by Tia Wylder
If there’s one thing I learned, it’s that a good mystery on a woman is far more seductive than any dress. Curiosity was the ultimate downfall of any man. Their lust for knowledge and power are the strings I pull to get what I want, when I want it.
I pointed to each of my comrades. “Each of you, take a brick of C4 to your position. You’ve all done this before, and this time is no different. Remember to arm it when you’re finished. We will meet back here in ten minutes. If you’re not here, you get left behind.”
My girls split up and scattered into the shadows. The others were assigned structural weaknesses on the ship. My task was the most important. It wasn’t enough to simply sink the freighter, I had to be certain the Instinct within was eradicated as well. That’s why I always took the hold. The stuff was incredibly volatile when explosives were involved, so it made for the perfect catalyst.
I cut across the graveyard of containers stacked high above. Beams of moonlight broke through the gaps and painted milestones on my path to the ship. I clung tightly to the brick of plastic explosive in my hand. It was no larger than a standard package you’d receive in the mail, but it was enough to bring down an empire.
One of the guards near the ship was already unconscious. He lay sprawled across the ground just beside the bridge that led onto the ship. I told my girls not to kill unless they absolutely had to. I knelt down and pressed my fingers against his neck. I felt a pulse, a weak one, but it was there.
I made my way onto the ship. I expected to see at least one of my girls moving and winding through the maze on the upper deck, but it was deathly silent. The voice of the panther in the back of my mind told me that something was wrong, but I was so close to victory over Brakha that I ignored its cries.
As I made my way down to the lower decks where they kept the supplies of Instinct, I felt the panther’s influence weighing down on me. That side of my being detected danger and it didn’t trust me to handle it properly. A human was nothing compared to the raw power and skill of the Black Panther. I suppressed it and held it back. I needed human hands to arm the bomb.
I reached the hold and saw rusted barrels stacked high that held the raw liquid Instinct. It would be distributed in syringes and rationed out to the shifters in this area for months before another shipment would come. I walked over to one of the barrels and pulled the lid open. It was empty.
“What is this?” I asked.
“This, little panther is a trap,” a voice said. It was low and thick with a Russian accent tying the words together.
I spun around and stared into the darkness. I couldn’t see properly with human eyes. The panther within me screeched and roared for control. Now was the time. My body twisted, broke, mended itself, and then broke again in a hundred different ways before I adopted the sleek and stealthy form of a black panther. I darted behind a stack of barrels and looked through eyes that pierced the darkness.
I could smell his scent. He wasn’t afraid; in fact, he seemed excited by the thrill of the hunt. I slinked through the shadows and approached him from the left. He had the scent of a wolf on his skin, but he was in human form. It was like no other wolf I had ever smelled. The pieces were falling into place. It quickly became apparent who this was and why he was here. This was Sergei Ivanov. He was the creator and sole distributor of Instinct.
“You’ve made quite the name for yourself over the past few weeks. Our mutual friend, Brakha saw fit to travel halfway round the world to enlist my aid. Beyond your petty protests, I have no quarrel with you or your clan. Show yourself and we can resolve this peacefully,” he said.
His voice sounded tired, as if he had fought enough wars to know when it was time to fight and when it was better to simply speak. I wasn’t about to simply surrender to him. The panther within me would not allow it and for now it was in control. I turned a corner and saw him standing in the center of the dark hold. He was tall with a wide and chiseled frame. I couldn’t make out any other features in the darkness, but he exuded power and wisdom. I heard stories of him, but so few had actually been in his presence that I wrote them off as tall tales of an immortal and dying breed of shifter.
Some say he was thousands of years old. Standing in his presence, I was inclined to believe them. He didn’t look a day over 25, but the way he spoke and carried himself told the story of a man who had seen and done enough to fill a hundred lifetimes. Had we not met as enemies I would have been thrilled to speak with him and listen to the countless stories he could offer.
This was my chance to strike. I charged forward on light footsteps and approached from his left. He turned just as I was about to pounce and I felt his icy blue eyes cut into me through the darkness. He reached out with a thick hand and gripped me by the neck. He fell to his knees and flipped me onto my side. I struggled and shrieked but his strength was overwhelming.
“I do not have time for games! Return to your human form now or I’ll snap your neck!” He shouted.
The panther retreated and my body returned. I was naked; my clothes had been left behind the barrels on the other side of the hold. Sergei’s eyes wandered down my bare body. I could see a spark behind his gaze. How long had it been since he laid eyes on a woman? I heard he was a recluse, but the hunger in his eyes told me he hadn’t felt a woman’s embrace in some time. I could use that against him.
“When you’re finished looking, I’d like to get my clothes,” I said.
Sergei snapped back to the present. “I was not, I mean, I did not expect—”
“Pick your tongue up off the ground and let me get dressed. Don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere. You won this round.”
I caught him off guard. His stone cold exterior was showing its cracks already. This would be too easy. I found my clothes and got dressed. Sergei seemed almost disappointed when I returned fully dressed.
