by Mason Sabre
Before she knew where she was, she had emerged onto gravel.
The carpark ...
Karl’s car was there, but, further back, there was another car. Henry’s. He wasn’t with his car, though, so she slunk along the edge of the woods looking for him.
Circling the perimeter, ears pricked up, she was sure Henry wasn’t close. He was usually like a pulse on the edge of her awareness … but right now, she sensed nothing.
With one last look around her, she made her way back to the start … to where they had left their clothes. As she got to the top of the cliff, her gaze landed on Karl’s clothes....
Her heart gave a sickening thud of realisation.
Of course Henry wasn’t following her.
He was following Karl.
Chapter 26
Cade
Bursting out of the back door and into the garden, Cade braced himself, catching his breath as a cold blast of icy air latched onto his feverish skin. His body felt riddled with thousands of icicles, each one stabbing painfully into his muscles. His throat burnt, shards of jagged glass scraping down his oesophagus as he tried to swallow. He gave a half choke and threw himself onto the ground, dragging in long deep breaths. He landed with a thump that sent pain ricocheting from his shoulder and around his body. He was only vaguely aware of Natalie somewhere behind him, her voice off in the distance.
Gasping for breath and fighting the pain shooting through his body from the wound in his arm, he dragged himself onto his hands and knees to the cleared part of his garden. His knees pushed into the earth, cratering it where he knelt. He tried to push himself up, stretching his arms out and arching his back, his fists forming clawed hands. When he opened his mouth, his wolf howled, releasing every bit of pain from deep inside.
Perspiration ran down his face and into his eyes, making them sting. He rolled onto his side, writhing, his limbs all feeling alien to him.
Warm hands slid around his middle … comforting hands that calmed his skin for a microsecond and broke into his confused mind. “We need to get your jeans off,” Natalie said, her voice a whisper on the edge of his madness. He tried to latch onto it, anchor himself to something familiar, but as he reached down, fumbling for his belt, his half-shifted paws sliced across his own skin, making him grunt with renewed pain.
Natalie pushed his hands away, working fast to get his shoes and jeans off so that he could shift. Her fingers brushed against his skin, sending jolts of unwanted desire shooting through his body, even in this state. He rolled onto his back so that she could help him shimmy out of the clothes that held him bound … but she was too close … too near to a wolf fighting to come out ...
He tensed.
She was in oestrus … Oh, God. He hadn't realised. The scent was sweet and pungent, and it filled his senses like a drug to an addict. He tried to pull away, shaking his head and pushing at her hands. “No,” he gritted out. He had to put distance between them before his wolf latched onto the scent—
He blinked hard to clear his vision, but his wolf was too strong, too demanding, making his skin burn with the shifting itch. He had to shift or the wolf would burst from his skin.
“Cade …” Natalie’s voice was soft, close … too close …
He put his hand up to her. “Stay there,” he growled out. His wolf was trying to grab hold of her both mentally and physically, something that could help it ground itself … something that was solid and right there as his body fought poison and healing all in one go.
But it would be more than that. His wolf was in pain … in agony from Gemma’s rejection … and Natalie was wolf. Just one touch, one soothing moment close to her ...
He craved it.
“You need to shift. Stop fighting.” Her voice had become a distant echo in the corner of his mind—a beacon that he couldn’t quite reach.
He went to tell her to move away again, but when he opened his mouth and spoke, all that came out was the throaty growl of his wolf. He inhaled sharply, dragging the air deep down into his lungs and letting it fill his body.
She was too close, too much. Her scent was intoxicating to his wolf, almost overpowering. Cade tried to grasp onto him, still backing away and shaking his head. He threw the picture of Gemma into his mind, confusing his wolf, making him back down enough that he could at least grasp some kind control over himself.
It didn’t last long, though. He roared up, the sight and thought of Gemma opening a wound in his mind. He reeled back, his wolfish heart screaming for the one thing he wanted and couldn’t have.
