***
Sonja woke with a start. Her gasp came out short. The sheet clung to her clammy body, but she did not acknowledge either. Blinking back tears, she wiped at her cheeks. It was the dream- that had brought her to the brink of despair. Ty slept beside her, a man well sated. A tender smile trembled across her mouth as she leaned over. The dark strains of hair covering his eyes made her wish for a different time, a different place for this to happen to them. She brushed Ty's hair from his eyes. The chiseled planes of his face stood out in stark relief against the white of the pillow. How perfect he was. With her arms wrapped around herself, Sonja pondered this man the fates had sent her. The pleasure of watching him sleep took some of the pain of the dream from her. She did not want to think about him leaving though he surely must go. The pain would be too much to bear, she mused. She wanted him as her next breath. What would she do? Surely, things would not turn out as bad as she had envisioned. With the potion, she would get him to sleep. Hopefully, with some luck they would both make it through her becoming a werewolf.
Still the day had turned dreary, cold, and she huddled under the wedding quilt to warm herself. Soon she must secure herself under chains and locks for the night of the fullest moon. Sonja's blood heated when the image of the full moon came to mind. Shaking the feeling back as she slipped from the bed and made her way to the porch, she waited for the dregs of the dream to evaporate. The horrid thing had been real! She tried to rationalize what she remembered. In this dream, she had been a pure white wolf with a thick silver collar of fur encircling her neck. The enemy lurked in the shadows. The creatures would not come out of the darkness provided by the thick undergrowth of the forest floor. Snarling along with a terrific stench filled the air as she stood her ground. Her clan stood at her back, their paws scratching the earth with howls of expectation from eager, seasoned warriors anxious for battle. Had she been new to the game, she might have rushed the attack, which would have brought the enemy down upon their heads. Being a vampire killer, experienced and skilled in battle, she understood patience would win the day. The day's assortment of tasks included killing the remainder of a pesky insurgent group of renegade vampires with a blood lust. She had hunted them down and destroyed their lair, so the poor devils were laid bare and unprotected from the sun of a warm summer day.
Sonja rubbed at the headache brewing behind her eyes as she strained to bring the dream more closely into focus. Though practiced at defeating their enemy, this day seemed different. The white wolf glanced from left to right, meeting the eye of her companions with a steely gaze. Had she leaped into the air and told those animals at her back to leave none standing? In her mind's eye, Sonja could see the wolf as she crouched for the attack, whispering something in Gallic to those nearest her position. Instantly, a fire erupted all around her. She witnessed her friends go up in flames, agonizing and horrible. Sonja brought her hand up and bit down hard on her knuckle. What had happened? The dream kept returning. She shook her head for a moment hoping to dismiss the disturbing picture because she could still hear the screams as well as the howls of members of her pack dying before her eyes.
With a shiver, Sonja rubbed one bare foot over the other. Blinking, she gazed at her front porch. She stood barefoot on the cold planks in the frost of a spring morning, not alongside wolves in a glade ready to do battle with vampires. The cold seeped in under her nightgown. She turned to take the wood back in and ran headlong into Ty.
"Morning." Ty rubbed at his chin. "Didn't mean to scare you." His face, definitely appealing with the shadows of sleep still in his eyes, hardened when she turned to face him. "What's wrong?" He held on when she tried to sidetrack him.
"Nothing." Sonja tried for nonchalant but failed miserably. When she ventured to look into his face, there the hard planes of his cheekbones formed the sharp, keen edge of fury. What would she do next?
"Damn it, Sonja, don't lie to me!" The words came out hard and fast. "Did I do something?"
"You didn't. I simply had things on my mind," she told him. Despite the unease, Sonja could not help but notice the transformation in him as he stood within the frame of the front door. Ty looked like a new man. Even his jet-black hair needed a trim. She jolted her sensibilities by reaching up to brush the length from his sleepy eyes. Gone were the hollows under those wonderful blue eyes, which could bore into her with their intensity. Smooth skin covered the once gaunt cheekbones. A warm golden hue replaced the pale gray tone of a dying man. She liked the way he habitually hitched a finger in the band of his pants.
"I've got coffee brewing if you want some." He turned abruptly, heading back in. "I used the last of the wood to start a fire."
Sonja could tell their quarrel was not over. The time to tell him grew near. Slowly following him back inside, she prayed she would find the courage necessary to explain.
Ty stood facing the small parlor from the kitchen staring into the flames, a hard set to his wonderful mouth. The same mouth which she had enjoyed on her skin the night past. Without turning, he spoke up, "I made you a cup of coffee." Leaning toward the table, he picked up a steaming mug, handing the cup to her.
Unable to answer, Sonja glanced past him before murmuring, "Thank you." His nearness disturbed her. Sonja headed inside. "I have to get dressed. There are chores to do," she mumbled.
His hands gripped her arms, and his blue gaze bore into hers. "What's the matter?" Waiting a beat, he tilted his head and examined the distant expression she had fixed on her face. "Why won't you let me help you?" His words sounded sincere mixed with frustrated pain.
