A Cat's Tale (9 page)

He
sighed. “Do you always have to be so contrary?”

“I’m
a cat,” she said. “It’s expected.”

“Right.”
His mouth twisted in a grimace. Out of patience, Jared picked Josie up and tossed
her over his shoulder.

“Hey,”
she hissed, writhing so the muscles of her backside bunched and her tail
flexed. He got hard just watching her squirm. “This wasn’t part of the plan!”

“Plans
change,” Jared said. He swatted her rump once hard for the simple pleasure of
watching her jump. Then he carried her into the bathroom and shoved the door
closed for the little privacy it afforded.

“Put
me down, you Cromag wolfman.” She threatened him with the glide of claws across
his bare back. Jared didn’t flinch. He trusted her—more than she did him. It
wasn’t a wise choice, but he obeyed his instincts.

Hefting
her off his shoulder, he set her down, placing her feet firm on the tile floor.
He exhaled hard so his nostrils flared. He looked down at her and remained
silent, thinking hard. She claimed to trust him. How much? Fuck, he loathed
having to destroy any of her hard-earned trust.

Josie’s
eyes grew round and she backed away from him, staring with a fearful
expression. “Jared? Okay, now you’re scaring me for real…”

He
held up his hands in a staying gesture. “Josie, would you do something for me?
Please? Just once do as I ask without a thousand questions and arguments.” Out
of desperation, he attempted to use his wolf to soothe her, allowing his power
to flow across her tense frame. It was risky. His attempts to treat her as a
submissive wolf tended to provoke a negative reaction from her.

She
stopped retreating just before she ran out of bathroom. “What?” she asked. Her
mysterious cat mind was philosophical.
To trust? Not to trust? That was the
question.

“Shift
fully to human,” Jared said. He waited. Time passed and he realized she wouldn’t
do it for him. Her half-cat, half-human form was her armor. Trust had been a
mirage in their personal desert.

Frustrated,
he closed his eyes, sorting possibilities and attempting to revise his escape
plans into some kind of workable strategy. The odds of getting out and keeping
Josie alive in the process seemed insurmountable without her cooperation.

“Jared?”

He
opened his eyes and found her in human form. She held her head high and stood
with her back straight, enduring his inspection. She was petite and whip-thin
with high pretty breasts and a tiny waist. Her skin was a dusky mocha and her
short black hair sleek and shiny. The clunky gold collar around her neck
contrasted with her refined beauty.

“Josie,
you’re gorgeous,” Jared said. He beckoned her to him, not bothering to conceal
his arousal. “Why don’t you want me seeing you like this?” As a rule,
shapechangers had no taboos about nudity and little personal modesty.

His
cat took three nervous steps forward, entering the circle of his arms of her
own free will. “I feel…exposed.”

“You’re
gonna need to stay like this for my plan to work. Just remember, stay human no
matter what. They’ll know you’re not dead if you shift,” Jared said, reaching
for her throat with his hands.

“Plan?
What plan?” she asked. Her pulse accelerated but then settled as he fumbled
with the collar, working the combination lock so that it snapped open. Jared
pulled the hated thing from her neck and then tossed it into the trash.

Josie
blinked, her breath hitched and her blue eyes glimmered with unshed tears.
Jared ran his fingers over the red indention the tight collar had left on her
delicate flesh.

“Never
again, Josie Cat,” he promised. “No one will ever put a collar on you again.”

Josie
reacted with something between a meow and a growl. Then her small hands were
between them—insistent and urgent—tugging at the fastening of his pants. She
ripped open the button fly, freeing his cock, which sprang into her open palm.
Her fingers wrapped around his pulsing rod and she squeezed hard enough to make
him gasp.

“Fuck,
Josie,” he snarled. His eyes flashed with pent up aggression. “I don’t want
gratitude sex.”

“Jared.”
She flashed small, sharp teeth and her hand imprisoned his cock. Her other
slipped between his legs to cup his balls. She had him; oh, she had him good. “Don’t
be an ass. Shut up and enjoy the fucking blow job.”

