Feral Craving (5 page)

Impossible.

His heartbeat increased in intensity, the
pain now pounding into his body like waves on a beach. Each pulse of pain
eroded his strength and pushed him to the floor in agony. Just before the
lights went out, the last thing he saw was Beth’s wide-eyed face filling his
vision as she burst through the door and screamed.

Chapter
Five

Mackenzie sat outside the school, lost in
thought. Children buzzed by, parents corralled groups of kids, and teachers
waved goodbye for the evening, turning away with smiles. Instead of seeing any
of it, she stared straight ahead, eyes focused on where the bright blue sky
dipped behind tall green oak trees. Too many things kept her thoughts occupied,
her mind running in circles, trying to find answers to questions she didn’t
even recognize she had. She wondered how badly Bari had been hurt, if he wanted
to see her, and why he left without a word years ago. Nine years. Nine years without
a word, without a phone call, an email, or even a letter. Nine years of waiting
for any of it, of wishing for something different. Now with him back in town,
still, she waited on him.

Pathetic.

The car door opened, and she glanced
over, her lips curving into a smile as Byron jumped up in the seat. Dark curls
fell in disarray around his face, the color so deep it caused the gray of his
eyes to shine like a beacon lost in the night. She studied him as he settled,
watching for something she always assumed was going to hit them, maybe a memory
creeping. He hadn’t remembered anything of the attack yet, and even the child
psychiatrist said he probably never would, that perhaps he had been too young,
but she wasn’t sure. Sometimes when he hugged her, he whispered he’d protect
her from anyone. The possibility he would remember tore her heart in half.

“Mom! You should have seen it! It was the
biggest snake ever!”

She grinned and checked her side mirror,
pulling into traffic. At eight years old, her son’s rambunctious energy
combined with his mind’s delight at learning kept the questions coming. There
were days she put limits on the number of questions he asked, some of them
making her head spin. Really, how many could one little boy ask about
tornadoes?

Risking a quick glance at Byron, she
grinned as she turned down Washington Street, heading toward her shop. “A
snake, huh? Ew! What kind was it?”

A quick snort followed her question.
“Mom, you can handle a snake.” He smiled and turned his head back to the
window. “I think it was a California King snake. It was pretty cool. Did you
know they can get as big as six-feet long?”

Mackenzie glanced over, raised her brows.
“Really?”

He nodded, a serious expression on his
face. “Yeah, and did you know they can live up to twenty years?”

“You don’t say.”

Out of the corner of her eyes, she
watched Byron bounce in his seat. “Yeah, and did you know that they will eat
other snakes?”

“Yuck, really?”

Byron laughed. “Yeah, you’re supposed to
only keep one female and one male in the cage so they can become a mommy and
daddy.”

At this, Mackenzie’s brows hit her
hairline. His words were innocent, but she couldn’t ignore the other half
missing from her life. She hadn’t felt very female in a long time. Between
taking care of Byron, keeping up with the house, and running her own business,
there wasn’t any time to really feel like one, or even think about dating. She
didn’t have time for any of it, much less was she able to even be alone with a
stranger. The last time she had gone out on a date, it ended in disaster.

Nicolas had
been everything she thought she’d need to get back in the game. Handsome, yet
he held soft brown eyes that reminded her of comfort, a warm fire burning in
her living room back home. She had hired a babysitter for the night and put on
a black dress that made her feel sexy and look like a woman. Cut low in the
front and sitting high above the knees, it defied gravity on both sides.

Nicholas
picked her up and took her to eat dinner at a Seafood restaurant just across
town. The whole night, he’d been courteous: opening her doors, pulling out her
chair, even draping his jacket over her shoulders when they walked along the
boardwalk after the meal.

When he
leaned in to kiss her, Mackenzie held her breath and tentatively brushed her
lips against the softness of his lips. With two years since the attack under
her belt, she told herself she could do it, tried to force her body to welcome
a man’s touch.

It lasted all
of two minutes before he tried for more. His arms wrapped around her body
tightly, and the evidence of his arousal sitting between them enhanced her
fear, brought it rushing to the surface. She’d clawed at his shoulders trying
to push him away, but he’d only taken it for encouragement and deepened their
kiss, let his hands roam.

When she
finally managed to get free, she’d barely pulled her mouth away before her
stomach rejected the delicious dinner from before, and she hurled it down the
front of his suit. With the panic attack stealing her breath, she had been
unable to explain and simply did what her body had been urging her to do all
night.

She ran.

She pulled up to the shop, turned off the
car, and opened the door to step out onto the street.

Walking around to Byron’s side, she set
her hand on the back of his shoulders and guided him inside. Her neck prickled
with unease, hairs rising with the sensation of eyes on the back of her head.
An odd one she had been having frequently, but she pushed the blame on the
anniversary of the attack coming up. Mackenzie pulled on the front door and
held it open for Byron, the little man still chattering on about snakes. Her
mind wasn’t focused on her son though. She searched the cars outside, the
people passing by, the yards surrounding them. Someone was out there watching;
she would swear it on her life.

****

Hot water sliced over his tired body.
Fuck, he was in heaven. Having endured week after week, month after month of
baby wipe showers or tossing canteens of freezing water above his head, ecstasy
pulsed through Bari’s body. The steady spray had been pouring down for fifteen
minutes, and steam rose from the temperature difference and cocooned him in his
own little world. He’d woken up a few minutes after passing out with an urge to
get clean. More than anything he wanted to push the coldness settling into his
veins out with heat.

