by Dia Cole
Snarling, I scowled at Reed.
Color leeched from his tanned face. To his credit, he didn’t flinch from my gaze, but I sensed his rising panic and desire to protect my mate. It was the only reason he still drew breath.
When I’d first arrived at the house, I’d been enraged to scent a male’s arousal through her open window.
Driven nearly insane with fury, I’d dove through the window, intent on eviscerating my rival.
But then I’d clawed the curtain open and found my mate stretched out on her bed with her roommate’s face trapped between her thighs. Her gay roommate.
Shocked, I’d struggled to make sense of what I was seeing.
From weeks of stalking Lee, when I was supposed to be watching Javier, I knew everything about them. I’d seen the way Reed rejected every female who made a pass at him, and I’d seen the way my dancer bossed him around like a younger brother.
The two of them screwing didn’t make sense. What did make sense was that she was still under Javier’s compulsion and she’d jumped the first available male her age. It was a testament to her beauty and allure that not even the gay roommate could resist her.
I still wanted to kill him for touching what was mine, but I also knew he was part of her family unit and she’d be devastated at losing him.
This was lost on my beast who thrashed under my skin, trying to take control. Kill him! Mate her! Breathing hard, I fought to stay in control. I knew if I fully shifted, I’d end up murdering them both.
“More! More!” My dancer’s cries drew my attention to the bed where they writhed together. Her thighs were spread around that cocksucker's face as he licked and sucked her the way I longed to do.
Transfixed, I crouched down, watching him run his tongue along her plump lips with more enthusiasm than skill. The sight of her bare pussy gleaming with her lust and his saliva electrified me.
No doubt my bio readings were lit up like a fucking Christmas tree. Thank fuck my handler had gone MIA.
Groaning under my breath, I’d watched as my mate bucked against his mouth, digging her hands into the back of his head.
All at once, my murderous rage shifted into a desperate hunger. I dropped my hand to my throbbing cock. With her wild cries in my ears and the sweet scent of her lust burning my nostrils, I stroked myself.
The barbs along my shaft shredded the skin of my palm, but I welcomed the pain. It grounded me just enough to keep the beast at bay, and the blood acted as a lubricant. Shutting my eyes, I imagined I was thrusting into her hot, wet heat.
Pleasure blanked my mind as the coppery smell of my blood mixed with the scent of her passion.
Her cries increased in intensity until she gave one more keening wail.
I came with a muffled roar. Hot ribbons of blood and cum splattered the curtains as I pumped out my release. The moment I regained my senses, I cringed at the mess I’d made.
Fuck. I couldn’t even jack off without creating a crime scene. Cursing under my breath, I shifted my hand to a paw, at the same time moving the curtains aside to glimpse my mate. My claws shredded the fabric to ribbons.
Snarling, I shifted my paw into a fully healed human hand and peered through the tattered strips of cloth.
Although Reed was clearly inexperienced, my mate didn’t seem to care as she smiled up at him.
Envy raked over me.
I can’t touch her like he can. My claws would rip through her soft skin.
I can’t kiss her like he can. The poison dripping from my fangs would kill her.
I can’t mate her like he can. My barbed cock would shred her pussy.
As I watched her undress him, a forbidden thought flashed into my mind. Why not possess him?
I shook my head, rejecting the idea. Ghost had made me swear never to use that dark gift. He’d warned me the use of it would bring about my death, and only a fool ignored his prophesies.
And yet… Never had I been more tempted to use the abilities I’d discovered by accident. During one of my previous handler’s conditioning, aka torture, sessions, I’d literally had an out-of-body experience. I’d been in so much pain my consciousness had briefly escaped my body and flown into a human soldier sleeping in the barracks nearby. I’d possessed him long enough to stumble outside and stare at the full moon.
