The Old Hunger

It’s almost Halloween, which means it’s the season for Monster Romance and Fuckery! At first, I wanted to write another installment of Craving the Crop, but my brain refused cooperation. It wanted this: a morally gray warlock, a werewolf, an eldritch abomination and one hapless human right in the middle. Fun!

This story contains monster fuckery, horror elements/body horror, magic, knots, spit, restraints, dirty talk, and graphic sexual content.

 

Just as Ava stepped out onto the porch and began stretching, one of her new neighbors—well, technically, she was the new neighbor—passed her house as he walked his dog. The dog was enormous, easily the biggest one she’d ever seen, but he was also the fluffiest and most beautiful. He was a good boy, no doubt about it. He spied Ava and instantly started wagging his silky tail.

His owner was another matter. He looked like Ava had personally pissed in his shoes when she hopped down from her porch and jogged over. His dark, tailored coat and the gray scarf were where any softness ended. He was all sharp angles and slashing lines, as if whoever had created him wanted to be done quickly and get away. Not even the waves of his golden hair gentled the harshness of his face.

He reminded Ava of a sword forged in layered steel: beautiful to look at, but deadly up close. Her skin itched as she jogged across the lawn, urging her to stay away. She shook it off, not in the habit of letting first impressions stop her. That was what second impressions were for, after all.

His frown darkened as she approached, but Ava ignored it, crouching down and ruffling the dog’s fur, receiving a slobbering kiss in return. Doggy kisses were the best, in her opinion.

“Do you always jump onto strange dogs like this?” his owner asked. His crisp voice sent a trickle of ice down her spine.

“No, but he’s such a good boy. I couldn’t resist snuggling him.”

Her neighbor’s mouth twitched, some of his coldness melting away to be replaced by amusement. “He is indeed. A brat, once in a while, too.”

Ava swallowed, still ruffling the dog’s thick fur, but the way her neighbor had shaped those words, in a dark, chocolaty voice, made something inside her sit up and take notice. This was why she didn’t give a fig about first impressions. Her own voice was hoarse as she asked, “What’s his name?”

“Shouldn’t you tell me yours first?” He looked down at her with a curve to his lips and a quirk in his brow, a picture of sophisticated humor. The smile took a whetstone to his angles and sharpened them into something cuttingly handsome. It left her breathless and a little dizzy.

“Ava Porter. I just moved here last month. I’ve seen you walk by a few times.”

“Interesting. I haven’t noticed you at all.”

Ava wasn’t sure if he meant it as a joke or as dismissal. It wasn’t new, however. Every time she introduced herself in this town, people were weird. She’d thought a small town would be more personable, but she was meeting cold shoulders left and right.

“Aren’t you going to tell me your name?” she ventured after an awkward moment of silence. At least the dog kept nuzzling her affectionately.

“Hm. I don’t think so.”

“Wow. Not into good relationships with your neighbors, huh?” She had to hand it to him. He was the first person outright refusing to introduce himself.

“My neighbors and I get along just fine. But you don’t belong here, Miss Porter.”

Ava straightened slowly, no longer petting the dog, even though her fingers were still curled into the thick ruff around his neck. The softness of his pelt grounded her. “That’s too bad,” she said, without inflection, “because I already live here, and I don’t plan on leaving.”

Her neighbor glanced down at her hand gripping his dog’s fur and shrugged. “We’ll see. Outsiders don’t last long here. But if you want a chance at being the exception, you should not go on that run tonight.”

“Is that a threat?” He looked taken aback, and Ava relished the befuddled expression on his too handsome face. It made him look stupid, which was way more attractive than his unbearable arrogance.

“No. Of course not. Just a warning. The woods are dangerous this time of the year, and we don’t want you to get hurt, do we?”

“Oh.” Ava took a step back. That was ominous. “Thanks, I guess.”

There was the barest twitch of his lips. It could hardly be called a smile, yet Ava felt like he was mocking her. “Do take care, Miss Porter. Wolf, heel.”

The dog obeyed, looking sad that he had to leave her. He sent her one last wistful look over his shoulder before loping along.

“What an ass,” Ava muttered under her breath. Then she set off in the opposite direction. It wasn’t dark yet, and she wouldn’t be Ava Porter if she’d let one asshole guy with a superiority complex dictate her life choices.

