by Ana Calin
“You heard the lady, big guy. You can leave now, before you embarrass yourself.”
I don’t move, letting him approach and ready to teach him a hard lesson.
“I said,” he presses, while the others watch tensely. “Get away from the lady.”
He’s now standing only inches away from me, but he’s almost a head smaller. Focused on Princess I hadn’t noticed the film of sweat on his face and the sickly pallor of his skin, but it jumps out at me now. The boy seems ill.
“Go away.” He slaps the back of his hands against my chest. I don’t move an inch, but he tries again. Only this time I catch his wrist in the air and twist it behind his back, forcing him down.
“Fuck me!” Spikes falls to one knee, throwing his head back, his face distorted in pain. “What the fuck man, let me go.”
Under any other circumstances I would. I’ve already made an example out of him, and that’s all I wanted, in case any of the others were thinking of taking a chance, too. But the tattoo on the inside of Spikes’ now twisted wrist draws my attention.
“A serpent in the shape of a dollar sign,” I say, just loud enough that Princess hears it as well. She’s sitting rigid on her stool, her mouth open at what’s she’s just witnessed, her chest rising and falling fast as she breathes. She’s scared, anxious and, judging by her scent, also horny.
I yank the boy up and haul him around, slamming him against the bar. Glasses fly, the bartender pushes back against the shelves, and people start screaming behind me. Must be because I lifted a heavy looking guy from the ground as if he weighed nothing, and now I’m handling him like he’s a doll. My hands firm on Spikes’ lapels, I glance over my shoulder to my men by the exit.
“Seal the door. Nobody gets in or out. Serpents’ scouts.”
They bolt the door, radioing their colleagues, and keeping those trying to trickle away inside. My men are human, but well-trained and armed.
“What the hell is going on?” Princess says in the high-pitched voice that only fear can cause.
I slam Spikes against the bar, really hard this time, making him grunt as his bones crack.
“Christ’s sakes, what are doing to him?” Princess shrieks.
“He and maybe all the other guys around you are serpents’ men,” I hiss between my teeth, my eyes blazing golden at her. Blood boils beneath my skin, and I’m dangerously close to shifting. I can feel my skin thickening, fur pushing to sprout right beneath it. “Have you been confederating with them? Did you get them to meet you here?”
“What the hell are you talking about, no!” She jumps off the bar stool, grabs her designer bag with a furious look on her face, and stomps to the door. The boys stop her from getting out, while I return my attention to Spikes.
“Tell me who sent you boy, and why, or I swear to God I’ll tear your head from your shoulders.”
He stares horrified at my growing fangs, my upper lip already curling like a snout.
“Talk.” I’m already thinking of taking him outside in the back alley and cornering him by the dumpsters. People of Darkwood Falls don’t know about werewolves and serpents, at least not all of them and not officially, so I can’t shift in here where everyone can see.
“What do you mean you’re not letting me go,” Princess demands by the door. “Move out of the way at once, or—”
But before she can finish, Spikes starts to choke in my hands, his eyes rolling back, foam trickling out from the corners of his mouth. I take my hands off of him, letting him drop to the floor, lest people think it’s me who’s doing this to him. But he begins twisting like a man possessed, his neck swelling as if something’s strangling him from the inside.
A few moments later he stills on the floor, only his limbs twitching. Then I see it, the small head of a viper, slithering its way out of his mouth. I squash it under my boot before anyone else can see. Fuck, the serpents put voodoo snakes inside their acolytes to make sure they died before they could betray their masters.
I turn around to see Princess standing shocked by the door, her big caramel eyes fixed on the dead guy. I open my mouth to command the men to check everyone’s wrists for the serpents’ mark, but Princess begins trembling, and I panic—is there one inside her, too? No, it can’t be, this can’t be happening to her!
