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Holy shit... It couldn't be. A fucking shifter.
There were rumors of their existence, so unsubstantiated they could be called fairy tales. Yet being a vampire, and knowing that a lot of what humans called imaginary creatures could exist, Cai wasn't in the habit of asserting something couldn't, just because he hadn't seen it. Even so, he'd never heard of anyone who'd seen a wolf shifter.
He was seeing one now.
The transformation energy cocooned the wolf like rope, tightening, pulling his body in multiple directions. If every shift was this brutal, Cai had no idea why any wolf shifter would do so voluntarily, and maybe they didn't. But he had to wonder if the wolf's obvious resistance to the transition was making it even more excruciating.
Maybe he thought he was more vulnerable to Cai in that form. He probably was, but...
Cai drew closer. The wolf seemed almost insensible to him now, so he dropped to his heels next to him and laid a hand on his fur. The covering felt much thinner, like a silk scarf instead of a thick pelt. That scarf was about to tear.
The magic coiled around the shifter snapped away, striking Cai with stinging heat before it dis-apparated the wolf. The shift had seemed gradual, torturous, but then, in a final blink, there he was. Cai was staring at a man lying against the corpse of another, their blood mixed together and soaking the earth beneath them.
Fuck.
Cai's gaze traveled over the shifter. As a wolf, he'd been as big as a black bear. As a human, he kept the same impressive build. Long brown hair tangled over broad shoulders, his wide chest covered with a temptingly thick mat of gleaming chestnut hair that arrowed down to cock and balls, tree trunk thighs. In the naked male's position, sprawled on one hip, Cai had a good view of his ass.
An ass worth saving, noted his dick.
Why hadn't the wolf just shifted to human when he was out of range of the hunter's sight? When the hunter stumbled on the wolf in wounded human form, he might have been curious about why the shifter was naked, but guilt over thinking one of his bullets might have missed his supposed bear and hit a camper would have made him set questions aside, and aid the wounded male.
Maybe shifters considered hospitals and doctors pretty much out of the question. Like vampires, their anatomy probably didn't exactly line up with humans.
But reviewing the evidence of the past few moments, Cai decided that wasn't why the shifter had let things play out the way they had. He'd wanted the hunter to catch up to him. He'd wanted to take him out. Cai remembered the look in the wolf's eyes as he'd sprung. He'd wanted the fight.
"Take my blood, vampire," the male growled. His voice was rough, broken. "Take all of it. I'm dying. Might as well finish it."
Well, vampires might not have realized wolf shifters existed, but this one knew enough about vampires to identify one. Cai had no idea what shifter blood would do to a vampire, but it smelled just as appetizing as the human's. More so. Cai didn't spend a lot of time worrying over those things. If he died from drinking it, he died. No great loss, as long as it was his choice.
That was the philosophy he saw in the shifter's eyes now. He knew he was dying, and he wanted it to happen according to his own terms. He'd taken out the predator who'd gotten him first, and he'd given the vampire permission to drink from him, despite knowing he could do little to stop Cai. It was another point of pride, like defending his prey against Cai when he could barely stand on his four feet.
A lot of balls on this one. Literally. Cocking his head, Cai gave them a leisurely look.
The shifter noticed him noticing. Cai stiffened as a hand that could probably palm a cantaloupe reached for his face, but there was no harm in it. The male brushed bloodstained fingers over Cai's lips and his own mouth curved in a humorless smile. Even bloody and dirty, those lips were appealingly firm, enhanced by the layer of biker-guy-sexy stubble on the strong jaw. He wound his fingers in Cai's hair, nowhere near as long as the wolfman's, but long enough to take a good grip, and he put pressure there.
"There's nothing else once the dark closes in. We both know it. Give me something good before there's nothing."
Under the rusty quality, his voice had a melodic, deep woods hillbilly kind of sound, and Cai's ears reacted to it like his taste buds did to fresh, heated blood. Cai was pretty sure he knew what the male meant, but the shifter removed all doubt when somehow he lifted his dying, bleeding body enough to wrap his arm around Cai's shoulders and bring his mouth close. Cai caught up, cupping the back of his head, tangling his fingers in brown hair as thick and soft as the wolf's pelt. He tightened his grip.
