9. Sacha

Chapter nine

Sacha

T he sour scent of fear woke me up. I blinked open my eyes and inhaled, not sure what was happening. I could scent Zeke, immediately remembered how we'd spent yesterday holed up in his room eating room service, watching movies, and messing around, but why was someone afraid right now? Lifting my head, I zeroed in on the source of the fear.

Naked, Zeke stood in a corner of the room with his hands covering his mouth and his gray eyes wide. There was no one else here. Why was he afraid?

And then I caught sight of my own hand. Or more accurately the long-fingered black paw of my wolf-man form. I hardly ever shifted into this form because it made me a seven-foot-tall beastly combination of wolf and man that was clearly other . Being a regular-looking wolf was so much safer should anyone see me. But here I was in bed with Zeke.

Oh, god. Zeke…

I scrambled backward off the bed so that it was between us and shifted back into my human form. Never would I have thought I'd shift like that in my fucking sleep! I didn't know— What was I—

"I won't hurt you," I told him. "I couldn't ever hurt you, Zeke. I swear."

He was breathing fast as he lowered his hands from covering his mouth to pressing against his chest. There was a light sheen of sweat on his skin and… He was erect? I kept looking from his cock to his face, not sure what to make of that. Was it a fear response?

"Do that again."

I met his gaze. "What?"

He swallowed so hard I could hear his throat click and he wagged a finger at me. "Do that again."

Was he thinking he'd been seeing things? For a second, I wondered if maybe I should play it like that. I hated to see my mate afraid of me! But no, he was talking, curious, and maybe this was the lead-in I'd been looking for. Not ideal, of course, but Zeke was aware and listening.

I shifted into my wolf-man form again.

Zeke gasped and stared, but didn't run away or scream. I let him see all of me, turning so he could look at my tail and everything. The scent of his fear was still there, but building underneath it was his arousal. Him getting hard wasn't just a fear response, and it was fueling my reaction. Zeke gasped again when he looked at my pink wolf's cock pushing free of its furry sheath and filling for him.

"That's because of you," I said by way of explanation.

He flinched. "Y-you can…talk."

I nodded. "I'm still me."

His gaze flicked all over me but kept coming back to my cock. It was bigger in this form, shaped like a canine's, and had a knot near the base of it. I'd never fucked in this form, but goddamn, if he asked me to, I'd do it in a heartbeat. I'd had him twice yesterday and had dreamt about claiming him again.

Zeke had one hand on his chest still but his other hand slid down to his belly. I could see the moment he realized he was hard as he gasped and met my gaze, a blush firing his cheeks bright red. But even in his embarrassment, his arousal didn't wane.

I took a chance and jumped over the bed to land in front of him. He made a startled sound and his hands went out as if to stop me, so I didn't go any closer.

"It's okay," I said, "to be attracted to me when I'm like this."

He was, after all, my mate, and I'd heard plenty of pack members whisper about taking their mates in their wolf-man form. It would strengthen our mate bond a thousand-fold, if the rumors were true.

"I…" Zeke gulped and licked his lips. "I read monster romances," he said in a whispered rush. "The hero's always…something not human. I just never imagined…"

I grinned at him, delighted to find out that he'd primed himself for this moment through books. "Lots of lycans in those books?" I asked, letting a little growl into my voice.

He shivered and gave a jerky nod. "With, um… They usually have one of, um… Those," he said and flicked his wrist toward my dick.

I grasped it and stroked, allowing myself to moan as my fingers traveled over my full length. "Have you imagined what it might feel like to be knotted, Zeke?"

His breath hitched and eyelids fluttered. Yeah, he had.

"Do you want to find out?"

His eyes popped open and he stared up at me. "I… I shouldn't. How is any of this even real?"

I gently caressed the back of his hand before pressing it to my chest. He shivered hard and flexed his fingers in my fur, burrowing in to massage the muscle. "I'm very real," I told him. "And everything's okay."

Zeke stared at his hands as he used both to pet me and explore. I let him touch me wherever and however he wanted to, just so grateful that he was accepting me. I might not have meant to do this, but it was turning out to be the perfect introduction. He wasn't afraid, he just wasn't sure he should let me in.

I braced a hand on the wall over his head and leaned closer, pulling in deep lungfuls of his warm, aroused scent. I licked my lips and then I found myself dipping down and licking him. His neck, his shoulder, I tasted his skin and moaned at how perfect he was. I wanted to lick more of him.

Suddenly, Zeke moved around me. I didn't try to stop him—even though I wanted to—and turned to watch him… Dear god, he got up on the bed on all fours before lowering onto his elbows, his ass in the air. He tipped his ass up more and widened his legs as he looked over at me with a blush staining his cheeks. I thought maybe my heart stopped beating.

"Take me like this?" he asked quietly. "And knot me?"

Inside, I was a riot of emotions, but I tried to be cool as I scooped the lube from the bedside table and approached him. "I'll give you anything you want," I said with an extra rumble in my voice.

He smiled at me and rested his cheek on his folded hands, waiting. He looked so fucking sexy and beautifully serene at the same time. My heart didn't stop beating—it started beating for him.

I lubed my cock and then realized I couldn't prep him since my claws were sharp and didn't retract. I told him as much and apologized. He chuckled at me.

"Don't worry about me. I want to feel every inch."

