Winter Howl (Sanctuary) Page 22

  “Being a werewolf doesn’t make you normal,” Kelly muttered. Her bright green eyes were fixed on Renee’s hip, and it was only when Renee knew where Kelly was looking that she realised the fall had forced part of the knife into her hip. It began stinging the moment she knew. Kelly licked her lips and curled a hand around the back of Renee’s thigh.

  “I’ll settle for half-normal,” Renee replied, with a slight tremor in her voice. As Kelly drew her open mouth closer to the wound, Renee added, “The knife is silver and might have poisoned the wound for you.”

  Kelly did not pull away, but she did close her mouth. She closed her eyes tightly, and Renee could actually feel the skin re-stitch itself and the blood completely disappear from around the wound. Kelly’s teeth clenched, but then she forced herself to stand, using Renee’s leg as leverage. But she did not immediately let go, and ran her fingers up the back of Renee’s thigh to her spine.

  “Think about what I said.” Kelly brushed her lips against Renee’s cheek before stepping back. “Maybe you would prefer a half-normal life where the smell of human blood doesn’t make you go a little crazy. Honestly,” she said, a little louder, “I think you both bit off more than you can chew.”

  Renee felt Grant wrap his arms around her, his teeth on her ear. There were fresh claw marks on his arms.

  “Don’t you two stop on my account. It looked like you were getting more than acquainted,” Grant said.

  “You would think that,” Kelly replied. “I suppose you’ll take her to a vampire next. Then it’ll all sound like a bad joke.”

  “I don’t know any,” Grant said. “It’s not on my agenda. I think you’ve effectively proven to her that magic exists.”

  “Don’t bet on it,” Kelly said wryly. “I’m a bit unremarkable these days—I don’t even give a satisfactory light show out here. Besides, she’s already couched everything in pseudoscientific terms in her mind. When the supernatural is natural, it is hard to convince the jaded of the existence of magic, Grant. And what you now want of me can probably be explained as pharmaceutical.” The door of her truck squeaked as she climbed in for something in the passenger seat. She came out with four small three-ounce bottles filled with a brownish liquid. “This is what you wanted, yes?”

  “You’re a goddess,” Grant answered, taking two of the bottles.

  “Make sure she knows what it is before she drinks it,” Kelly warned.

  “She won’t drink it unless I tell her what it is.” Grant held the bottles up into the sunset light. The brown became a dark cognac colour with the light shining through it.

  Kelly cocked her head.

  “Come on,” Grant said, still staring at the bottles. “The best things happen when the sun goes down.”

  “Most people know that,” Kelly said. She held up the other two bottles and said to Renee, “I’ll put one of these in your truck, but you should take one now.”

  “What is it?” Renee asked, accepting one of the bottles. She held it up to the light.

  “One of my potions. It’ll keep you from conceiving for about six months,” Kelly said.

  Confused, Renee said, “But Grant said he can’t…”

  “It’s not for Grant,” Kelly replied, ignoring the way Grant glared at her. “Just a precaution. Just in case.”

  Renee was not sure whether it was safe or whether she should trust anything Kelly gave to her. However, whatever she thought about magic, she did trust that Kelly cared about her welfare, even though Renee did not agree with her conclusions. She did not think Kelly would give her or Grant anything that would hurt her.

  She opened the bottle. The contents smelt faintly of cucumber. Kelly nodded encouragingly, and she swallowed it down. It tasted the way it smelt.

  Kelly smiled. “You’ll thank me later.”

  “Renee,” Grant snapped. His sharpness was not directed at her. “We have to go.” He tucked his bottles in his jeans pocket.

  Kelly touched Renee’s shoulder before Renee left.

  “I’ll see you again,” she said. There was complete conviction in her voice, and her eyes seemed brighter in the shadows than they should be.

  * * * *

  “How do you know Kelly?” Renee asked.

  “Are you asking whether I slept with her?” Grant replied.

  “No.”

  “I did.”

  “I don’t care,” Renee said.

