by Ines Johnson
“How is it that he’s asked you to mate him and he hasn’t claimed you?” Rory asked.
Rhetta’s hand rose to cover her bare neck. She’d seen other she-wolves prance around with their mate’s marks on their necks. Her sister included, because even Vivi’s mate, easy-going Pierce, had that much of a beast inside him.
Rhetta’s husband had marked her when they danced the dance of mating. But he didn’t make it a habit to reapply the brand every month. Or a second time after the one and only occasion. And of course, Jordan had never dared. He’d never even seen her breasts.
Rory bared his teeth. Rhetta shrank back.
Rory’s lips spread in a carnivorous smile. “Before I’m finished with you, kitten, you’ll be begging me for my mark.”
“Don’t call me kitten. I hate cats.”
The bastard mewled at her. Before she could launch an argument or a fist, his hand snaked into her disheveled hair. She felt his thick fingers sink into her scalp. She yelped as he twisted his wrist.
It wasn’t a gentle lover’s nudging to tilt her head back. No, it was a hard yank. It jolted her good sense at the same time as it made her back arch.
She inhaled, causing her breasts to rise toward him. He lowered himself and attacked her neck, grazing with his teeth, nipping and sucking, but not breaking any skin.
Rhetta held her breath in anticipation of his strike. It didn’t come. Instead, she felt her feet come out from under her again. Instead of going up in the air, she was falling down. She landed on the bed with a thump.
The beast had pushed her onto the mattress!
Before she could sit up to give him a piece of her mind, Rory prowled up her body like the dangerous animal that he was. His cocky grin dared her to run. She could see he liked the chase, that he was the type to play with his food.
She wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. She lay there, unresponsive. He’d have to come to her.
He raised an eyebrow in challenge. He lowered himself to her body, slowly. Slowly enough that she almost arched to meet him at the end, but she held still. In fact, she held her breath. Then let it go in a shaky gust as he grazed her nipple with his two front teeth.
His breath came out in a chuckle that gushed across the valley of her breasts. He prowled down her body, sticking his tongue in her belly button, and she shivered.
He hooked his incisors around her utilitarian underwear. Looking up at her, his hooded eyes challenged her. But her voice caught in her throat, and so he ripped them to shreds.
Rhetta lay before him, bare as the day she was born. But she was a grown woman. She pressed her thighs together as Rory tried to part them, his face far too close for comfort to her intimate flesh.
Her husband hadn’t gone down there. She’d heard the women in her pack cackle about such things. Rory chuckled as he spread her eagle-wide on his bed. Like a winged predator swooping down on his prey, he buried his head between her thighs. Not gentle. He was rough.
Rhetta jackknifed off the mattress as his tongue met the pearl hidden between the folds of her sex. Rory laved and tugged at the spot until she was trembling.
She’d had a pleasant warming between her thighs with her husband. This was not a pleasant warming. This was a raging inferno. But before she could explode, Rory reared back.
Rhetta’s head cleared enough to shut her thighs and rise up. But Rory was having none of that. He reached out and insinuated a hand between her knees, prying her back open.
In all honesty, she could’ve put up more of a fight. But it was hard to keep her thighs together with her sex swollen from the few moments of attention he’d given her with his tongue.
Rory had managed to slip his pants off when he’d released her. His package was impressive. She’d only seen the like between the hindquarters of stallions. Momentarily distracted by his manhood, Rhetta lost the battle of the thigh gap and Rory was upon her once more.
He aimed his thick manhood at her hungry lower lips and her body welcomed him in. With one thrust, he shoved into her, up to the hilt. They both let out a guttural yell. Rhetta wanted to beat at his chest at the brutality of his claiming, just as much as she wanted to wrap her legs around him to urge him deeper.
Rory set a brutal pace and before she knew it she was telling him to do it harder, deeper, faster. She’d never been so vocal with her husband. But it had never felt this all-consuming when they’d come together.
