The Moon, the Madness, and the Magic (18 page)

The moon rose higher in the sky, and his blood felt like fire boiling inside him as he poised at her entrance. His demon rose inside him, threatening. This was more than the wolf. “What’s happening?” he asked, panic filling him.

“Hurry, Dane, it’s the Were madness. Don’t succumb before you’re inside me. I can help you control the insanity.”

The adrenaline pumped up his control.

“Say my name, damn it!”

“Fuck me now, Dane.”

His brain exploded. His cock needed just one stroke, just this first stroke. He slid into her tight sheath, and as her pussy swallowed his throbbing cock, he damned himself. His beast needed more. He took the second stroke and the third and…

The panic waned, and the beast retreated, but the mindless desire for her didn’t stop. He’d have to figure out how to stay away from her later. Now all he could think about was being inside her forever, and it was so wrong.

A trap was a trap, no matter how pleasant the jail or the jailer. There was no damn way he could stop himself from having her again, and there was no fucking way he could see his brother sharing this particular woman with him. Not Celeste. Rourke had already made that clear. He’d marked her off-limits for any other man, and yet here Dane was buried to the hilt inside her, swearing he’d found paradise between a woman’s thighs.

Paradise, all warm and moist, tight and receptive. Her sheath wrapped around his cock and sucked him, clenching around him in spasms as he pumped, thrust, and pounded his desire into her.

“Dane!”

She shouted his name when she climaxed. Her orgasm brought on his, but instead of the satisfaction he’d expected, something stabbed at his heart, and his vision blurred. Her skin felt damp and tasted salty against his cheeks where he rested them on her back.

Sorry, Rourke.

If Rourke still lived.

The minute his brother saw him, he’d know. He’d know that he’d been—a loud scream bellowed through the night sky—betrayed.

Betrayer.

Dane shuddered.

Chapter 16

Celeste turned around in his arms and pulled him to her breast. When she felt the dampness against her breast, she wiped his face and gently touching her lips to his eyes, asked softly, “Dane, are you okay?”

He looked grim, not like a man who had just given her so much pleasure she felt boneless.

“Sure, great. I just discovered I’m a Werewolf, and I fucked my brother’s girlfriend. I’m just peachy.”

“You don’t understand.”

“Damn straight I don’t understand. I don’t understand how he could have been taken in by the likes of you! You
are
a succubus. You did something to make him crazy for you, like you’ve done to me.”

“I did nothing, gave nothing to him or to you that you didn’t take willingly. We are all bound. This experience with you was necessary.”

“What? Necessary for who, me? Shit! Tell me this wasn’t a pity fuck.”

“Oh, my God. Did it feel like a pity fuck to you? I told you. We are meant to be together, too. Rourke and I. You and I. All of us. I don’t have all the answers yet. Even I don’t understand what’s going on. For some reason, fate bound me to both of you. But what’s more important is we have to find Rourke before the moon wanes.”

“Is he alive?”

“Yes, he must be, or I would know something happened to him. I can feel him.”

“He can feel you, too. Can’t he?”

When Celeste didn’t answer, Dane groaned. “Hell, I hope he didn’t feel what you did a few minutes ago. Shit! He is going to kill me.”

There was a loud flapping sound and a screech in the distance. Celeste whipped around to see where the sound was coming from. “What was that noise?”

“It sounded like a huge bird of prey.”

The enormous shadow passed over them, and when Celeste saw what it was, she cringed. “Oh, no. It’s Rourke.” She tugged a reluctant Dane into the woods, intending to follow the dragon’s course. “If he already shifted into the dragon, something must be terribly wrong. We have to get to him.”

Dane pulled her up against him by the arm and didn’t budge. “Let me get this straight.” He stared up into the night sky, and a look of total bewilderment filled his expression. “I’m a wolf-shifter, and Rourke is a dragon? I thought he was a wolf-shifter, too.”

She tugged him, but he stood still, waiting for an answer. “Some of us can take many forms. You were born a wolf-shifter, and now that you’ve been infected by the Were virus, you will shift into the Were form of the wolf at each seasonal full moon. Bound Weres are stable, but rogue Weres can be dangerous. That’s why I am for you. Bonding with me saved you from going rogue and being hunted as a danger to the Others.”

“So, now you are the light to my dark side, I take it?”

“You could say that.” She coaxed him toward the path again.

He relented and moved with her, shaking his coal-black hair. “Hell, a dragon. Wouldn’t you just know he’d one-up me?”

“Dane, this is really serious. We have to find him.”

“I am serious. Where do we look?”

“When we get close enough, I can sense him. We exchanged blood.” That made her wonder. Would she be able to shift into a dragon form? That might be helpful right now. “He’s about a mile up ahead hunting the rogue Werewolf, the one you escaped from. We can travel faster if we shift.”

“Then let’s do it.” He wasn’t looking forward to the pain. “How?”

She smiled. “Focus on me. I’ll help you through it, and don’t worry about anything. You won’t shimmer into your wolf, but it won’t be as painful this time.”

Dane tried to think “wolf” and focused on Celeste. She shimmered into the white wolf again while he watched. She shifted so effortlessly he couldn’t help being impressed, especially after his last experience.

He felt his temperature rise and his skin tingle. This time, as his bones elongated, he stared into Celeste’s pale blue eyes and heard her calming voice. “
Think about the wolf’s form, sleek and muscular, strong and powerful. That’s it. You’re doing fine.”

His vision grew sharper, and he realized the shift was complete. “
Fast, simple, almost painless. Thanks.”

He shook himself and tested his balance by taking a step.
Cool!

