“I believe that is because their intention was to goad you and Ayra into a fight,” he said.

  Dread settled in the pit of my stomach like an Aunt Roberta made with Balkan vodka. “Shit,” I muttered. “We gave them exactly what they wanted.” I looked up into his captivating blue eyes. “But why would they want that?”

  He sighed. “Because they are either afraid of you, or they want to use you—likely both—and they need to see what you can do.”

  “So we played right into their hands.” I let out a frustrated growl and pulled away from him so I could pace the outcropping.

  “A bit, but it also worked in your favor.”

  I turned to give him a questioning look. “How do you figure?”

  “Because now they know they are dealing with something far beyond what they can control. They will not try this again.”

  The rain grew harder, slapping down in great big drops that obscured the view out of the cave beyond three feet. When I turned back to Ty I misjudged the size of the outcropping and my right foot slipped off. Air surrounded my leg and gravity pulled at me. Once again, Ty grabbed me and yanked me to him. Residual energy from the lightning crackled from my skin to his, but he gave no indication that it bothered him. He swept me up and carried me several steps away from the edge. Instead of a rock face, a dark opening yawned behind us.

  “You seem determined to take a swim tonight,” he teased, worry lacing his tone.

  The thought of having come so close to falling all that way—again—made me shiver. “Sorry. I’m just really keyed up, and distracted.” Speaking of distraction, the feel of his powerful arms around me combined with his intoxicating pine and glycerin scent to nearly banish thoughts of the council. Damp blond tendrils clung to his face, water dripping from them to run down his chin. I wanted desperately to lick them off. My arms snaked around him, locking us together. His tongue slid out to run along his top lip, moistening it and getting me wet in a way that had nothing to do with the rain.

  “In that case, maybe we should wait out the storm here. The ledge we have to walk along is quite narrow,” he suggested in a deliciously low voice.

  The scholarly, educated way he phrased even such a small thing made me hotter than I had any right to be during spring, soaking wet, and standing in a cave in stormy Newfoundland. I made a quiet humming noise and started to work on the buttons of his shirt. “In that case, we should get you out of these wet clothes.”

  Once I reached the last button, I drew the shirt open and ran my hands up the slick, hard planes of his chest. The man was a work of art despite being a professor who spent so much time poring over books and giving lectures. Yet that wasn’t why I couldn’t stop touching him. Though often frustrating, the gallant way he put me first and threw himself between me and danger had an old-school allure to it. His energy also pulled at me like the moon, so there was that.

  Wrapped in each other’s arms once again, we stepped deeper into the cave, putting more distance between us and the ledge. I expected to feel rough stone at my back, but nothing touched me. Taking Ty’s hand, I led him into the darkness. My varúlfur sight kicked in after only a step, turning the darkness into an array of muted colors. Moss in varying shades of green and blue dotted the walls and ceiling, revealing a cave at least thirty feet deep and ten feet or so wide. I walked us back only as far as Ty could still stand without hitting his head on the cave roof and pushed him gently up against the wall. His white teeth shone in the dark as he grinned and gave a little excited growl.

  I resumed my languid perusal of his hard chest, delighting in the small electric charges that arced from my fingers to his skin. When he flinched at one, I pulled my hand back.

  “Sorry. Does that hurt?”

  He grabbed my hands and placed them back on his chest. “No. It feels like a slight static shock, but it does not hurt. It is making me harder, and I do not want to ruin things by getting too excited, too fast is all.”

  I slid my hands around him and down to cup his ass, using it to pull him against me. The hard length of his erection pressed against my stomach. For the thousandth time since we had hooked up, I wished I was a smidge taller. Still, the feel of him sent a thrill through me that made the borrowed power left inside my body crackle.

  “Fast can be very good too,” I told him in a breathy voice. Despite being trapped between us, his cock jumped at my words.

  Watching me with eyes filled with suppressed desire, he ran a hand along my jaw. “You deserve things slow and sensual.”

  Grabbing the waistband of his pants, I pulled him away from the wall. “I deserve things any way I want them.”

