The Moon, the Madness, and the Magic (17 page)

“I did nothing.
He
bound us with his words without understanding what he was doing. Without knowing. Before I could explain.”

He inspected her, from her well-muscled body to her full, shapely breasts. If this female was his reward for suffering through the painful transition of the full moon once a month, it would almost be worth risking Rourke’s wrath.

When she blinked, her thick, dark lashes fanned a shadow beneath her eyes. The action seemed almost reticent. At once both shy and damn sexy. He got the sense she awaited his approval. Could she doubt any man would want her?

Besides, denying his desire with his cock standing at full attention seemed useless.

At the moment, Dane didn’t care who she was or what she meant. He didn’t care that his brother had forbidden him to consider her. Suddenly, this was a perfect case of the little head—well, not so little at the moment—ruling the big head.

A quick smile formed on her soft, pillowed lips, as if she’d heard his thoughts. Damn, he’d have to watch that in the future. And he would, just as soon as he could stop thinking about her mouth.

He tore his attention away from her flawless lips and met her perfect, silver-blue eyes, all big, rounded, and innocent. The hopeful stare she turned back on him made something possessive rise inside him.

“You are so beautiful.” The timbre of his voice sounded deeper than usual, raspy and hoarse, thick with arousal. A great deal of residual wolf must have remained in him, because he was feeling more beast than man at the moment. As she approached him, apparently unconcerned that his cock stood erect, hard, and ready, he was practically growling out his words.

“You were attacked by the rogue Were. You must mate immediately after the attack to prevent the Were virus from turning you rogue. Only mated Weres are tolerated. Rogues are hunted to their death.” Her husky voice sounded unbelievably sexy, turning him inside out. “Your need is great.”

“Thanks for noticing.” He followed her glance down to his erection. “Are you offering your services?”

“If you’ll have me. Your need is greatest right now, especially with the moon approaching its zenith. I am for you.”

If he’d have her? He closed his eyes and sniffed. “I can smell your arousal.” His cock bobbed against his belly, and his balls tightened. Had he ever been this hard? This desperate? “What about Rourke?”

Her eyes filled with tears. “He wouldn’t want to lose you to the dark, to death.”

“Death?”

“Yes, without me to help you through the night, you will be hunted. The Other will hunt you. You will die.”

“I guess that should make this easier. Fuck you and betray my brother, or die.”

When the breeze blew a strand of his hair into his face, he combed it back from his forehead to get an unimpeded view of her. The breeze rustled her hair as well, and her nipples tightened into pale pink berries, poking through strands of her long, blonde curls. Dane licked his lips, imagining the sensation of taking them into his mouth and suckling.

Mine. Mate. Forever.
The words filled his head.

The sight and scent of her made his gut hurt and his groin ache with greater need. Fighting his arousal seemed like a useless effort. The adrenaline surged, pumping blood through him, and his mounting desire almost frightened him.

She was aroused, but she didn’t seem all that enthusiastic. Willing but doing her duty? This wasn’t how he wanted her, but with his growing need, he didn’t think he’d be able to stop.

“I don’t want to take you against your will, but know this. I am going to fuck you if you don’t run now. Something’s happening, and I won’t have the control to stop if you ask me. So run now if you want to get away.” His harsh words came out like a promise more than a threat, and he couldn’t keep himself from moving toward her. Stalking her.

“You would catch me even if I ran. That is the way of it. Dane, I am for you, too.”

Too?
Then he heard her words of acceptance.

“Yours. Mate. Forever.”

His humanity bordered dangerously close to the shattering point.

She hadn’t retreated as he neared and then towered over her, body to body. Before he realized he’d even moved, he wrapped an arm around her small waist. Dragging her toward him, he pulled her against his chest, slamming her body against his. He inhaled her fragrance and sighed. He was suddenly as fast as she implied.

With his naked body painted against her perfect skin, he relaxed. He was surprised when she cupped his face in her tiny hands and brought her lips up to softly kiss his.

She murmured, “I understand. I’m here to help you through your transition.”

Something in him needed more, demanded more, wanted everything. He whispered through tight lips, “Just through transition?”

She nuzzled his neck. “What will be will be.”

But her gentle submission didn’t soothe him. Instead, her compliance compelled the beast to rise within him and surge to the surface. “I’m warning you. This
thing
inside me—well, I’m not in control.”

“I know.”

“I can’t guarantee what I’ll do. I don’t know if you’ll be safe or that I won’t harm you.” He tried to find some way to warn her that despite looking entirely human, the beast ruled his body.

Her laughter bubbled out of her, a musical, tinkling sound that relaxed his fear. “
You could never harm me. I am for you.”

The beast rose, almost burying Dane’s fragile human nature beneath years of wild animal instinct. He seized her by the wrists and turned her around in his arms and then cupped her breasts in his hands. He nuzzled her neck, fighting the urge to bite down and drive his cock into her without prelude.

He held back, determined not to let the monster dominate his moment with her, not until he was as certain as she was that he couldn’t hurt her.

The softness of her skin overwhelmed him, and desire sent the old, familiar tightness rippling up his spine and tightening his balls when his cock slipped between the twin mounds of her ass. He pressed against her damp folds in an attempt to ease the growing pressure, never remembering being this mindless with arousal before. It was all he could do to prevent himself from throwing her to the ground and fucking her without preparing her to take his new size or his aggressive animal nature.

Then he remembered she’d handled Rourke just fine. The beast inside him roared with pain and jealousy.

When he noticed the pulse beat at the base of her neck, an insatiable longing rose within him. Lust and desire and craving filled him. For what? He wasn’t entirely sure, but he felt driven like a madman.

