Howling at the Moon: The Complete Series

by Sasha Livingston

  My legs buckled underneath me and I fell back onto the couch.

  “Are you okay? You have to leave at once, and I need you to be strong. Let me get you something to eat,” he said, pulling me into an embrace and rubbing my arms.

  “No!” I didn’t mean to shout as I pushed him away.

  “I’m sorry I did this. It’s my fault—I should have known better I know it is scary, but I will fix it.”

  “No... I’m not leaving,” I told him, feeling stronger now, as if I had gotten a shot of caffeine. “I’m not leaving this town.”

  Warren’s brow furrowed. “This is not what your grandmother would have wanted.”

  “Dammit, quit bringing her into things.” I was tired of him mentioning her. My grandma had nothing to do with this situation. Maybe this was my destiny to be like them. Grandma knew about them, and she wasn’t afraid. It was my fault for ever coming here and allowing my damn hormones to rage out of control.

  “No, you must hear this. She wouldn’t have wanted it because it goes against all that she fought against in keeping you safe.”

  He wasn’t making any sense again, and I’d had enough.

  “I’m not leaving, and that is that.”

  “Your grandmother would want you to leave so you wouldn’t be like her.” I stopped in my tracks. Slowly turning around, I let the words sink into my brain.

  “Your grandma was a werewolf, too.”

  *****

  “What do you mean, my grandma was a werewolf?!” I felt the anger rising in me. How dare he make up some damn lie about my grandma—and she was dead!

  “Calm down, or you’re going to turn.” He said the words, but I didn’t care if it meant I would turn into some hairy beast. I stepped closer to him; my cold, shivering body now increasing in temperature.

  “All those times you went to the lake; that picture of her at the lake with my grandfather; she was trying to help others not turn. And your trips to the lake were to stop you from turning.”

  I thought back to how insistent she was that I go with her on those mini-vacations to the lake; how we spent all day swimming and playing games in the water. Even when the other kids were gone, Grandma had insisted that we stay.

  “But my mom isn’t a werewolf.” I tried to reason with this information.

  Warren sighed. “Sometimes it skips a generation.”

  Shit... My world just got tipped upside-down. I wanted to be as far away from Warren as possible, yet I also wanted to cry on his shoulder. Looking down, I realized that I was still in this damn robe with no clothes underneath.

  “So you mean to tell me last night having sex with you and swallowing your cum has now caused me to be able to... shift into a wolf?” He nodded as if it were that simple.

  A trillion questions shot through my head. Namely, how was this even possible, and why should I believe him?

  “Stop scratching your arm.” Warren came to my side, pulling my hand away. Looking down, I saw that I now had red scratches that were so deep they had begun to bleed. My nails were now claws jutting out from my fingertips. “You have to calm down. Take a deep breath.”

  Anxiety was always a problem for me. Inhale and exhale slowly, Jaime, this is just a dream.

  But I couldn’t calm down. I was shaking and I couldn’t stop. My body was on fire.

  “Easy, easy,” Warren cooed. “Let’s get you back to bed...”

  “No, no... I need to cool off. Take me to the shower.” I needed water on my skin.

  We made our way to the bathroom with Warren’s strong arms lifting me with every step. Him hoisting me up was the only way I could stay standing. The brief adrenaline rush I’d had was now gone.

  Warren turned the water on cold. Undressing was easy since I was completely naked under the robe.

  “Let me sit down in the tub. Can you get me some water?”

  He helped me in, and in a flash, he was gone.

  I didn’t wince when the cold water hit my skin. The faucet was all the way down in the blue, yet I felt as if the water was warm.

  As Warren returned with the glass of water, I took a huge gulp, drinking the entire glass.

  “Dehydration is one of the beginning signs of turning. You have to keep yourself hydrated.” He patted my scratched arm with a washcloth.

  “I wish I could just take you to the lake and heal you before you completely turn.”

