Shifters’ Captive(26)

With Perron.”

“I don’t think you have any right to ask me. It’s not really your business,” she replied stiffly.

“So you did.” His gaze was so intense it made her stomach flip, and in that moment she saw the wolf as clearly as if he’d shifted.

“Not like you’re thinking. Not physically.” She sighed, seeing the hurt flicker across his face and knowing she had to tell the truth. “I was drawn to Grant in the same way I am to you. This desire is outside the realm of normal. Like your shifting. The urge to…connect with each of you seems to be beyond my control. And it seems to be changing me.”

“How?”

She shook her head. “I don’t know exactly, but I can feel it. My senses are more open, and my mind expanded. It’s like I’m seeing things clearly for the first time.”

She crumpled the power bar foil in her fist, wishing she didn’t have to hurt him, willing him to understand. “I was with Grant, sexually, in my dreams or maybe on an astral plane. It was as vivid as real life.”

There was no need to add she’d felt the physical results later, or that she’d felt even more empowered by that encounter than she had after having sex with John.

“Sex in your dreams,” he repeated quietly, looking past her at the trees.

She got up and knelt before him, putting her hands on his. “Listen. This isn’t about romance or commitment or which one of you I like better. Honestly, I don’t know either of you well enough to make some kind of emotional bond so soon. This is about a crazy lust that feels like it’s coming from beyond me and, strange as it sounds, I think it’s part of why I’m here.”

“To fuck shifters?” His tone was as bitter as coffee grounds.

“To build energy for whatever lies ahead. The joining with you and with Grant felt right, even necessary, and I refuse to be apologetic about it.”

He nodded once, a single bob signaling he acknowledged but didn’t like what she had to say. “Fair enough.”

Her chest ached. Despite her declaration that she had no emotional investment in John, her heart seemed to have other ideas. She liked him a lot and didn’t want to hurt him. She stroked her hands from his wrists up his arms to his shoulders and nudged her body between his knees. Peering into his eyes, she felt another flicker of something more than lust shimmer through her body.

His arms went around her back, drawing her closer, and his lips descended on hers, touching lightly then sealing them in a firm kiss. He stroked her hair, settling his hand at the nape of her neck to support her head. It was a comforting gesture, and Sherrie felt she could remain content in his warm embrace for a long time.

A crash in the underbrush broke them apart. They turned to face the mountain lion leaping into the clearing. He landed with a flourish of his long, thick tail and almost instantly began to shimmer and change.

Sherrie froze with her arms around John’s neck, watching the cougar face with its cocoa-trimmed muzzle and ears twist into human form. She didn’t think she could ever grow accustomed to the bizarre sight.

When the transformation was finished, Perron stood naked before them, his tawny fur replaced by smooth skin, only his chest and stomach lightly furred with gold. Sherrie exhaled the breath she’d held. He really was an astonishingly beautiful man. In her embrace, John’s body stiffened and he growled softly.

The last thing she needed was to deal with male jealousy right now. She squeezed his tense shoulders and rose to her feet.

“I scouted the area. Didn’t find anything.” Grant rummaged in the backpack for his jeans and pulled them on as he looked at Sherrie. “What do you think? You feel anything?”

“Me?” She was taken aback. Somehow she’d imagined one of them would have a plan once they got close to their destination.

“Yeah, you. Do you sense this guy? What’s your radar telling you?” Sherrie closed her eyes and tried to calm the tumult of her thoughts. Breathing slowly, she let the buzzing energies inside her settle to a low hum and opened her mind to listen.

She felt the presence of her two companions— Earth and fire. Grounded and unpredictable—and the mountainside around her. Breeze, trees, leaves, rock, stone, animal bone. The little rhyme made her smile, but the experience was profound. She didn’t simply feel air on her flesh or hear it in the trees; didn’t merely feel the ground beneath her feet or smell pine trees. She experienced the woods around her as if they were a part of her very cells. As she expanded outward, she took in more and more of the world until she thought she could feel the stars whirling overhead and the sun rising inside her.