Quench

by J. Hali Steele

  I will.

  He drove two fingers deep into her channel again and again. She quaked beneath his ministration, never wanting it to stop but needing it to stop. Her body bounced off the bed to meet his plunging fingers.

  “Oh please…”

  Told you you’d beg for it.

  Damn you. Just as the words left her mind she felt him nudge the thick head of his penis against the entrance to her core. One hard push and he entered all the way to the hilt. His balls bumped her ass.

  Yes! Now fuck me.

  “I’ll love you,” he spoke aloud. “Just for tonight, I’ll love you.”

  He slammed into her and pulled out. Over and over.

  Her vagina convulsed around him and she shuddered as he sank deeper with each stroke. Rising up to meet him, she took every inch he delivered. Viv dug her heels into the bed to prevent his hard thrusts from pushing her away. Gripping his butt, she dug long nails into his ass.

  Their bodies slapped together as she inched toward a shattering climax. Alek slowed his pace and eased one hand between them. He thrummed and pinched her clit some more.

  He asked for everything she had and gave as much as he took.

  Air whooshed from her body when he pulled out, lay atop her breathing hard.

  Not yet, not yet. I need more of you.

  His lips covered her eyes with tiny kisses. Would she ever grow used to the animal warmth that emanated from his body and touched every inch of her? When his mouth captured hers in a searing kiss, she pushed her tongue past his lips, savoring the taste and warmth of his mouth. Viv suddenly wondered if she felt cold to him.

  Never, never. You’re so damn hot I can’t wait to be inside you again. Rising above her, he used his knee to spread her thighs again. Touch me, handle me just like you wanted to.

  He knew! No wonder he thought she had no morals. She did want to handle his cock, touch it, fill her pussy with it. Reaching between them, she grasped his shaft and stroked it. Viv tugged the skin back and forth, eliciting a harsh groan of excitement.

  Yes! Oh yes, Viv.

  Silky cream slipped from the slit when she cupped the tip of his cock. Unable to bear the smells, the clenching of her pussy, Viv quickly guided Alek’s shaft to the moist opening between her legs. Finding his rhythm once more, he jammed in and out of her pussy, going deep and hard, pulling out, moving back inside her with short, slow strokes. He took her out of herself. Viv felt like she floated on air with Alek still fucking her so sweetly.

  “God, Alek, please, please…”

  “Come for me, baby. Come all over my dick.”

  And she did.

  Cream flowed from her and his shaft cut through it with each push in and every pull out.

  Alek shuddered over her. He was on the verge of coming. His cock slammed into her quicker, harder, his pace maniacal. His hips were wedged between her legs as he jammed in and out of her pussy.

  Air hissed from his lips as he slowed to short, jerky strokes. His ass tightened in her hands and he drove deep with one final thrust.

  Throwing his head back, he growled in pleasure as his cock erupted, sending a jet stream of cum deep inside her.

  Viv squeezed her pussy tight and, clenching around his throbbing hardness, she stripped him of every drop.

  “Oh. Hell. Yes. Christ, don’t stop doing that.” He pushed into her a few more times and emptied his balls.

  Alek pulled away and shocked the hell out of her.

  He moved off the bed and kneeled on the floor. “I’m not done.” Spreading her legs so wide they hurt, he dipped his head between them. His tongue swept up and down the insides of both of her thighs while his fingers disappeared into her core.

  A gasp escaped her throat and she shivered in delight when his fangs bit into her vein. Moving her fingers through his thick hair, she caressed him, held him tight to her thigh. Her mind was a shambles. Should she have stopped him from taking so much of her blood? Alek would now have access to her whole mind. She reveled in the feelings he brought to her, cherished how his mouth felt tasting, licking her. His tongue was rough, electric against her clit, yet he was so gentle, so soft and it caused her to whimper with joy. He stroked her cunt with his fingers and an unexpected orgasm slipped violently from her, sending a flood of liquid from her core into his hand.

