Werecats and Werelocks (Collection) (3 page)

Juanita shook her head, the white-grey of her hair, wispy and thinning swaying under her ceiling fan. “Not just sex with anyone, Charlie. You have to have sex with the person who bit you at the rise of the full moon."

Word
.

"Um, you mean your grandson?"

"Yes, Quinn."

Quinn. That was a nice name. Charlie wondered what it'd be like when it rolled off her tongue as she screamed it in passion while she had
ritualistic
sex. “Forgive me if I'm out of line here, but I can't have sex with someone I don't even know."

Grandma's face grew somber. “You will if you want to reverse the effects of the bite..."

Okay, so from what Charlie gathered from Grandma Juanita, all she had to do was have sex with the dumb ass that had bitten her just as the full moon rose and they could reverse the effects of the bite. She went to bed that night with Grandma Juanita's words swimming around in her cotton-filled head.

Then the blond head tiger Luke showed up the next day. She'd never forget the look on his face when he began to retell her about this pending sexcapade while handing her a tissue.

"You haven't fully changed,” tall, strikingly rugged and high cheek-boned, Luke explained from her doorstep.

"Yeah, this is what I hear. I'm not sure if I'm grateful or pissed he didn't finish the job,” she sorta joked. Pushing back her heavy length of hair and hacking up more gunk from her lungs, Charlie gasped for breath.

Luke smacked her back, his smile grim, while his brother stared at his feet. “We think, or at least we hope that's why you're suffering from these allergies—because you haven't shifted totally. Your body's at war with itself trying to adjust and I don't know that if you did fully shift, if you wouldn't end up more miserable. We can't take that chance."

"What worries me here, oh Striped One is this—what if we do this thing and it doesn't work? What if my body likes war?"

Luke closed his eyes and took a deep breath, clearly seeking patience. “I know the reversion works."

"Ahhh,” she chuckled the word. “So you're a watcher like grandma too?"

He rolled his tongue along the inside of his cheek. “No, I didn't watch. I did see the aftermath and everything was right as rain. So let's just count ourselves lucky Quinn didn't bite you on the full moon.” He made a face at his brother. “If we don't do this before the full moon fully rises and you shift completely, you're in like Flynn. Sunk, to be precise, but we
can
fix this. If you mate with my brother Quinn, the numbnuts that bit you because he's a jealous, spiteful hothead who's into public brawls, you can revert back to your human form with no trouble at all. But I can't impress upon you how important it is to do this just before the full moon rises."

Naturally
.

"Any particular reason this full moon shit makes so much of a difference?"

His jaw clicked when he cracked it. “The full moon is a shifter tradition. Our entire pride participates in the rise of the full moon, but no, I don't know why on a full moon you're totally turned and any other day you aren't. It just is."

Of course, she couldn't see if the moon was full because her eyes were always watering since she'd been nipped. She might have been more flipped out over the sex thing if Grandma Juanita tiger hadn't already warned her about it. She'd had some time to catch her breath, figuratively speaking anyway, since yesterday.

"Care to explain that? Juanita didn't get too detailed yesterday because she said you had to handle this as pride leader. So hit me with the goods, Tony the Tiger. Because this could just be some cheap, albeit elaborate way to get into my pants,” she remarked dryly.

Luke grinned that stunningly disarming grin again. “It's an old legend. A kind of remedy for those who were never intended to be bitten—courtesy of my grandmother, whom you've met.” He nodded in the direction of his brother, thumbing a finger at him. “Tell her, numbnuts."

"Quit calling me a numbnuts!” he hollered. “It was a mistake and I'd like to explain. Travis Barker and I go way back. We've never gotten along, but when he slept with my girlfriend—"

"
Ex
-girlfriend,” Luke interrupted, his eyebrows, thick and darker than his hair, knitting together.

Quinn narrowed his liquid brown eyes. “'Whatever. He didn't have to tell the entire pride, did he? Anyway, I was chasing the redneck who slept with Tasha. I had him cornered too, but then we slammed into Charlie and she got pissed—rightfully so. She got between us and Travis got nasty because he's a drunken asshole. I wasn't going to stand there and let him insult an innocent woman, Luke. So I intervened."

