Impulse: Southern Arcana, Book 5 (12 page)

He tugged her closer and settled his free hand at the small of her back. “We can take a walk and come back for dinner.”

It made her smile, and the smile lasted out the door and into the parking lot. As they skirted a pair of Harleys, she sighed. “I’m sorry I snapped at him. I might be feeling a little protective.”

“Don’t sweat it.” Any alpha worth the title would have expected as much from someone who felt threatened. “You didn’t hurt his feelings.”

“So I saw.” She slipped her arm under his and around his waist, nestling close to his side. “It’s good. The shifters who have to slap the submissives down? Those aren’t the ones who should be in charge.”

“No, they’re not.” The night was clear, with stars dotting the dark blue of the sky, and a soft salty breeze ruffled his hair. “I can’t imagine trying to do his job without any resources.”

“But you can give him that, can’t you?”

“Yeah.” Noah Coleman should have been doing it before his death, and the other council members should have picked it up afterward. “I wonder how many alphas like Rowe won’t come to the council now because they think everything’s the same?”

“Probably most of them.” Sera tucked her head against his shoulder. “I don’t know what it’s like for the wolves, but you have the chance to make things better. Only not
just
for the wolves, because you and Alec and Andrew are including the rest of us.”

“Yeah.” Julio cut across the cracked parking lot and headed for the deserted stretch of beach behind the bar. “It might be worse other places. It probably will be.”

Her fingers stroked over his waist, soft and soothing. “Then you’ll deal with them. There’s nothing they can say to me that I can’t shake off. I’ve been hearing it since I turned fifteen and grew into a C cup.”

No matter what she said, the sexual innuendo had to hurt. “I don’t like it, and I won’t be able to hang on to my temper forever.”

“I know.” She shivered, even cuddled close to the heat of his body. “It’s the ones who want to drive me out of their territory that scare me. It’s usually the turned wolves. They can’t control their instincts.”

He tightened his hand on her hip. “That’s why I’m here.”

She kicked off her sandals as soon as they hit the beach, and seemed entertained by tracing her toes through the sand. “You’re easy to talk to,” she said finally. “You’re not like everyone else. You don’t push.”

Her hair draped over her bare shoulder, caressing pale skin silvered by the moonlight. “I’m the last person who’d make you talk it all out when you’d rather not, sweetheart. I know what that’s like.”

“You do.” She turned to face him, pressing both hands to his chest. “I don’t push, either. But, you know, I was there. I mean, I don’t know if you remember that, but I was. And I’m a good listener.”

She’d been there, seen him at his weakest, which should have made him more reluctant to speak. Instead, he sighed. “I fucked up, and Kat and Patrick paid the price.
Ben
paid it.”

Sera watched him in silence for several moments, her fingers caressing absent circles on his T-shirt. Then she slipped one hand up to curl around the back of his neck, her skin soft and warm against his. “You paid it too. In pain and blood, and every day since. You’re still paying it. I can feel it.”

“Maybe.” He had nightmares, sure, and a couple of scars. All the things Callum wanted to talk about. “I started working on my precognition. Trying something new.”

“Like practicing it?”

“Kind of.” She was still petting him, and he caught her hand. “See, what I figure is that if I’d had more lead time—if I’d seen…”

Her eyes were gentle. “Maybe,” she whispered. “Don’t torture yourself with maybes forever. That almost put my dad in the mental hospital with my mom.”

“I know that. All the bullshit about hindsight, it’s true. But what good is it, Sera?” He gripped her upper arms, careful not to hold her too tightly. “What good is seeing the future if you can’t change it in time? Not trying will drive you nuts too—I learned that from
my
mom.”

She tilted her head. “What happened when you started practicing?”

“It got better.” A bit at a time, a few extra seconds of sight here and there. “It’s all about the moment. I don’t have grand, sweeping visions of the future like Wesley Dade, but what I do see… It’s clear. And if I can make that happen when I want it to, when it’ll do some good? Fuck, Sera. Think of it.”

Her sudden smile was sure, confident—and sweet. “You should have seen Kat as a teenager. If she can practice and make that crazy empathy of hers useful, you can do it with your precognition.”

