by Fel Fern
“This business doesn’t concern you or your pard, Des.”
At the mention of his name, Des now recognized the wiser one. Razor was one of the pack’s enforcers, a powerful beta even he’d have trouble with. Des wasn’t worried, for once. Lars was with them, and if his beast or his curled lips were of any indication, he’d be willing to kill tonight.
“Yeah? We just fucking made it our business. Why don’t you two fuck off and leave those kids alone?” Lars growled.
The strength in his voice and the invisible and staggering waves of power coming off his ferocious aura wouldn’t be able to hide what he was. He was no normal leopard, and the two wolves took a step back without knowing it.
“Who the hell are you? I haven’t seen you around before,” Razor demanded.
His beady and calculative eyes narrowed when Lars pulled Cas to him possessively, his hand settling around the curve of her waist. Smiling, Des leaned by Lars’s broad shoulder and fixed Razor an arrogant look.
“Lars here is our new king.”
Des was badly praying to the gods Lars wouldn’t challenge that statement for once. Never mind the hot mess Cas had gotten them in. Never in a million years would Des want to change her kind and protective nature, especially when kids were involved. Fuck, seeing them only probably reminded her of her own dark past before Gerald found her.
Thankfully, Lars didn’t say anything.
“Your king,” Razor sneered, looking from the two bleeding and bruised pups and back to Lars.
To Des’s relief, he grabbed the other wolf and said, “Let’s go.” The lesser wolf growled his frustration, but obeyed the beta.
Cas was already bending over the kids, checking them for injuries and asking them if they were fine.
Des sighed and dialed a number on his cell phone. Lars only continued watching Cas intently, his brows furrowed. The frightened pups now looked relieved by her presence.
“Noah? I need you to bring your car to this address. I’ll explain when you arrive,” Des said to the leopard on the phone.
“Understood. Give me fifteen minutes.”
After Gerald’s death, some of the remaining pard enforcers were reluctant to follow his lead. Some only followed his orders because Cas bullied them into it. It hurt a little, but Des understood where the other cats were coming from.
He was no king, and he hadn’t been long enough in the pard to know most of them well. Noah was one of the few cats Cas trusted without question and followed orders well enough.
True to his word, Noah arrived soon after. Des introduced him to Lars. Noah gave the black leopard a thorough appraisal after they shook hands. They’d ease the pard slowly into the concept of finding a new king, but some simply couldn’t accept that Gerald could be replaced.
“Is Lil available?” Cas asked after settling the pups in, referring to a member of the pard who was a doctor during the day.
She only found out the basics about the pups. Sam and Rain were orphans, and the local wolf pack took them in. Knowing the pack, it wasn’t surprising they wanted the pups to repay their kindness by selling their bodies, and underage shifters were novelties in the sex trade.
Noah nodded.
“Called her before I drove here.” Noticing her looking worried, he added, “I assure you I’ll take good care of the pups, my queen.”
Cas bit her lip, but nodded.
Noah nodded to Lars.
“I’ve leaving our queen and consort in your hands, black leopard.”
Lars only curtly nodded. The three of them watched Noah and the pups drive away.
“Thank you,” Cas told Lars quietly, touching his shoulder.
“What for?”
“For lying and making it easier.”
“I wasn’t lying, woman. I said I’d give this shit try, didn’t I?”
Cas let out a sound when Lars pulled her to him for a rough and bruising kiss, making Des smile.
“Most cats, even potential kings, would run after seeing a complicated mess like that,” Des told Lars, watching him press Cas to him and begin stroking her hair.
She only sighed, closing her eyes.
“Yeah. I don’t usually do complicated,” Lars muttered, looking down at Cas.
He paused from stroking her curls. Des noticed there was something else to his gaze now, aside from raw, hungry desire. There was fierce, protective possessiveness there.
For a second, he saw the ghost of Gerald standing there, holding Cas to him. Seeing him looking, Gerald would smile and hold out a hand to him. Des pushed aside the emotions threatening to crush him and hardened his resolve.
