Animal Attraction (21 page)

The body lay only a few steps away from the
sheriff. A couple deputies were taping the area off for the crime
scene unit to go over once they arrived. It was still uncovered, so
the discovery had to be pretty fresh. One glance and I looked away.
The victim was bloated, so he’d been out here a few days. I could
tell he wasn’t whole. I glimpsed some ragged tears on the swollen
flesh. The feral hogs in the area had taken a few bites of the poor
guy.

Thank goodness I didn’t need to breathe. From
the way the officers held their hands over their noses, the guy was
pretty ripe. How Grayson could stand there so stoic was beyond me.
But then, Grayson had seen some messed up stuff. As small as Fulton
Falls and Ford County are, we still had our share of murder, much
of it the messy variety.

I steeled myself to take another look. It
wasn’t morbid curiosity. I needed to try to identify the victim. I
walked over and stared into the upturned face.

He’d been a hog shifter. The snout and small
tusks were a giveaway. There had been five werehogs on the missing
list. I inspected the shape of his wide staring eyes, the color of
his hair, the jaw structure.

Dan had come over with me. I told him, “I’m
not sure because of the shape he’s in, but this man may be one of
Levi’s instructors. He looks vaguely familiar, similar to the
picture Levi gave me.”

Behind me, Grayson spoke up. “Charlie, you
said you smelled nitro coming from the body?”

A werehog deputy paused putting up the tape.
“Pretty sure I did, Sheriff, though the decomp is kind of
overwhelming the scent. I’d lay odds he was shot. Smells like some
Russian import stuff. Or low-grade domestic.”

“Shot with nitro?” I asked Dan.

“He must be referring to nitrocellulose. It’s
the propellant used in bullets.” Dan looked over the scene and
shook his head, his face long with dismay. “Man. What an ugly way
to die.”

I saw what he was talking about. The body lay
at the end of a trail of dried dark brown blood, which wove a path
deeper into the woods. He’d been hurt elsewhere and made his way
only steps from the road. If I had to judge from the amount of
blood in his wake, he must have suffered awfully.

I looked around my surroundings again,
spooked. Dan noticed. “What is it?”

I licked my lips. “It kind of reminds me of
where my body ended up after I was killed.”

I’d been dumped in the woods after a serial
killer vampire with a taste for prostitutes and escorts had drained
me dry. Actually, I’d been tossed like garbage in the middle of a
pine tree farm. The carpet of dead needles looked identical. I’d
also been left near Highway 17.

There were differences. This was actual
woods, the trees different varieties and growing helter-skelter
instead of in perfect rows. The similarities were still a bit much
for me to take.

Dan’s arm went around me and he pulled me
close. He’d been the one to find my confused spirit wandering in
circles, sobbing and afraid. He knew all too well the awful
memories I had of where my corpse had been discovered.

He asked, “Are you okay? Do you want to
leave?”

I drew my tattered courage tight around me. I
was safe. The pain of that time was done, and I had lives to save
if I could.

“I’m fine,” I asserted, making my voice come
out strong for as much my benefit as Dan’s. I looked around the
area for anyone out of place. It was just me, Dan, and the
police.

“No sign of the poor man’s ghost,” I noted.
That wasn’t a big surprise. Few of us stuck around after we died.
Those of us who remained here to haunt the living didn’t know why
we didn’t leave too.

Dan concurred. “It doesn’t look that way.
Let’s follow his trail and see where he came from.”

We did, following a couple of deputies who
had been put on the same task. The werehog Grayson had called
Charlie was one of them. His snout worked hard though the blood
trail was obvious. Looking for clues, I supposed. He even dropped
to all fours once in awhile to sniff along the ground, keeping
clear of the actual blood to avoid disturbing evidence. He also
checked trees and snuffled the air.

“Better than a bloodhound,” was my
opinion.

A boom cracked the morning air. A second and
third boom followed the first. No one reacted.

I knew what I heard. “We’re not far from the
federal academy. The bomb squad must be training today.”

Dan nodded. “I hear planes too. We’re close
to the jetport.”

