by L. A. Banks
Within two seconds he was on her, the mount a hard thrust. When she threw her head back and howled, he almost busted a nut. He couldn’t help it, she was burning him up. Every snap jerk of her spine called his wolf home. Her body was hollering, “Baby, come get it.” But he couldn’t go there on her, not until she’d gone through her first phase. She’d never know how close to the transition edge he was the moment she let out a low, mourning wail when he dipped low to find her spot. Her nails dug into his hip to hold him there, to let him know, oh, yeah, he’d found it.
“Right there?” He rasped, sweat rolling off his nose and down his back, splattering linens.
“Yes!” Her voice was an a cappella shriek.
“You sure?” he asked, just to distract himself to keep from cumming too soon.
“Yes!”
“Want me to take it out so you can—”
“No!” Her voice dissolved into a sob as she tried to link her ankles behind his knees to hold him in place.
He needed to let it go so badly he was seeing stars. “Tell me when you’re there, sweet Sidney. You right there, baby?”
“Brick!”
Okay, he couldn’t play it off any more—his name at that pitch was a definite yes. He came so hard he bit his tongue and only a very thin margin of restraint kept his wolf at bay.
They both collapsed with him still joined to her. He gathered her against his chest and stomach and spooned her, breathing hard. She covered her face with her hands, and he watched full-blown hysteria overtake her.
“I’ve never felt like this in my life,” she wailed, beginning to rock with him still lodged deep within her.
He just held her and petted her hair away from her face, remembering his first time before the phase shift.
“I don’t know what’s wrong with me, I can’t get enough,” she panted, her voice bottoming out to alto and making him lift his head.
“I got you,” he said in a low rumble next to her ear. “Till you drop, all right?”
She reached back and held him by the jaw, peering at him over her shoulder. “It’s your voice, too…that…”
“Growl,” he said as low as he could from deep within his chest and then chuckled, thoroughly pleased.
She shuddered and leaned back to kiss him hard. “Yeah. Like I said, I’m off the chain tonight.”
Chapter Six
* * *
It was mid-morning before either one of them could summon the energy to make the necessary calls. She called her office and feigned another migraine, which was not at all far from the truth—he called Leonora to come over and to bring whatever grub she could lay her hands on.
Sidney paced in front of the large picture window staring out at Philadelphia’s majestic skyline with her cell phone pressed to her ear. Maybe she was having a nervous breakdown, some vast departure from reality? Right now she felt so wild and free that if her boss said the wrong thing, she’d tell him to go fuck himself, career consequences be damned.
As she waited for Sheldon Randolph’s executive assistant to come back onto the line, elevator music drilling a hole in her brain, the feeling of absolute entitlement swept through Sidney like a wild fire, threatening to consume her logic. She didn’t care what was protocol or not this morning. She didn’t care about whatever was going on at the ruthless office or the politics therein. The right to be free ate at everything rational within her, so did the right to retaliate, the right to deliver swift and sudden justice…the right not to have to mew excuses to a self-important asshole of a boss about why she’d be out again—she’d be out because that’s what she fucking felt like being—out.
“I’m calling to say I won’t be in today, Marie,” Sidney snapped as soon as her boss’s assistant came back on the line.
“Oh, no…” Marie said with a desperate gasp. “You know today is when Sheldon leaves for his annual deer hunt up in the Poconos with his VIP clients. I’m afraid he’s already gone, and he had expected you to be the manager on duty to handle any crises while he’s away.” Marie paused, allowing her voice to convey the guilt trip with just the right amount of sugary emphasis.
“I have a migraine,” Sidney said through her teeth, trying to temper the flare of aggression that shot through her.
“And, as you may have heard on the news this morning, there has been a crisis of sorts, Sidney. I know you have a migraine, but two robbers got mauled in our building’s lot by a police K-9 unit, and now the building tenants want to meet to discuss greater security measures for all staff working late given this could have been a real tragedy if an innocent person had been attacked by those horrible men they found. This time, the dogs will get a medal, but next time it might be someone in the building that gets stalked by muggers. We—”
“Will have to have someone else on staff to deal with the security meeting and whatever other crap Sheldon threw my way while he’s out playing in the Poconos,” Sidney snapped, cutting off her boss’s assistant. “I’m not in the damned mood.”
