City Wolf 2 Read online

  A shudder rocked his body, and he battled to keep from releasing too soon. Her tender inner walls seemed to stroke him, to encourage his erection to grow still more, to let go of the pressure building inside of him. He couldn’t allow that. She needed to reach her peak first. He was determined that she did. Impatience to possess her sweetness had driven him, but he should have waited.

  When he would have drawn out of her because he was losing control, she lifted her legs and wrapped them around his hips. Her arms locked him in place while she delved into his mouth with her tongue. She found his tongue and sucked gently on it, giving him visions of her beautiful mouth swallowing his shaft. His claws grew out on his hands and feet. His teeth sharpened, and he had to pull back and bury his face in the pillow beneath her head to keep her from seeing him change.

  Blowing deep breaths in and out, he waited frozen inside her. She stroked his back and crooned to him. Lucas thought he heard her say she loved him, but when he focused on her words, she didn’t repeat it. Wishful thinking.

  No. This is sex alone. Sex! He shouted the word in his mind, hoping it would help. But the tender feelings that threatened to consume him continued. In an effort to convince himself—and her—this meant nothing, he reached beneath her and grasped her ass to thrust her upward. She shouted her pleasure as he pounded deep into her, fast and without reserve. In seconds she came, with him roaring behind her.

  After a few more pumps, Lucas drew out of Nita, but he was still hard. His transformation under control, he glanced at her. The eager lust in her eyes told him she was still raring to go. She was unlike any human he had ever met. Or he had been wrong in his assumption that they could not keep up with the wolf shifter’s libido.

  Lucas extended his arms toward Nita, and she sat forward. He scooped her up into his arms and whipped the two of them around until he could scoot to the end of the bed with her on his lap. He reached in front of her to take hold of her tiny nub and massaged it between his thumb and forefinger. She caught her breath and squirmed on his lap, making him harder.

  “Lucas, what are you doing?” she whimpered.

  “Getting you ready for round two.” He set her on her feet and pulled her back so she had to lean against him with her hands on his thighs. He slid his hand lower to part her folds and drove himself inside his favorite place to be. Even after they had fucked like bunnies, she was snug around him, slick and warm, welcoming him in. Her muscles clamped down to milk him anew, and he began a slow pump in and out.

  With her ass bumping on his lap and driving him to the edge of another explosive orgasm, Lucas ran a hand up across her belly to allow her nipples to tease his palms while they bounced. His reasoning, his very sanity was slipping with the sheer pleasure of being with her. No woman, absolutely no woman had been this good before, that made him want to...bite her.

  His teeth sharpened. The low rumble in his throat increased. Before he knew what he was doing, he had curved his mouth over the old wound where he had bitten her the first time. He was so out of it that he would have sank his canines into her soft flesh for the second time, making her his mate if she didn’t turn her head and catch sight of his face.

  Her piercing scream both shattered his ear drums and snapped him out of his trance. Nita leaped from his lap and pressed herself against the wall facing him. One hand covered her mouth, and her eyes were huge in her face. Before Lucas could gain control of his transformation, Nita screamed again, shaking her head.

  “W-What are you?”

  When he stood, she held up her hands in defense.

  “No! Don’t come near me. You’re...you’re a...” Tears flooded her eyes, and the way she clutched her stomach, he thought she would wretch, but instead, her legs crumbled beneath her.

  Lucas darted across the space to catch her before she hit the floor, but his touch seemed to wake her up. She struggled in his arms, smacked at his face and tore at the skin on his shoulders with her nails.

  “Let me go, damn it! Let me go!”

  “My sweet Nita,” Lucas whispered, pain threatening to cut off his air supply. “I’m so sorry.” With no other words necessary, he gathered her tight to his chest and dipped his fingers into a pressure point that would render her unconscious. Nita slumped in his hold, and he stood to lay her on the bed.