When she smiled at him like that, he needed to be better. Strong enough to deserve it. “Anyway, that’s how I’ve been dealing on
my
terms. May as well do something constructive, right?”

“Can you see anything now?” Her smile had shifted, turned a little shy. “I mean, how do you try?”

“I concentrate.” He shrugged. “I don’t know. Sometimes it’s there and sometimes it isn’t.”

“Is there anything there now?”

Julio closed his eyes and focused on shutting out everything, from the sound of Sera’s breathing to the roar of the surf, the cool sea breeze and the give of the sand beneath his shoes.

When everything was still, silent, he opened his mind and waited for something—anything—to fill the blankness.

Nothing came, and he opened his eyes with a sigh. “Nope.”

Sera rocked up on her toes, until her nose brushed his chin. “Good,” she murmured against his jaw. “I was making very illicit plans about what I’d like to do to you, and it’d suck if I could never surprise you.”

That tiny touch made him hard, and he turned his mouth to her cheek and smiled. “No, you can definitely still do that.”

“I’m glad.” Her teeth closed on his jaw in a teasing nip before she spun away. “Catch me.”

He gave her a few seconds’ head start, just to make it fair, then took off after her. Sand flew under their feet, and he chased her almost to the water before she dodged sharply to the left, trying to duck past him as the night filled with her breathless, giddy laughter.

He caught her with an arm around her waist and swung her up over his shoulder with a laugh. “Got you.”

“
Julio.
” Sand flew everywhere as she kicked her feet with another laugh. “I don’t know how you move so damn fast when you have to haul all these pretty muscles around with you.”

He slapped her ass. “I’m used to the pretty muscles. What about you?”

She squirmed with a choked noise. “What about what?”

He caught the scent of her arousal and promptly forgot what he was saying. “Huh?”

Sera laughed hoarsely. “I have no idea.”

Putting her down meant letting her slide against his body on the way, and Julio bit back a groan. “Me neither.”

As soon as her feet hit the sand, she hopped back a couple steps and leveled a finger at him. “Now you know better than to slap my ass.”

“Uh-huh.” She’d mentioned it before. If a casual smack made her that hot, he couldn’t imagine what would happen if he got her naked across his lap.

She was still watching him, shoulders tense, eyes wary—and more than a little hopeful. “Well, you’re not running away. That’s a good sign.”

Maybe he’d misheard her, as caught up as he was in wondering if laying his hand across her ass would make her come. “Running away from what?”

“The kinky submissive.” Her smile was tired. “I’m
such
a stereotype, you know. Or maybe I’m reinforcing stereotypes? I can never remember.”

He groaned. “Surely you haven’t forgotten my key philosophy already.”

Sera made a face at him. “I suck at pop quizzes.”

“Then let me refresh your memory.” He took her hand and pressed a kiss to her palm. “Stop worrying about who you are and just
be
.”

Her fingers twitched toward her palm. “We all have things we’re dumb about. But I’ll try.”

“Do it for me?”

“Okay.” A gust of wind caught the ends of her disheveled hair and teased them across her face. She ignored them as she closed her eyes and took a deep, steadying breath. “I can just be.”

Nothing could have stopped him from leaning in to kiss the corner of her mouth. “I like who you are.”

She smiled against his cheek. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were flirting with me.”

“Because I am.” Light, easy. The kind of flirtation that came before first dates and flowers.

Her breathing hitched. Silence fell around them, then was filled by the distant noise of cars and people, and the more immediate sound of the water breaking gently on the sand. Sera tilted her head, rubbed her cheek against his as she nuzzled her way to the crook of his neck, where she inhaled deeply.

She kissed the side of his throat. “I’ve never tried the kind of flirting that ends with us going to our separate bedrooms at night.”

“Do you want to?”

“I wasn’t all that happy when we went to our own rooms last night.” It wasn’t much of a revelation, not when he’d been able to see her vague frustration and confusion. “But I don’t want this to end. I like hanging out with you. Talking to you.”

He could tell her it wouldn’t, that sex didn’t mean they couldn’t still be friends, but those were just words. “We don’t have to fall into bed together at all. And even if we do…we don’t have to get hung up on labels. We
are
this and we
aren’t
that. What good is it?”

