9781618851307WitchsBrewShayNC

by Unknown

  Maxine purred with delight. “Ooh, I just love it when you call me ‘Maxie.’” She ran her claws up and down his fur. “You’re such a studly stud. Virile. Handsome.” She eyed him, raking her gaze up and down his muscular body. “You’re so well built, if you know what I mean. I think you can manage very well to keep both Celine and me happy.”

  Topaz backed up. He needed to think this over. Didn’t he?

  She stalked toward him, a determined glint in her aqua gaze. Topaz felt his rod twitch. Hell. He adored her aggressiveness. Frankly, it turned him on, and she looked too much like Celine for him not to react to her. But he was determined to do the right thing. He wasn’t about to touch Maxie again, not matter how horny he was. “I have no desire to make you both happy, Maxie. I love my Celine. She’s all I want.”

  The sexy feline’s gaze dropped to his enormous boner. “Uh-huh. I can see that.”

  Topaz hissed as she sauntered closer and rubbed his aching shaft. “Look, I love Celine. I thought you were Celine. Stop that!” He shoved her paws off his cock. “I would never have touched you if I’d known you weren’t my sweet Persian. You’re Celine’s sister, stop stalking me, stop touching me, and act like it.”

  “So? If you think I’ll give you up easily, you’re very much in need of another mating…you know, to help you clear…your mind.” Maxine moved closer. “All’s fair in love and war. Celine has always had the best of everything. This time, she’s sharing. I may just decide to keep you for myself and not share with her.”

  Topaz swallowed hard and moaned. “No.”

  “Yes,” Maxine purred.

  He rolled his eyes and took a step back from her. “Oh, shit!” he hissed. His cock was standing straight up, rigid as a May pole. “Leave me alone!”

  “What?” Maxine asked batting her eyes. Eyeing his huge boner, she licked her lips. “Mmm, yummy.”

  Topaz choked and coughed up a hairball. A terrible thought just struck him. “Are you taking birth control?” He grabbed her and slid a big paw over her belly. “Shit! I’m totally fried.”

  Maxine smiled, purring. “I love kits. You gave me two. I want more. How about three more rounds? Three more kits?”

  “No,” he yelled and shuddered. “No more. As it is, it’s going to look like I shagged you a second time.”

  “Sweets, you did shag me twice. I have two kits to prove it. You did me twice.”

  “No. That isn’t what happened.”

  “That’s what Celine will think. Believe me, I know my sister. She’s a coldblooded, unforgiving bitch.”

  “You said you wouldn’t tell Celine I touched you.”

  “I lied,” she purred. “Come here, big boy, make me a happy pussy.”

  “I have to get back to her. Let go of me!”

  “But I need you now. I’m just coming into season. I’m going to have your kits. Come on, Topie, baby, just one more round? Please? No one will know but you and me. The damage is already done, so another round or two of mating isn’t going to change one thing.” She purred deep in her throat. “Come on, what would it hurt? Please? You know you want to.”

  She turned in the receptive position and looked back over her shoulder. “Now, Topie, baby. Do me now. Come on, baby. I’m ready and willing. Ooh, I’m so hot and I want you so much.”

  How could a red-blooded male Futhar walk away from such a hot pussy?

  Rage spread through him. She wasn’t Celine.

  So what?

  He couldn’t do her. Not deliberately.

  Why not? She wants it. Do her. Have some fun. No one will ever know.

  “No!” He whipped around and stomped away from Maxine.

  Before he realized her intentions, she leapt onto his back, biting and clawing him. “You can’t just walk away from me,” she screamed.

  “I have to leave, Maxie.” He pulled free of her claws. “Leave me alone. I have to get back to Celine and feed her. She hasn’t had anything to eat in two days.”

  “Let her starve, Topie. You belong to me now.”

  Topaz turned hot eyes on the Persian. There was something cold and calculating about Maxine. She sure as hell wasn’t as sweet as his Celine. In fact, she was a little scary, but damn she was hot, and she wanted him. Celine didn’t want him and his pride had taken a beating.

  Maxine smiled and pressed her mouth against his chest. “I want you to teach me everything you know.”

