T
he journey seemed short but Grace couldn’t know for sure. It was across dimensions, not miles. She lost consciousness as Nordil crossed into the underworld and didn’t wake up until the hellhound dropped her. Her body connected solidly with a hard-stone surface and the pain in her hip and shoulder jarred her awake. Nordil stood a foot from her, his red eyes glowing, his blackness emanating from him like a mist. He was panting, his tongue, black like the rest of him, lolling from his mouth, saliva dripping from it. Grace rolled away a few feet to gain some space and sat up.
“Where am I?” She knew but wanted confirmation. She searched for her fear, the sudden terror that overwhelmed her when she first saw Nordil but couldn’t find it. She should be horrified, hysterical, fighting for her life but her emotions, her desire to flee seemed gone. She was in a large room, his bedroom, she thought as she eyed her surroundings. A fire in the hearth of a large stone fireplace flickered dimly. An unmade bed, a rough-hewn wood table and chairs. Chains on the walls. For what, his women? His victims? His pets? Everything was subdued, the light, the colour, the fire, like an old technicolour film. Faded. Maybe she was dreaming.
“My world,” Nordil stepped across the distance Grace had put between them and ran his wet nose over her, inhaling her.
“Underworld.”
Nordil nodded, still sniffing her. “You’re intoxicating, daughter.”
“Are you going to kill me?” Her words were muted, no real tone to them. Her emotions felt shuttered, forced together and restrained.
Nordil laughed, his jaws cracking open, huge glowing incisors exposed. “No. I might mate you.”
The knot on her feelings burst open. Grace’s anger started in her stomach and burned its way upwards, spilling from her lips. “Why the fuck would you do that?”
Nordil dropped to his belly in front of her, his tail wagging as he grinned. “Because it would fuck up the prophecy.”
“So would killing me,” Grace said flatly.
“Are you suicidal, daughter?”
Grace thought about this. It was a good question. “I wasn’t until last night. Until you sent three animals to kill my friend and rape me.” But her anger was ebbing, her words half-hearted.
Nordil scowled. “Yes. Useless assholes.” He shifted, brought his hind leg up to his ear and scratched it. It was hard to take him seriously when he acted so… so… dog like. “My son should not be my enemy and yet he is. He wants to usurp my position, take my world from me.”
Grace pulled her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around her calves. Her ass was starting to grow numb from sitting on the stone floor. “It’s foretold. Apparently, you can’t fuck with that.”
Nordil glared at her and growled. “Of course you can. I can kill you, I can kill Hawes, I can mate you.”
“You mean rape me.” Grace corrected him.
He growled. “You say tomato, I say tomatah.”
“You’re not my type, father. It seems a bit incestuous to fuck me, doesn’t it?”
Nordil stood up, towered over her, growled menacingly into her face, his incisors an inch from her mouth. “Why aren’t you more afraid of me, bitch?”
Grace curled her lip to emulate Nordil. “I don’t know. I think it’s because I’ve decided I am an idiot and therefore have forfeited my rights to a happy life.” Then she added. “And also because you’re a dog, and I like dogs. It’s hard for me to be afraid of them.” The Grace that she was, the tiny sliver that she had pushed into the corner of her brain, trembled. Use caution, you stupid mixed-breed. You don’t know a fucking thing about hellhounds other than the bullshit Cordea told you. And that old bat, well she can hardly be trusted.
But Grace told her old self to fuck off and kicked her to the curb.
“Perhaps I should change forms.” Nordil said.
Grace was surprised. “Can you?”
Nordil sighed and sat down again. “No. You don’t appear to be an idiot, Grace.”
“I trusted Mel.” She reached up and gave Nordil a scratch behind his ear. His fur was warm to touch and a little of the black mist puffed up like dust as she ran her fingers over his head.
“Bad judge of character.”
Grace couldn’t argue with him. “And Cordea, you know her, right? The sister-in-law. Was she in on this?” She kept petting his head, scratching behind his ears. It was soothing to her and apparently to Nordil as he dropped down on his belly and nudged her hand when she faltered.
