by Kaia Bennett
Distantly I smelled the musk of male arousal beyond my own, but Evie, who dug her tongue into my bullet wounds, now claimed my mouth and my attention. Our mingled tastes sweetened the bruising kiss and blocked out everything else. I attacked my zipper and she ripped the last few teeth open, shoving my jeans down my hips enough to free the hot brand of my cock, vibrating like a drill desperate to penetrate fertile earth. I shoved her spine to the floor and entered her with one hard shove, so full of rage and need, we both screamed.
Our bodies shuddered in unison. Every hair, every pore, every bead of sweat linked us as her body embraced mine.
She clawed me closer, her nails digging into my shoulders and slicing down my back. I seized her lips and our hips pumped as if they could melt together. I wondered for the first time if I could actually die from the pain of pleasure, from having a need so fervent met in exactly the way I imagined. I wouldn’t have protested if death were the price.
Back and forth, in and out. She could feel her own nails digging into my flesh the way I could feel the hard planes of the wood floor digging into hers. Up and down. Her and me. Separate bodies were an illusion now. Nothing else mattered in that moment but our race toward release. Not my father. Not Vaughn or Stark. Not Cai or Evie’s family. I came and she came, and still, she rushed with wetness and I remained hard as a rock, unfinished and unable to pull out. I fucked her harder, gripped her jaw and watched her eyes fade in and out of focus.
Her gaze was a mirror of my own and yet so expressive, so cloudy with emotions I’d never felt before.
My mate.
I don’t want to be yours, she whispered in mind. I don’t want to be yours. I want to be free. Please. Please.
Panic set in. She whispered, “Please, please, please, please!” And my own mind echoed her soft cries, her confusion, and her desire.
I could kill her after this and free us both. I only invited weakness if she lived. Fuck whatever the wolf said. The only way to break a curse was to kill the witch who cast it.
Leave no one behind to tell the tale.
But how could I give this up again? How could I let perfect, endless pleasure slip through my fingers and float away?
“Fuck!” We hissed together. She arched her hips, grabbed my ass, and pulled me into her grasping core. Her voice broke on a strangled cry, eyes shut tight on tears of ecstasy, as well as fear.
I shuddered, emptied into her, so deep and so hard, that my final thrusts made her arch and exposed her neck to my kiss. I shivered in the aftermath, bit deep, and fell into another kind of orgasm, a sensation that only a witch could wring from a true born with their narcotic blood. In her mind, she spiraled, and she dragged me down with her, into her, in ways I’d never planned to descend.
She cried in a corner of a white room covered in blood.
She cried out between Vaughn and me, between Liam and Vaughn, between all three of us.
She watched a human girl die as her body exploded with orgasm and she felt disgust, the rawest form of disgust.
I could only liken the feeling to the way death smells to a vampire, the decay of life, the aftermath of lost self-control. Her self-hatred held that thick relentlessness. She’d been powerless to banish pleasure, no matter what we did to her, no matter what we made her do. She made me feel her pain as my own.
I pulled free of her body and we both cried out at the loss. A cold-water bath would’ve been more pleasant than sliding out of the velvet heat of her juicy pussy. But, being inside her while she wept, something I’d relished before, felt like a knife twisting in my gut. Cruelty had always been spice for my bloodlust. In another life, I’d have licked up her tears and shoved them down her throat. Now cruelty curdled my high, her influence flooding my mind with anguish I never wanted to feel again. She covered her face in her hands and curled into a ball while she sobbed. I shoved my cock into my jeans and zipped up, already craving another fuck when I should’ve been ready to kill her.
When I glanced in the direction of Vaughn and the wolf, I met the glances of two kinds of lust, like seeing myself in funhouse mirrors. Stark, a wolf, a predator like us, couldn’t deny his arousal. His eyes glowed, his cock strained in his pants. But, he looked full of remorse and pity for the witch. Embarrassment marred his features. If he hadn’t been determined to watch and protect Evie, I imagine he’d have turned away from us both.
Vaughn openly rubbed his cock through his jeans and smiled, looking at me with hopeful expectation. His turn, maybe?
