“That’s because Lounds—the guy who attacked and kidnapped me—shot me up with some kind of compound to activate my gene that night in Vegas,” she said.
“I know,” Keller said quietly. “I’d been calling and calling you to try and tell you that I found the syringe he used, with some of his serum still in it. Enough to analyze it and find out what it was meant to do. But you never answered your phone.”
“I fell into some kind of weird sleep—almost like a short-term hibernation—the minute I got home to Tampa,” she confessed. “And as soon as I woke up, Lounds was there waiting to . . .” She swallowed hard, and he heard an audible click in her throat. “Waiting to kidnap me.”
“You say his name was Lounds?” Keller felt a surge of possessive fury at the name of the Hyena who had hurt the female he cared for. A low growl rose in his throat—he couldn’t help it.
“If you’re thinking of hunting him down and killing him, don’t bother. I did that myself.” Samantha’s voice was flat and hard. “Or at least, I helped him along and didn’t stay to try and stop the bleeding.”
“Sammie . . .” Keller couldn’t help himself, the nickname just slipped out. “I’m so sorry, baby,” he said softly. “So sorry I didn’t get to you earlier. That I didn’t save you from . . .” He swallowed. “From whatever he did to you.”
“He didn’t, uh, breed me if that’s what you’re worried about.” She was looking down at her feet, not meeting his eyes. “Although he certainly planned to. But he had . . . other things he wanted to attend to first.”
Keller thought about asking what other “things” this bastard Lounds had wanted to attend to involving Samantha, but he sensed his question wouldn’t be welcome right now. She might open up later . . . if she was comfortable enough. But she was never going to get comfortable unless she came inside, out of the heat and humidity.
“Why don’t you come in?” he asked her gently. “I think our host has a shower in his bathroom, and I can scrounge around and see what there might be to eat. Also, there’s air conditioning in here. It’s just a window unit, but it’s better than nothing.”
That got her into the cabin. Apparently the idea of getting a shower was so appealing, she couldn’t resist it—not even if it meant spending the night in close proximity to him, Keller thought dryly.
He stepped aside to give her room to enter as she climbed the porch steps, one arm over her breasts and the other modestly shielding her sex. He wanted to point out that he’d seen it all before—that he’d tasted it in order to heal her, both in human and in Cougar form. But again he sensed this wasn’t the time.
He would have to go slowly and let Samantha come to him. If she would come to him, that was. Keller hoped she would—from her scent she was extremely ripe, and ready to go into the breeding fever. He would bet every dollar of his considerable fortune that before the night was through, Samantha was going to need him, and not just to heal and protect her.
She was going to need him to breed her, and Keller only hoped she would come to him because she wanted to, not simply because her body forced her to.
* * *
The rundown little shack was actually pretty nice inside. Not, as Keller had pointed out, ten-thousand-dollar-a-night-penthouse nice, but still, it wasn’t the complete rat hole of a bachelor pad Samantha had been expecting.
It was a one-room affair—well, two rooms if you counted the tiny bathroom off to one side. There was a double bed in one corner, a tiny kitchen in another, and a ratty armchair with an old fashioned box-type television with rabbit ears in a third.
But what concerned her more than the state of the shack was the bathroom attached. Would it have running water? Despite having been cleaned thoroughly by Keller in his Cougar form—a fact which made her blush when she thought about it—her breasts and pussy continued to leak the sticky-sweet nectar, which meant she was messy all over again.
Samantha had an idea if she could just take a really cold shower, she might be able to stop the flow, or at least slow it down. At the very least she could get cleaned up and then maybe wrap a towel around herself to hide her shame.
The idea held immense appeal, which was why she had finally come inside with Keller, despite feeling extremely nervous and shy to be around him in her current state.
Of course, it wasn’t like he hadn’t seen her naked before, but he’d never seen her naked and leaking weird fluids. Well, not in his human form anyway. And Samantha would just as soon keep it like that.
