Winter Wolves Series
Cursed Wolf Chapter 19

Rex dropped a beaker full of the new potion into his mouth and looked up at his brother Felix as he swallowed. "You feel anything?" Felix asked.

"No, nothing," Rex said. The physical pain and mental torment were both still there. He rubbed his temples against the screams of his wolf. But then, slowly, the agony began to dissipate. He looked up, his eyes widening. "And now?" asked his brother. "Relief," Rex said. "I feel like a man again."

He started towards the door, but Felix called out behind him to wait. He stopped with his hand on the doorknob of the shop. He stared at the ground and took a deep breath. He didn't know how long this potion would last. "She's still here. I want to go to her."

"You asked me to make sure you are ready to see her again," Felix said. "I would fail as a brother if I let you go now."

"You're right. Thank you."

Rex slumped down on one of the folding chairs in the shop. The smell of sawdust and wood polish were thick in the air. They'd been living and sleeping in the woodshop for so long now.

After his taste of life with Luna for just a single day, he couldn't stand living like an animal for a second longer. He rested his elbows on his knees and cradled his head in his hands. Waiting for the screams of his wolf to return, he stared at the floor in anticipation. Felix sat beside him. His other brothers, who had chosen to shift back to wolf form, were out in the forest.

"I'll try it if you will," Felix said, and poured his own potion into his mouth.

The two of them sat in anticipation of the return of symptoms. After forty-five minutes had passed, Rex stood and started to the door. "It's been long enough. I need to speak to her."

He left the shop without waiting for his brother to respond. He was the alpha, the leader of this pack. He made his own decisions. Rex felt sane enough to see his mate now. He had the potion in his pocket, and it had removed the symptoms almost completely. He hurried up the stairs of the porch and through the back door into the kitchen. Luna and Rebecca were sitting at the kitchen island drinking tea. Luna looked up at him with a gasp and slid out of the stool. She crossed the room to him and dove into his embrace. He held her close, smelling the scent of her body and the perfume of her hair.

"Oh, how I've missed you," she said, looking up at him and cupping his cheek.

"I've missed you too, my darling." He stroked her face with his knuckles and ran the palm of his hand over her hair.

Looking in her face was like staring at heaven. Luna was a goddess on Earth, sent to love him and save him from his curse. He felt in that moment like dropping to his knees in thanks and worship of her, but he held himself erect and strong for her. Luna needed a man, not a supplicant.

"Can we go somewhere private?" she asked him.

He glanced at Rebecca, who stood from her chair and told them that she was there to help if they needed anything.

"Thank you, Rebecca," Rex said.

"Come with me. I have my car." Luna took his hand.

Luna led him out of the house and into the driveway where her little sedan was waiting.

"I drove this all the way from California, and it didn't break down once," she said as she unlocked the door for him.

They started out of the Doolittles' driveway and onto the road. He watched her drive, gripping the wheel as she worried her bottom lip. He knew she felt anxiety. He could smell it rising in the air. But he could also smell her desire and sense her need for him. Her need to be his mate forever and always.

He sat up straighter in the car, anticipation throbbing in his chest. He needed her possibly a thousand times more. She was everything to him. She was his purpose and meaning. She was his salvation.

She glanced at him and smiled. "How are you feeling?"

"I feel good. But I don't know how long it will last.""

"It will last long enough," she said with a giggle, accelerating the car down the winding road.

"Luna. I was not myself last night. I need to know that you can forgive me because I don't know if I can forgive myself."

"Rex, if that is the worst you ever behaved in our relationship then I will be the luckiest woman alive," she said with a laugh.

Rex knew how Luna had been treated by men in the past-by her boyfriend and even her father. The thought that he had said one angry or unkind word to her stabbed him in the heart. He would do everything in his power so that her life was filled with comfort, pleasure and kindness. Most of all from him.

"I forgive you, Rex. There's nothing to forgive."

He accepted her forgiveness, but he knew that he needed it. Luna may have downplayed his behavior, but he did not.

If the curse was broken, and the man inside him had regained complete control, he would tame his beast until it was subordinate to him in every moment of his life. He would always be in control from now on. It was his vow for himself, for his family, and most of all, for his mate.

When they arrived at the shop, she unlocked the back door to her apartment, and they hurried upstairs together. A sharp jab of pain ran down his spine and into his gut as the wolf howled inside his mind.

He pulled the potion from his pocket as Luna turned around and gasped. His eyes flashed up at her, and he could see her fear. He quickly took another dropper full of potion, praying to all the gods that it would work. "Luna," he said, sitting down on the stairs as he tried to catch his breath.

"Are you okay, Rex?" she asked, gripping his shoulder.

"I'm fine. I just need to let this work. It appears we only have about an hour and a half."

"I think that's long enough," she said. "I'll make you some tea to help you relax."

He listened to her trot up the stairs behind him as the screams of his wolf slowly faded away and the pain diminished. He rose to his feet and took the stairs, squaring his shoulders and breathing in his alpha confidence.

He was here now, in his mate's home. She was ready for him, and he was ready for her. Nothing stood between them now. The courtship had not been ideal, but it would have to be enough. Waiting any longer would cause much more harm than good. Luna carried a tray of tea into the living room and set it on the coffee table. He sat in the large armchair while she poured them both teas.

He hoped to be a much bigger help to her in the future, but his mind was still whirling with too much confusion to be a proper gentleman.