Charlie nodded her head in agreement. “He definitely did defend my girlie-ness."

Quinn ran a hand through his light brown hair and shrugged. “I really wanted to smash the shit out of his face, but he grabbed for me over Charlie's shoulder and I lost my balance. Charlie ended up between us on the floor, but the impact of hitting the floor made my head slap forward and I nicked her ear. If the shithead hadn't pushed his luck, none of this would have ever happened and everything Luke said is true,” he finally offered, looking in Charlie's direction. “We do have to have sex."

Looking back, when Quinn's tooth had sunk into her ear, she had heard his grunt of shock. His yelp of dismay had been genuine.

Charlie nodded her head once more. “Okay, so oops and all. That doesn't help much when I can't breathe and my eyeballs are dripping off my face. How am I supposed to be able to concentrate on wonking the kitty out of me when I can't think straight over the amount of Benadryl in me?"

"Again, it's the only way, Charlie, and again, the entire pride is really sorry Quinn is such a jackass.” Luke's amber and green-flecked eyes hardened as he looked at his brother.

Quinn scuffed his sneakered feet. “I said I was sorry, Luke, so shut the hell up. Would you let someone talk about your woman like that?"

"She's not your woman anymore and drawing that much attention to yourself, in a pet store, of all places, was just stupid on your part."

Luke's reminder clearly pissed Quinn off. “He followed me in there, Luke—"

Charlie put a hand between them, interrupting their bickering. “How about we save this spat for another time? I don't know Tasha, but I'm sorry she slept with Travis and I'm even sorrier I got into the middle of this. I say we focus on the problem at hand. And that's you and me having ... well..."

Luke's jaw cracked again hard, hard enough that it echoed in her backyard. “Charlie's right, Quinn. Let's just do what we have to in order to make things right."

Yeah, like have sex.

Charlie would've giggled if this wasn't all so nucking futs.

She turned to them and looked Quinn directly in the eyes. “And how do you feel about this, Quinn? I mean, I'm not exactly pretty to look at right now. My eyes are perpetually red, my nose is stuffy and redder still and I want to Alaskan bake the deer in my backyard for dinner. Wait, scratch that. I'd eat ‘em raw right off the bone. That can't be terribly appealing to you."

He gave her a sidelong glance and shrugged, his wide shoulders bunching underneath his flannel jacket. “I did do the crime..."

"Wow, way to bag a chick, huh?” Charlie's sarcasm was evident.

Luke stepped between them, his muscled chest at eye level. Tilting her chin up with a finger, he smiled down reassuringly and laughed. “That wasn't what he meant. You're very attractive and Quinn was just saying so right before we got here. And I agree.” He chuckled, sending a wave of electricity along her spine.

Luke's smile had captivated Charlie from the moment she'd first seen him on her stairs. Truth be told, she'd been eyeing Luke up since he'd come to her door. He
was
cute. However, he wasn't the man she had to wonk to get rid of these allergies.

Quinn was and while he was cute too, Luke had this sort of raw, primal thing going on that Quinn couldn't touch.

But—Quinn was the key to being allergy free.

Too bad, so sad.

Looking out her kitchen window at the gathering deer, Charlie found dredging up that conversation in her memory only made her like Luke even more three weeks later.

Luke was the pride's leader and so he'd taken on the task of seeing to Charlie's well-being. All that shoulder length, dark blond hair, his smoky, chocolate brown eyes and crazy hot body were more than enough to make her wish
Luke
had bitten her instead of his brother.

And he had a nice set of thighs. Not too thick, not too thin.

Fucked.

She was so fucked.

She didn't want to have sex with Quinn. Not even a little. No, he wasn't ugly by any stretch of the imagination.

He just wasn't Luke.

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This didn't have to be a problem.

It really didn't.

But it so was.

Now, after getting to know her hot pride leader, Charlie hadn't been able to stop wishing Luke had been the one to bite her. He made visits often and at first she'd believed him when he said it was his duty as the boss to make sure she was okay. Though lately, checking up on her, bringing her bouquets of flowers made from colored tissues and a new supply of nasal spray somehow didn't seem like as much a duty as it did an excuse to see her.

