Exposure: Bloodlust Series Book 1 Page 23
If his kisses were anything to go by, I was in for an absolutely wild night.
He didn’t try to pull away again, nor did he try to convince me this was a bad idea. I knew it was, he knew it was, but we were going to do it anyway.
Dropping me for just a moment, he quickly got my jeans unbuttoned and zipped, before yanking them down, pulling down my underwear too. While I danced my feet out of my shoes and the legs of my jeans, he unbuttoned his jeans and did the same just not pulling them down as far. A large, pink phallus tapped against my stomach as I stepped on my pants, pulling my last foot out of it before he dipped, caught a breast in his mouth and hooked my thighs again, pushing my back against the wall as before. Only this time it was cold against my bare skin.
He entered without fanfare or announcement. The idea of taking what one wanted was pretty much the theme. He took what he wanted, and I took what I wanted. We were absolutely using each other but we were ok with that. I needed to feel close to someone again, and who knew what his reasons were. He bottomed out with each thrust, sending an almost nauseous ping through me every time, but at the same time it built the pressure I quickly associated with good sex. True to his character, he thrust hard, bruising, and fast. It was my fastest orgasm, and maybe my strongest as I threw my head back against the wall with a bang, fire burning through my guts and limbs as I squeezed my legs involuntarily around him. He grunted the last few movements, drawing out the last grunt as he finished, his member throbbing inside me as I filled with warmth from the inside out.
In that moment, both coming down from our ecstasies, we finally met eyes. His were bright and sparkling with moisture as we stayed still, the throbbing easing in my womb and his pulsing dying out quickly. I wasn’t sure what my eyes said to him, but I was feeling something… something not quite like with Clarence, but it was an affection nonetheless.
Eventually he broke eye contact and dipped his head down, burying it in my neck. I felt his wet tongue stroke my neck a couple of times before he nuzzled into me, still pressing me into the wall. Moments passed like that and the feeling couldn’t quite be described. I still loved Clarence. Probably always would, as I truly believed we were soulmates. But I couldn’t find forgiveness in my heart for him, so if this was what second best felt like, I would take it.
He eventually took his head from my neck and, keeping me wrapped around him and himself still inside me, he made his way slowly to the bed. Plopping me down on the mattress, he covered me with my blanket before silently pulling his pants back up and retrieving his t-shirt.
“You won’t stay?” I asked him quietly, my voice sounding like a shout in the quiet darkness.
“No… no...” was all he said before he was out on the balcony again and gone.
Supernatural men and their disappearing acts. It was getting old fast.
I got back up to close the door, locking it before I got back into bed and cuddled into my blanket, my thighs wet and sticking to each other. I’d just have to wait until later to talk to him about it. In the interim, I needed sleep, and it came quickly.
Eddie didn’t show up at the sports bar the next day or the next. It was 3 days later before I finally saw him again. He sat at his table and he ordered his normal, acting as though nothing had happened. The casualness burned me, so I slammed his plate down in front of him and took off, not bothering to give him his hot sauce.
Kent watched from the bar and leaned over the counter to ask in a quiet voice, “I’m remembering correctly, right? He came and got you from the party the other night?”
I nodded silently.
“And he doesn’t show up for a couple days, now you’re pissed at him? You guys a thing?”
I shook my head.
“We’re not a thing. Just made a very poor decision, evidently.”
Kent seemed to understand and didn’t press further, which I was grateful for.
When I brought Eddie his check, which was a strange occurrence in itself, he said in a low voice, “We need to talk. Tonight.”
“What, you want another free hump?” I asked in a quiet, bitter tone.
He gave me a scowl before saying sharply, “I’ve been to LA. You need to know what’s going on.”
My stomach lurched at the thought.
“Ok. Cause I need to talk to you too.”
“What is it?”
“You didn’t wear a condom...” I whispered.
“Don’t need to,” he shrugged. “You’re not like me, you can’t get pregnant.”
