CHAPTER ONE
Julia lay back nak*d against Damien's chest, and he held her close in arms that were not entirely human.
Werewolf. Shifter. Animal.
"What are you worried about?" Damien asked, squeezing her nak*d hip. The bright light of morning washed over the tops of the pine trees above, and Julia blinked hard.
"Stop reading my thoughts," Julia said, looking up at him. His scars gleamed white in the daylight, crisscrossing over his eyes and down to his cheeks, and she wondered how it had taken her so long to notice them. Of course he had been wearing glasses before. Before she knew who he was. What he was. She shivered then, and he drew her close, feeling her shudder on his own skin.
"Not your thoughts, darling," he said, pressing a kiss to her forehead. "Your emotions. You feel frightened."
"Stop reading my emotions, then," she said. "It's not fair."
"Because you can't read mine?"
"Yes," Julia said.
"You ask me to do the impossible," Damien said. "I don't know if I could stop reading you if I tried. You're my mate."
"Try," Julia whispered, her voice small and vulnerable. "I'm thinking about the wolf you fought."
Damien's eyebrows furrowed into a frown.
"I'm sorry," he said. "Maybe we shouldn't have moved so quickly." His lips moved down from her forehead to her cheek, feathering light kisses along her jaw line. "I just couldn't stop myself once I met you. I had to have you. I needed you. I needed to do this—"
"Ohh!" Julia let out a soft moan as Damien kissed her neck just below her ear, sending shivers of pleasure throughout her body that shot from the nerve endings in her neck all the way down to her feet. Her toes curled, involuntarily.
"Let me take your mind off of the fight. Off of everything that you're worried about," Damien said. His tongue darted out and licked her skin. She inhaled sharply, her lips falling apart.
"Damien," Julia gasped.
"No more frightened thoughts," Damien whispered. His breath was hot against her nak*d skin, and he moved his mouth down to her collarbone, nipping the skin there gently, just gently enough to pinch and elicit another soft gasp. His hands moved over her body, cupping her br**sts. She forgot all of her worries at the touch of his fingers. Instinct took her body over, and she arched against him, pressing herself into his hold.
"Much better," Damien said, sitting up in order to better caress her body. His fingertips glided over her skin, stopping every few inches to rub and squeeze. The massage was delightful, but Julia could tell that he was intent on something else. What?
"Your body," Damien said, responding without hesitation to her curiosity. She swatted him on the hip with one hand.
"I said stop reading my emotions."
"I'll read your body instead," Damien said. His fingers stroked and stroked and did not stop moving over her skin. "That's what I want to know about. I want to know every beautiful inch of you. I want to feel it, memorize it."
He bent over then and licked her breast, letting his tongue press softly into the crease underneath and make its way along the curved surface up to the nipple, where it flicked lightly against the sensitive skin there. The space between her thighs grew instantly hot, clenching hard.
"Oh!" Julia cried out.
"Your body is incredible," Damien said. "I want to have you entirely. Your mind. Your love. Your body."
His words had a lilting rhythm to them, but a flash of hesitation brought her out of the trance he'd put her in.
Her body. She'd never thought of herself as beautiful. Cute, maybe, with a nice face. She'd always been the friend who tagged along when going out to bars, the adorable one with frizzy red hair who drew attention while the other girls kept it. Guys would flirt with her, but they wouldn't buy her drinks, and they always went home with one of her friends instead. As Damien moved his hands over her body, she could not help but feel wary. He could feel the lumpy parts, the excess bulges, the thickness of her thighs. Couldn't he? Even if he was blind...
"Julia, you are more beautiful than any other woman I've ever known. Don't doubt it. I want every piece of you inside of my thoughts," Damien said. "When you touch me, I want to be able to visualize it. When I take you, I want to see it in my mind."
He bent his head down and let his lips graze over Julia's stomach. It tickled a bit, but the giggles turned to moans as Damien moved down, down to the already wet slit between her legs. She groaned loudly as he pressed his tongue against her and sealed his lips around her most sensitive spot, sucking hard.
"That's my girl," Damien said. He pursed his lips and blew cool air over her aroused folds. She moved her hands down to touch herself, to cover the nak*d parts of her, but he grabbed her by the wrists and moved her hands aside.
"This might just be the most lovely part of you," Damien said, bending his head to lick her wetness. Long, deep strokes of the tongue.
She forgot the pinpricks of the pine needles on her back as he teased her into arousal again. She'd never imagined...this. That a man could want her this badly, could push his tongue inside of her, could suckle her until the earth moved under her back—this was an incredible thought. None of her friends had ever talked about boys pleasing them, just wanting to f**k them. Get his dick wet, that was the phrase her best friend had used to describe the boy at the bar that she eventually left with. But Damien's every motion seemed aimed toward one goal only: pleasing her. Perhaps it was that he could sense her feelings, he could sense the reaction that his kisses and strokes produced inside of her core.
