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Janine
On my request, Conan opens the door after the knock, and the concierge hands him the box with my order. Due to Lorenzo’s visit, Conan and I didn’t get to go shopping, so I had the concierge do the dirty work for me.
Anticipation swirls in my stomach. I can’t wait to see Conan’s face when he opens the box and unwraps the paper from the present I got myself. The exchange of looks between him and the concierge sends a prickle through my stomach—Conan still has no idea what’s gonna go down in this room tonight, but the concierge does, because he knows what he bought for me.
He glances from Conan to me—I walk up and press my body to the side of the huge muscular beast in a white shirt that almost snaps on his big arm muscles, my small hand gripping his bicep. The concierge’s drooping eyes widen, since I’m wearing only my red lace underwear and the look of a woman who’s just about to get it on wildly with a big scarred beast.
“Tip the man, Conan,” I say in a sexy voice. “It was a special job that I asked him to do for me.”
Conan pushes bills in the man’s hand, eager to get rid of him and be alone with me again to demand answers. He slams the door in the man’s face and turns to me, his eyes glinting blood red.
“What the hell was that?” he demands. I take the box from his hands, staring him in the eye, then turn around and walk to the bed with it.
This is it. I’m about to set my plan for revenge in motion. It can go two ways. It could torment him and make him want me like he never wanted a woman in his life, or I could lose his respect forever, and have to endure his contemptuous looks for the rest of my life.
I open the lid and begin unpacking the order.
“I asked you a question, Janine.”
I press my eyes shut—God, how I love the way he said that. Like a boss, like the man of the house. I pick up the item and turn around, stroking it up and down as I explain.
“We talked about dildos last night, didn’t we?”
“Yes, but....”
He’s lost for words, which makes me feel slightly more confident. My blood still runs like crazy through my veins, but at least I threw Conan off. He looks at me with a loosened jaw for the first time in days, watching me as I stroke the big, veined replica of a cock.
“As I said, I need sexual relief before we enter Lorenzo’s palace for God knows how long. There might be eyes everywhere, so this may be my last chance. If I had little privacy under your watch, I might have none under Lorenzo’s.”
“I see.” Conan licks his hard masculine lips, a gesture so coy it makes my blood rush. “Then I shall give you some right now.”
He turns to the door but I stop him. “I want you to watch.”
He stops in place, his white shirt tightening over the tense muscles in his back.
“You can’t be serious.” There’s genuine surprise in his voice, not the anger I expected. He keeps his back to me, so unfortunately I can’t see his face.
I sit on the bed, crossing my legs.
“I have been dreaming about you for a long time, Conan. Probably since the day I met you. The least you can do for me is let me look at you while I do myself, and watch me in return. Come on, it’s merely small pleasures that I’m asking for, isn’t it?”
He turns to look at me, and I see something in his eyes that wasn’t there before. “You don’t understand, Janine. I wouldn’t be able to give you what you want even if things were different.”
“Why not?” I can’t believe the entitlement in my attitude. Sitting here on the bed, legs crossed, demanding answers like a queen with a dildo in her lap.
“Because I’m not normal that way. I don’t want what normal men want.”
“You’re into kinks?”
“Kinks.” He snorts. “I’ve been a soldier all my life, fought many wars, I’ve seen and lived things that changed me forever. I cannot see women and relationships like normal men do. Like civilians, not even like human soldiers with PTSD or other kind of mind damage.” He walks to me as he talks, mouthwatering in his bad boy jeans and the fitted white shirt that hugs the most muscular body I’ve ever seen.
“I never felt anything tender or sweet for a woman. I only experienced such feelings indirectly, through Drago and Nero, and that’s so new I don’t even know what to do with it. But that doesn’t mean I lived as a monk so far. I used women, and it wasn’t the vanilla kind of using.”
“Why don’t you tell me more about that.” I set the dildo aside on the bed, my hand slipping into my panties. My legs are still crossed so that Conan doesn’t get a good look at what I’m doing, but his eyes drop down my lap. Hell, I don’t even know where I’m getting the guts from to even do this right now, must be the booze.
