Heart of Darkness: Part One Taint of Shadow

by Cassandra Moore

  She wanted that pain. She needed it. If she told him, she would cry, and if she cried, the built-up agony, the rage against those who had thrown her into the darkness, would drain away. Then she would have nothing left to fill her.

  You would have him.

  “Don’t shut me out.” The strength in his words surprised her. Sweet, tender Noah, the Noah who only turned animal when the moon showed her full face, had turned into a fierce, dominant male. She could smell his arousal, the mix of sweat and adrenaline that made her want to growl. The rush of the hunt, the kill, had transformed into a heat deep in her belly.

  “I don’t want to involve you.”

  “I’m already involved. You can’t protect me. I make my own decisions.”

  Instead of answering, she walked to the lamp at the window, clicked it off. Then she removed her sunglasses and threw them on the table.

  He didn’t gasp. Superior night vision allowed her to see the set of his jaw, the resolute determination in his eyes. Without any hesitation he moved to her, his chest pressed to hers, and he looked into her face. She knew he saw the luminous purple effulgence, the wolfish shape of her irises, her pupils, but somehow, she knew he saw more.

  He didn’t look only at her strange, alien eyes. He looked at her, and he didn’t flinch from what he saw. Both his hands cupped her face as his lips drew close, touched hers.

  Like a flash fire, the passion ignited. Their lips pressed together hard, mouths opening so their tongues could twine. Against his chest, her nipples hardened, and as they kissed, she rubbed them against his muscular front. Her shirt was too tight, her bra was worse.

  With a gasp, she pulled back. His eyes smoldered in the darkness as she hauled the garment over her head. But he wasn’t so patient with her bra. He grabbed it at the front, between her breasts, and gave it a sharp tug. The snaps ripped loose, setting her breasts free. It landed in the corner.

  He pulled off his own shirt next. Muscles rippled across his chest, strong, hard knots of flesh that had grown in her absence. “Shit, Noah,” she said, her hand stretched across the bulge of his right pectoral. Under her palm, his nipple hardened.

  “I’ve been working out.” His voice, more growl now, betrayed his deep need. “Do you like it?”

  In reply, she leaned forward to lick the edge of the muscle in one long, smooth stroke of her tongue. He moaned, deep in his chest, and she did it again, closer to the darkened peak of flesh. Beneath her lips, the muscle quivered, a sign of his tested control.

  She hadn’t finished her teasing. Wide, slow circles of her tongue left damp trails across his skin in ever smaller spirals as she tasted him. Her own need ratcheted higher, but she wanted to sample every inch of this new, improved Noah. When the tip of her tongue at last touched home on the puckered nub of skin, he gasped, snarled.

  Fingers laced into her hair and pulled her face tight to his flesh. In response, she sucked hard on his nipple, drew it deep into her mouth. Her teeth closed on it just hard enough to evoke another snarl.

  “Harder.”

  His other hand ripped the button of her jeans open. Fingers dove down the front to caress her clit, swollen and wet with her desire. She groaned into his skin. Her hips thrust forward to rub herself against his hand. Months of torment, moons without satisfaction, kindled the bonfire in her gut. She wanted him to shove into her, hard, fast, merciless, fuck her until the past was nothing but ashes in their flames.

  With a tug to her hair, he guided her lapping tongue across his chest to his other nipple. She sucked it into her mouth, and he rewarded her by pinching her clit between his fingers. It was too much to stand still while he touched her; she had to grind, pull him closer, get him closer to the slit between her legs.

  “You are so wet,” he moaned as the pads of his fingers slid down to rub against her pussy.

  “Put your cock in me and find how wet I am,” she answered, pulling her head back to smirk at him.

  He gave a throaty chuckle. “Not yet. I’ve waited too long to feel you.”

  To prove his point, he pushed two fingers into the folds of her cunt. A loud groan escaped her as he worked deeper, forced her open but not as far as she wanted. Such a pleasant kind of agony, to have her pussy only a little full when she wanted his thick staff of a cock instead. The denim of her jeans bound her legs too much; she wanted room to move.

