Monstrous as a Croc (Daughters of Neverland Book 4)

by Kendra Moreno

  “Good.”

  I feel his magic course around my wrists and when he draws his hand away, my wrists stay locked above my head, held in place by the tree we press against. I glance up at the sudden hold, at the bark now holding my wrists tightly, and raise my brow.

  “That’s new.”

  “A handy trick,” he replies and grabs my hips. “Now let me give myself to you. . . Your Majesty.” His grin makes my insides melt, and even with his features distorted by his Berserker form, he’s strikingly handsome. How can I not love Atlas when he looks at me like that? How can I not give him my everything?

  I look down between us where he hovers, his pants kicked off behind him. I’m pleasantly surprised to see the golden sigils continue down and converge around his cock. A few of them trail up his length, marking him as something other. Either way, he’s mine and I don’t care.

  “Like what you see?” he growls and spreads my legs wider. My weight hangs on my wrists but I don’t even care. Atlas takes most of my weight, keeping it from being painful.

  “Yes,” I purr. “If my hands were free, I’d circle your length and stroke it until you came for me.”

  He shivers. “Promises, promises.” And then he was pressing inside me slowly.

  Atlas isn’t just bigger in this form. His shape is a little different, and though I don’t have time to study what’s different, curiosity fills me. I can feel the small changes, and when he’s pressed fully inside me, holding still to give me time to adjust, I can feel a deep pulsing there that makes my back arch. And then he begins to move.

  With his claws digging into my hips, careful not to prick me, Atlas begins to stroke inside me with long, hard thrusts, driving my desire so high, I nearly shatter with barely any movements.

  “Oh, fuck,” I groan, the word I picked up from my Berserker. No other word seems to fit as he claims me.

  “Such a dirty word from your lips,” he growls and quickens his thrusts, making my core tighten around him. “What other dirty things can you do with your mouth?”

  I can’t answer, but I don’t have to. Atlas claims my lips with his in a bruising kiss filled with sharp teeth and desire. Our tongues tangle, my own tracing along his canines and pricking my tongue. The metallic taste of blood fills our mouths and he loses control.

  With a slam of his fist, Atlas breaks the restraints that hold my wrists and I immediately circle his neck and spear my fingers into his hair as he draws away from the tree and slams me into the ground. Only with Atlas can I surrender everything I am. Only with him can I handle someone overpowering me, because I trust him completely. I may have lost my wings, but it doesn’t stop Atlas from being mindful of my back. Even hitting the ground as hard as we do, I land on a carpet of spongey moss as he grabs my legs and opens me wider, pressing my knees toward my chest. It opens me up to a better angle, and the cries start tumbling from my lips as he completely claims me.

  But I know we’re too much of beasts to keep the same position for long. He hits something inside me, the new ripples on his cock striking the match inside me until I come with a cry, and that’s all it takes. Atlas, with a savage snarl, pulls out of me long enough to flip my still quivering body around, uncaring if I can get any purchase or not. He grabs my hips and lifts, spearing me on his cock with a violent thrust that has me screaming out in pleasure. His thrusts grow harder, savage, brutal, his claws drawing tiny pricks of blood as he loses control. My own claws dig into the earth beneath us, sending more energy through me, pushing it into him until he pants with desire as he destroys me and remakes me all at once.

  “Atlas!” I cry out as my nipples brush against the moss, driving me higher, winding me so tight, I don’t know how to handle it.

  His fingers circle my throat, a little too tightly but I don’t care, and jerks me backward. I have no control whatsoever, hold none of my own weight. Atlas holds me against him with one arm banded across my waist and the other squeezing my throat, fucking me until I can do little more than curl my claws into his waist where I can touch him. He snarls in my ear as they dig into his skin, drawing blood. If I wasn’t immortal, I’d wonder if I can survive our brutal coupling but I know we both will.

  “Mine,” he growls in my ear, the word so thick and garbled, I don’t know how I know what it is at all. The word is punctuated by his sharp teeth sinking into my neck, my blood blooming across his tongue.

