Page 35 of Blood and Magic (RBMC: Helena, MT #2)

Vermillion

M aeve trotted next to me as Caelum approached my other side, nudging his massive shoulder against mine. I nipped at him in a playful greeting as he rubbed his head under my chin.

“Good to see you,” he said. “I heard you helped another Vanderbilt through their transition.”

I growled. Gossip spread through the homestead faster than a wildfire, so I wasn’t surprised. Considering how I looked when I came home from the ranch, everyone probably knew by now. I glanced at Maeve to see if she’d overheard him, but she focused on her surroundings, seeming to take it all in.

Caelum ran his muzzle over my neck and ears.

“You smell different, too,” he said.

I ignored the unasked question in his tone and continued walking, watching as Fenris approached Maeve and lowered down onto his forearms, inviting her to play.

She yipped and bounded toward him, causing him to take off ahead of her.

He certainly could best her in a foot race, especially since he was a massive wolf, but he took a leisurely pace so she could keep up.

I kept a close eye on her as we followed Kodiak and the rest of the Bastards toward our hunting grounds.

Our animal urges often got the better of us when we were in shifter form.

Some of the mates would sneak off to fuck, but the rest of us enjoyed the thrill of a good chase.

We lived in harmony with the land. We only took down what we would eat, nothing more, and we never killed without purpose.

“I thought you’d be off with Lyra or Kai,” I said, sniffing a decaying log.

I picked up notes of rabbit and possum, but nothing exciting.

It was just something to do as I kept an eye on Maeve and Fenris to ensure he didn’t overstep any boundaries.

Not that I thought he would, I just wanted to make sure she stayed safe. It was her first moon, after all.

“Lyra’s with her friends,” Caelum answered. “We’re still keeping that under wraps.”

I hopped over the fallen tree trunk and eyed the mountain lion group, picking out the female in question as she tackled a smaller cat for a wrestle.

“Are you okay?” Caelum ran the length of his body against me, trying to get my attention, and I pushed him back to let him know he had it.

“Fine. Why?”

“Just checking.” He flashed me a big grin and took off like he wanted me to chase him.

Usually, I’d indulge him. My wolf loved a good game of tag, but I didn’t want to get too far away from my female.

And besides, something felt different tonight.

A violent hum thumped in my veins, and I didn’t know where it was coming from.

I was on high alert because of the threat of the Scorpions, but that happened anytime we shifted.

No, this had to do with Maeve, and the insatiable urge to stay near her, to not let anything happen to her.

Caelum circled back to me and lowered his chest to the ground, wagging his bushy tail behind him. A bigger wolf came out of the woods to our right and slammed into him, taking him down in a playful taunt. Kai. And when two more jumped in on the madness, I left my brother to deal with his friends.

I found Maeve a few paces ahead, her snout to the ground. Fenris had left her to play with Morwyn, but she didn’t seem to mind. She was more captivated by the new experience of her shifter form. I remembered the feeling.

“You doing okay?” I asked.

“This is amazing!” She blinked up at me with those crystal clear eyes, the color of the sky, and hung her tongue out of the side of her mouth, a big toothy fox grin from ear to ear. “You were right. I’ve never felt more alive.”

I brushed along the side of her little body, reinforcing the remnants of my scent on her. “ C’mon. Let’s go eat.”

She yipped and bit the scruff of my neck in response.

Together, we joined the rest of the pack on our ritual hunt.

Some shifters didn’t like to eat in this form because of the hangover once we changed back into our human selves.

A stuffed belly could lead to cramps or sluggishness the next day, but I enjoyed the ruthless call.

It was the only time we got to be ourselves without the rules and expectations of human society.

The pack hunted efficiently, and once we were sated with elk meat, another urge took over, this one darker and hungrier.

Most of the pack had peeled off to do their own thing.

Fenris and Morwyn were gone. Caelum, Kai, and their friends had wandered back toward the other shifters in their age group.

Kodiak had nipped Guin on the shoulder in play, causing her to growl and stomp after him to retaliate.

After a while, it was just us, and that pleased both me and the wolf more than anything else the night could have offered.

