As I slipped away, I raged, knowing that control no longer my own. My body was not my own… At least not until dawn broke. The last thought before the fog took me echoed faintly through the remnants of my mind.
Please not again.
Please… not again…
…Please…
I gasped for air, Trixie Gordon again for one brief moment, before another memory bled into me, washing over me in a wave of warm light.
Heat permeated everything as I stood, shielding my eyes from the harsh sunlight overhead. I looked down and saw shredded clothing, covered in dark, wet stains, clutched in my shaking hands. I was looking for something. Somewhere to hide the horrors of the night before. I knew from the smell, I was covered in blood. It was thick in my nostrils, the taste of it still in my mouth, although I knew I’d tried hard already to wash it all away.
I can still taste her.
I walked fast, pushing cattails aside, moving toward the creek, pushing through the brush to where I heard it murmuring against the muddy bank. I looked around, my hands shaking, and breathed out, slowly.
This was it. This was where the creek feeds into the marshes. Where I found them last time.
I sniffed the air, and grimaced as an acrid smell hit my nostrils. It smelled ancient and moldering, almost overwhelming to my heightened senses. The cattails swayed, and I heard a low swish to my left, then a guttural growl.
The gaters would be drawn to the blood.
I threw the clothing down, and moved back, stumbling through the brush. Two alligators slithered out of the weeds, hissing and snapping at one another. I watched as they shredded the shirt and pants, gulping the fabric down like the mindless beasts they were.
Like the mindless beast that lived inside me.
Like the beast that made me wake beside her body, bits of her flesh still clinging to my face and hands.
Just the thought of it made me wretch, my heaves barely audible over the sounds of the gators, still thrashing over their prize.
I came back to myself again, and centered myself once more, feeling the reassuring warmth from the men’s hands on my body. This was almost too much. Werewolves… The memories were undeniable; the truth blazing in front of me, plain as day.
It was true. The curse was real.
I took a deep breath, and reached out to the three Boucher brothers.
Who was that? Who is the one who killed the girl?
There was a shifting, almost like they were urging one another to speak first.
Those were two different memories, Cher.
It was Quentin, his voice echoing in my mind.
The first was mine…
And the second was mine. The day after the last murder.
Bastian.
I see, I thought. Felix?
Not yet, praise God.
His inner voice was hushed. Afraid.
It didn’t used to be like this, Quentin projected. We had a place we go to change, deep in the swamp, away from folks in town. We chained o’selves, Cher, in an old fishin’ shack, but now, the beast is growin’ stronger, and we breakin’ out. Manacles can’ hold Bastian, and now, me, neither. We didn’t know, Cher… Oh, Lord, we didn’t know.
Sorrow welled up inside of me, filling me from all sides, from both men who’d taken a human life, from their brother, in sympathy and fear for his future, and within me, empathy flowing like a river, tied with them, feeling their terror. Their remorse.
So that’s why you went to Grandma for help. You were tryin’ to find a cure before the next moon…
Oui. Time is not on our side. We were too late before. But now, we got knowledge. Like I said, Trix, your Grandma believe she found a way to break the curse in an old text she dug up.
Show me, I thought.
Connected to them, I would know if they believed it would work, if they told the full truth, if they were holding back, etc. Maybe it was invasive, but I had to work like this, with somethin’ so dang important on the line. As charming as these men were, I had no time to build up trust. This was a shortcut.
Pages of yellowed parchment appeared before me, words scrawled in careful cursive, but I couldn’t read them. They were in a different language. French, maybe? As I watched, the words seemed to glow with an inner fire, and I heard a voice translating--a deep, sensual voice that made electricity run through my blood.
Only a healer’s gift can turn the tide for those who bear the curse of the Rougarou. If she willingly joins herself to the one afflicted, and life is created in love, then evil will abate. For evil cannot stand in the presence of love’s healing power…
Quentin’s words filled me, surrounded me, burned through me.
I don’t understand!
I felt their hands on me, all of them, and shook where I sat, urging them to tell me what it all meant… and desperately afraid that I already knew.
Images flashed through my mind, sent from all of them, in turn. Images of me, as they saw me: my body ripe and seductive, my curves begging to be touched… to be tasted. I saw them each slowly removing their shirts, and coming near, and saw myself lick my lips, my eyes just as hungry as theirs as they started unbuttoning my dress.
If you are willin’ to give us this gift, Cher… We have a chance to stop it.
Please, Bastian’s voice joined Quentin’s in my mind, There be only one healer who is the perfect mate for each Rougarou—whose fate line up with his. She will only be able to create life with the one… You only can save one of us, Trix, but if you try, that’s one less monster we gots to worry ‘bout.
One less brother bearin’ the brunt of the curse, Felix finished.
