Rachel moaned when he found her clit as he pressed against her back hole and he kissed her, his tongue penetrating deep inside her mouth.
“Give it to me,” he said, pushing his finger to penetrate the tight ring.
“Yes,” she said, her eyes rolling back as he pushed deeper, pinching her clit between his fingers.
He released her and went to the dresser, taking what he had brought into the room with him. It was a small bottle of oil. He smiled and returned to her. She watched while he opened the bottle and poured some onto his hands. She felt jealous when he massaged the length of his cock with the stuff, reaching to help him, wanting it to be her to rub his cock, wanting to feel him, to have him inside her.
“Give me your ass,” he said, his eyes dark with arousal now. “Offer it to me.”
She looked over to the bed and, stepping over the belt on the floor, she went to it, climbing on top onto her hands and knees. Looking back over her shoulder, she watched him watching her, his eyes on her ass. When he knelt between her legs on the bed, she spread hers wider.
“Face down on the bed,” he said.
Her pussy dripped as she brought her face to the mattress and lifted her ass higher, feeling the oil he dripped onto her back, sliding down the cleft between her buttocks. He began massaging it in then, slow circles around her bottom hole that called moans from her, and when his finger slid into her passage, she arched her back, gasping, wanting more.
“Greedy girl,” he said, slapping her already red ass once.
“Ow.”
His finger penetrated fully and he added a second, pushing deep and pulling out again and again, slowly, patiently stretching her passage to accommodate his cock.
His cock.
She glanced back, worry creasing her forehead. He was huge. How was she going to take him there?
He smiled and rubbed her hip as if he had read her mind. “You’ll take it and you’ll love it,” he said. “You’ll be begging me to fuck your ass hard in no time.”
As he said it, he pulled his fingers out, gripping her hips and spreading her farther. He lined up his cock with her asshole and pressed.
“I like your ass like this,” he said. “All red and welted. That’s it, push. Give it to me.”
There was pain at first when the thick head penetrated, stretching her wide, too wide for a moment. But he waited there, giving her time to adjust before pushing deeper, and she found herself lifting her hips higher as he took another slow inch then retreated just a little, pressing deeper with the next push.
Rachel closed her eyes. “Mmm… it feels… good,” she said, managing the initial pain of every inch he claimed and relishing the strange, new pleasure that came with it.
“Your ass is so tight and hot,” he said, digging his fingers into her hips and pushing deeper. “I’m almost all the way in,” he said, pulling out and slowly penetrating again. He did this several times before claiming the last inches, and when he was fully seated, he paused for a moment and she relished the feeling of fullness, tightening her muscles around the length of him.
“Fuck me,” she said, lifting to him again. She looked over her shoulder to watch him, his eyes so dark now, his focus wholly on her bottom, on his cock as he pulled it out and thrust into her hard. She too wanted to watch, she wanted to watch him fuck her ass, wanted to see herself take his cock, take all of him inside her.
She called out, pain and pleasure mixing, bracing herself on her hands but keeping her hips high, every thrust calling forth another moan from her, more sensation as he fucked her harder and harder. It wasn’t a moment later before she called out, orgasm consuming her whole as he stilled inside her, his cock throbbing, pumping inside her, filling her.
Chapter Seventeen
Lance easily broke the lock and entered the lab. It was late, close to one in the morning. He had been hiding in the parking lot, waiting for the last of the professors to vacate the building. That was twenty minutes ago. Now he stood just inside the science offices of the university, closing the door behind him, listening for any sound, but certain he was alone.
He walked to his office, broke that lock as well, and stepped inside. He didn’t dare turn on a light but he didn’t need one. His vision was so much stronger than it used to be. If he could just get the serum regulated, he thought, glancing down at his left hand which had begun its trembling a few hours earlier. If he could just get it to cure what he needed cured and at least, at the very least, be able to control the change, he could work on the drug. He was remembering more and more what he did when he was trapped in the animal’s body. He had little control over it but he was beginning to see through its eyes.
Lance turned away, blocking those images from his mind. Death was all around him, it circled and followed him. As long as he could not control the beast he became, he was a danger to anyone who crossed his path.
Lawler and his entourage had taken him as far as a private air field. Lance had felt the headaches coming more and more frequently, and he knew the signs now, knew what signaled the impending change. He was just glad it had happened before they’d gone up in the jet.
He had shifted in the car just as the driver had turned the corner to the field. Lawler’s face, now that made him smile. He’d been making small talk with Lance, acting as if all were well, as if he weren’t essentially kidnapping him until he’d turned to look at Lance and Lance had seen the sudden terror in his face. He’d enjoyed squeezing the life out of Lawler. He couldn’t say the same for the rest, and the destruction he had left behind, well, that couldn’t be traced back to him.
But he had single handedly killed nine men.
He moved to the small refrigerator he kept in his office and, reaching behind the beverages he stocked there, found the vial of serum he was looking for. This was it; this was the last of it. He would go after the girl after taking this dose.
