Witch Interrupted Read online

  She was like a starburst inside. And her lattice handled the flood without allowing the wolf to channel deep.

  Damn, for a camera to capture it! He absolutely had to invent one. For now he reached for the digital recorder.

  She knocked it out of his hand. “No.”

  “Katie, the spell only lasts three—”

  Her pussy clamped down on his cock, sucking the breath out of him. “Harder.”

  She wasn’t begging. She had been, and this wasn’t a plea. Her demand pulled him into her like a fierce undertow. She stared into his eyes, reached for him, and he couldn’t resist. He fell on her, their bodies twining.

  He was supposed to be in charge. Katie smiled. She caught his head and dragged his lips to hers in a kiss that marked him as surely as her tattoo had. Except this was a mark he couldn’t shift away.

  Marcus drove into her again and again, forgetting the lattice, forgetting science, forgetting everything but their mutual need. His powerful thrusts inched them up the bed until she had to brace one hand against the wall to protect her head. He kissed her over and over, catching her encouraging moans on his tongue. The chi spell disappeared with an ear-pop. Nothing interfered now with his view of her lovely, rapturous face.

  All he wanted to do was fuck her. Take her. Be with her. Nothing else mattered.

  Her eyes bright, almost avaricious, she stared at him as they came together. As his balls tightened, as her body tightened, the intimacy and trust of their embrace cut him deeply, and he couldn’t handle it anymore.

  “Come,” she whispered.

  He climaxed with a groan, the pulses in his cock as intense as thunder. His whole body shuddered as he poured himself into her. He was on top of her, pinning her, but she commanded him.

  “Yes. Yes. I feel it.” She held onto him with her arms, her legs. “Goddess, you’re so…” She drew in a deep breath, exhaled. She hadn’t reached her peak, so he kept up the pace. He buried his nose in her neck, letting her scent guide him. His erection remained as if she’d willed it, her slickness and heat wrapping him in perfection. “That’s it.”

  He rolled into her, grinding her clit. She climaxed, crying out and holding him. Her inner muscles grasped his cock strongly, like a fist. He rocked her through the orgasm and aftermath, intending to push her over again, until she batted at him weakly.

  “Stop. I can’t.” Her head lolled to the side, her eyes closed, her air peaceful. “I’m dead.”

  He relaxed too. Her entire body clasped him. She held him as though he meant something to her, and her fingers stroked his neck.

  He tried to roll off her, since he was heavy. Her arms tightened. “Mmm, not yet. Stay inside me.”

  There it was again. Her will lured his into alignment and he couldn’t rise.

  “Something’s happened.” Was it lassitude? Was it a natural desire to please the woman in his bed? Was it something else?

  “Something awesome,” she agreed. She locked her ankles behind his hips to trap him against her.

  He’d been around Harry Travis—though obviously not in bed. Harry had, at Marcus’s request, exerted his alpha. Marcus had felt the magnetism of it, similar to this. “Your alpha is awake. I’m sure of it.”

  “My wolf did wake—I felt it.” Her fingertips traced his hairline, around his ears, caressing him as if she liked touching him instead of merely fucking him. “First time since I was a teenager. You were right. That was insane. But it’s faded now. I guess it wasn’t like that for you?”

  “The wolf stayed with me.” After his wolf had put in its command appearance, it had inundated him. His awareness, his senses and his consciousness had guttered faster and faster until his essence…exploded. He’d quickly, and rudely, deserted his lover’s bed so he could be alone when he underwent the physical transformation.

  It had been torture that first time, excruciating pain and frustration that the wolf was stronger than he was.

  “I’m back to normal now,” she assured him. “I am sorry I doubted you. The wolf was—is—inside us. I agree it’s worth pursuing, as long as we don’t lose track of the big picture. Lars and my family. Not to harp or anything.”

  While it gladdened him to hear those magical words—“You were right”—she wasn’t right about everything. “You’re not back to normal. You’ve changed.”

  “Because I can say I’m sorry? Because I see your point? Because I let you stay on top?” She smiled. “I’m not a complete asshole, Marcus.”