  I explode violently, a high keen coming from my lips as I turn into a mess of shaking limbs and desperate clawing, trying to find something to grip onto. He spills inside me, following me after as my core squeezes him just as violently, his panting gasps in my ear only prolonging my own orgasm. Only then does he release my neck, his tongue tracing the puncture holes he leaves behind. Carefully, he slips out of me and turns me around in his arms. When his lips meet mine, I can taste the metallic tang of my blood there, and something unfurls in my body.

  “My turn,” I growl against his lips before jerking back and striking, sinking my teeth into the side of his neck, his skin still blue and gold. He jerks against me at the sudden bite, his cock hardening again.

  “Fuck,” he growls, laying down on the ground with me on top of him. “Fuck, yes.”

  And so, I claim him in return.

  Chapter Two

  CALYPSO

  I glance over at the trees where my brother and his Pixie Queen disappeared to, unconcerned. Atlas, I learned, can take care of himself, no matter how much my sibling instincts tell me to protect him from this world. I used to think I’d dragged him into it, but the more he grows into his role, the more I realize just how much he’s been Chosen, same as I was. We’re both products of Wonderland now.

  I look up at Cheshire and smile. “I’m not chasing you, asshole,” I tell him, because he knows I’ll never catch him. It’s hard enough to capture someone with cat-like reflexes. It’s entirely another to catch one that can disappear at will.

  “I could do the chasing,” he murmurs, his tail flicking back and forth behind him.

  I know he’s anticipating it. There’s nothing a cat loves more than a good chase. Normally, this festival wouldn’t be my type of thing, but seeing the look in his eyes and knowing we need a break from the insanity around us, I find myself trailing a finger down his chest. “Are you going to remove your shirt like the others?” I tease.

  With his gaze locked on mine, Cheshire shrugs out of his leather jacket and tosses it aside before tugging his shirt over his head, leaving him in only his leather pants and boots. Before I can take him all in, he kicks off his boots, too, leaving him barefoot.

  Grinning, I tug my own shirt over my head, leaving me in only a sports bra and revealing the painted markings across my skin.

  His eyes widen. “You knew I’d want to chase you.”

  Laughing, I press a kiss against his chest, right over his heart. “Of course, I knew, pussy cat.” I wink, a shit-eating grin on my face. “Catch me if you can.”

  I take off into the trees. I don’t know how much of a head start Cheshire will give me, but I know the chase won’t last long. I’m stronger with my powers, and I can run pretty fast, but Cheshire can easily run circles around me. This is a simple game of cat and mouse, and though I normally would never claim the title of mouse, I can’t discount the adrenaline and excitement flooding my veins.

  I desperately want Cheshire to catch me quickly, but I also know the longer it takes him, the sweeter it’ll be. I can’t outrun him, but maybe I can outsmart him. I purposely rub myself against trees as I run, making sure my scent is left behind for him to follow, and once I get so far, I circle back quickly and scale a tree, going up and up until I’m high and hidden by the leaves. Holding my breath, I wait silently for my Cheshire Cat.

  Cheshire stalks through the brush, in no hurry to capture me, his eyes circling around him. I watch as he takes a deep breath and follows the trail I left, bypassing my hiding spot in favor of the obvious path. Silly cat should know better.

  As quietly a
s possible, I scale down the tree and take off running in the direction I came from. I’m not as light-footed as Cheshire, but years spent in Wonderland with my powers have done me well. I move swiftly through the trees, back into Hatter’s clearing with a smug smile on my lips. Jupiter jumps when I reappear, her tinkling laughter filling the clearing. Winking, I head to the Hatter’s house, going inside and climbing the stairs to our room. I wonder how long Cheshire will search out in the forest before he realizes I’m no longer there. The thought makes me laugh beneath my breath.

  Opening the door for the room and closing it softly behind me, I turn and nearly jump out of my skin. Cheshire lounges on the bed, grinning, his tail flicking back and forth.

  “Thought you could outsmart me, did you, Cal?”

  Laughing, I turn, intending to dart into the house and continue the chase, but find Cheshire blocking my way instead. “That’s cheating,” I chuckle as he presses me back. “Using your super powers.”