But my soul jump, as Ghost called it, made my biometrics go crazy, which hadn’t gone unnoticed by my prior handler. He'd sent me back to the lab for testing. The experiments I'd had to undergo there made my handler's conditioning sessions seem like a good time. I’d spent months in the lab and was lucky to make it out at all.
But no one is monitoring me now…
My mate’s angry shout tore me from my internal debate. With a jolt of surprise, I realized she was telling Reed to go, and the cocksucker was actually leaving.
Fuck. If he went away, so did my opportunity to be with her.
No!
Before I could consider the ramifications, I’d thrown back the curtain and revealed myself.
And here we are.
I wet my lips knowing I could order him to fuck her every which way from Sunday and he’d do it while I watched.
But I was done watching. I cleared my throat. “You’re under my control.” While Reed and my mate blinked slowly in acquiescence, I uttered another order. “Reed, go to sleep.”
On his next breath, the cocksucker’s eyes closed, and he passed out on the ground.
My mate let out a cry.
“Lee, forget the last ten minutes,” I commanded. Then I turned and knelt behind her curtain.
Having no recollection of me now, my mate’s attention fixed on her unconscious roommate. “Reed!”
I heard her scramble off the bed, no doubt checking on him.
With one last look out the window at her empty backyard, I shut my eyes and pushed my consciousness out of my body just like I’d done all those years ago. There was a moment of disorientation as I turned incorporeal, but I locked on my target and flew straight into Reed’s mouth. In less than a second, I took control of his body.
“Reed?”
Snapping my borrowed eyes open, I stared up into my mate’s face. Even without the heightened sensitivity of my natural vision, she looked stunning.
I leaned closer and inhaled deeply. Reed's dull human senses couldn’t pick up the intoxicating scent of her pheromones. But she still smelled incredible.
“Are you okay?” Her wide brown eyes shone with emotion that made my new human heart beat faster.
Blood pooled in my cock, which pulsed with a desperate need to be inside her. Trying to ignore the ache, I caressed the curve of her jaw.
“So soft,” I murmured, finding the smooth sound of my borrowed voice a little jarring. “My dirty dancer.”
“Reed?” she whispered. “Your eyes…”
I cupped the back of her head and brought her mouth down on mine. Then I kissed her with all the passion burning inside me.
Tentatively, her tongue moved against mine.
It was all the encouragement I needed. Groaning against her lips, I slid my hands down to her breasts. They were perfect—soft, yet firm, and large enough to overfill these human hands.
She moaned as I rolled her nipples between my fingers.
After inhaling her sounds of pleasure, I licked my way down her neck.
She tried to pull away. “Ah… I don’t think…”
Sensing her rising desire, I drew her nipple into my mouth.
“Oh, God!” She swayed and fell back on the floor, her leg knocking over an open bottle of Gatorade.
I followed her down, not breaking suction for a second.
The blue liquid coated us as I worked her nipples into stiff points, but I didn’t give a fuck. We could have been burning alive at that point and I wouldn’t have cared as long as I could keep touching her… tasting her.
Rising above her, I spread her thighs open with my knees. Then, grabbing her ass in my hands, I lifted her pussy to my mouth.
<
br /> She let out a broken gasp, her pupils blown with shock and desire.
Ah, fuck. She was as sweet as I’d imagined. I lapped at her cream before biting down on her clit.
She instantly came apart, shaking like a rag doll in my arms.
I slid a finger inside, finding her hot and so very wet.
Unable to wait any longer, I grabbed my borrowed cock and positioned it at her entrance. Although it was large for a human, she’d been primed well.
She can take it.
Her slumberous eyes widened. “Reed—”
I placed my forefinger on her mouth to silence her. I didn’t want any other male’s name on her lips.
“I want to claim you, dirty dancer.” I ran my cock up and down her sex, bathing it in her honey until it glistened.
She shuddered.
“Do you want that?” I asked, flicking her clit with my thumb.
She let out a broken moan.
“Answer me,” I demanded. I was crossing a dangerous line already. As excruciating as it would be to walk away, I would if she didn’t truly want this. But I sensed she did.