♠♠♠

Forty-five minutes later, she regretted said life choices, not that she would ever admit to it. For a while, she had paid little attention to her surroundings. In the month she’d been living here, she’d run this round enough times to have the path memorized, and she was confident in her ability to stay on it, even when only paying attention with half a mind. She needed to work out her aggression, and for that, she needed music. Loud, violent music.

Loud enough to drown out her whirring brain, dissecting every word between her and Asshole Neighbor.

What was wrong with that guy? And, for that matter, with this town? Half of its inhabitants looked at her like she had tentacles instead of arms; the other half ignored her right out. She’d thought this small town was quaint, but after a month of living here, she’d had to amend her first impression; this town was quirky.

And her neighbor wasn’t the first person making her feel like she didn’t belong.

Still, the sting of humiliation wouldn’t leave, no matter how hard she pumped her legs and arms, no matter how her lungs burned. In her mind, their meeting took on gigantic dimensions, growing into a mountain of mortification. She’d probably feel the embarrassment for the rest of her life.

There was only one solution. She’d have to move.

Even then, she probably wouldn’t forget this encounter, but she was a pro at ignoring memories of mortification.

Somehow, while trying to outrun her misery, she must have taken a wrong turn. The trees looked unfamiliar. Bigger and darker than the trees growing in the part of the woods where she usually ran. And when had the sun gone down? It was growing dark, the last light between the trees gray and murky.

Ava slowed to a trot, looking around. Close by, a gnarly tree looked like it had burned a while ago. Its bark was black and cracked, and dark trickles of sap glistened in the last light like tears. She’d never seen that tree before.

She stopped and yanked off her headphones, panting and holding her sides. Her phone had no reception, no matter how she contorted to find that elusive bar. She could either try to find where she’d gone wrong, or keep on the path and hope to find a turn that took her back toward home.

“Fuck.” She turned back to where she’d come from. Her blood rushed in her ears, drowning out the sounds of the woods. Though, when she held her breath and listened, really listened—there were no sounds.

Only silence.

A sick, goopy silence that wrapped around her and reached thick fingers into her lungs, filling her chest with dread. The fine hairs on her body lifted.

“Fuck.” Ava took a step in the direction she’d come from.

In the woods, something cracked.

Ava yelped, almost leaping out of her skin.

Something was lumbering towards her. Between the dark trees and shrubs, she couldn’t make it out, but it sounded big as twigs and branches snapped in its path, accompanied by scratching, wheezing sounds.

One step back, then another—then she whirled around, taking off. She had no idea what lurked in the murky twilight, and she didn’t want to find out, either. Now she regretted her earlier exertion. Her legs were shaking, her lungs burning, but she didn’t stop, didn’t allow herself to slow down. The path blurred into a vague outline beneath her pumping feet. She just hoped it would lead her back to town.

The drop came out of nowhere. Ava almost tumbled down the steep cliff of the ravine, throwing herself to the right and hugging the trunk of a tree at the last moment. When she’d found her feet again and looked around, the path was gone.

“Fuckfuckfuck.” She hesitated, listening. Her heart thundered like a kettledrum and nausea clawed at her stomach.

She couldn’t be lost. She’d always had a great sense of direction; finding her way back should be child’s play. Slowly, she started in the general direction of home. She’d lost the path, but she should still be able to get out of these woods.

Her phone still had no reception. She might have to save the battery for later, when the faint, gray light illuminating the trees had faded, and she’d need her phone’s flashlight.

Behind her, something crashed through the undergrowth, close enough that Ava shrieked, flinching so hard her phone slipped from her grip and went flying.

“Oh fuck,” she whimpered. For the length of one deafening heartbeat, she debated searching for it in the leaves covering the ground in a thick, rustling carpet, but then something groaned, a drawn-out, hollow sound like a tree bent to nearly breaking, and Ava didn’t waste another thought on her phone; she ran.

She ran like her life depended on it, and it probably did. Whatever was in these woods was following her, and she wouldn’t give it—whatever it was—the chance to catch her.

The woods were dangerous this time of the year, her neighbor had said, but he hadn’t said why. Ava wanted to kick herself for not listening to him. Why hadn’t she? Now she was going to die for some misplaced sense of pride.

“Stupid, stupid, stupid,” she chanted in sync with her feet pounding the forest floor.

Until, between one step and the next, something grabbed her ankle and held fast.

Ava went down,  her face smacking into the ground and her ankle twisting.

