At some point, I fell asleep, resting better than I had in a long time. I woke just as the light returned to the sky, sending the blanket of mists into the background.
Rubbing my eyes, I yawned and sat, looking around to figure out where everyone was. Shadow was awake, leaned against a large tree, watching over us. A tree that had not been there yesterday, but clearly, this oasis he’d unlocked by releasing the water was continuing to evolve.
“Oh, hey,” I said, pushing myself up. “No drama through the night?”
He leaned forward, his legs slightly bent, and as the heavy muscles in his thighs tensed, I was briefly confused about why I was all the way over here, and not between—
“Outside of your snoring,” he drawled, interrupting my horny-girl thoughts, “it was all quiet.”
I choked on my next yawn, blinking at him. “Oh my god, dude. You’re supposed to politely pretend you didn’t hear me breathing like a freight train through the night. Don’t you know the rules?”
My outrage was mostly faked, even though no one wanted the hottest being in the fucking worlds to hear you snore all night. Had I farted, too? Just to get the full range of embarrassing noises in.
Shadow laughed as he pulled to his feet. “I’m just fucking with you. You slept like the dead, and I had to check more than once to make sure you were actually breathing. The water settled well in your system.”
“I feel great,” I admitted, my body heating at the thought of Shadow touching me throughout the night. How could I have slept through that? Usually, whenever he was in close proximity, every nerve ending came to life, and I was all twitchy, my energy sparking like I’d been plugged into a socket. But instead, I’d slept like the dead?
Maybe the water in the realm had some free Valium in it.
“So, what’s the plan today?” I asked, needing a subject change. I looked around. “And where’s Angel?”
“She’s scouting out the landscape from above,” Shadow said, “and we’re just continuing on toward Trinity. If you want to wash up first, though, the lake is as you left it.”
His gaze, which had been on my face, slowly traced down to where my tits heaved as I sucked in a breath. All I could think about was swimming with Shadow again. This time, though, we wouldn’t fight.
It took me a split second to make the decision.
This was it, my last chance to give it a shot. If I was losing Shadow to this mate of his, I was going to enjoy every second I had before that happened. It was time for me to step up the plan I’d made with Angel long ago to lose my virginity to him. He was an experience I wanted, and my time was running out.
“I think I will clean up,” I said, getting to my feet so I wasn’t on the ground, staring up the long length of him. Was it weird that I had the random wish someone would get this guy a pair of grey sweatpants? I needed that experience. Like, bucket list needed.
Once I was standing, I stripped my long-sleeved shirt off, leaving myself in just a black bra. Shadow didn’t say anything, but his eyes were warning me not to take this too far. If only I was any good at listening to warnings.
My pants were next, and when I slipped them off, I neatly folded them on my shirt. Turning my back on him, I reached behind and unclipped my bra, sliding it off my arms and letting it fall, leaving me clad in black panties and a fucking smug smile. Not that Shadow could see that since my back was still turned to him. But it was definitely there.
“Are you going to wash up?” I asked, turning my head enough to catch a glimpse of him standing, arms crossed, watching me intently.
He didn’t reply, so I just shrugged and stepped out of the panties. Not like he hadn’t seen me naked a hundred times, but he hadn’t seen me naked since we’d kissed, and that was apparently a big deal to him, so I was curious if anything would change.
The water was warmer than it had been last night, while still feeling refreshing on my skin as I dove in. I glided along for about thirty seconds, before deciding to do some laps. My natural love of water had me forgetting my plan to tempt Shadow into a clandestine sexual encounter, and it wasn’t until a dark shape glided by—and I about died of a heart attack—that I surfaced to find he was here. With me.
His hair was slicked back, water dripping along his skin, and from what I could see in the thickly corded muscles, he was at least naked from the waist up.
He glided closer. “You find such joy in the most basic of life’s activities,” he said, his movements barely even rippling the water. “And after hundreds of jaded years, I find myself strangely desperate to feel what you do.”
Unable to help myself, I moved forward as well. Far less gracefully, but who the heck cared about that when I was in here with a naked Shadow. “I’ve always loved to swim. Odd for a shifter, but the freeing sensation I get from being in the water is greater than I’ve ever felt on two or four legs.”
