Shifter Trials (3 page)

“I never wear panties.” She gave him a small, sexy smile. Her nakedness put her at his mercy and let her tear away at his control. She liked that. A lot.

He pounced and took the second kiss, claiming everything she was. She gave it, then gave some more. The rough shadow of his beard scraped the skin of her cheek, while strong hands held her tight against him, his erection digging into the soft flesh of her abdomen.

“Where’s the bedroom?” They were still in the public area of her home. Somehow moving out of his arms, she led him to a door at the back of the room and swiped her thumbprint on a pad to the left of the entrance. A click and she pushed the door open. “Up here.”

She scampered up the flight of stairs, his hands gripping her hips. The slam of a door. He must have kicked it closed. At the top of the stairs, he embraced her, clothes scratchy at her back and thighs. His hands roamed over her body while he sucked gently at her neck. Arching into every caress, she ached for his mouth to follow the path his hands made.

“Tell me you belong to me,” he demanded, one hand stroking her to madness. Rough. Wild. Perfect.

“I belong to you.” After his touch, she couldn’t imagine belonging to anyone else.

“Show me.”

She scurried onto the wrought-iron king-sized bed, lay back on the overstuffed goose down pillows, knees up and grabbed two of the spiral holds on the metal headboard. “Use me up.” She let her knees drop to the sides.

Crawling up the bed, like a wolf on the hunt, he sprinkled kisses up her calf, the soft skin of her inner thighs. She opened wider, welcoming his more sinful kisses. His mouth, tongue and teeth teased and tormented, brought her to the verge of primal detonation, and then he moved to her breasts.

“You. Are. Evil.” She spat through clenched teeth as her aching body defied her will and arched into his licks and suckles.

“Tell me something I don’t know,” he said between nips. The vampire bit as good as any wolf. When she thought she’d splinter from want, he stopped. She lifted her head in frustration, to see him disrobing. Black hair curled across that ripped chest, arrowing down like an invitation to those six-pack abs. His pants dropped, revealing the lean, sculpted muscle of a runner’s legs. This man was as fine as any shifter.

“You are so beautiful,” she said aloud, unintentionally.

He smiled, showing off uniquely vampire canines. “And you have bewitched me like the powers of a fae.” Naked, he returned to the bed and possessed her fully. Hot and slick. Skin-to-skin. Violent. Consuming. Lunging and stabbing until her body went molten and all she could do was cry for more and more.

After giving her a room-wrecking orgasm, Hayden gripped her buttock and slowed the pace of their joining. “For us.” Even on the edge, with desire scraping through her skin, his now tender thrusts caressed her, loved her, and her heart noted it, wishing it were free to love.

“For us.” She relaxed into his seduction, claiming him for the moment. Her soft moans joining his low groans in a desperate symphony of need. When neither could take it anymore, he pulled out, flipped her over, and took her from behind. Rough and fast and hard, until her wolf howled, her eagle squealed, and she screamed her throat hoarse as her body exploded in sensation. It was as if he knew exactly what she hungered for and how best to give it to her, a pattern with him, she noted somewhere in what was left of her logical mind.

When they both were sated, he smothered her against him, as if he couldn’t bear to let her go. 

“Air,” she gasped, and he loosened his hold, just enough. “Hayden, that was wonderful, better than wonderful, but we…”

“Don’t. I won’t allow this to be a one-night stand.” The green fire in his eyes burned through her, a physical blow trying to change her mind.

“A life bond between us is impossible. I can’t choose my consort.”

“You can choose your lover.” His fingers lunged into her reminding her he’d already made her body his slave.

“It will be less painful if we don’t pursue this further.” His touch weakened her protests, made them mute.

“Even if we don’t have forever, we can find joy.” She whimpered as he stabbed her again and again until she shattered into a million sated pieces.

“Your body already belongs to me. Give me the rest.” When his mouth preyed on her lips, she submitted all she was to him, even if he might only be hers until the next full moon.

