by D. R. Rosier
I passed a quick thought to my partitioned mind which held the levitation spell, and the great cat started to spit as it rose to the ceiling. I ignored it for now, and went back knocking out shifters. Almost all of them were down, when I felt the strong magical signature of Joseph, and two smaller but still powerful ones which must have been the two alphas.
They hit the physical ward, which was already quite weakened, and the ward failed.
I knocked out the last few shifters as I felt Julia race outside, and then took a second to look up. It was Tammy, she’d transformed back to human. She was the petite curvy light blonde, and had a look of venom on her face.
“Why?” I asked, even as I intoned the sleep spell in my mind.
She said, “Because you don’t have a chance, and this is all your fault. Maybe he’ll forgive me if I brought him your head.”
I sighed, I didn’t have time to argue with her about it, Julia needed me. I sent a thought to the partition with the levitation spell, and hit her with the sleep spell as soon as she hit the ground. It wasn’t lost on me, that she’d just violated the strict non-aggression part of the treaty pact I’d made with Gina and therefore the entire pride.
I wouldn’t do it, but Gina’s soul was mine to claim because of that, there would have been no stopping it if Tammy had actually been able to harm me, then the infernal magic would have taken independent action. As it was, I could forgive it since I didn’t even get a scratch. I wondered if Tammy was aware of that little fact, as I shrugged at Lilith, and then ran up the stairs and toward the back door. Regardless, I’d let Gina deal with the traitor as alpha.
As I’d promised, I avoided the front and the shifters, and used levitation by passing another thought as soon as I got outside. I couldn’t fly with levitation, it was a vertical up and down spell only, but a simple wind spell pushed me like a feather in a breeze, and sent me over the roof toward the front of the house, so I could help with the rest of the battle…
A minute ago…
Julia watched alongside her old pride in amazement, as the shifters kept collapsing against the wards. Her tail swished back and forth in excitement, any moment now, would be the time to take out that asshole. It was the first time she’d shifted since her change, and she’d been a little shocked despite Lilith’s warning to her what to expect. She was much bigger, at least sixteen hundred pounds of great cat, instead of the old thousand or so. Normal tigers could weight upwards of eight hundred, and she was twice as large as a normal tiger now.
The second surprise, was that she was no longer a white tiger with black stripes. Apparently, her inner demon preferred black, and her rich coat of blue-black hair, the exact color of her human hair, was covered in white stripes. She’d thought she’d looked good though, and was pleased when she’d looked into the mirror after changing. Her clothes were folded up in her old room.
Still, it was a bit jarring as well. Her eyesight perspective was almost as high as her human height of five foot two. Especially when she looked at her old alpha, Gina’s golden tiger looked tiny in comparison, but she knew that wasn’t true, just the new skewed perspective.
The fight would still come down to magical strength between her and Joseph, even with her greatly increased size, Joseph still out-massed her. A large brown bear, a normal one, would match her current weight, but Joseph was at least four hundred pounds more than that, about a ton at two thousand pounds. Still, her new size closed the old gap significantly. Andrew’s protection spell would help as well, and take one or two hits before failing.
The attackers were being knocked out ridiculously fast, and she felt pride in Andrew and looked around at her old sisters. She was slightly alarmed to realize Tammy’s cat had slinked away unnoticed, and she narrowed her eyes. She resisted the urge to run down and protect him, she’d warned him, and Lilith was down there as well to help, if he needed it.
It didn’t stop a low growl from leaving her throat though, she’d hoped she’d been wrong and paranoid believing one of her sisters might be broken, and would betray the pride and her new master.
All the shifters were almost unconscious when the alphas decided to join in the game. The whole house shuddered as the three of them hit. A large brown bear, a huge wolf, and a very large python. One of the shifters fell through the door, and she left it for her sisters as she charged out.
She wanted to go right for the main kill, but she had to weaken Joseph first.
