Page 5 of Shifters Unifying (Shifters Destiny: Willow Creek Shifters #2)

CHAPTER FIVE

logan

Fuck, this woman is going to be the death of me.

The scent of blueberries and sage—her scent—filled my mind.

My hands cusped her chin before the dreamy smile slid off her lips.

“You have no idea what you do to me, Emma,” I said, growling her name deep in my throat, forcing her to look at me while my dick throbbed between her thighs, brushing my thumb over her multi-color tattoo.

“You wring the life from me and return it to me, tenfold. You are mine until the end of time, and I will die whispering your name.”

Her eyes widened, exposing the mossy greens and emeralds within, and she caught her bottom lip between her teeth. Her rainbow tresses splayed across our leafy bedding. She had brought so much color into my life, in so many ways.

Even more, she had no idea how much restraint it took not to ram into her and spill into her now.

Our lips stayed still, barely grazing, as I searched her eyes for something I didn’t know how to place.

What I did know was I couldn’t have stayed beneath her much longer.

My body begged for release, and when she offered me a gentle nod, I smiled.

“Your taste still flavors my lips,” I murmured. “And I could die happy, buried inside you. I love you, Emma Carter.”

Her eyes sparkled beneath a rush of tears. “I love you, Logan Blackwood, my mate, my alpha.”

Her words were a bellows for the fire I could no longer control. With a snarl, I managed to carefully position her on the leaves, pinning her down into the earth, knees nudging her legs apart.

“My turn,” I say, my voice cracking. Weak. How raw my own need was.

You, always you. Forever. I howled the confession across the bond between us.

Emma opened her legs wider without hesitation, reaching down to guide me back in, slicking me against her. “I thought you didn’t have enough stamina… I really should fall down more often…”

She giggled, and it was a beautiful melody that was both innocent and erotic, and I realized I wanted to hear her laugh more often. Every day, in fact. When Acheron’s threat was gone…

I shook the thought away. I wanted to give her what she’d given to me: relentless, unyielding passion.

“Logan, please,” she groaned, encouraging me.

So, I drove into her hard, hips slamming against hers with excruciating control. If I hadn’t known any better, I’d swear the ground trembled beneath us again, leaves flying, bark breaking. Emma’s cries echoed through the trees as I thrusted deeper, harder, teeth bared, hands everywhere.

I laid claim to her while gripping fistfulls of her hair, her ass. Emma. Emma.

Every movement was raw, animalistic, full of heat and possession. No words, just breath and motion and sound, a symphony of mutual need reverberating through the woods. To fuck without restraint was a power all on its own. Especially with Emma.

Her body clenched around me as she whimpered, “I’m coming again.”

My hand fisted in her hair, and I bolted over the edge with her, her name wrenched from my lips, rough and desperate, as I spilled into her. Collapsing over her, we were both left shuddering as the cool breeze caressed our bare skin.

Catching my breath, a hopeless attempt, I rolled over and lay beside her, chest rising and falling like the wind through the trees, one hand still tangled in her hair.

She blinked up at the canopy of trees above us, mottled light blinking through the leaves. Her heart still raced, the sound loud in my own mind, and my thighs burned from this impromptu mating.

I’m not sure how much time passed as we laid there together, but when I find myself mindlessly reaching for her again, it wasn’t with the same urgency.

This time, it was gentle.

She murmurs, “I’m not sure I can again…”

But I knew she could. So, I lifted her toward me, spooning her from behind, her ass jutting backward into me. My hand slid down her body, slow and unhurried, appreciating the soft feel of her skin. I enter her from behind a sigh, both of us already so slick that I slide in without resistance.

My movements are slow, languid. I focused on the tender mewling sounds that escaped her lips, my hand cupping her breasts as if reaching for a lifeline.

We have today. We have now. No matter what comes next.

“I’ll come again,” I moan. Every ounce of domination faded as I begged her for more. “Back up into me like that… Yes… Fuck, Emma. Good girl…”

Her body responded to the praise, as if it restored her energy, and she was eager to please. God, could she be any more perfect?

My hands clasped hers, as she breathed her pleasure into the leaves. My other hand moved from her breast down… down… until I reached her clit, drawing slow tantalizing circles. I kissed her shoulder. Her neck.

She whispered something I can’t hear, but I feel in my bones, my pace picking up. She comes with a sharp cry, but somehow, it's quieter than before. Softer. A wave that crashed through her and left her trembling in my arms.

But she didn’t stop. Her body arched back into mine as her pleasure shot through me. Hot, wild, and whole.

My fingers dug into her skin, the leaves, anywhere I could reach. The world narrowed to the rhythmic pulse between her legs and the way she continued to thrust against me. My body frantically moved inside her, steady and deep, holding her through every shudder.

She gasped and squeezed around me once again. She’s coming again. And I follow within seconds, groaning low into her neck, my hips quaking against her ass. She released a satisfied sigh as the heat of me spilled inside, the weight of my release grounding me like roots threading into the earth.

This time, there are no words. No smirking or teasing.

We rest in silence, birds singing a song of their own during the after of a pleasure I couldn’t have fathomed before Emma. We didn’t need to speak. I held the silence for a beautiful woman. The woods held our silence, too, save for the soft rustle of wind and breath and singing birds.

Sucking in a sharp breath, she shivered. It was getting warmer out, or maybe it always was.

