by Caris Roane
She loved his cock, the thick head, and heavy stalk. She stroked his sack and teased him with a long lick up to the head. She rimmed the crown along the sensitive ridge, then repeated the process. He gripped the sheet with both hands and moaned. His hips rocked, his body arched, and a wolf-like whine left his throat.
She watched him as she used her mouth, delighting in every sign of his pleasure.
When she finally took his cock in her mouth and began to suck, he cried out. “God, that feels good.”
She kept going but watched him carefully. She wanted him to experience as much sensation as possible, but just short of coming.
When his neck arched forward, she released her hold on his cock and let him rest. He breathed in what looked like almost painful gasps.
She planted a hand on his chest and stared into his gorgeous blue eyes. “So, tell me, wolf, how do you want to take me.”
She was airborne before she knew what he intended, but it made her laugh with joy. He was strong and gentle and brought her to her knees on the bed without any difficulty at all.
He came at her from behind, very wolf-like. She supported herself on all fours and couldn’t wait for what he was about to do.
He bent over her and rubbed his hand along her chin, close to her mouth. Where he’d sprouted fur, his scent was stronger, and it made her wild.
He took his cock in hand to rub against her opening. When he pushed inside, she cried out at the pleasure of feeling him enter her. He began to drive into her with deep thrusts, rolling his hips so that she felt the full length of him each time.
Over and over, he thrust until her neck arched again and she was howling. She didn’t understand why she was behaving so much like a wolf, but she loved it.
He shifted position slightly and let her smell his fur again.
She bucked against him and in turn, he pinned her hips with his hands and thrust faster, deeper. As he did, he leaned over her once more and shoved her damp hair away from her neck.
She trembled now, because she knew what he intended to do and how it would ignite her passions even more.
He bit down. Hard.
She cried out as her sex began to pulse once more and another orgasm was on her. Pleasure streaked through her like lightning this time. She moaned, shouted and writhed. The whole time, he continued to thrust into her.
When the wave passed, he kissed the back of her neck over and over. His thrusts grew strong again and this time, she knew he would reach the pinnacle with her.
She was breathing hard as ecstasy began to build within her once again. “I’m going to come this time, Lauren. Can you come with me?”
“Yes.”
He increased his speed and again bent over her. He took as much of her nape in his mouth as he could and bit down as he had before. She cried out and kept crying out.
The wave began to rise within her. He was groaning now as his wolf teeth kept her pinned in place. He began to thrust wolf fast. Ecstasy rose in a sudden rush and she cried out. “I’m coming.”
When he released her neck and began to shout, she knew he was with her. He thrust in heavy strokes that took her pleasure and exploded the sensations within her body. The orgasm drove through her abdomen and seized her heart until she was once more arching her neck and howling.
He continued to thrust until the last of his seed was spent inside her. She felt used up and wonderful, like an ocean wave that finally landed in a thin sheet of water at the edge of the beach, then slid slowly back into the surf.
She collapsed onto the bed, deeply satiated and content beyond words. He rode down with her, staying connected to lay on top of her. It was a wolf thing that he didn’t slip out of her.
Her cat meowed, and Lauren shifted to glance at the open door where Janey meowed her warning. “It’s dawn, Cole. Can you make it home in this light?”
As she spoke the words, the protective steel shutters began to descend as they did every night in almost every above-ground dwelling throughout Five Bridges.
“I should go,” he said. “I can tolerate this level of light and a bit more.”
He drew out of her at the same time. He gathered some tissues and tucked them between her legs, then headed to the bathroom.
Lauren turned on her side facing toward the shutters. It seemed somehow appropriate that the beautiful view of her garden was gone now that Cole was leaving.
Tears slid suddenly from her eyes and her heart began to ache more painfully than ever before.
Chapter Six
Cole stood in the bathroom uncertain what he should do.
He could leave and fly home anytime within the next forty minutes or so. He was lucky in the sense he could tolerate so much light when most other alters couldn’t. As a witch, even Lauren couldn’t manage what he could.
The trouble was, he didn’t want to leave, but he knew he couldn’t stay. Lauren was a witch, a resident of Elegance, a spellcaster.
He ran the shower because he needed time to think. He hopped in and let the warm water ease some of the tension from his body.
When he’d arrived at her home, he’d been so certain it would be a simple thing to make love to her one last time, then head out. She knew the score, so he was certain she wouldn’t put up a fight. It wasn’t her way.
He once more reviewed his objections to being with a witch. He only had to conjure a host of times he’d seen the torture a dark witch had inflicted on his fellow wolves, and a shudder went through him. His hatred of her kind ran deep.
Yet, she wasn’t that kind of witch or that kind of woman. She wouldn’t hurt anyone, which was one reason it had stunned him when she’d taken out his knee. Of course, she’d insisted she’d done it to save his life, but he’d refused to believe her.
And he’d been stubborn in holding to his disbelief despite knowing her character as he did.