  “She was David’s bitch. She’s got power beyond what David could ever hope to have. And she had a spark of interest for me, too. He was furious. Not so much that she was with another wolf, but that she was with me. God, I loved it.”

  “Is that why you got thrown out of the pack?” Renee asked.

  Grant snorted. “Hardly. I got thrown out because I had one too many fights with the alpha, and they knew I was stronger than he was. They always get so nervous when I come back. It’s part of the reason I come back at all. And they only let me come back because I don’t do it often enough to piss them off too much.”

  Grant was leading her into the thick of the pack. She pressed herself against his side, trying to get as far away from the rest of the crowd as possible. If she could have crawled into Grant, she would have done it. Her fingers were tightly clenched, one into his side and the other on his arm. He pretended that she was not hurting him, but he flinched now and then if she squeezed a little harder.

  The other humans were in the centre of the pack, wide-eyed and naked, while the pack was hungry-eyed and naked. Grant tried to disengage himself from Renee’s hands to shuck off his own pants, but she wouldn’t let go. It was as though her hands were stuck that way.

  “Renee, I’ll give you something to calm you down in a minute, but you’re going to let go of me now.”

  “I can’t move my hands,” Renee said.

  “Let me try, then.”

  He prised her fingers off him, one at a time, and her stomach clenched for every finger that released. They ached when she flexed them.

  Grant pulled his pants off and took the vials from the pocket before kicking the denim to the side.

  “They won’t eat you,” Grant said, letting her come close again, pulling her in to press her cheek to his chest. His heartbeat was strong and a little fast. “You know I won’t let them.”

  “They’re people. You know,” Renee said.

  Grant laughed. “You’re the only woman I know who would be more concerned about the crowd than the werewolves about to turn.”

  “Yeah,” she muttered. “I’m unique.”

  Grant found one of her hands and slipped a vial into it. “Drink this. Things are going to get interesting as the moon rises, and I think you’ll enjoy being a part of it. With me. Not with them.”

  “Does everyone start humping or something like that?” Renee asked.

  “Or something like that,” Grant said.

  “You won’t be able to scratch me or bite me,” Renee murmured.

  “At least, nothing that breaks the skin,” Grant said. He leant down and whispered in her ear, “But you can scratch and bite me all you want. And I think you’ll want to.”

  Renee looked up at him, pushing her hair behind her ears. “In front of them?”

  “You won’t care,” Grant said. “And they’ll be distracted by their own activities. We can leave when they start to run, run our own path. The potion will have worn off by then.”

  “I can’t run with you.”

  “Then ride me,” Grant said. His cock was beginning to rise, in spite of the cold in which Renee could see her breath.

  “The potion’s an aphrodisiac,” Renee said. It was not a question.

  “Naturally.” Grant’s smile was sharp, and he opened his own vial. “We don’t need it, but it’s fun. It’s out of control. It’s better than drugs.”

  “Does it make me hump anything that moves?” Renee asked.

  “Only if you want to,” Grant answered. And he downed his vial.

  It smelt like maple syrup, and when he licked h
is lips, she was compelled to try it there. At first, he just let her lick—it tasted like maple syrup, too, although the taste was so faint that it could have been nothing. But then a shudder went through his body, and he shoved her coat off her shoulders, pulling it down until it fell around her feet. His tongue plundered her mouth and stole her breath. The low growl was back, rumbling through his chest and into her until she was gasping.

  “God, woman, drink that potion now if you’re going to do it.” His eyes were glowing a dark red, and the pupils were dilated almost to the edge of the expanded irises. Fur crawled over his skin, but he was not changing—his teeth and nails were still human. It was as though he was trying to let something of his other nature manifest if he couldn’t release the sharper parts, for her own safety.

  Her tongue tingled from where she had tasted the potion on Grant, and she could feel herself growing warm even as the night got quickly colder. She opened the top of the vial and swallowed the entire contents down, barely aware of the urgency of Grant’s fingers on the fastenings of her jeans or of the way that the wolves were transforming around them. As she dropped the vial, Grant whipped her around so that she could see the melee in front of her. The first scream of the night pierced through the wind rustling leaves and grass. But instead of horrifying her, the sound made her bones themselves sing. Every nerve thrummed with each minute stimulation.

