Oak, Sophie - Beast [A Faery Story 2] (Siren Publishing Everlasting Classic) (13 page)

“Kaj?” He lifted his head when he couldn’t feel her next to him and frowned.

The night before, she’d fallen asleep in his arms, completely exhausted from the pleasure he’d given her. The aphrodisiac had been strong, taking hours to leave her system. She would settle down from one orgasm, and the fever would start again. He’d been relieved when she finally closed her eyes and let her head rest on his chest. He’d been proud of the little smile that curled her lips up as her breathing had become soft and even. He’d put that smile there.

And now she was gone. Dante forced himself up.

“Kaja? Holy crap!” Dante started to back up, but realized he was already against the edge of the tent. He wondered briefly if he could tunnel under. It seemed like a bad idea to turn his back on the brown wolf sitting on his bed. A wolf. On his bed. He held his hands up. “Nice doggy.”

He said doggy, but he knew what was sitting on his bed. It was a wolf. It was an elegant, lovely wolf that was probably going to kill him and eat him for breakfast. He wondered how the hell something so predatory had managed to get into the marketplace. There was supposed to be some form of security.

Kaja
. Dante felt his heart clench. Where was his consort?

He didn’t see his wife’s bloody body anywhere. He had to assume she’d gotten away. She might have given him a heads-up on the carnivore using their bedroom as a hunting ground, but he was just relieved she wasn’t dead.

The wolf sat back on its haunches. Dante went very still. Maybe Kaja had gone to get Beck. Yes, Kaja had managed to sneak out, and she would bring his warrior king cousin. He hoped it was Beck and not Cian who rushed in to save him. If Ci came running, Dante would likely get a lecture on the habits of wolves while Cian cowered behind him hoping to get eaten last. Beck was really the only way to go in a situation like this.

Dante stared because he couldn’t help it. The wolf was beautiful. Her brown coat was glossy and looked incredibly soft. Something about her, and he knew the wolf was a female, called to him. She had to weigh at least a hundred pounds. Her face was delicate, and there was an intelligence about her that drew him in.

“Hello, girl,” he said quietly.

The wolf was patiently sitting. She made no aggressive moves toward him. He knew he should try to get away from the vicious predator that had made her way into his bed, but Dante felt compelled to put his hand out.

The wolf immediately placed her head under his outstretched hand. She pushed against him, begging him for a pet.

“Oh, you’re a sweet thing, aren’t you,” Dante said, stroking the wolf. He grinned, fairly certain she wasn’t going to tear out his throat. She just wanted a little affection. Her fur was like silk under his fingers. “I always have had a way with the ladies. Apparently my charm crosses over to all species.”

The wolf snorted.

“Kaja?” Dante looked deeply into the wolf’s gorgeous arctic-blue eyes. There was no mistaking those eyes. Dante felt his heart beating. This was what she had meant the night before when she’d begged to change. Cara had been right. His consort was two-natured.

Kaja laughed, the sound pealing like a happy bell as she fell forward into his arms in human form. The change was so effortless he almost didn’t notice it. One moment there was a furry wolf begging for his attention, and the next, his wife’s naked body fell laughing into his lap. His hands came up to catch her.

“You should have seen your face,” she said, covering her mouth. Her eyes were full of mischief. “You looked like you might pee yourself in your fear. You did not expect that.”

“No, Kaja,” Dante said, still trying to get over his shock. His wife could change into a wolf. “I did not expect that my bride would greet me with fur and fangs.”

She sat up, all joking gone. Her face fell. “You do not like my fangs?”

His heart warmed, and he pulled her close. She was such a sweet thing. He pushed her hair back behind her ears. Her hair was soft, a deep, rich brown. “I love your fangs, Kaja. You’re beautiful, and you know it.”

“Am I?” She cuddled close, breathing him in. She didn’t seem at all self-conscious. He let his fingers tangle in her hair. He loved the dark-brown softness. “I would not know. One cannot see oneself.”

