WereCat Fever (17 page)

“Better wait for me. It may be too late.” Hunter shrugged out of his shirt and tapped a warning on Bryan’s chest. “Don’t touch her without me if she shifts again, no matter what. We can’t risk mating her alone yet.”

“Okay, okay, I get it. Stop worrying and go hunt up dinner.” Bryan’s skin rippled, and his canines lengthened in his mouth at the thought of warm, red meat.

Hunter removed the rest of his clothes before he shifted, and Bryan watched his brother’s skin fur up with a glossy golden coat over his massive frame. Growing larger, the sound of his bones crunching was almost deafening in the quiet room. His defined chest exploded into the massive lion’s before he dropped to all fours. The facial markings on the lion’s face were unique to Hunter and his intelligent gaze stared out of the cat’s eyes.

The Were form when he assumed it at the next full moon would be larger, more dangerous. The tables had turned. Hunter’s beast could turn rogue at the height of the full moon if the three of them couldn’t reach a mutual agreement regarding their unusual predicament.

In any form, man, mountain lion, or Were, Bryan noted his brother’s usual sunny disposition had disappeared. His rounded eyes were replaced with the worried scowl Bryan often wore. The Were virus was already taking its toll on his brother.

He and Hunter were on equal ground. When Bryan turned Were–larger, more unpredictable, and deadlier than any other shape-shifter—there hadn’t been a power strong enough to stop him unless it was another WereCat or unless he was confined.

Now that Hunter was infected, they’d be a formidable force against the rogues—especially since they’d both found their mate. All Bryan had to do was accept the idea of sharing Lacey with his brother and hope Lacey could have feelings for Hunter. Bryan didn’t think either Lacey or Hunter wanted a purely sexual ménage relationship. Both of them needed the passionate link that accompanied a true mate bond.

Five minutes later, Lacey’s tail flicked around his ankles.

Damn! Hunter wasn’t due back yet and she’d shifted—again. Her sleek, soft body wrapped around him. The purr was deeper, a low hum, but genuinely seductive and telling.

Her cat was drawing his lion to the surface. He tried to hold back but he could feel his change threatening. Lacey’s slow, seductive moves snaked around him, her scent enveloping him. Her pheromones filled the air. He dared not breathe. Inhaling would draw in more of her scent and bring out his lust. If his cat emerged, there’d be no stopping him.

Bryan’s rational thoughts dulled. He remembered something Hunter said about staying away from her sexually. But as she continued to rub her body sinuously against his and nuzzled his crotch with her nose, there was no doubt what she wanted, and Bryan was having a hard time denying his mate what she craved.

His nails turned into claws, and his body hair elongated. Stop. He had to stop himself from changing and bring her back.

She nudged him again.

It was too dangerous—for him and for her—and he wasn’t comfortable with the lioness in his human form. When he tried to push her back gently, she jumped up and placed her enormous paws on his chest.

The effect of her being so close made him gasp. He inhaled and felt the change burst from him like an explosion. She head butted him, dropped down, and turned tail. The lion roared and the lioness growled. His mate’s sexual need pulled the lion right out of him.

Lacey looked over her shoulder and flicked her tail at him. He pounced on top of her, holding her neck gripped firmly between his massive jaws. Her nails had scraped his shoulder and a drop of his blood dripped on her neck, reminding him to ease up. She hissed at him, but he held her smaller body beneath his, and she finally stilled as he straddled her. Her snarl warned him to be gentle.

Through the miasma of lust and the scent of Lacey’s arousal, Bryan managed to regain control over the lion and shifted. At the same time he ordered Lacey to shift back into her human body. For a moment he didn’t think she could do it, but then suddenly he had her human body wrapped within his embrace—her smelling irresistibly of cat and woman, her skin feeling silky and hot. His body vibrated with need.

He was out of control and frightened. He wanted her badly.