For an excruciating second or two, there was only pain. Her ears rang with it, her head pounded, her ribs hurt like they were cracking beneath the weight of a boulder. Then, with a sob, she rolled onto her side and tried to pull her foot close, only to find it wouldn’t budge.

She sat up, her ribs groaning in protest, and groped around her leg for whatever had captured her—but there was nothing. No rope, no vines, no hole in the ground. Her foot rotated in place, but whatever held her didn’t let go. She was stuck.

She grabbed her leg above the ankle with both hands and pulled, but her foot didn’t move.

“Oh, please,” she whimpered. Terror skittered across her skin. She clawed at the ground, digging for a snare, a wire, something tethering her in place. There had to be something. Her brain refused to accept any other explanation.

A crack like a lightning strike rent the air behind her, and Ava screamed, scrambling around to face it head-on—whatever it was.

“I told you to stay at home, didn’t I?”

What the —

Her neighbor—her fucking neighbor, who’d refused to share his name with her—stepped out from behind a tree like he was coming off a catwalk. No ironed crease displaced, not a wrinkle in his smooth coat. Above his open palm hovered a blue lightning bug.

Ava blinked.

“Cat got your tongue?” He cocked his head. His regard itched like he was considering her for his next meal.

Awareness climbed up her spine with icy claws. “Have you been following me?” The leaves on the ground around her rustled with how violently she was shivering.

His smile fell, and he glanced into the woods, studying the darkness with a frown. “Something’s been following you?” Now he sounded concerned.

“It wasn’t you?”

“Afraid not. Wolf.” He flicked his chin at the trees, and behind him, a large shadow separated from the darkness, growing, growing, until it stood at least seven feet high, its shape somewhere between human and canine. It took a step on two legs, then fell onto all four, no longer towering over her neighbor but still massive.

“Oh God.” Ava whimpered, terror seizing her by the throat as the thing stepped into the clearing and moved past her, its fluffy tail brushing her face as it disappeared in the direction she’d come from.

She hadn’t been paying attention to her neighbor, so she flinched in surprise when she turned and found him crouching right in front of her, his little blue lightning bug dancing in the air above his shoulder and illuminating his features with an eerie glow. When he reached out, she leaned away, but with her foot still trapped, she didn’t get far. He gripped her chin, his thumb brushing her jaw almost gently.

“I’m really sorry for this. Maybe, if you had listened to me, you’d have lived a little longer. Now, though…”

“What do you mean? Why won’t I live longer?” Ava yanked on her leg, but it still didn’t budge.

He watched her, an odd mix of compassion and exasperation gentling the harsh lines of his face. “This is useless, Ava. I created this trap for something much bigger and more dangerous than you. Not even I can release this. Your only chance is to live till sunrise.”

“I have to lie here all night?” She couldn’t keep the tinge of panic at bay.

He nodded, and added, “And survive. Which is arguably harder.”

Swallowing, she asked, “What’s the trap for? And why can’t you release it?”

The pad of his thumb brushed her bottom lip, reminding her he was still holding her. So weird. “It’s for something ancient, and it’s designed to trap it until the sun rises and vanquishes it. It’s magic strong enough to hold an abomination. Something far beyond what you can conceive.”

“Magic,” she repeated, stunned. Magic didn’t exist, did it? It couldn’t exist. But then, how to explain his wolf? The creature who’d stepped over her hadn’t been the same dog she’d snuggled earlier in front of her house. It wasn’t like anything she’d seen before.

“I really would have liked to know how you ended up in this town,” he said, releasing her face and patting her cheek with patronizing nonchalance.

It felt degrading. A wave of intense, gut-twisting dislike crashed through her. But when he got up and stepped away, she reached for him, grabbing his pant leg. “Wait!”

“For what? I won’t wait for the monster to find you. It’s better to be far away when it feeds.”

“Feeds?”

He shrugged. “It’s the sort of death you don’t wish upon your worst enemies.”

“And you’re just gonna leave me here, in a trap you created?” Ava couldn’t help the hysterical edge creeping into her voice. This hadn’t been funny to begin with, but now a mixture of panic and desperation ate at her mind. “You can’t just leave me here to die!”

“Of course I can. I take no joy from it, but I appreciate my bones in their current configuration. And I don’t even know you, so…” He waved carelessly.

A deep roar reverberated in the woods, shaking the ground beneath her, and she came close to pissing herself. “Please. Help me! You have magic, don’t you?”