  “I just used all the tools at my disposal,” he growls, his fingers gripping my waist and lifting me, throwing me backwards. My heart kicks in my chest before I land on the soft mattresses, bouncing once before settling.

  “I thought you’d want the chase to last longer,” I murmur as he stalks closer, his muscles rippling with the movements.

  “I did.” He climbs on the bed and moved closer. “But then I thought about what would happen when I captured you and decided I had enough of that sort of fun.” His grin turns saccharine. “Besides, what’s a cat to do when he wants to lick the cream?”

  I laugh as his claws hook into my jeans and begin to pull them off. I know he wants to shred them but after losing too many pairs to his claws, we have new rules. No more shredded clothing, not unless I tell him I don’t care. But good jeans are hard to come by, so I let the anticipation grow as he pulls them off intact. “And here I was thinking I was the mouse, pussy cat,” I grin, but it falters just a little when he strokes a finger along my slickness.

  “You could never be a mouse,” he reassures, jerking my thighs wide. “Maybe a wolf.” Leaning down, he looks at me from between my thighs. “Or a cat.”

  Cheshire drags his tongue through my folds, and I thread my fingers through his hair, caressing his ears as his lips press against me and throw my desire higher. Every time is like this, a treasure, and something I never thought I’d have. There’s so much love shining in his eyes, even after everything we’ve been through, even though we’d fought the pull so hard at the beginning, we nearly lost each other. I’m so thankful Cheshire had chosen to give it a chance, that he decided we make our own fate, even if we’re doing what fate wanted to begin with.

  “How can I be a cat when that position is taken?” I breath when he strokes a finger inside me and curls it, making my back bow from the bed.

  He hums against my clit, coaxing me onto the ledge I know he’s prepared to throw me over. The best part about Cheshire though? He will always leap from the ledge with me. “A Goddess then,” he says as he lifts and places his chin against my pelvis, smiling at me far more gently then the Cheshire Cat is known for. “My Goddess, and I’ll worship your temple until the day I cease to exist.”

  My chest squeezes and I drag him up, claiming his lips in a feverish kiss that holds everything I’m feeling and more. My heart belongs to the Cheshire Cat so completely, I can’t imagine a world where he doesn’t exist. I know, if he ever did, I will be right beside him just the same. We’ve never been married by my world’s standards, but our bond goes beyond that. We’re together until death does us part, and if death comes, it will have to take us both. Because I’m never letting Cheshire go.

  “I love you, pussy cat,” I whisper against his lips. “For now and ever, no matter what the worlds bring.”

  He presses inside me, bringing us from two to a single being, joined in more way than one, and holds me so tightly, I wonder if he’s holding me together or himself.

  “I love you, too, Goddess,” he rasps, claiming me as much as I claim him. But then he pauses and looks down at me, too many emotions shining in his eyes. “I’ve never asked, and you’ve never brought it up. I know you don’t care for your world’s traditions of marriage, but Wonderland has its own traditions—”

  “Yes,” I growl and curl my legs around his hips. “You never had to ask. I’d follow you to the ends of the worlds. Now move, Chesh, before I take matters into my own hands.”

  I will always remember the day the Cheshire Cat looked at me with eyes like electricity and asked me to marry him, even if it was a different sort of marriage than my world’s, even if I never really let him get the words out.

  In the end, we leap off the cliff together, and hold tightly to each other all the way down.

  The Punisher and The Sword. . .

  Chapter Three

  WENDY DARLING

  I watch everyone split in their directions, but I don’t take off into the trees like most of them. Instead, I take Hook’s hand and smile up at him. The pirate raises his brows, a slow grin on his face.

  “No chase, Wendy Bird?” he asks, his voice gravel and enticing.

  “I think we chased each other enough over the years, pirate. Now it’s time for less chasing and more reveling.” And it’s true. We’d spent too long chasing each other or ignoring each other. There’d been no in-between. For so long, we danced around our feelings, thinking if we didn’t inspect them too closely, they’d disappear. It hadn’t worked and only caused us more pain. Now that we have each other, I’m hesitant to turn it back into a chase, even for a festival, even if the both of us are painted because neither could decide who was which role.