I glanced down at Evie, turning my head to stare at the perfect of sweep of her unclothed ankle as she dragged herself to a sitting position. She went to slide her leg into her jeans. I touched the creamy skin as her leg descended into denim, and she swung wide and hard, her new strength snapping my head all the way to the side. I blinked and laughed in shock before turning to stare at her.
“Don’t fucking touch me,” she hissed, scooting away as she pumped her hips into her jeans. “I’d rather be dead than let you touch me again.”
She swiped her tear-streaked face with a rough hand, wiped the blood off her mouth, and jumped to her feet. I wondered if she noticed the ease of her movements, how some were quick bursts of vampire speed and some were still so human, so much like the witch who’d been powerless against me. She seemed caught between two worlds while I knelt by her feet, lost. I wanted my power back. I pulled on my torn shirt and jumped to my full height a moment later, cracking my jaw into place.
“I can arrange that for you.” I grabbed her by the throat and dragged her to me. “I came here to finish what I started, witch.”
I squeezed. Stark growled, but Evie lifted her chin and stared deep into my eyes, closing the small gap between our bodies. I loosened my grip enough to stroke her throat with my thumb.
“Oh yeah? Go ahead, but make sure you follow through this time, pussy! I’m not interested in living if I have to look at your murdering, rapist face again!”
I hesitated. She grinned, a maniacal gleam of triumph in her eyes. No fear now, just lust and fury.
You won’t do it. You already want another taste, don’t you, Jesse?
She smacked my wrist away. While I narrowed my eyes, she skated past memories of the night I’d drowned her. The crazy rollercoaster ride of her thoughts sank into the pit of my stomach, but she wrenched her mind away from the lake. The gleam in her eye told me she’d torture me with my fuck up at will, but she didn’t will it now. The glimpse of her power turned my knees to gelatin.
She composed herself and looked at Stark, then averted her gaze at once. Her heart raced and her cheeks blazed with heat. I watched the two with puzzlement. She approached him, but a tense space stood between the two.
Stark’s eyes faded like a nightlight, the azure glow narrowing into human blue irises, the whites reappearing. His pointed canine teeth were slower to disappear. He had to open his maw wide, stretching his jawbone left and right. His tongue wiggled while the wolf teeth melted into his gums and the human teeth returned, straight and white, with just a hint of blood from his battered gums.
“What now?” Evie released a shuddering breath and sat on the back of the couch. She waved a hand at the blood on the floor, the disarray of the house, and pointed her question at Stark. “What happens now?”
“You bend over and give the rest of us a turn. It’ll be just like old times.”
Evie turned and caught Vaughn’s eye where he leaned against the wall. She tilted her head the way we do when we spot a threat or prey. Vaughn lifted his chin and stared at her with narrowed eyes. He still gripped his cock but hesitation stalled his stroke. I wondered if she knew she’d asserted dominance in one gesture. I wondered if Vaughn would let her dominance stand once the shock of her being turned wore off.
Stark ran his tongue over his teeth, clearing the pink streaks of blood from his healing gums. He angled Evie behind him, blocking Vaughn’s view, and turned his attention to me.
“You don’t try and double cross me.” Stark poi
nted at me, then at Vaughn. “You don’t try to kill me or the girl. She’s under my protection now. If anything happens to us, and we don’t reach our destination by tomorrow morning, this fiasco goes public. I’ve made sure of it. Come with us now. No one has to know Metis Oldman’s heir apparent got owned by a witch he turned into his mate.”
I growled, both from the first bullet pushing out of my chest and from the threat. I plucked the compressed metal out of my wound, inspected the misshapen lead, then let the bullet clunk to the floor as the second followed close behind.
“You really think you can get away with blackmailing me?”
“I think you haven’t given me a choice.” Stark glanced over his shoulder at Evie. “The only thing you have to lose is your mate bond with a turned vampire.”
“A few witch tricks and a hate fuck.” Vaughn snickered and ruffled the hair on the back of his head. A thin spray of blood misted the air. “Who knew wolves were such romantics?”
“She’s not my mate.” Saying the words aloud made me sick. My father always said only cowards have to lie.
