Forsaken by E. M. Moore

4

My wolf sniffs the air, taking in the scent of the forest below: dirt, the trees, and believe it or not, Greystone Academy itself. The aroma of mixed shifters hits my wolf’s nostrils, making her nose scrunch. We love the smell of Daybreak shifters. The others are tolerable. It’s not like they smell bad, but when we’re next to a Daybreak shifter, we smell home.

Closing her eyes, my wolf shuts everything else out, picking up the scent of Daybreak. It makes her howl long and hard. She misses her home. She misses her people. This is not the life she signed up for when she first came out last year. I still remember her exhilaration. The shifter blood coursing through us until nature took over, shifting for the first time ever.

Both of us stop the memory before Sean comes into play. It’s not something we like to dwell on.

My wolf’s nose moves as she picks up the scent again, only this time it’s stronger. A branch breaks in the distance, and my wolf crouches into stealth mode. A flurry of movement advances from our right, along with paws thumping against the ground. She shakes her head. My panic rises for a split second before I realize it was an actual Daybreak pack member she was smelling and not just a memory she was holding onto.

Nathan’s black wolf bounds into view, tongue hanging out of his mouth. He tilts his head to the side as if to ask what we’re doing. He and I come up here to talk. It turns out, when the mates who are rightfully yours are probably fucking, you have a lot in common.

He moves forward, and my wolf settles down onto her hind legs as she waits for him to approach. He brushes his head against hers, and a warmth flows through us.

Shift?

I nod inside her, knowing she’ll be able to feel my thoughts like I can hers. She throws her head back at the same time the shift begins. I cringe as I’m propelled to the front again. I’ve always found shifting out of my wolf form the most jarring, like I’m being shot through hyperspace. Before I know it, the fur has receded and I spy my creamy white skin once more. I stand, straightening my back until I realize I didn’t bring clothes with me.

My face blooms red as I take off for the nearest tree to hide behind. It isn’t a particularly big tree, so it’s not hiding much. “Like I haven’t seen you before,” Nathan says, voice warm. “Here.”

A white shirt drops onto a small branch in front of me. I pick it up, turn it right side out, then pull it over my head before I face Nathan.

My wolf settles happily inside me, contentment making me think of her lying down with her tail swooshing from side to side.

“Forgot my clothes again,” I say as Nathan buttons the top of his jeans. He’s shirtless, standing before me, a smear of mud running from his shoulder into his patch of black chest hair. His muscles ripple with his movements, and I have to tell myself not to stare.

Nathan cuts through all the bullshit. “What’s wrong? You howled, then Nadia told me Ms. Ebon wanted to see you. Is it about Kinsey?”

I shake my head. “No, it’s not about her. It’s about me.”

He narrows his scrutinizing gaze. Part of me doesn’t want to say anything to him because if I’m going through this, he’s next. I got here only a couple of months before Nathan. But as much as I’d like to spare him, I know I won’t be able to.

I bite my cheek before pressing my lips together as I glance up at his blue eyes. “They’re giving Sean and I a timeline,” I inform him. “I have two weeks.”

Surprise ricochets through him, apparent by his look of pure confusion followed quickly by contempt. “Two weeks? Sean?”

I nod. “Lydia Greystone. She’s giving me two weeks for Sean to accept me or I’m going Feral.”

“No,” Nathan fumes, hands clenching to fists.

“I don’t think I really have a choice.” I release a humorless chuckle, though nothing about this is funny. I have a time limit on the day I’ll lose everything. It’s not exactly how one wants to live. I’d rather have a countdown to pizza or dessert.

“They can’t do that.”

“Pretty sure they can.”

“This is bullshit.”

“Might have said that to Ms. Ebon, but I don’t think it matters.”

Veins pop out on his forearms. “When I see Sean, I’m going to kill him.”

The baring of his teeth tells me I’m not sure I could count Nathan out if he were to fight Sean. I can’t say I’ve never wanted to get a few hits in on his stupid fated mate. “You might get a chance to do that,” I tell him. “Ms. Ebon says she’s going to petition for Daybreak shifters to go back to their pack so I can see Sean again. She acts like the Winter Solstice party will be my savior or something.”

