Loki's Game (8 page)

Terror-stricken, she pushed herself to the absolute limit. Her body ached, her legs like rubber encased in skin, and her head pounding with the exertion. The brightly burning porch lights beckoned to her, calling her forward into their safely welcoming glow, but her feet tangled in the underbrush and Lily tumbled to the ground. The dust of decomposed brush fluttered up around her face as she went down, gathering in her weary lungs and causing a series of hard, painful sneezes. She covered her face with her hands and tried to stop them, but the expulsion of dust from her body was adamant.

Lily tried to push up from the ground but her arms refused to work. Even if they had, she doubted her aching legs would support her weight, even to break the tree-line and find her back porch. It was close…close enough that she could see the neighborhood, see her safety. But her body revolted, refusing to give in and let her push like she had before. Her energy spent, she could do little more than lie in the dirt and wait to either recover or be caught.

* * * * *

Through the keen, monochrome eyes of the wolf, the small sliver of Rowan’s human consciousness watched the poor girl on the ground. She struggled to breathe, to sit up, to simply stay conscious. One nature dueled with the other, a battle of cunning versus determination. The animal—the dominant thought process—wanted to pounce, to take her hard and fast and without consideration, but that single shred of human emotion fought valiantly, peeling at the layers of selfish need as she struggled to her hands and knees to crawl forward.

Despite the fun both parts had at the game, it was time to bring it to an end. To let Lily face him and make her decisions.

* * * * *

Slowly, her strength returned and she was able to slither to her knees. Still unsure as to whether she would be able to walk, she leaned over and shuffled forward on hands and knees, gaining precious inches, but it wasn’t enough. When she heard the thunder of paws on the ground, she knew it was already too late.

Large, silver legs came down on either side of her face, and the heat of his body washed over her. Lily’s heart hammered in her chest, pounding her ribs into the ground. Her belly flooded with warmth when the animal snuffled at her, its damp breath skittering across her neck. Around her, the air shimmered and she felt his weight shift behind her. Rowan’s human lips, wet and warm, grazed her ear and the crackling of his hands and arms returning to their natural shape made her stomach hurt. She squeezed her eyes closed and waited for the transformation to be over.

“Caught you,” he breathed, catching her earlobe between his teeth. His bare chest pushed down against her sweat-soaked back, sticking the cold, wet fabric of the T-shirt to her skin. “You know what that means.” Heat coursed through her body. Lily shivered, anticipation and fear swirling around each other and spiraling out from the spot where his bottom lip pressed against her neck.

“Yes,” she whispered with the last of her breath. Rowan’s hands lifted from the dirt and traveled the length of her sides, bunching her shirt into balls beneath his fists.

“Say it,” he growled.

“I’m…yours,” she conceded. His breath, a wet, hot puff against her neck, stirred the tiny hairs there as he growled in satisfaction. His teeth grazed the corded vein in her neck, nipping lightly at the flesh and making her wince. Even after the horrific sight of his change, Lily still found herself pressing her thighs together to curb the tingling in her sex.

“That is right… Mine,” he echoed, and hooked his big hands around her hips. Pain stabbed out from the wounds, and Lily let out a small cry. Rowan seemed to not hear her protest as he pulled her onto her back, and covered her with his body again to prevent her escape. Before she could move, he straddled her legs and his hands landed on her shoulders in a possessive hold. Their eyes locked, and in those large, blue orbs she watched his emotions swirl. He was triumphant, and happy, and…uncertain. His gaze searched hers, as if looking for permission.

Lily surprised herself, reaching up to caress his jaw with her fingertips. The skin was smooth, yet pebbled with a day’s stubble and the fine hairs retracting from his coat. He let go a breath she hadn’t realized he was holding and his lips came down to brush across hers. They whispered over her forehead and the line of her cheekbone to her ear. Lily whimpered; the sound surprisingly wanton even to her own ears. His body vibrated with silent laughter and his lips tickled along her neck.

His teeth, sharp and smooth, picked at the skin along her shoulder, no doubt leaving marks. The T-shirt she wore ripped, and cool night air rushed over her skin. In the distance, thunder rumbled, but Lily scarcely heard it for the rushing of blood in her ears. The pants she wore went the same way, rent from her body by his insistent hands. She gasped as his feverish fingers slipped over her skin, followed quickly by his lips and tongue.

