by Lexi C. Foss
I was tempted to bite her right then, but I wanted to look at her face first. Then her pussy clamped down so hard on my fingers that my dick practically wept for missing it.
My control shattered and I rolled us over, got onto my knees, and lifted her ass high in the air. She had the most perfect round, taut globes, and I smoothed a hand over one, then the other. I’d see my handprint on those one day, but somehow, I knew this woman was a dominant wolf and our bond would only hold if she truly submitted to me and allowed me to dominate in the bedroom.
Right now, I just needed to begin the claiming, to make sure everyone who saw her knew she had a mate and tied her to me with more than just a simple bite. I slid my hand up the bumps of her spine until I tunneled them under a blanket of her magical hair. Then I fisted a chunk of it and yanked, trying to pull her head back so I could force it to the side and see her face. My hand wouldn’t obey and my cock screamed for my attention. I released her hair with a small amount of reluctance, but I was already distracted by the sight of my phallus between her legs. The tip had slipped into her hot, wet channel and I groaned as it bathed my cock with her desire.
“Who do you belong to, baby?” I growled, gripping her hips to the point where it was probably causing her a bit of pain.
“You,” she panted.
“Do you want me to mark you so everyone else knows it too? Give you a claiming bite that tells everyone who owns this beautiful body and delicious pussy?”
She whimpered and raised her right hand to drag all of her hair to the side, exposing her unmarred skin. “Please,” she whispered in a voice thick with need and pushed back against me.
That was all I could take.
I held her still and drove my shaft hard into her sex and our skin made a satisfying smack when I was in as far as I could go. The mating instinct took over and I pounded in and out, my wolf so close that I felt I was more animal than man at that moment. When I felt her pussy begin to ripple around me, alerting me that she was near her climax, I bent over her, blanketing her body with mine, and the tips of my fingers ripped open as my claws creeped out. They dug into her fragile skin but didn’t break it. My teeth elongated and I struck, sinking my teeth into her where her throat met her shoulder.
She cried out, her muscles freezing up, and I stopped moving, worried that I’d hurt her.
Her head jerked side to side frantically and she whimpered, “Don’t stop. Please don’t stop.”
I resumed my hard and fast movements, roughly mating her as my mouth stayed clamped on her shoulder. I wanted the mark to be clear and easy to spot. I needed to know that any motherfucker who got near her would regret it for the rest of their very short life.
It was barely a few minutes later when her walls gripped me with surprising strength, and she called my name over and over as she came, shuddering violently in my arms.
Suddenly, we were surrounded by a glimmering purple glow. I didn’t know what the hell was happening, but I was too far gone to care.
I followed right after her, freeing her neck to roar in ecstasy as my orgasm hit me like a crashing wave of sensations.
I stared at her claiming mark, unable to look away, and it ratcheted up the intensity of my climax. When I felt her shaking begin to ebb and her cries turned softer, my wolf urged me to bite her one more time, to give her a beautiful scar that would help curb the possessiveness inside us every time we saw it. It was something we both wanted, so I sunk my teeth in once more, then licked the wound to soothe the sting.
My eyes drifted open and I stared at the ceiling, feeling confused in the aftermath of the erotic dream. I had no idea why my mind was fixating on this purple-haired woman. I couldn’t even manage to see her face, and yet I was having dreams about fucking her. About claiming her.
I didn’t want a mate. The situation with Camilla turned me off on the whole idea. Right? This train of thought was ridiculous. One sexy dream, albeit the best one I’d ever had, wasn’t going to make me re-evaluate my entire life.
I groaned and turned over, punching my pillow and trying to get comfortable, despite the sexual cravings still lingering and my rock hard shaft. My head was spinning, and I felt a little foggy, a hangover hovering over me from drinking far too much. Asher had insisted we keep downing whiskey and shots until we could barely stumble back to his apartment.
