Ben, I sent to him again. I love you! Hurry, I need you. Finish this and claim me! The black wolf's head snapped up as though he'd heard me and I saw a new light enter his glowing eyes. He dodged forward as though going for Savage's throat again, and when the gray and brown wolf reared back to evade the hold, Ben ducked low and sank his fangs into one of Savage's forelegs instead. I heard a brittle snapping sound distinctly, like someone breaking a dry tree branch over their thigh, and my heart was filled with a fierce, primitive joy that I knew was Ben's.
The gray and brown wolf howled in pain, and the pack echoed his cry. When Ben danced back again, he left the Lead Wolf limping on only three legs, the right foreleg dangling uselessly in front of him.
Despite his distinct disadvantage, Savage still fought. In fact, if anything the injury seemed to make him more dangerous. He growled and snarled, ropes of saliva flying from his muzzle, and his fangs glistened in the moonlight. Ben approached him warily now, apparently aware that the Lead Wolf was more of a danger now that he was desperate.
Suddenly a new howl sounded from somewhere in the forest. Startled, I looked away from the fight, and I saw the pack member's heads jerk in the direction of the strange howl too. None of the rest of the men had changed, so who was making the sound?
Out into the moonlight ran a black wolf with gray streaks on its fur—a pattern that looked oddly familiar to me. It ran with a weird stagger, as though its body didn't quite want to work right, and its voice was cracked and strange. It had only been in the clearing an instant when another wolf burst out of the trees running close behind it—this one was platinum white with pale eyes—McKinsey! I realized with a start that the black wolf with gray stripes had to be Doctor Locke. But how had he turned himself into a wolf? I had been under the distinct impression that he wasn't a were, like Ben and Savage, so how had he managed to shift forms?
My questions were driven out of my head when the black and gray wolf launched itself at the larger gray and brown one. The doctor was going after Savage! But he was no match for the enraged Lead Wolf. Even limping on three paws, Savage repelled the attack almost contemptuously, bowling the smaller wolf over with a head butt. Locke launched himself again, the moonlight gleaming on the gray stripes in his flanks, and Savage plucked him out of the air easily, his strong jaws closing on the smaller wolf's throat. I heard the distinct click of teeth meeting, and one agonized howl abruptly cut short as Savage crushed his attacker's windpipe.
The white wolf threw back her head and howled mournfully as Savage shook the limp figure of the wolf that had dared to challenge him. The rest of the pack answered her howl. They were on the ragged edge of a change, but still they held back. Was it because they were waiting for an end to the conflict or because they were forbidden to change until the final kill had been made? But Ben, who had been hanging back as the other action took place, didn't howl with the others. Instead the compact black wolf that was the man I loved sprang into action.
He rushed in before Savage could drop the body of the dead doctor/wolf to the ground, and his teeth closed on Savage's left foreleg. I heard the quick, painful snapping sound again, and when he danced back, Savage was truly crippled. The Lead Wolf howled and snapped angrily, but with no way to rest his weight on his two front legs, he had lost all the leverage he needed to fight. He was finished and everyone watching knew it.
This time there was no holding the pack back. I saw them begin to twist and writhe, their forms changing from human to animal in a matter of about sixty seconds. They threw up their heads and bayed at the moon as one, before advancing on the figures in the center of the clearing. Clearly, they wanted Ben to finish what he had started, and just as clearly, he didn't want to.
He backed away from the crippled Lead Wolf, his fur standing on end and a soft growl I felt rather than heard rumbling in his throat. Even in his purest, most animal form, Ben was not a killer, and part of me loved him for that.
Seeing that he wasn't going to finish the job, the other wolves in the pack apparently decided to do it for him. As one, I saw them dive onto the wounded Lead Wolf and pull him to the ground. There was a jet of blood, black in the moonlight, and I turned my head, unable to watch anymore.
