“No!” said Magda, laughing as she pushed his face away, her other hand still firmly grasping his cock. “Save some for your children.”
“You dare to defy me?” Caleb whispered, cupping her face with his sticky hands as he drew close. “I’m the King of the Jungle, you know.”
“I think a lion might disagree, but all right, Your Majesty. Whatever you say.”
Caleb smiled, but a splinter of emotion slithered through him at the mention of the word lion. A hazy image of Darius the Lion Shifter—the beast he’d trained for battle—floated through his mind, and Caleb gritted his teeth as he pushed it away. That was from another world, another time, another place. That wasn’t his responsibility. His only responsibility was to his mate, his children, his family. This was his life now. He was free from all that other crap that humans had to deal with. He was all animal. All wolf. All wild.
All . . . darkness?
He felt his wolf stir inside him as he looked into Magda’s eyes. She looked so happy, so complete, so at one with her surroundings. This was right, wasn’t it? This was their fate, their future, their destiny, wasn’t it? How could it be otherwise?
Take her again, whispered his wolf from inside as Magda spread her legs wider, her slit releasing a scent so primal and feminine that Caleb almost came right there and then. Put your seed in her again. Seven more pups. Seven every year. The forest will be overrun with our offspring.
Caleb frowned as the arousal swept through him, his mate’s scent drawing him closer. She was in heat again, her fox ready to bear more children. He knew it. His wolf knew it. What was there to think about?
Nothing, replied his wolf quickly. Stop thinking. This is your duty. This is your responsibility. This is your life.
Caleb blinked as snippets of the life he’d left behind started to break through, disrupting the all-encompassing peace he’d felt over the past year. Indeed, once he’d gotten Magda pregnant, there’d been no doubt in his mind that his only job was to protect her, to raise his children, and to live. Just live. But now . . . now that his pups were here, healthy and happy, Caleb could feel the call of duty, memories of a commitment to his crew, to the world outside his comfy little domain in the woods.
“Magda,” he whispered, gently rubbing her rosy cheeks as they sat naked before each other. “I think . . . I think . . . I think we have to . . . oh, shit, Magda. Oh . . . oh, shit!”
He howled as Magda bent down in front of him, her ass sticking up in the air as her face moved down to his lap. Her mouth was wide open, and a moment later he felt her lips sliding down over his erect cock, taking him all the way inside as she opened her throat for his length. With her other hand she was massaging his heavy balls, coaxing his semen up through his shaft as all thought dissolved, leaving nothing but arousal, the need of the animal, the call of the wolf.
He pushed her head down onto his cock, groaning as she sucked him just the way he liked, going slow at first and then speeding up until Caleb began to buck his hips upwards. Then he was up on his knees, groaning as he watched her magnificent ass spread as she opened her legs wide to get into a lower position. Soon he was fucking her in the mouth, holding her by the hair and neck, controlling her as she rolled her tongue around him.
Is this the Darkness at work, he wondered as he felt his wolf pant inside him, its energy flooding Caleb with images of life in the forest, just him and his mate, producing a litter of pups every year, all of them living happily in the forest like some simplistic fairy tale. The dream of an animal. The selfish needs of the beast pushing out the higher needs of the human, the instincts of the animal forcing the human’s sense of duty and responsibility to the background.
Your only duty is to your mate and your pups, snarled his wolf as it licked its chops inside him. Now stop thinking with your overdeveloped brain. My instincts have led us this far, and all you need to do is trust my instincts. Didn’t I save your tiny ass when you were a baby? This is our place now. Our home. We are free here. Free from the troubles of the world. Free from the burdens of civilization. Don’t overthink this, Soldier. You’ve won the battle. This is your reward! A life of peace! Family! Babies! Sex! Hunting! There is nothing else to life!
“Nothing else to life,” Caleb repeated in a trancelike stupor as he watched his mate move back and forth before him. His arousal was spiraling upwards like a typhoon rising from the sea, and he groaned as he felt his animal’s energy rise with it. Somewhere inside him he could hear the man he was, the soldier he was, the crewmate he was. But the voice was small, distant, buried beneath the energy of the wolf, the needs of his animal.