At that point, I was way too fucking drunk to bring a woman back with me. It was probably a good thing considering I would have been dreaming about someone else, but I still blamed Asher and hoped he felt like he was being hit in the head with a sledgehammer.
My wolf wasn’t happy with me either as he didn’t like it when I wasn’t in control of myself. It wasn’t like I did it often, so I’d ignored his grunts of annoyance and did what I fucking wanted.
A glance at the clock showed three in the morning. I debated getting up and going for a run—as a human considering I was in the heart of New York City—because I didn’t want to end up in another erotic dream with a faceless woman who apparently represented the mate my subconscious desired. My subconscious needed to fuck off. As far as I was concerned, a mate was a very bad idea.
10
Rowan
For the first night in a couple of weeks, I slept hard. When I woke up late in the morning, I wasn’t tired, but I felt restless. I’d had some intensely erotic dreams about a big, faceless man. He made me hot and wet, and holy hell…the orgasms he gave me…that’s how I knew it was a dream. Climaxing that long and hard, over and over was the stuff you read in romance novels, not what happened in real life. What surprised me was that he also made me feel safe. I didn’t understand it. Maybe my body was telling me our next fling should be with a bouncer or a lumberjack?
“Stop being ridiculous,” I muttered to myself as I rolled out of bed.
I trudged to my typical NYC bathroom—i.e. smaller than a walk-in closet—and scooted past the sink to start the shower. After washing, I donned workout gear and went for a run before teaching a couple of classes.
I went home and took another shower before trying to relax for a while. I ended up cleaning out my closet. After a cat nap and some dinner, I dressed in a stretchy pair of black Gothic/Steampunk leggings with gold buttons going down the sides, a black long-sleeve tunic with a dipped hem, and black knee-boots that were designed to look like they had spats over them. Then I anchored a sliver belt around my waist and braided my long hair so it hung over one shoulder, falling nearly to my waist.
I grabbed a couple of stakes, two of my favorite knives, and a pistol with blessed—not silver—bullets and stowed them in pockets and compartments within my clothing and belt. I also carried a small vial of holy water in a tiny inner pocket of the coat I was going to wear, plus the cross I wore around my neck—though it was small, it still got the job done.
I drew the line at garlic. I refused to carry something that made me smell like I’d been dipped in Italian pasta sauce. Besides, the only thing I’d ever needed was my stake or a knife—the other stuff I sometimes used to change things up if I got bored. A girl could only shove a piece of wood or decapitate a body so many times before she needed a little variety.
Once I was sufficiently armed, I pulled my long, black wool coat from my closet and slipped my arms inside. The top had a flap that went across my chest and zipped up the right side to the stand-up collar. It remained open down the front, leaving my legs clear and easy access to the sheaths attached to the metal loops in my belt.
I grabbed my keys and phone from my dresser and glanced in the mirror that I’d secured to the wall next to it. I grinned and spun around to stalk to the door.
“Anna Van Helsing can suck it.”
I skipped down the four flights of stairs from my fifth-floor walkup and burst out into the cool night air. Before I left the front stoop—where my protection charm stopped—I closed my eyes and took in a deep breath.
My nose wrinkled at the skunk smell of pot and the stench of ruin. Heightened senses might sound like
a good thing to most, but it could be a curse if you lived somewhere like New York City.
Refocusing, I reached out with my mind and scanned my surroundings. There seemed to be no trace of paranormal activity in the vicinity, so I caressed my amulet in a ritual for good luck, then tucked it into my tunic. Stepping out of my protected area always felt like donning an uncomfortable skin, and I rolled my shoulders to ease the tension it caused.
I decided to head toward E.V.I.E. There was a rumored to be a huge vampire nest near it, though no one had been able to find it. Much to Jude’s irritation.