I still had a lot to learn.
“What do you mean?”
He sighed.
“Long story. I’ll tell you later. But don’t worry about it. There’s plenty of other shit to worry about.”
It was his tone that had me worried now.
“I’ll come by tonight, after your shift.”
“Yeah, ok.”
Eddie pressed his 30 dollars into the book before standing up and leaving. I brought it to the register and saw that there was a small note tucked into the black cook.
Don’t trust anyone. Don’t tell anyone. There’s spies in the bar.
As if I wasn’t freaked out enough beforehand, I was officially shaking in my boots now. I looked around at Kent who was wiping the bar down again, and ran through a list of who worked at the bar. No names popped up as being particularly vampire-ish or werewolf-ish, so I just kept a tight lip until Eddie told me whatever it was he needed to tell me.
Coming out of the bar at the end of my shift I walked around the building toward my car. I didn’t notice a figure stashed away in the shadows until it was on top of me. Screaming, I hit the ground, head banging on the cement as glowing green eyes presented themselves. But the irises were all wrong. They weren't a smooth creamy green like pistachio ice cream. These ones had dark, angular green lines that met into dark green rims and black pupils.
A hairy face greeted me as a car drove by, shining light our way for a second. Large, yellowed teeth bared as the werewolf growled down on me.
It was that moment another something appeared from out of the shadows. A large animal came flying at us, attaching itself to the wolf hovering over me before the two stumbled and rolled to the ground. Snarling and the snapping of jaws met my ears. My stomach lurched and I was puking again, remembering the horror the night Clarence killed the werewolf. Now there were two of them fighting to eat me.
I scrambled back, but my head swam after the kiss it shared with the concrete. The animals clawed and scratched at each other, their teeth sinking into one another followed by whines and whimpers. It truly sounded like a dog fight. As I watched, unable to do anything else because of my spinning head, I noticed that the features weren’t so animalistic after all. The arms were still human-esque, just tipped with large, sharp ended claws. Legs bent the other way as if they’d been broken at the knee, and their backs were arched, curved more than a human. A fine layer of hair covered their bodies and their faces were morphed by a large jaw and big teeth. They were ugly things, but majestic all the same. At least I wouldn’t die by a silent killer like cancer.
The animals broke off from one another and one loped toward me. The other followed close at its heels but the leader reached me first. It sank his huge jaws into my shoulder and began to drag me away toward the shadowed lot. The other wolf let out a blood curdling howl before hopping up and landing on us both, sinking his teeth into the neck of the wolf who was trying to drag me away. The first wolf shrieked and bounded off, leaving me at the mercy of what appeared to be my savior. The animal’s eyes were green as well, but instead of dark and streaky, these irises were creamy and silky.
Eddie.
He whined and licked at my wound for a minute before I heard snapping and cracking as he became something resembling a man again.
Kneeling naked beside me, he pulled me into his lap and whined again, holding me by the shoulders. My injury hurt, but it wasn’t fatal.
Looking up at Eddie, I tried to smile at him.
His face was a mask of pain and horror.
“He bit you, Addie,” Eddie moaned. “You just got bit by a werewolf!”
Oh? Oh… OH SHIT.
Chapter Twenty
My brain was one giant fever. Everything burned, everything hurt. Fire consumed me, and not in a good way. It was as if someone had filled my veins with gasoline then set me aflame. Occasionally I’d become lucid enough to remember gentle touches and a voice here and there. But everything else was sweat and heat and pain.
When I did eventually open my eyes, the light burned from above me. I saw rafters, metal rafters and a two story tall roof. Looking to my right I saw fabric and cushions lying on a old wooden floor with metal walls covered in linen.
Rustling beside me sent my head whooshing to the left, then swimming at the fast movement. When it settled enough to see through the haze, I opened my eyes again and saw a body lying beside me. Eddie laid there, cuddled up to my side though his hands didn’t touch me as he slept. My jostling seemed to be waking him up, however, and it wasn’t long before his eyes opened.