Lily gasped in surprise as he stilled near her hips, and his lips pressed in a round arch over each of the wounds there. His tongue, rough like sandpaper, dragged across them with a light sting, which he quickly soothed with more small kisses. Her hand sought out his head, fingertips rushing through the growth. Lightning streaked across the sky overhead, followed by a rumble of thunder and the first drops of cold rain on her overheated skin.

Lily sank into the moment, loving the feel of his skin against hers, and moved to draw her hands over his shoulders. Before she could, he growled and flipped her back onto her stomach in the dirt. She grunted as the wind left her lungs, and his big hands clutched at her hips, dragging her back to her knees as he thrust forward and buried himself deep inside her. She screamed, her voice echoing off the trees. The sky split wide, spilling stinging rain onto her bare back. Rowan pulled back and thrust forward again, a sharp, hard push that sent needles of pleasure and pain ripping through her. Thunder cracked overhead and she pressed her forehead to the muddy ground. With each movement he almost completely left her body only to drive home again, jerking at her hips to pull her closer.

Lily could do little more than dig her fingers into the wet earth and moan as he took her, filling her again and again. Rowan bent over her, hips still pounding against her and clutched at her breasts, pinching her nipples and drawing a series of near sobs from her throat.

His big hands were everywhere on her, touching and pulling and pinching as he continued with brutal thrusts. Lightning zagged across the sky, striking a nearby tree with enough force to shake the ground beneath them. The crack of thunder that followed seemed to give him new purpose and he came into her harder, faster, his cock threatening to split her body in two. She pushed back against him with each thrust, gasping his name over and over. His hands curled around her, found her clit, and he pinched the bud of nerves between his thumb and forefinger. The sensation rocketed Lily into orgasm and she screamed as her body contracted around him, begging him deeper, harder. Her whole body trembled with release, but he continued on, grunts and growls of pleasure mixing with the sounds of the storm.

* * * * *

Rowan could have died right at that moment and not regretted a thing. Lily, screaming in orgasm beneath him was the best damn thing he’d ever felt. He wanted to come, to give the last shreds of himself over to her, but he wanted to feel her again. Even as she unwound and her cries slowed to whimpers, he continued his brutal thrusts, holding back his own release to savor the feel of her tight, wet heat surrounding his cock.

He closed his eyes and tipped his head back to the sky, letting the torrential downpour spatter his face. Rowan groaned and pushed forward until his hips met hers with crushing force, Lily’s much abused body still spasming with the remnants of orgasm. His balls pulsed impatiently, but he wasn’t ready to give in. It was too soon for this ultimate pleasure to be over.

Lily started to crumble beneath him, but he held tightly to her hips, supporting her weight as he thrust with bruising force. She gasped and moaned beneath him, her fingers flexing and digging into the ground with each slap of his tightened testicles against her sex, her body still demanding him deeper and harder.

Rowan’s vision went hazy, flickering on the edges as he drove home again and again. He could feel the change threatening on the heels of the orgasm that so begged for release. Under him, her body trembled. Her small, slender fingers danced backwards and locked onto his hip with surprising force, curling into his skin and pulling him forward. Each push drew a whimper from her and even under the pressure of his hands she rocked back to meet his every thrust.

“Rowan…” she gasped, and the sound of his name turned to a moan. Her hand left his hip to snake between her own legs. He felt the pressure of her fingertips against her center and the gentle reshaping of his balls as they bounced against her hand, and it only urged him on. He had to feel her come again, even as his cock threatened to split with the force of impending orgasm, tightening and pulsing in preparation for his release. He forced each labored breath out through his nose, urging his body not to betray him. He could not lose control with her again. He’d already hurt her once; there was no telling what a second change would do to her.

A shrill cry echoed off the trees and she curled beneath him, her inner muscles seizing and clamping tightly around his cock. Rowan couldn’t stop this time; he slammed into her with brutal force, driving her down into the mud as the power of his own release threatened to snap the last vestiges of his control. With one final jerk of his hips he came, falling against her and crushing her into the ground as he filled her with his seed.

The animal howl filled his head, and crackling pain raced through his body. Her breathless moan sent him flying from her as the change forced itself on him. With the last shred of human consciousness, he looked down at her tired face.