Pure silence strangled the line for a few tense moments.
“Well, all right,” Marie said curtly. “If that’s how you want it, then I’ll just let Sheldon know when he calls in.”
Sidney hung up without answering, not bothering to wait for the next volley of messages and instructions that Marie no doubt had. Not today. For some odd reason she felt like she could possibly rip the woman’s face off. Truthfully, she felt like she could do that to anyone who crossed her right now.
Glancing at Brick across the room, Sidney stared at him with quiet appreciation. He’d pulled on an olive-hued mock turtle neck sweater that fit his form to a T with a pair of black jeans. The color added an earthy richness to the dark earth color of his skin. Plus, despite her temporary annoyance, she loved the way the gun holster fit around his wide shoulders and broad, muscular back. Of all the people she really needed to talk to today, this person seemed to instinctively know that the sound of a voice would be like someone scratching their fingernails down a blackboard at the moment.
His eyes asked a silent question as he looked up at her while lacing his black Timberland boots. Was everything cool at the office? Hell no, her mind screamed as she clutched the cell phone in her fist. She’d have to beg forgiveness later. Making a real doctor’s appointment would be wise. It was the weirdest thing, though. Brick simply nodded like he knew the thousand thoughts running through her mind, but was so quiet she almost sighed out loud.
But when his condo buzzer sounded, she snarled. Actually snarled! Sidney covered her mouth with a hand and paced away to steady herself. Tears immediately filled her eyes.
“I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” she whispered.
“It’s just Leonora,” Brick said in a mercifully quiet voice. “I’ll buzz her up.”
Without turning, Sidney just nodded and then braced herself for the intrusion of more sound.
For some strange reason, not wanting to be in Brick’s bedroom when Leonora arrived, she melted into the living room. It was the most bizarre feeling in the world…her walk felt like a glide…a lope. The hair was standing up on the back of her neck. She could smell a cheese steak coming down the hall outside the condo unit. She could smell Leonora’s distinctive scent! At the same time, something irrational in her made her want to fight something, anything, although not Leonora or Brick. Sidney covered her face and breathed into her hands for a moment as Brick glimpsed her from the corner of his eye and opened the condo door. Her stomach growled so loudly she was embarrassed.
Sidney spun on Leonora and licked her lips. Her best friend looked at Brick then at Sidney, flung the greasy bag across the room, and squared off on him. Brick backed up growling at a decibel so low it had wet Sidney’s draws.
“How long has she been like this Brick?” Leonora shouted, tears standing in her eyes. “She was never supposed to be brought into the life!”
“Don’t fucking lecture me, Leo!” Brick shouted back. “It was already there, dormant—you know wh
at Mom Irv said!”
Leonora backed down and strode into the living room, her eyes steady on Sidney. “How you feeling, baby?” she asked, her voice cracking.
“I thought we were clear,” Brick growled. “That’s mine.”
“Friends till the day I die,” Leonora said, lifting her chin. “You bit her, didn’t you?”
“That ain’t your business, last I checked, and if it’s to the death—”
“I’m hungry, dammit,” Sidney said, crossing the room and going for the bag. “Chill, people. Whatever your beef is, handle it after we eat. Shit!”
Leonora cast a hard gaze on Brick. “Listen to her. She doesn’t even sound like herself.” She swallowed hard. “Sid was always so…soft.” Leonora’s voice caught in her throat as she watched Sidney tear into the bag with abandon and eat standing up over the counter.
“She’ll get back to that,” Brick said quietly. “It’s just working through her system…that’s all. But she’s…” He closed his eyes.
“All alpha,” Leonora murmured with appreciation.
Brick just closed his eyes and nodded. “I couldn’t help it…I nipped her.”
