by Vanessa Jaye
“Well, don’t hold your breath for that invite. And you can’t keep me in here.” She turned towards the door.
“Actually, I don’t have to keep you. You want to stay.”
“Wrong. Do not pass go, do not collect $200.” She grabbed the knob.
“You want to stay, because someone out there wants you even more than I do,” Nate continued. “He’s had a taste of you. Inhaled your scent…”
She started trembling, her palms suddenly damp as her grip slackened.
“And the only thing standing between the Pithcus and your delectable self…is me.”
Chapter Nine
Tessa pressed her forehead against the door, each breath skimming through her lungs. She swallowed again and again, but couldn’t dislodge the lump of fear.
Nate was closer now. She hadn’t heard him move, but she felt his nearness—a fire moving closer to the moth.
“Tessa, I’m sorry.”
“Yeah, well a fat lot of good that’s going to do me now, isn’t it?” Each word scraped its way up a throat gone tight with the knowledge of her own mortality.
“Why me, Nate? I mean, there must have been a hundred other women at the pool being hit on by some guy.” She turned to face him. “Why did you have to choose me to save?”
A muscle ticked in his jaw, but she wasn’t done yet. “I’d take having Rod’s hands all over me right now compared to this—”
Nate gave her a hard little shake. “You’re welcome to your poolside Romeo. But if you want to live long enough to hook-up with that over-muscled weenie, you’re stuck with me.”
His anger died as quick as it’d sprung up, his gaze losing its chill to become all searching warmth. “How do you fight fate, Tessa?” he asked achingly, easing his hold on her arm. “I didn’t choose you any more than you chose me.”
He reached up and stroked her cheek, “Your skin is so soft.” He brushed his thumb across her mouth. “But not as soft as your lips. Give me your kisses, Tessa.”
Nate watched her eyes darken as her breathing slowed to counterpoint his own. The silken bonds of awareness between them crystallized, glittering with the sweet purity of this moment.
“We were meant to be,” he whispered, drawing closer. “This was meant to be.” His breath warmed her skin. And as he lowered his head, Nate read the thought that blazed in Tessa’s mind.
“Yes.”
He savored that one word briefly before he captured her mouth, delving, until she opened to him with a little sigh. Honeyed need raced through his blood, and with a groan he slanted his lips more firmly over hers, deepening the kiss. Parched from years of loneliness, Tessa’s little moans were hammer blows against the crumbling fortress that encased his soul. For so long he had been chasing death, now he tasted again the promise of life and intimacy.
Her hands crept up and fanned out on his chest as her palms moved across his skin. Nate stroked his hands over her ribcage, following the indent of waist to hips. Filaments of sensation arrowed from Tessa and lanced him, binding them together.
“Tessa.” He pulled her closer, pressing her against his nakedness. Her clothing softly abraded his cock, rubbing along the underside of the shaft, while the sensitive head nestled in the satiny folds of her thin top.
He jerked his hips and hardened further, sparks of pleasure shooting down his spine. Nate broke the kiss, cursed and recaptured her mouth, rougher, eating at it, sucking on her tongue, needing the full invasion that his body demanded.
When her hand closed around the leather talisman strung around his neck, lifting it slightly away from his body, it was like a fist plowed into his chest.
He jerked back and dashed her hand away. His confusion mirrored in her eyes as he held Tessa’s gaze searching for a sign of the truth. The truth as he wanted it to be. As he needed it to be. He’d sworn to love his mate forever. Even though that love hadn’t been enough to save her.
But sometimes the truth defied logic, didn’t it? It had to be the reason he recognized her after all these years. Somehow, in some way Tessa was a connection to…
“Beth.” Her name sprang unbidden from his lips in a whisper propelled by longing and sorrow.
Tessa’s expression crumbled. She shut down emotionally, the bond between them severed by the icy shield she erected around herself.
“Tessa, I—”
She cut him off, lips barely moving, “Get away from me.”
