Feral Magnetism (7 page)

“Brad and I work well together,” J.C. said. He stood behind her, his hands spreading her ass cheeks as his thumbs caressed her flesh. She squirmed beneath the scrutiny. She didn’t have to see his eyes to know they were fixed on her most intimate places.

Her heart pounded in her ears and arousal thrummed through her with a slow, steady beat. She wanted this. She wanted
him
. And if she had to take Brad, too, to have J.C., she’d do it. The man was gorgeous. It wouldn’t be much of a hardship.

“I have one request,” Eve murmured. Her lips brushed against Brad’s cock as she spoke.

“I thought I made it clear you’re not in a position to give orders,” J.C. said, landing another slap on her ass. The blow stung, but the gasp torn from her throat was more from surprise than pain.

“You’re right, though I never said it was an order. Just a request,” she repeated. “But it’s important.”

Brad’s hands tangled in her hair, but he didn’t shove his cock forward. “Give the girl whatever she wants,” he whispered.

J.C. sighed. “All right, let’s hear it. What’s your pleasure, sweetheart?”

You
, she wanted to say.
Just you
. But she didn’t. Instead she said, “Condoms. Promise me you’ll both use condoms when you enter me.”

There was a pause as a hush settled over the dim room. Eve held her breath.

“As you wish,” J.C. said.

She heard him step away. A moment later, something flew over her head, sending a light breeze down her bare back. Brad caught the object and held it in front of her face. A box of Trojan Magnum Warm Sensations lay in his palm.
Large Size Condoms
, the box declared.

Eve nodded. “Good. Did you know one in four HIV-infected people don’t know they have the disease? Most people never bother to get tested, and aside from abstinence, this is the only way to ever be sure.” She knew she was rambling, but now that she was so close to having them both fuck her, she found her thoughts spinning a mile a minute through her head. Would they be gentle? Rough? Careful? Would they take their time? Would they worry about her pleasure, or just theirs? Her restraints chafed her wrists, serving as a painful reminder of what she was about to allow them to do.

“We don’t have HIV, Eve,” J.C. said as Brad threw the box back to him. She heard him open the cardboard package and tear the plastic protective wrap. She could picture him sliding the condom over his throbbing cock. A groan settled low in her throat but she bit it back, afraid it would come out on a trembling sob.

“Maybe you’re one in four.”

J.C.’s laugh held no humor. “Our species doesn’t suffer from human diseases. Our genes aren’t compatible in that manner.”

“Oh. Then why did you have condoms on hand?”

“I knew you’d ask,” he said simply. “And I couldn’t expect you to believe me.”

“Oh,” she repeated, feeling foolish. Sweat coated her palms. She shouldn’t be nervous. She’d been wanting this all week, thinking about J.C. fucking her every waking moment. Now it would happen. Better yet, she wouldn’t have to fuck him alone. That meant she could think of this as simply sex for the sake of sex, a fun romp and nothing more. Certainly nothing that could endanger her heart.

“I’m ready,” she whispered, and was surprised to find she was. Her voice didn’t shake. Her heartbeat had slowed. She took another deep breath and looked up at Brad.

Concern was etched on his features. “Are you sure?”

She nodded. “Absolutely.”

J.C. brushed a soft kiss over the back of her thigh, startling her. She hadn’t realized he’d knelt. Not knowing where he stood or what he intended was going to be entirely too disconcerting.

He flicked his tongue over the folds of her labia, sending a shiver down her spine. The pure tenderness in his touch shocked her and she arched her back as much as the restraints would allow.

Emboldened, Eve nudged Brad’s cock with her tongue, finally allowing herself a small taste. He moaned and closed the rest of the distance between them. His cock pulsed against the roof of her mouth as she took the entire length between her lips. She closed her mouth and let his cock lie on her tongue, enveloped in her wet warmth. Then she released it, letting his throbbing shaft slip out between her lips. She nuzzled the hard length, licking along the deep purple rim.