Preparing a syringe, he gripped the edge of his desk and pressed the tip of the needle into his arm.
“Fuck!” he said through clenched teeth. The process wasn’t painless. It was as if the serum itself were too aggressive to pass into the system quietly. But he managed, prepared for the pain, for the rush that would run through him, the surge of power. He then switched on the small television in his office while he collected the spare set of clothes he kept there. He was on his way to the bathroom to shave his face when the reporter came on. He stood riveted to the television as she first described the massacre at the air field. But what put a smile on his face was the news of a similar killing spree in another part of the country. Three bodies had been found by hikers near New Orleans. Three mutilated bodies left to decompose, necks torn by the jaws of some sort of animal. The camera cut into a scene at the woods where Lance glimpsed the suit one of the men wore when the wind picked up the tarp that covered his body. He recognized it immediately and knew Dennison’s men had located Rachel Maren for him. So they had done some investigating already, likely through his notes and samples. But it didn’t matter. He would get to her first. She had her own wolf protecting her; at least one of the two he had seen in his house was with her. He didn’t want to fight the animal, but he would do what he needed to do to take her.
* * *
Marcus’s cell phone rang and he climbed out of the bed. Rachel groaned her disappointment and sat up. He walked naked to the living room and answered the phone. When he came back inside still listening to what was being said, his expression had changed.
“All right. We’ll head to the airport now, leave the car there. Hold on, Elijah,” he said, then turned to her. “There’s a pen and notebook in the top drawer, can you write this down?” he asked her.
She nodded, the intimacy of a few moments ago gone altogether. “Ready,” she said, holding the notebook.
“United 89 to Tucson. Leaves at 8:30 tonight.”
“Got it,” she said.
“I’ll take care of a car when we get to the airport,” Marcus
said. He listened. “No, we’re getting out of here now. I don’t want to take a chance the bodies are traced back here.”
“They found them?” she asked as he said goodbye and hung up.
Marcus nodded, picking up her discarded clothes and handing them to her before finding his own. “I took them far enough away that they shouldn’t be able to trace it back here, and I moved the car, but it’s all over the news. That and another killing,” he said as he pulled his shirt over his head and turned to find their overnight bag.
“Other killing?” she asked.
He spared her a glance but was busy packing up their bag. “Yes. At an airfield nearer your house. Some sort of animal is what they said.”
“It’s Lance, isn’t it? It’s what I felt yesterday,” she said, slipping on her shoes.
He nodded. “What they described doesn’t sound like any other sort of animal. Not at an airfield anyway. You ready to go?” he asked, zipping the bag.
She nodded. “To Tucson?” she asked.
“Elijah booked a ticket for us. The flight isn’t long and it’s not somewhere anyone is likely to look for us. We’ll leave the car at the airport, we would have dumped it anyway. Dennison’s men knew more than I thought.”
She shuddered and he put an arm around her shoulders, pulling her to him for a moment.
“It will be all right, Rachel. You’ll be safe with me.”
She nodded, her eyes wide and wet. “I hate this. I hate this so much.”
“Me too. Let’s go, the sooner we’re out of here the better.”
The two walked out to the car. Marcus settled her into her seat, then went around to his side. He pulled out onto the road and headed back onto the highway.
Forty-five minutes later they parked at the airport. “Shoot, I forgot the notebook,” Rachel said. “I left it on the nightstand.”
“It’s okay. I remember the flight number. Let’s go inside,” he said, locking the car and putting one arm around her, keeping her close as he led the way.
* * *
Lance drove through the night and most of the next day, somehow not completely exhausted, until he came to the spot the bodies were found. He parked the car and climbed out. A piece of the police tape still hung from a tree, but there was no one in sight. He imagined the detectives would have collected all the evidence they needed as soon as the bodies were discovered. He inhaled deeply, his senses so much stronger now, even in human form, that he was able to pick up the scent of blood that had dried on the earth. He followed it. It was slow going and he wished he could shift into the beast now, but he could not; it controlled him, not the other way around. He hadn’t even felt the pain of the initial headache yet. He followed the trail for over two miles until he reached the edge of the woods where a house stood alone. Well, alone except for the two dark Volvos with their tinted windows parked outside.
Lance hid and watched. It looked like the men were finishing up.
“They’re on their way to Tucson,” the one called out.
“Anything else?” another one asked.
He knew without a doubt these were Dennison’s men.
“Nothing. I’ll call ahead, get some men out there,” one of them said. “Let’s go, there’s nothing to see here.”
Lance waited until the men filed into their cars and they drove off. Only when they were completely out of sight did he venture toward the house. That was when the first headache came, when he picked up her scent. He stopped and closed his eyes, paying attention, listening. It was faint but he could hear it. Hear her. It was a jumble of thoughts but there was an undertone of fear. The headache came again when he opened the unlocked front door and her scent washed over him. She’d been here just recently. He forced himself to breathe deeply and felt a low growl rise from his chest when he walked into the bedroom. The bed was unmade and smelled of sex. Her scent and that of another mixed together there. Lance fisted the bed covers and pulled them back, bringing his nose to one of the pillows. It was her. Without a doubt it was her and it stirred sensations so base in him that the aggression frightened him.