Ava couldn’t name the conflict playing out on his cruel face. He was anxious to leave, but a sliver of humanity had to resist abandoning her. At least, she hoped so.

He heaved a long-suffering sigh. “Fine. It will cost you, though. Magic of this caliber isn’t easy.”

“Just help me, please. I’ll pay anything!” Vaguely, she realized she was about to enter a Faustian bargain with someone whose power she didn’t know and couldn’t fathom, but she didn’t care. Regret was a luxury for breathing people.

“Oh, this won’t cost you money. I have no use for that.” He lowered himself again, slowly, putting one knee down and leaning onto his other knee, studying her like he was trying to figure out what to do with her.

“Then what do you want?” If he asked for something lewd and creepy now, she’d punch him.

“How long would you have lived, what do you think?”

“I don’t know. Eighty-five, ninety? It’s impossible to know!” She hoped that giving herself a long potential life span moved him to take pity. All that lost lifetime, snuffed out, and all his fault.

He nodded. “True, true. Let’s say eighty-five. And now you’re, what, thirty?”

“Thirty-five.”

“Alright. You will owe me fifty years of indentured servitude then, if I make sure you survive the night. Deal?”

“Indentured… what? You want me to be your slave?”

He shrugged, a picture of perfect carelessness. “Take it or leave it. It’s all the same to me.”

This was crazy. He had to be crazy, right? This —

Another roar shook the ground. It sounded much closer, and something crashed through the underbrush and into the clearing.

Ava screamed before she recognized the shape of Wolf. The monstrous dog—or was he a wolf?—shook his massive body and sneezed before he loped over and dropped to his haunches beside his owner.

“It’s almost upon us,” he said, the words garbled between his gravelly voice and too many teeth.

Oh shit. The dog could talk.

“I’ll need your answer now, Miss Porter. Time’s a-wasting.”

“Will I have to sleep with you?” she asked, defeated.

He wrinkled his nose, as if the idea were distasteful. “I’m not a rapist. If anything happens, it will be with your full, enthusiastic consent. All I need from you is someone to keep my home clean and free of some pesky rodents. They keep wriggling through the cracks between the walls, just like you did, and Wolf hates the little creatures.” He grimaced with an exaggerated shudder. “He refuses to go near them.”

“A blackmailer with principles, then.”

He struck faster than she expected, and grabbed her face again, squeezing her cheeks. “I’m not blackmailing you. I’m doing you a favor out of the goodness of my heart, but I don’t have to. Stop dawdling.”

The wolf growled quietly beside him, and he glanced at the beast in surprise.

“Okay,” Ava said, the word sounding wet between her squeezed cheeks. “I agree.” What choice did she have? Her foot was stuck, unmoving in a magical trap, and this awful man was her only hope to escape the horror prowling the woods.

“There. That wasn’t so hard, was it?” He let go of her face and slid his palm down to her throat and her thundering pulse, closing his long fingers around her neck. Her skin heated beneath his touch, and suddenly she didn’t want this anymore; she wanted away with every fiber of her body.

“Wait!”

He inhaled, baring his teeth in a snarl. “What now? I don’t have all night, Miss Porter.”

Ava swallowed, feeling her throat move against his grip. Her mouth was bone-dry. “What’s your name?” If she survived the night, she might be ashamed of how brittle and thin she sounded, but right now, as she consisted purely of adrenaline and terror, she didn’t care.

He quirked his lips in a smile that didn’t comfort her at all. “Demian Tremaine. But you may call me Master.”

Before she could react to his outrageous words, his grip on her throat tightened and heated, and a golden glow suffused the night between them. Something heavy and immutable closed around her neck as he let go. It had the weight of a collar, but when she touched her throat, it was bare.

“You’ll get used to it,” he said, getting up and brushing the dirt from his knee. “Now, I’ll put up wards to make you invisible to the old hunger. I’ll come back and collect you in the morning. What’s left of you, in any case.”

“You’re going to leave me alone?” The panic returned full force.

The wolf whined, ducking low and wriggling closer. Demian frowned at his beast.

“I’m not keen on dying, thank you very much. The wards should keep you safe, but if you don’t trust them, perhaps you can persuade Wolf to stay at your side to protect you. He might, with the right incentive.”

Ava reached for the wolf, burying her fingers deep in the ruff of his neck. The beast huffed, nuzzling her throat with his wet nose. “Please stay with me,” Ava whispered, stroking his silky ears and pressing her face against his warm bulk.

