by Rae Foxx
“God, could you be more disgusting?” I didn’t even bother to keep my voice down. Neither Finn or Saxon restrained their laughter, both chuckling at full volume as Pater’s face blanched. I said the words that I was well aware I might not even live to regret.
“I’m not even going to let your wrinkled old man ding-a-ling or sagging balls anywhere near me. If Selene wants to swallow her bile and take that on, good for her. But your wrinkled prick is not for me. I’d rather die first.”
Finn snickered at my choice of words, but I was too pissed, my wolf too loud, every muscle coiled and bound in expectation of what was coming.
“You would sacrifice your pack? It’s just a little dip, and they all go free.” He was shaking with fury, but he was still staring at the bit of hair between my legs as if it was a fucking buffet.
Yep, totally shivered. Shouldn’t have let that thought in my head.
“Oh, I’m not sacrificing anything,” I shrugged, taking two steps forward, trying to gauge exactly how much I could push my wolf’s jump to reach him.
If I took him out the right way, that should end it. One head-chomping bite and this could all be over.
“I’m not going to roll over for you,” I said, taking another step forward. “I’m going to fight you.”
His response turned into a howl as I jumped, as my wolf ripped through my skin, as I growled, as Nicky reached for Howl’s head, as Selene grabbed Scarlet’s neck.
As Pater smiled.
And everything went dark.
I had lost before I had hit the ground.
Chapter 25
I hit the ground in a heap, screams of fear mixing with gasps and yelps and the sound of a million feet shuffling through dirt.
Without being able to see, my graceful landing turned on its head, legs flinging over back and tail stuffing itself in my mouth as I twisted and rolled in a cloud of dirt.
Dirt in the dark.
“You have to run. Run through the pain. Run to the smoke. Don’t stop,” someone hissed the instructions through the dark, the words a snarl as they repeated over and over, joined by the sound of what was cutting rope, the zip of a knife against fibers mixed with the snarls and feet against dirt until a hand that was cold and icy and familiar ran through the fur near my ear.
“I have Howl,” Saxon whispered, his fingers pulling against my fur, making sure he had my attention. “Run back to the witch's fire. Run as fast as you can.”
I growled, my wolf snarling as she found her feet, but I only got a tug of fur and a warning in my ear.
“We can’t win this, Ivy, you have to run.” Saxon’s hand left my head as the night began to break, the light seeping through the sky like a crack in the ceiling.
“Find her!” Pater yelled, close enough that I could take him down.
Enough to try.
Except that if I fought, I would be alone. Alone against all of them. I would leave my pack alone too.
My mates.
The scent of Howl’s blood clung to my fur where Saxon had held me. It mixed with the scent of fear and anger, that I had assumed was from my pack.
But that panic, that loss, came from the blood.
It came from Howl.
Howl. I could fight for him, or I could fight with him.
I knew which one I wanted.
With a huff from my wolf, I took off, darting through the dark and after that smell that was pulling me like a string, right out of the dark and into the trees.
Trees popped back into being as though the clearing had been smothered in a blanket of night. The quickly brightening sun pulled through the trunks, looking like beams of hope as I sprinted around one tree trunk then another, moving as fast as I could.
It didn’t take me long to catch up with the first of my pack, the family of raccoons crying and struggling as they ran together in their animal forms, the youngest trying to stay on her mother’s back with what looked like a broken arm.
Shit.
They weren’t far enough away. If that black stuff continued cracking like it did it wouldn’t take long to catch up.
“I’ve got them,” Danvers yelled, the woman magically appearing, scuttling over the brush in her birthday suit. Of course, now she shows up. I gave her a snarl but nodded toward the raccoons as she gathered up the most injured of them, all of them bolting through the trees before me. Without another word.
We ran together until the sounds of confusion behind us twisted into a battle cry. The volatile sound shuddered in the light that breezed through the trees. We pulled to a stop, both of us looking to the battle cry before Danvers fixed me with a pleading look.
