Page 20 of Triumph of the Wolf (Magnetic Magic #6)

My intention was to follow my offspring’s trail and ensure for myself that he was okay, but halfway back to the road, my magic faded.

Too bad I hadn’t salvaged more of my clothing.

Branches scraped me, and damp pine needles slapped at my skin.

At least the bullet that had grazed me earlier hadn’t left a deep wound, and my regenerative magic would heal it soon.

Duncan also lost his magic, the bipedfuris form leaving him so that he walked beside me as a human. Before changing, he’d probably neatly stacked his clothes somewhere, but, for now, he carried only my purse, a sight that made me smile.

“Thanks for collecting that,” I said.

“You’re most welcome, my lady.” Pausing in our walk, Duncan bowed low to offer it to me, like a knight of old extending a sword in both hands as he swore fealty.

The gesture touched me, and I paused, not only to accept it but to take a moment to appreciate him. I might also have appreciated his powerful frame, his bare muscled shoulders and arms, and the way the dappled sun highlighted his soft salt-and-pepper hair.

“I admit it didn’t require a great feat,” Duncan added. “Your son was startled by my appearance and dropped it.”

“I’m relieved you didn’t have to fight him for it. That’s a battle that wouldn’t have gone in his favor.”

“No. This day did not require any great battles on my part, alas.” Duncan waved toward the road, which we’d almost reached. “Going on a challenging hunt would have been more enjoyable, but I did find some small satisfaction in wantonly damaging the vehicles of those who seek to displace your pack.”

We resumed walking and crested a small rise, the pond coming into view. The road also came into view, and I stopped and gaped.

The vehicles were more than damaged . Only Chad’s rental and a couple of the trucks and SUVs were gone. The rest… It looked like a tornado had descended upon the rest.

Several were tipped on their sides or even pushed off the road.

Doors, fenders, and roofs had been ripped off and scattered among shattered glass.

Numerous tires had not only been deflated but torn entirely from their mounts.

A detached door hung halfway up in a tree on the opposite side of the road.

I looked at Duncan, a little incredulous. The last time we’d battled, he’d been weakened from the curse. Clearly, he had recovered his tremendous bipedfuris strength.

“You did ask me to scare them,” he pointed out.

Worried I didn’t approve of this wreckage?

No, he’d done exactly what I’d requested. And then he’d hurried back to the gully to see if I needed any help.

“You’re amazing.” I dropped my purse and hugged him.

“Ah.” Duncan wrapped his arms around me.

“I do enjoy hearing those words, but you’re the amazing one.

” He lowered his lips to my throat, nuzzling me.

His touch awakened my nerves, rousing heat and tingling sensations that had nothing to do with the magic of being a werewolf. “I love watching you fight,” he added.

“I’m sad I missed seeing you tear up all those cars.”

“I’ll happily destroy more of your enemies’ vehicles later, if you wish.”

His hand slid down my bare back, nails lightly grazing my skin. My body tightened in response as delicious sensations coursed through me.

“You’ll get me excited with such promises,” I whispered, lifting my face to look at him as I molded my chest to his, his skin radiating warmth.

“I do enjoy getting you excited.” Duncan shifted against me, his hard body promising that he was getting excited too. He gazed intently into my eyes. “I want you, Luna. I have for so long.”

“I want you too.” I slid my hands over his shoulders and down his back, exploring his firm planes as I parted my lips, offering them for a kiss.

His gaze snagged on them, but he paused in stroking me to hold up a finger.

“You don’t want to get intimate in the forest?” I guessed, glancing toward his van.

It was almost laughable how normal it looked, parked among the carnage. The tornado had missed it.

“Oh, I’m quite fond of forest intimacy, but…

” His gaze lowered to my chest. One of his hands left my back to curve around my body, fingers raising goosebumps as they trailed over my sensitive flesh.

He stroked my breast, and I leaned into him, relishing his touch.

His fingers lingered, as if they’d been distracted from their mission, and he bent to touch his lips to my bare skin.

My leaning turned into a thrust toward him as my fingers dug into his shoulders.

“ Very fond of intimacy,” he murmured, tasting me, then drawing his lips to my nipple for a suck that sent desire flooding to my core. “But…”

“But?” I gasped a protest, my eyes toward the branches overhead as I gripped and kneaded his muscles, my body pressing itself into him of its own accord.

Instead of answering, his mouth remained on me, lips and tongue teasing as he evoked the most wondrous and arousing sensations.

The stubble from his beard shadow brushed my skin, adding to the sensations of pleasure coursing through me.

His fingers shifted to the medallion hanging heavy between my breasts.

It was glowing, bathing his face in its magical illumination.

He lifted the chain over my head, then dropped it onto the purse at our feet. Before I could question him, he did the same with the medallion around his neck, and I realized what he wanted. To have me, and for me to have him, without any question of whether some ancient magic was manipulating us.

Yes. I approved.

Arms tightening around him, I found his mouth and kissed him. Hard.

I’d wanted this for far longer than I’d let myself admit.

Before either of us had known about the medallions, and before he’d crossed paths with my mother, I’d been drawn to him.

The first day he’d ambled through the woods by Sylvan Serenity, that cocky smile on his face as he’d winked and swung his metal detector about, I’d been attracted to him.