I felt their hands moving on me, caressing me, and I knew it was really happening, right there in the library, even as I watched the brothers’ fantasy play out before me.
I should have stopped it. I should have taken time to think. But now, I watched them as they came to me, all of them at once—Quentin’s lips on mine, his breath hot against me, and Bastian’s hands sliding beneath the fabric of my dress, parting it, Felix pressing up behind me, the hardness of him intoxicating, as his strong hands moved down over my hips to my thighs.
And now, their hands moved over my body, matching the images, and I felt cool air hit my breasts, before I felt warm hands covering them, kneading me, caressing me, my nipples so hard and aroused, they ached beneath the touch.
Bastian kissed my wrist, making me shiver, as Quentin’s tongue moved into my mouth, teasing me. I sighed into him, and felt his hand move down between my legs. Felix’s mouth was on my neck, my ear, growling softly as he tasted my skin.
Quentin moved against me, his stiffness grinding against my most sensitive place, my body aching for him… for them. In our combined awareness, heat built all around, filling the sacred circle, tension coiling like a rattler about to strike. I felt their need for me, their hunger, as if it were my own; and in a way, it was. I’d wanted Quentin in my bed from the moment I laid eyes on him, even if I wasn’t that kind of girl, and the thought of all three of them taking me at once? Well, it was pure, sinful bliss, more decadent than anything I could imagine…
A growl met my ears, this time more animal than man, and I tensed, before an overwhelming sensation… a need… smothered everything else. It was pure animal. A mindless, clawing, slavering need. A need to hunt and fuck and mate in the open air, out beneath a star-filled sky. A need to rut until sweat poured down our backs and the smell of sex filled the air. A need to taste and bite and scratch until my body arched in pleasure and pain, now indistinguishable from one another in our frenzy…
Teeth snapped near my throat, and a guttural growl came from the side, from behind. Bastian suckled a breast hard, his teeth biting as he tasted me. I cried out, my body yearning for more, but my mind a mess of fear mixing with unadulterated lust.
Wait…
Rough hands pushed my legs further apart, and teeth closed on my shoulder, digging in and making me scream. Strong fingers tore at my panti
es, dug into my tender thighs, and I thrashed, wanting them all, wanting Quentin to thrust inside me almost more than I wanted air, but also needing this to stop, needing to gain control before things got well and truly out of hand.
They wanted to mate with me, for God’s sake! I wasn’t on the pill, although I wondered if that would even slow down the seed of something supernatural like these men were. I wasn’t ready, wasn’t prepared for this…
Stop.
Felix pushed me flat from behind, pinning my shoulders to the ottoman. I could smell him, his arousal just an inch or two from my open lips. He smelled like sex itself. My mouth watered… NO!
Stop, please!
Bastian captured my hand, running it up and down his hard shaft, perfectly outlined in his jeans. He was huge, throbbing, ready for me to take him in hand while his brother fucked me. Mated me. Made me his.
“STOOOOOOP!”
I pulled back hard, breaking our mental connection with a jarring release. I sat up, and pulled my dress back over my exposed breasts, crossing my legs over my panties, now hanging tattered from one leg. Quentin had a look of shock on his face, like someone done hauled off and slapped that handsome face.
And in a way, I had. I’d mentally clacked all three of their heads together to snap them out of whatever animal craze we’d all almost succumbed to, and now they stared at me, sheepish and alarmed, like kids with their hands caught in the cookie jar.
“Lord above,” Quentin said, shaking his head. “Trix, honey, I is so, so sorry. I… oh, Lord, look at this here mess…”
He tried to reach for my buttons, but I pulled away, smiling through pursed lips.
“I’m fine.”
“Trix, I am so very sorry we… That I…”
“Bastian, it’s alright. I’m okay, really.”
“Please, Cher. Let us help you up,” Felix said, his eyes full of misery.
I couldn’t help but notice all three of them sporting erections that could put a plow horse to shame, and hid a smile behind my hand.
“Well, now, no harm done. Y’all stopped, and everything’s fine. I mean… Yes, well. Perhaps we’d better take a moment to collect our thoughts? Please, don’t move, while I release the circle, now.”
The Boucher boys stood, talking in low voices as I dismissed the compass points and freed the energy from the sacred space. The power that built during the ritual crackled around me, more intense than anything I’d ever felt. Whatever was inside these men was not only dangerous. It was strong. Old.
And I knew in my gut, that it would be almost impossible to fight without a power just as ancient. A power that could match its primal force blow for blow.
When I was done, I turned around to find all three men staring at me, Quentin rubbing his jaw.
“We was just sayin’, it don’t feel right to send you out in the dark now it’s so late and all. Stay the night, Cher. We promise you be safe. Safe and treated like the queen you is. The guest room has fresh linens, an’ you can borrow one of Rosa’s ol’ dressin’ gowns. What do ya say?”