“Yes,” she hissed, opening her thighs wider.
Thank fuck. Bracing her ass in my hands, I slammed balls-deep into her.
She was so tight, my eyes crossed.
Her muffled cry told me what my body had already figured out.
She’s a virgin. Was a virgin.
I froze and glanced at her face.
Her expression was strained, and her lower lip was caught between her teeth. “I-it hurts a little. Maybe it’s the barbells.”
Some primal instinct urged me to rectify her discomfort ASAP. I reached my hand between us and rubbed her swollen clit. “Better.”
“Ah!” She moved against my fingers. “That feels… good.”
I let her rock against my cock until the tension left her body and her moans filled the room.
Lust strung me as tight as a drum, but I refused to move until she came. She’d have a good fucking memory of her first time, even if it killed me.
“I’m close!” she cried. Her face was flushed and contorted into an expression halfway between anguish and euphoria.
I worked her nub harder.
She came with a scream.
The feeling of her hot flesh clamping down on me made my self-control snap. Growling, I fell over her, thrusting hard and fast.
Her body surged under mine as she raked my back with her long nails.
Giving myself over to the frenzied need to mate her, I dropped my head to the side of her neck and pistioned into her.
Our bodies, slicked with sweat and fucking Gatorade, slapped together.
Her cries became louder and louder until she came with a wild shriek.
Howling her name, I spilled deep inside her spasming pussy. Then I collapsed over her, my mind blown to smithereens.
She panted underneath me. “That was… that was…”
“Only the beginning.” I flipped her onto her hands and knees.
“Again?” she gasped. Her thighs trembled as I positioned myself between them.
“And again and again,” I promised, driving into her. It would take far more than one mating to ease my cravings for her.
Over the next two hours, I took her on her hands and knees twice and then up against the wall. We moved to the dresser where we fucked until one of her trinkets smashed to the ground. At her sad cry, I tossed her on the bed and licked her pussy until she forgot about the broken frog. Only when she’d passed out with a blissful smile on her face, did I finally allow her to rest.
I didn’t want to sleep though. I wanted her again. I’d never get enough of her.
She’s mine.
My mate.
I wiped a sweat-dampened lock of her hair off her shoulder and examined the soft pads of my fingers. In this body, I hadn’t hurt her… well, beyond taking her virginity.
A wide grin of satisfaction crossed my face. I’d been her first, and I wanted to be her last. But how could I stay with her? The answer was that I couldn’t stay with her, but Reed could.
I can stay in his body permanently.
The idea was at once alarming and exhilarating. All my life I’d fantasized about escaping my handlers and gaining my freedom. This is my chance. I’d take Lee somewhere safe. Somewhere we could make a life together.
No sooner had I made my decision to stay than I felt my consciousness being drawn out of Reed’s body.
"No!" I tried to fight it, but it was as if my soul was being swept into a cyclone that sucked me up and deposited me back in my own wretched body.
Gut-wrenching pain hit me as soon as I opened my eyes. Clutching my head, I pleaded, “Stop!”
“Now you talk to me, motherfucker,” Jen shrieked in my ear. Her anger, sharp and bright, pulsed through our bond. “I’ve been trying to reach you for the last hour. It’s after four in the morning. Get your AWOL ass back to base right fucking now.”
I stared at Lee, feeling all hope for our future slip away. “No. I—”
“Are you refusing a direct order? I’ll end you right here and now.” The pain intensified to the point I thought my head would explode.
Fuck! I tried to soul jump back into Reed but couldn’t. Trapped by the escalating agony, I whispered, “I’ll be back.”
Thinking my words were for her, Jen sniffed. “Good, and you better have the intel on Dr. Hurran.”
“I do,” I gasped. As I dragged myself out of my mate's window and headed back to my handler, I cursed the fates for giving me a taste of heaven only to rip it away.
14
Lee
A loud shriek ripped me from sleep.
