The Midnight Hunt

by L. L. Raand

  “You’re an adult Were with an adolescent’s appetites and urges,” Elena said calmly. “It’s going to take a while for your wolf to find her balance. You’re likely to respond to every Were who gets close to you at first.”

  “Everyone?” Drake asked. “I’ve never been attracted to males. Will that change?”

  “Most of our young will couple freely until their late teens, when some become exclusive with one sex. You’re already an adult, so you may not find the males of interest now.”

  “So I’ll only be aroused by every female I pass?” Drake thought of Niki naked and pressed against her, but Sylvan had been the one she had wanted to touch. Sylvan’s torso had been a landscape of perfect muscles sheathed in smooth skin and a tantalizing tease of silky pelt.

  She breathed sharply at the memory and caught Sylvan’s scent in the air. Her clitoris twitched and she had an overpowering urge for sex. She stared at Elena’s breasts and her sex tightened. “This isn’t good. I’m not going to be safe outside of this room.”

  “Not everyone will arouse you,” Elena said with a smile. “Your wolf will quickly come to recognize the mated females, and you won’t be drawn to us any longer. You may not find more dominant Weres arousing either.”

  Drake immediately thought of her reaction to Sylvan, but didn’t say anything.

  As if reading her mind, Elena said, “The Alpha is unmated. Until she forms a mate bond, all of us, even the mated ones, respond to her when her call is strong. It’s the natural response of the Pack to their Alpha.”

  Drake shifted restlessly, the sheet suddenly feeling constricting.

  The pain between her legs increased and she winced. She was terribly aroused but she didn’t really think Elena was the object of her arousal.

  She was attractive, but Drake wasn’t drawn to her. Not the way she had been to Sylvan. Sylvan. Another spasm shot from between her legs.

  “Jesus, what’s going on?”

  “Your body has undergone a drastic, rapid transformation. You’re being flooded with potent neurotransmitters. You’re sexually aroused. It’s normal.”

  “Something doesn’t feel right. There’s…pain.”

  “Lie down.” Elena reached behind her and grasped the doorknob in case Drake lost control. “I need to answer your questions.”

  Drake stretched out on her back. Even the sheet made her skin ache and she kicked it away.

  “Touch yourself,” Elena said gently.

  “You want me to masturbate?” Drake turned her head to look at Elena.

  “Your body needs to release.”

  “Is it safe…with you here? What if I…are you sure I won’t become rabid?”

  “You smell like a normal dominant. I’m not afraid of dominant Weres—even when we’re not dominant we can reject a partner if we choose.” Elena smiled. “It’s why the dominants fight over us when we’re in heat.”

  “Are you sure?” Drake trembled with the primal need to take, to claim. The urge was so strong she could barely think.

  “Go ahead,” Elena said softly. “You want to, don’t you?”

  Drake smoothed her hand down the center of her abdomen, getting used to the tightly packed muscles. Her curiosity helped her contain her excitement and she cautiously explored. When she reached the space between her thighs she cupped herself. She felt the same, only not quite. Her clitoris was positioned slightly higher, leaving it more exposed. She tentatively traced its length with her thumb and finger, retracting the thickened sheath to uncover the firm head. The shaft was thicker, harder than she was used to even when she was fully aroused.

  She massaged it from side to side and felt resistance, as if the central core was nearly rigid.

  “What’s inside?”

  “Early in the development of our species, all Weres, including females, had a cartilaginous core in the phallus,” Elena said. “The dominant females still have a very thin remnant. Feel lower, at the base. You’ll have to press hard.”

  Drake palpitated two olive-sized oval masses buried deep beneath her clitoris. When she touched them her hips jerked. Exquisitely tender and pleasurable. “What are they?”

  “Sex glands,” Elena said. “They produce victus, secretions of pheromones, kinins, and other chemicals, when we are aroused. They empty when we tangle—have sex—if suitably stimulated. The emissions are unique to each Were and help identify us to potential mates. Once mated, the chemical transmitters intermingle, identifying the mated pair to other Weres.”

