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I let a hand wander, fingertips grazing his shirt as they trail down to the bit of skin bared at the hem. When I cup him lower I canfeelhow much he wants to give me what he’s offering, his cockstraining against his jeans and feeling hot even through the fabric. I know what it will feel like now, how it’ll stretch me to points of pleasure that could almost be pain they’re so intense—and Idowant it. Right now there’s nothing I want more.
“Fuck,” Noah hisses as I squeeze him through his jeans. “You make me crazy, Mackenzie.”
“I kind of feel a little crazy too,” I whisper.
I draw a sharp breath then as a cramp tears through me, a burst of heat like a current of electricity coursing under my skin to make me feel like I’m on fire. I make a pained sound as Noah pulls away from me, his eyes looking dark with arousal but his brow wrinkled in concern as he presses a hand to my cheek.
“You need—” His breath is ragged, making it obvious that I’m not the only one affected here. “You need to shift,” he says, almost disappointedly. “Soon.”
I can feel his disappointment as a mirror to my own, because I don’t exactly want to give in to the basic instincts of my biology right now, not if it doesn’t involve Noah fucking me in this bed until the burn subsides.
But I know he’s right.
“Can you—” I swallow, but my throat feels dry. “Can you come with me?”
Noah tilts up my chin, his thumb swiping along my lower lip slowly before it slips past my teeth to press against my tongue. I can’t help but lick the pad, rewarded with a rumbling sound from deep in Noah’s chest, his mouth parting with a stuttered breath.
“I’m not going anywhere,” he says. “As long as we’re...” His jaw clenches, and there’s that same wildness in his eyes that I can only glimpse in moments like this. I know he is feeling not like himselfright now, can scent on him the way he’s affected by what’s happening to me, but strangely, instead of being scared, there is an unfamiliar thrill coursing through me. “As long as we’re here... you’re mine, Mackenzie.”
Rational me is still worried this is all hormonal nonsense.
Irrational me doesn’t fucking care.
16
Noah
It’s been along time since I’ve shifted, and the fresh snow against my paws is a welcome sensation as I run through it, following Mackenzie’s trail. I had only caught a glimpse of her before she bounded off into the tree line after shedding her clothes, just a flash of sand-colored fur before she’d disappeared into the woods. It’s clear that with her impending heat she is more in tune with her instincts than I am, especially given how long it’s been since I’ve used them.
The suppressants really do stave off the urge to shift, just like I’d told Mackenzie weeks ago, but running like this makes me wonder why I hadn’t chosen to do so sooner, anyway. Like this, the worries of work and my personal life seem further away, leaving only the scent of Mackenzie in the air and the strong desire to get closer to her.
I catch sight of her in a clearing, the sun filtering through the trees and casting a spray of sunlight against her fur, and I notice she’s just standing there on all fours, waiting for me. She’s smaller than me, but no less strong, I think. Her amber eyes are sharp, and her ears are turned up attentively as she watches me approach—herhead low to the ground as if she is ready to flee at any given moment. What is she doing?
I yip at her, wondering if there is a chance she doesn’t recognize me in her primal state, and she snorts against the snow, snapping her jaws in answer. She turns in place to kick up a bit of a flurry as she watches me near, and just as I move to spring myself closer, she bounds off again as fast as her paws will carry her through the trees, leaving me puzzled. She gets another thirty yards away, only to stop and turn back and look at me again, giving that same guarded pose that is starting to feel somewhat like a challenge.
She’s toying with me.
Even in this form I can almost see her teasing grin, can almost hear her sweet voice calling out some taunt solely to try and get under my skin so that she can laugh at my reaction. My fur bristles with the anticipation of her game, kicking up a bit of snow and throwing back my head to make a warning sound, letting her know I’m up to play. Her answering huff of air and the toss of her head seem unfazed, and I paw at the snow, lowering my head while I ready to pounce.
It feels like a different time; what we’re doing seems reminiscent of an age where our kind lived in woods like these, where we hunted our food and claimed our mates in a similar dance to this one. And with my hindbrain running the show right now, that thought is a satisfying one.
I don’t move until she takes off again, giving her a moment’s head start before I fully put my paws to the ground and chase after her. I run until my muscles burn, the slight sting oddly enjoyable. I watch her lithe body wind between the trees as if she were born in these woods, making sure that catching her is no easy feat. It doesn’t deter me in the slightest; in fact, the difficulty of it all only makesme want to catch her more. Only makes this game we’re playing more pleasurable.
I let my human thoughts slip away to give way to the more basic part of me, letting my alpha move my body as if Iamhunting Mackenzie. As if she is prey that I want to taste—and in a sense, I suppose she is. Because even shifted I can scent how every moment pushes her deeper into her heat, and out here among the snow she smells positivelyripefor the taking. I know when I get her back to the lodge she will be warm and wet and wanting, and just thinking about the way she will feel on my knot makes me actuallyhowlwith anticipation.
The sound makes Mackenzie pause further up, and I skid in the snow only a dozen or so paces from her as I catch my breath. I can see in her eyes a glimpse of that need they held earlier, see a spark of the human part of her practically begging me to come take her. I hear a rustling behind us that makes me turn with a growl, tearing my eyes from Mackenzie to warn whatever intruder might be stalking us, only to find a bird taking flight up into the trees. I snort in irritation as I turn back, noticing Mackenzie is nowhere to be found as a flicker of panic pulses inside me.
My alpha has me pacing as I turn this way and that trying to catch sight of her, feeling a growing dread at having lost her, even though logically I know she must be somewhere close. I turn in place and yip worriedly, still able to scent her but unable to see her.
Where the fuck did she go?
It might be because I am so panicked that I don’t hear her approach; maybe it’s the blood rushing in my ears that hides her steps as she nears from behind, meaning that I don’t know she’s on me until she’s actuallyonme. Her body collides with mine as we roll, the force of it so much so that it knocks us both back into human form, leaving our naked bodies tangled in the snow.
Her skin is flushed pink, no doubt still too warm from being in her other form, and her soft blond hair is wild around her face, just as wild as the look in her eyes as she gazes down at me. Her thighs straddle my waist to keep me pinned to the ground, and I can immediately tell that I was right, that she’s dripping wet for me, if the slick against my navel is any indication.
“Got you,” she practically purrs, her breasts heaving in the chilled air.
I run my hands over her thighs, watching her shiver with my touch. She’s burning up now, no longer close but surely fully in heat, but I know the air will still make her sick if left unchecked. “You’ll get cold like this.”
