was licking her lips, but damn. This was even better than that perfect butt.
He caught her staring. Again, that smile—that absolutely devastating smile—and it was all for her.
“Oh.” He honestly sounded surprised. “I thought maybe you’d already shifted.”
Lily straightened, aware she was giving him a visual feast with her bare breasts showing above the roof of the low-slung car. “I was waiting for you.”
She walked around the front of the vehicle and stood close. Most of the Chanku women she knew were dominant alphas. She felt no shame in wanting this man, and even less in showing him how she felt. He didn’t seem to mind her attention a bit. Heat radiated off his perfect body, and he made no attempt to hide his interest. The visual of him, hard and ready for her, had her licking her lips, fighting an urge to touch.
She imagined him taking her here, now, over the hood of his car or against the wind-worn boulders at the side of the lot. Erotic visuals cascaded through her mind, a slide show of images, each one hotter than the last, until she consciously shut them down. What if he saw them? It could be embarrassing, showing him so graphically how she lusted. Later. She would know him better after the run, after she got to know his feral side.
He held her gaze for a long, breathless moment. Then he took a deep breath that expanded his chest in a most enticing manner. She wondered if he might kiss her, touch her somehow to let her know he was interested. Then she felt like an idiot. Evidence of his interest couldn’t be more blatant.
He grabbed the keys he’d left on the hood of the car, clicked to lock the doors, and then walked to the edge of the parking lot. She watched as he stuck the keys in the crotch of a small tree to hide them. Then, standing in the cold moonlight, he raised his arms and faced the looming mountain and the moon hanging overhead.
Lily felt the rush of energy as he called the power to him. Whatever spell he invoked was silent, but energy was growing, gathering around him. She felt the power rising from the ground beneath her feet, from the mountain before them, from the air itself. Tiny hairs stood up on her arms and along her spine.
She tried to read the energy, to figure out what sort of spell he used, what entity aided him, but there was a sudden shimmer of light, a soft glow that seemed to come from within the man. Fascinated, Lily watched as the light grew until it covered him with a golden aura so bright it cast a shadow. The light swelled and then burst.
She blinked, and blinked again. In the place of the man stood a beautiful black wolf. It turned and gazed pointedly at Lily. Smiling, she called on her wolf, felt the frisson of her own power, and shifted.
Not nearly as dramatic, though definitely effective. Trotting across the asphalt, she met Sebastian nose to nose. Sniffing, growling softly, the two of them went through the typical routine of two feral creatures meeting for the first time. His scent was rich with the power of magic and something else. Something familiar.
He’d said he wasn’t Chanku, but his wolf told her otherwise. Yet he’d called magic to change.
So many questions when her wolf wanted to run. Questions could wait, and the night was waning. She yipped and spun about, nipped his flank, and took off.
Sebastian was right behind her. Jaws gaping, ears forward, and her tale waving like a flag behind her, Lily led him up the rugged slope of the mountain. Her senses hadn’t felt this alive in ages. All of her senses—both wolf and woman.
Alert to the world around her, she raced the night and the alpha male that ran close behind.
Her scent drew him on, the rich, musky scent of female arousal, of wolf, of woman. He’d always run alone. Not once had he run with another wolf, never with a female, and the intensity, the pure exhilaration of the chase thrilled him.
He’d never acknowledged this side of his beast, this sensual, sexual creature that wanted the female. Blood pounded in his veins, and arousal powered the wolven creature he’d become. Running behind Lily enthralled him. His focus narrowed until all he saw was the plume of her tail and the welcoming gash of her sex. His nostrils filled with her