“Janine, I shouldn’t be anywhere near you right now.”
“You promised you would help me. And this is what I wanted your help with—cumming.”
He balls his huge fists, his knuckles protruding white. His jaw ticks, his irises glinting blood red.
“You said—”
“I said it would be imprinting-safe. And it will be.”
“But you want to have sex with me.”
“Oh, no, no, no, my handsome beast. I wanted to have sex with you last night, when you treated me like dirt. You think your imprinting on a woman is such a big deal, but let me remind you that giving her heart forever is a huge deal for a woman as well. I was ready to fall in love with you yesterday, give myself to you forever, but now I’m light years away from such intentions.”
My hand moves faster in my panties as I tell him that, the lust for revenge fueling me.
“I want you to watch me as I have pleasure myself,” I say in a worked up voice. “If things go really well, I may ask you to touch me. But you won’t imprint on me because, as you said, for that you would have to kiss me or fuck me. None of that is going to happen.”
Conan doesn’t say anything, he just stands there staring at me as I masturbate and talk to him at the same time. I’m so turned on that I arch my body as I speak, my tone and breath changing, my thighs squirming. I’m still wearing my high heels, and I decide I won’t be taking them off tonight. I’ll make this fabulous beast curse the moment he turned his back on me, being a jerk and making me suffer.
“The first thing you will delight me with is this—talk to me about all the dirty ways you’d take me. Maybe we can’t share much physical intimacy, but how about some dirty secrets. You can’t imprint on me by doing that.”
“Why, Janine?” he breathes. “Why do you provoke me like this?”
“Provoke you? You didn’t seem interested in me at all last night, I figured there’s nothing I can do to turn you on. After all, you’re an old beast, a soldier who’s seen it all, a crazy sexy specimen that women throw themselves at. Let’s just say I want to use you in my own perverted way.”
“You don’t understand. You put yourself in danger.”
“Are you going to hurt me?”
“Not physically.”
“Then no more trying to talk me out of this. You promised you’d help me. Keep your promise, and I will keep mine in return—I’ll do whatever you ask of me in Venice. I’ll do everything in my power for the Wolf pack to win, and nothing will ever change my allegiance. Tell me the dark and dirty things you’re into.”
He hesitates. Maybe I should give him some incentive. I lift my legs from the ground, feeling grateful for my natural flexibility, and slide the panties off my legs. I bring my feet back down, and open my legs for Conan to see my now slick pussy in fully.
He looks away, but I won’t let him. He’ll have to take all of this, I’ll have him crave me like I’m the only woman left on earth.
“No, my sexy bodyguard. I want you to keep your eyes on me all the time.”
I grab the dildo and his lips part, fire in his eyes.
“Please, don’t,” he whispers. I grin, noticing his hard on through his pants. It must hurt.
I push the tip of the dildo inside of me, inhaling sharply as the hard thing parts my walls. It’s been so long. “Tell me, Conan. What do you like doing to women?”
“I like only a certain type of woman.”
“Oh, this is interesting. What kind?”
“Bad girls. Women who’ve done harm, who’ve broken hearts. Who’ve taken their girlfriends’ men, who broke up marriages, who suck every cock with a yacht they can get their surgically pumped lips on.”
My lust is starting to leave me, and Conan notices. He grins, understanding that the tables have turned, and he could actually win this one. He moves closer to me, and I feel the need to cover myself, but I manage to resist the urge and not give him satisfaction.
“I’m a hard man, Janine, not just in body and spirit, but in everything that I am. The hardness you see in my face, it’s there for a reason. But since we’re here.” He hunkers down, but he’s so big that only brings him face to face with me. “I imagined those pretty lips of yours around my cock once, your intelligent eyes looking up at me like you worshipped me while you sucked me off.”
I swallow hard. This makes me feel naked and vulnerable, which means he’s winning.
“That was the closest thing I ever felt to something tender.” He juts out his chin smugly. “Now are you sure you want to go through with this?”