  “Oh…my…God…” She moaned low in her throat. Even that felt too good for words. Her panties were wet when Grant pushed her pants down and palmed her, rocking the heel of his hand against her clit. His breath was fast and hot in her hair. He found her nipple with his free hand. He had rid her of her shirt at one point, although she was damned if she could remember when. Her brain wasn’t working—all there was was the world, and the way it gave her pleasure.

  She watched the wolves begin to transform, fur sprouting and bones cracking, fur against fur against fur as they ran against each other, drawing solidarity from the friction, circling the humans with great grinning mouths.

  She quickly looked away just as Grant shoved another finger into her, spreading her juices and stretching her open. He tore her panties off and pushed her down onto her coat. He used his tongue on every part of her that it could—the hollow of her armpit, the shadows under her breasts, her navel, until he was devouring her between her legs and she was screaming and coming, so fast and hard and strong.

  As other screams cut off, Grant rose on all fours and howled. His fur was rough on her over-sensitised skin as she pulled him back down. His limbs lengthened for a second, but then he was in that still mostly human state again.

  “You could have this every night,” Grant groaned. “Every night, like this.”

  “Stop talking and fuck me,” Renee snapped. She pulled too hard on his hair and pushed him onto his back. Her knees pressed into the grass as she thrust her tongue into his mouth, drinking in his new moans. She needed every inch of her skin on him, and she rubbed her cunt against his stomach, against his rock-hard cock, coating it with the moisture from her first orgasm and the new one building in every flutter of her inner muscles. “For God’s sake, fuck me.”

  She reached down between them and took his cock in her hand to position him right where she needed him to be. Then she pushed down as hard as she could. He howled again, his teeth growing sharp and claws sliding from his nail beds. His lips were too wide, a perpetual grin, and he pulled her down with arms that were too long. He did not kiss her, though—somewhere in his muddled mind, he must still have known that if he were to kiss her, he would bite her, and he could not do that. Not only to keep from changing her, but also to keep the others around them, the whirlwind of fur brushing maddeningly against Renee’s feet, from seeing her as available prey more than they already did.

  Instead, she bit into the flesh of his thinly furred shoulder, almost whining from each thrust he gave even as she pulled herself down, rolling her hips so that she could get some sensation on her clit. The fur on her feet, the fur rubbing against her stiff nipples, the flesh under her mouth and the slightly salty taste of droplets of his blood…all of it was too much. Her nails scrabbled for purchase down his stomach as she came again. She felt her muscles clench so hard that it was as though she were squeezing Grant in a vice. His glowing eyes rolled back in his head, and he came into her, body thrashing underneath hers until she fell off him. His limbs twisted and cracked, muscles groaning as he became the wolf, larger than life and teeth flashing to catch the muzzle of a passing male getting too close to Renee’s vulnerable and still too aroused body.

  She cried out as Grant crashed into the other male, rolling around with him on the rough brown grass in twist of fur, flesh, and teeth. Her hands travelled over her body as she watched. She couldn’t help herself. She needed to feel, she needed hands on her. She forgot how much she did not like touching herself when she was so filthy. Her fingers worked furiously on the sensitive place above her clit as she rubbed her neck, her breasts, her arm, her stomach, her thighs—anywhere she could reach to watch and stimulate herself at the same time. Just watching Grant fight with the other male—undoubtedly David, if the ferocity and longevity of the fight was any indication—made her bare body warm enough in the winter night. By all rights, she should have been hypothermic, but every inch of her was hot. Was this how Grant was all the time?

  A wet nose on her shoulder startled her, and she cried out, twisting around to see a wolf with green eyes and fur so light that it was almost white. The shape shifted almost gracefully into Kelly, and she crouched over Renee.