I stride over so fast that the air whirls around me, not even trying to mask my superhuman speed. All that matters is helping Princess in any way I can. I get there right before she bends from her waist, crouching down and bracing her knees as if she’s sick. I hunker down with her, my heart pounding—I cannot lose her, she’s far too important; important to the werewolves’ mission in Darkwood Falls, important in taking down the serpents, important in so many ways.
The perfume that filters into my nostrils from her hair strengthens the sensation that this woman matters more than anything else. I pull out my phone from my pocket, placing the other hand on Princess’s back, her skin like velvet against my rough palm. My brother picks up after the first ring.
“Drago, I need you here ASAP.”
Princess
I’M INSIDE NERO WOLF’S convertible Porsche, riding into the night, the summer breeze blowing my hair.
“Where are you taking me,” I manage.
“Home,” comes Nero’s deep, vibrant voice. It’s pleasant, like a ripple of chocolate.
“No, not home, please. My dad is there, he can’t see me like this. And he can’t see me with you.”
“You have a big house, Miss Skye, almost a palace. He won’t see us. Besides, I’ll bring you inside, then I’ll leave.”
“But what if I’m not safe there, Nero?” I can feel his eyes pierce the darkness as they snap to me.
“So we’re on first name terms now?”
“On whatever terms will make you understand.”
“I’ll gladly listen to whatever you have to tell me, Princess. What do you think threatens your safety?”
I watch him driving, his wolfish eyes fixed ahead, his leather jacket tight on his long, muscular arms. He’s handsome as fuck, damn it.
“Why don’t you feel safe at your place, Princess?” he insists softly, his voice still deep, but no longer commanding. It’s pleasant, accommodating as if I could tell him anything, almost like a shrink’s.
“Listen Nero, I’m not keeping things from you, like you think I am, I wasn’t in on Sullivan’s shady business.” I bite my lip, thinking of ways to tell him this. He keeps watching the road in the headlights, the summer breeze bringing the scent of the woods. “But I’m afraid my father was.”
I wait to see how he reacts to that. But not a muscle moves on his face.
“Yes,” he encourages softly. Seems he already knew, or at least expected it.
“It’s no secret to you that my dad used to finance Sullivan’s campaigns. I always wondered why. He never even liked Sullivan, on the contrary. But I always had the feeling Sullivan had something on him, on my dad, you know. Something dirty enough to force him to finance his campaigns and more than that. Dad kept much of his business with him secret, and ever since Sullivan disappeared, even more so. He seals doors and windows, paranoid someone might get into the house and kill him.” I bite my lip. I can’t really focus on what I have to say anymore. These sensations inside, the burning in my core is growing worse. I fan myself with my hand, hot and thinking about sex, which I’m afraid shows in my every move and even in my voice.
“If the serpents wanted your father dead, they would have killed him by now. But I’ll have people guard your house starting tonight.” He glances at me. “But our main problem is that it seems the serpents are targeting you. I’ll stay with you tonight, make sure you’re safe. I’ll check the entire perimeter and won’t leave until everything is secured.”
My heart jumps. “Yes, I’d be grateful for that.” Fuck, he’s going to spend the night with me. “What do you think that guy with the tattoo wanted from me?”
“I don’t know for sure, but I know he put something in
your drink, and we need to find out what. It could be poison, for all we know.”
He presses those carnal lips together, and a flash shoots up from my core to my chest. Damn it, I want those lips on mine, I want to know what they feel like.
“I’m not feeling very well, to be honest. I can’t get this heat out of my body.” I touch my neck with both hands, moving them down to my chest.
“What are you doing?”
The heat is unbearable, right beneath my skin. All I know is that I need his big rough hands doing what my own are doing. “I always liked your voice, ever since I heard you on the phone.”
He doesn’t reply, his eyes moving from the road to me and back again, as if he’s trying to diagnose me as he drives.
“I mean it, Nero.” I squirm in the leather seat, pressing my thighs together and arching from my waist. What the fuck are you doing screams in my head, but I’m losing my mind by the second as if I’m drunk, Nero’s scent of wild forest working on me like an aphrodisiac. I close my eyes and sniff the air, tracing his scent on it.