Inside the tiny bathroom, she found that the shower stall did indeed have running water that got moderately hot. There was no shampoo, though, so she couldn’t wash her hair, only wet it. She did at least find a dried-out bar of bright green soap, high up on a corner ledge. Irish Spring, maybe? Samantha lathered up and washed her body all over, getting rid of the sticky nectar that had leaked from her breasts and sex.
And was still leaking, she saw with a frown when she stepped out of the flow of the water for a minute. Well, maybe she could do something about that. Gritting her teeth, she turned the shower on full cold and got ready for an icy blast.
The freezing water made her nipples so hard they ached, and it stung the inside of her sensitive sex when she held herself open to be certain the chilly flow got where it was needed. It was agonizing, but Samantha made herself endure it, hoping to shut down the nectar production once and for all. Also, with the threat of the breeding fever looming, it couldn’t hurt to cool her body down all over.
She stood in the icy water until she was shivering and her lips were nearly blue before finally stepping out and looking for a towel. Which, as it turned out, was something she should have done earlier.
There were no towels in the bathroom—nothing to dry off with or cover herself, not even a washcloth. There was a tiny wooden cabinet mounted above the toilet, but it held only a half roll of toilet paper and a stack of pornographic magazines. It appeared that their host, as Keller had called him, was forced to go low-tech in his choice of porn, too.
Ugh! Samantha stepped back and shut the cabinet hastily. What was she going to do? She couldn’t just walk out into the cabin naked. Though Keller didn’t seem to have a problem with it, she was still shy about showing her body. Even if she did look like she was twenty instead of forty now, she was still full figured and more hippy and busty than she liked. If only—
“Samantha? Are you okay?” Keller’s voice from the other side of the flimsy wooden door broke her line of thought.
“Um, fine. Just fine,” Samantha said quickly. “I finished my shower. I was just, uh, looking for a towel.”
“I don’t think you’re going to find one, but let me look.”
Samantha listened to him rustling around in the other part of the shack, and had time to look down and see that her cold shower had worked. Though her breasts felt uncomfortably full, and her pussy was still swollen, she was no longer leaking. Well, that was a relief, anyway—standing in the freezing water had totally been worth it, even if she couldn’t stop shivering now.
Finally Keller came back and knocked briefly on the door.
“Found something—I’m going to hand it through to you, all right?”
“All right,” Samantha agreed.
The knob turned and his large hand appeared holding a plastic rectangular package out to her.
“What’s this?” she asked, taking it from him. “Oh—sheets!”
“A brand-new set,” Keller agreed, through the door. “He had two of them squirreled away, still in a Walmart bag. I took the liberty of putting the other set on the bed.”
“That’s perfect—he didn’t look like the kind of guy who would have new sheets lying around though,” Samantha remarked. She pulled one of the sheets out of the plastic package—it was pale green—and wrapped it around herself, toga style.
“I think he must have had a significant other at some point who bought them,” Keller said. “I’ve seen a few other female touches around the place—a scented
candle, some bobby pins . . .”
“I wonder what happened to her,” Samantha said, opening the door to the bathroom. “She probably . . . um, she probably . . .” She trailed off, losing her train of thought because Keller was just standing there completely naked. Of course, he’d been bare when she entered the cabin in the first place, but for some reason she’d expected him to cover himself, not just go around naked.
Naked and muscular and gorgeous, whispered a little voice in her brain, but she pushed it aside quickly. She felt an aching surge in her nipples and pussy, but forced herself to ignore it. Nothing, it was nothing. She was fine—though she would be better if she didn’t have to look at his Greek-god-gorgeous bare body.
“Sorry,” Keller remarked, sounding completely unembarrassed. “I had to leave my clothes when I Shifted to come looking for you. I’ll wrap the other sheet around me if my state of undress bothers you.”
“Here.” Samantha thrust the plastic pack, which still held the fitted sheet, at him. Keller took it without comment and wrapped it around his lean waist, leaving his broad chest and long, muscular legs bare.