But for so long, he’d been a question mark. Could I trust him? Would he hurt me? After being hurt before, I hadn’t wanted to let myself fall in love again, hadn’t even wanted to enjoy a man’s company lest it end badly.

But as Duncan kissed me back, his hands sliding from my breasts to my hips to caress me in the most intimate of spots, I opened myself fully to him.

I had no doubts about his intentions. I trusted him and felt no apprehension, only excitement and arousal as he rubbed me evocatively and our kisses grew hungrier, needier.

Words left, breaths shortening as we shifted and stroked, eager to touch and be touched everywhere, nerves delighted by the attention. With our chests pressed together, we could feel each other’s hearts pounding, just as we felt the proof of each other’s great desire.

When Duncan drew me down to a mossy patch of ground free of mud, I went eagerly with him.

A human woman might have preferred the bed in his van, but the forest floor appealed to the wolf in me, the scents of ferns and moss and decomposing wood magnificent in my nose.

And there was his scent as well, masculine and exotic, from a far-off place, a time that I’d never known.

Duncan groaned with desire as he inhaled my scent as well, his hands continuing to stroke me as his mouth left my lips to taste the rest of my body.

His avid gaze held mine as he took my breast again, making me arch and pant.

My body ached with need even as my soul appreciated the way he looked at me, as if I were the greatest of exotic beauties, not a mom muddling through life, a woman who’d denied her destiny for far too long.

I groped through the moss to grab my purse and fish out the condoms, excited that we would, after so many interruptions, finally be together. He didn’t pause in his ministrations, but he turned to let me sheathe his sword, even pushing eagerly toward me, craving my touch.

My fingers lingered, rubbing and stroking, marveling at his magnificence. Until he distracted me with his arousing nips and licks, his assiduous attention to giving me pleasure.

When his tongue trailed from my breasts to the quivering muscles of my abdomen and lower, I not only groaned but growled like the wolf.

He parted my lower lips, his tongue sliding into my heated core, and I couldn’t maintain any measure of control, of decorum.

Like a wild animal, I bucked and writhed on the cool, damp moss as his warm mouth worked me expertly, making me cry out as I thrashed.

“By the moon, you’re hot, Luna,” Duncan rasped, gripping my hips, sweat gleaming on his skin as he continued stroking me with his tongue.

I growled an inarticulate response and arched toward him, needing him to take me over an edge I’d never reached before.

His eyes full of lust, he nipped and licked, creating more intense desire than I’d ever known. More intense pleasure as his touch quickened, power radiating from him, electric as it wrapped around my body, my every nerve singing.

I gripped his shoulders, rising as far as I could toward him.

Sensing exactly what I wanted, he wrapped his lips around my throbbing need and sucked until an explosion of pleasure blasted me over the edge.

Magic crackled inside of me and in the air around us, extending my pleasure and making the moment last. Finally, I slumped to the ground, reveling in pure blissful satisfaction.

Between my legs, Duncan watched my response, looking pleased, but that avid desire continued to burn in his eyes as he breathed heavily. Hard and full, he still craved a release, and he prowled up my body.

Before I could praise him for his expert lovemaking, his mouth took mine, and a hungry growl of his own rumbled in his chest. I wrapped my arms around him as his fingers slid down to stroke me once more, wanting to rekindle my fire so he could this time quench it with his great need.

Though I wouldn’t have guessed I could match his desire again so soon, I wanted him to enjoy this as much as I did, and I opened myself for his touch—for all of him.

His intensity and skill roused me far faster than I would have imagined.

As we kissed, magic and power flowed from him, igniting my desire all over again.

Soon, my muscles quivered with need, and I found myself reaching for him, wanting to hold him, to guide him into me.

His entire body tightened at my light touch, coiling at the invitation.

As we kissed hard, Duncan almost frenetic, he pushed past my hand and toward the welcoming core of my body.

Once more, I arched toward him, greedily craving another climax but also to give him all that he wanted. He deserved that.

With a snarl of pure pleasure, he plunged into me, filling me with his great animal energy.

Sensations even more exquisite than before made me ecstatic as I eagerly matched his every thrust. With his muscled arms to the sides, fingers splayed in the moss, he plunged deeper and deeper, his possessive growls claiming me as much as his body did.

I sensed that he’d wanted this even longer than I had.

It felt like he wanted me like no one he’d ever been with before, and that filled me with such love for him, the emotion mingling with my animalistic need as we arched and thrust faster and faster, all awareness of everything except each other gone.

“Duncan!” I cried his name as we came together. No, I howled it, letting the forest know that he was mine as another explosion of ecstasy rocked my body.

He also threw his head back and howled as he found his release. I clung to him, basking in the cascades of relief and pleasure that came after the climax, eventually leaving me trembling in the moss, exhausted but more satisfied than I’d ever been.

Duncan lowered himself, the tension finally gone from his body. He wrapped his arms around me, shifted onto his back, and pulled me onto his chest, cradling me and stroking my hair as we recovered.

I reveled in the aftermath and in him. Never had I thought I’d experience such amazing pleasure again. Or at all. Even my first love, when teenage hormones had made everything intense, hadn’t been as incredible as this. So strong were my emotions that I had to blink away tears.

“I love you, Duncan,” I whispered.

He nuzzled my ear. “I love you too, Luna.”