God, the lady really was a chicken. I should’ve smelled the fear on her before.
I nodded ahead, toward the scent of smoke and Howl that we were supposed to be following and she ran, leaving me alone to face them.
Leaving me alone to protect them all.
I dug my feet in, ears perked to the sound of feet and snarling that would herald their arrival.
My end.
No, Ivy, don’t think like that. You are a badass Alpha. You are totally going to kick some ass.
Yeah.
Pounding feet rattled the dirt, the battle cry growing closer as my wolf bared her teeth, hackles up in warning, in waiting.
Closer.
The fallen trees and dirt shook, marking the arrival, the sound screaming in my ears as I growled, pulling into a crouch.
I was ready. I could almost taste the blood flood my mouth.
Instead, the world fell silent.
The feet slowed, the screams died, and the sun dimmed as the forest in front of me flooded to that same black.
Black that dripped from the branches like ashes, dripped and swirled until a man rose from the forest floor, his smug smile stretching as he pulled his jacket into place, looking as though he had stepped from a limousine and not grown from a ground covered in black smoke.
“Tommy?” I gasped, my wolf falling away as I stepped forward in human form, body shaking in shock.
He just smiled.
“How many times do I have to tell you I am on your side?” he snapped, walking toward me so casually that if it wasn’t for the dark light in his eyes he would have been nothing more than a handsome, rebellious boy.
“You did this?”
“Someone had to save your ass.” Pine needles crunched beneath his fully formed feet, the still dark clouds swirling through the trees behind him as he smothered Pater and his pack.
At least I hoped that’s what he was doing.
“And what a fine ass it is,” his lips twisted as he took a quick step forward, his hand darting out and curving around to cup my ass, squeezing and spreading the cheek as he pulled me close to him.
“Stop it, Tommy,” I gasped, pushing against his chest, but his other hand was faster, cupping the back of my neck as he did my ass, both hands tight and firm against me as he held me in place.
“Stop saving you?” He asked, leaning closer, his nose rubbing against my jaw as he breathed me in. “Or stop teasing you?”
“No.” I tensed under his grip. He chuckled with that same inhuman sound, his nose running over my jaw again.
“Didn’t think so.” He pulled away, his grip still firm as those dark eyes burrowed into mine, my wolf even whimpering at the darkness there, at the desire that I was sure would manifest in bruises later. “I have to say, watching you shift, watching that massive wolf pull through you. Seeing what I was feasting on for so many years… It was a thing of beauty.”
No wonder my wolf was quaking at this fucking bully. I shifted, my bare feet sliding over dirt as I tried to get away from him. He gripped my flesh harder, his fingers winding through my hair and pulling until my neck tilted back.
And my heart rate accelerated.
And the tiny clearing we stood in filled with the scent of my arousal.
No.
Not this stinky fucker.
Tommy smiled, leaning in to sme
ll me again. As if I hadn’t been able to guess what he was smiling over.
“Let me go, Tommy,” I snapped, fighting against him again.
He pulled harder, my neck straining until I stared at the tops of the trees and the dark smoke that had swallowed them whole.
I tried to fight him, even my wolf was snarling now, but the angle of my neck made that impossible, even if I could move away from the iron clench he had on my ass.
“Aww, come on, we both know you don’t want that.” He said, stepping closer, his fingers hard against my ass as he shoved me against him. I could feel him twitch and throb.
“I don’t want that,” I said with a not so subtle glance to his crotch. “Needle dick.”
He scoffed and stepped away. I barely caught my balance as he released me.
“Don’t worry, Ivy. I know what you want. I can smell your cunt from a mile away. It wants me. I want it too. I’ll get my reward soon enough.”
“Reward?” I asked, stomach spinning.
“I saved you, Ivy,” he said, a bit of a bastard leaving his voice. “Did you really think I’d let those fuckers kill you? Helps that you have a vamp in your bed. He’s good help.”
