Then suddenly, a familiar scent. Not just one Dire, but many.
Strewth. A pack? What would a pack of Dires be doing so far from the academy grounds? I shook my head. Not a pack. Likely a group of soon-to-be students out for the same reason I was—to stretch my legs. Although in my attempt to outrun Anna, I’d come quite a distance.
Regardless, I didn’t feel like company. That thought gave me pause—it was rare for me not to seek others. More proof that I was not myself tonight. I was so buggered.
I veered off their trail and forged one of my own.
The ground rose beneath my paws, and I emerged onto a plateau. The moons shone down upon me, bringing memories of my pack, now so far away. My bloody heart ached with loneliness—perhaps I should have sought those other Dires out. But they could be miles away by now. The thought fed into the general state of chaos within me, and the urge to howl seized me.
I raised my muzzle to the moons and gave voice. It tapped into the deepest part of me, wrenching loose emotions I might not otherwise reveal. Frustration filled my deep cries.
An answer came, a long ways off—closer to the academy itself. Just an acknowledgment that I wasn’t, in fact, alone. It surprised me to receive not a sound from the group running closer. Perhaps they were hunting? I wasn’t certain about the academy’s rules regarding that. Although, in my experience, Dires weren’t good at following any rules other than those dictated by their pack.
Howling almost always helped clear the soul, but not tonight. I fell silent, acknowledging that the beast within me still raged on, obsessed with a single female who smelled like—Like what?
“Sex on a stick,” my brah would have said. An intoxicating mix of female musk and citrus that swirled through my memory.
And just like that, I was back to square bloody one.
There was a way to address the issue, but for that, I would need hands. Grimacing in discomfort, I writhed my way to human. This time, the pain fed into my issue rather than resolving it. By the time I crouched naked at the edge of the plateau, I was rock hard and aching.
What the bloody hell? I usually had better control than this.
I sat in the shadows of a boulder, wrapped my fingers around my rigid length, and closed my eyes. Nature had already supplied enough lubrication. I’d never been so ready to get my rocks off.
This woman had my junk in a vise, there was no doubt about it. I was helpless in her grip. Even the thought of it brought me to the edge in three strong strokes, pausing at the sensitive tip with a twist that caused my breath to whistle through my teeth. My balls pulled up tight to my body, and with a deep, visceral groan, lightning shot from the base of my spine in tremendous, long spasmodic spurts to the great beyond.
I leaned back against the boulder as wave after wave erupted from me. Like I’d been ground zero for 300 million volts. I ended up splayed and shaking, staring up at unfamiliar stars.
Wow.
If that was what mere thoughts of Anna could achieve—no, best not to go there. Shifter recuperative ability would have me panting again in no time.
As reality slowly reintroduced itself, movement from below caught my attention. The merest flash of moonlight on fur, and then another. Dires. The group I’d scented before, racing through the forest. But as my keen eyes tracked ’em, a chill swept through me.
This wasn’t the disorganized, bounding progress of a bunch of disconnected shifters out for a romp together. It was driven. Purposeful. And coordinated.
That was apackdown there. Led and linked by an alpha, whose mental connection guided them. And they acted as though they were hunting, although I couldn’t see a target.
But it made no sense. Amadeus had mentioned a female Dire and her three mates, but this was many more than that. Who were these blokes?
They vanished into the trees. I stared up at the stars until my heart resumed a more normal rhythm, and then I rose on shaking legs. Time to point my nose for my new home. And a shower. I really needed that.
But as I prepared to shift to beast, I suddenly became aware of figures moving in the surrounding forest.
They moved like ghosts through the trees, staying downwind so that I couldn’t catch their scent. Impossible to get an accurate read of their numbers, but in that moment, I realized what the pack had been hunting.
Me.
Anger flooded through me. Be damned if I would let them pursue me like a bleedin’ rabbit. I wasn’t going to face them as a beast, either. I wanted an explanation, and there were reasons the conversation would be best done on two legs. Too many furred discussions ended in teeth and claws.
I glared into the forest—and dared ’em to come to me.
I sensed them also come to a halt, but the pack didn’t close in. Instead, while most remained shadows in the bush, two stepped out to face me.
They were in the last twitches of shifting to human, and as a pulse of pure power swept over me, I knew. One was the alpha.
It was the other reason I wanted to be human for this chance meeting. My beast cringed immediately beneath his assault. My human flinched, but I was able to meet his eyes.
