Beauty and the Brute [Werescape III]

by Skhye Moncrief

  Did he have to yell? “Shut up and do something important with that mouth.”

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  * * *

  Chapter Twelve

  Brutus gurgled a throaty warning and latched onto my neck in Jasmine's loft.

  Lightning jolted me from heart to womb.

  So hard my body shook.

  He only snarled more, sucking, nibbling, popping the little clasp between my breasts with needy fingers. He was like an animal. Uncontrollable until he'd had his way with me. Biting at my knotted nipples until he'd stretched them out to their sensitive tips.

  Making me ache down there.

  He thrust his swollen shaft inside my delicate flesh, threw back his head, and hissed. “Gods, you're so tight.”

  I couldn't scold him to keep his voice down. Not with the amazing pressure he wedged inside my core. Up. Up to the little place that stole my breath away. The spot only he could locate.

  “Do you want a little baby, Lorelei?”

  Um. No talking. “I guess so.” I grabbed his neck and tried to pull his mouth back to my body.

  To put it to good use.

  He chuckled, unaffected by my tugging at his corded neck. “Well, this mating fever isn't going to let up until Wolf smells his seed growing inside you.”

  Just shut up and move that damned club you stuffed inside me.

  He growled. “I thought you'd like to have your own little one after watching you with

  Condor.”

  Too much talking. I shoved up with my knees, trying to slide along the blessed length of him.

  To make things feel so much better.

  His hands grabbed my waist and held me in place. “Whoa there. I'm not ready yet.”

  Me. Me. Me. It's always about him. “Brutus, how can you not be ready?” I hate hearing myself whine. “You feel good and damned ready!”

  The world whirled. I landed on all fours. Wolf-style.

  He slid the smooth head of his cock into the mouth of my sex. “Locked and loaded, Beauty.”

  Well finish what you started. I wiggled my hips.

  He growled, shoving his hard length inside my tender flesh.

  Until his balls slapped me for good measure as if he could hear my thoughts. Probably could, knowing how sneaky he was. I knew his persona's unreadable factor was all about his selfgratification.

  Thankfully, he spared me the little dirty taunts. The things that excited me even more. But could be heard by alert Wolf ears below. Young eavesdropping Wolf ears.

  Then that little place keyed up for explosion. He tickled it. Ground against it. I couldn't bite back the screams. I shoved my face into the bedding and held on.

  He leaned over my body. The scratchy Wolfen hairs covering his arms, brushing my ass and back. His hips pushing me forward. His chest pinning my shoulders down.

  Like I would want to escape the incredible friction. The moment when he would feel my inner channel clench with orgasm. That point when his Wolf couldn't hold back. Would lose his seed. I couldn't hold onto anything. Couldn't find anything to grab. Scrambled for a handhold.

  Gods, fought not to scream. Stuffed a fistful of bedding in my mouth. And screamed.

  “Mine,” he snarled and froze.

  Teeth clamped down over the back of my shoulder.

  A touch of pain stabbed through my body.

  Heat surrounded me. His body. He leaned over me.

  I flinched. Held on. Waited. He'd release me. If I moved, the bite might deepen.

  His hips began pumping.

  Quick and deep jerking movements. Filling me with liquid heat. Only driving up another orgasm inside me. I screamed into the blanket.

  His bite vanished, but his pumping became more desperate.

  Dying. Fine with me. I needed to rest. To breathe cool night air. To curl up beside him the way he preferred to sleep wrapped around me.

  He rubbed his forehead against my cheek from where he leaned against my shoulder. “Mine.”

  “Yes, Brutus.” Nothing would ever make me think otherwise. He'd never hurt me intentionally. Always loved me. Always took the best care of me. But the babies! There'd be no sleep for him until he explained how we had to have babies out here. Away from everything.

  He sighed and slid off of my body onto his side. “Did I hurt you, Beauty?” He grabbed my waist with those wide palms and pulled my back into the heat of his ribs. “I didn't realize

  Wolf meant to bite you.”

  Wolf had only bitten me the one other time. Marked me. “What do you think got into his head?”