“To protect you?”

“Will you?”

The beast made a sound, almost like a purr, and Ava gasped as his tongue snaked out to lick her throat, where the weight of Demian’s magic rested. There was a graze of teeth, the wet, hot breath of the wolf on her skin, and she responded with a full-body-shudder. It was as if he’d touched all her secret places at once, kicking off a cascade of tickles.

It had to be the magic. Demian was walking around the clearing, drawing symbols in the air and the ground with his fingers, leaving behind a soft glow.

The wolf growled, drawing her gaze back to him. “I’m not a lapdog or a pet,” he said. “I’m a monster. Ask me to protect you, but know that a monster might still eat you tonight—albeit not the old hunger.”

Ava squeaked. “Eat me?”

It was hard to say without looking at him full on, but his response appeared to be a smirk of pure canine satisfaction. “I am hungry. And you smell delicious.”

“Like sweat and scared grandmother, probably.”

“Like woman and fear.” The darkness in his eyes shimmered with predatory intent.

“You want to kill me?”

The wolf grunted. “Not kill. Eat.” He nuzzled her neck, right below her ear, where she was most sensitive. Another shiver raced through her, straddling the knife’s edge between terror and anticipation.

“And if I don’t want that, will you still protect me?”

“You want. I smell you.” He lifted a paw, which looked more like a hand with thick-padded fingers and deadly claws, and placed it on her crotch; the heat of his palm seared her through the thin fabric of her sports leggings.

The shock of his touch sent a thrill through her. Her stomach lurched. It shouldn’t feel like this. Like something she wanted.

“What my body says and what I decide are not the same. Arousal is not consent.”

The beast pulled back, observing her. “I will stay and protect you, no matter what.” His hand, so heavy and warm, left her body, and Ava nearly whimpered at the loss. But it was better this way.

“Wonderful.” Demian clapped, making her flinch. She’d forgotten about him. He looked pale and shaken, and his voice was raspy, as if the magic he’d used had hollowed him out. “I’m done. If I return to find you alive but Wolf gone, I will add the remainder of his indenture to yours.”

Before Ava could speak, he just stepped out of existence, leaving only his blue light behind.

Wolf grumbled and maneuvered his big body so he was snuggling up to her side, sharing his body heat with her. The night air had chilled considerably since the sun had gone down, and Ava’s breath formed misty clouds in front of her face. She pressed closer to the beast.

He wrapped his arm—foreleg?—around her, cradling her against his wide chest.

“Thank you,” she said.

His nose, slightly cooler than the rest of him, dragged across the back of her neck, leaving behind a damp trail. She hadn’t dared to look at him, afraid of seeing a monster, but now she twisted around and studied him.

His face was that of a wolf, if larger, without the grotesque, melted flesh you expected from werewolf movies. Black fur covered his skull, soft as velvet where it was short, and on his forehead he had a silver mark in the shape of a crescent moon.

Ava reached over her shoulder and touched it, pulling back when it pulsed brighter beneath her fingertips.

“What are you?” she asked, softly, in awe of his beauty.

“I was a man once. Now I’m a wolf, a guardian, a monster. And when he allows it, a man.”

“How long has he kept you as a slave?”

It was the wrong thing to say. He snatched her wrist in a death-grip and slammed it to the ground, pinning her beneath him. His teeth were too close as he snarled, “I’m not what you think. Demian tempers the wilderness in my heart. Without him, I’m only wrath and ferocity.”

Her heart was hammering against her ribs so hard he had to feel it. “He said he would add your indenture to mine. That means he owns you.”

“Because I let him. Just like you.”

Ava reached for her throat with her free hand, tracing the weight of magic there. The wolf’s eyes flicked down, following her movement. “I want to live. That didn’t leave me with much choice.”

“You will live. I’ll keep you safe.”

Somewhere outside their little circle of protection, leaves rustled and trees cracked. Something big was moving through the woods, rolling through the darkness like an avalanche.

Ava whimpered, terror slamming into her once more.

Wolf sat up, her wrist still in his grip, and slapped his free hand across her mouth, smothering her fearful whine. “Be still,” he hissed, looking out between the trees. “The wards won’t hold if the old hunger finds us. They only hide us from his sight.”

Ava tried to breathe beneath his heavy palm. Her terror kept mounting, mounting, until her body was filled with it, crashing her into a state of nausea and floaty numbness. She needed to breathe, desperately, but Wolf’s thick fingers blocked her airways, and his attention wasn’t on her but the woods.