“He’s not in my bed.” It was going to get harder and harder not to punch him all the time.
“Yeah, yeah, Mates. I know.” The corner of Tommy’s mouth twitched as he walked away from me, cutting through the forest towards the smoke. “I can smell it on you. All of them.”
I stared at his back, watching him go. I didn’t want to follow him, he was not my choice traveling buddy. I didn’t care if he had restrained Pater and his pack.
I wasn’t interested in giving him any kind of reward.
“Know what else I smell?” He said, turning toward me with a hint of a smile.
“I think you already told me.” I rolled my eyes, ready to shift into my wolf and leave this fucker behind.
“Me, Ivy,” Tommy smiled, freezing me in place. “I smell me. I smell the mark of a demon on you.”
“Ex-excuse me?” The word caught in my throat as I stumbled to a stop. I couldn’t even swallow. I stared as Tommy stepped back over to me, that black swirling smoke moving to smother the trees around us, the heavy ribbons of demonic ash dripping from the branches like oil.
“You were marked by a demon long before you came here,” Tommy said, jumping over a low bush to stand less than a foot from me. The smoke of his body shifting and moving until his body had shifted, the shirt and jacket vanishing until he stood before me, dressed only in pants that I was sure weren’t real either.
“I marked you when I fed from you, much the same way the vampire has. I marked you with my kiss. With my cum when I filled you. When you swallowed me. When it sprayed against your breasts.” I was finally able to force a swallow, the sound loud enough that Tommy heard, he smiled and stepped closer.
Too close.
His hand lifted, fingers extending to drag down my front, but I moved back, dodging his touch. I barely shifted before his smoke filtered everywhere, pushing me right into his outstretched hand and the fingers that clamped around my nipple.
“Tommy,” I hissed quick-stepping away, but he gripped harder, pulling me by my nipple until I was flush against him. I whimpered.
“I never got to fuck you,” he said as he pulled me closer, “not really. Not the way a demon fucks their prey. I could take you now…”
He let the words linger, his thumb rubbing over the nub of my nipple that he held between his fingers. I inhaled, my breath shaking, my knees as well, and he smiled.
“Don’t worry. I won’t. Not yet.” He leaned away, his smile spreading as he stepped back, although he did not release my nipple, his thumb still moving over it.
I squared my jaw, locking it in place as I forced the moans away, forced the look of need and want from my eyes. He saw it anyway and leaned down, licking the tip as I shook. It was then he released me, laughing as I shivered.
As I battled between a need to punch him and jump him.
He gave me one last grin before he stepped back, looking at the red and swollen nipple he had tormented and the one that was just as hungry for his touch.
What was wrong with me? Tommy was a bastard. I shouldn’t want him.
I didn’t want him.
I stepped back as though to prove it and my legs nearly went out from underneath me.
“Yes, you feel it. I know you do. You want me.”
“I don’t--”
“You do,” he cut me off with a smile and a sultry wink. “But don’t worry. I’ll wait. I want you to beg anyway. Bitches like you are always better when they beg.”
“I won’t beg. Not for you.”
“You will. I just hope that next time I watch those guys fuck you, that some bitch on a power trip doesn’t interrupt again.”
Oh my god.
That day in the forest, when we were working to control my magic, he was there.
He watched as I swallowed their cocks, as I was taken by both of them.
I was frozen as he leaned closer, his nose running along my jaw before he whispered with a voice so dark I could feel it press against my soul. Press against other places too.
“I like watching them fuck you. I hope to see much more of it.”
I couldn’t move as he leaned away, as he smiled. His palm pressed against my pelvis, fingers sliding toward the hungry need that was flooding me. I was so hot I was amazed I hadn’t exploded a tree, my own want dripping down my leg.
“I hope to be part of it,” he whispered, his finger soft as it tapped the skin above my clit. Teasing me. Promising me. “Fuck who you want, Ivy. Just don't forget I was first. You’re mine first and foremost.”
