Unchained (Dark Shifter Romance) (11 page)

Something new was building inside her, had been steadily growing during her pursuit.
Mine!, s
he wanted to how.
I caught him, and he is mine!
She threw down her paws, caging him in, and then a wave of exhaustion caught up with her, reducing her to jelly. In a heartbeat, her bare fingers were tangled in the leaves beneath them, her bare knees stained with grass.

She blinked, human eyelids settling down over human eyes once more, and then Jack was back in his human form, his wolf set aside within him. It was dizzying, disorienting, but the same time… She hadn't even noticed the change from wolf to human until it had been over. Even if was confusing to her aching mind, whatever shifter magic had invaded her blood had unfurled fully within her, her inner wolf filled with instinct to guide the way.

She looked down at Jack, grinning up at her. "Dirty trick."

"Hey. You could have sat there all night until the moon was full, freaking out about every new bit of fur you grew, but I thought was an easier way." He made a quick gesture. "Like a band-aid."

Lacey let out a chuckle, and the action of her laughter, her chest rising and falling, made her finally notice something. Something that was kind of important.

“Um,” she managed, her eyes locking to his in horror. “I'm not wearing anything.”

Jack grinned. “Nice observational skills.”

“Shut up!” Lacey instinctively tried to hunker down against him, hiding herself, but the shift of her bare breasts against his chest made her freeze. “You transformed with clothes before! Colt too! I saw it! Why didn't I?”

“Not everyone can,” he explained. To Lacey's embarrassed relief, he kept his eyes on her, not dropping his gaze to drink her in. “Alphas have stronger control over their-- well, there's a lot of mysticism and spiritual terms for it, but 'self' is a decent starting point. Someone with enough experience and control can bind their clothes to their 'self'. One day you might be able to do it yourself.”

“Hmm.” Lacey's mind raced. If that was the case, she was glad for it. Her initial encounter with Colt had been terrifying enough, let alone if he'd been bare naked.

But that bought one question to mind. “So, if you're a big, strong alpha... then why are you naked right now?”

“Sometimes you get swept up in the thrill of the hunt.” He quirked his lips into a cocky grin. It seemed arrogant, but there was something else underlying his mood. Despite the darkness of the night, the moonlight filtered out by trees and stray clouds, Lacey could tell that he was suddenly nervous. She could read it in his face, still so new to her but something she felt she'd known forever. “Is that a problem?”

It wasn't.

If there'd been any time, she would have wanted to put some distance between the two of them, sorting out her feelings. How much of the excitement that was building beneath her stomach was down to the chase and the wolf instincts taking her over? How much of it was due to the alpha brainwashing he'd confessed to trying, bonding the two of them together? If she'd been a human, dealing with a human man trying to play games with her, she would have ditched him.

But she wasn't human any more, and her pack sense beat along in time to his heart.

His cock flushed hard up against the strong muscles of his stomach, stiff and swollen, ready for her. She felt her breath quicken, her heart skip. If she had been fully human, before all this, picking up some random at the bar, she knew she wouldn't have felt the same way. She would have had to think about protection, about whether it was a good idea, about if the guy was worth all the trouble. But she was no longer a human, and this was not some random at a bar. Her inner wolf, this new, wild side of her, knew exactly what to do.

Jack let out a hiss as she straddled him, her thighs strong around the outside of his hips. She let down to balance herself, splaying a hand against the muscles of his chest, and felt his heartbeat against her palm. In that moment she felt more connected to a man than she had ever felt before, even before he was inside her. It was her heart and his, her flesh and his. He was her mate, and even though the concept was new to her, it was nonetheless true. It felt
true
in a way that she'd never felt before. It felt
right
.

Pausing, she looked down on Jack's upturned face, and found that he was watching her. He ran his large, calloused hands up the bare expanse of her thighs, settling on her hips, cradling her. "Lacey," he started.

Lacey didn't want to hear it. She knew it would be unnecessary, either way. It would either be
we don't have to do this
, or
we have to do this
. It didn't matter. She was his mate-- she was herself.

Rolling her hips, she slid the wet heat of her slit up against the meat of his cock, pressing down against him. Whatever he was about to say was cut off in a breathy exhale, his eyes narrowing to slits as he watched her, his pupils blown.

As he watched her, his hands gentle against her hips, she positioned herself against his swollen tip, then bore down.

She'd wanted to be quiet, but even she couldn't prevent the gasp that tore itself from her throat. Her breath trembled, the flare of pleasure too intense for silence. Beneath her, tense underneath her body, Jack let out a bitten-back groan, his hands tightening on her hips. It was intense, overwhelming. Panting, she rolled her hips again, his cock sliding further into the heat of her body, and was rewarded by a full body shudder from Jack.

