by E A Price
“What the f…”
“I’m part witch and…”
“You enslaved me!” he bellowed. He resumed his furious struggles, eyes flashing to the darkness of his beast.
“I enchanted you – made you my little pet.” She tried to pat his head, and he snapped his jaws at her. She snatched her hand back but didn’t stop smiling.
“I’m amazed it actually lasted so long. Fifteen years has to be some kind of record. Sadly, it’s wearing off now. My grandmother designed the enchantment. Made it so that my touch would persuade you to do anything I wanted. If you recall,” she bit her lip and wriggled her hips, “we touched each other a lot when we were teenagers.”
The term misspent youth was never apter. His bear thought the term heinous bitch was never apter.
“But I still need you, so it’s time to recharge it.”
“Last time…” he started.
“I told you to forget about the spell, although I guess if I weren't going to recast it, you would start remembering all the things I told you to forget. Like all the girls who tried to come between us. I’ll do the same again. Don’t worry; I’ll make sure you forget your new skinny little bitch too.”
Zane stilled and leveled a murderous look at her. “Melissa!” he spat.
“Don’t you remember how last time we got together you were panting after that nerdy girl Susan Fishface.”
A memory did come fluttering to him, of a sweet girl with long red hair, glasses, and habit of sticking out her tongue when she was doing arithmetic. She was his math tutor, and he lusted after her for months until… until he suddenly decided Melissa was the greatest girl in the world. He’d met Melissa before, but had never been attracted to her until… he suddenly was.
“Susan Fishburne,” he hissed.
“Yeah, you were practically dating, and I made you dump her for me. I did you a favor,” she told him without any kind of lick of remorse. “Whiny little bitch. Reminds me of your new one – you always did like the drippy ones.”
She took out a pair of scissors and started cutting through his shirt, cooing over his muscles. His bear was still pushing to get out, but the silver chains stopped him, making him feel useless and fearful that he really couldn’t stop her. That he’d never see Sky again.
“Don’t worry,” she said soothingly. “The ritual is very simple.” She nodded at a small cauldron, placed over a small fire. “That’s a mixture of a few herbs, nothing special, the heart of a pig, liver of a bat, your blood, my blood – nothing out of the way. We have to be close to nature – check. I drink some, and you drink some. I perform a dance and then you’ll be so overcome with lust you’ll take me right here and give me your seed.”
Zane glowered at her.
“Yeah, when I was a teenager, I wasn’t really interested in getting pregnant. And I have to say, after giving birth to two of my own, it’s not all it’s cracked up to be. My ex now has custody – a little amendment to our divorce - thank Hera. But when you get me pregnant it will be different. Mostly because you’ll look after our brat.”
“Stay away from my seed.” Words he never thought he’d have to say to anyone.
Melissa shook her head. “You know I married Roger for his money – he had more than you could earn in a lifetime. And he worked long hours so I could sleep with whomever I wanted. For a while it was fantastic. But apparently only getting a blowjob once a year on his birthday wasn’t enough for old Rog, so he found some hag at his office to stick his tiny prick in. No matter. Now I have all his money, none of his kids and I never have to have two-minute sex with him again.”
“Yeah, you’re living the dream,” he muttered, trying to find the lock to the chains.
“I know!” She never did get sarcasm. “But I’m bored of sleeping around, so I’ve decided to settle for you.”
“You’re fucking crazy.”
“Although you are kind of dim, you’re hot and great in bed, super protective and easy to manipulate. I don’t really like your temper tantrums, but I’ll just tell you to act differently when you’re annoying me. You’ll make a fine mate.” She patted her stomach. “Hopefully, Zane Jr. will be cooking in here in less than half an hour. Isn’t that wonderful?”
“If I could, I’d puke.” If his bear could, he’d sink his claws into her. “Stay away from me.”
“Awww, honey. Ten minutes from now, you’ll be all over me like butter on pancakes.”
“I prefer syrup.”
“Like butter on corn.”
“What is it with the butter?”
“The hell he will!” yelled an angry yet still melodious voice.
