The Wolf's Curse (Brunswick Academy for Gifted Girls Book 5) Read online

  “Ugh.” Jordan hunched forward, sinking his head in his hands. “It looked like you. Alright?”

  “Oh!” She sat down next to him and wondered if she should be flattered. Did that mean that Jordan liked her? Because she found herself desperately wishing he was going to be her mate even if that was apparently impossible because of his stupid curse. Though a part of her had wondered if the curse wasn’t real at all and just something he’d told her to keep her away (except that he did seem genuinely sad about it). “How...weird.”

  “Yeah, okay and then I kissed or...I mean it-”

  “You kissed me?” Lilith’s voice pitched up and she couldn’t help but smile. “How interesting. Wow, I must have really turned on the charm.”

  “It wasn’t you! And...they were very persuasive! They were throwing themself at me! Or he was! I hardly had a choice in the matter! Or she was? I don’t even know!”

  “But you thought it was and you kissed the person or creature or whatever you thought was me?” She couldn’t leave the amusement off her face and she licked her teeth, leaning into Jordan. “So what was it like kissing me then?”

  “Terrible!” Jordan hopped to his feet again. He seemed to like taking up the middle of the room that seemed too small to contain him. “It was terrible! It was like kissing worms! Or slime! It was disgusting.”

  Lilith felt her stomach drop. It was hardly what she wanted to hear. “Oh. Really.”

  He sighed and spun away from her and she barely heard him when he said, “That’s how I knew it wasn’t you. I knew a kiss from you would never feel like that.”

  “Oh.” The corners of Lilith’s mouth turned up. She got to her feet and neared Jordan, not allowing him to turn away, and got in his space. “That’s even more interesting. So you’ve...thought about kissing me?”

  “Don’t play with me,” Jordan mumbled. “Besides we… We have to talk about the totem. The thing, whatever it is, it said it was just getting started. Maybe it has the totem. We have to find it!”

  “This first,” Lilith whispered. It seemed very clear that what was happening between her and Jordan was just as important as the totem. An epiphany bloomed in her mind that this had been true for all the Brunswick girls on their missions. Their mates weren’t just rewards from the fates for a job well done but integral parts of the missions being completed. They needed each other.

  I need you, Lilith thought. She grasped Jordan’s upper arms and stood on her toes. She felt him flex under her fingers and heard his breath shorten as he stared down at her with wide eyes.

  “You’ve thought about it.” She said it as a statement of fact this time, instead of a question, and Jordan nodded.

  “Obviously,” he said.

  “So, don’t you want to know what it’s really like?” She pressed up against him and her hands slid up his chest. “Kissing me, I mean?”

  “Do you hate me?” Jordan asked.

  “No. Why would I? I think you’re cute and fun and funny...for somebody so broody.” She couldn’t help but smile, scrunching up her nose in delight.

  Jordan reached up and pushed a red curl behind Lilith’s ear. “None of this makes sense,” he murmured. “It’s impossible. I’m cursed. I’m… It-it’s impossible-”

  “What’s impossible is that you’re just standing here,” Lilith said, her hands snaking up around his neck. “Why haven’t you kissed me?”

  She had a flutter in her stomach that had never been so powerful as it was now. She was trembling in anticipation and felt like she’d crumble to the floor if he pulled away and she didn’t feel his lips on hers. But then Jordan’s mouth was covering her own and Lilith sucked in a breath and clutched him as his strong arms encompassed her. His mouth was hot and unexpectedly sweet as if he’d just eaten strawberry candy. The thought of him innocently eating candy just before some monster pretending to be her had tried to seduce him made her smile against his mouth and Jordan squeezed her tighter, as if taking it as a challenge. His tongue expertly teased hers and his lips were full and soft and seemed to know just how to make her melt. She stopped smiling soon enough and just as quickly Jordan lifted her off the ground. She moaned into his mouth, relishing being wrapped in his arms, pressed against him and feeling his every muscle flex and quiver.

  “So this is what it’s like,” Jordan breathed. They were fused together. Lilith felt like she was floating and also on fire all at the same time. She gazed up at him and felt like her brains had turned to scrambled eggs. She was dizzy and euphoric and happy to be so.

