by Piper Stone
He gave no reaction for a few seconds then narrowed his eyes. “Commander Martin is a trustworthy soldier, a man of honor.”
The subtle growl Luca emitted was one stating he was prepared to attack.
“Then you are aware he had authorized his soldiers to exterminate the Breeds.”
President Wilkes tilted his head, chuckling under his breath. “Only I can make that authorization. I’m certain you are well aware of that given your credentials and position within the DSIC.”
I dared to inch closer, staring the man straight in the eyes. “Yes, sir; however, my position was stripped away the second I was kidnapped and taken to the science ward for experiments.”
“I don’t understand,” he huffed.
“Then allow me to explain. The human race will become extinct within thirty years. The chemicals used during the war also altered our DNA.” After I told him all I knew, he wore no expression. But when I was finished, he burst into laughter.
“You expect me to believe that the human race is expected to be extinct within thirty years and I wasn’t told about this?” His demand was followed by a shake of his head. “That’s a tall tale, Officer Bastille, with zero evidence to back it up.”
I could feel the rage growing within Luca, images of the horrific battle he’d left remaining in the forefront of my mind. My hands shaking, I turned to one of the pages I’d dogeared then handed the notebook to the president. “Not only are military troops currently in the process of attempting to execute as many Breed members as possible, but I have Dr. Franklin Porter’s notes, a scientist I know you highly respect.”
President Wilkes seemed dubious as he took the notebook from my hand, scanning the page I’d marked. Then he flipped to another. And another. When he finally glanced in my direction, his entire face had sagged.
“That’s what Dr. Porter has been working on his entire life. When Commander Martin found out, he wanted the glory all to himself. Imagine the power he could wield with that kind of information.” My throat felt tight after saying the words, my heart racing.
The president hesitated before yanking his phone into his hand. “Sergeant Davis, I need to know ASAP whether or not a military brigade has been authorized to round up the Breeds. And I mean now!”
Luca padded closer, gazing the president in the face. “He has yet to be convinced.”
“I am aware, Luca. The president needs to fully understand why Dr. Porter was certain he was in the final stages of creating a viable serum.”
The president glanced from Luca back to my face. “You’re communicating with the... creature?”
“Yes, sir. My senses are much keener.”
“That’s why you were assigned to work with the Breeds,” he said in passing.
I laughed as I pulled the notebook from his hands. “Dr. Porter orchestrated this entire possibility soon after I was born.”
“I don’t understand,” President Wilkes half whispered.
“If you’d continued to read for a few additional pages, you would have learned that I am Dr. Franklin Porter’s daughter. I was raised by some wonderful people, a couple who couldn’t have children of their own, a gift from my real father for their love and protection.”
I could sense Luca’s confusion as the sound of his heartbeat echoed in my ears. “I do love you, Luca. No matter what you might hear.”
“There is nothing that will alter our connection. We are mated. We are as one.”
“Why would he do that?” President Wilkes struggled to say.
“Because my birth father refused to take the chance experimenting with another human’s life. Because he knew that his work was vital to the human race. Because he loved me.” A rush of images from the past slipped into my mind, visions of the days I’d spent with Franklin Porter, my father. They were some of the best times I’d had in my life. While I’d loved my surrogate parents, and they’d loved me, I’d always known I was different. Now at least I knew why.
“I still don’t understand.” President Wilkes paled, unable to take his eyes off Luca. “You’re not a scientist. The lab and all Franklin’s work were destroyed. All is lost.”
“No, sir. All isn’t lost,” I said with confidence. “My real father prepared me well for the transition and Luca and I are the only ones that can save the human race, but only if you agree to free the other Breeds. They deserve to choose whether to live as human or as one of their true kind.”
“Transition? That’s a mighty tall request, Officer Bastille. I absolutely do respect Dr. Porter’s work, but even with the information you’ve provided, the scientific data could be the ramblings of a madman for all I know. I can’t mandate an order that will alter our entire economic system without additional proof.” When he heard the sound of his phone, he smashed his hand onto his desk before grabbing it. “This had better come with answers, Sergeant.”
“What in the fuck is going on?” Luca growled.
As I gazed down at him, tears welled in my eyes. “My father had been injecting me for years with a small amount of lion’s blood. He enhanced it somehow to ensure that you would be attracted to me. Don’t you see? Everything in my life was a huge lie. One fucking lie.”
“What?” he snarled.
“That’s why we’re connected. That’s the only reason.”
“That is not the only reason, Clarise. I adore you. You are precious to me because of the woman you are, the lioness you’re going to become.”
A part of me didn’t want to think about the fact my father had hoped I would become a shifter. He’d planned it without asking me, condemning me to a life that I might not have wanted. I wanted to be enraged by the realization, but all I felt was sadness. “I’m not a lioness. I’m merely some freak of nature.”
“Believe, Clarise. If what you told me is true, there is only one way to prove your father’s work.”
“I can’t do this. I can’t.”
“You can,” he encouraged, rubbing his face against my leg.
