Shifters, Beasts, and Monsters (13 page)

She was perfect. Her hips were lush and her ass was
delightfully rounded. Between her thighs, her dark thatch of hair was full and
a delicious contrast to her rose-ivory skin. “You’re a goddess.”

She laughed lustily. “You’re the mystical being here,
not me. And you’re wearing too many clothes.”

He hurried to repair that oversight. Oddly, the
glowing of his hands died out when he touched his own body, so he couldn’t tell
what it felt like to press the sparkles to his own skin. Probably just as
well—he wasn’t much for pain, even during sex, although he couldn’t deny that
he enjoyed dealing it out if such was a woman’s desire. He would happily spank
a juicy bottom or pinch an erect nipple just to feel his partner react to the
intense stimulus. If the sparkles excited Kate, even if they hurt her a little
bit, his cock—and the fierce Zrakon inside him—would be all the
more aroused and pleased.

There was a cruel side to the Zrakon, he knew. If the
beast was out of control, he could be sadistic. Perhaps it was just his nature,
or perhaps the violence of his pleasures wouldn’t seem so dramatic if his
partner was a female sea dragon, with a tough hide. What the Zrakon wanted was
not so different from what Ross, the man wanted—to thrust his aching cock
inside his female partner. Too bad there were no female sea dragons in the
waters around this island—life would be much simpler for everybody if the
poor dragon had not been placed under a curse.

“You’re too slow,” she laughed, and helped him with
his trousers. Her hand found him quickly as he slid pants and underwear down. “You’re
not glowing here,” she noted. She stroked him up and down his erect cock, and
then she dropped to her knees. The realization that she was going to take him
in her mouth nearly made him come on the spot. A moment later her tongue
flicked around the rim before sucking him into her hot, silky mouth. God!

She pulled back, taking him in one hand. She pumped
her fist up and down his shaft, and then held him still while she explored the
head with her tongue. While teasing the slit with the extreme tip of her
tongue, she caressed his balls with her clever fingers. Then she drew him part
way into her mouth again and sucked hard.

He nearly exploded. He held back because it felt so
damn good. He didn’t want it to end. There were too many things he wanted to do
to her, this bare beautiful goddess who was kneeling, naked, at his feet. His
hands dove into her thick hair and pulled her to him as he thrust deeper. He
was so hot for her that he knew he was right on the verge of getting rough. He
was afraid he would choke her with his thick cock, but she managed to take him
without faltering, her mouth a deep well for a thirsty man.

He’d been dreaming about this. Imagining how it would
be. But it was so much sweeter.

Her tongue kept working him while one of her hands
massaged his balls. The other went around to grab his ass and urge him to take
her harder, faster. She sucked him deeper, taking all of him, bobbing her lovely
head up and down. One of her fingers found the spot between his ball sack and
his arsehole and pressed. Ah, the bliss of it. He was sure he must be hurting
her as he pumped his hips into her face, fast, fiercely, driving just as deep
as it was possible to go, and groaning as she sucked him into mindlessness.

He was going to come in her mouth. He couldn’t stop
it. He hoped to hell she wouldn’t mind because he was beyond control, beyond thought,
burning up with passion. “Catriona,” he moaned, reveling in her mouth, her
breasts, her beautiful hair. She must have pressed that tender spot again
behind his balls because pleasure and muscle tension both erupted together,
sending waves of ecstatic release crashing through him. He shot into her mouth,
and she swallowed him down, continuing the gentle licking and sucking
afterwards, soothing him as he gradually descended.

When she backed off and looked up at him, her green
eyes were smiling. “I think we put out your fires, at least for a little while.”

Laughing, he sank down in the grass beside her. “That
was amazing. Sorry to lose myself so completely, but you sent me right over the
edge. You’re so fucking sexy.” He ran his hands, which, indeed, had stopped
glowing, over her breasts. Her nipples were rosy beads, erect and sensitive in
the moonlight. “I’ll make it up to you, though.”

“You’d better,” she teased him.

He could still feel the pleasure coursing through him,
but curiously, his desire had not died away. As he touched her, stroked her, it
surged again. His genitals began to fill and ache as if unsatisfied. It was the
Zrakon who was unsatisfied. The beast inside him wanted more than human-to-human
congress; it wanted Kate spread out beneath his dragon body, writhing in pain
as he speared into her with his monstrous spiked cock. He wasn’t sure why his
beast wanted that so much, but he felt the rise of timeless ancient lust, and
he was afraid for her.