  Standing over her, he watched the gentle rise and fall of her chest as she breathed. He memorized the long lashes that brushed her cheeks, the soft brown skin, the delicate curves. He took in the sight of her dark nipples and the thick black curls at her apex. Gently, he ran a hand down the side of her face and bit hard into the side of his cheek. With a heavy sigh, he reached for the phone on the nightstand and punched in a speed dial code. After two rings, the phone was answered, just as he expected.

  “Nash.” Lucas knew his voice had gone back to its normal coldness, something he had dropped the moment he was here in his home with Nita.

  “What’s up, boss?” Nash asked good-naturedly.

  “I need you for cleanup. Get over here to my house on the double.”

  His friend chuckled. “A cleanup? Which fool fucked up this time? I thought we all learned our lesson for a few decades after Brant’s stupidity.”

  Lucas growled, resisting the temptation to shred the phone in his hands, wishing it was Nash’s skull. “Just get your ass over here now!” With a burst of temper, he threw the phone across the room and watched it smash into pieces against the wall. He sighed and turned back to the beautiful woman on the bed, the woman he loved with everything inside him.

  Chapter Twelve

  Nita came to consciousness in degrees. Voices seemed to swirl about her head, and a bitter flavor was on her tongue. She suspected it was the cause of her feeling like she was off balance and about to black out again. Instead she fought to stay alert, to remember what had happened to her and to know what was going on now.

  Lucas’ voice broke through the fog in her brain. “I don’t need your fucking comments about what happened. I called you here only as a precaution as my second in command. I am surprised you didn’t sense trouble.”

  Second in command of what? An army? She wondered what they were up to and what it had to do with her.

  “I thought Brant was the second in command,” the other man commented.

  Lucas grumbled. “Brant and I have not seen eye-to-eye lately. Now, watch her while I go to my storeroom. For some reason this mixture I have is not as potent with her.” There was a pause, and then Lucas spoke again. “Don’t touch her. If you do—”

  “I got it. I got it.” The man chuckled. “I will keep my hands to myself, but she is lovely. I’m sure you had a great time with her tonight. Although I am surprised you would slip up and reveal what we are.”

  Fear gripped Nita’s chest. “...what we are,” he had said. Memories flooded her mind, fuzzy as if it hadn’t just happened tonight. She and Lucas had been making love, and it had been out of this world. In fact, she had begun to think...no, she had been sure that this man was the one she could give her heart to. But when she had looked back at him, the handsome face she expected was not the one she saw. Lucas had transformed into some kind of demon, a beast. No, it couldn’t have happened. Could it? Should she just open her eyes and tell him she was okay, that maybe she had fainted but everything was fine now?

  Some internal sense told her to keep still, to pretend that she was still unconscious. A few minutes later, the clink of glasses reached her ears. She remembered similar sounds when Lucas had brought in his various bottles containing herbs and scented oils that he had mixed to stimulate their love-making. Apparently, he had brought in more, but she’d be a fool to think these he had now were as harmless as the others. The man must be some kind of witch doctor or some such, an herbalist? Her heart slammed against her chest, and she fought to calm it before he noticed the pulse that threatened to jump out of her throat.

  “This should work,” Lucas said nearer to her. She nearly jumped when his fingers curled beneath her chin an
d he guided a spoonful of liquid between her lips. Like before, it was bitter. Nita pretended to unconsciously reject it, letting it run down the sides of her face into the pillow beneath her head.

  Lucas would not be deterred. He climbed on the bed and gathered her up onto his lap. His massive chest pressed to the side of her shoulder should have sent her over the edge in terror, but she felt somewhat comforted for the moment, breathing in his familiar scent.

  He filled her mouth with the liquid a second time, and this time, he held a hand over her mouth to keep it in while he stroked her throat. She couldn’t help it. She fought him, scratching and crying.

  “Wow, she’s certainly different,” the other man commented.

  “Shut up!” Lucas shouted. “Get out until I’m done.”

  “But—”

  “Now!”

  A door opened and closed.