  Topaz groaned and clasped her tiny claws against his chest. “Not a word to Celine about what happens between us.”

  “My lips are sealed, big boy.”

  Topaz picked her up and headed down the hall. “You know a place where we can have a bit of privacy?”

  She grinned and nuzzled her furry face against his throat. “Of course.”

  He rumbled deep in his chest. “I’m all yours, baby.”

  “More than you know, big boy,” she said, her voice filled with promise.

  And though he knew he was making a dreadful mistake, Topaz let his cock do his thinking. As soon as they were behind closed doors, he lowered her to the floor, rode her down and was inside her before she could make a squeak. For the rest of the day and into the wee hours of dawn, he spent his time proving to Maxine he was the stud she believed him to be.

  Dawn’s early light filtered across the sky. The sunny rays speared across Topaz’ face, waking him. He sighed, stretched, and scratched his balls. By the gods, he felt great! His cock lay nice and soft, his balls drained. He didn’t think he could get a hard-on even if Celine went down on him again. His body ached, but it was a nice, contented ache. Celine? Gods, even after mating numerous times with Maxie–and indeed she was a worthy substitue–it was still Celine he wanted, still her name he cried out when his seed erupted in her sister.

  He turned and pulled the soft, furry body next to his a little closer. “Celine,” he whispered, nudging her with his flaccid cock. “What a night you gave me.”

  “I’m not Celine, you big horny Alley Cat.” Maxine leapt from their mating bed, hissing. “As many times as you stuck that big thing in me, you still can’t get my name right?”

  Topaz chewed on his lower lip and shrugged. “Guess not. I have to go. I should never have spent the night with you.”

  “You aren’t going anywhere. You’re mine, in every sense of the word. Do you think I’m going to let you go to Celine and do to her all the things you did to me this night?”

  “I don’t belong to you. I belong to Celine.”

  She smirked. “You have a funny way of proving it.” She glanced down and grinned. “You still want me.”

  “No. I don’t. I want my sweet Celine.” He crossed his big paws over his rising cock. Shit. He hadn’t thought there was any life left in it, but that was Beltane. It made you ready to mate whether you wanted the person in front of you or not. “I have to get home to her. I want to bond with Celine.”

  “You’re bonded to me. I’m going to have your kits. That makes you mine.You try to leave me and I’ll screech the palace down. I’ll tell the guards you broke into my room and raped me.”

  “You can’t rape the willing, Toots. I’m going.” He knew immediately he’d said the wrong thing. The Persian rolled her eyes and he knew she was just plain crazy. She hissed and snapped her sharp, pointy teeth at him. She was going to be trouble, all right. Big trouble.

  Maxine now had ten of his kits growing in her sleek belly. His daughters. The daughters he’d planned to give to his Celine. And Maxie, this beautiful feline…whom he’d innocently mistaken for his Celine, and in a moment of weakness spent the night with her, had turned into the pussy from hell!

  In moments, seconds, she’d turned into a demanding, deranged monster. Screaming, yelling, cursing, ordering him to dump his sweet Celine and remain with her. As if!

  “You’re my bond mate,” Maxine snarled. “I refuse to share you with Celine. I’ll tell her what you did to me. I’ll say you courted me, swore you loved me, and shagged me again and again. She’ll despise
you by the time I’m through.”

  Topaz backed away from her. “Celine already despises me, Maxie.”

  “Don’t call me Maxie,” she screamed. “I hate it! You big dope!”

  “What happened to, ‘I love it when you call me Maxie? And I’ll never tell?’”

  Maxine smiled insolently. “We’re bonded, you jerk. You have to take care of me. I order you to forget about Celine and love me and only me!”

  “Yes, we’re bonded.” Topaz winced at the very thought of being stuck with this she-cat from hell. “In that, I have no choice, you conceived my kits.” Boy, had she!

  “I certainly did,” she said in a pleased tone and rubbed her belly. “You did me well. I’m full with your babies.”

  “It wasn’t something I planned, Maxie.”

  “Planned or not, you willingly stayed with me and put your kits in me. You knew the risks. I’m yours. And you’re mine.”