She didn’t remember her experience with the Zrakon.
Maybe that had been a bad idea—making her forget. She was curious about
his sea dragon without realizing that he
was
the monster.

She leaned up to kiss his mouth. He pulled her to him,
wrapping her tight in his arms and sealing his lips to hers. It must be the
kiss that did it—because his fingers began once again to glow and spark.
She shivered as he ran his hands under her hair and down her back.

“The tingling,” she whispered.

“Aye. It’s coming back. Is it hurting?”

“No. Not exactly. It’s strange. Magical, I think. It
burns a little, yes, but it’s good pain, if that makes any sense.”

This time, though, he felt as if he was burning
inside. Desire was again overwhelming him, and not just physical desire. His
brain felt strange. He couldn’t think clearly. He lifted Kate as if she weighed
nothing and laid her over the low stone bench, her belly on the bench and her
ass in the air. “So sexy,” he said, as he spread her thighs and bent to bathe
her pussy with his tongue.

She arched and cried out. She was wet and tangy, all
woman, delicious and wild. He loved the way she squirmed. He held her down
firmly with one sparkling hand on her ass as he licked and sucked her pussy,
stabbing his tongue into her.

“Oh, Ross, that’s so good,” she moaned, twisting
beneath his touch.

He inched toward her clit, teasing and circling before
sliding his tongue across the firm little bud. She gasped, and he slapped her bottom
with his glowing hand, feeling increasingly eager to feel her twitch, hear her
cry. She was his now and he could do anything. She was his to play with, his to
enjoy, his to torment if such was his need and his desire.

“Is my hand burning you?” he whispered. He sucked hard
on her clit. She moaned and ground herself against him. He did it again. “Answer
me.”

“Um...yes, a little, but it’s okay.”

He ran his glowing fingers up her spine and felt her
jerk and shiver. Over her shoulders and down her sides to her buttocks again.
He spanked her lightly. She cried out in what he thought was pleasure, but
might have been pain. “Do you like that?”

“Oh god, yes!”

He rubbed more vigorously, fascinated by the way the
sparkles danced over the soft curves of her ass. He spanked her harder, and her
cries grew louder, more intense. “I’m going to use my fiery hand on your clit,”
he threatened.

She bucked and moaned, obviously not sure whether this
would drive her mad with bliss or hurt like hell. He wasn’t sure, either, but
the dragon inside him didn’t care. She was his—his—and she would
know it, now and forever. She would feel what he was doing to her and know. He
would claim her with his forbidden fire. He would revel as she screamed out her
ecstasy.

But before he could slide his hand into that sweet
cleft, she made a sound that he dimly recognized as distress. Beneath the sparkly
hand he was pressing against her butt, her skin was a little red.

“It
is
hurting,” she gasped. “Maybe a bit too
much. It’s—”

Shit, he thought, and tore his mystical fingers away.
This was supremely hard to do, and as he did it, inside him, the Zrakon roared.
He was being denied,
again
, and he was in no mood for denial. The glowing
aura was part of his ancient dragonfire, the fire that had been stolen from him
and drowned in the sea. He wanted to use it. Now. On her.

No
.

The Zrakon’s fury erupted. To his horror, Ross saw his
glowing hands and arms shimmer and change, turning thicker, stronger, and
covered with iridescent scales. The air around them heated and crackled as the
change raced up his arms and into his shoulders. Pain and rage shuddered
through him. He was
not
going to be denied.

Holy shit. He had never shifted spontaneously before.
He had to stop it. She didn’t know. The Zrakon wanted her just the way she
was—he intended to drive himself into her vulnerable body, so widely
spread and waiting for him. Dammit! He had to keep control.

“Kate,” his voice sounded hoarse and unnatural. “You
aren’t safe here. Get up, get out. Kate. I’m serious. Go.”

But Kate, languorous from sexual passion, didn’t leap
up and run away. Of course not. She laughed in her cheery spontaneous way. “Who
ever said I wanted to be safe? You’re not stopping, are you?”

Fuck. It was like trying to slam the door on a
tornado. Any second she was going to roll over or push herself up from the
bench, see his half-shifted body, and freak.

If you want her to love you, you great fool of a
lummox,
he told his monster self,
you’ll have to win
her with tenderness, not brand her with pain.