“Damn, you smell as wild as you look. You smell of the jungle.” Fuck, my rational brain must have completely shut off.
Nero takes a turn into a side dirt road and pulls over. The headlights illuminate fir trees that seem taken out of a fairy tale, the falls rushing in the distance. I’m worried that he’ll laugh at me, that I’m making a complete fool out of myself, but fuck, I’m horny. I need his big rough hands on my hips, his big Alpha werewolf cock plunging inside of me from behind, at the cost of him seeing me as a cheap wanton for the rest of my life. The price is high, what’s left of my rational mind screams at me that it is, but this excitement is more powerful than anything else.
“Oh, Nero, you big bad wolf. To be completely honest, all I can think about right now is you bending me over the hood of your big black car.”
“That’s not going to happen,” he says, his voice deep. He’s not pissed, but not impressed either. Sure, hundreds of women must have hit on him before me, it’s not like I’m anything special. He is a magnificent beast, the kind of man who could be every girl’s type. Heat courses through my body in waves, stripping away all my defenses and self-imposed limitations—he is Nero Wolf, the Alpha of the werewolf pack that’s taken over the town, an unbearably handsome beast that doesn’t trust me in the least.
“I’d never take advantage of you,” he says.
“Not even if I beg you to?”
This need in my core grows more intense by the minute, and my heart is now beating like a rabbit’s. Excitement turns to fear—what the hell is happening to me, why do I feel like I’ll die if I don’t feel Nero Wolf’s big hard cock inside of me?
“I think Spikes put a sex drug in your drink,” Nero says as my hand trickles down between my legs, under my red mini skirt. “Princess, please stop that.”
I stare at the chiseled edges of his face, his intense eyes and those masculine, carnal lips. Damn, how I want those hot lips on mine.
“I think it’s some kind of substance that makes you crave sex like crazy,” he says, keeping his cool. I feel stupid, since it doesn’t seem I have any effect on him. Sure, what did I expect. He’s the hottest guy I’ve ever met, a beast of a man, women must offer themselves to him on golden platters. But I can’t control the way my body reacts to him, no matter how much I will myself to.
I moan as I slip my finger under my panties and stroke my shaved folds. God, my senses are heightened.
“Forgive me,” I slur, mortified to the core yet unable to stop. “But it feels like I’m going to die if I don’t find release.” My body twists in the leather seat as I search for my own orgasm.
Nero’s eyes flash golden. He seems a wild beast, which should give me the creeps, but all I can think about is sex with him.
He bends down to me, his golden eyes alight, and my heart leaps into my throat. I’m sure he’s going to kiss me, certain that I’ll finally feel those carnal masculine lips on mine, but no. He takes my chin between two rough fingers, and inspects me in the light of his wolfish eyes that seem to work as flashlights, illuminating my face.
“Relax, Princess. You’re perfectly safe with me, and nothing can happen to change that. I won’t take advantage of your substance-induced excitability, but I’ll make sure you’ll be fine.” His voice, deep and pleasant like melted chocolate, makes me relax, a feeling of trust engulfing me. Is this the magical power Arianna was telling me about? Werewolves being able to influence people’s moods, making them feel more relaxed, to the point of anesthetizing them even in the face of the most shocking things?
But despite the relaxation the substance keeps working in my body. The more I give in to Nero’s pleasant control over my mood, the more the heat ravages my veins and my skin like some cursed poison, and I panic. A look deep into Nero’s eyes confirms my terrifying hunch—whatever that serpents’ minion put inside my body, it’s going to kill me.
CHAPTER II
Nero
I take her pretty face between my hands. Her cheeks are small and hot against my palms as big as a bear’s paws, her silky red hair flowing between my fingers. The sensation is exquisite, and it goes to my head like an aphrodisiac. This has never happened before, not in over five hundred years, and it can spell big trouble. But something else is at stake, something much bigger than my feelings—this woman might die in my arms tonight.