“Lead the way,” I said.
Chapter Four
Madame Aveline was not what I expected. The way Brakha had described her, he made it sound like she and her clan had become feral. He painted the picture of a woman who had lost her humanity and given into the life of the Black Panther regardless of her form. When I encountered her in the trap I had laid, I found myself face-to-face with someone very different.
Even in human form, my eyes had become adapted to darkness. When she shifted back into a human, I felt emotions and sensations that had long been dormant. My eyes immediately took in her soft features and fiery eyes. My gaze wandered down her dark skin as it glistened with sweat. I followed the ample curvature of her breasts and slid down her flat stomach. Her legs were tucked together, offering but a glimpse of what lies between them.
There was no questioning it; she was beautiful, gorgeous even. It had been over a hundred years since I was able to feast on the site of the female form. She was an exquisite example. My lust, however, was quickly replaced with guilt as thoughts of Svetlana flooded my mind. She had been gone for so long, and yet the thought of even touching another woman still made me cringe.
I took control of myself; I had a job to do. She fetched her clothing and we departed the ship. Brakha and several of his clan members stood waiting for us as we emerged. I could feel the tension in the air between him and Madame Aveline. It grew into a powerful force that hung stagnant between us until Brakha spoke and cut the tension.
“You fell right into our trap, Aveline. I knew you would,” Brakha said.
“I see you couldn’t do the job yourself, had to send someone else?” Aveline asked.
“I didn’t want things to get messy. I prefer not to let our conflict of interest get in the way of what needs to be done,” Brakha said.
I looked between them and felt lost in the conversation. There was something Brakha hadn’t told me.
“What are you talking about, how do you know her?” I asked.
Brakha remained silent. Aveline laughed.
“You didn’t tell him?”
“Aveline, don’t.”
She looked over t
o me. “This pitiful excuse for a lion is my brother. Same mother, different fathers.”
I looked back to Brakha. “Is this true? You didn’t want your sister’s blood on your hands, so you bring me into this feud?”
“I promised our mother that I would never harm her. I cannot break that vow.”
“Of course, but your conscience is clear now because you found someone else to do the job for you? I’m leaving; consider yourself fortunate you still draw breath!”
“You leave and he dies wolf! Or have you forgotten? One call and they will cut him to pieces and feed him to the wolves!”
I reached over and grabbed Aveline by the arm and pulled her over to me.
“Fine, but I’m taking her with me. If he dies, she dies, or is that what you wanted?”
Brakha stood coldly at us. “She is my sister, but she is also my enemy. I wish death on my enemies, but I wouldn’t wish to see my sister suffer. You shall decide wolf, I wash my hands of this. Do with her what you will, but Aveline, if I ever see you again, I won’t hesitate to kill you.”
“Don’t worry brother, you won’t.”
“Go home, wolf. When my men see her with you in the hall of your castle, they will let your son go. I’ll be back in a month for my Instinct. You better have it, and she better be gone when I get there!”
We parted ways. Aveline broke free of my grasp.
“I’ll go quietly; you don’t need to pull me around like your dog. There’s nothing left for me here anyway,” she said.
I pulled out my phone and typed in a text message to one of my local contacts. I chartered a private flight back to Russia and asked him to send a car to pick us up. I slid the phone into my pocket.
“Aren’t you afraid I’ll kill you?” I asked.
“Something tells me you won’t,” she said.
“You don’t know me.”
I stopped at the edge of the dock. “A car is coming to pick us up, wait here.”
I reached into my coat and pulled out a hand wrapped cigarillo. It was a concoction of various herbs that calmed my nerves and dulled the wolf senses. Smoking this recipe was the only time I felt human.
I lit the far end and took a long draw. The pungent smoke rolled down my throat, leaving a trail of fire into my lungs. I blew out the white smoke into the night air.
“Would you like some?” I asked, holding it out to her.
“You should know better than to offer someone like me Instinct,” she said.
I smiled as I took another draw. “This isn’t Instinct that only comes in a liquid form.”
“Then what is it?”
“When you’ve learned to create your own medicine, you pick up some techniques. Try some; it will calm your nerves.”
Aveline took it and took a short draw from it. She immediately started coughing. I let loose a chuckle as I took it back from her.
“That tastes like the ass of a swamp!” She shouted.
“I don’t smoke it for the taste. The car’s here.”
As the black SUV pulled up to us, I snuffed out the lit end and placed it into my coat pocket. I couldn’t risk having any of my recipes being revealed.
We climbed inside and the driver locked the doors.
“Feel free to sleep, it’s going to be a long way back,” I said.
“I’ll sleep when I’m dead,” Aveline replied.
“Very well.”
We didn’t speak again for the rest of the trip.
