The Last Werewolf Bride Complete Trilogy (6 page)

Cassiah looked at my belly. She reached out a
thin hand and massaged the firm mound gently. The skin rippled as
the tenant shifted within. “They want your child, Jessa. It is a
boy and they believe he belongs to them.”

“Why?” I whispered.

Her eyes were sad as she regarded me. “Demons
are always searching for hosts.” Her cool hand touched my face
gently. “I am here to make sure they do not succeed.”

The rest of the day passed in a blur. The
witch was to occupy an empty cabin not far from ours. It was built
to be the home of Marcus’s brother Abram when he takes a
mate.

I stood by the window as twilight settled
around the farm. The witch’s cabin glowed with the candles she had
lit. Cassiah had laughed when I asked if there was some witchy
design behind her choice of lighting. After all, we weren’t
savages. All the cabins were equipped with electricity. “I prefer
fire,” she said.

Marcus’s strong arms wrapped around me and I
sighed, settling into him. For the first time that day he had
avoided my gaze. He didn’t need to say he was sorry. And even if he
had told me, it would have changed nothing. “Can she stop
them?”

His chin rested on top of my head. “She is
strong. Perhaps the strongest. Which is why she was
sent.”

I turned and faced him. His kiss was sudden
and fierce, his tongue forcing my lips apart and exploring the heat
of my mouth. I could not help but respond as the familiar desire
moistened my sex. I wanted him. I always wanted him. But I broke
the kiss. “Did you know her?”

He looked uneasy. “Who?”

My smile was thin. “You’re a rotten
liar.”

Marcus looked away. “I told you how it was the
night I claimed you. The act is meaningless until a wolf finds his
mate.”

I felt a pain. Odd, since I knew he’d had
other lovers. Given the extent to which he knew his way around a
woman’s body, I guessed his partners were numerous. But never
before had I been confronted with the comely flesh of his
experience. “How was she?” It was petty of me. But the new threat
to my unborn child left me feeling angry and helpless in a way I
had never felt when I was being threatened myself.

Marcus set his jaw. “If you are asking if she
was a good fuck, then the answer is yes.” He gripped my arms and
brought me close. “You are my mate, Jessa. I have never desired the
body of another since I claimed you.” But I was in no mood to
listen to his words. I twisted away from him and stalked to the
bedroom, slamming the door as he called after me. “And I never
will!”

I tore my clothes off and heaved my body into
the bed. I heard Marcus slamming objects around in the cabin for a
while, and then it was strangely quiet. I knew he waited for me,
but I stubbornly refused. Finally I heard the door to the cabin
slam closed and a moment later the mournful howl as he sought
refuge in the shape of the wolf. Tears ran over my cheeks as I
nestled into the cool pillow and waited for the shelter of
sleep.

I did not know the hour he came to me. The
fresh smell of the outdoors was all over him. He must have run for
hours. He did not wait for me get wet, or to even awaken fully. He
plunged into me without prelude or apology. I bit my lip to keep
from crying out as he pushed my legs higher and further apart to
give himself better access, grunting with each punishing thrust. It
did not take long for me to become slippery with arousal. My hands
reached out to touch the firm muscles of his shoulders, but he
would have none of it. He pinned my arms roughly behind my head and
sucked hard on my breasts. They were already tender from the
pregnancy and I steeled myself against the pain of this rough
treatment. I came sharply and refused to cry out my pleasure but he
knew anyway. He grinded his hips in a hard circle again and again
as the waves crested and washed me to completion. Then he withdrew
abruptly and forced my hand to stroke his unsatisfied dick. He came
in a wild spurt which covered my large stomach and my sore breasts.
He pushed my hand into the hot juice, rubbing it into my skin and
holding me to the bed for many minutes as his seed dried. Finally
he released me, rolling into his pillow. The only words he spoke
were bitter. “You should know all this by now.”

Yes, I knew. I belonged to him. He had made
that clear from the beginning. And also, he belonged to me. But I
said nothing and stared into the darkness.

The next day I sought the witch. I felt a
twinge of doubt as I knocked on the door with a plate of cookies on
my hand. I didn’t know if witches ate cookies.