  With that, I jumped up and wrapped myself around him, locking my legs behind his back. Instinctively, he cupped my ass, holding me up effortlessly. He growled with desire as our lips collided. My tongue pushed his lips apart and dove into his mouth. A very slight zip of static shot from my tongue to his. I pulled back fast.

  “Oh my Frigg, I’m so sorry!” I exclaimed, cradling the sides of his face.

  Throwing his head back, Ty laughed good and hard. “I am fine, really. It was…energizing.”

  “Then why are you laughing?”

  The smile he gave me could have set a nun’s panties on fire. “I think it is cute you are comfortable enough now to use our gods’ and goddesses’ names in vain.”

  Alarm made my eyes pop wide open. “Oh no! Is that a bad thing? Should I not being doing that? I shouldn’t be doing that, should I? Oh Thor, please don’t take my lightning ability away—”

  Ty stopped the rush of my words by covering my lips with his. The little shock after our tongues initially touched turned to a sizzle that brought every nerve in my body alive with the desire to be stimulated. When his chest rubbed against my erect nipples I moaned into his mouth and pressed harder against him. I ground my pelvis against the pressure of his erection. Cotton and linen kept us apart, and despite how good he looked in those pants, I hated them for being between our skin.

  Sensing my need in the way only he ever could, he walked us over and set me down on a boulder. Before my ass settled on the cool granite, I had ahold of his waistband and was unbuttoning his pants. Wet as they were from the rain, I had to peel them off, but I didn’t mind one bit. Seeing that he had gone commando made me groan out loud.

  “Oh, that is so hot,” I said as his cock sprang free and his pants dropped to the ground.

  “It is a shifter habit, one I am hoping you will adopt soon,” he said in an ultra-sexy, deep tone that sent tingles all through me.

  Tiny snaps of electricity shot between us as I ran my hands up his legs to ground myself to him. I leaned forward and took his generous length into my mouth. No shock passed between us this time. Groaning and muttering in Icelandic about me being a goddess, his head fell back. The sound of him reveling in the pleasure I gave him made me instantly wet. As I worked my magic on him, his groans changed, sounding on the verge of becoming howls. I watched him as I pleasured him, his muscled body taut with ecstasy, rainwater dripping down his skin. For the millionth time I marveled at how much he resembled my idea of a Norse God—well, a modern one.

  Before I could get too carried away, he pulled his hips back, withdrawing from my mouth. A groan of protest slid from me. Ty chuckled. “Oh, elskan mín, you keep that up and this will go entirely too fast.”

  As charged up as I was—literally—fast sounded good, fast and hard. Our eyes locked as I chewed one corner of my bottom lip. He grinned, picking up on what I was putting down. With a growl, he bent in a flash and lifted me up. I squeaked and laughed when he put me on a taller boulder and laid me on it, pressing his body against me. After a short, fierce kiss, he pulled me up and helped take my blouse off me. When he fumbled too long with my bra, I undid it for him, tossing it aside.

  That same mischievous smile on his lips, he worked his way down my body with kisses and licks. After an agonizingly long time, he reached my right breast and drew it into his mouth. A little shock of static passed between us, followed by intense pleasure.

  “Yes!” I cried out as I arched up to press deeper into his mouth.

  He flicked his tongue across my hard nipple before he sucked it mercilessly. When he let go, I only had a moment to gasp for air before he drew the other into his mouth to administer the same treatment. I groaned in protest when he drew away completely. It made it worth it when he started to work on the zipper of my pants. I lifted myself from the rock to let him peel them from me along with my panties. He threw them aside and knelt on the smooth rock, hands on my knees. Those big, strong hands slid up the inside of my thighs, separating my legs. He stopped just before his fingers brushed my hair and leaned his face close to my apex. Gorgeous eyes sliding closed, he breathed deeply through his nose as he hovered no more than an inch away from me.

