Caged Wolf (Tarot Witches Book 1)

by SM Reine

  I did. He wasn’t going to bite me.

  Twining my fingers in his hair, I pulled him harder to my breast, and he sucked harder for a moment. Then his mouth popped free, leaving the skin glistening.

  “I’m changing,” he whispered again.

  His biceps strained. His abs flexed. I kept stroking the back of his head as his face contorted, twisting into a rictus of pain. But it wasn’t like the violence of the first change that I had seen. The more I petted him, the more his face eased.

  When his lips parted, there were fangs jutting from his gums instead of teeth. The hair on his scalp grew as I watched. It came out shaggy, tawny brown, growing like a time lapse of grass. He breathed hard, but the groans coming from his mouth weren’t ones of pain.

  I positioned myself over his cock, slipping my hand between us to encircle the base and point it between my legs.

  The noise of satisfaction he made was all animal.

  Pulling the string of my thong aside, I lowered myself on top of him. Just the head was too much, too wide—I was wetter than I’d ever been in my life, and he still stretched me like it was the first time all over again. I sucked in a breath, struggling to breathe calmly as I hugged his shivering body to mine. We were both trembling. Cooper, because the wolf was taking him; me, because I was letting his wolf take me, too.

  Inch by inch, I joined our bodies. I spread over him. It brought me to the brink of pain, hot and prickling. I could feel the ridge of his head sliding through my body.

  It seemed to take eons for our hips to become flush, and the sensation of fullness was better than anything else I had experienced in my life.

  “You feel incredible,” I groaned into his throat, arms wrapped around his neck. He was so much hairier now, still shifting gradually even as I held him. The fur grew slowly, slipping out of his flesh by the millimeter, making him shaggy around the shoulders.

  He breathed heavily into my throat. “It—it doesn’t hurt,” he panted. The words came out clumsy around the fangs. I heard a muffled cracking and realized that his jaw was breaking as it extended slowly into a wolf’s muzzle. Cooper was done talking.

  I lifted myself slightly, testing the friction between us, and then began rocking gently on his cock. I held the chains above him for leverage.

  Our bodies slipped together, grinding, aching. There was fur growing from Cooper’s chest. His ears were shifting to the top of his head. And still I rode him, taking away his pain, giving every inch of my flesh to him.

  He pistoned his hips, digging his heels into the ground so that he could push against me with as much urgency as I did against him, growling deep in his throat.

  Skin slapped against skin, becoming wetter and louder as we moved faster, more urgently.

  The orgasm surprised me with its suddenness. It erupted deep in my belly, unfolding to the tips of my fingers, making my head drop back on my shoulders. Black stars erupted in my vision. My throat hurt—I was screaming—but all I could hear was the rush of blood through my skull.

  Cooper watched me come. His face and straining arms filled my vision. The hunger in his eyes was breathtaking.

  His eyes said, Liberate me.

  I sagged against his chest, panting. He was still huge inside of me. He hadn’t come.

  Cooper needed more.

  My trembling hands slipped toward the locks on his chains, but someone seized my wrist. “Don’t,” Mad Dog said. His breath smelled sticky-sweet, like marijuana.

  I’d forgotten he was in the room. He was watching us, making sure we weren’t going to do anything stupid or dangerous, and it was comforting to know that there was one sane person nearby. The fact that it was Mad Dog was less comforting.

  But I didn’t want him to stop me. “It’s fine,” I said breathlessly, still hot from my climax. “Cooper won’t hurt me.”

  “Even if that’s true, you’re not the only person he could kill,” Mad Dog said. “We chain him for a reason. New werewolves are vicious.”

  Cooper snarled at Mad Dog, as if to illustrate his point. “I don’t think he likes you grabbing my wrist,” I said, keeping my tone calm and level.

  Slowly, Mad Dog released me. “He’s not safe.”

  “I don’t think that’s true,” I said.

  This time, when I reached for the locks, Mad Dog didn’t stop me. He stepped back with his mouth drawn into a grim line.

  I unhooked Cooper from the wall.

