“Calm down, Rome,” Avian warns.
“Listen to your friend,” I whisper through clenched teeth.
Roman’s thick eyebrows lift high, and I can physically feel his power radiating off his smooth chest. It’s a spark in his eyes. He wants the altercation. It’s something that gives him life. Maybe that’s all he has.
But right now is not the time.
“I physically can’t shift,” I say as rationally and steadily as I can.
“You can’t orwon’t?” Zilo tilts his head low, and though he isn’t as forceful as his friend here, I know he’s just as powerful.Morepowerful from the looks of him.
“I can’t. I try and I feel it build but just…never happens.” I swallow hard at the self-conscious confession that I’ve kept secret from everyone I’ve ever met.
It’s my secret. And I just gave it away to three strangers for the simple price of early admission into hell. Lucky me.
“Ah, so it’s performance anxiety, huh?” Rome’s perfectly snarling smirk is right back against his lips.
“I fucking hate you,” I finally tell him.
“I know you do.” It’s a whispered statement that fans over my cheek as he leans in. His warm words wash further down my neck as he whispers once more. “Feels good, doesn’t it?”
My palms collide hard into his chest, his warm skin lingering along my fingertips for what feels like an eternity. Especially when he grips my wrists and pulls me forcefully against his nakedness.
The slamming of my heart kicks in just as I lift my leg, my knee grazing against the spot just between his thighs. His eyes widen with sparking interest of some kind: Excitement. Deranged insanity. A little bit of both, maybe.
But my knee never connects.
And his pain never seems to come.
Because with the next pounding of my heart, heat floods my flesh. It scorches my skin. It fucking burns me alive me in pain.
Smoke and fire blaze in slashing colors, but I fade away into nothingness before I can fully see the effects of my surroundings.
And then…I’m pacing on four strong, powerful legs.
What. The. Fuck.
First time, huh, beautiful?An annoying little voice says at the back of my mind.Avian would have taken things slow with you, but it feels better when it’s fast and hard, sometimes doesn’t it?
The forest is a blur of dense darkness around me. My sight swims as it tries to adjust. When I try to speak, a pathetic little whine is all that comes out.
No one likes a whiner. Stop. You’re making us look bad.Roman’s voice is all I know.
I can hear him. I can feel him. His warmth and energy is wrapped all around me but it isn’t suffocating like I’d imagine it. It feels .. natural. Like he’s holding me in the most intimate way no one ever has before.
“You didn’t have to absorb her,” Avian scolds.
When my—Roman’s—head looks up, Avian is staring down at us. A familiar look of disappointment is in his boyish features.
“Whatever. We need to go,” Zilo says and then, in an explosion of smoke, he too shifts. An enormous beast with shining black fur and jagged white teeth now stands at my side. He’s bigger. Bulkier. Scarier.
Without a second wasted, he leaps paws first through the fiery circle of golden magic.
A long drawn out sigh shoves from Avian’s lips as he shakes his head. Another pulse of ashen fireworks and a lean, chestnut brown wolf stands where the sweet man just was.
He’s smaller than myself, less intimidating. Sweet, gentle,wolfisheyes peer up at me.
You’ll be okay.Avian’s smooth voice whispers through my head, just a bit more distant than Roman’s had. It’s like glass separates him and me.We’ll take care of you. We won’t let anyone harm you.
