Cry Wolf

by Aurelia T. Evans

  Kelly had asked if just the leaders could talk for the purpose of simplicity and keeping her headache down to a dull roar. There had been some very loud objections to that, which had culminated in Kelly making the blanket that they’d been sitting on burst into flame. She’d had to be careful when extinguishing it not to smother everyone in the vicinity at the same time. This magical craziness was going to get old really fast.

  Renee and Jake were there for the shapeshifters and the dog sanctuary. Britt hadn’t been happy about that, but she was presently eavesdropping from the loft, which everyone was okay with as long as she didn’t interject. Damien represented his pack. Malcolm sat near her. She’d let him stay because Abraham would exploit her feelings for Malcolm before he’d go after anyone else. Malcolm was involved now whether Kelly liked it or not.

  “He’s coming here,” Kelly finally said when she thought the vibration of her own voice wouldn’t make her head throb.

  “Here here?” Renee asked.

  “He at least knows that it houses canine shapeshifters,” Kelly replied. “But he has nothing against dogs, Renee, so he’s not going to go out of the way to hurt them. They’re part of the natural order of things.”

  “He’s probably not going to go out of his way to protect them either,” Malcolm pointed out.

  “Regardless, I want them in their barn. Do you think the other shifter packs will protect them?” Kelly asked.

  Jake nodded, but he looked unhappy, about as unhappy as Renee.

  “I’m sorry to put your dogs in danger again,” Kelly said. “I promise I’ll protect you and them as fiercely as you’d do yourself. And as soon as this is over, we won’t threaten them anymore. The pack has to move on anyway.”

  Renee nodded. She chewed on her lower lip, but she didn’t beg for Kelly and Malcolm to stick around. Kelly didn’t expect her to, nor did Kelly believe that she should.

  “I still think I need to go alone,” Kelly said.

  To which Damien immediately replied, “No fucking way. There’s no way you can stop us.”

  Oh, she could, but she wouldn’t. Not only would certain ways of stopping them hurt them, but the easiest way to stop them—by making them not want to be there—was off the table. Kelly gritted her teeth. It was so much harder not to force one’s will when she knew it was so easy, as easy as twitching her fingertips.

  Kelly directed her attention back to Renee, reaching out to take her hand. Renee gave it to her freely. Kelly felt a little bad for accidentally exploiting how much Renee liked her, but her intentions were good.

  “Is there any way I can convince you and the shapeshifter pack to stay away now?” Kelly asked.

  Renee checked with Jake for his opinion as the shapeshifter alpha. Then she shook her head. “No. If he’s bringing the fight here, it just got personal for us, too.”

  “How did you manage to go out there and confront Grant without your pack stopping you?” Kelly asked. “I mean, Britt’s more protective of you than I am, and you’re just so—”

  “Human? And small. I know,” Renee said. “But Grant was coming after me, and he had already…” Renee looked over at the fireplace. The fire wasn’t built up high, but the early spring air was still brisk enough for one in the evenings.

  “He had already killed that boy and bitten me,” Malcolm finished with just a trace of the old bitterness.

  “That was when I knew I had to risk it, before he hurt anyone else when all he wanted was me. I told them I was going out,” Renee said.

  “And they just let you?” Kelly asked.

  “Britt and Jake insisted on coming. I told them that if they were going to come, they had to stay behind me.”

  Kelly leant forward. She had to dip her head down to meet Renee’s eyes. “Will you stay behind me?”

  “Of course,” Renee said. She didn’t even have to think about it. “It’s mostly your fight. You’ve got more power than all of us combined, and that was before you left. Damn straight I’m standing behind you. And so will the shapeshifter pack, unless there’s something else to fight against.”

  “Max should probably stay behind to protect the dogs or stay with you in human skin,” Kelly said.

  “Well, that goes without saying,” Jake muttered.

  “And you,” Kelly said, pointing at Damien, “I don’t give a rat’s ass about shifter and werewolf animosity. You and the rest of the pack are going to protect them and Renee. Particularly Renee, Ki and Max.”

