Lisa Renee Jones (8 page)

Cassie gasped and came awake to excruciating pain caused by Andres - in half man, half wolf form - ripping her shoulder open with his fangs. A second later, he was knocked off of her, and somehow she knew it was Troy who was rolling with him, his clothes tearing as he began to shift. Oh no, she thought. Oh, God. Get up, Cassie! Help him! She tried to lift herself, but her leg was a pretty bad sight, and so were the dead werewolf bodies peppering the ground around her.

Marcus appeared next to her. “Help him,” she said. “Help Troy. Please. Andres and… ” she gasped as pain shot through her shoulder.

“You’re the only one who is going to be able to help him when this is over,” Marcus said and bit his wrist. He held it to her mouth. “Drink quickly and deeply.”

She drew on the blood, shaking with the surge of his ancient power. Marcus bit his other wrist and dripped it over her shoulder. Pain rocked her body as the wounds healed rapidly, so rapidly it stole her breath.

The snarls stopped, and she shoved away from Marcus, not even sure how much time had passed, desperate to confirm Troy was alive. She found him squatted down over Andres’s dead body and his eyes, his skin, even his hair, were silver. He was beautifully lethal, and she knew she had to get to him before he hurt someone. She tried to get up, but Marcus held her. “Easy. We don’t know what he is capable of like this.”

“I do,” she said. “And he won’t hurt me. Let go.”

“I’m here,” Aylia said, running forward, her clothes ripped and bloodied where she’d clearly been injured, and now healed. “I need a drop of his blood for the spell.”

Cassie nodded and looked at Marcus. “I need to do this. You said so yourself.”

He didn’t look convinced. “I’ll go with you.”

“No,” she said quickly. “I have to go alone.”

Cassie pushed to her feet and Evan and Aiden rushed towards her. Troy roared and stood up, as if he thought they were going to hurt her. “Back!” she yelled.

“Holy Mother of God,” Evan said.

“Ditto on that,” Aiden murmured. 

“Please, get back,” Cassie said, waving the brothers back.

“No, Cassie,” Nico yelled, running up behind her. “You are not-”

She darted forward, knowing her brother would try and stop her otherwise, and not thinking about the consequences. Troy pushed to his feet, snarling viciously and shoving her behind him as Nico came after her.

“Nico, no!” Cassie shouted. “Get back. He won’t hurt me.”

Troy snarled again, and Nico stood far too close to him for comfort. Troy roared fiercely and grabbed Cassie, throwing her over his shoulder before he started to run at vampire speed. Cassie thought of the moment in the parking garage when he’d done the same thing.

In what must have been only a few minutes, they were on the balcony of the house again, and Troy was laying her on the bed. He started to move away and she held him. “No. Stay.”

He looked at her with those silver eyes, and she could see his awareness, his battle with the wolf. “I love you,” she whispered, stroking his cheek. “I love you so much.” She brushed her hair from her neck, and turned her head. “Drink.”

He buried his face in her neck. “No,” he hissed in her ear. “Will… hurt you.”

“I trust you,” she whispered, turning to brush her lips against his ear. “Trust me now. Trust.”

“Trust,” he repeated. “I do… trust you.”

“Then drink.”

His teeth sunk into her neck, piercing her skin and sending a rush of pain through her. Oh God, it hurt. It had never hurt before. But she bit back a cry, afraid of how he would react. He was too out-of-it to control what she felt and she wanted him back. She needed him back. Somehow though, a cry escaped her lips and it was as if the sound changed him. Muscle shifted beneath her palms and pleasure rushed through her. Suddenly, he was kissing her, the taste of her blood on his mouth, before he pressed his wrist to her lips.

“Now you drink,” he ordered gently. “You’ve lost too much blood.

She’d have let him drink every last drop she owned to save him and she saw that understanding in his eyes. She also saw his regret and worry, and silently vowed, to quickly wipe it away. He was alive, and so was Nico. She was a happy wolf. 