The snapping, cracking, crashing sounds were all around them now, and Wolf lowered his snout into the crook of her neck, breathing against her ear, “Not a sound now.”

Black spots danced across her vision, melting into the darkness surrounding them, and Ava told herself that what she saw wasn’t real. The coiling, curling, grasping mass of sinew and bones with joints pointing in the wrong direction was too grotesque to be real. It was the lack of oxygen and the mind-flaying terror that had dreamed up the thing tottering on limbs made of gore; a nightmare turned inside out.

The rank smell of offal invaded her senses even through the press of Wolf’s palm. She clung to the sensation of his nose against her neck, breathing her in, to keep herself from vomiting. Focused on the hard planes of his chest and stomach to distract herself from the clawed leg with stringy meat hanging from its twisted bones and eyes dotting its expanse, moving, searching hungrily as it set down close enough for her to touch.

Tears rolled from the corners of her eyes into her hair. She was going to die.

One twitching, moving eye found her, stilled, cut into her like a serrated blade. It stared into her soul, leafed through her fears, regrets, every shameful thing she’d done, dissecting her with unflinching cruelty, until giving herself up to its hunger seemed like it would be a relief.

The wolf moved his head and licked at the salty trail of her tears, and the feel of his tongue against her skin snapped her out of her stupor.

The eye rolled away, and the twisted, unformed being moved on, disappearing between the trees.

Ava’s lungs burned and screamed for air. She curled her free hand into the fur of the wolf’s arm, digging her nails in until he noticed her struggle.

He moved his grip only millimeters, just enough to allow a shallow sip of rank air into her lungs. His breath brushed against her ear as he whispered, “You are so small. I could crush you by accident.”

He seemed to like that idea; the evidence was boring into her side, and for the first time Ava realized that, apart from his silky fur, he was naked.

Naked and aroused.

She couldn’t be excited by the threat of the wolf. No way.

His palm was so hot, and the scent of him, of woods and silvery mist, replaced the lingering stink of decay, and when his muzzle nudged her throat, it elicited a groan from her that wasn’t fear at all.

Above her, he froze, going so still that her heart stuttered and she thought the old hunger had found them after all. Then, slowly, as if not to spook her, he slipped his hand away from her mouth and curled it around her shoulder. With gentle pressure, he turned her on her back, and moved to cover her with his hard body.

He nudged her chin with his nose, a question in his eyes.

“We could die tonight,” she said, barely above a whisper. Her body hummed with the need to feel alive.

“Truth.” His nose dragged along her jaw and his teeth grazed her ear with his next dangerous words. “We shouldn’t leave this world with regrets.”

Somehow, even though he didn’t move a muscle, she felt him throb against the apex of her thighs. Her cunt clenched.

His gaze was mesmerizing. It pierced her deep and brought out something that she’d never even admitted to herself: a desperate hunger of her own. She wanted to live, and she wanted to feel it; every sharp, brutal moment.

Slowly, so slowly, she spread her legs. His lips pulled back, showing his fangs in a snarl. It sent a thrill of excitement into her lower body.

He rutted his hard, swollen cock against her cunt, and Ava wished her clothes would just disappear.

“Don’t tease me, little human. You said you didn’t want me to eat you.” He sounded strained, and the certainty that he was trying to do what she wanted, that he wanted to follow her wishes made it easy to give in.

“I’ve changed my mind. I want you to eat me.”

He made a sound so needy that it awed her, and sparked her own need in response. “I will do more than eat. I will devour you.”

She arched up against him with a gasp, and he filled his chest with her breath, his pupils blown out. Carefully, as if afraid to scare her, he let go of her wrist and dragged his razor-sharp claw along the inside of her arm, down to her shoulder and the center of her chest, where he fisted her shirt and yanked her against him.

“This goes,” he announced, his voice somehow more garbled than before. Where his claws pressed into her shirt, the fabric ripped, and cool air kissed her heated skin.

“Yes. Please.”

His grin was feral, and Ava didn’t dare breathe as he dragged a single claw down the center of her body and her shirt and sports-bra just fell apart as if they’d been cut with a blade.

“This as well.” He tapped the tip of his claw against her leggings, right above her clit. Her body jerked beneath his electric touch.

Her answering nod was frantic. She needed more.

