Petting Them: An Anthology of Claw-ver Tails

by Tate James

  Lightning fast his fingers were in my hair, tight enough to force a pain sound from my throat. He loosened his grip just enough to push the pain back from the edge of too much but held me too tightly to pull away without hurting myself.

  My pulse pounded, and my thighs turned to jelly, anticipating the pleasure he’d give with the thick long bulge I felt pressed hard between my legs.

  “What…what are you going to do now, Devon?” I panted, “now that you’ve got me right where I want you.”

  He bruised my mouth with his and I threw my leg around him to pull him in tighter, as if I could will away the clothing between us. His hand tightened reflexively in my hair, making me whimper, but the pain was only an added note to the pleasure of his tongue in my mouth and his cock hard against the soft mound at the apex of my thighs.

  “Do not,” he hissed as he released me, “mistake my understanding of my place in the pack, for weakness.”

  I struggled to pull him back to me. “Hell no, I won’t. I just want you. Like this, hard, ready, and rough.”

  He spun me around and I braced myself against the truck with my hands as he sank his teeth into the meat of my shoulder. “I will have my piece of you, Sweetness,” he breathed in my ear as I arched my back, pressing my ass up against his erection.

  “You will have as much of me as you want, Dev.” My breathing was ragged as his hand snaked around and closed around my breast. “You can have it now, if you want.”

  Abruptly, he let me go, my back cooling in the night air in his absence. “No. Unfortunately, I know my place too well, and it’s not my turn.” He leaned in and dropped a chaste kiss on the bite mark he’d left at the base of my neck. “Soon enough.”

  He shooed me back into the house and took off, for what kind of provisions I could only guess a single guy would think important.

  “He’s wise,” Adam remarked as I joined him around the back. Cash was at the fence, staring off at the woods in the distance. “He lacks ambition, but he has a spine, and there’s no one better to have at your back.

  “Lacks ambition. That’s a nice way of saying he’s lazy and avoids responsibility,” Cash muttered, glaring at me. “He could’ve taken the mantle. Instead, he lays a claim on Frankie like he has a right to.”

  “Well, he does, yeah?” I gave him a saccharine smile. “Because I told him he does, and that’s all the claim he needs.”

  Adam cleared his throat. “I think Cash has a point. Devon’s great in a fight, and one of my best friends. But he avoids responsibility whenever he can… remind you of anyone?” He walked off as Cash spluttered at him, leaving us alone in the backyard, glaring at each other.

  “I don’t know why you’re mad,” I hissed when I was sure we were alone. “I know you can’t stand me. I get it, you don’t have to like me. But I helped Adam, and I haven’t asked you to make me part of your…your wolfpack or whatever.”

  “Why are you staying? Why’d you get a job at Em’s place?”

  I didn’t know. At least, I didn’t know how to tell him about my dream. “I had a vision, okay? For it to come to pass, I have to be here.”

  “And someone’s in danger? Why not just tell us?”

  “Not everything is life or death, Cash. Some things are just…life. My vision was beautiful, and I just wanted to give it a chance to come true. But now I see it can’t.” I started toward the house. “Just let me say goodbye to the guys, okay? I’ll go.”

  “Wait.”

  “I don’t think so. Without you, the vision can’t come true. Funny thing is I’m figuring out that with me, it can’t come true either.”

  I made it to the back door before I felt a rush of air and he lifted me off my feet and inside. His hand muffled my shriek and I bit him, making him curse and almost drop me. “What the hell is wrong with you?”

  “With me?” I sputtered. “Why would you grab me from behind? What if you were the gunman, getting your revenge?”

  “He can’t touch you with me here.” His face was serious, his voice soft. “No one can touch you. I won’t let them.”

  I swallowed hard, my mouth dry as the Sahara. “What if I want to be touched?”

  “You mean by Adam? I couldn’t stop him from having you if I wanted to, but if he hurt you, he would still die for it.”

  “He said you wouldn’t care, but I didn’t believe him.”

