Moon Kissed

by Michele Hauf

  He reached to touch her mouth, and only then did Bella realize her fangs were still down. She willed them back up.

  “Mine are bigger,” he said with a smirk.

  “What about the werewolf?”

  “The werewolf.” He pulled her so she sat with her back against his chest. The touch of his hair on her shoulder tickled her. “That is what is keeping me from surrendering to you, sweet. I know the werewolf, and it doesn’t like vampires.”

  “It loves me.”

  “Bella, the werewolf takes off vampire heads for entertainment. Why do you think it would be any different with you?”

  “Because it does love me. Aren’t you willing to find out? If the werewolf could accept me, could you?”

  “Of course I would, but I’m not willing to set you out as bait for a vampire-hating beast. I won’t do that. I can’t.”

  “The full moon is in two weeks. You can’t stop me from trying to seek out the werewolf. No matter how far away you go.”

  He hugged her tightly. Bella wanted him to break her, to fit her into his soul and keep her there forever.

  “Don’t ask me to sacrifice you,” he whispered. “Please, sweet. Just accept what we have now.”

  Accept him as a lover, but never as a soul mate?

  “It’s my sacrifice, as well. Don’t you think I make a sacrifice when I’m out in the yard with the werewolf? A facsimile of you takes me quickly, and to fill a need, and then later, when you are a man, you have no recall!”

  “It hurts to hear you say that. I never asked you to make such a sacrifice.”

  “You wanted the werewolf to accept me so I could be your mate. Well, I’m asking a sacrifice of you now. Let the werewolf come to me. Give it the opportunity to decide if I truly am the mate it desires. I know it will harm me only if you allow it to.”

  “Bella, you know I have little control over it.”

  “But you can influence it.”

  “Yes, in small ways. But what if something goes wrong? What if…”

  “It tears me apart? That’s a chance I’m willing to take.”

  Severo stood abruptly. “Vampirism has made you bold, Bella. Perhaps stupidly so.”

  “It’s freed me, lover. It’s made me not care about the past. Not care what others think. Give me this one small gift, please?”

  He grimaced but nodded. “I’ll think about it.”

  It was all he could offer, and Bella accepted that. But she fully intended to go out wandering when the moon was round and high in the sky.

  Two weeks later, when the moon was full, Severo did what he had to do.

  He’d hated to do it. To lure her into the arsenal on the pretense that he wanted to lock away the weapons he used against vampires—as a sign of acceptance. But while Bella had collected the wooden bullets he’d purposely dropped on the floor, Severo had locked her inside.

  She’d pounded on the steel door, pleading for release. It had cut into his heart to hear her tearful pleas. She would be safe from the werewolf for the night.

  Now he tore away his shirt and stepped out of his pants. The air was cold and fat snowflakes fell like down from the heavens. He shivered and shifted into the furred wolf.

  Taking off through the backyard, the wolf loped into the valley, intent on tracking that rabbit Severo had sighted earlier in the day.

  Chapter 23

  “B astard!” Bella kicked the steel door for the third time to no avail.

  She paced.

  Here she’d thought Severo had resolved to make this work. And the only way she could possibly foresee that happening? Let the werewolf decide.

  If it accepted her, Severo could banish his apprehensions and worries that she’d never be safe around it. And if the werewolf tore out her throat…Well, there wasn’t much of a way to argue if that happened, was there?

  Rationally, she understood his fear. So much had happened to them since coming together. He could have never anticipated that his girlfriend would be transformed into a vampire. And then to face losing her should the werewolf protest?

  This might be the safest place for her during the full moon, but having blooded her teeth, Bella had lost all trace of fear. And she was hungry.

  She gave the door one more good kick but succeeded in only denting the steel.

  Shouldn’t she have superpowers by now? she thought. The other vampires were so strong, they’d rip this door from the hinges.

  Though she had noticed many changes since the transformation, Ivan had said it would take until the next full moon before she was completely a vampire. Whatever that meant.

