Page 33 of Bitten By Desire (Crooked Point #1)

Tuesday

“What are you doing?!” I screamed. Why had Titan just punched Bennett?

“Emma, stay back,” Bennett said. But he didn’t lift his hands to defend himself as Titan landed another hard punch on the side of his face.

“Bennett!”

He spit some blood out onto the marble flood and still just stood there. He lifted his hands in the air and gestured for Titan to go again. Like he wanted to be hit.

Titan punched him right in the stomach.

Bennett groaned and hunched over. He spit more blood out onto the floor.

“Stop it!” I yelled. “What the hell are you guys doing?!”

“We can’t control it,” Bennett said.

“Titan can definitely control hitting you.” I stepped between them. “Stop it right now.” I shoved his chest. But he didn’t move an inch.

“Doll, you need to step back.”

“Stop hitting him, Titan.”

He smiled down at me. “Would you rather?”

I just stared at him. “Of course not.”

“Then step back.”

“ You step back.” I pushed on his chest again .

He grabbed my hand before I could lower it. He kept my fingers splayed against his hard chest. “I like how fiery you are.”

I lifted my other hand and slapped him hard across the face.

“Nice try. But I have a little more control than that.”

I had no idea what he was talking about.

“Emma,” Bennett said. “Titan has to hit me. It’s the only way I can show you. Please just take a few steps back. Actually, you should probably be over by the counter.”

I looked over at his other friends.

Otto tapped the empty spot beside him.

“Look, I get it, okay?” I said. “You’re robbers and…street fighters? Or boxers or something? Great, now stop fighting.” I tried to pull my hand away.

But Titan didn’t let go. He kept my hand firmly against his chest.

“Let go of me.”

“Is that really what you want?” Titan smiled down at me. “Because your eyes are begging for more.”

I tried to yank my hand away again to no avail. “What is wrong with you?”

“Nothing. But Bennett needs to be angry. Fighting is one option. Jealousy is definitely another. He’s not normally a jealous guy. But it’s certainly worth a try.”

I swallowed hard. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I know. We’re trying to show you.” Titan gently touched the side of my face. “I’ve thought about how your lips would feel around my cock.”

“What the hell? ”

“Don’t pretend for a second you weren’t thinking about that when you locked eyes with me when you came.”

I just gaped at him.

“An innocent girl like you sometimes has the most sinful thoughts.” He glanced back at Bennett. “I’m going to kiss your girlfriend now. Better than you’ve been kissing her. She’s going to be moaning my name instead of yours…”

I slapped Titan again.

He grabbed that hand too and pressed it against his six pack. The way he was staring at me was scorching. He trailed my hand lower down his abs, stopping at the waistband of his pants.

Jesus.

“So you don’t want a kiss, doll?” Titan asked. “Good. Let’s skip to the good part. Get on your knees.”

“Bennett.” I turned to him. “Say something. Tell him to stop.”

Bennett was glaring at him. He clenched his hands into fists.

“Oh, he is jealous,” Titan said. “He wants your dirty mouth all to himself. But it’s going to be my cock down your throat.”

I gulped as Titan lowered my hand, wrapping it around his hard cock. And for some reason, I didn’t try to move my hand. Were they all this huge?

Titan glanced at Bennett. “It’s working, Emma. Bennett looks like he wants to wring my neck. It would be better if you actually got on your knees though, don’t you think? Put your lips around me and show him how you worship a real man.”

“Titan,” Ace said. “Otto’s closer. ”

Closer to what? I turned to face Otto. And he was sitting on the counter glaring at us. He was holding on to the edge of the counter, his knuckles white.

Titan smiled. “Oh, Otto wants it to be him instead with his cock down your throat, Emma. Otto, you should feel how good her hands feel.” Titan groaned. “Just imagine what her mouth will be like.”

Otto’s nostril’s flared.

“Too bad her mouth is all mine.”

A low, guttural sound escaped Otto’s throat. I’d never heard a sound like it before.

“Fuck,” Titan said, pressing my hand harder against his length. “She feels so good, Otto.”

This time it sounded like a growl. Like some kind of…animal.

“But she’s all mine, Otto. She belongs to me. You’ll never get to feel her soaked pussy…”

Otto jumped off the counter. And before his feet touched the ground an even louder growl rippled through the air. He fell to the ground on all fours and his back arched in pain.

His scream mixed with another growl.

“What’s going on?” I said. “Someone help him!” I tried to move closer but Titan grabbed my waist, pinning me against him.

“You dirty girl.” Titan leaned down and bit my earlobe, tugging it with his teeth.

I accidentally moaned.

“Don’t move an inch,” Titan whispered. “It’s working.”

