Beauty and the Brute [Werescape III] (23 page)

Wolf howled and collapsed down on top of her squirming slender body.

Too sleek. Too agreeably arching again and again into Wolf's eager body. Have to run. Far.

Fast. But I managed to keep my ass where it had been waiting precariously close to the Well.

Her constricting legs squeezed me forward.

Toward the hive drenched with honey.

The sensitive head of my cock slid inside her molten vise.

Deeply. So damned deep into the constricting hole. I couldn't help but groan. But I tried to fight losing control.

Wolf struggled to shake free of my skin.

To claim his mate. To devour her. I had to gnash him back. Gulp. Send him into the chasm before his muzzle stretched out of my face. Endangered her.

Her taut nipples scraped my chest like razor blades as her lower back arched beneath my waist. She grabbed my shoulders and clawed. “Please, Brutus. The hairs drive me insane the way they rake gooseflesh from my skin. I—I can't just lay here without losing my mind.

Please."

Wolf wouldn't stop thrusting toward freedom. Toward his mate's pulsing blood. Right beneath her pale skin. Where I was pounding into her rocking hips. Into silken dampness that tightened with our combined thrusts. A dance. A mating dance of immortality. That's what this was.

Her body's intoxicating scent drew Wolf for one reason. To conceive. And Wolf would not be refused the moment.

She made those little squeaking high-pitched sounds like the nearby chipmunks.

Probably witnessing this pivotal moment when Beauty's egg called to Wolf. Or the summons was her fingernails tearing through my shoulder blades. Her pleas for completion. The singular moment when we would unite as one and never be torn apart in the child we created. Immortalized mates, swimming in the Well of Immortality.

Dancing. Embracing. Gasping for one final breath. A life-giving breath when nothing else but our locked groins mattered. Legs and arms twisted in a wicked tangle of desperation around each other as Wolf's hot seed masked his mate's fecund scent. Shrouded her fertility with his own odor. And nobody would dare step between us once his seed nurtured inside her womb.

Mine, Wolf snarled, ramming into the grind of her begging hips.

My cock erupted.

Wolf stared at the white flesh of her collarbone.

Her head thrown back, eyes shut, mouth gaping, she didn't notice.

Sweet skin. For one bite. Just a salty taste of blood.

Wolf licked his lips.

No. He'd endanger the child. I clamped my teeth tightly and focused on the need to sink my cock more deeply inside her tight channel.

Wolf whined and rose to the sensation, withdrawing, lunging, fighting to mark his mate.

But the struggle died with every ounce of fight we three had left in us. Drop by blessed drop.

Until nothing but dry heaves of a deflating arousal and pumping hips withered into one final short-lived thrust. Just in case there was something left to prove or the possibility we might be gifted with another bath in the Well. Time. All we needed was more damned time.

The world stopped around us where we laid hips locking our rigid bodies. Ribcage frantically pumping to fill our bodies with air the way we gasped.

So we could live on. Carry on. Right the order on Earth. Give the planet Shifter sons and fertile daughters to ensure there was no end to humanity. No end with each new beginning brought to life. Could she really be pregnant?

She tilted her chin until her green eyes found my gaze. “God, Brutus.” Her fingers uncurled, releasing the long strong Wolfen hairs she pulled in my shoulders. “I can't believe that was so fast but,” she chuckled, “it was the best yet."

Spoken like a woman speared with a ridged Wolf cock. I shot her a wink.

Her palms slid across my shoulders and pressed down the thinning Wolfen hairs lining my arms. “What other dangerous things are out here I need to know about?"

Maybe I should warn her about Wolf's need to devour her? But something about the way she enunciated her words bothered me. Or Wolf. I lowered onto my elbows. “What do you mean?"

She studied the blue sky a moment while fingering some Wolfen hair on the back of my forearm. “There's something out here. I can feel it."

A chill crept through me.

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Feel it, she'd said. My mate had some sort of power. Something I needed to pay attention to.

"You sense things more than most Normals, Lorelei."

Her gaze flicked to the horizon. “Maybe. But I learned to listen to the sensation a long time ago. Or I'd have died young."

