Outliers
Chapter 19

You are a dangerous collection of all my favourite things.

An old soul, a heart of gold, and hands that make my body sing.

- Nikita Gill

I found Thane in the thick of the trees, far enough out from the main house, that only those intentionally seeking him out would stumble across him. He was pacing when I first caught sight of him, those powerful legs stalking back and forth between two ancient trees at a dizzying pace.

When I was only metres away from him, his attention snapped towards me, eyes replaceing mine in a heartbeat. And then he was stalking towards me with that same intensity.

“Show me your wounds,” he had demanded, none too politely, the Alpha male as commanding as ever as he grasped my forearm without waiting for me to respond. He hissed through his teeth at the harsh pink line of still healing flesh that ran the length of my elbow to my wrist. A miracle, it had been, that Daniel’s sharp teeth had not hit a major artery. I had been so damn lucky.

“When I saw that crowd around the sparring rings, I knew it was you. And when I saw that male shift so close to you, I could have torn him limb from limb,” he snarled softly, features tight as his body trembled with what I recognised as a quiet rage. “I haven’t felt anger like that in a long time.”

“You didn’t seem so angry,” I murmured, frowning slightly, remembering that quick flash of a grin that I had seen towards the end of my fight, as I smoothed the lines on his forehead with the pad of my thumb. He sighed, leaning into my touch. “But I’m glad you didn’t interfere. Jack would have pulled me from the fight as soon as he caught wind of it. Probably wouldn’t have let me trained for days afterwards either, in fear of re-injuring myself.”

I felt Thane’s body tense beneath mine, his arms wound around my waist and locked at my sides, caging me against his body in an almost bruising hold. He buried his face in the crook of my neck, breathing me in. I could do nothing but stand there, a reassuring hand stroking the length of his back, fingers threading through his silky hair, as he tried to calm himself. It was odd to see Thane so without composure.

When he finally pulled back, minutes later, he said nothing as he grabbed for my hand and lead me further into the trees. In the daylight, I almost didn’t recognise the route we took along a barely existing dirt path through the overgrowth. He lead me in silence, and I didn’t dare speak in fear that it would break his composure entirely.

I hadn’t thought that the gorgeous pool of water could appear any more stunning than it had that first night Thane showed it to me, but under the brilliant light of the midday sun, the water sparkled turquoise, beckoning me without words to submerge myself in its refreshing depths.

I went to remove my t-shirt, thinking he had brought me here once again to swim, but a gentle hand on my arm halted the movements. Instead, he moved to sit on the smooth rock edge of the pool, bare feet inches from the water’s surface. I joined him without further provocation.

“You’ve been avoiding me. Since we’ve been back. Since the patrol cabin.” He wasn’t looking at me as he spoke, his attention cast towards the centre of the pool where that large rock jutted from the water.

My mouth opened to respond and… I paused. Thinking carefully through my next words.

“We’ve been back for just over a day, and you spent most of the time on patrol of the territories’ borders. I wasn’t avoiding you.” Not entirely, not because I wanted to be away from him, but because I had needed those few hours apart to think through what had happened.

His eyes narrowed sharply, and I knew he heard the uncertainty in my words. His hands gripped at the edge of the rock, arms becoming taut as he restrained himself.

“You’ve been avoiding me before now, too. You’ve been avoiding me for weeks.”

“We’ve trained together nearly every morning,” I countered, a weak point to dodge the accusation. He merely sat there in silence, wholly unimpressed with my answer.

“I didn’t know how to act around you anymore,” I finally confessed, the words falling from my lips so quietly that it was a wonder he’d heard them at all. It felt wrong to be this open with someone, to allow this male into my mind like this. It felt intimate. I had spent so many years erecting walls around myself, keeping any feelings to myself in the company of Jack and my family, and now I felt as if I were clumsily pulling those walls apart, brick by brick. “I - I hadn’t expected your interest, hadn’t expected… I didn’t know how to process it or how I was supposed to feel.” Not when my heart had still ached for Jack. “So it was easier to run from it, from you.” Cowardly, is what it had been.

“But you were interested in me?” He turned to me now, something in his eyes I hadn’t recognised before, something I couldn’t decipher.

“Yes.”

How could I not be? How could I not be attracted to this male before me, a male so powerful and strong, who had allowed me freedom I had not experienced before? He didn’t feed into a fear of my inferiority, didn’t once allow me to question my capabilities. He only encouraged.

