Page 100 of Shifting Hearts

Wolf buried his face in my neck, licking at my pulse point.

Those firm lips sucked there as I panted with need, pinned between them.

His hard body pressed to mine, rubbing gently.

Claws grazed my scalp to stroke tender spots, the threat of his violence implicit.

He fisted my hair, pulling my head back so I had no choice but to look up at both of them as he leaned into my face.

I tried my best not to arch into him but his body was just there and I ached so damn bad?—

“I can smell you, princess,” he growled. A real growl, the sort that started low in his belly and reverberated along his chest until the sound reached me, deep and seductive.

I wanted to taste that growl on my tongue, lick along his until he made a different sort of sound for me. I wanted to lick something else?—

Closed my eyes and fought the moan building deep within me.

“Didn’t anyone teach you manners, Wolf?” I snarked back, trying my best not to rub against him.

The pressure between my thighs built to a crescendo already.

He could smell my need? Fuck, I could smell me and I didn’t possess whatever additional olfactory senses that he did.

Along with the sensation overload, terror took a backseat to long denied need.

“I don’t need manners when there’s a hot little thing trying to cream all over my cock,” he bantered back. One finger tapped the top of my head. “Open.”

“Legs or mouth?” I closed my eyes as heat flared in my cheeks. Laughter bubbled at the pure stupidity of my smart nature. I didn’t know whether to giggle or sob.

“What a thought.” A talon or a claw curved over my cheek, catching beneath my chin and raising my face on its sharpest point. “Open…your lips, dear princess.”

I lost myself in his eyes, panting out a soft breath in submission for him. “Why?”

He spat into my mouth. I jerked my head back on reflex as he offered me a lazy, self-satisfied smile that left the ache between my legs all the worse.

“Swallow, and maybe I’ll ease your pain.”

I swallowed, still staring at him, and realized what I’d done. “Fuck me. No, let—” I shoved at him but he shook his head, making soft tsking sounds.

“Only one freebie today, cloak girl. Actually…” He grabbed my throat, squeezing gently and flicked the clasp there. “Let’s take that barrier away.” He snagged the cloth from one side pulled. The burgundy cloak floated away as he stripped back one more layer of defense.

One single motion left me in a thin blue dress that might as well be a nightie without the warmth the cloak offered. And other things, like letting me hide from the forest’s eyes.

And now, they saw me.

“I’m not meant to be here. I’m meant to go to my Gr–”

The tree above me shuddered.

Wolf’s eyes shadowed impossibly. “Don't say that name. Not here.” His voice held a dark warning.

My brows knitted. “What? Why not? She’s a perfectly?—”

“Perfect little child trafficker and you are her accomplice. Yes, I know.” Wolf waved a bored hand, flicking the tips of his caws against my dress lightly, rending evenly spaced tears in the material.

Who are these people? Beings? What the hell was I supposed to call them?

“You’re fucking kidding. Get off me.” I shoved at him again, knowing he wouldn’t move. Without a second’s thought, I headbutted him, tasting blood as my teeth pierced the tip of my tongue.

Mistake.

Wolf still hadn’t moved, but the desire in his face morphed to one of raw hunger. “Fight me, princess. I don’t care.” His hands clasped my cheeks, cradling beneath my jaw as his claws dug at my skin. “Open,” he demanded.

I shut my mouth. “Uhmhh,” I muttered.

“Fine.” He considered me for a moment while the tree at my back shifted restlessly. Then his mouth slammed down on mine, the pressure so electric that I inhaled sharply.

That was all the invitation he needed to thrust his tongue into my mouth, licking at the source of self-inflicted pain, and tasting and exploring.

The pressure between my thighs throbbed with the sort of fury I’d never experienced before.

I rubbed my hips wildly against his crotch, all conscious thought forgotten in the madness of pure need seeded deep from within.

Wolf broke the kiss, panting. His mouth was stained with my blood, and maybe his. “That wasn’t smart, princess.”

“Yeah, I’m stupid like that,” I muttered, each coveted breath only making it shallowly into my lungs.

Wolf’s onyx eyes flickered and narrowed. “You’re far from stupid, Bryn,” he murmured, his body settling against mine.

I blinked and shook my head. “How do you know my name?”

“I know everything about you.” His black eyes glowed with dark fire.

He leaned into my space until his mouth found mine in a soft, almost tender kiss.

My furry stalker was confusing as hell. “I know you sleep in spare beds, and never feel at home. I know you constantly look over your shoulder, though you don’t know why, or what for.

I know you are in more danger than you’ve ever believed, and I know how you moan beautifully when you come. ”

My already stunted breath hitched in my chest. I gripped his shoulders for purchase as my vision tunneled at the edges. “That last was completely unnecessary.”

“Is that what you focused on in all that, princess?” Wolf laughed softly, joined by the tree in his whispery voice. “But so true.” He licked his lips free of my blood and actually groaned . “I like the taste of you. I want…more.”

