Page 57 of Bewitched By the Werewolf
“Fuuuck. We may be like this for a while then. Because I’m probably going to do that again.”
“Do whatever you please with me, Tess. I’ll stay like this all night if I have to.”
“I bet you would.”
Our breathing eventually evens out and thankfully Tess remains still, for now. I brush fingers through her tangled hair and smooth it down her back between us. I can feel her body relaxing in my hold. I never considered myself a cuddler, even the times I knotted a female before we just lay there waiting for it to deflate. But now? I can’t get close enough to Tess, her body fits perfectly in the curve of mine and I wrap her tightly in my arms.
Chapter 31: Ryder
We lay curled together on top of the bed that used to smell like Hunter and Lottie, that now very much smells of me and Tess. The way it should be. I don’t think I could have slept one night in this bed with it smelling like my brothers cum. Thankfully, now I don’t have to, because it reeks of Tess’s spiced hot cider scent and our mixed essence of sex. I hope it never dissipates. I guess that means I’ll just have to keep having sex with Tess in it. Since she seems amiable to the idea that shouldn’t be a problem.
“You know, I wasn’t expecting you to be so excited about my knot,” I admit quietly as we lay there.
“Really? Why wouldn’t I be?”
“It’s not exactly normal anatomy.”
I feel her shrug, but she remains cuddled up against me. “I’ve read my fair share of omega-verse and werewolf romance novels. A knot always sounded amazing to me. And now I can officially say it’s way better than any human cock.”
I sigh-groan in contentment. Life like this would be perfect. Spend my day patrolling town and ensuring everyone was safe and happy to come home to Tess and sate ourselves with one another’s bodies. If she were to expose Snowberry though, it would make that life harder to achieve. She has to know she can’ttell anyone about us, especially now. Now that she’s nearly mine and the possible future we could have as mates is within reach.
Maybe if she knew my personal history and why this place means so much tome, she would understand better.
“Before when you asked me how often I shift, I wasn’t completely truthful.” I can feel her shift a little to angle herself better to hear me, now more alert than before. “I only shift when absolutely necessary and never around anyone else. I didn’t lie when I told you we aren’t monsters that eat people, but we are still beasts. Some of us more than others. Our instinct takes over and can sometimes cause…problems.”
Now Tess does turn as much as possible to look up at me while my knot still locks us together. She doesn’t look angry but curious. Always so damn curious.
“My beast tends to be territorial and aggressive towards other males, not humans,” I clarify. “But that doesn’t mean they can’t get caught in the middle sometimes. There was a time, when fully shifted in my true form, I challenged two other males during a lunar eclipse. There was a female involved, of course, and we all wanted to chase after her. I was young and horny and thought I was better than the rest.
“We got into a fight and were too close to human civilization. They ran from me and I made chase, we went straight through a campground filled with humans. Luckily there weren’t many where we broke through, but they were still there. Some got in the way and were injured. I had no intention of hurting them and didn’t want to. As soon as I saw what I had done I fled, leaving the other males and returning to my human form as soon as I was far enough away.”
I can’t look Tess in the eye as I tell her my story, it’s my greatest shame, the reason I became who I am today. Probably the reason I was never meant to be alpha. Tess twists more in my hold and carefully pulls free of my knot allowing her to fully faceme. She props herself up on one elbow, but my eyes remain fixed on her throat and collar bone. On the long strands of red sticking to her sweat dampened skin.
“I never wanted to put another in danger from my beast again, so I moved back to Snowberry. I became my brother’s beta and town sheriff. I shift alone and far away from others. Having this town kept secret and separate from the rest of the population allows me a safe place to live and shift without fear of accidentally harming anyone again.”
When Tess remains silent, I finally look up to meet her gaze, needing to know how much I just fucked this all up. But she had to know. If I lose her, I’ll always be missing a part of myself, but I can’t risk the others safety just for my pleasure. The pack always has to come first. I’d do just about anything for Tess, everything but that. They put their trust in me and my brother to protect them and as selfish as I have been in the past, I learned the hard way that doesn’t always turn out in the end.
Tess wears a perplexing expression. It’s not filled with disgust or anger as I imagined it might, but a startling confusion as her eyes shift back and forth between mine. Her lips slightly parted as if trying to speak but unable to find the words. She sits up and stutters for a moment trying to find her words. Concerned, I sit up next to her and try to ignore her nakedness. It’s hard to do, especially after being inside her so recently.
“What is it, Tess?”
I reach for her, and she allows it. For a moment I feared she would pull away from me, but she lets me wrap an arm around her waist and pull her into my lap. The need to touch her and keep her close hasn’t waned. The pull tugging strongly at my chest to keep her close and soothe whatever ache I may have caused.
Tess settles in my lap and finally looks up to me with those emerald eyes and finds the words she was seeking.
“When I was ten years old, I saw my first shifter. I was with my family, and we were camping.”
Her eyes brighten with resolve as she watches me, her arms wrapping around my neck, fingers playing mindlessly in the ends of my hair at the base of my neck. It’s almost too distracting to follow our conversation.
Again, she looks up at me knowingly, like I’m supposed to understand her meaning. “It was about twenty years ago. Three ‘werewolves’ burst through the campgrounds. Two people were injured.” Her tone becomes more coercing, and I finally make the connection.
Twenty years ago, three shifters and a campground. I was the shifter she saw.
“I think you were the shifter I saw that day. It was because of that day that I became obsessed with werewolves. No one in my family saw you and never believed me, which only made things worse. They thought I was crazy and…and put me in a facility for the less than sane.”
“Tess, I...”
I try to soothe her, running a hand down her spine and hoping this story has a good ending. I don’t think it’s heading in a good direction, and I internally brace myself for her rejection. For her hatred and disgust at me being the source of her lifelong pain and suffering.
