Wolf Tales 12 (21 page)

He wanted to lift her, take her there, standing in the dark cavern, but she went to her knees before he realized what she planned. Her fingers wrapped around the thick root of his cock and she squeezed. Her other hand cupped his sac and forced an unexpected groan out of him. Then her hot mouth drew him deep, her tongue laved the sensitive underside of the flared crown, and he was lost.

He didn’t even try to hold back. She sucked him hard, sliding her tongue over the smooth head of his cock, poking the tip into his sensitive slit. Her lips rode up and down the veined surface of his shaft. He felt his climax boiling to the surface only seconds before his body jerked, his balls drew up close and tight within Keisha’s grasp, and he filled her mouth with his seed.

She swallowed, taking all of him, sucking and licking while his knees went week and his legs trembled. Finally she released him. His cock slipped free of her mouth with a soft pop.

She’d brought him to his knees in mere minutes. Now she grinned at him with a look of what had to be feminine victory.

“This is not a contest, my love.” He leaned close and kissed her, tasting his seed on her lips. The visual of what those lips had just been doing had him surging to life once again, but he gently tackled her and stretched her out in the clean sand beside the pond.

Giggling, she fought him, but he noticed she merely managed to get both their jeans off in the process. He nuzzled the soft curls between her legs while she squirmed, and slowly ran his tongue through her sweet nectar. “You know, I should take you right here, right now, but I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

She stopped struggling and frowned at him. “Why not?”

“Touch me.”

Still frowning, she wrapped her fingers around his cock. “Oh, ick. You’re covered in sand.”

“Exactly.” Laughing, he rolled her into the pond. The water was warmed by an underground spring, the smell slightly sulfuric, but he’d always wanted to make love to his wife in its warm depths.

He’d never had the chance, but that was about to change.

Chapter 15

Sunny had, by necessity, become an observer. It was hard to be anything else when your eyes and your brain were about the only things that worked. She’d had to learn not to be frustrated or angry about crap she couldn’t change, though it would help if she didn’t look like a little kid. People tended to treat her like a helpless baby.

She might be physically helpless, but she was no fucking baby. She was almost twenty years old, an age when most young women had been on dates, experimented with sex, had a boyfriend. That would probably never happen for her.

Gazing around at all the gorgeous people in this room made her ache. If she was going to learn about sex, she definitely wished it could be with someone here. They were amazing, and she’d never felt more at ease with strangers in her life.

No one here, not a single one, felt like a stranger.

Of course, when you could talk to someone—actually communicate without using a stupid computer—they didn’t stay strangers for long. Even the little kids could speak telepathically, which was about the coolest thing ever.

All her life she’d been able to understand, but she’d never had a voice. At least, not since she was really tiny, before she got hurt. She thought she could remember talking, but she wasn’t sure if it was her imagination or her real voice she recalled.

She wondered sometimes what she’d sound like if she could make sounds, but now that didn’t seem as important. Not here in this amazing house in the middle of the biggest mountains she’d ever seen. Everyone was so nice. The men were all gorgeous, the women were beautiful—and all of them could understand her.

She caught a movement in her peripheral vision. A tall, absolutely sexy man with tangled blond hair and a gentle smile was squatting beside her chair. She focused on him. He’d positioned himself perfectly—not too close, but just close enough that she could look directly into his eyes.

He had such beautiful eyes. Warm and kind. And just like every other guy in the room, he made her want what she’d never have. Then another man moved into her field of vision. Tall, like the first guy, but with dark hair. He had the same gorgeous amber-colored eyes. Sighing inside, she watched them.

“Sunny?” The blond guy spoke. “I’m Adam Wolf. This is Doc Logan. We’d like to take a look at you and see if there’s a chance we can repair any of the injuries that are causing your paralysis. We won’t do anything tonight, and we promise not to do anything that makes you uncomfortable, but do you mind if we take a look? All you have to do is sit really still. We can examine you with our minds, and I promise it won’t hurt.”

How can you do that? Examine someone with your mind?

The dark-haired guy shrugged and grinned at her. “I haven’t got the foggiest idea how it works, but it does. Adam’s a healer—he’s also a damned good mechanic, so if you’ve got problems with your carburetor he can fix that, too.”

