Page 51 of To the Moon
Amber and Lonnie had probably seen Sebastian naked a million times, but they were still getting used to their own wolfish nature. For that reason, we waited to shift until we had both kissed our babies' foreheads and left them in our friends' care. The metal door clicked shut behind us, and we hung the lab coats on hooks by the outside door for our return before we shifted.
Sergei placed his paw on a blue floor tile in front of the door, and it opened. As I walked over it, I placed my foot on the universal symbol for wheelchair, too. It sank beneath my weight. My wolf brain wanted to keep playing with it, but the woods' deep scent was stronger.
Every few hundred feet, Tasha stopped to mark the edges of their territory. Not all wolves in the restricted zone were shifters, and this told the real wolves to keep their distance.
After the first mile, Sergei cut inland onto a game trail. I smelled it, too, the unmistakable musk of deer. The doe charged ahead of us but circled back when herfawn couldn't keep up. I ran up on the scene a little too fast, and Sergei wheeled on me, sending me skidding across the forest floor on my butt.
Sebastian gnashed his teeth at the other wolf, but I shoved him aside, nodding my thanks. I had been a split-second from attacking the still-nursing doe. Now, she would live to raise her fawn.
Sebastian growled low in his throat, but we followed Sergei through the woods. At the edge of a clearing, we stopped and stared while Sergei slipped through the opening in a chain-link fence. Inside, a row of abandoned houses nestled with their backs to us, vacant windows staring like eyes. It was a settlement, a village, maybe even a town. I'd never seen anything like it. Children's toys sank into the grass. A lawnmower handle stuck out of a sea of green. A swing set arm had rusted through, dropping half of it to the earth. One swing lay on the ground while the other flapped in the wind.
We followed Sergei through the fence. After passing several homes with broken windows, he led us to one with a loose board over a back patio door. In the dim dining room, Sergei shifted back to human. It was still weird to see our new friends completely naked all the time, but it no longer made me blush.
"The rooms upstairs are clean," he said. "We use them for privacy during the full moon. Toss the sheets in the hamper when you're done."
Sebastian and I shifted, too. The linoleum was cool beneath my feet.
"Do you have clean sheets somewhere?" I asked. "We can get it ready for next time."
Sergei shook his head. "They're back at base. It's fine. Take your time. Tasha and I will be across the street when you're done."
He walked through the house as though he'd done so a million times, and then we were alone. A lone cuckoo sounded outside, the first return of birdsong now that we were out of sight. As we walked upstairs, the cacophony grew louder. This was nothing like the nuclear winter scientists had threatened after the meltdown.
Sebastian's muscular ass filled my field of vision as I followed him up the carpeted stairs, and all thoughts of nuclear disasters faded into the background. I hadn't been alone with my mate since the ski resort. While it had only been four months, it seemed like an entire lifetime. We'd been young and carefree, then.
We were still young, and horny, but now we had two little lives depending on us for food, shelter, and love. A year ago, I would have said I wasn't ready for any of this: no mate, no children, and no globetrotting billionaire lifestyle. Nor would I have believed anyone who told me this was my destiny.
My fated mate was Sebastian Paska, a man I'd hated since I first read about him in a news magazine. Not only did we launch into space together, but we'd shifted into wolves together, and now we had twins, together. I still hadn't wrapped my mind around the biology, even after listening to every scientific explanation Bunting and his research assistants had discussed right in front of me.
I'd killed them all without a thought. They threatenedSebastian and our babies. They deserved a fate worse than the one I gave them.
On the upstairs landing, we had our pick of three open bedrooms. Sebastian chose the one on the right, and I followed him inside. When he turned to me, the smoldering heat in his gaze stopped me in my tracks.
"Your thoughts are loud," he said. "It's a huge turn-on."
"What is?"
"You killed them. For us. For me."
"I'd do it again."
He pulled me close, and I braced my hands on his chest, desperate to go slow. After so many months of yearning for him, I worried we would finish too soon.
"We'll take our time," Sebastian promised before kissing the corner of my mouth. He nibbled across my lips, tasting and teasing. Finally, he slipped his tongue out, and I opened with a whimper.
I tangled my fingers in his hair as he lifted me onto the bed. The comforter smelled a little musty beneath the fabric softener, but when Sebastian fell on top of me, all I could smell was him.
My mate smelled like home, even here in this foreign place. I'd never really had a home, but he was it for me.
Our tongues tangled as I became reacquainted with Sebastian's body. Every hitch of breath told me he still wanted me. Every moan into my mouth said he needed this as much as I did.
He stayed calm, while I grew more impatient. I shoved him over onto his back and straddled him, my hole already leaking the slick stuff that made sex withhim so wonderful. Except this time, I wanted to be on top.
"Let me fuck you."
"Any time," he said. "Always." He chuckled. "Until we discover how fertile you are?—"
"Maybe I can get you pregnant, instead."
