Bitten: Moon Lust 2 Read online

  Julia screamed in fright. The tattered remnants of her dream, in which Nikolai had bitten her neck in a fit of passion, came back to haunt her then and she became even more afraid. She scrambled back across the bed, fell to the floor, rose on shaking legs and darted for the bedroom door in a panic. Nikolai reached it before she did, even though he’d been much further away.

  “Do you believe me now?”

  “G-get out of my way,” she cried.

  “Why? Do you fear me now? Have I disgusted you?” His eyes grew dark and menacing.

  “How can you be…w-what you say you are? You’re really not human?” Her last words died to a frantic whisper as her well-known and comfortable world turned upside down. Suddenly everything she’d believed in all of her life seemed a lie. There were mythical creatures out there in the world, unexplainable and magical things. And one of them was standing right in front of her.

  “I am a wolf. A wolf that loves you with all of his heart. You are my mate for life, Julia. As soon as I get whatever is wrong with me sorted out, I will show you how glorious this bond between us can be.”

  Julia was too startled, too frightened and unnerved to pay any real attention to what he was saying to her. She’d just had the surprise of her life and wasn’t having any luck getting beyond that for the moment. Adrenaline surged unchecked through her system and she struck out before she thought, landing a forceful blow squarely between his legs with her fist. As he doubled over in pain and surprise Julia took the opportunity to shove him aside, jerk open the door, and race out of the room. Her first instinct was to run, far and fast, away from him, even as her heart cried out that what she was doing was unfair and against her growing affection for the man she’d just wounded. So she ran, stumbling over any obstacles in her path on her mad dash to the door of her apartment.

  There was a forceful tug on the loose sash of her robe and she stumbled to the floor, crying out in surprise. She turned and saw Nikolai loom up over her menacingly.

  “Do not run, you only make me want to chase you when you do and it excites me far too much,” he gritted out between his sharp teeth before reaching down, grabbing her by her upper arms and raising her off of the floor. He held her up, feet dangling off of the floor a good twelve inches, and shook her slightly. “You hurt me, Julia, most grievously. But do you see how I do not hurt you in retaliation for that blow you dealt me? I would never willingly hurt you. If you believe nothing else, then please believe that.” He shook her again.

  Julia felt tears begin to flow unchecked down her cheeks. She was so torn. On the one hand she was terrified of Nikolai and on the other…her heart ached with the force of her emotions, emotions that she dare not even name or examine too closely just now. “N-N-Nikolai, I’m sorry.” Her voice broke on a sob. “But I don’t know what to think—what to do. I barely know you but…God! I don’t know what to say. You scared me.”

  Nikolai gathered her close in his arms. Her feet still dangled a good foot off of the floor but she ceased her struggle with him, went limp in his embrace and allowed him to comfort her. It always felt so right—so perfect—to be in his arms, and this time was no exception. She needed him to hold her.

  “I am sorry I scared you. I suppose I should have found a better way to prove my claim to you. But now do you believe me when I say that I am not like you?”

  She choked out a laugh around her tears. “How could I not believe you? You’ve got fangs for goodness sake! My god! You’re not human, not human, not human.” She started to hyperventilate as the thought slammed home again and again in her dazed mind. Nikolai quickly carried her to her small couch, sat her down, and shoved her head down between her knees.

  “I am sorry for your upset over this Julia. If I could have given you more time to grow accustomed to this truth I would have, believe me.”

  Julia rose, feeling lightheaded but more in control of herself again. “But how did this happen to you? Were you bitten by a werewolf—is that how it works?—like in the stories you hear or the movies on television?”

  Nikolai laughed darkly in disgust. “Brianna has told me about your werewolf myths as I had never heard of such tales, living so far removed from human society. But rest assured that none of those horrific stories are grounded in true reality. We are far different. In fact I have never heard tales of any others like us.”

  “Brianna knows what you are? Wait a minute! D-did you say ‘us’? There are more l-like you?” She shivered. Her body was a quagmire of discontent, so many questions raced through her mind, each more alarming and confusing than the last. She’d had too much of a shock to think clearly, to react rationally about anything for the moment.