  “I might be yours, but you’ll never own me. I have a choice as to whom I give my heart. And I can assure you, I haven’t given it to you, nor am I very likely to. I don’t love you, Maxie. I’ve had my fill of you. You were great for a one nighter, but I don’t want you again.” He slid his gaze up and down her sleek body, his look contemptuous. “At heart, you’re a tramp, Toots, a cheap thrill. I’m willing to bet you’d ride any male Ally Cat just for a cheap thrill. I certainly would never choose to keep you over my Celine.” A sneer curled his top lip. “I’ll love and provide for the kits I’ve given you because they’re a part of me, and I don’t turn my back on what’s mine. But never will I love you. And I’m warning you, Maxie, stay away from Celine. You hurt her in any way, and I’ll choke all nine lives out of you.” He whirled and stormed away, muttering, “Jeez. Show a pussy a little fun and right away she turns into a witch.”

  The noose was going to strangle him. Next thing, he’d be coughing up hairballs. Big hairballs. Sure as the Fates laughed, Maxine was going to give him misery. She’d rat on him. He smacked himself in the head. And gods, what had he been thinking giving those rats to her. He’d caught them for his one true love. Damn him for being so horny! How was he ever going to explain any of this to Celine? She’d never forgive him for mating with Maxie.

  She certainly wouldn’t forgive the proof of his infidelity if she ever saw his daughters Maxie would deliver in six weeks. Hell, Celine already distrusted him. There was no way she’d ever believe him innocent of any wrongdoing. The truth was Maxie had seduced him with her sweet resemblance to his Celine.

  But Celine would never believe it, not with Maxie carrying ten of his kits. Oh, yeah, he was in real deep ca-ca. Ca-ca, hell! He was swimming in shit up to his neck and drowning. There was no one to toss him a paddle. And damn if he didn’t believe Maxine would bust her pretty little ass to inform Celine he’d shagged her.

  What was he going to do?

  Topaz stormed through a door with little regard of where he was going and slammed it behind him. He had to think. How was he going to keep Maxie away from Celine? How was he ever going to keep his daughters tucked away so Celine never found out about them? There was no way, short of murdering Maxie and the kits.

  He was through the room and half-way into the next chamber before it hit him. Eerie quiet. Murky shadows—a threat of danger leaping out and surrounding him.

  The strong, musky scent of stale sex coated and burned his sensitive nostrils. His eyes watered. He gagged. “What a horrible stench!”

  Before he could halt his next step, he tripped and fell forward. Topaz pushed himself up on all fours, staring down at the thing he’d tripped over and landed on top of.

  His throat closed up. He couldn’t breathe.

  His body shook with violent tremors.

  Topaz scrambled backward, lurching unsteadily like a spider missing a leg. He blinked, trying to adjust his vision to the semi-darkness in the chamber.

  Finally, he inhaled, then slowly exhaled. “What the hell?”

  As his eyes adjusted to the deep shadows, Topaz bellowed a long, single-worded screech. “Fuuuck!”

  Chapter Thirty-Three

  Because Dorcas Hoar was the first of those pleading innocent to confess, her execution was delayed.

  ~Salem Witch Trials

  September 21, 1692

  Sanctuary

  Talon’s fingers trembled as he thrust them through his hair and paced the floor of the apartment above Saylym’s shop. He knew that she’d open her store any minute. She had to.

  He told himself she had to, but uncertainty gnawed at his soul. She didn’t have to. There was no law that said she had to do anything that was her usual routine. Damn it! He couldn’t bear this, couldn’t stand being apart from her. Her anger and hatred was killing him. Somehow, she’d crawled inside his heart and taken it away from him. He loved her.

  Then why hadn’t he told her?

  Because he’d wanted to hang on to that last single, simple thread of freedom—a damned fool, that’s what he was. He’d been wrong not to tell her, and now it might be too late. There had to be a way he could make her believe he truly loved her, but he had a feeling she wasn’t going to believe anything he said.

  He’d lost her trust, broken faith. It wouldn’t be easy to win her back.

