Southern Shifters: Bad Moon Rising (Kindle Worlds Novella) Read online

  The thought of her taking his thick cock past those pretty pink lips almost unmanned him there and then. He throbbed, aching for her touch as she snapped the last button and freed him. His cock sprang free in a high arc and slapped his toned stomach, leaving a sticky smear.

  “Hmm, seems someone started without me,” she chided, folding the denim out of the way. At the feel of her gentle fingers cupping his balls, he growled, fingers clamped so tightly he was surprised he didn’t break bones. Her breath washed over his cock. So near…

  Wet heat engulfed his tip and he groaned. Her mouth on him was pure heaven. Her tiny nails dug into the sides of his hips, but the little pinpricks of pain were lost as she slid down on his cock. She took him inch by inch, deeper than he thought possible.

  “Oh god…” Another groan he couldn’t help as she started to move up and down on him. Sucking as she pulled back, only to take him deeper again. He risked a look down and swore. The sight of her on her knees with his cock in her mouth was the most perfect, most erotic thing he’d ever seen.

  His fingers creaked as he unlaced them, unable to resist reaching down to bury one hand in her hair. He gripped it in a gentle fist, easing her movements as she fucked him with her mouth. Tension built, higher and higher, but he fought it off. He didn’t want to come. Didn’t want this to end.

  Then she took him deeper than before and swallowed. The sound he made was a near yelp as the head of his cock was gripped and massaged. Fire built in the small of his back, arching around to his balls in a blaze of need. They tightened, his cock jerking in her mouth and he realized he was about to come.

  “Doll, you’re gonna need to…I’m gonna…” He tried to pull her away, but she tapped his thighs, wagging her finger.

  His eyes widened as he got her message. Then she started to move faster, sucking his cock harder. Shit, she was really doing this. Not going to argue, he gripped her hair and rocked his hips, letting the sensation overwhelm him.

  Three thrusts and hard sucks and it was all over. Fire exploded through him, surging from the end of his cock as he emptied his hot seed into her throat in pulsating wave after wave. She held him in place, swallowing his cum as fast as he shot his load, humming in pleasure. Eventually, he sagged, balls empty as he pulled gently from her wicked embrace to fall to his knees.

  “Fuck me, that was…I don’t have the words,” he shook his head and claimed her mouth in a hard kiss, tasting himself on her. She wasn’t idle, her hand finding his cock and stroking the semi-rigid length. Even though he’d just come harder than he ever had before, it wouldn’t be long before he was up to the job again. Before he could lay her down on the rug beneath their feet, spread her legs and make her thank god that lions had rough tongues, a shrill scream split the air, making them both pause mid-kiss. The second, right outside, had them both scrambling to their feet, Sully tucking his cock away, to find two people standing in the clearing in front of the French doors.

  * * *

  “Oh shit. Ruby.”

  The words escaped Beth’s lips as she surveyed the two women outside. One was taller than the other, her ice white hair a stark contrast to the flaming red of the other, and wicked-looking claws held at the smaller woman’s throat.

  A woman Beth recognized instantly. Ruby. Her bestie and self-adopted sister. They’d spent their teenage years in the same house, bickering and learning magic from Astarte, Ruby’s mother.

  Fear for the half-demon girl clamped Beth’s throat tightly. Ruby was a wicked-fast caster, but with those claws at her throat she didn’t stand a chance.

  “Meredith James,” the wolf called, an unpleasant rasp to her voice that grated on Beth’s nerves. “Come out with your hands up, or I’ll shred this human’s throat.”

  “Fuck, that’s the White Wolf,” Sully hissed at her side. “I thought you said they couldn’t find this place.”

  “They couldn’t.” She slid him a sideways glance, noting that his cheekbones had sharpened and his fangs were out in force. “They didn’t need to. They just needed to find her. But believe me, if anything happens to her, the shit hitting the fan will be the fucking understatement of the year.”