Brad shuddered, his fingers clenching and unclenching in her hair. “Oh, yeah. Oh, fuck, yeah.”

J.C. sped his rhythm on her pussy. He flicked his tongue along the crevice between her ass and her cunt, lapping at the cream flowing from her core. Eve’s inner muscles clenched as she struggled to keep up with the onslaught of sensation pouring through her body. The restraints rubbed her wrists and ankles, adding a twinge of pain to the pleasure flowing into her cunt.

J.C.’s fingers found her clit, positioned just at the edge of the table. He gently tweaked the engorged nub and a sudden, unexpected orgasm crashed through Eve. She gasped and cried out around Brad’s cock, sucking it harder, deeper inside her mouth as she rode the wave of the climax. She felt the wetness drenching her nether lips, felt J.C.’s tongue carefully lick every last drop of cum attempting to escape down her thighs.

Spent, she released Brad’s cock and collapsed, grateful for the rope binding her. She couldn’t have stood up, anyway. Her pussy ached with contented fulfillment and her nipples rubbed against the hard surface of the tabletop.

“Good girl,” Brad teased. His cock glistened with her saliva, the dark veins protruding against his pale skin. “Very good girl.”

Foolishly, she grinned up at him, encouraged by the praise. She wanted to please them, she realized. Both of them.

J.C. thrust a finger into her pussy, making her cry out again. “Are you ready for more, sweetheart?”

More
? Could her body take much more? Eve could only nod.

J.C.’s cock prodded the opening to her pussy with a gentle nudge. She leaned back into it, her heart hammering against her chest. She wanted him in her.
Needed
him in her.

“Please,” she murmured. J.C. got the message. He slid the entire length of his thick cock inside her waiting channel. Her inner muscles clenched around it, grasping him as he thrust in slow, rhythmic motions in and out of her.

She moaned as the feel of him made its way through every nerve ending. It felt so good, so right, so perfect.

Oh, God. Heaven
.

She couldn’t even think in concrete sentences anymore. The rhythm of J.C.’s thrusts, the feel of his sac slapping against her thighs was too much to bear. She reached out with her tongue for Brad’s cock again but before she could taste him, he moved back.

“No. I have something else in mind for you.”

He moved out of her line of sight and panic edged its way into her stomach. Behind her, J.C.’s cock pumped in and out of her cunt, his groans mingling with the cries and laughter from the park.

The tabletop creaked and she instinctively knew she wasn’t alone on the table anymore. There wasn’t enough room for two people to lie side by side, but as soon as she felt Brad’s weight on the small of her back, she understood.

“Oh, God.” The words came out as a hoarse croak.

He was going to fuck her ass. And she was going to let him.

The rip of another condom sleeve filled the air and Eve waited in anticipation. Something wet and cold splashed against her ass and she clenched her muscles in protest. “Relax. It’s just lubricant.” To prove his point, Brad smeared the silky cream over her hole. She unclenched her muscles and he drove a finger inside her tight anus.

“Oh!” She cried out again at the intrusion, but neither Brad nor J.C. seemed intent on letting her off the hook any time soon. Brad’s finger slid out of her with a pop. She breathed a sigh of relief, then held her breath as she felt the tip of his cock nudging her entrance.

She’d had anal sex before. Twice, in fact. But her pussy had been empty at the time. Would she be able to endure the onslaught of ecstasy? She gritted her teeth, ready to find out.

She didn’t have to wait long. Brad’s cock slid into her, slowly at first as she adjusted to his girth. Her pussy tightened even further around J.C.’s shaft. She could still feel his gaze on her ass, now stretched to its maximum capacity by Brad’s shaft.

They moved inside her in unison, as though they’d done this hundreds of times before. Eve closed her eyes, refusing to think about that possibility. Their breathing combined to fill the room. She moaned, groaned and cried out, no longer caring whether she was being too loud, or enjoying this too much.

J.C.’s fingers dug into her hips and he increased his rhythm. She could picture his face, strained as he neared orgasm, the intensity in his eyes deepening with the need to come. Brad’s hands gripped the edges of the table around her face as he fucked her ass, thrusting as deep inside her tight channel as his cock would go.

