by Gina Kincade
“Hey,” another guy said.
“Oh, no,” she muttered. “I am not putting out,” she said angrily, shoving past him.
“That's not what I hear,” he called after her.
That fucking jerk. Was this some kind of pay back?
“Hey, bitch, didn’t I tell you to stay on the couch. Well, we’ll just have to take you in the trees.”
We? Zoe froze and turned slowly, her stomach churning in fear and dread. Bile burned the back of her throat and her head buzzed. Elliot wasn't alone. In fact he had four guys with him, all looking at her like something to use and abuse. They weren’t just going to hurt her, they were going to break her, rape her. She backed up until she tripped and fell, sliding in slippery frost-covered leaves.
“You're going to give us all a ride now, bitch. If you think I'm going to be scared off by some tripped out, over grown—”
A growl roared louder than his words. Zoe looked over her shoulder and found a pair of bright yellow eyes and the moonlight reflected off jagged teeth.
The animal leaped over her toward Elliot, snapping its jaws. What was it? Was it going to attack her next?
“Ow! Fuck! Run!”
“What the hell kinda dog was that?” another shouted as they fled.
Elliot lay a few yards away from Zoe, his leg a bloody mess. There was another growl from beside her. She found a second pair of eyes and heard yips and barks between the animals. Maybe they weren’t dogs. Coyotes? It was too dark to tell. They had definitely taken a chunk out of Elliot’s leg, and although she felt relief about that, she was terrified that they would attack her next.
Elliot was crawling back to the party, leaving her alone in the trees of the river valley. The animal that had attacked circled around beside the one she was still staring at. What should she do? No sudden movements, she was sure of that. She shifted to her hands and knees instead, planning to rise and walk slowly back to the sorority house. She might have to fear Elliot and his friends, but at least there was light and people. From there she could go home.
Still on her hands and knees, she found herself nose to nose with the canine. It couldn't be a coyote; it was massive, more like a pony than a dog. She shrieked when its tongue came out to lick her nose.
Chapter Eleven
Franklin was collecting Wash tonight, leaving Linc to make his way into the tree line from his parents' yard. He hadn't felt quite right all night. It wasn't the moon, although that didn't help. It was a sense of foreboding. Something bad was going to happen.
Once the change had finished, he found his cousins. Before they’d gone far, he turned back toward the university, to the houses on frat row.
“Lincoln, where are you going?” Adam asked.
“Party at Pi Beta Psi.”
Adam barked a laugh. “You can't go.”
“I know, but my bitch is.” He howled. That wasn't what he'd meant to say. He'd said Zoe, but he heard it, and so did Adam, as bitch. “No. No, no, no. She not my bitch. She's my bitch.”
Adam laughed again.
“Fuck off, Adam,” Franklin said, catching up to them, Wash in tow. “Go play with Washington.”
Adam didn't bother arguing and ran to nip Wash's tail.
“She's not my bitch,” he told Franklin in confusion.
“I know. My bitch is safe at home tonight. It's not the same, Lincoln. How else would a wolf say it?”
When he said, “my bitch,” Lincoln new he meant Celeste.
“Your bitch is at this party. She'll be fine.” And again, when he said, your bitch, he knew he meant Zoe.
“Wolf vocabulary sucks.” That didn't come out right either. It sounded more like, “Wolf no words.” The point came through. Linc didn’t stop running and would be outside the party in seconds.
“Can you see her from here?” Franklin asked, getting closer.
“No. Wait, yes.” He yipped and saw her on the deck. She climbed down and was walking straight toward him. He smiled, his tongue lolling, thinking she was coming to him.
“Lincoln, my bitch knows about me. Did you tell your bitch?”
Linc growled, hating that sound. “No.” A second later he said, “No, so why is she coming here?” He saw Elliot punching one of his friends in the arm and coming to loom over Zoe. Linc's muscles coiled, ready to spring, save her, and kill him.
“Stay.” Franklin told him. “They're still in the light of the yard.”