This is just part of the curse.
Stark holstered his weapon. I held up my hand to Vaughn when I thought my brother might take advantage. I winced as the second bullet exited the wound and joined its twin.
“If you brought anything with you, grab it so we can load it into my ride. It’s time to go.” Stark strode past the upended table, and grabbed a bag by the fireplace Evie and her family had been huddled against before the fight. The bag must’ve belonged to Evie because she collected herself enough to grab the handle from him. He reluctantly let her have the bag and I watched their fingers brush. The silent gesture and the glance they gave each other made the muscles in my jaw leap around my clenched teeth.
“What about the house?” Evie circled, gesturing at the mayhem. We’d covered the living room in blood, broken glass, and the splintered wood of her dining room table. Claw marks scored the wood floors in the spot where I’d fucked her senseless.
“It’s okay. I have a cleanup crew I can call and we won’t have to change the cover story for your folks. They’re in witness protection now. I made sure the press steers clear of your story from here on out. Your boyfriend Manny won’t bother you if you do what I say and don’t call him. Just focus on what comes next, so you get better.”
“Poor Manny, left holding his dick again.” Vaughn laughed.
“He should be thanking her for that.” I tossed Vaughn a grin. “Leaving him with blue balls in the woods saved his life.”
“Yeah, he missed out on all the fun. I hope you gave him one last fuck before you said ‘goodbye’, baby. Bet he appreciated everything we taught you on the road.”
Stark intercepted Evie’s rush to attack Vaughn, and pointed at the front door. Vaughn and I were forced to walk ahead, while Evie brought up the rear.
“Where are we headed?”
Vaughn didn’t speak above a whisper as we strode into the driveway. He didn’t need to, the wolf heard him fine.
“We’ll still be in Jersey, just north of here. We’re going to Allamuchy.”
6
Two and half hours later, our awkward and silent car ride brought us to Shades of Death road, leading us into the Great Meadows. A golden dawn teased the horizon, casting a dark sky full of stars in gradients of navy. We’d hit tourist territory, the kind of foggy, desolate place humans called ‘creepy’ when they wanted a safe scare.
Humans are a restless bunch, and so, much can change in just a few years. I hadn’t been through New Jersey since the Eighties, but the marshy farmland we passed felt familiar. I’d probably killed a few people here, haunted house freaks looking for a fright night who’d gotten more than they bargained for.
We turned off the main road adjacent to farmland and I felt Evie’s gaze on me in the side mirror. I smiled, recalling the last time I’d had her in a farmhouse, trapped between Vaughn and me, her little pussy almost squirting over Vaughn’s fingers. We traveled for nearly a mile down a rocky, unpaved road before Stark parked the car alongside a well-maintained, but vacant, house. Mist swirled around the land as if sweeping in from the forest. Tendrils crawled out to greet us, so thick that even the headlights couldn’t penetrate the rolling grayness.
Stark turned off the ignition and pushed open his door. The glare of the overhead light made me squint. “Everyone out.”
An owl hooted in the distance, beckoning us into the woods as we exited the car. We grabbed our bags from the trunk. Evie wrapped her arms around her body and stared through the mist. She kept her distance while Stark pulled out one black backpack and her shoulder bag. Vaughn thumped his ass onto the hood of Stark’s sedan, pulled a pack of cigarettes and lighter from his jacket pocket, and lit up. The crisp scent of nicotine hit the air and I breathed the poison in with the cold November wind.
“What’s the deal with this place, anyway?” Vaughn took a deep drag, then exhaled through his nose. He shoved the pack and lighter into his pocket. “Thought you were taking us to see some witch doctor, but no one’s here. Smells too clean. Unlived in. I bet a human hasn’t been in this house in a while, unless they were throwing a bucket of bleach on it.”
“That’s only half true.” Stark loosened his tie with his free hand. “The house is a cover in this world, a gateway. It’s lived in—on the other side.” He seemed distracted, sniffing the air and staring up at the moonless sky with a sigh.
“Put this on.” Stark handed Evie the backpack. She slid her arms through the straps. Stark set her bag down at her feet before taking a deep breath.
