by A. C. Mason
Had she known her part? Beneath his mouth her soft petal lips surrendered.
As her arms rested around his neck, she stroked the back of his thick mane. She returned the embrace with hunger.
Her firm breasts pressed to his chest, deepening his inner anguish. Heat crashed inside him as she squeezed his waist between her thighs.
She parted her lips, letting out a delicate moan, while she pulled him closer. How he longed to eat her whole. He entered her mouth and met a slick tongue.
French women were known for their wanton ways, their ability to drive men wild with a pout. But she was the kind of dame a man waited lifetimes, centuries, to come across. She wove a spell over him with the talent of her smooth lips. The rapid thump of her heart and the scent of her arousal gripped the beast within. Humans did little to excite him, but something about her drove him wild. Why the sudden interest? This had to be her, the one he’d been warned about. Only a mate could rouse the animal inside a Shunu when in human form. He was her mate. No. That was impossible. Wasn’t it?
A Shunu male’s wolf-heart picked their mate. So why would his betray his wishes? At what moment had the beast condemned him?
He moved his hand from her thigh, up her rib cage to her breast, and was met by a hard bud. A thrust of his hips pushed his cock to her wet panties.
Three large figures cast shadows at the edge of the alleyway.
“VanWolf?” Straks asked, marching closer. The men’s hard steps bounced off the buildings’ walls.
With the lean man but a few steps away, VanWolf needed more convincing evidence to pull off their cover. He pushed her panty aside and drenched his prick in the juices between her silky folds. This only furthered his flesh’s desire to find relief inside her satin heaven.
A hard gasp fell in the crook of his neck as his tip slipped past her nub.
“Oh,” she cried out.
He repeated gliding the head over her fleshy bead, back and forth.
“Please.” A sluggish exhalation burned against his neck.
“More?” He forced himself to ease away. The hunger inside wanted release buried deep inside her velvet lips.
“VanWolf?”
He swung toward Straks with his gleaming dick swaying and saluted the general.
The man’s beady gaze traveled along her body.
Her lush lips parted and she panted, her firm mounds rising and falling. With a stiff posture, she twisted her face away.
The scent of arousal oozed from the general.
VanWolf stepped in front of her to block his view. “Am I needed, General?”
“No.” Straks licked his lips. “To your loft with the whore, and this time put her body in the River Seine.” He turned, pausing for his two guards, then continued down the street with them.
Women who spent the night with VanWolf vanished, never to be seen alive again.
The frightened beauty slid farther from him.
“Don’t give me reason to chase you.” He took hold of her wrist and tugged her to his chest. Moonlight shone on him, stirring the caged brute. The wolf-spirit inside him surfaced to look upon his find. This couldn’t be happening. “We beasts like nothing more than to hunt our prey.”
Though she examined him with her intense shamrock stare, she did not appear terrified.
Was she rationalizing away what she saw? How very ordinary. He tucked his penis back into his trousers, then clamped her upper arm and pulled her along rue Saint-Antoine.
“No need to be rough.” She stared pointedly at his hand gripping her arm. He loosened his hold. She barely touched the ground as he sped through the building’s front door and into his place on the ground floor.
He released her and slammed the door. “In the morning, I’ll take you to people who can help you disappear.” Best thing was to get her as far away from him and the pack as fast and soon as he could.
She leapt, throwing her arms around him, causing her hat to fall and her breasts to rise. The poor thing trembled. A kiss from her plump lips shifted his eye patch.
He pushed her back, not wanting her to see his disfigurement. Women confused him. One moment this one was terrified, and the next, affectionate. No wonder males were at such a disadvantage.
“You were being tracked by a werewolf. Any idea why?”
“Yes.” She lowered her head and wrapped her arms around her torso.
Was this going to be the Spanish inquisition? Would he need to pull every godforsaken answer out of her?
He strolled to the living room and pulled the brandy from the bar. “You may have my bed for the night.” With a lift of his chin, he gestured down the hall. “Would you like a drink?”
