3
Caleb resisted the urge to leap at the Sheikh’s throat and rip out his voicebox. It took some effort, and Caleb was surprised at how fast his own anger had risen. It wasn’t so much the condescending way in which the Sheikh spoke to him—hell, Caleb didn’t get affected by assholes throwing insults at him. It was another instinct that fired to life at the command to kill Adam’s kids. A protective instinct, fierce and undeniable. An instinct that Caleb knew would never let him hurt those kids. Those kids were Adam’s flesh and blood. The offspring of his Alpha. They were family. Part of his crew. Part of his pack. He’d die before he let anything happen to them.
The realization sent bolts of electricity through the wolf’s body, and he broke into a dead run as he left the Sheikh’s palace. He wasn’t sure where he was running to. He just knew he needed to run. There were instincts that were coming to life in him—feelings that had been buried so long he assumed they were dead. It upset him. It messed with the idea of what he thought he was, what he thought he was meant to be, what he thought was his fate.
“No!” he howled as he galloped into the open desert. “I’m a lone wolf. No pack. No friends. No mate. Nothing to protect. Nothing to love. Nothing to make me weak.”
The pack makes us strong, not weak, whispered his wolf from inside as Caleb felt himself beginning to Change back into a man. And a mate makes us all-powerful. It balances the darkness in us, puts us in control of our destiny, in line with our fate.
Caleb howled once more as he tried to get his wolf to shut up, and then suddenly he was a man again, whipping his body upright and straightening out so fast he almost fell flat on his face. But he kept his balance, his bare feet barely touching the burning sand as he sprinted deeper into the desert, the sweat pouring down his glistening naked body, his chest heaving with the strain of going full-tilt over the sand dunes. For a moment he thought he could just run himself to death, end the conflict and confusion that was driving him close to madness. But although there had been dark days when Caleb had considered ending it all, he couldn’t access those feelings anymore. Dormant instincts were waking up, and he couldn’t fight them any longer. He had needs to protect, to mate, to love. He needed his pack, his crew, his brothers. He needed his mate.
His mate.
And as he finally let the nagging thought erupt to fruition in his mind, he saw an image of Magda. Except it wasn’t that rail-thin, dark-eyed, pale-faced Magda he’d seen with his eyes. It was the woman inside her, the woman she really was, the woman behind the veil, behind the facade, behind the curtain. She had the same eyes, but they were full of life and warmth. The same face, but filled out and glowing with a warm smile. The pale, sunken cheeks were now round and rosy. Her body pushed against her shapeless robe, breasts and hips rounding out the cloth and making Caleb pant as his eyes went wide, his body tightened, his cock stood straight out as he ran naked through the desert.
He felt himself yearn for that woman, that image of Magda that he was certain was just a mirage of the desert, an hallucination thrown up by his frazzled mind. But still he reached out to her, and then he felt her magic wind its way through him as he raced through the desert.
A moment later everything went dark, and he could feel his body enveloped in that dark light until the sand was gone from beneath his feet, the blue sky disappeared, and Caleb was spinning in the air like a dust-devil as the witch drew him back to her.
4
“Put some clothes on, please,” she said coldly, trying not to stare at the naked soldier who’d spun himself into existence on the sandstone floor of her marble mansion. “There are children present.”
Magda tried to keep her eyes dead and cold, but she could feel the heat rising along her body, a heat that made her uncomfortable, a heat that was unfamiliar, a heat that was undeniable.
She gasped as she felt a strange tightness in her chest, a tingling in her thighs, a trembling in her buttocks. Caleb was standing before her in all his glory, his eyes the midnight blue of the ocean, his body bronzed from the desert sun, the tattoos that covered his contoured muscles all spelling out her name, it seemed. She blinked as she tried not to stare between his legs, at his swollen manhood. But it was hard to ignore. He was ramrod straight, thick and heavy, and Magda’s eyelids fluttered as she tried to keep her eyes on his face even as her mind whipped up images of him putting that thing inside her, holding her down and pumping her from behind, those heavy balls of his emptying inside her cold depths, heating her up to the point of explosion.