  Right now her senses increased. She could smell the gunpowder in the plastic containers at the back of the arsenal. And though night had fallen and she hadn’t switched the light on yet, she could see very well.

  Stalking to the table’s edge, she grabbed hold of the stainless steel. The corner of the table bent. “So I am stronger.” She glanced to the door. “But not strong enough for that mother.”

  Maybe if she pried out the hinges?

  Searching for a tool, she grabbed a crowbar and hammer and went to work.

  A ghostly howl outside made her stop pounding. Another howl sounded closer to the house.

  “He must not have gone far away. Is he coming for me?”

  Bella leaped onto the counter and peered out the ten-inch-high glass-block window. It was impossible to see through the distorted blocks.

  She jumped down and resumed pounding at the door. One hinge pin popped out and clanged onto the cement floor.

  She positioned the crowbar beneath the next hinge pin but paused. “Do I really want to do this? Do I think I’m some kind of big bad vampire now who can take on anything in my path? I don’t think I can win against a werewolf.”

  But she didn’t have to win; she just had to seduce.

  Glass crashed to the ground. Bella guessed it was the patio door that Severo had only just reinstalled a week earlier. The werewolf had entered the house.

  She worked at the second of three hinges, but it wouldn’t budge no matter how hard she hit it with the hammer. Instead of creating more noise, she set down the tools and bent before the door to listen.

  Snorts and huffing breaths sounded. Far away. The werewolf was probably walking through the kitchen. Talons scratched across marble. The thunder of each footstep—it was not running, but was slowly taking the foyer’s measure—rocketed her heartbeat to her throat.

  He was looking for her. He must smell her. Hell, the werewolf could smell her from miles away. Now his head must be filled with her scent.

  Her vampire scent.

  “There must be deodorant for hiding vampire pheromones,” she muttered. “Just…let him be calm, to see me before he rages.”

  And she closed her eyes and pressed her fingertips to the steel door. See me, she repeated over and over. Know me.

  The wolf stalked the hallway toward the arsenal. A bang outside the room shook the wall. It seemed angry, impatient to find the creature it scented. It was on the hunt.

  On bent legs, Bella twisted to eye the arsenal. What kind of weapon would work against a werewolf? Not a lethal weapon, one that contained silver, but something to hold it back if it intended to take off her head. Something to pin it to the ground while she ran for the garage and hopped in the car to speed off to China.

  She didn’t want to die. And to be ripped apart by her lover was not on her top-ten list of adventures.

  But she did want it to recognize her—if only for a moment—and know that she had not changed. Sure, she now needed blood to survive. But her heart had not altered. Her soul needed Severo…and the werewolf.

  A bang against the door pushed in the steel in the shape of wide knuckles. A chilling scrape of talons down metal sent a shiver up the back of Bella’s neck.

  The werewolf howled. Bella did not recognize it as that “I see you and want to mate with you” kind of howl with which he usually greeted her. This one was low and menacing.


  A prick to her lower lip made her jump. “Now is no time for the fangs.” Try as she might, she could not will them back up.

  The vampire she had become was prepared to fight for survival.

  Two more fist marks bulged in the door. The middle hinge, partly released, cracked in half. A kick brought the door down inside the room.

  The bullets and guns and knives sitting on the counter behind Bella clattered to the floor as she backed into it. Her hip bone hit the steel, and she winced but did not take her eyes from the approaching threat.

  The werewolf seethed, its fangs descending along its extended jaw and glistening with saliva. It howled at the sight of her and stalked up in two long strides, forcing her to jump onto the counter and crouch defensively.

  “It’s me,” she cried. “Severo, see me!”

  It snarled and tossed back its head. The muscles strapping its shoulders pulsed as it did a caveman chest pound. Powerful thighs flexed. It stomped. One paw swept across the counter, to Bella’s right, tearing the steel in four jagged lines.

  Blood drooled down her chin. She’d bit her lip. The blood scent must enrage the wolf beyond measure, she thought. “Hell, I can’t sit here and take it,” she said aloud.

