Free The Shadows of Night by Ellen Fisher Page B

just as pleasurable.
    At last he decided she had been teased long enough.   He lowered his head and sucked gently on her tender flesh.   Almost instantly, she cried out, thrashing violently against the cot, her fingers sinking into his hair and hanging on for dear life.   He forced her to ride out the storm, and only released her when she collapsed, boneless, against the mattress.
    He moved up the cot and stretched out next to her.   She cuddled against him in a way that surprised him—he had always understood the Claw Kindred were more or less loners, and not at all the cuddly sort, even as kittens.   Yet here she was, rubbing her cheek against his chest.   He wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her close.
    Her eyes widened as his erect cock nudged her thigh.   “Now you are the one who is not finished.”
    “I’m fine,” he said.   “We must sleep sometime.”
    “Must we?”   She looked up and smiled wickedly.   “It seems to me there are other activities more enjoyable than merely sleeping.”
    “I agree.   But we are going into a dangerous situation, and we will need our wits about us.”
    Her hand wrapped around his erection.   “Nevertheless, you will sleep better if you are fully sated.”
    He considered that.   “You make a persuasive argument.”
    “I can make it even more persuasive,” she said, and began to move her hand up and down his shaft.
    Leaning back his head, he allowed himself to be persuaded.

Chapter 6
     
    The smaller moon was rising in the sky, washing the forest with silver, as they stepped out of the safe house into the shadows of the next night.   They paused for a few moments to bathe in a forest pool, then headed into the forest. This time Hart led the way.  
    In his animal form, it made him nervous to have a predator right behind him, but he forced his clamoring instincts into silence.   Even in his stag form, his brain remained essentially human, and he knew he had to trust this woman.   After the way they’d made love, over and over again, he had to trust her.
    Not that their lovemaking meant anything, he reminded himself.   Among both their peoples, sex could be a bonding, an important sharing between wedded mates, or it could be merely a form of entertainment.   He knew intellectually that Katara had chosen to make love to him because he was a novelty, a new taste for her palate.  
    And yet he couldn’t stop himself from thinking of her as his mate.
    It was a ridiculous notion, of course.   She would no more agree to mate permanently with him than she’d mate with a bald eagle.   Nor would either of their Kindred accept such a pairing.
    A rancid odor drifted to him on the cool night wind, and he slid to a halt, digging his hooves into the leaves littering the ground.   Katara leapt to his side in an instant, her ears erect, her eyes scanning the murky shadows.   Then her ears pressed flat to her head and her lips drew back in a silent snarl, exposing her wickedly sharp teeth.
    The shadows moved, and dark shapes emerged from the undergrowth.   As they moved into the moonlight, the shapes clarified into enormous wolves.
    The long-ago memory of being caught in the forest by predators flashed into his mind.   The memory of fear.   Of death.   He pushed the vision back and tried to focus on this situation.   If he didn’t focus, they were unlikely to survive.
    As the wolves slunk forward, the odor was so strong that Hart wondered he hadn’t caught it before.   But they’d been downwind, and hidden in a thicket of strong-smelling masala bushes, which had helped to mask their scent.
    He caught a glimpse of Katara’s fearsome, snarling visage out of the corner of his eye.   The sight of her long, curving teeth ought to frighten him.   Yet the only fright in his heart at this moment was not fear of her, but for her.   The thought of her lying wounded or dead on the leaves, the way he’d found her just a few days ago, sent a stab of fear and