She
bent her head and he ground his teeth, expecting the punishing nip of her
feline teeth, and yet he made no move to shove her away. He definitely trusted
her more than she did him.

Her
silken tongue passed over the head of his cock, tasting the pre-cum beading
there, as the tip delved into his slit. She worked him with her hands, fisting
his shaft and massaging his balls.

Josie’s
mouth closed on the head of his cock and Jared’s last coherent thought went
south. He moaned and rocked his hips in rhythm with her hands and mouth. His
wolf longed to bypass the light stuff and plunge his entire shaft down her
throat until his scrotum seized.

The
violence of his urges scared him. Bending, Jared pried Josie from his cock,
freeing first her mouth then her hands.

“Jared,
what’s wrong?” She sounded confused and maybe hurt.

“Nothing’s
wrong. I’m just too close. I want to be inside you when I come,” he assured
her, hauling her up his body. His hands gripped her buttocks and, she wrapped
her arms around his neck and her legs around his waist. It was strange to feel
her smooth skin against his. No fur; no tail.

Damn,
he missed her tail.

Being
careful with her required a great deal of effort and caused his hands to sweat.
With all of the strength and precision he could muster, Jared guided the head
of his cock to the entrance of her tender pussy; he must not be rough. He
fumbled a bit, negotiating angles of entry and depth. Got in an inch, then two,
then withdrew.

“Stupid
wolf,” Josie hissed. With a sinuous twist of her hips, she rose and sank down
on his shaft. Half in, she wailed. Jared felt his eyes cross and his heart
tried to leave his chest.

“Tight,
so fucking tight,” he managed, and it was all he could do to hold on and remain
still while Josie negotiated his cock. The werecat was so tiny he feared
splitting her in two. The urge to fuck her as hard as he could—to see if he
could—terrified him.

Josie
dug into his shoulders with her fingernails, drawing blood, and she came down
on him again with a look of fierce determination. She rocked her hips and sank
until fully impaled, mewling in mixed pleasure and pain.

She
did not give herself time to adjust. She rode him, rising and falling with tiny
thrusts. Her taut pussy tugged his cock, causing Jared more torment than
satisfaction. Somehow she pushed him right to the edge of darkness and then
over.

His
control slipped and he started to change, transforming into a wolf. His teeth
lengthened and sharpened into incisors and his fingers grew about two inches,
most of it claw. His eyes turned gold and his muscles rippled and bones
threatened to crack. Every part of him lengthened and thickened with the
change. The silver bracelets cut into his flesh causing his wrists to bleed. A
howl rose from his throat: the proud, confident song of a dominant wolf.

In
his arms, Josie froze and watched wide-eyed as he struggled to regain control.
He slipped far enough to be more animal than man, and then managed to halt the
transformation. His cock no longer fit inside her sweet pussy, even though the
head was against her cervix. He had inches left and nowhere to go unless he
rammed into her womb, and the temptation was unbearable. It was all he could do
to hold onto his humanity.

Josie
panted and sweated, shaking with reaction to the strain. Every inch of her
pussy was stretched around him. Her small human hands clung to him but it was
his strength alone controlling the depth of his penetration. Jared expected
Josie to react with disgust or fear and to flip out on him at any second.
Instead, she gazed up at him with awe. A smile lit her face.

Jared
shifted his hold on her ass, being ever so careful not to nick her soft skin
with his claws. He lowered his head, inhaling the scent of her skin and her
sex. Cat. Companion. Friend. Lover.
Mate
. How the hell would he ever
explain her to his parents?

“Fuck
me, Wolfy. Fuck me hard,” Josie teased, pressing a kiss to the underside of his
throat. For a wolf, it was a sign of submission.

Howling
loud enough to raise the roof, Jared surged against Josie’s core, eliciting a
scream from the werecat as his cock slammed her pussy. He took her with
powerful thrusts, claiming her in the most primal way possible. He stood with
his head thrown back and his hands supporting her buttocks, maintaining a
precarious balance. His hips undulated, driving the rhythm and the pleasure
that defied reason.

