But before he could go on, I heard a rising shout from among the assembled weres around the large flat rock. I looked at them uncertainly but they were all looking back at us—or at Victor, rather. They were pointing and backing away, naked fear on their faces.
“The curse! He’s got the fucking curse!” one of them shouted and then the others took up the cry.
“The curse! A cursed one among us!”
I whipped my head back to look at Victor and saw that the weres holding him had done as LeeAnn demanded and ripped away his shirt entirely. There was a circle of light about the size of a baseball stamped on his lower back and it was glowing the same scarlet red as his eyes. There was some kind of writing in it—something in a cursive, foreign script I couldn’t read, though when I closed my eyes for a moment, the strange letters seemed stamped on my brain.
Pack Master Wainright saw the circle of light at the same time I did. His eyes got wide and he took two steps forward, grabbed LeeAnn by the arm and yanked her away.
“No!” she protested, trying to get back to Victor. “I’m not done yet, Daddy! I haven’t punished him enough.”
“He’s cursed, LeeAnn! Step away, for God’s sake. Come on!” He dragged his daughter—who seemed to be the only one in the pack who didn’t understand the situation—away from Victor.
“Pack Master…” Victor’s voice was a low, inhuman growl. It didn’t sound like him—not at all. Not even his wolf form sounded like that. What the hell was going on?
“We’re sorry.” Wainright was backing away with his struggling daughter firmly in tow. “We didn’t know, Victor. We’ll leave you alone from now on, I swear.” He looked at the weres still holding him. “Let him go. All of you, let him go and get out of here.”
The weres holding Victor didn’t have to be told twice. They backed away from him warily, obviously trying to gauge the minimum safe distance they could reach before turning and running.
The weres holding me melted away too, as did the watching crowd. They faded into the surrounding trees and underbrush, leaving only the stink of wet dog behind to show they had ever been there.
At last Victor and I were the only ones left. We stood alone on the large, flat rock, not speaking. I couldn’t take my eyes off him, couldn’t stop wondering what was happening—what he was becoming.
But whatever it was, I didn’t care. The blood streaming down his back and shoulders looked black in the moonlight. When trickles of it reached the glowing circle at his lower back, they hissed and steamed, as though the blood had touched a hot frying pan or griddle. The sight made me tremble but he had been wounded for my sake and I knew I had to heal him.
“Victor,” I said, going to him.
His hand shot out, as though to fend me off.
“No. Stay away.” His voice still had that rough, unearthly quality to it, the grating, gravelly tone that wasn’t animal or human but something strangely in between. His face had broadened, the cheekbones and forehead spreading and by the flash of moonlight on his teeth, I saw that his fangs had grown longer too—almost as long as mine. Something was definitely wrong with him—he looked frightening, almost like something out of a nightmare. But I refused to let myself be scared off.
“I can’t stay away,” I told him, hoping my voice didn’t shake too much. “You…you’re hurt—I need to heal you.”
“Don’t, Taylor.” He looked at me, his eyes still burning scarlet. “Don’t touch me. The whip…think it had something on it. I’m dangerous right now. I’ll hurt you.”
“No, you won’t,” I said with absolute certainty. No matter what form he took, he would never harm me—I was sure of that. I just needed to get over his frightening appearance and remember what a sweet, wonderful guy was underneath. “Just let me look at your back,” I told him, trying to sound professional.
“No,” he protested but didn’t move when I went around behind him. His big hands were clenched into fists at his sides and every muscle in his large frame was tensed. It was almost as though he was braced for flight, like he wanted to run away from me but couldn’t quite bring himself to do it. As though something about me was holding him in place against his will. “No,” he almost groaned again and I heard him inhale deeply as the wind gusted around us. Was he scenting me?
Then I got a closer look at his injuries and all other questions and worries slipped from my mind. He was a patient—someone in pain I needed to treat.
“God, your poor back,” I whispered. The silver whip had really shredded his skin. A surge of anger washed over me and I knew if LeeAnn had been standing in front of me I would have done my level best to rip her face off.
