Claimed by the Wolf

by Charlene Teglia

  “Enough of this.” Annoyed by her thoughts, Sybil jumped tip and padded outside, naked and barefoot. Since she hadn't been paying attention to the route Abaran took when he Carried her off, she had no idea where she was. But she could hear the river, so she followed the sound until she found her way to an overlook above it.

  Could witches really fly? Water was a good thing to have under her while she tried to find out. Sybil eyed the distance and decided she'd just get wet if the answer was no.

  She balanced on the balls of her feet as she looked down at the river. No wings.

  Broomsticks were to ridiculous to consider.

  “Levitate,” Sybil said out loud. And what spell would do that? Even if she knew, did she dare try when she might say the wrong words out loud with horrifying consequences? No spells. Which left . . .

  She closed her eyes and. called prickling heat to the palms of her hands. A burning sensation spread over her arms, down her body. She felt her hair stirring in a wind that hadn't been there a moment before. Then flames clothed her it didn’t hurt, maybe because she wasn't fighting it. Or maybe because having three-fifths of the star tattoo had shifted be' internal balance of power. The necklace Kadar had given her seemed to be helping, too, singing to the fire she'd called.

  She concentrated on letting the power rise, carrying her with it. When she opened her eyes, her feet were floating off the ground. She laughed, exultant and disbelieving at the same time, and spread her arms wide, leaning toward the river. Then the flames winked out and she dropped like a rock through the empty air.

  Abaran was waiting on the bank when she finished washing. “Enjoy your swim?”

  “Yes, thanks.” Sybil sluiced water from her naked body, and joined him on dry land. “Did you bring a towel?”

  “You didn't bring one? What did you do, fall in the river?”

  “Yes”

  The dark demon grinned. Then laughed.

  Sybil aimed her palms at him, gathered power, and shoved it in his direction.

  Abaran slid back from the force. He planted his feet and raised his hands in mock surrender- “That's new. Been practicing?”

  “Yep. And for a minute there. I flew over the water.”

  “Show me.”

  She focused and called the fire. It lifted her a few inches above the ground. Then the flames banked and she landed again with a thump. “I keep getting more control as I get more of the mark. And this helps.” She touched the necklace.

  “Good.” His expression turned serious. “You're going to need all the help you can get.”

  “Against the bad guys? Or so I don't turn into one of them?”

  “Both.”

  Sybil wrapped her arms around herself, suddenly chilled. “Abaran. you're the expert on demons. Tell me about rhe ones that attacked. What do they do? How do you fight them?”

  He took hold of her shoulder and turned her toward a path that led back up to his retreat. “Tempter demons. They attack where they find an opening,” he answered as they began the climb. “They'll use your own weaknesses against you. Right now, your lack of control is a weakness that invites a stronger force to invade.”

  “So the best offense is a good defense?”

  “It's a start.”

  Sybil reached the top of the path and paused to look down at the river. “Yeah, but which one is more helpful in an enemy encounter?”

  “That depends. If you find yourself in enemy hands, you use whatever techniques, tactics, and weapons you posses. Whatever will give you the greatest chance of success and survival.” Abaran put a hand to the small of her back. “You should stay inside where you're harder to sense. Especially when you're playing with power they can home in on.”

  “Right.” Sybil got moving. “Can you home in on it?”

  “How do you think I found you?”

  She stopped in her tracks and turned to face him. “Does it draw you?”

  “I don't want it for myself, if that's what you mean.” Abaran brushed a hand along her bare upper arm. The contact made her shiver. His midnight eyes deepened. “But touching you is the closest thing to the touch of my kind I've felt in centuries.”

  She blinked. “I feel like a demon to you?”

  “There's a resonance. A power signal ure, if you like.”

  That explained the magnetic pull she felt when they touched. “Huh.”

  “We shouldn't stay out here.” He caught her hand and drew her under cover.

  “You're still too vulnerable.”

  “And you're not? Even Superman had kryptonite.”

  “I'm not a fledgling.”

