Ella stared in his face. “Why can’t I go any farther?”
“The
felen
. The ones down here are dangerous. We don’t mess with them.”
Ella turned in a circle. “I can feel her. All I feel is love.”
“She is love. And your father loved her.”
Ella stumbled. “My–” she shook her head. “I don’t want to talk about my father right now. I may be at my limit for weird stuff today.”
Trevor pulled her to him with an arm around her waist, then took her hand and kissed it, directly in the center of her palm, sending chills through her body. “Unfortunately, weird is a daily staple around here.”
Ella put her head back slightly and closed her eyes, soaking up Trevor’s nearness. This was what she wanted. Simple, uncomplicated. Just to be together.
He nibbled on her fingertips and she smiled. “Mmmm.”
“You like that?”
“I like you.”
Trevor pulled her closer, walking her towards the wall of the tunnel, pressing her body against it with his own. “You don’t think I’m scary?”
She opened her eyes and blinked at him in the dim light. “You are scary, but not to me.”
He leaned in and kissed her neck, his voice lowering. “I’m sorry about what happened in Wade’s office. That wasn’t me acting like that.” He rubbed his chin as if remembering Mac’s blood there.
“Don’t be sorry for something you can’t help, Trevor. I can’t say I enjoyed it, but, in a strange way it made me feel safe.”
Trevor pressed the hardness of his body into her. She ran her fingers over his biceps and up to his shoulders as he continued to kiss her.
“You are always safe with me.”
His soft mouth and scratchy scruff found just the right place behind her ear. She shivered and felt her body respond strongly.
Trevor sniffed her skin. “Ah, you smell so good.”
Ella laughed. “What do I smell like?”
“Cinnamon and sugar and when you get aroused, there is a healthy spray of vanilla in there too.”
Ella put her hands on his chest. “Seriously?”
He smiled and pulled away from her slightly, covering her hands with his. “Yes, it’s a wonderful smell, it’s what first attracted me to you.”
“My smell?”
“Why do you look upset. That’s a good thing, especially to
wolven
. We care a lot what females smell like. I’ve never smelled anyone who smelled as good as you.”
“I don’t know. I guess women like to be noticed for their beauty, or their minds, but not so much for their scent.” She looked over his shoulder for a moment. “Wait, am I a woman? I’m not a
shiften
, and I’m not quite human, so what am I?”
Trevor leaned in close, his voice soothing. “We’re writing this history Ella, and I say you can be anything you want to be.”
“I want to be a woman.” She caught his eye and smiled. “I’ve never fit in anywhere, Trevor, not in my family, not at school, not with other kids. I feel like I could fit in here, even if I’m not quite the same.”
Trevor nodded solemnly. “You do fit in. You heard Crew. You are to be─”
She stopped him with a finger over his lips. “Eh. I don’t want to think about that right now. It’s too much.”
Trevor nodded and pressed his lips together, miming locking them and throwing away a key. He closed his eyes and took a big breath through his nose. “Scent is beauty, you know.” He opened his eyes and curled a lock of her hair back from her face. “You are also very beautiful to look at.” He took another breath and smiled wickedly. “Vanilla.”
Ella hit him in the chest and leaned in close, whispering. “Are you saying I’m aroused?”
“Aren’t you?”
She dropped the game. If he could smell it, he knew she was. “Yes. I want you. I seem to always want you no matter how much I have you, no matter how much crap we have to go through.”
He groaned and leaned into her, kissing her neck again. “I need to take you home.”
“You need to take me,” she whispered into his ear, reaching down to feel him through his pants. He was hard, huge, and ready against her hand. She loved that she had done that to him with barely a few words.
“Ella, don’t touch me like that. Not unless you want me to turn you around and take you right here in the tunnels.”
She looked left, then right. “I don’t see anybody. Take me, but don’t turn me around.” She undid her pants and let them fall to the floor, staring into his eyes. “We’ve been together several times now, and you’ve always taken me from behind. Is that the only way
wolven
do it?”
“It’s the only way I’ve ever done it.”
