Feral Magnetism (8 page)

“Not a species. Only a pack.”

The knowledge that Eve hadn’t been aware of Daniel’s intent dazzled J.C. Tears streamed down her face, but her look of sheer terror told him everything he needed to know. She hadn’t been involved in Daniel’s plot to destroy his pack. The realization flooded him, made his knees weak.

In the next instant, he lunged.

Although J.C. struck with his customary speed, Daniel must have been expecting the imminent attack. He shoved Eve away from him with a forceful push and she fell to the ground, crying out when she landed. The man ran to the edge of the clearing, shifting as he went.

Changing from human to wolf-form wasn’t an instant transformation. The process took minutes under the best of conditions, but a werewolf could hurry it along by physically speeding up the cells in his body. It took immense willpower and it was extraordinarily painful, yet at times absolutely necessary, as Daniel demonstrated while J.C. chased him.

Daniel flung himself from one tree to the other, keeping J.C. at bay through the thick underbrush as the shift took over. When they finally met in the middle of the clearing again, Eve was on her feet, screaming at them to stop. Neither wolf listened.

Daniel’s coat was pure silver, a bright contrast to J.C.’s own pitch black, but much easier to spot in the night’s shadows. J.C. hoped his own dark fur would give him the advantage, though in such close quarters, visibility probably wouldn’t matter.

J.C. jerked forward. Daniel matched his move, and they sprang up into the air where they collided with an impact that stole the breath from J.C.’s lungs.

Daniel snarled. They rolled on the ground, J.C.’s teeth snapping as he fought to bite down on Daniel’s flesh. Daniel’s hind feet came up and shoved against J.C.’s midsection, sending a stream of pain shooting from his ribs into his groin. The air wheezed out of his lungs in a rush. He countered with a sudden and vicious snap of his jaw, but only managed to bite a mouthful of air.

Eve’s scream pierced the night air. She was crying out his name, J.C. realized through a fog of pain and anger. Emotions vied with one another inside him. Fury toward the man who’d tried to destroy his pack for nothing more than envy, selfishness and greed. With the Zanteans out of the way, the Kölens would be the only remaining pack of werewolves. Cohabitation had probably never even entered Daniel’s mind. For him, survival of the fittest had been the goal all along, and he’d have gone to any length to achieve it.

J.C. and Daniel tore away from each other and circled the clearing, gazes locked. Eve’s anxious face caught J.C.’s attention from the corner of his eye and he nodded, intent on reassuring her.

That slight movement of his head cost him the advantage. Daniel lunged, claws extended, canines snapping. His lips curled back, showing a mouthful of pointy teeth, teeth he was determined to embed in J.C.’s neck.

At the last moment, J.C. flexed his muscles and jumped out of the way. Daniel’s claw grazed his hind leg, but J.C. spun quickly, dredged up all his remaining anger and flung himself on his opponent’s back.

J.C.’s teeth finally found purchase at the base of Daniel’s throat.

Blood streamed over his lips and into his mouth as Daniel writhed beneath him, his ragged howl turning to a pain-filled whimper. J.C. tore his teeth away from Daniel’s body, dragging along a chunk of flesh that he spat on the ground. Rearing his head back, he howled and snapped his jaw again, intent on returning for another bite, this one to Daniel’s carotid artery, then another and another, until there was nothing left of the wolf who’d threatened his pack, his future, but a misty ceaseless spray of blood.

Only Eve’s terror-filled gaze stopped him from tearing his opponent to shreds. Her mouth gaped open, her eyes wide with horror. For a moment, he saw himself through her eyes, blood covering his mouth, anger, hate and destructive power keeping his body in a tense, murderous coil.

With a jerk, he got to his feet, releasing Daniel. Bright crimson blood stained Daniel’s silver fur, flowing freely from his throat. J.C. didn’t need to finish the job. The blood loss alone would probably kill him.

J.C. howled again, but Daniel obviously didn’t need any prodding. He ran for the edge of the clearing in the direction of the highway. A moment later, he disappeared into the trees.

J.C. collapsed to the ground, panting. His side hurt from the earlier blow, and he checked quickly for broken ribs. None, thankfully, but his hind leg stung where he’d been bitten and he felt warm blood flowing down his shin.

Eve hesitated for only a moment before rushing to him.

In her right hand, she held a syringe.

Chapter Eight

“I can help you.”

J.C. snarled at Eve, baring long, glistening canines. Blood dripped from his mouth. She swallowed hard and took another step forward, hand outstretched.

“This is the formula Daniel has spent years perfecting. I can help you find an antidote to the original he injected into your pack. And if that doesn’t work, I can attempt to create a fertility formula.”

She saw him pull his lips back over his teeth in warning and dropped the syringe to the ground. Suspicion flared in his eyes and he turned his head away. She reached out to him, but before she could touch his fur, he started to shift. His claws retracted, his fur smoothed out into solid flesh and sleek muscles, his muzzle retreated into the familiar full lips and square jaw. He wiped the back of his hand over his mouth, cleaning Daniel’s blood off his skin.

