AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Tension builds within my body, radiating from my groin and spreading out into my limbs. My knees start to feel weak as her grip tightens and her speed increases. She presses her left hand to my chest, over my heart, and I mimic the action, feeling her racing pulse beneath my palm. The beats begin to sync, along with our panting breaths, and it’s there, beneath the mounting pleasure, that I feel her in the bond… in me. It’s more than the washing tides of emotions between us. It’s active tuning, seeking, and experiencing that I’m feeling, taking in every sensation as her own.
I give her all of me—the joy of feeling her beneath my fingers, the bliss of being under her touch, and the resounding euphoria of experiencing my pleasure through her and hers through me. We are one, climbing together on this singular experience, a chorus of moans that reverberates within the quiet clearing. Mania catches hold, fueling frenzied kisses of lips and teeth. Unable to resist, I rock my hips into her rhythm, and hers mirror the motion. The sensation of her slick core—separated from me only by the thin fabric of her panties—rubbing along my shaft while her hand works the head of my cock brings me to the brink. I’m teetering on the edge when her mouth finds the crux of my shoulder, exactly where our bond was first sealed, and she bites down hard. Pleasure explodes throughout my body, a staggering release that has me gasping for air, and I spill into her hand.
Callie cries out, her body shivering and spasming, and she collapses against me. Struggling to breathe. “So that’s what it feels like.”
“Yes,” I reply, humor lacing the labored word.
“It’s similar, but different,” she muses, her forehead pressed to my chest. “Like a powerful echo. I could feel it as you felt it, but not in the same way, like when my spirit enters someone else’s body. It was like I was experiencing it with a phantom touch. I wonder if it’s because I don’t have the same equipment.”
My laugh comes out more as a choking cough, and I shake my head. To distract her from going further down that line of thought, I suggest, “Time to turn the pond back to water, yes? Easier to clean up in.”
Seeming to realize she’s no longer sticky from just the massage oil, she releases me and reaches down to swish her hand into the oily pond. The current substance does little to clean it, so she closes her eyes and, with a furrowed brow, turns it back to water—very cold water.
“Brr,” she mumbles, flicking the water from her fingers, and then looks down at herself and then to me. Her lips purse into a pout. “Of course it only affects the pond, and we’re still covered in massage oil.”
“I’ll keep you warm,” I say, picking her up from the rock before she can object, and then I immediately dunk us both under the water.
Clawing at me like a drowning cat, she shrieks when we break the surface. “You are full of lies. Cold. So cold.”
I splash and rub her skin, doing my best to clean her off. She complains but doesn’t move, huddled against my body. When I return her to the rock, she immediately climbs to her feet and runs for the blanket she left earlier. I go back under, running my hands through my hair and along my body, and then I follow her out.
“How are you not freezing?” she asks when I casually shake out my own blanket and wrap it around my hips.
Grinning, I answer, “Shifter.”
Rolling her eyes, she grumbles, “I should have known better.”
My grin softens as I watch her bend at the waist to wring the moisture out of her long, wavy hair. I feel a tightening ache in my chest as I observe her with wonder. Callie is devastating in her beauty, inside and out, and the thought that she is mine to love humbles me. I don’t deserve her, but I will fight with my every breath to become a man worthy of her.
With careful steps, I approach her and wait for her to finish.
When she stands, there’s a shy pull of her lips as she looks up at me. “Hi.”
“Hi,” I murmur, my hands skating down her arms which are covered in goosebumps.
Her magic has dissipated, and the air has a cool bite to it. Opening my arms, I silently invite her to share my body heat, and she accepts, taking the final step into my embrace. For several minutes, we stand silently and listen to the murmured chatter of the forest, and for just a moment, it feels like everything is right in the world. It’s on my tongue to thank her for loving me, for choosing me despite the shadowed horrors that plague me, but my mate would scoff at such a declaration—not in a dismissive way, but in the sense that there’s nothing to thank her for. To her, there’s no in spite of. To her, we are equal in our love and we share our demons.
With our hunger for each other sated for now, there’s a rumble in my stomach, reminding me that all we’ve had tonight is chocolate-covered strawberries. She giggles until an echoing demand sounds from her own belly.
“Dinner?” I suggest, kissing the top of her head.
“Good idea,” she agrees, not bothering to argue when I lift her up and carry her back to the picnic.
There’s a sweet sense of contentment that washes over me when I have her in my arms. I put her down long enough to light the lantern and bring the basket closer. When I notice the way she clutches the blanket tighter around her, I also grab my flannel and place it over her shoulders. She quickly stuffs her arms through the sleeves, and it’s big enough for her to button it over the blanket.
“Thanks,” she murmurs, pulling the sleeves back far enough for her hands to poke out. “I could probably use magic to dry my clothes. I know it’s possible, but I’ve also blinked clothes into other dimensions, and I like that outfit.”
“What’s mine is yours,” I reply, keeping to myself how much I enjoy her wearing my clothes, though I doubt it’s a secret by now.
“Remember you said that when I’ve run off with all of your flannel shirts,” she teases, laughter dancing in her eyes.
Before Callie can sit down, I have her in my arms again, settling us both down onto the blanket. Her sigh is amused as she positions herself more comfortably with her back against my chest, her legs draped over my crossed ones. She watches as I pull the rest of our dinner out of the basket, humming with interest at the selection. There are various cold dishes—steak salad, some type of vegetable medley with feta cheese, half a loaf of sliced French bread, and finger foods consisting mostly of fruit, cheese, and cold-cut meats. There are also two different thermoses, one with a rich, tomato soup and the other holding hot chocolate.
As I fill a plate of food for her, she snuggles into the soft fabric of my flannel, breathing in my scent as it mingles with hers. It pleases both me and my wolf to have our mate dressed in our scent and only our scent. It’s something I’ll need to work on, the need to dominate the others, but for now, it can be simple. She is my mate, and I get the honor of caring for her, so that’s exactly what I do. I relish every bite of food she takes, every kiss she steals, and every happy hum of contentment she makes, because she is mine, and I am hers.
∞∞∞
After dinner, Callie and I return to pack lands to find my mother waiting for us in one of the sitting rooms off the great room where I hold official alpha business. She’s in a wingback armchair with a photo album splayed across her lap, sitting underneath the low glow of a curved lamp. Her gaze sweeps over our disheveled appearances—a cool assessment over my shirtless state and a more thorough measure of Callie from the top of her oily hair down to her bare feet.
