The Hunted (Sleeping With Monsters Book 2) Read online

  “Max, it’s me, Sammy, remember?” I said, my voice rising. “We’re friends, Max. You know me.” I didn’t dare yank my hand back, I knew he could bite me faster than I could move. Inside his mouth his tongue licked back and forth across my hand – and his eyes opened as though he was awake, but they were still that golden-hue.

  “Max –“ I said, breathing hard, scared.

  He sat up slowly and I moved with him. It was like watching a horror movie where someone came back to life – only Max hadn’t died, had he?

  He freed my hand just as he took my wrist, still keeping me close. He licked my palm and it would have tickled under different, less ominous, circumstances. I tried to pull my hand back – and he growled at me, a completely animal sound coming from this throat. His naked chest rose and fell, and the loincloth I’d given him had fallen away with his rising erection.

  “What are you doing?” I asked him, no longer expecting an answer. He pulled me close and one of his hands reached up into my hair and pulled it down, forcing me to show him my neck. He licked it like an animal would, broad strokes, tasting all of my skin, sending shivers up and down my spine. It was a raw feeling – like he’d just let himself go, and something other had taken over.

  I knew what it was like to feel like that – I longed for it, for the sensation of release, of giving over to something else wild and implacable. His tongue ran up the underside of my jaw and I tried to move, to catch his mouth in mine, but he pulled my hair tighter, holding me back. I whined in complaint, and he growled me into silence.

  He pushed his face in at the collar of my sweater, breathing deeply, rolling both of us back, until I was pinned by him on the floor, him straddling me. His one hand kept my hair tight while the other roamed my body, pulling the sweater away. I felt my necklace skitter across my collarbone and thump onto the wooden floor behind me, as his mouth came down to suck and bite, tasting me with almost more pressure than I could bear. Without thinking, I reached up for his heavy cock and felt him shudder as I took hold. I clawed my other hand down his back as hard as I could, knowing I couldn’t hurt him, and heard him – whoever he was now -- rumble deep inside his chest.

  He reached down between my legs and pressed two fingers into me. I gasped and arched, still stroking him as he brought his fingers to his mouth to taste them, his golden eyes on mine. My breath panted in his time – I wanted more, now, I wanted to spread myself wide for him, to let him take me animalistically, for us to rut like the animals we were. An inhuman sound escaped my throat, a whine, begging, pleading, as I pulled one more time on his cock, and -- he blinked, and his eyes were blue, and full of surprise.

  “Oh – Christ,” he cursed, looking down at me – then he threw himself to one side, like I was a grenade. “I’m so sorry – so so sorry –“ he crawled backwards, prior sureness gone. “I didn’t -- are you okay?” he asked, eyes wide with panic.

  I nodded, sitting up and pushing my sweater down. “Yeah. You?”

  “Yeah.” He nodded repeatedly. “I think so,” he said, then passed out.

  Chapter Twelve

  Sammy-smell-good

  Yes.

  Almost-alpha!

  I know. Something had changed in my wolf during our battle with Syd. We’d almost won, despite what’d come after, and both of us knew it. We’d had a chance.

  Healing!

  Yes.

  Sammy smells like blood

  Smells like us

  I know.

  Close now, washing -- like tongues lick.

  I relaxed into her ministrations, staying under the surface. The way she washed each part of me, and her gasps of concern – how long had it been since anyone cared for me?

  Want like food, my wolf whined. Need like fuck.

  No.

  Want. Want want want.

  Wolves were supposed to always listen, when manskin was out. But so close to the full moon and me being so weak – No! – I protested, as my wolf took control of my body. I could only feel things through its senses now.

  Neck exposed. So soft, so easy to hurt.

  Salt of sweat tastes sweet.

  Scent of her like musk -- push muzzle between her legs and l.i.c.k --need Sammy, want Sammy, mount Sammy –

  I could feel our cock, hard and swollen, and if he used it on her like this – I fought through with the last of my strength and took control again, banishing my wolf back inside me.

