Free The Lunam Ceremony (Book One) by Nicole Loufas

on his pancakes before speaking. “You’re sweet,” he says. I’m offended by his somewhat condescending tone. “But she’s probably in a tent with one of the Shasta.”
    “How do you know?” I challenge.
    “Look around, Kalysia. Everyone is either here or in their tents.” He smiles and takes a bite. “Which is where I’m taking you as soon as I’m done eating.”
    Does he really think I’m just sitting here waiting for him to ravish me? My body tingles at the thought. I look at the other females fawning over the males; they look like desperate little puppies waiting to be played with by their masters. That is so not me. “We’ll see about that.” I smirk.
    Dillan takes my statement as a challenge. He leans over and kisses me. Suddenly a memory flashes in my mind. Dillan is above me. I feel him everywhere. My body is consumed by him. He pulls back with a smile and my heart kicks into overdrive. I do want him, more than air, but I’ll be damned if he thinks I’m waiting around for him to finish eating. I stand and start walking away from his table, unbuttoning my shirt as I go.
    “Hey,” he shouts. “Where are you going?”
    I spin around and my blouse swings open, exposing my bare stomach and the blue, daisy-covered bra. “I’m done eating,” I shout and keep walking backwards so he can see what he’s missing. Dillan drops his fork and leaps over the table; he reaches me in two steps. The couples cheer as he lifts me over his shoulder. Once we are out of the clearing, he whips me around and cradles me in his arms. Who’s the boss now?
    Dillan’s tent is deep in the woods, away from the others. It’s cool back here under the cover of trees. He sets me down and unzips his tent. I step inside first and kick off my sneakers. His tent is bigger than mine and holds a large rollaway bed. I stare at the disheveled bed covers. Was I here last night?
    “Don’t worry, the wheels are locked,” he jokes when he sees me looking. He zips the tent and kicks his shoes off.
    I didn’t realize how nervous I am until now. This isn’t my first time, not even my first time with Dillan, if the flashes in my mind are real. Dillan moves behind me and pulls my blouse off my shoulders. He kisses behind my ear and makes his way down my collar bone to my shoulder; all the while he holds my arms inside my shirt. When I try to turn to face him, he wraps his arms around my body and holds me in place. “I’m the luckiest man here.” I feel his thoughts in his arms, his lips, his moist skin. Dillan Dukes really cares about me. I don’t know if I can say I care about Dillan, but the sexual attraction is undeniable.
    He lets me go to pull his shirt off, and I turn around and kiss his chest. I run my hands along the muscles in his back. My body is on fire. The burn, itch, whatever you want to call it, is raging inside me. We fall onto the bed and stay tangled up in each other for hours. We sleep, wake, talk, and make love until it’s so dark inside the tent we can barely see each other. Dillan tells me about his childhood. He was raised in Napa. When he turned fourteen, his father sent him to a prep school in Santa Cruz. That is where he realized he loved to surf.
    “The first time I stood on a board, it was on an eight-foot wave. I ate shit at the end, but I was hooked. I was in the water every chance I got. My dad didn’t like it, but it kept me out of trouble.” Dillan was sent to school with a guardian, Othello. He was a beta, super loyal to Dillan’s family. After a couple of years, they bonded and Othello stopped reporting every detail of Dillan’s life to his father. In return, Dillan didn’t tell anyone Othello was dating a human girl. Even though Othello is a beta and will never phase, dating humans is considered a taboo. Othello still carries the gene. One that can be passed to his children.
    “Two summers ago I was surfing, and this dude asked me if I ever thought about competing. I never had until that