  “Jordan…” Lilith put all the desire and fire she felt into the name, arching up against him and hoping that made her intent clear. “Please…”

  That one word seemed to get the point across and they both staggered over to her bed. It wasn’t quite big enough for the both of them but they were too fired up and passionate to notice any of that.

  They scrambled to strip each of their clothes, pausing every few seconds to appreciate some new reveal of flesh. Jordan took off his shirt and Lilith’s mouth watered as she pressed her palms to his pecs and his well-muscled but lean torso. She raked her nails through the dusting of dark chest hair she found and leaned forward to leave one soft kiss over his heart.

  Jordan helped her take off her pajama top and bottoms. She was wearing only a tiny pair of blue panties underneath them and he stared at her, standing there in only his boxer-briefs, having stripped off his jeans.

  To his credit, Jordan looked at her whole body and not just her breasts which she knew stood out a little from the rest of her body. But when Jordan walked her back to the bed, kissing her as his hands slid up her side, gently cupping her breasts only to slide down again to her hips, she thought she’d pass out. And they’d only just gotten started.

  Jordan kept giving her lazy, hot kisses that made her want more and he pulled away again and again, making her chase him until he smiled mischievously. It was a look she hadn’t seen from him before and it made her incandescently happy to see him cheerful and full of delight and wonder over her. She fell back on the bed and writhed as he stood over her. His briefs were tented and he licked his lips, reaching down to lazily palm himself.

  Lilith felt beyond sexy, her hair splayed around her, her nipples pert and pebbled. She liked him watching her, observing her every movement. She spread her thighs for him and reached up to lick her own fingers before rubbing circles into her own nipple.

  “Oh fuck,” Jordan murmured. He winced and cupped himself, finally caving in and kneeling on the bed and then hovering over her. “Lilith…”

  “Yes.” Lilith wrapped her legs around him and they writhed together, the both of them moaning at the sensation of his cock pressing into her through the thin fabric. “Jordan, I want you. I want you inside me, please, please-”

  “Okay, okay, yeah.” His voice was oddly flat and he blinked at her, looking sweetly out of it. He sat up and she helped him shoved his briefs down over his hips, revealing a V shape of muscle and bone and a dark happy trail of hair that led to a proudly jutting cock.

  Lilith bit her lip and took off her panties and for a moment, they both froze staring at each other naked as if double-checking that this was really happening.

  Jordan said, “Are you sure you want-”

  “Yes!”

  That was all he needed. He clamored over her and kissed her hard and deep, their tongues curling together as his cock pressed up against her, teasing her entrance. He kept nearly pushing in, the impressive thickness of him as it pushed and pulled away again making her clit throb in response. She raised her hands above her head and gripped the pillow, liking the feeling of being a little helpless at Jordan’s whims. She bucked her hips, meeting his, and he groaned and pushed back. The two of them started a stuttering rhythm as he teased and she chased him until finally he grunted and with no warning, he slid himself inside her, filling her up and making her arch her back and cry out.

  The two of them did not dare breathe for a moment. Jordan was wh
olly inside her, and she clenched her thighs around him, attempting to draw him in yet deeper. They looked in each other's eyes and finally breathed again, sucking in each other’s air as Jordan took the chance of pulling back and thrusting in again, making Lilith gasp and moan.

  Lilith had a demon’s fire in her. It was what powered her magic when she used it and gave her powers like etching runes into walls and even climbing up buildings or starting fires with a snap of her fingers. But as Jordan entered her again and again and she felt as if their hearts and entire bodies were beating in time with each other, she felt like her fire was burning hotter than it ever had. It made her feel powerful and transcendent and she felt tears welling up in her eyes as she stared up at Jordan, hoping he could feel it too. She didn’t want to ask, just in case she was wrong. Instead she let him hold her and took him in again and again until bliss came over her like a freight train out of nowhere and she shook and gasped and clutched Jordan’s shoulders hard enough to bruise until he finally let himself go, joining her and riding it out with her, spilling inside her before they both drifted down from the clouds.

