to…?”
“Are you sure you want me to…?”
They both laughed. Nicky hung his head. “I couldn’t say anything out there but there’s something weird going on with me.”
“You mean besides turning into a wolf?” She cocked one hip and tried to play it cool, but her whole body trembled.
Nicky shook his head. “Yeah, besides that. I feel like I could crawl out of my skin, like if I don’t shoot my load right now I’ll explode. Beth, I have never felt so horny in my life. Never, but ever since I…” He raised his head and stared directly into her eyes. No way could Beth turn away from the need she saw on his face.
He raised one hand, as if to touch her face, then let it fall to his lap. “Fuck. I’ll live if I don’t get off, but I did it, Beth. I’ve been dreaming about running on four legs for so long now that when it happened it felt right. It was right. It was me, who I am. Who I should be.”
“Did it hurt? I mean, your bones changed and everything, and…”
Nicky shook his head. “No. Not at all. It was fucking fantastic!”
“You killed that kid, Nicky. You ripped his throat out, but no one’s saying anything about that part of you changing at all. Those people act like it didn’t happen. AJ just brushed it off when Logan called him on it.”
“I saw that punk grab her breast and everything went dark.” He turned away and gazed out the window. “I sort of understand their feelings, though. It’s like…” He took a deep breath. “That guy threatened a member of their pack and I protected her. They understand that. It’s why they got us out of there so fast, so I wouldn’t get busted. It’s hard to explain, but I see things differently since I shifted. I feel differently about stuff.”
He took Beth’s hand in his. His fingers were warm and strong. Protective. She felt safe with Nicky. Felt as if she understood him better than the others.
“You do, Beth.”
“What?”
“That’s another thing that’s really weird. I can see what you’re thinking. You just thought about how you understand me better. You do.”
A cold chill ran down her spine. What other things had she been thinking over the past few minutes? Beth put her hands on her hips and struck what even she considered a defensive pose. “Do you really want me to put those studs back in, Nicky?”
He shook his head and grinned for the first time since he’d changed. “No. They’ll just come out again next time I shift.”
“I want to watch when you do it. Do you really think I’ll be able to shift, too? Tala said we’re all able to turn into wolves if we just eat more of that grass. I really want to…”
Nicky put his fingers over her lips and smiled. “What I really want you to do is get naked with me.” He raised his head and cocked one eyebrow.
Beth burst out laughing. It took her a minute, but she got herself under control and really looked at Nicky. Nicholas Robert Barden. She liked the sound of his name almost as much as the way he looked. Tall and slim with his dark hair and smooth, dark skin, he could be anything from Native American to Middle Eastern. He looked different now, without the studs in his eyebrows and the tattoos that had covered his arms and chest.
Quiet and introspective, he was usually reading a book when he wasn’t working. He’d been the first of them to find the garden in the park. The first to chew the thick stems of that weird Tibetan grass.
The first of them to become a wolf.
He’d also been the first and only male she’d ever considered choosing to have sex with. It wasn’t like she was a virgin or anything. Her stepfather had seen to that, and life on the streets wasn’t always the safest place for a young woman, but she’d never willingly had sex before.
Well, that was about to change. She was twenty-one years old and it was time. Slowly she began unbuttoning her shirt. Nicky’s eyes went wide and he pulled the towel tighter around his waist.
“I was…I didn’t…Beth, I was teasing.”
She shook her head as she slipped her blouse over her arms and felt her long hair brush her naked shoulders. “I’m not. I’ve wanted to get naked with you for weeks now, but you never paid me any attention. Whether it’s the grasses or the changes in my body…or just you, I don’t know, but I’ve never felt so needy in my life. I’m not going to pass up this chance.”
Nicky dipped his chin almost to his chest. “You weren’t watching very closely if you think I haven’t been paying attention.”
Beth paused with both hands on the snap of her jeans. She raised her head and he raised his, and once again she found herself falling into Nicky’s amber-eyed gaze. “You were?”
He nodded. “I was. Most definitely.”
“Oh.”
“I don’t have any rubbers.”
“That I bet I can fix.” Leaving her jeans on but unsnapped, Beth leaned over and opened the drawer on the bedside table. It was filled with packages of prophylactics in all sizes and styles. “Tala said we should find everything we needed.”
Nicky reached for one of the condoms, but Beth grabbed his wrist. “No. This is my job.”
She heard him swallow, saw the tent in the front of the towel twitch as his cock surged in expectation, and her own nervousness fled. Slipping out of her jeans, Beth walked slowly across the room in her bra and panties and turned the lock on the bedroom door. When she turned around, Nicky was pulling back the bedcovers.
Beth shook her head. “I slept in the shelter last night, but I didn’t get to use the showers. You might have been a wolf, but you still killed a guy with your teeth. We’re taking a shower before we do anything else.”
He laughed and held out his hand. When she tugged him to his feet, he let the towel fall away from his hips. She stood dead still and just stared at him. Damn but she wanted to touch him. Wanted to run her fingers along the swollen length of his cock and rub the tip of her thumb over the smooth glans where a tiny drop of white fluid clung to the narrow slit. He’d feel like silk beneath her fingers. Silk and steel.
She held herself back, though. If she started anything at all with Nicky, she’d have to finish.
She really wanted that shower.
Tugging on his hand, she dragged him into the bathroom. It was bright and clean and the shower was huge, with two showerheads and seats built in at both ends. Nicky turned the water on while Beth slipped out of her bra and panties. She wasn’t at all nervous, which was absolutely weird. She should be scared to death, getting into a shower with a guy who was as aroused as Nicky. As aroused as she felt.
She stepped beneath the warm spray, and it was pure heaven the way the water pounded over her head and shoulders. She hadn’t had a good shower in a nice bathroom since she’d run away from home, and that had been at least four—no, five—years ago.
As if she could forget the night she’d lost her virginity. She shuddered as memories flowed unbidden into