  “There are many more like me. My whole village is comprised of others like myself. But let me assure you, before you ask, that we are not at all as your myths portray us. We do not feast on human flesh, hearts, or tongues. I have heard about those terrible lies and they disgust me. We are a proud race—a separate race entirely from humans, evolved from similar ancestors I have no doubt, but separate now in all the ways that matter—and we keep to ourselves. In fact, we prefer a peaceful life, in the wilderness, far away from humans.”

  “You mean you’ve always been like this?”

  “Yes.” He smiled at her incredulous expression. “Though it is a little more complicated than what you are probably thinking. When I was born—when those of my kind are born—we do not automatically experience the change every month. Our cycles work a little differently until puberty.”

  “I can’t believe this is really true. You’re a werewolf. It sounds so crazy. So what happens when the moon is full in a couple of weeks? Do you get all furry and slobbery or…what?”

  “Well my body is in an ever constant state of transformation. As the moon grows or shrinks so, too, do our lupine selves.”

  “What do you mean? Don’t you know exactly what day you’ll change?”

  “No. I will likely change on the eve of the moon at its fullest.” He took a deep breath and rolled his shoulders as if he were growing impatient with the conversation. “I am alpha—the strongest male of my pack, my family—and because of that I can hold off my change the longest. I can stay in my bipedal form the longest, and if I should chose, I can stay in my wolf form the longest as well. But basically our cycles work like this. When the moon is full we change into wolves—well not exactly wolves but something very close—so close you could not tell us apart from a full blood wolf unless you were an expert, except maybe for our size—we are quite large in lupine form.”

  He paused and shifted again. “As the moon wanes we change back into human-like creatures, but we are not entirely human. We are faster, stronger, and have keener senses than full blood humans. As the moon moves into its darkest phase, the new moon, we are less muscular and our fangs are not in evidence unless you look very closely. And then, as the moon waxes our bodies grow larger, our hair and incisors lengthen and we move with an even greater swiftness and power…until we change into wolves once more. When we are young we only grow surly or more ‘furry’ as you said, it is not until puberty that we change fully.”

  “You talk as if this is so…normal. I’ve just had the fright of my life. To think that such a thing is possible. It’s out of this world,” she marveled.

  “It is normal to me. Soon you will grow to accept it and it will be normal to you as well.”

  “I don’t think so. I can’t ever see myself ever getting used to the idea. Just think, if werewolves exist then what about vampires and ghosts and trolls and elves? What other mythological beings are out there, just keeping to themselves as you have?” Another thought occurred to her then. “Why are you here, exactly? What could possibly make you want to leave your home and be here amongst so many humans? Aren’t you afraid of being discovered?”

  “I did not lie to you when you asked me before why I was here. Brianna, my cousin’s wife, is pregnant and close to term with our first known interspecies offspring. Her company—The Li
ving Forest Enterprises—needed to conduct some legal business with her but she couldn’t risk the chance of an early birth during a trip over here. She and the child she carries had a much greater chance of being discovered than I. So I came in her stead as her emissary to the company, and took care of things for her here.”

  Julia saw a flash of his fangs as he spoke and started to hyperventilate again. Nikolai’s concern for her was etched plainly on his features but she couldn’t calm down long enough to appreciate or remark on it. The thought that she was sitting next to something—someone—not human, tormented her. And she’d lain with him—had sex with him—for god’s sake. Though the memory frightened and alarmed her, it also incredibly aroused her and that realization caused her breathing to become even more erratic.

  “Calm down, love, I can smell your fear and it is tearing my heart to pieces to know that I have caused this response in you. You have no need to be so afraid of me. I would never willingly hurt you.”

  Julia refused to dwell on the fact that his glowing eyes averted when he spoke those last words, or that his voice was unsteady as he trembled once again. Her breath sobbed in harsh, desperate bellows as she fought valiantly to calm. “Then w-why did you push me aw-way those times? Why did you g-grow so angry with m-me?”

