The Phoenix Project Read online

  A part of Nick wanted to howl in frustration, to cry out how sorry he was for what he was going to do, but as her hands came back to their stroking discovery, he lost even that last little bit of regret as animal need rode over him hard.

  “Oh, God, that feels amazing,” he ground out against her lips as he bit and gnawed at her mouth. His hands raced from her hair down to her lush breasts in all of an instant. “I need to fuck,” he groaned as he palmed her and plucked at her nipples. His hips surged mindlessly into her grip as every fiber of his being agreed with that directive. He needed to fuck.

  “Me, too,” she said breathlessly. “I need that too.”

  “Yeah? Say it. Say it to me, Amara,” he demanded roughly as he began to back her into the next room. He was going to need room for this. A lot of room. And a lot of time. He had never been so famished for a woman, and his entire body was on fire with the need of her. He shoved her down onto the bed, watching her bounce and shimmy in fabulous places from the perspective of standing over her. Now that she was sitting on the edge of his bed, it put her mouth level with his cock, and she surely knew it. She was on him like a babe to a mother’s breast in a heartbeat, her mouth sliding wetly around the bulging head and sucking him in like a lollipop. She let him go just as abruptly, and his legs actually began to tremble as she licked and flicked her tongue against him.

  “I need to fuck,” she told him quite obediently, reminding him he’d made the request of her. “I want to fuck you. And suck you.” She was back around him, teeth scraping dangerously over screamingly sensitive skin. She slid her mouth and hand down and around his rock-hard flesh, her sly little tongue flickering around him and scooping up every drop of pre-cum he oozed. She began to show an almost ferocious appetite for the taste of him, her enthusiasm for sucking him too much to bear with any sanity. Nick’s hands were in her hair, his thumbs stroking her cheeks as they drew concave with her powerful, drawing efforts. Watching himself slide deeper and deeper into her mouth made his balls burn with the need to come. He wanted so badly to flood her mouth with his essence, needed to see her gulp him down.

  No. No. He needed something else. Something more powerful. Something wild. He didn’t know what it was, not all of it, but he wouldn’t get it like this.

  “Enough!” Nick roared out the command as he gripped hold of her working head and forced himself to pull free of her sweetly torturous lips. Then, his brain seared with need, he threw her back on the bed, turned her over, and hauled her up onto her knees until her curvy ass was held between his hands and was drawn back against him. Nick made low, grunting sounds of satisfaction as he came into contact with the slick valley of her pussy. Her labial lips rubbed wetly against his shaft, her juices spreading up over him as he fumbled to aim the tip of his swollen cock into the opening of the passage he so craved.

  Nick was so eager, so in need, that he couldn’t see straight or even think coherently. It will get better once we’re connected, he tried to tell himself. Just need to connect. He certainly wasn’t thinking of whether she was prepared well enough to take him, or that he’d barely done anything for her in the way of foreplay. He didn’t even consider how the monstrosity of a cock he was wielding might need something in the way of a careful introduction.

  Instead, the instant he felt himself notch into place on her, he began to shove and thrust for entrance. Nick ground his teeth together as her body resisted his efforts, although the woman herself was another story.

  “Please! Please,” she begged him as she worked herself back against him. Her desperation to have him may have been part of the problem, but Nick wasn’t thinking like a rational man who could use logic to problem-solve any more than she was behaving as a rational woman. She began to keen in frustration, and her eager body started to drown his probing cock head with viscous drippings of need. Her scent was raw musk and primal need, and he lost all patience with a howl.

  All remaining gentility or consideration was shoved to the wayside as he rammed himself into her. Finally his bulbous tip popped past that ring of resistance that had thwarted him. She cried out and he took it as encouragement, whether it was or not. He pushed and thrust until he began to sink into her inches at a time. The instant he slammed himself balls deep inside of her, Nick growled with satisfaction and dug fierce fingers into her hips to hold her right where he wanted her. The hunger inside of him suddenly spiked in powerful ways, his empty belly crying with cravings even as his cock throbbed for a wild fucking. His teeth hurt like a bitch, his whole jaw aching so terribly it snapped across his eardrums. And then he could feel the awkward realignment and pain of shifting teeth, as if his mouth were reshaping itself right in that very instant.

  When upper fangs, needle sharp and a good half inch in length, descended to meet the matching lower ones, he was growling and snarling like the beast he had become. If anything else about himself had changed, he took no note of it. All he knew was the need to fuck…

  …and the need to feed.

  He started with wild, rutting surges into his bitch’s body, her muscular heat like a glove around him; so tight and so right. The pleasure of it was, of course, amazing, but he wasn’t out for that alone. What he wanted was to mate. He wanted to fuck her and fill her with his seed. He wanted to force his get onto her, make his bitch the mother of his progeny. He would own her after this. Forever. One lifetime, one true mate. Just the understanding of it made him burn with the need to pour his come and scent into her. His thighs and balls were on fire as his thrusts grew wild and harsh, each deep slam into her lifting her knees from the bed. He felt as though he were swelling inside of her and it was making it harder and harder to plow through her even though she was so very slick. His jaw ached, his hunger burning, his cock near to bursting. Nick never realized he was clawing into her, his nails curved down now into wicked, sharp talons that pierced and scraped her delicate skin.