Ella bit her lip, not wanting to think about him with others. But she could be his first in this manner. The first to look in his face, kiss his lips, as he shuddered out his release. The thought made her feel powerful and she felt her body respond to it and to him.
She pulled him forward by his pants, undoing them quickly. “Are we safe here?”
“Yes, no one will come this far. There is no reason to.”
“Good.” She reached into his pants and pulled him out, running her hands up and down his shaft.
He threw his head back. “Oh God, Ella.”
She smiled and stroked him faster. “God?”
“It’s an expression. You’re making me believe in him.”
He looked at her and his eyes glowed yellow, making her gasp. A growling came from the back of his throat and he lifted her easily. “You control me, Ella, you know that, right?”
Ella nodded hesitantly, wondering if that really could be true, if the beast inside him really could be fully controlled. She wrapped her legs around him and urged him on, wanting the wildness, needing the connection with him.
He thrust into her and she held on to his shoulders, her body shaking with need that had come on quickly and perilously hard. She was close to orgasm already and the sensations that built quickly as he lifted and lowered her and thrust into her overtook her, making her drop her head against the wall and whimper.
“I believe in heaven too,” Trevor growled into her ear. “You take me there every time you let me inside you.”
The words swept over Ella and she rocked into him, that one simple movement and his sweet sentiment pushing her over that beautiful edge she had barely had to reach for. Ecstasy flooded through her and she cried out into the darkness, keeping her eyes on him, the echoes coming back to her as Trevor pressed his upper body against hers and moaned out his own release in time with hers.
Trevor stared hard at Ella for a moment, needing some time to catch his breath. That had been intense. They touched foreheads and he could tell she felt as overwhelmed as he did.
She gathered herself. “Did you mind it?”
“Taking you while being able to watch your face as you came? I loved it. That’s how we do it from now on.”
Ella laughed. “You think you’re in charge of an awful lot, don’t you? There’s something to be said for doggy style occasionally.”
“Doggy?”
“Wolfy? Wolf-style? I don’t know, what do you call it?”
Trevor threw back his head and laughed. “We just call it sex. Or mating.” He lowered Ella to the floor, looking around apologetically as he tucked himself back into his pants and snapped them. “I don’t have anything to clean up with.”
“I’ll live,” she told him, catching his lips for one more kiss. He felt his cock jump and he told it to relax. She pulled back and looked around. “Which tunnel goes to your house?”
“You want to see my house?” he asked eagerly. He wanted to take her there but hadn’t quite dared until now.
“Yes.”
“Come on.” He pulled her back the way they had come, walking more quickly than they had on the way there. His heart was light. She was a one true mate, and even if she hadn’t said she would mate him yet, it would happen. He knew it would.
He reached out to Trent and Troy, who agreed to meet them in the truck in an hour, after he got them out of the tunnels and talked to Wade one more time.
An hour and a half later, they slowed to a crawl as Trevor locked eyes with the stone cougar baring its teeth in a perpetual deadly snarl on the country road that led towards his farmhouse.
He could feel Ella’s eyes on him and the agitation of the wolves in the back seat, but he couldn’t speed up. He had to pay his tribute. After they passed, he noticed a small sign driven into the dirt, but facing the other way. He whipped his head backwards to read it. It hadn’t been there the last time he’d headed in to town from his house, but that had been several days ago.
Werewolves aren’t always controlled by the moon. Wake up people!
Trevor pulled over quickly and put the truck in park. “Just a sec,” he said, then jumped out and ran across the street. He pulled the sign out and threw it in the back of his truck, weighting it down with a rock. He would assign an investigation into it to someone when he had a moment to breathe.
He climbed back in the truck and they were off, pulling down a small dirt road that lead only to his house, his thirty acres where he felt most at home.
Ella leaned forward as they drove down his long driveway. “Oh, it’s cute. And big. Why do you need so much space?”
“I needed the acreage. The house didn’t matter to me.” He pointed behind it. “See that tree line there? We run out there every day that we can. It keeps us healthy.”
“You and Trent and Troy?”
“Yes.”
“You run as a wolf?”
“I do.”
