by DJ Jennings
“No rules? None? Sounds like a horror movie.”
“Ok. There are some rules,” Sally said, backpedaling. “You can’t kill each other. But you can fuck everything in sight.”
“Sally!” Mara squeaked.
“What? DarkNight is awesome. It makes being stuck here for an entire month worth it.”
“We’ve only been here for a few hours. Give it a chance.” Mara suddenly found it hard to breathe. She wasn’t anxious, though.
A massive wave of hot craving enveloped her, skin turning hot, her body a walking assemblage of burning bones and pure desire. Her eyes took in the world, nose twitching, every man in jeans nothing but a flesh pole, with gripping hands and fingers that would sate and quench her need.
She looked at Sally, mortified and aroused, and fought for control within. Her vision was so sharp she tore her glasses off her face and flung them to the ground. My God. She could see everything. Each hair on the back of her hand stood out in stark relief.
“Mara, are you okay?” Sally asked.
They began walking toward the lodge, Mara sure that whatever this was would fade in a moment. Sally made a series of noises that approximated speech. Mara didn’t quite understand her as her body went hot and cold, like ribbons of fire and ice flogged every inch of her, and she began to throb between her legs, her clit screaming for attention, her need to ride a man and be ridden so pure and clear she was about to voice it. Beg for it.
She was changing.
Shifting.
Her eyes grew wide, so wide the skin around them split and as her bones stretched and her jaw popped, she heard herself screaming, inhaling with a delicious relish, her senses on fire, her need to mate so acute.
And then she smelled him. Jack.
Sally shouted and people appeared, Mara’s mind unable to recognize faces, her nose smelling familiar scents, her—
“Mara! Mara!” Danielle poked her in the arm, the pinch deep and painful, as two men pinned her down. “Not yet, sweetie,” Danielle said, the words flickering in and out, real and unreal. “Not yet. You just need your first training. Then it’ll be fine.”
Training?
And then it all faded away.
All but the scent of Jack.
Mara came to with a torn shirt, her bra digging into her chest, and a massive throbbing spot on her arm.
“Hey, sleepyhead,” Danielle said, sitting in a chair next to her. “Glad we caught you in time.”
“Caught?”
“Part of your orientation involves the vaccine.”
“Vaccine?”
“We were about to explain it in orientation,” Danielle said with a sympathetic sigh.
“I don’t know anything about being a shifter!” Mara burst into tears and tried to sit up. She couldn’t.
Because she was chained to the bed.
Thrashing out of panic, Mara yanked on one of the restraints, crying out as it dug into her wrists. “You chained me?”
“Oh, geez, Roscoe,” Danielle snapped. “Get her out of these damn things. She should have had them removed the second she was out cold.”
“Vaccines? Restraints? What kind of prison is this place? You call this a camp?” Mara yelled. “Help! Someone help me!”
“Mara,” Danielle said calmly. “I’m sorry about the restraints. Here.” Roscoe unlocked the straps instantly, allowing Mara to jump up and have a sense of freedom.
Until the room spun and she nearly fainted.
“Sit. No one’s coercing you,” Danielle said with a long sigh that irritated Mara, as if Mara shouldn’t be upset.
Fuck that.
“You give me a vaccine without my permission and handcuff me to a bed and you think that’s not coercion?”
Danielle’s look managed to be both compassionate and firm. “We have a directive. We’re here to make sure you have tools for functioning in society, and to make sure people who aren’t shifters get the protection they need.”
“I’m part of a directive?” Mara spat out, standing. She began to pace, shaking horribly. “What if I don’t want this?”
“You have to stay for a week, minimum. Mostly so we can vaccinate you and watch to see that you don’t have a bad reaction.”
“What was in that shot?”
“RNA that alters your genetics.”
Mara gaped at her.
“And some other stuff that’s classified.” Danielle shrugged. “You asked. It’s part of orientation, and you were going to learn about it in a few hours. That’s what is so special about Camp Shifter. Once we know you’ve shifted, we vaccinate you. Then we teach you techniques for managing your animal state, and off you go. The average stay for most people is a month, some a little less, a few need more time.”
“The vaccine makes me safe?”
“No, not technically. It’s more like the vaccine flips on switches inside you that give you more strength to be safe when you shift.”
Mara frowned. “You didn’t have my consent for that shot.”
