Shift Into Me (Werewolf Shifter Romance) (The Alpha's Kiss) (2 page)

Damon cocked an eyebrow and motioned for me to join him. Just sitting felt good. Lying down with my head in the crook of his huge arm was even better.

“About them being sacred?” He lifted my head just enough to tilt me toward him. “What do you think?”

Only inches apart, I could feel the heat of his breath curling around my neck. When I sucked a breath through my nose, his scent filled me as his heartbeat thumped in my ear. My whole world, in that moment, was Damon King. The vibrations stopped, along with the quiver in my neck and the rumble in my mind.

In moments like that, who gives a shit about a couple of rocks?

I stared at him for a moment, memorizing every whisker, every curve and line of his face, and those green eyes with the flecks of grey running from the inside of his irises out. I don’t know why, but it seemed
really
important that I not look away from him.

A hand slid down my back, under my shorts, and then to the front where he unbuttoned me.

“You don’t waste any time, do you?” I said with a smile as I did the same to him.

“I have a feeling we’re gonna be busy soon,” he said. “I started wanting you halfway across Arizona. By the time we hit the state line, it turned into needing.”

He rolled my head closer, kissing me deep and hard, urgently pushing my lips apart and tasting me.

I pushed him backwards, so that he was flat on his back and straddled his trim, but wide waist. Tracing Damon’s muscle along the middle of his chest, then going gently brushing my fingertip across a spiderweb of scars, I drew a deep breath as he guided himself inside me. My body clenched around him, almost like it was the first time we were together.

He slid in so slowly that by the time we were fully together, I felt like an eternity passed. His heat against me, inside me, the rise and fall of his chest, and our bodies moving as one faster and faster, lulled me into bliss.

I fell forward, desperately clenching the sheets underneath us as Damon pushed up, and I gave up trying to hold off. He clutched me against his muscled body, the two of us breathing as one. Held tight against my Alpha, I took a long, slow breath that dripped out of my lips as I exhaled. Damon swelled inside me, and pleasure shook me from my center out, sending tendrils snaking from my core to my toes.

“No matter what happens,” I said as Damon’s body held me close, “it’s you and me, right?”

Damon smiled. Even though it was dark, and I could hardly see his outline, I felt his smile. “Now and forever.”

For a few blissed moments, Damon’s thickness expanded, forcing us to stay together, breathing, and staring into one another’s eyes.

When his bulge subsided sooner than I would’ve liked, I slid off him, still slightly shaking, and curled up against his side.

“Forever,” I repeated. Just saying the word was sweet on my tongue.

I closed my eyes as his breathing evened out. With his arm underneath me, and his huge fingers brushing my naked hip, sleep took me.

My dream that night started with the two of us, laying there. It was like my consciousness lifted out of my body and floated to the corner of the tent. There I floated, watching. Then, growing bored at watching myself snore, it slid through the fabric, into the air, where it caught an updraft.

Zooming upward toward the stars, I got a vague sense of panic at the speed of my spirit’s ascent.

Up, up, up I went.

I felt like a kid with my face plastered against the front glass of a car going through a dark tunnel. The lights whipped by one after another.

When finally I turned, I saw the whole desert spread out in front of me. Our little tent, tucked underneath a clump of scrub trees, was all alone, in the utter dark night.

But then I saw dots of light begin to sparkle, like stars on the ground. One after another, they popped into view until the whole world below me was lit. Up there, my spirit took a long, slow lap, never looking away from the lights in the sky, on the ground, wherever they were.

Are these people? Fires? Towns?

It reminded me of those “The World after Dark” maps that show the lights on in all the houses from space, but in this view, the cities – Phoenix and Los Angeles... or at least where I thought they were – were dark. It was the out places, the parts of the map that don’t even have city names on them, that were alive with light.

And then, all the little dots started changing colors. Some red, some green, some blue, and some of the dots switching back and forth.

Suddenly, my serenity began to shake. Violent vibrations throttled my spirit’s vision, and it was like gravity finally figured out I was up in the air. I sped down, plummeting with horrible speed straight to the earth. One by one, the lights on the ground below blinked out as I sped downward.