Tears slid freely down her cheeks now. It was the second time she’d cried while on the brink of orgasm, but she was beyond caring, beyond embarrassment. When it came, her release was thunderous, pounding through her, slashing at her defenses, making her scream. She felt J.C. going over the edge with her, stilling his thrusts as his cock pumped his seed.

Brad wasn’t far behind. His low, guttural growl was more restrained, but unmistakable. They rode the wave together, flesh slamming against flesh as their bodies quivered with the final spasms of climax.

She felt entirely sated, fulfilled, and much too delighted. She wanted to see J.C.’s face, to run her fingers over his jaw, to kiss those luscious, plump lips. She wanted to hug him, to feel his body molding to hers as they lay together, spent.

Brad slid out of her first and leapt off the table onto the floor. “Goddess,” he murmured. “Taking that bet was the smartest thing I’ve ever done. Who cares if I didn’t win? If mating with a woman is always like this…”

His voice faded and died out as blood rushed to Eve’s ears. She only heard one word, over and over in her mind.

Bet
.

“What…” The words died in her throat, drowned by the sting of tears. She licked her dry lips and tried again. “What bet?”

J.C. knelt and started to undo the knots holding her ankles to the table. Colors swirled in front of Eve’s eyes, intensifying with every moment that passed while no one said anything.

“What bet?” she repeated, louder this time.

“Brad thought you wouldn’t have a threesome,” J.C. said.

Her right foot was free. She flung it backward, hitting something soft. J.C.’s knee? His thigh? Not his groin. She’d have known. He didn’t make a sound. “So this was all a bet. And you won. How… wonderful for you.”

Humiliation washed over her and she jerked backward, the rope that still tied her wrists biting into her skin. Heat rushed to her cheeks. She gritted her teeth and swallowed back tears that threatened to spill over her cheeks. Crying in the throes of orgasm was one thing. But crying because of a man… or a werewolf, was another. And it wouldn’t happen. Not here, where they could see. Not
anywhere
. She wouldn’t give them the satisfaction.

No one said a word as J.C. worked at untying the knots. When he slid the last of the rope from her wrist, she jumped off the table and reached for her dress. She slid it over her head, not caring where her thong had fallen.

Her gaze swept the room, taking in both Brad’s and J.C.’s naked bodies. Their faces were masks, no longer readable. Not that she could trust anything she saw there anyway.

She bolted for the door.

“Eve, wait.”

J.C.’s voice.

She turned the knob. It wouldn’t budge. The bolt was still drawn across the door. Frantic now, she yanked at it, dug her fingernails under the slab of wood until it gave.

J.C. leapt after her from across the room, no doubt afraid she’d tell the world about his kind in a rush of vengeance. He knocked over a terra cotta pot sitting on a high shelf as he reached for her. It crashed to the floor, shattering in dozens of dark clay pieces.

Like her heart.

She tore her arm out of his grip and rushed outside, gasping in lungfuls of air with every ragged breath.

He was naked, so she knew he wouldn’t follow, but she refused to take her chances just in case modesty ranked lower on his list of priorities than the secret of his species.

So she ran.

Past lovers entwined in passionate embraces. Past the black iron gate and the two men stationed there. Past the main road, past trees, past stumps, past tufts of dead grass and fallen branches, into the heart of the forest bordering the park.

She ran, ran, ran.

Chapter Seven

Eve didn’t know when the tears started in earnest. Perhaps it was the moment she left the park behind, the exact second she stepped through the gate and out of J.C.’s world. Or maybe it was when she finally found herself alone. The press of hard, male bodies had surrounded her from all sides inside Hard Delights, and the mere sight of a muscled chest made her breath hitch as she ran for the gate.

She was glad to be away from them; away from
all
of them.