Adam glared at him and Doc Logan laughed. “Sorry. I’ll stick to business. Adam can go inside your body with his mind and actually fix stuff that’s broken. He’s taught me to do it, too, though I’m also a real doctor.”

Adam nudged the doctor with his shoulder. “What? You’re saying I’m not a real healer?”

Doc Logan rolled his eyes. “You’re a real healer, Adam. I’m the doctor. Why do you think everyone calls me Doc?”

He winked at Sunny and she had a feeling they’d done this routine before. A lot.
Neither one of you looks like any doctor I’ve ever seen, but if you can fix anything, that would be great. Even something little, like I really want to know what food tastes like. I’ve had to eat through a tube all my life because I can’t swallow very well.

Adam blinked a lot of times and glanced at Doc. They both nodded. “Then that’s one of the things we’ll check on first.” He stood up. She liked that he knelt down so he was at her level. She hated always looking up at people. “Liana? Sweetie, do you want to help us? Doc and I are going to take a look at Sunny. See if she’s got anything we can fix.”

Adam’s wife smiled and sat carefully on a chair next to Sunny. She was beautiful, too, with long blond hair and the most gorgeous smile, but she was so pregnant she looked like she was ready to explode. She was still more beautiful than any movie star Sunny had ever seen. Everyone was. Even the little kids.

“Hi, Sunny. I’d love to help. Adam, it might be better if she’s lying down. Sunny? Do you mind if we put you on the couch?”

No. You can put me wherever you like. It’s not like I can go anywhere on my own.

“Maybe not right now,” Liana said, “but we have high hopes for you.”

Adam had Liana sit on an ottoman in front of the sofa. Logan sat near Sunny’s head and he scooted her over enough so Adam could fit on the edge of the cushion beside her withered legs. The girl was so trusting it made him angry to think of all she’d gone through, especially with a spirit as powerful as hers.

He had to get past his anger, though, or he’d never be able to examine her. He took a couple of deep breaths and let it go. All of it, until he was calm and every bit as accepting as the girl. He moved her sweatshirt aside and touched her smooth belly with his fingertips, just beside the little port that had been surgically added to allow her to eat.

Then he slipped free of his corporeal body.

Mindwalking, as Anton called it, never failed to amaze him. To think a once-homeless mechanic could have an ability this magical, this
helpful.
He felt blessed by his ability, though if Anton hadn’t pushed him, had never suggested his ability to fix things could be transferred to people, he wouldn’t have thought to give it a try.

Not like this. He’d helped Oliver, but that had been a different sort of intervention where he’d used the Chanku ability to link. This was totally unique, becoming nothing more than energy as he moved within someone’s body. It felt like a million years ago since that first time he’d gone inside Eve’s skull to heal her damaged brain.

Who’d have thought that he, Adam Wolf, would save the life of the woman who would become their Goddess? Amazing. Now, becoming one with the cells in this girl’s body, he looked at Sunny from the inside out. He knew that Logan would be studying her brain and neck for damage, while Liana was checking for old injuries to her spine.

His job was less specific—he’d merely look for any anomalies, anything that might need repairs that could be done easily and might make her life more comfortable.

They’d already started her on the nutrients with Sunny’s full permission and understanding of what they would do to her. When Jazzy had helped prepare the meal given to Sunny through the feeding tube in her abdomen, she’d added the first of the pills to the mix.

He checked Sunny’s legs, the shape of her bones, her joints and tendons. Something was definitely wrong, but he couldn’t be sure. Not until he talked to Liana and Logan, but in the meantime, he decided to hold off on trying to fix some of the strange anomalies he saw.

He had no idea how long he’d been exploring the inner workings of Sunny Daye’s body, but Adam knew when he’d seen enough. When he was once again inside himself, he sat back and lifted his hands from the girl’s motionless body.

She blinked and smiled at him.
Did you see anything weird?

“No frogs or mice in there. That’s good.” He grinned at her when she smiled at him.

Well, darn. I was hoping you’d find the rabbit I lost.