  He moved with shocking speed, chains rattling as he pushed me to the floor. He wasn’t inside me anymore. I felt empty and cold without him. I was so surprised by the hollow ache that I couldn’t even react.

  But Cooper didn’t withhold his touch for long. Metal slithered against the floor. He ripped his shackles away, arms now covered in long hair. He flipped me over, shoving my head to the floor with one large hand while the other held my hips in place. My cheek and breasts pressed against cold concrete.

  I could see Mad Dog from the hips down. He took a step toward us.

  “Don’t,” I said. My voice didn’t even tremble. I didn’t feel the faintest hint of fear. Only a thrill of understanding.

  Cooper shoved into me in a single, powerful thrust. He was so deep that it felt like it should have emerged from the back of my throat. I braced my arms against the ground, pushing back against him, forcing him deeper inside of me with a throaty groan.

  I wanted him. All of him. I never wanted this motion to end, with the ridges of his cock stroking me onward to greater and greater heights, driving every rational thought from my skull.

  Mad Dog was watching as we fucked, breathing hard. He rubbed himself through his jeans. His skin was rippling, too, and I knew he was on the brink of changing himself. In a few minutes, I’d be alone in that shed with not one wolf, but two. And I didn’t care.

  Cooper pumped in and out of me, setting a hard rhythm. The sound of his grunts had me aroused again within moments. The feeling of him inside me was just as sweet now that I was adjusted to his size, just as blissfully overwhelming.

  All rational thought fled from my mind. I could think of nothing but the motion. The pressure.

  My mate.

  He pushed against me harder, molding his hips to my ass.

  And I felt him begin to swell.

  A muscular bulge formed at the base of his cock, growing slowly, stretching my entrance to its maximum. It shoved past pleasure and went straight to pain. The sweetest pain I had ever felt. I was going to tear. There was no way I could take the entirety of his knot.

  It was something that wolves did, I knew. I had learned about knotting in my biology for non-majors class. I recalled laughing about the idea of the mating knot with my friends in class, talking about how gross it was that the male would lock himself inside of his female, how strange and unreal it seemed.

  I had never thought I would be on the receiving end of it. And if I had thought that, I never would have guessed it could feel so good.

  The sound that came out of me was barely human, somewhere between a whimper and a mewl. My fingernails clawed at the concrete.

  His thumb pressed against my perineum, applying gentle pressure. Human enough to think of my comfort even as his body knotted in mine, locking us together. Inside my pussy, his head pushed against my cervix. I was filled to the utmost. And once the knot had grown fully, I was certain he couldn’t have pulled out of me if he wanted to, though he still thrust gently, each tiny centimeter shooting bolts of pleasure to my fingertips.

  Cooper’s motions grew erratic. He gripped my ass with both hands—almost paws now—and lost himself inside of me.

  And then he came.

  His claws dug into the tender skin of my hips. I twisted so that I could watch him throw his head back and roar, the muscles of his neck bulging, veins cording his chest. The sight of him coming inside of me—the feel of his hot seed filling my body—sent me over the edge again.

  I howled with him, mind whirling, skin aflame. I felt nothing but the places our bodies
joined. I felt everything.

  I was his bitch, and I loved it.

  Spent, Cooper collapsed on my back, flattening me to the floor with his knot still inside. Even though I could feel him shapeshifting, he wasn’t thrashing. No longer in any pain. The change breezed over him. He groaned softly against the back of my neck, cock twitching in my tight cunt.

  I drifted in a post-orgasmic haze, only half-aware of the fact that Mad Dog was changing faster, too. All that seemed to matter was that Cooper was finally beginning to soften. Pulling free of my body as he finished the change. I wanted to see what he had become, but I didn’t want to have to move. I loved being under him.

  Mad Dog gave a grunt of pain. “Can’t keep an eye on you. Gotta run.”

  “It’s okay,” I mumbled. “I’m safe here.” I had never felt safer in my life.

  The other biker slammed out the doors of the shed, leaving them open to the moonless night. The smattering of stars looked unusually vivid tonight. Or maybe it was just because I felt so alive.

