I stand on the shore staring at the two of them playing together like nothing ever changed. I had almost forgotten how good they always looked next to each other, one as golden as the day, the other as mysterious as the night. Aeron with his sun-bronzed hair and blue eyes, Tyler with his jet-black hair and onyx eyes, their tanned bodies gleaming with droplets of splashed water.
It had tormented me that I had destroyed his closest friendship. Aeron cut me out of his life so decisively, and yet here he is laughing together with Tyler, the both of them still as close as ever.
My lip trembles, and I feel angry tears forming in my eyes. It feels like a betrayal somehow.
And what is worse, my body is reacting to the sight of Tyler the same way as it always did. I had always denied it before, but I know better now. Dane had taught me to recognize my arousal for what it is. My breath quickening, my nipples stiffening, my cheeks flushing.
And that is when they both turn and see me.
For a moment I stare at the both of them and they stare at me. Their eyes scan down my body, and I am conscious of my thin swimsuit and my jutting nipples, and my lips slightly parted but my throat too dry to say hello.
And then the smile on Aeron’s face dies. He turns his back on me. Tyler looks from me to Aeron and back again. A shuttered look comes into his eyes. He had been my friend once, but he turns away from me too.
Suddenly I can’t breathe. I had forgotten how badly this hurt, how awful and alone it had felt last time.
And now it feels like everyone around us on the beach saw them reject me. I dare not look at them. I want to flee, but if I run they will know for sure. I try to smile, act like nothing happened, but my lips refuse to obey.
And then I become aware of a girl in the water not far from Aeron. She is a tall slender blond in a tiny bikini who looks like she came straight out of a swimsuit magazine. She is looking at me, her eyes slightly narrowed at my stricken expression.
She leaves the game to come over to me, a strange smile on her face. She stops a few feet away and sniffs the air.
“I smell a human,” she says, loudly enough for everyone nearby to hear.
The people near me are now all looking at the both of us, as if sensing something interesting is about to happen.
The blond girl slowly comes closer, moving like she is hunting me. And then she leaps at me, her features distorting, her body changing.
I scream and fall backwards into the sand. And then she is human again, and standing over me, laughing.
I had forgotten this. In Otherworld werewolves can shift form at will. It is only on Earth that they are restricted to shifting at full moon, when the energy between the two worlds is most closely aligned.
I lay in the sand like an idiot while some of the people around us laugh. Their laughter is mostly harmless, like they think she meant only to play a trick on me. But I know better.
She crouches down to look at me. “Who invited you, human?”
“Leave her alone, Cilla.”
It is Aeron. He is striding over.
Cilla backs off, looking annoyed. “It was just a little fun.”
Aeron scowls at her. She gives an irritated shrug, and returns to the water and the game.
Aeron helps me up off the sand.
“You okay?” he asks, his voice gentle.
My cheeks are burning. I nod, and brush the sand off myself.
“Come on.” He gives me his hand.
I gratefully take it, my heart now thundering. I feel eyes burning into my back. I look over my shoulder to see Tyler looking at us. I look away. I follow Aeron down the beach, away from the crowd to a quiet spot.
We turn to look at each other, neither of us saying anything.
“Thank you,” I murmur.
“It was nothing.”
“I was something to me.”
“I won’t allow anyone to treat you like that,” he says fiercely.
My heart skips a beat. He still cares.
His hands rise from his sides. For a moment I think he is going to take me into his arms, but he merely brushes some sand off my shoulders. His hands linger on me, stroking slowly down my arms, sending tingles to my core.
“Aeron,” I whisper.
I step up close to him, my eyes desperately searching his, my face tilted up to him.
He groans, and he roughly pulls me against his body. He kisses me, hot and desperate, ravaging me with his lips. His hands stroke down my waist and clench my buttocks, pulling me hard against him.
I gasp, overwhelmed with our need. My hand slips into the band of his shorts, more daring than I ever was before, needing to feel his hard buttocks, and what is lower.
He roughly pushes me away from him. “No!”
“Aeron.” I reach for him, not ready to let go.
“I can’t do this,” he says, looking furious. “You shouldn’t have come here.”