“Clothes!” she said again, turning away from him and swallowing hard as that strange tightening in her breasts, ass, and thighs made her robe begin to press against her body, press against her . . . curves?
No, she thought in a panic as she looked down at herself, half-expecting to see her boobs popping out, her ass expanding, her thighs thickening. But although it felt like that, she was still that rail-thin woman. It was her imagination. She wasn’t going to suddenly turn into that self-conscious, oversized girl who’d been teased and taunted to the point of despair. She was powerful now. Living the dream of every girl who’d struggled to fit into her pants, struggled to fit into society, who’d been teased or bullied or worse.
“The children don’t seem to give a shit,” came Caleb’s voice, smooth and deep, cutting through her paranoia and adding a different sort of nervousness to her inner turmoil. “I doubt they’ve ever seen their father and mother with clothes! They have the unprejudiced acceptance of nakedness like every animal does, Magda. Every animal except you, it appears.”
“Because I’m not an animal,” said Magda firmly—almost too firmly. Again her heart leapt at a long-buried memory from childhood. A memory of her running through the forest, every sense heightened, a feeling of divine freedom flowing through her. A feeling that had been stolen from her. Taken away. Murdered.
“Humans are animals too,” said Caleb, making no move to cover himself. “You are human, aren’t you?”
Magda snorted softly, turning back to him and looking into his eyes. Damn, they were so blue. So deep. So perfect. “You don’t want to know what I am. Now put some clothes on or I’ll dress you myself.”
Caleb’s blue eyes widened, and he put his hands on his hips and grinned. “Really? You’ll dress me? With magic? Now that sounds like a neat trick!” He looked down at his erection and frowned. “Nothing too tight, though. This guy needs space to—ouch! What the hell?!”
With a wave of her hand and the whisper of a simple spell, Magda conjured up a set of shining metal underwear, reminiscent of a thirteenth-century chastity belt, complete with an oversized iron padlock dangling dead center. She giggled as she watched Caleb stare down at himself in shock, then look back up at her, his face going bright red with a mixture of anger, surprise, and perhaps just a bit of amusement.
“You really are a wicked witch,” he grunted, flipping the padlock up and staring down at it. “Where the hell did you even come up with something like this?”
“Royals in the old days had their daughters wear these,” Magda said, her eyes twinkling as she watched the lean, muscled Navy Seal scratch his buzzed head as he stared down at the chastity belt and its enormous padlock. “Just so no frisky knight got any ideas.”
Caleb grunted. “Well, I wasn’t getting any ideas,” he said, looking her up and down and shrugging. “You aren’t my type.”
Magda blinked, feeling that tightness in her chest and ass again as if her body wanted to pop out into its natural form, as if something inside her was saying, “Yes! I am your type!”
You are his type and he knows it. He sees the woman inside the robe, behind the veil, past the facade, came a voice from inside her, and Magda almost choked as she heard it clear as day. It was the same voice she’d heard as a child, a voice that was hers and also not hers, a voice that belonged to something inside her, something that had come out into the open that night
when she was still a child. The night before everything changed.
You’re dead, she thought. They killed you. You’re dead.
She held her breath, closing her eyes as she waited for a response. But none came. It was her imagination. Just traumatic memories playing havoc with her mind. Good. That she could handle.
You know what else you can handle, came the voice again just as she’d begun to calm down. Pop that padlock off and show him that your cold, bony fingers are soft and warm, that this is just an illusion, that this is all a costume. Release him and let him smell our scent, our heat, our need. Then he will do the rest.
Our scent, Magda thought as she felt her breaths come in gasps. Who is us? You’re dead! They killed you in that government laboratory, with those drugs that were supposed to cure the Shifter disease. They killed you!
That’s what they thought too, whispered the animal from inside her. But here I am. And here he is. Your fated mate. He has brought me back from the dead so we can create new life. Back from the dead! Boo!