Leonora nodded as she watched Sidney begin to polish off the second cheese steak, hands and chin running red with ketchup. “I wouldn’t have been able to hold back, either, brother.”
Brick steadied himself. “Let her have the bag…then, maybe after she eats, show her the pics.”
Leonora nodded and unconsciously licked her lips, speaking to Brick without looking at him as they both stared at Sidney. “Okay,” she said quietly. “Then I’ve gotta go.”
Brick simply nodded. “Yeah. Then, you’ve gotta go.”
Halfway through the third two-foot long sandwich, Sidney took a breath and looked up at them. Paper was everywhere, a lot of it eaten right along with the cheese steaks and her hands, face, and blouse were a mess.
“I’m so sorry,” she said, looking mortified. “I’ve never done anything like this in my life.”
Both Brick and Leonora drew shuddering breaths, accidentally saying the same thing at the same time in the same timbre: “I know, baby.”
“So, what do you want me to do?” Leonora said, collecting the devastating array of digital images off the coffee table along with the video camera. She ignored Brick’s arched eyebrow.
“Don’t you mean, what do you want Brick to do?” he said, tilting his head to the side to give Leo a warning to back off.
But the contest was lost on Sidney as she stared down and stopped Leonora from pulling the images away from her sight. “No. The question is, what does Sidney want to do about this?” She stood and walked to the window and looked in the direction of her firm. “They played me. The whole time I was working like a dog, trying to do my best—they played me. Took my best clients, gave me the hardest cases and shittiest workload, and the whole time, I worked like a damned dog.” She turned slowly. “And the both of them were in cahoots all along.”
“Baby, what do you want to—”
“I want to go to the Poconos,” Sidney abruptly said, cutting Brick off. “I want to confront them while they’re in their cozy little cabin and tell them to their faces that I’m not the one to be played!” she shouted, beginning to pace. “I want to dig my nails into their faces and rip them off! I want to tear out their lying tongues—just yank out their fucking windpipes!” she shrieked, then picked up a lamp and threw it. “I want them to hurt like I hurt, pray for someone to come to their rescue like I did!” The couch went against the wall. “I want blood!”
Brick had stood and was walking in a circle. Leonora was hyperventilating and had begun to rock.
“I’ll take you to the Poconos, baby. We can drive up this afternoon, if you want?” Brick’s voice held a timbre of expectancy that made Sidney stop ransacking his place to stare at him.
She was breathing hard, her eyes wild. “I have to…I have to…” Her words trailed off as she stared down at her hands.
“The full moon is tonight,” Leonora said with a thick swallow of palpable desire. “Maybe that’s not a good idea, if she really doesn’t want blood on her hands?”
“We’re tight, Leo, but you gotta go,” Brick said, his full gaze on Sidney as she began rampaging throughout his condo again. “I love seeing her like this.”
He’d pulled the rented SUV off the side of the road, rolling as far as they could in the semi-dark over dirt, grass, brightly-hued leaves, and twigs. Night was just about to make an entrance, her dark gray cloak of near sundown dusk slowly lowering over tall pines and oaks. The change-over between day forest noises and scents and those of evening had begun just as surely as Sidney would go mad with transition the moment the full moon shone upon her lovely face. All reason would be eclipsed. She was nearly insane already.
Brick touched her cheek to make her wait. Douglass and Sheldon had rifles and were probably fairly decent shots, not that it would kill her, unless their bullets were silver, which he doubted. But the pain of recovery during a transition would be like an agony she didn’t need to know. Sidney looked at him, anxious.
“I know,” he murmured. “But you have to wait to make your move. You can’t just roll up on a hunt, wild, without stalking it right. That’s a good way to get hurt.”
She nodded. “I’m not going to kill him, just…I don’t know. I want to just punch him in the face…but I know that’s not legal. I just want to tell them both where they can shove it—probably where they already have.” She whirled around in her seat. “Did I just say kill?”
Brick traced her cheek and didn’t answer, watching the gradual shift between human and Lupine sensibilities overtake her wide irises.