Chapter Five
Brakha’s men were relieved to see us. I suspected that lions didn’t enjoy the cold very much. My son was released and I told him to go far from here. I would find him when things settled down. I took Madame Aveline down to the dungeons beneath the castle. I didn’t trust her or the doors on the cells after all these years. I placed her in the center of the cell, tied down to a chair so she couldn’t move.
I came to bring her food and untied her so she could eat. Every time she saw me she would ask questions. Mostly she would ask what I planned to do with her. I always answered the same: I don’t know.
I had no qualm with her so I didn’t see any reason to kill her. Even so, I had no guarantee if I let her go that she wouldn’t simply find another way to slow down or impede my business. So, she sat in my dungeon while I worked in my lab. Even through the thick walls, I could hear her screaming and yelling. After two weeks, she gave up and remained silent, which I was grateful for.
It was the day before Brakha would come for his Instinct; I was feeling the pressure of making a decision on what to do with her. I wouldn’t admit it to her, but I had grown fond of her presence. I didn’t know it would feel so nice to have a woman living in my halls again. Perhaps, even after a hundred years, my heart was still capable of feeling something.
I brought a tray of food and opened the gate. Aveline regarded me with her dark brown eyes as I set the tray down.
“I have a question for you,” she said.
“I still haven’t decided.”
“No, it’s not that.”
I stood up and looked at her. “Then what is it?”
“A guy like you could have any woman he wanted. Why do you live alone, in the middle of nowhere?”
“I do not seek the pleasures of the flesh. Besides, the only woman I ever loved has been gone for over a hundred years. In my time I’ve made too many enemies and been hurt too many times. This was for the best. I could still make Instinct and save our people without interference,” I said.
“Is that what you think?” Aveline asked, “That you’re helping shifters?”
“Yes, that is why I created it. To protect us from humans who would eradicate our people.”
“We are stronger than them! We can cut them down!”
She spoke with a passion and a fire that was undeniably alluring. I stepped closer to her.
“What would you have me do? This is my life, this is my business!” I said.
“You and I both know that you don’t care about the money, and there’s a part of you that wants something more than this pointless existence!” She said.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I saw the way you looked at me when we first met Sergei. There’s a part of you that knows I’m right. Why do you resist? Together we could free our people. Shifters would no longer live in fear!”
I thought back to the night we first met. The image of her naked body in my mind filled me with desire. I took another step closer to her.
“You want me to join you?” I asked.
“I want you to look into your heart and do what you know is right,”
I reached out and pressed my hand against her face. She tilted her cheek toward me. Her thick lips pressed against my skin. A rush of pleasure ran down my body like a wave. It had been so terribly long since I felt the kiss of a woman.
“Why don’t you let me give you a taste of what you’re missing? Go ahead, get undressed,” she said.
I took off my clothes and stood before her naked and bare. “Come closer, but don’t untie me just yet,” she whispered.
I stood over her and ran my hands through her silky black hair. She leaned forward and pressed her lips against me. Her tongue emerged and traced the length before she kissed the tip.
“I want to taste you,” she said.
I reached down and lifted myself into her open mouth. She eagerly took all of me in. I slid back out and let loose a long sigh. The pleasure was incredible.
“Keep going.”
I leaned forward again and pushed myself into her mouth. Her tongue swirled and slid across me. I threw my head back and felt her lips cling to me. I slowly started thrusting my hips back and forth, relishing in every moment her lips slid across my skin and her tongue danced along my length.
The pleasure was becoming too much, I was going to cum. I reached around behind her head and held her still as I started thrusting into her mouth faster.
I felt it coming, but I was too enthralled in the
moment to notice that she had undone her ropes. Before I could react she was out of the chair. She pushed me down onto my back and leaped on top of me. She took the knife from the tray of food I brought her and pressed it to my neck.
“What is this? What are you doing?” I asked.
“Now you make your choice, Sergei. Either you accept what you know is right in your heart, or you refuse my offer and you die here and now. Make your choice!”
I knew she wasn’t bluffing, I could see that plainly in her eyes. She was right, but it took staring into the eyes of certain death for me to see it. Instinct wasn’t the solution; it was part of the problem.
“I accept your terms, on one condition,” I said.
“Name it.”
“You must come with me to my private quarters so we can finish this conversation in a more comfortable setting.”
Aveline threw the knife away and leaned down onto me. She pressed her lips into mine and then pulled away.
“Lead the way,” she said.
Chapter Six
I followed Sergei up to the second floor of his castle and into his bedroom. I admired his body with each step he took. His shifting muscles and thick arms worked like a well-oiled machine. I needed him to free our people, but I was almost becoming fond of him. There was a quiet kindness to him that I found endearing.
We stepped into his lavish bedroom with a massive bed. It was covered in crimson sheets that shimmered like silk. I stepped inside and Sergei closed the door behind me. I felt his lips graze my neck as he softly kissed a path from my neck down to my shoulder. He unbuttoned my shirt and peeled it off me. His hands effortlessly undid the clasp of my bra and he pulled down my panties with a swift motion. I was naked within seconds.