“You are odd for a shifter,” he murmured. “Probably because you’re not fully a shifter. It took me some time to figure it out, but you’re not completely one of mine. I just don’t know to whom you belong.”
“Here’s a crazy-ass concept,” I said with a smirk. “Maybe I don’t belong to anyone. Maybe I’m a free wolf making my own path without outside influences.”
Shadow tilted his head as we all but met in the middle of the lake, circling around, our gazes focused on each other. I couldn’t speak for him, but my limbs trembled being naked near him, and… the curiosity of wondering if he was naked too was probably going to kill me.
My eyeline kept drifting into the water, but he was moving too fast for me to be able to see clearly. Fucking hell, could someone just give me a break here and flash some cock my way?
Anyone? I needed a little somethin’ somethin’ for the long, lonely nights…
“You might be right.”
I stopped moving, almost drowning as my legs froze. Right about what? Needing some spank bank material?
“Maybe you are a lone wolf,” he said. Oh, right. Yep, yep. “And the fact that someone chose to place you amongst my shifters is a sure sign that you and I have been on a path to meet. Whether by fate or intervention, our meeting was inevitable.”
Water filled my mouth as I sank into the lake. Shadow was right, and the more I thought about it, the more I needed the answers as to why. Why was I the way I was? Why did I have these connections to the realm and to Shadow and the mists?
I was still a shifter, clearly, with a true mate and everything. But I was like no regular shifter. None of it made sense.
“What am I?” I asked him, my flirty eyes dead in the literal water as I focused on the fucked-up truth of my reality. “Should I even exist?”
Shadow was in my face in a heartbeat, and I sucked in a lungful of water, almost drowning this time for real. He wrapped an arm around me, hauling me higher while I coughed up my lungs in an attempt to purge the water from them. History repeating itself. Even if that history had been only last night.
“Jesus, fuck,” I snarled, my voice hoarse from the manic coughing session. “That was not planned.”
“Nothing with you ever is,” Shadow drawled, and now that I wasn’t in immediate danger of dying, I noticed the position we were currently in.
He was holding me, and he was most definitely naked. I could feel the long, smooth lines of his body pressed against me, the hardness of his muscles so delicious against my softer curves. I tilted my head back to meet his gaze, and my breath started to burst from me in little pants. My entire vision was filled with Shadow, and once again, his taste was on my lips.
“We need to go,” he said softly. “We’re both clean, and now we’re wasting time.”
Neither of us moved.
“Shadow,” I breathed.
His eyes darkened. “You keep looking at me like that, Sunshine, and I promise that this fun little swim will end completely different from how it started.”
I groaned, trying to climb him, but he held me immobile. He’d done the same thing when he’d devoured my pussy, and it was the only time in my life I would admit to actually wanting to be restrained.
“End it differently,” I said with force. “Fucking live up to your reputation.”
Apparently, being hungry and sexually frustrated made me cranky. It was a flaw… Whatever.
His eyes darkened to something akin to Inky, and I had a brief thought of wondering where that smoke blob even was before Shadow tightened his hold. “You’ve been fighting me from the start,” he rasped near my ear. “No matter how much I push, you push back just as hard.”
“I know no other way,” I whispered against his neck, my face buried there as I breathed him in, my tongue darting out to trace the water on his skin.
Shadow groaned. “Mera, Sunshine. This is a bad idea. I’m not good for you, and I make no fucking promises. Ever.”
I licked him again, sucking against him, salivating at how freaking delicious he tasted. “I don’t want your promises,” I said truthfully. “I’m a grown-ass woman, and I know the deal. This is nothing more than what it is. Two horny people fucking because we can.”
He jerked me out of the water so fast, a scream died in my throat, and when his arms wrapped up under my thighs and around my ass, I found myself sitting right on his face. Like last time, he wasted no time getting straight to my clit, sucking it into his mouth, his teeth biting against the throbbing flesh.