  I looked out our eyes and saw her spread out beneath me, my hand tangled in her hair tight, feel her hand on my cock, and smell her readiness in the air. “Christ –“ I leapt away from her before I could do anything stupid.

  “I’m so sorry.” How was I going to explain that to her? In addition to everything else? “I didn’t – are you okay?”

  “Yeah. Are you?”

  I nodded. And then my eyelids felt heavy again and I was drawn back to sleep.

  When I woke up, the sun was low outside. I sat up. There was a coat on top of me, and the fire was still stoked – but there were a line of traps between me and the side of the room where Sam sat, watching me.

  “So this is how it’s going to be?” I couldn’t blame her. My damn wolf --

  One of her eyebrows rose. “I didn’t know who I’d get when you woke up – Dr. Jekyll, or Mr. Hyde.”

  “You have no idea how sorry I am about that.”

  “Uh-huh,” she said. “Keep talking.”

  There was no way to hide from it now, I owed her an explanation – forty of them.

  “I’m a werewolf. I was hurt, so my wolf took over for a bit there – it wanted to mount you. I’m completely mortified.” I was careful to look at the traps near her feet instead of meeting her eyes.

  There was a long pause before she asked, “Is that a compliment?”

  I nodded. “I think so, at least. He’s never come out like that before, with anyone. But I’ve never been that hurt before, either.”

  “What the hell hurt you?”

  No reason to hold anything back now. “Other weres. I went to a bar last night to get answers, and got into trouble instead.” I finally dared to look up, and found her calmly watching me. “You’re taking all this rather well.”

  She licked her lips before speaking. “Vincent had a tattoo of a wolf paw over his heart. When I asked him about it, he’d only say that it was old. Between you and him and the burn my silver locket gave you – “ she pointed at a scarred spot on my chest. “I kinda figured it out. But I wanted you to be the one to say it first, because I knew that it’d sound crazy.”

  I nodded, because yeah, it did. “I am so sorry –“

  She swatted my apology away. “You told him when you were with him, didn’t you.”

  It wasn’t a question.

  “He saw me heal one day, I had to – it didn’t make him love me any less.” He didn’t think I was a monster – even if I almost had been with her – I put my head in my hands.

  “It’s okay. Honestly.”

  Was it? My wolf could scent her earlier – and I could smell her now. She’d been as eager as my wolf was – but she didn’t know what she was getting into. It wasn’t safe. “When did he give you the necklace?”

  “When things started going south. I couldn’t see it at the time, ‘cause we were in it, but –“ her hand rested on the locket. “He told me never to open it, unless he’d died.”

  “What was inside?” I was momentarily jealous of her for still having some small piece of him.

  She tilted her head, and her hair swept over one shoulder. “Your phone number.”

  I sat there stunned as she stood and crossed over the room to me, stepping carefully over the traps to sit down just out of arm’s reach, my sweater riding up her thighs. Vincent knew this might happen, that she might need me -- and that I’d always be here waiting for him. “Did you find anything out?”

  “Syd was supposed to be guarding him that night. He wasn’t there, and I’d bet money he tipped the Caminos off –“

 
; “Syd?” she asked, her voice rising. “He’s a werewolf too?”

  “The pack alpha. Theoretically, my boss. What he says, goes.” I shook my head.

  “He’s in the book.” She flipped to his page instantly and handed it over to me. I scanned the page – some of the dollar amounts on there were huge. And the list of names – I recognized a few of them, from my time in the game. I had no doubt they were people that Syd had murdered.

  “Who else is in there?” Was I?

  Sam frowned and flipped through a few more pages. “Do you know JD, and Georgie?”

  I slowly nodded. “How did you know?”

  “They’re all dog-earred. Which I bet Vincent thought was hilarious when he was doing it.” She gave me a sad half smile. “Was your whole pack in on it? I mean, he was going to turn them in --”

  “Along with half of the rest of the family,” I said, trying to make apologies for my kind, while putting a horrified hand to my mouth. I was the reason he’d died. Without me, they never would have ingratiated themselves, they’d still be living from season to season, off the land and construction jobs.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “It’s all my fault,” I said. “I’m the reason he’s gone.”