“How? How can you stand the wretched pain?” Watching him shift, hearing the horrible sounds as his bones altered, breaking in several places was terrifying. The way his face morphed, claws where hands used to me. Trembling, I could feel her inside, could tell my beast was antsy. I eased my fingers against where the scratch had once been, my smooth skin creating a wave of goosebumps.
“Pain will shift into something glorious, my mate. You will survive. Allow her to come to the surface. She’s ready.”
The gorgeous blue in Luca’s eyes I’d come to adore seemed more luminescent. As he flared his nostrils, he took a deep inhale, pawing the floor. “Believe.”
“I can’t, Luca. I just can’t.”
I held my breath as the president continued the call. When he eased off the desk, he walked toward his window, taking several deep breaths. “Sergeant Davis. You will initiate under my orders the National Guard to hunt and secure the military officers and soldiers responsible for illegally rounding up even a single Breed. And you will bring them up on charges.” He hesitated, snarling under his breath. “You heard me. The charges? Murder and treason. And find that bastard Commander Martin. I want him in my office within one hour. Do not fuck with me on this.” This time he tossed the phone onto his desk, remaining staring out the window.
Impatient, Luca released a low-slung, threatening growl.
“Unfortunately, you were correct, Officer Bastille. The commander took it upon himself to order an eradication of the Breeds. However, his only jurisdiction has been within the city of Alexandria as well as the District of Columbia, and this is outside his authority. Sadly, news has already traveled to other areas of the country. This act of treason will take some time to clean the fuck up, but I assure you that the Breeds will be protected and those responsible will be punished.”
“And will you grant them freedom?” I asked.
President Wilkes turned to face me, leaning over his desk. “Officer Bastille. You do seem to have some connection to the li
ons, but tell me in plain English how that’s going to help the human race?”
“Because of our combined blood, Luca and myself. As stated in Dr. Porter’s notes, he was working on a formula by utilizing my enhanced blood in order to create a serum that would begin to alter the DNA within humans.”
He scratched his head, gave a slight smile. “Go on.”
“When my blood is combined with that of the strongest breed, the beast king, the process would begin.” I tried to find the right page within the notebook, realizing I’d lost him. He wasn’t going to believe me.
“And why the beast king only?”
“Because the lions have been able to resist the total breakdown of their DNA, and the king is the strongest of all. In other words, according to my father, the Breeds will cease being able to shift within our lifetime. Only the lions will remain able to do so.”
President Wilkes sucked in his breath.
I shoved the notebook in front of him. “Dr. Davina Wycliff worked with Dr. Porter and is prepared to continue the experiments.”
“Officer Bastille, I don’t know what either you or Luca have had to endure at the hands of Commander Martin and I’m very sorry that I turned a blind eye. I’m also not a scientist, but I do know that human and Breed blood is incompatible. While Dr. Porter may have injected you with a drug, I doubt that it had the capabilities of turning you into a shifter. From where I stand, I can tell that you are very human.”
“President Wilkes, Dr. Porter wasn’t able to turn me into a shifter, but Luca was.”
“I don’t understand.”
I closed my eyes, trying to capture the essence of everything I’d learned about the Breeds, allowing the lioness I knew existed inside begin to crawl her way to the surface. As I slowly began to remove my clothes, a moment of terror swept through me. “Don’t be afraid, Mr. President.”
“I will be by your side, Clarise. Always by your side. Breathe and believe.”
While I heard Luca’s words, I wasn’t certain I’d be able to survive, even though there was so much more to do, lives to save. Love to enjoy.
With my mate.
As the first hint of transformation rushed into my system, I opened my altered eyes, turning very slowly in the president’s direction. “Believe, Mr. President. For I am lioness.”
Chapter Seventeen
Clarise
Darkness.
I’d never appreciated the beautiful shadows or the way the night sky lit up like a firecracker until recently. Even the moon seemed closer, the giant orb something I could almost reach out and touch. The entire sky seemed to glow in iridescent colors, a beautiful backdrop to a perfect night.
Well, there was no such thing as perfection. So much had changed in the few weeks since the destruction of what the commander had called his empire. To watch his fall from grace, an arrest and attempted escape all covered on the Netscape screen not only nationally but worldwide had been cathartic. At least for me.
Luca hadn’t been able to accept the fact the commander would go to prison. Commander Martin’s sudden death had been labeled a suicide, but I knew that he’d been euthanized.
There were so many injuries within the Pride, but they’d begun to heal, including those Becca had endured in an effort to save my life. While her love continued to shine for Luca, she’d accepted that she would always be part of the family, just in an entirely different manner. Her recent closeness with Brandon had been unexpected, but delightful to watch from afar.
There was a portion of me that would always be considered just a human, but I knew deep inside that my impenetrable adoration for the Pride wasn’t a product of anything synthetic. I’d been given a gift, one that I refused to take for granted.
As far as my beast, she was truly beautiful, her almost pure white fur and deep blue eyes still amazing to see. While the agony of the first transformation had taken several days to get over, I’d begun to realize just what Luca had been saying. Seeing the world through her eyes was powerful, everything more intense.