  “Of course I care. Fuck. I saw you first, didn’t I? I’m the goddamned alpha. That’s why he took you up there, to have you before I could stop him. And you let him.” His hands tightened on my arms as he pressed my back into the wall.

  “Yes, I, a single woman, had sex with a single man, without even thinking of another man who doesn’t even like me most of the time.”

  “Don’t be stupid, of course I like you.” I started to protest, but he talked over me. “Even if you are the most frustrating, blunt, stubborn woman I’ve ever met.”

  I struggled against his hold, cursing him under my breath. “I will scream,” I hissed, and he clamped his mouth over mine, kissing me hard enough to bruise my lips.

  Shocked, I stopped struggling. The kiss deepened, his lips softened against mine. “Go ahead and scream, but I would much rather draw it out of you in pleasure, not pain.” He released my arms and slid his hands down my sides, then up under my dress. “God this thing’s been driving me crazy all night. So little fabric, thin and soft. Every time it brushed my skin I wanted to tear it in my hands and see the rest of you.”

  “You hate me.”

  “I hate how badly I want you. This is not a good time for me, Cher. My family’s in trouble. You can’t get involved.”

  I pushed my hips against him, feeling him hard and ready just from the kiss. “How involved can I get before it’s bad?”

  He let out a shaky breath. “Are you always so direct?” He kissed me again before I could answer, and when he lifted me to press his erection between my legs, I hooked my ankles around him.

  “Tell me you have a bed we can get to quickly,” I panted.

  Without a word, he carried me to the bedroom and threw me down on the bed, tugging my panties off and lifting my hips as he tilted the softest, warmest part of me to his mouth. His tongue and teeth drove me to the edge of the abyss, only for him to stop and place light, chaste kisses on my thighs until my trembling slowed.

  Again, and again he sucked and licked me to just below the peak of climax. Each time, he’d stop until I caught my breath, then start pushing me to the peak again, until I begged him to fuck me.

  He held out a hand and helped me to my feet, so he could pull my dress down over my shoulders. It fell to the floor and he ran his hands over my shoulders, my breasts, and followed his fingertips with his mouth, kissing his way back down my body.

  “No.” I grabbed his hair to stop him. “Now you take your goddamned clothes off and fuck me. I need you inside me, Cash…Please.”

  He looked up at me. His eyes dark and hungry, and they began to lighten, as something in him I didn’t recognize responded to my plea. They continued until I was staring into molten gold, and I knew, if he was a wolf, his fur was the color of rusty earth.

  “Shit. It was you.” He blinked fast and turned away. “No. Don’t stop, not now. Fuck.” But he was out the door before I could get my dress back up over my hips. “Goddamn that man.” My legs were weak from his teasing, my pulse still racing.

  I raced out of the bedroom and followed the hallway in the opposite direction we’d come in and found him in the living room. He sniffed the air and frowned. “Adam didn’t say he was leaving.”

  “Maybe he was just trying to give us privacy.” I looked in the kitchen, where one of the paper bags he’d carried in for me was tipped on its side, smaller bundles tumbling out of it onto the table and floor. “Then again, maybe something disturbed him.”

  Cash joined me in the kitchen, cursing under his breath. “The Escalade’s still out around the side. I smell him, but he spends half his life here. I can’t tel
l if he’s nearby, or if he was taken.”

  “Okay,” I said, touching his arm. “Then follow your…your nose, and I’ll follow you.”

  “You won’t be able to keep up, Cher. Just lock the door and wait here.”

  I pinched him hard enough that he jumped. “I ran the Boston Marathon in under two and a half hours, do not condescend to me.”

  “I don’t even know if he’s hurt.”

  I pointed to his brand, still shiny and raw under the clear wrap and antibacterial gel. “Does that mean you’re responsible for his wellbeing?” He nodded. “Then let’s go. He’s your brother. He wouldn’t leave without at least a note.” I paused and added, “especially if he thought he might get to join us.”

  Cash choked out a startled laugh. “You’ve certainly got him figured out. Adam is all about fun and pleasure. Not a jealous bone in his body.”

