by J. L. Wilder
But he pushed that all out of his head. Maddie was near, which meant his animal rage was gone for the time being.
He could relax, despite all the rest that was happening.
Scorn emerged from the hall, stepping into the living room. The women turned their eyes to him, Maddie looking as gorgeous as ever.
“What’s the word?” Maddie asked, pressing mute on the TV.
Scorn glanced over his shoulder to see that they were watching Friends.
“Seriously?” he asked. “We’re on the run from supernatural bitches and you’re watching Friends?”
“It’s a thing with the two of us,” said Katie. “Back in college, we’d watch it whenever we were overwhelmed with school or guys or whatever else. It was kind of a happy-place thing.”
“And right now, we’re more about hiding from witches and dragons who want to kill us, or worse,” said Maddie. “But the idea’s still the same.”
Scorn let out a snort of a laugh before stepping over to the couch and pouring himself a glass of wine.
“So, what’s the deal with her?” he asked Katie. “How did this little woman here go from a nobody at a publishing company to someone shaking up the entire shifter and witch worlds?”
“Hey!” said Maddie. “I take issue with that comment.”
“You get what I’m saying,” he said. “This is a hell of a spot to find yourself in. And now, one of the high-ups in my clan is offering me a chance to come back in if I look out for you. Shit like that’s unheard of. Most shifter clans, once you’re out, you’re out. I was half-expecting to drink myself into a coma out there.”
“But you’re back in,” said Katie. “And it’s all thanks to this amazing lady.”
Maddie smiled warmly. Scorn could tell she was still overwhelmed, trying her best to relax for the moment.
“But I want to know what we’re dealing with here,” he said.
“They said I was some kind of chosen one,” said Maddie. “And that my powers would be more than anyone in the clan.”
“That’s what I was hearing,” said Katie. “It seemed like with each year that went by that you didn’t show your powers, Mads, they got more...intense about it. And I found out why—the longer you went without showing, the more likely it was that you were the one they were waiting for.”
“Great.” Maddie sighed. “I never asked for this, you know. All I want is to have my little apartment and publish my silly little books and that’s it. I don’t want to be able to make people’s heads explode or anything like that.”
“Sometimes you gotta play the hand you’re dealt,” said Scorn. “Not one of us wants to be in this position. But here we are. And the only thing we can do is fight our way through it.”
Katie shook her head. “This is going to really shake things up before it’s all said and done. It’s going to turn Seattle upside down. Hell, who knows what kind of ramifications it’ll have on the rest of the West Coast. The Goodwins are powerful, and they’re not going to stop at anything until they’ve got you back.”
“For now, we’re safe,” said Scorn. “And the suit I’m working with seems to think this place will be decent to hide out in. We’ve even got wi-fi to do work from. A gal could have a pretty good time in a place like this.” She followed up her words with a smile.
“We’re stocked up in the kitchen,” said Katie. “Food and booze and everything else. We could hunker down for weeks without a restock.”
Scorn narrowed his eyes, not a fan in the slightest of sitting around and waiting.
Katie stretched her limbs. “Well, I think I’ve had enough excitement for one day.” She reached forward and took her wine, throwing back the rest. “I’ll claim one of the bedrooms and get some rest. We can figure out what the plan is tomorrow.”
With that, she wished the pair “goodnight” and headed down the hallway, a door opening and shutting.
Scorn and Maddie were alone.
“You...want to go outside and have a drink?” she asked.
“There’s an outside?”
“A covered balcony. Not quite the same thing, but when you’re hiding out from witches and dragons and whatever else baddies want to get you, you have to make some concessions.”
He smirked. “Sure. A drink sounds nice.”
Scorn poured himself a glass of wine, topping off Maddie’s. Those in hand, they stepped out onto the private, covered balcony, the city before them.
Maddie sighed. “I...I wanted to say thank you.”
“Huh?”
“You’re sticking your neck out like crazy for me,” she said. “And I don’t know where I’d be without you.”
“It’s...it’s nothing. Gotta get back into my clan somehow, right?”
“That’s what you’re doing this for?”
“What, you think there’s some other reason? Well, also the little fact that I’m homeless. Gotta find some way to get back on my feet.”
Maddie sipped her wine, her eyes slightly narrowed as she seemed to consider something.
“What?” asked Scorn. “What the hell you looking at me like that for?”
“Looking at you like how?”
“Like you know something I don’t.”
“Not saying I do. But I do think you’re not being honest with yourself.”
“About what?” Scorn grunted, glancing down at his wine. “And why the hell am I drinking this wine? There’s a whole bar in there.”
He started to rise, but right at the moment he took his butt from the seat, Maddie’s hand shot out and fell on top of his. Scorn froze, the sensation of her skin on his having the same intoxicating effect it always did.
“Sit,” she said. “I want to ask you something.”
Scorn was apprehensive about the way she spoke to him. But it was nearly impossible to resist her—a trait about Maddie that both thrilled Scorn and scared him all at the same time.
He sat back down, not saying a word as he did.
“Did you lose anything of value in the cabin?”