  He licked and closed the punctures then moved his mouth back to her canal. His tongue delved into her pussy and his mouth captured the last drops of cum slipping from her. Never had she been so thoroughly…wonderfully… What had he said, ‘Just for tonight I’ll love you’. And he had.

  Finished, he rose to sit beside her. “Now I’m done.”

  Speechless, with no explanation for the emotions swirling through her, she stared at his back.

  Viv’s heart fluttered with life at the awe and surprise tingeing his soft voice when he whispered—

  “You quench my thirst.” Then he vanished.

  Chapter Three

  Alek sat on the balcony and watched the sun climb into the sky over the arena.

  Quenched!

  His chest rose and fell rapidly with the deep draughts of air he drew into his lungs. Never had he stayed in bed all night with a woman or beast. But he hadn’t wanted to leave Viv. She was vampyre through and through and would be sleeping the sleep of the dead by now. He would have been alone anyway. Damn, he wanted to lie there, touch her and smell her heavenly scent all day.

  Quenched! Is it possible?

  No way could he let her find out about…about what? Technically nothing had ever happened between him and the prince. Sure, at times he had wanted to go there, at times they touched and mentally fondled each other. That was all. They’d both drawn back in surprise and fear of their out-of-control lust. Hell, he didn’t care about men loving each other, he’d just always been attracted to women. Plain and simple. This thing with the prince… Well, he couldn’t explain it. He knew wolf males often cavorted together, lay with each other and that didn’t cause him to think any less about them as people or men. Finding love, no matter where, should be a beautiful thing. Cats just didn’t do it that way.

  It was the blood, the vampyre elixir of life that made him hunger for his friend.

  She quenches my thirst. If only I could be sure. Unable to get the thought of his words to her out of his mind, Alek shook his head in amazement.

  Soon he’d be thirsting for the prince’s blood. But his body exhibited none of the telltale signs yet. No needy sweating, no anxiousness.

  The lion, his tiger, both preened and stretched inside him, quietly alert and waiting. For what?

  It was weird.

  Suddenly the tiger began to prowl, clawed and pushed at the lion, moved him aside. The only cat that ever emerged was his striped beast. Would he ever see tan fur running down his body, wear the black mane of the cave lion with its enormous paws? Shit, did he want to?

  Nikol was a formidable sight when he changed. Not what the present day’s small lions looked like in zoos or on the African savannas. Today’s tigers were much larger than the fawn-colored cats. But they’d be no match in size to the close to eight hundred pounds of muscle and sinew the prince became.

  His heart rattled an erratic beat. Something wasn’t right.

  Alek’s striped hair lifted from his neck in a breeze blowing across the balcony, spraying around his face, weaving a peculiar odor through the air. Nostrils flared at the unknown scent and now the lion pranced about inside him.

  When both cats displayed nervousness, the pain was unbearable as they fought for supremacy. “Fuck, what now?”

  Don’t be afraid of what you are.

  “Who in hell…” The voice in his mind was strong, a power he’d never felt before.

  His body lifted from the chair he’d sprawled in, floated over the arena. Alek had no control of his extremities. His beasts growled and ripped at his insides, both crying for release.

  Become what you should be.

  “Goddamn it.” Landing softly in a h
eap on the sandy ground, Alek curled into the fetal position, sure he was about to die.

  See what you can be.

  Pictures flashed through his mind. A tiger and lion gamboled together on a grassy knoll. Alek sensed he knew them, felt they were one.

  Clothes vanished as his body bowed from the ground. A keening sound wrenched from his throat followed by a growl that shook the earth beneath him. “Let…me…go.” His pleading words slipped through parched lips stretched in a grimace. Alek’s eyes watered, tears flowed into the hair at his temples. Pain raged violently as he lurched to a kneeling position.

  Changing will end the anguish.

  “I…can’t.”

  Do it now!

  Remembering his first change to a tiger, he envisioned both animals coming together. In his mind the cats reared on their hind legs and joined in a weird circuslike parody of a dance.

  “God help me,” he whispered. Pulling his body to an upright position from the sandy earth, he doubled over.