  The water ran over my body as I cooled down. Now I was intensely hungry, amongst other things.

  “God, I’m starving.” I got up, turning off the water. Warren looked afraid to let me go, apprehensive that maybe I might fall or start tearing up my skin again.

  “I’m fine,” I assured him. “I’m going to get dressed, and maybe we can figure this out.”

  “Okay. Let me finish cooking. It’s almost dinner now, so I know you're starved.”

  I hadn’t slept this late in the day in years. I must have surely been sick. But before Warren left the bathroom, I had to ask him one thing.

  “Warren, is it normal for me to feel intensely horny?” Maybe I was going crazy instead of turning into a wolf.

  “Dehydration, hunger, and yes, sex cravings, are common for us. Especially during mating season.” He licked at his lips seductively, teasing me before disappearing for the kitchen.

  All the harm seemed to have been done; I didn’t think that if I had sex with him again it would make me change into a werewolf faster. Even if it did, I wanted Warren. Wolf or not, my pussy wanted some cock.

  *****

  I ate in bed—beef stew with some fresh baked bread—as I snuggled under the covers. Warren sat in a chair eating as well, with no sound between us except the beating of rain outside.

  It was dark now, and it had rained off and on since I had been up.

  I ate, but I wanted to talk more about this problem and what this meant for me. Would I stay here and have some sort of fight with Katina, or leave Hillston and go somewhere else?

  I had only been here a few days, but I felt so connected to the town now, as if this was all meant to be. Scraping the bottom of the bowl, I felt as if I hadn’t eaten anything at all. For a wolf, he was a damn good cook.

  In the living room played some music that was supposed to calm me. Today just seemed like a waste. I had planned on unpacking the house, cooking a nice dinner, and doing some writing. Instead, I ended up sleeping most of the day, arguing, and then recuperating from this new transformation my body was destined to take.

  Warren stood up, looking out the window as if he had heard something. I wondered what was on his mind. How did he handle living like this? If he told me that leaving was the best choice I should probably go, but being without him seemed crazy at this point. Only a few days, and I had grown fond of this man.

  “What are you thinking about?” I asked him. He seemed to be on full alert, looking out the window and sucking his soup from the side of the bowl.

  He didn’t answer right away. Peering out the window, he seemed to be fixated on something.

  “I’m wondering how do I protect you and keep you here, when really, this is probably all my fault.”

  Now he was blaming himself for things that I did. Placing my bowl on the nightstand, I grabbed for his hand.

  “This has nothing to do with you. This is all my fault.”

  Warren looked away, unconvinced. He placed his bowl next to mine he took a deep breath.

  “Katina... she used to be my girl,” he admitted. “Actually, she used to be our girl. We... shared her.” I looked at him, his eyes still following the raindrops outside. I wasn’t sure what to say to that revelation. I didn’t know it was possible to share a person, but my mind wandered and my intuition began thinking of what sharing could mean.

  “You shared her...?” Naughty thoughts filled my head. Did he mean in the way I thought he did? Thoughts of her fucking Warren while Mo watched and vice versa filled my consciousness. That could be the only way that he meant—what else was left besides that?
/>
  “It wasn’t supposed to be that way. She told me that she left Mo and wanted to be with me.” Warren paced back and forth near the window.

  “What is the truth? Why are you not friends with him?” He sucked in air, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly.

  “It’s very complicated, Jaime.” His eyes were pleading with me not to make him tell me the truth, but it was too late for hiding. I was now entwined in this mess, and I needed to know what it was about—what it was really about. The last time he told me things were complicated, I’d found out I was going to change into a wolf.

  The stern look I shot his way told him that I was in no way going to let this go. This was about my life now, and this could be the reason that I was going to live the rest of my life as a wolf.

  “She didn’t want to choose; she wanted us both,” he began again as he sat down on the bed beside me. “I loved her so much that i just wanted her to be happy. And Mo loved her, too.”

