Werewulf Journals 2: Trolling for Love (14 page)

Melody screamed her defiance, her rage, even as her sex overflowed with desire. The swollen tissue throbbed as her clit engorged with blood. Her body readied itself for his possession while her mind still denied his claim upon her.

Time stretched as everything slowed in motion. Chase drew his powerful hindquarters back, targeted her open, vulnerable sex, and began the forward motion that would end with his canine penis lodged in her welling vagina.

Melody dropped her head, choked on a harsh sob, all the fight gone from her. She couldn’t stop this, wasn’t strong enough to force Chase off her trembling body. An eternity passed while she waited to feel the tapered wedge of his cock battering her flesh, destroying her from the inside out.

An eternity ... and then ... a loud metallic clang rang on the air. Between one breath and the other, his weight and warmth was gone. Cold air swirled over her back, chilling the flesh that had just a moment before been mantled by a heavily furred body.

“You cheater, you’re supposed to be my wulf!”

Melody slumped to the side, lungs laboring as she caught her breath. “Thank you, God, thank you ...” she murmured over and over, tears leaking from under her lids at the last Werewulf Journals 2: Trolling for Love

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minute reprieve. Her eyes snapped open in alarm as she belatedly recognized who that angry voice belonged to.

Andrea stood over a prone, dazed Chase, skillet in hand. Her eyes narrowed in her pixie face, dark hair a tangled cloud about her shoulders, she panted with rage. “You belong to me! You’re not supposed to put your ... your cock in anyone but me,” she screamed, hitting Chase again.

“Andrea, enough ...!” Fortrayn wrestled the heavy iron utensil from her, wrapped her in his arms when she would have gone back to attacking Chase. He lay on his side, still in his golden-furred wulf shape, glowing eyes glazed with wonder as he stared at the miniature warrior girl who had attacked him so courageously.

The teenager wound her skinny arms around her stepfather, sobbing into his waist. “I don’t want him, Papa Fort. He’s mean. He tried to take Blair’s daddy away from him. He scared Aunt Melody and made her cry. Send him away.”

“Okay, honey, I will,” Fortrayn crooned, holding her closer, both of them forgetful of his nakedness. The young father comforted his stepdaughter, his filial concern a palpable entity in the room.

Rosa rushed from the kitchen and threw her arms about both her mate and her child, tears flowing as she rattled off sentence after sentence in frantic Spanish.

Melody, alone, saw the pain that sliced through the wulf at the girl’s impassioned words. Chase had taken one look at Andrea and gone still in shock. Melody’s lips turned up in a tired smile. One look was all it would have taken to halt this madness. If Chase had seen Andrea first, he’d have known they were destined to be mates.

She wanted to laugh, but the pain was too fresh, the terror too recent to shake off. So much for all the biological-chemical mumbo-jumbo, she mused, shaking her head. Never again would Melody doubt her love for Hunter -- or his for her. So what if their biological imperatives drew them to each other initially? Wasn’t that true of any couple coming together for the first time?

Melody laid her head down on her arm and closed her eyes. She wanted Hunter ...

needed her man with an ache that throbbed in the midst of her empty core.

As if in answer to her prayers, the front door slammed inward, ripped from its hinges and Hunter stepped over the portal, onto what remained of the wooden slab. He dangled a man dressed in a chauffeur’s uniform from his right hand. With a challenging roar and a vicious shake, he tossed the wulf in skin form across the room with dead-on precision.

The limp male landed on Chase, who squirmed quickly out from under the dead weight, backed up on all fours so he faced both Hunter and Fortrayn, the three of them forming a deep isosceles triangle.

Eyes burning, lips thinned in an angry line, Hunter tossed his helmet to the couch and stripped off his driving gloves. In a sarcastic display of normalcy, he sang out, “Honey, I’m 72 Camille Anthony

home. Found some trash parked out front ... I’ve taken care of it. Now, all I have to do is take out the trash in here.”

“Hunter ...” Melody reached a hand toward him, feeling light-headed with relief. She feasted her eyes on her lover, thankful beyond words to see him. She viewed him through a film of tears. I’m safe! Hunter won’t let anything happen to me.

