Flustered, and pushed nearly to his limit, he tried to instruct instead of giving in.

“You should try shifting back and forth during the fight,” he panted, slamming her hands back down to the ground.

“What?” she asked through gritted teeth, which he noted had become awfully sharp.

He growled as she nearly threw him off again. “I mean be a wolf, be a human, be a wolf… mix it up, it throws off your enemies.”

She stopped thrashing all at once. The sudden stillness was disconcerting, and all he could hear was the sound of labored breathing. Hers. His. Lyra’s eyes blazed up at him, the brightest things in the darkness.

She was too tempting… irresistible. Their eyes locked, and he began to lower his mouth to hers, his eyes slipping shut.

He should have known that’s when she would strike. The form beneath him changed shape in an instant, flesh becoming fur, snout in place of inviting lips. In the split second he was able to focus on them, her teeth were bared in what looked like an evil grin. He lost his grip and his balance at the same time, finding himself rolled and pinned by large paws before he could correct himself. His defensive instincts kicked in, overriding emotion.

Jaden slid into his cat form like water, his change in size making it easier to flip and scramble from beneath Lyra. He was the size of a wildcat, large enough to be intimidating, but smaller than a full-grown wolf. She snarled when she realized what had happened, but she was already behind him as he raced into the tall grass of the field, vanishing swift and silent into the dark.

She had been on hunts before, but never one as exhilarating as this.

Lyra raced through the field, the grass brushing against her legs, her flanks. Her heart pumped steadily in her chest as she put on speed, chasing the whispers in the grass just ahead where Jaden thought he would escape her. She could smell him, the seductive musk of man and vampire and cat all entwined.

Jaden would never know the effect that scent had on her, especially in her wolf form where all her senses were intensified. But he was about to discover that running from her was an excellent way to lose, and quickly.

Jaden was fast. She would give him that. He was also going to be responsible for his own downfall, considering he was the one who’d told her to shape-shift.

She could hear him, sense him, racing just ahead of her, darting back and forth through the field and trying to get far enough ahead to lose her. Wasn’t going to happen, Lyra thought, so in tune with his movement that for a moment it felt almost like she and Jaden were extensions of the same creature. She was so close to him… almost there…

He darted to the side, then bunched his muscles to spring away. Lyra leaped at the same time, and with barely a thought shifted again in midair, stretching out her arms to grasp handfuls of sleek black fur. Beneath her fingers, Jaden changed, too, and this time when she hit the ground with him to roll in the soft grass anger was hopelessly tangled with lust. Lyra realized she’d pushed it too far tonight. Time to either kiss or kill, and the choice, once made, was an overwhelming relief.

Though she did slam him to the ground, just for fun.

His eyes were wide and startled, and a little admiring. “Well done,” he said slightly short of breath. “You should always do what I tell you.”

“Shut up,” Lyra growled, grabbing fistfuls of his shirt and dragging her mouth to his for a kiss that was at least half wild.

One of her last rational thoughts was how good it felt to get her hands on him, to feel all his tightly coiled strength thrumming beneath her fingers. Then she couldn’t think at all as their bodies came together, her curves molding instantly against Jaden’s hard, lean form. Lyra slid her arms around him as he rose against her, letting her fingers finally slide up into all that dark, shining hair. His scent, masculine, appealing, and, oddly, deliciously other, swamped her. She crushed her mouth against his, sliding against him, into him, until she felt herself being drawn down into some dark and blissful heaven.

Seeing Jaden’s hunger for her was one thing. Tasting it was something very different.

Lyra gasped against Jaden’s mouth as his tongue swept inside, coaxing her own into a wild and primal rhythm. His hands were in her hair, tugging it so that it tumbled down her back. She only dimly realized that while she might have initiated this, he had quickly taken control. Jaden rolled her beneath him, effectively capturing her. This time, she allowed it.

Lyra’s fingers hooked into claws and dug into his shoulders. His kisses grew deeper, his mouth more insistent. She could feel the prick of his fangs against her tongue, and it only stoked the heat growing inside of her. His hands slid over her body as though he couldn’t get enough of her, coasting over her back, her breasts, his touch just light enough to have her writhing against him, demanding more.

Still, she could feel him holding back, and the wolf now snapping at the end of its own tether would have none of it. Lyra growled softly, beginning to play rough. She nipped at Jaden’s lower lip, just hard enough to draw blood. She heard his soft hiss, knew it had excited him when he kissed her again, hard. She drew his lip into her mouth to suckle it. In response, Jaden gripped her hips, fingers digging in, and pressed into her.