  But he did smell the blood.

  Fresh-spilled blood, sticky between his fingers and then on his tongue as he shoved his fingers into his mouth. Sharply sweet and tangy like the sourness of metal, the taste of it sent him over the edge. With a primal shout he began to come in burning jolts, his hips slamming hard in time to the bursts of ejaculate into her channel.

  Deep! Deep inside! Yes. Oh, God, he could smell the mix of their scents already, his mark on her now. His. She was his. His bitch. His mate. His woman. Nick continued to come, the force of it staggering even as his balls strained to load even more into her. She dripped with him, her thighs running wet with his seed.

  Yes. Oh, yes.

  She was his now.

  Chapter 4

  Amara mewled and snarled into the bedding as Nick came in hard, jerking thrusts. She was aching with the need to come, so close yet somehow completely locked away from it. Her talons shredded the mattress unthinkingly, and her fangs gnashed together ineffectively. The only satisfaction she had was in accepting the mark of this potent male. Regardless of being locked in with him alone or locked in a whole room of them, this was the male she would have wanted. He was the most powerful; the most potent. He was what she needed. Her match. Her mate.

  Amara heard him grunting as the spasms of his orgasm subsided. But she knew, and maybe he did as well, that he hadn’t done what he had needed to do. That was evidenced by how hard he remained inside of her. She was glad he had come, though, because it made her so slick even as the scent of it pervaded her every cell. She didn’t mind the mark at all, because she would do the same in return. He was now hers, and woe to any bitch who thought to approach him.

  She could feel him fucking her relentlessly, realizing he had somehow forgotten something so his release had no true satisfaction to it. She had no more of an idea than he did as to what it was they both needed, but neither would stop until they figured it out. Amara suspected, though, it had something to do with the aching, empty feel of her belly. The hollow starvation screaming for fulfillment. Just as her body screamed for fulfillment.

  Pushing away from their connection, bearing his resistant, clawing attempt to hold her into his dominant positioning, Amara turned over on the bed and faced the beast who was her lover head on. The moment she saw his descended fangs, the gleam sharp and primitive, her body’s response was just as primal. Nick seemed to feel a similar reaction when he saw her toothy grin, and he fell on her eagerly. Tongues and teeth clashed in biting kisses, both of their lips paying the price in blood. Their tangy flavors combined and they both moaned and moved in restless need.

  “Give me your cock again,” she begged him, her sharp nails clawing down his back until he howled in the pleasurable agony of it. He shoved into her in a single, gliding thrust and she immediately felt the difference. Oh, he was as brutish and big as before, despite his having come so recently, but what was different was the way she felt in reaction to his invasion. With the tartness of their blood on her tongue, she suddenly felt like she could burst in just a few strokes. To that effect, she dug her nails into his buttocks in encouragement. The pain made him surge deep, and then retaliation for that pain made him brutal. He banged into her in hard, wicked thrusts, the sound of wet, slapping flesh filling the small room as he drilled deep with grinding surges of his hips.

  Amara felt it all, and her body coiled in pleasure. So close! She was coming so close! But it seemed the closer she came to the crest of pleasure, the more cruel her distracting starvation became. Crying out in frustration, she dragged her male down to her breasts in hopes he could do something to help her. The lave of his flat tongue scraping across her sensitive nipples was a damn good start. Then he was biting at them, chewing on the points in voracious little nibbles and she felt her vagina drench him in a flash flood of hot juices in response. Her whole body burned with need and she keened for release. Then, without knowing why, she sank a hand into his hair and jerked him up to her so she could burrow her face into his neck right where it met his shoulder. She sniffed him, could smell the testosterone pumping thickly through him on its adrenaline piggyback ride. She wanted to just taste him. To take a bite. The craving of it was overwhelming.

  Amara’s fangs sank deep into his thick neck.

  Several things happened all at once. His blood burst onto her palate, and it was by far the most erotically delicious flavor her tongue had ever encountered. He was full of so many male hormones, to match the irresistible reek of his pheromones which had made it impossible to stay away from him despite his requests, earlier. Her mouth filled and she swallowed him down. Finally the agony in her belly eased.

  And instantly, her body released.

  Amara came, her orgasm hitting her so hard and so fast that her head whipped back in such a violent way that she tore through the flesh of her lover’s neck. Heedless of the blood pouring from his wound, she writhed as wild spasms of pleasure shook and rode through her like an electrical current. She was squeezing the rigid flesh inside her body, her back arching up hard as her bloodstained breasts thrust up at him.

  When he suddenly sank his teeth into her breast, his fangs piercing deeply above and below her nipple, she came again. She cried out, her vagina wrenching around him as he, too, began to climax once more. He suckled at her greedily, and she felt her blood pouring into his throat with each hungry draw. He humped hard into her, their pelvises smashing together as he spent himself to the utmost.