“Just leave it,” Victor grated. “Not safe. Let it heal…on its own.”
“Why?” I said. “What haven’t you told me? What is this all about?” I brushed my fingertips lightly over the glowing red circle at the small of his back. It was like touching live coals—the heat burned my fingers.
Victor hissed and rounded on me suddenly. He caught my offending hand in his grip and held me by the wrist, hard enough to make the bones ache.
“Don’t,” he snarled, his eyes flashing. “Don’t ever fucking touch me there—understand?”
“No,” I snapped back. “No, I don’t understand. What’s going on with you, Victor—and don’t say it’s moon sickness. What the hell is this curse they were all talking about?”
“You don’t need to know.” He dropped my hand and took a deep breath. “Just…just stay away from me.”
“No, I won’t!” I stepped toward him again and managed to get behind him before he could stop me. “Not until I heal your back—this will cause a permanent scar if I don’t.”
“You can’t do that,” he protested, trying to turn around. But I had my hands planted firmly on his broad, bare shoulders and I turned with him, as graceful, for once, as a dancer.
“I won’t let you be scarred for my sake,” I told him. Leaning forward, I dragged the flat of my tongue over his wounded back.
“No!” Victor jerked away from me but the damage was already done.
I tasted his blood and the bright, metallic flavor of the metal lash that had wounded him but there was something else in it as well. Something strange and insidious—a kind of poison that started to work on me at once.
“Oh,” I gasped, letting go of his shoulders and stumbling back a step. “Oh God, what…?”
“Taylor? Baby?” Victor turned and caught me before I fell, his scarlet eyes filled with worry. “You shouldn’t have done that—I shouldn’t have let you get close enough to do it.”
“It’s…I don’t…I can’t…” I couldn’t think what I wanted to say. All I could think about was how good Victor smelled—his warm, masculine scent like fur and leather and musk was so strong, so enticing. And the male desire I smelled under it seemed to match my own.
The heat hit me like a freight train, knocking me off balance, blazing through me like a comet, setting everything inside me on fire. My nipples went tight and achy and my pussy was abruptly drenched, my clit throbbing with need. I was empty…so empty…I needed to be filled.
Suddenly, my mind was full of images—images of the two of us fucking. No, not fucking—breeding. I could see Victor ripping off my dress and shredding my panties, pushing me down to the bare, cold rock and kicking my thighs apart, baring my pussy for his assault. I could see him shoving the huge club of his cock inside me, inch by thick inch, invading me, owning me, claiming me for his own completely and forever. And then thrusting into me over and over, taking me, shooting his cum inside me, making me his…
Victor’s eyes widened and I knew somehow that the vision had jumped from me to him—maybe because we both had the whip’s poison in our systems.
“No,” he gasped, holding me at arms length. “No, I would never—you know I wouldn’t, baby. I swore to never hurt you.”
“You won’t be hurting me,” I protested, grabbing his forearms and trying to pull him closer. Gone were the
bad memories of Celeste and Roderick and every awful thing that had happened to me. My past abuse was burned to ashes, consumed in the powerful blast furnace of lust. “Please, Victor,” I begged. “I want…I need…”
“No.” He picked me up abruptly and slung me over his shoulder. “No, I won’t. We’re going to get you home to bed where you’ll be safe. And then…then I’m going back out to finish the change. I can’t hold it off much longer.”
I struggled in his arms, needing him so badly I could hardly stand it. I had to have him inside me—had to feel him fucking me, breeding me now!
“Victor,” I moaned, swaying in time to his relentless gait as he strode through the underbrush.
He was ominously silent but since I was slung face down over his shoulder, I could see his broad, bloody back clearly. Though my conscious mind knew I shouldn’t do it, I couldn’t help wanting another mouthful of his tainted blood. The sting of silver in it made my mouth hurt and my tongue go numb but the poison had an intensely delicious, addictive aftertaste. It left a warm glow in the pit of my belly and made me feel even hotter.
