Reluctant Mates - 21 Paranormal Romance Stories (Werewolf, Vampire, Minotaur and Monster collection) (3 page)

“How are you so big? I mean, how much do you exercise?”

“Not a lot, really. Couple times a week. It’s just natural. We – uh, I mean, I’ve just always been big.”

“We? Do you have a strong brother or something?”

“Yeah, that’s it, hey!” My hand slipped off his and went down the side of his leg.

“Oh, sorry. I can’t believe I’m doing this. I’m totally not like this normally,” I said as I moved my hand around Rock’s leg to the inside of his knee. “I’m...kinda serious, I’m a little scared. I’m never this forward with guys. I’m shy, but for some reason I can’t keep my hands off you.”

“Oh no,” he said. “We’ve got to get out of here.”

“Why? I mean, what the hell, we’re out here and alone, right? Why not be a little crazy for once in my life. It’s that you don’t like me. That’s what it is, right? You thought you’d like a girl with a little more to her, but now that I’m here, you want to go back to your rail thin floozies?”

“No, no, no, oh God no that’s not it at all, Lacy.” Rock grabbed my hand off his leg and massaged it with his meaty paw, then squeezed my forearm. “No, it has nothing to do with you.”

“You’ve got a girlfriend that you didn’t tell me about? God! Why is it always-”

“No! I told you, that’s not it. I just have something to...oh God...oh God it’s starting. Hurry, run to the car!”

“What’s starting?” I said, running my hand between his huge thighs, it shook uncontrollably the closer I got to the center of his body and the heat I already felt emanating from  him.

“You’re so hot. I mean, physically – uh, I mean like, temperature. You feel like you’re on fire. Are you sick?”

“N-no,” he said with a warble in his deep, leather voice. “Not really.” His speech alternated between raspy whispering and very, very loud, near-shouts. “I don’t...I don’t feel very well though. Please, please, help me to the car and drive.” He tried to hand me his keys but accidentally threw them.

“Rock? What’s happening? Are you okay?”

“How...how is it so dark already?” Violently he scratched himself, so hard that he tore two of the buttons on his shirt and revealed a gorgeously muscled chest covered in a heavy dusting of hair.

Goodness, that hair. I’ve seen plenty of guys naked, but never one that was so completely unashamed of himself. Something about it, I can’t stop watching. Come on, Lacy, help this guy to his car, he’s obviously having a seizure. Quit gawking at his muscles and get him to the hospital.

“Okay, okay.” I slipped under his arm, somehow holding the massive hunk of man up, and started the three hundred or so foot trek to the car. “This is seriously so weird.”

“I’m...I’m s-sorry, I should have...”

“No, not you. I’m helping you to your car while you’re having some kind of attack and all I can think about is ripping your shirt the rest of the way off and clawing you and climbing on top of you and – holy shit, I can’t believe what I’m saying. Why do I keep telling you this stuff?”

“It’s,” he fell to a knee. “It’s too late. Try to get away, try to...No!”

“What’s happening? What’s going-”

Dropping to all fours, Rock began to writhe and thrash around in the pine needles on the ground, snapping twigs and grunting as he did. He clawed at himself like he’d done earlier, but with such ferocity that I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. It was like the guy was trying to rip his own skin off, like a dog with a shampoo allergy. Just clawing away, ripping and tearing.

One of his sleeves got caught on a root or something, and split right down the line of his muscle, then unbelievably, it looked like his muscles started to bulge larger, growing even as he wretched around.

I sprinted to the car, hoping that he had an inhaler or an Epi-Pen or whatever would get rid of his problem, but didn’t find anything, so I decided to go back and try to drag him to the car as soon as he stopped the main part of his fit.

But, when I left the car, I looked back in his direction and saw nothing. No Rock, no writhing man clawing at his own skin. He was gone.

“Rock? Rock, are you there?” I called out.

In the distance, I heard a grunting sound that reminded me of a deer who got hit with a badly aimed bullet.

“There’s no way that’s...” I swallowed hard. “Rock?”

I walked back to where he was and found a pile of clothes, all torn to shreds. He had just been there. He had been right there, and when I got back all that was left was shredded clothing. On the one hand, I worried about him. On the other hand, he was naked.