Somewhere on the ship the abomination idly picked a piece of irritant from beneath its nail—a bit of human flesh overlooked in its fastidious cleaning. The Pithcus rolled the meat between its fingers, smiling at the memory of its recent meal. The creature had dined well on the man, and then the woman had come along.
The beast licked at its lips. Ahh, yes, the woman. She would’ve been sweet. The appetizing scent of her fear had been strong even before she’d fallen into the Pithcus’s grasp.
It made a rumbling sound as it remembered the taste of her skin coated with the bitter sweat of terror. The woman would have been a delicious addition to an appetite not quite satiated. But who would’ve expected the little wolf of five years ago to arrive? Bedraggled and still bereaving for its lost mate.
That woman had been sweet also.
It looked like the wolf had tracked down the Pithcus, seeking revenge after all these years. How very intrepid and noble of him. And ultimately foolish.
The creature laughed at the possibilities. In a life filled with many excesses not much interested the beast, yet this was a new game. The other players would be easy enough to pinpoint—the shape-shifter with his distinctive mismatched eyes and the female’s unusually pale blonde hair. The wolf’s woman? It would be better if she was—the loss of another mate would season the wolf’s blood with unbearable pain quite deliciously.
The nights were really bad.
During the day Nate kept her within reach and they interacted with restrained politeness.
But at night he kept her in his bed.
Tessa shifted, aware of Nate’s shadowy bulk just a few feet away on the sofa. Nate, whose very existence called in question her own sanity. All she’d wanted from this trip was to get a better handle on Tessa Archer, independent, individual—not Tessa, Tricia’s twin or Eric’s girlfriend.
Have a little adventure, yes, but not this. Not the walk-on role of appetizer in the midst of a raw-foods diet reality horror show. The general vibe on the ship had been tense for the past few days as the news of fatal animal attack below deck had spread and the ship had been searched.
The creature hadn’t been found and contrary to the cruise ship’s official stance that the animal had escaped, Tessa knew it was still out there. On board. Waiting. She clenched the sheets tight, her heart beating way too loudly to her own ears.
Tessa rubbed her face into the pillow before she realized she was subconsciously seeking the comfort of Nate’s scent in the cotton fabric. She froze then, carefully exhaled, seized muscles unlocking. It was dark and he was sound asleep judging by the regular rhythm of his breathing, so there no danger of him doing his mind-meldy thing.
The truth was she did want Nate. And it wasn’t just physical attraction, although God knew they had more of that between them than Kanye West had ego.
Nate made her feel like he would do anything to keep her safe. After a lifetime as “the other twin”, it was a heady feeling being the sole focus of someone’s attention. Though she would’ve gone for something a bit more totally safe and sane.
Except…it wasn’t really her he was keeping safe, was it? To him she was the embodiment of someone else. Tessa felt a mix of resentment and bitter irony as she wondered if they looked alike, she and his Beth. Isn’t that how re-incarnations worked in the movies? But this was real life, and Nate had never commented on a physical resemblance. So what was it then? Fate, like he claimed?
Is that why he felt so right to her?
More questions streamed through her mind, building pressure that culminated in a band o
f pain across her forehead. Deliberately, she blocked out those questions. What she needed to forget, if only for a few hours, was that she was in a shit-load of danger and involved with a man tied to the past.
To the sound of Nate’s soft snores, Tessa snuggled deeper under the covers, nose pressed to scentless cotton while she sought the oblivion of sleep…
Tessa stretched sensuously and sighed. The silk sheets felt so good against her bare skin. She looked around, confused for a moment as she tried to get her bearings. For some reason the cabin looked just like her own bedroom at home…but her frown smoothed out as she became aware of movement across the room. So he hadn’t been asleep after all.
She felt foolish that she’d worried so much when he could read her thoughts, know her deepest desires. He came out of the shadows, silhouetted by the same moonlight that revealed her nudity. She read the hunger in his expression, and anticipation scrolled through her blood. Everything would be all right now.
