Loving Lucius (Werescape) Read online

  Down. Quickly marching with mind-numbing touches of suction. Pausing so his wily wet tongue could joust with my wits at the bottom of my navel. Then onward. Downward. But who'd complain? This kind of teasing wasn't so bad.

  The weight of his torso shifted off of me.

  Releasing me from where he'd splayed my thighs like the wings of a specimen butterfly. Moving toward the bed's edge. No. Don't leave. Come back. I closed my legs until they bumped into his shoulders and shoved onto my elbows.

  "Be still," he growled, his golden eyes watching me from where he knelt between my thighs.

  What is he doing?

  He placed his palms on my thighs a few inches from my sex, pausing a moment, studying me, and then slid them down to the crook where my legs met my groin.

  Whisper light. His touch. Barely there. Yet so chilling that I fell back against the soft bedding.

  His fingers tickled through my groin's curls to the part between my nether lips and drew them wide like opening the curtains of my soul's window.

  My heart thrashed.

  He meant to touch me. Ruthlessly. There. Torture me. Make me writhe a hole in through the bed. Good. But he didn't use his fingertip like he'd done when he had me on all fours. No, his tongue and sharp teeth did the honors.

  Chapter Eleven

  Around and around the tip of my mate's glorious tongue glided, mapping out the tiniest lump of sensitive tissue a woman possessed. Making me hold my breath. Struggling to choke back my screams to let this last as long as possible. Anything to keep him there. Stroking my need.

  When I'd wriggle my hips like his head was my stallion, he'd clamp the pearl between the edges of his teeth, pinch my thoughts into chaos, and suck until I'd grab the blanket with both hands, grit my teeth, and grind my hips again against his attentive dentition.

  The satisfied growl he sent lumbering across the room pushed me down deeper into the hole.

  Where I wallowed.

  A fish flopping on the bank.

  Gasping for a breath.

  Hanging on for dear life.

  Need shaking the core of every cell in my body until each burst simultaneously at his sucking noises.

  Popped.

  Everything popped at once.

  My body quaked and trembled.

  Again and again. Because his doting attention didn't end with my orgasm. He nibbled and sucked until I'd danced a few more brief dances with the grappling bed. Trapped. I was stuck in the hole he'd made me writhe through the bed.

  The heat of his mouth slipped away.

  Leaving my sex cold. Humming. Crying out for more.

  He shoved up, pushing over my groin, hand-over-hand along my sides, crawling, dragging his hot sinewy weight along my belly, and hovered, looking down at me for a moment.

  Those yellow eyes full of knowing. Aching as if pleading for a reprieve.

  Something else flickered in those golden orbs. Is his Wolf about to come out to bury me alive in this bed?

  He snaked a hand along my side.

  The phantom of a touch. Heading down to my throbbing sex. But didn't touch me. With his hand. No. The smooth head of his firm cock did. There. Locking into the mouth of my throbbing sex.

  He thrust his hips.

  Ramming along the length of my slick clenching inner channel. Wedging that engorged club deeply into my aching flesh. Trapping me, the lab specimen of a butterfly, upon his stake. Right where I'd always want to be pinned.

  He began moving.

  His pumping hips felt so astounding. Rocking my begging sex into another round of raw need. I had to wrap my legs around the flexing iron of his ass and lock my heels beneath his buttocks to hold him there. Revering my need with the doting motion of his hips. Just in case he decided to taunt me more by withdrawing.

  To touch those magnificent muscles. Everywhere. They were all over me. Rubbing me with seductive friction. But nothing was as perfect as the turgid muscle inside me. Right there. Angling at the little spot I'd only permitted him to touch. Rubbing haphazardly. Just enough to make me gasp but leave me wondering if he toyed with me.

  Two can play this game. I slid my palms along the undulating musculature of his arms bracing his body overhead, across the supple flesh of his sides, down the firm bend along his back, across his knifing lower back, and over his steely ass.

  His head twisted, throwing his nose over his shoulder.

  He watched me touch him.

  For whatever reasons. I tried not to chuckle and spoil the sight of him being mesmerized.

  Tried to lie silently at the brunt of his pumping adoration. But some little voice inside me told me to squeeze. I grabbed two handfuls of harder-than-stone ass.

  His chin shot up, backward, and he released an ungodly howl.

  A chill prickled across my skin.

  But I liked him reacting to my touch. Especially when his body sprouted Wolfen hairs. Lots of scraping hairs that made me shiver with the friction they conjured from my flesh.

  He leaned down, pressing those Wolfen hairs so close to me that they brushed my pearled nipples into iron points.

  Over and over. Never unknotting them.

  What his cock did inside me, I couldn't explain. Hadn't noticed before. Maybe he kept my thoughts busy last time he shifted. But now, his human face furring out, I had a moment to enjoy the ballooning thickness of his shaft. The strange sensation of it suddenly scraping along my inner channel.

