Dire Wants

by Stephanie Tyler

  “The moon calls to wolves and witches,” Stray explained. Kate was holding him, her eyes shimmering, and he wondered if this would make the brand on her back disappear. “It’s not always pleasant, but it’s easier if you don’t fight her.”

  The lightning hit so close, she jumped. “We shouldn’t be out here.”

  “We have to be—you’ve got to stop this. It’s Seb.”

  “I’m not ready. I need more time.”

  “You don’t have time,” he told her. “You’ve got to get your shit together fast. Stop thinking. Start feeling. This month has two full moons—Seb will no doubt try to use the power of the first one, and if that fails, he’s got a backup. And no one’s recovered from the shit that already happened last month. Gwen’s so … new, Rifter and Jinx are battling … We’ve got a lot of road to cover.”

  “And all I have to do is start feeling?”

  “Yes.”

  “You make it sound so simple.”

  “It has to be.”

  *

  Kate had protected herself from feeling anything for so long—until this wolf had come to her rescue—and now everything she felt was scaring her. It was rising up, threatening to take away every ounce of control she’d ever had—and she’d long ago discovered that her losing control was a frightening prospect.

  Not for Stray, though. For the wolves, loss of control was accepted. Necessary. Wanted, even.

  “I don’t like feeling out of control.”

  “Then control it,” Stray told her.

  “I don’t know how.”

  “Try.”

  She closed her eyes and let the thoughts swirl around her. It was too much—she wasn’t grounded.

  “You’re … vibrating,” she called over the roar.

  “So are you,” he pointed out.

  She wanted to be scared—should be—but with Stray holding her, the grimoire holding her past and future, she was anything but.

  The rain hadn’t started again, but the lightning rolled through the sky. She waited for the familiar beats of thunder in between the bolts, but none came.

  “These storms—they’re man-made.”

  “Witch-made,” Stray corrected as the electricity tingled along her skin.

  She put the fingertips of one hand against the grimoire. “He’s really strong.”

  “So are you.”

  Her first instinct was to deny it, but she couldn’t. Stray was right. Now she just had to figure out how to utilize her powers.

  The tingling continued, like the storm was calling her out, literally. Before Stray could stop her, she was out the back door and walking unprotected into the rain.

  The brand flared and something … someone was guiding her. She tucked the book between her knees and put her hands up to the sky as if she could absorb the spell that held it there.

  “Kate?”

  Stray was behind her and suddenly she wasn’t alone or unprotected. It made her body surge, a powerful sensation. She kept her palms up toward the sky, closed her eyes, and concentrated on trying to push the storm away. It felt so ridiculously bold and yet completely right at the same time.

  “The end of the moon is the most effective time for magic. Fuck your chakras. Roll your goddamned power out,” he murmured.

  She felt the moon’s power and Stray’s protective presence, and she chanted in a language she’d never studied but knew as instinctively as she knew her own name.

  She didn’t see anything at all happening in the dark, but Stray must have. The low, throaty growls ripped from his throat, and she dropped her hands, grabbed the grimoire and turned to face him.

  “Is everything all right?”

  “Yes. Very. We’re stronger than they are. Good always is.”

  “It really worked,” she breathed.

  “It’s white magic, but you’ll be fighting the dark arts,” he told her. “It’s going to be dangerous for you.”

  Under the heavy rain, he kissed her. Drew her close and ravaged her mouth while she clung to him, ignoring everything but the lust that rose like hot steam around them.

  She heard car doors slam, remembered they hadn’t been alone out here. But Stray didn’t care, and neither did she as his hands traveled along her body, under her sweater. His thumbs brushed her nipples and she jolted, because they’d been aching for his touch. He rolled them lightly between his fingers and she gasped as her womb contracted, wished he would pull her sweater off and put his mouth to her breasts.

  To that end, she wound her fingers from her free hand in his hair and pulled him in for a kiss, never letting go of either Stray or the grimoire. Electricity that had swirled around them now danced between them, locking them together in a heated embrace.