“None, I guess, especially when we’re not even human.” She eased back enough to meet his eyes, and hers were deadly serious. “Thank you for this. I know you probably had to meet with all these alphas eventually, and that it’s partly about clearing me out of town until we know for sure that Josh isn’t going to show up, but I don’t think I’ve felt this free since I was about sixteen.”

“See?” He tugged on a lock of her hair and put his hands in his pockets to avoid the temptation to touch her again. “We’ll turn you into a woman of leisure, just watch.”

“No, thank you.” She turned and started back toward the spot where she’d left her shoes. “I had a couple years of leisure when I was married. I want to be a fun divorcée now.”

“It fits if you’re going to be hanging out with me,” he pointed out. “Everyone thinks I’m a womanizing playboy.”

Sera turned and walked backwards. “You’re a womanizer and I’m a slut. Sometimes I think people spend too much time worrying about how much sex everyone else is having.”

“Only sometimes?” Wolves, especially, spent way too much time dwelling on it.

She grinned. “The rest of the time they’re watching reality TV.”

Julio groaned. “Fuck ’em all.”

“I’d rather fuck you.” When she reached her sandals, she turned to slip them on, bending over just enough to make her shorts hug her ass. “Or watch
CSI
. You know I love a man in uniform.”

She wanted him to watch her, so he stared at her ass and stared
hard
. “Too bad I’m not with the fire department anymore.”

Sera half-straightened. “Give me a second. I’m picturing it.” A pause, and he could almost hear the teasing laughter. “Oh yeah, that’s doing it for me.”

“The dress uniform or the turnout gear?”

“Uniform, totally.” She glanced back at him. “Though the pants and suspenders have potential.”

“Uh-huh.” He bumped her hip with his. “Get a move on, Sinclaire. I still have to win that pool game.”

“In your dreams,” came her easy retort, but when she slipped her fingers into his hand, she held on tightly, like she didn’t want to let him go either.

Sera clawed out of sleep when she hit the floor with a yelp. It was a hard landing, smashing her shoulder into the hardwood, and she couldn’t break her own fall because her limbs were trapped, tangled by the force that had chased her through her dreams, that had her heart pounding—

She twisted and heard her own terrified whine, and disorientation made her queasy. Paws, not hands, and twisted up in the tank top and underwear she’d worn to bed. Claustrophobia closed in, panic that had her twisting hard enough to crash into the nightstand.

Unfamiliar nightstand. None of the scents were right, nothing in this room was
hers
, and her body heaved with panting breaths as she squirmed and kicked her back legs free of the torn fabric. But the thin straps on the shirt twisted tighter, pulling across her throat as she became frantic, too afraid to find the spark of magic she needed to shift.

She was trapped. Lost. Kidnapped and alone, and every twist of her body bound her tighter and tighter—

“Shh.” A wolf in his human skin knelt beside her, his hands gentle but firm. “Calm down, sweetheart. Just a little, okay?”

Wolf. Not a monster, and Sera dragged his scent into her lungs and shuddered as something beyond instinct rose up to meet the gentle power that wrapped around her when he touched her.

She knew this wolf. In her heart, in that quiet place inside her.
Julio.
With the name came human memories, came
sense
, and Sera shuddered as the last of the nightmare slipped away.

He stripped away the confining fabric. “That’s it. Easy, Sera.”

Getting her paws under her became the next challenge, but her front right leg ached, a pain that seemed worse when she put weight on it. She hated the sad, pained whimper that slipped free, but she wasn’t too proud to huddle closer to Julio as she tried to find the power to shift.

He picked her up and rose. “We’ll get you back to bed, and you can settle down.”

It was disorienting, being carried as a coyote. Sera trembled with the effort not to move, not to let a moment of panic end with her claws raking across his bare chest. He set her on the bed, and some of her tension eased when he sat next to her. Closing her eyes, she curled around him and let the steely strength of an alpha shifter work its quiet magic on her nerves.

She barely noticed when the change finally washed over her, a wave of magic that usually brought heat in its wake. Now her skin prickled. Melted. Reformed with her cheek pressed against the pillow and her aching right arm held protectively to her chest.