Authors: Sherri L King
Her eyes were rounded. “How can that be? It’s just not possible. I’m scared for you, Ivan. I love you, but this…” She trailed off as she became aware of the gathering darkness. Ivan’s eyes glowed, like emeralds in the shadows.
“You can watch me change.” His voice was
rough and guttural
. “I will leave afterwards, to hunt with my pack, but I will be back at dawn. If you find that you do not want to see me again, leave the front door closed and locked and I will go. I will send someone to fetch you and take you away from here. I will let you go, but I will miss you.” His voice broke, sadness permeating every word. “I love you,” he murmured.
He backed out of the house, out into the snow. Brianna helplessly followed, openly weeping. He was so earnest, she wanted to believe him—anything to know his mind wasn’t deranged.
The rising moon illuminated him as he removed his clothing. Brianna protested, trying to stop him, but was interrupted as a howl rose from his lips. Brianna gasped as she saw Ivan fall to the ground writhing. She rushed to his side.
“Get away,” he growled and turned his head up to the moon. What she saw nearly stopped her heart. His face was changing. His teeth had sharpened and elongated, and the bones of his face seemed to be shifting beneath the skin. “Go back to the house, Bri. I might hurt you in the other form—” He howled again, his entire body beginning to shift.
Brianna raced back to the house as he’d instructed, knowing her presence wasn’t needed. She watched from the window as her lover shifted into a wolf. As the change progressed, she saw that he was much larger than any ordinary wolf, and far more wildly beautiful. His fur was black and thick, shining in the moonlight. He was stout and heavily muscled, with powerful jaws and gleaming fangs.
Never in her wildest dreams would she have thought it possible—a man actually shape-shifting. At first she was afraid, afraid of him and for him. But after watching his body shift and change for a few moments she was reminded of the butterfly and the chrysalis, a magical transformation—and yet still earthbound and natural. Mother Nature had many secret wonders. Brianna believed her werewolf was one of them.
When the change was complete a powerful, black wolf stood before the window. The wolf looked straight at her with Ivan’s bright green eyes, seeming almost sad for a moment, before he turned and ran into the forest. Brianna cried out, weeping at the raw beauty of the miracle she’d witnessed, wishing she could go with him.
Brianna spent the night listening to the distant howling and baying of wolves. Her world was forever changed. She was in love with a werewolf, mated to him. Forever bound to him. At once she realized that life with Ivan would never be dull, and she laughed through renewed tears. Though there was much to be discussed between them, Brianna was ever eager to welcome her lover back.
She was his, and he was hers. In every way…forever.
When a nude Ivan returned at dawn, the door was wide open, and she waited for him in a nightshirt on the porch steps. He smiled, positively wolfish in his relief and triumph. He rushed to sweep her up into his arms, taking her straight to bed where he came down to rest upon her.
“Do you accept me then? You’re not afraid of me?” he asked, and when his lips moved Brianna could clearly see his sharpened, elongated teeth.
“I’m not afraid of you. Are you afraid of me?” Brianna teased.
He ignored her gibe. “I would understand if you were. You can’t have met many people like me.”
“You mean Russian people? I don’t know…if ever there was a country to find them in, this would be it.”
“I’m trying to be serious,” but he laughed anyway.
“No, I’m not afraid of you, Ivan,” her voice trailed to a whisper, and she took his face in her hands. “I want to know everything there is to know about being mated to a werewolf…I’m going to need all the help I can get.” She kissed his nose.
He grinned, obviously relieved. “My mother and sister will be happy to guide you—they are eager to meet you, along with the rest of the pack. They are curious about the first human woman to join our family.”
“I hope they don’t think I’m not good enough for you.”
“They would never think that. My instincts knew you for my mate from the start.
T
here can be no objections to the rightness of our bonding. My heart belongs to you, and that is as it should be.”
Ivan moved against her, and Brianna was suddenly reminded of his nudity. She wrapped her legs around his back, forcing a groan from him.
“I missed you last night,” she whispered.
Ivan let out a small howling sound and pushed up her nightshirt with rough hands. “I’ll try not to be rough, but it’s hard so soon after a change.”
“Be rough. I don’t mind.” Her words were swift with her rising excitement.
Hearing the words seemed to dissolve what little control he had left. He growled and tore her clothes from her body, making her gasp. His mouth slammed down onto hers, hungry and demanding. She felt the scrape of his teeth and brought her own to bear in the kiss.
Ivan’s hands were everywhere on her, and his mouth soon followed. His hair, longer after his change, tickled over her skin as he loved her. He rolled their bodies and sat up, so that she straddled him. His cock was pressed against her wet core. He rocked her back and forth, causing an exquisite friction that made them both gasp.
Ivan buried his face in her breasts, plumping them around his face so that he could lick and suckle at them both. His teeth scraped and then bit into her tender flesh, stopping just short of breaking the skin, making her moan with heated longing. She clutched his head to her, moving on him, bathing him in her wet heat.
Pulling his head from her grasp, he threw back his head and howled. Brianna heard the wolf in his cry, the sound far from a human one, and it thrilled her. She saw his eyes glow with their strange inner fire, and felt him lift her up, positioning her over his straining cock. As she eased down over him, enveloping him in her body, his fingernails dug into the flesh of her hips and suddenly held her still.
His eyes met hers, his warm breath huffing over her face. They sat there, breathing raggedly for several heartbeats, before Ivan thrust up—pulling her down at the same time—and sheathed himself balls deep inside of her. Moments passed, as he remained still, embedded inside of her.
“I need you so much,” he whispered brokenly.
Brianna was beyond words, her love for him filled her heart as fully as his cock filled and stretched her cunt. She moaned and pressed a kiss to his mouth, riding him. Slowly at first, and then more rapidly. Ivan groaned and took control of their dance, slamming into her with a force that should have bruised her but only made her hungry for more.
The bed shook with the force of their thrusts, and soon Ivan was growling over and over again, approaching his climax. Brianna deliberately tightened her inner muscles around his shaft, wringing a cry from him. His hands dug into her flesh, and he sank his teeth into her shoulder as they moved. That small pleasure-pain was enough to nudge her to the brink, and as the inner tremors of her climax began Ivan thrust up into her—far enough that she felt she could choke on the penetration.
They came together, bathing each other with their pleasure. Rocking softly against one another until their bodies were spent. Brianna felt full with his cock and with his seed, and she’d never felt more right in his arms. Somehow she knew that she was pregnant.
After what seemed like hours, though only minutes had passed, Ivan raised his head from her shoulder and smiled.
“Let’s do that again.”
They both laughed and proceeded to do just that.
Also by Sherri L. King:
Ellora’s Cave