Page 50 of Scars of the Sun

Before I could think it through, I was tugging at the hem of my hoodie, fighting with it to pull it over my head. My braid got caught, but I kept on until I slid it the rest of the way, off of my arms. I threw it to the floor, bare torso now covered only with a plain, gray bralette. “There.” I held my scarred arms out for him, shoving them in his line of sight as the damning evidence. “You wanna go out there and swim with your friends now? Let prettyand perfect Alex see that I’m no competition? Don’t fucking tell me that shit!” I screamed the last bit, crying again while his stare was glued to what I showed him. Not my eyes, where he wouldn’t truly see what was wrong with me. What I’d not told anyone since I was discharged from the inpatient program.

My chest heaved, my arms quivering but remaining outstretched toward Río.

Whose face was hard and serious in a way I’d never seen before. His angular jaw was clenched so tightly that I could see the muscles straining under the tension. He didn’t even seem to breathe as he stood and watched. And when he stepped back toward me, his chest still didn’t move.

He dropped to his knees, still silent, as if any more noise would scare me away.

In horror or awe, sweat trickled down my temple, and my eyes widened sharply as he cradled the backs of my forearms. He lowered his head, examining the long, raised line that was the ugly reminder of what I’d done. Sloppy and frantic to end it all.

And then his eyes flicked upward, veiled by long, black lashes that did nothing to obscure his intense gaze. Or the way my soul pulled toward him.

Río opened his mouth, and I braced for what was to come. Pity, empty words.

But, no. None of that. None of the words I expected, and in their place, unfurled the long, flat pink of his tongue. Half-shifted, it wasn’t the smooth and soft of his human form but the rough version that was designed to scrape the meat off of the bones of his prey.

Never breaking eye contact with me, Río bent his head the last few inches. I gasped again as he began dragging that gentle and scratchy tongue up the length of my scar, tasting it.

I was frozen while I watched him do it twice more before switching to my other arm and delivering the same treatment, communicating far more than I could handle.

I yelped in surprise when he dropped my arms and took my hips instead, giving a sharp tug until he was pressed against my front, nuzzling into my sternum. His purr, another… gift, vibrated my skin and filled the room. What could I do but hold him to me and let my bare arms and torso touch someone for the first time in years?

Río pressed kisses on my skin, rubbing my sides with passes of his callused fingers, until he stood, running his front against mine the whole way. He let me take the bottom of his shirt and helped me pull it off of him until it was a heap of fabric beside my discarded hoodie.

The first caress of his warm skin against mine left me whimpering, and not even the deep kiss he pulled me into stopped it. Río took over my mouth, licking into it and dominating my tongue with his rough one. His arms were like life-giving vises, keeping me close and giving no chance for escape or fleeing. The sensation of his shoulders against my scars was tender and new, and more warm tears fell down my face.

Río broke our kiss to lap up the salty liquid from my cheeks, swallowing my emotions with a hungry growl.

Before I could start the rest of our undressing or beg him to do it, cold air smacked my front and forced my eyes open. Río took my wrist, pulling me toward the sliding glass door of the room that was hidden amongst the windows. After opening us to the hot summer night, he marched us outside, tops bare. Need and confusion pulsed within my brain, but I wasn’t stupid enough to object or stop us.

No, I let him pull me into the dark stretch of Antler Pointe forest that embraced Tyler’s property until the house and the laughter of his friends was a flicker in the distance.

We were barefoot, and we crunched over the dirt and tree roots until he slowed us to a stop. I let Río circle the base of my throat with his other hand and push me back toward god knew what. His eyes were yellowing, and his lips were parted enough to reveal his fangs.

A gust of air punched out of my lungs when my bare back met the hard and surprisingly smooth bark of a tree. Río inclined his head, as if expecting an answer, and I nodded. Yes, I would stay put.

Though he let go of me, I still felt his warmth on my wrist and neck and remained exactly where he left me. My heart pounded in my chest, a pressure that knocked against my ribs as I watched Río’s back while he rubbed his fingers quickly at his eyes and flung his hands toward the ground, as if flinging something away. He removed his jeans and boxer briefs and discarded them carelessly on the ground before tuning back to meet my eyes once again.

And it started.

An audible hum started deep in my chest, behind where Río had nuzzled into me, and intensified with the swirling that held him as the epicenter. Part of me wanted to object when his eyes shut, and his neck arched back, letting the change take over.

His skin rippled with the rearranging of his muscles and bones, the sound that accompanied it almost grotesque. Like thick, resounding thumping that was muffled by his blood and skin… that was darkening.

Río’s legs bent at angles that looked odd. His thighs widened at the same time his fingers and toes did to become the shape of paws. He dropped to the ground, catching himself despitetrembling. I was entranced as his chest broadened and took on the distinct and impossibly large feline shape.

Not a full member of my brother’s pack, I’d not yet been to the pack runs, so the only shifts I’d witnessed were my mother’s and brother’s. Sights that were a very rare occurrence.

The wild beauty of Río’s more than stole my breath, and I let the grounding presence of the tree behind me hold me still. While I watched his long, wavy hair shrivel and disappear at the same time fur sprouted all over his body. Río’s facial features slid and rearranged until they were that of a strong and vicious Jaguar.

A black Jaguar.

Because where I’d expected tan and white fur dotted with black spots, there was instead a dark absence of color. Until, shift complete, he shook himself, all the way down to the end of his long tail, and opened his yellow and black eyes.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

RÍO

Ishot a gust of air through my nose and shook my shifted body. My eyes blinked quickly, adjusting to the blurry sight of the forest now that my contacts were gone. The forest was alive with scents and sounds of the animals that lived here. Rodents scurried between and beneath tree trunks. The predators that stalked them flew above. I could feel the batting of their wings against my skin.