Cassiah smiled when she saw me. “Of course I
love cookies.”

Of all the strange things which I had
experienced since Marcus landed on my patio in the shape of a wolf,
perhaps the oddest one yet was sitting across from my husband’s
former lover as we ate chocolate chip cookies. Cassiah’s golden
hair reached to her waist and she wasn’t dressed nearly as demurely
as she had been the day before. She wore no bra under her skimpy
floral sundress and her creamy flesh filled the eye no matter where
you looked. She was very beautiful. I tried to bury my thoughts
deep but the witch smiled as she slowly chewed her cookie. She
swallowed. “Thank you, Jessa.”

I blushed. “I just wanted to stop by to thank
you. You know, for coming.”

“You are afraid.”

I felt the threat of tears. “Of course I’m
afraid! Jesus, there are demons trying to possess my baby. I’m
goddamn terrified!” I took a deep breath. “Can you stop
them?”

The witch nodded vaguely. “Yes, there are ways
to stop them.”

I exhaled with relief. “Anything. I’ll do it.
We’ll do it.”

Cassiah leaned close, her voice low. “Demons
cannot enjoy pleasures of the flesh. It is why they seek a human
form. They know the power of sex. They crave it almost as much as
they fear it.”

I was a little lost. “So, demons can be
defeated by…”

“Fucking. Yes Jessa, they can. To witness
pleasure is unbearably painful to them.” She stood suddenly and
dropped her sundress. Her rose-tipped breasts hung in my face. I
blushed as she sat close to me. Her tone grew seductive, her breath
hot against my ear. “You see Jessa, the ecstasy one body takes from
another is the most potent weapon there is.” I flinched as her hand
brushed across my breasts. “The demons know this.” She briefly
massaged my belly. “I am the most powerful witch.” Suddenly her
touch dropped gently between my legs. “And if I join my body with
the most powerful werewolf…” Her hand moved back and forth. “We can
defeat them.”

Suddenly I felt as if I had smacked into a
wall of ice. I understood the meaning behind her words. “Marcus.” I
stood. “You want him.”

The witch shrugged. “Jessa, I’ve already had
him. You know that.” She leaned indolently back into the cushions
of the couch. “This isn’t about what I want. This is about saving
your child.”

I was angry. I was confused. I needed to leave
the scrutiny of the witch. I could not have her inside my mind
right now. As I left the cabin she called after me. “It’s the best
way, Jessa. With the alpha’s seed in my body I will be able to beat
back the demons who threaten your child. I will destroy
them!”

I felt as if I could not breathe. I moved as
quickly as my heavy, burdened body could carry me into the woods
surrounding the farm. The fresh symbols of spring were intoxicating
but I scarcely noticed them. I stopped to catch my breath. To share
Marcus with the witch was unthinkable. I felt ill at the thought of
him between her spidery legs. The tiny werewolf inside me shifted
and I put a hand over him, feeling a fierce surge of maternal love.
If I must sacrifice to safe my child, then so be it. I would put
aside my own pain to save him. I would do anything.

“Do not call the wolves.”

The creature came from the shadows of the
woods. He was equally proportionate to a man, but his skin had a
red scaly cast. A cape covered his body and odd cloven feet peeked
from the bottom. It was his eyes which were the most startling.
They were entirely black. He pulled his dark cape closer. “We have
no scent, you see. So they will not detect me unless you alert
them.”

My mouth had gone dry. “You’re a
demon.”

The creature nodded. “My name is Dorian.” He
grinned amiably. “We are related, you and I. Distantly, but
nonetheless kin.”

I tried to back away from his advancing shape.
“I know what you want, you monster.”

The demon smiled. “To give the child a gift.”
He held out a small blue box wrapped in a white ribbon. “And we are
all monsters, my dear.”

“I’ll accept nothing from you.” I opened my
mouth to issue a scream which would summon the pack but in a flash
the demon’s hand was around my throat.

“Don’t,” he warned. “I have no wish to harm
you, but I won’t die for the sake of your silly fear.”