  “But he does rush into a fight, and that’s where we have to worry.”

  16

  I made it up into the woods on his tail before the images flooded my mind, driving me to the ground with a groan.

  “Hey, Shortstack, what are you doing out here all alone?” Adam helped me to sit upright, concern on his face.

  “We were looking for you, you great asshole. And I just saw… I just saw you in chains. God, I’m losing my mind. I was so scared, you thoughtless,” I punched him weakly, “careless,” punch, “selfish goon.”

  “I smelled trouble and went to make sure you and Cash weren’t disturbed.”

  “Well, guess what. The second you disappeared, he knew. What kind of guy can stop mid…never mind. The point is, he’s out there looking for you. Get him back.”

  “Not until you’re safe inside.”

  This time, I didn’t argue. I’d demanded Cash treat me like his physical equal and I’d lost it less than five minutes in. I wanted to call out for him, but didn’t, afraid that it would attract the same trouble Adam had been worried about.”

  “You know we all have cell phones, right?”

  “You know we change into wolves and that means no pockets, right?” he quipped. The house was in sight, every light turned on the way we’d left it. It blazed like a lighthouse, guiding us back.

  “Cash!” I screamed at the top of my lungs, emboldened by the light. “I found him. Come back. Run, damn it!”

  But it wasn’t Cash who stepped out of the shadows to join us. The men from the alley, armed with clubs and knives, hemmed us in, so we stood between them and the house. Which put them between us and Cash.

  “Go inside, lock the door, call the number written on the fridge. It’s my father’s new cell phone. Tell him to get here fast.”

  But when I backed up, two of the men lunged toward me. “We don’t need to call in Daddy just yet, Cormier…He’s not the real alpha anyway. What do you expect him to do?” The taller one eyed me with a leer.

  “Your father? Then why does Cash have that tattoo?” I blurted.

  “You’re a fucking liar,” the first man spat. “Aldean, we need to gut these two and teach that godamned upstart a lesson.”

  “Remember your premonition?” Adam asked.

  Of course I remembered. The sight of him, beaten within an inch of his life, bleeding out onto a dirt floor while men stood around and just watched him die…I’d be having nightmares about that for the rest of my life…if we survived.

  I nodded. “Yeah.”

  He kissed my temple and whispered, “good.” Before I could reply, he swung around and slashed at the man closest to him, blood arcing high over us as the knife he’d been hiding bit through the man’s coat and into his abdomen.

  Adam raced between two of the remaining three, while the first lie clutching his stomach and moaning in pain. The others raced after Adam, and I ran inside and locked the door, sitting with my back to a corner, out of view from the windows, but across the room from the fridge and the number to the cavalry.

  I made it halfway across the room in an awkward combat crawl, when the front door flew open and tumbled away from it with a scream caught in my throat.

  17

  “What happened. You were behind me, then you weren’t. I knew I shouldn’t have taken you out there.”

  “Adam,” I panted. “I found Adam. But I had a premonition and I told him, and then those goons from the alley showed up and he stabbed one and then lured the others away and I’m supposed to call his father,” I babbled, fear stabbing into my heart with each syllable of every word.

  “I called him. What do you mean you had a premonition?”

  I sniffed. “I saw Adam in chains. I told him, and he asked me to remember what I saw, then he stabbed that guy and ran off.”

  “Could you recognize it if you saw it again? The place from your…you vision? Like you did before?” I nodded. “Good. Come one. God I wish I had something for you to wear.”

  My oversized purse was sitting on the coffee table where I’d left it. “Well, I have a change of clothes.” His eyes widened. “Not for that. After the other night, I wasn’t sure where we’d be going.”

  I scrambled into the black stretchy jeans and tee-shirt I’d stuffed into my bag. The sandals would be ruined by the woods, bit at least I’d be protected from nettles and thorns as we ran.

  “Is there any way you can tell me where to go without coming with me?”

  “Nope. Sorry. Now let’s go. It was a cabin with a dirt floor. Does that narrow it down?”

  “Not in this part of the woods. I’ll have to follow his scent and hope it stays strong enough to get me close.”