  “No, because you aren’t the same as you were before.”

  “I confess. I feel better than I did.” She rotated her hips, squeezing his half-hard cock playfully. “I feel better than I have in a long time.”

  If she kept doing that, if she kept toying with him and touching him, Goddess, if she kept agreeing with him, he was going to get excited and fuck her again. And he needed to…

  She leaned toward him, touched her nose to his neck and inhaled. “You smell so good. Sex has made you…sexier.” She laughed. “And your hair. All these tiny curls. I love them.” She twirled fingertips in the short swirls. Her touch on his scalp was soothing, her possessiveness satisfying a different primal need in him—one to belong. “You’re gorgeous, do you know that?”

  “Thank you.” What did he need to do again? Make love to her? Yes. His cock twitched.

  No. His experiment. She hadn’t let him record his notes and had distracted him from full observation of the cycle.

  With dogged determination, Marcus extracted himself from her arms and legs, instantly bereft. He ignored that and ignored her complaints.

  He couldn’t ignore her alpha. She tugged his arm as her will tugged his spirit. He only made it to a sitting position.

  “Don’t get up yet,” she coaxed.

  “You’re using your alpha on me,” he told her with a growl.

  She sat up, shocked. “I’m what?”

  “You’re mentally pressuring me. Stop it.”

  Witches had known alpha wolves could influence them since anyone could remember, but Katie wasn’t a wolf. She was a witch. It hadn’t occurred to him it might be possible. He was fairly certain, however, that alpha witches couldn’t influence other witches because there would have been records of it by now.

  The question was, had Katie changed? Or was she no longer hiding her talents from him since they’d grown…close? Was persuasion one of Chang Cai’s secret weapons, a function of being convex?

  “I’m not using magic on you, Marcus. I can’t. I have no components.”

  That the compulsion he felt might be a witch spell hadn’t occurred to him. “Do you have magic left?”

  She stroked his arm while sprawled on the bed, an open invitation to rejoin her. “Not a lot. Do you need another true eye? I wasn’t conservative with that last round.”

  Marcus enjoyed the sensation of her petting him for another second before he made himself stand. Pulling away from her felt like ripping duct tape off himself. He winced. “I don’t think this requires herbs.”

  “You’re not doing what I asked.” Her eyes narrowed; her lips tightened. “And I asked so nicely.”

  “Nor shall I do what you ask on a regular basis, I suspect.” His wolf skulked inside him, trying to return to her side. Where he belonged.

  She was alpha, and he was not. This was a natural reaction, wasn’t it?

  “You really think I’m exerting mental coercion? Do you mean…” Katie bit one corner of her lip, concentrating. “Is this the alpha?”

  He felt her allure and put his hand on the wall to steady himself. “Stop.”

  The sensation disappeared. “Well, that’s new.”

  Was it? “Don’t do that to me again.”

  “I’ll try.” She leaned on her elbows, unselfconscious in her nudity, her beauty—and her power. “I’ve felt it used against me enough times.”

  “You haven’t let me record my notes,” he said peevishly. “I’ve got to enter the data before I forget.” Totally naked—wit
hout showering—he sat at the laptop and booted it up.

  “Do you realize what this means?” Katie rolled off the bed, wrapped herself in a towel, padded across the Airstream and peered over his shoulder. Her warmth heated his side; her hand caressed his neck. If theirs were a real relationship, he’d think she didn’t want to be apart from him. “I don’t recall being convincing before we had sex. I couldn’t talk you into anything. For example, how many times have I asked if we can call Vern or go back to the tattoo shop?”

  “A few.”

  “We didn’t.” He felt her alpha quest and fade, as if she wanted to see what he’d do. “Can we?”

  “No.”

  “Please?” She bent, her cheek brushing his, soft as velvet. Not her alpha, but something just as potent—her skin. “I’ll make it worth your while.”

