by Kaia Bennett
Our guide waited expectantly for us to finish grabbing our packs, picking at his nails, until we got out of his way. He got his horses in line, then pointed in the opposite direction of the way we’d come, deeper into the woods.
“The stream for bathing is that way. I’m taking the horses there for rest and water before I turn ‘round. Grande Cache is a tourist spot, so pretty much everything you need can be found at Sears or the hardware store. They sell gas or battery powered showers and grills, if you’re feeling less natural.”
Without another word, Bailey led his clomping pack of horses toward fresh water and grazing.
Three weeks. Three weeks. Three weeks.
The chant echoed in my mind, merging with Evie’s voice. We just had to last three more weeks.
None of us bothered to speak or pretend we weren’t worn out from travel and disappointment. We shuffled into the tent, airing out the elements and claiming our corners in the shared space. We unpacked just what we needed, unrolled our bedding, and lay in the dark.
Like we were in fucking summer camp.
When I finally dozed off, I slept like the dead. No dreams, just exhaustion and darkness. I felt movement hours later. I opened my eyes to see Evie stand and unzip the door flap before stepping outside.
The open window flaps bathed the tent in chartreuse light and cast a glow across Evie’s stunned face. I got to me feet and quietly followed her.
The green phosphorescent waves of the northern lights shimmered across the clear night sky and caressed the outline of the mountains.
“Couldn’t sleep?”
She shook her head, snuggled deeper into her blanket, and exhaled a plume into the chilly night air.
“I’ve never seen anything so beautiful,” she whispered.
I have.
The thought rose like cream to the top of my thoughts and inside her mind she licked up the saccharine confession. I felt stupid for such a schoolboy confession, but when she turned to look at me, I couldn’t deny the truth. I’d looked at Evie like this the first time I tasted her and felt the same the first time I saw her after she’d been turned. Like a marvel of nature. I’d witnessed the northern lights countless times. I’d seen just about every wonder on this continent. Not one of those marvels of nature compared to the moment I met her eyes and realized she’d lived, that she was mine.
Don’t do that. Don’t make me think I can— She jerked to the side, but her mind whispered the truth against her will. It took everything in me just to admit I want you, that I need you, and I don’t hate you. Her body brushed against mine in defiance of the railing inside her mind. Sometimes I wish I could hate you again, but I don’t. But this—. What have I become if I let myself think I love you? What kind of monster does that make me?
I pulled her into my kiss to silence her thoughts and our weariness. We should’ve been well on our way to severing this need. Instead we kept being wound tighter together.
Three weeks. In three weeks, this has to end.
I closed my eyes to the green glow of the lights, the way she tried to close her mind to me. She couldn’t. I heard her greatest fear, the shame she couldn’t hide from me.
I don’t think I could forgive myself if I loved you.
33
“What’s the deal with Mr. ‘Not My Circus’? Thought he was all business.”
Vaughn nodded toward our wolf guide, Bailey. I spied the wolf shifter about two hundred feet away, walking alongside Evie and giving her a wolfish grin, as she returned from washing up at the stream. He offered to hold the shower caddy he’d charged her for back at the Gate, which had been weird, too. The wolf had been shy rather than gruffly quiet during that delivery, and now, he’d grown another personality. This Bailey didn’t have a shy bone in his body. Evie wrung out her hair while he openly flirted.
Vaughn elbowed me when I didn’t respond. “He’s trying to hump your girl’s leg. What is she, the wolf cock whisperer?”
We’d just returned from a hunt. I’d expected Evie, who still craved human food, would stick to the tent under Stark’s watchful eye. Just when I wondered where the hell he’d gotten too, Stark loped after my mate a moment later, in wolf form, shaking out his wet fur from head to bristling tail. He caught up to Bailey and Evie, then wedged his large body between them to create space.
My mate giggled and shuffled to the side, like her chaperone wanted.
“It’s all good. I’d get possessive, too, if I were him.” The dimples in the wolf guide’s cheeks bracketed a perfect white smile.