  In and out, his fingers worked. Her tongue lapped at his nipple in time, roughing the flesh to a tighter peak. The length of his fingers slid against her clit with each thrust, built her toward release. But he was too much of a bastard to let her fall over the edge.

  When he withdrew his fingers, she wanted to growl. Need, tight, edgy desire, thrummed through her, a caged predator in search of freedom. The thought of him on her, his skin on hers, cock deep in her sex, brought a fresh rush of moisture to coat her folds.

  He lunged suddenly, and even with her heightened reflexes, she had no time to react. She found herself on her back over the arm of the couch, ass propped up, legs spread open, the signature Noah Ambush that had always made her laugh. In no time he had her jeans off, and his, too. “I can smell the heat of your pussy,” he growled, eyes golden in the darkness.

  Deliberately, he licked the taste of her from his fingers, one at a time. The sight of it, a dominant, possessive gesture, brought the wolf within to life.

  “Yeah?” she said, voice husky.

  “It’s driving me insane. You know what it smells like?” His face lowered to hover just over her pussy, breath warm on the wet folds.

  “What?”

  His tongue flickered out, brushed her clit. “My mate.”

  Then his mouth descended to take the sensitive kernel of flesh inside, tongue rasping over her swollen clitoris. Her hair scattered over the cushions as she thrashed her head, back arched, and she gave a loud, shameless moan. After what he’d seen, he still called her his mate, and the primal core of her responded.

  His tongue plunged inside, out again. She threw one leg over his shoulder to coax him in again, but he sucked one of her swollen folds into his mouth instead. Spikes of heat drove through her, and she clutched the upholstery almost hard enough for it to tear. Each suckle, every tug, flashed across her nerves.

  Alive with need, she pushed herself to him. “Noah,” she groaned. “Fuck me. Please, fuck me.”

  “Not until you come for me,” he said against her. “I want to hear you scream.”

  Warmth closed over her clit again, and his tongue lapped harder, faster. The climax roared through her, and she did scream, her body wracked with violent shudders. He didn’t stop his furious strokes until he’d pulled the last spasm from her, until her screams turned to almost pained cries.

  “Mine.” He gave her pussy a final lick.

  “You may want to rethink that.” She didn’t want him to. The way his mouth claimed her, the way his voice sounded when he called her his mate, still resonated with the deepest part of her. Dark magic couldn’t touch her love for him, the way she had to have him with her.

  But he didn’t know what had happened, or what she had to do. She struggled to accept herself. When he knew, he would leave. His plans with the pack would force him to, even if his own opinions didn’t.

  He stood, leaned over her even as he kept her leg over his shoulder. It left her pussy open, vulnerable, as his cock nudged against it. “Why would I want to do that?”

  It was hard to remember the reasons as the length of his shaft slid against her tingling folds. “I’m not what I used to be. I can’t ever be just a wolf again.”

  His cock rubbed over her clit, and his balls brushed against her pussy. “You were never just a wolf.”

  “You know what I mean. I’m tainted, warped. A fashion victim. I wear my sunglasses at night.”

  “So you can see the light that’s right before your eyes.” He leaned closer, bent her leg further so he could slide his length along her damp sex. The head nudged against her clit then past just as she hoped it would
push inside.

  The emptiness inside her drove her to distraction. She wanted him to impale her on that thick cock, fill her until she begged him to stop. “You aren’t paying attention.”

  He drew back and rubbed his cock along her cunt again, the other way now, so the flared tip teased at the puckered hole of her ass. She groaned. Later, she could take him there. Now, she wanted him driving, hard and fast, into her pussy.

  “I beg to differ. I know exactly what’s going on.”

  “I mean what I’m saying.”

  “I don’t care what else you are, Kayla.” His still golden eyes met hers. “You’re the woman I love, no matter what happened, or happens. And I belong right here.”

  He drove his cock into her. Suddenly, she was spread wide, stretched around the girth of him. She cried out, pushed down onto him until his balls rested against her.