Well, then . I got on the bed behind him and fitted the tapered head of my slick cock to his hole. I watched him open up for me, listened to his low moans, and saw the shiver go down his spine as I slowly thrust my way deeper. I kept going until I got to my knot. Shoving that into him would prevent me from moving anymore, so I'd save it for the very last moment. But I knew he could feel the hard bulge every time it bumped his stretched rim from the way he whined like he needed it.

I'd said I'd give him anything and I'd meant it.

As big as I was, I could brace my hands on either side of his head and lean over him. While my hips thrust my cock inside him, my furry chest and abs glided across his warm skin like we were petting each other. Zeke opened his eyes and stared at my hand as he shakily held my thumb. I loved that I was so much larger than him. I could protect him, claim him as mine. He was so perfect.

Suddenly, he was hollering as he came, his whole body straining beneath me. I fucked him through it, letting my orgasm scream up on me. It was time to knot him. I had to put it in him before I came, too. Gripping his hips, I sat back and watched as I thrust hard and shoved my knot into his ass. Zeke yelled as his hole stretched so wide, and seeing that had me coming while locked inside him. It was the most incredible sensation of my life, and I threw back my head and howled at the ceiling.

Both of us were trembling and since we couldn't separate until my knot deflated, I hugged him to me and tipped us over onto our sides. That didn't feel close enough, though, so I rolled onto my back with him stretched out on top of me. Zeke spread his legs and ground back on my dick for a moment, moaning so deliciously. I reached down and filled my hand with his cock and balls, taking possession. He was mine now. I could feel my essence merging with him. He was definitely my mate, claimed and marked.

"This is insane," Zeke whispered as he brought my other hand up to inspect it. "I feel like I'm dreaming, but I know I'm not."

"Understandable. We work hard to keep our secrets."

"Why though? Is it a fear of government experimentation or something like that?" He pressed his palm to mine, and I discovered that my fingers were two knuckles longer than his before my claws started.

"Fear of the unknown, really. What would the governments of the world do if they knew about us? What would the general public do? We're not bulletproof."

"And silver bullets?"

"They'd hurt me the same as you."

I could feel my knot relaxing inside him. I wanted to revive it, stay locked with him, but that was pure selfishness. If he'd let me do this once, I had to believe he'd let me do it again sometime. I could leave his body without leaving him. Possessive and mildly paranoid? Oof, I was a catch.

"Hey," he said, "you said lycan earlier. Are you not a werewolf?"

"Oh, no, they're different. Lycanthropy is sometimes used as an umbrella term with werewolf under it, but lycan and werewolf are different. The main point is that lycans keep their human minds when we shift. Werewolves lose their humanity and are overtaken by the wolf mind."

"Fight, fuck, kill."

I huffed a laugh at his succinctness. "Pretty much, yeah. I might have those urges, but they don't control me. Another difference is that I have this form and that of a big black wolf."

"Like a wolf-wolf? You could be mistaken for a regular one?"

I shrugged. "That's the goal of that form. I'm pretty sure it works most of the time."

Our bodies separated all on their own, and I had to hold back a mournful whine. Zeke rolled off of me to face me on the bed, and I shifted into my human form. I watched his gaze track all over me as the shift happened, a sparkle to his eyes and a little grin on his lips.

"That's amazing," he said as he combed my hair back. "I'm glad it's not like in the movies where your bones break and all that painful-looking stuff." He frowned. "Does it hurt?"

"Not really. I feel like I ran a marathon or something, though."

He sat up on his elbow. "Like achy muscles?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, you're in luck," he said with a big smile. "I'm excellent at giving massages."

He had me roll onto my stomach, and then he straddled my ass and leaned over me. That alone put me in a happy place, but then he started massaging my shoulders. I couldn't stop moaning as he worked out knots I hadn't realized were there, his hands firm and strong. He went down my arms to my hands, and then down my back to my hips. There was a move he did on my lower back that actually made it pop.

His hands on my ass had me moaning over and over, and I couldn't make it stop even when he chuckled at me. He went down my thighs and dug his thumbs into my calves. When he massaged the soles of my feet, I had to bite the pillow to keep from whining. And I'm pretty sure I whined anyway.

The way he massaged my front after he had me roll over was gentler. Like a cooldown after the workout he'd given the back of me. Longer strokes and a softer touch that turned my muscles to jelly. The bliss of an orgasm with this man was a close second to what he'd just done for me.

"How do you feel now?" he asked as he sat beside me.

"I…might be…a little dead."

Zeke laughed and patted my chest. "You could try a sauna or hot tub, too. If shifting like that is so hard on your body, definitely treat it like an intense workout."

I blinked up at the ceiling as I thought about that. We didn't shift often because there just wasn't any reason to do it. But when the moon required it of us, we spent the next day dragging like we were all hungover. Everything ached, we were starving, and all any of us wanted to do was sleep. Obviously, we'd eat and take meds for the pain, but we had lives that still needed living so we couldn't usually disappear for a day to recover.

But one massage and I felt like a person again. I felt good. Should we have been treating shifting like an intense workout this whole time? My god, we were idiots.

I sat up and pulled Zeke into a kiss. "You're brilliant."

He chuckled and looped his arms around me. "Happy to help my furry friend."

"Mate," I automatically corrected.

Zeke's mirth faded and he went very still. "What?"

Oh, damn. We'd been doing so well.