Ford County had a small airfield. Government
officials who visited the academy sometimes used it, but it was
mostly for the puddle jumpers belonging to private owners. I had a
pretty good idea of our location now.

A few more yards into the brush and the blood
trail ended. A few more steps and evidence of the victim’s passage
completely disappeared. Officer Charlie stopped and griped to his
companion, a weresnake. “Shit.”

“Such language,” I spluttered.

Dan reminded me, “He doesn’t know there’s a
lady present.”

I smiled at Dan and then turned serious
again. “It looks like he lost the scent.”

Charlie turned around and around, walking in
wider circles as he tried to pick up his quarry’s trail again. The
snake shifter watched patiently for five minutes while Charlie did
his best to find the scent.

At last he stomped back to his partner. “I’ve
got different trails, each ending several yards away. It’s like he
ran one way, doubled back, ran another, and doubled back again. I
think he was running in his skin when he got to this point. He
shifted back to human somewhere around here before he started
leaving all these false trails.”

The snake deputy scowled. With that
expression, his scaled face looked like the stuff of nightmares.
“It’s like he was being hunted or something. What’s his flavor? I
didn’t get a good look at the body.”

“He was hog, like me.”

Deputy Snake sighed. “Of course. And since
these woods are full of feral hogs, which got at him at some
point—” he didn’t bother to finish.

Charlie grimaced. “Since I don’t know his
particular scent fully shifted and there’s no way to tell which one
was him, I can’t find a trail.”

“We’d better report back to Grayson. Maybe
Forensics can figure it out.”

Charlie rolled his eyes. “Yeah, right.”

They headed back towards where the corpse
lay. Dan and I stayed for a few moments, looking around. Like
Charlie, we couldn’t find any evidence of what direction the dead
man had come from.

“Dead end here and there,” I quipped with
gallows humor.

“So it would seem. I guess we’ll have to wait
for Forensics too.” Dan crooked a brow at me. “So while we wait ...
library?”

I grinned, knowing perfectly well how we
would while away the time. “Race you.” I was already ‘porting
before I’d finished speaking.

With my head start, I showed up at the
library before Dan. In a sudden fit of whimsy, I raced to hide
behind a shelf. I peeked out to see my sweetie appear in the middle
of the reading tables. He peered around the quiet room.

“Brandilynn?”

I giggled, and the sound echoed in the
cavernous room. He turned around, trying to locate me. His brows
drew down, but he grinned and started walking. “Are you hiding from
me?”

I giggled again since he headed in the wrong
direction. As he turned my way, I darted to the end of the row and
wove through the shelves.

His laughing voice followed me. “Oh, we’re
doing that, are we? Okay then, naughty girl. I’m going to find you
and give you a spanking.”

That was such a delight to hear. I needed an
escape from the real world after what I’d seen. It was time for
intense play.

I decided to go full-on brat. As I continued
to move through the stacks of books, I called, “Nyah-nyah. Gotta
catch me first.”

I darted here and there, trying-not-trying to
get away. I could hear Dan’s heavy tread behind me, never far away
but not quite catching up. He knew the library better than I did,
so I surmised he was prolonging the chase.

He appeared at the end of one row where I
crept. I yelped and dashed off. After that happened a few times, I
realized he deliberately showed up when he wanted to drive me in a
particular direction. Dan herded me like a sheep, but I didn’t
figure it out until he had me caught. I ended up cornered in the
autobiography section.

I pretended to cower as Dan approached,
having trapped me with nowhere to go. I had a hard time not
laughing as his eyes widened at what I wore. To match my silly
mood, I’d fashioned a little girl’s sailor suit. My hair was
gathered in two ponytails with red bows.

His eyes smoldered as he drew himself up and
assumed a stern expression. “There’s my naughty girl. Bad little
Brandilynn.”

I opened my mouth and the words fell out in a
voice higher pitched than usual. “Are you going to punish me –
Daddy?”

I’d been into kink since I could remember. I
loved submitting. I loved being spanked. But I’d never had more
than a passing thought about age play. It had not shown up on my
radar. Yet at that moment with Dan, it somehow felt right.