“Yes,” whispered Magda, pulling her mouth away from him and then turning around and arching her back down. “I’m ready, Caleb. I’m in heat again. I feel it. I’m ready to take your seed again. Seven more pups this year. Oh, Caleb, I’m so happy. I never imagined I could feel this way, living for the moment, nothing but pleasure filling my days, warmth filling my heart! My fox was right. Your wolf was right. The Darkness is part of us. It’s who we are. Who we were meant to be! Simple animal energy! Feed, mate, reproduce! It’s so obvious when you get down to it, isn’t it? The Darkness isn’t dark at all! It’s just . . . life! It’s beautiful! It’s . . . it’s . . . oh, take me, Caleb. Take me!”
Her words trailed off as Caleb stared down at her spread before him, his open palms coming down hard on her round buttocks, making her squeal in delight. He buried his face between her rear globes, fingering her from beneath as her juices flowed down his hand. He licked her rear hole, dragging his tongue down her crack lengthwise as he felt her reach back between her legs and grasp his cock, pulling him toward her heat, her sex, her feminine. He could feel the draw of her animal, smell the heat of her fox, hear the arousal of the woman in the way she panted for him. She was right. This had to be right. How else could it feel so damned good? This was the Garden of Eden, where man and woman lived at one with nature!
Caleb rammed himself into her just as his thoughts exploded into nothing, and Magda screamed as he started to pump immediately, hard and with a manic need to possess her, his fingers digging so deep into her hips that he could see red marks forming on her smooth skin. His balls were swinging back and forth as he grunted with his wolf’s need, and he grinned through his shaggy beard as he closed his eyes and silenced the man in him, welcomed the animal, welcomed the Darkness.
21
“The Darkness isn’t dark at all! It’s light!” Magda heard herself say just as her mate pushed himself into her so deep she swore she could feel him in her throat. Her fox was whipping itself into a frenzy of pleasure inside her, and she smiled wide as she felt her mate’s girth stretch her, fill her, claim her afresh.
Now you’re getting it, honey, whispered her fox as Magda groaned and gasped from the way Caleb was driving into her from behind. See how simple it is when you remove all those complications that come from your overdeveloped human brain? All that ambition? That need to ‘Change the World’? Hah! Isn’t it easier when you just change YOUR world? This is your world now, honey! Trees! Forest! Nature! Your mate! Your pups! Just like magic! Poof! Done! You have it all now! What more do you need?!
“Nothing more,” Magda whispered as she felt Caleb’s heavy balls slap up against her underside. She could almost smell his seed, and she panted in anticipation of feeling him explode into her depths, flooding her valley, putting seven more pups into her ready womb. “Poof! Done!”
She could feel her climax rolling in from the distance, and she reached between her legs and grasped Caleb’s balls, massaging them as he slowed his thrusts down until they were deliberate and deep. She could hear his heart beat in time with hers, feel his breathing in rhythm with hers, sense his body merging with hers. It was sublime, like they were one animal, one being, one creature of single-minded purpose.
But we’re not one creature, came the thought from somewhere deep inside her as her fox
’s words faded into the background. Neither of us is. We’re animal but also human. He’s a father but also a soldier. I’m a mother and also a . . . a . . . witch?
Suddenly the memories came rolling back through her, and Magda’s eyes flicked wide open as she remembered why they’d come to this place, why Benson had sent them here, how he’d said they were the only ones who’d be able to face the Darkness without losing themselves to it. He’d said she was a natural-born witch. A one-of-a-kind Shifter with witch’s blood in her veins. Finding and accepting her mate was one part of the puzzle to understanding who she was. That brought out her fox, her animal, her Shifter self. But there was another part that was still missing, wasn’t there?