The scent of vanilla filled the truck and he chuckled.
“What!” she demanded but by the flush on her cheeks, she knew. He thought it was hot as hell that she was turned on by his true nature. He’d have to shift in front of her as often as possible. Maybe play a few stalking games in the forest, if she was into that kind of thing. He couldn’t wait to find out.
He stopped the truck near the house and they got out.
“Why are the windows so big?”
“I ripped out the old ones and put them in. They pop out completely during the summer. I like to let in as much light and air as possible.”
She turned toward him. “You did it yourself?”
“I like to work with my hands.”
She nodded thoughtfully, then followed him into the house. As soon as she entered, she made a small noise of amazement and turned in a circle, staring up at the ceiling.
The outside of the house looked very similar to the way it had the day he bought it, but the inside he had completely changed. Rough-hewn logs covered every corner, and the ceiling and walls were lined with thin sticks, giving it a very log-cabin look. All of the furniture was handmade, and even the countertops in the kitchen and the shelves on the wall were made of a luminous and matching hard maple.
“You did this?”
Trevor nodded.
“By yourself?”
“It’s still a work in progress, but this is what I do if I’m not at work.”
“Wow,” she breathed. “Can I see the rest of it?”
Trevor took her through the bottom floor, showing her the bathrooms and the guest bedrooms, then taking her to the other side of the house. “This is Trevor and Troy’s room.”
“They sleep on actual beds?” Before he could respond she shook her head. “Don’t answer that. Of course they do.”
“This way. That’s the basement,” he said pointing towards a door in the hallway, “but I don’t ever go down there.”
He led her to the stairway. She ran her hands over his rough banister. “This is gorgeous.”
Trevor smiled to himself. She was more perfect every minute. At the top of the stairs, first he went left and showed her another bathroom and three more bedrooms he hadn’t done anything with yet, then he pulled her to the master bedroom.
“Oh wow, this is like heaven.”
He smiled, remembering saying something similar to her just a couple of hours before. He looked around the room, admiring it with fresh eyes. The entire room was done in dark, rustic oak, the bed left rough and chunky, while the armoire was sleek. A chest covered with deep green pillows sat on one side, and a handmade couch on the other. The walls and ceiling were lined again with twigs, giving the entire room a very outdoor look. On nights when he lay awake, unable to sleep, he could very well imagine he was outside. She crossed to the bed and ran her hands over the detail there. “Careful,” he growled. “Don’t lay down unless you want to stay up here for a while.”
Vanilla flooded the room, thrilling him. He caught movement out the window and crossed to look out. A car had pulled up at the end of the driveway and parked.
Ella looked out with him. “Who’s that?”
“Mac maybe. I’m not sure. Wade said he was sending a crew out to watch over us.”
“What? Why?”
“Just a precaution. You’re very precious to us, all of us.”
Ella sat on the bed and her fingers curled around her lower belly. Trevor watched her closely, Crew’s words flashing through his mind.
Life begins anew. Love brings two, then four, then six more. Khain’s downfall lives inside her. She will be queen
.
He bit his lip, trying to contain his excitement. Could anyone really know if she were with young already? It had been what, a day at the most? But those words,
lives inside her
, they struck him hard.
A realization flashed through him, about one of the prophecies that was supposed to apply to him. It was referred to as the demon death or sometimes,
Khain’s downfall
. He sat on the bed next to Ella as weakness flooded his legs. Was this his confirmation that it wasn’t about him at all?
Ella interrupted his thoughts. “How long are they going to watch us?”
“I don’t know. Until we are properly mated, I’m sure. Maybe longer?”
She turned to him. “But Trevor, that could be years.”
Trevor’s chest ached. “Years?”
“Yes, I mean, we barely know each other. We should do this properly, don’t you think? Date, get to know each other, get engaged, plan a wedding. That all takes time.”
“You are thinking of human courtship.”
“Isn’t that how
shiften
do things?”
“Not normally. Two
shiften
who belong together know it at first scent sometimes. At first mating for sure.”
Ella touched her throat, her graceful fingers trembling. “So you don’t date?”