Even though he felt like he was crawling through mud, he moved fast, putting distance between him and the scent that was so encompassing it would be his undoing. Digging his clawed hands into the cool earth, he let his eyes close and his mind go to that place inside where he gave permission for wolf to swap with man as the host of his body.
A ragged breath left him as he finally gave in and shifted.
The familiar, comforting pain spread through his body, through every muscle and bone, pulling them apart, stretching them. For just a moment, every sound seemed to disappear. Silence. The pressure in his ears built until the pain reached its peak, and with a pop in his eardrum, the world of sound exploded again in his head, louder, clearer … enhanced.
When he opened his eyes, he no longer stood in his garden as a man, but as a fully-grown wolf. He let himself breathe for a moment and shook out his fur. His mind cleared enough that he had some control, but it was a fine balance …
As he placed his left paw forward, readying himself for the run, pain shot through his leg, across his shoulder and down his back. His leg buckled beneath him, making him land face first into the earth. With a frustrated growl, he got back to his feet, this time favouring his right paw.
Natalie came close and his top lip twitched, warning her to stay back. She did. He ignored her as she started on her own clothes, unfastening and unbuttoning so that she, too, could shift.
Licking at his wound, he snarled at it. It didn’t taste of silver now—that had gone away with Emily’s concoction. He had never asked her what she put in it, but it worked every time. The wound tasted of earth and death as he licked at it, trying to get rid of the vampire’s dead saliva that his wolf blood was trying desperately to reject. He swallowed down the bitter taste with a rumbling growl, and then forced his injured paw down onto the ground.
Arching his back, he took in a breath, fighting the fever that wouldn’t let his wolf take over. It needed to … to heal both man and beast from the physical and mental wounds.
He launched himself forward and ran like a desperate man; he ran like Gemma was ahead of him and the wind was behind, and if he could just run a little faster, he could get everything he’d ever wanted.
His thunderous growl echoed in the air, his paw burning with each step he took as he tore across the ground … but the wolf pushed it back, denied it. He was stronger than that … stronger than pain.
He raced across the land at the back of his property and then across and through the field that opened out onto the river bank. The tide was in this evening, the water lapping against the muddy shore. Cade banked hard right, letting himself run full out with the wind through his fur and the moon just ahead, calling out to him.
Darkness speckled Cade’s vision, and he blinked it away, falling in and out of consciousness within himself. One moment he was looking through the wolf’s eyes, and the next it was like he had just woken up inside after the wolf had run for miles. Everything was a flash in his mind, and when he had some control again, he dashed from the edge of the river back toward the fields—fields he didn’t recognise, but he didn’t care. He leapt over the fences and ignored the pain that vibrated along his skin as he landed on his leg.
The flock of sheep in the field darted left and right, parting like the sea at the sight of him. He raised his upper lip, baring his teeth, a deep, warning snarl coming from him as he watched them. He tried to pull himself back, but his wolf shook its hea
d and charged, letting out a feral growl as he leapt into the air and then came down onto the flock. The sheep scattered, save for the one he landed on. He opened his jaw wide and then bit down on the back of its neck. The sheep bucked against him, trying her hardest to get away, but Cade clamped his mouth closed, biting through flesh and bone. She twitched as he cut off her spine, and then her lifeless body fell limp.
In a frenzy of teeth and claws, he bit into the fleshy parts of her body, tearing her apart and spraying himself with blood. He didn’t care … didn’t think as he ripped through flesh and bone and tried to satisfy insatiable cravings that burrowed deep inside him. The sheep all around him bleated in their flock, huddling together for safety, and Cade growled at them. He chewed on the meat, pulling off chunky bits of flesh from the flank and swallowing them down. He devoured her, tearing away bits of muscle and forcing the much-needed fuel into his body to fight off the invasion from the bite. When he was done, and the remains of the sheep lay at his feet in a bloodied mess of intestines and bone, he took off, running back the way, he had come … home.