  He’d padded forward, his big, powerful body tense with the potential for violence, but he looked back over his shoulder. A frown creased his brow. “What don’t I know?”

  “There’s probably a lot you don’t know, handsome.”

  She moved forward, waving a hand to open the French doors and fold them out of the way. Flying glass was just as much a health hazard as flying spells. Now that the door was open, she dropped her voice so only he could hear.

  “Here and now? That’s Ruby, my mentor’s daughter. My demoness mentor’s daughter… Who will be pissed if anything happens to her darling offspring.”

  Of course, some of that would be because as half-demon and half something Astarte wouldn’t admit to, no one actually knew what would happen if Ruby was killed. Neither heaven nor hell wanted to face Astarte when she was even mildly annoyed, never mind the kind of fury the demoness would be in if her daughter died. Which wasn’t going to happen. Not on Beth’s watch.

  “Fuck.” Sully’s hiss devolved into a growl. “Reaction of apocalyptic proportions?”

  “Something like that.” Gathering her courage, she strode forward. Yesterday, with no energy stores and her magic not responding, a confrontation like this would have been a no go. She couldn’t have hoped to survive it. Not against one of those damned spelled wolves.

  But her opponent was more than that.

  Beth’s sensitive nostrils picked up the reek of old magic rising from the white-haired woman. Chanting a quick incantation, she passed a hand over her eyes. When she opened them again what looked like thick swathes of deep red mist swirled around the wolf.

  Shit. That sort of red meant old, evil magic—blood magic. And for her to be able to smell it said one thing. Bitch there was pumped up on not only someone else’s blood but on their death as well. Beth’s lip curled back fractionally. And people thought demons were nasty pieces of shit… At least they didn’t go around butchering people to power themselves up. They did other nasty crap, but they didn’t stoop so low as to steal the power of innocent life to fuel their magic.

  “Let the human go,” she ordered, not about to correct the wolf’s assumption that’s all Ruby was. “And we can talk.”

  The wolf’s lips split into a smile that reminded Beth of a shark. Full of sharp teeth and malevolence. “Oh no, little warlock, the time for talking is done. You touched something that didn’t belong to you…and now you have to die.”

  She snarled and pushed Ruby away, dragging her claws across the delicate skin almost as an afterthought. The scent of blood blossomed on the air but Beth didn’t get time to think about it. The wolf launched herself through the air, fur sprouting from her pores at the same time her bones snapped and reformed.

  Instantly, Beth knew what she was doing. She was shifting to her half form. Half-wolf, half-human, it was the most dangerous form the woman could pick. She’d still be able to cast from it and retain all her human intelligence while accessing the power of her inner animal.

  “Aanaal-outhrak!” Beth yelled, sketching a sigil in the air and launching it at the wolf. It knocked the creature sideways, making her scrabble for purchase on the ground. A reprieve of mere seconds as she launched herself at Beth again.

  Beth sketched and threw spells as quickly as she could, her entire focus on the wolf-woman, but it was like the bitch had armor-plated fur. Spells were either deflected or skittered off her until Beth was breathing deeply, her top soaked with sweat.

  “I can keep this up all day, little warlock,” the wolf growled, the words mangled by her lycan snout. The short barking laugh was just as bad. “You can’t beat me.”

  “Screw you, bitch,” Beth snarled back, one hand behind her as she sketched a spell form.

  A seek and destroy curse from the fiery pits of hell themselves, it was an elaborate spell that requir
ed a truckload of power, but once cast, there would be nowhere on Earth this bitch could hide from it. It would find her and drag her down to hell where she belonged.

  “Sorry, you’re not my type.” The wolf sniffed the air, looking past Beth. Only then did she realize Sully was right behind her, a low hiss rumbling from his throat. “However, he looks like he could be. Oh yes…how about you come over here, handsome?” she suggested, lifting a deformed hand to beckon.

  Beth laughed, “Don’t be ridiculous, he’s not going to co—”

  Her words cut off as Sully walked past her, his movements stiff, as though he didn’t want to move but was being pulled. His eyes rolled in his head, trying to keep her in sight as he passed her.