  “I was not angry with you, only with myself for losing control. I said I would never willingly hurt you and I meant that, with all of my being I meant that. But, since meeting you,” he shook so forcefully that the couch shifted with his movements, “I have not been myself. I have come close to losing control of my emotions and instincts, and though I have never harmed an innocent while in my wolf’s state, I fear that I might accidentally hurt you. My emotions are in turmoil when you are near me and I have never had to deal with such a loss of control. I do not know what I am capable of when I lose myself like this.”

  “But I thought you only changed when the moon was full,” she whispered fearfully.

  “We do and it is a while yet before the moon will be full this month. But I am changing despite that. Despite the moon’s phase. And that is the most frightening thing of all,” he whispered back.

  Chapter Ten

  Julia bit her lip to keep from keening aloud her alarm upon seeing the new and dangerous glow that emanated out from Nikolai’s eyes with his words. It was obvious that he was having trouble keeping himself subdued around her. He looked restless enough to climb the walls at the very least. His muscles roiled and shifted and her eyes were immediately drawn down over his glorious nudity. How fear and desire could mix so exquisitely within her she would never understand, but these were exactly the emotions she felt at the sight of so much bare, golden skin. Then Nikolai’s shoulders shifted and popped in their sockets and worry came to the fore. Worry for Nikolai…and for her.

  She gritted her teeth with enough force to hear them grind together in her head. Now was the time for an inner reckoning. Was she going to tell Nikolai to leave and try to forget the events of the past couple of hours? Was there still time to do such a thing without bringing injury to her heart and her sanity? Was that even what she wanted to do?

  No, emphatically no.

  She’d always taken the easy route through her relationships with people, preferring to keep everything simple and uncomplicated, never risking her heart or her emotions. Well now she’d taken a chance, a big one, and bedded a man knowing full well that for her sex would mean more than just a one night stand with a relative stranger. And that man, her lover, was in need of her now, it was plain to see. Was she hesitant about his animalistic tendencies? Yes. But did they turn her off, did she want him less because of them? No, definitely not. In fact she was more intrigued, on many levels—not only sexually—by his claims of being a werewolf.

  Though this situation was far from a normal one in the scheme of love and relationships between people, Julia felt a need—a compulsion—to follow it through as though it were one. She couldn’t push Nikolai away from her simply because he was different. Nor could she believe that he would let things get so bad in himself that he harmed her. She was sure he would leave her before such a thing happened. She trusted him, no matter that she barely knew it. She felt, deep within her heart and soul, that this man was well worth any risk she might take.

  “What will we do?” she asked, stressing ”we”.

  Nikolai looked at her long and hard, as if searching for some hesitancy or weakness in her sudden resolve. When he found none he shuddered and turned to draw her closer, careful to move slowly lest he frighten her off. “I do not know, Julia. Perhaps this weakness of mine will pass. Perhaps it is merely from my being caged up in the walls of this city. I do not know. I only know that your nearness both soothes and exacerbates my condition.”

  “Is there anything we can do to take your mind off of it for a while? Maybe there is something that can help,” she suggested, settling against him, ignoring an instinctive nervous thrill at being so close to him now.

  Immediately Nikolai’s cock lengthened and hardened, engorging with a sudden rush of blood. Julia couldn’t have failed to notice it had she tried. The great plumed head on his shaft bobbed against the arm she had settled around his waist, demanding her attention with a mind of its own. Her body responded instantly, causing her nipples to swell and become erect under her robe and her cunt to tingle and grow wet with her arousal. She shifted in her seat, to ease the sudden, empty ache between her legs, but Nikolai stilled her movements easily.

  He reached over and pulled her across his lap, settling her thighs on either side of his so that she straddled him. “Kissing might help,” he said in a coaxing murmur.

  “Only kissing?” she asked and pressed a soft kiss to his jaw. She couldn’t believe that she was so open to this sexuality between them, but it felt so completely right to give in to it that she never even considered slowing things down.

