Emma shot Kate a look.
"What?"
"My own parents? One wolf, one human?"
"Oh, right. But that’s different. Can a human carry a wolf's baby? Or what did they call it? A pup? A cub? How does that even work?"
"My wolf mother carried a human's baby."
"Right, but does it go the other way? I guess it must. I mean, if Ziva did it. Seems like it would be harder for a human, though. But, I don’t know. I just can't wrap my head around all this stuff."
"I know. I feel like when we wake up tomorrow, this whole thing will have been a dream, and we'll be about to go shopping on my birthday. Which will not be the next county over, I can tell you that much, for sure."
"That means that I really could become Galen's mate. What do you think sex with a werewolf is like?"
Emma looked at Kate. 'Are you kidding me?' was written all over her face.
"I bet it’s fantastic."
Kate said it dreamily, her mind obviously far away. And in a gutter.
"We are only supposed to be here for a year, remember? You can't just become mated, whatever that even means, get knocked up with his pup, and then leave."
"Why not, your mom did. What do you think Elam meant, anyway? When he said your mom was the wolf?"
That made Emma think.
"I don't know. Why do you think she left? Dad seems comfortable here, I doubt he made her chose his ways over theirs."
"Do you think pups are born in nine months, like humans? Or about nine weeks, like dogs?"
"What? I don't know. Nine weeks seems a bit fast though, if you’re adding in the human component. Maybe it’s added together? Kate, are you seriously thinking about seducing Galen?"
"I can't help it. When I watched him change from a wolf into a man, I don't know, something happened. And then, when he shook my hand, there was this link. Something in me responded."
"Yeah, I bet."
Kate laughed, blushing.
"Well yeah, that too,” she said. “But I mean, I heard something. A voice, in my head...It said, 'Mine.'"
"You have a wolf in your lineage?" The voice that spoke sounded surprised. "Funny, you don't have the scent."
The girls looked up at Elam. Damn, he was quiet. They never even heard his approach.
"No, I don't think so. Why?" Kate asked.
Elam pointed to a spot with his chin, seeming to ask if he could sit with them.
Emma nodded, scooting over to make room on the log she was sitting on. Kate was sitting cross-legged, in the dirt, facing Emma.
Elam lowered himself down onto the log, his arm brushing Emma’s as he settled in.
The accidental touch set something off in Emma. Warmth spread from where his arm had brushed hers, and raced through her entire body. It reminded her of the very few times she'd gotten into her dad's whiskey. It had burned going down, landing in her gut with a heavy warmth that slowly, luxuriously spread out from her center, to fill her limbs with smooth, heavy, liquid warmth.
She glanced over at Elam and was surprised to find him watching her with an odd, contemplative look on his face. She felt a jolt of an entirely different kind of heat shoot through her as their eyes met and held.
A sudden, hollow ache seemed to settle between her thighs. She felt her breath catch and sudden flashes of scenes raced through her brain.
She saw herself and Elam locked in a fierce embrace. Fighting? Oh no, definitely not fighting. The vision changed, she had Elam pinned down beneath her, her own heated eyes a sudden surprise. She'd never seen passion like that before, certainly not in her own face.
The scene flashed again, quickly, like someone was flipping pages of a book in her face. Elam, pressing her against the wall of what seemed to be a cave, her legs wrapped tightly around him, her hands buried deep in his hair, her head thrown to the side in ecstasy as he nibbled at her neck.
Then she was naked, on all fours in the same cave. On furs? Elam was covering her body with his, their bodies moving together in heated passion, and Elam getting so carried away that his teeth flashed in the darkness, open wide and aiming for the tender skin between her shoulder and her ear.
What the hell was that?
The images stopped, and she found her gaze still locked on Elam. She was confused, and almost angry. But no, the anger was fading, it was an emotion from the scenes that had flashed in her brain, not from real life right now. Why had she been angry? Wait, maybe angry wasn't the right word. More like, engulfed in animal need. She'd wanted, no needed, to fill herself up with Elam's cock. To be full, she had to be full to make the need go away...it was blind, thoughtless, animal longing she had felt, not anger.
Was that what sex was like? She wondered. She was still a virgin, but she couldn't imagine ever feeling quite as driven as what she had felt in those flashes.
She'd made out with boyfriends before, they tried to push past her no, but she had always felt in control. Nothing in any of her make-out sessions had ever come close to fueling her in the ways she had just seen. Boys were just things to pass the time with, none of them had ever made her feel anything close to what she had just imagined.
Wow. She wondered how and where her imagination had come up with that. Wait, Elam was still looking at her funny.
Had she made a sound during her odd daydream? He was looking at her like...
Had he seen it, too?
No, surely not. Surely he wasn't able to see what she had just seen, feel the things she had just felt.
His eyes were heated as he stared at her, the flames from the bonfire flashing in