Linc understood, but it took all his concentration not to lunge. When he heard what Elliot said, though, he couldn't hold back. His teeth sunk into the asshole's calf and his blood was tastier than the moose last month. He started to go for another chunk, but Franklin barked.
“Don't be stupid. He's hurt and she's fine. Let it go.”
But Linc couldn't let it go. She was so scared, trembling. She stared at him, but didn't scream or run. She rolled slowly onto hands and knees.
He took a step closer, examining her face, her upturned nose. She gasped, and he realized he was way too close. He didn't care. He loved her. She shrieked and covered her nose.
“Lincoln. Enough.” Franklin wasn't much older than Linc, but enough to have command.
Linc whined but turned to follow Franklin to the others. “Can't I watch until she gets home?”
“Not if you can't keep away from the edges, no. You're going to get all of us killed.”
Linc hung his head. It was true, but he hated it.
“Fine. I'm going to go wait at home.” He meant Auntie Norm's, but that didn't come out right either.
Franklin dropped his head in agreement and then ran off to join Adam and Wash.
Linc waited in the trees, watching Grampa Ike's bench. He remembered seeing her here last moon, when he'd been dripping from the creek and stuffed with moose. He remembered her crying and let out a howl.
“Who's there?” Zoe asked. She was at the side door but walked in the direction of the howl. “I don't know what you are, but thank you, for scaring them.” She moved to sit on the bench. “Now I'm talking to monsters in the woods. This day just keeps getting better,” she complained. “Oh, Linc. Where are you?” They only met up a couple of times over the week, mostly on campus. It had been enough, barely, but he was looking forward to knocking on her door in the morning and continuing what they had started.
She stood up and Linc crouched. She wouldn't come near the trees again tonight, would she?
“Thank you,” she said again, and walked back to the side door.
Linc, knowing Aunt Norm and Wash wouldn't be surprised to find him, curled up on the concrete pad outside her door. He didn't sleep, watching while he rested his head on his paws.
Heavy footsteps thudded on the pavement. With a sniff, Linc recognized Elliot before hearing his words. “Fucking bitch, leaving me to the wolves.” He limped and a white bandage wrapped the leg Linc had ripped into. “Teach her a lesson. Then get a few others to do the same.”
Linc crouched, trying to become another shadow.
“What?” Elliot asked just before Linc lunged. The sun broke the horizon, and instead of his wolf jaws latching onto Elliot's neck, Linc head butted him.
“Fuck!” Elliot screamed, swinging at Linc.
“You fucking asshole. How dare you!” His punches rained down on Elliot until blood ran from his split knuckles and Elliot's face had streaks everywhere.
“Lincoln Brown!” Aunt Norm said, the command requiring his attention. “Get off him and in the house.”
The door to Zoe's apartment opened. She blinked groggily, wearing only a night shirt. “What's going on?”
Wash bolted out of the trees, naked, and she stared openly.
“Hi, Mom,” he said, ducking into the house.
Now that she looked at Linc again, he was naked too.
“What?” she asked again.
“Zoe,” he said, breaking Aunt Norm's command and running to her. “Are you okay? Did any of them hurt you?” He brushed his hands over her face and arms.
Elliot was passed out and Auntie Norm had gone in the house and come out with a washcloth.
“Elliot?” Zoe asked, taking a step toward him. Linc couldn't help but smile at the puffing eye and the blood still oozing from his split lip. All the other blood had come away with Auntie Norm's cloth.
The giant waste of skin opened his eyes and looked from Zoe to Linc. Then he sprang up and back. “Fuck you, man. Where do you get off? That's my girlfriend.”
“Not anymore,” Zoe said. “Not after you and your friends.” She spat the last word.
Linc growled, remembering his threat. He took one step around Zoe.
“Fuck this,” Elliot said, jumping up on his good leg and hobbling away.
Auntie Norm stopped Linc from following with a palm to his chest. “What have you done, boy?” she asked. “Is my son's head on the chopping block because you can't control yourself?”
