I’m going to kill him. Drake couldn’t believe this was happening. That bumbling oaf Price dared to try and take his mate! Never mind that he had absolutely no reason under the law to do so, but the man was a damned coyote. Drake hated coyotes. Coyotes were werewolves who chose not to follow the code of honor they swore when they took a mate. They never mated for life. They were sneaky. And they stank. Ralph was no exception. In fact, he probably smelled worse than most. Drake considered not letting him in, but thought better of it. Like it or not, Hazel was still under arrest and he’d broken her out of jail.
“Make it quick, Ralph,” Drake growled when he opened the door.
“Where is she?” Ralph looked over Drake’s shoulder, trying to see inside the apartment.
“It doesn’t matter. She’s not leaving.”
“She’s an escapee.” Ralph’s smile was as oily as his hair. “If I say she’s leaving, she’s leaving.”
“How about I sue your ass for false arrest? Aren’t you up for re-election this year?”
Ralph flinched, but Drake knew that coyotes were nothing if not persistent. They simply backed up and came at you from a different angle.
“Go ahead. In the meantime, I’ll keep the little witch under lock and key where she belongs. You know how long it can take for the judicial system to work. It could drag on for months and with her lawyer the one holding up the system, I doubt I’ll have to release her.”
“No judge in his right mind would remand her to custody on a charge like this.” Drake paused a second, thinking. “What the hell is she charged with, anyway?”
“Bootlegging and disturbing the peace. Not to mention she already has one escape attempt on the books. The bootlegging charge should hold her, while the attempting escape should be enough to get her bail denied.” He grinned. “Nothing you can do about it, wolf. She’s going with me. Maybe she’ll decide to live on the wild side. I need a new bitch, and I can already see her strapped down to my cross.”
Drake wanted to lunge at the scrawny sheriff and break his fool neck, but he knew that would only land him in more trouble and he had to be free to get Hazel out of trouble.
“If you so much as even think about that again, I’ll show you the meaning of the word ‘wild.’ You do not want to push me on this, Ralph.” Drake deliberately didn’t mention that he’d taken Hazel to mate. Hazel didn’t know yet, and if she didn’t want him, he had no intention of announcing that fact to the world. It was the only prudent thing an alpha wolf could do. “You just better pray she doesn’t come into her power before I get her legally released.”
Ralph’s eyes narrowed. “What do you mean by that?”
Drake grinned. “She was a virgin. Was being the key word.” God! An alpha wolf did not have to stoop to such vulgarity! Hazel would probably kill him. “She has no idea of her power potential. I figure you’ve got until nightfall before things start happening. After that, it’s either get her to the Witches’ Coven or watch your jail come down around your ears. Me personally, I kind of hope you choose the latter. I’d like to see you explain that to the city council. Most of them aren’t creatures of the night and those that are really don’t want to be exposed.”
Ralph looked at Drake, probably sizing him up, then he barked a laugh. “No way that little girl has that much power in her. She’s a bumbling little clown.”
Clenching his fists to keep from pounding the living shit out of Ralph, Drake advanced on Ralph. “You keep thinking that and you’ll let the whole damned state in on this little haven. Do you think the others will let you live if you take that away from us?”
Ralph stood toe to toe with Drake. Just like that stupid man not to realize the trouble he could get them all into. “You let me worry about that. Hand her over.”
“The testosterone is getting a bit heavy, guys.”
Thank God Hazel was dressed -- in his shirt and sweats. Drake had a feeling Ralph intended to drag her out of there however he found her.
“I need you to come with me.” Ralph’s sneer made Drake want to vomit. The man definitely had something other than truth, justice, and the American way on his mind.
“I trust my lawyer is allowed to come with me?” Hazel raised an eyebrow at Drake.
“The good sheriff has decided you should be held without bail. I think it’s ridiculous, but I have to make arrangements for a judge to hear my argument.” Turning to Hazel, he winced when he saw the hurt look on her face. “I’m sorry, Hazel. I’m trying to stop this mess, but I can’t be two places at once.”
Her smile was tight. “No problem. Do what you have to do.”
Ralph grabbed her arm as she headed for the door, pulled her hands behind her back and snapped a pair of handcuffs on her. Hazel’s beautiful face filled with shock and mortification.
“Come on, Ralph. Is this really necessary? She’s going quietly.”
“She escaped once. I can’t take the chance she’ll try again.” He winked at Hazel. “Besides, I like the possibilities this situation presents.”