  “You’re right,” he murmurs. “Besides, I don’t need a good chase to get me excited for spreading you like a sacrifice on an altar.” He leans down and kisses me on the side of my neck, teasing, and I shiver in answer.

  “Careful or you’ll end up being the one spread on the altar, pirate.”

  “I’m not opposed,” he hums. “As long as I get to return the favor.”

  Grinning, I tug Captain Hook toward the Hatter’s home, making our way to the room we’d been given. The Hatter’s house is a maze of doorways and confusion, but we find our room easy enough. It had taken me days of wandering through the house before Hatter finally admitted the trick. Think of where you want to go, and you’ll end up there. It’s so mad and yet, so easy, it annoyed me. Now, it comes in handy.

  Once inside the lavish room, closer to something my parents would have had in their home than what I expected of the Mad Hatter, I turn to my pirate and take his hook, so I hold both of his hands, but I don’t look up into his eyes.

  “Do you wonder what will happen to us, now that Neverland is gone?”

  “Of course.” Using his hook to tilt up my chin so I meet his eyes, he smiles gently. “I worry every day for you. You’re still in mourning, Wendy Bird. I’m here every step of the way, and if there comes a time where we fade away because our world is gone, I’ll be comfortable in knowing I loved you completely.”

  His words remind me why I’m in mourning, why I can’t seem to feel as normal as I always had. I don’t think I’ll ever return to that Wendy. No, I’m the Wendy who’d been forced to kill her brothers not once, but twice. I’m the Wendy who watched Peter die and couldn’t do anything about it. I’m the Wendy who lost the Crocodile to whatever void Neverland became. I will never be old Wendy again, not after everything we’d been through. My brothers’ eyes flashes through my nightmares. Sometimes, they say the exact same things they had, telling me to kill them and open the door. Sometimes, in the worst ones, they scream how they never wanted to die at all.

  “I’m sorry,” I rasp, clutching onto Hook’s waist for support.

  “Don’t be, Wendy Bird.” Hook pulls me close and wraps his arms around me, holding me as tightly as I need. “I’m here, no matter what. You could string me up by my toes over shark infested waters and I’d still look at you like you hung my stars in the sky.”<
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  I can’t help the watery laugh that slips out. I tug my pirate closer, closer, until there’s no space between us, until it feel like we’re one. “I know we’re supposed to have sex for the festival, but. . .”

  Hook’s hand and hook hold me tightly. He’s careful not to nick me, careful not to squeeze too tight. We’ve never tested our strength against each other and I hope we’ll never have to. I’m not sure if I’m ready for those sort of answers. I’m not sure if I want to know my true strength.

  “Let’s go out on the roof and watch the stars instead,” he said. “There’s plenty of time for rope play and screaming.” I feel his kiss on the top of my head. “Let’s revel in being together, instead.”

  Carefully, we both climb through the window like we’ve done so many times before, leaning back against the slopped roof. We hold hands, staying connected, as we stare at a sky studded with stars I’ve never seen. With the worlds crashing together, it makes for a spectacular sky. In one direction, you can make out the sun. In another, three moons. And the stars? The sky is absolutely painted with millions and millions of stars, barely any blank spaces between them, until it’s a sky of diamonds. It always reminds me how small we are in the grand scheme of things. When I’d left my home to go to Neverland, I never thought about other worlds, not until White found himself in Neverland. Still, I never imagined there’d be so many versions, so many choices. I certainly never imagined how they could suddenly all crash together.

  “Do you ever fear it?” I whisper, glancing over at Hook.

  “Which part?” Hook’s looking at the sky, and I wonder what it’s like for a Captain of the Stars to look upon such beauty and not be able to sail it. One day, we’ll both have a ship again. One day, we’ll chase the stars.

  “All of it. This new world, Wonderland, the inevitable darkness that will come. There’s so much on the horizon, and though we’re celebrating tonight to give us a sense of normalcy, everything feels a bit like we’re on an out of control train.”