by Desconhecido
He released her, assisted her into the carriage, and waved to the crowd.
“Simon! Jake! Take care of the place while we’re gone. We’ll be back in a fortnight.”
“Enjoy yourself, Max,” Simon called out in return. “And don’t worry about Grandfather.”
“In your capable hands, I won’t.”
Max settled in beside his new wife—wife! He still couldn’t believe it. She was beautiful in her pearl-seeded gown of palest pink, her ears, and neck clad in the finest freshwater pearls he could purchase.
He pulled her into his embrace and murmured, “I’m sorry about having to wait for a party, but with Grandfather’s condition and all, well—”
“I understand, darling. The only party I require is with you, in that nice Inn where we’ll be staying for a week. Oh, with luscious food and wine, and a nice comfortable bed, and with you beside me, I don’t require anything else.”
“I feel the same way.”
“And Dover, no less!” she exclaimed. “Why, I’ve never seen that part of Britain. It’s all sailboats and the sea, isn’t it?”
“Yes, it is,” he said and released her. “Fortunately, it will be warmer there then it is in London now, but just a bit. We’ll return there in the summer, though, next year. I can just see you with the sun glinting off your hair, and the wind blowing your hair all about.”
Wryly, she said, “Why, a lady can’t wear her hair down in public, Max.”
“You can. You will. It’s what I want.”
She reached up, tucked a stray lock of his hair behind his ear. “And who am I to deny my husband, lord, and master?” she purred.
“And beast, as well,” he said dryly as he hauled her into his arms. His eyes sparkled as he smiled down into her humorous expression. “I still find it hard to believe you aren’t frightened of what I am.”
“How could I be frightened of an oversized puppy dog?”
“Did you just call me a …puppy?” he growled.
She laughed. “Well, that’s what I thought you were at first outside the King’s Tavern.”
He set her away from him and folded his arms, a grumpy look on his face. “You haven’t seen me at my worst, bride of mine. You may change your mind then, but I won’t allow it. You won’t ever deny me, for I am all of those things you said, and more.”
His hand slid over her breast and she gasped. “And what more would that be.”
Once more, he swept her into his arms, settled her on his lap and murmured against her ear, “Your lover. Forever.”
Installment 2 of the Dalton brother weres, coming
Soon to www.melange-books.com.
Were-Hearts
by Taylor Evans
Due to the strains brought about by their were-society, four persons must undergo a troublesome emotional journey in order to untangle their lives and hearts. Their worlds and lives will never be the same again; but can they handle the outcome?
You can email Taylor Evans at [email protected]
Digests with stories in them by Taylor Evans:
Vamptations 2... When the Sun Goes Down
Celestial Signs: Digest 1, To Judge Or Not To Judge,
Sweet-ish Tales Digest, The Teddy Bear Man
* * * *
Dedicated to a special lady – Natasha Perry, whose book Ruined Hearts is one of the best historicals I’ve ever read. You’re a special friend and more.
Were-Hearts
By Taylor Evans
Chapter One
Sheriff Letha Laserren looked down at the makeshift cot where a man lay huddled up in an old gray blanket, shivering with fever and a chill. She peered at his face closer as she dabbed the sweat from his thick brow. She couldn’t believe after ten long years, perhaps more, that he lay near her, that he’d found his way into her life again. She’d once wanted to believe Zi-Den Astarus would love her no matter what society thought. No matter that she could not shift as he could, as was the norm for most of their race. How could he do this, come back into her life? What could make him come looking for her? If,indeed, it was her he’d sought. She wouldn’t get her answers until he recovered his strength. That wouldn’t be for days, perhaps a week, if Doctor Troth was right and the fever had claimed Zi-Den’s system entirely.
Why would Zi-Den cross the Between-lands to come to Auck, a small border town of misfits? Why travel through the Between-lands’ sporadic climates, hidden patches of danger, and wildlife to reach this place? For what reasons?
She might still resent what he did to her, but she had to know why he was here, why he’d made the trek only few had survived. Like herself. Ten years ago, she’d left the larger city of Strank to get away from him, his parents, and the bigotry of that damn city; of their society. They’d all had their part in chasing her away from her old life and here to Auck. Here to what she’d become.
Letha shrugged off the doubts and the past as she continued to wipe his brows and face clean before she put the rag aside, covered him up and then arose. She left the cell and went out into the front office of the Sheriff’s building. Sheriff Vek Karezz waited for her there. She’d known him a long time, nearly nine years, and knew most of the swarthy man’s secrets, as he did hers. Only slightly taller than herself at just over six foot, he was handsome in a broody way, with his long moon-streaked black hair that fell over his shoulders. Dressed in a long belted tunic of dark brown, with pant-leggings and boots to match, he looked formidable, and to anyone that didn’t know him well, would be.
She gave him a wan smile as he scrutinized her with his steel-gray eyes.
“That’s him, isn’t it?” He pushed his long hair out of his face, then folded his large tanned hands in front of his thighs.
“Yeah, that’s Zi-Den.”
“This is too unbelievable.”
“What do you mean unbelievable?” she asked, then went over to the desk he half sat upon. Pushing some papers off the old rickety seat in front of the desk, she sat down and then glanced up at his inquisitive face.