If looks could kill, Ralph would have been six feet under -- or twelve or eighteen. Hazel and Drake both shot him identical looks of anger. The skinny little man laughed.
“Don’t worry, Drake. I’ll take good care of your little witch.”
Knowing Ralph was trying to goad him into doing something stupid, Drake simply crossed his arms over his chest and grinned. “Try not to turn him into a toad, Hazel. Keep in mind how hard that would be to explain.”
Hazel looked from one of them to the other, open-mouthed. “I -- ah,” she cleared her throat, “I’ll try not to.”
* * *
Déjà vu is a horrible thing sometimes. Here she was. In a jail cell. No cot or blanket. Only a brick wall, and Ralph Price stripping her with his eyes from his desk. Unfortunately, that’s where the similarities ended to her previous stay. This time, she was in the basement of the jail and strapped to some medieval-torture-device-looking thing that held her off the ground by her wrists. Her ankles were tied to posts that spread her legs wide apart, and there was a bar at the small of her back that thrust her middle forward and stretched her shoulders to the point of pain. She had been held that way for about half an hour and her wrists ached and burned. There would definitely be bruises.
That wasn’t the worst of it either.
The good sheriff had changed his clothes, and the difference was not an improvement. He was dressed in leather -- though not much of it -- spiked liberally with metal studs. He had leather, calf-high boots, and leather Speedo-looking trunks that hooked to two leather straps crossing over his chest. Oh, and leather gloves and a leather half hood.
The man was very fond of leather.
Too bad it wasn’t fond of him. With his pale, hairless, chicken-skinny legs and knobby knees, and farmer’s tanned arms and pale chest with a mat of hair in the center of his sternum and nowhere else, he looked slightly worse than ridiculous.
What an awful day. Thank God she was still dressed, although she had a horrible feeling that would change soon.
At the moment, Ralph stood a few feet away from her with a flogger -- yeah, it was leather too -- in one hand and slapping against the other. The grin on his face was anticipatory, and the slight bulge in his briefs left no doubt as to what he was anticipating.
“Drake says you’re limited in your sexual knowledge. Let me show you all the deliciously painful things I’m sure he didn’t.”
“How about we don’t and you let me go home?” Hazel was nervous. How far would the little man go? Surely he wouldn’t rape her. He was the sheriff for crying out loud!
“I can’t let you go home. You ran away.” He wagged a finger at her. “That was very, very naughty.”
Hazel rolled her eyes. This was so clichéd, she would have laughed if it had been happening to someone else. “Okay, I promise not to do it again.”
“Not good enough. You’ve been a bad little girl. I’m going to have to show you what happens to bad little girls.” He slapped the flogger on his bare thigh and let out a surprised yelp. “Ow!”
She tried not to snicker, she really did, but it slipped out anyway. Not exactly the smartest thing she’d ever done. He looked at her, anger and lust in his eyes, and she knew she was in trouble.
Slinking toward her, he reminded her of an animal who thought to play with his helpless prey before he moved in for the kill. “Thought that was funny, did you?”
Swallowing, she said, “Uh, well, yeah. It was funny.” She stuck her chin up in defiance.
“I think it’s time I taught you a lesson.” Ralph advanced on her and something inside her snapped… just as the door to the isolated room burst open.
* * *
The second Drake stepped into the little room, he knew he was going to have to kill Ralph. But first, he’d make him suffer for each bruise on Hazel’s beautiful body. The only surprise was that she was still fully clothed.
The next second, he realized what was about to happen. Hazel looked mad as hell. What he’d said to her before she left with Ralph came screaming back at him and he said the first thing that came to mind.
“Hazel! Don’t turn him into a --”
“Ribbit. Ribbit.”
All that leather lay in a pile at Hazel’s feet. In the crotch of the trunks, a little blob jumped, never quite freeing itself.
Neither Hazel nor Drake said anything for a few heartbeats. Then, Hazel sighed. “Well, it looks bigger now than it did before.”
Drake approached the jumping shorts with caution. Did toads have teeth?
“Ribbit. Ribbit.”
Carefully, he nudged the scrap of black leather and, sure enough, a little brown toad jumped away from Hazel. Pausing to look back over its shoulder, the large toad bounced its butt out the opened door.
“Ohmygod!”
“It’s okay, Hazel.”
“No, it’s not okay! I just turned the sheriff into a toad! How am I going to explain this?”