“That old bitch?” His lip curled and his fangs seemed to extend. “She couldn’t stay awake long enough to plan a betrayal. She fancies herself a seer, but she didn’t see this coming, did she?”
“That’s what I thought!” Grace exclaimed feeling a kinship with the black hound dog. In her mind, she could see him lying on the floor in Hawes’ cabin, in front of the fireplace as its hearth glowed warm, nuzzling the boy, the one she was supposed to bear, the one destined to become a God. He didn’t seem all that bad.
“Did you kill Hawes’ mother?”
“Yes. I was an asshole back then.”
“You’re still an asshole, Nordil.” She removed her hand from his head. “You sent three rapists after me.”
Nordil shook himself. “Yes. What a clusterfuck that turned out to be. Humans are so full of fucking morality. I can enchant them to do my bidding, but they already have to have the evil inside them. You’d think that would be easy to find, but it’s not. Even mass murderers have principles.” He swung on Grace, an angry glint in his eyes. “And you, the fucking virgin Mary, saying no to every man you thought you wanted to fuck.”
“I had no choice,” Grace protested. “I couldn’t consummate. It’s like something wouldn’t let me cross that barrier.”
“You could have consummated, you fucking princess. You could have just sucked it up and did the deed. Did you never think that once you gave in and fucked someone, that it would tip you over the edge? That you would no longer be repelled?”
Grace hadn’t thought that. Not once. Why didn’t she? “Would it have?”
Nordil shrugged. “Who the fuck knows? But it would have been worth a try.”
“You’re just mad because the prophecy is coming true and you don’t want to lose power to your son.”
“You’re living up to your birthright, bitch! Enough of this useless chatter. I’m going to chain you up. Hawes’ will look for you, he’ll come here and then I’ll chain him too. Until the Hunter’s Blood Moon is past.”
“How will you chain me, dog
?”
He snarled viciously, his incisors dripping with saliva. Then he barked, loud and deafening and Grace covered her ears with her hands. Two men, demons, appeared and bowed down to Nordil. “Take the human and chain her by the neck. She’s insolent, so it’s okay if you drop her a few times.”
“You’re a fucking prick!” Grace screamed at Nordil as they each grabbed an arm and dragged her to a wall. They did drop her, twice, mostly because she was kicking and thrashing around. Stupid demons couldn’t seem to get a good grip on her. Maybe she was too corporeal for them. One held her down while the other forced the steel jaws of the collar around her neck. To this he added a four-foot chain that was shackled to a welded panel in the floor. Grace had no choice but to sit. The collar was heavy and bit into her neck if she made sudden movements. They left. Grace cried. Nordil smiled as he padded over to her.
“Do you feel like a dog, Grace?”
“I feel like stabbing you in the ear with an icepick.”
Nordil roared his laughter. “You would be hard-pressed to find ice in this hell-hole.” Then his hackles went up and he stilled. “Someone’s here.”
“That didn’t take long.” Grace said as Hawes stepped into the room. Even in the underworld he was stunning. She felt her body respond, her nipples harden, her pussy grow wet. Fucking Hunter’s Blood Moon.
“Mel is dead,” Hawes said flatly.
Grace jerked at the news then cried out as the collar chafed her neck. “You didn’t have to kill her, Hawes! I could have kept her as a pet.”
He barely spared his father a glance as he crossed the floor and crouched down in front of Grace, testing the strength of the chain. “I did have to kill her, Grace. She fucked with you.”
Grace shivered, but it wasn’t of dread, it was of anticipation, desire. She could smell Hawes, his sweat, his musk, his wolf. It was making her horny in a way she’d never been before. Where had her fear of him gone? Where had her kindness, her empathy disappeared to? A woman was dead and all she could think of was fucking this animal. She smiled at him lasciviously, “Why am I not afraid of you?”
Hawes stood up and turned to Nordil, his glare raking the dog. “Let her loose, father.”