No, I won’t let him humiliate me by making me feel vulnerable and weak. I force myself to smile, and touch his hand. I have this one chance of turning the tables in my favor again, and I’ll sure as hell take. I guide his hand to the dildo.
“You do it. Pump me with it, slowly, and tell me more of how you fucked those women. Do you only fuck their mouths, or do you occasionally take their pussies, too?”
God, the delight at seeing this brute’s scarred but handsome face flooded with surprise is the best thing ever. He doesn’t move the hand with the dildo, so I plant my feet still in high heels on each side and move slowly against the dildo, going down on it until it fills me.
“Oh, God,” I whisper as my inside clenches full of pleasure around the fake cock. The experience is amazing because I get to do this looking straight into Conan’s face, actually feeling like I’m doing him, not the dildo. I don’t know if it’s only because he’s a werewolf, and therefore special, but I’ve never been so attracted to anyone before.
A darkness falls over his eyes, and I realize he must starting to enjoy seeing me like this, worked up, all sweaty and red and almost spilling my juices over a fake cock with my hungry eyes on him. And he’s not even doing anything for it. I have to take my power back.
“You do it, too,” I command, panting. “Take your cock out and jerk off. I want to see you.”
“But....”
“No buts. You promised. I’m the boss tonight, you do what I tell you. And you get to tell me what to do in Venice.”
My request takes him aback, I can see that, but the darkness remains in his eyes, which can only mean he’s going to do it. He takes his free hand to his jeans, and I’m lost.
I lick my hot lips as I watch him unbuckle his belt and whip his cock out. I breathe in sharply as it springs free, big and ribbed, its big head purple with need. I can’t believe that he wanted this as badly as I did while I was sliding up and down the dildo in his hand.
He wraps his large fist around his cock, his strong knuckles showing white. He strokes himself hard as I use the dildo, his burning eyes unwavering from my face. I’m pulled into them, unable to look away. His irises look like those of a dragon, like lava. I’ve never seen anything like it before. He’s taking me, owning me with those eyes as he puts one knee on the bed between my legs, standing over me as he jerks off.
The muscles in his arm snake under his white shirt as he works on himself, his hard lips parted, his face a beautiful bronze apart from the scar running from his eyebrow to his upper lip, a steady white reminder of his violent nature.
“If I were one of those women,” I say as I’m close to cumming. “What would you do to me now? How would you take me?”
“I’d straddle your face,” he says in his deep voice, now gruff with need. Just looking at the pleasure in his face is enough to bring me to the verge of cumming around him. “And have you lick my balls. Then I’d twist my hand in your hair and push my cock deep into your mouth, down your throat until you choked on it. Depending on your sins, on what people you’d crossed and how vile you were, I’d spill my cum all over your face, making you aware of how you’re sucking off a man you’d never introduce to your high society friends. But you, Janine.” His bad boy gaze changes, his irises like lava gaining a different kind of intensity.
“I would never do any of those things to you, not like that. I feel very differently about you.”
“How,” I manage hungrily. “How do you feel about me?”
“I...” But I can’t hear what he says because the way he looks at me makes me explode around him, coating him in the essence of my pleasure. I push my head back into the fluffy duvet, my eyes rolling as the orgasm runs through me. The idea that I’m being taken by the magnificent Conan Wolf shakes me to the very marrow of my bones.
I come back to myself and look up into his eyes. God, the hunger with which he’s watching me penetrates my entire body.
“You know who I think of now as I’m looking at you?”
“Another woman?” I breathe.
“More of a concept. Athena, the goddess of wisdom and intellect. I may have a thing for smart women.”
On some mystical emotional level, I know he means it. He just realized he might like another type of woman aside from bad girls whom he likes to give a taste of their own poison.
“Where do you want it?” he asks.
“What?”
“I’m cumming, Janine. Damn it, I can’t hold it anymore, where do you want it?”
I take my hand to my cheek. “Here.”
Conan pushes himself up on his knee that’s still between my legs, bringing that big cock sticking out of his fly to my face. The scent of him, of rustling fire and horny man, envelops me.