The tent Damon and I were in came back into clear view, no longer one point of light out of a million, but the only one I could see.

My spirit screamed past his bike, pushed apart the tent flaps, and slammed straight into my body.

“Lily?” Damon’s voice was the first thing I heard. “Lily? You in there?”

I opened my eyes, staring at him and trembling, trying to get my bearings. “I... I think I just
went
somewhere,” I said.

“Are you okay? You were shaking, moaning, and saying words I couldn’t make out.”

Taking a deep breath, I held it until my thudding heart slowed a little. I was in his arms I realized. “Yeah,” I said. “It was just a dream. A really weird dream.”

He let out a slow sigh. “Okay,” he said. “Just... making sure.” Softly, he lay back down, keeping me close.

I curled up again, but this time threaded my fingers between his.

“I’ve never been this far from Grandpa for so long. Well, since my parents...”

“Hey, hey,” Damon whispered, curling his fingers against my skin. “Everything’s fine. We got each other, right?”

Nestling down against his chest, I let Damon’s warmth fill me all the way through. “Yeah,” I said. “I’m just worried I guess. What if your friend doesn’t like me, or, I don’t know, what if I don’t fit in and just make everything harder. I never should have made you bring me. I’m just going to be in the way.”

“Look at me,” Damon said. It wasn’t a question. “Sit up and look at me.”

He pushed himself up in the blankets and threw the one covering him off. Sitting there, his head almost touched the top of the tent. Grabbing my hand, he pulled me onto his lap so that my legs draped over his. I could almost feel him against me. A stir distracted me for a second, but somehow I forced myself to focus on his face.

“I’m just scared,” I said. “But you’re right, I’ve got you and—”

“If I thought you were going to be in danger, I’d have fought you a lot harder about coming. And,” he paused. “Can I tell
you
something?”

“Of course,” I said, running my hand along the bulge of his forearm.

“I’m a little scared too.”

A month ago it took an act of Congress to get him to talk about anything more serious than his feelings about a baseball game, and now he’s admitting he’s scared?

I rubbed his arm softly, squeezing the muscle. “Of what?”

He shrugged those big shoulders and let out a sigh. “Lots of things. I haven’t seen my friend Hunter in years, for one thing. I hope he’s not mad at me for being who I am. I never expected to be the big guy on the block. It’s still kind of a shock that I’m supposed to lead a whole pack.”

“But that’s who you are, Damon. Who you were meant to be. Why be afraid of that?”

Damon shook his head. “It’s a lot of responsibility. And that’s another thing – I don’t even know what the responsibilities actually are. It’s like I’m supposed to just pick up on everything and figure it out. It’s like... sorry,” he groaned. “I shouldn’t complain so much. We were talking about you having a bad dream, not me being tragic.”

“Uh oh,” I said. “You’re starting to talk like me. That’s a bad sign. A real bad one.”

A smile danced across his lips, and I instantly felt relief course through me. I didn’t want to be a burden to him. He needed me to be strong and that’s what I was going to do. He was strong for me when my parents’ death hit me like a ton of bricks. I made up my mind that no matter what it took, I was going to do the same thing for him.

“But no,” I said softly, kissing his neck. “I don’t want you to feel like that. I want you to know you can tell me whatever you want, whenever you want. If you can be strong for me, I can do the same thing for you, okay?”

“I... should be the strong one. I’m the Alpha. I’m supposed to—”

“No arguments,” I said smiling. “Remember that obnoxious quote? Behind every great man there’s a woman who loves him?”

He laughed harder than I expected. “You’re not behind me at all. You’re the award winning writer. I’m just some meathead.”

“Yeah,” I said. “I guess you’re right. But you’re sure a
hell
of a meathead. Those big arms, I couldn’t imagine better eye candy, you know?”

I sat there, watching his face draw up until I knew he was about to protest and then I punched him in the ribs. “We’re good together, Damon. I shifted back to lying down, and pulled him with me, resting my head in the crook of his arm. We’ve both got our things, but we’re really good together.”

“Not good,” he said. “Perfect.”

