Taming the Beast: Eleven Paranormal Romances

by Alyse Zaftig

  She gladly took every last bit.

  Gastard

  The next morning dawned bright. Sunlight filled Belle’s bedroom and ushered in a new day, one that brought fresh, hard, morning wood with it. Gastard was used to waking with the ache of his own need, but what he was not used to was waking to Belle, her head under the covers, taking full advantage of a cock that was a warm, silky reality and no longer a depressing, soul-crushing dream that disappeared when she’d opened her eyes.

  Gastard stayed still, reveling in the wet, warm mouth just a few minutes more, letting Belle’s attentions wake him fully before he raised the edge of the covers and peeked down at her. He watched as her head bobbed, loving how it looked when his cock disappeared into her O-shaped, pink lips. Lips that reminded him of her other lips, lips he’d tasted all night, making her quiver with joy. He loved watching how his cock slid back out of her mouth again, slick with wetness from her tongue.

  She looked up at him then, meeting his eyes under the covers, and the need that burned bright in them was outshined only by the love he saw there, as well. Both emotions shining in her eyes was enough to gut him straight in the heart.

  Damn, how I love that woman.

  As she held his gaze and slowly lowered her head again, taking him in teasingly, inch by inch, he thought he was going to come again, right then and there. Even after every time they’d reached for each other during the long hours of the night, he was still ready for her again. He knew he’d never get enough of her, and he didn’t plan on ever being away from her again.

  With one more coy flick of her tongue, swirling it for effect, she pulled her mouth from his cock and crawled up toward him. She crawled up slowly, kissing her way up, lingering by biting his abs with her sharp teeth before soothing him again with the tip of her tongue.

  She inched up again, to tease and suck on his nipple. He watched her progress as she got closer, on hands and knees, coming out from under the covers, until she kissed him good morning.

  Her lips opened to welcome his tongue like they had welcomed his cock moments before.

  He bit her lip in retaliation for her biting her way up his body, and he sucked on her tongue, just how she liked, making her squirm.

  His hands wandered over every soft curve as she straddled him, kissing him, and then lowering herself onto him again. He cupped her ass as she began to ride him, loving how her hips swayed and swiveled in his hands as she sank down onto him, taking every inch.

  He rocked with her, and against her, the friction of each stroke fanning the fire between them. He loved how she fit him like a glove, caressing the length of him, tip to base, every time she rolled her hips. He told her as much, making her sigh prettily as she teased him by starting to pick up speed.

  She smirked down at him as she threw herself into every motion. Her breasts bounced as she raised and lowered herself again and again. She rode him without inhibition and it fed his masculine ego to know that she took such pleasure from him.

  He grinned stupidly up at her, entranced by her every feminine bounce and sway. He licked his thumb and pressed it between her open thighs, stroking her clit as she used him, watching the pleasure on her face as she filled herself with him and rocked herself closer to heaven.

  “You’re beautiful, my Belle. That’s it, use me. Take whatever you need from me, love, as it pleasures me to pleasure you.”

  The sexiest moan he’d ever heard fell from her lips as she leaned forward, offering her nipple as she kept her hips moving over him, sliding down on him just to pull herself off and fill herself up once more.

  He squeezed her tits together, sucking on one nipple, then the other. He let one hand slide down, following every gyrating curve once more until he cupped her ass and pulled her harder to him. He nibbled on a nipple as he helped her grind her clit against the base of his cock.

  Knowing what she loved, what she needed, he slid his hand over the curve of her ass until his fingertip found her tightest, most-taboo hole. He pressed right there, but not hard. It was the pressure she liked, the almost of it, as she rode his cock and rocked her clit against him.

  She started panting above him, encouraging him, almost there.

  In one quick move he pressed and bit at the same time. Barely in one hole and completely filling the other, he bit her nipple and felt everything in her explode around him. She rode him hard then, thrashing and drawing out every wave. Just as she started to slow down, he grabbed her hips in each hand and started thrusting up into her.

  She threw her head back and the combination of the intensely orgasmic look on her face, the way her breasts bounced with each one of his strokes, and how her pussy was still squeezing him with the remnants of her powerful orgasm was all he needed. He filled her full again, grateful for her body, her passion and her love as his curse-free cock spilled all he had, and all that he was, deeply into her, making her his again. For now and for ever-after.

  When they were finished, and she lay exhausted and content, draped over him, he played with her hair and hugged her tight. His fingers wandered, drawing lazy designs on her back as they got their breath back under control.

  They stayed like that, spent and complete, speaking on occasion, just existing again together the rest of the time.

  Everything had been worth it, he thought. Every day spent trying to claw my way back here, every night spent planning to do it again, it was all worth it to be here, now.

  “Did you really?” He asked her, in slow, lazy words.

  “Did I really, what?”

  “Fuck yourself every night, dreaming of me?”

  He felt her giggle against him as he reminded her of her wanton words the night before, and would’ve given everything he had in the whole world just to stay right here forever. Spent and content with his Belle, a giggling, post-orgasmic, lump draped over him.