“Are you sure?” he says huskily, the purple head of his cock close to my lips, but not touching them. One touch could be enough to trigger imprinting, and I understand that he doesn’t want to risk it, but still. I wish he would, so badly.
His warm cum splashes my cheek, the sexiest sound filling my ears at the same time—him, moaning. A deep but vulnerable moan like an animal being hurt. I can’t stop staring up at him, taking in the scene, a scene that I’ll remember for the rest of my life.
I’m still not sure what hit me as Conan drops to his knees on the floor. I come slowly up to a sitting position, my legs trembling from the way I worked myself against the dildo and the orgasm it gave me while I watched Conan’s face. Now he’s on his knees in front of me, looking down, and all I can see is the dark crown of his head.
I watch him breathe hard, his muscular shoulders moving up and down, the jeans stretching over those thighs that could smash rocks.
“Forgive me.” His voice sends a shiver down my back. He sounds regretful, almost broken. “I shouldn’t have used you like that.”
“I asked you to,” I whisper.
Conan looks up at me, and I can see he’s feeling guilty.
“I wish,” he says, “I wish I could kiss you. I wish I could take your face between my hands, lay you on your back and kiss your neck, and your breasts, and the inside of your thighs, even if only to make up for this.” He looks around as if what we just did was an act of sacrilege.
Even if only to make up for this... That’s the only reason why he’d do it. Not because he wants me, or because he’s falling for me like I am for him, hopelessly.
“What exactly is it that you regret,” I hiss through my teeth. I’m so frustrated that I grip the duvet with both hands, hoping he doesn’t notice it. “That you had to let yourself be dragged into this, or that your cum is dripping off my face?”
“Both,” he replies without hesitation. “This should have never have happened between us, much less this way. I shouldn’t have used you.”
Used me. That’s all it was to him.
I stick out my chin. “Seems your memory is playing tricks on you. I was the one using you, Conan. Remember?”
He doesn’t say anything, which only fuels my spite, the hurt now consuming me.
“You liked taking me in this dirty way, and you better own it. Because I’m not going to deny this is the way I wanted it. But you know what? I won’t fall madly in love with you just because we got almost intimate. I’ve given you my body, but I will never give you my heart.”
***
Conan
THE GONDOLIER STANDS behind me, pushing us slowly through the dark and murky canal into what seems to be Lorenzo’s Venice water driveaway. It’s chilly, the walls of his historical family estate rising from the dark water.
I have three plans ready for getting Janine out of here alive and unscathed if things go South, and I’d normally feel confident about them. But this is Lorenzo Piovra and his pack that I’m up against, the Italian mafia of the werewolf world. They can be cruel and bloody despite the good-guys façade they put up for Janine. But that’s not even what worries me most.
I’m worried about her in ways that make me feel vulnerable. When the hell did I get emotionally involved? I didn’t imprint on her, I’m sure about that. Deep down I’m also worried that Lorenzo will win her over, and it has nothing to do with the pack’s safety. It has to do with the cocktail of feelings bubbling up inside of me for the woman, and my primal instinct to make her mine.
I get off the gondola directly onto Lorenzo’s granite patio, holding out my hand for Janine. I know Lorenzo would have liked to help her off himself, but I keep too close to her, making it awkward for him to even try.
Janine puts her small white hand into mine, allowing me to pull her onto solid ground. How very unfit we are for each other, aren’t we? We’re so different, people feel compelled to stare wherever we turn up together, like they stared a few nights ago at the hotel terrace restaurant. My hand looks like a large rough paw compared to unblemished porcelain hand, not to mention the difference in size is notable. She’s so delicate and feminine it seems almost a sacrilege to see her by the side of a large brute, like me.
“Welcome,” Lorenzo says, his musical voice bouncing off the stone walls when the three of us come face to face. “To my true home. This palazzo has belonged to my family for hundreds of years,” he explains as he leads us inside, flanking Janine on her left while I walk alongside her on the right. Only a few of his men trail us, but I can feel the eyes watching from shadowy archways and from behind pillars.
