by Ana Calin
“Say what?”
Sullivan grins as he stops only inches away from me, a strange scent coming from him. The scent of the man that I know, and something new, something like cold oil.
“Your daddy wanted to break the line of marriages confined to Darkwood Falls, a practice that my kind has kept going for centuries. He’d sent you away so you could live a free life, and choose the man you wanted to be with, but we just couldn’t let that happen, you see.” He runs his hand through a strand of my hair, letting it slide off his fingers. “Especially not after we learned that you’d met a special someone—Cicero was his name, wasn’t it?”
“You know about Cicero?”
“I had to know everything about your life in Paris, to avoid catastrophe. Your daddy had already become a hard man to control, and I couldn’t get him to bring you back, to end the madness. It was me who kept you from ever becoming intimate with anyone. Your high school sweetheart, well, he was from Darkwood Falls, so he didn’t worry me much. I got him to dump you before he could stick his cock in you. But Cicero, he was a werewolf—like your new lover, Drago.”
He knows? I want to open my mouth and demand explanations, but my jaw is frozen, and my body seems made of lead, unwilling to respond. For the first time in my life I’m afraid of Sullivan, because this is a side of him I never even glimpsed before. My God, how could I be so deceived, for so long....
“They tend to have historical or mythical names, the werewolves,” he continues, his fingers tracing the line of my jaw. “It is said that these names give them mythical power. Drago, your lover—” He says the name with hatred. “He has the essence of a death angel. That’s why his fist is deadly, and some say his hatred alone can kill. His other brothers, Hercules, Conan and Achilles, I guess the names make their powers obvious. Nero, their Alpha, he’s the most dangerous one, because he’s both devious and physically strong, while also having a superpower—he can burn things using just his eyes. As for Cicero.” He tsks, as if the man doesn’t matter. “He only had the talents of a poet, and I still don’t know in what way he could have been used in battle. But, of course, he felt attracted to you, and you felt attracted to him in return. He was a werewolf, and you were probably the first fated female he’d stumbled upon in his life, sure he was smitten. Actually, he may still be thinking of you, because I doubt he’s met anyone like you or ever will again. I had to snatch you back from under his snout before he found his balls and actually made a move on you.” The evil in his eyes ignites, and the flesh quivers on my bones. “You wouldn’t have been able to resist him any more than you resisted Drago Wolf. You would have taken his cock inside of you, probably on the first date, too, and what if you’d gotten pregnant with his fucking pups?”
He traps me against the wall, pushing his fleshy chest into me. I look away, pressing my cheek to the wall, my mouth distorting. I can’t imagine letting him touch my lips, not after I’ve known the love of a man like Drago.
“Look into my eyes, Arianna,” he rattles like a snake again. I press my eyes together, trying to deny the horror—Sullivan, my ex, is a serpent shifter.
“You won’t? That’s all right. I can give it to you like this.” His disgusting lips brush my cheek as he says the words, his scent filling my senses. “I killed your daddy, Arianna.”
My eyes snap open. I turn to look at him, red fury balling behind my eyes.
“You? But... He trusted you. You were the only person by his bedside, damn it!”
He grins. “Exactly. He was sick, and I had the opportunity. He’d already called you back from Paris, because he feared his illness would take him before he could see you again, but by the time you got on that plane he was already feeling better. He would have regained his strength and sent you back with his blessing to fuck Cicero. The emotional affair you had with the werewolf would have bloomed. Everything The Reaper had been working towards for centuries would have gone down the drain, and guess whose head he would have wanted on a plate for that?” He points to his own. “Mine.”
My lips move, but words don’t make it out. I want to spit curses at him, but my vocal chords are stuck.
Sullivan enjoys the turmoil inside me, it’s obvious by the way his salacious eyes move all over my face. The only power I still have is to spit in his face, but he laughs and wipes it off, then ogles me as if it only turned him on.
He grabs my waist and yanks me close, my body smashing into his fleshy but hard torso. He’s sweating profusely, as if his body is undergoing some kind of transformation, and he stinks worse by the second. I would scream, but his mouth has already opened to take over mine, so I press my lips shut.