She purred beneath him. He inhaled, taking in her scent. The pull between mates was too strong to resist. Bryan picked her up, bent her over the bed, spread her thighs, and buried his face in her pussy. He licked her then drove himself into her hot, wet channel. At first she snarled, then purred and called out his name repeatedly as he mercilessly thrust into her, slapping against her ass as he pounded his cock deeper and deeper inside her.

Her image kept morphing beneath him—lioness to woman, woman to lioness. He couldn’t focus enough to hold one form either or the other himself. They were mate shifting—as humans and cats—in unison—experiencing the true bond between shifters.

“Get off her, Bryan. I warned you not to fuck her without me.”

Bryan glanced over his shoulder without moving away from the lioness. Hunter growled from the door and dropped a bloody carcass at his feet.

Bryan sniffed the air.
Blood.

Human, naked, and angry, Hunter crossed to the bed where Bryan and Lacey were still engaged. Hunter shoved him. “I said, get off her. You like playing with danger?”

Hunter waited while Bryan tightened control long enough to slowly withdraw from her, careful not to hurt her before his lion fully overwhelmed his humanity. He kept pushing at Bryan until he finally roared and rolled off Lacey.

Fresh meat.

Bryan wouldn’t be able to hold back his lion, not with the smell of blood and flesh overpowering Lacey’s scent and the smell of sex.

When Bryan lifted his head and stared at Hunter with his lion’s eyes, it was only then Hunter realized his brother and Lacey were both mid-shift. Neither was fully engaged in either form.

Bryan was the first to lose it. He and Lacey both shifted into two huge mountain lions while Hunter held his breath waiting to see how far removed from their human forms they’d gone.

Finally, the smell of raw meat won out. Distracted, Lacey turned, squirmed away, and swiped at Bryan. He followed her to the carcass. Rushing straight toward the kill, the cats’ snarls erupted as the scent of fresh game and blood overcame their sexual demands.

The lioness snarled a warning over her shoulder at both Hunter and Bryan before attacking the deer. Occasionally, she glanced up to check their positions. Temporarily appeased as long as they watched, she meticulously feasted on the venison.

For the moment, things looked safe enough. Bryan would never hurt Lacey. Hunter grinned and decided he needed to clean up. Closing the bathroom door behind him, he left the two cats to work things out.

When he returned, she’d allowed Bryan closer. Lacey took a couple of swipes at him when he encroached on her hindquarter, and Hunter grinned as his big bad brother cautiously settled for the venison shoulder.

Lacey finished eating and moved away.

The lioness groomed herself, indifferent to Bryan and Hunter. But within moments, she shimmered back into her human form, her transition seamless.

She sniffed the air with catlike curiosity and headed toward Hunter. Stalking. Investigating. Those slightly rounded, slanted, golden cat eyes stared unblinking and bewildered at him. She approached him as if in a trance, unaware of anything in her surroundings, totally focused on him.

Her catlike grace stunned him. Her beauty took the breath from him. Lacey was amazing in any form, but she’d become more exquisite day by day as she approached her full transformation. Hunter’s cock pressed painfully behind the zipper. His balls tightened, lifting, filling out his pants to capacity.

Lacey’s lips parted and her lids lowered in sensual invitation as she stared at his package. Hunter’s arm snapped out, snagging her in an embrace, hauling her up against his aching body.

He commanded her, “Unzip me, Lacey. Take me in your hand, now!”

She did that slow feline rub against him and slipped her hand over the straining material. Her hand brushed his cock through his pants, and she tilted her head at him when he moaned. She listened with a sly smile and licked her lips.

Then she pulled his head to hers and kissed him. He swore she purred as she tugged his lower lip between her teeth. She drove him mad.

Hunter nipped her back. Mindless with passion, he growled, “Mine.”

The few drops of their blood mingling on their lips would strengthen their bond. It was exactly what Hunter needed. He sucked her lip, gently drawing a drop of her delicious flavor onto his tongue. Mmm, her taste tantalized him. He bent over and nipped her neck, then cupped her chin in his hand and ravished her mouth, fucking it with his tongue.