She wanted to torment him. She wanted to tease him. She wanted to wring every last shudder and shake out of him, to own him with her body in a way that no one else ever could. But she knew that that was not the night for it. She needed safety, security, a place where she could vocalise without fear of reappraisal from other shifters. Now, they both had to make do with this, quiet and furtive under the stars.

Jack thrust up underneath her, and Lacey saw stars as he drove himself within her. Leaning heavily on her his chest, bracing both her hands for support, she began to rock her hips, taking him exactly the way she wanted.

Then it was just the two of them and the sky above, like wild animals underneath the stars. Jack's hands roamed up from her body, desperate in a way, grasping at the curve of her breasts, the small of her back, as if trying to anchor herself to him. Lacey lent back, breathing deep. When she looked down, the view before her was almost too much. She could see his strong hands grasping her breasts, the curve of her stomach, and then the place where they joined, raw and slick with their mixed arousal. Then up again, up the pebbled muscles of his abdomen, across those broad planes of his chest, up to--

Lacey let out an involuntary gasp, her body trembling with the force she could only barely contain. Jack's eyes bore up at her with an almost reverent look, as if she were a goddess he was worshipping, wild and beautiful above him. His eyes were wide with love and worship, as if their deep depths were full of nothing but her.

It was like a match had been struck down her spine, sparks flaring beneath her belly, igniting the place where they touched. Waves of pleasure ripped through her with a wild intensity she'd never felt before, something primal and fierce. She bucked wildly, and she heard Jack's breath stutter hard. He gripped her thighs, those worshipful hands strong against her soft flesh, and bucked up into her. She bit her lip, fighting against the moans building up within her, of overwhelming pleasure. Wordless, her body trembling with in the wake of her climax, she looked down at him, trying to hold herself back.

That sent him over the edge. In one swift movement, he rolled over, sending Lacey sprawling in the grass. Dizzy, she reached out to cling to his muscled shoulders, and he lent down against her, touching his forehead to hers. "You may be an alpha," he murmured, his voice throaty and low with lust. "But so am I, remember?"

Lacey had just enough time to laugh giddily before he began driving into her in earnest, and then all she could do was to hang on to him, clutching his shoulders as if they were a lifeline, trying not to scream with pleasure. His muscled body bore down into hers, taking her with an animalistic strength against the forest grass. Again and again he drove into her, until she was a quivering mass, gasping and whispering breathy words, all nonsense and entreaties. "Jack-- more-- oh, God… fuck!"

Jake buried his face down against the curve of her shoulder, right over her scar. With a muffled roar, he came inside, filling her with his release. Lacey clutched at his sweat-damp hair, her body moving with his as they both slowed, and then it was over, both of them still and exhausted on the forest floor.

Above them, the moon finally hit its zenith. Languid and content in a way that she’d never felt before, Lacey let her wolf come out again, bidden by the moon. With the way pre-paved by the earlier transformation that Jack had coaxed out of her, it didn’t hurt, no fear in the process. She slipped back into her animal nature, Jack transforming alongside her, the two of them together.

If the gentle nuzzle of Jack’s muzzle to her own seemed sad in a way, she didn't notice.

Colt and Jack. Jack and Lacey. Lacey and Jenny. Jack stared steadfastly out of the cabin window, fighting the urge to toss and turn. Everything had seemed so simple at the beginning! He'd had a plan, he'd known what he was going to do, and then…

Well, that was how plans seemed to turn out, didn't they? He hadn't hoped for the death of his pack when he'd stepped up to defend the people of Greenvale, but that had happened. Luck had a way of interfering with his plans, what he wanted it to or not-- and it was rarely good luck than came his way.

Now he was trapped.

He looked over at Lacey, her wolf form stretched out the foot of the bed, her and her sister sleeping together, unaware of his internal debate.

It had seemed simple. And now it wasn't.

He still needed to get revenge for the death of his pack. It was what any alpha would have done, bringing their killer to justice. He'd just bought Lacey along to give him the power to do that, nothing more than something to help carry out his plan of revenge. But now, as he looked upon her in the moonlight, the sight of her only filled him with the sick, twisting guilt.

When he'd first bought her into the cabin, he'd hoped that she would bond to him. Now she had, and he didn't feel so good as he’d hoped.

It was hard to kill yourself for revenge when someone loved you.

He fought the urge to swear. It was so tempting to stay here in the cabin, or to make a run for it if. They’d be together in one little pack, and it could really work...

Except... except that he would always know that Colt was out there, slaughtering innocents and destroying packs. He would know, and he would know that it was only his weakness that had let that happen.