What did she mean by that confession? “Now, you have a Wolf. There will be no dying."

She turned a budding smile back to me.

Beautiful. Yes. My Beauty. All mine. With her not-so-Normal intuitive power. Maybe it was a heightened fear of losing what we share? Our bond. The seed we'd planted. Did she know we'd made a child? And if she didn't, would telling her make a difference? Most likely not.

Just cause her more worry. I'd tell her after we found a safe place to wait out winter. But by then, she'd probably figure out a she carried our child. All the better for her to discover the child on her own. I'd have to pretend to be surprised.

"We need to go,” she whispered.

Not a bit of worry in her voice. But she was right.

The Black Hills had looked dark in the distance over Brutus’ shoulder. But the closer Trance's casual rocking carried us, the greener the darkness grew until we were riding through an airy forest shrouding the hills. Not the kind of dense foliage where sunlight labored to bore through the underlying darkness. No, the sun had enough presence to warm my skin. The forest's size was a completely different issue. I'd seen it spread quite a bit across the horizon from a distance. But now, we just passed through large pine trees.

Unnoticed? Maybe. Nothing gave me a shiver. Still, anything could happen. I tightened my arms encircling Brutus’ iron waist.

He shot me a glance over his shoulder. “Something wrong?"

"No. Just making certain I'm ready in case you send Trance running."

He winked and turned back to the sunny trail. “Don't worry. Titus would be a fool to bring

Yale here. This is sacred Shifter ground. Titus would betray the one vow a Shifter makes. The oath to protect his own species. To do so would be the most unforgiveable disloyalty."

Not Titus again. I wouldn't argue the point though. Not when nothing in this beautiful place hinted of danger.

Movement blurred to our right.

Brutus casually turned his gaze that direction.

"Was that an animal?” I whispered, hugging tightly to my mate's solid reassuring back.

Oddly enough, there were no sounds. Yes. The forest was quiet.

"Not a dangerous one,” Brutus muttered back. “Just hold tight. I'll take care of things."

Trance plodded onward between tree trunks and boulders.

Step by crunching step through forest litter blanketing the ground. Hopefully, Wolf listened.

He'd hear anything sneaking up on us. Because I damned sure couldn't.

Something snapped and popped to our left.

A man on a horse. But he had a full head of hair. Long deep shiny black hair. Hanging in two thin braids from jaw down to his navel. The hair behind his head hung loosely down his back.

The man's dark eyes studied me from the hundred yards between his red-and-white horse and

Trance.

What did he want? And why hadn't Brutus made any sign of noting the newcomer's presence?

Something very strange occurred. I looped my index and middle fingers through my mate's belt loops for a better grip.

"Calm down, Beauty,” Brutus said softly. “They're Shifters. We're safe here."

Shifters in clothes fashioned from light brown hides. The man had painted his face, arms, and bare chest with various earth-toned colors. Like he meant to blend in with the forest.

Camouflage. “But he didn't shave his head,” I whispered.

"They don't. Call them rebellious. But they've survived a long time out here without being the focus of Normals out to catch Shifters and their mates."

So, they choose to keep their hair. How confusing. Brutus needs to stay close to explain everything.

Another round of popping set off like muted gunfire from the opposite direction.

A young warrior with long light brown braids steered his buckskin stallion's black socks through the noisy pine needles and fallen limbs. His blue eyes were almost white in that they were so pale.

Haunting. Omniscient. Like Father Leigh's God. The God I swore to often but felt no great connection with. How could anyone find a reason to speak with a deity who killed her parents and left her covered in cockroaches? Only to cast a final stone with the placation plan! But my time with Brutus is far more precious than anything else of my existence. Perhaps some supernatural force is at work here? Could I be part of a higher plan? Or is that just my tiny inner voice revealing its human insecurity? And how could anyone be insecure under a Shifter mate's protection as well as two accompanying Guardians to see me safely to this Shifter village? A secret Shifter village.

Nothing else was spoken as we trailed single-file knee-deep upstream in a shallow rivulet until rounding a bend and hitting into a wall of stench. A horrid smell. Rotting flesh.