Then he tried to think of the driest possible subject
he could imagine, settling on envisioning protein synthesis deep inside a
single human cell. Codons. Transcription. Translation. The intricacies of
protein folding. Thank the gods for all the years he had spent studying biology
and biochemistry, because this utterly confounded the Zrakon. The change
stuttered to a halt.

With a monumental effort, Ross held on hard to Kate’s
spirit. He made her his anchor in the human world, and drove the Zrakon back.
Down. Into the depths of him, where he belonged.

A little shakily, he backed away from the woman he and
his beast so dearly wanted to fuck. “I don’t mean to deprive you, but I think
we should wait until this magic attack subsides. Your beautiful butt has a
reddish outline of my fingers and palm. Much though I love to see my mark on
you, I don’t want to burn you. I mean, that could be damned inconvenient later.”

He tried to say this lightly, but he was worried. What
if he couldn’t make love to her in a normal way?

“It does sting a bit,” she admitted, pushing herself
up and looking down over one shoulder, trying to see her ass.

“We have to get out of the maze. There’s magic here,
and it’s affecting me. Come. Put your clothes on. We can go somewhere a little
less fraught with Mallochbirn mysticism.”

She pouted a bit, but she obeyed. She kept rubbing her
sore ass even after it was covered, but she didn’t seem too uncomfortable, and
she looked so cute doing it that he felt laughter bubble up. Unfortunately, he
couldn’t think of a spot less fraught with magic. The dragon would accompany
them anywhere he went.

Chapter Nine

Late that night, alone in his bedroom because he didn’t
trust himself to fall asleep around Kate, Ross telephoned his brother.

“Cam? I need to talk.”

“Not now. Call back later,”
was the curt reply.

“It’s important.”

“Wait a bit and I’ll be with
you.”

Ross waited, restlessly
reliving everything that had happened in the maze. At last he heard Cameron’s
voice again. “I’m listening. What’s the problem?”

They were so much in tune
that Cam would have immediately known there was something wrong. “Where exactly
are you?” He and Cam tended to respect each other’s privacy as much as
possible, since being identical twins was intimate enough. But he was curious
what Cameron had been up to at this time of night.

Amusement and a slight sense
of frustration flowed from Cam to him. “I’m in London at a posh sex club. Would
you like a description of exactly what you interrupted?”

Ross grinned. “By all means.”

“Too bad. Weep with envy, my
brother, and return to your cold lonely bed in Mallochbirn Castle.”

“Ha. Might I inquire what sort
of sex club?”

Cam swore a colorful oath. “The
kinky sort,” he admitted.

“I hope you’re being careful.”

“I’m always careful.”

“Sounds like you’re dealing
with dangerous urges if you’re paying for girls aroused by cruelty. If you lose
control and shift, you could hurt someone.”

“The girls are elite
professionals, and some of them even like the work,” Cameron growled. “Anyway,
I’m not going to lose control. I’m here to gather valuable information, not to
indulge myself. It’s a client, not me, who’s aroused by cruelty. The guy is
known to frequent this place, so I’m interviewing a couple of his favorite companions.”

Ross laughed. “A likely
story.”

His brother laughed too. “It
happens to be true. You, my blood, are jealous. You’re older than I am. Your
need to mate is probably stronger than mine.”

“We’re twins, prick.”

“But you’re aging faster than
I am, stuck on that ancient island.”

“It does seem that way, at
times,” Ross laughed. “But I’ve just met someone interesting. She’s attractive,
bright, adventuresome, and a lot of fun to have around.”

“That sounds promising. Have
you fucked her yet?”

“Not quite. The strange thing
is that I can bond with her. Telepathically. The way you and I can sometimes. I
think she’s the descendant of someone who used to live around here. She might
even be distantly related to our family.”

“So what’s the problem? Do
you need my permission?”

“What I need is your advice. A
lot of mystical shit is happening between us. And the Zrakon is involved in it
all. The compulsion I feel to take her is overpowering. I want to smash into
her body and obliterate her will.”

Now Cameron laughed. “Come
join me in the S&M club. Unleash some of that dark energy here, then go
back to your girl and bring her along a little more slowly.”

“I can’t do that.”

“Why not? You know we’re
different from other men in this. We must release the pent-up energy or we turn
into predators more deadly than any we control.”