Waning Crescent

Hayden stifled a yawn as the Urban Council meeting turned from bad to worse once Maya, Evan, and the other clan leaders opened it for public comment. Wheezer interpreted it as a personal invitation to glue himself onto the speaker’s box. That rat never knew when to shut up and never spouted anything that he hadn’t read off tabloid headlines. Sensitive to metal, the fae stayed away from cities. The other urban clans knew little of the Seelie and Unseelie courts, and thus feared them less than they did the predatory shifters, who were creating new types of alliances and growing in numbers. When news of a new clan merger between the cougars and the falcons hit the meeting, talk of the fae fell off the agenda, driving Maya, whose temper was legendary, to storm out of the meeting in frustration.

Hayden’s phone buzzed in his pocket. He was about to hit the off button, since his presence was required in Maya’s absence, when Talia’s number appeared on the screen. His heart beat double time.

He raced out of the room to the alley outside city hall. Clans used the human facilities in the evening to serve their governance needs. “Hey, beautiful,” he answered. “Missing me as much I miss you?”

“What an ego.”

He could imagine her nodding, her platinum hair swinging against her cheek.

“So the answer is yes.” He heard her sigh as he felt the smile he adored light up her face. “I’ll be there as fast as I can fly.” He basked in joy. This was the first time she’d ever called him.

Phone still in hand, he made another call. “I’ve got to leave.”

“Her?” Maya asked.

“Yeah.” The admission tore him into strips, expelling the happiness like a nicked balloon leaking air. Since Talia became his lover, talking about her felt like betrayal, but he couldn’t lie to his clan leader, who also happened to be his mother.

“Good. The plan’s working. I’ll return to the meeting and try not to kill Wheezer.” Maya ended the call.

Guilt left a bitter taste in his mouth when he shifted to bat, then soared at top speed so he could focus on nothing else but navigation. He let himself in via the skylight. As soon as he landed and shifted, Talia slinked over to him, draped in a blue silk teddy that outlined nipples already hard and bitable and the lean muscles of her stomach and legs. He’d learned every line of her body since they now ended every training session in her bed. This was the first non-scheduled time she had invited him to come to her. She snaked her arms around his neck, fisted his hair and kissed him hard, sliding against him in a way that inflamed him. As easy as it would be to drag her to the floor, he unraveled her arms and tore himself from the kiss.

“Hey, babe. Why you turning me away?” Her voice was a throaty drawl. He heard her wolf’s hungry growl as her hand feathered up his thigh to caress that spot on his lower back guaranteed to send his libido to Mars.

“Hot and wild against the wall, like you like it,” she whispered in his ear before she nipped at it.

She was trying to kill him. “We need to be more than this.” Not that
this
wasn’t fantastic. But he wanted her heart, not just the body she now easily shared and he regularly enjoyed.

“What do you want then?” Ice coated her words. Oh, she was frustrated.

“To go out. Spend non-athletic time together.”

“Like a couple?”

He nodded. “Something wrong with that?’

“I would prefer this stay between us and not be widely known. The politics it would ignite…”

“I get that.” His logical mind did anyway, but his heart wanted to belt out its claim to her from every roof, and parade it in front of every crowd. He also knew she found sex simpler than relationships, but it was time to push her, take her to the next level if his plan had a chance of working.

“Outside the city walls, a traveling circus set up a tent. It’s not well attended. Folks are afraid to leave the city at night, with the fae activity heating up. Shifters never frequent human-organized activities. We can fly there. No one will know us.”

Her eyes glanced over at the bed. “Seriously. That’s how you want to spend the little time we have together?”

“Yeah. I want the memories I get to keep of you to be more than groans and grunts and I hate yous. I want your laugh forever stamped in my ears, your smile on my eyes. I want to know what can make you drop the world you carry on your shoulders and just dance.”