“My magic,” she muttered, realizing that she hadn’t used it in over a year. She’d tried a couple of times, but her fox had reminded her that her magic came from the Darkness and the animal controlled the pathway to the Darkness. Her fox had blocked that pathway because it didn’t trust the human, and Magda had accepted her fox’s words for what they were. But her fox was sly. A trickster. Very capable of saying what it needed to say to get what it wanted. And what did it want?
This, she realized as she felt Caleb flex inside her as he prepared to explode in her depths. This is all it wants. To live here in the forest. To leave behind the complexities of the human world. To just be an animal forever and ever. That’s the essence of the Darkness, isn’t it? Animal energy. Not evil or demonic energy. Just simple animal energy.
“Except we aren’t just simple animals,” she groaned as Caleb dug his fingers into her soft flesh and held on. “We’re humans too. We’re two creatures in one, and we need to balance that. We’ve spent a year being just animals, mating, feeding, playing with our pups. It’s been beautiful and peaceful, pure joy and delight. But slowly we’re burying the human parts of ourselves, Caleb. And if we lose touch with our humanity, lose touch with higher level emotions like duty, morality, compassion, then . . . then . . .”
She trailed off as a vision of Murad’s Black Dragon came through to her. That was what happened to a Shifter when it lost the human, wasn’t it? A Shifter was both human and animal, both dark and light, and its entire existence was a struggle to balance those two parts of itself. But what did balance mean? Did it mean peace and tranquility forever? Dead calm? Equilibrium?
“No,” she whispered. “Equilibrium is an illusion. Motion and movement are the foundation of the universe. Back and forth. Up and down. In and out. You can’t stop it. Stopping it is death. The Shifter’s challenge is to recognize that it is the embodiment of life’s energy, that it is doomed to always fight for balance between its animal and its human, its dark and its light. There will never be everlasting peace for a Shifter. That’s why the universe blessed us with fated mates! So we don’t have to fight that eternal battle alone!”
“Why are you talking so much?” Caleb growled from behind her, pushing into her and holding himself there as he leaned forward. “It’s a real buzzkill, Witch.”
Magda giggled as she felt his warm breath on her back. She could sense her fox yipping in anger at the delay, and immediately she understood that the human in her was slowly clawing its way back. After a year of the balance swinging towards the animal’s need, it was time to satisfy the human’s needs.
And those needs were much more than those of the flesh.
They were needs of the soul.
The need to help the world.
The need to fulfill their duty.
The need to be part of a community, a tribe, a bigger family than just them and their pups.
“We need to go back,” she said softly, turning her head and looking up at her mate. “It’s time, Caleb. If we deny our human needs, we’ll become all animal. And then the Darkness might truly turn dark.”
Caleb’s jaw went tight, and he took a long, slow breath. He was still inside her, but he was holding still, as if his wolf was urging him on even as the man in him was affected by Magda’s words.
“What’s the use of going back?” he said after a long pause, his blue eyes narrowing as he looked down at her and then slowly began to move inside her again. “You said you’ve lost access to your dark magic, and without that what use are we to the outside world? If you can’t put Murad’s dragon back inside him, then we might as well just stay here.”
“And what happens to the world?” Magda whispered, feeling her own arousal creeping upwards again. “Who’s going to stop the Black Dragon from destroying it all? How long before its fire reaches us here?”
“Adam will have to take care of business,” Caleb said with a shrug, even though Magda felt him tense up. “In fact he probably already has. It’s been a year, Magda. I don’t see any fireballs shooting across the sky. Adam’s probably killed his father. Boom. Done. He can handle it. I handled it just fine.”
“You didn’t kill your father—your wolf did,” Magda said softly.
“Same thing,” said Caleb stubbornly. “I am my wolf.”
“No, the wolf is just a part of who you are, Caleb! Just like the fox is just a part of who I am! This past year has been beautiful as we mated and gave birth and raised our young.”
“Exactly,” said Caleb. “It’s been beautiful, which means it was right.”
“Of course it was right! This past year was about accepting each other, indulging our animal selves, repaying the debt that we owe to that part of ourselves. We satisfied the needs of the animal to mate and reproduce. And now it’s time to turn our attention back to the needs of the human, the needs of the soul, the needs of the world.”