  *

  It was a tease—a delicious, amazing, mind-fucking tease. Stray gripped her ass and rolled her pelvis against his aching cock, wanted nothing more than to drive into her. Sitting, standing, upsidefuckingdown, it didn’t matter.

  If this went on much longer, he wasn’t going to be able to stop. As it was, Kate was in danger of going over the edge herself, and he planned on riding this out until she came to her senses.

  At least Vice had the good sense to back his truck down the hill.

  Maybe this is because of Vice. Whenever that Dire was around, everyone’s feelings were more intense, harder to control.

  But he knew it was all about him and Kate and nothing else. Animal attraction, but it was more than that. He’d been attracted to a lot of Weres over the past years, but none had ever affected him like this.

  He pulled away from the kiss and buried his face in her hair—her scent killed him, flat out slayed him the way it had from day one, made every overeager, possessive alpha male need roar out of him like a freight train without brakes.

  “Kate, this is—”

  “Touch me,” she told him. “I love when you touch me.”

  He didn’t need to be asked twice. He pushed her shirt up to touch her with his mouth, his tongue, his teeth lightly scraping her nipples until she gasped, a sound that echoed through the now-quiet night. He was glad she wasn’t wearing a bra, and his fingers trailed down her belly between her legs, finding no barrier there either.

  His fingers stroked her wetness. He wanted her to come apart, wanted that above his own need, even as his heavy cock ached for release.

  “Come for me, Kate. Come on, beautiful—let it all go.”

  His thumb circled her clit and she orgasmed instantly, her contractions making her knees weak. He held her so she didn’t fall, let her ride out the pleasure until she got her breath and her bearings.

  The rain that had been ferocious until that point stopped then, the sky lit up. And he knew the deluge would begin again in minutes, but it didn’t matter. For that moment, they’d stopped the rain together, and he didn’t know if it was because they were witch and familiar or witch and wolf—or mates.

  Chapter 24

  Seb’s wrists were tied above his head, his face buried against a woman’s breasts while another lowered herself onto his throbbing cock. A third propped him up, rubbing her wetness against his back as she did so.

  These women didn’t care who or what Seb was, and apparently his body didn’t care either. He wanted it—wanted all of it, in a way he’d never be able to control.

  He bucked his hips up, the woman’s moans encouraging him to fuck her harder. The other woman replaced her breasts in his mouth with her pussy and the third began to finger his ass as he explosively climaxed, his body spasming somewhere between pain and pleasure.

  He should be satiated, yet he was far from it. The smells and sounds of sex surrounded him, pushed him over the edge again and again, until his body was exhausted but his cock remained hard.

  You’ll always be unfulfilled.

  He knew closing his eyes wouldn’t block out the images of them cavorting over him, but he did so anyway. Instead of their leering, orgasmic faces, Lila’s face swam in front of his vision, so realistic he exten
ded his untied arms to grab for her.

  He caught an armful of empty air, exhaled painfully and opened his eyes. The women finally collapsed around him, the possession the demon had taken over them leaving them limp and their minds permanently weakened. They’d be returned to society as shells of their former selves, dreaming nightly of Seb and this time in his bed.

  With her long dark hair and beautiful, nearly obsidian eyes, Lila had been older than time and was all he’d ever wanted.

  He’d given her up because she’d begged him to. And for a long time it had been the only thing keeping both witches safe.

  He’d met Lila when he’d run from his family. She’d been his port in the storm—his everything. For centuries, they’d met in secret. Once a year was all they’d allow themselves, one twenty-four-hour period together, and then they’d separate so their powers couldn’t be used against each other.

  Lila killed herself because the trappers—and Cordelia, Seb’s own sister—were trying to do just that. She refused to get caught and be the reason Seb got pulled back into his coven. And then he’d gone and let her death mean absolute shit, because he’d refused to pass his powers on to an innocent.

  He hated her for leaving him, for burdening another with a gift she didn’t want.

