Hot, Hard & Howling

by Mari Freeman

  A long, low howl in the distance reminded him of their surroundings. A chorus of other Weres answered the first and their songs echoed across the mountain. Trent felt his wolf stretch and stir, but it was happily sated. Probably more sated than it had been in years. No urge to change and no restless cravings goading him to hunt under the moon this night. The full moon was always host to several ceremonies and rituals in the area. Trent was now glad he’d made no commitments to appear at any of them.

  He pushed off, swinging them slightly as he trailed his fingers up and down her spine, enjoying the feel of each of the delicate bones, the taut muscles and the silky skin that covered them.

  “Halfling,” he whispered to the top of her golden hair. Another set of baying howls filled the humid night air. “We should get you covered up before we have company.”

  “Um hm.” She lifted her head and gave him a lazy smile. “My being naked didn’t bother you a bit a few minutes ago.”

  Unable to resist, Trent kissed her long and softly, feeling the warmth of her lips, teasing the tip of her tongue with his. This pleasant, replete female would soon be back to her loud, bossy self. He wanted to savor her this way for just a minute more, remember her this way—not angry, as she would be when he parted ways with her. She tasted of everything forbidden to him and it was starting to hurt. He should have kept going, gotten in his car and left her hanging from the swing. It might have been safer for her that way.

  Breaking the kiss, he held her shoulders and looked her in the eye. He would not take the coward’s way out of this. “You’re right, but there are others gathering up here tonight. We won’t be alone for long. You need to get home and I have work to do.”

  “You’re not coming with me?”

  “No. I told you before. I’ve tried to avoid this. To avoid using you.”

  She sat up in his lap, grinding her still moist, warm pussy against him. Trent took in a raspy breath as the realization crossed her face. He needed to get his point across. She had to know he couldn’t start a relationship. He braced himself for her anger, wishing he had another option.

  “Use me?” she asked.

  “Nell. You don’t understand.” Her struggle to extract herself from his lap cut off his feeble explanation. She was trying to pull her legs from around his hips but was hampered by the chains. She fell backward, cursing. It gave him a wonderful view, since her legs were still straddling him.

  Gripping her hips, he lifted her curvy form and set her on the ground before him. She was so beautiful, so strong and so perfect for him in every way. If only he were able to be the man she needed.

  “You rotten dog!” She put her hands on her naked hips and her breasts jiggled. Trent tried to concentrate on her face but her nipples were calling to him. He’d taken her so fast and rough that he’d not had time to enjoy her shapely body. She kept right on talking. “What is it, Trent? I just proved I could take whatever you and your wolf can dish out. I’m not as fragile as I look. You want me. I bet if you look inside that mangy chest of yours and find what was once something close to a heart, you’d see that you love me. Why, Trent? Why?”

  “Nell. It’s not you.”

  “Damn straight it’s not me. I proved to you what I’ve always known. Your animal side has never scared me, wolf-boy. So what is it?”

  He didn’t answer.

  She stomped back to the table and grabbed her backpack. Trent took the opportunity to slide his pants and boots on as she pulled out a clean set of shorts and a tank top. “All these years, every time we’ve seen one another, I could see your feelings written all over your face. And Mi-ma tells me you’ve kept up with me, even checked on me more often than necessary.” She yanked the top over her head.

  She didn’t stop glaring at him as she stepped into her shorts, not until her booted foot caught and made her stumble. Trent tried to reach out to catch her but she had already started to use her Demon magic to catch her fall, creating a magical buffer between herself and the ground. Trent broke the spell as he moved closer, causing them both to fall. Their eyes met. Hers were filled with anger and hurt. It showed in the depths of those golden brown irises.

  He inwardly cringed. He hated hurting her more than anything. She yanked herself up, adjusted her shorts and zipped them.