  I closed my eyes, leaning back and listening to his words. I hadn’t seen Katina, but I imagined her as a curvy girl like me: melon tits, round ass, and a not-so-flat stomach, but a pretty face.

  “You shared her... at the same time?” A threesome may have been too harsh of a word, but I wanted to know anyway. He nodded and put his head down in disgust. I always wanted to have a threesome. They said curvy girls weren’t allowed to do things like that.

  “We did it because she wanted it that way, dividing her time between the two of us.”

  I could only imagine fucking the man that I loved right alongside my best friend, sharing him and knowing the whole time that he wasn’t completely mine. But it was still hot. I had fresh, clean panties on, but I felt them getting wet.

  Warren told me the best way to not get so worked up was to not think about sex, but this conversation turned me on. I imagined it was me sucking Warren’s dick while Mo fucked me.

  Now I was jealous of the lady that shared two men wishing that I could be her.]

  “Well, what happened?” I asked Warren as I pulled the sheets back. I needed some air, but I didn’t want Warren to notice my rising temperature.

  “She wanted to choose me. She said that she was sick of Mo, but I knew it would kill him and destroy our friendship.” He looked at me now, his gold-rimmed eyes gazing down at me as if he wanted to cry.

  “So I cut her off.” Now that I didn’t see coming. “But she just won’t let me go, and Mo knows it.” This love triangle was starting to make sense now.

  “Is that why the previous tenant left—because of Katina?” The flash in Warren’s eyes told me I was on the right track for piecing things together.

  “Mo is crafty, and Katina knows he has a wandering eye. He tries to seduce every new woman in town.”

  I thought of how he’d seduced me, luring me into his studio and then tasting me like a fresh dessert.

  “I think I should take you to the lake before you turn. I don’t want you to have to go through this.” He rubbed my head, sending chills through my body.

  “So, is this lake enchanted or something?” I imagined some glowing lake of anti-werewolf transformation, but in my mind, it was just a regular lake from my childhood.

  “Something like that, yes.”

  “Well, let’s go now, then.” If he wanted to stop me from turning, I would comply with his plan. I got out of bed, looking for something more appropriate than pajama pants and a t-shirt to wear. “What is so important about me not turning anyway?” I asked as I searched through an unpacked suitcase.

  “If you turn, then you will forever be a werewolf. The lake can’t change you back to a 100% human after you turn.” I was getting a lesson in Werewolfology.

  “Well, I can be ready in no time,” I started searching, but my head was swirling again. I mis-stepped and almost fell, but Warren caught me just in time.

  “We must wait until the rain stops and make sure you are prepared. You are in no condition to leave.”

  I laughed as he put me back in bed.

  “Prepared? It’s only a lake!”

  “Only a lake that lies right near Mo’s land.” He sat down on the bed next to me, looking into my eyes with the darkness outside as our backdrop. “I think your grandma would want you to stay human. She worked so hard to keep it that way.”

  How did he know that?

  Warren took our dishes to the kitchen, leaving me with a heated body and decisions to make.

  When he returned, he held a book in his hand—the same book he was reading earlier that looked more like a leather-bound journal.

  “I think you should read this. I’m not going home tonight, but I want you to think about some things and we can make a final decision in the morning.”

  Opening to the first page, I dropped the book in the sheets. Covering my face, the tears came and fell down my face just like the rain fell on the ground for most of the day. On that page was handwriting that was etched in my brain: my grandmother’s famous “C” for Collins.

  Picking the book back up, I read through my tear-filled eyes.

  “How to Love a Werewolf

  By Diane Collins.”

  Howling at the Moon : Part 4

  I couldn’t put the book down. My hands sped through the pages, trying to get all the information I could. I felt like it was my grandmother’s voice talking to me through the pages, and every word was advice for my life.

  “To love a werewolf means risking one's self. Giving into the desires of him or her will mean changing one’s human state.” I read the passage over a few times, trying to figure out what she meant.