* * * * *

The starbursts faded from her vision as Lily took mental stock of her body. Everything was still attached. No new wounds. And heavy rain battered her now unprotected body. She lifted her head as she turned over and looked up into the eyes of the same large, silver-and-black wolf that had hunted her only moments before. Its eyes were Rowan’s eyes, large, blue, and too human for the animal that bore them. Only that keen stare and the uncanny knowledge that he would relish the chase kept her in her subservient position. Raw terror replaced the post-coital adrenaline, but so long as she focused on his eyes, the urge to flee was manageable.

“Rowan?” she asked, having to yell over the torrential downpour. The animal huffed. “Are you in there?” She was terrified beyond belief, but she’d only moments before had sex with the man inside the beast. She had to face the beast now, because like it or not, she’d grown attached to the man.

Her body ached from the abuse it had taken, and her legs protested as she tried to stand. Both the ground and her body were muddy and she slipped and would have landed face-first had the large, silver head not materialized under her hands to steady her.

Lily’s first reaction was repulsion, followed quickly by guilt. As lightning brightened the sky, she spotted two muddy handprints in the middle of his back.

“Oh, no. Rowan, I’m sorry…” she nearly sobbed. “I got you all dirty!” The wolf turned its head to look at her, its intelligent eyes filled with mocking humor. She cringed. “Yeah, I know…” She felt silly all of a sudden. “I’m standing here in the middle of a storm, naked, in the woods with a monster. You’re all wet, and I’m muddy. Why should I worry about getting you a little dirty?” The wolf huffed again, bumping its large head against her midsection as his shoulders shook like he was laughing.

Lily shivered. The rainfall was lighter and the lightning a bit less frequent, but her damp skin was cold, gooseflesh rising all over with each gust of wind. Her clothes were in shreds for the second time in twenty-four hours, and she had no idea where she was. Being lost so close to home was not a good feeling, huge lupine protector standing by or not.

“You really need to change back now,” she said with chattering teeth. “I’m cold and I don’t know my way home in the dark.” He whined, a low sound that she barely heard under the patter of rain through the trees. Rowan leaned against her and she sank into his fur. He was so warm, and her teeth clacked together so hard her jaw hurt. He felt feverish…but that could be a side effect of the icy rain and her low tolerance for cold.

He started to walk and Lily followed along, still burrowed down against his side to avoid the rain dripping from the trees. Within moments the house lights came back into view and the welcome sight of her own back door sent Lily sprinting naked toward it. She barreled through the door, leaving the large wolf behind and headed straight for the bathroom. Her next move was toward a very hot shower and lots of soap.

Chapter Seven

“I see you are still in one piece.”

His voice startled her. Lily jumped, knocking her shampoo bottle to the floor. He filled the doorway, his bare body streaked with mud. Again, fear tickled at the back of her mind, but the welcoming steam of the shower called to her with a much stronger voice.

“I need to clean up,” she said, at a loss for conversation. “I’m muddy.” He watched her with an amused expression.

“So I see.” His eyes raked over her and Lily shrank back in embarrassment. “I would take my leave, but I am, quite unfortunately, without clothes.”

“We left them in the woods.”
Way to be intelligent, Lily,
she berated herself. “Do you want a shower?” She didn’t know how she wanted him to respond. The amused smile turned predatory, and her much abused body tightened in anticipation.

“I thought you would never ask.” Immediately he was filling the bathroom. Rowan pushed the door closed—to keep the heat in, he explained—and stepped into the shower. Lily stared at the curtain with her mouth agape until he poked his head out and grinned at her. “You coming in?”

She shook herself. “Yeah,” she replied, and took his outstretched hand.

* * * * *

Later, they lay across her bed, Rowan taking up the majority of it. She was sprawled across his chest. Lily lay still, listening to the contented purr deep in his chest. She batted thoughts back and forth, trying to decide which emotion would rule. Part of her wanted to fear him for what he was. Part of her wanted to hate him for lying to her. Part was intimidated by his flippant spending of money. But mostly she just wanted to lie in his arms and pretend the rest of the world didn’t exist.

“You still awake?” he asked, his voice a deep rumble beneath her ear.

“Mmm…” she responded, and burrowed tighter into his side.

“You do understand that you and I need to talk, correct?”