  Drake squeezed harder and her clitoris abruptly extended. The pain was sharp and swift. She sucked in her breath and yanked her hand away. The pain in her clitoris increased, piercing deep into her sex. “Is it supposed to hurt?”

  “You need a release to trigger the emission of the chemicals that built up during your transition. You’re overloaded with them.”

  Drake clenched her teeth. Her excitement was building again and she wanted sex so much her reason was slipping. “Elena. You should leave.”

  “Stimulate your clitoris until it’s completely erect. Go ahead, it’s all right.”

  Drake closed her eyes and grasped her clitoris, running the shaft between her fingers the way she usually did when she masturbated. She was already harder than she’d ever been but she’d never hurt like this.

  She felt the sheath pull back and tighten beneath the crown that ringed the tip of her clitoris. She massaged the head with her thumb and felt her sex clench inside. “I feel like I have to come, but I can’t.”

  “Now the glands,” Elena whispered.

  Drake fingered the swellings, and immediately her stomach tightened. She heard a growl start in her chest. Her hips flexed and she manipulated herself faster. Her shoulders came off the bed and she gritted her teeth, the pressure was so intense. “I really have to come.”

  “Massage your clitoris and the glands at the same time.”

  Drake felt a pinprick of pain and looked down. Short dark claws extended from her fingertips. A feathery line of dark pelt shimmered down the center of her lower abdomen into her sex. “Jesus. What’s happening?”

  “Those are signs you’re almost there. Press harder, down against the bone.”

  The glands turned to stone and Drake’s clitoris shot upright, twitching violently between her fingers. A bolt of heat shot from her sex down her legs and deep into her stomach. She rolled onto her side and doubled up, her hips thrusting in a series of wrenching spasms.

  Sweat soaked the sheets under her as she moaned and writhed. When the spasms subsided, she was weak and exhausted.

  “God,” Drake panted. “Is it supposed to be like that?” She cupped herself. “I’m still…it’s not…subsiding.”

  “That was only a partial release,” Elena explained. “Weres need the pheromones from another Were—from a bite—to trigger a complete orgasm. Self-relief is only a stopgap. Our drive for sex is very high—second only to our instinct to protect our mates—probably because our fertility rates are low.” She smiled ruefully. “Aggression and danger heighten the urge. Dominants have the highest drive of all and are always semi-aroused. They’ll often require a series of releases before the drive subsides.”

  “I don’t feel right.” Drake shivered.

  “I wish this could have helped more.” Elena crossed the room and covered Drake with the sheet. “It needed to be this way so you’d know what to expect from your body when you tangle for the first time. You’re getting a crash course in Were physiology.”

  “Crash is a good word for it.”

  Elena brushed her fingers through Drake’s hair. Drake’s call had been strong, and had Elena not already been mated, it would have been hard to resist her. She wouldn’t have wanted to resist her. Drake might be dangerous if the full force of her sex frenzy was unleashed without warning. She was dominant, very dominant. “I’m sorry I couldn’t make it easier for you.”

  Drake rubbed her cheek in Elena’s palm. “It’s okay. I understand.”

  She l
aughed tremulously. “Thanks for the walk-through.”

  “Move over,” Elena said.

  “Why?” Drake frowned.

  “You’re shivering, and I want to hold you. You’re a Were now. You need physical contact.” She removed her clothes and leaned down to kiss Drake’s cheek. “I’m going to call Roger. You need the Pack. It’s not sexual.”

  “Am I safe?” Drake’s whole body longed for a touch, but she didn’t trust herself. “I don’t want to hurt you and I don’t seem to have any kind of control.”

  “Roger won’t arouse you, and I’m mated, so I won’t either.”

  “It didn’t feel like that a few minutes ago.”

  “You need to sleep and heal. This will help.” Elena lay down with her head on Drake’s chest, wrapped her arm around Drake’s waist, and draped her thigh over Drake’s. Roger slipped into the room and settled with his front to Elena’s back. He extended his arm along her hip and lightly brushed Drake’s thigh.

  “You might wake up with the same urges—we call it sex frenzy,” Elena murmured. “We’ll move away before then just in case. Don’t worry.”