Only a thin sliver of moonlight penetrated the thick foliage of the forest, but it was enough to illuminate a few feet in front of her. Branches snapped beneath her feet as she sprinted between massive pines and sycamores. She hadn’t bothered to stop and lace up her sandals when she’d bolted from the shed, and the soles of her feet had taken a beating as she ran over the rough terrain.

Her feet would heal. The stitch in her side would disappear. Her lungs would stop burning and the lactic acid igniting her leg muscles would eventually recede. But the pain that ripped through her heart with every ragged breath would still be there tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after that.

Eve didn’t want to think about it. As long as she kept running, she was safe. Her emotions couldn’t flood her with shame. Humiliation couldn’t take over. She wouldn’t have to remember the chuckle in Brad’s voice as he congratulated J.C. on his win.

The memory of J.C.’s betrayal tore through her heart and she pushed herself harder. The worst part was that she’d done all of this to herself. She’d gone back to J.C., practically begging to be fucked. She’d let him tie her up. His name had been on her lips as he’d made her come, again and again and again, knowing she was no more than some light entertainment for the evening.

A bet. Nothing more.

Eve’s dress snagged on a thin branch and tore as she pulled away. The ground was softer here. She stumbled and reached out to steady herself. Her palm grazed the jagged bark of a nearby white pine tree, sending a hot splinter of pain into her hand.

Good
.

More pain to take the edge off. Even as she thought it, the ache in her palm began to fade to a dull throb. She wondered briefly if scratching every bit of herself on every inch of this forest would make the pain of J.C.’s betrayal hurt any less.

Somehow, she didn’t think so.

That’s when she heard them. Footsteps echoed not far behind her, crunching leaves and branches in their path. Someone was coming after her, and it wouldn’t take him long to find her.

J.C.

It couldn’t be anyone else. She swore low under her breath and tried to get her bearings. She’d been heading north for ten minutes. The highway couldn’t be much farther. Somewhere in the distance, a wolf’s howl pierced the cool night air. Her heartbeat sped up, pounding so hard she could feel it.

J.C. It had to be. He’d probably changed into wolf form to chase after her. But what if it wasn’t? For the first time since she’d fled Hard Delights, Eve began to think that perhaps running alone through the forest in the middle of the night wasn’t the best idea. There were more dangerous creatures in the forest than J.C. Hill.

The footsteps sounded closer. He’d spot her any second now. Eve turned and ran, and when she thought she couldn’t make it another step further, she pressed on. Adrenaline kept her moving.

Adrenaline and shame.

She couldn’t face him. Nothing he could say to her would take away her humiliation, and she didn’t want to hear any excuses. To think that for a moment while he fucked her, she actually thought this thing between them might be more than sex. She believed she’d felt a connection, a spark of yearning and mutual understanding that might have developed into something deeper than a one-night stand.

How stupid could she have been?

Eve bolted between two massive oak trees and found herself in a clearing. It wasn’t large, perhaps only about the size of her parents’ backyard, but it stood out in the middle of the densely populated wood. She was too visible, too vulnerable here. She had to go before he saw her.

Eve made a mad dash for the edge of the clearing, and safety. A car horn echoed in the distance. The highway was close. She could hitch a ride back into town and return for her car tomorrow morning.

Her toe caught the edge of a rock and she fell forward, landing hard on her outstretched hands. The wound in her palm flared anew. The footsteps faded and she knew he’d reached the clearing.

Eve scrambled to her knees and turned to face him. “J.C.,” she gasped between forced breaths, “I don’t --”

“Is it done, then?”

Eve squinted. The moon was only a quarter-full, but it managed to illuminate the man’s features.

Not J.C.

“Daniel,” she whispered, completely at a loss. “What are you doing here?”

“You didn’t think I’d protect my investment?”

“Your investment?” she repeated hollowly. Her breathing was slowly returning to normal. “I don’t understand.”

He crossed his arms over his chest but made no move to approach her. His black shirt molded to his skin, making him seem even more powerful and authoritative than the white lab coat he always wore at the Foundation.