She charged Carmine as fast as she could, her senses taking in Damon’s betrayal in that split second of time, as he struck out and bit Joseph, and then fled from the porch, two of his shifters following him. She bowled over Carmine hard, and easily avoided his snapping jaws and eviscerated the alpha wolf with a long slice of his claws along his stomach and chest.
She was about to take his head off with her sharp claw, when she was bowled over from behind by a screaming mad bear. Joseph was obviously in a lot of pain from whatever poison Damon had pumped into him, but he was enraged, and still strong. He also still had the wolves.
They went tumbling across the porch, crashed through the railing, and fell off the left side of the house. She twisted in air and clawed his nose viciously, as she landed on her other three paws.
Joseph rose on his hind feet with a roar of pain and rage, and his claw moved far too fast for her to track. It knocked her in the head and sent her tumbling away. She dodged his follow up lunge, and jumped for his back. A number of demons darted from nowhere at the same time, and clawed his sides to very little effect.
She could tell the fighting behind her was done, all the other shifters were unconscious, and the rest of the pride prowled around them looking for an opening as she landed on and raked his back. The damage to his body was horrendous as she dug in her back claws and jumped off him, but he healed in moments.
If she couldn’t hit him with a mortal wound, she was just wasting her time. She needed to get his throat and rip his damned head off. She growled in challenge, which he answered with a roar and another lunge. This time she was ready, and dove to the side.
His claws raked her though, cutting through the shield that had finally endured too much abuse. She yowled at the pain, and dove toward him before he could turn, and bit down on his rear right leg, and then shook and ripped it off. She spat it out as blood fountained from the wound for a moment, and then slowly started to close. He’d have a new leg in a minute, but if it was up to her he didn’t have that much time.
A large ball of fire fell from above, and exploded in Joseph’s face, and she used the distraction to lunge for his throat, but before she could get a good purchase on it with her jaws he batted her away with his paw, sending her flying again.
She twisted her body instinctively and landed on her feet, facing her enemy.
Another ball of fire exploded and she scented the bears burnt hair and skin as he roared. Why was he so damned hard to kill, they’d taken away a lot of his power, hadn’t they?
He lunged at her again, ignoring the rest of the pride, she was the biggest threat against his life here. Perhaps the only one.
She roared in frustration, and instead of dodging she met his lunge with her own. Two demons appeared and blocked his claws, literally impaling themselves on them. She swiped her own paw as they came together, and knocked his head to the side. Her powerful jaws dug into and ripped at the side of his throat.
She would have laughed, if she could, when instead of claws in the side she felt the two demons slap her side. They might be weak, but they’d given her an opening by sacrificing themselves. She shook her head, tore and lunged her head deeper into his flesh as she crushed, ripped, and tore through Joseph’s neck. She felt relief, but also roared in victory, as his head bounced on the ground and rolled from his large body.
The rest of the pride roared as well. She could hardly believe it was really over. She turned and headed back to the house, but froze in confusion when she reached the deck of the porch.
Carmine wasn�
��t there. Had her sisters not killed him? No wonder that was harder than she’d expected, the bastard had still been pulling from the wolves. She growled as she moved into the house, to shift, shower, and get dressed…
Chapter Twenty-Five
Gina blushed, “When we came out to help you, Carmine looked dead. He must have used the link to his pack to heal after we’d gone by him, and then slinked away.”
I waved a hand in negation, “Don’t worry about Carmine, I sent a demon after him when I saw him run for it with his tail between his legs. His remaining time is short.”
Julia was plastered against my side, and was acting highly protective. She wouldn’t let any of her sisters close to me, except Gina. Lilith was close too, with her hand resting against me, but seemed far more relaxed. I can’t say I minded at all, my sexy guardian fit perfectly against my side, and Lilith’s presence was calming. They both turned me on too, of course, since one was a succubus and the other a cat shifter, but that effect was just simmering in the background right now. I was also extremely happy they were both safe, and that we’d won through.