  “How long am I going to be like this? So out of control?” Drake asked, instinctively tucking Elena’s head beneath her chin.

  “I don’t know. We’ve never had an adult, turned Were in the Pack before.”

  ———

  Sylvan paced in her office. She wanted to see Drake. After her run she’d gone directly to the infirmary, and before she’d even gotten inside she’d caught the scent hanging thick in the air. The hall was so laden with pheromones, the potent neurotransmitters so dense, her skin had slicked instantly and her sex readied. The bite on her chest throbbed.

  Drake was in need, frenzied, and Sylvan wanted to take her. She was surprised other Weres hadn’t responded to the powerful call already.

  Instantly enraged at the image of another Were answering Drake’s need, she’d stormed to Drake’s door.

  Then she’d heard Drake groan and Elena’s low melodious voice.

  She knew what Elena was doing, caressing Drake into a release with her voice. She wanted to rip the door from its hinges and wrench Elena away from Drake. She wanted to be on top of Drake with her teeth buried in Drake’s shoulder, her clitoris pulsing inside Drake’s wet sex.

  Her claws had sprouted, her canines jutted out painfully, and a streak of silver shot down the center of her belly.

  She wanted Drake so much she knew she couldn’t risk going near her. Drake’s effect on her was too potent, too powerful. She wasn’t sure she could endure another bite without claiming her completely.

  She’d dragged herself away, crashing through the door to the porch so violently she’d splintered the wood and knocked Roger down the stairs.

  Sylvan knew what she had to do. She had to get away. Drake was newly turned and couldn’t control herself. She was broadcasting her needs so powerfully the others in the Pack would soon detect her call. Drake would need to tangle frequently, possibly continuously, and if Elena was right and Drake was as dominant as she seemed, she would have plenty of Weres to choose from. If Sylvan stayed there, she wouldn’t be able to keep away from Drake. Even if she managed to resist, she was afraid she might tear any Were apart who tried to answer Drake’s call.

  Niki!

  Niki immediately came through the office door, her eyes scanning the room, searching for danger. “Alpha?”

  “Call the centuri. I’m going into the city.”

  “Until we determine the source of the fever, you’re safer here—”

  “Now, Niki.”

  Niki’s jaw set. “You think I can’t tell why you want to leave? I smelled your scent on her, too.”

  “I told you I forced her transition,” Sylvan said. “That’s all it was.”

  “Fine. She’s a mutt, a mutia, and could still turn rabid. At least send her to one of the outposts until she’s safe, or until she needs to be execu—”

  Sylvan growled. “Be careful what you say, Niki.”

  “You’d leave the safety of the Compound, put yourself in danger, before you’d isolate her? She’s not worth that.”

  “Don’t challenge me now,” Sylvan warned.

  Niki narrowed her eyes and studied her Alpha. Sylvan was shirtless, as she often was around the Compound. A narrow thick trail of silver glinted above the waistband of her black pants. Her skin glowed as if kissed by moonlight. Her cheekbones were sharply angled, the rims of her deep blue irises haloed in gold. The bite on her breast was darker, bruised looking. Something was riding Sylvan hard, but Niki didn’t detect the Alpha’s powerful call the way she usually did when Sylvan needed release. Something else was the cause of the barrage of pheromones besides sex frenzy. Something even more primitive, more critical.

  “The bite—did the bite do something to you?” Niki asked, every protective instinct on alert.

  “No,” Sylvan barked roughly. “Enough of this.”

  Niki had to try one more time. “Rena is coming into heat. Take her. She wants you to.”

  “I do not want a mate.” Sylvan’s wolf snapped and snarled as if trying to break out of a cage, refuting Sylvan’s words. Sylvan shuddered with the effort of dominating her.

  “Don’t mate her, then,” Niki cried. “Just take her! I’m still crazy to tangle. You must need to even more. Why are you denying your nature?”

  Before the words were out of Niki’s mouth, Sylvan was in Niki’s face. She crushed Niki against the door, her arms braced on either side of Niki’s head. Her teeth were on Niki’s neck, her heat enclosing Niki in an inferno. Sylvan’s pelvis jerked against Niki’s, her hard nipples against Niki’s breasts.