Nate knelt beside her on the bed and Tessa reached up to cup his face, drawing him closer. All around them moonbeams fractured into glittering motes of light.
Their lips met, so sweet and too brief, then he trailed a path of fire upon her skin, from the arch of her neck to the swell of her breasts, until his hot mouth latched on to one nipple and sucked greedily. She cried out, heart racing as her fingers twisted into his hair—holding him fast while his hands touched and caressed, explored and incited. He moved over her and she moaned in welcome against his ravaging mouth, her body bowing upwards, opened in acceptance, wet with demand.
This was madness—made of soft, slow strokes. It was mindlessness stirred by sweet gyrations. It was pounding, relentless delirium and coiling, climbing pleasure that released in a flash of ecstasy. She came. Hard. Slicked muscles milking the plunging length of Nate’s hardness.
She flew high on emotion. Flew right out of her body. And as she floated up near the ceiling she looked down at them together, watched his sweat-sheen back, muscles rippling, ass pumping harder and faster until he flung back his head, his expression twisted in keen gratification.
They were one.
This was some kind of incredible out-of-body experience, or the ultimate wet-dream. At this point she didn’t care which. Her limbs felt so heavy with unalloyed bliss it took conscious effort to skate the laziest glance over his shoulder, expecting to see her own satiated face looking back…
Tessa’s next breath ballooned in her throat then burst with a gasp as she slammed through a vacuum of screeching pain back into her body. Wracked by violent shudders, she stared up at Nate.
He looked back dispassionately.
There was something wrong with his eyes, instead of the familiar, warm blue-brown, they were pitch-black soulless wells, predatory and cold. Sweat dripped from his brow onto her breasts and she screamed as the droplets ate through her flesh.
He chuckled, a sound of pure defilement. “What’s wrong, sweetheart? Don’t like that? Looks like I’ll have to work harder to find out what delights you.” A monstrously swollen tongue flicked out between his cracked lips, making an obscene gesture.
Bile surged into her mouth. The surface of that black protuberance was alive with writhing maggots. He licked her. It was slimy and cold and left something wiggling across her cheek.
Tessa tried to scream but nothing came out. She bucked and twisted, legs thrashing, fists flailing, but her puny efforts only seemed to amuse him.
The leather pouch around his neck slapped her in the face and Mitch’s deadly necklace flashed to mind. Tessa held out her palm. The pouch flew into her hand. Then it slipped from fingers suddenly drenched with blood and fell into the gaping hole where her breast had been.
Nate’s face hardened, changing as he transformed into the Pithcus. He drove his claws into the yawning cavity of her chest.
“Didn’t I tell you, wolves go straight for the heart?”
The pain was excruciating, but it freed her voice. Her screams filled the spiraling darkness as she plunged down, down, down…
Chapter Ten
“Tessa! Tessa! Wake up!”
She fought him, but he was too strong. He held her down, a hand clamped over her mouth.
“Shhh, shhh, sweetheart.” The bedside lamp was on, clearly showing the concern etched on Nate’s face.
She could feel him in her head, wading through the memories, trying to soothe and to heal. Tessa held his worried gaze, held on for dear life by looking into the dual regard of clear blue sky and warm brown earth. She let him into the deepest recesses of her mind, silently begging him to wipe the nightmare’s memories from her head.
“I can’t do that.” Nate removed his hand from her mouth and brushed back damp locks from her temple. “But Mitch probably has something to put you into a deep healing sleep—”
“No!” She grabbed his hand. “No sleep.”
“Okay.” He nodded. “Okay, no sleep.”
Her eyes widened, remembering, and she grabbed her chest. Still not satisfied, she frantically tore away the neck of her tank top and looked down at herself, touching each breast reverently.
Somewhat reassured, she eased back against the pillows, hands clasped over her racing heart and met Nate’s troubled scrutiny. He was gently probing her mind for the reasons behind her actions, picking through the moments before—the madness in the dancing moonlight.