I also felt a lot closer to both of them, and I wondered if that was an artificial thing from the danger. Watching my Julia risk her life against that asshole had not been easy. I’d helped as I could, but the sleep and paralyze spells I’d tried had been completely ineffective, and balefire would have been too slow.
I was ready to go home, decompress, and release all the spells cluttering my mind, but I didn’t want to be rude, and we had a few things left to discuss.
As for Tammy, she was already taken care of by Gina. Betraying the pride meant death, I wasn’t going to judge them for it, the bitch had tried to kill me after all. The rest of the shifters were gone as well. Damon led off his snakes, and Gina was able to cow the rest into leaving. She was an alpha after all, and their alphas were dead or missing.
I’d also recharged the wards, just in case they were needed for their original intentions, keeping rapists and violent shifters away.
Gina asked, “Are you sure?”
I nodded, “I think so, it won’t be a straight forward attack, he won’t see it coming.”
I hoped so anyway, if it failed they could always try again.
“So, what now?”
Gina said, “Things will be a little crazy for a while. The bears and wolves, if your demon succeeds, will need to come up with new alphas, and once that’s done we’ll have an alpha meeting to decide who the next head alpha will be. We’ll have to be wary of the vampires too, they might try to take advantage. I guess we’ll see what happens, hopefully the next bear and wolf alphas will be different.”
I nodded, “What about the mages?”
Gina shrugged, “They’re always neutral, we just have to worry about the vamps while things are restructured. There’s not much I can really do about it, it’s up to the wolf and bear packs to get things moving at this point.”
I said, “Well if you need us, call. Julia can have us here in no time at all.”
Gina smirked, “Good to know, that works both ways, it’s hard to say how the vampires will react to you being our ally.”
I nodded, “Anything else that can’t wait until next week when we drop by to recharge the wards?”
Gina shook her head, and came forward to give me a sweet but passion filled kiss, “Sure you can’t stay a little longer?”
I shook my head, “Next time? I’d love to stay a while, but someone’s waiting for us to get back, and this turned out to take a lot longer than any of us expected.”
Katia was waiting, and if I was going to sleep with anyone right now, it was Lilith and Julia. Gina was a beautiful sexy woman though, it wasn’t at all easy to put her off like that. Worse, it didn’t feel right, Lilith and Julia were mine, we were like a three-way family of sorts, in my head we were. Or at least, we were heading for that. The problem of course, was that even though they’d be faithful to me they had no trouble at all with me fucking other people, it was all my own decision. If anything, Julia was encouraging it, even as she was faithful to me, and Lilith… well demonic succubus, she wasn’t going to stop me. Neither really understood that I couldn’t easily divorce my emotions from sex like they could and did.
I really needed Katia to kick my ass and make sure I stayed on the straight and narrow, true to my own morals, even if they were slightly bent already. Too bad I was about to lose her for good.
Plus, as fucked up and selfish as I knew the thought was, I didn’t want to get too close to Gina, since I would have to share her. She could never be mine like Lilith and Julia were. I knew I was starting to care and even fall for Lilith and Julia, and weekly sex… make that incredibly mind-blowing weekly sex with Gina, plus her being a sweetheart, would surely mess up my mind that way. Better not to even mess around there, but of course, I’d already promised. Dumbass, it was just supposed to be the once, in celebration of the treaty, I just couldn’t have resisted her, not with her orgasming against me and throwing out enough pheromones to make a dead man hard. Damn it.
Gina smirked, “Alright, but I’ll take that as a promised rain check.”
She kissed me again, lingeringly and full of promise, and I wondered just what I’d gotten myself into as she stepped back.