Linc hung his head. He had been stupid. He had been right, saving Zoe wasn't a mistake, but he'd done a lot of stupid things since then.
“Linc?” Zoe asked. “Why are you naked? And Wash?”
Auntie Norm narrowed her eyes, glaring at Linc. She turned her gaze to Zoe and it was much warmer. “Why don't you come inside, Zoe. I think the boys have something to tell you.”
Chapter Twelve
Zoe was happy to have the tea to sip. It let her hide her face a bit.
“Werewolves,” she repeated.
“Yep,” Wash said, digging into a stack of pancakes that Mrs. Brown had made for him. Linc was working through his own. There was a single in front of Zoe and she still hadn't managed to get an appetite to eat it.
“Every month,” she said.
“Every month,” Linc agreed.
“And no one knows.”
“Well, Celeste knows. She and Franklin have been a couple almost as long as they've known one another.” Mrs. Brown topped off Zoe's mug with coffee. “And of course I found out.” She ran a hand through Wash's black hair and he smiled around a mouthful of sticky pancake.
“You won't tell, will you, Zoe?” Wash asked.
She shook her head. “Who would believe me?” she asked in wonder and slight disbelief. There weren’t really werewolves after all. Yet, she couldn’t explain the two canines defending her last night in any other way. Linc said it had been him, and she had to believe him. Otherwise, he could be lying about all the other things. That thought scared her.
But Wash was a werewolf too. It wouldn’t make sense for him to lie.
“I think the young man Linc damaged might believe you.”
Linc snickered. “I'd have done more damage—”
“Shut up. You are in the doghouse, mister.”
Zoe couldn't help it, she snorted at that. Then Wash laughed, and eventually even Mrs. Brown had to join them.
“Even if Elliot knew, he isn’t going to tell anyone. He’d have to admit that Linc beat him up and took his ugly girlfriend away from him. His ego would be bruised worse than his face.”
“You aren’t ugly,” Wash said at the same time Linc said, “Beautiful girlfriend.”
When the pancakes were gone, Wash eating Zoe's, Linc walked her back to her apartment. As they passed the place where Elliot had been pinned under Linc, Zoe stopped.
“Lincoln?”
“Yes, Zoe.”
“I think I'd like to see you naked again,” she said with a sly smile.
He growled and herded her toward the door.
Read on for a taste from Angelica Dawson's Blue Moon House Series...
Blue Moon House
Chapter One: Sophia
Julia gazed around the room as Harry secured both her arms behind her back with soft ropes. The dark velvet padding that insulated the walls from sound, the racks that held implements and toys, the giant bed before her–the room had become familiar after nearly a year, as had his cool touch and the sight of the scars on her pelvic bones and thighs. Their first night together had been one that rivaled all others. The second time, however, was the night she’d never forget: the night she’d signed herself over as his submissive and was sworn never to share with anyone not associated with this House about what happened within.
The first time he bit her, tasted her blood, the pain and pleasure had been beyond her comprehension. She had been free to leave, as she had always been, but she must keep their secret: the vampires of Blue Moon House.
She hadn’t left. She’d come back to Harry weekly, to have him bring her more pain, push her harder, test her soft limits, approach her hard ones. He had torn into her, burned her, bit her, cut her, and fucked her for hours and hours, never stopping until she begged with her safe word. She had been sure he would stop sooner, that he would see how hurt she was, how badly she needed rest, but he never did. He hurt her more, fucked her more, and violently choked the very breath from her.
That was the only other time she'd had a reprieve without crying maximum–when she'd lost consciousness at his hands. It had happened many times more in the last few weeks. Once he had actually drank from her until the blood loss made her faint. Only once. Blue Moon House had victims, but they were few and far between. The last, she had learned, had been years ago. Accidents weren’t uncommon in the BDSM community, and those here were less frequent than other dominants had. Unfortunately, here they were fatalities. She had survived that night, spending the next day taking iron supplements, eating and drinking what Harry brought her, building her strength back enough for work on Monday. She was a little woozy walking into the office that morning, but nothing unbearable, and even that had passed with the work week until she was eager to return to Blue Moon House on Friday night.