He chuckled. Her plane really was backwards. “Wow. So no mirrors on your plane, then. I have no idea how I would survive without a mirror, sweetheart. Wait here.”

He forced himself out of bed. He knew there was a handheld mirror in the dresser, and he brought it back to Kaja, who lay on the bed watching him. He appreciated the look in her eyes. She was watching her lover move. He knew the feeling. Now, he needed to show her how gorgeous she was. He sat down and held the mirror out. “This is you, Kaja.”

She gasped and sat up. Staring into the mirror, she leaned forward. Dante couldn’t help but watch her breasts. They were soft and round, with pretty pink and brown nipples that hardened at the merest whisper. Kaja touched her face as though unsure of the image before her.

“Do you see how beautiful you are, consort?”

A slow smile parted her lips. He felt the air around him, and she was a wolf once more. She nosed the mirror playfully.

“Yes, you’re fucking amazing in this form, too, wife,” he conceded, wondering if he was making a monster. Would he have to fight her for the mirror in the morning? He stopped himself. It wasn’t like he was going to live with her long-term or anything. They were just having fun.

The flap to the tent opened, and Meg walked in.

“Good morning,” she said with her usual exuberance. “I came to take Kaja to breakfast. Holy shit!” She backed up, never moving her eyes off the wolf on the bed. “Dante, stay calm. I have the gun in my backpack. I’m going to back out, and I’ll go get it. You just don’t make any sudden moves, okay?”

Dante laughed and petted his wolf-wife. Kaja’s head cocked as she looked at Meg, curiosity in her eyes. He wondered if Kaja saw her differently in her wolf form. There were a lot of questions he had about his wife. He put a hand on her fur and leaned toward Kaja. “She thinks you want to eat me, love. Actually…” His mind went to all sorts of dirty places. “No, that borders on bestiality. You’re going to have to do that as a human. There are levels even I won’t sink to, love. Though, not many.”

Meg’s eyes went wide. She stopped in her tracks. “Are you trying to tell me that’s Kaja?”

“I’m not trying to tell you anything, Meg,” Dante said with a frown. “I’m trying to enjoy being in bed with my consort, even if she is shedding. I think she’s trying to get rid of her winter coat.” He brushed some stray fur off the bed. He was going to have to tell the housekeeper to upgrade the vacuuming robots if Kaja ran around the penthouse in this form very often.

Meg ignored him. She approached Kaja, who sat up regally. Kaja cocked her head as though asking a question.

“Wow,” Meg said softly. “That’s a werewolf. That is so cool. I can’t begin to describe it.”

“Werewolf?” Dante queried. He’d never heard the term. “I don’t know if I like that. I was going to suggest ‘shanimal.’ You know, ‘she’ because Kaja’s a girl, and ‘animal’ because, well, there she is.”

Both females turned to him. He knew what they were thinking. He knew when someone thought he was a dumb-ass. He shrugged. “Fine, werewolf it is then. But it’s not catchy like ‘shanimal.’ Don’t expect it to seep into our cultural lingo or anything.”

Kaja greeted Meg with a heavy thump of her tail. The wolf’s mouth opened, and her tongue panted out. She appeared to be smiling. It was a sweet expression. Meg’s eyes were filled with wonder. Kaja didn’t need to worry about Meg accepting her. Meg loved the strange creatures of the planes. Vampires, on the other hand, might see her as a lesser being. His people weren’t known for their easy acceptance of the odd and different. Especially in high society.

And that was why his plan would work. So why did his stomach turn at the thought of judgmental eyes on his Kaja?

“You’re an idiot, Dante. Werewolf is what she is. You don’t have werewolves on your plane?” Meg asked, though she never took her eyes off Kaja. Kaja nudged her hand, an invitation to pet. Meg ran her hands down the wolf’s strong back.

