STORY EXCERPT

There was a wolf in front of her. A wolf!

“Are you okay?” Trent asked.

Justine nodded. She wasn’t really sure what she was. Shocked. Hell yes! However, she couldn’t work out why she wasn’t scared out of her mind. She’d just witnessed an impossible phenomenon. She should have been screaming at the top of her lungs and running for her life. Why was she feeling so calm? So accepting?

“That’s—”

“What, baby?”

“That’s impossible.”

Trent squeezed her hand. “As you can see, it’s not.”

“But how? Why? What—”

“Take a deep breath, sweetness.” Trent rubbed her hand between both of his.

Justine took a deep breath and then released it slowly. Mick made a whiny sound and then took a step toward her. Justine just sat in Shayne’s lap like a lump of lead. Mick took another step and another until she could feel his moist warm breath puffing onto the hand she had clutching at her thigh. She met the wolf’s golden gaze and swore she could see compassion in his eyes. Maybe she could. He had been a man before turning into a wolf. Wouldn’t the man still be inside the animal? Wouldn’t the man and beast feel the same thing since they were…one and the same?

“Why don’t you pet him, baby?” Shayne asked.

“Is it safe? He won’t bite me will he?” Justine’s gaze flicked to those sharp teeth, and she cringed as she imagined them chomping down on her hand and crunching through bone.

Shayne used the hold he had on her head and tilted her until she met his gaze. His expression was something she’d never seen on a man before, especially one that looked at her. She could only describe it as caring, but how could that be? He’d only known her for a few hours.

“We’ve already told you that we’d never hurt you, Jussy. Just because Mick is in his wolf form doesn’t mean he isn’t aware of what’s going on, or of what he’s doing. The man controls the wolf, baby. Not the other way around.”

“Thank god,” Justine muttered under her breath and then slowly reached out with a trembling hand. She froze when Mick sat down on his haunches and his tongue lolled out of the side of his mouth. Even with him sitting down lower than her, he was so damn big that his angled head was level with hers. She licked her lips, fortified her courage, and touched the top of his head. Her fingers caressed over his head, and she sighed at the sensation of his soft fur tickling the tips of her fingers. Being careful not to move too suddenly, she lightly scratched behind one of his ears before doing the same to the other. Mick made a groaning sound and tilted his head to give her better access. She ran her fingers through his coat and silently appreciated the fact that his fur was thicker at the back of his neck, and dug her digits in a little deeper. She used her short, filed nails to scratch over his skin and laughed when he panted and moaned at the same time.

“See, there’s nothing to be scared of, sweetness.”

She glanced over at Trent to find him smiling at her and couldn’t help but to return his smile.

“This is amazing,” she whispered with awe, scared that if she spoke too loudly that the illusion in front of her would disappear. “Am I dreaming?”

“No, baby. This is all very real,” Shayne answered.

She met his gaze over her shoulder while she continued to pet Mick. “You can turn into a wolf, too?”

“Yes. Most of the people who live here can. That’s the reason we made our own little community. We wanted the freedom to change into our wolves whenever we felt the need. There is no way any of us could survive living in a town or city among the humans.”

“Don’t you like humans?” Justine asked feeling her ire rise. She was human. Was he lumping her in with everyone else? And what the hell was wrong with being a regular human being?

“Shayne didn’t mean anything by that, sweetness. We like humans as long as they’re nice and not arseholes. Could you imagine the uproar if one of us was caught shifting into our wolves? The media would be all over us, not to mention the government and the scientists.”

“Trent’s right,” Shayne sighed. “Some people are scared of things they don’t understand. They’d gather up a lynching party and eradicate us.”

“Yeah, I suppose they would.” Justine slid from Shayne’s lap onto her knees next to Mick. Mick turned his head to follow her with his eyes, but sat still. When she began to stroke over his back he chuffed and his eyes rolled as if in ecstasy. She grinned and then giggled when he licked her cheek. It looked as if he was smiling at her.

“How did you all become…this way?”

Shayne shrugged. “We were born werewolves, baby. Our parents had the Lycan gene, and their parents before them, too.”

“Have you tried to trace your ancestry?” Justine asked.

Trent nodded. “Johnny and Kris did, but there’s nothing on record for obvious reasons, and we can’t ask our parents because they were killed when we were kids.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Thank you, baby, but it was a long time ago, and though we still miss them, we’ve come to terms with their deaths.”

“Do any of the other wolves have their parents around?” Justine asked as she sat back on her bent legs. Her fingers slipped from Mick’s wolf body as he lay down on his belly and rested his head on her thigh. He sniffed loudly and lifted his head and nudged it beneath her hand, demanding to be petted again.