  She tilted her head at me. It was a gesture Vincent had made with me a thousand times, and seeing her make it hurt me deep inside -- “How?” she asked.

  I inhaled deeply. “It wasn’t until I got involved with Vincent that Syd realized the weres could work for the family. If I hadn’t been with him, Syd never would have taken my place.”

  I waited for her to yell or cry or go. I wouldn’t stop her – I had no hold on her, no matter how my wolf felt. Instead she stared at me, quiet.

  “One night, I did one of those jealous things, and asked him about who he’d been with before me,” she said, breaking the silence. “And he told me a story about you.”

  “He…did?”

  “He said there’d been someone in his life who meant the world to him – and that lies had torn them apart. I’d assumed it was a woman, and I never asked to hear the rest, I didn’t want to, but –“

  I swallowed, watching her.

  “And he told me other stories, too. About his bodyguard before Syd. How you saved his life, more than once. I remember his face – it wasn’t the kind of face you made about someone like Syd.” She snorted. “In retrospect, it was pretty clear he hated Syd – we both did. He’s kind of an asshole.”

  “Yeah.” Vincent had saved a part of his heart for me afterall. I thrilled to hear it, even as it made missing him that much harder.

  “He made it clear he wouldn’t have lived as long as he had without you. So I have you to thank for that. And you never did anything to hurt him – other than go.”

  I closed my eyes. How many times had I wished I’d been strong or stupid enough to stay with him then, and take on the whole pack, rules and danger be damned? Would I have been happier dying alongside him that night? After seven years of living in the hills, the answer for me was yes.

  But my going had kept Vincent alive – and she’d gone on to make him happy, without me. I flipped to the front of the book again, with its invocation for her safety. “I’ve got to get you away from here, Sam. You and the book – he wanted you both safe.”

  She reared back. “No way. We’re not done yet. Now that we know Vincent’s death is Syd’s fault – I want revenge.”

  I started shaking my head. She needed to go. “It’s not as simple as that.”

  “Because he’s your alpha?”

  “Because he’s as indestructible as me. And the rest of my pack --they hate me.”

  “Why?”

  “Because what I am is not allowed.”

  Her eyebrows rose. “And that is?”

  I looked away from her. “I like guys as much as I like girls.” I remembered when I’d realized it too, when I’d been stumbling drunk out of a bar I wasn’t old enough to be in. Hal had hauled me out into the alley to beat sense into me – weres couldn’t risk getting jailed, what if you were in prison on a full moon night? -- and cracked my head against the bricks. I sank down to my knees, seeing double for a minute, reaching up to beg forgiveness, finding myself on a level with his cock.

  For one decisive moment, Hal stared down as I stared up, and then after that both of us knew what we were going to do.

  He unzipped his pants and pulled his cock out and I took it in my mouth, hot and hard, feeling his fingers twine in my hair as he fucked my face. I let him, dropping my jaw down as far as it would go, taking him deep inside my throat, feeling the bulb of his head bobbing at the back of me. A minute, minute-and-a-half later, Hal was gasping above and I was swallowing cum.

  He looked down at me, shoving his dick back into his pants. “Tell anyone, and you’ll die.”

  I shook my head. I wouldn’t. I was just as hard as he’d been – and the second he left the alley, my hands were all over my cock until I came.

  Hal wanted more, eventually taking me into the forest, teaching me how to use my ass to pleasure him. He -- and then others -- took me front and back, and I was foolish enough to think that it made me special, that I was loved, even as I jerked myself off afterwards, completely alone.

  “And they don’t like that, why?”

  I blinked myself back to the present. “Because only a wolf with a mate can be an alpha – and wolves don’t mate, male to male.” I knew you could show another man your knot, but it that didn’t count. My wolf loved Vincent’s alpha-nature, but it’d never tried to mate him. Not like it just had with her. “They used me until I was smart enough to realize that they hated me. And then I stayed out of their way, until Vincent made me his man. Then pack edged in and pushed me out –“

  “And that’s when Vincent found me,” she said.