Including the love that I felt for Luca.
At least I’d learned from my father’s notes that while a small portion of the connection I’d felt toward Luca had been because of the initial drugs, the electricity crackling between us was simply pure animal attraction. In fact, I couldn’t seem to get enough of him.
A shiver trickled down my spine, a warmth invading my system. Luca...
“What is my mate doing out in the darkness alone?” he asked as he closed the distance, wrapping his arms around me.
“Staring at our future.”
He yanked me tightly against his chest, brushing his hands down my chest, cupping my naked breasts. As he absently flicked his fingers back and forth across my nipples, he shifted his hips until the friction made me gasp.
His cock was throbbing, instantly yanking my hunger into the open. Even my lioness was famished, eager to feast and fuck, then shift and hunt. That is if my master allowed me to do so. He was even more dominant now that I was his mate, never allowing me to get away with anything. The various punishments had been harsh.
The thought made my pussy even wetter.
“And what do you see in our future, my beautiful mate?” he asked in a husky tone, nipping my earlobe.
“Peace. Freedom.” I’d even been tasked by the president to work with the new commander of the NSIC, Gabe Lincoln, my trainer at the academy. And to think I hadn’t believed in his innocence.
“Freedom,” he murmured then slid his hands down to intertwine our fingers. “I’m not certain we’ll ever know true freedom. Humans will always fear us.”
“Humans fear what they don’t understand, but at least the rules have been lifted. There is no more curfew and the experiments are tightly controlled by an oversight team from the office of the president.”
“For now,” he said with a snarl in his voice. “What happens when they need more of us? What happens when another human believes himself to be God?”
“Then we will deal with them. We will also help them.” I shuddered just saying the words.
“That will be my say, my little mate. I must protect our kind first.”
“But you will be helping the other Breeds.”
He smacked my bottom, growling in my ear. “Careful, my little one. You are treading a very fine line. You have no authority over the Pride.”
“Not even as their queen?” I purred, rubbing my bottom back and forth in a provocative manner.
“Be careful teasing me, little mate. You’ve yet to get the spanking I determined was a necessity.”
“Wait! I was spanked just last night.”
“And that didn’t keep you from leaving the Pride.”
Shivering as his cock pulsed against my skin, I glanced at the perimeter of the farm. I’d spent so many happy years here, enjoying the outdoors and the few animals my surrogate parents had been determined to hold onto. Now I wasn’t certain what I would do with the place.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered.
“Uh-huh. I think I know better. This pretty little ass is going to take one hard spanking and one hard fucking.”
Every filthy thing he said to me gave me chills. Just the way the rough pads of his fingers caressed my skin dragged my lioness to the surface. We were happy, yet a heaviness remained over both of us, as if our very lives hung in limbo.
Luca remained furious about what had occurred, the number of Breeds killed during the battle weighing heavily on his mind. While the Breeds had grown closer, the majority even accepting my place as Luca’s queen, there was still unrest. Factions of the various Breeds had simply broken off from their clans, packs, and prides, searching for a simpler life.
At least the president had kept his word, making certain those who’d worked alongside Commander Martin had been arrested and tried with several Federal crimes as well as murder.
The future was uncertain, but with the new group of scientists working alongside Dr. Wycliff, advancements had been
made by using my father’s formulas.
There was only a single piece missing.
“I think I’ll allow you to pick out your switch tonight,” Luca whispered before taking my hand, pulling me deeper into the forest.
“Wait. A switch! I hate switches.”
“Then you should have thought about that before you ran away.”
“I didn’t run. I just...”
Luca huffed. “You shifted without approval, leaving the safety of the Pride to return to your former home.”
“That’s not a crime.”
He laughed softly as he dragged me several yards until he found what he was looking for—one thick patch of perfect bushes. “No, but you disobeyed me. That in itself is a crime against the Pride punishable by incarceration for an extended period of time.” As he turned to face me, I could see the eyes of his beast longing to shift and run with me. “And I refuse to allow anything to happen to you again, no matter what I have to do.”
Cupping both sides of my face, he dragged me onto my toes, his fingers digging into my skin. The scent of him had already infiltrated every cell and nerve, the testosterone and musk intoxicating. As I planted my palms on his naked chest, the pulse of his heart dancing into my fingers was so strong.
Just like the man.
Just like the king.
When he pressed his lips against mine, using his to open and close our mouths, juice trickled down the inside of my thighs. At times he could be so gentle, a tender lover. But I knew his hunger was far too intense on such a beautiful night.
Growling, he slipped his tongue inside, entwining with mine as he explored the dark recesses. Every guttural sound he made heightened my arousal, my breasts so full, my nipples enlarged and aching. The taste of him was incredible, tangy yet sweet. I could kiss him for hours, enjoying his arms around me.
When he broke the kiss, he nipped my lower lip then rubbed his lips down to my neck, dragging his exposed canines along my pulse. I couldn’t stop thinking about the scratch, the true beginning of my transformation. I closed my eyes as he licked and nipped, every cell in my body bursting from the crackling electricity.