Nordil whined and dropped to his belly on the stone floor. He drew his paws over his nose and rubbed at it. Grace thought he was seconds away from showing Hawes his belly. She knew she sure was.
“There will be no second chances!” Hawes thundered. “Unleash her now or I will have you killed as soon as I’m King!”
“Do you think so? Do you think there’s time to get her back to the earth realm?” Nordil may have appeared passive, but his words belied his pose.
Hawes stalked up to his father and grabbed him by the scruff, yanking him up off the floor. “What makes you think I can’t fuck her here? The Hunter’s Blood Moon is the Hunter’s Blood Moon in every realm.”
He released Nordil and stalked towards Grace, intent in his eyes.
“Uh, no.” Grace said as she shifted closer to the wall. “Not in front of your dad. And also, this collar will make it impossible. It might break my neck, especially if things get too rowdy.”
Hawes stopped, stared down at her, undecided. Then turned to his father. “Unleash her now!” he roared.
Nordil whimpered and tucked his tail between his legs as he backed away from the fury that was his son. But he stayed his ground. “I will not, Hawes. You are ill-prepared for the consequences.”
Hawes stalked up to the dog. “I will kill you, old man.”
Grace groaned, her nipples harder than they’d ever been, throbbing painfully. Her pussy, hot, wet, aching. He could fuck her here. She didn’t care if he broke her neck. She needed release. “Hawes,” she cried. “Help me!”
“Look away, Grace,” he said, but she didn’t. He shifted to his wolf. It was a ripple of air or time or dimension or something. One minute a man and then a shedding of the skin starting from the head down through to the feet. A peeling of the outer to reveal the inner. It was magical, awe-inspiring and unbelievably fucking hot! If she could have, Grace would have come in her panties.
Hawes was magnificent in his wolf form. A grey wolf, with patches of white, standing on his feet, claws and canines extended. Power rippling through him. He turned to Nordil and swiped at him with his paw. Nordil’s body sailed across the room and smashed into the solid stone wall. But to his credit, he jumped to his feet and launched himself at Hawes taking him down to the floor. There was nothing but loud growls, barks and tufts of fur flying. Punches, scratches, bites. Grace groaned as she watched, her body undulating with the tempo of the fight. So fucking hot, so motherfucking erotic. Then Hawes threw Nordil at the wall again, this time with all his power. Nordil bounced off the wall and landed with a thud on the floor. He lay there unmoving.
Hawes swung towards Grace, his wolf still stimulated, his hackles still up. He padded to her and wrapped his powerful jaws around the collar, prying it from Grace’s neck. His fangs grazed her neck, puncturing it and the pain seared straight through to her pussy. She moaned. “I don’t think I can take much more of this, Hawes. Why didn’t you just take the fucking collar off me in the first place.?”
He pulled her into his arms and stood up, cradling her body close to his furry chest. Tenderly, almost as if he cared about her as a woman, not just as his mate.
“I couldn’t have done it while Nordil was sentient. Even in wolf form. He’s too powerful.”
“So he’s dead?” Grace whispered as she stroked his wolf’s chest, tweaking a nipple.
He bucked under her pinch. “He’s not. I can’t kill him. It’s irrelevant. We’ve got to get to our dimension before the Hunter’s Blood Moon wanes.” He started running, bouncing Grace in his arms, not gentle, but she was getting used to being ill-used.
“Doesn’t that happen tomorrow?” she said, her fingers tangled into his fur to keep herself from slipping.
“It is tomorrow. Time gets skewed between dimensions. We have an hour to consummate or the window will close and we’ll have to wait a year.”
Grace groaned as desire rippled through her. “I don’t think I can wait a year, Hawes. It’s okay if we do it here.”
“It’s not,” he growled. “I don’t want our child conceived in this hellish realm. “I want his first moment of life to take place in the open, under the moon.”