Despite herself, Eve breathed a sigh of relief. She hadn’t believed he’d hurt her… not really. But after seeing him practically tear Daniel apart, she couldn’t have been sure he wouldn’t do the same to her.

“Why would you help us?” His voice was hoarse and rough, as if he hadn’t used it in much too long.

“Because…” She hesitated, debating how much to share. “Because I care about you,” she said at last.

J.C. snorted. “Right. Half an hour ago you told Daniel you thought I was… what was it again? An idiot?”

“Asshole,” she corrected, fighting the smile tugging at the corners of her lips. “And you deserved it.”

“Uh huh.” He stood and applied his weight on his right leg. A jagged wound ran down from the crease of his sexy ass halfway down to his knee. It looked like it hurt like hell, but J.C. didn’t even wince. “And I don’t anymore?”

Eve tugged at her dress and pulled it over her head, conscious of the fact that she wore nothing underneath. “Actually, you do. I still don’t understand why you and Brad… why you did what you did.”

He raised an eyebrow. “So you’re going to fuck the truth out of me?”

“Don’t flatter yourself.” She ripped a piece of material from the hem. The flimsy fabric came apart easily in her hand, but it would do the job. “Turn around.”

He did as she asked and Eve wrapped the makeshift bandage around his thigh. When he’d shifted back to human form, no shred of clothing had covered his perfect body, which Eve had expected. What she didn’t know was whether or not he’d run out of the park naked. She could only imagine the stir that would have caused in Hard Delights.

After she’d finished tying the strip of cloth, she scrutinized the rest of his body in the pale moonlight. A nasty bruise had already begun to form over the right side of his ribs, purple against his tanned skin. “I think you’ll live.”

“Is that your professional opinion?”

Eve’s gaze had already begun to wander, and it took her a second to return to the thread of conversation and tear her attention away from his cock. Even flaccid, it was impressive, hanging long and thick between his legs. “I’m not a doctor.”

“Right. Geneticist, I assume?”

“Yeah. I worked for Daniel.”

The growl that echoed from J.C.’s throat sounded more wolf-like than human. She took a step back.

“And you had nothing to do with the formula.” It wasn’t a question, but she felt the need to answer it anyway.

“I swear to you, I didn’t know what he planned. He told me little of his research; only that he’d developed a cure for lycanthropy.”

A vein twitched in J.C.’s jaw and he clenched his fists at his sides. “Some cure.”

“Yeah,” she agreed, running a hand through her disheveled hair. “Some cure.”

“Look, about the mate thing --”

“You don’t have to explain,” she said quickly, cutting him off. Her pulse quickened and her heart beat an insistent rhythm in her chest. She refused to get her hopes up. Just because she’d managed to fall for him didn’t mean he felt the same, and the lousy bet had proved it. “It was just sex. Great sex, but just sex.”

He took a step forward, and she was suddenly reminded of her nakedness. His shaft stirred, beginning to harden. Cream flooded her pussy in a feminine, instinctual response.
Damn
.

“You don’t believe that,” he murmured. The sound of his voice, throaty and low, sent a shiver down her spine. Her nipples beaded as cool air caressed her skin.

“But you do.” She winced, hating the defensive whine lacing her tone. “Or you wouldn’t have made that bet.”

He reached out and cupped her breast in his palm. Sensation speared every nerve ending, making her squirm. He didn’t caress, rub or fondle. He simply held her breast, lightly, as though it were the most precious object in the world. “That bet was the only way I could defend myself from you.”

“I told you, I didn’t know about Daniel’s plan.”

“I’m not talking about Daniel. I’m talking about this.” He lowered his head the remaining fraction of an inch and covered her mouth with his. She could still taste the blood on his lips, but far from being repulsed, the faint coppery flavor only served to remind her of his strength, his fierce aggressiveness.

Eve responded eagerly, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him closer. His cock nudged her belly, taut and insistent as his tongue swept between her lips and invaded her mouth. His fingers skimmed along her breast, pausing to gently tug on a nipple. She gasped, the sound lost inside his mouth.

J.C. broke the kiss and leaned down to replace his fingers with his teeth, his tongue. A brief breeze danced on the wetness left behind by his saliva and her nipple stiffened further. A moan stuck in her throat. She was afraid to breathe, afraid the slightest movement or sound would break the spell and he’d stop licking, nibbling, tasting.

His hands roamed over her body. Her inner muscles tightened, needing to clench around his fingers, his cock, any part of him he was willing to give. Her lower lips felt engorged, heavy with the need to be touched.

J.C. trailed hot, wet kisses along her stomach, down to her pussy. When he knelt before her, she felt her knees weaken and begin to quiver. Cream leaked down her thighs. He cupped her ass in his broad hands and stared up at her, his eyes shining with intensity and something she didn’t dare try to name.

“This, Eve.” He punctuated his words by sliding his finger along her slit, wetting the tip with her juices. “What’s happening between us scared the hell out of me. I didn’t need a mate. I didn’t
want
a mate. And a human mate at that…”

His voice drifted off and Eve’s stomach clenched. She feared what would come next but couldn’t make herself tell him to stop talking and finish what he’d started. She needed to hear him say it, whatever it was going to be.