He walked out of the bedroom, scanned the kitchen, and found the scrap of paper that showed the flight they had taken to Tucson. He left the house as quickly as possible and went back into the woods, retracing his steps to the car and heading out onto the highway to find and recollect Rachel Maren before Dennison’s men had a chance to.
* * *
Rachel lay in bed thinking while Marcus showered. They had taken a room in a hotel along the outskirts of town. She was feeling on edge, almost angry, when she thought of Marcus at the moment.
She didn’t agree with Marcus’ plan. They had discussed it to death yesterday and she still fumed every time she thought of it. He had balked at her plan altogether, calling it ridiculous and refusing to entertain it even for a moment.
He and Elijah wanted to go after Dennison after dealing with the threat of Lance. He wanted to find a hiding place for her, then go back after Lance, leaving her behind. Her plan was to let her put herself out there, to let her become the bait to hook Lance. Lance was coming after her. He could track her. She could make it easier for him to find her, and Marcus and Elijah would do what they needed to do.
Although that too was a gray area. They wanted to kill him. She, strangely enough, found herself feeling sorry for Lance. She knew what they said was right, that Lance was unpredictable. But the more she thought about it, the more she knew Lance was as much a victim as she was, as they all were. The real bad guys were Dennison and these other scientists who would keep them prisoner, treat them as specimens, use their bodies, their DNA, for profit or worse. Lance was sick. His disease was killing him and he had been able to make something good out of all of the evil of the past years. He had somehow come up with a serum to cure his disease. He just needed more time to perfect it, and if he could do that, he could cure this illness not just for himself but for so many others. He wasn’t evil. Rachel didn’t believe that, even after what she had been through with him. He was desperate and he would need to learn to manage and control the beast, but how could he without more samples to work with?
The way Lance wanted to do it wouldn’t hurt anyone. He would take an egg from her and create matter with which to work. She could give that to him and if she did, then he was no longer a threat. Perhaps even an ally. One to stand against Dennison along with Marcus and Elijah. The greater danger, as she saw it, was Dennison.
The fastest most effective way to deal with this was to use her as bait. But Marcus wouldn’t hear of it.
She heard the water switch off and soon Marcus walked into the bedroom. Her body reacted to seeing him like that, bare naked chest dripping wet, a small towel wrapped around his narrow hips, well-muscled legs peeking out from underneath.
“Feeling better?” he asked, looking at her as he dried his hair with another towel.
She inhaled then exhaled. “I don’t see why you won’t even consider my idea,” she began.
He shook his head and took a deep breath before speaking. “Rachel,” he said, sounding stern. “Why you think letting this man, this scientist, who kidnapped you and is essentially interested in using you as a specimen—who meanwhile has absolutely no control over when he shifts or what he does when he is that creature—why you think you would be safe to allow even a tiny possibility of him taking you again—I cannot even begin to comprehend. This discussion is over.” She opened her mouth but he only raised his eyebrows. “Over. I mean it Rachel. He is out of control. Even if his intentions were good, were noble, which I doubt, he is out of control. You will stay out of this. We’re not discussing it again.”
“Fine,” she said.
“Go have a shower so we can go,” he said.
“I’ll stay here,” she said, refusing to look at him as she folded her arms across her chest. He was wrong on this one and he was just being plain stubborn. “I don’t feel much like shopping.”
; “We just need to pick up a few things.”
“Are you going to spank me if I refuse to go?” she asked, turning her face to his, sounding like a brat even to herself.
“No,” he began, his tone telling her his patience was wearing thin
“I mean, isn’t that what you do? Spank me if I don’t do what you say?”
He inhaled, looking as if he were counting to ten before responding. She stared at him meanwhile, her heart racing, her brain asking what she was thinking, why she was provoking him.
“Go have a shower. Elijah will be here soon, I want to be back before he gets here.”
“I’ll just wait here for him.”
He sat down on the edge of the bed and touched her face. She folded her arms across her chest. “Rachel,” he began, turning her face to his.
She snapped it away.
“All right,” he said, pulling the covers off her and gripping her by the arm. “You’re behaving like a spoiled brat who didn’t get her way.”
“Stop it! Let me go!” she called out.
He ignored her and pulled her so she lay face down across his lap. “If you want me to spank you,” he began, his hands rough on the waistband of her shorts, “then I will,” he said, pulling her shorts down.
She reached back to slap his hands away, but he only grabbed and held her wrists at her back. “Marcus, stop! Ow!” she protested, trying to get free.
He spanked hard. “Is this what you want?” he asked, continuing to lay fast, hard smacks across both cheeks.
“No! Stop it, it hurts!” She wondered if the people in the other rooms could hear her being punished. “Please.”
He reached for the hem of her panties.
“No! Please wait.”
Claimed by the Beast Page 15