  “Just until they get it out of their system,” Kelly said. But in spite of the fact that Kelly must have seen what Renee and Grant had been doing, she still seemed surprised when Renee rolled around and kissed her, plunging her free hand into Kelly’s hair. Kelly tried to say something, a muffled protest against Renee’s mouth, but eventually she just sat there and let Renee get it out of her system.

  Finally, Renee yanked herself back, gasping through another orgasm that was powerful but short. And it still did not seem to be enough. “Please,” she begged hoarsely.

  “I would,” Kelly said, backing away from Renee’s reach but staying by her side enough to make sure that no one was going to attack her. “But you would regret it in the morning. And I don’t swing that way. Sorry.”

  The shriek came from Renee’s throat before she could stop it. Not at Kelly, but just in mounting frustration after the brief satisfaction.

  “Not long now,” Kelly reassured her. “And your wolf is coming back.”

  His side was bloody, but he was transforming even as he walked towards Renee.

  “He’s alive,” Grant rasped through a ravaged throat. It was already clotting, and he took the crouching position over Renee to relieve Kelly of her vigil.

  Kelly’s eyes flashed bright green, but not from the wolf, Renee realised. The glow came from human eyes. “I should hope so.” She stood and began to run. Her body transformed mid-stride.

  Grant’s kiss was more languid against hers, although she was still urgent. She clawed at his wound and he growled, nipping sharply at her lip. Renee did not care whether he broke the flesh or not as she tried to pull him over her and into her at the same time. This time, it was her who was thrashing, just wanting it to be over, just wanting the pleasure to finally peak into satiation.

  Grant threaded his fingers into her hair, holding her head in place as he pressed his mouth to hers and consumed each moan, swallowed each scream. One of his legs spread hers, and he slid into her, drawing out her desire. She willed him to go faster, but he kept a slow and maddening pace, forcing her to stay still beneath him. Tears streamed down her face as he changed his angle and found that spot again, the one that rocked her body and made her legs cling tightly around his hips until she was sure that his hip bones were leaving bruises on her inner thighs. It seemed like forever before he began to increase his pace, rubbing against that spot until she finally came again. Light exploded on
her eyelids. Her scream must have made it sound as if Grant was attacking her. And this time the coil began to unwind and her body relaxed. The crest had been reached. She was finally satisfied. She could let Grant take her through the oversensitivity because the satisfaction was just that good, all on its own.

  When he slumped over her, crushing her into the grass, he licked her ear and whispered, “Ready to run?”

  If she was honest with herself, she wanted to sleep. She was not usually tired after sex, but after sex like that… But she could run with him. The cold would keep her awake.

  Renee let Grant pull her up, and it was only when he let her go that she felt just how cold it was. She did not much care that she was naked—if any of this had happened a few weeks ago, maybe she might have felt differently. But she pulled on her clothing quickly—the clothing that was still intact, anyway—just to get herself warm. Grant did not bother. He did not need to. His legs and arms were beginning to lengthen again, as though he really wanted to change, the way a person might stretch before exercising.

  “Look,” he said. “Behind you.” There was that vulpine glow in his eyes again. His arms were furred when he embraced her clothed body. His jaw jutted out for a moment before returning to normal. “Look at them.”

  Grant was looking at the other human recruit, his skin almost white among the dark forms around him. Three werewolves circled him like prey, but the man was not running away, nor did he look afraid. He did flinch once, when one of the werewolves darted out of the circle and bit him on his arm, just below his shoulder. It looked as if one or two of the teeth had pierced his chest, as well. The man stumbled, doubling over and clutching himself. Dark blood seeped through his fingers and dripped to the ground, but when the man looked up, the strained expression on his face was not pain. The man was smiling, his mouth wide and teeth shining. Sharpening. He burst with fur, and even from where Renee was standing she could hear the cracking and straining of flesh and bone. Grant’s arms were protective, and his own teeth were sharp, as though he was prepared to challenge the new werewolf if he lost control and went after Renee, simply because she smelt like prey.