She lay on her side, sated and belly full, her black tail lightly thwapping against the ground. I approached from behind her, watching as she enjoyed her after-dinner nap.

I took a step forward, and a branch snapped under my weight. She lifted her head and looked down her lithe little fox body, big blue eyes narrowing. When I took another step, she huffed and lay back down, letting out a deep sigh.

“Did you enjoy the hunt?” I asked, flopping on the ground next to her, relishing in how her human caramel scent mingled with the woodsy undercurrent of her fox.

“I didn’t like killing the elk,” she said. “But the meat was delicious.”

“Such a tender heart.” I huffed out a laugh, and she rolled her eyes.

“All alone at last,” she said and chirped.

“Just me and you, sweetheart,” I replied, moving closer, rubbing my head over the side of her face.

“The moon is so beautiful,” she said in a lazy, gratified tone. “I could stay like this forever.”

I glanced toward the sky and marveled at the brilliant power of the ever-changing object hovering over us.

Most humans thought it had no control over the beings here on Earth, but they didn’t know about us.

They didn’t realize how loud its call could be, how its magic overwhelmed the pack every month, how it controlled the ebbs and flows of so many seasons.

“I thought I’d be scared,” she said. “I thought I would hate it. But life is so much better here…like this…with you.”

I froze and glanced at her, her sentiments clenching around my heart in a tight vice.

Her emotions flooded through our bond, the squishy warmth of affection, the deep abiding attraction, her thirst for life that opposed my wretched hatred of it.

I still didn’t think I was any good for her, and even if we were destined to be mates, she could do so much better than me. “Baby…”

She must have sensed my hesitation because she hopped to her feet and nipped my ear in a mischievous bite.

“Stop being so grumpy,” she said. “The night is young, and I want to play.”

“Oh yeah?” I shot to my feet and jumped toward her, and she took off into the forest, screeching with delight.

I let her have a head start. I was bigger and faster than her, and it would be an easy end to a fun game if I caught her too soon.

She wound through the undergrowth like a missile, hardly a shadow darting through the thick cover of trees.

But her intoxicating scent propelled me forward.

I chased her nearly to the edge of our perimeter, heart pounding, sucking in oxygen, all four legs extending to cover more ground.

I finally got her, snatching her much smaller body in my mouth before pinning her underneath my paws. She squealed, scratching at my face with her claws, nipping me on the jaw with her teeth.

“Shouldn’t you know better than to run from the big, bad wolf?” The words came out instinctively, but she froze under me, blinking, her ears flattening like she was confused.

I took advantage of the hesitation and clamped my teeth around her neck, forcing her to admit defeat.

She softened under me, her entire body relaxing into submission.

It pleased both the man and the wolf in a way I didn’t want to examine too closely.

And when I let her go, she quickly got back to her feet and took off again.

For the rest of the night, I played with her, letting her run only so I could catch her.

When the moon finally set, we shifted back into human form together, our bones cracking and reforming, our fur sliding off muscle like our skin had at the start.

I remembered being terrified for my first shift, even though I’d grown up in this life and knew what to expect.

I couldn’t imagine having this thrust upon me the day before it took place.

My skull pulled back on itself, taking its human shape, and my spine popped into alignment, painful and euphoric at the same time.

When it was over, I checked on Maeve to see that she had successfully changed into her human form, now lying on her side, facing away from me.

I traced my gaze over the curve of her shoulders, her ribs, down to her waist and hips.

Something in me snapped, like the moon’s magic hadn’t fully pushed my wolf into the farthest recesses of my mind.

I wrapped an arm over her torso and yanked her closer, bringing her back to my chest, rolling my hips against her delectable ass.

“How are you feeling?” I murmured, dragging my nose up her neck to her hair. Blood matted the ground, mixing with the dirt to cake our skin, but none of that mattered. Only her. Only this moment between us before we had to face the rest of the pack.

“Hmm.” She turned her head to skim my lips with hers, kissing me softly. “Good.”

Normally, the change took it out of me. I would have already been making the trek back to my room to sleep off the hangover.

But having her so close to me, having spent the better part of my shift with her, altered my desires.

My cock twitched against her, a low simmering heat building in my lower stomach.