Shifters' Storm (5 page)

Moist warmth slipped over her inner thighs and along her channel. She was still trying to put the pieces of what he was doing together when he lapped at her. His tongue slipped light and electric over her pussy, causing her to mew like some lost kitten. Strength melted from her, and she started to collapse but forced her elbows to lock. She shook.

He licked her sex again. Bowing her back, she dug her nails into the earth. A long, low moan pressed past her clenched teeth.

“You’re making me crazy.”

“Not close. Not close.”

Despite the havoc to her nervous system, she managed to stay in place as Songan fed from her liquid offering. She floated someplace between this world and a space bright with hot colors. Maybe she was climaxing. Maybe she’d gone beyond that and was caving in. Repeatedly dying and being reborn.

The thought of reincarnation briefly distracted her. Then suddenly everything centered on her. On Songan. Mindlessly giving herself to him, she dropped onto her elbows and lifted her ass as high as possible. She swayed from side to side in invitation, but maybe he didn’t notice, because he was now trying to suck her labia between his lips. Ropes couldn’t imprison her any more than this did. At the same time, she felt free and wild, a winged beast.

Songan might have been born to live in both human and animal worlds, but he wasn’t the only one torn between two existences. Most of the time, she willingly abided by society’s rules. But nothing else mattered during those times when Songan and she shared the same air. She flew then.

Lost in thoughts that swirled over her, exploded or evaporated, she lowered her upper body even farther and rested her forehead on her forearms. There. A cunt offered up to a cock.

Crisp air raked her hot, wet labia where his breath and tongue had been. If this hadn’t happened before, she might believe Songan had abandoned her, but she knew what was coming. The knowing made her both patient and half crazed with anticipation.

Still panting, she pushed herself back up and locked her elbows. She saw only browns and greens bleeding together.

Then Songan spread his hands over her ass cheeks and pulled them apart. Knowing he was staring at her rear opening didn’t embarrass her. She just needed him to hurry. To spear her.

All at once her face felt as if it was on fire, prompting her to stretch her neck and stare upward. The wind had grown teeth, which only excited her more.

“I wish it wasn’t like this,” he muttered from above and behind her. “Just once I wish we could take it slow.”

“We tried, remember? Do it, Songan. Now.”

Cursing, he closed his hands around her hips. In her mind’s eye, she saw him rock toward her with his cock between her legs. Determined to make the alignment perfect, she bowed her back and set herself.

The first touch—that whispered moment when he was gentle—was over too soon. What began with his cockhead light against her entrance slipped away, ended abruptly, really. Pressure built against her sex. He drove into her and relentlessly claimed her.

They’d fused. Become one.

Tears bled and tracked down her cheeks. She couldn’t say whether she truly wanted to have sex with Songan. It simply was. They simply were. Like winter following fall, this moment was destined to happen.

Her contours no longer existed. Only her pussy mattered. That and her dangling breasts. The elk shifter pushed deeper so his groin pressed against her buttocks. It felt as if they shared the same thigh muscles. Her hair was plastered to her cheeks. A strand tickled her nose. She tried to bite on what had never been permed or colored, then forgot what she was doing.

Songan demanded ownership of her body. She gave it to him, all of it. Crying but not knowing why, she held herself steady. One second and then another passed. This hesitation, she understood, was Songan’s attempt to rein in his savage nature. He’d never told her he wanted some measure of self-control during the act of fucking, but she’d long sensed his battle.

“It’s all right. I’m ready. I want.”

Songan’s breath whistled, and she imagined his nostrils flaring. His cock and her cunt were locked in on each other. The rest of their bodies be damned.

His hands tightened, no doubt leaving fingerprints on her buttocks. Damn it, she didn’t want him to be at war with himself. They were having sex, and that was enough.

They also had an audience of one.

Something about acknowledging the bear allowed her to relax. She again stopped thinking, tapped into her nerves. The breeze was sandpapering her skin and heightening her awareness of herself. She’d offered her body up to Songan, and he’d taken the gift. She was his, body and heart.