And then he was gone, burst into smoke, as I stood heaving in breaths, trying to regulate the lust that was pooling through me.
Sure, I could feel his fingers pushing their way inside of me.
Chapter 26
“Stop babying me,” Howl was the whiniest of any injured person I had been around. Granted, he had been near death when we had finally found a place to hide.
For two days, Tommy had stood at the entrance of the labyrinth of caves that Scarlet and I had been sequestered in after Pater had kidnapped us. Ironically, it was now a sanctuary as we hid from Pater and his pack, the violent animals stalking the forest.
We had essentially become the animals we all were, well all but Howl and I, but wolves lived in caves so it was close enough.
Trapped underground, we were all hiding from the bigger, badder, predators, licking our wounds. Although some were left to heal longer than others, like Howl. The guy still couldn’t lift his arms, which is why I was feeding him soup.
And why he was turning into the whiny baby he didn’t want me to treat him as.
‘I mean it,” Howl warned, trying to dodge the spoon I was guiding his way. “Stop babying me.”
“If you aren’t careful, I am going to make the airplane noise,” I warned, much to the delight of Finn, who was lounging on one of the squishy chairs Saxon had brought down here. “Remember what I do with Mongolian BBQ. I can do that again--easy.”
Howl scowled at me, the one eye grimace pathetic thanks to the left side of his face still being swollen in shades of black and blue.
“I don’t need you to feed me.” Stubborn ass man. I was going to drown him in soup if he wasn’t careful.
“Yes, you do.” I snapped, trying again with the spoon, nearly pushing the liquid up his nose before he begrudgingly opened his mouth. “Good boy! Now you’ll grow big and strong.”
Finn burst out laughing, Howl growling as his cheeks pursed. I half expected him to spit the soup out at me.
My magic was at the ready, no way in hell partially eaten soup was going to touch me. We hadn’t exactly figured out the shower situation down here. I didn’t fancy the first shower I’d have in days to be made of soup.
“Howl, you have got to stop fighting her,” Saxon said, he and Scarlet entering the
section of the cave we had claimed as our own, arms laden with firewood. “If you haven’t figured out by now, she is not about to give up. You are a fool to fight her.”
“Then I’m a fool,” he said in a growl, scowling at the far wall. He knew better than to give me that look. If he did, the soup would go in his lap.
It might anyway.
I was trying to make amends for not understanding the warning growl he had given me through our mate’s connection and come running. It clearly wasn’t enough.
I was still a baby shifter.
A baby alpha.
And I had really messed up. He wasn’t the only one that was upset with me. I wasn’t sure how to make amends for that. I was working on it, but it was clearly going to take more than soup. Certainly more than choo-choo noises.
Like getting the pack back into the school dorms, where beds and food existed in plenty. I had no clue where to start with that, not unless I killed Nicky. Which definitely wasn’t off the table.
I sighed and put down the chipped bowl I had been using for the past few days, not really wanting to fight him.
“Are we done bickering enough that we can come up with a plan out of here?” Scarlet said, sinking onto the only other unoccupied chair. “I mean, as much fun as camping out in a cave is--”
“We need to get out of here.” I sagged against the chair Scarlet had collapsed in. “So, we either kill Nicky or kill Pater.”
Putting a voice to the thoughts that had been swirling through my head for the past few days made them feel much more ominous than I expected. I never counted myself as a killer, yet somehow it had become all that my life was focused on.
“I vote Pater,” Howl said with a wince. “He deserves it after what he did.”
“Agreed.” Everyone but me said together, nodding like bobbleheads.
“How are we supposed to beat him?” I asked through a stress-eaten mouthful of Howl’s soup. “That didn’t go so well last time…”
“Last time we were outnumbered and the time before that we didn’t know you were the super-powerful hybrid from the first shifter and the direct line of witches,” Finn said calmly, everyone but Howl looking at me like I was some kind of god. “Now that we know where your magic stems from, I can train it the right way.”
