Page 28 of Heart of a Dire Wolf
Skyla swore. “Siphoned my brain, too. I should have thought of that. No wonder I had trouble shifting. Where are the talismans now?”
“Pendragor took them back through the portal.”
She sat up and looked around, then turned to him. “You are a sinfully handsome man under all that hair.” She caressed his jaw with a butterfly touch. “I don’t know which I like better.”
“I go through phases. I left it long for the caribou migration because it was low maintenance. When I’m working on an oil rig or in the field, I like the warmth, but in offices or in the summer, it’s too hot.”
“How do you spend your time?” He smiled at her tactful phrasing. Jobs were sometimes a touchy subject around shifters who’d grown up in earlier eras and different traditions. At least most shifters didn’t pretend they were gods, unlike some ancient races he could mention.
“In the human world, I’m a freelance petroleum geologist.” As with most magical species who interacted with humans, he’d had more than one name and more than one career. He sat up to face her, cross-legged. “When I was a young and arrogant jerk, I was a prize fighter in underground shifter fight rings. Kind of like mixed martial arts today, except with shifters, and fewer rules. My tiger… I needed the challenge, to prove myself against other predators. I nearly killed a man.”
“Tell me?” Her question left it up to him as to whether to go on. Since he planned to be with this woman the rest of his hopefully long life, she deserved to know. “This was back in the Dirty Thirties, the height of the Great Depression. I went to New York for a big-prize match with a primate shifter, against the advice of my manager.”
His father had forbidden it, which made Nic all the more determined to go. He remembered the whole disaster like it was yesterday. “The New York promoter delayed it for weeks and introduced me to his insatiable ‘sister’”—he made air quotes with his fingers—“who kept me distracted.” He blew out a breath. “Long story short, the promoter used the fights as a cover for his bootlegging operations. My opponent was really good, better than me and winning, except he was only human, and I didn’t know it. I hit him too hard, and he ended up in a wheelchair for the rest of his life.”
“My sympathies.” She placed a warm hand on his knee. “That must have been a hard lesson. I think the older we are, the more lessons we learn.”
His secret fear that his gentle mate would reject him melted away. “You are an amazing woman.” He captured her hand and kissed the back of it. “Are you hungry?” He looked at the time display on the satellite phone he’d set up as a makeshift clock. “Tinsel will open the portal in about fifty minutes so we can go back to Kotoyeesinay.” He snapped his fingers when a memory surfaced. “She sent you a gift.” He left the warm bed long enough to fish the small bag out of the pocket of his jacket, then handed it to her as he rejoined her.
She untied the strings and peered inside. A slow, mysterious smile blossomed on her luminous face. “So, we’re all alone? No guards, no ghosts, no grumpy shifters?” Her hand caressed his thigh. The desire in her eyes sent his blood racing.
“None.” He captured her wandering hand before it slid any farther, where his erection tented his long johns. He’d forget how to talk if she touched him there. “How are you feeling? You did just wake up from a coma.”
“Hungry, but not for food.” She threaded her fingers through his. “Well enough to mate with you, if you’ll have me.” She hesitated, then frowned. “But you should see my dire wolf first.”
Her worry pulsed through the thin bond, making his tiger grumble and thrash his tail. “My tiger says he’s seen your wolf, but that you should shift and show me, so we can get to the sex part.” He shrugged apologetically. “He’s not well socialized.”
She blew out a noisy breath, then crawled to the edge of the mattress and swung her legs around to stand. She put the bag on the camp table, then held out her hand. “Come on, then.”
He rolled off the mattress and rose to take her hand, and they walked together out of the tent. He switched on one of the stand lights as they walked by it. He kissed her, then stood back.
Her shift was slow for her, but still blazingly fast.
She was a big damn wolf. As tall as her maned-wolf illusion, but massively muscled, with shiny gold eyes. Probably where all the Norse tales of the monster wolf Fenrir got started. Her luxuriously thick black fur made her wide shoulders look even wider, and her long snout sported seriously sharp teeth. If he were human, he wouldn’t stand a chance if she wanted him dead.
Good thing you have me, then, said his smug tiger.
Her brilliant eyes focused on him. She took a tentative step toward him, her thick claws clicking on the hard floor, then stopped.
“I’m not scared,” he told her. “I would be, if I was prey, because I’m too young and pretty to die.”
She crossed to him and butted her head against his waist. Their fragile mate bond came alive at the contact.What about your tiger?Doubts colored her question.
He imagined if he’d had to hide his tiger just to keep friends, he’d be afraid, too. He stripped off his clothes and shifted.
Nic-the-tiger stood eye to eye with Skyla-the-wolf. He chuffed, then took two stretching steps, long and lean, spreading his clawed toes each time.
She yipped and sat. In a quick moment, she became human. She stood from her crouch and rubbed his ear. “You, Sir Tiger, are a show-off.”
Nic was laughing by the time he became human again. “He is, isn’t he?” He bent to scoop up his clothes from the floor, then nearly dropped them when she stripped off hers with efficient grace. He’d seen her naked, but not awake and smiling and smelling of mouth-watering arousal.
She backed into the tent, as if she didn’t want to take her eyes off him. He followed her, mesmerized by her small, rounded breasts with their bold, come-hither nipples. The dark thatch of her flat, downy pubic hair below her rounded stomach glistened with moisture. He barely stopped himself from drooling.
“Wanna see Tinsel’s gift?”
She took hold of his hand, which had been reaching for her of its own volition, and held it fast. She grabbed the bag off the table and emptied its contents. Six condoms landed on his palm.
Goddess, he hadn’t even thought beyond the ecstasy of tasting her. When they were both ready, he wanted cubs with her, but they weren’t even mated yet. Not to mention, they were both technically homeless and jobless.