  Lucas began to rock Nita, and then he stopped abruptly as if he didn’t want to get caught up in comforting her. He traced an odd symbol on her forehead, and when he spoke, his voice was still hard, sending shivers over her skin. “Forget everything you know about me.”

  Forget?

  “Forget it all,” he repeated. His words were like physical commands, reaching inside her mind and drawing out the time he made her hot chocolate, sat her on his lap and fed her cookies. While the scene slipped along a wavy road in her head, she reached a hand out to grasp it, but it was too late.

  “No,” she whispered crying. “I won’t forget.”

  More bitter liquid. She choked, and she thought she heard an anguished sound from Lucas, but it had to be her imagination. The man had no heart. He wanted to trick her, to cast some spell or something to make her forget using that symbol he drew and the herbs.

  But Nita was different. Lucas had said so. His normal concoction hadn’t worked on her for some reason, and if he made a habit of wiping women’s memories when they learned what he and his other monster friends were, then surely it would work more smoothly than this. That meant she could fight it.

  So she laid there in his arms, unmoving. Not sure if she should say something or not, she remained silent. Lucas spoke more commands, and Nita felt the same near irresistible pull as before with that other something that she couldn’t remember, but she hung on with all her might. Being motionless and fighting seemed incongruent, but she gave it all she could, praying that she hadn’t already forgotten things.

  She recited their first meeting in her mind, when he had walked up behind her and kissed her, when Stacy had argued with him. She recalled the first night they made love but not before they were in bed. Sorrow washed over her to know that some part of that night was missing. How she had gotten here was also missing. The most important part, that he wasn’t human, was the strongest memory of all, and she clutched it tight in her head. She wouldn’t let go.

  After some time, Lucas placed her in the bed and let out a long sigh. “It’s done,” he whispered. His weight was removed from the bed, and she heard the door open. A quiet conversation ensued, but she couldn’t make out what they were saying until Lucas walked back into the room.

  “Here are her things, her keys. Make sure she gets back to her place safely. I have to report to the elders.” He paused and sniffed. “Nash, I’m trusting you to get her there.”

  “Don’t worry, boss. I promise to take good care of her. Nothing will go wrong. Your concoction keeps them out until morning, and they never know what happened afterward.”

  Lucas grunted. “Good. Get going. Report back to me when you can.”

  * * * *

  So the other man’s name was Nash. Nita filed the info away in her mind while Lucas carried her to what she assumed was Nash’s car. She was laid gently in the back with a blanket spread over her shivering body. Neither man commented on that, so she assumed it was natural. But the night air had managed to clear her mind somewhat. By the time they reached the curb outside her place, Nita’s unsettled stomach had calmed, and she was sure no more memories were in danger of fading away.

  When Nash threw the car in park, he let out a growl that only now Nita realized she had been hearing Lucas make much of the time they had been making love. Nervous, she opened her eyes a crack in time to see a sexy woman strolling over to the car. A vague memory of speaking with the woman before came to mind but she lost it that quick. Nash lowered the passenger side window.

  “What are you doing over this way, Gloria?” Nash asked.

  Through the gap between the seats, Nita caught sight of her pout. “I was looking for Lucas. I know the human he’s into lives over this way, and I know damn well he didn’t take the whore to his house.”

  Nash chuckled.

  The woman ran sharp nails along the paint job. “He didn’t!” she growled.

  “You’re going to pay for that,” Nash told her calmly. “Anyway, I don’t have time for you, Gloria, as tasty as you look tonight. I don’t do my Alpha’s leftovers.”

  “What?” Gloria screeched.

  Nash laughed again. “You were about to offer me some, weren’t you?”

  “Go to hell, Nash.”

  The man slid from the car unperturbed by Gloria and came around to open the back door. Before long he had scooped Nita up with care in his arms and was headed inside the building. Nita had thought Gloria would ask questions, but she didn’t follow them. For that Nita was relieved because she thought she would go off if that woman had called her a whore again. She’d never been in a fight in her entire life, but there was a first time for everything.