Nathan’s chest heaves. “You have to find a way.”

My jaw locks. I push forward, hitting his shoulder as I pass. “Just how am I going to do that? I’ve tried for the last year and haven’t gotten anywhere.”

“Does it matter?” His voice is far away at first, but he follows me to the hill’s edge as I sit. I lean against a rock with my legs outstretched, and when he speaks again, I can hear the barely restrained anger as plain as day. “You have to try everything. It’s that or go Feral.”

I shrug, trying to keep my own fury in check. “You act like that’s something new. The stakes have always been the same.”

“Not with a time limit,” he growls. “Fuck, Mia. You can’t go Feral.”

Parts of me harden at his words, resonating with them. I want to fight, too. I want to show up at Daybreak and tell Sean what a huge fucking prick he is for doing this to me. But I don’t think it will make a difference. If he hasn’t decided by now, what else could I possibly do to get him to leave Gayle alone and realize that all he should want has been waiting for him this whole time?

Even as I think it, my stomach roils. “There’s nothing I can do,” I say evenly.

He sits next to me, reaches out his hand and makes me look at him with a grip on my chin. “The fuck there isn’t. You’re going to the Winter Solstice festivities. You’re….” His gaze changes as he looks at me, and I swallow hard at the intensity. A pull starts between us, like I’m tied to a line he’s tethered to and fate is making it shorter and shorter, bringing us closer together with every moment.

“Nathan.”

His lips meet mine. My wolf yips inside, and I accidentally bite his lip, but it doesn’t deter him. In fact, it spurs him on. He delves his tongue into my mouth, groaning, igniting need and hunger deep inside me.

I’ve kissed guys before. Never when I had a mate, of course. Nathan’s been the only one, so I’m not sure if the feelings coursing through me are because of Nathan or the fact that I’m mated, but I can say, with one hundred percent certainty, that kissing another shifter never felt like this before.

“Mia, fuck,” he says, uttering those words just over my lips. “I can’t lose you.”

Air saws in and out of my lungs. With nothing but the natural world as our witness, I want Nathan to kiss me again. I feel it deep in my bones. “What is happening?” I ask.

He runs his hand down my thigh, tangling it in the hem of my shirt. “I don’t know. Shit.”

He goes to pull away, but I slam my lips to his again. In a world that’s so messed up, Nathan and I have always felt right. I’m probably getting this all wrong, we’re probably supposed to just be friends, but I’m sick of being denied a mate—someone who is supposed to be there for me no matter what. Nathan has been that person, and I don’t want to let him go. “I’m going to get sent away,” I say, voice breaking.

“No.” That single sound is uttered with finality and darkness that I press my thighs together. His fingertips dig into my hip. “God, this is so wrong.” Despite his words, he kisses me again with so much force that I drop my shoulders to the ground, and he hovers above me. “I don’t care, though.”

His words squeeze my heart. He’s come a long way from a guy who didn’t want to discuss our first kiss earlier.

“If someone sees us,” I warn.

“What? They’ll make you go Feral?”

“You’ve got a point,” I tell him, my arms moving around his back and tugging him on top of me. Don’t think, I tell myself. If two weeks is all I have left, I want to enjoy that time with the one shifter who has been here for me through all of this. Don’t think about what it means. Don’t try to analyze it.

He dips his hips to mine, and his cock brushes against my lower stomach.

His hard cock.

The intimate touch short-circuits my brain, and animalistic need takes over. I lift my hips into him, and we slide together, grinding against one another to relieve the ache. Our hurried breaths deepen. It’s as if we can’t get enough. Nathan kisses a trail down the curve of my neck to my collarbone, and he doesn’t stop there. He hovers his mouth over my breast, then bites down on my hard nipple.

“Holy shit.”

“Don’t tell me to stop,” he grinds out.

My mind blitzes as he does it again, his tongue laving against my covered breast. My shirt is a barrier that needs to stay. Once that comes off, everything will be laid bare. “Maybe we should shift so we don’t—”

Nathan places his palm on my lower belly, his thumb skirting closer to the apex of my thighs.

