His hands cupped her breasts. Tingles traveled up and down her spine as her insides turned wet. She wasn’t sure what was wetter—her or the shower. Either way, it amazed her that all Parker needed to do was touch her and she melted.
“Angel, you have the most beautiful breasts I’ve ever seen.”
“If you have seen a lot of breasts, I don’t want to know about it.”
“You don’t take compliments well, do you?”
“I don’t have a lot of experience with them.”
She bit down hard on his neck and he had the nerve to laugh at her. She pulled out of his arms before dropping to her knees in front of him. The hot water on her back lent a sexual massage to the moment as she indulged her fantasies. Pushing forward, she sucked on the head of his cock, loving the taste of his manhood so deep in her mouth.
Her hand located his balls, massaging them slightly. He leaned against the shower wall, a moan escaping his mouth. This was her mate—her strong, tattooed, take-no-prisoners mate—and she could bring him to his knees.
“Stop Angel. This will end right here if you don’t.”
She pulled back. “Maybe I like knowing I can do this to you.”
“Was there ever a question?”
He grabbed her shoulders, pulling her upward. God, she loved being in his arms. His lips met hers and this time it was her turn to shudder. His fingers started a delicious trail up and down her body. Finally, he found her core. His fingers ventured inside of her and she knew what true happiness felt like. It was heavenly to be this close. It was incredible to know she had a man who cared about her pleasure.
“Inside of me, big guy.”
Parker grunted his reply and she wondered if he was too far gone to even communicate with her telepathically. She wrapped her arms around his waist again joining him in the silence of the moment. It was just the water hitting the shower stall and the sounds of their fast breaths in and out.
Moving until she was settled, she pulled him inside of her. He fit like he’d been designed to be there, which she supposed he had. Then there wasn’t anymore time for thinking.
In and out he thrust until she lost count of how many times he had entered and left her. Her muscles contracted around him, each movement sending waves of pleasure into her very essence.
She didn’t know how long it lasted just that each second of their joining branded her more his than she had been the second before. Finally, when the pleasure was too much—when it was so intense it might as well have been pain—she lost herself in the moment, surrendering in his arms. Seconds later, Parker followed his own release matching hers.
Pushed up against the shower wall, she didn’t know if he held up her weight or if she held up his. Absentmindedly, she stroked the back of his neck feeling the small pieces of hair that lay there in her fingertips.
“Are you alive?” Her voice sounded hoarse to her own ears.
“Barely.”
“Me too.”
“If I set you down, are you going to fall?”
“No.” She hoped. It would be really un-cool to fall and even though she should be past caring, she still didn’t want to land on her ass in front of him just yet.
He set her down but didn’t let her go until she’d demonstrated that her legs worked. As he wrapped her in a towel, she stared at his back. Parker took up most of the space in the shower but he didn’t overwhelm her. She ran her hand over the smooth muscles of his back as he dried himself off.
“Think everyone heard us? Or rather heard you since they can’t hear me?”
“Huh.” She sighed. “I hadn’t thought about that, but now that you mention it the fact that they’re all wolves probably means they could hear us if they felt like eavesdropping.”
He laughed, one hard yelp in her mind. “Think your brothers and their mates are a bunch of pervs?”
“From the stories I’ve heard about them, that wouldn’t surprise me.”
She bit down on her lip. Of course none of them had actually seemed that way to her when she’d met them. Everyone had been helpful and concerned. They’d even saved her life. It was getting harder to reconcile her belief in the ultimate evilness of Westervelt with what she was seeing here.
In general, she didn’t particularly like to have to question her assumptions. There wasn’t a lot of time for self-indulgent personal exploration when she was either fighting to stay alive or running for her life. But maybe she had a minute now. Maybe this situation warranted a second look.
As she dried off her body, she knew she’d have to deal with all of it later—whether she wanted to or not. For now, she still had something to do.
“Time to shift.”
“I really don’t want to. I feel better. I guess I needed to work out some of my nervous energy, so to speak.”
“Nope, you’re not getting out of doing this simply because you feel uncomfortable.”
“It’s more than that.”
“Explain it to me.”
He sighed and he sounded weary. It nearly undid her. She wanted to tell him to forget it, he didn’t have to shift. Except, of course, he did. To be a shifter who didn’t turn into a wolf amounted to living a half-life. He was already limited. Parker couldn’t utter a word aloud. In the whole world, only she could hear him, at least for right now.
He needed to be able to be who he was supposed to be and she was going to see to it that he was. She was his mate; she was allowed to interfere in his life to make it better.
“My father killed my mother right here on this island. I know the kind of violence that lives inside of me because it lived inside of him. I don’t think shifting into an animal is particularly wise for me.”
Angel took his hand. His calluses were raw from all of the years he’d spent working with his hands in hot water. She shivered at the thought. He’d been alone in abject silence for so long before she’d arrived. The thought made her ill.
“Animals are less violent than humans. Surely you know this by now.”
