Chapter 11

She was so hot!

She felt like she was on fire, and every time he touched her she burned a little brighter, a little hotter.

She felt that she was melting, she felt like she would burn out, burn up and cease to exist.

But still he continued to stroke and caress, and kiss and taste her.

"Enough!" she finally gasped. "Please ... enough ... please,"

James could see the yellow speckles in her eyes, and they glowed and dimmed.

She was trying desperately to keep her identity, to not lose herself to the wolf's instincts, but as he ran his hand down her arm, a strip of red fur boiled to the surface.

Iris whimpered. "Please," she whispered again, and the fur retracted again, as she fought for control.

He ran a hand down her spine, and the fur reared up, only to retract again as she shivered.

He had never seen one of his kind who was so human, and yet so in tune with the old ones.

How she withstood the call of the moon so often – James could not understand.

He knew the battle it took to not succumb, and yet she had said she only did it every so often.

"Please, James," she whispered again, and as her hands came to his face, he could see the black claws slowly sliding over her nails.

"You have to stay in control, Iris. We are not animals, and we cannot succumb to our animal instincts."

It was the hardest thing he had ever done, to step away from her. But seeing her fur coming and going like that, had told him that mating with her now would be not only unwise, but it could be downright dangerous.

He could see the moment that she beat her inner instincts, and regained complete control - which just happened to be the moment when he stepped back and stopped influencing her.

Her look of embarrassment was bad enough, but the utter humiliation was just too much.

He clenched his fists a couple of times, and he beat back his own beast.

And only when he was sure that he was in complete control, did he step closer to her.

Iris had been standing with her arms wrapped around herself as she wallowed in her shame and misery.

To lose control like that! How could she?

James stood close, and waited for her to look up and meet his gaze.

"This is my shame, Iris," he told her gently. "I was the one who instigated this; I was the one who could not control myself. You begged me to stop but I refused."

"You, you did not force yourself on me," Iris stammered, as she saw the genuine remorse in his eyes. She sighed suddenly, and her shoulders slumped. "I guess that we were both still a little on edge from the weekend. But you see I have never met another of our kind, not in our animal form ... not unless they were family."

"No, I cannot imagine that you have," James turned away from the temptation of her.

She was still naked from when he had let her robe slide from her shoulders, and fall to the ground, and he did not think that she even realised.

But she would soon enough, as her rationality returned, and her sense of modesty forced her to acknowledge how deep her humiliation ran.

He saw her movement from the corner of his eye, as she swooped down suddenly to scoop up her robe, and she half turned away from him as she pulled it back over her shoulders.

He saw the savage motion of her hands and she tugged the belt around her waist, and then tied it tightly.

He turned back to her, and smiled apologetically.

"Why don't you go and make us a pot of tea or something, and then we shall sit and talk for a little while."

His tone was firm as he became a dominant male, and Iris turned without comment, and pausing only long enough to collect the cups from earlier, she fled the room.

"Your father is the only male in your family; isn't he?" James asked as he sipped at the cup of tea.

"Yes ... how did you know that?"

"Because he won't let you within ten feet of another male ... because he was all set to rip me to pieces, on that first night, to protect you and your sister however he needed to."

He looked across at her. "That is how a sole male behaves in a pack; even the small packs that our kind, usually run to."

"It puts him under a lot of pressure," Iris murmured softly. "To always be the strong, dominant male, to show others that he can take care of his own."

She sat thinking about her father, about Laurie's concerns for him.

James watched as the worry came and went, and he realised that the females of her family were very vulnerable. Should anything ever happen to Greg Beaumont, then the neighbouring males would come down heavily on the pack, seeking to take from what they perceived as the weaker females.

"How many females are in your family?" he asked suddenly.

Iris looked across at him in surprise. "Three; myself and Laurie, of course; and then there is Aunt Trudy as well."

"And what does your aunt do with herself, has she never married?"