  “Shit. She’s…doing something to me, Beth. I can’t stop.”

  The panic in his voice hit Beth deep down, right down to her soul. In the short time she’d known him, the werelion had shown himself to be strong and capable, scared of nothing and no one, but now she scented his fear and panic on the air. It matched her own as he neared the wolf.

  Beth started forward but more wolves poured out of the trees, filling the clearing behind the female. There were too many of them. There was no way she could fight them all off.

  “Oh, he is a delicious little morsel.” He reached the wolf and she wrapped her furry arms around him.

  Her taloned fingers stroked the side of his face and he flinched. She chuckled, and, leaning down, ran her tongue along his cheek. “Perhaps I’ll fuck him, then tear his throat out, while you watch. Then my men can have some sport with you and your little friend. If you’re lucky, I might make sure she’s unconscious for most of it. Although…they do so like it when their toys scream.”

  Beth realized her nightmares up to this point had lied. She’d always thought her worst fear was being alone, outcast and rejected. To be helpless and afraid. Now she knew it wasn’t. She had a new worst fear…that she would be powerless to help the people she loved.

  “I’m going to rip your heart out,” she promised the wolf, her fingers moving ceaselessly. “I’m going to pull each vertebrae out of your spine and lay them out on the ground in front of you while you scream.”

  The wolf threw her head back and barked a laugh. The amassed wolves behind her echoed her with howls. “Is this a threats contest? Because…really? You’re not powerful enough as either a warlock or a shifter for that.”

  Her words sunk in and Beth smiled as reality shifted. The fury and frustration that rolled through her system revealed the truth to her. Relaxing a breath she hadn’t realized she held, she let the dark power that lurked in her blood expand and fill her. A power far more potent than the demon power she’d been borrowing. It tugged at the centre of her soul and to her heart linking her to something else.

  Sully gasped and looked directly at her, understanding in his eyes.

  Beth smiled and accepted what she was.

  “Ahh, but you see, that’s where you’re wrong. I’m both and neither.”

  The wolf frowned, snarling a little when she answered. “What do you mean?” Her claws flexed against Sully’s throat. “I’m not in the mood for fucking games.”

  Beth had almost finished the casting, holding the nearly completed spell behind her back. It just needed one last push of power to seal the deal and she could throw it. The darkness within snarled and urged her on.

  “Have you never heard of a werelock?” She taunted, drawing her hands from behind her back. They were sheathed in power, golden gloves of light tipped with razor-sharp claws. The wolf’s eyes widened in shock.

  “You…that’s a…you can’t cast that. It’ll eat you alive.”

  “Not me… you!” Beth grinned, lifted her free hand and snapped the last stroke of the spell in place. It hung between her hands, a glowing ball of light with arcane symbols scrolling over its surface.

  “Sully, down!” she yelled and threw the spell like a ball. The wolf’s control was snapped as she screamed and backpedaled, and Sully threw himself to the side. Not to safety, but at the horde of wolves. But they weren’t attacking. Instead they milled about in confusion, watching as the spell hit the female wolf.

  It caught her in the middle of the chest, splashing across her fur like a large, luminous paintball. She gasped, screaming as she ripped at her fur as though trying to tear it out before the spell could spread. It was no good, the gold spread out over her body like a tidal wave, the color followed by the blackness of corruption and death.

  Living death…that’s what the spell was called, and it lived up to its name. It killed its victim while they were still alive, forced them to live in a rotting body for the few minutes it took for hell to claim their souls. Whole.

  Right on target, an inky black portal opened on the ground. Shadows swirled, fiery sparks emanating from within leaving no doubt as to where it led.

  “No, no, no, don’t let it take me,” the wolf whimpered, her half form folded back into her human one now, and she tried to run. A tentacle of darkness lashed out from the portal and wrapped around her ankle, yanking her off her feet and drawing her inextricably into the darkness. She screamed and grabbed at the dirt, trying to find something to hold onto.