Above her, Rory eyed her collarbone. Against her better judgment, Rhetta found herself arching her neck toward him.
“Say it,” he said.
The sound of his thrusting hips meeting the flesh of her core filled the silence as she stared at him. She truly had no idea what he wanted her to say. But she was so pleasure-drunk that she’d give him any words he wanted.
“Beg me,” he said.
Any words except those ones. “Fuck you.”
“Gladly,” he growled.
Rory withdrew from her and flipped her over. Before Rhetta got her bearings on her belly, he’d plunged back into her from behind, even deeper. The angle was too much. She didn’t know there could be such a thing as too much pleasure.
“Please,” she moaned. “Please, I beg you, please.”
She felt a sharp pain at her neck mixed with a fullness in her belly from his long, stout cock. It was too much. Her body seized, holding her entire being in a tight grip for a couple of pleasure-tense seconds before releasing her. The sublime sensations rolled off her in waves, warming her blood, stretching her limbs, and unfurling something deep inside her that she had no experience with to name.
The last thing she remembered was the moon shining its full glare into the room and Rory growling. He was loud enough that she knew the neighbors would hear. She may have imagined it, but it sounded as though he said a word. One word.
“Mine.”
Chapter Six
The sunlight intruding through the windows caused Rory to wince. He pedaled his legs as though he were running in the woods, chasing after the sweet smell of fresh meat. His foot ached from the exertion of being run so ragged after years of ill-use. But he kept going. The chase was worth it.
That smell was so tantalizing. He had to have it. It was so close, he could smell it, he could taste it. In fact, it was right under his nose.
With his eyes still closed, he extended his tongue and tasted. He was met with warm, supple skin whose salty sweat was the sweetest thing he’d ever tasted in his life. Rory opened his eyes.
He was met with a golden brown shoulder. The slope of it allowed him to peer down to see a mound of breast. Crested at the tip of that breast was a priceless brown nugget that Rory knew first hand was delectable.
He’d thought Rhetta a closed off bitch with her tight bun and functional clothing. He’d been wrong. With that bun loosened, her hair was a riot of wild curls. With her clothing torn to tatters, inside was a caged she-cat that scratched back. Rory was in awe.
He looked down at her body and the evidence of the passion between them. His own body held the same evidence of bite marks and scratches and indents where she’d dug into his skin.
He was uncertain if at some point their wolves had come out to play? His was so near to the forefront now as he regarded his handiwork. Rory had kept the animal within on a tight leash for years, when in the past it had always been free to roam and play and hunt at will. This was the closest it had come out to play and it only waited for him to let his guard down so that he could ravage this luscious piece of meat that lay prone beside him.
Without warning, the beast took the controls. It buried its nose in Rhetta’s neck and took a long, languorous lick.
Rhetta shuddered and moaned in her sleep.
Rory’s wolf stiffened and readied to pounce.
She opened her eyes, turning to him. The curves of her body moving like waves rolling onto the shore.
Rory licked his chops. His hands found her breasts.
“Oh, my Goddess!” Rhetta gasped and arched as h
er gaze came into focus. She scrambled away from him, leaping from the bed. “What have I done? What have I done?”
She looked down at her nakedness. Then her hands traced the bites and bruises of her arms, her torso, her belly.
“What did you do?” She glared at him.
Rory lounged back on the bed taking in the view. She was breathtaking standing there naked as the sun shone a light on every one of her assets.
“I did exactly what I promised I would,” he said, lips spread into a wide grin. “I didn’t stop until I had my fill of you writhing beneath me.”
“You’re an animal.”
“Guilty as charged. And your voice is hoarse, as promised. Come back to bed, kitten, and we’ll see if we can’t make you mute this time.”
He reached out for her. She leaped out of his grasp. His wolf sat up with its tail in the air, ready to play.
“If you make me chase you, kitten, you won’t be sorry. But you will be sore when I inevitably catch you. I’ve got all day to play with you.”