  Then she began to replay their words in her head. There was no doubt about it. Gloria was like Lucas and Nash. So there were female creatures. She shook, and Nash’s hold tightened.

  “Hold on, lovely lady. We’ll get you tucked into bed in no time.”

  Soon Nash had settled her into her bed and slipped her clothes off only when he had covered her with her blankets. To his credit, he didn’t even try to feel her up. When he clicked the lights off and tossed her keys on her nightstand, he moved to the window. Nita watched with curiosity, wondering what he would do.

  He lifted the window, bent over the sill to check the area and then climbed up and leaped out. Nita stifled a scream. She was on the third floor, and a person could break a leg jumping like that. She threw back the covers and peered out into the night. There was no sign of Nash.

  Her heart pounding, Nita sank down on the side of the bed, only just realizing that Nash had left her completely naked. In the morning if she didn’t remember a thing, she would have wondered why she would sleep that way. Feeling like her world was coming to an end, she slipped back into her clothes and picked up the phone.

  Zandrea answered on the ninth ring. “Yeah?” she barked with a voice thick with sleep.

  “Z.” To Nita’s shame, her throat closed, and tears welled up in her eyes. She coughed and tried again. “Z, I think I’m in trouble. I don’t know. I’m not sure. It’s Lucas, Zandrea. He’s not human.”

  Nita thought the line had gone dead, but after a while her friend spoke. “Tell me everything.”

  Nita went through the events of the night all the way up to the fact that Nash had jumped from the third story and apparently had been fine. Zandrea commanded her to stay put, and that she would be there as fast as she could. Nita nodded dumbly and hung up the phone.

  “So, you know the wolf shifters’ secret, huh?”

  Nita jumped at the voice. She twisted around to find a dark shadow in the corner of her room by the closet. Flicking on the bedside lamp, she was shocked to see Deandre. “W-What are you doing in my room, Deandre?” she demanded but with little force as her strength had left her body.

  He crossed the room to stand in front of her, a look of naked lust in his eyes. She prayed he hadn’t seen her before she dressed, not in the darkness.

  “I’m here for what’s mine,” he told her, stroking her face.

  She pulled away. “What are you talking about?”

  “I’ve alway
s intended for you to be the one. For four months I watched you, and no disgusting wolf shifter will take my prize. Tonight, baby, you will give me what I have been waiting on for eighty-five years.”

  And right before her eyes, Deandre changed too.

  Chapter Thirteen

  “Fuck!” Brant roared. “I can’t pick up a scent.”

  Zandrea rang her hands, worry tightening her chest. “Try harder, baby, please. She can’t just have disappeared.”

  Brant sighed and began to remove his clothes. Zandrea, like she usually did, watched appreciatively as her man’s solid naked body came into view. He handed her his clothes, and she took them. In seconds, he shifted to his wolf form and began to pad around the room sniffing in every direction. He scratched at the front door, and Zandrea crossed over to it to let him out. They were extremely careful about letting anyone see him in this form, but since it was night time, it was likely that anyone wandering about at this time would just think he was a regular dog.

  Zandrea locked the door to Nita’s room and descended the stairs behind her lover. He was moving fast, but she was confident he wouldn’t get too far ahead of her. They were like two halves of one person. Since they had embraced the fact that they were mates, they hadn’t once been out of each other’s sight. Zandrea had even had to let her job go, but that low-paying dead end was no loss whatsoever. Right now, she was in the process of setting up her own Internet business. Brant was generous with his money, but she wanted her own.

  On the front walk, Brant had stopped. From the sadness in his eyes, she knew he hadn’t been able to pick up a fresh scent for Nita. She had disappeared, and no other strange smells had been in her place except for Nash’s. So where the hell was she?

  “Do you think maybe she went back to Lucas’ since his voodoo didn’t work on her?” she asked Brant.