The shower, no matter how cold she made it, only helped ease her temper a little. But at least she had gotten the blood off her body. She scrubbed and scrubbed at herself until the only thing left was raw pink skin.
And yet, she could still smell him on her. It was like a thick cover of mist had covered her skin. She wanted nothing more than to keep scrubbing.
Clothes were waiting for her when she finally emerged, a pair of jeans and a sweater. They did smell like him, which in its self, was infuriating, but they also smelled like another. It was a softer scent, faded, but sweeter and unrecognizable. She scrunched her nose up at it.
Stepping out of the bathroom, she was greeted with another smell. It made her mouth water in ways she hadn't remember it to do. She licked her lips.
Bacon.
She couldn't remember the last time she had bacon. Her nose led her into the kitchen when she saw Judd standing over a pan on the stove. His back was turned to her, shirtless and rippling with muscles not yet affected by the heat. Not that they needed to be. A pile of toast was set off to the side next to another plate of eggs.
Something moved on the other side of the room, and she glanced to see Jaro's human face scrunched in a mixture of pain and anger. He was laying on his side on the sofa in just a pair of very tight boxer briefs the color of a dark sky. There was a bandage wrapped around his thigh that was beginning show the red leaking underneath.
Jaro let out a growl, and her gaze moved back up to his face. His dark hair was matted with sweat and stuck to his forehead. It had probably taken him a good while to shift back.
A piece of toast slapped him in the face. Judd grinned at his aim from the kitchen as Jaro blinked and glared at him. "You're not you when you're hungry," Judd mocked with a mocking edge to his tone. It only seemed to make Jaro more agitated, but he bit off half the piece of toast in one bite.
"You're not even going to apologize?" he snapped, his gaze back on Neira and gesturing to his seeping wound.
Neira scoffed and moved around to fall into a chair she was previously standing behind. "You broke down my door."
"So you decided to try and tear my leg off?" he barked shoving the rest of the toast into his mouth.
Neira rolled her eyes, "another second and you would have been dead. Who cares if you are missing a leg then."
Jaro snarled low and moved his arm more firmly underneath of him. Judd threw another piece of toast at him. "Jaro," he warned, "Neira could whoop your ass, and you know it. Pull your head out of your heat stricken ass and smell the roses." He grinned at Jaro, pointing his spatula for effect.
Neira wanted to be smug about it, but she kept her face blank. Instead, she pressed her lips together and tucked her legs underneath of her.
The door opened and Lincon and Landon came in with grins on their faces. They looked at Jaro and then to Neira. Lincon covered his mouth with his hand to hide his laughter as Landon snickered openly.
"My dude," Landon said high-fiving her. "You're the real deal."
Lincon looked back at Jaro. "I commend you. Your effort is duly noted," he quipped as his hand dipped low and slapped Jaro on the ass. A hiss fell from Jaro's teeth with the pain as he glared up at him. Jaro rubbed at his surely throbbing cheek as he glared at them.
They both sank into the other sofa, grinning like fools. Judd moved from in the kitchen, a plate in his hand filled with eggs, toast, and bacon. He dumped it in front of Jaro on the coffee table and then turned to nod at Neira before falling into the last sofa in the room. The injured Jaro grumbled his thanks and leaned over to pluck a piece of bacon off the top of the pile.
Neira filled her plate and sat back down followed by Jaro and then the twins. It seems Sada and Aja wouldn't be joining them for a while more yet. They were probably enjoying each other too much anyways to be bothered with frivolous things like bacon and eggs.
"So you two do the deed?" Lincon asked filling his mouth with a mixture of eggs and toast. Neira almost chocked.
"Lincon," Judd growled pausing his eating to glare at him.
"Come on, it's a fair question," Landon said leaning back into the sofa. Neira's chewing stilled.
Judd pressed his lips into a thin line. "Come on Judd," Jaro growled, a glare still on his face, "something good better had come out of this." He gestured to his wrapped up leg.
They were talking as if she wasn't in the room. "No," Neira snapped. "He didn't get shit."
Judd's gaze shot to her as Lincon let out a low "ooooh."
"That's because you're a crazy son-of-a-bitch and were too far gone anyways," Judd snapped, his gaze trained on her like he could level her with one look.
"Oh shit," Lincon snapped, eyes alight with thrilled disbelief. "He bit you didn't he?" He leaned forward on his elbows, his t-shit almost touching the eggs on his plate.
Neira's gaze darkened. He had his answer.