“The formula I gave you. I assume you’re running because J.C. found out what you were up to. I don’t particularly care one way or the other, of course,” he said before she could reply, “but I need to know whether you’ve managed to inject him before you ran from the park.”

Eve frowned. Daniel had obviously followed her from Hard Delights, but he didn’t look winded. He’d run the same distance she had, yet while she was panting and rivulets of sweat ran down her face, Daniel wasn’t even breathing hard.

“It wasn’t like that,” she said. “J.C. doesn’t know about the formula.”

“Ah. Lover’s quarrel, then?”

Eve clenched her jaw. “None of your business.”

Daniel grinned, his teeth glinting in the moonlight. His smile looked menacing, dangerous even. She struggled to stand.

“Well, whatever happened between you, it obviously wasn’t pretty.” He gestured around him. “If it had been just your average, garden variety spat, you’d have driven away, not run aimlessly through the forest like a lunatic.”

Eve bit her lower lip but didn’t contradict him. Now that the adrenaline had run its course, even she had to admit that sprinting through the woods wasn’t the brightest thing she’d ever done.

“It was the lycanthropy that made him do whatever it is he did to you. He’s not
human
, Eve. He doesn’t behave like rational men.”

Eve’s laugh was hollow. “It wasn’t his… condition. He’s not sick. He’s an asshole.”

“It’s not too late, you know,” Daniel continued as if she hadn’t spoken. “You can still inject him with the formula. If you won’t do it for the good of mankind, do it for yourself.”

Eve took a deep breath. “I don’t understand.”

“Revenge,” he said slowly, as if speaking to a child. “J.C. doesn’t want to be cured. So, cure him anyway. He obviously did something to you that you didn’t want. Do the same to him. An eye for an eye, so to speak.”

She shook her head. “I don’t have the syringe anymore. I left everything in my purse, and the purse… with my shoes.” On the floor of the shack, probably right beside her silk thong.

Daniel waved a hand dismissively. “I have another.” He reached into his back pocket and pulled out a small box. He flipped the lid open. Moonlight glinted off the glass syringe, fragmenting the silver light into a myriad of colors.

Daniel held his hand outstretched as he crossed the distance between them and offered her the container. She reached for it, feeling the familiar anger pool low in her belly as her hand instinctively closed around the box.

“I knew you’d come through for me,” Daniel whispered. “Now go finish the job.”

* * *

J.C. growled and flew through the air, but it was too late. He wasn’t charging into the clearing like a dashing hero rescuing his lover.

No, Eve clearly didn’t need rescuing from Daniel Kraus, a man J.C. had known for decades. He’d heard every word. It had only taken him a minute to dress and run after her, and her haphazard tracks through the forest hadn’t been hard to follow.

She meant to destroy his kind. His way of life. If his father or brother had been in his place, they never would have let Eve get as close to them as she’d gotten to him. Guilt and shame flooded him. He wasn’t a leader. He never would be.

He landed in the clearing on all fours, fully shifted to wolf-form. His heart pounded against his ribcage, Eve’s betrayal still flooding his thoughts.

“J.C. How nice of you to join us.” Daniel’s voice was calm, but J.C. caught the glimmer of surprise in the man’s eyes.

J.C.’s claws dug into the ground. Blood lust rushed through him, compelling him to attack first and ask questions later. The threat to his pack couldn’t be ignored. Neither Eve nor Daniel could be allowed to leave the clearing alive.

“J.C.,” Eve said. “This isn’t what it looks like.”

He’d have laughed if his current shape had allowed it. As it was, he could only grunt. He crouched low to the ground, preparing to strike.

In a flash, Daniel closed the distance separating him from Eve and grabbed her by the waist, pulling her to him. He wrapped his arm around her neck and she cried out in surprise.

“You’ll have to go through her to get to me,” Daniel said.

“What… Why are you doing this?” Eve gasped.

“Because J.C. would never harm his mate. And I can’t allow him to get to me in his current condition. Look at him. The bloodshot eyes, the feral growl. He’s likely to tear my head off before I can even blink. It’s not going to happen.”