  The sight drove me half mad with the need for his touch. Just when I thought I couldn’t take any more, he lashed his tongue out and licked my folds. More static electricity shot between us. It felt amazing. He worked at my throbbing clit with his soft tongue and surprised me by sliding a finger into my wet depths. Gasping in shock and pleasure, I bucked against him, driving his finger deeper. We danced in a maddening rhythm until I felt an orgasm building.

  Thunder boomed outside.

  I grabbed Ty’s head and stopped him.

  “What happened to not going too fast?” I gasped out.

  He laughed, the sound vibrating against my most sensitive parts. “You say that like this is the only orgasm I am going to give you.” The words combined with what he did with his tongue next sent me plummeting over the edge. My vaginal muscles convulsed deliciously as the orgasm rolled over me, making my back arch off the rocks. Delightful as it was, those muscles wanted something to grip. Once the endorphins calmed enough for me to think, gripping him by the hair and pulled him up to me.

  “You’re wicked,” I told him.

  He grinned, licking my moisture from his lips. “If pleasuring you makes me wicked, that is all I ever want to be.”

  Our lips brushed at the same time he shifted his hips and slid expertly into me—though it didn’t hurt that I was slick as could be. The sensation of him entering me tore a gasp from my lips that he swallowed hungrily. His tongue touched mine with a gentleness that drove me half mad. We moved together at an agonizingly slow pace. At first I thought I could hear the pounding of my heart, then I realized it was thunder shaking the world outside the cave. As I dragged my fingers up Ty’s arm, little sparks of electricity passed between my nails and his flesh. The devotion in his eyes coupled with the maddeningly controlled way he moved in and out of me was too much.

  Using some of my varúlfur strength, I grabbed hold of him and flipped us both over so I lay on top of him. We laughed as we play-struggled for dominance. In the end, he allowed me to push him onto his back and straddle him. He massaged my breasts as I slid my hips back and forth, moving him within me ever so slightly. Soon he was moaning and panting, struggling with my slow pace. He tweaked deliciously at my nipples with his fingers.

  “What’s the matter? Too slow for you?” I teased.

  “Ah! Yes, woman! Now who is the wicked one?” he asked through a growl that made my core clench around him.

  Laughing in delight at his torment, I lifted my hips and slammed back down. He cried out something in Icelandic that sounded suspiciously like a curse. I did it again. This time his cry was unintelligible. I did it again and again, going faster and faster. His hands moved to my hips and helped lift me and pull me back down. The wonderful pressure of another orgasm built. It crested and broke suddenly when I felt him swell and spill inside me. For a moment I thought the world went white the way it sometimes did with a great orgasm. Then I realized it was something else.

  Lightning struck outside over the ocean, not just one strike, or even a dozen, but hundreds. I’d never seen so much lightning. It looked as if the sky couldn’t contain it. I lay down on Ty’s chest and we watched nature’s show together.

  “I’ve never seen anything like that,” I murmured.

  He remained quiet a moment, thoughtful as he stroked my hair. “I think it is trying to reach you,” he finally said.

  He was right, I felt it down deep in my bones. That probably should have scared me. Less than two months ago it would have sent me running. But now, in a strange land and surrounded by people who had attacked us, it brought me an odd sort of comfort.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  The sound of little claws scrambling on rock roused me from sleep. Stone bit into my hip and shoulder, but with Ty’s warm body spooning mine, I didn’t want to move. My eyes sank closed before they could adjust to the darkness. Claws skittered on rock again. My eyelids snapped open and instinct switched my werewolf night vision on. One of the biggest white and black birds I had ever seen walked along the rocky ledge outside our cave.

  Ah, so talons then, not claws.

  Predawn light dimmed by a cloud-filled sky outlined him. I didn’t know my birds very well, but I thought it might be a seagull or shore bird of some sort.

  Ty’s arm tightened around my abdomen as he stirred behind me. Heedless, the bird continued its weird clacking noise, staring right at us. It reminded me of Gripp and made me miss him intensely. I was so over this shifter posturing and politics. Though I’d never been much of a homebody before, I suddenly wanted nothing more than to go home to Montana. But we still had work to do.