When he dipped his head beneath the warm spray, he finally admitted to himself that he’d used the injury as an excuse to break with her. Earlier that same night, he’d found one of his pack-mates poisoned by a dark witch. The paste had eaten through to his bones and invaded his blood. Given the number of wounds all of over his body that had sunk to different depths, the torture had gone on for hours.
The images of his suffering still tormented Cole.
When Lauren had used her power to hurt him, he knew he couldn’t stay with her. He didn’t want anything to do with her kind. So, he’d built a wall and blamed it on the injury to his knee.
Maybe at the time, he’d believed what he’d told himself, but he didn’t now. This time with her tonight, while they’d worked together to find Vickie, he’d experienced several warlock moments like being able to see the violet waves connected to her invisibility shield.
His warlock instincts had deepened. He could no longer hide behind his insistence she’d lied to him. He now understood in the depths of his marrow that she had protected him that night. A dark witch had been present and if he’d shown himself, he would have been killed just as Lauren had said.
He used her bar soap to scrub himself all over once again. Yet, all he was doing was buying himself some time to think. A momentous understanding came to him, something he hadn’t expected: He’d fallen in love with a witch, deeply and truly.
He saw it now, all of it. He’d loved her almost from the first night they’d been together. He’d thought it was just a forbidden kind of lust because he was a wolf and she, a witch.
But how quickly he’d grown comfortable with her, to desire more than anything to be with her, to savor all the ways they made love together.
He knew now that he couldn’t go back to his solitary life lived out in a burrow in the earth. He had to be with Lauren. She was his woman and he would make her his mate. His pack probably wouldn’t approve because she wasn’t a wolf. But then even Alpha Fergus had mated with a fae woman and his pack loved her. So, it wasn’t unheard of to take a mate from a different species.
As he finished rinsing off the
soap then shut off the water, he left the shower with a profound sense of how much, in a few short hours, his life had changed.
That’s when he heard a terrible gurgling-gasping sound coming from the other room. Lauren was in danger.
His first instinct was to go wolf and race back into the bedroom. But he now recognized that he had emerging warlock abilities because of his connection to her. Whatever was happening, he couldn’t manage the situation as a wolf. He had to respond more like a warlock. He had to stop, to think.
Before he made a move, he contacted Lauren. What’s happening?
Don’t come in here. It’s Monique and she plans to kill you. She knows you’re developing warlock abilities and she wants you out of my life. She has a spell ready at her fingertips. The moment you show yourself, she will let it flow straight into your heart.
Is she strangling you?
He already knew the answer. Yes.
Cole felt the dark witch reaching into Lauren’s mind, so he closed off his telepathy. Lauren could no longer help him figure out what to do.
He focused on his love for her as a witch and embraced it fully. He recalled the spell she used to go invisible. He had no idea if it was possible, but it seemed like the only way he could take care of a dark witch.
He would have to surprise her.
“Come out, Cole.” Monique’s voice was deep and resonant, hypnotic. “I’m holding Lauren’s life in my hands. She will die if you don’t come to me now. The only way to save her is to show yourself.”
Cole grew deeply relaxed and fell into a profound meditative state. He channeled the memories of each time Lauren had taken him into her invisibility shield. He became one with the memories.
He kept focusing until Lauren’s spell made its presence known within his mind. She’d once told him how she processed her spells, like retrieving them from a computer folder.
He embraced the part of him that was now an alter warlock. He let the spell take him over and felt himself slip inside Lauren’s invisibility shield.
He levitated then flew swiftly into the bedroom. He ignored the witch choking the life out of the woman he loved. Instead, he headed straight for the chair, drew his gun and aimed it at her.
But he needed to get the witch to release Lauren to prevent Monique from using her killing spell on her.
Then he knew what to do. From the shield, he called out in a loud voice, “Time to die, bitch.”
Monique, clearly stunned, turned in the direction of his voice. She tried to extend her hands toward him to unleash her spell, but the bullets had long since left the gun. As they struck her shoulder, neck and chest, the impact pushed her off Lauren completely.
Lauren began gasping for breath.
Cole left the shield and gathered her up in his arms. He then placed his hand on top of her head and summoned her healing spell. When he saw it within his mind, he embraced it and let it flow.
Her whole body relaxed as she took in a normal breath of air. He continued to hold her close until he knew she was fully recovered.
“Cole, how did you do it?”
“Easy,” he said. He drew back just enough to look into her beautiful violet eyes. “I finally acknowledged my love for you and embraced your witchness fully.”
“I’m amazed.”
“I love you, Lauren. I love you so much.”
Tears filled her eyes. “Cole.” His name came out on a hushed whisper. She wrapped her arms around his waist and held him tight. He enfolded her in his arms and returned the embrace.
He had so much more he wanted to say to her, but not in a room where a dark witch had just died.
After a few minutes, he suggested they take Maeve up on her offer and spend the day at the Landing.
Lauren agreed.
He gathered up his clothes and told her he would arrange for a transport to take them over there. “I’ll make the necessary calls. Just take care of yourself right now, get dressed, pack a few things, whatever you need.”