There was nothing else to say. Nothing would be better than that. Instead I just nodded, and kissed the inside of his arm before curling up and nestling down, safe and secure, beside my Alpha.

That time when I fell asleep, there was a blink of blackness, and then morning came early.

––––––––

“O
h my God, Damon.” I swung my leg over the saddle and stood up, stretching my legs, then bending over to pop my back. The rest of the night before passed without much excitement, and we were up with the sun, back on the road. The last bit of the trip was about eight hours, but it seemed like a whole lot longer.

Scagg’s Valley, our tiny destination, was even smaller than I ever imagined it could be. “You grew up here?”

He nodded. There was a telling smile on his face that made me realize he missed this place. “Home sweet home,” he said.

The place we parked was an old-style town square, the kind you only really see in towns that haven’t changed since the turn of the
last
century. A two story courthouse rose in the middle. The building had brown, mottled bricks, which were about the same color as the bark on the trees that circled it. After so long in the desert, I had been surprised that the place we ended up was more green and wooded than back home.

Two men in dress shirts emerged from a diner and exchanged a handshake before parting ways. One of them went right past us, nodding slightly. Damon returned his glance, but remained quiet. An almost palpable tension hung in the air.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“Taking pictures,” I said. I turned my phone sideways, snapped a couple shots of the courthouse, then stepped out into the road to get some of the square. “Figure if we’re going to be here I might as well make a story out of it. How fun would this be? Werewolf town that no one knows about? There’s got to be something to that.”

He grunted in assent, and then turned to look at a dark-haired man who walked past him, almost bumping against Damon’s shoulder. Across the way, coming out of a thrift shop next to a cute ice cream parlor, another very large man looked down at his telephone, then back up into the sun.

It hit me a little slower than it should have.

“Damon. Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Tell you what?” he looked slightly irritated, and checked his watch. He refused to carry a phone, so he told time like Grandpa Joe. “Listen, we’ve got to—”

“This is... Damon,” I said pausing for a moment. “They
all
look like you.”

He narrowed his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, is that supposed to be some kind of small town joke? Fort Branch isn’t exactly Chicago.”

“No,” I said. “Well okay kinda. But they all look like... Damon, are these all Skarachee?”

“Shh!” he put up a hand as someone – of course, another huge man with a thickly muscled neck – approached.

The man extended a hand, which Damon took. “Hello?” he said. “Have we met?”

“Yep,” the man said. “Well, I mean not formally. Everyone knows who you are though.”

Damon cleared his throat. “Everyone?”

“It’s good to meet you sir, I’m Steve Jacobs. I work over there at the ice cream parlor.”

This guy who is almost as big as Damon... is a soda jerk?
Concentrating on not laughing or inserting some kind of obnoxious joke, I watched Damon shake the guy’s hand very slowly, and for a very long time.

“Well,” Damon finally said. “Good to meet you, I, uh...”

“Oh yeah, of course,” Steve pulled his hand away and wiped it on the apron around his waist. “Sorry to waste your time. I’m sure you have better things to do than talk to me.” He laughed nervously and turned away.

“Actually,” Damon said, “it’s not like that. I’m sorry to be rude.” He shook his head and grabbed the guy’s shoulder. “We just got here, and are kinda worn out from the road.” He looked back at me. “You got food over there? Burgers or something?”

Steve, surprised, said, “Yeah of course, come on over. I’ll make you something special. It’s not every day the new Alpha comes back to town, you know.”

Damon shot a perturbed glance around, but shrugged as soon as his new best friend turned around and started leading us up the street. As soon as he was out of earshot, I tugged on his hand. “Is
this
what you were talking about? Being some kind of local celebrity?”

He shook his head. “I had no idea. I mean the last time I was here, I wasn’t really aware of this whole wolf pack thing, not really.”

“Where you guys from?” Steve turned. “Well I know you’re
from
here, all of us know that.” He paused, like we needed to digest that information for a second. “I mean where did you go after your parents left. Sad news about them, too, sorry about all that.”

“My parents are traveling,” Damon said, with an almost defensive tone in his voice.