  Cooper withdrew from me. His breathing and soft growling sounded different. I rolled onto my back to behold him.

  He was almost completely wolf. His knees were still oriented like a human’s. His arms were still a little too muscular, his chest too broad. But he had long fur all over his body, a muzzle, golden eyes, a tail. I could tell that he wouldn’t be able to walk upright. But he was still Cooper. I could see the man within those golden eyes.

  I smiled and stretched my arms above my head, enjoying the pop of my spine. “Looking good.”

  He lowered his head between my legs and gently licked my tender core. I ached from his mating, soaked by both of our fluids. It sent a shiver through me.

  Howls rose in the night, echoing over the desert. The pack was calling to him.

  Cooper nosed my chin, huffing his warm breath through my hair, and I hugged the ruff of fur ringing his neck. “Go ahead,” I said, pressing a kiss to his muzzle.

  The werewolf padded out of the shed, leaving his chains behind.

  Free.

  XVII

  I dozed in my trailer, only half-asleep. The bar fell quiet not long after midnight—guess most men weren’t stupid enough to climb into a cage with werewolves after they had shifted shapes. I wondered how many of them had survived the fight. I wondered how many Big Papa would be delivering to the Silver Needles.

  I wondered if it mattered anymore.

  Werewolf howls echoed over the desert, drifting through my open window on a cool breeze. They chased through my dreams.

  Curled up in bed, my mind was filled with images of thickly-wooded forests. I dreamed of racing naked through the trees. I dreamed of being pounced upon by a wolf twice my size and having his cock forced into me, pushing against my tightness, claiming my body. I think I came in my sleep more than once.

  The first light of dawn woke me from the haze.

  My whole body ached from the night before. I stretched out, smiling even as I groaned.

  This was a kind of hurt I could get used to.

  As I extended my arms, my hand brushed against something plasticky. Somehow, The Devil had made it onto my pillow during the night. I hadn’t put it there. The sight of it made my smile vanish.

  “But we’re both free,” I told the satyr. “It’s over. You can go away now.”

  The card didn’t budge.

  It took the edge off my glow, but just barely. I padded out of bed. Dropped my sticky thong on the floor. I hadn’t taken the time to bathe before sleeping—I’d been too exhausted.

  Now I climbed in my shower stall and let the lukewarm water course over me. I had gotten some of Peyton’s blood smeared on me when I was rubbing against Cooper. I also had a little blood between my inner thighs. Guess Cooper had torn something when we were knotted together. I didn’t mind.

  My fingers played at the juncture of my legs, flicking the swollen bud of my clit. I was ready again. Flushed with blood and eager.

  I wanted to find Cooper as soon as he changed back.

  Toweling off, I dressed myself in clean jeans and a tube top before heading out into the sagebrush. It was still early enough that all the shadows were blue even as the sky flamed orange with sunrise.

  The camp across the road was quiet. The bar’s generator had been turned off. No wolves were howling.

  Everything was silent.

  “Cooper,” I whispered. “Where are you?”

  A shape moved toward the hills. My heart skipped a beat, and I moved to intercept him.

  But it wasn’t Cooper.

  Big Papa was naked and impressive. His chest, arms, and shoulders were covered in a thick mat of hair—not fur, just normal human hair grown more dense than the cheap shag carpeting in my trailer. His dick hung heavy between his legs. His feet were dirty. His empty eye socket was a little bloody.

  “Huh,” he grunted when he saw me. “There you are. This makes it easy.”

  Unease crept over me. “Thanks for not telling the Needles about me,” I said, trying not to sound meek and failing. “I know I haven’t told you yet, but I appreciate it.”

  Big Papa snorted. “You think I did that out of benevolence?”

  “I don’t know, but I hoped—”

  “You heard what the Needles wanted,” he said. “They wanted feeders that could heal any amount of torture and survive any amount of energy drain.” His eye sharpened. “And they wanted you.”

  My stomach flipped. Yeah, I’d already heard them talk about that, but having that specifically addressed to me was a slap in the face.