We’re soon inside a dark and chilly main hall that, I must admit, has some serious charm. Janine is fascinated, I can smell it and see it. Her lips are slightly parted as she gawks at our surroundings, absorbed by Lorenzo’s story, a story that I stop listening to. I can’t help stealing glances at her, she’s so compelling it’s not even funny anymore.
I keep staring at her mouth, wondering what it would have felt like to push my cock between those nicely shaped lips. She’s wearing transparent lip gloss that enhances their size. I’ve been around her for some time now, and I know she’s unhappy with them because they’re thin. If she only knew she has the prettiest mouth I’ve ever seen.
Obviously I’m not the only one with that opinion. I mean look how that jackass Lorenzo stares at her mouth as well. He must be thinking about fucking it. I clench my fist. I swear I’m gonna split his jaw before I leave here.
Janine shivers as we head deeper into the dark but fascinating palazzo with its long labyrinthic halls. I shrug off my jacket and whirl it around her shoulders, rubbing her arms over the sleeves to drive her body heat up. But is that really all I want? Or am I taking advantage of the situation to put my hands on her?
“The rooms are prepared for you,” Lorenzo says. “Mr. Wolf, yours is right next to Janine’s, I imagined you’d want it that way. I must warn you there won’t be much privacy here because, well, you, Mr. Wolf will understand. The pack Piovra have a reputation, security matters.”
“I understand you mean there are surveillance cameras, Lorenzo,” I say with grit in my voice. “But I don’t see in what way Janine could be dangerous to your pack from inside her room. I understand why you want to have me monitored, but her? Besides, that’s no way to treat a guest.”
Lorenzo’s jaw tightens. “You’re right, maybe I should have the cameras removed from Janine’s room. But I’ll do it only because you’re special, Janine. I wouldn’t do it for just anyone.”
“Come on, Lorenzo,” Janine puts in with fake sweetness. “I can’t possibly be a danger to you, so I’ll hardly take that as a favor.”
The mask of noble generosity vanishes from Lorenzo’s face, and my cock twitches as she displays her smarts.
“I’m purely human,” she adds, “with only one werewolf to protect me from an entire pack if things go nasty. What could I possibly do against you from a guest room in your palazzo?”
“Well,” Lorenzo says with a slimy smile, “that one werewolves protecting you is one of the deadliest men in the world.”
“You say it yourself—one. Do you honestly think he could take down your entire pack?” She motions around at the walls and shadows as if she knows what lurks behind them. She keeps that sassy smile on her face, which makes it hard as hell for me to look away from her.
Lorenzo motions with his hand for us to follow him deeper into the palazzo. He seems a raven with the black sleeves hanging off his forearms, wavy white fabric around his wrists.
“If you please.” He invites us up the landing to our rooms.
His men follow into Janine’s, uninstalling the cameras. But I know Lorenzo too well, and I expect that he’ll try to keep at least one, so I check the room myself while he tries to distract Janine, showing her the magnificent view from her window to a lovers’ bridge under which gondolas float lazily.
“Oh, look, you missed one.” I turn around with the camera I found under the ornate frame of the vanity table mirror. Lorenzo whips around from the window where he was trying to keep Janine distracted.
“Maybe your men would like to check again, make sure they got them all?”
Hatred crosses Lorenzo’s face, which delights me. I will split this asshole’s jaw no matter what, so help me God.
My room is right next to Janine’s, and there’s even a door between them. Lorenzo locks it and pockets the key.
“Just to make sure you keep a real sense of privacy,” he tells Janine. “If your bodyguard wants to visit your chamber he will have to do it by knocking on the front door, on the landing, where there are cameras.”
“Fabulous,” she replies. “Now, if you don’t mind, the conference, the flights, it was all so tiresome. I’d love a bath and a few hours of rest.”
“Of course,” Lorenzo says. “I do however hope you’ll allow me to enjoy your presence at dinner. In about three hours.”
“Of course.” She gives him a tired smile.