“You’re not.” Drake took a step toward her. “You won’t have to. Ralph will go to the Witches’ Coven and they’ll fix him. Well --” He chuckled. “-- once they’ve had a good laugh at his expense.” He looked Hazel up and down. Damn! She looked scrumptious! He wasn’t normally into bondage, but seeing her stretched out, her breasts thrust forward, her pussy open for his, err, viewing -- well, it would be once he removed her clothing. “All you need to worry about is how long it will take me to adjust these straps to a little more comfortable level before I, uh, adjust your clothing.” He held up his hand, thumb and forefinger only slightly apart. “Just a little bit.”
* * *
“Uh, Drake?” Hazel tried to ignore the surge of lust that shot straight to her pussy. Would he really strip her down while she was tied up? “Shouldn’t we be getting out of here?”
His grin was nothing short of predatory. “Why? We’re secluded. If I hadn’t possessed the senses of a wolf, you two wouldn’t have been disturbed for a very long time.”
“Uh, yeah. Well, wouldn’t you have a better time if I could participate?”
“Nope. I think I like you just the way you are.”
“But what if I don’t want to stay like this?”
Again, that wolfish grin. “You’d be a little more convincing if I couldn’t smell you from across the room. I’ll bet your cunt is dripping, and I didn’t smell it before I suggested this little foray into the depraved.” He eased toward her.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Hazel was a little scared, but Drake was right -- she was excited.
“Oh, really?” He stopped inches from Hazel, trailing a finger down the row of buttons on her shirt before dipping into her sweats. Hazel hissed through her teeth and Drake raised an eyebrow. “Hmm. What have we here?”
Hazel knew what he was referring to. The flesh of his fingers slid easily against the wet, slick flesh of her cunt. “Ah, Drake?” Her voice was so shaky and breathless it didn’t even sound like her own. “Untie me and we’ll go back to your place -- or mine -- anywhere you want.”
“I ‘want’ right here, with you at my mercy.”
Hazel expected he would rip the shirt from her body. Instead he slid each button through the buttonhole carefully, never taking his eyes from hers. The edges of the shirt caught the tips of her breasts and his finger again traced the pattern it had earlier, but on her bare skin this time. She shivered, and a small whimper escaped her throat.
“Oh, God! Drake. What the hell are you doing?”
“I’m giving you a tour of the wilder side of sex. After all, I am a wolf.”
Her breasts were his first prey. He sucked and nipped, and she was powerless to do anything to stop him. Her back was bowed just enough for them to be offered for his hungry mouth, and he took them without hesitation. The underside received equal attention, as did the valley in between. In the exact center of her chest, he sucked vigorously. The accompanying sting told her he’d marked her.
And she rejoiced.
She wanted to belong to Drake, to know that he’d always be there for her. She also wanted him to belong to her. Being what he needed, doing what he wanted, was as strong a need in her as breathing. Hazel had no doubt he would make any sexual experience most pleasurable, so why was she resisting?
Any thought she might have been entertaining was yanked from her mind when one of Drake’s fingernails lengthened into a claw. Using it to cut away her sweats, it wasn’t long before he had her naked except for her shirt.
Dipping another finger into her pussy, he pulled back the gleaming digit. “Still deny you’re excited?”
“Are you going to talk all day or fuck me?”
* * *
Fangs exploded in Drake’s mouth and his claws lengthened as his sexual appetite was stimulated almost beyond endurance. Unexpectedly, his transformation went no further. He expected Hazel to recoil, to refuse him, fearing he’d hurt her -- or worse, become an animal as they had sex. She definitely wasn’t ready for that. She didn’t, however. In fact, her eyes got wider and she grinned.
“Do I look good enough to eat?” The cheeky comment wasn’t exactly her style, but Drake could smell how turned on she was. She was definitely going to get into anything he wanted to do to her.
Which is how it should be with mates.
He knelt between her legs and took a long, wet lick. Her cunt was ambrosia. Nothing he had ever experienced could compare to the sweetness of her taste. Her whimper was the sweetest music his ears had ever heard.
“Mmmm. I’d say you were definitely good enough to eat.”
Latching onto her cunt, he sucked. And sucked, and sucked, and licked, and sucked some more. By the time he’d finished, Hazel was no longer whimpering. She was screaming.
At the top of her lungs.
And Drake had had enough of this little game. He wanted more. He wanted to be buried balls deep inside that wet cunt.