  “I know why the morsel needs protecting,” Damien said. He seemed unfazed by the orders and the fact that Kelly had given them. “Although I’ve seen what a good shot she is.”

  Malcolm raised his eyebrows. “What all did you get up to while we were gone, besides a picnic?”

  “We did some fancy dancing around, but we eventually reached a place of mutual respect. Meaning the morsel warmed up to me. Me, I already liked her.” Damien grinned. “Why those specific shifters?”

  “Leslie, Jake and Britt are all big enough as dogs to be a viable threat against humans. Max doesn’t have a useful shape to shift into, and Ki is too small in human form. Neither of them have something to fall back on,” Kelly said.

  “You know, come to think of it, I’ve never seen what Max turns into,” Damien said, his interest piqued.

  “That’s his business, not yours,” Jake replied.

  Damien snickered. “That embarrassing, huh?”

  “He’s not embarrassed by it,” Jake said. “You’re just acting like a six-year-old, and it’s admittedly not much use in a fight. But he’s still alpha of the dog packs when he takes them out, regardless of size.”

  Damien held his hands out in front of him. “Hey, every secure man knows size doesn’t matter. We’ll take care of them, Kelly. With utmost pleasure.”

  “You aren’t going to go around slaughtering people, are you?” Renee asked.

  Kelly admired her for being able to say that in a way that was both disapproving and not alienating.

  Damien clicked his tongue. “I can’t make promises. The cult leader drew first blood. I doubt he’ll tell any potential followers to hold back with us.”

  “He might,” Kelly said, “if he thinks he can still do some soul-stealing on the unwilling.”

  “I’m not going to let them incapacitate me either,” Damien replied.

  Renee ran her hand through her hair, uncomfortable. “I’m pretty sure most of Damien’s werewolf pack wouldn’t mind snacking on me if I didn’t have the reputation I have. But neither Kelly nor Malcolm is okay with eating humans. If we end up fighting, Malcolm may end up doing something he regrets to the humans or to one of us.”

  “I’m better,” Malcolm replied. His knuckles were white where he clenched his clasped hands.

  Renee didn’t have to ask whether he was being honest with himself. It was clear that he wasn’t. But he wasn’t backing down either.

  Kelly said to Damien, “So you’ll also have to keep an eye on Malcolm, too.”

  “I can do that,” Damien said. “Alpha’s prerogative. We’ve fought before and he barely put up a fight. If he gets lost in the bloodlust, I can snap him out of it.”

  “If I can’t,” Kelly added.

  “Sounds like a plan,” Damien said.

  “Sure,” Kelly said with false brightness. “The kind of plan that’s going to get everyone killed or worse. Because how could any of this possibly go wrong? Need me to count the ways?”

  “No, we got it,” Jake said.

  “It’s not too late to back out,” she replied.

  “Renee wouldn’t forgive us if we did,” Jake said.

  “You do realise that you’re, like, three times her size, right?” Damien said, amused.

  “You do realise Kelly’s got what seems like unlimited magical power?” Jake retorted. “What’s she even worried about?”

  “I’m doing the best I fucking can,” Kelly snarled. “None of you are making this easy.”

  “What’s that supposed to
mean?” Renee asked.

  Jake put an arm around her shoulder protectively.

  “It means that since Abraham awakened the magic, all it wants to do is be used,” Kelly said, pulling at her hair. “And the best way to make sure everyone stays safe is to tether everyone to the earth or put everyone in an enchanted sleep or do what’s called will-breaking. So many ways to get what I want. It’d be safer for everyone, but it’s just…”

  “Wrong?” Malcolm supplied.

  “Thanks, honey,” Kelly said.

  “Well, maybe you should just work with it instead of against it,” Malcolm said, clearly trying not to sound like a smartass while he was saying it.

  It didn’t work.

  “Smartass,” Kelly said.

  “You’re welcome.”

  Kelly shook her head to clear out the wishes she could not fulfil. “All right. I know it’s early, but everyone should get some sleep. He’s not teleporting, so we have a little time. Either he or the magic will let me know when he’s close. Conserve your energy. You’re going to need it.”