“You signed away your consent in the pre-arrival paperwork.”
“You sound like a bureaucratic asshole.” The words were out of Mara’s mouth before she could even think to say them.
Or take them back.
Danielle snorted and leaned in. “I am anything but, lady. We spent a lot of time and money convincing the government to leave shifters alone. This entire camp is the only layer of salvation between shifters and jail. Or worse.”
Mara’s heart began to pump so fast she thought she was going to pass out. “What?”
“Humans hate us.”
Nonnie. Mara recalled Nonnie’s claims for all those years. Turns out, Nonnie hated what a shifter had done to her mother and father, but didn’t hate Mara.
Thank God.
“But we’re useful to them. Camp Shifter is all about harnessing the power we have, so that humans can use us. If we didn’t exert some kind of control over how shifters function in regular society, we’d be nothing more than caged animals.”
“Why all the secrecy? Why not just explain this to... everyone?” She was about to say humans, but stopped herself. She considered herself a human, for goodness’ sake.
Using the word made her feel other. Different.
Beastly.
“Can you imagine how the average person would react if they knew all of this? No. We have to keep it as quiet as possible. The rumors that are already out there about shifters are destructive enough.”
Mara rubbed her sore arm. “This RNA... what does it do? Exactly?”
“You want a biochemical lesson, or is a basic layperson’s description enough?”
“Give me the basics.”
“You have a shifter gene. A cluster of genes. Some of those get turned on and you become a shifter. This vaccine mutes some of the worst of the genes. If we give it to someone who doesn’t have those genes, we’ll kill them.”
Mara sucked in a breath of shock.
“Right. See? We have to wait and know you’ve shifted before you can get the shot.”
“And now?”
“Now you’ll have more control.”
“Everyone here got the shot?”
Danielle nodded.
“What did shifters do before the shots?”
“They were hunted and killed if anyone found out about them. So they hid. Quality of life wasn’t exactly stellar.”
Mara shivered, all her energy draining out of her. She sniffed.
And smelled Jack.
She frowned. “Wait a minute. What animal am I?”
“You don’t remember?”
Mara closed her eyes, a series of crazy images flipping through her mind like a movie projector. She saw the camp from sharpened eyes, the dark woods spread out in front of her. Tree branches made maps like veins in the back of an old woman’s hand.
She saw for miles. She saw horizons.
“You want me to tell you?” Danielle’s voice was soft and kind, compassionate and caring.
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Mara blinked slowly. Her skin began to flutter, and then it came to her.
“I’m an owl, aren’t I?”
Danielle smiled. “You remember.”
“Not really, but it makes sense. My mother was... an owl.” Saying that felt weird. “Owls and librarians. Loose connection, but...” Mara swallowed, her mouth so dry. “Are owls common?”
“Not really. We’ve had a few come through here over the years. Makes you pretty safe.”
“Safe?”
“You don’t have to worry about being in animal form and having a larger predator attack. You can fly. You’ll probably live to a ripe old age.”
Mara winced. “Other shifters have to worry about being attacked by animals?”
“Um, yes.” She said this as if Mara should already know. “In animal form, we’re animals. Period. The laws of nature apply. And Mother Nature is a brutal bitch, Mara. She takes no mercy.”
A shiver consumed Mara. This was too much to take in. Too, too much.
Danielle placed a kind hand on her knee. “You look exhausted. And distracted.” She frowned. “Something wrong?”
“Other than waking up with a sore arm from a shot I didn’t know I needed, chained to a wall?”
Danielle closed her eyes in resignation. “Other than that.”
Jack.
“I—does the sense of smell really become this acute?” She sniffed and smelled semen in Danielle, fresh and strong, coming from her nether regions. Mara cringed.
Danielle’s laugh was hearty and strong. “What do you smell, Mara? And don’t worry—we have a class for this. You’ll learn to manage.”
“I smell sex.” The words were out before she could think.
Danielle quirked one eyebrow. “Can’t hide sex from a true shifter.”
“And a man.”
“I was with two, actually.”
“No—not your men. Another man. A man I know. But it’s impossible, because there’s no way he’s here.”
“You sure?” Daniel took in a long series of sniffs, then pulled out her phone, typing a text absentmindedly. Mara admired the long, wavy bush of blonde hair that Danielle sported, wild and free.
“Positive.”
Chapter 20