Lauren nodded then headed to the bathroom. She didn’t look at the witch on the bed.
Cole called Maeve and told her what had happened. Maeve was all business when she heard he’d killed a dark witch. She had connections to a human clean-up crew that worked during the day and who could also give them safe-transport through the morning light to her refuge. The company she used had vaults in their vans to make sure light-sensitive alters could be taken to different locations as needed.
“Give me a few minutes,” Maeve said, “and I’ll get all this set up. Please assure Lauren that I’ll see to Monique’s remains and have her house cleansed by three witches who specialize in the process.”
“Will do.”
He put his clothes back on as he waited for Lauren to finish packing and for Maeve to call him back.
When Maeve phoned, she told him the crew would arrive in ten minutes to take them to the Landing. He wasn’t to worry. Her team would identify the witch and record her death. Her body would be taken to the morgue and cremated within the hour. No courtesies were given to any witch, warlock or wizard who practiced the dark arts.
With everything settled and Lauren’s bags packed, he led her into her living room. She looked shocked out, so he sat beside her and held her with an arm around her shoulder. She leaned into him and after a moment, he knew she was weeping, though very quietly.
The transport arrived a few minutes later and backed into her garage. The sun had risen fully, but neither of them was in danger. The back of the van was exactly as Maeve had described: A vault.
Once at the Landing, she took them to a private apartment and said she would check in with them that evening. In the meantime, if they needed food or anything, they had only to call the day-shift and they’d be taken care of.
But neither he nor Lauren needed much more than a good day’s sleep. He crawled into bed and spooned her then fell into the best sleep he’d experienced in a long time. He was with the woman he loved, he’d accepted and embraced her as a witch, he’d even taken on some of her attributes.
He didn’t know what the future would hold because Five Bridges presented new challenges every single night.
But he didn’t care. He had what his heart needed the most. The rest would be what it would be.
~ ~ ~
That night, Lauren sat beside Cole on the seating wall in the Landing’s outdoor entertaining area. Alpha Braden, Maeve’s mate, had formed a pack of the various rescued wolves and they’d fired up the grills in honor of Vickie’s rescue.
A keg had already made an appearance and both she and Cole were on their second glasses of beer.
She couldn’t believe all that had happened in such a short time, but mostly that Cole had come back to her yet more completely than she would have ever believed possible. He was even part warlock now. He’d also explained that his stubbornness in believing she’d lied to him about why she’d injured his knee had been more about his distrust and fear of her kind than anything else.
Somehow, the experience of being with her as they worked to save Vickie, had changed his soul. He even seemed different to her, more at peace for sure, but stronger, too. He was even talking about setting up a rescue operation in Savage for kidnap victims.
For herself, she was overwhelmed and happy beyond words. She kissed him often and savored his frequently repeated professions of love and adoration.
For the most part, the wolves left them to sit alone and be together. As wolves, they no doubt recognized that a bond was forming between them.
Maeve had already told them that a crew of her witches was at Lauren’s home and would take great care to remove any remnant of the dark witch’s presence that might have been left behind during her death. Lauren was relieved. She loved her home. It had been her sanctuary and she wanted to be back there without fear of being haunted by Monique.
She also knew the three witches involved and had confidence the cleansing would be thorough. Her home would be restored and made ready to crea
te new memories with Cole.
As a therapist by trade, she had already started processing the traumatic nature of Monique’s attack. She’d also booked some time with a fellow therapist to put herself mentally on a good path.
Cole took a call and when he put his phone away, he told her they were free to return to her house whenever she was ready.
“Do you want to go back?” she asked. “Or would you rather wait a while?”
At that, he smiled. “Knowing that a team of your kind has been at work, I have no question we should return to your house, the sooner the better. Though I would like to get some clothes from my home.”
“Are you due back at the station tonight?”
“I told Roberts I needed a few personal nights off. He said he’d heard what we’d done for Vickie and told me I could have a week.”
A week.
Alone.
With Cole.
She felt lightheaded at the thought. “I want to go home. But I want to be with you when I do. And no, I’m not afraid or upset knowing that Monique died there because I’m confident with what the witches will achieve. How about I fly to Savage with you while you pack up?”
He rose to his feet and held out his hand to her. He presented his booted foot as well. “Then let’s go.”
They said their good-byes and were cheered as they flew up and out of the refuge.
Later, while back at her home, she stood with Cole in her bedroom. He held her hand tight as they both looked at the bed.
The witches had done an extraordinary job at changing the entire spiritual atmosphere in the room What should have felt like death, felt like…love.
“It feels wonderful in here,” Cole said.
“Better than even I expected.” She then turned to him and he opened his arms to gather her close.
She had to ask. “Are you sure this is what you want, Cole? To be with me and to make a home in Elegance? I mean really sure?”
At that, he smiled and stroked her cheek. “You know it is. Or if you don’t, then I suggest you employ some of your witch senses and do a solid reading of my entire being.”