“The Goddess is worshipped in blood!” Molly's voice startled me, and I looked down from my vantage on the flat stone altar to see that the women of the pack had retreated from the mass of writhing, furry backs, and circled around the priestess instead. The white wolf that was McKinsey was also there, crouched at the priestess's side, whining low in her throat. Both of the men that had cared for her were now gone, and the air of fear and loneliness she exuded was almost a palpable thing.
“You know what is expected.” Molly looked at each woman in the loose circle around her and then up at me. “You know what you must do. Open yourselves to the Goddess! Her needs are only half met—let her fill you!”
She raised her hands over her head in a welcoming gesture. “Oh, Goddess, we have met thy hunger for blood. Now fill us with yourself that we might meet thy need for flesh. We open ourselves and we call to you—do as you will with us. Use us, take us, make us what you will. We surrender to your hunger as we surrender to the hunger of our mates. Feed our desire that we might satiate yours.”
A blast of wind came whipping through the trees and tousled Molly's salt and pepper curls as she spoke. I felt it winding around me almost like a large, cool hand tugging at the thin red robe I wore, trying to open it and bare my body. I resisted it at first, then something inside me seemed to break—some barrier that had been there since my time with Mitch. I realized I didn't want to resist. That I wanted to give in to the wind and the urging I felt all around me like a warm cloud of mist. I didn't know if it was actually the Goddess, or the form of mass hypnosis Ben and I had speculated about the night before. But whatever it was, I was willing to go with it.
I spread my arms and let the wind tug open the red silk robe, leaving me bare from breasts to ankles. The breeze caressed my breasts like a thousand fingers, a thousand mouths, pulling my nipples into stiff, sensitive peaks. It played between my legs too, swirling around the soft, damp patch of curls that decorated my mound and urging me to spread my thighs so that it could lap at my swollen pussy lips, making me moan for more. Because more was what I needed. The wind, which seemed to have a mind of its own, felt wonderful but it was insubstantial. I needed real hands on me, a real mouth to suck my nipples, a real cock to fill me and fuck me until I came.
“Dani.” The voice behind me was human, but only just. I whirled to see Ben standing in his human form on the rock beside me. He was naked and bloody and breathing hard, his broad chest heaving. His brown eyes were glowing as they had that night in the bar, and he smelled of sweat and grass with a coppery hint of blood, and under it all was a spicy musk—the scent of his masculine arousal.
He towered over me—so much larger than I was and so much stronger too, and for a moment my courage faltered. There was so much strength in him, so much potential for violence. I took a step backward, biting my lip in sudden fear.
“Dani, please,” he said again, and his voice was ragged with need, so ragged it hurt to listen to. This is Ben, I reminded myself. No matter what he is or what he turns into, he's still the man you trust most in the world. The man you love. Yes, but could I trust him enough to overcome those old, painful fears? Watching the fight from my vantage high on the rock, it had seemed so easy to give in to the desire I felt for him. But now, with him standing over me, crowding me with his naked, muscular body, I wasn't so sure.
Help me, I thought, not sure if I was praying or who I was praying to. Help me do this—I love him. As I thought the words, I felt the wind again, swirling around me, touching me as gently as a lover. At the same time, the moonlight seemed to grow brighter and warmer, almost like the sun at noon beaming down to caress my skin. An inner peace filled me, and a voice which might have been the Goddess, if she really existed, sighed in my ears, Let the past go. And I found that
I could.
I knew what had to come next because Molly had instructed me during the arduous cleansing ceremony. So I wasn't surprised when Ben dropped to his knees in front of me.
“Blessed be thy feet, that have brought thee in these ways,” he said, his deep voice hoarse. He leaned forward and kissed the tops of my feet gently, and I felt a swirling warmth begin to rise at the contact of his lips to my skin.
“Blessed be thy knees that shall kneel at the sacred altar,” Ben said. Straightening up some, he leaned forward and kissed my knees. His warm lips made me shiver as they touched the cold skin of my knees—which is a part of me that is almost never warm. At the same time, I felt the solid heat of his large hands tracing their way up my calves, pulling the sexual warmth and energy higher up my body.