Dante wondered if he could get her to do that when Kaja was in human form. It would be way hotter that way. His brain was on sex. “No, we don’t have hot chicks who run around in fur. Well, not if they don’t want to get coated with blood. PETA. They should be arrested for wasting the blood.” He thought for a moment about Meg’s statement. “Is she from the Earth plane?”

Meg’s hazel eyes were staring into Kaja’s blue ones. “No, they’re just a legend where I come from. Though I thought about her a lot last night. When she was talking, before the translator took over, it sounded like she was speaking Swedish or maybe Finnish.”

Dante shook his head. “No idea. Everyone speaks English on my world. You know, language of the conquerors and all.”

Meg’s hands worked over Kaja’s fur. His wife seemed to love it. “How does the whole door thing work? When I left from this plane, I ended up in Fort Worth. The Vampire plane is very similar to the Earth plane. If we found a door from your plane to mine in Dallas, would I just end up in another Dallas?”

Dante laughed at the thought. “No, it’s far stranger than that. While the planes might look similar, they aren’t. Didn’t you notice that the time of day shifted as we went from the Vampire plane to this one? It’s several hours off. And there’s a door in upstate New York that leads right off a cliff into an ocean. Some corporation managed to put in a slide. They sold tickets for a while. Then some plesiosaur ate a couple of kids. You know how it goes.”

“So Kaja is from someplace like Sweden, but not Sweden.”

Dante really didn’t care. All that mattered was that she was here now.

Meg seemed content to continue her intellectual exercise. “Of course, it makes you wonder. Maybe they started out on the Earth plane and fled because humans can be real assholes, you know.”

“Yes,” Dante agreed readily. He arched a single eyebrow. “They can also really interrupt an interesting morning. Tell me something, Meg. Did I interrupt your opportunities for hot sex with your new spouse the morning after your wedding?”

Meg flushed. “Oh, I’m sorry. I just thought that since…Cian told us what was going on. I thought you probably wouldn’t be doing that.”

Dante stared at her like she was a crazy person, which was exactly what she sounded like. “You thought I wouldn’t have sex with my consort. I have sex with everything that allows me to, but you thought I wouldn’t fuck my own wife?”

He firmly intended to fuck her at every given opportunity. He knew he should play it cool, but he also knew himself. He wouldn’t be able to hold back, and he didn’t really want to try. This crazy possessiveness was just a phase. Fucking Kaja would put it all back on an even keel.

“Fine, you’re a man-whore,” Meg said, flustered. “I just thought you would want to get to know her, that’s all.”

Dante sent her a questioning look.

“Not in a sexual way,” Meg complained. “Men. Have you even talked to her? Have you asked her about her home plane and what she misses about it?”

“Of course,” Dante retorted. “It sucked, and the men there sucked in bed. Then she just moaned a lot. Don’t look at me like that. I learned an enormous amount of information about her from those moans. I learned that she likes the middle setting on a vibrator. A little twist and midlevel hum and she goes off like a rocket.”

Meg rolled her eyes. “You are useless, Dante. Fine. I’ll go, but when you’re done, please send Kaja to my tent for some breakfast.” Meg looked down at the wolf with a friendly smile. “We can have some food and get to know each other. We’re family now. It’s so awesome. I have a werewolf in my family.”

Dante felt another surge of irritation. “You have a vampire as well. I don’t see you gushing over me.”

Meg shrugged. “Vampires aren’t as cool as I expected them to be. In romance novels, vampires are all dark and broody and sexy. In real life, you talk an awful lot about stocks. It was a definite disappointment. But Kaja there seems like a real werewolf. I can’t wait to get to know her.” She turned and started to head out. “Oh, and we have to stay close to the market today. Beck and Ci got called away. There’s some trouble in a Fae encampment on the other side of the plane. Something about fields and starvation and stuff. Cian needs to do his Green Man thing. Beck is worried about him being alone too far from civilization. Can you believe he used that word to describe this place?”