“Later.” Her jaw tightened as the fear leaked back into her brain. For a few moments, she’d been able to turn it all off, and whether he realized it or not he was bringing it all back in a big way. “Or now,” she sighed, pushing up on her hands, and spun to sit cross-legged next to him. Her bathrobe gaped at the bottom and she fought to situate it so that she was at least somewhat covered. It would do no good for him to be distracted by her naked body. Rowan sat up as well, leaning back against the headboard to look at her. “Talk,” Lily demanded.

“You know now what I am.”

“Yes.”

“And you know the commitment my kind makes.”

“Yes.” Lily leaned away and stared at him. “What’s your point?”

“I know you and I have known each other only a single day, and I do not want to make unreasonable demands of you, yet…”

“Rowan?” she prodded when he stalled.

“You are my mate, Lily.” The sentence was like a pallet of bricks to the chest. He leaned up and Lily stumbled off the bed to put distance between them. “I have known it since the moment I first laid eyes on you. I feel it in my blood, just as I feel my second nature.” The connection they shared was strong; she couldn’t deny that. But it still felt like a smack across the face. “I am not asking you to make that decision now,” he continued. “But I want to always be honest with you.”

Lily’s back hit the wall just in time to keep her standing. Her jaw worked like she would speak, but she had no voice. Rowan watched her, his keen stare betraying no emotion even as frightened tears stung the corners of hers. Panic bubbled up in her throat as he threw back the blanket covering his body and placed his feet on the floor. She forced her eyes closed against the tempting sight of him.

“I have to tell you that with me comes trouble I dare say you do not want to be involved in.”

“Then why did you bother to tell me all this? Why didn’t you just walk away and leave it when you could?”

“Because…with you, I cannot control myself,” he said. She closed her eyes and sighed. Something in her chest ached. “I can see I have upset you.” He levered himself to his feet. “I will leave you to consider the proposition,” he said. “I will not bother you until your decision is made.” He crossed the room, unashamed by his nudity, and cupped her face in his calloused palm. Rowan gently pressed his lips to her cheekbone. “The decision is yours, and as much as I want to keep you, I will not try to influence you.”

Lily remained immobile, listening as he moved through her house. The tinkling of his keys was barely audible above the rush of thoughts through her head and when she heard the front door quietly open and close, she sank to the floor with her head in her hands. The purr of his car’s engine flared to life and retreated just as the tears started to fall.

* * * * *

Rowan’s vision blurred as he waited for the road to clear. Every thought in his head was insanity, beating against both his senses and his better judgment. He wanted to turn the car around, to go back and demand that Lily accept the inevitable. They were a perfect match. Surely only a true mate could elicit such frenzy from his kind…

No.

He had to control the alpha urges. Lily was a modern woman with a modern mind. She wouldn’t be swayed by such barbaric activity. Women like Lily didn’t understand his kind. She hadn’t known what he was, or how to react to that knowledge.

Plus, there was no way of knowing exactly when his past—long-forgotten as it may seem—would catch up with him again. With his track record, his best guess was
not long.

Yes, Lily would be the perfect leverage against him should Loki discover the relationship. And she would be the perfect victim should he decide to exact any sort of revenge. Loki never needed a reason to act, but given one the retribution would be absolute. Rowan could not stand the thought of having her death on his conscience, because death it certainly would be.

Rowan pulled onto the highway and turned his windshield wipers against the light rain misting the road. He had to go home and wait it out. No matter what he wanted, the decision had to be hers. Besides, in the event that she agreed, he needed to do some research. He had no idea of the mechanics of a mating—he’d attended a ceremony or two, but by then the true mating was done. To see a mating in its entirety was unheard of. He’d heard the stories of his parents, and now his kind was increasingly rare.

Frustrated, he turned on the radio and found something loud and angry. Patience was a virtue he sorely needed to learn. If he couldn’t give her the space to choose him fairly, how could he ever expect to grow old with her?

* * * * *

Lily cried herself to sleep that night, and woke the next morning with swollen, sleep-crusted eyes. Despite the drama and the fact that she’d only known Rowan two days, she missed him. His big, warm body by her side had been an unexpected comfort. Without him, her queen-size bed seemed cold and lonely.

She was still absolutely terrified of him—not of the man, but of the creature lurking beneath his skin. The animal that had hunted and caught her. That had pinned her to the ground and taken her in the most primal of ways. That purred like a kitten when he held her. Though she’d witnessed the shift with her own eyes, Lily still couldn’t reconcile the man with the monster.