  How could he fault her reasoning? She was right. He hadn’t been as honest with her as he should have been, but damn it, he’d been afraid of scaring her more than she already was.

  How could he have known what would happen with her?

  He hadn’t suspected she was of royal blood. Certainly, mating with a royal-blooded witch would be different than mating with common witches.

  He swore softly and checked the clock on the wall.

  She was late.

  Saylym was never late.

  She would be here. His mate wasn’t the kind of witch who would let personal issues stop her from opening her shop.

  Blast it. He’d known she had no knowledge of witch ways or of the locking process. And he’d taken total advantage of her lack of information.

  Would she be even angrier when she learned she was pregnant? That he’d known she wasn’t infected and could conceive? He’d been aware she was fertile. Yes, he’d known, but even he hadn’t anticipated two children.

  Talon!

  Talon jerked at the sound of Topaz’s distress call. His eyes narrowed with concentration as he tried to zero in where the big tom was located.

  What in the world was the feline doing at the palace?

  As soon as he realized the location, he chanted:

  “Full moon and candles

  Magic times three

  I summon the power,

  So send me!”

  Talon’s long strides faltered as he crossed the palace grounds. His lips parted, and worked to form words, but he couldn’t seem to voice a sound or form a single syllable.

  What the hell?

  He stood frozen, gaping at the sight of the obscene slaughter that greeted him.

  There was no one, no one—alive outside the palace walls. Scattered across the outer grounds, as if they were so much refuse, crisply charcoaled bodies lay smoldering in the early morning sun. The palace guards, Talon noted grimly, recognizing traces of uniforms on the blackened bodies.

  Rubbing a weary hand down his face, Talon felt utterly defeated. The entire Royal Elite Guard protecting the outer grounds of the palace was dead. Slaughtered.

  His parents. Where were they? Had they also been hurled into oblivion? Burned as the guards were burned?

  Talon broke into a run, slipping on the marble floor as he raced through the Grand Entrance. He took the wide staircase three steps at a time, and then turned, racing down the corridor where the family’s private chambers were located.

  “Mother! Dad!” Nothing. Not a hint of a response.

  Stry’s room was empty. He slammed the door behind him and moved slowly, cautiously down the corridor. Devil’s toenails! With everything that had happened between him and Saylym, he’d completely fo
rgotten about Stry being missing. How could he forget such a thing?

  He realized now he should have been more concerned about Stry’s disappearance, but he’d thought, with Beltane heating up, that Stry had most likely found a willing witch for the season and was hiding out with her.

  Now he wasn’t so sure.

  Where was he?

  Had he suffered the same fate as the royal guard?

  Terror speared through Talon as he stalked down the corridor. His room, as well, was unoccupied. At least that was normal.

  “Gods,” he whispered as he entered Kali’s chambers. He couldn’t remember when his sister had last been home from school or even if she was home at this time on some kind of break. He rarely saw her any more. “Kali?”

  No reply. The room was deathly quiet.

  Her bedchambers looked as if a whirlwind had spun around inside it tossing everything about harum-scarum. Bed unmade. Clothes scattered about the room, tossed willy-nilly over chairs, dresser, and bed. Shoes piled in an assorted mass of colors and styles in a corner. Silk stockings draped carelessly over the bed posts.

  His nostrils flared as a mish-mash of perfumed fragrances spiked the room with their heady aroma. Talon breathed a sigh of relief. His sister might live in a pigsty, but for Kali, the room appeared perfectly normal.

  He was about to back out and close the door when he heard a strange scratching noise and something from overhead plopped onto his shoulder. He jumped, swearing violently as he pulled at the thing sliding down his back.

  “Damn it, Banjo! You scared a century off my life!” Kali’s white rat Futhar was never far from her side. “What are you doing here, Banjo? Aren’t you supposed to be with Kali at her school?”

  Banjo tried to speak, but all that escaped his mouth was a hiccup of tiny bubbles. Talon frowned. “You’ve been in Kali’s bathwater again.”

  Banjo nodded. “Not by choice, I can assure you. I fell in just before I popped here to the palace.”

  “Where’s my sister?”