“But you’re making an exception?” Des asked, meeting those dark blue eyes.
“Don’t ask me again,” Lars growled. “Come on, kitty cat, isn’t it about time I taste the two of you?”
The two of you.
Des licked his lips, ignoring the harsh pounding in his heart.
“We come as a matched pair.”
“Yeah. That’s what makes it fucking hot.”
“My car’s this way. Can you follow us with your bike?”
“Sure, and don’t you worry your little head, Des. Running is the last thing on my mind.”
Chapter Four
“Well this is it. It isn’t much, but it’s comfy,” Cas said, opening the door the apartment she and Des shared.
The black leopard didn’t seem to be listening to what she was saying or seem interested in looking around the space. His gaze only shifted from Des and finally settled on her. His blue eyes were dark, so dark they were almost black, and they pierced right through her. The weight of his gaze didn’t frighten her as it had the two wolves before.
It only sent a thrill down her spine and right to her aching pussy. Cas knew she wanted Lars the moment she saw him sitting by the club’s tables, and she knew he felt the same. In public, his dominant beast was restrained and held back. In private, it needn’t behave.
It boldly reached out for hers as if it knew she rightfully belonged to it, all muscle and grace just like the man its spirit was contained in. A breath escaped her lips when he grabbed her and shoved her against the wall.
“Enough talk. Show me around later. Right now, I want to fuck you. Your scent is driving me mad, Cas.”
He nudged his thigh between her legs and his hand wandered beneath her waist. The heat between them rippled, eager and hungry to escape the obstruction of clothes. She let out a little moan of anticipation, and she wanted the biker to tear her clothes off her with his large and rough hands.
“Doesn’t she smell good?” added Des’s voice.
Cas hadn’t seen her consort so lively until this night, and she was glad he was excited about having Lars just as she was. Des hovered by the biker’s shoulder, catching his attention. Leaning by his shoulder, Des caught Lars’s mouth and kissed him savagely. Lars didn’t let go of her. He kept her restrained against the wall.
The sight of the two men kissing stirred something inside of her, long-remembered desire and the memory of Gerald and Des, their lips locked hungrily on each other. She trembled and her entire body tensed.
Not now. The Gods have mercy, not now.
Buried grief threatened to come up and drown her, but she shoved it ruthlessly back. As if sensing the change in her body, Des took one of Lars’s hands beneath her shirt and pressed it flat against the button of her jeans.
“You’re fucking killing me,” Lars told Des, tugging at the button of her jeans savagely.
The button popped and he worked the zipper down. His proximity and Des just beside him made her forget her grief. Cas knew it was wrong, clinging onto a memory, but it was hard letting go. The brush of Des’s lips against her cheek reminded her tonight wasn’t a night of sadness and remembrance. It was night of forgetting and moving on.
“Tell him, baby. Tell him how much you want him inside you,” Des murmured against her ear, loud enough for Lars to hear.
The biker groaned against Cas, and she co
uld feel his growing erection against her thigh.
“You just want to hear me beg,” Cas said with a smile.
It was a game they’d played before and she knew the lines, but it never got old, especially when they had a new player with them. Des’s quick and clever fingers found their way past Lars’s muscled arm and pinched one of her nipples through her shirt, making her groan. Cas rubbed herself experimentally against the hard expense of Lars’s wide chest. He growled, his pupils diluting heavily with barely surpassed desire.
“We want to hear you say the words, baby,” Des said.
Cas looked deeply into the eyes of the towering man in front of her. Being with Gerald taught her leopard kings weren’t like other men or other leopards. Looking away was equal to showing she was prey in the king’s eyes, and Cas was no prey. She may submit to the man and the beast that would someday rule over her heart and body, but she was also his equal.
“Fuck me, Lars. I want to feel you inside me.”