What the hell?
Cracking my eyes open, I peered at the bright light filtering through my half open curtains. As my mind slowly rebooted, I heard another loud cry from out in the living room. Ugh. Cami and Ronnie are going at it early.
With a sigh, I rolled out of bed as gracefully as a three legged-cat and half fell into the congealed blue puddle on the floor. As I glanced down at my sticky feet, I realized two things. First, my body ached in places it never had before. Second, Reed was sleeping in my bed. Naked.
Holy crap.
Memories of our night together hit me like a freight train. I glanced around the room, replaying our drunken sexcapade. The floor. The wall. The dresser. The bed. My face heated as I remembered all the things he’d done to me and the things I’d done to him.
Oh. My. God.
We’d screwed our platonic relationship right out the window. There could be no going back. Not when my core throbbed with the imprint of his pierced cock.
I shivered, remembering how my shy, easy-going roommate had become a sex god last night. In turn, I’d become a nymphomaniac who’d taken everything he’d given me and demanded more.
But it hadn’t just been the sex that had awoken something primal and raw inside me. There’d also been an undeniable connection between us that had only grown stronger the more times we’d come together.
Reed is in love with me.
And I… I…
Feelings I normally kept deep in the recesses of my soul threatened to overwhelm me. I pushed them away. It didn’t matter what I felt, what we’d done was wrong.
He’s family.
I wanted so badly to hit an undo button and erase last night. But Reed wasn’t some stranger I’d had a one-night stand with. I couldn’t just avoid ever seeing him again.
He’ll want a relationship.
My chest tightened with so much anxiety I could barely breathe.
Another hair-raising shriek rang out.
Reed bolted upright in bed. “Jesus, what’s that?”
“Cami and Ronnie,” I said, spitting out their names. “They apparently want the entire neighborhood to know they’re having sex.”
His blue eyes alighted on me and widened. “You’re naked.” He glanced down at his scarred chest. “I’m naked.” He looked back at me, his gaze filled w
ith questions. “Did we… um… last night?”
I stared at him, dumbfounded.
He doesn’t remember?
I knew he’d been drinking, but there was no way he could have taken me so many times if he’d been amnesia-level drunk. Right?
Maybe he’s just pretending.
For some reason, that thought made me self-conscious. I reached for his flannel shirt on the floor by my closet door and put it on. “What’s the last thing you remember?”
“You told me to leave.” His brow furrowed as if he was concentrating hard. “And there was a monster…” Blood drained from his face as he looked toward my window. “...with fangs and glowing eyes.”
“A monster?” I repeated incredulously.
“Yeah, that sounds a little crazy. I-I don’t remember anything after that.” He rubbed one of the scratches my nails had made down his back. “Can you catch me up?”
Maybe it’s the best thing if I ‘forget’ too. “I don’t remember anything either.” I chewed my lower lip, hoping he’d buy the lie.
He took a deep breath, no doubt inhaling the unmistakable scent of sex that perfumed the room. “Lee, it’s obvious we slept together.”
Oh, there wasn’t much sleeping involved.
A loud crash from the front of the house saved me from addressing the seismic shift in our relationship. Ridiculously relieved to have a reason to leave, I reached for the door handle.
“What are you doing?”
“Going to tell Ronnie and Cami to keep it down.”
The sound of glass breaking made me see red. They better not be destroying my living room as part of their fuck fest.
Reed jumped off the bed. “Our friends wouldn’t trash the house.”
Having his lean, muscular body only inches away from mine, made my lower belly clench and my breathing go ragged. Unable to fight the impulse, I swayed closer. Has he always smelled this good?
“We should call the police.” He bent down to pick up his pants from the floor.
Seeing the half-moon marks my nails had left in his tight ass raised my body temperature ten degrees.
“Damn. My phone is dead.” He frowned at the black device in his hands and threw on his jeans. “I’ll check it out. Wait here.”
