Six

A long, low growl of warning made Cún freeze. He moved only his eyes and looked past her to the door. Mark’s voice was quiet, but full of menace.

“Back away, Cún. She is mine. Release her.”

Cún released her but did not move.

“She should be mine. You have no kills. I should be Tiarna, not you.”

Mark climbed the steps and stood by Maria’s side. She was trembling uncontrollably.

“I will not tell you again, Cún, back away now.”

Cún took a step closer to Mark, so that their faces were almost touching. He spoke with a sneer of contempt on his lips.

“From you? You are no Mac Tíre. You have not tasted blood.”

Maria inched away. She could see that Cún was still half in the howling. Mark was not, but his breathing was becoming shallow and his face was taut. When he spoke his voice was a rasp.

“I do not want my first kill to be my brother, Cún. I am your Tiarna. She is mine. For the last time, back away.”

He did not give Cún time to respond. The howling took him in less than a second. His roar was horrific. All Maria could see was his open maw, with hug slavering fangs, and eyes that that were possessed by a madness that was beyond bestial. He seized his brother and sank his teeth into the back of his neck. Cún’s shrieks and snarls were deafening as he thrashed and clawed, trying to release himself. But Mark clung to his back, ripping at him with massive claws, blood spilling from his mouth.

Cún fell to the floor and Mark rose above him, his mouth dripping red, his eyes mad, his razor claws poised for the kill. Maria stood, trembling and weeping, and in that second of silence before death, she said, “Mark, you can choose not to do this…”

He froze. Slowly his eyes shifted to look at her. That creature sitting astride the prone Cún was not human. It was a brutal monster, a creature out of dark nightmares, a savage killer, but looking through its amber eyes she could see a human being reaching out to her. She said, “The beast has no choice, but you, Mark, you have. He is your brother. You love him…” She managed a broken smile and sobbed at the same time, “Even though he’s a major jerk, he is your brother, and you do love him. You are better than this. Let him live.”

She gave an involuntary gasp as she watched the grotesque metamorphosis from freakish wolf-man back to human. His clothes hung in torn shreds from his limbs. He stood, and as he did so his brother, lying bloodied on the floor, changed back too. Leaning on the wall for support, Cún climbed to his feet. He looked at Maria.

“You will regret your stupidity,” and turning to his brother he spat at his feet. “You are weak. You allowed a human woman to stop you at the kill. You are a whelp.”

As he reached the door, Mark said, “If this human woman had not stopped him, the whelp would have killed the great wolf, Cún. Learn your lesson before it is too late.”

Cún left.

Mark took a towel and climbed the three steps to where Maria stood trembling. He enfolded her in the towel and she came to him, resting her head against his powerful shoulder. She began to sob and he held her gently in his arms.

He whispered in her ear, “How did you do that? What have you done to me?” She looked up into his eyes. He said, “No human has ever brought a wolf out of the howling. It can’t be done.”

She touched his face with her fingers. “I didn’t,” she said. “You did it yourself. I just reminded you of who you really are.”

He picked her up in his arms and carried her to the bed. There he laid her down and stroked her face with his hands. She was still crying quietly.

“Mark, I don’t understand what’s going on, what I am feeling. I think I am going crazy.”

“I want to kiss you, Maria. I want to make love to you, but not as the animal I have inside, not in the howling.”

She reached up and held his face.

“Kiss me.”

He leaned down and touched her lips with his. She ran her hands over his powerful chest and slipped them behind his neck. A voice in her head told her this creature was holding her as a slave. Yet she could not deny her feelings. She pulled him down to her and softly bit his lips.

Then they were gently rubbing their faces together, kissing at the corners of their mouth, nipping each other’s lips with their teeth. She smiled and he stripped off the remains of his clothes. Naked, he lay on top of her. She ran her hands over his skin. They kissed deep, she sucked on his tongue and as he bit into her neck she whispered, “It is so good to feel your skin.”

She felt his breath, hot on her ear, “The howling is not taking me, why…?”

She held his head in her hands, her kisses becoming harder, more urgent, “Don’t question it. Just go with it.”

His hips were pushing into hers. She could feel him hard on her thigh. His breathing was tremulous, growing faster. She spread her legs, dilating to him. Their kisses were deep and hungry. His hands slid from her face down her body to her waist, and then cupped her hips. She cried out as he slid inside her. His heavy, hot breathing in her ear turned to a growl. She felt his hands grip her ass and she knew the howling was on him, and she wanted it.

She clawed his back, feeling it morphing, feeling his huge muscles swell under her hands. She screamed a scream that was half roar. He rose above her, a horrific daemon, supporting himself on his powerful arms. Their eyes locked in diabolical lust and he began his slow, thrusting rhythm. She felt him, impossibly deep inside her, swelling , growing bigger and harder with every thrust. Her skin, raw from when he had taken her before, stung with the friction, and she sucked in the pain and felt it turn to a pleasure that was beyond understanding.