  She dropped to the floor and thought to crawl away, but a hand connected with her side. One blow swept her across the room and out the door. She skidded along the waxed marble floor and slammed into a wall with a groan.

  Blood seeping from her thigh, Bella scrambled along the floor. Behind her the werewolf stalked at a distance, as if it planned to play with her, exhaust her before the killing.

  “You’re not playing fair!” she shouted and scrambled to her feet.

  Dashing toward the front door, she reasoned that outside the werewolf would have her at an advantage. The garage door was behind her, behind the werewolf, so reaching the car was out of the question.

  Veering right, Bella headed toward the bedrooms. Perhaps the smaller rooms and the furniture would impede the werewolf. For a few seconds.

  “Severo, I love you!” she called back. Gripping the door frame, she swung herself into a bedroom.

  She slammed the door and locked it, knowing the gesture was futile.

  In proof, talons ripped through the wood as if it were fashioned from mere leather. Bella stumbled backward, her spine colliding with the bed. She scrambled across it to the other side. The werewolf pushed the door into the room. On all fours, it lifted its head and sniffed.

  With one leap it soared across the bed and knocked her on the floor, its deadly taloned fingers on her shoulders and its knees pinning her feet.

  Bella screamed.

  She was beyond caring about hurting Severo’s feelings. Obviously she’d been wrong. The werewolf did hate vampires. It didn’t matter if its alter ego was screwing one and claimed to love her. All that mattered was instinct.

  “Please,” she said, her voice reedy and shivering with fear. “Please.”

  Just…please.

  The werewolf sniffed her body. The graze of its teeth over her breast shocked her. Its canines didn’t break the skin, but it wasn’t a sexual touch by any means. Panting and emitting a low growl, it sniffed along her neck. Its tongue swept out to lick under her jaw.

  Tasting her? Why not get it done with? And please, if she were to die right now, she much preferred losing her head to being…munched.

  Oh, Bella, don’t even think it.

  Turning her head, she winced as the fingers curled and talons dug into her shoulders. Not deeply, but it wasn’t aware, obviously, how easily it could damage her tender flesh.

  Feeling her heart finish the race, she whined miserably and shook her head. The scent of her own fear was like bad cologne wafting in the room.

  But the werewolf’s earthy scent was sweet to her. Her lover.

  Don’t forget it is your lover. The man who claimed you as his mate.

  “No!” She bashed her elbow across the werewolf’s snout and scrambled away. The werewolf snarled and leaped for her. It gnashed its teeth but halted abruptly, short of biting her on the cheek. “You know me. Remember me? I’m the same Bella. The same one.”

  She dragged herself up over the edge of the bed, kneeling, and stepped off the other side. Slowly, she backed away. The werewolf would not kill her before she could give it her all. This vampire was willing to fight to win her lover.

  “You once said you loved the smell of fear on me. Recognize it now, Severo. And know I am yours.”

  Something clicked in her brain. Bold courage. A willingness to die to achieve her greatest desire. Trust.

  She trusted this man would make the right choice, no matter his form.

  Bella drew her shoulders straight and lifted her chest. Drawing in a breath through her nose, she found a strange calm amid the chaos.

  “Very well, wolf boy.” She bowed her head and looked up through her lashes. “You like it rough?”

  The werewolf slashed the bed, taking out some cotton stuffing.

  “You think you’re such a beast? All he-man and stalking me?” Tracing her tongue over her fangs, she smiled widely. “Come to me, werewolf. Take me if you can.”

  Unzipping her pants, she slid them down and tore open her shirt. The werewolf licked its maw.

  Slowly, she slinked around to the end of the bed. Tilting her head, she put back her shoulders. The shirt slid off, leaving her naked. Her breasts sat high and her nipples hardened.

  A throaty growl signaled her lover’s desire. She loved that growl.

  Turning, Bella bent over the bed, placing her palms flat on the sheets. “Take me. I am your mate. It’s death or mating. Your choice.”

