Feral Read online

  Her cell phone rang and she checked the screen.

  It was Noah.

  She struggled to ignore his summons, or better yet to push the “End Call” button, but she did neither. Within seconds, mere seconds, she lost the battle and answered with a customary, “Hello?”

  “Sweet Jenny,” came his reply. “Where are you?”

  Her heart clamored to her throat. “Alone in my office.”

  “I’m alone in my apartment.”

  At this midday hour, she pictured him the way he looked without the special effects. But he was wild either way, and his seduction ran deep.

  “Have you been thinking about me?” he asked.

  Lying seemed futile. “Yes.”

  “I’ve been thinking about you, too.” A shot of silence; then, “What about the voyeurism scene? Any ideas about what you’d like to see?”

  She should hang up now, before she went too far, but she tumbled further into his seductive trap. “Yes.”

  “Tell me.”

  She gazed out the blinds of a small paned window, where daylight scattered in front of her eyes. “A couple.”

  “What sort of couple?”

  “I’ve been imagining specific people.” She’d actually based her fantasy around real-life lovers. “The man with the tattoo and his groupie.”

  A smile sounded in Noah’s voice. “Oh, that’s good. They like being watched. I’m sure they’d be glad to perform in a private setting for us. So . . . what would you like to see them do?”

  “I—” She couldn’t bring herself to say it.

  “Don’t be shy. Just tell me whatever it is.”

  “I want—” She stalled again.

  “You want what?” he pressed.

  She didn’t answer.

  He persisted. “Jenny?”

  She blurted it out. “I want to see her do to him what she was doing in the Shifter Bar.”

  “You want to watch her give him head?”

  Her heartbeat tripled. “Yes.”

  “How do you want it to play out?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “What sorts of details have you envisioned? Do you want him to be fully naked? Half-clothed? Should he be standing? Sitting? Should she be kneeling in front of him? Or would you rather have both of them in bed, with him straddling her face? There are lots of ways it could happen.”

  Jenny squeezed her thighs together. She was getting warm down there. Far too warm. “I pictured him sitting in a chair beside the bed, with his jeans undone and his legs spread.”

  “What about her? How did you imagine her?”

  “Kneeling on the floor, like she was at the bar.”

  “Is she clothed?”

  “No. He made her strip before he told her to get on her knees.”

  “So there’s a bit of domination involved? That’s perfect, Jenny. Not only were you influenced by what you saw in the Shifter Bar, you’re utilizing things you saw in the dungeon, too.”

  She rocked forward. Her panties were getting damp. “I also imagined him giving her instructions on how to pleasure him. To start off slow, then go deeper. I pictured him tangling his hands in her hair and looking down at her while she follows his commands.”

  “Were you touching yourself when you dreamed all of that up?”

  “Yes.” She’d been under the covers with her eyes closed, creating desperate longings. “I thought about it last night, soon after I got home. I tried to stop myself, but I couldn’t. You’d already planted the seed.”

  He planted another one. “You should touch yourself right now. You should do it again.”

  She wanted to, but she made an excuse, trying to produce a semblance of reason. “I’m holding the phone.”

  He didn’t back down. “Put it on hands free.”

  She made the switch. She got up and closed the blinds, too. Dizzy with need, she said, “I can’t believe I’m going to do this with you on the other end of the line.”

  “That’s what makes it so exciting.”

  She undid her khakis. “It makes me feel forbidden.”

  “I like that word.”

  At the moment so did she, but she was also deep under his spell and all mixed up. She slid onto her chair, grateful that he couldn’t see her, yet wishing he could.

  “Talk to me. Tell me exactly what you’re doing.”

  “I’m sitting at my desk, tugging my pants and underwear down.”

  “What a visual. Sweet, sweet Jenny with her cunt exposed.”

  Heaven help her. “I’m unbuttoning my blouse, too. And unhooking the front of my bra.”

  “Are your nipples hard?”

  “Yes.” She drew a ring around one of them with her finger, making the areola pucker. With her skin tingling, with her mind on Noah, she moved her hand down and pressed it between her legs. “I’m going to do it now.”

  “Go right ahead.”

  She opened her nether lips and they glistened beneath her touch. “I’m already wet.”

  His voice caressed her. “Such a creamy girl.”

  Was she ever. She rubbed in little circles, spreading the warmth. Lost in the sensation and sealed in her own juices, her clit popped out.

  “What are you thinking about?” he asked.

  “You. Doing bad things to me.”

  “How bad?”

  “You’re restraining me, like you said you would do.” While he listened, she made submissive sounds and envisioned being strapped to his bed.

  “It scares me,” she said, relaying her newfound hunger. “But I like it, too.” In her fantasy, she was willing to let him tie her up. But in reality, she knew that she should stay away from him.

  Still, she let herself dream, immersed in how hot and rough and carnal he was.

  “Come for me,” he said.

  An instant inferno erupted in her belly, and she lifted her rear and thrust her hips, strumming hard and fast.

  Come for him.

  She moved in a carnal rhythm, rubbing her clit with one hand and using her other hand to push two fingers inside.