  Sybil frowned. '“But you're a demon, And you sided against them. They have to hate you for that.”

  His teeth flashed in a fierce smile. “I'm not a tempter demon, and I’m in full command of my powers.”

  She meant to ask what sort of demon he was, but he settled his hands on her waist and drew her closer until their bodies brushed. The swell of his curved penis brushed her belly.

  “Hey.” Sybil tipped her head up to frown at him. “Don't think you can just put your hands on me and distract . . . oh.” Her voice cut off as he lifted her up against his torso and cupped her bare ass in his hands.

  “Wrap your legs around me.”

  Shd did, winding arms and legs around him to keep from falling. He walked her back to the bed, lowered her onto it and followed her down to cover her body with his.

  He rubbed his leathery skin against hers, making her nipples tighten. His weight filled her with a thrum of sensual anticipation.

  “Company's on the way.”

  “Kadar?”

  Abaran's penis nudged between her legs. “No.” He rubbed the head of his cock along her folds. Her body reacted to the intimate contact, her sex already softening and growing slicker.

  Abaran's tongue twined with hers as he slowly pushed all the way inside and she opened to take him. His body rocked into hers again and again, insistent, seductive, demanding, until she was on the verge of orgasm. Then he pulled all the way out, leaving her aroused and trembling.

  “So cruel,” she muttered.

  Abaran's face turned knowing. “Tell me after I make you the center in your first threesome.”

  “Did you start without me?”

  Sybil turned her face toward the sound of Kenric's, voice, caught by a surge of hunger for the sight of his face. She met his gaze and forgot to breathe when she saw raw desire in his golden gaze. She couldn't look away. An almost painful yearning swept through her. Not for sex, although she could almost feel every cell in her body straining toward him. For something deeper, more primal and wordless.

  Kenric took in the sight of Sybil sprawled under Abaran, the scent of her arousal thick in the air, and felt his cock twitch in reaction. She looked sensual and abandoned, her eyes heavy with pleasure, her cheeks flushed, her parted legs, and glistening sex an invitation he intended to accept.

  Her hair, a tangle of streaked shades of sun and sand, spilled across the silk sheet beneath her. He wanted to touch it, to see if it felt as soft as he remembered. He wanted to touch her skin and feel the slide of warm, living silk under his hands instead of the phantom touch that had haunted him tor two nights. He wanted to fit his hands over her breasts and rasp his palms against the tight buds of her nipples and hear her breath catch. He wanted to claim her mouth and drink in the passionate cries still echoing in his mind.

  He wanted her.

  For two days and nights, the sound and scent of her had remained with him, compelling him. He'd nearly sought her out a dozen times. If she was a wolf, he'd think they'd mated. But she wasn't a wolf, despite the way his cock knotted to lock their bodies together every time he entered her.

  His desire should have eased after he'd given her the mark and sated himself with her. But it seemed the more he had of her, the more he hungered, as if she fed an appetite that could never be appeased.

  It had overtaken him the first time he'd touched her at the o
asis, when he'd lost his head and brought her to the peak with his mouth instead of his hands. Because touching her wasn’t, enough. He'd needed to know the taste of her.

  After marking her, he'd taken her to Kadar, and bound her in chains, still wanting her. He hadn't been able to resist touching her while she was shackled and spread wide for pleasure. He'd left her there and taken his hand to his aching shaft while he imagined standing between her open legs and driving into her willing body.

  Now he stood beside Abaran's bed, watching as Abaran guided his shaft toward her ready, pressed home, and worked his hips in a lazy in and out motion.

  Watching another man on top of her aroused Kenric. It made him want to compete, to prove himself the alpha male, the one who could lavish the most pleasure on a female. It also stirred some feeling he couldn't name, a desire to see her experience a depth of satisfaction beyond anything she'd ever known.

  Abaran stroked in and out of her again. She moved with him, her eyes half-closing in obvious enjoyment. The sight made Kenric feel tender, indulgent. It also made him feel fierce and dominant. He wanted to cherish her sexual response. He wanted to drive into her with relentless savagery.