  “Oh no you don’t. Don’t you pity me, Prime. This is your loss.” She unbuckled the gold bindings on one of the cuffs. “I waited. I gave you room to sow your wild oats.” She threw the cuff into his lap. “I let you do the brooding loner thing.” She released the second cuff and tossed it. The buff leather cuff landed perfectly next to the first on his thighs. “This was it, Trent. I’m done. We’ve shared blood. We’re all but mated as it is. Whatever it is that’s holding you back, share it with me and we’ll work through it together.” She slung the pack over her shoulder and looked down at him.

  Trent felt his insides churn. The wolf was up and pacing, uneasy and growling in his mind. He wanted to tell her. He really did. But how did you tell the woman you’ve always loved that you’re afraid? Afraid you’ll kill her in a fit of groundless jealousy or unrestrained anger? He looked to his feet, trying to find the strength to admit his weakness. His feet didn’t possess the ability to assist him.

  Nell stood quietly looking down at him, waiting for an answer, waiting for Trent to share his thoughts for several excruciatingly long minutes, but he kept his silence.

  “I don’t even deserve a response from you? I mean that little?” she asked quietly.

  She waited again for an answer. He had none.

  “Fine. I’ll not wait for you anymore, Trent Nicholas.” Her voice cracked slightly. She turned and started up the path that led toward her house without a backward glance.

  Trent’s gaze dropped to the supple leather cuffs in his lap and he wondered how he would ever get past the feeling of her skin on his fingers. Would he sleep again without dreaming of the way she had joyfully encouraged his dominant urges, or how much it had turned her on to do so? Would he ever hear the wind and not hear the breathless moans she made when she came apart as she rode him?

  A long, lonely howl sang through the silence of the night. He understood the emptiness in the sound as it echoed through the mountain air, making his wolf stretch and pace.

  He still had business to attend to. The wolf would have to wait this time.

  Hot, Hard & Howling

  Chapter Five

  “Fucking Demons,” Trent muttered before turning back to an old Demon who was sucking on an ugly tattoo plastered across the hip of a prostitute. The pert brunette was naked and spread out over the trunk lid of a crappy old Chrysler. The Demon had done little to acknowledging the Prime’s questions. “Carson, just tell me before I decide you’re violating some Council tenet.”

  The Demon pulled himself away from the hooker, making her moan in objection. “Easy, bitch. I’m paying by the hour.” His appearance shifted. The change was fast and subtle, but Trent saw a ripple of transformation. Most likely a side effect of the sexual excitement Carson was fighting to stem in order to speak.

  “You know, Prime, this had best be important. I’m as liable to fuck you as her in this state.”

  Trent snorted. “Try.” The hooker giggled. The Demon continued to stroke her even with his attention turned to the Were. Trent noticed her tight body and young features did nothing for him. Not that he was one for hookers anyway, but the female should at least pique his interest. Full moon, his wolf should be stirring, ready to go at anything with a pussy. The sight of the girl naked and splayed over the car only made him wonder what Nell would look like bent over the back of his Mustang, her legs spread wide, looking over her shoulder at him.

  He huffed and looked the Demon in the eye. “Have you heard of any new masters in the area? Any new faces at all?” This was Small Town, Nowhere, tucked high in the mountains. If there was a new Sorcerer around, the low-level Demons always knew. The rats were usually recruited to do the grunt work uppity masters didn’t want
to dirty their hands with—like maiming a Halfling.

  Carson hesitated in his ministrations of the female for a split second, the move as slight as the ripple of a change earlier, but Trent noticed. “No, man.” Carson turned back and leaned over the girl’s breasts, taking one in his mouth.

  “Carson. I’m asking one more time. I smelled blood magic. On a dead human. Serious blood magic. That means a master Sorcerer is being very naughty. You don’t want to be a party to that sort of violation. The Council—”

  Carson pulled his lips away from the girl’s tit with a pop. “Council? I’d rather face the Council than the problems you’re looking for, man. But you cut me some slack once, so I’ll tell you something you can use.” He looked around. The hooker whined again, so Carson started rubbing her clit to shut her up. “You don’t need no master for blood magic. You only need a pissant Sorcerer and a good spell from a master for that.”