My cry was choked because we were incognito in these parts, and screaming my lungs out was probably a bad idea. No matter how much I wanted to. Threading both of my hands through his hair, I dragged him as hard against me as I could, grinding into his clever mouth.
“Shadow,” I cried, jerking into him as the first orgasm hit me. It had been way too long between orgasms, and I fell over the edge so damn easily with this beast.
Arching my back, my tits were all but flapping in the breeze, but I was too far gone to care. Shadow held me in that firm grip, his large hands biting into my thighs, kneading against my ass. The strength of this god should have scared me, but I didn’t care.
If he killed me right now, I’d go out one fucking satiated bitch.
He looked up to meet my stare, and his eyes were blazing as he devoured me. When he pulled back a little, tongue stroking up in long, smooth slide, I came again, tightening my thighs and hands to the point that I knew I would have hurt anyone who wasn’t as strong as Shadow.
He didn’t stop and if the fire in his eyes was any indication, he liked the bite of pain.
Yep, we were the same amount of fucked-up, and that was what made it work with us.
His power zapped along my skin as I choked on my next screams, making me come harder than ever. His fiery electrical strike teetered on the fine line of pleasure and pain, and I craved it.
When the sensations were too much, I threw myself back, and it was only Shadow’s hold on me that kept my head above water. He laid me out on the waterline, his tongue’s strokes against my pussy slowing as he lapped at the moisture there, devouring everything my body offered. A buildup started again, stronger and with more intensity.
“Stop,” I begged. “Let me touch you as well or stop, Shadow.”
He paused before sucking my clit into his mouth, running his tongue around it slowly, sweeping it side to side and about killing me. Pulling back a fraction, I was breathing heavily as I watched him. “I’m not sure I can control my energy with you, Sunshine.”
It cost him to admit that, and I attempted not to let the fact that I affected Shadow settle in my heart.
“I don’t care.” Absolute truth. “As you like to remind me, I’ve risked my life every day since we met. What’s one more risk? Especially when it comes with reward.”
Using one arm, he slowly lifted me up so that I was vertical again, and as he dragged me closer, he allowed me to sink against his body. A hard cock pressed to my core as I slid farther down him.
“This is not going to happen here,” he warned me.
I jerked my head back. “What do you mean?” We were, like, right fucking there. He couldn’t stop now.
He narrowed his eyes on me, looking too damn gorgeous, all wet and bothered. “You want to lose your virginity in a fucking lake with the chances of Angel or any one of the many creatures roaming these lands to come upon us?”
I had to think about it, like really think about it, before I answered. “You’re going to take my virginity, right? If we stop now, you promise we will find a time to finish this?”
His lips tilted up, a wicked smile gracing his face. “Sunshine, I’m going to destroy you before I put you back together. But I don’t have the time right now for everything I intend to do, so you’re going to have to stop tempting me and let me get on with the rest of my mission.”
I tightened my legs around his waist, groaning as the tip of his cock slipped inside, the burning stretch just enough to be fun.
Shadow’s chest rumbled as the fire of his power spilled across us. “What if,” I panted, “we never get another chance?”
Who knew what could happen after this? He was waging war against his powerful family, without his full powers.
“We will,” he said. “I’ll find time before we get to Trinity. Before… everything changes.”
Before his true mate came into the picture.
Shadow wrapped his arms around me, the sudden movement dislodging me, and I was about to protest until I realized he was hugging me. One of those full-bodied embraces that I felt through my entire soul. A warm blanket encasing me.
“Thank you.”
I jerked, wondering if he’d actually whispered those words. I had no idea if I’d heard it right, and even less idea what he was thanking me for, but I was fighting tears. This felt like a goodbye, and I fucking hated it. I wanted to scream and tear my skin off. I wanted to wrap myself around him like this and never let go.
But… if there was one thing I’d learned, it was that holding on as tightly as you could did nothing if the other person was doing everything they could to shove you away. Jaxson had taught me that with the sort of harsh lesson I’d never forget. It was tattooed on my soul the same way Shadow’s mists were tattooed on his body.
“We’ll have our moment, Sunshine,” he said, pulling away. “And then it will be over.”
I nodded. “I understand.”
And sadly, I did.