Lyra moaned thickly in the back of her throat at the feel of him, hard where she was hot and throbbing. She arched into him, wrapping her legs around his waist, opening for him. Reality, sanity, everything slipped away. All she knew was that she wanted the man driving her mad with his mouth, his hands. Hot. Hard. Now.

“Lyra,” he breathed, her name like a prayer on his lips. “I want—”

“Yes,” she said. She had waited, unsure, wondering whether there would be a right time for this. But she knew it was now.

They tore at each other’s clothing, grasping and pulling until there was nothing but skin on skin, the heat between them threatening to set fire to the grass around them. His mouth seemed to be everywhere at once: her mouth, her neck, and then lower to suckle the tight buds of her nipples.

Lyra gave a hoarse cry. The sensation was exquisite when he trailed his hot tongue over her chest, kindling a delicious burn at her core. Then his mouth was on hers again, demanding and yet somehow soft enough that she sank into every kiss, never wanting to surface. He broke the kiss unexpectedly and rose above her in the darkness, bracing himself on his hands. His eyes were like blue fire. Lyra felt her breath catch in her throat. With only the night sky and the stars behind him, his pale skin shone like alabaster. He looked more god than man, unspeakably beautiful. Her hands trailed down his chest while her heart pounded within her own. Jaden’s eyes slipped shut when she stroked him, and he made a sound that was half moan, half purr.

Lyra let out a shuddering breath. Gods, she wanted him so badly, it frightened her. But she couldn’t turn away from him, not now. She reached between them and took him in her hand, stroking the throbbing length of him. Jaden’s head dropped forward, and his hair hid his face from view. But his hips moved in time with her increasingly bold strokes, and his breathing was as ragged as her own. Finally, he reached down to pull her hand away, and he raised his head to look at her.

The raw need she saw written there sent shock waves of pleasure rippling through her.

“Much more of that and we’ll be finished before we start,” he said hoarsely. “Slower,” he continued, lowering himself over her, his chest brushing her skin. “I’ve been thinking about this for months. I damn well plan to enjoy it.”

Her eyes widened. “Mon—”

But her question, and the thoughts that went with it, were swept away on another rising wave of desire when his fingers slipped inside her and began a slow, deliberate rhythm that made all thoughts vanish. She tightened around his fingers, grinding against his hand, wanting something she no longer knew how to articulate.

“So beautiful,” he murmured. Her entire being felt as though it was lifting, rising toward some shimmering climax just beyond reach. He played her body masterfully, those eyes missing nothing as he coaxed broken moans and gasps from her lips.

When he withdrew his hand and settled himself between her legs, Lyra knew she should speak up, divulge the secret she’d kept from him, one of the many things that had held her back. But his mouth claimed hers again in a long, drugging kiss, his tongue mimicking what his hips were doing with every press of the hard tip of his erection against her flesh. It was bliss. She didn’t want to think, she just wanted to feel.

Then Jaden entered her in a single thrust, tearing through her maidenhead with a sharp burst of pain that drew a startled cry from Lyra. The pain was bright, intense—and then gone, the first clue their joining would not be usual in any way. She caught a split-second look at Jaden’s wide eyes before the first orgasm shot through her like white hot lightning. Her body arched sharply upward, her mouth opening in a silent scream. The initial pain of penetration vanished in the face of pleasure so intense she could do nothing but give herself over to it. Lyra’s legs locked around Jaden’s waist, and she squeezed as the first wave crested, then began to ebb.

The instinct to move was primal, irresistible. Lyra opened her eyes, wrapped in a sensual haze that was like nothing she’d ever imagined could be possible. Jaden looked horrified. Fortunately, the bliss made it hard to care.

“Lyra, I—I’m so sorry, I didn’t know you were a—why didn’t you tell me?” he stammered. She heard his words, registered his concern. But more important was the flush suffusing his pale skin, the way she could still feel him hard and pulsing deep inside her. He thought he had done something wrong.

But he was everything right.

The shimmering haze that Lyra felt enveloping her only seemed to thicken. All she could see, feel, want was the man pressed against her, inside her. All her worries and misgivings fell away, replaced by a certainty that Jaden was right. The one. The only one. And she was so close to making him hers. To being his.

No! You don’t want this, don’t want to belong to anyone! Whatever is going on, you can’t undo it once it’s done, STOP!

But the warning bells sounding in the back of her mind were distant and easy to ignore. She slid her hands down Jaden’s back, feeling him shiver at her touch, and brought them to his hips.