Green irises met mine and then slimmed at his pupils dilated in shock.
“Holy shit,” he whispered, stumbling to sit up and look down at me. “Oh my God, you made it...”
Touching my cheeks, he let out a breathy noise of disbelief as he looked into my eyes.
“Well good morning to you too,” I told him, trying not to look as uneasy and confused as I was.
He grinned, giving a tearful laugh as he pressed his forehead to mine.
“Fuck Addie, I don’t know how you’re alive but I’m glad you are.”
His word added to my flummox.
“What do you mean? I got bit, right?”
“Right,” he nodded, my head moving along with his movements.
“So I’d turn… become one of you?”
“No… No Honey, that’s not how it works.”
Now I was scared.
“Werewolf bites only turn men. They kill women. There can only be one werewolf woman on earth at one given time. Until today. You were so fevered I thought you were going to die...”
He kissed my nose and my forehead and eventually my lips before looking at me again.
“You are impossible. You cannot be alive right now. The queen lives here, with me. You cannot be one of us.”
I sat up, hyper aware of each and every muscle moving like little snakes underneath my skin.
“No, rest. You must still be weak. It’s painful for a man to turn, but it’s excruciating for a woman...”
“What’s happened to me, Eddie,” I asked, my voice shaking.
He moved, his mostly naked body shifting until he reached up onto a table for what he was looking for. He handed me his cell phone on picture mode to act as a mirror. I looked at myself, same black hair, same pale skin, same… OH GOD. Green eyes stared in horror back at me. That’s when I collapsed again, this time in a dead faint.
“C’mon, come to, Girl. Can’t have you fainting, no matter what kind of shock it was.”
My eyes fluttered open and closed for a moment before Eddie’s face came into focus.
“There’s my girl. C’mon, sit up. Slowly.”
He slipped his hand behind my back and helped me sit up an inch at a time. When I was fully up, I touched my fingers to my face
“You’re a werewolf, not frankenstein’s monster. Take a couple deep breaths. The shock’ll pass.”
“But...but...how…?”
That exact moment someone entered the room. When the door opened I heard loud talking and laughing like a cafeteria on the other side, but it was the creature that came through the door that stopped me cold. A woman, long and curvy stepped into the room and I saw her face, absolutely stunning like a Greek goddess. Her shape was barely concealed in sheer, flowing robes, gold dripping off every appendage.
“She lives?” the husky voice asked, directing her question to Eddie and not me.
“It’s a miracle, but yeah, she’s alive. Guess you’ll have to share the title, Jo.”
Her dark red lips turned up in a sneer as she looked at me. Obviously I was less than she expected and looked back to Eddie.
“I’ll not share anything. There can only be one queen.”
“Yeah, used to be that way. But, look at her yourself. She’s just like you. You don’t get special privileges just cause you were first.”
She huffed.
“Meanwhile, you two are going to have to get along. Jo, this is Addie. Addie, Josephine.”
Jo’s eyes burned green fire at me.
“Are you saying I have to share everything with her?” she asked.
“What do you mean? What’s everything?” Eddie stroked my hair once then leaned back against his elbows, long muscular legs spread out before him covered in only dark green boxer briefs.
“I mean my power, my privilege, you, our bed.”
He shrugged.
“I was never just yours to begin with Jo. You know that. Don’t pretend it was ever any different. I don’t own you and you don’t own me. But to answer your question, yes. What Addie wants, Addie gets. Suck it up and put on your big girl panties.”
Jo looked at me with hate in her eyes before turning and leaving the room, skinny legs visible through the sheer skirt of her robe gown.
When she was gone I turned on him.
“What do you mean? Power? Privilege? Your BED? Who says I want any of that?”
“You’re a miracle, Addie. You can’t very well be treated as a common werewolf.”
“What if I don’t want to be a werewolf? I can live a normal life without turning and stuff...right?”
For the first time since knowing him, panic surged through his glowing eyes.