He met Natalie, who had also shifted, along the riverbank. Her deep brown fur was rich with shades of the forests flecked through her coat. She approached him with a greeting growl, but Cade backed up, running wide and away from her, gaining control only enough to stop his wolf from getting another snatch of the scent she was emanating. Trying to deny the most natural urges of their kind, he ran hard, but his wolf pushed back, fighting with him, man and beast colliding, both fighting for control of their natural instincts.
They both stumbled and he whimpered as his leg twisted at a painful angle, sending pain surging through his body once again. Cade wrestled with the wolf inside, throwing him back. The shift was done—he wanted control back. He slammed his wolfen form against the base of a tree along the path people used and jarred himself enough that he could force every bone and muscle to shift back to man. It was like putting his hands into hot furred gloves and pushing out the claws so that he could have fingers. It was like stepping into a suit that didn’t fit him … But he pushed and fought even as his skin felt like it was peeling itself back from every single muscle.
Collapsing onto the ground, Cade panted, his eyes and teeth still refusing to shift back….
He tried to roll onto his front so that he could push himself up, but it was a vulnerable position to put himself in—an inviting one for his wolf …
But Cade denied him.
Natalie shifted somewhere close to him. He could feel her, but he refused to turn his head to where she was. His control was nothing … a thin thread in an already fraying mind. He sucked in a breath and made himself get to his feet.
“Cade,” she said. “Are you okay?”
His body was still slick with blood, mingled with perspiration. He stepped back, trying to keep a distance from Natalie as she got closer. “Stay there,” he said gruffly, putting his hand up. His canines dug into the inside of his mouth, and his jaw ached from the effort of trying to get them to retract.
But Natalie came closer, invading his personal space and putting her in dangerous proximity. The wolf latched onto her, and that delicate balance he had had crashed inside him, sending him reeling.
She grabbed his arm, trying to pull him around to her. “What is it?”
Too late was what it was.
He let out a deep growl, his voice thick with his wolf as he tried to warn her. Her scent was everywhere. It was too strong. Too much for him to fight off. The wolf lashed out inside, knocking Cade back and grabbing onto Natalie. He pulled her to him as he lowered them onto the ground, making her straddle his body.
Heat shot through her, sending her scent thicker into the air … calling to his wolf. Without thought, Cade dug his fingers into her backside and pulled her closer. She ran her hand along his chest, her breathing turning ragged, her arousal evident.
He fought himself inside his own head, not wanting to do this, but all he managed was to send his mind into some kind of frenzy. Images flashed before him, his vision a wash of colour and confusion. He let out a growl as Natalie positioned herself right over him, her shallow breaths and thundering heart loud in his ears. With a groan, and absolutely no control over his wolf’s natural instincts, he pushed himself inside her, connecting them in the most intimate of ways.
Her head fell back on a gasp, the tips of her breasts tightening to hard points as she moved on him, taking him deep into her body and then out again. Cade rocked into her, his hands sliding up her body until they found her breasts, his wolf instincts having taken over completely.
Natalie quickened the pace, her hands smoothing over his chest as she rode him. He pushed up to meet her every move, bringing small gasps from her, but it wasn’t enough … he couldn’t get inside her deep enough to satisfy the natural craving of his wolf to reproduce. Surging into a sitting position, he grabbed hold of her hips and had her beneath him in one fluid movement.
Her eyes were as bright as his, her wolf responding to his, and the world around them nothing but an evaporating darkness. She wrapped her legs tightly around his slender waist, holding him in place and as he moved, finding his rhythm. He was so lost in his head. Her moans of pleasure spurred him on, making him push deeper and lose all control to his wolf. He lowered his head and sank his teeth into the soft skin of her neck, bringing a sharp cry from her lips as she balanced on the edge of orgasm. He held her in place as he continued to pound into her—the mating call of his wolf.…
Natalie turned her head, offering more of her neck to him and giving him the control his wolf sought. He bit down harder, wider, tasting the addictive saltiness, her skin gave out to its mate.