“Fortrayn, get Andrea and Rosa out of here,” Hunter demanded. His angry aura filled the room and his sheer presence dominated, making the large space seem small. In her heart, Mel truly believed no one and nothing could best her man as she watched him bear down on Chase.

“Uncle Hunter!” Andrea struggled against Fort’s hold, determined to speak with the angry wulf standing on the shattered door. “You can’t kill him, Uncle. He’s my mate!”

Melody grunted in surprise. A minute earlier, the teenager was trying to beat the shit out of Chase -- now she argued to save him? However, Andrea was right. Melody knew the girl was seeing clearer than she was, right now. “Go on, Andrea,” she urged, words barely louder than a whisper. “Everything will be all right.”

After exchanging a speaking glance with her, the girl allowed Fortrayn to drag her out of the living room, glancing back over her shoulder only once. Golden eyes clashed with cinnamon brown until Chase lowered his head, averting his gaze. He rolled to his back, exposing his belly and throat to her. Andrea frowned and stuck her tongue out at the wulf.

“She’s right, Hunter. You can’t kill him,” Melody repeated, propping herself up one shaking hand.

“You can say that after what he’s done to you ...?”

He reached a hand down to help her up. She noticed it shook. “I say it because of what he did. Other than the bites on my arm and shoulder, he made sure I didn’t sustain much ...” Her voice faltered. “... physical damage.”

Hunter’s feral gaze swept over her, noting every wound and bruise. His mouth tightened as he turned back to Chase, who still retained fur form. “I’m about one inch away from losing the desire to hear what could be so important that you would risk death to invade my den and try to steal my bitch from me. If you make me deal with you as a wulf, I’ll gut you and rip your throat out. Then I’ll piss in your bowels.”

The threat over, the adrenaline that had pumped into Melody’s system needed release.

For a moment, she teetered on the jagged edge of the cleansing heat of anger or a degrading storm of tears. The anger won out, igniting to set her blood sizzling and burning under her skin, rendering her mad as hell.

“Yeah!” Melody sneered, shakily. “What he said!”

“Melody --”

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She ignored Hunter’s bark, knowing he’d never bite her -- not like this mangy mutt before her had done. She had a few things she wanted to get off her chest ... Stalking across the room to stand over Chase, she kicked at him, trying to connect. He flinched away.

“Maybe we can’t kill him right away, Hunter, but we can hurt him. Hold him still so I can punch him!”

“Mel ...”

“And then I’m going to cut off his tally-whacker so he can’t ever wave it in my face again!”

“Sweet bitch, if you’ll just wait ...”

She screamed and doubled over, bringing her arms across her belly as if to shield herself from pain. There was no protection against the agony shredding her heart.

“Oh, baby, oh Melody ... sweetheart, what’s wrong?” Hunter’s voice sounded frightened.

“He called me that!” she gasped. “Called me your name for me while he forced me to ...”

The last of the false energy from her stored adrenaline faded away, leaving her drained and sluggish. Suddenly she was shaking and crying, everything crashing down on her at once. It was too much ... too much!

Strong arms encircled her. Big hands soothed her, stroking her back and shoulders, careful with the wounds on her right arm. “Shush! Shush, my darling, my strong bitch. I need you to be strong just for a little while more.”

There was no strength left in her. She clutched at him, burying her face in his chest, shivering in reaction to her naked emotions, hating how she exposed her fear and anguish in front of the person that had caused her body to betray her mind.

Hunter’s body shuddered under her hands, and Melody raised drenched eyes to see Hunter glaring over her shaking shoulders at his cousin, death in his eyes.

His voice so thick with anger it rumbled like bass thunder against her breasts, he pointed a finger at Chase. “Change, get your clothes on, and gather your men. This betrayal gives me the right to put you all under death edict. Unless you want me to contact Lachlan and make it official, you’ll be sitting here ready to talk when I get back.”

Sliding one arm under her hips, the other across her back, Hunter picked Melody up and tucked her against his chest. She sobbed as he whispered low endearments in her ear, cradled her close as he strode down the hall to their room and privacy.

74 Camille Anthony

“I didn’t mean to bite her. I’d captured her arm in my mouth to subdue her. Instead of acting reasonably, she hauled off and socked me. My fangs scored her as my head turned under her blow.”