My gut squeezed in rebellion.

Bile seared upward until burning the back of my throat.

I gulped it down and thrust my nose into the crook created by Brutus’ shoulder blade and back. A notch completely devoted to distracting me long enough for Trance to clear the horrendous odiferous cloud. What caused the stink? I thrust my head up, fingers pinching my nose tightly, and surveyed the surrounding wall of tree trunks beyond the stones.

Putrid entrails and pieces of animals littering the ground didn't cushion the impact of

Trance's black hooves as they clopped and slid against slick curved edges of cobbles lining the dry flanking stream's bank.

What happened to these animals? And just what are we doing here in this battle zone?

Beauty hadn't asked about the decaying animal parts. She didn't have to the way her grip tightened around my waist. I'd explain later how the odor would mask our trail. Hide our passing that route. We'd threaded through the stream, forest, and up into the secluded valley where the Shifters who called themselves Brothers left their hobbled ponies out to graze on tufts of grass outside a ringed wall of upright logs. Now to speak with Dark Cloud. Speaking of clouds, the blue sky didn't hold a wisp of moisture. Just a hawk, spiraling, diving, seeking what we all required. Sustenance. And I'd take shelter along with a mouthful of food any day.

Trance headed past two black and white ponies, toward the conical bases of teepees the palisade concealed.

Beauty cleared her throat.

Softly. Keeping the questions nagging her to herself. She was a mate to be proud of. “We're almost there. Let me do the talking."

"Okay,” she whispered and squeezed my waist again.

She had to be tired of holding on.

The village's gateway slowly appeared in the bend of the high fence with each of Trance's methodical steps. One warrior stepped through the opening in his fringed buckskin pants. He carried a traditional lance from what they'd explained to me on my previous visit. Eagle feathers hung from one side along the lance's length. The feathers matched those in the warrior's long graying hair. Not black hair. Not the color of a man carrying the genetic imprint of his people from before AEI. No, Dark Cloud had brown hair streaked with white. White a sign of his rank through age. And as the Shifters always said around me after my parents were murdered, Dark Cloud could rain on anyone's parade. Half-breed or not, Dark Cloud would

permit us to stay if we requested shelter. Or he'd make us move on. He is law out here, essentially a clan head.

Other Shifters stepped up, creating a line of fully-armed warriors behind Dark Cloud.

A line that stretched out before the gateway and adjacent walls.

"Are you certain it's okay?” Beauty whispered. “It doesn't feel right."

Why would she say such a thing? “We are safer here than anywhere else. Trust me."

"Alright."

But her tone didn't hide the tension I could feel through both her arms. Maybe her intuition warned of something I couldn't detect?

"Welcome Warrior Who Wanders,” Dark Cloud called out to me. “Hawk came to me in a dream and warned of your arrival."

Warned? I pulled on Trance's reins until he stopped. “Warned? There are still many hours of daylight. Should we move on tonight?"

Dark Cloud wagged his head. “No. It is a great honor to provide shelter for your child."

Beauty sucked in a deep breath. “Child? I'm no child,” she muttered.

She really had no idea she was pregnant. I slid my gaze to the elder's bright brown eyes. “It is a great honor for my mate, my child, and I to accept your protection."

She sucked in a hiss.

Foolish woman. I patted her slender hard wrist.

"Come then, Warrior Who Wanders.” Dark Cloud turned sideways, causing the line of warriors to break, creating a wide gap leading into the gateway. “We will share stories and news while the evening meal is served.” His gaze locked onto Beauty. “And I will speak with this stranger who brings to us a new order."

Just what I needed. A mystery. With Beauty's premonition, I had enough to contend with aside from riddles cast by a Shifter clan head. I slid out of the saddle onto the hard ground and lifted my mate's large round eyes down to my side.

Her attention focused upon Dark Cloud.

Rather, the elder's last statement.

"You are welcome here.” Dark Cloud nodded at her assessing stare.

"Thank you,” she managed and leaned into my side, drawing my arm down around her lower back.

"Nothing will harm you here, She Who Has Come to Save Us."