“Princess, I can use my senses to trace the poison in your blood, but it would take time we don’t have. I need you to listen to me carefully. Usually people in desperate situations can sense what it is they need in order to survive. The body is as intelligent as the whole universe. I can prove that to you, and I promise I will some day, but right now I need you to take my word for it.”
I keep my powers activated on her, sending the chemicals of calm coursing through her veins, while also prompting her to listen to the rest of her chemistry that tells her what to do.
Her heavy dark lashes flutter over her pretty caramel eyes that now seem fluid with desire. She raises her hand and touches my jaw, her lips parting as if touching me is pure delight.
“I need you to kiss me, Nero,” she whispers, her breath close to my face.
Want pools in my groin. Fuck, we’re so close to each other, only a few inches of air between us, air that feels burning hot.
“I can’t do that, Princess, no matter what.”
“But I’m dying, Nero. Whatever thing that bastard put in my drink, it’s ravaging me on the inside, and it will keep doing it if I don’t....”
If she doesn’t cum. She doesn’t need to finish the sentence, I understand it from her body chemistry that I’m probing deeper. I trace the poison and it is, indeed, deadly, unless an orgasm changes her chemistry, fast.
“I won’t take advantage of you.” Though my body is screaming to take her like I own her.
“You’d be saving me.”
I never had to fight my body like this in my life. Her scent, her silky hair between my fingers, her slightly parted plump lips, all of it is doing scary shit to me. Must be because of her altered body chemistry that’s playing wild because of the poison, making her feel and smell like a... It hits me—Princess Skye is a fated female, and the poison has unlocked her chemistry.
I don’t dare move, afraid that even sniffing her arousal will have me shift into a beast roaring to have her, but Princess is on fire. She lifts her chin, her lips now brushing mine.
“Please, Nero,” she whispers, her breath hot on my mouth. “You’d be saving my life.”
“Oh, Princess.” I lose the battle with myself, my mouth claiming those forbidden cherry red lips. They taste sweet as sin, as the apple of Eden must have tasted to Adam, a taste so unique that I lose myself in it.
Waves of heat run through me, molten desire ripples under my skin.
I lose it. I trap Princess between my body and the car seat, keeping my mouth locked on hers, but throwing off my leather jacket and ripping the shirt off my body.
I break the kiss, my eyes burning as I stare into hers. She stares back awe-struck, red-cheeked and wide eyed as if she can’t believe what’s happening.
I trace her jaw with my thumb as I talk, doing nothing to hide my lust.
“I may shift into a werewolf while I do this. No matter what you think you know about us, it’ll be shocking, and it will be scary.”
“I don’t care,” she says, raising her face for a kiss, pressing those hot plump lips to mine.
“Princess,” I manage, putting a finger between our mouths. “You should care because I will shift, it’s a fact. Are you sure you want to—” Fuck, it sounds bad. “You want to sleep with a beast?”
“I want you to take me like it’s your birth right, Nero.” She pushes my hand aside and kisses me again, her tongue stroking my lips, her flesh releasing the maddening scent that can only be a fated female’s.
I kiss her neck and her chest like a mad man, ripping the black corset off of her. Tits as round and firm as apples spring free, her nipples pink and perky. I growl, my skin hardening, fur pushing to sprout out from under it.
I lick and kiss Princess’s tits in a fever, shifting at the same time. On the outside this must look like a scene from some kind of erotic horror movie—A half-naked beauty in a car, being ravished by a huge beast, his tongue on her tits, and his paws all over her. But I keep my hands in the half-state between human and beast, thick strong fingers finding their way into her panties.
“Fuck, your folds feel soft as cream,” I growl, my brain on fire. Princess pushes her tits out, pressing both of her hands on mine between her legs. She pushes my fingers inside of her, eyes fixed on my face while I go deeper into the tight hotness of her pussy.