Wolf sat back on his haunches and grasped her thighs, searching her eyes for rejection. When none came, he flipped her onto her stomach, pulling her up and back so her knees were underneath her and her ass was forced up in the air. A low, hungry growl reverberated around the clearing. It vibrated in her cunt as he pressed his nose to her crotch; he inhaled deeply, the snuffling sound heating her cheeks with embarrassment. His claws pricked her skin through her leggings, little bursts of pain in the tapestry of excitement as he gripped her thighs and opened her up.

She felt his fangs graze the crease between her thigh and pussy, the tip of his nose nudging against her clit. His teeth closed on the fabric over her crotch, so softly—but then he yanked, and ripped, and tore the crotch of her leggings with his bite.

Cold air whispered against her flesh, but was instantly replaced with the beast’s hot, wet tongue.

He licked from her clit along the full length of her slit and up to her ass without shame, and when she jerked forward, overwhelmed by sensation, he gripped her harder, his claws pricking deeper, and pulled her back onto his tongue.

Ava bit her lip, because holding back her cries was nearly impossible. He ate all of her, his tongue a long, agile, powerful thing that gave her no reprieve, relentlessly invading her until every fold and wrinkle was wet and swollen.

“Oh fuck, fuck, fuck,” she chanted, pulling her hands close and biting her knuckles.

Wolf chuckled, and it sounded wet and obscene. “Not yet.” He reached up and pulled her fist away from her mouth. “The old hunger has moved away. Let me hear you.”

It was too much. Her body was strung too tight, hurtling towards a release she had no control over. She pushed up, needing to get away, just for a moment, but he was a beast, so he slipped a hand up her spine—leaving scratches in his path—gripped her neck and pushed her down. Pinning her.

“No,” he growled, nipping at the back of her thigh. “I’m hungry still.”

Then he went back to feasting.

He drank from her, and Ava muffled her helpless moans, dimly aware of the danger outside their warded circle.

She was almost there, almost, already begging and shoving her cunt onto his face.

Only… a… little… more —

He yanked his head away and crawled up her body, teeth nipping at her neck as he covered her. “You want this? Want me to take and claim and devour?”

He spoke as if he wasn’t quite from the same world as her, a stranger in the shape of a monster.

“Please, yes,” she whimpered, close to a sob.

“Beg.”

His growled command had her skin breaking out in goosebumps. On instinct, she tilted her hips and presented her cunt. And she begged, babbled, a stream of broken pleas that weren’t even words to her own ears.

Wolf picked her up like she weighed nothing and tossed her onto her back, throwing her free leg over his shoulder and pushing her knee against her chest as he leaned over her, mercilessly stretching her wide. His sharp teeth were only inches from her lips.

When she got her first glimpse of his cock, her heart stuttered and her breath stalled.

It was huge, glistening and hard, with a thick swelling at the base, but the violent red color of the thing was even more intimidating, accentuating its brutal shape.

Ava reached down to where it poked up from between his strong, furry legs, but she hesitated. Wolf took her hand in his, closed it around his cock, and squeezed gently when she wanted to pull away.

“I’m sorry I’m not a man.” He searched her eyes, so obviously looking for rejection that it broke her heart a little.

“I’m not. I want the beast.”

He let go of her hand and reached up to cup her cheek, resting the claw of his thumb against her bottom lip and pulling it down. His muzzle was wet from her, and thin strings of saliva dangled above her from his lips and fangs.

“Put me inside you,” he ordered, and Ava guided his silky, wet length to her entrance. His tip slipped in easily, and she rolled her hips, urging him to move.

She wanted all of him, hard.

His claw clicked against her teeth as he pressed, forcing her mouth to open and slipping his thumb inside. The taste of earth and leaves flooded her senses. Above her, he let his saliva drip from his tongue onto hers, into her open mouth. It made her rabid with lust, fanning the flames of her hunger for every part of him.

She was nearly feral, and he still only had his tip inside her. Desperate, she closed her lips around his thumb and sucked on his claw, pleased when his eyes nearly crossed and his hips jerked forward an inch.

It wasn’t enough, of course.

“All of you,” she panted around his claw, then gasped when he thrust deep, seating himself with one, hard stroke.

It was a lot. And still, it wasn’t all of him.

“You want my knot?” He slipped his thumb out of her mouth and loosely circled her neck with his hand.

Ava was still getting used to his cock touching places inside her that even her favorite dildo didn’t reach. Yet, she nodded. She wanted all of him, damn it.