She certainly understood teasing. “I saw one, but it got away. Those critters are fast.” He chuckled, but his attention was on Liana and Logan. Liana was returning to her body, sitting up and blinking rapidly. She shot a quick glance at Adam but didn’t say a word. Logan shook his head and cracked his knuckles.

“Sunny, we’re going to get you back in your chair and I will consult with my disreputable associates,” he teased. “Back in a flash, okay?”

Okay.

Again, Adam felt angry. What else was the poor kid going to say? Had she ever had a choice in anything?

They met in Anton’s study with the door closed. Logan cut right to the point. “I want your first opinion. What did you think when you looked over her bones and joints, Adam?”

“First impression? That she tried to shift at some point, maybe years ago when bones were still fairly soft and unformed. There’s evidence of minimal change, but it’s enough to stunt her legs and screw up her joints.”

Liana nodded. “I see the same thing in her spine. Twisting, some vertebrae out of position. Scarring where the spinal cord is compressed in a couple of places, though that could be from a childhood injury as much as from an aborted shift. What did you see in her brain and neck?”

“The same,” Logan said. “Her skull is slightly misshapen. I looked at her medical records, and it’s blamed on a blow to the head but there was no other visible sign of trauma. According to her records, when she was first brought to the attention of Child Protective Services at about the age of twenty months, her body was badly bruised, her right arm and a couple of ribs broken. She was unconscious and paralyzed and was eventually diagnosed with severe head and spinal trauma, along with the other injuries.”

Once again anger beat at Adam. He folded his arms across his chest and stared at Logan. “So, Doc. What’s your diagnosis?”

Logan gazed at Liana and then looked directly at Adam. “I think someone beat the hell out of a toddler. Beat her so badly she would have done anything to get away. Her natural instinct, still totally undeveloped, was to shift, but she was too young and she’d never had the nutrients her body needed. But someone was really hurting her, so her body still tried, and, like Manda, she got caught. The change was minimal, but in a growing child the effects would multiply over time. I think it’s caused most of the crippling you see now.”

“I can accept that,” Liana said. “But what about her inability to talk?”

Logan shook his head and glanced at Adam. “That I don’t know. I can’t find anything physical that would affect her ability to speak or swallow.”

Liana grabbed Adam’s hand and squeezed his fingers. “I have my own theory,” she said. “What if that baby girl was punished because she wouldn’t stop crying? The records say her mother was a drug addict, which means we can discount the fact she was thinking clearly. She couldn’t have been rational, to beat her own child half to death. What if Sunny’s reaction to all that pain and fear was not to make any more sound?”

“Psychosomatic?” Logan shrugged. “Possible, but there’s no way I know of to fix that, not without psychiatric therapy. I can do some research and see if there’s something we can . . .”

“I think I know how to deal with it.” Adam shoved his hands in his pockets. “She’s already had the nutrients today. Women generally make the shift before men—a matter of days rather than weeks. I think she’s going to shift without any problem at all, and I have a feeling, when she does, she’ll be a perfectly healthy, mobile wolf. With a voice. If, when she shifts back, she’s able to feel her extremities, I imagine she’ll also be able to talk. It won’t happen overnight, but it should happen.”

“Pretty optimistic, don’t you think?” Logan laughed softly. “But since I don’t have any better ideas, I’ll go with your diagnosis, healer. I think we need to hold off on any repairs until Sunny makes her first shift.”

Second week of September

The house was really quiet tonight. Jazzy and Logan had put her to bed hours ago, but for some reason Sunny couldn’t sleep. She felt wired, like her brain wouldn’t stop buzzing, and even though she knew she couldn’t have any sensation from her neck down, her arms and legs felt twitchy.

It was driving her nuts. She didn’t want to bother anyone, but she couldn’t stand it. If she could, she’d be screaming her frustration, but all she could do was lie here and feel awful.

She had no right to complain. Everyone was so nice. Even the man who owned the house.
Anton.
She hadn’t seen too much of him, but the others had told her he was really worried because his little girl was gone. She was only six and it was weird, because everyone knew where she was but they couldn’t go after her. It didn’t make sense at all.