Even if the rumor was untrue, there was usually a higher amount of activity in that area. As I walked, I glanced around and when I didn’t see anyone, I cracked the door to my magic’s cage and let it send a pulse out around me in search of Dorian’s blood. I hadn’t been able to catch the slick son of a bitch yet, but one time, as he was rounding a corner—since I couldn’t aim for his heart—I’d thrown a knife right into his femoral artery. Bozhye moi, that had felt good.
Obviously, being the undead, it hadn’t killed him. Still, blood had poured from the wound, soaking his pants and creating a small puddle of crimson on the ground. He’d screamed in pain and the sound had made me smile.
Maybe that made me sick, but if that was the case, then so be it. I took joy in every kill when it rid the world of an evil. And the darkness inside Dorian could only have come from the mouth of Hell. He’d been specifically targeting witches and he was looking for something from them. I simply hadn’t been able to ascertain what. Some of his victims appeared to be killed relatively quickly, but others…I didn’t think I’d ever be able to scrub those images from my mind. Their ashen, bloodless skin did nothing to hide the clear signs of torture. A stake through the heart was too good for him, but I would settle for it as long as his existence was snuffed out in a quick burst of fire.
I’d collected some of his blood from where it had pooled on the ground with a small vial. The next day was one of the rare times I truly let my magic loose in the last century. I’d cast a spell that would help me to be drawn to his blood, almost like a craving. The difference being, I had no desire to drink it; my motivation was to spill it.
I didn’t feel the call of his blood nearby so I began to troll the streets, my senses on alert, and listening for gossip from passersby while keeping a firm hold on the door my magic was struggling against. If I let it get past me, I would start glowing enough to light up an entire city block.
I let my body follow its own intuition and when I reached Union Square, I wandered through the park until I stood near the round entrance to the subway. My feet ground to a halt at the top of the stairs and my magic started buzzing an electric current all over my skin.
We’d found him. A wicked smile curved my lips as I wrapped a hand around the handle of my stake and stared into the darkness below me. I had the feeling all day that things were about to change and somehow, I knew it was finally about to happen.
I descended the concrete steps and as I neared the bottom, the dim light from the few bulbs that still worked cast a yellow glow over the space. The ticketing booth was empty, which wasn’t surprising since there seemed to be no rhyme or reason to when these guys worked. This station was a pretty busy hub at any time, day or night, so the lack of a line at the metro card machines and the emptiness on the platform was a bit ominous.
This particular platform was very familiar to me, though, as there was a portal entrance behind one of the maintenance doors. My eyes darted around, taking in every inch of the grimy tracks, following the movement of every subway rat. Not to make light of the current situation, but I just have to point out that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles wasn’t as far off as you’d think. These rats had to be ingesting some green goo to be that freaking big.
I still felt the call of Dorian’s blood, but I couldn’t place it. The platform began to rumble, alerting me to the arrival of a train, so I shuffled down to the maintenance closet and picked the lock before slipping inside. This portal was one of many in the E.V.I.E. network. I’d used it a number of times, but I’d never felt the same kind of energy from it…actually, that wasn’t completely true. I’d felt it before, but there was no way that this had anything to do with that one time—it was over a century ago. My magic gave me a nudge that literally slid my feet closer to what looked like a solid concrete wall. “Knock it off,” I hissed. “I’m going, I’m going.”
I placed my hand on the wall and it melted into a portal that I immediately stepped through. My instincts went crazy and my magic bounced around its cage like the ball in a pinball machine. Damn it! The path to E.V.I.E. was to the right, but my head immediately swung to the left. There was a fading shimmer in the air and I drew in my lips thoughtfully. That looked like the after-effects of a portal closing. But only Vi and I could open random portals, and I would have known if she was close since I could sense her amulet when it was near.
Unsure about my next move, I withdrew my amulet from my shirt and my thumb hovered over the deep pink gem. Suddenly, all sense of Dorian vanished. I spun around in a circle, searching wildly like I might find him lurking somewhere in the passageway—because I couldn’t accept the idea that he’d gotten away from me once more.