All of this disappeared in a blinding explosion of desire as he thrust two fingers into her.
"Oh! Damien!"
The sensation pulsed through her that she was his, only his. She rocked against his hand, forcing her body upon his fingers, impaling herself. If you had asked her a week ago whether she would ever kiss a man, she would have been doubtful. Now, though, she ached to have Damien inside of her again and knew, with more certainty than she'd thought possible, that he was hers as much as she was his.
The air around her warmed her as she found her rhythm against him. His lips moved against her, his tongue licking, his mouth sucking. She did not know anymore what she felt and what she imagined, for the world was like a dream to her as she moved her hips, rolling them against his mouth as her tension built higher, higher, then erupted from deep within her core.
"Yes... yes!"
The orgasm rolled through her, different than the one before, though just as powerful. Quickly she clasped her fist into her mouth, stifling the loud cry that burst forward from her lungs as she rode the waves of pleasure into release. Her body clenched around his fingers and shuddered once, then again, and again as his tongue licked her tenderly.
Breathing hard, she could not do anything but whimper as he lay back beside her and drew her close to him in a warm embrace. Birds in the treetops sang, or perhaps it was her ears ringing from the symphony of bliss reverberating through her body. He stroked her body with his hands under she curled up to his chest, satiated.
"You're incredible," she murmured, nestling herself into his body. Dark hair lined his chest, defining the rippling muscles underneath, and she ran her fingers through the wiry strands. "Can I... can I do something for you?" She blushed and tucked her head against his shoulder even as she asked the question.
"As much as I'd love it, I should get back to my pack," Damien said.
"Take me with you," Julia said, without thinking. As she said the words, though, she knew it was the right decision.
"The wolf is there," Damien said, his voice dropping into a serious tone. "The one who tried to attack you. Do you really want to see him again?"
"I want to meet your pack," Julia said firmly. She needed to see the other shifter. She needed to know that there was nothing between Damien and Katherine, to see it herself.
"You've met them all already," Damien said, a note of modesty coming into his tone. "It's a small pack."
"I mean—I want to meet them as your mate," Julia said.
"Oh, sure. Of course. You'll have to drive me, then." Damien kissed her on the lips softly, and she wondered how much of her anxiety he could read. How much of her jealousy.
"I am yours," Damien whispered, his thumb grazing the stiff peak of her nipple. "You know that."
"Yes," Julia said. She knew. Or thought she did.
As they dressed, brushing the pine needles off of their clothes, Julia watched Damien's muscled body and tried to remember it changing—shifting—the arms and legs sprouting fur and claws. It all seemed like a dream, albeit a vivid one.
She turned to go and Damien caught her by the arm. It was a simple gesture, but one that reminded her of his acute senses. Without his eyes, he was still able to track her movements.
"Julia," Damien said. "I need to tell you something about my condition."
"Something apart from the fact that you're a werewolf?" Julia teased. Her laugh was cut short by the look on Damien's face. "What is it?"
"Shifters have a different lifespan than humans," Damien said. "Anywhere from a hundred to two hundred years."
"You don't have any old shifters in your pack, do you?" Julia asked. "Or do they just look young?"
"No, That's the thing," Damien said. "There's a price to pay for the lifespan."
Julia's heart chilled at the sound of the admonition.
"What price?"
"Shifters can only shift into human form when they're relatively young. Thirty-five, maybe forty years old. After that, it becomes harder and harder to shift out of wolf form. You become more aggressive, less able to control yourself."
"I don't understand. You're saying you'll be stuck in wolf form?"
Damien bowed his head.
"It takes energy every time I shift from one form to another, and if I go for too long as a human, I lose control. I have to shift back. In all likelihood, I'll only have another fifteen years or so before I become more wolf than man."
Julia didn't know how to reply. A numbness had set into her that she didn't understand. More wolf than man.
"I'm sorry," Damien said, squeezing her hand. "I should have told you earlier. Only—"
"Is there anything else I should know?" Julia said, smiling weakly. "Are you going to spontaneously combust every other week or so? Will your skin turns purple on Tuesdays?"
Damien laughed gently.
"Not so much," he said. "I understand if you... if you decide you can't be with me because of this. I admit, I rushed into things after I felt the Calling. It's just..."
"I don't want anyone but you," Julia whispered. There was a connection between the two of them that she had only dreamed about, and she couldn't let it go. She wouldn't leave him if she found out he had a fatal disease, after all. The idea of abandoning Damien for a life without him was repulsive to her. Why should this be any different?
"Then let's go and see the pack," Damien said, kissing her on her forehead. "And I'll introduce you as my mate."