  Niki whimpered and licked Sylvan’s jaw. “Please, Alpha.”

  “I love you, Niki,” Sylvan whispered in Niki’s ear. Then she pushed her aside and stalked into the hall, shouting to Lara and Max, “Get the Rover. I’m leaving.”

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  Sylvan went directly to her office at Capitol Plaza and instructed Niki that she was not to be disturbed. Ignoring the stack of pink message slips on her desk, she put a call through on a secure line to a private number at Mir Industries. Leo Revnik, one of MI’s senior scientists, answered on the second ring.

  “Good morning, Alpha,” Leo said in his deep bass voice.

  “We may have an outbreak of Were fever in humans,” Sylvan said.

  “I need to know the origin.”

  “How many?”

  “Sophia reports possibly four in the last six months.”

  “Is there a rabid Were on the loose?”

  “If the victims were less uniform, I might think so.” Sylvan explained that all of the suspected cases had been teenaged girls with similar backgrounds. “I’ve never known a rabid Were to have that kind of reasoning ability. Plus, most rab attacks are random, clustered in time and location, and so messy it’s easy to follow the trail of bodies back to the source and neutralize the rab. These attacks seem far more deliberate.”

  “I take it you don’t have a carrier in the Pack? A Were who survived the fever, even years ago?”

  “Only one,” Sylvan said carefully. “And you know that’s not the source here. If there’s a rabid Were, or several, they’re rogues, not Pack.”

  Leo grunted. “You believe the focus is urban, then?”

  “We have no idea where these girls are even being attacked,” Sylvan said, unable to hide her anger and frustration. “We haven’t yet tracked those who turned up in the ER at Albany General. There may be more who’ve never made it into the system.”

  “Forgive me, Alpha, but the pattern is not at all typical for the transmission of the fever. The toxin degrades fairly quickly in the rabs who survive more than a day or two. If the attacks are occurring over the time frame you suggest, either we’re dealing with more than one rab or the toxin has mutated into a longer-acting form.”

  “So we may have a new form of fever, is that what you’re saying?”

  Sylvan a
sked.

  “We’ve always been concerned about the possibility. While it’s theoretically possible, we’ve never been able to reproduce the phenomenon in the laboratory—”

  “I’m not interested in theoreticals,” Sylvan growled. “We need to stop the spread to humans and eradicate any rabid carriers.”

  “Can you get me blood and tissue samples from the victims?” Leo asked.

  “We just became aware of the problem within the last few days. Unfortunately, not in time to have any of our personnel in the hospital system procure samples from the suspected early cases.”

  “When was the most recent death?”

  “The night before last,” Sylvan said. “As far as I know, the girl has not been identified. Her body is probably with the city coroner.”

  “I have a few contacts there,” Leo said. “I might be able to fashion a request for a blood sample that won’t arouse too much suspicion. A fresh tissue biopsy for mass spec and culture is preferable, however, and I doubt I can get that.”

  Sylvan hesitated, every instinct screaming for her not to reveal anything further. But she was Alpha, and her entire Pack was at risk.

  “We have a survivor. One of the infected girls bit a human medic. She’s turned.”

  “And she’s not rabid?”

  “No.”

  “An adult human female turned Were,” Leo murmured in surprise.

  “We could learn a great deal by studying her.”

  “She’s not a lab rat,” Sylvan growled.

  “Forgive me,” Leo said, his tone immediately conciliatory. “I’m afraid I spend too much time alone in the laboratory. My tact has suffered for it.”

  “What would you need from her?”

  “Initially, nothing too drastic. Blood samples. A muscle biopsy.”

  “Surgery?” Sylvan burned at the idea of anyone touching Drake, hurting her. Her wolf reared her head, snarling.

  “Only a very minor incision,” Leo said hastily. “I doubt it would cause her very much pain at all.”

  “You said initially.”

  Leo hesitated. “We don’t know how the turning will affect a female, especially an adult. Her eggs would be—”