“Don’t remind me.”

“Sex works. You never get
enough of it, living in that isolated castle on your rock.”

“I get my share. I just haven’t
lately.”

“Apart from the sex, you
could use some ordinary social interaction. Come to Edinburgh for a while. We’ll
get the whole family together and hang out, have some fun.”

“I’d love to, but it’s now
too late for that solution. Kate imprinted on me earlier this evening. It was
like a brand.”

There was silence for a
moment, then Cameron said, “She
imprinted
on you?”

“Oh aye. It was a volcanic burst of knowledge and
recognition and lust, all combined. I knew her for my mate. I wanted to take
her immediately—to consummate it on every level. It was torture not to
do, you know, everything. But the damn beast was active and I was afraid I’d
change. In fact, I started to shift and only barely managed to prevent it. Now
I’m lying here in my bedroom giving off steam. My brain is about to explode,
and let’s not even discuss the condition of my cock.”

“I thought that imprinting nonsense was a myth. A myth
made up by romantic women.”

“So did I, but it happened. It’s real.”

“I really think you need to get out of that great,
looming rock pile more often, Ross.”

“I’ve had other girlfriends, as you know, but I’ve never
felt anything like this. The dragon side of me wants her, and it’s not feeling
very patient at the moment. Do you think I’m losing it?”

 “Shit, man, I don’t want to know about this. If this absurd
Mallochbirn nonsense can happen to you, does that mean the rest of us are
cursed as well?”

Ross laughed, releasing some of his tension. “If we
end up in the nuthouse, we’ll be quite the attraction—a whole family, skewed
in the head.”

“Don’t fucking scare me. Look, sex may drive men mad,
but the insanity is temporary. Even the sea dragon’s bond, if there really is such
a thing, is self-limiting. Remember our grandfather—no one babbled more
about the Zrakon’s bond, but he had how many women on the side—a dozen? A
score?”

“I think that was after our grandma died. Not that I’m
defending the old monster.”

“The real question is this: after all the lust has
been slaked, will you still want the girl around? After a short acquaintance,
how can you even begin to make an estimate about that?”

“I can’t, obviously. Nor do I have any reason to
believe that she would want to stay with me. She’s a prisoner here, in effect.
She can’t leave.”

“Why can’t she?”

“I’m sort of holding her captive on the island.”

“You can’t hold somebody captive. This isn’t the
Middle Ages.”

“Look, I know that, although I’m not sure who is going
to stop me. It’s not as if she has any relatives nearby. Her family’s in the
States. Besides, she likes me. Let’s just say that things are progressing
nicely on that front. Anyway, I think my intentions might be honorable.”

“Now that
is
interesting.”

“She’s intelligent, spirited, and unconventional—she
will do quite well.”

“Wait just a minute, Twin. You said at the beginning of
this conversation that you’d just met the girl. Correct? After all these years
alone, you’re not going to marry in haste, I hope.”

“Tell that to the Zrakon.”

“Okay, so why can’t she leave?”

“I gave her a post-hypnotic suggestion. I was in sea
dragon form at the time. I told her to forget what she had seen and not to go
anywhere. She seems to have forgotten, and she hasn’t tried to leave. Don’t ask
me how I did it.”

“That’s fucked up. You can do mind control now?”

“The Zrakon has grown a lot stronger since Kate showed
up. I’m shifting spontaneously.”

“Oh aye? You’d better figure this out fast, bro, or
both you and your honey might be screwed.”

“Thanks a lot. Is that all the advice you have for me?”

 “Well, fuck you, here’s my advice. Take her. Don’t
wait, because your lust—and his—will only increase. Give her a few
strong measures of that lovely Scotch you have in Mallochbirn and have some
yourself while you’re at it. It will slow you down. Let her get used to you.
After the first couple times, when you’re calmer and more in control, focus on
her pleasure, and dazzle her with your skill.”

“Dazzle her.”

“Aye. Do I have to spell it out?”

“Fuck you.”

“She’s your imprinted mate. She may fight you, but she
can’t resist you for long. Do whatever it takes. The sooner she gets used to
you, the better.”

Ross knew it. His mind and his body were both singing
with that knowledge. “Thanks,
Cam
.”

“You’re welcome. Now may I please return to my, er,
mission?”

Ross laughed. “Have fun.”

“Good luck with your lady. And remember, whatever it
takes.”