Then his rhythm was growing faster. She felt his hips pounding into her loins and she was overwhelmed by madness. She saw his fangs, his huge, brutal, animal form, taking her, using her, brutalizing her, and she longed for him. The orgasm gripped her suddenly, like a million volts searing through her skin, sending her into insane spasms of animal ecstasy. She quivered and clenched on him, gritting her teeth, holding her breath, intensifying the pleasure. And then he was roaring, driving through her contractions, and they were thrashing together, tangled, grappling at each other’s bodies, until they lay exhausted, gently kissing each other’s skin, tasting the salt of each other’s perspiration, and they drifted together into delicious sleep.

She had no idea how long she had slept. When she opened her eyes she felt the strange peace of exhaustion. He was still there, next to her, breathing softly. Had it really been less than twenty-four hours? How was it possible that so much had happened in so little time? How was it possible that these insane, terrifying experiences had led to these intense, overwhelming feelings? Could she really feel this for him? She reached out and touched him. He stirred and turned to face her. His eyes opened and she knew he was instantly wide awake. He smiled.

She said, “Mark.” And gently touched his face with her fingertips.

“Maria.”

“This thing that is happening. It isn’t right, Mark. It can’t last.”

He frowned. “What do you mean?”

“I am not your slave, Mark. I don’t belong to you. I feel something for you. It has knocked me for six. I am reeling. But I don’t belong to you. I am a free woman. I don’t belong to anyone.”

He heaved a big sigh and sat up.

“Do we have to do this?”

“Yes.”

“After what has just happened. After what we have both done – and felt – this morning…”

“Especially after what we have both done and felt this morning.” She pulled herself up and sat cross-legged, looking at him. “Mark, I have never felt anything like what I feel for you. You are an extraordinary man, and you stir wild feelings in me; feelings that are hard for me to understand and deal with.”

He turned his head and watched her. He gave a lopsided, rueful smile. He said, “But?”

“But that doesn’t mean I am just going to shrug and let slide the fact that you and your family want to hold me as some kind of slave. For crying out loud, Mark! Your mother and your brother want you to kill me!”

He spread his hands in a helpless gesture.

“I don’t know what you expect me to do. You’ve seen I can protect you. We have both seen that I am no threat to you.”

She frowned. “Are you kidding me? What I expect you to do is the right thing. I expect you to let me go home and continue with my career. And I expect you to stop your mother and brother from abducting and killing innocent young women. That girl had a boyfriend and a family. Do you know how much pain and sorrow your mother and Cún caused with that monstrous act this morning?”

He sighed and nodded, staring down at the black satin sheets on his bed.

“Yes, of course I do.”

“It can’t go on like this. It has to stop.”

He laughed. It was a harsh, humorless sound. He climbed out of the bed and stared up at the ceiling.

“You say that like I smoke too much, or I keep leaving the lavatory seat up after I pee.” He turned to face her. “Like I have some kind of lamentable habit which I need to stop.”

She shook her head and pointed at him. “No. That’s what you make it sound like. You try to reduce the importance of this madness, and make it sound like, ‘Oh well, I have this freaky family who do weird things.’ Well, no, Mark, this is not a freaky aunt in Colorado who farms weed. This is a mother and a brother…”

“And a few uncles, aunts and cousins!”

“Whatever. A family, who have a very serious genetic condition that leads them to rape and kill! Get real, Mark!”

He put his hands to his head. “A family who are at the top of the food chain, Maria. The poorest person in my family is a multimillionaire. They are powerful people. I cannot just walk away from them. I am the Tiarna – the lord – in my branch. I have a responsibility to our heritage, to our pack!”

They stared at each other for a long moment. Finally she stood and went to the wardrobe to get a robe. He watched her. As se put it on she said, “You had better understand something. You need to wake up. Top of the food chain? Really? Then how come you operate in secret? How come you had to get a slime-ball like Zoltan to break into my house in the middle of the night to kidnap me? Let me ask you something else.” She stepped towards him and poked him on the chest with her finger. “How come you don’t like what you do? How come you feel ashamed? I’ll tell you. Because you know it’s wrong. Your ‘pack’ as you call them, operate in secret because you know that people, ordinary, decent people, would not tolerate what you do, because what you do is disgusting and immoral and inhuman.”

She walked towards the bathroom to shower, wanting suddenly, desperately, to wash away the horror of the last few hours. She stopped at the door and turned back to him.

“I know you are better than this. The man I am developing feelings for is better than this. I just hope you realize it. Because if you don’t, for all your power and your bestial magnetism, you will never touch me again, or get close to me again, until I am a free woman, and you have turned your back on the disgusting practices of your family.”

She moved into the bathroom and turned on the shower. Outside she heard him gathering his clothes. Then she heard the bedroom door close.