“Boo!” came a high-pitched voice. It was one of Adam and Ash’s twins, the little girl. She was grinning wide and clapping her chubby little hands as she stared at Magda and said, “Boo!” again.
Caleb turned to the twins, and Magda saw a dark cloud pass through him clear as day. Suddenly the unexpected, almost flirty atmosphere was gone, and Caleb turned back to her, his expression dead serious.
“What is it?” she said. “What did Murad say?”
“You know what he said,” Caleb growled, his face tight and hard. “He wants me to kill them. He’s scared of his own son—as he damned well should be. And we should be scared too. Why hasn’t Adam found us yet, anyway?”
Magda turned to the balcony and sighed. She looked out over the rolling dunes of the desert, closing her eyes and muttering the spell she’d been using to obscure the location of the children. “I have been using a spell to keep the children hidden from the dragon’s instincts to home in on its blood. But the spell will not last long. Sooner or later the dragon will pick up their trail and come for us.” She turned to Caleb, blinking as she felt that dark power fill her like a vessel from the inside. This is about something bigger than you, she reminded herself. Whatever you lost when they killed your animal was gained when you found the power of darkness, when you basked in the strength of magic.
I’m not dead, came that voice from inside her again, and Magda almost cried out in surprise as she felt her animal reaching out . . . reaching out for him. Reaching out for its mate. And even if I were, we both know that even death cannot stop fated mates from coming together. And it is coming together! All of it! We can have it all. We can both have it all. Our mate. Our children. The world itself.
Again the visions of that night when little Magda had first Changed came rushing back into her, and Magda swooned as she turned away from the balcony. Suddenly her head was spinning, and she felt herself falling . . . falling . . . falling . . .
“Got you,” came Caleb’s voice, and she gasped as his strong arms circled her waist and pulled her into his body. His scent was as strong as his grip: musky, masculine, wolflike. She breathed deep, feeling her animal thrash inside her like it was going wild. There was no denying it, she realized as her sight narrowed to a tight focus where she could see nothing but Caleb’s eyes, blue eyes the color of midnight. No denying that her animal had come alive, that she was no longer just a dark witch but a dark Shifter witch.
“Yes,” she whispered as the heat flowed through her, the energy of her animal mixing with the darkness of her magic, the currents swirling together like snakes. “Yes, you do have me, Caleb. Listen, I must tell you something. I need to tell you something.” She paused, knowing that if she kept talking, there’d be no turning back. If she was wrong—wrong about herself, wrong about him, wrong about this—then the only solution would be . . .
“I already know,” he said softly, his eyes flashing a blue so deep Magda almost spun back into that stupor. “I already know.”
And then, with the desert sun blazing down on the witch and the wolf, two dragon-babies staring in innocent wonder, he kissed her.
By the eternal Shifter spirit that can never die, he kissed her.
5
At first he felt all the energy drawing out of him like his life itself was being drained, and Caleb almost choked as his eyes went wide. But he stayed with the kiss, stayed with his faith, stayed with his need.
And then it happened.
She changed.
She changed into the woman in Caleb’s vision, and he gasped in shock as she felt her body expand as he held her close. Her boobs popped out and slammed into his hard chest, her ass filled his big strong hands from behind, her cheeks turned round and rosy, full of warmth and innocence. Even her eyes changed, and Caleb just blinked as he drew back from the kiss and took in the sight of this woman in his arms, her full, red lips glistening from the kiss.
“Holy shit,” he muttered, blinking again as he wondered if this was just another magic trick. But he knew it wasn’t. He knew that everything else had been magic, but this was real. So real it took his breath away. So real it made his knees weak. So real it made him want to take her, claim her, possess her. “Holy shit, Magda!”
“Don’t look at me!” she shrieked, turning her head away as her light brown eyes went wide. She tried to push herself away from him, but his grip was too strong, his need too desperate. “I’m hideous!”