  Chapter Twelve

  “How’s your head?” Malcolm asked, following her into the trailer. He paused in the doorway.

  “Manageable,” Kelly said.

  She stumbled to her bed, pulled her clothes off, and closed the blinds, wincing at the light. She had never had this kind of reaction to any of her blackouts, so it likely wasn’t a reaction to magic at all, but from Abraham’s invasion of her mind. Even more disturbing, he wasn’t worried that he had given her time to prepare. Either hubris or a keen self-awareness drove his actions. Kelly dearly hoped it was the former.

  “I was going to ask if you wanted a run since we’ve been driving for so long, but I guess sleep is the only thing on the table,” Malcolm said. He rocked against the door frame, restless after sitting down for so long.

  “Conserve your energy,” Kelly said. “You’ll need all of it. If you’re going to come in, then come in. Don’t just stand there.”

  Malcolm closed the door behind him and vaulted into the aisle. The trailer shifted under his weight.

  Butch Cassidy sat on the edge of the bed, happy to be where he was. Kelly pulled the covers over her and closed her eyes. The bed creaked as Malcolm climbed naked under the blanket with her. He pulled her against him in an embrace. In spite of his excess energy, Kelly thought he might have been okay to drift off with her just like that.

  But Kelly slid her arms around him and ran the length of her leg over his. She kept her eyes closed, feeling her way over him with her hands and her lips. She tried to map him and memorise him, the ridge of his collarbone, the texture of his chest, the tightening of his small nipples, the trail of hair down to his navel, the flex of muscle over his back and buttocks, the pressing heat of his cock, lengthening and rubbing against her stomach.

  It was one of the few times when Kelly genuinely wanted nothing to do with teeth, claws, blood, ripping, tearing or fucking. With the covers over their heads and their limbs languidly tangling to the same rhythm as their kisses, she imagined that most humans felt like this when they made love, just wanting the closeness, the sensation of being present in the moment with another person. Because being there, feeling what she was feeling, meant that they were both alive. And there was no guarantee that they would be by this time the next day.

  As he slipped inside her, tasting her low moan with a delicious slide of his tongue over hers, she arched up to accept him again, pulling him in. Kelly received a series of seamless visions of how almost everyone else prepared to stand behind her was doing the same thing.

  Britt, Jake and Renee were in Britt’s bed. They had already tried convincing Renee to stay behind and had failed. Now there was nothing left to do but hold onto each other. Jake stroked a whine from Britt, his cock moving inside her as Renee watched from beneath them. Sometimes Britt leant down to kiss her. Her fingers moved furiously over Renee’s clit before dipping into her and pulling her fingers out wet.

  Downstairs in the master bedroom, Ki moaned around Max’s cock. Her fingers dug a little too hard into Max’s thighs, but he did the same to hers as he licked her from clit to cunt, drawing her moisture out of her until Ki keened her orgasm.

  Leslie, sweet, absentminded Leslie, was alone on the computer, aware of his loneliness and the possibility that the work he was writing might never be finished, that he might be wasting his last precious minutes on a lifeless machine. But he would be damned if he would let his own imminent death impede his self-discipline. If he couldn’t have someone to hold, then he would lose himself in what he could.

  Kelly urged Malcolm to move faster, keeping to herself how much it meant that he was with her and not with the shapeshifters—that he really had made his decision and she was the one with whom he wanted to spend his last hours.

  In the forest near the edge of the sanctuary, the werewolves were spread out but close enough to hear and smell each other, unconsciously keeping themselves near for the best protection.

  Jada lay on the ground, playing with her upthrust breasts as she watched Damien direct Landon and Leon. Jada’s folds were spread and flush, her juices thicker when mixed with semen. Her lids were at half mast in satisfaction and intrigue as she watched her lover with his beta and omega. Damien’s affection was obviously for Leon more than Landon. He stroked over Leon’s back as he murmured in Leon’s ear then kissed his neck right underneath before pulling at the skin with his teeth. It was also clear to Kelly that Landon’s earnest affection was for Leon as well. Leon seemed perfectly content in the middle, his usual stoic self in spite of the furious flush of his rock-hard cock as it rubbed against Landon’s.