  “Probably the baby. Wolves are territorial. He probably thinks you need one to be happy.”

  Seeing his reaction was better than just hearing it. I rolled over to press my breasts into his drumming heart.

  His palm brushed across my back as he canted close to my forehead. “Are you already coming back for more?”

  “Stop.” I snuggled in close, pushing my temple into the warmth between his chin and shoulder. “I don't know about babies, Brutus. Not out here. While we're on the run. Are they important to you?”

  “I think Wolf's the one who calls the shots.”

  Saying anything about shots would only lead to ammunition and ejaculation. Twice today was more than enough. “But it's so remote out here.”

  “That's why they call it The Wild, Lorelei.” His arm muscles tightened around me. The Wolfen hairs almost gone. His soft lips bent to my ear. “Nothing's going to happen to you out here with Wolf and I on watch.” He grew quiet.

  So quiet I could hear his heart beat.

  “I heard news today,” he whispered.

  “About what?”

  “New Pittsburgh and New York are gone. Yale's alive, and he saved his useless daughter. His bounty still stands, Beauty. We've got to head as deeply into The Wild as possible. So deep nobody can find us.”

  My heart didn't want to leave what Kodiak had built. “It really isn't safe here?”

  “No.” He petted my shoulder blades with a stroking thumb. “Don't be afraid. Of anything. I

  know it seems nice here. There's a woman and children. Even a baby. But we can have all that farther away. When you're hidden away from Yale.”

  When. Was safe even possible? We were in The Wild already.

  A chill gripped me.

  His powerful arms gently drew me closer into his body's warmth. “Trust me, Beauty. Trust

  Wolf. We'll take care of you now.”

  * * * *

  Moonlight would never hold the same appeal after sneaking upriver cloaked in darkness.

  Forget the silence and beauty of a moonglade trailing across the river's undulating surface of liquid black. The deafening hum of the airboat's fan would probably echo in my head for the rest of my life. But we now headed upstream about twenty-four hours after christening

  Jasmine's pallet with our unique mating scent. Did my Shifter care? No. Next to me, Brutus leaned against the side of an earth-toned wall of the wide military transport. His black horse nervously shifted its shiny black hooves next to him. And I sat on his favorite thing. My tight little ass.

  Nothing stood between us and the twinkling night sky but a brisk wind. Since we dared not travel during daylight, there was really no need for protection overhead. So, I just waited.

  Brutus dropped into a squat and faced me in the pale silver light from the moon. His gaze slid to survey the empty flat cargo area.

  Nothing else significant had been loaded onto the wide transport. We were the cargo. With the prices of fuel, this meant one thing. Yale really was coming. Why did he want me so badly?

  A hand, knuckles, brushed my cheek.

  Brutus. I stared at the metal floor beneath me.

  His hand fell to my wrist. Warmth curled around my arm. He slowly brushed his thumb across my pulsing inner wrist.

  Nothing moved.

  He shot me a commanding glance and rose back to his full height.

  Probably just checking on me.
The noise was so overwhelming. No one could discuss anything out here in this racket.

  A chill riddled through me, tingling, erupting goose bumps down my arms.

  Strong. A very pronounced sensation. Like the one I felt the day I met Brutus.

  Trouble.

  My heart nosedived.

  His knees buckled again until he knelt beside me with a pinched mask.

  Scrutinizing me. Talking was impossible though. He'd just have to look. Wonder. Because I

  never knew what this sense I had reflected. But something was going to happen.

  He didn't stare long and produced the quilt, nudging me over to the saddle and gear, leaning me back cocooned in the smoky comfort of his bedroll. With a pat of my head, he left me as if I slept and went to stand with Trance.

  Would he think I'd lost my mind if I told him about the intuition? Many people thought I was evil before my parents were killed. It was rumored I had been touched by darkness when I

  could warn others danger was near. So, Mother taught me to hide my premonitions. To keep things even from her and Father. The same way I'd snuck off and hidden inside the crawl space when I felt danger encroaching that day. The day they died. The day my gut guided me to the safe crawl space hidden at the back of a guestroom's closet. Nobody knew of it or whoever attacked the mansion would have found me.

