The Wild Moon by Riley Storm

Chapter Forty-Three

One moment there was nothing, and the next, his presence slammed into and past me.

Before I could turn, I watched as blue fire appeared between Johnathan and me, rising from the floor until it obscured the other side from view, an opaque wall of blue energy that stayed in perfect position.

Grimacing, I turned slowly, fervently wishing for some clothes and a magic potion that would restore me to health. If it wasn’t who I thought it might be, then I was in deep, deep trouble.

It wasn’t.

“Uh, hi,” I said, desperately trying to cover up as I stared at the enormous creature staring at me.

It had to be over eight feet tall. Blue fire burned all over his body, but most forcefully from his eyes. They were twin orbs of swirling flame focused entirely on me and my completely and utterly exposed skin. The flames flickered in and out over his body, that heavy mass of muscle that glistened in the ghostly white light of this place.

He was dressed in nothing but a pair of gray sweatpants, that had no business fitting someone of his size, and a pair of dark black boots. Nothing over his waist, revealing a delicious V-line that disappeared into the edge of his sweats. It was far too sexy a sight to be considered anything less than a turn-on.

With his looks came his presence, a sense of power and demand that made me shiver. I pressed the ends of my nipples into my arm as I desperately tried to stay covered up in front of…whoever this was.

He stared at me, unspeaking for a long time. The thick, heavy silence was broken only by my labored breathing as I struggled not to moan at the heavenly sight before me.

I had no idea who this Giant Sex Machine was, but my body wanted him something bad, and worst of all, even my wolf was begging me to throw myself at him. Which was entirely weird because I had no idea if he was going to help me or eat me. And not in the good way. For all I knew, this creature could quite literally burn me in his fire to a nice medium-rare and have Dani-strips for dinner and leftovers.

Though the more I focused on him, the more I realized I didn’t feel in danger. He was giving off mega-power vibes something fierce, but nothing else. Certainly not the terror I felt when I’d been staring down Johnathan and his pack.

At some point, his mouth started moving, but I only heard a dull roar in my ears, nothing more. I couldn’t focus on anything but him. My body was ready. Right here, right now, and that should have scared me, how easily he could have what he wanted from me, but it didn’t.

It just excited me more.

His lips moved some more. I watched them, wondering what they would feel like on me. Would they burn, like the fire that covered him from head to toe? Or would they be as pleasant to the touch as they were to look at? Like everything else about him.

“Pardon?” I hear myself say when his mouth stopped moving.

I just wanted to watch him talk. I was so wrapped up in it I could probably masturbate to it. Which said a lot about my dreadfully nonexistent sex life, I’m afraid.

“Who are you?”

This time the fire-man’s question came through enough that I could understand him. I stared back, trying to discern more facial features through the hue of fire that covered him, but it was nigh impossible.

“Who are you?” I asked back instead of answering his question.

“Why are you here?” he repeated. “Who are you?”

I shook my head. “Who are you? Where am I?”

Behind us, a third voice entered the conversation. Well, more a sound than anything. Growling rumbled through the tunnel. Turning, I saw the flames dulling over the barrier, Johnathan’s face visible from the other side.

He had both hands planted on the barrier, and I realized with a laugh that he was trying to impose his will on this…man. Being. Creature.

I laughed harder. It was pathetic to watch. Whoever the being was, he was a thousand times more alpha and impressive than Johnathan could ever be. And he’d done nothing but speak to me. It wasn’t even a contest.

When I looked at Johnathan, I could admit he was a handsome male. Tall, good facial structure, muscular. He was not hard on the eyes. But I viewed it in a dispassionate, detached, almost clinical manner.

Whereas when I looked at the newcomer, I wanted to submit to him, stranger or not. I practically ached for him to bend me over right there in the tunnel entrance or force me to my knees. I wanted to be his, even having no idea who or what he was. My body was on fire simply from his presence.

There could not have been a starker contrast between those who expected submission and those who earned it. Giant Sex Machine was an Alpha, a dominant force of nature, who earned submission by sheer presence.

Johnathan was an angry shifter who had never truly learned to become an adult. I would never look at him the same.

“Leave her alone,” Johnathan barked through the barrier as he managed to gain enough space to talk. His voice was strained with effort, though. I didn’t know how he was shoving the fire aside, but in a battle of wills, if Giant Sex Machine focused on him, Johnathan would lose in a nanosecond.

“Stop it,” I said to Johnathan. “You can’t fight him.”

“Like hell I can’t. She’s mine, you asshole!” Johnathan snarled. “Remove this barrier and face me yourself. Coward.”

I gasped and darted to the side of the tunnel as the giant man-thing’s eyes flared so bright with blue flame that it lit up the entire tunnel and forced me to shield my eyes.

“Stop it, Johnathan,” I snapped angrily as the fire faded.

“No. This coward won’t face me because he’s afraid I would win,” Johnathan said tautly, staring at the giant behind me.

“Yeah, I don’t think that’s it,” I said, looking over my shoulder as the stranger hauled back a fist and casually punched a boulder out of the wall, hammering at an outcropping until a piece of rock the size of my torso fell into his hands.

He hefted it casually and then, with surprising speed and grace for someone his size, hurled it so fast past my head the air screamed. Johnathan had no time to duck aside, but it didn’t matter because the rock shattered into a thousand pieces against the barrier.

The creature grunted, a sound that was almost…surprised? I wasn’t sure, but that seemed like the best description. Perhaps mixed with some disappointment, too.

“What were you expecting to happen?” I asked the giant.

“Just that,” he says, and this time I definitely picked up disappointment. “Though, I’d hoped otherwise.”

I looked at Johnathan, who otherwise would have been pummeled with the rock.

“Yeah, me, too,” I agreed. “That would have been nice.”

He looked at me, forced to crane his neck way down. The fire still obscured everything above his lips, with only those blue eyes burning brightly enough for me to separate them from the rest of his face.

“What now?” I asked. “Do you kill me? Is that your next objective?”

That got me a strange look.

“No,” the fire-being said. “Now, we go from here.”

“We do? Where do we–Oh,” I gasped as he reached down and threw me over his shoulder.

I had to stifle an unprompted moan at the sudden move, his muscles and dominance once more setting off an arousal in me that I couldn’t seem to get under control.

Then, we poofed.