  With Noah quiet on the other end, she gasped and went into spasms. She thrashed in her chair and bumped her knees against the desk.

  Afterward, she blinked through the haze, the final shudder zinging through her blood.

  “Jenny?”

  She grabbled to right her clothes, fumbling with buttons, hooks, and fabrics that wouldn’t behave. “Yes?”

  “I’m going to arrange the voyeurism scene, and when the time is right, I’m going to restrain you, too.”

  She couldn’t think to form a response. He’d given her barely a moment to breathe, let alone deal with an affair she shouldn’t be having.

  “Okay?” he prodded.

  Overwhelmed, she agreed, allowing him to lure her back to the club and become part of his strangely erotic life.

  In the middle of the night, Noah awakened in a state of confusion. He hadn’t dreamed since he was mortal. But he’d just had one that involved Jenny, and it wasn’t even sexual. He could’ve dealt with that. In fact, he would’ve welcomed it.

  This was something altogether different. In his dream, the magic stones the Seminole called sapiya had been hopping around on the ground and talking to him about Jenny.

  He frowned into the dark. According to their message, he was supposed to show Jenny the beast that was inside him, to let her know the truth. Only the stones didn’t explain their reasoning. They just kept insisting that he needed to do it.

  Of all fucking things.

  As a child, he’d been taught to respect the sapiya, because if you didn’t, they could turn on you, if they so desired, and create bad magic. The way Noah saw it, he was screwed either way.

  He stayed awake contemplating his dilemma, and by morning he was pacing his apartment like the caged hybrid he’d become.

  Agitated, he grabbed his keys and headed out the door.

  Twenty minutes later, he sat across from his accountant in the other man’s
high-rise office. In this environment Coyote was Stanley Truxton, a young, clean-cut CPA. But he was actually a shapeshifter, the same as Noah. Only Coyote was a trickster who wore a fake mask at the club instead of shifting into his half-animal form.

  “What’s going on?” Coyote asked.

  Noah explained the details of his dream.

  “Wow. You’ve gotten yourself into quite a predicament. Are you going to do it?”

  “I don’t know. But what damned difference does it make when you go around spouting that the rumors are real and claiming to have proof?”

  “Don’t turn this around on me. You know darn well that I only do that to have a bit of fun. Besides, hardly anyone at the club takes anything I say seriously. Most of the groupies think I’m a dweeb.”

  “Because you are.”

  The accountant laughed. “Isn’t it a kick? A clever guy like me being a dweeb?”

  Noah rolled his eyes. “I don’t even know why I’m confiding in you.”

  “Who else are you going to talk to? A brainless werewolf or a flower-pollinating fairy? Or better yet, how about one of those snappy alligator shifters? Personally, I wouldn’t trust those creatures as far as I could throw them.”

  “Look who’s calling the kettle black.” The only thing Coyote didn’t screw around with was his clients’ money. But Noah had known him a long time, and they were friends. Or as friendly as two detached beings could be.

  “I wonder why the sapiya put you in a position like this?”

  Noah scowled. “Hell if I know. All I want is to have a raging affair with her, and now those stones are digging a grave in my mind.”

  Coyote sat back in his chair, a view of the city framed in the picture window behind him. “Maybe Jenny is supposed to save you.”

  “What?”

  “You know, like ‘Beauty and the Beast.’”

  “That’s the goddamn dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.”

  “Actually, it’s a lovely story. At the end Beauty saves Beast by telling him that she loves him.” Coyote waggled his fingers. “Then—poof—he turns back into a handsome prince and they live happily ever after.”

  If the other man didn’t already have such a scrawny little neck, Noah would’ve choked him. “I’m not a cursed prince, and this isn’t a fucking fairy tale.”

  “It was just a thought.”

  “Not to me.”

  Coyote tapped his chin. “What if the sapiya create bad magic for Jenny? What if they turn on her instead of you?”

  “Why would they do that?”

  “Why wouldn’t they? She was in your subconscious when they came rolling into your dream. She’s just as much a part of this as you are.”

  “Shit.” Noah wasn’t going to willingly let something bad happen to her, and since he couldn’t go back and undo that damned dream, he was hard-pressed to do what the magic stones said.

  And unleash the beast.

  Five

  Nearly a week after the phone sex, Jenny stressed about Noah. She hadn’t heard from him since that day and the anticipation was killing her.

  Exhausted from taxing her mind, she plopped down on her sofa and turned on the ten o’clock news.

  Halfway through the weather report, her doorbell rang. Because of the late hour, she rushed to answer it, concerned there might be an emergency at the rescue, something that was better dealt with in person than over the phone.

  She flung open the door, and there stood Noah, in his full cat regalia, staring straight at her.

  Jenny panicked. Had he come here to take her to the club? “Is the voyeurism scheduled for tonight? You should have warned me that—”

  He cut her off. “It’s scheduled for tomorrow night.”

  “Oh, thank goodness. I don’t think I could have been ready that quickly. I’ve been practicing how to do my own hair and makeup, and I bought a new dress to wear, but—” She halted, her train of thought changing in midsentence. “If we’re not going to the club, why are you in costume?”