“Wait. My Gr— the person on the other side,” I said carefully, figuring they knew what I was talking about and unwilling to be cut off again. “What you said before.” I frowned, my need forgotten. “That’s madness.”

“Madness indeed,” the tree huffed, shifting at my back until his branches wound around my sides, encasing me and Wolf in an intimate, three way embrace. And unbreakable, like a living cage. “I watch everything. I see the children. One way they are safe, the other way they are not.”

I frowned at the tree’s riddle, hating that I couldn’t look up at his angular face from this angle. Not that I understood his expressions, but these monsters in the woods—they were my damn monsters.

“But the children. They’re hurt,” I explained, staring into Wolf’s eyes, seeking compassion or understanding there, and getting nothing back. I huffed the last of my precious air at him. “They’re abused, you assholes,” I shouted, my voice straining to a whisper, like Tree’s.

What? One’s called Wolf, the other gets to be Tree. Deal.

“They are, but not by their families. Your gran,” Wolf spat the word like it personally offended him, “sells children from seller to seller. If they are too damaged, they need a place to heal before they're sent off to their new owners. That’s all you’re doing.

Taking them from one hell of fear and destitution, and sending them to the next.

I should know. I collect the bounties on those they are sold to, and give those poor victims a choice of true freedom. ”

“No.” I stared in horror. “No! You’ve got it wrong. That’s not what we do. We’re saving them–”

“But what if you're not?” His voice lowered, soothing. Seductive. “What if you’re just taking them from one hellhole to another? What if I have three warrants in my pocket, and your name is on one of them? A bounty for each? But you…I’ll do you for much less.

” He licked his lips, his gaze dropping to my mouth.

My lips tingled traitorously as a dual opposing shot of horror and need doused me.

“Fuck you,” I hissed.

Wolf smiled. “I will.”

My lips pulled back in a snarl, ready to hiss again. The motion was pulled into a whimper as something banded around my forehead, pulling me backward. “What—” Another branch, slim enough to cover my mouth pressed to my lips and pressed inward. “Nu-uh,” I mumbled through clenched teeth. “No way.”

“Yes way. Dagan doesn’t like your filthy mouth.

Though I must admit it holds a certain…appeal.

” Wolf added a hand to the act, closing it around my throat.

“I am sorry you found out like this. If it makes it easier I'll tear up your bounty and burn it. But the other two… Those I will claim, princess.” His markings tightened as his fingers closed inexorably on my throat.

“Stop,” I whispered, my lips parting just enough for the branch to slip lengthways across my mouth, behind my front teeth, like a gag. To my horror, a bubble formed, filling my mouth and widening my jaw. “Thoop,” I shrieked, but barely any sound emerged.

“Perfect.” Wolf stepped back, his cruel smile back in place as tears tracked my face.

“I agree,” whispered Tree. Or Dagan. Or whatever name the tree that held me prisoner went by.

I played the stupid rhyme over in my head until the tears stopped, and managed to breathe through the corners of my mouth when my nose refused to work properly.

“Oodfoorooo,” I muttered crankily. “Etteeeown?” I cast a hopeful look upward.

“No.” Wolf’s claws trailed my dress. In one smooth motion he slashed through the rest of the ruined material. “I think we will keep playing.”

So much for talk of trafficking—which I still didn’t believe, though a thought of the children being offered up by wealthy and often undesirable looking shifty peoples niggled at me.

I always assumed the missing kids were potential sacrifices to the woods, to prevent the forest from encroaching on the living.

A hated but long enough running tradition that I believed in…

its lies? But the forest never grew, and only a few were ever taken, long ago.

They were rough kids, too. Ones I’d seen beating on the littles, adding to their collected traumas like a treasure trove of sins and trophies.

Bile rose in my throat at the memories. I forced the bitter acid back. No. They couldn’t be right. This had to be a trick.

It had to be, else my entire life drew a picture of the lie that Wolf painted.

I wasn’t protecting those kids. I was leading them to a life of imprisonment.

The fight left me and I sagged in Tree’s grip.

“His name is Dagan.” Wolf cradled my cheek in his palm, repeating Tree’s name.

“We have watched you for years. Him, all your life. He’s for centuries, warding over this place, protecting those he could from disaster at either end of the forest, though his duty is to these trees.

Me, I’ve only been around since you turned seventeen.

Usually I collect my bounties and call it a day but you…

I’ve been watching.” He leaned forward and licked at my tears, first one side of my face, then the other, taking his time in tasting me.

“I feast on your fear, and I take my pleasure on your moans. Did you know, my old friend ,” he stressed that last word, clearly addressing Tree-Dagan, “That when our little princess found pleasure last night it was from—” He broke off and smiled slyly at me.

“Well, why don’t we let her tell this part of the story.”