  How would that feel focused on my little internal bundle of nerves? I pulled his furred ass so hard that his enormous rod stopped gliding. His hips simply rocked mine wildly. Except for the tiniest of movements. Deep inside. Along the spot that sucked me breathless. Made me throw my head back. Made me scream.

  He unleashed the most blood-curdling howl.

  His cock flinched inside me.

  Searing me with a molten heat. Maybe branding me. Definitely filling me with Wolf's seed.

  Wolf shot out of Lucius' face, ragged out a growl, and pumped my tickling need witless.

  The whole bed rocked like the mass hopped across the room.

  The force knocking my grip free of Wolf's hairy ass.

  Who cared? Wolf wasn't about to stop riding my soul until he'd finish raking his cock along my quivering channel and had wrung every drop of seed inflating his shaft.

  His efforts weakened.

  Dying. Rather, his enthusiasm. Until his presence slipped away from inside of me.

  He groaned one sad little fizzling sound and buried the wiry hairs of his snout in the bedding at my ear. "Mine," he gasped in almost indescribable English.

  His furred chest panted.

  His whole length of wiry hairs brushed shivers from my skin.

  Yet, slowly, the Wolfen coat vanished, leaving my mate behind in all his sculpted glory, finally breathing normally against my bare skin. "I told you so, Kitten." He chuckled, otherwise lying still, the chuckle muffled from where he laughed into the bedding.

  Any other time, that comment would come off smug from a person. But I enjoyed writhing a hole in the bed. "Well, don't think I'll settle for just once."

  His chuckle deepened. He snaked his arms around my waist and rolled us, stopping with my body draping his hard body's stickiness.

  Something about this position made my sex ache again. But I was too tired to confess. Instead, I enjoyed the way he petted my back. One slow gentle brush of palm after another down to the top of the bulge of my buttocks.

  He twisted his head, grabbed a pillow, and stuffed the plump material under his head.

  Enough to prop his gaze up.

  He watched his hand stroke along the length of my body. "Next time, I'll make you watch," he whispered.

  Maybe he warned. "Oh?"

  "You on top. Like this. But us in a chair. You can see yourself glide along my shaft. Watch as Wolf makes it grow." His twinkling conspiratorial gaze locked upon mine. "Oh, yes, sweetness. I'll teach you how to think dirty thoughts and make Wolf whip out his monster cock. Shifte
rs claim a mate can't resist once she knows how to seduce the ridges from a Wolf cock." He winked.

  Ridges? "That sounds painful."

  "Then why do women always come back for more?"

  ****

  Lucius had gone hunting the rest of the day, leaving me to wonder what his sire was doing with Violet. Until a young woman rode into camp. Not just any young woman either. Her long straight brown hair pulled back into a tail dangling along the length of the quiver she wore over her shoulder blades and the bow tossed across her chest. I'd have doubted the weapon useful in that she couldn't possibly disentangle it from her hair except for the determined expression on her beautiful face.

  We could only see her blue eyes above the blue surgical mask she wore. But her declaration of a mysterious fever that killed members of a smaller Shifter outpost farther north in the Big Woods only made us want her to keep wearing the mask. She had enough sense about her to demand we stay at a distance. Just in case. Apparently, Augustus didn't scare easily. Even when Drea broke into nervous tears. Because the woman was her younger sister, Josie, and the news of the outposts' loss only drove Drea's sorrow. Until Drea's sister, Josie, demanded to have her blood tested.

  Standing inside the clan leader's log cabin, across from Josie in her survival gear, we all had to look a sight. Fearful. For us. For Josie.

  "What do we do?" Drea begged.

  "Stay here," Augustus gently spoke to his mate, patting her shoulder. "I'll take a blood sample. We'll see what we're dealing with. Nobody else will be infected." He turned to Violet. "Stay with Drea, little one." He shot her a wink.

  Violet returned the gesture.

  Great. All that winking between my mate and his sire is more than enough. Now, I'll have to deal with Violet.

  "Elise, come with us." Augustus waved me around the table in his shadow.

  Fine. I'd do whatever is expected of me. That's how I'd fit in here. I'd help. I kept my distance from the woman and Augustus, who led us with a five-foot lead. Just in case.

  We stepped into warm sunlight, where Josie left her alert black stallion outfitted in rich brown leather tack with firearms, pickaxe, bedroll, and saddle bags. But beside him, someone tied six horses to the hitching posts. Six horses loaded down with all sorts of boxes and bags stood idly, heads hung passively. Waiting. Perhaps dreading what Augustus would discover. Or for a feedbag. But nobody would know what the future held if we didn't do what was necessary to learn what micro-invader these Shifters finally faced. I followed the quiet woman's dangling hair underground into the compound.

  Augustus ordered the communal room to vacate, instructing the few adults to retreat to their personal quarters until he'd announced all would be well. He led us to the lab--into the gusty breath the space sighed when the metal door swung wide. But he halted us where we stood in the corridor with a raised palm.