Lars didn’t say another word. He stripped her off her clothes with an impatience and eagerness she approved of. There was something delicious about having her bare skin brush against the roughness of his clothes. She grinded herself against him, and gasped when his hand found her moist cunt.
“You’re so wet,” Lars whispered, pressing a finger against her sensitive clit.
It sent another jolt of pleasure through her body, making her groan.
“Turn her, Lars. I want to fuck her ass while you pummel her pussy.” Des leaned closer, brushing a finger against her cheek. “Would you like that, baby?”
“Oh yes,” Cas murmured, vaguely aware Lars was turning her away from the wall to comply with Des’s request.
“Can she handle that?” Lars asked, his voice concerned. “I’m not exactly small.”
Imagining the two men grasping her and holding her close to them as their thick, meaty cocks slid in and out of her was a powerfully erotic image in Cas’s mind. The three of them, including their cats, intimately, physically and metaphysically joined was a wonderful image. Just imagining pleasure jumping from the three of them like a live current made her purr.
“Is that answer enough for you? I’ll just get the lube.”
Cas heard Des pad away into the bedroom. Lars let go of her briefly, stripping his clothes in a flurry. Before she knew it, he pressed her close to him again. Her body slammed into his. She could feel his cock, hard, long and thick against her belly.
She cried out when Lars inserted two, three fingers inside her sopping cunt. Opening her legs wider for him, she spied a smile on his lips. There was a faint scar there, just below the corner of his left lip. Leaning forward, Cas licked at the scar.
He caught her lips and enveloped her into a rough and bruising kiss. Closing her eyes, she enjoyed the suction of his hungry lips against her bottom lip. She let his prodding tongue in, enjoying the heat he thrust into her mouth.
Keeping her pressed to him with one hand, his other continued to thumb, stroke and torment her pussy lips. Keeping his fingers inside her, he thumbed her clit in lazy circles, making her body a slave to his will.
Feeling warmth behind her naked back, she knew Des was back. She nearly jerked when she felt his cold, wet fingers beginning to widen the tight thick muscles of her ass, but Lars kept her firmly in place.
“Ready to be fucked good, baby?” Des said against her ear, his hands sliding to either side of her, resting just beneath Lars’s arms.
He had shed his clothes, too, and the familiar press of his lean, muscled form against her back was comforting.
“Shut up and fuck me.”
“As my lady wishes. You heard her, Lars?” Des asked by her shoulder.
Cas felt Lars respond by sliding his cockhead a few inches into her.
“Fuck, baby. You’re so tight and wet for me,” Lars murmured.
“In moments, you’ll find just how fine she is,” Des murmured, sliding one, then two fingers inside her, widening her for his access.
She cried out when Des scissored his fingers in her thoroughly lubed ass just as Lars suddenly slammed into her and buried himself hilt-deep.
A groan tickled its way of her throat.
“Your cunt is contracting deliciously around me, babe,” Lars said, before claiming her lips.
He began thrusting himself into her, his movements fast and unrelenting, as if he knew she could take him and always wanted it rough. Behind her, she felt Des nudged his cock in her tight opening.
“Lars, I’m taking her.”
Holding onto her waist tightly, Des slowly began to make his way inside her. Lars slowed his movements so Des could sheath his way into her inch by inch. Feeling the two men joined intimately to her, both front and back, made Cas incredibly full, almost to the bursting point.
“You okay there, baby?” Des asked.
Cas closed her eyes, enjoying the incredible sensation of having two cocks inside of her.
“Yes. Now fuck me. Both of you,” Cas breathed.
The need within her, the hole left behind by Gerald’s departure yearned to be filled so she could start taking a step forward and leave behind the past.
The slight burn she’d felt earlier was quickly fading away and giving way to pleasure. Des gripped her tightly, his hands fastened on her waist as he found a rhythm he liked, while Lars gripped the curve of her ass as he continued his quick but deep thrusts.
Both men seemed intent on penetrating her core, and they held her so tightly she had no doubt their hands would leave bruises on her skin, but she didn’t mind seeing their marks on her flesh.