  He joined them on the mattress and stretched alongside the pair, giving in to the temptation to toy with her hair. Soft strands slid through his fingers. He tightened his hand around the silk of her hair, holding on instead of allowing it to spill away from him.

  Her scent filled his nostrils. Aroused woman, overlaid with a heady wash of magic and a clean, herbal fragrance.

  His thick shaft jerked as if she'd reached out and touched him. He used the fistful of her hair to tug her head toward his. Her eyes met his, a deep blue he could lose himself in. Her lips parted as if inviting his kiss.

  He held back with an effort of will.

  A witch had betrayed him and that had been the end and the beginning. A book of demon magic had slipped out of his grasp, possibly drawn away by a spell she'd left waiting in the event of her untimely death.

  Now the damned book was back, with another witch. He wouldn't let it go astray again. He wouldn't let this witch betray them all this time. She wouldn't get the opportunity. He knew better than to trust her.

  Trust wasn't required for what he wanted from her.

  He pressed his forefinger between her parted lips and watched as she closed them around his digit, licking at the pad of his finger as he pushed it into her mouth. Her body arched under Abaran's.

  Kenric wanted her soft, slender body arching up under his, writhing in ecstatic need. He wanted to bury his cock in her slick heat, to feel her inner walls squeezing his shaft and her hard little nipples rubbing against his chest as he moved on top of her.

  “Ready to be taken by two men at once?” Kenric stroked his finger in and out of her mouth in a graphic demonstration of the way he intended to use her body.

  Her eyes darkened and she sucked his finger hard.

  “I'll take that as a yes.”

  Thirteen

  Sybil tasted salt and a hint of musk as she drew Kenric’s finger into her mouth.

  Wolf, she thought, almost giddy at the thought of the great beast he could become. He was wolf-like as a man, dominant and watchful and predatory. He was looking at her now as if she was something he'd run to ground and was preparing to pounce on.

  Being the focus of that look heightened her awareness of Abaran's body on hers, in hers. It added a layer of eroticism to the experience. Not just because she was watched.

  Because she was watched by Kenric. She'd knew she'd feel differently if it was Kadar who'd joined them, and that difference was impossible to ignore.

  He slid his finger out of her lips and traced a line down her throat to the valley between her breasts, touching the pendant there nestled there. He frowned. “What is that?”

  She gave him a lazy, satisfied grin to cover the emotion his touch stirred. Kadar was feeling appreciative.”

  Something flickered m his gold eyes. “Kadar doesn't part with his treasures.”

  She moved one bare shoulder in a small shrug. “Maybe he figures it's still his property and I'm a roving display.” Abaran let out a soft laugh at that, “You are roving.”

  She stuck her tongue out at the demon, He bent his head to suck it into his mouth, replacing the musk of wolf on her tongue with the dark, smoky flavor of demon. No, she realized a beat later, not replacing. Mingling, so that she tasted both of them together.

  Abaran let her tongue slide free and then touched the tip of his to hers before he spoke again, this time to Kenric. “The dragon has a fondness for our little witch, He may even be besotted with her.”

  “Then why is he not here?” Kenric released her hair and moved his hand down the curve of her neck to the sensitive hollows of her throat. “She expected him.”

  “When I went to get him, he was busy studying something. He said I should invite you in his place.”

  Sybil frowned, wondering what Kadar was studying and if it had anything to do with her own questions about the coven. “Did he say what?”

  Abaran planted his palms on the mattress and levered himself up, driving himself deeper in the process. The pressure and stimulation focused her attention on the present. “Why so curious about another male when you have two of us to entertain?”

  She breathed out a sigh, rocking her hips under his to more. “You are entertaining.

  Especially when you do that. I’m sorry I pushed you around earlier.”

  Abaran stroked out, in, then all the way out, withdrawing from her and kneeling between her sprawled legs with his erect penis jutting up. “Kitten has claws.”