Why indeed. Because again she reminded her inner voice, she could not lure another human into her misery. Tugging at his hold, she thanked the gods, when he released her and let her go. "There's nothing to help." The chill of a passing wind from the door swept over her. The shiver she experienced held more than simple cold. Annoyed at the world, she went to the armoire in the corner of the front room and drug out a day dress. Nothing too extravagant resided in her meager stash of clothing. Therefore choosing was not a task. The need to dress grew, though with his perusal. She rationalized she would ward off the depression, which continued to hover. Sonja glanced back. His keen eyes swept her. With the tail of the gown in both hands, she had been about to disrobe.
The look he sent her spoke of need, raw and primal. With two steps, he was behind her, turning her to face him. One hand was on the nape of her neck, and the other took the hem of her gown and hiked it up her thigh. His big hand ran up and back down her sensitized flesh. Burying his face in her hair, Ty groaned close to her ear. "I can't help the way I feel. You're all I can think about."
Her heartbeat picked up, and Sonja wanted to scream, "No, please don't do this!" Her sharp intake of breath remained the only sound in the room as his fingers glided along the inner portion of her thigh to find the curls covering her apex and cup her mound. The need to exist gave way to desire. She gripped him tighter as the fire popped, and sparks shot out from the hearth.
Though he guided her to the fire without permission, Ty gently took her in his arms. One strong arm cradled her shoulders, and the other cupped her thighs, pressing her into his heat. As if made of glass, he laid her on the bearskin rug splayed on the cold floor before the flames. The fire bathed them both in the warmth of its dancing light. Liquid and wanton, she reached out and let her fingers glide down his bronze chest. Smooth and rippled with muscle, she skimmed along the powerful body, which only last evening she had discovered could hold her captive. On a moan, he swooped down and took her mouth in a kiss of pure bliss. No words passed between them as they stroked each other's skin in arousal and discovery. Nipping at her bottom lip, the lieutenant moved back and watched the firelight play across her face. The smile he offered her proved to batter the wall she had tried so hard to build to its foundation. This man held more than her body in his grasp. He held her heart.
&
nbsp; With her watching him, he rose on his knees and undid the buttons of his pants. Freeing his shaft, he slowed stroked as he scanned her face. "I want to love you until I can't any longer."
Sonja lay where he'd put her with her eyes on him, the glorious male body etched in the firelight and hard to the touch. Understanding his meaning, she reached down and took the hem of her gown in her hand. Bowing up, she tugged it from under her and then over her head. If she was damned then so be it, but this man wanted her, and she desperately wanted him. Her fate was not something she wanted to consider, not in the lieutenant's arms.
Nothing remained between them except the heat of their need coursing through their bodies. Ty bent and captured one taught nipple in his mouth. Suckling the aerial until it glowed in the fire's light, he let his tongue glide across her breast to the other and nurse it to attention as well.
Sonja moaned with the warmth spreading through her like wine. His hands were skimming her flesh along the contours of her torso, and she let her head fall back in the release of the last bastion of regret. Sensations ignited as his fingertips explored her ribcage before trailing over the smooth skin of her belly. Her breath caught on a strangled cry as he dipped lower and discovered her trembling with need and anticipation. Glancing up, he found her watching him and she could not mask the hunger in her eyes. His eyes held hers as he lowered his mouth to her most vulnerable area. Nipping at her woman's flesh, he flicked her nub with his tongue.
She cried out.
"I want you to watch me," he told her as he tasted her while his hand massaged the triangle of crisp, golden curls lying between her legs. With his fingers toying with the folds of her woman's flesh, he exercised only enough pressure to send her into warm, creamy spasms.
Lost in the need for release, Sonja sucked in air and moaned deep in her throat. She arched and fell back with the building pleasure he invoked. The need to taste this man, to touch his body, to feast on his pride grew with every touch. Her low growl of desire had him returning her audible response to his hands and tongue as her lust climbed higher. He feasted on her flesh as a man who had known great hunger.
With more urgency, Ty cupped her firmly and massaged the head of her clit with the palm of his hand. His eyes burned brightly in the meager light of the room, almost a blue glow of passion. Sonja never glanced away, almost hypnotized by their intensity. Her breath grew labored as he stroked her womanly senses into a burning need for him. Breathing heavy, Ty kept his eyes on her as she clutched around him when he shoved his fingers inside her.
She gripped him in a tight glove of demand and cried out. "Take me. Oh, take me now, right now!" Sonja crooned as her hips rose in a rhythmic dance to match his thrusts. "I want you inside me."
Lost in the haze of his own body's craving for her, Ty stood and stripped off his pants. Standing in all his glory before her, Sonja imagined him covering her in a cocoon of hot, wet pleasure, and sexual euphoria. Spreading her thighs, Sonja reached up grasping his hand in invitation. "Come, take me," she whispered.
His eyes burned with the need for her. A rumble deep in his throat and he was upon her, dragging her hips up and driving himself deep into her.
Her smoldering anticipation of the coupling brought her to climax immediately. She fisted around him and milked his shaft as she growled his name to the winds. Pounding into her over and over again, he set a hard and fast pace of pleasure cradled in demand. Muscles bunched and released, skin slapped against skin and words became mere dance notes in the world of pulsating sensation.