Go on, whispered a voice—the voice of the heat in my head. Do it—you know you want to. He probably won’t even notice.
I shouldn’t—it will only make things worse… But even as I thought it, I was lapping him, tracing the lash marks with my tongue, healing him even as I poisoned myself further with the delicious, toxic blood that burned like liquid fire going down my throat.
By the time we got back to his house, I was beyond reason and past the point of no return. I felt like I had to be bred…or I would die.
Chapter Twenty-one—Victor
She struggled like a wildcat when I first slung her over my shoulder, begging and pleading, but I forced myself to ignore her. There was something on the lash—a lust potion maybe—that was affecting both of us. I didn’t know why LeeAnn would have done such a thing—maybe she intended to be the one in front of me once the potion kicked in. But for whatever reason, I could tell the whip had been treated by the way the stress was trying to bring on my curse—not to mention the way it made Taylor’s heat kick into overdrive.
Speaking of her heat, with each kick of her legs I could smell her scent getting stronger. It made me ache to shove myself balls deep inside her and pump until she was full of my cum, covered in my scent so no male within a hundred mile radius would dare come near her ever again.
I fought the urge with all that was in me, just as I fought the curse. I am calm, I am centered, I am one, I chanted to myself as I strode along, walking as quickly as I could with Taylor over my shoulder. I am calm, I am centered, I am one.
I couldn’t let myself change into the beast around her—it was too fucking dangerous. I was even more mindless in my in-between form than I was as the wolf. And I was much, much stronger. I could rip her limb from limb and only discover it the next day when I woke up in a puddle of her blood.
If you’re not going to change then you have to fuck…have to breed, whispered the unholy voice of lust in my head. It was the voice of the poisoned lash talking—the toxin coursing through my bloodstream, urging me to fight or fuck. To change or breed. She wants it, that dirty little voice whispered. She’s fucking begging for it—why don’t you give it to her?
I can’t! I won’t do that to her! She’s not in her right mind now. If I do that she’ll wake up tomorrow hating me—I’ll lose her forever.
I knew it was true. All I had to do was remember the way she’d broken down and cried that first night—the night I’d told her what going into heat meant for her. The image of her begging me not to hurt her and sobbing against my fur was fresh in my memory. After everything she’d been through with that bitch Celeste, she might never want to make love again. Much less get herself fucked by a horny, cursed were who couldn’t control his own urges.
So I ignored the ache in my balls and continued stoically, getting back to the house before ten. I glanced at the clock in disbelief as I walked in the door. How had so much damage happened in such a short period of time? The night wasn’t even old yet—the moon wasn’t even at her highest arc.
Just then I became aware of something I probably would have noticed before if I hadn’t been so preoccupied with my own thoughts and urges.
Taylor was licking me.
I could feel her warm, ticklish little tongue tracing a sensuous pattern over the torn skin of my back. Except, now that I stopped to realize it, the pain in my back wasn’t nearly as bad as it had been. In fact, aside from the burning of the brand, which still throbbed and glowed, the lashes I had taken from the cursed whip hardly hurt at all anymore.
“Oh, no…” I said aloud and hurried into the bathroom. “Taylor, baby, what did you do?”
I turned with her still over my shoulder, and surveyed my back in the mirror. What I saw made me cringe—the torn, bloody skin was almost completely healed—it was as smooth and tan as it had always been with only a trace of blood here and there. In fact, the only blood I could see ringed Taylor’s mouth. She looked at me in the mirror, her eyes wide and drugged, and licked her lips.
“Victor,” she whispered huskily. “I want some more. More of you.”
“Goddamn it, Taylor!” I swore, pulling her off my shoulder and setting her on her feet with a thump. She swayed and would have fallen if I hadn’t caught her. She clung to me like a vine, her lush body draped against mine, her pupils dilated with lust.