  “For my lineage, it will be imperative that they steer clear of Hillston and any werewolf from it, as when any Collins comes in close sexual contact with a shifter, they will then become one themselves.”

  My neck began itching, my body tingled, and my nails began to grow.

  Calm down, Jaime

  I clicked off the lamp on my nightstand and looked towards the door. Light beamed from underneath as a shadow moved back and forth. It was Warren, pacing the floor again. I wondered what he was thinking and what he wanted to do. Did he love me? Well, love was a strong word for this point in our relationship, but I could see he at least had some kind of affection for me. If not, he wouldn’t have gone this far and risked himself just for me.

  Leaning back on the pillows and closing my eyes, I inhaled slowly, trying to calm my mind. The book laid on my lap, and as bad as I wanted to pick it up and continue to read my grandma’s wisdom, it was probably best that I leave the words alone for the night. I still had a decision to make: should I stay here, or should I flee? If I did stay, was it wise for us to travel to the lake? Or should I shift into a werewolf? I couldn’t get the questions out of my brain.

  I jumped when I felt something shift in the bed. Looking over, I saw Warren’s face though the moonlight.

  “Were you asleep?”

  “Yeah, I must have dozed off,” I said, wiping at my eyes. When my vision cleared, I saw that he was naked. His skin smelled of soap and fresh pine cones.

  Under the covers, he snuggled next to me, spooning my body into his. Being here with Warren felt right. Through my pajama bottoms, I felt his thickness poking into my butt. Closing my eyes, I tried to ignore it, thinking that maybe I was overly excited with my delicate state. But he pulled me tighter, rubbing his hips into my ass. I wasn’t imagining this; Warren wanted me.

  He bit at my ear, small nibbles of my lobe that drove me insane.

  I felt conflicted. Should I ward off his advances, or should I succumb?

  Warren made that decision for me by fondling my softness between my legs.

  “I need you,” he breathed. His voice was a low hum into my ear. I turned to see his face. I had to look into his eyes to believe this.

  “Why?” With my hands pressing on the muscles of his chest, I searched for the truth in his eyes.

  “Being without you feels wrong,” he said touching my lips with his and pulling me
in a python-like grip closer to his body. I felt myself creaming from his strength. I was breathing fast and heavy as if I were running furiously around a track. Instead, my mind was spinning with the possibilities. He wasn’t coming right out to say it, but Warren really wanted me here.

  Disappearing under the covers, Warren lowered himself between my legs. He pulled down my pajama pants and panties, leaving my bottom bare and exposed.

  “I want you.” he said from under the sheet. I felt his facial hair between my thighs, his breath tickling my sex. My heart stopped beating, waiting for him to make his next move.

  “He licked you?” he asked me from the sheets. I didn’t want to speak about that. In fact; I was trying desperately to forget about Mo having his hands and tongue anywhere near me.

  Warren repeated the question, louder this time, and peeled back the sheets. He was now looking at me, awaiting my reply.

  I could only nod. Admitting it out loud was too much for me to bear.

  “Like this?” he asked, plunging his tongue between my pink folds and traveling down to my opening.

  I clutched the sheets, squeezing the fabric as Warren assaulted me with his tongue.

  “Answer me!” he growled, sending chills through my body.

  “Yes! Yes!” I told him, frantic and afraid that if I didn’t answer him, he might swallow me up pussy first.

  “From now on, you belong to me. Only I can lick you,” he said with his tongue tracing my lips. Then he smirked. “I bet he didn’t do this.”

  He returned to the mound between my thighs and began working his tongue in and out of me, sending my body into involuntary convulsions.

  “Warren... please... ” I begged him. This teasing and licking of my sex only made me crave him more. I wanted to feel him inside me and had felt that way most of the day. This was just torture.

  “I want you to know that I am the only one that can lick you like this—ever. You will learn.” He pulled up my legs and held them back, pushing them upward as my feet nearly touched the headboard.