He sniffed her, licked her translucent skin, and explored the damp slit between her thighs with his fingers. The gush of warm liquid at his touch rewarded him and increased the tension in every muscle in his body.

That new familiar sound, like a low growl, resonated in his chest.

Her scent—pine woods, field flowers, and woman—filled his senses. The unruly lust, the bond he felt with her, the need to bury himself deep inside her and stay there forever were all new emotions. And this aggression? Well, that was a totally foreign element to his personality. What man didn’t admit to testosterone highs from time to time? But he’d always been level-headed and had never acted on his aggressive nature. He’d been competitive, but even if his values hadn’t changed, his approach sure had.

Under the circumstances, did he believe the mountain lived up to its name?
Enchanted.
Oh, yes, damn straight he did. Because he was going to fuck her, even knowing in doing so he’d be sealing his unknown fate.

Something told him the minute he entered her, he’d be damned. The only woman he’d ever really wanted had come to him as a white wolf and claimed she was for him after having been with his brother.

Dane had always prided himself on his ability to control his emotions. With her, the ability melted away like a snowflake in summer. He contemplated the woman he had to fuck right now or die from wanting or fever. Did it matter which?

Celeste belonged to Rourke, yet she seemed more vital to his survival than food or water or air. She would be his undoing. No one liked being helpless against his own desires, and this was a classic case of impotence on an entirely different level.

As his dick got harder, his brain quit rationalizing. Even if he could stop himself, his beast wouldn’t let him, and for a moment, he thought Celeste had something to do with it.

He extended his tongue, tasting the salt on her neck, and she turned her cheek in response to him. Touching her lips to his, her sweet fragrance, the scent inundating him, encouraged him to deepen the kiss. An energy surrounded them, one of heat and light. He felt like he was drowning in her life force, and yet he couldn’t release her.

Mine.

The beast rose higher and pushed Dane brutally as he fought to slow down. It was damn near impossible to resist the urge to push her to her knees and take her from behind, especially when she rubbed her ass against his groin and gave off that special scent that made him brainless. He knew the battle was lost when she whimpered and dropped to her knees, spreading her thighs wide, waiting. His damn cock looked like a divining rod searching for water as he took his place on his knees behind her. She moaned and arched into the hand he placed between her damp folds to gauge if and how ready she was. Her short, blonde curls were wet, her entrance slick and slippery with her juices.

He had to taste her first, had to bury his face in her pussy and lap at her honey until she screamed his name. His name.

“Say
my
name, Celeste.”

He rubbed her nub and licked her pussy lips, sucking the liquid cream from her core until she writhed, moaning and begging him to take her.

“Penetrate me now. Please enter me. Complete me. Finish this, I beg you.”

He used his hands on her breasts and pulled his tongue out of her cunt and growled. “Say
my
name.”

“Please, fill me—What did you say?”

“Say my name! I want to be sure you know who’s fucking you this time, Celeste, and when you come, it better be my name you shout.”

“Dane.” Her voice sounded like smooth brandy when she whispered his name.

“Say it again.”

“I know exactly who’s pleasuring me at the moment, Dane. And when I climax, you can be assured it will be your name on my lips.” Her hair wrapped around him. The magical tendrils stroked him reassuringly, pulling him to her.

When he tested her tight opening with a single finger, she exhaled and gasped. He looked down at his enormous erection and shook his head.
Where the hell did this cock come from?
There was no way his new girth or length was going to fit into her tight channel without a struggle and a great deal of pain on her part. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

“Dane, all will be fine. I’m part succubus, made for sex.”

Succubus? He was a shifter, a wolf. So was she, and God only knew what Rourke was.
He’d think later.

He closed his eyes and pressed his long, hard length against her cleft, patiently letting her prepare for the invasion. This was the miracle he had prayed for. Her pussy was as tight as a virgin’s, yet she wasn’t, and her succubus blood warned him she wouldn’t respond like any woman he’d ever come across. She was hot and ready—as desperate for fucking as a cat in heat.

Where were his options?
Oh, damn.
Life had turned upside down.

She turned halfway around and stroked his cock just the way he liked to be touched, fondling his balls almost like she understood the pleasure he derived from it. There was no holding back, not anymore, no more choices. He was going to fuck a shifter who was part succubus, and if he survived, his brother would certainly kill him. Why? Because the woman was his.

Rourke?

Dane’s cock thickened. Guilty thoughts didn’t stop him.

He massaged her entrance, stimulating her swollen clit before he plunged his fingers into her white-hot heat.
Mine.
His other hand caressed the soft skin of her breast, the pleasure forcing a sigh from her lips and his. Her skin was so tempting, so silky he couldn’t resist kissing the pulse at her neck as he tweaked her nipple, all the while knowing the smile forming on his lips was as sardonic as the situation he was in.

He shook off his thoughts as her thick honey dripped over his hand. His gut clenched with need and shame. Only one other man had ever been inside her, and that knowledge tore him apart. Once he finished satisfying this lust for his brother’s woman, he’d have to figure out how to distance himself from their strange attachment. Then he had to get out of here and as far away from the mountain as possible. Because if he stayed, he knew one thing was certain. He’d take her again, no matter the consequences.

Rourke would kill him for touching her, and if he didn’t, Dane knew that threat wasn’t going to be enough to stop him. Not now. Nothing was. He was going to fuck her anyway. The outcome was inevitable.

“Dane, this is right. This is meant to be. We’ll make everything work, you’ll see.” Celeste’s voice entranced him. He wished she’d keep talking and shut out the warnings in his head.