Shadows swirled from nothing and surrounded us, and Julia took us home…
We appeared in the kitchen. I held Julia tight, and pulled in Lilith with my other arm. I just held them for a moment taking in their scents, their warm bodies against mine, and finally admitted to myself that I felt quite a bit for both of them. Three days of a wild ride, pheromone enhanced lust, danger, and adrenaline were surely all a part of that equation, but that didn’t make the feelings less valid, and I had a impression they’d just grow to be more as time went on.
“That was closer than I’d have liked.”
Julia smiled, “We kicked his ass, are you sure you took care of Carmine?”
I shook my head, “Not yet, but I’ll feel the last spell I’m holding right now fail if he kills the demon, and it’ll report back after the job is done.”
Lilith said, “As much as I want to ravish you, and Julia wants to give you that promised lavish, slow, and extended blow job, Katia is waiting for you in the second bedroom.”
I nodded reluctantly, not because of needing to wait for the sex, but because I wasn’t looking forward to losing Katia.
Julia smirked, “I suppose we could entertain each other while we wait for our master to pleasure us?”
Lilith laughed, and I watched as they disappeared in shadows, I could only assume Julia took them straight to the master bedroom. I shook my head in amusement, and headed in that direction myself, just one door short. I also wasn’t sure how I felt about Julia calling me master, that’d been the second time now, what was that about? I suppose I had made her a servant of sorts, and I’d be lying if it didn’t send a thrill through me to hear her say it with such delighted submission. In a very real way, it was also a heavy burden, she was a strong woman, a shifter, an incredibly strong vampire like being as well, minus the blood, and she was my willing servant. She seemed to enjoy it. My mind kept going back to the same thoughts about it though, she was just thrilled that I saw her as a whole person, and a smart, intelligent, and strong woman, not just a notch on the belt.
I didn’t think that was all that special, but I could understand that in her old world, it was exactly that. Regardless, I’d try not to take her already intense loyalty for granted, and I hadn’t forgotten what Lilith told me, that she was already falling for me. Ironically, unlike me, I was sure for her it wasn’t about the sex at all, she’d been divorcing sex from deeper feelings her whole life, her falling for me was all about how I treated her outside of sex.
I hoped things would slow down a bit now, I could use a few days, or even weeks, to study, increase my knowledge and power, and just figure out how my new life would work. Spend time with Lilith and Julia, and get to know them better.
Bu
t I seriously doubted I’d get my wish, Gina seemed to think the vampires would take advantage of the shifter’s temporary vulnerability down two alphas and a head alpha. There was also the matter that things might not be done for the cat shifters, I had wards in place to stop the worst of the species, but there was no guarantee the new alphas would be any better.
The mages too, Gina seemed to think they wouldn’t interfere in shifter or vampire business, but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t come after me, did it?
Given all that, the days ahead would probably be just as crazy, if not more hectic, without a slowdown. I’d need to take care of my first heir quickly just in case, maybe even tonight, but first I had to face Katia. My chest constricted as my footsteps stopped before the door, I really did love her, my new world was just… messed up to say the least.
I knocked.
“Come in Andrew, I’m glad your back safe.”
I opened the door and stepped inside, closing it behind me. Katia was sitting on the bed, with her dark brown hair up in a ponytail revealing her long graceful neck, and petite ears. She wore a half shirt and short jean shorts, her nipples were apparent through the fabric telling me she was braless, and her C cups were quite pert without sag. Her beautiful dark tanned creamy skin made me itch to touch her, and her well beloved innocently seductive face made the vice around my heart tighten.
She was five foot four, and quite curvy, her sexy body a clear dichotomy to the innocence her face, save her very full lips, and long eyelashes. I froze for a moment, for the first time realizing that Lilith looked a lot like her, and she was formed from my ideals of the perfect woman. Well, there was no denying how I felt for Katia.
Her chocolate brown eyes stared at me curiously, and she asked teasingly, “Get a good look?”
I smiled, “Every chance I get Katia.”
She smirked, but then betrayed her nerves by biting her lip, “Come sit by me, we need to talk.”