  A sleepy yawn came from behind me. I ran a hand over Ty’s hip and down his leg, ending with a little slap to his rock-hard butt cheek. “Ayra and Vidar will start to get worried if we don’t get back. And, more importantly, she may kill a few of the council members if left alone with them for long.”

  The heat of Ty’s body disappeared as he sat up. “You are right. We had better go.”

  The shore bird at the entrance of the cave gave another squawk and ruffled its feathers as if in agreement.

  “All right, all right, bird. We’re getting out of your cave,” I told it as I reached for my clothes.

  The flapping of wings made me look up as the bird took to the sky and disappeared.

  My jeans were two-thirds of the way dry, but my silky top lay in a puddle. At least my bra sat atop the dry rock shelf. “Damn,” I muttered as I attempted to gently wring out my shirt.

  Dark blue silk appeared over my shoulder. “Wear mine. It is mostly dry,” Ty said.

  “You don’t mind showing up half-naked?” I asked.

  He laughed as he stood and pulled his pants on. Before he could state the obvious, I answered for him. “Werewolf born and raised. Right.”

  After shimmying into my jeans and winning a wrestling match with my bra, I slid Ty’s shirt on. It hit me midthigh and I had to roll up the sleeves so my hands didn’t disappear. Even though it had been basically rain washed, the cloth still smelled like him: a pleasant, sweet mixture of evergreens and a deep, clear lake. I buried my nose in the collar and inhaled deeply.

  Ty came to stand beside me at the entrance and looked out over the roiling ocean. My stomach felt like those tumultuous waters all of a sudden.

  “The Alpha Councils will have arrived by now. At least, those who are coming,” he said.

  Facing the eight members of the Caninus Council had been bad enough.

  “Everyone wants to control us,” I said through a long sigh.

  Ty moved behind me and started rubbing my shoulders. “Coming here was a mistake,” he said.

  Every fiber of my being wanted to agree, but I couldn’t. “It had to be done. They wouldn’t have rested until they had their say.”

  “They have no right to control you.”

  I rested a hand atop one of his. “Agreed. But, they are just worried about us threatening their authority, their way of life.”

  Soft lips brushed my neck. “You are so amazing,” he said against my skin. The sensation made my legs rubbery.

  Before he could put me higher on the pedestal I was so afraid of tumbling from, I grabbed his hand and started for the cave mouth.

  Even before we entered our quaint, brightly painted hotel, I heard Ayra’s angry voice shouting at someone. Thankfully, the hotel was varúlfur owned and run, and no other buildings stood within a hundred feet of it. Not that anyone without supernatural hearing would be able to hear even from the sidewalk, but it wasn’t the raised voices I was worried about. The wave of scorching, dangerous shifter power that hit me as we walked in was what really concerned me.

  No one was supposed to know where we were staying. And yet, some of those voices sounded like Caninus Council members. How had they found us?

  I sprinted to the elevator, Ty right on my heels. Other voices rose in anger, dozens of them. If Ayra felt threatened, things would get bloody. If that happened, all hope of salvaging this dissolved. She could take several of them, of that I had no doubt. But all of them? I wasn’t sure if even her reaper powers could handle that. Thankfully I’d never seen her in full-on reaper action. Once things went that far south for condemned varúlfur, I was out of the picture.

  “Dammit,” I cursed as I tapped the elevator button repeatedly.

  We waited less than ten seconds before I started looking for the stairs. The cacophony of at least a dozen shouting people set my heart racing.

  “This way,” Ty said as he spotted the sign for the stairs and dashed in that direction. He hesitated at the bottom, holding the door for me.

  I motioned him onward with a frantic wave. “Go. I’m right behind you!”

  Those long legs of his propelled him up the stairs two at a time. He was to the next landing and around the bend before I even made it up the first flight. Thankfully, he didn’t have to be told twice. He kept going. Rather than think about it and trip myself up, I gave over to my werewolf speed and agility, allowing instinct to propel me up the stairs at a blinding pace. Seconds later I reached the top of the next floor and slid through the open door in Ty’s wake. We spilled out into a stone tiled hallway.