But tonight’s promise already made her cheeks flush with excitement. She was practically vibrating on the ride over to the mansion. He parked in the garage and they went through the house and the tunnels, and she barely looked at anything. She was focused on the outside and nothing would deter her.
It was quiet inside the house—he assumed the Dires were out running. Cain and Cyd had left him check-in messages a few times but he hadn’t returned the calls. Instead, he’d texted them.
Rogue and Jez, he knew, were out in the cemetery, looking for any obvious issues with the monsters. Everything with the trappers had been quiet. And Cyd had personally vetted the woods for him tonight. Maybe he and Cain were out there, prepared to watch out for Jinx. He hadn’t asked them but he wouldn’t put it past them.
Once in the sunroom, Gillian stripped, faster than he did and she took off. For a second he watched, mesmerized by her speed—and her beautiful bare ass—and then he snapped to, stripped, shifted and let Brother Wolf catch up with her. Or try to. He didn’t know if it was the drugs doing it or what but, dammit all, he was having trouble catching her.
And the worst part was, he didn’t think she was going at her top speed. She kept looking over her shoulder, slowing to let him catch up and then eluding his grasp.
He was so caught up in the game that he didn’t realize how far they’d gone. He couldn’t howl and expect her to stop, so he had to shift instead, which cost him. Thankfully, she slowed a bit and he waved his hands, called quietly, “Gilly, you can’t go any farther—time to turn back.”
If she heard him, she ignored it, speeding up. If anyone tried to catch her on film and clock her time, they’d know for sure she wasn’t human. The speed with which she moved was incredible. Jinx would have to shift back to keep up and fully protect her from whatever dangers lurked in these woods, ones she seemed oblivious to.
Brother had no problem with the quick shifts and finally, with effort, he caught her, running in front of her and waiting, forcing her to stop. She did so. Smiled. She wasn’t even out of breath.
She’d let him catch her. He shifted and grabbed her by the waist as she giggled.
“You told me I could run. That I needed to.” She put her hands in the air. “That was amazing!”
He couldn’t be angry. “We just have to be careful.”
“I’m sorry—I just couldn’t stop. We can go back now.” She managed to look a little chastened but her smile broke through. “When can we do it again? When will I be able to shift, like you?”
He’d told her everything but that. “On your birthday.”
“My birthday?” she echoed, her voice suddenly hollow. “Why didn’t you tell me it would happen so soon?”
“Your birthday is in three weeks,” he said, but she shook her head and his gut tightened.
“My parents shortened the last name and changed the birthday to keep anyone from connecting the famous Blackwell daughter to the crazy thing they locked up. My twenty-first birthday’s tomorrow, Jinx.”
Tomorrow, as in five fucking minutes from now. They were exposed, out in the open and too far from the Dire house for his comfort. “We’ve got to go back. Come on.”
He kept his tone light and guided her through the woods, joking, “You can’t tell my brothers that you beat me running. Or Jez—the deadhead would never let me live it down.”
She laughed a little, then said, “Wouldn’t running be faster?”
“It might bring the shift out.”
“So it doesn’t happen exactly at midnight?”
“Not always. And it’s past midnight.”
“Okay, that’s good. Maybe we’ll make it.”
“Gilly, no matter when it happens, I’ll make sure you’re just fine.”
She was so vulnerable. He couldn’t call out for fear of calling attention to them, just waited for the familiar signs of the shift and tried to keep her calm.
They were five miles from the Dire mansion when she said suddenly, “I feel . . . weird,” and yeah, there was that. She clutched her chest and then her throat, stared up at him.
“Let’s keep going,” he suggested, but a snarl came out of her mouth and as he moved to hold her hand again Brother warned him to back the fuck off. “Okay, we can stay here. But Gilly, this is important as hell— whatever you do—when you shift, you can’t run anywhere but toward the house. You can stay wolf inside the house. You can tear the place apart, but we can’t stay out here.”
“I thought . . . you said . . . safe?” she asked, more growls escaping. She trembled too.
“You’re okay,” he soothed her. She was so goddamned beautiful, so gloriously naked. Would she always take his breath away like this?
“Make love to me, Jinx. Please. Now.”
So dangerous. All he could do when he was around her was do goddamned dangerous things, and this was no exception. And since he was already good and naked, it made the decision that much easier. Because Brother was tired of thinking all the time, of making the right choice, of watching out for the humans instead of enjoying his own primal nature. Watching Gillian had reminded him of that.
Maybe he understood Rifter’s position more than he thought. Maybe the king was also hanging on to his structure by a thread.
And she’s readying to shift.
“Fuck it. Time to live on the edge,” he muttered as he yanked her close, ignored the snark and kissed her until she was putty in his arms. Pliable. Maybe Sister Wolf would hold out until they’d gotten their fill.
He kissed her breathless, until he was barely thinking. Until everything base and primal inside of him took over, laid her on the mossy floor of the woods.
It was hot. Dirty. The way it should be for them. And Gillian was locking her legs around his waist, driving him inside of her almost immediately.
“Yes, Jinx.” She arched up into him as he thrust deeply, over and over. Wanted all of her—wanted to own her.
A part of him already did.
He wasn’t sure how long they made love in the woods like that—it seemed too short but it was probably closer to an hour, more like a promise than a mating—the second time typically was.
“Don’t let go of me,” she begged him and he buried his face against her neck, bit down along her collarbone and she groaned. “Do that again.”
He laughed, did so. And then she bit his shoulder, hard enough to cause his orgasm. It pushed her along and she climaxed with a loud cry—his name on the wind and he bit back his own howl as he tried to preserve any privacy they might have left.
Maybe they were meant to escape all of this unscathed. Maybe, for once, it would be easy because it felt so right.
She was stroking his hair. He was still inside of her, still hard. Wanting nothing more than to take her again. But that would have to wait.
“Gillian,” he started, but something flashed behind her eyes and they glowed a little more.
“It’s happening,” she whispered. He rolled off of her before she threw him off. In seconds, she was on all fours, her fingers digging into the dirt, shaking her head against the rustling that he knew from experience was deafening by now.
“Go with it. Sister Wolf knows what to do.”
“Suppose I don’t make it.”
“You will. You have to. I need you,” he told her.
It was a feeling Gillian knew she’d never be able to describe thoroughly enough. There was pain—she heard bones popping but she was so absorbed, it was as if she was having an out-of-body experience. The rustling in her ears was as loud as it was calming and she breathed and gave in, because there was nothing else she could do.
She was done fighting her body’s natural instincts. She’d done that for twenty-one long years and finally, she was allowed to shed her skin. Still tingling from the orgasm and Jinx’s touch, she felt confident. She closed her eyes and felt herself transform.