  “You’ll feel different tomorrow.”

  He pulled out of her. “Bet me.”

  Again, he thrust inside, cored her with his shaft. As long as he stayed inside her, stretched her cunt time after time, filled her with his hot seed, she didn’t care about tomorrow. Now mattered. Coming repeatedly, until the sun came up and drove her into hiding. That was all that mattered.

  His eyes didn’t close as he drove slowly into her. Golden eyes watched her as she writhed and ground her clit against his pelvis. She had no shame; it heightened the charge of each thrust to see his pleasure echoed in his eyes. As his lunges sped up, the hunger behind his gaze turned less thoughtful, more untamed.

  The wolf had gotten loose. And she wanted more of it.

  Long thrusts turned shorter, faster. His cock stayed deep as he stroked into her, the hand on her thigh clenched tight. Grunts came through gritted teeth, and their eyes locked. The wave built, rose, washed higher each time he drove in. She’d almost forgotten how well he fit in her, how his hips snapped as he got close to orgasm.

  Wailing, head back, her eyes rolled back into her head as the climax broke from her core. His own shouts joined hers as his cock jerked, then emptied, flooding her with molten heat. Once, twice, he drove in again, then held himself buried as the final bursts eased.

  Spent for now, she slithered fully onto the couch to recline on her side. He joined her after he’d regained his balance, his thigh a warm, familiar pillow under her head.

  “I missed you,” he said quietly.

  “I missed you, too.” She couldn’t lie to him. Not now. And she didn’t want to lie to herself.

  “Tell me what happened.” His strong hand stroked her hair. The pads of his fingers brushed her cheek.

  He loved her. Through it all, he hadn’t forgotten her, hadn’t shunned her when she came back a twisted version of her previous self. For this and so many other things, he deserved some explanation.

  “There were vampires in the forest that night,” she said. “You knew that.”

  “Regina told us. They attacked her.”

  How much should she say? By his own admission, he’d turned into a fighter, someone who went after those who had wronged him or those he cared about. If she told him about the other wolves, about his best friend, what would he do? Go to Peter? Worse, go to Todd himself?

  She couldn’t take the chance. Not yet. “They’d been kidnapping werewolves. Seven of us. I didn’t know five of the others, but the sixth was Derek Anderson.”

  Beneath her, his muscles tensed. “Derek? I thought he ran off.”

  “They had him. We couldn’t have known.” She wondered what had happened to Derek. The transformation had nearly broken the last of his sanity.

  “What did they want you for?”

  The deep breath did little to ease the tightness in her chest. “A ritual. The vampires wanted their own breed of lycanthrope. Shadow wolves, they called us. Ones who are loyal to the biter cause.”

  Noah snarled. “And we made a deal with Pirelli?”

  “That’s the thing. Pirelli doesn’t know. These vampires work outside the hierarchy.”

  “Pirelli didn’t know? Are you sure?”

  She glanced up at him. “I’m pretty sure Vincenzo Pirelli wants them gone as much as we do. They’re a threat. Their plan isn’t a bad one. Vampires and werewolves together? It’s two halves of a whole.”

  “How do you mean?”

  “Think about it. What are the two largest forces in the paranormal sphere?”

  “Vampires and werewolves.”

  With a nod, she continued. “And we’re enemies. The truce keeps us from destroying everything around us with our aggressions. And it’s an uneasy truce. If one side starts to outpace the other in power, the truce won’t stand. The power gets checked and rebalanced by the other side. But if both sides worked together, that wouldn’t happen.”

  “There’d be no natural balance.” Comprehension dawned. “If that kind of third faction took hold…”

  “Now you get it. Paul Kiplinger is very clever.”

  Thoughts chased through his eyes. “Kiplinger’s in on this?”

  “It’s his game. He researched this ritual and all the pieces for it. Seven wolves on the blue moon, performed by both halves of the whole, vampires and werewolves, hearts of the innocent...” She let the thought trail off.

  His hand trembled on her hair. “There are seven of you?”

  “Possibly eight. I know that one’s bitten someone, but I don’t know if the new wolf survived his first moon.”