  “No. I won’t risk you getting caught.” As enticing as she was, going back wasn’t smart. It would endanger her. Him too, he supposed. He wasn’t set on the rendezvous, either, on the off-chance it ended up being a trap. Not to mention the better chance it ended up ruining their arrangement.

  He wanted Katie to himself. For science.

  “Worth a shot.” She straightened, her fingers still folded over his shoulders and neck. “I’ve been trying to get you to do what I wanted from the minute I walked downstairs yesterday, saw you and wished you would leave.” She tweaked a strand of his hair. “If I had the power to influence you, trust me, I’d have used it. Repeatedly.”

  As he would have used it on her. “I see your point.”

  “You’re the one who said I changed.” She dragged the second chair to his side. “After you pointed it out, I could tell what I was doing. I know how to do it again.”

  She didn’t try it, though she left the threat there, lingering. She might want him to take control in bed, but outside of it? Never. And his urge to dominate her was likewise different outside of bed, more about protection than eroticism.

  “What is the alpha like for you?”

  She nibbled her lip a moment. The power quested, gently, and disappeared. “It’s like pushing magic at someone instead of into a component, but it’s not magic. It’s…want.”

  “If it’s true the ability is new—”

  “It is.” She sat, tucking her towel under her bottom, and met his gaze with complete candor.

  “—your wolf seems to have left behind a calling card,” he finished. Then it dawned on him what that confirmed.

  They stared at each other in growing amazement. Or consternation. Or insight. Or all of the above.

  She could use the wolf’s power. And she was a witch.

  * * *

  Katie shut the Airstream door with a quiet snick and hustled to Tonya’s station wagon. She hadn’t lied to Marcus, exactly. She’d merely obfuscated the truth about how much magic she had left in order to preserve it for her purposes.

  The sun rose, glaring through the windshield like an accusation. She deflected it with the brim of his stolen ball cap and the sunshade. Good thing there were never cops around here, because she was in a hurry. She lead-footed the gas and squealed onto the paved road like a stunt driver.

  This recon would have been much, much easier at night, when any keepers and packers in the area would have been hindered by darkness, but Dr. McHottie had hunched over his computer for hours after they’d had sex.

  Did he need no sleep? Damned competitive wolf. Maybe he’d intended to outlast her.

  He had—but the dried agrimony from her pants cuff had served her eventually. The component wouldn’t put someone to sleep, but once they were already snoozing, ensorcelled agrimony under the pillow would eliminate sleep disturbances—such as your bed companion sneaking off with the car.

  Fresh would have been better, but she’d had to make do.

  It wasn’t as if she were betraying him. He was the only person in the world willing to assist her, whether that be rescuing her family, finding a better hiding place or, apparently, indulging her unexplored kinky side. She’d agreed to work with him, and she’d meant it. She planned to be back, updated on Dad, Tonya and Vern’s whereabouts, in time to wake Marcus with sausage biscuits.

  And she had left him a note…

  The guilt she felt—she, a former keeper—was as new as the wolf in her lattice. Had she partially transformed during sex because she was, as Lars had always insisted, weak? Too weak to resist? Except there was zero trace of her wolf now. As she understood it, transformed and born wolves could always sense their canine companion if desired.

  So no, she wasn’t weak.

  For all her adult years, once her sexuality had matured, she had, quite frankly, wanted to sleep with a wolf. She hadn’t done it.

  Until now.

  Because he’d kind of blackmailed her.

  After sausage biscuits, if he wasn’t too mad, she was going to suggest he blackmail her again—and again and again. That would be a highly intelligent use of their time.

  Katie wriggled in her seat, the ache between her thighs a reminder of this very shallow reason to keep her bargain with Marcus. She had her freedom. She could disappear and never see him again. Beyond her conscience, beyond the fact she needed help, as did he, she could confess that she didn’t hate him.

  She respected him. She admired his drive. She wanted him in a way that frightened her. It meant she had to confront the part of her that longed to be dominated. She would let him cause her pain, because she trusted him to give her pleasure. She would say yes to anything he desired.

  For someone who governed her environment and the people around her in order to stay alive, it was both horrifying and cathartic.