Stop it Lacy! What are you thinking! Stop with all the horny stuff! He’s hurting somewhere, find him!

But all that rolled through my mind was the newscaster, or the radio man, whatever he was. The only words I heard were his warnings for all the kids to be safe and to stay classy.

“Right,” I said out loud, “classy. Way to stay classy, Lace.”

Then I noticed something that looked like hair, hard, black hair going from where Rock had been, off into the edge of the forest. After that I realized there were footprints, broken sticks, and all sorts of other stuff, leading off to the trees. And then I heard it.

Or rather, I heard them.

In front of me, just past the edge of the woods, a howl broke through the growing dark of night. Behind me, I heard another. I looked back and forth, trying to decide what to do, but before anything made much sense, I felt that same twinge I did earlier that got me to grope poor, nervous Rock’s rock.

I wanted to go to him, wherever he was, to make sure he wasn’t hurt, or worse, been grabbed by...

“A wolf!”

I ran so fast that I forgot to worry about myself. What the Hell was I going to do if there really was a wolf that dragged him off? No time for that, I thought, gotta make sure he’s safe.

***

“S
tay away!” Rock shouted as soon as I neared where he laid, his back against a tree trunk. “Go back to the car and leave me here! I won’t be able to control myself...much...longer...”

“What are you talking about? No way am I leaving you here alone. Not a chance in hell. What if that wolf comes back?”

For some reason, he laughed.

In the back of his throat was a weird sound, kind of a hitch or a snort or something that reminded me of what dogs do when they sneeze. “Seriously, seriously, Lacy, I can’t control what I do. I’m a monster.”

“If you’re talking about letching on me, that’s not a problem. You’re not the first guy that stared at my tits instead of my eyes and to be honest I sorta like it when you do it.”

“No, you don’t under – hnnnng! – you don’t understand!” He thrashed around again like he was taken with either another fit, or he caught the spirit, I couldn’t tell. “Please...”

He flopped over on his back and I thought maybe he was about to be taken with another of his seizures but instead he just screamed out into the night and grunted a couple of times, then rolled back over. The night had gone full dark by then and when I watched him, it seemed that he reacted to the moonlight coming through the trees. When he moved in a way that the light struck him, Rock thrashed a little harder, but screamed less. When he was in darkness, he wept pitifully.

“I want to help you, Rock.” I was surprised that my voice had a twinge. “Please?”

“Lacy, get away. As soon as the moon...” his breathing was ragged. Rock, I was convinced, was dying right before my eyes. “The moon...it...full...”

Suddenly, I saw what I thought was impossible. Rock pushed himself to his hands and knees and stumbled forward into a beam of moonlight.

Hair? He’s covered in hair? No way. No way is this happening. Not possible. And – what is that? Oh my God he is actually bent over like he’s a...

He howled again.

And then he charged.

“Run! Get away!” He screamed, even as he tore at my shirt. I twisted away from the enraged beast and slapped his hand, or his claw or whatever it was, and escaped with only a rip in my shirt. For a moment we stared at each other, but he lunged and I dodged underneath. Deeper into the woods I ran, looking back every so often to see Rock behind me, almost at my heels.

“What are you?” I cried back, hoping he had enough sense to respond. “Rock! What’s happened to you? I can’t keep running forever.”

Just then my lungs started burning. The end of my little marathon was coming a lot quicker than I expected.

“Car,” he grunted. “Get...to...car...”

I couldn’t figure out what he meant, but then the keys in my pocket stuck me in the leg and I spun on my heel, running back in the other direction, avoided another of his clumsy lunges, and bee-lined for the Mini.

As terrified as I admittedly was, that same bizarre feeling from earlier came back over me in between expert jukes of the grabs Rock attempted. The warmth that I felt when his skin sweltered under my palm, the scent he carried that made my legs feel a little tingly, and made my tits ache just a bit, it struck me full in the face whenever he thrashed at me and fell past my dodge, and his hair – or fur – brushed against my face.

I almost gave up right then, let him take me on the dead, dry ground, but luckily I had better sense than that.

Get to the car. Lock yourself inside it, wait for whatever it is he’s doing to pass, and then let him give you that jostling
. Despite everything, somehow I still made myself giggle. It’s my defense mechanism I guess.