“I never gave you the man’s name who married Shaja.”
She frowned, her brows knitted together as she realized what he meant. “My ex was the one who married your former love Shaja Reso?”
“Yeah, sounds as bad as your story huh?”
“No worse a sob story than yours, Vek.”
He gave her a gruff glance then grinned-snarled. “Well put. But I buried my past…”
“It still haunts you, Vek. Don’t lie to me, I use to sleep in the same room with you at nights. The hunger is still there for both of us, for the past and the present.”
Letting out a soft, deep laugh, he moved his hip off the desk and went around to face her. He held his hand out to her and she took it. Vek pulled her to her feet then jerked her into his arms. Vek growled his growing hunger for her.
“Yeah, I know. Full moon heat is edging us both and this just pushed it further along. You sure?”
She wound her arms around him. “Yeah, just cause I can’t half wolf-shift like you doesn’t mean those tendencies aren’t there, remember.”
His feral sounds woke up the unobtainable beast within her. So she couldn’t shift, there were other things she could do, latent powers that came her way due to her former handicap. She no longer thought her inability to shift into wolf form a handicap. Vek had helped her realize that. His genes kept him from doing the same. They were kindred of sorts, plus damn good friends and lovers. Though their bouts were far between what either might have liked, they’d enjoyed each other’s bodies and more without the commitment either wanted to put forth. Her heart might be cold to most, but it and mostly her body couldn’t deny she had the hots for the hulking were-man. That thought made her growl with growing passion herself. He couldn’t completely shift to wolf form, but his wolfman-beast-hybrid state was enough for both of them.
He nodded towards the back room. “Think things will be quiet then?”
“They’d better be,” she answered him and brought
his head down to hers for a searing kiss.
* * * *
Zi-Den peered through the haziness between his eyelashes. He blinked slowly at first, aching with excruciating pain as each lash fluttered open and his groggy mind tried to focus on his whereabouts. One of the persons’ voices filtered through to his brain. His mind and body were so weak he thought he’d imagined the voices, the warmth of the rough blanket wrapped around him. So weak he couldn’t feel the tendency of his inner nature wanting to shift for protection, for survival. Not until, he’d heard her name, Letha.
Letha, his ex-wife, the love of his life—the one he’d betrayed so long ago, and screwed up both their lives. All because of their society’s rules.
“What do we do with him, Letha?” The other voice, the man’s hard and edgy—faint recognition, was on the border of his mind, but he couldn’t recall right now.
“Keep him full of warmth for now. Otherwise he dies and we don’t get our answers.”
“And after we nurse him to coherency?”
“We’ll decide that at the time.”
Somehow, his brain focused on her slight pause, the hard edge of hatred in her tone. He knew she would still never forgive him, even if she knew the truth. But he would probably need her help. If not for him, then for the others who were relying on him to bring her back to the city. And the other one too. The man he’d come seeking…
He heard shuffling, perhaps someone leaving. Then he felt a hand on his sweaty forehead, mopping away the moisture, easing the feverish brows. Her hand felt so good, so right. How could he have let them take her, no, drive her away from him? The memories hurt…His brain was thinking too much. He groaned loudly with the pain, and darkness welcomed him with its warming comfort.
* * * *
Off to one side of the main office were some living quarters, complete with a small kitchen, a front room for visiting and entertaining, if one could call it that, two small bedrooms and a complete bath, old but functional and clean. It was all the two of them had needed or wanted. Half the time they shared a room, half the time they didn’t. They’d waited two years after knowing each other, after learning more about the other’s secrets and past sadness. They drifted together out of loneliness, out of savage needs hereditary to their kind. The relationship had its ups and downs, but worked mostly. Until now. Both struggled with the past as they made love—then their heat escaladed and the past was put aside as Vek prepared to thrust his hardness into Letha.
He growled and shoved her beneath him, pulled away from her even though she nearly barked at him. He wanted more, wanted to forget with her. He moved her thighs apart, his long tongue lapping up her wetness. Her extended nails raked down his long spine then across his shoulder blades, digging in slightly to the top of his neck as his mouth burrowed into her hot depths. He enjoyed tasting her lush wetness and knew it drove her wild as any she-beast could be, whether she could shift or not. It didn’t matter to him. He couldn’t do full-wolf either, a partial beast-man at the most, as he was now—mostly humanoid, part he-wolf. She had the tendencies though, the feral moves, lightening quick, the ability to extend her sharp claws and smell scents as only a wolf-being could. A faint thinness of hair covered her body, her womanly form, and her brows slightly thickened when those tendencies wanted to take over, but that’s as far as a wolf or she-wolf she could get.
But she had the rounded body any man could appreciate. She fit so well against him and when he was with her, when he let go, he could escape long enough to feel like a man again, to feel at best whole in ways. And he knew he did the same for her. Vek growled, lapping her with gusto. They needed to not recall right now, only that each needed the other.