This time he moved carefully, gently pulsing his hips, stretching her in increments. For a moment, it was too much. He was too thick. He would never fit.

Then he slipped inside, filling her completely, and her core clenched down on him, setting off fireworks.

She came, and came, until she started hitting and scratching at his chest because it didn’t stop. She felt like she was standing on the edge of a cliff, one step away from shattering. There was no strength left in her limbs when her cunt gave one last, valiant flutter around him.

He hadn’t moved a muscle while she spasmed on his cock, but when he did, rocking against her, it kicked off another cascade of exploding stars.

Ava was a mess of tears and sweat and spit.

“Your cunt is so good to me, squeezing me so hard. Are you going to take my cum, too?”

“Fuck. Yes. Please, I need it.”

“I know. You want me to fill you up, don’t you? You’ll still be dripping with me tomorrow.”

“Please…”

His movements became sloppier and he jerked harder, until suddenly, he stopped, deep inside her, a ferocious rumble rolling from his chest as he came. She felt him throb as he spilled his cum, and it was at once strange and utterly satisfying to be so full.

He lowered himself carefully, sliding her leg from his shoulder. The inside of her thighs twinged from the brutal stretch.

She pressed her face into his neck, inhaling his scent of wilderness. He was still locked in place inside her. It was such a strange sensation.

He nudged her chin with his knuckles, bringing her up to face him. “Don’t hide from me now, sweetness. Your cries were beautiful, but your tears are even more so.”

“You’re a beast.”

His grin was vicious. “Yes. It’s why you wanted me, isn’t it? A monster to protect you from an abomination.”

Was that what he thought? That she’d slept with him to, what, trade for his protection? Something burned beneath her ribs, and she wished she could move, get rid of that itchiness. “That’s not true,” she said, but the sadness in his eyes said he didn’t believe her.

“No need to placate me. The old hunger is gone.”

Instead of arguing, she buried her head in his warm fur once again, listening to the beat of his heart. After a moment, he moved to one side, still deep inside her, pulled her free leg over his thigh and wrapped his arms around her, cocooning her with his bulk.

“You can sleep now,” he murmured against her hair.

♠♠♠

When she woke up, he was no longer buried inside her. In fact, he wasn’t even a monster anymore. She lay snuggled up to the dog—well, the wolf—and the first rays of the morning sun played in his glossy, black fur. Ava raked her fingers through the silky pelt.

“I see you escaped the old hunger. Still looking a little worse for wear.”

Ava whirled around, facing the owner of that arrogant voice. Demian stood a few feet away, his tailored suit and coat impeccable. Boredom dripped from his lazy pose, as if he’d expected no less than to find her alive, but wouldn’t have much cared if it’d been otherwise. He studied her, taking in her ripped clothes, her tangled hair, and dirt-streaked skin with a mocking edge to his lips.

She pulled her knees up and hugged herself, and noticed for the first time that her ankle was no longer shackled to the ground.

“Now, no time to dally. There’s a house waiting for your service, and a pest of rodents to battle.” The warlock snapped his fingers, and the invisible collar around her neck blazed with heat, growing so hot she cried out.

The sound that emerged wasn’t a cry, and it wasn’t her voice.

Demian had grown into a giant in the blink of an eye. He crouched down and reached out, rubbing her between her ears. “What a pretty little kitty you are. Such a pretty, pretty pussy.”

He picked her up, smirking, and ruffled the fur underneath her chin.

“Wolf,” he snapped, and the wolf lurched to his feet and came to heel. “Time to go home. You’ve been a naughty boy, haven’t you?”

Wolf yipped, and followed as Demian created a rip in the air before them and stepped through, Ava cradled safely against his chest. They emerged in the hallway of a beautiful house. Demian set her down and patted her head, chuckling when she hissed at him.

“Go hunt, little pussycat. Bring me a few of those clever, magic-repellant rats, and I’ll let you stretch your legs for a spell.” Then he straightened and brushed invisible cat hair from his coat as he disappeared down the hall, Wolf at his side.

The cat went on to piss in her new Master’s shoes; his boots, and loafers, his slippers, and sandals. And when she caught a juicy rat, she placed it on his pillow, its innards tied in the prettiest bow.

 

 

Want to read more sexy stories? Subscribe to my newsletter (it’s free! And I never send more than two in a month) and get notified when I release new stories and books, and download the Masters of The Manor Novella Rainfall & Rope for free.