Although she’d only met Harry, Julia knew there were more vampires in Blue Moon House and had visited with some of the other submissives over breakfast in the morning, sharing stories and showing scars. Tonight, she would be at the mercy of one of the others.
Harry tested his knots and then pushed gently for her to kneel. She obeyed the command without hesitation. “She knows your limits and your safe word. She will explain when she comes.”
“She?” Julia’s eyes went wide. Lesbian sex was a soft limit for her, and one Harry had tested by bringing another submissive in with her. This time, however, Julia had no warning and the woman would be her Dominant.
“Silence,” a female voice came from behind her. Julia didn’t know if Harry had left or was still behind her, but she bit her tongue, her lip trembling. “You will listen and not speak.” The woman moved to sit on the bed in front of Julia. The submissive kept her eyes down, on the woman’s bony ankles and pale, white skin. She wasn’t wearing shoes.
“Look up. I want to know that you understand me.”
Obediently, Julia raised her head, taking in the red corset and panties the woman wore, her long, black hair falling over her shoulders and her brilliant, sapphire blue eyes. “You know what we are. Harrold has made a request. Of necessity, we keep our numbers small, but he wants to keep you.”
Julia’s eyes widened and her mouth opened. “I—”
“Silence,” the woman reminded her. “I am Sophia, the eldest of us. It is for me to weigh this request, and for you to choose if you wish to join us or not. We would ask much of you. First, that you sever all ties with friends and family. If you choose to stay, these next weeks will be the last you see of them. You will be kept in seclusion for a decade or two, long enough for everyone you know to have forgotten you or moved on. Second, you will become Dominant. We are occasionally submissive with each other. We were all submissive once. After all, to feed, we need the complete trust of our partner. You will have to know that you hold their life in your hands. You understand.” It wasn’t a question, and Julia didn’t answer in either case, but her face surely showed her understanding and continued disbelief. “The last, is that you live with us, forever. You may come and go, work outside the House after your seclusion, but you would be part of our family, part
of us. To keep our secrets, we stay together. It is much to ask, and a great deal for you to give.”
Julia started to say she would give it willingly, but Sophia held up a hand. “You need to think about it. There is much to consider, for you and for us. After all, we would like to know who is joining us.”
Again, Julia understood. She knew why she was being given to each of them, but Sophia explained aloud. “How better to know the nature of a person than at the moment of complete surrender? Remember, for you will not be able to think about it now.” Sophia rose and moved behind Julia, taking her by the hair and pulling her to her feet.
Pressing Julia’s face to the bed, Sophia’s hand came down hard, making Julia wince at the stinging. Then there was burning as Sophia’s teeth broke the skin of Julia’s left buttock. Another spank and another bite.
“Tell me you are prepared,” Sophia demanded.
“I-I am,” Julia stammered. Harry had instructed her to take extra iron and over-hydrate in anticipation of being fed upon this weekend. She expected Sophia wouldn’t be the only one to bite her. All these bites were quick though, small blood loss. Julia was sure the purpose was to put Sophia’s saliva into the wounds. It had an aphrodisiac effect, making Julia start to sway her hips as she became more aroused, hotter, wetter. Sophia indulged her, fingers stirring her pussy only to stop and spank her again for several minutes, long enough for the edge of pleasure to recede into pain. Then, Sophia would bite again and resume fondling.
The spanking was followed by a more thorough fucking, and then by a flogging. Most recently, Sophia had used a wand, vibrating Julia to orgasm. Julia was covered in sweat, shuddering. Her legs collapsed, and Sophia’s hands alone kept her from falling down. She replaced the wand with a new toy, a rabbit, held inside her by a harness. Sophia turned on the settings and held Julia’s legs as the toy began to rotate and vibrate.