He reached up with extended paw-hands and squeezed her breasts. So thick and heavy in his hands, he liked their warmth as much as he did her cunt. He removed one hand from her breast to snake down between their bodies. He shoved two fingers in and out of her as he lapped her also. She went wild beneath him but he didn’t stop even when he felt her cum hard. Her slickness drove him to distraction and he lathed her until she was writhing like her inner beast should.
He thrust his fingers into harder, as he soon would his cock. He wanted his heaviness inside her soon, very soon. Vek let out a loud growl. He continued pumping his fingers in and out of her as he slowly made his way up her length, licking every inch of her with his tongue. He sucked hard on one of her breasts then the other. She moved her hips for him, but he thrust three fingers in her then, rapidly, preparing her for the thickness of his manhood.
“Now, damn you!” she screamed out, but he waited.
She bucked on his fingers harder, creaming again and again, just what he wanted. She hadn’t reached her epitome yet, he wanted her best climax to be when he fucked her hard and long. He leaned down and captured her lips, her feral growl of need. Letha thrust a hand between their bodies and grabbed his long shaft. She knew how to work his thick member and used it to her advantage. He shoved into her long fingers cupped around him.
“Damn you,” his guttural moan excited her, and him as she responded.
He removed his fingers, as she did hers. He couldn’t wait any longer and moved his hips against hers; her legs came around his back. He then shoved his hips to her awaiting ones. In one swift movement, he was inside her, thrusting his might into her. Her legs wrapped around his backside and she grabbed his buttocks. He liked it when she half clawed them, held them tightly, and shoved up against him. Their noises could have probably woken the dead, but neither cared as they bucked against each other.
He pushed into her with fierce intenseness as he kissed her deeply, twirling his tongue with hers, enjoying the hot moistness of both her mouth and her pussy beneath him. She knew how to respond, to feel against him and didn’t hold back. This would never be taken from them, no matter what might change with the intruder being here. Vek shoved her harder and harder, howling with heated intensity and driving those bad thoughts out of them both. He wanted her to only think of him and his senses told him she wanted the same.
Driving wilder against him, her nails dug deeper into his butt cheeks, making him howl even fiercer. He pumped her with violent need, claiming her, making her forget about their pasts, and only about now. The heated intensity grew and grew, claiming them both, their feral inner beasts surfacing though they couldn’t completely physically; still the physicialness of it made her feel as if their beasts connected. Their movements were wild and savage, their breathing hard and shaking.
She howled with him as the momentum built into a bestial crescendo, the hectic fires claiming them both at the same time. His nails dug into her plump breasts as the earth-shattering climax finally hit them. She rode the wild animalistic waves with him, until nothing but their aftermath of completeness blocked out all else, save their need to be with each other. To feel the completing warmth their wild lovemaking had brought to them both.
Then they both changed into all-human and he held her within his arms, his warmth comforting her as much as her body heat comforted him. And for a few hours longer they found the contentment they had needed from each other. Faintly, at the back of both their minds, they felt the warning, the aftermath of some chaos gnawing at their existence…
Chapter Two
Vek watched the man toss in his delirium. Three days he and Letha had nursed him, mostly her. But he knew she had to find out, and he couldn’t blame her. Were he in her shoes and this had been Shaja coming back for him, he knew he’d have to figure out where his heart lay also. He would partially feel on pins and needles until the man woke up fully and told them why he’d come here, why he chose to turn their worlds upside down. What had driven his ex-lover’s husband from the large were-metropolis of Strank to come here to the smaller city of Auck, where only were outcasts and others lived?
“Letha…” the man mumbled then quieted.
Vek glanced at him closely. He mopped the man’s brows and then noticed the change, felt it with his inner senses. His hu
man side was becoming aware of his surroundings. Vek pulled back as he heard a soft growl. The man jerked upwards into a sitting position and Vek found himself staring into a set of rare amber-gold eyes. He blinked and stared at Vek.
“You look…different.”
Those were not the words he’d expected from the light-brown haired man. Almost as tall as himself and though athletically built, Zi-Den was thinner due to his feverish state.
Vek adjusted himself on the edge of the seat near the cot upon which the other man sat upright. “Glad you are out of your delirium. Doctor Troth said you might just jump out of it.”
Vek started to touch the man but jerked his hand back when he growled at Vek. He grinned at the feral look on the man’s bewildered face. Zi-Den was still trying to come to terms with his whereabouts. He tried to move but Vek was quicker and stopped him.
“Where am I?”
Vek moved back away from him once he realized the other male intended to stay put. “In Auck. We’ve been nursing you back to health the last few days.”
“We?” he countered then glanced around the unlocked cell. “How did I get here?”
“A Trail-Master brought you to town. You’re lucky he did. Our town doctor told us you had a fever from your journey. You’ve been pretty delirious but between the medicine he gave you regularly and the sleep, you seem to have recovered. Why have you come here?”
“I’d like to know that myself, Zi-Den.”
Both glanced towards the cell’s open entrance. Letha stood tall there, dressed in a pair of dark green trousers, flannel shirt, and pull on boots. She leaned her right shoulder against the cell’s door scrutinizing both men. Vek tried not to grin at the absurdity of the situation. She gave him a frown then slowly moved into the room, keeping a few feet away from the cot and both men.
