes told her he was thinking about it too.

“Nothin’ would keep me from ye, lass.” That dark, determined look had come into his eyes. The man could be stubborn. “Nothin’.”

“Och, Donal.” Kirstin sighed, shaking her dark head. “Ye can’na come wit me, and I can’na stay. Tis impossible.”

“Tisn’t impossible,” he insisted.

“I’ll change, then ye’ll see.” She lowered her head, not wanting to look at him, to see the expression on his face. She hated herself, hated her very nature. If she could have swallowed some magic potion in that moment that would have given her the ability not to change into a wolf, she would have done it in an instant. “Ye do’na really want me, Donal. Ye will’na, once ye see… ”

“I
do
want ye.” His grip tightened around her, rocking her in his arms. “I’ll always want ye, whether ye’re a woman or a wolf or a… chipmunk!”

That made her laugh through her tears, but it didn’t erase the reality of what was. The fact remained, Kirstin couldn’t be this man’s wife, no matter how much they both might want it. And she was sure that Lady Cecilia Witcombe was a beautiful woman who would make Donal the perfect wife. And most importantly, she wouldn’t turn into a beast once a month on a whim. But if the woman had been in front of her, Kirstin would have torn her throat out without a second thought. And that made her an animal.

In fact, she was an animal. And that was the problem.

“Nuh!” Kirstin choked, voice muffled against his chest, but she hardly had any breath left, and there were no more words, no more arguments to be made. She felt it happening, her strength leaving her limbs.

“Aye, lass,” Donal insisted, his mouth finding hers, sparking a fire in her that was undeniable and unquenchable. They went to the floor, slowly sinking together, and Kirstin knew there was no stopping it. Donal would see for himself, and it would be soon. Far too soon. Kirstin saw the sun had sunk below the horizon, and the pale face of the moon had risen in the sky.

“Open up!” Gregor pounded on the door from the outside.

Kirstin barely heard him. Donal’s mouth crushed hers and she welcomed the weight of him as they tore at each other’s clothes. He was shirtless, and then so was she, her plaid slipping easily off her body, leaving her naked beneath him, more than ready.

The pounding came again.

“G’way, boy!” Donal growled, nuzzling the soft hollow of Kirstin’s throat before moving down to her breasts, making her moan when he grabbed handfuls of her hair, pulling her head back so he could get better access.

She wanted him, but she couldn’t have him.

Her body burned for him, but it was impossible.

She longed to speak his name, but all that would come out of her throat was a plaintive howl, a keening wail.

“Kirstin, m’love,” Donal whispered, and she felt him, eager to enter her, almost as hungry as she was.

She met his eyes in the dimness, the light from the window fading, no lamp lit. She wondered what he could see, but she didn’t have to ask. She saw it in his eyes, the dawning realization, the slow shift from desire to horror. She was changing. There was nothing she could do to stop it.

His hand moved in her hair, and then, in fur. Her ears pricked, her hearing keener now, her vision too. She saw everything her human eyes could not, the shadows fading, the edges of things growing sharp. She heard the sound of Gregor panting outside the door as he threw his shoulder against it. She felt the heat of Donal’s breath on her fur, the weight of the man who had previously been crushing her, now like nothing.

The pounding had stopped but now the whole castle seemed to shake with the blows as Gregor applied his big shoulder to the door again and again.

“Kirstin,” Donal whispered, his hands cupping her face, finding fur and jowls and soft, twitching ears.

She whined, rolling to her side, their eyes locked. Donal pet her gently, stroking her muzzle, her neck, his expression pained. She’d tried to tell him, but he hadn’t believed her, not really. Who would believe it, unless they’d seen it with their very own eyes?

Kirstin put a dark, grey paw up on the man’s chest, seeing her own limbs gone, replaced with that of a wolf. No more hands to grasp with. It was as it ever was, as it had always been. There was nothing she could do to stop or change it, and she knew he would finally understand this now. He would turn away from her in horror and disgust, and she wouldn’t blame him.

She braced herself for it. Her emotions were even more powerful now, as a wolf. Everything intensified. Even her love for him. Her desire too. It broke her and she howled. The pounding against the door stopped for a moment. So did everything else. Donal stared at her like he was seeing her for the first time.

“Shhh,” he urged, his fingers lost in her fur, trailing over her ribs. “Yer safe wit’ me.”

Safe? Kirstin showed him a canine version of a smile, dark lips drawn back from her teeth. He seemed to understand, a smile reaching both his lips and his eyes as he bent his dark head to touch hers.

“Och, yer so beautiful,” he whispered. “Yer t’most beautiful creature I’ve e’er seen.”

A great cracking sound shattered the moment, and Gregor spilled into the room, dragging a set of chains behind him.

“He’s wit’ t’wolf!” Gregor called over his shoulder.

“Do’na touch ’er!” Donal roared, protecting Kirstin’s body with his own as Gregor grabbed the wolf by the scruff of its neck.

The man’s hand sank into her flesh and Kirstin howled and snapped at him.