There was nothing.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” I screamed to exactly no one.
My body was shaking from the rage building inside me. Even my magic was cowering back in its confinement to escape the level of the temper tantrum I was about to experience. I let out another shout of fury before a litany of Russian curses spewed forth and my hands fisted so hard my nails drew blood. I felt the onslaught of the almost feral anger that could overtake me when I was at my most volatile.
My magic used it to bust out of its cell and a blast of power pulsed from inside me, the purple light blowing down the passageway like a shockwave. I wanted to smash things, to scream and cry, to curl up into a ball and pretend that today had never happened. My fingertips tingled with the need to blow some holes through the barriers surrounding me. Although I had no idea if it would have any effect on these creepy-crawly walls, for all I knew, they were immune to my magic.
I kicked one for good measure before tromping through the corridors. Left, right, right, left, and another left. The portal ahead, with its white shimmery barrier, would take me to the catacombs under St. Patrick’s Cathedral and I paused, wondering what I really wanted to do next. I honestly had no fucking clue.
My thumb flicked over the pink sapphire in a habitual gesture and the magic inside the enchanted gem flickered before blazing to life. In the gossamer veil that separated me from the catacombs, a pink, glittery curtain suddenly appeared, that rippled as though blowing in a breeze.
Oops. I’d opened a portal within the portal, but I wasn’t actually sure where it led. I hadn’t been thinking of anywhere in particular.
“Gorska Maika,” I whispered, praying to the Forest Mother. What do I do next?
To my surprise, the pink flared and when the light faded, the solid color had given way to a multi-colored portière that sent a rainbow of sparkles dancing along the dark walls with every flutter. I closed the distance to the portal, anticipating something that would be unexpected and possibly life-altering. My magic poked me, telling me to stop being so dramatic. I rolled my eyes, then leaned in and stared through the opening. At first, all I saw was the same exit I’d gone through many times before. The long, arched tunnel out of St Patrick’s was on the other side. I sighed, feeling a little letdown.
“That was kind of anti-climactic, wasn’t it?” My magic seemed in complete agreement. See? I wasn’t the only one being dramatic. It puffed—its version of a childish huff of annoyance—and went quiet.
It didn’t explain the change in color, though. My portals were always pink.
I didn’t have another plan, so I hopped through the portal.
Okhuyét!
It felt like I’d stuck my finger in an electrical socket that powered t
he entire Empire State Building. It was a stronger sensation than normal, one that made me feel like every molecule in my body had scrambled and rearranged. I took a few seconds to get my bearings and shake it off, then headed down the hallway to the stairs that would lead outside. I stopped a small distance away from the magical underground. There was supposed to be a gate here. I’d been gone less than ten minutes! There was no way it had been removed.
Thoroughly confused, I turned in a circle… looking around like I might find the gate hidden or maybe it would suddenly appear, which would make me wonder if I’d lost all of the fries in my Happy Meal.
My magic was stirring restlessly inside me, urging me to keep moving. Since standing there contemplating the possibility that I’d lost all sanity was nothing short of depressing, I ignored my questions about the gate and jogged the rest of the way down the hall. I took the stairs two at a time and exited onto the streets of the city, still bustling and busy despite the late hour.
As far as I could tell, everything looked very normal. Then a movement caught my eye, and my head whipped to the left and I saw a shadow dart around the corner. My magic started making a huge fuss and pushed me to act, so I sprinted around the corner in pursuit. I skidded to a halt and gasped when I saw a portal on the wall beside me. It was a few steps away and beginning to close, so I made a running leap and got through just in time. If I hadn’t been so intent on my mission, I might have noticed that the electrical pulse I received going through it was back to the normal level.
When I landed on the ground inside the portal network, I paused. I didn’t know who or what I was chasing, just that I had to follow. Something was calling to me. It was a familiar feeling, but with the frantic state of my mind and emotions, I couldn’t seem to recall where I’d felt it before.