“Sky?” His bear howled both in fear and elation. “Baby, stay back.”
Melissa curled her hands into fists. “Please, little horsey. You going to neigh me to death?”
Sky advanced, her eyes blazing purple and her sensual mouth set in a grim line. Damn she looked hot. “Don’t push me, skank,” she shouted. Even hotter.
“Shut up!” Melissa hurled a pink ball of light at Sky.
“No!” bellowed Zane. “Sky, run!”
The pink ball hit sky square in the chest and yet she barely even flinched. She coughed at the strange pink smoke, but all she did was smirk. “Wow, super impressed over here.”
Melissa’s brow furrowed. “What the…” She tried it again, and Sky shrugged at the next attack.
“Ugh! What is wrong with you?!” screamed Melissa grabbing a knife and running at Sky.
“I don’t think so.”
Her whole body shimmered and her beautiful unicorn sprang forth. Shifts to animal forms were rarely pretty, but Sky’s was amazing. Beautiful, sparkling light illuminated the effortless change between her two forms – as if it was the most natural thing in the world to change into a unicorn. But then, her animal was the most beautiful creature he’d ever seen. She wasn’t just an animal - she was magical.
Something Melissa couldn’t fail to appreciate as she halted in shock. “Oh, my…”
She didn’t get to finish that exclamation. Sky charged at her, tossing her head and smashing Melissa into a tree. Sky snorted and pawed the ground waiting for Melissa to get up, but the witch was down for the count.
The unicorn trotted over to Zane.
“Hey, baby,” he crooned.
She knocked against him with her horn, gently poking him in her enthusiasm to try and nuzzle him.
“Okay, okay, seriously you need to get your horniness under control.” She let out a small neigh. “I know that’s rich coming from me. Although, I am mad at you.”
She shifted back to her human form, naked, luminous and looking very fetching in the moonlight. His bear drooled just a little.
Sky stood before him, hands on her slender hips and silvery hair cascading over her taut breasts. “Mad at me?”
“You put yourself in danger.” Unforgivable – she might have been hurt! Her reason for doing it didn’t matter.
“I just saved you from a life of unremitting horror as her sex slave – I should get a thank you.”
He waggled his eyebrows. “How about a promise that I’ll be your sex slave?”
“Now you’re talking. Where the hell is the key to these chains.” With renewed energy she started searching the area, giving the cauldron a sniff and then a grimace.
“How come her magic didn’t work on you?”
Sky shrugged a perfect shoulder. “I’m a magical creature.”
“No kidding.” He glared at Melissa’s twitching body. “No wonder she could always control me. All these fucking years I was under her spell.” Claw her urged the bear.
“Yes, I think the SEA will want to talk to her.” Sky beamed and jangled the found keys, and then paused. “You’re taking all this surprisingly well. Damn, you’re even smiling your sex smile – the goofy one you always do after you have an orgasm. Thought you’d be growling and champing at the bit to get free.”
“I’m kind of enjoying the view,” he admitted giving her
a very long, disgusting leer.
She wiggled exaggeratedly for his benefit, pleased at his comment, as she sauntered toward him.
“Plus, you calm me down. No spell necessary.”
“Well, like I said, I am magical.”
“No, you’re perfect.”
Sky beamed and kissed the tip of his nose. “I feel the same way.”
His lips curled. “That you’re perfect?”
“Dummy,” she taunted playfully. “I like these chains; maybe we should take them home with us…”
*
Jones couldn’t dial his phone fast enough.
“Booker,” growled the voice on the other end of the line.
“Boss, I have good news…”
Chapter Twenty-Five
“So you were spelled the whole time?” Mason asked.
“Still, yes,” hissed Zane. He’d only been asked that five times! His bear didn’t think he could be angrier than he was two hours ago when Melissa was trying to steal his seed, and yet… Okay, count to ten. One…
“For fifteen years?” said Mason. The gorilla shifter’s huge eyebrows were drawn together in confusion.