  “There’s something special about you.” He lumbered toward me, and I couldn’t help myself—I took a big step back. “Trouble smells it. Mad Dog smells it. I didn’t smell it at first, but now I do. You’re delicious.” The word rolled over his tongue. I felt violated just listening to it. “No wonder they want you just as bad as they want their invulnerable food source.”

  “I’m just a bartender,” I said.

  “You’re more than that. The Needles know what you are, but they aren’t talking. They’re just offering lots of money. Drugs. And free reign of Los Angeles.” He lumbered toward me. I could smell his sweat on the wind. “I don’t think any of that’s as valuable as you.”

  “You can’t sell me,” I spat. “I don’t belong to you.”

  “But you belong to Trouble now, and he belongs to me.” There was no delight or doubt in his voice. He didn’t take any pleasure in the idea of owning Cooper and me; that was simply what he believed to be the truth. We were commodities. He could do whatever he wanted with us.

  Including selling me back to the demons that had tortured me.

  Fear seized me, and I had no choice but to run, like a jackrabbit fleeing the coyote. I knew I could never run fast enough to escape. But I had to do it.

  I hurled myself across the desert, fists pumping and chest heaving.

  Big Papa didn’t follow immediately. He allowed me a head start. That made it so much worse—he knew that he could grab me at any moment.

  I’d gotten halfway back to my trailer before I heard him move. The sound of him rustling through the sagebrush made me feel like I was going to have a heart attack. Just drop dead on the spot.

  Yet somehow, I made it to my door. I jumped inside. Closed and locked it behind me.

  Big Papa slammed into my trailer. The wards didn’t let him in, but the walls creaked. He didn’t need to get through my magic if he could just blow my house down like the big bad wolf that he was. If he pulverized the anchors I used to hold the spell in place, I wouldn’t stand a chance.

  Little Bo Peep was propped up in the corner of my living room. I grabbed her and the silver buckshot that Gloria had given me. Double-aught was man-stopping stuff. It had to be good enough for a werewolf. Somehow, I managed not to drop it as I loaded the rounds, then braced Bo Peep against my shoulder.

  My heart jackhammered against my breastbone as I waited for Big Papa to break through.

  But he’
d stopped beating his fists.

  I backed up to the wall, holding my breath. My eyes flicked to the windows on either side of the door. I didn’t see his shadow moving through my rooster-print curtains.

  Where had he gone?

  Crash.

  The glass behind me shattered. Hands punched through my window and closed on my shoulders. I screamed and tried to wrench away—too late. He had my braids in his fists. He yanked me off my feet.

  Bo Peep slipped from my hands and hit the carpet.

  “No!”

  The hands climbed down my shirt, grabbed me underneath my armpits, hauled me through the broken window. Glass scraped at my bare shoulders. I grabbed a shard even as it sliced me open—a big piece as long as my middle finger. It cut into my palm. Blood flowed down my wrist.

  He put me in a headlock, cutting off my oxygen. The crystal-clear desert light swirled around me.

  I buried the glass in his forearm. The responding roar wasn’t in Big Papa’s voice.

  The man released me, and I hit the ground on my knees. I should have run—I knew I should have run—but I was too shocked to move.

  I gazed up at Cooper as he wrenched the glass out of the muscle of his arm. For a hopeful moment, I thought that he had come to save me. But then I realized that Big Papa was standing behind him calmly.

  Big Papa hadn’t had to break my wards. He’d just ordered Cooper to grab me, knowing he’d be able to get through.

  And Cooper had obeyed.

  I’d just given myself to this man the night before, let him take me as he shifted, and he fucking obeyed Big Papa.

  “Tie her up,” Big Papa said, tossing the chains at Cooper.

  He stepped toward me, face twisted with self-loathing, pain in every line of his body. “I’m sorry, Ofelia. I don’t have a choice.”

  This was what the tarot card had depicted—this exact moment, when Cooper chose to follow his Alpha’s orders, chaining both of us to the whims of The Devil. I’d been wrong to think we were liberated. I’d celebrated our freedom too early. The card on my pillow that morning had been a warning and I’d missed it.