Page 12 of Branches of the Willow

“Bite your tongue, mister!” I quickly leaned over and knocked on the wooden table before I made my way to the stairs. “We don’t need to borrow any more trouble than we’ve already had.”

Mikael followed me up the stairs, and started the shower for me so the water had a chance to get hot before I jumped in. I thought, maybe he was going to join me, but he never came back. When I was done, I found Mikael already fast asleep on the bed. Apparently, I was not the only one who had been suffering from exhaustion lately. It seemed my man could dish out the ‘take care of yourself first’ advice, but he was shit at taking it.

I climbed in bed and tucked myself as close to his body as I could get, letting his natural, woodsy, masculine scent wash over me until my eyelids were too heavy to stay open any longer. My life had changed in crazy ways over the course of the past year, and the best of those changes was having this man by my side. I went to sleep with a smile on my face, content just to be close after another long day.

The warm glow from the flames bounced across the cave leaving behind a shadow play of light shimmer and darker spaces, adding to the magical feel of the dream place where the previous white wolves spoke to me. The air, which normally smelled strongly of lavender, also had an undercurrent of freshly turned earth. I looked around again, taking everything in as each aspect of the cave slid in and out of my focus. There, right in front of the dais, in the middle of the cave there was a patch of earth amidst the smooth rocks that usually adorned the area. This was the first time I had been sucked into the dream realm with the white wolves to find the scenery had changed. I wondered why just before they started speaking to me.

They were going on and on about planting, harvesting, and continuing cycles. The magic of love came up as well, but I honestly didn’t understand a damn bit of it. This was, by far, my most confusing visit with my white wolf ancestors to date.

“It is time for you to share in the magic, Jessica.” The voices of the wolves echoed through the cave, melodious, and drawing me deeper into the dream. Everything warmed, my skin tingled, and I listened as their voices once again sang in a chorus throughout the cave. “It is time. The magic is yours. So, the cycle begins anew.”

“What?” I whispered, but then I was too caught up in the euphoria of the moment to care what they meant. The world spun around me, the warmth seemed to fill every pour in my skin, branching out beyond that to every follicle of hair I possessed. A deep moan of sheer pleasure escaped my lips when Mikael’s face came to mind. I smiled, wishing he were here, feeling the love and light flowing through him as well. Then his voice broke through, calling to me, pulling me out of the dream, and back into his arms. Despite the blissful feeling I thought I would be leaving behind, I didn’t mind going, because it was to him.

“Jess, love, wake up!” I opened my eyes to see the emerald deep pools of Mikael’s irises staring back at me, shadowed with concern. “You were moaning in your sleep. I wasn’t sure…”

I drew a deep breath, taking in the intoxicating scent that was all Mikael. It wrapped around me like a blanket, making me want to be closer to him. I moved, in his arms, wriggling my body until I was chest to chest with my mate. The skin of my cheek flushed with fiery warmth as it touched his, and then I slid further down to his neck, as I marked him with my own scent. An overwhelming need to possess Mikael and make him entirely mine had taken hold. It was a need so deeply ingrained that I began to ache with it. Something in my belly tugged me even closer if that was possible. My hands began to roam all over his body, and I slid my way back up to lay not so gentle kisses on his neck. I grazed along his jaw and chin with my teeth, alternating between playful bites, and sweet kisses.

“Jess?” My name was a breathy question on Mikael’s lips.

A moan erupted from somewhere in the back of my throat as his voice sent tender gooseflesh dancing across every inch of my skin. “Mikael,” I whispered throatily as I tossed a leg over the other side of him, straddling his hips effortlessly. A wave of pure, blissful heat swept through my whole body, igniting a fire inside of me that seemed almost impossible to be real. That tug in my belly burrowed deeper down, to my very core, as I felt Mikael move underneath me.

He pulled me closer, wrapping his muscular arms around my back, as he tipped my head so that he could nuzzle into my neck. When he did, I felt the change in him immediately. He began to grow rock hard underneath me, and the playful little nuzzling he started turned into an unbridled passion that neither of us had experienced before. All thought was lost then, as our clothes were quickly disposed of, and our bodies came together with a need that burned through both of us. Mikael twisted, pulling my body around, and underneath his once our clothes were no longer a burden. He leaned in, kissing me deeply as he thrust, hard and unrelenting, inside of me.