“No,” Trent answered. “All our parents were shot and killed by humans on the same night.”

ADULT EXCERPT

Justine’s body was on fire. She was shaking, and although she wanted to strip out of the clothes currently abrading her sensitive skin, she wasn’t that bold. She was courageous enough to turn so that she was straddling Shayne’s lap though, so she shifted until her knees were on either side of his hips, sinking into the mattress. She teetered for a moment and was glad for Shayne’s steady hands on her hips as she settled over his lap once more.

“You okay, baby?” Shayne’s low, gravelly voice sent shivers up and down her spine.

She nodded since she wasn’t sure if she would be coherent if she tried to speak.

Shayne released her hips, wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her body up tight against his. A whimper of need escaped her lips when she felt the hard ridge of his erection against her hot, wet, pussy. Her clit throbbed, and juices slid from her body.

“I can smell your need, baby. You smell so sweet. I would love to have a taste of that cream.”

Heat suffused her cheeks, but not because she was embarrassed. Erotic images of Shayne with his head between her legs raced across her mind, causing her to quake even more. Again, she couldn’t have answered if she’d been paid a million dollars to do so and nodded once more.

Shayne stood up, taking her with him, and slowly and carefully lowered her to her feet. Her legs trembled, and her knees threatened to buckle so she gripped his muscular forearms until she was sure she wasn’t about to face plant on the floor.

She glanced behind her when she heard movement and saw that Mick and Trent were leaning against the wall watching her intently. Their gazes were hungry, and they also looked a little angry as well as very, very tense.

She whipped her head back around to face Shayne when she felt his fingers skim over her belly as he inched her T-shirt up toward her breasts.

“Why are they angry?” she whispered hoping that Mick and Trent didn’t hear her.

An instant later, they were standing on either side of her, caressing up and down each arm.

“We aren’t angry with you, darlin’,” Mick said. “We just didn’t want to overwhelm you.”

“We could never be angry with you, sweetness,” Trent said.

Justine snorted at that ludicrous statement, and then she burst out laughing. She glanced at each of the men in turn and found that they were smiling, too. The nervous tension that had invaded her body when she caught them watching her so eagerly floated away.

Shayne whipped her T-shirt up and over her head, and then his fingers were tugging on her jeans before he pushed them down over her hips. Before she knew it, she was standing before three fully dressed men in her underwear, and while she’d thought she’d be embarrassed to find herself in such a situation, she wasn’t. How could she when they were looking at her with so much desire and emotion in their eyes?

Shayne clasped her chin between his finger and thumb, bent down and kissed her passionately. This time the kiss they shared had no slow build up or tentative testing. He went in for the kill. His tongue dueled and danced with hers, causing the desire in her body to shoot up another notch. The aching pain centred in her womb and pussy grew until she needed to be filled.

Without breaking the kiss, Shayne scooped her up into his arms, this time placing her on the mattress and following her down. She moaned when his jeans-clad legs brushed against her and gasped when he pressed his hips against her mound.

He released her lips, kissing, licking, and nibbling his way down her neck toward her breasts. She had no idea when her bra had been removed and only realised it when he licked between both globes with no obstructions.

Justine arched her chest up, trying to get his mouth on her aching nipples, and he didn’t disappoint her. His tongue lapped around the first peak and then the other. She sobbed at the exquisite pleasure and wondered if she would survive when he did actually take her nipple into his mouth. She didn’t have to wait long. He flicked the tip of his tongue over the hard nub and then drew it in between his lips and suckled firmly on it.

She cried out as rapture assailed her. The muscles in her cunt clenched and released with the deep, throbbing ecstasy she’d never imagined was possible, but the small orgasm was nowhere near enough to relieve the fiery passion still clinging to her.

“That was fucking hot, baby,” Shayne rasped as he moved to suckle at her other nipple. “Let’s see how many times we can make you come.”

Justine gasped when he moved down her body, stroking, kissing, and lapping at her sensitive skin, making the embers flare up again. He pressed a knee between her legs and nudged them wider, still swirling his tongue around her belly button. She felt the mattress dip on either side of her, but she was so turned on she couldn’t concentrate on anything other than what Shayne was doing to her.

When she felt his thumbs hook into the sides of her G-string, she tensed and held her breath, but then she was moaning. Mick and Trent were on the bed on either side of her, and both of them began to caress her. Her lids fluttered open when they each cupped a breast, feeling the weight of them in their hands, and then Trent began to knead one breast as Mick leaned down to kiss her. Shayne ripped the sides of her panties and tugged them out from beneath her arse, and she groaned when he kissed high up on the inside of her thigh before he licked her.