  “Fine. So what pissant has come to town?”

  Carson smirked. “After your girl, ain’t he?”

  Trent roared as he lunged. He plowed into Carson, taking them both to the ground. The hooker squealed and rolled off the hood, landing in a pile on the far side of the rusty, old car. Trent let his snout lengthen as he lightly sank his teeth into the Demon’s exposed throat. No matter what form the Demon chose for this fight, Trent now had the advantage.

  Carson tried to still his body. “Okay, man. You got me.”

  Trent loosened his bite enough to get out a garbled word. “Talk.”

  “A skank Sorcerer I hadn’t seen in forty years showed up last week. Says he’s been looking for a chick from his past. Says he wants to play with her. I know who he’s asking after and who she belongs to, dude. I swear. I didn’t tell him shit. He must have found her some other way.”

  Trent’s teeth tightened on Carson’s neck. The hair on the back of Trent’s neck was sprouting. He tasted Demon blood and sweat on his tongue. He tried to take deep, full breaths. The wolf was raging, pressing on his mind, stretching in his body. His fingers burned with the need to change, his nails already lengthening.

  “Dude, I should have told you! But the guy’s a bug. I didn’t think he’d do her any harm, honest. I figured she’d kick his ass to another realm.” Leathery-feeling, partially changed skin formed under Trent’s teeth as Carson also tried for deep breaths, desperately trying to calm down. “Easy, man. Take a deep breath. Don’t go full wolf and rip me apart, dude.” Trent felt him shaking under his grip. “Think of the Council paperwork!”

  Trent caught himself laughing. He released the Demon and rolled away and into a sitting position.

  Carson propped himself on his elbow. “He didn’t hurt your woman, did he?”

  Trent spat. “She’s not my woman.”

  The Demon relaxed onto his back as the hooker scrambled away from the car. “Whatever you tell yourself, man.” He watched the frightened female as she made it to her own car. “That was a good lay too.” He rubbed his head.

  “Name, Carson.” The night was wearing on him and the moon was still calling.

  “Crey.”

  * * * * *

  The backpack slid across the coffee table, taking out magazines and candles as it made its way to the floor in front of the couch. Nell kept moving toward the stairs, not caring to see the damage. “I’m done.” Hot, angry tears trailed down her face.

  She reached the base of the stairs—and froze, holding her breath, trying to squelch the tears and the pounding of her heart.

  The tiny hairs on the back of her neck tingled.

  Something was wrong.

  She stood stock-still and listened to the house. The normal sounds of wind and old, creaking wood. Off in the distance she could hear the excited melody of wolf cries as they embraced the moon. She could see the back door and part of the kitchen at the end of the short hall that ran past the stairs. Her heart twisted again as she remembered Trent carrying her out that door, cradling her tenderly, but she stifled the emotion to concentrate on the more pressing feeling of dread.

  She had to sniffle. Her nose was running. Damn that arrogant Were! She had put herself in danger because she was distracted by him again. She should have gone straight to Mi-ma’s. She just needed to find her car keys and then she’d be out of there…

  No. This was her house. Her father’s house. She’d be damned if she’d let anyone scare her away.

  Nell glanced around her immediate area. Nothing seemed out of place, so she turned quietly to face the living room. The darkness did little to hide anything. Her night vision had been acclimated by the long walk through the forest, and was excellent regardless. She listened once more. Nothing.

  She took a step toward the kitchen and her hair tickled again. The source of her unease was in that direction. Nell’s instincts had gotten her through many a bad situation and she trusted them without fail. Well, accept for where that stupid, stubborn wolf was concerned.

  A branch, swaying in the breeze, tapped on the window in the dining room. Nell took another step. She felt as if her heart was pounding loud enough to give her position away. She drew in on herself, felt her shift coming. She fought it. She needed her intellect at the moment. In her shifted form, she was all primal urge. If she were a full Demon, like her father and Mi-ma, her shifted form would be significantly bigger, stronger and still as sentient. Her Halfling Demon form made her slightly bigger and a little stronger, but in it, she tended toward the fight-or-flight response; she felt and reacted. She needed to think right this minute.