  Finally, Jordan pulled out of her and it made Lilith feel too cold. She didn’t miss the uncertain expression on his face. He started to move away and she pulled on his hand, wordlessly urging him to stay in the bed with her, even if it was too small. They kept their eyes on each other and didn’t speak. But Jordan pulled the blankets back and Lilith crawled under them, still naked and feeling the phantom sensation of him inside her. He spooned up behind her and with some tentativeness he wrapped an arm around her. She smiled to herself and held his hand up against her chest and felt him relax, pressing up behind her until he moved her hair and pressed a kiss to her neck.

  “Goodnight, Lilith,” he whispered.

  “Goodnight,” she said. And promptly fell asleep.

  8

  Jordan

  None of it made any sense and the part of Jordan that was used to loneliness and disappointment doubted that anything like this could even happen. There must be some answer to how. The most obvious guess was that this was all a con. Lilith had no real feelings for him and probably despised him; that was the only way this was even possible…

  Except that he could feel right down to the marrow of his bones that it wasn’t true. He’d known that whatever the creature was that had kissed him wasn’t Lilith and he was equally as sure that the way Lilith talked to him and looked at him and the way she was pliant in his arms was genuine.

  But it still didn’t make any sense.

  The next morning, he woke up before Lilith. He didn’t move a muscle, not wanting the moment to end and wishing they could just stay in bed for the rest of the day. He was spooned up behind her and the two of them were naked and smelled of sex. The bed was too small, the blankets too thin and the mattress too scratchy, yet Jordan was sure he’d never been more comfortable. He buried his nose in Lilith’s cloud of wild hair and smiled softly to himself.

  Heaven, he thought dimly.

  “Are you smelling my hair?” Lilith murmured. He heard her shift slightly in his arms but she didn’t move away. “Perv.”

  “Absolutely,” he said. His voice was husky, as if he’d been screaming all night. She giggled and he shut his eyes, cataloguing the sound. “This doesn’t make any sense.”

  Lilith rolled over to face him. Her face looked soft and her eyes were glimmering redder than usual but she smiled up at him and slid a hand up his chest, tweaking one of his nipples. “What doesn’t make sense?”

  “Well...you seem to like me,” he said.

  “Of course I like you!” She pouted and leaned forward, kissing the tip of his nose and each of his cheeks. “I really really like you. I think I’m...maybe…”

  “What?” he said. His gaze roved over her; her messy mass of air, her little nose, her round cheeks and the swell of her breasts under the sheet…

  “Nothing,” she said. Her cheeks turned red. “Nevermind.”

  “You’re not supposed to like me,” he whispered.

  “Because of the curse.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Well, too bad.” She kissed his mouth and sighed, wrapping him in a hug. “Because I like you a lot.”

  “It’s still really early.” He ran a thumb lightly across her cheek and she murmured gibberish before burying her head in his shoulder and drifting back to sleep. But Jordan didn’t sleep and he didn’t think he could sleep anymore. His mind was in a whirl of wondering what this could mean.

  It’s a blip, a dark little voice told him. Curses aren’t foolproof any more than a computer or a car is. It’s a glitch. Tomorrow it will hit her suddenly and then she’ll hate you.

  He waited until he was sure Lilith was asleep and kissed her hair and closed his eyes, only speaking when he was sure she wouldn’t hear him. “You won’t love me. Soon you’ll hate me. But I’ll love you. I won’t be able to stop. Except this time is different. I won’t even mind the pain this time. That’s how special you are.”

  Lilith just kept sleeping and Jordan smiled to himself as he finally drifted back to sleep.

  Jordan was getting really tired of pounding on doors and waking up to people pounding on his door, but a couple hours after he’d fallen asleep, it happened once again and he groaned as Lilith grumbled and attempted to burrow right into his chest to escape it.

  “Jordan!” It was Leif, shouting for him. “Is this Lilith’s place? Are you in there!”