  A few yards away, Lily and Tanya rocked their hips together, rubbing against each other’s thighs, and kissed as though they could only breathe from the other. Tanya’s braids draped over both of them. Tears shone under Lily’s eyelashes.

  And a few yards away from Lily and Tanya, Stephanie’s beautiful, full body rode atop Jeremy, who caressed her large breasts in his inadequate hands, overflowing with her flesh. He looked happy, which was something that Kelly so rarely saw on his strange, ill-looking face.

  Malcolm surged forward, burying his face in her shoulder and panting Kelly’s name. He twitched inside her as he came. He bit at her neck, licking where he’d left marks on uninked skin. He didn’t miss a beat, eager to give her some kind of pleasure of his own, eager almost to prove that he was a worthy partner after what he had seen between her and Abraham.

  Kelly couldn’t deny that there was a certain kind of inexorable desire that linked her to Abraham. If he weren’t a murderer and a cultist, staying by his side wouldn’t have even been a choice, but it wouldn’t have been out of love. It would have been out of everyone’s need to be with people who are like them, and there were no other people like Kelly and Abraham—or at least there were very few. She was effectively alone.

  But Malcolm had chosen her, and she’d loved Malcolm before she’d let herself acknowledge it. Everything else was window dressing—their differences, his ambivalence about lycanthropy, their respective sexual styles, her magical outbursts and her experience as a killer. They could be dealt with over time, if time was something they had.

  Malcolm worshipped the peaks of her breasts, and she groaned as her nipples tightened against his tongue. He made his way down to the crux between her legs, as though kneeling before an altar. Malcolm was a devotee, a follower, a relatively passive man quite unlike anyone she had ever been with or wanted to be with—yet he had such willingness to submit in addition to offering his complete loyalty to whoever brought him out of his loneliness.

  It was as sad, in some ways, as Abraham’s own loneliness. Each man had reacted in diametrically opposed ways to being alone—Malcolm with a patina of suspicion over his fear of abandonment, a kicked stray learning how to be kept, and Abraham with an imperious nature that merely masked empty charm.

  And Kelly? Abraham had unravelled what control she’d thought s
he possessed. Now the full weight of her untapped magic pulled at the frayed edges of the control she had left. The potential dangers of her lycanthropy were almost an afterthought when she had to make sure that the skies didn’t open up as Malcolm licked deeply at her cunt to drink the pleasure he had drawn from her.

  Kelly guided Malcolm’s mouth up to her clit and pressed him closer as the early stirrings of her climax shot inside her like little bursts of electricity. Kelly clenched her fists into the sheets to keep the magic at bay. It was like how it used to be, when the magic would burst with static, burnouts and mechanical chaos, except that none of the electronics around her were on, so she could only feel it build up inside her before it burst. Heaven knew what would happen when it did.

  “Malcolm,” she gasped.

  His mouth worked her over, his teeth clicking against her piercing. He was tireless, passionate, desperate. As she rode over the crest of her orgasm, she closed her eyes and saw Abraham in her mind, watching her as she watched her people. She poured her built-up magic into slamming the door in his face.

  “Malcolm,” she whispered again, pulling him up her body so that she could kiss her taste from him until there was just him, convincing him in her own way that she had chosen him, too.

  Kelly held him close as sleep settled soft and inviting behind her eyes. Butch Cassidy adjusted his position on the bed nearer to them now that they had stilled. She wished that this moment was all she ever had to have, that she didn’t have to wake up and run to a slaughter.

  * * * *

  When Kelly woke up, she did so on her own without any sense of urgency from her magic. She sensed Abraham closer than before but not yet close enough that they had to evacuate the sanctuary.

  She told everyone to eat a good meal.

  Then they slowly walked down the driveway, meeting with the werewolves at the gate. Everyone was there, the core shapeshifter pack as well as Lotus, who had decided to tag along instead of waiting behind with the other shapeshifters to look over the dogs. It physically pained Kelly to see him with them, just barely crossed into adulthood and still appearing as a child in her eyes.