Why someone as hot as Luke would want to hang out with her and her big, runny nose escaped her. But she couldn't deny all the time spent together was becoming a habit—one she didn't want to break.

They watched movies together, ate dinner together, hunted choice cuts of red meat at the supermarket together. All the while, Charlie's attraction for Luke growing until she thought she'd lose her mind from the mere smell of him.

Wait, she'd already lost her mind when she'd bought into this shapeshifter sex thing, hadn't she?

But he kept his distance whenever they got too close, and Charlie'd decided it was time to change all that.

Luke had taken care of any doubts she might have had that he was lying about his ability to shift too. He'd shifted for her one night after they'd watched a couple of movies.

That had been a grand showing of fluffy hair and teeth. It almost made her want to complete the transition because he was so beautiful, but then, she'd sneezed and she was reminded she couldn't go on like this. Her nose would explode right off her face.

Tonight, for the first time, Luke had finally showed his hesitance for her upcoming boink to allergy freedom when she'd opened her big mouth while they watched TV on her couch.

"How is Quinn, anyway? Is he nervous about tomorrow night? Do we need Viagra or something? You know, just in case he gets ... I dunno, stage fright? I mean, it's not like I have to be particularly attracted to him. I can fake it, believe me. However, he has equipment that kinda has to work in order for me to revert back,” she'd spoken her thoughts out loud and then, clamped a hand over her mouth. Of all the fucktard things to ask the brother of the guy she had to screw in order to consider nasal spray a thing of the past.

Luke's face went rigid for a moment, then softened a bit. “I'm sure it'll be fine.” His next words were muttered under his breath on a huffy whistle of air. “God damn it, I should have bitten you."

Leaning in closer to him, Charlie gazed into his eyes and her heart rate sped up. “It's a crazy way to get into a chick's pants, but I wish it had been you, too,” she offered in the way of consolation, letting her hand rest on his broad chest.

Tugging her head back by the length of her hair, Luke pulled her to him. “Do you have any idea how much it pisses me off that Quinn will be the one to touch you first? It should be me,” he growled.

Her throat was thick and filled with words of regret. Quinn was nice enough and she had to do what she had to do. She certainly couldn't go on like this, wheezing and coughing, but Luke's admission made her cunt clench and her gut raw with regret. “I'm sorry. I didn't ask for this, you know,” she reminded him of the facts. “Maybe we could look at it this way—if not for Quinn, we might never have met."

"We could.” His mouth set sternly.

Charlie kissed the corner of it. “Then let's."

"And you know...” She buried her face in his thickly corded neck, trying to figure out exactly how she was going to catch her some tiger.

Luke stroked the length of her hair. “What's on your mind?"

Oy. “Quinn doesn't have to be the
first
person to touch me ... I mean, there's no rule against it, is there? It won't affect the shifting thing, will it? If we—I mean...” She moaned. “You know what I mean.” She rubbed her nose, not so drippy tonight, against the collar of his shirt.

Luke wrapped his fingers around her hair and tugged her head backward. His light brown eyes with the amber-and-green flecks scanned her face for only a moment, then his lips descended on hers with possession as an answer, hot and hungry, prying her own apart and slipping his tongue inside her mouth to rake it over hers. The rasp of his hot flesh made her tremble with a need she'd never known could be so intense. So wanton and wicked. Visions of a night alone with Luke made her pull back with a gasp to look at him with a questioning glance.

"So that's a green light? It's okay if we—we—"

His lips barely touched hers, when he whispered—possessive, angry, “No, it doesn't matter. It only matters on the night of the full moon that Quinn be the one to mate with you in a traditional manner.” Luke's eyes devoured hers, myriad emotions flashing back at her. “When tomorrow's over, you're
mine
, Charlie, got that?"

She gulped. “Yeah, I got it. But I say we think about tonight instead."

The breath he took was ragged and then his lips covered hers once more and Charlie was lost to the delicious taste of his tongue prying her lips apart. Her groan was garbled against the hard press of his mouth. Her nipples were tight, pressing painfully against her bulky sweater.

Luke outlined her lips with his tongue, rasping over them as he pushed a hand up under her sweater to impatiently move her bra up over her breasts. He used his thumb and index finger to roll a nipple, sending sharp pangs of lust to Charlie's pussy.