“Huh?” he asked. “What’re you talking about?”
“When the cabin was burned down. Did you lose anything you’d miss?”
He wondered what she was talking about, why she seemed to be dancing around something.
“Come out and say it,” he said. “If you’ve got something on your mind, tell me.”
“When I was looking through your books, I found a picture of you and a woman. Who was that?”
Scorn sat up straight. “None of your damn business. And where do you get off snooping around like that?”
“It was an accident,” she said. “And if you don’t want me to ask, I won’t. But we’ve both been through loss, it sounds like. Though mine was a bit different than yours.”
“How do you mean?” asked Scorn.
“Well, for one, I lost my parents at a young age—both of them died in a car crash when I was three. Barely knew them.”
“Sorry.”
She smiled weakly. “Thank you. Got divorced, too—that’s the different sort of loss I’m talking about.”
Scorn allowed himself a grin. “You know what? I can’t imagine you married.”
Maddie raised her eyebrows. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
He laughed. “Don’t take it the wrong way. It’s just you’re so...independent. I can’t imagine you being some little housewife.”
She laughed with him. “Well, I was never a little housewife. I had my career and my own life. And that was one of the things that made it all not work. He wanted me to stay home, and I wasn’t about that life. So, one day, he told me it was him or my job. My finger’s bare, and there’s no husband calling me asking where I am, so you know which one I picked.”
“And he never knew what you were?”
“The witch thing? I never knew who I was. I can’t imagine how he would’ve taken the fact that his wife was the center of some supernatural prophecy.”
“Considering he didn’t like you wo
rking, he probably wouldn’t have cared for that at all.”
Maddie and Scorned laughed together.
“You’re not a bad guy, Scorn. I can tell. You might be rough and barely civilized, but I can tell there’s good in you.”
“And you might be a spoiled city girl, but you’re all right. At times.”
They shared another laugh, the two of them gazing out over the city.
“But...the woman. She was someone I knew long ago, loved long ago.”
Maddie said nothing, letting him go on.
“Back when I was still a kid moving my way up in the ranks. I was born an alpha, but to be an alpha on top, you have to prove yourself. And when I was younger, I figured the best way to do that was to be as ruthless as possible, to kill or be killed.”
Scorn shifted in his seat, realizing he was bringing up something he’d never shared with anyone.
“The Blackshrouds were still consolidating control over the wilds back then, dozens of little clans here and there that needed to be put down. They were starting to fight dirty, interfering with our logging operations with raids here and there. So, I decided it was time to do something drastic.”
He went on, his gut tightening.
“I and a handful of my closest men did a few raids of our own, going from one clan to another under cover of darkness, taking out their alphas. Decapitation strikes—literally. We thought we were so fucking clever, that we’d have them groveling for mercy by sunrise.”
“What happened?”
“Nothing—at first. The raids ended and I figured we’d taught them a lesson. But they waited a week or so, until our guards were down. That’s when they pulled a raid of their own, this one personal. They slipped into our grounds and...they went for me. I was away on a scouting mission, so instead of taking me out, they went for the woman I loved. Killed her in our bed.”
“Oh my God.”
Scorn didn’t know how to feel, didn’t know how to deal with the swirl of emotions running through him.
“Since then this part of me came out, the animal side that lives in all of us shifters. But he’s angry; I can barely control him. And he wants nothing but violence.”
Maddie said nothing, reaching over and taking his hand.
He shook his head. “But that was a long time ago. I went off to the woods to find some way to get my anger under control after another...incident. And I figured I would, or I’d die trying. Little did I know how I’d control it.”
“What do you mean?”
“It’s you, Maddie. Something about you makes me able to keep the anger at bay, to control it. And I don’t know what it means.”
“Maybe it means there’s something between us,” she said. “Something that’s pulling us together; something that we don’t understand yet.”
Scorn nodded. “If it’s something we don’t understand, maybe that means we should step back, figure out what it is first.”
Without saying a word, Maddie rose. Scorn did too as if their movements were in sync.
“Or, we can see where it takes us,” she said. “Stop trying to figure it out, and stop trying to control it.”
She stepped over to him, and he did the same.
“Because I’m not afraid,” she said. “Are you?”
He grinned, putting his hands on her hips and turning her body toward his.
“This answer your question?”
With that, he leaned in and kissed her.
And he knew it was exactly what he wanted.
CHAPTER 15
MADDIE
Scorn didn’t wait a moment before pulling Maddie back into the apartment. He reached down and scooped her off her feet, carrying her through the vast, dark space. She opened her mouth and let his tongue move over her lips, his taste like nothing else.
Seconds later, they were in the master bedroom, Scorn laying Maddie down on the bed. Silver light from the full moon poured into the space, giving her just enough illumination to lay eyes on the gorgeous angles of his muscles as Scorn pulled off his shirt and stepped out of his pants.
His socks and shoes came off along with them, and when he was gloriously naked, his cock standing straight out, Maddie felt herself overtaken by arousal she could hardly stand.
“Come here,” she said, beckoning him toward her.
“You think you need to tell me to get over there on top of you?” he smirked, cocky as ever.