And he had a wild inside him I had not seen before, a wild that I did not flinch in fear of. He was gentle, in ways that counted, and fierce in the moments it was needed. He held himself with assurance - that I now realised came with many years on this earth - and yet, in this moment; he seemed vulnerable.

There it was, a slight ease of tension in his body at my confirmation, and I knew instantly he had expected my rejection.

“And now?” He asked.

I didn’t have the words to answer, my voice catching in my throat. But I reached out to grasp his hand with my own, turning the calloused appendage to thread my fingers through his.

“When I arrived here, you were engaged in a relationship with Sandra,” I broached carefully, not sure how he would take to the switch in subject to his former lover. Sandra had assured me that whatever was between them had well and truly ended. But I needed the confirmation from Thane as well.

“It was purely sexual. Our physically relationship was never anything beyond that.”

“And is that what we’re to be?” I dared to ask.

“Is that what you want us to be?”

I swallowed around the lump in my throat, mouth suddenly dry as I uttered the honest confession, “I don’t know.”

I felt Thane squeeze my hand with his own; a silent comfort.

“I will not push you for more than you can give,” he assured, voice gentle, even if I saw the frustration as clear as day behind his dark, hazel flecked eyes. He didn’t want to hold back, to restrain whatever feelings he had, whatever desires he had for this oncoming relationship. But he would, for me.

“I want this with you. I want this.” I affirmed the words with an answering squeeze of my own hand in his.

This time when I moved to undress, Thane did not stop me, only watching me with a heat in his eyes that had my toes curling. And when I submerged myself in the cooling water of the pool, I thought for sure the pulsing heat that was my desire for Thane would leave the water sizzling against my skin.

Within seconds, his t-shirt was gone, and then his shorts, until he stood before me in only his boxers, that powerful male body on full display. I didn’t bother to hide my appreciation, wasn’t shy as I allowed my eyes to freely take in every inch of him, from his broad shoulders to his muscular legs.

Every inch of him was tanned from his time training outside in the sun, and chiselled to a masculine perfection. Every inch of him was undoubtedly that of an Alpha Male. I wanted to explore each curve with my hands - with my mouth. I wanted to memorise all of him.

He dived into the water towards me, and I turned away, swimming to put distance between him. It was no use, though. He was too fast, replaceing me in the water before I put even a two feet between us.

Before I knew it, I was pressed up against the rough surface of the rock edge, pulled towards that sloping shore where the water was shallow enough for us to stand, and I had been pressed against him before. His arms caged me at either side, as his chest rested flush against mine.

The breath caught in my throat as I stared up at the male, only a few inches taller than I was. A grin curved wickedly across that tempting mouth of his, just a second before his head dipped towards mine.

He kissed me softly at first, hesitantly, as if after our time in the patrol cabin, after our conversation just now, I would pull away at any moment. I didn’t allow that worry to settle in his mind, my arms rising so that my hands could frame his face. The stubble of his jaw was rough beneath my palms as I kissed him back hard.

It was a slow, sensual kiss in which Thane’s tongue dance with mine own, with a passion so all-consuming I knew I’d never recover. Falling from their place pinned on either side of my head, his hands dragged a seductive path down my bare back until they rested on my ass, his large hands gripping the flesh as he pulled my hips tighter against him. His erection dug into the softness of my belly, as his mouth moved from mine to trail a scorching path down my neck, pulling a moan from my mouth.

One hand of mine drifted below the water, trailing across his muscled torso, and I fulfilled my desire to explore his body. He shuddered at the contact, pulling back to stare into my eyes. I couldn’t look away as my hand danced across his abs, down his stomach to palm his hardness still contained by his underwear.

In one sudden motion my hand was nudged away, and the hands on my ass pulled me up, until my legs had no choice but to wrap tightly around his waist in the water, his erection now pressed to my core, exactly where I needed him to be.

We were kissing again, this time more desperately, yearning to devour one another. He palmed my breast through my sports-bra, his thumb replaceing the hard nub of my nipple and brushing against it, teasing it until I moaned his name. I pushed on his shoulder and he leant back, giving me enough space to remove the soaked material entirely, so I was now exposed to the open air, the water lapping just below the swell of my chest. Then Thane’s mouth was on my breast, hot against the sensitive skin when the water had been like ice.