  Every cell in my body warmed with a strange calming hum.

  What was that?

  The warmth tickled into a chilly tingle.

  Bizarre. What did the unusual signal indicate? Would an alien spacecraft suddenly appear overhead? Blast us out of the water? I studied the broad expanse of clear black sky studded with crystalline points.

  Nothing as far as the eye could see.

  But whatever it was is coming. I clutched the edges of the blanket together beneath my chin and found Brutus staring at me the six steps he'd placed between the stallion and I.

  Probably using the distance to keep Trance from stomping on me if the horse became startled. But my sudden uncontrollable death might be what would save us both when he learned I could sense the future. That he'd mated with an abomination of a Normal. Maybe I

  should have told him? But life kept pushing us deeper into The Wild. And intuition hadn't said much.

  What would Brutus do when he learned about my strange gift? I guess it's a gift. I'm still alive and in the hands of a mate who respected me. But would he be so angered when he learned that he and Wolf would kill me?

  Probably so. Nothing ever good came from my intuitive gift. Except Brutus. I shut my eyes.

  Tried not to think anymore.

  Tried to forget about the screams.

  All the damned roaches in the crawl space.

  Crawling over me.

  But if I had screamed, if I had made one sound, I'd have died that day too.

  * * * *

  Above the hovercraft, Brutus squatted beside his mate's tossing head. The saddle propped her up so the grinding motion wouldn't make her slip onto the hovercraft's deck. But she struggled in her dreams nonetheless. With what? She only had this trouble when I wasn't sleeping with her. Better find out before she attracted other Shifters to see what bothered her.

  She bolted into a sitting position, eyes wide as the moon, and swatted at her body.

  Her entire body. “Lorelei,” I yelled over the loud hum of the hovercraft's motor.

  She kicked out from under the blanket like something was beneath the quilt.

  What in the world? “Lorelei!” I grabbed her.

  She struggled and looked me in the eye.

  Something clicked in those glinting orbs.

  She threw her arms around my shoulders and dove into my chest.

  What were these dreams about? Nightmares terrifying enough to make a Shifter's mate cringe and scramble in her sleep. I petted the silken length of her loose hair. “The same dream again?” I yelled.

  She didn't even flinch at the question.

  Enough of this. No mate would be allowed to be this evasive. I shoved her back at arm's length until I could look her in the eye. “Tell me about this nightmare.”

  She wagged her head, flicking her gaze away.

  No more games. I grabbed her chin between my fingers and a thumb, and turned her set jaw back to me. “Tell me, Lorelei.”

  She stared.

  Too contemplatively. Measuring my determination. “Tell me.”

  Slowly her eyes closed then opened, an odd sense of calm claiming her mask in the moonlight. “Roaches. It's always the roaches.”

  Her arms quaked beneath my grip.

  I will hear all of it. “What about the roaches?”

  “The floor crawled with them.”

  Another tremor shook her arms.

  Why wouldn't she just spit it out? I leaned over to almost touch her nose with mine. “Where?”

  “In the crawl space. Back in my father's mansion.” She blinked with what appeared to be a wave of panic washing over her features.

  “I'm your mate, Beauty. I won't punish you. I won't hurt you. Tell me about this memory so I

  can make it go away.”

  Her eyes brimmed with glistening tears and her gaze slid away from mine.

  Hell, I'd made her cry. I grabbed both her cheeks between my palms and kept her gaze where

  I wanted it. “Tell me.”

  Her lips opened then paused, mouth open as if she filled her lungs with air. “It was the day they killed my parents. If I hadn't hidden in the crawl space, I would have died too.” A tear trickled down the side of her tiny nose.

  A drop of pain. I'm a Gods-be-damned ass for making her speak of the memory.

  “The roaches were everywhere,” she blurted. “All over me.” Her eyes closed.

  The weight of her head sank into my palms.