Why hadn’t we been doing this every minute of every day? The thought was fleeting as I attempted to pull him even closer, dug my nails into his ass, and encouraged him to take me harder, longer, forever. This was how I wanted to die. It was how I wanted to live in every moment too. We were so close, so consumed with one another, in one another, that it didn’t seem possible to separate.

He moved his hips above me, swirling and surging forward as I arced my body to meet his. Each of us was striving to meet the other’s demands. It was a sensual dance that continued for some time, and even when we had both reached our climax, we weren’t done. The rest of the world simply fell away as we lost ourselves in one another repeatedly for the next few hours.

I was staring up at the ceiling, not really seeing it, but daydreaming about being able to wake up like this every day with Mikael. I just knew that if I could see myself right then, I would be glowing. A blissful peace settled in around me that I hadn’t known since that day Mikael and I spent at the cave together, when I lost my virginity and we bonded.

“Hey love, penny for your thoughts?” Mikael called to me as he looked through the closet for something to wear. His hair was sending little rivulets of water cascading down his shoulders and back to be swallowed up by the towel he had wrapped around his waist.

The intense hunger to have him there, touching me, inside of me, bonding together again was overpowering. He must have felt the same pull because he stopped what he was doing and turned to look at me with an equally heated gaze. In the space of a breath, he stalked toward me, his towel discarded along the way, as he climbed across the bed to get to me. The spell was only broken when my stomach growled loudly in protest.

“Okay,” Mikael sat back quickly, “we need to get you fed first before this can continue. I don’t want you wasting away any further than you already have.”

“I’ll be okay.” I managed to whimper.

Mikael laughed at me, even though the heat in his eyes had not dissipated one bit. “Let’s eat first. We’ll both be fueled up for the next round that way.”

“I like the sound of that.” My traitorous stomach grumbled again.

“Fueling up?”

“No, the next round!” I laughed as I followed him downstairs. “I’m thinking we should just stay in bed the rest of the day and forget the world exists for a little while.”

“I can’t argue with that.”

I turned on a movie in the living room while Mikael made us some food. I was more lost in thought than paying attention to whatever was on though. When Mikael brought the food, I ate dutifully, chewed, swallowed, and repeated the process while not really tasting anything or registering what he had made. For a moment, I felt guilty because he put effort into it and there I was not caring. Then, I looked over at him watching me, and I was undone. A blazing fire spread through my veins, and it was trying to consume me from my middle outward.

I didn’t even think, didn’t stop to clean up our mess, or to worry about all the things I should be doing today. I climbed over the couch and tossed my leg over Mikael’s. Once I managed to straddle him, I leaned in and took his mouth with my own, claiming him all over again. That kiss was full of need and heat, and he met it full throttle. Neither of us held back any longer. After what seemed like forever, Mikael and I collapsed back against each other on the couch, spent for a little while.

“I guess this is that blissful, newlywed, honeymoon period the humans always go on about, huh?” Mikael laughed.

“Mmm, I just know I can’t get enough of you!” I smiled up at him then.

“Jess, I am all yours! Anytime! Anywhere!” His gruff voice made my body react again, instantly filling me with heat. The sexy as hell grin on his face had me turning in his arms and climbing back on top of him again. “Hell, if I didn’t know any better, I’d think you were like a bitch in heat right now.” Upon seeing my negative reaction to that, he added, “Not that I mind at all.”

I smacked him on the arm playfully. “I’ve already had my heat cycle this year. Maybe, I just think you’re irresistibly sexy.” I slid him inside of me once more, as if to prove my point. The groan that accompanied the feel of him filling me so fully was matched by his own as Mikael threw his head back on the couch behind him and pulled at my hips to bring us closer together. Not that it was possible, but oh, did he try as he ground his hips up into mine as he pulled me down to meet him.

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