“Please,” she whispered. “Please, I need you so much…I ache inside, Victor. I’m so empty—fill me up!”
“No!” I tore my eyes from hers and tried to get her off me but she wouldn’t let go. The scent of her heat filled my senses like a drug—clouding my thoughts, allowing the beast inside me room to grow, to take over. I had to get away from her before I did something we’d both regret in the morning but I couldn’t get her off me without hurting her.
“Please,” she begged, rubbing herself against me like a cat. I could feel the wet heat of her pussy against my thigh as her dress came up, could see the little black lace panties as she pushed the hem even higher. “Please, Victor, I need you.”
“No, you don’t,” I growled. “You need to go to bed and sleep this…whatever the hell it is, off.”
I half dragged, half carried her into the bedroom and tried to put her on the bed. But Taylor didn’t want to go. She tangled her legs with mine and before I knew it I had overbalanced and we were both on the bed with her under me.
“Now, isn’t this nice?” she purred, looking up at me. Her long, slender legs locked around my waist and I could feel her pussy again, this time rubbing against my crotch.
“Taylor, no,” I groaned. “We can’t…can’t do this. Not now, not like this.”
“Why not?” She rubbed against me some more and then reached between us and did something to her dress. I heard a low ripping sound and groaned when I looked down and saw that she’d torn it straight down the front. Her lacy black bra and panties were completely exposed—the hard points of her nipples pressing prominently against the thin material. Her pussy was soaked, the crotch of her panties was shiny with her honey, clinging to her plump, swollen cunt lips.
The scarlet thread of heat I had first smelled on her almost a month ago had become a raging river—a deadly red tide that threatened to carry me away along with my sanity. I wanted her so badly I felt like I was going insane.
Take her, urged the beast inside me. Take her or change. Fuck or die.
The brand at my back burned like molten metal and my eyes burned too. I knew from looking in the mirror that they were still dangerously red because the beast inside me was still dangerously close to the surface. If I let it out, Taylor would surely die. But if I did what she was begging me to do…
“Please!” She was nearly crying with need now. As I watched, her slim fingers slipped into her panties and began to rub. I saw her part her pussy lips, saw the outline of her hot little clit as she stroked it and moaned. “Oh…Oh, Victor,” she p
anted and I saw her hips arch and her body shudder with pleasure.
She had made herself come right in front of me, right fucking under me. I knew I should roll away, roll off her but I felt powerless to move. Her heat called to me, called to the beast inside me.
“Taylor,” I groaned hoarsely. “Baby, please don’t…”
“I have to.” Her eyes grew suddenly serious. “Please, Victor, I ache inside. I feel like…like I’m going to die if I don’t have you. It’s like I’m on fire and you…you’re the only one who can put it out!”
I looked at her closely. Was she telling the truth? It was true that wolf bitches who went into heat actually could reach a point where if they weren’t bred they would die. But could that actually happen to Taylor? She was a vamp—would the heat really extend that far—to a life threatening situation?
“Please!” She moved her panties to one side, showing me her wet, open pussy, the soft pink interior glistening with her juices. “I need you in me,” she whispered and she was nearly panting now. “Please, Victor, please.”
“I can’t, baby,” I groaned, shutting my eyes to cut off the intensely erotic sight of her wet little pussy begging to be fucked. But there was no way I could cut off her smell. It was there all around me, so hot, so needy—calling to me, begging me to take her, to pound into her until she was completely mine.
And that was the problem—I couldn’t be gentle with her, couldn’t treat her the way she deserved—not like this. My cursed form knew nothing about making love—it was all about rutting. All about fucking and breeding and filling her with my cum.
“Yes, you can!” Before I could stop her, she was unbuckling my belt and opening my pants. Though she had been timid when she touched me before, the heat had made her bold. She reached in and grasped my cock, her slender fingers encircling my aching length as she drew me out into the open. Then she raised her hips and brushed that hot little pussy against the throbbing ridge of my shaft. “Come on, baby,” she purred. “Fuck me!”
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