Rhetta’s eyes widened. She whipped around to the window giving him a prime view of her perfect ass. There he saw more of his teeth marks on her left cheek. He’d have to be sure and make the twin orbs match this time.
“Oh, my Goddess, it’s daylight.”
Rory frowned at the panic in her voice.
She turned back around and began searching the floor frantically. “I have to get out of here.”
“You’re not going anywhere,” he said.
Rhetta ignored him. She reached for her skirt and tugged it on, covering up the ass he had plans to bite.
“Everyone will wonder where I’ve been. What will I tell them?” She pulled her torn shirt over her breasts.
“You’ll tell them you were with me.”
Now she looked up at him, eyes wide. “I can’t tell them that. I’m marrying your brother.”
Rory let out an ear-splitting laugh. She was hilarious, his little hellcat.
“What the hell is so funny?” she demanded.
“You’re not marrying my brother.”
“Yes, I am.”
“No, you’re not.”
“Yes. I am.”
“No. You. Are. Not.”
Rhetta threw up her hands. “I don’t have time to deal with you anymore.” She pulled her shoes on her feet as though she was really leaving. “I’ll just tell Jordan you wouldn’t see me. You won’t come to the wedding. The feud between you two will just have to continue.”
“No,” said Rory. “I’ll tell him exactly what happened.”
“Why would you do that?”
She was pretty much fully dressed with both shoes on, her skirt twisted about her torso, and her blouse hanging off one of her shoulders. She held the two sides of the shirt closed because the buttons were torn off. She looked lush, beautiful, and completely bitable.
Rory swung his legs over the bed. His bum foot hit the floor awkwardly and he winced.
Rhetta’s eyes dropped to his foot. He’d never let anyone see his deformity before, but he had nothing to hide from this woman. He let her look her fill, and when she finally met his eyes again, he answered her question.
“Because I’m in love with you.”
Rhetta frowned. Then she glared. Rory heard a crack split the air, then he felt the sting on his face. He blinked just in time for Rhetta to slap him again.
“Snap out of it!” She marched past him out of the room.
Rory licked at the blood pooling where she’d split his lip. He smiled at the metallic tint, then he followed her out. “Don’t run away from me, Rhetta.”
She shoved into her coat and began buttoning the garment over her open blouse. “You said this was all about revenge for you. Do you think I believe for one second you feel anything for me? It’s bad luck. It always finds me.”
“It is luck, kitten. It’s just not bad.”
“Call me kitten one more time and I’ll…” She raised her hand for a strike, but when she saw Rory’s anticipating smirk, she balled her hand into a fist and marched toward the door.
Rory sprinted across the room faster than he’d moved in years. He slammed the door shut just as she’d gotten it opened.
“Get out of my way,” she growled.
“You can’t leave.” He boxed her in. “We have to talk about this.”
“There’s nothing to talk about. I’m marrying your brother.”
“I can’t let you do that, ki—”
Her eyes shot daggers as her lips pursed. Rory ached to bite that lip, but he couldn’t. Not yet.
“I can’t let you do that, Rhetta. I can’t let you ruin your life by mating my brother.”
“You don’t even know me.”
He shrugged at the minor detail. “Not yet, but I will.”
“No, you won’t. This is the last time you’ll see me.” She reached for the doorknob again and twisted, but he slammed it shut before she could wrench it open.
He boxed her in again. She shut her eyes and blew out a huff. She could’ve scratched at him. She could’ve kneed him in the groin, any number of things. But she stayed in the cage he’d placed her in. Rory inhaled the scent of the woman his soul told him was his. He decided to take a different tactic with her.
“Listen, bunny—”
Rhetta’s eyes slammed open and glared at him.
“You don’t like bunnies either? Listen, I can see you’re emotional right now. That often happens to a woman after she’s been fucked properly. You wouldn’t know that since—”
Crack!
This time she hit him with a closed fist, and it knocked him back on his ass. She glared down at him. Then she wrenched the door open with a growl and disappeared out of it.