“I’m decent now,” he remarked dryly. “Although as a surgeon, you’ve seen your fair share of naked people in your day.”
“Of course I have,” Samantha said quickly. “I just . . . look, it’s just awkward, okay? Especially after the way we, uh, ended.”
“I never should have let you walk away.” Keller’s deep voice throbbed with emotion, and he took one of her hands in both of his. “I blame myself entirely for assuming you would be safe just because you were out of Vegas.”
“You didn’t know.” Samantha’s voice sounded tight in her own ears. “From what he said, Lounds had been . . . had been tracking me for years. He knew I had a latent Shifter Gene. In fact, he had a list of women with a latent Gene. I was only the first in a long line of victims he had planned.”
“What did he do to you?” Keller burst out, his voice low and agonized. “That bastard, if he wasn’t dead already . . .”
“Well he is,” Samantha cut in. She sighed. “Look, mainly he just locked me up naked in a freezing-cold cell while he waited for his, uh, Rejuvenation compound to work. And then after it did—”
She stopped abruptly, not wanting to talk about the awful harvesting contraption, with its rubber tubing and glass suction cups. It was too horrible . . . and still too recent.
“Please, baby . . . talk to me.”
Keller drew her with him to the small, ratty loveseat across from the ancient TV set with its crooked rabbit ears. Samantha had a moment to be glad the small couch was covered in cracked and faded leather rather than cloth, which could hold who knew how many germs, before they settled on it.
“Samantha,” Keller murmured again, when she stared fixedly down at her hands, her fingers twisting nervously in her lap. “Please, just tell me what he did.”
“I . . . I’d rather not. I—oh, shit,” she ended, because while looking down, she’d noticed two large wet spots growing on the sheet where it covered her nipples. Of course the entire sheet was damp because she’d put it on after coming out of the shower, but there was no mistaking the sticky, spreading stain for water. The damn nectar was flowing again, and there didn’t seem to be anything she could do to make it stop.
“What is it?” Keller frowned. “What’s wrong?”
“It . . . it’s this, okay?” Samantha gestured at her breasts in despair. “That freaking formula he gave me made this weird stuff come out of me. Lounds called it ‘nectar.’ He said it was full of Shifter hormones and that most Juvies only produce a little bit at a time because their Rejuvenation lasts for weeks or even months. But because he forced my body to go through the process so quickly—”
“You have the honey flow,” Keller finished for her in a low voice.
“The what? What are you talking about?” Samantha frowned at him. “Lounds said this stuff was called nectar.”
“It goes by many names,” Keller told her. “Honey, nectar, tears of the Goddess, the gift of Lady Moon.”
“So . . . this is a known phenomenon? This, uh, nectar production?” Samantha tried to keep her voice dry and clinical. “Lounds said it didn’t happen often, but . . .” She trailed off, remembering what her captor had said about the nectar. “It doesn’t happen often, but when a Juvie produces too much nectar it can cause pain and swelling in her breasts and pussy. And the only cure is—”
Samantha pushed the memory away, not wanting to think about the “cure” for her present condition.
“We call it the honey flow—when a female goes through the Rejuvenation process very rapidly and begins to produce copious amounts of honey or nectar,” Keller murmured.
“Well, you got the ‘copious amounts’ part right.” Samantha gestured to the sheet covering her breasts, where the sticky stains were spreading outward. Her nipples felt swollen and hot, and between her legs, her pussy was feeling the same way.
“I know,” Keller said simply. “My Cougar tasted it on you when he healed you.”
“Yeah, well . . .” The memory of his Cougar licking her made Samantha feel flushed all over. Not because it had been sexual—because it reminded her of the other time Keller had licked her all over to heal her. Back in Vegas, after the attack.
“Can I see?” he asked.
“What?” Her head jerked up and she glared at him. “Why would you need to see?”
“I need to make sure you’re okay, baby.” Keller frowned. “The honey flow can be dangerous to a Juvie if it’s left untreated.”
“Untreated?” Samantha shifted uncomfortably. “I’m the doctor here, not you—remember?”