“Don’t be scared at what you’re about to see, okay? I won’t hurt you. Everything is going to be fine.”
Evie nodded and Stark reached for her hand. She offered him her palm and he sniffed along the soft flesh, getting the scent of his charge stuck in his mind. Then, he handed her his gun.
“They cause you any trouble, any at all, you do what I showed you.”
She nodded again, and I wondered if she’d wait for trouble, or try to get her revenge. So did Vaughn, judging by the long inhale, the orange tip of his cigarette hooking in the air like a question mark.
Stark pulled off his tie, unbuttoned his shirt and peeled the fabric off. He kicked off his shoes, socks, then stripped off his pants and boxer briefs in a smooth motion. I gave Vaughn a lopsided grin when he turned his head to the side and checked out the firmness of Stark’s ass. The wolf gathered his clothes and laid them all in the trunk before rounding the car again, right in front of Evie.
While Stark got down on all fours, Vaughn howled and panted like a wolf, forcing a laugh from me.
“How about you, witch bitch?” Vaughn waggled his eyebrows at Evie. “You like how the wolf’s put together, too?”
Evie’s heart kicked up a beat. Vaughn licked his lips like he’d heard the sound, like the extra blood pumping through her would somehow end up on his tongue. “Don’t tell me you haven’t let him fuck you? What’s the matter wolf, you don’t like pussy? ‘Cause I made your new girlfriend come on my cock, and I guarantee, she’s got a quality snatch. To die for, even.” My brother smirked at me. He wasn’t wrong. She’d damn near wiped out my whole crew because of her quality snatch, with me lingering in the ‘to be determined’ pile.
Stark barked in response as his wolf gaze met Vaughn’s glacial blue eyes. My gut twisted with the beginnings of hunger—and anger at Vaughn’s taunt about my pet’s relationship to Stark—but I still managed a grin when Stark turned his fury on me.
“Too bad you didn’t stay dead.”
Vaughn grinned broadly at Evie’s barb and gave her the once over. “Wouldn’t have been a bad way to go, witch. My only regret is I didn’t get to carve my name into your cunt. But, who knows? Maybe this is our second chance at romance?”
All three of us were drawn to the inhuman growl tumbling from Stark’s throat like a running engine. Jaws in transition from human to wolf snapped the air. His spine bowed, elongated. Hand
s expanded into paws, legs curved and reformed into haunches, feet lengthened. His spine broke through his back, growing like a bony chain, crawling with muscle. His skin cracked and broke, and underneath, the sinew of a wolf’s muscular frame reformed. Muscles expanded and transformed into the fatty meat just below the surface of skin. And then came the rough hide, sprouting first fine fur and then a thick, slate gray-and-white coat.
The fur clung, wet with newborn goo, to his skin. All the while, he hummed that werewolf hum, modulating what must’ve been practiced agony with near-silent control. When he’d finished, a large wolf, too large to be canis lupus, stood before us. He shook out his wet fur, growled and stretched, then swung his big head around.
Vaughn leaped onto the hood of the car, gaining the high ground, while I sank into a crouch and eyed the wolf’s long legs. I could slow him and take leaping out of his arsenal of attacks if I broke one. I felt around and found a stray branch I could drive into his belly or chest if he lunged.
The wolf stared at Evie, who whispered frantically as she inched toward the house.
“Oh, my God. Oh God. Oh fuck, that’s big. Nice giant wolf. Niiice wolf. Who keeps. Walking. Toward me.”
I made a move to step in front of Evie when she tripped, but the wolf swiveled his body and barked. Every hair on his back stood up. Saliva dripped from his teeth as he snapped his massive jaws. Still, he didn’t attack me. He retreated, instead, drawing closer to Evie with every giant-pawed step backward. With a huff, the wolf gave an almost human nod for me to return to the car. I looked over my shoulder to find Vaughn poised to leap over the hood. He titled his head, a quick gesture to ask if he should attack.
I shook my head and stood. “He’s protecting her from us.” I tossed the stick and rubbed the sweat from my palms on my jeans. If only the jealousy tingling in my mind could be so easily wiped away.