He wasn’t the first to ask him. No, many of his now ex-friends at the SEA had popped in to alternatively taunt him (Isis), laugh at him (Wayne), snarl at him for being an idiot (Cutter) and commiserate that he was indeed an idiot (Gunner).
This wasn’t his fault! How was he supposed to know he was enchanted! Fucking Melissa! Two…
Thank every bear deity that Sky was around to save him. And he thought he was the one taking care of her - that she was the one who needed him. Nope, he totally needed her, maybe more than she needed him. Hey, it didn’t make him any less manly to admit that. In fact, he actually felt a swell of pride from his usually unreasonable bear.
Although he was kind of pissed that Sky wasn’t around at that moment. Three… She was away being interviewed elsewhere. He needed her next to him, soothing him, holding his hand. We have something better she can hold taunted his bear.
Damn horny bear.
Once out of there, they were taking her somewhere safe, somewhere they could strip her naked and spend the rest of the night and the whole next day loving her senseless, telling her she belonged to them – no arguments.
“How’s Melissa?” he grumbled. Not because he was concerned for her in case his bear worried about that. No, he was concerned that she might blab her big, fat, bitch mouth about Sky’s special beast.
“She hasn’t regained consciousness,” Mason informed him. “She hit her head; doctors said she might not.”
“Better if she doesn’t.”
Mason huffed. “I know you’re pissed, but she should have a trial – she deserves to be on trial for what she did.”
No, giving Melissa a platform to talk to her hearts content was not a good idea.
“We done yet?”
Mason nodded. “It’s late; we’ll talk tomorrow.”
“Can’t wait,” he muttered.
He stomped through the SEA offices, searching for Sky. He scented her, but it wasn’t fresh. He grabbed a random agent – a mole shifter called Melman.
“Where’s Sky?” he snapped, fury rising on seeing the confusion on the little guy’s face. “The female I came in with. Long silvery hair, total fox – but not a fox shifter.”
“Oh, she said she was going to get you some coffee from across the street.”
“And you let her?!” he yowled.
The mole looked around wildly. “Ah… was she supposed to be under arrest?”
“What? No!” Moron snapped his bear! He skipped the other numbers and went straight to ten.
“Is she not allowed coffee?”
“Shut up!”
Zane ran out of there cursing all moles on the face of the earth as he went in search of Sky.
*
Sky emerged from the coffee shop, humming with pleasure. It had been quite an exciting night, but yay, the coffee shop had chamomile tea and chocolate chip shortbread! Best point of the evening. She wasn’t big on chocolate or sugary snacks, but chocolate chip shortbread was a definite weakness. Along with a certain sexy bear. She’d bought seven blueberry muffins and a jumbo black coffee for her big bear – he needed his stamina for what she had planned.
That was all shot to hell a couple of seconds later as a van screeched to a halt in front of the coffee shop. Two huge males jumped out and grabbed her.
“What the…”
She kicked and screeched as a few people shouted ‘somebody help her’ – no one did. But before her unicorn could even kick into action, a needle plunged into her arm.
Zane was not going to be pleased.
*
“How can she get taken from right outside the fucking SEA building?” Zane paced up and down. He was naked. He went ballistic when he found out what happened, and he shifted, barreling through the SEA offices until he was finally wrestled to the ground by Gunner, Boris, and Cutter. Gunner then sat on him for an hour until he shifted back to human.
Jessie tapped her tablet. “I tried tracking the van, but the security cameras lost it. It was found two hours later under the Darkling Bridge – on fire.”
Zane snarled and hurled a chair at a wall. But even wanton destruction couldn’t ease his bear. Particularly as the chair seemed actually to bounce off the wall and appeared to be fine. His bear was frantic, fearful of what was happening to his mate. Savage fear assailed him. She could be in pain; she could already be dead. His bear howled. No, she couldn’t be. She had to be alive.
Juliet sashayed into the room, a small frown marring her flawless features. “What in blue blazes is happening in here? I can hear the shouting from my office – ten floors up.”
“Zane’s girlfriend was kidnapped,” said Cutter. “From across the fucking street.”