  “Invite me inside, and I’ll show you why.”

  She stepped away from the door. He seemed restless, and his mannerisms made her nervous. But when didn’t he make her nervous?

  As he entered the house that used to belong to her grandfather, she wondered what kind of impression it made on him. She’d added a few nice touches, like a wallpaper border in the kitchen and a cozy area rug in the den, but mostly she’d kept the outdated furniture and battered ranch accents.

  She attempted to be a proper host. “Can I get you something?”

  He motioned to the TV. “You can turn that off and sit down.”

  She punched the remote and the screen went black. She sat in her grandpa’s old recliner and gestured to the sofa for him.

  “I’d rather stand.”

  She waited for him to make the purpose of his visit known, but he merely stood in the center of her living room, looking at her.

  “You’re scaring me,” she said.

  “I’ve scared you from the start.”

  “I know, but you’re acting strange.”

  “Stranger than usual?”

  She shifted in her seat. “Yes.”

  He lowered his chin, making his catlike features more pronounced, and then he growled, the slow rumble vibrating from his throat. Jenny gripped the armrests on the recliner. He sounded exactly like a mountain lion.

  Another party trick? He was too damned good at them.

  “What are you doing, Noah?”

  He snarled and moved closer.

  “Stop it. This isn’t funny.”

  He snarled again.

  As Jenny struggled to make sense of his behavior, the do’s and don’ts of a mountain lion attack swirled in her mind: don’t run and allow it to give chase; remain standing if you can and try to meet the cat face-to-face; go for its eyes or pound your fists into its head; if at all possible, find something to use as a weapon.

  Did those same rules apply to a crazed man mimicking a wildcat? Or would it behoove her to turn tail and run?

  His claws popped out, and she jumped up, adrenaline bursting through her veins.

  She glanced around for an object to hit him with, but there was nothing within her reach. The lamp was on the other side of the room. Doing the next best thing, she balled up her fists and swung at him.

  He didn’t take her aggression well. He grabbed her wrists and pushed her back onto the chair, where it snapped into a reclining position. Slamming his body on top of hers, he pinned her beneath him, making it impossible for her to move.

  Only he didn’t sink his teeth into her flesh or claw viciously at her clothes. Right in front of her, his features began to change, turning from cat to man.

  Within seconds, his eyes went back to normal, along with his teeth, his nails, and his nostrils. Even the tawny streaks in his hair disappeared.

  Stunned, Jenny merely lay there, staring at him. That was a party trick that seemed impossible. Yet he’d accomplished it.

  He released her and stood up.

  Although she moved the chair forward and got to her feet, she was far from steady. She wobbled like one of those roly-poly toys she used to play with as a kid.

  Noah looked completely poised.

  “Was that an illusion?” she asked. “Did you do that with mirrors or a camera or whatever it is that magicians do?”

  “It was real.”

  “Can you turn back into a cat just as easily?”

  “Yes.”

  Gathering her composure, she lifted her hands and put them against his face. “Then do it. Right now. With me touching you.”

  Just like that, he returned to lion mode, his features rippling and changing beneath her fingers.

  Jenny was too fascinated to let go. She kept her hands on his face, even after his transformation was complete. But he didn’t allow it to last.

  He nudged her away. “The show is over.”

  She gazed into those animalistic eyes. He was like a science project g
one powerfully wrong. “You can’t just spring something like this on me and say it’s over. I want to know more about you. I want to know how any of this is possible.”

  “It’s possible because I’m a real shapeshifter.”

  “Yes, but how is that possible? Is it because of the woman in Mexico? The one you called beautiful and mysterious?”

  “I don’t want to talk about her.”

  She persisted. “You told me that she gave you the idea to be a shapeshifter.”

  “I was being facetious.”

  “So she wasn’t involved?”

  In lieu of a reply, he shifted back to human form, putting her emotions on edge and making her dizzy.

  “I’ll send the town car for you tomorrow,” he said.

  That was it? She was just supposed to come back to the club and let him dictate the terms of their affair? “I want answers.”

  “And you’ll get them when I’m ready to discuss it.”

  He headed for the door, and she followed him onto the porch.

  Before he left, he reached out and pressed his fingers against her neck, taking a moment to feel her pulse. It went rickety beneath his touch, proving that she was still his prey, no matter what identity he chose.

  The next night, Jenny walked beside Noah at Aeonian, reprimanding herself for wanting to be here. But honestly, how could she stay away, knowing what she knew about him?

  Tonight he was in lion form, as she’d expected him to be, but she was well aware of how easily he could change if the mood struck him.

  They proceeded to the second floor, and he escorted her to a private viewing area and locked the door. It was a small space, dimly lit, with a floor-to-ceiling window that displayed a bedroom on the other side.

  “The couple you requested will be arriving soon,” he said.

  She refused to pretend that her mind wasn’t elsewhere. “I’m more interested in you.”

  “We’ll deal with your curiosity about me later.” He gestured to the window. “That’s a one-way mirror, glass on our side and a mirror on theirs. So basically, we’ll be able to see them, but they won’t be able to see us, even if they know we’re here.”