  "Josie, the door straight across the room, you go to it. Press the square red panel next to the door handle. The door will open. Enter and allow it to close behind you. We'll enter after that. When you're through the door, enter the next door on the left. Follow the instructions on cleaning up. Take your time. When you're finished, we'll meet you beyond the shower." He backed away, allowing her to catch the door and enter.

  Josie shoved the door wide and kept going.

  The door slapped shut, blocking my view of her.

  Augustus caught my gaze. "Listen closely, Elise. We've never had a Shifter disease before. If this proves to be one, this whole community could die."

  "Normals too?"

  He sighed. "She survived. She was the only Normal in the lot. She was the last unmated female. But she lived with her sire and three brothers." He wagged his head. "I don't know what this is. You stay clear of her. Just in case Normals carry the bug." Augustus waved me toward the door and pushed it wide.

  What if I carried it and infected Lucius?

  "Come along, Elise."

  I had no choice. A community member did as instructed. Repaid the group for protection. I took a step.

  What would Lucius say when he returned to learn I'd been in close quarters with Josie? I stepped across the lab's threshold.

  "It's alright, Elise. I just want you close in case something happens to me and I fear I'm infected."

  Him? Now, everything made sense. I flicked him a glance and nodded.

  But Josie waited beyond a glass window through the door she'd entered. Augustus led me through the doorway and to a small brightly-lit room with a counter running the length of the window. One strange hole with a black lining rested partially set in the countertop. Two metal chairs waited beneath the window on our side. I could see one through the glass.

  "Give her some time. The instructions posted in that containment area will have her showering and donning some clean clothing. You stay here. You can talk to her through the window. I'll be right back."

  Sitting there alone gave me some time to study the room beyond the glass. Or plastic. The clear material wasn't quite as cold as I'd expect. Why plastic? Glass is breakable. The pathogen could escape. So, this hard surface is most likely not glass. Someone could use the cot across the otherwise empty space to attempt to break the glass but would get nowhere.

  A door at the far left of the empty white containment room opened.

  Josie entered in a pair of olive-drab military pants, a short-sleeved tan t-shirt, and a pair of white flip flops that looked almost like paper. She immediately noticed me beyond the barrier and veered my direction. Her dark damp hair hung combed down to her waistband. She stopped opposite me and scanned my side of the window.

  Probably for Augustus. "Augustus says we can hear each other."

  Her gaze snapped to meet mine. "I can."

  She seemed awfully calm for someone who just lost her family. But time alone on the trail could do that to a person as much as watching people die slow agonizing deaths. "My name is Elise. I'm sorry about your relatives. I'm certain Augustus can help you." And if he can't, a healer like me can. Simply to ensure she wouldn't suffer anymore.

  Josie blinked once, slowly, before descending into the chair on her side of the wall. "Thank you. I've never seen you or heard about you. Who are you?"

  Anyone in the compound would have an answer to that question about me. I'd have to tell her something. "I'm from New Boston. My father sent us here to live." That should take care of her curiosity.

  "Oh. Mine did that too when I was younger. He thought I'd have a better education here." She winced. "I remember how hurt and angry I was. Until I came and made friends." Her serious mask never broke into a smile.

  Pain. Lots of pain. And she's so young. She can't be more than twenty. "So, how long did you study here?"

  "For ten years. When I was eighteen, I returned to live with my sire." Her gaze drifted off to memories.

  Even though she looked me in the eye. Poor thing.

  "It takes a lot to kill a Shifter," she sort of mumbled.

  The door to my left swung open, producing Augustus.

  He carried a small plastic tub and nodded at Josie. "I'm ready." He dragged the other chair to the strange hole in the transparent wall and settled down. "Ready?" He watched her, waiting for a reply.

  She nodded.

  His gaze darted to her right. "In that lower cabinet, you'll find a few bottles of rubbing alcohol. Wash your hands and arms in it. When they've air-dried, put on a long glove. The ones you used to laugh about."

  Josie left to do as she was told.

  Augustus watched her, saying nothing.

  Maybe he thought she could hear him. Or he was caught up in deep thought. Too much thought could kill a person. Like me and my damned alien DNA. What stole away with Josie's attention? Did she think about those she watched die? Did she recall all the happy times they had together?

  My heart choked and drove a wave of stinging tears to my eyes and nose.

  Not good. I didn't want Josie to think anything else bad. Like we feared her. The way I'd panicked not so
long ago. Besides, I could heal her. One touch. Skin-to-skin. I could flush anything from her body. Right the balance of her cells. That's what I'd do. Eliminate the one thing that plagued her now. The potential pathogen. When Augustus had his blood samples, I'd ease that pain for her.

  Josie returned to her seat and thrust her arm through the strange hole. The clear plastic glove reached far past her elbow. Augustus carefully pulled the end of the glove down, revealing the bend of her arm.

  "Three vials of blood should be enough." He smiled at her.