  A heavy hand slapped the back of her neck, shoving her face against the bed. A sharp talon cut into her skin. And then it entered her and gratified its instinct.

  Bella cried out at the pleasure of the intense friction. If this was to be her last breath, she would breathe it gladly.

  The wolf howled its familiar boon of triumph, and then it was gone, leaping over the bed and dashing out through the patio door.

  Bella collapsed on the bed. She breathed heavily. Her heart still had not started. And her lips were slick with her own blood.

  But she had won back her lover.

  Severo shivered and came fully awake with a start. He was naked, lying on the icy flagstones by the pool. As he moved something slashed his ankle. It was glass, scattered everywhere.

  The werewolf had broken into the house last night. He’d tried to hold it back but not even he could stop his beast.

  “Bella.”

  Rushing inside, he didn’t want to think of what he might find. Blood put a metallic taste in his mouth, and the scratches on his arms and palms indicated a struggle.

  “Please be alive. I’m so sorry, Bella!”

  He jackknifed as he rounded the corner to the bedrooms and ran right into a white towel, stretched out to receive him.

  “Thought you’d need this,” she said. A sweetly wicked smile curved her red lips. “Cold out there last night?”

  “You’re…” He eyed her up and down as he wrapped the oversize towel about his waist. She was dressed in a sheer pink negligee that revealed the tawny areolae on her breasts and the thatch of dark hair at the apex of her thighs. “Okay?”

  “Peachy.” She strode past him into the kitchen and straightened a stack of mail he’d been avoiding for days. “And you?”

  “Besides being frozen, I’m…The werewolf didn’t get to you? You were safe in the arsenal?”

  She pointed over his shoulder. Hard to miss the havoc in the foyer. The front door had slashes through it. The walls had been clawed and Sheetrock was busted everywhere. He couldn’t see the arsenal door, but a memory of last night flashed before his eyes.

  The steel door clattering to the floor…Bella’s eyes flashing wide with fear…The werewolf approaching…

  “Tell me,” he said, fighting against the horrid vision.

  She leaned in and kissed his jaw
, then tapped his chin. “The werewolf loves me.”

  “It…didn’t harm you?”

  “I got a nasty slash down my thigh, but I don’t think it was intentional. The werewolf was initially out for blood. But then it calmed down. I dared it to take me. Then I offered myself to it.”

  “Offered yourself?” he said, his voice falling.

  “We had sex. Just like old times.” She kissed him again, this time pulling his head in for a long, deep, hard connection, mouth to mouth. “Mmm, you taste good the morning after, you know that?”

  “So the werewolf…”

  “Could care less that I’m a vamp.”

  Severo shook his head, taking it all in. It was wondrous. It was astounding. The werewolf had accepted Bella. Which meant he need not fear for her. Not ever.

  “You’re so brave. I’m sorry I didn’t trust the werewolf. Sorry I locked you away.”

  “I think that might have been a good thing. It made it difficult to get to me. Might have given it a chance to think. Anyway, I look forward to tonight. What about you?”

  “Tonight?” He lifted her in his arms. “We’ve some catching up to do, sweet. No time like the present.”

  “What happens if the fangs come out to play?”

  “One rule. No biting.”

  “Severo, I’ve sacrificed everything for you. Is a little bite too much to ask of you?”

  This time he did not stiffen in her embrace, as expected. Instead, he hugged her tighter and buried his face in her hair. “It isn’t.”

  “I want to taste you, lover.”

  “Feeling your teeth enter my flesh may just turn me on. But I honestly need some time. Please, Bella, can you love a man who is willing but wary?”

  “I already love you. Nothing changes that. And I can wait until you’re ready, until you ask me for the one thing that will bond us completely.”

  “It won’t be long. Promise.”

  Epilogue

  “S oon,” was Severo’s rote answer every time Bella asked when she could bite him. She would never stop asking. One of these days his answer would be “Now.”