Evie spotted me, and the not-so-subtle glare I gave her and the flannel-clad wolf. She frowned, then tried to take her caddy back and walk on alone, but Bailey raised the bin out of her grasp. He walked backward beside her, leaned in to whisper. Evie bit her lip and averted her gaze. Stark tilted his large wolf head at Bailey with sharp curiosity.
“Offer stands.” Bailey’s voice rose to normal levels and he turned around to give me a grin with an edge. Our body-snatched guide with multiple personalities puffed up his chest.
“Hey.” Evie approached the tent entrance. Stark followed, but she wheeled and barred him entry. “No, you’re all wet! Wait till you dry off, or change, then you can come in.”
Wolf Stark wasn’t feeling this. When he did shift, he’d taken to curling up behind her back like a breathing couch while she read. The journals from the apartment Cai slipped into her go bag, or a book she got from the Gate, were one of the few ways she kept her mind occupied. That and commiserating with the wolf. Stark huffed and sprinted out of camp, disappearing into the forest. Bailey followed at damn near vampire speed.
“Take a walk, Vaughn.”
Vaughn opened his arms wide and looked around. “To where, man?” A hawk screamed in response while I ignored him and went into the tent. Had to push his face out, but he got the hint. So did my mate.
Evie didn’t make eye contact as she smoothed lotion on her legs, but she knocked the bottle over, and when she snatched it upright, she fumbled the cap. She swallowed when I pulled my jacket and T-shirt off, tossing them on a mountain of open sleeping bags used to make the forest floor softer.
I kneeled to untie my muddy boots and set them outside before zipping up the door flap. She finally looked at me when I shoved my jeans down and kicked them off to reveal my cock. I wrapped my hand around the straining length, refusing to be ignored. She clenched her thighs and watched my rough stroke.
“I just took a bath,” she whispered. Her only protest, even when I dropped to my knees and grabbed her by the ankle. Her towel popped open and bunched underneath her as I dragged her to me. I flipped her over easily, set her on her hands and knees. When she didn’t arch her back to my liking I slapped her pussy firmly, slicking my fingers with just that brief touch.
“You need cock so bad you’ll take it from a wolf?”
She didn’t get a chance to answer because I hooked an arm underneath her. Three fingers stretched her clenching cunt. All this for me, Evie? Her answering moan crackled with need. I fucked her with hard thrusts, twisting my fingers. Just when she started to come, I stopped and gave her shallow thrusts.
“Please!”
“Please, what?”
She arched her back and spread her knees wider. With a chuckle, I denied her blatant pleas and pulled my fingers free. I squeezed her ass cheeks, parting the round flesh so I could see her holes grasping air. She shuffled backward until my cock lay in the cleft of those perfect globes, then lay her head on the floor and lowered her spine, in order to lift her ass into the air.
“You in heat, baby, is that it? You wanna be fucked like a bitch?”
I pulled away from her frantic motions, gripped my cock, and shoved inside her, until my hips smacked her ass. She screamed and clawed the sleeping bags, tearing fluff free of the synthetic casing as I fucked her mercilessly. With her head grasped in one hand, I pinned her cheek to the floor, forcing her to hike her ass up higher. Just like a bitch in heat, lifting her tail and off
ering up that juicy cunt for me.
I wanted to see her face while I used her. Wet curls slid through my fingers. I swept the strands away from her face and bent over to share her breath. She liked the sprawl of my hair over our bodies, shrouding us in a cocoon with shards of muted internal light filtering through the dark strands. She slammed her black eyes shut and the nick of my fangs against the edge of her jaw made her shudder.
Not a wolf. Not a wolf’s mate. Mine. You’re my perfect little whore.
“Yes,” she gasped. Her voice rattled in her throat, heat blossoming under her cheeks.
I licked up the sweet nectar dripping down her throat from my wound. Both hands twisted her face to mine. A quick kiss, a little sweetness before I hurt you, baby.
Her fangs sliced my tongue and we tasted each other’s blood, savoring the poison of the other. I wanted more, I wanted to fill my mouth with her flavor. I could live another two hundred years and never desire to scent prey if I had these notes forever casting a spell on me. I pulled away from the kiss, leaving her panting and then hissing in pain at the sharp cruelty of my bite to her shoulder. I snapped my jaws, aiming for pain.