“The world can go fuck itself,” Caleb grunted, closing his eyes and slowly beginning to thrust again. “Once I put my seed into you again, you’ll forget all this nonsense about the outside world.”
The wolf is right, whispered her fox as Magda felt herself slipping back to that place where pleasure was everything, where things seemed so simple, where she had no duty other than to her mate and pups. Shut your mouth and spread your legs, honey.
Magda closed her eyes tight as she felt the conflict brewing inside her, and she opened her mouth in a silent scream of anguish as she tried to reach for her magic. Benson had said she was a natural-born witch, that she had magic that came from the Light. Well, where was it?! Where the hell was it?! It was a lie, wasn’t it? She wasn’t a natural witch! The only magic came from the Darkness, and it came through her fox! She wasn’t a witch! She was just—
“Ouch!” came the howl from behind her. “What the hell?!”
Magda gasped as she felt Caleb pull out of her suddenly, and then she frowned when she felt cold metal against her butt. She turned and stared, her mouth hanging open in a mixture of surprise and delight when she saw the metal chastity belt that had begun their courtship back on Caleb, locked tight, padlock swinging, its magical keyhole winking at her.
“But I didn’t . . .” she stammered, cocking her head as she tried to understand what the hell had happened. Then she heard a giggle from the bushes followed by a squeal. Two more laughs, another squeal of joy, and finally all seven of their pups were howling and laughing as they crawled into view.
“No way,” Caleb said, the anger evaporating as he stared at his babies and then back at his mate. “Did they just . . . did these critters just . . . no way. No way!”
Magda just blinked absentmindedly as she felt her fox yelp in fury like it had been outfoxed by a bunch of infants. “Oh, God, Caleb! If our kids did that, it means . . . it means that I’m a natural-born witch! Oh, God, Caleb! There’s hope! We’ve got a shot at stopping Murad before Adam has to kill his own father! It’s destiny, Caleb! The greater destiny that’s part of our fate!”
Caleb slowly began to nod as the steely blue of the soldier in him emerged in his eyes. “Fate,” he muttered. “Destiny. More than just the needs of the animal. Which means that meeting and accepting each other wasn’t the end of
our story. It was the beginning!”
“Now they’re getting it,” came a deep voice from the woods, and every hair on Magda’s head stood up straight as she whipped around and saw two bears standing there, up on their hind legs.
“Better late than never,” said the other bear.
Caleb had already Changed to his wolf, and Magda’s fox came forth at the same time, the two of them standing in front of their still-giggling pups who were rolling around on the grass like it was all a game.
“Stay back or I’ll rip you both down the middle of your big bellies,” Caleb growled through his wolf. “Now turn around and slowly walk away. Walk away, and I promise I won’t kill you. Not today, anyway.”
“Hear that, love?” said one bear to the other. “He says he won’t kill us.”
“Huh. Does he know we can’t be killed?” said the other bear, folding its thick, furry paws across its chest and shaking its big head like it was saying Tsk Tsk to the angry wolf.
“Shifters can be killed just fine,” Caleb growled, glancing back at Magda before slowly moving toward the bears. “I warned you once. I won’t warn you again.”
“True. Shifters can be killed,” said the bigger bear.
“Except we aren’t Shifters,” said the other bear. “Not anymore, at least. We’ve already . . . Shifted. See, when a Shifter dies, its animal and human splits. The human goes to the Light. And the animal returns to the Darkness.”
“The Light,” Magda whispered through her fox. She thought back to what Benson had said about her natural magic—that it came from the Light. Which meant that her magic came from the human side of her, not the animal. Magic that gained power through human emotions like compassion, duty, community.
Her fox slumped its shoulders in defeat as Magda felt the human energy flow through her, felt a different kind of power rise up in her just from the realization that she had that power, that she was born with that power, with that magic, with the duty to use that magic for good.
Witch for the Wolf Page 13