My arm wrapped around her middle, pulling her tighter to my chest and spinning her around to face me. “You okay?”

She nodded, eyes closed, breath catching as if the aftershocks are still coursing through her. “Yeah,” she whispers. “More than okay.”

My lips brushed her temple. “Are you cold? Hot?”

And there it was again. That laugh. Just as hypnotic and healing as her moans had been.

I kissed each of her shoulders once more, slow and reverent. Neither of us are ready to get up, our bodies still entangled, slicked with sweat and earth and something which felt dangerously close to devotion.

Could we afford to have such a strong bond with Acheron around?

He could use our link against us, and when the rest of the clans learned the details of our fated mating, he would learn it whether we wanted him to or not.

Even as worry pressed in, I knew the evil mage would not be able to stand against us.

“I like you best like this,” I said.

“I’ll be sure to fall into a pile of sticks again then.”

“I used to think I didn’t have time for a relationship,” I murmured, retrieving twigs from her hair and tossing them aside.

She kissed my cheek and hugged me against her, hard. “Well, you’re sure as hell in one now, and I’m not sure you can do anything about it.”

A blonde wolf loped into view on the other side of the felled tree, followed by a red fox. They both sat down. Olivia looked pissed, and even Jasper’s tail twitched a little.

I groaned. “They’ve found us.”

“I’m willing to bet they found us earlier but chose not to interrupt our interlude. It’s not like Olivia wanted me to leave the conclave to find you. She had to know what was going to happen.”

“Why did you leave?” I asked.

“Oh, I’ve read women have two sets of lips: one for arguing and one for apologizing. Maybe I was testing that theory.”

It was the first belly laugh I’d had in days. “Where did you read that?”

“The secret histories of the shifters,” she quipped, untangling her body from mine—gloriously unembarrassed by being caught in the buff at the end of another mating.

“Dr. Wise must have given you better books than she’s given me,” I said, picking bits of leaves and grass from her sweaty skin. “I may have to chastise her.”

She pointed to me. “You: random alpha.” Her finger swung toward her own chest. “Me: multimorph,” she said. “Higher clearance level.”

Chuckling, we both climbed to our feet.

“Back to reality,” she muttered. “What’s up?” she called to Olivia. “Is it Acheron or the shifters? Who needs a spanking?”

“A spanking?” I asked.

“It’s what I imagine having a bunch of toddlers, arguing about who’s going to get the best chip in a bag of chips,” she answered.

“We could see about that someday,” I commented, keeping my voice low enough that only she heard me.

She elbowed my side. “Acheron, first.”

Olivia shifted to her human self, and she put her hands on her hips as Jasper shifted forms beside her. “You two might ought to warn us before you take off to fuck in the woods.”

Emma shrugged. “We didn’t know it was going to happen.”

Jasper guffawed, rolled his eyes, and tugged on his beard. “Aye, two fated shifters alone in the woods. Nobody knew it was going to happen. Amiright, lass.”

“It’s a little awkward to explain we’ve lost the multimorph, and then to have to explain the primal energy reverberating through everybody at the new gathering place. ‘No, don’t worry. It’s normal,’” Olivia mimicked. “I wouldn’t have believed me either.”

“Guess you can explain Logan’s doing his job,” she countered, wholly unrepentant.

Olivia’s mouth quirked into a sly smile. “You two are going to have to explain that you’re fated mates at some point.”

I sighed. “That’ll open all kinds of worm cans.”

Olivia snorted. “Worm cans? You mean cans of worms? More like cans of octopus tentacles that won’t stay contained, but we have to tell them sometime. You two can’t take off and shake all of Louisiana with Emma’s orgasms without at least some kind of explanation. They already know you share a bed.”

Emma turned to me. “And that fact is a part of the reason you can’t have a seat on the council, Logan. Someday, if you must choose between saving me and saving the clans, what will you choose?”

My muscles clenched, turning my hands to fists, and I had to consciously loosen my jaw to answer her. “You, Emma. I’ll always choose you.”

“I know,” she whispered, placing her hand in the center of my chest and moving closer. Her scent threatened to cloud my sense once more. “It’s as though we’re becoming two parts of the same whole, and I only hope I can do what needs to be done when the time comes.”

Her sentiment was the right one, words every multimorph should utter. Yet they impacted my heart, sending tiny cracks spidering through it. Her duty was already breaking my heart, and I winced before pushing away the worry for another day.

“Let’s get back and glad-hand the alphas who’re left,” Olivia said. Then she dropped to all fours, shifting to her light gray-blonde-furred wolf form. She reminded me of the bright side of the moon, every time she shifted. Beside her, Jasper dropped into his darker red fox form.

I followed suit, contorting, stretching, and crunching into a my dark-furred form, peering up at Emma as she watched me. What are you thinking?

How fantastically incredible you are.

My ears twitched, swiveling toward her. Is that so?

Yeah, you’re fantastically incredible at being incredibly frustrating.

Her teasing laughter echoed in my head, and I whined, already desiring her again.

She shivered and quick-shifted into a wolf—the first I’d seen of her for more than an instant when she had been quick-shifting through forms to prove to another group of doubting shifters.

Here, in the light of day, her turns a blue brindle with hints of rainbow colors across, as though her hair follicles refract the light differently than any other shifter. Was it this way for all of her forms? Or was the wolf version special because she was fated to me?

I still had so many things to discover about my mate.

If we’re granted enough time…