She shivers and trembles beneath me, croaking my name in those hoarse, beautiful sounds.
I take mercy and brush my thumbs over her nipples, listening to her sweet gasps, loving the way her thighs clamp together. I take one puckered bud into my mouth and suck it, hard. She arches off the bed.
“You’re so beautiful, Sadie,” I murmur. She should hear it. Often.
“Where would you bite me?” she asks. Like she’s been thinking about it.
I freeze. “Ah, well… normally a claiming bite is here.” I bring my lips to the place where her neck meets her shoulder. I kiss her there, drag my open mouth over her soft skin.
“But on a human, that could be dangerous. Shifters heal instantly, so a she-wolf doesn’t mind being marked.”
“Ohhh,” Sadie says, eyes wide. “Can you do it… some other place? Somewhere safer?”
My heart raps quick and steady against my ribs.
Sadie wants me to mark her.
She wants to be claimed.
Do it now! My wolf roars to life, no longer content to wait.
I rear back from her, my vision sharpening as the wolf comes to the fore.
Her fingertips trace lightly over my forearms. “It’s okay,” she murmurs softly. I’ll bet she can comfort her students in seconds with that voice. “You’re in control,” she tells me.
She pushes at my chest, trying to sit up. I instantly climb off her, thinking she wants space, but she pushes me to my back. “Let me take care of you, Deke,” she purrs, straddling my legs and unbuttoning my jeans.
I fist the bedcovers beside my legs as she frees my erection and runs that wet, velvety tongue around the head of my cock.
I growl, low in my throat, a growl of pleasure. So much pleasure.
Sadie licks me from balls to the tip of my cock, then flicks her tongue only over the tip a few times.
I shudder and shake beneath her, transformed by the utter satisfaction of having my female’s mouth on my cock. “Sadie,” I rasp. My voice doesn’t sound like my own. It’s deep and rough. Desperate.
She holds my gaze and slowly takes my full length into her mouth, as far as it will go before it hits the back of her throat. She uses her fist at the base to make up the difference, and starts sliding her fist and mouth up and down over my cock.
I jerk, my thighs already trembling. It feels so incredible.
“Sadie, Sadie, Sadie,” I chant, losing all brain cells. “Sadie.”
She hums her agreement, sending a vibration straight down my shaft to my balls. They draw up tight in reaction.
“Sadie, my sweet little human. Perfect, beautiful, wonderful Sadie.”
She smiles, momentarily breaking the suction, then resumes at a faster pace. I want it to go on forever, but I won’t last another minute.
I lock my knees, flexing my ankles back. My fingers wrap up tight in the bedcovers.
“I’m going to come,” I warn her.
She doesn’t stop, she just keeps sucking hard enough to kill me with bliss.
“Fuck!” I come in her mouth, and she goes still, then swallows and smiles.
“Oh fuck, Sadie. You are the most incredible woman on the planet.”
She smiles wider.
I flip her onto her back. “My turn.”
I have big plans to make Sadie scream until she’s hoarse before we both fall asleep.
Deke
Darkness and humidity cover me, a warm wet cloth over my face. Suffocation, slow death, the scent of decay. I’m in a shack, bound with silver chains that burn my shifter skin. Outside is the jungle.
It’s a dream. Just a dream. I fight to the surface, clawing my way out of sleep. Sinister laughter leaks into my dream, drowning out sounds of the jungle.
I jerk awake. I’m in Sadie’s bed, her scent surrounding me. Her small form is beside me. But there’s someone else here. Something’s moving in her closet, and it’s sniggers echo around the room.
“Don’t you want to play?” a mocking voice cackles.
I shift and leap, ready for the kill.
Chapter 15
Sadie
I’m half asleep when the creepy laughter fills my dreams. Deke jerks awake next to me, launching out of bed.
I half sit up. “What?”
The canned laughter sounds again.
A terrifying growl shakes my walls, and I realize what’s happening.
“No! Deke!” I shout. Too late. The black wolf flies at my closet, his nails scraping down the wood. It rises on hindlegs to tear open the door. Snarls fill the air.
“Deke!”
Oh crap! He thinks someone’s lurking inside, and he’s trying to protect me.
I get out of bed, intent on stopping him, but the snarls are too frightening. I remember Deke’s warnings, his fear of hurting me. I’d be stupid to get between him and the perceived danger right now.
A crashing sound echoes off my walls as the wolf fights my closet doors and wins. Then an awful chuffing sound—the sound of a wolf devouring a stuffed toy.
“Deke.”
Adrenaline flashes through me. I reach over and flip on the lights just in time to see the wolf toss the torn jackalope up into the air. It finishes it off with a snap. When he turns his great head my way, he looks like a rabid animal—no sign of humanity burns at all in that glowing green gaze.
“Oh. My. God,” I whisper. My whole body shakes. Torn bits of fluff and fake fur float in the air, coat the floor, my bed, the walls.
One of my closet doors hangs askew on its hinges. The other is in pieces on the floor. My color-organized cardigans are half off their hangers.
It took Deke the wolf thirty seconds to commit this act of destruction.
I press a hand over my left breast, willing my heart to sink back into my chest.
The thing about me being dangerous, Sadie—it’s real.
I didn’t believe him when he told me before, but I believe it now. There’s a predator in my bedroom, and if for some reason it turns on me, I wouldn’t stand a chance. I wouldn’t survive.
“Deke,” I whisper. “Come back to me.”
A growl rises from the black shape in the corner. The wolf backs away, tossing its head like it’s trying to jostle something loose. Then a long, low whine. The pained sound makes my heart clench. The man inside realized what he'd done.
There’s a groan, and Deke rises, back in man form.
“Fuck,” he says, casting a horrified glance around the room. “Sadie.”
I’m pressed back against the headboard so hard, my spine’s fused with it. I’m trembling so hard my muscles hurt. His feral growls still echo in my ears.
“Did I hurt you?”
He takes a step towards me, and I flinch. He sees and flinches himself.
“It’s okay,” I say quickly.
“No. No, it’s not. I could’ve killed you,” he says. “Fuck. Fuck!” the last time comes out a roar. I can’t help my whimper.
He looks down at the wreckage strewn over the floor then back at me. “I’m sorry, Sadie.” His voice cracks. “Now you see. I can’t do this,” he mutters. “I’m not safe.”
I can’t bring myself to leave the bed, but I can keep my voice steady. “Deke, look at me.”