Ruby by Ashlynn Monroe Page A

Ruby. I hope you’ll understand why I don’t pay you. I might not be able to keep her half-shifted, but I think this little toy will do the trick.” He gave Isser a stomach-turning smile. The middle-aged man’s gold teeth flashed in the sunlight. His thinning hair sat on his head in sprigs that he’d combed back neatly, and he wore a pristine suit that looked very out of place in the wilderness. Everything about the man set Isser on edge.
    “One shock, and her body will be forced back into human form, but if I turn it down just a little before placing this in the right location,” Lilymann said as he shook the prod at Isser, “such as her vagina, the pain will be just right to hold her in a suspended state between her natures. With the right incentives, she’ll learn to keep herself in between without the electricity, but the training will be long and hard. I’m looking forward to it. I’ve always wanted to fuck a woman with something like this, but it would kill a human. Pain and this prod are the only tools I’ll need to create the perfect whore.” He leered at Ruby, and she flinched. She crouched low and growled. “She’ll be cat enough for a rare and unique experience, but woman enough to arouse my clients. I’ll have something no one else does, and that is what makes this Ruby priceless.” He threw back his head and laughed.
    Ruby sounded more cat than human. Isser felt her tension as he sat up and held her close. The way her muscles tensed told him just how afraid she really was. “Here kitty, kitty,” Lilymann called as he thrust the sick instrument of torture at her. “Let me pet the pussy. I promise you’ll like it,” he said in a creepy singsong way as he came closer.
    “Sol! We need you now! Lilymann is threatening her, and I’m still messed up from the dart. Hurry!” Isser projected his frantic plea toward his brother.
    Isser bristled. Lilymann rushed forward, holding the snapping, crackling electrified weapon. The blue energy running up and down the shaft was a reminder of just how dirty the coward would fight. Isser would die protecting his mate. Sol would return and finish off Lilymann if Isser could hold the man off and keep him from reaching Ruby.
    “Get behind me,” Isser ordered gruffly as he pushed himself to his feet while simultaneously shoving his woman behind him.
    Lilymann laughed with genuine mirth. He stared at Isser without a hint of fear.
    “Bring it, dog,” the villain muttered coldly.
    A measure of control returned to him unexpectedly. He groaned as he forced himself back into his wolf form. Every twist and pop of his joints changing and the horrific burning in his reshaping tissue was beyond any torment he’d previously endured, but for his woman he let it continue. Isser howled. His body stopped. He stood in an agonizingly contorted form, more wolf than man, but still not anywhere near completely altered. Pain lanced him, but he was all she had.
    Focusing on the evil pimp, Isser charged the man, ready to take him down and tear out his throat. His sharp fangs were those of the wolf, even if his mouth was still that of a man. His awkward legs stumbled, but he didn’t stop. He opened his mouth and readied himself to bite the man’s calf. Just before his teeth snapped shut on his nemesis’s leg, a jolt of electricity racked his body. Isser half screamed and half howled as the voltage took him from wolf to human and then back again. He collapsed limply at his enemy’s feet. He hadn’t been able to avoid the weapon. Somewhere in the back of his distress-addled mind, he realized Ruby was screaming. Everything inside his soul wanted to keep fighting, but his broken body failed him. He lay curled on his side. He shuddered, and his body was racked with spasms. Every time he tired to move, his muscles jerked uncontrollably. His eyes rolled back in his head, and a seizure gripped him. Ruby was screaming and holding him. She was ripped away from him. Horror and regret