Her wolf sighed. Go easy on him. He’s been through a lot. Rome wasn’t built in a day.
Her wolf knew what Rome was?
Of course I do. You know what it is.
This conversation was getting rapidly off track and she needed to focus so she made a conscious decision to tune out her wolf for a few minutes.
“I know they’re less violent. I get it. My wolf tells me all the time. Still…”
“You’re afraid.”
His eyes got huge as he dropped her hand and stormed forward. “I’m not afraid.”
“Because Gods forbid you get afraid? Or admit to it?”
He narrowed his eyes. She thought he might start shouting telepathically. It wouldn’t be the first time she’d had to face down a shifter in a temper. She wasn’t worried about Parker’s reaction, even if he doubted himself.
A warm white light filled the room. Angel gasped. It wasn’t often she was surprised. Yet, Parker had done just that. She hadn’t believed he could be goaded into doing what she wanted.
Seconds later, she looked down at her huge mate’s huge wolf. He blinked up at her and she stepped forward until she could pat him on his head. His fur felt soft under her fingers.
“I’ve never seen one as big as you before.”
He panted at her praise and bumped her legs.
“Are you humoring me? No way is it that easy to get you to do what I want.”
“Maybe I decided you made sound arguments.”
She shook her head. “I know you better than that.”
“Maybe it was simply time.”
“Past time.”
“Don’t rub it in. You won this argument.”
“You still haven’t said ‘you’re right, Angel.’”
“You can keep holding your breath, mate.”
She laughed aloud, loving the way it felt to banter with him. Everything with Parker was just so natural, so easy.
“Are you going to keep me here by myself or are you going to shift too?”
Raising an eyebrow, she tried and probably failed to look uninterested. “I suppose I could shift. It’s not like I have all that much going on.”
“Keep it up and I’ll shift back.”
Well, she didn’t want that. Not with the possibility of an actual run with her mate on the horizon.
“Okay, I’m shifting.”
Calling the white light to herself, she felt the calm and peace that always filled her before any change into her wolf form. This time, however, the sensation was also joined by a tremendous sense of anticipation. There were real woods here—even if she was temporarily trapped on the island of Westervelt—and she would get to run in them without the burden of the warring Alphas in New Orleans breathing down her neck. Plus, Parker would be with her and even though it should still feel new to have him by her side, she had already come to find that everything was better when he was around.
She shook her head as she relaxed into her wolf form. It wasn’t until she strained her neck to look up at Parker that she realized how much bigger he was than she as a wolf. If possible, it was an even larger discrepancy than when they were in their two-legged form.
Still, she wasn’t intimidated. If he came across as a giant teddy bear when he was a man, he seemed like a puppy now. As she moved forward, she butted him with her head until he walked through the wolf-door in their room.
She followed him out of the building onto the front yard. Her wolf begged for control, loving the feel of the grass beneath her feet. Angel smiled inside as she gladly relented to her wolf-half. They were both given so little opportunity to indulge in simply being who they were meant to be.
Her last human thought was that magic could be a gift when it felt like this. She moved fast, aware that Parker’s wolf traveled in her wake. She had no idea if he’d given himself over to his wolf but suspected he had since he made no attempt to contact her telepathically.
Her wolf swung around to regard him. He stopped moving for a second and she wondered what he was up to. Seconds later he nipped at her heels and she yelped.
Oh…so he wanted to play. She darted around behind him to grasp the back of his leg. Her teeth dug into his fur and he growled low in his throat. He wasn’t threatening her, simply letting her know he intended to win whatever game this was they played. She smiled, showing him her teeth. She was a Kane and even as wolf, she always won.
She took off running, the wind hitting her snout as she darted through trees. She had to move fast to keep him from catching her. His sheer size alone gave him an advantage. For every two strides she took, he took one. She darted through bushes and over large rocks until skidding to a stop as she realized where she’d run.
Blinking, Angel felt her full consciousness return to her wolf body. They were at the lake. Her wolf had run them to Parker’s lake. She looked up. An old, abandoned wood cabin sat several yards from the lake. She swallowed. It had to be where Parker had grown up.
She turned around to see him. He sat very still, his wolf eyes unblinking as he stared straight ahead.
“Parker, are you okay?”
She rubbed up against him. His silence concerned her. He hadn’t been here—not to this particular spot—since he’d seen his father murder his mother. This had been dumb. What had her wolf been thinking running here of all places? There had to have been somewhere else she could have led them.
He needed to come here and you saw this lake in your vision.
She really didn’t want to get into a rip-roaring argument with her wolf right now. Perhaps it might have been wiser to have given Parker a little bit of a chance to get used to the idea of being a shifter again before hoisting his past onto him.
His wolf didn’t think waiting would accomplish anything.
Angel bit down hard on her tongue. She could taste blood in her mouth. So the two of you decided this on your own? You decided we would cause him pain without so much as a hint to me.
Her wolf had the good sense to look down. Knowing that was about the only sign of an apology she was going to get from her constant companion, Angel called the shift onto herself, letting the warm white light engulf her.
