Mate Claimed (Shifters Unbound #4)(58)
Author: Jennifer Ashley

Iona nodded. “Nice and isolated. We love it.”

The excitement escalated. Eric rose with it, lifting Iona and setting her on her feet at the same time he came to his. “Then let’s go.”

Iona ran. Her panther stretched and flowed, paws pounding through the soft pine needles, the sharp chill drying her sweat.

Eric came behind her, his leopard’s breath loud in the still air. They ran under soaring trees, leaping over frozen streams and snowbanks that cut through the woods.

Iona always marveled how different the world was up here. They were only short miles from the desert floor, but the mountain climate was alpine—cool summers, snowbound winters, vast pine forests that opened into surprising meadows of flowers in the springtime.

Iona’s family’s cabin was a little way from the clusters of cabins that filled Mount Charleston and the surrounding area. She loved it up here, where she could shift and run, run, run.

Now she was being chased. Eric sprinted behind her, running flat out, and Iona stretched to keep ahead of him.

He would catch her. She sensed his determination, felt the earth trembling under his stride.

Eric would catch her, and then…Iona shivered and increased her speed.

The air was thin at this altitude, Mount Charleston reaching about twelve thousand feet at its peak. But Iona had more or less grown up here, spending her summers at the cabin to escape the heat, part of her winters up here skiing. She knew every nuance of this mountain, every cranny and place to hide.

But she couldn’t ditch Eric. He’d driven them up here in her pickup, Iona still too frenzied to get behind the wheel. She’d cuddled next to him in the front seat, and he’d held her with his arm around her as he drove, like they were in love.

Once inside the cabin, while Eric laid a fire in the big stone fireplace, Iona had given him an impish grin, thrown off her clothes, and dashed outside. The minute or so it had taken her to shift lost her the advantage though, and she’d had to run fast to get ahead of Eric.

Now he closed in on her. She heard his growls, felt his paws swat at her back feet. His breath touched her tail, and she flicked it out of his reach.

Iona doubled her speed. Her long panther legs should have been able to outdistance Eric’s compact leopard body, but Eric was fast, and he was strong.

Eric leapt, pushing off with his powerful hind legs, and landed on Iona’s back.

Iona went down with a snarl and an explosion of pine needles in the dark. Eric’s leopard was on her, his Collar shining in the moonlight, his big paws pinning her down.

Iona writhed and struggled, but Eric fastened his teeth around her throat, not enough to penetrate the skin, but enough to make her still. Growling, he rolled her panther over onto her belly and covered her body with his.

The panther went still with shock when the leopard entered her. Eric rumbled softly, teeth gentle in her furry neck. Then Iona’s wildcat brain took over, and Iona the human ceased to think.

The panther in her both fought Eric’s domination and reveled in it. This is what Shifters were for—to fight, to mate, to breed. The leopard was strong, the best of his clan, perfect for cubs. The panther had made him chase her and catch her, exactly as planned. She made a little yowling sound and turned her head to lick his paw.

The leopard held her down, his wildness crazy as he loved her. At last he backed away, flipped the panther over onto her back again, and shifted into his human form.

The panther held Eric against her furry body for a moment, then Iona slowly shifted to human.

She lay, panting, on her back, Eric pinning her hands and smiling into her face.

“How do you shift so fast?” she asked, still trying to catch her breath. “It’s not fair.”

“Keep it simple. Think of the form you want to be, then be it.”

Sure. Simple. “I want to be this one, right now.”

“I want you to be this one too.”

Eric kissed her lips, his mouth hot, his eyes still Shifter white. He licked her neck, pausing to give her a love bite.

“Mmm,” Iona said, arching her head back. “I know why you like it when I do that to you.”

“You don’t have a Collar,” Eric said, licking where the band would go. “I rejoiced in that the first time I saw you. I still do.”

Iona touched the Celtic knot gleaming against his throat. “I wish this could be off you.”

“Someday. We’re working on it.”

Her caresses on his chest became firm presses. “Damn you, Eric. I still want you.”

He laughed softly. “Mating frenzy.”

He locked his legs around hers and rolled over. She rolled with him, landing on top of him.

“What are you doing?” she asked, half laughing.

“You want leaves and pine needles poking you in the back?”

Iona hadn’t noticed them, not with Eric’s heavy warmth on her. Eric took her hands and raised her to a sitting position, her knees on either side of his torso.

“Wait,” she gasped. “We’re in the woods.”

“In the dark, a long way from anywhere, love. You want to walk back to the cabin first?”

She didn’t. Iona’s excitement was still high, her blood hot. She held Eric’s strong hands while she rose over him and, as she had on the couch, slid herself down onto him.

This second time was easier than the first, but no less incredible. Iona moaned as his c**k entered her, his hardness penetrating and opening her. Eric sucked in a breath as she settled on him, pressing his hips upward as she came down.

He fit into her tightly, every long inch of him. Iona knew she’d been made for this joining, to feel Eric pushing high inside her. He opened her wide, her female places so wet that he thrust up and in without any barrier.

She started riding him, knees and toes burrowing into the wet earth. Eric slid his hands beneath her br**sts, his hands so warm, his thumbs teasing her ni**les. The tingle of his touch spiraled down to join the tight, hard need where she rocked his c**k deep inside her.

The scent of their lovemaking, sweet, heavy, and exciting, blended with the scent of pine and old leaves. The night air brushed frigid fingers over them, but Iona was toasty warm with Eric inside her.

She wanted this to go on and on, she forever locked with him in the splendid silence of the night woods. Moonlight filtered through the trees to touch them like a gentle embrace.

But their bodies wanted mating, the basic need to procreate driving them on. A wave of black pleasure washed over Iona, beginning where Eric joined with her and rippling through every inch of her body.