  They collapsed together on the bed, a panting tangle of sweaty limbs covered in sticky blood and come. Amara sniffed at the aroma of freshly flowing blood and turned to lick and suck at the damage she’d done to his neck. She licked the area clean and slowly continued to do so until the bleeding eased and finally stopped altogether. She realized it soothed him, what she was doing, because he kind of purred in approval, and then thought to imitate her kindness against her bitten breast. Tingles of blissfulness radiated out from the swipes of his rough tongue, and need rekindled when he found himself constantly attracted by the thrust of her nipple. He sucked at her again and again, and she sighed and moaned in encouragement. When she stopped bleeding from where he had fed from her, he switched to the other side.

  Amara took note that his fangs had retracted quite a bit, and so had her own. Her famished belly was not so keen any longer, but neither was she fully sated. Certainly not as sated as her male clearly was. All of his desperation and dominance had subsided into lazy contentment. He had, she realized, taken far more from her than she had taken from him.

  Taken blood.

  Reality suddenly rushed in on Amara with horrifying coldness and she shoved hard against the man lying heavily on top of her, his penis still half hard and deep inside of her. He rose up at her urging, his hands braced by her shoulders, and the minute he saw the look on her face, the chill of knowing rode over him just as fast and hard. His sea-green eyes widened as they raked down over their naked, bloodstained bodies.

  Nick surged off of her and the bed in a single violent movement, hurtling himself away until his back hit the opposite wall of the small cell.

  “Oh, my God,” he rasped. “What—What have I done? What did they do to us?”

  Amara sat up and together they looked at the evidence before them. Her nails had grown long and curved, as sharply pointed as a cat’s with a visible quick under the opaque white. Yet, even as she watched with her heart racing, they began to retract and re-form until they eventually became a set of beautifully long, feminine nails that were armor hard and brightly healthy. She had always had such weak, flimsy nails that the difference made quite an impact on her. Nick was watching the same thing happen for himself. His talons had been thicker, a little bit darker, and visibly stronger than her own. When they fully retracted, though, they were a tiny bit long for a man, but not as hers were.

  Almost simultaneously, they both reached to touch their protruding teeth. All the rest were quite normal, just as squared off and blunt as always, perfect for gripping and holding prey while the newer teeth did the job of puncturing. Again, even as they examined themselves, the changed attribute began to withdraw from their ready positions, making Amara’s jaw ache as everything seemed to shift. The fangs, she realized, were not a part of the front row of natural teeth, but were instead extraneous to them, set flush in front of them. They were also at a distance of about an inch apart from one another. Once they were fully retracted, they were no more than white pointed nubs hidden beneath her lips even when she smiled her widest.

  Amara watched as Nick looked down at his resting cock, examining himself a little tentatively. She recalled how enormous he had been and realized why he was curious. Even without being erect, he was still of impressive size, but she had no idea if this was normal for him or not. Her slightly sore vaginal walls were ready to guess not.

  “Fuck,” Nick hissed. “I never lacked for size, but this is ridiculous.”

  Well, Amara thought, that answers that question. What was strange, however, was that she took note of each physical difference almost clinically. She saw the benefits to having stronger nails, teeth that could tear, and a lover with a gorgeously huge cock.

  And that made her really realize what they’d done to each other. Not only had they thrown away all inhibitions and had mad, animalistic sex together in spite of being absolute strangers, but they had drunk each other’s blood.

  Sick. She was going to be sick. Amara was sure of it. Covering her mouth, she raced to the bathroom sink. Her body heaved, wanting to throw up what her human mind needed to reject as an act of horror, but nothing came. Nick, who had followed her in, was looking gray and distraught beside her.

  “What have they done to us?” She echoed his earlier query, her voice strained as her body hunched over the sink and tried again to reject the meal she’d made of him. But even as this happened, another part of her brain warred with her over it, arguing that the warmth and spicy flavor of him had been the best meal of her entire life. She’d never known such satisfaction or such pleasure.

  “Amara, I’m so sorry. God, look at what I did to you,” he choked out, reaching to touch her bloodied, wounded hips where he’d clawed into her.

  “It doesn’t hurt,” she said quite honestly. “Just stings a little.” She splashed water over her face and drank the coolness from her fingers. She wiped her face against her arm and stood up straight to examine him. “Turn around.”

  Nick hesitated, the avoidance of his usually direct eyes confirming what she already knew. She reached for him and, after a look of admonition, turned him gently between her hands. She saw the raw slices of her nails down his back, and even deep into his buttocks, which she didn’t as easily recall doing as she did the other.

  “Does it hurt?” she had to ask, her fingertips ghosting over the wounds. Then she reached up to touch his neck, where she could see the savage bite of her very own teeth torn into his flesh. But she could also see he was already healing from the damage. She had ripped him up unthinkingly, but despite the ugly look of the melded wound, it was clearly sewing itself together again. “You’re healing,” she marveled.

  Nick turned and reached for the breast he had bitten, gentle fingers cupping her warmly even as he stroked his thumb over the deep punctures and surrounding bruises. “So are you,” he noted. “Amara, I never wanted…” He swallowed loudly, remorse and distress resonating deep into his intense green gaze.

  “Neither did I. You aren’t to blame any more than I am. I knew the minute they threw me in here we were in trouble no matter what we did. I’ve seen too many things here.”

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