She let out her own growl and dug her fingers into the muscles bunching in his back. He was completely lost now … so lost to her that any conscious thought the man in him might have had was all gone. Only primal instinct worked his body as he thrust into her over and over again. He felt her tense against him, his name leaving her lips in a breathless gasp as he drove her higher and higher. Even then, he pushed deeper, lifting her hips to meet his, moving faster, harder, his wolf seeking that release from her … needing it … craving it.
When she let out a scream as her orgasm rocked through her, Cade pulled back, letting go of her neck and sliding his hands under the firm cheeks of her backside to pull her harder to him. His own head fall back, a feral sound escaping his lips as his body shook on the edge of his own release.
As he started to climax, he gritted his teeth, inside his head still fighting to stop the inevitable.…
But the damage was already done.
On a long groan, his body jerked then stiffened as he started to spill his seed inside Natalie’s still quaking body.
To be continued …
Fractured 2
In this world, you really can die for love.
Mason Sabre
Book Eleven
Chapter 1
Gemma
Fuck. Gemma slammed her paws down against the ground and launched herself into a run. Her stomach lurched and her mind filled with images of Karl waiting for her with no fucking clue what was hiding in the trees. Just one moment and the world would collapse around them and there was nothing she could do … nothing.
God. She didn’t even want to think about it. Karl was a strong man—a shifter. She had to trust he could handle himself if Henry found him. Clenching her jaw, she ran hard and pushed out her front paws as wide as she could get them and kicked harder with her back. She used every bit of angst to propel herself forward.
“Shit, shit, shit.” She let out a growl. Vampire bites could be lethal to shifters. They were opposites on the living scale. Just one bite and Karl would be history.
She would not let that happen.
She tried to tell herself that it was just fear pushing her on. Fear for a man’s life and not that she might care for him. But Karl sparked something inside her, something like Cade, but different. It didn’t help that the wor
ld had thrown Henry into the mix to throw her completely off guard. She pawed around in the darkness searching for something to make her feel whole again. The three of them crushed her, broke down different parts of her walls, and it scared her.
She’d known Karl for only a short time. Her woman side tried to argue and be logical about the whole thing. Except, it was like her mother said, two tigers at the right moment and time won’t ever matter. But time mattered. Everything mattered.
As she ran, she kept her ears and eyes trained on the world around her, sending out her senses like detectors searching for any sign of Henry, or Karl. She pushed herself harder, and when it wasn’t enough, she snarled out her frustration. The speed in her mind didn’t match the speed of her body. She would be too late.
Karl was the easy one to find. He was tiger. His presence was a marker on her map, but Henry … he was vampire. By definition that meant he was far superior with the stealth and stalking skills. He’d wanted her to see him. The shit was toying with her.
Thrusting herself up the hill and ignoring the burning in her legs, she forced herself to move with more speed than her body was built for. Fury burned in her veins, and adrenaline rose along her spine, causing her to tremble. She pushed through every sensation, every ounce of pain and forced herself on. Her and her tiger raced to protect one of their own. But it was more than that. This was the first tiger Gemma had ever let in—another tiger that didn’t have a familial connection.
The darkness of the trees and the overhanging branches were a calming place for Gemma, but not tonight. They were a problem—a hazard hiding danger in every possible location. She scrambled to the top of one and hoisted herself onto a solid branch. She dug her claws into the bark to steady her and her gaze drifted across the clearing. Every shadow was a hiding place, every tree was a possibility, and every second was a second too long. She sucked in deep breaths and the air burnt her throat and expanded her chest to painful limits. She was a tiger, poised and ready to pounce. Her claws were out, and they itched with the need to dig into flesh. When she found nothing in the woods below her, she let out a low snarl, a warning to both of them with different meanings.