  “Maybe not every night, but yeah.”

  “What did you do the other nights, then?” He teased, kissing the top of her head tenderly.

  When she stopped laughing and sighed deeply, he wished he hadn’t asked. Hadn’t broken this spell.

  “I cried. When I wasn’t aching for you in one way, I was in the other way,” she said, her words quiet in the stillness of the morning.

  “Oh, Belle.”

  “You’re here now, though. It’s OK.”

  “I missed you desperately, as well. I tried everything, I did.”

  “I know. I believe you. Turns out it was me that didn’t try hard enough. I didn’t even try at all, once the beast took hold. I just… I didn’t know that I could…”

  “Shhh, it’s ok. We’re here now. It’ll all be ok; the spell is broken.”

  “I’m so very glad.”

  After a beat or two Belle repeated his words, but in a different tone, “The spell is broken!”

  “Umm, hmm,” Gastard said, drifting toward sleep.

  “That means I’m not a shifter beast anymore. I can go outside and not shift!”

  She pried herself off of him and threw on some clothes.

  “Come with me, hurry! I haven’t felt the sun on my real face in ages!”

  Belle

  Belle ran down the hall with Gastard following behind her, more enthralled by watching her run than in any hurry to go outside. She knew he would’ve been just as happy to linger in bed longer and do this later, but he wasn’t the one who’d been stuck in this damn manor all this time.

  She was finally free!

  Gastard is here and he can most definitely come again, she thought.

  They did it, they’d broken the curse!

  She grinned with delight as she ran, snippets of memory flashing in her mind as she raced through the house, spiraling around corners and bouncing off walls. How far they’d come in just twenty-four hours!

  She’d been so despondent just this time yesterday, then Eva had talked all that sense into her, convincing her to go to Gastard. Seeing him in that bar, running from him, getting tackled by him and then getti
ng tackled by him again, in a completely different way, all night long, she grinned.

  She barreled down the stairs, taking them two at a time, not even sure how far behind her Gastard still was.

  She needed to thank Eva the minute she saw her, she realized. It was because of her that she had the courage to try again. It was because of her that she’d been able to reunite with Gastard, first bringing him here when he’d been walled out for so long, and then getting to lay with him and love him again.

  Where is Eva, anyway? She wondered.

  She started listening for voices as she ran through the lower rooms, aiming for the front door. Surely their curse was broken, too. If they were no longer objects, this manor should be full of people again. But she didn’t see anyone. She didn’t hear them either, so maybe they’d just made themselves scarce somewhere else in the manor, so she and Gastard could re-unite in private.

  Oh, and what a re-joining it had been!

  She was already looking forward to going back upstairs and reuniting with him again, just as soon as she spent a few moments feeling the warmth of the sun bathing her body. She’d soak it all in. She’d spin, her arms spread wide, her face turned up to the sun, until she got dizzy and fell. Then she’d lay there, letting the finally normal world spin on around her, feeling the grass itching her back.

  Then, after that, she’d take Gastard back upstairs and they’d celebrate the whole day away.

  Or, she thought, we could be completely wanton and naughty, and do it outside!

  We could christen the gardens, and the pool. And then we could go down to his bar, and do it right there in front of everyone. After how they teased and harassed Gastard when he couldn’t come, they’d show all of them just how ‘swole’ Gastard, was. When he filled her full right there, bent over that bar, they’d see just how No one’s balls are as incredibly full as Gastard’s! when he came all over that damn place!

  There’s the door, finally!

  She slid the last few feet toward it, her sock-covered feet no match for the slick, polished surface. She grabbed the handles and pulled the doors wide open, greeting the day in silent joy, mentally saying a big ‘fuck you’ to her dad, the manor and the curse before running confidently out onto the porch.

  She ran hard, throwing herself into a leap from the porch to the grass, excited to feel the damp yard soak through her socks, only… she landed on all fours on the lawn instead.

  She let out a pained howl. She tried to scream, “Noooo!” but only grunting, screeching sounds came out of her beast’s muzzle.

  This can’t be right, she thought.

  They’d broken the curse, she’d been sure of it.

  Gastard was here, he’d been able to get through her dad’s magic, and he’d proven many times that he could orgasm again. It was over!

  Then why was she standing in the middle of her front yard, howling at the injustice of it all, in her animal form?

  Where had they gone wrong?

  Had they only broken Gastard’s curse, somehow? Was his curse separate from the curse on her and the manor?

  The questions whirled through her mind, painfully, as she fought what she knew to be true. She was still a beast. She was still doomed to turn into this form every time she left the fucking manor.

  The hope she’d had fell away from her in that moment. She lifted a hairy paw to her face, staring at its leathery pad and razor-sharp claws in resigned silence. So this was how it was going to be, then? Was she never to be free?

  She didn’t even have the heart to look back toward the front doors, she didn’t want to see her disappointment mirrored on Gastard’s face. Or pity. Or disgust.

  He’d said that he loved her anyway, but that was when they’d just found each other again. They’d still had hope. But now?

  How could he still go on loving her, knowing she was still cursed, even as he’d been set free?