  Alek watched tan fur cover his legs, race up his hips and across his chest. No stripes. Where the hell were his tiger’s stripes? Looking closer, he saw faded lines faintly mixed in the fawn color of tough hide parading down his arms to his fingertips. Claws emerged, hooked and deadly. Longer than ever before.

  Pain subsided into a jumble of mixed emotions and feelings as the odd scent vanished.

  This is what you are. The presence drifted away, carrying with it the strange odor that had swirled about his head.

  He stood on all fours, alone in the middle of the warriors’ arena.

  No longer in anguish and not afraid of what he’d become, Alek slumped down, his beast’s belly hitting the ground hard. Huge paws sat before him with a barely visible mixture of lines.

  The animal’s tongue emerged and swept across his much larger mouth. The essence was him but different. His scent was the same but different.

  What the fuck?

  His eyesight adjusted to the added inches as he stood on shaky legs. He turned his much heavier head and took in the fuller girth of his animal. No longer a tiger, not quite a lion. I am one huge motherfucker!

  Darting from the arena, he wanted to feel his new body, test its strength, agility and speed. He covered the distance to the ravine in record time and wasn’t even breathing hard. Alek skidded to a stop at the very edge and peered at the other side. His tiger had never been able to make the big leap across the way a lion could.

  His new beast backed up a short distance. Pushing off with his muscular back legs, he charged the ledge and bounded over the gully with ease. He continued running and ended up at the lake on the compound. Plopping down at the water’s edge, he drank.

  Tigers loved to swim, would his improved ubercat mind the water? He waded in and struck out for the other side. Hell yes, this is sweet. Surfacing, he walked to a strip of grass and sat on his haunches.

  Nose in the air, he caught the alluring scent of three tigers. Bengal. His balls tightened but not in the way they used to. The aroma was heady but the urge to take one was absent.

  The group moved out of the grove of trees and came to a stop with their mouths open, tasting the air and sniffing. Agitated, the felines seemed unsure of what to do next. Normally they preened, danced around his striped cat, seeking attention.

  Not this time.

  There was a difference in him. He smelled funny to himself.

  First one then another female fell to the ground with her tail tucked between her legs in a submissive position. Recognition dawned in their eyes and they huffed out air and growled softly.

  Alek didn’t want them anymore.

  His mind drifted to the vamp lying in the safe room. His blood heated up and the scent of arousal wafted in the air. The three females made guttural sounds and rolled about the ground.

  Nothing here for him.

  Standing, he turned, plunged back into the cool lake and swam to the other side. The felines’ disappointed roars followed him. He came out of the water running at full speed back to the mansion.

  It would be hours before the sun set and Viv rose.

  His beast disappeared back into his body as soon as he entered the arena. The man’s body strode naked toward the house. Warm sandy soil sifted between his toes with each step. Normally he’d have clothed himself and bounded to the balcony but he wanted the sun on his skin, wanted to feel the breeze caress his body. He felt so freaking alive.

  You’ve gone nuts.

  Alek’s steps slowed. There was still the problem of needing royal sustenance yet gnawing thirst remained absent from his belly—and it scared the shit out of him. Another need blazed inside. Unlike the front of the mansion, the back door on the first floor of the house leading from the arena to the gym area always remained unlocked. His cock had risen like a barometer and pointed to the doorway he’d been heading to when suddenly the door flew open with a bang.

  Torn from his reverie, he jerked to a stop. Jesus, he needed to pay more attention to his surroundings and less to getting his dick wet.

  Warriors stomped through the opening and came to a sudden halt, noses in the air.

  “Uh, you okay, man?” one asked, taking an involuntary step back.

  “Don’t I look okay?”

  “You…smell sort of funny. Damn near like a lion.”

  “Well, it’s me. And why are your asses late?” Should have clothed himself. He wouldn’t be feeling so stupid and vulnerable. Damn if he intended to do it now and skulk away.

  The Reign shuffled from foot to foot, unsure of what to make of him standing there, cock flying in the air. His growl cut short a snicker from one in the back.

  “You got something to say, boy, spit it out.”

  “No sir.”