What was working?

Otto screamed in pain.

Why wasn’t anyone helping him ?

“Almost there,” Titan said. He grabbed both sides of my face and kissed me.

His lips were as warm as they were sinful.

Another loud growl erupted from Otto. And this time I knew what it sounded like. I opened my eyes while Titan’s lips were still pressed against mine. Just in time to see Otto’s body twist in pain again and turn into…

What. The. Fuck.

Otto fell forward on all fours again, but this time it was on…

paws. Huge, hairy golden paws. His whole body shuddered as it shifted into the form of some kind of huge wildcat.

He slowly lifted his head. A head of a cat.

His eyes locked with mine and he growled again, deeper this time.

More menacing. Spittle flew out as he bared his teeth and growled.

Oh my God. I tried to take a step back but Titan’s lips were still pressed against mine.

“Titan, the watch!” Bennett yelled.

Titan moved his lips off of mine. “That was too fast if you ask me, doll.” He winked at me.

“Otto,” I said to no one in particular. “He’s…he…he’s….”

“Is the youngest and has less control than the rest of us,” Titan said.

“So you’re all…you’re all…what even is that?” I asked.

Titan lowered his eyebrows as he stared at me. “Don’t be scared.”

“But he…you’re…”

“Say it,” Titan said.

I took another step back as I stared at Otto. He’d transformed. Like a werewolf. But he wasn’t a wolf. I remembered the huge cat Zoey and I had seen outside Callum’s creepy gothic mansion. On a night with a full moon just like tonight.

“Say it,” Titan said again. “You have to say it.”

“You’re werecats.” Which wasn’t a thing. This wasn’t real. It couldn’t be. But Otto growled again and prowled toward us. Bennett stepped in front of me and Otto bared his teeth again.

It looked like Otto was seconds away from lunging at Bennett and attacking him. And suddenly the cut on Bennett’s lip made so much sense. A huge cat’s claws would definitely leave a cut that deep. And the scar down Titan’s face. A werecat would have been able to do that too.

They weren’t vampires.

But if they were werecats…that meant paranormal creatures were real. That meant vampires existed too. And that Callum was one. Shit.

Otto didn’t seem at all interested in Titan. And I was wrong, he wasn’t staring at Bennett either. He was prowling toward me .

“The watch!” Bennett yelled.

Titan was about to toss it to him just as Otto leapt toward us.

I screamed at the top of my lungs as Bennett sprung forward. He shifted faster than Otto. But the scream of pain was the same. They met halfway through the air, but Otto had more momentum. Bennett fell on his back and Otto lifted his paw and scratched it down the front of Bennett’s chest.

“Bennett!” I screamed. I took a step forward, but Titan grabbed me around the waist .

“Don’t. Move,” he whispered. “Don’t make a sound. Don’t even breathe.”

I was pretty sure I wasn’t breathing anyway.

Bennett bit one of Otto’s front paws and Otto somehow ended up on his back. They were a blur of hairy limbs, claws, and deafening growls as they attacked each other in the middle of the ornate bank.

Titan’s hands fell from my waist. He lifted the pocket watch by the chain and stepped in front of me. He whistled and both werecats turned in his direction.

He let the chain sway back and forth.

Their eyes fell to the watch. Back and forth. Back and forth.

“Open their vaults,” Titan said. Ace put a code into the last vault behind the counter.

It slowly sprung open. And then he moved to the third one.

But I was distracted. Because I was staring at the walls inside the last vault.

Unlike the vault I’d seen, the metal walls weren’t covered in artifacts. They were covered in dents and gashes.

Titan took a step closer to Bennett and Otto.

And I took a step back from all of it. It couldn’t be real. And yet…I was seeing it with my own eyes.

The two cats followed Titan behind the counter.

I hadn’t even seen Huxley walk up to me. But when he put his normal, human arm around my shoulders, I melted into him.

“We need the pocket watch, Emma,” Huxley said.

I stared at Ace as he slammed the vault door closed behind Otto. Bennett growled at the top of his lungs and swung at Titan.

But Titan dodged the claws and held the watch closer to Bennett’s face. I stared at Bennett’s vault. The gashes in the metal walls were deeper. The dents larger. Because he was bigger than Otto. More menacing. More terrifying. More powerful.

“Because we can’t control when we change,” Huxley said. “And we can’t control what happens when we do. The watch is the only thing that helps us.”

They needed the watch to control each other when they turned. But Bennett wasn’t being controlled right now.

Bennett swiped his paw through the air, sending the watch flying.

“Shit, not again,” Huxley said.

Bennett jumped up onto the counter and his huge blue eyes turned toward me. He growled at the top of his lungs.