Backstage at the Freak Show (Harem of Freaks #7) - Crystal Ash Page 0,51

shaman with them,” he frowned. “He used his magic to lure me into a trap. They took all of my belongings, so I couldn’t call you. I’m so sorry, my heart.”

“Tak.” All restraint gone, I ran to him, my hands flying to his face. “Did they hurt you?”

“Not badly.”

Up close, I could better see the pain etched in his face, the fatigue from running all the way from Alaska to Georgia.

“Where?” I demanded.

“It really isn’t bad, just—”

“Fucking tell me where!”

He sighed, a ghost of a smile on his lips as he lifted his shirt. Bruises and burns marked him from the abdomen up to his chest.

“It was mostly injections,” he said, wincing slightly when I touched him. “Experimental drugs. I’m sore, but I’ll be fine.”

“We have to tell Mel.” I stood on tiptoes, reaching to wrap my arms around his neck as I buried my face in his shoulder. “She and her guys escaped from people like this. They—”

“They’re gone, my heart,” Tak said sadly. “I had barely escaped when they set their own lab on fire. They destroyed the evidence and will lay low until they can resurface.” He slid both large arms around my back. “It’s the nature of being out as a shifter. They’ll keep coming after people like me. Like Colt, Gabe, and Mel’s guys.”

“Then you need to stay with me.” I brought my hands to his face and pressed our foreheads together. “No more trips back to Alaska.” I felt like a wilted flower at his silence in response. “Unless you don’t want to be here?”

“My heart,” Tak growled, caressing up my spine. “With you is the only place I want to be.” His fingers wound through my hair. “This was my last trip back. I didn’t get everything settled that I wanted to but,” he shrugged. “None of it matters anyway. What matters is this.”

His lips slid over mine with gentle pressure, far gentler than what I wanted. “Taqqiq,” I whispered his full name against his lips. “If you don’t kiss me like you mean it, your furry ass is welcome to return to the frozen north.”

He laughed, deep and rumbling through his chest, then crashed his lips to mine, tongue invading my mouth and stealing my air.

We started lowering to the forest floor, our kisses hard and desperate and starving.

“Do you want to uh, fuck yes,” Tak groaned as I attacked his neck, biting and sucking hard in the rough way he liked. “Want to go home first?”

“No,” I murmured against his hot skin, tugging hard at his clothes. “I need you. Right fucking now.”

He didn’t need any more prompting after that. Large hands slid under my dress, caressing sensitive flesh that had been aching for him for days. The friction against the ground already had my straps coming off my shoulders, and he sucked a hot trail down my chest.

“I want to go slow with you.” His mouth nudged against the swells of my breasts. “To savor you after being without you for so long but—”

“Don’t,” I begged, nipples and core, hell everything, aching for him. “I need you, Tak. We can make love later. Just fuck me, please.”

His growl was animalistic and so fucking hot. I heard the odd crunching and snapping sound of shifting, and then sharp claws against my thighs under my dress.

“Don’t be scared,” he urged when I froze, then smiled gleefully as his claws tore through my panties.

I couldn’t even bring myself to be mad at him, instead reaching and fumbling desperately at his zipper as my skirt hiked to my waist. His cock, long and thick, tumbled out. Just feeling him in my palm, hardening by the second, was such a relief. I still needed more, but stroking him there, listening to his groans and breaths made it all sink in. My gentle—sometimes rough—giant wolf was home. And this time he wasn’t leaving.

“Miriam,” Tak shuddered my name out as my palm slid up and down his stiff length. He yanked the top of my dress down, sucking a nipple into his mouth and grazing the stiff peak with his teeth as he teased the other one with his fingers.

I made him stop for a moment just to get him out of his shirt. I loved fucking him outside and seeing the moonlight on his naked skin. Hell, I loved having all my men out in the woods. They seemed to get more pleasure out of it and were wilder, uninhibited. Maybe something to do with nature