  “Is it easier if you change?”

  “Yeah, but then I’ll only run faster. I can’t afford to leave you alone again. It was a stupid mistake.”

  “Just lead the way. I’ll stay with you. Even if I have a vision. I glanced at him. And if we get stuck, all you have to do is kiss me. You’re quite the trigger, it seems.”

  He pressed his lips to mine, and I opened to him, needing his touch as much as I needed whatever boost it gave me to help me find Adam. “From now on, all premonitions more serious that kittens in trees needs to come straight to me. I’m smart enough not to run straight into my own murder.”

  There was no defense for Adam’s rash decision, so I simply nodded my head and let him lead me out the door. Time was against us, and I was afraid if I did see Adam in my visions again, it would be to tell me we were too late.

  18

  “He told me to stay so you’d be who you were supposed to be,” I panted as we jogged between the trees, pausing every few hundred feet for Cash to recalibrate his nose and head us in the best direction.

  “He told you to stay, because he knew I wouldn’t let you be used or hurt for your gift, and I couldn’t keep you from the pack.” Cash paused again and turned toward the river in the distance.

  “Why couldn’t you?”

  “Because you’re a true witch. You’d have been pulled to us no matter what. If Aldean Croft and Hib’s boys had been the ones you ran into first, you might be the one in chains right now.”

  Hearing the despair in his voice as he turned this way and that, trying to pick up his best friend’s scent again, I almost wished it had gone that way.

  “I’m sorry, Cash.”

  “Don’t be. Just tell me how it works. Is it always sex with one of us that triggers it?”

  I blushed so hot I was grateful for the cover of darkness. “Uh, no. I have impressions and feelings about things all the time. But after…uh…”

  “After you had sex with Adam instead of me.”

  “Well, fuck. Yeah, after that, I had a much more vivid picture in my head. And after you, well, you know, I could practically smell the coppery blood and sawdust mixed into the dirt on the floor.”

  Cash grabbed me and kissed me soundly on the lips. I flinched back, but his eyes held an almost manic light, not lust. “You never said anything about sawdust, Cher. I know where to go, sort of. Give me any other details you can think of.”

&nbs
p; Just like that, he’d accepted my visions as nothing out of the ordinary, like I’d told him I could make crème brulee from scratch, instead of talking psychic talents. “I made this happen when I told him about it, didn’t I?

  “Better that then dead from all the other things we imagined had already happened to him. We will find him. He knew that when he led them away. Your vision was meant to save him.”

  “This doesn’t even surprise you, does it?”

  He spread his hands. “We change into animals and hunt in the woods around town. I’ve seen voodoo priestesses call ghosts to our bonfires to tell us stories of our ancestors, and seen black magic turn a man inside out. I’ve seen flames burst into life in the middle of a cold room and burn down a house.” His voiced trailed off for a moment and I wondered if he was speaking of his childhood home. “Why would a few visions scare me?”

  “In New York, I’d be wearing a straitjacket after telling you all.”

  He nodded and laughed softly. “In some neighborhoods, the rich ones, yeah, you probably would.” He shrugged. “But even there, shifters, witches, believers…Magic doesn’t just exist in the old south, you know.”

  Ahead of us, the moon broke through the trees and I saw of a field dotted with cabins, an old camp site gone to ruin. Just like the cabin in my vision. Cash opened his mouth to speak, but movement down the hill behind him caught my eye.

  “Shhh. The one on the end. I saw something move.”

  “Stay here. I’ll be back with him.” He dropped into a crouch and started down the hill.

  Or I could follow you and make sure you both make it out alive. I crept after him, my more logical inner voice reminding me that I had no way of protecting anyone. I fingered the knife in my belt, grateful my dad was the kind to hand a girl a knife, rather than tell her not to go outside.

  Ahead of me. Cash was just a dark splotch on the landscape as he rose up behind a man and choked him to the ground. That left two more either inside or roaming out here. I held back, looking for another guard of some kind, when I heard a crash from inside the building and bolted for the door.