“You’re beautiful,” Caleb whispered, his voice thick with arousal as he looked down along her smooth neckline, pausing at the divine sight of her cleavage smushed against his bare chest. Her robe was straining at the seams, and with a grunt Caleb reached up along her back and just ripped the cloth straight down the middle, yanking it off her and tossing it across the room just right so the thin robe landed over the children like a blanket, hanging loose enough so it was open from the bottom to let air in while obscuring the view of what was about to happen. Her feminine scent rose up to him like he’d just walked into a field of flowers in bloom, and he took deep gulping breaths as he ran his bare hands down her naked back, cupping her asscheeks with all his strength as he pulled her closer against him. “Yes, you’re beautiful, Magda. You’re beautiful, and you’re mine.”
“I . . . I’m . . . you can’t . . . don’t . . .” she began to mumble, but Caleb stopped her with a vicious kiss, his lips smothering hers as he felt his wolf howl inside him, howl to the heavens, to the stars, to the moon and the sun and every planet in the universe. It had found its mate, and the human was taking care of business. It felt so right that Caleb would have howled out loud himself if he hadn’t been kissing her so deep, so hard, so—
“Get this thing off me!” he roared as his cock strained against its cage. He reached down between her legs to feel her heat. God, she was wet, dripping, hot and ready for him. But he could feel the cold metal of that ridiculous chastity belt against the back of his hand as he fingered her between her legs, her scent almost making him dizzy as he felt his cock throb behind that padlock! “Get this damned thing off me, witch!”
Magda pulled away from the kiss, her eyelids fluttering as if she was going in and out of consciousness. Caleb shook her as he felt his wolf going crazy inside, threatening to come forth and break the damned padlock with its Shifter strength. Again Caleb shook her, holding her arms tight as she trembled like a curvy ragdoll in his grip, her eyelids still fluttering until finally they stayed open long enough for her to follow what he was saying.
She frowned and looked down at him, blinking and then giggling when she saw the metal underwear with the massive padlock holding back his manhood. Damn, she looked cute when she laughed! She looked up into his eyes and took a breath. Then she nodded and muttered a few words that Caleb couldn’t understand.
And nothing happened.
Nothing.
Not a damned thing.
“Are you fucking kidding me!” Caleb roared, his head whipping back, his neck straining as he reached down and pulled at the padlock in anger. “You put this on me. Now get it off!”
“I . . . I can’t!” Magda screamed, her eyes going wide as she muttered the spell again without any effect. “My magic isn’t working! I . . . I don’t know . . .” She frowned as she looked down at herself, cocking her head as something just occurred to her. Then she exhaled and closed her eyes, shaking her head and whispering something under her breath. “This is wrong,” she whispered. “I can’t do it. I have to resist. I can’t lose my powers, lose my magic. I can’t, Caleb. I’m sorry.”
Caleb frowned as he felt a chill pass through him—a real chill, cold like ice. He realized it was coming from Magda, and he was startled when she opened her eyes again to reveal the black, dead eyes of the dark witch.
“No!” shouted Caleb, shaking her again as he watched her face morph back into the sunken paleness of the witch. “Magda! No! Come back! Come back to me!”
But it was no use, and Caleb howled in anguish as he felt her body shrivel up again, her beautiful curves receding like the tide, her lips going thin, her ass shrinking, chest flattening out, body getting lighter until she felt like a feather in his arms.
She pulled away from him, covering her skinny body as she ran across the room, grabbed her robe from the children’s heads, and covered herself before turning back to him.
“What the hell just happened?” Caleb growled, his jaw tightening as he fought back his wolf, who was going insane inside him, its need to take its mate driving it close to feral madness. “I thought we were—”
“We can’t,” said Magda, shaking her head firmly, her cheekbones sharp like daggers as the sun lit her up and made her look so pale he swore he could see the dark blue veins streaking across her neck and forehead. “Not now. Not ever. There’s too much at stake. If I lose my magic, then . . .”
Witch for the Wolf Page 2