  “Maybe touching too…” He shuddered beneath her as her hands began roving over the planes of his chest with a will all their own.

  “Anything else?” she teased.

  “Grrrrrrr…” Somehow this new guttural cry of his only served to heighten her arousal. It did not frighten her in the least. “Maybe…trakhat’sya—fucking…would help.”

  His coarse language made her clit pulse with anticipation. “Maybe it would at that,” she agreed.

  Julia leaned down and kissed his lips, marveling at their silken texture, their decadent masculine flavor. Nikolai kept his hands at her thighs, as if worried that if he were to grab her and take control of the kiss she would bolt. And perhaps she would have, at that; Julia wasn’t sure what would have happened. But just by holding himself in check, he reaffirmed the thought in her mind that he would not harm her. She felt safer because of it and grew bold in her exploration of his body.

  His cock pressed against the apex of the thighs and in the position she was now, her vagina was spread wide so that her wet flesh rubbed lightly against him. She shifted, moving her hips closer against him, and sighed in pleasure when his shaft slid against the swollen button of her clit. Her hands kneaded into the heavy muscles of his upper arms, testing his strength like a curious kitten. In the meanwhile, Nikolai’s hands slid against the plumpness of her thighs and knees as they gripped his sides. His hands, splayed wide, encompassed most of that area, and made her feel unexpectedly small beneath them.

  Julia let her mouth slide off of his, reveling in the harsh booming breaths he took—clear evidence of her effect on his senses—and trailed open mouthed kisses down his chin and throat. She scooted back, pressed her mouth into the rise of muscle on his chest and scraped her fingernails lightly over his nipples, making them grow as hard as hers were already.

  Nikolai groaned and shifted slightly beneath her, once again drawing her attention to his marble-hard penis as it brushed against the bottom of one of her breasts. She moved her kisses lower and licked the hard kernel of his nipple. Nikolai’s hands stilled against her and she stroked the rippling planes of his sto
mach, teasingly, coaxingly, seeing how far up she could drive him before he took command of the situation. When he didn’t move but for the unsteady rise and fall of his chest, she rewarded him by wrapping her hands around his cock and pumping him once, twice, three loving times. She was surprised to note that he was uncircumcised, with a plump yet delicate foreskin that moved beneath her hands as she squeezed and thrust.

  He nearly bucked her off of him, so violently did he rise up beneath her. He groaned ragged and loud, and she smiled against his nipple. She blew across his saliva-moistened flesh and was pleased to hear him groan once again. All her hesitancy and worry fled as if it never had been and she lost herself to the thrill of being with him. He smelled heavenly, with just a hint of her soap mingled in with the woodsy musk of his usual fragrance, and she breathed him in deeply, savoring his essence. She scraped her teeth gently across him, making him gasp, and then she scooted off of him like a monkey and rested on her knees before him on the floor.

  “I’ve never done this before. Tell me if I do anything wrong,” she breathed coquettishly.

  Before he could reply Julia spread his knees with her hands, leaned in and pressed her lips to the head of his cock.

  “Ah, der’mo! Shit, yes, aahhhh,” he groaned, spearing his fingers into the thickness of the hair on her head, tangling them there.

  If he responds that way to just a kiss, she thought, how will he respond to something a little more?

  She found out when she let the crown of him into the ring of her lips and flicked him lightly with her tongue. He thrust up against her and pulled her head down at the same time, spearing himself deep into her mouth until he nudged the back of her throat.

  “Oh, Julia, did I hurt you?” he asked in a worried rush.

  He had surprised her, yes, but he hadn’t hurt her. In fact, she was curious to see how far she could take him in her mouth and throat. He was so large she knew she couldn’t take all of him without gagging, but she could try and see just how much she could handle of his delicious sugar dick. She deliberately relaxed the muscles in her throat and slowly sank her mouth down on him, her movements answer enough—she hoped—to his question. When it felt like she was swallowing the head of him she sucked, careful of her teeth on him, and moved back.