Lifesong (7 page)

She reached for my cock, and all thought left my mind. My vision fogged, and I blinked against it. I forced my tongue past her lips, my finger teasing the cleft between her opening and her clit. Her hold on me tightened, and I sucked in a breath.

“Easy,” I murmured.

She eased back, her lips searching mine. I deepened our kiss, and as I did, I pressed one finger inside her. Emma’s body froze, her back arched as far as it would go. I withdrew the finger, returning it with a second one moments later. Her hips pressed against me, driving my fingers even deeper.

She caressed the base of my shaft, her touch like silk against my skin. I thrust against her palm and hooked my fingers inside her, smiling when she broke our kiss, a low, throaty moan escaping her lips.

“Okay?” I asked, sucking in a breath.

Emma managed a nod before throwing her head back onto the bed. She brought up her knees, widening the space between her legs. I groaned, my erection pulsing against her hand.

Swallowing, I removed my fingers and pulled away from her. Disappointment filled her eyes as they searched for mine.

“Wait here,” I panted, inching down towards the foot of the bed.

Digging through a nearby drawer for a condom, I threw it onto the bed before wrapping my arms around her legs. She thrust her hips up at me when I kissed her clit. Holding her steady, I licked at her sex, delighting in the sweet taste I found there. Emma’s body quivered. She put her legs over my shoulders.

My tongue pierced her folds and I heard a hiss somewhere above my head.

“Oh, my…God,” Emma murmured, her hips rocking against me.

Disentangling one of my arms, I pressed two fingers inside her, using the distraction to move back up to her lips. I kissed her, letting her taste what I’d just experienced. She kissed back. Passionately. Full of need.

“Please,” she begged, her voice a mere whisper against my ear.

“Soon,” I promised. “Not yet.”

Emma tensed. I bit at her neck. She shuddered, and I moved my fingers a little faster. She bucked against me, rubbing her clit against the palm of my hand. I cursed at myself for not having more hands. Not enough damned hands. I wanted to touch her all over, to bite, nip, tug and pull.

I applied a little more pressure, brushing against her G-spot just so. She rewarded me seconds later with an orgasm, her muscles clenching against my digits, drawing me in even further. I moved my fingers slowly after that, pushing her climax even further until she rode it out.

Her eyes were wide when I looked at them. “Now?” she asked, shaking so hard I could barely keep her still.

“Now,” I breathed, positioning myself between her open legs.

Retrieving the condom I’d thrown on the bed earlier, I tore the foil with my teeth, wincing at the slight chill as I rolled it on. Emma grabbed at my free hand. I squeezed it and held on to her hips.

“Last chance,” I said, guiding myself to her pussy lips.

She lifted her head away from the bed. “Last chance for what?”

“To back out.”

“Are you kidding me?”

I shrugged. “Just thought I’d offer.”

“Overprotective.”

I smiled and shook my head. Assured she was okay, and knowing I’d regret it later if I backed out now, I thrust against her. She rocked her hips, drawing me in even deeper, and for a single breath, neither one of us moved. Her pussy hugged around my cock. Gods, she was wet!

I slipped in a little farther. She locked her legs behind my back and wrapped her arms around my neck. Using her legs, she rocked her hips against me, her tight walls rubbing up and down my length.

I thrust again, growling when I drove deep inside her. We both lay there, as if to catch our breath.

I buried my hand beneath the small of her back and could almost hear her exasperated sigh when I asked, “You sure you want to do this?”

Emma bobbed her head, opening her mouth as if to say something, but it never came out. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head when I delivered a single stroke. I quickened my pace when she pushed back.

Emma held her breath. She was close. Too damned close. I had to slow down.
I should say something. I should—

“Oh. My. God.” Emma’s body shuddered.

“Come for me, Emma.”

Her mouth opened, her voice a strangled cry as her body contracted around me. I withdrew, thrust in again, stroking her gently. When I was sure she’d come back down from orbit, I pushed even harder. Faster. My body wanted it. Craved it. I struggled to stay in control.

Her hands were on my arms when I opened my eyes. Words were foreign to us, but her silent nod was permission enough for me. I directed her legs onto my shoulders, swallowing around the lump in my throat as she tightened around me.