“Yes, but this is something you can’t do for yourself.” Keller gave her a direct look. “Did that bastard, Lounds tell you the honey has to be sucked out?”
Samantha let out a broken little laugh. “Oh, he did better than that. He showed me.” At the low growl rising from Keller’s throat, she realized he must have misunderstood. “No, not like that,” she said quickly. “I mean he . . . he hooked me up to his, uh, ‘harvesting machine,’ and sucked it out that way.”
“His harvesting machine?” Keller’s eyebrows shot up.
“Don’t ask.” Samantha crossed her arms protectively over her leaking breasts. “Let’s just say it was extremely painful and leave it at that.”
“That bastard.” Keller’s deep voice was rough with anger. “To think that he hurt you like that—God, I wish I’d had a chance to kill him!”
“Forget about the whole kidnapping and harvesting thing—I have,” Samantha said. “Or at least I’m trying to.”
But she knew a part of her would never forget. Part of her would always be cuffed to the cold metal frame while the merciless cups sucked nectar from her tender, swollen nipples and pussy, knowing what Lounds had planned for her next. . . .
“I can’t forget, and I’m guessing you can’t either,” Keller’s voice sounded slightly calmer, as though he were making an effort to get hold of himself. “But baby, you need to let me look at you and make sure you’re okay. Please, I just want to help you.”
Maybe it was the rough pleading in his voice or the sincere look in his silver-green eyes, but somehow Samantha found herself unwinding the now-sticky sheet from around her chest and letting it down to bare her breasts.
What she saw made her bite back a worried gasp. Her breasts were engorged—swollen with the nectar that was leaking from her nipples in pale golden streams and running down the under-curves of her full globes. The nipples themselves had gone from dark rose to deep maroon—a frightening shade when their normal color was pale pink.
“God, Sammie!” Keller sounded worried. “Your breasts are so full—you must be in so much pain.”
“It . . . doesn’t feel good,” Samantha admitted, shifting uncomfortably. “But there doesn’t seem to be anything I can do about it. I, uh, took a really cold shower and that stopped it for a while. Maybe if I take another one—”
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She started to get up, but Keller took her hand and pulled her back down.
“If you take another cold shower you’ll only back up the flow,” he said, frowning. “That’s dangerous, and it’s probably why you’re flowing so freely now. To compensate.”
Samantha didn’t point out that her breasts weren’t the only place she was “flowing” as he put it. Between her legs she was swollen and hot and very, very wet, but she pressed her thighs together and kept it to herself.
“You know there’s only one way to make this better,” Keller said softly. “You have to let me help you.”
“I know, but . . .” Samantha bit her lip, unable to meet his eyes.
“But what?” he murmured, prompting her to go on.
“It’s just so . . . so embarrassing,” she burst out at last. “I mean, asking you to . . . to suck this weird stuff out of me . . . out of my breasts, I mean. It’s just . . .”
“Beautiful,” Keller finished for her in a soft voice.
Samantha’s head flew up and she stared at him.
“What did you say?”
“A Juvie who has the honey flow is said to be blessed by the Shifter Goddess—by Lady Moon,” Keller murmured. “It’s not ugly or disgusting, Samantha. It’s beautiful . . . bountiful.”
“I suppose it’s some kind of sign of fertility, isn’t it?” she said bitterly.
“It is,” Keller said blandly. “Does that bother you?”
“I . . .” Samantha shook her head and looked down at her hands. “It’s just . . . scary. That’s all.”
“Baby, look at me.” He tilted her chin gently, forcing her to meet his eyes. “I know it’s frightening—everything you’re going through, and the way your body is changing,” he murmured, stroking her cheek. “But I want you to know, I’ll be right here by your side through every step of it. I’m going to make sure you’re taken care of.”
“You mean you’ll breed me, right?” Samantha couldn’t make her voice go above a whisper. She wanted to look away, but somehow she couldn’t—Keller’s pale-green gaze was holding her hostage.
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