The smell of her alone would be the end of him. Liquid chocolate and feminine arousal. She untied the coat, revealing an hourglass shape beneath. Ample mounds led to a narrow waist then wide hips, which were necessary to handle an animal such as he in bed.
She batted her big pretty eyes, glanced away, then nodded.
“What’s your name?” Guess he needed to ease her into the more pointed questions.
“Alexia Pane.” As she bit her plump bottom lip, her fidgety hands twirled.
He moved the stream of liquor to the second glass and handed her the offering.
Neither tact nor patience was his forte. “Well, Miss Pane, what were you doing on the street after curfew?” If not for her beauty, she’d have been shot on sight.
“Call me Alexia, please. I’m delivering a message.”
“Your errand will need to wait until morning. The city is unsafe at this hour.” He sipped the fluid. His mouth tingled from the heat. Hers or the booze, it was hard for him to accept which was the true culprit.
She reached into her pocket and pulled out a necklace. The medallion bore his pack’s emblem.
“Where did you get that?” He snatched the silver-cast wolf face and paw overlay. The others had already met her. Cathen might have chosen her by now. There he was right in the middle, and he needed a way out.
“Griselda sent me to find Engel VanWolf to deliver a message to you. I don’t know what would have happened if you hadn’t come for me.”
One of two things. The tracker would have taken her before or after the soldiers had their fill, depending on when he decided to strike. Rage filled his chest at the thought of another touching her.
However, the story sounded nothing like his sister. Sending an innocent into the streets of Paris at night with a message? And a stranger to him? “Let’s hear it.”
“The message is written on my skin. She said if I was caught they might read my mind, something about a werewolf working for Nazi intelligence. She told me I’d be better off if I didn’t know.” She sighed. “She wrote it in a code language you used as children by the lake with the pack.”
Insanity. Did this girl know how he’d retrieve the message? And he couldn’t be expected to withhold from indulging. What could Griselda have been thinking? Things must be dire if his sister took such a risk. “What do you know?”
“Just that the situation is urgent.” She lifted her drink to her lips and downed the copper fluid. She choked. As she leaned forward, her face turned red.
“Are you all right?” Evidently, she didn’t drink much. “Sip, don’t gulp.”
She nodded while taking in slow deep breaths.
“Go on, urgent situation.”
“Yes.” She held the glass to her chest. “Soldiers came to the chateau and I was snuck out the back. I stayed by the river to hide my scent.”
Smart too. This doll’s list of attributes just kept growing, but she was in way over her head.
The pack knew the risks of smuggling children out of Nazi occupied territory. Treason. Execution carried out immediately.
Chapter 6
As a child, Alexia had realized she sensed people’s feelings. An ability she had learned to live with, but these days she ached all over from the barrage of emotions. The stoic expression on VanWolf’s face was a facade. Waves of discomfort v
ibrated from the man. What made him so uneasy? Her, or something else bothered him.
“If matters weren’t so serious, she would have waited for a familiar.” Prostitutes known to the pack often delivered messages without calling attention from the soldiers.
“Has something happened to Sandra or Margaret?”
Both checked in daily, mostly for one solid meal as food rations were low. “I don’t know for sure, but neither has returned since the day before yesterday.” Griselda had returned distraught at sunrise, and Alexia had sensed deep sorrow and horror. She feared Sandra and Margaret were dead.
His brow wrinkled. A wave of energy burst from his body and crashed into her core--his worry.
“Would you like another drink?” he asked.
Did he want her drunk? An image of her naked before his gaze flashed. Maybe she’d be thankful later. Staring into her empty glass, she smiled.
“Yes, please.” Since she couldn’t see the writing on her skin, she assumed his wolf-spirit would need to be involved as had Griselda’s, but she couldn’t remember exactly what had occurred. Nude. How different would exposing herself to him be compared to prancing around onstage to titillate men? Either way, she’d get over herself. Lives were a stake. She’d been rescued three times now by Shunus--wolf-spirits. She owed them her life. Disrobing for him was a small price.