  Jordan scrambled out of bed and fell on the floor, naked and flailing as Lilith sat up with a start. There was nothing particularly wrong about him having slept with Lilith. In fact, he was sure that Leif would be happy for him. That was exactly the problem. Leif would be too happy for him. He would tease Jordan mercilessly and claim that the stupid curse must be broken, which would both be annoying and give him too much false hope. Jordan wanted no part of it.

  He scrambled to dress as Lilith rolled out of bed and casually yawned as she pulled on her panties and grabbed a pair of jeans from her dresser before putting on a bra and a t-shirt. She was entirely too slow. Leif had a mysterious ability to get through locked doors and he wasn’t even sure that they’d locked-

  “Oh, hello.”

  They had not locked the door after all. Leif came bursting through just as Jordan was pulling up his jeans and he yelped and stumbled, tripping over the cuffs as Lilith burst into giggles and Leif pointed at him, gleeful, as Jordan got to his feet again, sighing heavily.

  “You got laid!” Leif said.

  “Jesus, Leif.”

  “No, it’s good!” Leif said. “I’m sorry to burst in and all, Lilith. But it’s an emergency!”

  Lilith pulled on her moto jacket and shoved her hair into a ponytail fit to burst. “What kind of emergency? As in what?”

  Jordan couldn’t stop blushing as he put his t-shirt back on and sat on the bed to put on the shoes he’d kicked off the night before. He didn’t want there to be an emergency. He wanted to forget about all this totem business and take Lilith to breakfast.

  No such luck.

  Leif crossed his arms and gravely said: “Goblins are attacking Fifth Avenue.”

  Jordan and Lilith just stared at him until Lilith finally said, “Now there’s something you don’t hear every day.”

  “I’m deadly serious,” Leif said, sighing. “Nothing less would stop me from drilling Jordan for details on whatever this…” He waved his fingers between them. “Whatever this is. But there’s no time! We gotta go now! Laya’s getting people together! It’s bedlam upside! Let’s go! We need to get weapons too!”

  Jordan nodded to himself, his head spinning. There was a weapons cache in the team headquarters in town stocked with crossbows, knives, swords and even a few guns with silver bullets in case of out-of-control werewolves (other than that, magic folk did not much like guns) as well as other weird artifacts like holy water in spray guns if the enemy was a vampire or spiked maces which were good for fighting the occasional dragon.
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br />   Jordan and Lilith got ready as quickly as they could and he mourned the lack of morning coffee. Though this wasn’t the first time something like this had happened. There had been the occasional low-level dark wizard attempting to wreak havoc in New York and Jordan had been in fights and battles here and there.

  He still couldn’t quite wrap his mind around something as serious as the totem. He expected this to be another small skirmish.

  But minutes later as the three of them ran out of the park, armed and ready to fight what Jordan expected to be a few rogue goblins, his mouth dropped open. Jordan stopped short in the middle of Fifth Avenue and could not believe his eyes.

  There were goblins all over the place.

  Goblins typically ranged from a very dark blue to pitch black and they had pointy ears and beaked noses. The goblin who had appeared in Jordan’s room had been small by goblin standards. Most were over six feet tall standing on their hind legs but much of the time they were hovering, their leathery black wings outstretched or walking on all fours. They also had long pointed tails that could form eerie spirals or wrap around them.

  And they were attacking every building on New York’s swankiest block.

  The goblins were climbing all over several shiny business buildings and complexes with the kinds of luxury penthouses that went for millions of dollars. Meanwhile, town cars and taxis and rideshares and buses were screeching to a halt as they noticed the insane melee and just as quickly turning around, speeding back to where they’d come from.

  Jordan saw some New Yorkers calmly standing on the sidewalk, watching the goblins break windows and tear out bricks (goblins were exceptionally strong) with their bare hands. That was New Yorkers for you, Jordan supposed. They looked a bit befuddled but some of the bystanders only ran when a goblin flew away from a building and in their direction. Then they went off screaming.

  There were spells to help humans forget. Something this big would never completely be forgotten though once the battle was won. They would think of it as a very real-seeming dream at best, and if enough of them got together and realized they all shared the same strange dream about goblins attacking Fifth Avenue, they would probably be pretty freaked out.