Grace thought that beautiful, so said nothing. Just clung and tried not to moan loudly. The path they were on spiralled upward and he climbed through dark clouds and mist until he came to a fork, at which point he turned left. Then they were in a cave, Hawes still running, then stumbling out, the forest closing around them, the mouth of the cave disappearing. He ran to a clearing and threw Grace to the ground, ripping off her clothes. She leaned up on her elbows and stared at him, her yearning for him overwhelming him. “Please tell me you’re not going to fuck me in your wolf form.” Although if he said yes, she would have likely come there and then.
“No,” he said as he leaned over her, his muzzle close to her neck. Then the air rippled and Hawes in human form was bending over her, his mouth dropping on hers, sucking the breath from her. His kiss searing her down to her toes.
“Oh my fucking god, Hawes! I need you inside me now!”
Hawes’ erection was solid against her leg and she opened her legs to him, urging him to enter her. He bit her neck as he fisted her hair, then pulled her head back so he could stare into her eyes. “Do you understand that this will hurt. The spilling of first blood should not be savage like this. You should have time to recover after I’ve entered you.”
Grace bucked her body. “It’s a fleeting pain from what I’ve read. It’s not a big deal.”
Hawes shook his head. “This is different. It’s different for wolves and will be different for you as my Alpha mate.”
Grace couldn’t stand it. “Do it, Hawes!”
And so he did. He entered swiftly, savagely and he was right. The pain tore through her, wild, ferocious, searing. She screamed. And he stilled, fully inside her, watching her face as tears flowed from her eyes. Her pussy throbbed around his cock, the pain ebbing and flowing. “Why won’t it stop?” she asked tearfully.
“It will. Once I’ve come. My seed will bathe your walls and fortify them. You will never have this pain again.” He was breathless, impatient. His cock seemed to grow bigger inside her aching cunt as he loomed over her.
“Just do it, then,” she moaned.
But he didn’t. He pulled out of her and the pain diminished, replaced again by unrelenting desire that grew in leagues as Hawes dropped his head between her thighs and his tongue between her folds, kissing, licking, nibbling. Bringing her high back, a painful awareness of how pent up she was, how high she was. His touch was electric, overriding her senses. His fingers roved over her as his mouth pleasured her. She was so close. “Please, Hawes,” she moaned.
“You will come with me. It will ensure the seed is planted.” He flipped her on her belly and brought her to her knees. Then he entered again, as swift as the first time, and this time he didn’t stop to let her adjust to his size, to the pain. He thrust hard, slamming into her, his fingers on her cunt, strumming her clit. Her passion was winning over the pain and he was taking her higher, every moment of her life wrapping itself around her ascent. The kisses from boys that never went anywhere, her frustration when she couldn’t masturbate herself to orgasm. The women she’d kissed. Those moments where her eyes raked a handsome man, her belly twisted in desire, but his touch repelled her.
It exploded inside her wiping out the pain, wiping out the death of Eric, wiping out the last two days. She was rippling with the force, her pussy tightening around his engorged cock, then him coming, howling, his seed bathing her womb, her walls. But it didn’t stop the yearning. For a moment she was sated and then it welled up in her again. “Again Hawes,” she cried out. “Fuck me again.”
He flipped her on her back and kissed her voraciously, his tongue in her mouth, claiming hers, sucking, biting, his body dropping to her breasts, devouring them, taking each one in his mouth, sucking until it hurt and then beyond the pain to nirvana. Touching her, scratching her, biting her, bending her to his will. Entering her, fucking her, bringing her up with him, hurtling her over the edge. Again and again.
Him on his knees, his cock in her mouth, his fingers wrapped in her hair, holding her head, forcing himself to the edge of her throat and she, taking him in until she could stand it no more, then struggling away from him and impaling herself on his cock, riding him, his hands on her ass, denting her skin, his strong stomach keeping him off the ground as she thrust on top of him. Her back arched, her breasts jutting up towards the moonlight, a gift for the goddess. Both coming, neither sated. Until finally, as the Hunter’s Blood Moon waned, as Grace came one last time, her uncontrollable desire faded too. She fell against Hawes, her body splayed over him, her arms wrapped tightly around his chest and she slept like Snow White.