“Blessed be thy womb, without which we would not be,” Ben murmured. I knew what was coming next but I still caught my breath in a gasp when he pressed his face between my legs and kissed my sex tenderly and deeply. I could feel his fingers at my inner thighs, urging my legs to part for him. Biting my lip, I gave in, allowing him to press his tongue inside, past my outer lips and into the wet folds of my pussy. I felt him licking gently along the side of my clit, stroking the fire that was burning inside me ever upward, filling me with the flame of need and desire, and I buried my hands in his hair and moaned out loud.
At last Ben pulled back. “Blessed be thy breasts, formed in beauty,” he said softly. He was standing again, towering over me, but I felt no fear. All that was behind me now, carried away on the healing wind. When Ben leaned down and sucked one of my nipples into his mouth, I surged forward to meet him, welcoming his hot mouth enclosing my flesh. He spent a long time sucking and licking—long enough for me to feel the sexual heat rising to my heart—and then he pulled away once more.
“Blessed be thy lips, which shall utter the sacred names,” he almost whispered, bending his head down to mine.
“Ben,” I said softly. His name, the name of my partner, my friend, my lover, was the only sacred one I knew. I stepped close to him so that the sensitive tips of my breasts brushed his broad chest. The contact sent a swirl of desire tingling down my spine, adding to the heat between my legs. I reached up on tiptoe and put my arms around his neck, drawing his head closer, breathing in his scent and my own, which still lingered around his mouth.
The sexual heat, the electric tension that had started when he dropped to his knees before me, had consumed me utterly. I felt molten below the waist, as wet and ready as I had ever been. Ready to receive pleasure, to feel him filling me with himself. I wanted to spread my legs for him, to give him everything I was or ever could be. To be one with him in love and lust and need.
“I know what you need,” I whispered against his cheek. “And I want to give it to you. I want you to fuck me.”
“God, Dani,” he said hoarsely, his eyes filled with agony. “I know you don't mean that but I can't stop myself. I have to.”
I wanted to tell him that I did mean it—that I wanted him as badly as he wanted me, but he took my mouth in a kiss so hungry it was like a fire consuming my soul. I knew that he was still more animal than man, on the inside anyway, and the animal inside him was urging him to mate, to claim what was his—me.
He finished with my mouth and began working his way down my body, kissing and licking my throat, shoulders, and breasts. He lingered for a moment, sucking my nipples into his mouth, nipping sharply to make me cry out, and lapping them tenderly to ease the pain, before making his way down my trembling belly. There was nothing controlled or ritualistic about his kisses now—they were wild and hungry, and I returned his hunger with my own. It seemed that he wanted to taste every inch of me, to cover my skin with white-hot kisses and make sure I was really his before he did what I had asked him to do.
I gasped and held onto his broad shoulders for balance when he spread my thighs once more and nuzzled between my legs. He didn't use his fingers to part my pussy lips this time, instead he pressed forward blindly, eager to lap at my wetness. The gesture was so animal, so feral, that a rush of desire came over me, and all the strength ran out of my legs. I started to fall, but Ben grabbed me around the waist and lowered me to the rock. I felt the cool, rough stone digging into my shoulder blades and the small of my back through the thin silk of the robe I still wore. Then all my attention was focused on his mouth between my legs.
The night before he had eaten my pussy with a careful, deliberate precision that seemed designed to drive me crazy, but it wasn't like that now. This time when Ben pressed between my thighs, forcing me to spread wide for him, it was as though he was a man dying of thirst, and I was the bowl of clear, cool water that could save him. He lapped at my clit, sucking it into his mouth, then pressed forward to push his tongue inside me, thrusting deep as though he was reaching for some secret part of my soul with every thrust.
I buried my hands in his hair as I had the night before and gave myself up to the pleasure he gave me. He was wild tonight—out of control in a way I had never seen him and might never see him again. I knew the only thing I could do was surrender to him completely and trust him to take me where we both needed to go.