Celeste’s face looked like she smiled as he stalked around her. He heard her think, “
Let’s find Rourke. Follow me.”

“Lead on, darlin’. I’m right behind you. By the way, nice tail.”

“Behave. Get serious.”

“I am.”

“Think dragon fight.”

“I’m not fighting him, Celeste.”

“No, you’re right. We could be saving him. He’s fighting the Were alone and inexperienced.”

Dane heard the commotion up ahead and mentally encouraged Celeste to pick up her speed.

As they rounded the clearing, Dane saw Rourke. “
Holy shit.”
The dragon was awesome.

“Wow!”
Even Celeste stopped dead in her tracks.

Dane thought, “
He’s enormous. Those wolf dudes are crazy to mess with him.”

“Ah, those wolf dudes are friends of the Were who attacked you. Rourke smells your blood on them, and I think he’s trying to avenge your death.”

“Ironic. I’m not dead yet, but I will be when he finds out what we’ve done.”
Really, if he could have grinned, he would have.

All his male wolf testosterone pumped like rocket fuel through his system.

“Up for a fight?”

“You know it.”
He’d love to get his hands on the guys who attacked him. Now he’d settle for getting his claws on them and some great big teeth.

Anger and the thought of revenge welled up inside him. The beast in him fought its way to the surface, all powerful and dangerous. Whoa, it felt good. He tried to hold the powerful beast back, but he couldn’t stop his deeper urges to test his limits and let the shift happen. The Were in him was loose.

Hell, once he felt the beast’s true essence, he wondered if he could control it.

The other wolf had already shifted into his Were form, responding to the danger Rourke posed. He grew bigger and larger, a good match for Dane’s Were, but Rourke’s dragon held the trump card with his size alone.

Three more wolves came out of the cave and shifted. Four rogue Weres against Rourke and his Were? The rogue Weres were obvious by their flame-red eyes, like demon spawn. He hoped his eyes hadn’t been affected like that. Red wasn’t his best color. Then he remembered Celeste had saved him from this insanity with their bond.

He wasn’t sure about the odds, but he doubted it was an even fight.

He circled in front of Celeste just in case she proved to be their one weak link. If Dane didn’t know with some inner instinct that she’d been holding out on them, he’d have been worried. So when her transformation began, he let out a sigh of relief.

She started her shift from her wolf with that dazzling shimmer, and the light around her grew larger and brighter.

All the opponents watched, amazed.

He was right. She had been holding out.

When the astounding display ended, the mist cleared, and a white dragon stood beside him. She matched Rourke’s enormous size, head to tail.

“Nice going, Celeste! Okay, now let’s help Rourke avenge me. Tell him to save one for me. Those bastards worked me over good.”

“Wait, Dane, let me talk to Rourke first.”

She turned her mind on the giant, ebony dragon. “
I’m here, Rourke. Dane is alive. He’s safe, but he’s turned. He’s over there in the form of the black Werewolf. Let us help you fight the rogues and the Weres.”

Rourke lifted his massive head to the sky, and with a roar so loud Dane could barely stand it, Rourke attacked the Weres. Dane picked out one from the bunch and went after him. Within minutes, the battle ended with the corpses of four dead Weres at their feet. Celeste roared out a flame and disintegrated the mess with one simple breath.

Dane was impressed. “
Tidy clean-up.”

“Thank you.”

She shimmered back into her human form, if one could call her dazzling form human. She looked like no other human female he had ever seen, radiant and perfect, far more of everything than he could describe.

Rourke stared down at her. His emotions had him trapped in his dragon body. When he bent his huge head to nuzzle her, her hair swept up around his large neck and caressed the dragon as she whispered to him in a comforting tone and patted his muzzle.

Rourke lifted his broad head and bellowed into the night sky.

Dane shrank into his human form without even noticing the shift this time. He stepped back into the bushes, waiting for her to soothe the beast, and when he glanced over at her, he looked for reassurance. “Is everything all right?”

“He smells you on me.”

“Great, I’m a dead man.”

“I have to encourage him to shift back. Once I do, he’ll be able to see the reasons in my mind.”

“Oh, okay. Like that’s going to calm him down. He’ll be all forgiving when he
sees
me fucking the one woman he gave me strict orders not to touch.”

Rourke belched fire in the sky, and Dane took refuge deeper in the trees. “Yup, I’m a dead man.”

“Dane, there were extenuating circumstances. He wouldn’t have wanted you to die. He loves you.”

“Tell
him
that. Can’t you get him to stop that infernal racket?”

“He’s feeling betrayed.”

Rourke roared again, and flames shot higher into the night sky.

“No shit!”

“He’s hurting, and he can’t understand the reasons why we had to do what we did. Let me convince him to shift. His beast won’t understand reasoning, but the man will.”

“You don’t know Rourke as well as I do. He won’t be much more understanding about this than his dragon is.”

Flames filled the night sky again and again as Celeste stood between Rourke and Dane.

“Do whatever you think is right, then, and hurry, before he charcoal broils me.”

She called to Rourke. “
Shift back, Rourke. Come to us.”

The black dragon let out a scream, and a dark cloud of smoke rose in the air. After it settled, Rourke stood magnificent and naked before them.

His scowl reflected the emotions Celeste sensed.

“You better talk him out of killing me—fast.”

There was no denying that Dane felt a connection with Rourke through his connection with Celeste. He was beginning to wonder where his thoughts stopped and theirs started.
Their psychic attachment grew stronger with each passing minute.

“Rourke, what’s going on with us?” Dane knew his brother felt this, too.

Rourke turned his back to both of them, unwilling or unable to answer.