She explored his mouth with hers and his body with her hands. He sighed in relief, thankful to her for releasing his aching cock from the constriction of his clothes. She stroked his turgid arousal in one hand, while the other hand slid down the inside of his jeans and pushed them down over his hips just enough to gain adequate access between his legs. Carefully lifting his heavy balls from between his thighs, Lacey cupped him and squeezed gently. His balls tightened and lifted in response to the pressure.

He inhaled her scent as she rubbed herself against the length of him. And he enjoyed the moment, allowing her the freedom to explore his body and test his responses.

She lifted his shirt over his head, licked the tight buds of his nipples while he inhaled with pleasure, and then she pulled his pants completely down over his hips. As she dropped to her knees in front of him, he stepped out of his pants and his underwear all in one quick movement. Her hot, moist mouth encompassed his shaft, and the groan of pleasure he’d been holding back with his breath escaped as pleasure zinged through him.

Her fingernails moved up to tease the trail of hair above his groin and slid slowly down his shaft, over his balls, to the sensitive spot behind. Sliding a wet finger between his ass cheeks, she found his tight opening. She massaged the opening, ringing the hole with her fingertip, then entering him with one finger when he relaxed against her hand. The unbearably sweet pressure she applied caused the fluid to pearl at his opening.

He grabbed her hands to still them, struggling for control. She fought him, rubbing the leaking pre-cum bead over the tight crown of his growing erection. As she played with the tip, he sizzled, thickening to an unbelievable size. His breath came rapidly while he fought his release. If he fucked her feeling like this, he’d have to be careful to prevent the lion from taking him over.

Throughout the entire experience, he never relaxed. He couldn’t take his eyes off Bryan as he watched them. The mountain lion’s interest, as he observed Lacey and Hunter, turned more intense. The closer Hunter came to orgasm, the closer Bryan came to breaking free of his animal spirit.

“Shift, dammit!” Hunter demanded. “I need your help.”

Bryan’s human form flickered occasionally, darkened narrowed pupils superimposed with his light golden irises. The great mountain cat’s face fluctuated—lion to human and back.

“Hurry, Bryan! I don’t know how much longer I can hold back.”

Bryan’s human image pushed through, becoming clearer and stronger, obliterating the lion. The man materialized where the mountain lion once stood. When all traces of the animal were gone, Hunter let out the breath he’d been holding and sighed with relief.

As soon as he looked into his brother’s eyes, he wondered if he’d relaxed too soon. Had Bryan fully shifted back? He was in his human form, but had he completely lost the quality of the predator lurking within him? His eyes flashed with hunger. Was it predatory or sexual? Bryan could still be dangerous.

Hunter lifted Lacey up off her knees and cupped her face in his hands, pulling her body against his. He could turn her away from Bryan and protect her if his brother didn’t complete his shift, but she still hadn’t fully shifted back from her cat, either. She and Bryan would be completely dependent on him until they took one form or the other. He had to guide them through this.

Hunter turned Lacey within his embrace and sniffed her neck, wrapped both arms around her waist and bent his large, naked body over hers from behind while Bryan firmly established his position up front.

Lacey dropped her head back on Hunter’s chest and closed her eyes. She encouraged Bryan to explore her breasts, his hands roaming up the front of her torso, rubbing her peaked nipples, while Hunter’s palm cupped her mound.

Hunter’s fingers slipped between her folds, drawing out her scent, and then her legs suddenly reacted like wet noodles. Her knees buckled, threatening to give out. Thank goodness the men held her up, sandwiched between them.

Lacey was cocooned in their warm embrace and bolstered by their strength. When she opened her eyes, Bryan was staring at her, his face filled with expectation, and longing still visible in his easy-to-read expression. He nuzzled her breast, licking her nipples and soothing her, supporting her weight with his strength.

Hunter held her around the waist, as he sniffed her hair and kissed her neck. Gently, he stroked her. “Mmm, I love the scent of your skin, the way your stomach muscles twitch when I touch you…here, and the way your rounded hips fill my hands.”

His words and actions calmed and stimulated her at once. “This kind of lovemaking is foreign to me—