“We don’t even know what will happen if we do this,” I say, simultaneously wanting him to touch me and dreading it.

“What?” Nathan asks. “You think Fate will smite us? She’s already not doing us any favors.”

I place my hand on his, stopping it from traveling further south. He lifts his head to look at me. His eyes shine with something akin to passion.

I expect to feel a pang for the face that’s not his, but I don’t. All I see is him, haloed by a ring of dark clouds coming this way. Are they a sign from the universe? A negative omen that what we’re about to do can never be taken back?

I have a decision to make: pull his hand away or let him continue. Above me, Nathan turns his head to the side, regarding me in that way he does where it’s like he’s trying to figure me out. “What will it mean?” I ask him.

He presses his mouth into a thin line, lips glistening from our frenzied kisses. I can tell he’s getting frustrated, but that’s why I wanted to talk about the kiss earlier. “Mia, does this feel good?” he asks, moving his thumb from side to side over my eager flesh.

Beneath his touch, muscles tighten in anticipation. “Yes,” I croak out.

“Then stop asking so many questions. If it ever doesn’t feel good, tell me to stop.”

He goes to move again, but I stay his hand. “Does it feel good for you?”

“You have no fucking idea,” he growls.

He wedges between my legs, and I open for him. A slick wetness drips from my pussy. It’s an embarrassingly large pool. A knot forms in my stomach as I push his hand south. His fingers brush over my folds, and I work my hips up into him. “I’m so wet,” I tell him, breath coming out in rushed gasps.

“Oh, Mia,” Nathan counters. “If you could only feel me right now. I’ve never been so hard in my life.”

My mind starts to veer toward the why and the how, but as soon as Nathan sinks his finger into my core, I blank. “Fuck, Nathan. Shit. What are they going to do to us?”

“Who cares? I’ll die happy,” he murmurs as he moves his finger in and out. I move with him, forcing the pace. I didn’t think I’d be able to feel this with anybody else. This kind of pleasure should only be reserved for my true mate.

Maybe instead of fixing me, Greystone broke me. It’s the only reason I can come up with as to why this feels so damn good.

“Forbidden fruit,” he whispers. With his teeth, he moves my shirt up and then lowers himself between my legs, all while his finger explores inside me.

“Nathan,” I warn as he gets into position. This feels like too much. It’s not an accident anymore. We can’t just say that his finger accidentally pushed inside me and his mouth somehow lined up with my eager pussy so he could lick me.

“Do you want me to stop?” he asks.

Tremors overtake my body as his breath hits my core. “No,” I mewl.

“Good.”

He feasts on me, devouring my pleasure as it leaks down my thighs. He licks me until I’m trembling. Rimming his finger with his tongue, stimulating my already sensitive flesh.

When he gets to my clit, I can’t help the inhuman cry that parts my lips. I peer down at him, full concentration spanning over his face. “If you don’t want to make me come, you better stop,” I warn him, fingers clenching into the dirt below me as I rock into his face. “I mean it.”

This is the point of no return.

Instead of stopping, Nathan closes his eyes and groans like he’s eating his favorite meal.

I surge forward, both feet over the orgasm ledge. My climax crashes into me in waves of pleasure and disbelief. He works his finger in and out of me rapidly as I squeeze around him, his tongue still exploring me as I give him everything he wanted. “Nathan....”

“Keep coming,” he insists, never wavering. “Right on the tip of my tongue…”

“Nathan,” I breathe out harshly, sensations still coursing through me.

He licks my clit, and I explode again. “Fuck!”

My voice echoes down the hill as his lips suck my sensitive nub, prolonging my orgasm until my voice is raw and it looks like my body is seizing on the ground.

With mercy, he pulls away, and we lock eyes. His have gone a silver blue—the same tone as his wolf’s. It makes me shiver right down to my very core.

I see him in a different light now. Nathan, my friend, my shoulder to cry on, has just given me the best orgasm of my life.