“Why do you do this?” She kicked the red and gold Persian carpet on the floor, her gaze locked on her toes. “Why do you insist that this is a relationship?”

He lifted her chin, forcing her to look at him. “Because I lo—”

“Don’t say it.” She ripped away from him. “Never say that. Love is forbidden to me.”

“Not true.
You
choose not to pursue it.”

“My mother had a lover, stole moments with him when she could. It didn’t make her happy, just bitter and angry. I don’t want you to become my bitterness.”

He grabbed her arms and shook her gently. “You’re so obsessed with not marrying and not loving, you’ve forgotten how to live. Your mother could have chosen to make a marriage with your father, but instead she clung to the scraps of what she couldn’t have.”

“Enough. I’ll go to the damned circus only if we come back here afterwards.” Her perfectly chiseled face was now marred by a monster scowl and a blank stare.

He tapped her butt. “Get dressed.” He won.
Why does it feel like I lost?

They flew side by side. Their wings flapped against each other. Each touch filled him with the pleasure of connection, the pain of secrets. The new moon was dark against the star-filled sky, a reminder that they had only weeks before the next trial could be called. Pain punched through his chest, then shot down his spine, twisting his guts to hash. After the next trials, everything would change.

On the ground, wanting them to have one normal night as a couple, he took her hand, bought tickets and more popcorn than two people could eat. The double jumbo bucket in one hand, he guided Talia to a back row metal bleacher that slanted forward, requiring them to keep their knees bent for balance. The circus tent frayed at the seams, and traces of overlapping hand stains haphazardly streaking the sides spoke of age and use. But the colors swirled and music blared, and they were far away from meetings, fights, rules, and regulations. Talia wasn’t quite smiling, but she had stopped grimacing.

“Relax. No one knows us here. Popcorn?” He tilted the mammoth tub towards her and handfuls of kernels fell on her lap. She scooped the fallen treats. “I wanted those.” Hayden faked a pout. She fed him one or two, and got a gentle finger nip for her efforts.

The lights in the big-top dimmed. A large African-American man, wrapped in a red sequined jacket, welcomed everyone in a booming baritone voice. Twisted beige ropes dropped down from the ceiling, snaking and turning as nymphs in flesh-colored body-suits danced in the air. One with raven hair braided down her back winked in their direction. Clowns with painted blue smiles and hair in pink plaits clattered up and down the bleachers, their oversized red shoes catching on dents and holes in the well-worn metal. One landed in Talia’s lap and nuzzled her nose with a plastic duck. Her soft chuckle whispered into the air, and her lips inched into a grin. Hayden put his arm around her, kissing her temple. Her shoulders loosened as she relaxed against him. They watched the show, like ordinary lovers, munching popcorn, arms wrapped around each other, stealing kisses and sharing moments of delight.

“Admit it. That was fun, and you want to do it again,” he said as they made their way out of the tent.

“Yes, it was and I do. Thank you.” Her smile chopped him off at the knees. This was how they should be.

She leaned in, lips soft, when someone screamed, “Hayden, I can’t believe it’s you.” The raven haired rope dancer jumped into his arms, wrapped her legs around him and laid a big wet one on him.

“Something you haven’t told me?” An arctic breeze blew in from the north. The deep peat smell of wolf and the harsh spring breeze scent of the eagle dusted the room. Possessive scents. Only the grinding of her teeth hinted at how hard Talia was working to keep her beasts from pouncing.

He peeled the dancer off him to lessen the tension. That accomplished, he was not exactly sure how to make introductions, since Talia insisted on keeping their personal relationship, such as it was, private.

“Hey, I’m Greta. You’re the wolf-eagle lady our Hayden is training. I recognize you from your hair. Everyone tries to dye it your color, but no one can get that exact white.” She held her hand out to Talia, while moving closer to him, no matter how many steps he took away from her. Greta never knew when to stop.

“Greta’s an old friend.”