Hunter bit the inside of his jaw to stop from saying something that would sever the last ties between him and the cousin who had been more like a brother. He held up a weary hand. “Chase, shut the fuck up. The bite was nothing. With her enhanced biogenics, Mel will recover quickly. However, the damage you did to her psyche will take a sight longer to heal.

You almost raped my fiancée! I just spent the last twenty minutes applying mental first aid and calming her until she finally relaxed enough to sleep. She was still crying in her dreams when I left, so now is not a good time to remind me how angry with you I am.”

“Oh, Mother Night, Hunter ... I’m so sorry.”

He looked at Chase a very long time before he drawled nastily, “Yes. You are.”

“You dare --!” Taylor half rose from his perch in the corner section of the couch, an insulted growl twisting his lips.

Before Chase’s wulf could blink, Hunter flashed into the battle ready shape of mid-change. Backhanding the bodyguard hard enough to send him halfway through the couch, he melted back into skin form. Shaking his arms, he rotated his neck to release the tension in his shoulders. A half-smile on his face, Hunter watched to see what the wulf’s reaction would be. The wulf exchanged a glance with Chase, who made a stand-down gesture with his hand while shaking his head. Subdued, the male sank back on the couch, his jaw tight and eyes glaring hot yellow.

Calm voice belying his incendiary words, Hunter let the wulf know how close he’d come to dying. “I can’t kill Chase without upsetting my two favorite girls. You, on the other hand, are very expendable -- and I feel like exterminating some vermin.” His smile was cold, Werewulf Journals 2: Trolling for Love

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his voice even colder when he continued. “Please ... take offense ... take action ... challenge me.”

The wulf growled at Hunter’s mocking words, his muscles bunched in angry reaction.

“Taylor! Stand the hell down!” Chase shot to his feet, eyes practically sparking with livid anger. “When I give an order -- even a non-verbal one -- you will damned sure obey it or answer to me!”

The bulky bodyguard lowered his eyes and his head.

“You’re good, man, but don’t, for one instant, imagine you could take on Hunter. Did you see how swiftly he changed ... and then changed back? He’s Alpha of San Francisco and the human liaison with the city’s police. He doesn’t hold that position by virtue of accidental birth.”

Hunter’s laugh held a wild quality. “Stop trying to ruin my fun, Chase. Taylor, is it ...?

Look at me.”

The wulf glanced at his Alpha and visibly resisted the urge to meet Hunter’s taunting gaze.

A snap of his fingers brought his head up. “I’m your Alpha in this time and place, boy!”

Two fingers spread in a V, Hunter stabbed them toward Taylor’s face and then his own as he ordered, “Your eyes to mine ... now!”

Taylor gave him what he wanted and Hunter read defiance in the wulf’s gaze.

“We have a lot to get through before this afternoon turns into night, so we best take care of this rebellion immediately. Chase, who ought to know, warned you not to challenge me -- especially not now. Since you’re stuck on stupid, I’ll tell you what we’ll do.”

“Hunter, you’re using his ignorance as an excuse to ...”

“Chase, much as you don’t want to die, I still really want to kill you. Keep talking ...

do.”

His cousin shut up and sat back.

“See, Taylor -- there’s somebody who knows how to stay alive.” Hunter moved to the center of the room, placed a booted foot on the edge of the heavy coffee table and sent it flying across the room. A nonchalant shove sent the main couch section the same way. The matching captain’s chairs thudded against the far wall one after the other.

“Now that I’ve cleared us an arena, here are the rules.” Hunter ticked off on his fingers:

“Number one, other than the next two rules, there are no rules. Number two, the points will be one strike in each form. Number three -- and this is my personal favorite -- once the third strike is made, the loser has two seconds to show throat or die.” He leaned closer and whispered loudly near Taylor’s ear. “Two seconds is all the time I can count on before I lose control, rip your throat out, and disembowel you.”

Hunter’s lips widened in what no one would call a smile as he settled into position.

“Any questions ...?”

76 Camille Anthony

Taylor shook off his fancy suit, a small smile turning up his full lips. “Not a one.”

Tossing the items behind him, he strode to take up position opposite Hunter.

“Good! Chase -- you’ll declare the points and call the match.”

Chase tried one more time. “There’s no need for this, Hunter.”

“Call the damned match.”

Chase sighed. He raised his hand. “Ready!”