I could gag on my own vomit as his tongue licks the seam of my lips, pushing to break inside my mouth. Instinctively, I lift the candelabrum and hit him over the head with it.
His skull cracks, and he stops trying to stick his tongue into my mouth, but he doesn’t let go of me. Only his face moves away, confused for a moment until he realizes what happened. He takes a hand to his head, and when he brings it back down to look at it it’s full of blood.
The sweet taste of revenge tinges the tip of my tongue. This is for my dad. I lift the candelabrum to hit him again, letting out a war cry, but he catches my hand. Dread runs through my veins. I could see it clearly this time, the ripple that went through his irises like it does through Drago’s when he’s about to shift.
Sullivan grins, and lets out that rattling sound that makes my skin crease.
“I saw in that video that you like beasts.” He puts pressure on my wrist, forcing me to my knees. I try to resist, but I fail miserably. When my knees hit the floor, I’m sure I’m lost. “Come on. Suck my cock like you sucked his. Let’s see if you can take me in balls deep.”
He unbuttons his fly with his free hand, his full erection springing out from his pants.
“No, please.” I whimper, but he looks down at me with a greedy face and dirty expression, his lips parted in expectation as if he hasn’t been this horny in his life. He grabs my hair and tugs painfully, ignoring my yelp. A snake tongue flutters out of his mouth, and I cry out in terror.
Praying seems like the only option I have left. It’s my only chance at salvation because, if this bastard succeeds, if he rapes me, I won’t want to live afterwards.
“Please, don’t do this to me, Sullivan,” I plead. “It would kill me.”
But he takes in air sharply, his cock twitching, only an inch from my lips. All he cares about is his own arousal, and my despair only adds to it. He twists my wrist, making me yelp in pain and drop the candelabrum that thuds to the floor. With me now stripped of the weapon he rolls his fist painfully through my hair, and brings my face an inch away from his erect cock.
“You like being treated like a whore, don’t you,” he rattles. “Take it in your mouth, fucking slut, and suck it knowing that I’ll fuck you in the ass after that, and tape it for your lover.”
I squeeze my eyes shut and press my lips hard together, but the moment before the bastard gets to push himself against them, a thundering sound rips through the room.
I’m suddenly released from all restraints, and the room tilts with me. Catching myself on my elbow, I search for the source of the noise and the force that pushed me.
Drago must have grabbed Sullivan from behind and thrown him against the wall opposite the bed, the impact shattering the mirror. He hurries over to me, cupping my face with his big, warm hand, his scent of musk, leather and home filling my nostrils. Relief courses all through me now that I see him back unharmed.
“Are you all right?” There’s worry in his face, but when I shake my head and assure him that I’m fine, rage replaces it.
He helps me up and turns around just in time to watch Sullivan come back to his feet, the mirror shattered behind him, his teeth bared. His eyes ripple wildly as he rips off his shirt and throws it in the air. I gasp as his skin begins to crack, his face distorting.
“What in the world,” I whisper as his skin
splits into slivers, revealing a new, slimier skin underneath that’s reddish and white like raw flesh mixed with fat.
I slap my hand over my mouth to keep from throwing up as his skin finally falls off to reveal Sullivan rolling out of it in a completely new form—a huge worm. His slimy skin wriggles over him until scales push out of it, and soon he faces us in full serpent form.
“Jesus Christ!” I shriek. “There’s a huge snake in my room!”
Drago shifts as well, but I don’t notice the process, taken with Sullivan’s. I only know it when he places himself in front of me in his wolf form, his back blocking the sight of the serpent.
“Run,” he commands in his deep beast voice before he launches himself at the huge snake, hauling him against the wall. The entire house shudders along with it.
“Run, now, Arianna,” Drago growls so loud that the windows shake, as he keeps a twisting Sullivan pinned to the wall. “We’ll tear this place apart, get out of the house.”
“No, I won’t leave you.”
Sullivan pushes him, but Drago rolls over and lands in a fighting position.