  “She pushed you around?” Kenric asked. He gave the two of them a measuring look.

  “She did. She's not up to my weight, but she's getting better, the demon replied.

  “Stronger, more in control” He gave one bare nipple a tug that made Sybil's inner muscles clench to reaction. “Show the wolf your new trick.”

  She raised a brow at his choice of words. “Am I a kitten or a puppy now?”

  “Since I intend to make you sit up and beg, draw your own conclusions.” Abaran waited, daring her to perform with his eyes.

  Fine. Great. Perform on command for an audience. No pressure. Sybil closed her eyes and let magic burn. Now that she had the hang of it, it was easier than trying to stuff it down. She focused on the silk sheet under her and then pushed it away with her will, When she opened her eyes, she floated just above the mattress, reclined on her back. “Ta da.”

  Then the fire damped and she landed with a bounce.

  “Impressive.” Kenric's face was unreadable, his tone flat.

  “Not to you.” She rolled onto her side, propped herself up on an elbow, and trailed her finders down his chest, following the arrow of body hair that led to his penis. “You only have one use for a witch.”

  “How did you do that?”

  “No clue.”

  “And what gave you the idea to try it?” Kenric settled a hand on her breast, stroking her as he spoke.

  “Kadar said I could fly. I thought he was yanking my chain, but then I figured why not see?”

  “The dragon told you to jump off a cliff, so you did?” Amusement rang in Abaran's voice.

  “Shut up.” Sybil raised foot to poke the demon's belly with her toe.

  “Give me something better to do with my mouth,” he suggested.

  His mouth would torment her no matter what he did with it, but the thought of having it between her legs made her muscles turn to liquid. She lowered her foot, placed both of her soles flat against the mattress, settled onto her back and spread her thighs wide apart in silent invitation.

  The demon lowered his head to kiss her belly.

  “Lower,” Sybil said, her breath catching at the thought of Abaran's tongue sliding between her folds While Kenric watched. Kenric’s hand moved on her breast, kneading her flesh, making her ache for more.

  “You smell like sex,” Abaran said in a
dark, hungry voice. “Delicious.”

  “You sound like night,” she answered. “All shadows and secret dreams.”

  “And your secret dream is to surrender to the dark.” Abaran touched the tip of his tongue to her exposed flesh. The tiniest contact, but it made her shiver.

  She closed her eyes and surrendered to her demon lover as his lips brushed the bud of her clitoris in a soft kiss. Then lower. She arched in response as his lips opened and his tongue thrust into her core, the movement lifting her ribcage and pushing her breasts up like an offering.

  Kenric's mouth closed over the aureole of one swollen crest while his hand tightened on the other in a light squeeze. Two pairs of warm lips suckled her sex and her nipple at the same time. The reality of it undid her. She'd had a taste of two men touching her together, and now she was going to have a banquet.

  Abaran tasted her deeply, thoroughly, repeatedly, licking inside her, laving her folds and her clit with his tongue, applying light suction with his mouth. Her womb clenched and her hips moved restlessly, unable, to remain still.

  Kenric turned his attention from one breast to the other, dragging his tongue across her curves before closing on her again. She dug her hands into his hair and urged him on. Her head fell back, leaving the column of her throat exposed. His lips moved up to explore that vulnerability. He kissed her softly, then raked the upper curves of her breasts with his teeth.

  Abaran gripped her hips and thrust his tongue into her again and again. The penetration made her wild for more. When she trembled on the brink of orgasm, he raised his head and left her wanting.

  “Ready to beg?”

  “Yes. Dammit.”

  Abaran laughed at her answer and moved to stretch out beside her. He cupped a hand over her sex and rubbed in a circle, giving her enough pressure to keep her on the edge but at enough to let her go over it. “Beg me to let you come.”

  She turned her head to touch her lips to his, tasting herself on him. “Please,” she said, her voice husky with desire.

  “In time. First, pleasure the wolf with your mouth and tongue until he wants to sink himself between your legs instead of between your lips.”