Once liquid filled her cup halfway, he lifted the bottle. “Did my sister happen to explain how I’d be able to see what she wrote?”
She shook her head.
“Drink up.” Downing his, he refilled the glass and chugged another. “I’ll transform into my Shunu form, you’ll be naked, and I’ll lick your skin.”
Oh. “I see.” Well, that hadn’t even crossed into the realm of possibilities. Modesty aside, she sucked back the last of the brandy. She could do this. Hands shaking, she unfastened the top button of her polka dot dress, not wanting to delay matters given the situation.
“We should do this in the other room. You may undress and lie on the bed. I’ll join you shortly,” he said.
How awkward. He didn’t want her to strip in front of him. Did her brown skin repulse him? As if he held a candle to Cary Grant. He was more rugged than pretty. And the darn patch over his eye made him mysterious in an intriguing and dangerous way. So he was attractive, he didn’t have to make her feel like an ugly duckling.
“All right.” As her pride sunk deep in her stomach, she set down the glass and turned. The alcohol worked its charms on her legs, making her steps uneven.
He clutched her arm. His presence loomed over her as he pressed his chest to her back. Heat penetrated her skin. The man was everything the pack females whispered him to be. Abrupt, edgy and beautiful.
“What?” The silkiness of his lips on her ear sent a shiver up her back.
Have mercy. “Excuse me?” Had she slurred?
“If I must, but that doesn’t answer my question. What’s wrong?”
Should she point out he’d simply asked ‘what?’ Maybe he’d been more specific and she didn’t remember. “Nothing, this is just really uncomfortable.”
“Tell me about it.” He lowered his head to her shoulder. Heat from his breath seeped into her flesh.
“Well, I’m sorry.” She yanked her arm away from his grasp. “You’ll have to endure seeing me naked and touching me with your tongue. It’s painfully evident the idea disgusts you.”
He swung her to face him, then backed her against the wall. He crossed his arms with hers over her head. Then he descended the tip of his nose to the skin of her collarbone and trailed upward as he inhaled deeply. Goose bumps covered her skin as flames flickered beneath his touch. At her jaw line he paused, glided his smooth lips to the corner of her mouth, then he tilted his face to meet her stare.
She wanted to look away. Rays of hunger crashed into her from him. Her chest rose and fell with the effort to breathe. She felt as though all her doubts were exposed to him.
He searched her gaze with his lone blue eye. “Is that what you think? Then you’re even more naïve than I gave you credit for.”
His masculine musk hinted of wood and spice. “What?” Tears welled, clouding her vision. Why couldn’t he be nurturing like the rest of the pack? Didn’t he know what she’d been through to get there? The terror?
“If you don’t get that I’ll need every ounce of self-restraint to keep from claiming your innocence, then you’re a darn fool.” He lowered into the crook of her neck and nipped her skin.
Fired raged a storm in her core. Her nipples hardened. How did he know she was a virgin? Men who saw her onstage always assumed she was fast and easy.
The thickness of his length pressed to her leg as he eased back. “My body is famished for relief. The kind your body can offer me.”
She wasn’t so inexperienced that she didn’t know his erection meant he wanted sex. But most men seemed ready to relieve those urges with any willing woman. “Are you reading my thoughts?”
He shook his head. “I can smell that you are untouched.” As he closed his eye, he inhaled. “It’s just the way your eyebrow quirked.”
Wonderful. Her face gave away her thoughts. She pressed her lips together to suppress her facial expressions.
“You’re a very attractive woman, and you didn’t need me to tell you, so please, do as I’ve asked. Go to the bedroom.”
Griselda had warned her not to challenge or question her brother. Leader of the pack. The Alpha. She wanted to prove to him she was worthy of the risk they took harboring her. He stepped back like a beast easing off prey. A blink of his eyelid revealed the fierce spirit within, his eye glowed yellow as in the alley under the moon.