I can’t bring my feet to move, staring at the fight scene unfolding in front of me. This isn’t a freaking movie, this is actually happening. Two shifters, a werewolf and a serpent, are fighting for me, the air whirling around them as they move.
“You’ll never have her,” Sullivan rattles, bouncing on his serpent tail and attacking Drago swiftly, like a cobra.
Drago flashes out of his way at the last moment, and claws Sullivan’s throat from underneath. Sullivan rattles violently, and slick blood sticks to Drago’s claws. I can’t see the serpent’s wound as he vibrates and launches himself at Drago, who keeps flashing out of his way and clawing every chance he gets until Sullivan attacks chaotically in frustration.
The shift of air whips my face, while Sullivan hisses and shrieks. It’s so loud that it pierces my eardrums, and I can’t help but retreat, pressing my hands to my ears.
The two keep fighting, but Drago is obviously stronger. He says something, and I let my hands down to hear him.
“I may be a young snake, yessss,” Sullivan replies to whatever Drago said. “Ten years old, but I’m not alone. While all you have is yourself and your brother Conan, who’s now surrounded by serpents at the police station. Ronan lured him there with humans, but once he was inside, serpents stormed the place. He’s not getting out anytime soon, I’m afraid.”
Saying that he bounces on his tail again, lifting himself up in the air, his shrieking deafening. I press my hands hard to my ears, but the sound still reverberates through my skull.
When he stops a distant rustling begins, rhythmic and growing, causing both Drago and me to wait for it to reach the room.
Two huge serpents enter through the door one after the other. They grab Drago and throw him against the wall, bricks and dust exploding into the room as he falls on the bed below him. I want to scream, but I have to refrain, because it would only distract Drago.
He manages to get back to his feet, growling at the serpents, but he’s surrounded by three of them. Standing on the bed he’s got the higher ground, clawing and slashing at them with his powerful claws as they attack, but soon they’ve forced him against the crumbling wall. The two stronger serpents manage to grab his arms, and pin him there.
I jerk toward him, wanting to help, but Sullivan grabs my hair with his tail and pulls me up.
“Let her go,” Drago growls as I whimper.
“You thought you could just take her away from me, wolf?”
“Away from you? You never even fought for her after she broke up—”
“Because she would have come back to me sooner or later,” Sullivan hisses.
“Sullivan, I beg of you,” I whimper, “you can have me, but let Drago go. Let Conan go, too, all you want is to keep the fated females here, right?”
Sullivan laughs, slime slipping through the scales on his serpent chest. “As if it were that easy. Now that he’s met you and tasted you, this werewolf will stop at nothing to make you his completely. It’s in his nature, you see. He cannot let go of his mate, of the woman he imprinted on. He would die. He literally can’t live without you. How romantic, isn’t it?” He moves me in such a way that he can look into my face with his round eyes that seem to be made of a liquid that keeps moving in circles. I become dizzy, realizing he could hypnotize me if I looked into his eyes for too long.
“So you see,” he hisses, “Drago Wolf will die anyway, so why not end his suffering now?”
Drago pushes the two serpents, baring his teeth in the effort, the raw force of his arms much more than theirs. They attack him again, but he claws at them and sends them flying on their backs.
“Stop!” Sullivan commands, yanking me close. “Surrender, wolf, if you want your mate to survive. Otherwise I’ll choke her right before your eyes.” He lets go of my hair only to coil his tail around my neck. I scrunch my face in extreme disgust as I feel his snake body sliding over my skin.
“Don’t hurt her,” Drago commands.
“Shift back into a human, and we’ll talk.”
“Do whatever you want with me.” With every word, the beast’s voice transforms back into the pleasant baritone of Drago the man. “But let her go, please.”
“I wouldn’t be able to do that even if I wanted to. It seems on your first night together you not only imprinted on her, but also impregnated her.”
“What?” This can’t be right. It’s insane, ridiculous and, most of all, I wasn’t ovulating.