And long minutes later, when he pulled his wrist from her mouth and they stared at each other she knew what to say to him. She traced a strand of his long blond hair. “It was silver,” she said. “And so was your skin and eyes. You were beautiful. You are beautiful to me.”

“I was a monster that could have killed you.”

“You killed Andres. Finally, he’s dead.”

“And we were lucky I didn’t kill you with him.”

“You would never hurt me. And we have the necklace. Everything is as it should be.” She trailed fingers down his cheek.“But even if we didn’t have the necklace. You were still you, Troy, and you were nothing but one big Papa Bear with me.” She shook her head. “No. Scratch that. You had a caveman thing going on that doesn’t seem to go away when you shift. We really need to talk about this habit of yours of flinging me over your shoulder and carrying me off to your cave.”

“Cass, I’m serious.”

Her chest tightened. “I love you, Troy. All of you. Even the caveman.” She smiled. “That’s what I’m going to call you when you shift. My beautiful caveman, and if you keep giving me your blood the way you have been, you might have to call me vampire.”

He nuzzled her cheek, his voice graveling near her ear. “There’s something else I want to call you, Cass. Something I’ve wanted to call you for a very long time.” “You Tarzan, me Jane?” she asked, teasing him.

“No.” He fixed her in a mischievous crystal blue stare. “Well, maybe for one night or two.”

She laughed. “You naughty, naughty man.” And it was at that moment that the room crackled with energy and they were no longer alone.

Troy moaned. “Marcus is standing behind us, isn’t he?”

Cassie looked over his shoulder. “Yeah.”

“Nice tush, Troy,” came a female voice.

“And Aylia is with him,” Troy added.

Cassie laughed. “Yes, and consider this the last time anyone but me gets to comment on your ‘tush’.”

***

Several hours later, Troy and Cassie had managed to get his brothers, Nico, Aylia and Marcus, to finally leave them alone. They’d never even made it to the bedroom, stripping naked in the living room. Troy held her now as she straddled him on the couch of the sunken living room, trembling with release. His Red Wolf was now magically bound, and he could feel the difference, the control, the sense of himself that had been absent before. His nightmare had now become a journey that had led him here, to Cassie.

He brushed her hair back from her face, staring into her gorgeous honey colored eyes he hoped to lose himself in for a lifetime. “You remember me telling you there was something I wanted to call you?”

She curled her fingers on his jaw, a tenderness in her expression he’d thought he’d never deserve. “Yes.”

“Wife. I want to call you wife. Something I’ve never called anyone before because I was waiting for you.”

“Husband,” she said and her lips curved, before she grinned. “Since we can’t wear wedding rings and still shift, do I get my fur lined cuffs instead?”

He reached into the cushion and pulled out leopard skin cuffs. “Marcus left us an early wedding present.”

“Well then, I do indeed.”

Aylia rolled over in the king sized plush hotel bed with luxurious sheets laced with the scent of Nico. She stared at the ceiling, and touched the empty side of the bed where he’d been when she went to sleep. How had she thought she could go to a hotel room to ‘talk’ with that wolf and not end up bent over the bed and every which way afterwards? Why she always ended up in bed with him, she didn’t know. He was too arrogant, too… hot. Scorching hot.

She sat up, the sheet falling to her waist, the cool air conditioning reminding her of how naked she was, and how thoroughly pleasured. She shoved aside the blankets. She deserved last night after he’d held her necklace captive. Her necklace that held more than her magic in its depths. It hid her destiny. 

She reached to her neck to touch it and froze. It was gone. “You son of a bitch.” She rushed to the bathroom to grab her cell phone and thumbed through the numbers to punch in his. He answered on the first ring.

“Give it back.”

He laughed, low and deep. “Come and get it, witch.”

Nico and Aylia’s story – December 13th

A Werewolf Society Book

A witch after his secret. A wolf after her pleasure.

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