“Let ’er go!” Gregor insisted, pulling the chains behind him.

Kirstin heard the sound of them and winced. She couldn’t bear it. Even the thought of being locked up now made her growl and buck. When she was human, she would have gone docilely, but now that she was wolf, there would be none of that. Her freedom was paramount.

“Kirstin, listen t’me,” Donal insisted, trying to control her scrambling limbs and snapping jaws. “We’ll nuh hurt ye!”

But she knew better. Every fiber in her being knew she had to escape the man with the chains and the locks, even if another part of her understood Donal’s pleas. Donal loved her—she felt it emanating from him in waves. There was no escaping the feeling, no misinterpreting it. That was the one thing about turning wolf—there was no more room for error when it came to things like that. The world became far more black and white, easy to negotiate.

For weeks, Kirstin had waffled, torn, not knowing what to do. For weeks, she had cursed herself for loving this man, wishing things could be different. Now, as she looked into his beautiful blue-grey eyes, things became suddenly, incredibly clear.

“Hold her so I can get this collar on!” Gregor insisted, dragging the chains close. “We’ve gotta cage t’bitch!”

Donal hit the man. It happened fast. One moment, Donal’s arms were around her, his hands in her fur, and the next, he’d stood and brought his fist hard across the man’s face. Gregor howled and fought back, and the men tussled, wrestling each other to the floor.

It was the only opening Kirstin needed and she took it.

There were more men in the hallway, but she was faster than they were, by far. One of them nearly clipped her tail with a claymoor, but she sidestepped, escaping through the breezeway. She used the bench in the garden, the very one where she’d sat and confessed her love for Donal, to launch herself over the wall. It was an eight foot drop and she took that too, whimpering as she landed, feeling the whistle of an arrow beside her ear as she ran for the forest.

It was full dark now but she saw everything. The world was hers at night, full of scent and possibility. She stopped at the edge of the woods, seeing the castle being lit up, room by room. The alarm had been sounded. They would be looking for her.

Donal would be looking for her.

Kirstin threw her head back and howled, hoping he could hear her, hoping some small part of him understood if he did. She couldn’t tell him, not like this. It was all she could do.

She turned and ran through the forest, heading toward home. Toward hope.

Her heart pounded, and she howled again, thinking only of Donal. There was no way to convey her message except through the plaintive, keening wail of a wolf.

A wolf, she prayed, she would no longer be, when she returned to him.

If only he would wait for her.

Selena Kitt is a NEW YORK TIMES bestselling and award-winning author of erotic and romance fiction. She is one of the highest selling erotic writers in the business with over a million books sold!

Her writing embodies everything from the spicy to the scandalous, but watch out-this kitty also has sharp claws and her stories often include intriguing edges and twists that take readers to new, thought-provoking depths.

When she's not pawing away at her keyboard, Selena runs an innovative publishing company (excessica.com) and in her spare time, she devotes herself to her family--a husband and four children--and her growing organic garden. She does belly dancing and photography, and she loves four poster beds, tattoos, voyeurism, blindfolds, velvet, baby oil, the smell of leather, and playing kitty cat.

Her books EcoErotica (2009), The Real Mother Goose (2010) and Heidi and the Kaiser (2011) were all Epic Award Finalists. Her only gay male romance, Second Chance, won the Epic Award in Erotica in 2011. Her story, Connections, was one of the runners-up for the 2006 Rauxa Prize, given annually to an erotic short story of "exceptional literary quality," out of over 1,000 nominees, where awards are judged by a select jury and all entries are read "blind" (without author's name available.)

She can be reached on her website at
www.selenakitt.com

If you enjoyed
HIGHLAND WOLF PACT
,

you might also enjoy:

THE SURRENDER OF PERSEPHONE

By Selena Kitt

Sheltered Persephone, Goddess of Spring, never gets to do anything-- thanks to the suffocating love of her mother, Demeter. Sephie is being carefully groomed to follow in the footsteps of the two "virgin" goddesses, Athena and Artemis, and while they sure do have a lot of fun together, she longs for something deeper--and darker. When Aidon, the God of the Underworld--generally known as Hades--appears in his chariot to claim Persephone for his bride, the young goddess gets more than she wished for.

Held captive in the Underworld, she suddenly longs to return to the safety and security of her mother's protection, but the dark and commanding Aidon binds her to him, claiming her bit by glorious bit as his own. Her coming of age is one of sexual awakening as she learns the bondage her new master imposes fulfills her darkest desires. Persephone finds herself submitting to and obeying Aidon's command and discovers being taken and consumed in the heat of passion by a man--a god--is what she was truly made for. Persephone can't deny her own nature, or her growing feelings for Aidon, as she submits to his domination and surrenders as his wife and prepares to rule as his Queen.

As she finally admits her own feelings, Persephone faces the looming specter of her history, which threatens to shatter the newly formed bonds between the couple. She must now face not only her past, but her present, and her future--no longer only the Goddess of Spring, but also as the wife of Aidon and Queen of the Underworld--and the choices she will be forced to make will change the world forever.