Dan had only recently discovered his Dom
side. He was still figuring out his kinks, experimenting with what
precisely rocked his boat. The moment of shock on his face made me
think this one wouldn’t fly. Then the startled expression gave way
to sternness. When he looked at me like that, my pussy spasmed. The
crotch of my cotton panties with ruffles and hearts were soaked in
an instant.

That deep, strong voice filled with
parent-like disapproval. “Yes, Brandilynn. Daddy has to discipline
you for being such a bad little girl.”

He held out his hand. I felt very small as I
took it and was led out to the middle of the library. Dan patted
the polished surface of the nearest table. “Bend over this. Daddy
has to spank you now.”

Oh my gosh. His words flipped every switch in
my body, making me excited. I hadn’t been thrown off-balance like
this in a long time. Even submitting, with all its attendant
surprises, can begin to feel more like a beloved though comfortable
shoe.

The novelty of playing little girl to Dan’s
daddy made my head swim and my guts light up. I whimpered but you’d
better believe I obeyed him. I lay over the table and rolled my
eyes to look up into Dan’s searing gaze.

He watched my face as he turned my skirt up.
His hands were gentle as he pulled my panties down, letting them
fall to my Mary Janes. I whimpered again.

“None of that. You know you were naughty,” he
reprimanded me. “Now spread your legs, little girl. Daddy wants to
see it all. You don’t hide yourself from Daddy.”

His gaze held me under his control. I didn’t
hesitate an instant to obey him. Wet seeped down my inner
thighs.

Dan rubbed my butt, warming it under rough
but caring palms. “First my hand and then my belt.”

Fear-arousal spiked high. My pussy clenched
and released, clenched and released. I couldn’t remember the last
time I’d been so turned on. I wanted more. I wanted it all.

I sniveled, “I’m sorry, Daddy. I really
am.”

He nodded, his expression that mind-blowing,
panty-drenching mixture of tenderness and resolve. “I know you are,
sweet girl. But I love my Brandilynn and sometimes that means
teaching you a lesson you won’t forget. Ten with my hand and ten
with my belt.”

I gasped as exhilaration spiked high in my
loins. I darned near came to hear what I was in for.

Dan held me down with one hand on the small
of my back, intensifying my helplessness. I did feel like a bad
little girl at that moment, one who had no choice but to submit to
her punishment. I lay there and waited because there was nothing I
could do.

Dan’s palm cracked loudly against the dead
center of my right butt cheek. Pain blasted, followed by delicious
heat. My pussy spasmed again, eagerly heating to join the sensation
of my rear being roasted. I cried out in a mixture of agony and
ecstasy.

The next heavy swat landed on the other
cheek. Now they both pulsed, and I squalled that time. Dan was not
lenient at all. He spanked like he meant it. Oh glory, it hurt so
good.

His hand came down again and again, sending
blasts of wondrous torment through me. I couldn’t help but dance
under the punishment. My feet stomped and kicked in instinctive
reaction. It hurt my flesh, but my mind reveled in Dan’s power, in
his strength, in his ability to give me exactly what my being
craved.

My eyes were streaming when he stopped. My
butt throbbed in concert with my sex. I was on the brink of asking
him for more – or doing something naughty so he’d have no choice to
give me more – when the jingle of his belt buckle reminded me that
I didn’t need to do a thing.

His hand left my back. I looked up to see him
still eyeing me with severity ... and excitement. “You will stay
there, little girl. You still get my belt.”

“Yes, Daddy,” I whimpered. I had the idea I
might climax the second his strap hit my already fiery flesh.

Again, he was exacting. The belt made my sore
flesh sizzle, as if drenched in hot grease. I felt each strike on
my rear. The pain eclipsed all ability to think. I cried out as
leather striped me, sending streaks of exacting torment across my
butt. I jerked on top of the table but did not attempt to get away.
Somehow Dan’s command to stay put remained more important than
escaping the steady lashes.

I didn’t come, but it was danged close. There
were moments when the ache of near-orgasm held more of my attention
than the belt pounding my rear. I was crazed with sensation by the
time he stopped.

Dan tossed the belt aside and massaged my
butt again. I cried out as fresh pain billowed from my flesh.
Orgasm inched closer.