  “I can’t hear you.” Alek was having a little fun. They were afraid of him. Not the kind of fear you have for your ex-leader. Their fear lay in not knowing exactly what he was. Fanfuckingtastic. “Get your asses out there. I see any slacking in practice, you’ll answer to me. Go,” he bellowed. His new sense of power overflowed and infected each of them as they scuttled by.

  Yeah, he was different.

  Alek felt like the king of beasts.

  * * * * *

  She sat up in the strange bed, the smell of sex surrounding her.

  Alek was gone.

  She was pissed off and her mind veered in every direction. She cleaned and clothed herself using her people’s magic. Searching far and wide around the grounds, she couldn’t feel the bastard.

  Hell, she’d been with men both dead and alive. Alek was different. Hunger clawed and twisted her insides. Viv’s veins contracted, screamed for blood—his blood. “Lord, don’t do this to me.” She’d heard about this feeling.

  No way the weirdass cat could be her mate.

  Unable to dematerialize, she paced the floor and waited. When she got her hands on him she’d…

  “What? You’ll do what?” Alek’s voice shook her to the core. It was as if warm honey drizzled over her cold, dead limbs.

  He strode across the room from where she stood. “I like your hair out.”

  Something was different, an air of superiority even worse than before shone from his eyes.

  Viv’s nostrils flared at his new scent. Lion…and tiger. Both were so distinct she leaned into him sniffing loudly. Wonder replaced anger. He smelled like a goddamn lion. Shit, the stories were true. A Kind abomination already, a new mixture of monster stood before her. Three of the world’s most dreaded creatures rolled into one.

  Tiger, lion and vampyre!

  And the crazy fucker could walk in daylight.

  “Get me the hell out of here.” Fear, claustrophobia, whatever, Viv needed the night air in her lungs. Her heart fluttered against her rib cage. “I’ll kill Phoenix when I see him.”

  Alek chuckled at her discomfort.

  “Bastard, get me out of here. Now!”

  “Easy, baby. You’re safe with me, nothing, no one, will ever harm you.” Alek enclo
sed her in his arms. “But don’t make me go up against Phoenix. I won’t win. Now, let’s get out of here.”

  Wrapped tight in his arms, before Viv had time to blink she sucked the cool night breeze through her lips.

  “Tell me what the hell is going on?”

  “Your power to vanish has been, well, the best way to describe it—stolen. For now. I’m sure it’ll be returned.”

  “You know that’s not what I meant.” Pulling away from him, she walked to lean against the nearest tree. “What are you, Alek?”

  He looked at the ground, rolled a stone with the tip of his boot. Brief glimpses in his mind were no help. Viv needed to see more but was unable to grasp anything. An audible gasp heaved from her throat at the turmoil in his head.

  Finally he gazed at her and moved to her side. Alek pressed his body into hers, forced her against the hard bark. Raising his wrist, he said, “Feed.” Thirst for sustenance beat at her. Desire for his blood and only his drew her parched mouth to the vein in his arm. Her fangs lengthened. Biting into his flesh, deep to the artery, Viv gulped at his life force.

  Pictures flashed through her mind. Two cats on their hind legs dancing, clinging to each other in the sun. Lion and tiger, neither fighting nor giving in to the other. Balanced on large padded feet, they clung together.

  Never fear me, baby. This is what I am.

  Jerked back to reality by the voice in her head, she stopped drinking.

  Releasing her hold on his wrist, she licked her lips and savored the last drop. Her tongue swept across the wound, closing it. Viv melted against the tree holding her up.

  Alek’s mouth touched hers so softly she wasn’t sure it was real until his tongue prodded her lips for entry and she opened up to him like a flower. His taste fresh in her mouth, she kissed him back.

  A dark corner in his mind remained shuttered with steel and she couldn’t break the barrier.

  Let me in.

  You’re inside every part of me. Damn, I want you. His hands moved down her hips, one inched between her thighs.

  What are you hiding from me? She had to know. Clutching his fingers in a viselike grip, she stopped his progress.

  Viv caught herself from falling when he pulled away.