He knew what he had to do. What he'd
always
had to do.

When his pack had been murdered, he'd been left alone. But, he told himself, he wasn't leaving Lacey alone. She had her sister to care for, and while human families weren't exactly like packs, it was still something. She'd get over him. When she woke and found him gone, she would be angry-- God, she’d be angry!— then she'd eventually get over it.

Unless he did manage to kill Colt...

Jack let out a chuckle. No, he wasn't deliriously optimistic enough to believe that something like that would happen. He wasn't getting out of this alive. If he did take down Colt, the pack would go wild, seeking instant revenge for their alpha. It was just what shifters did when their alpha was killed, a law of the wild.

He was gone thinking about it. If he spent any more time with Lacey, he’d lose his nerve. He'd just wanted Lacey to fill a tiny part of the wound in his heart, but she'd stormed his gates, filling him with something else, something better than simple stability.

Love. A true bond.

Wordlessly, he got to his feet, and padded out of the cabin.

He knew what he had to do. He had to leave.

He trotted through the woods, his ears pricked. As he grew closer to the town, he began to hear the sounds of the pack going about their business in their wolf forms, little yips and snarls and growls telling him of their positions. Just the sound of a pack going about their day. It could be any pack, just to listen to it.

He pushed forward, and when he got the edge of the clearing, he braced himself. Tilting his head towards the full moon, he howled.

Wolves were built for this, for calling their companions from miles away, broadcasting their territory. And Jack was no slouch. The sound rung out across the space below him, the other wolves falling silent as his cry echoed out between the mountains. When he shut his mouth, falling back into silence, he could feel the change in the air, the tension radiating from those other wolves.

A challenger was here.

If Colt’s pack had been human when he'd howled out his challenge, they might have taken things into their own hands. Wolves in human forms tended to play a little looser with pack rules. They might have decided to take his head themselves, in the hopes that presenting it to their alpha would put them in his good graces, propelling them up the pack hierarchy.

But now, locked into their wolf forms under the full moon, no one would have dared interrupted an alpha challenge. It was why had to be that night, why the bond growing between him and Lacey had to be cut cruelly short before it could even grow a single day longer. This was an opportunity, and one that he didn't plan to ignore.

As Jack walked down the main street of town, the rest of Colt’s pack began to fall in around him, blocking his escape. He didn't have to look back to know what he'd see: a wolf pack, shoulder to shoulder as they trotted down the road after him, a mix of fear and excitement in their white-toothed grins. Colt had been challenged, and he'd always been one to survive. Colt’s pack knew they were in for a show.

True to form, Colt was waiting for Jack at the end of the street, in as fine a condition as he'd ever been. He bared his fangs at Jack’s arrival, excitement radiating from every inch of his body. Wordlessly, the pack spread out around the two of them, forming a circle.

This was it, the alpha challenge. They would fight, uninterrupted. Two alphas, standing up to fight for their pack-- and if they were lacking, then their pack watched them die.

Jack looked around the circle of unfamiliar, hostile shifters. They panted, their tongues lolling and their eyes bright as they watched him, anticipating his downfall.

Jack was going to lock his teeth around Colt’s throat, and then he was going to shake every drop of life from him. He was under no illusions about what would happen after that, the circle closing in like sharks to tear him limb from limb, but it would be worth it. His pack would be avenged.

A twisting sense of guilt settled into his guts, curling like smoke. How much would Lacey realise about this? Would she know that he’d left her to fight? Would the pack bond that bound them to each other tell her that, for just for a moment, he’d won? Maybe not. Her pack sense was still fresh and new to her, after all. Maybe she would just assume he had abandoned her, running away like a coward.

Well, there was nothing to do about that now. In a way, it would be easier for her if she believed that, thinking he was still out there somewhere. She’d look for him, maybe, and then she'd eventually realise that he wasn’t worthy of her. The hole in her soul would heal.

Across the circle, his head held high, Jack stepped forward. His eyes bright with murderous intent, Colt matched him, moving towards him with small, precise steps, until they were moments away from their final confrontation. For one strung-out moment, every breath ratcheted the tension higher and higher., then Jack saw Colt’s haunches twitch, and his own body began to move, dropping into a crouch that would propel him towards Colt’s exposed throat--

There was a howl.

Jack, Colt, all the wolves in the circle: everyone froze. The howl echoed off of the houses of the village, and the noise seemed to kick up in intensity as it went, the low, menacing sound communicating the presence of someone unknown.

Whoever they were, they were
pissed
.

Jack spun around, his heart pounding. Before he could even put his fear into words, he saw Lacey's wolf began to run down the street towards him.