My hands clenched. I stared him in the eye and
said nothing. Momentarily he released me. “Open your
gift.”

“No.”

The demon cocked his head. “What is wrong with
you? All right, I’ll open it for you.” I tensed as he ripped the
cover of the box off and spilled the contents into his hand. He
held the palm out. I blinked. It was a small silver bracelet. A
tiny charm in the shape of a wolf’s head dangled from one of the
links.

As I warily stared at the object, Dorian
sighed. “I won’t force you to accept it. We only wanted you to know
that we are pleased. An alliance between wolves and demons is long
overdue.”

I’d had enough of his pretense. “So what are
you waiting for? Aren’t you going to cut me open here and take the
child from me?”

Dorian stared as my voice rose shrilly.
“That’s what you will have to do because you will only have him
over my dead fucking body!”

Dorian shook his head. “Jessa. No demon would
dare harm your child.”

“Bullshit! The witch Cassiah is here and she
told me-“

His head snapped up, his eyes glittering.
“Cassiah!” He unleashed a torrent of obscenities and threw the
bracelet down. He stopped suddenly. His voice was calm when he
spoke next. “I understand now. I don’t know what that evil female
has been telling you, but believe me dear girl, you do not need to
worry about devils from the outside.” Dorian leaned close to me and
whispered. “Because you already have one right here.” He kissed me
full on the mouth. I closed my eyes with distaste at the brief
reptilian taste of his lips. When I opened them he was
gone.

I wandered the woods for hours. Once I heard a
rustling and glanced up, startled, but it was only Kiko prowling
around, surely at Marcus’s instruction, to find me and keep watch.
I was reluctant to return to the farm. Cassiah would plunder my
thoughts before I could make sense of them.

And what if Cassiah’s intentions were not as
noble as she had claimed? There was no underworld search engine I
could access or hotline I could call to verify her story. I paced
through the green woods endlessly as the day wore on. If she had
lied she had been convincing. But then, you tell parents their
child is endangered and they will agree to most
anything.

I froze. Anything. I had resigned myself to
sharing my mate with the lovely witch if it meant my child may be
saved.

Nearby Kiko whined lightly. He came to my side
and tried to nudge me homeward. It was indeed growing
dark..

“All right,” I sighed. “I’m going.” If the
child was as important as Cassiah claimed, why had she alone been
sent by The Seer to battle the demons? I needed to speak to Marcus.
We would question the witch together. Trailing Kiko, I made my way
through the darkening woods and back to the farm.

I heard the ominous buzz of chanting before I
saw the fire. It burned crudely in the large clearing at the center
of the modest cabins and was fed by a large pile of hastily hewn
branches. Cassiah danced around the flames, her yellow hair
streaming behind her. She raised her arms and intoned a string of
perplexing words. The fire surged in response. She was
nude.

Kiko issued a low growl. The men of the Dark
Claws stood in a grim circle around the perimeter of the fire. I
assumed the women and children had been away to their cabins.
Whatever was to happen here would not be amusing.

My stomach lurched when I caught sight of
Marcus. He stood to the side as Cassiah continued her wicked dance.
He was also nude. He started when he saw me. “Go to the cabin,” he
ordered.

But before I could answer Cassiah turned. Her
eyes glowed terribly. “No,” she said. “The queen needs to
watch.”

“Watch what, Cassiah?”

She smiled. “You know what needs to happen. I
must join with your alpha. Our mutual ecstasy will give me the
power I need. Now is not the time to doubt. Your child’s life is at
stake.”

I walked towards her. “Cassiah, I met a demon
in the woods. He said you were a damn liar.” I held out the small
silver bracelet which I had retrieved from the forest floor after
the demon had fled. “The demons are pleased about the child. They
offered a gift.”

Cassiah plucked the bracelet from my fingers
and threw it into the fire. She smirked. “And demons always tell
the truth.” She moved closer and touched my cheek. “I do this for
you, Jessa. For your child.” She kissed me suddenly. I bit her cold
lips. She took a step back and wiped a thin streak of blood from
her mouth.