back. He licked and sucked and fingered her, playing with her pussy and ass until she came over his tongue.
As she shivered and released, she sucked him like a Hoover. And when she tightened her hand around his balls and hollowed her cheeks again, he jetted down her throat. The orgasm swept his emotions up as well, and he swirled about in a haze of love and contentment he’d never felt before.
Sophie finished swallowing him down and let him fall from her mouth at the same time he pushed her up from his lips. The mating scent permeated her room.
“God, you were so hard.” She turned around and accepted the tug of his hand to lie on top of him.
“So were you. A firm little clit under my tongue. Man, I love the way you taste.”
She rubbed her cheek against his chest, and he could almost see her blushing.
“So you’re okay with this? With us, Sophie?”
“Oh yeah.”
Monty felt her sigh through to his bones. “Good. Me too.”
“Me too,” she repeated, then yawned.
His mate. His future. And, God willing, his pup growing inside her even now. Monty closed his eyes and fell asleep, happiness not only in his reach, but in his arms.
Chapter Five
Ted Norris sighed as he hunkered down, studying the mess of tracks that the rain had partially wiped away. A noise nearby caught his attention, and without moving more than his hand clutching a knife, he noted the baby rabbit darting across the forest floor. Poor thing, looking lost, too young to be without its mother.
Ted flung the knife and skewered the rabbit into the ground, right again with the world. Predator hunting prey. The strong triumphing over the weak, as it should be.
“Dad—”
The glare he sent his oldest had Brett correcting himself. “ Ted , this isn’t getting us anywhere. You need to heal. We can only avoid the wolves so long before they find us. The mountains just aren’t that big to these fuckers.”
Brett had a point. Still. “What have I always told you? You don’t let the world know your weaknesses, boy. There’s no father and son out there. No friends. Hunters hunt, and sometimes we die,” he ended on a growl, remembering the half dozen in his last Hunting expedition that he’d lost. Damn fine men, a victim to the unnatural shapeshifters tainting the righteous man’s world.
His son didn’t flinch. A definite improvement. “Boy? I’m thirty-five years old. And I’ve killed my share of freaks, same as you.”
Ted snorted. “Your point?”
“I’m a Hunter. I know when to cut my losses, regroup and start fresh. I know how to be smart. You taught me that.” Brett frowned and gripped the sling of his rifle. “We need to get back so you can heal. You favor your left side, and your face looks infected. Charlie’s home manning the store, and all’s quiet there. But last I talked to him, he said a buddy of his ran into a few dickhead cats sniffing around. Could make problems for us if others find out.”
Ted nodded. Working alongside their normal prey to get a shot at finding a Shifter hot spot had been genius, but his community wasn’t known for wheeling and dealing. A big reason why so many of his friends were dying. They stuck to tradition, going for the big kill. But times had changed. Technology could be useful, and so could allies in strange places. Imagine Hunters making friends with shapeshifters. It wasn’t done.
Then again, Ted hadn’t ever intended to make good on his pledge of alliance. He’d planned to use the cats, then skin them alive, one by one.
“I had him, you know.” Ted stood and retrieved his knife. He wiped blood on a bed of moss and stuck the knife back in its sheath around his thigh. “Demon was there.”
Demon—the cold-blooded Shifter he’d never broken, not in the six blessed years he’d held on to the creature. That monster wolf had fought and killed more Shifters and Hunters than any other Ac-taw Ted had ever owned. Demon had been a favorite in the pits and Ted’s personal pride and
Larry Niven, Nancy Kress, Mercedes Lackey, Ken Liu, Brad R. Torgersen, C. L. Moore, Tina Gower
Daniel J. Fairbanks
Mary Eason
Annie Jocoby
Riley Clifford
My Dearest Valentine
Carol Stephenson
Tammy Andresen
Terry Southern
Tara Sivec