Raking my nails down her back left red welts. Blood rushed to the surface. Blood flushed the pillow-soft lips of her cunt. She’d soaked my cock to the balls and I couldn’t fight the pulse from her depths anymore. I abandoned my bite, painting my tongue with the crimson temptation beading on her skin. She whined in protest when I sat up, and she reached for me. I needed to watch the damage I’d do to the greedy little mouth sucking my cock.
“Don’t tease me, Jesse. Fuck me.”
Beg me, baby, and I’ll give you what you want.
I circled my hips, shallowly parting her folds with the head of my dick. Shoring up energy. My hands trembled on her hips.
“Please! I want your cock—”
“Whose cock?” I shoved in hard enough to wrench a sob from her. “You’ve got so many to choose from, I wanna be sure.”
“Yours, Jesse! I want your cock! Give it, please, please, please.”
With every plea, she thrust her hips in reverse to take more of me. I held her steady and rammed balls deep, rapid as gunfire, targeting the soft bundle of nerves within that made her gush on my cock. She shot up onto her hands in pain. I smiled at the scent of salty tears.
When I finish fucking you stupid, I’ll lick up those tears like I’ll lick up your blood. She groaned at the image I shoved into her mind. Soft fingers reached down her body to touch the spot where we were joined.
I gripped her hips so hard, if she’d been human I’d have snapped the bone, dug my nails beneath the skin and fucked Evie with every ounce of my speed. I let loose every twinge of jealousy, every tickle of uncertainty. I used her brutally, even for my kind. Her wet hair slapped her shoulders with the impact.
“Oh, my God. Oh, God, hurt me, hurt me, make me come!”
Her keening wail matched the speed of my navel smacking her ass. I relished her struggle for bearing, licked my lips when I spied her little fists clenched in the sleeping bags. She wept from the pain and came hard with a ragged cry.
I didn’t slow even when she convulsed. Evie’s attempt to escape only spurred me on in my hunt for climax.
“Where do you think you’re going? Did I say I was done?”
Orgasm after orgasm. Her shudders never ceased, only dipped and ascended. Her mind fractured and the pieces rained behind my eyes, falling like shards of light in my imagination. Fucking gorgeous. Just like her. My body soared with heat, soaked with sweat as I tortured her swollen cunt.
Ready to come now, I reached around and punished her clit. The bud pulsed like a tiny drill, flushed to fullness by the cruelty of my fingers. She scratched my hand bloody but humped harder into the torment.
My orgasm attacked me, sucked out of me like my breath. My cock became a straw damn near squeezed shut. Evie’s pussy crushed the defenseless flesh, sucked me dry from balls to bruised tip.
With a shout, I collapsed against her back, pumping my hips hard enough to push us up the length of the sleeping bags. I laughed at the still-shimmying tent. From the outside, our little hovel must’ve shook like a party van on the side of the road.
Evie’s shudders rocked me as I melted my full weight into the curve of her spine. I couldn’t move my arms even if I wanted. Milked to emptiness, I lay nestled inside her and waited to recharge. She squeezed me to the point of pain in answer.
“You trying to make sure I can’t ever use this dick again?”
I curved my hips slowly and chuckled at her wriggling and breathless pants.
I’m not done using you yet. I want to fill every hole on your body. I want to drag my fangs down every inch of your smooth skin and lick you dry. I could listen to you scream forever, baby. Just for me.
How could she hollow me out so thoroughly and yet make me crave more? I couldn’t stop arching into the fuckable cheeks of her ass. She’d become my bloodlust. Never truly satisfied.
Evie huffed out a laugh at the thought. Maybe I just need a break. My pussy feels like it’s broken.
“And I fully intend to return the favor,” she giggled. “Bastard.” My fingertips tingled with the promise of her mouth on me, her hands around my throat as she rode me. Phantom fangs and tongue tortured the flesh still buried inside.
Getting hard again. Wanting her’s a sickness.
Vaughn unzipped the flap and strode inside like he’d been waiting until the last chord of our moans hit the air.
I came up to my knees, straddling Evie’s thighs while still buried deep. My glare crawled over Vaughn. He met the look with a defiant tilt of his chin before flopping onto his back on a pile of sleeping bags a few feet away.