I clawed at the mattress, and I was sure if I’d been a wolf, I would’ve done a great deal of damage. She dug her nails into my skin as I made quick, fluid strokes. The muscles in my back and arms tensed, rippled, and I came.

After getting rid of the condom and still gasping for breath, I collapsed beside her, resting my hand on the curve of her stomach. Emma rolled over to face me, pushing back my hair as she combed her fingers through it. Her body was still trembling, her eyes glazed with unshed tears.

I wiped my thumb under them, urging the tears to crawl down her cheeks. “Happy tears?”

Still out of breath, Emma nodded. She shivered from the cold, and I pulled her against my chest. She stayed there, her pulse slowly returning to normal as I drew arcs across her cheek with my thumb.

Her breathing quieted, and I tilted my head so I could see her face. Blue eyes that were only half-awake looked back at me.

“You can do that to me anytime,” she said, curling in my arms, about to fall asleep.

I reached behind her for the bed sheets, cocooning them around us. “Anytime.”

Chapter Nine

Tucker

Night came a lot sooner than I would’ve liked. After my lovely afternoon with Emma, the last thing I wanted to do was change forms and run after Zarrius.

The fire came to life as I shifted the logs around, I then closed the screen before sitting back in my chair. Emma had become lost in one of her notebooks earlier in the evening and was now tracing a finger over a few lines she'd written but wouldn’t allow me to see. She hadn’t asked about Zarrius, and I’d decided not to tell her.

He’d kept himself hidden, retreating into the woods where he’d known I wouldn’t follow. I hadn’t wanted to risk getting pulled in or turned around. Not when Emma was by herself.

I’d caught sight of his grey pelt as he’d circled me a few times, covering every mark I’d left on the territory. Towards the end, it had become a contest to see who could mark faster. He’d been challenging me, daring me to go out into the open. In the end, I’d called his bluff and come back inside. So long as Emma was safe, I didn’t care what he did to our shrubs.

It wasn’t just that, though. Emma had made it sound so easy, thinking that if I just talked to him, Zarrius would go away. Unfortunately, pack life was a little more complicated than that. It always had been. Truthfully, Zarrius was the one who’d taken me in and taught me how to be a guardian after mine had faded into twilight.

The rest of the pack had been too preoccupied with their own changes to teach me how to be what I’d become. I hadn’t been the only new guardian that year, but Zarrius had told me I held the most promise. When I’d asked him about Ika, my guardian, he’d assured me she was safe. And when I asked why he hadn’t found a human of his own, Zarrius told me there was no one else suited for the role of alpha within the pack.

“We need to keep balance,” Zarrius had told me one night, well after the other guardians had returned to their dens. “The pack is nothing without its alpha. That is why I remain, as others fade from memory.”

“And Ika?” I’d asked, bowing my head to him. “Will she fade from my memory too?”

“Only if you let her.”

Only if I let her.
I pushed the memory from my thoughts and stirred the flames of the fire until they glowed a little brighter. I couldn’t confront Zarrius, not after everything he’d done for me. He could’ve left me to die, to fend for myself. Instead, he’d shown me where to find the best prey, when was the best time to hunt and where to go if a human ever spotted us in the woods.

It was Zarrius’ words of wisdom that had kept me safe. I owed the alpha my life, and now I owed him the bond I shared with Emma.
No.
Not Emma.

I’d never seen him so hell-bent on having a human of his own, or so willing to forfeit his place as the pack’s alpha. Then again, Zarrius insisted his being alpha would allow him to sacrifice a human to the Earth instead of himself, and for Zarrius, this would’ve changed everything. It was his last season.
I was sure of it.

He was still as keen and strong as before, but the white around his muzzle showed his age in a way that the rest of him did not. A guardian without a human bond in times such as this was bound to fall to the Earth. He’d go feral first. He’d become a normal wolf then fade away like all the others. That was why he wanted Emma.

I growled under my breath and glared at the fireplace. Once I was sure the fire wouldn’t burn out, I returned to my chair, my eyes on Emma as she scratched words onto her paper, her expression unreadable.