  She turned west at a crossroads, hitting a state highway that would take her on a wide circumference around the tattoo parlor. Marcus believed anyone hunting them would assume they’d hightailed it out of the country. It was what she’d have done if given the option—and if her family had been with her.

  The sticking point was whether Lars had caught Vern, Dad and Tonya. If he had, could he fathom Katie’s familial attachment—an attachment other keepers didn’t share? Their families had cast them out. Anathema. Unlike other shifters, no keeper would lift a finger to help a relative, least of all Hiram Lars. It was rumored he had numerous children, children he’d cast out when they’d emerged normal instead of convex.

  Would Lars realize Katie had healed in her years away from the keepers? Would he realize her love would bind her until she could rescue her family?

  Her actions in the near future hinged on whether or not they were safe. Katie couldn’t go another day and a half without knowing.

  When there was nothing at the Garner post office, she took the direct route to Marcus’s Airstream. It just happened to run by the tattoo parlor.

  Katie, unlike Marcus, was willing to risk that Lars wouldn’t have conscripted any wolves who might detect the whisper of juvenile wolf. She’d muddy her physical appearance for keepers or elders who might be present. She’d be fleet, invisible. This used to be her life, and she’d been the best—at this and other things.

  She might be able to examine the Dumpster and confirm whether Vern and the others had been forcibly extracted. That would tell her everything she needed to know.

  Still anxious, but more settled than she’d been for days, Katie ducked into a fast food restaurant long enough to don a physical disguise before heading to the tattoo shop.

  The fact her hands were sweaty on the wheel was only natural.

  Chapter Fifteen

  The car was gone. Katie was gone. Marcus’s patience was gone.

  She’d left some shit note about sausage biscuits, a bluff to keep him off her trail. The dried agrimony under his pillow confirmed how she’d slipped out without him waking.

  That sneaky witch.

  He was done trying to treat Chang Cai as anything close to an equal partner. Not that he thought she was motivated by malevolence—more like foolhardy loyalty. She wasn’t the merciless predator the keep
ers had described. But she’d agreed to stay with him and lay low.

  She’d lied to him yet again.

  She’d put a spell on him yet again.

  And he was so worried about her, he almost forgot to activate a mask and buckle on his travel pill pack before he shifted into wolf form and headed toward the tattoo parlor at top speed.

  After a hard run through mostly rural countryside, Marcus reached the perimeter of the tattoo shop area in approximately fifty minutes. He allowed himself a moment of grim satisfaction at his physical achievement before settling into a discovery pattern.

  What were the chances Lars had wolves working for him? Katie thought none, but she’d left the keepers years ago. She hadn’t been there after Lars had taken the helm, hadn’t seen what he was happy to do to wolves.

  She wasn’t safe here. Lars could have her already. How could she be so stupid? A lone witch, a nearly drained and defenseless witch, going up against a psychopath like Lars and his minions was insane. Why couldn’t she wait for the rendezvous? Marcus hadn’t told her he didn’t intend for them to go. As far as she’d known, they’d be verifying her family’s status in twenty-four hours.

  But as soon as he’d fallen asleep, she’d bolted.

  This was the last time he turned his back on her without there being handcuffs involved.

  Marcus had flown solo since Elisa had died. Their parents had been in their third pass-through before they’d managed to have him, and both had succumbed not long after to the cancers that plagued witches more frequently than they did humans. When Elisa had contracted cancer as well, he’d been prepared to challenge the Goddess to keep her and her unborn child with him.

  He’d failed. Since then, he’d not allowed any relationships to deepen beyond the superficial. At first, he’d had to outwit the keepers, and then he’d had his quest.

  Now he had…his quest. And some familiar fears for someone beside himself.

  Marcus sorted through animal and human scents in the vicinity of the tattoo parlor. No wolves. No spell components—the best way to detect witches when you didn’t know their DNA. The closer he got, the more troubled he grew. He wasn’t worried about himself—his mask disguised him as a normal dog—but he was worried about Katie. His resource. His test subject.