Her face flushed. Even her eyelids burned. Heat claimed her chest and ran over her unrestrained breasts. Songan repeatedly buried himself in her, rocking her forward with each thrust. She gasped, then stopped so she could concentrate on pushing back against him. Reaching under her, he grabbed a breast and pressed it against her chest wall. The trapped heat there built. She was catching fire! Alarmed, she tried to shake him off.

“I wanted to be there for you after your mom, you know.” His voice was clipped, even angry.

“Not now. Later.”

He still had hold of her breast. Between that and his hard, harsh thrusts, she didn’t know where he ended and she began. She met him strength for strength. Need for need. Flames continued to slip through her veins and center in her pussy.

Yes! What she wanted! What no other man had been able to give her. Her thoughts died, to be replaced by the crazy rapid-fire whimpering coming from her throat.

Songan cried out. The hand not on her breast landed on the small of her back, and he pressed down. His hot, sticky come filled her channel.

The second time he cried out, she climaxed.

Chapter Five

Rane hadn’t yet recovered her strength. She wanted nothing more than to curl up on the ground where she’d collapsed and fall asleep. However, she was already getting cold, which left her with no choice but to stand and put back on her clothes. Songan had remained on his knees watching while she did. As she knelt one-legged so she could tie her boots, he stood.

They’d never been any good at finding things to say post-fuck. Any other time she’d hide behind the silence she’d become good at, but today was different. Standing, she faced the big, naked man.

“I didn’t thank you for calling when Mom first went missing.” She made a point of meeting his gaze. “Deputy Gannon kept me informed until I could get here but—anyway, thank you.”

He shrugged, causing his limp but still considerable cock to bounce. “I wanted it to be more. To have a role in the search.”

He hadn’t, because much as Forestville residents accepted the elk shifters in their midst, certain things like search and rescue were dependent on year-round, dependable help, not someone who might be a man one day and an elk another.

This was her mother, she’d told Gannon when Forestville’s lone county deputy tried to discourage her from joining those who’d been looking for Jacki for two days before she arrived. Gannon, who’d worked with her mother for years, had eventually agreed, but she hadn’t been with those who found her mother’s body east of the remote Forest Service cabin known as Wolverine.

By then, rut had claimed Songan.

“Look.” Shaken by the wash of memories, Rane tried to push her loose hair behind her ears. “The investigation—they’ve been all over the Wolverine area, but not even the tracking dog found a clue about who shot Mom.”

“It’s been raining.”

“I know. The storm started before they found her. It’s a wonder—”

“A wonder they found her. She wasn’t that close to the cabin.”

“You know that?”

“I came back once.” He frowned. “I can’t remember when—a few days ago. It didn’t last long, just long enough for me to talk to the deputy.”

“He didn’t tell me that.”

“I asked him not to.”

“Why?”

“Because I couldn’t be there for you. I hated—damn it, this is so powerful.” He fingered his cock.

“Resisting rut is hard today, isn’t it?”

He nodded. “I’m fighting, but between you and that”—he indicated the mutilated elk carcass—“it happened.”

She hadn’t intended for things to get complicated so soon after letting him into her body. Damn it, his gift was still leaking from her and staining her panties. “I’m glad you were able to resist nature.”

“I should have tried harder to break free.”

Even though it had been long-distance, he’d helped her hold it together the nightmare day she’d learned that her mother, a Forest Service ranger assigned to the Chinook Mountains, was missing. Songan had helped her make the decision to drive instead of fly so she could bring many of her belongings with her. By the time she’d gotten in touch with Gannon, Songan had stopped answering his cell phone. She’d known what had happened to him, where he’d gone.

“She’d been shot.” The words tore at Rane’s throat. “That’s what destroys me. I know it wasn’t an accident. Someone deliberately—”

Before she could finish, Songan grabbed her and pulled her into him. “Don’t,” he insisted. “Thinking like that will only make you sick.”

“I’m already sick.” With her face against his chest, her voice sounded muffled. She wouldn’t cry! The endless hours of fear and tears were behind her. It was time for action. Maybe redemption for her.