  Nell took a deep, steadying breath and slid around the wall that blocked most of the kitchen from view. Only shadows danced in the room. That left the basement. She shivered. She hated the basement in broad daylight. Going down there while she had this spooky feeling did not make her happy.

  She moved as quietly as she could back to the living room and rummaged through her backpack. Shit. She’d left her cell phone on the picnic table in the park. And since moving back home, she’d not bothered to hook up the phone. She had her cell. What did she need a landline for? Now she really needed the Prime and she’d left herself with no way to reach him. Great plan, Nelly.

  Nell cautiously crept back to the kitchen, casting a wistfully longing glance at the old rotary phone on the wall, its cord impossibly tangled. Her pistol lay in a cabinet drawer directly beneath the useless phone. She cringed when the wood, swollen with age, released a brief, high-pitched squeal as she opened the drawer.

  The door to the basement stood ajar at the back of the kitchen. That wasn’t unusual. She always left the door cracked. It was a constant ritual for her, looking down those rickety stairs first thing every morning, even before brewing coffee. Not that anything had ever greeted her from the landing, but…just in case. Call it crazy superstition but various items from her dad’s travels were down there and the room had its own peculiar vibration that gave her the jeebies. No telling what batshit-crazy stuff was hidden away in those boxes—and no way was she closing the door on it. If something decided to manifest down there, she wanted to see it coming.

  At the moment the basement looked like a dark abyss. Like a cop on television, she held the gun out, ready to aim and fire as she moved.

  She closed her eyes and steeled her nerves. She put her foot on the first step, listening, knowing that every time she watched a scary movie she cursed the chicks who went into scary, dark basements.

  Nell had always thought she would be smarter than that. Apparently not. This was no movie and she knew exactly what evils lurked in the dark. To some, she would be that evil. But someone—or something—was down there and she wanted this to end. She was tired of sleeping on her sisters’ couches. She let her fear push her to the point of partially shifting. Her bones started to lengthen, grinding at the joints. Her teeth scraped together as they dropped, giving her small, pointy fangs.

  She felt her Demon presence very close to the surface and used that energy to feel for any sign of life force in the basement. She w
as sure she would have to battle for her life again. More dead things in the house she would have to deal with. Hopefully she wouldn’t be one of them.

  Nell rushed down to the basement, half-shifted, gun pointed into the darkness. At the bottom of the stairs she was swarmed by shadow. It moved; she felt the touch of it. She let her shift complete, her size increasing only minimally, her skin shimmering into a tough-scaled hide, her eyesight sharpening.

  She spun as the shadow engulfed her. Nell fired. She reached out with her telekinesis as well and thrust with her Demon power, but even with her improved night vision she couldn’t find the source of the shadow to attempt to focus on it. The power bounced around the stone walls of the basement. She couldn’t stop the force once she let it go. It reverberated, knocking over a table. The blast hit her as well. She stumbled backward and tripped over some displaced objects that once lived neatly on shelves.

  The shadow felt thick and was, amazingly, attacking from all around her. Her heart beat faster. Through the engulfing shadow she thought she saw a darker shape moving swiftly toward her.

  She concentrated through her fear, fought the flight instinct and raised the gun. She squeezed the trigger again.

  A strange, deafening shriek echoed off the cinderblock basement walls…

  Then all got quiet for a moment.

  She looked up. The shadow was still moving around her and she held her breath, unable to fight it in any other way. How do you stop a shadow? She resigned herself to waiting for an actual attack. She was weakened by such a large surge of magic. She wasn’t able to call on her telekinesis as much as she liked, and after the emotional night and a panicked burst of energy that big, she was toast.

  Her breathing calmed. She held the gun pointed at the far wall as the shadow began to take on a more physical presence. It wasn’t a shadow after all. It was a bunch of life forces, flying, flitting and finally starting to settle around the room.