Lorenzo’s werewolves show me to the chamber next to Janine’s. I take a quick shower, the whole time thinking of ways to break into Janine’s room without Lorenzo’s surveillance people and devices catching it. I spot and push the surveillance devices in my room just a little bit so that none of them catches the angle to the door between our rooms. I fashion a mock key from a piece of bed string, but I can’t try it yet. Could be that she’s still in the bathroom, or walking around that room naked. I close my eyes and channel the power of my six senses to scent and hearing, enhancing them.
She’s right there, behind this door, towel-drying her hair. Damn it, she’s naked. I breathe in her scent, my cock reacting. It’s beyond my control, my body wants her, craves her, needs her. I have to find release, maybe with another woman, and fast, before I do something stupid.
I force myself away from the door so that I can think. Janine’s scent is probably the only thing in the world that can make me lose control, and I can’t afford that, now less than ever. I sit on the windowsill, making plans of getting to the old secret outposts of my pack in Venice. Even though we haven’t been active in Italy for centuries, our people might still be here, leading a quiet life underground, and keeping a low profile. If they’re anything like back in the day, they must keep track of the Piovra’s moves.
There’s a hard nock on the door, and a guy with a thick voice announces dinner. I grab a pair of black denim pants and a black sweater, not caring much about Lorenzo’s dress code. The sweater is the loosest item of clothing I brought with me, but I guess I’m too large for anything to ever hang loose on my body, so the sweater is still tight on my arms, shoulders and chest.
The moment Janine and I meet on the landing, my heart stops. Lady in Red starts to play in my head. Damn, that song must have been written especially for her. Delicate and feminine in the red dress that hugs the shape of her body in all the right places, she wears it with elegance and style. Her shiny blonde hair that she usually wears in a bob is slicked back, making it look like she’s got short hair but, strangely, that only enhances her femininity and grace. It makes her heart-shaped face stand out, black eyeliner contouring her cobalt blue eyes. Damn, it lends those irises even more power of expression, they’re cutting right through me.
I look quickly away because I feel all sorts of things I shouldn’t feel. I clench my teeth, forcing myself to keep a cool head, but it’s so damn hard with her scent of ocean and woman reaching me.
She misinterprets my attitude, of course. She thinks I looked away because I’m not interested, but in truth I’m just hyperaware of her graceful presence beside me as we head to dinner, of the way her delicate muscles move under her white freckled skin. Damn, how I want to kiss those freckles, to put my large rough palms all over her body. I want to be with her like yesterday, giving her pleasure and taking pleasure from her in return.
“Ah, Janine.” Lorenzo stands the moment we enter the dining hall. The fucking idiot feels more attracted to her than he planned, I can tell. Just look at him, eating her alive with those deranged blue eyes.
I hold the chair for her before he gets to, the chair closest to the floor-to-ceiling windows. This dining salon overlooks the romantically lit palazzos across the canal. If I didn’t know better, I’d say he’s trying to woo her.
“Wow, Lorenzo, this whole scenery seems taken out of a historical romance,” Janine says, confirming that she’s thinking the same.
“I’m glad you like it.”
“Do you dine here every day, or only when you have guests?”
“It’s a luxury that I indulge myself in, I must admit,” he explains while he spreads the white napkin elegantly on his lap. “As reward for all the responsibility I carry for the entire pack and its business. I’m sure you know from the Wolf brothers what that implies. Or from your own family, you’re people who know business and responsibility.”
“I’ve been around the Wolf brothers less than you’d think,” she says as the man behind her pours her wine. “And I have been living only in the back offices of my hotels, my travels restricted to conferences and business. I rarely ever stopped to smell the flowers.”
“A good thing you’re doing it now.”
“We’re not here to smell the flowers, Lorenzo,” I intervene. “We’re here because you summoned Janine, interestingly enough on the very day I became her bodyguard.”
“A mere coincidence,” he says, avoiding my eyes to hide his hatred of me.
“Even if I believed that.” I grab a loaf of bread, only to keep my hands busy. I’m not going to eat it. I need meat, the meat of an enemy freshly torn from his bones. “It still doesn’t explain how Janine can help you defeat The Reaper.”