Talia raised an eyebrow, her body soldier straight and still. She was seething.

“Greta, we were taking a break from training, but I’ve got to get my charge back.”

“Call me,” Greta yelled as he ushered Talia out of the tent, towards the forest area, where they’d shift and fly home.

“You said no one would know us.” He swore he saw steam coming out of her ears.

“I won’t apologize for my past relationships.”
Or for wanting to be with you in public.
“Besides, I like you jealous. It brings out a green in the eagle’s eye.”

“I’m not—”

“Yeah, you are, but there’s no need. I’ve had a lot of lovers, but only one love.”

“Hayden,” she snarled through gritted teeth. “Don’t, just don’t.”

He tried to capture her eyes, but she glanced away. “I’ll race you back,” he said. “If you win, you can work out your tensions on my body, any way you choose. If I win, I tie you up and I’ll let your imagination fill in the details.” The scent of her lust, musky and cinnamon, filled his nose. Sex was still easier for her than emotion. “Race starts now.” He turned bat and took to the air, knowing she’d never turn down a dare.

She zipped through the sky at a speed he’d never seen her achieve, so she was waiting for him when he entered her bedchamber through the skylight. Naked. Eyes nightglow with the presence of her beasts. She tore through his clothes, claws out, then pushed him on the bed and crawled over him. “I won.”

“I’m all yours.”
Claim me as your own
, his heart whispered to hers.

A slight nod, before she kissed him at the base of his throat, and continued soft, almost chaste kisses down his torso and belly before loving him with her mouth. He threaded his hands in the silk of her hair, moving his legs so every part of him was in contact with her. Heat pooled at the base of his spine as he arched into her. She let him go, dragged her dripping sex up his leg, and took him inside her, gripping him in a velvet vise that felt so, so good and rode him violently, relentlessly. Her hands plucked at her own nipples, her face wild in ecstasy as she lunged and thrust on top of him, demanding at least one of his hands continuously play with her clit.

“This is who we are,” she screamed, fucking him senseless, leaving him too far gone to correct her. The woman, eagle, and wolf, alphas all, demanded everything he had, then took even more. So much power might kill an ordinary man or shifter. As much as she hated the trials, he saw clearly now how necessary they were. To find her a mate who could survive her needs, when fully unleashed.

Damn if it wasn’t the best orgasm he ever had. She collapsed on top of him, and he held her for an eternity. Their only eternity. The beating of her heart, the uneven rasp of her breath became his whole world. “This is also who we are,” he told her. “Never doubt that.” 

“Really?” she probed as she stretched against him. His canines ached as another hunger surfaced, making him hard again.

He rolled her over and entered her tenderly this time, his eyes capturing hers.

She looked away, yet again unable to face the wellspring of emotions overpowering them both. “Please, stop this. I’m not allowed love.”

“It doesn’t mean you don’t feel it.” He kept his thrusts slow and easy as he licked at the pulse beating rapidly in her throat.

“I’ve not—will it hurt?” She arched her neck to give him better access. She never shrank from the promise of a new pleasure.

“Physically, it’s quite enjoyable. But the joining links us emotionally, and we’ll experience each other’s feelings.” Before she could change her mind, he sank his teeth in the soft flesh of her neck and sucked. The thick liquid ran warm down his throat, satisfying that hunger. His love and joy flowed into her, while he absorbed her fractured emotions. Loneliness, anger, lingering jealousy, and the sheer power of the two predators that lived within her. Her love for him was there, too, even though she fought it, denied it, and feared it. As their connection deepened, her arms and legs went around him, and she pressed every inch of skin she could against him, claiming him with her body in the shadows under the moon, since she could not claim him publicly in the sun. It would have to do. Because he was hers, come what may. 

“I wondered why you had never showed the vampire side with me before,” she said, awe in her voice, as she curled into him.

“Now you know.” He hugged her tight, wishing he could show her everything.