“I’m equipped with special senses,” Sullivan explains, while Drago, now in his human form and naked, stares at me with eyes shimmering with surprise. “I can sense wolves wherever they are, even in their mothers’ wombs.”
My head is clouding from the lack of oxygen from his squeezing, but the news surely also has to do with it.
“We could have been so good together, you and I, Arianna,” he hisses. “If you hadn’t given yourself to this dog.” He bites the word with hatred. “Or at least if you hadn’t gotten fucking pregnant.”
“Please,” Drago rumbles, looking stunning and heartbreaking as he stands naked between three serpents that are intent on ending him. “Don’t harm her. I’ll do whatever you want.”
“Tell me something, Drago Wolf,” Sullivan provokes. “Wasn’t it better before, when you didn’t know what love felt like? Wasn’t it better when you could fuck them without sentiment, then wash your cock clean and go stick it into some other harebrained horny pussy? Look what happens when you fall for a woman. You’re capable of the stupidest things, such as sacrificing your own life in return for hers, not even knowing for a fact that she will be spared. And you know what’s worse? You could have beaten all three of us. You’re much stronger in your shifted form, not to mention much more skilled and experienced from all that cage fighting. Apropos cage fighting.”
I can hear the evil idea in his voice.
“I’d like to see you fight like that. Come on, a small demonstration, for my pleasure, and I will let your lover go. You, as a human, naked as you are, against one of my best men.” He signals to one of them, who begins shifting back into a man. His scales retreat, his human skin dressing him up like a wrapping that had been waiting, hidden.
Officer Devin Shark stands in front of us, as naked as Drago. But, with a grin, he walks out of the room, and returns with two daggers. He must have shifted when he was already inside the house, after he stripped of his clothes and weapons.
“I watched some of your fights online,” Sullivan says as the sound of blades sharpening against each other whips through the air. “Your levels as fighters are like in video games, right? You’re level 99, the highest anyone has ever gotten to.” He jerks me, signaling his next words are for me. “That means he’s been beating and even killing people for many years, Arianna. Given, they were all serpent shifters, but still, he’s a killer. Is that the kind of man you want to be with?”
“I don�
�t have a choice, Sullivan. He’s The One.” I feel it deep down to my core as I say it.
Sullivan hisses with hatred as I say that, and Devin Shark flashes a blade under Drago’s chin.
“Things are about to get incendiary,” Sullivan says, charged with hatred. “You want this little whore to stay alive?” he tells Drago. “Then do what you do best, for my entertainment. Fight. A level 99 should do good even at a disadvantage, right? No weapons, against an armed man.”
“This isn’t fair!” I cry out, certain that I’m about to watch the love of my life die. But Sullivan pulls me away, letting the two men take their fighting stance.
Before I even understand that it’s begun, Devin lunges forward expertly with his blade. Drago moves quickly out of the way, but not quickly enough. The blade grazes his side. He bares his teeth, dark red blood trickling down his ribs, but he keeps his focus on Devin.
The snake-man attacks again, straightforward but skilled as hell. I once read that frontal attacks never actually happen, but this guy masters them dangerously well. He swings his blades at Drago, swifter with each time, and Drago can’t evade fast enough. The blade slices through his triceps, his back, even the skin above his kidney. I scream, making Sullivan moan with satisfaction. Damn, he’s more wicked than I thought. He’s downright evil, how come I didn’t see it all these years? Or haven’t I, really? Why did the mere thought of having sex with him disgust me so during our last time together?
“Look at that body, like an Adonis,” he says in my ear, especially to hurt me. “Marred by my main man Devin’s blade.”
“This is beyond unfair,” I blurt. “Drago is defenseless, while Devin has weapons!”
Right that moment the world seems to shift. Drago catches the snake-man’s wrist, and twists his arm behind his back, forcing him to his knees, and relieving him of his blade. Devin shrieks, screwing his face in pain.
“You fucking dog,” he spits out.
“Let her go,” Drago demands, now standing naked behind the other man, dark eyes menacingly on Sullivan. The fire in his eyes tells me it was Sullivan’s tormenting me that gave him new fuel to fight Devin.