“Things between us… they’re not going to be easy. Being a part of my pack means convincing the elders that taking a human mate is best for the Zanteans. It means dealing with a fragmented pack, with weres who no longer believe in a future worth having. It means fighting to prove them wrong at every turn, but it means doing it together.”

She swallowed hard, relief flooding her veins. He wanted her, not just right now for a quick romp, but forever. He wanted to share his burdens with her, his fears, his life. Still, she thrust her chin forward and forced a haughty look. “You talk as though this is already a done deal. What if I don’t want to mate with you?”

He inserted a finger inside her pussy with agonizing slowness and she reached out, grabbing his shoulders to steady herself. This time, she couldn’t stifle the moan breaking free from her throat.

“Don’t you?” J.C. asked, sliding a second finger alongside the first.

“I always thought I’d have a big church wedding, and marry for love.”

“The church wedding isn’t part of the mating ritual of my people, but perhaps it can be arranged after the official ceremony.”

He bent his head to her pussy and swept his tongue around her clit once, twice, a third time. The rhythmic motions made her inner muscles clench around his fingers, milking him. Eve closed her eyes as the orgasm that had been building deep in her core from J.C.’s first touch finally flooded her pussy. Cream dripped thickly from her cunt. Her muscles tightened with the onslaught of release and she screamed, the sound echoing through the forest.

“Love, though,” J.C. said, his words muffled by her cunt. “That I swear to give you every day of my life.”

This time, Eve knew the tears rolling down her cheeks weren’t caused by the overwhelming orgasm. Emotion tightened her throat, making it impossible to speak.

She knew she didn’t need to. Not now. There would be plenty of time to tell J.C. how she felt.
Later
.

She brushed her fingers through his hair as his tongue laved at her cum, pulsing her hips to the rhythm of his mouth. Despite the recent release, Eve’s need for J.C. didn’t subside. Her skin felt heated and sensitive, hyperaware of every scrape of his stubble along her thigh, every velvety lick of his tongue.

As the sun began to streak a pink line across the horizon, she breathed in the honeyed scent of early morning air tinged with her own musky arousal and opened to him, surrendering herself to a lifetime of feral magnetism.

Epilogue

Fuck Friday was cancelled.

From the moment Brad watched J.C. run through the open door of the shack after Eve a week ago, he knew things were over between them.

J.C. had found a mate. The elders would be ecstatic, once they got past the fact that she was human. Brad had no doubt J.C. would be able to convince them the union was best for the pack. He’d learned Eve was a scientist, and likely one who could help the Zanteans with their fertility issues.

No, Brad wasn’t worried about them. He was concerned about himself.

The constant need in his groin, the longing that had to be satisfied, hadn’t diminished just because J.C. was off-limits. If anything, it grew and grew. It pulsed and throbbed, begging for release. And more than ever, he wished he was the one fucking a man’s ass, plunging his cock inside a tight, hot anal passage slick with lubricant and eager for him.

From his spot in front of the “Blow Me Away” roller-coaster ride, Brad looked over the span of his amusement park, eyeing men in turn. As always, Friday nights were packed. There were tall men, short men, muscled men, lean men… every sort of man imaginable.

He should have been looking for a woman. The elders would have liked nothing more than to finally see him paired off with a female of their species. Well, the elders would just have to wait a while longer. He’d enjoyed sharing Eve with J.C., but that didn’t mean he was ready to make a permanent commitment to never fuck a man again.

Palming his thick, eager cock, he descended the brief set of stairs and walked out into the crowd. He had to find a man to alleviate the ache in his balls from among the hundreds of guys who filled the amusement park.

“This is going to take off. I know it is.” The rich, deep voice caught Brad’s attention. He stood to the side of a small group of men of mixed ethnicity. Four of them were eyeing each other with amused smiles, while the fifth gestured excitedly. “I’ve got the meeting in the bag. I just need a chance to --”

“The only thing you should have in your bag is a cupful of cum waiting to spurt all over some guy’s ass. That’s why we’re here, Sean.”

Sean blushed, a becoming shade of red traveling up his neck to highlight his cheekbones. The contrast to his blond hair and blue eyes was mesmerizing. Brad nibbled at his lower lip, unable to tear his gaze away.

“No, that’s why you’re here, Richard,” Sean said. “I’m along because you guys would have dragged me out of the house if you had to bind and gag me first.”

Ah, now there was an appealing thought. A brief mental image of Sean splayed on Brad’s bed, ankles and wrists bound to the bedposts, cock jutting forward just waiting to be sucked, flew across Brad’s field of vision. He swallowed back a groan.

Oh, yeah. It had been much too long since he’d had a new man in his bed. And he wanted this one.

A couple of minutes later, Brad broke through the tight circle of men. Flashing a brief grin at the group, he handed Sean a folded piece of paper.

“What’s this?” Sean asked, confusion flittering briefly across his brow.

Brad shrugged. “Your mission, should you choose to accept it.”

Then he walked away, grinning. Excited whispers echoed in his wake.

The End… for now.