She paced between her living room and kitchen, alternating pulling her hair with teary sniffles. The clothes he bought her were still carefully wrapped and waiting for her to open them. The bags rested on her couch, and the inordinate amount of money contained within made her stomach turn. Rowan hadn’t thought twice about the purchases, and that knowledge only made her feel more rotten.

Why couldn’t she just accept him and be happy to follow through with this foolhardy plan?

Because it was just that: foolhardy.

She didn’t know him. Didn’t have a clue how he lived or if she would be in danger from him. He said something about trouble already—so there was one huge red flag. Plus, he’d already demonstrated an inability to control the shift around her. Again, she’d seen that firsthand. But she’d also seen his beautiful blue eyes encased in the face of the wolf, and recognized how the tribal patterns inked into his skin bled into his fur.

With a growl, Lily threw herself into her computer chair and typed the word “shapeshifter” into the search engine. To her astonishment, thousands of results came up, including a ridiculous article on Wikipedia, and something called
The Shapeshifter Codex
which absolutely blew her mind.

Throughout historical and modern folklore, shape shifters have been consistently painted as monsters. From the pure-breed shifters to the mutated Lycanthropes, all two-natured have been given a bad name. What popular culture fails to mention is that all breeds of shifter are inherently human, most having developed extra chromosomes, much like the mutations seen in Stan Lee’s “X-Men” comics. As such, shifters retain human thought even while shifted or during lunar frenzy. Many legends dictate that shape shifters are descended from gods, the second nature a mere byproduct of divine blood.

The site had obviously been compiled by a folklore enthusiast, and detailed every aspect of a shifter’s existence, starting with the most general “what kind of shifter are you?” and ending in the minutiae of eye shape and hair growth with respect to the shifter’s nature. The amount of information was mind-boggling, and Lily had no way of processing it all. She was ready to throw her hands up and close the site down when a link nestled into the text caught her attention.

Mating Rituals

A nervous lump crawled into her throat as the mouse hovered over the words. She inhaled sharply and clicked on it.

The next page contained two subjects:
Lycanthrope
and
Natural Shifter.
She followed the second link and was rewarded with a list of animal types with the header
Natural Shift Familiar Form
. Lily was already numb as she selected “wolf” from the list.

At the top of the next page was a photograph of a tawny and black wolf, sleek and feminine, standing next to a human male that appeared to be in his mid-thirties.

Mating, the most sacred ceremony of a shifter’s existence, remains shrouded in mystery.

Lily stared at the page in shock. Some yahoo was taking this stuff way too seriously. Probably that proposed folklore nut with one too many lattes in his blood stream. But…

No, she wasn’t going to play the what-if game and get bogged down in details. In the light of morning her game of hide and seek with Rowan seemed more like a strange dream, and it was easier to discount everything on this site. If she followed that train of thought, she’d have to let herself believe that the supernatural was real and that the man she’d just spent two nights screwing seven ways from Sunday embodied all of it.

An unfortunate casualty
, she thought with a sigh and backed through the site to the main page. If only he were normal, she could easily see herself fitting into his life. Being the kept woman of a wealthy, good-looking man wasn’t such a bad thing.

You are my mate, Lily…

A ripple of lust shivered through her belly as her throat simultaneously tightened. How the hell could she want someone so much and still fear him? She growled and slapped at her mouse to clear the screen-saver, and the phone rang. She darted across the room and snatched it up on the second ring.

“Hello?”

“Lily Redway?”

“Yes.”

“This is Carolyn Reynolds at the Collins-Goodwin Gallery.” The Gallery… She’d worked for one of its subsidiaries until the museum closed. Lily swallowed the lump in her throat and listened. “A temporary contract position with an immediate start date has become available. The owner of the collection has specifically requested you based on your resume and qualifications. I’ve taken the liberty of scheduling an interview for you this morning at eleven-thirty.”

“Wow…” she breathed into the phone. This was a surprise and greatly unexpected, too.

“I will see you at eleven-thirty, Miss Redway.” The telephone clicked in her hand, and the line went dead. So much for being given a choice…but if Carolyn Reynolds was anything like Lily had heard, courteous closings had no place in her efficient lifestyle.