“I’m not his mate,” Eve said, eyeing J.C. coolly.

“Don’t be stupid,” Daniel retorted. “I can smell his seed all over you.”

A hint of silvery moonlight flooded Eve’s face, highlighting the blush traveling over her skin. J.C. looked away from her, forcing himself to focus on Daniel. The woman had betrayed him. He couldn’t let his lust or whatever misguided emotions he felt for her overshadow his common sense. That’s how they got here in the first place.

“So we had sex.” Eve squirmed in Daniel’s hold. “That doesn’t mean we’ve… mated.”

“Oh, come on,” Daniel argued. “You graduated Magna Cum Laude from Harvard with a degree in human genetics, and you mean to tell me you’re not bright enough to realize the creature has marked you as his own?”

J.C. took a step forward, keeping his body low to the ground, ready to spring into the air and attack them both. Daniel had been wrong. He would hurt his mate to get to him, because the woman he’d chosen for his own clearly hadn’t been the woman he thought her to be.

Half an hour earlier, he’d been prepared to argue for their union in front of the entire council of elders. While he’d been with her in that shack, while he’d been
in
her, nothing else had mattered. He knew she was meant for him the way no other female, human or werewolf, could ever be.

How could he have been so wrong?

Daniel must have seen the determination in his gaze, because he tightened his hold on Eve. He tilted her head at an angle, the skin of her throat stretched taut from the uncomfortable position.

“You’re wrong,” Eve insisted. “No man who wanted me as his own would treat me the way he has. Like a whore.”

Her voice shook as she spoke but she met J.C.’s gaze boldly, daring him to disagree. He couldn’t, and not just because he was in wolf-form. He had treated her with no regard for her feelings, only his own. Making sure he didn’t fall for her had been more important to J.C. than showing her how much she meant to him.

Obviously, he’d been right. The woman had broken through all his defenses with one clear goal in mind: the utter destruction of his kind.

“He’s not a man,” Daniel said. “As you can clearly see for yourself. He doesn’t have the same emotions men do; the same ability to reason and do the right thing. This beast needs to be destroyed, and not just him, but his entire kind.”

J.C. had heard enough. He bared his teeth and howled a challenge to the alpha leader of the Kölen pack.

Daniel understood. He wrapped his large hand around Eve’s throat and ran his thumb in small circles over the fine pale skin of her neck.

“No,” she said, her voice barely above a whisper. “What he’s done to me is none of your concern. But J.C. isn’t evil, and he’s not a beast.” She met J.C.’s gaze and heat sizzled between them as tears flooded her piercing blue eyes and rolled down her cheeks. “He’s beautiful. And all he wants right now is to protect his kind from people like you.”

Daniel snarled. “What do you know about people like me?” He made the words sound like the worst kind of slur. “The formula wouldn’t have killed him; though I suppose now we’ll never know. Judging by the way he’s looking at you, I doubt he’ll ever let you get close enough to him to find out.”

“I don’t believe you,” Eve gasped out. “You’re insane. You’d have killed him, killed them all given half a chance.”

“Believe what you will. I’ve been working on this formula for two decades, and I’ve finally perfected it. There hasn’t been a male child born of a union between Zanteans in twenty years, thanks to me.”

He paused for a moment, as though reliving an old memory, then continued, “J.C.’s father and I were… friends once, long ago.” He spat the words as though they tasted foul in his mouth. “At least, the fool thought we were. I always knew our pack was stronger, braver, tougher. I think deep inside, he knew it, too. One day, he proposed we join forces, unite our packs under one common name.
His
name. I had other plans. By that time, I had a prototype ready. He never even felt the needle pierce his skin.”

Daniel’s eyes narrowed, his gaze going cold. “The formula worked, though not quite as well as I’d intended. Sure, the bloodline can’t continue without a male, but filthy Zantean bitches are still being born every few months. My latest achievement won’t disappoint.”

“Sterilization,” Eve said, horror flooding her voice. “Mass sterilization was your brilliant plan for destroying a species?”