  It made no difference. More tentacles shot out of the darkness and wrapped around her, dragging her struggling into the portal. Which then snapped shut.

  Silence reigned in the clearing. Beth looked up and around at the wolves. Sully was almost in his lion form, crouched over Ruby protectively, the tiny woman sitting up with her hand on her blood-stained throat, snarling at any wolves who strayed too close.

  Beth smiled, lifted hands still covered in her werelock claws and wriggled her fingers as though she was about to cast another spell.

  “Well…anyone else?”

  As one, the wolves turned tail and ran.

  “That’s it, you fucking cowards,” she bellowed after them, touching a finger to her throat to amplify her voice. She didn’t need to cast a form anymore, the power to just think the forms in her head and have them manifest as natural to her as breathing. “Run and don’t come back because if you do, I’ll be waiting for you. I’ll always be waiting for you and I’ll be the last fucking thing you see.”

  They’d fucked with her friends, with her family, so that was a promise she’d go to hell and back to keep.

  9

  “So, Ruby will be okay?” Sully lay on his side on the bed, watching her through pale eyes as she wriggled into her one and only little black dress and pushed her feet into heels.

  He’d said he was taking her out tonight, as a celebration after contacting the agency he worked for and getting confirmation that the Latvarian Wolves had not only left the area, but the country as well. They were safe. Well, as safe as a former professional thief and a shifter agency operative got anyway.

  “Yeah. Ruby might act like the typical dumb blonde, despite all that red hair, but she’s not daft. The wards pinged her that someone was on the property so she loaded for bear. She was wearing enough personal protection charms for a small army. Bitch-wolf only managed to land a light scratch on her neck,” she explained as she brushed her hair and started to twist it up.

  “No need for that.” She jumped a little at his voice by her ear. She hadn’t heard him move, even with her lioness now active within her. The darkness she’d always shoved away and ignored was a living, breathing creature—a primal extension of herself and her power. A mate made just for one man.

  Her man.

  Sully.

  “What do you mean? This dress needs hair up,” she argued, looking through the mirror at him behind her.

  They were back in her rented house, her wards reinvigorated and proof against anything up to and including her cousin Hale, who’d insisted on testing them. She’d had to tell him to stop when they’d given him a belt back. It seemed that demon wards powered by werelock power had a sadistic sense of humor.

  “Yeah…if we were going out,” he breathed against her neck, his lips ni
bbling and kissing the soft skin. “But we’re not.”

  “What?” She froze, trying not to glare at him in the mirror. “You got me all dressed up, in the dress and we’re not even going out?”

  His grin was wicked as he looked over her shoulder. Big hands smoothed over her hips, the fabric catching and runching on the rough skin of his palms.

  “You’re in the dress,” he agreed, his words hot puffs against the back of her neck as he switched sides. When he kissed her skin again, the scrape of his fang almost dragged a moan from her lips. Still pissed with him, she pressed her lips together and glared. Even when his fingers slipped under the hem of her dress, hiking it up.

  “And you’re in these…” His fingers traced the tops of her stockings, then slid higher, her dress following suit where it was caught on his wrists. His exploration followed the line of her suspenders and higher until he found the lace edge of her panties.

  “A thong… I love these on you.” Her breathing caught as he tangled strong fingers in the lace at the sides of her hips. “I like them better off you, though.”

  He yanked, tearing the lace free in one quick movement. Her gasp was soft in the room, smothered by his lips as she turned for his kiss. Not wasting any time, he prized her lips apart and claimed her mouth. His tongue thrust, in and out, stroking and sliding against hers in a wicked movement that had her hips rocking in unison.

  He broke away, smiled against her mouth. “Seems like my baby doll is a little needy.”

  She nodded, captured between the hardness of his muscled body behind her and the dresser against her thighs in front. She was needy, everything female in her responding to the sheer masculinity he exuded. Her lioness purred, ready to roll over and give him anything he wanted. Freaking hussy.