Rory tasted more blood. He could only chuckle at the door as it reverberated from her assault. If she wanted to play that way it was fine with him. He’d give her time for a head start. Only a small one, because the hunt was on.
Chapter Seven
Rhetta slammed the door behind her. The loud crack reverberated the walls and the shock coursed through her body. The vibrations sent her mind back to the previous night when her body had shaken from the center on outward.
She stormed down the stairs of Rory’s apartment, putting as much distance between her and the beast as possible. On her way out, she caught sight of the assistant. The woman gasped in utter disbelief to see Rhetta there. She dropped the cash register to the floor with a loud clang.
Part of Rhetta wanted to raise an eyebrow and cock her hand on her hip. But even more than gloating at the other woman’s misjudgment of her, Rhetta wanted to get out of this place.
And so Rhetta pulled open the entryway to the butchery. The sunlight hit her as people walked down the street. She felt like she was on stage taking a walk of shame. She pulled the lapels of her coat together at her bosom. The streets were fairly full in the light of dawn with humans and wolves intermixing. As Rhetta made her way to her car she was certain all eyes were on her as she did a shameful promenade.
Of course, everyone knew what she had been doing all night long. Her hair was disheveled. Her makeup gone. Her eyes bloodshot from lack of sleep. Her lips swollen from overuse. And these were wolves. She was sure the stench of sex permeated her pores announcing to all within a few blocks radius that she had been claimed by someone that was not her fiancé.
But as she approached her car, she noted that no one looked at her. People were involved in their own dealings. The mailman pulled open a mailbox and shoved a package inside. A mother ran after her toddler. A man dressed in a suit and tie peered down at his wristwatch.
Rhetta was nearly home free to her car when a familiar voice stopped her.
“Goodness, child,” the voice creaked. “What happened to you?”
Rhetta turned into the face of Mrs. Cabbage. She was a regular at Jordan’s veterinary clinic. Rhetta had trained three of her dogs. They were mean little beasts.
Rhetta’s honey-brown skin turned b
eet red as Mrs. Cabbage took her in. She was well and truly caught now. How would she ever explain this to Jordan?
The wedding would be off. His family feud would continue. And all because of Rhetta and her damned bad luck.
Rhetta opened her eyes to face the music.
“Did you break up a dogfight?” Mrs. Cabbage asked.
Rhetta blinked. A dogfight? Was the woman senile? Had she lost her sense of smell? But then Rhetta remembered, Mrs. Cabbage wasn’t Moonkind.
“I hope you decided to put the creature down,” said Mrs. Cabbage. “Whatever beast mauled you shouldn’t be allowed to walk the streets.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Rhetta had no idea which question she was answering; that she’d been mauled or that the beast should be put down. Probably both. “Now I’m going home to wash up. Have a good day.”
Rhetta ducked into her car, turned on the engine, and began the process of the three-point turn in order to take her in the opposite direction. With the turn complete, she took one final glance in her rearview mirror. She thought she caught sight of a large and hairy werewolf barreling down the street hobbling on a slight limp. But when she blinked, the vision was gone.
Of course, it was gone. Because she was hallucinating. She was crazy.
He wasn’t chasing after her. He’d gotten what he’d wanted. That’s the only way that she could explain last night and how she came to sleep with her fiancé’s brother.
The night’s moon remained visible in the sky. The nearness of the orb still called to Rhetta’s blood. That damned moon. She knew Jordan should’ve waited to propose to her under the right moon.
But he hadn’t. Because he was sensible. He hadn’t cared what the moon had to do with it. He had proposed to her at her favorite restaurant. And had the good sense to before the entrées had arrived in case she’d refused him.
Unlike his brother. Who’d thrown her down and taken her like an animal. After he’d gobbled up his meal.
Rhetta rolled down the car window. She leaned her head out the window and lapped up the fresh air. Soon city turned to farmland and she could breathe deeper, her chest opened, and her nerves began to settle.