  Since you want her so badly, take her, the demon Kondo urged. She’d be easy to seduce.

  “Not with Stray as her familiar.”

  We’d get a Dire and a witch—not bad for a day’s work. Maybe you can have both of them to play with. You’d like that, wouldn’t you, Seb?

  His body surged against his will. “She’s not Lila any longer,” he said through gritted teeth.

  She’s part of Lila, Kondo told him. I thought an Adept could seduce anyone.

  As Kondo laughed, Seb prayed. Ignored the jabs, the way he did when the demon abused his body to soothe its appetites with sex and drink with men and women and Weres—it didn’t matter which.

  So yes, Seb might be breaking down, but he was gaining strength as well. Wasn’t sure why the demon didn’t notice—or, if it did, why it didn’t care.

  Torn between light and darkness, Seb wondered which would ultimately win, and decided it didn’t matter at all.

  *

  “Dude, we’re starving. Mo’s is up ahead. Safe and shit,” Vice said into his ear. In turn, Stray pulled into the lot and closed the phone, the answer clear.

  Rifter wouldn’t want them to do this, but they hadn’t eaten since the fight. And Mo’s was run by a family of Weres who refused to join any of the packs in the area because they were their own little army and provided a safe house of sorts to anyone who needed the protection.

  Stray was starving for something a little more primal, but he suspected Kate would object to the lack of privacy. And maybe the mud.

  Wolves didn’t mind getting very dirty.

  “You’ve got that look on your face again,” she told him.

  “What look?”

  “Wolfish.”

  He grinned to himself as he went to help her out of the truck and escort her inside safely. The sky was still dark, stars twinkled and the familiar cold air was back. No sign of thunder, lightning or rain. Best yet, no signs of Seb invading Kate’s mind.

  It would’ve been better if there was a way to lay her out in the back of the truck and take her, but for now, food would have to do.

  “Is this a regular diner?”

  “Depends on your definition,” he told her as he ushered her in through the heavy glass doors. Vice and Cain came in behind them and one of the waitresses—Mo’s daughter—locked it behind them.

  “Safer for this time of night,” she explained. Kate started to ask why it hadn’t been locked in the first place, but Stray steered her away before she could.

  Humans frequented the place, mainly tourists and truckers just rolling through, and they’d have no idea that the glass was bullet and wolf proof. Or that there were weresnipers on the roof twenty-four seven.

  Vice waved to them and Stray waved him off and guided Kate into a private booth in the back room, leaving Cyd and Vice to eat and talk to Mo about the current situation. The less Kate knew about how bad the situation truly was right this moment, the better.

  He was going to love watching her continue to come into her own. She was opening up like a blooming rose, and her scent was richer, heavier than it had been hours ago. But he still likened it to crack for his wolf, and Brother gave a deep howl of agreement.

  “What’ll it be, doll—the usual?” Mo’s wife, Ellen, chewed her gum at a rapid-fire pace and smiled at him and Kate.

  “A few of them,” Stray said. “Kate, why don’t you try the special?”

  “That sounds great.” She smiled at Ellen and when the woman left, she asked, “Human?”

  “No. Were.”

  “Ah.” She took a discreet look around. “Is everyone … ?”

  “About half and half. I don’t think it’s wise to point them out.”

  “Can’t they hear us? The wolves, I mean.”

  “That’s why we’re in the private section—we’re okay to talk freely here.”

  He’d pushed his sleeves up and she leaned forward and pulled his wrists toward her. “Did this happen during the fight?”

  Her own bandages had come loose in the rain, but Gwen had cleaned and stitched them well enough.

  “It’s nothing.”

  “They’re the exact same cuts I have.”

  “Technically, they’re bites.”

  She glared at him. “You’re funny when you’re hungry.”

  He hesitated for a long moment before telling her, “We’re bonded, Kate. This is what happens to familiars.”

  *

  This is what happens to familiars …

  Stray had tried to spare her the answer that would make her stomach gnaw with guilt, but Kate had pushed. “I’m sorry—I didn’t know that would happen.”