  She slumped down into the grass, sitting dejectedly where she’d just leap to joyfully the moment before. She heard her own sad sigh rattle out of her huge, beastly body and wondered if beasts could cry.

  Was a creature like herself even capable of shedding tears, or was that human ability lost to her in this form as well?

  I’m about to find out, she thought, as she started to give into her emotions.

  She felt her body begin to shake, the sobs building from deep inside and fighting to be expressed out loud.

  “Oh, Belle. I’m so sorry.”

  She heard his voice behind her and knew he’d finally caught up with her. She still couldn’t bring herself to look back at him, but she could picture him in her mind from the timber of his voice.

  He was standing in the open doorway, having caught sight of her, and she just knew his head was shaking sadly back and forth as he watched her huge, hairy form, wracked with sobs.

  “Come back inside, baby. We’ll figure this out.”

  She could only shake her head. If she could’ve spoken the words Go, just go, she would have. She didn’t want him to see her like this, but she didn’t want to go to him, either.

  “We broke mine, Belle. That means they can all be broken, somehow. We’ll break yours, too. We just have to figure out how.”

  She looked at him then, swiveling her massive head to face him, bracing herself. She expected to see pity in his eyes, but when all she saw there was determination and love, she breathed a little bit easier.

  Could they really figure it out?

  Maybe he was right, maybe his curse breaking meant that hers could be broken, too. Her dad had thrown his curse at him separately, as he’d been leaving that night. If they weren’t under the same curse but two different ones, maybe there was a chance after all?

  Belle

  Belle nodded her acceptance of everything Gastard had said. He was right, this was no time to give up. Not when they’d already come so far. She’d pull herself together, get up, go back inside, and when she was human again she and Gastard would try something else. And if that didn’t work, they’d try another something else.

  Somehow, someday, they’d try the right something else and break the curse. She’d be fully human again and able to leave the manor in human form. All the others would be able to leave the manor, as well. They’d turn back into people from objects and…

  The others!

  She’d been crushed when she realized that her curse hadn’t been lifted, but now, realizing that Eva, Mrs. Pulse, and all the others were still locked in their cursed forms, too, she was torn apart all over again. No wonder she hadn’t seen any of them since she’d gotten up. They were probably staying hidden, since there was someone new in the house.

  There hadn’t been anyone but her in the manor since the night this all began. They knew Gastard, of course. From the time before the curse. But it would be completely understandable for none of them to want to make their presence known how they were now any more than she did.

  She bowed her head again as a new wave of defeat hit her. She’d failed them too. And sitting out here in the grass wasn’t doing anything for anyone, either.

  She shook herself off, pulling her determination to fix this, not just for herself but for everyone, around her like a cape, and started to get up.

  Gastard must’ve taken all of her exhalations and snorts of setting herself right for more self-pity instead, cause she heard him say something comforting in her direction.

  She tried to reassure him that she was fine, and she was getting up to come inside, but she couldn’t make herself understood with her beast noises. She looked over at him and signaled with one paw in an I’m coming inside gesture, just to see him start to move toward her.

  “I know you’re uncomfortable with me seeing you like this, Belle, but that’s too bad. I can’t leave you just sitting there any longer. I’m coming to hug you and hold you, whether you like it or not,” he said.

  “I’m going to hold you close,” he continued. “Until you stop hurting so much. And then we’ll come back insid
e and deal with…”

  She smiled at him as best she could, as a beast, watching him as he charged through the front door. He looked full of bravado and was aiming straight for her, but when he stepped outside his words were cut short.

  His mouth hung open for a heartbeat and it looked like he was choking on everything he’d been trying to say. His eyes went wide and then everything started to stretch and pull.

  His body grew both up and out and his facial features warped.

  It happened almost in slow motion as Belle stared on in horror.

  He tilted forward, his center of gravity shifting. At the same time, he sprouted thick tufts of hair where even he hadn’t had hair before.

  She tried to close her eyes, to block out what was happening to him, but she couldn’t. She stared at him aghast, taking in every rapid change in bone structure, every sudden shift in his normal dimensions, until it was done.

  He was like her!

  His shifter form was similar to hers, but different as well. He also seemed to be oddly pieced together from wolf and bear, but she saw boar in there, too. Gorilla even, maybe. He was as piecemeal as she was. He, too, was a beast!

  Oh, no! Her mind screamed out the words but only agitated sounds could be heard.

  What have I done?

  His curse hadn’t been lifted, it had just morphed into hers.

  He came here with me, he slid through dad’s magic with me. He kissed me, he laid with me, he loved me again in the same bed we’d been caught in before. This is all me, this is all my fault!

  Her guttural sounds just got more and more agitated and desperate as every last bit of hope that she’d been holding onto died in that moment. It was all over. Not only was she and her staff doomed to this life, but she’d doomed him to it, as well.

  Gastard’s beast made noises back at her, but she couldn’t understand him any more than he’d been able to understand her.

  Finally, he stopped trying to be heard and grew silent instead. He stood there before her, seeming to gain calmness as he did so.