“I don’t know what came over me in your apartment,” she whispered. “You must think I’m mad…I swear I’ll pay for everything and will replace it—I think I need a shrink…the repressed rage for years…oh, God, Brick, what’s happening to me?”
His hand caressed her throat as he watched her skin become damp with perspiration. “It’s normal, after what’s just happened to you.”
“I don’t feel normal, I feel like I’m about to pass out at the same time I’m about to leap out of this truck!”
Her chest had begun to heave as she battled to breathe. To keep her occupied and her focus away from the cabin, he let his hand slide down to capture her breast. She closed her eyes and released a moan that ran through him.
“Stay with me a little while till it gets dark,” he said quietly watching her eyes roll beneath her lids as his thumb caressed a nipple through her sweater. “Wait until they can’t see you roll up on them, all right?”
She nodded quickly and released her answer on a rush of breath as she brought his other hand to the neglected breast. “All right.”
“Isn’t this a lot better than fighting right now?”
He took her mouth hard, not waiting for her answer. The moan she released over his tongue was enough of one. It had been so long since he’d been with an alpha female of his kind, and had never had one during a first phase, that he’d become slightly irrational. Just witnessing her first primal rush, the way she yanked at her skirt to bring it up over her hips, and just as quickly began struggling with his pants was enough to make him forget about hunting Douglass’s stupid ass.
Sidney’s lithe body had slipped across the gear-shift, one knee perilously wedged between the driver’s seat and the door, the other trying to find anchor against the center seat divide, her breaths frantic pants as she tore away the sheer fabric obstruction of hose and panties between them. Their gazes locked. Her eyes had begun to turn a lighter hazel from the inner wolf glow behind her normally dark brown irises. Just seeing her that way made him throw his head back and beg his wolf to stay put.
“You know what you are?” he gasped, trying to prepare her in case he couldn’t hold a phase-shift back.
“Starved,” she breathed out in a warm rush against his cheek, stroking him while touching herself above him.
&n
bsp; “She-wolf,” he gulped, kneading the firm lobes of her ass. “Alpha.” Her touch was maddening, her pulsing grasp and release just right. Not too hard, not too timid, pressure at the exact point…“Do you know what that means, Sidney?” he asked, painfully trying to force himself to get her ready for a life altering event.
“She-wolf…” she repeated, her words deep, resonant, and making his stomach clench. Then she lowered her body and dragged his dripping head along the length of her slick slit, making him release a groan from inside his chest. “Gentleman’s way of calling me your bitch?” she gasped, taking his mouth, devouring it, and then pulling away breathlessly. “Is that what you want? Me to talk dirty to you? Is that what you mean, Brick—’cause right now, I have no problem doing that.”
He was losing his mind and she didn’t get it. He shouldn’t have waited this long to try to make her understand, but all day long her body had been having this same conversation with his. “Yeah.” He dropped his head back against the seat rest. “I mean, no…” His mind was fracturing between the wolf and the man, her slippery, warm gyrations against his head, the grip of her hand, her bud feeling like the tip of a tongue…a howl scrabbling at his dry throat for release. “Oh, damn, baby” was the only thing that came out as she mounted him and withdrew.
Knowing that neither of them could take the frenzied touches any longer, he simply tilted the steering wheel up and out of her way as she mounted him again hard with a deep groan. He’d tell her later, would have to hope she didn’t freak when he showed her. But the rhythm spoke a thousand words: I’m sorry, I’ll make it right, I didn’t mean for it to go down like this, but oh, shit, girl, it’s so fucking good! A howl ripped up his throat as her eyes turned gold. Her canines were cresting for the first time as she threw her head back and howled when she convulsed.
He grabbed her tight around the waist to ground her to stay a moment in human form, then looked her in the eyes and kissed her fast, breathing hard. “Remember who you are. Don’t let the first moon break you.” He then let her go, opened the vehicle door before she panicked and felt trapped, and watched her flee his lap in one fluid wolf move.