“Oh Gods,” I groaned, a hand on the back of his head, tugging at his hair as his teeth grazed my nipple gently. He dragged that mouth, those teeth, from my chest, to my throat, my neck, my jaw, nipping at the skin, and I whimpered at the torturous path his lips took across my body before seizing my mouth once again.

Erection still pressed into me, pressed against me through the thin material of our underwear beneath the cool water, Thane ground against my clit. I felt my body slump into his, my fingers digging into the skin of his bare back, clawing at his body.

“Please,” I murmured, voice strained with lust, one of my hands now venturing towards his boxers, tugging at the material so he knew just what I begged for.

He dragged himself away from me; the movement seeming to take all his effort, allowing enough space between us to remove our underwear. It was a rushed, clumsy movement that made apparent the level of his excitement.

Then I was back in his arms, the solid limbs of muscles and flesh winding around me to press my chest impossibly tight against his until there was little space in between.

He reached between us, aligning himself at my entrance, before his body pressed to mine and I felt him push into me with a groan.

“Fuck,” I hissed, legs locking around his waist when he was fully seated within me, holding him to me tightly, content to remain like this forever. But then he withdrew, slowly, teasingly, before pushing into me again, and that alone was enough to leave me hungry, desperate, for more.

“Thane,” I cried his name into his mouth, again and again, as he settled into an endless, steady rhythm. I needn’t worry about being quiet. We were completely alone so far out into the forest; I didn’t want to be quiet, not for this first time, not when every touch left my body alight with a fire I was sure would never fade.

He continued at that punishing pace until I knew his back would be scarred by the marks I had clawed into his skin. He continued pounding into me, my name on his lips until his pace quickened, his thrusts deepened, and he hit a sensitive spot that had me gasping for breath.

“You feel so good,” he groaned, his mouth by my ear as he nipped at my lobe.

He repeated the movement, and those perfect thrusts, sending me wild and sobbing in satisfaction, the pleasure building within me until I came apart in his arms.

His pace quickened to an erratic, desperate tempo, until his own climax reached him and he was left panting, his forehead pressed to mine, eyes shut tight.

When he opened them again, I was frowning.

“Is something wrong?”

“That was my favourite bra,” I explained, pouting downwards, into the depths of the water where our underwear had sunk.

He only laughed, the sound deep and loud in the otherwise quiet of the forest surrounding us, before leaning in to kiss me firmly on the mouth.

***

We stayed in that water until my fingers pruned, and the evening sky turned darker. I was still wet as we re-dressed, and once I pulled my white shirt on, the fabric quickly turned translucent, hiding very little details of my chest. Well, this would certainly make walking back to the main house awkward. Most wolves didn’t care about their bodies being on display. But I was not most wolves, and as much as I was fine parading about in my training shorts and sports bras, this was not quite the same thing.

“Here.” Thane extended his own black t-shirt out towards me.

“Thanks.” I shot him a surprised look. The material was drenched in his scent and, as I changed into it, I didn’t stop myself from inhaling the intoxicating scent deeply.

When we were ready to head back, Thane stepped forward to lead the way, and I caught the side of his shirtless back.

“Shit,” I cursed, heat scorching my pale cheeks at the flood of embarrassment pooling in my gut as I eyed the state of his body. His tanned, smooth skin was now decorated with long, pink scratches from where I had clung to him in the pool. I hadn’t realised just how rough I had been.

“What’s wrong?” Thane was quick to ask.

“Your back,” I breathed, “I’m so sorry.”

He was frowning for a second, before the stern expression melted away and understanding - and humour - coloured his features.

“Don’t apologise.” He was grinning at me, the wide stretch of his mouth showing nothing but pure satisfaction as he now stalked closer to me until the distance between us allowed him to reach out and pull me into his arms. “I enjoyed every second of it.”

“But shouldn’t you have healed by now?”

“Like you, I’m not like most wolves.” Wide eyes met his, those dark eyes staring so deeply into mine I felt something inside me snap at the emotion I found there. Too much, he was entirely too much. And then he was kissing me again, softly, pulling a quiet moan from my lips.

This kiss differed from the all-consuming passion that had overcome us in the water. This kiss was tender and comforting, and I never wanted to be free of such an embrace.