It took her a few seconds to find her balance on human legs. When she was sure she wasn’t going to fall, she walked over to Parker and sat down next to him on the grass. She placed her hand on his soft fur and stroked his back, staying silent.
This had to feel like visiting a gravesite. It was a solemn moment. She wished she could put on some clothes. That was the problem with shifting: it left you completely vulnerable when you shifted back, which was why it was so important to be in good company when you changed back.
Parker’s head nudged hers and she smiled. “Feel like talking yet?”
“I don’t know if I’m ever going to want to talk about this place.”
“Well,” she sighed. “We have two choices. We can sit here and not move. We can leave and tell our wolves to mind their own business. Or we can go closer, look at the cabin, and try to figure out what is happening with this lake since I dreamed about it in my magic-induced coma.”
The white light of Parker’s shift touched her and she smiled. She regarded his naked form as he sat down next to her on the ground. A warmth started in her core, which she decided to ignore. This was not the time or the place to be so turned on by her mate.
He sniffed the air as he looked down at her.
Her cheeks got red. “I’m ignoring it. I can’t help it if you’re gorgeous.”
“I think I just thought of a fourth option of things we could do.”
“What? Now?”
“Why not?” He ran a hand down her arm and she shivered.
She stood up. “Because you’re stalling and much as I can’t think of anything I’d rather do than roll around on the grass with you like randy teenagers, we need to go into that house.”
In her head she heard him make a grumbling noise. “Someday I’m going to get you to waste time.”
“Maybe you will.” As she said it, she doubted it. She’d been moving, running, or focused on escape since she was six years old. It wasn’t likely she would suddenly get lazy.
She took his hand, pulling him to his feet. His callused hands felt good in her own. Parker made her feel small in the best possible way. He was her gentle giant and she was going to protect him from anything that might hurt him. The only way she could be sure she could do that was to get the pain that seeing the inside of his house would cause him over with.
Otherwise it was going to be this big looming problem over their horizon for all time. Even if they left Westervelt and never came back, they’d always remember they hadn’t done this one thing.
Problems didn’t go away if you ignored them, they only got bigger.
Parker sniffed the air as they approached the house and she squeezed him tighter.
“Smell like home?”
“No. I don’t have any sensory feelings for it at all. This whole thing feels like I’m watching it instead of going through it.”
“Really? That’s weird.” She wished she could be more articulate. Weird was the only word she could come up with.
“I know.”
They were about to go up the porch stairs when she pulled to a stop. This was huge, momentous, that Parker was coming back here. Something had to be said.
She opened her mouth and he waved his hand to stop her.
“Let’s just get it over with. You want me to go in the cabin; I’ll go in the cabin. Fine. I don’t need a whole production about it.”
Without another word, he stormed up the stairs in front of her.
Huh. She hadn’t seen that outburst coming.
Chapter 10
PARKER knew he had been surly with Angel. He stomped up the stairs, throwing open the door so roughly it shook from its already loose hinges. Not wanting it to break on some unsuspecting pers
on trying to walk through it, he ripped the door all the way off, loving the way the wood groaned when it did so.
It felt good to destroy something. This was, after all, where his life had been destroyed.
“Parker.”
Angel’s voice grounded him. Immediately the anger he’d felt when he entered the house deflated.
“I told you I was dangerous.”
But even he could hear how tired, rather than angry, he sounded.
“You’re like a little boy having a fit. We don’t have to do this. Step outside. What do I know, anyway? Maybe this is a bad idea.”
He sighed closing his eyes. All he had to do was step through the threshold of this cursed place.
Was it cursed?
He grimaced. He’d kind of hoped his wolf was leaving him alone after dragging him here against his will. It felt like there was this mass conspiracy between his wolf and Angel’s wolf to make him deal with things he preferred to leave in the past.
Because I remember a lot of laughter. I remember the way your father loved your mother before Kendrick’s curse ruined everything. I remember a father who spent hours sitting out at a lake with a little boy who liked to hold a fishing pole.
He wished he could make his wolf stop talking, he wished he could force him to stop.
They had wonderful wolves. I can’t imagine they’d want you to remember them like this…
Just stop! He shouted through his link to his wolf, not caring if he accidentally broadcast to Angel, not caring if he accidentally let the whole world know how he felt.
He didn’t want to have to remember them. Running a hand over his face, he realized his breathing was labored. He had spent so much time forgetting.
“Parker.” Angel’s voice was gentle as she grabbed his arm. “Let’s go outside.”
“No.” He shook his head as he forced himself through the door. His mother deserved his remembrance. He would go to where she died. He’d loved her—both of them—too much to hide from this anymore.
Eyes forward, he crossed the front hall fast before taking the stairs to the upstairs two at a time. Twice he nearly hit his head on the low ceiling. It was a good thing he hadn’t stayed here until adulthood; he would have hit his head everywhere he went. Angel followed right behind him not saying a word, which he appreciated. He wasn’t sure he could handle any conversation at the moment.