Somewhere in the haze of desire, Sonja's nails came back wet from his back. Tiny claw marks appeared and disappeared almost as quickly as they had bled. Startled, but pummeled with the almost mindless craving for him, Sonja pushed Ty up and taking his shoulders shoved him to her side on the rug before switching positions and straddling him. Rearing up over her feral lover, she held his cock and guided him inside the heat. Gripping the rug's edge, she hung on as she rode him with a frenzied urgency. Snarling with the need for more, she pricked his flesh and cried out in pleasure. Ty gripped her hips and buried himself deeper and deeper inside her as they rose to a new height of ecstasy. She revealed in the power of pleasuring this man into coming. His bold, blue eyes glazed with the climax. Her mate threw back his head and howled as he took them both over the edge and into oblivion.
She lay atop him listening to his breathing even out and his heartbeat slow. A contentment of a basic nature made her smile inwardly. Sex relaxed her trepidation sending it far, far away. She never expected to feel so alive. Hearing the sounds of life all around her, Sonja held him as his system calmed from the onslaught of emotion. Gone was the doubt and apprehension she had awoke with and in its place, a new vital and solid awareness of who she was and what her purpose was came bursting forth. In this man's grasp, she was a woman, strong and resilient. In his arms, she was capable and steady. Perhaps, as the guardian had foretold, here was her mate, her connection between the dimensions of human and wolf.
"Hungry?" he asked, shifting to lean on an elbow beside her.
Sonja's eyes tracked to his. Ty's pupils began to relax to a normal size inside the steely-blue of his gaze. A bit startled to see the shift, she faltered.
He lowered his head and kissed her thoroughly. The moment his mouth took hers, the invisible threads already binding them tightened.
"I'm starving," Sonja admonished. Hesitant to allow the topic of what troubled her to resurface, she rolled to her side of the rug and began gathering her gown until his fingers rested gently on her shoulder.
"Lay back and let me tend to you," he said. With a lopsided grin, Ty rose up on his haunches as he looked down at her. "I could stay right here and look at you all day," he told her. Rising like a wild creature sure of foot and bold of design, he gathered his pants, shoving into them as he continued to gaze at her in the firelight. When he had finished shrugging into his shirt, he garnered her eyes once more before uttering the words, "You've cast some spell over me."
Sonja's mind reeled with his words. Hortence's declaration came back to her, and her smile fell away. "Your mate will come to you and it will be up to you to convince him to remain."
Ty's brow knitted as he levered himself to his haunches once more, his features growing serious when he looked at her. "What is it?"
No longer able to control the trembling gathering inside her, Sonja leaped up and strode toward the armoire in the corner of the room. "Nothing, silly." She hated the fact her words came out broken and strained.
To allow him to see her hesitation would be taint amount to opening the floodgate on the truth. She could not afford to do that to him. Her mind raced forward to what would happen soon. The time was fast approaching when she would have to leave and hide in the swamp, tying herself to a great tree in the hopes of protecting those around her from the demon she would become. "I have to get the day started, that's all."
"Sonja, talk to me." His voice was level, but the edge of command had her wincing despite herself. She could not look at him. "Something's wrong, and I want you to trust me enough to tell me what's bothering you." Ty's dark hair lay about his handsome face, the tension etched in his jaw a stark reminder of his Indian heritage. She could not do it.
Sonja could only stare into the fire's light. "Nothing's wrong, Ty. I just realized you're the first man I've been with since the death of my husband." Turning, she gave him a weak smile and cursed inwardly. Now she was lying on top of it all.
He rose and after a brief glance at her, turned toward the cupboard. Something caught his eye, though, and he turned back. His eyes tracked to her hand where the tiny mark of the beast shown dark and telling. His quizzical gaze had Sonja's heartbeat increasing. Hurriedly, she slipped into the chemise before gathering the dress and slipping it over her head. The tiny buttons gave her hands something to do besides tremble. What had she done? Alarm raced through her, and she had to force herself
to consider the possible consequences, but not now, not with his scrutiny so close. Putting on her most pleasant face, Sonja turned and stepped to the coffee pot. The sun's rays danced over the floor and reminded her the day was well underway. "I'll check the hen house for eggs while you start the bacon, all right?"
"All right," Ty said from his place beside the big cast iron stove. "Fresh eggs will be good."
Sonja noted that his tone was tight. He harbored unspoken concerns. Sonja yearned to be able just to go to him and wrap her arms around him. He stood in the light of the kitchen window and appeared every bit the Indian with his long mane of jet-black hair grazing his shoulder blades. The girth of his trim waist made her yearn to fit her hands there around the muscles of his abdomen and feel the strength lying under his bronze flesh. She could still taste him on her lips and her tongue. How she missed the aftermath of lovemaking, the soft caresses and quiet words spoken in the dim light of passion's twilight. She wanted to feel his body against hers again if only for the last time. The reality was a hard taskmaster, though, and she found the need to be away from his watchful gaze and questions more urgent than ever.