“Like I said, some things are better shown than told. But I can tell you this—It has to do with Janine’s one night stands.”
“Excuse me?” She cocks an eyebrow.
“Your secret escapades with strange men, Janine, that is what drew my attention to you in the first place.”
Janine stops breathing.
“Don’t worry now, it’s not like the entire world knows what you were doing,” Lorenzo continues as he starts to cut the meat on his plate. “I wouldn’t have found out if I hadn’t looked closely at your life either.”
He takes his time cutting the roast as we wait for him to continue, his people standing all around the dining salon holding their breath. I can hear Janine’s heart beat in her chest, and I smell her body chemistry—she wants to know, but she’s not sure she wants it out there, for all these people to hear, especially me.
Part of me doesn’t want to know about her sexual encounters with other men either, but the other part wants every detail, it craves to invade her privacy. I hunger to know which one she enjoyed most, if she fell for any of them, if there’s anyone she still thinks about when she’s doing herself. My fists clench on the table, by the side of my untouched plate.
“After I found out about Darkwood Falls,” Lorenzo begins, among bites and taking his sweet time, “I started to dig for more information. Information about the Fated Females of this incredible town. Turned out some of them managed to have a life outside of the town borders despite the serpents’ efforts to keep them in. The first escapades we found out about were yours, Janine, and those of Syria Skye—Princess’s mother—because you are the most prominent women of Darkwood Falls.” He angles his head to her. “You’re a successful business woman, speaking at conferences and meeting VIPs. But you were too smart to ever hook up with any of them, so you went for random guys in bars, often bikers that you hoped would forget about you as quickly as you forgot about them. Only they didn’t.”
Bikers. Big, muscular guys that probably pumped her on their Harleys in a way I can only dream of doing. I’m sure Lorenzo enjoys slapping me across the face with all this information, too. Fuck, I can’t let him see that it’s working.
“What you don’t know, Janine,” he continues, “What nobody actually knows, is that those hook-ups were not without consequences.” He signals to one of his men, who comes forth with a tablet that he places in Lorenzo’s outstretched hand. Lorenzo wipes his mouth with the napkin on his lap and turns on the device, revealing the first picture.
It’s men. But men that look sicker and sicker with every picture that he swipes over, as if they’d had contact with something radioactive.
“What the hell,” Janine whispers as Lorenzo swipes through the pictures.
“All these men have one thing in common, Janine—a one night stand with you, Janine.”
“I made them sick?” She places a hand on her chest as if to still her heart.
“Well, not exactly,” Lorenzo says, pushing the tablet over to me. I swipe through the pictures again, trying to ignore the lump in my throat. Damn it, I don’t want to see the men Janine fucked.
“In these pictures they look so sick you expect them to collapse any minute, it’s true,” Lorenzo goes on. “But even after all these years none of them died. More yet, they underwent multiple tests, and nothing seems to be wrong with them. Well, nothing aside from a slight change in their DNA.”
“Change?” Janine whispers.
“All that doctors know is that their DNA has been somehow altered, but they can’t tell how that came to affect them, making them look and feel sick even though they aren’t. They’re still monitoring these guys, in case something changes. And a couple of months ago something did change. May I?”
He holds out his hand for the tablet, but there’s no need to hand it over. I’ve already found it—the picture of a man with a split upper lip, as if his mouth were changing into the snout of a wolf.
“The transformation wasn’t complete,” Lorenzo fills the silence that has fallen over the salon. Janine is staring with an open mouth at the picture. “Actually, doctors didn’t see much behind this except the change in the DNA that must conduce to slight modification of physiognomy, without causing any damage to his biochemistry or his organs, but we are werewolves.” I can feel his piercing blue gaze denting my forehead. “We recognize the process behind this picture—this man’s body is trying to shapeshift, but the DNA modification wasn’t complete. My theory is that he would have shifted completely if he had more nights with you, Janine.”
“I’ll be damned,” she breathes.
Silence fills the salon again, except for the slight shift of fabric when the men move.