Pleasure uncoiled inside of her, spreading to the rest of her like a rampaging maelstrom. The beast inside her let out an ear-shattering purr of contentment as it touched, kissed and coiled against the bodies of its mates, Des’s spotted leopard and Lars’s pure black one.
She wasn’t sure why some pards considered black leopards a curse, and she didn’t believe or care about that nonsense. All she cared about were the two men wrapped so intimately around her, who were intent on bringing her to newer heights of pleasure.
“I’m close,” Lars said, his voice strained and ragged.
His eyes never strayed for a moment and she liked that, just as his eyes never left her during her dance.
“I’m not far behind,” Des answered him.
Lars came first. After two final thrusts deep inside her, his expression slackened. She leaned into him and kissed him again, this time taking her time to enjoy the taste of him.
He gripped her ass tighter as he emptied his warm cum inside her. Behind her, Des held her shoulders and he grew still after one last, final thrust. He expelled one final sigh of relief, resting his head against the curve of her shoulder blades.
Cas missed being held like this, between two men who held the key to her heart. Lars was a stranger still to her, but her leopard, the queen that dwelled inside her, knew his cat and recognized him instantly as its missing mate.
Lars and Des didn’t move for a while.
“Fuck. Is this what it’s always going to be like?” Lars asked.
“This is just a taste,” Des answered.
Des leaned against her back, inhaling her scent and holding her for support. She leaned into Lars’s chest, inhaling and memorizing his scent just as he imprinted her scent to him. Turning her head slightly, she peered over Lars’s shoulder, feeling like a child.
Des had done his best to stand by her and she was more than grateful to him for staying with her, holding her through the unbearable nights when all she could do was sob. Worn out and tired by the mask she had to put on during the day, she could’ve caved in easily to despair over the past few months without Des to hold her steady. He’d done all he could, even the tasks that pushed him to the limits.
Despite all he’d done, she could never erase Gerald’s phantom image watching over them even as Des made rough love to her, or give her the bite she’d need. Tonight, though, Gerald’s ghost wasn’t pres
ent, and that made her sigh with relief.
Gerald had been her world and her everything. He’d been her best friend, lover, soul mate and rescuer. It was reckless of her, sticking her neck out for those wolf pups tonight, but Gerald had done the same all those years ago when he found her being beaten up by her mother’s pimp. Cas had no one after her mother succumbed to drugs, only her mother’s dealer and pimp.
Even though Gerald was almost twice her age, she had fallen head over heels for him. He’d been taking care of her ever since, and it was only right she’d take care of his cats as best as she could.
Good-bye, Gerald. We’re finally taking a step forward just like you asked.
“Are you crying, Cas?” Lars licked at the tears sliding down her cheeks, his expression wary and concerned.
It was unfair to dump so much baggage on him and Des. She felt Des’s slender fingers beginning to stroke her spine, his lips pressed against the side of her neck.
“Yes, but you don’t have to worry. It’s the last time you’ll see me cry.” Cas felt Des grow still behind her.
She wanted to tell him he didn’t need to worry or try so hard anymore, but words weren’t needed, because he understood.
Lars surprised her by kissing her forehead.
“You can cry all you want, sweetheart. You tell us what you want, and we’ll give it to you.”
They had him. Cas knew it. A tinge of satisfaction and guilt filled her. They didn’t have to resort to such drastic measures. Lars was a good man, she knew it the moment she saw him, but they needed this. They needed him, not just her and Des, but the entire pard. She just hoped by wooing Lars, they could give him something in return, too.
Even across the tables in the strip club, the black leopard’s loneliness and yearning had hit her like a sledgehammer. He’d tasted hurt and betrayal before, and Cas wanted to make sure he’d never taste those two things again.
She wanted him to know they didn’t want him out of desperation, but because of need. It wasn’t just him that needed a home. They also needed his help to rebuild theirs.
“Anything I want?” Cas asked.