  “Yeah. And I came here. To hide and lick my wounds.”

  Her hands played at the edge of her sweater. “Did you hope that he’d come back to you?”

  “Of course. Even as I knew if he did they’d kill us both. And I still wound up getting him --“ I folded in on myself in blame.

  “I thought you were going to die,” she said, cutting me off. “You should’ve seen yourself. There were holes, bites, everywhere. I can’t believe that you’re alive.”

  “Me either, really,” I said quietly. I remembered enough of the fight to know that I should have been dead – and that I was winning, before the others came in.

  Almost-alpha! my wolf howled, in triumph.

  I’d challenged Syd, and then my pack arrived. Once they’d hauled me outside some of them had changed into wolves and bitten me – I put a hand to my throat, remembering the feel of teeth twisting.

  Only the fact that I hadn’t changed into a wolf had saved me, and the old rules about weres not killing other weres. If I had changed, my life would have been forfeit, fights started as wolves ended as them. But it was perfectly okay however, to screw other weres over, literally and figuratively, and to set up people that they loved.

  “I saw you Max, you should’ve died,” she said, with an emphasis on the should. “But you didn’t. You’re alive for a reason.”

  Almost-alpha, my wolf agreed with her. She crawled over to me, and inside my wolf’s tail beat low at seeing her on all fours.

  “It wasn’t your fault, Max,” she said, taking my hand. The neck of my sweater hung open on her, showing me her breasts and the swinging silver locket. “It was Syd’s – and the reason you’re still alive is so that we can make him pay.”

  Was it?

  God, I hoped so.

  She wanted revenge – and I wanted her. She was mesmerizing, electric. I couldn’t take my eyes off of her and hidden underneath my coat my cock ached.

  But I spent the rest of the night acting normal as we figured out our plan together – and I tried to figure out how to tell her certain truths alone.

  “You’re sure you can get all the traps set in time?” she asked me as she stood up to heat the kett
le. My sweater barely covered her ass. My wolf whined, and I forced myself to concentrate.

  “Yeah. If you can get us the silver. The guns –“ I shook my head. That was her plan. She said it’d work, but I wasn’t so sure.

  “Trust me,” she said, with a wicked smile.

  “All right.” I couldn’t help but.

  First thing tomorrow, after a real bath in the creek, we were going to buy silver and shells – revenge would require luck and a large quantity of ammunition. But it was late now, and I could see the exhaustion of the past few days resting on her, around her shoulders and her eyes. I stood, carefully keeping my coat in front of myself to make my way across the room to take the couch, while she pulled herself onto my sheetless mattress. Without talking about it we’d agreed to go into our separate corners for the night.

  But there was one last thing. I inhaled and exhaled deeply. “We have to take the moon into account.”

  “That’s all we’ve thought of this whole time, Max,” she said, her voice thick with sleep. We’d planned everything to happen when the pack and I would be trapped as wolves, underneath the full moon’s glare. That way the pack would have to stay up here, and it would be safe in town for Sam to meet the Marshall.

  “No,” I said softly. “On me.” I couldn’t ask it of her. And yet – it was dark in the cabin, I could see her, but I knew she couldn’t see all of me -- “Only a wolf with a mate can be alpha.”

  “So?”

  “Only an alpha can defeat Syd.”

  “You don’t think silver buckshot’ll do the trick?”

  “That’s assuming he falls for everything. Some of the others will – but he’s smart.”

  “Yeah, I know. I used to try to give him the slip sometimes.” She snorted. “So – well – mate me.”

  Inside, me, my wolf howled in triumph – and I slapped it down. “You don’t know what you’re saying.”

  “We fucked the other night, Max –“

  “Mating’s different. It’s deeper than that. It’s not just fucking.”

  “Reallllllly.” Her tone was bemused.

  “It’s a connection – it’s –“