"Hold still, and I will," he ordered, meeting his gaze. As a human, both the shifter's eyes were blue, with gold flecks and a gold ring around them. Extraordinary and mesmerizing. Full of dull pain and raging need. The pain wasn't from his wounds. Cai knew that kind of pain, the empty agony of a loneliness well beyond fixing.
However, in response to Cai's order to be still, the shifter's lips curled in an appealing sneer which teased Cai's dominant instincts to bust-your-ass level. Even so, he wasn't going to deny a dying man. Not when the request served his own interests.
He brought his mouth to the other man's, stopped just short and stared into those feral eyes. "What's your name?" Cai didn't question why he wanted to know, but when the guy died, he wanted to remember him. Wanted to think of him with a name attached.
"Rand."
"Easy enough. Cai."
No need to be tentative or gentle about it, and that wasn't what the wolf wanted anyway. When Cai brought his mouth against those appealing lips, strong fingers dug into Cai's shoulders. The sound the male made in Cai's mouth was so split between human and animal, Cai's cock hardened to lead pipe from the first touch.
Hellfire... Yeah, there might not be anything after, but that was because somebody had tipped divine flame out of the heavens and given it all to this male's mouth. Cai's blood hunger disappeared, swallowed by a far different kind of greed. He didn't give a damn what was offered willingly beyond the kiss. He was going to have it all.
Heat. A slick agile tongue that played with Cai's fangs in a provocative way no dying man should have been cognizant enough to do. But hell, if the guy was dying, what better thing was there to spend his energy toward? His hands slid over Cai's hair, his neck, his shoulders, down to his biceps and gripped him as if he wouldn't ever let go. Cai broke that grip and pushed him to his back, away from the hunter and against the brown earth. He stretched over him so he could clasp his rough jaw and throat and kiss him as deep and long as he desired. He allowed the male to latch onto his upper arm and side with either hand, but the position made it clear Cai was the one in control.
He saw the flame of need and lust in Rand's blue eyes. As well as a hopeless surrender that tore into Cai's chest and opened wounds he kept closed with the help of solitude and regular doses of violence.
Sex could be violent.
It was only when he clutched the male's hip with possessive demand, and the shifter stiffened, that Cai remembered. Hell, he was mortally wounded.
Well, fuck that. This bastard was living, even if Cai had to turn him into a vampire to do it. He adjusted his hold to the male's cock, fingers wrapping around it. Despite his injuries, hell, it was semi-erect. Even at half-mast, there was way more than a handful to play with. The blue eyes darkened, a flash of surprise among the simmering ferocity. "You aren't dying," Cai said. "Your ass belongs to me."
Sparks of rebellion delivered a straightforward fuck-you message, and then the wolf shifter lost consciousness.
Chapter Two
The heat of the day had finally been swallowed by the night. Rand felt the touch of Dylef's hand. They would shift and run together tonight. Hunt for Sheba and their pups.
No. No, they wouldn't. Dylef was dead. They were dead. He imagined the young ones' fear. It had all happened so fast, they hadn't totally understood. He hoped. But when he was human, it was on constant replay in his mind, a never-ending torture session. It was why h
e'd stayed a wolf for so long. But not long enough. He was still alive, goddamn it.
Why the hell was he still alive?
Because I wanted you to be. It's your own fault.
Rand stiffened. He was used to the endless monologue of his own internal voice, an unwelcome intruder that never shut the hell up except when he was in wolf form. Which...he wasn't. It felt strange, his human body like ill-fitting clothing. He needed to shift, wanted to shift.
"Oh no you don't." It was a rebuke and command, and reinforced by a firm caress along his abdomen. That unexpected sensation, a humanoid touch on his humanoid flesh, effectively pulled his attention away from his unwelcome state like fresh raw meat did when he was ravenous.