Josie
held her own, demonstrating a sinuous limberness. Her ankles were locked across
the small of his back; her powerful thighs gripped his hips. She slid along his
length, owning him, redefining the very act of copulation. Together, grunting
and sweaty, they strained until Josie climaxed with a long wail of pleasure.

The
second before his balls tightened, Jared turned his face into the curve of
Josie’s neck. He snarled and his teeth flashed, ripping out the side of her
throat. Her blood burned his mouth. She tasted of copper and sex and life and
death. Her body convulsed with inseparable pain and pleasure as blood gushed
from the wound. Jared threw back his head to release a triumphant howl and then
everything went white hot as his climax crested.

****

Jared
left Josie in a pool of blood on the bathroom floor. She lay on her back with
her hands clutched to her torn flesh. Her breathing was fast and shallow, and
her heartbeat labored. Cheeks wet with tears, her expression was one of pain
and despair. He’d done worse than rip out her throat, he’d broken her heart.

He
sank to one knee beside her, leaning over to whisper into her ear. “Don’t shift
until I’m gone.” He did not apologize for being a bastard; the anger would keep
her strong. The cat glared at him with baleful eyes, accusing him of being a
wretched traitor. The worst part? She had been right from the beginning.

He
washed in the sink and then went to the outer cell area to dress, leaving the
door wide open behind him.. The black leather pants and boots were skin tight
and not something he would have chosen, but he pulled them on anyway.

Jared
finished rubbing the oil onto his chest and shoulders, giving up on his back
with a shrug. So what if the fang gang was disappointed because every inch of
him wasn’t shiny? In an hour, they would have much bigger concerns. Jared had
picked up the studded leather collar to examine when Carl entered the basement.
As predicted, there were two vampires with him—Evangeline and a strange male.
Both of the leeches picked up on the blood scent.

“Smells
like a fresh kill,” the male vampire commented, sniffing with interest. “Evangeline,
you never said you were feeding your wolf live food.” As he spoke, his eyes
flared and his fangs elongated with arousal.

“Jared,
you finally ate her.” Evangeline smiled. The vampire wore a black gown and her
chestnut hair was pinned up in an old-fashioned hairstyle.

“I
didn’t leave enough for you,” Jared informed the male vampire. He deliberately
did not look back, ignoring the body in the bathroom.

Carl
stared at Jared with disbelief and maybe disappointment. “I didn’t think you’d
really do it,” Carl mumbled, staring toward the bathroom.

Jared
shrugged. “Payback’s a bitch. She had it coming and she’d served her purpose.”

“I
couldn’t be more pleased,” Evangeline said, running her hand across Jared’s
bare chest. He endured her molestation for the moment.

The
human servant regarded the wolf for the longest time. The stench of Carl’s fear
was thick in the air. “You gonna take me up?” Jared asked, cocking his brow.

“You
gonna keep your word?” Carl asked, digging a finger into the neckline of his
shirt to vent his sweaty throat.

“His
word on what?” the male vampire asked.

“He
promised to behave.”

“Of
course he’ll behave,” Evangeline said, shoving Carl toward the cell door.

Jared
smiled and showed fang. He no longer bothered to hide his power, allowing it to
rise to the surface and fill the space. He dominated everything around him,
including the vampire. Evangeline’s susceptibility to his sway made it almost
too easy. “I always keep my word. Just ask her.” Jared indicated Josie. “I
promised I’d make her pay.”

Carl
recoiled and opened the cell door with shaking hands. The human made way for
the werewolf, cringing and skulking, displaying subservient behavior. Jared
decided then to let the man live. There were too few creatures who knew their
place.

Carl
started to swing the cell door shut. “Leave it,” Jared commanded. The human
looked at him and then walked away from the door.

Jared
cast one final glance over his shoulder at Josie. He hesitated and then
gathered his resolve, ascending the stairs two at a time. The vampires followed
him up.