  “Why didn’t you come back sooner?”

  Magic cuffs, nights of starvation, days in the painful light. She shoved all those back down. “They kept us with them. Four went over to their side, either immediately or after some...convincing. Three of us escaped.”

  He sighed. “I’m sorry. I didn’t know where you were. I should have looked harder.”

  “Don’t start down that road.” She gave her voice an edge, unwilling to let him blame himself. “They had us well hidden. You couldn’t have done more than you did. I know you.”

  “But I should have.” Before she could say more, though, he continued past it. “It doesn’t matter now. You’re back.”

  Yes, he’d changed. She found that she loved the new Noah even more. “Kiplinger and the others have to be stopped.”

  “Revenge?”

  “Not just that. They’re a threat to me, to the pack, to humans. He believes that the humans are his cattle, sort of a walking buffet for his taking.” In her home, with him to protect her, she should have felt safe. But Kiplinger’s words would never leave her.

  But in all other things, we remain the cream in a vat of milk, if you like the analogy. Most of us have forgotten that. Some of us have not. And it is high time that all of them remember.

  “Maybe we should go to the pack, Kayla. This is a lot bigger than we are.”

  She locked eyes with him. “No. They can’t know that I’m back. I don’t want to hear that Peter’s dealt this away. You don’t trust him, do you? You want his position.”

  The words hit home. “I don’t want it. But he’s weak. He’s gotten soft.”

  “He can’t be soft on this.” Not with Regina’s hand around his balls and Todd’s submissive lies. They’re already pulling the pack apart. “I’m going after the people who did this to me. Afterward, we can think about involving others. But Noah, please... I need this.”

  Brow furrowed, he stared down at her. Then he nodded. “All right. Who’s first?”

  Relief washed through her. She didn’t know what she would have done if he hadn’t cooperated, but she didn’t like to ponder it. “Miles and Mason Bristol. The vampire I killed tonight told me where they like to party. We can go tomorrow night.”

  Deep lines remained on his forehead as he watched her. One soft fingertip smoothed away a loose hair then traced her eyebrow and followed up the curve of her cheekbone. He was looking at her eyes, she knew, not into them. “What did the ritual do to you?”

  “Don’t ask,” she said, a heartfelt answer, not a dismissal. “Not yet.
I’m not ready to talk about it. Someday, I promise, you’ll know all the truth.”

  After a moment he looked away, and his hand returned to comforting strokes on her hair. She didn’t say that she feared the time when that truth came to light. It would break his heart to hear that his best friend had betrayed him.

  What will you do when you find out that he watched and did nothing? That he’s had your answers all this time? No friendship could survive that blow. She only hoped he would forgive her for keeping the secret until it was too late for him to stop her.

  Chapter Six

  Noah opened his eyes, and Kayla was still there. He couldn’t help but smile. When they’d crawled into bed as the first rays of dawn streaked through the sky, he’d wondered if he’d wake up and find her gone.

  She’s so skittish. He reached up to brush his fingers over her hair. Driven and flighty, like a shadow in the light.

  Which, he thought, described just what she was.

  Even now, she curled deep into the bed, back to the dim sunshine that found its way around the bedroom curtains. His gentle strokes didn’t rouse her. She didn’t move, she barely breathed, and he realized, with his heart in his throat, that she didn’t look unlike a sleeping vampire he’d once seen.

  What have they done to you?

  It made him sick to think about. She’d told him very little, but the very loud, unspoken details gnawed at him. What he didn’t know, he had to make up. A fertile imagination gave him dark, awful pictures to see in his mind. Did they even come close to what had actually happened? That thought was the worst; of all he could dream up, it might not touch the reality.

  How can I help you if I don’t understand? He gently touched fingertips to the skin of her shoulder. How can I understand if you don’t let me in?

  Though reluctant to leave her, he pulled himself out of the bed. No matter how nice it felt to spoon against her and pretend he could protect her, it did no good at all. If she wouldn’t tell him, he’d have to find out another way.