  Everywhere. On the floor. Crawling all over her. No wonder she feared crickets. I wrapped my arms around her quaking shoulders and tucked her nose into my neck. “I'm sorry, Beauty.” It didn't matter if she could hear me over the windstorm caused by the motors. I'd wrap her up in the blanket and hold her until the tears stopped. Maybe then I could convince her I wasn't going to let anything happen to her.

  * * * *

  At the very end of the Nebraska Territory's North Platte River, the hovercraft cranked up its motors on the shallow silver water of the stream while anxiety gnawed away at Brutus. Windy noise might mean we'd made it as far into cacti-studded prairie as possible where we were headed. But noise was still bad. Anyone else could have chosen to use the river to expedite travel into The Wild. To capture Beauty. And with the end of the river, nothing but knee-high green grass remained as far as the eye could see.

  Grassland rolled into the horizon's blue sky.

  We'd just skirt the Niobrara River and head up to the Black Hills.

  But what was that scent? Something more than delicious mate. Something indescribable. New yet familiar.

  Play, Wolf yapped, leapt, and began pawing as if he dug into the fertile hills.

  Hurry or mate? It wasn't like Wolf detected danger. Maybe we could manage a short delay.

  One night spent on the river wasn't enough to make a man cringe when thinking about running for his life. Who knew where Yale's men would disembark? The same spot? Not likely.

  We'd made good time on the water too. Seventy-five miles per hour could whisk a man upstream a long way while his mate slept. Whereas we would have traveled eight to ten days by horse.

  The gray hovercraft shimmied away, distorting the mercurial mirroring water into a gray nonreflective surface.

  An arm snaked around my waist and squeezed with gentle pressure. “Let's go,” Beauty said.

  Speaking softly still. She'd been quiet the rest of the night, slipping in and out of sleep. No problem. Keeping Trance calm as well as a mate could wear a Normal down. But not a

  Shifter. I swung her tiny waist into the air and dropped her over my shoulder.

  “Brutus!” She smacked my ass. />
  Well, we'd be on a horse all day. This was the only fun I'd have until we took a break. I

  ignored her pounding palm on my buttock and strode toward a large patch of low green grass.

  Perfect grass. Just for mating. I grabbed the bedroll from where the quilt hung to Trance's brown saddle.

  “We don't have time,” she scolded.

  Funny how the point seemed lost when the person making it hung upside down over your shoulder. Futilely pummeling your backside for release. Oh, she'd get some release alright.

  “Oh,” she groaned. “I can't believe you.”

  Well, Wolf didn't get to mate last night. And it took great skill to unroll a blanket with one hand. “Watch this.” I chuckled.

  “You've got to be kidding. I can't see anything but your ass from back here.”

  Not a bad thing to focus upon. I squeezed one of her tight little buttocks.

  “Oh!”

  That wasn't the tone Wolf was looking for. We'd have to work on that. I flicked the quilt out with a flash of pieced together fabric bits of every color in the rainbow.

  The blanket settled onto the green grass.

  The way my beauty would in just a second. I slid her weight down my arm.

  She snapped upright with her boots beneath her and planted both hands on her hips.

  So sassy.

  My groin went rock hard.

  “Brutus, you can't be serious. We have to go.” She waved at the boat. “They can still see us.”

  Only if they had field glasses. “Take off your boots, Little Sassy.”

  Her lips pursed. Her nostrils flared. She sighed and studied the shrinking boat beyond her shoulder.

  “Boots, Beauty.”

  She scoffed and untied a bootlace.

  A little muttering wouldn't hurt. Not with Wolf ready to mate. I pinched a button out of a buttonhole on my shirt.

  Her gaze wandered to my hands.

  Observing. Not so sassy anymore. Maybe showing interest. We'll see. I shoved my shoulders out of my sleeves into warm sunshine.

  Her eyes widened with awe.

  She could rub my muscles all she wanted until I was finished with her. Then she could clutch them all day while we rode along the Niobrara to the Wyoming-South-Dakota border. The

  Black Hills would be about another day's ride away. Plenty of time for muscles.