Growling, Drake ripped the ties holding Hazel’s wrists and ankles with his exposed claws. He had no intention of tying her when they had sex, but there was no reason he couldn’t use Ralph’s strange contraption to his own advantage. With one swift move, Drake spun Hazel around and she stumbled, landing with her belly over the bar -- just where Drake wanted her.
Jerking the snap on his jeans loose and the zipper down, he barely remembered to dig a condom from his back pocket and sheath himself before grabbing Hazel’s hips and plunging into her with a sure, fast stroke. She bucked against him, not fighting him, but moving with him. She looked back over her shoulder and bared her teeth.
Over and over he sank into her. Harder and harder she pushed back against him, meeting his thrusts. He fisted his hands in her hair, pulling her slightly upright. “You are mine -- my mate of the moon. Accept me as such and give yourself into my keeping.”
He knew she had no idea what he was talking about, but he couldn’t stop himself from demanding it of her. When she hesitated, confusion on her lovely face, he let go of her hair and wrapped his arm around the front of her leg to find her clit and flick it.
She screamed again. “Yes! Anything you want. I can’t stand this! Let me come!”
Her order was not that of a submissive woman, but of an alpha witch. She was every bit as powerful as he and, though she didn’t yet fully realize her potential, she took to her new role with a vengeance.
Their previous mating was exploratory -- she followed where he led and everything was designed by Drake to maximize her pleasure and guide her where she needed to go. This time, Hazel became a demanding lover, giving as much as she took, but always pushing him where she wanted him to go.
He smacked her ass, a sound whack leaving a pink handprint on the left cheek. “Is this the way you want it?”
“Yesss!” Her hiss was animalistic, as were the shrieks and shouts coming from them both.
Over and over he slapped her ass, always leaving his mark, always with a positive response from her. Soon, their coupling was almost violent in its intensity. She gripped the bar at her waist for leverage; he held to her hips or upper thighs to pull her to him repeatedly.
“Oh, God, Drake! Fuck me! I’m coming!” Her shrieks filled the room, and her bucking became so vicious that Drake was seriously tested just trying to hang on to her.
“Do it. Come on my cock and milk my seed.”
With all the strength left in his body, Drake fucked her. His whole being was ready to explode through the tip of his cock and into her grasping pussy. When she came, there was no way he could hold back. Spurt after spurt emptied into her body, and his shout mingled with her screams until they were spent. He collapsed on top of her, breathing as heavily as she was.
“Are you all right, Hazel?”
“I don’t know.” She laughed softly. “I think I may have strained something.”
Drake hugged her to him. “Me too, sweetie.” He brushed her hair aside and kissed the back of her neck. “Let’s get out of here.”
“I’d love to, but you sort of made short work of my sweats.”
“My sweats, and the shirt is long enough for you to make the ride home.”
“I hope you’re right. Otherwise, Sheriff Price can add indecent exposure to my list of offenses.”
“You could always fly us home on your broom.”
Hazel groaned. “Oh, you had to say it.”
“Well,” Drake stood and pulled her with him, “at least there’s no law against piloting a UFO without a license.”
* * *
The ride to their apartment building was probably the fastest ride Hazel had taken in her life. The sun was high in the sky, and the air had just the slightest touch of frost to it. When she got out of the car, her legs formed chill bumps, and all she could think about was that she hadn’t shaved them that morning and they probably felt like a porcupine.
Once they reached the safe haven of Drake’s apartment, he kissed her forehead. “Go freshen up, if you like. I need to make a phone call.”
Hazel wasn’t sure what to do. Should she kiss him? Should she simply go to the bathroom? What was the nature of their relationship at this point? She simply didn’t know. Drake must have seen confusion on her face because he stepped to her and framed her face with his hands.
“What’s wrong, Hazel?”
Laughing nervously, Hazel tried to duck her head and shrug him off, but he held gently, but firmly to her.
“Come on, Hazel. After what we’ve shared together, you can’t possibly be afraid to say what’s on your mind.”
She sighed. “I guess I just don’t know where we go from here. I don’t know what you want from me. Hell, I don’t know what I want from you.” She met his eyes and held them. “I just know that something special happened to me, and I’m not sure I’m ready for it to end just yet.”
Drake didn’t say a word. He slowly, carefully, gently descended his lips to hers and kissed her tenderly. “It’s not going to. Once all this is taken care of, I’ll explain everything.”
Hazel nodded. There was much they needed to discuss. Not the least of which was what the hell she was going to do about having turned the sheriff into a toad.
Oh well. It could wait. Right now, she needed to shave her legs.