  “It’s not your fault.”

  But it was. She’d gone outside, put herself and Stray in danger. And there was a good chance it could happen again.

  Ellen brought some dishes, and for several moments, they ate in silence. Despite everything, Kate was hungry—the night’s events had taken a lot from her.

  Her gaze went again to the book and she said, “Tell me about Rogue. It sounds like he’s under a spell by Seb, but I thought Dires couldn’t be spelled.”

  “It’s not a spell—it’s a mare. She’s a monster from nightmares—from hell, actually, and Seb’s controlling her and Rogue’s mind. But Seb, strong as he is, could never do this alone. He’s entered into a very dangerous pact with the dark arts, which is why I know he’ll never be the same.”

  “Evil seems to be unstoppable,” she murmured.

  “In theory.”

  “And in reality?”

  “Sometimes the good guys win one.”

  “And if you don’t, it doesn’t matter?”

  “We have consciences,” Stray growled. “You have no idea how badly I wish we didn’t.”

  She believed him. While he continued to eat, she flipped through the book, stopping on the passage about the familiars.

  She’d never owned a pet, never felt particularly drawn to cats or birds, although the book said it was a bit unusual for a witch’s familiar to be a bird.

  “Seb’s familiar’s a raven,” Stray told her, noting what passage she was looking at. “In case you see one hanging around.”

  “That’s creepy.”

  “That’s Seb for you.”

  “You two didn’t get along, I take it?”

  “I came late to the party. He did some good stuff for my brothers at one point, I guess. I just never got comfortable with him.”

  From what Stray had told her about the scars on his back, he hadn’t even been able to trust his own family. She would imagine that trusting strangers wasn’t high on his list of priorities.

  “The more I know about Seb, the better,” she said, and Stray began to fill her
in on all things Seb. The odd thing was, it was as if he was telling her a story she knew, somewhere deep inside. His words were merely a reminder.

  “So Lila was his mate?”

  “In a way. But he let her leave. We wouldn’t do that. We protect our mates—”

  “From the big, bad humans?”

  He smiled wryly. “Last time I looked, you weren’t human. Convenient of you to forget.”

  Kate looked into Stray’s whiskey-colored eyes, fringed with dark lashes and flecks of black—the color grew more otherworldly when he was in wolf form. “You hate witches more than humans?”

  “It’s a neck-and-neck battle,” he told her. “But only certain witches.”

  “That’s because you have to like me.”

  “No, not really.” He continued eating—she couldn’t believe the amount of food he was able to casually put away. “I normally don’t put others’ needs before my wolf’s.”

  She realized he was talking about her orgasm by the cabin and her cheeks flushed with the recent memory. Her clothes were still damp and she realized she could come again easily. And that he hadn’t.

  She’d noted the hard bulge outlined in his wet jeans when he’d gotten into the truck, right before the blinding rain came down.

  “And don’t thank me—you’ll have plenty of time to make it up to me,” he told her.

  “Stop reading my mind.”

  “I can’t help it. I like what I hear.”

  “Wolves,” she muttered and dug into the plate of onion rings as he let out a hearty laugh.

  *

  The Weres were back. Gwen sensed them seconds after Rifter had, and the thrill of her wolf senses getting stronger was quickly erased by the strong sense of fear.

  “Don’t worry, Gwen. We’re not going out there to fight them this time.” Rifter went into the living room and she followed. Together, through the sliding glass door, they watched the glowing eyes staring back at them.

  Gwen knew they couldn’t see in, but she still felt exposed.

  “We’re safe,” Rifter repeated, and she was just beginning to believe it when something jumped in front of the doors, landing on two feet, his back to them.

  Killian.

  Her throat tightened and Rifter grew so tense, Gwen thought he would break. In seconds, Killian shifted to a black wolf that looked a lot like Stray’s, slightly larger. He raced across the field, meeting ten Weres head-on.