"Juddy boy," Landon laughed running a hand through his hair. "You have a death wish." He stood, dumped his plate in the sink and grabbed another piece of toast as he walked out the door. He could feel Neira's growing agitation and wasn't going to stick around to see how far it took her.
Landon was chuckling too, "he's right. If she doesn't kill you for it, then Shade will when he finds out." Landon followed his brother out the door, snickering the whole way.
Neira almost didn't notice Jaro grab crutches and hall himself upright. "I'm out of here before I have a hole in the other leg." She was too busy snarling at Judd.
She could already feel the hair on the back of her neck standing on end, preparing to shift and sink her teeth into him.
He seemed to realize what was happening and his face paled.
Some part of her that was still moderately sane knew she was overreacting and that this was utterly unnecessary, but every other part of her screamed to lunge.
Fucking heat. Fucking pain on her skin making her crazy.
Judd stood swiftly, knocking his plate onto the floor. Her attention turned to the plate for just a fraction of a second, but it was enough of a distraction for him.
He drove over the coffee table at her. She scrambled over the back of the couch as his arms closed around the spot she was just sitting at. He snarled at her as she growled back. And now her breakfast was all over the floor at her feet.
Before he could lunge at her again, she got the upper hand but knocking him backward onto the floor. She was on top of him in the next second, pinning his shoulders to the dark hardwood floors. He gnashed his teeth at her as another blinding strike of pain ran up her legs.
It was enough to roll her underneath of him, pinning her arms above her head.
"Neira," he snarled around a mouthful of teeth. "Submit."
A whine threatened to climb out of her throat, but she snuffed it out with a grunt. There would be no submitting, not from her, not right now.
Judd saw it on her face, and let out a frustrated growl. Breath fanned her face, causing pain to lance her cheeks.
It was building too fast, the pain and all its friend's with their hooks in her skin. Her brain called for murder, kill the male and the pain he brought. Her wrists even stung where his fingers held her down.
She could remember how her heat's had worked before. It would build, and eventually, she would snap. She would pass out from the pain after she tore her vocal's all over again from screaming for hours on end.
Neira thrashed again, pain stabbing needles into her skin.
Judd acted without thinking. He didn't need to; it was instinct to lower down onto her and press his lips to her.
She froze as the pain stilled. It wasn't gone, but it wasn't running up and down her body like strands of fire. But her mouth...
As soon as his lips had descended on hers, the places his body pressed into hers no longers scorched with angry flames. They tingled, sending a new kind of shiver through her body. One that ran down and settled right between her legs.
He moved his lips against hers, tongue dipping out to taste her lower lip. His fingers released her wrists as his hands traveled down her arms and over her t-shirt to cut her breast through the fabric.
The pain eased a little more, and a moan of relief left her throat. Judd swallowed it down.
Judd pulled away, hoping that would be enough for now to settle the raging shewolf.
But as soon as he wasn't touching her anymore, as soon as his mouth pulled away, the heat was back. Pain tore into her face. It was back and worse than before.
She snarled and lunged upward at him, knocking him into the couch. Her talons were out and inches from his face.
He scrambled to the side, darting around the corner and out of sight.
A frustrated pain filled groan left her mouth as she stalked after him. He wasn't in the hall, and there was no sign of him. She gritted her teeth as more agony filled her body. She stumbled into the wall halfway down, her nails leaving lines on the wall.
The bedroom was empty as she stumbled through to doorway. Her vision coated everything in red.
His chest pressed into her back as his arms came around to hold her still. She thrashed, but he tossed her onto the bed before she could get a claw in his throat. He crawled on top of her, pressing her body into the mattress. She screeched now, shaking as his touch brought nothing but pain.
And then he was kissing her again, calming the inner turmoil just a little. Her scent was everywhere, coating the walls, the sheets, his skin. He pulled his lips from hers to find her neck, his nose taking in long inhalations of her. One hand came to the other side of her throat as the other slipping under her shirt to the smooth skin of her stomach.
A breathy gasp came from her lips as he kissed her throat, lapping the pain on her skin away. Her hands came up, tangling in his hair, sending the smell of mist into the air.
His fingers trailed the soft underside of her breasts, his mouth sucking on her collarbone.
He pulled her shirt off, not bothering to realize she was pulling him under the spell with her. To a place he knew was impossible for a person like him to reach. To a place, he had not been since...
His mouth found hers again.
The next chapter 'Naked' has mature content. Prewarned.