“Then do it.”
He flicked his eyes down at her clothes.
“Return the favor.”
She didn’t bother arguing. Maddie pulled her shirt off, followed by her pants and shoes. But when she was in nothing but her bra and panties, Scorn moved in.
“Someone’s eager,” she said, wrapping her arms around his broad shoulders as he positioned himself over top of her.
“With a woman like you, how can you blame me?”
He followed his words with kisses, his lips moving from her collarbone to her neck, her skin breaking out in goosebumps. His cock rubbed against the soaking-wet strip of fabric between her legs, Maddie craving more and more.
Scorn reached down and slipped his hand underneath the waistband of her panties, cupping her pussy and making Maddie’s eyes go wide with total pleasure. She squirmed as soon as she felt the rough skin of his fingertip against her clit, grinding her hips against him.
They kissed with wild ferocity, like animals in mating season. Scorn reached around with his free hand and unclasped her bra, her breasts pouring out as he inched her panties down her smooth thighs.
“I need it,” she said, taking his hand and lifting it off her pussy. “No teasing, no waiting. I need it now.”
As if to make her point, she grabbed Scorn’s cock and stroked it.
He grinned. “It sounds like we’ve got time, gorgeous. Let’s make the most of it.”
Maddie smiled, the idea of being with this man warming her heart, this strange beast who she felt a connection to that she’d never known in her life.
They had time.
Maddie and Scorn kissed as she guided his cock toward her opening. She gasped as his head spread her open, her teeth sinking gently into her lip as she anticipated the pleasure to come.
Inch by glorious inch, Scorn penetrated Maddie. Her velvety cunt gripped him, enveloped him, sheathed him. She placed her hands on his sublime, muscular ass and held him in place, giving her a few moments to savor the sensation of fullness that only he could provide.
Her hands slid to the flat sides of his hips, and Scorn rightly took this as a sign to start. He pulled up and then into her, the firm length of his cock slipping between her lips and plunging into her warmth once more. Maddie moaned, closing her eyes but opening them just enough to take in the sight of his cock vanishing between her legs.
She rocked her hips, bucking her body against his. The pleasure grew and grew, and her eyes opened wide, her gaze latching onto his powerful muscles as they flexed and tensed with his sexual work, his biceps thick and powerful as he propped his weight against them.
Maddie wrapped her legs around Scorn, guiding him to fuck her harder. He did, the full power of his animal side unleashed as he plunged into her with an intensity that was almost overwhelming. It was as if the rage and anger of his dragon side had been controlled, focused like a laser on the act of fucking.
She came, the first orgasm blasting through her body almost unexpectedly. She winced her eyes shut and moaned. Scorn’s thrusts didn’t let up, and she didn’t want them to. He pounded her through the orgasm as it rose and crested and faded, and before long, she felt another one stirring inside of her.
Sweat sheened on Scorn’s forehead, his beautiful face fixed in an expression of total erotic concentration. He grabbed her hips again, this time flipping her onto her side and taking position behind her. Once they were both in the spoon position, he grabbed his cock and slid it into her once more.
His arm wrapped around her chest, his ropey forearms over her breasts as he held her clo
se, his body pressed against hers. There was something about the position, something about the way he held her that made her feel safe, secure, like there was nothing in the world to worry about.
Maddie’s hips rolled like the ocean, in time with Scorn’s slow, deep pushes into her cunt. Another orgasm moved to the brink, and she could sense by the ferocity of his thrusts that Scorn was on the verge of his own.
“Come for me,” he growled. “Come for me right now.”
She nodded, her hips still grinding against his. Maddie closed her eyes and focused on the pleasure building by the second, growing to a single point of white-hot energy that soon exploded like a star going nova inside of her.
It let loose, the pleasure tightening every last muscle in her body. Scorn grunted hard and slammed his cock into her in three powerful, deliberate thrusts. She felt his cock erupt, his seed blast into her, his cum warm and thick.
Then they were done. His cock still inside of her, Scorn held Maddie close, his kiss moving over her neck once more. And together, they fell asleep, the light of the moon casting their love in a magical glow.
TWO WEEKS LATER...
Maddie couldn’t believe what she was seeing.
“Just hold it like that,” said Katie. “You’re doing...fucking awesome.”
The empty whiskey bottle floated in front of Maddie, her hands open near it. But she wasn’t touching it.
“OK,” said Katie. “Remember, the mark of true power is control. So, hold it as still as you can.”
Maddie nodded again, using all her focus to make sure the bottle didn’t move a single millimeter.
“This is amazing,” said Katie. “But don’t stop. Being a witch is about having mastery over the physical world. We can shape it, do whatever we want with it. But it takes training and practice, like what I’d been giving you over the last couple of weeks.”
Maddie nodded. “This is easy. I could do this all day.”
Katie smiled. “Yeah, I bet. You’re at a level it took me years to get to when I first discovered my powers. Now, I want you to try something. Pretend that the bottle isn’t there.”
“Huh?”
“Imagine that the bottle is invisible. See the space behind it, as if you could actually gaze through it.”