Things had been nonstop for weeks, his
mind tripping, almost spinning, over and over again. Half the time he thought
he was losing it, the other he wanted to get the shit over and done so they
could move on. With the missions, the mind trips and a case of nerves, he
hadn’t been sleeping at all. Bari turned his body under the spray, reached for
the soap and began to lather the suds between his hands. He inhaled the clean
scent, his mind picturing a fresh spring, the forest. He ran the suds over his
skin and thought over what happened yesterday. It all seemed like a dream. It
had to be. He’d never seen anything like it before. But even as he wished it a
dream, his mind rejected it, refused to let him in on the secret, but
recognized something lurking inside. He couldn’t seem to figure out what or who
that was. It troubled and concerned him, and deep inside, scared the shit out
of him that he would be anything like his birth father. The markings, his eyes
in the reflection—left him with that only answer as he immediately recognized
the beast he’d seen years before.

Starting at his chest, he worked in
circles, rubbing the soap across each of his pecs before moving to each of his
arms, washing away all the dirt and grime, blood and sweat, the coldness that
had taken over yesterday. Bari’s body felt weak, but at six foot four, two
hundred and sixty-five pounds, most considered him anything but. He built the
lather against his palms before turning his attention down across his abs. He
tilted his head back and let the water pulse against his neck. If he tried
really hard, he could almost imagine…

How damn long
had it been since he had a female’s hands on him?

His hands jumped at each muscle as they
slid down his abs. Leaning his head back into the spray, he let the water run
over his face as his palms caressed his body. For a moment, he imagined a
female’s hands. His lips parted as suds rolled down his hips and hard thighs.
It almost had the impression of a tentative touch and reminded him of one sweet
night so long ago. It had been too long. His hand ventured south and as he took
his semi-hard length into his hand, a deep growl gurgled out of his chest, a
moan that mixed into the spray of the shower. Steam rose steadily, now
encompassing him, wrapping its thick air around his body like a caress.

“Fuck…” His palm tightened around his
length, and combined with the soap gathered he could almost imagine it was a
woman’s tight, silkened touch gripping him. Lifting a hand, he caught it on the
tile and continued to stroke himself, his breath now coming in pants. His palm
ran down the length of his erection and back up. A groan filled the small
bathroom along with the steam. He pictured Mackenzie’s body beneath his, her
breasts jumping with each plunge he took into her sweet cavern. So damn sweet
in his mind, he knew she was sweeter in the flesh. Fuck—as another moan
sounded—he was so not going to last long.

His hand reached between his legs to his
tingling sac, the skin tightening with the impending promise of release. He
squeezed, his soap covered hands slippery. Heaven. Grunts sounded in his
chest, his breathing picking up as he continued to stroke and squeeze over the
long thick length. A shiver worked its way up his spine, started like a zap of
lightning at the base. He stroked harder, his palm squeezing with more force,
his breaths coming out in short, shallow sounds. His eyes closed, and he saw
Mackenzie’s body, each pump he gave making her moan. Their moans intermingled as
their bodies worked toward the euphoria. The tingling met his sac beneath his
erection, and he pinched the head, growling loud, the pain-pleasure of the act
bringing his ass to twitch as the buildup promised to let go.
Her
face flashed in his mind. One last
stroke and his back bowed, the water raining down over his head and his seed
gathering up then letting go. Spraying out along the tile walls, the orgasm hit
him hard. His vision dimmed, and he saw stars. He moaned loudly, and his groan
filled the air of the shower just as the steam had.

It seemed like he was wrapped up in an
endless orgasm and had to catch himself on the wall as his legs threatened to
give. He panted against the warm tiles as he pulled out the last of the
pleasure from his cock, shuddering as he squeezed it. A strange ambience
settled on the back of his neck. The waves of rapture fled, replaced with a
keen sense of awareness. Bari turned and stared at the dark plastic covering
the shower stall, trying to figure out if his mind was about to start fucking
with him again or if the feeling was actually someone, or something…

Chapter Six

Tyler stood outside the door, his lean
body against the wall, hat drawn low over his green eyes. Anyone looking would
see someone indolent, almost as if they were unaware of their surroundings, but
Tyler saw it all. Even shit he didn’t want to. He had a job to do, and right
now it was making sure Bari adjusted to the change coming. For years he waited
and watched from afar before he joined up with the Special Forces unit. There
had been hints, whispers of the transformation surging up. The change was
different for everyone, like fingerprints on humans. No two were alike. The
change only started to come as the mind recognized the third dimension, a world
built deep in the patterns of another, when everything clicked that much, like
how the world was round—life defined in a Justice Demon’s eyes without a
starting or ending point. That time was coming for Bari. He hoped the guy would
make it through.

The bathroom door opened, and Tyler
glanced up, his eyes making a lazy path across Bari’s tall, muscular
body—scanning and tracking for any additional damage, making sure things were
underway. The thing about being able to see everything was he saw it all. The
body’s health, the mind’s worries, the hint of a soul.

“Morning, Sunshine.” Tyler smirked as
Bari scowled. “How are you feeling?”

“Like hell,” Bari responded, his voice
rough as he crossed the room and grabbed for a pair of sweatpants. Pulling them
over his legs, he settled the pants low on his hips. Taking the towel off, he
gave one more rub down on his head before tossing the cloth aside. His eyes
turned and latched on Tyler. “You wouldn’t happen to have brought some smokes,
would you?”

“No.”

“Thanks a lot, fuck head.”

“Sure thing, Princess.”

Bari scowled.

Tyler gave an answering laugh.

“What are you doing here? Hell, what am I
doing here?”

Tyler pushed off the wall and turned
toward Bari, hooking his hands in the loops of his jeans. “I’m here to check on
you.” Tyler paused and fought with how to get the information out without
pushing Bari away. He needed the guy to trust him. “Bari, what do you think of
paranormal stuff?”