Warmth stole across her face and she looked away, staring up at the ceiling as she breathed in deeply and listened to the tempo of her heart. Tessa allowed Nate to lull her senses, while she focused on the precise moment when it all went wrong.
A stranger’s face.
“Tell me about Beth.”
Nate’s hand had stilled against Tessa’s hair way before her request. As he’d delved into her mind, quieting the aftershocks of her nightmare, he’d received his own shock.
He knew it. Tessa was meant for him. His.
But the proof that she was starting to remember the time before, when they’d been together and somehow a part of her had been Beth, delivered euphoria as well as unbearable pain.
Because that proof was Beth’s image, so clearly etched in Tessa’s mind that for one startled moment Nate wondered if it wasn’t his own memory.
Now Tessa’s silence demanded answers. He’d have to wait till later to think about everything else.
“She was my life-mate. My wife. We were happy,” he said quietly, choking out the last word.
“We were at our cabin up north, near Georgian Bay. It was our special place—no one for miles around. We’d argued about something stupid and I took off to cool down. I should have stayed.” He took a deep breath.
“She must’ve come looking for me. Instead the Pithcus found her…I was too late.”
Tessa covered his hand with her own, rubbing her thumb over his fist until he loosened his fingers to grasp hers.
“The Pithcus would have finished me off too, if it wasn’t for some hunters who stumbled across us.”
“And now you’re out for revenge.”
“Now I deliver justice.” His voice hardened. “This Pithcus is a corruption. It’s broken the sacred laws of our kind, feeding indiscriminately on humans and preying on other shape-shifters.”
Tessa felt waves of hatred roll off him, and she truly believed that if it were solely based on the strength of his hate alone, he’d take on a hundred Pithcuses, but her stomach knotted as she recalled how easily the creature had flung him across the room.
Nate’s expression became pained. “I appreciate the concern, but could you please stop replaying that particular moment of ignobility?”
His smile, the barest curving of his mouth, did crazy things to her insides. Almost enough to make her forget her fear. Tessa shuddered and Nate tightened his grip.
“It won’t get you. I won’t let that happen. He won’t take you from me again.”
She pulled her hand away. “The Pithcus didn’t take me from you, Nate. It took Beth. I’m not her. I n
ever was, never will be.”
“And the dream? How could you know what Beth looked like?”
A chill scurried down Tessa’s spine.
“I don’t know! It must be this thing—” she gestured back and forth, “—this connection between us. I probably picked up her image from your thoughts. Who knows? But what difference does that make? You turned into that thing in my dream. Do you hear me insisting that you’re that disgusting creature?”
She pressed her head back into the pillow and stared up at the ceiling in frustration. Lost in her own turmoil, Tessa missed Nate’s start.
“What do you remember?” he asked slowly.
“It was her in my dream. She was the one you were making love to.”
Part of him was relieved she hadn’t attached any further significance to the nightmare. The other part of him responded to the current images in Tessa’s head.
“Yes, that was Beth’s face you saw—”
Nate stopped, not sure how to go on, hating the way Tessa’s face became immobile while her eyes lit with misery. She just couldn’t, wouldn’t accept that somehow inside of her Beth’s spirit lived.
“But I can feel what you felt Tessa. It was you I was kissing. You I was making love to.” His voice deepened. “I can experience that pleasure now, even as you’re remembering it.”
He watched Tessa’s cheeks redden as he chased through her maze of thoughts to the moment, in her dream, of their joining. Explosive satisfaction had ripped through her body then. Sharp want cut through his now, making him instantly hard.
Her eyes went to his lap, where his erection tented his boxer-briefs. Nate made no move to hide his condition. She may have been mad at him for the past three days, but she hadn’t stopped wanting him. Didn’t she know her body was waiting for his, ripe for the bonding, ready to mate?
The need to claim her rippled through his gut with painful intensity, bringing the wolf out in his voice. He wanted to speak softly, but the words came out deep and rough.