He lifted the teacup to his lips and drank. The smooth spicy sweet flavor invigorated his mind, then calmed his senses. His shoulders relaxed and he sat back in his chair.

Luna drank her tea from the couch watching him carefully with a neutral expression on her face. When he set his tea on the side table, she put down hers and stood, crossing the short distance between them.

She sank into his lap, and he gathered her in his arms. Her legs rested over the arm of the chair, and he caressed her hip. She stroked his hair, looking into his eyes with a depth of compassion and desire that nearly broke him.

"Rex. You are the love of my life. You're the man I've been waiting for all this time. I'm ready for you. I want you to claim me."

She leaned up to kiss his lips and he growled deep in his throat. The cursed wolf he'd been repressing growled with instinct, and Rex didn't try to suppress it.

He lifted her in his arms and carried her gently into the bedroom. He lay her across the bed and watched her as her hair pooled on the pillow.

In the dim light of day streaming through the gauzy curtains, he lay with her in the blankets after kicking off his shoes. He kissed her forehead and then her lips with such tender sweetness and care that he had to stop and let out a ragged breath.

The honor he found in being with her, in knowing her and being allowed into her life, was beyond anything he could imagine he deserved.

"I vow to be the best man I can be. To be the man you need."

"And I vow my loyalty and my love to you, Rex." She ran her hands over his shoulders and down his chest, gripping his waist and then his ass. She pulled him toward her and said through quivering lips, "Please, Rex. Make me yours."

He growled again, the wolf inside him pushing up to the surface. But the man was in control. He kissed her deeply with tenderness and raging passion. She lifted her hands above her head with a gasp and he ran his hands up her sides, over her breasts, and then up her arm to her hands.

He held them gently above her head as he kissed her face and mouth and neck. He rolled off between her legs and lifted her shirt over her breasts, pulling down the cups of her bra. He sucked her nipples into his mouth, one after the next.

She tasted like ice cream and candy. His cock throbbed with need to be inside her, and his fangs descended in his mouth, dripping with his mating venom.

The taste on his tongue sent him into a frenzy. His passion was all-consuming, but his love of Luna was even more intense. He would always protect her, even from himself.

He pulled off her clothes, sliding her pants and panties down over her legs. His hands roamed her body while she sighed under his caress. He opened her legs and stared at her glistening s*x. The scent of it drove him wild and he had to taste it.

The only balm for the burning need inside him was her pleasure and fulfillment. He licked up her slit, tasting her juices and consuming her desire. He sucked on her clit and listened to her approving moans.

"Oh, Rex, oh."

He knew once he was inside her he would become a madman. He needed her to be ready for what was to come.

He twirled his wet tongue over her clit as he kneaded her breasts, tweaking her nipples as she praised him.

He loved the feeling of her soft, luscious curves under his hands. His cock was rock hard, and he had to take off his clothes or he would rip them apart. He stood above her, and their eyes met. Her hands were still above her head, her legs open, her pussy glistening from his tongue and from her need.

"Please, Rex. Claim me now." She ran her hands over her breasts and down her belly and over her thighs. Rex pounced on the bed above her, the wolf bristling to come through. But it wasn't the curse, it was his instinct to take her and make her his. She grasped his cock, sliding both her hands up and down his length and gently pulling him toward her.

He settled between her legs and thrust his tongue into her mouth as the head of his cock rested against her opening. He tasted her and drank in her needy groans as her hips tilted up toward him, begging for him to plunge inside her.

She sucked on his lip as his cock broke through her entrance. He slid deeper as her breasts swelled against him. She gripped his shoulders, then his a*s, pulling him deeper. He held her hands above her head and licked her ear. His sharp teeth grazed over her skin. When she felt the points of his fangs, she pleaded for more, pleaded for his bite.

He sank his cock inside her wet core with a powerful thrust. It sliced her open and sent her into ecstasy. He could feel her pussy clenching around him and her words praising and pleading for more. He was overcome by his instinct, primal and raw.

With one hand, he held her hands above her head, and with the other he grabbed her head, holding her still as he thrust hard and deep into her soft curves. She kissed his neck and cheeks. He drove harder and deeper, feeling her body yielding and begging for his dominance.

He could feel the curse. The pain and torment slice through him. In a blinding flash he came and bit down on his beloved's tender flesh. He tasted her blood on his lips as his fangs bit deep into her neck, cutting off her air supply and yielding her completely vulnerable to the beast within.

His come pumped into her pussy, hot and wet and filling her up completely. Her body was limp and yielding and in that moment of instinctive passion, he poured himself into his mate.

All that he was and ever would be reached out toward her just as she reached out towards him. He found himself in the darkness of night, the lights of the heavens shining above. Like in the Alaskan wilderness, with the sky so close you could touch it. He stood with her as a woman and he as a man, dressed in white clothes like angels in outer space.

"Where are we, Rex?" she asked.

"This is the space between time. Where you and I are always bonded and always together. This is the eternal moment for only the truest lovers. Where we will meet eternally."

Crystalline tears slid down her face and he pressed his lips to hers. He held her like a princess in the Garden of Eden. And they ran like children through space and time.

Rex pulled his fangs from her neck, and she gasped as he licked the wounds clean and healed them.

"Rex. I love you so much."

He could feel every tiny morsel of her emotions, his awareness of her feelings stronger than even his own. He felt her outpouring of love for him, and his heart bled. He rested his head against her chest, knowing that he was finally home. He had finally been healed. The angry wolf was gone.

"The curse is lifted," he said. "I know it."