“Kidnapped? Are we expecting a ransom?”
“Doubtful,” grumbled Zane, imagining his beautiful unicorn being dissected. He clutched at the shoe he had found on the sidewalk. The shoe her beautiful foot used to be in. “She’s special. Doubt they’ll want to give her back.”
“I’m sure she’s special to you…”
“More than that,” he snarled as his bear paced. “She’s an unusual shifter, she’s… she’s a unicorn.”
The room silenced as everyone looked at him in disbelief.
“You’re joking?” asked Isis uncertainly. “It’s a joke, right? A lame joke because you have a terrible sense of humor. But it is a joke. Because you’re joking.”
“Not joking. She’s a unicorn.” A beautiful, perfect unicorn.
“No way, not possible,” growled Cutter. “You’re full of shit.”
All his bear’s instincts told him to smash the wolf in the face, and Zane agreed that was a good idea. However, Juliet’s interruption stopped him.
“Unusual, but not entirely unheard of,” she murmured. “And she isn’t the only rare animal I’ve heard of recently. Perhaps this is starting to come together.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
Sky awoke on a lumpy mattress with a banging headache and a unicorn in a complete and utter flap. The beast was pawing the ground and urging Sky to do something. Calm, she soothed, let’s just figure out how bad it is first.
She squinted to find a well-dressed human regarding her from behind bars. Bars that formed a cage around her.
“Remarkable,” he muttered as avid eyes devoured her.
At that moment Sky was pleased to note she still wore the same pants and shirt she was wearing earlier. Thank. Heavens. Although only one of her shoes appeared to have survived her journey to… wherever she was now.
She sat up and rubbed her eyes. The human snapped a picture of her with his phone, and she stuck her tongue out.
He was joined by a tough gorilla shifter with a steely gaze and muscles that could even compete with her huge bear. Her unicorn shivered slightly. She wouldn’t want to meet him in a dark alley. Or even a light one.
&n
bsp; “We cut it fine, but she will be a goldmine,” gloated the human.
The gorilla shifter’s left eyebrow ticked but he inclined his head in agreement.
“A unicorn! I can’t believe it. I managed to send the picture Jones took out, and a lot of people are interested. She’s quite pretty, too. Make sure she becomes a little more presentable, she looks a little… soiled.”
“How would you look if you were kidnapped, you sick freak?” Sky snapped.
The gorilla sneered. “Half an hour until the buyers turn up. You’ll get some water and a new outfit. Make yourself look good.”
“Screw you.” Buyers?!
“Look good or I will taze you,” he grumbled.
“Screw you with a cherry on top.”
His eyebrow twitched again. “Fine. Look good or I taze her.” He nodded at another shifter in a cage who let out an eep.
Sky gasped as she rolled off her mattress and looked around the room. It was huge, cavernous and filled with other shifters in cages, all of which appeared to be in their swimsuits while either cowering or prowling. They looked to be in some kind of warehouse. There were no windows and everything was illuminated by strobe lights – the cheap kind which never flatter anyone.
She jutted her chin at the gorilla who gave her a cold look before striding towards the large blonde shifter visibly cringing. The large male shifter in the next cage roared, making Sky’s teeth vibrate.
The human shrugged as he regarded Sky. “I’ll get more money from you than I could from twenty of her – if Booker were to kill her accidentally…”
“Stop!” Sky spat. “Leave her alone.”
“Or maybe I’ll go after your bear,” rumbled Booker nastily.
Her unicorn panicked as icy dread shot down her spine. Zane!
“I’ll… I’ll be good.” How she hated those words. Words that only Zane should tease out of her with his tongue.
He smiled coldly. “Good girl.” He walked past a few of the other shifters, banging his fist against the bars of their cages. “You all better behave,” he bellowed. A few of them looked up and glared at him. “Just remember, you all have families.”
Another large male snorted. Her unicorn tried to sniff his scent – not easy in a room full of mixed, scared, sweaty shifters – but she thought he might be some kind of cat shifter.