Lorenzo laughs. “You should see your face, Conan. You look like a train has just run you over.”
“I guess you can say that,” I grunt, looking at Janine. “How many were there? How many men did you sleep with?”
Her cobalt blue eyes flash indignantly to mine, as if she can’t believe the audacity of my tone. “That’s none of your business.”
“It turns out you’re a Fated Female with a dangerous superpower, Janine. You can turn normal men into werewolves. I’ve been alive for five centuries and I’ve never seen anything like this. You’re a weapon, and I need to know how many people this weapon has been used on.”
“I, I...”
I arch an eyebrow, the scarred one. “What, you don’t remember?”
“Hey, don’t be a dick,” she protests.
“Then don’s act like wh—” Janine slaps me.
I’m still trying to understand what just happened when she squares her shoulders, seeming to darken the room. My jaw slackens. I’ve never seen a woman ooze so much inner strength, especially one as thin and delicate as Janine.
“Listen to me, both of you, because I’m only gonna say this once. I don’t owe any of you anything, not even explanations. I’ve had responsibility weighing on my shoulders since I was a girl, responsibility so heavy I often feared I’d crash, and there was never a man around for me to lean on.” She stares straight into my eyes, the hard cobalt in her irises nailing me to my seat. “You, Conan, weren’t there when I almost lost everything. You weren’t there to lend me a hand or a shoulder when my parents passed, both of them only months apart. When the business they left behind almost went bankrupt, and I desperately searched for a way to salvage what was left of their legacy. You weren’t there as I worked myself to exhaustion to numb the loneliness.” She points with her finger from me to Lorenzo. “Neither of you was there. I owe either of you nothing. You don’t get to demand answers from me, not in that tone, and sure as hell not with that contemptuous entitlement in your voice.”
She pushes back her chair, both Lorenzo and I staring up at her. She looks down at us like a crushing queen, and we can both feel the weight of her personality. I have to grab my cock under the table, make sure it doesn’t grow to full length, straining against my fly.
“I’ll retire to my chamber now, I need to rest and process all this. I’ll think of a way to help these men, because they’re living through pain and anguish because of me. But I don’t have to help you.” She juts her chin out at Lorenzo. “You, Lord Piovra, you know what? I don’t have to help you defeat The Reaper. If anything, I owe my help to the Wolf pack, because they battled Darkwood Falls from the serpents’ claws.” She glances at me, sharply as a queen. “But that doesn’t give you the right to demand answers of me like that, Mr. Wolf. I’m not your girlfriend, your property, or your employee. Mind your tone when you address me again, and when you do, you better start with an apology.”
She turns on her heel and leaves the salon, both Lorenzo and I staring after her like puppies.
“Wow,” Lorenzo says when she’s out of hearing range. “Hot temper.”
“Classy temper.”
“Well put. She didn’t go all bitchy or hysterical even though you almost called her a whore.” He grins, and I could fucking slit his throat. “Tell me the truth, Conan, were you jealous? Is that why you talked to her like that?”
I glare at him, both of us locked in a stare-down that expresses all of our bloodlust. “I hope you don’t have in mind what I think you do, Lorenzo. Because I’ll have your head, then stick it up on a spear right in front of your palazzo.”
“A delicious prospect, fighting you again. We’ll come to that in due time, but I wouldn’t want to spoil it for any of us by starting it too soon.”
I push my chair back and stalk down the hall to my chamber.
“Don’t leave the palazzo, Conan,” Lorenzo calls behind me. “You and Janine are my guests until further notice.”
He means prisoners. I defy him by not even looking back, and slamming the door shut behind me. I push the cameras in the bathroom to the side, and rip the mirror off the wall, climbing into the hole and down the piping to the canal under the palazzo. I’m down in the basement and then out into Venice in only a matter of minutes. I slide the hood over my head and slither through the night toward the Wolves’ old outpost.
But in a dark corner, under a red light, women with masks and naked breasts pushing out of old-fashioned corsets giggle and beckon clients over. I stop in place. What if?