“Don’t mind me.” Vaughn folded an arm behind his head. His free hand rubbed his cock through his jeans.
“You hadn’t really crossed my mind, man.” I rubbed a hand down the light sheen of blood and sweat on Evie’s back, creating a scarlet glow.
“I noticed.”
I’d expected a witch’s modesty, a vampire growl of dominance meant to hold him at bay. My mate showed Vaughn neither of these. The witch she’d been and the vampire who’d let Vaughn taste her in Asylum merged.
The air stirred around us with strange familiarity. We’d all been here before, Vaughn stuck behind a line I’d drawn in the sand. I’d let him cross that line when Evie had been my blood-drunk pet, but not since.
She made no move to hide herself. Vaughn met her wary, lust-glazed eyes and Evie held his stare. Her pussy clenched and she wriggled with purpose on my cock.
I slid my hand down, slapped and clenched a firm cheek and growled at Evie’s moan and the way she undulated. She clenched her fists and humped the unyielding floor in a bid for more.
You like being watched? You like knowing my brother wants you, but can’t touch?
Her hips swiveled with urgency. Her thoughts skittered across the ether with confusion.
I shouldn’t. I should stop this.
I stilled and braced my fists on the floor.
“You wanna stop?”
I actually reared back when I heard my own question. What the fuck? I didn’t want to stop, why the hell had I asked her if she wanted to? I didn’t request permission to fuck. Ever. I commanded that shit. Every orgasm, every scream.
“No.” My cock pulsed at the breathy admission.
I should want to stop, but I’m not done. I want your cock. I want him to watch. I’m in control now, aren’t I?
“Yes.” I sucked air through my teeth. My answer to her question doubled as an exhalation of lust.
You’re in control, Evie. Ride this dick. Make Vaughn come with just a look.
Vaughn flicked the button of his jeans open and pinned the point where my body merged with Evie’s with a heated stare. He unzipped and unleashed a cock so hard and flushed I doubled over with sympathy. He didn’t need to lick his palm. He used the pearls gathering one after the other on the flushed tip to slick
his jerk. Evie panted against her fist and pumped faster, swirling her cunt around my shaft. Every swivel sucked me in deeper as I rocked my hips against her firm ass.
I need to come again. We all need to come.
Vaughn timed his stroke to my thrusts and Evie reached between her legs to rub her clit. The sounds our combined wetness filled the tent along with Vaughn’s. Whimpers and grunts pinged off the flapping walls, each of us hurtling toward the fall. I leaned over and savaged her shoulder with my fangs, pushing her over the edge. Her answering cry made me swell and strain to join her.
“I’m coming, coming….”
Evie’s warning made me bear down and throw Vaughn a triumphant grin. He tongued his fangs and stared at the healing bite mark on Evie’s shoulder, the blood smeared against her skin.
“Yes,” Vaughn groaned. “Fuck her faster, make that perfect little pussy squirt. I can almost taste it again!”
Panting, unable to look way from each other, I watched Evie ensnare Vaughn’s gaze. She growled this time as she came. The sign of dominance and feral desire shocked me out of my rhythm, just as Vaughn’s stomach clenched. His spine bowed. I howled and emptied the first jet of come as Vaughn’s voice cracked on a desperate, “Fuck!”
My brother coated his hand and belly with jets of come, while I left my mark deep inside Evie’s quivering body. I pulled out, slick with her wet heat and my release, and toppled beside her, flopping onto my belly.
Gasping for breath and otherwise silent, all of us relaxed into the heat and the smell of sex. The strange sharing and restraint we’d found in Asylum tingled across my skin. So strange. As familiar as breathing. She made even a rough fuck alongside Vaughn feel new as my first hunt.
After a long moment, Evie’s sigh of annoyance broke the companionable silence.
“I just took a bath. Fuck.”
What does it matter? I’ll never get clean.
“That reminds me,” Evie blurted, trying to silence her mind and push me away physically and mentally. She curled her knees in and turned her head to me without moving her upper body. I smiled at her exhaustion, but not at what she said next.