“What are you writing?” I asked, thankful for the beautiful distraction from Zarrius and anything else regarding the pack.

Emma looked up from her work as if she’d just realised I was in the room with her. “Oh, just about earlier today.”

I canted my head to one side. “What part of it?”

Emma let out a sound of approval before closing the book. “Just memories.”

“Anything I should know about?”

Emma shrugged and handed me the notebook. Curious as to what had held her attention for a fair part of the evening I accepted the block of lined paper and sat back down, perching restlessly on the arm of my chair. The first page was a point-by-point list of what had happened since I picked her up from the ward, but I was more interested in the bit she'd written down about today's earlier events while I was out.

It was a short entry compared to the one in the front of the book, but it drew my attention even more when I noticed a series of lines written at the very end of it.

Lying beside you, in a lasting embrace, I fall deep within your eyes, Your fingers caressing my face, And when they cry, I fall out of place

When they cry?
Her words could’ve only meant one thing.
The pack.

“Emma, this is a verse.” My hand shook as I pointed at the handful of words. “It’s incomplete, but that’s a verse.”

Emma joined me, leaning over to study the words. She furrowed her brow. “That’s just what I remember from earlier today. In my daydream, we were tracing words on each other’s skin, and the words just came to me as I was lying there.” She studied the words a second time and shook her head. “They’re just words, Tucker.”

“Perhaps, but you wrote them for a reason.”

“You said the words would come from a memory, like a photograph. This wasn’t a memory—at least, not when it happened.”

“Maybe a daydream is the same thing.”

I set the notebook in my lap. It was a start.

“How long was your song?” Emma asked, returning to her chair. “The one you sang with your guardian?”

I shook my head. It had been so long, I couldn’t remember. The only thing I did remember was the melody. My chest tightened just thinking about it. I couldn’t afford to share it with her now. No two songs were alike, anyway. If it were that simple, the bonding between a human and his or her guardian wouldn’t be as important, and that was exactly what the songs were based on.

“Do you remember her?” Emma asked, her voice soft, her words tiptoeing around the ache in my chest.

“Every day,” I replied, glancing up at her. “But it isn’t the same as how we are now. I remember the small stuff, like the way her fur smelt or how one ear was more crooked than the other. It’s going to sound a little messed up, but I remember her more as a wolf than as a human.”

“I don’t think it’s strange at all. I think about you being a wolf all the time. I guess it’s that imprinting you mentioned. I know you’re you, just how you are now, but as a wolf, I suppose it’s more unique. Any human can fall in love with another human.”

“Makes sense. You’re remembering me as your protector instead of your—”

“Lover?” Emma grinned. “I don’t think I’d take it that far, but the feeling, the memory of wolf versus man is different. I’m more drawn to the wolf. Whenever I had dreams or thought of you, the wolf was always there.”

“Why?” I padded over to her and knelt in front of her chair. “I’m just curious. Why are you more attracted to the wolf if you know I’m the same thing?”

“Because you’re human. I’m human because I have no choice, but you do. If our roles were reversed, I’d spend all of my time as a wolf, instead of one of the creatures who have caused the Earth to get this way in the first place.”

“There are things we cannot do with me as a wolf,” I said. “Not legally, at least.”

Emma smiled at that. “Then you can be my wolf stuck in a human’s body.” She leant forward to kiss me on the forehead. “What was her name?”

“Ika.”

“And your song? Do you remember how long it took to find the words?”

I shouldn’t have said anything.
“We guardians aren’t as young as you might think. It’s going to sound gross, but the last time I saw…the last time I felt Ika’s presence was over a century ago. So long as the Earth is in balance, guardians are immortal. Well, most of the time—unless they go looking for their death. So, I might look like a boy, and perhaps I still am, but I’ve seen more of this world than most ever will.”

“But now the Earth needs to be balanced again. That’s why you came to find me.”

“Yes. Unfortunately, most of the pack waited too long to imprint on a child, and now there are guardians without humans to share their bond with. Soon, unless we can find a way to calm the Earth on our own, those guardians will lose their spirits, become feral wolves and then pass from the natural order of things.”