“Come on,” Bastian said, offering me his arm. “It been a long night. I bettin’ you’s exhausted from whatever that just was.”
I laughed a little at that, and shook my head, but I did take his arm. He patted my hand, and Quentin put a hand on my shoulder. Like that, the men led me from the library, and down a winding hallway to an old-fashioned suite, complete with a claw foot tub in the bathroom.
“We can send for your things in the morning, if you feel like stayin’,” Quentin said, looking deep into my eyes. “Please consider it, Cher. All of it…?”
As I stood there in the doorway, looking at these three brothers, blood on their hands, and a monstrous secret, looming over them all, my heart went out to them.
Lord, but I always was a sucker for a handsome face, and even more so for a pathetic story like theirs.
I nodded, and they left me to my nightly ministrations. I washed my face in a porcelain basin, and stared at myself in the mirror for a long while, auburn hair dripping wet and curling around my pale face.
A knock on the door startled me out of my thoughts. Quentin stood there holding out a folded silk nightgown and robe, a rose pink with black lace trim. I raised an eyebrow, and he chuckled.
“Our Miss Rosa was a bit of a wildcat in her day. Still is, in fact,” he said. “’Fraid this was all I could scare up that was halfway decent.”
“Thank you,” I said, taking the bundle.
The silk was cool against my skin, still heated, thinking about what it was they were asking of me. What it was they wanted to do with me. What they wanted to do to me…
Quentin smiled slyly, and turned to go, but I stopped him.
“May I ask you one question?”
“Anythin’, Cher. Shoot.”
I looked down at the floor, then back up into those dark, smoldering eyes of his.
“Do… Do y’all really have ghosts, too? I saw that sign coming in…”
He laughed then, a rich, full sound that soothed my nerves like a salve.
“Naw, Cher. Or, not that I is aware of. We got an ol’ cemetery out back that I give folks a tour of, along with dis here house. There a lot of history here, an’ a lot of spirit, but,” he said, his eyes locked onto mine. “I’m afraid we is the only monsters here at Camp Boucher.”
I took a deep breath, and nodded, at a loss for words.
He smiled at me one last time, his eyes full of mischief, and walked down the shadowed hallway, leaving me alone with my racing thoughts, and an ache between my legs that could not be ignored.
To be Continued…
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About the Author
Delilah Fawkes is the bestselling erotic romance author of "The Billionaire's Beck and Call" series, selling over a quarter million e-books under her own publishing company, Under the Covers Publishing, Inc.
She's known for sizzling romances with red hot alpha males you'll fall in love with and strong women who make them swoon. If you like your romance gripping, fast-paced, and dripping with sinful love scenes, you've got to check out what Delilah has to offer!
Don’t forget to check out her erotic shorts, too, for something extra naughty to read in bed…
When Delilah’s not day-dreaming about sexy bad boys, you’ll usually find her geeking-out over her favorite Sci Fi show, obsessively reading Cracked articles, or watching terrible 80’s action movies with her husband and laughing waaay too loudly when the hero utters a terrible one-liner.
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Happy reading!
Other Sizzling Reads by Delilah Fawkes:
Romance Series
Love dominant men with an edge of danger? Check out these series!
Billionaire Alpha Male Suspense:
At His Service: The Billionaire’s Beck and Call, Part 1--FREE!
The Billionaire’s Beck and Call, Book One (Full Novel)
Bound to Him: The Billionaire’s Beck and Call, Book Two (Full Novel)
Tied to Him: The Billionaire’s Beck and Call, Book Three (Full Novel)
Lush Curves: A BBW Millionaire Erotic Romance (Full Novel)
Historical Viking Alpha Male:
Bound by the Viking, Part 1: Captured—FREE!
Bound by the Viking, Book One (Full Novel)
Sexy and Light-hearted Sci Fi:
Teaching Him: The Droid Who Loved Me, Part 1 (Sci Fi Erotic Romance)—FREE
Wanting Him: The Droid Who Loved Me, Part 2 (Sci Fi Erotic Romance)
Needing Him: The Droid Who Loved Me, Part 3 (Sci Fi Erotic Romance)
Sizzling Erotic Shorts:
Branded by the Rancher’s Ghost (A Paranormal Erotic Western)
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Fed to the Wolves, Part 1: Bad Moon Rising
By
Delilah Fawkes
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Fed to the Wolves, Part 1: Bad Moon Rising
Copyright 2015 by Delilah Fawkes
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All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author or publisher except for the use of brief quotations in critical articles or reviews.
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This is a work of fiction. Names, places, businesses, characters and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, actual events or locales is purely coincidental.
***
License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Fed to the Wolves, Part 1: Bad Moon Rising: A Southern Werewolf/Shifter Romance (Cattail Creek) Page 4