The bedroom loomed up ahead to the left, and on her right, a water closet. The only light in the room came from across the hall as she moved further in. She had nowhere to run to if she wanted out. Did she want to escape? No. Maybe she was a darn fool. But since she’d been rescued by the pack, she felt as though she belonged, as though she once again had a home. Not having to hide her abilities from others had brought a sense of relief. No worrying about being found out.
The large bed had a fitted white sheet. Off in the corner, a mess of blankets was most likely where he slept. The green curtains were drawn tightly shut. The dark wooden dresser had a mirror facing the bed and a matching wardrobe against the wall by the door. Someone had lived there before they were displaced. War chilled her body to the bone. Death seemed to follow her, and she couldn’t escape the horror.
VanWolf told her he’d restrain himself, so she shouldn’t worry. Griselda would not have sent her if she had cause to fear him. Maybe his sister wanted Alexia to see beneath his cold exterior.
She slipped off her coat and folded it on the dresser. Next she removed her boots, dress, bra, girdle and stockings, which she placed in a pile alongside her jacket. He’d probably seen thousands of naked women in his lifetime. Lowering her panties, she set them with the rest of her clothing. The vacancy of the bed unnerved her. She crawled into the mass of covers in the corner.
The air in the room held a damp chill. A shadow cast over her. A sudden tingle in her mouth excited her.
“You don’t need to lie there. I’ve offered you the bed.” His gaze moved over her, then darted away as he unfastened the jacket to the Nazi uniform.
How could he wear it, knowing what the Nazis were doing? Day in and day out, posing as one of them must weigh on him heavily.
“I know, but I’ve become accustomed to sleeping in the litter with the unmated females.” Many a night she and Gabby had stayed up late, talking about a future with no suffering.
As the fragrance of him surrounded her, a slit between the curtains revealed the near full moon. Shunus were affected by the energy like werewolves, and the unrest building in the house the last few days had left her on edge. The males had scrapped with each other more than usual.
“Are you afraid?” Dark hairs adorned his large defined chest. He undid his pants.
�
�No.” Scared definitely didn’t describe her state. Thrilled, maybe. With the conjured sensation of his silky penis, her thighs quivered. All these years, and not one man had ever touched her so freely. She liked it. Even wanted more.
“Good.” Standing there naked, his massive frame and large erection made him appear twice as big. “Talk, Alexia, about yourself to help distract me. Where were you born? Do you have a large family?”
Light burst forth from his body as he floated off the floor. His hands transformed into paws as did his feet. Thick white, gray and black hair coated him as man became beast, the largest wolf she’d ever seen. He pressed his front legs on one side of her then the other. Heat from his underside warmed her. The eye patch no longer hid his mark, a melted shut eyelid. Her heart ached for the pain he must have known when harmed in this way. He was the handsomest creature she’d ever seen. She reached forward and scratched over his nose to his head. Noble.
Chapter 7
Though VanWolf knew he shouldn’t stare at her nude canvas, he wasn’t about to stop. Her flesh glimmered like gold. Colors other than black and red when in Shunu form were unheard of. Wolf-spirit lived within her, but a more powerful force owned her. Maybe a witch? No wonder she was followed. The other male must have picked up the scent of her.
“Turn over.” He barked as his snout pressed to her rib cage.
“Careful, I’m ticklish.” A soft giggle rose from her, causing her perfect breasts to wiggle. “Give me a second.”
The body of a goddess. Sparkling pigments shone from her flesh as an aura pulsated in waves like the tide of the ocean. Her hair, lips and nails were reflective, like black lacquer, reminding him of the witches of eons ago. She seduced him with her temptress beauty. How he missed the gentle feminine touch. Those satiny thighs, he’d longed for since he’d had the honor of slipping between them. As he recalled the slick feel of her excitement, his cock grew hard.
She rolled over, and her legs spread, displaying the pink between her velvety-soft rear cheeks. The growing erection between his hind legs was not easy to conceal, as he went from energy to solid form. Good thing she couldn’t see back there.