After filling her lungs with Songan’s scent, she pushed back, but only a little because she wasn’t yet strong enough to ask him to release her. “There are signs she was dragged,” she managed. “That means she was killed somewhere else. If I knew where it happened, maybe I could figure out why.”

“Let law enforcement do their job.”

“The bullets went through her. They didn’t find any shells.” Exhaustion clawed at her. “All that rain… If Gannon knows something, he isn’t telling me. I can’t just sit in her house, blaming myself, feeling worthless.”

“Blaming yourself?”

Yes.
“I don’t know what I’m thinking.” Not trusting herself to say what she most needed to, she ran her knuckles over Songan’s breastbone. His skin was sticky from fucking her and cool from the worsening weather.

“Maybe it was hunters. She was in the wrong place at the wrong time, an accident, not murder.”

“If that’s it, they were poaching. Just like what happened today with the young elk. Songan, what if she came across something
they
didn’t want her to see? She was killed to silence her.” She shuddered.

“Don’t go there. That’s for law enforcement to determine.”

“This isn’t a city,” she snapped. “There’s no CSI here, just one deputy. And a whole damn forest to search for—for something.” Right after climaxing, she’d told herself to look to see if the bear was still there, but things had gotten away from her. Now she studied her surroundings.

“He isn’t here,” Songan told her.

“You saw him leave?”

“I know.”

Believing him, she picked up the thread of what they’d been talking about. “I’m supposed to go back to a career that suddenly means nothing to me? Leave flowers on my mother’s grave, put her house on the market, do what has to be done to her possessions and wrap up her finances? I can’t. It isn’t enough.”

Songan lightly ran his rough hand over her neck and cheek. “No. I guess it isn’t.”

She didn’t want to hear him say
guess.
The word served as a reminder of the missing parts to him. His human body couldn’t be more perfect. In contrast, his emotions didn’t seem to be fully developed. Something had alerted him to the dead elk, but if he mourned the loss, he gave no sign. No anger over the sexual mutilation.

Taking a deep breath, she clamped both hands around his wrist. “I need something from you. That’s why I’m here.”

A barely perceptible shudder rolled through him. He glanced around at the forest, then looked at her. Obviously he wanted to become an elk again and not have to deal with human concerns, even hers.

“What?” he asked after too long.

Even though she’d mentally rehearsed the words for days, she had to gather herself before continuing. “This is your land. I know it as well as any man or woman can, but you’re at another level.”

“I taught you all I know.”

And she’d always be grateful for his patience and willingness. “But the wilderness doesn’t speak to me the way it does to you. No matter what I do, I’ll never hear certain things.”

A simple nod made her believe Songan understood what she was trying to say.

“I want your help,” she blurted. “I need it. She was my mother, the only parent I ever had. She deserves justice, and you…”

“
You
need closure. And you’re afraid that’ll never happen.”

“Not just closure. Justice. You’ve seen elk that have been shot before. Maybe you can simply accept it. I can’t. Please understand, I can’t.”
I owe Mom that and more.

Rane knew how vital it was to be prepared when in the forest, which accounted for the rain jacket she’d pulled out of her backpack and put on before heading back the way she’d come. She was sore between her legs and hadn’t put back on her bra because her breasts were still sensitive.

Head low to protect her face from the rain, she replayed the last things she and Songan had talked about. To her relief, he’d agreed to go to Wolverine. When he could.

He’d ask questions of his surroundings and listen to whatever the wilderness might tell him. He’d use his keen senses in an attempt to uncover what law enforcement had been unable to. If he found nothing, which she feared he wouldn’t, she’d have no choice but to let law enforcement continue to investigate, but if he learned more than the searchers had about the identity of Jacki’s killer or killers, she’d do everything within her power to find that man or men.

Her throat dried, forcing her to swallow repeatedly. She’d carried a knife since Mom gave her one for her eighth birthday. To mother and daughter, a knife represented a wilderness insurance policy. They could cut branches for a fire with it, dig roots to eat, gut any fish they’d caught. And, if necessary, a knife might keep them alive.