“You’re a queen… you can’t live as a human, Addie. You have to stay here, with me!”
My stomach turned.
“Are you going to make me? I have a life to get back to. A job, my aunt… You can’t keep me here against my will.”
For the second time, he gave me a look I’d never seen on him before. Hurt.
“I’m sorry, Addie, but the attack changed all that. You can’t just try to pretend that it never happened. He bit you. You’re a werewolf and you’ll never be able to live a normal life again. You’ll need meat, a lot of it. Your habits will change. It’s more than just the physical change. You, actually won’t change like men do. You can grow claws and teeth but you don’t grow fur like the rest of us. You’ll find yourself more aggressive, more impulsive. Your aunt will notice that in a moment if she even pays the slightest bit of attention. And Clarence won’t want you now that you’re one of us.”
That sentence by itself sent a stake through my heart. It stole my breath away and I felt my head getting light again, my stomach woozy.
“Hey, hey, relax, don’t pass out again. Lay down Addie.”
I did as he said, closing my eyes as the world spun around me. Like losing Mom wasn’t hard enough, now I was literally losing my life. Everything I’d built to that point would be nothing.
“What happened when you were turned?” I asked him in a whisper, my eyes still closed.
His hand settled beneath my ribs, resting on my belly.
“I was 10. Playing at the park by myself cause that’s what kids did when I was little. It was another kid that bit me. Older, 13 or 14 maybe. I’d pissed him off cause I was a shitty kid. Anyway, a man who I learned later to be his dad showed up and found out his son had bit me, he took me away and raised me like his own. I never saw my parents or brothers again. Funny enough, the kid who bit me was the son of the pack leader, the king if you will. We love our dramatics and king and queen just fit for us.”
Blowing out a long breath, he moved his hand and brushed hair out of my face as I stared into the back of my eyelids, refusing to open my eyes.
“Are you hungry? You’ve got to be hungry.”
My stomach w
as so empty it was gnawing on itself from the inside out.
“Stay here, I’ll get you something. Would you prefer to start out on slightly cooked meat? I know it’s kinda repulsive to eat raw meat after growing up eating it cooked.”
“I don’t care what you give me. I’m starving.”
He grinned and shuffled to his feet, going out into the big, loud room on the other side of the door. Taking the moment to use wisely, I sat up again and looked around the room I’d been lying in. A couple tables sat nearby, lower to the ground as the bed itself was just a pile of soft fabrics and pillows arranged on a large, circular mattress. As I got to my feet I felt wispy fabric brush my legs before realizing I was swathed in the same type of sheer robe Jo had worn. Likely one of hers, I thought.
Finding my feet, I closed the robe around me tighter and cinched the waist as I took tentative steps off the bed and fingered little items around the room. A vanity sat near the corner, cluttered with makeup items and jewelry scattered over every surface. A wardrobe sat in another corner, lined on one side with robes and lingerie, with t-shirts, jeans and shorts on the other. Not much sat in the room besides the bed, vanity and wardrobe. Few personal items could be found and I wondered where the bathroom was.
“I kissed the steak on a grill for ya,” Eddie said, coming back into the room with a stack of meat on his plate.
He paused when he saw me checking out the room.
“This is your room?” I asked, turning long enough to catch eyes with my lunch.
“Yeah. Yours too, if you’ll stay.”
I made my way back to the bed and sat down, receiving the plate he’d brought back for me. Hard fat still clung to the beef, but the top was slightly browned and gave the illusion of being at least somewhat cooked.
Eddie took one of the steaks and helped himself to it, eating with his fingers and tearing a bit off like the animal he was. Something deep inside me begged me to do the same, so I dropped the plate at my feet and brought one big piece of meat to my mouth before shoving it in. Waxy fat covered my tongue as I chewed through the hot and cold, stringy and tough meat. It was the most amazing thing in the world. Eddie grinned at me as he watched me devour three big steaks while nibbling on his own.