Close to the car. Keep going, Lacy, get the keys first and then-

“Get...away...from...her.”

Yellow eyes pierced the darkness. I skidded to a stop inches away from the car door, with my hand extended and the keys at the ready. Rock, too, stopped for an instant, stunned by whatever it was on the hood of his car.

I hope it’s not a raccoon.

The gnashing of teeth and the screeching, horrible roars I heard sent me to the ground where I ducked and covered. When I got brave enough to open my eyes, I was surprised to see the two beasts – and that what they were, two of the same kind of awful creature – grappling with one another, in a way that resembled a wrestling hold.

And then I recognized the shredded pants on the one who had dove from the car.

“Jack?”

He turned. Rock took a cheap shot, and tossed Jack to the ground. He rolled, regained his feet and then charged again.

The clashing, and gnashing, and biting and all the pure, powerful, unbelievable strength that the two straining, grunting monsters displayed lit a fire in my belly that embarrassed me for about half a second before I quit caring.

How many times are you going to have both of the guys you’ve been lusting over together, Lacy? And besides, weren’t you thinking about getting them both out here anyway?
I dodged an errant kick.

They slammed together again with a man on man thunderclap. Arms and claws wrapped around one another. Rock’s massive paw pushed against Jack’s face and shoved him backwards where he stumbled over a root or a rock or something, and tumbled to the ground. An instant later, so quickly I barely saw the creature move Rock had straddled Jack and held him by the shoulders. He lifted Jack off the ground, held him still and then slammed him back down.

“Rock, stop! You’re hurting him!” I cried.

When both of the monsters turned to me, I thought maybe I shouldn’t have done that.

Deep inside me, between my legs, and on the tips of my aching tits, I felt my desire burning, smoldering, and flickering inside me like a storm’s calm beginning to break.  The two beasts looked at each other with a strange tenderness and then to me as though they just remembered I was there.

“What? Did I say something?”

When they both focused on me, the tingling in my belly turned to fire.

And then when Rock reached out, slowly, and stroked my hair, it was all I could do to keep from falling over myself to get to him.

The two of them had the same kind of manly, earthy scent that had got me so worked up when I was just with Rock in the forest, and had rubbed his...

Oh my God.
I looked down his body.
I mean I figured he was big, but...oh my God that’s...

Jack shot out his hand, faster than I could see, grabbed my hair and pulled me toward the pair and squeezed. His nails dragged along my side and snagged my t-shirt fabric with a little scratching sound, then hung up until he pulled, yanked and finally tore it free.

Without thinking, I grabbed onto the nearest thing I could find which just happened to be the short, hard hair that ringed Jack’s neck. When I touched him, the raw rubbing, the carnal savagery of his canine fur sent a chill up my arm and for some reason made everything seem real for the first time.

They had been mostly motionless since I got their attention except for grabbing me, and neither of them seemed to notice the other one anymore, as they were both much more interested in me. One of them – it was hard to tell which with the darkness growing – growled and then made a strange grunting noise as he grabbed the other. Rock and Jack started to go at it again, slashing and standing up tall to try and get leverage on each other.

“Hey!” I shouted. “You’re still holding onto-”

My plea was cut short by a hard jerk on the tiny part of my shirt still holding together that sent me sprawling to the ground, then banging along until I came to rest against the side of the car, and bumped my head pretty good on the door.

I shook my head to clear my browned vision, and watched as the two continue to wrestle. Their muscles, much bigger than I remembered, bulged and flexed with each jerky, halting motion. When Rock, who was just a little more powerful-looking and taller than Jack, got a handful and then a mouthful of skin, Jack swung his fist wide and made contact. His tremendous back squeezed and tightened and then released with an explosion of power and might.

They pushed up on each other, hand over hand, fist over fist, trying to get an advantage, but they were so evenly matched that they ended up just clenching one another in different wrestling holds, and as they both began to sweat their grasps got more desperate and slippery. Every grip, each squeezing, flexing, pulsing grapple made my cheeks flush a little hotter until finally I was just staring, open mouthed at the spectacle, unable to tear myself away even for an instant.