“Ben…Oh, God, Ben!” I gasped as he sucked at my clit again, licking roughly along the sensitive bundle of nerves until I thought I was going to explode. My hands in his hair urged him on, and I found I was arching my back to meet him, bucking my hips up to give him fuller access to my sex. The five o'clock shadow on his rough cheeks scratched my tender inner thighs, adding a delicious bit of pain to the pleasure he was giving me. I felt my orgasm approaching, rolling in like a huge wave that was going to pull me under and drown me in pleasure. Above me the Hunger Moon blazed down, white and radiant, urging me to let go, to give in to the sensations he was building relentlessly in my body. And with a last final gasp of his name, I did.
The pleasure was huge, electric, and unlike anything I had felt before. It was almost as though I wasn't the only one coming—as though something else, something or someone larger than myself was taking pleasure in my orgasm as well. Ben seemed to feel it too because when he raised his head, his mouth wet with my juices, there was something in his glowing eyes that defied description. A need so vast and wide and deep it took my breath away.
I could no more stand against that need than I could have stopped the tide from coming in or kept a volcano from erupting. Ben needed to fuck me, and I needed to be filled with his cock. It was an animal emotion—the simple urge to rut, to breed, that overcame any inhibitions I might once have had. And I knew exactly how it had to be done.
I pulled off the red silk gown, which was ripped in some places now, and got to my hands and knees. The wind ran a cool finger down the groove of my spine as I spread my legs and raised my ass in the air, offering myself to him. I felt my pussy lips part as I opened my thighs, felt the cool breeze tickling my clit. My full breasts hung down, my tender nipples inches from brushing the rough, chilly rock. This was how Ben had to have me and this was how I needed to accept him—on my knees with my sex spread open for his assault. I had never felt so open or so helpless. I had never felt more aroused.
“Dani…?” I heard the question in his voice, the agony of desire warring with his animal drive to thrust into me. He wanted me but didn't want to hurt me. I felt my heart swell with love for him. My Ben, so sweet and kind. Even in the grip of the overwhelming urge to mate he still didn't want to go too far. But we had already gone too far—too far to stop.
I turned my head to see him on his knees behind me, his large, warm hands bracketing my hips. I felt the heavy head of his cock nudging against the inside of my thigh, already seeking entrance to my body. There was something in his eyes I couldn't read—some emotion that might have given me pause if I could have thought of anything but what I wanted—what I needed so desperately.
“Do it, Ben,” I gasped, spreading my thighs even farther. “Do it, I know you need to. I won't try to stop you—just do it. Just fuck me!?
??
He groaned then, a sound that went straight to my heart. It was full of desperation and despair—the sound a man makes when he knows he is about to do something that will damn him for all eternity. I wanted to tell him it was all right—that I wanted this as much as he did, but then I felt the broad head of his cock rubbing against my wet, open sex, and everything I wanted to say was wiped out of my mind in the tingling rush of anticipation and pleasure.
He entered me slowly, inch by thick inch, penetrating my sex with deliberate intent as though he wanted to savor every instant we were joined together. I bit my lip, trying to be open enough for him, trying to accommodate his girth, and was glad he was taking his time. It had been a very long time since I'd been with a man, and Ben was really big. It hurt but it felt so good, so right too. As though I had been waiting for this moment from the first time we met, waiting to spread myself for him and accept his thick shaft into my body.
I hung my head, my hair getting in my face, and concentrated on breathing. My heart was galloping in my chest, and I knew that once he was all the way into me, once he had reached the end of my channel, I could begin to adjust, could maybe even press back to meet him. But for right now all I could do was open myself and let him fuck me.
At last I felt him bottoming out inside me, felt the broad head of his cock kiss the mouth of my womb, and knew he could go no farther. The heat of his hips brushed against my ass as he leaned forward to cup and stroke my breasts in his large, warm hands. He tugged at my nipples, which hung down like ripe fruit, pulling a soft moan from me before sliding his hands down my back to hold onto my hips.